Faith Community Church: Recent Episodes
Jeff Williams
Located in Janesville, Wisconsin, our mission is to be a light in the darkness and a place of refuge amongst the chaos. We exist to help people develop a mature relationship with Jesus.
I am a herald and I am called to preach the good news and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, the King.
God wants you to turn from your way to be reconciled with Him because He loves who you are not what you do.
We need to focus on the promise, purpose and prize instead of the problem, pain and penalty.
Look to God, the eternal and His promises not to yourself, the temporal and circumstances.
Does the bible clearly teach that the days of creation are six literal days or are they millions of years? Was Noah's Flood worldwide or local? Were Adam and Eve real people or are they metaphors? Is the book of Genesis literal history or poetic language.
Does the bible clearly teach that the days of creation are six literal days or are they millions of years? Was Noah's Flood worldwide or local? Were Adam and Eve real people or are they metaphors? Is the book of Genesis literal history or poetic language.
Recognizing the sovereignty and resting and receiving the sovereignty of God as the true God that lifts us up and sustains us.
God wants fathers and grandfathers to take up the command to lead your family into the presence of God.
Jesus is coming again to restore. Let's focus on the job Jesus gave us instead of disputing when Jesus will come back. Where is our ultimate trust?
Jesus is coming again to restore. Let's focus on the job Jesus gave us instead of disputing when Jesus will come back. Where is our ultimate trust?
Salvation isn't what we did to reconcile with God, but about what He did to reconcile us to Himself.
Salvation isn't what we did to reconcile with God, but about what He did to reconcile us to Himself.
Who is Jesus, His nature, His relationship to the Father and His atonement on the cross?
Who is Jesus, His nature, His relationship to the Father and His atonement on the cross?
Have you ever wondered why Superheroes are so popular in our culture? Could it be that we need to come to grips with the inborn sense that we need a Hero -- somebody outside of ourselves to swoop into our lives and save the day for eternity because we can't save ourselves?
Jesus was rich and choose to become poor. We are spiritually poor, but we can choose to be rich. We have been made rich that we might be be generous as God is generous. How sincere is your faith?
Join us as we do a little Crime Scene Investigation or as we are going to call it: a "Christ Scene Investigation" on the resurrection.
What if we took the evidence of the resurrection and presented it in a court of law? Would the evidence hold up?
The facts we will look at:
FACT #1: BROKEN ROMAN SEAL
FACT #2: EMPTY TOMB
FACT #3: LARGE STONE MOVED
FACT #4: ROMAN GUARD GOES AWOL
FACT #5: GRAVECLOTHES TELL A TALE
FACT #6: JESUS' APPEARANCES CONFIRMED
We will also cover the different theories proposed over the years that Jesus didn't actually die and rise from the dead. Theories like:
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THE WRONG TOMB?
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HALLUCINATIONS?
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DID JESUS SWOON (did he just faint and not really die?)
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WAS THE BODY STOLEN?
In the real world fear and pain are everywhere. Most people with fear and pain are looking for good news. This message coveys that even in the midst of the pain and the fear, the good news is that you never have to be alone because God totally loves you. We will be challenging you to deliver the good news in many ways.
It’s a reality of life that we all have fears. We think it’s easier to run from them than to face them. It’s our normal tendency to run, but we usually get hurt in the process if we do. This message is about how we should not only face our fears with God's help but we will learn how to replace guilt and worry with direction and peace!
If you’re going to do something significant with your life, it requires that you take belief and action. Beliefs determine our actions and the more significant the belief the greater the action you will take. Strong beliefs can take two forms, the worlds way or God’s way. This message will take a look at several beliefs and where they will take us in life, from the selfish cycle to how can God actually use you to do is work, and how to take steps to significance.
We all have been crippled, been in a desert and dead in sin, but God knows your name and you can be adopted into His family.
One of the things all of us have in common is all of us have to make decisions. On any given day, you probably make at least a hundred decisions. A lot of them are minor decisions that don’t have many consequences, but you’ll find that the quality of your life will be determined by the wisdom or the foolishness of your decisions. Decisions are nothing to take lightly, and God is very concerned about the decisions that we make. This message identifies some of the stresses that come with decision making, and some steps to avoid the traps we fall into when making decisions based on our own processes.
(Utilizing Curriculum created by Doug Fields)
God has wired us to be in relationship; with him and with others. You’ll discover the qualities of an effective friend. When you have healthy friendships some of your stress is decreased. Friendships bring out the best in us, and a healthy friendship looks out for the best in others. You’ll find some great and surprising truths about friendships that will be great stress relievers in your lives.
(Utilizing Curriculum created by Doug Fields)
Every single person suffers through some stressful periods in their lives. If you are not a stress case yet, you probably will be. School and tests, parents, relationships, there’s so many places in our lives that stress can show up. You’ll find some great truths about stress, like stress makes us very self-centered, and we have average relationships. Stress forces us to think about ourselves, and being in a progressive society doesn’t help either, it just adds to the load. This message will provide you with some action steps to avoid stress, and replace it with God’s peace in your life…who wouldn’t want that?
(Utilizing Curriculum created by Doug Fields)
Step 8 Support Others: I will take the message that "G.O.D. H.E.A.L.S." to others in need and share it by my words and actions.
(Utilizing Curriculum created by Doug Fields)
Step 7 Live One Day at a Time: I will set aside some time for God each day to examine my life, read my Bible, and pray so that I have power to live God's way.
(Utilizing Curriculum created by Doug Fields)
Step 6 Ask for Forgiveness: I will offer forgiveness to those who have hurt me, and I will ask for forgiveness for any wrong I have done to others.
(Utilizing Curriculum created by Doug Fields)
Step 5 Embrace God's Way: I will stop doing things my way and put my life on the path that leads toward God's way.
(Utilizing Curriculum created by Doug Fields)
Step 4 Honestly Examine and Confess: I agree to evaluate my life and confess my faults to myself, to God, and to someone that I trust.
(Utilizing Curriculum created by Doug Fields)
Step 3 Depend on Christ: I realize I need to turn my life over to Christ. I need to depend on Him in all areas of my life, including all that I say, think and do.
(Utilizing Curriculum created by Doug Fields)
Step 2 Open Your Heart: I know that God exists, that I matter to Him, and that He is the only One who has the power to heal my pain.
(Utilizing Curriculum created by Doug Fields)
I admit that I am powerless on my own, and that I need help.
(Utilizing Curriculum created by Doug Fields)
Thank God for those who have encouraged us and been in our corner. Will you be one of those people?
Distinguishing Truth From Lies…God’s Way vs. The World’s Way
To watch the video we played before the message go to this link:
https://skitguys.com/videos/item/the-sex-talk
God is our Shepherd and we are His Sheep. He desires to bless us as we remain under His care.
We have been chosen to receive the awesome gift of grace, but we have to give up to God that we might live forever with Him.
The Bible tells us that not only is God good, that he is the very standard and definition of good. So if that is true, why is it that sometimes life is not? This message explores 3 reasons why life can be very difficult for us, and God's promise to turn these experiences into something good.
Filter your worldview through the lens of the Lordship of Jesus Christ and the Bible and filter the philosophy of the world from the philosophy of Christ.
Live up to the example of godly people, example of our Savior and expectations of God's word.
Meditate upon God's goodness and crave pure, spiritual milk so that you grow up in your salvation.
A passion to find and restore God's masterpieces (humans) with gentleness and ways to accomplish that.
The Bible tells us that hope comes from our relationship in Jesus not in specific circumstances that we might think are desirable.
God calls us personally and prepares us for His purposes. After that we need to persevere.
A spiritual world exists and we shouldn't be ignorant or play with it. Pray and let God fight the battle.
Prophecy from the bible always comes true. Scripture should motivate us to tell others about Jesus because we will all meet Him someday.
Trust God to do the impossible when it's to His glory, you enlist others to help and you act in faith.
Resolve to live for God and not compromise. We can choose how we respond to difficult circumstances.
As believers, we struggle and sin. God disciplines us for our sin to make us more like Christ.
Are you a SAP? [Servant, Accountable, Partner with God]
March 2, 2014 Jeff Williams God, Not You We’re on a series called “Ready, Set, Go.” We are focusing, right now, on “Set.” What is our mindset? What should be our attitude? How should we be prepared for the journey that lies ahead? One thing that we’re doing is committing to memory a verse from the Bible, 1 Peter 3:15. Today is the day. Close your Bibles and get ready. I know this verse. You can quiz me on this verse. I’ve been saying this verse four times a Sunday for a couple of months now. I know the verse. I want to know if you know the verse. We will accept ‘revere’ or ‘set apart’, either version is fine. I want you to say the verse. You’re not going to be in unison. You’re going to be in different places at different times. Say it out loud as best you can. Chime in if you get stuck and somebody gives you some help. Say what you can. If you only get 50% of the verse, then get 50% of the verse. We’re shooting for 100%. Ready, set, go! 15 But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect What?! [Laughter] No, I caught enough of it. Some of you were concentrating very hard and I couldn’t hear you, but I could see your mouth was moving and you were getting it. Some of you were sailing, cruising. Others were struggling. Our visitors were going, “What? You didn’t tell me we were coming to a cult today. What’s going on?” Good job! Good job! That verse will serve you well in life and in ministry. Let’s open our Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter three. 1 Corinthians 3. The Corinthians were a dysfunctional bunch. In fact, they were the poster child for dysfunctional churches. Paul wrote to them more than any other church. There’s actually a third book that did not survive, that we don’t have. Paul is writing to them. The book is basically correction because there was immorality and the leadership did nothing. They didn’t understand how leadership worked. They didn’t understand the spiritual gifts. They didn’t get communion right. They were just a mess. Paul was writing to them, rebuking them, correcting them as to how they should conduct themselves. We pick up the letter here in chapter three. We’re going to read verses one through nine, but we’re going to focus in on verses five through nine. We’re going to read the whole passage so you have the context. He says… Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ. 2 I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. That’s a nice way of saying, “You are a bunch of babies. You should have grown up by now.” Babies are cute, but they drool and they spit up and they make messes. It’s one thing to do that when you’re one but when you’re thirty, twenty, you shouldn’t be doing that anymore. That’s not so cute anymore. This is a church that should have grown up, but they were stagnant, they were stuck in infancy. Paul rebukes them and he says, “Why aren’t you growing up? Why do I still have to give you milk instead of solid food?” He gives an example, he says… 3 You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans? 4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere human beings? In other words, God has a higher expectation of you: how you act, how you distinguish yourself form the world. By all of this quarreling and fighting you’re acting like God hasn’t done anything in your life. They started to choose sides. There was a teacher named Apollos. He was a Jew from Alexandria, Egypt. He was a very effective, eloquent speaker, unlike Paul. Paul says, “I am not eloquent. When I preach I know nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor 2:2). Apollos was eloquent, and when he spoke everybody loved to hear him speak. The way he put his words together, the way he helped you understand scripture, he was an effective teacher and people loved Apollos. Some people loved Peter. Peter was this straightforward, no-nonsense kind of a guy. They would build these factions within the church. They were saying, “I follow Paul. I follow Apollos. I follow Peter.” Paul gets wind of this and he’s like, “What? Why are you following people? You’re supposed to follow Jesus.” Not that anybody would do that today. Not that, in our day and age, they would put people on a pedestal and follow people more than Christ, but apparently back in the Bible that happened. We don’t do that in our society. We’re beyond that, right? Paul said, “We’re on the same team. We preach the same Gospel. It’s childlike; it’s immature for you to go around choosing sides and saying, ‘I follow this person or I follow that person.’” He says… 5a What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Notice, he says what, not who. He’s not asking, “Who is Paul?” He’s not talking about their personhood. He’s not talking about that at all; he’s talking about their role in the redemptive plan of God. Because he’s talking about their role, he asks what instead of who. What is Paul? What is Apollos? Answer? 5bOnly servants, through whom you came to believe. That’s all we are. We are just servants. 5c as the Lord has assigned to each his task. We’re worker bees, Paul says. We have tasks to do; we have assignments given, and we fulfill what God has called us to do. 6 I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. 7 So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. You know, it’s important to till the soil. It’s important to plant the seed. It’s important to water the seed, but the Lord is the one who made the seed, right? If you’re a good farmer you can get your soil ready, but the one thing you can’t do is make seed. God is the one who decides what corn looks like, how it tastes, what apples look like, how they taste, and is able to put that tree in that seed. God does that so God gets the glory. That’s what Paul’s saying here. It’s God, not you. It’s God, not us. God has to get the glory. Sometimes when we say, “Each one, reach one,” you think we’re saying to you, “Everybody, go out there and save somebody.” You can’t save anybody; you couldn’t even save yourself. How are you supposed to save somebody else? If you’re drowning in the sea and somebody comes out to save you but they’re no more capable of swimming than you are, you’ve got a problem. We’re not telling you to go out and save somebody. We’re saying to you go out and help prepare the soil. Maybe somebody’s heart is hard and you’ve got to come in and soften it. They had a bad experience in the church; they’ve had a bad experience with Christians; they’ve had a bad experience in life and you’ve got some rocks you’ve got to get out of the soil. Maybe somebody else has planted seed. Seed is the truth, the Gospel, and your job is to come along and water it. Help them understand it better. Help them apply it. God is the one who gets the glory because he’s the one who makes it grow. He’s the one who brings people to himself. He’s the one who changes hearts and minds and lives. You have an important part to play, but you are a servant, Paul says. 8 The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor. 9 For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building. “Apollos and I,” he says, “are on the same team.” First, we want to note in this passage he says, “You are servants.” Have the mindset of a servant. Within the church today in America, I can’t speak for the rest of the world, but in America there is a consumer mentality, is there not? I’m in it for me. How can this church bless me? You consume the product, you consume what they offer, and if somebody else is offering something you think is better you head over there and consume that product. It’s all about how you can help me, how you can serve me. That is not a biblical model of what church is about. What I’m supposed to do is find a body I can identify with, leadership I can believe in, a vision that makes sense, and I say, “I’m joining here. I’m going to partner with you hand in hand, heart to heart. We’re going to work together to make a difference for Christ in our world.” But it’s not about how the church can serve you, it’s about how you can serve God through the church. The church, then, becomes the agency or the vehicle through which God works. This consumer mentality has just got to go. It’s not what God has called us to do and be. God has called us to be servants, to be workers. He said each has been assigned a task. You roll up your sleeves, and you get busy, and you do what God has designed you to do. You know, when you’re young you don’t get this. The whole world revolves around you. But, as you age and you get responsibilities and you take a job, you start to learn those things, and that it’s not just about you. One of my first jobs was working in a factory, and it was a factory called Groom Industries. They’re still alive and kicking. The big seller was the Dandy-Groom. The Dandy-Groom was about twelve inches, and you used it on your carpeting to get it ready to vacuum. Back in the seventies is when I worked there. Shag carpet was big, right? You had to just dig in there and get all that dirt to the surface so you could vacuum it. Then you had to use the Dandy-Groom to comb your carpet because it was shag so you could style your carpet. I worked for Groom Industries. It was a factory. It was hard work. It was tedious. I might be at a machine for eight hours. I worked there after school every day and then full time for the summers. I worked there for almost three years. I worked for a man by the name of Bernie. Bernie was a Christian man. Bernie invented the carpet rake. It was his baby; it was his factory. He was our marketer; he was our head salesman; he was the inventor of the product and we were to do what he said. So you’ve got to stay busy. One thing I learned to do was to finish my job and say, “What’s next? I’m done buffing. What’s next? I’m done pressing. What’s next?” Whatever he called me to do. “It’s time to sweep the floor.” “Well, that’s not my job description.” No, your job description is to do whatever the boss tells you to do. It’s time to unload a truck. It’s time to do shipping. One day I even wrote a slogan. Remember now, I didn’t know I was supposed to be a pastor. I didn’t know that was going to happen. He comes to me and he goes, “I’ve got an idea. I’m making brochures for the trade show we’re going to so here’s my slogan, ‘Dandy groom is to the carpet what gravy is to mashed potatoes.’ What do you think?” [laughter] “Not good, Boss.” He was offended, seriously offended. “Well, let’s hear you do better.” “Okay.” So I put my press down and started thinking and writing, and I went in there and said, “Here you go.” I still remember it. It’s been like eighty years. “Carpet groom with dandy groom: the best home care tool since the broom.” [applause]. It was good. He liked it. He gave me a check for fifteen dollars and I was published. That was a big thing! I got on all the letterhead and the envelopes. So when I was at the trade show, my job was to sell, I was able to hand out my brochure. I wrote that slogan, handing that out. You learn, whatever it is the boss has called you to do, that’s your job. It’s not, “What can the company do for me?” It’s, “How can I serve the company? How can I help us?” Because the better we are, the more sales we have, the more successful we’re going to be. So I went to work for the company. Paul says you’ve got to have that mindset. It’s not about serving you; it’s about being a servant. You roll up your sleeves and you say, “Okay God, what do you want me to do? Who do you want me to touch? How do you want me to serve?” The only star is Jesus. He’s the only one who gets the glory. He said that’s number one. Secondly, we are accountable. Verse eight says “they will each be rewarded according to their own labor” (1 Cor 3). This is labor in the field. He said you are a laborer in the field and you will be judged what by you do with God’s truth. Seed doesn’t do a whole lot of good in your pocket; seeds have got to be put in the soil. Seed is God’s truth. The soil is the hearts of men, and you have that seed. You have that seed with you. You have it in your heart; you have it in your mind. He says, “Plant the seed where there is opportunity.” I’ve talked to you about this ad nauseam in this series. Find common ground with someone and then share the truth; plant the seed. You may not see results right away. I preached this sermon last night for our first service on Saturday night. A woman came up to me. She’s been going to our church for a long time, but I didn’t really know the story of how she came. She reminded me. She said, “When I was eighteen years old, I had a knee brace on and you had just recovered from surgery. You came up to me and you started a conversation on my knee brace. You did that with me, that trick, that common ground trick, you did that to me.” I said, “What are you talking about?” She said, “You came up and you talked to me about your brace. You said how the doctor said you’d never play basketball again because your knee was so injured. How you were out there playing again, and how God had worked a miracle on your knee. You shared that with me to give me hope for recovery for my knee, and you invited me to church. Now I’m thirty-seven years old and this is my church.” I don’t remember that conversation. I believe her, but I have no recollection of that conversation. She says, “Now I’m here!” A month ago her ten year old boy was baptized here. You planted seed. You’re simply a servant. God gets the glory for that. That’s what Paul is saying. Be faithful and you are accountable with what you do with it. Are you going to hold the seed, keep the seed to yourself? Or are you going to plant the seed? You give an answer. You are accountable. Bernie, my boss, held us accountable. When we weren’t doing our job, we were in trouble. When there were things that didn’t pass quality control that should have he’d call a meeting and say, “Look at this! This is not even buffed. Look how these tines are not aligned here. Who let this through?” Or when we’d get a product back from somebody that was deficient, “How did this get out of the factory?” We’d all kind of hang our heads. Sometimes I’d get in trouble because I didn’t do my job. I remember one time. We played Christian music on the radio and there was a song that I really liked. I really got into it. I want you to bear in mind, I was seventeen years old. This was during company time. I was getting paid. I grabbed a Dandy-Groom like it was a microphone and I jumped up on the table. Close your ears girls. I don’t want my daughters to hear this. I started singing the song like I’m some sort of musician or singer. I’m just belting this out into the Dandy-Groom. My co-workers are laughing. Bernie walks in. “Sorry Boss.” “Get to work.” I got in trouble not doing my job. One day we got into a tape fight. We had these little tapes. Then it turned into a rubber cement fight. It escalated to a hardware fight. We were throwing bolts at each other across the factory. Teenage boys throwing bolts. The boss comes walking in, “What is going on?” We got into trouble because we weren’t doing our jobs. We were wasting company time. Do you ever waste company time? Do you ever waste company resources? Company seed? When you’re on the job God gives you opportunities to work, he gives you an assignment. He says, “Speak to that person. Help that person,” and you don’t. You remain silent or you don’t fulfill what he’s called you to do. Paul says you are accountable. You are accountable to God. Thirdly, verse nine says you are a partner. 9 For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building. What a privilege that God invites you to partner with him in his redemptive plan for the world. You’re a coworker, a co-laborer. That’s an honor. God’s saying, “I want you; I need you.” That’s a privilege that we should not shirk but one that we should be proud that God has given us a role to play, small though it may be, it’s a responsibility. When it’s all said and done, what do you and I want to her when our days are done? God to say to us what? “Well done, thou good and faithful servant” (Matt 25:23). Well done. That’s what we want to hear. I left Groom Industries when I was nineteen because I began to do an internship for ministry instead. I had a good experience with the company but moved on. It’s been almost forty years since I’ve worked there. About five years ago, Bernie, who’s in his nineties, calls me out of the clear blue sky and says, “I want to come to Janesville and take you out for lunch.” We went over here to Famous Dave’s and had a nice lunch. I was surprised he even remembered me. He said, “I’ve heard good things about the church in Janesville.” He had wanted me to be the pastor of his church. He was the head of the board at his church in Rockford. When I left Faith Center he wanted me to be the senior pastor at his church back in the 1980s. I just said, “No, Bernie. It’s just, my boss, this is his city and he’s working here. I don’t want to compete with him, so I can’t do that. I appreciate the offer.” We hadn’t really talked a lot in the last twenty years or so. I’ve shared with you some stories that I was not the ideal employee all the time. He said, “I just wanted to let you know, when you were a young boy, and a lot of young boys came and worked for me, but you were different. You worked for a company, not just for a paycheck. Most of the boys worked for the paycheck, but you worked for the company. You wanted to make the company better. In all these years, I never forgot you and I appreciate you.” What he was saying to me was, “You partnered with me. You didn’t just to a job; you partnered with me to build my business.” As proud as that made me feel, how about to hear from the Savior himself, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.” Those are words we should all long to hear. So, to recap, Paul says you are a servant; you are accountable; you are a partner. Yes, you are a SAP. Say it with me, I want to be a SAP. I want to be SAP. When you are a SAP, when you own your “sappishness” some wonderful things happen. There is alignment; there is harmony; there is unity; there is agreement; there is contentment; there is blessing. Listen to Paul before he leaves the subject and goes onto something else he says in verse 21, 21 So then, no more boasting about human leaders! All things are yours, 22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas [who is Peter] or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, 23 and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God. How powerful is that? You’ve got everything you need. You don’t need the strife and quarrels and thinking it’s about you. He says just recognize that if you are in Christ you have everything. It’s all yours because you belong to God. Father, we see in your Word a dynamic, a synergy, and we partner with you to reach the world. It starts with one life at a time, it starts with individuals who are obedient and who speak and who act and who plant seeds and water seeds. Then we’re able to look back and to see you grow it as that takes root in a person’s life and become something fruitful and productive and wonderful. I pray that we would be a church of SAPs: servants, accountable, partners with you in the work you’re doing in the world today. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
February 9, 2014 Pastor Jerry Dean Always Be Ready To Give It’s so good to be here. I’m very thankful for all of you. It’s great to see some familiar faces and renew friendships. I really appreciate all of you dear people. Why don’t you turn in your Bibles to 1 Peter 3. At the beginning of this series “Ready, Set, Go”, Pastor Jeff started talking about sharing your faith with other people. He said that he was not planning on talking about three small words. “Always be ready to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that lies within you.” I want to focus this morning on those three words: always be ready to give. Shall we say those together? [Congregation repeats the phrase three times] Why don’t you turn to a neighbor or somebody close by and tell them, “Always be ready to give.” There you go. You guys are awesome. As we think about being always ready to give, he [Pastor Jeff] will have further explanations later on in the series, but I want to focus on those three words and three ideas, three concepts, this morning as we talk about sharing your faith. Right up front I want to say that my challenge, my encouragement to you is to share your faith with somebody this week. Share Jesus Christ with someone this week. So often we think, “I’ll share my faith someday.” For many of us, it’s something we’ll do someday or down the road when I get better at it or something else. I would encourage you to make a commitment right now, right where you sit, that you’re going to share your faith and ask God to open doors for you to share your faith or talk to somebody about Jesus Christ this week. We’ll talk a little later about how to do that. That’s my challenge because that takes the message out of the future and puts in right here, right now. Maybe even this afternoon you’ll have an opportunity to do that. That first phrase says always be ready to give. Some of you sitting here may say, “I’m not so great at that. I’m not so good at that. I’m not sure if that’s particularly my thing.” The first word there says always. It’s the Greek word aei and we get our word eon from that. It’s speaking of time. God’s saying to be ready to give at all times. If you’re here this morning and you’re a child of God then your King and your Lord and your Master and your Boss says that’s part of your mission. It doesn’t matter if you’re bold. It doesn’t matter if you’re shy. It doesn’t matter if you speak well or not. Your God says that’s your mission. That’s what you’re here to do. Always be ready to give. The wonderful thing and the amazing thing is that if you’re his child then God put his Spirit in your heart. He says he lives with you and you have inside of you the Spirit of Jesus Christ which means you have the capacity, you have the ability, to do that. Paul says, “Greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world” (1 Jn 4:4) and “you can do all things [including share your faith] through Christ who strengthens you” (Phil 4:13). God says he has given you the ability far beyond anything that you could ask or think. I don’t know how you think of yourself this morning, but if you’re his child his Spirit is in you and he has given you that ability and those capabilities. Have you ever noticed that about Jesus or thought that about him? Jesus was at home with everybody. At twelve years old he was at home sitting in the temple talking to the PhDs of his day. He was at home with prostitutes. He was at home with tax collectors. He was at home with commercial fishermen. He was at home with the white collared people and the blue collared people. I don’t know in that age of robes if they had collars on them or not, but you get the point. He was at home with the high and the low and the middle and in between. He was at home with everyone. Early on he was developing those gifts. He was singularly focused. At twelve years old he said, “I am here and I am ready to be about my Father’s business.” He thought about that all the time. Friends, why is that so crucial? Because you and I rub shoulders every day with people who are on their way to eternity. If there was not a hell I would not be standing here today talking to you. It wouldn’t matter. I’ve preached funeral message after funeral message that says, and one of the most intriguing verses from Ecclesiastes 7, says it’s better go to a funeral than it is to a party because that’s what happens to everyone, and wise people think about that. You and I are someday going to be facing the grave. You and I are someday going to be the ones lying in the casket and in the coffin. It’ll be our funeral that people are attending. I am here as a representative of Jesus Christ this morning because either you have the answer for life and death or you don’t. That’s what makes Christianity so singularly different from every other religion. The founder of every other religion is dead, buried, and gone. Mohammed? Dead and buried. Confucius? Dead and buried. Buddha? Dead and buried. Joseph Smith? Dead and buried. Jesus Christ? His grave’s empty. Historians say that is probably the singular most well documented fact in human history. We even date our history AD and BC although because they want to forget Christ, they’ve changed BC to BCE, “before common era,” which is really fascinating because people who don’t love God, they don’t like to think about that. But Jesus’ resurrection radically changed the world. Either you have an answer for death or we might as well pack it up and go home. Friends, that’s why it is so crucial to share your faith. If you are a child of God and you believe that there is an eternal destination of heaven and hell, then it’s of absolute paramount importance. If you went home today after lunch and saw your neighbor’s house on fire, you would probably go home and say, “Well, you know, maybe they decided to sleep late. I know their house is on fire but I don’t really want to wake them up. That could disturb their sleep. They need their rest.” Would any of you think that way? Of course not. Friends, if you genuinely believe this book [holds up a Bible], our God, our Savior, our Lord and master challenged people all the time what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul (Mk 8:36). If you believe that there is an eternal hell, then you will step out of your comfort zone. You will put your neck, your reputation on the line to share the Good News of Jesus Christ with the people around you. When I say that, I don’t mean shove it down their throats. I say God uniquely gifts you to touch other people in incredible ways. As we talk about gifts, it’s interesting, he says always be ready to give. Every single one of you has gifts that the rest of us don’t have. You have gifts. You have personality. I was just talking this morning with Mark and his family over here. He’s the baseball coach at Fort Atkinson. We got to coach baseball together for a year. He was just sharing about how they went down to the Dominican Republic to do two things – teach kids baseball and share the Gospel. How awesome! That’s why I get so into sports. It’s not just sports. It’s because honestly truly, I have gotten to share the Gospel with more lost people through sports than I ever have being a pastor. You know that? That’s where you rub shoulders with people who don’t know Jesus Christ. Those things that take you out into the world. Some of you have incredible gifts. Maybe it’s a smile, maybe it’s a listening ear. All of those things are gifts. I don’t know your gifts, but God has given you talents and opened doors and opportunities to touch people’s lives. You never know. Of course, you may be sitting here this morning saying, “Well, I don’t have gobs of gifts.” Of course you know that God said in his Word that you absolutely, unequivocally, without hesitation cannot ever develop any more gifts than what you already have, right? That was a joke. [laughter] God challenges us to keep developing our gifts. Friends, I’m here to tell you that you never know what gifts you have that God may use. I’ve lived in two different places in Janesville. Interestingly enough, in both of those houses we have had neighbors who are German. Why does that matter? Well, for whatever reason, I decided in high school to take two years of German. I took another year of German in college. If any of you want to talk German to me I really don’t have a clue. All I remember was the dialog, but it opens doors. I remember the first house we lived in Janesville there was an older woman there in her seventies. I just had her funeral two and a half weeks ago. Her name was Eva and she was a survivor. When World War II came she was a young girl, and the Russians invaded from the east. She was taken to a Russian prison camp where she was raped repeatedly, went through horrific things, and by an act of God she escaped. A doctor had mercy on her and signed her release papers. She left and ended up with a sponsor who brought her to the United States and plopped her next to us in the edge of fourth ward in Janesville. Of course that was all an accident, right? I still remember meeting her in the sidewalk outside of our house for the first time. I said, “Hi I’m Jerry.” She says, “Hi, I’m Eva.” I said, “Germany, right?” She said yes. I said, “Wie gehts?” She went, “Oooo!” “Was ist loss?” She’s like “!!!” Those were two of the only phrases I remembered in German, except the third one, as we grew in our relationship, I got to say “Ich liebe dich” which is German for I love you. It’s fascinating. This woman, because of the horrific things she had been through, didn’t trust much of anybody. Her brother was a classically trained piano player. She deeply loved her brother. He was killed in World War II. So God plops this dear old woman down in Janesville next to a guy who knows a little bit and a smidgeon of German and, guess what, is a classically trained piano player. I can tell you about the hours she sat in my living room as I sat at the baby grand piano that my grandmother had given me and played for her Bach and Brahms and Beethoven and Chopin and Mozart and her favorite, Franz Liszt. “Play Liebestraum for me.” We connected. It took about fifteen years until finally, I sat in her kitchen one morning and led her to Jesus Christ. Those who knew her, at her funeral, her caretakers at the end, said, “You know, those last few years she finally had peace. She finally got it.” There was a presence about her and it was fascinating to me. Her caretaker at the end was also a Christian. Isn’t it amazing how God works? I don’t know what skills you have, but never stop learning. Never stop developing gifts. You have no idea how God can use you. Some talent or some gift or something you know that may seem really insignificant to you, friends, God can use that. Amen? God can use you. I remembered a few years ago that God can even use stuff that you don’t particularly like. I chuckle because the winter games are going on. I know that the U.S. just won two snowboarding gold medals and I really don’t care. I’m not trying to be mean. I just don’t care about the X Games and I don’t care about it. It never fascinated me. I still remember five or six years ago that I had a day off and I decided, “I think I’m going to go watch a movie today.” So I checked out movie times and all that stuff and I really couldn’t find anything I wanted to go see. I saw a movie called Lords of Dogtown and it was about skateboarding and how California surfers spawned the skateboarding culture during a draught in California. They built their own skateboards and skated in swimming pools that were concave and launched the skateboarding revolution. I have no idea why, well I do know why, but I decided to go see that movie. I have a very good memory, years of memorizing Bible verses I think, and I remembered all these names and all these situations from all these people. Likewise, that week I got two magazines in the mail that I subscribe to ESPN Magazine and Sports Illustrated, both of them, I think because of the X Games, had articles about skateboarding from cover to cover. Normally, I wouldn’t even look at them. It just doesn’t interest me. I don’t know why, I should say, I do know why I decided to read all those articles so I’m filled with skateboarding information. Standing right back there after a service one weekend, about where Jim is standing, a guy came up to me and said, “Hey, will you visit my son in Dane County Jail?” I’m like, “Sure. I’d be happy to.” I like to connect on a level other than just the Gospel because sometimes that opens doors. You make friends and you make connections. I said, “So tell me what your son is into.” He said, “My son is really into skateboarding.” The lights go on! Hmmm, fancy that. I’m walking in; we sit down and start talking. I say, “I hear you’re into skateboarding.” He goes, “Yeah.” I start rattling off all this stuff and he looks at me like, you’ve got to be kidding me. How does this old guy know all this stuff? That’s how God works isn’t it? When you have a desire and you’re asking him for open doors, you have no idea what he can use. Friends, I’ll say this as well, even tragedy and heartache in your life or the things that hurt very much, God can use those. I always think of Vic and Linda Smith who lost children. Vic lost a twenty-year-old who was eight and a half months pregnant in a car accident. Twenty years of age. Gone is the promise of life and hope and a grandchild, and yet through that they have a heart for people going through grief. God’s used them to touch people’s lives and bring people to salvation. Even our heartache and our tragedy and pain can be things that God uses to save us from eternity. I know for myself when I was a teenager and going through a bunch of hormonal things. My body was producing too much testosterone and doing weird things. We went to the doctor and they proceeded to prescribe me, stuck me on steroids for two years. I look back and I’m like, “Are you kidding me?” I basically went from being this mellow happy-go-lucky guy to going half nuts. I was thinking about people I wanted to kill and assault and all that kind of stuff. I was thinking about killing myself every single day. It was probably the most painful time in my life. I literally thought about killing myself every single day. It’s the knowledge that hell exists is the reason I didn’t. I’m very thankful for that. You know, fast forward. Does God know what he’s doing? I’m in Evansville, Wisconsin and have a passion and a heart for Evansville. You know why? It has the highest suicide rate of any community in the state of Wisconsin. God has opened doors already. The first funeral I ever had in Evansville was a suicide. I sat on the phone on Christmas Eve talking with a guy in Missouri for an hour and a half and God allows me to say things that spare his life and change his course and give him hope. That time seemed like that [snaps]. Why? Because I can empathize with him so much. I can relate to him so much. I’ve been where he’s been, wanting to end it all. In fact, he got done and said, “How in the world are you spending all this time talking to me on Christmas Eve?” The answer is because even the horrible and awful things that we go through in our lives, God allows and uses to develop us to reach out and minister and bless other people. Amen? Time and time again, when I have situations like that, I pinch myself and say, “God, if I had to go through all that heartache and all that pain to save one soul, it was all worth it. It was all worth it.” Amen? So God challenges us to always be ready. Secondly as we focus on that term “ready”, be prepared. Friends, I want to leave you a couple of thoughts about “prepared”. That means you prepare ahead of time. You just got done with the Super Bowl. Those guys playing in the Super Bowl, I tell you, they watched hours upon hours upon hours of game film. You have the quarterbacks playing in that game that you watch a defense line up across from you and you watch people shifting all over creation and in a second and a half you have to decide are they in man are they doing a combo coverage are they going zone? Which defensive players are rushing? Which are falling back? You have to read all that in a second and a half. How do they do that? They are able to do that from hours upon hours and repetition upon repetition of watching film over and over and over. That’s preparation. God challenges us to do the same in regard to our faith. He says prepare. There’s three ways you do that. First of all, prayer and God’s Word. The single prayer that I pray more often than any other prayer is, “God, open doors for me.” That was Paul's prayer. He wrote to one of the churches in the New Testament, “Pray for us, that God would open the door for our message” (Col 4:3). When God opens a door it becomes really obvious, right? You don’t have to kick it down. I grew up in an era where people shoved the Gospel down other people’s throats. That just appalled me. Neil was talking about singing “Just As I Am” in the 8 a.m. service. I once sat through a service and an alter call at the end where they sang 120 verses of “Just As I Am”. That just makes me sick to my stomach to try to shove the Gospel down someone’s throat or emotionally manipulate somebody. Friends, God calls us to prepare. He calls us to plan ahead. When God opens doors he puts you in the right situation at the right time in a way that fits you and your personality and your gifts. On this side of things, I look and find myself talking to people about Christ so often, not in a church setting, and I almost shake my head walking away from things saying, “How did that happen? How did we get there?” Time and again I can’t really remember how we particularly got onto talking about God. It just seems to happen, which is what happens when God opens doors. When God opens doors I don’t have to be the spiritual swat team that kicks it down, right? God does that in ways that are absolutely incredible. Speaking of combining those, I want to share a quick story. I want to give you an example. When I first got to Janesville, the block we lived on was almost all people in their seventies and eighties except for one family. They lived right next to us: Lee and Sue. We became good friends. They had a couple of children. As the years went by, we got to share our faith with them and they started coming to church. They were not Christians, but they were seeking. We would talk and our friendship grew. I got up one morning and I sat down in my living room on my couch to read my Bible. You have to understand, at a very young age I had written out 120 goals for my life. One of those goals was to read the Bible through fifty times. Me, I’m pretty, I don’t know, focused or singular. Knowing that, I had it all planned out and charted out. I read 10 chapters of my Bible every single day. I would start in Genesis. I read from Genesis to Revelation and turn around and start again. I never varied from that ever for anything or anyone. I say that as a background. So I sat there, flipped my Bible open, and I know I was somewhere in Exodus. I started to read in Exodus and I just got this really weird uncomfortable feeling like I wasn’t supposed to be there. I thought that was really odd, so I tried to force my way through it, and it wasn’t happening. I just felt so uncomfortable. So I started flipping through my Bible. Okay, if not Exodus then maybe Judges – heroes, deliverers, stories about war and conflict and God and great victories – nope it wasn’t there. Joshua? Nope. Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles? More stories of kings and judges and victories and heroes. Nope. How about Psalms and Proverbs? I love Psalms and Proverbs. Nope, not there either. The prophets? It was really weird and uncomfortable in the prophets. I got to the New Testament, stories of the life of Christ. What’s better than the life of Christ? Surely it must be here. No, it was very uncomfortable. Acts? Lots of history. I love history. Nope. I got to Romans and it was almost like I was on a roller coaster and things started slowing down, but I was still feeling really weird and uncomfortable almost like I wasn’t supposed to be there. I finally got to Corinthians and it was like I felt the brakes being applied. I started thumbing through chapter 1,2,3,4 and I finally got to 1 Corinthians chapter twelve. It was finally like [sigh]. There was just this sense of peace like - you’ve arrived, you’re where you’re supposed to be. I thought, that’s really kind of odd and strange, but I read 1 Corinthians 12, 13, and 14 - three chapters. Since it wasn’t ten chapters, I had lots more time to sit there and think about it. I read those and got up to go off and pray and didn’t think much more of it until that night. My wife and myself and my kids were sitting at our supper table, and in the middle of supper there was a knock at the door. I opened the door and there were my neighbors, Lee and Sue. Lee said, “Jerry, can we talk to you?” I said, “Sure.” I stepped outside, and Sue looked like she was really upset about something. I should have prefaced things. 1 Corinthians 12-14, does anybody know what that’s about? It’s about all the spiritual gifts: gifts of prophecy, gifts of teaching, gifts of tongues, the superiority of love over all of those gifts, and order in the church, and let everything be done decently and in order, and all those details. So, Lee said, “Can we talk to you?” I said, “Sure.” Sue looked really upset, and Lee said to me, “Jerry, I’ve got a question for you.” I said, “What’s that, Lee?” He said, “There’s somebody at my wife’s workplace who keeps telling Sue that unless she speaks in tongues, she can’t be saved. I just wondered if the Bible says anything about that.” I’m like, “Funny you should say that. Guess where I was reading this week.” Friends, what I’m saying is when you’re open to the promptings and leadings of the Spirit of God and you’re in his Word, he directs your steps. There’s a verse in Isaiah that says, “Whether you turn to the right or turn to the left you will hear a voice behind you, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it’” (Isa 30:21). God calls us to be prepared. In terms of “practice” or “preparation” or “being ready,” friends, how do you get ready for anything? Practice. Did you know that’s biblical? Look up Hebrews chapter five. Maturity comes to “those who by reason of practice have their senses exercised to discern good and evil (v 14). In 1 Timothy 4:7 Paul says to Timothy, “Exercise yourself to godliness.” You get good at anything through practice. Talking about music and sports, I had no idea that when my grandmother made me play all those scales and all those chords and all those arpeggios she was setting me up for a wonderful coaching career. What I got was that you don’t get good at anything without lots and lots and lots and lots of really focused practice. How do you become good at sharing your faith? Practice. Some of you are in different places. It doesn’t matter. Some of you have better sharing skills than others. It doesn’t matter. Start where you are. When I was in eighth grade our youth group was encouraged to go out and share our faith. My brother and I ended up in our apartment complex and knocked on a door. There was a woman who opened the door, and we invited her to church. She said, “Well, I’m Baha’i.” I didn’t know what Baha’i was. I thought maybe she was on ba’drugs or something [laughter]. So, we invited her to church and she was like, “Can you help me?” I didn’t know how to help her. My brother didn’t know how to help her. He was older than I was. But you know what? We knew somebody who could. We went home and got our mom. My mom came back and led her to Christ. She got baptized and she started to walk with God and was faithful in church and faithful in her walk with the Lord. Were we biblical scholars? No. We didn’t even know what to say, but we knew somebody to get. Maybe you’re in that position. Share your faith. Maybe you’re like me early on. I remember working at a church here in town when I was in college. It came Sunday night after I was done with the weekend stuff, and I was headed back to school. I was really burdened like, “God, I want to share my faith with somebody. Please open a door.” On the way back to school, I stopped at Country Kitchen. I sat at the counter and ordered a piece of pie. There was a guy sitting next to me looking kind of bedraggled. Isn’t that a great word, by the way? Bedraggled. I didn’t know what other word fit there, sorry. You know, disheveled, there’s a good word. Bedraggled, disheveled, there’s a lesson there somewhere, I suppose. Anyway, I heard him talking and he was like, “Man, I really need a ride to Edgerton.” I was like, ding ding ding! “I’ll give you a ride to Edgerton!” He was like, “Really?” I was like, “Sure.” We get in the car and get about a mile out of town. I was like, Wow! God, this is a great opportunity. I turned to him in the front seat and I looked at him and I said, [creepy voice] “You know why I picked you up don’t you?” [laughter]. His eyes got really big around. That’s a horrible way to share your faith. I don’t know, maybe God had a hand in that. Maybe he was too scared to say anything and he sat there and listened. I don’t know. My point is if you’re willing to try, you get better as you share your faith. I wonder how many of you have ever had a situation where you wanted to talk to somebody about Christ. You wanted to share your faith. God opened the door and you started to say something and you just couldn’t quite get it out. You were tongue tied and you hesitated. You didn’t say anything and the moment passed. You walked away kicking yourself, right? Anybody been there? It’s all bad, right? No, it’s all good! If you think about it and you pray about it and you’re thinking, “Well, God, I should have done this. I should have said that. I shouldn’t have hesitated.” What does that make you the next time the door opens even so slightly? You will jump at the chance to talk to somebody about Jesus Christ, right? You’re better prepared. It’s practice that prepares you. Even those failures are only experiences that help you to develop that ability. The last thing in that line, [Paul] says, “Always be ready to give” (1 Pet 3:15). Friends, the thing that opens doors more than anything else, that allows you to share your faith, is the willingness to give. When you give it opens doors. It may be a smile; it may be a listening ear. Did you know that listening to someone is an incredible gift? I’ll never forget reading a counseling book that was this thick [shows with hands] and the best thing in the whole book was in the first chapter. It says, you know what God does more than any other single thing? He listens. He spends all day, all the time, listening to people the world over. He listens and listens and listens and listens and don’t ever forget how healing it is to listen. My wife tells me, she can’t believe it, “People walk up to you and they just start telling their whole life story and they don’t even know you!” Well, if people get the sense that you’re willing to listen to them it’s amazing what they’ll tell you. It’s also amazing how reciprocal people are that if you’re willing to listen to them time and again they’re willing to listen to you when you share your faith. If you have that attitude of giving and serving, you never know, time and again God opens doors in amazing ways. I think of Jesus Christ and why we are proclaiming him. He is the greatest giver of all time. John 3:16, that classic verse, says, “God so loved the world that he gave…” When you do things for people and help people and reach out to people that’s not the be all and end all. What you’re hoping is that your gifts, your service, your acts of kindness open the door to share your faith. Talking about where I moved first in Janesville, the edge of the old fourth ward and everybody on our block was all older people except for one family. Nobody on our block had snow blowers. I had developed the spiritual gift of shoveling. That is a spiritual gift. You know how I developed that? Growing up on a small farm with sheep and cattle and horses where I learned to shovel manure. It’s amazing how sometimes the stinky dirty jobs that you’re willing to do to honor those over you develop spiritual gifts. I’m not kidding! Right there in the Greek in the book of Romans – shoveling, I think, is inherently right in there in the list of spiritual gifts. When it snowed, time and again, I would shovel the entire block. I would shovel not only the sidewalks, but the driveways too. You know what that got me? That got me the chance to lead two of my neighbors to Christ. It got me to share the Gospel with all of my neighbors. It got me to have funerals for two of my neighbors. In fact, one of the funerals, the people ended up coming to church later on. One of the funerals, I’ll never forget walking into the funeral after the husband died. I’d been shoveling their sidewalks for years, so when he died and they didn’t go to church guess who they asked to do the funeral? Low and behold. I had a little fear and trepidation about the funeral because I knew there was nobody there who was a Christian. I walked into the funeral home and, low and behold, I see a really really good friend of mine who had gone to the same church. I said, “Terry, what are you doing here?” He was like, “I’m the special music; I’m singing. What are you doing here?” I was like, “I’m giving the message. I’m doing the funeral.” He was like, “Really, no kidding?” I was like, “No kidding.” He said, “What an answer to prayer. We’re the only people in our family who are Christians. Everybody else in our family is unsaved. We were praying and praying and praying that God would open a door and bring some pastor who would share Jesus Christ and share eternity and share the resurrection with my family. Not only does God send somebody, he sends you! How awesome is that?” Isn’t God good? If you’re ready and willing to give. Friends, I close by saying that I never get tired of talking about Jesus Christ. He is the greatest hero of all time; he is the greatest hero who ever lived. We write books, we have movies about hero champions who do incredible things to save the princess, find the treasure, save the children or whatever else it is. There is nobody like Jesus Christ. Nobody ever went through what he did, who literally went through hell, went through damnation to rescue you and me. Amen? If you get that, if you get his heroism, it makes you want to step out of your comfort zone and save the lives of friends and neighbors and relatives and people around you who are lost without Jesus Christ and on a road to eternal hell. God is challenging you today and this week to step out of your comfort zone to do something different, to share your faith. I’ll tell you, if you want adventure, if you want satisfaction there is nothing like that. I’ll close with this one story. One of the coolest things that ever happened to me in my life was that a friend of mine and I started this sports outreach program a few years ago. We shared the Gospel with hundreds of guys through basketball. We’d rent gyms, guys would come and play free, and we’d share the Gospel with them. One day we got done and I was taking my friend, Tom, home. I was driving him home past Papa John’s Pizza, down there on the main drag in Janesville. There’s a house across the street in the parkway or the driveway, the parking lot behind that house there are four guys who are just beating a guy to death. I’ve been in enough fights and boxed for a long time, judo and that kind of stuff, to know the seriousness. My immediate thought was, they’re going to kill him. My second immediate thought was the story of Jonathan and his armor-bearer who decide to attack a Philistine fortress by themselves and Jonathan says the immortal words, “Eh, it’s no big deal to God. He can save by a lot of people or just a handful of people” (1 Sam 14). That was my next thought. I said, “Okay, Lord, Tom’s my armor bearer. I know that he’s the least likely person on the face of God’s green earth to ever get involved in a fight, so I’m going to ask him and if Tom says yes, then I know this is you.” So I turned to Tom and I said, “Do you see that?” He says, “Yeah. We’d better do something! They’re going to kill him.” I was like, well that’s affirmation. So I whipped the car around, parked in the parking lot, jumped out, and started heading toward these guys. I was not afraid; I realized that God had prepared me for this moment through boxing, judo, football, and weightlifting. He’d developed those gifts, but I’m really trying to avoid disaster. I walked up to them and they turned around and looked at me like, you’ve got to be kidding me. There are four of us, there’s one of you, you’re fifteen years older than all of us and what in the world are you doing? I looked at them and the first thing that popped in my head was, “Hey guys, did you know that Jesus loves you?” It was probably the perfect thing because if they thought I was weird before or scary or whatever else, now they’re like, dude, what planet is this guy on? They hesitated and they stopped and they stood there. I just started talking to them about the Lord. If it wasn’t for one of the guys, I think we could have gotten out without any further things because they were all drunk. But this one guy, I found out later, was high on crack. I was talking and the longer I talked, the itchier and twitchier he got. I was trying to rescue this guy from the situation and avoid the fight. He finally got himself up off the ground and shook himself off. You could tell he was absolutely petrified, and he was still worried about his situation. He still knew that we were vastly outnumbered and so he reached down and picked up a beer bottle to defend himself. When he picked up that beer bottle all purgatory broke loose. See, I didn’t use the word hell in church. All purgatory. Beer bottles and fists and all that stuff started flying, and God was really good. I got him out of there. I got him in my car and started hauling him out of the danger zone even as beer bottles bounced off my car and off of me. We got a couple of blocks away and he leaned over the front seat and handed me a hundred dollar bill. “I want you to have this because you saved my life. They would have killed me.” “I pretty much figured that, but I don’t want your money, that’s not why I did it.” He said, “But they’d have killed me. If you hadn’t come, I’d be dead. I got to do something for you let me buy you a case a bear.” I said, “You know what, I don’t drink.” He was almost frantic. He said, “I’ve got to do something for you. You saved my life! They would have killed me.” Friends, here’s the thing. God had prepared me for all those years and I got to say to him, “You know, it is one thing to stick your physical body and your neck on the line to save somebody else’s life. It is quite another thing to give your soul to save someone from an eternity in hell. If you really want to do something for me then you sit there while I tell you about the greatest hero of all time who took on the greatest odds of all time who was the greatest champion of all time who went through hell and died to pay for your sins and for mine because he loves you and cares about you and he wants a relationship with you.” Do you think it’s worth it? I would take all those beer bottles and fists bouncing off of me to get the chance to tell one more person about Jesus Christ. He is the Hero, isn’t he? He is the Champion [applause]. Friends, if you really get who he is and you really get what he’s done, it’s not hard to talk about him. Amen? My challenge stands. I encourage you, challenge you, this week share your faith. Pray. Ask God to open doors and God will use you this week. Because of you there may be one or two or five people in eternity with Jesus Christ who wouldn’t have been before because you had the courage to share Jesus Christ with somebody else. Amen? Shall we pray? Father, I thank you so much for these dear friends. I pray that you would speak to their hearts. I pray that you would encourage them and challenge them and help them to practice and develop their gifts to touch other people’s lives. Thank you for the example of Jesus Christ, and I thank you that we can pray in his name. Amen.
Discern and find fertile soil to plant seed.
http://www.exploregod.com/why-is-it-hard-to-talk-about-god-video
February 2, 2014 Where have you thrown your pearls? Pastor Jeff Williams
Shall we get our homework out of the way first? Let’s put our memory verse up here...
1 Peter 3:15 But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect
Next week we might not do that. Next week I'm doing a pulpit swap with Pastor Jerry. Pastor Jerry Dean was our discipleship minister for nine years and then we started Faith Community Evansville and a bunch of our people branched off to go there. I'm going to go there and preach and he's going to come here and preach. I'm preaching next week but I'm preaching in Evansville and he's coming to Janesville. So you might get a week off with the verse but we'll hit it again in two weeks. Let's talk about a verse; we're going to put up a verse here. Remember when we did the series on the difficult sayings of Jesus, “What did Jesus mean when he said…"? This is a verse that could have easily gone in that series. Today we're focusing on “set”, it's a little bit of a shift. We've been on "ready" which is: What is the Gospel? How do we share? What’s our motivation? To “set” which is on our strategy, our philosophy. It’s to whom and how are we to share. Let’s take a look at this verse. It’s a verse that’s often misunderstood. Let’s see if we can’t figure it out.
Matthew 7:6 Jesus says, 6 “Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.
Dreadful verse. There’s a warning there. What does Jesus mean when he says, “Do not give what is sacred to the dogs; do not cast your pearls before the swine”? We’re talking this morning about where did you place your pearls or where did you toss your pearls. I can’t remember what I titled it; it’s something like that. What does he mean? Is Jesus calling people pigs? Is he calling them dogs? No. What he’s saying is, if you go to give your dog a Ritz cracker, what’s the dog going to do? Gulp! Gobble it up. If you go to a nice restaurant and you come back with a little piece of filet mignon what is your dog going to do? Gulp! He’s not going to look at it and go, “I can’t believe you’re giving me filet mignon. I’m going to savor this. This doesn’t happen all of the time.” Of course a dog wouldn’t say it like that. It would be more like, “Rarr rarr rarr rarr.” [laughter] It doesn’t matter. The dog doesn’t appreciate it. You take something valuable and give it to a pig, for instance, it’s just going to go in the mud. It doesn’t recognize the worth and the value. The Gospel is that which is sacred. Jesus describes it as a pearl. One parable is called “The Pearl of Great Price.” The man sold everything to acquire this pearl of great price and value. So Jesus says, use discernment. The context is on judgment in the Sermon on the Mount, but that particular verse is on discernment. Use wisdom, use discernment when you entrust that which is sacred to others. We’re asking the question, does the person I’m sharing with value God’s truth? Do they want to learn? Do they want to grow? Be careful, be wise, be discerning to whom and how you disseminate the valuable truth of God’s Word. God’s Word is also described as a seed that is to be planted. If you are a farmer and you’re moving to Wisconsin and you want to buy land, what’s the first thing you look for when you buy land? How’s the soil? Is the soil good? When I say to you, “A farmer went out to sow seed,” what do you think about? “The Parable of the Sower.” The same seed, completely different results. When he throws it on the hard soil, what happens? It doesn’t take root; the birds come and eat it. He throws it in the shallow soil, the rocky soil, what happens? The roots aren’t very deep, the sun scorches it, and it dies. When he throws it in the soil full of thorns and thistles and weeds, what happens? It gets choked out. But when he puts it on the good soil, the fertile soil, it takes root. It grows, and it produces much fruit, a good crop. What Jesus is telling us in Matthew 7:6 is to look for good soil. It only makes sense that if you’re going to sow the seed of God’s Word that you try to find good soil. Remember the soil, the hard heart, the person who doesn’t understand the Word of God? He doesn’t care. He’s apathetic. His heart is hard toward the Gospel. Not good soil. Does that mean we should never talk to a person whose heart is hard? Not at all. If God is telling you to talk to that person, talk to him. I’m not telling you not to do that. What about the person Jesus talked about who has no root and they’re distracted? They have other focuses, other places where their energy is going. It’s not good soil, is it? Does that mean you should never share your faith with them? If that’s what the Lord is telling you to do, then that’s fine. It’s not the greatest soil. What about the person who’s just consumed with other things: the weeds, the thorns, the thistles, the trials, the tribulations, the desires for riches. Jesus says they choke out the word. It’s not good soil. What’s good soil? Good soil is a heart that is eager to learn, a heart that’s humble, a heart that says, “I need to learn more,” a heart that’s teachable. It could be a heart that’s broken. Maybe they’re broken because life has not gone their way, or maybe they’re broken because they had material goals or career goals that they’ve achieved and found out they’re empty. Maybe a person has gone through loss and their heart is broken. They’re receptive. That’s good soil. If I’m broken or if I’m broken hearted or I’m disillusioned, I’m seeking answers, I want to know spiritual truth. That’s good soil to plant in. Jesus is saying to use discernment. Don’t just be casual and flippantly throw around the pearls or plant the seed, but, like a farmer, plant in good soil, soft soil, soil that’s ready to receive and to hear. Does Jesus practice what he preaches? He does. Let’s take a look at Jesus living out this principle in Luke chapter thirteen. In Luke 13 we find an interesting scenario as the enemies of Jesus, the Pharisees, are here wearing the white hat. They’re trying to be the good guys and warn Jesus of impending danger. They’re going to warn him about King Herod. Does that name sound familiar to you? It probably does from the Christmas story, right? Herod the Great wants to see Jesus dead. Why? Because Jesus is a threat to his throne, to his rule. He issues a mandate that every child two and under, every male child, will be killed. Horrible man. Horrible thing to do. Joseph is warned in a dream to flee to Egypt. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph go to Egypt. At some point in his life, we don’t know at what age, Jesus is told about Herod. He’s told that, “Herod has tried to take your life. We’re not from Egypt, we’re from Israel. But the king wants you dead because you are from God. Now that Herod is dead, Son, we’re going to go back home. We’re going to go back to our country to live.” He knew all about the man who tried to take his life. This is his son, Herod Antipas. He knows all about him too. Do you remember what Herod Antipas did? He took the wife of his brother while he was still living and made her his wife. He stole his brother’s wife while he was still very much alive and very much married. John the Baptist was not a guy to pull punches, was he? John the Baptist said, “That’s wrong. It doesn’t matter if you’re the king or not, that’s sin. God’s going to deal with you.” What did Herod do? Did he repent of his sin? He has John the Baptist beheaded, killed. Who was John the Baptist to Jesus? What’s the relationship? Are they just good friends? Do they know each other? No, they’re more than that, they’re first cousins. They’re very close in age. They’ve grown up playing together. They love each other. Jesus called John the greatest man ever born. How do you think he feels when his cousin’s head is cut off for no crime other than standing up for righteousness? How do you think Jesus feels about the Herod family and what they’ve done to his family? By the way, this Herod’s son is going to be Herod Agrippa, and he will kill James the Apostle. Then his son Herod Agrippa II is who Paul will stand trial against in Rome. This family has a torrid history of doing awful things. Jesus gets word from Herod. It says in Luke 13:31
At that time some Pharisees came to Jesus and said to him, “Leave this place and go somewhere else. Herod wants to kill you.”
They’re pretending to be good guys. “We’re concerned for you.” Listen to Jesus’ reply. He says…
32Go tell that fox, ‘I will keep on driving out demons and healing people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will reach my goal.’
Let’s break that down. First of all, he calls him a name doesn’t he? In this case he wasn’t calling people, non-believers, dogs and pigs, but in this case he is calling somebody a fox. Now, we can’t tell you exactly what that word means because nobody can be sure how it was used in that vernacular. It’s used in our vernacular in different ways. If somebody says, “That guy is as sly as a fox,” then you know to be on your toes, right? If a guy says, “Boy, she’s a fox,” you know what that means. How we use the word fox is not necessarily how Jesus used the word fox. We know the name; we know the character. What is the character of Herod? Herod is not a good guy. Herod abuses his power. Herod, instead of serving the people, serves himself. Herod is willing to spill innocent blood, godly blood, if it helps him. He’s an abuser; he’s a bully; he’s a bad dude. I guarantee you, whatever that means, when he calls him a fox, it’s not good. It’s not a compliment. He says, “You go tell that fox, today I’m going to do this, tomorrow I’m going to do that. When I’m ready, I’m going to come to Jerusalem.” The message is this, “He can say whatever he wants. He can threaten whatever he wants, but he can’t stop me. I’m going to go where I want to go, I’m going to do what I want to do, and I’m going to do it when I want to do it. He can send out all the posses he wants to. He can make all the threats he wants to. He can hang up all the posters in the post office that he wants to, but he won’t get me until I lay down my life.” In other words, he’s saying, “I’m not afraid of Herod. I’m not worried about Herod. I’m not running from Herod.” So now the question is, do these two ever meet? They do. Turn to Luke chapter twenty-three. Knowing that background, how is that meeting going to go, do you think? Let’s take a look. Pilate does not know what to do with Jesus. He kind of thinks Jesus is a good person, “I really don’t see the problem.” He asks Jesus questions. Jesus answers them. He thinks, “I don’t see a crime. I don’t see anything wrong. I think I’m going to let him go.” The Jews are like, “You can’t let him go! He’s been stirring up trouble all through Judea! He’s a bad guy. You’ve got to punish him.” So Pilate says, “Judea? He’s from Judea? Well, that’s not really my jurisdiction, but it just so happens that King Herod is in Jerusalem today, so lets’ bring Jesus before King Herod.” So, they meet.
Luke 23:8 When Herod saw Jesus…
And I have no idea if he knew Jesus was John’s first cousin or not, he probably knew that his dad issued a warrant for Jesus’ death, he probably knew that.
…he was greatly pleased, because for a long time he had been wanting to see him. From what he had heard about him, he hoped to see him perform a sign of some sort. 9 He plied him with many questions, but Jesus gave him no answer. What? No answer, gave him no answer. Do not give what is sacred to the dogs. Do not throw your pearls to the swine. Herod asked a lot of questions, probably a lot of relevant spiritual questions. Jesus doesn’t answer one. Wouldn’t it be great if Herod could become a Christian and maybe change the course or the direction of the country? Jesus knows his motivation. He is pleased to see Jesus, and he thought maybe he could do a miracle. Jesus is a side show to Herod. “Come on do a trick. Do some of that magic. Here, multiply this bread. Can you really jump down from the temple and not die? Come on, show me something cool.” Jesus knows he’s not a seeker of truth. For all that he’s concerned, Jesus is an amusement to him. This is not good soil. Jesus ignores every single question. He remains silent. It must have been terribly frustrating for him, this powerful king who has a man in front of him who shows no fear. You know, I can remember back in 1982, I was starting in the ministry full-time and I was green as grass. I really haven’t shared this story with any of you that I can recall. The only person I’ve shared it with is Mike. Our youth minister was going through this stuff at our church years ago. I said, “Let me share with you what I did when I was going through this.” I had a whole group of teenagers who were completely apathetic toward the Gospel. The ink is not dry in my degree. I’m wet behind the ears. I don’t know what I’m doing, making it up as I go, but I just really want to reach these kids for Christ and they are having none of it. They are not interested. I’m taking away notepads and telling them to be quiet. I’m asking them to leave. I’m talking to parents. I’m making phone calls – please come to church, please come to youth group, please want to know God. I’m pursuing them. The majority of the kids are like this. I got a few kids who seem to want to learn, but I really don’t have time for them because I’m chasing all these kids who really don’t care about God whose hearts are hard and they’re distracted. About three years of this and I don’t know if I went to a seminar or if it was the Holy Spirit, but I just said, “Enough! We’re going to change direction here. I’m going to change my strategy. I don’t care if there’s just three kids, I’m going to pour into those three kids. The kids who want to know about God, Christian or not, I’m going to start investing in them.” So I told Michael about the Fire Institute. I don’t even remember what it stood for. Probably at the time I told you the story, Mike, I remembered what it stood for. I don’t even know now. I said, “Look – you don’t have to go to church and youth group, you get to. You don’t have to read the Bible, you get to. It’s a privilege and an honor. We’re going to start something called the fire institute,” and we started one summer. Several years before I left I said, “Here’s the deal.” These were kids who struggled to go to youth group. I’m talking just to a small audience and I said, “Here’s what I want at the Fire Institute. You come to every church service we have – we had Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night. I want you at every service. I want you in the first three rows. I want you dressed nicely. I want you to have your Bible, and I want you to take notes. Then we’re going to meet on every Monday night throughout the summer for three hours, and I’m going to pour into you everything I know. You’re going to study a book of the Bible every week, and you’re going to write a two page report on that book. You’re going to have these paperback books, theology books, to read through, and you’re going to write reports on those. We’re going to have guest speakers and you’re going to take notes on them. You’re going to share your faith with at least one other person and you're going to do 20 hours of community service. There’s even more on top of that. You do all this stuff and at the end of the summer, we’re going to pay you to go on a missions trip – another country, another culture, to serve the Lord.” I have no idea, I think I had 11 kids who took the Fire Institute and made it through. Some didn’t make it through. Everything started to change. Our youth group started to grow in a good way. The Fire Institute, the third year I did it, had about twenty-five kids in it. Youth group - we had chairs set outside in the hallway because there wasn’t enough room in the room we were meeting in. Kids out there listening, serving God. When God called me here it was really hard to go. I knew them, I loved them. I was excited. Now I had a large core of kids who loved the Lord. I stopped taking what was sacred. Does it mean I don’t love those kids who had hard hearts? Nope. If one of those kids had called me and said, “Pastor Jeff, I want to talk to you about God.” I would have stopped on a dime and talked to him. But I said, as a farmer, “I want to invest and put my seed in good soil. Good soil that’s going to give me a harvest.” If you don’t heed this advice of Jesus, this counsel to use discernment, you know what actually happens? It becomes counterproductive to the cause of the Kingdom. Look at the end of this verse, look at Matthew 7:6b… If you do it anyway, understand this…
they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.
It’s going to backfire, it’s going to be counterproductive, and it’s going to work against the cause.
Let’s see this in Scripture. Let’s turn to Acts chapter eighteen. Paul is now in Europe, and the Gospel is in Europe. He says in Acts 18:4, here’s Paul's strategy. Here’s his method.
Every Sabbath he reasoned in the synagogue, trying to persuade Jews and Greeks.
So, he’d go to the synagogue every Saturday. He would have these spiritual conversations trying to convince Jews and Proselytes that Jesus was the Christ.
5When Silas and Timothy came from Macedonia, Paul devoted himself exclusively to preaching, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Messiah.
Timothy is Greek. He probably has Timothy and Silas focus on the Greeks. Paul then focuses exclusively on the Jews, trying to convince them from the Bible that Jesus is Messiah. Now remember, this is Paul, one of the most amazing preachers, teachers, church planters, and missionaries that ever lived. Guess what. He’s unsuccessful. He’s not making a dent. In fact, it’s going the other way.
6But when the Jews opposed Paul and became…
What? Abusive. Lest they turn on you and tear you to pieces. They became abusive to Paul so…
he shook out his clothes in protest and said to them, ‘Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent of it. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.’
“If you don’t want to hear what I have to say, I’m going to take this message to people who will. They’re going to soak it up. They’re going to find out that the God of the Hebrews, the God of the Jews, is also the God of the Gentiles.” They’re going to want to know this message, and there’s going to be church plant after church plant and conversion after conversion, and Paul’s ministry is going to have an astonishing success. He’s going to shift. Did Paul cease to love the Jews? Not at all. If any one of those men had come up to him after synagogue and said, “I’m starting to reconsider what you’re saying,” Paul would have dropped everything to talk to them about Jesus. But he started to recognize something; they didn’t value what he was sharing. The soil wasn’t fertile, it was hard. This was not a good place, not a good time for him to plant seed. Maybe someday it would be, but right now it was not the time. He moved on. It’s important to know when to do that because you might find that if you persist in doing this it actually has a counterproductive effect on your efforts. Have you ever seen that lived out in real life, anybody? When I was going to school getting my undergraduate degree in Bible at Trinity University, we had this exercise where we would go to Northwestern University, which was very close by, and we would share our faith with whoever might be there. It was all random, these were all total strangers. It was not an easy job. What we did the first weeks was go with our leader and he said, “You don’t have to say anything, you don’t have to do anything. Just watch me.” He was a master. He would establish rapport. He would engage in these spiritual conversations and he was productive, he was good. Then he said, “Okay, now this week you’re going to share your testimony, or this week you’re going to ask this question, or you’re going to read this scripture,” and he’d give us something to do. Then stage three was, he still led things, but we got more responsibility. He watched us and critiqued us. Then stage four was to go out two by two throughout the campus and be back in two hours and tell how things went. I went with a girl named Sue. We walked into the cafeteria, a large cafeteria, and we had to start looking around for a victim [laughter], I mean, looking for a person to talk to about our faith. I see this little girl, she just looked like the sweetest thing, just looked like a little sweetheart, and I said, “I think God wants us to talk to her!” Sue finds the owliest, orneriest looking cuss in the whole place. He’s one of these thirty-year-old college student guys. She says, “I think we should talk to him.” I thought, “Ugh.” She says, “I’ll go first.” She starts to talk. As soon as he figures out we’re talking about Christianity, he just stiffens up and starts yelling at us so the whole cafeteria turns and looks. So embarrassing. He says, “I’ve had Christianity shoved down my throat my whole life! I’ve had it up to here with Christians and your faith! I don’t want to talk to you about God! I don’t care about God! I don’t care about your dumb school! I don’t care about your dumb questions! I’ve had it up to here! Now leave me alone!” He said some other choice things to, some words I can’t say in church, and then he went back to eating his ice cream and we just stood there – thank you. We walked away with our tails between our legs. Now, if we’d have stayed and continued to try to debate and argue with him, what would have happened? It would have gotten more aggressive. He probably would have stood up. He might have pushed us. I don’t know what he would have done. He might have thrown his ice cream at us. I don’t know, but it wouldn’t have been pretty. He was not receptive to our message. It doesn’t mean one day he wouldn’t be, but that day he wasn’t. So, what do you do? We just left. We did not help the Kingdom that day. I look back in retrospect, I think, that was not a great strategy. That was not really a good way to do it. I’m not sending you out to the corner of 26th and 14th passing out flowers. I’m talking to you. I want you to talk to people in the context of relationship, or if you happen to be in a setting where a spiritual conversation develops, I want o you to be ready to take advantage of that whether it’s in an airplane or in a line or whether it’s somebody you work with or go to school with or play games with. Be ready. What I’m saying to you today is you need to be soil testers. You need to use discernment. Is this a person who is receptive to the Message? Is this good soil? Will this bear fruit? If the answer to that question is yes, then I’m saying you’ve got no excuse not to plant that seed. Plant the seed, or you water the seed. That’s all I’m saying. It should not be threatening to you. This should happen in the normal course and flow of life. Be looking for opportunities and praying for opportunities to engage in these kinds of conversations. I love the way that Gabe Lyons put that – “It’s not that I have all the answers. I’m not coming in here trying to convert you. I’m just coming as one seeker talking to another seeker.”
Let’s pray… Father, this example today that we see of our Lord and Herod, we see him demonstrating that principle. Herod was not a person who wanted to change. Herod was not a person who wanted truth. For Herod, Jesus was a side show, entertainment. Jesus perceived that. He used discernment. He refused to answer. There was a time when Paul tried his best to reach a group that wanted nothing to do with his message, and with sorrow and sadness Paul left. Lord, we have to use discernment as we share your truth. I pray that this message would help us to do just that very thing. Now as we turn our attention to the communion that we are about to receive, we think of you who was the first seed, that you planted yourself. We are your harvest, we are your fruit, and we are mindful of so many others who need to know the truth of the Gospel. You’ve called us to lay ourselves down. You’ve called us to come and die as well that we might plant ourselves, that others might come to know you. Lord, as we receive of this communion we pray that we will participate in the body of Christ, in the body of the church, in our remembrance now of your great sacrifice. In Jesus name we pray, amen.
January 19 Jeff Williams Bursting Your Bubble, Part 2
Good morning! Let’s do our homework first. Let’s get that over with. I know you've been studying hard all week 1Peter 3:15. You're excited. I can just see it in your face. You’re excited to show me what you've learned. Let's go ahead and put that on the board and say it. A couple of words are missing. Say it out loud.
But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect 1 Peter 3:15
So every week we're going to have a few more words go away, and then in the last week we're just going to put up the reference and that's it. You're going to have to just know it and say it. If we have any first time visitors that week they're going to be so impressed with you. They're going to go, "Wow, what a church! Just put up the reference and they know the verse."
I’ve shared with you in the past about my background and my home, growing up in Rockford, the son of a first generation Swedish immigrant. As would often happen when you were an immigrant, you would come over to America you'd get the lowest paying job. So he got a factory job making very little. When I was almost five, my dad passed away. That left my mom who had to drop out of school during the depression to help the family. She didn't have a job that paid very well. I grew up pretty far below the poverty line. Our family never owned a home; most of the time never drove a car. We had to rely on other agencies for food and clothing oft times. I grew up in a four-family flat and lived there basically my whole life until I went to school. It wasn't anything to look at, still isn't. It's still there and it was old when I was a little boy.
There's a woman there, my neighbor upstairs, who lived there before I was born and still lives there today. She's lived in that apartment for fifty-five years. She's now eighty-seven years old and her husband just passed away. I've known them all my life. I visited her this week and just went to talk with her, talking to her and crying with her and praying with her.
I left the apartment and went downstairs. I have not looked in our apartment (which is downstairs and across the way) in sixteen years. I bent down and I looked inside that window where so many years of my life were lived and was just hit with a flood of memories. I saw my bedroom. I envisioned myself as a little boy playing games in there. My mom and my sister., just a flood of memories coming back. As I looked around that space, which would look like nothing to you and no place certainly you'd want to be. By the way the apartment was empty. It's waiting for renters. I’m not being a peeping Tom. Nobody's in there. I'm looking in there and you know what came out of my mouth? It was one word: home. It's what I said. I didn't plan on saying that. I didn't know I was going to say that. I just looked inside for a while and just went, “Home.” I wasn't trying to make a sermon illustration. It was just how I felt.
What's home to you? What does that mean to you? To me, home is the place where you feel like you belong, the place where you feel loved. It's the place that you wish you were, or you'd like to return to if you're not there. It's a place that you're fond of and there are memories there. It's home. It's where you feel comfortable. It's where you felt unconditional love.
I thought, also, about a gentleman. I read about a Japanese war hero who just passed away this week. Did you read about Hiroo Onoda? He's a Japanese soldier who was dropped down in the western Philippines in 1944 and his mission was to spy on the Americans. So he would. His mission was: don't surrender and don't die. You're not like a kamikaze who's going to give his life up. Your job is to stay alive, gather intelligence, and help us win this war. Well, when the war was won and Japan surrendered, he didn't believe it. He thought it was all propaganda from the West. It was a big conspiracy theory. So he stayed in the jungle and fought. For 30 years Hiroo lived in the jungle and fought a war that nobody was fighting anymore. For thirty years he scavenged for food trying to survive, trying to avoid the enemy. He tried to be a faithful soldier. He even took some lives of some people who he thought were from the enemy. They would drop down leaflets into the jungle and when Hiroo would read them he would say they were a lie, it was propaganda, it was a conspiracy. He thought they were just tricks to tell him the war had ended when it really had not. So he would continue to hide. It wasn't until his commander in chief put on his military garb, flew to the Philippines, walked into the jungle until he found him and said, “Hiroo, the war is over. Surrender your sword with honor and come home.” And he did. When his commander-in-chief came in there and told him the war was over that's the only time he believed it. So he surrendered his sword and bowed in respect and came home to a hero's welcome. For 30 years he fought the war.
You know that really sums up the Gospel. The Gospel is this: the war is over, surrender, and come home. That's the Gospel. God is not mad at you. We know people who will run from God their whole lives. They avoid church like the plague, and you will hear them say, if you invite them to church, “I don't want to go because the roof's going to fall in. If God ever gets a hold of me he's going to teach me a thing or two because I know I’ve done some bad things. If God ever gets my tail I'm in big trouble.” So they try to avoid God. They are fighting a war that's not there. God is not their enemy. God is not there to put his wrath on them. His wrath went upon his Son. What God is offering is grace and forgiveness and restoration. They don't know that. They don't understand that so they continue to run and hide. But the mission of the Gospel is to share that good news that you're not God's enemy and you need to surrender and you need to come home. Home needs to be a different place for you. Home needs to be not here on this earth but where God is and where the people of God are. So those are our orders. That's a tall order.
Let's look and see how Jesus approached that. Let's take a look and see him interacting with the woman at the well in John chapter four. You want to talk about bursting bubbles that we saw on that video? Jesus is going to burst a lot of bubbles here in this passage, alright? A lot of comfort zone breaking here. I'm going to begin reading with verse four, and in a little while I’m going to engage you in the reading as well. You're going to have to come out of your comfort zone a little bit this morning.
It says, 4Now he had to go through Samaria. 5So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
So it's noon. The day is getting hot. Jesus is thirsty. He sits down by the well. Now here is where I'd like you to join in. I'm going to be the narrator. Anything that's not dialog, I will read. Men, you get to be Jesus. You'll say the words of Jesus. Ladies, you will say the words of the woman at the well. Anything in parenthesis I will read, okay? You will read dialog; I will do the narration. Are you ready? Are you coming out of your comfort zone? Alright, let's go.
7When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8(His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
9The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
10Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
11“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
13Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
15The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
16He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”
17“I have no husband,” she replied.
Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”
19“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
Okay, we're going to stop there for a second. We're going to read on through verse thirty eventually, but we'll stop right there. Here's what's going on in the story. Here are the barriers that are being broken down: racial, cultural, religious, and gender. First of all, Jesus is a Jew and she is a Samaritan. A Samaritan was a person who was half Jew half Gentile, so there were racial prejudices between the two. The Jews really looked down on the Samaritans as second class. They were a reminder of what you were not supposed to do. You were not supposed to intermarry, intermix, with the other tribes and countries. That was a violation, so they are a reminder. They [the Jews] had a hatred, a visceral hatred, for the Samaritans. If somebody hates you, usually your response is you don't like them so much either. So there was hostility and tension between the two races.
There was religious hostility. Judaism wanted to be really pure, but the Samaritans had a melting pot of religions, a synchronistic melting pot, an amalgamation of different faiths that they had adopted. So they [Jews] looked at them as religiously impure. For Jesus to start a dialog with somebody of this other race and religion was taboo. What's more, to do that as a male, you didn't talk to a woman who was by herself. You just didn't do that, especially if you were a rabbi. You would avoid that woman. You wouldn't even make eye contact, and she wasn’t even allowed to speak to you. But Jesus starts a dialog, very out of the box.
Jesus is certainly putting her outside her comfort zone, I guarantee you that. She knows what he's doing is very outside the box, and she's going to tell him that. She's not comfortable with this dialog. Then Jesus starts to get personal, doesn't he? He starts divulging things about her past that there's no way he could know. You've had five wives... wait a second now, that's a different story. [laughter] You've had five husbands, and the man you're living with now is not your husband. Now those are impressive numbers. To be on husband-to-be number six. Those are Zsa Zsa Gabor numbers. [laughter] Only old people laugh at that joke. So if you laugh, not naming names, Jody. But anyway, that's a lot of spouses! Especially back in the day, if you had that many spouses, man! I mean, she's probably coming to the water to drink alone because she's an outcast. You normally would come in the morning; you'd come as a group and get all your water for the day's chores. She comes at a strange hour. She comes by herself. That's probably not a coincidence.
As soon as Jesus starts to probe into personal matters, what does she do? Does she engage in that subject? “Well, you're right. I have had five husbands. Here's what happened…” No, what does she do? She changes the subject. She starts talking about the mountain. “You know this mountain, we worship over here. Where do you guys worship?” Just total avoidance of the question. That's not uncommon. People are used to talking about the weather, or have you seen this movie?, or have you gone out to eat at that new restaurant? But if you start talking about substantive matters, don't be surprised when the person changes the subject. Don't be surprised if they avoid that because they think you're getting a little too personal. Jesus is so skilled that he softly addresses her concern or question and then brings it right back around. Let's continue reading. Let's start with verse 23...
23Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
25The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
26Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”
27Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”
28Then, leaving her water jar,
...and that is significant. It seems like a detail, like, John, why did you tell us that? Who in the world cares that she left her water jar. How in the world is that important to the story? That's huge! That's the reason she was there, right? The reason she was there was to draw water. Now what has happened is that represents a shift in her thinking. She was consumed with self, with the here and now, with the stuff of earth, and all of a sudden that doesn't even matter. She is now consumed with the things of heaven, with new life, with the news of the Savior. So, the water jar? The task that she had to do? That doesn't matter anymore. Something more important is here. Leaving the water jar, that's significant.
the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29“Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” 30They came out of the town and made their way toward him.
Revival is going to take place in this town through her. We might find, as a church, that it's the person you bring to the Lord who's going to do more good for the Kingdom than you do, and that's okay.
So what’s interesting in this story, to me, is when she says, “He told me everything I've ever done,” and she's excited about it. Don't you find that a little odd? “He told me everything I've ever done. Come and hear. Come and meet him.” If I said to you this morning, you came into church, and I said, “Now I can't tell you how we did this, but we've managed to capture, on video, everything you've ever done, and we're going to show it to the church this morning.” You'd be like - zoom! You're gone, right? You might even leave town, I don't know. But that's not fun for you. That's not something you're like, “Oh good, let me get some popcorn. I want to see that!” Because everybody in this room has done things that we don't want to share with the public. Hey, I'm embarrassed by that or I'm ashamed of that or that wasn't too good, right? But she said, “Everything I've ever done. He knows all about who I am and he knows about my past,” and yet, when she shares it, she's joyful about it, excited about it.
Read between the lines. What was the message that Jesus was sharing with her? We get some of the dialog, but we don't get all of it. What was he sharing? You know what he's sharing? “The war's over. Surrender. Come home. God's not mad at you. I mean, I know you walk around in shame and in guilt and I know people ostracize you. I know they reject you. I know they judge you, but you know what? God's not mad at you. God loves you. God is going to give. I'm the Messiah and I'm here today.”
She's no head of state. She's no rich powerful person. There's nothing she could do for him, but Jesus had an appointment with her that day. What does that say about our worth and our value? “The war's over. You've been running and hiding. You've been trying to find intimacy in all these relationships and it hasn't worked. You go from man to man to man to man to man and you can't find what you're looking for so you keep looking, and you'll never find it. You know why? Because it's only found in God. So surrender. Your way's not working. Come home. Come into the Father's Kingdom. Find a Father who loves you. Find the love you've been looking for your whole life. Come home to God.”
That's the message of the Gospel. That's what Jesus was sharing with her. That's why she's so excited to tell her friends. If he had been judgmental towards her and condescending, would she go home and say to everybody enthusiastically and excitedly, “Come and meet a man who knows everything I ever did and treated me like dirt! Come and meet him, come and hear him!”? The place for the lecture would be right here where he says, “Right you are! The man you are living with is not your husband. You've had five husbands and the man you're living with now is not your husband.” Insert religious lecture right there. That's where you put it. But it's not there.
You know the biggest problem with Christianity? Christians. The biggest obstacle for people coming to Christ is not Christ. It's not what he said. It's not what he did. Most people have no clue what he really said and did. It's Christians. We think somebody has sin in their life it's our business to lecture them and preach at them and let them know why we are so much more superior than they are. That kind of an attitude, that kind of approach just drives a wedge, and people do not respond to that. But all the dirt is there. The dirty laundry is all out in the open and yet Jesus still loves her. You know what your job is if somebody tells you about their past, their difficulties, their lifestyle? You know what your job is? It's to listen. It’s not to preach. As they come to the Lord, the Holy Spirit and his Word will begin to work in their life and cleanse them. It's not your job, okay?
I was playing basketball at the Club recently and one of my buddies was having a hard time. He was getting fouled a lot, and he was calling foul and the game was really intense. I hadn't gone on my dunking spree yet, where I take over the game and start doing monster slam dunks. I hadn't done that. Actually, I've never done that, but anyway. It was back and forth really intense and there was, “Aw, I didn't foul you! Come on, I didn't touch you!” He stops and he gives a speech right there on the basketball court.
He says to the guy, “Can you get in my skin? Could you come inside of my body and feel what I feel? Do you feel the sensation in my right arm right now from where you fouled me? Can you feel what my right arm feels right now?” He pauses for effect. “If you can't get in my skin and you can't tell me what I feel then don't think you can call fouls for me.”
Claps. Speech, great speech.
But I agreed with him actually, because I've felt that way. When somebody fouled you and you call a foul and they say, “Well, I didn't foul you.” How do you know you didn't foul me? You don't know. You're not me. You can't get in my skin, exactly. When you encounter these seekers or these people who are non-believers and they live a lifestyle that you don't approve of and you know the Bible doesn't approve of, your job is not to judge them because you can't get in their skin. You don't know how they live. You don't know what their past, their background was, and you don't know how you would have lived had you grown up in their surroundings and had their parents or lack thereof. You might have been worse than they are. You have no idea. Your job is to listen to, support, and guide them. This whole idea of Christians acting in superiority, in a condescending manner, is so diametrically opposed to what Scripture says. It says you are to do so in gentleness and respect. One person has said that evangelism is one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread. You've got nothing to boast about, okay?
Jesus comes and he just says, “Look, I know you've had a difficult past, but God loves you. You don't need to hide from him. You don't need to run from him. You don't need to go from relationship to relationship. Surrender and come home.” It's the Gospel.
I think another powerful point in this story is that God will use you in the here and the now and the everyday circumstances and events of this life. It's great that we have a team in the Dominican Republic, but you don’t have to get on a plane and fly to a different country to be used by God. Your mission field is right as you leave this parking lot. God can use you in your workplace, in your neighborhood, in your school, your home. You see? If you'd be willing to pray a dangerous prayer and say, “God, use me. God, I'm willing to come out of my comfort zone. Please open doors of opportunity for me to share my faith.” If you'll pray that risky prayer, that out of the “bursting your bubble” prayer God will put you in those situations.
One of our members forwarded me a story about a young preacher in 1960 in Texas. It was going to be his first church, one of his first sermons. It was Easter time, so he really worked hard to get the theological masterpiece together. You know, lots a big words and impressive sermon to let them know they hired the right guy. The night before, he was taking somebody home from the congregation. He dropped them off and he got lost because he didn’t know the roads. Now remember, 1960. There's no GPS, okay? Places aren't open late at night like they are now. Gas stations weren't open 24 hours like they are now. No GPS, no cell phones, right? You can't call his wife, can't call anybody else. He's just driving around hoping he can figure it out.
He doesn't figure it out. He runs out of gas. So now, he's got to get out of his car and just start walking. He starts walking down this dusty dirt road out in the country in Texas. There’s nothing around there. He finally sees, in the distance, a glow. He describes it as a glow. He walks towards it, and it gets brighter and brighter. As he gets closer, he hears music coming out, loud music. He finally realizes, as he gets closer, that it’s a Texas roadhouse. I don’t mean the chain where you get steak. [laughter] What time is it? We could end right now. Cinnamon butter, boy, that's...woo! Before you get me distracted, I’ll get back to my story. That’s good stuff! It's hot. Oh man! It's Texas roadhouse, but it's the kind of roadhouse where they're in there drinking hard alcohol. There are gangs in there and people are drunk and doing the things you do at a Texas roadhouse. They’ve got a bad reputation, roadhouses do. So, here's this preacher, he doesn't fit the mode. He comes walking into this bar and everybody looks at him like, who are you and what do you want?
One of the guys says, “Hey, there's fresh meat. Maybe we can get some money off of this guy. Hey new guy, come over here and play some pool. You play pool?”
“Oh, me? I haven’t played since high school, but okay. Maybe God has me here for a reason, so okay.” The preacher starts playing a game of pool. He breaks, and he knocks a ball in. They're playing eight ball, so he gets to knock another one.
The preacher said it was like God was guiding his pool cue. He ran the table. He knocked in all of his balls, and then he knocked in the eight ball. They’re like, “Oh, you’re a shark, huh?” They’re laughing. “You came in here to take all our money, huh? You’re a shark.”
He says, “Nah, I’m no shark.”
“Well, who are you? What are you doing here? We've never seen you before.”
“Well, I’ll tell you who I am. I’m a preacher here in Texas. I’m brand new. I’m at the church over here. I got lost and I ran out of gas. I saw this light in the road and I thought maybe there'd be somebody here who could give me a ride. I've got to get back home. I've got to finish preparing for Easter.”
One of the guys listening says, “What's Easter?”
The guy next to him goes, “Everybody knows what Easter is.”
He says, “Well, I don’t. I’ve never been to church before,” and he says, “What's Easter preacher?”
Now the preacher's got an instant congregation. He’s got all these guys leaning on their pool cues half drunk or stoned. He’s looking at them, and he's got his congregation. He's like, “I don’t think I can use my sermon for tomorrow morning with this crowd.” So he changes it a little.
“Well, there was this dude named Jesus and he had a gang of twelve. He roamed the countryside doing good things, helping people. But the authorities didn't like him and they wanted to get him, so they convinced one of his gang to rat him out. He ratted him out for money. They took Jesus, and they beat him, and they put him on a cross, and they killed him. But God brought him back to life. God said that anybody who believed in his Son could have everlasting life. And that's the story of Easter. I’m giving you a real quick rundown here. He said a little bit more than that. That’s Easter.
“Huh, never heard that before. Well, thank you Shark. Let's get you home.”
So he hopped on the back of a motorcycle. They drove off and took him back, said goodbye. He didn’t know if he'd ever see the guys again. He shows up for church Sunday morning. The service was about to start and you hear the sound of rumbling motorcycles outside. Seven big burly guys in leather jackets come walking into the church.
Usher’s like, “Can I help you?”
The leader goes, “We're just here to hear the shark tell the story of Easter again.”
Sat down and listened. Hey, God will do that. God will break your bubble. He’ll put you in those “out of the comfort zone” situations. Next thing you know he's got a congregation full of bikers from the Texas roadhouse. Do you want to take that risk? Do you want to be used by God or do you want to stay in your bubble? Well, I kind of like my world the way it is. I don’t want anything to burst it.
I've got to stop and we'll continue on next week. Let’s pray.
Father, thank you for this important story of the woman at the well and for giving us a model of how we can interact, even in everyday conversations, about everyday things like drawing water and how you're able to turn that conversation into a spiritual conversation. How you're able to take a person who wanted to avoid talking about what was uncomfortable and gently bring that back around. How you listened to her and how you did not judge her, but you offered her forgiveness. The message that the war was over, to surrender, that your way hasn't worked, and come home. To find unconditional love through your Gospel. That is what you've called us to say. That’s what you've called us to demonstrate. Help us to do that, I pray. In Jesus name, amen.
Are you ready to break the silence, go beyond your relational circle and demonstrate unconditional love?
Our church is on a focus for 2014: E1R1, “Each One, Reach One”. We have as a theme verse 2 Timothy 2:2. We’ve been examining that verse, and we’ve been spending time breaking it down. We talked about, he says, “The things you’ve heard.” The things. What are those things? The things are, we explained, the Gospel and the paradoxes of the Kingdom. Paul says, “The things you’ve heard me say.” That’s shorthand for the Gospel. We explain the Gospel as a series of paradoxes where we must die to live, where we must serve to be great, where we must give to gain. All of those paradoxes that we looked at. The next part of that verse is that we’re to entrust these things. Entrust these things. The word entrust means to deposit, to give something important for someone to hold on to. So, this “Ready, Set, Go” is about the entrust. What are the action steps that we have to take to entrust the Gospel, to entrust these things to others? We’ve got a key verse for this series “Ready, Set, Go”, right? “Ready, Set, Go” should be something we can remember because it is a very familiar expression to us. If you’re lining up for a race it brings back memories of a kid and racing your friends. You stand on the mark and somebody says, “Ready, set, go!” Or arm wrestling my dad, trying to beat him when I’m a teenager: ready, set, go! You know? It’s that time when “ready”: you get on line, you get in place, mentally and physically you’re ready. “Set” is that momentary pause before action takes place. Then you go. You spring forward. You act upon whatever the goal is. In our case, it’s to touch people. So, ready, set, go. To effectively mobilize our church to reach those who don’t know the Lord. That’s what we want to do. 1 Peter 3:15, let’s put that up. We’re going to memorize this together as a church, alright? We’re going to say it out loud a couple times through. Next week some of the words are going to go away. The goal is by the end of “Ready, Set, Go” all I have to do is put 1 Peter 3:15 up and you’re going to be able to say it, okay? So practice it at home, read it at home, learn it, memorize it. Now it’s easy because we get to read it. But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to anyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect 1 Peter 3:15 One more time. But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to anyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect 1 Peter 3:15 So, three action steps. What I’m going to do is overview the series today. Each of the points I’m making in the overview, I’m going to elaborate on in subsequent weeks. But I want to present an overview of “Ready, Set, Go”. And we’ll help you to do each of these action steps as the weeks progress. Let’s open our Bibles up to Luke 3. Let’s begin reading with the second part of verse 2 in Luke 3. Luke 3:2b-7 The word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the desert. 3 He went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 4 As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet: “A voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him. 5 Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low. The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth. 6 And all mankind will see God’s salvation.’” 7 John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers!” John subsequently wrote a book about how to win friends and influence people. [laughter] “Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?” I read that extra verse because John’s gospel is being preached in a very primitive form. What I mean by that is, at this point, all John really understands is repentance and that wrath is coming. The Messiah is coming after me, his winnowing fork is in his hand. He’s going to separate the wheat from the chaff. The wheat he’s going to gather; the chaff he’s going to burn. And boy, you’d better get your life together. You’d better get your act straight because when he comes, wrath is coming with him. That was the message of John. That was being understood by his audience because that’s all they knew. See, they grew up with the law, in the law it’s an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, you reap what you sow. The idea of reaping what you sow was already prevalent in society. Also in the eastern culture, the rise of Buddhism, which would have already been on the scene for four to six hundred years, the idea of karma, right? You reap what you sow. The Buddhists would teach that you’re going to either reap it in this life or the next life, but you’re going to reap what you sow. It’s the idea of karma, the idea of reaping what you’ve sown. It’s what John knew and it’s what his audience would know. John didn’t fully understand what you and I know about the Gospel. The paradoxes of the Kingdom, he didn’t understand. What do I mean by that? Jesus comes on the scene and he does not act like John thinks the Messiah is supposed to act. Jesus comes on the scene and doesn’t do anything with the military; he doesn’t do anything political. He doesn’t lead any kind of opposition against Rome. He doesn’t seek to establish any kind of material throne in Jerusalem. He’s not preaching conquest and deliverance. Instead, he goes about healing and doing good and helping the oppressed and hanging around, quite frankly, with a pretty rough crowd, talking about God’s love, and talking about a new concept: grace - man does not reap what he sows. God is going to do for man something different, something wonderful. God is going to enable man, through Christ, to reap what he has not sown. Jesus is going to die so we can live. Jesus is going to serve. Jesus did not come to be served; he’s come to serve. God’s wrath is coming, but it’s not coming on people, it’s coming on Jesus. The wrath of God is going to be placed on Jesus at the cross. God is going to extend to us pardon, mercy, and grace. John doesn’t understand this message. That’s why when John is in prison, Matthew lovingly writes a letter to Jesus. What does he say? He asks a question, “Are you the One, or should we look for somebody else? Did I get it wrong? When I baptized you I thought you were the One. Did I mess up?” John really wants to know. He’s not being sarcastic. He’s not trying to be rude in any way. He simply wants to know. Because he’s not acting and doing what Messiah is supposed to do. Jesus comes and he brings, not wrath, but God’s grace. So, you and I now, become agents of that grace. There are a lot of people you and I know who are running from God and hiding from God and avoiding God at all costs because they think, “If God ever gets a hold of me, he’s going to smite me!” to quote an Old Testament word. He’ll strike them down. He’s going to punish them. So they avoid God; they avoid church; they avoid Christians. They don’t understand grace. So it’s our job to help them to understand what Christ has done. But we have to take these action steps. All three of these action steps have to be taken by you otherwise this isn’t going to happen for you. Let’s look together at what Isaiah is writing. Isaiah looks into the future hundreds of years, out of the desert of all places. Out of the desert is going to come a thriving ministry that will change the world. You wouldn’t think you’d go to a desert. Now we’ve got Arizona, and we’ve got Nevada, and Vegas is there, and Phoenix, and we see big cities in the desert. But in Bible times? That’s where scorpions and snakes live. That’s where cactus grows. That’s nowhere you want to be. If you want to start a thriving ministry you don’t go, “Hey, let’s go to the desert.” That’s not where you want to go. You want to go where the people are. And the wilderness? The desert? That’s not where people are. So it’s very peculiar that Isaiah would write and say that this voice that’s going to break the silence is going to come in the desert. That’s exactly what happens. From the desert comes a voice. Breaking the 400 years of silence, John begins to proclaim the Gospel, in a primitive form nonetheless, but he begins to proclaim the Gospel. First, to entrust the Gospel we must break our silence. At some point you have to speak. I’m pretty confident that most everybody here has a voice. I’m pretty confident that a lot of you who have voices have a faith. And I’m also confident that many of you who have voices and a faith have never articulated that faith very much outside of church, outside of small group, outside of circles where it’s easy to talk about our faith. But when we go into the work place? When we go into our schools? When we go into the other places where we gather and spend time? We become silent. We have to break the silence. We have to be a voice. That’s how Isaiah describes John, a voice. You know, to be a voice for the Lord you don’t have to have a degree. You don’t have to be a theologian, or a scholar, or a pastor, or a missionary. You simply have to have a voice, and be willing, and have an opportunity. God can use anybody.
I was on an airplane ride recently, and I was a little bit bummed because I had missed my flight and the airport was so crowded I didn’t get through security in time. So I said, “Rather than get upset because I’m on standby, maybe the Lord has somebody he wants me to talk to. So, I’ll just roll with it.” So I’m on standby, and I didn’t get the next flight. The next flight I get the last seat on the plane. As I’m flying, I started a nice conversation with a couple by the name of Rachel and Mark who may be listening to this. So I have to be nice. They were very nice. From the East Coast. They had a wonderful British accent. You know British accents. They’re fun to talk to and everything they say sounds very interesting, sounds very intelligent, just because of the accent in which they say it. And so we’re engaged in this conversation and we start out with small talk and eventually we started talking about church. A couple times they referenced “our church”. I said, “Tell me about your church. It sounds like you go to church. What church do you go to?”
He said, “Well, let me tell this story. Every time I tell the story I get choked up, so I hope I don’t get choked up.”
I said, “That’s ok. Just tell me the story.”
He said, “Our daughter is nine years old. When she was about five, she was going to a Christian school at a church in our area, and I went to pick her up one day. My wife and I, we didn’t go to church, but we wanted her to be raised in faith. So I picked her up, and she’s showing us around the church. She takes us to these stained glass windows and she begins to tell us she spends a lot of time there. The windows tell stories. She could tell us, from looking at each stained glass window, what that story was out of the Bible and who those people were and the significance of that window. She went down and down and she got to the last window and she stopped at this window and she said, ‘God speaks to me a lot here, Dad.’”
As a dad I get choked up here too. She said, “God speaks to me a lot here, Dad.”
He’s like, “Umm. You know, she’s five years old and God is speaking to her. Alright, Sweetheart. Well, tell Daddy what God says.”
And she looks up at him and she says, “God says it’s time for you to come back to him.”
He felt something stirring in his spirit. He said, “That was four years ago. My wife and I, we don’t miss. We started going to that church.”
A voice. God can use a child. God can use you if you’re willing to be a voice. Notice where John was a voice. Where was John a voice? John was a voice in the wilderness.
Do you have any wilderness experiences? Some of you are students. You go to a Christian school. That’s great and wonderful, but maybe some of you don’t. Maybe you feel like you are a voice in the wilderness. Some of you, in your workplace. There’s a few of us in this room, Jesse, myself. We work in a church, so everybody on our staff is a Believer. We were giving Pastor Tim a hard time because he was trying to encourage somebody recently. He said, “I told the person at every job there’s always going to be those difficult people that are hard to get along with.”
And I said, “So who is that here for you, Tim?” [laughter]
We’re blessed here. Our coworkers are all wonderful. At our staff meeting we get along great and we just laugh and love each other. But we realize that some of you go into work environments that are pretty hostile. For some of you, to share your faith at your job is like a voice in the wilderness. People there don’t believe as you believe and your message is not as welcome or understood as it is here. And so you are a voice in the wilderness. Sadly, some of you are a voice in the wilderness in your own families, aren’t you? I’ve got some families or even some extended families where many in the family are not Christians. So for you to share your faith even in your family it’s like John speaking in the wilderness. But God says, be a voice. Just like that statue, I love that statue without hands. [Referring to a photograph shown during worship] We’re his voice as well. Are you willing to be the voice? Are you willing to let God speak through you? If you’re willing to let him speak through you, you don’t have to be a scholar. You could have known the Lord for one day. If you’re willing to share what he means to you, to share your story, God can use you.
Secondly, to entrust the gospel to others you must burst the relational bubble.
By the relational bubble, what I mean is this. When a person comes to the Lord, if they come to the Lord as a child that’s different, but if they come to the Lord as an adult or a teenager they have friends all around them who know the Lord. But what I’ve found is that the longer a person is a Christian and the more they become involved with their church, the circle of friends who don’t know the Lord gets smaller and smaller. And pretty soon, if we’re not careful, and I’m not talking about you’ve got to go to work and you rub shoulders here at work, and you’ve got to go to school and you rub shoulders there. I’m talking about on your free time when you do whatever you do to enjoy yourself. You go hunting, you go fishing, you go shopping, you go to a movie, you go to a ballgame, you go out to eat, you go out for coffee, whatever it is. What we find happening, pretty soon, is that Christians only associate with other Christians. And churches, especially mega-churches, are guilty of this. They organize Christian Zumba, Christian bingo, Christian bowling, Christian movie night, Christian this, Christian that. Everything we do is always and only with other Believers. How in the world are you going to accomplish that? You can’t. It’s impossible. You’ve got to burst the relational bubble. What was the number one criticism that was rendered to Jesus by his enemies? Those who disliked him and his ministry? Luke 15, first couple of verses. Let’s read those together. Luke 15:1-2 Now the tax collectors and “sinners” were all gathering around to hear Jesus. 2 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” This is the criticism of Jesus more than any others. The religious elite, the “godly” people of the day, were looking down on Jesus because he hangs around with tax collectors and sinners. Now tax collectors back then were not the beloved figures they are today. [laughter] Now everybody loves tax collectors. The loudest boos I ever heard in a baseball stadium were when they introduced the IRS gang that had visited the game that day. “Here’s our Girl Scouts, yay! Here’s our Boy Scouts, yay! And here’s the IRS, boo!” And it just wouldn’t stop. But back then it was even worse because they were Jews who were working for the Roman government. They could collect the tax and Rome says, “We want this amount,” and anything over and above that was theirs. People were greedy then like they are now and so they would just take money out of their own people’s pockets. Despised group. Think about it, I don’t know how tax collectors feel today when they read their Bibles. I’m sure there are some tax collectors who are Christians. There’s got to be, somewhere. How would you feel if your profession was singled out here? The nurses and sinners. Salesmen and sinners. Landscapers and sinners. Hey, come on! There it is. I can’t disguise it. Tax collectors get singled out. We don’t have any here so it’s okay. We’ve kicked them all out. [laughter] Sinners were this big group of anybody who wasn’t like them, anybody who didn’t go to synagogue. It could be beggars, it could be people with diseases, it could be the poor, it could be the people who just didn’t have faith. Anybody who wasn’t them was lumped into this category called sinners. The religious leadership looked down and said, “If Jesus wants to be somebody, if he wants to be famous, if he wants to be influential, he should be hanging with us, we’re the people who matter.” It made them question how legit he was. You look at the company and you get judged by the company you keep, right? Look at who he hangs out with. He welcomes them! He seems to enjoy it! He eats with them! The implication is that this is habitual with Jesus. This isn’t just some event. This is the way he lived his life. This was his lifestyle. Jesus spent time with others who followed God but he went out of his way to build relationships and friendships with those who didn’t know God. If we’re going to accomplish this objective in 2014 we have to be willing to burst relational bubbles. Like I said, all these action steps we’re going to talk about in detail. That’s one we’re going to hit pretty hard next week, so I’ll move on. Thirdly, if we’re going to entrust the gospel to others we must demonstrate unconditional love. It has to happen. You know why so many, there’s a lot of people who despise Christianity, Christians? You know why? Because what they experience form the church is judgment. They experience judgment. Not love, judgment. It says the people were coming to Jesus. Why did they come to Jesus? Was it because Jesus agreed with everything they were doing or saying? Not at all. If you watch Jesus’ interaction with Non-believers, he never condoned their lifestyle. He never said, “Hey, it’s okay! Do whatever you want. Wink, wink.” But he also, in speaking to them truth, he demonstrated unconditional love. And people are drawn to unconditional love. They know he’s a man of God. They know he doesn’t condone their actions or their lifestyle but they also knew it was demonstrated through his words and his actions that he loved them; he truly loved them. And people like to be with people who truly love them, who’ll listen to them even when they don’t agree with them. I’ve got a friend who’s a rock star. I’ve known him for years. I got to know him through a mutual hobby. I’m a geek. I’m a nerd. I like old comic books. I have since I was a little kid. My son calls me a nerd. You’re a nerd. You’re a geek, whatever. Because I like those. I think Spiderman’s cool. I think Batman’s cool. I like them all. So I meet my friend, and I find out he collects comic books, too. My son was in high school, he’s 24 now, but I found out this was his favorite band. I thought this was going to make an impression on him. He got to speak with him [the rock star] and he thought that was really cool. I sent him a picture of myself, two other guys, and this guy who’s in the rock band. He’s got Grammies, still sells concerts around the world, sells out. He’s rich, famous. I sent the picture to my son. I thought, now he’s going to be impressed. I said, “What do you think of Dad’s hobby now? What do you see in this picture, huh buddy?” He said, “I see three nerds and a rock star.” You can’t win! So, I spent some time with him [the rock star] recently. His lifestyle, to say the least, is extremely different from mine, okay? Very different from mine. He doesn’t do the drugs, he doesn’t do the alcohol, but the groupie stuff, yeah. Big time. So we’re talking and he says he’s got a woman that he’s interested in marrying. I said, “You know you’re going to have to change your lifestyle. You can’t keep living the way you’re living once you get married.” He said, “Oh no, I’m not going to change anything. You just don’t talk about it.” I said, “I don’t think that’s how it works.” So we got into a debate about monogamy and his culture and what was acceptable and what wasn’t acceptable. I didn’t just go, “Everything’s okay! Do what you want to do. God will accept you whatever you do.” I didn’t say that. I would share my objections with him. And I’d say, “Well, you can’t do that.” “Well, you’re a priest,” he says. “I keep telling you I’m not a priest!” [laughter] He’s calling me a priest. I’m not a priest. “Are you working out?” “Nah, I’m not working out anymore. I noticed a little bit of a paunch that I’ve seen. I found out the ladies still love me, so I don’t have to work out.” “It’s not about the ladies; it’s about your health.” “It’s not about the health. Everything’s about the ladies! I don’t have to work out anymore.” So, his idea of life is different from mine, but when we’re done conversing, “I’m going to see you in April. Hey, you and I are going to go out to eat.” “Okay, sounds good. Don’t go to the place we went last time; that was horrible.” “Yeah, we’re going to go someplace else.” I’ll see him in April. I’ll see him in August and we’ll hang out together. Why does he want to hang out with me? Our lifestyles couldn’t be more different. He doesn’t have a faith in God at all. He knows I love him. He knows I love him. He’s experienced from me unconditional love and because of that he wants to spend time with me. So we’re going to talk about that in this series. How’s that lived out. Unconditional love.
January 5, 2014 Gary Shields Spiritual Investments
Well, last week we finished the series on “Paradoxes of the Kingdom”. We learned things that are so typical of Christianity. It’s such a paradox, you know? We have to give to gain. We have to die to live and all those things. Then Pastor Jeff each time reminds us with a specific passage:
2 Timothy 2:2 NIV 2 And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men [and women by the way] who will also be qualified to teach others.
See, everything we learn here, God is entrusting us with this, to spread it out to teach others, to show others the way. We are being entrusted with the Gospel. And we’re called to go out and tell others about it. But today, since we’re making this transition from the “Paradoxes of the Kingdom” to next week starting “Ready, Set, Go” when Pastor Jeff will be back to start that series, we’ve got a little in between sermon time and, of course, it’s appropriate; it’s the new year. Today’s sermon is about making spiritual investments for the new year. Making spiritual investments for the new year.
I know, we all make our New Year’s resolutions. I gave up doing that, the New Year’s resolutions. I remember when I lived back on the East Coast we always make the world’s favorite New Year’s resolution that we’re going to lose weight and get into shape. Nobody here does that, right? I think in Wisconsin the resolution is to eat more cheese, drink more beer, and eat more brats. But in the East Coast it was, “Okay, we’re going to make a New Year’s resolution and get into shape.” East Coasters are very strong at the very beginning. In January, we’re regularly working out. February comes along and we’re still going good. But then the Girl Scouts come out with their evil Girl Scout cookies. Come on! Make it November or December when nobody cares! I think out here they do it in the fall instead which I thank them for, but on the East Coast I have the picture of the woman who’s in charge of distribution saying, “Oh, I don’t know. It’s so amazing! I just eat and eat and eat and I never gain any weight!” And we all want to take a bat to her of course. But New Years is a time to make resolutions.
It’s also a time, at least I’ve been told if you have money, people actually use this time to review their investments from the past year. You all know about that right? You look and see if your investments are paying off for you. You make some cold hard decisions on those investments. Well, I don’t have any of those investments, so I’m going to do the only thing I’ve got. I’ve got spiritual investments and I’m going to take a look at those and see how I’m investing them. God’s invested in me. Am I taking the opportunity he’s given me to invest in myself and in others?
We’re going to look today at Luke 19:11-27, page 1,040 in the pew Bibles. I thought this was so appropriate. It’s page 1040 and it’s a new year. Taxes. I know you don’t want to hear about taxes, but 1040 is very apropriate. Luke 19:11-27. This is an opportunity for us to look at our own spiritual investments. We’ll start in verse 11.
First, we have to go back to the previous passages, and in Luke 19 it’s the passage about Zacchaeus and Jesus inviting them over to Zacchaeus’ house. Zacchaeus makes all these declarations that now his life is changed and transformed, and he’s going to live for Jesus. Then Jesus makes some great statements and that’s where we come to:
Luke 19:11-27 NIV 11 While they were listening to this, he [Jesus] went on to tell them a parable, because he was near Jerusalem and the people thought that the kingdom of God was going to appear at once. 12 He said: “A man of noble birth went to a distant country to have himself appointed king and then to return.
Have you ever heard of that happening? A king goes off to a distant country to be appointed king. Isn’t that usually done in his own country? But you see, I found out something that in this passage culturally, at that time, this made a lot of sense. If you remember, the world was ruled by the Romans. In order to be appointed king or ruler of an area you had to go to a distant country, to Rome, and be appointed by Caesar, officially appointed. They didn’t send you a telegram and a certificate saying, “You are now king.” You had to actually go there and be appointed king. So in the culture, this makes a lot of sense. This would be something that they would understand. But it also alludes to our own Lord Jesus who went to heaven, a far, far, far distant country to be placed on the throne and at the right hand of God the Father to be declared King. And then it goes on in verse thirteen:
13” So he called ten of his servants and gave them ten minas.”
What’s a mina? I always thought it was somebody under the age of 18. (Laughter) I thank you for laughing, because at the 8 o’clock service they went, “Oh man!” So thank you for being generous and laughing at that one. Anyway,”he called ten of his servants and gave them ten minas,” which are about 3 month’s wages, just so we know.
‘Put this money to work,’ he said, ‘until I come back.’
So he is offering the servants an opportunity here. He’s offering an opportunity, giving them money, offering an opportunity to do something special with what he has given them. There’s an opportunity. Now it continues in verse fourteen:
14 “But his subjects hated him and sent a delegation after him to say, ‘We don’t want this man to be our king.’”
Now who has ever heard of that happening? But culturally it makes a lot of sense. To give you an example, Herod’s son Archelaus was to go to Rome to accept the kingship of a certain portion of Palestine, and fifty representatives of the top citizens of that area went to Rome and said, “Do not make this bonehead our king. He’s the worst! Don’t do it!” And Caesar listened to what they had to say and didn’t give him the kingship. Instead he called him an ethnarch. So he was a ruler over that ethnic area, so to speak. And it turned out he was a bonehead and a terrible ruler, and a few years later the delegation went back to Rome and said, “Look what this guy has done! He’s not serving you; he’s not serving us.” And they took his kingship away. Took his *ethnarchicism, or whatever it is, away from him. So once again, culturally, this passage makes a lot of sense. And it alludes to the fact that the Jews were rejecting Jesus as their Messiah. They had rejected him. But as we see in verse fifteen:
15 “He was made king, however, and returned home. Then he sent for the servants to whom he had given the money, in order to find out what they had gained with it.”
So he says, “Alright, I gave you an opportunity, now I want to hear, what did you do? I blessed you with an opportunity. Did you do something with it?”
16 “The first one came and said, ‘Sir, your mina has earned ten more.’ 17 “‘Well done, my good servant!’ his master replied. ‘Because you have been trustworthy in a very small matter, take charge of ten cities.’ 18 “The second came and said, ‘Sir, your mina has earned five more.’ 19 “His master answered, ‘You take charge of five cities.’”
So here, these servants took the opportunity that was given to them and used their talent to produce something special. And not knowing this, were in turn given blessings beyond compare. They took that opportunity, they used it, and they were blessed because of that. But of course, in the parables, there’s always another servant.
20 “Then another servant came and said, ‘Sir, here is your mina; I have kept it laid away in a piece of cloth. 21 I was afraid of you, because you are a hard man. You take out what you did not put in and reap what you did not sow.’”
Now first of all, what this guy is saying here about the master, we’ve already seen in the previous passage this isn’t true. He’s a very generous man who rewarded these other servants for their good service. So he does not reap what he did not sow. He took and gave even more to those servants because of their faithfulness.
22 “His master replied, ‘I will judge you by your own words, you wicked servant! You knew, did you, that I am a hard man, taking out what I did not put in, and reaping what I did not sow?”
As we know is not true of this master.
23 “Why then didn’t you put my money on deposit, so that when I came back, I could have collected it with interest?’”
He calls this servant on it. He says, “Dude, okay, if you think I’m such a hard guy, the least you could have done was to put the money in the bank and it would have collected a little interest. But no, instead you did nothing. You did not take advantage of this opportunity.” He blew it.
Now, these next couple of verses were very hard for me because they’re a hard saying. And I really struggled with preaching this. I wanted to just stop right where I was and be done with it, and we could talk about different things, but I couldn’t because there’s a lot to this, to these passages. But before we get to these passages I want to talk about those other two servants and how they invested.
See, those servants are an example to us that God calls us to invest in Jesus, invest in the Gospel. So how do we do that? Where do we invest? Well, we invest first in ourselves. We invest in ourselves by studying God’s Word, by prayer, because, from what I’m told when you do invest money, it’s very important to get to get to know who you’re investing in, to know that company or that person intimately. So you look at their investment portfolio and you get to know them fully and abundantly.
We have here [holds up Bible] what I would call the world’s greatest investment portfolio because when you invest in a company you want to see if they keep their promises. We know if we invest in Jesus and his Gospel he keeps his promises. Am I right? So we can take this investment portfolio and see that it sure as shootin’ is worth it to invest in Jesus, to invest in the Gospel, to invest in ourselves. It isn’t just a matter of understanding who Jesus is, but by studying God’s Word and by prayer it also strengthens us.
When you do your New Year’s resolution and determine that you’re going to work out more, have you ever noticed that when you stop working out you don’t get stronger anymore? And then because you’re not working out at all you get weaker and weaker? We can use this also, this investment portfolio, to give us strength for what we need to do if we’re going to invest in the other thing we need to be investing in, and that’s investing in others.
We know Jesus’ promises are real, so we invest in them. And if we invest in others, then we need to know how we can invest in them. What I see when I look at this Book is how I can strengthen my walk, strengthen my relationships. I think of Philippians 2:4 where it says “seek not just of your own interests but in the interests of others.” That idea of serving, thinking of others over yourself. Or Ephesians 4:29 which tells us, “Stop beating people down with your words and build them up.” It strengthens how I am as a Christian and it strengthens my relationships. Ephesians 5, guys! If you want to know a way of strengthening your relationship with your wife, love your wife like Christ loved the church. It’s not just that we get to know what we’re investing in, but it makes us stronger. It’s a twofold investment in ourselves.
And then I said the next investment is to invest in others. We are called to invest in others for the sake of showing them who Jesus is, and how vital that is. We have talents that can be utilized to do that. You know, Moses once said, “Lord, I can’t be the spokesperson because I can’t talk very well.” We may say, “Well, my talents are insignificant. But I know a lady who’s a member of this church who cannot physically get to church every Sunday. She physically can’t do it. If there was anybody who could consider themselves insignificant and without talent, it would be her. And yet, this woman is a marvelous prayer warrior. When you give prayer requests out to Branch of the Lord, she sends me back these prayers that just bring tears to my eyes. She’s praying for you all the time. She realizes that she is not insignificant. That she has an opportunity in some way to serve.
Then I have to go to these passages that I’ve been trying to avoid for this sermon as long as I could, but I’ve got to talk about them. I’ll tell you why I don’t want to talk about them. Well, first of all, because I love you guys and I don’t like to show you the hard stuff. I’m the shepherding pastor; I’m supposed to help you walk away from the hard stuff. Isn’t that what I’m supposed to do? I’m supposed to pick you up when you’re down. I don’t want to talk about things that can be harsh. But I also know if I love you enough I will interpret these passages for you. Trust me; I tried to find some interpretation. The nerd in me started rolling up his sleeves and I’m like, “There’s gotta be some scholar in here who gives me something nice to say about these passages that I could tell you people that everything’s okay and it’s all wonderful la-dee-da.” But it didn’t happen and I lost sleep over these passages because I’m like, how do I do this? So here we go:
24 “Then he said to those standing by, ‘Take his mina away from him and give it to the one who has ten minas.’ 25 “‘Sir,’ they said, ‘he already has ten!’ 26 “He replied, ‘I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but as for the one who has nothing, even what they have will be taken away.”
And then it concludes, which gives us evidence that this is a passage of Judgment Day.
27 “But those enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them—bring them here and kill them in front of me.’”
Now we know on Judgment Day that Jesus didn’t bring all the Unbelievers and say, “Ha, I want you to be killed in front of me!” We do know that God gives us what we want. If we don’t want to have a life with Jesus, with God, and a relationship, He’ll give us what we want for eternity. We won’t have God for eternity.
But in these other passages there’s two trains of thought by biblical scholars that are very hard, and they pain me a great deal to tell you. The first is that since this is a Judgment Day passage is that in essence by “even what they have will be taken away” some scholars say that this is similar to when Jesus in the gospels says, “You cry out to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ yet I never knew you.” They’re saying that you have to question, if you’re not taking those talents and using them for the Kingdom, you have to question whether you truly believe in Jesus. Now you know why it was so hard for me to even review these passages.
And the other interpretation was a little bit better. It’s one of those interpretations where, okay, you got in the door of Heaven, you’re in, you’re good, but the Bible talks about rewards in Heaven. I don’t know what they are; I figure we’ll find that out when we get there. I’m hoping I can get one or two at least. But you’re through the door, but you’re not going to receive any rewards. And I would say we don’t receive rewards on earth when we don’t do God’s business as well.
So to explain this parable I’m going to tell you another parable to help us understand this, to soften the blow a little bit. This is a parable about Ruth. It’s actually not a parable; it’s a true story about a friend of mine, Ruth. The home church that I came from back in New Jersey, in two years, almost doubled in size. A spark caught, the Holy Spirit was moving, the church almost doubled. Remember last week when I showed you that film of the people coming to Christ, and I told you I’ve seen it; it can happen? I’ve seen it! It can happen! Man, I remember the ((???)) guys were dropping like flies. It was awesome to witness. It doubled in size. Now I’m not talking a church of 20 that doubled to 40, or a church of 40 that doubled to 80, or even a church of 60 that doubled to 120. I’m talking about a church of 900 that almost doubled to 1700 in two years time! That church wasn’t nearly as cool as this church. This was a Presbyterian church. Everybody wore a suit and tie and all that other stuff. In fact, it was so traditional that the elders would usher in the Bible at the beginning of the service. It was ϋber-traditional. But it served the mission field where they were at.
Now Ruth was a member of the staff of that church that doubled. She was asked to help out at another church just down the road, a church I knew well. Why? Because I grew up in that church. My parents were members of that church. It was a dying church. It had been dying for 50-60 years now. And Ruth was asked to help this church out, so she called them to a meeting to which 10 people from the church showed up, about half the membership. She had $100. She didn’t make a lot of money, but she had $100 and she decided she wanted to make an investment in this church. So she prayed about it and what she decided was to each person she would give a $10 bill and say, “I want you to take this $10 and build the Kingdom. Use your talents to build the Kingdom.” She even gave them some ideas. If you know how to bake, then do some baked goods and make some more money that we can put into the mission. Take this and double it, triple it, quadruple it. If you’ve got this then try this talent to build the Kingdom.
Her reaction? The reaction of the people was (I know this because my mother and father were two of the ten people) was, “How dare she tell us how we do our church!” And I’ll never forget because we used to go to my mom and dad’s on Sunday for dinner, and I could hear them in the other room talking about their meeting with Ruth and saying, “She has a lot of nerve to tell us… you know… but, but, but,” until of course I crossed through that threshold and everything went “zip” complete silence. I wanted to do one of those things and pull back and let them talk, go in again and see if they get silent again, back and forth. They knew not to talk about it in front of us because they knew what we were going to say. Their reaction was to reject this opportunity she had given because she did it for this reason: to see if it would create a spark in somebody and then that spark could become a fire and the Holy Spirit would move in the church and the church would just explode. But they didn’t; they rejected it. And they went back to the usual, same number of members. I know each and every one of them. I grew up with them. They had their potluck suppers and went along the way they always were. Then one person passed away, they shrunk a little bit. Another person passed away and another and they shrunk and they shrunk and the church began to fade away, to fade away. I interviewed with a church in green bay that went from 500 members to 50 because they didn’t take the opportunity. So is it worth it? Is it worth it to invest in people like this?
I want to show you a video today and I want you to ask, do you think these people were worth investing in? You see, somebody thought those people were worth investing in. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sI06SIFHpw
I gotta tell you, people like that are right outside those doors. They’re living next door to you; they work with you; they’re that person sitting alone at the coffee shop; they may even be in your own house. There’s some videos that show them when they met Christ for the first time and then after they met Christ. I’d love to show them to you but then I realized, no. I don’t want you to see it on a video. I want you to live that – by taking this opportunity and using your talents to reach people for Christ – for each one to reach one – so that you can live what it looks like to see somebody whose life is transformed. What a blessing that is. That’s worth much more than ten cities or five cities. It’s a blessing beyond compare, and I happen to think that your talents are worth a heck of a lot more than $10. We’ve been given the opportunity to use our talents to build God’s Kingdom. Let’s pray:
Father, you’ve given us some hard words today, but we know you are a God of second chances. We have that opportunity. We always have that opportunity to utilize our talents, to further your Kingdom, to be able to invest in others, to serve them, and show them that Jesus loves them. And today, Lord, as we celebrate communion, this mere foretaste of the heavenly banquet to come, we ask that you will bless the bread and the cup and that you will bless us in this communion service. In Jesus name we pray, amen.
Series: NOT A FAN Whatever. What About That? What has or is God calling you to do and are you on that road?
10/20/2013 FCC Pastor Jeff Williams
I would like you to open bibles up to Luke Chapter 9. While you’re finding that. There used to be a singer named Meat Loaf. I kid you not. That was his name. He had a song that was very popular. That had one very confusing lyric in it. We’re gonna play for you right now. What’s up with that? I’ll do anything, just not that. Then Meatloaf just loved to hang. He never told us what that was he won’t do. So we speculate maybe Meat would take that to his grave. I don’t know. Well it’s a little bit frustrating to say that, I’ll do anything but not that. WHAT? What won’t you do? I prayed a prayer much like that at 17. I just became a Christian. I was volunteering in my local church, working with children, working with junior high. People began to say to me, Hi maybe you should go to a ministry. Maybe you should be a pastor, or a preacher. And so one day I’m having my devotion, 17 years old. Just out of high school, I went to get a frozen yogurt. And I was reading the bible and was praying. Before I read the bible, I said, Lord, I’ll do anything you want me to do. I’ll go anywhere you want me to go. I’ll be anything you want me to be. But I don’t want to be a pastor. That was my. That was what I said. I’ll do anything for you, but I won’t do that. And the reason I didn’t want to do that it’s because I grew up in poverty. My father immigrated here from Sweden, had a very low paying job. When he passed away, when I was 5 years old, there was no money. And my mom, she picked up babysitting and washing clothes. It was pretty meager. You know. Growing up, we didn’t have cars, hand-me-down clothes, lived in a poor-family apartment, not the greatest neighborhood. And in my mind the preacher was poor. And I want to get out of poverty. I want to have a nice house and a nice car. So being in a ministry means the continuation of poverty in my mind. So I didn’t want to do that. I want to be a psychiatrist. You see. Then you’ll have people come and lay down on the couch. And they talk to you. And you grow beard and you scratch it. And you say, tell me what you think about that. You know. Then you say, it’ll be about 100 dollars. You need to keep doing that all day. And that, then you can buy a nice house and a nice car. So I’m 17 years old. I say, I’ll do anything, I don’t want to do that. It was then that the Holy Spirit led me to Luke Chapter 9 verse 61 and 62. I read them in my car. And “Still another said, ‘I’ll follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-bye to my family.’ Jesus said, ‘No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.’” I read that and said oh, OK. I remember making the decision at the parking lot on that day. I said, Lord, if that’s what you want me to do, if you’re calling me into the ministry, if you gift me and wire me to be a pastor, then so be it. I’ll do that. I just remember him changing my heart, changing my direction, making me want to study the bible, making me want to follow him, his calling to the ministry. That was a very defining moment for me that day. This gentleman. I want you to notice the theme here. In the previous verse, verse 59, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” And then in verse 61, “first let me go back and say good-bye to my family.” That word first repeated as a clue. And what Luke is telling us is that the kingdom was now preempted in a lust. They had put other matters first. And they weren’t gonna cut it. If you’re gonna follow Jesus, it wasn’t easy. Remember he said, the birds have nests, the fox has holes, the son of man has nowhere to lay his head. If you want to follow me, you know, you’ve got to put me first. Otherwise you’re not gonna cut it, you’re not gonna make the grade. I’m not gonna fool with you. I’m not gonna play games with you. To follow me is a decision. To follow me, you have to put me first. So it wasn’t just the matter that he was going back and just said hey, good-bye. What he’s saying is that I got some loose ends to take care of. You know. I’m gonna put you on hold for a little while here. I eventually will follow but I’ve got to some things at home first. And then sometime soon I’ll follow you. Jesus says that doesn’t work. What is the plow? He says, put your hand to the plow. Where is the plow? And what do we plow? I think the plow represents the task, or the job that God’s called you and I to. Your job looks different than my job. But God has called us to a task. He’s called us to a field that we need to prepare. We are part of what he’s doing in the world. There’s a job to do. There’s a field to plow to get ready, to plant seeds and harvest what it is to come. And it is an honor and a privilege to partner with God in the work he’s doing in the world. You and I have a part to play. It requires all of our attention and all of our commitment. We’ve got to keep our eye on the field, our hand on the plow. Plow straight and plow forward. Overcome obstacles, rocks and other hindrances. But if we turn back, we’re not gonna get the job done. We’ve got to stay focused whatever is that God has called us to do in his kingdom. That’s the plow. And as we’re plowing, there are things that distract us, good and bad. Things that are temptations that are wrong, clearly. And other things that are not necessarily wrong, but they are distractions that are causing us to look back and are luring us away from the mission that God has given us to do. The Bible is strewn with stories of people who put their hand on the plow and then turn back. There is one particular that I’m thinking of this morning. His name is Demus. You probably have never heard of him. If you’ve heard of him, you’ve heard of him in a negative manner. Demus was a follower of Paul. He was one of Paul’s coworkers and helpers. He is mentioned in letters of Paul. Demus was with me, Demus sent greetings while he was in jail, Demus is here. He was a faithful servant of Paul until one day. We read this in 2 Timothy chapter 4 verses 9-10. Paul is near death. He knows this. He knows his time has come. He says these words, “Do your best to come to me quickly, for Demus, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica.” Thessalonica is a booming Greek city full of commerce and full of opportunity. He’s not saying that Demus has gone to do something immoral or unethical. In fact, it could have to do, Demus has economic opportunity. He can make a lot of money, do something adventurous and fun, bold and daring. And he’s not in prison, but he’s with prison, with Paul in prison. But Paul’s ministry continues on, even though he’s in prison. He’s sending out letters, he’s sending out messages, he’s encouraging the church, he’s leading from prison. And he doesn’t have Facebook where he can post things. He’s not writing a blog. He’s not texting. He’s not twitting. He’s got his messengers and his coworkers. And Demus starts to feel trapped. There’s something in him that is pulling him into the world. He’s thinking that even though I’m not in prison. I feel like I am. I’m here every day in prison. I might as well be a prisoner. And here is wonderful news in Thessalonica. And he says I’m a young man. And I’m wasting away my days here. He goes to Paul. Whatever the reason is, whatever the excuse is, Paul’s not buying it. It’s not more important than the field they’re plowing. He says we’re bringing gospel to people who never heard it. And now you want to go the city Thessalonica. Paul sums it up in this way, he deserted me because he loved the world. He loved the world more than he loved serving God. Jesus says, when we make that choice, we look back, we are not fit to serve the kingdom. He’s simply stating the fact that our priorities are not aligned in the correct manner to serve the kingdom. When our church was really new, I mean really, we met in a hotel on highway 26, in a small little symposium room. It held 40 people. And we had plenty of seats left over. Trust me. We didn’t have much to offer in the way of ministries. But we wanted you when you come to Faith Community Church. Number 1, hope you hear a good sermon. Number 2, we have some good music. We had a piano player there who is fantastic. Wasn’t it, Mike? Oh, that guy can just play the piano. Any style of music you want to hear, he can play. And he would show up. And we knew he had good music. And one Sunday I go to church. And there’s a note and some flowers on the table. And he says, I’m out of here. I’m done living a Christian life. I’m done playing the game. And he says right now I’m in Chicago, partying with my friends. And I’m not coming back any more. That’s it. No notice. No warning to shore up that Sunday. He’s gone. Nothing but a note. Dark day in the history of Faith Community Church. That Sunday your pastor led the music. It was bad. Mike was trying to block that out of his memory. I’m sorry to bring that back up. If there was any visitors that day, they never came back. Promise you. I tried to reach out to him and to connect, but to no avail. Months go by. I get a call. He says, I’m back. The world is not what I thought it was. A bad place, scary place. And I’m ready to go. I’m ready to go this Sunday. I’m coming back. I’m thinking he’s sick. I’m shocked a bit to get him back. But I said no. And he’s surprised. You know. I’m great, I’m fantastic. What do you mean no? I’m like you’re not ready to serve here. We’re not playing games here. You know. We got a field to plow. We’re are plowing. You took your hand off the plow. You left. You went to Thessalonica. We stay here and work. You can come back. Don’t get me wrong. You can come back. You’re not gonna play music. You’re just gonna sit. You’re just gonna listen. We’re gonna make sure you’re right spiritually. Then we’ll put you to work. But it’s not gonna be meeting music again for a long time. You can put up some bulletin. You can do some behind-the-scene stuff. Set up and tear down. You do that faithfully for a period of time. And we’ll start to just talk about it. That’s not the answer you wanted to hear. We never saw or heard from him again. Life went on. Hand to the plow. The lure of the world. I’m out of here. I’m gone. What do we do when the world calls us? Again it tempts us with things we know are wrong, bad. And others things that’re not necessarily bad or wrong, but they are causing us to turn away from the work God’s calling us to do. What steps do we need to take? Sometimes the steps we need to take are drastic. There’s a similar situation in the book of Kings. You turn it with me. 1 Kings 19th chapter and the 19th verse. And in this story, Elijah, the prophet, is reaching out to a successor and anointing a successor, whose name is very similar, Elisha. When he finds him, he’s working in his field. Verse 19: “So Elijah went from there and found Elisha son of Shaphat. He was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen, and he himself was driving the twelfth pair.” Let me tell you something. You got 24 oxen plowing a field. You got one big field. OK. Nothing like we are on 5 acres. You plow with one ox. All right? You don’t need two. He needed 24. That tells us he is affluent. That tells us he is successful. That tells us that he has quite a big farming business and probably makes a lot of money. So for Elijah to come and say leave all that, leave your business that may have been in your family for generations, come and follow me as a prophet in training, would not all be that tempting and plus God was in the call. So Elijah comes and he throws his cloak around him. That was symbolic of the fact that he wanted to be his covering, his mentor, that he wanted him to follow and join him as a prophet. Elijah left his oxen and ran. Elisha left his oxen and ran after Elijah. “Let me kiss my father and mother good-bye,” he said, “and then I will come with you.” That sounds similar, doesn’t it, to Luke 9? But Elijah’s gonna say, it’s OK. Elijah’s gonna say, you know, it’s God’s call, not mine. If you need to do that, do what you need to do. So he goes home. He kisses his Mom and Dad and he comes back. What’s the difference between the two men? Elisha and the man in Luke. The man in Luke had put his family first. He was saying, I’m gonna say good-bye and I’m gonna take care of some loose ends. It’s gonna be a little while. I’ll let you know when I’m ready. Elisha was simply going back and said, I’m out of here. Following Elijah, I’m gonna be a prophet in training. And he left. Short and sweet. Then he does something unexpected. He does something that the prophet never asked him to do. So Elisha left him and went back. He took his yoke of oxen and slaughtered them. And he burned the plowing equipment to cook the meat and gave it to the people and they ate. Probably the people that work for him, his crew. Then he set out to follow Elijah and became his attendant. See what he did there? He said, I’m not coming back. He killed the equivalent of thousands and thousands dollars’ worth of equipment and he destroyed it. He killed the oxen. He burned the plows and all the equipment. He says, I’m moving out. Because he didn’t want to get to a situation where he’s out there, it gets tough and gets difficult, and he says, you know, I can always go back to my oxen, I can always go back to my plow. I can always go back to my lucrative job. Back home, go back where it was safe and life was easy. He says, I’m out of here. No matter how difficult it becomes, I’m here to stay. I’m not going back. Although there are things in your life not necessarily bad, they are causing to take your eyes off the mission God’s giving you to do. Maybe you need to take steps to change that behavior, change that or eradicate it from your life. That’s the Holy Spirit to give you direction with that. Something that takes too much of your time. Something that’s too much of temptation. What needs to change? What’s keeping you from the work that God has called you to do? I want to give you some scriptures to help you evaluate that in your life. I want to give you some questions that you can ask yourself. That will help, if you grab a little piece of paper. It’s a good time to write down some stuff. OK? This is a grid or filter through which we can filter through, maybe either something you were contemplating doing in the future or something that already engaged you and you want to evaluate. What needs to stay? What needs to go? What needs to lessen? OK? It’s a series of questions. I rather do it this way than us coming up with a bunch of list of rules. Don’t do this. Don’t do that. Your Christianity becomes defined as a bunch of rules. I rather you be able to think for yourselves and have, you know, be able to run through the filter of God’s words. You make your decisions on all of that. OK? Number 1, I ask myself, does it bring me under its control? Does it being me under its control? Was it addicted? To addict is bring me under its power. Paul says, I’m not matched by anything, except Jesus Christ. Paul was due and a bound servant of Christ. God doesn’t want you to be under the control of anyone or anything except Jesus Christ. It might be somebody who’s struggling with drugs, prescription drugs or illegal drugs. It could be the alcohol. It could be pornography. It could be greed. I have a friend whose life was consumed by gambling. I had a friend whose life. He almost didn’t graduate from college. He became consumed by video game. Did he want with video games? No. They were con. Instead of studying for his finals, he was playing Donkey Kong. Dating myself. OK? Consumed. It brought him under its control. My friend who was a gambler started out as little pools in grade school. He grew up. He would gamble away his whole check. The race track. He had nothing to live on and mounted himself with gambling debts. It’s tough. Those traps we fall into. Does it bring me under its control? If it brings you under its control, what are you doing to get free from its control? Something that will take you from the plow, take your hand away from where God has called you to be. Second question, I ask myself, is this something that God can bless? Colossians 3:17. Maybe God has already spoken to it. It says, “Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus. Give thanks to God the Father through him.” Has God spoken to it directly? Has God already directed that, addressed that action, or that life style? You know. Case closed. Will I be comfortable doing and saying and washing it in the Lord’s presence. Thirdly, does it cause others to stumble? Does it cause others to stumble? As Christians, we shouldn’t take the attitudes. I don’t care what anybody thinks. I’ll do whatever I want to do. I’ll look at my life on my terms. You should be concerned about your actions and how these affect the people around you. Paul writes in Corinthians and he says, be careful, however, that exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak. Maybe you have freedom in Christ that somebody else doesn’t share. So in the presence of that person, you want to engage in that. In mass all the time, the pastor may want to drink. As a Christian, drink beer less than wine. I don’t see anything in the Bible that alcohol itself is evil. If you abuse alcohol and become intoxicated, it’s a different story. But to have a glass of wine or beer, I can’t point you to a verse that says you can’t do that. I would tell you I don’t. Now I’ll tell you. Remember to go to a restaurant. On a rare occasion I would go to a restaurant. Every once, every other year. You’re not gonna find me in there drinking a brunski, because there are too many people in our church who struggle with alcohol. Their family members struggle with alcohol. And it’s a stumbling block for them. If they see me, they’re going, haaay, how did it go. How does it affect lots of people around you? Another criteria is, is it beneficial for me? Is it beneficial for me? Paul again says in Corinthians chapter 10. He says, everything is permissible, but not everything is beneficial. Everything is permissible, but not everything is constructive. Is it beneficial for you mentally, physically, relationally? Or is it detrimental? Is it wasting my time? I can go on facebook. It’s a good thing. Nothing wrong with it. Some people are consumed with facebook. They spend hours and hours. You might know some teenagers, not in our church, but other churches, who are consumed with texting. It’s all the time connected. All the time. They are connected all the while and connected with their friends all the time. They waste time. It just becomes a consuming thing. OK? A sport or a hobby can get out of balance in a person’s life. Even something like fitness, it’s a good thing. But, I go to the club. I exercise regularly. But there are some people, it doesn’t matter they go in the morning, the afternoon, the evening, they are there. Do they ever leave? You know. They are training like 5 or 6 hours a day. Come on. You know. There are numerous things that you can think of are good things. If we take them to the extreme, they are no longer beneficial. See what I’m getting with this? So we need to evaluate it. Is it beneficial? Is it? I want to go straightforward. I want to make progress in my life. And Jesus comes on the scene. He brings light. He brings revelation. He brings truth. He says, I don’t want to you to be in darkness. I don’t want you to squander your life. I don’t want to you to live for selfish purposes. I don’t want you to meander. I’m calling you to purpose. I’m calling you to fulfill destiny. I’m calling you to make a difference with the kingdom of God in your world. I made you to be teachers. I made you to people with mercy, compassion. I made some of you to build or tear down, and to create. Some of you may consul. Some of you to lead. Some of you a ministry. Some of you to reach children. Some of you to reach outwardly. Some of you to reach the lost. Some of you to disciple. You got the part of the field to play. It needs to be you preeminent priority in your life. What do you do with the things that are distracting you causing you to look back and take your hand off the plow? You want to shed the light on yourself to live a productive life, not under deceit, deception or darkness. Sometimes you know you just need to get away. Right? Get away for a little while. And last Sunday was a day that Brandon and I got away for a day. We said, you know, just got my day off. That’s Monday. So after church we took off. I found a city in Minnesota, called Stillwater. Anybody‘s been to Stillwater in Minnesota? We were looking for a quaint town with some little shops, something to do. I want to have some planned activities and then some that are just spontaneous. So I found Stillwater. It was five hours away. And it sounds like it’s what we’re looking for. It’s on a Sandcort river. We see some colors. Maybe go to an apples orchard. Do some hiking. And we’ll have some fun. So we took off. And I surprised her with a gondola ride on the Sandcort river. We have the gondola guy, whatever, singing to us. He was a terrible singer. But he’s up there doing his things. Just very romantic. And people were flocking to the shore, lined to take our pictures. You know. Everybody came over to take our pictures. He goes, you guys must be famous. So then nice dinner and then spontaneous stop to Leo’s Molt Shop. Then I found this vantage hotel. It was really nice. I don’t know where Brandon ended up for the night. But it’s a great hotel. Stayed there. Next day, we went to some little shops. Then we ended up at this Italian restaurant, La Lunar Rosa. We had a nice meal. I said, we have a cave here. She said, you have a cave here? Yea, you can have a tour of the cave if you want to. Nothing else to do. Let’s check out the cave. So we go to this cave. It’s a natural cave, but it’s also manmade cave, kind of combination. It’s like there but they made it deeper and wider and so forth over the many centuries. And it says this really at its hay day was a brewery for a Mr. Wolf. And if you’re a lumberjack in Stillwater, when this town is being formed and growing, you would drink a Wolf beer. And it’s 52 degrees year round this cave, perfect conditions for a brewery. And everything was gone great until prohibition came. Prohibition came. Mr. Wolf said, I’m not gonna brew anymore. And he started to make root beer. Lumberjacks didn’t like the root beer. So he went out of business. So another guy comes in. He sees it as a tourist trap of opportunity. Already people come to see Stillwater. They like it. So he decided to expand the mine or expand the tunnels and dig it out like a mine. Added this system of canals. Then he put in boats. He lit it very dimly. And he flooded it with water. And he made up an elaborate story about these tunnels that would go all the way to St. Paul, Minnesota. It was actually ten thousand square feet. You can walk in it in less than a minute. But they stayed in there forever, going back and forth, around and back, same cave and same area, in a different way. They didn’t know because they were in the dark. They didn’t know because he told them there is a mysterious lake. It’s dark. It’s deep. It’s dangerous. Make sure you don’t go into that way. You’ll see it. But don’t go on it. It was just a master of capturing intrigue of richness. And they go home and tell their friends. Oh, this cave, its elaborate tunnel that goes all the way to St. Paul. Really? So then another family would come. Pretty soon the word began to spread until it became known, it was just a hoax. There’s no tunnel in St. Paul. It just goes around and around in the same spot. Just reiterate what Kyle said, God doesn’t your life to do that. He doesn’t want to meander. He doesn’t want you to go in circles. He doesn’t want you to go to the end of it and say, I missed my call. I missed my meaning. I wasted my time. I lived under deception and lived in darkness. Let’s pray that, through the Holy Spirit, he will illuminate what our job is, what field we ought to plow, and we’ll put our hands to it and won’t look back. We’ll plow with diligence, we’ll plow straight, we’ll plow focused. To the end of our day, we’ll say like Paul, we fought a good fight. We finished the course. We kept the faith. No Demus is here. Paul’s here. Elijah’s here. We make the kingdom our priority. God, whatever you wired me to be and do, I’ll do anything even better. Let’s pray. Father, thank you for these stories, these examples that we read in Elisha. The steps he took, unprovoked, unasked, to burn up his business literally. It was gone. It’s not something he’ll come back to. Because he didn’t want the lure of home, the lure of money, to detract him from the spiritual field you called him to plow. We looked at the one in Luke 9 whose name we don’t know, because he passed up on his opportunity to follow you. We don’t want to be like him. We don’t want to be the person that says, I’ll do anything, but I won’t do that. As the rich young ruler who set out to do anything, but I won’t sell what I have to follow you. Lord, help us to have the heart of Elisha, the heart of Paul. Lord, if we have the heart of Demus, there’s a dust in our eye in everybody’s life. Something that looks good, something that draws us away, causes us to look back from the plow. Help us to plow straight. Help us to plow diligently and faithfully till we’re done. Call us home. In your name, we pray. Amen.
Series: NOT A FAN Whenever. What About Now? What is your excuse for not following Jesus today?
10/13/2013 FCC Pastor Jeff Williams
Well, as Rocky said this morning, we’re talking the excuses. Why we sometimes don’t do what God has called us to do. Why put it off. I thought about maybe talking about procrastination this week. But we’ll put that off for another time. God would know that we would do that. I want to talk about excuses. And Luke 14 verse 15 is what we’re gonna read. Before we turn to that, I want to say to you a statement that the Bible is a book of denial. The Bible is a book of denial. You know, there’s a lot of folks who wouldn’t understand that and wouldn’t agree with that. They would say, how can the oldest book that’s around be a book of denial? If there was ever a book that was a book of denial, it’s the Bible. You know, it doesn’t matter how old something is, as long as it’s alive. There’s a tree that was called a senator. This tree lived to be as old. This tree was 3500 years old when it was struck by lightning on the side of the street. It was as old as the Scripture. While it was alive, it was a tree of denial. Right? It didn’t matter if it was 3500 years old. It was alive. God’s word’s alive. It’s living and active. It still brings people to repentance. It is still correcting us. It is still guiding us. It is still comforting us and encouraging us. It is still a vehicle through which God gives us the invitation and a call. It’s still a means by which we receive revelation from God. The Bible is alive. Because it is alive, it’s a book of denial. And there is verse in Hebrew chapter 3 verse 15. It says, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” God is still speaking today. He’s still speaking through his words to us. When he speaks, when he invites, answer the call, the author says. Respond to what he’s saying. Sometimes we don’t. We’re gonna talk about why we don’t, the reasons why we don’t today.
We’re gonna look at one of the parables Jesus taught, called the parable of the great banquet. Jesus is at the home of a Pharisee. The Pharisee, whose home he’s at, is not a fan or a follower. He would probably consider himself as somebody who’s curious as to who Jesus was and what he was about. So he invites Jesus to come. And Jesus comes. And Jesus gives a lesson about when you invite a banquet, when you have a banquet, don’t just invite those who can pay you back, but invite the poor, invite those who can’t pay you back. And while he says, in verse 15 he says , “When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, ‘Blessed is the man who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.’” This is spontaneous outburst. He’s excited. He’s motivated by what Jesus says. And he just blurts it out. This statement, Jesus takes that and he runs with it. And he began to tell the story. He says, “A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests.” So we know who this person is, a VIP. Number one they’re giving a banquet. A banquet has the connotation of being something colossal, grand. It’s a lot of people. It’s a lot of food. It’s a lot of good food. It’s a banquet. Right? But this is not just a banquet. It’s a great banquet. So this is even larger than the normal banquet would be. And he’s invited many guests. It’s just assumed that at the banquet you have a lot of guests. This banquet is so big that we call it a great banquet. And there’s so many guests that we even have to give it an adjective. It has just all kinds of people that are there. And then he says, “At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’” So we understand that the invitations were already given out. This is not going be a surprise to anybody who’s on the invitation list. In the days of the Bible, when you hold a banquet or party, you give the place and the date, but you wouldn’t give the time. That’s because it was kind of time when it was ready. And so when it was ready, you send the word out, hey, it’s ready, come and eat. So these people had the date. They knew the place. They knew it was VIP giving it. And they’re declining it at the last moment. And that’s rude. They’re declining it with weak excuses. And that’s rude. Imagine if you had invited somebody to dinner. They knew they would come. And you gave the invitation. They did not decline the invitation. They’re supposed to come to your house at 7 o’clock. At 7:05 you call and you say, “Where are you?” And they just give you some weak excuses. How do you feel about that? You’ve already prepared the food, their setting. And at the last minute you think they’re coming. At the last minute they’re not coming. And the reason they give you is just really weak. How do you feel about that? You know. We got extending invitation to come to church every Sunday. To everybody in our community, you come to Faith Community Church. You’re invited. I ran into people that I haven’t seen for a long time. They have all kinds of excuses. They’ll see me. They kind of look down and say, they haven’t been to the church, they’re cleaning their garage. Like for 5 years? How big is your garage? Can’t you come up with something better than that? Right? So that’s gonna be the pattern. They are all invited. They all know the time. They know the place and the day. They are all expected to be there. And one by one they’re gonna drop out. Verse 18, “But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, ‘I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.’ Another said, ‘I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.’ Still another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’” My wife was at the 8 o’clock service. So at the 8 o’clock the service, she said, “That’s a good one, well.” This is the 8 o’clock. Now the rest of the service, I’m saying that’s not a good excuse. When she was here,… That one, I can buy. You know, you’re married. You got to be with your wife. That’s a good one, honey. But now she’s not here, that’s not a good excuse, either. “The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.’ ‘Sir,’ the servant said, ‘what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.’ Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, so that my house will be full. I tell you, not one of those men who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.’” Not even a bite, not even a taste. Let’s talk about the meaning of this parable. Number one, who is inviting? Who is this one giving a banquet? Is it a VIP? Who is it? Well, in the parable, the one giving a banquet is God. He’s giving a banquet. He’s inviting us to come. He is the VIP. It’s an honor when the VIP invites you to dinner. That’s an honor. Right? My son’s favorite athlete is Mohammad Ali. He doesn’t make many public appearances because of his health. But in October, in Louisville, his home town, he gave a banquet to award humanitarian efforts of young people around our world. And we almost went. It was open to the public. Everybody can buy a ticket. Invitation was an open ticket. My son had a conflict. He couldn’t go. But, you know, we could have maybe an opportunity to meet and chat. That’s an honor, a privilege to meet this famous person, Mohammad Ali. Well, someone infinitely great as Mohammad Ali is issued you an invitation. It says to whom I issued the invitation. Who are these 3 groups of people? There were the people who are invited. Then there were the poor, the crippled, the outcasts. Then he went into the highways and byways. Most scholars believe that he talks about going first to the rulers, the Pharisees, the scribes and teachers of the law and they rejected his invitation. They talked the Messiah was coming. And when the Messiah finally came, they said, no, thank you. You don’t look and act like we thought the Messiah would look and act. And they declined the invitation. Jesus reached out to the poor, the crippled, the outcasts, the tax collectors, the sinners, and they came. They responded to the invitation and they came. There is still more room. Right? In the story. Then he goes far away to the faraway places, the countryside. And he invites them to come in. That’s the Gentiles. We’ve been invited, too. We’ve been invited to what? We’ve been invited to this feast, to participate in the kingdom. To participate in the kingdom. A feast is a time of celebration. In this case, a feast is a homecoming. He said about one day we gather in God’s kingdom, in God’s presence. All eras of time, all ethnic groups, all of peoples, all believers celebrate our homecoming, celebrate our union with Christ in this banquet. So he says a banquet, but more than that, it is the kingdom that God called us to do, to live with him, to serve him, to be a part of what he is doing. To be a part of the kingdom, that’s the invitation. With all kinds of awkward excuses, that’s why we can’t participate. Do all those excuses sound boring to you for the most part? You don’t go, you know, I doubt. I mean, you’ve gone out and bought a pair of those oxen this week. When you really look at the root of it, it’s the same. OK? The first excuse. In verse 18, he said, I just bought a field. I must go and see it. If he’s already seen it, he wouldn’t but it. Right? And the field is not really gonna change that much, is it? It’s a field. What’s that gonna do? It looks the same as it did yesterday. It’s gonna look the same tomorrow as it does today. The chances are this is an investment, or part of his business, his vocation. Maybe he’s a farmer. He’s gonna, he’s in agriculture. And so this is a weak excuse. Someone invites you to dinner. And you say, no, I can’t come, I have to look at my portfolio. I’m gonna take a look at my stocks and see how much. You can do that later on. OK? They won’t go anywhere. Sometimes you and I. This is profession, he’s an investor, or he’s a farmer. A profession. Sometimes you and I put our profession first. I can’t do what God’s called me to do, because things are busy at work. I can’t do what God’s called me to do. So, you know, I’m new to this new job. Or until I leave this job. I’m looking for a job. I’m so busy looking for another job. I don’t have time to respond to the will of God. Or responding to the will of God causes me to leave the job I already like. We’re sitting where we really like. See, the point is that it’s not the profession that’s bad. Everybody should have a profession, a job. But it should not take precedence over matters of the kingdom. Second gentleman buys five oxen. He wants to see them. The possessions. Right? Hey, it’s 7 o’clock. You’re invited to dinner. Where are you? I just bought a new car. I wanna give it a test drive. The car isn’t going anywhere. It’s gonna be there after the dinner. It’s gonna be there tomorrow. That invitation, that banquet that he was giving, was only gonna be there for a time. Then it’s gone. You need to respond in this light to that invitation. It’s OK to have possessions. Possessions should not serve what God is doing in your life. Possession. Sometimes we hold on to our possessions to the point where we will not let go of them to pursue the things of God. The possessions take precedence. To follow the will of God will mean now we have to give up this possession. I couldn’t buy this possession. So I choose the possession over responding to the invitation. So the profession is possession of its people. Let’s look at the last one. The third person just got married. I can’t go. I need to be with my wife. Sometimes we don’t respond to the will of God because we put people first. I can’t come to the church now because my husband isn’t a believer. I can’t do the work of the Lord because my wife isn’t a believer. I can’t do the work of God because my kids are so busy and I am busy with my kids. And we make excuses. Is it wrong to have a family? Absolutely not. Not at all. But Jesus is saying that the kingdom trumps even family for a fault. I’ll give you an example from my life. Some of you have said good things and praise me for coming to Janesville, taking a step of faith. But you don’t know the whole story. You don’t know before the fact that I was a follower. I was rebellious non-follower. Almost 2 years I fought God tooth and nail. I came to Janesville kicking and screaming. I remember I was in my mid to late 20s. There was a church in Janesville that wanted a pastor. The senior pastor, the founding pastor was leaving and he handpicked me to be his successor. He told the search committee, “I want Jeff Williams to succeed me as pastor in this church.” When he retired, he left. The search committee interviewed me. I was thinking this is a slam dunk. You know, I went to the church, looked at the building and I was getting excited because I thought in my spirit it was time for me to move on. I just knew that it was. I just wasn’t sure where. Maybe this is where God has called me. They said, well, we think we like you, but we just think you are too young. They wouldn’t say that any more that I am too young. But they did then. We’re just looking for somebody with more experience. So my boss says to me, you know, we have got a lot of people driving from Janesville to Rockford. He says, why don’t we go to Janesville and start a church. All you do is just move away. It might as Rockford, Edgerton. We have others, too. Let’s go to Janesville to start a church. I began to think about what that would mean. I just bought a house like 2 years prior to that. A nice house in a nice suburb. I’ve grown up poor. My wife hadn’t. But I had. I lived in a four-family apartment flat, kind of a rough area in Rockford. Then from there I moved to a dormitory. No big deal. From there we moved to a farm house when we first got married. Now I had a house, a real house. It was a brick ranch. I loved it. And now if I move to Janesville, that means I’ve got to sell my house. I don’t want to sell my house. I said, well, maybe I am too young. Maybe they’re right. Maybe I needed to stay here and grow a little bit more. So I said no to my boss. And he brought it up again. He thought about Janesville. I’d like to get a church going there. I thought about Janesville. We bought 2 new cars, relatively new cars. That was like a junky car. Now the church was growing. The salary was better. My wife got a job at a hospital. She really liked it. So we bought a couple of nice cars. You know, if I go to work for a church that doesn’t exist, I think the paycheck stops. I might have to sell my cars. I don’t want to sell my cars. And I would find another excuse. I would say, no, it’s too hard to start anything from scratch. I don’t mind going where there’s people and where there’s a building. But I just don’t want to go and work for a church that doesn’t exist. No, I am not interested. I felt inside of me a tug is pulled away. I needed to make a change. But I was so comfortable. I liked my job. That was my hometown. Everybody in the church knew me. I grew up in that church. My boss, he was my pastor since I was 9 years old. I was comfortable with him. Our church was really growing and making an impact in our city. So I got to be on the staff at the church where church is making a difference. I liked being there. I was comfortable there. My job became a stumbling block. It was familiar, the people were familiar. So I would make an excuse to stay. For almost 2 years this went on and on. I thought about Janesville. Why don’t you just drive to Janesville? Just pray about it. Just seek the Lord. I thought about my family. My parents lived in Rockford. My wife’s parents lived in Rockford. My sisters lived in Rockford. Her sister lived in Rockford. My best buds lived in Rockford. We had friends in the church that lived in Rockford. And I didn’t know any of you. I knew her. But I didn’t know any of you. I didn’t want to go. There’s all three. My job I liked. I didn’t want to leave. My family was there. My mom didn’t help. You’re gonna move away? You’re gonna leave us? We had a babysitter there, two of them. Right? People. It’s a good thing. That became a stumbling block for me. And possessions. I didn’t want to sell my car. I didn’t want to leave the house. It had been a goal of mine since I was a boy. Finally I had it. Do you know what happened? When we responded to the invitation and said yes, God began to change my heart. Fear began to turn to faith. Anxiety began to turn to excitement. And when we said yes, everything began to change to begin to feel like we are part of an adventure. We’re going off to the unknown. It’s a step of faith. But it’s God provided, we got more and more excited. We thought yea, yea, we’re working and moving. And we began, yes, we’ll sell the house and put it on the market. It’s OK. It’s OK. Someday we’ll get another one. You’ll find, you love your job at the hospital. You’ll find another job in Wisconsin that you’ll like as much. We love the good school. We’ll find another good school in Wisconsin. We love our church family here. I bet you someday we’ll love our church family there. So we took a step of faith. But it was not easy. Sometimes we receive the invitation. It’s not easy because you got to give up something. How many of you do not like change? Let me see your hands. Yea, me, I didn’t want change. Right? I remember not long, 2 years after we moved to Wisconsin, I said to Branda, I go, would you move back? She said no. We like Janesville better. We enjoy our church. We enjoy our friends. Thumps up. Yea. You know, you say no to God. What you’re turning down is something greater that what you have. You know, they turned down this invitation. They missed out. Notice what’s happening. The fifth question is what happens when you decline the invitation. You miss out. Notice the one who is giving the banquet doesn’t say. The servant came back, says, this one can’t come. This one can’t come. This one can’t come. Oh, forget it then. Call it off. What do we do with all the food? Throw it away. Not having a party. No. All the people got to go and experience the kingdom. The invitation. Had I not come here, God doesn’t say, well, you know, I want to do something in Janesville through Jeff. But I guess whatever I want, it’s not gonna happen. God’ll raise somebody else. I would have missed out. Maybe God called you to a mission’s trip here in church. He said that very clearly, you know, whether it’s Haiti or Mexico or whatever. You should go. You didn’t go. You have an excuse. Too busy at work. Too busy with kids. Whatever the reason is, you didn’t go. You know what. We didn’t say, well, I guess we’re not going to Mexico, no mission’s trip. Joe’s not going. Mary’s not going. Cancel the trip. We still went. All the God’s blessings God has in store for you, You didn’t get them. The people that he was gonna have you meet, the friendships, the relationships that you’re gonna build, that didn’t happen. The mission went forward to work with the poor. When you do not respond to the invitation, you lose. God doesn’t lose. His purposes go forward. Someone else gets your blessing. I don’t know about you. But I want every blessing that God has for me. I don’t want anything better that God has for me. God has something that I want. When you say no to God’s invitation, you lose. God doesn’t. God doesn’t cancel the banquet. He doesn’t cancel the plans because you have an excuse. The word goes on. The purposes are courage. What is it in your life today? What is it the call? What is the invitation? What is the change he’s requiring you to make, he’s inviting you to make, but it’s gonna cost you something? As a matter of fact, the relationship you might have at your job. You might have to give up a possession, or not get a possession. What is it that he is calling you to do? I’m willing to do that. When I was, when we were trying to build the Faith core, there was a lady who, a friend of mine and his wife, childhood friend. They said, how close are you to build a building? I said, well the banks says we have $40,000 short. If we have 40,000, they’ll give us the money. 40,000 at the time would have seemed like 40 million to us. We’re not a big church. And I told them that. Just a few weeks later, she called me. She said, you never guess what just happened. She said, I have an uncle that I barely know. He passed away. He left me $40,000 exactly. The same amount you said you needed. She said, we’ve decided. We’re gonna give the gift to the church. I said, well. I start doing the math. I’m no math major. But I’m thinking $40,000’s tithe is $4000. That really is a nice gift. She said, you don’t understand. You needed $40,000. $40,000 came in from the source we didn’t expect. This is your money. We’re giving you church $40,000. Get your building going. I was like no way. They’re not rich. You know, I bet they could’ve used that $40,000. Right? I bet there’s some trip they could’ve taken. Or something they could’ve done in the house to remodel. Or maybe some nice clothes she could’ve bought. She was obedient. She said, this is your money. It costs something to follow what God tells you to do. She gave that money to us. I immediately got on the phone, called the bank, called the builder. I said, we’re ready. Phase one went up. It costs you something. Are you willing to do what it takes to respond to the invitation that God gives you. Let’s pray.
Lord, this parable tells us something very important. That is we’ve all received the invitation. An invitation to participate in the kingdom. An invitation to participate in the celebration of homecoming. Lord, the truth of the matter is we get more attached to the things on earth. Our possessions or things we can see take precedence over the things that are spiritual and eternal. Lord, we use excuses. Excuses are people, our possessions, our profession, our jobs. We’re no different than people in this parable. We choose what is temporary over what is eternal. We decline an invitation. And others come and take our blessing. Lord, I pray that you help us to seize the moment, to help us not to follow kicking and screaming, but humbling, accept the invitation, and know you have something better in store for us than what we give up, to know that we cannot outgive you. Lord, whatever purposes and callings are here today, we’ve offered our excuses to why we can’t go, why we can’t go now. Lord, expose those excuses as what they are. Disobedience. Lord, give us the courage to respond to your invitation to participate in the kingdom, to give thanks for the privilege that we have in playing a role in part in your kingdom. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
Are you following Jesus or do you want Him to follow you?
Series: NOT A FAN Wherever. What About There? Are you following Jesus or do you want Him to follow you?
10/06/2013 FCC Pastor Tim Bales
Good morning to all of you. My name is Pastor Tim, and if you don’t know who I am, under the discipleship pastor here at Faith Community Church. It’s a joy and privilege for me to be able to share with you from the Word of God. We’ve been going through a series by Kyle Idleman called Not A Fan. And for those who have been following along, I trust that you’ve been enjoying it and have been challenged by it. And if you’re here visiting or for the first time, this curriculum, the series has been challenging us to consider whether we are fans just going through the motions coming to church or we are fully committed followers of Christ. Last week Pastor Jeff talked about the acid test of knowing whether we are a fan or a follower. And he talked about dying to ourselves that we might live a new life for Christ. And today, I hope that you have been taking time to sit down and think about and pray over these discussions we’ve been having with the journal, working through the exercises, watching the videos and the discussions, and really praying and listening to what God would be speaking to you through this series. Today we’re gonna get a little in depth at our personal commitment to follow Christ, specifically as it relates to our life map, the way that we laid out our life and the way that we are living it out. Before we jump in though, I’d like to just ask you to bow your heads with me one more time as we pray.
Dear God, we thank you for the freedom to come together to worship and to learn now from your Word. I pray, Lord, that your spirit will be working in a powerful and mighty way in our hearts, that we will be willing to allow you to do that work that you desire to do. Lord, show us what it looks like to be a fan and what it looks like to be a follower. Help us to gauge where we are at that we might choose to fully surrender our lives to you. Speak to us now. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.
When I was about 13 or 14 years old, I took a life-changing trip that with a few other guys to Fairmont Skull Ranch in New Mexico. If you’re not familiar with the Fairmont Skull Ranch, do you have a picture up there? It’s 214 square miles of some of the most beautiful and the most rugged terrain you would ever see. And we set out on a 12-day track to cover over 60 miles on foot with nothing but a pocket knife, a compass here, and a map. And that I have a map here, not quite like the ones that we’re using, but it’s a Wisconsin map. If you’re under 30, this is what they have before GPS. It’s just like Google earth on paper, OK? And keep in mind. This is before we have satellite help. We have a compass and a map. And this process of gauging where you’re at on the map is called orienteering. And I can remember. Back up a little bit. We had a 40-pound bag pack on our backs. There were wild bears and animals and storms and dangerous hiking conditions. It really was a thrilling experience, a great adventure. And we set out on our track. And we were given a one-day tour guide to lead us into the wilderness. After that, you’re kind of on your own, right? So we have our tour guide. We head out on the trail. We hike for about an hour. And we come to a fork in the road. The tour guide says we need to go to the left. So we go to the left. We walk along this path for a while. The sun is shining. The weather is beautiful. And life is great. And then something leads our tour guide to pull out his map. So we pull out our map, so we pull out our compasses. We look at our map. And lo and behold, we were heading down the wrong path. We’re going the wrong way. And I can’t help think that we, if we had taken time at that fork in the road to get out our map and our compass, that we wouldn’t have got lost, we wouldn’t have gone the wrong way. And what I learned at that moment was that in order for us to go the right direction, we needed to align our map with our compass each step of the way. Because if we don’t align our compass with our map, if you’re going on the blanks on the outline, these are our first two blanks here . If you don’t take the time to align your compass with your map, then you’re just wandering in the wilderness. If you don’t align your compass with your map, then you’re just playing lost. It’s a lot like the way we live our lives. There is the path we ought to take. Then there is the path we are actually on. And billions of people are lost in the wilderness because they’ve chosen to take their own paths. You know God’s given us a map. Our map is right here. And like on any map that we might look at, there are many paths that lead to many places. In this map, there is the path of the fool, there is the path of the adulterer, there is the path of the sinner, there is the path that leads to death and destruction, and there is the path of the righteous that leads to life.
Matthew chapter 7 verses 13 and 14 say, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” Psalm 119 verse 105 says, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.” God has given us his Word as a map to lead us down the path that he wants us to follow. He’s also given us a compass. Did you ever look at the compass or use a compass before? It always points in the same direction. It actually points magnetically north, to be technical. But you can always depend on your compass to point in the right direction. And God has offered us a compass in his will, his will for mankind, his will for creation. It doesn’t change. It will always be his will. We can choose to go to a different direction. But his will does not change. His will is that his creation would worship him. That we will bring in honor and glory to him. If we align God’s will for our lives with his map for our lives, then we will clearly see the best route he has in mind. Now, that’s not quite enough, because we need to know where we are at on the map if we want to know where we’re going. If you’ve ever been or gone to the zoo or to amusement park, or you want to go to see the lions exhibit, or you want to go to your favorite roller coaster, and you walk along the path, and you see a kyat. It’s got a map on it. You look on the map and you see that’s where I want to go. That doesn’t help you unless you can find the little red dot. What does the little red dot say? YOU ARE HERE. That’s right. Because the reality is, if you don’t know where you’re at right now, you don’t know how to follow the path to get to where you’re going. When we were in Fairmont, we got lost on the first day of our track. It was not hard for us to turn around and go back where we came and get back on the right path. But if we’ve been wandering around in the wilderness for days and we lost our location on the map, it would be kind of difficult to figure out where we were. We had to look at the ridges and the mountains and the valleys and we had to study our map and try to figure out where we were on the map in order to get back on the path. Because the reality is, I may know that this is north. But that doesn’t help me if I don’t find Toledo or Tokyo. I am still just plain lost. I’m gonna ask for a raise of hands, a spontaneous call for repentance. For each week of the series we have been asking the question. Are you a fan or a follower? Where are you at on God’s map? You know I heard some people saying that by definition some of those scriptures that we’ve been looking at and some of the things that Kyle Idolman has said. Some of us feel like we are a little bit more fans than we realize. To be a follower doesn’t mean liking what Jesus liked. It doesn’t just mean agreeing with what Jesus taught, or studying what Jesus said. To be a follower of Jesus means going where Jesus goes, going where Jesus went. And fans don’t follow God’s map. They choose their own path. They believe their way shorter. They take the path of the least resistance or they think there are less bumps, less thorns and thistles on their path that doesn’t seem steeper or tiring of a climb. Or there’s less cliffs and pitfalls and wild animals. We think we had a better plan, more comfortable, more convenient. It’s safer and more enjoyable. It’s not that bad. We’re very much a feel-good culture. If it feels good, it must be right for me. And many Christians choose to follow the easy road. They want the benefits of the kingdom without the commitment of following after Christ. I’ve been reading Mark Baddersen’s new book. It’s hot off the press. All In. And it goes along very well with the book Not A Fan by Kyle Idleman, if you look for something else to read. It has a lot of very pointed illustrations. One illustration I think is appropriate for our message today. He asked a question. He asked the question, “Have you invited Jesus to follow you?” or “Have you chosen to follow Jesus?” On the surface, It doesn’t seem like a big difference. But the ramifications are immense. Have we asked Jesus to endorse our plans for our life, our life map, or if we give up our plans to follow after his. As a fan, a fan does not like to follow God’s map, God’s path. In fact, they would look at the map and say there are many paths. They probably all go to the same place, don’t they? But Jesus, by contrast, says, in John 14:6, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father except through me.” Only a follower will take the path less travelled, because our map and our compass show us the way. Jesus never says it will be the easier path. But it is the only path that leads to the Father. Once you know exactly where you stand before God, if you will humble your heart, surrender to him and you are a committed follower, only then will he reveal to you the path that he wants you to take. So we rely on our compass with our map. And we determine our location on the map. And we find the path that God wants us to follow. At that point, it’s up to us to accept the invitation. During Jesus’ ministry here on earth, he went around healing and teaching and doing miracles of all kinds for the purpose of bringing glory to his Father. And people would get excited about the things that he was doing. At times on occasion, Jesus would turn to them and say “Follow me.” He offers them an invitation. I’d like to look at 3 people who were given a personal invitation to follow after Jesus. If you have your bibles with you, you can turn to Luke chapter 9. It’s page 1027 in the church bible. And we actually looked at chapter 9 before in this series. Luke 9:23 which says we ought to take our cross daily and follow after him. But today, we are looking at verses 57-62 at the end of the chapter in regards the cost of following Jesus. Starting in verse 57, it says, “As they were walking along the road, a man said to him[that is Jesus], ‘I will follow you wherever you go.’ Jesus replied, ‘Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the son of Man has no place to lay his head.’ He said to another man, ‘Follow me.’ But the man replied, ‘Lord, first let me go and bury my father.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.’ Still another said, ‘I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family.’ Jesus replied, ‘No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.’” On the surface level, these words seem pretty harsh and pretty cold, not like the warm and forgiving Jesus that we would expect to see. But if we look at the context and the purpose of these words, Jesus was being very intentional. He was being intentional and he was gauging where they were at on the map. He was trying to pinpoint their hearts and their commitments. And keep in mind. These are three fans that Jesus is offering an invitation to follow. I don’t want to spend too much time on these passages. Simply because if you’re in a small group, and many of us are, then if you watch the video from this past week, this is gonna be a familiar passage to you, because this is what Kyle Idleman used as description as he’s gone through already. But I think it’s important to go through for those of us who are not in small groups at this time, because a lot of people have been asking questions about this passage. We see the first individual in verse 57-58. And he says to Jesus, “I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus turns to him and says “What about there?” What does it mean by homeless? Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests. But the son of Man has no place to lay his head. I don’t think that being a follower of Jesus necessarily means that we all need to be homeless. But for this man it’s the one thing that held him back. This conversation is cut very short. We must assume that it’s insinuating that he turns away sad like the rich young ruler we talked about a couple of weeks ago. He turns away sad because he’s unwilling to give up the comfort of his home. The next person, he says, “Let me go and bury my father,” which seems to be a legitimate, a legitimate thing. We want to grieve in a healthy way. This guy’s Dad is dying. Let him bury his Dad. But the reality is, if this man’s father just died, he wouldn’t be following Jesus around and listening to his teaching. He would be back home preparing a funeral. This man’s father hasn’t died yet. He may be getting up there in years, he may even be a little bit sick. But this man is concerned about his inheritance. He says to Jesus, you know, I like to follow you, but now is not a good time. You see my Dad is getting up there in years and I don’t wanna abandon him now, because I might lose my inheritance. Here is what I will do. Jesus, let me go and bury my Dad when he dies and get my inheritance. That would afford me the opportunity to follow after you. He’s putting Jesus off. And the next person does the same thing. He says, first let me go and say good-by to my family, which sounds like a pretty simple request. Right? You just go home and grab a few things and come back. Then you are on your way. But in this day and in this culture, when you say good-bye to your family. It could be for weeks, months, years, maybe for your entire life. When you say good-bye, it’s a send-off. You have a party. It could be a week long party. It could be two weeks or longer. You’re saying good-bye. You can’t hop on a jet plane and come home any time you want. And Jesus recognizes the heart of a man. And a lot can happen in a heart in a couple of weeks. You go home. You enjoy the party. You forget about your commitment. You don’t come back. And the reality is, for Jesus, he’s going from town to town, from village to village, on his way to the cross. He is not looking for half-committed people who would later on follow him. He is looking for people who were willing to drop everything to follow him at this point so that he can teach them, that he can lead them and show them the way and one day he will send them, telling them to go to proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God. The reality is, we are all on a path, on a journey, walking along the road of our life. And our life map is either focusing on God’s plan or on our plan for our lives. The path is formed by our families, by our friends, by our coworkers, by circumstances in our spheres of influences, by the world around us that tells us what we should look like, what we should be like. And then our path changes and evolves as we go through different stages or seasons of our life. You may be driven by success. Some of us are driven by beauty or money or our plans for retirement. Some of us are driven by our addictions that we can’t let go of, our bad habits. But the life map of a follower is laid out by the life of Christ. I want to ask you to consider your life path now for just a short moment, from beginning to end, your past, with successes and failures, and then take a snapshot of your present right now today. Where are you currently at? What does the end of your life, if you live it out as it is right now? What will the end of life look like? What kind of legacy will you leave behind? Are you happy with that? Is what you’re doing right now with your life glorifying God to the best of your ability? Because the reality is, in Romans chapter 14 verse 12, that one day each of us is gonna stand before God and give an account of the way that we lived our lives. Have we lived our life for ourselves or to give glory and honor to him? Now I want you to picture Jesus walking along the road of your life each step of the way and you enjoy and appreciate what he’s done for you. You turn to Jesus and you say to Jesus, I will follow you wherever you go. And like in the video, Jesus says, really, that’s great, that’s wonderful. Eh, wherever? What about there? And we heard 3 examples of people who apparently did not choose to follow him for different reasons. What would hold you back from fully committing to living your entire life for Jesus? We so often come up with excuses. We choose not to follow. We say to Jesus, I will go, but there’re some conditions that apply. Jesus, I will follow you, but I’m not ready to give up my over time, because I have plans for retirement. Jesus, I love to follow you, but I don’t really think that will be fair for the rest of my family. Jesus, I love to follow you, but this whole sexual purity abstinence before marriage, when I look at on line, in magazines, what’s the big deal? Jesus, I’ll follow you, but I think, you know, my addictions probably coming along with it, I haven’t been able to let go of them. Jesus, I’ll follow you, but this whole homeless thing, or going over to some third-world countries where there’s malaria and sickness and AIDs, and there are terrorists who want to kill Christians. Jesus, I’ll follow you, but, please don’t ask me to go there. Or we put Jesus off. Jesus, I’ll follow you just wait until I get married and find the love of my life. Or Jesus, let’s just wait until the kids are off to school and then I’ll focus less on them and more on you. Or Jesus, maybe we should just wait until I am out of college. Or Jesus, maybe we should wait until I am retired and then I’ll have the time to follow you wherever you tell me to go. And the reality is, we have bills, we have families, we have a mortgage, we have responsibilities. And Jesus is with us right along side of us each step of the way on the road of our lives. And we turn to him and we say, I’m sorry, Jesus, I can’t. It just doesn’t seem wise. Somehow we justify our minds, our wisdom. I mean God just gives us wisdom to make good choices, right, Jesus? But we trust our wisdom over God’s wisdom. We trust our own power over God’s power to carry us through, to carry us safely into his arms. If we want to be followers of Jesus, and he says to us, follow me, and we ought to say, yes, Jesus, I will. Now where did you want me to go? I have no idea how this is gonna work out. But I trust you. Lead the way. The truth is that most of us like the easy road as fans. We stay quiet about our faith and we call it tolerance. We allow just a little bit of sin in our lives and we call it living under grace. We store up and hoard our wealth and spend it on ourselves and we call it good stewardship. And we’re stingy with our time and we call it guarding our family. We have a fear of the “what ifs.” What if Jesus called me there, would I really be willing to go? We fear the cost. What if he called me, would I have to give up some of the things I really do and enjoy? Do you accept his invitation to follow without condition? If you have fear, 2 Chronicles chapter 16 verse 9 says, “For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.” He doesn’t want to live in fear, but he does want you to live and trust that he will take care of you. Do you accept his invitation? Now we have aligned our compass with the map. We follow our location on the map. We see the path before us. And we accept the invitation. Yes, Jesus, I will go. And then all that’s left for us to do is to follow the path. I think that it’s important to know at this point the parable of the 2 sons in Matthew chapter 21. We’re not gonna turn there right now. But I mention it. It’s very appropriate for the message this morning. Verses 28 through 32, Jesus says. He talks about a parable of a man who has a vineyard. And he goes to his two sons. He goes to his first son. He says, you know, there is work that has to be done in the vineyard. I need you to go out there today and do some work. The first son turns to him and says, you know, I got plans. I got things to do. I don’t want to go. I’m not gonna do it. But later he changes his mind and then he goes out to the field and does the work. And then the man goes to his second son and he says, you know, my other son is not able to go out to the field. He has some other obligations. I need you to go out to the field and there’s some work to do. And the man says, yes, sir, I will right away. Not a problem. But then later, he decides not to go. And the question Jesus asks is “Which of these two sons did the will of his father?” And obviously the answer is the son who went and did the work. And we say to Jesus, I will go. Then we don’t go. To be a follower doesn’t mean liking what Jesus liked. That means going where Jesus went. Now as we consider following the path God has laid out for us, you may feel insecure or unsure at times. Maybe you said to yourself, God I really want to do your will, I just don’t know where you want to me go or what you want me do or what direction I ought to head. Have you ever felt that way? I know I have. Or maybe you feel like you’re gonna mess things up. First of all, God’s in control. He knows. He knows our limitations. But he offers also to us a promise. In Isiah 30:21, if you’re seeking his face, and you’re fully surrendered, and you’re humbled in your heart, the reality is, it doesn’t matter whether you go to the right, go to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, “This is the way. Walk in it.” Jesus wants you to follow him. If you’re gonna follow Jesus, where did he go? Well, we know he went to the sinners, the tax collectors, the social outcasts, the down-trodden, the poor, the sick, the broken-hearted, the oppressed. He brought healing and good news about the kingdom of God. Where are the sick and the poor today? Where are the oppressed and the down-trodden? No. If we’re looking for them, they’re all over the place. It doesn’t take long. Because the reality it, there are in the office that you work, they are in the home that you live, they are in the line of the supermarket, they come to visit your church, and they’re on your facebook page. Jesus is leading people to the Father. And he says to his disciples, follow me. He has now shown us the way to live, and he’s given us an example to follow. And just below this passage we looked at, in Luke chapter 10 verse 3, he says, “Go! I am sending you out as lambs among wolves.” In Matthew chapter 28, he says, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.” Jesus desires to bring glory to his Father and he asks us to do the same. We have been called. Who will go? As we start to draw all together, this message is Christ’s invitation for fans to become followers. Where are you at on the map? Do you know the path that God wants you to follow? Here is a question. Did you ever think that he might be calling you to do something radically different than the current life path on the map that you’re currently following? What would God have you do that would only be possible with his help? Would God ever call you to be a missionary? I don’t know that he is. But why not? Maybe there are some pastors in our congregation. God must have raised them up. Maybe there are some Christian business owners or managers who are willing to live out their faith in the workplace. Maybe God is calling you to go back to school to better equip you to do his will. Now not everyone is called to full-time vocational ministry. We need people on the field. But as followers, we ought to be full-time ministers in our call to give God our very best. Could you ever consider giving up your earthly goals for his heavenly rewards? Could it be that you might use what time you have left on this earth to more intentionally grow the kingdom of God? Would it be possible to better use your resources to bring people into his presence? What would that look like? I think it’s fair to state it plainly, no sugar coating, that saying yes to Jesus may mean saying no to comfort. Saying yes to Jesus does require sacrifice. That sacrifice is what keeps our hearts focus on what is truly important. In order to follow God’s path, he will demand it of you. Like in the video we watched, you have to give it to him. But you have been invited. And that invitation may require some sacrifices. You may need to downsize your house or your life so that you’re not dependent on that income. You may need to scale back to your retirement so that you’re working until the day you die. You may need to cut back on your overtime so that you can commit to serving in his church. You may need to sacrifice farnville or angry birds or your time on facebook. I know that’s radical. But what is it that you’re least likely to give up for Jesus that you can join him in the work that he is already doing in the world around you for the kingdom of God? Are you willing to follow him unconditionally? Jesus says, what about there? Would you be willing to follow me across the street to talk to your neighbor? Would you be willing to go to the other side of the cubicle raw? Would you be willing to go into your dysfunctional family with love and grace and forgiveness of God? Would you be willing to go overseas across the world? These things would be pretty radical? Giving up comfort, being uncomfortable. And that forces us to ask the question. Is Jesus worthy it? Do we realize how far Christ has gone to save us from our death and our sin? He is more than worthy. Do we realize how much he has in store for those who are faithful? He is more than worth it. If that’s true, then why don’t we see more of his children willing to go? I can remember being in college, growing in my faith and reading my bible, thinking. You know, I look at the bible and the Christians and sacrifices that they made. And I look at the Christians around me, and something’s missing. Something’s not quite right. And even standing up here as a pastor today, I recognize that I have a lot to learn in my faith. But I have learned that you can’t focus on what the Christians around you are doing. It may be normal to be lukewarm. But it is not God’s map. The comfort zone is no place for the children of God. A lot of people have been coming up to me during the series and asking me questions. Well, does that mean that fans aren’t saved? And, you know, I’m not God. And I’m not judge. That’s his role. But just the mere asking of that question raises red flags all over the place. We want to settle for being a fan when God offers us so much more as a follower. You know, I can’t answer that question fully. But I do want you all back to the passage that we looked at in Matthew chapter 7 verses 21-23. He says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly. ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’” Jesus knows the hearts of men. I want to share with you one last illustration. It relates to orienteering and this idea of using a compass. If you want to go north and you’re just one degree off, you follow that path long enough, then you’re gonna be farther and farther away from your goal that you ever desire. If you’re living a pretty good Christian life right now, try to stay out of trouble. But you know that in your heart God’s not the center of your universe. Your life map is not centered on the will of God. And the longer you follow that path, the farther you will become from the path that God has chosen for you. I spoke with somebody in one of the other services who felt like they have wasted a fair amount of their time here on earth and we’re getting up there in years and we’re concerned about being useless. In my opinion, the longer you faithfully live a life for Christ, the more value you have, the more you have to offer. I don’t know where you are at. But you got the rest of your life, no matter how long it is, to commit to him. Please pray with me.
Heavenly Father, we come before you with humble spirits, recognizing that you’ve given everything for us. Although you don’t demand it, you’ve asked we will give our lives back to you, not to invite you to come along on our path, but to give up our path and follow yours. Lord, we know in our hearts that you know best. And your path will lead to the most fulfilling end. God, I pray that our hearts will be broken, that you will show us our shortcomings. Show us how we ought to change our lives that we might bring glory to you to the best of our ability. We ask in Jesus Christ’s precious and holy name. Amen.
SERIES: NOT A FAN The Acid Test How devoted are you?
09/29/2013 FCC Pastor Jeff Williams
How many of you are gonna be watching some football today? Not as many with packers having a buy. Right? Not as many of you. But. When you watch football, you see somebody hold up a sign in the end zone from time to time. What does it say? John 3:16. We know John 3:16. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” It’s a happy verse. It’s a glad verse. It talks about eternal life. And I was reading the book, not a fan, not a journal, but in the book kind of mentions that you’re not gonna see anybody hold up a sign for Luke 9:23 or for Matthew 16:24. Even though they are much part of the gospel, they’re just as important as John 3:16, because it’s not a very happy verse. It goes like this in Matthew 16:24. “Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”” If you’re trying to get a marketing strategy, this is not a good one to use. You try to draw the crowd and make people happy to follow you and want to follow you. There’s something better. There’s a better slogan you can come up with. I’ve noticed a couple of slogans in Rockford where I am originally from. This one church, it says, in their slogan, is an exciting place. I’m not saying anything wrong with that. But that’s what they say, an exciting place. You come here and it’s exciting. You’re gonna have fun. We have fun. It’s an exciting place to be. Another church where I’m from says, it’s a different way to do church. So you want to find out what’s this different way. It must be better or good because you’re telling us about it. So we want to come and explore this different way to do church. I’m interested. I’m in what’s at right. We had one until we realized pretty much every nonprofit organization in America had the same one. For a while it was believe, belong and become at the Faith Community Church back in the day. And who doesn’t want to belong and become? That sounds great. I’m in. But Jesus, his slogans come and die. Maybe we should put that on a sign. See if it makes a difference. On the interstate, we put it there, “Come to Faith Community Church and die.” But Jesus, he’s not trying to draw crowd. He’s not trying to draw fans. He’s not trying to amass this huge following. He’s trying to make sacrifice. To become a disciple, one would have to die. We’re calling this this morning the acid test. The acid test verse. Back in the California gold rush, there was a lot of miners coming in, trying to strike rich. Whenever they would find in gold, or they tried to determine if it’s flues gold or real gold, they had a mixture of acid they would put the gold in. There was certain mixture of acid that real gold would dissolve in. And if it dissolved in that acid, then you knew you had the real thing. It was called the acid test. It separates the truth from the false, the real from the fake. And this is one of those verses that separate the true follower from a fan. So let’s take a look at Matthew together. What we’re gonna do is try to break this verse apart in our time together this morning and talk about each of these components of this verse.
Matthew 16:24. And Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me.” I just want to reiterate it. I’m not going to develop it. Anyone means anyone. It doesn’t matter who you are, rich, poor, young, old, educated, uneducated. Whether you live the life of a saint, the life of a sinner, anyone can follow Jesus. “If anyone would come after me” that phrase “come after me”, there is a pursuit. Does anybody come after you? I mean that in a good way. I don’t mean in the sense of bully or stalker. Does anybody come after you in a good way? When I was 18, it was the summer before my sophomore year in college. And I remembered going to church. It’s a normal Sunday. When I went to Sunday school, there was a new student, a girl sitting across the way with another friend of mine. I just remember how pretty her eyes looked. I just remember how nice her smile was. I just couldn’t take my eyes off her. The whole class has turned to my friend. And I said, “Who is the girl with Cindy?” He said, “That’s Branda.” Branda, you’ve got to get me one of those. I said, “Where’s she from?” “She’s from Rockford. She’s from here.” That’s good. Right? She’s from here. So I just begin to plot a scheme and find ways to get around her, to try to interact. That was my first step. So my first approach was at the drinking fountain. That was the first time I had a chance to say something. I remember being really nervous. So I’m nervous. My heart’s pounding. She’s just simply getting a drink. She’s not aware of all the drama that’s taking place around her. And I remember trying to say something intelligent, you know, funny, cute, whatever. And it was just dumb. I don’t remember exactly what it was. But it was just dumb. It was something like, the water’s wet, isn’t it? I don’t know. Something. I remember she looked at me and nodded and went and didn’t say anything. But I just remember thinking that’s a success, because there is eye contact. She’s now seeing me. She’s aware of my existence. I begin to try to figure out how I can be around her. I found out she was going to the youth group. So I decided I’ll go to the youth group. That gives a chance to meet her, to talk to her. She begins to catch on when our youth pastor Greg looked out the window, smiled and said, “Here’s Jeff coming to the youth group again tonight.” And she’s like, “Doesn’t he normally come to the youth group?” He said, “Not until you started coming. Now he’s coming all the time.” She starts to go, OK, I get it. He’s pursuing, he’s coming after me. Right?
Jesus says, we’ll come after him. We’ll look for ways to be near him, to see him, to hear him, to experience him, to get to know him. The disciple wants to be with Jesus, wants to know Jesus more, wants to love Jesus more, wants to be around Jesus. If anyone would to come after me, he says, one must deny himself. Deny himself. That’s not a popular thing to say. That’s not a popular action to take. We don’t like to deny ourselves, do we? We like to reward ourselves. Not deny. We like to reward. I had a great workout week this week. I was at the club for a little bit almost every day last week. So I reward myself with a concrete turtle malt. The best one’s on Milton Avenue. On Court Street they’re too thin. I know this because people told me. Not that I’ve gone all these places getting the concrete malt. That’s where you want to go. There was a song there at the club. It’s Frez Franci. I’m not gonna sing it for you. Because I don’t want to do a disservice to the boss. It says, “Got a wife and kid in Baltimore jack. When I fool around, I never went back. Like a river, I don’t know which way to flow. I took a wrong turn and I just kept going.” And it says, “Everybody’s got a hungry heart. That’s how I justified what I did. I know I got a wife and I’ve got a kid. But I got a hungry heart, too. I’ve got to please me. I’ve got to go with the river flows. That wife, that kid, they are weighing me down.” It’s a catchy song. But the message of the song is I don’t want to commit. It take up too much of my time, too much of my resources. I’m gonna go river. I’ve got to flow. So I took wrong turn and just kept going. Forget the wife. Forget the kid. I’m gonna do what pleases me. And then if you try to take away what is mine, not only do I want to reward myself, if he’s gonna take away what is mine, I’m gonna get angry. We were out apple picking yesterday. Myself, and Lindsey and Jena and little Trace. We went to the Elegant Farmer, or the Fancy Farmer. We’re gonna. We started off with an ice cream. In East Troy, there is old-fashioned ice cream parlor. And it’s like something out of the 50s. You know. You get on the train. Then you ride the train over to Elegant Farmer. Or you can do it at reverse. But I always got to this ice cream parlor. While getting there, there was a boy, a large boy, but a boy who was like trying to throw stuff, grab a jar of candy, and trying to throw them on the floor. Then he went on the floor. Then he started to kick and trash and scream, and kick and punch. He’s kicking the screen window. The owner is concerned. The guardians are trying to get him off the floor. He’s kicking and punching and screaming. And they finally lifted him up and carried him outside. The drama continues. It was quite a sight. I said to the owner of the ice cream parlor. I said, “What’s going on there? What’s going on with that kid?” He said, “He was a normal kid, he was talking and had a conversation. He was talking to me and everything was fine until his parents or guardians told him he couldn’t have candy. He went nuts. Then you’ve seen the rest of everything that happened.” Now something’s more wrong with the kid. That’s not a normal reaction. Kids might fuss and cry, but not to that extreme. Something’s wrong there with the child. But the point is, when someone tries to take something that belongs to us, we get upset. Don’t deny me. That’s mine. And we hold on to it. We’ll kick and scream if you take it away, because it’s ours. We don’t want to deny ourselves, because we’re our own center of the universe. Right? When you’re born, you’re crying. Somebody gives you a bottle or gives food, or changes your diaper, or holds you, whatever it is. When you fuss, the world comes around you and you learn something. Right away, you’re the center of attention. So our circuit has to be rewired. We’re gonna deny ourselves. That’s not natural to us. We learn to program just the opposite from that. So denying ourselves does not come easy. Because, think about it. Every experience you’ve ever had, you’re there. Every experience you’ve ever had, you’re the center of attention, of everything. You’ve lived it and you feel it. Other people’s thoughts are communicated to you. There’s some other way. Your thoughts are right there. They are real right there and right now. So as the world comes on you, comes at you, will you be the center of attention. Every memory, every experience you’ve ever had, you’ve been there. You remember that as how that affected you and how you felt. And so Jesus comes on the scene, and he says we need to reprogram. We need to start seeing it in a different way. You have to come and deny yourself. We don’t want to deny ourselves no matter the circumstances. I’ve been amazed through the years as I have been in the ministry to deal with health concerns. And I heard. Or doctors would say to patients who go to our church, or whom doctors try to minister and they’ll say, “You cannot smoke again. If you smoke again, you’ll die.” And they leave the hospital and they smoke. “You cannot drink again.” The doctor would say. “If you keep drinking, you’re gonna destroy your liver and you’re gonna die.” They leave the hospital and they’ll drink. Spouses would give ultimatums to their husbands or wives, saying, “If you don’t stop seeing that guy, if you don’t stop seeing that gal, then we’re over. It’s done.” They don’t want to be denied. So they’ll continue to see that person. We hold on to what we want, even if we know what we want is a wrong thing to have. Jesus comes on the scene and he says, you’d choose the kingdom over your agenda. You’d choose God over what you want. A friend of mine was out of college. And he was trying to pay back his bill. He’s got a job. It was an excellent job. He was in sales and he was very good at sales. He was making money. One day the boss says, “We’re gonna have you tell some more, you know, the essence is lies to do some baiting switch. We’re gonna advertise one product. You sell them another one. If they want something, you’d tell them it’s the last one in the shop. We don’t have it any more.” And so he says, “You want me to lie.” He says, “You can call it if you want to. I call it sales tactics.” He says, “I’m not gonna lie. I want my job. I like my job. But I’m not gonna lie.” He says, “Why don’t you just go to the seminary and be a choir boy.” He fired him. He said, “I will. I will go to the seminary.” He did. He became a pastor. He’s still a pastor in Rockford. Because you can deny yourself, it may hurt for a time. If you deny yourself for the sake of God, you will win in the long run. That’s what the lesson Jesus is trying to convey. He says, number 1, you have to deny yourself. Number 2, take up your cross. What does that mean “take up your cross”? What does it mean “take up your cross”? Think about that. I bet you to follow a poll. You would say, what’s mean to take up your cross. A lot of you would say, well, it has to do with love. It has to do with sacrifice. Jesus loved us. He sacrificed his life on the cross. But I promised you the disciples weren’t thinking of that. Number 1, Jesus has not been on the cross yet. So it’s impossible to think that way. They didn’t understand the gospel at that point. Number 2, the cross was always and only an instrument of torture and shame, an instrument of death. That’s all they knew. And so when Jesus says, be willing to take up your cross, in the dark minds of the apostles, that means one thing, be willing to die. You must be willing to die for me. You must be willing to surrender it all for me.
When I was, say, a young minister, in 1982, in 1983, I started the ministry. One of my first jobs, we had a missionary couple, name Doug and Jane Willborn. How many of you know the Willborns? El Salvador was where they were at. El Salvador was going through a civil war. It was a wicked awful civil war. 71,000 people died, most of them civilians. They had what we call death squads. They would go through Salvador, looking for innocence. It wasn’t just rebels against the government. There were these death squads that were killing teachers, health workers, students and missionaries, preying on the innocent. They domination said, “It’s not safe for you to be there. We’re all ring you to come home from Salvador. You have 2 children. There’s a civil war. We don’t want you anymore.” Doug and Jane said, “We respect you. We respect your authority. However, the call that we had is from God, not from you. God has not lifted that call. We’re staying in El Salvador. Our job is not done.” So the denomination took off the gloves and said, “We will withdraw your support. We will cut off all your support. We’ll stop sending you checks.” And the idea is to force them to leave the mission field and come back to America, force them to take their children out of harm’s way. Doug and Jane said, “We believe the safest place for us is the center of God’s will. God has not lifted his call from our lives. We and our children are staying in El Salvador. We will trust God. We are willing to die, if necessary, for the sake of the Gospel.” To me, that was living out this verse. Every day they made a choice to stay in that civil war with 2 small kids, so they can fulfill their call. Every day they denied themselves. Every day they took up their cross and followed Christ. And my job was to line up their itinerary when they would come, line up churches to support them, and keep them on the mission field, and line up their agenda, and work with those churches to grow their support. And by the way they stayed. They made it through the civil war. Eventually they came back to America for a little while. And then now they’ve started a ministry in Alberpuita, Mexico. And some of you were there. For the tent, you’ve seen their work. You’d meet them. What a wonderful couple. What an example of what it means to deny yourself and take up your cross. So the disciples would not have seen it as love and sacrifice. They would have seen that as death. Now Peter. Let’s take a look at the context. Matthew chapter 16 verse 21. The context of this passage is significant. This chapter is a very defining moment in the history of the church for Jesus and his disciples. This is the point where Jesus begins to reveal to them who he is and why he has come. Up to this point, Jesus has done things consistent with what the Messiah would do, has taught and acted as the Son of God would. But has never come outright and said who he was. As a matter of fact, when he does a miracle, when he delivers you, when he does a miracle, he says, don’t tell anybody what has happened to you. Demons would say, you’re the Christ, the Son of God, he silence them. People raise questions at the disciples and these enemies. The disciples see a miracle and say, what a man he is even the wind and the waves obey him. Jesus never addresses their questions directly. His enemies are frustrated and they say, if you’re the Christ, tell us finally who are you. How do you do all these things. Tell us who you are. Jesus doesn’t do it. In Matthew 16, everything changes. In Matthew 16, Jesus began to ask the disciples, who they say he is. And finally, he asks, “Who do you think that I am?” Peter speaks up and he says, “You are the Christ, Son of the living God.” Jesus says, “Blessed are you, son, flesh and blood has not made this known to you, but by my Father who is in heaven.” In other words, Peter, you got it right. That is correct. Verse 21 says, “From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!” Jesus turned to him and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”” Remember that, things of men. “Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”” Peter, at first glance, seems very righteous. Peter said, I love you so much. I can’t stand to think of you suffering and dying. And that’s not gonna happen. When you really look behind and see what the motives are, they’re not good. In fact, Jesus says to Peter, your interest in yourself, your interest in men. What does it mean? Put yourself in Peter’s place for just a moment. OK? Now if you’re a young budding Hebrew scholar, you don’t want to be linked to a good rabbi. You could submit your application to be accepted by a leading rabbi. That was good for you. That would bode well for your future. Maybe one day you could grow in the hierarchy and become a rabbi yourself if you’re hooked on to the right wagon. And imagine finding out. Starting to follow Jesus and finding out the rabbi you attach yourself to is the Messiah. You talk about a spiritual homerun. You talk about the score. WOW! You have hit a wagon to the one who is the Son of God. You’re on the winning team, man. You’re the winning team. I remember hearing the story about Michael Jordon who came to Chicago. Somebody, a guy befriended him at the airport. They became friends and he became his agent. They got a deal. All right. He did OK. The Jordan’s last year bold him 36 million dollars for one year he played the basketball. That’s not endorsements. The guy did OK. He hooked himself to the right wagon. So Peter realizes, I won the spiritual lottery. I’m following the Messiah. What does that mean to Peter? Well, first of all, he’s on God’s team, God wins. He’s heard the story that the Messiah’s gonna rule from Jerusalem. And guess who’s gonna rule with him? A little peddler from Gaililee. A little fisherman. And now I’m a hot shot. I’m one of the key disciples of the rabbi who’s the Son of God. Man, do I strike it big! I mean someday I’m gonna rule with Jesus. Maybe I’ll have me a throne. All I know is life is good. Life has really changed since I was on the boat. You know, I have no idea, when I started to follow Jesus, of who he was. And man, did I hit the jackpot! My future is bright. I mean I’m gonna serve and rule and reign with the Son of God. Yay, me. Just as soon as Jesus confronts him and says, yes, your hunch is correct, your feelings are true. I am who you think I am, I’m the Son of God, he begins to say, I’m going to suffer and die and go away. Peter’s like, What? No, no, no, no, no. That is not how my plan works. I mean your plan works. No, no, no, no. You, I rule with you. We’re gonna have power and the authority. And you’re now telling me now about suffering on the cross and dying. That’s not in my bible. No, no, no. This isn’t gonna happen to you. And all of sudden, Peter’s motives don’t look superior anymore, do they? I mean he has gone from elation and joy and “like WOW, you know, we’ve got it made” to “Oh, no.” You know, I’m gonna lose everything. You’re gonna die and you’re gonna go away. I don’t understand. This is awful. This is horrible. So he is on this emotional roller coaster, this emotional ride. The guy was. I was at a baseball game at the Wrigley field, the last game of the year, years back. And they were giving out a car. It was grand prize. And a guy in the row in front of us won the car. He’s like looking at his program where he wrote down the ticket. He wrote down the ticket information on his program. He says, “Honey, that’s our number. We won the car.” He’s looked at the score board and he’s looked at his program. He’s just making sure his eyes aren’t deceiving them. He says, “Yes. That’s our number. We won.” And they’re hugging and high-fiving all around. Yes, way to go. Congratulations. I won the car, which proved you can win something at Wrigley field. And so, little shot of myself there. And so, you know. And the next thing, he goes, “Where’s my ticket? Where’s my ticket? Do you have the ticket?” He’s looking his program. He’s looking under the seat. He’s checking his pockets. One time, two times, three times. In his purpose he’s got a look of panic. And I mean, we had to see his agony for a while. He won a car. But he couldn’t find the ticket. He couldn’t find the proof. You just can’t go to the box office and go, “Trust me. I really did have the ticket. It’s really my car.” There’s no ticket, there is no car. You know, I remember, when we left the game, he was still standing there and dismayed, going, “Where’s my ticket? Where did it go?” So Peter, he’s just like, I got the ticket. I’ve got the winning ticket. And Jesus just kind of takes it and rips it up. He says you’re just gonna suffer and die. Peter doesn’t want to die. Peter wants no part of denying himself. He wants no part to die in any way, shape and form. Peter wants to live. And so time passes and Jesus’ words come to pass. There’s an opportunity for Peter to acknowledge Jesus, and he won’t do it. He follows him in a distance close enough to see, but not close enough to be identified as a follower of Christ. Three times he denies knowing Jesus. Christ’s words are fulfilled. The rooster crows. Their eyes meet. Peter runs away in shame. You see Peter is afraid if he acknowledges Christ, the same thing that happened to Jesus is gonna happen to him. He sees the swollenness of his face. He sees the blood. He sees the bruises, suffering. He knows Jesus’ fate. Maybe if they know I’m his disciple, they’re gonna take my life as well. So he runs and he hides. The chapter ends like that. Jesus died and Peter lived in shame. That’s not how the book ends. That’s how the chapter ends. In the book of John, there’s a new chapter. The 21st verse of John, “Because I found that the God is the gracious God, when we denied him, he gave us a chance to accept him.” John 21:18. Jesus says to Peter, “I tell you the truth, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him. “Follow me!” Same words he used to begin his ministry he uses now at the end. The offer still stands for Peter to follow to become a fisher of men. He says when you were young, you did whatever you wanted to do in independent spirit. When you become old, Peter, when you become an older man, you will stretch out your hand and someone will take you where you don’t want to go. You don’t wanna die. But you’re gonna do it. Thirty-four years later, Emperor Nero was looking for a scapegoat for his incompetency, for his falling empire, and he cast blame upon Christians. Among martyrs, among victims, the one who’s gonna die, it’s Peter. Peter was held in a prison outside Rome and put on his execution clothes and they say, stretch out your hands, Peter. They chained him in the way he goes. All the early churches that follow tell the same thing. He could deny Christ. All he’s got to do is acknowledge Rome Pantheon or incense to the Emperor and say “Caesar is Lord” and deny Christ. And he’s free man. Peter won’t do it. Peter will not deny his Christ. Peter takes up his cross. He refuses to be crucified as Christ was. And he is turned upside down and crucified upside down and becomes the literal fulfillment of Christ’s words. Any man who will follow me will deny himself and take up his cross. This time Peter accepts that fate. It’s not the sad fate. It glorified God. He chose Christ over himself. He chose the kingdom of heaven over the kingdom of this world. I like to say that verse, that heavy verse is just for the disciples, the spiritual heavy weights. The truth is that anyone who come after me, he should deny himself and take up his cross, be willing to die for this cross.
Let’s pray. Father, we thank you today for Peter’s example and the story that because of your grace ended differently than it would have otherwise. That we see Peter’s journey from selfishness to the cross. And Lord, we, too, are on a journey. We, too, struggle with denying ourselves and taking up our cross. We want to pursue pleasure and excitement and fun. You called us to die. Lord, I pray in this series as we continue to read in the journal and fellowship and study. And you would continue to challenge us and bring us to making decisions and help us to conform to the command and expectations that you’ve given us as followers of Christ. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
SERIES: NOT A FAN Self Empowered or Spirit Filled? Who Are You Following?
09/22/2013 FCC Pastor Jeff Williams
I like you to look at this morning Romans 8:14, very declarative verse of the Scripture. Apostle Paul says this to the church, those who follow Christ, “because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.” So to be led by the Spirit of God is to be synonymous as son or daughter of God. How would you explain what it is to be led by the Spirit? Someone would ask you, what does that mean? How was that lived out? What would you say? How in you mind just kind of play that through? How would you explain it to somebody? Because if we’re gonna be followers, that means the Lord is our leader. The Scripture says he leads us through his Spirit. How does that work in everyday life? In some lives it works effectively. In other lives, not so effectively, the same Spirit. A lot of it has to do with our perception of the Holy Spirit. How we perceive the Holy Spirit? I want to talk to you about some common perceptions or misconceptions of how we are to interact with the Spirit.
When Jesus in John 16 was leaving, he was letting the disciples know that life as they know it was about to change. Here if they want talk to him, they can to talk to him, they can touch him, they can hear him with their ears, see him with their own eyes. But all that’s about to change. Because after his death and resurrection and ascension, he is going to come to them. But he’s coming to them in the form of the Spirit. He’s trying to explain to them in John 14, 15, 16, this new dimension, this new dynamic of spiritual living that they had not yet known before. The Holy Spirit is going to be Christ in them. Living in them, how could this be? What does this look like for me? And he says in verse 13, “But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.” The Spirit will speak not what this is but what he hears. And he’ll tell you what is yet to come. So as I was reading, I conclude that the Holy Spirit is kind of like GPS. It’s kind of like internal GPS. The GPS has been programmed to tell us only what has been programmed to say. Just like the Holy Spirit, he only says what he’s kind of programmed to say. Just like the Holy Spirit, the GPS, you plug in the cord and it’ll take you where you’re supposed to go. That’s the job of the Holy Spirit who takes us where we need to go. It’s kind of like those blind men who try to figure out an elephant. One grabs the tail and says the elephant is like a rope. One grabs the side and says the elephant is like a wall. One grabs a leg and says the elephant is like a pillow. Each of them has a little bit grasp of the truth, but not a complete understanding of the totality of what they’re trying to know. So sometimes we would read verses like this, listen to conversations, and come to conclusions that are erroneous about the Holy Spirit. Yes, the Holy Spirit, he is a God. But we don’t talk to our GPS’, do we? Not all of us, but some of you do, right? Yah. Some of you do. They might tell you bad directions or something. All right? But it doesn’t carry on a conversation with you. That’s what I’m trying to say. You may talk to him. But he’s not talking back to you. I thank God for GPS. I can remember days before GPS. I don’t know how we got through. I can remember the early days coming to Janesville. We encountered the section of the city where there is a road called Harmony Circle. I think you know what I’m talking about if you’re from Janesville. You come to Harmony Circle. You’re lucky to get out. There are still cars from the 70s that are still driving around. They’re still now. We just kept driving around and ended up in a back farm. How in the world do we get out of this place? You know, we didn’t have a roadmap or GPS. We just kept driving and driving. We emerged like in the south side of the town, it seemed like. I’m like how did we get here. Branda’s like, I don’t know. I’m like never tell anybody what happened. We learned that Harmony Circle is kind of like Janesville’s Bermuda Triangle. We just don’t talk. Time was opened up. We start talking about Harmony Circle. Right? Share our stories. Maybe form a support group to talk about what we went through. I’m all for GPS. But the Holy Spirit is much more than a GPS. There are those who have a perception of the Holy Spirit as if he is a commodity. That he is like a product that we use to our advantage, for our purposes. We’ve gotten this from the prosperity Gospel. That you might find a good book, a good message on TV from prosperity preaching that teaches you the Holy Spirit is there, bless you and prosper you and make you healthy and wise, and wealthy and beyond belief. That the Holy Spirit is here to serve you. Like a genie in a lamp kind of thing. It’s just a commodity that’s there to enhance your life and your experience. That’s not the purpose of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit reveals Christ to us, to empower us, to live a life that glorifies God and accomplishes God’s purposes, not for our selfish gain or advancement of our own agendas. There was a man in the Book of Acts who saw the Holy Spirit as a commodity.
His name was Simon. You turn there. Let me tell you about this man. This man grew up with a desire to be famous and a desire to be rich. He was able to as a young boy do magic tricks. The problem is Simon somewhere along the line crossed the line. And he began to say that his magic, his sorcery was from God, that he was supernatural when he wasn’t. And he began to be known as the power of God. It said, people from Samaria, from great to small, all knew who Simon was. They all regarded him as having significant power. He’s like the precursor to the wizard of oz. He is all smoking mirrors. He’s a big fraud. And the only one who knows it is him. But nobody pulls back the curtain and looks behind it. They just think Simon is great and powerful. Simon got these great connections with God. But it’s just a big hoax. Then Philip comes to town. You remember Philip. There’s a great persecution in the church led by Saul. Christians are dying and they are being imprisoned. And Christians scattered. Philip goes to Samaria. You remember Samaria. This is the same city where Jesus came through and they wouldn’t let him in. Right? Then they said, should we call out the fire from heaven and consume them? Jesus said, you don’t know what spirit you are on. Son of man did not come to destroy man’s life, but to save man’s life. And so in Samaria, the gospel is preached and revival takes its place. Miracles. Healings. Deliverances. Wonderful things are happening in Samaria. The apostle Peter, he hears this and he goes Woa. I mean there was not a hotter or colder city than Samaria towards them. Now the receptor to the message of Jesus I’ve got to check it out. I’ve got to know what’s going on. Peter starts to make his way to Samaria. While he is on his way there, Simon encounters Philip. And he watches the wonders that are taking place. And he scratches his head, and he goes how does he do this? It looks surreal. It seems like powers of authority are truly supernatural. I’m a big fraud and a big phony. But this guy, he seems like the real deal. I can’t figure out how he’s doing this stuff. So he watches him closer, wants to look more. So he figures out the way to do that is become like Philip. I’ll become a believer. So one day, he raises his hand. He says, oh yea, I believe in Jesus. I believe and I’m a follower. I used to be a fan. But now I am a follower. Yea, dunk me, too. I’m in. So he’s baptized. He claims to be a follower of Christ. The closer he gets, the more he examines. The more he examines, the more he’s convinced whatever Philip has it’s real. He decides he wants to cut in the action, meaning I can have the power that Philip has. I get to have the authority that he has. I’m gonna really be famous. I’m gonna really have power. So he comes up with a plan. And he makes a move. OK? His magic, his illusions have made him rich. Money is not an object. One day he approaches the apostles. And he says, how much for what you got? Give me some of that power. Give me some of that authority. Book of Acts, the 8th chapter, the 18th verse. Let’s read it together. “When Simon saw that the Sprit was given at the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money and said, “Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.”” Give me some of that Holy Spirit stuff. I can use that. “Peter answered: “May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money! You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God.”” He saw right through it. Peter pulls back the curtain and exposes him as a fraud. He says, you’re not a believer. You’re not a follower. You sin it for your own advancement, your own glory. You have no part of what we are doing here. It’s all pray. Pray that the things you say happening to you. Pray that God will do the things you say you would. He starts to sober up really fast. He starts to realize that this is real. He treated the Holy Spirit as something to be used for his advantage. Probably all of us in one time or another have treated God’s gifts and blessings like that. Something for us, something for our benefit, something for our glory, something for our advancement. If that’s our perception of the Holy Spirit, you’re not gonna be led by God. All of us see the Holy Spirit in a different way.
Turn to the book of 2 Peter chapter 1 with me, please. In 2 Peter chapter 1, Peter explains the process of those prophecies of Scripture came to be. And he says in the 20th verse, “Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation or initiation.” The Greek says this word means initiation. In other words, when I’m gonna write the message. It’s Tuesday. And I’ve got to start preparing the message for the weekend. I like to say I prepare the messages two or three weeks in advance. But you know. I don’t think any pastor would do that. Sunday comes after Sunday. So if you did get ahead, pretty soon you’re gonna be behind. So Tuesday I start thinking about the subject. And I get on my computer and a piece of paper. I’m like, OK, God, I’ve got to write the sermon. So you’ve got to speak to me. You’ve got to move on me. You’ve got to give me some words. Give me some thoughts and ideas. Give me insight. Please, Lord. But that’s not how the prophecy happened. It wasn’t that Jonah or Joel or Isiah lays a scroll and says, “I like to write some prophecy now.” “God, could you me some good for Judas?” That’ll be great. I like a prophecy for Judas. Just kind of lay it on me here. I’m just gonna start writing and then, you know, you take over. And then, all of a sudden, that’s not how it works. Just the opposite. God spoke to man first. Go to next verse, verse 21. “For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” The Holy Spirit would impress upon man a message for people. Something that was to come, judgment, restoration, whatever it was. Then they would start to write. Or they would start to speak. It was just burnt within their souls until they spoke it or wrote it. Here the Lord. Here’s what God says. And they would see a vision. They would hear words. They would write things down. As only the Spirit moved him along, this word moved was a word similar to carry like the wind, might carry something. Carry an object from one place to another. We know that the word Spirit means wind. We know when the Holy Spirit came upon a Pentecost, and next, too, he came as mighty wind. So we began to listen to that and read that. And we say that the Holy Spirit is a force. The Holy Spirit is a power. And he comes on and moves on us and enables us to do things we can’t normally do.
I was playing golf this week. It was third or last week now, it was Thursday. Remember Thursday, right around 6 o’clock to 6:30, the storm came down out of nowhere. Right? So I’m like, Oh, look at this. Let’s make sure Lindsy is safe, you know, I’m texting. Make sure where she belongs. We’d better hustle up and get out of here. They’re gonna blow the horn and we’ve got come to the club house. Once the thunder starts lighting out here, it’s not safe to be out here. There’s two holes left. I mean it was kind of sunny, breezy evening night, sunset going on. Then all of a sudden, just like the backdrop for that last song, the storm clouds started to come rolling in. So everything got black and dark. And the wind started to pick up out of nowhere. Leaves started blowing around and the birds are freaking out, flying really fast and taking shelter. I mean they’re flying everywhere. We’ve got to find a place. We didn’t expect this. We’ve got to find a place to be. I started thinking about, boy, the sudden change in temperature. What if there’s a tornado or something that comes up? I’m watching the horizon. I’m looking. I’m thinking, where are we gonna run if something comes? There is a lean down there. We just have to run down there. I’m thinking all these things through my head. My wife is driving the golf cart. She says, “This is fun.” You know. She says, “I have a great time.” I’m thinking about tornados and shelter and things like that. So we get to 17. I get 2 holes left. I’m thinking, “I’ve got to play this fast, because the storm is coming in. I want to get done.” And so I’m ready to tee off. And this, and this. The wind just don’t quit. I’m waiting for the wind to die down to hit this ball. But these gusts are really strong. I spend most of my time chasing my hat. It was just blowing off all the time. I could not keep it on. And finally, I say I’m gonna have to hit the ball. And I hit the ball. And it starts going to the left. The hole is to the right. This is not uncommon for me. OK? It starts going to the left. And it’s just like in the commercial. You know, you see the commercial where they use computer-generated technology graphics to make a ball do something, you know. The basketball, whatever it is, that it didn’t really do. This golf ball starts to look like it’s something out of the commercial. OK? It goes up in the air this way kind of at the slow speed. And I catch it in one of those drafts. And it just SHOOOOO takes off. It starts going high in the air at the faster speed. Another indication, it’s not something I did. And it twirls the hole. Another strong indication, this is out of the ordinary. It just goes up like this. And then HUUU it takes off so fast that you can hardly even see it. I turn around and say, “Did you see that?” I say, “That was amazing.” I want to do it again. I want to stand there like a driving range just hit the ball in the wind. Just to experience what’s it like to be able to hit a golf ball like Dr. Droff there. Just for one day, just for one moment. I’ve got to feel the experience. You know, all those guys come behind us. So we’ve got finish this. Let’s go find this. Finally, we find it 25 yards in the hole, and a 400-yard hole. I can’t hit no ball in 375 yards. It was just a little chip and putted and bored in the hole. I was so excited to put that on my score card. It’s legitimate. I got help. But. What did I call that shot? The act of God shot.
So, anyway, that’s how we see the Holy Spirit sometimes. The Holy Spirit comes on you and it just kind of sweeps you away. It takes you far and it takes you higher. And you’re able to do the things you couldn’t normally do. And it kind of sets you down. WOO! It was the Spirit that just took over. I don’t know what’s going on. It was irresistible force. The true Holy Spirit has power. We should not think of the Spirit as a force, because you don’t talk to a force. You don’t talk to the wind. You don’t talk to the waves. You don’t talk to an earthquake. You don’t talk to any force of nature. You talk to the Spirit. You can’t breathe a force, but you can breathe the Holy Spirit. You can’t lie to a force, but you can lie to the Spirit. The word says, because the Holy Spirit is a person. You want to be led by the Spirit of God. You want to know what secret it is? Sure, go down here, talk to God and he talks back. I have to be careful when I say that, because when you go out in the world and you tell people, “I talk to God and God talks back,” they’re gonna think you’re crazy. That’s exactly what the word of God says. Jesus invites us when we’re seeking truth, we’re seeking purpose, and we’re seeking guidance to talk to him.
Listen to the words in Luke chapter 11. Luke 11 verse 9. In this passage Jesus is talking about the seeker. He’s talking about the one who wants to know truth. He says, “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” Notice he says “will.” He doesn’t say “might”, doesn’t say “could,” doesn’t say “maybe.” Jesus says in confidence “will be opened to you.” “For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door be opened.” Everyone. Everyone means everyone. You’re here today. You’re not a believer. You’re a seeker. You can say, “God, show yourself to me. I’m seeking. You’re really there. Reveal yourself to me.” God would do that. God would answer that prayer. He says, you seekers out there, you knockers out there, he says, knock, the door will be opened to you. What does that mean God would answer you back? He may not answer back in the way you’re accustomed to or in their timing. He doesn’t work by your timetable. But he will answer. When I’m led by the spirit, I inquire God. And I ask specific questions. Lord, what is church? We’re making a decision right now. We’re through guidance. Pastor Jesse and I have been interviewing candidates for our tech position. God, you know, we’re asking you to bring the right person here for us. We’re seeking your help as we go through this process. We ask you to help us. So God guides through circumstances. God guides through the leading Spirit. But he would speak to us. How does he speak to us? I just know he does. Can I articulate how the TV works? I know it does. I can’t articulate, some of you can, how a car works. I just know it does. I turn my key, it’s on, and I drive, I go. When it breaks down, I’m in trouble. But I’m receiving the benefits of it, even though I don’t fully understand it. How does God speak to you? Sometimes it’s an impression. Sometimes it’s like you’re hearing the words that are not, but you heard it. Your heart heard it in your Spirit. Here’s what you’re supposed to do. Here is my answer. See, part of speaking and asking is listening for the answer. When there comes the moment, when there comes in a day, a month, a year. There’re times when I pray for direction. Whatever I pray for direction from God, the Holy Spirit gives me an answer. Being led by the Spirit, talking, seeking, asking for the Spirit’s help, listening for his answer, because the Holy Spirit is a third person of the Trinity. You don’t talk to your GPS. Certainly it can’t talk back. You don’t talk to a force. You talk to a person. Jesus describes the Holy Spirit as a gift that he’s given to you. Peter said, you thought you could purchase the gift of God with money. I don’t know about you. But I love presents. And when I get a gift, it’s got my name on it, it’s wrapped in paper and a ribbon. It says, to Jeff or to Dad, to Pastor Jeff, I open it, especially when it smells good. I open up a present. There’s no birthday present, no Christmas present around my house. I’ll wait if it says, wait until Christmas to open. I’ll do that. Once Christmas comes, I’m opening that thing. OK? Because I like to get gifts. You’re probably the same way. Probably not a lot of wrapped presents around your house from 19 whatever, 20 whatever, because you opened your presents. The gift of the Holy Spirit for many of us is untagged, unopened. Because we continue to do it on our own, make decisions on our own. God unpacked is what we see best without yielding to the Holy Spirit. One of the things we’re gonna learn next week, we talk. Our time is done for the day. We’re gonna learn next week. He says, “Deny yourself. Take up your cross and follow me.” What does that mean? What does that mean to deny myself, to take up my cross and follow him? These are precursors to follow Christ. We’ll talk about those together next week. Let’s pray.
Father, thank you for teaching us about the Spirit. Lord, sometimes we read certain verses or we hear certain word pictures about the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit becomes it to us, impersonal, force, commodity to be used, not a person to pray to, to love, to converse with, to listen to. The fault is on our end. It’s not on your end. You communicate it clearly. Lord, help us to live, help us to put spirit-led life into practice. Thank you for teaching us as we go in our small groups. Thank you for our leaders and our homes. Each one is taking the time to go. Strengthen them now, the friendship that has been started. Help us have understanding as we read through the journal and pray. We ask these things in Jesus’ name. Amen
Series: NOT A FAN Knowledge About Him or Intimacy With Him Knowledge and belief don’t take the place for a true relationship John 21:15-17
09/08/2013 FCC Pastor Jeff Williams
So, we’re off and running in the series to find a relationship today. DTR. I had one of those moments. And my relationship with my wife. We were young. I met my wife when I was 18 and she had just turned 17. So I was a sophomore in college. She was a senior in high school. And we had friendship and we were dating. No talk of marriage at that point, or anything like that, just friends, just getting together, having fun. We had some mutual friends, Zack, no, Nate and Julie. We did some things with them. We respected them and liked them a lot. They decided that they were not gonna split up, but they were gonna start seeing other people, just to make sure that you know, you knew who you want and the person you want to be with. So I thought that was an interesting thought. I talked to my Mom. I said, “Mom, what do you think?” She said, “You know, you should date other girls. Make sure you find the kind of girl you want.” So I bounced the idea off Branda. I said, “You know, Nate and Julie, they’re seeing other people. You know, they’re not breaking up. But maybe we should do that, too, just to make sure that we know we’re supposed to be together, whatever. We’ll just see other people on our own. What do you think?” She was not really as gungho as by his highways. We went ahead and did this little experiment.
And so I started building relationship, friendship with another young girl at our college as well. So she would have known about Branda and Branda knew about her. But they didn’t know each other. Then one day, all came to the head. I came to this basketball game. Before you get mad at me. Some you gave me the evil eye. I want you to remember I was 18. OK? I didn’t know I was gonna be a pastor. I didn’t know that I was getting married to her. So don’t put this, you know, “That’s your wife.” I was just trying to build a friendship with this girl. So there was this basketball game. Branda’d come to this basketball game. So did the other woman. All the places you could seat, all the bleachers, she sat right behind Branda. So Branda could hear everything she said right behind. She started talking about “Put in the basket. Put in the basket.” She was saying stuff, she was interested in me to her friend. After the game, Branda came up to talk to me. She said, “We got to talk.” It was DTR time. And she said, “This isn’t working. You got a choice to make. Either you’re gonna be with her or you’re gonna be with me. We got to decide. We’re serious here? Is this gonna be a committed relationship? Because I’m not gonna do this anymore? So you have to decide.” So I said, “You’re gonna give me ultimatum. Yea. Obviously. I’m choosing you.” She said, “OK, well then you need to let the other girl know.” So I went and let her know. That did not go well at all. But what we have done is we defined our relationship. We said, “From this point on, from this moment on, we are making a commitment to each other. I’m not gonna dating other girls. You’re not gonna dating other guys. And we are committed to building our friendship.” The DTR. From then on, we knew what was expected. That was 60 years ago. It seems like. I’m glad you still laugh, because it would come a time when people won’t laugh anymore. You know, I say, I make a joke like that.
But what is the DTR? What does God expect from us? What is preeminent of God’s expectation for you and for me? What is the standard? What is the measurement which he judges his relationship with us by? What does he want more than anything else? What do you think it is? How does he judges? Something is by knowing the right thing to say and believing the right stuff. Right? It’s to know the right thing to say and believe the right stuff. You can repeat it back. That’s kind of good enough. Right? Peter, for instance, had one of those talks with Jesus. In Matthew chapter 16, up to this point, Jesus has not disclosed directly who he was. He was more of a veiled thing. But now he is saying directly, “Who do you say that I am?” And Peter replies and answers, he says, “You are Christ, the son of the living God.” And Jesus replies, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.” He got it right. He believed the right things about Jesus. He said the right things about Jesus. Is that simply all God’s wanting us to do? Is that all? You get to heaven someday. You stand. You heard of the pearly gate. And St. Peter says, “Why should I let you in heaven. You simply recite a doctrine.” I believe you start reciting the apostle’s creed, whatever it is. He presses the button, and says “Ding! You got it right.” The gate’s opened up and you walk in. Is that the DTR? The Bible, right before this, Jesus preached the gospel for the first time. He’s led in this wilderness. Guess who else believed he is Christ, the son of the living God? The enemy. Right? When I was in high school, we had a. I’ll tell you how old I am. There was McDonald’s next to our school. So, you go in the McDonald’s. And I can get a quarter pound of cheese, fries, and a medium drink for a dollar and get change back. That’s how old I am. If you want to leave right now, you can. So I did that. And there was promotion. And the lady was there with a stop watch. And she would say “go.” You had like 10 seconds or something. And you had to say “2 orders beef patties, lettuce, sauce, cheese, pickles and onions on sesame buns. It’s a Big Mac.” If you said that in time, you would get a free Big Mac. This promotion went on for a long long time. Right? And I got a lot of Big Macs out of that. Is that the criteria? You get to heaven. And Peter says “go.” I believe Jesus is the son of God. He is Christ, born of Virgin Mary. You just start saying all this stuff. Time’s up. You got to run. You are in. That’s not the standard. It’s important to have the right belief. It’s important to have the right confession. Say the right things and believe the right things. That’s important. The Christianity is much more than that. You find that the relationship is much more than just knowing the right stuff, saying the right words. What’s the standard? Listen to him talk. It’s like God grades on a curve, kind of. It’s like, you know, I am not as good as some Christians, like Mother Teresa, Billy Graham, really holly, and all that. You know, I’m better than this guy. I’m better than that guy. I know they do. I know what kind of person they are. I’m in the church. I’m better now. So we start playing this comparison game. God’s gonna accept me because I try harder. Right? I’m better than some. Peter tried to use this, too. Peter tried to impress the Lord. He loved him more than other guys.
Matthew chapter 16. Matthew chapter 26, excuse me, verse 31. The Lord’s super has been completed. They gathered in the upper room. Jesus began to talk about his sacrifice. They prayed together and sang together. It’s a wonderful moment, a bonding moment, a moment of deep friendship. After that, Jesus blows them away with what he’s about to say. He said, “This very night you will all fall away on account of me.” Not one of you, not one of you who broke the bread with me in my moment of greatest need is gonna stand with me. But every one of you will turn and run. Then he quotes a prophecy that says, “I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered. But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee.” Peter interrupts his speech right there. He says, “Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will.” So right in front of everybody. All these apostles on the bus, he says, Jimmy, Fall, Johnny, they all desert you. I never will. I love you more than these guys. I am more committed to you than these guys are. I’m not perfect. I know sometimes I put my foot in my mouth. I know sometimes I make mistakes. And I get a little bit of short fuse. But I try harder. I love you more than these guys do. They might fall away. But you got it wrong about me, says Peter. Comparison game? When you grade in the curve, I’m gonna pass. Jesus says to him, I guess I was wrong about you, Peter. I take back what I said. Everybody but you. No. He says, “I tell you the truth. This very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.” Very specific, tonight, before morning, 3 times. Still not convinced, Peter declared, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.” All the other apostles said the same, us too, we love you, too. So they were in this a competition to say who loves him more. They were always doing it, always jostling, always comparing themselves, vying to be in a more prominent position than the other.
You’ve played the comparison game before, haven’t you? Maybe you played it in school with your other students. Maybe you played with your siblings. I’m a better kid than my brother, my sister. You know, Mommy loves me more. I love Mommy more. Maybe you do that at work with other employees. I’m not a perfect employee. But I’m better than that guy. He’s sleeping on the job, you know, showing up late. I am better than her. Husbands do it. Husbands’ wives do it with wives. I’ve been in conversation. We started talking about a particular husband. The wife would say, “He missed our anniversary again.” And I feel good. I say, I don’t miss our anniversary. I’m always the one who remembers our anniversary. And Oh, my husband, this guy, he hasn’t worked in a year. So I’m out there slaving, he’s just lying on the couch. I eat that up. I work. I provide for my family. Oh, so and so, he just yells at his wife all the time. He’s verbally abusive to her. He is just mean to her. I listen up and I’m thinking, I don’t do that to my wife. I don’t yell at my wife. I treat my wife with respect. I’m a pretty good husband. I mean I’m not perfect, but I’m better than those guys. That would get the goody tissue guy. I get into a conversation. We start talking about household chores. He’ll go, I do all the laundry. I mean, we’ve got to get out of here. I tell you, Oh, man, I know. We just got here. It’s time to go. He’ll go, I cook all the meals in our house. I’m behind him, going, quiet, who asked you? You start to make me look bad. I start comparing myself to that guy. Mr. goody tissues. He walks around with a vacuum cleaner all day while he’s cooking a meal. It’s like I don’t want to hear about you. Nobody asked you. Let’s go. Let’s get outa here. I don’t want hear any more from this guy. Right? He’s making me feel bad about myself. We play the comparison game. There’s always somebody better. God doesn’t use that standard. No one in the scripture says God grades in a curve. What is this criterion then? What is it that God’s looking for more than anything else in his relationship with us? You know, when Jesus dies, Peter feels terrible. He feels terrible not only because he lost his friend and his Lord, but the way it ended. It ended with him denying Christ and vowing that he wouldn’t and he did. And Jesus died and he’s got no way to make it right. You know, when you lose a loved one, it’s hard, when you lose a loved one under those circumstances. Maybe your last discussion was an argument. Or maybe you failed them in some way. And you don’t have a chance to say, I’m sorry, to make it right. That makes the death even harder. So Peter is grieving the loss, but he’s also grieving the fact that he messed up so bad. But he has an opportunity to make things right. In John chapter 21. Remember after Jesus’ death, he’s gone. What does Peter say he’s going to do? What’s his plan? He says, I’m going fishing. By going fishing, he doesn’t mean I’m gonna get a can of worms and sit on a pier and recreate a little bit. Peter means he’s going commercial fishing. Big boats, big nets, marketplace, livelihood. That’s what he used to do. He was good at it. He misses it. He misses the sea, he misses the thrill of the catch, he misses making money. He wasn’t making money when he travelled with Jesus. He’s got to support himself. So he goes back to his trade, he goes back to what he knows.
So in chapter 21, they’ve been fishing, not fishing recreationally, they’re fishing to live. Jesus is there. He greets them. And they catch a large number of fish again. They bring in their boats, bring in their nets, they cook the fish. After that’s done. They’re done eating. Jesus has a private time with Peter. Verse 15, when they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you truly love me more than these?” What are the “these”? He’s talking about the other apostles? Did he say you love me more than these guys? That’s a pretty awkward question if that’s what he’s saying. Right? Your boss doesn’t come out in the work floor and say, OK, which one of the employees likes me the most. Right? Or your parent gathers around the meal and says, OK, kids, which one of you loves Daddy the most. That’s not a fair question to ask. That’s the question that might have appealed to Peter’s ego at one point. Right? He said, I love you the most. But he’s not talking about that. He’s not trying to put Peter in a place where he has to try to show himself up, like he loves Jesus more than the others. No. The “these” has to do, he’s probably pointing to boats and nets. Do you love me more than these? I originally called you to be a fisher of men. Do you still love me more than you love your boats, your fish, and your way of life? Do you still love me to sacrifice it all and follow me again? “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.” Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you truly love me?” Peter answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.” The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.” We’ve talked about this passage. We’ve gone into the Greek word for love. There’s philia. There’s agape. And this word used here and that word used there. I just really want to deal with the heart of the passage, essence of the passage. When Jesus has another DTR talk with Peter, let’s define our relationship again, Peter. What is this all about? What is the most important thing on Jesus’ heart and mind? Peter can say it creed that easy. He is conformed so much to internal code. No. The number one thing, the number one passion that he’s looking for, is “Peter, do you love me?” He wants a relationship defined by love. That’s what Christianity’s supposed to be about. It’s supposed to be about love. Love the Lord with our heart, soul and mind and strength. It’s not about memorizing a set of doctrine you can speak, going through these religious rituals and croups. It’s about a love relationship. DTR time. Peter, are you fully committed to me? If you’re fully committed to me, that’s what is all about. If you’re fully committed to God, everything else falls into place, doesn’t it? If you love me, you feed my sheep. If you love me, you care what is important to me, you care for my creation. You’ll be passionate about the things I’m passionate about.
When I think of passion, one of the men I think about is a man by the name of John Muir. Have you ever heard of John Muir before? He is known as the father of the National Park System. Very important guy, born in Scotland, very strict religious upbringing, he had memorized the Bible. When he was a boy, he memorized the whole New Testament, and moved to. Guess where? Moved to Portage, Wisconsin. And then for education, he went to the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Eventually, that led him to the study of botany and nature. And eventually he travelled to west to places like Yosemite and to the Grand Canyon, to Yellow Stone. And when he visited those parks, there weren’t national parks. They were just land, just raw. There were no roads. There were no trails. He was just there. He fought to preserve the land. The land brings me closer to the Creator, when I’m in it. It belongs to the people. He pushed the President, the Congress, to set aside that land that belongs to all of us. It didn’t belong just to the rich, did not just to the state. It would belong to the whole country. Those parks are your park, my park. OK? Thank you for showing us. Very important man. I learned about him when we took a family vacation to Yosemite, a beautiful park that is. I learned the stories about John Muir. He just learned to love God and creation. He loved nature. When you love God, you care about the things that matter to God. And God cares about creation. So he wanted to identify with creation. You know when there was a thunderstorm, do you know what he would to? He literally climbed to the top of the highest tree he could climb. In the middle of the thunderstorm, he experienced what a tree experiences during the thunderstorm. When you and I are running for cover, he was climbing a tree. And he would get up and feel the wind and the rain. He would hear the thunder. He would see the lightning. I’m sure he was afraid. He would approach wild animals. Waterfalls they are there, they are beautiful. We might go around them, or near them, or up above them, looking down. Do you know what John did? He would climb under the waterfall. Like the water was raging over here, he climbed up the cliff, between the cliff and the waterfall, to experience a waterfall. Just some of the things he did. He had this passion that was so great. He had to be in nature. When he was in nature, he came alive. No matter where his life took him, he always was strung back to the parks, to Yellow Stone, to Yosemite, to Sierra Club he founded there, reservation.
Jesus is saying, if you love me, you’re gonna love what I love, you’re gonna care about what I care about. You’re gonna feed my sheep. See? He wants the lives to be defined by the word passion. Love and passion. That never becomes a rope, a routine, mundane. You know, I talked about meeting my wife at young age. You fall in love and you get married. When you’re in love, falling in love, it feels like you think about that person all the time. You want to be with them all the time. There are plenty of excuses to be together. Time flies. Right? So you fall in love, you get married and you have children. And you buy a house, get a mortgage, get a job, sometimes two jobs, and a car and car payment. The kids have places to go. Next thing you know you’re not careful. You become a little careless. A relationship becomes more like a business partnership than a marriage. You start losing your passion. Right? You allow it to. It just becomes a part of business partnership and the love begins to dissipate. You find out why do we even marry. Forget why you even get married. As people say, they fall out of love with each other, because they allow their love to wane. I’m very much in love with my wife. I’m not talking about my marriage. But we make sure that we keep romance in our marriage. It’s easy to do. People can do that all the time. And the same thing that can happen in their marriage relationship can happen in their walk with God. If we’re not careful, our walk with God can become just something that’s ritual, something emotional we’re going through. We lose the passion. We lose the love.
I became a Christian at age 17. I’ve grown up in the church. I wasn’t serious about God at all. God was a doctrine I knew about. I spit out answers to Bible questions. But the church was the most boring place in the world. I like the pastor. The pastor was around and he is a good guy. I couldn’t wait to get out of there to go home and watch sports or start wrestling. That’s what I was into at age 9 and 10. I want to get out of there. I didn’t care about church kids. They seemed like nerds to me. I didn’t care about reading the Bible. That just seemed boring to me. At the age 17, God just got hold of me. This book became alive and exciting. I just would read it all the time. I read it at home. I read it in between the classes. I scheduled time between after work, before school started, to go to park. I just read the Bible, just make appointments with God. You know. Training for the ministry, I just want to teach God’s Word. Going into the ministry without 31 years from me, a full-time ministry. And you go back years before that, in training. So 35, 36 years either in preparation or in full-time ministry. You know what can happen after a while? It’s that I start coming to the bible because I have got sermons to write. I’ve got a funeral to do. I’ve got a wedding to perform. I’ve got a devotional to lead. I’ve got a bible study to lead. I’ve got a sermon series to plan. And then I’ve got to plan the next sermon series. Pastor Jesee calls me, just doing his job. I’m not mad, but he calls me and says, “Tell me more about what you’re gonna talk about in year 2015? Tell me a little more about.” I’m just teasing. He wants to know more about the message that’s coming up in 2 months. And I find myself again studying, because it’s my job. The Holy Spirit says, when was the last time you went to the woods to just read the Word, to spend time with me? When was the last time you built the fire in the family room, just to spend time with my Word and spend time with me? What about the love, Jeff? You’re doing a good job. You’re studying. You’re preaching. I’m pleased with all that. What about spending time with me just to love me? Not because you got to preach a sermon or series. Ya, Lord, I hear what you’re saying. I’ll work on that. I’ll try to fan that flame of passion in my spiritual life. Am I the only one out there who goes through this? Or do some of you sometimes find that can happen when you want to? That’s what this is about. This series is about big fan. Fan the flame to get it burn again. It’s not about filling your head with knowledge. It’s about filling your heart with love for your Savior. To come to learn more and love more. Join me in prayer.
Father, we thank you for this opportunity. We have these next 7 weeks together to study this book. This book is not really what we’re studying. We’re studying you Word. This book is simply a tool to give us understanding and some structure, as we study what you expect from us, what you desire from us. What you desire from Peter and what you desire from us, more than anything else, that we love you. When we love you, we want to please you. All those that matter begin to fall in place. What we ask today, fan the flame of our heart. As individuals, small groups, as churches, as a church, we love you more as a result of this series together. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
Hebrews Chapter 12, it’s talking about the sufferings of Jesus. The author says, “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of throne of God.” I want you to hone in on those words for a moment “for the joy set before him.” What does that mean? You know I thought about that. I thought, you know, the joy set before him probably means that he knows it’s gonna be over with soon. When you’re going through something difficult, here you’re running a marathon, you’re about to quit, and the joy set before you, cross that line, and you’re going to be done with your suffering. Whatever that is, the joy set before you, soon it will be over with. And I’ll be in heaven. That’s the joy to know that you can say it’s finished. I had an experience just yesterday. It gave me a new insight into this passage. I don’t think the way I’ve been looking at it is the way I need to look at it. It’s not how I see it anymore. I was getting ready to. I hadn’t eaten all day. So I was gonna go to a restaurant, have something to drink and eat, tweak the sermon with the final touches on it, to have a chance to go to the club, get exercise, go home and shower, and get ready for church, the first Saturday night live service of the year. So as I was getting ready to do that, I got a text. It was my daughter. She said, I had an accident at the club. I tripped on some weights and I crushed my hand between these 2 weights. I sliced up my hand. Please come. So I went and got her. We went to the hospital. And I am there in the emergency room with her. She’s trying to be brave and strong. He says, it’s gonna need stitches. It’s pretty deep. It’s pretty irregular. So we’re gonna put some shots in here. A couple of shots. It’s gonna burn a little bit. It’s gonna hurt. It’ll be a little pinch, and a burn. Then we’ll stitch you up. And so I held her hand. They began to chew. But it wouldn’t take it, for whatever reason. They did like 2 or 3 shots. Can you still feel it? Ya. 4 or 5 shots. Can you still feel it? Does that still hurt? Ya. 6 shots. How about now? Ya, I can still feel that. Then the last shot just right in the wound. And just gonna really make sure it knocks it up. She’s trying to be so brave and strong. She’s holding back tears. And one big tear comes down on her cheek. She’s so brave. I kissed her. At that moment, if the doctor would have said to me, hey, Dad, we got this new technology. When we can transfer that wound to your hand, it’s gonna hurt. But she’ll be whole and you’ll have what she has. Now I’ll have to stitch you up. You’ll have to heal. She’s gonna be OK. But she’ll experience everything she’s experienced. It’s a new technology. What do you want to do, Dad? That’s no brainer. Right? You’re like, give it to me. Give me the wound. I know it’s gonna hurt. I’m gonna feel joy because it’s gonna make her whole. It’s gonna make her better. So give it to me. Put it on me. What I could not do for my child, God did for his children. I think that’s the joy set before Jesus. Jesus says, give me the sin, give me the pain, wound me, kill me, give me the death, put it on me. Because it’s gonna make my child whole. It’s gonna make my child well. Do it. It goes on him. And his joy is knowing it’s not on us. We’re not gonna die because of our sin. We’re gonna be separated because of the sin. He’s gonna take that on himself. So for the joy set before us. See? What you’re holding in your hands the cup and bread, it’s not just creeds and doctrines. It’s love. It’s the Creator’s love for you. Love for your soul. Love you more than his own life. Let’s pray.
Father, we just want to come before you today, communion. We just don’t want it to be a routine, a ritual. We want to have a meeting with significance just like we did the first time. You began to explain how and why you had to pour out your life and blood and suffer. And really this story, this good news, is a matter of heart. It’s a matter of love. That’s how you want us to define our relationship with you. Greatest command, the love of the Lord, God of all our hearts, our sole strength, that we will return the love that you’ve given to us in Jesus. So remembering his sacrifices becomes asking for forgiveness, blessings, restoration of our souls. Thank you for your love and sacrifice. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Series: NOT A FAN Fan or Follower? What does repent and believe mean Mark 1:15
09/01/2013 FCC Pastor Jeff Williams
Let’s open the Bible to the gospel of Mark together. Chapter 1, I want to read verse 15 with you today. We are going to try to accomplish in this message this morning as to get it started sort of. OK? We are kicking off kinda. I mean, labor day weekend, honestly, not a great weekend to kick off a series. OK? And so we know that. So what we’re going to do is intro the series and then next week, not this week, next week, we get into our journals, we get into our small groups, we start showing the videos, I’ll start preaching the message from the journal. We are introing it this week and we’ll be into it six weeks to go through the study. And then a wrap-up week, two months altogether including this Sunday.
Mark chapter 1 verse 15: “The time has come.” he said, “Believe the kingdom. The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!” Jesus comes to Galilee, the region he is from and he says, “The time has come. The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news.” What would you have done that day? How would you have responded to Jesus’ declaration? Remember, Jesus has not performed one miracle at this point in time. He’s not given one sermon. The Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes, Lord’s prayer, never has happened. OK? Those who do know him do not see him as a religious person at all, a religious leader, maybe a religious person, not certainly a leader. He works as a carpenter. He lives in obscurity. Nobody knows who he is. And he is coming down the street, making this incredible declaration about the kingdom of God. How would you have responded?
Well, let’s put it this way. Let’s say you are downtown Janesville, on a Sunday afternoon. Let’s see you there. Let’s put you there on Saturday. That makes more sense. You’re at the farmer’s market. And some guy comes walking down the street and comes up to you and says, “The time has come. The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!” What is your response? You probably think, let’s be honest, this guy is off and he’s a nut, something’s crazy with this guy. Who are you? Why should I believe you? And repent from what? And what news? And the kingdom is near, where? I don’t see it. Jesus is trying to raise awareness. Do you see it? He’s trying to get them to see what they ought to see in their natural eyes. He’s trying to get their spiritual radar to try to be aware of the fact that God is present and that his kingdom is near. Recognition of the kingdom, to know the kingdom is among us. The kingdom is here. It doesn’t look any different. Today does not look any different than yesterday did, or the day before. I mean, when the kingdom of God comes, would we know it? Would we see it? It would be brought to us by some mystery man that we’ve never seen before walking down the street. We would know when the kingdom of God is here. I would think, they said. So who this guy is? He’s crudely off base. But to raise awareness. Sometimes what is important is difficult to see.
I was listening to a commencement speech by Stephen Foster Wallace. I don’t know if any of you has heard of that late novelist, or listened to his commencement speech called This Is Water. Anybody ever heard of that? It’s OK. Nobody this weekend has. I’m the only person who’s heard it. Stephen Foster Wallace is addressing a group. He tells a parable, a story about fish. He says there was an old fish swimming one way and two young fish swimming another way. In a while they passed each other. As they did, the old fish nodded to the two young fish and said, “Hi boys! How’s the water?” The young fish smiled and nodded their heads as well. They swam a little beyond the old fish and turned and looked at each other. And one said, “What the hack is water?” Unaware of what they’re swimming in. Sometimes the obvious. That’s not funny, the joke. That’s the fact that most of you didn’t laugh. It doesn’t discourage me. It’s not a joke. It’s a parable. Because if I told the joke for real, you guys will be just like dying laughing. It’ll be so funny. It’s a parable. And the meaning is sometimes the obvious and the important goes unseen, undetected. Sometimes that which’s important is unknown and undetected.
Jesus says, “The kingdom of God is here.” Reminds me of the apostle Paul when he is preaching in Athens. Athens is an intellectual hot bed. It’s kind of the capital of philosophy. It’s the birthplace of philosophy. Aristotle, Socrates, Plato, all these great names we still study and still read. And everybody there talks about the latest school of thought, the latest world view, the latest philosophy. And into this intellectual scene comes the apostle Paul to declare the gospel. He’s very craft and he’s very smooth. He begins to look around and he picks up on the culture, the statues, the idols. And there’s one there to an unknown god. And he seizes that. He begins to address the Athenians and he says, “What you declare’s unknown, I now declare to you the God of heaven and earth does not live in things made of human hands as if he needed anything. He is not from anyone of us. For in him we live, and move and have a being." In him we live, and move and have a being. There had to be some Athenians scratching their heads as the two young fish going where is God. What is water? Where is God? You’re talking about God around me? In me? Where is he? I don’t see him. Where? And so what Jesus is trying to do is get them aware. Pay attention. Turn on your spiritual. Wait till you can see truth, see truth and understand it. That’s our hope for the series.
When God is working in your life, you’ll be aware. When God is moving in your heart in the series, you will understand it and recognize it. That we will hear Jesus’ words as if hearing them for the first time. We’ll strip aside all the man-made stuff, all the junk. Say, why did he come? Did he just come to make you happy to live a happy life? Did he come to bless you and give you stuff? Why did he come? What was his message? And hear the message as if we’re hearing it for the first time. And be aware that he is present. And be aware that he is communicating to us. There is something he wants us to know. His news is not changed. Are we perceiving it the right way?
Stephen Foster Wallace also talked about two men who lived in Alaska in the wilderness. They were the buddies. One was a believer and one was an atheist. They were having an age old debate of “Does God exist.” They’re going back and forth. The atheist finally says, “Wolk. It’s not that I don’t have a reason to not to believe. I do. I mean I try to hold faith and prayer stuff. At it just doesn’t work.” He says, “I tell you, for instance.” He says, “Last year I got lost in a blizzard in the wilderness.” He says, “I thought that I was gonna die. I couldn’t see anything, ‘cause the snow was so intense. I couldn’t feel anything, ‘cause my feet and my hands were so cold. I couldn’t find shelter. And I knew if I was not rescued, or did not find shelter in a matter of time, I was gonna be dead. So I said, ‘I’m not a man of faith, not a man of prayer. If I’m gonna try to do it and be it, I guess now is the time. So God, please help me. God, please save me. I’m gonna die. If you’re a real God, please rescue me. Amen.’” The believer kind of scratches his head and goes, “I understand.” He says, “You’re here, right? When you ended the story, you were in this blizzard, about ready to freeze to death from exposure. So what happened? God obviously answered your prayer. You’re here.” “That’s got nothing to do with God,” he says. “It was just two Eskimos that happened to be walking by just when I needed it and escorted me back to shelter. That’s all. Nothing to do with God. Just by chance these two Eskimos came walking by.”
Get your radar on. Be able to be perceptive of what God is saying. So he starts his message, not a miracle, not a great sermon, but simply a one-sentence declaration of truth to people to whom he was a stranger for the most part. They did not recognize him or know his name. Repent and believe the good news. The kingdom of God is near. The time has come. When he says, “The kingdom of God is near,” that’s revelation. That’s revelation of the kingdom. Once I’ve got your attention. Then I’ll spill the beans. Then I’ll tell you why I want your attention. The kingdom of God is near. It’s not gonna look like you thought it was gonna look. So you thought it was gonna come in power. You thought when the Messiah come, he would triumph militarily over Rome and establish a physical kingdom in Jerusalem. Jesus begins to talk about the kingdom that was present. It was gonna be inside of them. The kingdom of heaven was gonna give and reside within them. You have to change the way you look at the kingdom of God, and to change your perception. Paul says, “This God you worship is unknown I declare to you. Jesus Christ came into the world. The God who made heaven and earth sent his son in the world. Here is what he did and here is what he said. Then he died and he rose again. God gave proof that he is Lord by raising him from the dead. And God commands men everywhere to repent and believe.” That’s what Paul said in 17 of Acts. It’s a command.
Repentance is not a suggestion. God doesn’t apologetically say to us, “Hey, you know, get some time, you know, when you have a moment. I don’t want to impose. I don’t want to impede. You know repentance. Think about it. If you want to, that’s OK. You don’t have to.” God doesn’t do that. God commands repentance. So Paul gets them aware. In him we live, we move and have a being. But What? Where? Who? And once he’s done that, once he’s got their attention, then he begins to reveal the kingdom. The kingdom of God is coming in the person of Jesus Christ. As soon as he said raising him from the dead, he lost them. The Athenians said, “That doesn’t make any sense. That’s not rational. That doesn’t fit into our philosophy. That doesn’t fit into our world view.” And many of them rejected. Not all. Many of them rejected. You see, the message of the kingdom, once it’s revealed to us, it demands a response. So Jesus talked about the response of the kingdom, too. Recognize the kingdom. He revealed that this is a spiritual kingdom, but demanded a response as well. The response was “repent and believe.” The response could also be “reject.” But it demands a response. And as we encourage you to look at the demands of Christ, the expectations of Christ, there might be some of you who’ll say, “I reject that”, or did not understand that was a commitment that was made. But it demands a response. You receive it or you reject it. But it demands a response. The response is “repent and repent and believe.” You always see those two working together. Repent and believe. Repent and believe. The work repent is metaonia which means to change one’s mind. Believe is pisteuo which means to believe and act upon. It’s not just intellectual sense. But biblical belief always has corresponding action. For instance, you think tomorrow is going to be a nice day. But then you look at the forecast, it says 100 percent chance of rain. When you believe that report, what do you do? You change the clothes you’re wearing that day. You bring an umbrella. Maybe you thought it was gonna rain. Later the forecast says hot and sunny. So now you’re gonna wear short sleeves and sun block and bring your sun glasses. ‘Cause you believe the weatherman, which I don’t know why you do. But, we just keep falling for it, don’t we? We’re suckers, I guess. But you listen and you believe and you change. And there is corresponding action. If you truly believe something, you will change your behavior.
I repented this week. I’ll show you a story of repentance now. You know, I’ve come to miss Pastor Jerry more and more every month. I miss him ‘cause he’s my friend. But he’s in Evansville. But there is a lot of things that male shepherding pastor does, but the female shepherding ministry doesn’t do. You know. She doesn’t do in funerals. She’s not dealing with men, with man issues. She’s not going to prison to visit male prisoners. So lots of stuff Jerry was doing is falling on me. I put in a lot of long days. I didn’t get a day off. I had a day off on Monday. I didn’t get a day off last week. Tuesday was long day. Wednesday was long day. I’m not complaining. I like my job. I’m grateful to have a job. But just like you, I get tired, too. It’s a good tire. But I was tired. When Thursday came along, I said, “I’m just gonna have some me time. I’m gonna go out and work on my terrible golf game. I just want to be alone.” So I called and I made an appointment and he said, “I’ll play you with so and so at such and such time.” I go, “I don’t want to be paired up. I just really want to work on some things and I want to be by myself.” That may sound selfish to you. But if you have been in a ministry, you know sometimes you need to have time to yourself. OK? Pastor Gary is nodding his head. He knows what I’m talking about. I just want to be by myself. What’s wrong with that? So, he said, “If you want to be by yourself, you’ve got to come at this time instead.” OK. So I showed up. So the clerk said, “OK. We paired you up with so and so.” Trying to be nice, I said, “Look, I called earlier and I said I really want to be by myself.” “OK, then I’ll let him know that. You have to wait until he goes. And then you can go.” OK. Then kind of put me at a bad spot.
So I went out there and tried to be nice again. I said, “Sorry. But I’m gonna golf course by myself today. I got some things I got to work on. I don’t wanna, which was true. I do not know how to TR with my irons at all. I’m terrible. So I’ll just work on that. And I don’t want to hold you up. So you just go ahead and go.” He said, “OK. All right.” I am terrible at everything else, too. But I’m especially terrible with that. My son’s back there, going, “He’s bad at everything.” So I said, “Go ahead. You go.” He said, “OK. That’s fine. But, listen, if I start looking for a ball, I’m just wandering around looking for a ball, taking a long time, just play on through. See, I had a surgery on my eye and I don’t see very good on the other side. I can’t track the ball. It passes the side of me.” I said, “I’m golfing with you. Me and you, we’re gonna be buddies today, OK. I’m gonna help you track that ball. Don’t worry about it.” He was like oh, OK. I didn’t mind it at that point. I got a purpose now. So I said, “We’re gonna golfing together, me and you. I’m gonna help you find your ball.” He was a very good golfer, very helpful. We had wonderful conversation. He drew lines on my glove. So that helped me grab my club better. Just some subtle changes. That really helped. I’m gonna make sure this arrow points at this shoulder. It helped.
So, what did I do there? I repented. I changed my mind. I changed my direction. I wasn’t emotional. I wasn’t crying. It was repentance. I listened to what he had to say. I believed what he had to say. And I changed my action. I was gonna golf alone. But now I believed the right thing to do was to pair up with this guy, to help him find his ball. OK? That’s repentance to change your mind, to change your direction. It follows belief. I hear, I believe and I change. That’s a response. Jesus says “Response is the message of the kingdom.” The proper response is to repent and believe.” Believe is corresponding action. Believe what? What is it we call to believe? Or put it this way. Why is it hard to repent? Why is it hard to do? You know why it’s hard to repent. Because to truly repent you have to admit you’re wrong. Right? I was wrong about golfing alone today. That’s not a good thing to do. You’re gonna repent, you admit that you’re wrong. How many of you have ever been in an argument? You know you’re wrong and keep defending yourself. Boy, look at this group of hypocrites. I do it, too. You know you’re wrong and you just keep on arguing. Because you don’t want to say you’re wrong. Remember the father on Happy Days? He can never say he was wrong. The father always goes “RRRR.” Let me try again. “I was RRRR.” He couldn’t say it.
I was in Philadelphia this year. My table was right next to the Fonz. He was author, you know. Henry Winkler. He doesn’t look like Fonz anymore. I didn’t talk to him. I didn’t want to embarrass him and go “ye ye ye.” I just kind of looked at him, kind of stalked him. That’s the Fonz. Could it mean that I was wrong? That was the problem with some of the people whom Jesus wanted to follow him. The religious leaders, the Pharisees, he said, he said to them what. You diligently recite the scriptures, because you think by the scriptures you possess eternal life. Yet you refuse to come to me. That you might have right. Why? You have to admit you’re wrong. You’ve got to eat your words. And nobody wants to eat their words. They don’t taste good. Right?
My roommate in college, his name is Tod. He had attention deficit disorder when it was time to study. We were playing softball, video games, ping pong, or pool. He could concentrate really well. When it was time to sit down and study, he just lost it. He studied for a second, then he was off playing basketball. He studied for a second, he said, “I’m gonna play dunkey kong. Do you want to go?” He studied for a second, he said, “Hey, let’s go down and see what’s going on over here. Let’s go play some pool.” So now at the end of semester, he got to buckle down to get grades. And he drew out this elaborate schedule. Monday, wake at 8 o’clock, 8:15, 9 o’clock of this, 10 o’clock of that. And he got this elaborate every-15-minutes schedule that he was gonna keep. And he showed it to me all proudly. He expected me to go “Wow! That’s great.” I looked at it as a skeptic as I looked at it for the last two years. Then I go, “You ain’t gonna do that.” He said, “What do you mean that I ain’t gonna do that? I’m gonna do that. I’m serious. I’ll take the time to make this schedule.” “I don’t care. You’re gonna do.” He said, “Why not?” I said, “’cause you’ve never done that in 2 years. So all of a sudden, you’re gonna flip the switch. You’re gonna just unstruture God? Play by ear God? Attention deficit God? You’re gonna follow this from 8 o’clock in the morning till 8 o’clock at night?” He said, “Yah. I am. You wanna bet?” I said, “Oh, yah. That’s a good bet.” So I forgot what I had to do if he would keep, every day he kept the schedule I had to do something. I didn’t remember what it was. He said, “What do I have to do if I don’t?” A light bulb went off. A big one lit up the campus. I said, “I got an idea.” I said, “Every day you don’t do that time, you’re gonna figuratively and literally eat your words. I want you to rip a page out of your book. Rip it into tiny pieces and eat the paper.” He said, “Deal. Deal.” I came back to the room Monday night. I couldn’t wait. I got into the room and I said, “Tod. How did it go?” Suddenly he went “Whoa! Choo! Whoa!” He started to eat. Tuesday, “Hi, Tod. How was your day?” Whoa! Choo! And he would eat the whole page. And every page, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. Actually Friday he skipped out. ‘Cause it was like the last day of school. I held him to it. A month later, we got together. And I went, “Page 5. Time to eat, buddy.” So I mean he ate it. Mom looked at me and kind of scorned, “I want to know he is OK, you know.” He made it just fine. But he had to eat his words. He had to admit “I was wrong. I was wrong. I eat my words.”
We don’t like to eat our words. We don’t like to admit we’re wrong. But that’s what repentance is. It’s admitting you’re wrong. It’s saying, “I’m wrong. You’re right.” You know the word confession? It comes from two words, homologeo, same word. It means to say the same thing that God says. It needs to be in agreement with God. I’m right. You’re right. I’m wrong. And Jesus says, a lot of you, when you hear the news of the kingdom, you’ve got to change your mind. You have to change your mind about who the Messiah is as well. The Messiah’s gonna come in and conquer. Right? You know what Isiah says? Isiah prophesies 700 hundred years before the Messiah comes. He says, “A reed he will not break.” So gentle, he will not even break a reed. I’m gonna miss his coming. What’s called hardening of the categories. Hardening the categories. So we’re just getting that, a little late. That’s all right. He wasn’t what they were expecting. And to receive him as Lord, you have to admit that your perception was wrong. Your perception of the kingdom. Your perception of the Messiah. You thought you were righteous, holy. But, you, in fact, are sinners, neither are savior.
Repent and believe. Two go hand in hand. So believe what? Believe the good news. What good news? What good news does he talk about? Remember the ministry was just starting. There’s no sermon. There’s no miracle. He hasn’t died on the cross for sin. He has not rose from the dead. When we think, we think of the gospel. What’s the good news that he was calling people then to believe? It’s salvation to come. The time of redemption was here. That he was fulfilling God’s plan of redemption. The salvation was here. The good news that God has come to redeem his people.
I was talking to my friend, my new friend on the golf course, Doug. He is a physician’s assistant at St. Mary’s. He lives here 4 days a week. He lives in Minnesota the rest of the time. So I finally asked him, “What do you do?” He told me. The he said, “What do you do?” I said, “I am the pastor of the Faith Community Church.” He said, “Oh, that’s the one on the interstate. I drive by there all the time.” I said, “Ya. That’s where I’m at.” He said, “I went to a seminary.” I said, “Ya?” He told me about it. So I said, “What do you do with that?” He said, “Well, I’m a part-time missionary.” He said, “Once a year, for a month, I go on the mercy ship. Have you heard of that?” I said, “I’ve heard of them. I watched a report on 60 minutes. Christians, doctors, surgeons, nurses, specialists travel along on these ships all over the world. They travel around all over Africa. They travel around all over the third world. They travel around the Caribbean. And they’ll stop at these various ports of call and they cure people. There will be doctors there that work on eye problems.” He said, “There might be eye procedures that cost a hundred dollars to get it fixed. But they don’t have a hundred dollars. You might as well save a million dollars. We fix it for free. Or maybe there is an outbreak. And they simply just need a vaccine. So we’ll bring the vaccine on our ship. Or they might have a dental problem. The dentist will be there to work on their mouths.” Something very treatable. Orthopedist surgeons and all kinds of doctors. A lot of times it’s very treatable illnesses. They don’t have access to medication or they can’t afford it. But they hear the mercy ship is there. They come from everywhere, villages and towns. Many of them just disfigured in pain. And they receive help by these Christian medical professionals whom people like you and I sponsored to pay and go. And do you know what they receive? Salvation. Good news. Salvation literally means deliverance, rescue. That’s what it means. They’re delivered from their illness, from their pain. Sometimes they’ll have operations that would last for a period of years. They’ll do corrective surgery. They can only go so far this year. And next year they will be back. They’ll come back for round 2, round 3 until the doctors get it right. But if there’s an emergency, the mercy ship is here for just a time and pulls out. Believe the report. Believe it’s there. You’re gonna respond. You’re gonna show that you believe by going there, taking a step of faith, walking into that ship, allowing those doctors to work on you, those nurses to minister to you. Trust what they say and put into your mouth and swallow what they inject into your vein. You trust them. The result is that you heal. The result is you’re delivered. Jesus says, “I’m coming with some news.” It’s good news. You may not realize it’s good news. But be aware. Be spiritually aware. Have your antennas up. Be alert. Recognize the kingdom of God. This is water. This is the kingdom. And it’s all around you. And it’s in you. That’s our goal. Be aware of the kingdom. Listen to the revelation. What did he have to say? ‘Cause whatever he said to them, he said to us as well. And lastly respond. Where do I need to change? Where do I need to admit I’m wrong in my thinking, in my action and change? Change. Humble myself and repent and believe. That’s what the series is gonna be about. I hope you’ll join us for it.
Let’s pray. Father, we thank you for this opportunity we had to listen to the first words. You began your ministry. People around did not realize those words were ushering in an age that would change the world. But it did. Lord, as we come to the series, help us to see those words like we’re seeing it for the first time and understand the commitment you’re calling us to, and why you came. Strip away man-made religion, garbage. We might be left a pure gospel to respond to it. Repent and believe. It’s good news. Salvation’s come in the person of Christ. In his name, we pray. Amen.
We’re talking this morning about our series on Angels and Demons and of course we get to turn to the bright side, the light side this morning which is nice. I’m looking forward to that, talking about angels. We have, I think as a culture, a real love, an affinity for angels as a people. Angels are in our art, our literature, in our movies. My favorite movie angel is Clarence in It’s A Wonderful Life. Television shows, one that has really popularized angels is Highway To Heaven, remember that one with Michael Landon or Touched By An Angel with Roma Downey. That was must see TV on Sunday nights for a long time—this whole idea that an angel can take on human form and be among us. Actually, that’s got a little bit of biblical support. There’s an obscure passage in the book of Hebrews, the 13th chapter, the 2nd verse. It says, 2 Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it. It’s a rather obscure, kind of a strange reference, isn’t it? Almost as if an angel could be one of us and we not know it. I had a couple strange experiences in my life. One happened to Brenda when our oldest daughter was 1 ½ years old. She was in a terrible car accident. I was on my way to it and traffic was backed up for blocks. There were ambulances, fire trucks—a multi-car accident; I was terrified. When I talked to her, it was before cell phones, so she called my office and I asked if everything was okay. She said, “Carrie’s been hit on her side.” She meant her side of the car. I thought she meant her side and so I was terrified. I bypassed the traffic jam moving in and out of traffic. I finally got there and I saw the car. You could tell the car was totaled; the car was in awful condition. Later on I would say to her, “It’s a good thing that Carrie wasn’t in the front seat, in the passenger seat, she would have been killed.” She said, “She was in the passenger seat.” All she had was a little tiny scratch. The car was completely caved in. What was so strange was, immediately after the accident, I mean seconds after the accident she was terrified for the life of our daughter. A woman showed up at the window, this was winter time, knocked on the window, Brenda lowers the window and (the woman) says, “I just want you to know that you’re okay and that your daughter’s okay and this was not your fault.” I mean, right after the accident (she is) in the street telling her this. She turned to look at Carrie and then she turned back to talk to the woman but she was gone. She was looking everywhere and she was gone. Did I tell that accurately? Thank you. (Laughter.) Another time I was teaching as a youth pastor in Rockford. We had this thing called “A Planned Famine” where you starved yourself for 30 hours to raise money for the poor. It was one of the first years that World Vision would ever do that and I was teaching on this passage (while) in a downstairs room with about 25-30 high schoolers who were all hungry. We’re winding this thing down and I’m teaching on the passage in James about feeding those who are hungry and Hebrews 13:2 about entertaining angels unaware, you know. While I’m teaching this, do you get me? While I’m teaching this, there’s a knock on the door and one of the girls is there. I said, “Sue, I’m teaching. Couldn’t this wait?” She said, “Pastor Jeff there’s a man upstairs who says he’s had no food in three days and he wants to know if we’ll feed him.” While I’m teaching about feeding the hungry and entertaining angels unaware…the kids are like, “That’s a set up. Yeah. Very funny.” I’m like, “No, no set up.” They’re like, “Whhoooaaaa.” We made food for the guy and we all kind of stood there watching him walk down the hallway like he was just going to disappear. (Laughter.) That never happened. We watched him walk out of sight, but no poof. No glow, no Monica scene where the lights come up and she says “I’m an angel,” none of that stuff. But, it was very peculiar. I can’t say for sure what those encounters were but very peculiar, indeed. There is a more definitive verse that’s in the same book in the first chapter, the 14th verse where it says, “Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?” He asks a rhetorical question, are not all angels, are they not all ministering spirits? Of course, the answer was supposed to be, yes, they are. So, the word angel means messenger. That’s literally what it means. You are a messenger. You are someone who is bringing a message. Secondly, they are spirits which means they can minister spiritually. They are spirits. They have advantages that we wouldn’t have. Thirdly, their job is to minister. Minister to whom? To those who will inherit salvation. How do they minister? We’re going to see that they are very involved in the Christmas Story as we look at the birth narrative in Matthew. We’ll look at the birth narrative in Luke tomorrow night in the Christmas Eve service. But, this morning looking at the birth narrative in Matthew, there’s a lot of intervention (by) angels. What’s interesting is they come and they minister. They come to encourage, comfort, guide, direct and redirect, and to warn, and to teach, much like ministry that we would do. The angles come to do it, what’s interesting in Matthew is they always do it in dreams. In Luke it’s not the case, it’s a visual, awake experience. But, in Matthew every account of intervention is angelic and happens in a dream form. You’re kind of vulnerable when you’re sleeping, right? You’re kind of receptive and you in an unconscious state. You and I have never ministered to someone in their dreams before, never done that, but a spiritual being could. Because while our physical beings are sleeping our spiritual self is very much awake. What is that like, before we look at the dreams, what would that be like? Have you ever wondered what that would be like, to be spoken to in a dream? I’m going to step out here and share a story with you this morning and you might think me crazy for telling it. But I’m going to tell it because maybe it will help us understand what Joseph and the Magi might have experienced. I can’t say for sure that what I experienced was from God. I’m certainly not saying it was angelic, but maybe it might help us understand this important part of the Christmas Story. When I was 36 years old I found out that we were going to have another child. Now, I had a boy and a girl and I was very content with that. And so, you’ve got your future planned out and that’s just the way it is. When the news came that we were going to have another child seven years after the last child, I was not ready for that. I was not ready for that emotionally or any other way. I was not overjoyed with the news. I’m thinking, boy, I don’t want to be a dad again this old in life. I’m 36 years old and I’m thinking I’m old. I long to be 36 again. (Laughter.) I was like, at this age, to be a dad again? So, I went through a period of depression. I was just thinking, I had it all figured it and now we’re going to have a baby and I’m not ready for it and I don’t know if I’m going to be ready for it and I was just really down, just really discouraged, saying, “God do you know what you’re doing?” kind of thing. One night, I had a dream. Again, I don’t want to embarrass myself or for you to think I’m a wacko or something, but I just want to tell you what happened to me, to tell you my experience. I had a dream and it was one of those dreams—and I don’t know if you ever had this before—but while I was having this I knew I was in bed, I knew I was sleeping when I had this encounter, and I was desperately trying to wake up. I knew I was in my bedroom, I knew all about my surroundings but yet, I was asleep. I felt like I couldn’t move. In my dream a friend of mine whose name is Myla (she’d been a friend of ours for many years and then she died unexpectedly in her early 30s) whom I hadn’t seen or talked to in years, in this dream, I saw her. I said, “Myla, it’s good to see you. You look great, you look wonderful. It’s so good to see you.” She smiled back and said, “It’s good to see you, too.” I don’t remember anything else but seeing her. I don’t remember what was around us. I don’t remember any other people. There was certainly no other activity. It was just a one-on-one conversation and the conversation made sense. It wasn’t dream like. The conversation I had with her was as real to me as any conversation I will have with you today, is the best way I can explain it. I said, “Myla, what are you doing here?” It didn’t take long for me to remember that she is deceased. I said, “Wait a second, you died. I can’t be talking to you, you died.” She said, “I know. But, I’ve been sent by God to deliver a message to you.” I said, “I’m not comfortable with this.” (Laughter from the congregation.) That’s what I said. I said, “I’m not comfortable with this; and I don’t mean to offend you, but I want to leave. I want to leave.” She said, “I know, you can, but I want to tell you this. This child is a gift from God and you’re going to love this child.” She started talking about my relationship with my soon to be born daughter. And then I said, “I appreciate your sharing that with me. I just want to wake up. I want to go.” You know, “Thanks for coming.” (Laughter) She said, “I understand.” I said goodbye and I was like, I gotta wake up, I gotta wake up, come on. It took me a while. I was like, I’m in my room, I want to wake up… As soon as I woke up I said, “Brenda, you’ve got to wake up. I just talked to Myla and here’s what she said…” And from that moment you could say it was just a dream and it was nothing more than that. But, I wasn’t thinking about her (Myla) and it was just the way it happened. For me, I had a visit; my attitude and my whole demeanor, my whole outlook changed from that moment forward toward the birth of our daughter. Maybe that’s something like what Joseph went through—that stage where you’re kind of asleep and kind of awake. You’re cognitive, you’re aware but you also know that you are sleeping. Okay? I won’t go on anymore with that, you can call me crazy if you want to, but that was my experience. Now, I’m not saying Myla had become an angel, but she certainly was a messenger to me on that day. Matthew’s gospel, the first chapter, we’ve already looked at the first dream—that was a dream that came to Joseph when he was embarrassed and ashamed to take Mary as his wife, feeling like she’d been unfaithful to him, that she’d not kept her vows of betrothal and that he was going to put her away, privately. But because of the encouragement and the teaching of the angel, who said look, this is part of God’s plan. Do not be ashamed. Do not be afraid to take her as your wife. And so that dream took place. Through that ministry of the angel, Joseph married Mary. In chapter 2, a little time has passed and now the Magi are coming from the east to try to find where the Christ child was. We are, as a family, going to the Adler Planetarium this week just to get away, in Chicago. I’ll never forget the presentation we all saw at the planetarium, they’re not doing it now but they did it for years called The Star of Bethlehem. Did any of you ever see that when that was at the Adler? Wasn’t that fantastic? I walked in there thinking, this is a place of science and they’re going to just ridicule my faith. They recreated the sky over Bethlehem when Christ was born. They talked about this magnificent cosmic display. Science verifying, recreating the sky and talking about how the star would have seemed to have moved, this alignment of constellation and the Leo constellation and the royal planet and the royal star all aligned to create this brilliant affect in the sky over Bethlehem. They said they weren’t saying it was the star of Bethlehem, we’re just telling you something wonderful and strange happened in the sky over Israel at that time in history. And so they followed the star and they came to the place where they can’t find him and they stop to speak to Herod. Now, Herod is an awful man. Herod is a man who will do anything to cling to power. Herod is a man who killed two sons that he deemed a threat to his throne, a threat to his power. This is a sick, twisted man. Not knowing these things, they come to Herod and seek out, “Where is this king, we’ve come that we might worship the King of the Jews?” And so Herod inquires. He finds out that there’s a Bible prophecy in the book of Micah, that the Christ will be born in Bethlehem. Bethlehem is this obscure little village. I mean this is pinpoint accuracy. Instead of saying the Messiah would be born in the United States it would be like a prophecy that said the Messiah would be born in Footville. Okay? I mean, it’s pinpoint, a small little village. And yet, the prophecy was there and so King Herod knew there was something to this. Of course the Magi are warned in a dream that says not to come back because he is going to do great harm to the child. So, they find Jesus, Jesus is now a child. It says he is no longer an infant. He’s in a house; he’s not in a manger. I hate to spoil your nativity scene with your wise men; I think go ahead and keep the wise men there. They’re part of the Christmas Story, but they came a little later and they worshipped him and gave him their gifts. In verse 12 they are warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned another way. Let’s pick up in verse 13. Open your Bibles to Matthew 2:13... 13 When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.” 14 So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, 15 where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.” 16 When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. The word child for Jesus, describing Jesus the child, is the word for toddler. He’s no longer an infant. He could have been as old as two years old by the time the Magi arrive. 17 Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: 18 “A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.”
Here in the midst of this story of joy and gladness, hope and light, is this dark story about a man who, not only would kill his own sons but would kill innocent little children that he would deem as a threat to his throne. We can (ask) how can a loving God allow that to happen in such a time of joy as the birth of the Messiah? How could (this be?) Maybe God’s not all-good if he allowed that to happen. Or maybe he’s not all-powerful because he knew about it and couldn’t stop it. Maybe he’s not all-knowing because he didn’t prevent it. If you were here last week you might have an answer for someone who says those kinds of things. I just want to touch on that briefly for those of you who weren’t here last week. We talked about the problem of evil. Remember we said what evil is. I’m not going to preach the whole sermon again but I do want to touch on it a little bit. We said what evil is. We define evil, let me back up, I’m a little rusty, it’s been a week...We talked about what silence is, silence is the absence of sound. Silence is a nothing. If there is a room full of sound there’s nothing that’s called silence that’s going to come in and overcome the sound. Darkness is the absence of light. There is no substance called darkness that is going to come into the room and steal away the light. Darkness is a nothing; it’s when light is gone. Cold is the absence of heat. Cold is what we describe what we feel when heat is removed from a place. In like manner, evil is the absence of good. Evil is what happens when we turn away from the goodness of God because God has given us something called free will. It’s a two edged sword. It’s a blessing and curse. Free will can do wonderful things but free will can also kill and destroy. One of the ways we illustrate it is this, if somebody says to you, “How can God be good and allow this kind of an evil like Herod did in slaughtering the innocents?” You might say, “How would you like it if you were told what was right and wrong and you were forced to do what somebody else said was right. Somebody else defined your values and set the course of your life for everything you were supposed to do and you had no choice. Maybe it’s a government, maybe it’s a church—those are called cults and they exist. They tell you this is what you’re going to do, this is what you’re going to think and this is what’s right and you have no choice in the matter. How would you feel about that? The average person is going to say, “I wouldn’t like that very much.” Why not? Well, because I want to choose for myself. I want to have freedom to make my decision, what’s right and what I want to do and how I want to live. So, we agree that freedom of choice is a good thing. Yes, we do. Thirdly, we ask the question, “If you can choose good, if you’re free to choose good does that also mean you are free to choose badly, to choose wrong?” Yes, it does. If I’m free to choose (what is) good, I’m also free to choose what is evil. And lastly, the fact that I can choose evil is a good thing because it means that I am morally free. Not that the evil I would choose is good, but the fact that I am free to choose it means I am morally free. God agrees. To take away that freedom is a greater evil; so, God allows us to make choices, even horrendous choices. He’s our judge and he would judge Herod and Herod would pay for his sin. But, no one was responsible for what happened to those babies besides King Herod. Herod made a choice to turn away from God’s goodness. He had the audacity to think he could thwart the plan of God. Think about that, that’s a monstrous sized ego to think you could thwart the plan of God, and yet he did. And so, there’s this dark period in Bethlehem. Maybe some 20 boys were killed. Bethlehem is not a big place if you factor in the vicinity, we estimate maybe around 20 infants. But, one would have been too many. Herod just loses it and he sheds innocent blood. Verse 19, says, 19 After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt 20 and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.” 21 So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. 22 But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. This guy was so incompetent that Rome removes him after six years in office and just says you’re done, you’re an idiot, and you’re gone.
Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, 23 and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets: “He will be called a Nazarene.”
So here are these dreams and in each of these dreams the angels minister. They minister in much the same way we would. Sometimes ministry is to warn, sometimes ministry is to guide, sometimes ministry is to redirect. Sometimes ministry is to comfort or encourage or to teach. Here is something that we have in common with the angels: you and I are called to be angels in this sense, we are messengers and we have been sent. The verse in Hebrews 1:14 says, “Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?” Sent forth: that word is in the present tense meaning God has sent them, is sending them, and will continue to send them. Likewise God is sending us. (Turn to) the book of 1Peter chapter 4 verses 8-11 and let’s read them together, 8 Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. 9 Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. 10 Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms. So how we minister is going to change. 11 If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen. Peter says how we minister changes. What we do changes. But the fact is we have been sent by God. The fact is we have a message to give from God. I want to tell you, as your pastor, and I’ve been here since we started coming up on 23 years, I’ve never been prouder to be the pastor of Faith Community Church than I am right now. We are coming into a body that is “getting it”. We are recognizing that we have been sent and we’re going. I think about missions in this last year and then looking forward into next year. I think about the group we sent to Haiti, we did wonderful things and they’re going back in January. I’m so proud of that team. I’m thinking of Team Tychicus coming back from Cambodia and Zambia over Thanksgiving and the great work they did ministering to the missionaries there. I am thinking about the team of ladies we are sending to the Dominican Republic real soon. I think about the team that is getting ready to go to Mexico this summer to minister. I think about our youth who minister in Minnesota to an Indian reservation to the poor. I think about a team that we sent to Tuba City, AZ this summer with Bertie Baker to minister to the Navajo Indians on a reservation there. I see a church that’s getting the message and I’m very proud of that, and I see that’s going to continue. Not only abroad but at home here, I’ve seen us minister. During the fall in our small groups we had Micah 6:8 service projects going on: twenty-six small groups, 26 services blitzing this city with the love of Christ. We heard amazing stories of how you ministered to families who lost everything and how you ministered to women at the battered women’s shelter for abused wives and women. How our youth group and other CARES ministries adopted those girls who’d lost their mother so tragically to a homicide this year and made sure that their Christmas had something good in it, distributing presents. I could just go on and on as I know you’re involved with the CARES ministry. Every month we are involved in reaching out in CARES ministry and reaching out to Wilson School, the school that we’re a part of. I see us in a tangible way, expressing the love of Christ. I just want to encourage you in 2013. If you’re sitting on the sidelines, get involved. Join us. Recognize that Christ did send you. Recognize that you do have a message. It’s not just to be a “pew potato”; it’s not just to be a consumer, a sponge that soaks it up. Occasionally allow the Holy Spirit to squeeze you out and let his love and the knowledge and the goodness he’s place within you come out of you and into the life of others. When you invite somebody tomorrow to the Christmas Eve service to hear the message of the good news, that’s being a minister; that’s being an angel to somebody. God has called us to be angels as well, not with wings and halos but as we are. He has called us to be salt and light to a lost and dying world. 2013 is going to be a good year for our church. I hope it’s a year when you step up and say, “God, I recognize I’m being sent. I’m not waiting for orders to be sent, I have been sent. What do you want me to do? Where do you want me to serve? How do you want me to give?” Let’s be light to our community and to our world. Let’s pray together, “Father we are so grateful for the Christmas Story as we hear the good news of the Messiah. How you aligned those stars and those planets, and science verifies that, to show a brilliant light over Bethlehem, for those Wise Men to come. How you used the ministry of angels to guide and direct, to warn and to comfort, to teach and encourage. And Lord, our reactions with angels, only heaven will be able to tell us the things that happened to us that we’re not even aware of. We’re thankful for their ministry. We’re thankful that we too have been sent, that we too are messengers of the kingdom, that we have a job to do. And, Lord I pray that as you have blessed us in 2012 that you will bless us again in 2013 and help us to do even greater things for the Kingdom
Paragons of Interpretation How many of you have ever envisioned yourself, fantasized about, going to an exotic port of call or some place that you think would be..., you know, you either want to live there or vacation there and you just envisioned this place in your mind and you wanted to go there; it’s on your bucket list, how many have a place like that? Right. Okay, on (the count of) three tell me what it is, okay? One, two three…(congregation responds in unison, each one saying his/her own answer.) Pastor: Who said Footville? (laughter) Yeah, we all have places like that that we just think are the best place, heaven on earth. I want to share a story this morning. As soon as we started this series I knew I would have to talk about these folks. They lived in northern Greece in the shadows of Mt. Olympus. Mount Olympus, that’s a story place, isn’t it, a place of legends and mythology? Not far from Mt. Olympus surrounded by a mountain range of their own in a sleepy little town, these believers would gather to worship the Lord. It wasn’t a big city. It was a relatively small city compared to some of the larger cities around it like Athens or nearby Thesselonica, Abylonia, and some of these bigger cities. It wasn’t like that at all. It was a sleepy town, it was a Roman province but there was this large group of Jewish believers who loved God and loved his Word. The Apostle Paul had gone through a very traumatic experience, if you read the book of Acts. In his visit to Thessalonica there had been a stirring up of the people against him, a mob mentality, in which they wanted to seize Paul and Silas and do bad things. So, they hid him from the people and in the shadow of night they smuggled him out of the house where they were staying through the back roads and out of the city and away from danger. They said, “We’re going to bring you to a place where we know they’re going to treat you right. We’re going to bring you to a place where they’re going to want to listen to the message that you have to proclaim.” That sleepy little town, those Grecian Jews, became a model or a paragon of biblical study. If you want to be a studier or student of the Word, theirs are the attributes and traits you need to have. We are in our 40 days—some of you are going to one of our twenty-something small groups around town, others of you are heading to the small group at 11:00 o’clock or maybe you’re just doing this independently. We’re trying to learn how to study God’s Word together, here, I knew we would be talking about these folks and we’re going to read about them this morning. Let’s open or Bibles up to the book of Acts, the 17th chapter, and let’s spend some time talking about these Bereans. We’re only going to really be in just one verse today, that’s where we’re going to park, verse 11 of Acts chapter 17, it says, “Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thesselonians; for they received the message with great eagerness, and they examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.” Let’s read it one more time, “Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thesselonians; for they received the message with great eagerness, and they examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.” Now, New American Standard says “noble minded” they were more noble minded, this translation says “of more noble character”, but I want you to notice first of all their mindset. Notice their mindset. Their mindset was a healthy skepticism; we’re not going to just believe something because someone said it. We’re going to think for ourselves. We’re going to process it; we’re going to examine it. We’re going to see whether what you said was true. I want you to notice that Luke or Paul take no offense. Luke doesn’t go, “Oh this is ridiculous; who do they think they are, those Bereans? Don’t they know this is the Apostle Paul? Who do they think…, we’ll see if what he says is true. Come on! He knows more about the Bible in his little finger than…” you know, their ego is not offended here. In fact, they esteemed them. They said they’ve got their act together. These are some believers who are serious about learning. They’re learning how to think for themselves and that’s becoming a lost art. It’s becoming a lost art in our country; it’s becoming a lost art in our church. I want to find out what my political view is on something. I hear something in the news, what do I think about this? So, I turn on my favorite talking head on the radio or television and they tell me now what I think. I don’t have a brain to form my own opinion; I have to tune them in to find out what I think. Hurry up. Tell me what I think about this. We go to church and we go to difficult passages and we say to our pastor or our Sunday school teacher or our small group leader, what do I think about this? Tell me what I think. That’s lazy. When I was in my undergraduate work I had these two contrasting professors. One was Dr. John and the other one was Dr. Joe. Dr. Joe would come to class and he had on a suit and tie every day. Clean shaven hair combed, looking professional standing behind a podium, drew his outline on the board: one, two three; A, B, C. He would ask complex theological questions, philosophical questions, ethical questions, and he would say, “Here are the answers for the test.” We’d write down: difficult question; 1,2,3; A,B,C; you know, spit it out for the test. Then I had Dr. John. I remember now, I think when I first met Dr. John, it was 1980 and maybe this unorthodox teaching style is more prevalent in schools today, I don’t know, but back in 1980 Dr. Joe was the norm. You referred to Dr. Joe as Dr. Alexanian, you know, with the suit and all that; but, John would come in unshaven, hair a little bit disheveled, flannel shirt, blue jeans and tennis shoes, no outline on the board, he’d sit down in his chair and put his feet up on the desk and scratch his face and go, “What do you think about this stuff?” And he would ask these complex questions and he would give us different schools of thought and then he’d leave us hanging. We’d be like, “John, (we could call him John) what are the answers? One, Two, Three; A, B, C; tell us! And he wouldn’t tell us; it would drive you nuts. You’d go back to your dorm room and guys are going down to play ping pong and pool and you’re trying to figure out this question. Or he’d bring someone to class who said they were a Christian but had a totally different view of something than we did. He would get us mad and then he wouldn’t tell us what to think. He’d say he’d be back tomorrow and you can ask your questions or you can debate then, but he would never tell us, here is the right answer. I would go back to my dorm. Hey Jeff, we’re going to see a movie, do you want to go? We’re going to go shoot some buckets down at the gym. (Groaning sounds) No, I’ve got to do this. You’d get in the Word and you’d think. Why is that point of view wrong and why am I right? I never thought about it before but I’ve always just accepted it because my pastor, my mom or whatever said it’s true and now I’ve got to dig in and find out what is the reason for what I believe? Which professor do you think I learned more from? The one who said think for yourself. Another thing, and I’ve said this before, the only time I’m infallible is when I’m quoting the Word of God. It’s the only time. There are no perfect teachers, all of us are flawed and so people have every right to question and have a healthy skepticism and to examine the scripture for themselves to see if their teacher, their pastor, their small group leader, their one-on-one mentor is speaking truth. If someone is in a small group or a church where you can’t question that, I think that’s called a cult. And so Luke, the author, and Paul take no offense and say (the Bereans) are noble minded. First of all they had a desire to learn but it was mixed with a healthy skepticism, not a negative attitude. There are some people who just sit and wait for you to say something wrong so they can pounce on it. Just listening with a critical ear, not to gain knowledge but just so I can hear something that remotely has a hint of being off base so I can attack you. It actual says (the Bereans) receive the Word with great eagerness. That’s the second thing I want to focus on, their expectation. It says they received the message with great eagerness; examine the scriptures, great eagerness. That means that they’re saying, “God has something for me today. God has a truth for me today. There’s something in here for me that’s good, that I need to hear. There’s some gold here for me to take home. There are some nuggets of truth that are just for me.” Do you have that expectation when you go to church? When you come to church discouraged, do you come with an expectation that you’ll be encouraged? When you come to church tired, do you come with the expectation that God is going to energize you? When you come to church with a lack of direction and discernment, do you come to church thinking that today God has some wisdom for me. I guarantee you, if you come with no expectation, you’re going to leave with exactly what you came in with, zero. But, if you come and say God has something for me today, there’s a word I need to hear, it’ll be in a song, it’ll be in a media, it’ll be in a prayer, it’ll be in a word spoken by someone to you before or after the service, it’ll be in the sermon, it’ll be somewhere in that message that God will speak to you. Do you have that expectation? This word “examine” is important, too. This word “examine” means to sift from side to side, sift from side to side. When my kids were little we used to take them to a place called Wild West Town, Donley's Wild West Town, in Union, Illinois. It’s a great little place for kids, a Wild West theme. They’ve got this place where you “mine for gold.” They’ve got these troughs and if you take your grandson and your granddaughters there, they’ll love it. You go through these rocks and they’ve got these little rocks that are painted gold. You sift through it and try to find that gold. All it is a painted rock, but when they find it they just think they’ve found gold. There’s not a lot of it, but you sift through the water and the dirt, the silt and all the little pebbles and then you find the gold and you go, “Ahhhh!” You put it in your little bag and tie the top. One year my daughter left her gold there and you’d have thought she left real gold and we had to go all the way back to pick up these dirty painted rocks, gold. But you’re sifting through. So, they would take what Paul said and they would begin to sift through it and they’d begin to look for the gold that was in there; and, they had an expectation that there was. They were eager. So he says if you’re going to be a student of the Word, be eager. God has something for me. God’s going to speak to me today. There’s something I need to hear and when you come with an expectant heart don’t be surprised if you get what you’re looking for, alright? I love their expectation. I also love their practice. It’s a little bit intimidating; it says they examined the scriptures yearly to see if what Paul said was true. Oh, I’m sorry, it says monthly they examine…once a month they would examine, how m…? Weekly, no? Daily. Thank goodness it wasn’t hourly, then they’d really make us look bad, but, it’s daily. And some of you, I know when you go to your small groups it’s day of reckoning time because you get your workbooks out and it’s like, “I didn’t do my homework today,” or, “I missed Tuesday,” or whatever. At least we’re trying. We’re making an effort to get there; we’re improving. But these folks had it down, (with) these folks it had become a habitual part of who they were. If you want to become a true student of the Word you have to be in the Word all the time. And that’s why you weren’t going to pull the wool over on these guys. If you wanted to pull the wool over somebody theologically, the Bereans were the wrong group to mess with because they knew the Word. Every day they were adding to their knowledge. Every day their knowledge base was broadening because they were examining the scriptures daily. The only way you recognize counterfeit is to know the real. They knew the real and so they were daily in the Word. That has to be, if you and I are going to be students of the Word, if we’re going to grow in our knowledge, we have to be in the Word all the time, habitually, regularly, always in the Word. Okay? I also want you to look at their standard, look at their standard. It says, “For they received the message with great eagerness and examined the scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.” So, what was their standard? The scriptures. We’re going to examine this and whether we keep this or not is going to be dependent upon whether it’s in the Word, whether it lines up with what the Word says. This became their standard. What was Paul doing? What was his purpose? Paul was there to demonstrate. He would go into the synagogues and he would use the Old Testament to prove, what, to prove that Jesus was the Christ? That was his strategy with the Jews because they knew the Word. When the gentiles, when he’s in Athens he doesn’t do that. But here in this Jewish community of Berea he uses the Old Testament. So, there are certain passages he would go to and he would explain, and we know this from the book of Acts, that he would explain to them how the Christ had to suffer and die and be raised to life, and why he died. So, knowing what you know, where would he take them? He takes them to Isaiah, right? That’s a big place where he takes them. He takes them to words written 700 years before Christ was born and he shows them passages in Isaiah, Isaiah 53 among them, but others as well. Isaiah 53 really takes you through that whole Passion Week, doesn’t it? It takes you through the trial and him being led like a lamb to the slaughter but does not speak. It takes you through his sufferings and it says that by his stripes we are healed and our iniquities were laid upon him and he was perceived cut off from the land of the living and it talks about his burial and Paul would tell them about his burial. It talks about his resurrection, you know, in Isaiah 53. Paul would take them to Psalms 22. Psalms 22, hundreds of years before Roman crucifixion, describes a man being crucified. It talks about his joints being stretched out, his hands and feet being pierced. How he’s having a difficult time breathing, how he is so thirsty, how people are around him and they are mocking him and they are waiting for him to die. They’ve hurt him and they’ve tormented him and it describes in detail a crucifixion before…when crucifixion does not exist…and Jesus on the cross quotes Psalm 22, he says, “My God, my God, why has thou forsaken me?” What know what he was doing? He was giving us a clue. When Jesus quotes Psalm 22, he’s saying, “Look at Psalm 22,” okay? When you look at Psalm 22, and I would encourage you to do that sometime, look at it. Jesus was saying look, there. This had to be; this was supposed to be; this was part of the plan. He would begin to explain from those passages, you know how Daniel says the Messiah would be cut off and have nothing; that word means to be destroyed, to be killed. He’s explaining all these passages. So, they’re going home and they’re going, really? Could the Messiah have come? And they go home and they examine Isaiah. They go home and they examine Daniel. They go home and they examine Psalms 22 and they go, Yeah, I’m seeing it. It’s making sense. This is true. This is what Isaiah said. This is what Zachariah said. Look, it is right here. You know what it’s like? Did you ever watch a mystery/suspense movie and there’s the plot twist you didn’t see coming and there’s a person you didn’t expect did the crime? When the movie’s all done, if you like the movie, what do you do? You watch it again. When you watch it that second time you go, “Ohhh, right there. Okay. I missed that. When they said that, that was the clue we needed.” Now that you know they did it, “Look there. There’s the clue right there.” You didn’t see it the first time through. But, after you saw the movie and somebody else maybe even explains it to you and helps you a little bit and you see the plot twists and turns, you can say, “Now I get it.” Do you want to talk about a plot twist? If you want to talk about a plot twist that no one saw coming, a shocking ending—they had no idea the Messiah they were looking for was the God they worshipped. They thought God was going to send a deliverer, they didn’t know God himself was going to be coming himself to deliver. They didn’t know the one who spoke from the burning bush was going to take on flesh. He was going to come in disguise; he was going to come as us. They didn’t see that coming. They didn’t understand that. Paul goes back and explains it and when he did, all those Old Testament prophesies came alive. They’re going, it’s been there the whole time and we didn’t see it. Just like when you watched your movie, you didn’t see it. It was there and they went back and they just rejoiced and they’d begin to become Christians by the right and left, not only the Jews but the Greeks as well. Now they’d received the Word and examined it, after they examined it they said what Paul said was true. That village was changed. When he left Berea he left that city with a group of on fire Christians who now had their Messiah and they had a handle on the Word of God and they saw it. This is what needs to be our standard, too. This needs to be our standard. What determines right and wrong for you? What determines good and evil for you? What determines your course of actions and decisions you make, what is your standard? Is it your own gut? Is it your own emotions? Is it societal norms? What determines what’s true for you? Whatever you think, whatever you feel or is it something more object than that? I had a fella, I think the spirit medium was called Ramtha or something like that. Back in the eighties there was this woman who claimed to be a 2000 year old spirit that would speak through her called Ramtha. It would just tickle your ears and tell you all the things you wanted to see. The guy comes to me and says I’m a Christian and I go to this church, this is in Rockford. This Ramtha channels a 2000 year old spirit and the spirit speaks with wisdom and it’s amazing. Is it okay for me to go to that as a Christian? I said no, let’s take a look at Deuteronomy. So I read Deuteronomy and he goes, that’s just a 2000 year old book; who cares? I’m going to go anyway. Okay, why’d you ask? What he was saying is that book doesn’t agree with what I want to do, so I’m going to do what I want to do. I’m going to see this medium. I never saw the guy again. He made a choice. When your will and your desires clash with this book, who wins? What’s the standard? For the Bereans, this was the standard; this is what you examine truth against. If it doesn’t comply here, I’m rejecting it. It can’t be societal mores and norms because they change all the time. Slavery was once acceptable in this country, society changes. I want to read the words from a pastor by the name of David Jeremiah, listen to what he says: Remember when you first drew pictures with an etch-a-sketch? When you wanted to change your mind you could simply shake it. Everything would disappear and you could start it all over again. It was one of the most popular toys in history. Unfortunately, too often our society writes its moral standards on its own etch-a-sketch. Our cultural sense of right or wrong is based on societal consensus not on the unchanging Word of God and abandoning the absolute standards of a holy God we’ve become a world in which reality is relative and whatever people want it to be. Christians take a different view, the Lord didn’t write his commandments on an etch-a-sketch, they were carved in stone indicating the durable and permanent value. The commands of God flow from his character and establish the moral basis of the universe. No matter how hard it tries, the world can never erase the truth of God’s Word or the demands of his ten commandments. They are rock solid and we can base our moral code on the tablets of his holiness. That’s good stuff. I couldn’t say it any better, so I just ripped it off. And so, the Bereans, this was their standard. If we’re going to be a true student of the Word this has to be our standard. Everything is examined in the light of his truth. This is the test. What doesn’t pass the test is removed, rejected. To what passes the test, we hold fast. Let’s pray together, Father we thank you for the example of the Bereans this little respite that Paul had away from the big crowd, the big city, the hostile environment. To come to this secluded little town in the shadows of Mt. Olympus and other mountains where so much tradition, so much legend had been spoken of, to find this synagogue of these believers who had their heads on straight, who received the Word with eagerness but with a healthy skepticism. They thought for themselves. They weren’t going to let somebody else determine how or what they thought. They had an expectation to receive truth. There was a joy, there was anticipation that you had “gold” for them to find. Lord it was their practice to daily spend time in your Word and that’s something that we’re striving for. That’s an example that we want to emulate and then we see their standard, a standard that was set in stone, a standard that does not change. If we can follow the example of the Bereans, not just in our 40 days but beyond, what a strong body this will be, what a strong faith we will have. Not faith, not desires or values that change like an etch-a-sketch but that which is rock solid and stands the test of time. Might we be those kinds of Christians? In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.
11/11/12 PASTOR JEFF WILLIAMS PERSONALIZE IT! 40 DAYS IN THE WORD We are talking this week about personalizing scripture. You take your name, your situation and plug it into that promise. That is the skill that we’re going to be studying and learning. I’ve got a letter here, I’m not going to read it for you, but it’s a letter that I received this week. It’s one of those encouraging letters. It’s from a woman who attended our church for about a year and has since moved to Iowa. She didn’t even put her name on the letter. She says “You don’t even know who I am, but I attended your church.” She says, now that she’s gone it has meant even more to her because she realizes what she had when she was here. She still listens to the messages; she’s going through the 40 Days with us. She’s there in Iowa where she and her husband said a lot of nice things to me. It was very encouraging to me. Now, could you insert yourself in this letter? No. Why not? Because it’s not written to you. The statements she made she made to me. It’s personal; it’s to me and you can’t put yourself in this letter because this letter wasn’t addressed to you. So, the question is, when we talk about personalizing God’s Word and ask the question, “Can we personalize God’s Word if the letters aren’t written to us?” We know that they’re written to, for instance Revelation, to the seven churches in Asia Minor. There were letters written to scattered Jewish Christians. There is a letter written to Philemon, and man named Titus, a man named Timothy, over half the New Testament were written to a man named Theopholus. Luke and Acts were written to a man named Theafolus. Different books were written to certain nations at different time periods. So, I ask the question, “Can we personalize the Word of God if we were not the intended, original audience that that letter was written to. I’m going to say to you, “Yes we can.” I’m going to make what’s called an Apology. Do you know what an Apology is? I’m not saying I’m sorry. An Apology is a defense. I’m going to make a case. There’s a verse in 1Pet 3:15 he says, “But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.” Now, let’s go back one slide here. It says, “…be prepared to give an answer…”. This word “answer” is the Greek word apologia and it means “defense”--to make a case, to make a defense. I understand that the Bible was written to an original audience, and I think it’s important. What was the language the book was written in; who was the author; why did he write it; what were the circumstances; who were the people? That’s all an important part of biblical interpretation. But I’m going to make an opening statement, call some witnesses, and make a closing argument in the limited time that we have left together today.
My opening statement is this, “Even though it’s true the bible was written to specific people in specific places at specific times, God also had us in his heart and mind as the words of the scripture were inspired. It was understood by the authors who wrote the books that their words would be applied, and the scriptures would be applied, not just to those to whom they wrote, but to subsequent generations as well. I’m going to substantiate that by calling first of all a witness of the Old Testament. This is not going to be exhaustive. We’re not going to look at every conceivable scripture that we could from the Old Testament, but we’ll look at a random few or sample few from the Old Testament.
Let’s look at Deuteronomy first. Deuteronomy (7:9) is written about 1500BC, “Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments.” I could begin my case and close it right there, but I’m going to keep you longer. So, I could end it right there because that’s enough. God’s commands are relevant and He keeps his covenant to a thousand generations. Do the math, okay? A generation is 40 years, 40 X 1,000—math whizzes—40,000, right? That means if you were to take this in a literal sense and start the clock at 1500BC we’ve still got over 30,000 years to go. But, really, what Moses says when he writes this is to be understood in the sense of hyperbole. He’s saying look here’s the point, God’s commands never expire. God’s covenant never runs out. For every generation for 40,000 years they are true and they apply.
Let’s look at Isaiah, the prophet Isaiah (40:8). He says, “The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands (how long?) forever (forever).” Let’s look at one more. Plans of the Lord stand firm forever for the purposes of his heart for all generations. Psalms 102:18 “Let this be written for a future generation, that a people not yet created may praise the LORD.” So the Psalmist writes and he says I know the words I’m penning are not just for the people who will read this, my contemporaries, but for future generations yet unborn.
Let’s look at the witness of the New Testament this morning. Let’s look at, first of all, John’s Gospel (20:18). John writes and says, “But these are written (these scriptures are written) that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” The Gospel of John is an open gospel, it was written to whoever would want to read it. John says whoever you are, where ever you live, whenever you will live, if you read these words, these words are for you that you might believe in Jesus. If you believe in Jesus you’ll know that you have eternal life. I’ve written down this gospel so that you can understand what Jesus did, what he taught, who he was, and if you put your faith in him you can know that you have eternal life. No matter when you read these words, these words are written for you.
Let’s look at another passage from Romans, I love this one. It says, “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.” That’s the reason it’s written. It was written for future generations that we could find encouragement and hope as we see how people lived, as we read their examples we can draw motivation and courage, instruction and guidance from their stories from their words that were written down for us. Both good and bad from 1st Corinthians 10 it says, (verse 11) “These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, (for us)…”.
You see I’m giving you this message today because there are those who would attack our faith and would say it does you no good, the Bible, because it’s irrelevant. It was written thousands of years ago, hundreds of years ago to a people who have long since died and has no bearing on you today. And so you can read it, it’s good literature, it’s not inspired by God, it’s written by men for men, but it’s good literature. They attack it and say you can’t claim those promises because it just a normal book, it’s not a divine book and it’s written to a people long gone.
The second reason I’m giving this message is because some of you might think, when you’re reading the Bible, how can I claim a promise, how can I personalize God’s Word when it wasn’t written to me. Sometimes I feel like I’m reading someone else’s mail. I feel like it’s a letter not written to me, it was written to a church in Corinth or Ephesus or in Asia Minor. But what I am saying to you is the Bible says yes, although it was written to those original audiences, the authors had future generations in mind. God himself has future generations in mind.
Next is Jesus. Let’s look at the witness of Jesus. You know, Jesus talked a lot about the Old Testament. When Jesus was teaching the Bible was 1500 years old at its oldest and 400 years old at its newest. You go from the law, the book of Job and the law 1500BC to Malachi 400BC, those words were already written hundreds of years by the time Jesus talked. What does he believe? Does he believe that the Bible is no longer relevant because he was living in a generation that was hundreds of years later that were no longer true to them? Let’s look at Matthew 5:17, Jesus says, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; (that would have been the written Word of God at the time in its entirety) I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” We’ll stop with this verse right here. I’ll tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear--Have heaven and earth disappeared?—No, we’re here, right? Until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen will by any means disappear from the law until everything is accomplished. So, Jesus spoke of the Word as being ongoing and being relevant, being alive.
The next verse from Luke 4:4 is Jesus in the desert going through temptation. Right before he begins his early ministry the Holy Spirit leads him into the wilderness and Satan tempts him for 40 days. Satan says I know you’re hungry, turn these stones to bread. And Jesus said, boy, you know, I sure wish the Word of God wasn’t written so long ago. I sure wish it wasn’t irrelevant because it would sure be nice to be able to personalize it and apply it to my life and to my situation and gain strength from temptation but as it is I wasn’t the one they wrote this to and so I’m feeling very vulnerable right now under the attack of the enemy so I guess I’ll just give in. What am I supposed to do? Is that what he said? No. It says Jesus answered, ”It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.” Now, we’re not going to read the entirety of the passage but you know a couple more temptations come and every time Jesus quotes the Word. By quoting the Word, what is he doing? He’s personalizing it. He’s doing the very exercise that you’ll be learning in your small groups and your workbooks and I’m teaching you today—to put yourself in the promise; to put yourself in that principle. Jesus personalizes the Word of God and he uses that to resist the temptation of the enemy.
In the book of John chapter 5 he is confronted by his enemies. These were the people who would (same religion, same race, same language, same beliefs, they believed the Bible was the Word of God as he did) pervert it and twist it. They’d begun to teach a salvation by law and legalism. Instead of taking the gospel to the nations, as God wanted to do through Abraham, they’d isolated themselves and kept the truth of God within a small community of people. And so, Jesus would continually butt heads with them and he says to them (verse 39), “You diligently study the scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life (yet) these are the very scriptures that testify about me,” and he went on to say (verse 40), “yet you refuse to come to me to have life.” This word “testify” is really important. It’s important because of the tense that’s it in, it’s in present tense. He says these are the scriptures that testify, present tense, (have testified, are testifying, and will continue to testify--that’s what the Greek says that word is). In other words, Jesus is saying exactly what Zack said to us this morning, the Word of God is active, and it is alive. It is still testifying; it is still bearing witness. Jesus spoke of the Word of God. When he spoke of the Old Testament he always referred to it as the Wisdom of God, the scriptures, or the Word of God and he quoted it all. He quoted the law, he quoted the Psalms, the Proverbs, and he quoted the prophets over and over again. Though those words were written hundreds of years before he was physically born into the world, Jesus speaks of them as relevant. As promises that, though we were not the original audience, we can claim and personalize and implement in our lives.
My closing argument is this—I made my opening statement in my apology, I’ve called witnesses and I have a closing argument—You and I have heard it said before by people who say, “Well, you know the Bible is a good book. I don’t believe it’s a divine book. I don’t believe it’s the Word of God, but it is good literature and we can learn things from it and read it, etcetera, I don’t even believe in God, but I know it’s a good book.” How many have heard that? Okay, me too, all through my life. Here’s the problem with that. The Bible claims to be, what? From cover to cover--The Word of God; Thus, sayeth the Lord…, (right?)…and God said; …and it’s written down for us. If all that is a lie, if it’s just simply a book written by men for men and not written by God for men, then the whole premise on which the book is built is a lie. Can we, therefore, call a book that is fraudulent a good book? Can you? You can’t, can you?
If I get up here in front of you and I say I am God (I’m not going to say that but if I said I was) and then I taught a sermon and I said now you need to believe what I just said because I’m God—and if you walk out of here saying, “Well, that sermon was pretty good. I like Pastor Jeff. I don’t believe that he’s God but he’s a good teacher,”—I would say to you that doesn’t fly. Good teachers don’t claim to be God. If they do, they’re either crazy or they’re a liar, alright? Jesus taught he was divine. There are three choices: he was (divine), he was crazy, or he was a liar. But unless he was (divine), you can’t call him a good moral teacher. You cannot say the Bible is a moral book, a good book, if its whole premise is nothing but one big lie. If it’s not the Word of God then it’s not a good book. If it’s not the Word of God then it’s a fraudulent book. Close it, don’t read it. But if you believe that it is the Word of God, if you believe that it was written by God for man, then I’ve established for you today in the scriptures that I’ve read—I’ve made a case. That case says, though you were not the originally intended audience of the author, you were the intended audience of the true author who is God, and the authors who wrote that also understood that future generations would claim those promises. So even though Paul is writing to the church in Corinth, even though he’s writing to the church in Philippi, even though Peter is writing to scattered Jews in the Dias Sporom, even though a prophet is writing to Judah, whatever it is, you can claim those promises because this is your book, too. You’re not reading someone else’s mail; you’re not reading someone else’s letter. You are reading a letter that was written by God to you. Personalize away. Claim the promises. Put your name in every one of them. Pray them. Believe them. Hold onto them because they are for you—God’s gift, God’s letter to you.
We’re going to watch a media right now in which people are going to say and express thoughts and feelings that you and I have had at some point in our lives. (These are) things that we’ve struggled with, feelings that we have grappled with; and maybe even right now you’re struggling with some of these feelings. Watch what happens when these people begin to personalize the scripture as we’re going to be teaching you to do this week.
Media link?
Let’s close the service this morning. Father, we thank you for the precious gift which is your Word. Lord, there are (persecuted) Christians we’ve talked about today who have just bits and pieces of it, pages torn, books missing, and fragments. They read from that. We’re so blessed to have it all here, for us, and to be able to worship you in freedom in this great land. Lord, I pray that as we continue in our study, as we examine and work through our books in our small groups, (or maybe we’re just doing this on our own) that we will take the time to personalize your Word, to put our names in those promises, claim them as our very own because they are. That as we do that, you will inspire us, you will give us strength, you will give us hope, you will give us courage, you will give us insight and you will give us guidance. We need to honor you. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
40 Days in the Word #3 Probe It 10-28-12 Pastor Tim Bales Faith Community Church Good morning to all of you. You may have noticed I’m not Pastor Jeff. He is giving me the opportunity to share with all of you, not only from God’s Word but about God’s Word. We are continuing our 40 Days in the Word Campaign and we are on week 3 if you are joining us for the first time. A couple of weeks ago we talked about “Pronouncing It” where we look at each word individually and dig deeper that way. Last week Pastor Jeff shared with us about “Picture It” where you would look at a historical narrative or story from scripture and look at the different characters; focus in on one character and see how it comes to life and what they were thinking and how that situation would have impacted them; then, look at each different character and their roles in the scripture. Picture It – put yourself in their shoes. This week we are going to look at “Probe It”—digging deeper into God’s Word.
If you have your outline I encourage you to pull it out. On the back side you may have noticed an image. No, this isn’t the board of trustees’ idea of a new stained glass window, it’s not their solution. This is called a stereogram. Maybe you’re familiar with it; it’s something that was popular back…there it is up on the screen. It kind of looks like a stained glass window but that’s not what it is. There’s actually an image in this image. If you stare at it long enough and if you take time and focus until your head starts to hurt you’re going to see another image in this picture. (Laughter) I’ve been telling people if you were to focus about 100 feet behind the picture, let your eyes get out of focus, it’s going to help you see what’s in the picture. I can remember the first time seeing one of these. My parents got one to bring home and put on the wall. They put it in a nicely lit room. They told me, “This is so cool. You’ve got to check this out. If you stare at this, a 3D image is going to pop out at you.” They described it to me: there’s this whale and a baby whale, there’s fish over here and rocks over here, there’s a whole underwater scene. I stared and stared at it and thought this has got to be some kind of joke. I just couldn’t see it. It just wasn’t there. Now, how many of you see an image up on the screen, a second image? Okay! What do you guys see? (Some people call out, “a cross.”) Oh, there’s a churchy answer. How many of you think this is a joke? (Laughter) I’ll tell you what, the first time I saw this I actually thought it was some kind of elaborate joke. There actually is a cross on here and if you can’t see it now you can take home your notes and stare at it all you want. We also posted it on Facebook, I encourage you to check out the church’s Facebook page. There is also another stereogram that we made just for our church that you might want to check out. Post there (on Facebook) what you see and see if anyone else sees the same thing or thinks it’s a joke. But, there really is an image there. I can remember one day staring at the wall at my parent’s house thinking to myself, I’m kind of a creative guy and I’ve got a lot of pride, I like to do artsy things…I should be able to do this. I’m staring at this wall trying to figure this out and finally it happened. I saw exactly all the things they had been talking about and it came to life. I was like, “Wow! I can see it!” I wanted to show everybody. Can you see it? No I can’t see it. Can’t you see it? It’s right there. You can see it. It’s right over here. But, they could not see it. It was an embarrassing amount of time, but finally when I did see it, it was crystal clear. This is a beautiful picture of how we see the bible because the truth has been there all along. But the reality is, not everybody sees it.
Some people come along and they read the bible and say, “I just don’t get it.” Some people say they read the bible and they find all this truth and it changes their lives and they’re these happy, joyful people. I read it and I just don’t get it. I don’t see it. I don’t see the picture. James 1:25 says, “The man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard but doing it, he will be blessed in what he does.” If we look intently into the Word of God it will come into focus in ways you never dreamed possible. This week we’re going to “Probe it.” That’s the title of our sermon for today. If you probe something you’re doing an investigation, an exploration. You’re digging deeper to find out more information. Maybe you’re thinking “a probe” and the idea comes to mind that we send a probe into orbit to do some space exploration or landing on a planet to take pictures. Maybe you’re thinking of a medical or surgical probe to diagnose an illness or come up with a cure. There are electrical probes that test electrical circuitry to see if it’s all working properly. A lot of it has to do with scientific research to understand things better that we do not completely understand. Now, in our small groups around town we’re going to be looking at some helpful ideas to dig deeper into the Word. But right now we are looking at an important aspect of the probing process that we are not going to be discussing in the small groups. It has to deal with the role of the Holy Spirit as we study the Word of God. We can read the bible as just words on a page like any other book. We can pronounce it and picture it and probe it all we want, but unless we incorporate the role of the Holy Spirit, they’re just stories, merely history and religious traditions of the past. Without the Holy Spirit it’s just information. That’s why most of us as some point have read the bible and found it to be dry, boring or irrelevant. If that’s you, I want to encourage you to see this book as more than just a book this morning. This book itself claims to be the very Word of God to us. It’s trustworthy, dependable and true. It’s God’s gift to us. It shows us our purpose for life, God’s plan for creation. You might think that God doesn’t speak to you, well, read this book because God is not silent. Maybe it’s just that we haven’t been listening. I know at times in my past I’ve asked God for a sign to show me direction in my life, it’s in here too. It gives us the answers to life’s challenges, hope for a brighter tomorrow, healing from emotional and spiritual pain. God is not silent; he speaks to us through his Word. Today we’re looking at the idea of illumination because unless God opens our eyes, the bible will not make sense. Like the image we saw on the screen, it’s not going to come into focus. Illumination—God revealing his Word to us through divine insight given by the Holy Spirit. When the words jump off the page and change our lives--that’s what we’re looking at this morning and to do that we’re going to probe into God’s Word to find a deeper understanding of the concept of light.
Obviously, when we open up the Word of God it doesn’t literally light up so we need to understand what we’re talking about here. The concept of light has been universal. It transcends time and across cultures throughout mankind, doesn’t it? The idea of light vs dark. If you go to the movie theatre and you watch this scary movie the villain is portrayed as somebody with dark hair, dark clothing or the grim reaper’s all dressed in dark or monsters loom and lurk in the darkness. If there’s an angel or personification of God, they’re wearing a white suit or white robes and light colors or blond hair. We get this contrast; we get this understanding of light vs dark. Well, the same is true in scripture, we see a contrast between light vs dark, good vs evil where light represents good and righteousness and holiness and dark represents mystery or evil, things that are hidden. My kids are now 5 years old and they’re getting to an age where their imaginations are very active. Up to this point they haven’t really been scared of the dark. Recently, I sent one of my kids upstairs to go get something or do something and they said, “Daddy, I want you to go with me.” It was clear they were scared of what they might find lurking around the corner hiding in the darkness when they were up there because darkness hides things. Those things are generally not good; they’re scary because they’re unknown. But light reveals things. It helps us to see things clearly and the more light that we have the more clear we are able to see. In fact, light actually has a lot of power, quite a bit of power. We’ll talk about that, too. Now, I’m a visual person so I like picture illustrations. I brought along a visual for us and I’m not sure what you’d call this, it’s not really a toy. It’s more of a trinket or a knickknack. You set it on your windowsill and it’s a smiley face sunflower. Maybe if you like the word chachkey, it’s something that exists simply to make us happy, right? A smiley face sunflower. Now, there’s something very interesting about this sunflower—if you put it in light and it does things. You’re going to want to stand back if you’re in the first row, watch out, here we go. There it is, that’s what it does, back ‘n forth, back ‘n forth, back ‘n forth. This is going to be our picture illustration and we’re going to be looking at four aspects of light from God’s Word.
As we seek to understand light from a biblical understand we’ll see a lot of similarities between our lives and this little flower here. To do that I want to draw your attention to a passage in 1st John Chapter 1 and you can turn in your bibles or follow along on the screen. Keep in mind that the passage we’re looking at comes from the apostle John who is an eye witness. This is a firsthand account. He was there with Jesus he witnessed the love and the life of Jesus Christ and his ministry here on earth. And John testifies in 1st John Chapter 1 verses 5-7 he says, “This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you, God is light. In him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in darkness we lie and do not live by the truth but if we walk in the light as He is in the light we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus the son purifies us from all sin.” If you’re filling out your notes this morning, the first point we’re looking at is that the light comes from God. The light comes from God. John says God is light. In him there is no darkness at all, he is the epitome of everything good and holy, there is no hint or trace of evil in him at all. He is the source of light and we need to walk in the light if we want to fellowship with him. When we read the bible and discover truth it comes from God. God is the light. Now in our picture illustration over here you’ll notice that in our room there is light all around and it falls on everything in the room. Maybe not evenly, there are some shadows in our room and some dark areas, but generally speaking the light is available to all and it is recognized when it lands on something and is reflected back to our eyes. God’s light is also available to all and though some people may feel that God is distant or disconnected the reality is, God’s not the problem. He is everywhere and always available and we can see his light because it lands on us. It lands on the people around us and it affects us. We see God at work in our lives. God’s light comes to us in the form of his love, his wisdom and his blessing. We see light in God’s love first and foremost through the gift of salvation, eternal life in Jesus Christ, that he sent his son to die on the cross in our place so that we wouldn’t have to suffer his wrath. That’s God love at work and though we repeatedly turn our hearts away, he gives us grace instead of what we truly deserve. That’s God’s love, his light coming into our lives. God’s light also comes to us through his wisdom. He gives us wisdom to make good choices so that we don’t get into trouble. He gives us a plan for marriage, what it ought to look like, or what the family should look like. He gives us a plan for joy, how to live a full and abundant life. That comes from his wisdom if we live according to his way, his will as it’s laid out in scripture. God’s light also comes to us in the form of blessing. Out of no merit of our own, he blesses us and it comes in many forms. It might be encouragement, the encouragement that comes from the fellowship of a small group; or times of worship and teaching on a Sunday morning; of friends who listen to you and pray with you; or hopefully a family that loves you unconditionally; when God gives you healing from physical pain or emotional pain that’s his blessing in your life. It may be provision of food on your table or a job to make money to pay for your bills or maybe a little bit of extra money to go on a well needed vacation. That is God’s blessing in your life, not something that we merit or deserve, but because he is good and generous. If we want to walk in his light as he is in the light that means that we also ought to act with love and wisdom and seek to bless other people and build them up. That’s what it means to walk in the light.
God is light and there’s nothing evil in him at all. He illuminates our lives with his love. Now there’s one more very important way I want to point out that loves comes from God. That is that light comes through the Word. You know, it may seem that very little of God’s light is shining in your life right now. I don’t know where you’re at, what’s going on in your life. Maybe the economy’s got you down and you’ve been struggling to find a job or you’ve lost your job. Maybe you’ve lost your home. Your marriage, maybe there’s a strain and you feel like the light isn’t really shining down upon you. Maybe your job is causing stress in your family. You’re struggling with some addictions that are choking out God’s light in your life, they’re dragging you down. Now if that seems to be true of you, you’re having a hard time seeing God’s light in your life there is one thing you can always count on, that you will find God’s light in his Word. You will always be able to find God’s light in his Word; the light comes through the Word. I want to share another passage with you from the apostle John again, but this time in the gospel of John chapter 1. Again, this is an eyewitness, a firsthand account of someone who was with Jesus, and this is a familiar passage you’re going to recognize, I’m sure. But we’re going to look at a different aspect of this passage that you may not have focused in on before. As we read John 1:1-9, we’re going to try to identify the light. John testifies again, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made. Without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was the life and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness but the darkness has not understood it. There came a man who was sent from God, his name was John (this was John the Baptist). He came as a witness to testify concerning that light so that through him all men might believe. He himself was not the light. He came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.”
Now, there’s a definite progression in this passage that continues on through the rest of the chapter. In the beginning of this passage we see that we have the wWord, the Word was with the God and the Word was God. The Word was divine. We read a little bit further and we find that this Word is also the light, the light of men. And if we were to read down farther we’d see that this light, this Word, becomes flesh and it dwells among us. If we had any question at all about who this is talking about, John clarifies in verse that this is none other than Jesus Christ, the son of God. Jesus Christ is the Word, he is God, he is the light to men. The light comes through the Word to us. This is the testimony of John and even more importantly, is that Jesus claims the same thing about himself. In John 8:12, Jesus says, “I am the light of the world. Whoever comes to me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.” He is the Word, his is the light, and his words are recorded for us in this book. When you open up this book to discover new truth, it is divine. When you open up this book and discover new truth about God, its illumination, God speaking to you, when God shines his light into your life. When you are reading God’s Word and you realize that you struggle with pride and the bible says that you ought to be humble in spirit. When you read God’s Word and you’re reminded that you’re holding a grudge against somebody and that God teaches you to forgive, that’s illumination. Or, you see that you want to hurt someone back for hurting you and God says that we ought to love our enemies and return love for evil, or God calls someone to your mind that you need to apologize to, that’s God’s spirit speaking to you, convicting your heart because of his light in your life. Shining his light on something that is unright, unholy. God shines his light in your life when you come to church and you hear Pastor Jeff speak from the Word of God and you think, now I get it, that’s the spirit of God speaking to you. Listen to him. Ask questions. Dig deeper and then follow through by doing what God asks you to do. Ask questions. Find answers. It is such a blessing to read the Word of God and have God give you just the right words at just the right time. It’s not a magic lamp that will predict the future for you or tell you the name of the person you’re supposed to marry. But, God’s Word gives you wisdom to answer any question that life might throw at you.
I really enjoy reading the bible, but I have to confess to you that there are times when I pick up God’s Word, I read it, find it’s good, I put it back down and I don’t really get a whole lot out of it. But, when I really enjoy reading God’s Word is when I’m digging into it and probing deeper, trying to get at the heart of God, saying God what do you really want me to learn today, what do I need to grow in? That’s when I find a connection with God, when I have this “Aha” kind of moment, the light comes on in my mind and I think, you know, I’ve never thought of it that way before, that’s really significant. It never gets old. I’m inspired by Pastor Jerry last year, if you don’t know Pastor Jerry, he’s the lead pastor at our Faith Evansville Church, last year about a year ago he shared that, he’s celebrating his 50th time having gone through the Word of God. I think that’s awesome. It’s awesome not just that he’s gotten through the bible 50 times, he’s a walking testimony that you can read the bible just as much as you want and there’s always more to learn. If you know Pastor Jerry you know that he loves the word and lives it because he has searched intently into the law of God and he has been blessed for it. In our illustration of our happy little sunflower here there’s a little photo receptor that you can’t see that defines the purpose of this little contraption. Without this sensor there’s no way to connect this flower to the light. It bridges the gap. It defines the purpose. It channels the energy. That’s what God’s Word does for us. It takes God’s light into our hearts. It bridges the gap. We desperately need the bible because it shows us the way to God because his light comes through it. Illumination comes when we see things in the Word as God sees them. And, you know that’s wonderful but there’s something more about the light that I want to share with you than just lighting up the room and lighting up your life. If you channel the energy of the light into something that is created to function on light, it does things. It makes our little flower here go back ‘n forth, back ‘n forth, back ‘n forth. I think it even has the power to hypnotize you guys in the front row, it’s just back ‘n forth constantly because it’s receiving that light. Light has power and that’s the next point we’re looking at in your outline. The light has power from the Holy Spirit.
The light has power from the Holy Spirit. Acts 1:8 says, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you.” God’s light brings us power. Natural light also has power, we call it solar energy. If you have enough sunlight you can power a car to drive or if you have solar panels on top of your roof you can provide electricity to your house or you can heat water. The sun also generates wind which gives us another form of power. The sun also has power to change the color of the leaves in the fall. The light has power to change things. And maybe more importantly, it makes our little flower go back ‘n forth, back ‘n forth, back ‘n forth. Light has power when it’s challenged into something that’s caused to function with a purpose.
Being omnipresent, God’s spirit is everywhere at all times and he has infinite power. Unless the energy is received by something created to function on God’s sunlight, that power is never realized. You were created to bring glory and pleasure to God just like this is created to bring happiness to us as it sits in the windowsill. You were created to bring pleasure to God. This can only be done when you give up your life to live for him just as he did for you. In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit would come upon an individual for a purpose and a time when God called an individual whether it be a prophet or a king or a judge to do God’s will for a time. The spirit would come upon them, they would do God’s will and then the spirit would leave at times. But when God sent his son, Jesus Christ who died, rose again and went back up to heaven, he left for us the Holy Spirit to dwell within us, to take up permanent residence. If you are truly and genuinely a follower of Christ, yielded to the will of God, then you can be sure the Holy Spirit is at work in you. It’s a promise from Ephesians chapter 1, Romans chapter 8, First Corinthians chapter 12, the Holy Spirit is the seal of our eternal salvation that we belong to God. I may not feel very holy at times. Maybe at times you don’t feel very holy, but God promises he will never leave us. His spirit dwells within us. The sad reality is that even many Christians never tap into the power of the Holy Spirit. We just try to go through life in our own power; we think we can take care of it ourselves. We’re skeptical at times about the Holy Spirit because it seems like it’s something radical, something that we don’t fully understand. It’s somewhat scary because it’s unfamiliar. The bible says that the Holy Spirit gives us comfort when we hurt, counsel when we need wisdom, illuminates our mind when we read the bible, convicts our hearts of sin that gets us into trouble, he gives us spiritual gifts to use for the kingdom of God, he helps us to bear fruit with our lives by giving us power to live out the incredible plan that God has for each and every one of us. But, unless we tap into that power it cannot change or transform us. This brings us to our final points about light from scripture.
When you read the bible, the light must be received. It must be allowed in. It must be absorbed. I have one more passage I want to share with you from the gospel of Luke chapter eleven. This passage is not so much about God’s light shining on us but it’s how we reflect God’s light in our own lives as a testimony to the power of God at work in us. Looking at Luke 11:33-36 Jesus says, “No one lights a lamp and puts it in a place where it will be hidden or under a bowl, instead he puts it on a stand so that those who come in may see the light. You’re eye is the lamp of your body when your eyes are good then your whole body is also full of light. But, when they are bad you body is also full of darkness. See to it then, that the light within you is not darkness. Therefore, if your whole body is full of light and no part of it dark, it will be completely lighted as when the light of a lamp shines on you.” See to it that the light in you is not darkness. See to it. That means that it’s a choice that you allow. It doesn’t just happen. See to it that the light in you is not darkness. The reality is in John 3:19, this is the verdict, light has come into the world but men love darkness instead of the light because their deeds were evil. Our natural tendency is to drift away from God toward selfish gratification, evil desires, greed, and lust. That’s because of our sinful nature within us. That’s our natural tendency. We must allow God’s light in, must allow it in. I mentioned on our little flower here that there’s a photo receptive sensor and if we were to block that photo sensitive receptor then the flower would lose its liveliness, it would stop going back ‘n forth. It no longer is able to function as it was created to function. Sometimes we block out God’s light in our lives because we know what the Word of God says and I know what God wants me to do but we choose something else because it’s more appealing to me at the time. We block God’s light coming into our lives and then we can’t reflect it to others. Sometimes life blocks out God’s light if we allow it to, if our attitude is wrong because if our attitude is right the world can throw anything at us and we have the power to overcome because of the Holy Spirit in our lives. But if our attitude is wrong, it will affect the amount of light that comes into our lives when life gets in the way. We are also affected by our attitude when we read the Word of God. If you don’t expect to learn anything when you sit down and read from God’s Word, then you probably won’t. We need to read God’s Word with an expectant heart. Read it with a humble heart. You know, our heart must be ready to receive God’s light like seed that lands on good soil. We need to have a right relationship with God and if you want to learn something from the bible you can’t be in an argument with your spouse or your child or something like that, to sit down and read the Word and expect God to illuminate your mind when your heart is cold and filled with darkness. We can’t be harboring sin and pride and unforgiveness and bitterness in our hearts. And like Pastor Jeff said a couple weeks ago, you can’t rush God’s illumination in your life, you need to read the words and let them digest. Chew slowly. If you don’t allow that process to happen, then God’s not going to be able to illuminate your life with his truth.
I like how Pastor Rick Warren describes this, he says, “It’s not how much you get through the bible, it’s how much of God’s Word gets through to you.” When God’s light starts to reflect back because you are full of light. If you feel that the bible is boring or dry or irrelevant than you are not allowing God’s light into your life. If you know God’s will but are continuing to live in sin, you are not allowing God’s light into your life because in order to allow the light in you must be willing to act upon it. We must choose to act upon it. So when we sit down to receive God’s light, to read the bible, we should be willing to commit to doing whatever God says even before he asks us. You sit down and say, “Yes Lord I want to do your will. Just let me know what it is and I’ll do it.” Only then can we truly fulfill our purpose because you were created to serve God with your life, your abilities, your finances, and your time. Like this little sunflower here, we are powerless to do anything of eternal significance without God’s power because we are not the light nor do we create our own light. God’s light comes to us through the Word and gives us power. It’s not magical but it’s very real. It’s his love that transforms and we receive light when God illuminates his character to us as we read the bible and as we respond to his will.
Now, as we draw this all together, talking about illumination from God’s Word, we’ve mentioned that the light comes from God, it is his perfect holiness, his perfect will, the light comes to us through his Word, in the bible itself and the words of Christ, it has power to transform us by the Holy Spirit, power to change you for the better but it must be received if we expect God to change our lives. The question that we’re asking this morning is, “Are you spending time in the light?” Reading the bible is not just a good idea for those who need a crutch to lean on; we desperately need God’s light because unless you are in the light, you are tampering with darkness. Darkness is where evil dwells. Darkness is what separates us from God. When we aren’t regularly reading God’s Word, our hearts begin to grow cold and darkness takes root. It starts out subtle, barely even noticed, but as God’s light in your life begins to fade the darkness begins to grow. It’s like something that glows in the dark, if it’s regularly in the light it’s going to shine brightly. But, if you take the light away it slowly begins to fade. Your heart, your love begins to fade like plants without light we slowly begin to die. Are you spending time in the light? I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to live in darkness. I don’t want to be separated from God’s blessings. I want to be fruitful for the kingdom. I want to live with God’s power and I want to be in the light as he is in the light, to benefit from his love, his wisdom, and his blessing. Are you spending time in the light?
I have one more illustration I want to share with you that comes from Rick Warren and I think it’s very good and clear and worthwhile. He describes the Word of God, the bible, as God’s last will and testament. Now, not that God has died but when God sent Jesus to the cross, died, was resurrected—he left behind a last will and testament, an inheritance. Let’s suppose for a second that you were a child or an heir to Warren Buffet. If you don’t know who Warren Buffet is, he’s a multi-billionaire; he’s one of the richest people in the world. Let’s say that Warren Buffet was to tragically pass away. Would you want to read the will? Would you want to know the words of wisdom he left for you? Or the wealth that he bestowed upon you? I know I would. I’d want to open that will as soon as I could. The reality is that the Word of God is immensely, infinitely more valuable to us, more precious to us. It contains the riches of God that he wants to give to us, if only we will read it. The sad truth is, oftentimes we leave it on the shelf, or we simply just glean from the pastor’s sermon instead of digging into God’s Word, finding out the riches that he wants us to have now in this life. Are you spending time in the light?
Let’s pray…Heavenly Father we thank you so much for your Word. I want to pray for those people in our congregation this morning who feel like your light has been choked out of their life because of life circumstances. Lord, it’s difficult to deal with some of those things that life throws our way and it’s difficult to see your light beyond them. But, I pray Lord for those people who are struggling to see your light that they would recognize that anytime they open up your Word looking for truth then they will see you light, your love, your hope, your wisdom shining through. And Lord, for those in our congregation who want a deeper understanding of the power of the Holy Spirit and how it can change our lives, I pray Lord that you would help us to be a congregation that understands that the Holy Spirit is real and active and gives us power to overcome whatever happens in this world and in our lives. Gives us power to bring your message of love to the world. I pray, Lord, that we would take hold of that power, that we would study it, understand it, and grasp it and that we might receive your light and use its power for your glory. Lord I pray that you would give a hunger in our hearts that we would yearn to read your word because we desperately need it Lord. We know that if we don’t spend time in your life then darkness can creep in and the light is choked out. Might we be students of your Word and receive your light and when we receive your light let it soak in and reflect in our own lives. Lord we thank you for the 40 Days in the Word Campaign and we pray that it would continue to change and transform our lives, not because this campaign has any power but you have power to shine your light into our lives because of what we’re learning, the truth that is being revealed in scripture as we study your Word and are faithful to read it, to dig into it, and to reflect upon it. Lord, we ask that you will shine your light into our lives that we might receive your love, live with your wisdom, and enjoy your blessings. We ask this Lord in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Spiritual Game Planning #1 The Draft 09/09/12
Pastor Jeff Faith Community Church
We are starting a new series this morning called “Developing a Spiritual Game Plan”. We’re tying it into football to have a little analogy there but we’ve got a media I want you to see. Jesus had to pick a team. It was draft day for the Lord the day when he said here’s the guys I want to be on my team, to help me spread the gospel, this good news. He did not pick the team that you would think he would pick. See if you can identify some of these apostles in disguise here in the description. Go ahead and show that media and then we’ll talk about it.
Did you identify some of those people there? Who was the pessimist? Fisherman is easy we won’t use that one. Pessimist, Thomas. Who was the braggart? Peter. He was always bragging about what he was going to do and not do. Who’s the white collar criminal? Matthew, the tax collector. Who was the terrorist? Simon the Zealot wanted to overthrow the government. Interesting.
We are starting this new series called Developing A Spiritual Game Plan and I want to share a little story with you. I have a golf club; this is my 7-iron since we’re in church I chose a 7-iron, God’s number. I have recently taken up the sport of golf. I made a vow to myself at age 20 that I would never play this game again. I was so frustrated by it, so bad it, I decided I was never going to play again.
A few years ago my son decided he was going to play and he said, “Dad, I’d like you to play golf with me.” And I said, “But I hate golf.”
He said, “But, you know what, you’re not getting any younger. You can’t play basketball forever and you know, it’s outside, it’s pretty, it’s nice, enjoy the sunshine and plus we can do it together.” I got to think about all this and I said, “Okay, I’ll play.”
But I was as horrible as I remember. It was so frustrating to me I could not wait ‘til the ninth hole would come I was excited. Thank goodness the ninth hole is here and it’s done. I never wanted anybody to see me because I was so awful. If I had to tee off I just hope nobody was looking. I usually avoided that but I remember one time we were at a golf course in DeKalb. There was a father and a son who were just starting to play and he was using my son and (me) as object lessons to teach his boys how to golf. We had to do a couple chip shots on the green and he looked at my son who was getting ready to hit—my son has good form and everything—he says to his boys, look at this guy, watch this guy. Look at that follow through, see that? Now watch this guy. (It’s me.) He’s thinking I’m the older one and probably have more experience. Ya know, I hit the ball and he yells, “Look away, children.” No, I don’t know if he did that. “Children, run to the car.” I know we apologized to the boys. He probably used that as object lesson of that’s not how you hit a golf ball--over the green, no touch at all—it’s terrible.
And so after two years of this agony, this year I said to myself, “I’m going to change. I am going to get a golf lesson. I’m going to learn what I’m doing out there.” I got a golf lesson and I’ve gone from horrible to bad. That’s progress. Now I’m just bad. I’m hoping to one day reach mediocrity like the rest of you golfers out there. And so, the first thing he did was, “I want to teach you how to hold a golf club.” (Pastor speaking gruffly) “There, just grab it like that and I hold it like this.”
The instructor says, “No, no, no, you see you have this V right here, you put your left thumb right there.” “Really?” “Yeah, you’re going to hold it in your fingers.” “Oh, I thought you hold it in your palm.”
“No, hold it in your fingers. Not too tight, I can’t pull it out of your hands; it’s still pretty loose in there. Then, you’ve got another V here, you’ve got a V with your index finger and your thumb and you’re going to put that V on that V. You’re little finger’s going come in here and you’re going to hold it with your other hand and you’re going to take your club head, face your club and put it right like that and then here’s what your back swing is going to look like and it’s going to be right like that. When you follow through it’s going to be right like that.”
And he just began to teach me stuff. I begin to notice that I started to get a little better. I’m actually enjoying it. The other day on my day off I got a golf cart all by myself and played nine holes and I was sad when it was done. See? So, what I found out was, I’m still bad, but I learned some things and I wanted to get better. What I found out was the reason I was bad and stayed bad for those two years—I was practicing bad. I didn’t know how to hold a club. I didn’t know how to swing a club. I didn’t know all about my posture and so what I was doing was continuing to do the bad. When I would hit a ball and it went well I had no idea what I did right and I had no idea how to duplicate it. I did things that defy the law of physics. I could have had a physics professor follow me, watch me swing and go that defies the laws of physics. You could not hit the ball this way and have it go that way. But I could do that. I was practicing bad. When I began to go back to the fundamentals, how to hold a club and other things that I’m going to learn, my game began to improve.
Maybe your spiritual walk is like that. Maybe your spiritual game, if we could say, is a game you don’t want anybody to see. You know, you want people to turn away and not look, not use you as an example because you’re embarrassed and ashamed. Your game doesn’t improve; it stagnates or maybe even digresses. Maybe it’s because you’re practicing bad. Did you ever think about that? Maybe you forgot some of the fundamentals and you’ve gotten a little bit sloppy in your walk and so you’re practicing bad and you’re not growing? You’re not learning; you’re not changing. What this series is about is going back to some fundamentals—to learn how to hold the club, to learn who we are. Every week we’re going to build on what we’ve learned before and to develop a solid spiritual game plan. Okay?
Now, before the whistle blows and before you put on your uniform and you kick off for real there’s something called the draft. The team, on draft day, they have the war room and they’ve studied game film and they’ve studied their team, first of all. They know their weaknesses; they know what positions they are weak in. They know they need a receiver or a line backer, whatever it is, and they’re going to draft to make their team strong. They’ve looked over all the colleges, all the game films. They’ve studied statistics. They’ve watched them work in the combine and they know their speed and all that and then they make a pick, they make a choice. Some players are elated because they get a phone call or their name is called and the team says we’ve chosen you. We’ve studied you and we think you’re going to help our team win; you’re going to make our team better. Other players are dejected because they’re not picked in the first, second, or even the third round. They’re not picked at all. Their dreams are dashed, their hopes are gone and they don’t know what to do.
Have you ever been in a line to be picked for something on a team? Do you remember that in grade school or high school in sport? Man, if you were good at the sport and everybody knew it that’s fine. But if you weren’t very good that can be a very traumatic thing. You know, I grew up playing basketball in high school and college but when I was in grade school I had gone through a growth spurt. In seventh grade I was short and fat with bad arches. I knew what it was like to be picked the last or next to last. I knew what it was like to have your heart pound when there are only two people left and you’re one of them. You don’t want to be the person when they say, “Well, I guess I’ve gotta take Jeff.” That hurts. Maybe you’ve been in that position where you’ve been picked last or next to last or maybe you’ve been in that position where you’ve been picked first or second and how good that feels.
I want to share a verse of scripture with you that I think will do two things. #1) I think it will encourage you and #2) there should be a feeling of inferiority with it as well, a feeling of unworthiness. Okay? This is going to be our theme verse which we are going to unveil one week at a time. Now you can cheat, you can read the whole verse in the bible but we’re going to memorize this verse together so we’re going to unveil it little bit by little bit each week. We’re going to spend the entire month, this entire series with this one verse. This is a verse we’re going to study for a month and the verse is found in the book of John. John 15:16. Jesus has given his farewell discourse, (chapters) 14-17 and as we say this verse keep in mind he’s talking not just to his disciples but to you as well. We know this because of how? John (chapter) 17 (verse 20 paraphrased), Jesus says my prayer, my thoughts are not just with those who are here but for all who will come to believe in me through their word. So he was thinking about you and (me) and he says this, “You did not choose me but I chose you…” I’m the drafter, I’m the picker, not you. You did not choose me, but I chose you. One of the ways we learn and memorize is to say it with our mouths as we read it. So we’re going to say this twice together, Okay? Let’s read it. You did not choose me but I chose you, John 15:16. One more time, you did not choose me but I chose you, John 15:16. The fact that God chose me is so significant, that I matter, that he wants me on his team. You know? It’s humbling and it’s joyful at the same time. God picked me and God picked you—if you name the name of Christ today, you’re on his team. He’s picked you.
Now there is another world view that we’re going to talk about and why this is so important, because that other world view says something entirely different. Every religion and science, mankind, asks three ultimate questions. Who am I? Why am I here? Where am I going? Correct? That’s what we ask. I want to take our faith and put it in juxtaposition with another prevalent world view that’s going to be expressed through an atheist/author/biologist/writer by the name of Richard Dawkins whom you might have heard of. He wrote an article called Evolution is Not a Controversial Issue that I’ve copied and there are a few copies out there. Maybe if you want to read it, take it home. He wrote a book called The God Delusion which I’ve read and it actually strengthened my faith rather than diminished my faith. But what he says is this, when he’s asked a series of questions. This question is how you think evolution should be taught to children? He says, “I think it needs serious attention. Children should be taught where they come from, what life is all about, how it’s started, why it’s there, right? Those are all good questions. Why is there such diversity of it? Why it looks like it’s designed.”
As an aside, Pastor Jeff inserts, it’s not (designed), it looks that way.
(Dawkins continues) “These are all things that can be explained to a pretty young child, I’d start at age about 7 or 8. There’s only one game in town as far as serious science is concerned. There are not two different theories. No serious scientist doubts that we are cousins of gorillas, monkeys, snails, earthworms. That we have shared ancestors with all animals, all plants, and no serious scientist would doubt that evolution is a fact.”
Richard Dawkins believes that there is no God, not a creator God, not a God who guides, there’s simply no God. And so we address those three questions…Who am I? Jesus says you are here as part of God’s divine plan. You have been made in his image—Imago Dei, the image of God. You are here by design. You are here for a purpose, created by an intelligent being. Dawkins would say, “Who are you? You are the product of chance. You are a cosmic accident. You happened to be on the right planet, the right distance from the sun, the right set of conditions, this primordial ooze in the right amount of time, billions of years passing and lightning strikes and somehow simple life forms and that life begins to evolve and survival of the fittest, diversity comes in because of change and from nothing has come everything. And from non-intelligence has come intelligence. From non-intelligence has come a being that can contemplate eternity and our own being, right? So who are you? You are an accident. That’s all you are.
Why am I here? Jesus says this; you are here because God has a plan for you. God has a purpose for you. God has a reason for you to be here. Ephesians chapter 2 verse 10, let’s read these words by the apostle Paul, “For we are God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Your workmanship is a poem, poema. As you write a poem, create a poem, it says God is writing a poem in your life. There is a verse, as he created the world, there was a verse with your name, a place for you, something that you are to accomplish and it was made in advance. There was a divine purpose and reason for you being here, you’re not an accident. Dawkins would say, you know you can create your own purpose, you can create your own reason to be but ultimately there is no why. It simply happened, the right place the right time the right planet. It just happened. There’s no why, there’s no reason at all.
Where are going? Jesus talked about eternity. He talked about Heaven and Hell, he talked about us being on a path, on a journey to another life after we die. Remember he said he who believes in me will live even though he dies?
Richard Dawkins (was) asked what’s going to happen to you when you die? He said I’m going to die. My brain’s going to die and all my thoughts and feelings and emotions are going to die with me because I’m dead and that’s all there is. Everything about me is in my brain.
The scripture teaches that’s not true, that you have a soul. Part of you that’s been made in the image of God, which can connect with God, will live on past death. This soul is what God created to have fellowship with him. It’s what makes you YOU. It separates you from the rest of creation.
So, you put those world views together, you could not have two more opposite world views, could you? Each of those answers the ultimate life questions in a completely different way. So who do you believe? Are you going to believe what Jesus said or are you going to believe what Richard Dawkins said? Or is it just wishful thinking on the part of the Christian? We just want this to be true so bad that we just believe it in spite of the facts. Alright? That we are just foolish to believe this message of the gospel.
Dawkins says this, “What you cannot really logically do is to say well I believe there’s some kind of intelligence, some kind of divine physicist who designed the laws of physics; therefore Jesus is my Lord and Savior who died for my sins. It’s not permissible, it’s not logical, but unfortunately many people resort to it. You can’t do that. You can’t say I see law there must be a law giver, I see design there must be a designer; therefore Jesus is my lord and died for my sins.”
I would say to Mr. Dawkins, nobody says that. Christians don’t say that. You don’t look at creation—if you never heard the name of Jesus—you don’t look at a sunset and go, “Beautiful sunset, I think I’m going to receive Christ as my Lord today.” You don’t connect those, there has to be revelation given, correct? The gospel has to be proclaimed for you to connect those thoughts. If I see art or a sculpture or a painting, I don’t know who did it, I don’t know why they made it. But if the artist themselves come and say this is my painting, here is why I painted it, here’s what I call it, here’s why I did it, now I know who painted it, why they painted it, and what it’s significance was to the one who made it. Jesus came to give revelation as to why this planet is here, how it got here, and what is our significance on it—much like an artist who interprets his paintings.
Now there are two kinds of revelation I want you to understand. One is general revelation. General revelation is what science studies. General revelation is when God reveals himself in the world around us. Romans chapter 1 verse 20 is an example of general revelation, “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities (His eternal power and divine nature) have been clearly seen being understood for what has been made so that men are without excuse.” Paul says look at the world around you, look at the majesty of the mountains, the seas, the thunder and lightning, the rain, the seasons. Look at the complexity of life. Study a flower. Look at the pregnancy and the birth of a child, how life comes into being. You can know because you see design, there’s a designer. You see laws, there’s a law giver. God revealed himself in revelation. But that does not immediately make us connect the dots and want to receive Jesus, I would agree with Richard Dawkins. That’s not logical. There is another step and that other step is called special revelation, special revelation.
One of the things Jesus came to do was to reveal God to us. In John 1:18 Jesus says, “No one has ever seen God but God, the one and only, who is at the Father’s side has made Him known.” That’s special revelation. Hebrews chapter 1 verses 1 and 2, it says in the past God spoke to our forefathers from the prophets and many times and in various ways and these last days he has spoken to us by his son whom he appointed heir of all things and through whom he made the universe—Special Revelation. Christ came and God took on flesh, came into his creation and spoke as no man has ever spoke and works as no man has ever done and began to exclaim to us you have a father in heaven, he made you, that he loves you, that he’s created a way for you to know him and follow after him and I am making a way for you. I am making a way for you to be with God forever and then one of the disciples says Jesus, how do we know the way and how do we know what God is like and Jesus looked at him and said, “Have I been with you so long Philip that you do not recognize me? He who has seen me has seen God.” He’s in the boat and the disciples are terrified in Mark 4, they’re terrified of the wind and the waves and the storm at sea, that they’re going to drown and they wake Jesus up and say don’t you care? He says, “Peace be still…and immediately the wind dies down and the waves become calm they turn to one another and they say what manner of man is this that even the wind and the waves obey him?” The artist himself has come into his own creation. He’s come into his own painting and he is explaining why he made it and what is our role?
Mr. Dawkins says this further, he was asked if there were a God and you were to meet him after death what would you say? Answer: If I met God in the unlikely event after I die? Well, the first thing I would say is, well, which one are you? Are you Zeus, are you Thor, are you Baal, are you Mythras, are you Yahweh? Which god are you? Why did you take such pains to conceal yourself and hide away from us? Friends, Jesus did not conceal himself. Jesus did not hide away. When he came he raised the dead, he calmed the storms, he healed the blind eyes, he gave hearing to deaf ears, recovery to the lame, and he fed thousands of people with a few loaves of fish and bread. He performed incredible wonders and taught as no man has ever taught, said before he died after he died in 3 days I will come back. In case you haven’t known the tomb in Jerusalem is still empty. Then, the bible says he appeared for 40 days to hundreds of men, and Paul writes in 1Cor15, most of whom are still alive today. At the time he wrote 1Cor15, he said most of those 500 men are still alive and you can ask them. So for 40 days for years he taught and performed miracles and then rose from the dead and taught for another 40 days. “ Richard Dawkins can complain and say why didn’t he stay, why didn’t he continue to remain with us? That’s God’s choice but while he was here he revealed himself, clearly, he did not hide. He did not conceal. And so, in the Old Testament there were prophecies that told us what city he would come from, the little town of Bethlehem, that he would be born into poverty that he would come as a male child. It told us in Daniel that he would die for us and Isaiah 53 that he would die in suffering. Psalms 22 that he would come and suffer upon a cross and then it spoke of his resurrection in Isaiah 53 and other places—in Ezekial, Zachariah that he would suffer for our sins. Christ came and fulfilled all those prophecies and he revealed to us who God is, why we are here, and where we are going.
It’s true, Mr. Dawkins, general revelation does not bring you to faith in Jesus but special revelation does. When the artist himself comes and says here is why you are here, here is who you are, here is your purpose, and here is your destiny. The second thing that that realization does that we’ve been picked or chosen is it makes us feel very unworthy. I’m not smart enough, I’m not strong enough, and I’m not good enough to be on God’s team. Paul would agree. He addressed that very concern and he says to the Corinthians in chapter 1, if you’d like to turn in your bibles this is page 1128, it’s rather lengthy so we’re going to read it out of our scripture, it says, “Brothers, think now what you were when you were called. Notice he says what you were, not what your currently are but what you were. “Not many of you were wise by human standards.” Now God has given them wisdom. “Not many of you were influential.” But now God has given them influence. These uneducated men, these common men changed the world. God used them to change the world. Kings, princes, emperors, governors tried to stop them but they could not. They changed the world. “Not many of you were influential, not many of you were of noble birth.” Notice he didn’t say all of you are not because some were influential, some were of noble, some were wise by human standards, but not most. But if God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, the weak things of the world to shame the strong, the lowly things of this word and despised things and the things that are not, to nullify the things that are, God is going to do things a new way. His way. “So that no one can boast before him. It is because of Him that you are in Christ Jesus.” It’s a natural response. I hope when I say God picked you your response is not, well it’s about time. It’s about time he realized how good I am. I mean, he’s lucky to have me on his team. The response of all of us is I’m not worthy. God knows that. But God is able to use us in spite of our weaknesses, in spite of our lack, in spite of our short comings, in spite of our sin. He is able to work and transform us so that our lives can bear fruit.
The next part of John 15:16, “You did not choose me but I chose you that you may bear fruit…” What does that mean? To bear fruit? What kind of fruit? How do we bear it? Okay? That’s the next part of the verse we’re learning and studying. We’re going to talk about that next week, Part Two.
Let’s pray, “Father we thank you for meeting us here today. We thank you for the example of Paul and of our Lord. We thank you that we can understand the difference between general revelation and special revelation. In special revelation we connect the dots. We come to understand who we are, why we are here, and where we are going. If you understand that those ultimate questions have answers, that you selected us and chose us not to sit by, not to sit on the bench, but to be in the game, to bear fruit. As we prepare to get together next week, minister to us and teach us what that is, and help us to assimilate the things we have learned already today. It’s in your name we pray, Amen.
Pastor Jeff Williams: December 4, 2011 Meet the Philippians, Part VI: Chapter 2:12-18. I’m still struggling with a sore throat. I’ve been taking every remedy you’ve offered. I’m overdosing on Vitamin C, Ricola, herbal tea, Alka Seltzer cold, Tylenol and everything you can think of; so I’ll be talking softly again. Although, unfortunately for you, it won’t be any shorter than normally. If we were to be honest, there are times when you and I struggle in our faith. There are times we feel like [asking], “Does God really know what He is doing? Would He have me here? Would He have me in this situation? What is it He is trying to teach me? I’m frustrated! I’m confused! I’m angry! I don’t really understand what’s going on.” Has anybody ever been there in your walk? We have bad hair days-at least some of us do-but we also have bad faith days. We have days when we don’t feel like following, days when we are just so frustrated we’re tempted to throw in the towel, whatever the case might be. Yet, we are in this struggle. If He’s the Master- He’s the Teacher-and we’re the followers, we don’t always get what He’s teaching us until we look back upon it. We’re going to be talking about that struggle, that whole process that we call sanctification. It reminded me of a clip from a movie that I saw many years ago and enjoyed called, “The Karate Kid.” I told Pastor Jesse I wanted to use a clip from that on Sunday, and he reminded me that there is actually a newer version of that, so we’re able to see a little bit more of a modern version than the Ralph Macchio edition. This has Will Smith’s son as “Grasshopper.” It is a remake of “The Karate Kid,” and I want to watch this scene because I think there are some analogies we can draw from it. Let’s go ahead and show that clip, and we’ll come back and get into the Word. (The clip can be viewed by following this link: http://www.wingclips.com/movie-clips/the-karate-kid/everything-is-kung-fu). It reminds me that so many times in our walk, the Holy Spirit grabs a hold of us and says, “Be firm. Be strong.” Jesus lives in everything you do; everything is about Jesus. There are times where we’re just confused and frustrated, but this whole process of sanctification is something that must be done. It’s a process of learning; it’s a process of growing, and Paul learned. Remember we read in Corinthians a month or so ago how he asked the Lord to take away the thorn and the flesh with His constant buffeting, this constant badgering. By the way, having said that word-badgering, “On Wisconsin!” Yeah! Rose Bowl! You distracted me. Let’s go back to where we were. Paul says, “The thorn and the flesh, take it away.” God’s response is, “No.” Paul says, “Take it away, Lord, please. I beg you. Take it away.” God says, “No.” Paul says, “I asked a third time, ‘Lord, please take this away.’” God’s response was “My grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Then Paul says, “Therefore, I’ll rejoice in my weaknesses for when I am weak, then I am strong.” He found out that God was teaching him-through this frustrating experience that he was going through-how to glorify in his weakness. His weakness showed the strength of God. Here Paul is in this jail, and the church in Philippi writes him a letter. They send a messenger and say, “We just want you to know we’re thinking about you. We know that things are hard for you. We want to encourage you. We know you must be depressed. We know you must be upset because your ministry has come to a grinding halt. You’re our leader and there you are in prison. Are you okay?” He ends up encouraging them instead of them encouraging him. Have you ever gone to somebody with the intent of encouraging them, and they end up encouraging you more? It ends up that the roles were reversed. That’s what happened here with Paul. Paul ends up encouraging them when their intent was to encourage him. Here he is in prison, and he’s frustrated. He has lost his freedom. He lost his ministry, apparently. He’s frustrated, and he doesn’t understand why God “has me here. What is God doing?” Then the light begins to dawn on him. He has a captive audience. One by one, guards are chained to him, and they can’t go anywhere. He’s going to tell his story, and they will come to Christ-person after person, guard after guard. They’re going home, and they’re sharing what they learned from Paul with their wives, their children, and their friends. People are coming to Christ, and wonderful things are happening in the government, in Caesar’s government. As corrupt as it was, there was revival taking place. Paul says, “I might be in jail, but the Gospel isn’t.” What’s more, others are stepping up, and they’re preaching the Word as never before. There is a new boldness, and Paul begins to count all of his blessings. He begins to recognize that God knows what He’s doing. God is in control. He begins to surrender to God’s leadership in this situation. Let’s open our Bibles up to Philippians 2, and we’re going to read Verses 12-18 (page 1162 of pew Bibles). We’re going to focus in on [Verses] 12 and 13 because I think those are the two we need to spend most of our time on. Let’s read the Passage in its entirety, and then we’ll come back and focus on 12 and 13. It says, “Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed-not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence-continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling…” In other words, this is serious stuff. Take this seriously. Approach this with a sober mind. Approach this very seriously because we’re dealing with eternal matters here. “…for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose. “Do everything without complaining or arguing.” In other words, here is an example of what I mean when I talk about surrendering to God, when I talk about working out your salvation. If you’re living your faith without grumbling, complaining, or arguing with God, then you’re on the right track. Paul learned this…how? Through grumbling and complaining. That’s how he learned it. It doesn’t serve any purpose; it doesn’t help any cause. “Instead, when I’m going through those difficult times, when I’m struggling, I begin to ask myself, ‘What do I need to learn? How can I serve God through this? How can I glorify through this? What is He teaching me? How is this strengthening me as a person? How can I help others with what I’m going through?” “…so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe…” In other words, if you truly adopt what he is saying here and you follow and do the Will of God, you will stand out in the world. He says, “…as you hold out the Word of life-in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing. But even if I’m being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. So you too should be glad and rejoice with me.” [What Paul is saying is] “I will not stop; I will not change my attitude if the worst happens to me. If I’m poured out-if I die in this jail in Rome because of my faith-I will not change my mind. I will not change my attitude. I will not change how I look at things.” He says, “I encourage you to join me and have this same attitude in yourselves.” What we’re talking about today is sanctification. It’s a theological word which means to be set apart for God’s purposes, to be conformed into the image of Christ, to become holy. All of these things are involved in the process of sanctification. Salvation, the word deliverance, begins, and once salvation begins-when we accept Christ-sanctification follows. That whole process of God working on our attitudes, our actions, our habits and conforming us to His Will and to His purposes-that is a process that begins and lasts for the rest of our lives. It culminates when we die or at His return. We are glorified and made in the image of Christ, so salvation is something that has begun in the past, is going on now, and will continue until it reaches its climax at His coming or our going when we are gathered together with Him. This whole process is something we are going through, and there is a debate as to how much is our responsibility and how much is God’s responsibility. Where does God’s part end and my part begin? There are two schools of thought on this. There are actually more than that, but there are two dominant schools you hear about. One is pietism. Pietism teaches and emphasizes the will of man. Listen, if you want to be Godly, you have to work really hard. You have to strive, struggle, and you have to work the disciplines. You have to resist temptation. Basically, it is on you. God has given you all the tools, all the gifts you need, and it’s on you. You have to own this thing called holiness, and you have to strive, work, sweat, and sacrifice; and through enough effort on your part, you can become like Christ. You have to forsake the things of the world, focus on the things of the Kingdom, and become holy. So pietism loves Verse 12 where he says, “…continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling…” Yeah, Amen, Paul. That’s right. We have to work hard. You might have come from a church that had a background in pietism. It may have been a very legalistic church. It might have taught you that “Christians don’t do this, and we do this. You have to dress this way and talk this way.” Greatly stressed was “hard work and discipline. Disciplines were good, but you have to work hard. You have to strive and struggle to be like Christ.” The oneness is on us. The flipside of the coin is a school of thought called quietism. Quietism teaches quite the opposite. Quietism teaches just like it sounds-quiet. “Be still and know that I am God.” You simply submit. You don’t have to work hard. It’s not a struggle; it’s not an effort. If it’s a struggle and an effort, that means you’re not submitting. You simply need to just abide, “Like fruit in the vine…” The apple doesn’t struggle as it grows. The grape doesn’t struggle. It simply abides. You simply rest in His presence, rest in His promise. Then He will do the work. Your job is simply to get out of God’s way. That’s what the quietists teach you to believe. Quietists love Verse 13. Paul says, “…for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose.” To that, they say, “Amen. It’s all God. From beginning to end, it’s God. It’s not you at all.” The problem is Verses 12-13 are both in our Bibles. In fact, they’re both in this text. Paul is preaching as though they’re not at war with one another at all. They’re working together hand in hand. God certainly is a source of salvation from beginning to end, but we have a part to play too. God certainly is sovereign, but our wills make a place too. They have a role too. It is both. We’re going to introduce a new theological term this morning. We can do that. Somebody has to start it, so we’re going to start it. We’ll call it partnerism. We could say Koinoniasm because it’s the Biblical word for fellowship or partnership-Koinonia. It’s probably easier to remember and say: partnerism. It is working together with God, partnering with God. It says, “We work out, and He works within.” Do you know what it says? “Work out your salvation for God is at work within.” You know when you’re trying to get a stain out that won’t come out? You have to work out. You have to put a little elbow grease on there, but it still isn’t coming off; so you go out and buy a chemical. You ask, “What works for getting this stain out?” They give you something, and you pour it on the stain and it starts bubbling. If it doesn’t bubble, it’s not working correctly. It has to bubble. I dropped my Alka Seltzer in the water, and it had to bubble. Otherwise it doesn’t work. If you see a bubble, you know it’s working. Pretty soon that stain starts to dissolve. You put a little elbow grease on it, and the stain comes out. You’re like, “Wow! I work on it, but this chemical works within it. We’re a partner. We’ve worked together to solve the problem.” That’s what it’s teaching. It’s the verb here “to work out.” It means “to bring to completion, to keep on working until something is done.” Paul is saying, “Be relentless. Work hard. There are no shortcuts to this thing called sanctification, Christ-likeness. It involves work, effort, and sacrifice on your part.” Notice he doesn’t say, “Work for your salvation.” He says, “Work out your salvation. You already have it, but now there are things you need to work on within yourself.” How many of you have things you are working on within yourselves? Let me see your hands. The rest of you have already arrived. Maybe you should be preaching the sermon, telling us what your secret is. We all have things we are working through. God works in, and we work out. The old adage goes, “No pain, no gain.” Let’s say you go to the gym, and you want to increase your strength or your endurance-whatever that might be-the more you put into that exercise, the more you put into that workout, the more you’re going to gain, right? I’ve seen it happen where I’ve gone to the gym or maybe when I was rehabbing my knee after one of my surgeries, and I’m trying to do some water workouts, and I see someone in there moving at a snail’s pace in the water. You are like, “Well, what good is that? How could that be doing anything?” They might be on a machine lifting the equivalent of what an ant could do. You’re thinking, “How does that help you?” They might be on a treadmill and are barely moving. You just want to say, “You’re wasting your time. You’re never going to make a difference if that’s how you’re going to work out because you have to put in something to get something out.” You hear these infomercials all the time. They say, “Would you like to lose weight without having to worry about diet or exercise?” “Yeah!” They must sell those things because these infomercials have been going on as long as I can remember. People must be buying them. “Just drink this.” “Just take this pill and you’ll look like this guy.” “Just stand there and hold this dumbbell. Do that for 20 minutes a day, and in three weeks you’ll look like this guy.” He has the six-pack, and you’re thinking, “Are these people just crazy?” But somebody must be buying this stuff. This whole thing about the shortcut… [What is the truth?] “No pain, no gain.” That just isn’t true. Those pills do not exist. That drink does not exist. There are no shortcuts. You have to get on your gym clothes and work out. You have to run; you have to lift. When you lift, you tear that muscle down. When it builds up, that muscle fiber builds up stronger. The body says, “Oh, okay. We’re going to get some work done now, ha? Oh, we’re going to run now, ha?” The body starts gearing up. You have a part to do. You have to go work out. Then you have to get rest because you can’t work out hard, do your bench-press on Monday and then the next day and the day after do the bench-press again. You have to let those muscles rebuild. You have to give them 42 to 72 hours before you can go at it again. Then you have to add protein so those muscles can rebuild. You have things you have to do, but then God has put the systems to work in your body so that muscle will rebuild, so those lungs will work, and so that heart will pump. Your endurance or your strength will grow. Whatever it is that you’re working on, as you perform those exercises and put in diligent routine, it will make a difference. Paul says, “Yes, God’s working within you, but you can make a difference in how productive that work is.” You can choose to cooperate with God, work with God and put in the time and effort. He says, “The disciplines are hard work. Prayer is hard work. Sacrifice and servitude are hard work. Using your gifts, growing in knowledge, fasting, and meditation-it’s hard work! It requires effort. Resisting temptation, spiritual warfare: it is hard work!” He says, “You have to be willing to pay the price. However, it’s not all on you. You’re not in this battle alone-far from it,” Paul says. He says, “For it is God Who is at work within you to will and to do His good purpose.” This word work is the word we get energize from, energy. It’s the word energize. God is at work energizing. God is relentless; God doesn’t give up. It’s like the old ad campaign for the Energizer Bunny. He just keeps going and going and going-like one of my sermons. It just never ends (congregation laughing). It just never ends, right? God is in you, and He’s energizing. He’s relentless. It’s like when you have a bad attitude; God doesn’t give up on you. God works to help shape that attitude to a right attitude. When you become lazy or complacent, God energizes you and He works on you to quicken you, to get you to wake up, to get you to get back in the game. When you become distracted and start paying attention to things that you shouldn’t-like cell phones, shopping, or whatever it might be-God draws your attention to where it is supposed to be. Don’t feel bad if you’re one of those cell phone people; it happens to me too. It happened to me last night. My cell phone went off during the sermon. It happens; don’t feel bad whomever you are. This is the kind of thing: when I get distracted, God brings me back. When I’m discouraged, the Holy Spirit works to encourage me. When I need guidance, He works to give me guidance-even when I’m at rest. How many of you have ever had a situation where you’ve said, “Lord, I need wisdom! Lord, I need direction,” and you go to bed not knowing what you’re going to do? You don’t know what decision you’re going to make, but when you wake up, you know what to do. You have an understanding about what to do? Has anybody experienced that? Yeah, it’s like God is at work even when I’m asleep. There have been times when I’ve been grappling with how I’m going to illustrate something in a sermon. I’ll go to sleep thinking, “I don’t know how I’m going to illustrate that. I’ll wake up and say, “I’ve got it!” First thing in the morning, I’ll wake up and say, “I have to write that down!” Now I text myself instead. I give myself a text message, and it’s right there. God is just relentless. He just keeps working. When we’re tired, He keeps working. When we say, “I just need to rest,” [He continues to work]. You go to the airport, and they have those people movers in there. You have your luggage with you. If you are walking at a normal pace, you don’t slow down; you can walk a little faster because it just never ends. There is no wasted movement. It’s always moving you forward, but there are times when you’re tired. You might use that thing for just a little bit of a rest period. You can put down those heavy suitcases. I’ve been in airports like that where sometimes I’ve used it to get from one end to the other quickly. Other times, I use it for break time. I put the load down and just relax a little bit. I keep moving forward. God does that too. Even when we’re tired, He can keep moving us forward. Even when we say, “I just want to rest. I just want to put this down for a while,” He energizes us. He keeps going and going to bring us to completion. So when asked [which is better: pietism or quietism], the answer is it’s both. We don’t need to argue about this anymore. Pietists and Quietists shake hands and give each other a hug. Become partners. Realize that we are working together. Let me give you an illustration from the Scripture of this. Let’s look in the Book of Nehemiah together, Nehemiah 4. What’s taking place here is Nehemiah is leading this endeavor to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem. Jerusalem is the capital, and they have been taken into captivity. Now they are returning from captivity, and they’re going to reestablish their nation. Their first line of defense is their wall. If you don’t have a wall, then you’re vulnerable to the enemy. You are exposed to attack. You had to have a wall, a literal wall around your city. Otherwise you’re a laughing stock. So if they were to become a country again, if this were to be their capital again, the wall had to be rebuilt. Nehemiah sets out for this quest, and it’s an ominous task. They’re discouraged because of the sheer volume of the task; but if that were not enough, they have enemies. Those enemies do not want to see Israel reestablished as a nation. They do not want to see Jerusalem as a capital, so they are working against Nehemiah. They start off by insulting, mocking, and ridiculing them. One of the men by the name of Sanballat says, “If as much as a fox jumps on that wall, it’s so weak that it’s going to fall down.” That’s one thing, but when Israel continues their quest to rebuild the wall and then gets to the halfway point, it looks like they’re really going to get this done. They see that as a threat to their security as a nation, so they then begin to threaten Israel. They begin saying, “We’re going to attack them.” They don’t tell Israel that. They just talk amongst themselves. They say, “We’re going to attack them. We’re going to kill them. We’re going to literally kill them to prevent them from reestablishing.” Word begins to get back to Nehemiah of what they are plotting to do. Let’s pick up the story in Verse 10 (of Chapter 4, page 475). Watch for signs of partnerism here. “Meanwhile, the people in Judah said, ‘The strength of the laborers is giving out, and there is so much rubble that we cannot rebuild the wall.’” They’re tired, and they’re saying, “Look, we’re just tired, and there is too much to do. We can’t do it.” Verse 11, “Also our enemies said, ‘Before they know it or see us, we will be right there among them and will kill them and put an end to the work.’” Surprise attack-that element of surprise was huge, and they were just going to spring on them when they least expected it. They were going to kill them and destroy them. “Then the Jews who lived near them came and told us ten times over, ‘Wherever you turn, they will attack us.’” What he’s saying here is that there are these Jews around that are like spies. They’re hearing this, and they’re going back to Nehemiah and saying, “Look, we are surrounded. They’re going to attack. Everywhere we turn, anywhere we go, they’re going to be there. You have to do something about this because they are going to attack.” “Therefore I stationed some of the people behind the lowest points of the wall at the exposed places, posting them by families, with their swords, spears and bows. After I looked things over, I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, ‘Don’t be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes.’ “When our enemies heard that we were aware of their plot and that God had frustrated it, we all returned to the wall, each to his own work.” So there was a timeout. Nehemiah began to rally the troops. The enemies of Israel found out that there was no surprise attack, and that was a little discouraging to them. Although the threat of attack was still there, they were frustrated by that, by how that got leaked out to their enemies. Israel began to work, but it was different. It says in Verse 16, “From that day on, half of my men did the work, while the other half were equipped with spears, shields, bows and armor. The officers posted themselves behind all the people of Judah who were building the wall. Those who carried materials did their work with one hand and held a weapon in the other, and each of the builders wore his sword at his side as he worked. But the man who sounded the trumpet stayed with me,” says Nehemiah. “Then I said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, ‘The work is extensive and spread out, and we are widely separated from each other along the wall. Wherever you hear the sound of the trumpet, join us there.’” Listen to this next phrase, “‘Our God will fight for us!’” Here are two schools of thought: if you are a Pietist, what might you say here? There is a battle going on. Forget the work. Forget the wall right now. Everybody pick up a sword. Everybody pick up a spear and a shield. It’s time for battle. We have to start training. We have to start practicing. We have to start going through drills. We have to begin sharpening our weapons and making weapons. We have to be in a warfare mentality. We have to attack our enemies and defeat them, and we have to work hard, train, and go fight to win.” The Quietist would say, “Oh, no, no, we don’t. We don’t need to pick up warfare weapons at all. It’s God’s wall. It’s God’s city. It’s God’s task. Turn your back and don’t look back. Don’t even worry about guards. This is God’s project. All we need is brick and mortar. Let’s just rest in God. We’ll pray on the wall, but we’re going to trust because He sent us here. He told us that this was His wall, so we’re not going to worry about that. We’re simply going to build the wall. That’s all we’re going to do. We’re just going to have fun. We’re going to whistle. We’re not going to worry about the enemies because God is greater than that!” What does Nehemiah do? Nehemiah takes the role of somebody who is in partner with God. He says, “God will fight for us.” Did he mean they’re going to lay down their weapons? No. He says, “We are going to be ready. We are going to be prepared. We are going to have our weapons, and we will fight if necessary. However, if we fight, we are trusting God. He will energize us. He will give us wisdom, discernment, and strength; and He will ultimately give us victory. It is going to be us working on the outside and God working within.” There is going to be a partnership. That's why Paul talks about the weapons of our warfare are mighty. They’re not carnal, but they’re mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. He encourages us. He says, “You’re in a battle. You’re in a fight, so pick up the shield of faith. Pick up the sword of the Spirit. Be ready. Be ready to fight, and at the same time trust and rest in the provision of God.” They work in agreement. They work in harmony. They work together. I ask you to just reflect right now on your walk. What does it look like? Are you one who is striving, trying, and just struggling? You’re failing because you’re just trying to simply do things on your own strength. Maybe you’re one of the ones who just says, “Let go, and let God.” You’re finding that hasn’t been effective either because you’ve actually become spiritually complacent and lazy. Paul says, “For this, we labor and strive because we’ve put our hopes in the living God.” You say, “Well, there’s no striving. There isn’t laboring in my walk.” The truth of the matter is it is both. There is submission, and there is work to be done. There is a partnership between the Divine and the human. There is the sovereignty of God, and there is the will of man; and we work together to form Christ-likeness in ourselves. I’m not alone. “The Lord is my Shepherd. I shall not want.” He doesn’t delegate that to anything else. He doesn’t delegate it to your pastor, your Sunday school teacher, a spiritual mentor, or an angel. God Himself takes on that task. It says, “God is at work within you to will and to work His good Purpose.” Let’s pray together: Father, as we come to communion, we think about this partnership. We recognize that You are the One who started it all. What separates our faith is that Christianity is not man who reached up first to God; it was God who reached down first to man. He offered friendship, offered relationship and fellowship, and partnership. If we are to reach up by faith and take that hand, we have made a commitment to live for You, to trust You, to serve You. Lord, it requires work; it requires sacrifice and effort. Lord, you are there. You’re within us. You energize us. Lord, when we’re working out, it’s wonderful to have a Partner or Trainer who can spur us on, who can encourage us and teach us. It’s wonderful to have that Trainer live within us and be our God. How wonderful is that! God is at work within us, and that is the promise of Scripture: that He will bring to completion what He has promised. So, Lord, today we come to remember the Lord’s sacrifice, His love, and His grace that is put among us to share. It’s in His name, we pray, Amen.
Pastor Jeff Williams: November 28, 2011 Meet the Philippians, Part V: Chapter 2:5-11.
Today we’re going to talk about a story of a man who is a weakling but has a lot of courage. He has been chosen by the government as a candidate for an experiment, which will transform him into an elite fighting machine. He is chosen not because of his great strength, but he’s been chosen because of his weakness. He’s been chosen because of his compassion and his humility. Let’s go ahead and watch a little clip from that movie right now, and then we’ll talk about God’s Word together. (The congregation is watching a clip from the movie, “Captain America.”) Likewise, the Bible says God chose us, the weak-not the strong. He chose the foolish in this world to confound the wise. Humility was something that was looked down on with disdain until Jesus came. A servant was not something you wanted to be; a slave was not something you wanted to be. Jesus came on the scene, and He inverted the pyramid. Really, like Alice in Wonderland and the land of the opposites, to be weak is strong. If you want to gain life, you must lose your life. If you want to be great, you must become a servant. Everything is inverted; everything is flipped. In Philippians 2, Paul is going to talk about the virtue of humility and how we might emulate the humility of our Lord. Let’s turn to Philippians 2 (page 1162 of pew Bibles). Last week we talked about the motive of unity. We talked about the marks of unity and the means of unity. This morning we’re going to talk about the model of unity. He says, “When you want to see unity; when you want to see what it looks like; you want to see servanthood; you want to see humility, look at our Lord’s example.” This whole Passage is just full of theology, and we’re going to stop and linger on some of the words and some of the Passages, even as we are talking about humility, because we simply cannot ignore what it’s teaching us about Jesus. By the way, I have been struggling with a cold this weekend, so I’m trying to talk really soft. I’ve not been singing the songs this weekend. I’m trying to preserve my voice. I’m trying to project enough to be heard, but not so much that I’m losing my voice. In the last service, several times I came close to having a coughing spell. Once you start losing it (your voice), it’s hard to get it back. I’m going to be very soft-spoken this morning and try to drink a lot. I have one more to go, and I’ll let it all hang out then. Let’s begin reading with Verse 5 (of Philippians 2, page 1162 of pew Bibles). Paul says, “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus…” So today we are working on our attitudes. How many of you are humbled this morning and proud of it? (The congregation laughs.) It’s a bit of a tricky thing, isn’t it-this thing called humility? It begins with an attitude, a mindset. It’s the way we see ourselves, the way we process our world. We are working this morning on our attitudes. He said, “Your attitude should be that of Christ Jesus.” What was that? “Who, being in very nature” or very form “God,” being in very nature or very form God… There are many who debate whether or not the early church believed that Jesus was Divine. This text really should put a rest to that because in this text, Paul spells out in no uncertain terms the Deity of Christ. He said He existed in a form of God. Now what does that mean? There are two Greek words for form. One is the word morphe, and the other is the word schema. We’re going to see the word morphe twice in this Passage-once in Verse 6 and once in Verse 7. We’re going to see the word schema in Verse 8. Morphe has to do with the essence of a person; that does not change. Our schema has to do with our outward appearance which changes all the time. We can explain it like this: Your morphe of a human being does not change throughout the course of your life. You were born into this world a human being; so though your schema-though your outward appearance-changes, little “Nora” as a child is going to look different ten years from now than she does today. She’s cute right now, but she’s going to change. She’s going to grow. Her hair is going to get longer, and she’s going to get bigger. She’s going to grow up. In ten years, you’re going to look different than you do right now. Most of you are going to be thinner and better looking (congregation laughing). Just pandering, that’s all. We’re going to change-our outward appearance is going to change. We don’t end life looking the same way that we did when we started life. A lot of us start life with no teeth and a bald head and end life with no teeth and a bald head; but for the most part, we don’t look the same. Our body changes. We get wrinkles; we gain or lose weight; we get taller; or we get wider. We change, but if we look at a panorama of your life as an infant, as a child with teeth missing, as a teenager with pimples, as a person newly married, as a mature adult, and as an aging senior, we see that our outward appearances change; but the essence of who you are-your humanity-has not changed. You are still you. You are still a human being. In fact, it is impossible for you not to be because that is your form; that is your morphe, according to the Greek. It does not change. Your schema, your outward appearance, is going to change all the time. Guess which word is used of Christ to describe Him when it says He existed in the form of God? Was it the temporary or was it His essence? It was His essence “who existed in the form of God.” He’s talking about His reincarnate condition. Before He was born in Bethlehem, Jesus was/is God. In case there is any question about what that word means or if I’m correct in my interpretation of the word morphe, then look at the rest of the Verse, who “did not consider equality with God something to be grasped.” So right in that Verse, it says equality with God-equal with the Father. Jesus’ enemies understood who He was saying He was. Remember in John when they picked up stones to stone Him, and He said, “Why are you stoning Me?” They said, “Because You, a mere Man, make Yourself to be equal with God.” They understood what He meant when He said, “I and the Father are One.” Therefore, this Passage teaches us that Jesus is fully God. It is His nature; it is His form.” But He “did not consider equality with God something to be grasped…” What does that mean? It means He did not consider equality with God something to be taken advantage of. In the incarnation, He is going to divest Himself of the privilege of Deity. It’s going to talk about that in the next Verse, “...but made Himself nothing…” He made himself nothing or He emptied Himself. That does not mean that He emptied Himself of His Deity. How could He do that? How could you empty your essence? Some have interpreted it this way, “Oh, He made Himself nothing. Oh He emptied Himself of His Deity.” No. Paul says in Colossians 2:9 (page 1166 of pew Bibles), “…all the fullness of the Deity dwells in him in bodily form…” What He did was He emptied Himself of the privilege of Deity. He went from Heaven to earth. I want to illustrate this by telling you a story about a time when I was in Los Angeles. Los Angeles is the homeless capital of our country. There are some 50,000 people that are homeless in LA in any given day. I read an article about it, and I just wanted to see it. There was really nothing I could do. I don’t live in Los Angeles; I live here. There was nothing I could tangibly do about the situation, but I thought, “Well, maybe it will help me to make some differences back home in our church and in doing something about the homeless problem where we live with our church. It certainly will help me have a thankful heart about the blessings that I have. It could help me to have more compassion for those who are struggling in this manner,” so I went to see it. I figured it would help me to see this [concern]. It was an amazing phenomenon. There are thousands of people; and every night they roll out their tents, put up their boxes, and they create this makeshift homeless village. The city gives them permission to erect these tents and these boxes on public property, but they have to have them down by around 6 a.m. So I’m driving in this taxi, and nobody is really paying any attention to me. I’m just going through block after block. I told the taxi driver to just drive through this whole neighborhood and go through every block. It was about 11 o’clock at night. Many people had already bedded down, and others were getting ready. Those who were fortunate had tents. Others simply had boxes. And, of course, if it were to rain that night, their shelter that provided protection would be gone. Others weren’t that fortunate. One young man stands out in my mind because he was about the age of my son, and he was wearing clothes my son would wear. He had on tennis shoes, blue jeans, a shirt and a vest. I remember watching him just lay out newspaper on a driveway of an auto shop. That was going to be his bed that night. He was just throwing out newspaper and lying on concrete. That would be his bed. I remember thinking, “How did he get here? What circumstances in life made him end up here? How did any of these people get here?” I’m sure there were some who were crazy or whatever, but most of the people looked like normal people. I was thinking, “Yet, why am I here? I have a meal, and I know where I’m going to sleep. I have a job, and why am I here and they are there?” As I was driving through it, I was just observing the people, but I was thinking how helpless I was feeling. There was really nothing I could do. I just observed. I didn’t make a difference; I didn’t stop and get out of the taxi. I didn’t deem it safe to do so, quite honestly. I just silently observed and then drove off to think about what I’d seen. Let’s use an example and say somebody could do change this situation. Let’s say the mayor of Los Angeles decided he was tired of being the homeless capital of the country. He wanted to make a difference, so one day he tells his cabinet and his staff, “I’m going to do something radical. I want to help relieve the plight of the homeless in our city. I’m going to retain my office of mayor and all my authority and power as mayor of Los Angeles, but I am going to divest myself of the privileges of mayor. I’m going to exchange my limo for a taxi. I am going to exchange my clothes, my suits, for the clothes of an everyday man. I’m going to take my cell phone, and I’m going to take my credit cards, my money, and my checkbook, and I’m going to lay them on my desk. I am going to literally become a homeless person. I am going to live in the streets of Los Angeles. As of tonight, I have no idea where I will be sleeping or what I will be sleeping in. I have no idea what meal I will have, if any. I am going to lay aside my privilege to call the fire department, to call the police department, and I’m simply going to become a homeless person. You are not going to come and rescue me. You’re not going to come and spy on me. I am going to mix and mingle with the population, and they will not know who I am. They will not expect the mayor to be in their mitts; I’m going to do this to serve. I’m going to serve our community, and I’m going to serve the homeless. I’m going to learn what our city is doing right; I’m going to learn what our city is doing wrong, and I am going to make a difference. I tell you what: when I come back, things are going to change.” The mayor divested himself of the privilege of his office. He still retained his power and authority, but he gave up his right as mayor to go and live with the homeless people. Every analogy that we’re going to use is a little flawed in trying to explain what Jesus did, but He did lay aside the privilege of Deity, and He came to live among us-as one of us. The Scripture says that He “made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, and being made in human likeness.” There is that word again-form. He took on the very form of a servant and took on human likeness. Paul is teaching us something else here about Jesus. That became His essence as well. His essence really did become that of a man. He is not half God/half man. He is 100 percent God, and He is 100 percent man. Without laying aside His Deity, He has taken on the essence, or form, of humanity. Paul is teaching us here that He has become a man. This is very rich in its theology, very rich in its Christology. It is telling us the essence of Jesus’ nature. He is fully God, and He is fully man. It’s not an act; He really is God, and He really is man. He’s become like us. He is living in our world. The Bible says the people didn’t recognize it. He came into His own, and His own did not receive Him. They didn’t know who He was any more than the homeless people in our illustration would know who the mayor was. They didn’t expect Him in those kinds of clothes and living in those circumstances. You don’t expect God to be working in a carpenter shop. You don’t expect God to be a classmate in school. You don’t expect God to grow up in the house next to you; so He is there; and for the most part, no one knows who He really is. Think about that. Mary knows and Joseph knows; but until that time, nobody else really did. He looked like us; He talked like us; He dressed like us. This Christmas song we’re going to sing pretty soon, “Away in a Manger,” how does that verse go about the cattle? “The cattle are lowing. The poor Baby wakes, but little Lord Jesus, no crying He makes.” Nonsense! He was screaming His head off, just like any other baby. He was no different than any other baby. He needed His diapers changed; He needed to be fed; He fussed. When He grew up, He became tired. The One who was the Bread of Life became hungry. The One who through rivers of living water would come became thirsty. He knew the pains of rejection, of betrayal. He knew what it was like to lose a loved one and lose a friend through death. He knew all of the things that we go through. He was tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin. He fully entered into humanity; but He entered into humanity, Paul says, as a servant. He’s trying to get us to understand the depth of humility and sacrifice, which Christ made. When He came, He didn’t come as an earthly King living in a palace. He didn’t come as a governor, a head of state, as one with wealth and power. He came, and He was homeless! He came in poverty. The Scripture says, “Though He was rich, He became poor that through His poverty, you might become rich.” So when Jesus came, [He came] into our human condition, but He came not to be served but to serve. The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many, He tells us in the Gospel of Luke. He came as a servant, Verse 8, “And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death-even death on a cross!” Explanation point! He says, “I want you to understand that God has gone from the highest heights to the lowest lows. There was no place higher than the throne of Heaven, and there was no place lower than to die a death of a common criminal on a cross.” Instead of thinking of the mayor becoming a homeless person, think of the mayor becoming a slug in a puddle in the street. For God to become a human being, our minds cannot even begin [to contemplate that possibility]. God has to open a door like you and I. God has to walk with one step after another. God experienced pain when He hit his thumb with a hammer and shed tears when He was sorrowful and broken. He who was the author of life submitted to death on a cross. He is trying to get you and me to wrap our minds around something as amazing as the incarnation. Verse 9, “Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in Heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Because He has humbled Himself, because He has redeemed mankind, He is worthy of praise and worship. In our story, if the mayor-if this story had really happened-came back and said, “Okay, we’re going to make some changes around here. We’re going to take our resources, and we’re going to build this clinic. We’re going to build this transitional housing. We’re going to start these job programs,” and he began to tirelessly work and allocate everything within his power and ability. He began to change and pretty soon, you could drive through Los Angeles, and there were no more tents, no more boxes, and no more homeless. Those people who were ill or in the hospital, and those people who need jobs had jobs and were working and supporting themselves, would you then say that that mayor deserved accolades and praise? Absolutely. Would he deserve real action? Yeah, [he would probably be commended] by the highest office in the land if he could pull something off like that. You’d say, “What you’ve done is an amazing thing. You came down, you served and you redeemed. You did not come for your own benefit. You chose not to use your office for your own self, but to use your office to better mankind.” You would bestow all kinds of accolades. What accolades do you bestow upon One who redeems humanity? Upon One who removes the barrier and the penalty of death through sin, through His own sacrifice? What kind of accolade is that? You call Him Lord, and you worship Him. Most scholars believe this was an early hymn of the church, that this was one of the first hymns the church ever sang-this Passage right here-because of the way it is structured and the way it is balanced in the Greek like a song. I want you to think about which person you are in this illustration this morning. Remember there are two people in this illustration. One was me staying in my car, staying safe, not doing anything to help, observing and looking on silently while feeling some compassion, but driving on through. Is that you? Would that describe you? Do you just silently look at the needs around you as you’re driving through life, but you never pull your car over to get out and help? You never make a difference. You might feel bad about someone’s plight or circumstances. You might say, “Well, I hope that changes. I hope that gets better,” but you never lift a finger because you have enough to do in your own life, your own circumstances, and your own needs. What did Paul say, “Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.” Or, would you resemble the mayor here, the mayor who lay aside some of his privileges and got in the muck and mire or this world to make a difference? Would your attitude be one of humility that’s like Christ’s who divested Himself and emptied Himself? Are you willing to humble yourself and lay aside some of your rights and privileges to make a difference in the world today? That’s the challenge that’s before us. The easiest thing to do is silently observe and do nothing, just simply drive by and say, “That’s unfortunate. That’s too bad.” To actually get involved, to actually serve, to actually humble ourselves and make a difference-that’s hard work. That's not easy; that’s an inconvenience, but that’s what God has called us to do. The church should be different. In the world, we’re only concerned with ourselves and only concerned with our own needs, but that’s not so in the church. “My people who are called by My name should be in the world, in My name making a difference-united in purpose, laying aside their egos, using their talents, time, energies and resources to help the people around them that are in need in My name.” It’s right here (pointing at the Bible). That’s the Gospel. You are to follow after what Christ has done as He sacrificed Himself for the betterment of mankind. You and I are called to make sacrifices-not just stay in our safe bubble and comfort zone, but we’re called to step out and make a difference in our world. You are to say, “God, use me. God, show me,” and He will. We’re going to pray a prayer of repentance this morning. It’s a different kind or prayer. A prayer of repentance means you are praying to change your mind and to change a direction. I’m not going to ask for a show of hands, but I’m going to ask which of you resembled me more in this story? Are you someone who is driving through life looking, observing, and feeling bad, but really not doing anything to make a difference? A lot of you, if we were going to be honest, would raise your hands. I don’t want to embarrass you; I really don’t. Most of us who were listening to this message would say, “I can do more. I can do more than I do.” I think unless you’re the second coming of Mother Teresa sitting out here this morning, you can join me in this prayer of repentance. Let’s pray: Father, we come this morning in the name of our Lord. We offer this prayer of confession and repentance. We have lived selfishly; we have been concerned with our own needs and the needs of those we care for-sometimes exclusively to the point that we have ignored the needs that are around us. We are aware that they are there, but we’ve not taken the time to do anything about it. We have not taken the time to humble ourselves to serve. Lord, You took on our clothes; You came into our skin; You got involved in our world because of Your love, compassion, and humility. Paul has said, “We are to have that same attitude that the world is not here to serve us, but that we are here to serve.” We are here to serve in Your name and to make this world a better place. Lord, I pray that You challenge us today. I pray that You speak to us specifically today, calling us by name, giving us an assignment, helping us to live with a sense of awareness and the desire to make a difference for You. I want you to pray this prayer of repentance with me today. Just confess this in your heart to the Lord. Heavenly Father, I come in Jesus’ name. I pray that You’d forgive me of the sin of selfishness. I pray that I might have a humble heart like You, so I can lay aside my rights and my privilege to serve people as You did. Guide me and direct me. Help me not to be consumed with my own needs. Help me not to follow after the drum beat of this world which causes me not to live for myself but to live for a higher purpose, a greater purpose-to build Your Kingdom, to serve people whom You love and to do so in Your name. I pray this, Father, in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Pastor Jeff Williams: November 20, 2011 Meet the Philippians, Part IV: Chapter 2:1-4. I’m going to share a story that I’ve shared before. It’s probably been seven years [since I’ve told you]; so I feel like after seven years, I’m free to tell it again. If you’ve already heard it, you’re dating yourself. Our house is in the woods, so there are a lot of creatures in the woods that sometimes get caught in the ceiling or the walls. You can hear them scurrying around. I heard the pitter patter of little feet-not the kind you want-in our rafters for a long time. Sometimes it seemed like I’d heard squabbling and fighting, and I used to wonder what in the world was in our walls. One day, something got trapped down in the wall. It was right by the couch where I would like to sit and watch television. Over the days, I could hear this thing jumping and trying to get out. I could hear it over and over again, and it was just breaking my heart because this went on for several days. Every day it would get quieter, and it wasn’t jumping as high. It wasn’t jump as long. I was like, “Oh, this poor thing! He’s just dying this horrible death inside my walls.” I decided I was going to try to get it out, so I took a carpet knife and cut a little hole in the drywall. I put a little bushel basket there to try to catch it. It wasn’t any bigger than that. I was figuring if anything was bigger than that hole, I really didn’t want it climbing out anyway (congregation laughing). It could just stay right in there. If something was small enough to get through that hole, I could handle it. I set up this trap, and then I went back and was watching a movie. All of the sudden I heard something in the trap, in the bushel basket. It was a flying squirrel, and I named him Rocky-you know, after Rocky the flying squirrel. He also looked like Rocky Balboa after Apollo Creed had beaten him up quite a bit. I thought, “Well, that’s a fitting name.” His fur was all gone, and he looked like he’d been in a fight and lost. He just looked like a mess! He was weak, sickly, and skinny. He could hardly stand up. I took the bushel basket out on the deck. I gave him a strawberry. He ate a little bit of that, and I wished him luck. He then kinda walked off into the woods, never to be seen again. I thought, “Well, just in case he has family in those walls-I think it was probably just him-but I’m going to put this bushel basket back. Sure enough, I caught another one. Rocky II surfaced. Rocky II was still pretty sickly, but he was just a little bit more spry than Rocky I. I let him chew on the strawberry a little bit, and then he kinda went off into the woods. I thought, “Hmm. Exactly how many “Rocky” movies were there? This could be a long night. Sure enough, I caught Rocky III. He was much more spry and pretty energetic. He wasn’t sickly at all. I thought, “Wow, how many are there?” Then I caught Rocky IV. This was the strongest one yet. He had a full fur coat and was looking good, well-fed, well cared for. I thought to myself, “If there is a Rocky V, he is going to be hard to catch.” Sure enough, I was watching that movie, and you could almost hear the movie “Rocky,” (Pastor is humming the music from the movie). He came out just fighting, and this guy was tough. It took me a long time to catch him. He’d dart in and out from the wall. I finally caught him, and he was in that basket. He was strong and he was fast. He was chewing on that basket for all he was worth; and he was looking me in the eyes as he was chewing through this basket-Rocky V. He was looking at me like (in Pastor’s best Rocky voice), “If I ever get out of this basket, I’m going to kill you!” (congregation laughing). I finally got him outside. There was no strawberry for this guy, and he just bound for the tree. He left for that tree trying to figure out a way to get back in the house, so I shut the door really fast to keep him out. What was going on in those walls was a microcosm of what goes on in the world. We have the weak and the vulnerable, those who are left out, weak, hurting and sick. Then we have those at the top of the food chain who are healthy, well-fed and doing great. Just like in the walls, they’re just scratching, pushing, and fighting to see who is going to be the top flying squirrel-so it is in this world. People push and fight to see who is going to be number one, who is going to be the top banana, and who is going to be down here. Down here is not where you want to be. You want to be on top. Jesus comes on the scene, and he inverts the pyramid, doesn’t He? He says, “The greatest among you should be the servant of all.” Jesus takes what was regarded as humility, and He elevates humility to the point where it becomes something we desire to have and to be. Prior to Jesus, humility was not something you wanted to be. It meant you were inferior; you didn’t have a good self image. You let people walk all over you, but Jesus takes humility and servanthood and lifts them up to a place that had never before been seen. Paul is going to echo those sentiments. Paul is going to come on, and he’s going to talk about unity. He’s going to talk about humility, and he’s going to talk about servanthood. He’s going to tell us why there’s motivation behind unity. He’s going to tell us what the marks of unity are, what it looks like; and he’s going to tell us the means, the method, and the how of unity. How is it maintained? You see, because any time selfishness, egos and that competitive drive come into a situation, it destroys unity. I want you to notice here that Paul is talking to a healthy church. He isn’t correcting doctrinal errors like he did in some churches. He’s not correcting moral failure like he did in some churches. He’s talking to a healthy body, and it’s really preventative. He’s saying, “Look, even in a healthy church if you’re not careful-if somebody has their own agenda or starts thinking their group is more important than another group-there could be discord and disunity within that body.” He said, “So beware of that.” I heard a story-I don’t know if this is true or not-but it was rather humorous and sad at the same time. The story says that in Kentucky in the 1800s, there was a power struggle between two elders about who was in charge of a given church. The pastor asked if he could have a hook for his hat. He asked one elder, and he said, “Sure, you can put a peg right there in the wall, Pastor, for your hat.” When the other elder found that out, he became really upset. He said, “Nobody puts a peg in the wall without my permission.” The fellow said, “Well, I said he could put it there, and it’s fine,” so a church split arose. People went with one guy [who didn’t agree with putting a peg in the wall] and left. People who were behind the guy who put the peg in the wall, they stayed. Rumor has it to this day in Kentucky that you either go to the “peg church” or the “anti-peg” Baptist church. I don’t know if it’s true, but there has to be some resemblance of truth to that. If you’ve been in the church long enough, you’ve seen factions or dissentions. Usually they happen when there is a power struggle, when ego gets in the way of ministry. Instead of working together, pooling our talents, abilities, and gifts for a common cause and vision, a person or a group tries to take over, tries to assert their influence. You’ve seen it happen, or you’ve heard of it happening. A healthy church can become a dysfunctional church. An effective church can be rendered impotent because instead of working with each other and moving toward our goal, they begin to fight with each other. We actually become counter-productive for the cause of Christ. Therefore, Paul writes this as a warning, “You need to maintain your unity.” Let’s pick up the text in Philippians 2:1 (page 1162 of pew Bibles). Dr. Doerfer finished up [with Philippians 1 last week]. Did you enjoy his message last week? Good stuff! Verse 1, Paul writes and he says, “If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort…” By the way, let me just insert this. When Paul says, “If you have any comfort from his love… If any encouragement from being united in Christ…” it’s not that Paul is questioning that. He’s not saying, “Well, if you’re encouraged by God’s love-I’m not sure you are. I’m not sure he does love us. I’m not sure.” It’s not that at all. This is what’s called first class conditional cause in the Greek. If the verb is in the indicative mood, it means that it’s a statement of fact. Basically, Paul can be saying here, “Since you are encouraged… Because of the comfort of His love.” Even though it says if, because it’s a first class conditional love, he’s saying it’s a statement of fact; so we could translate it as because or since. “…if any comfort from His love…” Or, because there is comfort from His love. This word is agape, and this means an unconditional love. He says, “I know you find comfort in the fact that God loves you unconditionally.” There is nothing you can say or do that would stop God from loving you. You may have had somebody who loves you say to you, “There is nothing you can say or do that can stop me from loving you.” I can say those words to my family. There is nothing you can say or do that will keep me from loving you. That’s unconditional love. When somebody says it, and you’re the recipient of that love, you find great comfort in that, don’t you? That’s what he’s saying. We have great comfort in the agape, knowing that God is not going to love you any less or more tomorrow than He does now; and there is nothing you’ve done to earn that love. There’s nothing you can do to earn the love of God. The love of God is unconditional. “…if any fellowship with the Spirit…” The word fellowship is the word Koinonia. We said it means a partnership. If any partnership in the Spirit... The Holy Spirit partners with us; He comforts us when we’re grieving. He guides us; He gives us discernment. He gives us strength to persevere when we’re weak. He gives us insight into the Word of God. As I’m preaching this morning, the Holy Spirit will give you insight into His Word. He makes Christ known to us. The Holy Spirit comes and encourages us in our walk, so the Holy Spirit partners with us. He’s in Koinonia and fellowship with us. Paul says that is a motivating factor for unity, the presence of the Holy Spirit. “…if any tenderness and compassion…” He said because there is tenderness and compassion, God has given you mercy. The law said death; Christ received that death; and you’ve received forgiveness in life. You’ve received grace. That’s tenderness; that’s compassion. God has given you compassion through Christ. He says that should make you feel like you can be unified. I’m going to say a little bit more about that in just a while, but that is the why. That is the motivation for unity-the blessings that God has given us in abundance. In Verse 2, he’s going to talk about the what. What does unity look like? What are the marks of unity? How can you recognize it when you see it? He says, “…then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in Spirit and purpose.” When you see that happen, then you know unity is taking place. I’ll go back to our Fuddruckers event. We have an agency in our city, the YWCA, working in partnership with a church, working with a burger joint, and working with the media for one purpose; and we all came together whether you were bussing the tables or consuming your burger. Whatever your role was, we were all working together to try to get the word out to our community about these needs and about these agencies and do something to help. What happened? It was effective. There was joy. There was like-mindedness; there was a common cause. We all understood what it was, and we were working together to make a difference. When there is unity, there is productivity. You didn’t see fighting; you didn’t see one group try to be more important than another group. We all became humbled. We all served: we bused tables, we greeted, we invited people, we made bread-whatever it was that we did, we worked together for a common goal. That’s what it looks like. That’s the mark of unity. Paul says, “This is what I want to see in the church in Philippi.” Verse 3: he is going to talk about the how. These are the means and the methods for oneness. He says, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.” Another translation-one of yours-might say, “Do not look out for your own interest only, but also for the interest of others.” He says this is the how. You lay aside your ego; you lay aside your agenda for the common agenda. You don’t resemble the world where everyone is scratching, pushing, and clawing to be number one, to take as much as they can, and to step on people along the way. You’ve experienced that. You’ve experienced that in the work place; maybe you’ve experienced it at school during your education where someone pushed their weight around and tried to use their influence to gain advantage over another person. I don’t know if we’ve ever seen that in politics (congregation laughing). Maybe someday we’ll see that. [Honestly, though], we see it in our politics. It’s all around us in the world that exists. Paul says, “It’s not to be the way it is in the church.” The church will not only look out for our own interest but also for the interests of others. How many of you have a favorite Thanksgiving dish that you really look forward to every Thanksgiving? Who can volunteer what they really like? (Various people in the audience are answering.) Sweet potato casserole. Green bean casserole-you can have that (congregation laughing). Anything anybody else brought that you didn’t have to work for (congregation laughing). Who is a pumpkin pie person? Dressing people? Yeah, I’m with you. Just imagine that you’re sitting down at this Thanksgiving feast, and you’ve been starving yourself all day. You know this meal is going to be good. It smells good; it looks good. You can’t wait. You wait till everybody gets to the table and you’re going to say grace; but you have your eye on that favorite dish you were looking forward to. You’re looking at it, and you want it. It comes to the time when we start passing it, but Uncle Joe takes your favorite dish and parks it right in front of himself. He gets out a fork and just starts digging in eating it. He starts saying, “I know you made this just for me! You know how much I like it!” He starts eating it, and you’re thinking, “When are you going to pass that around? That’s not just for you! That’s for everybody!” What happens to your Thanksgiving spirit at this point? You start snarling a little bit. You might even say something. You might say, “You know, other people might want some of that casserole too!” The next thing you know, there is disunity. There is arguing breaking out. Maybe it’s the potatoes, “Oh, I love my potatoes!” They put the potatoes in front of them, and they keep scooping. I loved potatoes when I was growing up, and I had somebody in my family who would just fill his whole plate with potatoes! I would be thinking to myself, “Come on! Save some!” So you are upset right now because they are taking your favorite dish. That is what you’re waiting for, and they are being selfish. Because they’re being selfish, because they’re taking it all, you’re not going to have any. You start thinking, “Boy, I wish they would share! I wish they’d realize they’re not the only person here!” You become very angry and upset. You might even vocalize your anger and the fact that you’re upset. A Thanksgiving holiday is ruined because you’re at the table having an argument with Uncle Joe. What if you knew that no matter what anybody took, your hostess was always going to fill that bowl with the same contents, and it’s going to be just as good? What if you knew when the dressing was gone that there was another bowl of dressing coming out of the oven that was just as good? What if you knew when somebody took a slice that was too big of that pumpkin pie that there was another pumpkin pie coming out of the oven right now? You were going to be able to eat just as much as you wanted, as long as you wanted, and whatever you wanted? Now are you upset when Uncle Joe takes too many potatoes, too much casserole? Not at all. I heard a true story about a woman who loved to feed birds. She moved into her house, and she saw these birds. She said, “I’m going to feed these birds. I love birds.” The starlings started picking on the other birds. They’d pick on the robins, the sparrows, and the cardinals till they drove them away, “This is our food!” She would just keep feeding them. The starlings would eat until they were full. Then there’d be enough for the robins, enough for the sparrows, and all the way down the bottom of the food chain-whatever that bird was. She said, “Over time, something changed because every day I would feed them, and every day I would feed them more than they needed. Every day they knew they were going to be full, and they stopped fighting. Unity happened in the bird family in that neighborhood.” Actually the first birds on the scene began to sing for the other birds and let them know, “Food’s here. It’s here now. You can come now!” They would be singing their song, and all these birds that were fighting and squabbling to see who would be first were now getting along. Nobody was pecking at anyone else. They were actually calling for each other to come and eat because they knew that the hostess was going to give them plenty. That’s what Paul is saying. He is saying, “You are arguing and fighting, but as God gives us His Spiritual food, He gives you more than you need. He gives you more than you want; He gives more than you can ask for.” That becomes the motivation for unity. You see? He says, “Remember, we can be unified because there is no limit to His love. There is no end to His fellowship. There is no end to His compassion and His mercy. God loves you all the same, and because God has bestowed to you all the same blessings and has given you Jesus Christ, there is no end. There is no limit, so you can all come and partake. You all matter; you’re all important; you’re all loved. You don’t have to fight about who is more important. You’re all important. You can just relax. You can come to His banquet table, you can enjoy fellowship, and you can do so united because of the blessings of God. That’s the message that Paul was seeking to convey to the church. Friends, we have to realize that even though we’re a healthy church, unity can be taken away from us if we allow the world system and our egos to creep in. If we start to resemble those flying squirrels pushing and clawing, we have to realize there is more than we need. God has no limits. His grace knows no boundaries. We can rest in Him. Our identity is secure in Him. Our blessings are eternal in Him, and that becomes the motivation for our unity. We have the same goal and purpose: to make Christ known to our community, to show His love in a tangible way, to advance the Kingdom of God. We do that together. We use all of our gifts, all of our abilities, and all of our passions to work together for the common good of making Christ known to our city and our world. When we do that, we love and encourage one another. The Thanksgiving meal-you take just enough for yourself, and you pass it around. You make sure that nobody else has seconds until everybody has had firsts. We’re going to make mistakes. There is no question about that; we’re not going to always get it right. There are going to be times when we need to apologize to each other, make amends with one another; but as a body if we will maintain what Paul is talking about here, we will be united and we will be effective. God will use us in even greater ways than He has up to this point. Let’s pray together: Father, we thank You for this preventative teaching by the Apostle Paul. We’re not dealing with immoral crisis or doctrinal error, but he was making sure that what they had remained. In order for them to be effective-in order for them to make a difference-they must have maintained their unity. They could maintain their unity because they had the same Spirit; they had the same Lord; they had the same purpose that they were living for. Lord, You invite us to check our egos at the door. Church is to be a different place than the world. It’s not a survival-of-the-fittest mentality. It’s not a place where the strong step on the weak. It’s a place where the strong bend down to help up the weak. It’s a place where the strong serve the weak. It’s a place where we look out for the needs of those around us. I pray as You have used our church [in the past] that You would continue to use our church in greater capacities and dimensions. May we prove ourselves worthy. Father, I pray that You would cause our unity to increase, our love to abound, and a partnership with the Holy Spirit to be evident to all and that Christ remain in this place. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.
Pastor Jeff Williams: November 6, 2011 Meet the Philippians, Part II: Chapter 1:7-20. We’re going to do something a little different this morning. We’re going to have communion during the message or in the middle of the message. What I’m going to do is have our communion team come at this time and begin to distribute the communion elements, but just hold on to them. Keep them in a safe place. We’re not going to be receiving communion right away, but we will be receiving it in about 10 minutes or so. It’s just something a little different today. Is that all right if we change it up a bit? Thank you. I will give this little disclaimer in this service that I always give. Because I don’t know all of you, if you’re here and you’re new, you might be wondering, “Well, I’m new to this congregation. Can I take communion?” We have open communion, meaning we put the responsibility and accountability back on you. If you have a faith in the Lord Jesus, you have received Him as your Savior, then you are welcome and encouraged to participate with us. If you can honestly say, “Well, I’m here for other reasons. I don’t have that faith and commitment,” then just let this time be a time of meditation, a time of reflection for you. We’re just glad that you’re here today. We’re going to distribute the bread and the cup. Hold on to the elements, and we will receive together in just a little while. I’d like you to open your Bibles up to the Book of Philippians 1 (page 1161 of pew Bibles). This is the Book we are studying together for, most likely, the next several months. We will be taking a short break for Christmas, and then we’ll resume. We’re going through it Chapter by Chapter, Verse by Verse and talking about it. We left off last week in Verse 6, so we’re going to start with Verse 7. I do want to quickly share with you a little bit about Paul’s relationship with this church by way of review. This church started in a very unique way. Paul had a dream, and in this dream he saw a man from Macedonia, Greece; and he was saying, “Come over and help us.” This was a real person praying and asking for help. It was almost like when on your computer you take a file and drag it from one place and put it in another place-it’s almost like God was taking this dream, dragging it across the Sea, and plopping it in Paul’s mind. He sees this individual; he hears his prayer, and he wakes up in the morning and says to his team, “We are going to chart a new course. We are on our way to Europe,” and the Gospel arrived in Europe for the first time ever. The first place he went to was Philippi. It was a hub of activity. It was a place where there was a Roman road that was already there, so Paul began to share the Gospel with a group of ladies that had gathered by the river to pray. They didn’t know him; he didn’t know them. He shared the Gospel; he prayed to receive Christ, and the church was born. This church had a very special place in his heart. In fact, when he left that region after three years, he had some financial needs. Finances were beginning to run low, and only one church stood with him; that was Philippi. There were times when people abandoned him [like] when he went to prison because they were ashamed of him. They didn’t want to be associated with a criminal, but the church of Philippi stuck with him. They sent an envoy named Epaphroditus to come and minister to Paul. They sent not one offering but many offerings to minister to Paul. Paul said, “I am on the field today. I’m doing what I do because of your love.” We’re going to pick that up in Verse 7 (again, page 1161of Philippians 1), “It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart; for whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the Gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me.” Paul is saying, “In good times and in bad times-whether I’m free and heading across the Sea to visit you or whether I’m shackled in prison-you are with me always, always! You are partnering with me.” We said that word “partnership” is Koinonia. Koinonia means fellowship. It means to partner, to share, to work together in unity for a cause or a vision that is greater than ourselves. We share a vision, we hook arms together, and we pool resources together to get it done. He said, “You do that with me like no other church.” “God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus. “And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ-to the glory and praise of God.” He is saying, “I am praying that you will grow in love through knowledge and discernment, the ability to know and understand the love that God has for you, that your capacity to love, that your capacity to understand God’s love, will grow.” That is his prayer. I like to read articles and other commentary on religious matters-no surprise to you. I enjoy reading other current events. I’m always trying to look for a sermon illustration that I might use in a series or something else. I remember reading an article, and what stuck in my mind about it was not the article I read; it was commentary in the article. You know how people can anonymously write comments? Because they can do so anonymously, sometimes they are rather mean-spirited or hateful comments because nobody knows who wrote them. When you read enough of those articles, you find out how many people hate Christians, hate Christianity, and hate God. They say some vile things. This particular comment, I think it was there to elicit anger or maybe to demean Christians because it was talking about the cross and what Jesus did. They said it in a condescending way, but it didn’t make me angry. It simply just made me sad. The comment about the article was this: “Oh, sure. That’s what I think of when I think of love-a naked man nailed to a tree! Yeah, that’s love!” with a sarcastic tone. I just remember thinking, “You just don’t understand! You’re not grasping what God has done. You see, love gives. Love gives.” That’s what Paul is saying, “You love me, and you give to me. I love you, and I want to give to you.” God did an amazing thing on the cross, but this guy just didn’t grasp it. My wife loves her sister. My sister-in-law, Linda, has kidney failure, so Brenda checked, and she was able to donate one of her kidneys to Linda so she doesn’t have to be on dialysis anymore, so she can be healthy, so Linda has a healthy kidney to take the toxins out of the blood, and because she wants her to live and have a long life. She wants to share that life with her, and because of that, she wants to give of herself so that her sister might live. That’s her desire, and that’s what love does. According to this guy, he doesn’t know the understanding of the context. He might come in the operating room, see her in surgery opened up while the doctors are taking out her organ, and say, “Oh, yeah sure, that’s what I think of when I think of love-a lady lying on a table with an organ coming out of her body. Yeah, that’s what I think of when I think of love.” Yeah, that’s love. If that were to happen, that is love. Friend, you don’t understand the cross; you don’t understand what Jesus did. He allowed His body to be opened up, His life to be taken, to cleanse us from the toxins of sin-the poisons of sin-which would lead to our death because He loves us, because He wants to share His life with us. He wants us to live in eternity with us. He imparted His righteousness and put it in us that we could live. So, yes, that is love; Jesus on the cross is love. I pray for discernment for this gentleman and all those who don’t understand what God has done. With that as an understanding at this point in the message, in the service, we’re going to receive communion together. What we customarily do, and it will be no exception today, is we just have a few moments of meditation, reflection, and prayer. Nothing is playing but some soft music, and you just thank the Lord for what He has done. (A few moments are allowed here for the congregation to reflect.) If you have a piece of paper you’re taking notes on or a bulletin, an insert or something, draw a little box in the corner of that-not a big box, but a little box that would fit maybe one word. If you don’t have a piece of paper or pencil so you literally can’t draw a box, I want you to put a box in your mind. In that box, I want you to think about what your reason to live is? What do you live for or who do you live for supremely in this life? What is it that dominates your thoughts, your energies, or your resources? What is it or who is it you live for? That’s what would go in that box. You don’t have to write it in. You don’t have to worry about your neighbor seeing what’s in there. I’m not going to take a survey and say, “How many of you put God in that box?” because we are in church. There would be a lot more hands going up than if we were asking you privately what really is in your box. Who is really in your box? Would you put your spouse in your box? Would you put your children there? Would you say, “My family is what I live for.” Would you put your health there? Maybe to live a long healthy life is what you live for more than anything else. Maybe you put power; some people put power in that box. Some people would put pleasure in that box. Some people might put adventure. More than anything else, they live for the thrill of an adventure-whatever it might be. Some people might put wealth in that box, and that’s what they live for. They look to mass as many resources as they can. What’s in your box today? It’s a small box; there’s only room to write one thing. What would you put there? Be honest-what would you put in that box? Who would be in that box today? That determines your attitude. That determines your response to the events of life. We’re going to take a look at the Apostle Paul today, and we’re going to see how it was possible that this man who was living in such adverse conditions could have so much joy. I want you to turn to Bibles to Philippians 1, please (page 1161). I believe we left off in Verse 12, so we’re going to continue there. Paul was in prison while he wrote this. He was in Rome, and this is the first Roman imprisonment. We read about this one in Acts 28. In this one, he was under house arrest, so he was able to entertain friends, visitors. He had sunshine. He could move from room to room. He was living in nice conditions. However, he was still in prison; he didn’t have his freedom. He couldn’t just get in a boat and sail out to sea somewhere. He couldn’t go and visit friends and loved ones. He couldn’t visit the churches; he couldn’t do any of that. He was confined, and he was also shackled to a Roman guard 24/7. In six-hour shifts, guards would come in and be chained to him. Another one would come in six hours later, so even you extroverts would have to admit that you need some private time, right? Even you people out there who are extroverts would say, “From time-to-time, I need to be by myself.” Paul didn’t have that for two years. For two years, he was chained to somebody all day long. Even though it’s house arrest and even though he can see people and sunshine, it wasn’t ideal. He wasn’t free and he never had privacy. He also was facing the possibility, the prospect, of death because of the charges against him. So these are less than ideal circumstances. Think about how effective this man was. He was the number one preacher; he was the number one evangelist; he was the number one missionary in all the world. No one started more churches than Paul. No one equips believers better than Paul. No one was more productive for Christianity in the whole world than the Apostle Paul, and now his ministry has seemingly come to a grinding halt in a jail in Rome. Now look at Verse 12. I want you to realize the audacity, the shocking claim this is. He said, “Now I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the Gospel.” What? You’re telling us with a straight face that you being in prison is actually better off for the Gospel than you being out of prison, traveling, preaching, and going from church to church? Really? Seriously, Paul? One of the things about being a communicator is you have to know the audience you’re speaking to, so I’m going to share with you an illustration I think you’ll be able to understand. Let’s say you’re watching the Packers this afternoon, and you are shocked to find out that Aaron Rodgers has been put on the bench by the coaching staff. The coaching staff said, “We just think we have a better chance of winning this ball game today with Aaron on the bench. We’re not sure how long he’s going to be on the bench. We’re not sure if it’s the whole season or just a couple games, but today we think we have a better chance to win.” You are immediately upset. You’re thinking, “How in the world? We have this great quarterback, and he’s sitting on the bench. How are we a better team with Aaron Rodgers on the bench? How can we beat this team, these charges with him on the bench? What’s the matter with that coaching staff? Don’t they know?” Then after the game, Aaron Rodgers gets in front of the press. The cameras are flashing, and the videos are rolling. He says, “I think our team is better off without me on the field. You saw how those guys stepped up today. You saw the energy they played with. Besides that, I’m getting to know other guys on the team. I’m helping them with different aspects of their game. I really think as long as I’m on the bench, we will be a better squad.” You would say, “Are you kidding me? How can that be?” So when Paul makes a statement like this, “The church is better off if I’m in jail,” people are scratching their heads saying, “Are you kidding? You’re the captain! Nobody is closer to Jesus than you are! You hear direction from the Man Himself. How in the world are we better off with you in prison?” Paul is going to give them several reasons why. Remember the box. If comfort is in that box, Paul is not going to be happy. If freedom is in that box, Paul is not going to be happy. What is in Paul’s box? Do you know what’s in Paul’s box? To glorify God and to advance the kingdom by advancing the Gospel. You say, “He had a bigger box than me. He had more room to write than I did, and that’s not fair.” Well, he is the Apostle Paul. In his box, what he lives for more than anything else is to glorify God by advancing the Gospel. That was his heartbeat. That’s what made him tick; that’s what got him up in the morning. That’s what kept him going through riots, time in prison, and through beatings. It was to fulfill the call that God gave him-to share the Gospel with the world. That was what he lived for. Paul began to look at those circumstances through his life, through that reference point. He asked himself the question, “How can I still accomplish what I believe my mission is here, what I’m living for?” His answer was this: “It’s still being done. It’s still being accomplished.” Friends, if anything else is in that box but God, then it can be taken away from you in a moment. If family is in that box, family can be gone in an instant. If health is in that box, your health can be gone tomorrow. If wealth is in that box-power, whatever it is that’s in that box-it can be gone in a heartbeat. But if what is in your box is to glorify God, then, friends, really what can be thrown your way that you cannot look at, analyze, and say, “This is how it will glorify God in this circumstance”? Paul says, “Even in death, I’ll be able to glorify God.” People will look and say, “Paul gave his life for Jesus. Paul wouldn’t stop preaching the Gospel. He wouldn’t be unfaithful to Jesus even if it cost him his life, so even his death would glorify God.” There’s nothing you can do to this guy, so this is how he is able to maintain joy and a positive attitude in the midst of adversity. So he makes this outrageous claim in Verse 12, and then he backs it up. Look at Verse 13. He says, “As a result” of his imprisonment “it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ.” Paul, how has it become clear that you are in chains for Christ? He is telling them. Paul is a preacher, and he has an audience chained to him that cannot get away (congregation laughing). Rather than looking at it as a negative thing, Paul is thinking, “Oh, man, they’re bringing me one after another, and there’s no place they can go. It’s their job, and they have to listen to my story about Damascus, the light, the voice, how I changed, and all the miracles and things I’ve seen; and they are coming to Christ one after another after another after another.” In Chapter 4:22 (page 1164), listen to what he says as he signs off his letter, “All the saints send you greetings, especially those who belong to Caesar’s household.” Nobody is more excited than these new believers. They are new to the faith and so grateful and thankful. Paul says, “People say hi to you, but especially these people in Emperor Nero’s palace who are coming to Christ.” They’re going home and leading their wives to Christ. They’re bringing their children to Christ. They’re telling their friends about Christ, and the Gospel is spreading in Rome like crazy. Paul said, “It’s because I’m here in chains.” He has taken this negative and is looking at the positive. What kind of letter would you write if you were in prison like Paul-if you were in prison and you’d done nothing wrong? You committed no crime; you’d done nothing immoral, nothing illegal. In fact, you were living an upright and Godly life. The only thing you had done was fulfilling the call that God placed on your life, and it landed you in prison. What would your attitude be? Would your letter be one of sorrow? Would you say, “I feel like God has abandoned me. If God loved me, I wouldn’t go through these trials and struggles. I guess God doesn’t really love me. I guess all my love and faithfulness to Him has been returned by putting me in prison when I haven’t done anything wrong. God doesn’t love me anymore”? Or would it be an angry letter? Would it be, “Oh, okay, this is the thanks I get? I’ve crossed seas. I’ve gone through riots. I’ve gotten beat, and my thanks is I get to go to prison! Well, thanks very much, God! I’m out of here!”? Would you write an angry letter? Would it be a poor me letter? What kind of letter would you write? Would you write a letter of joy like Paul did? He was able to write a letter of joy because of who was in his box. The way he looked at life and everything he processed, all of his adversities and trials, were processed through that lens. He said, “I am still able to accomplish what I am here for. I’m able to glorify God and advance the Gospel from this prison. People are chained to me, and they’re hearing the good news.” He said, “What’s more-because of my chains, most of the brothers in the Lord have been encouraged to speak the Word of God more courageously and fearlessly. The other guys out in the field are going like gangbusters because of this.” Why? Well, first of all Paul was in prison in Rome for the Gospel. Nobody had ever been in prison in Rome, the capital, for that. They don’t know what’s going to happen. Is Paul going to be killed right away? Is Paul going to be beaten? Is he going to be isolated in some sort of solitary confinement? What’s going to happen? The truth of the matter is nobody censored what Paul said or did under house arrest. If you read Acts 28, it says Paul was walking around the house, seeing people-friends, acquaintances, and strangers-who were curious. They were all coming, and he was openly sharing the Gospel without any fear of punishment. Nobody was coming to him and saying, “Paul, you can’t talk that way anymore. You can’t say that. We worship the Emperor here. We worship the Roman gods. You can’t talk about this God, Jesus.” Paul had a total freedom of speech. When the people in the field heard that, that emboldened them to proclaim the Gospel. We have missionaries we support in places like Pakistan and Afghanistan where they do what they have to do in secret because if it were known… They live next to Taliban and al-Qaeda, literally. If they were to openly lead someone to Christ, they would be killed on the spot. In those countries, if you convert somebody to Christianity, it is literally a crime, and you could literally be sentenced to death. Can you imagine the freedom the missionaries would have if those kinds of laws were removed and they could freely worship God, proclaim the Gospel, and lead people to Christ in those countries? There would be a new sense of courage and a new emphasis on preaching the Gospel with greater freedom. You might say, “Well, why don’t they just proclaim Christ boldly anyway?” Because they think they can do more for the Kingdom alive rather than dead. It just seems to be common sense. You could do more for the Gospel alive rather than dead. I can either have a 20, 30, 40-year run of sharing the Gospel or I can have a four-minute run, so there is a new freedom. Paul says, “That’s number two. Because I’m here and they watch and see that I’m still talking, I’m still preaching, that is giving them a new sense of courage.” Thirdly, he says, “It is true that some preach out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. The latter do so in love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the Gospel. The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition-not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains. But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is being preached. And because of this, I rejoice.” Paul is talking here about people who are really preaching the Gospel. His enemies were the Judaisers. “It’s the law, Moses. Get circumcised. Obey the Commandments and Jesus.” Jesus became like an ingredient to a soup. That’s all He was [to them]. Paul would not rejoice in that kind of a Gospel. These were men who really were preaching the Gospel; they were just preaching it with the wrong motives. It’s kind of like this: there are some people in the ministry who are very carnal, very much of the flesh. They look at other ministries that are like-minded as competition. They do. Rather than rejoicing when something good happens in a ministry that’s like-minded, they try to one-up them. If a church that’s preaching the Gospel says, “We led 25 people to Christ in our services this year,” and instead of rejoicing, the other church says, “Oh, yeah, we’re going to lead 50 to Christ,” [it’s because] they see it as a competition. So you have these people that view Paul as a competitor. They say, “Here’s our chance. Paul’s in prison. Here is our chance to really make strides, to get a bigger audience, to get the name of our ministry out, to get more influence than Paul because now he’s stuck in prison.” They’re not only sharing the Gospel, but they are demeaning Paul in the process. They might be saying things like, “You know, the reason Paul is in prison is because of sin. There is some sin in his life-that’s why he is in prison. If he were truly a righteous person, then he would not be in prison,” because there was a stigma attached to prison. It’s nothing to be proud of now, but I’m going to tell you something: back in that day, if you were in prison, you were an outcast. People would disown you; people would disassociate with you because they didn’t want to be seen as a criminal or friends with a criminal, so they would be out of there. Paul talks about that and about the shame that’s associated with prison. He talks about people deserting him and turning their backs on him. If you’ve read the letters of Paul, you’re familiar with that. They might look at Paul and say, “Okay, Paul, if you really serve God, why are you in prison? You must have some secret sin.” Others would attack Paul and say, “If Paul really were a man of faith, he wouldn’t be in prison. You remember what happened to Peter when he was in prison. God sent the angel, and the chains fell off. The doors opened up. If Paul really were a man of faith, then God wouldn’t allow him to be in prison for two years like this. That’s why he’s in prison. He doesn’t have faith. If he would just pray in faith, God would release him. Bad things happen to people who don’t have enough faith.” They might criticize him in that way. Whatever the criticism was, they were using the situation to advance their ministry; but in the process of doing so, they truly were preaching the Gospel. God will honor the Gospel-even if it’s preached in bad motives. There are preachers on TV or in churches, and they are only preaching so they can have big bucks; they live in a mansion or two, have private jets, they have millions of dollars in the bank, and when you listen to the message, it really is the Gospel. They’re telling the truth. People can still come to Christ, even though a person’s motive is to line his own pocket. Paul is saying, “Look, their motives might not be right, but I’ve heard reports, and they are really telling what Jesus did for them. That’s what I care about-that people are hearing the Gospel. The Gospel is advancing. That’s all that matters to me.” If somebody comes up to me and says, “Oh, this Fuddruckers thing, you know the only reason Fuddruckers is doing that is because they want good publicity so people will buy more of their burgers. That’s all! They’re just doing this because they want to make money!” I’d say, “I don’t care!” (Congregation laughing.) “I want to help kids! I want to help kids,” and I think their motives are right and good. I’m just using that as an example. Let’s pretend they weren’t [doing it for the right reason]. I want to help kids, so regardless of the motive, the money we raise is going to help children in our community. It’s a good thing. That’s where Paul’s heartbeat is. Paul is saying, “Look, they’re preaching the Gospel. They’re doing it for the wrong motive, but it truly is the Gospel and what I’m living for. What’s in my box is being accomplished, and I’m rejoicing. Because of this, I rejoice. Yes, I will and continue to rejoice. It is a choice that I have made. I have rejoiced; I am rejoicing now; I will continue to rejoice because my joy is not based upon my circumstances. I am able to have joy because what I live for supremely is to glorify God and to advance the Gospel; and because of that, I’m looking at what I’m going through. Instead of looking at it negatively, with doom and gloom, and being filled with despair, filled with anger, I am filled with hope and joy because I am still glorifying God in these circumstances.” Friends, you can do the same thing. It is a choice. Your attitude is a choice. I came across an interesting example of this recently. I was in a store, a hobby store, doing some shopping, and a buddy of mine came in. He had had open-heart surgery. He was recovering, and he was using a cane. I asked, “How are you doing?” He said, “I’m doing better. I’m thankful I had the surgery. I’m on the road to recovery. Every day is a little better. I’m walking a little better. I’m getting a little stronger, and life is good. I’ll be back in the game before long.” Then shortly after he arrived, another fellow came in who immediately began to zap the life out of the room. He was like the incarnation of Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh. He came in the room, and I looked at these two guys. They both had this “oh, no, not him” face. I didn’t know what was coming next, but he started to talk. The owner of the store starts off and says, “We have a lovely day today.” (Pastor is speaking in his best Eeyore voice), “About time we had a good day. The weather’s been terrible. It’s probably going to get worse tomorrow.” “Well, how are you doing? How’s life?” “Not good. My father-in-law is going to die. I’m going to have back surgery again. I’m not sure how long I’ll be down this time-probably longer than I was before.” “Oh, boy. I’m sorry to hear that. Yeah, well we were just talking about the NFL and our favorite team. We’re just hoping it turns around.” “It never will. They’ve been bad for a long time, and they’re going to continue to be bad. I don’t know why I even watch… Here’s what I’m looking for today. You probably don’t have it. You never do.” Finally, he left. Thank goodness! He left and I looked at those two guys and said, “I feel like jumping off a bridge,” (congregation laughing). I said, “What was that?” They said, “That guy, he’s been coming into this store for years, and he’s never, ever said one positive thing! Every day of his life, he is miserable. Year after year! I’ve never seen that guy have a good day! I’ve never heard him say one good thing about anybody or anything.” Then the friend that had the heart surgery chimed in and said, “I don’t even know how you can be happy looking at life like that! I don’t know how you can even live looking at life like that!” He made a choice that every day was going to be doom and gloom because whatever it was in his box, every day he looked at life and at his adversity and said, “It’s another bad day, just like it was yesterday and just like it’s going to be tomorrow.” Do you want to know one of the reasons why people came to Paul all the time when he was in prison in Rome? The house arrest was always busy with people coming and going. It was because Paul was a happy and joyful person to be around. Whether he was imprisoned, whether he had been beaten, faced death, was hungry or poor-whatever his circumstances-Paul always had joy because of who was in his box. What or who is in your box this morning? Honestly… Could it be that one of the reasons why we don’t have the joy that we should have is because something other than who should be in that box is there? Let’s pray today and ask the Lord if we could have an attitude of joy and be able to rejoice in adversity just like Paul did. Would you join me in prayer? Father, we serve the same God that Paul did. Paul did two things: he rested on the promises that You were in control. Secondly, there was nothing that could happen to him that would stop him from accomplishing the reason that he lived. If somebody beat him, then his attitude would glorify You. He would say, “I’m so thankful that You’ve seen me worthy to suffer, that I was able to testify to the grace of God even though it caused me to be beaten.” Even in death, no matter what was thrown his way, [Paul praised God]. Lord, we too have a choice in this life. We have to decide what’s in that box for us. It is my prayer that the same thing that was in Paul’s box would be in ours-that we might live for Your glory supremely. Father, I pray that we might be able to take all the adversity that comes. All of our adversities are different, but we all have that in common. We all face adversity in this life. Lord, I pray that we are able to process it and look at it through those eyes of faith that Paul had. I pray this and ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Pastor Jeff Williams: October 30, 2011 Meet the Philippians, Part I: Philippians 1:1-6. [A movie is played at the beginning of the service, and here is the link for it: http://movieclips.com/6z2WS-rocky-balboa-movie-how-winning-is-done/0/119/. That scene from “Rocky” is a moving scene. He’s telling his son, “You are more than you think you are. I want you to see yourself as I see you. I see you as special. I see you as chosen. You are my son, and you have a lot to offer this world. You’re looking at yourself through the wrong lens. I want you to believe in yourself, and I want you to believe in yourself like I do.” There’s a message there that Paul was sending to the Philippians. He’s getting them to understand that they have been chosen by God, that they have a purpose, and God has a plan for them. Speaking of computers, how many of you out here use Macs? How many of you use PCs? There are more PCs than Macs. We don’t want to have the church split over that (congregation laughing). Most of us are aware that Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple-an innovator in technology, passed away. Many of you have iTunes, iPhones, iPads and Macs. He definitely changed the world. We were watching a segment on “60 Minutes” a week or so ago, and it talked about when he was a child. A neighbor found out he was adopted and said, “Well, if you’re adopted, does that mean that your birth parents didn’t want you? Does that mean you were rejected?” Steve said that he’d never thought of that before. That thought just overwhelmed him with emotion, and he began to cry. He ran home to his mom and said, “Mom, is it true that I’m unwanted?” She said, “No, honey. You don’t understand. We picked you out. We chose you. Steve, you were chosen.” She wiped away his tears, and she hugged him. She affirmed her love for him and told him he was the son she wanted. Steve said, “That was the defining moment for me. From then on I saw myself as wanted. I saw myself as chosen. I saw myself as a person of value and worth.” Before we go into Philippians, I want us to take a look at how the church in Philippi came to be. I’d like you to turn in your Bibles, please, to the Book of Acts 16 to hear that story. In Acts 16:1, (page 1096 of pew Bibles) Paul, Silas, Luke and a young man named Timothy are almost ready to embark on Paul’s secondary missionary journey. It says, “He came to Derbe and then to Lystra, where a Disciple named Timothy lived, whose mother was a Jewess and a believer, but whose father was a Greek.” It’s important that Timothy is Greek, and that’s going to come into play. I want you to understand that when Paul chooses Timothy, who is Greek in background, he has no idea that he is going to go to Greece. Paul doesn’t know that; he doesn’t have a clue. It’s not on the agenda. It’s not in the program, but it’s going to come into play very shortly; and you’re going to see the wisdom of God. It says in Verse 2, “The brothers at Lystra and Iconium spoke well of him. Paul wanted to take him along on the journey, so he circumcised him because of the Jews who lived in that area, for they all knew that his father was a Greek.” So there are some Jewish believers who still feel very strongly about circumcision. He was half Jew/half Gentile. He’s uncircumcised, and Paul says, “To keep unity in the body, we’re going to have you circumcised. I think it’s the right thing to do.” I don’t know how Timothy felt about this, but he did agree, so he was circumcised. In Verses 4-5, they began to travel around to the churches where the Gospel had already been preached. Churches already existed and were established. Basically it was a safe trip. It was like being a salesman and going to businesses that were already buying your product. They already liked your service. You would show up and say, “Hey, it’s good to see you. We appreciate your business. This economy is kind of rough, so we want to make sure everybody is on board. We want you to know our new products. We’re here for you; we appreciate the partnership. Is there any way we can serve you? Is there anything you need? Here are some tickets to the ballgame. Keep doing business with us, and we’ll see you later.” That’s easy. That’s fun, right? When you are a salesman and you make a cold-turkey call-you go into a business where they don’t know you from Adam. They were already using a similar product with somebody else. You have to convince them to switch and use your product. You have to get them to start doing business with you, whom they don’t know. That’s a tough sell-even if you’ve been a salesman for a long time-that’s a difficult switch to make. So he is doing this safe, easy trip. “Let’s just go to all these places we’ve already been to.” Verse 6, it says, “Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the Word” of God “in the province of Asia. When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to. So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas.” It’s like everywhere they wanted to go, Jesus says, “No, you can’t go there. You have to go over here.” Everywhere they wanted to go [Jesus wouldn’t allow them to]. They’re sensitive to the Holy Spirit; they listen to the Holy Spirit, and then Paul has a dream. So Paul had this vision, it says in Verse 9, “During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us.’ After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the Gospel to them.” Now we’re going to go to Macedonia. How many of you are of European descent today? This is the story of the Gospel crossing into Europe for the first time. Paul is going to plant the seeds of the church, and the first place he’s going to go-the first city in Europe that is going to hear the Gospel-is Philippi; so he’s going to get in a boat and cross the Sea into Philippi. [Those who were with him were thinking], “That’s not on the trip! That’s not on the agenda! We didn’t know we were going there. Now we’re going to preach the Gospel where it hasn’t ever been preached!” And this is a whole other can of worms. This isn’t just going back to the people who already know us and love us! We are starting from scratch, from ground zero. These people don’t know the God of the Bible. These people don’t know about Jesus. There is no synagogue there where they can go and start proclaiming the Gospel. They worship Roman gods. They worship the Emperor, so he was starting from scratch. They end up in Philippi, a major city in Macedonia, in response to his dream. This person Paul had never met was saying, “Come over here and help us. Come and tell us about Jesus.” I wonder if they ever met that guy. That’s an interesting question. We’ll have to ask that someday [when we reach Heaven], “Did you ever meet the guy in the dream and say, ‘Hey, you’re the guy! You’re the one!’?” When they get there, they don’t know where to go. Normally he starts in a synagogue, but there aren’t enough Jews there to even have a synagogue. So he starts inquiring, “Does anybody know if there is a place where people pray and talk to the Hebrew god?” “Well, there are some ladies who meet by the river on Saturday. You could go there. These ladies meet by the river-I think they do. I’m not sure.” So Paul is going to show up to this group of ladies who are gathered by the river. He just shows up, and Timothy was probably the first to speak because he was Greek. He probably began speaking in Greek and telling them who they are and what they are in Philippi for. Then Lydia listened, and in Verse 14, it says, “One of those listening was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira.” Interestingly enough, that’s one of the cities that Paul wanted to go to in Asia Minor, and God had said no. She was from that area and was a worshipper of God. “The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message. When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited…” Luke is writing in the first person. “…us to her home. ‘If you consider me a believer in the Lord,’ she said, ‘come and stay at my house.’ And she persuaded us,” and so the church was born in Europe-right here [in this Scripture]. This is the seed through which the Gospel would spread throughout that continent. It started right there at this little riverside prayer meeting. Paul showed up, and they didn’t know him from Adam, and he said, “God has chosen you. You’re special. God sent me on a boat. I was going over here to talk with these people, and God changed my plans and sent me across the Sea to come to you because you matter to God. You matter to God.” They had been without the Scripture. They had been without the knowledge of the God of Heaven, but he said, “I want you to know you have not been abandoned by God. You are not castaways. God has chosen you. You matter to Him, and there is a message he has sent me to convey.” He shared with him the good news of the Gospel. That missionary journey was from 49 to 52 A.D. Now, nine years later, it’s 61 A.D., and Paul is in prison in Rome. He’s writing a letter to the church in Philippi that he had started with Timothy almost a decade before. Now let’s turn to Philippians 1 and begin reading. I do want to say this-preface my remarks by saying we’re in this Book, and we’re going to be in this Book for a long time, if there are certain words that I don’t develop or certain themes you think I should cover, Scriptures you want me to spend time on-understand that we may hit them down the road. [For example], he talks about joy. You might say, “Well, Pastor, joy is a major theme of Philippians. Why didn’t you talk about joy?” Because I will have ample opportunities to talk about joy throughout this Book. We will talk about joy. If we don’t touch base on a theme or a word right now that you wanted to hear about, we either are going to talk about it down the road or maybe we won’t talk about it at all because I’m trying to spend ample time in the book, but I don’t think we want to carry on for two years. We don’t want to go down every trail we could go down. We’ll try to take our time and work through the Book, but at the same time understand we are trying to get through it in a time-worthy manner. It’s a little bit of a balance. Verse 1 of Philippians 1 (page 1161 of pew Bibles), “Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus…” He uses this word bondservant or bondslave. He says, “We’re not coming to be served. We’re not coming as these Christian superstars. We are coming as servants.” It says in Philippians 2 that Jesus was a bondservant. A bondslave was one who wasn’t forced into slavery, but one who willingly submitted their rights and their will to the service of another. He says, “That’s what we are. We are servants of Jesus, and we are servants of you.” “To all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons…” Those who tend to the day-to-day affairs and those who oversee the spiritual body-to everybody, and he says to “the saints.” How do you think they responded to that? To the saints… [They responded] probably the same way you would if I called you a saint. If I said, “You know something? You’re a saint!” most of you would say, “No I’m not. You must not know me very well. If you knew me, you wouldn’t say I was a saint.” The Scripture time and time again refers to New Testament believers as saints. If you’ve read the New Testament, you know that. Some of these people were very carnal, very worldly. They didn’t resemble Christ at all. The word saint refers to whom you are-you are in Christ. Positionally, you are a saint because you’re in Christ, and He has given you His righteousness, but it’s also that which is yet to come. It speaks to what you will become. You are becoming like Christ, so a saint is who you are and it is what you are becoming as God’s Spirit works in you. It is what is and it is what is yet to come. In this case, the word saint is an adjective, and it comes from the word hagios. When we are talking about a thing and we are describing it with the adjective hagios, we’re going to say it’s holy. It’s the Holy Bible. If we’re talking about a person, we’re going to use that word as if it were defined as a saint. It means something or someone that is set apart, something that is special. It is set apart for a special purpose. What Paul is saying is “Philippians, you’re special. You matter to God. God has a plan and a purpose for you. You are in Christ, and you are a saint. You have been set apart. A saint is who you are, and a saint is what you are becoming. You belong to God. God has not abandoned you. You have gone from aints to saints. You didn’t know the truth of the Gospel; you didn’t have the Scripture; you didn’t know who Yaweh was, but God knew you. You were on His radar, and He sent me. He is writing this letter to you to let you know you are special in His sight. You have been set apart for His purpose.” Do you see yourself as a saint? “Well saints are those people who do certain miracles, right? Then they take a vote decades or centuries later and declare you a saint.” Not Biblically; Biblically you could be a new Christian and be a saint. That’s what that word means-someone who has been set apart. It’s just like in our movie clip when Rocky is saying to his son, “See yourself as I see you. You’re special. You’re my boy.” Live out your purpose; become who you were created to be. God says the same thing; He calls us saints. “Right, but if you knew me, you wouldn’t call me a saint. I’m far from holy.” Yet He does; He wants us to see ourselves as He sees us. In Christ, we have been set apart. He said, “Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. “I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the Gospel from the first day until now…” I also want to focus a little bit on this word partnership. I think it’s important for us to talk about it. As believers, we use the word fellowship a lot. We talk about having fellowship. Some churches have the name fellowship somewhere in the title. A lot of churches have small groups which are called fellowship groups, and I want to talk to you about what this word means. This word in the Greek is a word some of you have heard before. It’s the word Koinonia. It means fellowship or partnership. It’s the word Paul uses right here. The word Koinonia is much more than just you and me eating a cupcake, having a conversation, and then going our separate ways and saying, “Well, it was great having fellowship with you.” No, we didn’t have Koinonia; we had a conversation and we visited. That’s fine; that’s nice, but we didn’t have Koinonia. Koinonia, Biblically, is when you partner with someone-you pool together your resources-you have a shared vision and a common goal to accomplish something greater than yourselves. You are working together-you are laying aside your differences and are united in purpose. You are saying, “Together, we are going to accomplish this task. We both believe in this task. We both accept this mission as something that needs to be done, and we’re going to put our time, our energies, our talents, our resources, and our treasures together to make it happen.” There is a ministry that emanated from our church that Janet Bales started called Tychicus. Tychicus was a missionary who ministered to other missionaries in the New Testament. He went around and ministered to Paul and to others. So they [the members of the ministry Tychicus] go around ministering to missionaries. They’re going to have a little fellowship reception after the 11 o’clock service this morning where they’re going to have pepperoncini roast, one of my favorites, pumpkin moose and other goodies. They’ll be there to say, “Here’s what Tychicus is.” I think it is right here in the sanctuary. “Here is what Tychicus has been up to.” What they are going to encourage you to do is partner with them, pray with them. Maybe you can partner with them by giving; maybe you partner with them by praying; maybe you partner with them by going; maybe you partner with them by spreading the Word, but if all you do is come, eat some pumpkin moose and a pot-roast sandwich, and talk for a little bit-maybe you talk for an hour or stay longer than anybody else-but you never again think of Tychicus again, lift a finger or do anything to partner with them-you didn’t have Koinonia with them. You had a nice visit, but you didn’t have Koinonia. Some of you would be surprised to hear this, but my son and I were eating at Red Robin this week (congregation laughing at Pastor’s sarcasm). I ran into Pastor Jackson from New Life as he was sitting across from us. He was like, “Hey, hey Jeff. I’ll be over there to say hi in a little bit!” so we talked about this fall festival thing. We got going, and I said, “We have your church’s name on our sign. We’re going to bill you for that,” and we were laughing. He just said, “You know, it’s been great to partner with you over the years.” I don’t call him every week, but we’re doing this thing together as a church; and he and I had never had a conversation about it. Jonanne is in charge of it from our church, and he has somebody in charge of it from his; yet we are in Koinonia together. We are in a mission to reach children for Christ, so we’re working together. My buddy and I, we go to Fuddruckers-again, a surprise, but he has coupons. We developed a friendship with the owner. We start talking about how we can pool our resources together and do something good for the community. The CARE House fundraiser was born, and we’re going to do it again [this year]. That will happen in November, and we’re going to add Project 16:49, the homeless teen shelter, as well. We say, “Okay, we’re going to do it. It’s going to be in November.” I called Mr. Bliss, and I said, “Can I count on you again this year? Here is what we’re going to do. Can you make sure we get some newspaper coverage and get on the radio?” He’s always been very helpful. He said, “Absolutely. We’ll get you on, Jeff. We’re proud of what you’re doing, and we’re going to make this happen,” so we are in Koinonia with the YWCA, Fuddruckers, WCLO, WJVL, The Gazette, and another radio station, and we are all partnering together to help children, children who’ve been abused and children who are homeless. In the Biblical context, in this instance, in this sense, we are in Koinonia with them. We have joined hands and joined forces in saying, “We are going to use our resources. Bliss Communications uses their resources. Fuddruckers is going to make the burgers. We’re going to send the manpower, do the graphic design and help with the advertising. You’re going to come and make bread and bus tables.” We’re all going to work together; and when it’s all said and done, we’re going to take a big fat check and give it to them and say, “Take these thousands of dollars and go help kids.” They’re going to go out and help these children. That’s Koinonia. When you think about Biblical fellowship, it’s not just chatting over a muffin, drinking a cup of coffee and talking about whatever. It’s about us being united with a common purpose that is greater than ourselves for a mission. In this case, it’s the mission of the Gospel, which is the highest and most important mission that we have. And so, the Philippians partner with them. This next Verse is significant to me, personally, and maybe to many of you. Before I read it, I want to share with you about when I was a new Christian. I became a Christian at the age of 17. I was just excited about my faith. I was serving the Lord, and I volunteered to serve in all these different capacities of our church. About a year later, I was feeling as if I’d really let God down. I was feeling like I wasn’t accomplishing what I was supposed to, wasn’t living the life I was supposed to. I didn’t feel like a saint; that’s for sure. I remember coming to church that morning very discouraged and very disappointed in myself. I remember thinking to myself, “I bet you God has given up on me. I don’t feel His Spirit anymore.” You know, when you’re a new believer, oftentimes you rely too much on your feelings rather than Scripture and promise. When I’m excited about my faith and feel God’s presence, [I feel as if] God must love me. When I don’t feel His Spirit and I don’t feel His presence-I know I’ve done things that have disappointed Him-God must not care for me anymore. It feels like your faith is kinda up and down like a roller coaster. It was one of those times when I showed up on Sunday and felt, “I’m just really discouraged.” I’m just not living the life, and I bet you God wants nothing to do with me. I bet you He’s ready to throw in the towel with me.” In Verse 6, the pastor got up to preach. There was a guest speaker that day that was from Ireland. He said this, “…being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” He said God finishes what He starts. If God began a work in you, God will complete the work. He doesn’t give up. When I heard that promise-I don’t often cry in church-I started to shed some tears there because His promise really spoke to me. Even though I failed-even though I let God down-God is not going to let me go. God is not going to give up on me. He finishes what He starts. Have any of you ever started a project and not finished it? Can I see your hands? You bunch of quitters! Maybe you started to train for a marathon-maybe you even started to run the marathon but you didn’t finish. Maybe you were going to start a business, and you never got it quite off the ground. Maybe you started an art project. Maybe you said you were going to write a song or a poem and it’s been left undone. Maybe you started building something, and you didn’t finish it. We have a whole room full of people here who started and quit before it was done. God is not like that. You are a project that God has started. Paul said, “I want you to know God chose you. He started a work in you, and He is going to complete that work until the end of the world.” He says, “Until it’s all said and done, He is not going to stop working in you. You matter to Him. He has made a promise to you.” That just moved me. That just made me feel like it’s not all up to me, but God is at work in me. God is partnering in me. Even when I don’t feel Him, even when I’m disobedient, even when I have a rotten attitude like Rocky’s son, [He is still there]. He might have to rebuke me a little bit, but he says, “See yourself the way I see you. Understand you’re special. Understand you matter.” There is a group of girls in India who just last week [were portrayed in a story on the news]. I don’t know if you caught this story-in this province of India, they very much want boys. I believe there is a lot of farming that needs to be done. They need hard workers. Also, girls are very expensive. You have to pay for the wedding and so on and so forth, so they want boys. When they named little girls, it became a very popular trend to call their girls, “Unwanted.” The word “Unwanted” carried this stigma with it. I guess the closest I could come [to describing it] would be if you and I named one of our children “Scumbag.” How awful! “Tim Anderson?” “Here.” “Scumbag Johnson?” “…here…” That would be your name, so everywhere these girls went, they were called Unwanted. It was a reminder every day of their lives that their parents did not want them. A man came along-and I cannot pronounce his name, so I’m not going to attempt to-and began saying, “We’re going to change your name.” He started to plant within them a vision of changing their name. He said, “You’re no longer going to be Nakusa. You are going to pick any name you want. You can pick the name of a beautiful Bollywood movie star.” A special was done by “60 Minutes” on that. I think [Pastor] Mike even found her name as he was searching on the internet. I don’t know for sure if he got that name or not. Do you know what I’m talking about? There is a famous actress in India? No, you’re not big into Bollywood movies. She is supposed to be the most beautiful woman in the world. “You can pick her name. You can pick any name you want to,” so these little girls and these young ladies legally renamed themselves. They got rid of the name “Unwanted.” They gave themselves new names to remind themselves that they matter, that they’re special, that they’re wanted, and that’s exciting. Let’s watch this clip right now. (Here is a link to the clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tmDA_ykf-k) How about that? That is good news in their society. “We’re going to name ourselves by a different name!” Paul says to the Christians in Philippi, “You are saints. You have been set apart. I remember getting on a boat and going across the Sea to a place I had no intention of going to, to deliver the message to you from God that you matter. The God who began a good work in you-that same God is going to finish that work in you. God gives that message to us today.” Many of us are those descendents, but all of us in this room are wanted by God. He has a purpose and a plan, and He calls us saints in Him. It’s what we are, and it’s what we are becoming through His name.
Pastor Jerry Dean: August 28, 2011 Weeding Your Spiritual Garden, Part IV, “Dealing with Dandelions and Crabgrass.” Thank you for letting me in the door with a warm welcome-especially with a Bears jersey on. While I’m talking, why don’t we go ahead and take the offering. I think about the Bears jersey; I’m talking about anger today, so there’s a reason I wore this. Remember all the way through the message as you look at me and think, “I don’t like that Bear jersey,” this is only a test. I actually thought about wearing my old college football jersey, but it had 47,000 tears in it. It had blood all over it, and it was ripped to shreds. It looked like something the cat dragged in. After I was looking at it, I thought that if I put it on, I might catch a disease or something, so I chose not to wear that. I guess you’ll have to put up with the Bears jersey. It is really good to have you here. About a month ago in a staff meeting, Pastor Jeff asked me if I’d preach this weekend; and I said sure. Then he said, “So we’re talking about Weeding Your Spiritual Garden. What’s the title of your message [going to be]?” I’m like, “Now?” He’s like, “Yes, now. We need it in the bulletin by tomorrow.” So I said, “Okay. Dandelions and Crabgrass.” It was a lot of fun finding something that actually fit into that. No, I’m only kidding. We think about Weeding Your Spiritual Garden and about the word crabgrass, the root word of which is-not grass-but crab, and we talk about anger and the issues that we have; sometimes in Christian circles, we deal with some of the big issues from immorality to murder. You know, nobody probably robbed a bank over the weekend, right? Anybody rob a bank? Raise your hand? No? Okay. The cops are looking for you outside. Anger doesn’t get talked about quite as often, and it’s really sad. Are you somebody that has supposedly been a Christian for 30 or 40 years; and rather than getting weaned on the milk of the Word or the meat of the Word, you look like you’ve been weaned on pickles and lemon juice? This morning, we want to talk about the issues of anger. We’re going to go through [this topic] because we want to let you out of here a little early so you can go tailgate with everybody. I can see that I’m already talking really, really fast, so we’ll just kind of race through some of these PowerPoints; and if I have a little bit of time, I’ll come back and elaborate on some a little bit more. The question today is this: do you have a spiritual crabgrass and dandelion problem? By crabgrass I’m referring to anger, and by dandelions I’m referring to your pride. We think about those issues and about anger, and some of you might ask what anger is and what the difference is. I’m reminded of a story I was reading not too long ago about a young girl who came home from school and said, “Daddy, can you help me? I have a homework assignment. I have to write a paper on the difference between being irritated, being angry and being exasperated.” The dad thought for a minute. He said okay and put his phone on speaker phone. He said, “Now you listen in and I’ll show you the difference between those three things.” He randomly dialed a number, knowing it was going to be a wrong number. The person on the other line picked up the phone and the dad said, “Hello, is Melvin there?” The guy said, “No, you must have the wrong number,” and he put the phone down. The dad said to his daughter, “Okay, now watch this,” and he called the same number back. The guy picked up the phone and the dad said, “Hello is Melvin there?” The guy said, “No, you idiot! Melvin’s not here. I just told you that! Why don’t you check your number before you call,” and he slammed the phone down. The father turned to his daughter and said, “Now that’s being irritated.” He waited a few seconds and dialed the same number back. The guy picked up the phone, and he said, “Hello is Melvin there?” This time the guy said, “You moron! Why do you keep calling me? Stop calling me!” He slammed the phone down. The father turned to his daughter and said, “Now that’s anger! Now, watch this.” He called the same number back for the fourth time. The guy picked up the phone and said, “Hello?” And the dad said, “Hi, this is Melvin; do you have any messages for me?” That’s exasperation. Well, we want to talk about anger today. It’s interesting to think about that and about our spiritual gardens. There was someone who was the poster child for this issue in his life, and he is not someone many of you would normally think of. This guy was a real man of God; he was a real leader; and he did amazing things for God, but his anger kept him from the one thing he desired most in life. That man is Moses. We won’t turn to the Passage to begin with, but if you look at Moses, it’s interesting that way back in his youth as Moses saw what the Egyptians were doing to his own people, even though he grew up in the palace, he was irritated. Irritation led to anger. At one point, Moses saw an Egyptian taskmaster beating a Hebrew slave; Moses’ anger kicked in and he [became] enraged. He looked one way, he looked the other way, and he didn’t see anybody; so he killed the Egyptian and buried him in the sand. That rage would follow Moses his whole life. He spent 40 years out in the desert as a result of that. He came back to lead God’s people out of Egypt. In the middle of the wilderness 40 years later as God gave Moses the Ten Commandments on Mt. Sinai, Moses came down from Mt. Sinai and saw that in the 40 days he’d been up there, the people had made themselves a golden calf. They were worshiping the calf, they were dancing around naked, and Moses was ticked. Now he should have been angry in some ways, but if you understand what was going on in Moses’ life and the struggles he was going through, you’d realize Moses reacted in an incredible way. He threw down the Ten Commandments and smashed them to pieces. He took the golden calf, melted it down, ground it into powder and threw it into the water. He then forced the people to drink it. You think he had some issues? Later on when God showed Moses His glory, one of the first things God said to Moses was, “The Lord is gracious and slow to anger.” Yes, God judges; He is the rightful Judge of the universe. Yet, God doesn’t judge capriciously. God’s whole nature is slow to anger and [quick to be] gracious. That led to 40 years of wandering in the wilderness in which Moses led the children of Israel. They refused to go into the land; and at one point during that journey, the children of Israel were thirsty and needed water. God told Moses to take the rod that was in his hand and walk out and smack the rock. When Moses did that, water came out of the rock. It was a picture of what Christ would do for us. He was struck for us. The blessings of salvation flowed out of Jesus, the living rock. Paul made that clear in the New Testament with that story and that picture being an illustration of what Christ would do for us. Sometime later, the children of Israel were again thirsty. God told Moses, “Go out to the rock with the Rod of God in your hand, and this time, don’t hit the rock.” Why? Because Jesus didn’t have to die for our sins multiple times. He died how many times? Once. The rest of the blessings that we get from Christ are the result of prayer. You’ve heard of talk to the hand? Well, God said to Moses, “Speak to the rock. You’ll go out with the rod, but don’t hit the rock, just talk to the rock. Speak to the rock. When you do that, water will flow out,” but Moses was ticked. He’s had a belly full of these people griping, complaining, and whining, the whole time. He walked out to the rock and rather than listen to God and just talk to the rock, Moses lost it. He said, “You bunch of stinking rebels! Do we have to get water out of this rock for you?” He takes the rod of God and smacks the rock again, and God is incredibly gracious. Water flowed out of the rock to give the people a drink, but God said to Moses because of that , “Because you failed to honor Me, because you lost your cool and you failed to honor Me and failed to listen to My commands as I told you to, guess what you lose? You lose the garden, the paradise; you lose the land flowing with milk and honey, that weed of your anger. That crabgrass that grew that you never weeded out-that is going to keep you out of the land that I promised everybody else; so you can walk up to the top of Mt. Nebo, and you can look across the Jordan River and see it, but you don’t get to go there.” That’s pretty sad. Few people have ever done as many amazing things for God as Moses did, but his temper kept him out of the Promiseland. We’re going to look at a few ideas in Proverbs. You know most of this Book was compiled by Solomon, the wisest man other than Christ who ever lived. [Let’s look at] what he has to say about anger. He says to begin with “The quick temper is the mark of a fool and of a weakling.” We don’t usually think about that, but repeatedly through the Book of Proverbs, Solomon says that having a quick temper is the mark of a fool. God is pretty blunt and pretty straight forward. One of the things I can’t figure out: did you ever notice that unfortunately, people who lose their temper quite often seem to find it again? I’ve always been confused at how they lost their temper, and I’m really saddened that it never stays lost. Apparently, they keep going back to dig it up. God says, “Look, a fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under control.” A fool. In psychology today in a lot of different avenues, you can hear people say, “Well there’s a time when you just have to vent.” How many of you have ever heard somebody say that? “Oh, I just have to vent.” Well, excuse me. Do you know what the Biblical admonition is or what God has to say about venting? I was going to say it is black and white, but [it’s more like] blue and white. “A fool gives full vent to his anger. A wise man keeps himself under control.” Venting is the mark of a fool. Venting destroys relationships. It destroys people. Solomon and Ecclesiastes say, “Control your temper for anger labels you a fool.” We chuckle sometimes about people that have the “loser” label on their forehead. If you want to have fool tattooed or stamped on your forehead, [you’ll have to get] yourself a reputation of somebody who loses their cool regularly. Then you can walk around with everyone knowing you’re a fool. God loves you and God cares; God is incredibly honest, and He calls a spade a spade. Solomon says, “A person without self control is like a city with broken down walls.” There’s no protection. You’re liable to any type of attack. On the other hand, self control is the mark of power. Self control [can be defined as] the ability to control your temper, and that is the mark of power. Listen to what Solomon says: “Better a patient man than a warrior; [better] a man who controls his temper than one who takes a city.” The fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5 is self control. “Greater is the One who is in you than the one who is in the world.” God put His Spirit in you. You have that power. You have that ability to control your temper and your anger, which leads to the next slide and the next thought: Let’s get to the root of the whole problem. The root of the problem is that we believe lies. We believe Satan’s lies too often and fall prey to temptation. You see, friends, I’m here to tell you this: there are two things and only two things that will determine everything you do. You and I can open up the Word of God and show you from Genesis to Revelation that these two things are true. How you act and how you behave is based entirely on two things: what you believe about God and what you believe about yourself; and if you get those things wrong, your behavior will be incredibly messed up. I’m going to start with the first one. Do you believe the lies about God, who He is, and what He’s doing in your life, which often lead to anger? You see, we face difficulties, we face trials, or we face hardships; we face pain and suffering in our lives, and what do we tend to believe? “Why did this happen?” Or if we do think about God, too often we’re tempted to think, “Man, where is God? Why did He allow this to happen? God really messed up. He blew it with this one. This is too painful. He doesn’t know what He’s doing in my life.” Well, Paul assures us in Romans 8:28 (page 1119 of pew Bibles). He says, “We know that all things work together for good to those that love God.” How many things? Not just a few things, not some things, but all things. Why don’t you just turn to a neighbor and say, “All things?” There you go. Those kinds of things help you remember Scripture better. Somebody told me that once. All things work together for good. Not just a few, not just some, but all things. The next Verse goes on to tell us that God is allowing those things in our lives to make us more like His Son, Jesus Christ. Look at Joseph. His brothers wanted to kill him and then sell him into slavery and bondage in Egypt. He’s falsely accused of rape and he gets thrown into prison, all unjustly. He comes back 13 years later, and the brothers who put him there are bowing down before him. Joseph could have taken their heads off if he wanted to, but he forgave them and embraced them. Why? Because he said, “You meant it for evil.” He’s not ashamed to call a spade a spade. They did mean it for evil, but he said, “The God of the universe meant it for good.” And friends, that realization that God means-that pain, that heartache, and that adversity in your life-for good to make you more like Christ is the very thing that allows you to rise above that. Sitting here in [this] football jersey [makes me realize] one of the most difficult things that I ever went through in my life was playing college football. My junior high football coach was a 6’4” ex-marine drill sergeant. He was nasty. One time he gave me a spanking before a game even though I didn’t do anything. I played quarterback and middle linebacker. I threw three touchdown passes and intercepted two. After the game he walked up to me, and I thought maybe he was going to say, “Nice job.” Well, he did. He said, “Nice game, Dean. I ought to give ya a lickn’ before every game.” That was his attitude! My freshman football coach in high school was a Colonel in the Army Reserves. My college coach was worse than all of them. The pros complain about two practices a day; we had six a day. Four of them were full contact. It was the closest thing to hell on earth I’ve ever been through, and I grew up on a farm working hard. What he did was horrible! When the season was finally over after four years-my senior year-I was respectful, but I said, “You claim to be a Christian. You ought to be ashamed of yourself. You treat people like garbage, and your players lose respect for you. And you trash people -- rip people, destroy people. You don’t care about what you do to people, and you ruin their lives!” His response was, “Well, Jerry, what are you going to do with your life?” I said, “I’m going to be a pastor.” He said, “Well, someday you’re going to get out in a church and you’re going to have people mistreat you; and because you learned how to take it from me, you’ll be able to take it from them.” Now that’s wonderful logic and reasoning, isn’t it? But you know what? He was right. He is going to stand before God, and he’s going to have to give an account of how he behaved and how he treated people; and for that, he will be judged. On the other hand, did God mean that for good in my life? The answer is absolutely. I would not be who I am today if it were not for that man, so I thank God [for that]. Here’s a guy who treated me worse than any human being ever has; and at the same time, I can look back and say, “God used that man to probably teach me more in my life than almost anyone else.” Friends, faith and dealing with your anger become the realization that there is a God who is in control of your footsteps and my footsteps. What others may mean for evil or wrong, God uses to make you the person you’ve always dreamed about becoming; and that’s what allows you to deal with those situations and overcome them without giving into anger. The second thing I would have you notice is that Satan attacks you and tempts you in the area of your identity and who you really are. In fact, you can look at Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness. This is the crux. You identify that Satan actually attacks your beliefs more often than he does your view and your vision of God. You know why? Because if Satan came to you- and you know God’s Word pretty well-and said, “God’s not eternal,” you’d go, “Wait a second. Yes He is.” Or if he whispered in your ear or put the thought in your mind, “God’s not very good,” you’d go, “Wait a second. It’s all over God’s Word. He died to pay for my sins. Of course, He’s good and I have his blessings every day! He might say, “God’s not honest; He’s not truthful.” You’d be like, “Wait a second. I know of God’s promises from Genesis to Revelation.” See, those are easier to deal with, but if he comes and lies his head off to you about who you are and who your real identity is, you’re not so sure about that. It’s much more likely that we buy into those things. It’s how he even attacked Jesus in the wilderness. Before every single one of the temptations, he said, “So if you’re the Son of God, do this. If you’re the Son of God, do that.” Or, “Since you’re the son of God, do this.” Every one of those temptations was an attack on His identity in some way, shape, or form. Friends, I have seen this area of temper for years, upon years, upon years. One of my favorite lies that I hear all the time is blaming our anger and temper problems on our nationality. “Oh, I’m Norwegian, so I have a bad temper.” Or, “I’m German, so I’m kind of stubborn.” “I’m Italian or I’m Irish.” You name it, fill in the country. What is it? It’s a lie out of the pit of hell. Embrace it for what it is. The God of the universe says when you trust Jesus Christ, guess what? You became a citizen of a different country with a different nationality. Amen? God says in CSI lingo, according to II Peter 1 (page 1200 of pew Bibles), “He made you a partaker of the Divine Nature” or in CSI lingo, he put inside you the very DNA of God. He has given you everything. Like the old Prego spaghetti sauce ad [said], everything necessary for a life of Godliness, “It’s in there.” This lie that you can’t control it or I just have to give in to it is balderdash-that wonderful English word. It’s a lie. It’s a lie out of the pit of hell. Admit it for what it is and embrace the truth of the Word of God. If you have the mind of Christ, which He says you do; if you have the love of God shed abroad in your heart by the Holy Spirit who is given to you, which you do; if you are king and a priest and more than a conqueror through Jesus Christ, then guess what? You don’t have to give into the temper. You can control it. I see that in very practical ways in people’s lives all the time. You see people fighting-maybe with a spouse, maybe with a family member, maybe somebody at work-and they’re really going at it. They’re like Muttley in the old cartoons. They’re just foaming and fulminating and they’re just all wired. They tell themselves, “I can’t control my temper,” but right in the middle of that, all of a sudden the phone rings and then it’s, “Hello” [in a delightful voice]. Yeah, but you can’t control it [Pastor Jerry speaking sarcastically]. You can control it very well. God says, “Look, you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you.” That’s a real you if you’re a child of God. God said, “He put in you the Spirit of Christ,” that Spirit that says, “I like being gentle. I like being gracious with people. I like being slow to anger.” That’s the real you, so don’t buy the lie. Too often, we listen to those lies. I had a woman that doesn’t go to our church call me about a month and a half or two ago. She was dealing with some really serious family issues. I said, “So have you confronted your family members and talked to them about that?” And she said, “Oh, no. I hate confrontation.” I said, “So you’re a Christian, right?” “Oh, yeah, I’m a Christian-been a Christian for a long time.” And you know me; I have to make people say that like five or six times so they get the point. So I said, “So you’re a believer, right?” “Yeah, I trusted Christ.” “So you know the Lord, right?” “Yeah, I know the Lord.” “And so let’s see, you’re a Christian, right?” “Yeah, I’m a Christian.” I said, “Hmm. And how many times have you said to yourself, ‘I hate confrontation’?” And she said, and I quote, “Oh millions.” Now let me ask you a question. If you’ve bought the lie that you hate confrontation and you’ve told yourself that millions of times, what are the odds that you act like that? I tell people all the time that there’s a war in Christianity, but it’s not always where we think it is. So often we think it’s a struggle of the will. You can grit your teeth and make yourself act a certain way for a while, but if you don’t change what you believe in your mind, you know what’s going to happen? In a very short time, you’re going to be right back doing the same things. Jesus said that it’s what you believe that determines how you act as a man. “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.” Faith produces works. Change what you believe and you’ll change your actions. God calls you to combat those lies with His truth. To say, “Wait a second. I’m a child of God,” means God put in me the heart of a peacemaker-a desire to be a mediator, to stand in the middle of warring factions like Jesus Christ did, and reconcile and unite people. In fact, He says I’m an ambassador for Jesus Christ. Sometimes ambassadors have to go into war zones to bring peace, right? But instead of embracing that Truth, we listen to the lies too often. “Oh, I hate confrontation.” I was just reading Leviticus this week. Paul talks about speaking the Truth and love. Paul in this area of love says [such as in Leviticus 19:17, page 116], “‘“Do not hate your brother in your heart. Rebuke your neighbor frankly so you will not share in his guilt.”‘“ That doesn’t sound like great Sunday morning preaching, does it? Do you know what the very next verse says, “And you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” We don’t equate those too often in church, do we? “Let’s see. If I really love my neighbor, I’ll rebuke him when he does wrong,” but that is love. I’ll say, “Look, you shouldn’t have acted that way. You shouldn’t mistreat people that way.” You and I know that what tends to happen if we fail to confront people. If we fail to deal with people when they do what’s wrong, what tends to happen inside of us? We get madder and madder and madder and madder, and we let it go. We let it go and let it go and let it go because we think that we don’t have the courage to deal with it. We’ve told ourselves, “I’m kind of afraid or I don’t like confrontation.” Finally, after it happens to us the fiftieth time, we blow a gasket instead of dealing with it and addressing it the first time. I encourage you this morning: don’t buy the lies. The Spirit of God lives in you. His love has been shed abroad in your hearts. You can do anything through Christ who strengthens you. He’s given you the heart of a peacemaker, the mind of Christ, the Spirit-not of fear-but of power, of love and of a sound mind. Let’s look at the second weed in the garden that we need to pull out: dandelions, which are embolic or symbolic of pride. When I was six years old and we lived on two and a half acres, my dad came up with a brilliant idea that we should dig up all the dandelions in the place, so I have a very up close and personal relationship with dandelions. I remember the first day my two brothers and I dug them. We stopped counting somewhere around 27,000, and I remember at six years old I still had to make it fun. I would be out there with my dandelion digger going, “Sir Dandelion, I slay thee,” so I have a lot of experience with dandelions; but in the same way, dandelions or pride can ruin our spiritual life. They can ruin our walk with God, and they have horrible consequences sometimes. They can destroy you. We’ll look at Nebuchadnezzar in a second, but pride reminds me of one of my absolute favorite stories about the lion who was the king of the beasts in the jungle. This male lion woke up next to a watering hole one day and he was gazing at his reflection in his watering hole. He looked at himself and thought, kind of like Billy Crystal’s ode, “I looked in the water and I looked marvelous.” He thought, “I look really good,” and he was full of himself. He hopped up and started treading through the jungle and came upon a zebra. He looked at the zebra, walked up to him, and said, “Zebra, who’s the king of the beasts?” The zebra looked at him and said, “Oh, you are, mighty lion,” and the lion swelled up with pride. His chest swelled out and his mane stood on end. He lifted his head up and spoke with a little deeper voice. He went on a bit further, and he saw a giraffe lounging under a eucalyptus tree. He said to the giraffe, “Giraffe, who’s the king of the beasts?” The giraffe looked down at him and said, “Oh, you are, mighty lion,” and the lion was full of even more pride. His chest inflated even a little bit more. His head swelled magnificently, and his mane was glowing in the early morning sun. He continued to tread through the jungle, and he came to a clearing where a bunch of elephants were lounging. He walked up to the lead elephant in the heard; he stood in front of the elephant and said, “Elephant, who’s the king of the jungle?” The elephant looked down at him, turned his head quickly, snapped his trunk back, and whacked the lion up side of the head. The lion went rocketing across the clearing, rolled about a dozen times, and smacked into a palm tree. He woke up shaking his head. When the fog and cobwebs finally cleared, he looked across the clearing at the elephant and said, “Just cuz you didn’t know the answer doesn’t mean you gotta get upset.” So, you know, pride can lead not only to losing your mind, but devastating consequences as well. The classic example in the word of God is Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar built the greatest kingdom the world had seen up to that point. In his vision in Daniel, [his kingdom] is the head of gold; it’s the noblest of kingdoms that was to follow. The structures of battalion were magnificent, and Nebuchadnezzar was absolutely full of himself. He had a dream that God gives to him graciously, and that shows his fall; but he doesn’t realize that’s what it is. He calls for all of his magicians and finally Daniel came in and said, “I can’t figure out what this dream means.” Daniel heard the dream and he said, “The dream’s about you, and God’s trying to warn you that if you don’t give up your pride, you don’t humble yourself before Him, and stop treating people with cruelty, you’re going to lose your kingdom.” Of course, Nebuchadnezzar took that to heart and immediately quit and changed his ways. No, that’s not what happened. It didn’t faze him a bit, and he continued on in his path. It’s interesting that archeologists tell us that on every single brick in Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar had stamped, “I Nebuchadnezzar the Great” etcetera, etcetera, “proclaiming all his amazing”- every single brick; that’s some pride. Nebuchadnezzar walked out on his porch one day, over-looking the magnificent city of Babylon, and he said “Is not this the great Babylon that I have built as the royal palace by my mighty power and by the glory of my majesty?” No more were the words out of his mouth when God looked down from Heaven and said, “That’s it!” and Nebuchadnezzar lost his mind. God took his sanity from him. His nobles, leaders, and lords drove him out of the palace. He spent some time eating grass like an ox; his fingernails grew as long as claws; his hair grew long; his toenails grew long; and he lay down in the grass, ate, drank and slept out in the pasture like the cattle till God humbled him and he realized who the real King of the universe was. God then gave him his sanity back. His nobles came back to him, they brought him back to power, and his kingdom was restored. At the end of Verse 37, Nebuchadnezzar said [in Daniel 4:37, page 879], “Now I praise and exalt the God of Heaven. Those who walk in pride, He is able to abase.” Nebuchadnezzar’s pride literally made him lose his mind. The Bible has a lot to say about that. We’ll look at some Verses very quickly. Solomon in Proverbs says [in 11:2, page 634], “When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.” [Proverbs 16:18, page 641], “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.” That ought to end all trash talking in sports arenas, right? [Proverbs 29:23, page 655], “Pride brings a person low, but a lowly spirit brings honor.” [Proverbs 15:25, page 640], “The Lord will destroy the house of the proud.” On the other hand, it’s very interesting that humility leads to exaltation. Look what Jesus said in Matthew 23 [in Verse 12, page 981], “Whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” I want to give you a little bit different definition of humility this morning. Sometimes even in Christian circles, we think humility is a low opinion of yourself. That’s not necessarily what God has in mind. Let me challenge you and encourage you this morning [to believe] that humility is a burning, unquenchable passion and thirst to exalt the God of the universe and to honor other people. Remember the story of Nebuchadnezzar? You know what happens at the end of Daniel 4:37? Nebuchadnezzar said [page 879], “Those who walk in pride, God is able to abase.” But the phase right before that. What does that mean? What was the upshot; what was the culmination? Nebuchadnezzar said, “Now I praise and exalt the God of Heaven.” That’s humility. You wake up every single morning and realize there’s somebody bigger, somebody grander, somebody mightier, somebody way more powerful, and someone way more incredible than you; and you give Him the honor and the glory and the praise that He deserves. You walk out the doors and you see His magnificence everywhere. I’ve been waiting about seven years to buy cannas for my wife, and I love landscaping and gardening. I’ve always wanted cannas, but I always thought they were too expensive. Well, it was the end of the season a week or so ago, and Menards had them on sale for five bucks; so we bought a few of them. I thought they were all dried up and done for the year, and when we walked out yesterday, there was this beautiful red bloom on one of the cannas. My wife and I walked by early in the morning at the exact same time, and I just starred at it thinking, “Wow, that’s cool. Didn’t God make some awesome things?” And while we were standing there looking at that beautiful flower, guess what showed up? The coolest bird we ever had. A little bitty hummingbird came up to the cannas, sat there sipping nectar out and we were just like, “Awesome. Isn’t this cool? Didn’t God make some amazing things?” You see, God’s children see His magnificence everywhere. It’s stamped on every flower and every tree. It’s why every single one of you is unbelievably valuable in the eyes of God. You’re all made in His image. You’re all unique, you’re all special, and you’re all treasures. The God of the universe looks out on you every morning and goes, “Those are my kids,” and when you treat other -when you exalt God and you treat and honor other people like you would Jesus Christ-that’s humility. The Psalmist says these words [Psalm 99:5], “Exalt the Lord our God and worship at His footstool.” When you come to the footstool at the throne room of God, do you come to the footstool at the throne room of God to grovel? Now, I’m not saying there’s not a time when you fall on your face before God. What I am saying is if you’re at the footstool of God and you’re sitting there thinking about, “Well I’m unworthy, I’m so low, and I’m a worm,” you’re there for all the wrong reasons, aren’t you? If I’m at the footstool of God’s thrown and you’re at the footstool of God’s thrown, what should be capturing your imagination? The unbelievable magnificence of God. We shouldn’t be thinking about ourselves, right? We’re overwhelmed, consumed with Him, all His Glory, all His beauty, and all of His incredible magnificence- splendor like you’ve never seen, and you can’t stop thinking about Him. You can’t get Him out of your head. You see His majesty everywhere you turn. That’s humility. Then you walk out the door of your house, out of your prayer closet, and you can’t wait to touch people’s lives or bless and encourage people. Why? Because they’re made in the same image of that incredible God. You walk into a room and you’re thinking, “Hey you’re looking good,” and “that’s a great shirt you have on,” and “I like your Packer jersey even if I’m a Bear fan.” I was blessed today. Somebody who is an ardent Packer fan shook hands with me and said, “How you doing?” and never said anything bad about my Bears jersey. That’s humility. I’m not saying you can’t have some fun, but the point is that humility takes other people’s feelings into account. It cares about them, cares about their reaction. It leaves you wondering how you can build them up. How you can honor them, right? That’s humility. As we think about this, it’s interesting what Paul said in Philippians [2:3], “Esteem others above yourselves.” We hear a lot about having good self-esteem, almost to the point that I’m about to choke on it. Now I know what they mean, and the issue of our identities in knowing who we are is absolutely crucial, but I’ve about had a belly full of hearing that we all need high self-esteem. There are a lot of studies that say some of the people that have the highest self-esteem in the world are convicts in federal penitentiaries. They have incredibly high self-esteem that borders on narcissism. They think they deserve everything. Amazingly, people with low self-esteem tend to work very hard and tend to be pretty driven because they want to make something of themselves, but we don’t tend to hear that. About 25 years ago, we heard that giving everybody wonderfully high self-esteem would solve all our problems. Interestingly, among 25 industrialized nations, the United States has the lowest test scores in math and science, yet we rank number one in one category: we have the highest self-esteem. Those studies by secular psychologists tell us that self-esteem doesn’t have a thing in the world to do with whether you act good or bad. Friends, our problem is not low self-esteem. Our problem is LGE and LOE: low God esteem and low other’s esteem. That’s really the core of the problem. Do you know what God says over and over from Genesis to Revelation [regarding self-esteem]? You reap what you sow. If you spend your life exalting God and living to honor others, guess what you get in return? If you can’t wait to exalt, bless, honor and encourage others, what happens? What do you get back? Exaltation, honor, blessing and encouragement, right? Let’s get to the root of the problem as we talk about that. Friends, pride comes from a failure to build your identification on anything other than what God says about who you really are. Arrogant and insecure people are focused on themselves. If an arrogant and proud person walks into a room, what-or who-does everybody know they are thinking about? Him or herself. A shy person walks into the room-and I can say this because I was one-and who are they thinking about? Him or herself. They walk into the room wondering if all the eyes in the room are on them. I wonder, and I’m so glad I don’t have to worry about this problem anymore (Pastor is whispering), how’s my hair? Does my hair look good? Are my clothes messed up? Do I have broccoli between my teeth. The focus is all on me. But the wonderful and amazing thing is that knowing and finding out who the God of the universe says you are solves both problems. There’s one of those guys in the Bible. The Apostle Paul excelled in the Jewish religion above everybody else his age and his equal. It’s interesting that God gave him a brand new identity. He took away the name Saul, named after the tallest king that Israel ever had, and gave him the new name Paul, which means little. If you’re here today and your name’s Paul, I’m sorry, but that’s what it means. He was given a lifelong reminder that he wasn’t such a big shot in God’s eyes. And Paul’s favorite name for himself that he begins every single one of his letters with, Paul, a bond slave of Jesus Christ. On the other hand, some of you that aren’t quite so self-confident or quite so secure that you’re that person who walks into the room and you’re wondering if every eye is on you-guess what? The God of the universe looks at you, and He says, “Guess what, you’re My kid. You’re a child of the living God. You’re My jewel. You’re My star. You’re living rocks. You are kings and priests.” Ladies you are His princesses. [It takes] one look at you from the God of the universe who wants to marry you, and you forever make His heart go pitter-patter. I love the line from the old movie, “Conspiracy Theory,” where Mel Gibson is talking about Julia Roberts in the movie. Somebody asks him about her, and Mel Gibson says, “Oh, she wrecks me.” And ladies, when the God of the universe who wants to marry you forever looks at you, that’s exactly what Psalm 45 says that He says, “She wrecks me.” The God of the universe says you’re beautiful, and you’re His star. You’re His princess. He says to guys, “You're a warrior; you’re a good soldier of Jesus Christ.” You’re literally super Nike, super winners. You can do everything though Christ who asks you. He hasn’t given you a spirit of fear, but of power and love and of a sound mind. That’s who you are. And if we’re honest, we need that balance in our lives at various times, don’t we? Sometimes when we’re feeling full of ourselves, maybe we’ve accomplished some really cool things, we need to remember, “Okay Lord, that’s really cool. Thanks for allowing that to happen, but I’m just a bond slave of Jesus Christ.” Then there are other days when we’ve been trampled over and run over by the Mack trucks of circumstances that we need to hear, “You’re My kid. You’re a living rock. You’re a winner in My book. You’re a star and I’ll never leave you or forsake you.” That deals with the root of pride. It allows us to walk out of these doors into a world and touch people’s lives. We have that confidence and security because we can forget about ourselves, because we know who we are in connection with Him. We’re confident but humble people. As we put those things into practice, remember who we are. Remember what God’s done for us that allows us to yank those weeds out of our gardens, and I know that God wants all of you to become beautiful gardens for Him. Father, I thank You so much for Your Word. Thank You for Your example. I pray that You would help us to walk in Your ways. I thank You that You are the great gardener, and You are working in each one of our lives to make us beautiful gardens and bear fruit for You. Thank You that we can pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Pastor Sean Christensen: August 21, 2011 Weeding Your Spiritual Garden, Part III, “Pride and Insecurity.” I’d like to invite you to turn to John 13. We’ve been in a series called “Weeding Your Spiritual Garden.” Today, we’re going to talk about weeding out “Pride and Insecurity.” At first it may seem a little strange that we would be weeding out pride and insecurity; those two things seem like polar opposites. What we’re actually going to see is they are the same thing. Pride and insecurity may look different, but they come from the same root. We’re going to see how Jesus had neither. He didn’t have pride, and He didn’t have insecurity. We’re about to see why He didn’t. In John 13, Jesus is giving His final lesson on church leadership. These were His Disciples, and they were soon to become the Apostles of the church. They would be the very first ones to preach the Gospel, to lead the church, to guide the church, to expand the church throughout the Roman Empire and beyond. These were the ones He was investing in; these were the ones who knew Him. It was vital that these guys would get leadership right, and thus far they hadn’t. Their mentality was the same as everyone else’s mentality-that position and power was what counted. They lived in a society that was a very hierarchical society where everyone had their level, their social strata, that existed. We have it a little bit in the United States, but not much. In that culture, the whole society was held together by the hierarchy that existed, so everybody knew how to treat those above them and how to treat those below them. That is exactly how it is in Haiti as well (Pastor Sean and his family are missionaries in Haiti). The Haitian system is very, very similar as to how you fit in. You have children, unskilled workers, skilled laborers, businessmen, clergy, and then your politicians and people of power on top. Jesus’ Disciples that were rabbi or Disciples of a rabbi had status, had position, authority, and standing in that culture; and that is exactly the way it is in Haiti. We’re going to see how Jesus handles that and teaches them-not man’s way, but God’s way. Let’s look in John 13:1 (page 1066 of pew Bibles). “It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for Him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved His own who were in the world, He now showed them the full extent of His love. “The evening meal was being served, and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under His power, and that He had come from God and was returning to God; so He got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around His waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash His Disciple’s feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around Him. “He came to Simon Peter, who said to Him, ‘Lord, are you going to wash my feet?’ “Jesus replied, ‘You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand’ “‘No,’ said Peter, ‘You shall never wash my feet.’ “Jesus answered, ‘Unless I wash you, you have no part with Me.’ “‘Then, Lord,’ Simon Peter replied, ‘not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!’ “Jesus answered, ‘A person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet; his whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.’ For He knew who was going to betray Him, and that was why He said not everyone was clean. “When He had finished washing their feet, He put on His clothes and returned to His place. ‘Do you understand what I have done for you?’ He asked them. ‘You call Me “Teacher” and “Lord,” and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.” Jesus offers us a blessing of washing feet. That’s really symbolic of a loving act of humble service in everyday life. That's what He did-washing feet was an everyday life kind-of-thing. It wasn’t special; it wasn’t unique; it wasn’t ceremonial. It wasn’t heroic; it was a very menial task, but it was a loving task of humble service in everyday life that Jesus did. We talked about Jesus in that role as rabbi. Rabbis did not wash people’s feet. You see, washing feet was considered a very humiliating task. In the social strata of first century Israel, a rabbi would never do something like that-neither would the husband of a home where you were invited to attend a meal. The husband, or the man of the house, would not do that, and neither would the wife. If they had a maid who helped with the cooking or cleaning, she would not do that. She was too high in the status to wash feet. Neither would the gardener who helped with the outside work. If they had a Hebrew slave, a Jewish slave who had special civil rights, he had the right to refuse to wash feet. He had to do everything else his master told him to do; but for washing feet, he had the civil right in Jewish law to refuse to do that because it was so low, so disgusting, and so dirty. “No, I won’t do that.” So who had to wash feet? The lowest on the totem pole washed the feet-maybe a kid or the lowest slave in a household. That is who washed feet. That, of course, is what Jesus chose to do-the very lowest thing. In our culture, because we’re not a hierarchical culture, this is hard for us to really grasp. We can kind of get the idea, the concept, but for it to really affect us emotionally, it’s really hard for us because we don’t relate like that. We don’t understand, so let me try to put this in an illustration that makes sense to us. Let’s imagine that Muammar Gaddafi, the president of Libya, happens to be in Janesville this weekend. You hear about it, and you make arrangements to have him over to your home for supper-not to poison him, but to show him hospitality as a good Christian (congregation laughing). Muammar Gaddafi accepts, and he comes over to your home. Let’s also imagine that in your home you have an elderly infirm grandfather lying on a hospital bed in his room, and he soils his garments right at the time that the meal is about to be served. Muammar Gaddafi called himself the king of kings when he was introduced to the United Nations a few years ago and addressed the entire UN counsel and assembly. He was introduced as, “The King of Kings, Muammar Gaddafi.” He doesn’t have a real inferiority complex, I don’t think [sarcastically-speaking]. The king of kings hears that this person needs his Depends changed. He says, “Oh, I’ll do it. Don’t bother yourself. You’re working on the meal. I’ll take care of it for you. I’d be glad to.” Would that happen? No. That would not even be a spark of a thought in his head, and neither would this be for any other rabbi in first century Israel. Only Jesus had this idea, and that is what it was like. That’s why Peter freaked out about it and said, “What?!? You want to wash my feet?” Jesus answered, “You don’t understand!” “No, You can’t! This disrupts the whole system! We have this hierarchy you see, and this is how our whole social fabric fits together and works! That’s weird! That’s wrong! No, You can’t!” Jesus said, “No, I have to change your diaper!” In fact, He has changed each of our diapers-the filth of our sin, of our idolatry, of our putting anything before God in our hearts’ priorities, motivations, and desires-which everyone of us here has done; I have as well-even though God has made us for Himself, created us to know, love, worship Him, and have Him be the motivation-His glory, His honor-love for Him and others [we all still have had idolatry to something other than Him]. Anyone here have that motivation every time? Any of us have that motivation ever? Perfectly. This is why we need a Savior, and that's exactly what Jesus did. He died for our idolatry, our lack of faith, our lack of love, our lack of loyalty to our God. This King of kings did the lowest of the low. My question is how did He do it because He tells us to do the same thing. I ask myself, “How can I do that? I can try to beat myself into the discipline of going around doing really humiliating things.” In the history of the church, there is a lot of that where people would humble themselves by wearing sackcloth and ugly clothing and whipping themselves as though that’s what Jesus is talking about here. Is that doing anybody any good? Is that really humility? The fact is you can look like a pauper and be very proud about it because you’re doing something “sacrificial for God. Aren’t I awesome?” That’s not humility. You’re still fully focused on you, so that is the exact opposite of humility. For people who feel very, very low and “oh, I’m not worthy. Nobody likes me,” is that humility? What’s that person consumed with? Himself or herself. That isn’t humility either. That's why I say insecurity and pride look different, but it is still an orientation of the heart that is fully consumed with “me.” Jesus wasn’t like that. How do we do loving acts of humble service in everyday life? We learn from Him. Let’s take a look at Verse 3. The Apostle John, one of the closest Disciples of Jesus, had keen insight into who Jesus was and what He was like, and he shared a little psychological background that we wouldn’t know otherwise. He clues us into the secret of how Jesus could do this and how we can too. Jesus knew who He was. Do you know who you are? Let’s see what Jesus knew about Himself. John 13:3 (page 1066) says, “Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under His power…” That’s pretty heavy right there. Every sun, star, moon, galaxy, supernova; every angel and demon; every king, every kingdom; every nation, every river, every mountain; every society, every thing and the eternal destiny of every human was under His power. He would have every reason to have an ego trip on that, you know? It doesn’t get higher than that, and He knew it. In fact, the Greek here talks about a continuation of knowledge of Jesus knowing that all things were under His power. Jesus knew that He came from God. Talk about a noble birth! He didn’t just have an ancestor that was a King somewhere. No, He came from God-the King-and He was returning to God. It wasn’t like He was exiled, banished, or wasn’t good enough for Heaven; therefore He was sent down. No, He was on a Heavenly mission. He was soon to return, and He knew it. He knew He was going to return to a major parade when He got back. So if this were you and I, we would begin Verse 4 with-despite this understanding, despite this self-awareness, “Jesus then disrobed, wrapped a towel around His waist, and began to do the most humble thing you could do in that society-wash feet.” We would put it this way, “…even though Jesus knew all things were under His power, nevertheless, He washed His Disciples’ feet.” But, of course, that’s not at all what the Scriptures say. The Scriptures do not show these two realities in contrast to one another. It actually says, “…knowing this, therefore, He did the humblest thing He could.” This tells me that that is how Jesus could do it. He was not consumed with the enslaving fear that His Disciples would reject Him if He did something so humiliating-that they would somehow think less of Him, look down upon Him, and not follow Him anymore because He would do something so low and so odd. Here He was up here, and they wanted to be up there with Him; yet He did the lowest thing. “No, we don’t want to follow that kind of rabbi.” Jesus could have been thinking, “What if they think that? What if after all this time I just lose everything right before I’m about to be done with my ministry? What if it all crashes because I would do something so humiliating?” Do you think that was in His head at all? Verse 3 tells us it wasn’t. What was in His head was who He was. That’s what He was thinking. That’s what He was focused on-what His identity was in relationship to His father, to God. My dear friends, that’s the ticket for us as well. If our identity is wrapped up not in our occupation, not in our neighbor, the size of our house, how many boats we have, what our hobbies are-if our identities are consumed with God, with our Father in Heaven whom Jesus consistently refers to, “Your Father in Heaven, Your Father in Heaven, Your Father in Heaven,” I think He’s trying to communicate something here. This is exactly what John is telling us about Jesus. Because Jesus was so consumed with the love of God that He knew who He was, He knew He had the approval of God-the favor of God, the accolades of God, that God was with Him, behind Him, for Him, loving Him-He could do anything no matter how humiliating or no matter how courageous. He could do it because He did not live out of emptiness, trying to get other people to fill Him up. He lived out of fullness, and you and I can too. The Scriptures say that we “have been given fullness in Christ.” Do you know who you are? Do you know your identity as a follower of Jesus Christ who has put your trust in Him for your salvation? The Scriptures says that you are “redeemed.” That means that you were bought back to Him so that legally God owns you. You belong to Him. You don’t belong to Him only as a slave, only as a possession, because the Scriptures say that God actually cares about the relationship you have with Him. The Bible calls that reconciliation-that God made peace with you-even though He didn’t do anything wrong; we did. He took the initiative to reconcile that relationship and make it okay again. If that weren’t enough, He then adopted us as His very own sons and daughters in Christ. Jesus is the true Son; we’re not. We’re the prodigals. He took us and said, “No, I consider you just like My son, just like My daughter. You are Mine completely.” Therefore we belong, we are accepted, and we are loved because of the cross of Christ, because of Jesus. That’s our past, but our present is the same thing. Did anybody get short with your children this morning on the way to church because they weren’t brushing their teeth fast enough and getting their clothes on [quickly enough]? I don’t know if that happens to the rest of you, but that’s Sunday morning for the Christensen family. Sometimes it’s me not getting ready on time, but this happens. God looks at us with our impatience, our ugliness, and our self-focused nature, and what does He think of you? Oh, yeah, we know we’re saved, forgiven, and going to Heaven, but “what does God really think of me? I know God loves me because He loved me on the cross, but does He like me?” Do you know what the Bible says? He adores you. He is head over heels delighted in you, and it’s not because you are delightful-and I’m not either-but it’s because we have glued ourselves by faith to Jesus, the delightful One, the acceptable One. Therefore, we are accepted because of Christ. That’s living in fullness. That's exactly what Paul is talking about when he said, “You have been given fullness in Christ. You are so loved, so delighted in. God enjoys you, takes pleasure in you.” In fact, Zephaniah 3-and this blows my brain every time I think about it-says that God dances over us with delight. Now if I didn’t know better, I would say He would have some kind of psychological problem; but in Christ, I can see Him dancing with delight over Jesus. Because we’re glued to Jesus, we’re in. We get the same benefit. Our destiny-Jesus’ destiny that He was returning to the Father, that’s it. That’s our glorious destiny as well and then we will receive the commendation, the judgment, the opinion that matters because it’s of the One. It’s God Himself who will give His assessment. We live for His praise; we live for His commendation-not other people’s. You see, insecurity destroys your relationships because everything you do, you are doing to try to get something. You’re trying to get love, trying to get acceptance, trying to get praise and affirmation. How many people have quit ministries that they were in because they didn’t feel appreciated? If you lived out of the fullness of God’s love, it wouldn’t matter; and it didn’t matter for Jesus-not because people didn’t matter, but because He was so full of God’s love that He could just overflow God’s love. How many people have left their spouses because that spouse just wasn’t fulfilling them? Gosh, get your fulfillment from God, and you will persevere in your vows. You are unstoppable and unconquerable when your life is consumed with the love of God that He has for you in Christ. May we by God’s grace live a life of loving acts of humble service in everyday life because we can. Jesus says we should, but He also shows us that we can. It is through the glory of the Gospel in our lives that we are loved by Him-our past, present, and future consumed with the love of God. Thank you and God bless. [Pastor Jeff:] That was good, wasn’t it? I was on the interstate and on I90, they have some construction going on, and it divides up. You have to pick which side you’re going to go on-left of right. There are barrels there that are dividing the two, so once you make your decision, you can’t cross back to the other side. There was an annoying driver next to me trying to pass me. He was tailgating everybody-cars, trucks-and I’d been watching this guy now for miles. I was irritated by him. He was riding my bumper and wanted to get around me. Around me was simply two semi trucks, and there was no place for him to go once he got around me anyway. I was like, “Go ahead.” I got out of his way and let him go ahead. He was moving back and forth between the trucks trying to get around them. Finally we got to that crossroad where you could go to the right where it said, “Slower traffic keep right.” I was thinking, “That’s me. I like to go really slow around these big barrels. The lane is getting narrow. I want to take my time,” so I was going slow. Of course, he wanted to be in the fast lane, so he took to the left and took off. This went on for miles with these barrels. I finally met up with him because very few people took the slow road. Life in the fast lane, “I want to get there quick.” Everybody went over to the left to the point where that became a traffic jam, and I had open road [on my side of the barrels] (congregation laughing). It was like maybe three miles down the road [in front of me that] there was a truck, but I could go as fast or slow as I wanted. It was like I drove by the guy and wanted to go “Bye!!!!” He was stuck, and I was free. There is a freedom when we do things God’s way. When we pursue what the world says, and the world says, “Put yourself first. Pride, life in the fast lane. Go get it! It belongs to you!” That’s self-centered. we take that lowly way; we take the slow way. We have to humble ourselves a little bit, do things God’s way. There is an incredible freedom that comes in that. I thought Sean did an excellent job bringing that Truth home to us this morning. I get to hear it one more time. I’m almost to the point now where I could preach it-almost.
Pastor Jeff Williams: August 7, 2011 Weeding Your Spiritual Garden, Part I, “Identifying Weeds.” (The service begins with a video, which you can find by following this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7T2QaNgNuA4). We’re talking about weeding our spiritual gardens. Does anybody know what it means if your soil is loamy? Does anybody know (Pastor is asking the congregation.) If it’s sandy? That’s loamy, okay. I wasn’t familiar with that word, but we’ll talk a little bit more about her tips in a little while. Welcome back, campers. We had over 100 campers come back yesterday. Did any campers make it to service today? I’m expecting most of them at the 11 o’clock service. My daughter came home exhausted. She was on the couch, and we were talking. I was talking, and I turned around, and she was sound asleep in a position that I don’t think human beings are actually capable of sleeping in. Wow, she was a little pretzel over there and was out! We are talking about “Weeding our Spiritual Gardens” today. If you’ve come into the church-especially if you’re new, not so much if you’ve been around for a while and don’t notice it-but there’s a mound of dirt out there just beyond the parking lot. You may have seen that big mound of dirt and wondered what that was doing there. That’s leftover from phase three, and the contractor had an oversight in pushing it all back. We said, “Well, we’ll just take what we need for our gardens and backfill, and then we’ll let the city help themselves to what they need. It’ll be fine.” We did that, and then the city said, “We really don’t need it.” Then we found out it was going to cost money to move it, so we said, “Well, we’ll just kinda keep it there until phase four,” which is in 2013. We’ll be building a new sanctuary, and it will come in handy then. It’s been sitting out there, so the Board and I got together and said, “Somehow, we have to figure out a way to get some weeds on there. We’ve tried everything, and we just can’t get weeds to grow there. We have gone to the weed store. We bought some of the finest weeds money can buy (congregation laughing). They just won’t grow. It just seems like no matter what we do… We’ve imported weeds from other countries. We tried planting them out on the mound, but they won’t grow no matter what we do. Some of you are thinking, “What in the world is he talking about? What kind of crazy church is this? Gardening tips? The guy is trying to plant weeds?” I’m being facetious, obviously. You don’t have to plant weeds; weeds just happen. They just grow. That’s because they’re in the soil. You can look at soil that looks completely weed-free, but there are the seeds to those weeds under there somewhere. They can lie dormant for 90 years. Did you realize that? They can lie there until the right amount of moisture, sunlight, and temperature for that particular weed [take place], and then out they’ll come. For 90 years, some of them can lie dormant. Weeds are in the soil. When we identify weeds this morning, what we’re going to be talking about is that they’re in our soil; they’re in our nature. We are born with these weeds in us that have the propensity to grow very rapidly with very little effort. They just kind of happen. A selfish bend, it’s not something you have to teach your children. You don’t teach your children to be selfish, right? “Now you keep this and never share!” “No! Share!” (in Pastor’s best baby voice). “No, no, keep it to yourself.” “No, share!” You haven’t ever had that conversation with your child, and you never will. “Now, Junior, when little Johnny takes your toy, hit him over the head with your rattle.” “No, no retribution! Forgiveness!” “No, no! You hit him over the head with your rattle!” “No, no! Must forgive! Must not take revenge!” You don’t teach that! You teach forgiveness. Retribution comes quite naturally to the child. Some words are a struggle, and other words like “mine,” they seem to learn them automatically. It’s like it’s innate. With this whole weed nature within us, Jesus is going to identify some weeds you and I need to work on in the garden of our hearts. In the Book of Proverbs 4:23 (page 628 of pew Bibles) gives us an admonition. It says, “Above all…” In other words, this is really, really important. This is your top priority. It says, “Above all, you and I are to guard our hearts, for it is the wellspring of life.” Guard your heart. Guard your heart. It is the wellspring of life. If you’re not careful, that wellspring can become contaminated. If you’re not careful, that wellspring can become polluted; so be careful what you allow into your hearts. Don’t allow your hearts to become hardened. Don’t allow your hearts to become unforgiving. Don’t allow your hearts to become full of bitterness, hatred, and prejudice. Don’t allow your hearts to become lazy and careless. Don’t do that; watch over your hearts. So you are in essence the gardener or your hearts. You’re the overseer of your hearts. You are to prune your gardener and take care of it. Jesus used nature all the time, didn’t He? He talked about birds; He talked about flowers; He talked about weeds. He talked about being the living water. He was always using nature and the things of nature to teach. Why? Because it’s where we live, and people could just look at nature and be reminded of His teachings when they’d see the lilies, when they’d see a sparrow, or when they’d take a drink and remember that He is the one you can drink from and never thirst again. He is the bread of life. So He would always use the stuff of earth to teach Heavenly lessons, and those were called Parables. Parable means to lie alongside. That is the literal meaning of the word. It is an earthly story with a Heavenly meaning; so Jesus would tell stories of things that were familiar, and it would allow you to hold on to that story because you’d remember that word picture. You’d remember that analogy, and then you’d contemplate what it meant. In Luke 8, we see one of Jesus’ most famous Parables of all. It is what we call the Parable of the Sower, but it’s really the Parable of the soils. It is really about the soil. There is a consistent in the story. The Sower is God. The other thing that is consistent in the story is the seed being the Word of God. What changes in the story is the soil, the condition of the soil, and the end result of what has been sown. This has to do with the condition of our hearts. He talked about how the sowing seed fell alongside the road and birds came and ate it. That was seed in which there was no understanding. It didn’t even take root. People didn’t understand it, and they couldn’t receive it. You cannot receive what you do not understand. I have been in churches where I think the pastor’s main objective is to show you all the fancy words he learned in seminary. You will walk out of there thinking, “I have no idea what he just said. It sounded important, but I don’t know what he was talking about.” We want to make sure here at Faith that when I’m done with a message, or one of the pastors is done, you understand. You say, “I get that Passage now. I understand that it’s application,” because you cannot receive what you cannot understand. Secondly was the seed that went alongside into the rocky soil. There was no root, no substance to it, so it didn’t grow. It kind of shot up, but it died. Then there is seed sown in thorny soil or weedy soil, and then the weeds come and choke the life out of it. Fourthly, there was seed that fell along good soil and produced much fruit. Jesus is going to explain that to them in Verse 11 (of Luke 8, page 1024). He said, “‘This is the meaning of the Parable: The seed is the Word of God. Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the Word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. Those on the rock are the ones who receive the Word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away. The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature. But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the Word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.’” Each one of your soils today is in a different condition. Some of your soils are hard. It’s hard to penetrate with the Truth today. Some are rocky. Some are consumed with the tribulations of life. Others of you have thorns and weeds that are choking out the Word. Others of you have good soil: it’s soft and receptive. You have a good and noble heart, and you’re eager to receive and hear. The Word is implanted in you; it takes root and it bears fruit. We’re going to hone in today on Verse 14, the seed that fell among the thorns. In the Greek, this word thorn basically means weeds. It stands for any kind of weed you’re describing You know how weeds sometimes do have thorns or prickers to them? This is kind of a coverall word. It’s like how we use weeds as a coverall. We have names for different plants, and we might call them by their individual name. We have a name for this flower or this vegetable; but for weeds, they have names as well. There are botanists that can tell you, “Well, this weed is for this family, and its name is this.” To us, they are simply weeds. We use a blanket statement-one word for all. There are all kinds of flowers. They have names, but if you know the names, you simply say, “It’s a flower,” and that covers it all; and we just simply say that for weeds. This is kind of an all-inclusive term for weeds that the Scripture uses. Jesus identifies those weeds, and we don’t have to look hard. You say, “What are all those weeds that He is talking about?” Well, He says but they are choked by life’s 1.) worries; 2.) riches, and 3.) pleasures. These are the weeds that are innate in all of us. We worry; we want things to go well. We don’t want things to go poorly, so we can be consumed by worry. We can worry about the things that might happen to the point where it consumes us. I’m a worrier. I’ll tell you that; I am a worrier. I worry about things. There was a big storm this week in DeKalb where my son goes to school. He told me about it, and I said, “I didn’t know that.” I saw it on the news a couple of days later, and I said, “I would have been worried sick if I’d known there was a tornado warning where you were at.” Parents worry. When your children grow up and get their license, it’s the worst. When they’re late, you’re hoping they’re okay. We worry; we have that propensity to worry. The second word here talks about materialism. He says that the “riches…” In Matthew it says, “The desire or the deceitfulness of riches” chokes us-the deceitfulness of riches, the material things. What is the deceit? What is the lie of riches? The lie of riches, of course, is if you have this, you will be happy. That is the lie that you are told. Madison Avenue preys on that. It tells you, “If you have these clothes; if you drive these cars; if you take this vacation; if you live in this kind of a house; if you have this kind of a watch, then you will be happy. You will have what you need.” If you have water so you won’t choke while you’re preaching… Thanks, Jesse (congregation laughing as Pastor was coughing). They say you’ll be happy, and we buy the lie. We buy it when we’re kids. When you’re in the nursery, “If I just had that toy to play with, I’d be happy.” As you get a little older, “If I just had that bicycle…” As you get a little older yet, “If I just had that car, I’d be happy” or “if I just had that girlfriend or boyfriend…” Then you grow up and say, “Well, if I just had that house, that job, or if I just had that much money in my bank…” “If I could just take that kind of vacation… I’ve seen the ads. Everybody who goes to that island is happy. Everybody who takes that cruise is happy. If I could take that cruise, if I could go to that island, then I’d be happy.” There are all these material things [thrown in our faces], and we don’t want to experience lack, so we think if we have enough… “If I could just get more money, more material things, I’ll have enough, and I will be happy because I won’t have to be concerned with lack.” There are insecurities there. Then the third is pleasure or desire. That has to do with the scenes, sensual desire. “If I could taste that; if I could smell like that; if I could experience that comfort, experience that pleasure…” This leads to affairs. It leads to people going to all kinds of things to pursue comfort and so forth. There’s nothing wrong with having comfort, but what happens is people pursue these over God; so I try to be satisfied in what I experience. With materialism, I try to be satisfied in what I have, what I possess; and through these pleasures, I try to be satisfied in what I experience. “If I just experience that, then I’d be happy. Then I’d be fulfilled. People come to Jesus to taste that bread. “Give us more of that bread,” and Jesus says, “You didn’t come to receive from Me. You came because you wanted the bread that I make.” Jesus said, “He who hungers after Me will not be hungry. He who thirsts after Me and drinks from me will never be thirsty again.” He says, “I alone have what satisfies. Experience Me, and you can be satisfied.” These things rob us; these weeds rob us. That’s what the gardener said in her clip. She said, “The number one thing and the reason why you need to get those weeds out of your garden is they rob you. They take from you. They take nutrients from the plants, vegetables, and flowers you want to grow and you want to be seen. The things that are good to eat and good to look at and bear fruit-that’s what you want; but the weeds rob from that. They steal nutrients; they steal water. They steal sunshine. They compete for space from that which is good, and they rob you.” We talk about worry and how it robs us of faith. It robs us of peace of mind. We talk about materialism; it robs us of contentment, always needing more. We talk about pursuing pleasures to this point. That’s the word we get hedonism from, this Greek word. It robs us and deceives us into thinking we are going to find satisfaction through our senses and what we experience rather than the living God. These weeds choke, they rob, and they take; so Jesus is warning us about that. He says, “These weeds need to be removed from us so that our soil is receptive to the Word of God where it can be planted and where it can grow.” You notice all three of these things are futuristic. They worry about what might happen. Worry is worrying about what might happen. Materialism is pursuing the next thing and pleasure is pursuing the next pleasure and trying to avoid the bad. I want to avoid the bad, and I want to have the good because I want to know comfort. I don’t want to know lack. I want to have all that I need, and I don’t want to have to worry about everything. I want everything to go smoothly, but sometimes in life it doesn’t happen that way. I’d say most of the time in life it doesn’t happen that way. We were taking a vacation to California a couple weeks ago, and we were flying home. I don’t like to fly. Talk about worry-I worry when I fly. I try to give that to God, but I worry about the pilot. Do they know what they’re doing? I worry about the weather conditions; are they going to be good? I worry about the gear; is the landing gear working? Is the wing going to stay on the plane? Are the engines going to work? I concern myself, and I don’t like to fly at all. Anybody with me on that? Thank you. We’re up in the air, and we are over a storm. It was really cool out west. There were black clouds, black as night. The sun was setting, so it was getting dark anyway, so the clouds were just pitch black. There was lightning; it was an electrical storm. I’d never seen lightning from that perspective before. I’ve flown over clouds before. Looking down on an electrical storm is really cool because you don’t see the lightning; you just see the cloud light up. It’s like it’s black, and then all of the sudden it lights up. You don’t hear anything; it just looks like somebody turned on a brilliant light bulb inside of the cloud. It just lights up, and then you see a little bit of the lightning; but you really can’t tell what it’s doing. You’re like, “That is so cool.” Then off on the horizon, you can see some of the lightning coming down; but the ones you’re flying directly over, they don’t put off any turbulence . We were over the storm; the dark clouds were down below. I could see the lightning, and I was thinking, “Oh, I’m glad I’m not down there! I’m glad I’m up here.” Then this idiot pilot starts to descent into the clouds, and I’m like, “What are you doing? Go back up there! We’re okay up here, but you are actually taking us into where the lightning is. Are you aware of that? Do you know that you are flying into the lightning, the source of the lightning? It’s coming from the clouds. As far as I know, it doesn’t shoot up. It shoots down, and you’re going to fly us into that stuff?” I wanted to run into the cockpit and say, “What are you doing?!?! Where did you get your pilot’s license? Stay above the clouds. Now we can’t see anything because there are dark clouds all around, and you can’t see anything either, smart guy! Now you have to use your instruments and panel. How do you like that? Go back up where we were before!” No, instead he flies through the dark clouds and we hear, “Ladies and gentleman, take your seats. We’ll be passing through some turbulence here.” I’m like, “We don’t have to! This wasn’t necessary! If you would have just stayed where you belonged, we wouldn’t be going through this!” I’m being Mr. Pilot, thinking I know better than the guy flying. There is probably a reason why we had to drive into those storm clouds. I don’t know what it is, but I’m sure he must have known why we did that. That was nerve-racking flying through those dark clouds, experiencing that turbulence. It was very nerve-racking to me. I tell you that story because sometimes God seems to fly our plane like that. It seems like we’re above the clouds. “I don’t have to worry. I’m looking at that storm, and I’m glad that’s not happening to me! I’m feeling comfortable, safe, and secure. I’m content with my circumstances,” and all of the sudden the plane starts to go down. You’re like, “Lord, it’s dark. Lord, there are some thunder and lightning there. Lord, there is some turbulence there. Do You know what you’re doing? Let me fly the plane, okay? Let me fly the plane.” You want to tell the Lord how to fly it, right? You’re like, “I don’t want to go down there! That’s scary! I want to stay above the storm,” but sometimes God drives us right into it, doesn’t He? Here’s the thing: when we are in that darkness, we’re dependent on Him to guide us. When we are encountering that turbulence, we are sober, awake, and listening. We’re responsive, right? We are weeding our garden. You get right with God in a hurry when you’re in turbulence in an airplane. You weed fast. You make sure your accounts are clear. Jesus is talking about this. He is assuring us that when we go through these storms of life, we would rather have no storms and have everything clear. Yet, what we want is comfort. We want enough. We don’t want to know lack. We don’t want to have any worries. If you get your way, guess what happens? If you were to get your way, you’d be fat, lazy, spoiled, unfruitful Christians. “No storms in my life! No fires in my life!” We went to Yosemite, and Yosemite was beautiful; but it’s kind of like the Disneyworld of national parks. There are so many people, it can take so long to get to an attraction, and then it’s over with and you’re back in line. It’s wall-to-wall people in the valley. We said, “Let’s get out of the valley. Let’s go see the sequoias today. There are supposed to be fewer people there. The sequoias are the largest living things on the planet. The redwoods are taller. They are cousins [to the sequoias]. We went to Mirror Woods, and we saw the redwoods as well; but the sequoias are the largest size-wise compared to anything on the planet. We thought, “Let’s go see the sequoias.” You think about how many years they’ve been there. There was a fallen redwood, and they took the trunk and put a map in the middle that said, “A tree is born in the middle.” Then you’d start following it to the left. It said, “Here’s when Leif Ericson came to the Americas. Here’s when Christopher Columbus discovered America. This tree was this big when America was founded, etc.” You could just watch the timeline of this tree, and they are magnificent to look at and behold. One of the things we noticed in the Sequoia Forrest was there were a lot of trunks that were burned and charred. We were very curious about that. We thought there must have been some kind of fire there because they were still living. They were still growing, but the trunks looked like they’d been through fire. We wanted to read about it, and we think the best family vacations to take are the ones where you learn. I don’t know if our children necessarily agree with us. They think every trip should be Disneyworld, but we like the ones where we’re learning about our history or nature. We said, “Let’s find out why these trees are the way they are.” We learned something very important. We learned that they try to protect the sequoias from fire. If there were any fires, they would quickly put them out. In fact, they tried to make conditions where there were no fires around there. This is a national treasure-our sequoia trees. It’s a world-wide treasure, actually. You’d be surprised that people from all over the world are there. Sometimes as an American you’d feel like a minority because there were so many people from other countries at Yosemite. The [scientists] said they prevented fires at all cost. What happened was the sequoias began dying. No new sequoias were growing, and the ones that were there were struggling. They asked, “What is going on?” Then there was a fire that they couldn’t stop, and it did some damage. They watched, and what they saw after the fire was over a period of years, the sequoias came back stronger. They thought, “Oh, okay.” What was happening by having no fires was all these other trees were growing up. To sequoias it would be the equivalent of weeds in a garden. Those trees are like weeds to the towering sequoias. Those trees were competing for sunlight, nutrients, water, and space. All the needles were falling down on the ground, and it was making it hard for the sequoia seeds to take root and begin to grow, so the scientists said, “Here’s what we need to do. We need to start fires. We need to have controlled fires from time to time. If there isn’t a fire, we need to make a fire,” so they would have controlled fires to enable the sequoias to flourish and grow. These weeds here, these things we pursue, are all designed to avoid fires. They are all designed to avoid storms. “I want to be comfortable. I don’t want to lack.” The problem is they’re robbing from us. They’re robbing us of faith; they’re robbing us of contentment; and they’re robbing us of satisfaction, desiring God, and the things of God. We naturally pursue them like weeds are naturally in the soil. We naturally want that comfort; we naturally want that provision; we naturally want that protection, and sometimes God allows controlled fires in our lives. They don’t consume us, but they consume the chath. They allow us to grow, and sometimes we’re not even aware of what’s going on, that the growth is taking place. I’ll tell you something about myself. I am a kid at heart when it comes to my hobbies. I’m a comic geek; I love old comic books-the superhero genre: Spiderman and those other superheroes. I also love baseball cards. I still collect baseball cards from when I was a kid. Once a year, I get to go be “Anonymous Baseball Card Guy,” in Chicago-sometimes twice a year. I put on my cap, and I go to the show. Nobody knows me. A couple people know me, but not many. I just get to be a guy looking for a 1971 Topps baseball card set or looking for some rookie cards. I’ll spend hours looking at cards, which may sound boring to you, but it is very relaxing and fun to me. When you’re a pastor-and not many of you are pastors, so you may not understand this and it’s not that it’s a burden-but when I’m in church, I’m talking about the Lord, the Bible, and spiritual matters. When I go to the grocery store, go to the club, or I’ll go shopping, and I hear, “Aren’t you Pastor so-and-so? You’re that guy from that church. What do you think about this? What do you think about that?” Many times, you feel like you’re always on the job. It’s nice for me to be able to throw on the cap and just focus on something trivial like baseball cards. While I’m there, there is a booth that I go to a lot, so I’ve gotten to know the guy over the years-not on a deep level, but on the surface, a friendship level. He knew I was a pastor but really didn’t want to talk about spiritual matters or church in the past. Normally when I see him, he’s a very vigorous fellow, and now he’s looking kind of solemn, kind of sad. I asked, “Hey, what’s going on, man?” “Nothing much. Things aren’t going well.” I said, “Really?” “Yeah, I was going to call and talk to you, but I thought maybe I’d see you at the show. I was kinda hoping I’d see you. Things aren’t going well at home,” and I could see the tears forming in his eyes.” I said, “Oh, yeah. What’s going on? Are you having some marital problems right now?” “Yeah,” and then the tears got really big, and he started to get choked up. “Well, tell me what’s going on,” so I spent the next two and a half hours doing marriage counseling. When a collector would come, I’d be quiet. When the collector would leave, we’d resume the conversation. I was trying to share things that I thought would help him. I was trying to hear where he was at. I was listening to him talk about the pain of what he and his wife are going through and the fear he has about losing his marriage. I was reflecting on how much he truly loved her, but that love wasn’t being reciprocated; and he shared how painful that was. I noticed something different about him. He was really going through a storm; he was really going through a fire, and he said, “My daughter became a Christian and started going to a really good church in our city. She is going to be baptized.” “Well, that’s great!” He said, “I’m going to go. My wife and I have been going too. We don’t really talk together, but we do go to church together.” I said, “That’s good! That’s a good thing!” He started talking to me about the sermon series and how much he was getting out of it. He was telling me what the pastor was talking about. He shared all the books he was reading, and he was excited. He said, “I’m reading Gary Smalley’s book on speaking love languages.” I’ve never had love language talk with this baseball card guy before, but he was telling me his love language. Normally we talk about Pete Rose and things of that nature. Now we’re talking about love language. He said he was taking the Dave Ramsey financial course. I told him we were doing that at our church too. He started talking to me about the Bible study he was going to in his small group and how important it was. He started talking to me then about matters of faith. I could see his character; I could see maturity that I’d never seen. I said, “Don’t you realize-can’t you see what’s going on in you? You’re concerned about spiritual things. You’re becoming a man of God. I know from talking to him in the past that that wasn’t even on his radar screen. Now, as this fire was going on in his life, as his plane seemed to be going through this storm, things he’d been worried about-how he wanted to be comfortable, how he wanted to be safe-what was he doing here? He was learning a dependency on Christ. He was learning faith; he was learning patience. You might be asking, “Are you saying that God caused the marital problems?” Not at all, but I’m saying that God works in the midst of those storms. God is able to teach in the midst of those fires. He is able to burn off the chath and come out stronger. We come out stronger in our faith and are filled with more character if we allow Him to work in our lives. I saw that in my friend. I saw the fire begin to consume the weeds. I saw a guy who wasn’t concerned about his sales anymore. He wanted to save his marriage, and he was interested in knowing more about this God he’d been seeking. I want to share with you some gardening tips quickly before we go. The clock got away from me a little bit this morning. I’m basically going off the woman that shared the gardening tips earlier in the clip. I’m taking her tips and reiterating them. 1. All gardens have weeds. All of us have this weed nature inside of us that longs for things, that wants to be saved, comfortable, and void of worries. We all have that in us. 2. Due to neglect, weeds grow deeper and expand. That’s a fact. You know that. When you deal with a weed right away, it’s easy; but if you let it grow long enough, that thing can be like a tree and become harder to move. It’s going to be very apparent to all who look at your garden that those weeds are there. Understand, if you know a weed is growing and you neglect it, it’s going to grow. It’s going to deepen; it’s going to broaden; it’s going to multiply in your life. That’s why this is so important. It’s going to choke out the seed of the Word of God. 3. She said the ground should be soft when we are removing weeks. That’s one of the reasons why we come to church; to keep our ground soft; to hear the Word of God; to pray. When you pray; when you read Scripture; when you meditate; when you fellowship with other believers; when you sing; when you serve-when you do these things, it keeps your heart soft. When your heart is soft, it’s not only ready to receive the Word of God, but it is in a right condition to remove the weeds that are present. 4. Weeds must be removed at the roots. You know what happens when you casually remove a weed and leave the root system. You have to dig. The deeper the weed-the bigger the weed-the more you have to dig, and it’s work. Why is it there? Why is this insecurity here? Why is this need for materialism here? Why is this need for comfort here? What’s going on in my life that is causing me to worry so much? You have to dig deep into the soil. Do you give permission for other people who know you and love you to help be gardeners in your life? You should have a few people who know you really, really well who care about you and love you who can point out the weeds in your life and help you with that. They can even help you remove them. That should not be a church-wide effort, but there should be a few who know you well enough to do that: a spouse, close friends-people who can come alongside you and say, “There is a weed.” They should be people who you won’t get defensive with and say, “Go weed your own garden! Pay attention! You have weeds too, buddy!” You should be saying, “It’s okay. It’s okay to help me. It’s okay to point these things out!” I had somebody who tried to weed my garden who doesn’t know me. I only know him through emails, and he was just swinging at everything. “Your church is bad because you have an affiliation with Chuck Colson, Rick Warren, Bill Hybels, or Stuart Briscoe. He’s a mystic. Colson’s a heretic. You shouldn’t have a strength team. That was wrong. You shouldn’t have camp; that’s frivolous-pies and swimming suits and all of that.” I said, “Let’s get together. Let’s talk about these things you object to.” “I can’t meet with you. The Scripture says I’m not to meet with immoral, ungodly people, so I can’t meet and talk with you because you would contaminate me with your worldly Christianity.” He said all of those things that we’re doing are wrong: camp is wrong; all of that is wrong. I don’t know what’s right, but so far all of that stuff was wrong. I don’t need that guy to weed my garden. Don’t just let anybody weed your garden. If you have people who love and care about you, give them permission to help you with this project. 5. You have to be relentless. It isn’t like you weed your garden and say, “Well, that’s done for this season,” while brushing your hands off. No, it’s done for this week if you’re growing a good garden. They just keep coming back; they’re still in the soil. The ones in the soil are late; they’re dormant, and they’re still going to grow. Maybe you didn’t get the entire root. If you didn’t get all of the root or maybe you dropped some seeds from that weed, it’s going to come back; and you have to be relentless. 6. She talked about practicing prevention. She talked about herbicide. Basically, all of the things we talked about-keeping our hearts soft-those are preventative as well. When we are in the Word; when we are praying; when we are fellowshipping; when we’re serving the Lord; meditating on His Word; challenging ourselves to grow spiritually, that's going to prevent new weeds from forming. It’s going to prevent weeds from growing, but understand we’re always going to struggle with this; and we’re all in it together. Jesus says, “It’s so important. Above all, guard your heart for from it flow the wellsprings of life.” Let’s pray together: Father, we thank You for the Truth of Your Word this morning. We thank You for the Parable of the soils. It’s a reminder to look at the soil of our heart. We’re also mindful that we cannot do this weeding on our own. We need the help of Your Spirit. Lord, we pray that Your Holy Spirit would help us as we seek to remove these weeds. We all have them, so we can’t judge each other because we have them too. Lord, help us to have people in our lives that know us well that we can trust, people who love us and can help us in this process so that we’re not doing it alone. Lord, we pray that the seed of Your Word would take root in our lives, in our hearts, and it would produce fruit for Your glory and for Your name. Lord, as we receive communion today, we thank You for the One who came and lived a sinless life, the One in whom there were no weeds. He came and offered that sinless life for us. Heavens rose when He came and offered that life on the cross that we could know forgiveness of sins and eternal life through His resurrection. It is in His name, we come. Amen.
Pastor Jeff Williams: July 31, 2011 Going Beyond, Part XIV, “Beyond Death.” We have been on a series called, “Going Beyond.” We are going to wrap it up today; we are not going to go Beyond anymore. We’re going to finish, and we’re going to talk about “Beyond Death.” I thought “Beyond Death” was kind of a gloomy topic for a Sunday morning, so I thought it might be fitting if we began with a little humor. One of the things I think is fun to read is tombstones. Sometimes people can be very creative with their tombstones. You might have read some tombstones yourself along the way. There are a couple that are humorous, so let’s take a look at them today. The first one says, “Here lies Ann Mann, who lived an old maid and died an old Mann.” Ann obviously had a funny sense of humor. “Beneath this sod, a lump of clay lies Arabella Young, who on the twenty-first of May began to hold her tongue,” so congratulations to Arabella. This one is kind of mean. “The children of Israel wanted bread. The Lord sent them manna. Old Clark Wallace wanted a wife. The Devil sent him Anna.” Clark got his last shot in there. This one is kind of a serious one; it’s a reflective one. It says, “Pause now, strangers, you’ve passed by as you are now, so once was I. As I am now, so soon you will be. Prepare yourself to follow me.” That was a very sober, reflective tombstone, but then next to that is a wooden sign that says, “To follow you, I’m not content until I know which way you went.” We laugh at that, and it’s funny, but we know that time is ticking away for us. We know that all of us may have a long time left to live or maybe we have a short time left to live. We just don’t know. We just know the clock is ticking for each and every one of us. It’s like the man who went into his doctor’s office. He was having some pain. He said, “Doc, what’s going on?” The doctor examined him. He came back and said, “I have some bad news for you. It’s malignant. It’s terminal, and you don’t have long to live.” He said, “Well, what do you mean I don’t have long to live? How long do I have to live?” The doctor said, “Ten.” He said, “Ten? Ten, what? Ten years, ten months, ten days? What is ten?” The doctor said, “Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five…” (Congregation laughing.) We don’t know [how long we have to live]. Hopefully we have more than ten seconds, but we just don’t know what life holds. I think it’s important that we start talking about these ultimate reality kinds of questions, kinds of concerns because you and I will all be people of eternity one day. Let’s define the terms a little bit. What does it mean to die? We just take it for granted, “Well, we know what death means,” but Biblically, when it talks about death, what is it? What does it mean? Let’s define that. If we’re going to talk about “Going Beyond,” at first we must define it. I think we’re going to look at an example today. I want to tell you the story about a young man who went through a terrible tragedy in his life. He was a very religious man. In fact, he decided to go into the ministry for a vocation. The church where he worked was a very large church. He was the head administrator of that church. Every guest speaker who came through, every regular teacher, everything that was done-all the offerings, all the upkeep-everything went through him. He ran that ministry, and that was his full-time job. It was a very large church, and he did quite well financially. He had a wife and one child, and she was his only daughter. He watched this little one grow, and at age 12, something happened. Just as she was ready to blossom into womanhood, she was stricken with a disease that they could not get a handle on. No matter what doctor he took her to, no matter who examined her, they could not find help. She deteriorated, and every day was getting worse, to the point where she was at the point of death. He was a desperate father. He didn’t know what to do. He had prayed; he had spent money; he and his wife administered to the little girl, yet she was not getting better. Finally in desperation, he heard that there was a man coming to his city through whom God had done many miraculous things. His name was Jesus, and so Jairus left his home to try to find Jesus in hopes that maybe Jesus could perform a miracle and save his daughter’s life. I want us to turn to the Gospel of Luke 8:41 (page 1025 of pew Bibles) and read that story together. “Then a man names Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue, came and fell at Jesus’ feet, pleading with Him to come to his house…” This is significant because as you know, the Jewish rulers were in opposition of Jesus. There was always a clash, always head butting [going on]. Jesus was teaching a very different message than the Jewish leaders were teaching. The fact that so many of them were following Him was a threat to the powerbase. He was doing things that were unorthodox; He was teaching things that were unorthodox in a way that was unusual. He was teaching with authority, and people by the thousands began following Him. They saw that as a threat. In fact, if you began following Him, John tells us, you could be kicked out of the synagogue. You could be ostracized by your friends. This man could have lost his job, but he didn’t care. He didn’t care because his daughter’s life was on the line, and he was a desperate dad. He found Jesus and began pleading. In the Greek, it’s in the active, which means it’s something he continued to do. There was a dialogue between him and Jesus as he was imploring Jesus to please come. Even though He was a busy man, and He was obviously doing something now, could He please stop? Could He please come and see his daughter? The man and Jesus begin to go to his home, and then there is a brief exchange between a woman who has another health concern and is healed. We resume the story in Verse 49, “While Jesus was still speaking, someone came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue ruler. “‘Your daughter is dead,’ he said. ‘Don’t bother the teacher any more.’” For a split second, hope was gone. For a split second, he began pondering the weight of the words that were spoken to him. Fear was transformed into sorrow, and tears began to well up in his eyes. Sometimes as you read different Gospels, you have different insights into the story. One of the Gospels tells us that even after he received the news that his daughter was dead, he still refused to give up hope. He said to Jesus, “Even though she is dead, even now, if You will come and touch my daughter, she will be whole.” It’s interesting that the man who has the most faith in all of Israel is a man who heretofore professed Christ. He is a man who heretofore has been an enemy of Jesus. Now, in these matters of ultimate importance, he has found an ally in Christ; and his faith is off the charts. “Even now, even as I get this report that she is dead, there is hope because You, Jesus, are the author of life.” Jesus comforts him and says, “‘Don’t be afraid; just believe, and she will be healed.’ “When they arrived at the house of Jairus, He did not let anyone go in with Him except Peter, John and James, and the child’s father and mother. Meanwhile, all the people were wailing and mourning for her.” Of these people, some were family; some were friends. Others were professional mourners. We think of a funeral as a very quiet, sober, reflective kind of event. In those days, they would hire people to come and make noise. They’d hire people to come and cry, so they were crying. That is why it was so easy for them to turn and go from crying to laughter, mocking, and ridiculing Jesus because really, they were hired mourners. They didn’t have that attachment to the family, so it was easy for them to turn on Jesus in a moment’s time. “‘Stop wailing,’ Jesus said. ‘She is not dead but asleep.’” Could you imagine the tears that are being shed for a 12 year old girl who was cut off as she was entering the prime of life? Can you imagine the sorrow that’s there? Then you go into that funeral and say, “She’s not dead.” Either you can back those words up, or you’re in an awful lot of trouble. Those aren’t words you just come and jokingly say at a funeral. “They laughed at Him, knowing that she was dead. But He took her by the hand and said, ‘My child, get up!’” Talitha kum, He spoke in Aramaic to her [saying], “Maiden, arise.” “Her spirit returned, and at once she stood up. Then Jesus told them to give her something to eat. Her parents were astonished, but He ordered them not to tell anyone what had happened.” There is a Verse I want to draw your attention to, and that is Verse 55 because it helps us to understand death. It says, “Her spirit returned, and at once she stood up.” The spirit left; she was dead. The spirit returned; she was alive. When the Bible speaks of death, the definition of death literally means “to separate from.” That’s what death means in the Bible-to be separated from. Her spirit left her body, and when that happened, death occurred. The spirit, the life-giving spirit, was separated from the body. I want to establish that fact and define that fact first of all with you from the Scripture. I’d like us to turn to the Book of Genesis 2:7 (page 2 of pew Bibles). We talk about what life is. It’s important for us to turn to the very beginning of life. In Genesis 2, God has formed man, and man is lying lifeless before his Creator. It says, “…the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being.” God breathes into man His Spirit, and in that moment, life came. The heart started beating; the lungs began to breath; the eyes opened, and Adam was alive. Life had begun. In Verse 17, I want you to notice something significant as well. God made a promise. He set some boundaries. He set some rules. He said, “…but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.’” God is saying, “If you eat of this tree, you will die.” They ate of the tree. Did they die? Not physically. Either God reneged on His promise or God changed His mind. He threatened them like some parents do. Sometimes parents will threaten their children with something they know they’re not going to do. You’ve saved up, and you’re on an airplane to Disneyworld. Your kids are acting up, and you say, “We will turn this airplane around right now and go home if you don’t behave.” You know you can’t do that, but you’re using any gimmick you can to get the child to be quiet. Is that what God’s doing here? Is He threatening, “I’ll kill you”? Then they call His bluff, and He’s like, “I’m just kidding. I’m not going to do that.” Or, did He lie? Or, is there a different kind of death than physical death? If death means separation, what happened here is Adam and Eve’s fellowship, their connection to God, was broken at this point in time. There now is a separation between God and man. That's what Christ came and restored for us. Death is separation. The day they ate of the fruit, they were separated from God. When the spirit joined the body, there was life. When the spirit left the body, there was death. James 2:26 (page 1197 of pew Bible), “As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.” Again, James talks about that separation. When Jesus died on the cross, the Bible is very clear to let us know what occurred at the moment of death. Let’s examine the Gospels together. Matthew 27:50 (page 988), “And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, He gave up His spirit.” That means He died. Luke 23:46 (page 1046) “Jesus called out in a loud voice, ‘Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.’ When He had said this, He breathed His last.” (John 19:30, page 1073), “When He had received the drink, Jesus said, ‘It is finished…’” Tetelestai-the debt is paid. “With that, He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.” It’s very clear that the Bible teaches that death is a separation of the spirit from the body. An eternal death would be a separation from God. These are different kinds of death, but the meaning is the same-to separate from. Paul talked about this in the Book of Philippians 1 (page 1161). We want to understand what’s beyond death. What happens to a believer when they die? What can we expect? Some teach soul sleep where there is this period from the time you die until the end of the world in which there is no conscience existence. Some teach that there is a purgatory or some sort of intermediate state that we go to. What is beyond death for the believer? Paul is going to talk about this with clarity and conviction. Paul is writing here to the Philippians. It’s a church he started; it’s a church he’s ministered to. He’s talking about a conflict he has. It’s not a conflict between life and death; it’s a conflict between wanting to be with people and wanting to be with the Lord. Paul was a little bit tired; sometimes when you do something good, you can be tired. Paul has to oversee the churches. When doctrinal error comes, he has to respond to that for all these churches-not Jerusalem, but all the churches in Asia Minor and Europe-he’s overseeing those. He’s overseeing the leadership, and we know from his letters that sometimes leadership went astray and he had to go after them or replace them. We know that there were times when he had to deal with moral impurities in the churches. He had to bring correction, and that was difficult to do. There were financial problems within the church. All these things press on Paul, and Paul is saying, “There are times when I’m weary. There are times when I’d just like to go and be with the Lord.” He’s going to discuss that dilemma in Verse 21. He says, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” He does not see death as something to be shunned, dreaded, or feared. He sees death as a homecoming. “If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me...” In other words, I’m still productive. I can still teach and preach. I still have energy. I have a sound mind. God can still use me. “Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two. I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far…” He is saying, “For me to depart is to be with Christ. There is no intermediate state, no soul sleep, but when I die-when I physically die-I will be united with Christ.” “…which is better by far.” In the Greek, he is using the strongest superlative that he can. In our vernacular, we might say something like, “Words cannot express the joy I feel” or “words cannot express the sorrow I feel.” We use expressions like that. Paul is basically saying the same thing. He’s saying, “I can’t even put into words how much better it is to be in the presence of the Lord than here.” He said, “I am torn between the two. I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far…” Paul once said, “The eye has not seen nor ear heard what God has in store for those who trust Him.” He’s saying, “What we have here, we think is good. We like what we have here, but that’s only because we haven’t seen what’s there.” When I was growing up, I didn’t go anywhere. Our family vacations were either to Wisconsin, Iowa or some other place in Illinois. When I got married at age 21, I had been to Illinois, Wisconsin, and Iowa. That was it! I’d never been on a plane; I’d never traveled anywhere beyond the Midwest. Basically, it wasn’t too exciting because-I don’t know how to break this to you-but Wisconsin and Iowa pretty much look like Illinois. There isn’t anything that different. We have some beautiful country up in Door County. You can go to Galena, and that’s beautiful too. There are rolling hills. Yes, there are places in Illinois that are not flat-landed, just so you know. Take a drive to Galena; it’s gorgeous! We’re driving through Colorado for our honeymoon, and then we had to go to through Nebraska. That made me feel better. I thought, “At least we have it better than somebody.” We drove through Nebraska, and it took about two, three months (congregation laughing). We finally got through there-and that was going 80 MPH-and we came into Colorado. I saw this big hill, and there was a babbling brook running down the hill. I was like, “Wow!” We pulled the car out, and I got camera out. I started snapping pictures and was taking all these pictures of this muddy stream coming down this big hill. I went, “Wow! That’s really something!” We got in our car and drove some more hours, and we came around a bend. I saw this incredible cloud formation. I thought, “Wait a second. Those aren’t clouds. Those are mountains! Those are the Rocky Mountains!” It was just amazing. I said to Brenda, “I would never get tired of seeing this. If this was the scenery I looked at…” Montana, if you’ve seen the mountains, you know. Does that ever get old? They’re just incredible! I took pictures all week of the Rocky Mountains. When we got home and developed our film, I remember laughing at the muddy stream pictures of the hill thinking, “We thought that was wonderful. That was nothing compared to the Rockies!” I think that's what Heaven is like. We were at Yosemite a couple weeks ago, and we thought, “Oh, that’s beautiful!” Nothing compared to what is to be revealed. We want to take our treasures with us. We want to take what is precious with us to Heaven, but what we’re going to find out is what we have, nothing compares to what is to come. I heard a story about a man who worked out a deal. When the angel came to get his spirit, he worked out a deal to take some of his treasures with him. He said, “You know I’m a rich man, and I would just really love to take my gold. I have these gold bricks that I just love. Would it be okay with you since these are so important to me? It is a sign of the wealth that I have. Could I take these gold bricks with me to Heaven?” The angel said, “Yes.” They get to Heaven, and Peter is like, “This guy is checking in some goods. I can’t believe it. That’s against the rules. Nobody is allowed to bring earthly goods into Heaven. I have to see what is so exceptional that we bent the rules for this guy and allowed him to bring some of his earthly possessions into Heaven.” Peter came over to this wheelbarrow full of gold bricks. He started laughing, and he said, “Why in the world would you want to bring pavement into Heaven?” Streets are paved with gold?? Maybe you didn’t know that Verse in the Bible. It’s in there. “Why would you want to bring pavement into Heaven?” Paul is saying it’s by far better. He said, “I am torn because I desire to be with you, but I desire to be with Christ. It’s more necessary for you that I remain in the body.” He talked about that departure, and he talked about it with a confident hope and a confident expectation because he had put his trust in Jesus Christ. I’d like us to turn to the Book of John 11. It’s the story of Lazarus. If you recall, Lazarus is the brother of Mary and Martha. Mary and Martha are the ones who while Martha was busy cooking a meal, banging pots and pans, huffing and puffing, Mary was at Jesus’ feet listening and reflecting. Martha became all worked up and said, “Don’t you care that I’m doing all the work?” Jesus said, “Martha, Martha. You’re troubled with so many things. Only one is necessary.” Remember Martha yelling at Jesus? Now we find her in John 11 again yelling at Jesus. She is saying, “Lord, if You would have come when I told You to come, this wouldn’t have happened! You were late when I gave You notice. If You would have come when I said…” Remember when she gives the notice to Jesus, Jesus stays, doesn’t He? Sometimes when we pray, God is late, isn’t He? Did you know many times when we pray, God is late on purpose? His schedule is not our schedule. He showed up late on purpose. He waited intentionally for Lazarus to die. When He got there, he got an earful from Martha. She was a handful, and she told him again how frustrated she was with him. Some of you are Marthas out there. You think you know better than the Lord, right? We have guy Marthas out there too. “Lord, if You’d done this the way I told you to, this wouldn’t have happened. This could have been avoided,” and we give God a little lecture; and Jesus listens to it. I want you to contrast the faith here because she is a loyal follower of Jesus, yet her faith pales in comparison to that of Jairus. In her mind, she doesn’t conceive, “Lazarus is now dead; it’s too late.” Remember Jairus said, “Even though she’s dead, You touch her, and she will live.” Martha didn’t even conceive that. She believed he was the Lord, and she said, “Yes, my brother will rise again on the last day,” but the thought of her brother coming alive now after four days is just beyond comprehension. That just shows us how great the faith of Jairus was. Jesus looked at her and said in John 11:25 (page 1063), “‘I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me will live even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?’” What does that Verse mean, “He who lives and believes in Me will never die”? Does that mean we won’t physically die? Well, we know that’s not the case. We’ve seen people who know the Lord die all the time. There was a church near where I’m from that actually taught that based on this Verse. They taught that you would never physically die. That's what the pastor taught. She said, “I’m never going to die. I believe the words of John 11:26, and if you follow me, you won’t die.” Well, people thought that was great, so her church began to grow. It really suffered a setback when she died (congregation laughing). It’s not funny. She did die. But that’s not what it means, is it? What is he saying when He says, “You will never die”? Remember death is separation. He said it twice, so it almost seems like a contradiction. “He will live even though he dies.” So in Verse 25, he said, “Even though he dies…” And in Verse 26, he said, “…he will never die.” Is that a contradiction? It’s the same principle we see working in Genesis. There will be physical death. There will be separation of the spirit from the body, but there will never be eternal death, a separation of the spirit from God. God is saying beyond death is union-a greater union, a greater fellowship-presence, face-to-face in God’s presence. We will never be separated from God. Death is simply a passageway. Death is simply a door that we go through, but you and I will never be separated from our Creator. Isn’t that wonderful news? Jesus says, “You will never die. There isn’t a moment that you will be separated from Me.” He asks, “Do you believe this? Whoever lives in and believes in Me will never die.” Jesus doesn’t lift up a denomination. He doesn’t talk about church membership. He doesn’t say, “If you’d just become a good person, you will never die.” He said, “If you live and believe in Me…” I didn’t say that; Jesus said that. Jesus taught that salvation was through Him alone. In the Scripture when it talks about faith, it means more than just simply intellectually ascent. It means more than if I hand you a quiz and ask, “Do you believe Jesus is the Son of God? True of False.” “True.” “Do you believe that He rose from the dead, that He died for your sins?” “True.” “Yet, in your life, we see no evidence of faith. We see no evidence of Christ in your life.” That’s not Biblical faith. Biblical faith is a conviction with corresponding action. Andy (from a presentation at church from “Strength Team.” You can find more information on the “Strength Team” here: http://www.strengthteam.com/outreach/content/team/andy-gavin) believes he can tear a license plate in half. He follows that up with corresponding action. He demonstrates. Tonight he’s going to demonstrate his strength. I welcome you to come up and bang those blocks with your head a little bit and see what happens. They are real, and he will demonstrate that. He is going to go beyond saying it and demonstrate. There is corresponding action. Christ says those who put their trust and faith [in Christ], it will be apparent. “It will be apparent in the lives that they live-the fruit that their lives bare-that they have put their faith and trust in Me.” Jesus says you will know that you have passed from death to life. There is no intermediate state, no soul sleep, but you will be in the presence of the living God. You will never be separated from Him for a moment. Let’s pray together: Father, as we live this life, [we learn that] this life is hard. This life has challenges. There are some times, like Paul, when we long to be in your presence. We don’t know what’s beyond that door. We don’t know what’s on the other side. It can be intimidating. It can be scary-for some, dreadful. But, Lord, if I’m going through a door, and I know that on the other side of that door is One who is greater than I, who loves me and is waiting for me, there is nothing to fear. If I know on the other side of that door that there are people who I love and who love me that have gone on before me, there is nothing to fear. In fact, there are times when we are torn and want to go to be with the Lord and the people we love. Until You call us home, there is work to be done. There is a reason we’re here. Like Paul, we say there is fruitful labor for me. Lord, help us to walk in that fruitful labor, but at the same time be able to rejoice and know that You have made a way for us beyond the grave because You conquered sin and death. In Jesus Christ, our Lord, in His name we pray. Amen.
Pastor Jeff Williams: July 24, 2011 Going Beyond, Part XIII, “Beyond Our Differences.” (A video is played at the beginning of the service that is shown in two parts. The link to Part 1 can be found here: http://www.sermonspice.com/bundle/27225/the-source-one-bundle.) We’re going to talk about that this morning. We only have one week left in the “Going Beyond” series. Next week, we’ll be talking about “Beyond Death,” and then that’s it. We will be moving on to other things. This morning, I’m going to tell you a story about a man who was flying his airplane and got lost. He ended up having to land the airplane in the ocean near a deserted island where no man had ever set foot. There the plane sunk into the ocean. He swam to shore and lived there for decades until he was discovered. The rescuers came, and he gave them a tour of the island. He said, “Over here is my house. I built that with my own hands with the things I found on the island. It survived storms and all kinds of things. I’ve lived there for over 20 years. Here’s the church I built. I thought it was important to worship God, so I built a church with my own hands. I would go there and pray, sing, and worship the Lord.” The rescuer asked, “Well, what’s that third building over there?” He said, “Oh that. That’s where I used to go to church.” Even when you’re on an island by yourself, apparently there are splits in the church, ha? That’s where I used to go to church. I laugh about that story; it’s funny, but when we really see division in the church, it’s ugly. It’s far from the cry of Jesus, the prayer of Jesus, that the church is one. One thing that really saddened my heart was years ago, we had the Day of Compassion. That's not what saddened my heart; that was a good thing. We pooled together a lot of churches from the area. We, as a church, were very involved. I served as a coordinator to bring together volunteers and also to sign new churches up and get churches involved. We had many, many churches from Rock County join us. We fed like 6,000 people. They had checkups, screenings, and haircuts. They took food home, and it was a wonderful thing. As we had our rally to kick things off, there was a gentleman out there handing out a brochure made specifically for the Day of Compassion. It was a rebuke basically saying, “Shame on you, bible-preaching churches, for fellowshipping with churches that are here like the Presbyterians who believe that you cannot lose your salvation. Shame on you for associating with Lutheran churches here. They baptize infants, and you should have nothing to do with the Lutherans. Shame on you for having Catholics here. Shame on you for associating with the Catholics.” On and on the list went of all the groups we should not be in fellowship with. It read that we should not have been joining together to help the poor and feed the hungry, and it said how wrong that was. I read that tailor-made brochure for that event and just shook my head. I thought, “How blind. How wrong that is!” Today we’re going to talk about “Going Beyond Our Differences.” When differences lead to division and destruction, it’s always because we have taken the secondary and put it in the place of the primary. We take the secondary, take the lesser, and put it at equal or greater than that which is most important. We see this in life. We’ll talk about theology for a moment, but we see that happen in life. Whenever you see it happen in life, you see bad results come from it. Let me give you some examples from it. Let’s start with some trivial things-well, it’s trivial for some of us. For some of us, it’s really important. One: [We see it when] players and owners put their own personal interests over the sport they represent, and we’re seeing that right now and wondering if we’re going to have football season or a basketball season this year. You say, “Put the game first. Don’t put your pocketbook first.” Two: We see it with curiosity over safety. What’s more important? Your safety or curiosity? We heard the tragic story in the news this week of the woman who just became so curious about what it would be like to step into the water at Yosemite. She lost her footing and two others came in to save her and lost their footing, and down the Falls they went. We were at Yosemite this past week, in fact, just a few days before that happened. We rafted in the Merced River. I can tell you: we got stuck on a little tree, and I had to get out of my raft to get us loose. I was only in a few inches of water, and I could feel the power. It looked pretty calm, but when I got in it, I was like, “Wow! This is intense for not being very deep.” I got the raft loose and got back in. We had to climb out at a certain point before the River got treacherous. He said, “Stay to the left.” Man, I was staying to the left with everything I had while getting out of that raft. There are people who take chances and people who get to the edge because they want to see over and see what’s down there. There are guard rails there, and they’re there for a reason. Sometimes hikers will get over the edge, get over those boundaries, just to see. They’re curious as to what it looks like down there. They’ll lose their footing, and that’s it. We put curiosity over safety. Three: Partisan politics over moving the country forward. What is more important: moving the country forward or your party, your district? What is more important? Yet, this happens. I think maybe the last time we saw this happen was in, what? 1954? Or was it yesterday? I think it was yesterday, and it’s probably going to be tomorrow too. It’s very discouraging for us to witness. Let’s look at some more examples. I just put these in random order. Four: Parents put business over family. We’re not to sacrifice our families on the altar of career ambition, yet many do. Business is there as a tool. It’s there to provide for your family. It’s not to become your family. It’s not to become your spouse, so for many it consumes them. Family gets the leftovers, so that’s a missed priority. Five: Pleasure of the palate over our health. I’m talking primarily about the 11 o’clockers who are going to come in. I know you guys have no problem with that. That late crowd-they’re probably coming to church late because they’re out eating somewhere. When we were on vacation, we found this chocolate brownie sundae. That was amazing! We felt like we were entitled to that every night. We all shared it. It was like a huge bowl, and we’d all eat out of it, but still… It was like, “Well, we know this isn’t good for us to have every day, but we are on vacation.” Honestly, we make choices to put things in our mouths because they taste good, but it comes at the cost of our health sometimes. That’s just a fact. Six: Pleasing to our eyes over staying within our means. Something looks good-that vacation in Europe looks good. “I don’t have the money, so I’m going to take out a loan to go.” “Boy, that boat sure looks good.” “That convertible looks good.” Whatever it is that’s tripping your trigger, “It looks good and I have to have it, but I can’t afford it,” America does that very well. We’re sky high in debt because we make decisions like this. Let’s look at a couple more. Seven: Political ideology over the value of human life. That’s right out of the headlines. [This week we heard] the terrible story in Norway of a man who, because of his political beliefs, felt it was necessary for him to take and kill innocent young people. How in the world do we get so twisted that we think our political ideology is more important than the life of a human being? It’s hard to imagine. Eight: We come to matters of secondary doctrine over primary doctrine. That’s where we see divisions; that’s where we see churches split. That’s where we see Christians fighting with each other and saying, “I’m not going to associate with you anymore. I’m not going to have fellowship with you anymore.” We take secondary doctrine and put it over primary. First of all, we have to understand what primary doctrine is. The Bible is very clear that there is primary doctrine. There is Truth that is the most important Truth. We’re going to talk about what that is. It’s clearly identified and defined for us in Scripture. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians 15:3 (page 1139 of pew Bibles). Paul says, “For what I received I passed on to you…” Whenever Paul says that-for what I received-we know from other Passages he is talking about direct revelation from Jesus Christ. He’s saying, “I didn’t get this secondhand. I wasn’t taught this by man. I received this through direct revelation and understanding from the Lord Himself. What I’m about to say is from the throne of Heaven (Verse 3), “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance…” In the Greek, it means of number one rank or number one priority. Paul is clearly defining that Truth that is most important. He is saying, “If you want to be a Christian, if you want to be counted as a New Testament believer, what I’m about to say is absolutely essential for you to understand and receive.” “For what I received I passed on to you…” that it’s important you understand that the gifts of the Spirit ended at the time of the Apostles and there’s going to be Pre-trib [ulation] Rapture. Is that what it says? No. What is the most important thing? “…that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared…” Paul says, “There are several things you need to understand. Number one, He is the Christ. He is the Son of the Living God, the Divine Son of God, the fulfillment of Old Testament prophesies. He is the Christ; He is the anointed One. He is the Messiah. He died for our sins. He is the Savior of the world. He rose from the dead. He really died and He really rose.” He said, “According to the Scripture,” he stressed that over and over again, “the Scriptures have divine authority in our lives. They are revelation from God.” Friends, that is the most important doctrine: 1.) Who is Jesus? 2.) What did He do? And 3.), understand that the Bible is the Word of God, and it’s our authority. This is a special Book. It says, “The Holy Bible.” Do you know what the word Holy means? It means different. It comes from the root word hagios. It’s a different Book because it was written by the hand of God. Paul makes it very clear: here is what is the most important. There are secondary doctrines as well. I think I’m safe to say that if we were to lay out all these secondary doctrines and discuss them, there are probably no two people in this room that are going to believe exactly the same about each of these secondary doctrines. The core doctrines that I’ve just read-the vast majority of us-somewhere in the upper 90 percentile-say, “Yes, I believe that. Yes, I stand on that.” But, in these secondary doctrines, sometimes it could be as much as 50/50 in this room. It might be “I’m this. I’m that.” Or, many of you would check, “I don’t care. It’s not important to me.” Let’s look at some of those secondary doctrines. I’m not going to spend a lot of time on these. We’re just going through them. 1.) Eternal Security. Can a Christian lose their salvation? Once saved, always saved. There are denominations that form over this. There are churches of the centuries. There are churches that have split over this doctrine. There are Christians that don’t talk to each other over this doctrine. The second coming is really important to many people. “When is Jesus going to come back? How is He going to come back? Is there going to be rapture, or isn’t there going to be rapture? Is there going to be a millennium? Isn’t there going to be a millennium? Is Revelations symbolic? Is Revelations already fulfilled? Is it for the future? Is there an anti-Christ? Who is he?” There are all these questions about the second coming. Some churches will put it in their sign. “Welcome. Here are our service times, and here is what we believe about the endtimes.” It will be right on their sign. “If you want to be a member here, you have to believe this about the end times. It’s extremely important.” Everything revolves around their views of the second coming. 2.) The gifts of the Spirit is another one. Are the gifts of the Spirit operational today, or were they only around for when the Apostles were here? Is there such a thing as a miracle today? Is there such a thing as the prophetic today? Does God still use the gifts of tongues? Does God still use words of knowledge? Does He still speak through the Spirit to the churches, or is that something that is gone? On each of these views we’ve mentioned so far, I know for a fact there are people who believe different things about these right here in this church and have been here for years. They’re worshipping side by side the same Lord, and I think that’s a strength. I know that’s a strength of this church. We major in the majors. The gifts of the Spirit, are they operational today? There are divisions, denominations, and factions in churches over that issue. 3.) The sacraments-communion and baptism. Baptism-do we immerse all the way, or do we sprinkle? Is it for infants? Is it for adults? I remember a lady who had really long hair. She told me she had to be baptized seven times. I asked, “Why did you have to be baptized seven times?” She said, “Because my church believes that unless you’re fully immersed, it doesn’t count. The tips of the follicles of my hair would come out. They couldn’t get me deep enough in the baptismal for all of my hair to go under.” People all around her were holding her hair down so it would count. There is an entire denomination that teaches that unless you are baptized and the minister says, “In Jesus’ name,” during the baptism, it doesn’t count and you’re not saved. Going back to the gifts of the Spirit, there are people who believe that unless you speak in tongues, you’re not a Christian and you’re not saved. We’re going to have baptisms today at our picnic. There are going to be some adults that are going to be baptized because they have repented of their sins. They have made a commitment to Christ. Did you know that what we’re going to do today, centuries ago, Christians were killed for that? Did you know that? There was a reformation and a man by the name of Zwingli who got some guys named Conrad Grebel and Felix Manz. They were the founders of the antibaptists from which many of our denominations have sprung from. They said, “You know, Mr. Zwingli, we’re not seeing infant baptism in the Bible. We don’t remember it. We didn’t give our permission. Why can’t we get baptized again because of our faith?” They started to do that then. Antibaptist means to be re-baptized. They didn’t like that term because they felt like it was their first baptism. That was their conviction. They got so up in arms that Zwingli ordered the execution of 5,000 Christians. Do you know how they died? They were drowned. Felix Manz and others were drowned because they were baptized as adults. That is so sad. Murder was committed in the name of Christ. It’s hard to imagine. Communion-it should be something that unites us, right? Yet, there is division over communion. Is it the Body of Christ, or is it just symbolic of the Body of Christ? Is it just the power, the essence of Jesus in the elements; or is it just memorial? There are churches and denominations that have split on that topic. 4.) The role of women in the church. Should they teach in the church? Can they teach? Can they be pastors, elders, deacons? What is their role? Should they be silent in the church? We’ve had people leave our church and say, “You have women in positions of authority. I can’t worship with you,” and they left our church. 5.) What is the nature of hell and demons? Can a Christian be possessed? Are there demons today? Do they possess people? I put etc because there are all kinds of other theological differences we have. Then there are other differences. Besides theological differences, let’s take a look at that list. There are differences such as political points of view. Do you know that at Faith Community Church, we actually have Republicans, Democrats, and Independents worshipping together (congregation laughing)? There are educational-and I’m not going to tell you who is who-differences in this church. Some of us have degrees. Some of us dropped out of high school. What does the Bible say about our educational differences? There are socioeconomic differences. We have some who are affluent, most of us who are middle-class, and others who are really struggling. There are cultural differences. We bring out culture into our worship. I’ve worshipped with a few different cultures. I’ve appreciated them all. When I’m on vacation, we love to go to African American churches because they’re so friendly. They’re so lively, and their choir is powerful. The preaching is entirely different. I can’t preach in that style. The congregation talks back. We’re quiet in here; it’s our culture, but they’re talking back to their preacher. It’s a conversation going on back and forth. It’s not my thing, but I enjoy it. I enjoy being a part of it. One Sunday we were in a church in New Jersey. We were the only white people in the church. They said, “Any first time visitors today?” (Congregation is laughing.) We were sitting in the back, and everyone turned and looked at us and smiled. Then I smiled, and we had a great time. When we worship with the Haitians, they bring their culture. When we worship with the Dominicans, they bring their Latin culture. When we worshipped with the Swedes, they brought their culture-which was different than any of the above. It’s one Body of Christ, but in some cultures, it affects how we dress. What is acceptable? Each culture is very different. In our culture today, there is fighting in the church among dress. There are churches that you have to wear a suit and tie to. You have to wear a nice dress because you have to look your best for God. I appreciate that. I understand where they’re coming from. Others will say some people won’t come to church because they don’t want to come to a fashion show. The Bible doesn’t talk about how we’re supposed to dress when we come to church. It doesn’t say anything about that. Maybe God didn’t think it was that important. They say we can just come comfortably-dressed. There are two different schools of thought on that. What music do we have in our church? That’s cultural. [There are churches where] all you can have is an organ, or you may have no music. Some churches have that culture-no instruments. Others say, “We can have guitar. We can have drums, but we just can’t have it too loud.” Others are all out like you’re going to a rock concert. I suppose one of these days some churches are going to have rap. That’s where we draw the line right there! No rap in the church! I’m sure it’s probably going on somewhere. We bring our culture. We have racially-different ethnic backgrounds. We have philosophical differences. How should we govern the church? What’s our target audience? How do we reach that target audience? Where do we allocate our resources? There are all kinds of differences: theological, cultural, gender, socioeconomic. You name it, we have all these differences. How, then, do we overcome all those differences? By making the main thing the main thing-by keeping that which is primary, primary. I’d like us to look at some Scriptures this morning, and I want to read them in succession because I want you to see the commonality of these key Scriptures. First is Galatians 3:28 (page 1153 in pew Bibles). Paul writes and says, “There is neither Jew nor Greek…” It doesn’t matter your nationality. “…slave nor free…” It doesn’t matter your socioeconomic status. “…male or female…” It doesn’t matter your gender. “…for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Let’s look at another in Colossians 3:11 (page 1167). The Apostle Paul writes these words, “Here…” in the Church. “…there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.” Now what is a Scythian? A Scythian was a barbarian. This was identifying a particular kind of barbarian. When we think of barbarians, we think of Conan the Barbarian and axes and spears and blood and guts-at least I do. Really, the word or the title barbarian comes from how they talked. It used to be said that when they talked, it sounded like they were saying, “Bar, bar, bar, bar,” so that’s how it came to be called barbarian. It sounds like they’re babbling because they were uneducated, uncivilized. Barbarian was code for uneducated, uncivilized. The Scythians lived in the area that is now Russia. They were pretty much warrior nomads, and they were looked down upon, “You’re not educated like the Jews and the Greeks. You’re barbarians! You can’t even talk correctly!” We talked about educational differences. Paul was saying at the cross the barbarian is welcome. At the cross, the uncivilized, the uneducated, can come and receive the same gift as the educated. Basically, he’s saying, “God takes away all of those barriers and all those labels, and He replaces them with the words brother and sister when we are in Christ.” In the Book of Ephesians 4:4-6 (page 1158), there are powerful Verses that Pastor Jesse read. “There is one body and one Spirit-just as you were called to one hope when you were called-one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” What is the emphasis there? What is the key word in that Passage? One. There may be many denominations, but there is only one church. There may be many different splits of churches, offshoots, and factions, but there is only one faith, one universal faith. What we have in common is greater than our differences. As I look out over this sanctuary, I see all different kinds of people. There are people who are young, and there are people who are not so young. Some of us are thin; some of us are not so thin. Some of us are introverts; some of us are extroverts. Some of us are musical; some of us are mechanical. Some of us are athletic; some of us are creative, administrative. There are just all kinds of temperaments, all kinds of talents, all kinds of different passions; yet at the core of our very being, what are we? [We are] human beings made in the image of God and unique expressions of the living God. The same is true in the church. Each denomination or each group has a different expression of what the church is supposed to be. This group over here teaches us the value of reaching lost people. Every time they go in there, it’s an evangelistic kind of message, and altar call. This group over here teaches us about the importance of reaching out to the poor and ministering to those who are victims of society. Then there is another group that teaches us the importance of holiness and quiet reverence and worship. There is another group that teaches us to celebrate and have joy. There is another group over here that teaches us the importance of rightly dividing the Word of Truth. There is another group over here that teaches us about the power of the Spirit. This group over here teaches us that we need to minister to the homeless and reach out to the sick. This group over here emphasizes community and loving one another. Friends, they are all unique expressions of the Body of Christ, and they’re all important; but those differences we have should not divide us. It’s okay to say, “This is my style preference, and I have this set of belief on this secondary doctrine.” But to say, “I will not fellowship with you,” or “our church will not work with you,” or “we don’t see you as Christians even though you believe 1 Corinthians 15:3-5 with all of your heart and you’re sincerely seeking to follow Christ, because I differ with you on this peripheral doctrine and this secondary doctrine; because you dress this way and worship this way, I must disassociate with you” is wrong and unbiblical. What you are doing is you are taking secondary doctrine and you are placing it over primary doctrine. You and I are saying what is different is greater than what unites us. What is different is greater than what we have in common is our belief in who Jesus is, what He accomplished, and the importance of Scripture. When we do that, friends, division, destruction, and ineffectiveness happen. We could do so much more together. The Day of Compassion is just one example of that. Could this church- 650 or 700 people-have fed that many thousands of people, shared the Gospel with that many thousands of people? We would have had to be in 100 percent, and I still don’t think we could have done that. In fact, I know we couldn’t have. It took all of those churches pooling their resources together. Love in the Name of Christ is an ongoing ministry that came forth from that. Still today, all these churches in the community are working together to accomplish the same objectives. We can do so much more together than we can apart. When we take that which is secondary and we elevate it above that which is primary, we are saying, “These things down here are more important than the things that God has said are the most important.” That’s wrong, and that’s unbiblical. That’s not the kind of church we are. Let’s listen now to the second part of this media as he wraps this illustration up and just ties this message together for us. Let’s watch the conclusion now (here’s the link to the second part of the video: http://www.sermonspice.com/bundle/27225/the-source-one-bundle.) Father, this message is something vitally important to the Body of Christ. Your prayer is that we are one. Lord, many times we are divided over things that should not divide us. We must focus on that which unites us, that which we have in common, that which is the greatest; that is our faith in who You are, what You did, and the fact that You are Lord. Father, I pray that we as a church would continue to form bonds with other believers to mend fences with believers where there has been division and shouldn’t have been. I pray that we will make things right and be able to have unity in the midst of our diversity. Father, we thank You for the unique gift to the Body of Christ, what each group brings to the table, what they all teach us and how together we are unique expressions of a whole. For Christ cannot be separated; His body is One. Help us now to apply what we have learned and live it. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
(This is a link to the video played at the end of the service today: http://www.strengthteam.com/outreach/content/development).
Pastor Tim Bales: July 17, 2011 Going Beyond, Part XII, “Beyond Obligation.” If you’re new to the church or haven’t been here in a while, I’m not Pastor Jeff. My name is Pastor Tim, and I’m the Discipleship Pastor here at Faith Community Church. I’m often tucked away in the classroom, so you may not be as familiar with me. Pastor Jeff is on a well-needed vacation with his family. I believe he’s in northern California enjoying the redwoods; so he gave me the opportunity to preach, and here I am. We’ve been going through a series for several weeks now, if you’re new to the church or haven’t been here in a while. We’re going through the “Going Beyond” series. We’re talking about taking our faith to the next level. We’ve talked about several topics already: “Beyond Giving,” giving sacrificially; and “Beyond Success,” what it looks like to be successful as a Christian. Last week we talked about going “Beyond Mediocrity” and the warning that God gives us that He doesn’t like lukewarm Christians. This week, we’re talking about “Going Beyond: Obligation.” I imagine that everyone at some point in your life, if you haven’t in the past-maybe in the future-if you’ve ever been at a low point, been frustrated, or if you’re just looking for guidance, you’ve looked up to Heaven and said, “God, what do You really want from me?” Now, if you’re still waiting for an answer, I have good news for you. He’s going to answer that for us today. Today, I want to share with you your obligation to God and our freedom in Christ. My desire is that we will have a clearer understanding of what God truly desires, what He deserves, and that we will consider whether or not we are offering it to Him. Let’s talk about obligation. I’m sure you are somewhat familiar with that word, but I want to look at that word because it has certain aspects that we’re going to be talking about this morning. By definition, we could say that an obligation is a morally-based expectation of commitment or loyalty to repay a debt owed. You have obligations; you understand this. You have moral obligations. You have a moral obligation to your family, if you have children, to provide them with food, a roof over their head, security, shelter, and education. If you have past relationships, you understand your moral responsibility to child support. You also have financial obligations. You have financial obligations if you have a mortgage or a loan. If you’ve taken money from the bank, you have an obligation to pay it back. If you go to work, your employer has an obligation to pay you for the work that you do. In the sports world, the athletes who sign contracts have an obligation to live up to a certain level of performance in order to earn all the millions of dollars they’ve been promised. We have financial obligations. You also have legal obligations. On the way to church today, you were obligated to stop at the stop sign or light. There are other laws we are obligated to obey. When Pastor Jeff asked me if I would be willing to preach today, I had an obligation to follow through, to show up here, and to share what God has laid upon my heart. We also recognize that with an obligation, if there is failure to meet that obligation, bad things start to happen; and there is judgment that is incurred. If I fail to live up to the obligations of the law, I may end up in jail. If I fail to live up to my obligations as a good husband, I may end up divorced. If I fail to pay back the money I owe on my mortgage, I may end up in foreclosure. When we fail to live up to our obligations, bad things start to happen. We recognize with an obligation, there is a cost involved. There is a debt incurred; and then if we fail to meet that obligation, there is judgment. Okay? That’s pretty clear. I think we get that much. Now I want to share with you one more illustration that comes from recent headlines. Maybe you’re familiar with this. It is about the space shuttle Atlantis. If you’re not familiar with it, nine days ago-on Friday at 10:30 a.m.-the last space shuttle was launched into orbit under the Space Program. The Space Program has now been shut down. Future missions will be funded by private investors. For all practical purposes, the Space Program-which has gone on for decades-is now shut down, so it was a pretty exciting opportunity if you were able to watch it. I don’t know if this excites women as much as it does men, but there is just something really cool about strapping yourself to a rocket, putting flammable liquids inside, and lighting it with a match. That’s just really cool! Maybe some of you ladies understood what we’re trying to say [based on] the Fourth of July with fireworks. There is just something that draws our attention to things that shoot up into the air. As I was watching, I went to Nasa.com, I think it was. I watched this for about 45 minutes. The events leading up to the moments before the launch consisted of talking about the weather and the precision of the calculations before they would be launched up into orbit 234 miles. Right now they’re orbiting the earth every 90 minutes at 234 miles high. It’s just interesting to me, but as I was listening, I recognized very clearly that NASA had a plan. Their plan was to join the International Space Station in this endeavor to benefit all of mankind. They wanted to join in this effort, and they called upon four astronauts: Christopher Ferguson; a pilot, Doug Hurley; mission specialist, Sandy Magnus; and Rex Walheim. This is the kind of mission that makes you proud to be an American. We’re reaching beyond our four walls to benefit mankind. NASA shares with these four astronauts the vision. They catch the vision, and they recognize that we are looking for a better tomorrow to benefit mankind, to bring international peace on some level because the International Space Station is represented by so many different countries to increase our knowledge of the created universe we live in. They took in the vision, and then NASA poured commitment into these four individuals. They poured in their efforts, their time commitments, and they poured in a great price tag financially. The estimated cost to spend the space shuttle Atlantis to the International Space Station was $1 billion for just this mission. That’s a lot of money! Considering all that NASA has invested into these four individuals, do you think they had an obligation to show up for the launch? Yes! They had a great obligation. If they hadn’t shown up, there would be a great disappointment by NASA and by the American people everywhere. We’re going to come back to that in a while, but we get the idea of obligation. There is a cost; there is a debt; and then there is a judgment for failure to meet that obligation. What is our obligation to God? He created us; He sets the standard of how we relate to Him. How can we please Him? Maybe another way to ask this question-it’s kind of cold-but what are the rules I need to follow in order to get into Heaven? That’s the bare minimum of what we want to know. Fortunately, God made it very clear to the Israelites what He expected of them by giving Him His law, what He expected of them to be in right relationship with Him. This story starts back in Exodus. You may be familiar with it. The Israelites were in bondage for 400 years in the land of Egypt. They cried out to God; they prayed to Him, and God responded. He sent them Moses to draw them out of the land of Egypt. He performed these great plagues and these manifestations of His power, and He drew them out of the land of Egypt and into the wilderness. Eventually, He led them to the base of Mt. Sinai. At Mt. Sinai, God appeared to them in this great pomp and circumstance by thunder and lightning and a booming voice. He gave them the Ten Commandments, the Mosaic Law. Later on, He gave them the details of what He wanted them to abide by: the Sacrificial Law; the atonement for their sins; to be giving a tithe of what God has blessed them with of their first fruits; and to celebrate certain festivals. God laid out for them a detailed list of what they ought to do in order to be in right relationship with Him. The Jews took that upon themselves-at times doing very well, at times not so well; but for the next 1,500 years, they lived under this law until Jesus came and made a very pointed statement. He said in Matthew 5:20 (page 959 of pew Bibles), “For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” Now keep in mind that the Pharisees and the teachers of the law were the holiest people on the planet at that time. Jesus had just said that the holiest people on the planet failed to live up to their obligation to please God in a right relationship. Then the natural response for us is if the holiest people on the planet can’t live up to God’s expectations, who can? Jesus’ point is if you’re living under the law and living by your sinful nature and your faith does not go beyond what you do for God, you cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven. There’s nothing you can do to acquire God’s pleasure, His favor. There is nothing you can do; it’s impossible. Why would God give us this standard that we can’t live up to? Let’s talk more about that. The main Passage I want to look at this morning is in Romans 8:1-14 (page 1118 of pew Bibles). Paul is talking to the church in Rome, but by extension, he’s talking to Christians in general. This is a fairly long Passage, so I encourage you to just hang in there. We’ll get through all of it. There is a lot of information in there. It talks about our relationship with God under the old law and under God’s grace in Christ Jesus. “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful Man to be a sin offering. And so He condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit. “Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. “You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit, who lives in you. [Romans 8:12, page 1118], “Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation-but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.” Jesus says that there is a standard we cannot live up to. There is an obligation. Regarding obligation, if there is a failure to meet that obligation, there is judgment. I like what Paul has to say in Verses 7-8. It’s very clear, “…the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.” It’s impossible. “Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.” Why would God create us with an obligation, a standard that we cannot live up to? His perfect character cannot tolerate anything less than perfection. We cannot live up to His standard. Why would He do that? What is our obligation to God? Our obligation, under God’s law, is to die in our sin, to suffer God’s wrath. That’s our obligation. That’s what God created us to do. Thanks a lot, God! The law obligates us to sin. What a pitiful place to be! We are sinful. Paul says, “We are condemned. We are hostile to God, and we cannot please Him.” This message keeps getting worse, doesn’t it? Hang in there with me, and like a good sitcom, we’ll get this all nicely wrapped up in a half hour. But, if we don’t take time to start here, if we don’t realize the magnitude of our spiritual depravity, we cannot fully appreciate what Christ has done. The reality is our sin really does cause God pain. When I lose my temper, it hurts my family, and it also hurts God’s heart. When I use His name in vain, I rob God of His due glory. When we doubt, we are not trusting Him. When we live in sexual immorality, we mock His power. When I pursue selfish dreams of wealth and grandeur, I’m saying, “God, You’re not generous enough.” When I say that I am a Christian and yet do these things, I am a detriment to the name of God and to His church. Sin destroys relationships. It hurts people. It can ruin you financially. It affects every part of your life. Sin is a big problem in God’s book. It’s as if we were saying, “I am the God of my life.” In Romans 3:23 (page 1114), it says, “…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…” All of us have sinned; therefore we are obligated to die in our sin, to suffer God’s wrath. Keep in mind that death is not ceasing to exist. When you die, you don’t just go poof! and everything is over. It’s not like that. Death is separation from life, and life comes from God. We are separated from God because of our sin and obligated to suffer His wrath. The Bible is very clear that we are eternal beings. At the end of Matthew 25, Jesus said, “Those who obey God will go off to eternal life, and those who reject God will go off to eternal punishment.” That’s hard to hear. We are eternal beings. I like what the Christian author and theologian, C.S. Lewis, has to say. He said, “You have never met a mere mortal, somebody who will die and then cease to exist.” You have never met a mere mortal person. We are creatures of infinite glory or everlasting destruction, and each one of us is helping everyone else to one of these destinations-even within the church. There are people living under the sinful nature, living under this law that we cannot live up to. We are obligated to die in our sin and suffer God’s wrath. It may be somebody sitting next to you. It may be the person sitting in your very own seat. As a church staff, we are reading a book together chapter by chapter. It’s called, “Radical.” I mentioned it before. Maybe you recognized it. It’s by Dr. David Platt, who is a young pastor of a mega-church in Birmingham, Alabama. He made a comment [that we came across] this past week when we were reading together that I could not help but empathize with as a fellow pastor. Maybe as a Christian you will be able to empathize with this as well, or you’ve had this same thought. He says, “As a pastor, I shudder at the thought and lie awake at night when I consider the possibility that scores of people who sit before me on a Sunday morning might think that they are saved when they are not. Oh, God, may this not be true of our congregation.” Jesus says at the beginning of Matthew 7 (page 961) that you will know a tree by its fruit. “A good tree bears good fruit. A bad tree bears bad fruit.” A Christian will bear fruit for Christ. At the end of that same chapter in Verse 21, Matthew 7:21, Jesus says, “‘Not all who say to Me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but only He who does the will of My Father who is in Heaven.’” What Jesus is saying is some people call themselves Christians, but they’re not. They call themselves Christians, yet they are still living under their own selfish, sinful nature. We think that we can be Christians and still live in sin because, after all, we’re forgiven. That’s what Christ did on the cross, right? Maybe we try to hide our sin from other people and think that somehow we can fool God into believing that we’re pretty good. You may know people like this. You may know people who say, “I’m not really worried about Heaven and hell because nobody has ever really been there. You know what? If I go to hell, so what-because all my friends will be there, and it will be a great big party.” Well, I don’t think that’s the picture God paints for us in Scripture; and I really don’t believe it’s going to be all that pleasant. I don’t ever plan on going there to find out, and I can’t even say I’ve been to Heaven; but I know that the Bible paints a very pleasant picture of Heaven and a very unpleasant picture of hell. Jesus, who was the Creator of all, had this to say about hell, “It would be better for you to cut off your own hand or your feet or to gauge out your own eyes than to allow you to let your sins send you into the eternal fire of hell.” Something tells me Jesus is trying to get our attention here. Something tells me that there is an important message that he wants us to understand about how unpleasant hell is. If we continue to live under the law of our sinful nature, we are obligated to die in our sin. You may be looking at the Passage that we looked at and saying, “Now, Pastor Tim, I realize what you’re saying. It sounds really bad, but I think you missed Verse 1 here. It says, ‘There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.’ What about that?” Well, I’m so glad you asked. I have great news. The Bible says in 1 John 4:8 (page 1209), “…God is love.” God is love, so why would He create people to be condemned to die, to suffer His wrath, and have no way out? Because He had to. Because He needed to show us the depth of our spiritual, our sinful condition in order that we might understand the depth of His love for us. He had to give us the free will to choose to love Him because love cannot be demanded. It must be freely offered. He wants us to love Him. God didn’t want us to suffer or to die for our sin, but because of His righteous integrity, He had to maintain justice. We mentioned under the definition of obligation, if there is a failure to meet that obligation, there is judgment-the judgment of God’s wrath. Therefore, God sent His only Son into the world to be a sin offering for us, to die in our place on the cross. Under God’s law, we are obligated to die. Because of what Christ did, we are freed from that obligation. We are freed from the obligation to die in our sin and to suffer God’s wrath. Everybody has been freed from that obligation, but not all choose to receive that gift. Romans 6:23 (page 1117) says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” A gift needs to be received. It’s offered, but it’s not necessarily received. It is as though all of us, all of humankind, have been placed into a big prison cell with bars and gates. The door is closed and locked, and you are put on death row and will certainly die. There is no way out. Then someone comes along; they unlock the bolt and open the door. They say, “You are free to go.” Some people get up and are really excited. They go out to a new freedom. They enjoy a new life and immense joy because of their new freedom. Then there are others who choose to stay in that prison. Why would they do that? “It’s safe in here and secure. I know what to expect. I get three square meals a day and get to watch television. What more is there? What could be better than that?” Because of this deception, this lie, that there is nothing better beyond the prison cell walls, they choose to remain in that prison. They’re missing out on a great freedom. It’s a personal choice though. It’s made by you. It’s not made by your parents; it’s not made because you were baptized as an infant into the church. It’s not because of your good church attendance. It’s not even because of some magical prayer you prayed in the past. Receiving Christ is a paradigm shift. It’s a lifestyle change where you exchange your will for Christ’s will in your life. It’s received through faith in Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. We need to be careful here because we may be guilty of something that the early church was guilty of. We recognize what Christ did on the cross in forgiving our sins, but that doesn’t give me the license and the freedom just to live as I want. That doesn’t mean I can go out and live a sexually-immoral life because God has forgiven my sins. It doesn’t mean I don’t need to worry about tithing, what I do with my money, or obeying God because God has forgiven me and I can live anyway I want. Well, the early church did this, and that was not God’s intention. In fact, Paul had to address this. He addressed it in 1 Corinthians 9:21(page 1134). He said, “(…I am not freed from God’s law, but I am under Christ’s law)…” We are free from the penalty of our sin. We are free from the obligation to die and suffer God’s wrath. You are either under a law that brings death or you are under the freedom of the law that brings life. By default, you are under the law that brings death. Now earlier we mentioned the definition of an obligation. There is a cost involved, and we mentioned that Jesus Christ died and paid the cost for our salvation. What happens when there is a cost? There is a debt incurred. Ironically, choosing freedom from our old obligation-choosing Christ-leaves us with a new obligation, but not for sin and death. If you should so choose to receive Christ’s gift of salvation, you are obligated to live by the Spirit of God. I like what Paul very clearly says in Romans 7:12, “Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation, but it is not to the sinful nature.” In Romans 7:9, Paul makes a contrast. There is a shift in focus. In Verses 7:5-8, he talks about our sinful nature, our condemnation, our inability to please God. In Verse 9, there is a change. He says, “You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.” This is very serious stuff. He is speaking to people who are not condemned. What makes them different? Is it because Jesus died? In part, yes, but not fully. It is because they have the Spirit of God living in them. The key to eternal life is in the Spirit of God which we receive through faith in Christ. How do we know that we have the Spirit of God? Well, Paul tells us in Romans 7:5 (page 1118), “Our minds are on what the Spirit desires.” What does that look like? Does having the Spirit of God in my life mean I have to go to church every week? That’s a good thing, but not necessarily. Does it mean that I enjoy going to church every week? Well, that would be good too, but not necessarily. Does it mean that I read my Bible every day or pray for hours on end? Does that mean that I have the Spirit of God in me? It might, but not necessarily. If I am blessed by God in my life-if I’m healthy, if everything is going well-and is the sign of God’s blessing showering down upon me, is that a sign that I have the Spirit of God in me? Well, I know a lot of missionaries from the past and people who were holy people who did not have very pleasant lives and did not appear to us to have the blessing of God upon them; yet they were very holy and the Spirit of God lived through them in a mighty way. So, what does it look like? How do we know that we have the Spirit of God? Well, the Spirit of God brings peace in your life; joy in your relationships; patience in your trials; love in your marriage; self-control in temptation. It makes you wise so you can make good decisions. It helps you to resist sin, anger, and jealousy. When you overflow with the Spirit, you become a blessing to others, not a burden. You give to other people and you don’t take. People start to like you more; you realize that you start to love people more too because you recognize that they’re made in the image of God, and God loves them too. The Spirit of God is the promise-the seal of our eternal life with Him. It is the opportunity to be in God’s presence, to praise Him, and to live out our purpose that He’s created us for; to bring glory to Him with our lives and not glory to ourselves. When you have the Spirit of God, you are passionate about the things that God is passionate about. You love what He loves; you hate what He hates. If there is an injustice, it makes you angry. If there is corruption, it grieves your heart. The will of God will consume you, and you will not be able to sit down and do nothing about it. If you are truly a follower of Christ, then you are obligated to live by the Spirit of God because the Spirit of God defines the life of Christ. If you do not have the Spirit of God, then you are truly missing out on God’s greatest blessings. I mentioned before that we’d come back to that illustration about the space shuttle Atlantis because there is an element of that obligation that we haven’t talked much about. We mentioned that they were obligated to show up for the launch, but the reality is that Commander Christopher Ferguson had the freedom to choose to say no. He had the freedom to walk away. He could have said, “You know what? It’s been a great journey these past several years. I’ve learned a lot. It’s really interesting, but you know what? The whole flammable liquid thing gets me a little uneasy. The lighting of the match and shooting up in the air, I’m not so sure about that. Quite frankly, my wife reminded me I have a dinner appointment tonight, and I don’t want to miss that. You know what she would have to say about that? It might send her into orbit.” That would be ridiculous! That would be ridiculous if he failed to show up, but the reality is he has the freedom to choose; but this is what he’s living for. This is what defines his life as being his purpose right now. This is what he was trained to do. People are looking to him as an icon of American pride, scientific advancement, and a symbol of what man can do. It would be a huge disappointment to NASA and to everyone else, all Americans all around, if he failed to show up for the launch. Yet, many people who call themselves Christians have done just that. God has shared with us His great vision to bless mankind. He has called us. He has given us this vision. He has equipped us with all we need to be successful, and we have actually responded with, “Yes, I want to be a part of this exciting plan to bless mankind.” Just like the billions of dollars spent on the International Space Station, Jesus’ priceless blood was the cost for the mission that we elected to choose. Yet many Christians never follow through with their obligation. They never launch. They just sit there on the launch pad looking all pretty with this potential but never achieving anything. Like other people at times in my life, I have found that I am too busy with my own agenda to listen to the Spirit of God. At times, I tend to be more interested in happiness than holiness, [more concerned about] momentary pleasures than eternal joy. I spend more time being concerned with storing up treasures for my retirement than treasures in Heaven. I’m more bothered by what other people do wrong than my own sinful behavior. Quite frankly, oftentimes I’m more focused on me. When it’s time for God to show up in a situation and I see there is a need, or I see somebody who is hurting, the best I can do is say, “I’ll pray for you,” “I hope you get better,” or “I’m sure that God will provide.” That is not what God had in mind. At that point, if the Spirit of God is in you, He will prick your heart and say, “No, that's not what I want. I don’t want you to pray for them. I want you to say, ‘Hey, I’m here to pray with you right now. I can tell that you’re hurting. Tell me more about it. Talk to me. I want to listen.’” I don’t want to just hope that you get better. I want to say, “You know what? Can I bring you a meal? I can see that you’re sick? Can I bring you to a doctor appointment? Do you need a ride? What can I do to help you through this difficult time?” Instead of saying, “You know what? I can see that you’re struggling, whether it be financially or you have a need…” Instead of saying, “I’m sure that God will provide. He’s a generous God,” ask what has God given me that I have to offer? He has given us what we have that we might be a blessing to other people. God wants us to be concerned about what He is concerned about, even in the little things. Under God’s law in our sinful nature, we are obligated to die, obligated to suffer His wrath. In Christ, we are freed from that obligation. If we choose to receive that obligation, then we are obligated to live by the Spirit of God. So, back to what God wants from us. Well, Old Testament/New Testament, it hasn’t really changed. In fact, it goes back even before the law. What God really wants from us…is us. He wants our love and devotion. We asked the question before: what are the rules I need to follow in order to get to Heaven? Well, there really is only one rule. God says, “Love Me. Love Me with all your heart. Don’t just like Me like you would like a friend on Facebook. Love Me with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength-more than money, success, power, or things that bring momentary happiness. More than anything, love Me with all your heart.” When you love God like that, then you will have the Spirit of God living in you, and oh, the power of God’s love. The power of God’s love holds within it the solution for world peace; an end to war; an end to poverty, to sickness, and corruption. God’s love can even fix a messed-up life. My heart is still concerned as a pastor that there may be some in our own congregation who may think that they are Christians, but are they really? I don’t want anyone to stand before God only to be rejected and to have them turn to God and say, “Why didn’t You tell me?” He is telling you right now. Do you know without a doubt that you are living by the Spirit of God, the Spirit of God is in you, and you are loving Him with all your heart? I might not be able to tell you the exact day or time, but I can tell you without a doubt that there was a time in my life when I gave my life to Christ. I was about seven years old, and my mom had shared with me the condition of my sinful nature and the good news that I have in Christ. I said, “Yes, God, I give You my life. Whatever You ask, I will do.” In just a minute, we’re going to pray, but before we do, I want to say it again: not everyone who calls himself a Christian will enter the Kingdom of God, Matthew 7:21. Having said that, you can be confident of your salvation-you can be assured of your salvation-by being honest, open, and vulnerable before God about the condition of your heart. Maybe you’ve grown up in the church and have been warming a pew for years, but you know you’re not wholly-devoted. You take a look at your life and you clearly know that God is not pleased with all areas of your life. Are you really living by the Spirit? Is the Spirit of God in you? Today you are faced with a choice. You can choose to live in freedom by the Spirit, or you can choose to live, again, by your sinful nature under the law that you cannot live up to the obligation, and you are destined to die and to suffer God’s wrath. I want to ask you to bow your heads and close your eyes. If there is any chance that anyone in this room might be among those who think that they are saved and are not, let’s take care of that right now. I’m not going to ask anyone to raise their hands or stand up, say your name, come forward or anything because I don’t want you to be swayed by what other people are doing. I want this to be honest, open, and genuine in your own heart before God because if it’s not honest, open, and genuine, it will not stick. First, I want to ask if you know this morning that you are living in the Spirit, I want to ask you to pray right now wherever you’re at in silence. I ask that you pray that the Spirit of God would move in our congregation. If you want to make today a turning point in your life; if you’ve never given your life to Christ; if you want to say, “Yes, I want to stop living for myself and want to put God at the center of my life”; if you have never given your life to Christ, I want you to pray with me silently right now: God, I know that I am a sinner. You’ve told me this in Your Book, and I believe it. I recognize that in my sin, I am obligated to die and to suffer Your wrath. I thank You for what Christ did on the cross, freeing me from that obligation; and I choose today to give my life to You. I don’t know exactly what it looks like to live in the Spirit, but I want to learn and I want to please You with my life. Thank You for showing me the Truth. Give me the strength and surround me with people who will show me the way, that I might live my life for You. I ask that in Jesus’ name. If you’ve been in the church for years but know you aren’t truly following God with your whole heart or if at one time in your life, you were living by the Spirit and now you’ve fallen away, I want you to draw a line in the sand today and turn your life around. Get back on track. If that describes you this morning, I want you to pray with me silently where you’re at: Heavenly Father, I know what You’ve done for me, and I thank You for what Christ did on the cross; but if I look at my life right now and if I’m honest with You, my life does not please You. I’m living under my sinful nature, my selfish desires. Lord, if I’m living under my sinful nature, there is judgment to be had. I recognize, Lord, that You have destined me for greater things. I want to live for You with my whole life. Help me to launch out of my place of apathy that I might show the world and shine Your light on what You have done for them. God, I draw a line in the sand, and I’m turning my life in a new direction. Thank You for reaching into my life and reminding me what Christ has done and giving me a second chance to live my whole life for You. Thank You, God, for Your generosity, for Your forgiveness, for Your blessing. Lord, we pray that Your Spirit will bless our congregation now. Wherever we’re at, we give our lives to You, that You might be glorified in our lives, in our community, and our families. Lord, help us to shine our lights with Your glory. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Pastor Jeff Williams: July 10, 2011 Going Beyond, Part XI, “Beyond Mediocrity.” This morning, we are talking about going “Beyond Mediocrity.” We know what mediocrity is: when somebody does a job that isn’t up to par. Maybe it’s not horrible, but it’s not that great either. I had a craving for some spareribs, so I went to a restaurant and ordered half a rack of ribs, and they were just mediocre. I was really hungry. You know how sometimes even bad food can taste really good when you’re really hungry? I was really hungry, and this was just kinda average. It was like leather or something; it just wasn’t good. I said, “You know, I was all excited and was waiting, and it’s just kinda food. I’m full now, but I wouldn’t come here again and get that. That wasn’t good. It wasn’t terrible, but it’s nothing I’d ever have again.” It was mediocre. You know what mediocre is; it’s when somebody doesn’t really give it their best shot. It’s when somebody doesn’t give it all they have. They’re really not concerned about excellence, or maybe they’re not capable of excellence. Maybe somebody gives you their best, and it’s just not that great. It’s just not their gift; that's mediocre. You know mediocre when you see it, and mediocre never has a good result, does it? Try parenting in a mediocre way and you’ll be raising some spoiled children, some problem kids. Try to have a marriage and just be mediocre about how you invest in it, and you won’t have a strong marriage. If you’re a teacher and you just do a mediocre job preparing your lesson plan and teaching, your students are not going to learn as they should. If there is a politician who… Oh, nevermind. I don’t even need to go there, right (congregation laughing)? When we see mediocrity, we recognize it-whether it’s in our food, whether it’s in a vocation-we don’t want it. You don’t want to go to your doctor and have them do a mediocre job reading your X-rays. You don’t want to go to your accountant and have them do a mediocre job preparing your tax returns. When you come to church, you don’t want your pastor doing a mediocre job teaching you the Bible. I hope that I don’t. You want somebody to care; you want somebody to give their best. You want somebody to minister in excellence. Many times in our spiritual lives, if we’re not careful, mediocrity can creep into that as well, and we’re no longer giving God our best. In fact, we’re giving God leftovers or an afterthought-or maybe no thought at all. There are many times in the Bible when God confronts mediocrity. [At times] God had to get in the face of His followers-maybe they were a Prophet, a priest, an Apostle, or maybe just an average person-and He had to say, “You know what? You’ve forgotten who I am. You’ve forgotten who you are. You’ve forgotten what you’ve been called to do, be, and how you were called to do it.” He reminded them in no uncertain terms that their mediocrity was not pleasing to Him. There was such a time in the Book of Malachi 1 (page 949 of pew Bibles) that I’d like us to turn to this morning. This is the last Book in the Old Testament. Malachi is the last Book that God wrote in the Old Testament, and then there were 400 years of silence. The year was 430 B.C. The wall had been rebuilt by Nehemiah just 15 years prior, and people started to return. When the temple was rebuilt by Zerubbabel, they trickled back; but once the wall was there and it was fortified, it really became a city again. The population began returning in mass. The priests arrived earlier than that. They became very comfortable, complacent, and mediocre in carrying out their duties. God speaks to them in Verse 6 and says, “‘A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If I am a Father, where is the honor due Me? If I am a Master, where is the respect due Me?’ says the Lord Almighty. ‘It is you, O priests, who show contempt for My name.’ “‘But you ask, “How have we shown contempt for Your name?’ “‘You place defiled food on My altar.’ “‘But you ask, “How have we defiled You?’ “‘By saying that the Lord’s Table is contemptible. When you bring blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice crippled or diseased animals, is that not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you?’ says the Lord Almighty.” You’re not offering your best. You’re offering animals that are diseased, crippled. You’re just going through the motions, doing what you do to get by. You’re not about offering your best. You’re just kinda saying, “Oh, yeah. I was supposed to do that offering thing. Here you go.” What would it be like if somebody invited you for dinner and said, “You know what? We’d like to invite you over for dinner. You can come over to our house, and we’re going to have a meal together,” and you’re excited. If somebody invited you over for dinner, they’re going to give you their best, right? You come into the house, and she pulls dinner out of the oven and it’s a meatloaf. It’s two weeks old. It already has a little mold on it. People have already been eating off of it and picking at it. She puts it on the table, and then there is some bread brought out, and it’s all crusty. It too has a little mold on, and she brings out coffee that’s lukewarm. They say, “Here you go.” Would you be a little insulted? You’d think, “You invited me to dinner, and you’ve prepared for me a two-week old meatloaf that looks bad, smells bad, and you expect me to eat this?” You’d think, “You must not value me that much.” God says, “Look at what you’ve prepared. Are you even trying? You’re simply going through the motions, and it’s not acceptable to Me.” God doesn’t work that way. God does not operate, serve, and minister in mediocrity. Did Jesus minister in mediocrity when He was here? Did He not teach with everything He had? Did He not stay all day until everyone was prayed for, fed, or ministered to? Did He not do it when He was tired? Did He not do that after He’d lost a loved one or gone through a traumatic event? He always put people’s needs first and did it right. What if Jesus had ministered in mediocrity like we do sometimes? How much different would the Gospel look if He’d done that? Let’s pretend for a moment. Let’s turn in our Bibles to Mark 8. We learned all about the origin of this Gospel a few weeks ago. Let’s read it together Mark 8:1 (page 998 of pew Bibles), “During those days, another large crowd gathered. Since they had nothing to eat, Jesus called His Disciples to Him and said, ‘I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them home hungry, they will collapse on the way because some of them have come a long distance.’ “The Disciples answered, ‘But where in this remote place can anyone get enough bread to feed them?’ “‘How many loaves do you have?’ Jesus asked. “‘Seven,’ they replied. “He told the crowd to sit down on the ground. When He had taken the seven loaves and given thanks, He broke them and gave them to His Disciples to set before the people, and they did so. They had a few small fish as well; He gave thanks for them also and told the Disciples to distribute them. The people ate…” and there was not enough food to go around. What’s more, the food did not taste very good. The people began to grumble and complain… You’ll have to look up for the rest of this version. Some of you are looking at your Bibles like, “What???” It’s an illustration, remember. People began to grumble and complain and said, “There isn’t enough food to go around. There are still hundreds of people who haven’t really eaten.” Jesus said, “You know, some of you look like you could use a little less food. I noticed as I was speaking that a couple of you could lose some weight. Why be greedy? Why be gluttons? Do you really need that much food? Can’t you share? Let’s this be a lesson on sharing. Maybe you just need to break your bread and share with your neighbor. Maybe you need to share some of your fish. Are you expecting Me to make enough for all of you people? How about you carry some of the load? Why don’t you share?” The people said, “You know, the fish really isn’t that good. The bread’s a little bit hard, and it’s not that good.” Jesus said, “Well, you know, it’s not in My job description. Remember I’m a carpenter, not a chef. I’m a teacher, so you came here to listen to Me teach. You didn’t come to Chateau Jesus. That’s not My spiritual gift; that’s not my talent, my specialty. I did the best I could with what I had. The economy of Heaven is a little bit sluggish. Be thankful; you could have had nothing. At least now, you have something. Granted, it doesn’t taste that great. Granted, there isn’t that much of it, but something is better than nothing. Be happy with what you have.” The story doesn’t go that way, does it? The Bible says that “people ate until they were full.” They just kept eating. Can you imagine bread cooked from the ovens of Heaven, how good that was? Some of you non-seafood eaters, when fish is prepared by the hand of God, even you’re going to say, “This is good stuff!” In fact, it’s so good, just like you and I when we go to a restaurant and it’s so good, we go back to that same restaurant and order the same food. We try to repeat the same experience, they go back the next day. They were like, “Can we have some more of that fish and bread? That was really good.” Jesus said, “You’re not here to receive spiritual food. You’re just here because your tummies were full with good food. Go home. I’m not going to feed you every day.” He sent them on their way. They came back for more because it was good. Jesus made more than they needed, and what He made was delicious. They wanted more. Jesus didn’t do it with mediocrity. He did it, and He gave it His best. In John 2, when He makes the wine, what did people say? Did they spit it out and say, “This is terrible! This is watered down! Yuck! Who made this wine?” Jesus didn’t say, “You know, it was the best I could do at the last minute like this. What do you expect? I’m working with water here.” They said, “You have saved the best wine to last, compliments to You. This stuff is even better than the best stuff. Way to go!” Look in this same Chapter, Mark 8:22 (page 999). It says, “They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When He had spit on the man’s eyes and put His hands on him, Jesus asked, ‘Do you see anything?’ “He looked up and said, ‘I see people; they look like trees walking around.’” “That’s good enough. Before that you couldn’t see anything, right? You couldn’t see trees. You couldn’t see light. So the people look like trees; let me tell you something: not everybody I made is that good-looking. I’m doing you a favor. Don’t be greedy; be grateful for what you have. You came blind, and now you can see people that look like trees. That’s not bad!” “But I’d like to see everything. I want to see detail. I want to see my loved ones. I want to see my wife.” “Well, I have to tell you something. You know, she’s not that great. Trust Me. I’m doing you a favor here. Be grateful for what you have. Have a good day. I’d like to stay and work on this and help you to see better, but I’m kinda busy right now. There are a lot of things going on in My ministry.” Is that how Jesus operated? No, He prayed again and the man could then see perfectly. Peter was trying to defend Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, and he cut off the ear of the high priest servant, Malchus. Jesus said, “Those that live by the sword will die by the sword.” He took the ear, and Luke 22 says He healed the man. The guy didn’t say, “Hey, I appreciate that Jesus, but it’s backwards here. It’s crooked.” “Can you hear?” “Well, yeah, I can hear.” “Is it back on?” “Yeah, it’s back on.” “Well, you know, it’s the best I could do. Be happy with it. At least the ear is back on your head. It will be a conversation piece. You’ll be unique.” “But what do I do when it rains?” “You know, I have to go. Just be glad you got your ear back.” Jesus didn’t deal with mediocrity; Yet sometimes His people do. Sometimes we fail to give God our best. When it comes to Creation, God didn’t hold back. As science learns more and we learn more about our world, the cosmos and our bodies, our DNA, and how everything is made up, for some people who are convinced that God does not exist, they read that information and go, “See, we don’t need God.” The more I learn, the more science tells me, the more I’m just blown away. I think, “Man, how can anybody not believe in God after we learned that about our bodies, after we learned that about our world?” As we watch this media right now, I just want you to keep in mind the word excellence. When God created this world, He didn’t cut corners. He created it with excellence-not mediocrity, but beauty and majesty. Let’s go ahead and watch that. (Link can be found by clicking on this link: http://www.sermonspice.com/product/1616/by-design). So God is a God of excellence, and He’s called us to be people of excellence. There is a summary Verse I’d like to share with you in the Book of Colossians 3:17 (page 116). Paul is talking about what it means to live for Christ, and he is really saying, “If I could sum it up in one verse…” Colossians 3:17, “…whatever you do, whether in Word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.” Verse 23, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men…” This is the value. This is the mindset that God has called the believers to. It’s my prayer that this church, when we minister, will minister in excellence. I don’t know what all your ministries are, but whatever they are, I pray that you do them with everything you have. I think our largest workforce in the church is the Children’s Church volunteers. We thank God for you. When you come to church, are you prayed up? Are you ready to show those children the joy of Christ? Have you studied your lesson? Are you here on time? If you’re a small group teacher or Real Zeal leader, have you studied your lesson? Are you prepared, prayed up? Are you ready to go? If you’re a student, are you there on time? Are you there every week? Are you studying hard, taking it seriously? Are you giving it your best, giving it your all? Whatever your ministry might be, are you trying to do it with the best you have as unto the Lord, not unto men? When Faith Community is on the job, people in this community can rest easy because they know we’re going to give it our best. We partnered with New Life to do the Kids’ Zone as we have for the past several years. New Life does Freedom Fest, and they can say, “Faith Community is in charge of Kids Zone. We don’t have to worry about that because they’re going to do it, and they always do it right.” This year, we’re going to partner with Fuddruckers again, God willing, to raise more money for CARE House. We’re planning that right now. When Fuddruckers says, “Okay, your church has to bring the manpower, do the graphic design and help with the marketing,” they don’t have to worry about that. They know all they have to do is fix the food because Faith Community is on the job. What we do, we do with excellence. We do it with our whole hearts. Sometimes we do with excellence and serve with excellence, and we know, “Whatever you do, vocationally as well as ministerial-sometimes it means going back and redoing what we did that we know wasn’t right.” I’ve lived in my home for 19 years. I’m pretty happy with it for the most part, but there are a couple things when we were building the house that I wasn’t super happy with. One of them is as you walk into the bedroom, over time the floor began squeaking. It would make noises like the ductwork rumble a little bit, so you knew something wasn’t right. Brenda always goes to sleep before me, always, so when I come into the bedroom, I’m trying to be quiet; but in that area of the floor, it’s just impossible. I’d go in at like midnight. She’s already been sleeping for six hours (congregation laughing). I’d go walking in and ehhhhhh, rrrrrrr. The ductwork would grumble. Over time, it just got to be that you almost didn’t notice it. You know how you live with a problem in your home so long that you just learn to live with it? Over the years, the floor in that area actually began to sag a little bit. All the other craftsmanship in the house is very good, but in that area, the floor was just sagging in and sounded funny. It got worse over the years, and we just kinda learned to live with it. I got a call not that long ago. It was from the builder. He called and said, “Hey, Jeff, this is Ed.” “Hey, Ed, how are ya? I haven’t talked to you in a long time.” He said, “Well, I’m doing well. Actually, I’m doing really well. I became a Christian.” I said, “No kidding?” because he definitely wasn’t while he was building my house. I know that. He said, “Listen, there is something that’s been bothering me. You know as you come into the bedroom…” I said, “Yeah, I know what you’re talking about.” He said, “You know, that particular day as we were finishing up that floor, we were just in a hurry to get out of there. It was the weekend, and we didn’t do the job right. I knew it when I did it. I knew it was wrong, but I wanted to get out of there. I’d like to come back and fix your floor. I came to Christ, and I’ve been convicted that that wasn’t right. If it’s okay with you, I’m going to come out this week, saw that up, try to fix it and make it right.” When you do a job with mediocrity, you know it. When you do it with excellence, you know it, right? It feels good when you’ve done something the best you can, with all you have. When you’ve done something half-heartedly, you know that too. He knew that, so he came back to try to make it right. That’s what the Lord does. Whatever you do, you should say, “I have to make this right.” Most of the time when you and I operate with mediocrity, it’s because we have another agenda. We have something we care about more, so we’re short on time or we’re short on passion. The effort just isn’t there. There are other things we are concerned about, and so it is with Kingdom matters. There are other things we are concerned about more, so we cut corners and we compromise. We do a mediocre job. God has a principle in His Word. Let’s turn to this wrap-up Verse: Matthew 6:33 (page 961). “But seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” You put Me first. You make Me your priority, and I’ll take care of the other needs. That's a promise. When you start seeking your kingdom first and your priorities first, then you begin to compromise in matters of God, don’t you? He says, “Put Me first. If you put Me first, you honor Me; you serve Me first, and I’ll make sure that things are taken care of.” We want it easy. We don’t want to put in the work and effort sometimes. Have you ever heard of the missionary David Livingstone? Have you heard of him in Africa? He was a very dedicated missionary in the 1800s. He and his wife Mary were pretty much plotting along in Africa by themselves. They were just doing some tremendous work. The mission called, and they said, “Dr. Livingstone, we have some people who want to come to Africa and help you. Is there a road that’s clear to where you are? We know you’re kind of in the remote area of Africa. We’re just wondering if there is a road that’s been cleared so we can find you, could you tell us where that road is? If you can, we’re going to send some people out to help you.” Dr. Livingstone said, “If you have to send me people who need to have a road cleared before they come, don’t even bother. Don’t send them. If you send me people who say, ‘Whether there is a road or not, I’m going to Africa to help that man,’ those are the kind of people I want.” The priests were cutting corners, and God said, “I don’t cut corners. No matter what I do, no matter what Jesus did, He didn’t cut corners. In salvation, He didn’t cut corners. There is a Verse in Romans 8:32 (page 1119) in which the Apostle Paul says this: “He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all-how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things?” This is Paul saying, “God gave the best. If God gave the best, why would He withhold anything else?” When it came time for redemption, God did not compromise. God did not cut corners. It was only the best that would redeem, so He sent His Son. That’s what we’re going to celebrate this morning. That’s what we’re going to worship today as we receive communion together. God is a God who loves us enough to send the best. Let’s have our communion team come forward at this time; and as they come by you and distribute the elements, we ask that you hold on until everyone has received. After we’ve all received, we’ll partake together.
Pastor Jesse Thompson: July 03, 2011 Going Beyond, Part X, “Beyond Success.” I’m glad to be here in a different capacity this morning. Actually, Pastor Jerry is off this weekend, and if you know Pastor Jerry, [you know that] for him to take a weekend off, it’s a rare thing. We’re glad he and Vicki have taken this time, and we’re praying that it’s helpful and refreshing to them. Pastor Jeff is at our Evansville campus this morning. He’s getting a chance to meet some of our brothers and sisters over there. We are going to continue this morning in our series of “Going Beyond.” Last week, we talked about “Going Beyond: Failure.” That was a very encouraging message to me, and I hope it was to you as well. We’re going to continue looking at the other side of that now and talk about going “Beyond Success.” If we weren’t sitting in church-because I know answers change sometimes when we’re sitting in church-and I asked you to think of or tell me who the five most successful people you know are, who would the people be-the names and faces-that go through your mind? Maybe you’re thinking of someone off of Forbes Magazine, the top 50 wealthiest people. Maybe it’s someone in Time Magazine. This year they came out with their 2011 most influential people. Maybe it’s an athlete; an actor or actress; somebody who has worked hard who seems to be at the top of their game; the best of the best. To many people, that means success, and it certainly doesn’t hurt that a lot of money comes along with that; so success is sometimes tied in with how our checkbook is doing. When I start thinking of those people, I want to ask you a question this morning: are they successful people? I guess that depends on how you define success, and that’s what we’re going to do this morning. Actually, the answer to that question-are those people successful-is I don’t know. As we look at this idea of success and what we learn from Scripture about what success means, it’s something that’s not so easily recognizable from the outside and the circumstances that one finds him or herself in. Let’s dig in this morning to the Book of 1 Thessalonians 2:1 (page 1169 of pew Bibles). We’re going to be picking up where Paul is writing to the church in Thessalonica. He starts out in Verse 1; he says, “You know, brothers, that our visit to you was not a failure.” Now why in the world would Paul go out of his way to make the statement that his time with church in Thessalonica was not a failure? Why do you think that might be? Well, apparently there were some circumstances about his trip that some might-and probably were-considering his time to be a failure, so he makes that bold statement. Why does he say that? Well, we need to understand some of the background about this trip he was on. This was Paul’s second missionary journey. Actually, it’s a really nice flow from last week because last week when we were talking about failure, we were looking at John Mark-or we know him as Mark, the author of the Gospel of Mark. We looked at a time in his life where he failed. Later, when Paul and Barnabas wanted to go back and visit the people and the churches they started, Barnabas wanted to take Mark with them. Paul said no, and they went different ways over that disagreement. Pastor Jeff did a great job of communicating to us that that was probably a very difficult split. Barnabas was somebody very key and very important in Paul’s spiritual life. So for his trip to start out on that note, with that disagreement and that parting of ways, I’m sure it was somewhat discouraging to Paul. We’ll read on somewhat in Acts 16; if you’d like to read further through the flow of events on your own later, feel free. Paul began that journey and traveled around with some initial success but also a lot of frustration. He wanted to go to a certain area, but doors seemed to close. He didn’t really understand why, but every time he would try to go, there was a closed door. He couldn’t go, and he was frustrated in his attempts. Finally, through a dream, God called him to Macedonia; so Paul set out with his new marching orders to Macedonia. The first major city he came to was the city of Philippi, and he began preaching there. Now we need to remember that Paul had met with quite a bit of response to the Gospel message on his first journey; so as he went to that area in Philippi, he began preaching just as he normally had [in the past]. The response this time seemed somewhat less. In fact, the Bible mentioned that only a few women actually responded to the Gospel message. After that potentially discouraging start, Paul and his team came across a slave girl who was actually possessed by a demon; and they cast out the demon. That sounds like a very good thing, right? Of course, from our perspective, we would say it was. Well, the slave girl’s owners were not so happy because one of the things that she was doing under the power of the demon was predicting the future; and they were making a lot of money off of her. Now with that ability gone, because she was actually healed of that possession, they were very upset. They gathered up a crowd of people. Paul and his team were seized and beaten. The Bible says they were severely flogged. Now being flogged, I can imagine, would be bad enough. To be severely flogged, it would just be that extra step; so they were in a bad way. They were put in jail without any real accusations, without knowing why; but they were put in jail. God tells us that through that experience, the jailer and his family actually did become believers; but again in the church in Philippi, we’re only told of a handful of women and the jailer and his family who responded to the Gospel message after which Paul was asked to leave town. This was not necessarily the grand victory that perhaps he had envisioned or was hoping for. From Philippi, he went on to Thessalonica. He arrived in Thessalonica, and Acts 16 tells us he preached for three weeks in the synagogues-as was his custom. That’s where he would begin to preach. He was met with some success-to the point that the Jewish leaders started becoming very jealous of the response that Paul was getting. Perhaps they realized their own influence and power were being threatened, so they gathered up another riot and crowd of people. Paul and his team basically had to sneak out of town in the middle of the night to avoid beatings and other bad things. The host family Paul stayed with was given the name of patriarch of that family, and his family came under bad circumstances as well because of hosting Paul. They were arrested and they had to post bond, so there was great financial cost to their family for being there. With this backdrop, with these apparent disappointments, these apparent failures, Paul writes to the church in Thessalonica that his trip and his time with them was not a failure. So often that’s the case, right? Someone feels called or led into a certain situation, and then things don’t go as planned. Oftentimes, our idea of success can be tied to the response that we get. I want to introduce to you this morning Phil and Phyllis Masters. They were missionaries to an area called Papua, Indonesia. This was back in 1963. I’ll just kinda give you a confession this morning. I’m also using our time together to really share with you a lot about the trip we took with Tychicus Ministries to Bali, so you’ll see pictures. The shirt that I’m wearing was one given to us by the World Team Organization in our time at the conference. I’m going to be sharing a lot of testimony, pictures, and different things from our time in Bali. I think it illustrates a lot of the points that we’re talking about very well. If you would, you can take a lot of pressure off of me this morning. Don’t consider this a sermon where this guy seems to be talking a lot about this mission trip he went on. Consider this morning a missions trip report that also happens to look into Scripture and have some meat to it. I would appreciate that. I really tried to find testimony, pictures, or videos that help give you guys a context and an understanding not only of our time in Bali, but the circumstances and the environment that the families there-the ones we went there to serve-are serving on a regular basis. This video does that because many of the missionaries that we spent time with are in tribes, villages, or areas very much like what you see in this video. This is Phil and Phyllis Masters, and Phyllis is the one speaking to us. In 1963 they were called to the Kimyal Tribe in Papua, Indonesia. You’ll hear that in the video, so let’s listen to Phyllis as she describes their short five years in this village. That’s a powerful statement. It didn’t seem to her that anything had been done. There were many who looked at Paul’s time in Thessalonica and the disappointment that they felt, the limited response that seemed to come while sneaking out of town, and they would say, “Failure. There wasn’t really anything that was done or accomplished.” We know that Paul didn’t see his time that way. Paul had a different perspective of what being successful was. He’s going to share that with us as we continue on in the Passage. Let’s pick up in Verse 2, “We had previously suffered and been insulted in Philippi, as you know, but with the help of our God we dared to tell you His Gospel in spite of strong opposition. For the appeal we make does not spring from error or impure motives, nor are we trying to trick you. On the contrary, we speak as men approved by God to be entrusted with the Gospel. We are not trying to please men but God, who tests our hearts. You know we never use flattery, nor did we put on a mask to cover up greed-God is our witness. We were not looking for praise from men, not from you or anyone else.” You see, Paul had learned that success was not the things that many people considered success to be. He knew that it was not a lack of hardship or opposition. He knew success was not in being well-liked by men. He also learned success did not mean getting rich based on your efforts. He learned to measure success by a different standard. He gauged success by his faithfulness to God, and that's our challenge as well-that we would gauge success by our faithfulness to God. Paul challenges us by saying we came as one approved y God to be entrusted with the Gospel. I think God has hard-wired into all of us a desire for approval. We’re supposed to find fulfillment in that desire by looking to God and seeking His desire. What so often happens at almost every stage of life-maybe not infancy-but as soon as you are walking around and aware of other people, we start to seek the approval of other people. Last night I watched the movie, “Diary of a Wimpy Kid.” I don’t know if you guys have seen that movie. It takes me back to a junior high time. The whole point of the movie is this kid trying to fit in. He’s trying to find approval by doing all these different things, so that’s something that’s hard-wired into us. That’s junior high, right? We all look at junior high and think, “Yeah, that happened in junior high,” but does it stay in junior high? No. High school; college; young adult, you’re working and seeing your coworker advance. You start to strive after the things that might get you ahead. It happens in every stage of life. Paul challenges us, he reminds us, that if you want to be successful, that’s good. Being successful is a good thing, but understand what being successful means. It means to be faithful to God, to be obedient to God. It reminds me of the Passage in Joshua 1 when Joshua was given leadership of the children of Israel. They were preparing to go into what God had given them as the Promise land. He gives this command over and over, and we’re going to pick it up in Verse 7 (page 208 of pew Bibles). He says, “Be strong and very courageous.” Why do you think God repeated that to Joshua over and over in this Passage? Joshua was a strong guy. He was a warrior. He was experienced in battle. It wasn’t because Joshua felt very strong and courageous. It was just the opposite. He felt afraid. He felt very intimidated by the task God was calling him into. “Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go.” Success is determined by our faithfulness and our obedience to God. When we say yes to God and we step out in faith- obeying His Word, obeying His Spirit-when He leads us into specific ministry opportunities and life experiences, we’re successful. As our team was being put together to go to Bali under the direction of Peter and Janet Bales, the founders of Tychicus Ministry, and as they were recruiting people, we each had a specific goal, a specific task, that we were to focus on and that we were to really prepare for while there. One of the team members was Mike DeRosier, Janet’s son. He was given the task of being the “game guy.” He was going to be the guy to provide games and transition time and to also let the kids have some fun while we were there. Mike wrote this paragraph to me after the trip in response to some of the questions I’d been asking him. Mike said: “I joined Tychicus knowing that I would be in charge of the games. At first, I didn’t think much of it and thought it would be pretty easy. I’d just get to have fun with the kids. As the trip was near, I started to panic in my head, knowing that I would be in charge of two groups of kids-both about 15 each-and knowing I had the young ones for an hour and a half. That younger group was like 4 years old through 10 years old.” Like he said, there were about 15 of them, a little more than that. Have you ever been in charge of fifteen 4-10 year olds? If you lose their attention, that can be… I see some heads nodding out there. I think Mike’s panic was well-placed. I don’t think he was off track. He was scared as the reality of what he was called to do was approaching. It goes on to say, “The first day we were to watch the kids, I read my devotions which was Jacob preparing to meet Esau. If you know the story, Jacob is frantic about meeting Esau. I think I was probably freaking out just as much as Jacob was. Through the trip, I realized it was all going to be okay. Everything went very smooth. I fell in love with the kids and had a great time with them. Through it all, I ended up just trusting in the Lord and learned to stay calm.” Mike was willing to take a step past his fear. He didn’t let that hold him back. He trusted God; he understood he had a call to be there, and for that he was successful. I also just wanted to share a little bit about Janet. When I asked her the question, “Can you give me some examples from our trip or Tychicus Ministries, examples that to you really demonstrate God bringing success to our team, to our ministry, and to the things that happened,” Janet responded with the following comments. She said, “Having felt God had called Peter and me to do this,” was one example. “Quitting my job,” she said. Most of you know that Janet was the music and arts director here full-time before I came on. I tell you it’s nice to be employed full-time and to have that security, knowing that you’re provided that in something you enjoy doing. She quit; she resigned knowing that God was leading her into something else-not knowing what that something else was, but resigning was just the first step in that. The first thing she mentions after resigning, that first major event that happened after that, she says, “Then finding out I had cancer. Having the doctor come in the room and saying he felt it was a bump in the road and God had big things for us and the enemy was trying to stop us.” You don’t normally go to your doctor for spiritual advice, but in this case, I think she received some wonderful advice. She said, “Holding on to God during treatments and the tormenting thoughts of cancer,” and then getting the first email from Jasinda… Jasinda was our contact with World Team. She is the one on the World Team side that helped us coordinate details and logistics for our trip. We got to know Jasinda very well. You have to understand as I read this that Peter and Janet’s first idea of what Tychicus would be-serving those who serve, being an encouragement to missionaries in the field-was kind of a one-on-one or a couple going to visit missionaries in the field and spending time with them, worshipping with them, encouraging them-but more on a one-on-one basis. Now, she is going to describe how we got this email from this organization of World Team inviting us to come be a part of their first ever Asia area conference where all their missionaries are going to come. They wanted us to come and serve, encourage, and spend time with the kids. She said, “Getting that first email from Jasinda and feeling this was big, but it was what God wanted to do, even though it was such a big proposal.” Given the year Janet had with the cancer and some of those things, I think everybody would have understood and probably agreed with her that it was a good opportunity, but maybe this just wasn’t the right year. There were too many things going on. Maybe she wasn’t fully recovered in her health and other things. Maybe next year [would have been better], and that would have been fine except for one thing: Peter and Janet knew very clearly that God was leading them to say yes to that. In the midst of that, they said yes to planning for this team of 10 to travel halfway around the world to a place they had never been, trying to put logistics together for some place we hadn’t seen before or didn’t know was available, what we might have had to plan or prepare for. She goes on to share a response that one of the World Team leaders gave to her. She said, “The World Team leader came up to me the second day and said he’d been to a lot of conferences, but the worship here was truly something different and incredible. That was really helpful to me because I went into this with the enemy really whispering in my ear I had no business doing this. I told Peter over and over what the enemy kept saying, and I walked to the hotel room in such dread that first day.” She verbalizes, I think, what Joshua felt when God gave Joshua the call. I think if we’re honest, perhaps what we have felt at times when God calls us to do something, pretty soon our fears rise up. Pretty soon our insecurities rise up. We hear the enemy whispering to us, “Who do you think you are? What do you have to offer? How could you possibly think that you could be effective in this situation? This is way beyond you.” I think we can identify with those whispers that Janet shared. Just to remember and to think on that first day after arriving finally at the hotel, getting our bags, walking to the hotel room, the whole time Janet was terrified that she had nothing to offer; but she kept taking those steps forward. To me, that means that regardless of whatever would have happened on the trip, Peter and Janet were successful. They were faithful. They were obedient to the call that God had given them, and they took a step forward. That’s what Paul tells us faithfulness is. It’s walking forward. It’s saying yes to God even when we can think of all kinds of reasons why we should say no; but when God leads, we follow. That’s what being a success is. Why do we say yes to God? Because God is the one who knows the big picture, right? He’s the one that has the plan in place. We can’t always see how our decisions, our actions, or our events that He’s calling us to do all fit together in that big picture, but God does. There were so many details in our trip that were examples to us of how God understood, that God had the big picture in mind. A lot of them had to do with just logistics and traveling. In some ways, those were some of the most difficult aspects of the trip. It was 42 or 43 hours [of traveling] over there and 45 plus hours on the way back. That’s tough! We kind of felt like zombies at that point. Our travel route was Chicago to L.A. to Tokyo to Singapore to Bali, and we made that same track coming home. Some of those ways that God was keeping the big picture in mind and guiding and protecting us, we’ll probably never know. We probably weren’t even aware of the ways He intervened for us. Some of them we were. On the way back, some of the glitches or things that could have really been headaches, they all seemed to happen to Mike and Kristi Powers; so if you know them, you can talk to them and they can share in more detail. One I wanted to share because it really did affect all of us. Kristi was reflecting on things and wrote this to me, “One more God moment with flying: as we got on our plane in L.A., the last track to O’Hare after 42 hours of traveling-weary, tired, and ready to be home-I cannot tell you how true those words are. We just wanted to be home. Our flight was delayed for about 45 minutes. They said the computers were all down for United Airlines. As soon as they came back on, we were off. To us that seemed like kind of a minor glitch, but here was the God part: we were one of only four United flights that were able to fly that night. All other travelers-thousands of them-were stranded overnight.” I can’t imagine. I think I would have cried if that would have been us. She said, “Everywhere we turned, a mistake or a problem with our trip back was taken care of.” I agree with her words. Crying probably would have just been the beginning if we were stuck in the L.A. airport for another 12-16 plus hours. God has the big picture. He knows the plan He’s working out. So success means that we say yes to God. We faithfully step forward-even if we’re afraid, even if our weaknesses are well in our forefront-we step forward and we say yes because He’s called us to do that. How God uses our faithfulness or how He chooses to use our faithfulness, that’s up to Him. The results that come-those are up to God. Our success is not dependent on the response that we give. I want to come back to Phyllis Masters. Their time there was short-five years. It ended in the death of her husband. Then she left very discouraged, wondering if anything had been accomplished. We’re going to watch a video now that shows you some of the things that have been accomplished-the picture that God had in mind back in 1968 when Phil was martyred for his faith. This is that tribe. Again, you’ll see the celebration as God’s Word is presented to them in their language. It’s the last time you just called out in praise and thanksgiving to God that He’s given us His Word in our language. (To view most of this clip, click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evMyOQ-vle8) To me that’s very moving. That’s a challenge. I wanted to show you just one more clip that was off of this DVD because I think it kinda completes the story of Phyllis. We heard her share earlier about the discouragement and the mourning time she went through and wondering if anything had been accomplished. Just one more real quick clip, and you’ll see her present the first New Testament to their first convert who was the gentleman you just saw offer that prayer up to the Lord. There she was at one point in her life wondering if anything had been accomplished and then years later being able to be at that celebration and offer that Scripture to the tribe. What a joy that must have been for her. What about you? When you think about success, is it tied to how you’re received? Is success tied to the fact that you’re well-liked by those around you? Perhaps it’s tied to how much money you’ve been able to raise or accumulate? How about in your family, your ministry, or your work, your leisure, your hobbies-the things you do for fun? Is success tied to a winning record or do you ask, “Lord, what would You have me do in this circumstance, in this circle of influence, in my work, in my work place?” Do you read and study God’s Word and have a desire to be faithful to the commands of Scripture that He calls us to live as His children? Is your sense of success tied to that? I hope it’s that latter. Paul goes on to tell us that not only is success a means to be faithful to God and that’s it, but as we are successful-as we’re faithful to God-that will lead us into another area that we can examine if we’re being successful. We can also gauge our success by our treatment of others. He goes on to share, and I’m going to read through this section 6-12 (of 1 Thessalonians 2, page 1169). It says, “As Apostles of Christ, we could have been a burden to you, but we were gentle among you, like a mother caring for her little children. We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the Gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us. Surely you remember, brothers, our toil and our hardship; we worked night and day in order not to be a burden to anyone while we preached the Gospel of God to you. You are witnesses, and so is God, of how holy, righteous and blameless we were among you who believed. For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children, encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into His Kingdom and glory.” You see, Paul knew that how we treat other people is a demonstration of whether or not we’re being obedient and faithful to God. What are the two great Commandments? Love the Lord, your God with all your heart, soul, and mind; and number two: love others. Being faithful to God means treating others, first of all, gently, as Paul talks about, like a mother to her little kids. I just wanted to share one testimony we got back from one of the families: Trevor and Teresa Johnson. They live and serve in an area very much like what you saw in the video. They’re in that type of environment. They had two kids with us at the conference: Alethea, who was four years old, and Noah, who was six years old. This is part of the letter that they shared about Noah and his time with us, “Being in a playgroup is more of a challenge for our six year old boy, Noah. Noah is growing up in a remote village here in Papua. Because of many transitions, he has become sort of shy and nervous in social situations among new people. Thanks so much for making Noah feel welcome and at ease. Thank you also for being patient with him and not pushing him. For example, he liked to see his friends do the skit but was afraid to do it himself. I guess his acting career may bloom later, but we appreciate that you let him decide for himself whether he would take part. I remember Noah being nervous before going to Camp Splash.” The hotel we stayed at had another property on which they had more areas of slides, swimming pools, and stuff like that-nothing like the smallest parks up at Wisconsin Dells, but just a little something different than our hotel. “But when he saw several of the teachers in his group, he relaxed and he went with them. Some mornings he was nervous to go to the playgroups, but when he rejoined us later, he told us how much fun he had. One night he asked me and Teresa, ‘Why do I get so nervous? I always end up having a lot of fun, but I’m still nervous before I get there.’ So God bless, and thank you so much. By blessing our children, you’ve blessed us.” I think that’s a great example of the power of gentleness, of the power of love. Paul said they could have come in great authority and laid down the law. They could have said, “Look, you new believers, this is what you’re doing wrong. Do this. Do that. Oh, by the way, as your church leaders, we also can demand that you take care of us financially,” but because of their love for them, they treated them gently. You know what? We have a desire like Noah did-to be taught in love and gentleness. We could have laid down the law with Noah that first day and said, “These are the rules. You fit in. This is what happens. You’re doing the skit,” and we probably never would have seen Noah again that week we were in Bali. His parents would have had a much different experience because they would have had little Noah in tow with them the whole week; so gentleness can be a very powerful thing. Treat others gently; treat others with love. Paul says to treat others rightly or in righteousness. Behave in a morally right way. Do what’s right. He talks about being a father. I think of a father a lot of times as a coach too. They’re there to encourage; they’re there to have compassion, but you know what? They’re always pushing you. They’re always getting you to take that next step, to learn what it is you can improve on and do and how you can grow in your faith. It’s easy when you’re with a group for a temporary time like we were in Bali. It’s really easy just to be a cheerleader and say, “Yeah! You’re wonderful! You’re great people! You’re doing everything just right!” But we had some things to offer, some training to give them, some teaching that God wanted us to do. Mike Powers did an awesome job of challenging and teaching those kids. You try to teach day after day to a group of 4 through 18 year olds. That’s a big range in age, and Mike did a great job of connecting with them in that way. The video that we saw as a countdown before service with singing, “You Never Let Go,” you saw that wasn’t just Janet and I going and singing and worshiping with them. We pulled in the people that came from the families that were there. I’m so grateful that Janet has this direction, that we used this as a time of training and instruction in them and how they can lead worship in their own churches, in their own house churches and environments. We received comments back from those who were involved that it really was a great time of learning and instruction as we spurred them on. When we think about success and about people, again, I always want to bring this back to you personally. How do you view people in this pursuit of success? Are people simply a way to get to your success, or has God worked in your heart to understand that your treatment of others, your love for others, actually is the best demonstration of a successful life as you love them out of your love for God? The third point that I really want to emphasize this morning is the importance of celebrating the successes that God brings. The emphasis there is on God. He is the one who brings the success. We simply obey, are faithful, and say, “Yes, God.” God brings the results He wants. The awesome thing is as His children, He gives us that promise that as we go forth, as we share His love, as we share His Word, He will bring success. He’ll bring fruit from that, so we want to celebrate those. As Christians, we shouldn’t be known as the people who tell everybody what not to do or what to do. Christians shouldn’t be like this. As Christians, we should be people who are characterized by a celebration of rejoicing in the joy and the grace that we have found in our relationship with God and the successes that He brings. Sometimes those celebrations can be big ways; they can be big parties. I’ve been involved in planning 25th wedding anniversaries or 50th wedding anniversaries. You get the tent; you get the food, the potato salad. Everybody comes, and you have a big party; and that’s a lot of fun. Sometimes celebrating can be in small ways. It can be a note of encouragement. It could be making a big deal about a small decision that one of your kids made or a friend made, but it was a step in faithfulness. It was a step in obeying the Lord, even when they came up against some opposition, so celebrate those things. Look for ways you can do that. This last week, my oldest daughter Linnea was at a camp for junior high kids, Timber-lee. It’s over by East Troy in Wisconsin here. She’d never been there before. In fact, she’d never been to a kids’ camp without my wife or myself being there. She’d never been to a kids’ camp that Jonanne and Kristi hadn’t put on here through the church. If you know anything about my daughter Linnea, she likes things to be familiar. She likes to understand her surroundings. She likes to know the schedule. She likes to know who she is going to see. Stepping into new situations is a big deal for her, but she decided this would be a good experience and she could learn a lot; so she decided to go. The one comfort she had was one of her friends from church here also agreed to go, so they went together. That might seem like a small thing, but that was something that my dad wanted to celebrate. The great thing that I love about our family is either in big or small ways, we find ways to bring joy, to bring humor, and to celebrate decisions; so he wrote my daughter a poem. I’m going to share that with you this morning. This is something he sent to her during the week. I’ll give you a heads up: this is not theologically deep. You are not going to be spiritually-challenged through this poem. This is not going to go down as great American literature, but I love the fact that my dad celebrates things like this. He’s taught us to do it as well. He said, “You’re off to camp at Timber-lee having lots of fun. I’m left at home a workin’, it seems it’s never done. I wish that I was in your shoes. Well, really that’s a fib. I’d have to fold my feet in half; they’re nearly twice as big,” (congregation laughing). I told you it wasn’t spiritually deep, but when Linnea received that letter at camp, she had that same reaction. She laughed. Her cabin buddies laughed, and it let Linnea know that my dad was thinking of her, that he was excited she made this decision. How about you guys? Do you find ways to celebrate good choices, good decisions that lead your kids, your friends, your coworkers closer in their relationship with the Lord? I hope so. Celebrating is so important. It provides us an opportunity to communicate to the people around us what is important. What’s worth celebrating? Is it only when you win the championship or the grand prize? We can celebrate that, but that’s not the only thing that’s worth celebrating. Saying yes to God, being faithful and obedient-we need to find ways to celebrate that as well. Celebrating allows us a chance to reflect and to meditate on the things that God has done, to remember the joy because we know that often those successes come through a time of struggle and a time of opposition, a time of difficulty. It lets us refocus and reenergize as we think about what God might have us do next or how we can improve the things that He calls us into. It allows us to fill our emotional and our spiritual tank so that we can reengage and then take the next step of faith that God calls us to do. If we don’t take time to celebrate, we will quickly get burned out, discouraged, and we’ll quit. That’s what our time together here needs to be. It needs to be a celebration of what God is doing in our lives, and I hope that you come each week with that perspective. We’re going to close out this service this morning with a video that Mike Powers put together for us: pictures of the trip, of the families, the kids that we met. Just enjoy seeing some of our interaction with them. As we do that, the ushers are going to come forward. We’re going to receive our normal offering during the video, and then I’ll have a few remarks and we’ll close out the service after. (clip of pictures from Bali trip can be found by first being a Facebook member and then by searching out Tychicus Ministries. They are on the wall of this page.) Our team really does thank you and appreciate all you guys did and how you partnered with us in prayer and support in raising (funds) and helping us go over there. I can say beyond a shadow of a doubt that the team was successful-not because of any specific results that came, but because as God called and led each of those on the team, they responded, “Yes, I’ll go. If you want me to go and watch toddlers for a week [I’ll do it]?” John was probably thinking [are You kidding me?], but he said yes. You know that picture where I mentioned, “Is John working hard?” he was holding little Aven, about 21 months old, on his shoulder sleeping nicely, and the music was just nice and mellow. That is not a picture that effectively represents Aven. Just a last quick story, Aven’s parents are new to the mission field. They’ve been there about five months. They come from Canada where they get like a 12-month maternity leave, so Aven had literally not been away from his mom ever. At this conference, she was determined to get some time just to be with God. She would come and bring Aven, and Aven would cry and cry and scream and cry. He was a good kid, but he missed his mom. John carried him around; have you ever carried around a screaming toddler hour after hour? John did. He walked around along with others-Mary, Dennis, and Debbie Roach-who all spent a lot of time up there. To be able to capture that moment where Aven was asleep… John still had a smile on his face. Boy, that is a picture of success, of obediently saying, “I’ll go. I’ll serve, God, wherever you call me to go. I’ll do it. Whatever task it is, whether it seems important or not, I’ll do it. Then we’ll leave the results in Your hands, and we’ll trust, God, that You’ll bring about the fruit that You desire for Your Kingdom.” Let’s pray this morning: God, we do thank You so much that You are the One who sees the big picture. Help us to pursue success, God, in Your eyes-the One who truly matters. Help us to treat and love people in such a way that they see the Gospel in us, that they hear it not just from our mouths but through our hearts and through our lives as well. We give You all honor and glory. We praise You and thank You this morning for Your goodness. In Your name, we pray. Amen.
Pastor Jeff Williams: June 26, 2011 Going Beyond, Part IX, “Beyond Failure.” (A is link to the video played at the beginning of the service can be found by following this: http://www.bluefishtv.com/Store/Downloadable_Video_Illustrations/1378/Famous_Failures__Lesson_Available_/f=s1&s=beyond%20ordinary) Morning (Congregation, “Good morning.”) That is what we’re going to talk about today. Let me make sure that I have the right crowd. How many of you have ever had a plan; you had enthusiasm; you thought you had the abilities; you sought counsel; you sought wisdom; you prepared; you prayed; you received encouragement and support; and you went out and fell flat on your face. Let me see your hands. Okay, I have the right crowd. We’re going to talk about “Beyond Failure” today. This series is called, “Going Beyond.” We want to talk about what’s Beyond Failure. When we fail, do we just quit? Do we learn from that, move on, and grow? What’s involved in this whole subject called failure? I want to share with you a story of a young man. You may not recognize right away who I’m talking about, but almost all of you have heard of this person. Almost all of you have read his book. He was the author of one of the most important books ever written in the world. If you’ve not read the book, you’ve certainly read parts of the book. If you’ve not read parts of the book, almost everybody here has heard of the book. This is a very significant person in the history of the church. When he was a young man-probably in his early 20s, he and his mother, Mary, converted to Christ in a very dramatic way. I will tell you his name right off the bat. His name is John. John’s mother was a pretty well-to-do woman. She had a large home, and she used to host gatherings of the church in her home. It was that big, so many, many people could come, pray, and worship. It was kind of a fancy home. They had an outer court, a gate, and servants who would answer the door. They were pretty well-to-do, but she used her home for the Lord’s work. When there were important gatherings for prayer or whatnot, they would gather at Mary’s house because it was the largest house. John was able to listen to many sermons there, all kinds of teachings. Some of the best teachers in the area would make their way to Mary’s house. Everybody knew how to find it. At some point in time, he gave his life to Christ and was just on fire for God. His cousin was a little bit older than he was. His cousin’s name was Joe, and Joe played a very prominent role in his life. He too was a man of means. He had a lot of real estate-land and houses, but what he loved was the Gospel. There was a call on his life to go out and preach the Gospel. He wanted to return to his hometown and share with his home country this Jesus that he had found. His best friend was going with him, and he invited his cousin John to come as well. He said to John, “John, I know you’re young, but I see in you a man of God. I see in you gifts and talents that God wants to use for Him, so I’m inviting you to join me.” With his mother’s blessing and the blessing of the church and through much prayer and thought, John decided he would go. So they took off. They got in a ship and began to sail. They began to share the Gospel of Christ. Now, things did not go well. They encountered a lot of opposition. This young man who had lived a pretty cushy life, to be honest with you, began to find out that being on the mission field for the Lord was not always fun and games. There were perils at sea; there were times they didn’t know what they were going to eat or drink. There were times when they didn’t sleep very well. There were times when they encountered harsh opposition to their message. There were times when he felt very threatened by very important powerful people because of the message they were proclaiming to give. He began to have second thoughts and began to say to himself, “Did I do the right thing? Is this for me? Am I cut out for this?” Then not far into this missionary trip, he got cold feet. John went to Joe, his cousin, and said, “This isn’t for me. I’m going to go back home. I’m sorry I let you down. I’m sorry I let your buddy down and the team down, but I’m going to go back,” so back home he went to live with Mary. I’m sure there were some tears. I’m sure he felt terrible for letting so many people down and most importantly that he’d let God down. All of us have been there. We’ve all been in that place when we’ve failed. It’s embarrassing, and we know we’ve let others down. We know we’ve let ourselves down, and we know we’ve let God down. His cousin, Joe, said, “I understand.” Joe’s friend who was leading the team didn’t think too highly of what John had done, but they went on. They moved forward. They finished their trip and they went back home. In the mean time, John continued to study, pray, grow, fellowship, and mature. Then there came time for round two. “Let’s go out again. Let’s go visit the churches, the people, and the friendships we’ve made. Let’s see how they’re doing.” “That sounds good,” Joe said to his friend, “but I’d still like to bring my cousin John.” “No, no, no, no. We’re not bringing John. He left us last time, remember? Do you have amnesia? Do you remember how disappointed we were and how much extra work that caused us? No, no, no. He is not coming.” Well, Joe insisted. Joe said, “Either he comes or I don’t go.” These two were tight. These two had been together through thick and thin, but this was putting a wrench in their relationship, a wedge. He said, “Listen, this is too important. The cost is too great. We can’t go on the field again and have your cousin go AWOL on us. No, he’s not going to go. I’m in charge, Joe, and he’s not going to go.” “Then we part ways,” said Joe, and so they did. John and Joseph headed to his home country. Joe’s best friend and his team went in another direction. We don’t know exactly what happened to John and Joe, but we know things went well. We know they went well because years later, that same best friend who didn’t want to travel with Joe anymore, when he was in jail, guess who was by his side? John. He was right there with him in prison. When he was getting ready to die and was in prison again for his faith, guess whom he sent for? John. John had redeemed himself. John had become ready; John had become useful and productive in ministry. In fact, he had become so useful that another very important leader in the church named Pete used to tell him stories about what God had done and what God had said, and John began to write them all down in a Book. It’s a Book that we know as the Gospel of Mark. Have you ever read that Book before? Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Had it not been for his Uncle Joseph, who the Disciples renamed Barnabas, there wouldn’t be a Gospel of Mark. There would only be three Gospels. There wouldn’t be a story of redemption. That played a very important part in his life. I want us to take a look at that Passage in the Book of Acts, and I want to talk about the three main players who were involved and see what we can learn in regards to failure. Let’s open our Bibles up to Acts 15 together. Some of you caught that towards the end. I was watching. I saw a couple people go, “I got it.” Some didn’t get it; that’s okay. That’s all right. I threw you some curves, but I think sometimes it’s good to hear the story of an individual without knowing who they [really] are because it helps us to see them in a different light, see them in a little bit of a different way. Acts 15:36 (page 1095 of pew Bibles), “Some time later Paul said to Barnabas, ‘Let us go back and visit the brothers in all the towns where we preached the Word of the Lord and see how they are doing.’” In other words, they’re still in a good relationship. There are no problems. Friendships are still strong, and everything is fine between these two until this point. “Barnabas wanted to take John, also called Mark, with them…” In other words, he saw potential just like Jesse’s coach (referring to Pastor Jesse Thompson from a story told at the beginning of the service)who saw potential in him. He saw potential in his cousin. “…Paul did not think it wise to take him…” He remembered what he did the last time he came. “…because he had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in the work.” This word deserted is a strong word. It’s the word that apostate comes from, apostasy. It’s pretty much the strongest word you can use. It basically means to turn your back on God. Basically, Paul is saying, “He turned his back on us, but he also turned his back on God, and that’s inexcusable.” Verse 39, “They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company. Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus, but Paul chose Silas and left, commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord.” A sharp disagreement: there was tension. There was an argument. There were words spoken in anger. Barnabas was going to stand by his cousin. He probably also reminded Paul of another thing. He said, “Remember, Paul, when you needed a second chance? Remember, Paul, when nobody believed you were a Christian because you were an enemy of the church, but I believed you? I stood by you, and I went before Peter, James, and John and said you were the real thing? I said you deserved another shot. Remember that?” “Yeah, and you know how much I appreciated that, Barnabas.” “Then why won’t you give my cousin another chance?” “Because the stakes are too high, Barnabas. Because if he deserts us again, there will be big consequences.” “He said he won’t desert us, Paul. He has said he has grown. He has said he’s matured, and I believe it, and I see it. He’s ready.” Paul said, “I’m not willing to take that risk.” Barnabas said, “Then you’re going to have to go without me.” These two friends parted ways. Over time, things changed. Over time in which we don’t know the details of what John, Mark, and Barnabas did, we know it was good. We encounter Mark again in the Book of Colossians 4:10 (page 1167 of pew Bibles). Paul is in prison in Rome, and he says these words, “My fellow prisoner Aristarchus sends you his greetings, as does Mark, the cousin of Barnabas. (You have received instructions about him; if he comes to you, welcome him.)” That could mean that people knew there was a rift, that he didn’t have a lot of confidence in John Mark, and Paul is saying, “He’s okay. Let him come. He’s a good guy.” You see, he’s right there. He’s right in the prison, right in the midst of the hardship. He could be living this cushy life, living at home with mom in a house with maids and servants; but he’s there in prison helping and ministering to the Apostle Paul. Then some five or six years later, as Paul was yet again in prison-this time for the last time, this time before he was beheaded by Emperor Nero in Rome-he wrote in 2 Timothy 4:11, “Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, because he is helpful to me in my ministry.” Now he wants him. Now he’s calling for him. He’s not saying, “Hey, I don’t need that guy.” He’s saying, “I’m in my last days. I don’t have long on the earth. If I really want to make an impact for the Gospel in the few days I have left, I need Mark with me.” What a story of redemption, ha? From failure, a dismal failure, to somebody that was the most important missionary in all the world saying, “I need that guy.” We also know of his relationship with Peter. It was so close and so tight that in 1 Peter 5:13, Peter calls him his “son in the faith.” He said, “…as does my son Mark.” He wasn’t a literal son, but he probably meant that Peter led him to Christ and discipled him as Paul had done with Timothy. There was a bond there; there was a closeness there. Remember Peter would often go to Mary’s home. Peter knew where Mary’s home was. He had probably preached a lot of sermons there. It could very well be that the Gospel of Mark was largely written in his own home as he listened to Peter tell his sermons. Almost all of the church fathers-the men who wrote in the first and second centuries-almost every one of them list Peter as the one who helped Mark write the Gospel. They said that Mark would write down the stories that Peter told, and that was composed into the Book called the Gospel of Mark. Peter was there all the time. Remember when Peter was in prison under Herod and they were trying to get him out of prison? They were praying for his release, and they all gathered at Mary’s home. John Mark and the other Disciples would have been there praying. Miraculously, Peter was delivered from prison, and he went and knocked on the outer gate. The servant girl, Rhoda, answered the door. As they were praying, “Lord, please set Peter free,” Rhoda went to the door and opened the gate; and it was Peter. She said, “It’s Peter!” She shut the gate and left him outside. She ran back in and said, “It’s Peter! He’s here!” They said, “You’re crazy! He’s in prison. Now stop interrupting us! Lord, please set Peter free.” Remember that rather humorous story? That happened at John Mark’s home. There was this close relationship and bond there, and that was the way in which Mark came to write his Gospel. What would have happened if there hadn’t been a cousin who came alongside him, picked him up when he was down, and said, “You can do this. God is still going to use you.” He had all the abilities; he just wasn’t ready. I can tell you for a fact: had I left Rockford in my early or mid-twenties and tried to start a church in Janesville, I would have fallen flat on my face. I’m 100 percent sure of that because I needed those years to sit under leadership and learn and grow. You don’t want to pick an apple too soon. You don’t want to pick it before it’s ripe. He had a right heart; he had the right intentions, but he wasn’t ready. Some of you have tried things, good things. Your heart is in the right place, but you weren’t ready. You weren’t where you needed to be. Let’s talk about these three people. First, it’s Paul. Paul is going to represent the Live and Relive people in your lives. I don’t want this to define Paul because this was Paul at this point in time. This doesn’t mean Paul was always judgmental and always lacked grace, but in this particular situation, he did. He was questioning not only John Mark’s capabilities, but he was questioning his best friend’s judgment in saying that he wasn’t ready; so he was alienating two important people. He was reminding John Mark and reminding Barnabas why he couldn’t go because of the mistakes in the past. The live and relive people in your lives: they’re the ones who always remind you of the failures of your past. Do you have any live and relive people in your lives? They’re always telling you why you can’t do something because you failed before. They don’t forget, and they don’t let you forget. You try to do something worthwhile. You try to reach for a goal, and they’re the first ones to say, “You can’t do that. Remember how you failed? I don’t believe in you. You don’t have what it takes. Here’s what you did back there,” and they won’t let it go. It’s live and relive. I want to tell you a story about some monkeys. There was an experiment done with four monkeys. They had a pole, and at the top of the pole, there were some ripe, good bananas. You know how monkeys like to climb, and you know how they especially like to climb when the end reward is bananas. The first monkey climbed the pole, and as soon as he got to the top of the pole ready to reach the bananas, they’d spray cold water on him. Down the pole the monkey would scurry without his bananas. Then the second monkey would go up. He’d think, “Let me show you how it’s done. See, this isn’t so bad.” He’d go to reach for the bananas, and he’d get sprayed. He’d come scurrying down the pole. Then the third monkey would climb, confident he could secure the bananas, the prize, and he too would get squirted. Down he would come. Then the fourth, and down he would go. Pretty soon, they’d try a second time and even a third. Every time, they were met with cold water, so the monkeys soon learned they could climb all the other poles; but they couldn’t climb that pole. They could eat all the other bananas, fruit, and nuts around there, but they couldn’t have those bananas. For whatever the reason, every time they’d try to get those bananas, bad things would happen to them. Cold water would be sprayed on them. “Don’t climb this pole!” is what they learned. A new monkey was introduced into the group, and one of the other four was removed. The new monkey went, “Hey, bananas. What’s wrong with you guys? Why aren’t you eating the bananas?” He started to climb the pole, and they grabbed him and pulled him down. “No, no, no. We’re trying to keep you from going up there. Bad things will happen to you. Stay down here!” He learned not to climb the pole. They took out another monkey, and they replaced him with a new monkey. Now there were two monkeys who had gotten wet and two monkeys who had never been sprayed with the hose. The new one tried to climb, and he was pulled down by the other three monkeys. “Don’t do that! It’s bad news.” Over the course of the experiment, all four monkeys who’d been sprayed with cold water left, and four new monkeys were in the room. Every time they would introduce a new monkey from then on-none had ever been sprayed with water-not one of them would climb the pole, and not one knew why. None knew why they didn’t climb the pole; you just didn’t climb the pole. Some of you who’ve had water sprayed on you enough times, you’ve become conditioned to the fact that you should not climb the pole, right? If every time I climb the pole somebody is going to spray water on me, somebody is going to quench that fire, bad things are going to happen to me, I’ve failed in the past, so you’ve become conditioned to stay on the ground and stop reaching for your goals, right, because there are people like Paul? Again, this is not how Paul always was, but in this situation, John Mark came back with a smile on his face. He was like, “I want to be used by God. I realize where I went wrong, and this time, I’m ready. This time I’ve grown. This time I pray,” and (chhhhh, he’s sprayed by water). “What was that?” He was sprayed with water! “But no, I’ve learned, and I’m ready. No matter what happens this time, I’m not going to desert the team. I’m here, Paul. I promise,” (chhhhh, sprayed with water). Just think about how devastating that was to that young man. The most important missionary in all the world, and he didn’t believe Paul had what it took. “Am I going to go back dejected?” Barnabas looked at that and said, “Not on my watch. Not on my watch, Cousin.” Thank God for the Barnabases in your lives, right? [We all need] people in our lives like Pastor Jesse’s coach who will look at you and say, “You have what it takes.” Let’s talk about the next group: Live and Let Die group. That’s what Barnabas represents. “Let’s put the past in the past. Let’s move on. We’re going to forgive and forget. This is a new day. This is a new start.” Have you had any Barnabases in your lives that believe in you when others didn’t? When other people tried to spray water on the fire, they fanned the flames at you? Thank God for a cousin like that who was a brother in Christ and saw the potential, saw the ability. He said, “I believe in you. God believes in you, and God’s going to use you. You failed in the past, but just because you failed in the past doesn’t mean you’re going to fail this time. You deserted us in the past; that’s true. Now we know why, and now we’ve fixed the problem. Now this is a new chance, a new opportunity for you to serve the Lord.” Is there somebody in your life right now that you could be a Barnabas to? Think about that. Do you know somebody who has quit climbing and reaching for their dreams because somebody sprayed water on them to the point where they don’t even try anymore? They don’t even climb anymore. They don’t think they can. You could come alongside that person. You can call that person and say, “I want to talk to you about bananas,” and they’ll think you’re bananas. You can say, “I want to come alongside you because I see potential in you. I see a person who can be used by God to pursue a dream.” Could you be a Barnabas in somebody’s life? That’s an important thing to be, isn’t it? I tell you what: I’ve found there are more Pauls with the water hose in life than there are Barnabases. There are more people who will tell you all the reasons why you can’t and remind you of all your failures than people who will come alongside of you and say, “I believe in you.” How about this guy, Barnabas? He was such an encouragement that they literally changed his name. They said, “Joe, you are such a positive, encouraging person to be around, we’re going to rename you the Son of Encouragement.” How about that? They literally changed his name and said, “From now on, we don’t even know him as Joe.” A lot of you have been Christians for years, and you didn’t even know Barnabas’ name was Joseph. You’d never heard that before because you’ve only known him as the Son of Encouragement. We need people like that. You can be a person like that. Then what about John Mark himself? Who does he represent? Not a Live and Let Die, but Live and Retry. “I’m going to give this another shot. There are things I’ve learned that this second time around, this third time around, I’m going to do differently.” People learn from their bad decisions too, don’t they? One aspiring business man was talking to another successful business man and asked, “How did you get to be where you are?” He said, “Good decisions.” He asked, “How’d you get to make good decisions?” He said, “Bad decisions.” You learn from those mistakes. Each of the people we’ve seen in that media-Abraham Lincoln, Lucille Ball, Walt Disney or Michael Jordan-all those names of people we look at as being successful-they all learned from their failures and mistakes. Even though Pastor Jesse kept losing his wrestling matches-except for that one girl he was able to defeat in a close overtime match…No, I don’t know (congregation laughing). Don’t tell him that. I don’t think he’s in here. Don’t say that. He managed to struggle and win that one. He learned in all of those defeats. Some of you out there might be like John Mark. Your hearts were in the right place. You wanted to serve the Lord, but you failed. Somebody squirted water on your mission, and you just began to think, “I shouldn’t climb. I don’t deserve to. I don’t have what it takes.” You just become conditioned to stay on the ground. How about John Mark? Could you be like him? Could you say, “You know what? If God is really desiring this in me, maybe I need to try again. Maybe I need to learn from my past mistakes. Maybe I need to continue to learn, grow, get counsel and more experience and try again. It’s amazing what God will do with people who keep getting up after they’ve been knocked down; people who keep trying to climb that pole after water has been sprayed on them; who keep going after people around them have continually reminded them of the failures of their past. It’s amazing what God will do with a life that tenaciously holds on to His call. Are there going to be hardships? Is it going to be difficult? Barnabas told him, “It’s going to be hard. The second missionary journey is going to be no easier than the first. We don’t know if we’re going to encounter shipwreck, riots, be in prison, be beaten or hungry or die. Do you understand that, John? Are you willing to take that risk?” “I am with all my heart, Cousin. Let’s go.” God used that young man in powerful ways to impact the church and to impact our lives today for the Gospel that he wrote. A couple weeks ago, I mentioned to you that one of my favorite singers was a man by the name of Rich Mullins. When we started our church in Janesville, things didn’t go very well. There were financial struggles that I had because offerings weren’t very good, and I had bills to pay. I wasn’t getting any kind of salary. In fact, there were many weeks when the only way to pay the church was to charge it to my credit card because there was no income. You’re working hard, and you’re not making any money. You’re studying hard and preparing messages that nobody wants to come and hear. It’s very discouraging. Sometimes I’d wonder if I made the right decision. Was I in the right place? One of the songs I used to listen to a lot was a song by Rich Mullins. It ministered to me in those difficult times in my life. I hope it will minister to you today. This is a song that we’re just going to put the words up because we want you to just soak it in-no images, just the words. Let this song minister to you today. (You can find the link to this song here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9J3w1Jeo2I). Father, we have all been in the position that John Mark was in, where our hearts had the best of intentions. We thought we were ready. We thought we were prepared, and we failed. Like John Mark, we’ve had those who’ve come around to remind us of our failures again and again. Like John Mark, we’ve had fortune and blessing enough to have those people who came around us and said, “You can do this. Just because you failed in the past, it does not mean you’ll fail in the future.” Lord, some of us like those monkeys that were conditioned not to climb and go after those bananas, some of us have been conditioned not even to aspire to great things. I pray that You’d help us to rise above the naysayers, the water-sprayers, the negative voices that are around us. Like John Mark, I pray that we will be able to get up and pursue the things that You’ve called us to do and be. Father, if no other voice is around us encouraging us, the voice of Your Word is. Your Word says we can do all things through Christ who gives us strength. Might we find that strength in You today. Might we move Beyond Failure to obedience. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
Pastor Jeff Williams: June 19, 2011 Going Beyond, Part VIII, “Beyond Biology.” Good morning. Happy Father’s Day to the dads out there. I hope you have a good day planned. I am taking off today after finishing here to go with my son and see the lowly Yankees take on the Mighty Cub. That’s how I’ll be spending my Father’s Day, so watch for me tonight on ESPN. Seriously, we’re kinda up close. Let’s start talking about “Beyond Biology.” Some of you read your bulletin and thought, “Well, we’re going to talk about science this week,” but we’re really not. We’re going to be talking about the fact that in order to be a parent, or to be a father figure or mother figure, it really goes beyond biology. There is so much more to being a parent. There is so much more to being a dad than just contributing DNA. It’s about so much more than that, so that’s what we’re going to talk about today. How many of you this morning are parents? Let me see your hands. How many of you remember the first moment you found out you were going to be a mom or dad? How many of you were scared out of your wits? When I got that phone call that we were going to have a baby, I was just in shock! I felt so overwhelmed by that news. I was 22 years old back then, and I just remember thinking, “Wow! I’m not ready for this. How can I assume this responsibility of being a father?” When it really became real to me was not during the Lamaze preparation classes. It wasn’t during the birth. It wasn’t even holding my daughter. It was when we left the hospital and put her in the carseat. We looked down at this little peanut, who is going to be 28 next month, and this car seat just enveloped her. We looked at each other like, “What do we do now? Where is the manual? Where is the supervisor who is following us home? We need a license for this. It seems like we’re doing something wrong. We are taking this human being, and we’re taking her away from the hospital.” When you’re at the hospital, it seemed legal and right; but when you get in the car and are driving off, it just seemed like something was wrong. “This can’t be legal. I don’t know enough to raise this little one,” but we do our best. It’s on-the-job training, isn’t it? This morning I want to share not so much a sermon, but I want to share just a meditation, a reflection, on this subject today. We’re going to look at a father/son relationship that went beyond biology. They were not biologically related, yet he was a father nonetheless. Then we’re going to look at a Passage that many of you are familiar with in Exodus 18. You think about it pertaining to leadership and delegation, but we’re going to look at it through a different lens this morning. We’re going to look at it through the lens of a father/son relationship. When we do that, we’re going to see the Passage in a whole new light. We’re going to talk about Moses and Jethro today. Jethro is not a southern name, just so you know in case you have watched a lot of Beverly Hillbillies reruns. Jethro is a Middle Eastern name. He was the father-in-law of Moses. Before we talk about him, I want to talk about Moses. Of course you know about his turbulent childhood. They were slaughtering the newborn males. Moses was put into the river in faith, and he was discovered by Pharaoh’s daughter. Then Moses’mother raised him as an act of God’s providence. The father of Moses was hardly ever mentioned. He was mentioned in passing in one Verse, and then we never heard of him again. We don’t know what happened to him, but as far as we know, he was not in Moses’life. As far as we can tell, he grew up void of a father figure. As a young man, he was very aware that he was a Hebrew. He saw an Egyptian strike an Israeli, and he became upset. He murdered the Egyptian, and he then became a wanted man, a fugitive. He left Egypt when the most powerful man in the world, Pharaoh, issued a death warrant for him. He escaped to a faraway land called Midian in the Arabian Peninsula, north of Arabia. Out in the desert with his nomadic people, he met a young lady named Zipporah. Her father’s name was Jethro. Moses was invited over for dinner, and they hit it off. They fell in love, married, and they then had a little boy. He named the boy Gershom, which translates to Foreigner, because he said, “I’m a stranger in a strange land. This is not my home.” It’s a reminder to him, and it was a reminder to his son of his heritage that this was not where he was from. This was not his home. Then they had another child named God’s help, [Eliezer] another little boy. He named him that because God delivered him from Pharaoh as a young man on the run. He then led this quiet life as a shepherd. He formed a bond, a relationship, with his father-in-law, and Jethro became the dad he never had. Jethro loved Moses, and that love was reciprocated. He learned from him. Jethro was a spiritual man. We can’t say if he worshipped God; we don’t know at this point. In Midian, they worshipped Baal; they worshipped the goddess Asherah; they worshipped Yaweh, the God of the Bible. It was this kind of melting pot, so spiritually we’re not sure where he was. We just know he was a devout spiritual man in his region. What it means to be a priest in the desert with these nomadic people, we don’t fully understand, but that’s what he was. Moses thought this was how he was going to live his life, live out his days. Decade after decade passed. He lived under the stars; he lived out in the desert raising sheep in this quiet life far from the capital, far from Pharaoh, and far from his people until one day at Mt. Horeb, God called him from a burning bush. He told him to take off his sandals because the ground he was on was holy ground. He called him to lead God’s people out of bondage. Moses didn’t want to. He did his best Houdini and tried to escape, but God had hand-picked him. He was now leading a life he didn’t want and that didn’t feel equipped for. Things began to get really tense and hostile. He became a wanted man again, but this time he could not leave. This time he could not flee because he was on a mission. Moses did a very protective thing: he took Zipporah and his sons and sent them off to live with Jethro. One of the things a father does is protect his family, so shielding them from harm was an act of protection. Jethro acted to protect his daughter and his grandchildren under his home while this whole drama of deliverance unfolded. Many years would pass before that family would reunite, so Moses sacrificed a lot. He sacrificed a lot to obey the call of God. Years passed, and things settled down. Israel was becoming established as a nation. Moses was basically serving as a one-man government. He was president; he was Supreme Court justice; and he was the legislative branch all rolled into one. He was putting in long hours; it was hard work, but it was time for the family to be reunited. Israel was at peace as a nation. They were trying to live and be governed by God’s law, and Moses received news that his father-in-law, his wife, and his sons were coming back. Moses probably sent out a tweet or a text and said, “The coast is clear. Come on home.” When you think about it, they wouldn’t really know. There was no communication. Somehow they just knew it was time that the station had settled down, so they made the trip. When we pick up the story, Moses is receiving the news that there is going to be a family reunion. He is in such joy and excitement as he knows he is going to see his wife and children and the man, who for all practical purposes, was his dad. Let’s pick up the story in Exodus 18:7 (page 72 of pew Bibles), “So Moses went out to meet his father-in-law and bowed down and kissed him. They greeted each other and then went into the tent…” I want you to see the intimacy there. You see the respect and honor there, and it’s mutual: father to son. He bows down, they embrace; they love each other. There is respect here. This is the way it should be. What I’m sharing with you in this meditation is the way it should be, not always the way it is. I want you to know that I don’t sit up before you as the paragon of what a father is. I’m not a perfect dad; and you aren’t perfect parents either; and our children will not be perfect when they grow up and become parents either. We are all flawed, and don’t shake your head yes, honey (speaking to his daughter). That’s good that you didn’t shake your head yes (congregation laughing). I was worried that my daughter would say, “Yup, that’s right.” We do the best we can, so I don’t want you to feel guilty today in listening to what I have to share. I just want you to know we’re all in the same boat. We’re all doing the best that we can. Some of you are fathers now; some of you will be fathers in the future. Moms, as well, I’m talking to you. We do the best we can, but we’re not perfect. We’re going to talk about how to create this intimacy that these two obviously shared. When you see disrespect, you recognize it. I think as parents, as God calls our children to honor their mother and father, I think we honor our children as well and treat them with dignity and respect. I saw an example of a horrible job of parenting while I was running some errands this week. How embarrassing it was for this teenage girl as in public her mother read her the riot act with a profanity-laced rebuke. “Why didn’t you blankety-blank what I blankety-blank told you to do, you blanket-blank?” It was loud and embarrassing, and I thought to myself, “She is sewing some bad seed. There is going to come a day when she is going to be old and her daughter is going to grow up. She is going to need her daughter, and I wonder if her daughter will even be around. I wonder if her daughter will respect her enough to even be around because she was showing such disrespect. There was such a lack of honor that is due, mutual honor and respect. We see that here in this Passage. I want to give an illustration through a movie clip about how important this is and how to take advantage of these opportunities while we have them. One of the things this will show us in this Passage is that parenting and our influence as parents is something that will last a lifetime. One of my favorite genres of movies is the “do-over” movie: the “Christmas Carol” with Scrooge getting another shot; it’s “A Wonderful Life” when Jimmie Stewart gets another crack at it; “Back to the Future”; those kinds of movies, I just eat them up. I love them. This is a movie kind of on that order. I’ve only seen bits and pieces of it. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it all the way through. I think the one time I was watching it, I fell asleep; but it’s a movie called “Click” with Adam Sandler. He plays a man who finds this remote control that he can use to fast-forward through life. He misses his daughter growing up and his father passing away. If I’m getting that wrong, please forgive me. Like I said, I’ve only seen the beginning. We’re going to watch a poignant scene from that film. (Clip can be viewed by following this link: http://www.wingclips.com/movie-clips/click/i-love-you-son). Now we’re all caught up in that movie. We want to talk about how to have the intimacy that those two obviously didn’t have, that one father wanted but the son did not. We want to find out what the key is to having the kind of intimacy that I think Moses and Jethro shared. Let’s pick up the story in Verse 8. They go into the tent after being apart for so many years: “Moses told his father-in-law about everything the Lord had done to Pharaoh and the Egyptians for Israel’s sake and about all the hardships they had met along the way and how the Lord had saved them.” Can you imagine what it would be like to hear the story of the Exodus told by the man who lived it? Can you imagine what it would be like to sit down and listen to Moses himself talk about what it was like to see the plagues; to see the Sea parted; to walk across the Sea; to see God provide miraculously in the wilderness; to see water come from a rock; to see God provide manna and quail that the pillar of cloud by day and fire by night brought? Wow! This must have been such an engaging story to hear from Moses, but I want you to also notice what he shared. It said Moses shared the hardships they had met along the way. I think one of the things that fosters intimacy in a relationship is to be able to share not only the good things but the difficult things, the hardships. Moses is able to share with his dad how difficult it was. It’s one thing to feed children or provide for children. It’s another thing when a nation is saying, “Where is our food? Where are our drinks?” When a nation is saying to you, “We want to go back to Egypt. It’s better to die as a slave than die here in the desert,” [that generates] the pressure, the burden, of leading people. He shares his frustration; he shares his disappointment. He shares with his dad this real and authentic conversation of what his life has become from living a quiet life where all he worried about was the sheep and the field to having to worry about a million people. His dad listens as his son pours out his heart. That is an important quality, being able to go beyond the surface to that which is really real and that which is really difficult and share from your heart and soul. Moses was able to do that. Then look at what happens. It says (in Chapter 18:9, page 72), “Jethro was delighted to hear about all the good things the Lord had done for Israel in rescuing them from the hand of the Egyptians.” He let his delight be known. I think this is one of the important things [in life]: when the people we care for achieve, we celebrate that. We delight in that. We let our delight be known: how proud we are, how thankful we are of them and their accomplishments. I think that’s significant, and I can’t overestimate the importance of that; and I can’t overestimate the importance of that-affirming in the lives of the people that God has entrusted into our care. We delight in their victories; we celebrate their accomplishments. Jethro was a good dad. He tells his son how proud he was, and he said, “I can’t believe that you’ve gone from being a shepherd to God hand-picking you to lead a nation and deliver a people out of slavery. Son, I’m so excited with how God has used you and how God has blessed you in your life.” Then there is a defining moment. I want you to look at Verse 11 as he contemplates all that God has done, “‘Now I know that the Lord is greater than all other gods, for he did this to those who treated Israel arrogantly.’” This is just a little sidebar here. I think this is the moment when Jethro really began to worship the true God because his culture worshipped multiple gods. He heard the whole story about the God of Moses and the God of Israel, and he said, “Now I know who the true God is.” Then as a family, they worshipped God together. That’s such an important part of developing that intimacy-that you lead your family spiritually and your family begins to understand that it is going to celebrate God together and worship together as a family. When we’re able to do that, what a wonderful thing that is-that we teach our children that we recognize the importance of the Lord in the good times and the difficult times. As a family, we’re on this journey together, and I’m leading our family as I follow God. If I’ll simply follow God in His precepts, then leading my family becomes a natural flow of following the promises of God and acknowledging the presence of God in my life. So as a family, they worshipped God together and celebrated His goodness. Then it was back to reality. It was take your father-in-law to work day the next day. Verse 13 says, “…Moses took his seat to serve as judge for the people, and they stood around him from morning till evening.” Now during this time, Jethro was just watching. He didn’t say anything. He just observed. He observed how Moses interacted with the people. He watched him judge trivial matters, and he watched him judge significant matters. He noticed that there was a problem. He noticed that Moses was pretty much a one-man show. He had met capable intelligent leaders who didn’t have much to do while he watched his son who had more to do than he could handle. He basically was self-governing a nation. He noticed a problem, so he asked some probing questions of his son. He said (in Verse 14), “‘What is this you are doing for the people?’” Moses probably said, “What do you mean?” “‘Why do you sit alone as judge, while all these people stand around you from morning till evening?’” I wonder if Moses just wasn’t taken back by the question. I wonder if Moses wasn’t just thinking in his mind, “Well, isn’t it obvious what I’m doing and why it’s important?” I wonder if he didn’t say, “Well, it’s because the people come to me. They seek God’s Will. They have a dispute and it’s brought to me, and I decide between the parties based on God’s decrees and laws. What? What’s wrong with that?” He said, “‘What you are doing is not good.’” It wasn’t the fact that he was judging and that he was deliberating on God’s law. It was the way in which he was doing it. It was the imbalance. He said, “‘You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone.’” He’s going to call upon his experience and wisdom. He’s going to point out something that Moses cannot see. This tells me a couple of things. It tells me that a job as a parent does not end, does it? I used to think that being a parent was something you just kinda did until they graduated, went to college, and then that was kinda it. I thought that when I was really young; that is what I thought parenting was. I’ve come to realize it is a lifetime job. Some of you younger parents are going, “What?” You never stop being concerned about your children. Our children never stop looking to us as an example, and we never stop having influence on our children. It’s a lifetime gig. So here Moses is, not only a grown man, but he is now a senior citizen. Yet, when Jethro comes there, he is his father. His presence demands respect, and he sees things in his life that Moses doesn’t see. A parent will see those things, and a parent will point those things out to us no matter how old we get. There are things that our parents have pointed out to us and shared with us as we raised our family. We still look to Brenda’s mom in Arizona, and she is the only one we have left; but she is the matriarch of the family. She still cares and watches over our family. She is still involved in our family, so we recognize from this Passage that parenting never ends. They have the value of experience-to be able to see things and recognize value and worth in things that we may not be able to see. Experience teaches that, and parents are able to show that to us. Then with Moses, [we respect that he has] the ability to recognize that fact and respect that. My daughter had a variety show at JPAC this weekend, and my sister came to town. It was sold out, and they did a marvelous job. We went garage-sale shopping [over the weekend as well]. My sister said, “Take me to a garage sale. That’s my favorite thing to do,” so I took her to a garage sale. It took me less than a minute to go through there. I was like, “Junk, junk, junk, junk. Well…no, junk. I’m done.” She goes through the same garage sale, and she finds something significant. She bought it, got to the car and said, “Do you see this?” I said, “Yeah?” She said, “This is worth a lot of money.” “It is?” “Yeah.” “How much did you pay for it?” “Two bucks.” “Wow.” She told me what it was worth and why it was so valuable. She shared from her experience. That’s what parents do. Through their experience, they are able to point out valuable lessons to us. They are able to recognize worth, see danger, and point it out because they’ve lived that life. So Moses listened to his father-in-law. His father-in-law said, “Let me tell you some things. What you are doing isn’t good. You’re going to burn out. What you need to do is raise up leaders around you. You have capable leaders here. Raise up Godly leaders and trust them with responsibility. Put this person in charge of hundreds, this person in charge of 100, this person in charge of 50, and this person in charge of 10. Let them deal with the trivial matters. You deal with the major matters. You’re still going to be imparting God’s law and making decisions, but you’re going to be using your time wisely. Listen, your family is back now. Your wife is here; your children are here. You’re a father; you’re a husband again. You need time for yourself. You can’t be leading a nation every day for the rest of your life. Train up leaders who will use their influence and leadership after you’re gone. Use the talents and the wisdom of the people who are around you. Train them. You deal with this; they’ll deal with that. You’re going to have more peace of mind. You’re going to have more energy. You’ll be more refreshed. You’re going to be able to deal with the things that are the most important.” What will Moses do? How will he respond? Verse 24, “Moses listened to his father-in-law” and then said, “What do you know? You’re just an old man. I’m the head of the state. Do you realize that? I am the head of a nation. Mind your own business! Go back home where you came from! Let me do my work. God picked me, not you!” Is that what Moses does? Moses is humbled. In fact, one of the quandaries of Scripture: tradition tells us that Moses wrote the first five books, yet there is a Verse that says Moses is the most humble man that ever lived or something to that effect. Did Moses write that, or did he have somebody else write that? It seems like that would kinda negate it if you wrote, “I am very humble.” Yet he was humble. So here he is: this great leader, this great deliverer. He’s in that tent and he’s listening. He’s a son, and he’s recognizing his father’s wisdom. No matter how old we are, no matter how important we think we are or our job is, we can still learn. We can learn from our parents; we can learn from our children. We learn from the people that are around us, and Moses learned. Moses took it to heart and followed his father’s counsel. He trained leaders; he invested in them, and they began to govern and lead. Moses spendt time with his family. Moses’life changed because of that advice. Verse 27, “Then Moses sent his father-in-law on his way, and Jethro returned to his own country.” Zipporah and the sons stayed, but the father-in-law went home: independent, not co-dependent. He recognized that Moses had his own life, his own responsibility. He invested in his son. He celebrated with his son; he communicated with his son. He worshipped with his son; he’s counseled his son, affirmed his son, and now it’s time to go. It’s time to go back to his home and let his son begin to live out the things that he’s learned. That's healthy parenting too. He’s not going to stay and micromanage or try to have a relationship that’s out of balance. He recognizes he’s done his best, and now it’s time for his son to lead the family; so he returned home. There’s a lesson there too. Moses is able to be an effective leader of people, an effective leader of his family-a protector, a leader because he followed God. For new parents, being a parent can be overwhelming. Just remember to follow God. Follow God’s law and God’s principles, and lead your family. Lead your family. Don’t shrink back from that responsibility. Don’t delegate that to others, but lead your family. There is a song [“Lead Me”] by the group named Sanctus Real that I want to share with you this morning. I want you to reflect on this song, the images, the words, and the message God has to share with us through it. (Link can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLr6G8Xy5uc.) Father, those of us who are parents, we listened to a song like that, watched the clip, and we listened to the message, and sometimes we just feel so inadequate. We have so many flaws; we fall so far short, but we have a Heavenly Father who is perfect. Lord, You’ve called us to first follow You before we lead. There were times when we thought to lead in our own flesh. We failed, so, Lord, might there be that dependence that we have upon You-to follow Your Word, to follow Your principles, and to lead. Lord, I pray that we would have relationships that would have that deep communication, authentic conversation. We are able to talk about hard times as well as good times. We can celebrate victories, worship together, to listen, to observe, to counsel, to know when to establish boundaries so that we’re developing independence and not co-dependence. Lord, we see that Passage in a whole new way today. It’s more than about leadership. It’s about the love of a father for a son and a son who is willing to listen and follow his dad’s advice no matter how old he was or how important he had become. Thank You for the things we can glean from that story today. In Jesus’name, I pray. Amen.
Pastor Jeff Williams: May 29, 2011 Going Beyond, Part V, “Beyond Building.”
Let’s dig into the Word this morning. I want to talk about four kinds of people that attend church, and you’re going to be on this list somewhere. In this series, “Going Beyond,” [the topic this week is] “Beyond Building.” The first group of people are the Visitors. Visitors are the folks that come to church on occasion, but they’re never entered into the life of the church. The church is simply a place. To them, it literally is a building. It is a place you go for funerals, weddings, and maybe on a major holiday like Easter or Christmas, but probably not. They’re just visitors to the church. They’re there when they have to go, but there is no connection there. The second group is the spectators. These are the people who go with more frequency than the visitors, but they try to get out of it every chance they get. Usually, when they come, they come because they have to. Maybe they are a child whose parents make them come. That was me. When I was a little boy, I was a spectator. I came to church because I had to. My mom and dad made me go. Back in the day, I wanted to be home watching “All Star Wrestling,” the Crusher and the Bruiser. That’s where I wanted to be, and I played hooky every chance I had because church was something to be endured. It was something you had to hopefully manage to sit through, and you couldn’t wait until it was done. Your favorite words were, “As we close the service…” Those were my favorite words. As a spectator, you are here maybe because your spouse brings you. There is some reason you have to go, but you really don’t want to go. When you’re there, you’re not engaged. You’re not buying into the message, and you’re not part of a relationship or ministry. You’re there because you need to be there. There is a consumer mindset that has really become pervasive in our society. You know that consumer mindset that goes into the grocery store and says, “Try this.” Somebody else says, “Try this product. It’s bigger and better. It’s more improved.” That has crept into the church by the droves. We have a lot of mega-churches where people will leave their home churches to travel for miles to consume a service because it’s the in thing to do. They don’t know anybody in the church. They don’t engage in ministry; they’re not building relationships. The church doesn’t know them, but they consume a product. When another church pops up that’s faster and is growing bigger or another new preacher rolls into town, they say, “Oh, he’s really good,” and they’ll go there. They have this consumer mindset. They’ve bought into the message; they’re believers, but they’re not plugged into the body at all. They’re always moving around, always trying the next best big thing. That’s a consumer mindset, and it’s very pervasive. Then there is the participator mindset that enters into the life of the church. This group enters into relationship. The participators enter into ministry; they buy into the message; and they are a part of that body of believers. That’s what we’re going to talk about today: what does it mean to be a participator? Hopefully, that’s the category you fit into today. If you are a participator, the first thing you must do-the entry point in being a participator-is you must be a receiver of the Gospel, a receiver of Truth. In John 1:12 (page 1049 of pew Bibles), it talks about this. He says, “Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God…” Notice, it’s receiving and then becoming. It’s not becoming and then receiving. You receive, and then you become as the end product. As we try to invite people to church or encourage people to come, sometimes they’ll say, “Well, you know, I just don’t have my act together. I have things in my life that I’m ashamed of. They’re not right. When I get my act together, then I’ll think about God. Then I’ll think about spiritual things.” We say that’s like a dirty person saying, “I’m too sweaty, stinky, and dirty to take a shower.” “What? Showers are for dirty people! That’s why you go! The soap, the water, and the shampoo cleanse you from that dirt!” You don’t say, “Well, I’m so sick, I can’t take this medicine. I’m too sick to go to the doctor. I’ll wait until I get better.” “Going to the doctor and getting your meds is going to help you get better because medicine is for sick people.” In that same way, church is for sinners, and we are all sinners. You are pastored by a sinner, in case you didn’t know that. We are all sinners; we all have a needle that points to self. We all have a selfish nature that is in rebellion against God. So number one, what do we receive as a receiver? We receive the Word, and Paul talks about this very practically in Romans 10:13 (page 1121), “…for, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’” That’s good news! Then he asks some practical questions [in the next Verse, Verse 14]. He says, “How, then, can they call on the One they have not believed in?” What he’s saying is if they don’t know about God, how can they call upon Him? And how can they believe in Him, Whom they have not heard? How can they hear without someone preaching to them? One of the main ministries of our church is that we proclaim the Gospel, whether it’s from Sunday morning, in a small group, or in a class. Whatever it is, we are proclaiming the Gospel, and what is the Gospel? If we had one message to proclaim, what would it be? What is the most important message in this Book? The Bible tells us. What if the end-of-world guy [Harold Camping] was right? Have you heard the latest by the way? Well, the rapture was going to be May 21, right? Brenda and I were going out to lunch, and we were talking about it on Monday. I said, “He’s going on the radio tonight. Watch him play the ‘Jesus came back spiritually card.’ That’s what all the false religions/false teachers do when they predict the second coming and it doesn’t happen.” “Oh, He came back spiritually,” [according to Harold Camping]. Jesus has come back to earth spiritually like a half a dozen times now. I said, “He’s going to pull that card, you watch.” Sure enough, he got on the radio and said, “Jesus came back. We were right, but it was a spiritual second coming. The end of the world is still going to be October 21.” That’s when everything will get blown up, so we have almost five months left. What if he were right? [What if] we had one Sunday left; and there was one more sermon we could give? What should that be according to this Book that we read? In 1 Corinthians 15:3 (page 1139) says, “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance…” In the Greek, it’s very clear that Paul is saying, “This is the most important thing that I received, and this is the most important thing I’ve passed on to you. This is the most important thing you can pass on to someone else.” The Gospel says that Christ died for our sins-according to the Scripture-that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to Scripture-and Verse 5 says “and that He appeared.” Died, buried, raised, and appeared: died for sins; buried three days; raised and appeared to many. Paul says that is the most important message that we share. That is the essence of the Gospel. That is what we are about. That’s our number one priority as a church. If you want to be a participant in the message of the church, you must be a receiver of that message. Secondly, we are called to be givers. I’m not talking about money. You can give that too, but I’m talking about an attitude of the heart that looks out for others in the church. Acts 2:44-46 (page 1079) says, “All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts…” He’s talking about sharing life together. Being a participator means you recognize you’re responsible not just for yourself. They gave of their resources; they gave of their talents; they gave of their time. I think of one of our members named Vic Smith who tragically lost a daughter years ago to a car accident. Every year he opens up his home at least once-if not twice-a year to people who’ve lost loved ones. They open up the Scripture, and they open up their hearts, and they pray together. They work through a curriculum together, and they try to work on healing together. He lets them know that they can go on. Life has not ended, and they can heal. He ministers to them. He gives them of what he has. That’s what this Passage is talking about. It’s talking about sharing; it’s talking about when one has a need, another one comes to minister. We have a woman in our church who has some illnesses she’s been working through. Even though she has a strong faith, she has been very afraid of dying. Literally, the dying experience terrifies her. We have another woman in our church who has died. You’ve heard where they talk about hovering over your body, the light? She went through that. She goes to our church. When she was a young girl, she had a respiratory condition and was in an oxygen tank, and she died. She will tell you it’s not a dream state she was in; it is as much a memory as her graduation from high school, her wedding day, or the birth of her children. She remembers being out of her body; looking down on the tent and her body; looking down at her mother crying; watching the medical professionals as they worked to revive her; listening to the conversation; and then seeing a light and going toward that light. Then she remembers experiencing peace and love that she’d never experienced before. She heard the voice of God and asked to go back to her mom. God said, “You can, but you need to understand it’s going to hurt when you go back. When you’re in your body, it’s going to hurt,” and she asked to go back. She no longer has a fear of death-none, not a bit. She called and ministered to that person in our church who does. That’s what I’m talking about when I talk about giving. It’s as they say, “Having each other’s backs.” It’s being in a position of community. It’s sharing a life together, and that's what the church was in its inception. It didn’t remain that way entirely. Sin would creep into the church; self-centeredness and rebellion would creep into the church as well; but in its inception, in its infancy, the church was that kind of community that sees the needs, responds to the needs, and gives of ourselves to one another. Thirdly when we talk about ministering, we are to be workers in the Word-a worker in the Word. In 2 Timothy 2:15 (page 1179) it says, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the Word of Truth.” Have you ever been in a classroom situation where you’re hoping the teacher doesn’t call upon you because you didn’t read the assignment or you’ve read the assignment and you don’t understand the assignment? You’re sitting there thinking, “Please don’t call on me. Please don’t call on me. Please don’t call on me,” and they do. You’re like, “Uh-oh.” You’re not ready; you’re kinda ashamed, right? There are some times in our lives when we’re called upon to know the Word, and we don’t know it. I had a lady in our church who had some friends who challenged her on the Bible, the authenticity of the Bible being the Word of God. She had no answer for them. She said, “What should I have done? What should I have said?” I said, “Probably, if somebody thinks the Bible is just an ordinary Book, you should have probably taken them to some Biblical prophecies and showed them how some prophecies were fulfilled. Show them about kings and reformers who were prophesized by name centuries before they were born. Talk to her about how they prophesized where the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem.” Bethlehem is a little city like Orfordville or something. It wasn’t a major city, and yet the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. “Talk to them about how Christ fulfilled the prophesy.” She said, “I don’t know those things.” I said, “Let’s get together. Let me teach you those things.” She wasn’t ready [to show proof to her friends]. [You have to be ready for] when people challenge your faith so that you’re ready when a false teacher like Harold Camping comes and says, “The rapture is coming May 21, and the end of the world is October 21.” So many people bought into that. A man in Asia jumped off a building and died. A woman out west slit the throats of her two little daughters and then her own. Fortunately, a neighbor found them and saved all of their lives. People put their pets down; people sold their homes and quit their jobs. As I was preparing for that message that I gave last week on that subject, I had to listen to this program and listen to call after call to my amazement. These were reasonable-sounding people asking questions of Mr. Camping, and he would give them ridiculous non-Biblical answers that I’d never heard before in my life. They would simply say, “Well, thank you. Now I understand.” I would say, “No, you don’t! You’re more confused than you ever have been in your life!” But they would swallow it hook, line, and sinker. A workman understands the Scriptures. They have a handle on the Bible so when those moments come, they are ready to defend their faith, to explain their faith, or to rise to someone who is challenging their faith with heresy. That’s why we have teachings on weekends; that’s why we have our classes. This morning we had a class at 8 o’clock. We had a class at 9:30; we had a class at 11-right now. Have you gone to any of them today? They’re there; they’re there to teach you as small groups. We studied the Bible. We have one-on-one Real Zeal curriculum where people are working through the Bible together one on one in our church. Are you taking advantage of those opportunities to become a student of the Word? We have three people right now enrolled in training to be pastors, studying the Word of God. God wants you to be a workman that doesn’t need to hang your head when the moment comes, so you understand the Word of God. You can explain the Word of God. Fourthly, we are called to be servers of the Gospel. In Galatians 5:13 (page 1154), it says this: “You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.” To be a participant in the body of Christ, to be a participant of the church is to serve. I hear Christians who say, “You know, I don’t need to go to church to worship God. I can worship God in the park.” How many of you heard people say that before?” Yeah, that is a selfish and arrogant statement to make. It’s selfish because that means you are not offering what you have to give and what God has given you to the church. What’s more, it’s arrogant because it’s saying you don’t need anything the church has to offer. You don’t need the ministry of anybody else. You don’t need the teaching from the Bible because you understand the Bible so well yourself. You don’t need the spiritual gifts everybody else has. It’s a selfish and arrogant statement. When God gives you a gift and gives you talents, it is for others. It’s to serve others. Whether it’s a spiritual gift, like preaching and teaching, or a practical gift, like the ability to build something or fix something, [God has given you those to share with others]. We announced a long time ago-a year or so ago-that Sarah Worthing, one of our members, had become paralyzed. She is a young mother, and she could no longer walk for an inexplicable reason. She became confined to a wheelchair. Within two weeks, a team from church assembled. With donated materials, they built a ramp for her to get in and out of her house on. I’m happy to now say she can walk. After months of being paralyzed, her ability to walk was restored. She walked to church last Sunday. That’s a blessing; that is serving. When you receive a gift for your birthday, your anniversary, or Christmas, it is usually from somebody to you. It has your name on it, and you know who it’s from. You open it up and it’s something you want. It’s not like Fred Flintstone giving a bowling ball to Wilma. Remember that episode? It’s not that. By the way, it was a bowling ball that only fit his hand. You give the gift to them, for them. God gives a gift to you for the church. I hope I have a gift to teach and preach. Some of you might say, “Well, I’m not so sure you do.” Others of you seem to come back every week, but that’s not for me. That’s not for me to get up in the morning and preach to myself in the mirror. “Good morning, me. Turn to the Passage that you need to hear today. I’m going to preach myself a sermon on not being an idiot.” That’s not for me. The last time I preached in a mirror, it was to prepare a sermon to give in front of my student body at Trinity. I was not aware of any student ever giving a sermon before, so I was quite honored to give a sermon; but I was so scared that I preached the sermon to myself. All I knew was how scared I was. They never invited me to speak again. I don’t know what that means, but we don’t get gifts to use for ourselves. Your gift is for the body; your gift is to share. You’re to serve and help. Our custodian has been under the weather. He’s had some surgery, and he’s been recovering. We have some needs to be taken care of, some physical needs at the church. Judy, our office administrator, made some phone calls. People stepped up and said, “I’m willing to serve. I’m willing to clean the restrooms. I’m willing to do the sanctuary. I’m willing to vacuum. I’m willing to cut the grass.” What a blessing that is-people coming alongside and serving the Lord, serving us, and serving Jim (Fish, the custodian at Faith) by ministering to the physical needs of our church. That is a spiritual act-serving. It’s what a participant does. A participant realizes it’s not about them only. They use their gifts, their talents, their time, and their resources to serve Christ and to serve the body of Christ. Fifthly, a participant in the church is a follower. They’re doing what Jesus said to do. Matthew 28:19 (page 989), our core Verse for our church-this is on our website, it’s on our literature-says, “Therefore go and make Disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” In 1 Peter 3:15 (page 1202), “But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect…” Set apart Christ as Lord. “God, what do You want me to do? Where do You want me to go? How do You want me to serve?” A true participant is a follower. When I was 19 years old, I attended a Urbana missions conference. Billy Graham was our last speaker. He said, “The first words of Jesus to His Disciples were to come, and His last words were to go.” When they came, they didn’t know anything; when they went, they knew what they needed to know to change the world. You come to Christ as an infant; and then when you leave, it means you’re mature. When you grow up and leave the house, it means you’re mature. When you leave, when you go out for the mission of the church, it means you have become a mature person. You are becoming a mature church. I’m excited about the things I see happening in our congregation right now. Sometimes as a pastor, you take the spiritual pulse [of the church] and think, “Oh, we need to bring out the defibrillators and shock this body.” Other times there is a pulse. I sense something good is happening. I was talking to our RUSH students. You know what RUSH is? RUSH is our group of young adults in their 20s that meet every week to study the Bible together. Pastor Jesse is their fearless leader. I think this past week, there were like 24 young people that took over Pizza Hut. They meet every Tuesday in the little side room there. You can’t have any meals there on Tuesdays at 7; that’s for RUSH. They take it over, and they study the Bible together. They’ve gone from two 20-somethings to over twenty 20-somethings. I’ve heard several of them come up to me and say, “Pastor, we’re going to do something exciting. We’re going to go somewhere. We might go and help the victims of the tornado. We might do something locally in our community, but we are going to do something to make a difference in our world! We’re going to do something!” Just having that dialogue, just hearing that conversation, blesses me. I’ll feel the pulse; I’ll feel the heartbeat. If young people realize it’s not about them and give out to serve, then there is hope for us, isn’t there? Those people get it. I listen to that group, and I’m excited to hear what they’re going to do. The pressure is on now. The pastor has talked about you in church. Whenever they decide where they’re going to go, what they’re going to do, we are going to get behind them any way we can to help them. We’ll be proud of them. I think of Pastor Jerry-he’s 55 years old. He has a good job. He can kind of kick back and take it easy, but he is starting a church in Evansville. He is already preaching there. Well, he is done now, I think (Pastor looks at his watch). Knowing Jerry, he still might be preaching. That’s a lot of work, and there he is. I think of Sally Thompson, who is Pastor Jesse’s sister. She’s part of our tech team, part of our 8 o’clock in the morning music team. Life was good; she had a job. She was by her family, and within two weeks, she was off to Indonesia. She is serving as a missionary there. She packed her bags, bought her ticket, and was gone. She wants to “Go Beyond,” she said, and there she is. I think about our team that leaves Friday for Bali-Mike Powers, the Bales, the Millers, Jesse, and other folks gathering and going to minister to our missionaries. We have several in our body that are going to joining kids around the world very soon to go to the Dominican Republic and help build a playground and share the Gospel there. My alarm clock went off at 2:30 in the morning Saturday morning. You say, “Why was it going off at 2:30 in the morning?” It’s because our team was getting ready to leave for Haiti, and they’re there now. We met at Van Galder, and we all huddled around together. Their leader said, “It’s time to board the bus. Let’s pray.” We all huddled up in a circle, and I just looked at every one of their faces and into everyone’s eyes. I said, “We are so proud of you. Your church is so proud of you. I’m proud of you. God’s going to use you.” We prayed together, and I gave every one of them a hug as they got on the bus. I just saw in their faces anticipation, “I don’t know what’s ahead of me. I don’t know what it’s going to be like in Haiti. I haven’t ever been there,” but they are going off to minister. They’re going off to work on plumbing, to paint, to serve, and to teach people they don’t know. You say, “Well, they know Pastor Sean.” Some of them don’t know Pastor Sean at all. They’ve come on board since he was here. They’re going to be serving. There is a look of fulfillment in their faces that says, “I’m a participator. I’m a difference-maker. I’m a follower of Christ.” Turning 50 has had an impact on me. I’ve gotten very reflective as I’ve gotten older. From time to time, I go to my hometown of Rockford, whether it’s to see my sister or friend or to even go to my favorite pizza place. I take some drive-bys. Occasionally, I’ll go out of the way and I’ll drive by my grade school. There are a lot of memories there. I look at that building, and I stop my car. I think about the ball games and the playground. I think about the friends that I met that are lifelong friends. I say, “Here is where I learned how to read and write, multiply. Here is where I learned disciplines that I would carry with me and study habits I would use for the rest of my life. Here is where teachers poured into me and helped me to be the person I am today.” I take a drive by my home. When I say a home, [I mean] we lived in an apartment. My father was an immigrant from Sweden. He took a very low-paying job as a factory worker. He died when I was very young, so my mom just did odd jobs to survive, and we received social security (payments). We didn’t have much. That old four-family flat, that was home. It doesn’t look pretty to you. You wouldn’t want to buy a house in that neighborhood, but that is home to me. I think, “Here is where I was raised. Here is where I spent time with my mom and my sisters and friends. Here is where I learned how to play wiffleball and kickball. Here is where I formed my personality. Here is where I became a man. Here is where I grew up. This building has significance to me. It is far beyond an apartment building. This was home for me.” It was far beyond an apartment building; this was home for me through my formative years and into adulthood. Then I drive by where our church used to be. It’s not there anymore. The church I grew up in has been leveled and I can hardly even tell where it was anymore. There are gas stations, other buildings, and restaurants around where it stood. That spot of land is very precious to me. Even though what was there is gone, all those memories are there. That’s where I grew my spiritual roots. That’s where I first learned that God loved me and that Jesus Christ died for me. That’s where I first opened up my heart to the Lord. That's where I first sensed a call in my life from Him. Again, it’s where I built friendships that have lasted a lifetime. It’s where I was born and raised spiritually. That land has significance to me. When I talk to you about building Phase 4, I’m not talking to you about building a brick and mortar and carpeting and wood. I am talking to you about ministry; I am talking to you about life change. That is what we are building. We are building a place for others to come and know the Lord that we know. We’re building a place so we can more effectively minister to the people we have and the people who will come in, so join us with your hearts, join us with your prayers, and join us with your resources as we together seek to make this happen. It’s more than a building. Let’s pray together: Father, I thank You today for the challenge of Your Word. Nothing earth-shaking was shared today. There was no enlightenment in the Scripture that we hadn’t seen before. That was not the purpose. The purpose was just to remind us of what this is about, what church life is about, what ministry was about. Lord, I thank You for each person here-those who have been a part of our church for years since its inception and those [who have more recently joined]. Lord, as I look out today, I can see some people who are with us since the very first Sunday 21 years ago. I can look out and see a face that’s joining us for the very first time today. I thank You for all of them. I pray that together we would seek to make a difference-not just in Rock County, but in our world. We thank You for bringing this church into existence. We thank You that we can partner with like-minded churches to accomplish the mission You’ve given us to do, to reach the world with the good news of Jesus. In Your name, I pray. Amen.
Pastor Jeff Williams: May 22, 2011 Going Beyond, Part IV, “Beyond Listeners.” (Clip is played about Harold Camping’s prediction of the world ending on May 21, 2011. Link can be found here: http://www.faithcommunitychurch.net/beyond_listening Click on “Beyond Listening Video Clip 1.”) Interviewer: “Let’s talk about the coming of the Lord on May 21. You’re not just saying this is a strong likelihood. You’re saying absolutely this is going to happen.” Camping: “I am saying this is going to happen May 21-Judgment Day will begin, but thank you for calling and sharing; and shall we take our next call please. Welcome to the open forum. “There are 14 days left, my, my…” Pastor Jeff: I think we’ve all heard of this gentleman by now, right? The end of the world, the rapture of the church [was supposed to take place] yesterday. The end of the world in five months… How many of you just found out about Mr. Camping? Let me see your hands. [How many of you] just recently found out about this? Our series is called, “Going Beyond,” and this morning, we are talking about “Going Beyond Listening,” so that we don’t become just listeners of the Word of God but students of the Word of God. We don’t just swallow hook, line, and sinker anything that’s taught to us, but we examine it in light of the Scripture. The Christians in Berea in the Book of Acts were called noble-minded because they took what Paul said and they checked it out for themselves. They listened to Paul, and they went back and examined the Scriptures to see if what he said was true. Paul didn’t reprimand them for that. From time to time, I would listen to the teacher whose name is Harold Camping. He is the gentleman who predicted the end of the world. I remember listening to him and thinking, “He’s not very good.” I don’t know how he got on the radio. There was nothing else to listen to, so I would just listen. Then one day I heard something I couldn’t believe. I heard him predicting not just the year, but the month, the date, and the time that the church would be raptured, and I heard him say a lot of other false things about the Bible and about the church. I was appalled. I got out my pen as I was driving my car, and I said, “I am writing down the call letters of this station. When I get back home, I’m going to look them up on the computer. I’m going to call this radio station, and I’m going to complain.” I’m going to say, “Do you know what one of the people on your radio station is teaching? Do you have any idea? You should not let this guy on your airwaves.” I got home and I punched in Family Radio. I looked it up, and it turns out he owns the station (congregation laughing), so that was going to be a problem. In fact, not only does he own that station, but he owns 140 stations around the world. He is in most major cities in America and in many others around the world. He started buying these radio stations in the 1970s, all the way through the ‘80s, ‘90s, and through the 2000s. He is a retired civil engineer who is very successful at what he does. He accumulated and massed all these radio stations. Several years ago, probably even sooner than that, he started to predict the end of the world-May 21, 2011. That’s what we’ve been hearing about in the news. This scared a lot of people. There are people who sold their homes. There are people who quit their jobs because of this. There are people who bought expensive cars and took expensive vacations. One man called him and said, “Mr. Camping, thank you for helping me to understand this. I am with my family in Europe, and we are taking a cruise. I quit my job; I sold my home. We are living large in Europe. I have just enough money to make it to May 21. Thank you for all you’ve done for me and my family,” so he is somewhere stranded in Europe right now. That may be humorous, but there are some sad stories. There are people who put down their pets because of this; and I can’t confirm this for you, but I’ve heard from two different sources that some parents might have taken their child’s life because they didn’t want their child to endure the Apocalypse. This is serious stuff. People left the church by the droves because of this guy. You know there is going to be kooks out there, but what was amazing to me was that person after person, caller after caller-and they sounded like reasonable people-would listen to unreasonable, non-Biblical answers by this gentleman. They’d simply respond by saying, “Thank you. Now I understand. Thank you. Okay.” He’d been on the radio for 50 years. Some of those people had listened to him since they were kids, so whatever he says “is Gospel.” Whatever he says “is going to happen.” They put their whole trust in him. One of his favorite lines is, “Don’t trust me; trust the Bible. The Bible is the authority, not me. I’m simply a teacher. Don’t trust me; trust the Bible.” In essence, he threw God under the bus because now when it doesn’t happen… “The Bible said it was going to happen-now what? We don’t trust the Bible?” In light of the current events, I’m still going to keep the same topic, but it’s going to take a new twist. I’m going to talk a little bit more than I would have-had this not become this national story-about false teachers and give you some warnings about false teachers. We’re going to keep the same topic, but I’m making an adjustment in light of this. Predicting the end of the world is not something new. There will be other teachers like Mr. Camping in the future, and there have been others like him in the past. In fact, since the very beginning when Christ said He would return, there have been people who have come up with theories and ideas and started rumors concerning the coming of Christ. Did you know that in the very beginning of the church these rumors existed? It is nothing new. Please turn in your Bibles to the Book of 2 Thessalonians 2:1 (page 1172 of pew Bibles). Paul is writing to the church in Thessalonica, and he says in Verse 1, “Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to Him, we ask you, brothers, not to be easily unsettled or alarmed by some prophecy, report or letter supposed to have come from us, saying that the day of the Lord has already come.” So somebody was starting a rumor. Somebody was pretending to be Paul and circulating a letter, sending out Tweets and texts. I don’t know if his Facebook page was hacked (congregation laughing), but somehow he’s sending out these alarms that the day of the Lord has happened. This is a little different. Harold is saying here’s when it’s going to happen, and this group was saying it’s already happened. “You’ve been left behind. You missed it.” It reminds me of a prank they played on a guy in college at Trinity. They played a joke on this guy where they set his alarm clock to go off at a certain time, but then they put the shower on, the water faucets on, started the razors and left them going. They had the hair dryer going. They put his clothes on the floor and vacated the rooms, so when this guy woke up and started walking around the suite, all this stuff was on, but nobody was there (congregation laughing). It was this elaborate hoax where he thought he was left behind. He didn’t think it was funny, but you guys apparently do. You’re laughing at his pain. This is a dark group here. Paul is trying to say, “Hey, listen, don’t let anyone deceive you in this way. Here are the things that need to happen before the day of the Lord comes.” He reminded them of what Daniel says and what Revelations says. He is saying, “Look, these things haven’t happened yet, so, no, the day of the Lord has not yet come.” He reminded them of what the Word says. He does it in a nice way, but I think Paul is really shaking his head thinking, “You should have known better. I shouldn’t have to say this. You should be a student of the Word. You should know what Daniel and Revelations say has to happen before the Rapture comes. You should know this.” The two Books that have the most to say about the end times-there is one in the Old Testament and one in the New Testament-are Daniel, in the Old Testament, and Revelation, in the New Testament. Those two Books work together. In Harold Camping’s eschatology, a theological term that means the last things, Revelation and Daniel are hardly a blip on the radar. He doesn’t even mention them much to speak of. Yet that’s where we get most of our information from. Paul writes and says, “Listen, be a student of the Word.” I want you to turn back one page in your Bible to 1 Thessalonians 4 (page 1171 of pew Bibles). This is the same church, but this is Paul’s first letter. This is one of the oldest Books of all the New Testament and also is one of the first Books Paul ever wrote, 1 Thessalonians. He says in Verse 19, “Do not put out the Spirit’s fire; do not treat prophecies with contempt. Test everything. Hold on to the good.” So if you hold on to what is good, what do you do with what is not good? You discard it. What is the context in which he says to test everything? He says, “People are going to pretend to speak for God all the time. Let them speak; beware of what they say. Maybe it’s of God; maybe it’s not. Test it.” The context of this is the end times. Look at Verse 1 of this Chapter (Chapter 4 of 1 Thessalonians, page 1171), “Now, brothers, about times and dates we do not need to write you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.” Don’t worry about times and dates. Don’t try to set times and dates. Don’t worry about that because it’s going to come when you least expect it. Christ will come as a thief in the night. So the context in which Paul says to test things is in the context, interestingly enough, of people postulating about the last times, about the end of the world. I want to share with you several tests [to find out if what you hear is true or false] because false teachers are everywhere. They may speak to thousands through radio, as Mr. Camping did. They may write books, as Mr. Camping did. They may be well-known or they may be obscure. They may be teaching a Bible study or leading a small group in their home with just a handful of people coming. I guarantee you there are false teachers in Rock County right now. Think of any major city, and there are false teachers there right now. You may not know them, but they are there. Someday somebody is going to hand you a book, hand you a tape, invite you to a small Bible study group, and you’re going to encounter false teaching. It may be false teaching about the end of the world; it may be false teaching about what Jesus did on the cross, about the Word of God, or about the Resurrection-who knows what-but you’re going to encounter this; and there are several tests that we want to talk about to identify these false teachers. In light of Mr. Camping and his revelation, we’re going to take a different turn. Let’s look at test number one: Test #1: Do they demonize outsiders? If there are false teachers, they don’t want their followers being mislead. What they like to do is demonize outsiders-not just say outsiders are wrong but [what they say is] “come away from the outsiders.” In this case, it’s “come out of the church. If you are in the church, you’re not really a Christian, so don’t have anything to do with them. Don’t listen to them. They’re of the devil.” Let’s listen to Mr. Camping talk about you and me and talk about the church. This is his own propaganda. (Link can be found here: http://www.faithcommunitychurch.net/beyond_listening Click on “Beyond Listening Video Clip 2.”) Mr. Camping: “Well, the fact is whether you’re a male or a female pastor or whether you’ve been a pastor a long time or a short time, if you are still preaching in a church, you are a servant of Satan.” Interviewer: “That is one of the more shocking things to hear that Satan is ruling in the churches. Mr. Camping: “Yes, it is, and you know we would never believe that, but we read in 2 Thessalonians [2:3],’Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall’ not’come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed…’ [2 Corinthians 11:14-15]’…as Satan as an Angel of Light…’ And his ministers of righteousness says, [Matthew 24:15-16]’When you see the abomination of desolation…’ that is Satan, Satan sitting in the holy place.’…then let those who are in Judea flee to the hills…’ And there are other Passages that tell us’get out of the churches because if you remain there, you-are-going-to-be-worshipping Satan.’ Can you think of anything more horrible than that?” So he talked about me, and he talked about you. I’m an agent of the devil because the devil is in charge of the church now and has been since 1988. It’s interesting that Mr. Camping was kicked out of the church in 1988. The elders kicked him out of the church for false teaching, so now, of course, the Holy Spirit has left the church. Nobody has been saved in the church since 1988. You have to leave the church and listen to him on the radio, and then God will open up your spiritual life. This is a new kind of a cult, really, that we’ve seen before. This man is ruling over his little flock from the airwaves; so right now, this morning, you are worshipping the devil, according to Mr. Camping. You probably didn’t realize that. When we send our team to Haiti at the 11 o’clock service this morning, they are going out to do the devil’s work when they go. Sally, as she leaves for mission work, is doing the work of the devil, according to Mr. Camping. This is an awful heresy to teach. What it does is it demonizes outsiders, so when people try to help-these people were passing out tracks in all the major cities, warning of the end of the world-when Christians come up and try to talk to them or their family members who are Christians try to talk to them, what have they been taught? They are “agents of the devil.” Now even “my own family is an agent of the devil. I’m not going to listen to you even though you love Jesus because you’re worshipping Satan.” In this way, he is able to keep control. He’s not able to be challenged because those who would challenge are already written off. They’re not credible because they are under Satan’s control. Let’s look at test number two: Test #2: Is their theology complex? Jesus says, “Whoever comes to the Kingdom must come as a…” what? Little child. “Come to God as a little child.” The Gospel is not hard to understand. It’s not at all; however, what Mr. Camping and others try to do is take what is very simple and make it very complex. There is an advantage to that. If I’m the only one who understands what I’m teaching-it’s so complex that you can’t even follow it-then I must be correct, right? If you’re trying to understand, and you can’t understand, and you’re trying to read the Bible, and you don’t see it-but I see it. I understand it-then I have an inside contact with God that you don’t have. You become very dependent on me to explain things to you because it’s too hard for you to understand. He stresses that over and over again. The Bible is extremely complex, extremely hard to understand, and it takes years and years and years of study “to be a scholar like I am,” he says. Listen, if you’ve been doing something poorly the whole time-it doesn’t matter how long you’ve been doing it, right? If you build houses that fall down every time the wind blows and say, “I’ve been a carpenter building houses for 50 years,” if you’re doing it inadequately, then it doesn’t matter how long you’ve been doing it. You may have been studying the Bible for 50 years, Harold, but you’ve been studying it poorly, so it really doesn’t matter how long you’ve been doing it. Maybe I’m being too harsh on him. Maybe we should just let him explain to you one of the ways that he came up with this date. Maybe it’s not complex at all. Maybe I’m just picking on the guy. (Link can be found here: http://www.faithcommunitychurch.net/beyond_listening Click on “Beyond Listening Video Clip 3.”) Let’s listen to a little bit of his: Interviewer: “There are a few numbers that have spiritual meanings that are important to this timeline, so could you give me each number…five.” Mr. Graham: “Number five signifies the atonement.” Interviewer: “Number ten.” Mr. Graham: “Ten signifies completeness-whether it’s ten or ten times ten or ten times ten times ten, it is the completion of whatever is used; and that’s used throughout the Bible that way.” Interviewer: “And the number seventeen.” Mr. Graham: “Seventeen points to Heaven and points to being caught up to be with Christ in Heaven. I’ve learned that through studying and studying and studying that a larger number can be broken down into insignificant numbers-(5 x 10 x 17) x (5 x 10 x 17)-and those are traumatically significant numbers.” Interviewer: “One more time, so (5 x 10 x 17) x (5 x 10 x 17) equals…” Mr. Graham: “722,500, which are the number of days inclusively from April 1, 33 A.D. and May 21, 2011, when the rapture occurs, which is the final date of the completion of our salvation. You have to have the numbers inclusive in order to include the whole extent of God’s salvation plan. Does 722,500 go from the day that Christ is hanging on the cross demonstrating how He had made payment for our sins, and five is the number of the Gospel of atonement to the day when God’s salvation plan is completed. Number ten, completeness, and the completeness of it is when we receive our glorified spiritual body. Seventeen is the catching up to finishing, when we are raptured. Seventeen, (5 x 10 x 17), and then it’s doubled because that shows that it absolutely is going to come to pass and will come shortly to pass.” See? It’s easy! (5 x 10 x 17)… You had no idea you had to be a math major to understand the Bible, right? Let’s look at test number three: Test #3: Is their theology esoteric? The word esoteric means something that’s known by a few, that we have been initiated. We have privileged information that the rest don’t share. There is a restaurant in Milwaukee called the Safe House. The only way you can get in is through a password. They make you do stupid things if you don’t have the password while everybody else in the restaurant watches you on TV. It’s not how much money you’re going to spend or who you know or how much you like the food; it’s do you have the password? Do you have the secret word? That’s what esoteric theology is. It’s like “we’re the only ones who understand this truth. Out of all the Christians of all generations that ever lived, only our little group and only our leader has found this truth.” If I’m doing my job, and the other pastors when they teach are doing their jobs, you’ll walk out of here going, “Okay, I have a better handle on the truth that’s already been revealed. I understand this truth better having been here. I have more clarity and direction on this truth.” You should not walk out of here going, “Oh, I got a bunch of new truth today. I just found out things in the Bible that nobody has ever taught.” In fact, the only mention of Revelation in his eschatology is right here: he said, “Jesus opened up the seals,” the seven seals in Revelation 5-6. “Jesus opens up the seals, and when He opened up the seals, now we have understanding.” When He said to Daniel, “Save these things till the time of the end,” this is the time of the end. God has revealed these things to Harold Camping, okay (congregation laughing)? Then Harold revealed it to the world. In the Book of 2 Peter 1:19 (page 1204), Peter writes a warning about teachers like this. He says, “And we have the word of the prophets made more certain, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. Above all, you must understand that no prophesy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” Go back to Verse 20; no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of private interpretation. If somebody comes to you and says, “Hey, here is something in the Bible nobody has ever learned before. Now the Bible is giving us this new truth,” that is a flag. Peter warns about that. Listen to what Harold has to say when he’s asked the question, “Does knowing this date affect whether or not a person is saved?” (Link: http://www.faithcommunitychurch.net/beyond_listening Click on “Beyond Listening Video Clip 4.”) Interviewer: “My question is really does knowing this have anything to do with our salvation?” Mr. Camping: “Knowing the date?” Interviewer: “Yeah.” Mr. Camping: “Well, yes it does because it’s very… In 1 Thessalonians 5 is scary beyond measure because there God starts out in that chapter and says, now you know’full well Christ is coming as a thief in the night.’ That has been…That has been God’s intention or that that be known that way throughout the church age. And but then he says Christ is coming as a thief in the night, and those who believe they are safe and secure-that is they believe they are believers’sudden destruction will come upon them.’ Wow! Let me read that. That’s, that’s, that’s scary because that that’s exactly what’s going on in every church. They believe that we can’t know the day or the hour, that it’s Christ who’s coming as a thief in the night, and then God says there will come a time when you believe that and… I’m, I’m turning to that in 1 Thessalonians 5. He says,’For yourselves…’ Now I’m reading Verse 2,’…for yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night for when they shall say “piece and safety,”‘ and that’s all those who are in the churches. They’re very or, or they’re not concerned because’oh, we’re, we’re, we’re a child of God, and He can come anytime. He can come tonight. He can come next year and so on,’ but we cannot know anything about His coming. Then sudden destruction cometh upon him. That’s talking about the day of Judgment. That’s talking about the wrath of God.” Interviewer: “Okay.” Mr. Camping: “As it’s to reveal upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape. That’s, that is a scary statement, but then he says,’But ye, brethren, are not in darkness.’ In other words, there are people for whom Christ is not coming as a thief in the night. He is saying for those who, who hear Christ is coming as a thief in the night, they’re still in spiritual nighttime.” Interviewer: “I understand what you’re saying…” When he talks about destruction coming upon the wrath of God, he is speaking about the church-the church who does not know this date. Does it matter if we know the date? “Oh yes! You have to know the date.” Relatively speaking, how many people-how many Christians-knew the date? Even though he has a large following, there are 2 billion Christians in the world. But a fraction of a fraction of a fraction knew about this-not very many, yet he is saying, “God is opening your eyes to seeing this date that God has shown me which is what your salvation rests on.” Your salvation does not rest upon knowing Jesus, putting your faith in Christ. Your salvation rests upon this hidden knowledge that has now been revealed. It is the theology esoteric. It is known by only these few. We’re the only privileged few that know this new truth that God has revealed. Let’s look at a fourth test: Test #4: Do they make bold claims? Do they claim something big is going to happen? Let’s go ahead and play his clip (Click on “Beyond Listening Video Clip 5” at this link: http://www.faithcommunitychurch.net/beyond_listening ). Interviewer: “Can you tell me about the great earthquake that is going to hit and exactly what is going to happen?” Mr. Camping: “Whenever a city or an area of the world comes to 6 p.m. Standard Time, about that time, and it’s May 21 on their calendar, there is going to be a great earthquake in that city. Now how, whether it’s going to be a whole series of earthquakes up and down from north to south, we don’t know. “The fact is that you should be praying and begging God that you might be one of those that are to be raptured, but those who are left behind, it is going to be a super, super horror story-an earthquake far larger, far greater than anything that has ever happened. “And if you are thinking well then it’s going to somehow be business as usual, you are going to be bitterly disappointed’cause it will not be. “And then when the next city at 6 p.m., they will have their earthquake, and every time there is a great earthquake, it means that Judgment Day has come to that area. “And so I don’t even want to think about those kind of things that you’re suggesting, but thank you for calling and sharing, and shall we take our next call please?” So we make these bold claims. They can instill fear in the followers. They can instill a great curiosity-something epic, something big-and that might cause them to send money as is in the case of Family Radio. They’ve taken in millions of dollars for billboards and literature and so forth. They can instill a great fear that causes me to follow this teacher that’s teaching because I don’t want to be left behind or I don’t want to lose my salvation. The last point I want to make is [as follows]: Test #5: The literal becomes spiritual, and the spiritual becomes literal. They take the Scripture, and they twist it. When asked, Mr. Camping says that in October, everything is disintegrated. There is a Resurrection, and people who were lost are condemned by God, and they become extinct. There is no hell; they’re just extinct. There is no judgment. When asked, “Well, what about the Judgment seat of Christ, Mr. Camping, where Paul says,’We must all stand before the Judgment seat of Christ and give an account of our lives?’” Mr. Camping says, “Well, that’s figurative. That’s not literal. You don’t really have to stand before the Judgment seat of Christ.” “Well, Mr. Camping, you have an appointment there. You’re 89 years old. You’ll probably be visiting that appointment pretty soon.” In Philippians 2:10-11 (paraphrasing Verses on page 1162), it talks about “when every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,” that is spiritual. That really won’t happen. That’s just a poetic way of Paul saying that Christ is Lord. When it says in the Bible that “He bore our sins on the cross,” when He died on the cross, He was just demonstrating what he did before the foundation of the world. Before the foundation of the world, the Bible says, “He is the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world.” We understand that to mean that God had a plan-that before man even sinned, God had a plan to redeem mankind. Before the foundation of the world, God had a plan; but Mr. Camping teaches that Christ was literally crucified and died, was buried, and rose again before Creation even happened. Mr. Camping claims all He did on the cross was do a demonstration of what He did before the Creation of the world. He bore no sin on the cross when He came to this earth. On and on we could go about these things that are to be taken literal that he takes figuratively, but then he takes things that are literal and gives spiritual meaning to them. It’s important that we understand that the Bible is written and is to be interpreted in a historical, grammatical sense. When Paul writes to the church in Thessalonica, this is a real church; these are real people; this is a real situation he is writing about. We understand these were written in history, so we need to understand who the original audience was, what life was like in Thessalonica, what the situation was in the church in that middle of the first century. It was written in a known language that has rules for grammar, so we have to interpret it through proficient grammar. A noun is a noun, and a verb is a verb. It is written in a spoken language, so we need to understand that. The moment you say, “Well, the Bible is spiritual,” we need to understand things spiritually. I understand the Bible is a spiritual book-yes, I understand that-but if I’m going to take and attach spiritual meanings to things, now it’s the Wild, Wild West. Anything goes. I can pretty much make any text say what I want it to say, and I disregard the background; I disregard the original audience; I disregard the author’s intent; and I simply can spiritualize any text, and that’s what false teachers do. Let me share with you a practical way of how Harold Camping came up with this date. Turn to Genesis 7:4 (page 6). God is speaking to Noah, and He says, “‘Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made.’” So who is God speaking to? Noah. Are the seven days literal days? They are literal days, so the clock starts ticking and you have seven days. Were they getting in a literal ark or a spiritual ark? It was a literal ark to keep them afloat when the flood waters came. Now keep that in mind. We understand that was said to Noah; it was a literal ark; it was literal water; it was a literal seven days. Let’s look at 1 Peter 3:3-9 (pages 1205-1206). Here is where he connects the dots. “First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say,’Where is this “coming” He promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.’ But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s Word the Heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water. By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. By the same Word the present Heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of Judgment and destruction of ungodly men. “But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” When he says a thousand years is like a day and a day is like a thousand years, is that to be understood literally? No. He is simply telling us that God is not subject to time as you and I. A thousand years seems like a long time to mortal man, but to God, eternal God, a thousand years is like a day. It’s like a moment. This language is used in Psalms 90:4 (page 589). It says, “For a thousand years in Your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night.” A watch in the night is just a few hours. A thousand years to God is nothing. Peter says don’t think God is slow in His promises. He’s like, “Oh, it’s been 3,000 years or 2,000 years, and nothing has happened.” He says, “To God, a thousand years is like a day.” Well, Mr. Camping then takes that as literal. He says, “That’s literal, and what happened to Moses is spiritual.” So Noah had seven days to get in the ark; he knew Judgment was coming. We know Judgment is coming. Since a thousand years is like a day, Noah had seven days; therefore, we have 7,000 years. So he uses his genealogies in the Bible, goes back to the day of the flood. He has figured out the day of the flood too, and then he adds 7,000 years to that date and the calculations came to May 21, 2011. You have 7,000 years to get into the ark of Jesus’ safety before God brings Judgment to the world. That’s how he came up with the number. If you knew how he came up with it, you would know you had nothing to be afraid of. You didn’t have to sell your home; you didn’t have to quit your job; you didn’t have to put your pet down. I don’t know if this has happened to you, but I had people coming up to me in the grocery store, in the restaurant, the gas station, and saying, “Hey, you’re a pastor, right? We’re going to be okay, right? It’s going to be all right? This guy, he’s crazy, right?” They’re saying that, and they’re kind of smiling, but inside they’re thinking, “It is okay, right? It’s all right?” (congregation laughing). It’s been interesting in the last several weeks; I’ve had some interesting conversations with people. I’ve had some spiritual conversations that I probably wouldn’t have had otherwise. You’re in aisle seven of the grocery store, so it’s hard to get into a discussion on end times. I just would say, “You know, he’s off his rocker. Don’t worry about it. Everything is going to be okay.” “Oh, that's good. That’s what I thought, yeah, yeah. I didn’t think he had anything.” There are people around the world who are watching the clock-not just in America, but other parts of the world. There were whole cities who followed Mr. Camping overseas that gathered together to wait for Jesus’ return. When you challenge him with what literal Scripture says, he says, “What is your evidence? What is your evidence?” You’d show him the evidence. You would read to him Mark 13:32 (page 1007). Jesus is speaking in Mark 13 and says this about the end of the world: “‘No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in Heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” It seems pretty straight-forward; it seems pretty plain…but not to Mr. Camping. Mr. Camping then just says, “Well, this could not be Jesus. Jesus could not be the Son here because Jesus is eternal God. He is equal with the Father, and if Jesus doesn’t know the day or the hour, that would make Him less than God. That would mean He didn’t understand something God knew. That’s blasphemy to say that the Son is Jesus here! You are blaspheming God because you’re saying that is Him!” The Son must be someone else. Even though anytime in Scripture where Jesus talks about the Father and the Son, He is referring to Himself every other time, in this situation, “He is not. The Son must be…” Are you ready for this? “…the devil. He is the son of perdition.” So according to Mr. Camping, no one knows the day or the hour-”not angels in Heaven, nor the devil.” That’s what he is saying here. “To say this is Jesus is blasphemy because Jesus is God.” He is saying, “You’re saying Jesus isn’t God!” The callers would say, “I don’t want to say Jesus isn’t God! I don’t want to do that! Okay! Okay!” And then they listen to that; they buy into that. “Well, how can Jesus say that? If He is God, how can He say that?” In the Book of Philippians 2:5-8 (page 1162), there is a very key Passage in the New Testament. Paul writes and says, “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death-even death on a cross!” Now, we shouldn’t think of it as Jesus emptying Himself of His Godhead. He did not do that. The Bible says He regarded His equality with God as something not to be taken advantage of or not to be grasped. The way I’ve illustrated it is this: imagine you are a carpenter. You’re building a house, and you’re trying to teach this new rookie how to build a house. On this job, you have a nail gun, and all you have to do is poof and the nail is in (Pastor motions as if he were putting a nail in something with a nail gun). You want to take this rookie and teach him how it is done, so you keep that nail gun in your belt. You don’t use it. Instead, you pull out the old reliable hammer, and you say, “Here is how you hammer a nail,” and you hammer the nail. You demonstrate the old-fashioned way, “Do this.” You are teaching this guy how to hammer the nail. You have the nail gun, but you’ve chosen not to use it. You’ve laid aside the privilege of having this superior tool in your belt, and instead you’re going to do it the old-fashioned way. The Bible teaches us that Jesus did not empty Himself of deity. He emptied Himself of the privilege of deity. He did not consider equality with God something to be grasped or taken advantage of while He was incarnate as a man. It’s interesting to note in the Book of Acts when the Disciples ask Him a second time, “Tell us about the end of the world. When is it going to happen?” Jesus no longer says that He does not know the day or the hour. He simply says, “It’s not for you to know the times the Father has set.” Jesus is now restored to His glorified body. Understanding the Trinity and all of that is very complex. That is hard to understand, but make no mistake about it when He says in that Passage in Mark 13 the Son, He was speaking of Himself. If you have any other questions about this, let me know. I’m going to try to answer them as it pertains to Mr. Camping, as it pertains to false teaching. I will try to answer those questions. On Saturday night, we have a little bit more time; so I was able to do some Q & A with that group, but we have to wrap things up here. I hope that it’s been helpful. I hope that if somebody else asks you about this, maybe it will help you explain what is going on. There might be some people you encounter who say, “Well, you know, it just shows you the Bible isn’t true.” Making a false statement about the Bible and misrepresenting what the Bible says and then having that not come to pass, how does that reflect on the Bible? If you say something that is untrue about the Bible, and it doesn’t come to happen, that’s not a reflection on the Scripture. That’s a reflection on the person who misrepresented the Scripture. There could possibly be some conversations that will come your way in the days ahead, when you go back to work and have some water cooler conversations about the rapture that didn’t come. What do you think? Hopefully this time together has helped you with that.
Pastor Michael Powers: May 15, 2011 Going Beyond, Part III, “Beyond Mores: Are You a Fan or a Follower?”
(There is a Power Point that goes along with this sermon and can be found at this link: http://faithcommunitychurch.net/beyond_mores.)
If we’re going to be talking about “Beyond Mores,” we thought we should probably define that term: the accepted traditional customs and usages of a particular social group, moral attitudes; any given society’s particular norms, virtues, or values. The English word morality comes from the same route. There are a lot of things we could talk about and examples, but we’re going to go for a biggie right away. We’re going to jump right in.
How many of you remember what early ultrasounds used to look like? I remember the first time I saw my son Caleb [on the ultrasound], and I was like, “Ha? There’s a baby in there?” They would have to tell you where the head was or the foot. I was like, “Okay, I’ll just take your word for it.” It’s amazing what they can do now in a 4D ultrasound. Now you can see the smile on a baby’s face. It looks a little creepy, but that’s pretty amazing. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen this picture; and if you haven’t, there’s a reason for it. This is a picture of a 21 week old baby in the womb, and he had a problem with her spine. The doctors went in and performed surgery at 21 weeks. During the surgery, the baby’s hand reached out; the doctor put his finger out, and the baby latched on to the doctor’s finger (link to picture can be found at the following link: http://www.michaelclancy.com/story.html
That’s just amazing-not only of the ultrasound technology, but of what we can now do in the operating room. That’s pretty amazing stuff. As our technology advances and as our culture advances, we begin believing that this so called old archaic Book is somehow out of date; that somehow we know better than God as to what is right and what is wrong; and we can decide what is right and what is wrong. By doing that, we end up in a pretty scary world. As believers in Christ, our standard of right and wrong goes way beyond what our culture may say. I don’t know if you’ve recently read what’s been going on in India, but let me read this short article to you. It says (article in its entirety can be found here: http://www.riazhaq.com/2009/07/female-genocide-unfolding-in-india.html),
“The land of former Prime Minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi is killing its daughters by the millions. Economically resurgent India is witnessing a rapid unfolding of a female genocide in the making across all castes and classes, including the upper caste rich and the educated. The situation is particularly alarming among upper-caste Hindus in some of the urban areas of Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, specially in parts of Punjab, where there are only 300 girls for every 1,000 boys…” It should be about 105 males to every 100 females; and now it’s 300 to 1,000. “…One of the reasons for this accelerated rate of female feticide is the abuse of ultrasound technology to determine the gender of the unborn. The purveyors of the ultrasound business in every city, town and village of India entice parents by telling them to’spend 500 rupees now and save 50,000 rupees later.’ The cost of the ultrasound scan is Rs. 500 and the required dowry for marrying daughters off exceeds Rs. 50,000.00… “ActionAid has also found that girls are more likely to be born but less likely to survive in areas with more limited access to public health services and modern ultrasound technology…” and they will kill their daughters the old-fashioned way. One of the main things they’ll do is they will allow the umbilical cord to become infected, and they’ll just let their babies die of an infection. [This is] a culture deciding that it’s okay to do this.
This controversy has come to America. I don’t know if you’re aware of the baby gender testing. Obviously, not everybody who is using this is doing it for this purpose, but one of the current controversies is that they’re using it for selective abortion. You can decide if you have a boy or a girl, and thus you can decide if you really want to kill that baby inside of you. In fact it’s estimated by 2020, there will be 25 million more males, surplus males, in India than there will be females.
In 1972, our culture decided it was okay to kill an unborn child. Before 1972, it was wrong. We passed the law; and our culture decided that now from here on out, it is okay to do that. There have been 46 million babies murdered in America. Every two and a half minutes, a baby is murdered because we have decided to choose what is right and wrong.
In the Bible, the slaughtering of an unborn baby is called murder, but we now call it a choice. Having sex with someone else’s wife or husband is called adultery in the Bible, and we give it a nice word and call it an affair. The Bible says of God’s plan for marriage is between a man and a woman, and our society decides it can be between two men or two women, and we call it an alternative lifestyle. You see cultural morality changes all the time, and I am so thankful for a church that will stand on the enduring, never-changing, and eternal word of God. “Your Word, Lord, is eternal. It stands firm in the Heavens,” (Psalm 119:89, page 609 of pew Bible).
“All of Your words are true; all Your righteous laws are eternal,” (Psalm 119:160, page 611). “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away,” (Mark 13:31, page 1007).
“The grass withers, and the flowers fall, but the Word of our God endures forever,” (Isaiah 40:8, page 714).
“I am the Lord, and there is no other,” (Isaiah 45:5, page 722).
“I have not spoken in secret, from somewhere in a land of darkness. I have not said to Jacob’s decedents,’Seek Me in vain.’ I, the Lord, speak the Truth, and I declare what is right,” (Isaiah 45:19, page 723).
You would think if there were anything that a culture could agree on it would be to protect babies, infants, and children. This is not a political issue; this is a moral issue. Somehow it’s become [a topic] that we can’t even talk about for fear of upsetting someone. I want to stand before you and say I don’t care if I upset somebody by saying that God says this is murder. I am going to stand on the Word of God, and when God speaks the truth and He declares what is right, I will stand up for that.
What is the standard of morality? It’s the law that God gave us-specifically the Ten Commandments. God literally set His law down in stone. You know what we do as a society, as a culture, and as individuals? We come along and we decide, “You know what? I don’t like that particular one, and we’re going to kinda change this to fit what we think should be right or wrong.”
The myth in our society-the cultural mores-is that we are good people. If you were to do a man-on-the-street interview and ask people, “Do you think you’re a good person?” most people would say, “Yeah, I’m a good person.” We’re going to look at God’s standard and see how you and I measure up to what God’s standard of goodness is.
Commandment 1: You shall have no other gods before Me. In fact, Jesus said of this, “Love the Lord, your God, with all your hearts, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest Commandment. Have you broken this Commandment? I have. I have put things in my life in the place of God. At one time in my life, I took sports, and I put that on a pedestal and made it my god. It took the place of God in my life. Have you done that with anything in your life?
Commandment 2: You should not make for yourself any graven image. I used to think, “Man, how dumb is this? I’m going to make a wooden idol or a gold idol. I’m going to dance around it and worship this thing.” I was like, “What a bunch of stupid people in the Old Testament.” You know what this is also talking about? Have you ever had an image of God in your head that’s not the god of the Bible? Have you ever had a discussion and said, “There can’t possibly be a hell. There can’t be a place of punishment because my God isn’t a God of wrath. He’s a God of love and mercy.” That god does not exist except as a figment of your imagination. To create a god in your mind, your own image of God, is something the Bible calls idolatry.
Commandment 3: You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses His name. Maybe you’ve never uttered God’s name as a curse word, but let me ask you something and get a little more personal. Have you ever flippantly said, “Oh, my God!” or “Dear Lord”? The Bible says that’s called blasphemy. Using God’s name without a sense of awe and honor that is due His name… And we flippantly use His name that way.
Commandment 4: Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy for in six days the Lord made the Heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but He rested on the seventh day; and therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. Do you and I set aside a day each week to totally focus our thoughts on God? I don’t know how you’ve been doing, if you’re keeping score in your head, but I’ve messed up on every single one of these.
Commandment 5: Honor your father and your mother. I’ve not always honored my mom and my dad.
Commandment 6: Whew, you shall not murder. Before you get too comfortable with that, here is what the Bible says. Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him. I’ve murdered people in my heart. I have hated people in my life, and I fall short of this commandment.
Commandment 7: You shall not commit adultery, and you should be learning by now not to get too comfortable because Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said you shall not commit adultery, but I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. I have committed adultery in my heart. Every single one of these, I have failed on.
Commandment 8: You shall not steal. No matter the value-a paperclip, a pen from work-have you ever stolen anything? If you do steal, what does that make you? A thief.
Commandment 9: You shall not give false testimony. Have you ever lied…even once? If you lie, that makes you a liar. Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord.
Commandment 10, the last one: You shall not covet. Have you ever jealously desired other people’s things?
As we look at God’s standard of goodness, and if you and I were to stand before God on judgment day, I don’t know about you, but I know that I fall so short of God’s law. The huge myth in our culture is that somehow our good deeds will outweigh our bad deeds or that even somehow our good deeds would equal out to our bad deeds; and when we get before God, we can cross our fingers, “Please, one more good deed than bad deed. Whew! I’m in Heaven.” That is such a lie.
Here’s what the Word of God says about us and our hearts (Jeremiah 17:9, page 767). “Our heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? ‘I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.’”
“As it is written: there is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one,’” (Romans 3:10, page 1114).
“…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” (Romans 3:23, page 1114). We fall short of that standard that God has set.
“All of us have become like one who is unclean and all of our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away,” (Isaiah 64:6, page 742).
You see the penalty for not measuring up to God’s standard is death and separation from God.
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Romans 6:23
“And so then who can say,’I have kept my heart pure; I am clean and without sin’?” (Proverbs 20:9, page 645).
So when we stand before God and we are judged on God’s righteous law and we expect to get into a Heaven where it says, “Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life,” (Revelation 21:27, page 1231), a very serious question [is posed]: if you were based on God’s standard and you were to stand before God, where would you go?
But you see God knew that you and I could never measure up to that standard, so, “Therefore no one will be declared righteous in His sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin,” (Romans 3:20, page 1114).
Not only the conscience that God has placed on our hearts of knowing what is right and wrong, He gave us His law to show us that we don’t measure up. It’s a mirror to see ourselves for who we really are. I don’t know about you, but when I measure myself by God’s standard, I fall so short and I fear what’s going to happen.
Instead of jumping into the middle of the story where you tell people about the cross and what Jesus did, we need to go back to the beginning of the story. When Adam and Eve sinned and sin entered the world and our perfect union with God was broken and separated-and, “In fact the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness,” (Hebrews 9:22, page 1190).
When Adam and Eve sinned, God had to shed blood to cover up their sin as a foreshadowing of the “Lamb of God who will take away the sin of the world,” (John 1:29, page 1050). “Adam’s sin ushered death, sickness, and sorrow into this once perfect creation, and He pronounced a curse on the world, changing it completely,” (paraphrased version of Genesis 3:19, page 4, and Romans 5:12, page 1116).
As a result, the world that we now live in merely a decaying remnant, a corruption of the beautiful righteous world that Adam and Eve originally called home, but there is some good news: the Gospel literally means good news. “Rather than leave His precious handiwork without hope, God graciously promised to one day send a Redeemer who would buy back His people from the curse of sin and restore originally as He intended our creation to be,” (paraphrasing from Genesis 3:15).
“God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God,” (2 Corinthians 5:21, page 1145).
“And God says that our sin and our iniquity were laid on Him, and at this moment in the crucifixion every single sin that’s ever been committed was placed upon a holy and pure God,” (paraphrasing from Isaiah 53:5-6, page 731).
“…and that’s when He screamed out,’Father, why have You abandoned Me?’” Mark 15:34
Because a holy and pure God cannot stand the presence of sin, and He had to look away from His own Son.
And Jesus paid a debt that you and I could never, ever pay, and He provided a way for us to get into Heaven.
“He said,’I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through Me.” John 14:6
“But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin.” 1 John 1:7
How precious that blood is that was shed that it literally can take our “filthy rags,” as it says in Isaiah, and wash it white as snow, and Jesus will not even remember our sins. “That we can stand before Him dirty and sinful to the core, and if we accept what Jesus did by faith, He will wash that and make us white as snow.”
“He can take our dead, spiritual hearts, and He can make us a new creation.”
“And He wipes away that sin, and using His own blood, He pays the debt in full.”
“And if you and I are standing before God and we have made the conscious decision to say,’I am a sinner, and I do not measure up, and I need Christ’s righteousness in my life,’ God will declare you not guilty.”
“And by Him, God reconciled everything to Himself. He made peace with everything in Heaven and on earth by means of His blood on the cross, and this includes you who were once so far away from God. You were His enemies separated from Him by your evil thoughts and actions.” “Yet now He has brought you back as His friends. He has done this through His death on the cross and His own human body, and as a result, He has brought you into the very presence of God, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before Him without a single fault. We can lay our burden of sin at the foot of the cross.” Colossians 1:20-23
In Romans, it says, “I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice holy and pleasing to God; and this is your true and proper worship.” “Because of what God has done for us, the amazing price that was paid, our lives should be radically different.” Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Romans 12:1-2
I know I’m not getting what I deserve when I stand before God because I have put my faith and trust in Christ’s righteousness, but because of that, that mercy should lead to a dramatically radical and different life of how we live our lives.
But the world is full of cultural Christians. Churches are full of cultural Christians who do the church thing on Sundays, and then their lives are totally the same as anybody else in the world on those other six days.
When God calls us to be a follower of Him, we say, “Who, me? I don’t know about that.” So I ask you, “Are you a fan of Jesus?” Churches across America are filled with Jesus fans, but there are few followers. Are you a fan or a follower? A fan is an enthusiastic admirer. In the Gospels, Jesus never seemed too interested in fans. Is that how you define your relationship with Him: an enthusiastic admirer? Close enough to Jesus to get the benefits, but not so close as to require sacrifice. Our culture says that being a Christian is doing the church thing. Don’t you dare bring your faith into your personal life. Don’t bring it to school; don’t bring it to work; and we live the same as everyone else. Jesus calls us to be followers, but not just any follower-a completely committed follower. We don’t want to hear that. We’re pretty comfortable being a fan of Jesus. “Go, Jesus! I’m your biggest fan,” and we sit in the stands and cheer on Jesus; but we’re not willing to get out onto the field.
The Bible is very clear that there are so many more fans than followers. “Enter through the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.” Of the narrow gate, “but small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only few find it.” Matthew 7:13,14
These three verses are some of the scariest verses in the Bible, “Not everyone who says to me,’Lord, Lord,’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but only the one who does the Will of my Father who is in Heaven, and many will say to me on that day,’Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name and in Your name drive out demons and in Your name perform many miracles,’ and then I will tell them plainly,’I never knew you.’ Away from Me, you evil doers.” Matthew 7:21-23
What a scary passage! That you and I could do the church thing for years and years and years and die and go before God. God will look at us and say, “I never knew you.” Pastors and priests could give their whole careers of 40 or some years of doing the church thing and stand before God and say, “Lord, Lord, did we not…” He looks at them and says, “I never knew you.” You see, it’s not that doing good works will get us into Heaven. God’s already said, “You can’t do that.”
But it’s the fruit of our lives that shows whether or not we’re a follower of Jesus Christ.
“By their fruit, you will recognize them.” “A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.” “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” “And, thus, by their fruit, you will recognize them.” Matthew 7:16-20
“This is to My Father’s glory that you bear much fruit showing yourselves to be My Disciples.” John 15:8
God calls us. It says, “Whoever wants to be My Disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow Me.” Luke 9:23
Are you willing to do that? Am I willing to do that on a daily basis? Because I want to stand before you, church, and say, “I am not a fan. I want to be a totally, completely committed follower of Jesus Christ.”
At the age of five, I asked Jesus to come into my heart. From the age of five until my freshman year, I was a cultural Christian. In my junior high days, I didn’t swear. I didn’t drink. I didn’t do drugs. I wasn’t involved in anything sexually, but if you looked at my life compared to the regular kids who didn’t call themselves Christians, you couldn’t tell any other difference. I treated kids horribly.
In between my eighth grade and my freshman year, I thought to myself, “If Jesus was to come back, would I really go with Him?” At that moment, I moved that head knowledge of Jesus Christ to my heart, and I said, “God, whatever You want me to do with my life, I am a follower of You.” I began reading my Bible ten chapters a day. I brought my Bible to school, and I read it in study hall when I was done with my homework. I began to pray every day before I would go to school. I would say, “God, give me a chance to witness to somebody today.” While I said that in the back of my head, I was going, “No!” because I was afraid; but I knew “if this Word of God is true, my life should be radically different than what I was living.” God did some absolutely amazing things as I got plugged into His Word.
By my freshman year and into my sophomore year, not only were there other young men who were living their lives for Christ, but I had a young lady named Kristi Conway at the time that had been praying that God would raise up young men in our school to be men of God. As I prayed some really gutsy prayers, God started answering them. In my biology class, I had been talking to a close friend over and over about God. The biology teacher gave us seven or eight minutes at the end of class to just have time to ourselves. As soon as he said that, my friend turned and looked at me and said, “Mike, we have to talk. We need to talk about this. I don’t know where I’m going. If I were to die, I don’t know where I’m going.” In those seven minutes, I shared with him the Gospel. He bowed his head at Clinton High School in biology class, and he gave his life to Christ.
My New Year’s resolution that year--as other kids were saying do this or do that--I said, “I’m going to do something that only God can step in and do.” I said, “My New Year’s resolution is that I want to be able to lead--with God’s help--20 people to Christ.” I didn’t even have 20 friends. There aren’t even 20 people in all of Clinton. I knew this was going to be a huge thing that only God could accomplish.
I was sitting as a sophomore watching the girls’ varsity basketball game, and a friend started to ask me questions. I always kept a little New Testament in my locker. He said, “I want to talk about this.” We went out into my locker, grabbed my New Testament, I shared with him the Gospel, and he prayed right there in that hallway to give his life to Christ. I was flying high. I walked back into that gymnasium and sat down; and other friends were asking, “What were you guys talking about? Well, I want to know about that too.” I went back to my locker and got my Bible out; and we sat in the hall, and he accepted Christ. We went back in there, and a third friend asked, “What are you guys talking about?” I had about three friends in about 30 minutes [come to me], and God did that.
Then I was at what is called Youth Congress in Washington, D.C., and we went out street witnessing. I was this skinny little pimply-faced sophomore, and I was walking around the streets of Washington, D.C. Seven different people gave their lives to Christ. I walked up to one lady in a power suit who was eating her lunch and reading a book on her lunch hour. I started talking to her, and as I started talking to her, she just burst out crying. Tears were just streaming down her face. She said, “This morning, I sat there eating my breakfast and saying to God,’God, if You are real, You need to show me that You are real!’” She didn’t know what she was going to do with her life, and she said, “And God sends me a teenage boy to talk to me about Him.” She said to me, “I will listen to whatever you have to say,” and she gave her life to Christ.
If you are committed to being a follower of Jesus Christ, He will do amazing things.
In my sophomore year, there was a young man named Brian. He was a mentally challenged student that was in special education classes. He would walk around the halls of Clinton High School, and kids would make fun of him. They’d say, “Hey, Brian, are you the Incredible Hulk?” He would act like the Hulk, roar, and pound at the lockers. He’d run up and down the halls of Clinton High School, and kids would laugh and laugh. He had no idea they were laughing at him. God whispered to me, “You need to do something.”
“La, la, la, la. I can’t hear You,” because I didn’t want to stand up to these guys. Finally, God said, “You need to do something.” I got my courage up and said a prayer; and I told them to knock it off and stop. They looked at me and said, “Who do you think you are?”
I said, “Guys, I just cannot watch this every day. Would you just knock it off and treat him like a human being?” I would love to tell you that they stopped, and from then on after it was never issue; but within about a couple of days, they started up again. The difference was Brian became my friend.
I began to invite him to come to my house and play video games. This was the 1980s, and we had something called Intellivision, the first video games. We would play those video games, and we would talk. He would start asking me questions as to why I was different than the other kids at school. I remember sharing my Bible with him, telling him about Jesus Christ, and how He could come into his heart and was him away of his sin. I told him he could spend eternity in Heaven, and he prayed with me; and he didn’t even need any help saying the prayer. He said it in his own words, and he cried out to God. He grabbed my Bible, and he lay down on my bed and hugged it. He cried and he cried. The difference was this: when I cry, like when Mufasa dies, (congregation laughing)-I have to fast-forward to this day through that part. When I cry, I sob, and I’m very loud. This young man was so silent, and it was like somebody had taken a faucet in the back of his head and turned it on. It wasn’t drops that came down; streams of tears flowed down his face. |
Two weeks later, he really opened up to me, and he told me what had really happened in his life. When he was five years old, his dad packed a suitcase, walked out to his car, put the suitcase in his trunk, and as this little five year old boy was saying, “Daddy! Where are you going? Daddy, where are you going?” just before he got in the car, the dad looked at his son and said these words: “I can’t stand having a son like you! I am leaving, and I’m never coming back!” He got in his car and drove away. He left this little five year old with the last memory of his earthly dad totally rejecting him.
Then I knew why Brian cried those tears that day. He had been looking for a father’s love since he was five years old, and because a young teenage boy decided to say, “You know what? I’m done being a fan! I’m going to be a follower of Jesus Christ,” God used that young boy to talk to another young man and to radically change the direction of their lives.
There are all kinds of stories I could tell you of what God does when people decide to become followers of Jesus Christ.
One of the hardest things in youth ministry, one of the saddest things in youth ministry, is watching Christian teenagers come in the door, put their Christian masks on, say all the right things, do all the right actions, sing all the right songs, and when they leave youth ministry, they take their masks off and act just like everybody else. It hurts so bad to see that they’re rejecting God like that.
Let me ask you a very personal question: does it really shock us or surprise us when our kids and our youth end up just like us? We do the church thing and then we put our Christianity aside for the rest of the week, and they learn to mimic us.
See this tombstone photo here? It has my name on it, my date of birth, and a date of death that I randomly picked. This was freaky for me to do. When I did this in Photoshop, it was like whoa! I want to put this up there for this reason. What are you doing with that little dash in between the date of birth and the date of death? Are you going to be a fan, or are you going to be a follower? What will your legacy be in your family? Can you say, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord”? We’re going to watch a short video, and then my son, Caleb, is going to come up and play a song he wrote as we end the service. As this is going on, I want you to think to yourself, “Are you going to miss Heaven by 18 inches, the distance between your head and your heart? Are you going to continue to be a cultural Christian and someday have God say to you,’I never knew you.’?”
I don’t know where you’re at. Maybe you’ve been trying and have been stumbling. Maybe you’re in the stands, and you don’t even get on the track and run the race. As you watch this video and see what happens here, it is my hope and prayer that through this video and through the words that God gave Caleb for this song, today would be the day you could look back and say, “May 15, 2011, was the day I got out of my seat, and I got out into the field.”
May you be able to say, “I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the face. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all of those who have longed for His appearing.” 2 Timothy 4:7,8
You can watch the video at this link: http://www.godtube.com/watch/?v=FB2EMCNU
Come as You Are Original music and Lyrics by Caleb Michael Powers age 15
Verse 1 Why do you hide your face, from those you love? You always try to escape, from what you've done Why do you always think that, you don't belong? Don't you know what I did? I gave you my Son But now I'm calling out to, you who are lost Come as you are to Me, come to My cross
Chorus Come as you are in the darkest of days Come as you are when you've lost your way Just come as you are when you're broke and afraid You can come as you are its not too late
(Cause you are mine)
Verse 2 I know you're lost, in deep with sin To be renewed, just let Me in Though you've fallen, time and again You keep on reaching high, returning back and then
Chorus (x2) (You) come as you are in the darkest of days Come as you are when you've lost your way Just come as you are when you're broke and afraid You can come as you are its not too late
Ending (x4) Come as you are
"I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." "I will call them 'my people' who are not my people; and I will call her 'my loved one' who is not my loved one," "In the very place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' there they will be called 'children of the living God.'" Romans 9:15, 25,26
Closing Prayer. Heavenly Father, I just want to say thank You so much that You have taken my sins, and You cannot remember them anymore, that as far as the east is from the west, You have removed them. As I fall on my knees before You and I admit my need for You, You raise me up; You give me Your righteousness; You cleanse me with Your blood; and You allow me to spend eternity with You. Thank You so much for doing that. I pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Pastor Jeff Williams: May 8, 2011 Going Beyond, Part II, "Beyond Compassion." Our church went on a missions trip to the Dominican Republic about four years ago. It was our first trip to the Dominican. One of the days on the calendar, I really wasn't looking forward to. It was the day we were going to go to the Leprosarium. The Leprosarium is just like what it sounds like: it's a place where lepers go. They are basically removed from their family. Their disease isn't understood. People think it's contagious when it is not. It's something called Hansen's disease. I knew I was going to see deformity; I knew I was going to see sorrow, sadness, loneliness, and despair. You really don't look forward to that. I was thinking, "This is going to be kind of depressing. It's going to be hard to see." That day turned out to be one of the most impactful days for me. One of the reasons it was so was because of the doctor we met. We met a very intelligent, very dedicated doctor who had dedicated his life to the lepers in the Leprosarium. He was a trader. He could have been making big bucks working in a hospital or in a private practice, but he chose a life of obscurity where he showed up every day to work and minister among people who could never pay him back. He said to us, "When I see these people, I see the face of Jesus," and I'm sure the same is true for them when they look at his face. "I see the face of Jesus. I am going to be here serving these people until the day I die. Until the day I die, I am here using what God has given me to minister to them." When you looked in their faces, you couldn't help but to see it: you saw the pain. You saw how this one man felt enough compassion to dedicate his life to alleviating their pain and suffering and being their friend. Whatever you do, it could be an obscurity, like this physician, or it could be something that is seen; but living a life that goes beyond compassion is what Christ has called all of us to do. What I want to look at a paradigm for this is to turn to the Book of Mark 6 and look at the miracle that is recorded in all four Gospels. This is the only miracle-aside from the Resurrection-that is recorded in all four Gospels. That, to me, means it is very significant, that its message is very prominent in the Scripture. At this point in time in Christ's life, He is grieving. He has lost a colleague in ministry, but more than that, He has lost a friend and a family member-John the Baptist, His cousin, has been beheaded. This was an act of selfishness and hatred, bitterness and revenge, by the queen of that area, and it cost John his life. When the word was brought to Christ by the Disciples, Jesus decided it was time to have alone time; so they went to the Sea of Galilee. They got in a boat and paddled away, and they were spending some time by themselves. Jesus and the Disciples were grieving this traumatic loss. Jesus is from this area, and He was intensely popular. Eleven of the 12 Disciples grew up in this region; only Judas did not, so they are known. What's more, they have been in this area for about a year now, so they have kind of done a blitz of this area. His power has been seen; He has delegated the Disciples and sent them out in His name, and they've done amazing things. Thus, He has a great degree of notoriety and popularity in this area. When the people begin catching wind that He is coming, they begin leaving their villages and towns by the droves. There are probably around 250 small villages scattered throughout this area. It's a densely-populated area in Galilee. I don't know how they did this, but I think somebody tweeted or texted-maybe Facebooked, but before too long, somebody said, "Jesus is going to be here." Maybe they just did it by talking to people-however strange that is. They were so old-fashioned. By word of mouth, they spread this news that Jesus was coming. Let's pick up the story in Verse 33 together (page 997 of pew Bibles), "But many who saw them leaving recognized them and ran on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, He…" became irritated and said, "Go away. Leave Me alone. I'm grieving the loss of My cousin. What's the matter with you people? Give Me some space," and they went home in sadness. No, that's not what it says. It says, Jesus saw the large crowd and had "compassion on them..." Why? "…because they were like sheep without a shepherd." You know what happens to sheep without a shepherd. They're vulnerable. They're vulnerable to predators; they're vulnerable to the elements; they're vulnerable to starvation. They need guidance; they're lost. "So He began teaching them many things." In the Greek it tells us that He continued to teach. This was no short sermon. This was a long time of teaching, longer than even one of my sermons seems to be if that gives you any idea (congregation laughing). "By this time it was late in the day, so His Disciples came to Him. 'This is a remote place,' they said, 'and it's already very late. Send the people away so they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.'" There isn't a 24/7 McDonalds open; there is no Taco Bell open late at night. If they are going to get something to eat, they have to do it now. In other words, "Let's let them fend for themselves, but let's dismiss this thing. You've really preached a long time today, Pastor Jesus, and it's time to wrap this service up." However, Jesus does this intentionally. He does this twofold. Number one, there is a lot they need to hear; and number two, He has a plan. He is going to teach something; He is going to display something. "But He answered, 'You give them something to eat.'" Jesus knows full well the complexity of the question. First of all, the Bible tells us there are 5,000 men. There are some words that are generic for man in the Greek, and it means mankind. There are other words that are gender-specific. This is a gender-specific word. This is speaking exclusively and only of men, and He is telling us there are 5,000 men. It isn't telling us how many women; it's not telling us how many children. Scholars estimate between 15-25,000 [people were in attendance]. There were 15,000 on the low end; 25,000 on the high end. Let's take the median and say there were probably about 20,000 people-about 5,000 women, about 10,000 children. Families would come, so logistically, there were 20,000 people. They had no food; they weren't exactly rolling in the dough, so how in the world were they going to supply food for all of these people? "They said to Him, 'That would take eight months of a man's wages! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?'" This is not good budgeting. This is not a good decision on your part, [Jesus]. I don't know how much money they had, but that's a lot of money. "'How many loaves do you have?' He asked. 'Go and see.'" Another Gospel account tells us they found a little boy whose mom had packed him a lunch. It says, "'Five-and two fish.' "Then Jesus directed them to have all the people sit down in groups on the green grass.'" It's green grass; this is early spring. This is like April of the year 29, so approximately this time of year. "So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to Heaven, He gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then He gave them to the Disciples to set before the people. He also divided the two fish among them all. They all ate and were satisfied…" You recognize what's happening here. You recognize this is a creative act. You recognize they understand this is no magic trick. There is no way to stash food for 20,000 people in your tunic. There isn't a freezer to keep the fish in; there is no oven to bake the bread in. I do not bake, but I do know where bread comes, if that helps. They know this is a creative miracle. This is the work of God; this is the hand of God. It's a miracle that none can deny. "…and the Disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish. The number of the men who had eaten was five thousand. "Immediately Jesus made His Disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of Him to Bethsaida, while He dismissed the crowd. After leaving them, He went up on the mountainside to pray." So that is the story, and I want to use that as a paradigm to talk about how we can go beyond compassion. What are the steps Jesus took to go beyond compassion, and what can you and I do if we are to move beyond compassion? I'm going to be intensely practical today with you. This Passage is miraculous, supernatural, but it's also very practical; so I want to talk to the few. Statistics tell us it's not going to be many, but I want to talk to the few who are going to take this message to heart and seek to go beyond compassion and make a difference. [There are five steps we will follow to do so.] 1.) Jesus sees the need. Jesus doesn't just look at the crowd; He studies the crowd. He observes their behavior. He looks in their faces, and He sees desperation; He sees their lost condition; He sees their helplessness, their confusion, and He studies them before He even says a word, teaches a word, or gives one command. He truly looks at them, and He sees they have no direction. He sees they are lost. When we were at that Leprosarium, you had to look at the need. You had to see the need-you were forced to-so here Jesus sees the need. Do you see the needs that are around you? Have you ever encountered a situation of need that was in front of you all the time, and you didn't see it: Someone's loneliness, someone's pain, someone's lack? Maybe it was a group need, and it was in front of you the whole time, and you didn't see it. We're going to learn about a story like that about this process of discovery in our own community; but that's been you. Jesus looked and saw there was physical need and spiritual need, so He ministered to both physical and spiritual needs of the people. Friends, the mission of the church to proclaim the Gospel is spiritual and physical. In fact, the physical is spiritual. When we minister to physical needs in the name of Christ, that is a spiritual act; and the church is finally getting that. It's been in our Bibles the whole time, but we thought all we had to do was say the magic words. Apparently we missed in James where it says, "What good does it do to say, 'Go and be blessed. God loves you,' if they're hungry?" You send them away with empty stomachs. Jesus ministers to physical, emotional, and spiritual needs. The church is called to do the same. They're not just called to proclaim the Gospel in words, but to reach out in action and minister to physical needs in the name of Christ to our community and our world. Jesus does that; He sees the need. Another important part of seeing the need is to use discernment to see the real and fake. [We need to be able to see the difference between] the people who really have needs and concerns and the people who are using the system, taking advantage of kindness. If I see somebody who is genuine and sincere, who has fallen on some hard times and just needs some help, I'm willing to help them. You bet I'm willing to help them, but there are people who when they see somebody who is doing an act of kindness will take advantage of that. Do you know that to be true? They will tell you anything to get what they want. It is like the guy I heard about who at three in the morning the doorbell rang and woke him up. It was one of those stormy dark nights. It was windy, raining, lightning was flashing, and thunder was crashing. It was one of those nights where you really nestled in and were sleeping good, where you're just glad you have a home. The doorbell rang, and he thought, "Who in the world?" He opened the door, and there was a guy standing out there who was drunk. He asked the man, "What do you want?" (In Pastor Jeff's imitation of an intoxicated man), "I want a push. Can you give me a push?" "Can I give you a push? It's three in the morning. I have to get up in the morning. You're drunk, and I don't have time for this." He slammed the door and went upstairs. He was trying to stay in his sleep mode, and he got back under the covers. His wife said, "Honey, who was that? "It was some guy at the door. He was drunk!" "What did he want?" "He wanted a push," the man said. "Did you help him?" his wife asked. "No! It's 3 a.m. I have to get up in the morning. I'm tired!" "Well, how about when your car broke down last week, and that stranger stopped and helped you? Aren't you grateful for him? Are you going to just let this poor man sit out there? What's the matter with you?" "Fine!" He put on his shoes and put on his coat. Now he was wide awake. He went downstairs and opened the door. It was still dark and stormy, and he said, "Hello. Are you out there?" "I'm out here." "Where are you?" He said, "I'm here." "Do you still need help?" "Yeah. I need a push." "You need a push. Okay, where are you? I can't even see you." He said, "I'm right over here on your swing," (congregation laughing). She was going to get an earful, I guarantee you, when he got back upstairs. Friends, there are people who want you to push their swing. It's not destitute. When I talk to you about this, this is not about you becoming Santa Claus. We help a need, and one of the things we try to do is help equip them so they can provide for themselves. Jesus is equipping these people through teaching, so they're not lost anymore, so they have guidance and direction. When you minister, you want to minister in a way that you equip somebody so they can provide for themselves, their needs, and their family's needs. Because if I'm Santa Claus and that person becomes dependant on me, all I've done is entered into a dysfunctional co-dependent relationship. That's not healthy. You might call us at the church and ask for help with your utilities because your utilities are about to be shut off. We'll help you this one time, but if you call us again next month and the month after for help with your utilities, we're going to say no. We don't have that kind of money. Our job is to get the Gospel out. If we start paying everybody's utilities and everybody's rent, we're not going to exist in a couple weeks here. We can't do that. So it is important to be discerning. Does this person want me to push their swing, or is there a legitimate need? It's important to set boundaries. You should say, "Okay, I'm helping you. Here is what I'm going to do. Here is how I want to minister to you, but here is what I'm not going to do," so that the person doesn't become dependent upon you but realizes you are there to help them with that burden, help solve that problem, or alleviate that problem so it doesn't continue. Did you notice at Verse 45-46 what Jesus said? It says He dismissed them. He said, "Now go home." He didn't say, "Come back tomorrow. I'm going to feed you again. I'll be here all week cooking. Come back when you need a meal." In fact, John tells us they want to make Him king. "I mean this would be an awesome king. Anybody who can do that can defeat the Romans. You can heal all of our diseases. You can make all of our problems go away. You're going to feed us every day. We want You to be king." Jesus said, "It's not My job to feed you every day." In fact the next day, hundreds of them showed up again, and Jesus dismissed them. He said, "You didn't come to hear from God. You came because your bellies were fed." Can you imagine having fish prepared by God? I bet even if you didn't like fish, that was good fish; and that bread must have been so good. "We want some more of that," and Jesus said, "You just came for your tummies. Go home. I'm not going to do that for you today." It's important that if you're going to be a trader, not only do you see the need, but you set boundaries as well because there are people that will take advantage. You can burn out really fast if you don't set those boundaries. 2.) The second thing Jesus did was He assessed His inventory, His resources. "What is available? What do we have? Let's not waste anything." They say, "Well, we have a couple fish, some loaves of bread here. Let's use it." Did Jesus need that? No, but we're going to use what we have. We're going to be resourceful. If I see a need and I've determined I'm going to do something about that need, I want to say, "What are my resources? What is available to me? What are my talents? What are my resources? What is available in society?" 3.) Then on the heels of this, we start to enlist others because they are resources as well. Jesus enlisted others to help. He called the Disciples and He began using them. He said, "I'm going to use you to serve. You're going to divide up the groups, and you can distribute the food." 4.) Then He began to vision-cast. I'm giving you three steps at once here because they are all kind of intertwined. You assess your resources, and part of assessing your resources is people, "Who is around me that is like-minded? Who around me can help? What are my resources?" Enlist those people. Enlisting those people involves vision-casting. This is where you let the cat out of the bag and say, "Here is what I want to do. Here is the need I want to meet. Work with me. Let's figure out together how we can meet this need." This is where Jesus starts telling the Disciples, "We're going to feed these people." "What do you mean we're going to feed these people? How are we going to feed these people?" "You watch. We are going to feed these people. God is going to provide, and we are going to feed these people." Then the people themselves begin to understand the vision. "Why are we being seated in groups of 50 and 100? Why are we getting table settings and napkins here?" No, [just kidding]. They understand that they see Jesus with the bread and the fish. They do a headcount. They look at the small amount of food, and they see the sea of people. They think, "We are either going to see something absolutely miraculous here, or we are going to see a fraud. There are no ifs, ands, or buts about it. We are either going to see the hand of God provide miraculously, or Jesus is going to be proven to be not from God." Those were the only two alternatives. You don't just sort of turn a couple fish and loaves of bread into food for 20,000 people; you either do or you don't. God either shows up or He doesn't. That's this step of faith because sooner or later you have to break the bread. Sooner or later you have to break the fish. You vision-cast. You say, "Here is what we're going to do. Here is the mountain we're going to take on." Sooner or later, it's time to act; it's time to move on that vision; it's time to meet that need; it's time to buy that ticket and leave home. One of our people who I'm looking at right now is doing that-going off on the mission field. She was challenged in the message last week. As soon as I heard she was leaving, I said, "No, we weren't talking about you. You stay home. You stay with us." I'm just teasing of course. 5.) But you buy that ticket, you make your plans known, you step out in faith, and you trust God. You make that phone call; you send that letter; you take that risk. You begin to break the fish; you begin to break the bread. If it's for God and in the Will of God, God is the One that is on the line. Jesus is the one who is on the line-not the Disciples. They're simply doing what they were told. If we do the Will of God, God provides-not us. It's only when we come to this point and we take the step of faith that we see the hand of God providing. I can remember in the early days when our church met in the Rock County Christian School, the grade school campus by the airport. We were a small group of people, and we weren't very old; but we took a big step of faith to buy this five acre parcel that we now sit on. I'd never bought land like that before, so I didn't know about green fees, lateral fees, sewer fees, and curb and gutter [fees]. I just knew it took us a lot of money to get our down payment together. When we got ready to close, the realtor called me and said, "Okay, are you all set for the closing this week?" I said, "Yeah, we've been giving and saving, and we're ready." He gave me the total, and I'm no genius at math, but it wasn't hard to calculate that we were $8,000 short. He said, "Okay, so we'll see you at the closing on Friday." "Sounds good, Carl, see you at the closing." I hung up the phone, and I went, "What are we going to do? We're $8,000 short." One thing I knew I couldn't do was go to the church and ask for more money because that little group had already given their best. I got up on a Sunday; we had our music time, and I preached the sermon. I said, "Now, before you go home, join me in prayer. I received a call from the real estate agent. We have this fee, this fee, this fee, and this fee." I said, "The bottom line is we're closing this week, and we're $8,000 short. I'm not asking you for your money. You've already given your best. I'm going to ask you to pray with me that God will provide and that we'll own this land," so we did. There was no hype, no big offering, and no big pleas. We just prayed a quiet prayer. The real estate agent didn't know about this because I thought, "If I tell him, it's going to scare everybody. It's going to make everybody have cold feet. Maybe they'll back out of the deal. I don't know," so I didn't tell them what was going on. I knew I'd eventually tell him if God didn't provide, but I was trusting God. Monday morning, I received a call from Carl Luedtke. He was our realtor with Keefe Real Estate here in Janesville. He said, "Hey, I have some good unexpected news for you, Pastor Jeff." I said, "What's that? I could use some." He said, "Well, I don't think I have ever seen the city do this before, and I didn't ask them to do this, but they've decided to wave your green fee. These lateral fees you have, they're going to take this and spread it out for you over five years. They're going to defer the first payment for a year. You won't owe that first payment for the first year. Bottom line is closing is going to be about $8,000 less than we thought. Isn't that good news?" "Yeah, Carl, that's great news." I went back and told our church, some members who are still here with us, "O Happy Day-God has provided." That's what God does. You take that step of faith. You're next on the chopping block [and God pulls you down off that block]. What would have happened if Jesus starting breaking that fish, tore that fish in half, and He gave it away and "oops! No more fish. Uh-oh. Thanks for coming, everybody!" He was on the line, and that's where God provides. I want to share a story with you. I talked about ordinary people doing extraordinary things. We just started this series last week. I said, "Okay, if I tell you here is a person from the Bible," you would have said, "That doesn't count. That's an extraordinary person because they're in the Bible, so don't tell me they're ordinary if they're in the Bible. If they're in the Bible, they're extraordinary; so they don't count." Then I used Tyndale. We talked him being about an ordinary person doing an extraordinary thing. He gave his life to bring the Bible to us in English. Now, I'm going to get even more contemporary than that. I'm going to talk about a couple of people who are still very much alive and live in our community. In fact, one of them is sitting among you right now, and only I know who she is. We appreciate our teachers so very much, what they do, and how they contribute to our children. There are a couple of teachers in our system who are working with special needs and working with children who really became concerned about the plight of homelessness among our teens. As they began putting the pieces together of the puzzle, they began to realize the volume of the problem; it was an eye-opening experience for them. They really began to see the problem in the fullness that they had not seen before. Even though they were working with the children, working in the system, their eyes became open to see the need in a greater capacity than they ever had before. Do you realize that there are thousands of homeless children in Rock County? Did you realize that 47 percent of the homeless in our area are children? That takes away the stereotype of what a homeless person is, doesn't it? Do you realize that there are many teens who stay in school long after school is done because there is no home for them to go for, or they go from place to place until they're kicked out of here and kicked out of there? When they leave school, they don't know where they're going to get a meal; they don't know where they're going to sleep, so those become long, hard hours for them. Two teachers said, "We can do something about this. We have to reach these kids before they leave schools, before they turn to crime or drugs. We can make our community a better place if we provide transitional housing for these kids," so they began talking. They said, "Okay, we see the need. We know these children. We know their stories. We see their faces. Let's move beyond compassion. Let's do something." They began looking at their resources. "What grants are available? What people can we enlist to help? Who is like-minded?" They contacted the YWCA. "They're like-minded. They'll care." They began to partner with them. The vision of having transitional housing for teens [began to become clearer]. They began looking at what their resources were. "Let's work together. Let's vision-cast. Let's decide together what the best way to do that is." That's the phase they're in right now. We're going to show you a video that's about five minutes long. I'm not showing you this video to take an offering. We are not taking an offering for this cause today, although you can certainly give if you'd like to. We're not taking an offering today. We're not asking for anything from you today but to be aware, to pray, and to consider how you might go beyond compassion to action to help some of these kids. Let's go ahead and watch this video: (Here is a link to the clip: http://www.wix.com/reburgos/164900). Our staff watched that this week, and it was a lot longer than that; but we wanted you to see that story, see the need. What they're going to do is buy or build transitional housing for these teens in Rock County, so they have a place to live. When they get to the point where they know what they're going to do, their plans are specific, "We're going to buy this house or we're going to build this house. We're getting ready to launch," then Faith Community Church is going to be behind them. We're going to be with them; we're going to help them. I want you to meet Ann Forbeck. Say hi to Ann. I think I see Jeff Bealles too from the YWCA, director of development there. Jeff, great to see you. We appreciate the YWCA so much, and we are friends with them. We believe in the work that they're doing. We've helped with the CARE House, and we're going to help with this as well. I wanted you to see that. Yes, there will come a day when we give. I just wanted you to see that ordinary people can do extraordinary things. I don't know if they do it or not, but they're following the steps that Jesus did. They're seeing the need. They're moving beyond compassion and into action. They're gathering their resources. They're enlisting people. They're casting the vision, and one day, they're going to take that step of faith and open those doors; and the kids are going to come in. That's when the boundaries part comes in, and that's when it gets really fun. I pray that God will birth big things in this congregation because I think we're capable. I think we're able to do so much more than we're doing now. It might be something big like this that impacts a lot of lives, or you might be investing in one or two lives where you can go beyond compassion to action. I'll let the Holy Spirit deal with you on that one, but let's pray: Father, we thank You today for the challenge of Your Word. Lord, we see how You minister to the physical and spiritual needs of those who are following You. We see the boundaries that You set. We see the action steps of using the resources that were available, of using the people, or casting the vision, and then finally breaking the bread and meeting the need. Lord, You've called us to be the same. You've called us to see with eyes of compassion, to see beyond ourselves and our own needs. Lord, when we do that, we find that we enlarge our own hearts. We find that by giving of ourselves, we are not diminished. In fact, by giving of ourselves, we find that we have increased. We have increased in our capacity to love. We have increased in our capacity to have faith. We have increased in our joy; we have enriched our lives because we have entered into the plan and will of Almighty God. So, Lord, I pray that You'd help us as a church and as individuals to move beyond compassion to action, but it begins with seeing. Father, entrust them that You will meet needs through us. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.
Pastor Jeff Williams: May 1, 2011 Going Beyond, Part I, "Beyond Ordinary." We're starting a new series today called, "Going Beyond." I'd like you to turn in your Bibles to the Book of 1 Corinthians 1. While you're turning there, I just want to give praise to you. I think it's important to acknowledge milestones. Last weekend, for the first time ever, we broke through that 1,000 barrier in attendance. That's pretty significant for our church-to be able to pass and say we packed 1,000 people in our services. Thanks to those of you came on Saturday night. Some of you came at 8 o'clock in the morning and that enabled us to do that; so thanks to you, a lot of people heard the Gospel message last weekend. I praise God for that. We are moving on. We are starting a series called "Going Beyond." As you can see from the arrows, it's about moving forward and onward. I don't know how this word picture fits into your life-and we also have it on the screen here as well-but in going over that bar (as seen in the banner for this series), how high do you set the bar in your life? Can you just flop over your bar? Is it set that low, or do you set it high? Does it require momentum, striving, and reaching, or is it attainable? What about the arrows? Are they pointing upward and forward, or would they be sideways or even pointing down in digression? It's my open prayer that this series will help light a fire in our spirits to pursue because I believe God made us for a purpose. I believe God made us to accomplish extraordinary things, to be ordinary people accomplishing extraordinary things. Most of us are ordinary, aren't we? I felt very ordinary this week while watching the wedding footage (of Prince William and Princess Kate). I didn't get up in the middle of the night to watch the wedding, but it's kind of hard to not notice the Royal wedding because it's kind of everywhere. You're watching all the pomp and circumstance. I did watch a little segment on one of the talk shows which was talking about the seating arrangements and how they had plastic chairs where the people who weren't as important were to sit. Still, if you're invited to the Royal wedding, that's pretty good; but lesser important people, like Sir Elton John, sat in those. That's where he sat-in the plastic chairs. Then you had the more important people who sat in the wooden chairs, and the chairs got better and better until you got to the plush velvety chairs that the Royal family sat in. Just watching all this pomp and circumstance and all these thousands of people and the whole world-thousands of people watching-I felt very ordinary. I felt very peasant-y. That's not my life. What is it like to be royalty? I'm just an ordinary Joe, and so are you. But the good news is that God uses ordinary people. Isn't that good? In fact, many times you'll find that when God taps someone on the shoulder, they usually talk about the fact that he or she is a nobody. They usually talk about the fact that they can't do this or can't do that, and that's exactly the kind of person God wants to use-people who walk uprightly, who walk humbly, and are willing to be used by God. I really don't see the page in the Bible full of people that God taps on their shoulders and they say, "Well, it's about time You recognized how great I am. It's about time You recognized how wonderful and useful I am. Sure, of course, I'll do that." Usually, when people are tapped by God, they're reluctant. They're offering excuses as to why. In the Book of 1 Corinthians 1:25 (page 1128 of pew Bibles), Paul addresses that. He says, "For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength." Verse 26, "Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth." He doesn't say none of you were, because some were, but not many. "But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things-and the things that are not-to nullify the things that are…" Why? "…so that no one may boast before Him." It is strategic; it is deliberate. God loves to use the weak to show His strength. He loves to use the humble to accomplish great things. There are defining moments in each of our lives when we see a need, and we have to make a decision, "Am I going to rise up and meet that need, meet that challenge, or am I going to look the other way?" We recognize a need; we feel passionate about it; we feel strongly about it. We say, "Something needs to be done. Somebody needs to make a difference," and we begin to recognize that we have some talents and abilities that can make a difference. Maybe we can't eradicate or alleviate the need, but we certainly make a difference in that area. Then we begin to contemplate what needs to be done, the resources involved, the time involved, and the sacrifice that would be involved to make that difference. Then we have to make a decision, "Am I going to throw my hat in the ring? Am I going to take my pole vault, make a run, and try to leap over that thing; or am I just going to turn and walk away and hope somebody else meets the challenge, hope somebody else takes care of the need? That's what I call a defining moment, and you've had those defining moments. Sometimes you've risen to meet the challenge, and, sadly, other times you've turned and walked away. You've said, "The need is too great, and what can I do? I'm just one person. It's just too daunting of a task." It's my goal to challenge you in this series, and it's my prayer that you will accept the challenge. You'll say, "You know what? I am willing to use my gifts, my talents, my energies, my resources, to make a difference for God because I believe God has made us for a purpose." I believe God has made us for something greater than what most of us are doing right now. He's placed passions, talents, gifts, and a calling within us. The question is…will we fulfill that calling? Will we reach that potential? Or will we squander the opportunities that we've been given? That's what we're going to address in this series. First of all, I want to just introduce the topic, just kind of wet your appetite in talking about going "Beyond the Ordinary." One thing I thought I'd do this week is a little bit different. I thought, "I'll use a Bible example. I'll use this one. I'll use this." I began to think about different people in the Bible, but here is the problem I ran into. When I use a Bible character, you don't buy that that's ordinary, that they're ordinary, because they're in the Bible. Even though they were living ordinary lives and they accomplished extraordinary things, you say, "Yeah, they don't count. They're in the Bible, so they are extraordinary just from the fact that they were in the Bible; so I'm not counting that. I want to hear about somebody like me." Today, I decided to tell you a story about somebody who is very important in your lives that is not in the Bible. In fact, this man is so important-I'm sure it would have happened eventually-but you would not be reading this Bible in English if it weren't for this man. Have you ever thought about how this Book got in our language? Have you ever thought about what was involved with that? Was it a piece of cake getting this sacred text in English? Was that just something a translator said, "Oh, I'll do that," and the world received it and it was great? Or do you think it might have involved sacrifice? Could our having this in our language even have cost some people their lives? I want to tell you a story about a man we're going to call Bill. Bill lived in England in the 1500s, the dawning of the reformation. It was a time in the history of the church that was a dark time. As a protestant, I can tell you there have been times in the history of the church I've been ashamed of, when I knew that things that were happening weren't of God. I'm certain our Catholic brothers and sisters would say the same thing. There were times in the history of the church where things were not as they should be. This was a time when that was the case. One of the problems was that the Bible was in Latin, so when someone opened the Bible, and it was in Latin, most of the people couldn't read Latin. Latin was already a dead language. It was used in universities; it was used in the church for mass; it was used in hospitals for certain terms, but the everyday man did not speak Latin, did not read Latin. Only the elite, the educated, and the priests could read Latin. What happens when you know this Book is the Book of God? You know this is the Bible, and it's from God, but when we open it up, I'm the only person in the church that can read it, understand it, and tell you what it says. What does that give me? A lot of power, right? If I'm the only one that can understand, interpret this, and tell you what it says, I have a lot of power. If I'm a good priest, a good minister, then that's fine; but if I'm not-if I'm corrupt, then that's very dangerous because I can get things from you and just tell you it's in the Bible. I can sell these things called the letters of indulgence and tell you if you buy one of those, it buys your ticket to Heaven. It will get your ancestor out of purgatory. You would have no way of reading it and finding out if what I'm telling you is a lie or the truth. There was a very strong influence that does not want the Scripture translated from Latin to English-even though Latin wasn't one of the original languages of the Bible. It's not Aramaic; it's not Hebrew; it's not Greek. They don't want it changed because it represents power. Bill grows up, and he is very gifted. He is gifted in the area of language. He is an ordinary guy. He came from an ordinary family. He didn't have wealth; he didn't have prominence. He was simply an ordinary person, but he had a knack for learning and speaking languages. In fact, he learned eight different languages and could speak them all fluently. They said you could talk to Bill in any of the eight languages, and you would swear that was his native tongue. There wasn't any stumbling or staggering trying to find the words; he was just fluent. He had the accent; he had everything. He knew the vocabulary, and he had the grammar down. I admire people like that. I think of our own Pastor Sean who has been on our staff for seven and a half years and is now a missionary in Haiti. In two years' span, Pastor Sean went from knowing no French to knowing French well enough to teach Haitian pastors Hebrew and Greek in French. Plus, he had to learn the language of every man, which is Creole. He had to learn two languages to teach Haitian pastors Greek and Hebrew in French. That's mindboggling to me. I couldn't do that. I have problems with the English language, as you know (congregation laughing); but he is gifted and wired in that way. But, as good as Pastor Sean is, this Bill was a genius. He was an absolute genius. His ability to master a language (was like no other). Because he could read Latin, he could recognize false teaching. It really disturbed him when he would hear people being taught something that wasn't true and they couldn't verify that it wasn't true. That really bothered him. The second thing that bothered him was he thought it was important that moms and dads were able to read the Bible to their children, to be able to read the Lord's Prayer in their language. He felt like every man should have the Bible in their language, but what could he do? He was just one guy. He graduated from Oxford, which is a prestigious university, so he was very intelligent; but he took a job as a tutor. That was his full-time job. A prominent family hired him to teach their children, so this man had all this talent, all this ability, all this wisdom, and it almost seemed like it was being wasted on this little tiny group of children. There is something stirring within him to use his gifts and abilities to try to find a way to put this Bible in the language of the every man of his country; but he thought, "Who am I to take on the church? Who am I to take on the king? I'm just a guy," and he kept it inside of him. The frustration just grew with every passing year as he was living this quiet, ordinary life as a tutor until one day, there is a defining moment. The local priest came to town, and there was a discussion. The discussion became heated. The man made his statement. I'm sure not all priests felt this way-but this particular individual did. Bill said, "We're losing at teaching the Gospel. We're losing the Gospel. It's not being communicated correctly. We are saved by grace through faith. People need to know that." The priest responded, "Better to lose the words of God than to lose the words of the pope." That enraged Bill. At that moment-that defining moment-he looked him in the eyes, and he said this, "If God allows me to live, there is going to come a day when the boy in the field with the plow is going to know more about this Bible than you do." He decided he was going to do something about this, so William Tyndale went to the Bishop of London all excited. "God has put on my heart a vision. God wants me to take the Bible and translate it not from the Latin, not from the Vulgate; God wants me to go to the original Hebrew and the original Greek, and for the first time from those texts translate the Bible and put it in the language of every man so that people in every country [can read it]." Now not everybody could read English, certainly, but a whole lot more people could read English than Latin. He said, "I want to be able to have moms and dads read Psalm 23 and read the Lord's Prayer to their children. I want the people sitting in the pews as the Pastor is preaching to be able to look in the Bible and read for themselves the Word of God!" He was very excited, and the Bishop said, "Well, that's not a good idea! We don't want to give that kind of power to the people. We want to keep the Bible in the Latin. It's the job of the clergy to explain the Scripture." He was just not buying it. He went not only from being a potential friend of William Tyndale to being a foe. In fact, as he began this work, the Bishop started to dog him. He started chasing him around and tried to have him arrested. He was trying to stop him, so he had to go undercover. He had to go from place to place to place to place. Finally, it got so intense in England that he partnered with a wealthy merchant who funded his way to go to Germany. In Germany, he met up with Martin Luther, and through a series of events, he met a man by the name of Gutenberg who just happened to invent this little thing called the printing press with moving type. He finally finished translating the Bible, and they began printing it. They printed 3,000 copies. I think two are still around-extant copies. They were sent to England on a ship with flour. They were wrapped in cloth and hidden. When they got there, there was a network of people, and these people began distributing this on the black market. They began to sell these Bibles; it was illegal, but they were getting the Word of God into people's hands. People were excited. They smuggled these Bibles into England, and Christians were buying them and reading for the first time the Word of God in their language. They were so excited, and they couldn't sell them quick enough. When the Bishop of London heard this word, he started to go ballistic. He started going around gathering all the English Bibles. He preached a sermon at St. Paul's and burned them. He said, "We don't want to see anybody reading these, selling these, or distributing these Books." Then, King Henry sent him on a mission to Belgium. He boarded a boat, sailed over to the mainland, and ended up in Belgium. Guess what Belgium is? He was in the city of Antwerp. Antwerp is the hub of distribution. It's a distribution center. He met a man by the name of Augustine Packington who said, "I can tell you where there are a lot of Bibles." The Bishop was like, "Really?" "I have a stash. Come with me." He pretended to be the Bishop's friend because he knew the Bishop's intent was to destroy them. Augustine was going to lead the Bishop to this shrove of Bibles knowing that the Bishop was going to destroy them. Why would he do that? This man was a friend of William Tyndale. In fact, this man got his Bibles directly from William Tyndale. Why would he sell this man the Bibles knowing that he was going to burn them? In the Bishop's mind, if he got rid of all the Bibles, it would be that much harder for them to distribute them in England and "corrupt the people." But this shrewd businessman Packington sold him the Bibles for four times the amount of money that each Bible cost. He cleaned out his inventory. The Bishop gets the Bibles; Packington received the thanks, and Tyndale got all the money. So, unknowingly, he funded the publication of the Bible in mass. Now thousands more copies are printed, more than he could ever keep up with. Tyndale stayed in hiding [during this]. We laugh at that; it's funny. The story gets really dark here because our hero is betrayed by a friend. He is arrested, and he is sent away to prison for 500 days in a castle. You think, "Boy, if you're going to be put in prison, a castle is the way to go!" Not so. The castle was cold and dark. There wasn't any electricity; there was no heat of any kind, and he only had the clothes on his back-some shirts and a few articles of clothing. We have the letter he wrote; we still have that. In it, it sounds very much like Paul's letter. He is asking for a hat; he is asking for some warm clothes to wear; he's asking for a coat; he's asking for a lantern so he can have light because he says it's so depressing to be in a castle in complete darkness at night. He talked about how cold he was and how much he shivered. He asked for warmth. He said, "But if you can't give me a light and you can't give me anything warm to wear, could you please bring me the Hebrew Bible and a Hebrew dictionary so I can study the Word of God?" That was his desire. At the end of 500 days, they took him just outside of the castle. They tied him to a stake; they strangled him until he was dead; and then they burned him at the stake, but his legacy is with us. In fact, most of the King James that we have today and 90 percent of the Geneva Bible, which predated that, came from the sacrifice of William Tyndale. Not only did he lose his life, but many of the distributors, many of the printers who printed this Bible in English, died as well. That's the story of how we got it in our language. An ordinary man from an ordinary family who had an ordinary job received an extraordinary calling that he felt completely unworthy of and inadequate of; but he responded to the challenge and said, "Okay, God, I'm all in." Now you know the rest of the story. You see, we offer up a lot of excuses. In fact, we're going to show some of them right now on the wall. Let's put up excuse number one and see if you recognize it. I'm not giving you a page number or chapter. "Then" blank "said to the Lord, 'Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past, nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.'" Do you recognize that quote? This was Moses [in Exodus 4:10, page 57 of pew Bibles], and God was calling him to speak to Pharaoh. He was the most powerful man in the world. Moses says, "Let me get this straight: You want me to go to the most powerful man in the world and say these words: 'Let my people go,' and he is going to release his entire workforce? He is going to deliberately put his economy in the tank just because I, a shepherd, said 'Let my people go'? I think You have the wrong guy. I don't speak very well." We don't know if it's because of a lack of self-confidence or if there was a physical stuttering, stammering problem; but he said, "You want me to be a spokesman? I don't talk very well. I'm a fugitive that is on the run. I've taken residence in this country. I'm living as a shepherd. I'm an old man, but I'm happy." Some of you say, "You know, I'm situated in my life. I'm in my comfort zone," and you just come up with all kinds of excuses. "I like life the way it is. Besides that, I'm not gifted. That's going to involve speaking, and I'm not gifted at speaking. I'm not gifted at talking, and I don't have any experience. I'm not the person You're looking for." You offer all kinds of excuses, and God said, "Listen, don't say that because you will open your mouth, and I will give you the words to speak. I will demonstrate that I am with you through works of power." Let's look at another quote from the Bible. Let's see if you know where this one is from. "Then I said, 'Alas, Lord God, behold. I do not know how to speak because I am a youth.'" Do you recognize that? This is Jeremiah [1:6, page 746], and God is calling Jeremiah to be a Prophet to the nations. He says, "I've never been to Prophet school. I don't have any experience being a Prophet. You want me to speak not just to my region, my city, but the nations? You want me to make a difference in the world? You have the wrong guy. I'm just a kid." God says, "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. I ordained you as a Prophet to the nations." God says, "You are fulfilling your purpose." Do you know when God makes you, He makes you with purpose? Ephesians 2:10 (page 1157) says, "We are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." We aren't accidents. We aren't born into the world and God then scratched His head and said, "What am I going to do with this one?" There is a plan; there is forethought. Our job is to discover that plan and to work that plan. So Jeremiah says, "You have the wrong guy. I'm not qualified. I'm too young," and God says, "I have the one I'm looking for. Don't tell Me you're too young. If you open your mouth, I will fill it; and you will be a Prophet for Me." Let's look at another excuse found in the Bible. "But when" blank "saw that, he fell down at Jesus' feet saying, 'Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.'" This is the Apostle Peter [in John 21, page 1075]. He is being called by God to be a fisher of men. He sees the miracle of the miraculous catch of fish, and he hadn't caught anything. God said, "Put your net on the other side." Peter said, "Well, we've been fishing all night, but nevertheless, if You say so, I'll lower the net." Then he can't even bring the haul back in the boat it's so great. He realizes who Jesus is, and he sees his own insignificance. He sees his own ordinariness, his own sinfulness, and he says, "Just depart from me. Just leave me alone." Sometimes God has put His hand on you, and your response has been, "Go away! I'm fine with the way my life is. I don't feel adequate. I don't feel significant. Lord, just please leave me alone. I'm a sinful man." Friends, everybody God has ever used is a sinner except for the Lord Jesus Christ, who is God, so that excuse doesn't hold up. "Your fallen nature is not an excuse, Peter. Your lack of education is not an excuse, Peter. The fact that you're an ordinary fisherman is not an excuse, Peter. I have gifted you to reach men for Me," and so He called Peter out of his boat to be a fisher of men. Let's look at one more and see if you recognize this one. "He said to him, 'O Lord, how shall I deliver Israel? Behold my family is the least in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father's house.'" Do you recognize that? This is Gideon [in Judges 6:15, page 239]. Gideon is saying, "God, You are so far off. It's almost like You intentionally made this mistake." He said, "We are under the oppression of the Midianites. They are bullying us. They are oppressing us, so we are a slave people. Of the tribes of Israel, my tribe is the least tribe. Of the families in my tribe, my family is the least family in my tribe; and of my family, I am the least in my family." It was like he was saying, "God, do you realize You have picked the absolute worst person to pick? There is nobody lower in our society than I. Do You understand that, God? I'm in a winepress hiding from the Midians. I have my bare feet covered in grape juice hiding, and You're coming at me telling me I'm a mighty warrior? Boy, did You get the address wrong!" As if God is going to say, "You're Gideon? Oh, I was looking for Gibeon. Okay, I'm sorry. He is down the road a little bit." No, God says, "I have the right guy. You're the right Gideon." God strategically picked the least of the least. He said, "I'm going to use you to deliver my people from the hand of the Midianites," and miraculously he did-you can read that story. Let's look at one more. This one is not an excuse. This one is simply a statement of fact. This person said, "My soul exalts the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God, my Savior, for He has had regard for the humble state of His bond slave, for behold from this time, all generations will count me blessed." Who said this? This is Mary from the Magnificent. She is saying, "Every generation is going to know my name. Every generation is going to know who I am, and I'm just a humble servant. I'm a peasant girl. I'm nobody, and You've chosen me out of all the women in the world? You've chosen me to give birth to the Redeemer?" God picks the most humble in the land to bestow the greatest honor. Do you see a pattern here? Do you see this pattern? God looks for ordinary people, and He says, "Deep within you there is a seed of greatness that you don't even know is there." He begins to water it, and it begins to grow. For some of you, your defining moment is going to be this series. Your defining moment is going to be today. God is going to use us to water that seed in you, those talents, that calling, those passions; and there's going to come a defining moment in your life-only this time instead of walking away, you're going to step up. You're going to say, "Okay, let's give it a go. I'm going to give it my best shot. I'm going to make a difference. Even if I fail, that's okay because I'm going to try." If God is behind it, it won't be a failure. We're going to listen to a song right now on this whole theme of seizing the day and going from ordinary to the extraordinary. This is a song by the artist named Carolyn Arends who wrote a song by that same name, "Seize the Day," [lyrics can be found here: http://www.christianlyricsonline.com/artists/carolyn-arends/seize-the-day.html] Would you please pray with me? Father, I think if we were to answer the question, "Are we doing everything we could for Your Kingdom? Are we fulfilling our potential perfectly?" everybody in this room would say, "No, I'm not. There's more I can do. There's more I can be." Father, I pray that in this series You would challenge us to leave our comfort zone, challenge us when those defining moments come to accept that call, to fulfill that mission. Lord, for those who do not know it yet, guide them to know what Your plan is for that life; and for those who do, grant them courage and grace to pursue. We thank You for men like William Tyndale who sacrificed so much for a great cause that he believed in. We thank You that Your Word shows us people who felt just like us and had all kinds of excuses-uneducated, too young, no experience, couldn't talk-whatever the excuse was, we found that if You had placed the call in their lives, that trumped any excuse they might have. Lord, fulfill Your call in our lives and in our church. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.
Pastor Jeff Williams: April 17, 2011 Living Debt-Free, Part VIII, "When NOT to Reconcile."
Today, we are going to talk about when it's not wise to reconcile. This is not an inspirational message. I'm not pretending that it is. This isn't one of those messages where you'll walk out of here going, "Oh! I don't get to reconcile! It's awesome!" This is a necessary message. This is a message where I think it's important for us to have permission from God's Word in certain circumstances not to reconcile. I think sometimes as Christians, we think everybody should like us. We should like everybody; we should be friends with everybody, and we can't stand it when anybody is mad at us or upset with us. We want to get along with everyone, so sometimes we do that to a fault. We do that, and we stay in relationships that are harmful. We're going to see what God's Word says about that. From time to time, we find ourselves walking through a cemetery. We were on a vacation in New England, and we said, "There could be some pilgrims buried there. Let's check that out." One time when I was a youth pastor, I took our youth group to a cemetery. I didn't tell them where we were going, and for a half hour they had to walk around the tombstones looking at them without saying a word. Then they came back and we talked about it. In a cemetery, you realize the brevity of life. There are life lessons learned there. I want to take you on a little tour this morning of your relational cemetery. You have one-you know that, right? You all have a relational cemetery. As you walk through that relational cemetery, there is your name; the name of that person you were in a relationship with; there is the date it was started, and there is the date it was ended. Around some of the graves, the dirt is hardened. Those graves have been there for a long time, and the names have been worn away from the stone through the season of life. You've almost forgotten the event. You've almost forgotten the name and the circumstances. Other graves are fresh; the dirt has very recently been shoveled. The memory stands out very vividly in your mind; but other graves have been there for a long time. Even though a long time has passed, when you look at that marker, you recall the events of that day like it was yesterday because that person had significance in your life. That person was a friend; that person might have been a spouse; that person might have been somebody in your family, somebody of significance, maybe somebody you worshipped with. You recall that when you took the shovel and you buried that relationship, you did so in tears and your heart was broken. They betrayed your trust; they betrayed your confidence. They totally blindsided you when you least expected it. You had no idea you'd ever bury that relationship, and yet you did. The memories of that moment, the memories of that day, stand out and are replayed in your mind. Other times you go to a different grave, and you have a sorrow of a different kind because you're the one who ended that relationship. It was your wrongdoing; it was your fault. You were the one who broke the confidence. You're the one who betrayed the relationship. You're sorrowful, and you're thinking, "This did not have to die. It's my fault." That's added to and exacerbated when a person is gone, no longer with us and "now I can't reconcile with them." Then you deal with regret and remorse over the loss of that relationship. Some of those relational gravestones you look at, and it's interesting because there's a time it was born and a time it died; and then there is another date where it was reborn, and it's still alive. There was a resurrection through reconciliation. Reconciliation means to restore. You have friends in your lives and relationships in your lives. Where there was a rebirth through the process of confession and forgiveness, you are now in a relationship again that was once gone. Through some of the markers through this series, there will be reconciliations where it is healthy and wise to do so. There are going to be resurrections. You're going to get the shovel out, and you're going to say, "We're going to restore what was lost." When that can happen and it's healthy and good, it's a beautiful thing. Sometimes we try to resurrect relationships that should not be resurrected. We built friendships that are better left where they were. How do we know the difference? Sometimes we have an empty hole ready for a relationship to be buried in. It's there, and we're deciding, we're contemplating, we're holding the shovel. We say, "Do I throw dirt on this? Does this relationship have hope? It's on life support. Is it going to make it?" We're contemplating what to do, so how do we know when the time is to pull the plug or when to pray, to act, and to work towards reconciliation? That's our focus today. Since it's Passion Week, I thought we would take a look at a relationship that Jesus had that did not end well. There were many relationships that Jesus had where there was a break in the relationship, but the relationship wasn't mended. There was a time He went to His hometown, and the people became angry with Him. Some of those relationships were hurt and damaged. There was a time when Peter confessed his sin after denying Jesus three times. That relationship had been broken, and that mended. There were times when He had breakdowns in His family. Remember it says His brothers and sisters did not believe in Him, and they sort of mocked Him. They said, "Well, if You want to be famous, why don't You leave? Go away. Nobody who wants to be famous should be here. You think You're something special? You want to be well-known? Then go." Even His own family didn't believe in Him, but we know there was reconciliation with His family. Two of His half-brothers wrote Books in the Bible. His half brother, James, wrote the Book of James. Judas, His other half-brother, wrote the Book of Jude. Why didn't Jude call his Book Judas? That was his rightful name. We don't have 1 Pete and 2 Pete. We don't have 1, 2, 3 Jack. Why does Jude use the nickname of his name? We know why, don't we? We don't want a Book in the Bible that is the Book of Judas, the betrayer. That name is cursed. I want to look at that relationship. I want to look at this one who followed Christ's miracles and heard His teachings. Yet, that relationship ended badly, as badly as it possibly could; and there was never a record of any kind of reconciliation. Why? Let's turn in our Bibles to the Book of John 12 (page 1065 of pew Bibles). Let me give you a little bit of a background on what's going on in the life of Christ at this time. The resurrection of Lazarus was a game changer. The resurrection of Lazarus was a miracle that no one could deny, not even the staunchest enemies and critics of Christ. They knew he was dead, they knew he was buried, and they knew he was very much alive; so even the most hardcore enemies and skeptics were becoming Christians. There was a wave of conversions at this time, so much so that it was a very strong threat to the powers that be, to the religious aristocracy. To those in control, Jesus was a threat. The Jews were living under the control of the Romans, but they had free reign. They could worship as they pleased. They could have their temple; they could have their sacrifices, observe the Sabbath. They could even have their own court of law. They couldn't carry out capital punishment, but pretty much anything else they could do. They were loosely-governed, and the main stipulation was to maintain the peace. Rome would let you live as you pleased as long as you maintained the peace. If you did not maintain the peace, they would come and crush you, and you would lose your freedom. What they were afraid of was that Jesus was going to lead a rebellion. So many people were following Him; so many people were on His side, and [those who opposed were saying], "He is against us. He is going to lead a rebellion, and a riot will start. When He starts a riot, Rome will crack down; and we are going to lose our position. We're going to lose our power. We're going to lose our authority." It was not for religious reasons that they crucified Jesus. It was not because of blasphemy or any other thing. Those were all trumped up charges. The reason they crucified Christ, earthy-speaking, was they were going to lose their power and control. The high priest, Caiaphas, stood up and said, "It is better that one Man die for the nation than that the whole nation perishes." From that moment on, they began to plot for a way to remove Jesus. They sent out an all-points bulletin. Jesus was public enemy number one. His mug shot, His poster, was going up in every post office. He was on every milk carton. Everywhere you'd turn, there was Jesus. There was rumor of reward involved as well "if you'll help us find this Man." Jesus and His Disciples, for a brief period of time, moved to a wilderness city called Ephraim to be away from the crowd, to be away from the threat of being captured and killed. The Passover was about to happen. It was the most important holiday of the year. Most people believed Jesus wouldn't come, but He did because He was carrying out the Will of the Father. Before He entered into Jerusalem for the triumphal entry on Palm Sunday, the night before, He had dinner at the home of His friends-Mary, Martha, and the resurrected Lazarus. At that party, it says in John 12:3, Mary took "a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus' feet and wiped His feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume." Ladies, how many of you like perfume, Estee Lauder or whatever? I don't even know how I know that (congregation laughing), but I guarantee you you've never bought perfume that cost you thousands of dollars. This pint of nard cost a year's salary. It was so rare, and this plant had such an exquisite aroma that it filled the room with a smell some had never even smelled before. It was a beautiful fragrance. They would breathe it in and say, "Ahhh." She was so grateful to Jesus because He brought her Truth. He brought her brother back from the dead. She was so grateful that she didn't care about how much she used. She just was pouring the whole bottle out. Everybody was thinking, "Wow! She sure loves Jesus." It was an act of worship, and everybody was overwhelmed with the sacrifice except one person. The Bible tells us that man was Judas. Verse 4, "But one of the Disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray Him, objected, 'Why wasn't this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year's wages.'" It sounds righteous, doesn't it? It sounds holy. Then there is a little bit of commentary, a little insert from John. He tells us, "He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used it to help himself to what was put into it." He was a thief. That's all he cared about. He thought, "Wow! If we would have had a year's salary, I could have really dipped into that." That's all he cared about. Jesus rebuked him. He said in Verse 7, "'Leave her alone,' Jesus replied. 'It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of My burial. You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have Me.'" Jesus rebuked him, and he was offended at that. He was embarrassed by that. He was angered by that. The Bible tells us that at that moment, he left the party. That was the straw that broke the camel's back. You see, Judas knew that his cash cow was about to run dry. He knew that Jesus was a wanted man, and there was only so long that He could hide. If the most powerful men in the country wanted you dead, and they had sent out an APB for your arrest-every scoundrel and hitmen in the region knows about you and is looking for you-and you were about ready to go to Jerusalem for the biggest holiday of the year, it was only a matter of time before Jesus was caught. It was going to be sooner than later, and the money bag was going to be gone; so Judas said, "I'm going to cash in while I can. I'm going to get while the getting is good. I'm going to get the last bit of money out of this Jesus that I can." All Jesus was to Judas was a dollar sign. From that moment on, he left. Matthew 26 tells us that. Matthew 26 tells us the story, and as soon as that happened, that rebuke, it said, "Then Judas went to the chief priest," immediately. He said, "My name is Judas. I'm a follower of Jesus. I can give you what you need if you give me what I want." The deal was arranged; the price was reached for an agreement, and they shook hands. Judas went back, and they had the Last Supper together. Jesus announced, "One of you will betray Me." Judas had the audacity to ask the question: "Is it I, Lord?" after he'd already betrayed Jesus. Jesus said, "The one who dips his bread with me will betray Me." Judas dipped his bread, and Jesus turned to him and said, "Go and do quickly what you must do." Judas left and said, "I have the plan. Tonight in the Garden of Gethsemane, away from all the people, you will find Jesus. He will be the One I kiss. Whoever I kiss, seize Him." That night, Jesus was in the Garden. He knew His betrayer was coming, and He said, "Our betrayer is coming. Arise, let us go." He doesn't say that for them to run; He says that in order to meet the betrayer. He says that to meet the ones who are coming to take Him away. You see, they weren't tiptoeing through the tulips that night. As they were coming in the quiet of the night, there were almost 800 men. Did you know that? The Bible tells us it was a cohort of soldiers-that's 600 men-plus the chief priests, the Pharisees, and Judas, which was over 200 men. They came with clubs, torches, spears, and swords; and they didn't come quietly. They think they're going to have to hunt, comb, breakup, and look all through the Garden. They came down the Kidron Valley near Jerusalem. If you're in the Mount of Olives, there is a valley that lasts a mile between the two. You could look across from the Garden of Gethsemane, and you could watch those 600 torches coming down the mountain; so He knew they were coming, but they didn't have to find Him. He found them, and He said, "Who are you looking for?" They said, "Jesus of Nazareth." Jesus said, "I am." Judas kissed Him on the cheek, and He said, "Are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?" and you know the rest of the story. From there, He was taken away and beaten. He would be given a mock trial, and He would be crucified. Judas began to realize what he had done. Rather than go to Christ and beg for His forgiveness, Judas took the money, threw it back in the palace, and said, "I've done a terrible thing!" They said, "We don't care. We don't care how you feel about it." He gets no support there. Judas found a rope and found a tree, and he took his life. He hanged himself. It was a very unhappy ending. There was no reconciliation. There's soon to be not even a hope of it. It did not end well. When we have relationships that don't end well; when we are betrayed; when confidence is broken, should we reconcile? When should we reconcile? We're going to continue to look at this story, but I want to give you some questions that will serve like a grid. We don't have time to address every single scenario that you can come up with about reconciliation and forgiveness, so I want to give you a grid. I want to give you some questions to ask. The number one question when I'm determining whether or not to reconcile is has there been closure? Has there already been closure? Have we moved on? Maybe it didn't end the way we wanted it to, but sometimes we can do more damage trying to repair a relationship where we're not enemies, we're not out to get one another, but we've kind of moved on. Sometimes we try to resurrect that and resurrect those issues when there has already been closure and forgiveness has been given. "I don't know if they've forgiven me, but really we need to move on." So I ask you the question, "Has there been closure?" Maybe it's not a relationship that really needed to continue. It could cause more harm than good by revisiting those circumstances. Use your discernment there. Secondly, do both parties want to reconcile? If more than one person does not want to reconcile, then you are wasting your time. Sometimes you can even do more harm than good. You can push the person even further away. Wait until they are ready, if they are ready. Sometimes you just have to wait and say, "You know what? For right now, this relationship is not going to reconcile. Maybe down the road it will." Paul said in Romans 12:18, "As far as it depends upon you, be at peace with all men." Sometimes you try to be at peace with all men, but maybe sometimes you can't. Maybe sometimes it isn't possible. They don't want to reconcile. It doesn't matter what you say; there isn't going to be reconciliation because reconciliation requires at least two. Forgiveness requires just one. Thirdly, and this point I want to linger on-this question I want to linger on-is it safe to reconcile? This is very important, and there are three criteria that we're going to use to determine if something is safe. Number one, what is the motivation? Number two, what is their method? And number three, what is their mindset? I think it's important to talk about all three of these. Number one, what is the motivation? What is this person wanting out of reconciliation? What do they want out of the friendship? What did Judas want out of Jesus? Money. Jesus was simply something that Judas used for himself. There are still people who use Jesus today. Judas was only concerned about Judas. Judas' motivation in their relationship was how he could take care of himself. Friends, there are people out there who want a one-sided relationship. They want it to always be about them and them only. They're only concerned with what they can take, what they can have. They're really not concerned about you. You are disposable. When they have what they want, if they no longer need you, they will get rid of you. Some of you can attest to that; some of you have been in relationships and friendships where you felt used. A person used you to get information, intimacy, or whatever it was they were looking for. When they got what they wanted, they moved on. I will not ask for a raise of hands on that one because it's all of us. We've all been used; we've all been taken advantage of. What is the motivation? These all blend together because the way I know the motivation is by looking at the method. What is their pattern? How do they conduct themselves? How do they normally interact with me? Is there a pattern there? Was this harm that was done to our relationship a one-time shot, or is this something that's being repeated? Is this something that's ongoing? Is this something that just seems to happen in a cyclical manner? If I see that it's repetitive and they are repeating this behavior again and again and it's causing me harm, is it wise to reconcile with that person? You see, Judas didn't just steal once from Jesus. For Judas, this was a lifestyle. John is clear. He said Judas did this all the time. From the time he took over the purse strings until the time he got the last amount of money out of the Romans, Judas took advantage of his position of trust. It was not an event; it was a pattern with Judas. It is very hard to reconcile with somebody who is in a harmful pattern of behavior. If you feel a strong need to reconcile with somebody who has had a pattern of abuse in your life-and I'm not saying this to be sarcastic or a smart alec-but get professional help. Something is wrong somewhere. I'm serious. Something is wrong with you. There's been some need that hasn't been met if you are seeking out of the approval of a person who only means to harm you. That is not healthy; that is not natural, and there is something wrong somewhere. You need to find out what that is. You should seek some professional counseling and find out what is going on inside of you, what it is that needs this dysfunctional relationship in your life, that needs the approval of this person that you never seem to get. Thirdly, the mindset-the mindset is the present. How did they respond when they were confronted? When there is a discussion about the wrongful behavior, how do they deal with that? Do they say, "I'm sorry. That was wrong. I shouldn't have done that"? Are there tears of remorse and regret, or do they justify and excuse or continue the behavior? That tells me their mindset. How do you reconcile with somebody who doesn't see anything wrong with behavior that has hurt you. I have a little scab right now on my finger. I have a little cut, and I can't get this blasted thing to heal because I keep knocking it off. I'm going to have to put a Band-Aid on it today. It's getting me really frustrated. This thing should be healed and gone, but I keep reinjuring this spot on my finger. How do you heal a wound when somebody is continuing to hurt you? You need space, and you need time away from that person. Sometimes, that is a permanent situation. If their mindset is such that there is a strong chance of the hurt reoccurring, then you need to set boundaries in that relationship. I want you to turn in your Bibles to a rather obscure Passage in the Book of 2 Timothy 4 (page 1180 of pew Bibles). We're not only going to look at what Paul says here but at what Paul does not say. This letter was written to Timothy who was the pastor of the church in Ephesus, a church Paul started. He was a pastor Paul mentored. He wrote to warn him of a man named Alexander. Verse 14, "Alexander the metalworker did me a great deal of harm," but I want you to invite him to lunch. Use the company credit card. Tell him all is forgotten; all is well. We just want to be friends with him. Give him a warm hug from me, and tell him I love him. Is that what Paul says? He says, "Alexander the metalworker did me a great deal of harm." Alexander the metalworker hurt me really bad. Chances are we know why this happened. Remember there was idol worship in Ephesus, and they worshipped the goddess Diana in the temple? These silver and bronze metalworkers made these necklaces and statues in various sizes for people to worship, to buy and take home as souvenirs? It was one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Well, when they converted to Christianity, they no longer wanted to worship the idols; so the metalworkers were run out of business. It was what drove the economy of the whole city. When Paul started preaching the Gospel, they said, "Well, we're going to worship the true God. We don't need Diana anymore," and the metalworkers lost their jobs. This guy was livid and wanted to know, "Who is responsible for this? Paul?" Maybe he even physically assaulted him, but he attacked Paul personally and he attacked the message of the Gospel. "The Lord will repay him for what he has done." That is not a statement of unforgiveness. That is not a statement that is vindictive. He is simply stating it matter-of-factly. Paul is saying, "I'm not going to deal with this man anymore. I'm not having a relationship with this man anymore. God knows what he did. He knows what he did. He'll have to answer to God." Maybe you have somebody [in your life] who got away with something. They hurt you, and they got away with it. What do you say? "They have to answer to God. They're going to have their day before the Lord. I'm not going to get my revenge. I'll let God deal with them." You said that. That's all Paul is saying. He is saying, "He has to answer to God." "You too should be on your guard against him, because he strongly opposed our message." He is not telling him to reconcile. He says, "Stay away from him. Don't reach out to him. His motivation is to do harm. His pattern has been to do harm, and his mindset is to continue doing harm. He's not sorry for what he has done. Stay away from him." That grave and that dirt remains the way it is. Now should he have a change of heart, then that changes my response. Should there be a true repentance and Alexander decides, "I've become a Christian. I want to serve Jesus Christ, and I want to make amends with you," and we observe over time that he can be trusted, [then there's room for reconciliation]. Paul was a person who was an enemy of Christ and had a radical encounter and change of heart. He said, "Now I'm a Christian," and the church was like, "Ah, not so sure." They learned they could trust him, and then they reconciled with Paul who was once their enemy; but his mindset (Alexander) was such that it was not time to reconcile with this individual. Friends, there are some Alexanders in your lives that you are wise to not reconcile with. What I want to share with you this morning is from a Biblical perspective, you have permission. You don't have permission to go on a rampage and start burying all these relationships. Your first obligation is forgiveness and reconciliation. When it is healthy and right to do so, that's what we should do-forgive one another, reconcile, and move on. That's what God prefers, but there are instances. May God give wisdom and discernment to when those instances are that we do not reconcile. Let's pray: Father, give us wisdom and counsel in the friendships and relationships in our lives. Lord, in the song, we talked about someone who was possibly a spouse or boyfriend or girlfriend. In the testimony, we heard from a woman who was estranged from her father. In the Scripture, we saw the betrayal of a friend. From every angle, every aspect of life, there can be these breakdowns in relationships. Father, when it is healthy to do so, You always want forgiveness and reconciliation, but sometimes it's not healthy. Sometimes there is closure; sometimes a party does not want to reconcile; and sometimes it is not safe. Grant us wisdom and discernment from Your Word, the Spirit, and the council of Godly friends to be able to make those decisions. Let us not be quick to bury, but let us know sometimes we need to. Sometimes it's healthy to get the shovel out. Sometimes we just have to say, "I have to draw a line. I can't be abused by this person or risk abuse or pain from this person any longer. I need to heal." Grant us that knowledge. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Pastor Jeff Williams: April 3, 2011 Living Debt-Free, Part VII, "Love Means Having to Say You're Sorry."
We're talking about how to give an apology today. I have never given a sermon on that in my 30 years of being a pastor. I've never done that; and I don't know if you've ever heard one before, but I think it's important because it's where the rubber meets the road. We're talking about reconciliation. Oftentimes the first step in reconciliation is an apology. Well, how do we give one? Does the Scripture give us a model in how to apology? What we're going to do to get us in that vein is listen to a media which is a conglomeration of some very well known apologies, and then we'll dig in. (The media played was apologies from famous Presidents, athletes, and stars. i.e., Nixon, Clinton, Tiger Woods, Senator Larry Craig, David Letterman…)
I think what Lennon was apologizing for there was a remark he made, "The Beetles are bigger than Jesus Christ." When he said that, it put him in a lot of trouble.
Anybody out there a head banger? Well, I had a head banging experience about a week ago. My wife and I have a king-sized bed that we sleep in. Usually, it means you don't have to come in contact with the other person. You can have your own space. Occasionally, I'll go over there because we have a heated blanket, but I don't heat my side because it gets too hot. She heats her side, so when I'm a little chilled, I just roll over there, get warmed up, and then I roll back. It's nice and cool, and it's a system that works really well. Apparently, I was over there in close proximity. We've been married for 28 years this summer, and this has never happened before. We decided to change positions at the same time and in the same direction, so we actually sat up and turned [at the same time]. When we turned, we collided heads; we banged heads. It was like BAM, and it was so hard and it hurt so much that it instantly woke us both up. It was like OW! Our immediate thought was "why did you just hit me in the head?" You kinda blame the other one, and then you come to your senses and realize what happened and the humor of it all. I apologized to her, "I'm sorry. Are you okay?" Apparently I'm very nice during the middle of the night. She has told me this over the years-it's true, isn't it? If I'm snoring loud, she'll simply say, "Jeff, you're snoring. You need to roll over." I'm like, "Oh, I'm ever so sorry" (in British accent). Apparently, I become British when I sleep. "I shall roll over. Please forgive me." I am always really sorry; I apologize. We didn't mean to bump heads, but it happened; and it hurt.
Head banging happens. We're going to bang heads with people in our lives. Sometimes it's intentional, and sometimes it's quite accidently; but you will find that you will have conflict [in your lives]. In this world, you're gonna find you will have people you clash with. Sometimes you will mean to clash, and other times it will be quite surprising, unplanned, and impromptu. You are going to bang heads; so if we bang heads, how do we deal with that pain? How do we make things right? That's what we're going to be talking about today. How do we apologize to someone? It sounds intensely practical, and I think it is. I think it's something we should spend some time on today. When we bang heads with people-when, not if-how are we going to handle that? What are we going to do? The Bible doesn't use the word apologize; it uses the world apology, but it's in a different sense of the word than how we use it, so that's the closest thing we can come to in the Bible. In the Bible where the word apology appears, it's as a defense for something, an argument for something. In our language, we use the world apology really as a confession of wrong; so the best thing we can do is find a confession. Using the word confession is the closest thing we can find to what we would understand as an apology. I thought it would be good for us to see a good apology first. Let's look at an accurate Biblical apology/confession, and then we'll look at some that aren't so good. I think we'll be able to see why once we look at a good example.
I want you to turn in your Bibles to Nehemiah 1:4-8. Nehemiah is an important man in the history of Israel. He is the man who begins the rebuilding of the wall. The nation is now in exile. Because of their rebellion and sin against God, they are being punished; so they are in another land. Right now, Persia is in control, and Nehemiah loves his country. He loves his heritage. He receives a report that the wall is in ruins. It was their first line of defense, and really without a wall, you weren't a city at all. The wall was down and in shambles, and Nehemiah's heart was broken. He realized there's a direct coloration between the rebellion of his people and the current state of the city of Jerusalem. Before he would ever start putting one brick upon another; before he would ever assemble a team; before he would ever seek to get permission to leave the king's service; before he would seek to even scout out the land, he spent time fasting and in prayer. We're going to read his confession in Nehemiah 1:4 (page 472 of pew Bibles). He said, "When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of Heaven. Then I said: 'Oh Lord, God of Heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant of love with those who love Him and obey His commands, let Your ear be attentive and Your eyes open to hear the prayer Your servant is praying before you day and night for Your servants, the people of Israel. I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father's house, have committed against You. We have acted very wickedly toward You. We have not obeyed the commands, decrees and laws you gave your servant Moses.'" Then he talks about restoration and the fact that God will bring them together if they repent. There are some qualities-there are some ingredients-to a confession that I want to share here in this Passage.
The first thing I notice is that Nehemiah not only is representing his family and his people, but he also talks about himself. [Number one], an apology is self-focused. It is no longer focusing on the argument. It's not trying to win an argument. It simply owns what I am responsible for; so when I apologize, I'm simply talking about me, "Here's the part I've had. Here is what I have done. When you apologize, it's not an opportunity to escalate the argument. It's not an opportunity to try to win the argument. It's a time when you're focusing on your part.
Nehemiah said, "I had a part to play too. My sin has contributed to where we are at, and I am sorry for my sin, the problems that I have had."
Secondly, there is a sincerity here, isn't there? If you read Nehemiah's words, he is sincere about what he is saying. To be effective [number two], an apology must be sincere. Just mouthing the magic words doesn't really cut it in my book. You've all received apologies. Maybe, like Jesse said, [you've encountered an apology] when one parent makes a child apologize to a sibling or friend, and they simply want to hear the magic words. That's all that counts. The person says they are sorry, but you know in your heart, they're really not. I'm afraid the reliable test for sincerity is the passage of time. It really is. You and I have all known people who have come to us and apologized, and they seemed sincere at the time; but the offense repeats itself. If one is truly insincere, it's going to show up. If you really meant what you said, you are going to stand by what you said. If you have to keep coming back for the same offense over and over again and saying, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry," then you might be saying you're sorry, but you're really not sincere. Part of being sincere is stopping the behavior. There are steps taken to change the behavior so it does not continue to rectify the wrong attitudes and wrong actions. One of the true tests of sincerity is does it happen again over time? Is the offense/behavior going to repeat? I might think a person is sincere, but I will never know until the passage of time. Sincerity involves not just meaning it, but it involves our actions, our attempts to rectify to make right.
Thirdly, we find that Nehemiah is sorrowful. He is sorrowful for what he has done. When we are sorrowful, it means we have emphasized. We have an understanding of the consequences of what we have done. We are feeling a little bit of the pain, the hurt, we have caused another. We're putting ourselves in their shoes. "If somebody had said that to me, if somebody had done that to me, how would I feel?" Some of those most heartfelt apologies, effective apologies, are when you truly have put yourself in their place and you truly are sorry. You're feeling sorrowful; you're feeling remorse; you're feeling regret for your actions and the pain you have caused. That's going to come through. Nehemiah is sorrowful. He realizes that the state they are in now, they did not have to be in. The state they are in now, they do not have to continue to be in. He's sorry that they are there. He's sorry that their city is a reproach. He's asking God to change that. Fourthly, it is specific. Nehemiah said, "We have not obeyed Your commands, Your decrees, and Your laws." He's going into detail." "Here's what we haven't done." If an apology is to be effective, it should not be a generic apology, "I'm sorry." "You're sorry for what? Specifically, what are you sorry for? What did you do?" We talked about Daniel and the terrible sin he committed when he committed adultery with Bathsheba and then covered it up by having her husband killed in war. He put him in the frontlines where he knew he'd be killed. I don't know if he ever apologized to Bathsheba or not, but if he did he owed her a whole lot more than, "Honey, I'm sorry." It would have been more like, "Listen, I have done something evil. I have done something dreadful in the eyes of God. Not only did I commit adultery with you, but I lied and covered it up. I was the one who had your husband, Uriah, put in the frontlines so he would be killed. I murdered your husband. I can never justify that. I can never rectify what I've done, but I'm asking, I'm begging, for your forgiveness, Bathsheba, for what I've done." Just generically saying I'm sorry doesn't get it done. A true confession is specific, "Here's what I am sorry for. Here's what I said. Here's what I did."
So having that as a model for us, let's take a look at a couple of people who had sorrow over their offenses but didn't quite express them correctly or did not have corresponding action with their remorse. Let's turn to Mark 6:14 (page 996). Here we find the story of King Herod, the son of Herod the Great. He was a wicked man. This is a man who abused his power and authority. One of the things he did was he took his brother Philip's wife, Herodias, to be his wife while his brother was still very much alive and while they were still very much married. Apparently with her cooperation, he stole his brother's wife.
Now a man who was having great spiritual influence at the time was a no-nonsense guy by the name of John the Baptist. He really didn't care what you thought, really didn't care what you said about him. If he had, he wouldn't have had a wardrobe of camel's hair, lived on locus and honey, and lived in the desert. He was probably not the most-groomed man you'd ever run into either. He said what was on his mind, and he spoke the truth. People knew that the hand of God was upon John, and Herod was afraid of John. Even though politically he had more power than John, Herod knew that John had divine power. It was who John represented that Herod feared, so he had John killed. Herod had this fear that John the Baptist was raised from the dead because Jesus started performing all these miracles and the hand of God was on Him. Rumors started to circulate that that spirit of John the Baptist had entered this Jesus of Nazareth. It was as if John was back, but he was back because he was living in the person of Jesus; and Herod believed it and was all paranoid.
In Verse 16, it says, "But when Herod heard this, he said, 'John, the man I beheaded, has been raised from the dead!'" He said it not as a question, but as a statement of fact. He was so paranoid, he was so fearful, that he thought John was coming back to get him. Here is what he did: Herod was having a birthday party. The food was abundant, and alcohol was flowing. His niece came out and she did a dance on behalf of her uncle's birthday. It really pleased the people that gathered before the king. Everybody thought she just did an amazing job. Herod said to her (in Pastor Jeff's imitation of an intoxicated man), "Whatever you ask, I will give you. You can have my kingdom!" You know he was feeling good because of the promise that he made. Sometimes when a person was feeling good and had a little bit too much to drink, they would make promises they couldn't keep and make promises they shouldn't make. Obviously, she was a good dancer, but I doubt that was worthy of half the kingdom. He was feeling pretty good, and he wasn't thinking quite clearly.
She was like, "Uncle, are you serious?" "I'm serious. You can have the kingdom! Whatever you want, you can just tell me, and I'm going to give it to you."
She was like, "Wow! I'm going to strike while the iron is hot," so she started thinking, "Maybe I'll ask for the hand of the most handsome bachelor in the land. Maybe I want my own palace. Maybe I want my own territory. I'll have power. Maybe I just want him to give me some gold so I can have some wealth. The kingdom is at my disposal." She went to dialup with her mom. Her mom would have some good advice, right? "Maybe I'll get some splendid linens and some fancy dresses." She was thinking of all the wonderful things she would get. She told her mom, and her mom said, "Anything?" "That's what he said. He said I can have anything-up to half the kingdom! What shall I have, Mom?" "Hmm, I know. Ask him for the head of John the Baptist." "The what?" I don't think she was too happy with that. If you could have anything you wanted, and you were dreaming of all these wonderful things, and you're going to get…a head on a platter? She did what her mom said to do.
She went back to the king, and the king was still celebrating. He was still having a great time. Everything was wonderful. All of the friends were laughing, and he said, "What is it you want?" It was this public declaration, and everybody got quiet. They were waiting for this announcement-a palace? A husband? Beautiful gifts? She said, "I want the head of John the Baptist."
You could hear a pin drop. Some laughed; some gasped. Herod sobered up really fast. He wasn't laughing anymore. He was on the line. Would he keep his promise, or would he lose face in the eyes of his company? Would he follow through with what he said in his drunken stupor and kill an innocent man, or would he say, "Human life is more important than my drunken promise."
The Bible tells us that he experienced regret and remorse. Verse 26, "The king was greatly distressed…" I used the New American Standard, and it said, "The king was greatly sorrowful," sorry. He felt bad about what was about to happen. He felt bad about his decision, but because of his oaths and his dinner guests, he did not want to refuse her; so he ordered the execution of John the Baptist by beheading him. "I'm sorry. I feel terrible. It's wrong, but I'm going to do it anyway."
The apologies I want to talk about right now are about the "I'm sorry, but…" There's a before, and there's an after. Sometimes an apology takes place before the event. "I'm about to do something that's going to hurt you. I feel bad about it. It's wrong, but I'm going to do it anyway because I'm more important than you. What I'm about to do is wrong, but my reputation is on the line," Herod was thinking, "so I'm going to do it anyway. I'm going to do it because I can."
This "I'm sorry, but…" is about power. It's about control. It's a bully apology. "I'm sorry. I feel bad, but that's not stopping me. I have to do this." It's two minutes till 5 o'clock. You're excited because at 5 o'clock, you're off work. Your daughter's in a play that she's been working on for months. She's so excited, and you're excited. At two minutes to 5, your boss comes in with a stack, and he says, "I need the Johnson report done by the time you go home today." You say, "But, boss, it's two minutes to 5. The Johnson report is going to take hours to finish. Why didn't you bring this earlier? Can't it wait till tomorrow?" "I'm sorry. I feel really bad, but I need this before you go home. Sorry." It's a bully apology. Basically, it's worthless, isn't it? He really isn't sorry. If he [the king] were truly sorry, then he would have corresponding action, and he would have saved John's life. Then there is the second kind of "I'm sorry, but…" and that comes after the fact. The second kind of "I'm sorry, but…" is an apology, and it says something like this, "I was wrong in what I said. I shouldn't have said what I said. I shouldn't have done what I did. I'm sorry…but the way you're acting just really upset me. You were really out of line with what you said and did; so I'm sorry, but you shouldn't have acted that way." Friends, anytime you say "I'm sorry, but…" you just negated the whole apology. That is not a true apology; you're simply extending the argument, escalating the conflict. When you apologize, leave your buts out of it (congregation laughing). I promise you you're going to remember it when I say it that way. When you say I'm sorry, it's simply I'm sorry. It's not "I'm sorry, but you know what you…" If it's a true apology, if it's a true confession from a Biblical standpoint; it's not full of excuses. It's not full of justification. It's not full of retribution. It's simply saying "I-am-sorry" and owning what we have said or done, owning my part in the conflict. It's not "I'm sorry, but…" It's simply I'm sorry. When we say but, we negate everything we said before that. Some of you have received some of those apologies that said I'm sorry, but… Maybe you've given some of those apologies. They don't count.
Let's look at another kind of I'm sorry. Let's turn to Book of Luke 19 (page 1039). Luke 19 is the story of Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus is a troubled little man. He is a tax collector; he is wealthy; and he has gotten wealthy off the backs of his own people. Tax collectors set arbitrary taxes, and they kept the common folks poor and dependent. What's more, they turned their backs on their own people and were working for the Roman government against their own people. Zacchaeus was not a very popular guy. He was short in stature, so when he wanted to see Jesus, he couldn't; and nobody would let him in line. Nobody wanted to do any favors to this tax-collecting thief; so Zacchaeus climbed a tree to get a glimpse of Jesus. He didn't know Jesus. He simply knew He was a VIP and He was passing through. He wanted to get a glimpse. Up in the tree, he looked down, and Jesus stopped under the tree. They'd never met before. They didn't know one another. Jesus looked up in the tree, and to Zacchaeus' shock, He called him by name. He said, "'Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.'"
Zacchaeus was in shock. He looked around and probably thought, "Me?" "I don't see any other Zacchaeus in the tree. Come on down." The people got upset and said, "Well, you know, we have to reevaluate Jesus. If that is the kind of person He hangs out with, if that is the kind of people He wants to be friends with, we must have misjudged His character. That's for sure," but they'll be singing a different song in a while because some of them are about to get their money back. They'll be saying, "Oh, okay. I'm glad Jesus talked to Zacchaeus." We can't read the conversation, but we know what it must have been about. He must have been talking to Zacchaeus about the corruption in his life, about his deceitful practices, and about the fact that he needs God. "Take your anger and take your hurt, and don't take it out on your own people. You need to forgive, Zacchaeus. You need to make restitution. You need to reconcile with people. You should give back more than you owe, not just what you owe. Make yourself right with God, Zacchaeus. Reconcile with God and make things right with your fellow man." That's, in essence, probably what Jesus talked about. Well, it worked. Verse 8, Zacchaeus emerges a new man kind of like Scrooge in "The Christmas Carol." He is now a generous person instead of a wealthy miser. He said, "Look, Lord, here and now. I give half of my possessions to the poor. If I've cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount." Now this is wonderful. I don't question Zacchaeus. I don't question his conversion to Christ. I believe he is now a follower of Christ. I don't question the sincerity of his heart, and I don't question the fact that he was going to make restitution in this story. I don't question any of those things; but on surface value, if we were to take this apology and use it in real life, that is a very weak apology. What did Zacchaeus say? What is the one word in my mind that negates the apology? He said, "I'm sorry if…" Once you say I'm sorry if, again, you negate the apology because you are not taking responsibility. Again, I think he will take responsibility. I think he will be specific, but on the surface, if I were to take Zacchaeus' apology and apply it to you, it wouldn't sit too well. If I said, "I'm sorry if I've wronged you. I'm sorry if I've hurt you. I don't know what I did. I don't know what I said, but I'm sorry for it."
There was a song on the radio that we would hear from time to time, and my wife and I used to make fun of it. I won't sing it for you, but the chorus went something like this, "Whatever I said, whatever I did, I didn't mean it. I just want you back for good. Just tell me where I was wrong. Tell me the song, and I'll sing it. You'll be right and understood." Then the background singers sing, "I want you back. I want you back for good." That's the song, "Whatever I said-no idea, whatever I did-haven't a clue, I'm sorry." Friends, that's not a good apology because an apology is specific. Zacchaeus should have said, "Here's what I did. I wronged this person. I'm going to make it right. Here is the crime I did, and here is what I'm going to do to make restitution. If I have wronged someone… I'm not sure I did, but if I have…" An apology is specific. It's not just a generic apology. Do you know what that is? If the other one was an attempt to control, bully, and manipulate, then this apology is a shortcut. If this apology says, "I'm sorry if…" then it means "I don't want to deal with the details of an apology and reconciliation. I don't want to roll up my sleeves and get messy. I just want this to be over with. Apparently, you're upset with me. Apparently, I've done something wrong. I don't necessarily agree that I have, but I'm sorry. I'm sorry. If I've done something wrong, I'm sorry. I just want to move on. Can we just bypass this whole reconciliation stuff? Can we just bypass this dealing-with-the-issues stuff, and can we just move on? Can we be okay now? I've said the magic words. I'm guilty, whatever. I'm guilty." I'm sorry if is not an apology. God talks about this insincerity in His Word when it comes to confession. Let's turn in our Bibles to the Book of John 1. This is 1 John 1:7 (page 1207 of pew Bibles), it says, ""But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin." If we're walking as we should, there isn't going to be conflict. We're going to get along with one another. We're not going to bang heads with each other. It's going to be great, but invariably, there is going to be conflict.
Verse 8, "If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the Truth is not in us." What do you think John means when he says, "If we claim to be without sin…" This is the person who is always trying to justify their actions, always trying to excuse what they've done. They are never at fault. It's always somebody else's fault. Somebody set them up. Somebody else is to blame. "This person did this to me, so I'm not responsible for what I've done. This person wronged me here, so that's why I'm the way I am. It's not my fault." They totally dismiss their responsibility.
It's like Adam and Eve in the Garden passing the blame onto everyone but themselves, justifying and rectifying their behavior, rationalizing away, "It's not my fault." John says we have to come clean. "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." That's the only way to do it. Confess comes from two words, homo-logeo, same word; so to confess is to say the same word or the same thing that God says. It's to be in agreement with what God has said. It's to own my sin so I can be cleansed.
Jesus who knew no sin took my sin upon Himself. The innocent was punished on behalf of the guilty. Then shouldn't the guilty be willing to confess their sin to the innocent and say, "Lord, here's what I have done." He says if we do that, we will be cleansed from sin and cleansed from unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make Him out to be a liar; and His Word has no place in our lives. If we fail to take responsibility, if we're always saying, "Yeah, right, but what if?" and we never say, "This is what I have done. Lord, I am sorry. Lord, please forgive me. I'm making amends with God and with our fellowman," John says, "You're only deceiving yourself." What's more is you're making God a liar because God says that you're going to fall short. God says you are guilty, so be honest with yourself and be honest with God. Come clean, and when you come clean, you'll find forgiveness. You'll find life. You'll find grace.
What an appropriate subject matter for a communion Sunday. Don't you think? What an appropriate thing to study before we receive communion together.
I just want to encourage you today that when the elements are in your hands, when you bow your heads to pray, and when you confess your sin to the Lord, don't just do it generically. Be specific. Think about the pain your sin has caused; be sorrowful, sincere, and self-focused, "Here is what I have done. Lord, I'm asking You to forgive me, to cleanse me of my sin." This is a very appropriate time for us to practice the message we've just heard from the Word of God this morning.
Pastor Jeff Williams: March 27, 2011 Living Debt-Free, Part VI, "Why Is Reconciliation Important?"
If you have a plan, how many of you think it's a good idea to have a Plan B, to have a backup in case something goes wrong? We prepare in life for when things don't go the way we would hope they would go. How many of you have insurance for your house, your car, your health? We plan. Some of you even have Aflac or AAA in case something goes wrong with your car. We prepare for things to go wrong even though we hope they don't. We hope that things go well. It's good to know what we will do in the event that things do not go as we desired or as planned.
Some have mistakenly thought that when man fell, when man sinned, that God said, "Oops!" That blindsided God. God said, "I didn't see that coming. I don't know what I'm going to do now." He panicked and kinda came up with a Plan B. "Yeah, I'll do that Jesus thing that I thought about. Yeah. Things didn't go as well as I thought, so what do I do now?" He was kinda scratching His head. The Bible says that Jesus is the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. God planned our redemption before He even created man; before He even set our world in motion, He had a plan for our redemption because
God in His sovereignty knew that man would fall. In the Bible, it talks about the fall of man, and we see the freewill of man and the consequences of His decision. How can God be sovereign and in complete control and man have freedom? Sometimes people think there's a conflict there. They are summoning the sovereignty camp. They're like, "Oh, yeah, we don't believe in freewill. We're for God's sovereignty."
Others will say, "Yes, God is sovereign, but it's all about freewill," and there is conflict and tension between them. In the history of the church, they have been in conflict. Tozer, a theologian, describes it this way: there is a ship sailing, and the captain is in charge of the destination. On that ship are many passengers who are completely free. They're talking with whom they want to talk; they're sleeping when they want to sleep; getting up when they want to get up; eating what they want to eat; building friendships and relationships, but the chart or the path of the boat is set. He says, "Sovereignty and the freewill of man coexist. They both are there." God is steering this great vessel. We are on this vessel; and while we're on this vessel, we're free to make choices and live with those consequences. Sometimes we choose incorrectly. We incur debt. That's what this series is about. It's about our moral debt. It's about forgiving debt and reconciling and Living Debt Free.
We've spent a number of weeks talking about the forgiveness component. Now we've switched to talking about the reconciliation component because we can have forgiveness without reconciliation, but we cannot have reconciliation without forgiveness. We had to spend a lot of time on that, but now we're going to be talking about reconciliation. I want you to turn in your Bibles please to Genesis 3:8 (page 3 of pew Bibles). In Genesis 3, we find the fall of man. When I say man, I mean mankind-men and women. We find the need for reconciliation. We find the first attempt at reconciliation. The word reconcile means to restore to unity or restore to order. It implies that something was once in order and aligned and is now in disorder. It needs to be repaired; it needs to be restored; it needs to be brought to the way it's intended to be, the way it should be, the way it used to be. It's brought back into harmony. That is the meaning of to reconcile. In the Garden, man is created, and there is harmony between God and His creation. They are submitted to His will. He has made His Will clear. Then there is going to come a time of disruption to that unity. Into the Garden, there is going to come an evil presence. The Bible identifies this as Satan, the devil, or Lucifer. He comes into the Garden, and he begins speaking through a reptile. People who are critical of the Bible will use that to discredit and call it a fable. They'll say, "Well, reptiles don't talk," and they're missing the entire point. We'd agree with reptiles not talking, but what the Bible says is happening is that this evil, wicked being is speaking through the mouth of the serpent. A lot of Third World Countries are familiar with satanic activity and possession, and they deal with voodoo and things like that, and they wouldn't question this story. I myself have seen some pretty amazing things. I know that when a powerful being like Satan is trying to get his voice across and is using this reptile, it is he who is speaking-not the snake. We shouldn't say, "Oh, yeah right, talking snakes." Satan is talking, and he needs a body to communicate. Adam and Eve are out of the question, so this innocent reptile is targeted; and he begins speaking to Adam and Eve and gets them to question and doubt what God has said, His authority, to doubt His Sovereignty. "Did God really say that or did He say you shall not surely die?" They begin to listen to him. They come into agreement with him. They should be in agreement with their Creator, but now they are in disagreement with their Creator and need to be reconciled. They should be in disagreement with this evil presence in the Garden, but they are in agreement with him.
God is going to come on the scene much like a detective who knows all the facts. You're watching a TV show, and the detective is questioning the suspect. He knows more than the suspect knows he does. The suspect is trying to cover up what he's done and hide what he's done; but the suspect knows the truth. He's able to trip them up with their own words. We've all seen that plot happen on TV and in the movies many times over. It happens in real life. We see it happening for the first time in this account in the Garden. God is interrogating Adam and Eve, the suspects, as to the crime that they perpetrated. We pick up the story in Verse 8. They have already partaken of the forbidden fruit. "Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as He was walking the Garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the Garden." That's our natural response, right? When we've done something wrong, we hide or cover it up. We hope we're not found out. "But the Lord God called to the man, 'Where are you?'
"He answered, 'I heard you in the Garden and I was not afraid because I was naked; so I hid.'" He's still trying to keep everything concealed. "And He answered, 'Who told you that you were naked?'"
You can kinda see Adam and Eve going, "Uh-oh, busted. We let a clue go there." It's like going back to that detective in the TV show where the detective is saying, "You're the one that killed Joe!" He said, "I didn't kill Joe! I don't even own a gun!" The detective said, "Who said it was a gun?" Joe's like, "Ah! Busted!" He's busted. He's like, "How am I going to get out of this? I've already told too much."
"'Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?'" It's like a little kid that's busted. He's like, "What am I going to do?" "'The woman you put here with me…'"
That's how he starts it off. "I was doing pretty well. I was minding my own business. I was doing everything I was supposed to do until the helpmate You put in here for me… So really it's kinda her fault and Your fault because if You remember, if You recall, before you pass judgment on me, prior to her arrival, everything was great." That's what the sin nature does. It covers up; it passes blame; [it does] everything else but accept responsibility.
"'…she gave me the fruit from the tree, and I ate it.' "Then the Lord said to the woman, 'What is this you have done?' "The woman said, 'The serpent deceived me, and I ate.' "So the Lord God said to the serpent, 'Because you have done this, "Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life."'" The serpent will eat dust while it's navigating. It will take dust in, but the fact that it's on its belly is to serve as a reminder of the fall of Satan. It is a reminder of the curse of Satan.
He says, "'"I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers. He will crush your head, and you will crush his heal."'" That verse is significant, and we're going to spend some time there in just a moment. "'To the woman He said, "I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you."'
"'To Adam He said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,' "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return."'"
God introduces to them, to their vocabulary, the word pain. This word pain is used over and over again. It's describing many different things. It's describing the anguish of the field now as they encounter thorns and thistles; the pain of childbirth; it's describing death-"…to dust you'll return." Pain is the Hebrew word itstsbown. It sounds Italian, but it's not. It's Hebrew. Itstsbown means the consequences of the fall that is pain. You and I encounter pain in our existence. Things go wrong. We know in this world that things are not the way they are supposed to be. Things are not the way they should be. Death is not part of God's perfect plan. Death is not our friend. Death is an enemy. Sin is an enemy. The world itself is under this curse. In Romans 8:22 (page 1119 of pew Bibles), Paul says the whole creation groans and desires to be reconciled to God; so as part of this curse you and I encounter itstsbown. We should make some new bumper stickers for our cars that say, "Itstsbown happens." It will be a good conversation starter. "What do you mean, itstsbown?"
"Well, it's just this whole Biblical concept of bad things happening-emotional, physical-pain that we have to endure because we live in a fallen world," so they're learning about this pain. They're learning about death, the consequences of their actions. We said 15 is an important verse; 15 is very important. Here's what Verse 15 is and here's why it's important: somebody gives you trivia and says, "What is the first prophesy in the Bible?"
You can tell them, "Genesis 3:15." If somebody asks, "Where is the first promise in the Bible?" You can tell them, "Genesis 3:15." If somebody says, "Where is the first mention of spiritual warfare in the Bible, the conflict between good and evil, God and Satan, light and darkness?" "Genesis 3:15."
If somebody says, "Where is the first mention of the Gospel, of redemption, of God redeeming man and reconciling man to himself?"
The answer, the first mention of the Gospel in the entire Bible, is not Matthew, Mark, Luke or John. It is Genesis 3:15. This verse is really important. Let's take a look. God is speaking here directly to Satan. Understand that. He's not speaking to a snake. He's speaking to the adversary. He says, "I will put enmity…" or hatred or hostility "…between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers…" Right now she is in agreement with you. Mankind is in agreement with you, and they are in disorder with Me; but I'm going to change that. I'm going to bring a hostility there. I'm going to take away that harmony, and I'm going to take away that agreement. God is going to restore the harmony between His creation and Himself and at the same time destroy the harmony that is existing between the serpent and mankind. God says, "I am going to reconcile. I'm going to make this right. I'm going to put hostility between you and the woman, between Satan and mankind and between her offspring and your offspring." Those who would follow the directives of Satan and those who will follow the directives of God-there will be hostility between those two groups. He's letting Satan know he's not going to win. He says, "He will crush your head. You will strike his heal." That's the first prophesy in the entire Bible. There is going to come an offspring from Eve, a male offspring, a he, who will destroy you. It's talking about redemption. It is prophetic. Who is this He? Satan himself must wonder who this He is. Martin Luther said that Satan spent many a century looking at every male offspring of Eve and wondering, "Is this the He? Is this the One who is to come? Is this the One who is going to destroy me?" Notice the conflict. One is striking at the other one's heal; and One is crushing the other one's head. There is going to be warfare. There's going to be a conflict between this offspring that is to come and Satan. It's hinting here at the cross, isn't it? It's a foreshadowing of the cross. What do you do when you wound someone? When you strike their heal, you wound them, don't you? If I hit you in the heal, do I destroy you? No, but it sure hurts. Somebody gets hit in the Achilles', that hurts, but it doesn't kill them; but if I crush your head, I've destroyed you.
At the cross, Jesus is wounded, but through His resurrection, Satan is crushed. He is destroyed. The Bible tells us that. It says, "Through His resurrection, He destroyed the works of the devil. He conquered sin and death and the grave." He restored that which was lost in the garden. He made a way for man to be reconciled with God. There was a restoration. Satan's plan and purposes were utterly destroyed and conquered; so it foreshadows this conflict between the Savior and the enemies of our souls. God tells the outcome, "You will wound Him, but He will crush you."
So in this story when there was a breakdown in relationship, who is the first one to seek reconciliation? Was it man or God? It was God. God is the reconciler, so through the cross, God reconciled Himself to us. He says it's up to us to take the next step. What we're going to do is take a look at some of the stages or steps of reconciliation. We'll linger on some of them, and some of them we'll pass on through. The first step is an acknowledgement of wrong. When there has been a break in the relationship, there has to be an acknowledgement of wrong. When you have a relationship that is broken down and maybe one party does or the other party doesn't acknowledge the wrong, that relationship will be dysfunctional. Maybe both parties pretend like the wrong never happened. You and I know of people we had conflict with. Maybe it's within your family or maybe a friendship. There's been no reconciliation-nothing, and we just allow time to pass by. We allow tempers to calm down, the dust to settle, and then we just simply go back and live as if nothing has ever happened. As a result, that relationship is not what it should be. It's not what it's supposed to be. It's not what it was. It either stagnates or it digresses, but it does not grow. It cannot grow because it is broken down. It needs reconciliation. When one party or both parties fail to acknowledge the pain and the damage to that relationship, that relationship is in jeopardy of dying. It happens all the time. People have conflict, and they say, "Well, I don't want to deal with that. It sounds too painful to deal with. It sounds too difficult to deal with." Other things are consuming their time and energies, and they just pretend it never happened. "I don't like conflict, so we're just going to go on as if it never happened," and that relationship deteriorates, doesn't it? Those people grow apart because there has been a breach. There has been a break, and nobody has taken the time to acknowledge that break. If you break a bone, and you don't acknowledge it, it isn't going to heal correctly; but it's going to heal wrong. It's not going to be stronger than it was before the break, so there has to be an acknowledgement of wrong. That's what God is attempting to have Adam and Eve do-acknowledge what they did, acknowledge it was wrong. Stop passing the blame; stop justifying your actions; take responsibility for what you have done. Be honest with God. Be honest with yourself; that's number one. Number two, there has to be an initiator. There always has to be an initiator. Someone has to take that first step. This is a big one too because of anger, because of pride. Maybe you were the person who was wrong or offended. "Why should I be the one to go to them? They should come to me." Jesus says that His followers are to be peacemakers. He said His followers are to be initiators. What did He say? He said, "If you're bringing your gift to the altar and your brother has something against you, you go. If your brother has wronged you, go to your brother. Then come and present your gift at the altar." He says, "Even if it wasn't your fault, you initiate."
I want you to think of reconciliation as a bridge. Right now we are divided. There is chasm. That chasm is the offense, and the bridge is what is going to bring us together. We're going to cross over the offense, and we're going to unite together on top. There are a series of steps back and forth that must take place. There is that first step of the initiator to move toward the person that they need to reconcile with. Sometimes it's the person who was wronged, as in the Garden. It's God who is the initiator. Other times, it might be the person who caused the offense. Maybe we're feeling guilty about what we've done, so we want to be restored; and we take the initiative. It can be either party, but that first step is crucial because unless that first step happens, there is no hope for reconciliation. If both parties stand their ground and stubbornly refuse to move, no reconciliation is possible. Forgiveness is possible, but reconciliation is not. Reconciliation takes more than just you.
After I've initiated, the next step (step 3) is the response; and that's really important. If the person you're seeking to reconcile with does not want to reconcile with you or does not see it to be healthy-or maybe it's dangerous to reconcile with you-he or she may choose not to reconcile with you; then there's nothing you can do other than wait for time to pass and try again.
In three weeks, we're going to be talking about the subject of when we should not reconcile. Is Satan going to reconcile with God anytime soon? No. Are there times when it is not healthy or wise to reconcile? There really are, and we're going to talk about those issues in a few weeks. For the sake of this topic, we're going to assume that it is right and good to reconcile; so that next step is important. How will they respond? How will Adam and Eve respond to God's initiation to reconcile with them? That's important. If the person holds his or her own ground and says, "I don't want to reconcile with you," reconciliation breaks down at that point, and we get stuck at the bridge. Nobody can proceed any further. However, if that person acknowledges, "Yes, I want to reconcile," and there is a mutual decision to reconcile, what has to happen next (step 4) is confession. We've talked about confession. Confession means to be in agreement. It means to say the same word-homologeo. It's to say the same word or be in agreement. In this case, confession would be Adam and Eve being in agreement with God-that He is right and they are wrong.
Next week, we're going to spend our time together on apologies. That's important. Remember the movie, "Love Story," from the 70s? Any old-timers out here? What was the big line from the movie? Love means…"never having to say you're sorry." The kids are all going, "What? That's ridiculous." It is. It is; it's dumb. We're going to be talking about love meaning you have to say you're sorry. Next week, we're going to talk about Biblical apologies. What does it look like? I don't mean you're going to be saying, "I have confessed to thee that…" I don't mean that. I mean we're going to talk about principles of apologies and how to give a true apology. When we do that, you're going to see the false ones. They come out of Hollywood all the time. They come out of the sports world; they come out of entertainment; they come out of the political realm all the time-apologies that really aren't apologies. You'll recognize them after that. You'll be able to read in the paper [and know], "Well, that's not an apology!" That's what is coming up. And there'll be no missing next Sunday and apologizing to me for that (congregation laughing).
So before you interrupted me, where were we (congregation laughing)? We were talking about Adam and Eve. So you confess; you say the same thing. You're in agreement. The next step (step 5) that follows is forgiveness. We're not going to spend a lot of time on this because that's what we've been on for the last month. We talked about the story of Philemon and Onesimus, the runaway slave and how Paul encouraged Philemon to forgive him. He released the debt. Forgiveness means to release the debt, to make the decision to release. We talked about David and Shimei. Remember the unforgiveness that David was holding onto toward the man who called him names, threw rocks and stones at him, and cursed him? In his last dying words, David said to his son, Solomon, about Shimei, "Bring his grey head down to the grave in blood." He was still holding onto resentment all the way to the end.
So what are the barriers to forgiveness? We talked about David and the Prophet Nathan. David was this great king, and he was a man after God's own heart. Because of his lust for Bathsheba, he became an adulterer, a murderer, a liar, and a conspirator. He had to say to himself, "Here's who I want to be, and here's who I am-this cognitive dissidence. Here are the rules I have established for myself, and yet I broke all those rules." How did he live with the guilt? How did he forgive himself? If you've not been here for any of those, maybe you'd like to go back and order the CD, listen online, or read the transcripts so you can get caught up. I'm just going to say we've talked about that forgiveness, and I would encourage you to read those Scriptures and study them.
We're almost to the top of the bridge; we're almost reconciled, so the next step (step 6) is commit. Commitment says, "Here's what is going to be different. Here is how I will change. Here is how I am going to stop doing this. I'm going to start doing this." There are changes that need to be made so we don't keep repeating the same mistake. "I'm going to walk this bridge and reconcile with you, but I don't want to have to do this over and over and over and over again." That's a problem, isn't it? To have to forgive someone for the same offense over and over and over and over, it becomes a problem. Pretty soon people say, "I'm tired of walking up this bridge and meeting you at the top for the same issues. There has to be changes." It's a mutual commitment to the relationship that says, "Here is what we will do differently. Here are the changes we will make." If those steps are followed, if there is acknowledgement, if there is initiation, if there is a positive response, if there is confession, if there is forgiveness, and if there is a commitment-a mutual commitment-to change in that relationship, then reconciliation is almost impossible to stop. You are then on the course to reconciling. There are very few relationships that will break down at that point. We're probably going to have a successful restoration of fellowship in that scenario. Let's take that paradigm and let's plug it into the Scripture and see if it fits. Let's see if it works. Turn in your Bibles please to Luke 15 (page 1035 of pew Bibles). This is the familiar story of the Parable of the Prodigal Son. Luke 15:11, "Jesus continued: 'There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, "Father, give me my share of the estate." So he divided his property between them.' He doesn't ask his father; he commands his father. He demands of his father. This would not go well if you had an inheritance and your child came to you, while you were still very much alive and healthy, and said, "Give me what's mine. Give me what you're going to give me after you croak. I want it now. I'm not happy here. I want to go." That would not go well, I guarantee you. The father realizes he has lost his son, so he decides he would let his son learn a lesson, "I'm going to let my son experience the consequences of his decision," so the father gave his son exactly what he wanted. Be careful what you wish for, right? He took the money, and the Bible says he squanders it. He went to a far-off country, and he squandered it in wild living. He soon ran out of cash, and then he looked for a job. He found a job as a farmhand. He was slopping the pigs, and he found himself desiring what the pigs were eating. He was hungry, and he was destitute. He decided he would go back to his father. In Verse 17, it said, "'When he came to his senses, he said, "How many of my father's hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against Heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men." So he got up and went to his father.'"
Who in this story is the initiator of reconciliation? The son. So it can be either party. It could be either the person who has wronged or the person who perpetrated the wrong. In this story, it's the person who did the wrong. He feels bad. He knows he made a mistake, and he is going to be the initiator. He is going to go back and approach his father. Now the father is the responder. Remember in this story, in this Parable, the responder is God. God is the Father, and Jesus is trying to tell this to people to say to them, "It's okay to repent." How does God feel about a person who has been wayward, lost, who returns in sincerity, authenticity, and honesty and confesses their sin? How does God feel towards them? God would welcome them with open arms. God will embrace them, and kiss them. God will celebrate their decision. He won't punish you; He won't put his wrath on you. He is going to offer you forgiveness and mercy. That's one of the reasons why He tells this story.
Verse 20, "'But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.'" That's what I'd do too. If my boy did that, I'd be looking down the road every day. That's what he was doing. He was looking down the road, "Is today the day? Is today the day?" When he saw his son, he ran to meet him. He didn't berate him. He didn't scold him; he didn't rebuke him. He simply offered him forgiveness and grace. He responded positively, and so far we're climbing that bridge toward reconciliation. What is next? Confession. What does the son do? He says, "'"Father, I have sinned against Heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son."'" He apologies the right way. He doesn't pass off any blame. There are no buts or ifs. He simply said, "I blew it. What I did was rude. What I did was disrespectful. What I did was harmful. What I did was prideful and arrogant, and I am asking for your mercy today. I am asking you to forgive me."
The next step in the process is what? Once confession has been made, action must be taken. Either we give the gift of forgiveness or we withhold the gift of forgiveness. The father extends forgiveness. He said, "'"Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found." So they began to celebrate.'"
We're not going to talk about Old Grumpy Pants afterwards who said, "Hey, you never had a party for me." That's another lesson. We'll leave him out of it for a moment. The father forgave. He said, "We're going to have a new start, you and me. We're going to begin again. You are my son. Even when you were in rebellion and sin, you remained my son. Now we are restoring our relationship. The past is done. We are beginning anew. I am releasing your debt. I am reconciling with you. You and I are once again father and son." This story has a happy ending. Not all of life's stories have happy endings, do they? This one does. I chose this one because it is a model for us to look at. Then what about commitment? What is the commitment of the son? Do you remember the change in the son when he was rehearsing his confession over and over again? The last step in this paradigm is commit, right? We're at the top of the bridge. We make a commitment to change. "Here is what I will do differently to make sure that there is no longer a breach in our relationship."
What is this change? Did you see it? He goes back, and he says, "Make me like one of your hired men." What is he saying here? He's saying, "I'm a new guy. I recognize now that you don't owe me anything, and the world doesn't owe me anything. I'm going to earn my keep from now on. You are receiving back a different son. If you don't restore our relationship, I understand because I deserve it. Just let me be a servant there. I'll be like one of the servants. I'm going to work for what I get. I've learned to work now since I was gone, and I am going to work. I am not going to take you for granted. I'm not going to take our relationship for granted. You're receiving back a new man, Dad. I have a changed heart. I don't think I am entitled anymore. I've seen the light." That's a commitment to change, isn't it? He was saying, "I'm not going to be the same spoiled brat son who thought you owed me everything and then went out and squandered what you had earned. That's not me anymore. I've learned the hard way from life that I have to earn my way," so he made a commitment to change.
Those are the steps that we need to follow if we are going to have reconciliation. The most important reconciliation that we can take part in is to be reconciled with our Heavenly Father. Paul talks about that in the Book of 2 Corinthians 5 (page 1145). In talking about the Gospel, he says in Verse 18, "All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ…" Notice he uses the past tense. "…he reconciled himself to us through Christ…" The ball is in our court. Now we must take the next step. God has initiated; we must respond. Will we accept His offer to restore a rightful relationship, or will we reject it? "…that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And He has committed to us…" the church "…the message of reconciliation." That's what I'm doing today. "We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God." That is what I'm doing today. That is one of my charges as a pastor-to implore you to be reconciled to God. What does that look like? In the Garden, man fell because he wanted to be like God. He wanted to take the reins. We talked about that earlier today. He wants to be in charge. "I want to be like God," and he fell. When we become Christians, what we're saying is, "God, You are God and I am not. I don't want to be in charge. I want You to have the reins. I don't want to be God. I want You to be God. I'm going to be Your creation. You're going to be the captain of the vessel. I'm just going to walk around on deck, but You're in charge. You're setting the course. I receive Your Lordship."
In Genesis 3, man rejects God's sovereignty and Lordship. In 2 Corinthians 5, man accepts God's Lordship. What happens is what was lost in the Garden is restored. What was lost in the Garden when we fell is now brought back, and we are reconciled and put in right standing with God. That is the Gospel. That is what He foreshadowed in Genesis 3:15 when He said He. Satan didn't know who the He was. Adam and Eve didn't know who the He was who was going to come and crush the serpent's head; but God knew who the He was. Before the foundation of the world, it was established that He would come and restore what was lost in the Garden.
Our second response is to reconcile with our fellow man. Is the Holy Spirit prompting you? Is there a relationship that is dead right now that needs reconciling? Has it been damaged or hurt? You need to take the initiative. You need to confess what your part is in that relationship if any of you need to forgive those who have harmed you. You need to commit to that relationship. My prayer is the fruit of this series is going to be that we're going to hear stories of reconciliation all over this congregation. People within the church, in your families, in your marriages; people that you are in a relationship with in other parts of the world, other parts of the country, that you are going to reconcile with them because we're following God's directives. That is my prayer. There is a song I want us to listen to right now by a group called D.C. Talk. D.C. Talk wrote a song called "Between You and Me." One thing I like about this song is it's just chalked full of content. There are some songs that are just kinda fluff. This song has substance; this song has Biblical content and action to it. This song is a response to what we have just heard from God's Word and what plan of action that we might take. As you listen to the words of this song, see if you can see the steps we've talked about for reconciliation as well. [Lyrics for song can be found here: ] Let's listen and then we'll talk about it and pray.
Let's pray together: Father, the first step is the most important step, and that is we need to be reconciled with You. We need to bring into alignment our relationship with our Creator, and that comes through acknowledgment of wrong. As You have initiated that reconciliation, we respond and confess our sins. You will be faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and we commit our lives to You. There is then reconciliation that takes place. I pray that if there are any listening who have not made that choice, Father, today would be the day when they commit themselves fully to You. I also pray, Lord, for relationships in our church and relationships outside of our church where there has been a break. I pray, Father, that there can be Biblical reconciliation and restoration. That would be the fruit of Your Spirit working in us and through us. I pray, Lord, we would not just be content to leave things broken. I pray, Father, we would say, "I need to take that first step," that we would act upon the truths that we've heard today and be reconciled with our brothers and sisters, with our children, and with our spouses. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.
Pastor Gary Shields: March 13, 2011 Living Debt-Free, Part V, "Forgiveness 2.0."
My name is Pastor Gary Shields. As many of you I know, I live here in Janesville. Today Pastor Jeff is going to be preaching down at my church, and I'm going to be preaching here. First of all, I want to welcome all you 9:30 worshippers and all of you 8 o'clock worshippers that may have forgotten to reset your clock for daylight savings time. Today we're going to continue talking in this sermon series of "Living Debt-Free," this study of forgiveness and reconciliation. We're going to move today to what I call "Forgiveness 2.0," the idea of reconciliation. As we'll see, forgiveness is an act of one person; for reconciliation, there are at least two people necessary-confession and repentance to each other and forgiveness to each other. Let's begin with a word of prayer: Father, as we study Your Word today, open our hearts to this call for reconciliation that You have given to us and most importantly, the reconciliation with You, the gift freely given. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. There are several types of reconciliation. The first one I want to look at is reconciliation with yourself. I understand last week, Pastor Jeff preached to you about forgiving yourself. I know as a Christian, sometimes it's hard for us to forgive our past deeds. It's important that we forgive ourselves, but with "Forgiveness 2.0," it's where you learn to reconcile with yourself. Let me try to explain that to you. Let's look at 2 Corinthians 5:17. If you're using a pew Bible, it's page 1145. Pastor Jeff made a good start by helping you to understand that you need to forgive yourself, but I would say with "Forgiveness 2.0," it's more than forgiving yourself; it's reconciling the fact that through Jesus Christ, you are a new creation. Let me read the Passage. This is written by Paul, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" What a wonderful word that is to us. Let's understand what it means to accept this word as reconciliation to yourself. What Paul is saying here is as a Christian you're not turning over a new leaf. You now have a new life. You are not being reformed; you're not being rehabilitated; you're being recreated. A lot of people think that Jesus wants better people. I would tell you that's not true. Jesus wants different people. He doesn't want us to merely be more kind, more compassionate, more loving. He wants us to be kind, to be compassionate, to be loving, so we're not reformed, rehabilitated; we are recreated. What a greater example of this new creation in reconciling one's self to a new creation than Paul himself who wrote these words. If you remember, Paul was not a nice guy before he knew Jesus, was he? Usually when we think of stoning, we think of somebody taking a rock, bringing it back like a pitcher, and throwing it at a person. Well, that's not what a real stoning was. A real stoning involved the first witness either standing on a platform or a cliff about ten feet above the accused, taking a boulder, and slamming it down onto the body of that person. While guys were getting ready to do that to Stephen, Paul was kind enough to say, "Hey, let me hold your coats for you while you stone this man to death." It went beyond that. He persecuted and persecuted and persecuted the Christians, driving them out of Jerusalem, and that still wasn't enough. He figured, "I need to go after them. I cannot stop until they're destroyed." Of course, on the way to Damascus, he made a wrong turn, and who came into his life? Jesus Christ. I would say he made the right turn. He understood something. He was now a new creation. He wasn't re-educated. He was a new creation, and he reconciled himself to that and did marvelous things in the name of Jesus Christ. He was not perfect. Does anybody remember how Mark was thought to be a real wimp? No one really wanted to have anything to do with him. Barnabas helped Mark to understand the need for courage. Paul even admitted in his writings, "Yeah, I made a little mistake there. Now he's my brother," but he knew as a new creation that God had something in store for him. Just like as a new creation, God has something in store for you. If you not only forgive yourself of your past but reconcile and understand that God can make you anew, you can do great things for God because of His strength now in you. Another way to look at this is through "Bunyan's Pilgrim Progress." Has anybody read this? I sure wish they'd translate it out of Old English because I have to keep re-reading it to understand what's going on. In "Bunyan's Pilgrim Progress," we're talking about an ancient book; the hero, Christian, in the story comes up to a mirror. What he sees in the mirror is what we see of ourselves, that distorted image that shows us we're not whom we should be-sinners saved by grace. The amazing thing was on the other side of that mirror, the side that God sees, was not this distorted image of Christian, but the image of Jesus Christ. You see, when you become a believer, God now sees you as Jesus. You are filled with the Holy Spirit. When God looks at you, He looks at you as being righteous. He sees Jesus in you. This sounds so simple, but it's so hard. The act of reconciling with yourself is to go and be what God already sees in you. I warn you: that is a lifetime pursuit, and it's not going to happen overnight because we do have the flesh in us, and we struggle; but it is that simple. Go and be what God already sees in you. Reconciling with yourself and understanding you're a new creation is to break free from that past and go be what God already sees in you. Now that sounds pretty difficult, but we're going to now move on to something that seems in churches to be even more difficult. That's reconciling with each other. I honestly believe that one of the biggest problems in the church in the United States today is that too many people are interested in their own desires, interested in getting their own way so that there is no such thing as forgiveness anymore in the church. There is no such thing as reconciliation in the church. There is no such thing as "what does Jesus want to do with the church?" It comes down to learning how to have relationships. Let's turn to Matthew 5:21-24, page 959. What we're seeing here is the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus helps us to understand He didn't come to eliminate the law, to do away with the law, but to fulfill it. Here He helps us to understand how the law has expanded-in this case, for murder. He says, "'You have heard that it was said to the people long ago…'" which I'm guessing was during the time of Moses. "'"Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment."'" Basically, don't kill people or you're going to end up in court. But that's not enough. He says, "'But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother'" or sister "'will be subject to judgment.'" Now this judgment is not judgment in court. That's divine judgment, and I'm not so sure I want to know what that would be. Then he says, "'Again, anyone who says to his brother, "Raca," is answerable to the Sanhedrin.'" Now, there are no real English translations for Raca. It's an Aramaic word for contempt. The way I would describe it is Raca is what you as a Packers fan would feel toward a Bears fan. I can say that because Pastor Jeff isn't here. Then he goes even further. He says, "'But anyone who says, "You fool!" will be in danger of the fire of hell.'" Now the word used for hell here is Gahanna, which is where the Valley of Hinnom, south of Jerusalem, was a place where children were sacrificed by fire to the Pagan god Molech-not a pretty place. Now, in the reign of Josiah, one of the few kings of Judah who got it, he realized they needed to draw closer to God and refocus on serving God. He turned that Valley into a city dump where fire burned constantly. It was a smelly, worm-infested dump. I'm not going to call anybody a fool ever again-what about you? You see, what Jesus is talking about here is anger. Is anger really worth it? Is holding a grudge really worth it? Or, is it more important to restore relationships? He continues on and says, "'"Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother"'" or sister "'"has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be…"'" what? "'"…reconciled to your brother"'" or sister "'"then come and offer your gift."'" The men would go to the court of Israel during Biblical times at the high festivals, like Pentecost and Passover (ladies, you got stuck at the court of women). They represented the family and gave a sacrifice, an animal, to the altar. It was their form of worship. What Jesus is saying in essence is "how can you worship if anger and bitterness are in your hearts?" If you haven't reconciled with a person, how can you worship? I'm working at a church right now that has had its problems and was not really growing. The last pastor-who had problems and made mistakes-was pushed out; but we discovered something as we were trying to move towards revitalization at this church. For decades now, there has been an environment of mistrust; of rebellion; of allowing some sins because "well, that person is a high giver;" or "that person always does Sunday School, so we'll ignore that"; or getting legalistic to the point where they're going to beat somebody over the head with their sin, and there's nothing they can do to receive grace. If you look back to 1967, [you'd see] this church split from another church in that town over nothing but personality issues. One person desired this; one person desired that, and nobody really tried to decide what God wanted. As elders and the Board, we decided to go back to that church. In fact, at the same time, that church was feeling the same as we were. The elders came together and prayed with each other. Even though not one of the persons in that room was involved in that split, we as representatives of each church asked for forgiveness and wanted to reconciliation. What we discovered was that both of those churches had a cracked foundation because of sin that never really was exposed and confessed. I don't think it's any coincidence that not too long after that, six new faces appeared in the pew. Then a few weeks ago, as we had a seminar on restoring relationships, we spent a Sunday talking about confessing to one another. Twenty five to 35 people came up to the altar with me at the end of the service to confess their sins to their brothers and sisters in the congregation. Later that Sunday, the elders went to the previous pastor. This is a God thing-how typical of God; this pastor lives in the state of Washington and happened to be in the area because his father was sick. God is a hoot. They went to this pastor, and it wasn't to focus on what he did incorrectly because he did a lot of things incorrectly; it was to focus on how they treated him. They asked for his forgiveness. Not only that, but they thanked him because a lot of what he did paved the path to get us to the point where we are now. You could imagine there being one very surprised pastor. I hope he has gone back to his ministry feeling restored. Guess what happened within the next couple of weeks? Six more people showed up-new faces. I firmly believe in what it says in Acts 2:47 (page 1079), "And the Lord added to their daily number those who were being saved." You see, there's something we learned: I could sit here and preach on reconciliation until the cows come home, but the sure way to teach it is to model it. I hate when God does this because it's been bothering me all week. There is a couple, and I drive by their house, and God keeps saying, "Hey, when are you going to go over there and reconcile? Stop worrying about being right and [start worrying about] having a relationship." To model to you, after worship this Sunday, I'm going to go knock on their door-they live here in Janesville-and make that relationship right. I could preach to you until the cows come home, but the best way I can show you how true this is and what God can do in a powerful way when you reconcile with each other is to do it [myself]. That's what we've learned at the church we're at now. There are still some people who don't quite understand that yet, and we pray for them. We pray that they too will see what God is doing. That's reconciliation. Now I want to clarify that that reconciliation is a two-person action. Reconciliation sometimes means having boundaries. If a person says, "I'm so sorry. I want to reconcile," and turns around and sins again. "Oh, I'm so sorry. I want to reconcile," and then they turn around and sin again, I would say that's not a person who is truly repentant. Reconciliation takes two who confess their sins and are truly repentant, so where does that leave you as far as your obligations to that person and to reconciliation? Let's turn to Matthew 18:21-35 (page 975). This is the difference between forgiveness and reconciliation. Forgiveness is the act of one; reconciliation is the act of two or more. So what is your obligation? Well, I can forgive and confess, but what if that person rejects me? Well, we have an audience of one. All we can do is what is right in the eyes of God. Let's look at Matthew 18:21-35. I tease Pastor Jeff because he preached on forgiveness, and he said, "I'm not going to preach on this Passage because that's what everybody is expecting," so surprise! We're going to talk about it right now. "Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, 'Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?'" That sounds like a good number. Seven, eleven and twelve: those are good numbers-especially in the Bible, right? Seven has to be a good number. "Jesus answered, 'I tell you, not seven times, but…'" 70x7. So, 490? Is that what Jesus is saying? "Okay, I'm at 489. You have one more, and I'm done forgiving you." No, I don't think that's what He's talking about. What He is talking about is we have to keep on forgiving. Then He starts with this Parable that puts it in perspective. "'"Therefore, the kingdom of Heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him."'" Ten thousand talents-what does that mean? I did some research, and a talent is the equivalent of 60-70 pounds of a precious medal. It could be silver; it could be gold. I really think what we're talking about here is gold because what we are looking at is a debt that cannot be repaid. I got the old calculator out-one that can do a lot of numbers-and figured it out. The equivalent of 10,000 talents of gold today would be over $13 billion dollars. If you're a guy like me who loves cars or anything on wheels [here's a story for you]. My family and I go to Chicago, and there is a Lamborghini dealership that my son and I have to go to every time we go to Chicago-like I can afford a Lamborghini. I notice the salesmen never come up to me; I wonder why that is. The Lamborghini Murcielago-we're talking about [this car] going 200 MPH while you're standing still. It has a V10, 7-speed; you could just fly down the road at 25 MPH and just look like you're going fast. It cost $400,000. Yeah, it's one of those economy cars (congregation laughing). With 10,000 of gold, you could purchase over 33,000 Murcielagos. I don't think I could drive each one in a lifetime, but that will give you some perspective. What happens? It continues, "'Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.'" In Biblical times, if you owed a debt, they took it out of your hide. You would be put in jail; your children, your grandchildren, and your spouse would be sold into slavery, and you would be in jail until the debt was repaid. Let's face it: this dude was not going to see the light of day. What happens? "'The servant fell on his knees before him. "Be patient with me," he begged, "and I will pay back everything." The servant's master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.'" Whew!! Man, what a lucky guy. I would imagine after a lesson like that, he would probably be a pretty merciful guy. Let's see what happens, "'But when the servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii,'" which is about a paycheck. "'He grabbed him and began to choke him. "Pay back what you owe me!" he demanded' "'His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, "Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.'" "'But he refused. Instead he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt.'" Did I miss something here? Does this sound familiar in any way? Think of the debt we owe to God for His Son dying on the cross for us. Is there really anything anybody could do to you compared to that forgiveness? Think about it: what could they do to you that would make you feel you had the right not to forgive that person? You see, in reconciliation that is your obligation. To forgive, you're obligated to confess and then pray God will change the heart of the person you're reconciling with and they will do the same. Sometimes you'll have your hand bitten off. Other times, you'll see a movement of God beyond anything you could ever expect. You see, we have to do this. There is no option here. Why is that? It's because as I said: we've been reconciled with God. That is the third type of reconciliation. We've been reconciled with God-not through anything we did, but through His free gift. Let's look at Romans 5:6-11 (page 1116). "You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless…" That's powerless to avoid sin. "…Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." He didn't wait for us to do the right thing. He just did it. The same goes with our reconciliation. Don't wait for the other person to do the right thing. You go and you reconcile or at least try to reconcile. "Since we have now been justified by His blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through Him! For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through His life!" My friends, you see before we were believers, we were enemies of God. Didn't we always turn our backs on Him and walk the other way? But while we were still sinners, He sent Christ down to die for us; so if you're a seeker or you're not a believer, I need to tell you that today is the day you can accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior. Then through His Word, you'll discover how to reconcile with yourself and become that new creation that is in you and how to reconcile, forgive, and to love one another. Here's what God does. If you're still seeking and you're not a believer, Satan does a good job of writing your list of sins-adultery, cheating, lying, anger, drugs, alcohol… I don't have enough time to write that list. When you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, now God is your Father; and He takes this list, crumples it up, and throws it away. He asks us to try to do the same with each other. Let's pray: Father, it is only through You that we can be reconciled and know what it means to be a new creation. If there is anyone here who is seeking You for the first time, Lord, I pray that You will turn their hearts toward You, that they will stay after with someone here to pray with them and show them what it means to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. For those of us who have already made that decision, help us to understand our call to forgive, our call to seek reconciliation, our call to restore relationships. I pray this all in the beautiful, wonderful, merciful name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Amen.
Pastor Jeff Williams: March 6, 2011 Living Debt-Free, Part IV, "How Do I Forgive Myself?"
We are talking about forgiveness right now. One of the most difficult things to do in forgiveness is to forgive yourself. Sometimes it's easier for me to forgive the person who wronged me than it is for me to forgive myself for the things I've committed. We're going to watch a testimony right now of a young lady who went through an awful tragedy and crime and then had to deal with the guilt and shame when she came to realize that what happened to her was partly her fault. How did she come to the point where she resolved that guilt and shame? This testimony is a little longer than what we normally have, but you'll see that it's worth it. It's a powerful story of transformation and freedom. As soon as that's done, I'll come up and share the Word with you today. (Here is the link mentioned: http://sermonspice.com/search?q=forgive+yourself). That was pretty powerful. That's what we're going to talk about today-forgiving ourselves, Living Debt-Free. There's a song that Frank Sinatra sings that most of us have heard called, "My Way." He sings, "I did it my way." He was rather proud of the fact that he lived life on his own terms. There's a line in the song where he says, "Regrets, I've had a few, but then again, too few to mention." I've lived my life. There aren't a whole lot of things that I'd take back. There aren't a whole lot of things I'd do differently, he said. I don't relate to that. There is a long list of regrets that I have from my childhood to teenage years to young adulthood and into adulthood. I'm sure if I live long enough to see the senior years that are just around the corner, I'll have some regrets there too. I have a lot of regrets. There are a lot of things that I've done, said, or shouldn't have done or said. I have regrets, and there have been times I've had to deal with guilt or shame. I'm sure you're the same way. Let's take a look at a man who lived life his way. This guy just lived life on his terms. He was just as comfortable with a harp in his hand as a spear in battle. While other soldiers were going out with armor, swords, and knives, he went out with a slingshot. He did it his way. Do you know who I'm talking about? David. David seemed to live a charmed life, didn't he? All through his life, people were choosing him and saying, "You're the one we want." God said, "You're the one I have My hands on." When he was a young man, Samuel the Prophet came to his house. They didn't know why Samuel was there. Samuel said, "I am here to anoint the next king." God said, "It's one of Jesse's sons." Jesse's sons are paraded in front of Samuel. Samuel said, "It's not him. It's not him. Do you have any other sons?" "Well, we just have David, but it couldn't be David. He's a little shepherd boy. He's in the field." He said, "Bring him to me." When David came in the room, Samuel said, "You are the one. You are the one that God has chosen to be king." How do handle that when you're a teenager? He anoints his head with oil, and he says, "You will lead the people of Israel." David can't believe it. "Me, chosen?" He said, "I'm the man? I'm the one?" "You are the man that God has chosen." Wow! He lives with that, and he goes back to a normal life; but it's really hard. He thinks about that, "How could that be? It seems so far away, so surreal that I don't even know if it will ever happen." Not long after that, Israel was in battle with its dreaded enemy, the Philistines. There's a giant named Goliath, and he is taunting the army of Israel. He said, "Choose a man who will fight. If I defeat him, you will serve us. If he defeats me, we will serve you." Nobody would take him up on the challenge. Goliath's right thigh was bigger than any man in Israel's army. Nobody wanted to face this guy, and David heard the taunting. He said, "Who is this guy to think he can defy the living God? Let me fight him!" Everybody said, "Oh, you're too young! You're too small! You're a boy!" He gets an audience with Saul, and he says, "God was with me when I slew the lion. God was with me when I slew the bear when it tried to attack the sheep, and God will be with me when I slay this uncircumcised Philistine." It's like Saul's eyes were lifted, and he could see that David was the chosen one. He said to David, "You're the man. You're the one God's going to use, and may God be with you," and He was. The rock was slung, it hit the giant, and the giant fell; and David was triumphant, and Israel was triumphant. Then he led him on many military campaigns, victory after victory. There was a parade through the city, and Israel gathered to celebrate their victories. Their territory is enlarging. Their influence is growing. People start singing a spontaneous chant, "King Saul has killed thousands, David has ten thousands." It was like the whole city was rising up and saying, "You are the man!" All the girls wanted to marry him, and all the boys wanted to be him one day, be a warrior like that. When he matured into full-fledged manhood, King Saul died. The people of Judah where he was born said, "We would like you to be our King. We see in you the leadership, the anointing, and the devotion to God that we need in our King. You are the man, David. David, would you be our King?" David humbly accepted. David at age 30 became the King of Judah. The northern kingdom was ruled by Saul's son, Ishbosheth, but he was executed. When he died, the people of Israel said, "David, we see how you reign in righteousness in the South. We remember all of your exploits and all the good things you've done. David, will you be our King too? You are the man! You are the one we have chosen to lead us," and David agrees. Israel is united. It's no longer the North and the South; it's just one country with one King." Then through the Prophet Nathan, God said to David, "You all have homes to live in, and David has a palace to live in, but my Ark, the Ark of the Covenant, lives in a tent. Make a house for me. Make a house for my dwelling, and, David, out of all the people in the world, I choose you to be the one to start building that temple. You will start the plans to build a house for me." God was saying, "You are the man. You are the one I have chosen," so David envisions building a magnificent temple for God. There is a summary verse in 2 Samuel 8:15 (page 303) that talks about this pinnacle of David's life. Let's read it together, "David reigned over all Israel, doing what was just and right for all his people." This is the pinnacle. David is living up to hype. He is a man after God's own heart, and he is governing in righteousness. He is conducting himself with justice, and he is doing his God and his people proud. This is the height of his popularity, the height of his influence, and then things begin to go wrong. David is going to make a series of choices that we're going to look at that cause him to fall from his lofty height that are going to bring his spiritual adviser and friend, Nathan, to his door to tell him a story. David is going to be outraged at that story, and he's going to say, "The man who did this deserves to die," and Nathan will look him in the eyes and say, "You are the man! You're the one I'm talking about." This time you are the man is not a good thing to be. This time you are the man means you are going to bear the guilt and shame of the things that you have done. How will David live with himself? You see, what happened was David sent off his army to battle. Normally, he went with them, but this time he didn't go. For whatever the reason, he didn't go. He stayed home, and he was up on the roof of his palace looking down. He saw a beautiful woman taking a bath on her rooftop. He spied on her and said, "Who is that?" His officials understand where he's coming from, and they say, "Isn't that Bathsheba, Uriah the Hittite's wife?" In other words, "David, isn't she married?" [He's asking because] David has all these wives, all these concubines. All the eligible maidens in the kingdom want to be his wife. That's their culture, but he's interested in Bathsheba. "Bathsheba, ha? Bring her to me." So they bring her to the King. Like the woman we saw in our video, she doesn't have a whole lot of choice in the matter. He's King. He's all powerful. He has his way with her, and he sends her home. He wanted her because he wanted her; he had her because he could. She went home crying; she went home in shame and guilt, wondering what she would say to her husband Uriah when he came back from battle. How could she look him in the eye? David goes back to life as normal. Weeks later, news come from Bathsheba-two words in a note, "I'm pregnant." It's not going to just be swept under a rug. David thinks, "What am I going to do?" [He knows] when Uriah comes back from battle and his wife is expecting along with Uriah's knowledge that he's not the father, he's going to start asking questions. If she says, "'David did it,' what are people going to think of me when I'm sleeping with the wives of my own soldiers and impregnating them? What's going to happen to my pole numbers? What will happen to my ratings? I mean I'm the all-Israeli's guy! I'm the one everybody loves and that everybody has this great opinion of. If they find out I did that, they're going to think so poorly of me. I have to do something to protect myself." He sends for a messenger to get Uriah from the field of battle. Uriah doesn't normally report to the King, so he's kinda surprised. He comes to the palace, and he doesn't know if he's done something wrong or what's going on. He said, "How are things going out there in battle anyway, Uriah?" "It's going good, King. Everybody is working hard and sacrificing, and I think we're doing well." "I just wanted to talk to a guy on the field. Normally I talk to Joab, but, you know, it's his job to tell me good things. I wanted to get an objective point of view from somebody on the ground, so it's going really good, ha?" "Yeah, it's going good." "You're a good soldier, Uriah. You're one of my mighty men. You're a good guy. Come, have a meal with me." "Well, okay." He's surprised, and he eats at the King's table. Then the King says, "Go home. Be with your wife. Go home and spend some time with your lovely wife, Bathsheba. She would love to be with you," and the plan is foolproof. He would go be with his wife and nature would take its course. When the baby was born, everybody would remember, "Well, you know, Uriah had that leave of absence. That's how that happened," and David would be off the hook. It would be Uriah's child, and the only ones that would know would be Bathsheba and David. Uriah would never know. They would raise King David's child-foolproof! Uriah said, "No way! No, no, no. While my men are out there in a field fighting and dying, you want me to go home, sleep with my wife, and sleep in my own bed? I won't do it! There's no way I'll do that." Uriah is a man of uprightness and character, and he ends up sleeping outside. David was like, "Ugh! Why do I have to have such good men in my army? I have to come up with another plan," so he invited him back for dinner again. This time, he decides to get him drunk. How do you say no to the King when the King is offering you a drink? "We're getting to know each other as friends-not just King and subject, but as men. Have another one, Uriah." The next thing you know, Uriah is drunk, and he and the King are having a good old time. Uriah said (in a drunken voice), "You're the best King in the world! You are the best King, David. Can I call you David? You are a good King! You lead us into battle, and we win. It's a great country! I'm telling you it's a great country! It's an awesome country!" "Yes, it is a great country, Uriah. You're right." "We have the best country. We have the best God!" "And you have a wonderful wife! Bathsheba's a wonderful wife!" "Oh, Bath! I love Bath! She's the greatest wife you could ever have! She's been with me since I was a kid. I love Bath! I love my wife. I love her, Dave! She's the best!" "You have a great life!" "I have a great life!" "Go home and be with your wife! Tell her you love her. Spend the night with her." Even in a drunken stupor, he has his integrity. He said, "Aww! I can't do that! No, no, no way. I'm not going to do that!" David is like, "I don't know what to do with this guy!" Uriah sleeps outside again. Then David does something very dark. He takes out a piece of paper and writes to Joab on there, "Put Uriah on the frontlines where the battle is the fiercest, and then pull back from him." In other words, "Make sure he dies in battle." He follows the orders of the king, and he gets closer to the wall than he normally would. They kill him. An arrow hits its target, and Uriah dies on the field of battle. A lot of men died as well. Joab sends a messenger back to the King and says, "If David gets upset, if David gets mad because we lost so many men, and if he says, 'Why did Joab get so close to the wall,' then you tell him Uriah the Hittite is dead also," and so he did. David heard the report, and rather than getting mad, he said, "Oh, I understand. These kinds of things happen. Tell Joab he's doing a good job, and tell him I understand. Encourage him to keep up the fight. He's doing great! Encourage him with those words." Problem solved. Uriah is gone. Bathsheba gets the news, and she grieves for her husband. After the period of mourning is done, he takes her home to be his wife. It's a perfect plan. When she has the baby months from now, everybody will know that's David's baby. "That brave man, that hero, has taken the wife of Uriah-he's taken Uriah's widow to be his wife. What a guy! I'm still a popular King. Everybody still loves me. Nobody knows about it. I have a baby; I have a wife." David is in a good mood. All of us right now like David a little bit less than we did when we came here this morning. That's all about to change because a spiritual advisor shows up at the door, and he has a troubled look on his face. "Nathan, what brings you here today?" He says, "I have a story to tell you, King." David said, "Please, tell me. What kind of a story?" Nathan's telling this not as a Parable, but he's telling this as if it really happened. He's telling him news of something that happened. Based on the response [Nathan gets, he realizes] you don't get this mad when you're hearing a make-believe story. David thinks this is real. When he hears the outcome of the story, he wants justice. Let's look at 2 Samuel 12:1 (page 305 of pew Bibles), Nathan tells this to David: "'There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him.' "'Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him.' "David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, 'As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this deserves to die! He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.' "Then Nathan said to David, 'You are the man!'" You are the one in the story. You are the rich man. At first there's a look of shock, "What are you talking about?" Then he begins to share things that only God would know, things that Nathan didn't know, things that nobody else knew-details of the story. David then knows that Nathan is talking to him as the voice of God. How would you feel if somebody confronted you and started telling you all of your sins that they would have no way of knowing, that nobody else knew? They said, "God said to tell you this…" David starts to feel this sense of guilt and shame. He probably put his head down as he listened to what he said. Nathan said, "This time 'you are the man' is not a good thing." Verse 7, "'I anointed you King over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave your master's house to you, and your master's wives into your arms…'" after Saul died. "'I gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more. Why did you despise the Word of the Lord by doing what is evil in His eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed with the sword of the Ammonites. Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.'" What does the sword mean? The sword cuts and divides, and the sword kills. There will be divisions and death in the house of David. That is a consequence of his sin. "'This is what the Lord says: "Out of your own household I am going to bring calamity upon you."'" He would have one son sleep with his half-sister, and when the other son found out about it, he killed his brother. One son killed another son. Another son would try to be king, and David would advocate his throne. He would go into the throne, and he would sleep with his concubines in broad daylight. His name was Absalom. Another son later on will ascend to the throne only to be killed by another son, Solomon. David's family is going to be in disarray in his life in a downward spiral. There are going to be heavy consequences to pay for his actions. "'"Before your very eyes, I will take your wives and give them to one who is close to you, and he will lie with your wives in broad daylight. You did it in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight."' "Then David said to Nathan, 'I have sinned against the Lord.' "Nathan replied, 'The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die. But because by doing this you have made the enemies of the Lord show utter contempt, the son born to you will die.'" Then Nathan went home. For a moment, David just took it all in. He took in the consequences. Have you ever had the consequences of your actions hit you square between the eyes? All of the sudden you're confronted with what your choices have done, the bed you now have to lie in, and it just seems overwhelming to you. "What am I going to do? Every time I walk by my wife, Bathsheba, and she is crying because her soul mate is dead, I know it's my fault." How do you live with that kind of guilt? How do you live with yourself when the soldiers come back and they mourn their fallen soldiers? There's a funeral for those who died in that battle that day, and you know you, the King, were supposed to look after them, and you killed them? How do you live with yourself? Sometimes song writers write their best songs when they go through heartache and tragedy. Poem writers will write their best poems when they've gone through some sort of a loss. David is no exception. David gets out a piece of paper and a pen, and he starts to write. He starts to write a song of repentance to God. As he's writing this song, his tears are falling down and it's staining the ink. This is a song many of us have read, and many of us have read and said to God while praying when we went through a time of repentance. Let's open our Bibles up to Psalm 51 (page 562 of pew Bibles). Let's see how David dealt with this sin. How would he break free? We're going to find that David deals with the past, the present, and the future. The first thing that David does is he writes this Psalm. In Verse 1, he takes responsibility for his past. I want you to notice how many times he says my sin, the word my. "Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your unfailing love; according to Your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against You, You only, have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, so that You are proved right when You speak and justified when You judge." He takes ownership for his sins. Number one is you take ownership for your actions, the consequences of your actions, and what you have done. You say, "I did this. Here's what I've done." You don't own false guilt. Sometimes we will do things, people will blame us, and they're not our fault. That's called false guilty. Or they'll put shame on you that isn't your shame; that's called toxic shame. They make you think it's your fault; they make you think it's your guilt; they make you think it's your shame, but it's not. We'll talk a lot about that when we get to reconciliation. You have to ask God for discernment and say, "When this is something I've done and take responsibility for" or "is this something somebody's tried to put on me that's not my fault at all? This belongs to somebody else." So that is number one: I own, I confess, I say this is mine, and I deal with the consequences of that sin. David was going to reap many consequences for what he did. He said, "It's nobody's fault but mine. I failed you, God, and here's what I did." The second step in that process of forgiving yourself is to come to terms with the reality of the present. The first step looks at what I did. This question says, "What now? Now that I've done this, what do I do next? How do I get rid of this shame and guilt?" The answer is forgiveness. Those same steps we did when we talked about forgiving others, we have to apply to ourselves. You see, here's the dilemma that David faced. In psychology it's called cognitive dissidence. Have you heard that term before? Cognitive dissidence is when you say, "Here is my ideal self. Here are the rules I have set for myself. Here is the kind of person I want to be." Then we say, "Over here is the person I am. Here's my ideal self. Here's my real self." If those are close together, there isn't as much dissidence or distance. If I set a high standard for myself, high rules for myself, and I pretty much live by those as David did at one time, there isn't a lot of dissidence there. There's healthy self-esteem. I'm less likely to deal with depression, less likely to feel anxiety; but the greater the dissidence, the greater the distance between my ideal and my real, is going to cause some psychological problems for me. When I'm not living up to my own standards of the kind of person I should be, that causes stress, anxiety, and low self-esteem in a person's life. Here he wants to be this great King, and so far all he has done is become this great King. Everybody has told him what a great King he is, and now he's confronted with the reality when he looks in the mirror of "I'm a murderer, a conspirator, a liar, and an adulterer." Here is who I expect myself to be in ideal life, and here is who I am right here. Now all of the sudden, there is this huge gap in his life. Maybe you've had that gap. Here is the kind of husband I want to be. Here's the kind of son or daughter, the wife, the mother or father, the friend I want to be-the Christian; and here is what I've become. How do you bridge that gap? How do you bridge that dissidence? It's through forgiveness. There is a saying I want to share with you about forgiveness. It says, "Forgiveness is letting go of the hope for a better past." David had to let go of this image, "I'm going to be this king. I'm going to be a man after God's own heart. I'm always going to live for God. I'm always going to do what's right." Now he has to come to the realization that there's going to be a blot on his record. God can forgive him, but no matter what happens, "I killed innocent people-my own men. I killed one of my own soldiers to have his wife. I slept with his wife. I've committed adultery and murder. No matter what happens from here on out, I'm not the King that I thought I was, not the person I thought I was." To give up the hope of a better past is to come to terms with what happened and "now what am I going to do?" I think it's important for us to extract from last week one of those five points. Remember we identified five obstacles for unforgiveness. We said, "If you're struggling, you're probably struggling with at least one or more of these obstacles. Identify the obstacle that's giving you the most problems and work on that." Remember that message? The last obstacle was a failure to see the whole person. We said we sometimes have a difficulty forgiving when we fail to see the whole person. We said unforgiveness is like taking a snapshot of a person at their worst. We said it's like if you woke up in the morning and before combing your hair-ladies, before you could put on your makeup; guys, before you could shave-you just woke up and still have bed face, you still have eye boogers; you don't look very good, [someone snaps your picture]. You may have that baggy eye look that you see I have most of the time; you have it in the morning. You wake up, and somebody says, "Good morning!" snap, and takes a picture. You say, "Ahh!!" They put it on Facebook, and they say, "This is you!" Everybody looks at that and says, "Oh, my!" You say, "That'd be terrible!" Some of you have yearbook pictures like that. You showed up at school, and you didn't know it was picture day. "Oh, no!" Snap, and there you are. Your kids see your old yearbook, "Mom, Dad, can I look?" "Oh, no, don't look at that!" Forever you're in the yearbook with this awful picture that people would look at and say, "That's you? Oh, man. Sorry!" You have this snapshot of you at your worst and say, "Well, this is me." We say that's what unforgiveness is. Unforgiveness takes a snapshot of you at your worst and says, "This is you." The Bible says that Satan is the accuser of the brother. Have you ever had him take a snapshot of you when you were at your worst and had it put in front of your eyes to say, "This is you. How can you be a Christian when you did this? How can you claim to love God when you said that? How can you be a Christian with the way you treated those people?" You're forced to confront that image. Maybe you have a person in your life who likes to continually bring up the past. They're always saying, "You ruined my life! You did this! You did that!" Year after year, they're always bringing up that photograph of you at your worst and saying, "This is you," to the point where that comes to define who you are. We talked about Jared Loughner, the man who shot Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in the head. The bullet went through her brain, and she survived. She's recovering, but a little girl died, a judge died, and a staffer died; others were injured. His mug shot appeared for the country to see, and we looked into his face and saw a monster. Look at those eyes; they look crazy. He has that creepy smile like Charles Manson. We say, "That guy is evil. That guy's a monster." There is only so long we can look at that. It's just creepy. That picture defines him for us. We see this man who is a monster. He killed a child. He did awful things, but when his mom and dad or his best friends look at that picture, do they see a monster? They think of him as a baby. His mom and dad think of him riding his bike, growing up, laughing and being a normal kid because they knew him before he was a mass murderer. They knew him before the country hated him. He is someone they love. That photograph does not define that man for his parents and his friends. Friends, that event that you are so ashamed of and so embarrassed about that you don't want to tell a soul about-that does not define you either. By unforgiveness, you keep that in your forefront, and you look at that from time to time and say, "That is me." I would say, "Yes, that was you for that moment, but that does not define you in your totality." God said to David through Nathan, "I forgive you. You will not die" because God knew that that was not all David was. Yes, he was an adulterer; yes he did commit murder, but he had been a good son, a good brother, a good soldier, a good King, a good follower, and he will be again. So David focuses on the present. You notice that in these verses? He said in Verse 5, "Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Surely You desire truth in my inner parts; You teach me wisdom in the inmost place." Right now, I need truth more than anything else. Right now, I need God to teach me. "Cleanse me with hyssop…" That was a plant in which you used for medicinal purposes or to sprinkle blood during religious ceremonies. I need the blood applied to my soul "and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow." I need forgiveness. "Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones You have crushed rejoice." I need some good news right now. "Hide Your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity. Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast Spirit within me." I need renewal; I need forgiveness; I need grace. "Do not cast me from Your presence or take Your Holy Spirit from me." I need your presence in my life right now, God. As he came to the reality of his sin and he looked at the snapshot of who he was, he said, "God, I need Your forgiveness and Your grace right now. I need Your pardon right now." This step looks at that in all of its ugliness. God has called you to release yourself just like you release those who hate you. I was very close with my mom, and I still love my mom very much. I think about her often. She was a great support to me, and I tried to be a good son to her. When she was just diagnosed with her Alzheimer's, I made a decision that hurt her. I caused her pain, and I felt terrible for that. As her mind digressed and she began to lose her memory and eventually pass away, I was like, "What do I do with this anger at myself, with this grief, this guilt? What do I do with this?" I was driving down the interstate this week, driving home after dropping off my daughter. We have a big group of our people and our girls at a dance competition in Chicago. They did excellent, by the way. I was driving home, and I was thinking about the woman's testimony that we're going to show and I was thinking about what I did. I was thinking about some of the guilt and shame I carry with me, and I started to pray. I said, "God, You know how much I love my mom. You know how much I thought of providing for her and protecting her. You know what a good son I was to her. You know this bad decision I made, and You know how badly I feel about it. I've asked You to forgive me, and right now, in Jesus' name, I forgive myself. I release myself." I let go of the hope of a better past. This is what I did. I hurt somebody I loved, but I said, "Lord, that does not define me as a son. I was a good son before that event, and I was a good son to her after that event. I watched over her, and I made decisions. I cared for her, and I loved her until she died. That event is not going to define my relationship with my mom anymore. Lord, I forgive myself. I release myself." I was crying. I know if she were here, she would release her son today. I know that's made a difference in me, and I'm not saying I won't deal with some of that stuff again; but I know that was a healthy and right thing to do. That was good for me. Some of you need to take some steps like that, but here's the good news: when I've taken responsibility for my past, that which is truly my fault; I've confessed my sin; I've dealt with the consequences; I've asked for God's forgiveness; and I've forgiven myself, then the good stuff happens. Then I have the hope for redemption in the future. I still have the hope for a better future that I can turn my life around, that I can be a different person, that I can have a new start because of the grace of God. That will not define me anymore. That's the third point: it's the redemption of the future, trusting for the redemption of the future. I want you to notice the turn now it takes as he closes out this Psalm in Verse 12 (again, page 562). Everything is future-minded. "Restore to me the joy of Your salvation…" in the future. Restore that joy. "…grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me." I want to keep moving forward. I want to keep growing as a person. Right now, I feel like giving up. Sustain me. "Then I will teach…" in the future. "…I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners will turn back to You." I will prevent people from doing what I have done, and the people that have done what I've done, I will help bring them back to God. I'm going to be a changed man in the future because of Your help. "Save me from bloodguilt, O God, the God who saves me..." What does that mean? That's the people who he killed. That's Uriah and the fellow soldiers that he had killed on that wall. That's bloodguilt. Their blood is on his hands. Save me from bloodguilt. "…my tongue then will sing of Your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare Your praise." In the future when I'm forgiven, when I'm healed, and when I'm cleansed, words of truth and life will come from my mouth, and I will praise Your name. He looks forward to the day of redemption. Friends, that can be your future too. It doesn't matter what your past has been. If you'll follow those steps of forgiveness and forgive yourself, your future will be better than your past. You can know what it's like to know that freedom-not only having God's forgiveness or the forgiveness of others, but to forgive yourself. Let's pray together: Father, we're thankful for the woman who had the courage to share her story in front of the camera. She went through the same steps that we saw David go through. When David wrote the Psalm we just read, he was at the lowest point of his life. In years to come, he would experience the consequences in his family-the pain of death. The one thing he would know is he'd remember the words of Nathan where You said he was forgiven. Lord, You restored him, and that would no longer define him, but it would be about redemption. You would change his story. I want you to pray this prayer with me this morning if you have guilt and shame and need to forgive yourself. "Father, I come to You in Jesus' name. Lord, I've confessed my sin to You, and I've asked for Your forgiveness. I know You've forgiven me, but I've not forgiven myself. Today, Lord, I pray that in Jesus' name, I can forgive myself. I release myself of that debt. It does not define me as a person. It does not define that relationship. Lord, I look forward to a future of restoration that You will give me. You'll cause my heart to rejoice and my mouth to praise. I take this action today in Your name." Lord, all around this church; everybody is living through their story, their drama, and working through their past. They're coming to the terms of their reality. Lord, You're helping us all. When we emerge through this process, we will be a stronger church because we will be healthier individuals. You're going to repair our relationship with You, with others, and with ourselves. Thank You for the things that You are teaching us and showing us and for how Your Word is changing us from the inside out. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.
Pastor Jeff Williams: February 27, 2011 Living Deb-Free, Part III, "Barriers to Forgiveness."
[A clip from Forrest Gump was played here where they were throwing rocks at a house, and Forrest said, "Sometimes there just aren't enough rocks." Forrest has a way with words, doesn't he?] Good morning to you. We are on a series called "Debt-Free Living," and we are studying forgiveness together. We're taking our time doing so. We're going to spend a couple of months together on this subject. It's not a one-and-done kind of thing, but we're really trying to get deep into it. This morning we want to talk about some of the barriers to forgiveness. Why is it that some of us make it through and others of us get stuck? We're going to identify some of those barriers. If you're taking notes, I'd like you to write those things down, write those barriers down, and then identify which it is that's sticking you. Where are you getting stuck in your forgiveness journey? Circle that one and say, "That's the one by the grace of God that I'm going to break through." That's going to be our job today-to identify that barrier. Before we get into that, I want to have a little quiz. I want to test you on your Bible knowledge and your history. We're going to give you some quotes of last words from famous people. These are quotes many of you have heard before. Maybe you can identify who said them. The first one is from American history, "I regret I only have one life to lose for my country." If you think you know who said that, you don't have to say it; but how many of you think you have an idea? Yeah, it was Nathan Hale. A few of you? Yeah, some of you guys were real confident but you weren't quite right. Our first spy-that's what he said when he was killed by the British in the Revolutionary War right before he died. Here's one that you'll recognize, "Et tu, Brute?" That was Julius Caesar's on the Ides of March before he was stabbed to death, betrayed. Here's one from the Bible. Let's see if you recognize these famous last powerful words. "Lord, Jesus, receive my spirit." That was the first martyr of the church, Steven, as he was being stoned to death. The Apostle Paul was leading the charge. Steven said, "Lord, Jesus, receive my spirit," and then he died. What a dramatic way to go and what powerful last words those are. These next last words are also from the Bible. They're spoken by somebody that will surprise you. "Bring his gray head down to the grave in blood," (in 1 Kings 2:9, page 327 of pew Bible). This is somebody that you know, a Bible character that you know-these were the last words [he spoke] before he took his dying breath. The last words were words of vengeance, of bitterness, of unforgiveness. He was telling somebody to kill another person. Do you know who said this? David-the one who wrote Psalms 23 about "the Lord is my Shepherd" and those gentle words, the last words before he died, were to tell his son, Solomon, to kill a person. "Bring his gray head down to the grave in blood." What caused David to be so angry and so bitter? We're starting at the end, and then we're going to go back to the beginning. Let's first turn to 1 Kings 2 (page 327). David is on his death bed, and he is giving his son Solomon directives. He's blessing him; he's giving him a charge. It starts off really well, "Live for God. Serve Him. Do what's right," but then he starts listing people he is happy with and people he's upset with. When we get to Verse 8, he says, "'And remember, you have with you Shimei son of Gera, the Benjamite from Bahurim, who called down bitter curses on me the day I went to Mahanaim. When he came down to meet me at the Jordan, I swore to him by the Lord: "I will not put you to death by the sword." But now, do not consider him innocent. You are a man of wisdom; you will know what to do to him. Bring his gray head down to the grave in blood.' "Then David rested with his fathers and was buried in the City" that bears his name. He said, "This person insulted me." Wow, that seems like an overreaction, doesn't it? Somebody insulted me, so I want him dead. He said, "I told him I would not kill him, but I never said my son wouldn't. I have a loophole here, and I'm going to use it." Let's see what happened. I want you to turn in your Bibles to the Book of 2 Samuel 16 (page 311 of pew Bibles). David was at a low point in his life and in his reign as King. He had a son whose name was Absalom, and Absalom rebelled against David. He decided that he too wanted to be King. He was rising in popularity with men and women. Men loved him because he was brave, and the women loved him because he was handsome. He had this winning smile and charm, and he was charming the people. The people started saying, "We wish you were King. We like you better than your father." Power started going to his head, and pretty soon he decided, "I think I want to be King." He staged a rebellion against his father. Now David loved his son and did not want to fight against his son; so he decided that for the time being, he would step down from his throne and leave the palace. Now David was wandering through the countryside. He didn't know what he was going to do; he didn't know what he was going to do. All he knew was that his son was trying to kick him out of power, and he didn't want to battle his son; so he voluntarily left his throne. Now his popularity was at a low at this point. There was a lot of dissention in the southern region of the Kingdom, the Kingdom of Judah. By the time his son took the throne, David was already out the back door. He had a group of faithful followers with him; his general and others were with him. They came through town and found a man who absolutely hated him named Shimei. Shimei couldn't stand the ground that David walked on. Shimei saw this as an opportunity to tell King David exactly what he thought. He was vulnerable; he was in a defeated posture, and Shimei said, "This is my chance. He's not going to be King anymore. He can't hurt me anymore. I'm going to tell him exactly what I think!" He was going to get so mad and so worked up that he would pick up stones and start throwing them at David. He was going to pick up dirt and start throwing it at David, along with insults and cursing toward him. Imagine what it would be like for Governor Walker if he were to take a stroll through the protestors today. With all the hatred that there is right now, he'd be in danger, wouldn't he? Imagine if Gaddafi were to take a walk through Libya right now in the midst of the protestors. Imagine if Mubarak were to walk through the Egyptian protestors. Wow! They would be taking their lives into their own hands. David was actually walking with his bodyguards, and that didn't even stop Shimei. This guy was so mad that not even the presence of bodyguards would stop him. Let's take a look in Verse 5, "As King David approached Bahurim, a man from the same clan as Saul's family…" Remember Saul was the one who was King first and then David. "…came out from there. His name was Shimei son of Gera, and he cursed as he came out. He pelted David and all the King's officials with stones, though all the troops and the special guard were on David's right and left. As he cursed, Shimei said, 'Get out, get out, you man of blood, you scoundrel!'" He doesn't think to highly of David. "'The Lord has repaid you for all the blood you shed in the household of Saul, in whose place you have reigned. The Lord has handed the kingdom over to your son Absalom. You have come to ruin because you are a man of blood!'" Tell us how you really feel, Shimei. Don't hold back. Wow, he just puts it all on the line. "Then Abishai son of Zeruiah said to the King, 'Why should this dead dog curse me Lord the King? Let me go over and cut off his head.'" Some of those stones were hitting him, and he didn't like it. Some of that dirt was landing on him. He said, "Let me just go ahead and take care of this little peon for you. It'll be my pleasure." You know how it is when you're having a bad time? Maybe you're feeling like a failure, you're feeling like the world is against you, and it doesn't matter anymore. Have you been there? "Go ahead, throw the stones. I deserve it. I'm a bad King. My people hate me! I'm a bad father. My son is going against me. Go ahead-I deserve it. Kick me while I'm down. Save what you need to say. I don't care!" Have you ever been there? You're just so discouraged and so upset that you just don't care anymore. "Go ahead and insult me. Go ahead and try to hurt my reputation and say things. I don't care anymore. Everybody else is, so go ahead!" That's his attitude; that's his posture, so he tells them, "No, don't stop him." Maybe God is just telling him to do that. "Just go ahead." Verse 13, "So David and his men continued along the road while Shimei was going along the hillside opposite him, cursing as he went and throwing stones at him and showering him with dirt." When they arrived at their destination, all the people with him were exhausted, "And there he refreshed himself." He took a bath and cleaned up his wounds. I've never been walking down a road while being sprayed by rocks, dirt, and insults continually; but I'm sure that was very stressful for David. David seems to take the high road. David doesn't order him to be killed or anything like that. What happened was Absalom was killed in a battle. David said to his men, "When you go to battle, don't harm my boy. Whatever you do, be gentle with my son." Well, it didn't work out that way. David's general killed Absalom in the field of battle. David was broken-hearted; but as a consequence of that, the southern kingdom regrouped and decided to make David King once again and unite the North and the South. It was the end of Civil War. It was the end of brother against brother. The nation was restored. Israel was one, and David was the one King. There were no more threats to his throne; so nationally, even though it was a time of grieving for David, it was a time of rejoicing. We think of our Civil War, and we think of the joy in our country when we were united as one country under one President again. It was a time of healing and rebuilding. That was how David looked at it. So this was good news; the country was one, but there was one citizen that was not happy about David becoming King again. There was one citizen who, when he picked up Israeli Newspaper, read an article that said, "David is now King again." He read that headline and went, "Uh-oh. I'm in big trouble." Do you know who that might be? Shimei. "I am in so much hot water. That king is going to come after me, and this time he's not going to be so nice; so he decides what he is going to do is find the King first. "I'm going to find David first, and I'm just going to beg for my life. I am going to say, 'I am so sorry. What was I thinking? You're awesome. I'm a scumbag, and maybe I can live?" In Chapter 19:18 (page 316), he's coming his way. Shimei went to meet him, and it says, "…he fell prostrate before the king and said to him, 'May my Lord not hold me guilty. Do not remember how your servant did wrong on the day my lord the King left Jerusalem. May the King put it out of his mind. For I your servant know that I have sinned, but today I have come here as the first of the whole house of Joseph to come down and meet my lord the King.'" You're awesome! You're the greatest King ever! Abishai does not buy it. He doesn't like this guy. He still might have scars from the stones that he threw, so he says, "Let's put this guy to death. I mean he cursed the King's anointed. He cursed you. Can I take care of him now?" Remember in history how we read about Abraham Lincoln when the South was defeated, there were many in the North who said, "Yeah, let's stick it to them. Let's make them pay." Abraham Lincoln gave his famous speech at his second Inauguration and said, "With malice toward none and charity to all." He talked about uniting the country and gently helping up the brothers that had fallen and healing the country. His focus was on healing. This wasn't a time to gloat. This was a time to heal; this was a time to unite, and that's what David said. David said, "No one's going to be put to death in Israel today. Do I know that today I am King over Israel?" Verse 23, "So the King said to Shimei, You shall not die." And the King promised him on oath." I won't kill you. You will live. Shimei lucks out because he catches him on a low and a high. The first time he insults him, David doesn't care because his kingdom is in chaos, and his son is trying to kill him. He is so low that he doesn't care. The second time he encounters Shimei, the country is united. He's not feeling good, so you know when you're in a good mood, sometimes things like insults don't bother you as much. If you were to go out today and win the lottery and your enemy then called you and said, "You're just lucky, and you're still a no-good so-and-so even if you won the lottery. Even if you're rich, you're still a no-good blankety-blank." You'd laugh and say, "What do I care? I'm rich. Okay, have a good day, bye." It's a great day for you. It's a good day, so David says, "I'm going to let him off." But over the years, something changes. From that time as a middle-aged man until the time when he is an old man at age 70, years later, he thinks about that. He mulls it over in his mind; and the more he thinks about it, the angrier he gets. He says, "He embarrassed me. He showed total disrespect for me. He caused me emotional and physical pain. He made me look ridiculous when he threw dirt on me. I said I wouldn't kill Shimei, but I never said my son wouldn't kill Shimei," so by the time he reaches his grave, the last words out of his mouth are "bring his gray hair down to the grave in blood." Somewhere along the line, the forgiveness process broke for David. He became so consumed with anger and bitterness that his last dying words were words of revenge, so let's talk about those barriers. Let's try to identify those barriers. Number one, a failure to empathize with the person who heard us is a burden for forgiveness. A failure to empathize will keep us in unforgiveness. Empathy is one of the most important steps in unforgiveness. Empathy is where I put myself in the place of another and try to figure out why they did what they did. It doesn't make what they did right. It doesn't justify it. It doesn't take my pain away, but it helps me in the forgiving process. Not one time does David say to Shimei, "Why are you so angry with me?" Not one time. "I don't know you. You don't know me. Why are you throwing stones at me? What have I done to you?" If he would have asked that one question, maybe he would have learned something about Shimei that could have saved Shimei's life and saved himself the embarrassment that happened. If he would have said, "Stop throwing stones. Stop cursing me. Tell me why you're angry," maybe he would have won over a loyal subject that day. Maybe Shimei would have gone from hate to love. Remember the Bible gives us a clue. It says he is from the household of Saul. When Saul died, David became King; but when he became King, it was a divided kingdom. There was the North and the South. When Solomon's son died-when he was killed-David eventually became King over the whole country, but Saul's family and loyal followers continued to fight David's followers. Over time, David's power increased and Saul's power diminished to the point where David was in complete control; but there was a lot of bad blood between Saul's side and David's side. Because he was related to Saul, possibly somebody in David's army or maybe even David himself in battle, killed a relative. Maybe he was mad because he lost his father to David's father or his brother to David's army. Maybe he even lost a son. That changes everything, doesn't it? "If I understand the reason for your anger with me is because somebody in my army killed a close relative of yours, then that anger is justified, is it not?" David didn't take the time to find that out. David didn't take the time to empathize with the man who was throwing the stones. Sometimes when somebody is throwing stones at us, we don't take the time to figure out why they're doing what they're doing, why they're saying what they're saying. Remember the story we told about the gunman coming into that schoolhouse and shooting those little girls? Do you know one of the reasons why the Amish could forgive? Then the Amish said to his widow, "We forgive your husband." They empathized with her. They said, "She does not have a husband. She does not have a father or her children. We want you to know we're here to support you. We want you to know we love you." Then she shared with them a story. She said, "My husband was very angry with God because he had a child who died. The child became sick, and he prayed to God to heal the child; but God did not heal the child. God let the child die. He was so angry over the years, he became increasingly bitter; so he decided he would take revenge on God and go out and kill these innocent children because he was so angry with God." Of course that doesn't make it right. It is still just as awful and horrendous as it ever was, but it allowed the Amish to empathize and understand what was going on-twisted thinking though it was-they began to understand that this man had pain in his life, excruciating pain. He was acting in anger. The Amish forgave the gunman. Empathy is very important. It's part of that receiving process. It's part of that listening process. Why did the person hurt me? What happened in their past? Who hurt them? It doesn't make it right. It doesn't take away my pain, but it's a very important beginning in the process of forgiveness. I want to talk on this briefly, but number two is sometimes unforgiveness is a failure to trust God, a failure to trust the justice of God. What does God's Word say about those who've harmed people-those who've committed unjust acts against people? Romans 12:17 (page 1123), "Do not repay evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: 'It is mine to avenge; I will repay,' says the Lord." Now I'm not talking about somebody who deserves to be prosecuted by the law. If somebody has committed a crime against you, yes, the state should punish them. They deserve to be punished or even go to jail if it's an egregious enough act. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about your right as an individual, not the state, but as an individual. You do not have the right to enact revenge. The Bible says revenge belongs to God. God will carry out justice. Do you trust that? Do you trust that God's keeping records? Do you trust that God's keeping an account? If you trust in the justice of God, then you don't have to take revenge into your own hands. The Amish said this many times, "We trust in the justice of God. We understand why he did what he did. It's not right, but we are not seeking revenge. It is God's place to judge and merit out justice." So maybe you're having a barrier and you're holding onto that grudge because you want revenge. Forgiveness is giving up the right to revenge. It's putting that into the hands of God. Thirdly, it is a failure to recognize the danger of unforgiveness. We fail to recognize the danger of unforgiveness or the power of unforgiveness. Did you know science is confirming what the Bible has taught-that unforgiveness is unhealthy for you? Did you know that if you're retelling a story-sometimes you're retelling a story, and there's unforgiveness-that your blood pressure can reach dangerous levels by just telling the story? Your physical body will begin to recreate and manifest the signs that happened when you were hurt. That anger will resurface. Did you know there's a part of your brain that is stimulated by the thought of revenge, literally? Physiologically there is a chemical change. There are pleasure centers in your brain, and guess where those pleasure centers are located? The same area where we have sexual cravings and cravings for things like food. There is a pleasure center of your brain that is aroused when you go into your restaurant, you think about your favorite dessert or your favorite food, and then you smell it. There is a pleasure center in your brain. If we were to take an MRI of your brain, we would see that there's an arousal in your brain for what you're about to eat. In that same pleasure center where there is a chemical reaction to sexual intimacy and desire for that-in that same center of the brain, we are stimulated by revenge. When somebody you hate is getting what's due, you love it a little bit too much. That's what that study says to us. It says it's a little dangerous because something chemical is happening there that you can get hooked on, that you can get pleasure from, and you're going to likely repeat that behavior because it is giving you pleasure. When your favorite football team is winning, you're happy; but when your favorite football team is defeating the football team you hate the most, you're really happy. When David was walking through the crowd and was leaving his throne, Shimei was in his glory. Shimei was like, "Yeah, you dirty dog! You scoundrel! You are getting what you deserve," and he was loving it! I'm not going to ask you for a raise of hands, but I guarantee [some of you would say yes]. How did you feel when you were a kid and there was a bully at school that was picked on. How did you feel when your bully got what was due? Yeah, you got pleasure from that. Somebody wronged you or robbed you-maybe somebody robbed you financially, and the day they went to jail, you were like, "Oh, I'm loving this article a little bit too much." Why I'm telling you that is to say this: forgiveness is not for the light-hearted. Forgiveness is not for the week of heart. Forgiveness is tough because you're battling not just emotions and memories but something physiological that is going on in your brain. There's a war going on. We're saying, "By forgiveness, I'm going to change my response to that person and that event." To take on that process is not for the faint of heart. It's a struggle, so we need to be aware of that. Fourthly, a breakdown is when we fail to finish the process. We don't complete it all the way. Years ago, I had strep throat, and I had to speak on a Sunday. We only had one service back then, but I remember something really cool. When I would preach, my throat didn't hurt anymore. My glands were swollen to the point where I couldn't talk properly, but when I preached, I had my normal goofy voice. As soon as I was done, everything started to hurt again, and I could hardly talk. It was really weird. The doctor gave me a bottle of meds, and he said, "Take this all the way through until it's gone." I said, "Okay." I'm halfway through the bottle, and I'm feeling good. In fact, I'm feeling normal. My throat is normal; my headache is gone; no fever. I'm feeling 100 percent normal. I don't need to finish this prescription. I know the doctor said to finish the bottle, but I'm cured; so I put it aside, and about two days later, like really fast this time, I was like, "Oh no. Oh, gee. I should have finished the bottle." So the next time when I got strep throat, the same thing happened. My glands were so swollen, and it really hurt. When I preached it was fine. As soon as I was done preaching, it hurt again. I finished my bottle [this time]. Friends, sometimes you will think you have the battle licked. You'll just not pay attention to it. Maybe you'll start nursing some of those bitter thoughts, and there's just this little bit of bitterness left, a little neglected there. You feel like "I'm fine. I'm normal. I'm over it. I can move on." There's this little bit of bitterness, and you neglect it. You don't finish the process, and all of the sudden, those feelings start coming back. Those emotions start coming back. Everything all of the sudden is where it was before. The past has become the present. Is this making sense to anybody? Finish the process. Stick to it. Some offenses are so wrong that you're committing to the process of forgiveness for an entire lifetime. It's not just this one event and then it's done. It is a process I enter into, but there might be times years from now where I'm reminding myself of the grace of God. I'm reminding myself of the decision I've made. I'm taking control of my thoughts and feelings and saying, "I have forgiven. I have released the past. That no longer defines me." Remember what victim identity is. We said victim identity is this: You are a victim. You've been hurt. You've been damaged. You're a victim. What happened to you is you were victimized. That's the verb, so the noun is you are a victim. The verb is you are victimized, but when victim identity takes place, the verb and the noun become one. The verb and the noun become the same. You become that offense, so that starts to define who you are. You're no longer just you. You are this person who had this terrible thing happen to you, and that becomes your identity; so you live in a state of perpetual victimness. Forgiveness we said was the key to breaking free and becoming a victor instead of a victim. You say, "This does not define me anymore. Grace and forgiveness define me. I am an even better person because this happened to me. God is making me a better person. I'm helping others. I'm a victor, not a victim. I'm letting go of the past." Now this last barrier is that in the opposite. This last barrier is a failure to see the whole person. How many of you woke up this morning looking exactly like you do right now? Nobody, right? Except Justin Bieber. He wakes up and his hair is just like that. Ladies, that's true. I don't want to pop any teenage bubbles here today. What if we were to come in your room this morning as soon as you'd woke up, the moment you sat up for the first time, and take your picture? I know that's creepy, but this is an illustration. What would we see if we were to put that picture of you on the wall today? How would your hair look? What if we got in really close where we could see the drool there? We see you, ladies, without your makeup. We see you guys without your hairpiece. Some of those 8 o'clockers, we'd see them without their teeth. You don't say a word (congregation breaks into laughter)! I will not forgive you. I will show up, take your picture, and put it up on the wall. We wouldn't look very good, so what if we took that picture and put it on the wall and said, "This is you! This is what you look like. That's who you are." You'd say, "Well, yeah, that was me at that moment, but give me 20 minutes. Let me take a shower, wash my hair, and put on my makeup. Let me comb my hair, brush my teeth, and shave. I can look better than that. I have looked better than that! That's not an accurate representation of who I am. That was me in a moment, but that's not what I look like all the time. That's not fair!" Friends, unforgiveness is taking a snapshot of a person at their worst and saying, "That's who you are! That's all you are-that terrible thing I see, that ugly person I see in this snapshot. That is you!" That is not them. That was them at that moment; that was them at that time, but this did not define who they are either. When there's unforgiveness, we define, and we say, "That is you! That is all you are! That is all you'll ever be!" Remember Jared Loughner, the man who shot Congressman Giffords in the face because he hated her and killed a little girl? He killed a staff person, and he injured others. She is now rehabilitating. We've all heard that story; we've all seen his picture, right? The bald head, the creepy smile, the eyes that kind of look through to your soul-he has that maniac Charles Manson kind of face. We all look at that face, and we go, "That guy's a monster! Anybody who'd do that to people is a monster!" Friends, it is easy to have unforgiveness to a monster, isn't it? When we look at that picture, that defines who he is. To all of us who do not know him, that guy is a monster; and that picture, that event, defines him in our minds. When his mom and dad see that picture, what do they see? Do they see a monster? When his brother, sister, or his best friends look at that picture of Jared, do they see a monster? They see what he did as monstrous, but when they see him, they see their son, their brother, their friend; and their heart breaks because they see the whole person. When David looked at Shimei, all he saw was the stone thrower. All he saw was the guy who insulted him and threw rocks and dirt. He didn't know him. He didn't know what kind of dad he was. He didn't know what kind of father he was, whether he was a Godly man or not, took care of his family or not. He didn't know whether he was a hard worker or whether he was a good friend or not. He just took a snapshot of Shimei and said, "That is Shimei-this crazy, cursing, dirt-throwing, stone-throwing jerk, and I want him dead! It gives me pleasure as I go into eternity to know that my son is going to kill this dirty jerk." Wow! "David, how about if we defined you like that? How about if we defined you and took a snapshot of you in bed with Bathsheba and said, "That's who you are, David. That's all you are. What if we took a snapshot of you signing the death warrant for her husband Uriah to be killed in battle? How about if we put that up and said, 'Here, David, that's you'?" David would say, "Yeah, that was me, but that's not all I am. I wrote the Psalms. I led our nation into battle and victory more than any other soldier in history. I united our kingdom. I established our capital. I brought the Ark to the capital. I started building the Temple of God. I've been a great king!" Well, David wouldn't want that standard applied to him, would he? Nobody does. When we say, "I'm not going to forgive," we are saying we are going to take a snapshot at their worst and say, "That is all they are to me." One of the barriers of forgiveness is that. It's easy to not forgive a monster, but when we see the whole person, that enables us to forgive. We watched a clip from the movie "Forrest Gump" as you were coming in. Jenny, the character, had gone through nightmare experiences in her home. We could only imagine what she went through as she was throwing the rocks at the house in anger and saying, "How could you do that?" We can only imagine the abuse her character must have went through in the story. Then she collapsed to the ground in exhaustion. Forrest Gump says, "Sometimes there's just not enough rocks." Now we're going to look at an artist who wrote a song called 70x7 about the house he grew up in and the memories of neglect and abuse that he endured; but through the power of forgiveness, he's no longer throwing stones. He's experiencing healing. Let's listen to this song together: (here's a link to the song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5-Q1zAhqpA). Would you join me in prayer this morning please? Father, we can identify with that young man. We have had events in our past that have shaped who we are-things that are good but also things that are painful, people who helped us but also people that hurt us. Some hurt us deeply, and we have a choice to make. We can either live with anger and bitterness and throw stones till we are exhausted, or we can choose to forgive by Your grace and through Your strength. We can begin to heal. That will not define who we are. We can have a new start. Father, I pray for those of us who identified our barrier today. This is the area we struggle in; this is the area where we keep losing the battle. I pray that that area of weakness could become a strength. I pray, Lord, that we would put down the stones and pick up the cross. There we would find grace not only to be forgiven but to forgive. I pray that we'd exchange death for life and hope for despair. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.
Pastor Jeff Williams: February 13, 2011 Living Debt-Free, Part II, "What Is Forgiveness?"
We're starting a new series, as you can see from the image behind me and on the wall over here. It's called, "Living Debt Free." We're not talking financially. It's not a financial seminar. We are talking about debt in the sense of the words of Christ when He said in His prayer, "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors." This is the moral debt that you and I incur in our lifetime. When we transgress, when we sin, there is moral debt that we owe. We wrong one another in life. People have wronged you, so what do we do with this debt? Do we allow it to accumulate, or do we remove it? If we remove it, how do we go about that? The way we remove it is through forgiveness. Before we actually get into the Scripture and start talking about forgiveness and what it is, I thought it would be good to try to see it first. I think if you can see it, then it enables you to receive the teaching better because there is a clear visual that you can focus in on. One of my favorite actors is Liam Neeson. I don't know if you like him or not, but he's probably my favorite actor. He played the part of Oskar Schindler in "Schindler's List." He plays the voice of Aslan in "The Chronicles of Narnia." He was in "Star Wars." He did a film called "Les Misérables." You may have read the book "Less Miserables," (Pastor pronouncing it phonically). In "Les Misérables," he is an ex-convict who is on the path to redemption. In this particular scene, he seeks shelter and food at the home of a bishop. He is appreciative; but at the same time, he has no money. He knows he can't stay there forever, so it looks like he's going to enter back into a life of crime. That's all he knows. It's what he wants to do. He wants to be a good person. He wants to be a new man, but because he has no job, because he's alone, all he knows how to do is steal. It looks like he's about to return to a life of crime. Let's go ahead and watch this clip from the movie, "Les Misérables," and then we'll talk about forgiveness: (link can be found here: http://www.wingclips.com/movie-clips/les-miserables/back-to-god). That is pretty powerful stuff: "I've ransomed you from fear and hatred, and now I give you back to God. With this silver, I have bought your soul." This is an act of forgiveness, an act of grace. Biblically, you've heard a lot of definitions for forgiveness over the years. I want to give you a very simple, easy-to-remember definition of forgiveness. The word forgive in the Scripture literally means to let go, to release. In releasing Jean Valjean, he was forgiving him. He was giving him a new start. He was sending him on the path to redemption. He was saying, "You're past is gone. You have a fresh start. You're going to be a different person." Have you been following the news about Egypt? It's been riveting television. I happened to catch a couple key moments. You're watching revolution right before your eyes. I saw the clashes of the demonstrators with the police and how horrific that was. I saw the loss of life there. It was just gut-wrenching to watch. The people basically said, "We're not going to leave. We are going to topple this dictator, so we're going to clog up the streets of the biggest city in our country. We're going to leave our jobs and basically bring the economy to a halt. This number is going to keep growing and growing until you step down." Then when he refused to step down, rather than retaliating in violence and looting, they began to shout chants of peace. They also began saying to him, "Get out! Get out! We're not leaving! You leave!" Then he finally stepped down, and the military took over. The first thing they say-I don't know if you caught that story or not-is "you need to forgive the police. You need to respect the police and forgive the police. We are one country. We are one people, and we want a new start. We can't have a new start if we're fighting each other." The police were doing their jobs. They were taking orders, but now there will be a new government in place, and "you need to respect the police." I checked the news today, this morning before I came, and it showed the police and the protestors hand in hand, hugging each other, and shouting, "We are one! We are one people!" That's amazing! That's forgiveness in action. They said, "We're going to let go!" It's not saying they aren't going to go after Mubarak for justice, but they were saying, "We're going to forgive these events of the past because we want a new start!" Therefore, to forgive means to let go. I want to read a couple of Scriptures. I'm not going to talk about them per se, but I just want to read them at this point. I'd like us to turn in our Bibles to Ephesians 4:31-32 (page 1159 of pew Bibles). Paul writes and says, "Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger…" Let it go. "…brawling and slander, along with every form of malice." Release those things. How do you do that? "Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ, God forgave you." In Matthew 6:14-15 (page 960), we read the Lord's Prayer, but seldom do we read the Verses that came immediately after Jesus' teaching on prayer. Verse 14 says, "For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins." So, having read those two Passages, let's talk about some of the attributes of forgiveness. We define forgiveness as letting go, releasing. What does that look like? What are the attributes and characteristics involved? What are we doing when we engage in forgiveness? What I'm going to do is take the word forgive and assign a word to each letter as a memory device to help us remember these facets of forgiveness. Of course, we're going to start with F which stands for Freedom. Notice the image (put up on screen), the exuberance of this individual. This individual acts as if he/she is being set free, like he or she is liberated or a load has been lifted-quite the opposite of the image we were using in the last series that we went through. This is a person who feels a new sense of life. Notice the green color there. It stands for a newness of life, for a new start that forgiveness can bring to an individual or to a relationship. As I contemplate this series, my mind keeps going back to an event that happened about five years ago when a lone gunman walked into an Amish schoolhouse. He made the little boys leave. Then because he was angry that God had taken his young child from him years ago, he took that anger against God out on those innocent little children and began shooting them. He killed many of them in cold blood. The nation was shocked with that story. Who would do such a thing? What kind of a demon could do something like that? The news began spreading quickly, but the response from the Amish also shocked the world as well. Do you recall what they did? They showed up at the home of the widow and offered her forgiveness. They said, "We forgive your husband, and we're here for you. We can't imagine how difficult it was for you to lose your husband, to lose the father of your children. We're praying for you, we love you, and we want to support you." The world could not believe what they were seeing. When the funeral (for the murderer) came a few days later, not many people showed up-the wife, the children, and just a handful of people. Then, literally while the funeral was getting set to begin, on foot, over the hill in mass came the Amish community. Like the cavalry coming over the hill, they came hand-in-hand to support that widow and her family and to show forgiveness. One of the things you couldn't see that was behind the scenes was a family [that had lost a daughter, a sister] that was really struggling. The wife was struggling; the daughter was struggling, and she was angry with her dad because she saw his forgiveness as a betrayal to her little sister. She said, "How could you forgive him, Daddy? He took my sister! He killed my sister! How can we forgive him? I hate him! I hate him, Daddy!" The father put his arm around the little girl and said, "Honey, how does that hate inside of you feel? How does it feel?" She said, "It doesn't feel good! I don't like it, Daddy! It doesn't feel good!" He was trying to describe what hate and unforgiveness do to a person, and he gave this little girl a word picture, which is as profound for us adults as I think it would be for a little child. He said, "Hate is like a monster that lives inside of you with sharp teeth. It will eat away at your heart until there is no room left for love." How is that for a vivid word picture of hate? It's like a monster living inside of you with sharp teeth that will eat away at your heart until there is no room left for love. What this father was trying to do was liberate his family from bitterness and hate. He wanted her to experience the freedom that we see portrayed in this image on the wall. Paul is saying, "I don't want you to be burdened by bitterness and malice hatred, slander and rage." He said, "That's going to destroy you. That's going to kill you." Paul is saying, "Let it go. Get rid of it. I want you to be free. If you have had a heart that has been dark and cold because of hatred, bitterness, and unresolved anger, and you are able to release that, there is a freedom that is there." I am not debt-free. I hope to be debt-free someday. I hope to say, "Someday I will own my house free and clear. I don't have a loan in the world." I'm not there yet. If you're there now, we don't want to see your hands because we will all hate you, and then we'll have to practice forgiveness against you; so don't raise your hand if you're a show-off. "I have no debts!" We don't want to hear about it. But…how about the joy of the soul who is debt-free in the spiritual sense-who knows, number one, his or her sins are forgiven and covered by the grace of God? And, number two, they have forgiven those who have wronged them. What kind of a joy and a freedom is there to say you are living a debt-free life? "I am forgiven, and I have forgiven." Just like being financially debt-free, being morally debt-free is a place we would all like to be, right? So I think we're in the right place. The O in forgiveness stands for Obedience. When Paul gives us the command to forgive in Ephesians 4, it's in what is called the imperative mood. It's always in the imperative mood. In the Greek, the imperative mood means this is a command. It's not a suggestion. God doesn't say, "It'd be a nice idea if you could forgive. If you get around to it-if you have some time-would you consider taking this step? We don't want to tell you what to do. I don't want to be pushy, but I think it would be kinda nice if you could maybe forgive somebody." That's not what God is saying. God is issuing a command that we either obey or disobey. We have to make a choice. Oftentimes, that choice is inconsistent with our feelings. Is it not? You might say, "Well, I feel like if I make a choice that's against my feelings, I'm going to be a hypocrite." Well, maybe you didn't feel like coming to church this morning, but you're here. Maybe you felt like sleeping in. Maybe when the alarm rings tomorrow and it's time to go to work, you won't feel like going; but you're going to go, right? When you get to work, there probably won't be anyone who is going to call you a hypocrite for having done so because you have a job to do. You have responsibilities, and the consequence for missing work is that you could lose your job. If you lose your job, you'll lose your income. If you lose your income, bad things will happen to you. Pretty soon, you won't have a roof over your head or food to eat. You, therefore, make a choice contrary to your feelings. That is what forgiveness is-it's an act of obedience. It is an act of our will. It doesn't mean our feelings aren't important or that we shouldn't address our feelings. We'll talk about that in a while, but understand that forgiveness is commanded of God. It is not optional for us. It is His expectation of us, so we are to be kind and forgive one another as God in Christ has forgiven you. That reminds me of the R. The R stands for Reciprocal. Do you notice when it talks about forgiveness in the Scripture, it's always reciprocal? You can forgive because God has forgiven you. "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors." It's reciprocal. In Matthew's Parable 18, "The Unforgiving Servant," he chooses not to forgive. The King, who stands for God in the Parable, says to him, "I forgave you of so much. Shouldn't you have forgiven this man here? Ephesians 4:31-32, that we just read, "Forgive one another as God in Christ has forgiven you." Our ability to forgive is because God has forgiven us. It is reciprocal. It's a mutual thing. Understand because you have received grace, God expects you to extend grace as well; so forgiveness is reciprocal. Fourthly, G-it's a Gift. Forgiveness is a Gift. When Jean Valjean received the candlesticks and the silverware from the bishop, that act was more than a monetary, material gift. It was a spiritual gift. It was the opportunity for a new start. When the Amish extended forgiveness to this woman and her family, it was a gift. She remarked to them, "Your forgiveness is not only changing my family. Your forgiveness is going to change the world. It is a gift." When God forgives you, it is a gift. It is not something you've deserved or earned. It is because of His grace. You and I have the opportunity to give the gift of forgiveness to those who have wronged us. In fact, we are obligated to do so-the gift of forgiveness. We have the opportunity in return to receive that gift and complete that gift for others. Let's talk about the I in Forgiveness for a moment. The I stands for Imitate. You are never more like your Father in Heaven than when you forgive. Paul says, "As God in Christ has forgiven you…" When you forgive, you are imitating the Lord. You are imitating His nature, His character. Sometimes you and I get angry if a stranger bumps into us in the grocery store. He may say, "Excuse me," but you get a little miffed and think, "Well, you're clumsy. Watch where you're going!" Well, how about Jesus? He looked down from the cross at the people who deliberately pulled out His beard, put a crown of thorns on His head, spit on Him and beat Him. They'd stretched out His arms, nailed His hands, and nailed His feet to a cross. They lifted it to the ground and continued to mock, jeer, ridicule, and scorn; and what was His response? "Father, I hate them! Father, destroy them for what they've done!" Is that what Jesus says? The heart of the Savior, even on the cross, was one of forgiveness. He said, "Father, forgive them. They know not what they do." So when you and I forgive, we are imitating our Father. That's what we're called to do as Christians. We're called to walk as He walked; so as believers in Christ, we're called to be imitators of our Heavenly Father. We do that when we forgive. The V stands for Vital. This is Vital. Let's look at Matthew 6:14 (page 960) again for a moment. Let's read that Scripture one more time, "For if you forgive men when they sin against you…" Notice he says when. It's not a matter of if they will sin against us. "…your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins." That's a pretty ominous Scripture, isn't it? Isn't that a rather scary Scripture if you are in the process of digging in your heals and saying, "I choose not to forgive. I choose to hold on to my anger and my bitterness and hatred. I like it. I'm going to keep it." At the same token, you expect God to impart His grace to you? Jesus says it doesn't work that way. He's saying, "Listen, the most important relationship you have is your relationship with your Heavenly Father whether you realize it or not." It determines where you spend eternity. It determines your moral state, your spiritual condition. Jesus says if you want to have a healthy relationship with the Lord, if you want to be morally debt-free, then you need to forgive others as He's forgiven you. This is absolutely vital, it's absolutely essential to your spiritual well-being. That's why we're not having a one-time shot in this series. We're not saying, "Okay, I'm going to preach on it one Sunday, and then we'll be done." Actually, this series is going to bring us into spring. Doesn't that sound good? It will bring us into spring. We're going to spend a lot of time talking about this subject and trying to look at it from various angles. We're going to go deep into the subject. The goal is not to accumulate head knowledge. The goal is that it will rejuvenate our relationships, but most importantly, it will bring us closer to the Lord. That's what we all want. He says, "It is vital that you understand this. Do you want to be forgiven? Do you want God's grace?" It's not "I want grace for me and I want justice for you." It doesn't work that way. This is vital for us to understand. I want to spend some time on this last point, on the E, because I think sometimes this is an area of teaching on forgiveness that is overlooked. The E stands for Emotional. To forgive is emotional. Look at what Paul is telling us to release. He says, "Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, brawling, slander, and malice." What do each of those words conjure up? Strong emotions. When you talk about rage, have you ever been filled with rage before? I'm sure those parents, as they began to deal with what happened to their children, were filled with rage. When the police were beating the people in Egypt for simply wanting freedom, when Mubarak refused to step down, there was rage. Some of them shouted, "We hate you! We hate you!" in unison and rage, anger, and bitterness. Bitterness is anger that's been seething, brewing, and boiling for a while. We are talking deep-seeded emotions here. We are talking emotions and feelings that don't easily go away, do they? They don't easily go away. Sometimes I think because in the church we teach, and rightly so, that forgiveness is a decision, an act of the will, that we oftentimes bypass emotions that need to be addressed. I believe forgiveness is a process we go through. I think when the Amish said to the widow, "We forgive you," that what they were saying was, "We are beginning the process of forgiveness." It's like when you set a bone in place. You broke a bone. Does that heal it when you set it? No, but it aligns the bone so that healing can take place. I believe when there has been an egregious act that has been committed against us, and we say the words, "I forgive you," we are saying, "I'm entering into the process." Friends, forgiveness can be messy, and it can be hard. If you suppress the emotions that you have, then you are doing so to your own determent. What I'm suggesting to you is not that we allow emotions to dictate our actions and dictate our decisions. What I'm saying to you is those emotions need to be acknowledged, they need to be expressed, and they need to be worked through. That is part of the forgiving process. Sometimes I think Christians aren't allowed to be angry. We're not allowed to grieve. The offense happens, and some think instantaneously we should say, "Okay, I forgive you. I'm going to forget about it and put it out of my mind." In the meantime, all of these emotions are underneath the surface just churning away. I would like to recite for you the example of our Lord and how He dealt with emotions concerning the Passion Week. We're not going to be looking at the Scripture right now. I'm just going to be telling you the story. It's a story you're familiar with. He takes Peter, James, and John into the Garden. He goes deep into the Garden, and He says, "Pray with Me. My soul is deeply distressed and troubled to the point of death." He says, "I am just heavy of soul right now. I am heavy of Spirit right now." He understands that in a few short moments, He is going to bear sin. Evil is going to be placed upon Him. He understands He is going to go through immense physical, mental, spiritual torment and anguish. He tells the Disciples, "Pray with Me." When the Disciples fail to pray with Him, He is disappointed. He really feels rejected by them, and what does He say? Does He play mind games with them? Does He give them the silent treatment so they then have to ask Him, "What's wrong, Jesus?" or "You know…" No, He tells them straightforward, "You've really let Me down. Couldn't you pray with Me for one hour?" Then He goes and speaks to His Father. He says, "Father, if there be another way, let this cup pass from Me." What is He feeling? He's feeling some anxiety, some apprehension. There is fear of this cross that He has to bear. "I've known My whole life that I have to bear this cross, but now I'm at that moment. Father, is there another way?" And He was so anxious that He questioned the Father three times with the same prayer. He expresses that to the Lord. On the cross, He feels abandonment. He says, "My God! My God! Why hast Thou forsaken Me?" He feels alone in His time of greatest need. He cries out to the Father, "Why hast thou forsaken Me?" I'm quoting the Scripture of Psalm 22, the prophetic Messianic Psalm. How do we know the emotions that Jesus experienced during that Passion Week? How do we know them? They are recorded for us. Why are they recorded for us? Because He expressed them. He expressed His anger; He expressed His disappointment; He expressed His fear; He expressed His anxiety; He expressed His distress. Did He allow those emotions to keep Him from going to the cross? No. Did He allow those emotions to come down from the cross? No. He stayed the course; He finished the work that God had given Him to do. He went to the cross, He endured the suffering, and He died. He accomplished the mission. At the same token, there were emotions that He had to acknowledge, express, and deal with. He did not allow those emotions to detour Him from His mission. He made the correct choices in spite of His emotions and feelings; yet, He acknowledged those and dealt with those. His decision to offer forgiveness to those who were destroying His life-was that an emotion or was that a decision? Friends, what I'm saying to you is I think one of the most unhealthy things we could do when somebody has really hurt us, would be for us to just robotically say, "I forgive you. Forget about it. Move on." That is doing a disservice to you, and it is doing a disservice to the process of forgiveness. Forgiveness is work; forgiveness is hard. It's hard because there are a lot of emotions and memories that surface that we have to deal with in this process. It's messy. If you're sitting out there and saying, "Boy, they have an easy time forgiving. Why is it so hard for me?" Sometimes it's such a struggle. Some of those feelings of anger come back, and some of those memories come back, "I'm starting to feel some of the same emotions. What's wrong with me?" I'd say, "What's right with you? You're doing it correctly. If it's hard, you're doing it correctly because you're fighting that." If you give into those feelings and emotions and allow the bitterness and rage to take you, I'm not saying you're doing it correctly; but if you find those thoughts, feelings, and emotions begin to resurface and you have to again start to work through this forgiveness process, I'd say to you, "You're doing things right." We acknowledge those. Forgiveness is emotional. Is it an act of the will? Yes. Is it obedience? Yes. But because we are human beings, there is a lot we have to sort through and work through. That's part of the process, and that's what we're going to be doing in the weeks ahead-talking about what it is and next week, we're going to start talking about, I believe, how you do it-the nuts and bolts of it and how we can get to that point of being able to release those who have wronged us. Eventually, we're going to get to the point where we talk about reconciliation which is quite different. It's related to the topic, but it's quite different in how it is expressed; so if that sounds like a plan, we'll plan on meeting here again next week. Deal? Same time, same place. Let's pray: Father, we thank You for what Your Word says about forgiveness. I am not making up what I've said. It is not my opinion. I am conveying to this congregation what You have said about forgiveness, why it is important, and what it is. I pray that we, as a body, would commit to learning all we can about this subject, but that, Lord, there will be some changes in our lives. There are going to be some people who we forgive. There are going to be some people who we confess to. There is going to be some reconciliation when it is healthy and right to do so. I pray that would be the fruit of our time together, but most importantly, we can enter into "Debt-Free Living." We will know our sins are forgiven, we have forgiven those who have sinned against us, and that, Lord, our relationship with You is unhindered. We can have that freedom of soul and spirit. We commit ourselves to that end. In Jesus' name, Amen.
F-Freedom O-Obedience R-Reciprocal G-Gift I-Imitate V-Vital E-Emotional
If youre wondering what Im doing here, Pastor Jeff sends his regards. He was very sad not to be able to be here today. Hes not feeling so well. He spent a lot of time helping a couple of people during the snow storm get out of the ditch. By the weekend, he wasnt feeling too well. I planned on being in Iowa this weekend with my daughter. We were there on Friday looking for apartments. She got a call on her cell phone, and I hear this voice say (in a gruff voice), Jerry. Can you help me? Pastor Jeff was hoarse, couldnt speak very well, and was not feeling too great; so you get me instead today. Im glad to be here with you. Well put the Scriptures up there. As we think about this series Coming Before Winter and winter things-dealing with denial, depression, despair, and then this Sunday with death-death is a very difficult subject. Its the ultimate subject in terms of our lives, and if you dont deal with that, you really deal with nothing at all. Youre not being honest. All of us here today have probably suffered loss of people we care about. I know for myself, death is the very first memory I have in life. When I was two and a half years old, my aunt in Texas, who my parents said was my favorite, was electrocuted and died in her early 30s. I can tell you everything about it. I remember the trip and driving from Illinois to Texas. I can remember pulling up in the parking lot at the funeral home, the service, the color of the room, the color of the casket, and all of those things because it was an incredibly traumatic event. Yet, Im incredibly thankful for that. I saw death in my family. My dad had a large family, eight sisters, and they were all older than he was. I saw a lot of death with grandparents, aunts, and uncles. What that did was something that Solomon says in Ecclesiastes all of us should do. Ecclesiastes 7:1 (page 662 of pew Bibles) is a verse Ive shared hundreds of times at funerals. It says (paraphrasing) its better to go to a funeral than it is to a party because death is what happens to everyone, and wise people think about that. We live in such a party culture-such a here-and-now culture, such a grab-the-moment culture-that we dont like to think about way down the road. We dont like to think about the end. We dont like to think about death and dying, but God says wise people do. They think ahead. They plan ahead. This morning, I want to leave six pictures with you from Gods point of view about what death is and six different skills that you can use to develop your capacity to face that with courage, with hope, and with peace. Were going to look at two different passages of Scripture this morning-one in John 11 and later on the Passage that this series sprang from in 2 Timothy. If you turn to John 11 (page 1063 of pew Bibles), the first thing I want to say is this: From Gods point of view, death is sleep. Listen to what Jesus says. One of His dear friends, Lazarus, had passed away. Friends, Jesus allowed him to die. He heard about Lazarus being sick, and He allowed him to die. All of him of us have probably faced that-friends or loved ones that we pray and ask God to heal them, and God doesnt seem to hear. We say, God, why? Where are You? Why did You let this happen to me? What we need to know and remember is that God has a plan, and God views death differently than we do. We see Jesus perspective in this verse when He said this things in Verse 11, After He had said this, He went on to tell them, Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up. The Disciples, of course, say, Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better. Jesus very plainly then says, No, Lazarus has died, and Im going to raise him from the dead. Thats pretty remarkable, but the first thing I want you to notice from Gods perspective is that death is sleep. I always like bringing props along (Pastor Jerry brought in a pillow with him today). Somebody asked me when I brought this in, Are you going to sleep in church? I said, Yes, its going to be incredibly boring. What does the pillow remind us of? From Gods point of view, how does He view death? He says its simply sleep. Its naptime. We lie down for a minute, but that isnt the end. One day we will rise. Remember as a little kid how you used to hate to take naps? I dont know-is anybody in that ball park along with me? Its like, An afternoon nap? You have to be kidding me! We face death the same way. We dont want to take that nap. We dont want to lie down. But from Gods point of view, Hes a little wiser than we are. He says, You need this. This is part of the plan. But what do we look forward to? We look forward to that day, interestingly, its the stuff of fairy tales when out of a deep sleep the handsome prince comes and with a kiss does what? Awakens the sleeping princess. Its the stuff of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Its the stuff of Sleeping Beauty. Tragedy is befallen. That's true in our world. Sin has entered; death comes. We lie down and sleep, but we look forward to the day when the prince is coming to awaken His bride with a kiss. The people who are not followers of Jesus Christ, the people who dont believe in God, they dont believe in His power of resurrection, they say, Like Sleeping Beauty and Snow White, its myth. Its fantasy. Thats not reality. That's not fact. That's fiction. Thats not hope. Thats just hype. Friends, I ask you this question: why does that story resonate with us? Why do the Snow White and Sleeping Beauty stories get passed down from generations? Why are there legends like that in so many different cultures? The reason for that, and the reason that resonates in the heart of little girls so much, is because were made in the image of God. Thats really the story of eternity. Its the story of the prince who leaves his home, leaves his castle, and leaves the safety to go and rescue his bride Thats what Jesus does for us. Interestingly, in terms of sleeping and waking, God challenges us in this regard to wake up. How are you going to handle that moment when you lie down and sleep the sleep of death? Youre only going to handle that if youve practiced waking up in this life. In the Bible, in both the Old and the New Testaments, God says, Wake up often. What does He mean when He says that? He means, Think. Hes saying, Wake up. Study. Change your mind. Isaiah says, Come now and let us reason together says the Lord. God wants you to wake up. There are people when facing death who would rather not think about it and put it off. Dont entertain the idea that I might someday die. You see that with young people all the time, right? They think theyre invincible. Nobody can hurt me. Im young. Its going to last forever. No, its not. Wise people think about that. Friends, as you come to this question about death and eternity, that is the ultimate question. We get asked all the time, and as I challenge you to think, reason, study, and find out for yourselves, how does your religion or your philosophy with the world deal with that question of death? I tell you this morning your religion may raise you to higher levels of morality. That all may be well and good. Many of the great religions in the world say the same thing, Dont kill people. Dont commit adultery. Dont rob. But if they dont handle the ultimate question of death, they are absolutely, completely, and unequivocally worthless because were all going to die. One of my favorite movies that makes me laugh and laugh is a movie with Bill Murray in it called, What About Bob? Have any of you ever watched that? I love the fact that Bob can drive his psychiatrist, Dr. Leo Marvin, nuts! Dr. Leo Marvin has a son, Siggy, who dresses all in black. Why? Because as Siggy says, Were all going to die. No matter how much money you accumulate or how famous you are, Were all going to die, and theres nothing you can do about it. We kind of poo poo and pat that off, but you know what? Siggy is right. We are all going to die. Have you planned for that? Any religion that doesnt plan for that or doesnt deal with it is absolutely worthless. People say, Oh, there are many ways to God. Really? I want a way that deals with death. I want a way that shows me that there is hope in the face of the worst enemy that we will ever face. Thats where Jesus and Christianity stand out from every other religion that exists. The founder of Confucianism, the founder of Buddhism, Joseph Smith, Charles Taze Russell, Judge Rutherford, and Muhammad-you name them-they are all dead, buried, and in their graves. One religion has the audacity, the courage, the backbone to say, No, our founder rose from the dead. Are you kidding me? That alone makes it worth testing out, doesnt it? That alone makes it intriguing because Christianity alone has the audacity to say, Our Founder rose from the dead. When I face death, I want to walk through that porthole with somebody who has been there, done that. Amen? Thats why Im a Christian. Friends, God challenges us in the same way to think, to examine the facts. One of the biggest reasons Im a Christian is I just love to think. As a little kid, I asked questions of every single pastor I had. I remember being about nine years old and asking one of my pastors a whole bunch of questions. He looked at me and said, Jerry, you think too much. I was like, Really? You have to be kidding me. I thought that was what we were supposed to do! I love the fact that so many people, if they are honest with the facts throughout history-scientists, doctors, lawyers, generals, national heroes, and authors-if they examine the facts, they come down on the side of…its inescapable; the evidence is overwhelming: Jesus rose from the dead. If you look up Lee Strobel, who is the editor of the Chicago Tribunes law section, you will find out his wife became a Christian. He saw such dramatic changes in her that he spent two years examining the facts. Finally he gave in from his atheism and embraced Jesus Christ and is a preacher of the Gospel today. One of my favorite authors, C.S. Lewis, is one of the most celebrated authors of the twentieth century. I love what it says about him: he said, God dragged me kicking and screaming into the Kingdom of God. Isnt that hilarious? He didnt want to become a Christian. He didnt want to believe there was a God, but he couldnt help it. The evidence was way too overwhelming. Frank Morrison, a British lawyer, set out to prove that Jesus never rose from the dead; but after examining the facts, he gave in. He gave his life to Christ and ended up writing a famous book called, Who Moved the Stone? One of my personal favorites, Lew Wallace, a Civil War general, was a hero who saved Washington from confederate attack. He later became the governor of New Mexico when Billy the Kid was running around out there. He was challenged on a train ride by Robert Ingersoll, the leading atheist in America at the time, to examine his faith and to reject Christianity. Wallace set out to find the facts. He ended up writing a book that became the biggest seller at the time outside of the Bible. In that culture, it was the only other book besides the Bible that many people had ever read in their lives. It went on to win numerous Broadway awards and was made into a Broadway play at least six different times. It was a runaway hit and then became a worldwide movie that won an Oscar. He wrote a story of the Christ entitled Ben Hur. Why? Because he was overwhelmed by the evidence. I could go on and on. Just a few years ago, one of the leading scientific atheists in the world in the twentieth century just became a Christian, Dr. Anthony Flew. He was a professor at Cambridge. He came out in November of 2007 with his book. He embraced Christianity and wrote these words: There is a God. How the Worlds Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind. Dont you love that title? Why? Because people are honest with the facts. The evidence is overwhelming. Jesus challenges us today as we approach the subject of death to think, reason, study, and examine the facts. Did Jesus or did He not rise from the dead? Like Paul said long ago, If Jesus didnt rise from the dead, then our faith is in vain and we ought to be pitied. Friends, He did rise from the dead. The amazing thing is how do you get ready for death? David wrote in the Psalms [2:12] several thousand years ago these interesting words: Kiss the Son lest He be angry and you perish from the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little. Thats an interesting phrase-kiss the Son. How do you prepare for the coming kiss of your Prince? Begin to get up every day, awaken every day, ready to kiss the Son. Get ready to embrace Him, spend time alone with Him every morning. Get used to His touch; get used to His voice; get used to hearing Him; get alone with Him, and you will long for that day when the Prince of glory comes and plants His kiss on you, awakens you out of sleep, and takes you home to live with Him forever. Amen? The second picture Id like to leave with you as you look at death is also found in John 11:33 (page 1064 of pew Bibles). Jesus is at Lazarus funeral, and He sees Mary weeping and the people around her weeping. It says these words: When Jesus saw her weeping and saw the other people whaling with her, a deep anger welled up within Him, and He was deeply troubled. The New Living Translation says it very well. That really is the interpretation of that Greek word. Other translations say He groaned, but the idea of anger captures it very well. Friends, death is a time for anger. One of my favorite comic book symbols is The Incredible Hulk. You know the old story: Please dont make me angry. You wouldnt like me when Im angry. Its interesting to know that there is an appropriate response, and death is not out of question or anger is not out of question when facing death. If were honest, we go through those things, dont we? People who chart that, psychiatrists or psychologists who chart that, know that oftentimes anger is one of the steps of grief. You hear that news that maybe the disease you have is terminal. Youre not going to make it. You hear the C word, the cancer word for the first time, or youre facing bypass surgery. Maybe theres a lump, theres a tumor, and your mortality comes into question. You come face to face with the end of your life. Yes, theres fear and maybe despair. You go through those things and theres also oftentimes anger. Maybe youre angry at yourself, I should have taken better care of myself. If its a loved one, Why didnt they take care of themselves better? Maybe youre angry at the doctors, They got it wrong. Im going to get a second opinion, then a third opinion, and then a fourth opinion. Nobodys ever done that, right? Interestingly, one of the people that were most angry at is God. God, if You loved me, if You cared, how could You let this happen? Even as Christians, were tempted to go there. Thats a natural response. Its a very human response. Jesus, in the face of death, is angry. Friends, I want to encourage you. Im glad we have a God that gets angry at that. That says something about Him. Its interesting: Moms, if you spend all day cleaning your house, have you ever become a little irked or annoyed when the kids or the grandkids come home and trashed it all in two minutes? None of you have ever done that, have you (sarcastically asking)? Guys, youre fixing something or youre working on a project, and you just get this thing done when somebody comes along and wrecks it! Were tempted to become angry. Thats an emotion that God carries. Back in Genesis 1, Jesus, who created the world, looked at everything He made and said, Its good. Now He stands at the gravesite of His friend, and hes ticked. Why? Because this isnt the world He made. It wasnt how He imagined it. It wasnt what He had envisioned. His creation had been trashed. He made it wonderful, and somebody messed it up royally. Friends, in a way, that can be an incredibly comforting thing. My wife and I have a very dear friend, a really Godly woman, who was molested as a young girl by someone in her family, someone who was a member of the police department. When she told people about it-what the person had done to her-guess what? Nobody believed her. It separated her from her mother. It separated her from family and friends. She felt ostracized; she felt cast out; she felt like nobody cared. It destroyed her. She went over the edge and delved into all kinds of things-drinking, drugs, and an immoral lifestyle. God, in His mercy and grace, rescued her from that. We dont know what people go through. We dont know how things comfort them. She said after she had started walking with God, one of the things that meant the most and touched her heart most deeply-one of the things that assured her that God loved her more than anything else-was the verse that said God is angry with the wicked every day. You might be sitting here thinking, Why in the world would that assure somebody that God loved him or her? but this dear lady said, My whole life, I tried to tell people who I thought cared about what happened to me, and nobody cared. Nobody was angry. Nobody was mad, but then I realized the God of the universe looked at what happened to me, and He was ticked off; and I felt loved. Somebody cared. Somebody was moved by my pain. Jesus stands at the gravesite of Lazarus, and Hes angry because it wasnt the world He had made. Friends, I would challenge you: what do you put into place at those moments of despair or anger, when your world is caving in? I would challenge you to do what Jesus did at the gravesite of His friend. What did Jesus do? He prayed. He said (John 11:42, page 1064), Father, I thank You that Youve heard Me, and I thank You that You always hear Me; but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that You sent Me. Then He prayed. Friends, let me ask you: How do you get ready for that moment when youre going to face death? Those words that will make your blood boil or make you angry that life is mortal, how do you get ready for that? Begin a life of prayer now. Pray over the little things that annoy you now. Pray over the things that irk you now. Pray about evil in the world. You know today is Super Bowl Sunday. One of the other biggest sports that will occur today at the Super Bowl in Dallas, Texas, and theyre gearing up for it already, is one of the things that absolutely makes my blood boil with having two daughters that I just love and am crazy about: human trafficking. There are hundreds of young ladies and some young men who are going to be sold today so that men can have their way with them. That ticks me off, and it ticks off the God of Heaven! If you have five seconds or ten seconds when youre watching the Super Bowl today, say a prayer for some of those children. Say a prayer for some of those young people who are being sold. Remember that those things make God angry. If you pray over the things that make you angry now, you will be ready for that day when you come face to face with death. Thats what Jesus did, and thats how He handled it. The third picture I want to leave with you is from our original Passage in 2 Timothy 4:6 (page 1180). Paul says these words: …Im being poured out like a drink offering and the time of my departure is at hand. Notice that phrase, Im already being poured out as a drink offering. A drink offering-its a gift. We dont so much present offerings today except in monetary terms, but we view our offerings as gifts to God. Drink offerings are gifts. Thats really what God has in mind. Its interesting that Jesus died well and left a legacy and a gift for all of us about how to die, didnt He? Two thousand years later, we still celebrate the Lords Supper. What do we remember? He passed on an incredible inheritance to all of us about how to die. How does He die? He died forgiving people who hurt Him. He died blessing people and offering encouragement to people who were dying with Him, the thief on the cross next to Him. What a way to go! He died trusting God, Father, into Your hands, I commend My Spirit. Friends, I would challenge you in this third picture here, to leave the way you die as a legacy to the people who will come after you. Prepare for it now. Steven Covey even says in The 7 Habits of the Highly Effective People, If you want to have a successful life, begin with the end in mind. Think about what you want on your Tombstone. Id go beyond that and say, Think about how you want to go. Friends, Im here to tell you why Im a Christian. Ive seen the death of hundreds and hundreds of people, and there is incredible difference. There is a gulf; there is a chasm difference between the death of people who have died having hope and faith in Jesus Christ and those who do not. One of the greatest blessings my grandmother ever left with me was not just the ability to play the piano, which I dearly love her for, but I will never forget this big German woman who was 510 and weighed 175 or 180 pounds when she was alive. She got ovarian cancer, went downhill very quickly, and died at about 90 pounds with family gathered around her. This woman who loved music, how did she go out? We were all singing; we were all praying; we were reading Scripture, and she died in peace. She died with a smile; she died with hope; and she died with joy. I remember sitting there thinking, Now, thats the way to go. Thats how you do it. My wife and I had a very dear friend who was the former pastors wife of the church where I first went. At one time, this church was the largest church in the city of Janesville. This woman was a rather large woman, and her husband had had multiple affairs while he was a pastor and eventually left her for the church secretary. She could have been broken by that, but she wasnt. She learned how to pray and have hope. I walked with her through all of those difficulties and one of the greatest trials in her life as she faced heartache, loss, desertion, and loneliness. She prayed, and her light continued to shine. Her personality and warmth sprang out. Then a few short years later, she contracted ovarian cancer as well; but what an unbelievable attitude. I remember standing beside her bed. This dear lady who had spent her lifetime trying to lose weight looked at me and with a smile on her face said, Guess what, Jerry? Im losing weight. Isnt that cool? Can you believe it? What an attitude! Thats the attitude of Christ. Thats the attitude of Romans 8:37, In all these things, you are more than conquerors… I will never forget the warm sunny spring day when we laid her to rest in Oakhill Cemetery. There were about 200 people standing around her gravesite. There was such joy, such happiness, and such warmth that nobody wanted to go. We stood beside the grave and spontaneously sang song after song after song after song. What a contrast to the funerals Ive had of unsaved people who have no hope. I always think of Oakhill Cemetery because theres a bar right at the end of the driveway. Time and time again as soon as the last Amen is spoken, the last word is said, Ive watched people who have no faith, no hope in Christ, boom, go right down the driveway, right across the road, and right into the bar. Why? Because they dont want to face it. They want to forget about it, and they dont want to deal with it. Ive seen time after time the gift and the power of faith and hope in Jesus Christ. It allows you to be a champion and an overcomer in the worst times of life. Leave that gift to the people who come after you. Begin to ask God to use you to enrich the lives of others where you are now. Dont wait until youre on your deathbed to try to touch somebodys life for good. You have a chance to share blessings, to share joy, with everybody around you starting today. What are you really preparing for? Youre really preparing for that moment when youre going to leave your greatest blessing and inheritance behind. Do it today. Start now. The next picture I want to show you of death is that it is the ultimate journey for those who love adventure. I love this phrase, this little short, obscure phase in 2 Timothy 4. Paul says these words, The time of my departure is at hand. What does that sound like? It sounds like somebody is standing in the lobby in the airport waiting for his or her flight time. No, Im not going to say, My flights coming at 3:15. Then Im going to go. Im going to be gone for a while, but Ill see you again. Well, my departure is here. Of if youre standing on the train platform, Well, the 8:15 is coming. Im ready to go. My time is up. What an attitude, right? Friends, thats how God views death. He views it as the ultimate adventure, the ultimate trip. The unbelievable thing is…who is the ultimate tour guide? Jesus Christ. You see, if you go visit someplace really cool, you want to go with a tour guide who knows it inside and out, upside and down, every which way under the sun. I get to let you in on my home pictures. These are vacation pictures. My wife had always wanted visit Savannah, Georgia, so last fall we went. On the way back passing through the Carolinas, we stopped at what was and is the largest private home in America, the Biltmore Mansion. You sit there looking at that, and we paid a really steep price to get in there. Its expensive to go in there, but you know what? We kept saying, Man, this is awesome. The grounds, the gardens, it was incredible. Every corner we turned, wed say, Isnt this cool? Oh, man, look at that! Thats unbelievable. Wed stop with the guides. We hit it off with one dear sweet lady. The guides kept moving, and we kept running into her in different places in the house. It was just a blast talking with her and hearing the stories. Friends, Jesus Christ is the ultimate tour guide. He has faced death; He has been through death and hell, and Hes come out the other side. He knows every nuance, every nook and cranny. He was in all points tempted like we are yet without sin. He says, When you come to that point, take My hand. Walk with Me. Ill lead you through. Ill guide you through. The places I can take you, you would never guess-rivers that flow like crystal, streets that are gold but look like glass, gates made out of pearl. For all you Packer fans, guess what the color of the rainbow around Gods throne is? Its green. Im here to tell you. Green is my favorite color. Even though Im not a Packer fan, green is my favorite color. How about that? Guess what? I cant wait to see that! Angels, Cherubim and Seraphim, with four different heads [we will see]. There will be a head with a lion on this side, and ox on this side, an eagle [on one side and a man on this side]. Im like, Thats going to be bazaar! I cant wait to see that. Creatures flying around with six wings-everywhere you go in Heaven, it will be like, Look at that! Look at that! Thats incredible! Thats awesome! Jesus says, Your eye hasnt seen. Your ear hasnt heard. You cannot comprehend the things He has prepared for those who love Him. I think of our dear friend, Judy. Dennis is here this morning and got up and shared her journey and the things she went through. Judy faced her fears, she faced her difficulties, and faced her pain. Dennis and Judy liked to travel, and I know one of her favorite pictures as she talked about death, facing that, and going through that portal was this one right here, Im going on a trip. Im going on a vacation. Im going to be gone for awhile, but Ill be back. I have the greatest guide in the world. Judy died with peace; she died with hope; she died with joy. I will tell you being in that home and with that family, you could see it. You could feel it. The joy, the peace, and the hope were so thick, you could cut it with a knife. Thats not normal. Well, it is among people who know Christ; but among people in the world, its not. God says there is hope even in the face of death. Why? Because its a journey; its an adventure. God says, You cant imagine the things that I have prepared for you. Take My hand. Ill guide you through it with hope and with joy. The fifth picture I would like to leave with you is found in the next phrase when Paul says in Verse 7 (still page 1180), I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. He says, Death is the biggest fight, the most terrifying opponent, the greatest difficulty that you must face. God calls every one of us-guys in particular, you can resonate this stuff. We talked about princesses and handsome princes for the ladies. Guys, this is the stuff that resonates in our hearts. God calls every single guy to be a warrior. I dont care whether youre a guy who has never been athletic in your life, never been in a fight in your life, or never done anything particular physical. God doesnt care. He calls every single guy to face at one point in his life the greatest opponent you will ever face, and that's death. You will stare it in the face, and you will feel fear. I can tell you outside of baseball, boxing was my favorite sport. Before mixed martial arts, I just loved boxing. I loved everything about it. I started fighting in fifth grade and boxed all the way through college. I played football all the way from fifth grade through college as well. Friends, Ill tell you that Im not ashamed to admit that there was not a single fight I ever fought, there was not a single football game I was ever involved in, that I was not afraid before it happened. Whats the battle? The battle is overcoming your fear. If you read the inside stories-today is the Super Bowl-probably somewhere between 30 and 35 percent of the guys playing in the Super Bowl today will throw up before the game. Do you know why? Because theyre afraid. Heres the amazing thing: you do all that training and practice; you do all those repetitions; you go through all the struggles; and you get into the game, you face your fears, and you begin to fight. You take that first hit, and guess what? All the fear goes away, and friends, Im here to tell you: the training takes over. Ill never forget my first fight in college. I fought a guy who was the state runner up in Michigan. By all accounts, he was the biggest, baddest, and toughest guy in the entire school. He was a junior; I was a freshman. I walked out of my corner, and I walked into a straight right [fist]. Everything went black; I saw sparks; and if he would have followed up with a combination, I would have been toast. When the lights came back on and the fog cleared, guess what? All that training kicked in. I still enjoy that so much that to this day, down in my basement gym, I still hit the heavy bag on a regular basis. Im going to need some new bag gloves after a while. Its interesting that after the lights went out and then came back on, guess what happened? I never thought about being afraid; all that training kicked in. Its really fun to say I spent the next three rounds just chasing him all over the ring. That was a blast. Why? The training kicked in. Friends, heres the wonderful thing about your walk with God. Jesus has been there. He has faced the ultimate opponent. He faced not just death, but He faced hell. He went through hell for you. He faced the wrath and the curse of God in a way that you and I will never will, and He came out the other side. Theres an obscure Passage in the Book of Hebrews that says in the days of His flesh, He offered up strong crying and tears. Do you think Jesus was afraid? Let me ask you that question: do you think Jesus was afraid? The answer is yes. Hebrews says He was in all points tempted as we are. Friends, He was afraid. He didnt want to go through that, but then it says something amazing. All that training kicked in. All that time alone with God, all the prayers, all the walks with Him, all the hours spent with God in secret and the training kicked in. In the face of His deepest, darkest moments, the author of Hebrews says something incredible. He says that Jesus offered up those prayers, and He was heard. He offered the prayers up to the One who was able to save him from death. Dont overlook that phrase. It says from death. Thats the Greek word ek from which we get our word exit or out of (as in Jesus wasn't just praying that God would "prevent" Him from dying. He was praying that God would raise Him up "out of" death and the grave once He was in it.) What was Jesus praying for in the face of death? He literally prayed for His own resurrection. Thats literally what that Passage was saying. Can you believe that? Jesus is saying, God, Father, I know Im going to die, so raise Me up again. You say, But He had Gods promise. He prayed for it anyway. Father, save Me. Raise Me up again. Friends, when you spend that time alone with God in your deepest, darkest, scariest moments, what begins to happen? The power of God resonates in your lives. As you become so acquainted with the God of the universe who rolls up His sleeves and bares His arm in the face of all adversity, you begin to know courage. So, like Solomon in Proverbs, you begin to say, The good man may fall or the good woman may fall seven times, but whats going to happen? They rise again. I love the Passage in Micah, Rejoice not over me, O my enemy. When I fall, I will arise. Friends, sin, evil, destruction, and the wrath of God put Jesus down on the canvas, didnt it? He died; He was buried, but you couldnt keep a good Man down, could you? Three days later, the Champion comes up. He gets off the canvas; He comes off the floor; He comes out fighting, and He wins. Friends, the God of the universe says, When you trust in Him, He put that same Spirit in your heart. If youre here this morning, I dont care how weak you are. I dont care if youve ever played a sport, lifted a weight, fought a fight-God doesnt care. Inside of you beats the heart of a champion; inside of you beats the heart of the living God. God says to you, We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. You can do all things through Christ who strengthens me and you have the mind of Christ. Believe it. Start practicing those truths today. Start your training today. Get alone with God on a regular basis. Open up His Word; talk to Him about it; sing His praises when youre afraid. The training will pay off in your deepest, darkest moments. Youll make one of the greatest comebacks of all time. Amen? The last picture I want to leave with you is this: Paul says, Because of that, there is laid up for Me a crown of rejoicing, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to Me on that day. Notice what He says, …theres laid up for me a crown of righteousness… One of my favorite things about sports is I like trophies. I like awards banquets; I like medals; I like all of that stuff. Ive been very blessed. Ive coached some great teams and played on a lot of cool things. One of the coolest trophies Ive ever received came about two years ago. I won nationals in power lifting, and they gave out really cool trophies. The sculptor that made it was unbelievable. I got really excited when I first saw it. I thought it was Jesus because if you look really close, he has a beard. I thought, Well, thats cool. Jesus is holding up the world. I was truly disappointed when I found out it wasnt Jesus; it was Atlas, but oh well. You cant have everything, right? It was still really cool. I say that to say there is something wonderful about getting awards. As you think about that, is Paul really confident? Is he? He knows its going to happen. He knows hes going to stand before his Lord and hear the words, Well done, good and faithful servant. God had seen him through. He was at the end, and the awards banquet was waiting. The thank yous were coming. The trophies were going to be there. In fact, thats the last thing Jesus promises in the Book of Revelation, Behold, I come quickly, and Im bringing what with Me? …My reward. Its trophy day, boys and girls. Gods going to be handing out medals. So how should you approach that? Well, when does Paul start thanking and blessing God? Before he has received the medals or afterwards? Before. Its interesting with Jesus as well, if we look back at the chapter in John, He is standing at Lazarus gravesite. He hasnt yet raised Lazarus from the dead, but what does He do? He says, Father, I thank You that You hear Me. Theyd be lying to tell you otherwise, but all the actors and actresses that are going to win awards here in the shows coming up, if theyre even nominated and in the running, what do they practice before they ever receive the awards? They practice their acceptance speech, right? Some of them go on and on and on and on because they have all these people they want to say what to? Thank you. Oh, and I want to thank this person. I want to thank that person. I want to thank this person. Friends, how do you get ready for death? You begin thanking people a long way off. Thats what Jesus did. He hadnt raised Lazarus from the dead yet, but He was already saying, Father, thank You that Youre listening to Me. Even in the face of death, I know Youre listening. I know Youre going to hear My prayer. I know Youre going to raise him from the dead. Friends, start practicing your acceptance speech now. Get up every day telling God thank you for as many possible things as you can thank Him for. Get up every day and start telling everybody around you in your life thank you for as many possible things as you can thank them for because when you stand before God and hear Him say, Well done, good and faithful servant, trust me, there will be many more people that you wished you would have thanked in this life. Man, I should have told them thank you. I should have told them thank you. Friends, be looking for-be living for-that moment. Be thinking about that moment. Think about it now. Picture yourself standing before God, and He hands out trophies and says, Well done, good and faithful servant. Its so cool. What do Gods children who receive those trophies and awards do? They take those crowns, and they throw them back at His feet and say, Thank You. No, it was all You. It was all You. It was all You. Thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You. I wouldnt be here if it werent for You. Friends, we can face death with hope, with joy, with peace. Why? Because Jesus lives, and there is hope. If you need prayer, feel free to come up. Shall we stand and close in prayer. If you need someone to pray with, feel free to come forward, and our prayer team will meet with you. I pray that youll be encouraged and blessed. Father, I thank You so much for Your love. I thank You for Your kindness. I ask Your richest blessing on Your people, especially those who may be hurting with bad news or the loss of a loved one or friend. I pray that Youd give us Your hope and courage. Thank You for the example of Jesus Christ and that we can pray in His name. Amen. God bless you all. Thank you so much.
Were on a series called Come Before Winter. The lady that is there obviously has gone through some difficulties. She has her head down. She looks to be hiding from the world. Something has gone wrong, and she isnt sure exactly what shes going to do. You and I have all been in this situation. Sometimes were depressed. Sometimes we may be in despair. Sometimes it may be because of death or doubts. I dont know if it always has to start with a D, but it is for this series. So that's what were talking about, those winter experiences of our lives, those times when the world is dark, the world is cold, and the times when were lonely and discouraged. How do we break through those periods? How do we keep our heads above the water? How do we keep from sinking? We decided we would look at the life of Paul. We decided wed look at him in prison and how he dealt with a winter experience in his life. This morning, were going to be talking about despair. This is the second to last in the series. Next week, well be talking about Death. If you know somebody who has lost a loved one, Id like to invite you to bring them with you to church next week so we can encourage them. This week, were talking about Despair. Youve seen despair. Maybe youve been flipping your channels at night. You know the show that comes on at night in the Third World Country with the children who are starving? It shows the children, and it kind of catches you off guard. You linger for a while, but you usually dont linger long because its very uncomfortable to look at. You look at those little faces, and you see despair. Maybe youre watching the news, and theres been a natural disaster like Katrina or the earthquake in Haiti. You see the faces of people who are waiting for rescue, and the rescue never comes. Thats despair. Thats the look of despair. Theyre waiting for food, waiting for water, but it never comes. Maybe youve been with somebody who is in the hospital. Theyve gone through treatments, and theyre waiting to hear the news if the cancer is gone or in remission. The doctor comes, and he says, Its still there. In fact, its spread. You see the look on their face. Many times, the person in that situation has the look of despair. They say, Ive done everything I can do. What else can I do? Despair is what happens when we finally give up hope. We think thats the definition of despair. It is a dissipation of hope. Its as if life becomes relentless. A problem never seems to go away. No matter what we do, we never get victory over it. We dont see any light at the end of the tunnel. In those situations, if were not careful, we can start to despair. Youre saying, Isnt despair similar to depression? Not at all. We talked about how when were depressed, many times we withdraw from people. We dont care about things. Sometimes if its clinical depression or a serious depression, people may want to end their lives. In despair, you very much want to live. You very much care about something. There is something you really want. You intensely care, but its always out of your grasp. Its always out of reach, and it looks like it never will be within reach; so you finally abandon your dream. You finally abandon hope. That is despair. Some of you have encountered despair in your lives. You say, How do I break free? How do I get victory? I really think the answer isnt something Im going to tell you that is an earth-shattering thing where you say, Well, you know, Id never heard of that before. Were going to talk about the power of prayer, of faith, and of servanthood. Theres nothing earth-shatteringly new. Theres nothing new under the sun, but stressing the importance of those Disciplines and preparing our hearts for when the storms of life do come are how we can stay afloat. Were going to look at a point in Pauls life today where he actually was in despair. Its not this prison experience. Let me just remind you: we are in 2 Timothy 4. Here is a quick review. Some of you have been here for two weeks and say, I dont want to hear this again. Ill just do it really quickly for the sake of those who are hearing this series for the first time. Paul is in Rome for his second imprisonment. He is accused of being against the Roman government. This one is serious. This one is going to end his life, and he knows it. There is a crazy dictator by the name of Nero who was the emperor in Rome. He is on a vendetta to destroy Christianity, to eradicate it from the face of the earth. He blames the great fire of Rome on Christians, and he is out to exterminate Christians. Hes doing it in a sadistic, mean way. He is torturing them before he kills them, so Paul is in prison awaiting his fate. He sees the writing on the wall. He knows hes not going to get out of it this time. There is a target on him because he is the ling reader of the church. He is a big prize; he is the big fish that Nero has caught. So he writes this letter to Timothy, this young man who hes mentored in the faith, encouraging him to fight the good fight, encouraging him to pastor the church there in Ephesus. As he writes this letter, he is in a dungeon. It is a pit in the ground. (To view a picture of the Mamertine Prison, click here: http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.scholarscorner.com/images/Mamertine.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.scholarscorner.com/museums/mamertin.htm&usg=__y9QUkUR4qZ6O4iKcy5jIneEss5U=&h=392&w=580&sz=40&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=KckmgLhjunEMWM:&tbnh=142&tbnw=189&ei=KvNbTZnFOo7QgAeMgeHlDQ&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmamertine%2Bprison%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DX%26rlz%3D1T4DKUS_enUS280US280%26biw%3D1003%26bih%3D481%26tbs%3Disch:1%26prmd%3Divns0%2C151&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=125&vpy=141&dur=2460&hovh=184&hovw=273&tx=140&ty=98&oei=KvNbTZnFOo7QgAeMgeHlDQ&page=1&ndsp=8&ved=1t:429,r:4,s:0&biw=1003&bih=481). Its dark. It is cold. There is a stench there. The sewer line for Rome runs right outside the prison cell. The most hardened criminals facing death are in this pit in the ground. There is nothing to protect you from them. There werent individual cells. You were just all thrown in together in this holding area, and Paul was in chains. Imagine what it would be like to sleep. Imagine what it would be like if Paul were to be attacked by one of these men. How would he defend himself with chains around his ankles and his wrists? Imagine the food they had to eat. We said last week there was no chef saying, Did you need some Grey Poupon with that, Monsieur Paul? Is the soup to your liking? That didnt happen. You were treated like an animal. Yet, in the midst of these deplorable conditions, Paul maintains not only his faith, but a positive optimistic attitude. How did he do that? Well, these disciplines were very much a part of Pauls life. The discipline of prayer is really brought out in the first chapter, the third verse. Paul was writing to Timothy, remember. He said to him in Verse 3 (of 2 Timothy 1, page 1178 of pew Bibles), …with a clear conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers. Nothing against people who have structured prayer-some of you will say, Well, Im going to meet with this person on this day at this time and pray. Thats wonderful and good, and you should continue to do that; but prayer has to be more than that. With Paul, prayer was ongoing. You didnt have a beginning or an end. It was something he ended when he went to sleep and resumed when he woke up in the morning. It was all day. He said, Night and day, day after day, Timothy, I pray for you. So the discipline of prayer was present strongly in Pauls life. Secondly, it was faith. Look at Verse 12. He said, That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet I am not ashamed because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him for that day. He can guard my soul because He is trustworthy. Paul doesnt say, I know what I believe. He says, I know whom I have believed in. There is a big difference. Christianity is not simply memorizing a set of facts or doctrines and spitting it back. Its about a person. Its not about a building, denomination, a manmade structure. It is about a relationship with Jesus Christ. He said, I know whom I have belief in. Because I know Him and because He is trustworthy, I can keep my faith even in the midst of this dungeon experience in my life. Thirdly, I guess in one sense you could look at the whole Book. What are they doing as he is facing his last days? Hes on death row. What is he doing? Hes showing love and concern for his son in the faith, Timothy. Then I want to draw your attention to Chapter 4:11 (page 1180 of pew Bibles). He says, Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, because he is helpful to me in my ministry. You almost dont catch that. You really dont appreciate it until you understand where he is at. There are guys on death row today, women on death row today in our country. How many of them in their last days are in their cells thinking, How can I help people? How can I minister to others? Thats what Paul is doing. Paul is on death row and hes saying, Bring Mark because he is going to be helpful to me in my ministry. Yeah, Paul, but youre in a dungeon, chained. Youre getting ready to die and be executed. In Pauls mind, until that day came, he was about ministry. He said, While Im in this prison cell, Im a minister of Jesus Christ. While Im in this prison cell, Im going to accomplish the purpose for which He sent me. So until his last day, Paul saw himself as a servant of Jesus Christ. Friends, one of the greatest ways to conquer despair is to take our eyes off of our problems and our situations, focus on the needs of others around us and seek to help them. When we do that, it is amazing how our perspective changes because when we are in a despairing situation, our natural tendency is to only look at ourselves and not the needs around us, correct? Its very self-absorbing. Paul had the ability, even though he had needs and he paid attention to those needs-he didnt neglect those needs-but he did not become consumed by himself. Even in an adverse situation, he was looking at how he could become a more effective minister looking to meet the needs of the people around him. I think thats one of the key reasons why Paul did not enter into despair in a despairing situation. Because he was involved in giving others hope, it enabled him to have hope in a situation that seemed hopeless. As I promised, were going to look at a situation in Pauls life where he did despair. It lasted about five to seven years, but no more than seven, from the time of his second Roman imprisonment. Its found in the Book of Acts 27. If you have your church Bibles, you can turn there. Im going to tell you whats going on in Pauls life. Paul had just stood trial in Jerusalem. He has appealed to Caesar. He wants his case to be heard in Rome, so Paul has boarded a ship with Luke. Were going to show a map, and youre going to see that sometimes Luke writes in the first person, plural. He says we. You might read that and say, Who is we? Well, its Luke, and hes writing because hes with Paul on the ship. (Here is a link that has some maps on them of the travels to get the idea the area Pastor is describing: http://www.ccel.org/bible/phillips/CN092MAPS1.htm) They start in Jerusalem and then sail around Cyprus. Its October, and its already starting to get windy with choppy seas. He sails around through Asia Minor. Theyre going to come down here to Crete. They cant continue anymore in Crete because its so difficult that they stop the boat in a place called Fair Havens. Then there is a big debate in Fair Havens, so they try to decide do we sail on or stop in winter They decide that Rome is not feasible. The sea is too bad. Rome isnt going to happen. Rome is way up in the West, so that isnt going to happen. The debate then is do they stop there or do they go to Phoenix-not Arizona, but Phoenix, Crete. All they wanted to do was go about 50 miles. That was all they wanted to do. Paul said, Listen, if we do that trip, we might die. Were not going to make it. The sea is too bad. They said, We dont want to winter here. Its not a good place to winter. Lets get to Phoenix. Thats a better place to winter. They dont listen to Paul. They take off during the storm at sea but end up down toward Africa in the waters surrounding Africa. That's how far they get. It gets pretty messy. Then they end up in Malta. Because of the storm at sea, they ended up all the way over in Malta for about two weeks. That's what happens to Paul. I gave you that as a sense of geography so youd know where were at. Lets pick up the story in Acts Chapter 27:9 (page 1109). Were going to see how Paul enters into despair and how he gets out of it. Verse 9, Much time had been lost, and sailing had already become dangerous because by now it was after the Fast, after Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. It was about October 5 that year, 59 AD, and it wasnt a good time to sail. Paul says, Men, I can see that our voyage is going to be disastrous and bring great loss to ship and cargo, and to our own lives also. Paul speaks as a seasoned veteran of the seas. He has traveled many places to bring the Gospel to many different people. Sadly, he is a veteran of shipwrecks. By this time in Pauls life, do you know how many shipwrecks hes been a part of? Three. This is shipwreck number four that is about to happen. Hes trying to avert that; hes trying to not let that happen. By the way, to speak as a prisoner is very rare. Youre a prisoner! You have no rights. Youre barely a human being. Yet, he had such favor with the centurion who was in charge of the ship that he was allowed to speak. That was very rare. The centurion is in charge of the whole ship. His name is Julius. On this ship, there are the Roman soldiers. Theyre taking this cargo of grain to Rome. Hes in charge of the vessel, not the captain, not the owner. There are the sailors who are sailing the ship, and there are many prisoners. Most of the prisoners are going to Rome where many of them will be put to death in the arena for the amusement of the Roman citizens and Emperor Nero. So they are on this ship and Paul speaks, but they dont listen to Paul. They decide its not a good place to spend the winter, and theyre going to go ahead and take their chances and sail the 50 miles to Phoenix. Verse 13, When a gentle south wind began to blow, they thought they had obtained what they wanted; so they weighed anchor and sailed along the shore of Crete. This gentle south wind blows, and they say, See, Paul. Its not bad. The sea isnt bad. That breeze, its a nice gentle breeze. Were going to just kinda coast into Phoenix. None of you have ever ignored Godly counsel to follow the winds of change. That 11 oclock crowd, though, they do. The crowd thats coming in after you? Sometimes they do that, but this crowd-you have never ignored Godly counsel and just followed after the wind. Its good to know were not like them. It says, Before very long, a wind of hurricane force, called the northeaster, swept down from the island. This tall mountain was about 8,000 square feet high. It had been known to have these torrid winds come down from it near Crete. The ship was caught up by the storm and could not head into the wind; so we gave way to it and were driven along. How frightening was that? Theyre out in the middle of the ocean. You couldnt see land anymore. In fact, it was so cloudy you couldnt even see anything to navigate your ship. You couldnt see the sun, the moon, or the stars. Youre just floundering at sea. You have no control. Your sails are basically meaningless, and youre just trying to survive. They started to rope the ship with cables to try to hold it together. Pretty soon, we see them start throwing cargo overboard-grain, furniture, tools, anything they can to try to make the ship lighter. They started heading toward Africa, and then it says in Verse 18, We took such a violent battering from the storm that the next day they began to throw the cargo overboard. On the third day, they threw the ships tackle overboard with their own hands. When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the storm continued raging, we finally… Listen to this. …we finally gave up all hope of being saved. That is despair. Its gradual. Its progressive, and eventually it steals all hope. When hope is gone, you have fully entered into what we call despair. Notice that Luke says we gave up all hope. Who does that mean-gave up all hope? Everybody, including Paul and including Luke. The only person to write more of the New Testament than Paul was Luke. If you combine Luke and Acts together quantitatively, it is more of the New Testament than Paul wrote even though Paul wrote most of the letters. These are the two guys that wrote almost the entire Bible that you and I read, yet they were in a situation where they were despaired for their lives. Have you ever been in a storm at sea? I havent. Ive been in a storm on a lake at Governor Dodge, and that was frightening. We were on a sailboat and this storm came in really fast, so we had to try to get back to land quickly. There was thunder and lightning. That was terrifying. Imagine being at sea with those large waves, and imagine enduring that day after day after day. They were so desperate. Its interesting because in Chapter 23 of Acts, Jesus says to Paul, You must testify for me in Rome. Jesus told him that. He said, You are going to go to Rome and testify concerning me. Its a certainty. Paul had forgotten the promise. You see if he perished in a shipwreck, then that means what Jesus said to him was not trustworthy. That means the promise Jesus made to him was not true, right? Its kind of hard to testify for him in Rome when youre at the bottom of the ocean dead. So if that were to come true-if they were to perish at sea-then Jesus told you a lie. Sometimes in the midst of those storms of life, those winter experiences, we can forget the promises of God. Friends, if Paul could forget the promise of God, so could you sometimes. He had to be reminded of what Jesus had said. Paul stands up, and hes going to talk to the men again. It says in Verse 21, After then men had gone a long time without food, Paul stood up before them and said: Men, you should have taken my advice not to sail from Crete; then you would have spared yourselves this damage and loss. At first glance, it appears that Paul is doing a neah neah neah neah neah! It seems like Paul is like, I told you! You didnt listen! If youd have listened to me, this wouldnt have happened. Hes kind of rubbing their noses in it a little bit. I dont think thats what hes doing. I think what hes trying to do is establish credibility. Hes trying to say, Look, Im not a crazy old man. I know what Im talking about. You didnt listen to me the first time, and I was right. Youre going to listen to me this time. If you dont listen to me this time, youre going to perish, so do I have your attention? Are you going to listen to this crazy old man now? Maybe I know what Im talking about. I think thats what hes trying to do. Hes trying to establish a rapport by reminding them that he was right. But now I urge you to keep up your courage because not one of you will be lost; only the ship will be destroyed. Thats kind of a good news/bad news scenario. The good news is youre not going to die. The bad news is the ship is going to be destroyed. You start doing the math and say, Im going to live, minus the ship. Right there, carry the one… Okay, Im on this ship! Its going to be destroyed. Howd you like to be on an airplane and hear that? The pilot says, Welcome aboard flight 444. Were going over Omaha, Nebraska. Were going to be coming in at 3 oclock today. While, the good news is none of you will die, but we will be crashing at the airport. Thank you very much, and enjoy your flight. Id be like, Thats not what I want to hear! I dont want the pilot to tell me, Good news, youre not going to die; bad news, when we get to our destination, were going to crash. Thats not very comforting. Youd think Paul would have heard from God. When I hear from God, I want God to say something like this, You are in a storm, but the storm is going to end. Im going to calm the seas, and you are going to drift gently into your port where you can have a nice safe winter. Youre not going to crash. Everything is going to be okay, and youre just going to drift into the harbor and have it be peace, so peaceful. That's what I want to hear. That's a Thank You Jesus prayer, right? I dont want to hear the prayer, Youre going to live, but youre going to crash. Thats what he tells him. He said, This is what I heard. Im telling you what I heard. Theres not going to be loss of life, but the ship that we are on will be destroyed; and we will be on the ship when its destroyed. Have a good day, everybody! He said, Last night an angel of the God whose I am and whom I serve stood beside me and said, Do not be afraid, Paul. Why? Because Paul was afraid. Thats who you say do not be afraid to. You say, Do not be afraid, to people who are afraid; so Paul was afraid. You must stand trial before Caesar. He reminded him of the promise. Do you remember what Jesus said? You must stand trial before Caesar. Who was the Caesar? Nero. You say, I thought Julius was the Caesar. He was the first one, but that became a surname, a title. Every emperor after him was also Caesar; so the Caesar at this point in history is Nero. He says, Youre going to stand before Nero. …and God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you. Its a prophesy. Everybodys going to be saved. Everybody is going to be spared. Notice how he words it, the way the angel words it. He says, God has graciously given you the lives. Why does it say given you the lives? Theyre not Pauls lives. They dont belong to him. Most of them are strangers to Paul. Why does he say God has given you the lives? I believe its worded that way because this was an answer to Pauls prayer. I believe Paul had been praying not only for his own survival and Lukes survival but for all the people-for Julius the captain, for the owners, for the sailors, the soldiers, and for the prisoners. Paul had intervened or interceded for everybody on the ship. He says, Gods answered your prayers. Hes given you everybody on the ship. So number one, Paul remembers to pray. He said, Even though Im in this dismal circumstance, I need to pray. When Paul prays, hes reminded of his promise and his faith is renewed. He remembers whom he has believed in. He remembers what God promised him. That causes hope to rise. Now, remember what we said: the third element was servanthood. You take your eyes off your problem, and you focus on the needs around you; and you make sure others are ministered to as well, right? Does he do that? Lets take a look at what happens. He says in Verse 25, So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will happen just as He told me. Thats faith. Faith is saying, I believe it will happen just as He told me. That is the definition of faith. Faith is believing that God will do exactly what He has said. Nevertheless we must run aground on some island. Verse 33, Just before dawn Paul urged them all to eat. Now Paul has really become the leader of the ship, not the centurion; its Paul. For the last fourteen days, he said, you have been in constant suspense and have gone without food-you havent eaten anything. Now I urge you to take some food. You need it to survive. Not one of you will lose a single hair from his head. After he said this, he took some bread and gave thanks to God in front of them all. Then he broke it and began to eat. They were all encouraged and ate some food themselves. So all 275 men were encouraged by the words of Paul. What is Paul doing? Hes ministering. Hes serving them. Hes saying, Look, Im not just concerned over my needs-my spiritual needs, my physical needs-but Im concerned about the men that are around me. This is an opportunity for God to show Himself strong in their lives. He ministers to their spiritual needs, their emotional needs, and their physical needs. Paul doesnt just become wrapped up in his own life, as everybody else was on that ship, but he begins to focus on the people around him. When we do that, friends, we lift ourselves out of despair because God has wired us in such a way that when we give others hope, it raises the hope level in our lives. When the hope level is raised in your life, despair cant live there anymore. Even in a despairing situation, it could not live there anymore. I want to end the story. The last service I forgot to end the story. I feel so bad. I want to call all the 8 oclockers back and say, Let me finish the story. I totally forgot! Daylight comes, and they cut lose the anchors. In Verse 4, it says they had let down four anchors and cut them loose. Did I tell you guys the story about the anchors? Did I say that to this service, about the four anchors? No. They were found, by the way. A few decades ago, there were some divers off the coast of Crete who were in an area that Paul described here in this Book. Its not St. Pauls Bay where we now believe Paul shipwrecked. Its another bay close by there. They found four anchors together dating back to 60 AD in Rome. They identified them as Roman anchors. They are in a Maritime museum near Crete. To this day you can go and see the four anchors that the men found right where the Bible says they were dropped. What was their biggest fear? Their biggest fear was the ship would be destroyed because if the ship was destroyed, they would drown. Crashing the ship was their greatest fear. Look what happened, Verse 41, (page 1110), The bow stuck fast and would not move… So the front of the ship got lodged in the ocean floor. The stern, or the back of the boat, was broken into pieces by the pounding of the surf; so the ship began to break up with them still on it, still in very turbulent waters. The soldiers planned to kill the prisoners to prevent any of them from swimming away and escaping. In other words, if the prisoners escaped, their lives were on the line; so they said, Heres what well do. Well kill the prisoners. That way, were saved. But the centurion wanted to spare Pauls life… because if they killed the prisoners, theyd have to kill Paul. …and kept them from carrying out their plan. So God in His sovereignty is working behind the scenes. Hes working through the centurion. Hes working through the circumstances so that His purpose in Paul and His purpose for the Gospel will be fulfilled. Its pretty cool. He ordered that those who could swim jump overboard first and get to the land. The idea was if you were a soldier and you could swim, youd get out of the boat first and swim to the land. Then youd wait for the prisoners. When the prisoners came out of this, theyd be tired. Youd have time to catch your breath; and then when the prisoners arrived, youd grab them. Theyd come at different points and different times. Theyd be exhausted. Theyd be happy to just be on land. They wouldnt want to run anywhere. Youd recapture them and secure them, and everything would be okay. The soldiers jumped in the water, and then it says the rest of them got there on planks or on pieces of the ship. In this way, everyone reached land in safety. The very thing that they feared became the source that God used to rescue them. Thats what God often does. Hell take pieces of our own shattered dreams, the thing we feared the most, and Hell use that to rescue us and to deliver us. How many of you have seen the movie, Pay It Forward? Youve certainly heard that expression, right? It started from this movie where Haley Joel Osments character plays a young grade school boy who was challenged by his teacher to dream something big and then tell it to the class. His vision was to pay it forward. You do something kind for three strangers. You dont ask for thanks. You dont ask for anything in return. You help those who need it the most. They dont even have to know who you are, but then you ask them to do it for three strangers as well; so those three now help three, so thats nine people. Then those nine people now help three, so that's 27. Beyond that, my math is challenged, so you get the point. Id have to get a calculator out. They just talked about how this would spread, this movement. Actually, the ironic thing is art did resemble life because people began to pay it forward around the country. Still to this day, people will say, You know, Im just paying it forward. In this scene, were going to see the man who was the recipient of an act of kindness by the main character in the movie. This little boy helped this man who was in a despairing situation. This man lived on the streets. He was a drug addict. He was facing the probability of an awful death, and he was helped by this young man and by what he does. I want you to look carefully at the actor too and see if you recognize who this actor is. (Again, this movie is Pay it Forward. Exact clip is unavailable.) Did you recognize the actor? He played Jesus in The Passion of the Christ, James Caviezel. Hes desperate, and he is in despair. He received an act of love and kindness. He decided he would take his eyes off of himself and off his plight, and he would help somebody else. Thats how it works. When you lift the hope in somebody elses life, not only does it lift the hope level in your life to remove the despair, but it helps them to do the same thing. I want to share with you a story really quick. As you know, our church hosted the homeless shelter a few weeks ago. It was Saturday night, and some of the men had come to our service. They attended our Saturday night service. After the service was done, I went down to the other end of the building where we were hosting the men. I began to talk with some of them and have some conversations. John Miller came to me and said, Hey, Pastor Jeff, we want you to meet somebody. I figured it was another homeless man he wanted me to meet. I said, Sure, and I began to walk toward the patio. There was a little boy and his mom sitting there. This is Andrew. I heard the story of Andrew. Andrew, I was told, had just had his ninth birthday. He decided for his ninth birthday [to pay it forward]. He said, Mom, are there any homeless men in Janesville? She said, Im sure there are, honey. Lets find out. She made some phone calls and got in touch with the shelter. They got in touch with our church and said, Wed like to do something. Wed like to maybe give some clothes or some gifts to one of the homeless men. Is there something we can do? The person on the other end of the line said, As a matter of fact, there is a man who just came into the shelter, and he has only the clothes on his back. He doesnt have any underwear, only what he brought in with him. That little boy took his birthday money and went out and bought him clothes. Then he came to our church and gave it to the man-nine years old! If a nine year old could do that, there is hope for us old folks here today. He said, Im going to help somebody who is having a hard time. Thats pretty cool. If that little boy can get it, we can get it too. Life is not about just yourself. If Paul could get it in the midst of a hurricane wind storm at sea and in the midst of an imprisonment in a dungeon, friends, you and I can get it right now. You have to lift your eyes off yourself, look around you, and say, How can I be a servant of God? Who can I help? When we do that, we raise hope in our lives. We raise hope in the lives of others. We make our world a better place. The Gospel is to be lived out in action. The Gospel brings hope where there is despair. I hope that youll be a bearer of hope to your world today. Lets pray: Father, we thank You for the example of Paul. We are challenged by it. We see today that he was human like us, that he had fear. He went through despair and forgot Your promises in that storm of his life; but through prayer, through faith, and through servanthood, he was able to rise above that. Hope was renewed in his spirit, and he lifted the hope out of an entire ship. You used him to save almost 300 lives that day. Lord, I dont know what all the storms were going through are, but I do pray that we would have that like mind. I do pray that we would be people of prayer-not just as an event, but an ongoing prayer life both day and night. I pray that we would be people of faith who like Paul know whom we have belief, not just what. Father, we believe it will happen just as Youve said. Regardless of our circumstances, we will never cease to recognize that we are servants of Jesus. Lord, if well just put You first, well let the chips fall where they may. In Jesus name, we pray. Amen.
Were going to put some names on the wall here, some very familiar Bible names. Were in the series, Come Before Winter. Were talking about the winters of our lives, the times when our lives are a little bit colder and darker-some of the emotions and the circumstances we deal with in the winter experiences of life. The names were about to look at here, Job, David, Jeremiah, Elijah, and Jonah, what did they all have in common? Some of you might say, Well, theyre all from the Old Testament. That is true, but they all struggled at times with depression. All of them had times in their lives where they went through some dark winter times. They really questioned God; they really struggled with their faith and became disheartened. The point Im trying to make with that is if these folks who loved the Lord and were used by God could struggle with these things, so can we. Its part of the human experience from time to time to get the blues. Im not going to be talking this morning about clinical depression. I dont pretend that I can give you a half of an hour sermon and were going to cure clinical depression. That kind of depression is long-term. It affects every facet of your life. Many times when you have clinical depression, you withdraw from relationships. You have a hard time functioning on a job. When you have clinical depression, you often hear the affected one say, I dont even feel like Im myself anymore. Thats something they cant break through, so it becomes this chronic long-term condition and often requires the help of medications and so forth. Were really dealing more with beating the blues today. Not that that kind of depression isnt significant. When we have the blues, it just taints our world. We work through it eventually, but I want to try to give you some tools this morning that will help you to work through it when youre in the midst of it. One of the most detrimental things you can do when youre having the blues is to continue dwelling on your problems. All of these negative thoughts and meditation [on those tribulations] are going to make matters more difficult. There is a more positive thing we can do with our thoughts. There is a more positive exercise that we can have when were going through these periods of our lives, so thats what Im going to try to help you with today. One of the things we notice about Paul, even though hes in these adverse circumstances, is unless hes not being forthright with us, he did not go through depression in the midst of these depressing circumstances. Lets remind ourselves of what Pauls circumstances are. We know that right now he is in his second Roman imprisonment, and it is nothing like the first. The first he was on house arrest in Rome, and he was free to move about. The second time he is in shackles. He is in chains, and he is in a dungeon. Hes in a pit in the ground thats 12 feet deep, and its cold. It was a prison that was well-known for just being a terrible place to be-the stench, the darkness, the coldness. There is a picture of a Mamertine prison that you can see (To view a picture of the Mamertine Prison, click here: http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.scholarscorner.com/images/Mamertine.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.scholarscorner.com/museums/mamertin.htm&usg=__y9QUkUR4qZ6O4iKcy5jIneEss5U=&h=392&w=580&sz=40&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=KckmgLhjunEMWM:&tbnh=142&tbnw=189&ei=KvNbTZnFOo7QgAeMgeHlDQ&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmamertine%2Bprison%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DX%26rlz%3D1T4DKUS_enUS280US280%26biw%3D1003%26bih%3D481%26tbs%3Disch:1%26prmd%3Divns0%2C151&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=125&vpy=141&dur=2460&hovh=184&hovw=273&tx=140&ty=98&oei=KvNbTZnFOo7QgAeMgeHlDQ&page=1&ndsp=8&ved=1t:429,r:4,s:0&biw=1003&bih=481 ). I dont know if the floor looked like that at that time, but the walls certainly looked the same. The shape of the room was the same. Now there is an altar there now because there are services from time to time. That, of course, wouldnt have been there; but on the altar, you can see the cross that is upside down. Thats to signify the death that Peter died when he was taken from this prison to be executed. There is a bus of Paul and Peter there. To the left of the altar, there was an area where Paul was chained, so this is the place where he was kept. Imagine this place without the altar. The well still would have been there, but a different floor [would have been there]-possibly a dirt floor or even a concrete floor, Im not sure which is better-but imagine this small room full of convicted criminals, many who are sick and dying. Most of them were sentenced to death. Imagine the food, what it would have been like to sleep there. Imagine the danger because you were in with hardened criminals. You didnt have your own cell. You were just thrown in this pit for this indefinite period of time. Imagine the fear, the sickness, and the danger as you were put in with these hardened criminals. Is it a wonder that Paul writes the letter of 2 Timothy, his last letter he would ever write, that he is optimistic at all? Isnt that a wonder? The tone of optimism in this letter is astonishing when you consider his circumstances. He knows hes facing death. He knows that this crazy dictator, this Nero, hates Christians, and hes killing them. He knows hes on Neros hit list because he is one of the ringleaders of this movement called Christianity, this new movement that is only some three decades old now. Facing these prospects, how is it possible that Paul was able to maintain an optimistic tone? How is it that he didnt fall into the depths of depression? Some of you say, Well, you know, thats the Apostle Paul. Its not fair to make a comparison between the Apostle Paul and myself. Im just me. He was the Apostle Paul. Ive seen the portraits. Didnt he have like a halo over his head or something? Wasnt he a saint or something like that? Well, yes, Paul was an Apostle. Yes, he did receive revelation from Christ on the road to Damascus, experience that you and I will never have. We also see in the Scripture that Paul was very much human. In Romans 7, we see how he struggles with the sin nature. We see how he struggles with sin and temptation, just like the rest of us. We see in the Book of Acts when hes shipwrecked that he deals with fear. Youd think, Well, the Apostle Paul, he doesnt deal with fear. Hes the Apostle Paul. Well, the angel comes to Paul, and he says to Paul on the ship, Dont be afraid. Why do you say to somebody, Dont be afraid? They are…afraid. So Paul dealt with fear. We see Paul become impatient in his prayer life. It says in 2 Corinthians 12, Three times, I asked the Lord to remove this thorn in the flesh. Three times! He kept coming back. That wasnt exactly showing patience. He became very irritated that God was not responding to his request to remove this thorn in the flesh. We see him use poor judgment and judge someone in the Book of Acts. He says to Barnabas, If John and Mark come with us; were going to have to part ways. Hes failed us once, and I dont think he should be with us this time. Barnabas says, You know what? I believe in him. He loves the Lord. Hed be an asset to our team, and I guess were going to have to part ways because Im going to stand by him. Later on in this Book, he says, Bring Mark to me. He is useful in my ministry. He was wrong about him. He made a wrong judgment. So we know that Paul is far from perfect. We know that he dealt with many of the same things-all the same things-that you and I deal with. We cant say for certain he always beat the blues. I dont know that, but certainly in his letters, he writes in adverse conditions; and hes having victory. I think one thing were going to talk about and one concept I want to introduce to you is spiritual perspective. I want to show you a text that really gives us an understanding of Pauls philosophy of ministry. How did he approach life? How did he approach ministry? How did he process the events in his life and in his ministry? Here he is in 2 Corinthians 4 in the prime of his ministry. As were looking here, hes enduring hardship. In 2 Corinthians 4:7 (page 1144 of pew Bibles), he says, But we have this treasure, the Gospel, in jars of clay, human beings, to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed… We have all these pressures, but were not caving into the pressures; were not giving in. …perplexed, but not in despair… Paul says, Sometimes I have questions. Sometimes Im confused. I dont understand why certain things happen or dont happen. Im perplexed, but Im not in despair. I know Gods in control. …persecuted, but not abandoned… Just because Im persecuted does not mean God has abandoned me. Christ Himself was persecuted. Why should I expect that I wouldnt be? …struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus sake, so that His life may be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you. Skip to Verse 16, Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. So theres the key. Paul says, Heres how I do it. Heres my secret. I fix my eyes-I focus my attention on what is eternal, not what is temporal-on what is unseen, not what is seen. That is the spiritual perspective that Paul has. Now, were going to flip back to our main text, this text that were going to be on for a period of four weeks altogether. This is our second week. Were examining it from different angles and perspectives. Were going to see four focuses in this spiritual perspective. If youre going to have a spiritual perspective, you must focus in these four ways. Even if you dont normally take notes, itd be good to scratch these down because this is an exercise, so when you have the blues, Im literally asking you to work through this exercise. You literally get out a piece of paper and do a spot check on these four perspectives. [You can then say], Am I focusing on these four? Then you can see what a difference it can make. Im not saying its going to be a panacea. Im not saying if you do this exercise, all of the sudden you never have a problem in the world. But I bet you, I just bet you, that many of you will start to feel better right away and that God can speak to you through this exercise. These are the four focuses that Paul had, and I think that were integral in helping him beat the blues. Now, again, this is another reason why it wont work for clinical depression because if you have clinical depression, its constant. When I say take out a piece of paper and write these four things down, youre going to say, I dont want to. I dont feel like it. That doesnt sound good to me. For those of us who are just dealing with boy, theres something that really has me down. This could be a worthwhile exercise, its because youre putting your mind to work. Youre giving your mind an assignment. Its taking it off the problems and focusing it on a solution; and I think in that sense, its very beneficial. Its not a panacea, but it certainly beats the alternative, which is wallowing. Lets read the text, and then well come back and talk. [We pick up in 2 Timothy 4:6, page 1180 of pew Bibles], Paul writes and says, For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day-and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for His appearing. Lets continue with Verse 16, At my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them. But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. And I was delivered from the lions mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to His Heavenly kingdom. To Him be the glory for ever and ever. Amen. Lets go back for focus number one in Verse 6 where he talks about being a drink offering and the time of his departure coming. He talked about finishing the race. Then he talked about Heaven, and he said, …in store for me is the crown of righteousness which the Lord will reward me on that day. Paul focused on Gods promise. He said, What am I facing? What is my circumstance? My circumstance is death is imminent. So Paul asks, What does that mean? Im going to focus on the promise of God, and the promise of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus. The promise of God is that death is not the end. The promise of God is that Christ has been raised, so I shall be raised. I will go and be with Him in His presence. That is His promise to me, and He is a God who does not lie. Paul says rather than focusing on His death-the means of his death, the certainty of his death-Im focusing on the certainty of Gods promise. So thats what you do. When you are going through the blues, number one, I write this down: What is Gods specific promise in these circumstances? Thats right. You have to do some work in this exercise because Im not going to go through every conceivable scenario of problems you might face that could cause the blues and every conceivable Scripture that could speak to that. You have to do a little homework; you have to do a little studying, and that's part of the learning process. I literally start to write down those promises. I write down the Scripture; I read it; I meditate on it. I pray over that Scripture, Lord, thank You for this promise that addresses this circumstance that Im finding myself in right now. Spend some time thinking on that promise and focusing on that promise rather than on the circumstances or on your feelings. Focus on what God has said; focus on that which is eternal rather than that which is temporal. Secondly, lets turn to Verse 16. He says, At my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them. But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength. What does he mean, The Lord stood at my side? Does he mean that in the courtroom Jesus was literally there, that he could turn to them and say, This is my friend, Jesus, whom I am on trial for? No, hes speaking spiritually, isnt he? Its like how Jesus might come by our side. He is focusing on Gods presence, and thats really important. Number two, write down on your piece of paper, God is with me. I will never leave you nor forsake you. Even when you dont feel His presence, He is there. It doesnt change the reality of His Word. Focus on the fact that God is with me. If Paul could do that in his prison, you can do that in your circumstance. Look at Verse 1 of this Chapter. He writes this charge to Timothy, In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, I give you this charge. Where is he? He says, As Im writing you, Im in the presence of God and Christ Jesus. Where was he? He was in that dirty dungeon. He was in that stinky, dark, cold, depressing dungeon; and Paul writes and says, Im writing in the presence of God, and I give you this charge. Wow! If he could acknowledge the presence of God in chains, you can acknowledge the presence of God in your situation. Though I do not feel Him right now, he is here. Remind yourself of that. Maybe meditate on some of the Scriptures that talk about the all presence of God. Paul is mindful, even in this adversity, that God is present with him. He said, But the Lord stood by my side and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. His third focus was on his purpose. What was Gods purpose for me? Paul says, The reason Im in this prison is because Im here to preach the Gospel. Legion has it that as he was chained to that area of the prison, he led many prisoners and guards to Christ from that spot. He even talks about it in the Bible where he said, Though I am chained, my message is not. He even talks about it in his Book. I am chained, but the message isnt chained. Even though he is chained, he said, I am reaching the Praetorian guard for Christ. He is saying, Even in this adversity, I can still accomplish my mission. My mission is to reach the Gentiles specifically. There are a lot of Gentiles in this Roman prison. All the guards here are Gentiles, and guess what? I am accomplishing my purpose. When I go to prison, I am able to accomplish my purpose because I am sharing Christ with those who will judge me. I am sharing Christ to kings and governors and those in authority. Theyre hearing my testimony, so even though I am in chains, my message-my purpose-is still being accomplished through my negative circumstances. Friends, number three, you write down on your paper, Focus on Gods purpose, and I say, How can I accomplish Gods purpose in this adversity I find myself in? Here in this dark period, this winter period of my life, how can Gods purposes still be accomplished in me? What is He trying to teach me? What is He trying to show me? What is He seeking to demonstrate to me? What can I learn? How can I grow? How can I use what Ive learned for Him in this winter period of my life? Again, this requires work and effort, but Im putting my thoughts on a solution rather than just saying, Boo hoo, poor me. I have work to do. What is Gods purpose? What is He teaching me? So that is focus number three, and Paul obviously did this. He obviously did this. He was aware of Gods promises. He focused on Gods presence, and he focused on Gods purpose which had not changed though his circumstances had changed. You could think he would focus on the fact, I wish I were free. I am sad Im in jail. Paul enjoyed his freedom as much as you and I would. There was no pleasure in being in chains. It says, But as long as I find myself in chains, Im going to make the best of it by focusing on accomplishing Gods mission still, in spite of these chains. He wrote some of his best epistles in jail, didnt he? The prison epistles are some of the best that Paul ever wrote. Lets look at the fourth purpose (2 Timothy 4:16), And I was delivered from the lions mouth. The Lord will rescue me… Notice the confidence there-not might rescue me, not could rescue me, The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack. How many? Every one of them. …and will bring me… again, confidence, …will bring me safely to His Heavenly kingdom. To Him be the glory for ever and ever. Amen. Why was Paul so confident of this? Because he understood that God was greater than any situation or adversity that he faced, anything the enemy could throw his way; so Paul focused on Gods power. [Paul says], There is nothing that the enemy can send my way that God is not greater than-even death. Even if I face death, I am still the victor because I am going to go into His presence. Whatever the evil attack, whatever temptation he throws my way, whatever enemy he throws my way, Paul says, God is greater than. Paul says, Im not afraid of Rome. Im not afraid of the emperor. Im not afraid of the executioner. Im not afraid of death because God is greater than all. We dont even know if Timothy gets there in time. We dont know if he brought his cloak in time, his parchments in time, if he was able to fellowship with Paul one more time. We dont know the outcome of that, but we do know shortly after this letter is written-probably within a year-Paul is beheaded. Paul is executed for his faith. Paul did that as an offering. He gave up his life. Paul says, I am focusing on the fact that God will rescue me. I may not escape death, but their goal is to end my life. Well, they wont end my life. My life will continue and be even greater. Their goal is to end the Gospel and the church. Well, they arent going to do that either because the church is Gods, and they cant execute Him. They cant diminish and execute His promises. They cant snuff out His presence. They arent going to be able to defeat His purpose. Paul said, I am victorious in Christ. Friends, when we are in those situations, we remind ourselves of the power of God. To say your situation is going to triumph is to say your situation or your circumstances are greater than God. Focus on the power of God. If youll go through this exercise, I think its going to make a difference in how you feel. I think it might make a difference right away. It might make a difference in how long you stay in the doldrums. Im trying in this exercise to be intensely practical with you because I think that Pauls writing here is intensely practical; yet, its spiritual.
[Unfortunately, due to technical problems, the audio was cut off here.]
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As Neal said, we are starting a new series called, Come Before Winter. Even though it sounds depressing-death, despair-its really not. Its not depressing at all. How many of you have a life verse, a verse that really encourages you? Its sort of a verse you live by. Last night, we were having people share what their life verses were; but I think in the interest of time, were not going to do that this morning. Im sure you have some excellent verses. Maybe theyre on your fridge or the dash of your care, but they are verses that really motivate you. What I do want to do is maybe identify some key life verses from the Book were studying this month, 2 Timothy, and see if maybe some of you by a show of hands might have one of these verses as your life verse. Lets look at the first one from 2 Timothy 1 as Paul was writing to Timothy, Join me in the suffering for the Gospel by the power of God. Anybody have that as their life verse? No. Okay, lets see the next one. Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. Anybody have the endure hardship verse in your car? No, okay. Lets see-this ones on the fridge for sure. But mark this, there will be terrible times in these last days. No? Wow, we are just not doing very well here. Lets just take a look at one more. I know this is going to be on some of your life verse lists. In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. You read that and get fired up every morning. No? What verses do we tend to pick? The ones that bring us comfort and make us feel good. They talk about love, peace, and joy. Theres nothing wrong with that. That's kind of my verse too, but the other side of the coin is that life can be hard. Life can be difficult. Things dont always go the way we would like them to go. Life can be downright unpleasant. For some of us, sometimes its unbearable. Sometimes weve sat on our bed or on a chair, like the woman were about to see… This is an image that Pastor Tim prepared for us on our series, Come Before Winter. I want you to take a look at this young lady and see if there werent times in your lives when youve felt like that. You just put your head in your hands and say, What am I going to do? This is not working out the way I planned. This is not how I wanted my life to go. I didnt see this coming. Maybe youve said, What have I done? Maybe you were the cause of the problem. Maybe somebody did something to you, and you were a victim, but weve been here. We just wanted to hide. We just wanted to close our eyes and cry. We are just sitting there trying to make sense of it all, trying to figure it all out. How did this happen? What am I going to do? That's what that image communicates to me. What am I going to do? Thats winter. Thats what were talking about. Winter comes around in all of our lives, and usually it comes around in a cycle. We dont just go through one season of winter, but we go through many seasons of winter. Winter is that time when it just seems like things are a little bit darker more often. It seems like life is a little bit colder. It just seems like our struggles intensify sometimes. In this period of our life, we feel lonelier. Maybe we even feel despair or depression going through a time like this. Theres desperation in those words Come Before Winter. There is an urgency. There is a need that needs to be met. I need help, and I need it yesterday. Maybe some of you are sitting here today, and youre like, Well, Im in the summer or the fall of my life. Everything is crisp. Im in the springtime. Everything is new and fresh. Well, thats wonderful, but winter is coming. Winter will come. We had a really nice November this year, and we were kind of joking around mid-November. It was 75 degrees and sunny. We were thinking, Maybe winter is going to forget us this year. Ha, ha, ha because we all know it wont. As nice as it is-its sunny; its warm; its pleasant. Its November, yeah! Winters coming. Winter is coming. What were going to do in this series is look at a winter period in Pauls life, a time when it was cold, snowy, and dark. How did he cope with it? What did he do? What were some of the habits he had? How did he process things mentally? How did he focus spiritually? Over this next month, were going to look at those verses in 2 Timothy 4; and were going to see what we can glean that will help us in the winter times of our lives. Now you may be in a winter season now, so we are scrambling and trying to make due; but its best to prepare for winter before it comes, isnt it? Gather the firewood before you need it. Get your mittens, your coat, your hat, and your long underwear before you need them. Get your car taken care of. Get your winter snow tires on and all of the things you need to do to get your car winterized before winter comes. Thats just wisdom, so thats what we want to do. Those are the skills we want to work on. Lets turn in our Bibles to 2 Timothy 4. While youre turning there, let me just briefly tell you about the Book were going to be looking at. This was written by the Apostle Paul to a young man who he mentored in the faith named Timothy. Timothy was like a son to Paul, and he had invested much time in Timothy. He loved Timothy. He had just appointed Timothy as the pastor of the church in Ephesus not long before he wrote this Book. The church in Ephesus, of course, is where Paul spent most of his time as a missionary. Normally, he would go and plan a church. Hed be there for a season, and hed leave. But in Ephesus, he stayed there around three years. He really invested, really poured himself into that ministry. It was only appropriate that he took his son in the faith, his favorite son, and put him over the congregation where he had the most invested. Now, this is called a Pastoral Epistle, and there are three of them-Verses 2 Timothy and Titus. The reason we call them the Pastoral Epistles is because in these Books, Paul is shepherding or pasturing these young men that he has mentored. Its a personal letter. Its not a letter to a church. Its not a letter to a congregation. This is a letter to a person, a literal letter. Its personal, so theyve come to be known as the Pastorals. Paul now is an old man, and he is looking at the end of his days. Historically, the setting is Rome. This is under the time of Emperor Nero. If you know anything about Roman emperors, you know that Nero was crazy. You know that he committed atrocities. Then one of the things he is suspected of doing is starting the fire that burned down much of Rome and in turn putting the blame on Christians. After all, the Christians were easy fodder. People did not like the Christians. Christians were taking stands and doing things that people didnt understand. Weve talked about these things before. [They believed] Christians held agape feasts or love feasts, which non-believers interpreted as orgies; so they accused Christians of being immoral. When they received communion, they were said to have eaten the flesh and drunken the blood of Jesus; so those outside the church regarded Christians as having cannibalistic practices in these secret love fests. They refused to burn incense to the emperor or worship him as divine. They refused to acknowledge the Roman gods, acknowledging only Jesus Christ as Lord; so from their point of view, the Christians were atheists, and they were against the Roman government. How about that? Misunderstood. So its very easy to turn the tide of public opinion against a people group that people already dont like. Theyre different from us. They dont celebrate the holidays like we do. They dont worship like us. They do these secret behind closed doors love feasts where who knows what in the world goes on there; so Christians were then persecuted, tortured, and killed in the most terrible ways imaginable under Nero. Paul is now in his clutches. Paul senses-he knows by the Spirit-that his days are numbered. As he sits in that jail-well talk a little bit more about that jail soon-he reflects back on his favorite son, Timothy. Hes going to give him some words to live by before he departs this earth. He says, Here are some things I want you to know as you pastor that church in Ephesus, Timothy. Follow these words. These are words that Timothy would use through the 60s, through the 70s, and into the early 80s as he pastured that church before he himself was martyred for standing up for the faith. Were going to look at Verses 6 through the end of the chapter. I want to read it through it its entirety just so we can get an understanding of the text. Then were going to talk about different segments of the text every week. Im not going to take this in order like I normally do. Im not going to deal with 6-8 today because I wanted to just deal with the reality of winter, that aspect of it before we come back and deal with specifics. If I dont touch on a verse today, I will touch on it more than likely before were done with this series, so just be patient on that. Were going to read it through in its entirety and then go back and examine some of the key points in how Paul dealt with the winter of his life. Lets begin reading with 2 Timothy 4:6 (page 1180 of pew Bibles), For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure… My death is imminent. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day-and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for His appearing. So hes been talking here about spiritual realities, about the hope of Heaven, about eternal life. Now, he is going to turn from talking about these Heavenly matters and become intensely practical. Hes going to start focusing on earthly matters and earthly relationships and friendships. He says, Do your best to come to me quickly, for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica. We dont know a lot about Demas. Hes mentioned several times. Once he was called a devoted follower. Another time he is just mentioned by his name, Demas is here. Then this time, its saying that Demas has left us; so there seems to be this digression in the life of Demas-his influence as he begins to be drawn towards other things. This appeal on Paul definitely is an appeal based on hurt, isnt it? Hes saying, Ive lost a helper. Ive lost a companion, somebody Ive invested in, who has gone AWOL on me, and it hurts. Tim, I need you right now. I need you to come. So that is an appeal to a friend. Some of these names well talk about because they have some significance. Others well simply read through. Crescens has gone to Galatia, and Titus to Dalmatia. By the way, just a little bit of trivia about Dalmatia, you may not know this, but its a very small community. At the time Paul wrote this, there were only about 101 people living there-101 Dalmatians. They had a white flag with a big black dot on it for their country (congregation is laughing). They really were called Dalmatians by the way. Apparently you dont like Disney humor, but they really were called Dalmatians. I couldnt resist. Sorry about that; I apologize. It wont happen again…until 9:30. He says, Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, because he is helpful to me in my ministry. Mark, who he had once rejected and saw as a deserter, was now someone who he had hoped to use in his ministry. This was the same Mark who wrote the Gospel of Mark, a very influential man in the early church. I sent Tychicus to Ephesus. Tychicus was his messenger. He would send the Book of Ephesians through with Tychicus. He sent the Book of Colossians through Tychicus. He would send these Books of the Bible, so Tychicus very much carried the Word of God-literally-to these various places as Pauls messenger. When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, and my scrolls, especially the parchments. Lets skip to Verse 16, At my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them. But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. And I was delivered from the lions mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to His heavenly Kingdom. To Him be glory for ever and ever. Amen. Greet Priscilla and Aquila and the household of Onesiphorus. Erastus stayed in Corinth, and I left Trophimus sick in Miletus. Do your best to get here before winter. Thats where the name of the series comes from. Eubulus greets you, and so do Pudens, Linus, Claudia and all the brothers. The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you. So lets examine this winter approach from Paul. Number one, Paul acknowledges that winter is coming. Paul acknowledges the reality. He acknowledges that there is hardship that is coming to him. Cold is coming; winter is coming. He acknowledges his physical condition in the prison. First of all, I want you to notice the community that is there in these verses. Do you see that? Do you see all the names Paul mentions? There are certain ones who had gone, but there are others who were there that he greeted. Notice how he is enlisting them. He is calling them to meet him and be with him. Do you see that sense of community for Paul? Paul is opening up relationally, saying, Timothy, I need you to come. Demas has left me. I need you. I need Mark too. Bring Mark too. [Here is] the Apostle Paul, the greatest missionary who ever lived, and he is opening up and he is becoming vulnerable. He is saying, You know what? I need my friends in Christ. If Im going to go through this period, this dark time in my life, I need someone who is going to be with me. Many had deserted him as we already said. We talked about the fact that sometimes Paul said they were ashamed of him. He said in this Book that they were ashamed of his chains. Imagine if you had a friend who you were close to. Something happened and they were charged with going against the American government. They were charged with treason, being a traitor of the United States. They were thrown in jail and had their face plastered all over the newspaper and on TV. Do you want to be their friend now? Do you want to be seen with them now when everybody around you doesnt like them? People around you are going to think if you associate with them, then you must be a traitor too-guilt by association. If I hang with this person, that means Im like them, and nobody is going to like me either. That got to them. Paul said, At my first defense, no one was there, but he refuses to have a bitter heart. He said, May it not be held against them. Hes talking about his friends. He says, My friends let me down. Maybe Paul had something to do with that. At his first house arrest, he was living large. In the Book of Acts, he was in prison in Rome; and it was house arrest. He was walking around as a free man waiting for his trial. Friends were coming and friends were going. He was visiting everybody. It doesnt seem that bad. Maybe Paul didnt open up about what he was going through. Maybe he just said, I can take care of this by myself. This time is different. This time Paul is going to make sure he is not alone in the struggle that he is going through. Prison is different this time. This is no house arrest that Paul is going through. Paul is on the outskirts of Rome in a prison that we can see today. It looks nicer today than it did when Paul was there. The prison was built some 400 years before Christ. It was this two-story pit, a hole in the ground-a circular pit right next to the city sewer. Sometimes to evacuate the bodies from this pit, quite frankly, they would open up certain hatchways and run sewer water through the prison and just flush out the dead prisoners into the city sewer system. That is revolting. There were no cells; there were no cots; there were no bunk beds. It was a bunch of men crammed into a small, dark, cold, stinky room awaiting death. Its amazing that Paul speaks in a positive way at all, isnt it? If we were in those circumstances, awaiting trial under a maniacal dictator, surrounded by these men in these terrible conditions, dark and cold-what would your letter read like? What kinds of things would you say? How would you speak of the Lord? What would you say about Jesus if you were in those conditions? He really let me down. If this is what it means to follow Christ, forget it! Paul makes it clear that hes there because he wants to be there. He says, I am being poured out like an offering. I am offering myself. Paul knows all he has to do to be released from that prison is renounce Jesus Christ and say, Its all a big misunderstanding. Caesar is Lord! Hail Caesar! Give me the incense! Ill burn it! Ive had a change of heart! Paul would have walked out of that prison a free man. He probably would have been reprimanded, maybe a little jail time, but he wouldnt die [for it]. They would have loved that! Maybe he could convince some other Christians to convert and stop this nonsense too. Paul would have none of it. He said, I am ready to die for my faith. He was there because he chose to be there. He says, Listen, guys, Ive invested in you. I was there when you needed me. Now, I need you. I need you to come, and I need you to come quickly. Secondly, he deals with the physical reality. He said, I need my cloak. Its cold here. A cloak was this large garment with a hole cut in it. Just think of it as a poncho that goes all the way to the ground. Thats what it would have looked like. It was this big heavy fabric like youd put around your body and use it like a sleeping bag. He said, Winter is coming, and Im cold. When were going through the winters of our lives, we need to be aware of our physical needs. We need to talk to others about our physical needs, tell them whats going on. Maybe you are suffering from a lack of sleep. Maybe youre not eating. Maybe you are having a reaction to some medications youre taking. Maybe there are some physical struggles youre going through. I dont want to burn anybody. Ill just go through it on my own. Ill just keep it to myself. Friends, that doesnt work. At least, it doesnt make winter any better. It makes winter even colder. If the greatest missionary who ever lived, who wrote so much of the New Testament, was willing to say, Listen I need help. Here are my needs. Heres what Im going through, who in the world do you think you are to say, Ill just tough it out and go it on my own. God wants us to experience community. Part of community is when people can rally around us and minister to our physical needs as well as our spiritual needs. Thirdly, Paul is concerned about his intellectual needs. He says, Bring me the parchments, the scrolls and the parchments. We dont know exactly what these are. We do know that they probably were the Scriptures. They were probably some other documents he needed. There were probably some parchments there that were there to stimulate his thinking. He was an educated man. In fact, one time one of his prosecutors said, Paul, your great learning is driving you mad. He said under the best rabbis of his day, he had the best education of his day; and in this prison cell, he wanted to stimulate his mind even more. He wanted to think. He wanted to grow in his learning even at this point. When were going through the winters of our lives, friends, thats the time we can do some of our best learning. It really is. Thats the time we can do some of our best thinking. What is God teaching me here? How can I grow as a person in this winter of my life? So Paul acknowledges that. Fourthly, he talks about his spiritual condition. He talks about the relational need, the physical need, his intellectual need, and finally his spiritual need. He said, Everybody deserted me at my first defense, but the Lord stood by my side. The point is He will deliver me. He delivered me from the Lions mouth, and He will deliver me from every evil deed and see me safely into His Heavenly kingdom. The first words we have of Paul in the Bible are, Lord, who are You? Who are You, Lord? I dont know you. Its very clear by the very last words we have in our Bible that Paul knows exactly who Jesus is. Hes his Savior; Hes his Deliverer; Hes his friend, and Hes going to be there even if no one else is. These things work together-our spirituality and community. The closer we draw to our brothers and sisters in Christ, the closer we draw to the Lord; and the closer we draw to the Lord, the closer we draw to our brothers and sisters in Christ. It has a synergistic effect. What this text speaks to me about is for those of you who are lone rangers out there, just trying to gut it out and do it all on your own, you need to have a change in your thinking, a change in your lifestyle. God is calling you to community. Hes saying, Winters coming. Winter is coming, and it may stay a while; and winters are hard. Dont gut it up by yourself. Make a choice to be a part of the Body of Christ. Who would be in your letter if you were in these situations? What names would you name? Who is close to you that you could call upon? We need that as believers. We need one another. One of our dear members passed away recently, Judy Babish, after a struggle with cancer. The funeral was a beautiful service. You could tell the Holy Spirit was at work in that memorial service. I really had wanted to ask Dennis to come and share this weekend because I was thinking, For what he has gone through, he really has some things he can share with us, but, you know, its just too soon. Hes going to be in too much pain. Hes not going to be able to do that. Then, we saw a video Judy made before she passed away. I thought to myself, Boy, there are some parts in there that Id love to show this weekend, but out of respect for Dennis, it would be too hard for him to see that again. Its just too soon. So I second-guessed myself, and I didnt ask. This week, Dennis contacted me and said, Could I just share a few words? I realized I really had heard the Holy Spirit and just decided, for Dennis sake, I couldnt ask that. God had some other plans. I said, Absolutely you can come and share. So right now, Dennis is going to come and share a little bit about what community relationships have meant to him in this winter period of his life. Lets stand together. Judy received community because she had made herself a part of community. Long before a meal was ever brought to her in her sickness, she had made many meals for others. She was a part of our prayer team. She found her gift, and she was serving faithfully in the Body of Christ. She had joined a small group, and she was plugged in; so when her winter came, friends were there. So I ask you today, Whats it going to be? Are we going to live like a Lone Ranger of Christianity, or are we going to recognize that were a part of a family and that God has placed people in our lives that can love us, help us, and support us? Lets pray together: Father, we thank You for the example of the Apostle Paul today-this great man who had done so many great things. He humbled himself. He made himself vulnerable. He said, This jail is cold, and Im lonely. I need companionship and friendship. Im facing a difficult time in my life. Lord, might we follow his example, an example of our sister Judy who is now in Your presence. Dealing with the reality of winter and saying, I dont want to go through this alone, and Im going to allow others to come into my life. Im going to help others in their time of winter as well. Father, I pray that we might enter into the community of church and sharing our lives together. I pray this in Jesus name, Amen.
For those who dont know who I am, Im Michael Powers. I am the youth minister here. Im the one they trust to hang with your teenagers and teach them Gods Word. I want you to know that I love my job, and I love this church. It is an honor and a privilege to be able to teach Gods Word to your kids, so thank you for that. To lead into what were going to talk about today, called The Same Old Story, this is an article that I wrote for a publication a couple of years ago. I just wanted to share that with you as we get into the message today. In the 25 years that my wife and I have been doing youth ministry, weve dealt with a lot of teens that have gotten themselves into some dire straits. In fact, I thought there was nothing that could possibly surprise us anymore. I was wrong. There was one teenage girl we know that I have to tell you about. However, before I do, I want you to understand that in our youth ministry, we always strive for confidentiality-to protect both the teen and the teens family; so it is with great trepidation that I share this with you for I know that some of you will figure out who this girl is. I am hoping that by the end of these few pages, you will understand why I had to share what Im about to tell you. Before you rush to judgment, I want you to hang with me here. In fact, more than anything else, I want you to put yourself in this teens shoes. Try to feel what she must be feeling. This young girl is 13 years old, and she came to the stark realization that she is pregnant. Not only does she realize that her life is going to drastically change, but to make matters worse, she is afraid to tell her 19 year old boyfriend. Normally, she would go to her boyfriend with any problem. Hes a pretty stable, understanding, and dependable guy; but this time its different. You see, the baby is not his. She lays awake that first night thinking about all the people she has to face the next day: her parents. Shes always been worthy of the trust her parents have put in her. In fact, other families have remarked to her parents how they wished their daughters were more like her. Now she has to stand before them and explain how she got pregnant. If thats not bad enough, shes going to have to explain to them that the father of the baby is not the young man that her parents think she should marry. Her boyfriend, how does she face her boyfriend? She loves her boyfriend more than anyone-well, almost more than anyone. How is she going to face him? Where is she going to get the courage? It would almost be easier if she could tell him that it was just a big mistake, and that she is so sorry for it; but she cant lie to him. She will have to look into his trusting eyes and tell him that she willfully chose the path that lead to this little life growing inside of her. She knows deep down inside that if she had to do it all over again, she would make the same decision and end up in the same precarious situation. Please, God, please let him understand and not abandon me. I need him so much right now. Her friends, how does she share the news with them? Right or wrong, they have always put her on a pedestal, always looked to her for answers, always modeled their lives after hers; but she knows instinctively that they will not understand. In fact, she knows that she may never be able to explain to them what made her do what she did. She lays there in bed afraid, overwhelmed, and reaching out to God for strength to face what is ahead of her. The next day she finally gets up the courage to tell her boyfriend. He reacts just as she feared he would. He is going to leave her. She becomes distraught and questions God, Why, God? Why? I know that Im in this situation because of a decision that I made, but please dont take my boyfriend away from me. I desperately need him now. This unnamed teen goes to bed that night more afraid than ever, feeling every bit the child that she is. Her name? Normally, I wouldnt give that to you, but in this case she asks that her name be known so that others will understand what she has gone through and will be encouraged. Her name is Mary, and she lived 2,000 years ago. Have you ever thought of the Christmas story in that way? Today as we meditate on this, I hope that youre not like me [in my way of thinking of] The Same Old Story. I mean, were supposed to like Baby Jesus, right? When Christmas comes, we read the Christmas story-something weve heard sometimes almost 100 times, and we get bored with it. Were like, Ive heard this story before. I know how it ends. Well, lets ponder this and see if we really do know the story. Most 13 or 14 year old girls that I know, if an angel appeared to them and said, Hey, were going to put a baby inside your womb, would say, Um, excuse me. Yeah, this aint working for me. How am I gonna fit in my prom dress now? Most teenage girls I would know would be like, Forget this. We have to have a Plan B because this aint happening, but Mary follows and obeys God. I want you to think about this. I dont think we have any clue what she went through, what Joseph went through, to get in this situation and to face what she had to face. I mean how do you tell Joseph? Think about that. How do you tell Joseph? The conversation may have gone something like this, Now, Joe, before you get angry with me, I want you to know that I did not cheat on you. Come on, Mary! You know full well that we have not known each other in the Biblical sense, so the baby cant possibly be mine! Joseph, you have to believe me! I did not do this with anybody! Please, Mary, dont do this to me. You know that I love and care for you, but I cannot listen to this! Okay, Joseph, I wont lie to you. Then she looks into those trusting eyes knowing that what shes going to say is going to sound so crazy. The baby is from God. Come on! Could you imagine what that would have sounded like? Oh…God got you pregnant. Oh…okay. Can you imagine? No matter how much he loved her, he has to be thinking, Youre crazy! This is not happening! The wheels are already turning in Josephs head because he was a righteous man. The Bible says he would dismiss her privately and not make a spectacle of it. She would go though because he would send her away. Then you know the angel appears to Joseph and verifies that what is going on is true. I want you to ponder now with me: have you ever thought of God as a baby, as a fetus, inside the womb of an unwed 13 or 14 year old girl? As a writer, I would never write the Christmas story like this. If Im a writer, and Im writing this story, when God would come to earth, Hed be on a white stallion. As He would come across those streets of gold, every hoof print would send up a spray of golden sparks. He would burst through those gates, and the angels would be singing, almost defining an angelic choir. Hed burst through the universe. The stars would line up, and theyd blink, The King is coming! When He gets to the ozone layer, He would burst through that ozone layer. There would be a sonic boom! The clouds would line up behind Him as He burst through that. It would be like a long flowing white robe. He would circle the earth two or three times, and everybody would know The King of the universe is now coming into His creation! God says, No, thats not how were going to do it. God said, The God of the universe who breathed stars into existence, as it says in Psalms, went ahh, and galaxies and stars came out-He is now dependent on His own oxygen through the umbilical cord of an unwed, pregnant teenager. Thats just crazy to me-how God chose to do that. Have you ever equated God with the birth process? I mean the King of the universe in the process of human birth, and instead of a golden crown on His head, His head is in a kind of cone shape from coming through the birth canal. Instead of priceless paintings hanging on the walls of a palace, there are cobwebs on the walls of a stable and the smell of animal manure and urine. Instead of being placed in the finely-crafted bed by the greatest Craftsman in the land, Hes put in a manger. Doesnt that word sound so pretty-a manger? Do you know what a manger is? A manger is a feeding trough where cows would stick their tongues and lick food. The God of the universe, when He came to earth, He humbled Himself and was placed in a feeding trough. The Bible says (in Colossians 1:17, page 1165 of pew Bible), He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together, that by Christs very word, the universe is holding together. Now, He is dependent on the milk of an unwed teenage girl for His sustenance. Instead of kings, presidents, and world leaders, God chose shepherds. Now, if you know anything about that culture of that day, the shepherds were the lowest of the lowest class of society. They were Bedouins. The word was said like, Oh…its a Bed-o-uin, a shepherd! I want you to think about that. Youre a shepherd, and you have an angel appear to you and give you this announcement. Of all the people on the earth, He chose shepherds, the lowest of the low, to give this good news to. Then, He gives them the concert of their lives. The Heavens open up and angels appear, a Heavenly host, and they sing the first Christmas carols to a bunch of Bedouins. Have you ever seen the Northern Lights? One time in my life, besides on TV and in pictures, Ive seen the Northern Lights. I remember it was about ten below zero. We were up north, and I remember standing in this field and just being mesmerized. There were like curtains of light that just shimmered and changed. It was just amazing to me! I felt like my eyeballs were going to freeze in my head. I was afraid to blink in fear that they would just disappear. It was one of the most amazing experiences Ive ever had. I cant imagine what it would have been like for those shepherds to hear and see those angels on that first Christmas night. Ive worked with youth for too long, and some of you might be offended by the next thing Im going to share with you, and Im okay with that. Pastor Jeffs not here, so I can do what I want (congregation laughing), and Ill pay for it later. Have you ever thought that the God of the universe had a diaper? Human waste, human feces, was next to His skin, and a human being had to wipe Him? You talk about humbling Yourself and coming down into Your creation. If it happened today, Mary would write a best-selling book, I Changed Gods Diaper. Thats what the book would have been about. Can you imagine that? You and I think we know the Christmas story, but theres so much in there! Were going to watch a video now called, A Social Network Christmas, and if that were to happen today-if Jesus were to appear today-with Facebook and all of that, this is probably how it would have went down. Lets watch. (Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sghwe4TYY18 It starts about ¼ of the way through the video) Wasnt that well done? I love it when people who have gifts and abilities given by God use them so that we can be blessed by that. Thats just an awesome video! There is so much more we could share about the Christmas story. Im just going to touch base on a couple of things, but literally it would take us many weeks to even get through all the nuances of whats really going on. If youre going to talk about Christmas, you have to talk about the cross; so were going to make a beeline to the cross. Before we do, I want to share some things with you. Number one, nowhere in the Bible does it say that there are three wise men. Its just the story that we passed down from generation to generation. It says there were wise men, and it says that they had three different types of gifts; but if three wise men were traveling by themselves at that time, they probably would have been beat up, robbed, and wouldnt have made it. They would have had to travel in a caravan. As much as you like the manger scene and the stable, the three wise men were not there at the birth or soon after. The Bible says that He was no longer an infant. He was a young child under the age of two years old, and they visited Him at a house. It doesnt ruin the Christmas story, but when we say its The Same Old Story, we really have not looked at it very closely. I want to share this with you too: I think Mary and Joseph were outcasts. I think Marys family treated them as outcasts, and I think Josephs family did as well. This is conjecture. If you read between the lines, you can see a lot of the stuff that may be going on, so dont take this as this is exactly what the Bible says; but it is said that Mary takes off in a hurry-literally in a hurry-to go visit Elizabeth as soon as she finds out shes pregnant. Just before John the Baptist is born, she leaves. Now, if youre going to spend three months there, why wouldnt you stay for the birth? I think its because she started showing, and the thought of being away from her hometown where maybe theyd have a little more sympathy for her [worried her]. Did you know that if you were an unwed teenage girl back then, they could stone you? You could literally lose your life. Thats how seriously they took an engagement-you were literally married, but you just didnt consummate the marriage at that point. Then she has to tell Joseph, and I think when Joseph gets the message from the angel, I think Josephs family also treated them as outcasts. We always think of the story of Mary on the donkey and basically on her way to give birth right at that moment. They get there and cant find a hotel. All of the sudden, there are no rooms at the inns. Did you know that in Luke it says that while they were there, the days to complete her pregnancy occurred? I think since they were going to Bethlehem where Josephs other relatives would have been, I think that even their own relatives probably did not let them stay at their house. If they did, most houses back then would have had an upper level where the people were and a lower level where they would take the animals in at night if it was a cold night. The body heat from the animals would help heat the house. Either they were totally outcast from even their own families, or they would have said, You know what? You can do that. Maybe not; maybe Im conjecturing too much there. Maybe there was no privacy. How would you like to give birth with all your relatives there for the census? Maybe the lower room was the only place that gave them some privacy. There was so much else going on there, but were going to find out what it would have been like for Jesus growing up. Have you ever thought about being Jesus mother or father? [We always hear] the question asked why is the sky blue except it would have been Mary and Joseph asking Jesus that question because He is God. Have you ever thought of that? Max Lucado had some fun with questions he would have liked to ask Mary: What was it like watching Him pray? How did He respond when He saw other kids giggling during the service at the synagogue? Have you ever thought of that? The God of the universe [is there] and people are disrespecting His message through Gods Word. How would that have affected Him? Did you ever feel awkward teaching Him how He created the world? Did you ever think, Man, the God Im praying to is in the next room? Did you ever try to count the stars with Him and succeed? Did He ever get angry when someone was dishonest with Him? Think of that. Did you ever think, Thats God eating my soup? I wonder if Jesus had a special affinity for lambs. The lamb of God who comes to take away the sins of the world… I wonder if He ever pondered that. Regarding Jesus growing up, the Bible is silent in what happened between the age of 2 and the age of 12. At the age of 12, we know of the story of Jesus at the Temple. Do you know whats interesting about that story? The Bible says that the rabbis were amazed at His answers. Do you know what that tells me? That tells me that the conversation may have started out with Jesus asking them questions, but it turned into them asking a 12 year old boy questions about Gods Word. They were amazed at His answers. How about Jesus as a teenager? Have you ever thought of that? Did Jesus ever wake up and think, This is the day. This is the day that I have made, that I have made. Did he wear a WWID bracelet? What would I do? Could you imagine having to be the sibling of Jesus? The Bible is very clear that there were at least seven kids in the family. Jesus was not an only child. The brothers are all named in Scripture. The sisters arent, so there are at least seven. Can you imagine the pressure of being a brother or sister of Jesus Christ? Why cant you be more like Jesus? Seriously, the pressure to live up to that… We gloss over-we think of Jesus as God, but we fail to ponder what it would have been like to be human because Jesus was fully God and fully human. I cant explain that; I just know thats what Gods Word says-fully God and fully human. Do you think that Jesus was possibly tempted to use spiritual power when He was growing up? When Mom told Him to clean His room-vroom, and it was clean. Do you ever think of that? Do you know why we believe that never happened? Its because of this: In Mark 6:1-3 (page 995 of pew Bibles), it says, Jesus left there and went to His hometown, accompanied by His Disciples. When the Sabbath came, He began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard Him were amazed. Where did this man get these things? they asked. Whats this wisdom that has been given Him, that He even does miracles! Isnt this the carpenter? Isnt this Marys son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Arent His sisters here with us? And they took offense at Him. Now, the Judas mentioned there is not Judas the Iscariot, just a common name. If Jesus were running around doing miracles as a kid, they would have known who He was. They would have recognized and said, Whoa! This guy is special. Sterling North, famous author-if you go into Edgerton, its very prominent that they are proud of their native son, Sterling North. Nazareth would have had a sign, Jesus, the God man, lives here. Do you know what this tells me? This tells me that He acted like any other child. He was a weird child, and I dont mean that in an offensive way. He was definitely strange. He never sinned. He did not run around using His spiritual power. In fact, His brother James who wrote the Book of James did not give his life to Christ until after Jesus died and rose again. How could you be Jesus own brother and not believe He was the Son of God? What did Jesus look like? He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him-nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him. Have you ever looked in the mirror and felt plain, felt average? God in His wisdom made Jesus to look like an average human being. Then there came a day at the age of 30 when the Father told Him, Its time. I want you to think about this. [As God would say to Jesus], All of Your life, Youve been a carpenters son, and Youve grown up in a carpenters shop. Your dad has taught You how to be a carpenter. You love the smell of sawdust. You love having those tools in Your hands. The voice comes from God and says, It is time. What You came here to earth to do, it is now time to accomplish. Jesus, knowing what was ahead of Him, had to walk out of that carpenters shop one day and never look back. It is my guess that when that voice came and God said it was time, He sat down on a bench He had made. How interesting is it that the God of the universe who created that wood is now shaping that wood into something? I always thought how awesome it would be to have something made by Jesus Christ. Could you imagine how much you could get on eBay for something that Jesus made? He sat there, and He probably breathed in the sawdust. He knew what was ahead of Him, and He knew how comfortable it would be to just stay and be comfortable in the surroundings He was used to. He chose, He willingly chose, to walk out of that carpenter shop and head down a path that would lead to a bloody cross because He knew that you and I needed a Savior. If were going to talk about Christmas, we have to talk about the cross. There are so many things were skipping. I want to challenge you-have you fallen out of love with your Bible? Do you love Gods Word? Do you look forward to all those little things that we take for granted that are in there? He comes into Jerusalem on a donkey-please! Hee-haw! A donkey! Not only a donkey, but a colt, a young donkey-do you know how awkward it would be for a full-grown man to ride a young donkey? I think, God, why do you always pick the humble stuff? Because thats who God is. The Last Supper-have you ever thought of this? Jesus Christ, knowing what was coming, not only washed the other Disciples feet, but He washed Judas feet. I cant even imagine what it was like for Judas-knowing what he was about to do-and Jesus humbled Himself and washing his feet. I bet Judas could not even look Him in the eye. The Garden of Gethsemane, fully God, fully human-knowing whats going to happen to Him, He chooses His three best friends, His three closest people. He says, Will you stay up and pray with Me? He goes on a little farther ahead, and He comes back to them asleep. Can you imagine what that would have felt like for Him at the darkest moment of what Hes facing. The Bible says that He was under so much stress and anguish that He literally sweat drops of blood. If you want to Google this, look up hematidrosis. Its a medical term for when you are under so much stress and anxiety that your capillaries actually expand into your sweat glands, and blood mixes with your sweat. Drops of blood come out of your sweat glands. Thats what He was facing because He knew what was coming. Then we pick up the story where Judas comes and betrays Jesus. [Mark 18:3, page 1071 of pew Bibles], So Judas came to the grove, guiding a detachment of soldiers and some officials from the chief priests and Pharisees. They were carrying torches, lanterns and weapons. Jesus, knowing all that was going to happen to Him, went out and asked them, Who is it you want? Jesus of Nazareth, they replied. I am He, Jesus said. (And Judas the traitor was standing there with them.) When Jesus said, I am He, they drew back and fell to the ground. There are two things that I think that are going on here. They heard about this God-man. Hed been doing miracles, raising people from the dead, and stopping storms. They were deathly-afraid to arrest this Man. They thought He was just incinerated with some kind of God magic. When He said that, they were afraid. Do you know what else I think is going on here? I think this is the Old Testament I am. This is the God of the universe proclaiming who He is. When He said I am literally the power of God knocked them on their backs. That's what is going on there. Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it and struck the high priests servant, cutting off his right eat. (The servants name was Malchus.) This always bugged me as a teenager. I was like, Come on! So if Im Peter, and I am loyal to Jesus Christ, and I want to save Him from this, I pull out a sword and am like, Take that! Look at that, Jesus, I just protected You. I cut off his ear! Have you ever thought of whats going on there? I think Peter, in his rage, goes to just literally chop off his head, and the guy saw it coming and did one of these (head dodged the swing of the sword). I want you to think of this: imagine being Malchus. You have come to capture this criminal, and you almost lose your life for it. This criminal reaches down and either picks up the ear and puts it back on your head or just leaves your ear there and puts His hand on your head and heals you. Talk about shocked! I bet you anything he took no part in the rest of what happened. I bet he went off to the side and was like, Whoa! What kind of person can do that? (Matthew 26:52, page 986), Put your sword back in its place, Jesus said to him, for all who draw the sword will die by the sword. Do you think I cannot call on My Father, and He will at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions of angels? But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way? He touched the mans ear and healed him. (Mark 14:48, page 1008), Am I leading a rebellion? said Jesus, that youve come out with swords and clubs to capture Me? Every day I was with you teaching in the temple courts, and you did not arrest Me. But the Scriptures must be fulfilled. Then everyone deserted Him and fled. Everyone. [For] this next verse, you have to be scratching your head here-this random verse. A young man, wearing nothing but a linen garment, was following Jesus. When they seized him, he fled naked, leaving his garment behind. The Bible is not boring, people. Lets think of this, whats going on. They come to get Him; I am; they all fall down on their backs; they get back up; Peter takes out a sword, tries to kill somebody, cuts off his ear, and this God-man picks up the ear or just puts His hand up there and heals him. Then a guy with a bad case of nudity runs through the Garden. Isnt that crazy? I love the little nuances of the Bible. Then the worst part of the story [takes place]. (Mark 14:44, page of 1008), Now the betrayer had arranged a signal with them: The One I kiss is the Man. Arrest Him and lead Him away under guard. Going at once to Jesus, Judas said, Rabbi! and kissed Him. One of the Gospels says that Jesus looked at him and said, You betray the Son of Man with a kiss? Have you ever been betrayed like that? Not by an enemy, not by someone you know or who cant stand you, but by someone who you have considered part of your inner circle. [Imagine] how that would have felt. I personally have felt betrayal like this. This is my oldest son, Caleb. As you can see, I tried to raise him as a Bears fan. I dressed him in all the right clothes. [He had a] happy, happy childhood. He came up to me one day at the age of five or six and said, Dad, I want to be a Packer fan. I was like, Son, the Powers family has been Bears fans for generations, dating back to 300 AD. He was five. He didnt know. I was like, Son, are you sure? Then he said these words to me, Dad…when you were a kid, you grew up in the Chicago area, and that's why youre a Bears fan. I live in Wisconsin! I need to be a Packer fan! I was like, Oh, man! The hardest part now is trying to transition back to the Christmas story when weve just talked about Bears and Packers football, but I have no acute way of doing this; so were just going to transition back to that. Just like we did with Christmas, lets take a quick look at whats really going on here. I want you to think about this. They blindfold Jesus; they spit on Him; they rip His beard out of His face. Soldiers stripped Him and put on a scarlet robe and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on His head. They put a staff in His right hand, knelt in front of Him, and mocked Him. Hail, King of the Jews. They spit on him and took the staff and struck Him on the head again and again. The crown of thorns is no coincidence. (Genesis 3:17, page 3 of pew Bibles), Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. From the very first sin, thorns were part of the curse. Thats the crown that they give Jesus. To mock the God of the universe, the God of the universe who is going to give us an incredible gift at Christmastime, the gift of His own Son-He is going to sacrifice His own Son. He is going to pour all of His wrath and fury toward sin on His own Son; and Jesus is there, and puny little humans are going to mock Him, pull out His beard, and spit on Him. Have you ever been spit on? One time in my life when I was a young man about the age of 10 or 11, a teenage boy spit on me for no other reason than he wanted to have some fun. I remember the smell of that spit. I remember how it felt on my face. Most of all, I remember the shame that I felt that this kid was bigger than I was, and I couldnt do anything to him. I just had to take it. Heres the difference: Jesus Christ was God. He could have incinerated them with one word, and He sat there and took it because He knew there was no Plan B. There was just Plan A. I have to go to the cross. I have to have this perfect sacrifice. I have to have God place the sin of the world on Me so that those people can spend eternity with Me if they so choose. (Isaiah 50:6, page 728 of pew Bibles), I offered My back to those who beat Me and My cheeks to those who pulled out My beard. I didnt hide My face from mocking and spitting. (Isaiah 52:14, page 731) Just as there were many who were appalled at Him-His appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and His form marred beyond human likeness… What they did to Him, not only could you recognize it wasnt Jesus, the carpenters son, you couldnt even recognize that He was a human being anymore. I will spare you the details of what they did with the whipping. Isnt it ironic that wood, a hammer, and nails were the instruments that were used to kill the carpenter? They put Jesus on that cross, and they stripped Him naked. You dont see that in the pictures because nobody wants a rated X picture in their living room, but He was stripped naked in front of everybody to see-in front of His own mother to see. The Bible says that for three hours it grew dark. Then God placed your sin and my sin on the back of Jesus. I want you to think about this. I cant imagine what it would feel like to be a perfectly sinless being and have even one molecule of sin put inside of me; but to have every sin, every murder, every rape, every incest-every horrible thing thats been done from the start of eternity to whenever Jesus comes back-placed on His body, inside His body. The Bible literally says that God had to turn His back on His Son. Jesus cries out and says, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? which literally translated means, Daddy, Daddy, why have You abandoned Me? God couldnt even look at His Son. The only way I can explain what that feels like-and this will not do justice of it-is when my sons were little, when Caleb was about six and Connor, my middle child, was about three, they were in the backyard. Connor picked up a stick, and Caleb picked up our pruning shears. Connor looked at his older brother and said, Here, cut the stick. Caleb, trying to cut the stick, accidently cut into his delicate little three year old fingers. I remember hearing the blood-curdling scream from my backyard. I looked out the window, and I seen my son jumping up and down. As I ran to the door-and this sounds a little funny, but at the time it was not funny at all-he was screaming at the top of his lungs, Daddy! Daddy! I need a Band-Aid! At the time, my heart was just breaking because in his mind were two things: get my dad here and if I can get a Band-Aid, all this pain will go away. Everything turned out okay. I thought he would lose part of his fingers, but the doctor just did a wonderful job. You cant even see the scars anymore, but it occurred to me that at that moment, my precious three-year old who was screaming out for his daddy-if I would have walked out that door, looked at it, walked back in, closed the door and locked it, thats what it would have felt like for Jesus Christ to have His own Father have to look away from Him. Gods punishment that we deserve for eternity-that I know myself, I know I deserve an eternity separated from God-God said, Nope, Im going to put My wrath on My very own Son so that you can make a choice. You can choose to spend eternity with Me. Do you know what else I think happens here? I think that literally Jesus heart just ruptures in His chest. In Psalms (40:12, page 556), it says, For evils beyond number have surrounded me; iniquities have overtaken me, and I cannot see; they are more numerous than the hairs of my head; my heart has failed me. You can look up a medical fact that peoples hearts can just burst in their bodies because of that stress, because of not only the sin but [because of] God turning His back. If you were already dead, they sent a Centurion. Normally, they would have broken condemned ones legs if they were still alive. When you were crucified, every breath you take, you have to push up on that bottom nail to release the pressure on your diaphragm to take in one breath. Then youd hold it as long as you could, and then youd drop back down. [You have to do this for] every single breath. He was already dead. They didnt have to break his legs. Thats what they would have done because the Sabbath was coming. When they pierced His side with a spear, a sudden flow of blood and water [came down]. This is a medical fact. If your heart bursts-if your heart ruptures-inside of your chest, thats what happens to your blood. It separates into the serum and the water. You know what? I am so glad that's not where the story ends. All of the talk about if the Jewish people killed Jesus, did the Romans kill Jesus-do you know who killed Jesus? My sin. Im the one who pounded the nails. Im the one who made Him go through that because of my sin. When He rose from the dead and He conquered sin, He conquered death and proved He was God. Now I have a choice. The Bible says that you and I are enemies of God. Thats not good news. If there is one person you dont want to have as an enemy, its the God of the universe. God said, I have come through this sacrifice. You no longer have to be an enemy of Mine. You can be My friend. I will adopt you, and you can be a Kings kid. You know why Jesus cried out, Daddy, Daddy, why have You abandoned Me? He screamed those words so that you and I will never ever have to say those words. You have a choice. You never have to feel like God has abandoned you. If youre here today, and I dont know where each of you are at, and you know you have never allowed Jesus to wash your sins away, He can take those rags that are dirty and dark in your life, and He can wash them in His blood. He can make them as clean as snow. He can erase every single sin you have ever committed. When you stand before a holy judge named the God of the universe, He will pronounce you not guilty. Those chains that you have around you of sin, the cross will bust through those. The question I have for you is do you have Jesus this morning? I dont know where youre at. Youre one of three things today. You are sold out. You are trying to live your life as a 24/7 Christian. You are a stumbler. You have accepted Christ into your life, but you are not living your life for God. In fact, not only is He not driving the car of your life, youve put Him in the trunk so that He cant even tell you where He wants you to go. Or the third thing is that youre a seeker. Youre just checking this God stuff out. Youre like, Whoa! Christmas and Easter, Ive never heard it in such a way. I have a problem. I have a sin problem. I have a sin infection that needs to be taken care of. If you are a seeker today, let Christmas 2010 be the day that you wrapped your life up and you gave it as a gift to God. If you are stumbling, make Christmas of 2010 the day that you said, Jesus, get out of the trunk. Hop up in the drivers seat, and Im getting in the trunk because I have made a mess of my life. I am so tired of trying to do things my own way. Im going to let You take the drivers seat. If youre a 24/7 Christian right now and you have been so busy this Christmas season, I challenge you to fall back in love with your Bible. I challenge you to take the time and sit in front of your Christmas tree-even though Christmas is over-and take five minutes to just say, Thank you so much, God, for what You have done for me. As we close this up, were going to watch a quick video. (Link can be found here: http://sermonspice.com/search?q=christmas ) I want to see if you see yourself in this video. When this video is done, my son is going to come up, and hes going to close us out. Weve already given our offering; weve already had our announcements; so when my son is done, Ill close us in prayer and well leave. Watch this video, and listen to the words of the song that my son sings. As Caleb is getting ready with his guitar, [Ill take a moment to tell you] my son started playing guitar this past year. My wife and I were listening to a song that he wrote. Hes been playing it the last couple weeks. We listened to it, and we were like, You know what? We think that would be a perfect way, a perfect song, for you to play to end our services this Christmas. Caleb, I want you to know Im really proud of you. If you listen to the words of this song, I want you to ask yourself, Are you going to let pride keep you from coming to Jesus Christ? I think thats our main issue as humans. We do not want a God to tell us what to do. I dont know about you, but I know I desperately need a Savior. Please do not let pride keep you from spending eternity with God. (Caleb sings a self-written song here called, I Need You. Lyrics follow the sermon transcript.) Lets close in prayer: Heavenly Father, we just thank You so much, I thank You so much, for the gift that You gave us 2,000 years ago, the plan that You put into action the very moment we brought sin into this universe, that You didnt abandon us-that the red thread of the Biblical message from Genesis all the way through, that one day You would shed Your blood because You loved us so much. Lord, I just pray that this Christmas season we will take time to think, we will take time to meditate, we will take time to take a good look at what we are doing with our lives. If You could die for us, the least that we can do is live for You. We pray this in Jesus name, Amen.
For those who dont know who I am, Im Michael Powers. I am the youth minister here. Im the one they trust to hang with your teenagers and teach them Gods Word. I want you to know that I love my job, and I love this church. It is an honor and a privilege to be able to teach Gods Word to your kids, so thank you for that. To lead into what were going to talk about today, called The Same Old Story, this is an article that I wrote for a publication a couple of years ago. I just wanted to share that with you as we get into the message today. In the 25 years that my wife and I have been doing youth ministry, weve dealt with a lot of teens that have gotten themselves into some dire straits. In fact, I thought there was nothing that could possibly surprise us anymore. I was wrong. There was one teenage girl we know that I have to tell you about. However, before I do, I want you to understand that in our youth ministry, we always strive for confidentiality-to protect both the teen and the teens family; so it is with great trepidation that I share this with you for I know that some of you will figure out who this girl is. I am hoping that by the end of these few pages, you will understand why I had to share what Im about to tell you. Before you rush to judgment, I want you to hang with me here. In fact, more than anything else, I want you to put yourself in this teens shoes. Try to feel what she must be feeling. This young girl is 13 years old, and she came to the stark realization that she is pregnant. Not only does she realize that her life is going to drastically change, but to make matters worse, she is afraid to tell her 19 year old boyfriend. Normally, she would go to her boyfriend with any problem. Hes a pretty stable, understanding, and dependable guy; but this time its different. You see, the baby is not his. She lays awake that first night thinking about all the people she has to face the next day: her parents. Shes always been worthy of the trust her parents have put in her. In fact, other families have remarked to her parents how they wished their daughters were more like her. Now she has to stand before them and explain how she got pregnant. If thats not bad enough, shes going to have to explain to them that the father of the baby is not the young man that her parents think she should marry. Her boyfriend, how does she face her boyfriend? She loves her boyfriend more than anyone-well, almost more than anyone. How is she going to face him? Where is she going to get the courage? It would almost be easier if she could tell him that it was just a big mistake, and that she is so sorry for it; but she cant lie to him. She will have to look into his trusting eyes and tell him that she willfully chose the path that lead to this little life growing inside of her. She knows deep down inside that if she had to do it all over again, she would make the same decision and end up in the same precarious situation. Please, God, please let him understand and not abandon me. I need him so much right now. Her friends, how does she share the news with them? Right or wrong, they have always put her on a pedestal, always looked to her for answers, always modeled their lives after hers; but she knows instinctively that they will not understand. In fact, she knows that she may never be able to explain to them what made her do what she did. She lays there in bed afraid, overwhelmed, and reaching out to God for strength to face what is ahead of her. The next day she finally gets up the courage to tell her boyfriend. He reacts just as she feared he would. He is going to leave her. She becomes distraught and questions God, Why, God? Why? I know that Im in this situation because of a decision that I made, but please dont take my boyfriend away from me. I desperately need him now. This unnamed teen goes to bed that night more afraid than ever, feeling every bit the child that she is. Her name? Normally, I wouldnt give that to you, but in this case she asks that her name be known so that others will understand what she has gone through and will be encouraged. Her name is Mary, and she lived 2,000 years ago. Have you ever thought of the Christmas story in that way? Today as we meditate on this, I hope that youre not like me [in my way of thinking of] The Same Old Story. I mean, were supposed to like Baby Jesus, right? When Christmas comes, we read the Christmas story-something weve heard sometimes almost 100 times, and we get bored with it. Were like, Ive heard this story before. I know how it ends. Well, lets ponder this and see if we really do know the story. Most 13 or 14 year old girls that I know, if an angel appeared to them and said, Hey, were going to put a baby inside your womb, would say, Um, excuse me. Yeah, this aint working for me. How am I gonna fit in my prom dress now? Most teenage girls I would know would be like, Forget this. We have to have a Plan B because this aint happening, but Mary follows and obeys God. I want you to think about this. I dont think we have any clue what she went through, what Joseph went through, to get in this situation and to face what she had to face. I mean how do you tell Joseph? Think about that. How do you tell Joseph? The conversation may have gone something like this, Now, Joe, before you get angry with me, I want you to know that I did not cheat on you. Come on, Mary! You know full well that we have not known each other in the Biblical sense, so the baby cant possibly be mine! Joseph, you have to believe me! I did not do this with anybody! Please, Mary, dont do this to me. You know that I love and care for you, but I cannot listen to this! Okay, Joseph, I wont lie to you. Then she looks into those trusting eyes knowing that what shes going to say is going to sound so crazy. The baby is from God. Come on! Could you imagine what that would have sounded like? Oh…God got you pregnant. Oh…okay. Can you imagine? No matter how much he loved her, he has to be thinking, Youre crazy! This is not happening! The wheels are already turning in Josephs head because he was a righteous man. The Bible says he would dismiss her privately and not make a spectacle of it. She would go though because he would send her away. Then you know the angel appears to Joseph and verifies that what is going on is true. I want you to ponder now with me: have you ever thought of God as a baby, as a fetus, inside the womb of an unwed 13 or 14 year old girl? As a writer, I would never write the Christmas story like this. If Im a writer, and Im writing this story, when God would come to earth, Hed be on a white stallion. As He would come across those streets of gold, every hoof print would send up a spray of golden sparks. He would burst through those gates, and the angels would be singing, almost defining an angelic choir. Hed burst through the universe. The stars would line up, and theyd blink, The King is coming! When He gets to the ozone layer, He would burst through that ozone layer. There would be a sonic boom! The clouds would line up behind Him as He burst through that. It would be like a long flowing white robe. He would circle the earth two or three times, and everybody would know The King of the universe is now coming into His creation! God says, No, thats not how were going to do it. God said, The God of the universe who breathed stars into existence, as it says in Psalms, went ahh, and galaxies and stars came out-He is now dependent on His own oxygen through the umbilical cord of an unwed, pregnant teenager. Thats just crazy to me-how God chose to do that. Have you ever equated God with the birth process? I mean the King of the universe in the process of human birth, and instead of a golden crown on His head, His head is in a kind of cone shape from coming through the birth canal. Instead of priceless paintings hanging on the walls of a palace, there are cobwebs on the walls of a stable and the smell of animal manure and urine. Instead of being placed in the finely-crafted bed by the greatest Craftsman in the land, Hes put in a manger. Doesnt that word sound so pretty-a manger? Do you know what a manger is? A manger is a feeding trough where cows would stick their tongues and lick food. The God of the universe, when He came to earth, He humbled Himself and was placed in a feeding trough. The Bible says (in Colossians 1:17, page 1165 of pew Bible), He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together, that by Christs very word, the universe is holding together. Now, He is dependent on the milk of an unwed teenage girl for His sustenance. Instead of kings, presidents, and world leaders, God chose shepherds. Now, if you know anything about that culture of that day, the shepherds were the lowest of the lowest class of society. They were Bedouins. The word was said like, Oh…its a Bed-o-uin, a shepherd! I want you to think about that. Youre a shepherd, and you have an angel appear to you and give you this announcement. Of all the people on the earth, He chose shepherds, the lowest of the low, to give this good news to. Then, He gives them the concert of their lives. The Heavens open up and angels appear, a Heavenly host, and they sing the first Christmas carols to a bunch of Bedouins. Have you ever seen the Northern Lights? One time in my life, besides on TV and in pictures, Ive seen the Northern Lights. I remember it was about ten below zero. We were up north, and I remember standing in this field and just being mesmerized. There were like curtains of light that just shimmered and changed. It was just amazing to me! I felt like my eyeballs were going to freeze in my head. I was afraid to blink in fear that they would just disappear. It was one of the most amazing experiences Ive ever had. I cant imagine what it would have been like for those shepherds to hear and see those angels on that first Christmas night. Ive worked with youth for too long, and some of you might be offended by the next thing Im going to share with you, and Im okay with that. Pastor Jeffs not here, so I can do what I want (congregation laughing), and Ill pay for it later. Have you ever thought that the God of the universe had a diaper? Human waste, human feces, was next to His skin, and a human being had to wipe Him? You talk about humbling Yourself and coming down into Your creation. If it happened today, Mary would write a best-selling book, I Changed Gods Diaper. Thats what the book would have been about. Can you imagine that? You and I think we know the Christmas story, but theres so much in there! Were going to watch a video now called, A Social Network Christmas, and if that were to happen today-if Jesus were to appear today-with Facebook and all of that, this is probably how it would have went down. Lets watch. (Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sghwe4TYY18 It starts about ¼ of the way through the video) Wasnt that well done? I love it when people who have gifts and abilities given by God use them so that we can be blessed by that. Thats just an awesome video! There is so much more we could share about the Christmas story. Im just going to touch base on a couple of things, but literally it would take us many weeks to even get through all the nuances of whats really going on. If youre going to talk about Christmas, you have to talk about the cross; so were going to make a beeline to the cross. Before we do, I want to share some things with you. Number one, nowhere in the Bible does it say that there are three wise men. Its just the story that we passed down from generation to generation. It says there were wise men, and it says that they had three different types of gifts; but if three wise men were traveling by themselves at that time, they probably would have been beat up, robbed, and wouldnt have made it. They would have had to travel in a caravan. As much as you like the manger scene and the stable, the three wise men were not there at the birth or soon after. The Bible says that He was no longer an infant. He was a young child under the age of two years old, and they visited Him at a house. It doesnt ruin the Christmas story, but when we say its The Same Old Story, we really have not looked at it very closely. I want to share this with you too: I think Mary and Joseph were outcasts. I think Marys family treated them as outcasts, and I think Josephs family did as well. This is conjecture. If you read between the lines, you can see a lot of the stuff that may be going on, so dont take this as this is exactly what the Bible says; but it is said that Mary takes off in a hurry-literally in a hurry-to go visit Elizabeth as soon as she finds out shes pregnant. Just before John the Baptist is born, she leaves. Now, if youre going to spend three months there, why wouldnt you stay for the birth? I think its because she started showing, and the thought of being away from her hometown where maybe theyd have a little more sympathy for her [worried her]. Did you know that if you were an unwed teenage girl back then, they could stone you? You could literally lose your life. Thats how seriously they took an engagement-you were literally married, but you just didnt consummate the marriage at that point. Then she has to tell Joseph, and I think when Joseph gets the message from the angel, I think Josephs family also treated them as outcasts. We always think of the story of Mary on the donkey and basically on her way to give birth right at that moment. They get there and cant find a hotel. All of the sudden, there are no rooms at the inns. Did you know that in Luke it says that while they were there, the days to complete her pregnancy occurred? I think since they were going to Bethlehem where Josephs other relatives would have been, I think that even their own relatives probably did not let them stay at their house. If they did, most houses back then would have had an upper level where the people were and a lower level where they would take the animals in at night if it was a cold night. The body heat from the animals would help heat the house. Either they were totally outcast from even their own families, or they would have said, You know what? You can do that. Maybe not; maybe Im conjecturing too much there. Maybe there was no privacy. How would you like to give birth with all your relatives there for the census? Maybe the lower room was the only place that gave them some privacy. There was so much else going on there, but were going to find out what it would have been like for Jesus growing up. Have you ever thought about being Jesus mother or father? [We always hear] the question asked why is the sky blue except it would have been Mary and Joseph asking Jesus that question because He is God. Have you ever thought of that? Max Lucado had some fun with questions he would have liked to ask Mary: What was it like watching Him pray? How did He respond when He saw other kids giggling during the service at the synagogue? Have you ever thought of that? The God of the universe [is there] and people are disrespecting His message through Gods Word. How would that have affected Him? Did you ever feel awkward teaching Him how He created the world? Did you ever think, Man, the God Im praying to is in the next room? Did you ever try to count the stars with Him and succeed? Did He ever get angry when someone was dishonest with Him? Think of that. Did you ever think, Thats God eating my soup? I wonder if Jesus had a special affinity for lambs. The lamb of God who comes to take away the sins of the world… I wonder if He ever pondered that. Regarding Jesus growing up, the Bible is silent in what happened between the age of 2 and the age of 12. At the age of 12, we know of the story of Jesus at the Temple. Do you know whats interesting about that story? The Bible says that the rabbis were amazed at His answers. Do you know what that tells me? That tells me that the conversation may have started out with Jesus asking them questions, but it turned into them asking a 12 year old boy questions about Gods Word. They were amazed at His answers. How about Jesus as a teenager? Have you ever thought of that? Did Jesus ever wake up and think, This is the day. This is the day that I have made, that I have made. Did he wear a WWID bracelet? What would I do? Could you imagine having to be the sibling of Jesus? The Bible is very clear that there were at least seven kids in the family. Jesus was not an only child. The brothers are all named in Scripture. The sisters arent, so there are at least seven. Can you imagine the pressure of being a brother or sister of Jesus Christ? Why cant you be more like Jesus? Seriously, the pressure to live up to that… We gloss over-we think of Jesus as God, but we fail to ponder what it would have been like to be human because Jesus was fully God and fully human. I cant explain that; I just know thats what Gods Word says-fully God and fully human. Do you think that Jesus was possibly tempted to use spiritual power when He was growing up? When Mom told Him to clean His room-vroom, and it was clean. Do you ever think of that? Do you know why we believe that never happened? Its because of this: In Mark 6:1-3 (page 995 of pew Bibles), it says, Jesus left there and went to His hometown, accompanied by His Disciples. When the Sabbath came, He began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard Him were amazed. Where did this man get these things? they asked. Whats this wisdom that has been given Him, that He even does miracles! Isnt this the carpenter? Isnt this Marys son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Arent His sisters here with us? And they took offense at Him. Now, the Judas mentioned there is not Judas the Iscariot, just a common name. If Jesus were running around doing miracles as a kid, they would have known who He was. They would have recognized and said, Whoa! This guy is special. Sterling North, famous author-if you go into Edgerton, its very prominent that they are proud of their native son, Sterling North. Nazareth would have had a sign, Jesus, the God man, lives here. Do you know what this tells me? This tells me that He acted like any other child. He was a weird child, and I dont mean that in an offensive way. He was definitely strange. He never sinned. He did not run around using His spiritual power. In fact, His brother James who wrote the Book of James did not give his life to Christ until after Jesus died and rose again. How could you be Jesus own brother and not believe He was the Son of God? What did Jesus look like? He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him-nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him. Have you ever looked in the mirror and felt plain, felt average? God in His wisdom made Jesus to look like an average human being. Then there came a day at the age of 30 when the Father told Him, Its time. I want you to think about this. [As God would say to Jesus], All of Your life, Youve been a carpenters son, and Youve grown up in a carpenters shop. Your dad has taught You how to be a carpenter. You love the smell of sawdust. You love having those tools in Your hands. The voice comes from God and says, It is time. What You came here to earth to do, it is now time to accomplish. Jesus, knowing what was ahead of Him, had to walk out of that carpenters shop one day and never look back. It is my guess that when that voice came and God said it was time, He sat down on a bench He had made. How interesting is it that the God of the universe who created that wood is now shaping that wood into something? I always thought how awesome it would be to have something made by Jesus Christ. Could you imagine how much you could get on eBay for something that Jesus made? He sat there, and He probably breathed in the sawdust. He knew what was ahead of Him, and He knew how comfortable it would be to just stay and be comfortable in the surroundings He was used to. He chose, He willingly chose, to walk out of that carpenter shop and head down a path that would lead to a bloody cross because He knew that you and I needed a Savior. If were going to talk about Christmas, we have to talk about the cross. There are so many things were skipping. I want to challenge you-have you fallen out of love with your Bible? Do you love Gods Word? Do you look forward to all those little things that we take for granted that are in there? He comes into Jerusalem on a donkey-please! Hee-haw! A donkey! Not only a donkey, but a colt, a young donkey-do you know how awkward it would be for a full-grown man to ride a young donkey? I think, God, why do you always pick the humble stuff? Because thats who God is. The Last Supper-have you ever thought of this? Jesus Christ, knowing what was coming, not only washed the other Disciples feet, but He washed Judas feet. I cant even imagine what it was like for Judas-knowing what he was about to do-and Jesus humbled Himself and washing his feet. I bet Judas could not even look Him in the eye. The Garden of Gethsemane, fully God, fully human-knowing whats going to happen to Him, He chooses His three best friends, His three closest people. He says, Will you stay up and pray with Me? He goes on a little farther ahead, and He comes back to them asleep. Can you imagine what that would have felt like for Him at the darkest moment of what Hes facing. The Bible says that He was under so much stress and anguish that He literally sweat drops of blood. If you want to Google this, look up hematidrosis. Its a medical term for when you are under so much stress and anxiety that your capillaries actually expand into your sweat glands, and blood mixes with your sweat. Drops of blood come out of your sweat glands. Thats what He was facing because He knew what was coming. Then we pick up the story where Judas comes and betrays Jesus. [Mark 18:3, page 1071 of pew Bibles], So Judas came to the grove, guiding a detachment of soldiers and some officials from the chief priests and Pharisees. They were carrying torches, lanterns and weapons. Jesus, knowing all that was going to happen to Him, went out and asked them, Who is it you want? Jesus of Nazareth, they replied. I am He, Jesus said. (And Judas the traitor was standing there with them.) When Jesus said, I am He, they drew back and fell to the ground. There are two things that I think that are going on here. They heard about this God-man. Hed been doing miracles, raising people from the dead, and stopping storms. They were deathly-afraid to arrest this Man. They thought He was just incinerated with some kind of God magic. When He said that, they were afraid. Do you know what else I think is going on here? I think this is the Old Testament I am. This is the God of the universe proclaiming who He is. When He said I am literally the power of God knocked them on their backs. That's what is going on there. Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it and struck the high priests servant, cutting off his right eat. (The servants name was Malchus.) This always bugged me as a teenager. I was like, Come on! So if Im Peter, and I am loyal to Jesus Christ, and I want to save Him from this, I pull out a sword and am like, Take that! Look at that, Jesus, I just protected You. I cut off his ear! Have you ever thought of whats going on there? I think Peter, in his rage, goes to just literally chop off his head, and the guy saw it coming and did one of these (head dodged the swing of the sword). I want you to think of this: imagine being Malchus. You have come to capture this criminal, and you almost lose your life for it. This criminal reaches down and either picks up the ear and puts it back on your head or just leaves your ear there and puts His hand on your head and heals you. Talk about shocked! I bet you anything he took no part in the rest of what happened. I bet he went off to the side and was like, Whoa! What kind of person can do that? (Matthew 26:52, page 986), Put your sword back in its place, Jesus said to him, for all who draw the sword will die by the sword. Do you think I cannot call on My Father, and He will at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions of angels? But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way? He touched the mans ear and healed him. (Mark 14:48, page 1008), Am I leading a rebellion? said Jesus, that youve come out with swords and clubs to capture Me? Every day I was with you teaching in the temple courts, and you did not arrest Me. But the Scriptures must be fulfilled. Then everyone deserted Him and fled. Everyone. [For] this next verse, you have to be scratching your head here-this random verse. A young man, wearing nothing but a linen garment, was following Jesus. When they seized him, he fled naked, leaving his garment behind. The Bible is not boring, people. Lets think of this, whats going on. They come to get Him; I am; they all fall down on their backs; they get back up; Peter takes out a sword, tries to kill somebody, cuts off his ear, and this God-man picks up the ear or just puts His hand up there and heals him. Then a guy with a bad case of nudity runs through the Garden. Isnt that crazy? I love the little nuances of the Bible. Then the worst part of the story [takes place]. (Mark 14:44, page of 1008), Now the betrayer had arranged a signal with them: The One I kiss is the Man. Arrest Him and lead Him away under guard. Going at once to Jesus, Judas said, Rabbi! and kissed Him. One of the Gospels says that Jesus looked at him and said, You betray the Son of Man with a kiss? Have you ever been betrayed like that? Not by an enemy, not by someone you know or who cant stand you, but by someone who you have considered part of your inner circle. [Imagine] how that would have felt. I personally have felt betrayal like this. This is my oldest son, Caleb. As you can see, I tried to raise him as a Bears fan. I dressed him in all the right clothes. [He had a] happy, happy childhood. He came up to me one day at the age of five or six and said, Dad, I want to be a Packer fan. I was like, Son, the Powers family has been Bears fans for generations, dating back to 300 AD. He was five. He didnt know. I was like, Son, are you sure? Then he said these words to me, Dad…when you were a kid, you grew up in the Chicago area, and that's why youre a Bears fan. I live in Wisconsin! I need to be a Packer fan! I was like, Oh, man! The hardest part now is trying to transition back to the Christmas story when weve just talked about Bears and Packers football, but I have no acute way of doing this; so were just going to transition back to that. Just like we did with Christmas, lets take a quick look at whats really going on here. I want you to think about this. They blindfold Jesus; they spit on Him; they rip His beard out of His face. Soldiers stripped Him and put on a scarlet robe and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on His head. They put a staff in His right hand, knelt in front of Him, and mocked Him. Hail, King of the Jews. They spit on him and took the staff and struck Him on the head again and again. The crown of thorns is no coincidence. (Genesis 3:17, page 3 of pew Bibles), Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. From the very first sin, thorns were part of the curse. Thats the crown that they give Jesus. To mock the God of the universe, the God of the universe who is going to give us an incredible gift at Christmastime, the gift of His own Son-He is going to sacrifice His own Son. He is going to pour all of His wrath and fury toward sin on His own Son; and Jesus is there, and puny little humans are going to mock Him, pull out His beard, and spit on Him. Have you ever been spit on? One time in my life when I was a young man about the age of 10 or 11, a teenage boy spit on me for no other reason than he wanted to have some fun. I remember the smell of that spit. I remember how it felt on my face. Most of all, I remember the shame that I felt that this kid was bigger than I was, and I couldnt do anything to him. I just had to take it. Heres the difference: Jesus Christ was God. He could have incinerated them with one word, and He sat there and took it because He knew there was no Plan B. There was just Plan A. I have to go to the cross. I have to have this perfect sacrifice. I have to have God place the sin of the world on Me so that those people can spend eternity with Me if they so choose. (Isaiah 50:6, page 728 of pew Bibles), I offered My back to those who beat Me and My cheeks to those who pulled out My beard. I didnt hide My face from mocking and spitting. (Isaiah 52:14, page 731) Just as there were many who were appalled at Him-His appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and His form marred beyond human likeness… What they did to Him, not only could you recognize it wasnt Jesus, the carpenters son, you couldnt even recognize that He was a human being anymore. I will spare you the details of what they did with the whipping. Isnt it ironic that wood, a hammer, and nails were the instruments that were used to kill the carpenter? They put Jesus on that cross, and they stripped Him naked. You dont see that in the pictures because nobody wants a rated X picture in their living room, but He was stripped naked in front of everybody to see-in front of His own mother to see. The Bible says that for three hours it grew dark. Then God placed your sin and my sin on the back of Jesus. I want you to think about this. I cant imagine what it would feel like to be a perfectly sinless being and have even one molecule of sin put inside of me; but to have every sin, every murder, every rape, every incest-every horrible thing thats been done from the start of eternity to whenever Jesus comes back-placed on His body, inside His body. The Bible literally says that God had to turn His back on His Son. Jesus cries out and says, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? which literally translated means, Daddy, Daddy, why have You abandoned Me? God couldnt even look at His Son. The only way I can explain what that feels like-and this will not do justice of it-is when my sons were little, when Caleb was about six and Connor, my middle child, was about three, they were in the backyard. Connor picked up a stick, and Caleb picked up our pruning shears. Connor looked at his older brother and said, Here, cut the stick. Caleb, trying to cut the stick, accidently cut into his delicate little three year old fingers. I remember hearing the blood-curdling scream from my backyard. I looked out the window, and I seen my son jumping up and down. As I ran to the door-and this sounds a little funny, but at the time it was not funny at all-he was screaming at the top of his lungs, Daddy! Daddy! I need a Band-Aid! At the time, my heart was just breaking because in his mind were two things: get my dad here and if I can get a Band-Aid, all this pain will go away. Everything turned out okay. I thought he would lose part of his fingers, but the doctor just did a wonderful job. You cant even see the scars anymore, but it occurred to me that at that moment, my precious three-year old who was screaming out for his daddy-if I would have walked out that door, looked at it, walked back in, closed the door and locked it, thats what it would have felt like for Jesus Christ to have His own Father have to look away from Him. Gods punishment that we deserve for eternity-that I know myself, I know I deserve an eternity separated from God-God said, Nope, Im going to put My wrath on My very own Son so that you can make a choice. You can choose to spend eternity with Me. Do you know what else I think happens here? I think that literally Jesus heart just ruptures in His chest. In Psalms (40:12, page 556), it says, For evils beyond number have surrounded me; iniquities have overtaken me, and I cannot see; they are more numerous than the hairs of my head; my heart has failed me. You can look up a medical fact that peoples hearts can just burst in their bodies because of that stress, because of not only the sin but [because of] God turning His back. If you were already dead, they sent a Centurion. Normally, they would have broken condemned ones legs if they were still alive. When you were crucified, every breath you take, you have to push up on that bottom nail to release the pressure on your diaphragm to take in one breath. Then youd hold it as long as you could, and then youd drop back down. [You have to do this for] every single breath. He was already dead. They didnt have to break his legs. Thats what they would have done because the Sabbath was coming. When they pierced His side with a spear, a sudden flow of blood and water [came down]. This is a medical fact. If your heart bursts-if your heart ruptures-inside of your chest, thats what happens to your blood. It separates into the serum and the water. You know what? I am so glad that's not where the story ends. All of the talk about if the Jewish people killed Jesus, did the Romans kill Jesus-do you know who killed Jesus? My sin. Im the one who pounded the nails. Im the one who made Him go through that because of my sin. When He rose from the dead and He conquered sin, He conquered death and proved He was God. Now I have a choice. The Bible says that you and I are enemies of God. Thats not good news. If there is one person you dont want to have as an enemy, its the God of the universe. God said, I have come through this sacrifice. You no longer have to be an enemy of Mine. You can be My friend. I will adopt you, and you can be a Kings kid. You know why Jesus cried out, Daddy, Daddy, why have You abandoned Me? He screamed those words so that you and I will never ever have to say those words. You have a choice. You never have to feel like God has abandoned you. If youre here today, and I dont know where each of you are at, and you know you have never allowed Jesus to wash your sins away, He can take those rags that are dirty and dark in your life, and He can wash them in His blood. He can make them as clean as snow. He can erase every single sin you have ever committed. When you stand before a holy judge named the God of the universe, He will pronounce you not guilty. Those chains that you have around you of sin, the cross will bust through those. The question I have for you is do you have Jesus this morning? I dont know where youre at. Youre one of three things today. You are sold out. You are trying to live your life as a 24/7 Christian. You are a stumbler. You have accepted Christ into your life, but you are not living your life for God. In fact, not only is He not driving the car of your life, youve put Him in the trunk so that He cant even tell you where He wants you to go. Or the third thing is that youre a seeker. Youre just checking this God stuff out. Youre like, Whoa! Christmas and Easter, Ive never heard it in such a way. I have a problem. I have a sin problem. I have a sin infection that needs to be taken care of. If you are a seeker today, let Christmas 2010 be the day that you wrapped your life up and you gave it as a gift to God. If you are stumbling, make Christmas of 2010 the day that you said, Jesus, get out of the trunk. Hop up in the drivers seat, and Im getting in the trunk because I have made a mess of my life. I am so tired of trying to do things my own way. Im going to let You take the drivers seat. If youre a 24/7 Christian right now and you have been so busy this Christmas season, I challenge you to fall back in love with your Bible. I challenge you to take the time and sit in front of your Christmas tree-even though Christmas is over-and take five minutes to just say, Thank you so much, God, for what You have done for me. As we close this up, were going to watch a quick video. (Link can be found here: http://sermonspice.com/search?q=christmas ) I want to see if you see yourself in this video. When this video is done, my son is going to come up, and hes going to close us out. Weve already given our offering; weve already had our announcements; so when my son is done, Ill close us in prayer and well leave. Watch this video, and listen to the words of the song that my son sings. As Caleb is getting ready with his guitar, [Ill take a moment to tell you] my son started playing guitar this past year. My wife and I were listening to a song that he wrote. Hes been playing it the last couple weeks. We listened to it, and we were like, You know what? We think that would be a perfect way, a perfect song, for you to play to end our services this Christmas. Caleb, I want you to know Im really proud of you. If you listen to the words of this song, I want you to ask yourself, Are you going to let pride keep you from coming to Jesus Christ? I think thats our main issue as humans. We do not want a God to tell us what to do. I dont know about you, but I know I desperately need a Savior. Please do not let pride keep you from spending eternity with God. (Caleb sings a self-written song here called, I Need You. Lyrics follow the sermon transcript.) Lets close in prayer: Heavenly Father, we just thank You so much, I thank You so much, for the gift that You gave us 2,000 years ago, the plan that You put into action the very moment we brought sin into this universe, that You didnt abandon us-that the red thread of the Biblical message from Genesis all the way through, that one day You would shed Your blood because You loved us so much. Lord, I just pray that this Christmas season we will take time to think, we will take time to meditate, we will take time to take a good look at what we are doing with our lives. If You could die for us, the least that we can do is live for You. We pray this in Jesus name, Amen.
Lets open our Bibles up to Luke 10. We are in a series on love. Were talking about what love looks like and the different attributes of love. The highest form of love is the word agape. Weve learned together that agape is not a feeling or an emotion. Its not what Hollywood would like us to believe. It is a decision, an act of the will. Its not self-serving; it is giving. It seeks the highest and best for another. It is given unconditionally. Therefore, agape love can be extended to strangers and even enemies, and thats what Christ has called us to-His highest form of love. This morning, were talking about the fact that love is sacrificial. There were a couple of news stories this weekend that were heroic. Both of the heroes in this story were women. One of them was in Florida. A man walked into a school board meeting. He was disgruntled that his wife had been fired. He painted a V on the wall, circled the V for vendetta, and he explained that he was going to take his revenge. Did you see that on the news? Yeah. One of the school board members did something very brave. He said, Listen, I signed the paper, so let these others go. Let them go. Dont keep them. Im the one you want. Im the guy. The gunman didnt listen to him. He waved that and said no. A woman came back in and snuck up behind him with only her purse. Maybe you saw that. She raised her purse to try to strike the gun out of his hand. He held on to the gun; she fell down and was a sitting duck. Fortunately, he didnt shoot her, but he told her to leave again; so she got another chance to leave. The point is even though she failed, that was heroic. She could have died. He could have easily shot her, but she thought, Those are my friends, and I cant stand the thought of them being killed; so Im going to do what I can with what I have to try to save their lives. Just to finish the story out in case you missed that, he then started firing at point blank range at every single one of the board members. He killed nobody. He pretty much missed all of them. By this time, because of the struggle with the woman, the security guard was able to get there. He (the security guard) shot him, and then the gunman turned his last bullet on himself and ended up killing himself; but no school board members were harmed. What a heroic thing that she did! The second story happened Ohio. This received a little bit less publicity. There was a patrolman who was on a routine stop. He had cause to frisk a man, and in the process of frisking him, the man turned violent. He attacked the officer. It wasnt an attack where he was trying to get away; the officer said the man was trying to kill him. You could see in the video where he was continually reaching for the officers gun. The officer was literally in a struggle for his life. A woman saw the chaos, pulled the car over, and thought to herself, What if that were my father? What if that were my brother? She got out of her car and went over to the man who was attacking the police officer. She began pounding him in the back of his head. She was hitting him with everything she had, and that caused enough of a distraction that by then another officer had arrived there, tackled him, and subdued him. She helped save that officers life. Friends, we dont think of those two heroic acts as love, but they were. Those were examples of agape love-seeking the highest and best for another, laying down your life if necessary. Jesus says, No one has greater agape than this that he would lay down his life for his friends. He said the highest example of agape is someone who is willing to lay down his or her life for a fellowman. Those two people literally were willing to lay down their lives for their fellowman-one for friends and colleagues and another for a total stranger. Were going to talk about that this morning, and were going to look at the example of the Good Samaritan in the Gospel of Luke. Were going to see three different groups of people, three philosophies of life, and were going to see where you are in this Parable. Jesus is asked a question by a lawyer in Verse 25 (page 1028 of pew Bibles). It says, On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. Teacher, he asked, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Thats a very important question, and its a very important answer [that follows]. Jesus says, What is written in the Law? He replied. How do you read it? The Law-meaning the first five books of the Bible. He answered: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and Love your neighbor as yourself. This word, again, is the word agape, Agape the Lord with everything you have and your fellowman as yourself. You recall that Jesus gave this answer as to what was the greatest Command. A couple weeks ago we talked about love. You have answered correctly, Jesus replied. Do this and you will live. But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, And who is my neighbor? He was either trying to save face because he answered his own question and wanted to say, Well, this was where I was going to go. Heres my real question. Or, he could be trying to see if he is in fact keeping that Command, if he is showing love to his neighbor and asking Christ to define who a neighbor is. Now, Jesus response is the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Understand-this is very important-the story is a direct response to the question, Who is my neighbor? not, How do I inherit eternal life? Jesus is not saying, Go out and be a good neighbor, and youll have eternal life. He is answering the question in the story of who is my neighbor? He says, A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. Now this, even though its a Parable, really happened all the time in this stretch of road. For hundreds of years, this road from Jerusalem to Jericho had a stretch of it called the Way of Blood. It was named that because so many people were robbed there or lost their lives. There were all kinds of twists, turns, caves, cliffs, and places for robbers to hide. They would hide and then they would jump out and attack. They would take the money and sometimes beat and kill their victims. Thus, it was called the Way of Blood. To this day, you can ride down this road, and you can see all those twists and turns and all those places to hide; so the lawyer would know full well what Jesus was talking about in this story. It says in Verse 31, A priest happened to be going down the same road. Lucky day-a man of God is coming your way, a servant of God; so if you were dead by the side of the road, I guess maybe a doctor or nurse would be your first choice, but to have a priest coming down, at least he could pray for you, right? Thats not bad. …and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite… A Levite assisted the priest. Their job was to help in preparation for worship and to clean up after worship; so, again, this is good-another man of God, another servant of God, coming down the road. But he too… passed by on the other side. Hes 0/2. Time is of the essence; life is ebbing away. Were quick to judge these two and think, Well, I would have helped. I would have done something, but dont be so sure. I was coming to our staff meeting this week; and I was not late, but I was not early. I dont think its good when the boss shows up late for staff meetings, so I really try to be there on time. Im in a task mode, and I really want to get to the church to be there on time. I kinda want to get organized, review minutes from last weeks meeting, look at the agenda for this weeks meeting, and make sure my ducks are in a row. I see a van, and hes stuck in the snow. There is a woman behind the wheel giving it gas, and he is behind the van pushing. Its one of those things where it looks like theres a high probability hes going to get out. He wouldnt need a tow truck or anything, and I thought, Should I help him? Should I stop? I thought, You know, Im running late. If I stop to help him, Im going to be late for the staff meeting for sure. Besides that, I dont have my gloves. Its a really cold day. Ive had frostbite, and my hands get cold really easy. You dont want to run the risk of catching it again the second time. Its really easy after the first time. I dont have my gloves. I have on my dress shoes. I have no traction in my dress shoes. I really need boots to get some grip. I would just slip and slide in the snow in these shoes. Besides that, theres a lot of traffic in this intersection. Im sure somebody will stop. Somebodys going to stop, so I drove by. Now, I knew exactly what I was going to preach on this weekend too. Dont think that didnt run through my head. The Saturday night crowd literally gasped when I said I drove by. They were like, Well, were not sure we want to hear the rest of the sermon from you! You hypocrite! I said, Now, listen to me, you Saturday night crowd, some of you have done the same thing! Dont tell me you havent! There have been plenty of times when Ive stopped or assisted somebody who was in need of help, but there have been times when you-for whatever reason-were running late, not feeling good-whatever the reason is, youve not stopped. Sometimes youve stopped; sometimes youve helped when you seen a need. Other times, youve passed by, so dont point fingers. Three pointing back at you. Anyway, so they stayed, and I continued to have service that night in spite of my lack of being a Good Samaritan in that scenario. Thats an excuse. Im thinking, Well, Im late. What do I know about medical treatment? Im not a doctor. It looks like hes already gone. Hes beyond help. Im just busy. Whatever the excuse is, they pass by. Then one who is a Samaritan stops. The Samaritans and the Jews were enemies. They were enemies on the basis of religion and on race. The Samaritans were half Gentile, half Jew and were looked down upon by distain. Historically, we can read about the tension between the two. In light of that, Jesus picks on the Samaritan. He says, This is our hero in the story. He does that on purpose. He is saying, Listen, the neighbor isnt the person who looks like you, acts like you, thinks like you, and lives by you. The Samaritan is somebody who is very different from you. Your neighbor could be somebody of a different race, of a different religion, of a different country. Its very important we understand that. So the Samaritan, he stops. It says, …as he traveled, he came to where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. This word is the word compassion, and it means a gut feeling. It literally means the word bowels, gut. He had a feeling in his gut that he had to help this guy. What if this were my son? What if this were my father or my friend? Or what if it were me? Id want somebody to help me, so he had compassion and [made the decision to] stop. Then look at what he did. He bandaged his wounds. Hes going to take his time; hes going to take his resources. He probably ripped up clothing strips, warmed tourniquets, and stopped the bleeding. He bandaged the wounds. Then he poured in the oil and wine. The Greek used the word pouring in the lavish sense. He wasnt sparing this resource. Oil would have been for medicinal purposes of southing the wound. The wine would have been an antiseptic. Then he put the man on his donkey… In other words, Ill walk while he rides. He took him to an inn and took care of him. He continued to use his time and resources to care for the man. The next day he gave him two silver coins. Each coin was the equivalent of one days wage, so he gave him two days wages. He gave it to the innkeeper and said, Look after him, and when I return, Ill reimburse you for an extra expense that you might have. So this man certainly went above and beyond the call of duty. Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers? Jesus asked. The expert in the law replied… Not being able to bring himself to say the Samaritan, he simply says, The one who had mercy on him. Jesus told him, Go and do likewise. Go and do likewise-what does that mean? Does Jesus mean we go to the most dangerous part of town, wait until somebody is mugged and then help them afterwards? No. Hes saying, When you see a need, and its in your power to do so, help your neighbor-even if theyre a stranger, even if theyre of a different race, religion, or country, help your neighbor. Your fellow man is your neighbor. Go and do likewise. Now, I said wed see three groups in this Parable, and I want to talk about those three groups. You can identify where you are in these three. The first group is represented in the robbers. The robbers were the takers. Their motto is whats yours is mine. What is yours is mine, and Im going to take it. This could be something overt such as a criminal act where somebody outright steals or embezzles like a Bernie Madoff, a white-collar crime, that kind of thing, or a robbery. There is another kind of robbing people of their time, talents, and resources. Youve heard of co-dependent relationships where one is helping out another one too much, and that person becomes dependent on them. Theyre going beyond the normal to the point where its hurting the recipient. There are these dependent ones who think the world owes him or her something. He thinks their country owes him something. She thinks somebody else owes her something, and she becomes dependent. The key word here, with the yours is mine, is entitlement. I feel I am owed this. It could happen in a parent/child relationship where a parent goes beyond the role of being a parent and starts crippling that child. It could even go into adulthood. The parent is continuing to provide for the child, and the child thinks, Well, I deserve it. Im entitled to it because youre my mom or youre my dad. No, youre not entitled to it. You need to get off your butt and do something for yourself. But that entitlement mentality says, Well, Im owed this. Whats yours is mine. It could be in a co-worker relationship. Maybe you have a person in the office that is not carrying their weight. There are other workers who are doing the work [of this person], and this person is allowing them to. They are in a co-dependent relationship, I deserve this. Ive been here a long time, so he lets others do his work. It could be in a spousal relationship. Now, no elbows-I dont want to see any elbows. If you have to elbow, elbow outside. Take it outside, not in the church. One spouse is doing everything for the other spouse, and the other spouse does nothing in return. He or she doesnt reciprocate. He says, Well, you know, Im married to you. Im your responsibility. It could be in a friendship relationship where its just a one-way street. One in the relationship just takes, takes, takes, and the other is give, give, give; and its never reciprocated. It could be in all of these different relationships that we have in life where there are takers. How many of you know some takers today? Sure, we can identify with takers, right? Their mentality is whats yours is mine, and the key word is entitlement. There is a second group in this story. It is the keepers. Sadly, the majority of people fall into this category-the keepers. The keeper says, Whats mine is mine. Thats the Levite and the priest. Its my time and my resources, and I dont have time to deal with you. Youre not a priority in my life. I have things I have to do. I have places I have to be. Im sorry that happened to you, but everybody has to look out for him or herself. The key word in this mindset is survival. Its a survival mentality. It says, Look, I work hard for what I get. Whats mine is mine. The number one goal and objective is to hold on to what is yours. Ive worked for it. Its mine! Im going to keep it. Your number one objective in life is to keep what youve earned. My little nephews were two and three years old when one of them was dragging the other through the house. He was holding onto the ball while the other was trying to take it away and screaming, MINE!!! Thats one thing when youre two and three, but sometimes we do that into adulthood. We can take that into our senior years-that mentality that says, Mine!! The problem with the keeper mentality is we form blinders, and we only see ourselves. Its that scrooge mindset. They show up to get money for charities, and he says, I wish to be left alone. In other words, Ive made my money. Im taking care of myself. They can take care of themselves. We have a cold heart, an insensitive heart to the needs that are around us. Im listening to a recording of a woman on the radio who is kind of an extreme example of this. She was very upset, and she called into the television station to complain. She said (in Pastors best Southern female accent), Im watching television, and you interrupt my show for your stupid tornado warning! Youre telling me about a tornado thats touching down in a city where I dont even live! And do you know what was on my TV? Criminal Minds. You interrupted Criminal Minds. Ive been waiting all week to watch that show, and you interrupt my show to tell me about a stupid tornado thats not even where I live! I dont know those people! I dont care about those people! I care about Criminal Minds. Itd be different if it were a tornado where I live! Then Id pay attention to it, but it wasnt where I live. I dont care about your tornado! Dont interrupt Criminal Minds! She went on and on again, sometimes saying words in French. Somebodys house could blow away. Somebody could die in a tornado, and I dont care as long as I get to see the next episode of Criminal Minds! The problem with this keeper mindset is youre only concerned with yourself. Youre narrow-minded, and you turn a blind eye to the needs around you. You pass by those needs all the time. What did Jesus say about keepers? Remember, He addresses keepers directly. He said, Whoever wants to keep his life will… what? Lose it. Whoever loses his life for My sake will find it into eternal life. The irony is you want to keep life? You want to hoard everything like the man in the Parable who says, I have so much. What will I do? Give it away? No. Ill build bigger barns. There Ill store all my grain, and Ill say, Eat, drink and be merry. Take life easy. God says (Luke 12:20), You fool, this very night, your soul will be required of you. Then who will get what you have saved for yourself? That keeper mentality is where the majority of the world is-in this survivor mold. There is this pride that says, This is mine, and you cant take it. Ive earned this! This belongs to me! I have a pretty easy-going puppy at home. Shes pretty mild-mannered and most of the time is afraid of the cat; but if the cat comes around her bone, Rrrrrr. Shell give a growl, and that's what people do. Youre pretty nice and mild-mannered, but if you try to take whats mine, Rrrrrr. The claws come out and the teeth snarl and growl. Its the keeper mentality. Some of you today are keepers. Then, today, there is a third group were going to talk about. This is represented by the Samaritan. They are the givers. The giver mentality says, What is mine is yours. The key word for the giver is responsibility. The giver says, I have a responsibility to my fellow man. I am a steward of what Ive been entrusted of. My resources, my time, my talent, my treasures are not my own. I am a steward of them. Ive been given them by God, and God expects me to use them wisely. One of the things God expects me to do is not only have enough for my needs, but to be able to help the needs of people that are around me. Invest my time, invest my talents, invest my resources and treasures to help people who have needs-to be a good neighbor. So he says, Whats mine is yours. I will share. I will give what I have. I recognize my responsibility to my fellow man, and Im going to do something about that. Have you followed in the news this new development? Its an excellent development that was started by Warren Buffett and Bill Gates called The Giving Pledge. What theyre doing is theyre contacting billionaires around the world. I dont know if youve received a call yet; I have not yet been called. Im waiting. Maybe youve already been called (congregation laughing). Theyre contacting these billionaires, and they had this billionaire summit. Oprah was there, and T Boone Pickens, Mayor Bloomberg from New York, Ted Turner, Warren Buffett, and Jimmy Buffett. I dont know if he was there or not, but he probably should have been. People we dont know were there too-David Rockefeller-and all these big wigs. Theyre saying, Look, we have more money than we can ever spend in a thousand lifetimes. In the past, the strategy for a billionaire has been to get all we can, can all we get, amass this fortune, die, and leave it to your heirs so they can squander it. That has pretty much been how things have worked. But, they said, Lets change that. Were asking you to make a pledge that says in your lifetime or upon your death, you are going to give at least 50 percent of your fortune away to needs around the world. Youre going to help with disease; youre going to help with poverty, things like that. Youre going to leave your inheritance to make the world a better place. They are signing the pledge. The latest one was Mark Zuckerberg from Facebook. He is a young man, so he still has a lot of years to earn money. He signed the pledge saying, Im going to give it away. They are taking response, and they are just projecting all the billions and billions of dollars these guys have. Theyre probably worth trillions if you add all their income together. Theyre saying, Weve projected it out over the course of a lifetime of how many hundreds of billions of dollars will be given away to charities, non-profits, and causes around the world. Theyre going to make our world a better place for generations to come. I personally think thats great. I think thats wonderful. Theyre getting it. Theyre saying, Look, we have a responsibility. We have been trusted with a lot. Were not billionaires here today. Im not aware of any billionaires in our congregation. If you are one, please let me know. I want to talk to you about phase four (congregation laughing), okay? Lets just end the misery for all of us right now. Help us out. This responsibility-theyre saying, Well sign this pledge. Friends, we may not be millionaires or billionaires, but we have something we can give. We have talents; we have resources; we have treasures we can share. So you have to ask yourself this question: Which one am I in this story? Am I a taker? Do I operate with a sense of Whats yours is mine? Do you have that entitlement mentality? Or are we keepers? Whats mine is mine, and Im going to hold on to it. Are we in that survival mentality? Or, are we where Christ wants us to be? Are we givers-even if we dont have a lot? We understand responsibility, and we say, Whats mine is yours. Ill share what I have. Ill give what I have. Only you can decide. Im not going to ask for a raise of hands. Only you can decide where you are. By the grace of God, we can all move towards that last quality of being givers. Now in this Passage, there is something I want to go back to before we close. There is a question he asks. He says, What must I do? Ive always taught you salvation is not something you do. Its something you receive by faith. It is by grace; it is not through works, so you might read this and say, Well, is Jesus contradicting that? Is He saying, You can earn… because He says, Love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, your neighbor as yourself, and youll live. Youre correct. You will live. Well, that is what Jesus is saying. He is saying, Do this. You love the Lord, your God, all the time, with everything you have, every moment, every decision, and your neighbor as yourself. Guess what? You will live a sinless life, and you will merit eternal life; so thats eternal life. The good news is if you are perfect and you always seek God… The bad news is all of you have been disqualified a long, long time ago and continue to be disqualified all the time. None of us always seek God. None of us always love God. None of us always love our fellowman. There have been times you and I have passed by on the other side. There have been times our neglect has contributed to the pain and loss of another-sins not just of commission but of omission, things we dont do that we should. All of us in this room-when you start, you have a clean slate; but at some point in your life, usually pretty early on, youre going to sin. Youre going to break the Law of God. What he is saying to this guy, this is really one of the premises of the story, is this man knows truthfully that he does not measure up to the Samaritan Jesus talked about. He can truthfully say, Ive not been that kind of guy. Ive not been the person Jesus talks about; therefore, I dont measure up. So what do you do when you dont measure up? Thats why we need a Savior. Because Jesus did come and get it right. From the moment He was born until the time He died, He always sought the will of the Father. He always loved with agape love. He always served His fellowman. He took His perfect and sinless life and offered it on the cross in exchange for our sin. That's why Paul writes this Passage in the Book of Philippians 2:1-11 (page 1162 of pew Bibles). In this short Passage is the entirety of the Gospel. Paul takes us from the preincarnate Christ, the Jesus before He comes to earth and takes on flesh, to the manger and all the way to the cross and the resurrection-this panorama view. He says, If theres any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from His love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love… the same agape, …being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should not only look to his own interests but also to the interests of others. He addresses in those two verses both takers and keepers. He says, This is not what youre to be. Youre to be like Christ. Youre to be givers. Your attitudes should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped… or taken advantage of. …but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man… Thats Christmas right there. Those two verses are Christmas verses. We dont associate that with Baby Jesus in the manger, but it is. Its talking about His incarnation. He went from Heaven, being equal with God, to the very nature of His servant, …being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death-even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in Heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. The ultimate in agape, the ultimate in sacrificial love as Jesus laid down His life for you and me who fell so short, who fall so far short, of the glory of God that we could know grace and forgiveness. Were going to conclude this message with a meditation. Its a little different than what wed normally watch. This is our way of responding to Gods invitation. After we watch this meditation, I will lead us in prayer. Then well take care of some other business before we go home today, but lets reflect on this right now.
If somebody says to you, What Im about to say is the most important thing, then youre all ears, right? If a teacher says, What Im about to tell you, class, is the most important thing you need to know about this class, you better take some notes. If your coach says, What Im about to tell you is the most important part of being on this team or playing on this team-what Im about to say is the most important thing, [youre going to listen intently]. If your mom or dad says, Listen, Junior, the most important part of life is… youd better listen because the words that are about to come out of their mouths are extremely important because of what theyve just said. Theyve prefaced the comment by saying, This is the most important thing. Jesus was once asked, What is the most important Commandment? In other words, whats the most important thing a human being can do? We know all the Commandments are important, but what is the most important one? Lets go ahead and put that Scripture on the wall please, Mark 12:30 (page 1005 of pew Bibles). Jesus says the most important thing we can do is to love the Lord our God with all our hearts, with all our souls, with all our minds, and with all our strength. He says then to love your neighbor as yourself. Those are the basic Commandments. If youll do those things-youll love God and youll love your neighbor-then really all the other Commandments will fall in line and take care of themselves. Weve been learning that the kind of love God has called us to in the Bible is the word agape. Its different from some of the words we associate with love. Its different from friendship love; its different from romantic love. Its more than just a feeling, an emotion. Love is a decision. Agape love is an act of your will. Agape love does not seek its own, but it seeks the good of another. Agape love is expressed unconditionally. In other words, its given regardless of the response of lack thereof of the recipient of that love. The Bible says God is agape; so when we practice agape love, we are being like our Father who is in Heaven. He says, Youre to love one another, and we are also to love God with an agape love-an agape love that obeys Him regardless of circumstances, agape love that loves Him unconditionally; yet some of us have a love that is very conditional towards God. We have an I love God because… or I love God if… I love God if He answers my prayers. I love God when things go my way. Listen, its easy to love God when life is going good. If youre healthy, your job is going well, theres money in the bank, the marriage is going good, and the kids are turning out terrific, its easy to love God in those circumstances. Its hard not to love God when it looks like everything you do in life has the Midas touch and its turning to gold. Oh, Gods blessing me and prospering me. I love Him so much! What about if your health begins deteriorating? What about if the marriage starts crumbling, the children arent turning out the way theyre supposed to, or we lose our job or our money in the bank? What then? Do we still love God in the same servant way? Do we still love Him and serve Him, or is our love conditional? There are people that arent here this morning because it was cold, there is blowing snow, and it wasnt safe. There are other people that arent here this morning because their hearts are cold. They said, Oh, if this is what it means to serve God and love God-look, Ive been faithful to God. Ive served God. Ive had faith, and this is how Hes repaid me? He hasnt answered my prayers. Hes allowed me to go through this hardship, loss and difficulty. If this is what it means to be a Christian, then I want no part of it. Theyve stopped praying; theyve stopped reading their Bibles; theyve stopped attending church; theyve stopped worshipping the Lord altogether because theyre angry. Anger is a demand. They say, God, You have treated me unfairly. In any relationship, if you have somebody that you love and trust and they betray you, it hurts; and the natural tendency is to avoid them. Maybe if were going to get really dark, maybe you want to get back at them in some way. Sometimes people feel that way. Well, what do you do if you feel like the person thats let you down is God? How do you get back at Him? His passive-aggressive behavior, I just wont worship Him! Im going to display my anger. Youve betrayed me! Youve betrayed me so Im going to write off Christianity, even if its for a time because I have to work through this anger that I have towards God who has let me down. Friends, in that situation then, our love is a conditional love, isnt it? Were loving God because; were loving God if-were not simply loving him with agape love. Were not loving God with the highest form of love. There are many Passages we could look at, many stories we could look at today, but I want to tell you a story of three young men. These three young men were raised in decency. They were raised in peace and prosperity-all at a time when their country certainly wasnt serving God, but economically they were not in a hardship. They were living lives of relative affluence. They lived in the prime of their lives. These young men Im talking about were in the ages of 15-20. They were just beginning to hit their prime. There came a day without notice that their country was invaded by a king. This king was set on world domination. He came into their city, and he ravaged it. He destroyed their temple, and he took them captive, and he took them to his land. Of course, thats better than being killed; but still you are now in exile. You are taken from your home. These men were forced to go to a school. Once they saw their physical prowess and their mental abilities, they were forced to go to a school where they would go through a three-year intensive training program. They would learn the language of that country. They would learn the customs and the cultures of that country. They would learn the religion of that country. They would even have to change their names. Their names, by the way, were Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. You still might not know who Im talking about, but their names were taken from them and they were given the names of the gods of Babylon. One became Shadrach (formerly Hananiah); the other Meshach (formerly Mishael); and the third one Abednego (previously Azariah). They were training to serve King Nebuchadnezzar. [They were] doing the best they could in adverse circumstances, when all of the sudden things went wrong. They received some very disturbing news from the throne. Nebuchadnezzar had a dream; it was a bad dream. It was one of those dreams that mean something. This was not a heartburn dream; this was not an I ate something bad before I went to sleep kind of dream. Nebuchadnezzar was a religious man. He was a polytheist; he believed in many different gods, and one of the gods was trying to tell him something. He called his wise men, his soothsayers, and astrologers, and they all gather around him. He said, Listen, you have to tell me what my dream means, or youre going to die-every single one of you. Unless one of you tells me what my dream means, all of you will die. Youre on the payroll, and if I cant count on you at the time I need you the most, why do I have you? Theyre stumbling, fumbling, and bubbling. They were like, Whats he talking about? Can you tell us the dream first, King? Tell us the dream, and then well interpret the dream. He said, No, no, no. Thats not how its going to work. You tell me the dream first. You tell me what I dreamt, and then you tell me what it means. That's the only way Ill know that your interpretation of the dream is authentic. They said, Well only the gods could do that, and the gods dont walk among men. He said, You know what youre doing? Youre stalling for time. You sleep on what I said because, mark my words, you will die. Word gets back to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and their friend Daniel that they are going to be executed. When Daniel hears the news, he said, Pray. Pray that I will have the answer for the dream, that we wont die. Daniel doesnt want to die, so God gives Daniel the revelation. Daniel sees the same dream. He comes back and he asks for the ear of Nebuchadnezzar, and he tells him the dream. Were not going to go into great detail on the dream, but the dream represented the nations that would come. Right now, it was the nation of Babylon, and he was the head of gold. Then would come the nation of the Medes and the Persians, represented by the upper body. Then would follow another nation that was represented in the legs, and that would be the Greek Empire under Alexander the Great. Now, understand that these men have not been born, and these kingdoms have not yet arisen; but God is giving Nebuchadnezzar a panoramic view of history. Then the feet represent the Roman Emperor. That will come, and then that will eventually go as well. This statue is going to be destroyed by a stone, and this stone is going to grow and become a great kingdom; and that is the Kingdom of God. That is the Kingdom of the Messiah that will never end. When Nebuchadnezzar realizes Daniels told him the dream, he said, You are now my number one guy. Youre going to be the head of Babylon. You will answer only to me. Then Daniel said, What about my friends: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego? Theyre leaders. Theyre smart. He said, Them too. They can have jobs with you, and they rose in the administration. They had very prominent important jobs in Babylon, the great world power. Time passes, and everything is going well-I guess-as well as it could go when youre far from home and removed from your culture. Theyre still practicing their faith the best they can in the midst of this Pagan society under the rule of this egotistical, temperamental dictator. One day he had an idea. Nebuchadnezzar decided to build a statue to his god. It was not a statue of Nebuchadnezzar; it was a statue of Nebuchadnezzars god. Daniel 3:12, 14, and 18 tell us that. What he is going to do is have this golden statue that stands 90 feet tall and 9 feet wide be worshipped. On the dedication day, people would come from all over the nations. They would assemble at the statue; the statue will be unveiled, and instruments will be played-the horn, the harp, and all these instruments. When the music starts, everybody would bow down and worship this image; if they dont, they will meet their fate in a fiery furnace. They will be incinerated alive. Those were their choices. Of course, even if you didnt believe in that god, you didnt want to be burned alive; so everybody bowed down just so they wouldnt die-except these three Hebrew men. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego stand out like sore thumbs when they dont bow down. There are a few in the crowd that go to the king, and they are tattletales. They said, Oh, King, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they didnt bow down to your image! He called them in and said, Is this true, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that youre not bowing down to my image? Im going to give you one more chance. Daniel 3 (page 876 of pew Bibles) [paraphrasing], But if you do not obey me, if you do not bow down, then you will meet the fate I have set. You will be killed in a furnace of fire. So, what do you say? What is your answer? Verse 16, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from your hand, O King, and He will rescue us from your hand. Theyre speaking words of optimism, faith, and hope. Theyre saying, This is our prayer. This is our desire. We dont want to die. We dont want to die in our prime. We certainly dont want to die being burned alive! Our desire, our hope, is that God rescues us. We know Hes able to. We know He has the ability to do so. Listen to this next Verse, But even if he does not, we want you to know, O King, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up. Did you see that? But even if he does not… Friends, that is agape love. Agape love prays and says this: Lord, might Your will be done. Lord, I dont want to go into the fire. Some of you have some fires you look like youre heading towards or maybe youre already in, and youre praying to God. Youre saying, God, rescue me from that fire! God, I dont want to go through that fire. God, that fire looks like its going to hurt! It looks like it could cause damage. It looks like it could even consume me! God, spare me from that fire, but if You do not, I will be faithful to You, and I will serve You. That is agape love. Agape love is Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane when Hes facing the cross and the cup of wrath is going to be poured on Him. He said, Father, if there be another way, let this cup pass from Me; but nevertheless, not as I will, but Thine be done. They said, Look, we dont want to go in that fire, and you can take our lives if necessary. If God chooses to allow that fire to consume us, we want you to know that we will not cease to love Him. We will not cease to be faithful to Him even unto death. Their love for God was an agape love that motivated them. They had a passion. They loved the Lord, their God, with all their hearts, souls, minds and strength. Others had assembled that day, and they bowed down and worshipped God because they didnt want to get thrown in the fire, right? Fear. There are some people who claim to be Christians, who say and do the right things, and do God lip service because theyre afraid of going to hell, quite honestly. They think, Im going to do what God tells me to do. Im going to say Im a Christian and believe all this stuff because the alternative is I dont want to burn. Thats their motivation. Its not love. Its not agape. Others say, Well, you know, around the crowd that day, everybody was bowing down. Thats just what everybody did. Ninety-one percent of our population believes in God. Some believe in God simply because well, you know, everybodys doing it. Everybody is bowing down saying they belong to God. I dont want to be left out, so okay, yeah, I believe in God. Christian? Yeah, whatever. Sure, thats what I am. Thats not a sincere, passionate faith. That's not agape love. What these men had was genuine. What these men had was real. They loved God unconditionally. Regardless of what life threw their way, to be taken at the prime of their lives and die in such a horrific manner, they said, Even in the face of that, we will remain loyal to Him. Of course the story goes like this: theyre thrown into the fire. The fire is seven times hotter than normal because its reflective of Nebuchadnezzars rage. He has it turned up higher. The men who are throwing them in the fire are consumed by the fire-even though they dont go in the fire. Its that hot. In the fire, the pit would have had a hole in the side where you could see in, one of the guards looked in and said, Look, I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like the son of the gods. This is the promise. God does not promise to deliver you from the fire, but God does promise to be with you in the midst of the fire. Thats the promise. He said, I will be with My Son as He goes to the cross. I will be with my servants, Shadrack, Meshack, and Abednego, in the midst of the fire, and I will comfort them in the midst of the fire, but sometimes, friend, we go through fires in this life. God has said, I will never leave you, and I will never forsake you. Thats the promise. We will emerge from those fires refined. We will emerge from those fires purified by His presence. It reminds me of another story. Were going to fast-forward some 750 years. I want to tell you the story about another church and another Christian who faced similar circumstances. I want you to turn in your Bibles to the Book of Revelation 2. I want to tell you about a church that was in the city of Smyrna. Smyrna was a city in Asia Minor, where modern-day Turkey is. Im going to tell you a story about a pastor from this church. Before I do that, does anybody else know a bishop from Smyrna, the modern-day Turkey? He lived about 200 years after this story. He was a man who went to jail for his faith. After he was released from prison, he went to the Council of Nicaea to defend the deity of Christ before Constantine. He was a man who was born into great wealth and affluence; but once he became a Christian, he began giving it all away generously. Legend has it, when they would set their stockings out to dry, sometimes he would open the doors and windows at night and drop gold coins in the stockings of the poor. Perhaps youve heard of this saint from Turkey. His name was Nicholas. St. Nicholas? Heard of him? I think its appropriate this time of year that we mention old St. Nicholas. He was a bishop in this same region, but before him there was this church in Smyrna, and they fought a battle. They fought a very difficult battle because there was something in that land at that time called emperor worship. Romans had set up this pantheon of gods. Of the gods that they had, there was the god of the emperor. You would worship the emperor as an incarnation as the Son of God. He was seen as divine. Remember we talked about Ephesians, and we mentioned that the goddess of the temple of Diana, Artemis, the goddess of fertility, and that Ephesus became the headquarters for that; that was their economy. It was the center of worship for this goddess. It was one of the Seven Wonders of the World. This city, Smyrna, was chosen to be the capital for emperor worship. When Jesus was alive in 26 A.D., they erected a statue to the emperor Tiberius; and people would come from all over to worship the god Tiberius, the emperor. This time in history, there was an emperor by the name of Domitian, and Domitian hated Christians. The jails were full not of murderers, rapists, and thieves, but of Christians who had not burned incense to the gods of Rome and confessed Caesar as Lord. They were jailed because they were atheists. Their crime was atheism because they did not follow the Roman gods. They worshipped Jesus Christ, so they were seen as atheists [in that country]. This man, Domitian, was on a mission to eradicate Christianity. He would imprison, beat, and even kill Christians, and that is the church to whom Christ writes. That is the church that is the recipient of this second letter written to them. They are the second church addressed by Jesus. Remember whenever we read Revelation, we tend to forget that this Book was written to seven literal churches-real congregations, real pastors, real parishioners, and real people. The letter was read in their churches on a Sunday morning. The man Im going to tell you about was born in 69 A.D. He was a man by the name of Polycarp. Maybe youve heard of him. Polycarp is very important because Polycarp was a link to the Apostles. You ask what I mean. Polycarp is a First Century theologian whose work is one of the surviving works we still have to this day. Polycarp was born in 69. He was a young man when this was written. He could very likely have been in the church service when this was written. He was brought to faith in Christ by none other than John the Apostle, the one who wrote the Gospel of John, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, and the Book of Revelation. That was his teacher and mentor. He is discipled by John himself, so when he writes in that First Century and into the Second Century, he is our link to the Apostles. He and Papius know John personally, so theyre able to sit at his feet and listen to stories of Jesus firsthand through the Apostles who were there, saw those miracles, and witnessed the Resurrection. Wow! Imagine what it would be like to be Polycarp and hear the stories that he heard. So in Verse 10, Polycarp is sitting there and listening in church. Were not going to look at the whole letter, but I want you to pay attention to Verse 10 of Revelation 2 (page 1216). It says, Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Thats code for a short time. Be faithful even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life. Notice what Jesus does not say. Jesus does not say, Look, persecution is coming. The devil is going to try to test you, but I will protect you. I will make sure that no harm comes your way, and Ill make sure that no bad thing happens to you because you belong to Me. He doesnt say that. He says, You will suffer. You will be tested. You will go through struggles, but love Me. Remain faithful to Me. Dont serve Me because the circumstances of life are favorable. Serve Me and love Me even when theyre unfavorable and even if it means your life. Agape Me, says Jesus, as I agape you. The young man who was probably there grew up, and he became the pastor of that church. Polycarp served that church as their bishop for decades. It was now 156 A.D., and he was an old man. Persecution was raising its ugly head again in the form of emperor worship. Why, Polycarp, arent you worshipping the emperor? Why, Polycarp, arent you confessing that Caesar is Lord? Polycarp, get your act together. Polycarp, fall in line with the rest of us! When Polycarp refused, a cry rose up that said, Death to the atheist. If we can capture Polycarp and kill him, maybe it will stop the church, and they will conform like the rest of us. So they went to Polycarps home. He was betrayed by a friend who was tortured. They went to arrest Polycarp. Polycarp knew what was coming. He had been warned by God, and he said, Let me pray one more time, so Polycarp takes one hour and he prays. The guards that went there to arrest him saw the fervency in which he prayed and heard the prayers. They were so convicted that they felt awful that they were then bringing him to be executed. They took him to the town square. The people gathered in their religious zeal for the emperor. They said, We will give you one last chance. They brought Him to the stake, and they got ready to nail Him. He said, You dont have to nail me. The God whom I serve is able to make me stand through this fire, so they did something unprecedented. They tied him to the stake instead of nailing him. Then they gathered fire all around him from his feet and higher, and they lit a torch. It has now become very real. They took it to the old man, and they said, Polycarp, you have one more chance. It was just like when Nebuchadnezzar to Shadrack, Meshack, and Abednego-one more chance. Curse Jesus Christ. Those were the words that were spoken. Curse Jesus Christ, confess Caesar as Lord, burn incense to him and you can live. Polycarp looked around and said, Well, Ive been faithfully serving God all the days of my life. These are my golden years, and this is how God chooses for me to die? I dont want to die by a fire. If this is how my God rewards my faithfulness, give me the script. You bet Ill read it. What do you want me to say? You know thats not what happened, right? Want to know what Polycarp said? Let me get my Blueberry (Blackberry) out and read it for you. This is exactly what he said, Eighty six years I have served Him, and He has never wronged me. How then shall I blaspheme my King who saved me? Do with me what you will. The fire is lit. Foxes Book of Martyrs tells us that the flames burn high, but for whatever reason, they dont touch the body of Polycarp. The townsfolk are enraged, and though he is tied to a stake with fire all around him, he dies by being stabbed to death with a spear. Then his body is consumed by the flames, and he dies. That ignites a passion in the city of Smyrna. The death of Polycarp begins to spread, and it reignites a fire in the church, metaphorically speaking. They stand up to the persecution of the emperor. The church thrives and flourishes in the midst of adversity because one man chose to love God with an unconditional love. Its similar to Job in Job 13:7. His health was taken from him; he was grieving the loss of his children; he lost all of his possessions and his home. They said, Curse God and die, and he said, Though He slay me, yet will I put my hope in Him. How could they do that? Because they look in the light of eternity. They know that Gods love is an eternal love. His plan for them is an eternal plan. If life begins at a point in time when you are born and continues on into eternity, what is a lifespan in light of that? A lifespan in light of eternity is a blink of an eye. Its a moment; its barely a perceivable dot on the timeline of eternity. Will I forsake my God because things dont go exactly as I would like them to go for a moment in the plan, or will I see in light of eternity that God is a God of agape; and He has called me to love Him with an agape love even when things dont go well and even when I dont understand. The Apostle Paul writes these words in Romans 8:35 (page 1119), and Id like to read them for you, Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? For some, thats enough. Polycarp, Shadrack, Meshack, and Abednego faced death. Job faced suffering, and that was not enough to cause them to lose their love; but for some its much less than that. Hes referring to Gods love. He says, No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all Creation, will be able to separate us from the… agape of God, the unconditional love of God, that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. That is how Paul was able to endure. He said, This momentary light affliction is nothing compared to the glory that will be revealed. Paul kept his eyes on eternity and Christs eternal love and remained faithful to Him even unto death. Friends, do you love God with an agape love? I know He loves you that way, but do you love Him that same kind of love, that highest form of love that says, I will serve You no matter what. I will love You. I will live for You regardless of my emotions, my circumstances, and my conditions. I will be faithful to You even unto death, even if I go through the fire. I thank You that Youre with me and will see me through. I want to pray for us this morning. Would you bow your heads in prayer? I want to pray especially for those of you who are going through fire right now. Father, I want to pray for those right now who are going through adversity. For some, its physical pain that is incessant. For some its financial hardships. The economy has taken them by storm. Its caused it to be difficult for them to live, to own a business or to make their house payment. Some have lost their jobs. Others here are going through marital distress or maybe their children are rebelling against their authority. Maybe theyre battling with an addiction here today. Maybe its an emotional hardship, a depression that has come upon them that they cannot shake. Father, I pray for them-that they would have the hope and assurance that You are with them even in the midst of the fire. In fact, I wish we could have heard what was spoken to them in the fire. I know it was words of comfort and encouragement, words of saying, Well done. You stood up to King Nebuchadnezzar. You did not bow your knee. You remained faithful to God, and now God is rewarding you. Lord, when we love You with an agape love, people notice. It makes an impact. It made an impact to Polycarps enemies. Im sure that many became Christians as a result of witnessing how that man died. His testimony served as the example for many martyrs that would come. Father, thank You for being with us in the midst of the fires of this life. May we commit to loving You with an agape love. In Jesus name, we pray, Amen.
Were going to be talking about relationships today. Are you starting to feel the Christmas season just a little bit with the snow? You come into the sanctuary, and I appreciate our church ascetics team for what they did here. They sang the Christmas carols, and they brought our presents in for the angel tree children. I dont know about you, but Im starting to feel a little bit more like its the Christmas season. Were talking about love and what it is, What Does Love Look Like? That is our theme in these days and weeks ahead leading up to Christmas. Were going to review a little bit. We talked last week about some different Greek words for love in the Bible. Do you recall that? We said there is the affectionate, brotherly love, kindness; its an emotional kind of love. Its a love you feel for your friends, the people who like you and you like them. Do you remember what that affection kind of love was called? Phileo. I think I heard somebody say it. Then there was a second love, and that was a love that imitates God. That was a love that seeks the highest and best for another. That was a love that loves not only people that like me, and I like them; but it loves people who might be strangers. It loves people who might even be my enemies. It seeks the highest and best regardless of how they respond to that love or whether or not they respond to that love. It requires commitment on my part. Its a decision rather than an emotion. What was that kind of love called? Agape. We said thats the kind of love we are focusing hard on, that we could be a people of agape who love as God loves because God is agape, the Word says. Were going to be looking at a Verse this morning found in the Book of 1 Peter 1. Were just going to spend our entire time on this one Verse. Were not going to be going to any other chapters or any other Passages within this Book. Well just stay in one Verse because this verse is a microcosm of what agape is. Really there is enough here for us to spend our entire time together on, so lets read it. Hes writing to scattered Christians. They used to be in Palestine, but now theyre throughout Asia Minor. Theyre challenged because persecution is starting to arise. Peter is writing to them, and this letter is going to be circulated to these churches, to these Christians scattered abroad. Hes going to encourage them to keep the faith, and hes going to challenge them to take their love to the next level. Ill let you in on a little secret here before we read this verse. Just like last week in the Passage that we looked at in John where Jesus said to Peter, Peter do you agape Me? Peter answered back, Lord, You know I phileo You. He said, I love you with a brotherly love and affection, but he couldnt bring himself to say, I agape You. Then Jesus challenged him a third time, Do you love Me? Only this time he came down to Peters level and said, Peter, do you phileo Me? He changed His question, so there was that interplay with the Greek that we couldnt see in our English Bibles, but it was very much in the Greek translation of the New Testament. The same play is going on here. Were going to see the word love twice in this Passage. The first time its used, its used to say phileo-brotherly love, kindness and affection. The second time the word love is used, though it appears like its the same word, its not. In the Greek its the word agape, so Peter is challenging them to take their love to another level. With that in mind, lets go ahead and read that (1 Peter 1:22, page 1200 of pew Bibles). Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the Truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. Were going to read it again. Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the Truth… And, by the way, its not, I purify myself. Now I can obey the Truth. Its not that. Its because I have become obedient to the Truth or submissive to the Truth, the Truth has done the purifying. When we receive Gods Truth, the Holy Spirit comes into our lives; and He begins a work in us. He begins a cleansing, regeneration, renewal work in us; so its the Spirit of God that does the cleansing-just so we understand that. The Truth does the cleansing. …obey the Truth so that you have sincere phileo for your brothers, agape one another deeply, from the heart. Take it to another level. Hes going to give us some clues here, some descriptions of what agape love looks like. The first thing hes going to tell us is that agape love is real. He says, Love one another sincerely, from the heart. Its real. When you see agape love, its authentic. Its not phony. Its the real thing. Its not an I love you because. Its not I love you because of what you can do for me. It was like the lady who wrote her ex-boyfriend a letter. She said, Honey, I just want you to know Im so sorry that we broke up, and Id love to get back together with you. Ive learned during our separation that you are my one true love. Im so sorry about the things Ive done wrong. I love you. I love you. I love you. Lets get back together again. P.S. Congratulations for winning the state lottery. How sincere is that love, right? Or its like the little boy who raised the lamb for the fair. It was this plump, juicy, tender lamb that was going to be auctioned off to the highest bidder because thats what you do after you raise the lamb-you sell it. People were bidding on this lamb. He had done such a great job caring for the lamb. As soon as the bidding came in to sell the lamb, he started to cry. There was a man there who was really touched by that, so he kept bidding. The higher the bidding got, the more the little boy cried. He just held on to the lamb. As they were bidding, finally the guy said, Listen, Im going to buy that lamb, and Im going to give it back to that boy. He bid this astronomical amount. The boy started bawling, holding on to the lamb for dear life. He bought the lamb and said, Little boy, I see you love this lamb. Im going to give this lamb back to you. The boy couldnt believe it. He grinned from ear to ear. A couple weeks later, somebody at the fair caught up with him and said, I was there, and I saw that man. Wasnt that special when that man bought that lamb for you? How is the lamb doing? Oh, the lamb was delicious. My dad barbequed the lamb, and we ate it. It was wonderful! Well, I saw you crying. When they were bidding for the lamb, I saw you with your arms around the lamb just crying. He said, I was just so happy it was bringing so much money in, I couldnt contain myself. I was just overjoyed with all the money that was coming in. I couldnt believe it! Thats not sincere love. Thats a love of what is this doing for me? This is making me money. Sometimes we think we love people, or we think we love whatever it is, but its because of what it does for us, how it makes us feel, etc. Its not agape love. Its not a sincere love from the heart. Its very much a conditional love. It says, I love you because… youre giving this to me, youre doing this for me, or youre making me feel this way. Thats not agape love. Agape love is sincere. Agape love loves regardless of what is received back, and oftentimes nothing can be received back. Agape love is a completely selfless love. He says, Thats the kind of love thats real. Its sincere. Its from the heart. Its not about whats in it for me. The second thing he says is that agape love is relational. Notice some of the key words in this verse for that. He says, You are to love your brothers and then love one another. He uses the word brothers. Its a family word. He uses the words one another. Its community. He says, The church is to be a family. I was riding in the car with somebody thats close to me. They dont live in our state, but theyve very close to me. Its the kind of person who sometimes I have to be careful what I say because they can get upset. You might have people like that in your life that you have to walk on eggshells around because you never know if youre going to say the wrong word, and it could really set them off. We used to go to the same church, so I said, Are you still going to the Faith Center? No, Im not really going to church anymore. I watch church on TV. Thats my church. I watch this speaker and that speaker. Oh, its great. Oh, its wonderful. Im thinking, Boy, theres a lot I want to say right now, but… I said, You know, that's all good, but theres more to church than that. Its building friendships and relationships and doing life together and doing ministry. Youre finding your spiritual gift and using it for the Lord. They interrupted me and said, Oh, no, no, no. Thats not my thing. I went to that church for many, many years and really dont know anybody. I really dont get involved. I dont serve. I dont get involved. Thats just how I roll. The logic is because Ive never done this, that means thats the right thing to do and this is how I should continue living my life. Because Ive never served, therefore I should never serve. Because Ive never gotten to know anybody, therefore I should never get to know anybody. I wanted to scream out and say, The Bible doesnt know anything about a church like that. Thats not the church! That's not church! Thats the frosting on the cake, but its about doing right. These were all the things I wanted to say, but I know from the past that if I say those kinds of things, theyre just going to get upset. I was like, Well, you know you have a lot to offer. Itd be nice if you could find a church, go to it, and give back. I just kinda left it at that. It was like talking to a wall. Youre thinking, How can somebody go to a church for decades and just not get it? Some of you who Im talking to this morning maybe dont get it. I understand some of us are dealing with physical illness right now. Its severe, and its consuming everything you have. Maybe somebody you love is very sick, and thats consuming. I understand that. Other times, life is just going at breakneck speed. Youre in a season of life, for whatever reason, and there are extenuating circumstances. Things are just not normal. I understand that. Youre going through that period of time. Right now thats not normal, but right now thats what your life is like. Its taking everything you have just to keep the plate spinning. This person is retired. This person watches TV all day, every day. They simply were choosing not to follow what God had called them to. They simply chose not to be a part because theyve never been a part. What I want to do is challenge you a little bit, challenge you who could become involved, who could build relationships-but for whatever reason youre not. The Bible doesnt know anything about singing three songs, listening to a sermon, and then going home; then thats it. The Bible knows community. Its face-to-face; its relationship. Think about that. God could have communicated to mankind any way He wanted to. He could have come at any time He chose to, and it would make more sense to come now with internet, technology, and television. It seems like our relationships are getting more and more electronic all the time; but when God chose to communicate to us, He chose incarnation. He chose face-to-face; He chose relationships. Those three years of relationship and face-to-face contact of God with man has changed the world more than any technology ever has. It did a better job communicating the love of God to us than anything we can produce or market. It was [about] relationships. Nothing takes the place of face-to-face relationships. When Im going through a difficult time, I need more than somebody just writing a blurb on my Facebook wall. I need a person. I need a relationship. I need somebody that I can talk to, touch, and share what Im going through. Winter is coming. The snowstorm is coming. Were going to get 6 inches, so I have to stop procrastinating and bring in the firewood like Im supposed to. I have just been putting it off. I was like, Well, its going to be a lot easier to do now than to have push the wheelbarrow through 6 inches of snow; so let me find my gloves, and let me get to work. Im looking through the box of gloves. By the way, I pulled out seven individual gloves without one pair. All of them were right-handed gloves. Im thinking, How does that happen? How does a person lose seven gloves and theyre all left-handed? Then I finally find an eighth, and it doesnt match the previous seven. It is left-handed, but it didnt match. I bought a new pair of gloves this winter. Ive already lost them. I dont know what it is with me and gloves. So I put on the gloves, I get the wheelbarrow, and I start to bring in the firewood. Its a lot of work, but Im thinking about what this firewood represents to me. I dont know if youre fortunate enough or blessed enough to have a fireplace or a fire pit outside. Maybe you build a fire when you go camping-whatever it is, but I love fires. There is something about fires that are just really warm. I mean that not just literally; I mean that metaphorically. Its warm; its cozy. I thought about those logs coming in, and it made me think about the fires that weve had in the past. Wed be coming around the fireplace and playing a game, we were watching a movie, or we were eating a snack that Brendas made. We were talking or whatever. Its fun; its family. It brings back a lot of happy memories. Our friends were over or we had a staff Christmas dinner-which is coming up-wed make a fire. Its fun, but you dont live there. You dont stay there. Thats not real life. Eventually you go out and go back into life. As youre going through life, good things happen. The family rejoices over those good things. Difficult things happen. The family rallies around that person who is going through hardship, and we try to support them, love them, and strengthen them. We do life together. We dont just stay around the fire. The fires good; the fire is warm, but then we disperse, go out, do life, and then we come back. We share; we have community; and we love. Its personal because were family. That firewood reminded me of family. It made me think about the fires that are yet to come. What fires are we going to build this winter? What are we going to be doing around the fireplace? What fun are we going to have? Theres an anticipation of that. That is, in some regards, an analogy to the church. The Gospel is the fire. Its what were drawn to. We come and we hear the message of Gods love, and it warms our souls. We bask in the glow of His love as it emanates. We meditate on it, and we reflect on it. It just ministers to us. Then we go out in the real world, and we experience the bumps and bruises of life. Some of us go through difficult times. Our church family comes together, and we try to be supportive in that. Other times good things happen, and we rejoice. We serve together; we work together; and we get to know one another. We support one another because were a church family. Friends, people cant do that if they dont know you. If youre coming late, leaving early, and never getting involved, never connecting anywhere, how does anyone ever get to know you? How can you experience what Peter is saying we need to experience in church-to love one another deeply? How can you experience that if nobody knows you, and you dont know anybody else? I want to challenge you today to plug in somewhere. Discover your gift, and start using your gift in ministry. Join a small group; join a support group. We have all kinds of groups in our church. We have our community groups; we have our mens ministry; we have our womens ministry; we have our marriage support group; we have a divorce recovery class; we have a 12-step group. We have all different kinds, means, and ways of having community. We have one-on-one, real zeal discipleship ministry that takes place throughout the year. Get involved. Its relational-agape love is relational. Its one-on-one. Its interpersonal. Thats what Hes called us to. He doesnt call us to just experience a service, and then thats it for the week. We do life together. Fires are good; the fires are warm; the fires are nice, but we share. We dont just stay there, but we go out in life and come back together as a family. We interact with one another; we support one another. Its interpersonal. That's the kind of Christianity the New Testament talks about. I was trying to communicate that with this person. It was just very difficult. For whatever reason, theyve chosen not to be a part of that. Theyve chosen to live in isolation instead of community. Theyve chosen to hold on to their gifts instead of giving back to the Body. There is a third quality of agape love in this Passage. He says, Love one another deeply from the heart. This word deeply means to literally stretch out. Think of it as a runner who is stretching for the finish line after giving everything hes had in a race. Think of it as a football player who has caught a pass, and hes being tackled. Hes stretching over the goal line, and he stretches the ball out to try to cross the line to score a touchdown. Hes straining, and hes reaching. That is this third characteristic of agape. It is sacrificial. Agape love costs you something. Agape love costs you your time, your resources, your emotions. There is risk involved because youre giving of yourself, but agape love is sacrificial. It gives. It doesnt just receive. It gives. Its not just a consumer, but its reciprocal in its nature. Jesus loves us with agape love, and it cost Him His life. As the leader of our congregation, its my responsibility to see that the church grows in agape. Im not saying were where we need to be, but I have seen some real signs of growth in our Body in recent times as far as agape. I can honestly say-and I realize Im not unbiased-but I dont think weve ever been at a place where our church is demonstrating more agape love than we are right now-loving those who cant love us back, loving those who are strangers, reaching out to our community and to our world. If you look in the sign of central this morning, youll see the homeless shelter. Our turn is coming up here at Faith community. There are going to be people who organize, people who stay all night at the church, and others who make meals, prepare things, and get our church ready to host the traveling mens shelter that goes from church to church. Friends, thats agape love. I think of our group that goes to Wilson School every week. They tutor the children. After theyre done tutoring the children, they have a program for them. We teach our children at Wilson School, these little children who have nothing to give back. Thats agape love. Thats their time; thats their energy. I think about the group that goes into nursing homes. Every week, there are two nursing homes we visit. They go, they sing songs, they pray with, they read Scripture to, and they talk to these elderly folks who cant get out of there. They invest in their lives. Thats agape love in action. I look at our presents around the angel tree as were bringing them back. You took the time to take a tag, to shop, and to buy a gift. Those families are coming here this Saturday. Theyre going to receive a hot meal. Theyre going to listen to a program and receive a gift and a food basket. That touches my soul because you are showing agape love to these families and to these children who have a parent in prison. Youre taking of your time, your energies, and your resources; and youre investing in those children. I think about our church and Fuddruckers. I was very proud because Fuddruckers and our church raised $10,000 for the Care House, for the children who are abused. I think about the people who showed up there the night before, baking bread, and the people that were there for hours busing tables and greeting people in the line. I think about you who came and stood in the line. The line went out the door and around the building, and some of you had to wait for an hour to get a cheeseburger, but you did it because you wanted to help kids. Thats agape love. I think about our missions team. Theyre gearing up for a trip to Haiti, and theyre going to be working hard to raise funds. What are they raising funds for? Is it going to be a trip to a beach where theyll suntan all week? No. Theyre raising money to go to Haiti to work, to build, to repair, and to help missionaries in Haiti. Friends, thats agape love in action. I think about our meals team. Im not exactly sure, but they give meals every single week to families in our church. Many of you are involved in that meals ministry and are making food every week for people. We have some folks in our church who are very sick and in physical need. There are people who go to their homes and clean their homes. They decorate their homes, take them to get their medicine, help run their errands, and help fight the paperwork battles that theyre going through. They spend time with them, love on them, and pray with them. Some are very sick and very ill. We have folks there almost every day just getting involved in their lives and helping them literally to survive. Thats agape love. Friends, thats the kind of church to go to. Maybe you arent even aware of those things. Maybe you dont see them. I dont think I see everything thats going on, but I feel good. I want to be a part of a church that loves with agape love. When I see you practicing agape love, it makes me want to do the same. As those logs in the fire heat, they warm each other. They keep the fire going. You keep my fire lit, so I want to challenge us today. If youre saying, Well, youre looking at my life-this sacrificial love, is that characterized by my life today? Does my life cost me something? Am I loving only those who love me and only those who can give back? Or am I loving those who dont love me? Am I seeking the highest and best for those who cant pay me back? Am I willing to give love to strangers as Christ told me to do? If you say, Thats not characteristic of my life, I want to challenge you. Agape love is sacrificial. Agape love gives. Were going to receive communion in the near future here today. In 1 Corinthians 11, the Passage we read from every week, are you aware of whats going on in that church in Corinth? Did you know that that chapter that we use to receive communion from was actually written as a rebuke? The church in Corinth started what was called an agape feast. It was a love feast. Thats what they called it, The Love Feast. People outside the church misunderstood that. They started this agape feast, The Love Feast. The First Century non-Christians didnt understand what that was. They used to think that Christians were perverts because they had a love feast. They thought it was a love feast. Thats all Im going to say. They didnt understand what it was, so they began to accuse the Christians of immorality. What they would do was they would gather together, and they would have a meal. The haves would come, and the have nots would come. The idea was that you waited for each other, and when they were all there-when they were all present-those who had very little and those who had a lot-then theyd share. Those who had a lot shared with those who had a little; those who were affluent and well off or blessed, they brought extra; those who had very little brought what little they had. Together, they were one Body, one church. Some of the poor-and there were poor present-they knew there was going to be at least one meal out of the week where they were going to get to eat, at least one meal where they would get full stomachs. Then something began happening. A consumer mindset began to sink in in the church in Corinth. The haves would come, and they would associate with other haves. They would quickly consume their meal, including their leftovers-what should be shared-till they gorged themselves, and then theyd leave. Then the have nots would come, and theyd be embarrassed because there was no food, and theyd be hungry. Paul hears about this, and he becomes angry. In that Chapter, he says, If all youre going to do is cook a meal for yourself and eat it, dont you have a home for that? Isnt that what your home is for? Why dont you stay home if that's what youre going to do? If all you are going to do is make a meal for yourself, eat it, and not share, stay home! Thats not the Lords Supper anymore. That was a consumer mindset that had set in in the New Testament church. He said, If you truly want to have the Lords Supper when you come together, wait for each other. Thats why he said that, Wait for one another. Share what you have. Dont be in a hurry. Linger. Enter into community. Build relationships. Dont just consume and go. Friends, today the church is starting to resemble a consumer mindset across America where we eat and run. Paul says, The church is a place where we linger. The church is a place where we wait. A church is a place where were concerned about the needs of the people that are around us.A church is not just a place where we come and have phileo. Phileo is easy. Its easy to love people who love you. Its easy to feel emotional love, brotherly love, kindness and friendship to people who love you. [Its easy to] hug them and say hey, shake their hand, and smile. Thats easy! But agape love is hard. Agape love requires sacrifice, time, effort, energy-it is to stretch out. Agape love is relational. Its face-to-face. Its an investment. So Peter challenged that church, Take your love to another level, and I am challenging you today. Take your love to another level. Learn to experience and give agape because you know what? Heres the powerful thing: we reap what we sow. If you sow agape, you reap agape. You will find if you will give sacrificially, if your love is sincere, if you will invest in others lives, when you need them, theyll be there for you too. Youll experience that love, and it will be given to you unconditionally. If a person is in isolation, theyre hurting, theyre in pain, and they have not taken the time to build those relationships, theyll wish they had. Theyll wish they had entered into community. Well now is your chance; now is your time. I pray the Holy Spirit will deal with us and just whisper in our ears, Here are some changes that need to be made. Here are some action steps. Here are some decisions you need to take to enter into the life of the Body of Christ. The body doesnt exist to serve the foot; the foot exists to serve the body. The body doesnt exist to serve the hand; the hand exists to serve the body. Youve been put in the Body to be a part of the Body. The Body doesnt exist to serve you; you exist to serve the Body. When one part of my body hurts, every other part of my body rallies to that one part of my body to try to minister and help it. Isolate a part of my body-isolate it from the body-and it dies. It needs to be in the body. Youve heard of out-of-body experiences. Some in the church today are going through out-of-Body experiences. Theyre not in the Body as Peter calls them to be. Thats something I wish I would have said in the last two services. Ill have to remember that for the next one. That was hot off the press (congregation laughing). Lets pray and go ahead and trigger that communion music. Father, were so grateful that we can come together as the Body of Christ, all unique and so diverse. Yet there is a common faith, a common Lord-one Lord, one face, one Spirit, one God overall, one baptism. Lord, Youve called us to be a part of the family, a spiritual family; and in a family, we experience life together-the good and the bad. Sometimes we hurt each other. We say things we shouldnt say or do things we shouldnt do, and we have to forgive. We have to reconcile. Thats part of being a family too. Part of being a family is coming around the fire. Our souls are warmed as we hear the Word of God and we experience the love of Christ. We do that so we can give the love of Christ. Its not a one-way street. Its not about consuming; its reciprocal. I pray that our church would continue to grow in agape love. We thank You that in the cross, we see the epitome, the highest example of agape love, as God seeks the highest and best for His Creation. That love was real; that love was relational. It became flesh. That love was sacrificial. Help us to love with agape love like our Lord does. In Jesus name, we pray, Amen.
Well, we are talking in our series about love, What Does Love Look Like? Pastor Jerry kicked us off eloquently last week talking about the fact that love is thankful. This morning were talking about the fact that Love Is Verbal. I thought it would be good to back up a little bit and define love because in our culture we use the word love for a lot of things. We can say, I love the holidays. I love turkey. I love football. I love my country. I love my family. I love God. We use the word love for all the things that we love; yet we love them in different ways and to different degrees. Fellows, we dont love football to the same degree that we love our wives, right? Right, guys? Come on! Back me up on this! (Congregation laughing.) Man, Im telling you you guys are well, let me think. Calculate. Carry the four… Thats a no-brainer, guys. Yet, we use that same word love for all the things that we love. In the Greek in the Bible, that word is much more specific. It uses specific words to talk about specific kinds of love that sometimes get lost in translation. This morning, were going to capture a little bit of that for you. The word eros talks about passionate love-a man for a woman. Its a sensual, romantic love. Thats one kind of love. Then theres phileo. You think of the name Phil and the word Leo; put them together to form one word, and thats phileo. It means an affection or brotherly love, a brotherly kind of affection. Phileo is a warm hug. Its an affection that we have for one another. It has to do with our friends, our families, our brothers and sisters in Christ. Then theres agape love. Thats a love were to have for the world. Thats a love were to have even for our enemies. That is the highest form of love. Agape love means this: to seek the highest and best for another. We do so unconditionally. To do so unconditionally means we seek the highest and best regardless of how they respond, regardless of whether or not they deserve it. Jesus said you can have agape even for your enemies. Chances are if your enemies get the highest and best in life, they wont be your enemies anymore. He said you need to agape even your enemies. Agape is referred to as the God kind-of-love. Why? Because God is agape. God is love. Thats what it says in 1 John 4:8. It doesnt say that agape love is something that God possesses, its a character trait that He has. No, its who He is. He is agape. Thats why John says when we love, we are being like our Father in Heaven because He is agape. In 1 Corinthians 13:4 (page 1137 of pew Bibles), what does it say? It tells us what agape looks like with skin on. If youre living a life of agape, heres what it looks like, Agape is patient, agape is kind. Agape does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking… etc., etc. Thats what it looks like. This is what love looks like lived out. Its a description of agape; and of course, God models this for us. Whats the most famous Verse in all of the New Testament? For God so… agaped the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not parish but have everlasting life, that God loves mankind, that He is crazy about us, that He is head over heels in love with us. I think of the Passage in 2 Peter (3:9)that says, God is not slow in keeping His promise but is patient not wanting any to parish but for all to come to acknowledge the Truth. I saw His love dramatically portrayed one time in my earlier years of our ministry here. This was in the days before Pastor Jerry Dean came on staff. In those days, I did all of our hospital calls, all of our weddings, all of our funerals. A couple of sisters in our church had a father that was dying. They said, Wed like you to go and visit our ailing father. He doesnt have long to live. I said, Sure, Ill do that. Actually, a few days went by, and I was a little bit concerned with myself thinking, I didnt jump on this like I should have. I hope he is still alive. I hope hes still there and I can talk to him. I hope hes coherent. I made it to the hospital. It was late at night. I remember the hospital being very quiet, the hallway dim. Id really only seen just a nurse at the station. I didnt really interact with a doctor or nurse. I went into his room and introduced myself. His daughters had told me he didnt really want anything to do with church. He didnt believe in God, didnt go to church. Theyd invited him, and he wouldnt go; so I went up there hoping to have an opportunity to share the Gospel with him. I greeted him and introduced myself. I said, Youve raised a couple of really nice daughters. We really like having them in our church. Well, thank you very much. That's nice of you to say. Im their pastor. Im Jeff from Faith Community Church. I wondered if I could just talk with you a little bit, so we talked a little bit. We had some casual talk, and then I said, Do you feel like youve made your peace with God? Is there anything that I can talk with you about or pray with you about? We talked about spiritual matters for a little bit, and then I prayed the Gospel with him. I said a prayer for him, but I tried to incorporate as much of the Gospel as I possibly could. I said, Amen, it was good to see you. Could I come up and visit you again? Is that okay? He said, Yeah, Ive really enjoyed our visit today. You can come up any time and see me. I said, Well, thats wonderful. I shook his hand, and I left. That was the last time I would talk to him. A couple days later, he would pass away. A couple days after that was the funeral, and I remember going to the funeral home and talking with the sisters. I said, You know, I was up to see your dad. Im just grateful that your dad and I had an opportunity to talk. I was able to share a little bit about the Gospel with him and Gods love. Their jaws dropped, and they said, You talked to our father? I was kind of taken back. Yeah, I told you Id go up and see him. You, you talked to our father? You had a conversation with our dad? Yeah. I was kind of taken back. Was I not supposed to? They said, Well, a couple of days after we talked to you, our dad slipped into a coma. Nobody had talked to him. Nurses couldnt talk to him; doctors couldnt talk to him; we couldnt talk to him. He didnt respond to anyone or anything. You talked to our dad? Yeah. I told them the day. Apparently, hed gone into a coma two days before that and remained in one two days after my visit. I was the only person to talk to him for four days. Yet, when I was talking to him, it was a clear, coherent conversation. Boy, when it was time to give the funeral that day, I changed my funeral message a little bit. I wanted them to understand the love that God has for people. This man whod never set foot in a church, didnt even believe in God, was given one more chance to hear and to respond. Friends, I dont know what your background is, but youre sitting in this church. Maybe youve been a Christian for a while, but maybe back in the day you werent. You were doing things you knew God didnt approve of; yet God loved you as much then as He does now while youre sitting in this church. Agape love is unconditional. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Thats the kind of love He wants us to live. That's the kind of love He wants us to model as the church. Were going to talk about that in the next few weeks going up through the holidays, What Does Love or What Does Agape Look Like? That's the kind of love were talking about. Its not an ooey gooey kind of a love. Its often a very hard love. Its a love of the will; its a love of the decision. Its a sacrificial kind of love. Thats the kind of love that God has. He demonstrated that by offering His Son on the cross to die for our sins. He said, You and I are to be people of agape, and heres what agape looks like. He lived a life of agape. In 1 Corinthians 13, it tells us what a life of agape looks like. Were talking this morning about the fact that love must be verbal. Love should be expressed through our words, and thats powerful. There is a play called, Fiddler on the Roof. Have you ever seen that adaptation of the movie? There is a song in the Fiddler on the Roof that refers to a time back in the day when the Jewish marriages were arranged by the parents, so you might not have even known your spouse that well. The idea was that you trusted your parents to pick the right mate for you. Then you kind of came to love each other. You kind of grew to love each other. [In the movie], this husband and wife, this Jewish couple, had been married for 25 years when all of the sudden, he started to get kinda romantic. It had been kind of a business partnership arranged by the parents. They married and had children and raised them. Were just going to do what married couples do. Itd been kind of methodical, etc. He simply wanted to know if she did in fact love him. Did what his mother say come true? Was it just a partnership, or was there something more than that? Was there in fact love there? So he asked the question, Do you love me? Were going to listen to that song right now. (The song is Do You Love Me? Here is the link to the lyrics: http://fiddler-on-the-roof-do-you-love-me--lyrics-mp3.kohit.net/_/126820) I like that. He wants to hear the words, doesnt he? He says, Come on! Its indigestion! But he wants to hear the words, I love you. Why? Because when we speak the words, I love you, it demonstrates, speaks, and communicates worth to the person, doesnt it? If somebody tells you they love you, it means something to you. It communicates your value and your worth. Why is it sometimes so difficult for us to say that? Well explore that a little bit today, but I remember a story back when I was a youth pastor about 25 years ago. A father and a daughter had their relationship broken down. I talked to them individually. The daughter came in first, and she said, My father doesnt love me. I said, Why do you say that? She said, Hes never home. Hes always at work, and Ive never actually heard him say he loves me. Never once has my father said the words, I love you. She said, I feel like my dad just doesnt love me, and she began to cry. Well, after talking with her, I then talked to the dad. I explained to the dad how the daughter was feeling. He said, What does she mean I dont love her? I love her! I think the world of her. In fact, I work really hard long hours to buy her everything she wants. Everything she wants, I get for her. I bought her a car, and Im saving for college. All of this costs money, and Im giving and Im providing. So he was communicating his love through provision, through what he gave for her, what he earned for her; but she needed to hear the words, I love you. So then my homework assignment was to have him go home and tell his daughter that he loved her. For her, [it was] to get her to understand that her dads been showing love the whole time. Its important for us to say the words, I love you. Sometimes, that can be a difficult thing to do. There was one person it was very difficult for. There was a man named Peter. The song we heard, Do You Love Me? is a question that was asked of Peter. Some of you say, Well, I wasnt raised that way. It doesnt come natural to me to say that. Im kinda macho. I dont like to say those ooey gooey words like that. Peter was a fisherman; he was an outdoorsman. He made his living with his hands. He was a tough guy. There was an awkward moment in Peters life when Jesus confronted him and said, Peter, do you love me? Lets take a look at it this morning in John 21. This is the third resurrection appearance of Christ. This is a miracle thats very similar to the miracle in Luke 5 when He called them to be His Disciples. Remember they were fishing at a lake, and they didnt catch anything. He tells them to put in their nets for a catch. He said, Well, because You say so, well do it because weve fished all night and caught nothing. Then in comes this large catch of fish, and they realize something miraculous has happened. Peter says, Depart from me. Im a sinful man. Jesus says, From now on, Peter, you will be a fisher of men. Remember that story? He calls him to be His Disciples. Now, at the conclusion of His ministry, again Peter says, Im going to go fishing, and by that he doesnt mean Im going to get some minnows, sit on the pier, and fish. He means, Im going back to commercial fishing. Im going back to making it a living. Our time with Jesus was wonderful, but now I have to support myself. I need to survive, so Im going back to fish, and the Disciples say, Well join you. Like that story, they fish all night. They catch nothing, and then a man appears on the shore; and they dont know who it is. He tells them to put their net out on the other side of the boat; and a large catch of fish comes in-153 to be exact, John tells us. They realize its the Lord. By the time they get to shore, Jesus is cooking some fish. Hes made some bread, and they eat together. Then there is a private moment; and in that private moment, we are allowed to see a conversation between Jesus and Peter. Theres probably a little bit of doubt and hesitation with Peter. He knows that he talked a good game, but when the rubber met the road, he let the Lord down, didnt he? Ill die for You. Ill never deny You. Others might betray You; others might deny You, but I never will. Im willing to die for You, Jesus. But He didnt. He failed. He denied the Lord three times. Hes embarrassed, and hes ashamed, and theyre aware of that. Jesus is not going to bring that up directly, but theyre all aware of the tension. Theyre aware of the failures, so they have this conversation. Jesus looks him in the eye, and He asks him if he loves Him or not. I dont know if youre ever had somebody that you were supposed to love and care about who looked you in the eye and asked, Do you love me? They questioned your love. Thats pretty dramatic stuff. That's pretty deep. Jesus asked this question three times, and it seemed to be the same question each time, but it wasnt. There are three different questions, and were going to see-as we look into the original language-that when he asks the question, different words for love are used. Thats significant because it tells us something more about the conversation. Verse 15 says (page 1075 of pew Bibles), When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon son of John, do you truly love Me more than these? He said, Do you truly agape Me? Do you love me with the highest form of love? He said, Do you love Me more than these? At one time, I used to think He was talking about the fish and the boats. Im going to call you back to ministry. Do you love Me more than your old way of life? But Ive really come to understand that He really was referring to the other Disciples. Do you love Me more than they do? Why did He ask that? Because Peter had stated in pride and arrogance, Everybody else will deny you, but I never will. In other words, I love You the most. Im Your number one Disciple. I love You more than anybody. They might turn their back on You, but I never will. That was prideful. Jesus wants His servant to be humble. So without bringing up the past, without specifically condemning Peter for what he had done, He simply asked him the question, Do you love Me more than these? Are you still willing to say that nobody loves Me more than you do, Peter? Peter couldnt truthfully answer that question the same way anymore. He was humbled. He said, Yes, Lord, you know that I… phileo You. In our Bible, it says the same word, but in the Greek, its a different word. He says, You know I have an affectionate love for You. Its a good kind of love, but it wasnt the highest kind of love. Jesus asked him a second question, Simon, son of John, do you truly… agape Me? Now He doesnt ask him if loves him more than the other Disciples. He just simply asks him, Do you love Me? Peter answers a second time, Yes, Lord, You know that I… phileo You. He still cant bring himself to say, I agape You. I love You with the highest form of love. Then the third time, He said to him, Simon, Son of John, do you… phileo Me? He questions even that, and He says, Do you even love Me with a brotherly love, a brotherly affection? Peter says, Lord, You know all things, and You know that I love You. You know that I… phileo You. Jesus said, Feed My sheep. When we express our love through words, its important that its unconditional. What Jesus is doing here is He is allowing Peter to express unconditional love. By asking the very question and reinstating Peter to ministry, Jesus is showing unconditional love. Hes saying, Look, you let Me down. You didnt live up to expectations. You didnt keep your word, but I want you to know I still love you. I still believe in you. I have not removed My call. When I called you to be a fisher of men, it is still there. Now I want you to feed My sheep. Im still trusting you, Peter. Words of love never mean more to someone when theyre spoken after they have let us down. Its easy to say I love you to your child when they do something wonderful. When they bring home straight As on their report card, [its easy to say I love you]. Wow! Boy, youre great! You tell them how wonderful they are, but what about when your child has let you down? I had one of my children-and I wont name names-who came home with a straight A report card. I praised them and told them how wonderful it was. Then in the near proximity to that, they came home crying because they had done something that had let down the principal and the teacher. They felt badly about it. I put my arm around my child, and I said, I want you to know something. I love you. Nothings going to change that. I love you just as much now as after you committed this mistake. That just broke their little heart and caused them to cry even more because they were receiving unconditional love. They knew that Dads love wasnt based on I love you because or I love you if. It was simply I love you. There is nothing you can do that will make me love you any less or any more than I do now. Friends, its important that when we communicate love, we do so unconditionally. One of the reasons why you and I sometimes struggle with receiving the love of God is because we were raised with conditional love, many of us. Sometimes it was from a step-parent. We had to earn their love or maybe our natural parent [did that to us]. Maybe that was the message that was communicated through teachers and coaches who loved us when we performed well and didnt love us when we didnt perform well. We had special privileges and attention when we were doing what we were supposed to do; but we were scorned and reprimanded when we werent. We felt ostracized and unloved, so we learned this conditional love that I am loved and fully loved when I am doing this, when I am being what I am supposed to be. When I am not, love is withheld from me, so I learned that love is conditional. Therefore, I transfer that onto God; and I think that Gods love is conditional, and therefore I transfer that on to God. I think that Gods love is conditional, and its not. God cant love me because Ive done this. Heres my attitude, etc., etc. Im not holy enough. Im not righteous enough. The truth of the matter is God loves you unconditionally. You have to learn to accept that, that Gods love is not like mans love. Gods love is different. Gods love is based on His essence. He is love, and He is always seeking your highest and your best regardless of your intentions towards Him, regardless of how you think, feel, or behave. Now there are, of course, rewards and consequences if we choose to go against His law because Hes made us. There are certain laws were to abide by. Now when we dont abide by those laws, we reap the consequences. There is no question about that. The prodigal son left the fathers home, and he reaped the consequences for his disobedience; but his father never stopped loving him and was there to restore him when he came home. Thats the love of God. Jesus said to the people, Thats what Gods love looks like. Hes the father in the story of the prodigal son. So our love, if were to be followers of Christ, it needs to be unconditional as well. It doesnt mean there arent consequences; it doesnt mean we dont have standards or boundaries, but our love is unconditional. We are going to seek the highest and best no matter what they have done or havent done. When you can get through your head that Gods love is unconditional, then youre able to receive it-the fact that God has your highest and best in His heart. That's a freeing thing; thats a wonderful thing when you can receive-not just know it intellectually but receive in your soul, God loves me. When children receive unconditional love, they feel secure. They feel like they can rest, like they can trust because they know theyre loved no matter what. If you can have that understanding of your Heavenly Father, then you can enter into a spiritual rest-you dont have to jump through spiritual hoops for Him to love you. We said it communicates worth. We said it must be unconditional. The third thing is it brings accountability. Saying I love you brings accountability. Notice when Peter says to Jesus, I love You, Jesus doesnt simply say back, Okay, well thats good to know. He doesnt simply just say like in the song, Well, after three years together, its nice to know. He gives Peter a job to do. If you love Me, youre going to feed My sheep. If you love Me, youre going to shepherd My sheep. Theres a job to do. There is a responsibility when we say the words I love you. Thats one of the other reasons why sometimes people are reluctant to say I love you because saying the words I love you has with it a commitment, doesnt it? If I say I love you to my wife, which I do every day, I think, that has a commitment to it, doesnt it? If I say I love you to my children, which I do every day, that has a commitment to it. Its saying you have a certain expectation of me. Thats why sometimes in couples, when you start to date and start to fall in love, its a big deal when the first one that says the magic words I love you takes that risk because that has a lot of meat to it. Its saying, Im committed to this relationship. Im committed to you. You can trust me. You can have a certain expectation of me. When I say I love you to a friend, Im saying, You can count on me to have your back. You can count on me to be trustworthy to you. So saying I love you has with it a responsibility. When we say I love You to God, we are saying, God, there are certain expectations You can have of me. Peter said, I love You, Lord. Then, heres what you need to do. Gods love is not conditional, but we are to demonstrate our love for Him through serving Him. He said to Peter, Peter, if you love Me, then youll feed My sheep. So we see this awkward moment for Peter. We see this tense moment for Peter where he truthfully cant say to Jesus, I agape You, but its not always going to be that way. Have I shared 1 Peter 1 with this service yet? No. Lets take a look at 1 Peter 1 together. This is later on now in Peters ministry. He is a leader in the church. I want you to see the freedom from which these words flow from his pen. He writes in Verse 8 of the Lord (page 1200 of pew Bibles), Though you have not seen Him, you… agape Him, and even though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls. Peter is now much older and much wiser with a greater freedom. Hes able to say to the church, We agape the Lord. We love the Lord with the highest form of love. Our goal is to love Him fully. You can just read the joy and exuberance of spirit which was so absent in Peter that day as he questioned his own love, he questioned his own faith, and now here he is this seasoned leader of the church. Hes able to freely express the fact that he agapes his Lord. Might that be our church. Might we be a church where the words I love you are expressed, where words of love and actions in love as in 1 Corinthians 13 are commonplace. [Might we also] be affirming the worth and value of one another and that we are loving one another unconditionally. Love and words of love never mean more than when someone has let you down-to let them know that you still love them, that you still believe in them and can bring restoration to that relationship. This love, this expression of love, was somewhat confrontational too, wasnt it? Maybe there are some people that in a loving way you may need to put some cards on the table and say, Here are some things we need to talk about. There are some things that have happened in our past. There are some things we didnt agree on. Ive let you down or youve let me down. We need to talk about it. Because we love each other, there is some air we need to clear here. Maybe some of you need to have those kinds of conversations. Thats what Jesus and Peter had. This was an air-clearing conversation. This was okay, lets put the cards on the table. Lets talk about what happened. When it was all done, I bet you Peter felt like a million pounds were lifted off of his shoulders. He was like, I can put that in the past now. Yes, I failed the Lord, and I cant change that, but Jesus still loves me. Jesus still believes in me, and Jesus still has ministry for me to do. What a freeing and restoring thing when words of love are exchanged in this manner and were able to say what were really thinking, really feeling, and experience genuine friendship and community. There is genuine forgiveness and genuine love and restoration. Peter was a changed man from that point on. His growth was off the charts as he became a leader in the church and a man who would surrender his life for the Lord. That's powerful. Lets pray together: Father, we see in this text an expression of love and of grace. We see our Lord offering unconditional love to His friend. We see Peter being restored. Peter never thought hed see that day. Some of us have relationships with people that we love that we need to practice asking some of these open-ended questions to, getting honest and getting real, and expressing our love for them. Lord, if we will express our love unconditionally and not attack them but show them our love, its amazing what that can do, the nets that that can mend. Lord, I pray for that-that You would equip us and strengthen us to take action steps, to heal those relationships, to affirm that worth, to demonstrate unconditional love and to be willing to take on the accountability that words of love lead to-to say, Im committed to this relationship. Im committed to this friendship. There are expectations that you can have of me. May we be those kinds of Christians, Christians of agape love. In Jesus name, we pray, Amen.
[It is] nice to be here on this spectacular day. Youre all thinking, Spectacular? Hey, any time its not snowing at this time of year in Wisconsin, its spectacular in my opinion. Its great to have you here, and as Pastor Jeff said, I get to kick off the series on What Does Love Look Like? We may not often think about it, but love and thankfulness certainly go together like ice cream and pie, (I have to put in a plug for the pie sale), the Lone Ranger and Tonto, Batman and Robin, or-my new revelation this week-like Clint Eastwood and prayer. Youre like, Huh? My wife and I on our Friday night date night, which weve celebrated for over 31 years now-its probably one of the huge reasons were still married, were out going somewhere, and weve become accustomed to listening to books on CD while were riding different places. We were listening to the story of Josh Burstein, who is an archaeologist, how he came to do that and how he got involved in the wilderness. He was sharing that his father had passed away when he was 15 years old. Shortly after that, he discovered Clint Eastwood. He became enamored with Clint Eastwood, and Clint Eastwood kind of became the father figure that he lost. He looked up to him and learned everything he could about him. He was a man of action, a man of few words, the strong, silent type. He said he really needed that at that time in his life. Were listening to this story and we started talking, so I shut it off for a bit. We were talking about that, and then Vicki asked me to pray with her about something. All of the sudden this brilliant thought crossed my mind as she was talking about Clint Eastwood coupled with prayer. I turned and looked at her and gave her my best steely-eyed stare and said, Go ahead, make me pray. (Congregation laughing.) Now Clint and prayer are forever linked, which I hope is a good combination. Speaking of that, let us pray. Father, thank You so much for the chance to come together and share about love, gratitude and thankfulness. Thank You so much for giving Your life, Lord Jesus, for us. I pray that Youd warm our hearts and challenge us with Your Word today, Father. Thank You again so much that we can pray because of Jesus Christ, Amen. Well, love and thankfulness do go together like all of those things we mentioned. First of all, lets look at how those two things go together in Psalm 116. Were going to look at Verses 1, 2, and 17. The writer of the Psalm says in Verse 1 (page 605 of pew Bibles), I love the Lord. Notice he starts out talking about love. I love the Lord for He heard my voice. He heard my cry for mercy. In Verse 12, he says, How can I repay the Lord for all His goodness? Notice the response at the end of this Psalm. He says, I will sacrifice a thank offering to You and call on the name of the Lord. Love and giving thanks are linked together. The Psalmist says, I love the Lord, so what is my response? I will sacrifice a thanks offering in the name of the Lord. As we think about love and thankfulness, I want to leave four pictures with you this morning about what thankfulness is and how its connected to love. The first thing I would say is that telling someone thank you is like giving away valuable jewels. You might not think thats such a big deal, but, friends, how many of you appreciate it when somebody tells you thank you? Almost every hand in the room [is up]. Sometimes we dont think thats so amazing to give it away, but we like it when we get it. Friends, its interesting that Solomon said in Proverbs that wisdom is like riches. Theyre jewels; theyre emeralds; theyre diamonds; theyre rubies; theyre necklaces around your neck; theyre a gold crown on your head. One of the wisest things you can do is compliment, encourage, congratulate, and tell someone thank you. Thats like giving away diamonds, like giving away rubies. The amazing thing is it wont bankrupt you for doing that. In fact, we reap what we sow. When you give away thanks, its like sticking a diamond, an emerald, a jewel, a ruby, or a sapphire in peoples pockets, and you get something back in return. You get a blessing in return, and you never exhaust the supply. How many of you at the end of the day of telling people thank you said, Whew! Man, Im flat broke. I cant tell anybody thank you anymore? I dont think any of us have ever had that experience? On the other hand, if you really set out to be thankful and share thanks, its amazing that your energy and your own storehouse of riches seem to increase. How is that connected with love? Well, what do you find when you tell people thank you for what theyve done? They feel love; they feel cared for; they feel appreciated, right? When we have the opportunity to do that on a regular basis, friends, ask yourselves that: how good are you at enriching other people? Are you walking around every day passing out jewels of gratitude? Or, on the flip side, are you a world class jewel thief? Some people we meet are like that, right? Not only do they not have anything good to pass out, but they suck the life out of you. Instead of passing out diamonds, sapphires, emeralds, or rubies, they just rob the riches out of you. You can get up, have a great day and go on your way rejoicing, and then you meet these people and its like (Pastor Jerry is making a loud sucking sound to resemble one sucking the life out of you). You just feel like some wrinkled up, shriveled up prune after meeting them. They suck the gratitude and the joy of life out of you. They are like world-class jewel thieves. Friends, God calls us as His children to be different. He says, in fact, that we are His jewels. Our responsibility is to shine and sparkle for Him. One of the greatest ways that you can do that is by sharing thanks. We know that in our world if you genuinely love somebody-I know we have holidays coming up in less than a week, and my wife and I get to celebrate the anniversary of our engagement-whats one of the best ways to show that…ladies? Jewelry, right? There are a lot of situations [where we give gifts to one another]. I chuckled this last week because one of the Los Angeles Lakers Sasha Pavlovic got engaged to Maria Sharapova, and I just chuckled at our culture because they were trying to decide if the $400,000 engagement ring that he had given her was too cheap because, after all, youre supposed to spend two months of your salary on an engagement ring. Because he made so many millions, the $400,000 didnt quite add up to that; so maybe poor Sasha was being a little cheap. I was like wow. Thats a different world than Im used to. That's for sure, but, friends, we have the opportunity to enrich the lives of people we love every single day. God calls us to do that. As I sit here talking about it, I would challenge you, I would urge you, this week especially at Thanksgiving time to think about someone in your past-maybe a teacher; maybe a coach; maybe a boss who was really good to you, who helped you go forward, who changed your life and encouraged you in ways that nobody else did. Take the time to write them a letter. Give them a phone call; send them an email. Let them know what they mean to you. You can be a blessing to their life. Sometimes when you keep giving those things out, there are blessings and rewards that you get back without even meaning to when thats your regular habit. Just last month, Vicki and I got back from vacation. She had always wanted to go to Savannah, Georgia. We went and had a great time. It was really enjoyable and very romantic. We were coming back on the last night of our vacation. We stopped about 20 miles outside of Nashville and decided to stay over there before we ended up driving for home on the last day. There was this group of four motels. We were getting down to the end, and we thought we would kind of save our money. We were drawn toward two of the places that advertised their price for a night as $29.95; and we thought, Well, that would be pretty cool if you could get a decent motel for less than $30. We stopped in and looked at a room, and we decided, I…dont think…were going to…stay there. We went and looked at a different motel, a Country Inn and Suites. It was just really nice. You walked into the lobby, and there was this smell of freshly-baked chocolate chip cookies wafting through the lobby. Behind the counter there was this nice young lady about 25 years old. She was very warm, very cheerful, and very friendly. She said, Hi, how are you doing? We said, Were doing well. Could we check out a room? She said, Oh, sure. So she gave us a key, and we went down to check out the room, and we said, Oh, this is pretty nice. We came back and asked how much it was. She said, It is $90. We thought well, after looking at $29.95 and $90, that was a little more… We were like, Well spend it if we have to, but wed rather not. We said to her, If you dont mind, were going to go check out prices at the one place that was left. She said, Oh, fine. No problem. I understand. Take care, and have a nice day. We left and went over to the last place. We found out that it was the same price. We looked at a room, and we actually liked the other one better. The lady was very professional and very sterile. When we told her we didnt really want the room, she was very cold and borderline discourteous. She was like, Well, you dont want to stay at our motel. I cant believe that. Its beyond my wildest comprehension. We left and we were like, Wow. That was kind of wild. On the way back, we said, Man, that other young lady was so nice. We went in there, and she said, Oh, youre back! Its nice to see you. I said, Sure, well take a room, and she said okay. Vicki said, Yeah, we actually liked this room better than the other one. I said, Not only that, but we were talking about how warm and charming you were. You were really friendly. Compared to the other lady over there, you were like wow! It was nice talking to you. She looked at us and said, Wow! Thats really nice of you to say! You just made my day! So you know what? (Pastor Jerry speaks in a very gruff voice here), Im going to make your day. She didnt really talk like that, but she did proceed to make our day. She said, So instead of $90, Im going to give it to you for $50. We were like, Wow! Just because we said thanked her and complimented her, she turned around and our lives were not only enriched spiritually and mentally, but actually our pocketbooks as well. Later on, we thought what a joy to get money back, but we talked about who knows what kind of a day she was having. Maybe shed had lots of people who were unkind to her or mistreated her that day. Maybe she got chewed out. For somebody to come and be kind or say something nice about her, it was like wow! You could watch her eyes sparkle and light up. Friends, God calls us to do that. Theres a world around you of hurting people. Your gratitude, your kindness, can make an impact and enrich people that you meet. So telling someone thank you, remember, is like giving them a valuable jewel. The second thing I would say is that telling not just people but telling God thank you is light, warmth, and love thats drawn into your own souls. We think about romantic movies, and we think about warm and cozy fireplaces on cold Wisconsin nights. We think about romantic strolls through gas-lit lamps, and we think about candlelight dinners. There is always this association of light with love and romance. In fact, when Vicki and I were first dating, I actually walked down Frontier Street with her in the middle of a lightly falling snowfall. The street lights were glowing, and I turned to her and sang, Ive often walked down this street, the street before, but the pavement always stayed beneath my feet before. All at once am I several stories high knowing Im on the street where you live. She proceeded to vomit-no, Im just kidding. It was one of those really spectacular moments, and I still remember that. Light and romance go hand and hand; well, so it is with God. Friends, as you go through life, when your heart is cold and dark because life has been rough or youve been hurt, how do you bring light, warmth, and love to your soul? Let me encourage you and challenge you that when you share light, love, and warmth with God, you get it back in return in spades. In fact, if you think about God looking down on a world thats dark and cold and Him seeing His children here and there in the middle of a dark world, and in the middle of that darkness, theyre singing, praising, and worshipping Him, what does God see? Hes like, Oh, theres a light there. Theyre sparkling over there. Theres a light there. I see them over there. Thats light to God; its love to God; its warmth to God. You have the opportunity to warm His heart, and what do you get back in return? Friends, when you make the decision to praise God and bless His name no matter what, its like lighting that cozy fire on a cold Wisconsin day or a cold Wisconsin evening. You snuggle up, and you sense His love, His presence, and His warmth. I get so passionate about this because, friends, if you dont sense His love, if you dont feel His love, if youre not feeling the sense of His presence, I would challenge you to begin to praise God. Begin to thank Him; begin to bless Him and worship Him no matter what your circumstances are. This is the stuff of Psalms; this is the stuff of triumph; this is the stuff of light, warmth, and change. In fact, the opposite of that, if we look at Romans 1:20 (page 1112), God says that thankfulness is the Heavenly light switch. When you refuse to be grateful and you refuse to be thankful, that is the very first step into darkness. Listen to Romans 1:20. It says, For since the creation of the world, Gods invisible qualities-His eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God… Listen to this, …they neither glorified Him as God… nor-gave-Him-thanks. What is the first step after not giving God thanks? …their thinking became futile, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Its a hop, skip, and a jump on a short step to the rest of the Chapter of Romans 1 where you see every kind of evil and abomination and filthy action that exists in the world. Where did it start? It started with an ungrateful heart. It started with an attitude of ingratitude. Friends, I submit to you, that in gratitude, unthankfulness lies at the heart of every single sin that exists. Blaspheme God? Do you really shake your fist at God if youre incredibly grateful for all that Hes done for you? Honor your father and your mother. Do you tend to dishonor your parents if youre incredibly grateful for all that theyve done for you? Thou shall not murder. Do you murder people for whom you are amazingly thankful? I dont think so. Thou shall not commit adultery. Do you tend to have affairs, divorce, dishonor, and commit adultery against mates for whom you are spectacularly grateful? I dont think so. Do you tend to lie, cheat, steal, or covet? If you are unbelievably thankful for everything that you have, no. Gratitude is the foundational core of every single sin that exists. Likewise if you want to come back to God, you want to sense His warmth and light, thankfulness is the first step back. Its the first step toward the light; its the first step out of darkness; its the first step toward feeling again. You know in the real estate world if you want to raise property values, one of the cool things you can put in the home is…a fireplace, especially in colder weather or colder climates. People are drawn to that; it adds value. Friends, thanks, praise, and gratitude adds value to you. God says youre His home. You are where He wants to live. If you want to up your market value to those around you in life, develop a place where you go connect with God and get a hold of His light and His fire. Itll warm you; itll keep you; itll change you. Think of Moses coming down from Mt. Sinai having spent 40 days with God, and what is it about Moses thats different? His face is glowing. People can see that about you if youve been with God. It changes you. You have an impact on the world around you. Sometimes, dear friends, that prayer of praise, gratitude, and thankfulness can actually save your life. Its become my habit every morning to start the day by telling God ten things that Im thankful for. If my heart isnt warmed after that, then sometimes I run through the entire alphabet, A through Z, thinking of something for which I can thank God for. Then I tend to launch into songs of praise and gratitude. Sometimes as you begin to thank God, you dont feel like it. You dont feel like praising Him. Thats why sometimes praise is called a sacrifice of praise-because its not easy. Sometimes its like starting a car on a cold Wisconsin morning. You turn the key after scraping the ice off the windows, and it does not want to start. Finally after a bit, it kicks in and turns over. Then you defrost the windows, and eventually you get to go to school, your job, or wherever youre going. Its warm and youre glad that youre riding in a car-even if its a beater-instead of the one-horse open sleigh going to Grandmothers house. No matter how romantic that sounds, its still freezing cold. Youre glad for that warmth. Friends, praise is the same way. There are days that you get up, and you dont feel like praising God, but if you decide to make that sacrifice and begin to honor Him-even if you dont feel like it-I can tell you, its not long before your heart begins to warm. The ice begins to thaw, and the light comes into your soul. You become incredibly grateful for all He is and all that Hes done for you. Sometimes that moves me to tears because, friends, Im sorry but Im standing here today because praise and gratitude literally saved my life. Its taken me almost 50 years to share some of the details about this, but when I was 15 and 16 years old, I had some hormonal problems. My body was really messed up. It started producing way more testosterone than it was supposed to. It started really messing with me, so my mother took me to the doctor and low and behold, that wonderful yahoo, guess what he did? He prescribed me oral anabolic steroids. This kid has too much testosterone in his body. Its messing with him. Lets give him more. Nobody said anything about the side effects. Nobody knew what would happen. I went from being a pretty mellow, happy-go-lucky kid to somebody who wanted to kill everybody he saw. Here I was the president of my youth group, and everybody on the outside thought I was wonderful; and inside I was dying. There was darkness, and it was cold. Id walk around thinking about people I hated, people I wanted to hurt, and people I wanted to kill. Most of all, I wanted to kill myself. All that testosterone and discovering girls got me into things that for which Im not proud of and that are ungodly, that only added to the problems. As my guilt compounded, I wanted to kill myself even more. Somehow in the middle of all of that, in the darkness, the heartache, and the pain, nobody knew what was going on; I felt isolated and all alone, I would come home from school and thank God for a grandmother that taught me how to play the piano and sing. I would sit down for hours and sing songs to God of worship and praise, What a friend we have in Jesus. Do thy friends despise, forsake thee? When you feel all alone, take it to the Lord in prayer. In the middle of my incredible darkness and pain-and today they would say I was manic depressive, bipolar, or certifiably depressed-Jesus Christ, and thanks and praise to Him, was the light that saved my soul. If it werent for that hope and that ability to thank Him and praise Him, I would have blown my brains out and killed myself long ago. Thanksgiving literally saved my life. Friends, you have no idea the impact that you can make on a world around you if youre willing to share praise and thanks. You have no idea the impact that thanks and praise has in your own life. That kind of leads us to the third thing because being thankful can make you the powerful hero in any love story. I love romantic movies-dont let anybody know that. I love watching chick flicks with my wife, but I cant watch too many in a row. Then I have to watch an Arnold movie, a Clint movie, or Sylvester Stallone or somebody like that. Then I can watch another chick flick. Even the guy movies, the action movies, isnt there always some powerful hunk thats like falling in love with the gorgeous babe? We ask: what is it that draws us to that story? Friends, I think John Eldredge says it very well. Its the story of redemption. Why do we relate to that so much? Because its the story of what Jesus did for us. Hes the prince; Hes the captain; Hes the champion; Hes the hero who could have stayed home safe. Instead He left Heaven and came all the way down to planet earth to die and rescue us in pain and agony-to give us life, to save our souls, and to be our champion. We see that played out in stories and movies, and our hearts are drawn to that. Theyre drawn to the hero. Friends, when you lift up other people around you with gratitude and thanksgiving, you can be the hero in their lives. You can be the person who is lifting them up. You can be the person who is changing lives. You can be the person who is making a difference. Somebody can be burdened and carrying heavy loads, and a word of thanks, a word of gratitude, you have no idea the impact that that can make in their lives. I often think of Jesus in John 11. Lets look at John 11:35 (page 1064). It is the shortest Verse in the Bible. Jesus wept. The background of this: Jesus has lost one of His very best friends. He comes to the tomb, and this Verse, this Passage, says, Jesus wept. The people around Him looked at Jesus and seen Him crying and they said, See how He loved him! Sometimes we look at Jesus, and we think, Well, Hes God. He was here in the flesh. He knows Hes going to raise Lazarus in a few minutes, so it really doesnt impact Him. Hogwash! Jesus felt the pain. Jesus had just lost one of His very best friends. Its obvious. He is standing at the gravesite crying and weeping. Knowing that He can raise him from the dead doesnt lessen the pain. Everybody else sees it, and they were like, Wow! He really loved Lazarus! Then Jesus does something amazing. Some of them said, Couldnt He who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying? You go through losses; you go through pain; you have heartaches; sometimes you have regrets. Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. Take away the stone, He said. But, Lord, said Martha, the sister of the dead man, by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days. Then Jesus said, Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God? So they took away the stone. And get this, Jesus looked up and said, Father, I thank You… Friends; when youre going through loss; when you lose a job; when you lose a loved one; when you lose your dreams; when you suffer heartache, loss, and pain, what is Satan always whispering in your ear? He says, See, God doesnt care. Gods not listening. All those prayers you prayed, where was God? The Heavens are brass. Hes not listening to you. He has His hearing aids turned down. He doesnt care. What does Jesus say in the face of death? Father, I thank You that You hear me. What an attitude! His own spirits are lifted with the recognition that God hears Him. Listen to what He says next, I knew that You always heard Me. Sometimes we need to repeat that in our minds. Father, yes, Im going through hard things. Yes, Im facing the losses. Yes, my dreams are crushed, but Father, I know that You always hear me. We need to rehearse that. Thank You, Father. But our attitudes of gratitude impact not only ourselves, but the people around us. Look what Jesus says, …I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that You sent Me. When He had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, Lazarus, come out! The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to Him, Take off the grave clothes and let him go. Friends, gratitude and thankfulness are powerful. Gratitude raises other people. Gratitude literally lifts people from the dead. You can breathe life into somebody who is dying a thousand deaths today just by telling them thank you. Maybe its a clerk at the store; maybe its somebody that youve never met before. There was a lady in the 8 oclock service that came today, and I was blown away because Vicki and I had stopped on Saturday night at a card shop and got talking to her, and she came to church this morning. You have no idea whose life you can impact with a word of kindness or gratitude. Be a light; share a smile; share a thank you. Lift somebody up. You might rescue them even from the dead. Be a hero to somebody today. The last thing that I would say about thankfulness is that thankfulness is the tattoo or the mark of love. Now, I know some people might say, Tattoos, are those things in the Bible? Well, you can debate that back, Should I get a tattoo? Should I not get a tattoo? We debate cultures and all those types of things. I think its interesting that God says-even though I dont have tattoos-our names are literally engraved on the palm of His hand. How about that? Isnt that amazing? Gods not afraid to own us. Tattoos, in our culture, are often the mark of love; even in past cultures, youd see sailors, marines, and construction workers-guys like that [have tattoos]. You fall in love and get somebodys name tattooed sometimes, if you really love them, on your arm. Although you have to be careful. I always chuckle-when I coached at U-Rock, there was a sign in the boys locker room warning against the epidemic of AIDS. It has a picture of a guys arm, and then it had about six different names tattooed on it. There was Emily, and then that was crossed out; and then Ashley, and then Linda, Betty, and on down the line. One after the other was crossed out, and the caption at the bottom was unlike love, AIDS is forever, so be careful or be smart. The point is that sometimes people are so desperately in love, they mark their bodies with the name of their beloved. Friends, how do people know that you belong to Jesus Christ? Whats the mark that you carry? The mark is this: youre thankful no matter what. One of the few things that God says expressly is His Will is give thanks in every situation. This is the Will of God. Im going to ask you what you think the mark of the beast is. Youre looking at me now going, Is he on drugs? What does that have to do with thankfulness? You can get a big crowd talking about the mark of the beast and end times and all that kind of stuff. Sometimes, dear people, people cant see the forest for the trees. Ive heard lots of different things, Computer chips in our foreheads or the backs of our hands-thats the mark of the beast or the barcode on the back of your cereal box, thats the mark of the beast. God forbid, be careful about social security numbers. At one time, those were the mark of the beast. My favorite, I was in a meeting in a rescue mission once, and they had a testimony time. This dear lady, God bless her heart, out of the blue when someone was asking for testimonies, she stood up and said, I know what the mark of the beast is. We were looking at her like… This was in the 80s. Its Ronald Wilson Reagan 666. We were all like wow! So lots of things are the mark of the beast, but sometimes we cant see the forest for the trees. Lets look at Revelation 16 (page 1226). Im going to ask you as we read this to pay careful attention to what the mark of the beast is. God judges the beast and his kingdom, and it says, The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and the sun was given power to scorch people with fire. They were seared by the intense heat and they… [what?] …cursed the name of God, who had control over these plagues, but they refused to… change or repent and glorify Him. The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom was plunged into darkness. Men gnawed their tongues in agony and… [what?] …cursed God…because of their pains and sores, but they refused to repent of what they had done. Friends, whats the mark of the beast? You go through adversity; you go through trials; you go through pain, and you shake your fists in the face of God and damn and curse His name. You damn and curse Jesus Christ. Gods so mean! Gods so cruel! Gods so vicious! How could He do this kind of stuff to me? I dont deserve this! The mark of the beast… On the other hand, whats the mark of the followers of the Lamb? Lets look elsewhere in the Book. Whatever else the Book of Revelation may be, this may surprise you that its one of the most incredible hymn books in the Bible. There are songs of praise and thanksgiving all over the Book of Revelation from beginning to end. What is the mark of the followers of the Lamb? Lets look at Revelation 7:9 (page 1220), After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb. All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before their throne and worshiped God, saying: Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom… Here I like [how it is worded in] the New King James …and Thanksgiving… …and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever. Amen! Then one of the elders asked me, These in white robes-who are they, and where did they come from? I answered, Sir, you know. And he said, These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Friends, you see this through the Book of Revelation. What do the followers of the Lamb do when they are tortured, when they are slain, when they are beheaded, when they face tragedy, heartache, and pain? They fall on their faces and bless, glorify and worship God and say, Blessing and honor and glory and power be to Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb for ever and ever and ever and ever. What is the mark of the followers of the Lamb that they leave behind them everywhere they go? Like Job of Old, God looks down and says, You see My servant Job? Isnt anybody like him? God allows Satan to take away everything he has, and how does Job respond? He can kill me, and Ill still trust Him. Isnt that unbelievable? Thats the mark of the Lambs followers. They are so grateful; they are so thankful; they are so in love with the Captain of their salvation who went through hell to rescue them that they can suffer stress, heartache, pain, torture, and loss; and nothing can stop them from praising God. Friends, in a few short days, were going to celebrate the 390th anniversary of Thanksgiving. Thats almost 400 years. We remember the Pilgrims, why? Because they were followers of the Lamb. In 1620, they arrived on the shores of Plymouth Rock and set up a colony-110 people. Over the first winter, they lost over half of their number, so there were fewer than 50 people. We live in absolute luxury compared to what they had; and they carved out a hole in the wilderness. Six months after losing half of their loved ones and half of their membership and seeing death on every hand, they have their first harvest; and they spend three days of thanks, gratitude, and praise to Almighty God. They cant stop worshipping Him, blessing Him, and thanking Him less than a year after half of them died. So powerful is that mark that 400 years later in our countrys history, what do we still remember? We still remember a group of people who in the middle of their heartache, in the middle of their pain, in the middle of their loss, in the middle of their adversity took time to thank, bless, and praise God. Thats the mark of the followers of the Lamb. Dear friends, God put that same Spirit in your heart today. If youre one of His followers, share His love, share His gratitude. Youll make the world a better place. Lets pray: Father, I thank You so much for Your Word. I thank You for the example of Jesus Christ. I thank You for each one of these dear friends. I pray that You would bless them and encourage them. Help us to walk every day as followers of the Lamb in incredible gratitude for all that Youve done for us. I thank You that we can pray in Jesus name, Amen.
Well, lets open our Bibles up to the Book of Ephesians today. I think before we get into the message, Im going to give you just one last time to stand up and stretch. Lets stand together one more time. More importantly than standing up and stretching is asking the Lord to guide our time together today. Father, we thank You for the body that Youve assembled here in Janesville. We recognize that we are a small part of what youre doing in the world, but we are a part. We play a role. You have a plan and a purpose for this body. You have a plan and a purpose for us as individuals. We pray that Your Holy Spirit will guide the things that are said. Teach us from Your Word. We recognize that You are the leader of this church. You are the only star here. You are the only One that is worthy of our admiration, praise and worship. We are all simply Your servants, but we too have a part to play; so I pray that today will be used in our lives to lead, guide and direct Your church and the purposes You called us to. In Jesus name, we pray, Amen. If I say to you, We are, what are you thinking? If I say, We are, how would you finish that? Im going to read to you several we are Scriptures this morning. Im going to talk this morning from the Word of God, and then half of the message is going to be practical, just talking about the plans and our roles and so forth. This is kind of a hybrid. Were going to spend some time in the Word, talking about our Mission because thats what its about. Its all about the Mission. Its not about the building; its about the Mission. Then well talk about some of the practical nuts and bolts of that. There are several times in the New Testament where the phrase we are is used of the church. We: plurality, unity, oneness among many. We signifies that we cannot do it on our own. We cannot accomplish the mission and purpose individually. It is a collective group effort-we, in partnership with God and in partnership with one another. Together we work for a common cause. Many of you know Im a basketball fan, and my favorite basketball team is the Chicago Bulls. I like the Bucks too, so dont get mad at me; but I like the Bulls. I grew up a Bulls fan, and especially when Michael Jordan came to town, I was so excited. I remember when he was drafted how excited I was back in 1984. When he came to the league, he went beyond expectations. He did dazzling things. He would score 40, 50, 60 points. The Bulls would make the playoffs, but usually theyd be eliminated early. They could never make it to the point of playing for a championship. Even though he led the league in scoring, even though he was recognized as the greatest player in the league-maybe the greatest player of all time, this young man-he wasnt reaching the top of the mountain until they hired a man by the name of Phil Jackson. Phil Jackson came in as the architect of that team. The first thing he did was he sat Michael down and said, We know youre great. We know youre the best player on the team, but you have to start thinking about team. Your number one job is going to be to trust your teammates and make them better. Youre going to take more shots and have more assists. Youre going to involve the other teammates, and youre going to make them better. When they get better, were going to win. After that first title, Michael bought in; and then they went on to win five more. Had he not played baseball for a couple years, he probably could have won at least eight; and thats no exaggeration. Its a team effort. So thats what we conjures up in my mind. It conjures up a team work, a collectiveness, inner-dependence on one another. Secondly, it says, We are. The word are, the verb to be is what we are. Its our essence, not just something we have, something we hope to have, or might have; it is what we are now. In the Book of Ephesians 2:10 (page 1157 of pew Bibles), For we are… Who? We, the church. We are what? …we are Gods… First and foremost, we are Gods. We belong to Him. Theres a Passage in the Book of 2 Corinthians 5, and I recognize now how dependent we are on our Bibles in the pew in front of us. We always have them, and now we dont have that today; so its a little bit more difficult. (Service was held at the Pontiac Convention Center to rejoice in the progress of the next phase in the buildings addition at Faith Community Church.) In fact, Im so used to not bringing my Bible that even the pastor did not bring his Bible to church today. Im so used to just grabbing one of the church Bibles that we all read. I was like, I dont have a Bible, and I had to locate one. In 2 Corinthians 5:15 (page 1145 of pew Bible), Paul writes and says, And He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and was raised again. Thats powerful, so if youre a believer this morning, you do not belong to yourself. You belong to the Lord. That influences the way you think, the way you speak, and the way you act. Its important for us to realize that. He says, We are Gods. Say that, I am His. I am His. We belong to God. You have to understand that our lives are not our own. Weve been saved and redeemed for a purpose-to live for Christ. What a difference that makes if we truly understand that. In Ephesians 2:10 (again, page 1157), …but we are Gods… what? Workmanship. Its an interesting word. Its the word we get poem from, the Greek word poema, that which has been made. It means to be made for a purpose, that God has put within you an ability and gift to accomplish His purpose. You are a part of the poem that God is writing. You are a part, a phrase, of that poem that He is writing for Janesville, He is writing for your life. You are a part of that. You are a unique expression of the creativity of God. Have any of you ever been to the Safe House restaurant? Have you been there? Its a fun place to be. Ive been there a couple times. At the Safe House, you come in through this obscure alley. It doesnt even look like there should be a restaurant there. It looks like the kind of alley you might get mugged in rather than being a spot of a popular restaurant. There isnt any parking around there. You just go down this dark alley. There is this plain old brown door, and theres nothing on it. It doesnt say Safe House. It doesnt list the hours; it doesnt say open. Its just like a door to a factory or something. You open it and go inside, and you walk into this light kind of a room. Theres usually a host or hostess there to greet you, and they ask you for a password. Its a spy house. Its a safe place for spies to go who are involved in covert operations. So you come in, and they ask, Whats the password? Usually, you dont know. Then you dont have to be afraid that youre not going to get seated because they will make you do silly things to get admitted into the restaurant. They might say, Act like an elephant, or walk like a penguin, or act like a puppy dog or a bunny rabbit. If its not quite silly enough, then theyll encourage you. Theyll say, Well, Im not sure you can really get in. You need to be more of a penguin than you are right now. Then youll continue to act up, and after they put you through enough humiliation, theyll say, Okay, fine, and theyll open the secret passage way. Into the restaurant youll go. While youre doing these silly things, the people in the restaurant down below are watching you on TV (congregation laughing). When you come walking in, theyre like, Hey, nice penguin there, Bud. Its just embarrassing, so if youre new there, you dont even realize people are watching. Then you really get double humiliated when you realize the whole restaurant has been laughing at your expense. Then the fun part comes in because you get to sit down and then laugh at them. There are new people coming in, rookies. You get to say a few things to them when they walk through the door. Sometimes people think when theyre coming to church, The church is going to make me be somebody Im not. Theyre going to try to shape me and force me into their mold, people who I really dont feel like I am. Paul said, Nothing could be farther from the truth. It is in the church that we discover who we really are. Its in the church that we discover who God made us to be, what Hes intended us to do. Have you ever had those moments when youre in church, youre listening to a message or a teaching, or youre in a small group-maybe youre engaged in ministry-and theres like a light bulb that goes on in your head that says, This is why Im here. This is what I was created for. This is what Ive been called to do. When youre serving the Lord and youre discovering those things, you just feel truly and completely alive. I hope youve experienced that. If you havent, I hope that you will. I experience that all the time. Ill leave our church on a weekend or leave our staff meeting, and Ill just say, This is my purpose. This is why God put me here. Im His workmanship. He is working in and through my life. So Paul says, We are Gods workmanship… Listen to what he says in the next part of that verse, We are Gods workmanship created in Christ Jesus. What kind of creation is he talking about here? Do you know? Hes not talking about our physical creation. Hes talking about our spiritual creation. Were what the Bible calls the new birth. Lets turn to 2 Corinthians 5:17. Paul writes and says, Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old is gone, and the new has come. That is the creation that Paul is talking about here. Hes talking about the new creation. God has a plan for you. Its not a generic plan. Theres nothing worse than when your spouse goes to the grocery store and brings home generic food. I remember coming home one time with a bottle that just said ketchup on it. Wheres the Heinz ketchup? I dont want this! Well, thats $0.50 cheaper! I dont care if its a dollar cheaper! Get real ketchup! Or if you get some pop that says soda on it, Orange soda. I wanted Crush or whatever it is. God did not design a generic plan for you. There is a specific plan. It has detail. Part of being a part of a church is about God unfolding that plan to us-collectively and individually-and we walk together in that plan; but we are Gods workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works, to do good works. It didnt say were saved by good works. It said, Were created to do good works. That is our purpose. Think about what he just said. We are created in Christ Jesus to do good works or for good works. Paul is saying that is our reason for being. That is why God called you to Himself. That is why He redeemed you-for His purposes. Sometimes you think church is just this its kinda if I have leftover time, Ill make some time for church. When things settle down, maybe Ill have time for the things of God. When life settles down… I have all these things going on, all these projects. Maybe someday, Ill get around to these matters of spirituality. Actually, Paul says, That is our purpose. That is why He created us in Christ, to be the very center of our being-not an afterthought, not something for our leftovers. The church and Jesus Christ and accomplishing our purposes-and a mission in it-are to be central and integral to our very being. This is why He created us. So often the church is used as a consumer mentality. Church becomes like a consumer mentality here. We say, Well, whats in it for me? Whats in it for me? We travel here and there because of this. Oh, they have great music, or thats a great message, or they have the greatest program here or there. I go, I consume, and I leave. Thats not a church. Thats not what its about. Its not for you. Its not about your consumption. Its where you come to serve. Its where you come to be equipped. Its where you come to work. Some of you come to Faith on Sunday, and youre working on your ministry. Others of you are coming here, and youre being equipped and taught so you can carry out the work God has called you to do. Consumer mentality has no place in the Church of Jesus Christ. This is where we roll up our sleeves and get to work for the Kingdom of God. We are Gods workmanship. Were going to have this memorized before were done. …created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. It was not an afterthought. We were not an afterthought for God. He prepared them in advance for us to do, so the question is are we accomplishing that? Do you feel like you are in fact living out the poem that Hes written for you, that you are in fact a workmanship that God has called you to be? The second we are Passage I want us to take a look at-and well not spend as much time on these next two-is in 2 Corinthians 5:17 (page 1145 of pew Bible). Well begin reading with Verse 17. Paul says, Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us… the church …the ministry of reconciliation… Hes going to further define what that means, …that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ… Then he makes reference to the cross. He says, …not counting mens sins against him. This is a clear referral to the crucifixion where God, the Son, bore the sin of mankind, that God was in him, the fullness of the deity dwelled in bodily form and that we were reconciled to Christ on that cross. He is committed to us. He has committed to us, the church, the message of reconciliation. We are… there it is again, …therefore Christs ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on Christs behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him… and here-this is probably the most concise (this is in John 3:16) verse of the Gospel. It says, God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. What we learned in that Passage is that salvation is a gift that is given to us, and an exchange was made; Christ took our sinfulness and offered us in exchange His righteousness, His partner of grace. Thats a powerful message, and thats what God has called this church to deliver first and foremost. Thats the number one priority we have-to deliver the message of the Gospel, to reach the people of Rock County. That is our number one priority-to reach the people of our community. I want you to notice what he says youre to be here. Youre to be an ambassador. You know what an ambassador is. An ambassador is a representative. An ambassador is set out as an envoy and represents a country or a company. We are Christs ambassadors to the sick. Im going to ask for a raise of hands, and I want you to leave it up. How many of you came to this church because you were invited by a friend? Hold your hand up and keep it high. You have to look around. Look at all those hands up because somebody invited you. Thank you. You can put your hands down now. Somebody was an ambassador to you. Somebody took some time to come and talk to you. Thats what our church does. We equip ambassadors. When Im giving a message, when one of the pastors is giving a message, when youre going to classes, when youre in your small group, when youre learning and discovering your ministry, we are equipping you to be an ambassador for Christ-that youll go out and win the world for Christ. We wont win the world for Christ-we wont win our community for Christ if were scolding them. Some people think thats how you win non-believers in the kingdom. You just scold them. You just go out and make them feel bad. No. Theyll know we are Christians by our love. We reach out to them with a message of love, hope, and truth. Through our words and through our example, we are ambassadors of the Kingdom, and we seek to draw them in to the hope that we have in Christ, teaching them of Gods love and plan of salvation that He has for them. We are ambassadors. Thirdly, in the same Book, Verse 16 of Chapter 6 (page 1145), Paul is writing and he says, …for we are the temple of the living God. We are the temple of the living God. We are a temple. We recognize that the church building is not the church; we are. We brought the church to this building. We rented this for one week. Next week, we go back to the normal. Some of the folks who have worked so hard are saying, Thank goodness for that! We brought the church here-just like in our homes, our house is not our family. Our family is made up of individuals, so wherever we go, thats where home is. A house is just a structure we live in. The building is just a tool that we use, a place where we meet, but its an important place. I dont know if you grew up in a house where there were a lot of children and maybe you just ran out of space. Thats kind of what we are doing at Faith, and Im going to start transitioning that. We have run out of space, but the problem is its not just that were building for who we already are. If you just simply look around you this morning, youll recognize that we wouldnt all fit in our box over there on Lucerne. Just this morning, I am looking out, Where is so-and-so? Where is so-and-so? This is not all of us, but its a good representative sample of who we are. The problem is our house is full. Were out of space, and we are planning on having many, many more children because were called to bring people to faith. How many of you-and this is the most important question Ive asked this morning-would say here today that Faith Community Church had an influence in your giving your life to Jesus Christ? Hold it up; look around you. Isnt that wonderful that God has used us? Its humbling to see that, so thats what this is about. This is about commission. This is about touching more lives, making more ambassadors, more disciples of Christ. That is what we are called to do. Lets pray together. Father, I thank You for the challenge that youve given us. To live as You lived is a tall order. What You cared more about than anything else is people. The Word says that the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which is lost, so thats our first priority. Secondly, its to make disciples. Its to teach them the Word of God, teach them how to grow in their walk, provide opportunities to them to serve and to use their gifts. Not only have You called us for a purpose, Youve equipped us for that purpose. Youve given talents, gifts, and passions. Together, we work to accomplish those things. We thank You for that purpose. We thank You for that call. In Jesus name. (22:18)
Well, lets open our Bibles up this morning to James 5. Can you believe that we are finishing this series that we have been on for weeks, months, and were finally coming to an end of this Book? I hope that this is not the end of your study of James. I hope that you will continue studying it, and then when you do refer back to it, it will mean more to you than it ever did before we started this series. When I was a new believer, I was 17 years old, in our newly-formed church in Rockford, I had a Sunday School teacher named Roger. He had come out of the hippie movement. He had been a drug addict and had had a dramatic conversion to the Lord. He was one of those cool guys, cool teachers. Some of the teachers could be kind of dry and boring, but not Roger. He was hip; he was cool. He could speak our lingo, so we really enjoyed our class. We really learned a lot from Roger. In fact, because we had mutual friends, I would spend some time with Roger from time to time. I really enjoyed his company. One particular day, there was a church service going on in the house across the street from my sister, and it was really loud. It was a hyper-Pentecostal kind of a church; so he was like, Lets go check it out. I was like, No, no, no. Im not going in there. He said, Come on! Lets go check it out. Ill go with you. So we went in there, and it was like nothing Id ever seen before. They called people forward for prayer for the sick. Apparently everybody was sick because if you were in the room, you were coming forward for prayer; so everybody lined the walls and had to come around. The pastor occasionally would start hopping across the stage on one leg with his tambourine. His face was red, and he was shouting and screaming. People were on the floor convulsing and shaking. Im thinking, What is this? What is this? Next thing you know, Im in line, and Im like, I dont want to do that. I really dont. You brought me here, but I want to leave. So we came to an exit near a side wall, and right when we got to that exit, we cut out. We left the building. We got outside, and it was like, Oh, man! That was crazy. He said, You know, thats just another expression of the Body of Christ. Theres nothing wrong with what they did. Its just that we all worship God in different ways, and thats how they choose to worship the Lord, so I got a nice lesson on how the church operates. But we walked out of the church, and that was very symbolic because shortly after that, Roger walked away from Christ. He went back to a life of drugs. Years later, from what I knew, he was not serving Christ, not serving the Lord. How does that happen? The Bible talks about the fact that sometimes within the Body of Christ, there are believers who we think are believers, but theyre really not. They have confessed to Christ, but they dont possess Christ. Their conversion experience for whatever reason really wasnt real, really wasnt true. They really didnt have the Holy Spirit inside of them empowering them to live a Godly life. The Bible talks about this. Jesus says in the Parable, The Wheat and the Tares, in Matthew 13, Sometimes within the church, there are wheat and tares. A tare looks just like wheat, and it grows with the wheat. Its not separated until harvest time. Jesus explained the Parable later on, and He said, Thats the way it is. The tares grow amongst the wheat, and then at harvest time, God will separate the real from the fake, the true from the counterfeit. In fact, at the judgment, Jesus once said to people who professed Him and called Him Lord, And Lord, in Your name, did we not do miracles? In Your name, did we not cast out demons? He said, Depart from Me, I never knew you, not I knew you at one time and dont anymore, but I never at any point knew you. Never at any point did you belong to Me as a follower, as a child of God. Counterfeit Christians, theyre amongst us today. There are tares here today. They come to church every Sunday. They look like us; they talk like us, but there has not been-and God knows this-a true bringing to faith. They do not have the Holy Spirit residing within. If they did, they would stay in the church. They would stay with the believers, but the faith is not a true faith. John talks about this in 1 John 2:19 (page 1208 of pew Bibles). Id like for us to read that together. The Apostle John is talking about people who went apostate. They were in the church, and then they left the church. He said, They went out from us... Theyre not worshipping with us anymore. …they did not really belong to us. For if they had really belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us. The fact that they went AWOL and they were not living for Christ is proof and evidence of the fact that they really didnt belong to us. They were simply going through the motions. How many of you know of people who once professed Christ and no longer do? Maybe they went to church with you and no longer do. Let me see your hands. All around this room, weve known people like that. Thats what James is going to talk about. Really, these are controversial verses, but they shouldnt be. Once you understand the target audience-who James is writing to-theyre not difficult to understand. In fact, this whole Book has been about a test of faith, hasnt it? You say, Heres the test: if you are a true believer, this is how you respond to trials. If you are a true believer, heres how you respond to temptations. If you are a true believer, here are the words you speak out of your mouth. If you are a true believer, here is how you react to a promise. In fact, in Chapter 4, he gives an appeal to conversion. He says, Repent. Come to Christ. Remember that Passage. He challenges them to come to Christ. Why? Because James knew that some of the people he was writing to did not know the Lord. They may have professed they knew the Lord or seemed to know the Lord, but they really didnt truly know Christ. James says, I know youre there, and Im telling you right now, Come to Christ. Repent of your sins. Belong to Him. Now hes not going to talk to the tares. Hes not going to be talking to those who are not truly believers. Hes going to talk to believers. This is what he says in Verse 19 (page 1199), My brothers, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring him back, remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save him from death and cover over a multitude of sins. Now when you first read that in Verse 19, he says, My brothers, if one of you should wander… So right away we think-and heres where the misunderstanding comes in-that hes talking about backsliding Christians, apostate Christians; but hes not. We know that from the words he uses in Verse 20, and there are many of them. First of all, he says, Whoever turns… This is the word that means convert. You dont convert the converted. You dont turn those who are already followers of Christ. This word is always used in Scripture-every single time-as a reference to people who dont believe in Christ coming to Christ. It used by the Lord when He talks to Paul on the road to Damascus. He said, You are to turn the people from darkness to light, from the kingdom of Satan to God. The word turn is used there. It means to change your direction. Secondly, he uses the word sinner. The word sinner is never used of professing believers. Now we are sinners; its true. We do sin; thats true, but every time you look up the word sinner, this word in the Bible, While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us, it always refers to people who dont know the Lord, who dont truly know the Lord. They may know about the Lord, but they dont truly know the Lord. Thirdly is the word save. You dont save those who are already saved. He said, Were going to save them, and we know were not talking about a deliverance from physical death, but deliverance from spiritual death because he says the word soul here. Deliver their soul from death. In the Greek, the word soul is present; so what are we talking about? Were talking about spiritual death. Were talking about salvation, and that is for the loss. That is for people who are apart from God. Then he talks about the fact that it covers a multitude of sins. That simply means that God is going to forgive their sins. Gods grace covers their sins, so theres no sin that cannot be forgiven. There is no quantity of sin that cannot be atoned for. His grace will cover their sin, so what were talking about is those within the church. Maybe there has been a tare amongst you. All of the sudden they have now departed from the church. Theyre not coming anymore. The hopes are that theyll come and get it. Theyll finally get it. Theyll catch on to the program and realize that they need to serve and follow Christ. He says, Youre to go after them. Youre to pursue them. Youre to bring them back to the way of the Truth. I was careless this week. I was carrying a heavy box of books down to the basement. Rather than turn on the light switch, I thought the ambient light coming in from the surrounding areas was going to be sufficient to see the stairs. I was too lazy to put the box down and flip the switch, and I paid the price. I got to the bottom of the steps; I tripped on the last step and fell forward onto the concrete basement floor. Writhing in pain, Oh, did that hurt! I landed on my knee and hurt my neck. I was down there a little bit in shock and was trying to figure out what was wrong. I thought Id really damaged my knee. I was down there just moaning, groaning, and writhing in pain. My dog, Penny, came to see what the commotion was about. She came to the top of the steps. She wasnt coming down. I dont know if she was afraid of me or was trying to figure out what the new game was that Dad was trying to play. She was looking at me from a distance; from the top of the steps, she was looking down at me in agony. She was studying me; her ears were up, and her head was tilted like, Whats going on? Why are you doing that? I was like, Oh, Penny! Im hurt! I dont know what I was expecting, but I can tell you this: there is no St. Bernard in my dog. I thought, You know, shes at least going to come down and give me a courtesy lick on the face to say, Listen, Id like to help ya, but Im a dog. I cant do anything for ya. I love ya. Im sorry youre in this condition. Im pulling for you to make it, and do your best. Thats what that would have demonstrated to me. Just come down and check on me, make sure Im okay. Give me the courtesy lick on the forehead and then Im good. Rather than doing that, my dog simply turns-while Im in pain, writhing in agony-and leaves and goes back to the couch! Nothing more I can do here. Hope you make it, big guy. Good luck to you. Im out of here. I have squirrels to watch, so off Penny went. I lay there for a long time, assessing my damage. I finally got up, went upstairs, and there she was just watching birds and squirrels out the bay window. When we think about these folks who have fallen-we think about these folks who are no longer living for the Lord and are in darkness-I wonder when you raised your hand and thought about that person, did you go after that person? Did you pursue them? Did you dare take a step down into the darkness with them and find out what was going on? Now, dont lick them on the head. Im not asking you to do that like my dog, but did you find out, Whats going on with you? How did you get here? Do you want to stay here? Why are you here? Can I give you a hand? Can I help you out of this darkness? Can I help you up? Can we go back up to where you were before? Thats what James is telling us to do. Hes saying, Go into the darkness. Find them. Reach down to them. Love on them. Dont lecture them! Dont yell at them! Whats wrong with you?!? Lift them up and say, Im here for you. Lets talk about how you ended up here. Lets talk about how we bring you back to where you used to be. That's what James is saying. James is saying, Take responsibility to bring that person who has wondered away from the church and finally, finally help them to cross the line of faith for real, and really give their life to Christ, really become a true believer and a true follower of Jesus Christ. Thats what hes saying, My brothers, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone… Who? Someone. Are you a someone today? He doesnt say, And the Apostles will bring him back to faith, or the elders will, or the pastors will bring him back to the faith. He says, Someone, anyone, if you love that person, realize what is at stake. Youre going to save their soul from death. The stakes are as high as they can possibly be. If you truly love somebody, you wont simply look at them in that fallen condition in the darkness and go, Tis, tis, too bad. Well, I have to get back to what Im supposed to do. Maybe Im afraid. I remember not talking to Roger, truthfully, when I was 17 when I heard that news because I was afraid. He was a tough guy before he became a Christian. Maybe he is that tough guy again. Maybe he wont like me. Besides, Im a kid. What am I going to do? What am I going to say to an adult? I was afraid. Probably my dog didnt come down those steps because she was afraid because I was acting funny. I was making a lot of strange noises, and she didnt know what was going on. James says, Take that risk. Make that walk. Descend to where theyre at. Help them up. Now there are two ways that we stray. I want to talk about both of them. The first way we can stray is doctrinally. If you stray doctrinally, probably morally/ethically, youre still going to be living an upright life. In fact, thats one of the reasons why we cant identify them because theyre fine citizens, right? Theyre good people, but they stray doctrinally. Theyve received some wrong information that caused them to depart from the truth of the Gospel. This happened time and time again. In fact, much of the New Testament is written to combat error. Paul would write or John would write, and they would correct wrong thinking, wrong information. Remember Paul said, Earnestly contend for the faith once and for all delivered to the saints. Gods Word, His revelation, is done. Its complete. You cant add to it or take away from it, but there are people who will twist and distort it. That happened in the First Century Church, and it happens today. Were to go after them and give them the right information. I went to go visit one of our members named Kilcha. Some of you know Kilcha. Shes Korean. She usually comes to the 11 oclock service and sits over here. Kilcha had a headache, and her friend encouraged her to go to the hospital. It turned out it was a brain aneurism. They caught it just in time. She had brain surgery that Sunday I found out about it. I preached the sermon first, and then I took off to try to find Kilcha at 11 oclock. She was at the UW Hospital in Madison recovering from brain surgery by the time I made it there. UW Madison is a big place, so I wanted to make sure that I knew exactly where my car was parked and exactly how to find her room. It worked out with my memory device because she was in the K Wing, and her name is Kilcha. So I went, This is a piece of cake. Im in the K Wing. Ill be able to find this, no problem. So I was given directions to the room, K423. You take the K elevator, and you go up to the fourth floor. No problem. I walked to the K elevator and went up to the fourth floor. I got up there, and it was a ghost town. There were no people, no patients, no doctors or nurses-nobody. There was nobody around. I was walking around thinking, Well, these are more administrative offices and laboratories. There are no patients here. She must be in another K Wing, so I went to another K Wing. I couldnt find it. I was walking around for 20 minutes up and down the same hallways going, Well, it says K. This has to be it. This is it. This is the only place the elevator would take me. Finally, I see a young man in blue jeans and a T-shirt walking around. I didnt know if he was the custodian or what his role was there. I said, Sir, could you help me? Im trying to find this. He said, Okay. Hmm, thats strange. Well, lets look. So we walked around for another 15 minutes in the same corroders. I wanted to tell him, You know, I can tell you right now this isnt going to do any good. Finally he started asking questions. He said, Hmm, I wonder if this is the correct information. Can you tell me what she had done? I said, Well, she had brain surgery done. Then he goes, Oh, yeah. I used to do that. Okay, so what did… He said it just like that, just kind of casually. It turned out before he came to UW Madison, he was a brain surgeon in California. I said, Whyd you stop? He said, I got tired of working 110-hour weeks. Now I only work 80-hour weeks. He said it just like that, Oh, I used to do that. You and I would be like, I have a Honda. I used to drive one of those. She had brain surgery. I used to do that. Okay, now lets look… We couldnt find her. When he couldnt find the room, I wanted to say so badly, Doctor, this isnt brain surgery… (Congregation laughing). But I thought, Im not going to do that. As soon as he found out it was brain surgery, he said, Were in the wrong place. We walked over to the elevator, and he said, Heres where they usually recover from brain surgery, so lets go to that floor and that wing even though its different from whats on the paper. He took me there. He got on the elevator; he walked me to that unit, and we found Kilcha. I was like, Wow, Doc, that was really nice of you. You took all that time. You got on the elevator with me. You took me to the unit. You figured it out. Thats awesome. Thanks. Thats what James is telling us to do. There are people who get wrong information, doctrinally-wrong information. They are wandering. Theyre lost. Theyre no longer in contact with the truth as it was delivered to the saints-the Gospel, the pure Gospel, theyve departed from that. Maybe theyre denying the deity of Christ. Maybe theyre denying the work on the cross or His Resurrection. It could happen to anybody. A friend of mine who was a pastor in Rockford started teaching in the 80s what was called the JDS or the Jesus Died Spiritually Doctrine. Have you heard of that? The way it goes is Christ died on the cross and then His Spirit descended into hell where he was tormented by Satan and demons for three days. He became a sinner in Hell. He took on all of our sin, and then finally He Himself had to be born again; and thats why Colossians said He is the first born of the dead. Then He was resurrected. He was teaching this, and I said, Thats heresy. Oh, but Pastor so-and-so says that its in this book, and hes really famous. I said, Thats heresy. Youre teaching that when Jesus says, It was finished, it wasnt finished. Youre teaching that the cross was not enough, that His blood was not sufficient to atone for my sins. He had to further descent into Hell and further experience more torment and be born again just like a man. Im telling you thats heresy. Around and around we went. I dont know if hes still teaching that today or not, but I do know that hes a friend. I care for him. I care for the people who are going to hear what he is teaching, so I challenged that. Remember when we shared about a pastor who came to Janesville, a Universalist pastor? He used to be one of the most dynamic pastors Id ever listened to in my life. Hes now traveling around the country. I showed you a picture of his mug months ago-a literal mug, not his face-a coffee mug. It had the Ten Commandments with a slash through it. Do you remember that? He was teaching, You dont need to worry about the Ten Commandments. You live any way you want to live because every single person on this planet is going to be saved and go to Heaven. It didnt matter what kind of life you lived. You could be a mass murderer and die shaking your fists at God, and you would go to Heaven. Thats what he taught. I wonder-I dont know that guy personally-but I wondered if anybody confronted him. Did anybody take him to the Scriptures and say, Listen to what youre teaching. Listen to how youre leading people astray. Paul would do that. Even Paul once went astray, and Paul confronted Peter. Friends, there are a lot of people with the wrong information. If thats the case, James says, We go to them and say, Listen, youve departed from the truth. Paul did this with the Galatians when he said, You are following a different Gospel. This is not the Gospel I taught you. This is not the true Gospel. Paul said, If I were to come back and teach a different Gospel or an angel from Heaven were to come to you and preach a different Gospel from the one youve heard, let him be accursed. Sometimes people will err doctrinally. The second way they err is morally. They wander away from the faith morally. Theyre living a lifestyle that no longer honors God. Im not talking about our sin, our struggle with sin. We all struggle with sin. Were all sinners. Youre being taught this morning by a sinner. I hope you understand that. We are all sinners in this place in need of grace, in need of a Savior. Were all in the same boat. Im talking about a person who in defiance-in defiance-is living a lifestyle that he or she knows does not honor and please God. They know its contrary to the Word of God, and theyre there. Thats a false believer. James says, You go after that person and try to be used of God to make them become a true believer. I was driving home after an adventurous week, I guess. I dropped my son off at UW-Milwaukee, and I was heading home on the interstate. I was going 65 MPH, the speed limit. There was really nobody in front of me. There was a gap where there were no cars in front of me, and there were some cars behind me. A deer came out of the woods. Id never hit a deer before, but Ive heard many stories about what its like. Immediately, my anxiety level went up. He walked to the edge of the interstate and stood there. I was like, Oh, please, just go back in the woods. Go back where its safe. Dont come this way. Then he slowly started to walk on the interstate. He was on the right lane-actually physically standing on the interstate. I went into the left lane. I couldnt stop-you understand that-because there were cars behind me coming 70 MPH. I had to move forward, so I went into the left lane, and when I got close, I sped up because I was trying to get around him. That speeding up may have saved my life. I think the slower you go, if you hit your brakes, the more apt they are to roll right into your car through the windshield. If you can drive through them, which I didnt want to do and you dont want to do, but if your lifes on the line, you do what you have to. If you go through them, then its less likely for that to happen; so I hit the gas, and as soon as I did that, this deer ran right in front of the car. I hit that deer full on, a full-on collision. I propelled it like 30 feet off into the meridians. I knew there was no way [it would live]. It was probably instant death for that deer. My car was in bad shape. I could tell. I drove really slowly, and as it got dark, I had a really good view of the treetops on my left with my headlights. It wasnt such a good view of the road. I knew I was leaking fluids, and I had no heat. Finally, I made it home. If you remember seeing me in a Toyota Prius, you wont see me in that Prius anymore. Thats gone. I had to call my sister and say, Can I have my Lincoln Town Car back? I went from a Prius to a Lincoln. Its a 2001, so now Im driving that again. What a contrast of cars. Ill now get 15 miles to the gallon when I used to get 45. The car is gone. There are sometimes when people we know leave the safe area. Theyre in the church; but theyre not truly following Christ, but theyre in the church. Thats a good place to be, and they wander away. They head to that danger zone. They head where life is not safe. They wander away from the Commandments of God. They put themselves in harms way. How long do they do that before we intervene? Is it as they start walking out of the woods and toward that direction? Is it when they get on the highway, or is it when they start to come into traffic and put themselves in harms way where their lives could literally be on the line? I had a friend who I thought was a moral guy, a good guy. He occasionally went to church and seemed to profess Christ; but at a certain point, he just completely walked away from what hed been taught. He was living a destructive lifestyle, so I and a couple of other friends went to him and said, You have to change. You need the Lord. You need Christ. He wouldnt listen. He got angry at us instead. We went there in love and said, We love you. Were afraid for you. He lost his car; he lost his girlfriend; he lost his job; he lost his house and became addicted to cocaine and created other problems in his life. He was totally living an un-Godly life. Im so happy to say that God has worked in his life, and today he has a job. Hes a productive member of society again. He seems to be doing really well with his life, but we did an intervention with him. Maybe there are some folks that you need to do an intervention for. In fact, that's one of my goals this morning is that we can be catalysts. If you know somebody who used to live an upright life and has totally turned their backs on the things of God, how far do you let them wander before you say, You know what? I love you. I care about you. Im concerned for the way youre living your life. Im concerned that your life is going to end up destroyed because of the decisions that youre making. If you truly love somebody, you wouldnt let them walk onto the interstate, would you-if it was in your power to grab them, stop them and pull them back, and say, Go back to the place of safety. Go back where youre loved and supported? Would you not do that? Yet, sometimes there are people that we know, and we simply allow them to go under harms way without lifting a finger to try to stop them. James makes an appeal to those who are true believers. He says, If somebody wanders from your faith, doctrinally, morally, you have a responsibility to pursue them. They may not listen to you. They may become angry with you, but what if they dont? What if they listen? What if God uses you to bring them to repentance? James says, Youll know that God has used you to save their souls-cover a multitude of sins. Lets pray together. Father, we want to pray right now for the message that we have heard. Lord, in our minds eye, some of us can see people. We know who they are. We know their situation. We want to pray for those who have departed from the faith doctrinally and morally, with wrong information. Theyre lost. Theyre meandering and wandering away from the Truth. There are some who have morally turned their backs on what Your Word says. Theyre living on dangerous ground because theyre operating and living a lifestyle that is contrary to what the Creator, the Designer, has said. Its only a matter of time before they reap what they have sown. We who love them should be concerned about them, so I want to pray for them. I want you, in your minds eye right now, to think about that person. Name their name. Say, Father, I pray for… and name their name. Pray that they will come to faith in Christ. Pray that they will repent and change directions. Pray that they can be saved. Pray that they can know that You love them, that Christ died for them. Pray that they could truly enter in to a genuine experience where they put their hope and trust in Jesus Christ. I pray this morning-if youre here this morning and youre listening to this, and youre thinking, Im not sure Ive truly given my life to Christ, I pray this morning youll say, Lord Jesus, I give You my heart and life. Forgive my sins. I ask Your Holy Spirit to come inside of me, to empower me, to cleanse me and make me a new person. Lord, I want to live for You all the days of my life. Because of Your Resurrection, I have the hope of eternal life because I belong to You. Receive me as Your son, as Your daughter this morning. I pray that youd pray that pray in sincerity of heart. I pray that youd go through the motions and become a true follower of Christ. Father, I pray that those we identify, that we will actually go after them. Well make some phone calls. Well knock on some doors. Well send some emails and say, Can we get together? Can we talk? I pray we will have the courage and the insight to tell them we love them and help them to go down to the darkness, pick them up, and bring them the restoration. I pray we bring them the right information in place of wrong. Father, equip us for that, empower us for that. I pray in Jesus name, Amen.
[Congregation just finished watching drama.] I think if we took a show of hands this morning, many hands would go up if we asked the question, How many of you have felt like the couple in our skit this morning? Maybe it wasnt specifically with the issue of infertility. Maybe it was an illness or was just at a general time of trouble or hardship that youve been through. I think the point is that we can all identify. We can all sense their frustration. We can all hear the hurt and the pain in their voices. We recognize that weve been there too, and weve prayed that God would bring relief, that He would bring an end to the time of trouble in our lives; and sometimes those times continue on. This morning as we continue and actually begin to wrap up our series in James, were talking about When You Pray. We remember that James writes this Passage in the greater context of his letter. At the time, he probably sat down and wrote it in one sitting. Those that heard the letter would have heard it read together in one sitting, so they would remember the subjects and the topics that weve already talked about as James gets to the section on prayer. We know that James has had some pretty strong words for the church. We know that the church has been through difficult times. Theyve been through times of suffering and trials. Some of them had to relocate because of the persecution they had been under. Now, after facing struggle from outside the church, as they gather together in their faith family, theyre experiencing turmoil, trouble, and suffering even inside the church. When we get to our section on prayer today, James is trying to change the tone. Like I said, he has given some strong warnings. Hes given some strong exhortations, and now he wants to give the community of faith a vision for how the church should be living together, should be operating together. What he does is he uses the topic of prayer to reinforce this idea of unity and community. Were going to read our section from James this morning. Its from James 5, and well pick it up in Verse 13 (page 1199 of pew Bibles). Were going to just read through our Passage this morning and then go back and talk about some of the different parts that James talks about. Picking up with Verse 13, James says, Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops. The first question that James answers for us is the question of when do we pray. He makes some very simple statements. Really, the answer to the question is you pray in all circumstances. It sounds very much like when Paul was writing in 1 Thessalonians 5:17. He said, Pray continuously. We can understand that. Its a very simple instruction. James goes through a few different scenarios though to reinforce the point, and he says, Is any of you in trouble? Trouble being a very general term-it doesnt apply to a specific kind of trouble, a specific time of persecution or trial. Its just a general time of difficulty. James knows that when we go through times of trouble, sort of like our couple in the skit this morning, it raises questions in our hearts. We ask, Is God aware of what Im going through? Does God care what Im going through? Even if He does, does God have any power to affect change in the situation Im going through? Those questions so often lead us to a time of praying less. James says, In those times, its just the opposite. You need to pray more. In times of trouble, you need to pray. Thats the exact time to pray. Then he addresses the other side of the spectrum. He said, If any of you are happy, rejoicing, or celebrating… Again, a general term-it can apply to many different types of situations of peace, content, and joy. James knows that sometimes when things are going well, what happens to us? We get complacent in our prayer life. When we dont have that sense of urgency to come before God, sometimes we pray less. James says, No, no, no. In times of happiness, thats the time to pray more. Sing songs of praise. Address God. Be grateful for the good things in your lives. Be thankful. Let Him know how much you appreciate this time. Then he goes into a third example. He asks, Is anyone sick? Because James knows that when we get sick, we feel discouraged. When we get sick, we feel weak. We feel helpless. That helplessness sometimes can lead to a sense of hopelessness. James is telling us, Helplessness does not equal hopelessness. In fact, sometimes our helplessness is our best prayer because when we realize that we need God, when we depend on Him every day, thats the attitude with which God loves us to come to Him-how much we need Him. The answer to our first question this morning is very simple. When do we pray? All the time. We pray in every circumstance. We address our Creator. We pour our hearts out to Him. We focus our minds on Him. Next James goes into some phrases that tell us how we should pray. He gives us some instruction, some guidelines, and the first thing he says is you should call the elders of the church to pray over you. Just that expression of calling the elders, thats an expression of faith; and were going to talk about faith a little bit more in a little bit, so Im not going to really get into that now except for just to mention that at the beginning of James-when James was talking about someone praying for wisdom-he mentions faith as a necessary condition of our prayers. Calling is an expression of faith, and the fact that James says to call the elders reinforces his point that the family of faith, the community of faith, is supposed to be just that-a community. Its within the context of our community that we share our struggles with each other-he specifically mentions the elders, teachers. Some churches might call them deacons-those people that have been given special trust for the spiritual interest and spiritual guidance shepherding the church. James point is make your requests known because what happens so many times when were going through a struggle is we hesitate to let people know. We hesitate to let them know of the difficulties that were facing. We try and cover it up. We try to put on that happy face so that people think that everythings going well. James says, Uh-ah. Thats not how the family of faith is supposed to operate. Were supposed to let each other know when were going through times of trouble. I think a significant point here is that James makes no mention of the specific spiritual gift of healing. Paul mentions that in his letters. He includes the gift of healing as a specific spiritual gift, but what James has in mind here is a power through prayer thats available to all of the church as members submit their lives to God. Come together in humility and weakness and pray for each others struggles. He says, Make your requests known. I want to use this as an opportunity to remind you that we have a ministry whose whole focus is on praying for the needs of people in our church. Its called, The Branch of the Lord Ministry. This is a group of people who are committed to praying for all kinds of situations, for praying and giving praise to God in all of those types of situations we just mentioned. Were trying to figure out ways to make their ministry more accessible to you specifically so that you can turn in requests, and then they can be praying for you as well. Make your requests known. Call the elders; be a family of faith together. The second instruction James gives us is he says, You need to pray in the name of the Lord. I know a lot of us use that as a phrase at the end of our prayer, but maybe we seldom give it much thought. What does that mean to pray in the name of the Lord? We kind of act as if thats just a tagline that we add on; if we really want our prayer to be effective, then we are sure to pray in the name of the Lord. Then somehow God is obligated to fulfill that. Really, when we do that, were reflecting attitude that prayer is really more like a wish. Can you imagine if prayers were wishes- if we could just pray for anything and say, In the name of the Lord, it would happen? I know one thing that would happen (Pastor Jesse shows a picture of a sign at a gas station with an error on it. It had the price of $0.009 on it). I have it here on the screen. This is the actual gas station down from my house. I saw that sign and I thought, Whoa! I took a picture. For some reason though, they wouldnt fulfill that obligation when I went in and said, $0.009, thats a good deal. They said, No, that's just a mistake. Sorry. The point is that praying in the name of the Lord reflects an attitude that we have. It means that we pray in union with Christ. It means that we pray by the authority or direction of the Lord or as an act in accordance with His Will and something that will meet His approval. Jesus gave us this model when He gave us the model of prayer. When we talk about the Lords Prayer, in the beginning of His prayer-not at the end, He said, Lord, Your Kingdom come. Your Will be done. That's an example of the attitude were to have in prayer when we pray in the name of the Lord. Along with this phrase just before it, you have the phrase to anoint the person with oil. Honestly, you can do a lot of reading because there is a lot of discussion about what exactly does James mean here? Is he referring to some exercise of that spiritual gift of healing where anointing someone with oil is often used? There are examples of the Disciples doing that. You can look in Mark 16. You can see the Disciples doing that. In the ancient east and even now today, oil had medical and therapeutic uses; and it was very common for people to use oil to treat ailments and to be therapeutic. An example of that would be in the Verses where Jesus was speaking about the Good Samaritan in Luke 10 (page 1028 in pew Bibles). It says, When the Samaritan came upon the man who was beaten and bruised and left for dead, he had pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. He was giving him first aid. Were not necessarily going to settle the debate about exactly what James means because his main point in this Passage isnt on the power of the oil, but its on the power of praying in the name of the Lord. The oil doesnt contain the power; the power comes from Christ Himself as we pray in submission to His Will and as we call on His authority. Jesus gave His Disciples that specific instruction-that they should pray in His name. Now you can read it. Ill give you a little homework this morning. You can read John 14-16 (starting on page 1067). Jesus makes remarkable statements about what the Disciples would be able to accomplish as they prayed with this attitude, as they prayed in the name of the Lord. Number three, it says the prayer should be offered in faith, so we are to pray in faith. What does that mean? Remember we said this was read as a letter, as a whole, so the people who heard the letter would have remembered in the beginning (in Chapter 1) when James was talking about if anybody lacks wisdom, what should he do? He should pray. In James 1:6 (page 1196), James says, But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does. I think sometimes we put extra strain and unnecessary stress on ourselves because when difficult times come and when we question Gods purpose-when we cry out in sincere frustration and just [have] a sense of not knowing what God is doing, wondering if this is really a good plan-those questions are raised in our souls. James is not talking about the fact that we have those types of questions. Weve heard in the last few weeks of examples of Prophets and of Job who expressed freely their emotion before God. Thats not what it means when it says that he should not doubt. He calls him a double-minded man, and we could better understand that if we just changed one word and said a double-souled person, someone who at their heart level hasnt yet decided whether or not theyre going to submit their life, whether they believe in the God of the universe, that He loves them and Hes paid the price for their sin, and that theyre going to give Him control of their lives. Thats the tension that James is talking about, and if we pray with the absence of that faith in God-that God exists, that He loves us, that Hes paid the ultimate price for us, that we find forgiveness and strength through Him-James says our prayers will be ineffective; so were to pray with that understanding and that faith that comes from believing in God. Fourthly, James gets into that area of confession, and he says, Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other. At the end of Verse 15 in our Passage, James mentions the possibility that sin has an impact on the persons wellbeing. It said, If the person has sinned, he will be forgiven. What that means is that there is a connection between sin and illness and that its possible there may be sin, but its not necessary in every case. When there is sin, that prevents God from hearing our prayers. God first wants us to acknowledge whether or not we are living obediently to Him because if were not willing to trust Him completely and live obediently to Him, then why would we be coming and asking for Him to work on our behalf; so James mentions the possibility of sin, and he does it in the context of community. He wants us to understand that healing-both physical and spiritual-is available when we enter into this type of relationship with each other. He says, Confess your sins to each other, and pray for each other that you may be healed. We talked about the fact that James is writing to a group of people who had been through a time of persecution, a time of trouble and struggles and what happens to our relationships when we go through very stressful times. Oftentimes our relationships are put under great strain as well. James knows that the people hes writing to have struggled first in their relationship with God. Theyve questioned Gods authority. Theyve been tempted to not be obedient to God and seek their own means of protection. Hes calling them back to a stance of faith through confession. Hes also acknowledging that their relationships with each other have suffered. If you were to look back at Chapter 2, he talks to them about playing favorites with each other in the church. In Chapter 3, he talks about them verbally attacking each other in the church. In Chapter 4, he talks about them fighting with each other, slandering each other, and judging each other in the church. He says, Brothers and sisters, this is not how the church is supposed to operate. We all must come to God from the same standpoint, and that is that we need Gods forgiveness. He is the one who offers us forgiveness, so together, lets confess our sins to each other. Lets be honest and humble with each other and pray for each other so that through those prayers, through those confessions, God can raise us up and can strengthen us-not only strengthen our relationship with Him, but as we share each others burdens, as we lovingly intercede for each other in prayer, our relationships in this community of faith will be strengthened and will grow deeper as well. What James is saying is that instead of judging, confess to each other. Instead of heaping guilt on each other, he wants us to forgive each other. Instead of moving to criticize, he says intercede for each other. So James is casting a vision before the early church saying, Your church has had some trouble. Its had infighting; its had conflict; and that does not demonstrate the type of unity [God desires]. You are interfering with the power that God wants to release in your worship time. Instead, hes painting a picture, and he said, Imagine what church would be like. Imagine what your meetings would be like as leaders gather together leading with the authority of Christ in worship. As Christians were praising joyfully for the good things in their lives. Also, as they were confessing their sins openly and praying for each other lovingly, the church together would experience healing in every aspect-physical, relational, spiritual healing. He said, This is what the church should be like, and its within Gods power to accomplish this in your church, in our church, as we live out these instructions on prayer. James goes on to answer the question about why we should pray. I was kind of presented with what I thought was a pretty good illustration of why we should pray this week. Towards the end of the week, Joy brought these two bamboos-are they plants or are they trees? Thats outside of my expertise. Weve had these for about four years. We got them at the same time, and you can see when we bought them-heres the top of both plants-they were the same size when we got them. I guarantee over the last four years, they have received the same amount of attention. They have received the same amount of water, but there has been one significant difference. This bamboo plant has been sitting in a place where for a good share of the day it receives direct sunlight; and this plant has been sitting somewhere where it receives no direct sunlight. Dont judge; were not that great with plants sometimes (congregation laughing). The point that God really was helping me understand is these two plants are pictures of believers in how their prayer life is reflected. This plant reflects a believer who is spending regular time in Gods presence, and thats what prayer is: its relationship. Its talking; its listening; its crying out; its laughing with the Creator. As this person has spent time praying and going through difficult times, but taking those thoughts and those cries to God, God has brought growth, health and vitality. This person hasnt been as regular in their prayer. They havent spent that time in Gods presence, and because of that, their growth has been minimal. Theyre not healthy; theyre not growing vitally. Theyre struggling. Thats a picture of prayer. So why do we pray? James says we pray because God promises to work through His prayers. He turns our prayers from something thats a cry from our heart or words from our mouth and He turns them into a powerful force through which He accomplishes incredible things in our lives. Just think about the claims that James is making in this Passage. He says that their prayers will make the sick person well. The Lord will raise Him up, restore his strength. He said, Forgiveness will happen between you and God and also between brothers and sisters in Christ. That forgiveness will bring unity and a sense of community and a vision, an excitement, and a passion within the church; you will be healed. Thats what James says. Then he shares a verse, the end of Verse 16, that powerful verse that says, The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. I am not a Greek scholar, so I rely on those who are. As I read different commentaries about picking apart the words of this sentence, its just amazing to see the amount of energy and the amount of expectation that is expressed with these five simple Greek words. What James is saying is that God dynamically acts through the prayers of His children. Dont get hung up on that word righteous. Sometimes when we read that word righteous, we think, Well, I struggle. Im weak. I make mistakes. Someday I hope to attain that. Remember in the beginning of Verse 16, James has laid out the process of becoming righteous. He said, Confess your sin. When were right with God, when we have asked God to reveal those things in our hearts that dont honor Him and we say, God, Im through with that. Give me the strength to live for You, thats what it means to be righteous. Were putting our full faith and trust in God. Were right with God. James says, The prayers of His children who are right with Him are powerful and effective. We could sum up what weve read so far or restate it to say something like this: In your trials, you dont need the power gained by money, favoritism, selfishness, fighting, or swearing big and boisterous promises. Instead rely on God through prayer for which you need only to be right with Him. Commit yourself to doing what is right without compromise. Then you may rely on God in prayer for all of your needs. Then James gives us an example, and he uses the Prophet Elijah for a couple reasons. One of them is Elijah was like one of the super Prophets of the Old Testament. People were familiar with the acts of faith that Elijah prayed for and the divine answers to those prayers that he saw. He saw food miraculously multiply as they used each day what they thought was their last portion of food. God renewed that provision. The widow he had been staying with, her son had died, and Elijah prayed in faith that God would raise him from the dead; and God raised her son from the dead. The climax of the account was when Elijah faced off against the 450 prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel because Baal worship had become so prevalent in the land at that time. Elijah told them, You go ahead. You pick your bull. You get your idol set up. They were praying, chanting and doing everything. Elijah sat back, and he just started trash talking to them. He said, Oh, Im sure Baals a god, but maybe hes busy now. Maybe hes asleep. Maybe hes on vacation. Pray louder! Call louder! The prophets got themselves all worked up into a fervor, and nothing happened. Elijah prayed a simple prayer of faith. Fire from Heaven fell, and even though his altar had been doused with water several times, God consumed the altar, consumed the bull, and consumed the water. In an instant it was gone. Then the miracle specifically that James referenced here that kind of serves as a bookend to these accounts is when God asked Elijah to pray that the rain would stop, and it stopped. After this account on Mt. Carmel, God reminded Elijah that it was time to pray for the rain to come, and the rain came. One of the reasons James uses Elijah is because it draws to peoples minds these things that happened that were unarguably outside of the realm of human possibility-that only God could accomplish these things. Another reason-and this is what James specifically mentions in Verse 17-is when he says Elijah was a man just like us. You see, James doesnt want us to think that God answers the prayers of Elijah because he was like Super Prophet. He was like the man. What was also well known about Elijah, right after this tremendous victory on Mt. Carmel, he just saw God work in this amazing way-destroying the prophets of Baal-he got scared for his own life and took off. He fled. During that time, he got depressed. He became worn down. He questioned Gods purpose. He questioned God allowing certain things, and people knew that about Elijah; so James reminds them, Elijah wasnt perfect. He was like us, but he believed in a perfect God, and he was willing to pray prayers of faith based on what God had revealed to him and had encouraged him to do. Before I was preparing for this message because I knew that this weekend was coming, I looked ahead to the section of Scripture that I would cover and saw it was on the idea of healing prayer. I kind of shook my head and said, Well, God this fits into what our friend, Pastor Gary, who has come and taught different times, calls God is a hoot theology. I thought, God, Im the guy on staff who has a chronic illness. I have Crohns disease. Ive had it for about 15 years, and Ive prayed that it would go away; and it hasnt. Now you want me to talk about healing prayer. Okay. Its not that I havent experienced Gods healing in my experience. I have. There have been a number of times Ive experienced God really reaching down and just changing things in an instant. I can share different examples, but one of them I think shows the point best. One of the things that can happen with Crohns disease is you get abscesses that develop in the core of your abdomen. An abscess is just a collection of fluid, and they can be big or small; but whether big or small, theyre painful. They can become very dangerous because they can leak into your blood stream, and they can give you blood poisoning. There was a period in my life where I had about five or six of these abscesses that Id collected in about a three month period, so a short amount of time. The solution for the abscesses when they got to that point and didnt respond to medication was they had to be aspirated. Doesnt that sound like a nice polite word-aspiration? Aspire, but no, its not a nice word. To aspirate, that means they stink a big honking needle into your abdomen, into the abscess, as youre lying on basically a CAT Scan table so they can see where theyre going, and its a very painful process. They dont put you out for that kind of thing because they call it a procedure. I would like to argue what the definition of a procedure should be, I think, because its painful. Like I mentioned, I already had five or six of these things in the last two or three months; and it was to the point where I just couldnt take anymore. When the doctor told me that as I sat in his office, inside I just felt a sense of turmoil, anxiety, and fear. I just said, God, I cant do this again. Its too much. I cant do it. As we left the doctors office, God just spoke to my spirit, and he said, You know what, Jesse? I want you to pray that this abscess goes away, and I said, Oh, thank You! Good, I will pray, and I believe it will happen. God said, And I want you to tell some people that thats what were going to pray for. I thought, Oh, God, cant this just be our little secret? Cant I just pray that You just do it, and then itll be good? God said, No, I want you to tell somebody, so I told my family, and I told some close friends. We prayed for the week that God would heal that. The time came, and I got all gowned up in the hospital. I lay back on the CAT Scan table, and they sent me through. They sent me through and took the first initial scans, and I could see the doctor and the techs in the other room through the window. I could see them kind of looking at the screen and calling the other people over. They would look at it, and then theyd look out at me like, Who are you? I was like, Whats going on? I dont know. Pretty soon the doctor came walking back out, and he came up as I was lying on the CAT Scan table. He looked down and said, Well, I dont know how this happened, but the abscess is gone, so were not going to have to do anything. You can go home now, (congregation clapping). Yeah, and thats basically the reaction that I had except for it wasnt quite as manly because all that anxiety and all that energy had been building up inside my heart. When the doctor said that, it was like a release of that emotion. It all just happened to come through my vocal chords at the same time, and I sounded like a ten year old girl giggling uncontrollably. The doctor just kind of looked at me like, Okay…go home now. I have experienced Gods healing, but Ive also prayed that God would take away Crohns all together, and He hasnt done that. Why? Maybe youve prayed about something in your life-a hardship, a struggle-maybe its been an illness or disease, and God hasnt taken that away. The million dollar question this morning is, is James guaranteeing that as we pray for the sick, a prayer of faith, that He will bring healing? The answer to that, I think, keeping in mind everything I just shared with you, is it qualified? Yes. Gods desire is to bring good things into our lives. God delights when Hes able to remove obstacles and remove suffering from our life; and we give Him the glory. He enjoys that; He loves that. He doesnt enjoy our pain. He doesnt enjoy our suffering, so why then does He not always act as we pray and take away the time of suffering? Keeping verses like this in context with the rest of Scripture is very important as we study this. Scripture gives us answers to the question why. Although in specific cases-in my specific case and maybe in your specific case-perhaps the specific reason God is allowing this is a mystery that is contained within the heart and mind of God alone; but Scripture does give us some ways to understand why He doesnt always bring healing and health. James has already mentioned one. Remember he talked about the connection that there may be sin in a persons life. We said that was a possibility but not a necessity in every case, so when were going through a difficult time, we search our hearts. We search our minds, and we ask God, Is there a choice that Im making thats dishonoring to You? Are you trying to get my attention, and if so, God, show me what it is. God is not one who likes to hide things like that from us. He will show you what it is so that you can confess and receive the healing that James has talked about, so there may be sin involved in a persons heart; but thats not the only reason. I think we can find another reason as we look into the account of Elijah in 1 Kings 18:41-45. Right after that big amazing showdown between Elijah and the prophets of Baal, Elijah knows that God is going to bring this time of drought to an end, Elijah said to Ahab, Go eat and drink for there is the sound of a heavy rain. There was no sound at that point. Elijah was speaking in faith, so Ahab went off to eat and drink, but Elijah climbed to the top of Mt. Carmel, bent down to the ground and put his face between his knees. That is a prayer posture, and Elijah prayed; though were not explicitly told that, we know thats what he did. Go and look toward the sea, he told his servant, and he went out and looked. There is nothing there, he said. Seven times Elijah said, Go back. The seventh time, the servant reported, A cloud as small as a mans hand is rising from the sea. So Elijah said, Go and tell Ahab, Hitch up your chariot and go down before the rain stops you. Seven times Elijah prayed. Why didnt God answer the first time? What about the second time? Youd think maybe the third time, surely, if that was something God wanted to do, He would have answered. Were told Elijah prayed seven times. Why? Really only God knows the reason, but what we can learn from that is that the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth time, it wasnt the right time. Elijah knew God had told him the rain would come when he asked, so he continued. He persevered in prayer. He waited for the answer that God had already promised him would come. Maybe in our lives when we pray that God would remove the suffering, maybe its not the right time. Dont lose heart. Dont give up. Continue to come before God in faith. Theres a third reason though. Maybe initially if you find yourself in the midst of a difficult situation right now, an illness or some other hardship, maybe initially this doesnt sound very comforting, but as you meditate on this-as you let this truth sink into your heart, and I can say in my own life and experience this principle has brought tremendous encouragement to me, even joy in the midst of suffering-its this: God sometimes doesnt bring an end to our difficulty because theres a greater work that He wants to do for His Kingdom. Theres a greater work He wants to do in our lives, something greater than even the healing itself would be. I know when youre in the middle of pain, when youre suffering, when youre sick, your mind tells you that there would be nothing greater than if God would just take this pain away from you. I know that; Ive felt that. The truth is that if God allows a difficult situation to continue, its because theres a greater glory that He will bring about through it. Thats what Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18. Were not going to read that whole part, but theres an amazing Passage of encouragement that someone gave me when Id been in the hospital for what ended up being about three months at a time. When he gave me the Passage, honestly at first, I didnt like it because in that Passage, Paul said, For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. I thought, This is not light. This is not momentary. This feels like its going to last forever, and it feels very intense. Paul, in that Passage, is not denying the intensity of our suffering, but what hes saying is when you compare it to the glory, to the work that God will bring because of this experience in your life, if you were to put those two things on a scale, even as immense and difficult as your experience with this is, what God will do as a result of it is far greater than this. That gives me encouragement because if what Ive gone through doesnt even compare to the scale of glory that God will bring from that experience, then I can endure it with His help, and I can give Him glory for it. Another example I want to bring out to you this morning in the few moments we have left is Jesus Himself. In Hebrews 5:7, it tells us that during the days of Jesus life on earth, He offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the One who could save Him from death, and He was heard because of His reverent submission. I like Marks accounting of it in the Gospels, in Mark 14:33-36, Jesus prays in the Garden. What does He pray? He said, Abba, Father, You can do all things. Would You make this day pass? Would you take this cup of suffering from Me? Thats what He prayed. Then He said, Not My will, Lord, but Yours be done. He prayed that prayer three times. Now Hebrews tells us that Jesus prayer was answered. Did God remove that suffering that Jesus was looking ahead to-dying on the cross for our sin? No, He didnt. Why not? Because there was something greater that God was accomplishing through that suffering. Its amazing when you look at it. Jesus, one moment, is so overcome with grief. Hes so overcome with sorrow; Hes so distressed that He falls to the ground. Hes sweating drops of blood, and Hes asking, God, take this away. If theres a way, take this suffering away from Me. Yet after He prays and after we read in Lukes account that same time period, it said, God sends angels to comfort and minister to Jesus. Just a few minutes later, He walks out to greet the crowd of people that are coming to arrest Him-soldiers armed to the tee. Jesus speaks with such confidence and such authority that when He says His name, the soldiers fall back in fear. Think about that amazing change that happened. Jesus distressed crying out in sorrow, grief, and distress, and then after praying and after being ministered to by the angels, Jesus speaks with such authority, and it causes those around Him to fall in fear. You say, Yeah, but, Jesse, thats Jesus, and were not Jesus. I would agree with you-were not Jesus, but doesnt that sound like the promise that God offers us in Philippians 4:6-7 (page 1163)? It says, Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. You see, sometimes Gods answer in the midst of our prayer for healing and relief isnt to lighten our load, but its to strengthen our hearts-to give us the encouragement and the power to endure the hardship that were going through for His glory and for His namesake. You see, our prayers dont obligate God. Our prayers are an opportunity that we ask God to do a work in our lives, and through our prayers, He guides us, He directs us, and He reveals His Will; and should He let a difficult situation continue, its because He has a greater work in mind than what removing it would be. God, through His Word, gives us those promises like in Romans 8:28, That in all things, God works for the good of those who love Him who are called according to His purpose. So in those times of trouble when weve prayed, we know that our hearts are right with Him, weve confessed, and God chooses to allow something to remain, we fall back to these promises of faith. We say, Okay, God, I can go through this with Your strength, and I look forward to what youre going to do because of this experience for Your Kingdom and in my life. Would you pray with me this morning? Father God, we thank You so much that You give us such encouraging words knowing that we face such difficult times. As we focus on the idea of healing this morning, God, I pray that You would help us to remember that our hope ultimately is not in physically being restored only to one day again pass away; but God, we want a complete healing of our souls, of our spirits, of our emotions, so that we can give You glory. Lord, I pray that You would help my brothers and sisters this morning to learn what You have taught me-that though I have Crohns disease, Crohns disease does not have me. You are more powerful, and You can continue to work in my life even through this difficult experience. God, I pray that You would just let that nugget of truth grow deeply in our hearts and bring great fruit forth as we walk with You. In Your name, we pray, Amen.
Well, it is political season. Campaigns are in full swing, and TV ads are abounding. They come on, they make their promises, and every year we get more skeptical, right? Because every year they are the same promises. Were going to balance the budget. Were going to lower your taxes, etc., etc. Im going to finally keep my promises from the first campaign. This time I really mean it, and Im going to get it done. We just think, I dont want to hear it anymore, because if somebody promises you something time and time again and never delivers, basically its just lip service. It doesnt matter anymore. So sometimes we question the integrity of politicians when we see what they do once they get in office. We say, Where are the promises? and it speaks to their integrity; so thats what this verse is about this morning-Chapter 5:12. Its the only one were going to read. (Page 1199), James says, Above all, my brothers, do not swear-not by Heaven or by earth or by anything else. Let your Yes be yes, and your No, no, or you will be condemned. I just want to pick this verse apart a little bit. Number one, he says above all [do not swear-not by Heaven or by earth or by anything else]. That means especially. Hes saying, In light of what I just said, its really important that you pay close heed to what Im about to say. He had just talked about the fact that there were people who were exploiting the poor, making promises they couldnt keep, not paying a fair wage-the wage they had promised to pay. I was at a missions conference all week at Elmbrook Church this week-the Cape Town Missions Conference-and spent hours and hours there listening to speaker after speaker. There were missionaries from all over the world. One session was about human trafficking and how they lure people through these promises. If you come, youll have this job. Theyll pay you this much money. When they actually get involved, they find out that they have been sold to a sweatshop or some other kind of labor. Theyre basically slaves. They made the point-which was astounding to me-there are more slaves in the world today than at any point in history. Its many, many times more human slaves in the world today than ever in the history of the world [because of] people who exploit, people who use people for their advantage. They misuse their power and authority, and this is what James is talking about. Hes saying, Listen, in light of the people that are around you, you should not resemble them. You should not be like them. You should be a people that when you say something, it sticks. When you make a promise, it counts. Your yes is yes; your no is no. He says, Dont swear not by Heaven or earth or anything else. When he says swear there, he doesnt mean a cuss word. Hes talking about making an oath. It was very common-if you really wanted to drive home a point emphatically, you would make a promise. You would say, I swear to you by Heavens that Im going to do such and such or do thus and so. That was a common practice. You swear by an authority or power thats greater than yourself. He says, You dont need to do that. You dont need to go through all that drama. Simply do what you say youre going to do. Make your yes be yes and your no be no. By the way, thats important. He says, We can say no too. This isnt a message on boundaries. This would be a good sermon for another time, but its okay sometimes to say no. You can say no. He didnt just say have yes be yes, but you can say no and let your no be no as well. Hes saying, Keep your promises. You dont have to do all this elaborate drama. Just do what you say youre going to do and follow through. Be consistent. He says, …or you will be condemned. Thats not a reference to salvation at all. Hes not saying if you break a promise, youre going to go to hell. What hes saying is you will be brought into judgment. You are going to be held accountable for what you say. If you made a promise-and nobody twisted your arm and make your promise-youre going to be held accountable for that promise, and youre going to be judged if you break that promise. Ananias and Sapphira-nobody put a gun to their head and said, Sell your land and give all the money to the church. They did so out of the kindness of their hearts; they made that promise, but when they didnt follow through with that promise and kept a portion and gave some to the church and said it was all, they were held accountable for that promise they made. Thats what James is simply saying. Youll be condemned because if you speak it out, you will be held accountable to that promise. What weve been trying to do in this series in James is go back and find a Biblical example of what James is talking about. This morning, were going to look at Peter. I want you to turn to Matthew 26:31 (page 985 of pew Bibles). This is the aftermath of the Last Supper. They had just received the news that one of them would betray them-who was Judas-and Jesus had explained further about the cross and what His death would signify, what it would mean. They sang a hymn, they left the upper room, and they went to the Mount of Olives. Verse 31 says Jesus is going to tell them some more rather distributing news. He said to them, This very night, you will all fall away on account of Me, for it is written… And He quotes Zechariah, …I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered. This was something they could not believe. Youre telling us that every one of us is going to desert you? Every one of us is going to fall away tonight? It seemed unfathomable, especially after the gathering they just had, the meal, the closeness, the intimacy, the love they felt for their Lord. To think now that they were going to scatter and leave Him in the time that He needed them the most, it just did not seem like that would happen. Verse 32, But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee. You know, its amazing, were going to see some promises in this Passage, but the only promise thats going to be kept is that one. That's quite a promise. You may have made some bold, audacious promises in your life; but youve never said to somebody, You know, after I die, Im going to come back to life; and you and I, were going to get together. Were going to go over to this city here. Were going to get together, and were going to have some coffee. Were going to talk, me and you, after I rise from the dead. Youve never made a promise like that. If you would, you couldnt keep it. The only promise made is the one that after I rise from the dead, I will meet you in Galilee. That promise was kept. These other promises would not be kept. Peter replied, Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will. Thats promise number one. I never will. I dont care. What hes saying isnt so much, Jesus, Youre lying. Its, Jesus, Youre wrong, and Im going to correct You. This is not the first time that hes brought correction to Jesus. When Jesus first announced that He was going to the cross, Peter said, Oh, this will never happen to You. No way! Ill make sure that doesnt happen to you. So here he is a second time correcting Jesus. Now, Ive seen You walk on water. Ive seen You calm the sea. Ive seen You feed thousands with a few fish and a few loaves of bread. Ive even watched You raise a man who was four days dead from the grave, but Youre wrong on this one. Im going to correct You here. Jesus is going to correct him. Hes not only going to say emphatically that what He said is correct-He is going to give Peter explicit details about that event. He said, I tell you the truth, Jesus answered, this very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown Me three times. He lays out all the specifics-tonight, before morning, before you hear a rooster crow, Youre going to deny Me, and youre going to do that three times. Talk about specific detail. He said, All these things are going to happen, and theyre going to happen tonight. That will correct Peter, right? Peter will say, Okay, well, if Youre that sure about it-You know all those details, then I must be wrong, but we all know Peter. But Peter declared, Even if I have to die with You, I will never disown You. And all the other Disciples said the same. He made another promise. I will never disown You. I will die for You, and that promise he would keep. He would die for Christ, but not that night-not that time. All the Disciples, they mean well and their intentions are good, but they said the same thing. Yeah, were with Peter on this one. We will not do what You say. Do you realize that Peter just made a promise he couldnt keep? Every time you sin, you deny Jesus. Did you know that? Every time you and I make a decision to go contrary to the Will of God, we are disowning Christ. Were saying, For this moment, at this time, Im not living with You as my Lord. That's what sin does. Sin denies the Lordship of Christ. Every single person in this room has denied Christ many times by the things that weve done in our lives. You cannot make a promise that you will never sin again. If you try to make that promise, the only way thats going to get fulfilled is if you get killed right away when you leave the church because the longer you live, and sooner rather than later, that promise gets broken. Peter could not make this promise not to deny Christ because he was a fallen human being. Sin denies the Lordship of Christ. One of the key principles in keeping promises that I want to share with you today from Gods Word is not making promises we cant keep will help us to keep the promises that we make. Ill say it another time because it might take a second for that to really hit home. Not making promises we cannot keep will help us to keep the promises we make. Dont make promises you cant keep. Its foolish. Sometimes we overestimate our abilities. We give ourselves a little bit too much credit. We bite off more than we can chew. Those of you whove said youve broken promises, I guarantee you some of you have made promises-its not that you didnt have an intention to keep them. You fully well intended to keep it. You werent trying to deliberately deceive. You meant what you said, but your promise was too grandiose. It wasnt realistic, so the end result is the same. You broke the promise; it was a loss of integrity. Im not saying dont make promises. James isnt saying that. Hes saying make promises, but when you make promises, make sure you can follow through. If you are married today, you made a promise. If you are a Christian today, youve made a promise. At some point in time, you received Christ and said, I promise to live for You. We make promises all the time. Im not saying, Dont make a promise, but make promises that you can keep. Dont make grandiose promises that you have no chance of keeping. Thats somewhat similar to the next point. Peter is caught up in the emotion of the moment. This has been an up and down day. Were going to deny. Somebody is going to betray you. Were all going to leave and abandon you, so Peter was caught up in the moment when he made this emotional promise. Dont make promises based on your emotions. If you make promises based on emotion, theres a really good chance youre not going to be able to follow through. Usually those are spontaneous. Theyre passionate, but theyre spontaneous, and youve not thought it through. Youve not thought through the consequences. Somebody is weeping and crying. They come to you for help. Before you even hear what theyre crying about-youre caught up in the emotion-and they say, Promise you wont tell this to anybody. You say, Okay, I promise, because youre caught up in the emotion. Then they tell you something that you definitely need to tell somebody. If somebody has broken the law, you cant keep that a secret. I had a family member send me a text that said, I have to tell you something bad that happened. Do you promise you wont tell anybody? Its like, Oh, no. What happened? We didnt have the conversation on the text by the way. It was just trying to set up a time to call, and I said, Do you understand I cant make that promise until I know what it is that youre about to tell me? We get caught up in emotion. These are the Zacchaeus kinds of promises. The Lord comes to Zacchaeus house. Zacchaeus is a tax collector who rips people off. He comes to Christ. He has a change of heart. He stands up and announces to anybody, If I have wronged anybody of anything, I will pay back… It would have been enough to say everything Ive wronged them. That would have been sufficient or to say, I will pay them back twice as much. Everybody would have said, Wow, Zacchaeus, thats really generous, but Zacchaeus gets caught up in the emotion. He said, I will pay back four times what Ive taken. Nobody made him say that, but now that hes said it, he is accountable to that promise; and its in emotion. You and I have done that. Weve been caught up in emotion and made promises; so that our yes is not yes, and our no is not no because we made a promise in a moment of an emotional frenzy. It was my first day on the job when I was a youth pastor, and I was fresh out of school. The ink on my degree was still wet. I was giving my first official sermon to my youth group. I had given a lot of freebees, but this was the real deal. I was going to get paid for this one. I was on the clock. I was officially full-time at this church; and among other things, I had to be the pastor to this group of teenagers. It was my first official sermon, and I wanted to make it a good one. I was basically going to unload everything Id learned, or try to, in one session. These teenagers gathered down in the basement, and I dont remember exactly what my sermon was, but you were probably there, Im guessing. I stood up and I said to them in sincerity and genuineness while holding up a list of their names, I will pray for you guys by name every single day. That is how committed I am to this youth group. That is how committed I am to being your pastor. I am going to name you by name every single day. Im going to pray for you personally every day. They had to be thinking, Wow, this guy really loves us! Thats really something! It was a good thing nobody ever asked me about that promise because I think I kept it like one day. Its not that I didnt pray for our youth group; its not that I didnt pray for kids along the way, but getting out that list and going through every name… I just felt kinda guilty, Oh, I didnt do that today. I have to do that tomorrow because I said I would. I made that promise. Nobody made me. Nobody forced me to, but now I was accountable. Its amazing how many times the Lord-not in a condemning way-reminds me about that promise that I broke. Somebody will say, Pastor, would you pray for this? Oh, yeah. Ill pray for that. Anybody here ever had somebody say, Pray for this. Pray for that? You said yes, and you didnt [do it]. Okay. I have. I learned through that. Its like, I better pray now. If I say Im going to pray, lets pray now. So Ill either pray with them on the spot or try to pray as Im walking away. A friend of mine who lives out in New Jersey, we trash talk football all weekend-for college and pros. I just trash talk him a little bit and tease him, Why dont you come and be a Badger fan and like a real football team for a change? and things like that. He said, Seriously, now, I was at the Rutgers game. There was a young man who broke his neck or had a spinal injury and is paralyzed. Would you pray for him? Would you ask your congregation to pray for him? I said, Yeah, yeah, Tom. Ill do that. As soon as I sent that text, I stopped and I prayed. I prayed for him. I prayed for his family. I prayed for the one who had caused the injury, if it was another player. I didnt know, but I just prayed for that situation. He texted me back and said, His name is Eric LeGrand. Im going to donate to the fund set up in his name. I was able to say back, Yeah, Tom, thanks. I already prayed for him, and Ill mention that to the congregation tomorrow. So you can pray for Eric LeGrand, the young man who is now paralyzed from the football game. We have to follow through with what we say. Lets see what happens to Peter. He makes this grandiose promise. He is caught up in the emotion of the moment. What will happen? Of course we know whats going to happen. In Lukes Gospel 22:54 (page 1045 of pew Bibles), were going to read a couple more principles that will help our yes to be yes and our no to be no. It will help us to keep our promises. Then seizing Him… Jesus. …they led Him away and took Him into the house of the high priest. Peter followed at a distance. When they kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had sat down together, Peter sat down with them. A servant girl saw him seated in the firelight. She looked closely at him, studied him and probably made him uncomfortable. She probably made him a little fidgety like, She looks like she recognizes me. She looks like she knows who I am. He was trying to look away. He was trying to avoid eye contact with her. She says, This man was with Him. Peter heard it. He denied it. Woman, I dont know Him, he said. A little later someone else saw him and said, You also are one of them. Man, I am not! Peter replied. About an hour later, another asserted, Certainly this fellow was with Him, for he is a Galilean. How did he know that? From his accent. Galileans had a strong accent. If youre with somebody from Boston, you know youre with somebody from Boston. If its New York, you know youre with somebody from New York. Chicago? Those hardliners that live downtown, they really do talk like that (Pastor Jeff is throwing some Chicago Bears words out with the Chicago accent here). They seriously talk like that. If youre with somebody from the South, Yall, yah. Good to see yall. Good to see ye. Yup, yup. So he picked up on Peters accent. He said, Hes a Galilean. Hes with Jesus. Peter replied, Man, I dont know what youre talking about! Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed. The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him: Before the rooster crows today, you will disown Me three times. And he went outside and wept bitterly. I bet you the look Jesus gave was not an I told you so look. I bet it was not a condemning look. I think it was a look of hurt. I think it was similar to the look that Levi gave Pastor Jesse when he told that story about forgetting his blanket. Well get back to that in a minute. It was a how could you? These people around Me, theyre My enemies. They hate Me. They want to destroy Me, but you are My friend. Youve been the most vocal about partnering with Me in life and in death. How could you of all people? I bet it was a look of hurt. You and I have experienced that when we broke a promise to somebody we loved. Weve seen the pain in their eyes, the remorse that we feel, and the shame that we feel in that moment. Imagine if you did that to your Savior, to His face. Like I said, weve all done it-but to His face… Peter weeps. Theres an important principle here, and that is that we should regard our small promises as important as our big promises because there are no small promises. You ask what I mean by that. Im not connecting the dots between what you just said and the story we just read. I want you to hark back to what Peter said in Matthew. In Matthew, Peter said, I am willing to die for You right now. Whats he talking about? Hes talking about going to the high priest, testifying before the high priest, testifying before Herod, testifying before Pilot, and if necessary, he will die with Jesus. Hes saying, I will stand before governors, I will stand before kings, I will stand before high priests and testify to You. Though it cost me my life, if I have to stand before the big dogs, You can count on me. I will not disown You. He is prepared to stand up before the big dogs, but he stumbled when it came to the little servant girl. She didnt count; she was just a little servant girl. I dont have to keep my promise to her. See all three people that he denies Christ to-in Peters mind, they dont count. Hes probably not even thinking about what Jesus said. Hes not even thinking about disowning Christ because theyre nobody. We dont know their names. Theyre insignificant. She was either common labor-probably very young, probably a teenage girl. What does she matter? These other guys, we dont know who they are. Theyre not important people. Peter didnt have to keep his promise to them. All promises big and small reflect on your character. In fact if you break enough small promises, theres a greater chance you will break bigger promises. So guess what? There are no small promises. Pastor Jesse, you know his sons blanket-in the scheme of things, that's not that big of a deal, right? Its a little boy and his blanket. Lets all just scowl at Jesse right now. No, as parents weve all done that. Ive done my share of letting down my kids, and Ill continue doing that because were human beings. That was a small promise, but it wasnt small to him, right? There are no such things as small promises. He looked at them and said, Theyre insignificant. Ill stand before kings and testify, but in front of this little slave girl, it doesnt matter. It mattered to Jesus, didnt it? Jesus says, One, two, three. That counts. The rooster crows. Eye contact was made, and the message hit home. Be a people-if you name the name of Christ-to keep your integrity. Keep the small things too, and remember there are no small things. Number four, this is important: Be careful the company you keep because they influence your character. Be careful who you hang around with. Be careful who you spend time with. If you spend time with the wrong people, and they are not people of a high moral standard, its going to rub off on you. Who was Peter with at this time? Look at Verse 55, But when they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had sat down together, Peter sat down with them. Who is the they that kindled the fire? Who is the them that he sat down with? The enemies of Jesus. These are the people who were trying to destroy his Savior. Now you say, Well, you know, hes not agreeing with them. Hes not chiming in with them. Hes not siding with them, but he is cut off from Jesus. He is cut off from the other Disciples. Theyre not there. He is isolated from fellowship. Hes with people who are enemies of Christ, and it doesnt take long before his morals start to decline. In fact, Matthews Gospel tells us that when that third guy comes up to him and says, Youre one of them, Peter swears, and that time it did mean swear and cuss. Peter says, Oh, you think Im a follower of Jesus, ha? Would a follow of Jesus say this, I blankety blank dont know Him! So blankety blank, dont say I do, blankety blank! Well, you must not be him then. If youre going to cuss like that, then you must not be whom we think you are because we thought followers of Jesus were pretty squeaky clean; and, boy, with a mouth like that, we must have the wrong guy. So hes not apart from Jesus and the other Disciples for very long, and hes already compromising with the words that come out of his mouth, and hes already breaking the promises that he said to the Lord. Be careful who you spend time with. Now we have to balance that. We know were to reach out to people who dont know the Lord. We know were not to just be friends with people who are in the church. You understand that; this is common sense. What Im talking about is if you are spending much of your time with people who dont know the Lord, you have to be careful in what rubs off of you, the environment that you find yourself in. Make sure that you dont isolate yourself from your Christian brothers and sisters in Christ, that youre spending time with your brothers and sisters in Christ because theyre going to set an example for you. They can hold you accountable. I want to share a story about how sometimes this can cost us something. There was a young man who just had gotten out of college. Hed sent out his resumes but hadnt yet gotten a job. He finally found a job; it wasnt in his field, but he found a job in electronics. The job promised to pay well. There was a base salary, but then there was a commission. According to the boss, you could make a lot of money, so he took the job. He showed up for work and training began. The boss began telling him some of the tricks of the trade. He taught him about the bait and switch. Were advertising this; were going to sell them that. He talked about making promises that he couldnt keep. If we think were going to make a sale, and its not here, even if its going to come in a month-its on backorder for a month-tell them it will come in this week. Make the sale. He talked about even switching some components from time to time. What he was basically saying is your yes shouldnt be yes, and your no shouldnt be no. In other words, lie, deceive, or tell half truths. Do whatever you have to do to make the sale. He said, I have a problem with that. That's really hard for me to do. He said, Listen, thats how youre going to survive. Im not trying to cut down electronic salesman, Im sure youre a fine electronic salesperson; but this particular guy was corrupt. The company was corrupt. He said, Thats what everybody does. If you want to survive, you want to make the commission… Do you know what so-and-so made last week? He made this amount of money! Wow! You could make that amount of money too! Maybe youll even make more, but you know youre competing against not only the other electronic stores, but everybody in this room is a salesman too. If you dont do it, they will, and youre not going to make enough money to survive! You think about what Im saying to you! He said, Okay, I will. He goes home that night, and he thinks about it. He prays about it, and he says, No. No, Im a Christian, and I have to guard my integrity. Its not for sale. Im not going to tell people lies! If I say yes, if I say this is true, Im going to stand behind it. Im not going to let the dollar sign buy my integrity. Im going to be a truthful person. Im going to live consistently with my faith. So he told that to his boss. Do you know what the boss said? Get out of my store! Youre fired! Listen, I dont need choir boys working for me! Why dont you go be a preacher or something! Why dont you just leave here and go to seminary or something? Youre in the wrong business, pal! The bell went off, and he said, I might just do that, and so he did. He went to seminary in Minnesota. He got a job as a youth pastor in Rockford and became one of my best friends in youth ministry, Pastor Jeff from Temple Baptist Church. Ill never forget that story he shared with me. He said, Thats how I got in the ministry. I got fired from a job because I wouldnt lie. The guy said, You know, you should just be a preacher! Maybe I should! and he did. And he still is somewhere. We lost touch since I moved away. He is a senior pastor somewhere in America. But he had to be careful. He said, You know, if I start to hang around here… It cost him his job, but he said, My integrity is worth more. Normally when you and I see a skit with skit guys in it, its funny. We laugh. This time, were going to watch a skit from the skit guys, and its a serious one with a serious message about what weve talked about today. http://skitguys.com/videos/item/identity/ Lets take a listen to it. Father, all of us in this room have compromised our faith from time to time. Weve all done and said things that weve regretted. Weve broken promises. Weve had to make amends. Weve tried to. In tarnishing our reputation, weve tarnished Yours. We ask for Your forgiveness this morning. Were not here making some bold, outlandish promise that well never sin again. Father, help us to make a commitment to integrity, to make a commitment to prevention; and, Father, we strive to be a people whose yes is yes and whose no is no, who keep our promises-even the difficult ones, even when circumstances are hard. Even when circumstances change, we honor what weve said. We need Your strength and Your Holy Spirit to equip us, enable us and empower us to be people who keep promises. We thank You, Lord, that Youve kept Your promise to us, that You promised to never leave us nor forsake us. For those of us today who are racked with guilt, feeling sorry for or remorseful about what weve done, things in our past, God, Youre a God of restoration. You offer forgiveness, a new start, and a new life in Christ. By faith, I pray theyd receive that forgiveness today, that grace today to know that You love them just the same-just like You restored Peter, just like You gave him another opportunity to serve, and this time hed keep it. Peter finally would surrender his life. He would refuse to bow before Emperor Nero to deny his Lord and Master. History tells us he would be crucified upside down because he did not deem himself worthy to die in the same manner as his Lord. So, today, I pray for the one who may be struggling with guilt right now and saying they failed You. Lord, their story wont end that way. Youve give them another opportunity for redemption so Your grace will prevail in their lives. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
Well, this morning were talking about when you suffer. How many of you today would admit publicly that from time to time you have a problem with patience? Let me see your hands. Come on! Get them up! I dont have all day! Lets go! (Congregation laughing.) Sure, all of us would say there are times we struggle with patience; and when life is difficult, we struggle all the more. We might get irritated on the way home in traffic when somebody pulls in front of us or we get in the wrong line at the grocery store or the bank. When were running late, it seems like we hit every traffic light. I understand those occasions of impatience. Were patient with our spouse, with our children, or with ourselves, but we know when life really gets difficult, when something happens and we are suffering emotionally, physically, in some other way, it just seems like relief doesnt come. Thats when we really struggle with patience. Lord, how long is this going to last? Lord, when will this end? When will I be delivered? When will I be justified? Whatever the question is, when the heat goes up and we are suffering in our lives, thats when we become increasingly impatient. We are waiting on God for an answer. Were waiting on God to keep His promise, and weve all been there. Maybe you are there right now. If I were to take another poll, which Im not going to do, and say how many of you are there right now, youd be surprised by the amount of hands that would go up. James is going to deal with that very subject today of patience and of suffering. We have found James to be intensely practical, havent we, as he deals with these life issues head-on? In Verse 7 of Chapter 5 (page 1199), he gives us this directive. He says, Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lords coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains. Thank God for a wonderful crop this year for our farmers. He uses them as an example of Biblical patience. When a farmer is waiting for his crop, is he idle? No. There are things that he needs to do. He has to fertilize the crop, and he has to water the crop. There are all kinds of tasks that go on while he is waiting. That is Biblical patience. Its not just pacing the floor, being idle, and twiddling our thumbs and waiting for God to move in and act. It is a patience that involves steadfastness and working towards the goal while we wait. What is the valuable crop in this context that he wants us to wait for? We just talked about the people that were bullying. Remember this is written to Christians who were scattered abroad and who were persecuted. Many of them were poor; many of them were abused by their bosses. They were paid cheap labor. They were not receiving the wages that were due them. They were persecuted for their faith. The crop that they are to wait for is justice. Its deliverance. Its for life to become better, so hes going to give them the encouragement to say the Judge is at the door. Justice is coming. Be patient. The Lord is near. Dont take matters into your own hands. Dont take vengeance into your own hands. Last week, we talked about those who would exploit people, those who would bully people; and now hes talking to the bullied. Hes talking to the suffering. Hes saying, Listen, trust the Lord. Wait for Him. Dont take vengeance into your own hands. There was a truck driver I heard about. He went into a truck stop, and he was eating. These three bikers came in. Now they were mean bikers. There are good bikers; we have a lot of good bikers in our church. Im not knocking bikers, but these guys were the bad kind. They came in looking for trouble. They went and picked on this truck driver. They took his cheeseburger and started to eat it. They took his fries and started eating them. Another took his drink and started drinking it. They were making fun of him and were laughing. They were just bullying him. They ate all of his food, and he didnt say anything. He didnt do anything. He just got up, went to the waitress, paid his check, gave her a tip, and calmly walked out of the restaurant. She looked out the window as he got in his truck and drove away. She comes back to the bikers, and they said, That guy wasnt much of a man, was he? He didnt even stand up for himself. He let us eat all of his food. The waitress said, Well, I cant attest to what kind of a man he was, but he sure wasnt much of a truck driver. He just ran over three motorcycles in the parking lot on his way out. (Congregation laughing.) You like that one? I have another one. This guy was bitten by a rodent. He developed rabies. The doctor said, You have rabies, and you have a really bad case. I have to tell you straight up were going to treat this, but this could be fatal. You could die. Really? said the man. Wow, I didnt know rabies could be so deadly. Immediately he got out a paper and started writing. The doctor said, Oh, you must be writing a list of all the names of people you want to call and tell the news to, ha? He said, No, Im just making a list of people I want to bite. Im done. I have no more. Thats it. We need to get back [to the Word]. He said, You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lords coming is near. Gods going to come, and Hes going to deliver you. Dont grumble against each other, brothers, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door! That is a reference not to them for judging one another. That is a reference back again to waiting for this valuable crop, this justice, this one who will come and deliver you from your suffering. That was what he meant by the Judge is at the door. God keeps books, and Hes aware, though delay does not mean denial. Deliverance is coming. Brothers, as an example of patience and suffering, take the Prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. In other words, you want to see what Im talking about. You want to see this patience thats active while it waits. Its the Chilean miners. Theyre underground. They hear the drills; they know rescue is coming, but they are patient to wait. In other words, there are things to do. While they are waiting for that drill to break through, they had to survive. They had to exercise; they had to organize. They had to ration. They had to live in a 500 square foot space for over two months-all those guys; so while they waited for that light to break through, while they waited for deliverance, they must be busy. They must be diligent. Thats the kind of waiting hes talking about. He said, You want to see an example of that? Consider the Prophets. He said, As you know, we consider blessed those who persevered. You have heard of Jobs perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. Look to Job 2. Were going to follow James advice. Were going to do that this morning, but the interesting thing is the Prophets-and Job was not a Prophet, but he was a man who suffered greatly-they are the poster boys for complaining. If you want to read some good complaining, read Job. If you want to read some good grumbling, read the Prophets. They grumble and complain a lot. They really do. They were very sensitive, emotional guys. Many times their words were not received, and they were persecuted because of their prophesies; and they grumble and complain. Its interesting that James says, Look at these. He says, Dont grumble and complain. Consider the Prophets, and consider Job. He is going to talk about how we are to vent our emotions and frustrations because if were going through suffering, we are going to have frustrations. Were going to be angry. Were going to be confused. Were going to be frustrated, and were going to need to release that. What is a healthy way [of doing so]? He says attacking one another and blaming one another is not the way to do it. He says, Be like the Prophets. So when you think of the Prophets, the two main Prophets that stand out are probably Isaiah and Jeremiah. They were two major Prophets in the Bible. Were going to first look at Jeremiah, so turn to Jeremiah 20. Jeremiah has been faithful to do what God has said to do. God said to Jeremiah, Go to the potters house, watch him make a pot, and buy one. Take it back to the Temple gate, and do what I say. Youre going to take this pot, raise it in the air, and youre going to throw it down on the ground and smash it into pieces that are beyond repair. Then youre going to say, This is what God will do to this nation unless they repent of their sins. He will break you and He will scatter you upon repair. Israel was involved in Pagan rituals. At this point, there were religions that used to practice child sacrifice. They were starting to get involved with those religions that have those practices. God was disgusted and appalled by their behavior. He said, You need to clean up your act. You need to turn from those gods, and you need to follow after Me. Otherwise judgment is going to come. So Jeremiah does exactly what God says to do. He breaks the pot, he delivers that message, and they say, Were not listening to you. Youre a nutcase. Youre not a man of God. What do you mean our nation is going to fall? Were the securest nation there is. We dont have an enemy. Were not a threat to be taken captive. What are you talking about? Youre a crazy man, and they beat Jeremiah. They put him in stocks, and they put him out in front of the gate so that everybody walking by Jeremiah looked at him and called him a fool. They beat him and they spit on him, so there he was-bloody, embarrassed and ashamed; and his only crime was he faithfully carried out what God called him to do. He was suffering. When he was finally let out of the stocks, he had some harsh words for his captures. Then he turns to God. Listen to what the Prophet-this man of God-says to the Lord in Verse 7 (page 770), O Lord, You deceived me, and I was deceived… Hes questioning the character of God. He is saying, You duped me. You scammed me. You set me up! I did exactly what You said, and look what happened to me! …You overpowered me and prevailed. You bullied me. You picked on me because you could. Youre stronger than I, and I fell for it. I am ridiculed all day long; everyone mocks me. Whenever I speak, I cry out proclaiming violence and destruction. So the Word of the Lord has brought me insult and reproach all day long. I did what You told me to do, and look what happened to me! Look at my reward. Maybe Id be better off not following you. Maybe Id be better off not listening to you or preaching Your Word. He considers that. He considers retiring from the Prophet business. It doesnt pay that well. The benefits arent that great. Maybe Ill bag it. Maybe Ill just do something different with my life. He said in Verse 9, But if I say, I will not mention him or speak any more in His name, His Word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed I cannot. He said thats what Youve made me to be. So here he is suffering, and while he is suffering, while he is waiting for deliverance, he says, I have to still persevere. I have to keep on keeping on because my faith is still strong in my God. Look at Verse 14. It goes from bad to worse. I dont know if youve ever had a day this bad; maybe you have, but he says, Cursed be the day I was born. May the day my mother bore me not be blessed! He doesnt like his birthday anymore. Look how hard he is on the guy who brings the news to the family. This is just a family friend. He said, Cursed be the man who brought my father the news, who made him very glad, saying, A child is born to you-a son. May that man be like the towns the Lord overthrew without pity. May he hear wailing in the morning, a battle cry at noon. Wow. For he did not kill me in the womb, with my mother as my grave, her womb enlarged forever. Why did I ever come out of the womb to see trouble and sorrow and to end my days in shame? Tell us what youre really thinking, Jeremiah. Stop holding back. Take off the gloves and tell us what youre going through. Nowhere in this passage does God condemn Jeremiah for expressing his point of view. You see, James, when he says, Dont grumble and complain to one another, is not saying, Dont be real. Hes not saying, Be a robot. Be inauthentic. Keep all your feelings and stuff them inside. Jeremiah expressed his feelings to the Lord. He said, Heres what Im going through. His faith was real and authentic. God wants to have a relationship with you. In a relationship, if somebody is taking you to task, if somebody has dealt unfairly with you in your opinion, you have every right to say that! Heres what I think about what you did. Heres what Im feeling about how youve treated me. You have every right to do that in a healthy relationship. Jeremiah wants to have a healthy relationship with his God, and if hes going to continue to serve Him faithfully, [he would say], Here are some things I have to get off my chest. Im suffering right now, and he says, God, Im blaming You for the suffering that Im going through. Now you may not be blaming God for what youre going through; maybe you are, but the point is if your faith is to be real, then what you are feeling and thinking has to be expressed when you suffer. You have to do that. What about Job? Job is one of the most righteous men that ever walked the face of the earth. We know the story of Job. We know he was a righteous man upright, and yet he gets used-using that word poster boy again for suffering-thats Job. He loses his children; he loses his livestock; his servants; and his properties. Then he loses his health. All he is left with is a wife who nags and complains and friends who are nosey and judgmental. That becomes Jobs live. Of course, we know the famous verse. Its found in Job 13:15 (page 506) where he says, Though He slay me yet will I hope in Him… [Thats a] famous verse. Though He slay me, yet I will put my trust in Him, says Job. In other words, Im going to keep on keeping on; even though I suffer, Im going to continue to serve the Lord-an example of patience. But here is the rest of the Verse; heres the part thats not quoted nearly as much. Look what he says in the second part of Verse 15: Though He slay me, yet will I hope in Him; I will surely defend my ways to His face. In other words, if Im going down, Im going down swinging. Gods going to know what Im thinking, what Im feeling, and what Im going through while I suffer; and boy, he did that. We could pick numerous passages, but Ive chosen Chapter 10. I want you to turn to Chapter 10. Remember, James told us to do this. James said, Consider Job when you suffer, so thats what were going to do. I want you to notice how parallel this is to Jeremiah. Lets be honest-you and I have had some of these days, right? These are doozies! But if were going through difficult suffering, we can have these days. Verse 1 of Job 10 (page 503), I loathe my very life; therefore I will give free rein to my complaint… He said therefore, Im gonna let it fly. Im going to let it all hang out. …and speak out in the bitterness of my soul. Thats healthy friends. When youre suffering, its healthy to let it all hang out, but you want to do it to the one who is safe, the people who are safe, not to everybody. Not everybody needs to know your problems or your griefs and concerns, but your Lord does. The people who love and care about you the most should. He said, I will say to God: Do not condemn me, but tell me what charges you have against me. In other words, what have I done thats so wrong that Im suffering so greatly? Does it please You to oppress me, to spurn the work of Your hands, while You smile on the schemes of the wicked? He said, I look around me, and evil men are prospering, and here I am a man who is trying to do right, and Im suffering. Again, like Jeremiah, he accuses God of being a bully. He accuses God of being sadistic, Does it please You to oppress me? You like picking on me? You like bullying me because You can? He tries to get God to see things from his point of view. He says in Verse 4, Do You have eyes of flesh? Do You see as a mortal sees? Are Your days like those of a mortal or Your years like those of a man… Put Yourself in my position, God. What would You be thinking and feeling if the roles were reversed, and I was God and You were me? Look at Verse 18. This sounds exactly like Jeremiah. Why then did You bring me out of the womb? I wish I had died before any eye saw me. If only I had never come into being, or had been carried straight from the womb to the grave! Are not my few days almost over? Turn away from me so I can have a moments joy before I go to the place of no return, to the land of gloom and deep shadow, to the land of deepest night of deep shadow and disorder where even the light is like darkness. Remember in the Bible, there is progressive revelation. In the Old Testament, the afterlife is Sheol. Its a place of darkness and gloom. The Lord and the Prophets come on the scene, and they start telling us about what Heaven is and the presence of God and light; but that has not yet been revealed at this point. Remember Job is the oldest Book in the Bible chronologically. It was the oldest written book-just like James is the oldest written Book of the New Testament. This is the oldest Book written in the Old Testament. James understanding of the afterlife was not what we understand. You talk about a depressing point of view. He was like, Im going to die pretty soon anyway. Can you just stop tormenting me and just let me have a moments pleasure before I go into an eternity of darkness and gloom? Wow. I wish Id never been born. For Job, this is what hes thinking and feeling. You and I have never suffered loss like this man suffered, so we cannot judge him. Youve never lost all of your children, all of your possessions, and all of your health in one fell swoop. Everything was gone in a moments notice without warning. Until we face that-and God forbid we ever do-youll never know what this man was going through. His relationship to God was real, and yet he did not lose his faith, and he persevered. God eventually delivered Job and blessed his life. Thats what James reminds us of in this Passage in James 5. He reminds us of the end of the story. He says, The Lord is full of compassion and mercy. Jeremiahs story didnt end there. Jobs story didnt end there. They didnt stay in that darkness and gloom. God brought about their deliverance from their suffering. Brighter days were ahead, and they finished their ministry and their lives strong for the Lord. He says remember that through these trials and through this suffering, God was able to teach them about life and about themselves. One of my favorite Verses in all the Bible is found in the Book of 1 Peter 5:10 (page 1203). Listen to what it says, And the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will make sure that you, his child, never goes through a day of suffering. Oh, wait a second. Thats the I wish this is what I said translation. Heres what it really says, The God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will Himself personally restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. To Him be the power for ever and ever. Amen because you and I are never listening more intently than when were suffering. Were never more aware of His presence and what He needs to teach us than when were going through pain. There is a lesson to learn. Were going to be listening. Our ears are open; we want to hear because it hurts. We want it to end. My wife and I went to Hhffrrrggh recently, the Hhffrrrggh restaurant. I had ordered a dish called the Jambalaya Chicken pasta. It was very hot but very good. She has an aversion to hot things. In fact, things that are just mildly or remotely hot, she will think they are really hot; so when she actually eats something that is really hot, she has like a near-death experience. She is just really miserable and hates it. So were at the restaurant, and she asked, Is it good? I said, Yeah, its really good. She said, It looks good. Is it hot? I said, Yeah, its really good, but its really hot. Now I eat hot things more than she does, so Im a little bit acclimated to it, but it was hot. It was good. I was like, Yeah, its really good. We finished our meal; she was done first, and I was still working on mine. She spontaneously without any kind of forethought-or thought at all-reached out and grabbed a noodle and put it in her mouth. It happened so fast, I was like, Wait! That, thats hot!! Before I could even say that, she swallowed it. I was like oh, no. Then you just kinda sit back and watch the show (congregation laughing). You watch the face, and I cant even duplicate what I saw; but she was suffering. She was grabbing the water. She was sucking down the water and more and more water. After she had suffered for a little while, I said, What are you doing? Dont you remember I told you that this was hot and that you hate hot things? Why are you grabbing it after I told you? She has a love for pasta, and it looked really good. She couldnt resist it, so she grabbed it and ate it. She forgot my warning. She thought, Maybe it wont be that bad, so she was hurting for quite a while. After shed suffered for a little while, I had some things to say. She was in a state of mind, and she was ready to listen. I said, Before you grab something off my plate, make sure you ask me about it. Make sure you say, Is this hot? or Should I have some of this? because I eat different foods than you. If you would have just said something to me, I could have stopped you from doing that. So next time were at a restaurant and you want to grab something thats mine, you need to ask that first. Dont just spontaneously grab it like that. She was listening, right? Now sometimes suffering isnt our fault, but sometimes it is. We reach out and grab what we shouldnt, and we partake of it. We take it in, and it hurts. When we want it, thats not the time when God gets our attention because when we want it, we want it. We go for it. Its after we partake of it that we start to feel the effects of it. It starts to make us uncomfortable and starts hurting. After we suffer for a little while, God says, Now, can I have your attention? I warned you that would hurt. I warned you that would be hard, but you forgot. Before you make a decision like that, before you take a step like that, seek My Word, seek Counsel. In those times, friends, you and I learn and we grow. As Peter says, we become established and firm in our faith. There is a Verse Id like us to put up on the wall. Weve already read it. Its from Job 10. I want to draw your attention to Verse 4 of that chapter, if you would please. God has asked a question of Job, and Job says, Do You have eyes of flesh? Do You see as a mortal sees? Thats a very interesting question, isnt it? The answer at that point in time in history-God, if He were to audibly answer that question-would have to say, No. I dont have eyes of flesh. Im not a man, but there would come a day where if Job were to ask that question, the answer would change. There was a time when the Immortal took on flesh. There was a time when God became a Man and saw through eyes just like you and me. He walked this earth in the Person of Jesus of Nazareth. If Job were to say, Do You have eyes like a man? Do you have eyes of flesh? Jesus would say, I do. I do, and I have seen the world through your eyes. He suffered like no one has ever suffered upon the cross. He suffered all the indignities-rejection, pain, and hardship that you and I could ever suffer. He was bearing the weight of the cross and bearing the sin on the cross. That is why the author of the Book of Hebrews says this in Chapter 4:15 (page 1186), For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have One who has been tempted in every way, suffered in every way, just as we are-yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. When we are suffering, when we are hurting, we have a God who understands because Hes been there before. Lets pray to Him: Father, the Word says we can come before Your throne with confidence, and the reason we can have that confidence is because You lived here. Youve had eyes of flesh. Youve seen the world literally through our eyes, and You know what its like to encounter hardship. You know what its like to have friends betray You, people misunderstand You. You know what its like to physically suffer, to hit Your thumb with a hammer. You know what its like to be tired, to go without sleep, or to be hungry. You know what its like to endure temptation. You know what its like to endure rejection. You know what its like to physically and spiritually suffer because You suffered more than well understand or know. So we cannot look at You and say, God, its unfair that I suffer because You dont know what its like, just like Job said-because You do. In fact, the truth of the matter is we will never understand the suffering that Youve endured, much less the suffering of a loving heart that continues to love a people who continue to spurn You and reject You. Father, we thank You that we can come to You with our pain, with our hurt and with our suffering. We can be real with what were thinking and going through. We can voice those frustrations. We can express that anger to You. We can be real with You about our suffering. That is the patience Your Word describes. Might that be the patience that we share this morning in Christ. In Jesus name, we pray, Amen.
How many of you have buttons that people can press to make you angry, things that will be said or done that you might otherwise be cool, calm, or collected; but if they press the right buttons, then watch out. When I was a little boy, it was if someone said something about my mama. That would press my buttons, and I’d turn into a raging animal. But we have things that make us angry, and a lot of times there is just cause for that. Does God have some buttons that we can press? When you read His Word, are there things that you found that made God angry? The Passage we’re going to read this morning is an angry Passage. God is communicating through James, and he’s communicating anger. If you read the Prophets, if you read the Gospels, there were times Jesus was angry. What are some of the things that God gets angry about? Do you know what I found God gets angry at? God gets angry at those who exploit the innocent. He gets angry at bullies, people who discriminate, take advantage of the poor, the handicap. God gets really angry when he sees people misuse their authority and their power. Judgment is brought on those people. That’s what we’re going to talk about today. Have you ever been exploited in your life? Has that ever happened to you? Somebody has exploited you at some point-maybe a parent, maybe an employer, maybe a teacher or a coach. I can remember when I was about 11 or 12 years old. I wanted to earn money to buy my mom [a gift for] Mother’s Day. I asked the man at a local antique shop, “Can I come and work for you?” He said, “Yeah, you do this and you’ll get $20.” It was going to take me maybe an hour or so, and I thought, “Wow! That’s a lot of money,” especially in 1972. So I took the job, but he just abused me. He made me work hours and hours and hours. It was hard manual labor-labor that a 12-year old had no business doing. I remember how much my hands hurt and my back hurt. Sometimes I was afraid that I would drop the loads on my foot or fall down the steps. I just remember basically crying and thinking, “Boy, this is really hard.” Then I didn’t collect my money. I went back week after week after week until finally one day he said, “I have 10 bucks for you at the house,” and that’s not the price we had agreed to. It wasn’t the job we’d agreed to. It wasn’t the duration we’d agreed to, and I just felt exploited and used. It makes you feel bad. It makes you feel terrible inside, yet around our world we know that elderly are exploited. We know people with disabilities are exploited. People are exploited because of raise. The poor can be taken advantage of. Basically anybody can be exploited in one way or another. Sometimes even famous and wealthy people can be exploited by a manager or somebody else. So, really, exploitation is when you use your power, use your authority and influence, to take advantage of a situation; to take advantage of a person; to manipulate them; to get your way; to profit yourself at their expense. That’s exploitation-to take advantage of the vulnerable, to take advantage of the weak. Before we get into James this morning, I want us to turn our attention to a Passage in the Old Testament. [We’re going to] look at a man in Chapter 12 by the name of Rehoboam. Rehoboam was a king who was in succession from Solomon and David. He was the grandson of David. He was the son of Solomon. If you studied ancient Israeli history, you would know that those were two of the most successful kings Israel ever had. Those two: David brought the capital of Jerusalem; David started the Temple; David led them into a time of peace and prosperity. He was a man of God, and he was followed by his son, Solomon. Solomon finished the Temple and finished the palace. Solomon led them into a time of even greater peace and even greater prosperity. So here comes Rehoboam. He is stepping into some big shoes. Now, expectations are high, but the people really didn’t know what kind of a man he was. He was just about ready to lead. This was pretty much his inauguration, and it was in a city called Checkum. Israel sent a representative crew; a man by the name of Jeroboam was there as well who is a leader. Then others from the community stepped forward, and a large contingency of the Israelis went to this new king; and they were going to ask for help. Let’s take a look at Chapter 12:4 of 1 Kings (page 342 of pew Bibles). “‘Your father…’” That would be Solomon. “‘…put a heavy yoke on us, but now lighten the harsh labor and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you.’” Now it almost like slavery is going on here, but that’s not the case. The heavy yoke is taxation. The heavy work is the amount of work they must do to pay the taxes they owe because Solomon lived a lavish lifestyle. How do you think his 1,000 wives and concubines were paid for? How do you think his palace was paid for? All of his ships and his horses? And all of the children he had to have with those 1,000 wives and concubines? How did Solomon afford this very lavish, extravagant lifestyle? He afforded it through taxation of his people, and that taxation was high. They had to work long and hard, so they went to the son and said, “Look, could you lighten our load a little bit? Could you lower our taxes?” Remember there was no two-party system or multi-party system. There wasn’t anybody campaigning against Rehoboam who was saying, “I’ll lower your taxes! Solomon was way too hard on you! I’ll be easier on you in this administration!” That’s not there. This is a monarchy. He is king, and what he says is law; so they just fall on his mercy. They’re asking nicely. They’re not coming demanding [these things]. They’re saying, “Please? Pretty please with sugar on top? Could you lower this demand? Can we have some more money to take care of our houses for a change instead of the palace? What do you say, King?” So here’s what the king does. The king says, “‘Go away for three days and then come back to me.’ So the people went away. “Then King Rehoboam consulted the elders who had served his father Solomon during his lifetime. ‘How would you advise me to answer these people?’ he asked.” So he goes to the elders. He goes to the guys who had been with his dad, the old timers, the veterans of public life. He says, “You guys are the elders. You advised my father. What do you advise me? What should I do when they say this to me?” Verse 7, “They replied, ‘If today you will be a servant to these people and serve them and give them a favorable answer, they will always be your servants.’” In other words, listen to them. “If you’ll listen to the people, if you’ll lighten their load, they will be loyal subjects. They will serve you. They’ll do anything for you, but listen to them. Don’t disparage them. Listen to what they have to say. Serve them.” That was a key word. “Use your power and use your authority to serve the people,” not the other way around. What did Jesus say? He said, “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many.” The One who had the most power and the most authority of all came to be a Servant of all. If anybody could have abused His power, God could, but He did not. He came as a sSrvant. He came humbly. He says, “Be the servant to the people. Help the people.” So Rehoboam thanks them for their advice, but he doesn’t listen to it. He doesn’t like what he hears, and he’s going to get a second opinion. Sometimes we receive good advice, but we don’t like it; so we keep asking advice until somebody tells us what we want to hear-not you guys, but the 11 o’clock service. They do that all the time. You just keep asking around until somebody agrees with you. Then you listen to them. That's not really seeking advice, is it? Who does he go to next? It says in Verse 8 that Rehoboam “rejected the advice the elders gave him and consulted the young men who had grown up with and were serving him.” He consulted his entourage, his peeps, his posse. Notice they were around him, so they were living large too. Rehoboam is the son of the wealthiest man to ever live, so he’s living large. He has quite an extravagant lifestyle himself, and if you were in his entourage, you were doing all right too. These guys know if the tax base is lessened, if you have to tighten the belt a little bit, that’s going to cramp their lifestyle too. They don’t like it. In fact, they want more money-not less, more taxation-not less. They want [to know] “what’s in it for me? What’s in it for me is if he prospers, we prosper,” so here was their advice. Verse 10, “The young men he had grown up with replied, ‘Tell these people who have said to you, “Your father put a yoke on us-make our yoke lighter”-tell them, “My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist.”’” Now that sounds pretty weird to us. You’ve never said that to anybody in your life. You never got into an argument when you were a little kid and said, “Oh, yeah? My litter finger is bigger than your waist.” But you have said things like “I have more intelligence in my little finger than you have in your whole body!” We have an expression like that. Think of it like that. “He has more strength in his little finger than you have in your whole body.” That's in essence what he’s saying. “Tell them you are tougher than your father. Tell them you make their father look like he’s soft. Tell them if they think they’ve seen tough, they haven’t seen anything yet.” Then the advice gets worse, “‘My father laid on you a heavy yoke. I will make it heavier. My father scourged you with whips. I will scourge you with scorpions.’” Now, don’t take that literally. Again, this is figurative speech. They weren’t slaves. They weren’t whipped. He doesn’t mean to literally attack them with scorpions. This is the equivalent of you having a tough teacher or a tough coach and you saying, “Boy, Coach really cracked the whip today!” What does that mean? He just really cracked down on you. There’s no messing around. It’s serious business. He really made it hard. He said, “You think my father cracked the whip? I’m a dangerous man! I’m going to come at you with deadly force like a scorpion. You think life was hard? It’s only going to get harder,” and that’s the advice he listens to. How discouraging. They come back three days later hoping for good news, hoping that he’ll lighten their load, and they’re just shocked, dismayed, and crushed at his reply because he basically says verbatim what his friends told him to say. He says, “My little finger…” and all of that. “Yoke is heavier. My father scourged you with a whip. I will scourge you with scorpions,” so the king did not listen to the people. Look at the response in Verse 16, “When all Israel saw that the king refused to listen to them, they answered the king: ‘What share do we have in David, what part in Jesse’s son? To your tents, O Israel! Look after your own house, O David!’” We’re going to look after ourselves. Now what that meant by David-it was not any disloyalty to King David. It meant a disloyalty to Judah, a disloyalty to Jerusalem, to the palace, to the king who ruled over them. They said, “You keep your palace. You keep your capital. We’re starting anew,” and that’s what happened. David and Solomon had reigned over United Kingdom, and the kingdom would now be divided between north and south, between Israel and Judah. Twelve tribes made up the nation of Israel; 11 of those tribes were going to choose, Jeroboam, his rival, to be their king; and only one tribe-the Tribe of Judah in Jerusalem-would be their king. So now you’ve taken your revenue, and instead of increasing your revenue, he now has 1/12 the revenue that he had before. Instead of increasing his power, he has now diminished his power because his army is 1/12 of what it was before. His wealth is going to begin decreasing. The advice of his pose backfired miserably. He could have used this as a defining moment for people to just love him and serve him. He could have used his power and authority to benefit his kingdom, but instead he became greedy and wanted to exploit them even more. As a result, he lost the power. Guess what happens next? Have you ever heard of Shaq in the NBA? Before there was Shaq in the NBA, there was King Shishak of the East. I want you to turn to Chapter 14:25. In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak, king of Egypt, attacked Jerusalem. It was a slam dunk. He took everything. It says (page 345), “He carried off the treasures of the temple of the Lord and the treasures of the royal palace. He took everything.” Everything-everything, all the gold-everything gone. Everything Solomon had made was gone. It’s ironic, isn’t it? He wanted to increase his power by exploiting people, and he lost his power. He wanted to increase his wealth through heavier taxation, and he lost everything. There’s a lesson there. He was all about himself-nothing about God, nothing about his people. The lesson is if you put your trust in things and live for things instead of the Lord, those things can be taken away from you. What’s more? If you live for things instead of living for what counts, you too will perish. The chapter says he died right there. He accomplished nothing except to lead Israel astray, lead Israel into temple prostitution, and to lead Israel into idol-worshipping. He was an awful, terrible king, and he blew a golden opportunity because he became greedy and wanted to use people to advance his own comfort. James is going to talk about that. Let’s turn to James 5 (page 1198). We’re in Chapter 5 which is something. It means we’re nearing an end which you may think is good. Maybe you don’t. Maybe you’re enjoyed the Book. I don’t know, but again, James is going to be a straight-shooter with us-as he always has been. Chapter 5:1, he says, “Now listen…” Remember we talked about this word a couple weeks ago. It can be translated as come on! He’s saying, “Come on! Come on now!” Come on now “you rich, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming upon you.” Now before we read the rest of the passage, understand-you’ll see this once we’re done. He’s not talking about people with money. He’s talking about people who have money who exploit others. They have resources, but their only goal is to increase their own bank account; and they do it on the backs [of the poor]-like the children that we saw who are breaking their backs busting rocks every day, so somebody else can be a fat cat. They are exploiting those families. That’s the visual I want you to think of. I want you to think of these innocent people who are working hard and getting paid nothing so somebody else can get rich. He’s talking about the abuse of wealth, the abuse of power-not simply having money itself. “Your wealth has rotted…” You don’t use it for the right reasons. “…moths have eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in these last days.” He’s saying is it just all for you? It’s all about you. It’s all about yourself. You don’t think about the kingdom. You don’t think about people. It’s all about you. “Look, the wages you failed to pay the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty.” You’re a bully! You are bullies! You’re bullying these people. You’re exploiting and manipulating these people. You think you’re getting away with it, but you’re not. A day of reckoning is coming. A day of judgment is coming, and you will answer for your actions. What you have and what you’ve lived for is going to be taken away from you. That’s the lesson of James. “You have used on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered innocent men, who were not opposing you.” The anger of God is against these bullies-against these manipulators, against these exploiters-and is being communicated through James; and it’s still being communicated. If you’re listening to this, and you are exploiting someone-it could be a child; it could be somebody you work with; it could be a spouse; it could be somebody else-if you’re misusing power, misusing authority for your own advantage at the expense of another, James is talking to you. He’s telling you that pushes God’s buttons. You’ll answer to that. You’ll give an account for that. Change your ways. It’s a warning to us. So that is number one. If you are an exploiter, he’s saying you better stop that [behavior]. You have another defining moment here. Use your power and authority to serve people, to lighten their load, to help humanity. Don’t exploit people. Don’t be a bully. Secondly, I think the Christian response is we’re called to do what Jesus did. How did Jesus treat people who exploited? How did He deal with those who were exploited? There is a Verse that I mentioned to you last week, I believe, when the missionary was here. I talked about John 17:18 (page 1071). Jesus says, “As You sent Me into the world, I have sent them into the world.” As the Father sent the Son to the world-how did He send the Son in the world? With purpose. “As God has sent Me into the world with a mission and a purpose, I have sent you into the world.” He sent us into the world with a mission and purpose. Now Jesus talks about mission and purpose when He begins His public ministry in Luke 4. He comes into His hometown of Nazareth. He comes into the synagogue to teach. They hand him the scroll of the Prophet Isaiah, and He begins to read from Isaiah 61. Jesus says these words from the Prophet (page 1018), “‘The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me…’” The Anointed One is the word for Christ, so this was understood to be about the Christ, to be about the Messiah when He comes. He has anointed me, and I want you to notice who the target audience of the Messiah is going to be. Listen carefully. “‘He has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners…’” Not just literal prisoners, but anybody who was held captive by sin, who was held captive by deceit, by a bully. He came to set them free. “‘…and recover of sight for the blind…’” Not just the physically blind, but the spiritually blind. “‘…and to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.’” The oppressed are the bullied. The oppressed are the exploited, the manipulated. “‘Then He rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on Him, and He began by saying to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”’” I have come to live this out. I am the One of whom Isaiah writes, and I have come with a mission. My mission is going to be to the oppressed. I’m coming to help the weak, the vulnerable, and the oppressed. That’s what we’re called to do. [It’s] one of the aspects of being a Christian. We’re not called to be wimps. We’re called to stand up against abuse. When I was a youth pastor, we had a bully in our youth group in our school. We had a private Christian school there as well. His name was Ed, and Ed had been a thorn in my side since the day I started on staff-from the time he was in fifth grade until he was a senior in high school. He was one week away from his 18th birthday. When you looked at him, basically it was like looking at a full-grown man. He was a big guy-big broad shoulders, barrel-chested. He was a football player, a tough guy. He was the top of the food chain at the school. He could pick on anybody, and he did; and the kids were all afraid of Ed because of his size and because of his demeanor. He showed no respect to teachers, to pastors, and he certainly didn’t show respect to me. He would give me a hard time when I was preaching. He’d pass notes or giggle. He wouldn’t listen to me when I tried coaching him in football or basketball. He was just a very difficult person to deal with. One day, it reached a climax on a hayride. He was bullying one of the kids, another high school boy, and he pushed him off the hay wagon head first. I said, “Ed, I told you before we started, no rough-housing. That kid could break his neck. What’s wrong with you? Don’t ever do that again.” A little later in the trip, he started to do it again. I confronted him and said, “Ed, don’t do that! Ed, don’t!” and over the side the kid went. He pushed him off the wagon again head first. I was angry. I stood up and I said, “Ed, you go over there and sit down.” He didn’t listen to me. “When we get back to the church, I’m going to deal with you.” So Ed stands up and he gets in my face. He says, “Yeah, what are you going to do? Huh? What are you going to do?” I said, “Go sit down, Ed.” “Come on! Tell me-what are you going to do?” I said, “Ed, sit down.” “Come on! What are you going to do?” The hayride stops. Sixty teenagers turn and witness their youth pastor being bullied by the bully. What would I do? What was I going to do? I didn’t even know what I was going to do. So he was yelling at me, and it was a little bit intimidating. He was a big guy. Then he kind of crossed the line. He got to the point of making physical contact with me. He came and he kind of bumped me with his chest. He changed his tone from saying, “Come on! What are you going to do?” to a direct order. He said, “Come on! Do something! Come on! Do something!” He pressed a button that would not come back up, and I didn’t premeditate this, but I just poof (making the sound of a punch)! With everything I had, I pushed him. He lifted off the ground. His feet went flying; he went flying. He landed on his back and tumbled a good ways. He stood up in the cornfield and started cussing at me. Then he was saying, “I’m a minor! I’m a minor! I’m going to sue you! I’m a minor!” He was one week away from being 18. So I jumped off the hay wagon. I ran down to him and said, “Get on the hay wagon right now.” I said, “You’re just digging a hole for yourself. You’re digging it deeper all the time. Get on the hay wagon, shut your mouth, and I’ll deal with you when we get back.” When I got back to the school, everybody was waiting for their parents to come. We came around the corner, and they were all sitting there waiting by the entrance. They didn’t see me, but I could hear them. Guess what the talk is? “It was a great hayride, wasn’t it?” Nope. The talk was about, “Did you see what Pastor Jeff did? He pushed Eddie in the cornfield! That was awesome!” It was this ding dong, the witch is dead kind of mentality because nobody ever stood up to Eddie before. I was feeling bad about it. It was like, “This isn’t good.” But when Eddie came back to school-and I’ll just finish the story just so you know-he was a changed man. He came in and said, “How are you today, Pastor Jeff? It’s good to see you today, Pastor Jeff. How are you?” If I had something on my collar, he’d wipe it off. If I made a call at basketball practice and we were having a scrimmage and somebody would say go, “Aw, come on, Pastor Jeff, they didn’t fowl him!” He’d go, “Shhh shh shhh! Good call! Good call, Pastor Jeff!” He treated me with such respect the rest of the year. At the end of the year, he took me out for lunch. Actually he graduated and came back and took me out to lunch to say thank you for the influence I’d made in his life. I just noticed the level of respect for him and how he treated everybody because somebody had stood up for the bullied. There are Eddies in this world. There are bullies that misuse their power, that intimidate people who prey on the weak. You know some Eddies. Maybe sometimes it even involves you literally confronting someone about their exploitation. Turning the other way and watching it go on-that’s not what Jesus would have done; so sometimes it’s literally. It could be to a spouse; it could be to someone in your family; or it could be to an employer or somebody else. They are exploiting people, and you confront that. Other times the bullies look different. The bullies can be poverty; the bullies can be institutions that discriminate. Some of them show prejudice and prey on somebody because of a disability or whatever it is. They take advantage of the elderly. Sometimes the bullies we stand up to were doing it by getting behind people who were doing the job. Todd Powers-have you ever met a missionary who got more done for the Kingdom than that guy? He was showing us, “Here’s my Bible college. Here is me training 400 pastors. Here’s my missionary in Thailand where I’m rescuing children from human trafficking. Here’s my orphanage in Myanmar where we rescue children whose parents died in the cyclone. Here they are.” This guy has stuff going on all over. Last week, we sent him a love offering for $2,500. We were saying, “We’re behind you. You’re standing up to the bullies in the world. You’re helping the weak. You’re helping the helpless.” He said when he goes to Pakistan, he has to have armed guards that take him to the different venues. Every time he goes to a venue, if he’s going to the same place, they have to take a different route to get to the venue because of the threats that are against him. When he’s preaching, there are armed guards inside and outside of the building. As he’s telling me this, his parents are going (Pastor is covering his ears), “La, la, la, la, la, la.” He said, “You know, you’re welcome to come with me sometime if you’d like to.” I said, “I am busy that day. Besides that, my wife won’t let me go,” and that’s the truth. She said I can’t go. But we get behind somebody like that. That’s why we support Pastor Jean so much in Haiti or the Haitian pastor in the Dominican. I’ve never seen such blatant discrimination as that of the Haitians. They’re not allowed to legally own land there. They’re not allowed to send their children to school there. They’re not allowed to receive medical care. They live in the worst possible conditions, the worst jobs for the lowest pay that you can have. It is extreme! That's why our church pays for them to have a place of worship and pays for the mission to run a school there. We pay for that building where they can have a school and a place of worship every Sunday. We don’t take it out of the general. We just have an offering here or there, a fundraiser here or there. God meets the need, and we get behind Him. Remember last year we rallied around the Care House. The Care House comes along and helps children and their families who’ve been sexually abused. It records their testimony so they don’t have to come into a court of law and look at their abuser, the one who exploited them, in the face. They can do it in a safe, friendly environment. We spent about $12,000 and bought them all new recording devices that are now being used by the Care House. So what are we going to do this year? They lost so much funding when GM shut down... I just let the cat out of the bag a little bit. Come November-how many of you like cheeseburgers and French fries? You’ve heard of Fuddruckers before? There is a rumor in town that I go to restaurants sometimes. I don’t know who started that rumor (congregation laughing), but occasionally I go to Fuddruckers and have gotten to know the owner. You would not believe what he’s going to do for us. We are sponsoring an event there, our church is. A Tuesday in November, if you come in from the time that business opens until the time they close and get a cheeseburger, fries and a drink, all of the money is going to go to the Care House-100 percent. Not 10 percent, 100 percent, everything! It’s going to be free, so if your family is poor, it’s going to help the poor too. If your family is poor, they literally can come in and get a free meal or they can say, “Here’s ten bucks” for a family of five. That $10 goes in the kitty for the Care House. For some of us it will be the most expensive cheeseburger we will ever eat in our lives because some of us are going to give some big gifts for that cheeseburger. We’re going to give all that money to the Care House because we’re standing up for people in this community who are exploited. That’s why our church gets behind these causes. That’s why we’re involved. We roll up our sleeves, and we help these folks. This is part of the mission of the church. It’s just as much a part of the Gospel as sharing what Jesus did on the cross because Jesus said, “I’ve come here, and here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to go out, and I’m going to preach the good news to the poor. I’m going to help the oppressed. I’m going to deliver those who are captive.” So that is the mission of the church as well. That's, I think, one of the most important things we take away from this Passage from James. We need to be difference makers for the Kingdom. Make sure we’re using our resources, not hoarding them, but using them for God’s glory and to help people. We need to take care of our needs as well, but make a difference in our world.
Lets open our Bibles up to James 4 (page 1198 of pew Bibles). This is our last time in Chapter 4, and were going to hit Chapter 5 next time we are in James together. Its good to know we will finally be in Chapter 5. Well finish Chapter 5 sometimes around that first weekend in November. Then-Im just going to let the cat out of the bag a little bit-were going to have a special service on November 14th. Somewhere in our city, maybe at Craig High School or maybe at Pontiac Convention Center, but somewhere in our city, were going to have one service that Sunday to kick off Phase 4, and thats exciting. Well be a part of history that Sunday. All four services will combine in one facility, and were nailing down where that is going to be this week; so thats going to be fun. Every time we do that, its a good time. In James 4, were going to begin reading with Verse 13. James begins by saying, Now listen… Were going to stop right there for a second. I really want you to understand what James is communicating here because we miss a little bit of it. This is the only Passage in the entire Bible-this phrase, this verbiage-appears, and its an idiom. Its an expression. The way it is most accurately translated would be, Come on! Thats why I say wed understand it best if it was translated as, Oh, come on! Come on now! If somebody is really thinking a crazy way or doing something ridiculous and you are listening to this person and trying to respond to what theyre doing or thinking, and its so out there that you begin your reply with, Come on! Are you serious? Have you thought this thing through? Come on now! Get real! That is in essence what James is saying. Hes going to talk to a group of people who look at tomorrow as an entitlement, who see tomorrow as something that is guaranteed. Theyre making plans for their future, and theyre excluding God from those plans. James is like, You cant be serious! Come on now! Lets think a little bit here, okay? So understand this phrase is said and understood with an exclamation point, Now listen, you who say, Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money. Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. Just as a person makes plans, Well, were going to go here, were going to do this, were going to stay this long, and heres what the result is going to be. James says, Come on! Hes going to first talk about the unpredictability of life. We can make plans, but often the outcome of those plans-where those plans themselves will come to fruition-is in question, isnt it? Its very uncertain. You cant plan anything with that degree of certainty because James says, You dont have tomorrow as a promise. Its not a guarantee. I am taking up the sport of golf for the sake of my son. I have played now eight or nine times, and I still dont like it; but Im out there. I have flashes of average. Im normally just terrible, and then occasionally, Ill do something average. When youre that bad at something, of course, you look forward to the company and being outside; but its often a very frustrating sport because I have a plan of hitting this ball toward the green. Often, it does the exact opposite of what Im telling it to do. I dont know if youve ever played golf, but its extremely frustrating. There are so many variables that come with that ball going into the air and going straight, and seldom do they come together for me. You have the variables of the wind. You have to consider what the condition of the grass is; the lie of the ball, what trees are around you-I find those; how you hit that ball; the speed of the club when you hit that ball; what angle your club is facing. Are you trying to chip it into the ground and knock it up? Are you driving? What are you trying to do, and how does the place of that club make contact with that ball? So Ill be trying to hit it one way, and the ball will literally go the opposite way. It defies the laws of physics. I mean I dont know how to get it over there. Im trying to, yet I manage to do that; [its not that Im] trying to. The ball just goes in a lot of places. I think, Whats on the face of my club? Is there some dirt or grass on the face of my club thats throwing it off? Whats the position? Where am I distributing my weight on my legs? All of these things, Am I swinging? Am I keeping that left arm straight? Am I keeping my eye on that ball? There are so many things that are inside of my control and some that are out, but seldom does that ball go where I want it to. Sometimes I find life is like a golf ball. Ill plan something, but it doesnt work out the way I planned it to. When I was a young man, I became a Christian at the age of 17, and I began to plan out my life. I was going to be a psychologist. As a Christian counselor, Id be able to help people and guide them with issues of life, and it seemed like that would be a good fit for me. I also would tell anybody who would listen that I wasnt going to get married for a long time. I was going to stay single until late in my 20s because I wanted to focus on my education and on my career. Then I picked out a school which I thought would be good for this career. Then when I turned 18, the school said, We dont want you, so I had to find another school. I met and fell in love with a young lady whom I married. I met her at age 18, and I was married by age 21. Then I prayed one day when I was having a frozen yogurt in the parking lot of a business. I remember reading my devotions, praying to God, and saying, Lord, Ill do anything You want me to do. Ill be anything You want me to be. Just dont ask me to be a pastor. Dont call me to be a pastor because pastors dont make any money. Im not going to comment on that one, but I thought Id live in the poor house if I were a pastor. Then God began calling me into the ministry, so God has a sense of humor, right? Then I went off to school, and I found out I was going to get a job at my home church. I made a decision that I was going to stay in Rockford for the rest of my life. That was where I wanted to be. I wanted to be doing youth ministry, and I wanted to live in Rockford forever. At that time, we were a young married couple, and we werent going to have any children until later on in our marriage. We wanted to enjoy being a young couple and enjoy our freedom. Children-that was something for the distance future. Right then, we just wanted to be young and enjoy our freedom before we were tied down with children. A year and four days later, our first child was born. Then about six years after, God called us to move to Wisconsin-to the land of the Green Bay Packers (congregation cheering)-our mortal enemy. My point is that youve made similar life plans that you thought were set, and something altered that-a variable altered that. We have all received news. It happens in a moment, a blink of an eye, a phone call, an event that happens that rocks your world; and all of the sudden what you thought was so sure, what you thought was so certain, is gone. Its no longer on the radar. Its no longer possible. Someone dies; someone gets sick; someone gets a divorce; something happens to you-you lose your job. Somebody says no-they reject you. Whatever the plan was, its gone, and everybody in this room has had major life plans altered and changed that we thought were so sure. Thats what James is saying. Hes saying life is unpredictable. Therefore, do not live with an entitlement mentality. Do not live with a certainty of tomorrow. He says, Because you dont have tomorrow. Remember the theme of this chapter is humility. James is trying to drive home, Submit to God. Humble yourselves before God. Hes trying to drive home what a humble life looks like. In this chapter, he said, A humble life is not a selfish life. Its not driven by the things of this world. A selfish life does not judge others, and a selfish life does not take tomorrow as a guarantee. This will help us to make wise decisions. Hes also going to talk about the sovereignty of God, that we incorporate God-not that we dont plan-but that we incorporate the Lord into our plans. Because He wants us to be humbled, he is going to use an analogy. Hes going to create a word picture that really makes you humbled. Look at the next Verse. He says, What is your life? That is a cosmic reality question, an ultimate reality question. Religions try to answer this; philosophy tries to answer this. Almost every thinking person has asked this question, What is my life? One of the things he wants to point out to us is the brevity of life, so he says, You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. The word mist is the word atmis, from which we get the word atmosphere. You think about a fog that comes up and dissipates and is gone. That, he says, is our life. Our life on this planet is brief for all of us. I wish I would have brought it from home, but I think about these little egg timers that you use for Scrabble or something. When you start to play Scrabble, and you tip that, it seems like you have all day to come up with your word, doesnt it? It just seems like even though you can see the grains of sand are moving, it seems like it never goes down-especially if thats your opponent. It seems like, Man, when is that sand going to go down? It seems like its taking forever! When were born, it just seems like life is so long. I heard a comedian, and one of his lines he was saying proudly to his audience, I was once the youngest baby in the world. Think about that; so were you…for a millisecond, a microsecond. You were the youngest human being on the face of the planet. Now, you arent now. You need to understand that, but there was a moment in historys past when you-for just a brief passing moment-were the youngest human being on planet earth. Isnt that a weird thought? Then when you grow up, it just seems like life moves by so slowly, doesnt it? It seems like, Boy, I cant wait until Im age 10. Im age 10; I have two digits…I cant wait until Im 11. Then you cant hold my age on two fingers anymore…I cant wait until Im 13 because then Im a teenager…I cant wait till Im 16. I dont know why, but I cant! Then comes 18, Then I can vote…Then Im 21, and it just seems like life goes so slow. We always want to get older, and at some point, that changes, doesnt it? I mean there was a time when we were shaking that sand clock, tapping it, and trying to get that sand to move faster. At some point, we changed to how does it slow down? How do you get this to slow down? It just seems like at a certain point when there is more sand in the bottom of that hour glass than at the top of that hour glass, then it starts going faster and faster, doesnt it? For me it was like late 20s, 30, when life just kind of took off. Ill be 50 next month-50 years old! Isnt that old? Yeah (congregation laughing). I just cant believe how fast life has gone by. It just seems like now that hour glass is just going really fast! Theres a very common article I read in the news quite often. The headlines go like this, Oldest person in the world dies. I read that all the time-oldest person… There was a time I read that article like three times in a row, three weeks in a row, because the oldest person kept dying. James is saying, Even the oldest person, even if youre around 100 plus years, in light of eternity, you are a mist. You are a vapor that appears for a little while and is gone. So the end result of that is we number our days. Thinking of ultimate reality-because Im not trying to be a bummer to you this morning; Im really not-but thinking about ultimate reality questions how we live our lives. It changes our priorities. It changes our actions, how we treat people, what we think is important, and what we value. There is a song thats playing on the radio right now. Its getting air time both on Christian radio station and on secular radio stations. I happen to like the song. The problem with the song is its sung so fast, often times I cant catch what theyre saying. I wanted to use the song this morning, but I wanted us just to get the lyrics. I didnt want images, video, or anything like that. I just wanted us to read it because some of you have heard this song before, and youre going to go, Oh, I didnt realize thats what he was saying. This is a song by a young artist, a Christian young man by the name of Kris Allen who happened to win American Idol a couple season ago. The song has a very pertinent message, especially in light of the topic were addressing this morning. The song is called, Live Like Youre Dying. I want us to listen to the song and pay close attention to the words of the song, the meaning of the song, and well come back and talk about it (link to video and lyrics can be found here: http://lyricsmusicvideo.blogspot.com/2009/09/kris-allen-live-like-were-dying-lyrics.html). Theres a good message to that song. How many of you have heard that song and heard some new words that you thought, Oh, thats what hes saying there. Yeah, me too. But you know theres an article that came out in the news this week about an atheist who has cancer. Hes an author, and his name is either Hutchins or Hitchens. Ive not read any of his books; I do sometimes read some of the books like Dawkins or [books from] other atheists. I want to hear where theyre coming from. Im not afraid of those books, so Ill read them-God-delusion and other books. Ive not read this gentlemans books at all, but there was a friendship that he formed in his debate with a Christian pastor. Even though they were at odds theologically, through these series of debates, they became friends. So he organized a prayer time, Lets pray for this atheist author who attacks Christianity and religion as a whole. Lets pray for him and that God would heal him and that God would save him. He was asked how he felt about that. He said, Well, you know, if youre praying because you love me and you care for me, thats okay if it makes you feel better. Of course, your prayer wont do any good. Im not going to receive Jesus, and Im not going to be healed; but if it makes you feel better, go ahead and pray. He said, But when you mention that Im dying, so are you. So are you. Im dying faster. I have cancer, but youre dying too. Every one of us is aging, the grains of sand are falling through. For some of us, it seems like its going faster and faster, but the reality is that time hasnt gone any faster for any of us; but it does go. Im not trying to be a doom and gloomer today. Im trying to get you to think about questions of ultimate reality because when we do that, it brings about life change. When we start doing that, we get on the stick. I was listening to a sermon, and the pastor said, Procrastination only works when you know the deadline. Think about that. You and I dont know what the deadline is, so act on it while there is time. Act on it before its too late. There was a gentleman I wanted to call and thank. His name was Dr. Steinhauser. He is a Christian professor, and he really had shared some good things when I was starting off in college in Rockford. I wanted to call and thank him, so I looked up his number. I made the phone call and left a voice mail. Then I got a call back, and it said Steinhauser on my phone. I was a little nervous, Is he going to remember me? What will he say? Sadly, I think it was his son-in-law that said, Harold passed away, but we appreciate your phone call. He would have loved to have heard from you. I was too late. We have all been too late, havent we? Weve procrastinated. Weve thought about things that we should do, we wanted to do, and we didnt do. That's one of the side notes of this message. Because life is uncertain and because life is brief, its important we act, and its important we act now. Its important we make life count. James is not teaching, Dont make plans. Thats not what hes saying. Hes not saying that at all. Hes telling us how we should make plans. Look at the next Verse. He says, Instead… instead of leaving God out of the equation when we make plans, Instead… you ought to say, If it is the Lords Will, we will live and do this or that. As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesnt do it, sins. He misses the mark. In other words, you might naively be making plans. Youre excited and enthusiastic about the future, so you dont include God kind of in an innocent way-almost in a child-like way, but he says, Now you can see that thats wrong. Because you see that thats wrong, from now on, if you make assumptions about tomorrow, thats sin. That's missing the mark. Its not we make a plan and then take that plan to God and say, God, bless this. Its us saying, God, what is Your plan that I can walk in it? I know I have His blessing if its in His Will. We have a big game Monday night. What if hypothetically those quarterbacks, Jay Cutler, and whats his name? (Congregation laughing.) Aaron Rodgers, yeah. Im just teasing you, giving you a hard time. In case youre new to the church, Im from Illinois, so okay… What if those respective quarterbacks bypass their coaches and go to their teammates and say, Heres the game plan for today. Here are the plays were going to run on our first series. Here is how were going to attack the defense. Heres what were going to do. The coach gets wind of that, and the coach says, What? They have a game plan? Well, thats not the game plan we have. Thats not the game plan weve talked about. The coach-if hes worth a grain of salt-is going to go to that quarterback and say, Thats not how it works. Thats not your job. Your job is to execute the game plan that I and the coaching staff come up with. Your job is to do what I and the coordinators tell you to do. You are a player. You are a position player. You have a role, and you are to do the plays we tell you to do and run them in the way we tell you to run them. You call the plays that I send in and execute the game plan that I give you. I am the coach; and if you dont do it this way, Im going to pull you off the field, and Im going to put in the next string guy to do what I want to do. Thats what hes saying. If you take and put the game plan in your own hands and bypass authority, usurp authority, that's arrogance. James says, Dont be arrogant. He says, Understand that we say, God, what is Your plan? He says, We learn from this. Its like if I say to my child, Honey, can you get Daddy a glass of water? This is hypothetical. I dont know if this has ever happened, but my child comes and hes carrying the glass like this (with his fingers in the glass), and he has his dirty little fingers in the glass. I say, No, honey, can you go get Daddy another cup of water? This time carry it like this because when you put your fingers in the water, all of the stuff thats been on your fingers gets in Daddys water; so can you bring it to me this time like this? That way Ive corrected him. Later on in life-when they now know better, when theyre a teenager-and I say, Honey, can you get Daddy a glass of water, and they come back like this (carrying it with fingers in the glass), I know thats defiance not childish irresponsibility. Theyre trying to send a statement to me. James says, Now that Ive taught you, understand that if you continue to plan without God in those plans and acknowledging the sovereignty of God in those plans, that's defiance. That's sin. Its not irresponsibility. He says, Heres how you plan instead. Now lets take a look at the Apostle Paul. He was a guy that was always making plans, right? He was traveling around the world, spreading the Gospel. Certainly you have to make plans. You dont do that haphazardly, but lets look at a couple Passages on the screen here. This is Paul in the Book of Acts 18:21 (page 1099 of pew Bible), and he says, As he left, he promised, I will be back if it is Gods Will. Then he set sail from Ephesus. [What he was saying was], If God allows it, I will come back and see you. Lets look at Corinthians together, just the first part of Chapter 4:19 (page 1130). It says, But I will come to you very soon if the Lord is willing. Hes saying, I would love to come and see you. Id love to spend time with you. From the same Book, the same church in Corinth in Chapter 16:5 (page 1141), he writes what follows. At first when we read this, it seems like a contradiction to what James has told us in Chapter 4. Paul says, After I go through Macedonia, I will come to you for I will be going through Macedonia. Perhaps I will stay with you a while or even spend the winter so that you can help me on my journey wherever I go. It sounds like hes just making all these plans, right? I do not want to see you now and make only a passing visit. I hope to spend some time with you if the Lord permits. Notice everything Paul does-every plan he makes-is tentative. Its all tentative. Its based on the sovereignty of God, so its okay to plan; but if youre a Christian, then that means God is sovereign in your life. I had plans as a young man, and God changed almost every one of those plans. See, understanding the sovereignty of God means He is in control and not you. Thats what it means to be a Christian. Being a Christian doesnt simply mean I ascribe to a set of doctrines and say, Okay, because this, this, and this is what the church believes, I believe that. Therefore I am a Christian. That's not how it works. There was a heresy in the early church called Gnosticism. Gnosticism was based on the Greek word for knowledge, and it was based on salvation on knowledge. You could live any way you wanted to live as long as you had the right beliefs, knew the right secrets of salvation. It was a knowledge-based salvation. Friends, if you are trusting your salvation to be based on an intellectual set of beliefs that you ascribe to, that is a form of Gnosticism because Biblical Christianity means that Christ is not only your Savior, but Hes your Lord. Hes your Master. Hes at the core. You want to do what He commands you to do, what His Will is. You want to discover what His Will is. Do not let this Passage diminish your value and significance because you might read that at surface value and say, Oh, Im just a mist. Im just a vapor. No, no, no, youre missing the point. James is saying, Look, if youre making a plan for your life, make that plan and make sure the attitude of your heart is if God permits. If God allows because what James is teaching us is God in His sovereignty has a plan for you individually-not just for the church or not just for human beings, but for you as a person. There is a will; there is a purpose; there is a destiny for you to fulfill, and you should want nothing more than to discover and fulfill what that plan is because its the best plan, because its the right plan. So examine your life today and just say, How am I living my life? The grains of sand are ticking. Time is going faster. What are my priorities? What are my plans? Am I seeking to establish the Will of God when I make those plans? Am I making those plans knowing that they are tentative, knowing that God can change those plans; and when He changes those plans, what is my response? Do I submit to Him or do I resist Him? If you are saying, Well, Im resisting or Im not even including, then James words ring true to you. He says, Come on! Come on! Wake up! Life is a vapor. Youre here for a moment, and its gone. Lets pray together: Father, we thank You for the frankness of James. He is in our face in this text. This is a wake-up call to each and every one of us here because weve all treated this planet like its our forever home instead of the fact that were just passing through, that its just the blink of an eye in the light of eternity. Lord, weve all made plans and not consulted You or sought Your Will. Lord, help us to be people like Paul, who make our plans at the same time though were acknowledging that Youre in control and were yielding to Your Lordship. Father, I pray for each and every one of us here today, that we can live out these words, these principles in our walk. We will make the most of the days weve been given because life is fleeting. Time slows down for none of us. Help us to make it count. In Jesus name, we pray, Amen.
Lets open our Bibles up to James 3. I wonder if you remember a game from when you were growing up called King of the Mountain. Did you ever play that game? That was one of my favorite all-time games. In case you have not played King of the Mountain, this is the way we played it. This might not be the way you played it, but next to our house, we had a fire station; and they would heap up this snow, pile it up every winter. King of the Mountain is when one of the kids gets on top of the mountain, and then everybody takes turns trying to knock him off. You dont punch, but you push, you ram, you grab coats, and you just do whatever you can to get advantage to try to knock him off the mountain. Then you become king of the mountain until such a time as your reign is done, when somebody knocks you off. We just had a blast playing that winter after winter. Sometimes even the firemen would join in and play with us. What a good memory that is for me. I do remember the goal of King of the Mountain. It was to push everybody else down so you could be on top. Thats kind of it. You did whatever it took to get on top and stay there at your expense, and thats pretty much how the world works. Its about you, the individual, advancing yourself, building your kingdom, stepping on people along the way-doing everything you can to get to the top and stay there, however you define the top. Its contrary to what Christ has called the church to. What Christ has called the church to do-if it were a game of King of the Mountain-itd be your job to try to help people up. It would be your job to take the person who is below you and try to lift them up past where you are. Itd be a servant kind of mentality. It really wouldnt work for that game because what Christ has called the church to do is counter-culture. James says that there is a problem when we start to look like the world instead of like Christ. He calls it selfish ambition. That King of the Mountain mindset-its envy. Its saying, I dont like where you are. I want to be where you are. I dont like the fact that youre there, and Im going to try to take your place. Im going to try to advance myself at your expense because I want to be on top. I want to be the top dog. He calls that envy and selfish ambition. Hes going to say in this text that that causes conflict. That causes dissention. That causes the wars and things that we experience. He says, But a person who is serving as Christ called us to and lives the life that Christ called us to live, hes going to be a peacemaker. Hes going to be a difference-maker, so hes going to compare these two lifestyles. Were going to read through the text. Im going to give you a little bit of an outline for it, and then as weve done the last couple weeks, were going to find a person in the Scripture who exemplifies that Passage. Every time we do that, we find out that what James says is right. Then you plug these Passages into real life-what he warns us about, what he cautions us about-[and find out] its true, so lets take a look at James. Were going to back up to Chapter 3 and read it as part of our context. Remember the chapters arent in the original writings of these Books. They were added by the editors, so Chapter 3 leads into 4, and Chapter 4 is just as much connected to 3 in context, so we need to read them together. Lets back up to Verse 16 (page 1198 of pew Bibles), For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice. By the way, I saw an example of envy this week. I was at the Labor Day parade, and there was a three year old next to us. It must have been her first parade because she wasnt quite getting the candy thing. Her motor skills werent advanced enough to go out there and get the candy, so she was watching in shock and amazement as-I dont know if there were siblings or friends, who they were-but they were eating candy, and she didnt have it. She did not like that one bit! She looked around, and she studied them for a bit. She realized they all had good candy, and she didnt have any; and she said (in a crying voice), I want candy!! I want candy!! Of course, they threw candy in her mouth. I turned to my kids, and I said, Well, that behavior will never be seen again. We certainly didnt reinforce that by putting candy in her face (sarcastically), but envy is I see what you have. I dont like that you have it. I wish I had it, so Im going to go after it, and that was her way to get it. Adults, were a little bit more subtle about it, usually; but we do envy nonetheless. A person might envy another persons position in their job, a co-worker. You might envy a sibling who seems to be the favorite like Joseph and his brothers. You might envy somebody in ministry. You might envy a public person who doesnt even know you, so we can envy a number of different ways. You could envy who somebodys spouse is; envy what car they drive; envy a lifestyle; envy their looks; or envy how they sing-whatever it is-but its wanting what somebody else has. He says, This is the cause of strife and conflict among you, but the wisdom that comes from Heaven is first of all pure, peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness. Now the first three [Verses] of Chapter 4, were going to call the Cause of Conflict. What causes fights and quarrels among you? Dont they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but dont get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. In other words, God is not just going to randomly give us [answered] prayers. There is a reason God just doesnt blindly say yes to a prayer. If your prayer is of selfish motivation, James says dont expect God to answer that prayer. The second set of Verses here, 4-6, is confronting. Its confrontational. Were going to confront the problem, confront compromise, which is the problem. He says, When you start to live like this instead of how Christ called you to live, that is compromise. You start to resemble the world. Before I read this Passage, when we talk about the world, theres a Greek word, cosmos, that has three different definitions. It depends on the context in which you find it. It could be the earth. We could say the cosmos is the earth. We could say the cosmos are the people of the earth-when it says for God so loved the world… That means the people of the earth. Or, it could be used to mean of the worlds system. In the context here, this is used as of the worlds system. This world system that says, Me first. King of the mountain; selfish ambition; vain conceit; vain glory; pride and envy. That is the world system that we are not to be a part of or resemble. He says in Verse 4, You adulterous people… James does not pull punches, does he? James uses some strong language here. He says, You are committing spiritual adultery if you resemble the world more than you resemble Christ-if you love the things of the world system more than you love God. …dont you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Youre actually demonstrating hate toward the one youre called to love. Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God, and any enemy of God always loses. If youre Gods enemy, you lose. James is saying, Get on the right side. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the Spirit He caused to live in us envies intensely? But He gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Now some of you might ask, Well, why can God envy, but we cant? Its because this word is also translated into jealous. God is jealous for what belongs to Him. He loves us. He wants a relationship with us. We belong to Him, and He wants whats best for us. He knows whats best for us is to follow His commands. Thats entirely different than somebody who is envying something that is not theirs, shouldnt be theirs, or isnt theirs; but they want it, and its for their self-interest. God is for our interest, jealous that we love and serve Him because we were created for Him; so theyre not the same at all. The third Passage, or the third breakdown here, is the cure of the conflict. He says, Heres the cause of the conflict. Its our desires, and those desires lead us to compromise. Then James confronts that compromise, and he says that this is not to be characteristic of a Christian life. This is a wake-up call to you who think you can name the name of Christ and resemble the world rather than resembling what the church is supposed to be, the body of Christ. He says, You are acting in hatred towards God. Now heres the cure for the conflict. He says its repentance. Number one, Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and He will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners… He talks about ceremonial cleansing here in a metaphoric sense. …purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourn and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up. He says repentance is serious business. James is trying to get the point across that if you are resembling the world, youre living in this King of the Mountain mentality, and you think you have the world by the tail because youre professing Christ-yet youre living like the world, and you think life is good-he says, I have a wake-up call for you. You have to answer to a holy God, and you need to wipe that smile off your face. Have you ever had a coach who would come on the bus after a game you lost? Maybe you were embarrassed, or it was a close game. Whatever it was, you lost. He comes onto the bus, and guys are laughing and having a good time. What does that coach say? Wipe that smile off your face! You guys would not believe the pain youre going to be in tomorrow at practice. You have no idea how you embarrassed this school. You embarrassed me! You come on this bus, and you laugh? You think its funny? Youre smiling? We busted our tails all week to be embarrassed? Im getting mad. He said, Wipe that smile off your face. You did not represent this school! Thats kind of what James is doing here. Hes giving a lecture, saying, You who are living in the world and thinking you have everything, wake-up call. Wipe the smile off your face. You need to grieve, and whats more, you need to come into a sharp realization of your spiritual condition because your spiritual condition is not good. You are an adulterer! You are living a life of compromise! Nobody should be comfortable. Nobody should be at ease with life when youre in this situation. You have no idea what day youre going to have to answer to God, so you need to sober up. You need to get serious. This is serious stuff, James says. This is serious stuff. Hes not saying this to everybody. Hes not being Mr. Grumpy Gloom and Doom, saying to every person who is smiling and laughing, Stop that! You need to cry! You need to be sad! No, hes talking to the person who is living with selfish ambition and envy and resembling the world, You need to come to terms with how youre acting. You need to change your ways, and the only way to do that is repent. Metanoeo means to change your mind, to say the same thing and be in agreement with God and grieve it. Then God will meet you there, you will confess your sins, God will forgive you, and He will cleanse you. Then James says, I expect that your attitude and your actions are going to change. Weve been looking in the Old Testament the last couple weeks for an example. This week, were going to go into the New Testament, so thats your first clue. How many of you when you were young enjoyed magic or still do enjoy it? You enjoyed either watching good magic or practicing magic-David Copperfield or whatever? I do. But you understand when youre watching it thats illusion. You understand that its not real, and the person is not pretending that its real. Theyll tell you right off the bat, Im not going to tell you my secret, but everybody knows its an illusion. We know that guy really didnt get cut in half. We know that lady didnt really disappear. We understand that. We grasp that. There was a man in the Scripture who was so skilled at what he did that people were convinced that it was real. They were convinced that he was in some way an agent of God, that God had somehow empowered him to do what he did. Everybody-young and old, small and great-they all bought into this guys message that he was something important, that he was a big deal; and he became famous. I dont know if its right to call him an entertainer or almost a religious leader. He really had a following, and hed become quite wealthy, quite famous, and he was enjoying this prestige and carrying on this act until the Gospel came to his city. When the Gospel came to his city, he began to see real miracles, miracles that he knew were miracles: a lame man walked, a paralyzed person walked; another person who was crazy was all the sudden sane. He was like, I live here. I know these people. I know that that person really was insane, and that person really was paralyzed; and now they walk. His curiosity got the best of him, and he started following this man of God around, listening to his teaching, watching what he did; and he was thinking to himself, How can I get his power? Now, be certain, he is no longer the king of the mountain. This new guy-well call him Phil-is in charge. Hes the king of the mountain. He has the real power, and he was going to try to figure out any way he could to get it. Lets turn in our Bibles to Acts 8:1 (page 1085 of pew Bibles), And Saul was there, giving approval to Stephens death. Saul, at this point, is not Paul. He has not yet converted to Christ, so he is Saul, the persecutor of the church. He has just witnessed the first martyr, Steven. It says, On that day, great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the Apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. Now, the church has been around for some time-long enough to have gone out. Jesus says, You go out to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the ends of the earth, but they were all still in Jerusalem. They really werent obeying Christs command to reach the world with this message; but this persecution would scatter them. This persecution would do the job, so Paul, indirectly-remember hes the greatest missionary of all time-he is responsible for the first wave of Christian missionaries-theyre his persecution. Through his persecution, Christians are scattered. The Bible says rather than cower and fear when they were scattered, they preached the Word. Verse 4 (page 1087 of pew Bibles), Those who had been scattered preached the Word wherever they went. It tells us that Philip went to Samaria. Now Philip is not to be confused with the Apostle Philip or one of the Disciples, because Philip (as it says here, the Apostles were in Jerusalem) but this man is in Samaria. This is another Philip. This is Philip the deacon. This is Philip from Acts 6. Remember the Hellenistic Jews and the Hebraic Jews had the argument, so they said, Lets get these men in here to help us? Philip was one of them, so this is Philip the evangelist; so Philip begins to share the Gospel. The Bible tells us that crowds followed him and that miraculous signs took place. It said they all paid attention to what he said. Their evil spirits came out; paralytics and cripples were healed. There was great joy in the city. Now, watching all of this is this man named Simon had practiced sorcery in the city and amazed all the people of Samaria. He boasted that he was someone great. In other words, this is real. What Im doing for you is real, and maybe there was some demonic supernatural activity going on. We cant say for sure, but thats possible. …and all the people, both high and low, gave him their attention and exclaimed, This man is the divine power known as the Great Power. In other words, he has a spark of the divine in him. There is something of God in this man, so this was his title-the Great Power. Thats how he was known. They followed him because he had amazed them for a long time with his magic. So how they followed him, were not exactly sure, but it could very possibly be they followed him in a religious sense. In fact, church tradition tells us-many of the early church fathers tell us-he was the founder of Gnosticism. Gnosticism is probably the primary heresy that the church encountered, this belief that we are saved through knowledge; key knowledge saves us, so it doesnt matter how you live. It doesnt matter what you do with your body because matter is evil. The spirit is what God saves, so as long as you have this knowledge, then youre right with God; so Gnosticism was this kind of mystical religion or heresy that started that the church had to combat. Whether he was for sure or not, we cant say. But when they believed Philip as he preached the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. Simon himself believed and was baptized. And he followed Philip everywhere, astonished by the great signs and miracles he saw. So, remember hes wealthy. He doesnt have to go to work, so basically wherever Philip is, hes there trying to learn the secrets-how he gets this power; so he starts jumping through the hoops. Okay, maybe if I go through this ritual called baptism… You can tell Im skeptical that he believed. You can tell Im skeptical of that. I really am. I think his entire motivation was he wanted this power so he could be the king of the mountain again. If he could get this power, then hed knock Philip off; and everybody would follow him because he could do all these miracles now too. He is just astonished and amazed. So when it says he believed, I believe he believed in the power, that it was real. He was not repenting of sin. He was not becoming a follower of Christ. This is still very much envy. This is very much selfish ambition. I want what you have, and Im going to figure out a way to get it. Once I get it, I will knock you off the hill, so this is what James talked about, the cause of conflict: selfish ambition and envy. Were going to see where this is going to lead Simon. Verse 14, When the Apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the Word of God, they sent Peter and John to them. Now this is interesting that John is on his way to Samaria. Do you remember what John had said the last time he was there? I dont know if you remember that, but in the Book of Luke, theyre supposed to ask Samaria if Jesus can travel through there. The people say no, and John, the loving Christian man that he is, says, Should I call fire down from Heaven and consume them? Jesus says, You dont know what spirit you are of. The Son of Man did not come to destroy mens lives, but to save mens lives. So now here he is going back through the same area. I wonder what his thoughts were as he was walking there because theyve now received the Gospel. Hes walking there thinking, Gee, I wanted to destroy them. That thought had to cross his mind how God had turned that whole situation around. Now when they get there, they had not yet received the Holy Spirit-possibly because even though theyd been baptized in the name of Jesus, this is all new. This is the first time that the Samaritans-anybody who is not fully a Jew-have received Christ. It could be that God was allowing John and Peter to get there so they could witness with their own eyes that the Samaritans had in fact become believers. Remember there is disdain and religious and racial prejudice between the two groups. The Samaritans dont like the Jews; the Jews dont like the Samaritans. The Samaritans are half Jew and half Gentile, and they were looked upon with disdain by the Jews; so to think that they could really belong to God and be saved, this could be one of those things where they had to see it with their own eyes. Its also not normative to receive the Holy Spirit by the laying on of hands. When you receive the Holy Spirit-when you came to Christ-probably nobody was there to lay hands on you. When the believers in Acts 2 and Acts 10 with Cornelius received the Holy Spirit, nobody laid hands on them; but God chose to do it in this way. Its like Peter and John were giving their blessing, the Holy Spirit used them, and they were baptized in the Holy Spirit. Philip began to say, Oh, okay, so thats how you do it. Somehow they have to lay their hands, and I can tell by having Peter and John come to oversee what Philip is doing that Philip is not the top dog. Hes not the king of the mountain as I thought. This Peter appears to be the king of the mountain. He seems to be the guy who has the power. He seems to be the one, so now Im not concerned about Philip anymore. I have to get to know this Peter guy, and somehow I have to get him to put his hands on me, so he is just tired of waiting. He has seen this power manifest, so he says, How much do you need, Peter? I have money. I have deep pockets. What do you need? How much so I can do what you just did? …Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the Apostles hands, he offered them money and said, Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit. His envy had blinded him. He didnt even know it was wrong. Had he saw the rebuke that he was going to get, he never would have done this. He probably said it with a smile on his face as he held the currency. You see, I have a lot! He was probably happy about it. Peter is livid! Peter is going to confront the compromise here. As James set his audience straight, as he tried to set believers-as he tries to set believers today straight who are trying to live a double life-he said, Im going to set you straight, pal. You say youre a follower of Christ, youve been baptized and all… Peter knew. I guarantee you they said, Man, we caught a big fish here. This Simon guy, hes pretty famous. He has a large following, and hes even been baptized and is following Philip around, so Peter is aware of whom he is; but he is not at all impressed or intimidated. He says in Verse 20, …May your money perish with you… The JB Phillips translation says, To hell with you and your money. That might not be far from what hes saying here. This language is as strong as you could use. Peter basically is condemning him to hell here, and he is not a happy camper. He says, …because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money! You thought Gods grace was for sale! Any time God gives you a gift, it is because of grace. Its not something you earn; its not something you purchase, and this is making Peter angry. There were even times in the history of the church where the church had a scam where you could buy salvation. We know thats wrong. We know that was wrong. He says, You have no part or share in this ministry. Basically he says, Youre not a believer. If youre a true believer, you wouldnt be asking what you are asking. …because your heart is not right before God. Again, this tells me, if youre a brand new believer, and your heart is not right before God, then you werent right before God. This was all about Philip, so he confronts him. What is he doing? Hes confronting for the same reason James is-selfish ambition and envy. Hes resembling the world. Hes not resembling the Christ that he claims to follow. He says, Youre in this for you, and thats not what its about. Its not about you. That's one of the big dangers of the prosperity message. Christians were saying, If you follow Jesus, youre going to be rich. Youre going to have all this money. Youre never going to get sick, so like Im going to follow Christ because of all the great things He can do for me. That's the wrong reason to follow Christ. Thats not the reason were called. Its not to advance us; its to advance Him. Its about His mission-not your little small mission, not your little small agenda, so he confronts the compromise. Now, what did James say was the cure to the conflict? Remember the conflict is not with man; the conflict is with God. Even though envy causes tension and strife amongst people, he says its really a conflict with God when youre acting like this; so Simons problem ultimately was with God. So he says the cure of the conflict Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord. Perhaps He will forgive you. Notice he is so angry that hes not even sure God will forgive this guy. I think normally he would say, If you repent of your sins, youre going to be forgiven. Peter was so livid, he was like, Yeah, you have a shot…maybe. Maybe He will. …for having such a thought in your heart. For I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin. Youve not been cleansed of sin. Your baptism was an act. Your whole following thing is an act. This is about you, and youre trying to purchase the grace of God. Shame on you! Shame on you for your compromise. Simon is shocked! He still doesnt know what hes done wrong, and he says, Well, pray to the Lord for me so that nothing you have said may happen to me. Notice even in his repentance, he is still only concerned about himself. This is not true repentance. Simon is upset that he got caught. Hes not upset that he did something wrong that displeased God. This is not repentance. What hes basically saying to Peter is pray to the Lord. I dont know Him. You know Him. Pray to Him. True repentance is you pray to God. Youd say, Lord, Ive dishonored Your name. This is what Ive done. Ive compromised, and Ive put Your name in a bad light; and Im so sorry. So he says, Heres the cure. The cure is repentance. Now, what we need to do, church, is we need to humbly and honestly look at our lives and say, Are we playing King of the Hill? Is it about keeping Jesus as King of the mountain, or is it about us being king of the mountain? Is it about us advancing the cause of Christ and helping others up along the journey, or is it scratch, claw, push, and propel myself to the top trying to name the name of Christ and live like the world-in selfish ambition and envy? James is confronting you today if that's you. The Word of God is confronting you. The Holy Spirit is confronting you, and Hes calling you to repentance. Hes calling you to grace. Lets pray together right now. Lets have heads bow and eyes close. How many of you this morning say, Pastor, I have an area Im struggling with, an area I really am living like the world rather than following Christ? This morning, I want to repent of that. This morning I want to get sober-minded about that and begin to have my life conform. Can I see your hands because I want to pray with you? I see those hands. I see those. Thank you. Father, all around this sanctuary, Lord, those who raised their hands right now, pray this prayer with me. Heavenly Father, I come to You in Jesus name. I confess my sin. I want you to name that sin to the Lord right now in your hearts. Father, I have lived with selfish ambition. Ive tried to be on the thrown of my life, and Ive seen the ugliness of my sin; and I repent of it. I ask for Your forgiveness and cleansing. I recognize that my sin is spiritual adultery. Youve called me to loyalty. Youve called me to resemble Christ and not the world, so I forsake my sin. I ask that Your Holy Spirit would cleanse me, pardon me, and make me new-that I might resemble Christ and not the world system. In Jesus name. Father, if they prayed that prayer in sincerity of heart this morning, You have heard, answered, and forgiven. Lord, I pray that that area that has been such a struggle will become a place of strength to them, no longer a chink in their armor, but its been fortified and reinforced. Theyre no longer, Lord, falling prey to those temptations, for they can live in victory through the power of Your Holy Spirit. In Jesus name, we pray, Amen.
Lets open our Bibles up this morning to James 3 together. As youre turning there, I want to share a story with you. Its about a young preacher who was really climbing the ranks as far as popularity and notoriety went. He really wanted to make a name for himself. At first, his heart was in the right place. He wanted to please God; he wanted to build the Kingdom of God, but somewhere along the line, it got skewed, and it became about him. It became about building his name rather than Gods name. He started to get a little prideful and arrogant. It kind of reached a climax when he was invited to speak at a conference. At this conference, pastors and leaders would be there. Before he was introduced, he thought to himself, Look at how prominent Ive become. I am now the teacher of teachers. Im the leader of leaders. I really have accomplished a lot for my young age, he thought to himself. He knew he had a sermon that was just going to be incredible. He anticipated the standing ovation hed receive after he was done. He reflected on how hed have more accolades and more invitations to speak. His name would get even more well-known. Finally, they read his resume. They talked about all hed accomplished in his young life, and everybody applauded as he got up to speak. He was supposed to speak for an hour that day. About ten minutes into his sermon, he realized he was more than halfway through his notes. He started to lose a little bit of that air of confidence; he started to get a little shaky, a little nervous, but the crowd could not detect it at this point. He kept trying to stretch it out and elaborate, but still five minutes later he was almost done. He was supposed to fill an hours time. Now, he realizes he isnt going to be able to make this thing stretch to an hour, so he started to get a little tongue-tied; a little knee knocking was going on. He started to perspire, and now his confidence-or lack thereof-was clearly seen. He was embarrassed and ashamed when he had to say, Im sorry. Thats all I have. I know I was supposed to speak for an hour, but my material didnt last as long as I thought. Thanks for having me! He put his tail between his legs, humbly walked down the seats, and sat down. The MC got up and said, Well, we still have a lot of time to kill. The meal is not even close to being ready. Pastor so-and-so, would you come up and just greet us? Its so good to see you. And the guy was like, Oh, I cant. I cant. I havent prepared anything. He said, No, just come up and bring a greeting. Share what the Lord is doing in your life since you retired from ministry. He was like, No, really, I cant. I dont have anything prepared. He said, Well, just come on up. Just say hi to us. So he went up, he started to share, and the Lord started giving him words to say. The next thing you knew, he was preaching this spontaneous sermon; and it was moving people. In fact, when he was done, they rose to their feet giving glory to God for the inspirational words theyd just heard. They applauded as he returned to his seat, knowing that he had been used by God. He sat down next to the young man who was all embarrassed still from his ministry or lack thereof; and he said, That was amazing! I hope to be able to do that some day! He said, Can you just tell me what your secret is? Just give me a bit of advice to help me. He said, Well, young man, if you would have gone up like you came down, you could have came down like you went up. If you would have gone up humbly and meek, you could have come down knowing that youd honored God; but because you went up proud and arrogant, you came down humbled. God opposes proudness and gives grace to the humble. Jesus says, Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. James is going to talk about the importance of humility, and hes going to talk about the danger of being self-centered. That is our topic for today. Lets turn to James 3:13 (page 1198 of pew Bibles), Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. Just like faith would show itself in action, according to James, somebody who is wise, it shows by their life. Its demonstrated by their good works. James says, Wisdom too is something that we see. In Hollywood, you find wisdom, you find enlightenment. You climb a mountain and find a guru who is sitting in a lotus position somewhere. He doesnt really do anything, doesnt go anywhere. He just has all this head knowledge, and hes going to tell you the secret to life. Thats kind of how it works, right? James knows nothing of that. He said, That guys not wise. A wise person is out there living the life, doing wise things, and their wisdom is apparent. He says, Another thing thats apparent in a wise person is humility because humility comes from wisdom. Why? Because you cannot teach a proud person anything. You think you know all the answers, and you have it all. Youre proud, youre not going to learn, and youre not going to have wisdom. He said, A wise person is a humble person. A wise person realizes he or she has so much more to learn, so many more opportunities to grow, and so many people they can learn from. But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. In other words, lets be honest here. To some of you who Im writing to today, youve become proud. Youre consumed with selfish ambition. Youre consumed with selfish ambition. He said, Lets tell the truth. Lets talk about where that lifestyle takes you. Such wisdom does not come down from Heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, of the devil. What was Satans downfall? Isaiah writes and says, Satan said, I will be like God. I will ascend to Heaven. I will make my throne in the Heavens, and I will be like God. That was his downfall, pride. He says, When we act in a prideful way, that's exactly who were imitating. For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice. Where you find envy and selfish ambition, things break down. Things dont work; life doesnt function well. Have you ever been a part of a church? I think one of the reasons why our church works well is because we have a lot of humble people who are serving the Lord. I look at our staff and how theyve worked together, and I watch every week how they try to help each other out. What happens when churches get territorial? This is our budget, our room, our agenda! Have you been part of a church like that that gets divided and split because of these trivial matters, because people are being selfish? Instead of focusing on just their goal, building their agenda, what happens? Things break down. When were serving one another, were working together for a common good, theres unity, theres productivity, and good things happen. So he says, When theres selfish ambition and envy, [there you will find disorder and every evil practice]. Ive shared this before, as a friend of mine always said, the smallest package in the world is a person all wrapped up in themselves. When you become self-centered, you shrink. You lose that bigger picture that that song just sang about. What if theres a bigger picture? What if theres more than just me out there and population me? Now, Im going to talk a bit like I did last week. Last week, we talked about the tongue and the dangers of the tongue. We looked in James, and then we looked at David and saw when he really started to have a downward spiral to his life was when he began to speak-his deceit and lies, and he started doubting Gods promises and speaking out. With that discouragement and negativity, a downward spiral began to happen; and how did he turn it around? Through his words and his faith-confession, adoration, and thanksgiving-which changed his perspective; so were going to take a look at a person thats living both sides of this Passage. He started out wise, started out humble, started off giving glory to God, and then were going to see things go south. Were going to see them become self-centered. Were going to see them seek to glorify themselves instead of God, and were going to watch what happens to their Kingdom and their lives. Lets turn in our Bibles please to the Book of 1 Kings 3. Were going to take a panoramic look at the life of King Solomon. Were going to see him as a young man, as a middle-aged man, and as an old man. Were going to be spanning through many different chapters and kind of taking snapshots along the way and assessing where were at. David chooses Solomon to be his successor. We all know the story of Solomon and how he was conceived, how he was conceived out of wedlock through Davids relationship with Bathsheba. Yet David saw within Solomon these leadership qualities. He saw within Solomon a heart for God. He knew that though he was not his oldest, he was his wisest. He was most fit to be king, so he is the one whom David appoints. Some of you may be familiar with the story. In case you arent, Solomon is newly appointed king. Hes making sacrifices to God. He wants to try to get off on the right foot, and hes nervous. Hes nervous because hes king. The buck stops with him. Hes responsible for a nation, hes accountable to God, and hes scared by that fact. Thats on his mind when he goes to bed one night; and then while he is sleeping, God appears to him in a dream in Verse 5 (page 329 of pew Bibles). It says, At Gibeon, the Lord appeared to Solomon during the night in a dream, and God said, Ask for whatever you want me to give you. It was very unusual for God to say something like this. Some people think thats what Gods for, right? He is the divine dispenser. Were Christians, and that just means ask God for stuff. Hes the cuddly grandfather in the sky who just lives to give good things to you and spoil His kids; and thats a much distorted picture of whom God is. Actually, we are there to serve Him-not He [to serve] us; but in this particular case, God does say almost like an Aladdin kind of thing, What do you want? Ask Me anything. Ill give it to you. What would you say if God said that to you? Im not going to ask for answers because I know youre in church, and youd just give me churchy answers, I just want to love Jesus more. I just want world peace. There would be no talk of sport cars or bank accounts or anything like that. You would just give me all kinds of churchy answers, so Im not even going to bother asking you. In your heart of hearts, what would you say if God said, What do you want? What can I do for you? So here [we have] Solomons answer. Remember God can see if hes just pulling His leg here, if hes just giving lip service. God can tell that, so Solomons answer really is from his heart. Notice how many times he uses the word servant. He talks about his father, David. Then he begins to talk about himself in Verse 7 and says, Now, O Lord my God, You have made Your servant king in place of my father David. But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties. Your servant is here among the people You have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number. So give Your servant a discerning heart to govern Your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of Yours? This is a game show. Its ding, ding, ding, Thats the correct answer. You just nailed it. Solomon knocked it out of the park. Thats exactly what the Lord wanted to hear. He just said, What do I want? I want to do this job, and I want to do it well. I want to be a king that youre proud of. I want to be a king that my dad would be proud of. I want to serve Your people. In fact, Im Your servant. How many times have some of us just come out of the blocks really good? Maybe when we were young or just a new Christian, we were really living for God. Things were going well, and our life was counting for the Kingdom. Then somewhere along the line, we messed up. Somewhere along the line we got off track. Thats whats going to happen to Solomon, but at this point in time, his heart is right where it needs to be. Its tender. Its humble. It says, God, I dont know what Im doing, quite honestly, and I ask You to lead me and guide me because if You dont, I dont know whats going to happen. God says, Because youve asked not for long life or wealth for yourself or the death of your enemies-because youve asked for discernment in administering justice, I will give you what youve asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never be anyone like you, nor will there ever be. Moreover, I will give you what youve not asked for-both riches and honor-so that in your lifetime, you will have no equal among kings. If you walk in My ways and obey My statues and commands as David your father did, I will give you a long life. So riches and honor are going to come. The third promise of a long life is conditional on how you live your life. When Solomon awakens from that dream, hes a new man. God often would speak in dreams, so even though they were dreams, the experience somehow was real. Unless youve experienced this [you wouldnt understand it]; sometimes God still does speak to believers today through dreams. In the last days, Hell speak through dreams. He spoke many times through dreams, so this is a real experience for Solomon; and he has wisdom. He doesnt just have wisdom about theological things. He doesnt just have wisdom about the Bible. He has wisdom about everything. In fact, in Chapter 4, if you look at Verse 29, it says, God gave Solomon wisdom about everything. Hes smarter than any of these men, and he names prominent men, and it tells you how he writes Psalms and Proverbs. He knows about plants, animals, birds, reptiles, and fish. He talks about how all the nations would send their people-the kings would send their people-to Solomon and listen to his wisdom. Solomon was a master of all. You name the subject, and Solomon could talk about it. People would come from all over the world and were astonished at his wisdom. Thats because it was a gift. It was the divine gift. God had enabled him to just absorb all of this knowledge and wisdom. Then in the next chapter, Solomon gets about the business of building his palace and building his temple, Gods Temple. Building Gods Temple was not going to be something easy. This was going to cost millions and millions of dollars, and it was going to take craftsmen many years to build. It was going to be one of the Seven Wonders of the World. It just consumed his time. He spent his time building buildings and gardens, and you can read about it in the Book of Ecclesiastes; but the next 20 years are years of construction. Theyre years of hard work, and Solomon is very busy; and hes accomplishing a lot. Finally, the great day comes. Its the time of dedication. The dedication of the Temple takes days. You can read about it in Chapter 8. Solomon prays to God, and its a wonderful prayer. Its a beautiful prayer. Hes about 40 years old now. Hes middle-aged, the middle of his life. He is doing pretty well, and hes still on track. Listen to his words in Verse 55 of Chapter 8 (page 337 of pew Bibles), He stood and blessed the whole assembly of Israel… Imagine the whole nation there to celebrate the dedication of the Temple. He said, Praise be to the Lord, who has given rest to His people Israel just as He promised… That was a reference back to their 40 years of wandering in the Desert. Think about that. Their nation was once just a dream or a seed planted in Abrahams mind. Then they became a nation, and they lived in slavery for many years. Then God delivered them out of slavery, and then they finally established a kingdom and a capital, but still there was war and turmoil. There were nations that would rise against them. [There was] never really a time of total peace. Now in Solomons reign, there is peace and prosperity as never before. There was nobody gunning for them. Theyre the top of the food chain. Solomon was the most famous man in the world, the richest man in the world, and he had 100 percent approval rate in the polls. Can you imagine that? Everybody loves this guy. Everybodys working. Everybody has a home; everybody has food to eat. Life is just good in Israel right now. This was the peak of the monarchy in the history of Israel, right here, and then they had this grand opening for the Temple. The Arc of the Covenant is no longer in a tent somewhere. The Arc of the Covenant is in a palatial Temple. Truly the prophesy has been fulfilled to Abraham. God has made a great nation, and theyre there. Solomons the head of it. At this point, it would almost seem that you could just put on the autopilot. What is there left to do? What is there left to accomplish? Thats going to be the problem. He encourages the people, and he says in Verse 56, …Not one word has failed of all the good promises He gave through His servant Moses. May the Lord our God be with us as He was with our fathers; may He never leave us nor forsake us. May He turn our hearts to Him, to walk in all His ways and to keep the commands, decrees and regulations He gave our fathers. And may these words of mine, which I have prayed before the Lord, be near to the Lord our God day and night, that He may uphold the cause of His servant and the cause of His people Israel according to each days need… And what does that cause? …so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God and that there is no other. Solomon says, Thats what I live for. Thats what our nation lives for, that we might know God. Is he on track? Hes on track. But your hearts must be fully committed to the Lord our God, to live by His decrees and obey His commands, as at this time. Excellent speech. Its wonderful! But God sees something in Solomon. God sees something coming down the road that nobody else sees-not even Solomon sees it. God is going to appear to him for a second time. Whats interesting is the prayer that Solomon has just prayed for his people and the admonition hes going to give to his people, God is going to take that same admonition, turn it around, and give it right back to Solomon in his second appearance. Look at Verse 1 of Chapter 9 (page 338 of pew Bibles), When Solomon had finished building the Temple of the Lord and the royal palace, and had achieved all he had desired to do… Stop right there. Do you see the red flag there? What had Solomon done? Achieved all he desired to do… Friends, thats a scary place to be. Theres a time when you roll up your sleeves, and youre getting to work for the Kingdom of God. Youre building the Kingdom of God; youre busy in ministry; and youre serving the Lord. Then theres that time when you put the sleeves down, button them up, wipe your hands, and say, Done. Im done. Ive done everything I wanted to do. Ive done everything Ive intended to do for the Kingdom. Thats a bad place to be. When you stop living for the Lord and building the Kingdom, who do you live for? Yourself. Whose kingdom do you build? Your own. How small does that become-when you lose sight of the greater picture? Apathy begins to set in; self-centeredness begins to set in. James says when that happens, bad things come. So heres Solomon. Solomon is like hey, Ive done everything I planned to accomplish. I think Im pretty much done. Ive accomplished everything I wanted to do. God comes on the scene in tenderness and kindness. Hes not rebuking Solomon, but its a wake-up call. Solomon has to think, Why did God tell me this? How could He not be happy with my leadership? How could He not be happy with the state of affairs in Israel and with the beautiful Temple that weve built? God says in Verse 3, I have heard the prayer and plea that youve made before Me; I have consecrated this Temple, which you have built, by putting My Name there forever. My eyes and My heart will always be there. Nothing will change that. As for you, if you walk before Me in integrity of heart and uprightness, as David your father did, and do all I command and observe My decrees and laws, I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised David your father when I said, You shall never fail to have a man on the throne of Israel. But if you or your sons turn away from Me and do not observe the commands and decrees I have given you and go off to serve other gods and worship them, then I will cut off Israel from the land I have given them and will reject this Temple I have consecrated for My Name. Israel will then become a byword and an object of ridicule among all peoples. And though this Temple is now imposing, all who pass by will be appalled and will scoff and say, Why has the Lord done such a thing to this land and to this Temple? People will answer, Because they have forsaken the Lord their God, who brought their fathers out of Egypt and have embraced other gods, worshiping and serving them-that is why the Lord brought all this disaster on them. Solomon does not respond. Solomon has to be thinking, Why did this happen? Now Solomon is getting a lot of accolades. Nothing but praises, What a wonderful leader! What a wonderful king he is! What a great man of God he is, and Solomon starts to believe his own clippings. He starts to believe his press. He starts to think, Yeah, look what Ive done. I am a great king! Look at what Ive accomplished! Look how people love me, how magnificent I am! His ego is stroked even more when the queen of Sheba comes to visit. Now, her name is not Sheba. Sometimes people say, Queen Sheba. No, shes the queen of Sheba, this country near Ethiopia. She comes and bears gifts of gold, spices, and all kinds of good things. She comes in Chapter 10, and shes curious; so she begins to ask Solomon all kinds of questions. The Bible says in Verse 3, …nothing was too hard for the king to explain to her. Then she sees all of his wisdom. She sees the palace, all the food, how well everything functions, and she sees the Temple. It says in Verse 5 at the end, …she was overwhelmed. She said to the king, The report I heard in my own country about your achievements and your wisdom is true. But I did not believe these things until I saw with my own eyes. Indeed, not even half was told me; in wisdom and wealth, you have far exceeded the report I heard. She continues to fawn all over him, How happy your kingdom must be! They must just wake up every morning, pinch themselves and say, We cant believe Solomons our king! She is just like, Oh, Solomon, youre so wonderful! Oh, youre so handsome! Can I feel your muscles, and oh, youre great! She is just fawning all over this guy to the point where it crosses the line from being diplomacy to almost like flirtatious or whats your motivation here? She is just laying it on thick. Solomon is like, Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hes taking it all in, and then she gives him gold. She gives him all these things. Its interesting in Psalm 72. Read that when you have some time. Its a Psalm in which David was writing about his son Solomon and his future reign as king. Its interesting. Its a prayer, but its also a prophesy. In one of the lines from David, he talks about may his kingdom be great, and may Israel be prosperous. One of the lines he says is may gold be given him from Sheba, and thats exactly what happens. Then Solomon becomes even richer, but then things change. Remember hes done all that hes wanted to do. Everybody thinks hes great and wonderful. The queen of Sheba comes in and is just worshipping the guy. Things turn for Solomon. Turn to Chapter 11:1 (page 340), King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women besides Pharaohs daughter… Up to this point, the only wife we encounter is Pharaohs wife, who was from Africa. She was from Egypt. There was nothing wrong with that. God had not forbidden them to marry Egyptian women. As far as we know, they were living happily ever after; but in the winding down decades of Solomons life, things change drastically. It says that he begins to fall in love with these other women from other nations. In Verse 2, it says, They were from nations about which the Lord had told the Israelites, You must not intermarry with them because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods. Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love. In other words, Solomon is doing the exact opposite of what he said he wanted to do, the exact opposite of what God had commanded him to do, exact opposite of what he told the people. Solomon has taken his eyes off God and put them on himself in his own pleasures. He was building his own kingdom. Everything Solomon does is big. Like Trump has to do everything big, Solomon does everything big. It says he goes on to have 700 wives and 300 concubines. If you do the math, that adds up to 1,000-1,000 women. His honey-do list was a mile long (congregation laughing), but he could hire out anybody he wanted to do what was on that list. Im thinking of mine right now. Lets move on. Some of those items have been on there so long, the paper is yellow. Verse 4, As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been. It says he even goes on to follow the Ashtoreth, fertility goddess. He follows Molech, a god so awful that child sacrifice was part of the worship of this god, the detestable god of the Ammonites. So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord; he did not follow the Lord completely, as David his father had done. Solomon had an Achilles, didnt he? Was what Solomons Achilles? Women. That was his downfall. Its said everybody has a weakness. Everybody has a vice. You know the story of Achilles, right? Achilles in Greek mythology-his mom wanted him to live forever, so she took baby Achilles to the river, dumped him in the River Styx. By doing that, he became immortal except the river did not touch his ankle because she had a hand on his ankle as she dipped him in the water; so in that area, hes vulnerable. If you used a sword, spear, or a knife anyplace else, he would be immortal; but if something were to get him in that heal, hed be dead. Thats how Achilles died-an arrow went right to his heal, and he was vulnerable there. So the argument goes everybody had an area where were vulnerable, and that becomes an excuse. How many times have we heard people say, Well, you know, thats my vice. Thats how I was raised. You know my dad! He liked women too, you know, and Bathsheba-thats kinda how I ended up here. Im just a chip off the old block, so the Lord goes, Yeah, yeah, I forgot. That's the way I made you. I made you with that vice. Yeah, youre right. Yeah, thats okay. No, God doesnt buy it. Thats not an excuse for God. God holds him accountable. Somebody has to! Do you realize Saul was held accountable by Samuel? David was held accountable by Nathan. Solomon is held accountable by nobody-nobody. So God has to become his accountability buddy. When God comes on the scene, he says, Solomon, you are no longer living for Me. You are living for yourself. You are building your own kingdom. The Bible goes on to tell us that he began to build temples to these foreign gods. He just totally lost his mission and purpose. Dont use your vice as an excuse. God doesnt count as an excuse. Everybody has a weakness. Im not going to argue with that. There will be areas that youre weak in that Im not weak in, and areas that Im weak in that youre not weak in. Whats a temptation for you may not be a temptation for this person. I understand that. All of us have weaknesses, but those weaknesses are not an excuse. If we get to the point where we become self-centered, then those weaknesses are going to be exploited by the enemy; and he is going to attack like any good soldier would-attack where the enemy is most vulnerable. He becomes apathetic, and he is vulnerable. Satan knows his Achilles heel, and he attacks for these beautiful women. Solomon, in the end of his days, accomplishes absolutely nothing. When God confronts him, there is no repentance. There is no sorrow. From after the temple on, Solomon accomplishes not one thing for the Kingdom of God. Friends, if the wisest man who ever lived-aside from the Lord-could fall like that, anybody could. What does that do? It keeps us humble. It keeps us teachable. It keeps us aware. We know our Achilles heel. We know where hes going to attack, so I need to stay dependent. I need to stay focused on Kingdom matters and not become self-centered. Read that Passage one more time from James in light of what we just studied. He who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. That characterized Solomon during the first 40 years of his life. He was the epitome of that verse. But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts and do not boast about it or deny the truth, such wisdom does not come down from Heaven but is earthly, unspiritual and of the devil. That describes his decline. For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder in every evil practice. He went from worshiping God to worshiping the Pagan gods of all of his many hundreds of wives. The Bible then tells us what happened was the Kingdom broke down. Adversaries began to be raised up and began to come against Israel. The prosperity began to leave when people started to rebel. The Kingdom was taken away from him. One sad story: remember how Saul tried to kill David because David was everything Saul wanted to be? David was everything Saul used to be, so he got mad, he took his spear, and threw it at him, chucked it at him, and tried to kill him just because he was jealous. Remember that? Then he pursued him all over the countryside and all that? Now generations later, Davids grandson is a shadow of what he used to be. Theres a young man by the name of Jeroboam who is living for God and who is a servant. The last recorded act we have of Solomon is him trying to take that young mans life because he was jealous because Jeroboam was everything he used to be. Jeroboam would go on to become king.
Lets pray together: Father, when we hear this message, it humbles us. It makes us realize that if the wisest among us could fall, so could we. If we take our eyes off the Kingdom, if we get to the point where we say, I have accomplished everything I needed to do for the Lord, apathy and self-centeredness will set in. Sometimes we begin to believe our clippings. We begin to think that were the reason were successful instead of You. We think were the founder of the feast. We become prideful. Its then that we fall. Lord, when we are living according to Your Word, when we are seeking first Your Kingdom and Your righteousness, life goes well. Unity takes place. Theres prosperity, but when we take matters into our own hands, we become envious and selfish. Great is the collapse. We pray for those who have fallen-people that we know who once loved You and served You who are heading down the wrong road right now. Lord, we call them back into the Kingdom. We call them back to repentance, to that place where their hearts were tender and soft to the things of God. In Jesus name, we pray, Amen.
Did you happen to notice in that clip (http://www.wingclips.com/movie-clips/stepmom/want-me-to-hate-her)-when Susan Sarandons character said those hateful words to Julia Roberts character at the end-how that cut like a knife? Did you see her bow her head and just kind of hold her chest? We have all been on the giving and receiving end of hurtful words. There have been words spoken to you that have wounded you, and you feel the effects of those words years later, words spoken in hate, words spoken in anger, words spoken that were lies, and theyve cut to your soul. We have all contributed as well. Weve all said words that were wrong. Weve all gossiped, slandered, and said mean-spirited things. This morning, James is going to tell us what we already know, and thats the tongue is a weapon. It can be used for good; it can be used to build up, or it can be used to tear down. It can be used to bless, or it can be used to curse. It can be used to help, or it can be used to destroy. It can help channel our lives in a positive direction or in a negative direction. Lets open our Bibles up to James 3 (page 1197), and lets see what he has to say. Were going to read it together, and then were going to look at an example from Scripture of somebody thats very familiar to us, a name thats very familiar to us in a chapter in his life when the words coming out of his mouth and the direction of his mouth did not honor God. James 3, Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. That verse is for me, and its not a fun verse, but lets move on to talk about you. We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check. Two weeks ago, we were teasing you saying, You can play hooky in two weeks because were going to talk about taming the tongue and since that is not a problem for any of you, just play hooky that week, but you showed up anyway because you knew I spoke in jest. He says we all stumble in many ways. Some of us gossip. Some of us say hate-filled, mean-spirited words. Some of us might say deceitful words, slanderous words, but all of us stumble in many ways with our tongue; and he says if you dont, youre perfect. I know some of you, and I know youre not perfect. I trust that those of you who I dont know, youre not perfect either; so we are definitely in the right place this morning. He says if you can control your tongue, you can control your whole body. (Verse 3), …we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. Likewise the tongue…makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. Anybody here ever said a word, a phrase, and it caught fire, spread, and it did destruction? Let me see your hands. Something you said just began to spread and take on a life of its own. You found out it was a whole lot easier to start a fire than to put one out. He said, Thats what the tongue can do. It can start a fire that can spread and do damage. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. We think of hell. You need to understand hell was also a literal place. It was the place called Gahanna. It was a garbage dump that burned outside Jerusalem 24/7. It was a source of everything unclean and putrid. It was where people brought their refuge and their garbage. He makes a comparison. He said the tongue can be like that. It can be like this garbage dumb. It can be like Gahanna; it can be this place that is unclean, this place of filth. He said sometimes our tongues can be like that. (Verse 7), All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man, but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With our tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in Gods likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water. James says though this is the way it is, its not the way it should be. You think if something is inevitable and we all succumb to it-we just throw in the towel and say, Its just the way it is. Thats the way life is. Im just going to give up. Some people do that with sin, and it becomes their excuse. Well, you know, we all sin. We all have shortcomings, so this is mine. We all stumble in many ways with our tongue, so we might as well just accept that. This is my weakness. This is my vice. James says thats not the way it should be. If you name the name of Christ, then what comes out of your mouth should be consistent with whose name you claim. Now, notice in this Passage that James talks a lot about the problems, but he doesnt talk a lot about the solution, right? Have you noticed that? He paints a pretty negative portrait of what the tongue can do. By the way, everything negative can also be a positive. As the tongue can tear down, it can lift up. As it can speak words that are corrupt, it can speak words that edify. As it can speak curses, so it can speak blessings. As it can speak despair and fear, it can speak faith and hope. So many words that were spoken positively have changed the courses of nations and churches, so the tongue can be used for good as well as for evil, but James is focusing on the evil side right now. Hes not helping us with the solution. Hes not saying, Well, heres the cure, so thats where were going to spend our time. Were going to spend our time this morning talking about the cure. Is it just changing our words? Is it that easy? Just exercise more willpower; if youve been gossiping, stop it. If youve said hateful things, stop it. If youve said deceitful things, stop it. Is that all it is, a matter of just stopping it? No. Jesus tells us its much deeper than that. If we do that, all we are doing is treating the symptoms and not the cause; so you want to treat the root cause, and what is the root cause of what comes out of our mouths when its bad, when its negative? What is the root cause? Jesus tells us. Some of you are pointing-you know what Im talking about. Luke 6:45 (page 1021), Jesus is speaking. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart, his mouth speaks. What comes out of our mouths is a reflection of what is in our hearts. We have all heard people on the television-maybe a political figure or some sort of celebrity-say something, and they put their foot in their mouths. They say something bad, and then they come on and retract it, Thats not what I really meant. It was misinterpreted. Sometimes you listen to the quote again, and youll say, Yeah, thats really what you meant. Thats really what you said when you were angry because out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks; so if we really want to change our words, what must we change? We must change our hearts. Weve already established that we cannot change our hearts, havent we? You can change your outward appearance. You can change your hair; you can put on new clothes; you can get a makeover or whatever it is, but you cant change your heart. You cant do that. You need outside intervention to change your heart. Yet, even though God is the one who changes our hearts, we have part to play. The part we have to play is called the CAT Principle. Anybody like cats here today? Any cat lovers? Two of you? Wow (congregation laughing). You are not going to babysit my cat. The CAT Principle is this: when were having a negative day, and things coming out of our mouths are negative, that has a synergistic effect, doesnt it? In other words, something bad happens, and we have a belief that we enter into that this is a bad day. Therefore, everything negative that happens to us feeds into that core belief that this is going to be a bad day. Then we start to say negative things about our day. Why me? Why does this always happen to me? I guess this is just the kind of day Im going to have. Then it just continues to cycle like that, right? The more negativity that comes out of our mouths, the more bad things that happen; it just seems like a downward spiral. Some people have taken the faith and confession movement and just thrown it out of the church. They say, Oh, you know, those name it, claim it people, those blab it, grab it people, they say if you just confess, youll have it, and we just discard it; but you know there is power with confession. Did you know that confession is part of your salvation? Its a very important part of your salvation? What does Roman 10:8-10 say? Lets go ahead and look at that (page 1121 of pew Bibles). What does it say? The Word is near you. It is in your mouth. It is in your heart. That is the Word of faith we are proclaiming. If you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with the heart that you believe and are justified. It is with the mouth that you confess and are saved, so our confession-our words-solidify that promise; so we see that synergistic effect in our words to the positive or the negative. I was having one of those days-it started off with a phone call. It was an investment company that wed been trying to get money from for a long time. Its our money. They keep delaying sending it. I had the conversation, Could you please send it to us from direct deposit? I need this. Tuition is coming. We were supposed to have this a while ago. Well, were going to need paperwork, Sir, for a direct deposit. Well, Ive already received direct deposits from you, so therefore you must have my information. Otherwise, I could not get direct deposit. It wasnt registering with the lady on the phone; so then I went to another phone call, and that was not a good phone call. Right away, Im thinking, Oh, one of those days, ha? We go out to eat at one of my favorite restaurants, Red Robin, and I plug them in hopes that Ill get free food. It was Brenda, Brett and me. Then we were going to have a nice lunch, and then he and I were going to go play golf. I cant even say I play golf. Im there, but I am terrible. There is another word for when I play besides golf-butchery or something; but were getting ready to go, I get in the car, and the car doesnt start. I was like, Great! This is great! This car has always started. Now, today, on this day when were supposed to go out, now it doesnt start. What a day! I call AAA. They said theyd be there in ten hours. We went in the restaurant, and they said, What are you still doing here? I said, The car wont start. Its one of those days! Its just my luck today! Then all of the sudden, it was like, Wait a second! What are you doing? What are you going to preach about this weekend-this very thing? Here you are doing that! The more I spoke negatively, the crummier my attitude became. It seemed like every bad thing that happened, I attributed it to, Oh, its just one of those days! Why me? This is the way its supposed to be! I began to think, Man, you better start practicing what you preach. I said, I have to practice some CAT here! CAT is confession, adoration, and thanksgiving. It starts with confession. I began to confess to God my bad attitude, Lord, my attitude stinks today! This weekend, Im going to get up in front of our church, and Im going to preach on the words coming out of our mouths; and look whats coming out of mine! I prayed a prayer of confession. Then I began to practice adoration and thanksgiving. I began to think about the blessings of God, my blessings, the things Ive received, and give Him thanks for those things. I began to think, Here I am, and Im upset because my car wont start, but you know what? I have a car. There are a lot of people who dont have cars that would like to have cars. Whats more I broke down in a safe place. Im not on the interstate somewhere. Im not at a busy intersection. Im in the restaurant in my hometown parking lot. Im safe. Number three, help is on the way. Somebody is either going to come and start my car or take it to where it can get served. Help is on the way. Im not stranded somewhere in the middle of the desert or out at night with nobody around. Help is on the way. Fourthly, its a beautiful day. Theres sunshine. Theres a breeze, and theres even a tree right here. Theres shade. There are a lot worse things that can happen to you than to sit under the shade of a tree on a sunny day for a little while. I began to think, Well, you know, there are some phone calls I need to make too. There are some people I have not talked to in a while. I got out my Blueberry and started to talk, make those phone calls. The next thing you know, the day didnt seem so bad. The workers got there from AAA. There were a couple of nice guys. They had smiles on their faces; they were happy and in a good mood. They jumped the car, and the next thing you know, we were on our way to the golf course. What a change. My circumstances hadnt changed, but my perspective had changed because I began to practice CAT-confession, adoration, thanksgiving. I began to think about what I have, not what I dont have. The next thing you know, the words that came out of my mouth were positive words. See, in a synergistic event, I started to believe, Well, maybe this day isnt doomed. Maybe its just my bad attitude. Some of you are saying, Well, you know, its easy when your car doesnt start, so thats not a big deal, but Ive gone through catastrophe in my life. Ive gone through crisis. Will this work when theres crisis, when something major happens? Lets turn in our Bibles to the Book of 1 Samuel 27. David, at this point in his life, is on the run. David is a young man. [The story of] David and Goliath is responsible for how he rose to prominence. He was anointed as a child to be king by Samuel. Now hes a young man, and he loves his country. He loves his people, but King Saul is jealous of him, and King Saul wants him dead. Saul is the most powerful man in the world. King Saul is relentless in his attacks. Twice God has delivered Saul into Davids hands, but David chose not to take his life. He said, I will not raise my hand against the Lords anointing, so David did not take Sauls life. David continued to be on the run. Sometimes when attacks are relentless, you and I know that we enter into periods of discouragement-when it just seems like life keeps giving you blow after blow, it just seems to never let up. Its relentless. You get discouraged. When we get discouraged, we begin to get negative. We began to think negatively, and negative things begin coming out of our mouths. This is where David is, in this period. Look at Verse 1 of Chapter 27 (page 290 of pew Bibles), But David thought to himself, One of these days I will be destroyed by the hand of Saul… Was that true? If thats true, then God is a liar because God promised David that he would be king through the Prophet Samuel. How are you going to be king if youre dead? God had already shown His miraculous hand of protection on David. David had forgotten the promise. Sometimes when attacks are relentless, we forget the promise; and thats what happened to David. He became discouraged, and he forgot the promise. He began to speak the opposite of the promise, Saul is going to destroy me. In other words, God will not keep His promise. I will not be king. Saul is going to kill me. The best thing I can do is to escape to the land of the Philistines. Then Saul will give up searching for me anywhere in Israel, and I will slip out of his hand. Remember who the Philistines are? Goliath was a Philistine. The Philistines are the enemy of Israel. So now he is in such a negative state of mind that he thinks the only solution is to go and camp with the enemy. Friends, when we are in that discouraged, negative state, thats when we compromise. Thats when we sleep with the enemy. Thats when we become comfortable with sin. Thats when we go places we shouldnt go and partner with people we shouldnt partner with-when we get in that state of mind. Thats the state of mind David finds himself in. He finds himself in the camp of the enemy. Now in order to receive David, David has to do a good acting job. David has to convince the king, whose name is Achish, Im on your side. Im one of you now. I no longer want to live in Israel, which is not the case. He just simply wants to escape Saul, so he has to convince the king that hes on their side. In order to do that, hes going to lie to him; so more negative words and untruths are going to come out of his mouth. Now Achish gives David and his men-there are about 600 of them-a city named Ziklag. Ziklag is in the southern territory, and there David will be able to operate and carry on his activities and anonymity. Saul will not look for him because hes in another country, another jurisdiction; so he will be able to live out his days in peace and quiet until Saul dies. Then hes going to return home; thats his plan. So they live in the city of Ziklag, and for over a year, everything is going well until one day it all crumbles apart. Look at Verse 10, When Achish asked, Where did you go raiding today? Isnt that an interesting question-[it wasnt him saying], What did you do today? I guess when youre a future king, its like, Where did you go raid today? Who did you pillage today? David would say, Against the Negev of Judah. Judah is his home country. Its a southern kingdom, but we know from this story thats now where he went. He fought against the Amalekites, and he raided from the Amalekites, but he tells the king, Oh, I went against my own people. I raided villages of Judah. Then what David did was despicable. Because he didnt want any survivors to tell what he had done-he didnt want his lie to be found out-he has those people killed off. Its despicable. They were unprovoked attacks. God did not tell David to do this. David did it of his own accord, unprovoked. He doesnt want anybody to get back to Achish the truth, that he didnt go to Judah at all. He went to the Amalekites, so he killed off all witnesses. Dead men dont talk. David now is lying to King Achish. His words and his actions are putting his life in a downward spiral, and things are going to go from bad to worse. Achish believes him, and in Chapter 28:1 (page 291), it says, In those days the Philistines gathered their forces to fight against Israel. His own country, his own people-the people that he will one day rule! Achish said to David, You must understand that you and your men will accompany me in the army. Youre going to fight against your own people. Then David said, Then you will see for yourself what your servant can do. Now, what will David do? Will he fight against Israel? We dont know, but Achish replied, Very well, I will make you my bodyguard for life. Youre going to be my bodyguard. Youre going to serve in the place of trust. Its the bodyguards job of the king to do the dirty work; so if they were to conquer Israel, they would execute King Saul. Guess who would do it? David would. So the very thing he has tried to avoid-raising his hand against King Saul-because of his lying and because of his compromise, he is now in a position where potentially he might have to kill the king; but it doesnt happen because one, they get ready to go to battle, the other Philistines see David and his men. They say, What are those Hebrews doing here? We dont trust them. As soon as we come to the battle, theyre going to turn on us! Theyre not going to be on our side! The king said, Oh, no. Hes a good guy! Hes on our side. You dont know him like I know him. The generals say, Were not going to go to battle while David is in our ranks. The king goes to David and says, Listen, youre my friend. I trust you. I know youre one of us, but the men wont go to battle with you here, so you and your men need to go back to Ziklag, so thats what they do. They camp out, and the next day they head back to Ziklag. As they approach their village, they smell smoke-not just a little bit of smoke like from a campfire, but smoke like something has been burned down, smoke like there is a serious fire. As they get closer to the village, they realize the smoke and the sound of fire is coming from their village. Its coming from Ziklag, so they begin to run. When they enter into the clearing, they look at their city; and everything has been ransacked and pillaged. The houses are ruble and charred. Their wives, their sons, their daughters, their livestock, and their possessions are all gone. Nothing of value has been left behind. Now, would this qualify as a bad day? Those of you who thought the car not starting didnt qualify, does this qualify? Could this be a bad day? Look at 1 Samuel 30:3, When David and his men came to Ziklag, they found it destroyed by fire and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive. So David and his men wept aloud until they had no strength left to weep. Have you ever been there, been where you had no strength left to weep? Have you had a Ziklag experience in your life? Im sure you have. I am sure you have been in that place of despair, that place of ruin where it seems like life will never be the same again, where it seems like hopes and dreams have been dashed. If there were ever a time to get negative, its right here in Ziklag, right? If there ever was a time for David to curse God, if there was ever a time for David to curse himself and say, I brought this on myself, because he did, the country were going to find out in this story who came and invaded was the Amalekites, the same people that he had raided unprovoked, without cause. They now came and raided his village and plundered his city. It came back to roost. They are devastated. Matters are going to get worse. Verse 6 says, David was greatly distressed because the men were talking about stoning him; each one was bitter in spirit because of his sons and daughters. Youd think it couldnt get any worse. Your wives are gone. Your children are gone. Your friends wives and children are gone. Your possessions are gone; your homes have been destroyed, and now your colleagues-your friends, the men you go to battle with-want to take your life as well. They blame you for the calamity and the riot. If there were ever a time for David to become negative, this is it; but what happens in this lowest of the lows. What does he do? Look at the end of the verse, But David found strength in the Lord his God. When David finally reached that bottom there in Ziklag, he began to turn things around. Though were not privileged to read his prayer or his words, all we have is this summary phrase, we know what he did because we know Davids pattern. In the Book of Psalms, we can read what David does. What would David do when he was discouraged, sad, defeated, and at a low point? He would practice CAT. He would confess, he would begin to adore God, and he would offer thanks. Isnt that what he did? Every time! So after David spends time with God, he looks up. Instead of wanting to take his life, instead of saying, Yeah, youre right. Kill me! I dont deserve to live! Or, God, how could You let this happen? You must hate me! Instead, David speaks to God and says, Lets go get our families back. God is with us. Lets go and restore what has been taken. That, friends, is what God wants to do in your Ziklag experience. He doesnt want you to stay in there crying and weeping. He wants you to raise your head and say, Im going to pursue my calling. Im going to pursue my dream. Im going to pursue what God has called me to do. Im going to take back what has been taken from me. When youve had those experiences with God, it changes you. His circumstances had not changed one iota. His family was still missing. His village was still plundered; yet his perspective had changed. He recognized that God was still there, and God was with him; and he began to pursue what had been taken. I bet you it was something like what the Psalmist did in Psalm 42. Why dont you turn to Psalm 42 with me? The Psalmist here has experienced a loss. We dont know exactly what has happened, but the Psalmist has gone through a Ziklag experience. Were going to see in this Psalm some negative words that they had spoken. Theyre going to remind themselves of the words they used to speak. Were going to see how through confession, adoration, and thanksgiving, the Psalmists hope begins to change. The synergy and the positive direction begin to change. Renewed hope or renewed optimism about the future is going to take hold. Verse 1 (page 556), As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me all day long, Where is your God? This is Ziklag. This is a time of weeping. This is a time when you question, Where is God? If God were here, if God loved us, how could this happen? Youre tempted to get negative. He said, These things I remember as I pour out my soul: how I used to go with the multitude, leading the procession to the house of God, with shouts of joy and thanksgiving among the festive throng. He remembered happy times. People were weeping that day. David and his men were weeping because they remembered their wives. They remembered their children. They remembered their happy times as a family-sharing a meal, playing a game, and laughing together. Now thats gone, so they would weep. He remembers those happy times in his life. Then he asks a question. He says, Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God. He begins to remember who God is and what He has done. My soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon-from Mount Mizar. These are places of no significance to anybody else but the Psalmist-nothing significant theologically or Biblically happened in these locations. He is simply remembering places where he experienced the presence of God-at that mountain, in that valley, in that place. You might say, In that garden, by that stream, during that storm, some physical place where you remembered the presence of God. Hes recalling that. Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me. He begins to be enveloped by the presence of God. By day the Lord directs His love, at night His song is with me-a prayer to the God of my life. I will say to God my Rock… Now he begins to speak words of affirmation and hope because he recalls what he used to say. Heres what he used to say, Why have you forgotten me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy? Why do all these bad things happen to me? My bones suffer mortal agony as my foes taunt me, saying to me all day long, Where is your God? Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God. He begins to acknowledge who his help is. He begins to adore the living God. His optimism arises in his spirit. He beings to look with new hope to the future. Friends, I want to pray for you who are in those Ziklag experiences right now. I want to pray that youll not stay there, youll not live there, youll not put up a tent there in the ruins and begin to speak negatively and believe negatively. Youll begin to confess the promises of God. What happens as I confess the promises of God? God changes my heart. As He changes my heart, then He changes my words, and its circular. The more He changes my words, the more I speak His promises and His blessings. The more He changes my heart through His Spirit and through His Word, it begins to change my attitude. It begins to change my perspective. As we go to prayer, Id like every head bowed, every eye closed. How many of you right now would say, Pastor, Ive been going through some Ziklag experiences in my life, and Id like prayer today? Ive been negative. Let me see your hands. Ive been negative and I want to turn that around. All over this place (Pastor is looking out into the congregation). Father, I want to pray first of all for those hands that have been raised this morning. They are being honest, and they are saying, Ive been negative. Ive spoke negatively. I have let my tongue chart the course of my life rather than Your promise. Davids circumstances were because he became discouraged. As he became discouraged, he found comfort in the enemy. He left his home; he forsook the promise. Lord, some of those hands are people that are discouraged today. Lord, sometimes in discouragement, we forget who we belong to. We forget the promise. Remind them today of whose they are and whom they serve. Lord, cause their eyes to be lifted off the smoking ruins, to pursue the dreams and the callings You have for them, to know there is no higher calling in their lives than loving and serving the living God. At the lowest of the low points for David, he remembered whom he belonged to. He encouraged himself in the Lord his God. My prayer for them is that they too would be encouraged today. They began to tame their tongue. We tame our tongue by confessing sin, by confessing Your Word, by praise, worship, adoring You, and by giving thanks. In those ways, we tame our tongues. We bring it in subjection, in alignment, with the Word of God. I pray that You would change our perspective. Give us hearts of faith; as You change our hearts, You will change our words. We will speak words of hope and life-even in desperate situations because we have a God who is greater than any situation that we face. In Jesus name, we pray, Amen.
[Lets open our Bibles to] James 2 (page 1197 of pew Bibles). Were going to read this passage together beginning with Verse 14. What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed, but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, You have faith; I have deeds. Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that-and shudder. You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the Scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness, and he was called Gods friend. You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone. Remember that verse. In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead. Father, we ask You to open our ears to hear, our eyes to see Your Truth this morning. Might Your Spirit enlighten the Word and empower us to live it. In Jesus name, we pray, Amen. Please be seated. Lets dig in today. Do you remember the drought years ago back in the 1980s when it got so bad that churches were actually calling prayer meetings just to pray for rain? Anybody remember that? Not too many of you. Maybe you didnt have that here in Wisconsin; but in Illinois in the mid to late 80s, it got really bad one season, so we called an all-church prayer meeting. Everybody gathered together. Only one person brought an umbrella (congregation laughing). We were praying for rain, and one person brought an umbrella. James would be happy with that guy. James would have high-fived that guy. He would have said, Thats it! Thats faith! James is going to teach us about what faith is. Do you want a guy who has both feed on the ground? You dont have to worry about James being so heavily-minded that he is of no earthly good. James is a practical teacher and theologian, and he believes our faith is to be lived out in the real world; so he is going to offer us some counsel and advice, and sometimes its controversial-like that verse we read, Verse 24, where he says, You see a person who is justified by what he does and not by faith alone. That line, that verse, is controversial because many people feel like it conflicts with what the Apostle Paul taught. Remember in the Book of Ephesians, probably a marquee verse in the Bible, it says, For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-not by works, so that no one can boast, (Ephesians 2:8, page 1157 of pew Bibles). In other words, Paul says your salvation isnt something you earn. In fact, its given to you by grace. In Romans 6:23 (page 1117 of pew Bibles), he says, For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. Those two verses seem to clash. Those two philosophies seem to be at odds with one other. Which is it? Are we saved through our works, or are we saved through faith and not by works? The truth of the matter is they are in harmony with one another. They are in agreement with one another. Simply, it says they are talking about a different starting point, a different beginning point. Paul is talking about a person who wants to come to God. He or she wants to go to Heaven. He or she wants to be righteous. Paul says, You cant do it on your own. You cant do it through works. It has to be by grace through faith. You have to believe and trust God. You dont become righteous on your own. You needed a Savior to come and take your place. If you could be righteous on your own, Christ would not have had to die. Because you could not, God had to send a substitute in your place to bear your sin; and you have received His righteousness because He bore your sin, so hes starting from the point of a new believer, a seeker. James, on the other hand, is starting from the point of a person who has already made a profession of faith. He or she says, I have faith, but theres no evidence of that faith in a life. Theres no proof that theyve made a commitment to Christ. Hes saying, Look, if all you do is say, I have faith, but your life does not make a difference for God, theres no works involved, all that is is lip service. Thats not true faith. True faith always has action. Faith brings an umbrella to a prayer meeting where youre praying for rain. Faith is active; its not passive. Its not just saying words; its doing deeds. You could say it like this, We were not saved because of our works, but because we are saved, we are saved for good works. In fact, in that same Passage, where he says we are saved by grace through faith, Paul says in Verse 10 of Ephesians 2, For good works which God created beforehand that we should walk in them. So Paul is talking about a perversion of the Gospel where somebody thinks they can earn their salvation. James is talking about a perversion of the Gospel where someone thinks all they have to do is say, Yeah, I believe in God, and everythings fine. They dont have to have any evidence in their life and in their deeds. They simply provide lip service, so both are addressing two different perversions of the Gospel, both at different starting points. They are in harmony and agreement with one another, not conflict, and Ill substantiate that in the Passage today. Lets go back through it. Verse 14, What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him… Another way to say that is is such faith real faith? Is that really even faith at all? Then he gives you an example. Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed, but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? My son and I were at the PGA this week, at Whistling Straits-a beautiful golf course. Wed been watching from hole 16. You could see the fairway and the green; and then when that hole was done at 17, you just turned around and you could see them tee off at 17. Then the lake was right there. It was going to be 90 degrees and sunny. We had a breeze coming off of it all day long. It was going to be great; but there was a three-hour delay from fog; and we really wanted to see Phil Mickelson and Steve Stricker. It wasnt going to happen staying there, so we had to pursue them; so we were following Phil Mickelson around the course, the front 9 being up and down these little hills, this rugged terrain and long grass. Several times people fell down. The grass was a little slick, and sometimes it was hard-especially for folks that were a little bit more advanced in years. Theyd lose their balance, and theyd fall down. I saw that happen several times, and usually people would immediately come and grab your hand. Theyd say, Are you okay? Are you all right? Here, let me help you up. Theyd help them back on their feet. Sometimes two people would grab the person and help them back up. Never once did I see somebody fall down and someone saying, Aw, that looks like that hurts. Well, good luck getting up. Hope you dont fall again. Be careful next time. Bye! I never saw that. People would stop, and they had the means to help, and theyd help. James says, I dont understand. If somebody has a need, and you just say, Aw, that's too bad. If you have the means to do something about it and just go, Well, take care, bye bye. Be blessed, he says, Those are nothing but meaningless words. You have the ability and the wherewithal to do something about the need. Do something about the need. Dont just simply provide lip service. If you are a Christian, you are to be a person of action. In the same way, faith by itself, if not accompanied by action, is dead. Its dead. There is no life there. Its useless. Its pointless. I have an apple tree in my yard that has no apples. Whats the point of an apple tree with no apples? I had another apple tree for pollinating, but that apple tree died; so I used to have these apples that were just small, puny, and disgusting. They said, Well, it takes about five years, and then theyll be good apples. Then the trees mate died-spouse, I dont know what to call it; it died, and then it started producing no apples, so its not a good apple tree if it doesnt have any apples, right? Theres no fruit to it. Thats the gist of what he is saying here. Theres no fruit to it. Jesus talked about fruit. Jesus sounds a lot like James. Remember James is the half-brother of Jesus, so its no surprise when James starts to sound like Him. In Matthew 7, in the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord is preaching. In Verse 21, what does He say? Lets look at that together: Matthew 7:20 (page 961). It says, Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them, or by their works or by their deeds. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of Heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in Heaven. So even if someone says, Oh, yeah, I believe in You! Yeah, Youre the Lord! He said, Thats not enough to just simply say that I am the Lord. Are you doing the will of My Father because doing the will of My Father is evidence that you belong to Me. Jesus talked about having faith in Him over and over again, didnt He? He said, Unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins. For God so loved the world that whosoever believes in Him should have everlasting life. Jesus talked about the importance of faith in Him and His all sufficiency, but He also talked about works. In fact, looking at the end times, looking at last things, its the study of eschatology. He says, In the end times, I will gather the nations and separate them from the sheep and the goats. I will put the goats on my left and the sheep on my right. I will say to the sheep, I was hungry, and you fed Me. I was naked, and you clothed Me. I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink. I was sick, and you visited Me. I was imprisoned, and you came to Me and spent time with Me. The righteous will say, Lord, when did we see You naked? When did we see You in prison? When did we see You sick? When did we see You hungry? When did we see You thirsty? Jesus will say, If youve done it unto the least of these brothers of mine, you have done it unto Me. His point is that a believers life will be characterized by action. Faith is a verb. Its not an either/or thing. In fact, hes going to debate with somebody who is not there. Verse 18 (James 2), But someone will say, You have faith; I have deeds, as though you can slice them in two, as though they are separable. James would say, No, theyre not. Theyre inseparable. They are two parts to a whole. James says in that same verse, Show me your faith without deeds. You say you have faith? Go ahead. Show me. How are you going to prove to me that you have faith? He said, Just saying it is believing it. That really doesnt do anything. He says, …I will show you my faith by what I do. You believe there is one God? Good for you! The for you parts from me, but it is sarcastic. You believe there is one God? Well, arent you really a theological giant? Good for you! Do you know who else believes there is one God? The demons believe there is one God! Then they shudder. Ill pat you on the back because you say, Yes, I believe in God. He says, Even the hoards of hell believe in God. He says, Im not impressed. He said, What does impress me is a life thats lived for God, you foolish man. You want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Then he talks about two examples. He talks about one, Abraham, who is an example of faith because he obeys God. He leaves God to go to a country that God will show him. He comes home one night, and he says to Sarah, Sarah, were moving. She says, Where are we moving to? He says, To the land God will show us. Imagine how well that would go over, guys, at the dinner table tonight. I dont know. Were just moving, and Gods going to show us as we move. Then he is called to sacrifice his one and only son, the heir to the Promise that God had given. He said his offspring was going to be like the sand of the sea. He needed to have a male heir. He finally has his boy, and he cherishes his boy; and God says, Sacrifice your son. Of course, He is not at all going to follow through with that, but God was testing him. Abraham passed the test. He says, It was a demonstration of his faith. Then he talks about Rahab, the prostitute. She lives in Jericho, and Israel is going to come into the Promised Land. Some spies are sent to spy out Jericho. They are found, and they hide in Rahabs house. Remember, she puts them on the roof. They come over, and they say, Where are they? We know theyre here. We saw them enter your house. She said, Oh, they went that way. She sends them on a wild goose chase. Then she comes and tells the spies they are gone, Go that way. Stay there for a few days, and then return home. She saves their lives, risking her own neck. James says, That was faith. When you seek to please God, when you seek to live out His purposes, thats faith. Turn back just two pages to Hebrews 11:6. It says, …without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him. This is a verb that means youre active. Youre seeking; its ongoing. Faith is active; faith is a verb. James contention is that faith and works are inseparable. One is an evidence of another, just like apples on an apple tree. You must have both, and you must seek to please God. When I was a little boy, maybe 5 or 6, I sincerely believed with all my heart that at the end of a rainbow was a pot of gold. I really believed that! Id seen the Lucky Charms commercials. I maybe watched cartoons or movies, and its the first time I ever remember seeing a rainbow. Im sure there were other times I saw a rainbow, but from my memory, it was like, Oh! A rainbow! Theres a pot of gold there! In my mind at the age of probably 5, the rainbow was survival of the fittest. The first one to the rainbow got the gold. Thats the way I looked at it because I remember this desperation. I remember thinking, I have to get my shoes on. I dont have time to tell anybody what Im going to do. I have to get to the end of that rainbow, and I have to get that gold because if I dont, somebody is going to get it first. Im going to help my mom. Im going to help my family. Im going to be a hero. Remember my father was born in Sweden, so he was an immigrant. He came to America, and he just had to work menial jobs. When he passed away untimely, I was just a little boy; and all we had to live on was social security, and it was tough. We didnt have very much, so I thought, Man, if I can land this gold, am I going to please my mom! Is she going to be happy with me! Everybody is going to think Im great! But I viewed this as a competition. I had to get there first. It shouldnt be that hard because I thought the rainbow came down in our backyard. I was pretty convinced the way that it came down, it was just right there; so out I went. Now, I didnt know how I was going to gather the gold because all I was wearing were my shorts and my shirt. I guess I hadnt thought it all the way through. What am I going to do with this pot of gold once I find it? I guess we worry about those details later. The main thing is to get to the gold. So I got to the end of the block, and it was like the rainbow had moved. It was now down at the other end of the block, so I followed it down to the other end of the block. Now I was at the creek, and I had been taught, You dont go near the creek, but the rainbow came down just past the creek; and time was a wasting. Somebody might already be there pocketing all the gold, and I have to get there fast. So I went by the creek, and I kept hiking. Now, I am at a crossroads. There was this street; Id never crossed the street by myself. Whats more, Id never been over there. I didnt know what was over there. All I knew was a rainbow was coming down right across the street, and the gold was right there. Now I had to make a decision. If I crossed the street, I could be lost; if I crossed the street, I might get hit by a car. I remember turning around and going home feeling so dejected, like such a failure because I had not received the pot of gold. I dont remember a whole lot of details of what had come, but I just remembered coming back like my tail was between my legs like a little whipped puppy. I think I remember saying something to my mom when she asked, Whereve you been? I was trying to get the pot of gold, so wed have money. Thats such a cute answer that you know youre not going to get in trouble. Even if you did something wrong, youd tell your mom, But I was trying to get gold for our family. Awwwww. You cant lose. Friends, that was Biblical faith. That was an example of Biblical faith. I believed that something was true, and I acted upon it. I put feet to my faith, and I walked. I ventured across roads, across the creek, and farther than Id ever gone before because I wanted to please my mom. I wanted to bless my mom. That's faith, Rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Were trying to live a life that pleases God. Were pursuing the goal; were pursuing the promise. Were putting feet to our faith. There are a lot of people I could talk about, so if I leave you out, please do not be offended. I want to talk about just a few. We had a woman years ago named Linda Lang who went through our GPS. It turns out that her gifts were compassion and mercy, and her passion was the elderly. She said, I want to plug in to elderly care ministry. We dont have elderly care ministry. Well, lets get it started, she said; so years ago, she started visiting a nursing home. Then she enlisted others to join her. Then she started visiting two nursing homes. A couple years ago, she passed away, but her ministry continues on. You might not know this, but every week, Faith Community Church goes into different nursing homes in our community. We have people who minister to the elderly. Thats gold for them. They just feel the love of God when theyre able to invest in the lives of other people. We have a dear brother in our church named Vic Smith who tragically lost his daughter in a car accident years ago. We had some folks in the church whod lost loved ones, and he said, We have to do something about that. There is a need there. There are a lot of hurting people. They need community. They need the comfort of the Scriptures, so Vic and his wife, Linda, started holding a bereavement group twice a year. Theyve done that for two years now. Its just getting ready to start all over again-not just for people in our church, but anybody who wants to come. Its not just for those who are believers. There have been times when people will come who dont know the Lord. Theyll come to that class; theyll hear the Scripture; theyll spend times with Christians, and theyll say, I have to get to church. Theyll start coming here, and pretty soon, their spouse will start coming as well. For Vic, thats gold. You see a need, and you fill the need. That's what faith does. We have a gal in our church named Kristi Powers. Over 10 years ago, she came to me, and she said, You know, camp was a meaningful part of my life. We dont have any camp in our church. We have some really good leaders, and I think we could start a camp at Sky Lodge and invite a couple other churches to join us. I said, Thats great. Lets form a strategic plan. Lets get to work. Lets make it happen. We just celebrated our tenth year at Sky Lodge Camp; 65 children from our church went and spent the week hearing about the Lord. Many of our adults and teenagers went as well. Thats gold. Kristi was pursuing gold. She said, Theres a need. I have the ability to fill it. Lets make it happen. I could tell you about others. I could tell you about a man in our church named Mark Anderson who saw the need for a curriculum for those who coming through alcohol dependency. They needed a curriculum to make a connection between their alcoholism they were seeking to recover from and their faith; and we started a recovery program for them thats lasted for years. I could tell you about a woman in our church named Gretchen Wolf who had gone through a divorce, and there are others in our church who had gone through painful divorces. She said, You know, I can help with that, so she stared a divorce recovery group for anybody who wanted to come. They meet once a week, and its meeting a need; its gold. So I ask you the question: what does your faith look like? Would we know by looking at the fruits and the proof of your life that youre a believer? Do we see works? Are you a person of action or just a pew-sitter? I guess we dont have pews-a seat-sitter. Does your faith just come out of your mouth, or is it lived in your life? James says, A life that is only with the words and not with the actions is not true faith. True faith is lived out in the real world. Remember the verse that we talked about a few weeks ago in James 2? He said, Anyone who listens to the Word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror; and after looking at himself, he goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. He looks in the mirror, and he makes no changes. He takes no action. Friends, it all begins with the individual. It all begins with you and me having the determination to make a change, to seek God. Lets listen to the words of this song (link can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdIUzBoowbQ). I hope that this message inspires you. Maybe you say, I feel like Im serving. Im growing. Im doing what I can; but for others of us, maybe its a good spiritual kick in the pants. Our church is engaged in a lot of things to help others spiritually and physically. Be aware of what the Care Station is doing all the time. Chime in with that and be a part of that. Be aware of what our church is doing. We talked about some of the ministries. Were going to start of the GIFTS Homeless Shelter ministry. Were going to be involved with that again this year. Take GPS; get involved. Live your life with antenna or radar saying, Lord, what is a need that I can meet? What is a need that I can fill? How can I reflect Your glory and make a change in this world? Lets bow our heads for prayer. How many of you would say by a raise of the hands, God spoke to me today, and I want to make some changes in my life? Father, we thank You for those hands, honest hands, saying, We want our lives to be a reflection of our King. You made it abundantly clear when You spoke in the Gospels that its not those who simply say, Lord, Lord, but the one who does the Will of the Father who is in Heaven. You talked to us about what the Will of God is. Paul and James are in harmony and agreement. Though we are saved by faith and grace, evidence of that salvation-proof of our forgiveness-is in our deeds. Its in our works. Sometimes we who name Your name become self-absorbed. Sometimes we come to resemble the world instead of living differently from it. Lord, help us to be the church of God. Help us to be people of action who seek to please You, who follow after the gold to please their Father in Heaven, who believe Your promises, and take steps of faith to make them reality. In Jesus name, we pray, Amen.
Were going to do something a little different this morning. Normally while were studying James and we go to James, we pretty much park there. We spend about 100 percent of our time in that Book talking about that specific passage. Just for myself today, my sanity, sometimes when Ive been doing the same thing for a while, I need to change it up; so what were going to do is introduce the topic in James, but then were going to broaden it and bring other passages in to play in the message. Well read James. Well identify the subject matter. Well refer back to James, but were going to be developing those points in other parts of the Bible; so well be on the same topic, the gist of the message, but well be exploring other passages. Were talking this morning about favoritism-someone favoring one over another. While were talking about favoritism, were also talking about prejudice and discrimination. If youre a favorite, that means somebody else has been prejudiced against or oppressed in some way. The chances are probable that some of you have received favoritism in your lives. How many of you were accused of being Moms favorite? Has anybody here ever been accused of that-the baby of the family? I was. I milked that thing for everything it was worth. My siblings hated me for it, but I knew I was Mamas boy. I was the caboose born 14 years after the other two. Maybe along the line youve been a teachers pet. Certainly in the course of kindergarten through high school, some teacher had to like you. Has anybody here ever been a teachers pet before? The mother lode for me was second grade. In second grade, I was the apple of Mrs. Clowhites eye. I could do no wrong. I think Mrs. Clowhite was my first crush. I was six years old, and I just thought she was beautiful. She thought I was a pretty honest, good kid. I remember she would leave the classroom-she trusted me so much, she would come in and there would be horseplay going on, and shed say, What happened? Then shed say, Now, what really happened, Jeff? Id say, Well, heres what really happened, Mrs. Clowhite. So basically she turned me into a nark in second grade, but she would reward me so I liked that. But Ive also been the recipient. Maybe youve been a teachers pet or a coachs favorite on a sports team. I dont know if Id ever been that. Ive had coaches that liked me, but I have also seen when a coach has shown favoritism; and I didnt like it. I remember our senior year of high school. We had a very competitive basketball team. Our high school was 3,000 plus kids, and there was a lot of competition to make the team. There were only so many spots on varsity, and the coach said, Okay, you guys are getting here late. Im going to lock the doors when its time to start. If youre not there, no matter who you are, youre not getting in. If you dont show up on time, youre not going to play ball, so we were nervous. We got there early that day, and a kid Id never seen before came and knocked on the door. The coach looked at his watch, shook his head and said, Youre late. Go away. About five minutes later, one of his favorites knocked on the door. He said, Youre late. He opened the door and said, Come on in. Dont let it happen again. Oh, okay, we see how the world works, right? I didnt like that. I thought, Well, what if that had been me? What if that had been somebody else? Would that [person] still have gotten in? If you are the recipient of favoritism, sometimes its okay with you because life is good for you; but if you are the victim of it, you recognize how unfair it is. You become angry, and you say, This is not just. This is not right because you recognize that you have worth too and that you have value. If you receive the treatment of a second class citizen long enough-if youre the victim of discrimination and prejudice long enough-pretty soon you start to believe it. We were all touched by the story of the little girl that we ministered to in the Dominican Republic. In the Dominican, if you are Haitian, you are the victim of prejudice because of the color of your skin and where you are from. We tried to minister to this little girl. What was her name, Sheila? Do you remember? No, that doesnt sound like its it. Anyway, yeah-Katiya. We told her how beautiful she was, and she said, Oh, no! She corrected us. She said, Im not beautiful. Im black. She just said it matter-of-factly, No, youre mistaken. We were taken back by this. God made all people. God made all colors. God made us all the same. He loves us all the same. We are no better than you. They began to explain to Katiya the Gospel, and as they did it, she started to laugh. She started to giggle, and she was saying, Me? Me? She was realizing all these things about herself. Were crying, and shes laughing. She found out the message that God shows no partiality. Christ died for all of us. God loves us all, and so that is the message of James today. Lets turn in our Bibles to James 2 and read the passage together. Just to keep you on your toes in Verse 3, the Verses are in quotes. You are going to read those verses. Ill read James passages, and you read the narration (page 1196 of pew Bibles). My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, dont show favoritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, Heres a good seat for you, but say to the poor man, You stand there or Sit on the floor by my feet, have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my dear brothers: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom He promised those who love Him? But you have insulted the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court? Are they not the ones who are slandering the noble name of Him to whom you belong? If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, Love your neighbor as yourself, you are doing right. But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers. Verse 12, Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment! That is the story of the Gospel-that mercy triumphs over judgment. Youd think Christians would know better. Youd think because of the model that Christ set that we would not be included in those who show favoritism or those who show discrimination. When I mention that I dont mean simply the rich and the poor, and that still goes on today. The poor are still exploited today. All kinds of favoritism [occurs]. You might receive favoritism because of the way you look, because of whom you are. Certainly if you were a movie star, youd receive a whole lot more attention than you do now, right-if you are a famous athlete? If youre somebody with great political power, maybe you would, or [you have] a certain family name and a certain prestige, [you might receive favoritism]. Its not just children that practice this. In high school, there are the cool kids and the geeks or the nerds. You could be in the cafeteria hanging out with a nerd or a geek, and a cool kid walks in. What happens? You pull back because you dont want to be seen with a nerd because then youll be identified as a nerd. Maybe when youre in high school when the cool kids would walk in the room, somebody would leave you because they didnt want to be seen by you. Oh, how that hurt. Well, the same kinds of cliques that can form in high school and junior high school, that certainly cant happen in adulthood, right? That certainly cant happen in the office place. Certainly you cant practice favoritism there. Im sure you dont dissociate yourself from somebody because theyre seen as a troublemaker or as somebody you dont want to necessarily impress or be around because youre trying to impress the boss. Maybe you treat the boss better because you want advancement. You want a raise. We can be guilty of these same things. You treat somebody one way, but then you find out they know somebody thats important. Maybe you find out they are somebody important or you perceive them to be important, and you treat them differently. Thats wrong. There was a banquet a few years ago at our church, a potluck. Banquet is probably too fancy of a name. It was just a potluck. My wife was talking and fellowshipping, and a woman who didnt know her came up to her and said, Youre in my seat. My wife said, Oh, I didnt realize that somebody was sitting here. Im sorry. Yeah, thats my seat. You need to move. So my wife got up, and she moved. The lady sat down and had her dinner. My wife said, Im sorry. Ill have to carry on this conversation with you later, and she left. Later on, the woman found out that she was my wife. She came back and apologized to her, Im sorry I made you move and that I was rude to you. I didnt know who you were. How do you think that made her feel? She said, Im the same person. So Im more important now than I was before because my husbands the pastor? Have we ever done that? Have we ever treated somebody one way and then found out that they had a really important job or found out they had a lot of money or knew somebody we wanted to impress or get to know? We start to treat them differently. Thats favoritism. Maybe because of a handicap, we treat them differently than we would somebody else? When I was a little boy, I was afraid of a boy named Mike in my neighborhood. He was in a wheelchair, and he would moan, groan and contort. I used to deliberately walk on the other side of the street to stay away from him. I was scared of him. Later on, I got to know his mom and came to find out that intellectually he was as smart or smarter than anyone around him. He had cerebral palsy. His body would spasm and he had a difficult time speaking. She relayed stories to me of how kids would push him down hills in his wheelchair, how people would treat him differently; yet inside in his mind, he understood everything that was going on. One day I went into his house and got to meet him. I found out he was just like me. He loved baseball, and he collected baseball cards. In fact, he had become close friends with a player by the name of Brooks Robinson from the Baltimore Orioles who often called him to see how he was doing. He became my friend. I began to see he was no different than I. So sometimes we treat people differently who are different than we are. There was a man by the name of Rick who I knew in college. When I was in college, his dad was the dean of the university I attended. They were looking for somebody to hang out with their son, be his friend, because he really didnt have any friends. When he was born, he was deprived of oxygen for a period of time which caused brain damage his whole life. He was very different and you could tell. He could function. He could speak a little bit, but you could just look at Rick-his mannerisms, his face, the way he talked-and you would know he was different. They shared some painful stories to me and in a book they had written about what their son went through because of his handicap. They said, Were looking for somebody to be his friend. The first thing I had to do was kinda do a gut check and ask myself, Am I doing this because I want to get in good standing with the dean? Because if thats my motive, then thats wrong. Then Im just using this young man to try to get in good standing with the dean. Then I decided, You know, the dean really cant help me. Hes not my professor. Thats not my motivation. I really do have a heart for this young man. I want to make a difference in his life, so I began a friendship with Rick. I would be out with him, and I would see and experience how he would be treated differently. Sometimes people would treat me differently because I was with him. There were times when wed be walking down the street, and hed reach out, hed hold my hand and hed walk with me. It was not anything sexual. He was just saying, Youre my friend. In fact, he would say to me, You my friend? You my friend. Id go, Yeah, Im your friend, Rick, and hed put his head on my shoulder. Sometimes hed even kiss me on the cheek. That was a little embarrassing having a grown man kiss me on the cheek or hold my hand out in public, but I would hold his hand. Make no mistake about it-he loved girls. It was nothing like that. Wed be in a restaurant or at a ballgame, and a pretty girl would walk by. He did not hide it. Hed go, Wwwwww, wwa girl, wwaaa girl, wwwaaaa girl, like that. Id go, All right, Rick. Settle down. Settle down. He had all the feelings that young men have, but I remember taking him to some of the college functions. One particular day, it was a softball game. Rick loved the Cubs, loved baseball. I used to have to take him to a Cubs game every year. Even after I graduated, I was still involved in Ricks life for many years until he moved. He finally got to play, so I said, Okay, were going to play softball, and we took him to the game. Of course the guy pitched to him, and he just missed terribly. We just came closer and closer, and pretty soon he was almost on top of him, but that didnt matter to Rick. We just kept pitching to him. Strikes didnt count. Wed pitch to him until he hit the ball. As soon as he hit the ball, wed say, Run, Rick, run! He started running to first, and almost like it was orchestrated, nobody communicated this in advance, but the first baseman dropped the ball. Keep running, Rick! Run to second. Over there! Over there! He was all excited. He was smiling. Wed throw to second-another error! Wed throw to third, and the next thing you know, hes scoring a homerun. Were high-fiving him and hugging him. Hes just grinning ear to ear. His mom and dad later that week thanked me and said, Thats one of the greatest things that ever happened to Rick. He was so excited to tell us about the homerun he hit in the college softball game. Do you know what I found out? When you reach out to those whove been victimized, it lifts your spirits. You gain more back than you give. I can honestly say that when it was all said and done, I gained more from knowing Rick, being his friend and being a friend of the family than I gave him; so thats an important lesson. Jesus taught us that lesson, didnt He? Lets turn in our Bibles to the Book of Luke 4. In Luke 4, Jesus has just begun His earthly ministry. He just finished the temptation in the wilderness. Hes done some teaching and preaching, but the Disciples havent yet been chosen. Miracles have not happened. Hes just beginning to teach and preach, and Hes really popular. Hes coming back to Galilee, where Hes from-that region. He comes to the synagogue. He is the guest preacher that day. They give him the scroll of the Prophet Isaiah. It says here that everybody was looking at Him. Everybody was silent. He was a hometown boy making good. Jesus begins reading the Scripture, and the verses that He read from Isaiah we find in Isaiah 61. Verse 18 (of Luke 4, page 1018 of pew Bibles) says, The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me… So right away we know that this passage is referring to the Messiah. Messiah means anointed One. Christ is the Greek word for Messiah. Messiah is the Hebrew name, and it means anointed One, literally; so it was understood that this Passage was spoken of and about the anointed One, the Christ, so He reads this Passage. …anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lords favor. Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on Him, and He began by saying to them, Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. In other words, I am the One of whom Isaiah wrote. I am the anointed One. I am the Christ. That was a bold assertion, but interestingly enough, they dont run Him out of town. Theyre listening. They know Hes a leader; they know Hes charismatic, [and they think,] Maybe He is. To have the Messiah from their home area, that is pretty cool. If the Messiah grew up in your neighborhood, thats pretty cool. As a boy, you played with the Messiah. You used your wooden utensils and tools made by the man who was going to grow up to become the Messiah. Wow, pretty cool, so nobody questions that. Nobody raises a fuss about that, and Jesus begins to preach. What He is going to say is going to be so radical, so controversial, that they wont let Him finish the sermon. They are going to rush Him, grab Him by force, and pull Him to the brow of the city-their hometown boy-and throw him off the brow of the hill to kill Him. What could He have said that was so evil and so wrong that it went from adoration and respect to hatred and wanting to murder Him? What could He have said? I mean Ive preached some bad sermons in my day. Ive preached some sermons in which youve walked out of here saying, Boy, was that a snoozer today, man! Ill tell you! That was just not good! I know that. Theyre not all homeruns. Believe me-you try this; its not easy. They are not all homeruns. Sometimes theyre bunts, strikes, but you do your best; but I have never had you guys rush me and say, Were going to kill you now, man! If youre going to throw me on I90 or something…thats never happened (congregation laughing). With Jesus, its going to happen. What does He say? When I read this Passage, dont feel bad after Im done reading it; you still dont understand why theyre mad. Ill explain it to you. Some of you are going to understand it. Others of you are going to go, Why did that make them want to kill Him? I dont get it. Verse 25, this is Jesus sermon, …I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijahs time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. And there were man in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisa the Prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed-only Naaman the Syrian. All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. They got up, drove Him out of the town, and took Him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw Him down the cliff. But He walked right through the crowd and went on His way. I would have loved to have been at the front of that line, give Him the old hee-ho, and all of the sudden, Hes not there. Where is He??? What happened??? Whyd they get so mad? Do you know why? Heres what Hes saying. There was a great famine, and there were many Jews during that period of three and a half years famine, but who did God send Elijah to? A Gentile widow. There were many people in Israel with leprosy, but who did God send the Prophet to in order to heal? A Gentile man. Now do you get it? They were Gods chosen people. If you were the chosen people, that could go to your head, right? If you were the teachers pet-the coach loves you best-that could start to go to your head. You are the chosen people, Were the chosen people. They began to equate that as were the only people. Were the only ones that matter. Jesus comes on the scene, and He says, Im the Messiah, not just to the Jew, but Ive been sent to the Gentiles too. Ive come to minister to the poor, all poor-not just the Jews. Ive come to minister to the oppressed and to the downtrodden. That is My mission. They are my target audience. They are the ones Ive come to seek and save. The Messiah was to be a political, military figure who would come and set up a literal thrown and rule from Jerusalem. Jesus says, Im the Messiah, but Ive not come to set up a thrown in Jerusalem. Ive not come to lead an army and conquer Rome. I have come to reach the people that are oppressed. Ive come to reach the poor. I have come to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves, and Ive come to reach all people for I am the God of all races, all nations, all people-not just the God of the Jews. There was not a worse thing He could have said, so they decided they wanted to kill Him. Were the favorites! Were the ones that deserve the special treatment! We are the chosen people! We are the entitled ones! Jesus lived that, friends. What a great marketing strategy, right? My marketing strategy is to reach the poor. Thats what He did. He became a friend to the poor, to the lepers. He became their friend. The outcasts of society-even to prostitutes-He was their friend. He became friends of tax collectors who were seen as traitors. One of them became His Disciple. Samaritans were looked down upon because they were half Jew/half Gentile. They were looked upon with disdain, but Jesus comes on the scene. When He tells a parable, who was His hero? A Samaritan. His birth, in a humble manger, not in a palace, not greeted by kings and governors, but greeted by shepherds and barn animals; so His birth, His life and His death all demonstrated the same thing. Hes a God of all the people. Is that the correct time? Holy mackerel! Wow. Lets turn to Acts 6. I have to cook now. Put on your seatbelts (congregation laughing). We are going to fly! We see that though the church should know better, it doesnt. In Acts 6 right at the very beginning, there was a division because of ethnicity. In Acts 6:1 (page 1083 of pew Bibles), it says, In those days when the number of Disciples was increasing, the Grecian Jews… That has nothing to do with Jews who dyed their hair, guys, okay? Grecian Formula? I dont know. Maybe they dont make it anymore. …the Grecian Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. There were Jews who were born in Jerusalem, stayed in Jerusalem and spoke Aramaic-spoke the native tongue; and there were Jews who moved away and came back from Greek countries and Greek cities who were Jews, but they spoke Greek. Their widows were being passed by. They were treated like they were second class in the church. The widows who were Jewish got the food first. Those who were of Greek culture got what was left if anything at all, and they began complaining and saying, This is not right. This is unfair. Were being treated different because of our ethnic background. Favoritism was being shown to the Jewish widows, and the Apostles had to set it straight; so even in the church-that should know better-that was happening. Theres more I want to say about that, but we have to move on. Sometimes Im convinced we should tape Saturday night because Saturday night I usually preach about 20 minutes longer. In the Book of Galatians 2, remember this concept that the Jews were not to associate with Gentiles-they werent to receive them into their homes. They werent to work with them. They were basically to be excluded from them in the realms of commerce and so forth, and so it was a radical thing for the Jewish believers to begin to accept the Gentiles. There was a group for the Pharisees called the Judaisers. The Judaisers were a sect that taught that it was the law plus Jesus. You could accept Jesus, but you had to be circumcised and you had to follow the law of Moses, so it was Jesus plus. They began to infiltrate the church and try to tell the Gentiles, Youre not really Christians. Youre not a Christian until youre circumcised. The Gentiles would say, Well, whats circumcision? The Jews would tell them, Oh, no. That's not going to happen. Theyd say, Well, we dont want to observe the law either. Then the Jews would say, Well, then youre Christians. So Paul would come to the defense of the Gentiles. [Galatians 2:11, page 1152] it says, When Peter came to Antioch… Remember, thats where Christians first were called Christians-in Antioch. There was a missionary hub of the church. …I opposed him to his face because he was clearly in the wrong. Before certain men came from James… That means Jewish believers from Jerusalem. …he used to eat with the Gentiles, but when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. He was intimidated by them. He wanted to impress them. He wanted to be their friend. They were still seen in his eyes as the one with the power and influence, and he wanted them to like him; so when they came, he pulled back from his Gentile brothers and sisters. The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray. Even Barnabas. This guy was so positive, so encouraging that they changed his name from Joseph to Encouragement. Thats what that word means-son of Encouragement. Joseph, you are such a positive person, accepting person, from now on, your name is Encouragement. Even he was led astray. So the lesson here in this Passage is none of us are exempt. All of us in this room can show favoritism. All of us in this room can treat people as less than we should for whatever the reason might be. Weve touched on several. All of us can be guilty and have been guilty of that. As Christians we are not exempt. If Peter and Barnabas can fall away, so can you and I. What do we do? Verse 14, When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the Gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs? What do you mean? Peters not forcing anybody to do anything. By Peter hanging with the Judaisers, he was in essence saying, These guys are right. By fellowshipping exclusively with them, he was saying-communicating in no uncertain terms of the Gentiles, To be a Christian, its not just enough to follow Jesus, but you have to observe the law too. Paul says, You dont do that. Youre a hypocrite, Peter! He told him that to his face in front of everybody. You think he might pull him aside to a private room, but he wants everybody to hear the message. You think he might be intimidated because hes Peter. Hes second in command in the church. James is the top dog, but early in the Book, Paul said in this same chapter, Im not impressed by people. He said, God knows no partiality. In the eyes of God, were all equal, so Im not impressed by whom a person is, so he was not impressed by Peter. Regardless of whom he was, he was showing hypocrisy. He was demeaning a group of people because they were Gentiles, demeaning them because of their race. He says, Im going to set you straight to your face, Peter. Peter learned that lesson years later when the Council of Jerusalem in Acts 15 and the stage were set, Peter was the one who spoke up for the Gentiles and say, They are a part of the church. They belong to God as we do, and they are justified by faith as we are. So the second lesson in that Passage is when you see discrimination, when you see favoritism, when you see prejudice, and its in your power to do so, stand up against it. Dont just idly watch it happen. Stand up against it. Paul became a difference maker in Peters life. Be a difference maker. Stand up against it. Dont just allow it to happen, but speak up. Before you do that, get the facts. Were going to combine a lesson from a couple weeks ago. Remember, Quick to listen. Slow to speak. Slow to become angry. Make sure you have all the facts before you make a judgment and before you take action. There used to be a magazine-I dont know if it still exists-called the Wittenburg Door. It was a satire magazine that kind of made fun of Christians; but they (employees of the magazine) were Christians too, so it was okay. It was a Christian publication that put it out. They were equal opportunity bashers. They would make fun of the Catholics, the Presbyterians, the Methodists, the Pentecostals, and the Baptists. Theres humor in all denominations. Theres stuff that we can laugh at ourselves for, and they would find that. For instance, this was back in 1980, there was a page that said, Heres what you can do with $15 million. You can feed this many thousands of people. You can give immunizations to this many thousands of people. You can clothe this many thousands of people. There was this long list of all these wonderful things you could do with $15 million. It took up the whole page. On the other side, it said, …or build a crystal cathedral. So who were they talking to? Dr. Schuller. Thats an example of their humor. One day, I get The Wittenburg Door, and its on this cheap paper-like from a bad copying machine. The ink is all smudged. The paper is really cheap. It was just common paper, and I was like, What is up with this? There was a letter that said, We ran out of good paper, so we had to give the good paper to our best customers. We have to print it out on this for you and people like you. I was like, Whats up with that? My money spends like theirs! These people have been with us longer. They give more, so theyre getting the best. Whats up with that? I said, Well, maybe Ill cancel my subscription. By the way, the theme that month in The Wittenburg Door was on prejudice. Everybody got the same magazine-everybody, every subscriber, so the next month in letters to the editor, [there were multiple comments like], Cancel my subscription! Who do you think you are? Youre preaching against prejudice? Yeah, you practice it! People like me-who do you think you are? Then as hes writing, he says, Oh, I get it! Youre trying to show me what its like to be prejudiced against! This is brilliant! I want to keep my subscription! So people were jumping to conclusions without gathering all the facts. Gather the facts. But once you know it, take action. We had an individual in our church years ago who had some deep pockets. He was giving big bucks to the church-big bucks to the church; and we were very small, so that was very helpful! They began to think that they were in control and could call the shots. Heres what I want you to do. You cant do this in the church. I dont want you to do that anymore. He starting rattling things off. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Time out. What are you trying to do here? Because they had big bucks, they could kind of boss everybody around and get their way. I just said, Thats not going to happen here. I appreciate what you give, but because you give money here, it doesnt mean youre going to call the shots of how we minister and how I preach. Well, I guess maybe well have to part ways then. It was kind of like, Im going to take my checkbook then too. I guess we have to then. That person left. God sent about ten other families in who when combined gave what the (wealthy couple) give within a span of a month, and we just sailed on. He wanted favoritism. I said to him, Its not going to happen here. By the way, I dont know what you give. I know what the offering is, and occasionally, Ill know if a big gift comes in because youll share with me youre going to give something; but I dont run to the books and say, Who gives what? to treat you in a certain way. I dont know if you tithe or if you dont tithe. If you do tithe, I dont know what you tithe because Im not going to treat anybody any differently in this church. I dont want to see you through those lenses, so I dont look at those numbers. I have a right to, but Im not going to. There isnt anybody in this church getting preferential treatment because of whom they are or what they give. We come into this church-no matter what your background, no matter what your job, your socio-economic status, your race, whatever it is-were all the same. We are all equal. We are all equal at the foot of the cross. There is Jew nor Greek, Gentile; there is neither slave nor free; rich nor poor; male or female; black or white; we are all one in Christ. Lets pray together and well receive communion. Father, we thank You for the message spoken through our brother, James. We thank You for how it was modeled and lived by our Savior. Lord, might we too follow his example and be people not who show favoritism but people who treat all people with equality, recognizing Christ died for all, that Christ loves all, and we all are one. We are all equal at the foot of the cross. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, so that whoever believe in Him [might not perish but have everlasting life-John 3:16]. You said if I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men unto Me, (John 12:32). You communicated the message from Your birth to Your death and all through Your life that You were the Savior of all people, of all countries, of all races-whether they had disease, a handicap, a deformity; whether they had become wayward with their lifestyle-whatever their background, You forgave, restored, loved and accepted them. Might we be that kind of a church. Might we be that kind of a people. We pray in Jesus name, Amen.
Well, I think you can tell from the selection of hymns this morning that emphasized the Word of God, thats what were going to be talking about specifically, When You Hear the Word. Please open your Bibles up to James 1. We have been on this series for a while, and we have a while to go. Were in about Week 5, but were still in Chapter 1, so well be here for a while. I built my home about 18, 20 years ago. We put a big mirror in there. The mirror that was put in there when we built the house, I think, is still the mirror thats hanging in the bathroom now. That mirror really hasnt changed in the last almost two decades, but I have. Ive changed. I dont look the same when I look in that mirror anymore. I have less hair on my head. I have more wrinkles. I dont know if I had any wrinkles when the house was built 20 years ago, but I have some wrinkles. That mirror has told me about the gray coming in my beard a little bit. It tells me when its time to cut back on the Culvers sundaes, or it can tell me when Im doing good too. It can tell me, Hey, you know youre eating right and exercising. Its starting to show. There have been good days too. Its showed me my bad hair days and my good hair days, which are few and far between. As I look in that mirror, I think, You know, I dont always like what I see reflected back at me, especially in the morning when I get up. Its like, What in the world? How am I gonna do anything with this? It speaks the truth, doesnt it? Like it or not, it reflects back to us an accurate representation of what we look like so that we can work on this project so that we can make the necessary changes that we need to. Imagine life without a mirror. Imagine if it was just all guesswork or if you had to rely on somebody in your family as a mirror. How do I look? Hows my hair? Well, thank God for the mirror. It speaks the truth. Its brutally honest, but it serves a necessary role in our lives. I can tell from looking at you that you used a mirror today. You do not look the way that you did when you woke up this morning, and were all thankful for that. Lets talk about the mirror of Gods Word. Thats the analogy that James uses, and its a very fitting one. Lets take a look. Were going to re-read the verses from last week simply because of the context that we need to establish. Because this weeks Passage is connected to last weeks Passage, its important that we read them together (James 1:19, page 1196 of pew Bibles), My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry, for mans anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the Word planted in you, which can save you. Do not merely listen to the Word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the Word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it-he will be blessed in what he does. The first thing we want to establish is focusing on Verse 21. It says, Therefore, getting rid of all moral filth and it uses the word that describes taking off dirty clothing as if you were working hard. You were painting or something, and your clothes need to be rid of. Thats the word he uses-get rid of all moral filth and evil that is prevalent and humbly accept the Word planted in you, which can save you. At face value, this appears to be two steps, doesnt it? There is the removing step, and there is the receiving step. He says first you remove filth and wickedness, and then you receive the Word; but really this is a simultaneous step. These two steps happen at the same time-really one shortly before the other because a decision to remove filth or wickedness, as he calls it, is a decision called repentance. The process of righteousness forming in our lives and being cleansed is forgiveness and sanctification. Those things happen at the same time. Ill illustrate it for you this way. If we are going to say, Im going to have the Word planted in me, which can save me, notice the comparison he makes. He says, Sin planted in you gives birth, matures and leads to death, but the Word of God planted in you leads to life. He makes that contrast. If I say, I need to get my act together and get rid of all of this stuff. Then I can plant the Word of God, that doesnt work. It has to be at the same time. Lets say you have been out working. You have some sort of project. Youve been working in the yard or garage. You come into the house. Youre grimy, dirty, sweaty, and icky. Someone looks at you and says, You need to take a bath or a shower or something because you are filthy! You say, Oh, no. Im way too dirty to take a bath! Really, what I need to do is just calm down and dry off. When I feel a little cleaner, when I feel a little better about myself, then Ill take a shower. You say, What? It doesnt work that way, right? Its the process of you acknowledging that youre dirty, acknowledging that you need to be cleansed. Then you step into the shower. The warm water, the soap, and the shampoo-as you submit to that, as you yield to that-it begins to work in you and on you and cleanse you. Those two things happen at the same time. Its the stepping into the shower and applying the soap that cleanses you. We dont apply this logic in other areas of our lives. If we say to someone, Youre coughing and hacking. You have a fever. You need to go see a doctor. Im too sick to go to the doctor. Really, when I get better, then Ill go see the doctor; but right now, Im just too embarrassed. I just dont feel right. When I feel better, then Ill go, cough, cough, cough. Well, that doesnt make sense because the hospital and the doctors are for sick people. A bath and a shower are for dirty people. The Word of God is for sinners. Yet how many times have we heard somebody say, Why dont you come to church? Why dont read the Word? Well, when I get my life together… If I come in now, the roofs going to fall down at the church! Right now, I have some things in my life that just arent right. When I get my act together and I stop doing this, stop doing that, and stop hanging out over here-when I get my ducks in a row-Ill feel better. I dont want to be a hypocrite. Things are just not right in my life. I dont want the roof to fall down! How many times have you heard that? Yeah. Some of you maybe even said that. I dont know, but its kind of like saying, Im too dirty to take a shower. You come to God as you are. You come to God with your shortcomings; you come to God spiritually dirty, needing to be cleansed. Thats the whole point, and you cannot cleanse yourself! Youre the one that got yourself into the mess in the first place. Youre the one that got the dirt on your soul in the first place, so how in the world are you going to be the one to cleanse yourself and keep yourself cleansed? So we get this logic completely backwards. We just dont apply this in any other aspect of life, yet we do in regards to spiritual matters; and its really a deception, and its a deception that works quite well so the enemy keeps using it because people buy into it. They think that somehow before I begin to act on the Word and apply the Word, I have to be some sort of a saint first, and its not going to happen. It just keeps them in this spiritual state that they dont want to be in, so you come to Christ as you are and allow the sanctification of His Holy Spirit, the cleansing power of His blood, and the presence of His Word to cleanse you and change you, so James says that we accept it. There are a couple words here that I think are important that I want to talk about. Number one, he says were to humbly accept the Word. What does that mean-humbly accept? Its interesting. This is one of the words that they had a really difficult time translating. It just seemed like it wasnt a good English equivalent to describe what it means. This word is translated different ways when its used in the New Testament. Really what James is trying to do is establish an opposite here. He says this anger does not bring about the righteousness of God; however humbly accepting the Word does. This word humble really is the opposite of the word anger. Normally we dont think of humble as the opposite of anger. It really isnt. This word in the Greek really is the opposite. It means to be contrite. It means to be meek. Its a word that means to be serene. Its interesting that when you look at the Beatitudes and where Jesus says, Blessed are the meek, for the meek shall inherit the earth, the word that is translated meek and the Beatitudes in Matthew 5 is the same word that is translated into humble here. Its the exact same word, so gently, meekly, calmly, surrender-thats the kind of thing hes trying to get at here. He says were to accept the Word of God implanted. Now he does not come out and say the Word of God is a seed, but thats what this word implies, right? Its implanted. The word planted in you. Whats planted? Seeds are planted. Though James does not come out and say seed, it is implicit in the text that hes talking about the Word of God as a seed-which Christ of course would have done in the parable of the sower. Now when we call to humbly accept, there are two aspects involved in accepting the Word of God. I want you to keep your place in James but lets turn to Matthew 13 and take a look at the parable of the sower where we talk about accepting the Word of God (page 968 of pew Bibles). We are privileged of course to have the interpretation of the parable of the sower. Parable-the word literally means to lay alongside, so its an earthly story with a Heavenly meaning. When Jesus told the parable to the first audience, He didnt give them the explanation. They had to go home and think, Well, what does all this mean? Jesus would say, He who has ears to hear, let him hear. In other words, Ponder-think about what Ive said. The Disciples, theyre privileged to have the inside scoop. Hes able to explain the parable, so we benefit from that in Verse 18. Jesus says, Listen to what the parable of the sower means: When anyone hears the message about the Kingdom and does not… what? …understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown along the path. So what is the first necessary aspect of accepting the Word? I must…understand it. I must understand the message. If I dont understand the message, you cannot accept what you do not understand. If I say to you this morning, Dios le bendice, how many of you receive that today? A couple of you did. I just said God bless you, and dont be impressed because thats about all I know. I learned that when we went to Mexico as a youth pastor, and they all thought I spoke Spanish. They started talking to me, and I just kept repeating myself. Thank you. Dios le bendice. I dont know anymore. I said God bless you, but you cannot receive that blessing because you didnt understand what I was saying. Thats why its really imperative that we understand what Gods Word says. Thats why at our church-if youve been coming to our church long enough-you realize were in the Bible every weekend. Were not just talking about it. We have it open, and were looking at it. Were studying what it says. Were studying the Scripture, the context, the words, the history, the background. We really want to understand what God is communicating to us. We have classes, discipleship classes, and small groups dedicated to understanding what Gods Word says. Why? Because that is the first step in receiving it. Its the first step in it being implanted. It cannot be implanted if I do not understand it. Well, lack of understanding will abort the seed that has been planted. We want to rightly understand the Word of God. The second aspect of accepting the Word of God is implicit in this text. Jesus goes on and says that the second seed (Verse 20), The one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the Word and at once receives it with joy. But it has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the Word, he quickly falls away. He doesnt apply the Word. The one who received the seed that fell along the thorns is the man who hears the Word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful. He doesnt really apply the Word. He understands it, hears it, but does not apply it. But the one who received the seed that fell on the good soil is the man who hears the Word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. Hes planted the seed. He has applied the Word. We know hes applied the Word because hes bearing fruit. You cannot bear fruit unless you have acted upon the Word; so this man, this person, has acted upon the Word of God. That's what I want to get us to do today. Regardless of how unworthy we think we are, regardless of how sometimes our attitudes can be so wrong or our thinking so messed up, wherever you are in your spiritual state, act upon the Word. Take that step of faith. Trust God to meet you where you are. Dont wait for perfect conditions. Dont wait until you think you have your act together before you act on the Word of God because that day will never come. Its as we act in faith that God meets us where we are. He honors our faith. He honors His Word, and He begins to cleanse us, to strengthen us, and guide us. As the old saying goes, You cant steer a parked car. You have to put that car in gear you have to move forward; you have to act on Gods Word. Lets move back to James. He says to us in Verse 22 (back to page 1196), Do not merely listen to the Word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Its not enough just to listen to a sermon. You cant just walk out of here and go, Well, I heard a sermon this morning on this, so check. Done with that. Thats only the beginning. Reading the Word of God or hearing the Word of God-however we hear it-whether we hear it through reading it ourselves or listening, James says thats just a small part. He says, You have to act on it. If you dont, you deceive yourselves. In the Greek, the word means to cheat yourself. Lets pretend for an illustrations sake that I have a weakness for sweets and treats. Its purely hypothetical. One of the things I love about fall coming is apple pies. I love a good hot homemade apple pie on a fall day with a big tall glass of milk or some mode on the side. I dont know what they call it that. I just call it ice cream. Its so good. I just love a good apple pie, so sometimes you walk in the house and theres that, Oh, I know what that is! My wife is making an apple pie. By the way, my 50th birthday is coming up this fall. If any of you make a good apple pie, Ill help you out. My wife comes home, and she says, Theres an apple pie cooking in the oven. I go, Duh! I can smell that. She says, Listen, as soon as the timer goes off, you need to shut that off, turn off the oven, take the apple pie out of the oven, and let it cool off for about 30 minutes before you eat it. Okay? Okay. All right. Ill do that. Now, repeat that back to me. This is something that does happen because sometimes when Im getting told what to do, and I dont mean anything bad by this, but I get Peanuts ears. You know what Peanuts ears are, right? Peanuts ears are when you begin to hear things like how the kids in Peanuts [the cartoon] hear the adults. Whaa, what, whaa, whaa, whaa whaa. You know, shes been talking, but what she has said really hasnt registered. She thinks its registered, and so do I, but it really hasnt; so shell say, Okay, repeat back what I just said. I might say in this illustration, Okay, when the buzzer sounds, I turn off the buzzer. I turn off the oven. I take out the pie, I wait 30 minutes, and I eat it. Good. Okay. So I sit down and relax. It smells wonderful and great, and the buzzer sounds; but I dont arise. Im busy doing other things, and the pie continues baking; but pretty soon it doesnt smell good anymore. Pretty soon it starts to smell like its burnt. That pleasant aroma in the kitchen has been replaced by the smell of smoke. Im not saying this happened (congregation laughing). Im saying this is an illustration. She comes home, and right away she knows that the pie didnt come out of the oven. What did you do? she says. She opens up the oven, and smoke comes billowing out. She pulls out this black, burnt-to-a-crisp, what used to be an apple pie; and she says, Why didnt you take the apple pie out of the oven when the buzzer sounded? I say, I dont know. I was doing other things. Who is hurt by that? Who is cheated by that? I am, you see. Ive just cheated myself out of the blessing of that apple pie I was looking forward to; so when we do not follow the Word of God, we do not follow what Christ says, James says, Youve cheated yourself. Youre robbing yourself of such blessing. Its like if you have a product, and theres the owners manual, and you dont do what the owners manual says. You paid good money for that product, and now its not going to last as long and work as efficiently because you didnt follow the guidelines of the manufacturer. So who is being hurt? You are! If you follow the owners manual and do what the owner says, the Creator who made you, Heres how you live, and you follow that as it reflects back to you Truth, [then] youre the winner. Youve received the blessings of it because God who created you knows how you should live; so you are being deceived. There are a lot of people out there who James says are diluted, who are deceived. Theyre rejecting the very Word that is going to bring them life. He says, Dont be like that. Dont cheat yourself out of Gods blessing. He says, Do you know what a person who does that is? Its really impossible to improve on the word picture hes about to give, so well just simply comment on that. He says, Somebody who does that-do you know what theyre like? Anyone who listens to the Word but does not follow what it says is like a man who looks at his face in the mirror, and after looking at himself he goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. Theres some humor in that. If you think about somebody who walked out in public like that, thats kind of comical. That's a sight to see. He says, What good does it do you to look in a mirror if youre not going to change what you see that needs to be corrected? There was really no point in looking in that mirror. If you become distracted and forget about what you saw and do other things, youre going to look like a fool. Youre going to be unkempt. People are going to think, Boy, he doesnt really care about himself, or she doesnt really care about herself. Ladies, when you put your face on in the morning-putting on your makeup, you need that mirror, right? It tells you where that eye shadow goes or the blush goes, the powder. It allows you to put your face on. It tells you how to do your hair, where to put the curls and all of that. Thats your best friend in the morning, right? Guys, when were shaving, it tells us where to get those whiskers, where to pluck those hairs that are growing where they dont belong, right? It shows us when were brushing or flossing our teeth, Oh, man, theres something there in my teeth. I have to get that out. Whatever it is youre doing, that mirror helps you. When you see that thing that is out of place, When my collar is up in the air or something just doesnt belong, you look in the mirror logically and say, Okay, I need to correct that. Thats what the Word of God does. The Word of God reflects Truth back to us, and it shows us, Okay, heres an attitude I need to change. Heres an action that is destructive. Here are some careless words spoken in anger that I need to make amends for. Lets take last weekends service as an example. We didnt ask for a raise of hands, but we said that many of us in the room would have an anger problem. James says, To help you with your anger problem, there are two steps you need to take. Remember the third step was an outcome of the first two. If you are quick to listen, if you will gather all the facts, listen to both sides, be slow to speak, process that information. Get advice. Think about your response. …then you will be slow to anger. Did you apply that this week? Did you say, Well, you know, thats an area that I need to work on, so Im not going to jump to conclusions. Im not going to make rash judgments. Im going to heed what James said. If you went out and applied that this week in situations, thats wisdom; and you find that it works. You become angry about the things you should be angry about. Then when you should be angry, youre channeling it to the right source in the right way-when youve done what James says to do. If you were here, you listened to that message, and you went out and blew your stack and just totally forgot the message you just heard that Sunday morning, James says, Youre like the guy who looked in the mirror and forgot what he heard. It didnt do you any good. It didnt do you a lick of good. So when the Word of Truth reflects back to us, we act upon what it says. Thats wisdom. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom… Notice that freedom comes from submission to Gods Word. That's the ironic part. How does freedom come? When you submit to what God has said. …looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it… Notice the contrast. In the first example, the man is just glancing in the mirror, forgetting what hes seen. The second example, you are looking intently. Its a different word thats applied here. The person who really wants to change looks intently. When you wake up in the morning, thats probably the time when you look the most intently at the mirror because thats when you need the most work. You need more work at six in the morning than you do at six at night, usually. You are looking intently, and if youre going to look intently, what do you have to do? You have to get close; you have to study; you have to examine. Its not a quick glance. If you really want to change, friends, you have to look closely at the Word of God. You have to examine the Word of God. Its not quick. Its not a glance. Its intent, Intently study. Im getting close, Im examining, and I am acting upon what I read. I am taking that step of faith and obedience and acting upon it. Jesus says, Do you know what youre going to be like? Lets take a look at that parable, Matthew 7. Lets turn to that quickly. Keep James, but turn to Matthew 7. Verse 24 (page 961-962), Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine is like a house on the rock. Is that what He says? I just left some stuff out, didnt I? Whoever hears these words of Mine and tells others what to do is like the house on the rock. No. Whoever hears these words of Mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash. What is the common factor? The common factor is that both of them built a house. In other words, both of them lived their lives, and both of them encountered the hardship of the elements. Just because your house is built on the rock, it doesnt mean the streams wont rise, the rain wont come down, and the winds wont blow. The difference is in the outcome because of the foundation in which the house is built. When the streams rise, when the rain comes down, and when the wind blows, those whose lives are built on the rock will stand. He says if youre not built on the rock, the house falls; so this is very important, very vital for us to understand. We want a house that stands. We want a life that will hold up. If we want to get through trials that are going to come for all of us, we have to build on the rock. Now James ends by saying something here in this Passage that I want us to talk about just briefly, if you would please. Turn back to James. Notice what he says in Verse 25. He says at the end, …he will be blessed in what he does. The word blessed literally means happy. I have heard this spoken many times. Ive read it many times. Somebody will say, You know we dont want to be happy. We want to have joy because happiness comes from the word hap, which means chance or circumstance. We dont want our emotions to be based upon circumstances. We want to choose joy which is consistent regardless of the circumstance. How many have heard that teaching? Okay, a lot of us have. You know what? I think joy is wonderful. We should have joy, but happiness is not a bad thing if youre happy for the right reasons. Jesus spoke about being happy, Heres how youre going to be happy. Heres what you need to do to be happy. If Jesus talked about happiness as something to be desired, and, Heres how you can acquire happiness, then happiness is not something bad. Every time you see Jesus say the word blessed, know He is saying happy. Thats literally what the word means. When the Beatitudes say, Happy is the peacemaker. Happy is the one who is poor in spirit. Happy is the one who hungers and thirsts after righteousness. Happy are the meek for they shall inherit the earth. James says if you do these things, you will be happy. Isnt it amazing how much the little brother sounds like a big brother? Have you noticed that? James is the half-brother of Jesus. I mean hes just so practical, and so much of what he says sounds like his big brother, the stories his big brother would tell. You can see the family resemblance throughout the Book of James. If you want to live a happy life, just follow Gods Word. If were happy about the right things for the right reasons, theres nothing wrong with happiness. Lets pray together, and then were going to reflect on a song that I want you to hear. Father, this morning, we look into the mirror, and it reflects back to us good things. There are some good attitudes, good things we have said and done, and it affirms those things. It reinforces that behavior. We have experienced that inner reward that comes when we act upon Your Word. Lord, sometimes when we look in the mirror, it reflects back to us things that we need to correct, things that are unpleasant, and things we need to bring change to; but we know that we cannot do it in and of ourselves. We must submit and yield to the Word, plant it in our soul, and act upon it in faith. I ask You to partner with us as we seek to become like Christ. So, Father, this morning, I pray that that is the hearts desire of everyone who is here. In Christs name we pray, Amen. So this message really is the kind of message that asks for a response. I want this song to be a response. I want you to reflect on its message, its chorus, and then well come up and close. Lets go ahead and play this song. (Clip for Undo can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stT0WzeXrLU&ob=av2n). Would you stand with me? By the way, Brenda thank you for making that media for us. It was very well done. It really got the job done. Lets bow for prayer. Before I pray, if youre sitting here this morning and saying, There are some things I need to work on in my life, Pastor, I want to agree in prayer that as I reflect on Gods Word and it mirrors back to me, I have some areas I need to work on. I have some areas I need to change, and Im asking you to pray for me that Ill take the steps that I need to take to make those changes, can I see your hands? Ill pray with you. Father, I thank You for those honest hands, those honest hearts. I pray that You would help them through Your Spirit, through Your Word, and through their actions to take the necessary steps, act upon Your Word that they could build their house on the right foundation. Lord, the storms that come are going to come. We cant stop them, but, Lord, we can help determine the outcome of that storm and whether we stand or fall if we stood upon the rock. Father, help us not to be people who have looked at the mirror, saw what needed to be changed, and did nothing; people who know that its not the hearing of the Word only, but its the hearing and acting. Help us to heed James wise counsel today. In Jesus name, we pray, Amen.
Well, lets make sure we have the right crowd today. Were talking about temptation. Wait to raise your hands, but how many of you have ever had an area-maybe its an attitude that you cant get the best of; temper that you cant seem to get a handle on; it might be laziness. It could be some other temptation, vice, or habit that youve formed, and it just seems like no matter how many self-help techniques youve tried, how many times youve watched Dr. Phil or whatever books youve read, you cant seem to break the habit, and its just discouraging and defeating to you sometimes. Let me see your hands. All right. Look around and see who didnt have their hands up; they have lying issues (congregation laughing), so we know where were coming from. We do try different techniques. Sometimes they work effectively, and sometimes they dont; but it seems like we always struggle with temptation. All of us do-of various kinds. Before we get in to the Word this morning, were gonna watch a video about struggling with temptation, and youll laugh because in it youll see yourself. Lets go ahead and watch (Video is called, Mr. Accountability. You can find the link here: http://skitguys.com/videos/item/mr-accountability/) This (Pastor is holding a cupcake) is going to represent our temptations that we give in to, that we take a bite of. This is going to represent that area thats giving you the most problems, causing you the most grief and guilt. Were going to talk about how to get victory over that this morning. Lets open our Bibles up to James 1 (page 1196 of pew Bibles), and lets begin together. The Gospel According to Jim, we will be going through it every week chapter by chapter, verse by verse. Verse 13, When tempted… Stop right there. James says when tempted. He doesnt say if tempted, should you be tempted, you might be tempted; he says when tempted. Temptation is something that is common to the human experience. Even Jesus was tempted. The Bible says He was tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. So when tempted, no one should say, God is tempting me. For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone… In fact, not only does temptation not come from God, God also provides a cap, the Bible says. In 1 Corinthians 13, it says that God is faithful and will not allow you to be tempted beyond that what you can bear, but with the temptation will provide a way of escape. He wrote that to the church in Corinth. The church in Corinth, in that community, worshipped the goddess Aphrodite. Aphrodite was the goddess of love and sexuality, so there was a lot of idol worship. It was their culture; it was the norm. He said, Listen, God will help you. God will enable you. This temptation is not uncommon. The children of Israel fought temptations for idol worship and compromise and sensuality. The same God that was with them is with you, and God will provide a way of escape. There is a supernatural element to resisting temptation that is important, so you dont have to conform to your culture, Paul was saying to the Corinthians. You see, because you and I can conform, but what we cannot do for ourselves is we cannot be transformed. That takes the power of God. …but each one of you is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Are there any outdoorsmen or women here today? You like to fish or hunt? Let me see your hands. Okay. If youd been listening to this and you were Greek, you would understand what he was talking about because he uses the word for a fisherman and a hunter. He uses the word for bait, lure, and for a trap. He says, If youre trying to hunt a mouse, you dont put a Hostess cupcake in there. You put cheese. If youre trying to hook a fish, you have to put a worm or some other kind of lure on there. Youre going to put what they want out there. So the way temptation works is it preys on our desires or all things we desire. You might desire wealth, or you might desire a position or a person, and you will do whatever it takes to acquire that. Youll compromise, and youll lie. Youll cheat or whatever it is because you think, If I just have that… Madison Avenue says, You know, were going to play on those desires. It makes you think unless you have these certain clothes to wear, this hairdo, drive this car, take these kinds of vacations, or live in this kind of a house, you arent going to be successful. You have to have these in order to be successful, so they prey on our desire to spend money we dont have to buy what we cannot afford because of the value we think it will bring to our lives. Madison Avenue, too, preys on our desire, so that is the key. The key is going to be desire. What do we do about that desire because the old rule is if its not broken, dont fix it. Because this always works, this is how temptation always works. Its how the enemy works. He preys on our desires. He tempts us with things that we want. Verse 15, Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. Desire comes; desire beats temptation; we give in to the desire; sin is conceived; and sin leads to death. That is the path. That is the way that it happens. Now weve tried some of these techniques we seen in the video. Some of you have tried to get an accountability partner, a Taser buddy-somebody who is going to come alongside of you. Im not saying thats a bad thing. I think its a good thing. Some of us have said, Listen, Im struggling with this area here, and Im asking you to help me. If youre a guy, your accountability partner should be another guy; if youre a lady, it should be a lady. You open up, you take a risk, and you say, Heres what Im struggling with. Im struggling with gossip. Im struggling with unforgiveness. Im struggling with anger. Im struggling with lust. Im struggling with greed. Im struggling with honesty. Whatever it is, you tell them what youve done, as James says, Confess your sins from one to another. Its a relational approach. Youre using community, and it can be effective. Its a worthwhile pursuit. You say, You have permission to ask me hard questions. Im not going to keep any secrets from you. Lets say for instance a person has problems with the internet. They have a program now where you can have an internet buddy, so they see every place you go, every site. Rather than blocking them, they get a report of every site youve visited, so there is accountability there. Thats a good thing. So to have that accountability, we strongly recommend that relational technique. Others of us have tried certain physical techniques, tried to remove temptation from our lives. If you are a person who likes to overeat, you say, Well, Im just not going to go to buffets anymore. Im making that a rule. No more buffets for me because I cant seem to control myself when I go. Or you are have a drinking problem, so you say, Im not going to go to bars anymore. Im just not. You might remove something from your life thats giving you a problem. Somebody who has problems with the internet might remove the internet from their home. There might be something else that they own thats a struggle or it could be a person. Maybe theres a negative person in your life, and it seems like theyre always bringing you down. They gossip all the time, so when you hang around with them, you become a negative gossiper. You say, I have to stop hanging around with this person so often. Parents will do this when Junior comes home and has a bad attitude. You find out hes been hanging around with the wrong buddies. You say, Youre not allowed to hang around with those kids anymore. Theyre a bad influence on you. Theyre starting to turn you into the person you dont want to be, so you cut that off as a parent. This physical approach-we purge and remove influences from our lives-that can be an effective way to battle temptation. Thats a good thing. So he physically removed the cupcake, got rid of the cupcake-he couldnt quite do that, right? Its purging us from those areas of temptation. Others of us have tried mental techniques. We say, The battle is in our mind, so we read self-help books. We watch Dr. Phil on TV or whatever it is. Were going to figure this thing out, so there are certain memory devices. There is thought-replacement. Lets say I say, Dont think of pink elephants. So everybody is thinking of pink elephants, but if I say, When you think of pink elephants, let you trigger you to think of the number eight. Youre using that as transition, so people say, Okay, when this temptation comes, let that trigger a verse or something else thats positive. Instead of thinking on that negative, your mind turns. Well, thats a good technique. Others of you might know other techniques. Paul says, Whatever is lovely and good, think on that. Theres nothing wrong with having mental techniques, trying to win the battle of the mind. Thats very good. Theres nothing wrong with that at all. But why is it that you could have the best accountability partner, the best mental techniques, try your best to purge and remove bad influence from your life and still yield to temptation? Why? Because none of those things addressed the biggest problem. Whats the biggest problem we have according to James when it comes to temptation? The biggest problem we have is desire. See, if you have all the right techniques, but you still have the same desire, youll get around those techniques. Youll get around that accountability buddy. You can find what it is youre looking for. You forget that memory mental technique in the heat of temptation. These are all physical things that we do. These are all natural things that we do-getting a friend, battle of our minds, physically removing temptation. Those are all physical. What we need more than anything else-and not that we should get rid of those things; we shouldnt-but what we need more than anything else is supernatural intervention, spiritual intervention where God does something for us we cannot do for ourselves. Only God can change our desires. Only God can change your heart. You look pretty presentable this morning. Im looking around, and I see some nice hairdos. I hope you brushed your teeth, showered, and put on some deodorant. Youve all put on clothes. Thats good. Some of the guys have shaved. You look presentable. You could even care for certain owies and boo-boos, right? You could put band-aids on. Other people have even put tourniquets on themselves. I tell you what though-if you have a heart attack, you wont be able to do resuscitation on yourself, will you? You wont be able to do chest compressions on yourself. If your artery is clogged, youre not going to say, Hey, Bill. What are you doing? Oh, just doing a little angioplasty on myself. Ill be right with you. Its not going to happen. You need outside intervention. In the same way, we can conform externally, but we cannot transform internally. What God does is God does not remove desire. God changes desires, and thats the key-nip this in the bud, nip temptation in the bud. Lets turn to 1 John 1:7 (page 1207 in pew Bibles). John is writing, and he says, But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin. Is that natural or supernatural? The blood of Christ cleansing you from sin-is that something you do? No, thats something that Christ does. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If you name the name of Christ today, you still have a sin nature. You still struggle with a sin nature-every one of us. If we confess our sins… And, by the way, this word confess is a loaded word. It doesnt mean simply mumbling or repeating what we have done. Its much more than that. The word confession implies that there is brokenness. The word confession implies that there is repentance. The word repentance means to change your mind, literally to change your direction. Youve been going one way; youre going to go another way, and part of that is because of sorrow-not sorrow you were caught, but sorrow you committed the act, sorrow that thats a part of you. That is involved with repentance. This word confession comes from two Greek words: homo and logeo (homologeo)-same word. So confession means to be in agreement with God or say the same thing that God says about our sin. When we see our sin for what it is and we see it for what it has done, the pain it has caused ourselves, the pain it has caused others, we become broken; and we confess it to God. We say, God, here is what I have done. The Bible says when we do that, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and purify us from unrighteousness. That is supernatural. Only God can forgive sins, and only God can cleanse. Only God can change the heart. When I was a young man in high school, I had some habits, attitudes, and behaviors that were destructive. They were giving me poor self-esteem. I knew they were destructive for the way I treated my family, my academics, and my future. I was getting ready to graduate, and I felt like I wasnt prepared. I was concerned because these habits had a grip on me. I tried every technique under the sun, and I could not break them. I tried the physical approach and accountability. I tried everything, and I was frustrated because I was just defeated time and time again. I left the factory I was at early that day. I was working and asked my boss if I could leave. He said I could, and I went down and bought a book called, When You Graduate. It was a spiritual book. I was not a believer; I was not a Christian though I attended church. I thought the Bible was the most boring book ever written. I thought church was the most boring place that you could go. I liked our pastor, but I didnt know how he did that Sunday after Sunday because I sure couldnt. The Christian friends at church-nerds. I wanted nothing to do with them-boring, so here I am in this park at a picnic table not believing in God, and I said, God, if You really are there, I have made a mess of my life. I have done things Im ashamed of, and I cant get free. I cant rid myself of these habits and these attitudes. God, if youre really there, help me. Forgive me. Change me from the inside out. I want to tell you something. Fireworks didnt off, but I got up from that table with a feeling of being cleansed inside that I cant naturally explain to you; but I will tell you this: the temptations that I had-and it wasnt cupcakes, by the way-didnt look good anymore. I never went back to those habits. Now other ones have taken their place. Thats the way it is with life, and thats why we never get to the point where we say, Okay, Ive arrived, because there is always something. The Bible says, If we confess. Some of us dont want to confess. Some of us like our sin. We like our unforgiveness or theres a thrill that that affair gives a person. Theres an excitement to that lifestyle. Theres contentment or a familiarity factor, Im just comfortable with it. I dont really want to change. If we confess… Sometimes believers dont want to confess. We like our lifestyle the way it is. We like those habits that we have formed, but I came to the point where I didnt want that anymore, and it didnt look appetizing to me anymore. You see, when God changes desires, He does it in two different ways. The first way is God changes that desire so that which once looked appealing… Remember, James says temptation is drawn by desire to bait or lure, so what it is that entices us becomes the bait. Our desire acts upon it, so if that no longer is desirous to us, then temptation loses its effectiveness. Thats what God did for me. Thats how He changed my life, so now the Bible became exciting. I began to desire it. What the world had to offer didnt look desirous anymore. Now, imagine hypothetically that you could see sin for what it is. You had these spiritual X-ray eyes. You were able to see these visions of what sin would become in your life, this maturity process that James talks about-that it leads to death. Somehow in your eyes, you could see that. What would that do to your habits, attitudes, and actions if you could see sin for what it is or see the consequences that it holds? Do any of you here today like French fries? Any French fry junkies? The number one thing that is sold in restaurants in America is not pizza; its not burgers. Its French fries. We buy and eat more French fries than any other food. People will tell you French fries arent good for you. Theyre greasy; theyre salty. Theyre bad for your heart, cholesterol and all that stuff, so because I have a weakness for French fries, I try not to eat them often. I remember being at a restaurant and thinking, Im just going to get a soup or a salad. I was in an area that Im not normally in, a restaurant that Im not normally in, and a plate of fries went by. I went, Oh, I like that kind. I didnt know they had that kind. If it had been the seasoned kind or the wedge kind, I could have done without it, but thats my favorite kind of fry, because we all have our favorite kind, right? Cottage fries or steak fries or the stringy fries, whatever it is you like. I thought, Well, maybe just today. Since Im not in this restaurant very often, I think Ill have the fries. Or you go in a restaurant and say, Im not going to have a dessert. Im not going to have dessert. Im cutting back. Something walks by your table, and you say, Oh, what was that? I was in a restaurant having a dessert this week, and a lady across the table goes, Oh, what is that? I said, Its a chocolate chip cookie pizza. She goes, Reeeallly? I said to her and her friend, Would you like to have a bite? I have not eaten it yet, and I have two spoons. I will give you a bite, so she came over to my table and took a big bite (congregation laughing). Shes like, Oh, this is delicious. This is the best! Ill have to remember this next time Im here. So we say, Oh, whats that Maybe Ill just get some of that. Ill share. Ill just have a little bit. We play these little games with ourselves. So what if you order those fries, you order those desserts, and it comes onto your table in our little illustration here that enables us to see our bad behaviors for what they are and what they will produce? All the sudden those fries smell great, theyre hot. They look good, and all of the sudden they turn to what they will become on your body. What if they turn to blubbery fat right there? Youve all seen that, right? Youve watched liposuction specials or something. You know what fat looks like? Its yellow and its globby. I dont want to elaborate because I dont want to ruin my Hostess cupcake, but its just not pleasant. All of the sudden, you see what those fries will be, not what they are, but what they will become if you eat them. Youre like, Oh! Youre disgusted! Youre repulsed by it! Then magically, you see the fries again. They start smelling good and looking good. Do you still want those, or do you go, Ahh! Can you bring me a salad instead please? Its changed your desire. When it changes your desire, you dont want to eat it anymore. Lets say its the weekend, and youve been working hard. Youre going to get away with your buddies. You guys are going to a bar, and youre going to drink. Youve decided in advance youre going to tie one on because youve had a long week. You deserve some fun, so Im just going to start drinking until I want to stop. Thats your idea of a good time. That's your idea of fun. Youre with your pals, youre drinking beers, and life is good. Youre telling jokes; everything is funny. You pick up that beer bottle, and you start to drink it. As youre ready to pour that first drink in your mouth, you see a reflection of yourself in that beer bottle. Its not just of you drinking. Remember in this illustration, we see sin for what it does. You look in that beer bottle, and you see yourself getting a DUI afterwards. You see yourself passing out on the floor. You see yourself in the morning throwing up. You see the headache, the hangover youre going to have. In that beer bottle, you see the fool youre about to make of yourself when you have one too many. You see the toll its going to take on your marriage when you come home drunk again, and you say, Oh. You put the bottle down. Hey, man! Whats going on? Arent you going to drink? Nah. Not tonight, because you saw the consequences. Youre at work, and theyve hired this really pretty lady or this really handsome man. Theyre making goo-goo eyes at you. Youre exchanging pleasantries at the bubbler, and youre like, You look really nice today. So do you! She kind of likes you, so youre talking to her. The next thing you know, youre making plans to go to a hotel. Youre going to have an affair. Just as you ready to kiss him or her on the mouth, you look in those eyes, and you see the pain on your spouses face. You see the pain this is going to cause you in the future, and you pull back and say, Oh, I cant do it. It doesnt look desirous anymore. If you take away desire, temptation loses its punch. It loses its power. Thats what God will do. God says, You come to Me in brokenness and sincerity and you confess your sin, you are in agreement with Me. With your mouth, you confess your sin. With a broken heart and a sincere spirit, do you know what Ill do? I will forgive you, and I will cleanse you. That's the fourth supernatural element where God takes away desire. All those other things that we do in the natural, theyre helpful. We should continue to do them, but they dont get to the heart of the matter. The heart of the matter, I can teach you, but I cant manufacture it in your life. It has to be the work of the Spirit of God, the gift of grace, as He works in our hearts to not just remove but to change that desire. The second action that happens is God not only says, Okay, this no longer looks good. I see this for what it is, and I see the consequences, and I dont desire that anymore, but He begins to help us to see the rewards. He begins to change our desire so that we want good things. I can remember the Bible became exciting to me at age 17. I couldnt get enough of it. The nerds, I saw they were good kids-honest, hard-working, decent young people-that I should want to spend time with and did want to spend time with from that time on. I began to want to go to church. I began to want to serve the Lord. I started saying, Mom, I think I want to go to a school where they teach the Bible. Then down the road, Mom, I think I want to go to a school and become a pastor like our pastor. I began to just enjoy the rewards of that changed attitude. I began to treat my family better, treat my friends better. I felt better about myself. Things went better in school. My future became clear. My boss said, Hey, when youre out of school, we want you to come back and be a pastor at our church. I already had a job. I met a wonderful lady who Id later marry in a couple years. Life just began to come together. Not that I didnt have problems or not that I didnt struggle with temptation still, but I began to enjoy the reward of what God was doing in my life. When I was 18 years old, I wasnt married. I didnt even know if Id ever get married at that age. Youre trying to stay pure and do the right thing, so Id read Psalm 119 a lot in devotional times. Psalm 119:97 (page 610 of pew Bibles), David says, Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long. Your commands make me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever with me. I have more insight than all my teachers, for I meditate on Your statutes. I have more understanding than the elders, for I obey Your precepts. I have kept my feet from every evil path so that I might obey Your Word. He starts looking at his life, and because God changed his desires, now what? He says, I have insight. I have wisdom. I have understanding. This is preventing me from making wrong choices and going down wrong paths. He said, I have not departed from Your laws, for You Yourself have taught me. How sweet are Your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! I gain understanding from Your precepts; therefore I hate every wrong path. Sweeter than this Hostess cupcake. He said, I start to desire the things of God, so God will change our desires or redirect them. Then we start to enjoy the rewards, and we start to reap the consequences of those right behaviors and those right decisions, but you have to be careful. You have to be careful. Remember that verse we read where it said confess. In the Greek, thats in whats called the active voice-that word confess homologeo, active voice. You could translate it this way, Keep on confessing. Keep on confessing. Its the present active-the present tense, active voice. Why do we have to keep on confessing? Because we keep on…sinning because were stuck with this sin nature. David, later in his life, became careless and things did not go well. He yielded to temptation later in his life. Thats the way life is. Did I talk about being a homeowner in this service and just thinking if I built a house, I wouldnt have to do anything for the next 15 years? Did I talk about that here? Well, thats what I thought. I thought, If I just build a house… Because when youre renting, theres always something to fix and do, but if I just built a house, then I could just kick back and relax for 15 to 20 years. You wouldnt have anything to do. And its been non-stop for 18 years. This starts to leak, and you fix that leak. This breaks, and you fix that break. This wears out; this has to be changed. That's the way it is in your home. There is always something going on, right? In the ministry, maybe its the finances, so we work on the budget. We get that fixed, and we have this shortage in childrens ministry, so we work on that. Boy, we need volunteers in the childrens ministry. Then theres this fire over here, and we work on putting that fire out. There is another problem. A couple years later, now theres another financial downturn. There is always something to work on. The same thing is true in our spiritual walk. There is always something we are working on, right? You have a bad temper, so you work on that. You give that to God. You try these techniques-accountability and all of that. You start to get a handle on your temper. Youre not swearing, and youre not throwing things or hitting things. Youre really getting a handle on that, but now your wifes saying youre not spending any time with her; and your marriage is really struggling. So, Oh, I have to spend more time with my wife, so youre spending more time with your spouse. Then Junior starts acting up because Junior isnt getting enough attention, so you start to say, Well, I have to spend more time with my kid. Then as youre spending time with your family, your boss says, Hey, youre not doing your job here. Youre not giving us 100 percent, so you start focusing on that. In the workplace, in life, so it is in our sin nature. Well deal with gluttony and start getting a handle on that. The next thing we know, we encounter laziness. We start working on that, and the next thing you know, its lust. You start working on that, and the next thing we have honesty issues all of the sudden. But what I want to share is not that we reach the point of perfection, but whatever this little cupcake represents to you that youve taken a bite of… You just say, I just feel guilty. Ive experienced the consequences. I want to change, but I cant. I want you to know you can today. Ultimately, its not going to come from those good things. Good things, though, they are-the natural. Its going to come from the supernatural. The supernatural involves all those things. Its mental. When we confess our sins, its mental because it involves repentance-changing our mind. Its physical-were confessing with our mouth. Its relational because were talking to God, but its also, fourthly, supernatural. God, Im promising You. If you say, I want to get rid of this. I want to remove this, and you come to the Lord with faith and confess, God will change your desire. There is hope. He will do for you what you cannot do for yourself. You can conform; but you cannot transform, and He is in the transforming business. Shall we look to Him in prayer this morning: Father in Heaven, we thank You for the work of the Spirit in our lives. We thank You for the fact that though we are a work under construction, You never quit. You never give up. Philippians 1:6 says that He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it. So, Lord, were thankful that construction is ongoing in our lives, that we can cooperate with that work or we can work against it. Sometimes as John says, If we confess, sometimes we dont want to confess. We enjoy our attitudes, our lifestyles, our sins. We become comfortable with it. Its become a friend like this cupcake was to the man in the video. Lord, help us to see our sin for what it is, to see the destruction that it has caused or will cause in our lives, the pain it will cause others, and the heartache it will cause us as well. Lord, were thankful for friends who we can be accountable to. Were thankful for the techniques, the battle of the mind that we need to win. Were thankful for the steps that people take-the brave and courageous steps-that they shall continue to take to remove and purge their lives of wrong influences. Lord, more than anything else, we need the work of Your Spirit. We need the touch of grace-that You would change our desire; that we would begin to see sin for what it is and begin to see the rewards that come from living a life that pleases You; and that we will yield ourselves and say, May the blood of Jesus purify me from sin. Might the Spirit of Christ cleanse my heart and mind, that I might desire the things of God. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
Its good to be back with you today. How many of you watch The Apprentice? Anybody watch that reality show with Donald Trump? Have you seen that? Okay, not too many Apprentice fans. I happen to be someone who has watched that show in the past-not every season-but several of the seasons, especially that first year. Ive always been intrigued by Donald Trump and his success. I remember reading The Art of the Deal, so I really wanted to watch that first reality show when the contestants came on and competed for a job; and every week, somebody was fired. Youre fired! is the famous expression. The first season we were watching, they announced they were going to build a skyscraper, a Trump hotel in Chicago that would be the tallest building in the world. Now they scaled that back after 9-11, but it still ended up being 93 stories tall, something like that. The children would say, Can we stay at the Trump Tower? Can we stay at the Trump Tower? Is it done yet? Id say, No, its not done. Someday… So finally, I said Ill check on it for you because they would ask almost every summer, Can we stay at Trump Tower? It was done, and I said, Okay, this summer were going to stay one night. Dont get used to it. I mean normally a hotel for us is just a place to hang the hat. It doesnt have to be fancy. Were just going to sleep there-crash and unwind a little bit. I said, But if were going to go to Trump Tower, then that becomes our event. When its time to check in, were going to stay there until its time to check out. Were going to soak everything we can out of this experience because its going to set Mom and Dad back a little bit, so we did that. We stayed there. We felt a little bit like a fish out of water-a lot of hoity toity types there. We had the meal there, and of course you had to dress up. You never really felt comfortable. It was kind of a formal dining experience. It made us want to go back to a regular restaurant and just get a cheeseburger or something. You have stuff on your plate, its really small, and you dont know what it is; but it tastes good. Even after they tell you what it is, you dont know what it is; but we had a lovely experience. We watched the fireworks at Navy Pier from our room, and we just had this beautiful view of the skyscrapers, the Wrigley building, the Tribune building, and then the Chicago River ran right underneath us. We saw Lake Michigan, and it was just gorgeous. We had a good time. We really took it all in, but one of the painful experiences for me was when it was time to go and we had to exit. I didnt think this through because the valet goes to get your car, and its like a show. There are people walking around, other patrons there, and youre like, Oh, what car is going to drive up next? Here comes a Rolls Royce, oh! Here comes a Bentley, oh! Here comes a brand new Mercedes, oh! A brand new Jag convertible, oh! Here comes Pastor Jeffs 2002 Toyota. Thats not my car! What is this? Whered my car go? (Congregation laughing). I had to tell the valet, and he doesnt hear this every day, but I had to say, Yeah, when you start the car, you have to put it in neutral for a few seconds. Then put it in drive. My son was like, Im out of here. They were like, Can you just pick us up down the block, so nobody knows were associated with you? But its my car. Its a decent car, but all of the sudden I found myself ashamed of my car because of all these fancy wheels that were going by. On our last day, we said, Hey, were Cubs fans. Lets go to Harry Carays and get a burger. So we were walking around the streets killing time, and we see what says, The Chicago walk. Its down by the Chicago River, so you go down some steps [to get to it]. I said, It sounds good. Lets go on the Chicago walk, so we went on the Chicago walk; and immediately we realized what we had done. There was a sense of regret for the decision that wed made because we were walking through what was a place where homeless people stayed. We didnt realize that at the time. There was a stench of urine that greeted you. Rather than being the scenic experience, you felt like you were intruding by going through somebodys privacy, their bedroom. There was a man under a tarp that was just waking up. You just felt bad. He said, Well, you shouldnt have come down here. Brenda was like, Well, we didnt know that was the case. We went up the steps, and as you went up the steps, the first thing you saw was the Trump Tower, this opulent structure that stands for prosperity and this real estate mogul-this expensive place where we had stayed that night. In juxtaposition with just a matter of feet away from this luxury hotel were these men living in a community under the bridge. I thought about the contrast between the rich and the poor, and Im certainly not rich; but rich is a very relative term, isnt it? To the men living under the bridge, our family probably seemed rich. We had decent clothes. We werent worried about our meal or where we were going to stay that night. We had a car to drive. Compared to them, we were rich; but compared to most of fellow Trumpers at the hotel, we werent rich. I dont know how much it showed, but we were just common middle-class folks trying to see how the other half lived for one night. Most of those patrons-even though they were pretty well off-most of them are poor compared to Donald Trump himself, if you were to compare their wealth to the Trumpster. Yet, you compare Donald Trumps wealth to someone like Warren Buffett or Bill Gates, and he doesnt seem so rich anymore. Rich is a relative term, and James is going to contrast the rich and the poor for us this morning; so lets take a look at James 1 as we continue to go through this Book together. We call it the Gospel According to Jim. Jim, of course, is the informal name for James; and even though this is the Book of James, James has a rather informal style. He is kind of a laid-back, sitting on the porch swing, sipping on a lemonade, man of wisdom who just drops these nuggets-this knowledge just oozes from them. He just sits back and he talks about life; and you just take it in. That's the feel we have when we read the Book of James. Were going through it chapter by chapter, verse by verse; and I believe Pastor Jerry left off last week with Verse 8. Verse 9 (page 1196 of pew Bibles), The brother in humble circumstances ought to take pride in his high position. But the one who is rich should take pride in his low position… Right away, James does what James always does. His statements are very shocking at face value. They almost seem the reverse of what they should be. Its like the woman in the meeting who talked about us being the safest, most secure, wealthiest nation, which puts us at a serious (pause) disadvantage. It puts us at a disadvantage. James says, The brother who is poor should take pride in his high position. The one who is rich should take pride in his low position. James, didnt you get that backwards? Isnt that a typo? What hes going to explain to us here is the Gospel has a different meaning to different segments of society. Its the same Gospel; its the same message, but who we are sharing it with has a different impact upon them. I want you to notice that he is speaking here to Christians. He says, The brother… His audience is believers. Hes not speaking in a generic sense to all rich and to all poor. He is speaking to those who are rich who come to the faith and those who are poor who come to the faith. He talked about speaking to the Diaspora, the scattered believers in the very beginning of his Book-believers who have been scattered for a number of different reasons. This Verse is similar to a Verse in 1 Corinthians 7:22 (page 1122 of pew Bibles), if we could just put that Verse on the wall. It says, For he who was a slave when he was called by the Lord is the Lords freedman; similarly, he who was a free man when he was called is Christs slave. So the Gospel to the slaves said, Look, youre a slave, but, you know what? In Christ, youre free. In Christ, you need to know you matter to God, that you have just as much significance as the rich man. In fact, it was not uncommon in the days of the church for a slave to be an elder and to lead a congregation that his master was a member of; and at the church, it was the slave who was in authority over his master. That was not an uncommon scenario at all. So he is saying to the slave-hes lifting up the slave and saying, Theres not slave nor free. We are one in Christ. Then he speaks to the wealthy, to the free; and he says, Look, you are Christs slave. You are doulos. You are a bondservant. You are the property of the Master. You who are masters, you have a Master that owns you that you are subject to. So we have the same Gospel, but a very different presentation, depending on who the target audience is. James says, Likewise, the same thing is true to the poor. To the poor who come to Christ, he says, Listen, you who are poor, you are rich. You have been redeemed. You have been purchased by Christ. You matter to God. You might feel like you dont have significance. You might feel like you dont matter very much, but you matter. You matter to God more than youll ever know. Rejoice that God has exalted you. He has lifted you up. You are spiritually rich. Your sins are forgiven. You have an inheritance in Heaven. You are a son or a daughter of God, and you who are poor rejoice in your high position. Know that you have significance; know that you have a purpose and that God loves you very much, so that message of the Gospel would lift up the poor. Thats the message I gave to the Haitian Church in the Dominican Republic and Pastor Jean because they look at the Americans, and they envy us. Theyre envious of our lifestyle, of our clothes, what we have. I get up there, and I share the Gospel, and say, You, tonight, are as rich as I. In fact, in your faith, you are richer than I am. In the message to the rich, the Gospel is very different because sometimes the rich can be pretty impressed with themselves, sometimes arrogant-not always; but sometimes they can say, Well, look. Look what Ive amassed. Look what Ive accumulated for myself. Look how well I have done for myself. Look how successful I am. Look at the Rolls Royce that I drive or the luxury penthouse I live in. Look at the size of my bank account, the number of properties I own, and they start looking at all these tangible earthly things; and they can get a little bit puffed up. James says, You know what? You are one heartbeat away from eternity. You are one breath away from eternity, just like the next guy. You are as dependent upon God as anybody else, and, One day, James says, youre going to pass away. Hes going to talk about that. He says, One day, youre going to pass away. Even Mr. Trump and his entire Trumpish splendor will one day pass away. His buildings are going to belong to somebody else. Theyll belong to his children and maybe their children; but somewhere along the line, its going to be sold. Right now the name Trump is on everything. You use Trump shampoo when you take a shower. You drink Trump water when you work out. Everythings Trump. Some day that name comes off the building; it comes off the brand. Theres going to be a generation that goes, Whos Trump? Isnt that something in cards? Those buildings will belong to somebody else, or those buildings may even get torn down. He says, All that stuff passes away, so he reminds the rich of their humble position. You are as dependent upon God as the next person. What you have is fleeting. Life is fleeting. Be aware of that. Be mindful of that-that you belong to God and what you have belongs to God. So the Gospel is a humbling message to the rich. He goes on and says in the rest of Verse 10, …because he will pass away like a wild flower. For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant; its blossom falls and its beauty is destroyed. He talks here about life and the toll it takes on all of us, the wind that beats against us, and the sun that is relentless. To me, that testifies of the relentlessness of life, the trials and the hardships that we face that take their toll on us- they mentally, physically, and emotionally beat down upon us. Then I think about the withering and losing of our beauty. He talks about the appearance because we are the plants in this analogy. I think about aging. You might live a healthy life, and I dont care if you have the finest doctors and you eat the best diet, youre going to age. Youre going to grow old, and youre going to die one way or another. Thats the reality of it. That really hit home for me this weekend. Some of you know my aunt has been ill, and she passed away. Yesterday, I was able to do her memorial service; so following the funeral, we went to the house for a reception. I watched a media that my cousin had put together. It was a panorama of Aunt Vis life from a young girl all the way through until recently. It really is quite an eye-opening experience when you can see this panorama view of a life during the course of five minutes as the song played. At the beginning of the song, I seen her as a young teenager; and she is vibrant. She was just bubbly and giddy anyway, so I can just imagine her… In all these pictures, she is laughing. Shes teasing somebody. Shes enjoying life. I see her with my dad; I see her with my grandma. I see her enjoying life, and then I see her as a woman who started to date. I see Uncle Bob, but I dont see Uncle Bobs tummy. Its not there. I had never seen him without a tummy before, and he had a full head of hair. How about that? I dont remember that either. I watched them begin to court, and I could see in these photographs their romance bud and their love bloom in their lives. Then I saw shots of her as a radiant bride in a beautiful white dress. She had a bouquet of roses, and she was smiling. She was vivacious and life was ahead of her. I saw them as newlyweds. They bought this house in Rockford that I had spent many days in. I watched as construction went up, and I saw the life that they lived together. Then as the media goes on, I see them start to age. I see Violas hairdo change. I see her face get a little rounder. I see her clothing get a little looser. I see Uncle Bobs tummy return. I see his hairline recede. I watched them as middle age set in, and I saw Aunt Vi. I said, Thats the one I remember. Thats the Uncle Bob I remember. Then I watch them age, and I see them in their retirement years. Then I see her alone. I then see her hair become grey, and I see wrinkles appear. Then I see the onslaught of the cancer, and I see that once optimistic face have a look of fear, concern, and then confusion. I watched that expression change, and then I seen her shortly before she passed away. The song ended there. There is something about seeing that panorama that makes it a very sobering experience, and it gets you to think. Even as I left that reception, I pulled off to a restaurant to gather my thoughts for this weekend some more and to kinda make sure I knew where I was going. I prayed a little bit, and I plugged in that media into my computer and watched it one more time. I let those images sink in. I pulled out pictures of myself that she had. This one shows me 40 years ago. This one shows me 30 years ago. This one shows me 10 years ago, and I see that in myself. I recognize that we are all passing through life. James reminds his audience of that. He says, Were going to fade like the flowers. The beauty is going to wane. Life will take its toll. In the same way, he says, …the rich man will fade away even while he goes about his business, even while hes busy living life, he will fade away. That reminds me of a parable in the Gospel of Luke 12 that Jesus told. Sometimes Jesus parables are hard to understand. Sometimes we really have to dig to get the meaning, but this is not one of them. This is a very straight forward parable. In Verse 16 (page 1031 of pew Bibles), he tells us about a rich man. …The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, What shall I do? Notice, thats important-the ground of the man produced a good crop. This man would not have success if it not for what God had provided. He might have been a great farmer, but he isnt going to be able to make his own dirt, is he? The ground of a certain man… The rain, the sun, the ground, the seed-everything that God had provided produced a good crop. He was simply a steward of what God had provided. Verse 17, He thought to himself, What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops. He was so successful, so blessed, that he did not have the room to store them. Verse 18, Then he said, This is what Ill do. I will downsize, I will sell off some of my land. I will be content with what I have because what I have is enough for me. Thats not what he says. He says, …This is what I will do. I will continue to have abundance, but I will give away my excess. I will live on what I need, and I will give what I dont need to those who are less fortunate. Im going to bless the work of the Kingdom, Im going to bless the widow and the orphan, and Im going to help those in need around me. Does he say that? He doesnt say that. He says, heres my solution, …I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And Ill say to myself, You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry. Its time to retire. Youve worked hard. Youve amassed this fortune, all this stuff; and Im going to build bigger barns so I can retain it all for me. Im going to kick back, relax, and forget the world. Im going to enjoy my twilight years, enjoy the fruits of my labor. [Nope], God has other plans. Verse 20, …God said to him, You fool! Fool means someone who lives as though there is no God, lives with no moral compass. This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you prepared for yourself? Then Jesus gives His sobering admonition. He says, This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God. Does Jesus condemn the man for being rich? Does he condemn him for being successful? Does He say, Its wrong for you to have resources? Its wrong for you to have an abundance. Does He say that? What is he condemned for? Number one, he is arrogant. He is called a fool because he is self-absorbed. He gives no regard for God, spiritual things, or his fellow man. He is arrogant and prideful. He assumes tomorrow will be there. Secondly, he is self-centered. He is only consumed with his needs and his situation. Jesus does not condemn him for having the means. We said rich is a relative term. All of us in the eyes of the world are rich. Every person in this room is rich in the eyes of the world. If you go to a country where they dont know what theyre going to eat-theyre going to die. They have no medical treatment at all, nothing to really wear, [youd see that] were rich. But its a person who has an abundance and has put their trust in that abundance, put that trust in themselves, and has become stingy towards God and stingy toward their fellow man, these are the people that James is warning here. These are the people who have become careless and put their trust in the wrong place. My family and I went to a church called Willow Creek last Sunday. Some of you have heard of Willow Creek Community Church. Its a church thats significant because it started a movement. Its not just a large church-it started a movement: the contemporary church movement-that was started back in the 70s in a suburb of Chicago that met in a theater called Willow Creek. I can remember being at Trinity and some of my friends saying, Hey, theres this new church. It started in a theater. Its called Willow Creek, and they have drama, contemporary music, and media. I was like, In church? Yeah. Thats crazy! You want to come? Nah. I dont think so. I have a church, so I could have been there like in the very beginning; but I chose not to. But at Trinity College, a young student named Bill Hybels was listening to a lecture by Dr. Bilezikian. He was vision-casting about what the church could be and should be. He caught that vision, and he started this church by selling tomatoes in this affluent suburb of Chicago. That community was just getting ready to explode. It exploded, and the church exploded because they were meeting a need. They would ask, Why dont you go to church? People would say, We dont go to church because its a fashion show. We dont go to church because they always want money. We dont go to church because its boring. So he said, Well, lets start a church where we dont make big appeals for money, we dont dress up-we come casually, and where we heed the Gospel. We dont compromise the Gospel, but we use the arts and other things to make it interesting and not boring. This church exploded, and it became the largest church in America. In fact, it was the largest church in the Western Hemisphere. Now Pastor Osteens church in Texas is the largest church, but its probably still in the top three. Its humongous! They just built a 7,000 seat auditorium. When our family came, we wanted to sit up on top, so we got on the escalator. They were like, Were in an escalator in church. How weird is this? So we went up to the top, and there is this 7,000 seat auditorium that will be near full three times that weekend. This is, like I say, one of the largest churches in America. It has influenced tens of thousands of churches around the world and tens of thousands of pastors and leaders around the world. Theyre doing a tremendous work in missions, in evangelism, and in local domestic concerns; you name it, they are involved in it. I can remember back in the days when wed have leadership conferences I would go to, and thered be these time-out sessions where a small group of senior pastors would meet with Pastor Hybels. There would be 20 of us, 30 of us, in a small room for a Q&A and some one-on-one time with him. We would talk, and he would share stories. He reminded us-again, we were there-about how this place came to be and this facility that has been so influential came to be. God had put some people in that congregation who would say-unashamedly-that their goal was to make as much money as humanly possible. God had gifted them as businessmen to make money, and they would tell you unapologetically they wanted to make as much money as they could. The second part of that equation was they wanted to live on as little as they could. The third part of that equation was to fund the Gospel as much as they could, so these people in this congregation-and there were many of them, very successful in the eyes of the world-their goal, what really got them excited, what really tripped their trigger, was to be able to come to the pastor at tax time or whenever it was and say, How much, Pastor? How much do you need? Were building a building and writing six figure, seven figure checks to the church because they knew it was doing a good work, and they wanted to fund the Gospel; so that was their job. To some people, God tells them to sell their business, sell their house, and give it all to the poor. These people chose to live as humbly as they could but make as much money as they could to fund missions, to fund their local church and make a difference in the Kingdom. They didnt put their trust in themselves or their riches. They knew the source was God. God is not condemning those who have means or those who have resources here. God has gifted some of us to be able to do that. Im not one of them. Im just middle-class like most of us here, but some of us have that ability. James is saying, Listen-recognize who has blessed you. Make Gods priorities your priorities. It reminds me of a Passage in the Book of 2 Corinthians 8:9 (page 1146). Paul basically gives us the Gospel in one verse. He says, For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich. He wrote this to this church in Corinth that had been so generous to the church in Jerusalem with the giving of their resources. He said, You remind me of Jesus. He became poor that through His poverty or by means of His poverty, you might become rich. This verse is a testimony of the fact that salvation is not of ourselves. It is not something that we have earned; it is not something that we have manufactured or anything else. He doesnt say, Through your hard work, through your knowledge of the Scripture, through your Godliness and holiness, through your righteous living, you have become rich. No, he says it is through His poverty or by means of-this verb says-His poverty, through the efforts of someone else. What someone else has done, we have been blessed. We have been made rich. Thats the Gospel. It is not from you; it is all from Him. Salvation is entirely from Him. Did you hear the story about the man who was searching for coins, and he was on somebody elses property and doing one of those searches with a metal detector? Its dawning on me that I think I said that wrong all weekend (congregation laughing). Its going off, and hes looking for these coins. It goes off, so he says, I found something. I always thought that looked like fun. So he starts scratching around, and he finds a coin-an old coin, a Roman coin from the 300s. He didnt know it at the time; he just knew it looked old. He was like, Wow! He started digging and scratching, and he gets more. He digs and scratches more, and he finds more. Hes like, Wow! I need to get some help. He gets some help to excavate a little bit, and he unearths a treasure. They conservatively estimate the value at over a million dollars of old coins. Once he cleaned them off and polished them off, he had all these beautiful coins. They were worth over a million dollars. He was rich! He says to the owner of the land, Look, you allowed me permission to search on your property with my metal detector, and I have found a treasure chest. Its on your property, so were going to go halves. I take one gold coin; you take one gold coin, and were going to split this thing right down the middle. The property owner didnt know it was there, and he never would have known without this man; so by means of this man, his investment, his time, his knowledge, his efforts, his resources-by his means, this man benefited. He really didnt do anything. He just said, Yeah, sure. Go ahead. I dont even know if he knew he was out there. Maybe he didnt even know that, but he became blessed through the efforts and means of another, and that is the Gospel. We have become blessed because Christ invested in us, because He took the means to search us out and find us to redeem us. Through His poverty, through His incarnation, He left the splendor of Heaven to come to the manger, to come to earth-to be born to common parents and live as a common laborer. Through His poverty and His death upon the cross, His resurrection, you and I have become rich. We have an inheritance in Heaven. We have a Kingdom. We are sons and daughters of God. We have salvation that has been purchased through His blood. Thats what we come to remember as we reflect upon communion this morning. Im going to ask if our communion team would come at this time as we prepare our hearts and minds to receive the Lords Supper.
Happy Fourth of July, everybody. Good morning (congregation: Good morning.). Havent we had some beautiful weather lately? As I think about Gods creation, I love how Paul says in Romans that the Heavens declare Gods glory, creation shows His handy work, and you can see Him in so many different ways, can I tell you my favorite family Fourth of July story? Will you allow me to do that? It started a few years ago when our kids were little and we decided to buy a dog. They thought we really needed a dog, so we hunted, looked, read, and we decided to buy a Boxer because it said Boxers were super dogs, and I was kind of partial to that. It said that the kids could absolutely maul them, and they wouldnt care; so we thought, Great! That sounds like what would be good for our family, so we bought a boxer. We appropriately named him Knockout. He really bonded with us, and we bonded with him. He was everything Boxers were advertised to be. He was playful and fun, the kids could maul him, and he didnt care. He was just one incredible dog. Then we started hearing stories that Boxers werent afraid of fire. I kind of put that on the back burner like the Loch Ness Monster and those types of things. I was like, Yeah, right. Then we had a friend that said her uncle had fallen asleep in bed while smoking. He started the bed on fire, and the dog had put the fire out. I was kinda like, Yeah, right. I thought that was interesting and then kind of put it out of my head until the first year we had the dog on the Fourth of July. Our youngest daughter at the time, Tara, was about two years old. She was really mature for her age, so we decided that it was a good time for her to have her first sparkler. We waited until about 9:30. It was nice and dark, and we went outside, lit a sparkler, and gave it to her. She was just, as advertised, mature. She was great; she was having a great time and was perfectly terrific with it. She was waving it all over, having fun, and then out of the corner of our eyes, we see this white and tan blur racing from across the yard. It happened so fast, we didnt even have time to react. You have to understand this: when Boxers attack, they dont just run up to you and bite you, but from about 10 or 12 feet away, they literally launch themselves through the air. Theyll turn their shoulders and try to knock you over. It happened so fast that all I could think was holy guacamole! Whats going on? Here comes this blur, and about 12 feet away from Tara, Knockout just launched himself through the air like Superdog. He literally had his paws out navigating. I was like, Wow! He ripped the sparkler out of her hand without ever touching her. He landed on the ground snarling, growling, shaking, roaring, and with sparks flying out of his mouth. I was like, He looked like the dog from Hell! It was unbelievable! He never hurt her, never touched her, but he was not about to let her get hurt. Of course that launched wonderful Fourth of July escapades after that. We started buying two or three of the big $20 and $30 fountains after that, and hed just go ballistic! Hed beat them with his paws, pick them up in his mouth, and then you had to watch out because hed be spinning around. Wed be jumping over lightning bolts full of flames, but it was incredible! We were down at my parents, and all of the family got together a couple years after that. We were telling our cousins about Knockout and his adventures. They were like, Yeah, right. We have to see this! So we went down to the gas station, and they didnt have any fireworks anymore; but we bought some smoke bombs. I thought, I dont know whats going to happen. This will be interesting. He attacked them. He picked the whole thing up in his mouth, closed his mouth on it, and there were plumes of smoke coming out of both sides of his mouth. I was sitting there going, Wow! Now youve seen it all-the first K-9 volcano! As I think about those things, I realized afterwards how wonderful it was. What a picture of Christ, how amazing it is, and how thankful I am for the freedom that we have-that that dog would have gone through fire and anything to protect our family and protect our kids. It makes me very thankful for our veterans and the freedoms we enjoy this country because people literally were willing to go through fire, give life and limb and health for the sake of our country. I didnt think about doing this before, but if youre a veteran-if youve served in the Armed Forces-would you mind standing? Anybody here like that? Can we give them a hand (congregation applauding)? Thank you very much. I know we enjoy many of the freedoms that we enjoy because of people like you that were willing to sacrifice a lot. I hope we never take that for granted. Most of all, I hope we never take Jesus Christ for granted who literally went through hell and faced eternal flames and eternal fire so we could find freedom. As we look into His Word today, just before you do, would you take about 10 seconds or so and ask God to please teach you something today. Would you do that? Just bow your head, close your eyes, or leave them open-I dont care, but take a few seconds and ask God to please teach you today. Father, I do thank You for the time to come and hear Your Word. I pray that You would teach us and guide us. May we go from this place better people and wiser, and may we grow in grace; and I thank You that we can pray because of Jesus Christ. Amen. Were in the second of a series on the Gospel According to Jim from the Book of James. Were going to look at James 1:5-8 (page 1196 of pew Bibles). Well look at the context in a bit; but right off the top, lets look at these words that James shares. Were going to talk about four different phrases and what they mean in our lives. First of all, he says, If any of you lacks wisdom, he or she should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does. As you look at that Passage, think first of all about the opening phrase. It says, If anyone lacks wisdom, you should ask of God. I want you to notice the connection between two different thoughts. First of all, he says that if you lack wisdom, you should do what? Ask. What do we call asking God? Prayer. Notice the intimate connection between wisdom and prayer. Let me say it this way, folks: wise people pray. Foolish people dont. Plainly and simply, that's the way it is. Wise people go to God in prayer. If youre an entrepreneur, they tell you that the way to become wealthy is to hang out with millionaires if you want to become a millionaire. If youre a millionaire and you want to become a billionaire, who do you hang out with? Billionaires-because those people dont think like we do. They think differently, and you learn to think like they do. The same thing with God; if you want to think like He does and you want to change your life and your ways, hang out with somebody who knows way more than you do. Humility is the first step of wisdom. A wise person hears. Jesus started the beatitudes with blessed are the poor in Spirit. That attitude of humility that says I dont know everything is the opening gambit of learning and growth in the knowledge and understanding of wisdom. Lets look at Proverbs 4 (page 628 of pew Bibles). Solomon hammers on this point. He says if you want wisdom, then youd better learn how to pray when he says, Listen, my sons, to a fathers instruction; pay attention and gain understanding. I give you sound learning, so do not forsake my teaching. When I was a boy in my fathers house, still tender, and an only child of my mother, he taught me and said, Lay hold of my words with all your heart; keep my commands and you will live. Get wisdom, get understanding; do not forget my words or swerve from them. Do not forsake wisdom, and she will protect you; love her, and she will watch over you. Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding; Esteem her, and she will exalt you; embrace her, and she will honor you. Other Passages say that you will find wisdom when you cry out for her and ask for her. Friends, thats the challenge for all of us. Wise people pray. Wise couples pray. In two days, my wife and I are going to celebrate our 31st anniversary, which is a miracle in and of itself. Shes a terrific lady. How shes put up with me all these years, I have no idea; but she did, and Ill say that one of the huge reasons were together is that right there: prayer. The second thing I would say is that I have come to conclude after that many years of marriage that Satan fights couples over the area of prayer more than any single other thing in their marriage. Satan hates when couples pray together, and he will do anything and everything to keep couples from praying together. Why? Because he knows that thats where wisdom is gained. He knows thats where difficulties are overcome. That's where unity of mind happens, and he will try every strategy-everything under the sun-to keep couples from praying. He does the same thing with churches. Wise churches pray. I was chuckled because coming to a typical service in America, we feature other spiritual disciplines. There are Gods Word, prayer and praise. What does the typical church service feature most of those three? Preaching and praise. Which gets left out most of the time? Prayer. Yet, prayer is the only thing-its the single thing of which Jesus said, My house shall be called a house of… Prayer. Why? Why does Satan fight that? Because thats where all the power is. Thats where real wisdom is. Thats where real unity happens. Every revival in the history of Christianity for 2,000 years has been a revival not of preaching and not of praise but of…? Prayer. Incredible things happen when Gods people ban together to pray. Going back to couples, God says this, If two or three of you shall agree or harmonize concerning anything, it will be done for them. Wise people pray. Its interesting that the two wisest people who ever walked the face of the earth-Solomon and Jesus Christ-were people of…? Prayer. How did Solomon begin his reign? He began it by offering thousands upon thousands of sacrifices to God and leading his people in a national time of prayer. Open up the Book of 1 Kings and Chronicles, and look at Solomons prayer. See how long that prayer takes. Its a long prayer. Its interesting that at the beginning of his ministry, God appears to Solomon. The first thing God says to Solomon is…? Ask. Its the proverbial win the lottery. Its the proverbial genie in the lamp. You find the magic lamp, and you get three wishes. Thats fictionalized, but this really happened. God says to Solomon, You can have anything you want, and Solomon says, Give me wisdom. I love his phrasing. He says, Lord, Im like a little kid. I dont know how to go out or come in. In our vernacular wed say, I dont know how to get in out of the rain. Solomon says, Thats me. I dont know how to get in out of the rain, so give me a large and understanding heart. Gods like, Bravo! I love that! Thats awesome! Good answer! Interestingly, that Passage we read in Proverbs 4, where did Solomon learn to ask for wisdom? From his dad. His dad told him over and over, Get wisdom. Get understanding. Wisdom is supreme! Sell everything you have to get wisdom! David drilled that into his son. So God comes to Solomon and said, You can have anything you want. Solomon said, Ill take wisdom, please. Jesus, to begin His ministry, went off for 40 days of fasting and prayer. In the Book, it was recorded that He came out of that time of prayer and fasting full of power and of the Spirit of God. The Book of Revelation gives us a picture of what the Spirit of God entails. It talks about the Sevenfold Spirit of God, and you say, What is that? Well, the Book of Isaiah gives us a hint. Lets look at Isaiah 11:1-2 (page 686). Isaiah says, A shoot or a branch will come up from the stump of Jesse… Hes talking about the Messiah. …from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. This Spirit of God is what will characterize the Messiah. Notice what it says. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him-the Spirit of wisdom and understanding… Did you check that? The first mark of being touched or changed by the Spirit of God is a spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and of power, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. When God comes into our hearts and lives and changes us, He gives us a new spirit of wisdom and a new spirit of understanding. When I was growing up, my father drilled into us, You ought to do one thing every time you open up the Word of God, and thats pray and ask God to teach you something. Why? He would always quote Corinthians, Because the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God. They are foolishness to him, and they can only be discerned spiritually. If I were to ask for a raise of hands, how many of you-maybe you can or not, whatever- before you came to Christ would open up this Book and say, Huh? It was like reading Greek or Aramaic or Hebrew, and you werent a Hebrew or Greek scholar. You were reading it, and you were like, This doesnt make any sense to me! How many of you experienced that before you came to Christ. Then something amazing happened. You seen your need for Christ. You trust Him to pay for your sins. You say, God, I want You in my life, and you open up this Book-after God puts His Spirit in your heart-and all of the sudden, guess what? Its alive. It comes to life, and all of the sudden, stuff that you could never get before, Oh, that makes perfect sense! I get it! No matter how many times you read it-you could read the same Passage of the same section of Scripture 100 times-and every time you read it, its always new. Its always fresh. It always challenges you in ways that you never seen before. There are some Passages I read a 100, 200, or 300 times, and Im like, Man, how come I never saw that before? Its new! Thats what the Spirit of God does. He continually gives you understanding and light. Jesus at 12 years old was in the Temple doing what? Asking questions. Thats the mark of Gods children. As we look at this Passage, and later on when it says, A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways, I always think of little kids with their parents. How many of you have children or grandchildren that love to ask the three-letter word, Why? Now how many of you growing up were that little kid that liked to ask the question, Why? Now, heres the thing: you know that you can ask that in one of two ways, right? There are some kids that ask why because theyre rebels. They really dont want to do what you say. Theyre not asking why because they want a long and mutually-understanding explanation of all the various facsimiles of reasons for which you should conduct your manner which is appropriate for civilized people. Thats not why theyre asking why. Theyre asking why because they dont want to do what you say. On the other hand, there are those children who are genuinely inquisitive, and they push the limits of what we know and learn because theyre always asking why. They dont buy the standard party line. Maybe theres a better explanation, or maybe theres a better way of doing things. Those people are incredibly creative and incredibly inventive. We need those types of people, and Gods not afraid of those types of people. The more I walk with God, [the more] I am just amazed at how incredibly creative the Spirit of God is. The ways He opens wisdom and understanding and teaches you to do things in ways youve never thought of before is unbelievable. Friends, Gods not afraid of those types of whys. Its in that context talking about the double-minded man, this coming to God and asking why and seeking for wisdom that we have to make sure we are the good kind of child asking why, receiving the Kingdom of Heaven as a little child, and not the rebellious child who says, WHY!?!?! Thats the challenge. God assures us-and interestingly again-that Jesus was that type of person. The first thing we see about Jesus in the Gospels and at 12 years of age is Him in the Temple doing what? Asking questions. He wants to know, so Hes hanging out with the wisest people in the country asking questions, picking their brains. Thats smart; in a multitude of counselors, there is wisdom, right? Its why we need to hang out with God. He knows a lot more than I do. Like Solomon, when I was growing up, Id read that Passage about Solomon saying, Im a little kid. I dont know how to come in out of the rain, and I was going, Well, if Solomon was a little kid, Im an idiot. I dont know anything. For years, that was my prayer, God, Im a moron. Please teach me something because I dont know diddly. Then whats amazing is you actually have to learn quite a bit to realize that you dont know anything. The more I know, the more I realize the distance between God and me is just unbelievable. He knows so much more than I could ever possibly imagine, and there is so much more to learn in the world than I could ever hope or think of. To walk around thinking that youre pretty smart is absolute stupidity. So to come to God with that seeking attitude is true wisdom. Friends, as we look at the context, thats wisdom in general. The second thing I would say is not only in general should we seek wisdom, but specifically in a specific situation, we need to seek wisdom-that is, as you look at the context, trials, difficulties, and troubles. Verses 5-8 of James are built on the first four verses where he says, Count it all joy when you fall into various trials and testings, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance, so asking for wisdom is set in the context of going through hard things. That's the challenge, isnt it? Thats when your faith gets tested; thats when your genuine hunger for wisdom gets tested. Thats what Gods trying to do in our lives, bring us to Him to ask, like the genuinely-seeking child, Why? I dont understand these things. Please teach me why I have a friend who doesnt live here, doesnt live anywhere close to here; he lives in the deep, deep South. Hes been through a lot of difficulties in his life in the last year. Weve been emailing a lot back and forth, so he shared those and I tried to encourage him. At one point, I finally said, So, what do you think Gods trying to teach you through all these things? He claims to be a Christian, and he said, I dont think Gods trying to teach me anything. I think bad stuff just happens to people. I didnt say it to him, but I thought, Buddy, youre going to be in kindergarten a long time because God allows things into our lives and brings things into our lives to teach us lessons to help us grow. Gods a good teacher. If you dont get the lesson the first time, whats He going to do? Hes going to repeat it. Isaiah says, Line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, there a little, Godll keep taking you back to school. Hell make you repeat that class till you finally get the lesson, so what is the mark of wisdom? Is it to say, Okay, God, please teach me the first time? If youre going through difficult things, your attitude ought to be, God, please dont let me waste this opportunity. Right? Thats the first thing. Its interesting that God is not afraid of you asking why when you go through difficult things. Two of my favorite people in the Bible-David and later on, Jesus-both share the same exact thought and the same words. In Psalm 22, David-you talk about trials-gets anointed king at a very young age, possibly as a young teenager. He may have been as young as 13 or 14 years of age. Everything was going according to plan. He was the youngest in the family. He was hauled out of his lowly position and honored in front of all his brothers. He went out to battle, beat Goliath, and became a national hero. He had the number one song in all of Israel written about him. He became the kings personal musician. He became the kings personal bodyguard. He became the commander-in-chief of the army. He was a national hero; he had it going on. It couldnt get any better than him getting to marry the princess. Wow! Then, guess what? He proceeded to lose it all. He lost his new house; he lost his new wife; he lost his position as the kings personal bodyguard; he lost his position as commander-in-chief; he lost his position as the national musician; and he fled and spent years running for his life. He viewed himself as a flea bouncing around in the wilderness from place to place, never staying one place very long because death was always a heartbeat away. In the middle of all of that, David cried out those words that most of us still know in Psalm 22, My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? Dont focus on the last part; just focus on my God, my God, why… Why? Friends, its not wrong as a child of God to ask why. Thats not a matter of doubt. Wise people of real fate ask why. The answers may not always be immediate, but you can bank on it-God must have a reason. I may not get it; I may not see it right away, but there is a reason. A connection with Jesus echoes those same exact words. Many scholars believe that He probably quoted all of Psalm 22 on the cross; as He hung there suspended between Heaven and earth dying for my sins and your sins, what words come out of His mouth? My God, My God, why… Again, we usually quote the rest of that, but I just want you to stop at that phrase right there: My God, My God, why… Its interesting-the Book of Hebrews specifically says about our Messiah-God incarnate, God in the flesh-that even though He was a Son, He learned obedience. He learned obedience through the things that He suffered. Friends, anybody can obey God when its easy. Anybody can be thankful when its raining gold, theyre in wonderful situations, and in health, wealth, and happiness. Anybody can praise God and bless God. Like Job of Old, when everything we have is taken away, and instead of blaspheming God, we praise God while everybody else mocks us-those points when your Dad in Heaven looks down and says, That's my kid! See him down there. Theres nobody like him! Look at all the heartache hes going through. Look at all the pain. Look at all the trials, all the suffering. Still, he believes in Me. Still hes trusting Me, that's faith. Thats wisdom, and God honors His children who do that kind of thing. God writes books about them, and He says He wont forget any of your tears. Thats genuine wisdom. My challenge, folks, is in those situations, genuinely come to God and ask Him, God, what are You trying to teach me? What do I need to learn? My second challenge-as we think about genuine wisdom-is that there may be specific reasons. I think of the word SIP. I want to talk about three reasons here. First of all, there may be sin. Sometimes we dont ask why because we dont like answers, right? It may be that there is sin in our lives. It may be that were going through adversity probably because were disobeying the Word of God. Thats quite a possibility. As we face adversity, maybe some of us never entertain that idea. The letter I-maybe its ignorance. Maybe its not open sin or rebellion against God; you just dont know any better. Youve never heard. That's a possibility as well. The letter P-it may be just pruning. Maybe its nothing youve done wrong. This is why I get little irked at some of the health, wealth, and happiness gospel people because if you go through a major illness, lose your job, lose your home, or a loved one dies, Well, its Gods judgment on you for a wicked life. Hogwash and that wonderful English word, Balderdash! It may just be pruning. God knows that pruning produces fruit in your life, growth, and hard things yield wonderful fruit later on. It may be that reason. Friends, in that light as you try to seek for discretion and understanding about those reasons, I would really challenge you to dig into the Book of Proverbs. Ive come to believe-after being through the Bible many, many times-that specific sections of the Bible teach us specific things and help develop specific gifts. In the Book of Proverbs, it says specifically that it helps us grow in wisdom. Thats the whole reason it was written. As you look at our culture, I want to take just a brief second to talk about some of the major themes that exist in the Book of Proverbs that our culture could really deal with. Friends, if you look around the world, sometimes we hear the words, There is no common sense anymore, right? The reality is that common sense is only a step removed from spiritual sense. When you chuck God and His wisdom, common sense goes out the window as well not too far down the road. Look at some of the common themes. How many of you have ever lamented the fact that there isnt much respect, isnt much honor for authority, not many courteous people anymore? Articles about courtesy get written all the time. People are becoming more and more rude, more and more discourteous. There is no respect. Youve seen the stories of 50 years ago in our American schools when the worst problems in schools were chewing gum in class and running in the halls. Now we have to have metal detectors. Is it any wonder what we chucked out of school a long time ago? Prayer. What soon followed? Lack of common sense. Im not knocking [our schools]. I love all our teachers and the good people that teach. That's not where Im going. Im saying when we throw God out of the picture and His wisdom, common sense soon follows. As you think about that theme of honor and respect for authority, God says in Proverbs 1:7, The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. You look at the sexual mess that our country has embraced. We sell everything from car washes, cars, toothpaste, to furnisher polish with sex. Sex is a wonderful, terrific, beautiful thing given by God in the context of marriage. The Book of Proverbs will tell you to embrace and love your wife, and he will be very picturesque about that; but he will tell you the incredible dangers of sexual promiscuity and that it will destroy people, destroy cultures, and destroy individuals. Sexual promiscuity is the path to destruction and hell. We need a dose of that in our culture. Proverbs is replete. Its just stock-piled full of financial information about how to handle your money. Im so thankful that my parents absolutely drilled into me from a young age the borrower is the slave of the lender. Im not saying that that is sin. Sometimes awful things happen to people. They go into debt, and while Im not saying its sin, I am saying-and God is saying-its true that if youre in debt, guess what? Somebody owns you; youre a slave. Now you look at our country. Do you think were a nation of free people when we are trillions and trillions and trillions of dollars in debt? I dont care what political party youre from. The reality is both parties for 50 or 60 years have voted to spend more, spend more, spend more, spend more, spend more than we take in. The Word of God says you cant do that; you are going to pay the piper. I always think its incredibly fascinating that God told the Israelites, You should not get a king because if you get a king, do you know how much you will have to pay in taxes? Ten percent. Paying 10 percent of your income in taxes will make you a slave. We havent passed that threshold in America, have we? In fact, do you know what youre literally saying when you give God 10 percent of your income or the tithe? What youre literally saying is God, you own me. You own me and everything I have. That's why God asks us for at least 10 percent of what He gives. Thats our way of saying, Youre the boss, and Im not. Its interesting that in the world empire Egypt, at the time, when Joseph took over after seven years of famine and saved the nation, the landowners, the farmers, and the middle-class merchants of Josephs day sold themselves into slavery to Pharaoh. They sold their lives, their cattle, their lands and everything they had. They said, Oh, Pharaoh, you saved our lives. Pharaoh said, Fine, youll be my slaves forever. Do you know what the Egyptians considered slavery? Paying 20 percent of their income in taxes. The Egyptians considered that slavery. So we think of the Fourth of July, and Im not advocating rebellion, Im just saying, Look how far weve come. Our fathers rebelled against England. What was the straw that broke the camels back? It was a two-cent stamp tax. Now, I know that two cents then was different than two cents now, but think about that. You stand on principles and say, You have no right as free men to violate us over two cents. I could go on and on. My favorite, as we talk about these issues in Proverbs-and I really challenge you to get into that Book-is Gods judgment on a nation. I heard a generation of preachers that talked about the wickedness of America and how God was going to judge it like Sodom and Gomorrah, fire and brimstone from Heaven. In the Book of Proverbs, one of the most obscure Passages, but one of my absolute favorites in the Book of Proverbs tells us-do you know what the judgment for wickedness in a nation is? This will blow your minds, and its really in the Bible. The judgment for a nations wickedness is bigger and bigger bureaucracy. Thats in the Bible. How come we dont know thats in the Bible? Gods mark of judgment on a nation when they turn their back on Him is they get more and more and more and bigger and bigger and bigger government. We have ceased to reach out our hands to the God in Heaven and bow our knees and say, Give us this day our daily bread. Instead we bow our knees and reach up our hands to Uncle Sam and say, Please save us, and give us this day our daily bread. Give us cradle-to-grave security. Right? I dont care what party youre from. As we talk about wisdom, the last thing-one of the other key things in Proverbs-is also one of my favorite things as a counselor. You hear so often in psychology circles, Oh, I just need to vent. How many of you have heard people say that? Maybe youve said that yourself. Oh, I just need to vent. We get sold this lie out of the pit of hell that if we dont vent, were going to get all eaten up inside. Did you know that Proverbs says, A fool, a fool, gives vent to all his feelings? Wise people hold it in. Huh? Didnt know that was in the Bible. That doesnt mean you dont deal with unforgiveness, bitterness, and all those things of the heart issues, but how many of you have seen people destroy families, destroy relationships, because theyre venting all the time. If somebody is mad, boy they just have to let someone know about it, I have to give you a piece of my mind! Friends, we reap so much hurt and so much pain because we ignore the everyday wisdom of the Word of God. Im going to give you a few minutes here of meditation, so Im going to ask Nathan Heider to play the saxophone. Hes going to college on a saxophone scholarship. I asked him if he would stand in the back and play a very mellow, meditative song. Im going to give you an opportunity to bow your heard or look up at the ceiling and pray. Ask God to give you wisdom. You can pray together. You can pray by yourself. If youre going through difficulties, maybe ask God why youre going through what youre going through. Take a chance to thumb through the Book of Proverbs, and maybe just read a few verses and meditate on Gods wisdom; so as Nathan plays, why dont you take a few minutes of meditation and prayer. Amen. Thank you very much, Nathan. I really appreciate that. I could listen to that for a long time. A couple more thoughts as we wind down very quickly. Look at the next phrase. It says he gives generously without finding fault. It will be given. How many times as parents or grandparents-even if your kids are asking good things-are you sometimes worn out? Sometimes its like, Oh, just please leave me alone. Dont ask me one more thing. The amazing thing about God-does He ever get tired of you asking why if you have the right attitude? The answer is no. You could come to Him 1,000 times, and He never gets tired of your questions. That should encourage us. Hes incredibly generous. As you think about that, God doesnt stop with His generosity at just a bare answer to the question. Solomon asked God for wisdom. God was just giddy with, I get to answer this! He said, Okay, Solomon, since you asked for wisdom, Ill give you that. Not only will I give you wisdom, Ill make you the wisest person that ever lived. Thats unbelievable. Then he says, Because you didnt ask for all of this other stuff-you didnt ask for a long life, wealth, or the lives of your enemies, or any of that-Ill give you all of that too. Isnt God amazing? And His Son, His Son seeks true wisdom. He seeks to honor His father, and what does He get in return? God gives Him way more than wisdom. He gives Him the throne of the entire universe. All of His enemies become His footstool. He is King of kings, Lord of lords, and will remain that way forever because God is incredibly generous and loves to give. When he asked, James said, We must believe and not doubt because he who doubts is like the wave of a sea blown and tossed by the wind. The challenge is to ask why with the right attitude. Friends, it doesnt mean that we dont realize hurt or anything like that. There is hurt; there is pain, but faith-as opposed to doubt-faith says, I know this hurts, and its painful, but there must be a reason. It doesnt say, Oh, yippie-kai-yay! Im going through pain. Im going through… That's not what faith is. Its just that in the middle of all of that, in our heartache and pain, we say, Okay, God, I dont get it now, but I know that Youre good, and I know that Youre generous; and there must be a reason for what Im going through. Faith says that God is good and generous even in the middle of that. Thats the greatest lesson of all. In the last phrase, it says, That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord for hes a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. Let me finish with this thought: Friends, God is a good parent. What does it mean that Hes a good parent? That means He doesnt give in to temper tantrums. Youve all seen it in the supermarket checkout lines, right? The harried mom with the kid that goes by the candy aisle or the candy racks and screams, I want that! I want that! The mom says no, and the kid screams louder. Mom says no, and the kid screams more and throws a temper tantrum. The mom says no 14 times but finally on the 15th time because the kid has trained the mom well, they realize theyre going to get what they want because theyve thrown a big enough tantrum. Heres my question to you: Is God like that? Is God going to give in? No. You can scream 20, 25, 30, 40, a million times, [and still] God will say, Forget it. God says, Dont think that that person will receive anything from the Lord. If you ask with that demanding I want my own way! Im going to get what I want regardless, Gods going to tell you no; or He might just give it to you with all the consequences because Gods a good parent. So if God tells you no, if God puts you on hold, there must be a reason. Faith says that God is good even in the middle of that. As we close, as opposed to the person of doubt who is double-minded and unstable in all his ways, let me say this: this is Faith Community Church. Youre here worshipping this morning because youre people of faith. Im convinced, like Paul says of his friends, that you are full of goodness, able also to admonish each other. God says that you as believers in Christ have the mind of Christ. That same spirit from Isaiah, God says He put that in you. When you trusted Christ, He gave you a spirit of wisdom, a spirit of counsel, a spirit of understanding; and as you seek God, that spirit grows. As you seek God, you can lay hold on that more and more. Thats really who you are. God says you have a sound mind. He hasnt given you a spirit of fear but of power, of love, and of a sound mind. God says, Greater is the spirit of wisdom that is in you than the spirit of folly that is in the world. Thats who you really are. Why can you pursue wisdom? Why can you open up this book and gain truth? Because you have been changed. You have been reborn. You have the mind of Christ. You can embrace truth. You can embrace hope. You can embrace the wisdom of God because thats who you are. You are not unstable in all your ways. You have built your lives on the foundation of Jesus Christ, that solid rock, so that you yourselves have become-as Peter said, You are living rocks. The more you seek His wisdom and walk with Him in prayer, in His Word, you become-instead of unstable people-more and more absolutely rock solid people. God says He is doing that work in you by His Spirit this very minute in ways that you cannot even comprehend. He says He is at work in you more powerfully, making you more stable, more solid, and wiser than you could ever comprehend. Believe it, and as you do, you will live in wisdom. Youre growing in wisdom; youll seek God, and your life will be truly free. Father, thank You so much for Your blessing. Thank You for this wonderful day and the hope that we have in Christ. We pray that You would bless each one of us who are Your people. Thank You for their love, their faith, and their attention. Thank You that we are living rocks in Jesus Christ. Thank you for His incredible example. Help each one of us to seek wisdom and pursue You with all our hearts. I thank You that we can pray in Jesus name, Amen.
Anybody else here like the music of Lifehouse besides me? All right. That song (you can read the lyrics here: http://www.metrolyrics.com/spin-lyrics-lifehouse.html), we just had the words to-no images this morning-because thats going to be our focus. Were going to be talking about when the world is upside down, when things arent going right, when obstacles and trials are what we are facing. We are starting a new series this morning, and Im excited. Were starting on the Book of James. Its probably going to take us all summer long to get through it. Were going to go through it chapter by chapter, verse by verse-sometimes little short snippets, 2, 3, 4 verses: and other times, we might take 10 or 15 verses at a time. It just depends on what the subject matter is and when James changes directions. Before we get in to the book-since this is the first week, I want to give you some introductory information on the book-I thought Id start talking about the series title. Its a little bit unusual, The Gospel According to Jim. Jim is obviously a nickname on James. There was a TV show by that name, still in syndication, According to Jim. More than that, I want you to get a feel for this book because to me, number one, nicknames are not uncommon. Do you know who The Sons of Thunder were? Its a nickname for James and John. The Disciples were called The Sons of Thunder. One guy was so positive, so encouraging, that they changed his name from Joseph and started calling him The Son of Encouragement; and that became his name-Barnabas, so Barnabas is actually a nickname. It means son of encouragement. Heres a tough one-this guy was nicknamed The Twin. Anybody know who that is? Its Thomas, right. I saw some of you mouth Thomas. Very good. One guy was nicknamed The Rock, Rocky. Do you know who The Rock was? Who was nicknamed The Rock? Who was nicknamed The Rock? Peter. You are Simon, Jesus says. I will call you Rocky. Youre going to be The Rock. So nicknames are not uncommon, so calling James Jim-not an uncommon thing. However, what I want you to do is get a feel for this book because when I think of this book, its just full of practical wisdom. Its kind of like if youre sitting down with Uncle Jim on the porch swing and its a hot summer day. You have your lemonade, youre rocking along, and hes just dispensing advice. That is the kind of book this is. Have you ever had somebody in your life like that? You sit down and talk to him/her. Maybe its an elderly person, maybe not, but [it could be] someone in your family or a close friend. You sit down, and you love to listen to him talk because hes going to just keep dropping these nuggets of truth that you pick up that are gold. Youre like, Wow, I could really use that. Anyone have people like that in your life? They just share and they just wow! Youre sitting on that porch swing with Uncle Jim, and hes saying, Yup, Im telling you. That tongue will get you in trouble. You know we tame everything, but we just cant seem to tame that tongue. Its like it controls the course of your whole life. Its an excerpt, a paraphrase from the Book of James. Yeah, you know it doesnt do any good to say to the poor, Go and be blessed. You know what? We have to fill their tummies too! We have to give them some food too. You hear the Word of God, you listen to it, you go out, and you dont do it? Youre like the man who looked in the mirror and went out and forgot what he saw. Just all these nuggets of truth [we learn] as we sit down with Uncle Jim, and he just teaches us life lessons from the Word of God. I wanted us to have that feel. I say, The Gospel According to Jim. Now we know this is not a Gospel in the sense of a biography of the life of Christ-Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, in that sense-but, what he does is he gives us a different look at the Gospel. Hes very practical. He emphasizes works, and there is a lot of tension sometimes between faith and works in this book and between James and Paul in the Epistles-the writings of Paul-which emphasized grace. James comes and he gives us a balance, and he talks about how it doesnt do any good to say you have faith, but if there isnt works present, what good is that? The evidence is the fact that you do belong to Christ, that there will be works manifested in your lives, so thats why we have faith and works on a scale. So he brings this new emphasis to the Gospel. Some of the teachings sound very much like the Sermon on the Mount like he was very close to Jesus because there was a lot of just pure Gospel teaching in his book. Thats not a coincidence. This is the earthly brother of Jesus, the half brother of Jesus. This is not James, the Apostle. This is James, the brother of Jesus. They have the same mother, very different fathers, so he is the half brother of Christ. Were not sure at what juncture he comes to faith. We know at the beginning of Jesus ministry, he was not a believer, but at some point-certainly after the Resurrection, but probably even sooner than that-the miracles must convince him. The teaching must convince him that his brother is divine, so church tradition teaches us-if you go back and you read the early church fathers-that this is the half brother of Christ. He does not try to use that to his advantage. In fact, he doesnt elaborate a whole lot. He doesnt need an introduction, and that's another proof. He just simply says, This is James. He is the leader of the early church. Did you know that? Read the Book of Acts 15. James is in charge, and the council of Jerusalem sets in. Theyre discussing the fate of the Gentiles and whether theyre going to be accepted on the basis of faith or not. James is the one who leads up that meeting. Peter has a voice, but James is the one who drafts the letter. The verbiage in Acts 15, the Greek that he uses and the words that he uses are similar to the words that he uses here. Hes the only one who uses some words that he uses in Acts 15 and in James. Those are the only places we can find those, so we have Italian there linguistically. So James leads the church. The churchs headquarters are in Jerusalem. Its later going to become Antioch; but at this stage in the history of the church, the church is very young, and James is the visible leader of the church. This is the first book written in the New Testament. Its not Matthew. Its not the Gospels. Its this book right here, so the first verse were going to read is the oldest-in a chronological sense-the oldest verse of the New Testament. Last week we read from the oldest book of the Bible; the first verse ever written was…what? Job 1:1, right. Thats the oldest book. This is the oldest book in the New Testament, about 45 to 50 A.D., so its written shortly before the first Epistles of Paul, and its certainly written before the Gospel of Matthew or Mark. This is the church in its infancy. This is the church really still in its very beginning stages, so with that as a backdrop, with that as a little bit of background of who James is and the background of the book, were going to start reading. Lets stand together and open our Bibles to James 1 (page 1196 of pew Bibles), and were going to read the first four verses together. James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations: Greetings. Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. Before you sit down, turn to somebody and say, Get ready because hes about to talk to you. Then you can have a seat. He says right off the bat, Consider it joy when you encounter trials. Thats not exactly what you normally would do, right? Hey, get ready to smile. I have some bad news for you. Heres some devastating thing thats happening in your life. Lucky you, today. Its not normally how we address trials or look at trials. James is being realistic about life and the way things are. Things dont always go our way. Life is not always good. Its like a bird I heard about named Chippy, Chippy the parakeet. Did you hear about Chippy? Chippy was living the life. He was the favorite bird, favorite pet. This woman had only her bird. She had no dog, no cat-just the bird, so there were no predators in the house. Nothing was going to eat the bird or put it in fear. Everybody just loved the bird, and the bird would fly around the house. In fact, not really until nighttime or until visitors came over was the bird in the cage. Chippy would fly around the house; Chippy would sing; Chippy just loved life. Chippy had a great cage-state of the art trapeze, great food-the best bird food that Mom could buy, and a great water dish. Life was good. He would just fly around the house singing. He was usually on Moms shoulder as she did her chores. He just loved life; what a great life little Chippy had. One day, Moms on the cell phone and multi-tasking while shes vacuuming the floor and not really paying attention. Chippy is down on the floor looking at scraps of food, and the next thing you know, she vacuums over Chippy and Chippy is sucked up into the vacuum cleaner. All of the sudden, he is in darkness. There is soot and dirt, and hes afraid. Of course, she panics and opens up the vacuum cleaner. She takes the bird out of the dust bag, and hes all covered with soot, dirt and dust. Hes flapping his wings and is terrified. Shes like, Oh, Chippy! We just have to clean you off. What do I do? She doesnt know what to do, so she takes him under the sink, turns on the water-not too hot, not too cold. Of course, the bird is frightened and flapping its wings. Hes just traumatized by the water. Now he is just all wet. What am I going to do? So she takes him into the bathroom and starts to blow dry him-just, Zzzzzz. Hed never encountered a blow dryer before, and Chippy is just terrified. Hes squawking, flapping, and his feathers are flying everywhere. Finally, Chippy is dry. She puts him back in his cage, and he just has this look of shock in his face. This world was this pristine environment where everything was always wonderful, good, and I was always loved. Nothing bad every happened. Now all of the sudden, hed been sucked into this vacuum cleaner. He was dirty; then he was under the water; then he was being blow dried. Wow! A friend days later enquired, Hows little Chippy doing? She said, Little Chippy is doing fine, but he just doesnt sing much anymore. Its not a joke. Its an illustration. You can go, Awww. Chippy just doesnt sing much anymore. Lifes not what it used to be. Chippys lost some joy. Some of us are kind of like little Chippy. At some age, life is good, and Mom and Dad love us. The world is good, and something happens. It takes the rug out from under our feet and just knocks us flat. We go, Wow! The world is not as friendly of a place as I thought. We get sucked into a vacuum cleaner. Its dark and dirty, and things happen to us we dont like, and we just lose our song. We have some Chippys out here today. You dont sing like you used to anymore. James is saying, I want you to get your song back. I want you to sing again. I want you to realize though life is hard, God is good. There are some good things that are going to come your way as a result of what youve been through. Consider a pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, many kinds. All of us are going to face trials-everybody here, everybody here, of many kinds. At different points in your life, youll face different kinds of trials. Some of us are going to face financial trials, relational trials, family trials, health trials, depression, emotional trials. I could just go on and on. You and I are going to encounter various trials in our lives, and sometimes those trials just seem like theyre more than we can take and more than we can handle; so James understands that. The church has been through persecution, and theyre going to go through more persecution very soon. Theyve already been scattered, and theyll be scattered yet again soon; so the words that he says are very appropriate and very real. We look at that, and we say, Well, how in the world can you say that, James? How in the world can you tell us to consider it joy when we encounter trials? Really, its not a how question we should ask. Its more of a why. Why can James say that? What does he know that we dont know? Why can James make such a bold and audacious statement as consider it joy when you encounter trials. Hes going to answer that. Hes going to say, Why? Why, James? Because… he says in Verse 3, Because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Ginosko meant to know with certainty-to know with a certainty. He says, We know… Hes talking about our mindset or our attitude. He says, Were coming in to a trial, and we know that God is for us. Thats like that song we sang. We know that God can work in and through that trial. Hes not saying be thankful for the bad thing or be happy about the bad thing. If you break your leg, hes not asking you to rejoice, Oh, great! I broke my leg! Or, I lost my job! For some of you, it might-I dont know your job. Maybe that would be good news. Its not for you. Thats not funny. Whatever it is, hes not saying, Lets pretend. Put on a happy house. No, when a hardship comes and makes us sad, were going to cry. If it makes us mad, were going to be angry; but what he is doing is encouraging us to look beyond at the beginning. He says, See the end. See the end. He says, Knowing that the testing of our faith… and this word testing doesnt mean tempting. It always means to test, to prepare for something greater down the road. Its to equip. Its to get you ready. Hes saying, God is going to use this trial for us. God is going to use this trial to equip you, to prepare you, to mature you for whats coming down the road. When has the church been the strongest in church history? Ive studied church history. Have you studied church history? Id recommend that you do. What I noticed was a trend that when the church went through testing and trials, when there was opposition against the church, the church flourished. The church didnt buckle and fold; the church flourished. The Gospel was spread. Wonderful things happened in the world. When the church was living large, when the church was in power, in control, guess what? It became corrupt. When it was living that Chippy life, pre-vacuum cleaner, and everything was good and wonderful, the church was corrupt in history. You can read that, so we know that thats the truth. I have seen a very limited amount of the world. Ive not taken a lot of trips around the world, but Ive gone on a couple of missions trips-one to the Dominican Republic. When we were in the Dominican Republic, we saw the Haitian Church-these people who are so poor, have no rights, and are so persecuted because of the color of their skin, because of where theyre from, and their social-economic status, they are persecuted. When we went to worship with them, we have never seen such joy and love. They love Christ; they love one another. They have so few earthly things to be thankful for, yet you see God doing wonderful things. I said, This time, Jack, when we go, we dont want to just visit and say hi. We want to stay with them. We want to share that service with them. We want to linger with them. God willing, if Im able to go back someday by myself, I want to hang with them. I want to go where they live. I want to get behind the scenes and experience life with the Haitians there in the D.R. I will come back a changed man, I know, if Im able to experience that. I went to Sweden also, and thats the land of my heritage, so I was excited about that opportunity. I was able to minister there, and Im going back soon to Sweden to minister. In Sweden, you may not know this, but this is the most secular country in the world. The per capita atheism-there is no comparable. The church was in power, and they became corrupt. They abused their authority, and the Swedish people rebelled against that; and they want no part of the church, so they turned their backs on the church and said, Were going to abandon the faith of our fathers and leave God alone. Thats what they decided to do. Well, the church, of course, is alive, but those Christians that are there are very persecuted. One thing I noticed as I met those believers was how deep their faith was, how deep their roots were, how strong they were in the Lord because they lived-to be a Christian in Sweden, you will encounter adversity. If you look at a coral reef or you study coral reefs, the side of the coral reef that is coastline is often dying. Its not as bright. Its not as colorful. Theres not as much life there. It lives a very comfortable life. The winds arent as strong; the waves arent as strong. Its protected by the other side of the reef and by the shore, but on the other side where the waves are intense and the winds are intense, the coral reef thrives. They have beautiful colors. There are all kinds of sea-life and fish. Its beautiful, but it struggles every day for life and existence. I wish I could tell you that God created the world to grow in maturity, perseverance, and endurance as this word hupomone talks about. This word hupomone is patience; its steadfastness; its consistency; its endurance; its perseverance; its all of those things. I wish I could tell you, Will you just take a pill? Join a club. Listen to a sermon, but it doesnt work that way. It is built into us and instilled into us by the Spirit of God as we go through life and as we encounter these trials. So, James looks to the end. He looks to the process of what God is going to do, and he says, I can say I know with a certainty that God is going to use this to grow maturity and perseverance in your life, as Verse 4 suggests. It says, Perseverance must finish its course, or finish its work. Some of your translations will say, Let perseverance finish its course. This verb is in whats called the present active imperative, which means continue to allow perseverance. In other words, Jesus is saying, Work with… Were going to fight the trial, or fight God, or we will say, Okay, God, Im going to cooperate with You. Im going to work with You. Were going to work together. As that song said, When the worlds spinning upside down, you and I-were not going to change a thing. Were going to work on this together all the way through. Its talking about a cooperative spirit. Hes talking about a partnership, saying, Listen, youre going to go through the trial one way or another, like it or not. I mean James is saying, Listen, your outlook is going to help determine the outcome, how this works out for you. Outlook equals outcome, how you see this. The attitude you have as youre going through this trial and encountering this trial is going to make a difference in how it ends for you. Are you going to be bitter or better? Closer to God or further away? James says, If this is your mindset, if you have this thing, you say, Lord, Im going to let perseverance work in me. Im going to allow You to work in me. Im going to continue on in my faith through this. This is our part. Hes talking here about our will. Hes saying, If you will do that, God is going to mature you, and Hes going to bring you to the place of completeness, lacking nothing. This word teleios, this Greek word teleios, has to do with perfection. It has to do with completion-something that is functioning as it was created to function. It is accomplishing what it was designed to do. You had coaches if you participated in sports who were trying to bring this out in you, this completion. On the practice field, theyd put you through the paces, and theyd work you hard, so when the real thing came, you were ready. Some of you had teachers who tested you. They put you through the riggers. They made you study; they made you write papers, pop quizzes, and grilled you so that you would be ready to handle that subject matter and so that youd be ready for life. A good coach or a good teacher doesnt just prepare you in the academics-they prepare you for life. John Wooden passed away recently, the greatest college coach ever-John Wooden from UCLA. He won more titles than anybody else. John Wooden, the coach with the highest number of wins in college basketball-how many championships did he win in a row with UCLA, like seven or eight in a row, the final fours and won them in a row? John Wooden said not once in his coaching career did he ever talk about winning. Thats interesting, isnt it? He talked about character; he talked about teamwork; he talked about trust, but he never talked about winning. His end result was they won. He saw his job as to make them complete-not just for the game of basketball, but for life. Thats what God is concerned about. We want comfort; we want pleasure; we want avoidance of pain, and God wants our holiness. God wants our character shaped. God wants Christ formed in us, and this is one of the agents that He has chosen to use-life itself-this boot camp, this training ground that we live in called the earth. Speaking of boot camp, I think one of the ways Ill illustrate this with you is a story of a private who went into the military, and of course hed heard about boot camp. This is a true story, by the way. Hed heard about boot camp, and hed heard how rigorous it was, and he was not looking forward to it. Hed seen the movies, of course, and the evil drill sergeant. This guy was worse than anything hed seen in the movies. This guy seemed to not only demean him-which he expected-but this guy got personal. In fact, this guy got physical. He made this privates life a living hell. He was just dogging him every day. It seemed like he picked on him above anybody else. He just wanted to denigrate him and demean him, tell him how worthless he was. One of the things he would try to do was while they were doing these drills, he would try to break their bad habits. You know how they have to do the army crawl under the barbed wire, and theyd have to climb the wall-all the things that you do in boot camp. He was always cussing at him, talking and saying bad things about his mama and all this other stuff. Hed tell him how lazy, fat, slow, and stupid and everything like that; but he would tell them one thing, and he would just drill it. He had a bad habit of putting his head up. He would say, Keep your head down, soldier! Hed cuss and hed fuss, and that guy would get so mad. Hed say, I dont know why Sergeant hates me like that! But I hate him back! I cant stand that guy! A man hed made friends with said, You know, thats his job. Hes trying to prepare us for war. He said, I know that, but he goes beyond. He hates me. Its personal with him. He picks on me more than anybody else. You can see it! You can tell! In fact, one day he even got physical. He said, Private, Im so tired of telling you to keep your head down, maybe this will help, and he took his military boot, put it on the back of his head, and pushed his face into the ground so hard that his nose bled. He said, Maybe now youll remember to keep your head down! That night in the barracks, he said, Ill tell you what-Im serious. If I make it through this tour of duty, Im killing that guy! I hate that guy! I hate him with a passion. His friend said, Well, listen. Boot camp will be over soon. Well be off to battle, and you wont have to worry about him anymore. Yeah, I suppose thats true, and it did happen. Boot camp was over and it was time for him to go to war. He was put in the front lines, and it wasnt long before he was in combat with his pal next to his side. His pal looked up to see what the enemy line was like, and a sniper bullet caught him right between the eyes. He was dead; he was gone just that fast. Right then that private heard the words in his mind, Keep your head down. He heard his drill sergeants voice, and he put his head to the ground. He made it through that battle. In fact, he made it through that tour of duty unscathed. He went back to find his drill sergeant as he had promised he would do. He went back to the barracks and saw his drill sergeant. He made eye contact with him. They walked toward one another, but rather than trying to kill him, he put his arms around him and embraced him. Without saying a word, he thanked him because hed prepared him as a soldier. When he went into that battlefield, he was ready; he was equipped; he was mature. He was able to function and carry out what he had been sent to do. He was able to be teleios, perfect in the line of battle because of what that sergeant had taught him. He recognized that the sergeant was not his enemy, but his friend. Im not telling you that story to say in any way that God is analogous to the drill sergeant. I am saying that trials and testing are analogous to the drill sergeant. Im saying that when you and I go through those trials, theyre so hard and theyre so relenting that we look at those trials like theyre a drill sergeant. We hate them. Theyre our enemy. Theyre trying to hurt us. Theyre trying to destroy me. I hate them! I hate them! We become so angry, and like that sergeant, we start saying this-and I know youve never said this-but Im talking about the 9:30 group thats coming next. There are some real hardliners in that next service. What did I say? Did I say 9:30? (Congregation laughing.) I meant 11 oclock. You guys are awesome! That was a typo. Lets strike that from the record. You guys are great. Im talking about that next group. Thank you, Jesse! Some in that crowd, they go, You know what? Its always me. Why is life so hard on me? Why does everything hit me? What have I done that life has to be so hard on me? They start singing that Hee Haw song. You know the chorus, right? Gloom, despair, and agony on me-e! Ooohhh, me. Deep dark depression, excessive misery-y! Sing it. Ooohhh! If it werent for bad luck, Id have no luck at all! Ooohhh! Pretty happy crowd, apparently. Gloom, despair and agony on me-e-e! But lets be honest. All of us have sung that Hee Haw song. All of us would go, Boy, its me. I sure get my share. The truth is we all go through hardships. We all go through difficult times at different times in our lives. Maybe you went through your hardest time as a child. Maybe youre going through it now. Maybe its still to come. Its going to be different at each stage of your life. We have different trials at certain points in our life than we have at other points in time, but everybody here has gone through, is going, and will go through hardships and trials-everybody here. James is saying, Look, that trial is not your enemy. That trial can teach you. That trial can equip you. That trial can challenge you. That trial can mature you. Were not saying the hardship itself was a good thing, but we are saying that God can use that and will use that in your life; but you have to have that mindset. Let perseverance finish its course. James is saying work with, not against. He came to the realization that drill sergeant was on his side; he was equipping him. Friends, this is boot camp were in right now. This is boot camp, and God is calling us to holiness. God is calling us to purity. God is calling us to grow up. God is calling us to maturity, and some of the things Hes going to use are the hardships and trials that come our way in this fallen world that we live in. Some of them are caused by us and our sin; some are caused by the sins of others; and some just by the fact that we live in a fallen world. Friends, when we go through those times, those are the times when our faith matters the most. Those are the times when we are most receptive to hear the voice of God. Those are the times were going to do our greatest growing and soul-searching. Would you bow with me in prayer? Father, we thank You for Jim. We thank You for James and his story that he has to tell. Thank You for how You gifted him so practically to be able to communicate through Your Holy Spirit the words of life and truth. How radical his teaching was because the Jews to whom he wrote, if hardship came along their way, then God was against you. And if you were blessed all the time-you were rich, happy, and healthy-then God must love you. So to come and say, Consider it joy, was counter-cultural as much then as it is now. Father, I dont know every story. I know some. Some of us dont talk about our trials and hardships. Some of us keep it all inside. Others of us have shared what were going though because we just cant keep it in anymore. Father, whatever our trials are, we know that You are our Lord. We know that You did not bring about the trial, but You will use it. You will use it. The test has come, and, Father, we look to You. We ask You, Lord, when life has dealt us a blow and were in that place of darkness like that little bird, we are in a state of shock, that, God, when the dust settles, we can see again-that well see Your hand and take it in the midst of that darkness and despair. Lord, Youll see us through this trial. Youll see us through this adversity, and we will emerge stronger. We will persevere. We will endure. Its a hope we have in Christ. In Jesus name we pray, Amen. Ive stopped a little early today-not because I dont have more that I can say about James or our text, but because I want to let you know of some rather shocking news that happened to a part of our body that we need to talk about. James 1:1, it says a servant, a doulos. That meant somebody who was a servant or property of another, so James doesnt say, Hey, Im the brother of Jesus. You have to listen to me. James says, I belong to Christ. I am a servant of Christ. When I think of servants of Christ, I think of missionaries. I think of people who have left their homes, left their families, left all thats familiar to go and serve Christ on the mission field. Many times they struggle economically. In fact, most times they do. They try to just get by, and they stay faithful, and they stay faithful to their calling. Like all Christians-all Christians say, Listen, Im the servant of God. Ill do what God has called me to do, but I think as missionaries, theyve taken it to another level. They really have, so thats why we try to support missions in our church. We do support missions, and two of our missionaries for many years are John and Kris Voss in Sweden. Some of you remember John and Kris. When Kris mother became ill, they were here for almost three years. They lived in Janesville and were actually a part of our body plugged in to ministry. John was the head of our prayer team for Phase 3-if we could go ahead and put their picture on the wall, please, so you could recognize their faces; but they are our missionaries that we supported before they were a part of our body, and weve supported them since. For going on three decades, they have been faithful servants of Christ in Sweden, working with the people of Sweden, working in the secular society. Dr. Voss is an excellent teacher of the Word of God and has done tremendous things in Sweden. Im very proud of him. Im sorry to say that this week, theyd been doing some painting in their house, and he put some rags that had chemicals on them that were very flammable next to a heat source. They caught on fire, burned down the garage, and then burned down the house. The Voss lost everything. They were able to get some pictures off the wall from their wedding and of their children, and they left in time before any harm came to them. They lost it all. They lost, number one, their nest egg. They didnt have IRAs or ROTH accounts or big money set aside. Their home was their retirement, and thats gone. Do they have insurance? I dont know. I hope they do. Im in contact with them. Obviously they dont have a computer anymore. Theyve lost all addresses and phone numbers, but Im in contact with the elders, and Im trying to establish whether or not they had insurance. Right now theyre living in a home of a member of the congregation while they are on vacation. They are in a state of shock. They are broken. We can flippantly say, Well, its just stuff. But, what if that was your home? Think about things that belonged to your mom, your dad, or your grandparents that had been passed down to you. Think about things that your spouse had bought you on anniversaries or that your children made you at school. Think of all the things that you have that you saved because they drew that picture for you or whatever it might be; and now you have nothing but the clothes on your back. You have those memories, but all those material things-theyre gone. In your sixties, you are starting life all over again. This is what Pastor Voss and Kris are going through. As a sponsoring church and as a church that he and Kris belong to when they are in America, we are not going to sit idly by. This is a church that responds to needs. When I challenged you to support the home that helps children whove been sexually abused-they needed a new sound system-in one week, we raised $12,000 to buy them a sound system, a recording system. When I challenged you to buy an SUV for Pastor Sean in Haiti, we raised those funds, and we bought them a new SUV with cash. That became the vehicle he used to bring relief, water and food into Haiti every day during the earthquake. When we challenged you with the Haitian Church in the D.R.-listen, we have three churches, two in Florida and our church, that are paying for their rent for their school and their building, those two churches-because of the difficulty of the economy-dropped off. Its now all on us. We just sent our last check out a couple weeks ago for $3,000 to pay the rest of the rent for the year. Were already done for the year now with the Haitian Church. You rise to the challenges. Were going to open up a fund-you dont have to give to it today, but were going to open up today for Voss relief; and I would like to see us send them an initial check for $5,000. That sounds like a lot of money, and I know some of you, maybe youre going through hardships and you cant. Theres no pressure. We understand that. You give what you can. Some of us can give more, and that's okay; but were going to take a love offering for them, and were going to get them this check right away. You say, Well, what if they have insurance? Hopefully, they do; hopefully they can rebuild the house, but they still have to replace [many things]. Right now, they have only the clothes on their back. Lets say that house is going to be built. Is it going to be built in three months? No. Is it going to go through paperwork and be built in six months? No. So until then, they have to live. They have to live, so even if there is insurance, the need is great. If you want to give to them directly, you can write the check out to John or Kris Voss, you can do that. Its not tax deductible if you do, but you can do that. Well get it to them. If you want it tax deductible, you make the check out to Faith Community. You can designate Voss or Sweden on it, and then well present them a check. We will get it off to them within the week to start this fund and say, Listen, your family in Janesville is with you. We appreciate what you do for Christ. So were going to take this love offering right now, and this fund is open if youre able to give next week, next month, in the fall-whenever it is, we want to try to help them. We will update you, so lets go ahead and receive this love offering. Lets pray: Father, we want to pray for John and Kris. We thank You for their work, and we know that they are devastated by this loss, as we would be if this happened to us. They took what was most precious to them. That was their pictures, but they lost a lot of memories. Theyre also concerned about their future. We pray that this home could be covered. We pray that it could be rebuilt, and we pray that You would comfort them now as they dont know where theyre going to live, how theyre going to deal with this loss. Theyre coming to the point where theyre close to retirement, and theyre having to start all over. Our hearts go out to them. Lord, this trial is like a mean drill sergeant to them. Its belittling them and ridiculing them even now. Its telling them they shouldnt be on the mission field. Its telling them theyll never make it. Father, be their God. Let them know that You are going to work in and amidst this, and You are going to bring them through stronger and greater. You are going to provide for them, so, Lord, I pray that You give them that reassurance and that we, as their home church in America, would come alongside them in this time of need, help them, and respond to them. In Jesus name I pray, Amen.
That was actually a reenactment of a true story (link to video is here: http://www.sermonspice.com/search?topic=Sermon+Illustrations&q=Fair+Game), so Tom I hope I didnt hurt you when I threw that ball at you wherever you are. I didnt mean to. Well, lets go ahead and talk about that little illustration by these ethical world views weve been talking about as we wrap up this series today. If we put up all those world views, do you know which one that is? How many of you think its antinomianism? Thats correct. It is antinomianism. There are no rules-make it up as you go. Whatever you think is right, go ahead and do that. If thats what you think, if that's what you believe, there are no absolutes, so there are no rules. Play the game any way you want to play it, and there are people who live their lives by that creed. There is no God; no moral absolutes; and Im just going to live whatever way I want to live and make it up as I go. If youre a situationist, then you would just play the game in love. There are no rules-just do the loving thing on the court, whatever love is. I fouled you. No, you didnt. Yes, I did. I fouled you your ball. Just be loving. Thats how youd play. Generalists or universalists, we just agree there are generally some rules, but we dont have to follow all the rules. Well do whats best for the common good. Well just try to get along here, and well just do whatever we agree to. All is well that ends well. The end justifies the means. Well just generally have some rules, but well lay them aside when its convenient to do so and is in our interest to do that. Absolutists, they have the rulebook. Even in pick-up basketball one-on-one, theyre calling three seconds. Theyre calling palming. Some of you guys have played ball like that-pickup games that are called by the whole rulebook. That absolutist [would say], There are rules to this game, and were going to apply those rules and use them. So thats the game of basketball, but in the game of life, we all see the world a little bit differently. Weve talked about each of the top three, and this Sunday, were going to look at the bottom three and talk about all of them. The first thing were going to ask you is the question, Are there absolutes? Im going to try as best I can in a short period of time to make a case for the existence of moral absolutes, and then were going to talk about some of those specifically, what they are. Id like you to turn in your Bibles please to Romans 2:14 (page 1113 of pew Bibles). In Pauls epistle to the church in Rome, he addresses this question, (Indeed when Gentiles…) that is those who are not Jews, (…when Gentiles who do not have the law, do by nature…) almost by instinct, (…things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law…) So he was saying almost innate, there are universal moral laws that are in peoples hearts. You cross culturally places that dont worship the God of the Bible or dont use the Scripture. In other cultures and other times, murder is wrong. Child abuse is wrong. There are moral absolutes that they abide by, and yet they have nothing in writing that they can read or look at. Hes talking here about our conscience as well. Look at the next verse. He says, (…since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.) He talks about that still small voice or that conscience [you often hear] when you do something, and you just know its wrong. You just know its wrong. Or you do something, you just know, I just knew in my heart that was the right thing to do. Nobody told me. I didnt read it. I just knew that was right. Other times, you feel condemnation. You feel shame because you just knew it was wrong. Even in the animal kingdom, you can see this phenomenon. On one of those boring days, I was channel surfing, and I ended up on the Animal Planet or Discovery Channel or something. I was watching a documentary on seals. I mean this is not something I normally TiVo. There it is, and its interesting because of the phenomenon thats taking place on the screen. There is this seal and a little seal down in this icy crevice, and there are all these other seals around her looking down and barking, making seal noises. Now I dont speak seal, but I could tell what they were saying. They were looking at this seal, and they were saying, Shame on you! Shame on you! Were so disappointed in you! What have you done? How could you do such a thing? And the seal is down in the hole with its baby seal. Her heads down. She doesnt even want to look up, and she has these nervous movements like, Yeah, I did a bad thing. Im really ashamed of myself. It turns out her little baby seal had been killed by a whale, so she stole the baby seal of another mother seal and took it to be her seal. So she takes this seal, and shes going off. The mother pursues, and she ends up down in this hole. Moms there, and maybe Dads there as well or step-father. Im not sure, but all the other seals are around there-like the whole clan. What do you call a bunch of seals? The tribe or the clan or the herd? A bunch? A seal bunch? Theyre all there, and theyre shouting down, and I wondered to myself, How did they know…? These are animals. How did they know that was wrong? How did they know? Did they open up the book of Flipper and go, You know, in the book of Flipper, Chapter 3, thou shall not take another mothers baby seal. (Congregation laughing.) How did they know that was wrong? Even in the animal kingdom, I saw this sense of right and wrong, and it astonished me. I used to have this little dog named B.T. B.T. had this moral compass that was unbelievable. Whenever she did something bad, we would know about it before we saw it because if she had a good day when we were gone, shed be happy and wagging her stump of a tail. She was a Boston terrie-thats why we named her B.T. So when wed let her outside, and when it was time to come in, wed say, B.T., phone home, and shed come running inside the house. (Again, congregation laughing.) Cute little dog, and shed greet us at the door. When shed been naughty, her ears would be back. Her little stump of a tail would be down, she would hardly even look at us, and shed be shaking. Wed go, B.T., what have you done? She would then walk us to the area of shame, and we would see this mess. We never said, Ok, B.T., this is wrong. This is wrong. This is wrong. This is wrong. But she would keep inventing things to do wrong, things that never crossed our mind that a dog could do. She would just do something, and shed just know that was wrong. I have to confess. Wed walk in the door, and shed be like, I did something wrong today. One time we were selling our home, and it was the big show-the big open house. We were going to sell our home and move to Janesville. The realtor called us all upset. There was no chance-this dog was going in the cage. The dog got out of the cage, got into the garbage, so they came in and she was like, This is the kitchen! It was like, Ah! Garbage is everywhere! So upsetting. But B.T. knew! This little doggie knew right and wrong. Friends, these people who say, Theres no moral compass were born with. There are no universal laws. They know thats not true because they know in their heart when they do something thats right, they know it. When they do something wrong, they know that too. They might be trained to put that voice out of their minds, but they know that-not just the negative, but the positive too. We know when we do something righteous that it is righteous, that that was the right thing to do. Im going to take you to the oldest verse in the Bible. I wonder if you know what the oldest verse in the Bible is-I mean oldest as far as the oldest written. Obviously Genesis 1:1, you dont go back further than that. I understand that, but this verse was written before Genesis 1:1 was written-not before it happened, but before it was written. This is the oldest book in all the Bible, and Im assuming they started with Chapter 1:1, so the sentence were about to read is the oldest sentence in all the Bible. When this was penned, there was no Bible to look at, no Scripture to study. I want you to turn please to the Book of Job 1 (page 496 of pew Bibles). In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil. Let me ask you this question: how did Job know what was blameless and right? Howd he know? How do you know what evil is unless theres a standard of good? How did he know to follow Gods moral universal laws if they didnt exist? Where was the law at that point in time? Right in here. He had a moral compass. He knew of God, and he knew what God wanted him to do, and he lived uprightly. Theres a second proof that I see observed in the world around us; and that is not only this principle of this inner-moral compass where were convicted when we do wrong, and we feel Gods pleasure when we do right, but also a principle that when you violate the laws of God-even when you dont believe in them-even when you say, I dont believe in God, so therefore I dont believe in any moral universal laws. Even if you do not believe in the universal laws of God, if you break them, and you break them long enough, your life will collapse. It will collapse. Look at Genesis 4. Remember Moses wrote Genesis. Moses doesnt live until 1500 B.C., so these traditions, these stories, are handed down orally for that time. This tells us the story of Cain and Abel. Cain and Abel presented a sacrifice to the Lord. Abels is accepted; Cains is not. Cain becomes angry and jealous, and he plots at that time to kill his brother. Verse 6 (page 4 of pew Bibles), the Lord says to Cain, Why are you angry, and why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it. What will sin do if it comes through your door? It will destroy you. If you do right, it will go well. If that is true, then the transverse is true also, right? If you do not do right, it will not go well for you, right? Weve all experienced that. Im going to liken it to you driving your car down the road. Youre driving your car down the road and all of the sudden a red light comes on the dash, and it says, Oil. You go, Oh, boy, I dont think I need oil, and I really dont have time to deal with this right now. Im busy. Besides that, the car seems to be driving just fine, but Im tired of looking at that light. Its really annoying me. Its like its lecturing me all the time, so I have to fix that. So you take a wad of gum out of your mouth, and you put it over the red light. There you go! You just keep on driving. You drive a couple weeks, and you know its probably still on there; but youve forgotten about it. Another light comes on. It says, Heat. What does that mean-heat? Well, its not hot. I dont need the air conditioning. It must mean something is wrong inside the car, but it seems to be running okay. Im just gonna put some gum on that too, so you wad up that gum and put it up there. The owner/manufacturer has built this car, and these little warning lights are there to tell you something internally is wrong. You better pay heed to this. You better pull over and get some coolant or get some oil. Somethings not right. The temperature is too hot, but you ignore it and you keep running your car. Then pretty soon things start to smell bad. They start to smell funny. Youre like (sniff, sniff), Whats that? That does not smell good at all. I have to fix that. Down go the windows, Zzzzz zzzzz. Just let the air in. Dont bother pulling over and finding out whats going on. You just let the air circulate in there. The next thing you know, you start hearing knocks. That didnt sound right. There is even knocking when youre driving the car. Maybe somethings wrong, but I just dont have time. I have to keep driving. Im in a hurry. Im busy, so Im just going to fix this by turning up the radio so I cant hear it. You start ignoring all these warning signs, and whats going to happen as you keep driving that car? One of these days, that engine is going to lock up, and smoke is going to come out of that hood. Youre standing on the side of the road. You lift your hood, and smoke is going up. You cant drive the car anymore, and you say, God! How could you do this to me? You ignored all these warning signs the manufacturer put in there and the owners manual He gave you to tell you how to live your life. You ignored that, so its not going to go well. Its going to collapse. So it is with life and these warning signs. The Holy Spirit speaks to us or even those who arent believers who have a conscience because of this inner-moral compass, and they ignore that. You say, Well, my life is just fine the way it is. Im just going to keep driving. I dont have time to deal with that or I like things the way they are. They mask it; they cover it; they ignore the rules, the owners manual. Pretty soon, whats going to happen? You keep stealing; you keep lying; you go around committing adultery-whats going to happen to you? Your life is going to collapse. Its going to fall apart. You say, Well, I dont believe there are any moral laws, so I can tell lies if I want to. Yeah, and youre going to reap what you sow because whether you believe that law is there or not, it is. It is. So, thats what Im going to say about the question of moral absolutes. Now we need to wrap things up and talk about these different Biblical, ethical world views-those who are absolutists; so lets go ahead and talk about these three: Well talk first about the unqualified absolutism, and I share that for those who are taking notes. If youre taking notes, and you want to study further, thats important. There are no tests; there are no quizzes. If you want to ignore that title and just keep the content, thats fine too, but the unqualified absolutist says there are many moral absolutes, many universal moral laws, and we are required to keep all of them. They are never in conflict. Any conflict that we have is a perceived conflict. Its not a real conflict. You always have to obey. Augustine was a very famous theologian and author who was an unqualified absolutist. He said, You tell the truth no matter what, no matter what. I gave you the illustration that first week when I told you about a woman coming to you, and she has a baby in her arms. Shes crying, and she says, Theres a man after me. Hes drunk. He has a knife, and he wants to kill me and steal my child. Im going to go this way and hide. You tell him I went that way. If you are of this persuasion, you dont lie ever. You have to keep the truth, so that man comes up to you with a knife and says (in a drunken voice), Where is she? Im going to kill her, take the baby. You have to say, She went that way, and shes hiding. Thats what they think. Thats what you have to do. If you say, No, she went this way, thats a lie. You just broke Gods law, and youre in big trouble. You have big problems on your hands because youve broken the law of God. They would say what happens with that man and that woman-thats up to him. That's between him and God, and youre not responsible for that. Thats the position of this point of view. I want you to turn and look at James 4:17 (page 1198 of pew Bibles). James is writing, and it says, Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesnt do it, sins. Anyone who knows the good he ought to do and doesnt do it, sins. This is called sins of omission. There are sins of commission where we do what we shouldnt do, and there are sins of omission where we dont do what we should do. Sins of omission are just as much sin as sins of commission. Things that we dont do that we should do are just as wrong as when we do things that we shouldnt do. Jesus talked about that in Matthew 23:23 (page 981). He was talking to the Pharisees, and He said, …you hypocrites! You tithe this and you give to that, but youve neglected the more important matters of the law-justice and mercy and faithfulness. He reprimanded them for what they didnt do. They were doing all the right things of the law, but there were some important things they did not do; and Jesus says those are important too. In Isaiah 1:17 (page 676), God is speaking. They are saying, We do all the right things. We wash our hands. We have all these religious ceremonies. We keep the Sabbath. We keep the holy days. God says, But heres what youre not doing. Learn to do right. Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of a widow. All these things you are not doing. He said, I dont want to see your festivals anymore. I dont want to look at your offerings anymore. They dont matter to Me. There is blood on your hands. And to Augustine, as much as I respect his work, I would say, You know what? In that scenario, if that man comes up and says, I have a knife. Where is she? Im going to kill her, Im saying, She went that way. (Pastor points in opposite direction.) If I say you go this way, then that means I become accomplice to whatever happens to that woman because I had a moral responsibility-I had a moral responsibility-to protect her. That trumps the truth in this situation. Truth, moral absolute, I agree with that, but saving a life trumps telling the truth in this situation. What about Rahab? Remember we talked about Rahab in Joshua 2? Remember that story? In Joshua 2, if you recall, they sent out two spies to the land. What happens is they report back to Joshua, and they get caught. They end up in the home of Rahab. We said Rahab-the name is a little ambiguous. It could either mean harlot or innkeeper, and if it meant innkeeper, we all owe her a big apology when we get to Heaven, Rahab, were sorry for the things we said about you. You were an innkeeper. Thats honorable. That aside, they end up in her home, and the king and his men come to the house. They say, We have military intelligence that say the guards are in your house, these spies are in your house, and you need to do the right thing. You need to let us know so that we can deal with these men appropriately. She knows thats probably going to mean their lives, so she has to choose between her allegiance to her king and her allegiance to her God because Rahab is a God-follower. She has to choose between her allegiance to the Truth-because Im sure she tries to tell the truth-or protecting the lives of these Israelite spies? So they said, Where are they? Bring them out. She said, Oh, they were here, but they arent here anymore. They went that way. They left. Theyre gone. Thats the way they went. So they send out men to pursue that path. They leave the city, and the gates are shut. She goes upstairs to the roof where shes hiding them under the flax, and she said, Listen, they went that way. You guys go this way, and you stay there for three days. Then it will be safe for you to return home, but remember me and my family. When the conquest takes place, remember the kindness that Ive shown you. They said, We promise you. We will rescue you. No harm will come to you and your family. Nowhere in the Bible does God rebuke Rahab. In fact, she is mentioned admirably in Joshua 6. She is mentioned admirably in the Book of James that we just looked at. She is mentioned admirably in the Book of Hebrews 11 in the Hall of Faith. She is esteemed. She lied! She lied! You see, what a graded absolute person believes is there are ethical dilemmas that we encounter in life. Think of it like an intersection. When you come to an intersection, you have a right of way. What determines the right of way at an intersection? Do you do that in an antinomian way? Do you get there and go, Okay, might is right or whatever? No, you decide by the rules of the road, and you learn the rules of the road. You take a test. If were coming to a four-way stop and I stop first, then I have the right of way. If were coming to a highway and Im going to take a left and youre going to take a right, you have the right of way. There are different rules in different scenarios. One of us has to yield; we cant both go at the same time. One of us has to yield. In these ethical crossroads, one of us has to yield. Thats what graded absolutism teaches. It says there are times when there are ethical dilemmas. When these moral principles collide and we have choices to make, we have decisions to make, what will we uphold? Mark 3, they try to trap Jesus, and they bring a man with a withered hand. They set him in the first row of the synagogue where Jesus is preaching. Whats He going to do because the law says you dont work on the Sabbath, and healing was regarded as work? The doctor shops were closed on the Sabbath, so if you were going to get sick, you better not get sick on the Sabbath. Whats He going to do? We know Jesus has a heart of compassion, so we know, Hes going to heal on the Sabbath; and we have Him when he does that. Thats what He did. Jesus looks around in his hardness of heart, and what does He say, If I dont heal, that would be a sin of omission. If I dont show mercy to this man… Mercy in this case trumps your interpretation of the law. Mercy is more important. I need to help this man. There are times in the Bible when the Bible says, Obey government. Obey whats been established. Obey your rulers and kings. Doesnt it say that in many places? Well, what happens when those collide? We have to make a decision. In the Book of Acts 4, they said, You will stop preaching in the name of Jesus. No more will you mention the name of Jesus. No more will you talk about His Resurrection. What did the Disciples say? We must obey God rather than man, so there was a decision that was made. There are ethical crossroads. That middle one-conflicting absolutism-says, Well, you know, there are many moral absolutes, and sometimes they collide; but then you choose to do the lesser evil. Like when the woman comes to you and says, I have a baby. Theres a man after me! He has a knife. Tell him I went that way, and she runs this way. If you say, She went that way, you lie; thats a sin but its a lesser evil, so God will forgive you. Well, we have a problem with that point of view because that would mean that Jesus sinned because they say that everybody has these moral conflicts, and everybody has to choose the lesser evil. That would mean if Jesus is tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin-as the Bible says-that Jesus sometimes committed sin. Sometimes He committed the lesser evil, which would make Him an imperfect sacrifice upon the cross. It would make him unworthy to pay for sin. But graded absolutism says there are all these intersections in life. We have rules of the road, and when we run into these ethical quandaries, we have a decision to make. What is going to win out here? In the case of Rahab, mercy for the lives of the men trumped truth. There were times when mercy or compassion-Mark 3, compassion-went out over the law, and there was a time in the ultimate intersection, the greatest intersection ever, when grace and love were chosen over justice. You ask, What do you mean? Well, I understand that at the cross, Gods justice was carried out, and His love was also carried out. I dont debate that theologically with any of you. We all agree on that-that God had to punish sin as a righteous God and that punishment was merited out on the cross, and His love was extended through pardon through what Christ had done, but it was how His punishment was merited out. Did Jesus deserve to die? Was Jesus guilty of the sins that He was charged with? Did Jesus deserve to have the sins of mankind put upon Him on the cross, earthly speaking? How many of you in grade school [experienced] a child who did something [wrong], and [then] you got blamed for it? They got the wrong person. They blamed you instead of the kid who really did it? What would you say? Thats not fair! Johnny comes late to gym class, so the teacher wants to make an object lesson out of Johnny and says, Because Johnny was late for gym class, you all owe me 50 jumping jacks and 20 push-ups or were all going to run an extra lap because Johnny was late. So youre mad at Johnny, and youre mad at the gym teacher because thats not fair. I should not be punished for something I did not do. Youre growing up at home, and your brother or sister does something thats wrong, and you get in trouble from Mom or Dad. You get punished for something you didnt do! Maybe you even tried to stop it. What do you say? What does your moral compass say when that happens? That is not right! You are outraged! You are sent to your room, or youre grounded, and there you just sit and stew. Im bringing back all kinds of childhood memories right now. Im just feeling the love all over this room. But you were mad because your sense of justice was violated. You said, I did not do that! I did not say that! Maybe you were fired from a job for something you didnt do, and you are just angry inside. You say, Thats not just and fair! So Jesus lives a perfect sinless life, always yields to the will of the Father, never gives in to temptation; and on the cross, He suffers and is punished for every sin that mankind has ever committed. Does that sound fair to you? God has a conflict. Because justice says that the guilty is punished. Thats justice, so if justice is truly merited out, you and I would die in our sins. If God wanted to act upon the moral law and say, The wage of sin is death. If you sin, you deserve death, then God would be just in doing that; but what did God choose? God chose grace. God chose to impart grace. At that ultimate spiritual intersection, love prevailed. Love prevailed, and thats the beauty of the Gospel. We who didnt deserve it were set free. Well, this series has been designed not necessarily to answer every question you have but to try to help you build the framework in which to process ethical choices that you have to make because I guarantee you you have been and you will be again at these ethical intersections. Remember when you are in those places that you have the rules of the road you can turn to. Did this ethical problem ever happen? What do we do? Theres a place in the Bible where a guy made an oath. He said, Whoever walks in this door Im going to kill to show my love for God. That was a bad oath, right? That was a bad oath because the Bible says the law says if you make an oath to God, you better keep it. If you make an oath to God, you better keep it. Guess who was the first one to walk through the door? His daughter. His daughter was the first one to walk through the door. Are you going to keep that? Would it be right to keep the oath? The law says keep the oath. If you keep the oath, you take the innocent life of your own child. Sometimes we get in these ethical quandaries of our own making, and you will be at these intersections again. Remember not just commission, but omission-not just the things we do, but also the things we dont do-matter to God. God has made it very clear. Sometimes well be in a situation where somebody clearly has violated the law like the woman in John 8. She has committed adultery, and the law says stone her. Jesus says, He who is without sin cast the first stone. She received pardon. You say, You know what? Ive collapsed my life, Pastor. I have ignored that moral compass. I have ignored those warning signs. Ive covered them up and masked them. I kept on driving and doing things my way, and my life has just collapsed. You know what? God is in the restoration business. The Holy Spirit is the One called alongside to help. Hes the One who comes near you when youre on the side of the road. [Your car] is smoking and youre stranded, and He says, Let Me help you fix that. Let Me help you get back on the road again. Let Me show you what you need to do differently. In the future, dont do this. In the future, make sure you take care of that. Make sure you put that oil in. Make sure you pay attention to these signs. Heres how were going to fix this. Heres how were going to get you back on the road. It doesnt matter how severe it is. The cars that are totaled, God can repair. If youll look to Him and say, Lord, Im coming to You, and I want to give my life to You. I want to live by Your principles and Your Word, God can restore your soul. Thats His promise. When He reprimanded people in Isaiah 1. He said, Im tired of your feasts. Im tired of looking at your sacrifices when theres blood on your hands and youre ignoring the innocent who are suffering, what did He say? Come let us reason together. Though your sins be red as crimson, they shall be as white as wool. Thats our God. Lets pray: Father, everyone in this room has ignored that inner-moral compass. Those of us who are believers, there have been times weve ignored the voice of the Holy Spirit, and weve ignored the Word of God. Weve paid the price because you reap what you sow. We have harmed our lives, and we have harmed the lives of others. Some right now might be in a broken down state. There might even be some that arent here today because of decisions that theyve made; but, God, You are a God of mercy and a God of grace, and You will forgive and You will restore. Those same men in Matthew 23 that You rebuked, for they kept the law, but they did not keep the way to Your things of the law. They ignored justice, kindness, and mercy. Those same men-You said that day, How Ive longed to gather you into My arms as a hen gathers her chicks, but you would not come. Lord, might we come to You to receive the grace, forgiveness, and restoration that we need. Thank You for Your laws that we delight in, that guide us through our lives. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
[This is a link to the clip Pastor is referring to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIhWBO_5x2E]. Sometimes probably doesnt cut it. Youre ready to jump out of an airplane, Everything packed right? Is it good? Probably. You want to hear, Yes, its ready to go, 100 percent. Sure, everythings fine, before you jump out of that airplane because your life is on the line. Paul gives a stern warning to believers. He said, When you pass into eternity, you need to make sure that what youve put your hope and trust in is reliable. You need to make sure that its strong, that its true, that it will stand the test. So he says in Colossians 2:8 (page 1166 of pew Bibles), See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ. He says there are some philosophies out there-there are some teachings out there-that will lead you astray, and the time when you need them the most-when you enter into eternity, you need to make sure that when you pull that ripcord, there is something of substance thats going to save you and deliver you on the other end. Dont be duped. Dont be careless with your soul. He gives us that admonition, so thats what were trying to do-go through some of the philosophies and traditions of this world and talk about them, examine them one by one. You may not have known some of the names or the labels that we attach to those world views, but youre learning them. Its helping us to go, Oh, thats what thats called, and you know that these are still very prevalent in our world today. We talked about antinomianism which means against the law. Its as old as the Garden. You do your own thing; be your own boss. Adam and Eve tried to set their own course, make their own rules. Judges said every man did that which was right in their own eyes in the dark days of the Judges in Israel, so that very much exists today-people who believe there are no moral absolutes, you and I make up our own rules as we go. Then we talked last week about a form of generalism called utilitarianism. Thats the end justifying the means; all is well that ends well. What is the greatest good is whats good for the most people. Thats what we need to do. Whatever is the right thing-there are no absolutes. There are no moral laws; just do what is right for the most people. This morning, were talking about a Third World view, ethical world view, called situationism. Situationism says that the decision that is right depends on the situation, and there is one guiding absolute. There is an absolute, but there is only one. Its summed up in this popular Beatles song. Were going to hear a couple seconds of it right now, so go ahead and play this song. Youll all recognize it. (Playing is All You Need is Love.) I like the song, by the way, but is that true? Is that true? Some of you would rather the song just continue. I understand that, but you know we have a job to do here. All You Need is Love, thats what the situationist says. Thats all you need. There is one moral absolute in the universe, and that is the law of love, so you do whatever the law of love dictates in a given situation-not just any kind of love. Theyre very specific that it must be agape love. In the Bible, in the Greek, there are three kinds of love. There is Eros, which is sensual love, and usually its concerned with your own pleasure. Then there is Phileo, love or brotherly love, and that is a mutual reciprocal love; and then there is Agape love, and Agape love is a selfless love. Agape love seeks the highest and best for another whether or not that is reciprocated, so the situationist says, We need to love one another with an Agape love. We need to seek the highest and best for other people and make sure that the golden rule is followed. It sounds really good, right? They say, Listen, people are never a means to the end. You dont use people. You use things. So people are preeminent, and we are called to love people. The Bible extolled the virtue of love. In 1 Corinthians 13 (page 1137 of pew Bibles), if you give your body to be burned but have not love, youre nothing. Didnt it also say that faith, hope, love-these things remain, but the greatest of these is love? Didnt Jesus teach that if you love the Lord, your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and your neighbor as yourself, those are the commandments right there. So Jesus lifted up love. The Scriptures seem to lift up love, so what could be wrong with a world view that has this as its mantra, All you need is love. Even complicated situations are supposedly resolved by this. There was a situation in Wisconsin where a husband killed his ailing wife. She was terminally ill and was going to die, so out of mercy-he was tired of seeing her suffer-he took her life, so he was charged with murder for that; but a situationist would say he acted in love. Murder is not a universal law. Its love, so because he acted in love, thats okay. If we take a poll here and say, Well, is adultery wrong? pretty much every hand would go up; but a situationist would say, Well, there are situations where adultery is okay if love is involved. Theres an example the situationists liked to use in World War II where a German prisoner was held in a Russian camp. It was a woman, and she learned the law that said, If you are pregnant, you will be dismissed because youre seen as a liability. She had met a friendly guard, and she asked him to impregnate her so she could be released from prison and be united with her husband and her children. The situationist says, That's fine. That was love. A situationist would say, If two people love each other and want to just live together, do what they want to do-as long as they love each other, they can do what they want to do, so theres this freedom as long as youre loving. Its kind of a perversion of what Augustine said. Do you remember what Augustine said? He said, Love God and do what you will. In other words, if you love God, everything else is going to be fine. The situationist says, Just love and then do what you will. Its a good thing in that its one law. There are a lot of laws in here to know, so its less complicated if all I have to know is one law and live it, but there are some problems-just like these other world views weve talked about-there are some problems with this one too. What about when what is loving is not so clear? There is a movie clip we are going to watch right now of some parents who found out their little daughter has leukemia [This is a clip from the movie, My Sisters Keeper. Unfortunately, there isnt a link at this time.] What are they going to do? How are they going to save her life? Imagine the desperation of this mom and this dad knowing that their little daughter may have a year, two years at the most to live? What would you do in their situation? Lets watch this clip. Its a little more difficult, isnt it? An act of love, she is considering bringing a child into the world to be an organ donor to her living child. Whats right there? What do you do there? Is that ethically right to bring a child into the world simply to be an organ donor to save the life of your living child? Things get a little messy, dont they, if there are no other laws in the world, if there is only the law of love? The problem isnt love. The problem is you and me. The problem is sometimes our love is misguided. Lets go back to Matthew 16 where we talked last week about Peter. Lets look at it from just a little bit of a different angle this time. Remember Jesus asked the question, Who do you say that I am? Peter said, You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Jesus said, Youre right. Flesh and blood does not reveal this to you, but by My Father in Heaven. From that time on-Matthew 16:21 (page 973 of pew Bibles) says that He began to teach them that He was going to go to Jerusalem, He was going to suffer, be killed, and on the third day be raised to life. Peter takes issue with this, and he pulls Jesus aside privately and says, This will never happen to You. This isnt going to happen to You. Im going to see to that. Peter doesnt want that to happen for two reasons. Number one, Hes the Messiah. He has read his Bible, and he knows the Messiah abides forever. Therefore, what Jesus is saying apparently is against the Will of God because Hes talking about laying His life down whereas the Bible says He abides forever. His kingdom never ends, so Peter is correcting Jesus. Number two, Peter loves Jesus. Its personal. This is his friend, his master, his teacher. Hes living this adventure. Hes now discovered who Christ is, and now its going to end? Peter says, No, I will be your bodyguard. I will prevent that from happening. What was the motivation for not wanting Jesus to go to the cross? He loved Jesus. He loved his master and friend. He didnt want Him to suffer any more than youd want a loved one to suffer. Youd try to prevent it if it was in your power to do so. So he loved, but his love was misguided because if Peter has his way, then mankind-including Peter-is lost for eternity. If Christ does not go to the cross, He does not bear sin. If He does not bear sin, God does not offer it in the pardon of grace through faith in His shed blood. What Peter was asking was for the damnation of the entire human race, but he did so out of love. How many of you in this room have ever thought you did something out of love, and it turned out it was the wrong decision? Let me see your hands. A lot of you werent paying attention because half of you didnt raise your hands. Either you werent paying attention or you just have a really bad memory. Many times we do things that we think are loving. Parents do things for their children, trying to protect and help their children, and they end up hurting their children because their children dont experience the law of reaping what theyve sown. Spouses will help their spouses and try to protect them and cover up for them, and it ends up being a co-dependency, an unhealthy, dysfunctional situation. They think its love, but its actually not. Its actually hurting, so sometimes we love, but our love is misguided. Its like the Disciples in Luke 9. Would you flip there please? They are to prepare a place for Jesus to stay in a Samaritan village. We pick up the story in Verse 51 (page 1027). It says, As the time approached for Him to be taken up to Heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. And He sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for Him; but the people there did not welcome Him, because He was heading for Jerusalem. There were ethnic differences; there were prejudices, so racial and religious prejudice existed between the two cultures of people. The Jews wanted nothing to do with the Samaritans, and vice versa, so when they find out that this person is going to the territory of their enemy-the headquarters of their enemy-they will not receive Him, and James and John are ticked off. They have a few unkind words to say. They probably said, Oh, you dont know who youre messing with. You have no idea who youve just turned away, but youre going to find out because were going to go back and were going to tell our boss that youre not going to let Him stay here, and you are going to get nuked. You are going to be gone. Youre going to pay. They go back to Jesus with this wonderful idea. They come back, theyre ticked off, and they have a solution. When the Disciples James and John saw this, they asked, Lord, do you want us to call fire down from Heaven and destroy them? This is our solution. Theyve rejected You, and because we love You, we want to destroy them. Thats their idea. Yeah, that will make it all right. Its not in here, so I cant say for sure, but Jesus probably went, What? What?? What do you mean-destroy them? See they were exercising their free will, and they had every right to do that. Just as the Disciples exercised their free will to follow Jesus, so could the Samaritans exercise their free will to reject them. He was not going to destroy them for that. If He was going to destroy them for not following the Will of God, Hed have to destroy the Disciples too because the Disciples were sinners just the same. There were times the Disciples did not do what Jesus wanted them to do. We cry out justice for the other guy and mercy for ourselves, right? Forgive me, nuke him! That's kind of how we do things. Jesus said, It didnt work that way. If I call down fire from Heaven for their sin, I have to call down fire from Heaven for your sin. These guys know Jesus can do anything, so theyre asking Him to reenact the miracle of Elijah on Mount Carmel. Instead of consuming a sacrifice, consume these people. We know You can do anything, and we believe. We have confidence. You just say the word, Man, and well be like Elijah, and we will call down fire from Heaven. Jesus rebuked them. Look at the footnote. Some of your Bibles will have this in your translation itself, and others of you will have it in the footnote at the bottom of the book. Some transcripts have this; some manuscripts dont. It says, And He said, Jesus, You do not know what kind of spirit you are of, for the Son of Man did not come to destroy mens lives but to save them. You dont know what spirit youre of. They loved Jesus. They loved God, but that was in violation of Gods moral laws. There are terrorists who blow themselves up on a daily basis because they love their god. They love their god so much theyre going to destroy people who dont serve their god. Theyll blow themselves up in villages, in shopping centers, on buses, and in hospitals because they want to show their love for their god and be received in Heaven as a martyr. Love can be misguided. Its putting way too much confidence in man if you think that we should be the judge and jury about how love looks and how love acts. Were going to learn in the next story that love does not negate the law, but love fulfills the law. Lets turn in our Bibles to John 8. In this Passage, Jesus is going to the Mount of Olives to teach. Verse 2 (page 1059 of pew Bibles) says, At dawn, He appeared again in the temple courts where the people gathered around Him, and He sat down to teach them. Notice Jesus sat down to teach them. That has nothing to do with the sermon, but I just wanted you to know that He sat down (congregation laughing at Pastors insinuation). The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. Because its just the woman, most scholars believe this is a setup because the mans not there; so wheres the guy? This is a married woman-where is the man she committed adultery with? Because hes not there, she was probably a pawn. She was probably used, taken advantage of for this very purpose. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. So shes there. Shes shaking. Shes afraid for her life. Shes ashamed, embarrassed, and crying. The law of Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do You say? They were using this question as a trap in order to have a basis for accusing Him, so the woman and her fate really didnt matter. What mattered was this plan was fool proof. This would not be the first time they tried to trap Jesus. It would not be last, but, boy, this was a good one. Whoever came up with this plan got high fives. What if… He tells his plan, and theyre like, Obadiah, you rule. That is a killer plan. Its fool proof. High five, and everybody is cheering on this plan because we have Him no matter what He says, no matter what He does. If He says, Stone her, then theyll say, Oh, wait a second. Dont You teach love and forgiveness and all of that? Which is it, Jesus? Law or love? If He says that, theyll say, But you know Rome says we cannot kill people, so are you against Caesar now, Jesus? If He says, Let her go, they theyre going to say, Oh, so youre against Moses, ha? Youre against the law, ha? So no matter what Jesus does or says, they have Him. They have Him, and they know they have Him. Theyre excited because after they ask the question, the Bible says, …Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with His finger. We got Him. Hes stalling. He doesnt know what to say, so Hes doodling. Jesus is down, so they think Jesus is scratching, going, What am I going to do? Lord, help me out here. Im thinking. But, you know, the thing of it is in the Greek, we read it, and it says, Write, but in the Greek, it uses a different word. He uses the word katagraphin. Graphine means to write; and kata means against, so Hes writing a word to write a charge against someone. Hes not just doodling. Hes writing a specific charge in the ground, in the sand. Now you understand when He stands up that He probably points down to the ground at what Hes just written in the sand and says, The one who is without win, if any of you are without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her, and He stooped down on the ground and began to write against one more time. They looked down and they seen their sins, things that they were ashamed of that nobody knows about, yet somehow Jesus knows. Theyre embarrassed and ashamed. They realize they are just as guilty-if not more so-than the woman who they have accused. One by one, they begin to drop their stones and walk away. Obadiahs probably slapped in the back of the head, Stupid plan! To finish, Jesus stands up, and He says, Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you? Has anyone thrown a stone at you? No one, Sir, she said. Neither do I condemn you, Jesus declared. Go now and do whatever you think is best. God loves you no matter what, so live anyway you want to live. Is that what He says? He has this perfect balance of law and love. He says, Go now and leave your life of sin. To sin means to miss the mark. He says, Stop missing Gods mark. Stop living in contrary to Gods law. She had broken Gods law, and that needs to change; so Jesus lifts up the law and extends love at the same time. In Johns Gospel, Chapter 14:15 (page 1068), we read this from Jesus, If you love Me, you will obey what I command. To me this is an assertion of deity. He doesnt say, If you love Me, you will obey what God commands. He says, Youll obey what I command. In other words, He is making it sound as though the Commandments of God and His commands are synonymous. Verse 21, Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves Me. How will you show your love for God? By obeying His commands-plural. There is more than one law. Its not just the law of love. There are more laws that we are to abide by that are revealed in His Scripture. But love is the fulfillment of those laws. It does negate law, but it fulfills law. Same author, different book-the Book of 1 John 5:2 (page 1210), John says these words, This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out His commands. How do we show love? By obeying laws-plural. Obeying His commands shows our love for God. It shows our love for our fellow men. So this world view is in direct conflict with Gods Word. Gods Word says, There are many universal laws. Live a life of love and you will fulfill them, but it does not negate them. We come to the point where we rejoice in the laws of God because they keep us from hurting ourselves, hurting others, or squandering our one and only life. We come to see that laws are our friend, and theyre a way that we demonstrate our love for God. Would you join me in prayer this morning? Father, it sounds so good when you hear it espoused. You know all we need is love. That's the one thing we need, and we dont need anything else; but when it comes down to it, life is complex. Ethical decisions sometimes are complex. As finite men, we sometimes dont know what love is and how it should be demonstrated. We need Your laws to guide us as we make decisions. Lord, sometimes weve come to see law as something that is against us when actuality it is something that is for us. Its there for our benefit. Its there for the benefit of others. It is a tangible way that we express our love for You and for our fellow men. If we will live a life of love, we will fulfill the commandments, not negate them. We thank You for the demonstration of this in John 8, this perfect balance of love and law that we see in Your example of the adulterous woman; so, Lord, might we take these teachings, these principles, apply them to our hearts and lives at the discernment and leading of Your Holy Spirit. In Jesus name, we pray, Amen.
Would you please open your Bibles up this morning to the Book of Colossians 2? I just want to bring us back to our theme and our purpose because its been a little while since I covered this. Were doing a series on ethical world views. In Colossians 2, Paul gives the Christians a word of ammunition. In Verse 8 (page 1166 of pew Bibles), he says, See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ. His warning is to Christians, and hes saying, Listen, if you are not careful, you can be swept up. You can be susceptible. You too can succumb to the philosophies that are in the world until you end up resembling the world rather than Christ until you become captive in your mind to a mindset that is not of God, so he says to the church-to Christians, Because you live in this world, you need to be careful. Be careful what you espouse, what you believe, because there are influences around you that can steer you down a wrong path. So thats why were on this series. These messages arent the kind of messages that inspire you. Boy, I just feel good about myself or I feel good about my faith. This isnt that kind of a message. These arent designed to be. These are more designed to educate us and to make us aware and also to realize that things are not always as cut and dried as they seem. Sometimes as Christians, we think, Oh, we have it all figured it. We know black from white. Its all clear. And its not. There are issues that we should struggle with as believers in ethics. Whats right and whats clear to do if left up to you and me is not always clearly seen. Were going to watch a clip this morning because our subject matter is utilitarianism, which is a school of thought-a philosophy of generalism. It says there are no universal laws. We talked about antinomianism a few weeks ago which says every person makes up their own right and wrong. You are your own god. Well, in generalism or utilitarianism, we say, Well, there are general rules, but there are no universal rules. Really, what is good is what brings about the greatest good for the greatest amount of people. Thats what utilitarians believe. What brings about the greatest good for the greatest number of people-that is what is good. The end justifies the means. All is well that…? Ends well, exactly. You may have even muttered that. Well, is that true? Is all well that ends well? Does the end justify the means? Utilitarians would say that if you start off to do a good act and it has a bad consequence, that was a bad act. If you try to rescue somebody from a car thats balancing on a cliff and in the process of rescuing, the car tips over and they fall to their death, that was a bad act even though your intentions were right. The transverse is also true if you have no intention of doing good. In fact, you might be intending to do harm, but if it ends up being good for some strange reason, that was a good deed. Everything is consumed with the end, with the outcome; and the outcome-not the actual act-determines whether something is right or good. Were going to explore that prevalent world view this morning from Scripture and talk about that philosophy. The first thing were gonna do is were gonna watch a clip from the movie Seven Pounds. Has anyone seen that movie with Will Smith? Were gonna watch a short clip, and Im gonna tell you what happens in the movie. If you say, Oh, Ive been wanting to see that movie, youve had over two years to see this movie (congregation laughing). Your time is up, so I would encourage you to just plug your ears if you dont want to know what this movie is about-the surprise ending, which some people liked and some people didnt. Well talk about it. Lets watch this clip from the movie, Seven Pounds. [Clip is played.] Thats how the movie starts, and then it takes you on a lot of twists and turns, and you come to find out that this character was in a car accident. He caused the accident, and innocent lives were lost because of his negligence in driving, so he is racked with guilt. He is consumed by guilt, and he comes up with a plan of how to make it right, how to make his life count for something good. Hes young; hes healthy; hes in the prime of life, and he knows people who need his organs-his eyes, his heart. His girlfriend is dying of a diseased heart, and then she has a transplant. She is going to die. His brother needs one of his organs. Other people that hes come to know that are good people need other organs that he has, so he decides the best thing he can do with his life since he cost the lives of other innocent people is to surrender his life, so he commits suicide. He fills the bathtub up with water and ice to preserve his organs. He has a poisonous jellyfish come in the tub, and it stings him and he dies. Theres a note there for the ambulance workers to be careful because the floor is wet, and theres a poisonous jellyfish in the water. Hes warning them. Hes really been a good person. He gives his house away to a poor family, and you see these people become the recipients of his organs. You see them living and enjoying life. Its one of those movies that leaves you just thinking. My wife wants to go to a movie and be entertained and feel happy. She wants a happy ending, and this didnt do that for her; but for me, I said I liked the film because it made me think. It made me think about ethics. So a utilitarian would look at that and say, Well, heres a story. The greatest good was done. These people were helped. These people had happy endings. Their lives were prolonged. This guy got his vision back. All these wonderful things happened, and its good. Others of you would say, No, its wrong because he took a life. He committed suicide. He killed somebody-even though it was himself. Thou shalt not kill, and youd argue that what he did was wrong. Then others of you would say, Well, isnt that what Jesus did? Didnt Jesus lay down His life and sacrifice His life for the greater good? Didnt He give of Himself so others would live? So wed find that even in a room where people are followers of Christ, we might disagree on the meaning of what Will Smiths character did-the rightness or the wrongness. Things are not always easy to understand. Its not always easy to determine what is right or wrong. I want to share a story with you, but before I share the story, I want to ask a question. The question is this: how many of you think its ever right for a Christian who is a leader, a pastor, a theologian to plot to kill the head of state of a country? Can you foresee any circumstances where that might be acceptable or correct? For a Christian leader, theologian pastor to plot to kill the head of a country. Can you foresee any circumstances where that would be right? I have a few. In the past services, there has only been one hand that has gone up. In the Saturday night service, there was nobody. The 8 oclock service, nobody; 9:30, one [person put their hand up]. In this service, there are about five. I want to tell you the story about a young pastor and theologian. He was born into affluence. His father was educated, a professor at a leading university. His mother received a degree which was very rare in those days from a major university. He grew up in a very Godly home, very structured, and theology was something that attracted him at a young age. By the age of 21, he had already become a doctor. He became a doctor of theology at the age of 21. His dissertation was one of the greatest theological pieces ever written. Many people regard him as the greatest theological mind of modern times. By his early twenties, he was an ordained minister, was traveling around the world, and was teaching at a prestigious theological seminary. He was living a good life and doing good things, but the government began to change. A party was coming to power, which seemed to be corrupt. It was almost like he could read the writing on the wall that this party and this leader was up to no good. They were espousing doctrines of hate, of superiority, of one race over another. They were taking away human rights and civil rights. In fact, it had become so corrupt that for the state-run church and this corrupt regime, it was almost impossible to distinguish them. It was as if the state lived to propagate the doctrines of this regime, and the regime just fed in to the church. I use the word church with italics because they were espousing things that are contrary to the Scripture. This pastor said, We need to come out and be separate. This is not the church. The state is not the head of the church. Jesus is the head of the church. The church does not teach against the equality of all people. It should not, so we need to separate ourselves, and he started a new church called the Confessing Church. They said, All true Christians need to come out from the state-run church because its teachings are contrary to the Gospel, and we need to unite across denominational lines and form this Confessing Church, and thats what they did. His message became increasingly strong as the government became more aggressive in its steps. Innocent people, crippled people, minorities, Jews, handicapped people were all being put in to concentration camps, and rumors were that some were even being executed. There was an ethnic cleansing going on. People were hearing that their race, their color, was the superior, so many in the church and many in society were loving the message. This leader had brought economic prosperity at a time when the country had been in a depression, so people who should know better by the millions were following after his leadership. The pastor tried to warn, You have to get on the airwaves and warn, but he was literally cut off in the middle of his speech one time while on the radio. The leader of this country said that he should not speak anymore, so his rights to speak, to teach theology, and to ordain pastors were taken away from him, so his ministry went underground. He began to teach, train and write underground, so the Confessing Church continued but away from the eyes of the government. As the government became stronger and as the leader went from a leader to a dictator, this pastor who was a pacifist foresaw that millions of people were gonna die at the hands of this brutal man; so he decided amongst other people that he would plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler. That would be his goal. As a Christian man, he made a decision that this man was going to kill millions of innocent people-Gods people-and he must be stopped. He plotted to kill the head of state. His name was Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He wrote many books-including books from prison-because he was soon arrested. The plot was uncovered, and he was ordered to be executed. Just days before the allied forces would come and liberate and defeat the Nazi Party, the Third Reich, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was lead to the gallows and hung by a wire until dead. The same question I asked you just a moment ago-is it ever right for a Christian, a pastor, or a theologian-to plot to assassinate the head of state? Most hands did not go up. A few of you now are telling me, You didnt tell me it was Hitler! The question still stands, and some of you who would not raise your hand a few moments ago if I were to ask again would probably go, Okay. In Hitlers case, okay. Others of you would say, No! No, not even in Hitlers case. Youd say, The government is ordained by God, and then others of you would wise up and say, Well, not that kind of government, not a government that kills people thats not ordained by God. Then, some would say, Well, thats murder. Youre murdering the head of state. Its still murder. Others of you would say, But hes gonna kill millions of people. So in this room, I guarantee you we would have a debate. People who otherwise get along and otherwise seem to think theologically along the same lines would be arguing their case, and their cases would be different. Do you see? Things are not always easy. Things are not always black and white. Things are not always cut and dry in the world of ethics. I want to talk about utilitarianism a little bit, and I want to look at it in light of the Scripture. Before we do that, I want to raise a couple of points, a couple of questions I have. You may be more skilled than this, but number one is if there are no universal laws, how do we ever determine whats good? You say, Well, whats great is good for the greatest number of people. Well, how do you know whats great is good? If there is no standard, if there is no norm by which were to measure what is good and what is not good, then how do we decide what collectively is good if we have no standard or measurement. If youre running a race and nobody has ever decided whats fast or whats far, how do you know if your time was good, if you were fast? There is no standard of measurement. We have to have a norm. We have to have a standard. Number two, if the end justifies the means, how do we know when the end is? How do we measure the end? Is it the day after the act that we determine whether it was good or bad? Is it the year after? The decade after? The century after? How many have ever had a situation where you thought something was terrible in your life, and it ended up being something good? Let me see your hands. You thought something was bad, and when all was said and done, it was good. We baptized seven people last night after the Saturday night service-seven people! A couple of those people got up and said, This bad thing happened to me, and this bad thing happened to me, but these [bad] things brought me to God. This thing that I thought was so terrible and so awful ended up bringing me to new life in Christ. So what was bad turned out to be something that led to something good. My wife wanted so desperately to get a job after nursing school, and she was hoping to get a job at the clinic; and they called her and said, No job. No dice. She cried. A couple days later the hospital called where shed been trained and said, We want you to come and work as a nurse. It was a better job, better money, something that she wanted to do more, and she wouldnt have been able to take the job had she already been at the clinic. You see? So what we thought was bad turned out to be good. And other times, some of you have had something good that turned out to be bad, right? Let me see your hands. Something you thought was great-maybe you took a job, and once you took that job, it wasnt what it was cracked up to be. Maybe you married Mr. or Mrs. Right, and they turned out to be Mr. or Mrs. Wrong. Some people wanted to win the lottery, Oh, if I could just be rich and have all this money, everything would be wonderful and good. They win the lottery, and theyre miserable. The whole world is at their doorstep asking for money. Some famous people have said, If I could just be famous, if everybody knew who I was and I was famous, boy would I be happy! Theyre miserable. The paparazzi follow them all over the place. They have no privacy! They say, I wish I could just be a regular person again. I wish I could just go to the grocery store again without people following me, taking my picture everywhere, and pictures of my children. You see, you think something is going to be good, and it turns out to be bad. But we know things can change. Things that we think are bad can become good and vice versa, so how do we define the end? Thats the second question. Then the third question is if its up to man to define what is good, then good is relative. We talked about that World War II theme. Staying on that theme, what about the dropping of the bombs to end the war in Japan-Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Is that good? A utilitarian might say, Well, it brought about the greatest good for the greatest number of people because millions of lives were saved. We ended the war. They would say its good because their son got to come home. If your son has been in Asia or been in Europe fighting World War II and theyve come home, and its not in a body bag, but theyre healthy and they get to live a normal life, you would say the outcome of the dropping of those two bombs was a good thing, but what if you lived in Hiroshima or Nagasaki? What if you lived in those cities? As the plane carrying fat boy, the name of the bomb, they didnt even sound the alarms because there were only a few planes. They thought it was just a recognizance mission. They didnt even sound the alarms. The bomb was dropped releasing energy unseen, unheard of before; 7,000 degree heat; 600 miles an hour stronger winds. Over 200,000 people died from those bombs. Half of them died because they were just incinerated in a moments time, and those were the lucky ones. Others hung around. There was no medical care. The hospital was destroyed. Ninety three percent of the doctors and nurses died in the bomb, so you would lie and suffer with your burns-men, women, children and infants-until they died. If that didnt kill you, radiation poisoning would kill you, and you would die a long, slow death-maybe many months after the bomb was dropped. If youd been a person living in Japan, and you had lost a child, father, mother, a spouse, or a friend, from your perspective, was the bomb good or bad? You see, it becomes a relative thing. Think about the cross for a moment. When Jesus announced the news to the Disciples that He was gonna suffer and die and He went to the cross, suffered and died, was it bad or good at that point? Its bad. Its bad. In fact, it was something to be prevented, Peter thought. Lets take a look. Lets go to Matthew 16. Youre gonna watch Peter as he falls from lofty heights here. If you follow the Bible, you know that Peter was a man who spoke his heart, often put his foot in his mouth, and didnt think about consequences until afterwards. Jesus is going to quiz His Disciples, and Hes going to ask, Who do people say that I am? Some say Youre John the Baptist. Some say Youre Elijah. Then He turns the question on them and asks, Who do you say that I am? Peter gets it right. Peter says, You are the Christ. You are the Son of the Living God. You are the One that weve longed for. Youre the One the prophesies foretold. You are divine. Youre the Son of God. Youre the fulfillment of prophesy. You are the Son of the Living God. Jesus said, Youve answered correctly, Peter. You solved the mystery. You answered the puzzle correctly. Peter is praised. He gets an A that day in the pop quiz. He is promoted to the head of the class. Way to go, Peter! You got it right. That is exactly who I am. Then Verse 21 says, From that moment on, Jesus began to change how He taught them. He began to disclose new revelation. He says in Verse 21, From that time on… from the time of that confession, …Jesus began to explain to His Disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that He must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. This does not sit well with Peter. Hes been to Sunday school. Hes studied the Scriptures. The Messiah abides forever. His kingdom never ends, so what Jesus is saying is wrong. Its wrong! He is going to let Jesus know that. Hes going to tell Jesus in no uncertain terms that what He is thinking is wrong. Jesus is his friend; Hes his leader; Hes his teacher, but more than that, He is everybodys Messiah. Think of what Peter is going through. He has just discovered and just made known who Jesus is, and not only is he seeing history fulfilled and seeing a prophesy fulfilled, he gets to be a part of it. He gets to walk and talk with the Messiah. He gets to learn from the Messiah-not just publicly, but privately. What a privileged person he is, and now its all going to end. Its going to be taken away from him. The way its going to be taken away from him-this man who he loves and follows is going to be taken away, beaten, suffer and die on a cross where thieves and criminals go. Jesus is a good person. Hes done miracles. Hes helped people. This isnt right! Good people dont die on a cross. Good people dont suffer at the hands of evil men. This is not going to happen on Peters watch. It would be like in that movie if Will Smith would have said, Im going to commit suicide and give my organs to people I love, and a friend would say, Oh no, youre not. Oh no, you wont because I love you! His girlfriend would have said, No, I dont want to lose you even if it means getting a new heart. I dont want to lose you! I will guard you 24/7. I will tackle you whenever I see you going near a bathtub. So thats what Peter does. Hes going to take matters in to his own hands. He says, Never, Lord! Verse 22 (page 973 of pew Bibles), Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. Never, Lord! he said. This shall never happen to You! Not only should it not happen to you, he says, It will not happen to You! Hes going to personally see that it does not happen. Remember Peter is the one in the Garden of Gethsemane that when the soldiers come to arrest Christ, he takes the sword and cuts off the ear of Malchus. Dr. Luke, whos in to detail, even tells us which ear it was. He cuts it off, and Jesus says [in John 18:11, page 1071 of pew Bibles], Put away your sword. Those who live by the sword shall die by the sword. The cup the Father has given me, shall I not drink it? So Peter is willing to defend Jesus. He says, I will stop You. You are working against Your own best [interest]. You dont even know what Youre talking about. The Messiah abides forever. Youre a good man. Youre not going to go to the cross. I will personally see to it that it never happens! In other words, Peter wants to personally see to it that he and every other human being is lost in sin for all eternity [congregation laughing]. Thats what it boils down to because he sees the end, and according to him, the end is the death of Jesus on the cross, and its bad! It must be prevented because you and I are finite. If you and I determine what is good, then good is relative. Peter did not want to lose a friend. He did not want to lose his Lord, and he didnt want anybody else to lose Him. He didnt want the world to lose Him, but he didnt understand that in order for the world to gain the benefits of the Messiah, Christ must die. Peter understood who Jesus was, but Peter did not understand why He had come. Do you see the difference? I know who Jesus is. Hes the Christ, the Son of the Living God, but I dont understand why He came. Peter thinks he knows better than Jesus. Peter thinks his plan is better than Jesus plan. I know nobody in this room has ever thought that, but the 9:30 crowd-you have to watch those guys because some of the those people think they know better than God. There have been occasions-some of those 9:30 people-have known the Will of God and done something contrary or read the Will of God and done something contrary. Not you guys! Understand, Im not talking to you, but some of these other folks sometimes think they know better than God. They get ahead of God, and they start trying to lead instead of follow. You might even know some of the people from the 9:30 service, so you know what Im talking about. Its good to talk to a group that is always in the Will of God and submissive to the Will of God. Thats why I love the 11:00 service so much! Anyway, what does Jesus say? He looks at Peter, and He says, Peter, get behind Me Satan or adversary. You are a stumbling block to me. You are trying to thwart Gods plan. You are trying to thwart the plan of salvation, which he doesnt understand at this point. He said, You do not have in mind the things of God but the things of men. People are very short-sided. The end of Jesus, Peter thought, was something bad. Now that brings us to point number four, utilitarianism exalts man. It makes man the arbitrator of whats right and wrong in our limited knowledge, in our finite wisdom; but apart from divine knowledge, you and I will not understand what is good. Thats point number four: without divine knowledge, you and I could not understand what is good-apart from divine knowledge. We are limited in our understanding. Now, keep in mind this same Peter who once said, You shall not go to the cross. Evil men go to the cross. Youre not an evil man. Criminals go to the cross. Youre not a criminal. Youre a good man. The Messiah is supposed to live forever. You are the Messiah, and this is a wrong plan. Through divine revelation, Peter came to see that entirely different. Lets turn to the Book that bears his name. Turn please, if you will, to 1 Peter 2 (page 1201-1202 of pew Bibles). The same man is now looking back on the same event. He says this in Verse 24, speaking of Jesus, He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness. He now sees the cross as not just an instrument of death but as a means of righteousness. …for by His wounds, you have been healed. As difficult as it was for him to watch his friend suffer, bleed, and die, he recognizes that God was going to use that event to bring healing, to bring reconciliation. Chapter 3:17, It is better, if it is Gods will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. Jesus, you cant go to the cross. Youre a good man. Now he sees its better for a good man to suffer for doing good than an evil man to suffer for doing evil. One of the few witnesses to Pastor Bonhoeffer said they had never seen a man more submissive to the Will of God. Before he walked the gallows, Pastor Bonhoeffer got on his knees and prayed earnestly to God and walked calmly up on the gallows and submitted to death without a struggle. In a matter of seconds, the witness said he was dead. Pastor Bonhoeffer discussed what it was to be a sufferer of Christ and a persecuted follower of Christ in his book, The Cost of Discipleship. If you havent read a book on discipleship, this is required seminary and bible school reading across our country, The Cost of Discipleship, by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, I would encourage you to read that book-submissive to the Will of the Father. Verse 18, For Christ died for our sins once and for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit. He comes to see the death on the cross as the key to reconcile man to God. What he once regarded as evil and bad, he now sees as the means of salvation. Its how God would pay for sin. Its how God would bring sinners to Himself. He would exchange the righteousness of Christ for our unrighteousness. It is the good news-how God took this ultimate bad event and turned it in to the ultimate good for the greatest amount of people. Man could not conceive that in his limited wisdom. It took divine revelation and understanding-the Holy Spirit-to illuminate that truth. Utilitarianism is a form of humanism that puts man at the center and says, You and I are capable of determining right from wrong. You and I can understand all these complex issues and questions and come to right decisions on our own apart from divine revelation. And Im saying to you that we cannot. We are fallen; we are finite; and we are limited, and we need to take a good dose of humble medicine this morning and say, I am dependent upon the Creator, the author of good and righteousness to tell me how to live my life, to tell me whats good, whats right, and whats truth. Lets pray together, Father, this morning, we want to thank You for the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, for his writings, for his struggle against evil, against oppression, against a regime and a man who sought to kill and did kill so many people. Lord, we see in his example whether one agrees that he was right or wrong, this is a man who loved You, a man who was vexed in soul with what he had to do-a pacifist who was tormented over the suffering that he saw. Lord, these sermons, these stories, and these Scriptures raise a lot of questions in our minds, and we realize that things arent always tied and wrapped in a neat little package with a bow. We see Peter, and in Peter, we see ourselves. We see ourselves sometimes getting ahead of You and thinking we know better than You, thinking our plan is better yet realizing in the end that You are the One who determines what is right and good. You can take what is harmful and evil, and You can turn it in to something thats good in our lives; and so we are dependent upon You to know goodness and truth. Help us, Lord, to have this humble awareness. Help us to have our radar up, as the Apostle Paul said, to be aware of the subtleties and the hollow deception that is a part of our society and culture-that we might reflect Christ and not the world thats around us. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
Its nice to see you here today on this beautiful spring day, and I hope youre all thankful for trees. If I were to ask you a question about one of the prevailing philosophies in our world, in our culture, today-we talked about world views, and we talked about evolution in the past-yet this philosophy is probably the underlying philosophy that evolution results in. This permeates our culture everywhere. If I were to ask you the question: what do Hugh Hefner, drug addiction, beer advertisements, and about half of our music and movie themes have in common, would I have any takers? What do you think? What do all those things have in common? One basic theme is that were to live for pleasure. When I was a kid growing up-I dont think this is around anymore-was you only go around once in life, so you gotta grab for all the gusto you can. See, you guys still remember that. It was a great advertisement, and, friends, thats the way it is in our culture. Whether you sell toothpaste or cars or whatever it is today, thats the predominant theme. This toothpaste, this nail polish, this lipstick, this car will make your life more exciting! It will give you pleasure! You will enjoy life and be happy in a way that you would not if you didnt buy this! Right? And so as we think about that, does anybody know the word that that philosophy entails-that we ought to live for pleasure? Anybody know what that is? Its called hedonism, and it goes all the way back to the Greeks and many, many moons ago-3,500 years ago. That was one of the huge philosophies, We should do everything that we do for pleasure. Thats very much our culture: if it feels good, do it. Why should I deny myself? Were here to have a good time, and the better time we can have, the earlier we can have it, the better. Now, having said all that, let me ask you a question: so, should we live for pleasure? Think about that for a second, and while youre thinking about that, our wonderful tech team-who was awesome in the first service, by the way-just mad props to you guys. I was jumping all over creation, and they were following me, but were gonna stick Revelation 4:11 up on the screen in the old King James because it says it in a way that some of the newer translations dont. If I were to ask you that question as Christians, a lot of times our immediate response would be, No, we should not live for pleasure. Well, I have news for you. Listen to this verse: You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for Youve created all things and for Your… what? Pleasure, …they are and were created. Why does God say He does everything He does? He enjoys it. It gives Him pleasure. He likes it! He likes it-thats why God does what He does. He enjoys it, and, friends, heres the interesting thing as we think about that verse, a couple thoughts: number one, what are you here to do? Rick Warren talked about The Purpose Driven Life. Well, what is your purpose in life? Youre here, according to that verse, to please God. I mean it is the basic foundation of your character. Youve been designed to please somebody else other than yourself. Well talk about that a little bit more in a minute. The second thing is that because you were made in the image of God, you were made to enjoy things. You were made for pleasure. In fact, the predominate motivating factor in your life is pleasure. Why? Because you were made in Gods image. Pleasure is not necessarily wrong in and of itself. The focus is-and well talk about it a bit when we look at Moses-how long that pleasure lasts. In fact, the problem with sin is that nobody ever said sin wasnt fun, right? If they say sin isnt fun, theyre lying to you. The problem with sin is, what? The pleasure that you get from that doesnt last. God offers eternal pleasure, eternal joy, and eternal rewards-in fact, eternal glory. God calls us as individuals made in His image to live for those eternal and long-lasting choices, so as you look at that verse that says, God made everything for His pleasure, that is inherit in that. Then theres the paradox. Philosophers call it the paradox of hedonism-that, like our Founding Fathers said it the Declaration of Independence-you choose to pursue happiness… You know, were endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights. Among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. If you choose to pursue happiness and pleasure in and of itself, you find something amazing. This paradox says that you wont find it. If you forget God, you forget everybody else, and pursue pleasure, youre doomed to a life of misery and sorrow. I think of Ernest Hemingway who pursued a life of pleasure. He was a mans man. He was everything that guys are supposed to be according to our worlds culture and ended up killing himself with his shotgun because…life was meaningless. After hed done everything and pursued every pleasure imaginable, there was no reason to go on living. He killed himself. Alexander the Great, of course, weeps at the age of 31 that theres no more worlds to conquer. The paradox is that happiness, pleasure, and joy are byproducts. In fact, in our culture, to please somebody else or to please others, thats often set in a bad connotation or context, right? If I were to say, you should please others-now Im not talking about being a people pleaser in the sense that I wont stand up for right or wrong. Thats not what were talking about because pleasing God comes first. Paul says that were to please our neighbors for theyre good to edification. The amazing thing is God says, Thats the way to real pleasure for ourselves. Thats what you were designed to do. When you please God and please others, something amazing happens. You find pleasure; you find joy; and you find blessing and happiness in ways that you would not otherwise. Were gonna delve in to that a little bit deeper here. Lets turn to the Book of Hebrews, or we can look at the verses up on the screen. Hebrews 11:24-26 (page 1192 of pew Bibles), I want to look at three groups of people-Moses, martyrs and the Messiah. There you go; theres three Ms for you. To begin with-Moses. Look at what it says about Moses. It says, By faith, Moses, when he had grown up, he refused to be known as the son of Pharaohs daughter. Well hold it there for just a second because I want you to think about this: in our culture, we dont think much when we read those words; we kind of gloss over them. It doesnt seem that big of deal. Friends, if Moses were in our culture today, he would have everything that our culture says is cool. He would have money absolutely coming out his ears. Egypt was the world power at the time. Egypt had a culture that no one else had. They had civilization advancements in ways that other people did not. They had the best architecture, the best buildings, the best riches, the best luxuries. You name it, Egypt had it. Not only is Moses living in that culture, but he is one of the big Kahunas. Hes one of the top dogs. In fact, hes in line as the sun of Pharaohs daughter to end up possibly taking the throne himself and being worshipped as God some day. That would be very big in a lot of circles, right? You see our movie stars, sports stars, music stars; in fact, its interesting, we dont call it American Idol for nothing, do we? Theres a lot of idolatry that goes on-a lot of worship. People long to be worshipped; they long to be exalted. They want everybody to recognize them. Notice me, and interestingly Moses gave all that up. He said he didnt count it as a big deal. It wasnt important to him. Lets go on to the next verse. Look at what he says, He chose to be mistreated… You have wealth, luxury. You have wealth, luxury-I mean he drove the Rolls Royce of chariots, and he chose to give it all up to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. Look at that last line. I talked about this earlier, but, friends, if someone tells you sin isnt fun, theyre lying. If sin wasnt fun, would it be a temptation? No. But whats the problem? Look at that verse. Whats the problem with sin and its pleasures? It doesnt last. Its only for a short time. I wont go in to it, but one of the most well-known studies, psychological cultures, a Stanford marshmallow study, you look that up some time. Ive talked about it before, but that challenges us that the thing that is most essential for success anywhere is the ability to delay our gratification, to put it off for the future. Its interesting that God is interested in teaching us to wait, isnt He? The process of maturity, in fact, is learning how to wait. Thats the essence of prayer. God encourages us in prayer by saying yes sometimes. Sometimes He says yes very quickly. Any of you who have prayed very long know that God often tells you to…wait. I always say God answers every single prayer ever asked. Sometimes He says yes; sometimes He says no; sometimes He says…wait, but He always answers. But, friends, thats what Gods trying to teach you-to wait. Thats where maturity comes, and that's the essence of real growth. Moses chose to suffer affliction with the people of God rather than to enjoy short-term pleasure. Heres the interesting reason why: it says he regarded the disgrace for the sake of Christ as greater value than the treasures of Egypt-because he was looking ahead to his reward. God is an unbelievable motivator. He knows how to encourage people. God challenges you to live the Christian life, why? Look at the words there, …because there are things of greater value… and …because you are looking ahead to, what? Reward. Thats the essence of the Christian life. God tells us, Take the mature look. Look ahead toward reward. In fact, Jesus talked about this often. He assumed that you would do things that were for your good, in your best interest. Thats why He said, What does it profit a man or a person if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? What does Jesus assume you will live for in that verse? Profit. Hes saying, Look, take the longest look. Do the most profitable thing. Invest in eternity. Thats the wisest choice. Lets look at the next group of people. If you didnt comprehend this, this would make no sense at all. He talks about the martyrs. Before this, he talks about a group of people who say miraculous things happen. They won amazing battles, you know-David and Goliath type stuff; Gideon defeats a massive army with 300 men; women receive back their dead raised to life again, and then he stops, and he changes. He says there was one group of people that had all kinds of amazing things happen to them, but theres another group of people who were tortured, and they refused to be released. Why did they do that? So that they might gain a better resurrection. Why would you choose to go through suffering, heartache, and pain? The answer is for better a resurrection. They were looking for future rewards, future joy, and future happiness. In fact, you know that in this life, theres a basic principle. We talk about easy come, easy go. The other side of the coin is often also true. The more something costs you, the more youve been through, the greater the rewards will be and the more joy you have-the more ecstasy, the more excitement that you will have when you reach those rewards. I think about the first state championship I ever won, a private school state championship with a group of girls that just made an unbelievable team. Those young ladies worked really, really hard. In fact, later on, when I went to public schools and even in college, I had kids gripe about doing not even a tenth of what girls in fourth grade did for me at that school because they thought it was too much, too hard. Yet, because wed been able to develop the culture in that school, girls would walk in in fourth grade, start every single practice with passing 1,000 balls from this little two foot by three foot rectangle on a wall. They never thought a thing of it. That was just the culture. You watched those girls work and work and work and work and listen and do what you said. Finally, it was the final point of that last game in the title game we won. I remember taking my clipboard and throwing it all the way up to the top of the gymnasium; and it was exciting, and it was fun to watch the girls get awards and metals, be all state, and raise trophies. It was exciting and exhilarating, and they still talk about that today. And it mattered, and it meant so much, why? Because they had put so much in to it, and they recognized that. Friends, that is the basic pattern. God says the more something costs you, the more youre going to enjoy it. Why will Jesus Christ enjoy eternity more than anyone else? Because it cost Him more than it cost anybody else. He will be the happiest, most joyful, most exhilarated, most exalted, most glorified person in the entire universe. Why? Because no one ever suffered in the way He did. Thats why theres a group of young men. In fact, theyre the brothers of Joshua Harris. About ten years ago, Joshua Harris wrote a book called, I Kissed Dating Goodbye, that made the rounds in Christian culture. He has two brothers that go around, do seminars and challenge young people their age to do hard things. Why would they do that? Why do hard things? Because they realize theres an inherent benefit of doing really hard things. It makes life more meaningful. It makes life more exciting, more exhilarating because theres a joy to reaping the benefits of doing hard things. The last thing, as you look at that, we want to focus on Christ-look at the words of Christ in Hebrews 12:1-2. If you doubt what I was saying about pleasure and reward, look at Jesus. If I were to ask you this morning why Jesus died, theres actually a multitude of reasons or one of my favorite words, a plethora, or reasons. There are a lot of reasons Jesus died. He died to pay for our sins. He died to satisfy divine justice. He died to please the Father, but Hebrews 12:1-2 (page 1193 of pew Bibles) says it this way, Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author or the starter and perfecter or finisher. Hes talking about a race-start and finish, of our race who for the joy set before Him endured the cross scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of God. Now, dont gloss over that. Why did He do all that? For the…what? Say that again. For the… A couple of you get it. He did all of that for the, what set before Him? Youre getting there-joy, joy. Try it once more. He did it for the joys. Is it just me, or…? Lets try it one more time, okay? It says, Look to Jesus, who… for the what? Joy. Oh, were getting better. I must have woken everybody up. …set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of God. Why did Jesus do what He did? The same reason God created the world. For pleasure, for joy. That saw Him through-the knowledge of what He was going to receive. In fact, Psalms says it this way: After He did his work for God, He sat down at the right hand of God thereafter expecting that His enemies who were going to be made His footstool. Thatd be something exciting to look forward to. Jesus is the example of that for us as we think about eternity. Matthew 25:23 says that someday well stand before God and hear our Master say to us, Well done, good and faithful servant. Youve been faithful over a few things. I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your Masters happiness, or the old King James, Enter into the joy of the Lord. What does He say Heaven is going to be? A place of joy and happiness. Whats the reward for following God? Its joy; its happiness. Likewise, as we group these things together, I challenge you, friends. We think back in the very beginning of the Bible, we see this in Genesis 15. One of the very first ways that God reveals Himself to mankind to Abram in Genesis 15 is by saying, After this, the Word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, Do not be afraid, Abram. Im your shield and your very great… what? [Congregation says, Reward.] Hey, you guys are getting better. …your very great reward. Thats reward! And its interesting-God reveals Himself this way in the very first Book of the Bible, and also almost the last thing God says in the Book of Revelation is this: Jesus says, Behold, Im coming soon. My…reward is with Me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done. The beginning and the end-God says, Im here to reward. Have you ever wondered why 2,000 years after Jesus lived, died and rose again, He has followers the world over who are still willing to die for Him? Because Jesus gets what many bosses dont get. Have you ever had a boss that you worked for that never noticed you till you did something wrong? Had a few of those? Its like you go day after day after day, and they ignore you and they ignore you and they ignore you until low and behold, you mess something up or do something wrong and boom! They jump all over you and let you know that you really messed up! Is God that way? I dont think so. In fact, as you talk about this principle, one of my favorite passages-Hebrews 11:6, lets look at this verse (page 1192 of pew Bibles). Look what it says about God, …without faith it is impossible to please God… Notice what were here to do-please God. Whats the benefit of that? I end up finding pleasure myself. Thats the paradox. Its like knowing God. Jesus said knowing God was eternal life. The amazing thing is the more you know about God, who else do you discover? Yourself in ways you never would have otherwise. The same thing is here. He says, …without faith, it is impossible to please God. He who comes to God must believe two things about God. Number one, he must believe that God exists, and number two, what do you have to believe about God to please Him? You have to believe that He really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really likes rewarding people. Have you ever thought that way about God? He really likes rewarding people. Thats what that says. In fact, He says if you dont believe that about God, you cant please Him. Now that should challenge you. Its why Jesus reveals His Father in Heaven as the One who says, I saw you give that person a cup of cold water. I saw you give that person a seat. I saw you let them cut in line ahead of you. I saw you let them go ahead of you. Im going to reward that. Hes not like our bosses that ignore us until we do something wrong. In fact, God is the One who-He may not reward you immediately, but He doesnt forget anything. The smallest thing, He notices all of it, and you can bank on it that there will be a reward for it someday. That also challenges us in our personal lives. If youre here this morning, Im assuming that you want to be like Christ. If youre a follower of God, what does that mean? That should mean that you really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really like rewarding people too. How many people cross your path day after day after day that do things for you and you never say thank you? Young people, how many meals has your mom fixed for you? How many loads of laundry has she done for you? How many times has she driven you in a car? How many times has your mom and dad put a roof over your head and done a number of unknown things for you, and you never say thank you? You see, to be like Christ is to continually reward and notice the good that other people do. That makes you very much like Him. If youre in charge of people, do you regularly praise them for their efforts, tell them thank you for their efforts, and notice the good things that they do? Honor people around you. That's the image of Christ, and thats the image of God. He calls us to be that way. As we look at the subject of pleasure and joy, Ill have you notice the flip side of the coin too. So should we only do things because of reward? Well, theres a balance. Lets look at 1 Timothy 6:17 (page 1177). He says, Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Notice why God says He gives us everything. For what? For our enjoyment. I just read an article by a preacher this week who said, Drink orange juice to the glory of God. Paul says, Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all of the glory of God. So how do you drink orange juice to the glory of God? You start by telling Him thank you for the orange juice, right? And if its good for you because it gives you vitamins, minerals and nutrients in your body-its the temple of the Holy Spirit-well, that might be a good reason to drink orange juice. Maybe you can share some orange juice with somebody, but then youre on the right track. Youre thinking, Why do I do things? Even the smallest things, am I doing it to please God? Am I doing it to please and bless others? If so, Im going to reap the reward of that as well. But you and I know that there is also a blessing from giving. Do we just do things for rewards? In Acts 20:35, Paul quotes the words of Jesus. He says, You know the grace of our Lord, Jesus Christ, who though He was rich yet for our sakes, He became poor, and he says, He taught us that its more blessed to give than to receive. As you look at that Passage, Its more blessed to give than to receive, what do you notice? Whats the motivation for giving in that verse? Its more blessed. Any of you who have done things for other people, what happens in return when you give or are generous with other people? You feel good, right? In fact, were talking about sin and motivation. I think all the psychological studies about that are interesting. There is a pleasure that you get from sin. In fact, one article I read said that were simply telling you what preachers have said for a couple thousand years, which is even though its fun to sin, its even more enjoyable to do good things. When you do good for others, how do you feel? You feel better; you feel good. There is a blessing; there is a joy inherent in giving to others and reaching out to others; and, lets put it this way: if I were to talk about Martha Steward or Rachel Ray-see, ladies, this is not a Sports Illustration-or Paula Dean. I had to get the Dean part in there. These ladies are famous; theyre well-known. Do you think they profited from being able to cook and all those things? Sure. Theyre famous. They have a lot of money. Theyre very well-known, and theyve been very blessed. Theyve had incredible rewards for doing what they were doing. Now heres the interesting thing: what if you were to take away all those rewards? No TV programs, lose most of your wealth, all the fancy cars, mansions, and all those things, do you think theyd still keep on cooking? What do you think? I think so. Why? Because they like it. It gives them pleasure. It gives them joy, and that's the balance that were talking about. As children of God, we are to live for eternal rewards, eternal glory, and eternal pleasure, but there are blessings even in this life. Jesus said, No man who has left Father, Mother, Sister and Brother and houses the lands for My sake in the Gospel who wont receive in the life to come eternal life, but also in this life a hundredfold. Whats He talking about? That you and I know that even if there were no rewards, no blessings, no benefits, no crowns, no trophies, no mansions-as children of God, would you continue to do what you do, walk with God, bless others and please Him? Would you? Yes. Why? Because you enjoy it. Because when you trust in Christ, He puts His Spirit in you. He puts His very DNA in you, and it is your nature. Its your heart to bless others, to minister to others, to do good to others, to reach out to others. Thats who you are, and there is a joy that comes with that. There is a delight that comes with that. If you ask me why I get up in the morning and read my Bible or spend time with God in prayer or sing praises to Him, Id say, Well, do I hope to be rewarded for that some day? Well, the answer is yes, but what happens right here and now? As I open up the Word of God, seek Him, and spend time with Him in prayer and praise, what happens? My hearts warmed. My hearts filled. I feel His presence; I feel His pleasure; I feel His joy, and I crave that. It brings us back again and again and again and again as we feel the warmth of His presence. We feel His blessings, and we feel His closeness. We hear Him speak to us in interesting ways. He lets us know that He is ours and we are His. Justin and I were talking before the first service this morning about waking up sometimes in difficult times and a verse will be running through your head or a song is running through your head and how God gives you [that] almost specifically just to let you know that He cares. I said, Yeah, about a month ago, I woke up… Ive never even seen the musical, but I had the song from the movie Oliver running through my head. Im like, Whats that doing in there? It was the song, Consider Yourself One of the Family. [It goes something like this:] Consider yourself at home. Consider yourself part of the family, and consider yourself one of us. Im like, Why cant I get that out of my head, and why should I wake up and as soon as my feet hit the floor, thats what pops in my head? That makes no sense. Well, I got up, went into my office, opened up my Bible, sat down, and I was reading from Romans 9. The first words that popped into my vision were the place where it should be said that you are not My people, there you will be called My people, and the place where it says, Youre not my children, there that we will be called the children of the Living God. Its like the Lord whispered in my ear, Hey, Jerry, just wanted you to know-glad youre in My family. Glad youre one of us. Im like, Wow! I spent like two or three days walking around going, Consider yourself at home. Consider yourself part of the family. I was like, God, Youre cool! And Gods saying, Just letting you know I care. Its that joy that you get from being in His presence that brings you back time and time and time and time again-even if there were no rewards. Its why on this side of the coin, Jesus tells the story of the servant. He says he goes and works for his master all day long. Hes plowing fields, and he comes home after a 14, 15-hour work day.Does the master tell him thank you? He said I dont think so. [Rather, he says something like,]Fix me supper. He fixes his master supper, and after that does the master tell him thank you? No. Jesus said, In the same way, when youve done everything Ive asked you to do, say, Hey, were unprofitable servants. All weve done is our duty. Whats He talking about? Hes talking about this whole attitude that theres a joy of serving Him. Theres a joy of walking in His presence. Theres a joy of blessing others that would drive us to do it, would make us do it, would encourage us to do it, the Spirit of God was in us-even if there wasnt a reward given. Does that make sense? So theres this balance. I do it because its who I am. Yet on the other side, God is so incredibly gracious that He offers us rewards for doing the things that we ought to be doing anyway. Isnt that unbelievable? Im going to share one last thought with you and then wrap it up. In Isaiah, it says it a different way. Ill throw out one line quickly to think about, Isaiah 43:7 (page 718 of pew Bibles), God says, …everyone who is called by My name, whom I created for My glory, who I formed and I made. Heres a different way of saying it. Instead of saying, I created everything for my pleasure, God says, I created you for My glory. I could ask the same question: should we live for glory? Well, the answer to that is yes-if youre made in the image of God. An amazing thing happens. Again, theres the paradox of if you lose your life, you find it because when you decide to live for Gods glory, what happens? Like Jesus prays in John 17, Father, glorify them with the glory that I had with You before the world was. Its like the God who says I wont share my glory with anybody else, He says, If we live for His glory, hell share His glory with us. That's mind-boggling. Just like pleasure, to talk about glory and say it a different way, we see people live for glory, right? Whats the problem with the glory that the people of the world live for? It doesnt last, right? Paul talks about those people who really get it. Theyre willing to go through suffering. Theyre willing to go through heartache. Theyre willing to go through pain. Why? Because he says, I realize that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared the… glory which will be revealed in us. And our light affliction, he says, …which only lasts a minute produces a far more exceeding and eternal weight of…glory. Thats why you do what you do-for pleasure, for glory. Thats why you do what you do-for pleasure, for glory. And again, heres the thing: when I live for Gods pleasure and Gods glory, what happens? I find that God gives me pleasure, and God gives me glory in ways that I would never have known. In fact, I love the words in Romans 2:7 (page 1113 in pew Bibles) where God challenges us. Listen to what He says, To those who by persistence in doing good… If you get up every day and think about who can I do good to today? Who can I serve today? Who can I minister today? If you think that way, look what Paul says youre thinking about. If you wake up every day thinking about God, others, and doing good, what are you really looking for? Youre really looking for the immortal triad: glory, honor, and immortality. God stands back and applauds people that do that. He says, When you wake up and you wonder how you can please Me, and you serve others and bless others, youre living for real glory. Youre living for real honor, and youre living for real immortality. Isnt that amazing? Thats what God offers to us. Ill wrap this up by looking at Matthew 5. Friends, the byproduct of that, of reaching out and blessing other peoples lives, is joy. Matthew 5 (page 958), he says, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God. He says, Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven. Whats the motivation in all of those things? He says, Do these things. Mourn over sin. Be a peacemaker. Show mercy, why? So that you will be blessed, or truly genuinely happy. Thats what the word blessed means. Its the Greek word makarios. It just means happy. Jesus assumes that youre motivated by happiness, but again, that paradox, you dont get happiness by pursuing it. Its a byproduct of other things. When you seek to be a peacemaker, what do you find? Happiness. And the greatest of all-the pinnacle of Christianity-when you return good for evil, what are you doing? Youre being most like your Father in Heaven. Youre laying up rewards in Heaven. Youre investing in Heaven because on this earth, it doesnt make a whole lot of sense to return good for evil, does it? But God notices, and He sees-and notice the end of that verse-and He says this: Blessed are you when people persecute you, hate you, revile you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely. Whats the motivation? He says, For great is your reward in Heaven. Yet, even on this earth when you do those things, what happens? In your heart of hearts, when you return good for evil, how do you feel? There is a joy; there is a knowledge; Gods Spirit answers with your spirit because you know that you did the right thing. You know you did the honorable thing. You know that youre investing in eternity, and theres a joy that comes from choosing to follow God. I challenge you this morning in an age of hedonism, in a culture that worships pleasure to live for pleasure yourself, to live for Gods pleasure and the pleasures of others because thats when you will find true pleasure, true joy, true reward, and true glory. Amen? Father, I thank You for Your Word. I pray that You would challenge us this morning to live for the things that really last and the things that really matter. Help us to be people who seek to glorify and please You and put others ahead of ourselves, knowing thats the path to true happiness, true joy and real rewards. Thank You that we can pray. In Jesus name, Amen.
This morning, we are going to be taking a different turn in the road here. We have been on our series on ethical world view; and were going to depart from that today and just have a traditional Mothers Day message, and well get back to it in a couple of weeks. I want to talk to you this morning about the Barren Place. The barren place is that place where we are in want. We want something good; we want something we think we deserve. We want something that we think we should have, but its not yet come, and were waiting for it. That barren place is a time of promise; the barren place is a time of hope, but its not a time of fulfillment. The person who has had a companion-has lost that companion and is lonely-one day many of us in this room will experience that. That loneliness you feel while you long for companionship is a barren place. Some in this room have been wrongly accused of something. Youre innocent, but people have judged you and think youre guilty. Until your name is cleared, that period that you were in while you waited is the barren place. For some of us, maybe we are oppressed in some way or even abused in some way, and while you wait for deliverance, while you wait for a rescue, that time you are in is the barren place. It could be a health situation where you are sick and long to be well. It could be a time when you discover you have a disease, and you long for a cure; and a cure just never seems to be found. It could be a person or a family that is in poverty and literally doesnt know where the next meal is going to come from. While youre waiting for help, youre in that barren place. The fact of the matter is everybody in this room either has been, is now, or will be in a barren place in your lives. In that time when it seems like youre very alone, youre judged, youre misunderstood-maybe even ridiculed-that's what well be talking about today. How do we make it through that barren place? What do we have to do? Were going to look at a young lady this morning in the Bible by the name of Hannah. We find her story in the Book of 1 Samuel 1. Would you turn there (page 262 of pew Bibles)? Remember this is a dark time in Israels history. Israel has no king, and the Book of Judges tells us that every man did that which was right in his own eyes; so in the midst of this spiritual drought, there is a man who seeks God. He goes to the city of Shiloh every year. Thats where the Arc is kept. Remember that Jerusalem is not yet established as the capitol. The temple has not yet been built. The Arc is kept in Shiloh, and a priest by the name of Eli is watching over it. Elkanah is the name of the man who comes with his two wives. His first wife is named Hannah, and he loves Hannah with all of his heart. Hannahs problem is that she cannot conceive; and year after year go by, and Hannah cannot conceive a child. Hannahs womb is barren. In those days, especially, if you could not conceive a child, it was not only a social disgrace because you were not fulfilling your role as a wife-to produce children and especially male heirs to carry on your husbands lineage-you were failing your husband; and you were seen as being cursed of God. Something was wrong with you not just physically, but spiritually, if you could not bear a child. So Hannah lives with this disgrace. To make matters worse, there is another woman in the picture, another wife, whose name is Peninnah. Peninnah is probably married second. Im guessing that when Hannah cannot conceive, Elkanah wants to have children, so he takes a second wife. That was the custom then. Often times, men would marry more than one woman, which meant you had more than one mother-in-law, which can be a problem. Not that mother-in-laws are bad, but I dont know if you necessarily want more than one. Elkanah marries this second woman, so there is this dynamic thats going on in this family where he begins to favor Hannah. He feels sorry for her. He truly loves her, so he really spoils her. He goes out of his way to do extra nice things for wife number one. Then wife number two resents Hannah. She gets mad at Hannah because Hannah gets all the extras, all the attention. Rather than take it out on her husband and say, Hey, why do you treat Hannah better than me? she takes it out on Hannah. Maybe thats happened to you in the workplace. The boss is mean to one of the employees and treats other employees better than you; and rather than getting angry at your boss or talking to your boss, you take it out on the employees. Maybe in a home, a parent favors one child over another child. What does that sibling do? The sibling takes it out on their brother or sister like Joseph, for example. So this is the family dynamic that were going to encounter as they come to the temple. Lets pick up the story in Verse 4 of Chapter 1. It says, Whenever the day came for Elkanah to sacrifice, he would give portions of the meat to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters. So shes a rabbit-shes really fertile. Shes spitting them out every year, and then every time she has a child, it just makes Hannah feel worse about herself and her situation. But to Hannah, he gave a double portion because he loved her, and the Lord had closed her womb. So she gets extra food at the dinner table. This is the most important meal of the year, and she gets an extra portion; and that just makes wife number two very angry. Because the Lord had closed her womb, her rival, thats Peninnah, kept provoking her in order to irritate her. This went on year after year. Hannah went up to the house of the Lord. Her rival provoked her until she wept and would not eat. So here she is trying to worship God, and wife number two keeps abusing her, telling her how unworthy she is, reminding her that she is [supposed] to have children and cannot. Shes making fun of her over something that she cant help. Have any of you had any Peninnahs in your lives, people that bullied you or made fun of you for something that you couldnt help? Yeah, it started back in grade school. I can remember in grade school, I had broken arches, and I couldnt walk very well or run; and children would make fun of me. There was another kid who had buck teeth, and kids would make fun of him. Another girl was poor and couldnt afford very good clothing, and they would make fun of her because of her poverty. Another child was homely, and they would make fun of that child. Another child was overweight, and they would make fun of that child. Another child wore glasses, and they made fun of that child. Another child had a mental handicap, and they made fun of that child. You can go back, and you can remember people like that. Even into adulthood, there are people who will belittle you, demean you, or ridicule you for something that is outside of your control; and its not fair, but it happens, and it happened to Hannah. It was not Hannahs fault that she could not conceive a child. Yet this woman saw it as her role to demean Hannah for something that she couldnt help. That just makes the barren place even worse. When youre in a barren place, and then somebody is ridiculing you for that barren place, it makes it all the more unbearable; so we can relate a little bit with what Hannahs going through. Well, maybe her husband will understand. After all, her husband loves her, so maybe Elkanah will have the right words to say, be able to comfort her and make it all better. Lets see how he does. Verse 8, Elkanah her husband would say to her, Hannah, why are you weeping? Duh! It should be obvious to anybody with eyes that shes sad because shes barren. It should be obvious to any husband who is paying attention that wife number two is relentlessly picking on her; but apparently, he cant see this. Hes oblivious to it. He says, Why dont you eat? Why are you downhearted? Dont I mean more to you than ten sons? So now he starts making her feel guilty. Hes saying, Look, I should be enough for you. You shouldnt even feel sad because you dont have children because you have me. Hey! Look at me! Any woman… hes thinking. You should be happy! Im a great guy! He is totally insensitive and totally unaware of what she is going through. I guarantee you in your barren places, you have Elkanahs too. I guarantee you in those times when you feel alone or afraid or sad, theres going to be somebody that comes along and asks the wrong questions and says the wrong words. They mean well. Theyre trying to comfort you. Theyre trying to encourage you, but it backfires. Anybody have some Elkanahs in their desert place? Maybe even several of them, and that makes it worse because now in your barren place, you are misunderstood by these significant people who are saying the wrong things and not noticing facts they should notice. So again, more of us can relate to Hannah. Well, maybe the priest will understand, right? Maybe this man of God will understand and be able to help our friend. So Eli the priest notices Hannah praying. Look at Verse 12, As she kept on praying to the Lord, Eli observed her mouth. Hannah was praying in her heart, and her lips were moving, but her voice was not heard. In other words, only God heard her words because God knows our thoughts, so Eli thinks that shes drunk. Eli thought she was drunk and he said to her, How long will you keep on getting drunk? Get rid of your wine. Wow! Now shes being judged. She is provoked and abused by the co-wife. She is misunderstood by her husband, her best friend; and she is judged by the priest. Shes come to the tabernacle for help and encouragement, and all she has found is judgment. Have any of you ever had an Eli in your life? Youve come to get help; youve come to get encouragement from a spiritual authority, and they dump on you. Sadly, hands could go up for that too, right? Because many of us have been there. That just makes the barren place all the more barren. So what is Hannah going to do? Whats she going to do? Heres what she does. She says, Theres gotta be one person in the whole world who understands me, and thats God. So she is going to pray. I want you to go back to Verse 10. I want you to see how raw this prayer is. This is a prayer from the gut. This isnt one of those safe, nice, bless me kind of prayers. Hannah is pouring out her soul to God, and we have just a little bit of that prayer. In bitterness of soul Hannah wept much and prayed to the Lord. And she made a vow, saying, O Lord Almighty… And by the way, this is the first time that God is ever addressed by a person as Lord Almighty, Lord of hosts right here, so Hannah is making history with her prayer. If you will only look upon your servants misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head. Whyd she say that? Why did she say, Give me a son, and hell never get a haircut? Because he was going to be a Nazarite, just like Samson, and they would take a vow. Part of that vow was they would never cut their hair. It was an outward sign that they belonged to God. Youd be able to identify who a Nazarite was because youd be able to look at their hair, and say, Oh, that man is a Nazarite. That man belongs to God. That was her promise. She says to God, Im in misery. She says, Remember me. She even starts to plea-bargain. Sometimes when we are desperate and were in that barren place, well even start to bargain with God, Lord, if Youll do this for me, then I will do this, and we try to make a deal with God. Thats what she does. She is a desperate woman, and her prayer is not a safe prayer. Her prayer is real, its from the heart, and its specific. When you are in a barren place, friends, the worst thing you can do-the worst thing you can do-is keep everything inside. If you keep everything inside when youre in the barren place, that is going to tear you up. That anger is going to turn to bitterness and resentment or even hatred. That hatred is going to work a way in you, and its gonna rot your soul. You dont want to do that. You want to be able to talk to somebody you can trust. You want to be able to talk to the Lord and say, Lord, here is what Im thinking and feeling. No matter what it is, you let it all hang out. You say, Heres why Im angry, and heres why Im upset. She just tells it like it is, Im in misery. Im in pain. Lord, Youve chosen to close my womb, and I dont understand why. Please, God, help me, and she just bears her soul to the Lord. Then she bears her soul to the priest. After the priest says, Youre drunk, she says in Verse 15, Not so, my Lord, Hannah replied, I am a woman who is deeply troubled. I have not been drinking wine or beer; I was pouring out my soul to the Lord. Do not take your servant for a wicked woman; I have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief. The best thing you can do in those barren experiences is talk to somebody, talk to somebody you can trust, and she says, Heres what Im feeling, and dont hold back. Be real; be authentic; take off the veneer; take off the mask, and let your soul breathe. Thats what she does. I want you to notice what happens to Hannah. I want you to look down in Verse 17. Eli says, Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of him. And Hannah says, May your servant find favor in your eyes. Hannah uses her own name, the name Hannah means favor or grace. So Hannah says, May Han or Hannah be upon you, may grace be upon you. Then she went away and ate something… and listen to the end of this verse, …and her face was no longer downcast. What had changed? Nothing had changed, yet everything had changed. The circumstances hadnt changed. She was still barren. She wasnt pregnant. She still had a husband who didnt understand and know what her needs were. She still lived with a coworker or a cowife who ridiculed her and belittled her. Nothing had changed in her circumstances, but everything had changed because shed had an encounter with the living God; and she knew that she was not alone in her pain. She knew that she had One who would understand her and One who would help her through that difficult time. Keeping our place in 1 Samuel, I want you to turn in your Bibles to Matthew 11 please. In Matthew 11, we find some very comforting words from Jesus in Verse 28 (page 966 of pew Bibles). Jesus says, Come to Me. Come to Me. This is an invitation, and its very personal. Jesus did not say come to a system; come to a structure; come to a pastor, a teacher, or a leader; come to a denomination; come to a building. He said, Come to Me. Christianity is about a person. Its not about a religion. Its about a relationship. He says, You come to Me directly. Itd be like the President saying, No, dont go to the secretary. You come to the Oval Office. Or itd be like a CEO saying, Dont go to the receptionist. Dont go to my vice-presidents. You come right to my desk when you want to talk to me. Jesus says, Come to Me. Its personal. Who is to come? All who are weary and burdened, and in the course of a lifetime, thats every single one of us, every one of us [are at one point or another] weary and burdened. This is a cause and effect relationship. We are weary because we are burdened. If you werent burdened, you wouldnt be weary. To be burdened means to have a load or a weight put upon you. If you carry a weight long enough-no matter how strong you are-you will get weary, and so Hes talking about this cause and effect relationship. He says, Come to Me all you who have been bearing loads and are getting weary. Come to Me, and I will give you rest. That's His promise. He didnt say, I will take your troubles away. He didnt say, Ill make all pain go away. He said, I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light. What does it mean when He says, My yoke is easy? Is he telling us how He likes his eggs for breakfast? What is He saying here, My yoke is easy? Now this would have been a real familiar illustration to this agricultural society. A yoke was a wooden harness that was placed usually upon the oxen to yoke them together because you could plow the field more effectively when you had oxen working in tandem. Jesus would have made yokes as a carpenter. He was probably the finest yoke maker in Nazareth. If you were a farmer and you needed a yoke custom made for your oxen, you probably took the measurements and brought them to the carpenter shop in Nazareth where Joshua would make you a yoke; so Jesus knows of what He speaks when He talks about yokes. But heres the ironic thing: He says to us, I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you. What is a yoke? A yoke is for work, so whos He trying to kid here? Youre telling me Youre going to give me rest by handing me an instrument thats designed for me to work. Its Mothers Day, and, Moms, you come home and relax; and your husband or your kid comes up to you with a vacuum cleaner and says, Here, Mom, go rest. Can you come and vacuum my room? Or one could hand you a scrub brush and say, Hey, Mom, the kitchen floor is a little dirty. Can you rest and scrub the kitchen floor? Its an oxymoron. It doesnt work to give a tool-dont you dare do that to your mom! Its like somebody giving you a tool at work and then asking you to rest. Jesus says, Take My yoke on you. Why does He say, Take My yoke on you? Well, number one, Hes not going to make our problems go away. Thats not what Gods going to do. And neither is He giving you a tool that you put on where its still all on you like I read about somebody talking about this Passage, and heres how they interrupted it: They said, Well, you know in Asia, theyve got these A-frame yokes. It has an A-frame which almost touches the ground on either side and the bar across the middle, and if youre trying to carry hay and its too heavy, too cumbersome, you stuff the hay in the A-frame, get underneath it with your shoulders, and you can carry it farther. Its impossible to carry it on your own, but if you put it in this A-frame, you can carry it a little bit down the road. If you get tired, you set the A-frame down, rest, and pick it back up. Thats what Jesus means. Jesus means youre going to be able to carry more weight than you could before. Well, thanks! If this means that Gods going to give me more problems-that I can carry more problems than I had before-then we kinda say, No, thanks, right? If thats what this means? But I dont think that is what this means. I dont think that is what Jesus means at all when He says, Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me. Heres the key. Jesus is inviting us to be yoked to Him. The yoke was almost always for two, so who is the other person in the yoke? He is. It says, I invite you to be yoked with Me and learn from Me. Usually when you yoked animals, you would yoke two of the same kind and two of the same size. You wouldnt yoke an ox with a mule, for instance, or a horse. It would be two horses, two mules or two oxen together. But if you were training an ox, you would take a big ox and youd take a little bullock, and youd yoke them together. Now really as they plowed that field, the bullock was hardly doing anything. He was just kind of along for the ride. But what was he doing? He was learning through that experience. He was learning what it meant to be yoked. He was learning what it meant to submit to the commands of the master. Sometimes the masters could be very cruel. They had a crop to get in; they had a field to plow, so they would poke the oxen with a goad, a spike, when they were going the wrong way, or they might whip them or hit them with a stick and yell at them to plow faster or plow straighter. Jesus says, Im not like that. Im not like that kind of a master. He says, My yoke is easy. My burden is light. He says, I am gentle, and I am kind. Im not going to beat you; Im not going to abuse you; Im not going to prod you. Im going to be gentle with you. When you pour out your soul to Me, when you pour out your heart to Me, Im not going to ridicule you. Im not going to mock you. I will be gentle with your soul. Thats what He says. We come alongside of Him, and that bullock learns. It learns how to plow a field, learns what the commands of the master mean. Even though hes not pulling anything or not pulling much, he still gets some discipline, and he learns from the big oxen how to get the job done. He learns how to plow a straight line. He gets used to having that around his neck. He comes to learn that this is something I should have. If I do what my master says, it goes well with me, and he learns from being yoked. Jesus is saying, Learn from Me. He says, Youre still going to go through the hardship, but well go through it together. He says, You have a choice to go through it alone, or you have a choice to go through it together. You have a choice to keep everything inside of you and have it eat you up alive, or you can give it away, give it to God, and give it to people who love you. You can say, Heres what Im experiencing. Heres what Im going through, and be yoked to Christ. Think about it: God became a man. As Jesus, He went through all the things youre going through. He was abused by people who were supposed to love Him. He was ridiculed; He was rejected; He went through pain and suffering-emotionally and physically. He went through all the temptations that are common to man, so when you yoke yourself to Christ, thats why He is gentle. That's why He is kind-because He understands. Jesus says, When you yoke yourself to Me, I will give you rest. Thats why Hannah finds rest in the midst of her prayer. Her circumstances hadnt changed, but everything had changed because her soul which was so deeply grieved and troubled had found help in God, her Savior. She knew that she was loved, and she knew she wasnt alone. Lets go back to our text. Her prayers are answered, and she gives birth to a son. The sons name is Samuel. Anytime you see the letters El or L in a name at the beginning or end, that has something to do with God because one of the names of God was El; so this means his name is God. Its a reminder of the promise that Hannah had made, and she kept her promise. When he was somewhere between two and three, Hannah brought him back to Shiloh, and she found Eli. She said, Eli, do you remember me? Im Hannah. She said, I was the one you thought was drunk a couple of years ago when I was praying. They both had a chuckle, Oh, yeah. I remember you, Hannah. Im so sorry about that. Its okay. Remember I was praying? Yes. Heres what I was praying for. This is my son, Samuel, and she told him the whole story about her years of barrenness and how God had met her there at that altar. God had answered her prayer and given her a son, his name was Samuel, and he belonged to God. She was going to leave, but Samuel was going to stay. He was going to live with Eli, and he was going to serve God all the days of his life. Who was he to argue with God? Its obvious that God had answered that prayer, so Eli receives Samuel as his own son. It was a literal dedication. Parents, you bring your children to dedicate them. Thats wonderful, but we really want you to take them home with you when were done. We dont want them to stay here. Ive got my own. Were fine, so we will dedicate them to God, but they still belong to you. You take them home with you. We love them, but you keep them (congregation laughing). Hannah had to keep her promise. By now, she had bonded with her son. She loved her son. Can you imagine the pain and the tears that she had to go through when she has to literally give her son to the work of God? How that must have broke her heart! How he must have sobbed and cried, Mommy! Mommy! He was only two or three years old, and his mommy left. Shes not going to come back for a long time. She would come back every year and visit Samuel, and shed bring him a robe to wear for his duties. Every year, the robe would be a little bigger and a little bigger. Samuel, whose name is bared in his Book, became arguably the greatest Prophet that Israel ever had. He became an incredible man of God, a man who caused cities to tremble at the very sound that Samuel is coming to our town. The whole city would shake because they knew he spoke for God. It happened because one woman in her barren place took her pain to God. Then whats really important-when she was delivered from her barren place and God had answered her prayers, Hannah remembered to say thank you. Sometimes you and I take things for granted, dont we? We take our blessings for granted. We dont give thanks like we should. No one is more thankful for food than the person who is hungry. No one is more thankful for rest than the person who has been deprived of it. No one is more thankful to have a good reputation than the one who has had their name tarnished by gossip. No one is more happy to be free than the one whos been the victim of abuse. When we receive our blessing, when we receive our deliverance, the time of barrenness ends, its important to give thanks to God for His blessing. That's what she does in Chapter 2. Were not going to take the time to go through it, but Chapter 2 is a prayer, a song, unto God. I want to encourage you to read it when you get home. Hannah pours her heart out to God-this time in praise and thanksgiving. Remember to thank the Lord for His blessings because this mom sure did. The beauty of Hannah is Hannah had grown to the point where even in the midst of her barrenness, she was able to say, God is enough for me. Even before she conceived, Hannah said, Ive found my peace in You. Might we get to that point in our walk where we can follow the footsteps of Hannah. We can take our pain, our heartache, and our burdens, take up the Saviors invitation to take His yoke upon us, learn from Him, and find rest for our souls. Would you join me in prayer this morning? Father, around this room today, there are those who are weary and burdened. They are weary from carrying something theyve carried a long time. Lord, this Scripture is not just a promise to help us carry more burdens. This Scripture is a promise of partnership. Not only will You promise to come alongside of us and go through this barren place with us, but You promise that You will carry the lions share of the load. Like that young bullock learning from his father how to plow and how to be yoked, we need to learn to submit to authority. We need to be willing to surrender to You. Lord, we can do things our own way. We can refuse Your invitation if we so desire, but then we go through the barrenness alone. We go through the barrenness without the help of the One who can help us the most. Its my prayer that each and every one who is weary and heavy laden this morning would come to You, that they might find rest for their souls. In Jesus name, we pray. Amen.
Good morning! I was driving home from Milwaukee. It was late at night. It was a week ago Wednesday. The sky was beautiful and clear-not a cloud in the sky. It was a beautiful night. At about 10:15, I pulled off I94 and turned left on HWY 26 there in Johnson Creek to head home. All the sudden, theres this bright light in the sky. It was totally uncharacteristic because, like I said, there was not a cloud in the sky. Then I see this gray streak coming down fast to the earth diagonally. It was almost like the smoke of a large rocket or something. Then it turned into this orange flame, and again, it was picking up speed. Then it seemed like it started to disintegrate, and then it just disappeared before it hit the ground. Whatever it was, it looked like it landed on Culvers, which is where I was going, so I was a little concerned. I mean it looked like I could just get out of my car and find it. Im looking around like Im crazy; Im nuts. Im looking around at the people at the intersection thinking, Did you see that? In this age of instant information, you think, What was that? and you just punch in a few buttons and get your answer. I wanted to turn on the radio. I wanted to find somebody who could just tell me, What did I just see? My first thought was it was lightening or some sort of a bolt. I thought, Well, wait a second. It couldnt be that. Maybe it was an airplane or some debris from an airplane. It turns out it was a meteor. How many of you saw it that night or caught a glimpse of it? A few of us did. It was pretty cool, wasnt it? Id never seen a meteor before-at least that close, so I didnt know quite what I was seeing. Depending on your real view, it determines what you think that is. If youre an aviator, you might think its a plane. If youre an astronomer, you might think its a meteor, and there are also meteor chasers. They literally see that as money falling from the sky, so theyre trying to map out on the internet where that thing hit because one of those little rocks can be worth $1,000. Thats money, so theyre on the job. If youre one of these end times people, you study the end times, you were thinking, Man, this is it. This is Armageddon. War has come. Maybe youre a sci-fi person. You listen to The War or the Worlds or something. You thought, Oh, its an alien attack. This is it. Maybe youre a meteorologist, and you think its some sort of weather phenomena; but how we view the world colors pretty much everything we interact with. So as a small group and as a church, thats what we are doing. We are looking at World View. In our small groups during the week, were studying some material called, Wide Angle, from Chuck Colson and Rick Warren. Were going through a little booklet together, watching a short video and talking about it. What were doing on the weekends is supplemental. Its working in conjunction with it. Were not trying to replicate it or duplicate your teachings in your small group. Were trying to work in conjunction with it. What were going to do now since weve laid the framework-we talked about natural secular humanism; we talked about Christian world view-now were going to talk about in the real world how those world views affect our decisions of whats right and wrong. Were going to talk about ethics in the weeks ahead-so ethical world views. How were they formed? Do world views happen because individuals form them? Do you determine your own ethical world view? Are your ethics based upon absolutes that a Creator has given, established, and said, Here is right, and here is wrong. Heres what you should do, or heres what you shouldnt do? Some believe that ethics are determined by society collectively-that we have societal norms and codes of conduct that civilization establishes, so it varies from culture to culture. There are a lot of theories out there about who determines right and wrong and how we come about those decisions. You know what? Its not as cut and dried as you think as far as ethics are concerned. Those of us who believe that God has given absolutes where it says, Thou shall not kill; thou shall not steal; thou shall not lie, it just seems pretty clear. It seems pretty cut and dried. When we really start to look at it, sometimes life, its not that easy. How many times have I been beside the bed of somebody whose loved one has maybe been in an accident or has almost drowned? Maybe there was a heart attack, and they were on life support. Now all of the sudden, this family is making these life and death decisions-what to give, what to withhold. Do we pull the plug? If so, when? What do we do? And Ive got their lives in my hands. I didnt anticipate Id be in this situation, but here I am. What do I do? What do I do for resuscitation? What do I do to keep life going here? And all the sudden that verse, Thou shall not kill, what does that mean to me in this situation? What is right, and what is wrong? Thou shall not steal, pretty clear cut, right? Dont take what doesnt belong to you. I was listening to a video and reading an article about some children in Bogota, Colombia. These children have no parents, and theres no state-run orphanage for them to live in. To survive, they steal food. The merchants form these death squads. The death squads see these children as menaces, as disposable, and theyre executing to kill them. The children who survive have gone underground and are living in the sewers. Right now as we speak, there are children living in the sewers of Bogota. They come up at night seeking to avoid the death squads to steal food to survive, so they take the food because it wont be given to them. The death squads are still there, still looking for them. Many of the people in the death squad are in the law enforcement when theyre not on the death squad. For these children, its either steal or die of starvation, so is stealing wrong then? Is that wrong for them to take food when theyre starving? See, its not as clear as we would think. Thou shall not lie. Pretty straight forward-tell the truth. Its a moral absolute-pretty clear. When I was a little boy, my brother-in-law had an alcohol problem, and when he was drunk, he would be angry. He was an angry drunk, and sometimes he might try to harm my sister or her children; so when he was in a drunken stupor, it was not uncommon for my sister to escape and come over to our house. We got a knock in the middle of the night, and it was my sister with my two nieces, Macs drunk, and hes looking for me. My mom would say, Go hide in the closet. I would lay there in bed just nervous. Then came the knock on the door. My mom would open the door, and it was Mac. He said, Wheres J-J-Judy? Wheres my wife? I know shes in here. What would my mom do? My mom would say, Shes not here, Mac. I havent seen her. I dont know where she is. She would lie to protect her daughter, her granddaughters, herself and her son. Is that wrong? Is that unethical for her to do that? You see, its not quite as easy as we make it out to be. Sometimes there are ethical decisions that seem to be in conflict with one another. What were going to do this morning is lay the groundwork and lay the foundation for the rest of this series. Have you ever been watching a show on TV, and there is like five minutes left? You know the plot isnt going to be resolved in five minutes. You are thinking, I hope this is not one of those to be continued. Sure enough, 9 oclock comes around, and it says, To be continued. You go, Oh, rrrr! because we like things to be wrapped up-just wrap it up and put it in a ribbon for me. Normally when we do a series, everything kind of stands on its own. Even though its a series, I wrap it up. This week is not that. This week is one of those weeks that leaves you with that kind of to be continued feeling. Its kind of like, Ahhh. We just cant finish it all in one week, so what were going to do is introduce these ethical world views, talk about them briefly and just span them, look at them all briefly; and then each subsequent week, were going to put them under a microscope and Biblically look at it-from a Biblical world view. So what were going to do is find out how this ethical world view works. What I want us to do is to open our Bibles to Joshua 2. Were going to look at one of these ethical conundrums here. While youre turning there, I want to recommend a book to you. Normally when I preach, its just me. Theres nothing wrong with it. Now other pastors like to read books and so forth. I like to just have my Bible, or maybe a couple of commentaries I like. I really want the message to be my message-not taking other peoples thoughts and ideas. Theres nothing wrong with that as long as youre giving credit to the other person. Thats just how I like to approach my sermons. This week, with the subject matter, I did want to consult some outside sources. One book Id really recommend that Im using in this sermon-and Id recommend it to you-is a book called, Christian Ethics, by Dr. Norman Geisler. Its an excellent book, so if you want to do some further study on the subject, Id recommend that book. Also, I want to tell you in advance that Im going to be using some big words-some $10, $50 words along the line. I do that for the sake of those who are taking notes and who want to explore the subject matter further. Thats the beauty of this. Youre not in high school; youre not in college here. There isnt going to be a test or a pop quiz, so if you dont want to learn the titles, the terminology, let it go. Dont worry about it. Just say, Im here to grasp the gist of it, the content of it. Im not worried about specific terminology because Im not taking a test. Im not taking this for credit. Im just here monitoring this course. Thats fine, but were going to share some of those words for the sake of the people who want to dig a little bit deeper. We could focus on a lot of different ethical problems, but were going to focus on one, and that is lying. Is lying ever right? Is lying ever justified? Is lying always wrong? Thats what were going to focus on, and then were going to run each of these world views. Were going to run it through those world views and see what their conclusion is, so you can see how your ethical world view determines whats right and wrong in a given situation. Were going to take this one scenario-that will be our constant-and then were going to run it through these various ethical world views and see how it does. Thats our assignment. Its a little bit different-not your typical sermon, but I think its going to be beneficial. Heres the story: Joshua and the children of Israel are about to enter the Promised Land. Remember that Moses generation had not acted in faith. It acted in disbelief and disobedience. A hard heart, God allowed them to wonder in the wilderness for forty years. That generation died off. A new generation led by Joshua, who was a believing generation, is going to inherit the Promised Land. Remember land ultimately belongs to whom? God-not countries, nations, kingdoms, people. It belongs to God. No matter what country on the face of the earth-its temporary; God is eternal. His creation belongs to Him. So God in His sovereignty chose to give a portion of land to the nation of Israel. He promised it to them, but there was still work to be done. Just because God promises something to you doesnt mean you dont have work to do. They were still going to have to obey God and follow His directives as God would bring them into this Promised Land. So practically speaking, Joshua sends out 2 men to spy out the land. Remember Moses sent out 12? We knew their names; we knew their mission. This is not quite the same-similar, but not quite the same. We dont know their names. We dont clearly know their mission because he sends them out in secret, but it had something to do with probably finding out the lay of the land, learning the streets, learning about their defense, maybe even the moral of the community because they know that this attack could be imminent. Jericho is aware. Israel is on their radar. They have intelligence that Israel is on the move. They have intelligence that theyre going to try to take their land, so they are on high alert. There is a wall around the perimeter of the city. That wall is fortified. There are armed guards there. There are look-outs there at all times. They are on high alert for any suspicious activity or any entrance through those walls of Israelites. Along the walls are houses, and one of those houses belongs to a woman by the name of Rahab. What makes Rahab unique is though she is living there in Jericho, she is a believer. She very much believes in the God of Israel-that He is the true God. She acknowledges that she has faith in Him, and she acknowledges that she believes that His purposes will not be stopped. So she really believes that one day Israel will occupy the land that she now lives in. She and the whole country have heard the exploits of how God parted the sea and how He gave victory over the powerful Egyptians, and they are afraid of the Israelites. She is aware of this. In Verse 1 (page 208 of pew Bibles), we pick up the story. Joshua says, Go, look over the land, especially Jericho. So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there. I do think we should note-do you notice the footnote there on the word prostitute in your Bibles. If you follow it down, it says on the bottom, an innkeeper. To me, thats quite a disparity between possible definitions for that word. Its one of those words that one time it meant innkeeper and came to mean prostitute. Its like the word gay used to mean something very different than it does now. Im not sure which one was first-if it was innkeeper and then prostitute or if had been prostitute and then became innkeeper; but its quite possible that she wasnt a prostitute, that she was an innkeeper in which case we owe her a big apology. She probably has quite a chip on her shoulder in Heaven, Oh, and this is Rahab. Oh, yeah, Rahab. Hey, wait a second! I was an innkeeper! So well leave that one alone, and well just say we just dont know. We do know they went to her house. The king of Jericho was told, Look! Some of the Israelites have come here tonight to spy out the land. So the king of Jericho sent this message to Rahab: Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house, because they have come to spy out the whole land. So the intelligence is really sound. Its not like they are saying, Hey, there could be some people. We dont know where theyre from. We dont know what theyre doing here. Maybe they came to your house tonight. We dont know. No, its, We saw men. Theyre Israelites. They are here to spy out the land. Theyve come to your house. Send them out. The intelligence is that secure. Now Rahab has a choice to make. She really has to choose between two kingdoms. Is she going to be faithful to the king of Jericho, the city she lives in? Is she going to be loyal to the city, or is she going to be loyal to these Israelites that follow the God she believes in? Will she be loyal to them? Either way, she has to make the right decision because either way, her life is on the line. If she turns them in and Israel does invade the city and is conquered, shes a goner. If she lies to the king and the king finds out about it, shes a goner for betrayal; so she has a very difficult, ethical decision to make. Does she lie and cover up the truth-in which case she will probably die-or does she tell the truth and risk dying a little bit later? She is thinking in terms of survival as well, so she is weighing this. What is she going to do? Is she going to tell them the truth and turn in those men, or is she going to lie, cover up the truth, and hopefully spare herself and her family in the future? Whose side will she pick? Verse 4, But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. She said, Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they had come from. Lie. At dusk, when it was time to close the city gate, the men left. Lie. I didnt know which way they went. Lie. Go after them quickly, and you may catch up with them. Lie. She had taken them up to the roof and hidden them under the stalks of flax she had laid out on the roof. So the men set out in pursuit of the spies on the road that leads to the fords of the Jordan, and as soon as the pursuers had gone out, the gate was shut. Their roofs were not like our roofs. They were flat roofs, and so the men were up on the roof. They were under some flax, and she tells several lies. Was that wrong? Did she sin right there? Because God says, You shall not lie. But she was trying to spare their lives. She was trying to spare her life because she ultimately believed that Israel would prevail. Was-it-wrong? Thats the question. What would you have done had you been in her situation? Now were going to look at some of these world views, and were going to talk about what they would say about lying in this situation and whether what Rahab did was ethical or not. Were going to look at some non-Biblical world views, and then were going to bring it around to some Biblical world views. Were going to see that even Christians would disagree on this subject. The first world view were going to look at is called Antinomianism. They would say this, Lying is not wrong or right-ever. There are no such things as moral laws. You make up your own moral laws if you want to have laws because there are no moral absolutes. There are no universal laws in the world. Its kind of like every man for themselves, and you simply use common sense. There are not objective laws that I must submit to. There are subjective experiences, and you use your best judgment. In this case, it is survival for her and her family, and because lying is neither right nor wrong, because there are no moral laws, it was fine. What she did was fine, and it was the right decision for her. You just do the best you can using reason and common sense, and in this case, survival; so they would say Rahab was not wrong in what she did. Lets look at a second point of view. The second world view says that lying is generally wrong, but there are no universal laws. This is a world view called Generalism. Lying is generally wrong, but there are no universal laws; so sometimes laws can be broken. What really matters is the end result. It all works out in the end. The end justifies the means. Youve heard that. You maybe have even said that. One thing that I found interesting-I was talking with one of our folks at the 8 oclock service, he said, Ive said things from every one of those world views. What he realized is that he has world views that are incongruent. They just dont mesh. Hes believing things in different world views that are at odds with one another, and he wasnt even aware of it. One of the things were trying to do is get us to have consistency in these ethical world views. The end is what counts. In the end, Rahab was rescued. Her family was rescued, so the generalist would say that was the right decision. There are general rules. There are no moral absolutes, so lying was okay because she had to survive. The end justifies the means. All is well that ends well. Thats their world view, so she was right. There is another world view that would say lying is sometimes right. Lying is sometimes right. There is one moral absolute, and its not truth. The moral absolute for the person whose view is of Situationism says that the one moral absolute in the entire world is love. They very much could sing the Beatles song, All You Need is Love. All you need is love. They just make a decision based on love. That is the only moral absolute. It sounds pretty good, doesnt it? Just do the loving thing. Whatever the ethical conundrum is, just do the loving thing, and its going to be okay. Now, well talk more about this view as we will the others in the weeks to come. In fact, well spend a whole week on it, but right now were just introducing it. The situationism says Rahab did the loving thing. She protected herself and her family. She loved Israel. She loved the God of Israel. Rahab acted in a loving way to protect that which was hers, so lying is sometimes the right thing to do because as long as that lying doesnt come in to conflict with the one moral law of the universe-which is love-[its okay to do]. Thats a very prominent world view in our society today. Many people make their ethical decisions based on this rule, Is it the loving thing to do? Now lets turn and look at some Biblical ethical world views. The first one were going to talk about is something called Unqualified Absolutism. These people believe that God has given many moral absolutes, and they never conflict with one another. There is no conflict, and theyre all to be followed, all to be obeyed at all times. God has given absolutes for all people, in all places, at all times, and these are always to be followed; and so Rahab sinned. Rahab did what was wrong even thought the outcome was good. God didnt ask her to lie. The soldiers didnt ask her to lie. What she should have done is told the truth and let the chips fall where they may-put her family and her care in the hands of God, put the spies from Israel in the hands of God, put Gods purposes ultimately in the hands of God. Rahab was wrong to tell a lie. She should have told the truth. Agustin-you might have heard of Agustin-was an unqualified absolutist. Agustin believed that the truth is one of the absolutes, and its never to be violated. If you violate it, its sin. When my drunken brother-in-law came in threatening my sister and said, Wheres my wife? She should have said, Shes in the closet. Wheres the closet? Its right up through this other room around the corner. Here let me show you. Thats what these folks would think. Now from World War II, this is very interesting. There were people who would hide the Jews from the Nazis because they didnt want to see them go to the death camps. If you held to this school of thought, you would not lie under any circumstances, Nazis would come knocking on your door and you would open up your door. Nazis would say, We have a report that there are Jews in the house. Are there Jews in your house? Yes, there are. Where are they? Theyre in the cellar. Can you show me? I can. So you better hope that whatever house youre hiding in is not one of those because man, woman and child would be hauled off to the death camps if you happened to be in the home of one of these folks. Have you heard of The Hiding Place, by Corrie Ten Boom? Anybody? What he did was pretty interesting because he had a secret compartment-like a basement hideaway-underneath the kitchen floor. Hed carved it out in such a way that when you put the floor back, you couldnt even tell it was there. You couldnt tell there was a trap door there. It was just totally concealed. The Nazis would come knocking on his door, Mr. Ten Boom? We have a report that there are Jews in your house. Mr. Ten Boom would tell the truth. He would say, Yes, I am hiding Jews. It is true. Theyd say, Well, where are they? Hed say, They are hiding in the kitchen. Theyre there in the kitchen. Where are they in the kitchen? Theyre under the table. Ah, got no time for your jokes today, Ten Boom! And theyd all be out the door. Where were they? They were in the kitchen under the table, but they were also under the floor. See, hes telling the truth, but yet he spared the lives of many-very cleverly-he spared the lives of those folks. These folks would say that you tell the truth under every circumstance. Truth is a moral absolute, and it is never right to tell a lie. You always have to tell the truth, so Rahab sinned. Now lets look at another school of thought. This school of thought is Conflicting Absolutism. It says that lying is wrong, but its forgivable. There are a lot of moral absolutes in the world, and sometimes they conflict. When they conflict, the Christian is responsible to do the lesser evil. You have a responsibility to do the lesser evil. Lets say a woman comes to you while youre walking home from shopping. Youre downtown and-do we still shop downtown? I dont know. Youre downtown-just work with me on this. Youre on your way to your car. She comes up to you, and she says, Theres a man whos chasing me, and he wants to kill me. Hes crazy! Im going to go this way. Tell him I went that way! The man comes to you a minute later, and he has a knife and hes crazy. Hes like, Where is she? Im going to kill her! Which way did she go? She went that way, so you say, She went this way. And so he takes off the wrong way. You just lied. This person would say, Yes, that was wrong, but it was the lesser evil, because if he goes this way, hes going to harm this person. Her being killed or hurt in some way was a greater evil, so you chose correctly. You still have to ask for forgiveness. You still have to say, God, Im sorry. I lied, but it was a lesser evil; so though lying is never right, these two issues were in conflict, and you did the right thing. The last school of thought were going to look at is called Graded Absolutism. Graded absolutism believes that lying is sometimes right. Its just like situationism. Lying is sometimes right. There are a lot of moral absolutes that God has given. Sometimes those moral absolutes are in conflict with one another, and when they are in conflict with one another, you and I as Christians have the responsibility to do the greater good, and its not a sin. To do the greater good is not a sin. If you lie in this situation, you dont have to confess it. The first absolutes would have believed that Rahab committed sin. The unqualified would say it was sin. The conflicting would say its forgivable, but it was sin. The graded absolutism would say not a sin. You dont have to ask for forgiveness, but they obeyed the higher law. Using the scenario of the crazy guy with the knife, he comes up to you in the street, and he says, Where is she? Im going to kill her! You deliberately send him in the wrong direction-you have not sinned. That guy has no right to the truth. He has no right to the truth because he was going to cause harm. When my drunken brother-in-law came to the house at midnight-sometimes wed have to actually leave the house and wonder the streets of Rockford out of fear of him. It was a very traumatizing thing in my family during that period. They would say he had no right to the truth because he was going to harm an innocent woman. She was totally justified in choosing the greater good, so she does not have to confess her sin. Maybe you saw yourself somewhere in one of those ethical points of view. Maybe you saw yourself in several, which is probably a problem. What we want to do from here on out, and see heres the to-be-continued part because were done, were going to start looking at these again next week and talking about it from a Biblical perspective. The goal when were done is to be able to think on our toes, process our world, and make Biblical, ethical decisions. Thats the goal of our series. So thats just kind of a panorama view of what is ahead, so next week well dig in to that first one and explore it a little bit. Lets pray together, Father, were grateful for Your Word that serves as our guide in these decisions. We want to be consistent with what Your Truth has said, so were going to examine these truths. Were going to explore these world views and these ethical world views. Were asking Your Holy Spirit to guide us along the way. At the end, we will have learned, and we will grow, and we will have a better understanding of right and wrong and the decisions that we need to make. We pray this in Jesus name, Amen.
Hopefully, youll learn some things thatll encourage you and challenge you in your framework and world view. As we looked at Larry this morning and heard what he had to say, [I thought] Im glad to be in a church thats not afraid to ask the big questions. We obviously in a half hour dont have time to address all of the things and all the questions that Larry asked, but believe me there are answers to all of those. We do want to look at a few things, and we want to talk about secular humanism in light of the Bible because what you may not believe is after Christianity and Islam, secular humanism is probably the prevailing religion in the world today. And you say, Secular humanism religion? I didnt know that. I thought it was secular. But, friends, the reality is if you were to read, The Humanist Manifesto, the first one that was put together in 1933, about 5 of the 14 planks of The Humanist Manifesto call humanism a religion. Interesting, ha? So theres nothing new under the sun, and these people believe what they believe passionately. They believe it ardently, and they believe its the answer to human beings ills, needs, and salvation, and so as such-as we talk over the next six weeks and start this series on World View, one of the things that we need to address right off the top is one of the prevailing religions in the world today-which is secular humanism. Its interesting too that since in the second and third revisions of The Humanist Manifesto that that kind of religious tone has been edited out of that, but, again, going back to 1933, the founders of that viewed secular humanism as a religion and a world view that embraced all of life. The first thing that we see out of that-if you were to go to the secular humanist website and read The Humanist Manifesto, you will find words like this: secular humanism provides a cosmic outlook, a world view, in the broadest sense. By world view, we mean a big picture kind of look at the world that embraces everything, everybody and everything we do. Secular humanists see themselves as undersigned, unintended beings who arose through evolution possessing unique attributes of self-awareness and moral agency. I always chuckle how they got self-awareness and moral agency if there was no God, and they came to exist all by themselves by accident; but thats a whole other topic. Friends, as we look at this Passage and look at this religion in light of the Scripture, well look at Psalm 14:1 (page 538 of pew Bibles) to begin with. We will look at three Passages, but lets first turn to Psalm 14:1. David, 3,000 years ago, wrote these words. He said, Only fools say in their hearts there is no God. They are corrupt. Their actions are evil. Not one of them does good. When we talk about fools and Pastor Jeff asked me to entitle this message on secular humanism, The Fool, I dont mean that in necessarily a derogatoral way whereas we talk about being a fool; I dont mean in the terms of being mentally deranged or mentally handicapped. Were talking about someone who is simple, someone who is naïve, someone who doesnt get the big picture, someone who doesnt take the farthest look, somebody who sets aside reason and intellect in order to come to the conclusions that they do. There are many wonderful illustrations that children make. In Jesus Takes, we had little Nolan this morning, and God talks about little children as the examples of faith because they embrace things and believe things, almost unequivocally. You know you tell a child the sky is blue and the moons made out of green cheese, and, Okay. And so Jesus said trust Him as the faith of a little child. The flip side is that we want to use children as an illustration-not in a derogatory way but just an incomplete way. The children are also very naïve, arent they? If I were to ask the question, how many of you were afraid of the dark when you were a kid? Some brave people. If you were like me, I was very afraid of the dark, and basements, it was like, Oh, my goodness. Please, Mother, dont send me down to the basement for potatoes or something! I remember when the movie Home Alone came out and Macaulay Culkin went down there and the furnace kicked on. It was like, Ahhhhh! Youve got to be kidding me! I remember going down to the basement and turning on the lights, creaking down the stairs and looking for potatoes. I found their little eyes looking back at me. Then the furnace came on, and I would just make a bee-line up the stairs. It was like the bake of potatoes playing Chariots of Fire. I was sprinting up the stairs. I was terrified of the dark. That carried over every time I went to bed, you know. You had monsters and all those things. I had nightmares almost every night of my childhood in to my teenage years. As a child, when youre afraid of the dark, and youre dreaming of monsters, what do you do to get away from it? You pull the covers up over your head, right? Because if you cant see them, they cant get you, right? The secular humanist and the fool as God looks at here are very much like that. Pull the covers up over your head and pretend that God isnt there. He doesnt exist. Why? Because I cant see Him. Regardless of what youve heard in history books, the majority of the people in Galileos time or Columbus time did not believe that the world was flat. They didnt. Youve heard that, but its not true. Regardless of what some of our modern movies say, the Catholic Church did not reject Galileo because he said the earth went around the sun. That was not the issue at all. The point is that people like Sir Isaac Newton who believed in God, who made the world, said that science was possible and that you could study the world, study the universe, and study things in a scientific way specifically because there was a Creator who made it all and therefore, it was knowledge. Solomon said in Proverbs [25:2, page 650 of pew Bibles], Its the glory of God to conceal a matter. Its the glory of kings to search it out. Thats what the early scientists believed. Im going to read this other Passage from The Humanist Manifesto as we talk about religion. Believing that religion must work increasingly for joy in living, religious humanists… This is straight out of the first one. …religious humanists aim to foster the creative in man and encourage achievements that add to the satisfactions of life. In fact at the tail end of the first The Humanist Manifesto, it says this: Do you know what the essence of living here on the earth is? Its to have The Good Life. Isnt that interesting? It sounds like a beer commercial, doesnt it? You only go around once in life, so you have to grab for all the gusto you can. Lets pull the covers over my head. Going back a bit as I remember what I was going to say. You think about that, pretend it isnt there, that foundation of science led to all kinds of horrific experimentations or ways of dealing with illness in the past when like the first President of our country. We didnt know about germs and all those types of things, so what did we do when he was sick with pneumonia? We bleed him, taking away the very thing that he needed, which was his blood. We bleed him, weaken him, and hence he dies because we cant see germs, so they must not exist. The father of modern sanitation Ignaz Semmelweiss got hounded out of two different hospitals because he had the audacity to believe the Bible when it came to performing autopsies and then walking across the floor to maternity wards and delivering babies without washing your hands. When Ignaz Semmelweiss had the audacity to tell the doctors under his care that they needed to wash their hands after performing autopsies and before delivering babies, he got hounded out of two different hospitals and died a broken man. Why? Because science at the time, You cant see it, so it must not be so. Now science tells us, I cant see God, so guess what? It must not be so. Yet, so much of the technical things-lights, heat-all those types of things, so many of the scientific advances that weve enjoyed in the last 150 years are because of things that we cant see. That brings us to motivation. Well get to more specifics later, but lets talk about motivation. Why are people so passionate about the idea that there is no God? I always chuckle at that. Do you get the ridiculousness of that, the incongruity? Theres no God, but Im going to spend my life defined by telling everybody that the thing that I dont believe exists doesnt exist. Let me give you an example. If I believed that purple elephants dont exist, would I spend my life passionately crusading throughout the entire world telling everybody and making sure that everybody knows that purple elephants dont exist? Would I? No, Id just ignore it because I know purple elephants dont exist. Duh! Its hilarious to me that people will say, Oh, God doesnt exist. Guess what? God defines their lives-their whole lives and framework is built around, Theres no God! Theres no God! Theres no God! Theres no God! If we tell ourselves that long enough, maybe well convince ourselves that thats the truth. Pull the blankets up over your head. If you cant see Him, it must not be so. Whats the motivation? Why are people so passionate about that? As we said, its religion. Friends, I am so glad that the Bible is not relevant for today. That was a joke. I was just seeing if you were awake. Way back in Genesis 3, we find the answer to that. This is the foundation of so much religion, so many Eastern religions-even some of the late comers to the modern Americans. What is the crux? Whats the sum total? If I follow this religion, what happens in the end? Here it is: Genesis 3, I get to be God. Why do I stand and shake my fist in the face of God, say He doesnt exist, Hes not out there. Because if Hes not out there, then who is God? Who is king? Whos boss? Whos lord? Me. Im so glad the Bibles not relevant-nailed that in the first three chapters. The serpent comes to Eve in the Garden and says, Take that fruit. Dont listen to God. He doesnt know what Hes talking about because if you eat that fruit, what will happen? You will get to be your own God! Thats the sum total of it. If there is no God, you get to be God. I like poetry. I like literature, and I dont think any poem says it better than the poem they used for the title of a movie this last year. Clint Eastwood directed a movie about the South African rugby team and their quest for a rugby championship. The name of that movie was, Invictus. What you may not know is that is a very famous and well known poem written in 1875 by William Earnest Henley. This poem espouses this philosophy in an amazing way, and I often wonder what was going on in Henleys head. Im not going to speculate about a lot of things, but I know he had a rough background. He had tuberculosis of the bone at a young age. At a young age or pre-modern medicine, he had a leg amputated. Im sure in the late 1800s, that must have been a pretty horrific experience. We can see some of that pain, some of that heartache in the middle of this poem. Lets listen to the words of his poem, Invictus, when he writes, Out of the night that covers me, black as the pit from pole to pole… Now theres a really optimistic world view, right? …I thank whatever gods may be for my unconquerable soul. Dont gloss over that line. Is he really thanking God? Notice that god is in small letters. Whatever gods might be, who is he really thanking for his unconquerable soul? Who is the god? Himself-youre right. He is. He goes on to say, In the fell clutch of circumstance… Think about losing a leg and the pain he went through, I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeonings of chance my head is bloody, but unbowed. Beyond this place of wrath and tears… That's what life is to him, a place of wrath and tears. Whats to come? Looms but the Horror of the shade… Now theres a great view of eternity. And yet the menace of the years finds and shall find me unafraid. It matters not how strait the gate, how charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul. Look at that line. If you dont get whats going on here or get poetry very well, get this. When he talks about, It matters not how strait the gate, whats that an illusion to? Jesus said, Strait was the gate that led to…? Heaven, everlasting life. How charged with punishments the scroll, whats that an illusion to? Whats the opposite of Heaven? Hell. Hensley says, I dont care about Heaven, and I dont care about hell. Im the master of my fate. Im the captain of my soul. Im in charge, and no god, nobody else. Im the boss. Im the king. I rule. Im God. Our secular world stands and applauds that. Now it is great poetry, and its great in terms of its artistry, its rhyme scheme. It makes an incredible impact. Its a powerful piece, but philosophically, its awful. Yet, our secular world and secular humanists stand and applaud that. That's the essence of secular humanism. Im the master. Im the captain. Friends, Ill tell you something: after looking at my own life and after 30 years in the ministry and a dozen years as a police chaplain, Ive stood beside grades; Ive stood beside beds; Ive stood beside people in hospitals and jails and watched the utter destruction that people make of their lives when they decide theyre the boss, theyre in charge, and theyre gonna do it as Frank Sinatra sang, My Way. Holding that dear little child in your arms… Ill never forget standing by hospital beds as a police chaplain because I had to tell mothers that their four-year olds just died because they were having illicit drug-laced drunken affairs and killed their own children as a result of their actions. They were so high, and they backed their vans into lakes, and their children drowned. Their lovers drowned. I listened to the parents scream because-well, they were doing their own thing. They made the rules; they wrote the songs. They were in charge, and they reaped the fruit of it. Ill be the first one to tell you that I am so glad that I realize-it didnt take me very long to realize -as a person that Jerry Dean made a really horrible god and I really royally messed my life up. If I was honest with the thoughts that went on in my head as a young person, the perversion, the wickedness, the lust, and the evil… I used to lift weights in just a rage-fueled passion thinking about people that I wanted to kill. That embarrasses me. It shames me to say that. I sit here and think, Yeah, I really deserve to be worshipped as God-really noble stuff, right? Im really in charge. Im really the boss. I spent two years in high school, thinking about killing myself almost every single day. The gloom and the darkness that covered my life were incredible. The pain, the heartache, and the agony because I couldnt find the big answers to the big questions that I wanted-but, friends, out of that, when God finally opened up His Word and showed me His Truth and His light, and I found peace, redemption, hope, and deliverance in Jesus Christ-when I found out that He paid for my sins on the cross and justice was done there, I literally at 23 years old and a pastor already, literally jumped off my couch and almost hit my head on the ceiling because I instantly knew peace. I instantly knew joy. I instantly knew hope in a way that I never had in my whole entire life. I am so glad that I am not my own god. Paul Kurtz in the second Humanist Manifesto writes these words: No god will save us. We must save ourselves. My response to that and many of your responses to that is those two wonderful English words, Balderdash and Hogwash. I did a lousy job at saving myself. If God hadnt reached down and rescued my soul, I would have died a long time ago. I wouldnt be standing here today if it wasnt for the grace, the wonder, and the goodness of a Holy, loving, and gracious God. Many of you would nod your heads and say exactly that same thing, wouldnt you? Friends, Jesus Christ will have the entire universe bow their knees to Him some day. Every tongue will confess that He is the Lord. Hes boss; Hes King. What earned Him that position? Because 2,000 years ago in the Garden of Gethsemane when He faced eternal hell and the wrath and curse of a Holy, righteous, and just God, He had the wisdom to say, Father, whatever You want. Not what I want. Amen? If you know peace, you know hope, and you know joy, and you have hope for eternity, its because your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, His incredible attitude said, God whatever You want. Not what I want. Thats where real power comes from. The amazing thing is when you finally surrender to God and say, Youre the King. Youre the boss, then and only then do you find true freedom and a real hope. As you grow in your walk with Him, you finally find that you become the person that [He wants you to be]. He starts to change you, and you become the person that you hoped you could be. We all have a ways to go, but you see the way God changes, moves, and molds your lives, and your gratitude grows. Friends, I would ask you to take just a minute right here, bow your head with me, and pray that prayer-you alone with God, if you would, say, God, whatever You want. Not what I want. Will you take just a minute to pray that to God right now? Father, we thank You so much for the example of Jesus Christ who prayed, Not My will, but Yours. I pray that we would pray that not just today, but every day, and follow Him. I thank You that we can pray in His name, Amen. Friends, thats the challenge-not to pray that just once, but you will be truly wise if every single day at some point in your life you turn to the God of the universe and say, Youre the boss. Youre the King. Whatever You want. Youll be amazed at how your life will change. The second thing I want to look at is Proverbs 22:3 (page 647 of pew Bibles). It says these words and is repeated in Verse 12:27. Its repeated in many different ways throughout Proverbs, but it says this: A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions. The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences. A prudent person sees danger and takes precaution. Proverbs 14 says, The wise man looks ahead. The fool attempts to fool himself and wont face the facts. If you asked me today why Im a Christian, I would say it is this more than any single other thing: Christianity faces reality in a way that nothing else does. It faces the farthest look. Do you know in this world if youre trying to get ahead financially, you plan for your future. I always chuckle that over 90 percent of Americans have no more money when they die than when they did at age 18. Why? Incredibly poor planning. They dont look ahead. The Russians, under Stalin, they had their five-year plans and bankrupted the entire country. They couldnt look just five years in the future. They only looked so far ahead. Christians, God tells and challenges Christians to take the long view, the eternal view. I chuckle at this phrase from The Humanist Manifesto, which says, Knowledge is based on the scientific mesh and observations by many impartial witnesses. Now if that is true, and youre honest, what are we all going to face some day? Every single person sitting here will someday face death. You say, Well, I hope the Lord comes back. A while ago, it dawned on me that theyre basically the same thing. If Im ready to die, am I ready for the Lord to come back? Yeah. If Im ready for the Lord to come back, Im ready to die. Its essentially the same thing. Wise people think about that. Now heres something interesting. They say the only way that you can know anything is observation by many impartial witnesses, so lets take them at face value. How many people in white coats have ever experienced life after death or observed it? Never experienced it, never observed it, but we can know for sure that it doesnt exist. On the other hand, and one of the questions Larry asked, whats the difference between Judaism, Christianity and every other religious myth? The reality is history. One of the degrees I have is in history. I am a history geek; Im a history nerd; Im a history junkie. Friends, if I were going to plan my future on something that I wasnt sure that existed, I would like the witness of somebody thats been there, done that, right? So all our experts with letters after their names running around in white coats, they havent been there after death, but I know somebody that has the audacity to claim that He did. Why is Christianity different than every other religion? Because it claims to be historically accurate. One of the most brilliant historians in the British Empire in the last hundred years said, There is more evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ than any single other historical event. Good historians, good experts-people that are willing to study the facts-find out time after time after time that the Bible is true. I could go on and on and on telling you about the greatest British archeologist over the last hundred years, Sir William Mitchell Ramsay, who went to the Middle east to prove-he was knighted by the Queen of England-he was such a touring intellect. He went to the Middle east to prove that the Book of Acts was false. After he retraced the steps of Paul and Luke, he came to the conclusion and wrote that Luke was a historian of the first degree. His Book set the scholastic word on edge. It knocked peoples socks off. They never would have dreamed that, and Ramsay became a Christian as a result of his study of history and the facts. I could go on and on and on and tell you a litany of people who have come to that same conclusion from Lee Strobel, who is an editor of the Chicago Tribune, to CS Lewis, one of the greatest authors of the last hundred years. I could tell you story after story-doctors, scientists, geophysicists. My absolute favorite is Lou Wallace. Ive told a little bit about him before, but Ill tell you this: Lou Wallace was a lawyer from Indiana. He was so brilliant that at 34 years old, he was made a general in the union Army-one of the youngest generals in the Civil War. He was blamed for some of the catastrophes at the Battle of Shiloh and lost his position, but he came to the defense of the City of Cincinnati and set up its defenses; and as a result, he re-attained his rank of general. After the defense of the City of Cincinnati, he came to the attention of the President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln called him to Washington, almost as his special envoy, and Lou Wallace became a Civil War hero because he is credited with defending Washington, D.C., against confederate attack and saving the capital. Lou Wallace in his 30s became a national hero, credited with saving Washington, D.C., from capture. You probably didnt know that, did you? He went on after the war to become an author. After he wrote several books, he was writing across the country with one of the leading agnostics of the day-a man named Robert Ingersoll. Ingersoll, in a long spiel in which Wallace says he was charming, eloquent-hed never heard anybody talk like Ingersoll had before-was so logical. Ingersoll challenged Wallace about Christianity and Jesus Christ. Wallace began to research whether, in fact, Christianity was true and that Jesus did in fact rise from the dead. Do you know how long he spent studying that? Lee Strobel spent two years studying Christianity before he was convinced that it was true. Lou Wallace spent seven years, after which he became overwhelmed by the facts, overwhelmed by the evidence. The lawyer, the general, the author could not deny it any longer. He gave his life to Jesus Christ and ended up writing the best seller, Ben Hur. If this guy was alive today, his name would be making headlines almost every single day because Lou Wallaces play, Ben Hur, ran on Broadway for 26 straight years. It was so huge that the chariot race with eight horses was actually redone on stage. He became world famous in an age where Christians didnt read novels or go to the theatre. Christians read Ben Hur. They went to see Ben Hur. It affirmed their faith as it had with Wallace. Again, I could go on and on talking about people like that. The evidence is overwhelming. If I come to face death some day, I want to be in the hands of someone who has been there, done that, and conquered death. Right? I dont want to base my hopes on some, Well, were not quite sure. We havent observed it. The reality is that Paul in his day, speaking of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ-this is almost like an Eastern sermon-maybe were climbing out of the valley-said that Jesus was seen by over 500 witnesses at once, most of whom were still alive. How would that hold up in a court of law today? [Do you] think 500 witnesses on the witness stand might reinforce your case? Paul was so confident of the fact that he said, If youre not sure, go ask Him because most of them are still alive. You can check it out. As Pastor Jeff said last week, Christianity has never been afraid to say, Hey, check it out. I dont have to set my reason aside to embrace faith. In fact, the whole reason that I am a Christian is because I grew up in a very intellectual home. The Christian world view answers all my big questions. Its more logical; its more reasonable than any other philosophy of life Ive ever come across. So God calls us to embrace Truth, to embrace wisdom. What do you know about little kids that is simple? Humanism says you have to test everything out before you can find out if its true. Thats a nice way of saying you have to learn everything the hard way. How many little kids do you know that love vegetables? Maybe there are a few. How many little kids and grandkids do you know that would eat candy non-stop, 24 hours a day, if you allowed them to do that? What would they be like after 25 years, if they were still alive-which they probably would not be? But you need somebody older, wiser who gets the bigger picture a little bit better than they do to say, No, this is not good for you. If you set aside genuine truth and reality, you have to learn everything the hard way, and thats incredibly sad. Christianity is the ultimate look ahead. Paul in Romans 10 says that if youll confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, youll be saved. I love the Passage in Romans 2:7 where he says, There are those who will win eternal life if they continually seek glory, honor, and immortality. I love that phrase. Whats God called us as Christians to do? He calls us to seek for glory, honor, and immortality because all of us are going to face eternity one day. Im banking on someone whos been there, done that-not, Well, were not quite sure. In fact, were pretty confident that this is all there is. That leads us to the next point. My wife shared this Verse with me knowing that I was going to preach about the fool and secular humanism. Isaiah 44:20, we wind it down here, it says these words (page 721), The poor deluded fool feeds on ashes. He trusts something that cant help him at all, yet he cannot bring himself to ask, Is this idol that Im holding in my hand a lie? In spite of all of the arguments, all these protestations that we are impartial observers, secular humanists believe in a religion. Dont buy that nonsense that they are impartial. I always think of Francis Crick, the discoverer of DNA. Ill show you what a geek I am by saying that DNA stands for deoxyribonucleic acid. There, Im a total nerd. In 1983, Francis Crick discovered DNA. Hes an agnostic-pretty confident that God doesnt exist though, and its amazing that as he looks at DNA and studies even more and finds out that in every single cell, there are miles of human DNA. It boggles his mind, and Francis Crick the agnostic, says, Dare we say the word miracle, but of course, Pull the covers over my head cause it couldnt be God. He even uses the word miracle, but, Well, that doesnt fit in to my world view, so Im gonna cross out all knowledge or understanding that God couldve created this because it doesnt fit. Impartial observers? Youve got to be kidding me. Kids believe everything that theyre told. Thats why Jesus said that a child is the model of faith. They believe easily. Sometimes this gets thrown in our faces, You Christians, youre simple. Youre naïve. You believe in God. You also believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, and when you grow up a little bit more and get more of the facts, youre realize that Gods just like Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. Hes made up. Friends, this is my challenge to you as we wind it down and finish. This is my challenge to you: the God of the universe has the audacity-Isaiah 1-to say, Come now and let us reason together, says the Lord. You dont have to set aside your brain; you dont have to set aside your intellect. You dont have to set aside your logic. One of my favorite courses-you dont have to set aside your wisdom when you come to God. In fact, I am a Christian because wisdom, intellect, logic, and reason buttresses everything in the Word of God. The more I study, the more I see, the more I learn, the more I understand, I am amazed at the Truth of this Book and the wisdom of the Holy and Almighty God. God challenges us to think. In fact, I shake my head at our loss of history. When we have schools precisely in America because schools were built to teach young children how to read the Word of God, and 9 out of the 10 Ivy League schools-you can check it out and look it up-were started as? Religions seminaries to train preachers. Everywhere the Word of God goes, what happens? The advancement of science, wisdom, human reasoning, and logic follows. Why are dictators so afraid of the Word of God? Why are they so afraid of Christianity? Because they know that everywhere Christianity goes, it brings freedom. It brings real thinking. People dont just dumbly sit and go, A-ha, a-ha, a-ha, a-ha. They actually learn to think for themselves. One of favorite moments as a dad-one of my proudest moments as a parent-my oldest daughter was invited to a home of some Jehovahs Witnesses to discuss religion, and it was really interesting. Going back to the second one, one of the questions they got in to a discussion about was Heaven and hell, and the Jehovahs Witnesses believe there are three levels and 144,000 go to the highest level of Heaven. Then theres the middle ground that the rest of the Jehovahs Witnesses go to. Then theres the new earth, which all the good people go to. If youre really horrible, you just get annihilated. I was so proud of my daughter. She said, You know? If youre right and Im wrong, big deal. The worst that could happen to me… Remember for some of you in management, if youre planning, what do you plan for? You always plan for worst case scenarios; so worst case scenario, what happens? I get annihilated. Whoop-de-do. But if Im a pretty good person, then where do I spend eternity? On new earth, not so bad. Then she said, But if Im right, and youre wrong, youre in trouble. Then they said, Well, you believe what you believe because your parents told you that. The young lady who was my daughters age said, You know, the only reason I believe what I believe is because my parents told me that, and I was so proud of my daughter. She said, No, no, no, no, no, no. I dont buy it just cause my dad says it. In fact, she said, My dad tells me all the time, Dont you dare believe it just because I tell you that. She said, My dad tells me all the time, Look it up. Check it out. Search history; search science; search the facts; search ethics; search logically; search the Word of God. You find out if its true. I was so proud of her! Friends, thats what Im telling you. Im telling you follow in the footsteps of CS Lewis. Follow in the footsteps of Lou Wallace. Follow in the footsteps of Lee Strobel. Check it out for yourself. Dont you buy it just because Jerry Dean says it or Pastor Jeff says it-even though I love Pastor Jeff, sorry. Thats not blasphemy. Paul said, If I or you or any other angel preached you anything other than the Word of God, let them be accursed. It used to just trip my trigger in a church I was at before. I was there for a couple years, and Id walk by groups of people and hear people say, Well, Jerry said this, and Jerry said that. Thats why I have no hair anymore. Id pull it out. Id go, No, you dont get it! Its not Jerry said this or Jerry said that. The only reason to buy it is if God says it. If God doesnt say it, you can check everything else Jerry Dean says. Friends, I conclude with this: truly wise people search. Truly wise people think. Gods not afraid of the big questions. Revelation 1:6 (page 1215) says that God has called us to be kings and priests. I love the Passage in Proverbs [25:2, page 650] that says, Its the glory of God to conceal things. Its the glory of kings to search them out. As a king and a priest in Gods Kingdom, what does God call you to do? Search for Truth. Hit the books! Pray like Solomon, God, give me a large and understanding heart. Open my mind. Teach me Your ways. Teach me wisdom. Give me knowledge. Give me understanding. Im not content with where I am. I want answers! Teach me. Show me. And you can bank on it that if you do that, He will. Ill close with one last Passage from the Word of God, Deuteronomy 17:18-19 (page 189). When a new king came to the thrown in Israel, do you know what his first official act of state was? God said, Hes supposed to write his own personal copy of the Word of God. Secondly, he was supposed to read in it every day all the days of his life. Friends, you are most like the king and queen that God chose you to be when you search and devour. Solomon said, If you search for wisdom and seek for her as for hidden treasure, then you will get real understanding. You will get real knowledge. You will gain real wisdom. Itll impact you both in this life and in the life to come. Father, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You for the Truth. We thank You for each one of these who are Your people. I pray that You would teach us, help us to grow and learn and challenge us to seek You, to pursue You, to not be afraid of the big questions. We thank You for the hope that we have in Jesus Christ and the way Youve changed our lives. I ask Your blessing on each one here, and if theres someone who doesnt know You, that maybe today they will confess that You are in fact Lord and trust that Jesus rose from the dead, even today, and find new life and a new hope. I thank You that we can pray in Jesus name, Amen.
Good morning. Happy Easter to you. Thank you for coming with us today. Were honored that youre here. We have started a mini-series called, The Rebel. Thats not a name or title that youd normally associate with Jesus, is it? I mean the average person on the street would echo the words of Sean Penns character when he said, Holy man. Did well. In Heaven. Turn the other cheek. Love your enemy. Not very dangerous-yet He was. He was a rebel. He came into a world where there was a religious system that was oppressing the poor, that was corrupt, that was full of hypocrisy, and He exposed it. He went looking for a fight as weve seen. They didnt have to come and find Him. He found them. He taught as no man had ever taught. One time, this mild-mannered man made a whip and drove the money-changers out of the temple and overturned their tables in righteous anger. He was not afraid of them. He was not afraid of their power. He was not intimidated by them. He would stand up for righteousness, compassion, justice, and to the powerful. He would take away their power by drawing away from them the multitudes of people that were following them. He rebelled against their man-made rules, their man-made authority, to establish a new Kingdom based upon spiritual truths-the Kingdom of God. Thats what were going to conclude this morning when we talk about The Rebel. This morning I want to ask you a few questions of mass confession here. How many of you have ever stood up for yourself even when you knew you were wrong or have been in an argument and though the person was right, you got angry when they pointed out your flaws? Let me see your hands. Look at that. How many of you here today received good advice from somebody, a sound counsel, but because of the source it came from-because maybe you didnt like or respect the individual or didnt want to give that individual the benefit of being right-you chose to ignore that counsel even if it meant it was to your detriment? What were looking at are some stubborn folks this morning. How many of you are stubborn? Let me see your hands. Do you know what Im worried about? Im worried about the ones who didnt raise their hands because I know what theyre thinking. Theyre out there going, You arent going to tell me when to raise my hand. Ill raise my hand when I want to raise my hand. Ill wait till youre halfway through the sermon. Im just going to raise my hand for no reason. Youre not telling me what to do! We have some stubborn folks out here! Well, just like they are stubborn today, they were stubborn back then as well. I want us to turn in our Bibles to Matthew 27. Look at the aftermath of the cross. Were going to begin reading with Verse 62 of that Gospel (page 989 of pew Bibles). It says, The next day, the one after preparation day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate… By the way, this is the Sabbath. Now, what are you supposed to be doing on the Sabbath? Resting, right? You can only walk so far as a stones throw. These men are all bent out of shape because Jesus worked on the Sabbath and violated their laws on the Sabbath. Now, what are they doing? Theyre breaking their own rules. Sir, they said, we remember that while He was still alive that deceiver said, After three days I will rise again. So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, His Disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that He has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first. What was the first deception? The first deception was that He was the Messiah. The first deception was that He was the fulfillment of Biblical prophecy, calling Himself the Son of Man and calling Himself the Son of God. That was a deception. No matter how many miracles Jesus performed, no matter how great the miracles-causing the eyes of the blind to see, the lame to walk, feeding thousands with a few fish and a few loaves of bread, or even raising a dead man, Lazarus-no matter how miraculous [of a thing] that He did or how incredible [of a statement] He said, they refused to believe. Its [almost as if] Jesus almost said, What do I have to do? What do I have to say? Youve seen the miracles. They were similar to the expression, A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still. A man came home one day, and he said to his wife, Honey, I have some bad news for you. Im dead. She said, What? He said, Yeah, I died last night in my sleep. Its bad news. I feel bad for you and the kids. Youre a widow, and the kids dont have a dad. She said, Well, I dont agree that youre dead, but I tell you what-you sure need help, so she made an appointment with a psychiatrist. He went in to see the doctor. He said, Doc, Im a dead man. He said, I see. Well, this is an unusual case. Heres what I need you to do. He handed him a stack of books and medical journals. He said, I want you to go home and study, and I want you to answer this question when you come back to my office next week, Do dead men bleed? He said, Okay. Ill do that. He went home, and the dead guy studied the books. He looked up the fact that when you die, your heart stops pumping, the plasma separates from the blood, and then you dont bleed anymore. That's it. It's done. So he went back to the doctor, and he said, Did you study the manuals? He said, I did. He said, So whats the answer? He said, My conclusion is that dead men do not bleed. He said, Very well, I agree. He opened his drawer, pulled out a needle, and said, Give me your finger. The man reached out his finger, and the doctor pricked it. Instantly the man started to bleed. He looked down at his finger in shock, and he said, I dont believe it! The doctor smiled, knowingly, and he said, Dead men DO bleed. Wow! These journals are wrong! That was the mindset of these guys. What does Jesus have to do? What does He have to say in order for you to believe? Because to believe is to admit theyre wrong. Because to believe means theyre going to lose their power. Theyre going to lose their way of life. Well talk more about that in a little bit. So Pilate is going to do what they say. If the tomb is unguarded, if nobody is there-even though this stone weighed tons-if enough guys showed up, if they work hard enough and have the right kind of leverage and pulleys, they could probably move the stone; so Heres what well do. Well do two things, Pilate says. Take a guard, Pilate answered. Go make the tomb as secure as you know how. So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard. It was probably a sting which had an official seal of the emperor on it saying, This is the property of Rome. Do not tamper. If you tampered with that seal, it meant the possibility of facing death. For the guards to fail at their post-four guards that would have gone in shifts, so there was no chance of them being tired-there wasnt just one guy. Its not some guy named Elmer standing out there by himself. There were four professional soldiers who are at attention and on the alert at all times. If they fell asleep on the job or somebody overtook them and the prisoner-or in this case, the dead person-is taken, then they would die as well. That was the consequence of failing at their post. Now they were very confident the tomb was secure. Chapter 28, After the Sabbath at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from Heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men. You know how it is when youre frightened, right? You know what kind of emotions and what kind of physical reactions your body goes through. Weve never seen anything like this, so you can imagine how pale they became and how shook up they were. The angel said to the women, Do not be afraid… Easy for you to say, they probably said. …for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; He has risen; just as He said. Come and see the place where He lay. Then go quickly and tell His Disciples that He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see Him. Now I have told you. So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy… Quite a combination of emotions-fear and joy at the same time. For the soldiers leaving the tomb, it was only fear-not joy. Suddenly Jesus met them, Greetings, He said. They came to Him, clasped His feet and worshiped Him. Then Jesus said to them, Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see Me. Now while they are doing that, the guards were reporting back to their bosses what had happened. While the women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened. They know theyre in trouble. They know that on their watch, the grave was now empty. What they had been assigned to protect is no longer in the tomb. Theyre afraid for their lives. They are also emotional and physical basket cases. When they arrive, they are trembling. Their voices are shaking. Their palms are sweaty. Their complexion is pale. There is a look of fear and anxiety about them as they tell the whole story. They talk about the shaking of the earth. They talk about the angel, the voice, and the message of the empty tomb-giving incredible evidence of the resurrection of Jesus. What do the chief priests do? It says that then the chief priests met and said, We have made a terrible mistake. We have crucified the Son of God. May God have mercy on our souls. We now believe that Jesus is the Christ because of the overwhelming evidence of the Resurrection. No, no, no. A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still. The Messiah doesnt bleed. This could not have happened. They met together and devised a plan, and its not that great of one, as were going to see. They gave the soldiers a large sum of money, telling them, You are to say, His Disciples came during the night and stole Him away while you were asleep. By the way, think about this for a second. The Disciples came and took Him away while you were asleep. How do you know what happened while you were asleep? Right? Think about that for a second. Yeah, while we were asleep, the Disciples… How would you know? You were asleep! How do you know what happened? How do you know who took Him? Then they make a promise that they cant keep. They say, If this report gets to the governor… Youre in big trouble. …we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble. They cant make that promise, and if they are going to make that promise, they better come up with a better excuse than this one. Is that going to get them out of trouble? Yes, Pilate, we want you to know that the only reason the Disciples came and took the body of Jesus that they were supposed to guard was because they fell asleep, so its okay. Thats not a good excuse! If you have something important on your desk that your boss has put you in charge of and its gone-somebody has taken it-and your co-worker says, Hey, Ive got your back. Im just going to tell the boss you fell asleep on the job. Everythings going to be fine. Thats not going to work! But you know what? These guys thought their lives were going to be on the line, and now they have a big wad of cash, so they were like, Okay. So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day. Were going to talk this morning about why people reject Jesus. Because the reasons they rejected Jesus are the same reasons why people reject Jesus today. The number one reason is emotional. It has to do with our emotions. They so hated Jesus because He contradicted their teaching. He exposed their hypocrisy. Every time they tried to trap Him, He made them look silly and embarrassed them. Every time they tried to trip Him up through an action or a teaching, He had just the right words to say, just the right actions to display, that caused them to look foolish. Just the mere mention of Jesus name caused an extreme response of hate. They hated Him. They hated Him so bad they plotted to kill Him, and they carried out their plan. Thats hate. When you premeditate on the murder of an innocent person, plot it out, put that much thought and effort in to it, and then carry out your plan, that is hate. There is no way in the world that theyre going to say that this man is right. Theres no way in the world theyre going to say the Messiah did bleed. Hes not the Messiah. Hes not our Messiah. We reject Him. Dont make your decisions on emotion. What about Judas? We talked about this on Good Friday, but in case you werent here, why did Judas betray Christ when he did? Do you know why? Right before the Last Supper-near that time-there was a big party in Bethany. Mary was there, Martha was there, and Lazarus was there. Mary was so grateful that her brother had been raised from the dead, she took a jar of perfume that was worth a years wage, broke it, and poured it on His head and His feet. Judas was thinking about all the money that was lost, and he said, This could have been sold and given to the poor, and he embarrasses Mary. He yells at Mary. He lectures Mary for the waste of putting that perfume on Jesus. Jesus rebukes him in front of everybody and says, What she has done is good. The poor you will always have with Me…Me, you will not always have. She did this to prepare me for my burial, and from now on wherever the Gospel is preached, this story will be told. Judas was upset. He was embarrassed. He lost face. In his anger, he went to the chief priests, and he said, Im going to help you get your guy. Anger, in his anger, he rejected Jesus. So sometimes our responses are based on emotion. The soldiers response was based on emotion. There was elation. They had all this money! This was going to change their lives! They would be able to pay their debts. They would be able to buy things they wanted to buy-maybe that new chariot that they saw in the window. This is going to change them-maybe buy some new sandals. Boy, Im telling you. There are some slick-looking sandals now. Maybe [they would buy] a nice tunic. Im going to be living large. This changes everything. As they hold that wad of cash, they suppress the truth to hold on to those riches. Some people will reject Christ because they say, Oh, if I become a Christian, I cant do this. I cant do that. I cant say this. I cant go there because its going to change my lifestyle. They refuse to come to Jesus because emotionally they dont want to make that change. They think their life is fine the way it is. Coming to Christ would ruin their life, they say, because they want to keep that which is giving them pleasure. For others, the rejection is based on intellect. Its an intellectual response. They simply would say to you that, as the man said in the skit, Dead men dont rise from the dead. What this boils down to is who is Jesus? If Jesus is the divine Son of God, if He is God incarnate, then it is not a miracle that He would rise from the dead. The biggest miracle would be that He would die in the first place if He is divine, not that He would rise again. If He is just a man, if He is just a good teacher, then I would agree that resurrection is impossible; but if He is the divine Son of God- which He demonstrated through His teachings and through His miracles-the greatest miracle would be that death could hold Him. Jesus taught as no man ever taught. I will tell you here is the common ground: the enemies of Christ and the followers of Christ all agree on four things. Number one, Jesus died. He was crucified, number one. Number two, He died. Number three, He was buried. Number four, the tomb was empty. Remember the Creed that we recited at the beginning of the service with Jessie? Those four important aspects of Scripture and doctrine, they would agree with. They would salute and say, Yes, thats true. He died on the cross. He was buried, and the tomb is empty. The big question is why is it empty? Why was it empty? Did the enemies of Christ come and take Him? Thats the last thing they wanted to do. They would parade His corpse through the street if they could and say, Heres your risen Savior, but they could not. The Disciples are going to overcome the Roman guards? These same Disciples who scattered and hid for their lives are now going to overcome Centurions with swords and spears? No. Well, it was a hallucination. He didnt really rise from the dead. There was a hallucination. The Bible says He appeared to over 500 men at the same time. Paul writes, Most of whom are alive today. So 500 men plus the Disciples had the same hallucination over the same 40 day period. What happened that day? What caused that tomb to be empty? What changed those men? People will die for something that they believe is true but is not. Terrorists will die because they blow themselves up thinking theyre becoming a martyr and going to Heaven. Its a lie, but they believe its true. But will you willingly die for something you know is a lie? Would these men perpetrate this hoax and then go to their death knowing its a lie, knowing He didnt really rise from the dead? But they are going to [willingly] put their head on the chopping block? Peter is going to allow himself to be crucified upside down? James is going to allow himself to be run through with a sword-all for something they know for a fact is a lie? What changed these men from men who were cowering and hiding and afraid for their lives to men who would stand up and say to anyone who would listen, Beat us, imprison us, kill us-we cannot stop talking about what we have seen or heard. You have to decide-you have to weigh the evidence, and I encourage you to do that-why the reason was that the tomb was empty. The third reason is an external reason. Youve heard people say this many times, Well, you know, theres scandal in the church. There is corruption in the church. Were confronted in our newspapers almost every week about the scandal with the Roman Catholic Church. They hear about the priests going from parish to parish and all the children that were hurt. Ill tell you what-Protestants, Catholics or non-church people-we all agree that that is terrible! Those priests need to be brought to justice. That corruption needs to be weeded out of the church. They should not be assigned to other parishes but be convicted and sent to prison. We all agree with that, right? You know who feels really strongly about hurting kids? Jesus does. Do you know what He said in Matthew 18 about people who harm children, who cause children to stumble? He talks about a millstone. When you ground grain, there was a big stone and a smaller stone. Youd put the grain in there, and youd turn the smaller stone. Jesus uses the big stone, the big stone that takes a mule to pull. He says, Somebody who harms children… Now, Im not saying that you cant get forgiveness and restoration. You can. Were talking about a person who prays on children with no repentance and no remorse. He goes to another place and repeats it. He says, Somebody who has one of the millstones, tie it around their neck, and is thrown into the deepest part of the sea is having a better day than that guy will when I get a hold of him. Im paraphrasing, but thats what He says in Matthew. It would be better for that guy to have a millstone tied around his neck and be thrown in the depths of the sea than harm one of these little ones of Mine. So you think, Well, Im going to reject Jesus because of the actions of His church… Why would you reject Jesus when these people are doing things that He condemned? Theyre doing things that Jesus Himself finds an atrocity? It would be one thing if the followers were doing what Jesus said to do and saying what Jesus said to say. Then you could say, Well, if thats what it means to follow Jesus, Im going to reject Him. But when theyre doing the exact opposite of what Jesus says and does, theyre not truly followers of Christ, are they? So why would you reject Jesus because of what they had done? There is a lot of corruption in the church, a lot of hypocrisy and scandal, and what did Jesus do with it? He exposed it. He exposed it. He sought to rid the church of that. In no other walk of life do we apply that logic. Ive heard so many people say, Oh, the church is full of hypocrites. Religion is no good. I want nothing to do with Jesus or Christianity. Okay, so there are corrupt police officers. They take money to get you out of a ticket, so does that mean all law enforcement is corrupt, and we need to get away from law enforcement? There are judges who take bribes. Does that mean all judges are corrupt, and we need to abandon our legal system, get rid of due process, and have the Wild West out there? There are medical doctors who prescribe medications that are not legal to prescribe to junkies and drug addicts, so does that mean all doctors are bad and we need to get rid of the medical profession? Im not going to go to doctors anymore. I want nothing to do with medicine or doctors. We dont apply that logic anywhere else. Are there bad eggs in the church? You bet there are. Evangelists went off and stole this money or did that or whatever it is, what does that have to do with Jesus? Please, tell me. They say, Well, I just didnt want to be a part of that organized religion stuff, that man-made religion! I want no part of that! Neither did Jesus want a part of that. What do you think He was coming up against? What do you think this rebel was opposed to? Their man-made structure, their man-made rules. They were binding people down, holding people back, and oppressing the poor. That is what He was opposing. You have something in common with Jesus if thats how you feel! Why would you reject somebody who is in agreement with you on that very point? You see, weve talked about reasons why we reject Jesus, but lets talk about accepting Him. When you accept Him, it is personal. Youre not accepting an institution. Youre not accepting an organization. Youre not accepting a denomination. Youre not accepting a creed. You are accepting a person. Jesus says in Matthew 11, Come unto Me. He says, You come to Me. All ye who are weary and are heavy laden. My yoke is easy; My burden is light. You will find rest for your souls. He says, You come to Me. Matthew 23 is one of two laments that Jesus spoke of Jerusalem. He just got through reading the riot act to the Pharisees, just giving them the what for, telling them like it is, and then He turns to the city of Jerusalem and He says, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the Prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. What is that a picture of, that word picture? Intimacy. The hen gathering the chicks is intimacy-unconditional love. He says, How many times Ive longed to do this, how often. So repeatedly I have reached out, and repeatedly you have spurned My love. In Luke 19 at the triumphal entry, Jesus looks at Jerusalem-the Bible says He weeps. It is the strongest Greek word that Luke could come up with. It doesnt mean a tear rolling down His cheek. It says, He wept over Jerusalem. He says, I sent you Prophets. I sent you Godly men, and what do you do? You stoned them and you killed them. He says, Now youve rejected the time of your visitation, and He wept. Ive cried many times in my life. I have wept very few. When you weep, its just gut-wrenching heaves. I wept when my parents passed away. There have been times in my life when I have wept and been broken. Jesus wept over the condition of mankind, so its personal. Its personal. Were not asking you today to join a church or denomination. Were asking you to receive a person who loves you, who died for you, and its eternal. Jesus says, You will find rest for your souls. That part of you that survives death, youve been made it the image of God. Youve been made with divine purpose and design. He breathed into man the breath of life, and man became a living soul, and God is jealous for that soul. He wants that soul to belong to Him, so He invites you to come. He invites you to surrender your heart and life to Him. Make that decision today. I encourage you. Would you bow with me in prayer? Lord, some here today have fought You on the basis of emotion. Maybe somebody they dont like is a Christian, and because they dont like that person, they reject what that person stands for. They reject Christianity, but its not You theyre rejecting. Theyre rejecting on the basis of their feelings. I pray that You would help them, Lord, to respond to You for who You are-not because of what somebody else did, said, didnt do or didnt say. Lord, I pray that they would see that You are who You said You were, that You did what You said You did, that the tomb is empty, that Your resurrection has made eternal life and salvation possible. Father, help them as they grapple with the empty tomb, as they ask questions, as they seek truth. Help them to come to that realization that You are alive. Lord, for those who reject You because of the failings of man and those men who proclaim to represent You or claim to stand for the church, help them to know that You share those same feelings, that You too are against corruption and hypocrisy in the highest places to the lowest places, that You fought against that oppression. You fought against that sin. I pray Lord that they would not be a rebel, but they would bow their knee and surrender to the Lordship of Christ and receive You into their lives. Lord, as the chicks are received by that mother hen, Lord, might we allow You to put Your arms around us. Receive us unto Yourself. In Jesus name, we pray. Amen.
[Have you ever known] somebody that turned out to be not at all what you thought they were? Maybe you thought they were really nice and you got to know them, and they turned out to be kind of ornery. Or the other way around-you thought they were kind of mean, and it turned out they were a sweetheart. Or maybe you thought they were really shy and quiet, and it turns out theyre quite talkative. Or you thought somebody was kind of aloof and dry, and they turned out to have a great sense of humor. I think we all can say that we have friends and people that we know that we thought were this way and turned out to be quite the opposite. If you were to ask the average person on the street who doesnt go to church, Well, what kind of person was Jesus? I bet a lot of those people would respond like Sean Penns character did in that film, Dead Man Walking. I bet a lot of them would say, Well, turn the other cheek. Love your neighbor. Love your enemy. He did good things. He was a good guy. But if you were to use the word rebel to describe Jesus, they would go, What? No! But He was. He did not rebel against the things of God, but He did rebel against the authority, the structure, the system, the corruption of His day that was so prevalent. What were going to do this weekend and on Good Friday and Easter is were going to start a series, and its going to be a running narrative called, The Rebel. Were just going to survey. Were going to see the story and how this thing unfolded from an earthly perspective. We know from a Heavenly perspective that God was at work in His sovereignty and His providence, and He was accomplishing a work through Christ that would climax on the cross through death, burial, and resurrection; but there was also a dynamic that was going on-events that led up to that climax of Easter that were going to talk about. You say, Well, how did this unfold? How did these tensions build to the point that these powerful men wanted to kill this preacher? Howd this all happen? To do that, we need to understand that these men, first of all, were very passionate about the Bible, very passionate about their faith, and very passionate about their way of life. They came across as very pious, very righteous, very zealous for God, but when you dug beneath the surface-when you peeled back the veneer-you found out that they were actually mostly about themselves, not about God. When preserving their way of life, preserving their power, Jesus would expose their corruption; He would expose their hypocrisy, and when He did that, it would cause them to be enraged. Theres going to be a clash, but I want you to figure out this morning who is going to throw the first punch. Who is going to draw first blood in this fight? Are they the ones picking on helpless, little humble preacher, Jesus, or is Jesus the one thats picking the fight? Lets take a look. Lets open our Bibles to Mark 2. The reason I chose Mark 2 is there is a lot of activity in this area, a lot of conflict that I think is a good starting point. When Jesus first starts to teach, His ministry takes off like a rocket. The teaching, the miracles-people are coming to be healed. People are coming because of the teaching. People are coming because theyre curious, and the enemies are coming too because theyre hearing things. I mean Jesus comes out of nowhere. Hes 30 years old. He is from an obscure region of Nazareth. Hes a carpenter by trade. He doesnt go to any of the religious schools, so Hes not certified. He doesnt have a degree. He comes with no pedigree. His family is not a part of the religious elite or the powerful, the prominent. Theyre not. Theyre just a common family, and hes a common tradesman; so theres no notoriety. Theres nothing special about Him. Theres no in, yet He teaches as no one ever taught before because when you were a teacher, you would always say, Well, youve heard it said… The rabbi so and so said this. So and so, the scribe said that. If you read the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, Youve heard it said, An eye for an eye. A tooth for a tooth, but I say unto you... You have heard it said if you murder…but I say unto you. He was expounding on the law, and He was changing the way the people viewed the Word of God. He was standing on His own authority, not on the rabbis [authority] that were before Him, and that was astonishing. Then whats more is in a thinly veiled way, He was attacking the Pharisees. He never said the P word at first. He didnt say, The Pharisees like to pray so they can be seen. They give their all for everybody to see. He didnt come out and say it right away. It was masked. It was disguised, but you kind of knew who He was talking about when He talked about hypocrisy. You kind of knew who He was picking on, and they didnt like that. Were going to see this go from a curiosity to a real threat because what happens is people begin to follow Jesus by the droves. If theyre following Jesus, guess who theyre not following? Theyre not following the scribes, the Pharisees, and the other teachers of the law. Theyre losing their people, and when they lose their people, they lose their influence. They lose their power-base, and they dont like it. They dont like it at all, so theyre going to come [forward]. With this miracle, were going to see there are going to be some enemies of Christ there as well. Were going to see their heart. Were going to start to see that this pious veneer begins to strip away, and we see what theyre really about. In Mark 2, Jesus comes to the town where Hes living of Capernaum. In Capernaum, theres a house that either He is staying at or its a house of a friend, but thats where Jesus is staying. The crowd is so vast that they cant get in the door. They have this friend who is a paralytic, and when they cant get in, theyre desperate. They just know Christ could heal him, so they make a hole in the roof, and they lower him on a sheet-four men lower him down. We know that everything had to come to a grinding halt because after all, if the ceiling starts to crumble, and somebody starts to come through it, its hard to teach in that circumstance. If somebody started coming through our roof here, I guarantee you Id have a hard time keeping your attention; so everything stops. What is Jesus going to do? Whats He going to say? Jesus says something totally unexpected. He says to the paralytic, Your sins are forgiven you, Verse 9 (page 991 of pew Bibles). Who said anything about coming to confess sins? They were coming to get a physical healing here, but Jesus says, Your sins are forgiven you. Now who forgives sins? God does. Only God can truly forgive sins, remove them from their record. Only God can do that, so right away, to me, that's picking a fight. Jesus doesnt have to say that, but He says it because He knows its going to be controversial. The Bible says that they were thinking in their hearts. It says, Some of the teachers of the law were sitting there thinking to themselves… They didnt articulate this. They didnt verbalize this. Why does this fellow talk like that? Hes blaspheming. Who can forgive sins but God alone? Immediately Jesus knew in His Spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and He said to them, Why are you thinking these things? Thats kind of spooky, right? Somebody is reading your mind and answering your questions before you have spoken them, thats a little spooky. That right away is going to cause you to be alert and pay attention. How in the world can He read my mind? He says, Which is easier to say to the paralytic? Your sins are forgiven, or to say, Get up, take your mat and walk? I would think He would say, Which is harder? Because those are really hard things. One is to remove sin. The second is to cause a paralyzed person to walk. Only God can do either one of those things. I would say theyre both hard, but from Christs perspective, it was which is easier? But you might know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins… Arise, take up your mat and walk, and He calls Himself the Son of Man. The Son of Man was a messianic title. Daniel writes about the Son of Man who receives a kingdom from the ancient of days in the Book of Daniel. When He takes that title, Son of Man, to Himself, He is immediately putting Himself in a messianic role, a messianic light. Theyre not happy about this. They are very upset. Youd think theyd be happy that a paralyzed man could walk, but they are upset that Jesus said, Im going to forgive your sins. They go back home, and they tell their friends about whats going on. Then there is a party. There is a conversion. Levi (or Matthew) comes to Christ. He still has a lot of friends who arent too Godly, and he invites his friends and Jesus and His followers to his house; and they have this Matthew party, this mingling of Christ-followers and sinners. The Pharisees see this, and they become upset. Theyre thinking, Well, if this guy wants to be on the in-crowd, if He wants to be a teacher and one of us, then He cant hang around with people like this, but He does. He hangs around with people that wont spend the time of day with Him. They look down on Him. They look upon with disdain. He actually enjoys their company. He talks with them, and Hes friends with them. Theyre like, Doesnt Jesus know who these people are? Jesus says, You know, I came not to save the righteous, but sinners. I came not to save those who think theyre all right with God, that theyre great. I came to save those who desperately know about their sin and their need for God. Then there is another event that takes place in Verse 23. Theyre walking through a field, and its the Sabbath Day. Theyre hungry, and McDonalds is closed (congregation laughing). What are you going to do? Its the Middle East, youre hungry, and heres a field. That law permitted you to take it. You couldnt use a sickle, but you could break it off with your hand. The law allowed that, but it was the Sabbath Day; and according to them, that was work. That was work. The Pharisees said, Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath? You see, God had said dont work on the Sabbath, and then they wrote an oral tradition or a commentary on that. They would write volumes of this oral law, which was based on their interpretation of what God had said. God had said, Dont work on the Sabbath, so they would write volumes and volumes of what was work and what wasnt work. This is work. Heres how far you can walk. You can walk as far as you can throw a stone. You can do this. You can lift that. You cant lift anything that weighs more than this. They wrote all these oral traditions, and then they tried to put that on the same plane of Scripture. Their oral law or their interpretation or commentary, they had the same respect for and esteem as the Word of God; so when Jesus broke the law, He wasnt breaking Gods law. He was breaking mans law. He was breaking their oral tradition. They understood the letter of the law, but they didnt understand the spirit of the law. Jesus talks about David, and He says, When David and his men were hungry, it was the Sabbath. They went into the tabernacle, and the priest gave them bread, so you can see theres precedence for doing this on the Sabbath. Youd think, Oh, okay. Everything is fine. Hes just trying to make a lesson. Hes saying, The spirit of the Sabbath is its for man to have rest. When you say you cant work on the Sabbath and picking grain is work, mans need to eat overrides your command not to work. Mans need to eat is more important, so you need to understand the spirit of the law. I bought a bed many years ago locally from a man. I bought a used bed for my mom. It was in really nice shape, so I purchased it, and it was the Sabbath. It was a Saturday. His religion said you cant work on the Sabbath, so this guy watched me as I hauled this large bed out of his house by myself. Im winding down the staircase and bumping into walls. A couple times he reached out to try to steady me or help me, and then hed remember and say, Oh, Id like to help you, but I cant. Its the Sabbath. I cant work on the Sabbath. He watched me take it out to the car and put it on the roof. He gave me some rope, but he couldnt help me put it around the mattress. It would have been a lot easier if somebody could have thrown me the rope, but instead I had to do it myself, walk around the car, and loop it again. It took a long time. It was a hard job to do by myself. When it was done, I was sweaty, tired, bruised and bloody (congregation laughing). Finally I get done, and he says, You know, Im really sorry, but its the Sabbath, and I couldnt help you. I remember thinking, You know, is that really what Jesus would have done? I think if Jesus would have been there, He would have said, Either you help him or I will. Thats not the spirit of the Sabbath. The Sabbath is you need to have some rest, and youre missing the point. Youre missing the point, and Jesus makes the point here. He says, The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. The Sabbath is here to serve us, so that we are rested and recuperated. We are not here to serve it. You have your priorities all mixed up. If he had left it at that, theyd say, Point taken. They probably wouldnt have been offended. They probably wouldnt have been upset. They probably would have said, Yeah, thats fine. But then He goes and He throws a punch. He says something thats going to irritate them to no end. He says, So the Son of Man… There He goes again calling Himself the Son of Man. the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath. He didnt have to say that. Hes throwing that in for good measure. Do you realize what Hes saying here? Ill illustrate it this way. Are any of you watching March Madness right now? You have your brackets? Im sure your final four is intact still, right? I almost missed church Saturday night because I was watching that Butler game with my little brackets, Hurry up! I have to get to church! So we have March Madness. Well, basketball was invented by Dr. Naismith in Massachusetts in the late 1800s at a YMCA. The director said, Hey, come up with an inside game for the winter, so he thought about it, and he came up with the sport of basketball. It had two peach baskets that he nailed about 10 feet high to the wall at each end of the gym. They used a soccer ball, and you couldnt dribble. You could only pass. He wrote up 13 rules, and the goal was to throw the soccer ball into the peach basket, and the sport of basketball was invented; so he wrote all those rules, and eventually the game began to evolve and change. Dr. Naismith was a part of that. In fact, he was the first coach and founded the basketball program in Kansas, the Jayhawks-one of the most told story traditions in college basketball. He was their first coach for a long time. Can you imagine the referee blowing a whistle and making a call, and Dr. Naismith protests the call? The ref comes over and starts explaining the rules of basketball. Well, heres what he did wrong. He did this or this. Dr. Naismith could put his hands on his hips and go, You know what? Do you know who youre talking to? Do you know I invented this sport? Do you know this was my idea? Do you know I wrote the rules of basketball, and you wouldnt be playing this game without me? Do you understand that? So make the right call! Jesus is saying, Listen, youre telling me the rules of the Sabbath and what I can and cannot do on the Sabbath. Guess what? I invented the Sabbath? The Sabbath came from Me. This is My idea. Im the Lord of it. It came out of My head. This is My stuff, so dont tell Me what you can and cant do on the Sabbath when the Sabbath was my idea! That is a bold, blatant assertion and a blasphemous one unless its true, so they are going to be angry. Talk about stirring up the hornets nest. Theyre going to be mad. So now theyre going to set up a plot to try to capture Jesus. The Gospel of Luke makes it clear that the story we are about to read was a sting. Theyre trying to catch Jesus. Now remember you cannot work on the Sabbath, and that included healing. To heal was work, so you didnt heal on the Sabbath. They take a man who has a birth defect on his hand. Hes probably lived with it all his life. Hes been ashamed of it; its caused him embarrassment. Theyre going to use this crippled man as a pawn, and its shameless. Jesus is going to be very angry. They take the man and they put him in the front row of the synagogue, knowing that when Jesus sees him, Hes going to want to heal him. Mark 3 (page 993), there is the man with the withered hand. They were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watch Him closely to see if He would heal him on the Sabbath. Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, Id like to help you, but its the Sabbath, so I cant. Come back Sunday. He said, Stand up in front of everyone. Then Jesus asked them, Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill? He throws it back in their faces because they are waiting for Him to heal so they can say, You Sabbath breaker! Youre against the law! But if they say, Its right to do good on the Sabbath. Its right to save a life on the Sabbath, then theyre realizing theyre playing right in to His hands. Then basically His healing was justified. But if they say, Do evil on the Sabbath or kill on the Sabbath, theyre making themselves out to look bad; so either they have to admit they are wrong or they have to look really bad, so they choose to remain silent and not answer. He looked around at them in anger, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts… In other words, these people are happy or theyre going to become angrier about Him breaking the law than happy that a man who is crippled is now whole. Stretch out your hand. He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus. Thats significant. The Herodians and the Pharisees did not like each other. They were not friends. They werent like worlds apart, but the Herodians really followed Herod, and Herod of course is seen as a puppet of Rome. The Pharisees, theyre not about that at all. They would much prefer their independence, but you know what? They have this common enemy, so were going to join forces to try to stop Him. Im not about to be political in what Im about to say-even though this is a political issue, Im not going to express any opinions on it; but I have never seen such a divide right now as Im seeing in our country. Theres this health reform issue, and some are saying this is the best legislation in decades; and others are saying, Well, this is a downward slope of big government, and this is really bad. Theres a movement called The Tea Party. In this movement, there are Reagan Democrats, Republicans, Independents, Libertarians, just kind of a conglomeration of people. It says, Normally, we vote for different parties. We have different thoughts and ideas, but out of our disdain for big government, high taxes, and so forth, we are going to unite and try to fight against that. Im not trying to voice an opinion one way or another. Im just simply saying this is whats going on. So its very similar-the Herodians, the Sadducees, the Pharisees, the scribes, and the priests-they dont normally associate together, but out of their disdain for Jesus, theyre going to start to join forces because now they have a common enemy that they want to silence. Well, over time the gloves came off. In John 8, and we dont have time to go in to all of this, there is a conflict. There is a discussion about who are the true children of Abraham, and they resort to name calling. They call Jesus a Samaritan, which is a racial slur-half Jew/half Gentile. They tell them that He is demon-possessed. Jesus responds by saying that you are of your father, the devil, who is a liar, and if I speak anything other than what I am saying, I am a liar just like you. Its fair to say that the gloves have come off. Jesus talks about Abraham and says, He rejoiced to see My day. He saw it and was glad, and they say, Youre not even 50 years old, and Youve seen Abraham? He says, Before Abraham was born, I am. He takes the covenant name of Jehovah or Yaweh to Himself, calling Himself, I am. [Jesus critics are thinking], Thats all we need to hear. Thats blasphemy. They take up stones, and they try to kill Him. Jesus escapes. There is no more Mr. Nice Guy. This is all out war that is taking place here. In Chapter 9, again Jesus heals a blind man on the Sabbath, drawing the ire or the religious leaders. This man has to be stopped. In Chapter 10, the conflict ensues. Verse 22, its the Feast of Dedication in Jerusalem. That is a time when they celebrate the cleansing of the temple, and they celebrate their independence. That was Independence Day. They had been ruled by the Greeks, and then the Greeks broke in to four parts. One of the parts was Syria, and there was as Syrian leader who was really in love with himself and hated God. He called himself Antiochus Epiphanes. Antiochus set himself up as God in the temple. He made an altar, and he began to persecute and kill the Jews. If you were circumcised, he would kill you. He just ran a campaign of terror against the Jewish people and Jewish faith, and they took it because he was powerful. He had an army, but when he set up an altar in the temple and he sacrificed a pig to the god, Zeus, to mock the living God of the Jews, they said, Thats all we can take. There was a revolt, and a father and his sons revolt-the Maccabees. They organize the Israelites, and there is a fight, and they defeat Antiochus. They defeat him. They restore the temple, and they restore their government, and that would last for a hundred years until Rome took over. Once again, they would be under the oppression of a foreign power. They are celebrating this important day. Thats Hanukah-its the Feast of Lights, the Festival of Lights, and that's what theyre celebrating. They come to Jesus, and they say in Verse 24 (of John Chapter 10, page 1062), The Jews gathered around Him, How long will You keep us in suspense? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly. Jesus said, I did tell you, and you do not believe. He was always having to tell them things over and over again. In the Book of Mark where we were just at, He is opening the eyes of the blind. Hes opening the ears of the deaf. Hes causing the crippled to walk, and then the Jews say, Give us a sign. Can you give us a sign? He says, I did give you a sign. Here He says, Ive told you, but if you dont believe Me, believe the miracles that I do in My Fathers name. [Word for word from John 10], You do not believe because you are not My sheep. My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me. Now look at Verse 28. What does He say here? I give them eternal life. Do you realize what He just said? Who gives eternal life? God. This is again a statement of deity. He is saying, Im giving them eternal life. …and no one can snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of My Fathers hand. I and My Father are good friends and very close? No, He says, I and My Father are One. Now there are some who will try to get you to believe that Jesus never proclaimed to be God, never claimed equality with God, never claimed deity. They dont understand. Apparently they havent read this passage. When you read them this passage, theyll say, Well, One means agreement. Hes just saying, I and the Father are in agreement. Really? Well, who knows better-you or the people who were alive at the time and heard the words of Christ, who knew the language? Were going to find out from their reaction exactly what Jesus meant. Again, the Jews picked up stones to stone Him, but Jesus said to them, I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone Me? Theyre not just going to throw stones at Him, friends. Theyre trying to kill Him. We are stoning You. In other words, Youre going to die right now. Youre going to die. …not for any of these, but for blasphemy because You, a mere man, claim to be God. They understood full well the statement that He was making. When there was blasphemy, there was to be a trial, but were going to wave all of that. Were going to wave the trial. Were going to wave due process, and were just going to kill You right now because You are so guilty of blasphemy. Jesus escapes their mitts. Then a climax in His ministry: His friend Lazarus dies in Chapter 11. Jesus comes on the scene, and He raises him from the dead after four days. Its a miracle that not even His enemies can refute. After the miracle Jesus popularity is going to reach new heights. I mean it is amazing. Theyre going to tell everybody. The news is going to spread. Emails are going to go out; Facebook, Twitter-everybody is going to know (congregation laughing). This news begins to spread. It says, Therefore, many of the Jews came to visit Mary… This is Mary, the sister of Martha. …and had seen what Jesus did and put their faith in Him, but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin. This is the Congress and the Supreme Court rolled into one. The chief priest would have all the power of the chief justice of the Supreme Court, and he had executive power. He had legislative power, so this is the most powerful group of men. Its gone from this little group of conspiracy guys-these powerful Jews-to the most powerful group in all the land. They plot together what theyre going to do. What are we accomplishing? they asked. Here is this man performing many miraculous signs. If we let Him go on like this, everyone will believe in Him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation. Take away our place and our nation-oh, now the truth comes out. Now we get it. Its not about the greatness of God and how important His word is. They were worried about their place. They were worried about their prominence. They were going to lose their power. They were going to lose their influence. So what if Hes the Messiah? So what if Hes raising the dead and opening the eyes of the blind? If He became powerful and the Messiah, they were going to lose their place. They would have to admit they were wrong and He was right; so they chose the temporal over the eternal. If you think that sounds crazy, people do it all the time. People make that choice all the time. If Im going to say Christ is right, Im going to have to admit Im wrong; and I dont want to do that. If Im going to say Christ is Lord, that means Im not Lord of my own life. I have my own little agenda. I have my own little kingdom. What happens is Jesus becomes a threat to your power, so you refuse to come to Christ. There are people who refuse to come to Jesus no matter how much proof, no matter how much teaching you give them. They wont come because it usurps their power and authority, and they dont want to bow their knee to anybody or anything; so they choose the temporal over the eternal. It happens all the time, so that was what they chose. The truth began to come out. Verse 49, Then one of them named Caiaphas, who was the high priest that year, spoke up, You know nothing at all! You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish. This is a very interesting verse. He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not only for the nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one, so from that day on they plotted to take His life. Heres this man who was against Christ, the enemy of Christ-he wanted to kill Christ-and God was using his mouth to prophesy. That shows the sovereignty of God, doesnt it? That shows the providence of God at work. Therefore, Jesus no longer moved about publicly among the Jews, but instead He withdrew to a region near the desert… Now, Passover is coming-the big feast. Everybody is going to be in Jerusalem, and the rumors begin to stir. The Pharisees begin asking themselves, Do you think Hell come? Do you think Hell show His face? I dont think He will. They have scouts that are looking for Him. If He came, you were supposed to tell the Pharisees so they could go and capture Him. Many thought He wouldnt come at all, but then He came. John 12:12 (page 1065) is the triumphal entry that we are remembering this Sunday, Palm Sunday. The next day the great crowd that had come for the Feast heard that Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem. They took palm branches and went out to meet Him, shouting, Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the King of Israel! Hosanna meant, Save us now! or Lord, save us! It was not just a cry of religious worship. It was a political desire. We want You to be our King! We want You to restore what was lost, the independence that we once had. We want that back. You raised the dead! You must be the Messiah. You be our leader! You help us! Jesus found a young donkey and sat upon it, as it is written… and He quotes from the Prophet Zachariah. This prophesy is fulfilled that day. Do not be afraid, O Daughter of Zion; see, your King is coming, seated on a donkeys colt. Hundreds of years after that prophesy was written, Christ fulfilled that. He came in on a donkey as their King. The sad truth is that many of these people who were once saying, Hosanna, God save us! Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord, are going to be jeering Him and mocking Him as He carries His cross and as He is crucified. Why? Because He did not act as they thought He should act. The Messiah should reign forever, right? And He is going to die on a cross. He cant possibly be who He said He was. Their love was a conditional love. Sadly, there are those who embrace Christ and say, Youre the Lord. Were going to follow You. Youre going to deliver me, and when Christ does not act as they think He should act, when He does not do what they think a King should do, they abandon their faith. They abandon their Lord. The One that they once professed to serve, they now curse. That happens today too. There are still people when God does not meet their expectations-what they expect for Him to do-they turn their backs upon Him. That's what this crowd did. Were going to watch right now a media song by Michael W. Smith. It talks about this very thing. (Heres a link to the video: http://www.metacafe.com/watch/sy-815915896/michael_w_smith_secret_ambition_official_music_video/) Would you bow with me in prayer this morning, please? I want to pray first of all for those who I was describing when I said that youve rejected Christ because that would mean somebody else is Lord of your life besides You. That would mean that you were wrong, and someone else was right. This morning, if you are ready to remove yourself of that pride, and youre ready to receive Christ as your King, I invite you to pray this prayer with me now: Father, in Heaven, I come to You in Jesus name. I acknowledge that You are Lord. I ask You to forgive my sin, cleanse me from the inside out, and make me new. Give to me Your Holy Spirit to empower me, to help me to live a life that pleases You. I want to serve You from this day forward till the day I die-that one day I might live with You in Your Kingdom. Thank You for dying for my sins. Thank You that the grave could not hold You and You are Lord. I receive You now as my King. Father, those who have prayed that prayer, Youve answered that prayer because that same Jesus who walked those streets is alive today. Hes still saving souls and touching lives. I pray also for those who claim to be believers, but they love You with an unconditional love. When You do not meet up to their expectations, many of them have deserted You, I pray that this would be the weekend when they return-that they would confess, Lord, their abandonment and they would receive You as their sovereign King and Lord. Lord, we have so much to learn and so much to remember this holiday season, but I pray it will be a time for spiritual renewal for many. We will come to know, understand and appreciate what You accomplished for us through Christ. In His name we pray, Amen.
Pastor Jeff Williams: March 21, 2010 Meet the Ephesians, Part XXV: Tychicus: Portrait of a Servant.
We are going to be finishing up Ephesians this morning. We have been in this series forever, forever! But you know the nice thing about Ephesians is were always changing topics. Each chapter, each verse, theres something new to talk about. I hope when you go back through the Book-and that you will do that-youre going to remember, Oh, yeah. I remember about that person. Yeah, I remember about that situation. I hope itll just come alive to you. Thats my hope and prayer. Lets pray together: Father, as we now come to the Book of Ephesians again, were thankful for this series that weve been on-this journey, the things that we have learned and discovered about ourselves and discovered about Your Word, and about this important strategic church-about how they change from Pagan idol worship and the worship of the goddess, Diana, the goddess Artemis, to the worship of the living God. We learned about how the struggles they faced are the struggles we face and how they overcame. Lord, again this morning as we close out this series, Father, help us to understand Your Word, apply Your Word indulgently, and live it out. In Jesus name, I pray, Amen. The year was 1974. I was a freshman at Rockford East High School. I was part of the basketball team there. We had a very stiff competition in our school. Our school was a large school. There were 900 and some plus in my freshman class alone, so it was very competitive when it came time for sports. Thered be over 60 boys that would try out for that freshman team. We were very successful. We won in almost every sport there was-track, wrestling, basketball, football. We were a power house in the city. Our football team was undefeated. They dominated all the Chicago schools. Ten guys from that team played Division 1 football. Four guys were drafted by the NFL from one team. One of them played here in Wisconsin, Ira Matthews. He played for the Badgers. We just dominated. A young man by the name of Brad Muzzarelli became hooked on Rockford East athletics. He really couldnt play sports. He was a little bit slow. He was a special needs student there at the school. He was a short, stocky guy-not athletic at all. He was just a little bit different. Muzzy was a nice kid, but you could just tell that he was just a little bit different from the rest of us. He got so attached to athletics that he decided he was going to be the manager year after year on our basketball team and our football team. He was very faithful, but I cant say that we really esteemed him. I cant say we really valued him. He was just a manager, and we looked at him like, Were the stars. Were the athletes. Were the important ones. Youre just the manager. Youre the guy that fills our water bottles. Youre the guy that gets our towels and picks up our towels when were done with them. Youre the guy that gets the basketballs for us. Youre Muzzy. We were nice to him. We were respectable to him, but it was more like, Hey, Muzzy, get my towel. Hey Muzzy, this ball is flat. Put some air in it, would you, buddy? Hey Muzz, can you get some more water here? Im out. So Muzz was kinda like our servant, you know? He was going around filling things and taking care of things. The coach would say, Hey, Muzzy. I forgot my whistle on my desk. Could you go get it? Hey, Muzzy. How many time outs do we have left in this half? Muzzy was always there. You could always count on the Muzz. Season after season, year after year, Muzzy was on the sidelines. Muzzy was on the bench. Muzzy was in the practice. We got to know Muzz. He was just a part of the school. Youd see him in his letter jacket. He wore it with such pride. In 1976-he was two years older than I-it was his graduating class. I remember being a senior and seeing Muzzy still hanging around. I was thinking 1976 and 1978, You graduated two years ago. Muzzy, what are you still doing here? How long are you going to do this high school thing, Muzz? Hed just smile and laugh, but he was still serving as a manager. I didnt think too much about high school after I graduated. I didnt really follow the athletic history there. I lost track of Mr. Muzzarelli. I certainly kept contact with some of my friends, and this past week we were getting together to do our NCAA picks-the annual trash talking and all that. I drove to Rockford, and we sat down at the restaurant. We filled out our brackets together as weve been doing since 1982. They said, You know Muzzy died. I said, Youre kidding! He was 52 years old. I said, How did Muzzy die? They said he died of cancer. They said, You know, up until his death, he was still the manager for the basketball and the football teams. I said, Youve got to be kidding me! They said, No, they just had a big banquet for him before he died-750 past coaches, alumni and athletes showed up and paid tribute to the man they called Muzzy. Theyre going to dedicate the football field to him. Its going to be called Brad Muzzarelli Field. How many athletes went through that place over the decades? Some of them made it to the pros, but there was never an athlete who put their name on the field. It reminds me of a Scripture, The greatest among you shall be the servant of all, but we didnt recognize his greatness. He was just a kid in our minds who couldnt play sports, so he decided to be the manager. We appreciated him. He was part of the team, but [we thought], Hes not great like we are. Were athletes. He was far greater than we. I went on home and I punched up Brad Muzzarelli, Rockford East, on my computer and started reading these attributes and obituaries. They talked about how for 38 years, he served that sports program-coach after coach. They said, Nobody had a heart as big as Muzzy. Nobody served like Muzzy. Anything I needed, he kept the program running smoothly. He never asked for a thing. He was just delighted to wear the Rockford East shirt, sport the team colors, and serve the team any way he could. Muzzy was a servant. Were going to talk about another Muzzy this morning. Were going to talk about a Muzzy of the New Testament that you may have never heard of before this Sunday. His name is Tychicus. I went to a pastor friend of mine this weekend. We were just talking, and I said, Yeah, Im going to preach on Tychicus this week. He said, Who? I said, Tychicus. Who? Pauls companion, Tychicus. Oh, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. He didnt even know who Tychicus was. Yet he is an important part of Scripture. Hes one who Ive always valued his ministry. I think when were done this morning, you will too; so lets read as Paul closes out this Book as he writes from his prison cell to the church that he founded so many years ago. Verse 21 (page 1160 of pew Bibles), Tychicus, the dear brother and faithful servant in the Lord, will tell you everything, so that you also may know how I am and what I am doing. I am sending him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are and that he may encourage you. I want you to notice how close Tychicus was to the heart of Paul. He calls him his dear brother and his faithful servant. You dont get a title like that over night. You get a title like that when you have proven yourself over the years to be a faithful friend and a faithful servant of the Kingdom. That's not a title that Paul bestowed on everybody. Its not a title he took lightly. Tychicus had earned that title through his years of service to the Apostle Paul, so we look at this banner over here to my left, we see this is Paul in the prime of his ministry. This is Paul doing some wonderful things in Ephesus. Guess whos there? The Book of Acts tells us that amongst the people that are there is Tychicus. Hes there when revival breaks out in Ephesus. Hes there in some of the prime years of the Apostle Pauls ministry-faithful friend. We also see and read-were not going to turn there-but in the Book of 2 Timothy, Paul has reached the end of his life. Hes an old man. He is in prison. Nero is in charge of Rome. Soon Nero will sentence Paul to death. He will be beheaded under the reign of Emperor Nero and his persecution against the Christian Church. Peter will die as well. There from that prison cell, Paul writes the Book of 2 Timothy. He tells Timothy, who is now the elder of the church in Ephesus, I am going to send Tychicus to you. So Tychicus is there at the end of Pauls ministry as well. Hes there when Paul is in his prime, and hes there when Paul is at his end-longevity. Our church has a lot of Tychicuses. You may have come for years and not know their names or have seen their faces, but theyre here. Theyre working behind the scenes every Sunday, month after month, year after year, faithfully serving. Theyre in the tech booth. Its Chip in the recording studio whos been doing that job for about 20 years. Theyre in our nursery. Theyre greeting you. Theyre ushers. Theyre in the childrens church. Theyre in the youth ministry. Theyre behind the scenes in prayer ministry. Everywhere you look, there are Tychicuses around this place, and they are faithfully serving. You might go on the website and see my mug shot. You think of my face, but you know what really makes this church tick? No pun intended or maybe a little bit of a pun intended-I think thats what his nickname was-Tick. What really makes this annual report with all these wonderful stories happening, its not me-its the people that are out there serving anonymously, behind the scenes, faithfully over the long haul, serving the Lord, Jesus Christ, and serving His church. There are a lot of them. And just like Muzz, you dont recognize that greatness, but over the years, I have come to just appreciate so much the faithful servants of this body who make this church what it is, who make it successful. Now the glory goes to God, but God is using a lot of good people who are very faithful. Tychicus was that guy, a faithful friend that could be trusted by the Apostle, Paul. He was in it for the long haul; from beginning to end, he was somebody that Paul could count on. He was a confidant. I want you to notice what is here and also in the Book of Colossians 4. Lets turn there. Colossians 4:7 (page 1167 of pew Bibles), we want to talk about that second attribute in the portrait of a servant, and that is loyalty. Tychicus will tell you all the news about me. He is a dear brother, a faithful minister or deacon and fellow servant in the Lord. I am sending him to you for the express purpose that you may know about our circumstances and that he may encourage your hearts. He is coming with Onesimus… Remember that? The weekend we talked about slavery? The slave who left Philemon became liberated; he then went back to Philemon-remember that story? …our faithful and dear brother who is one of you. They will tell you everything that is happening here. So he was a confident to Paul. There was nothing you couldnt learn-it was as if Paul was there. He was a spokesman for the Apostle, Paul. Anything you wanted to know about Paul, anything you wanted to know about his ministry, Tychicus could tell you. He was Pauls representative. He was Pauls liaison in the ministry. Tychicus was loyal, loyal. You know as we look over here in this Passage, the top frame here shows what happens before a riot breaks out. Paul is teaching, and theres a man holding up an idol. Hes a silversmith. He makes those idols for a living, and hes very upset with Paul. Hes very upset because people are converting to Christianity, and theyre not buying his trinkets anymore. Theyre not buying the little replicas of the temple of Artemis. Theyre not buying the little statues of Artemis the goddess anymore. He and the other tradesmen, theyre piggy banks are going broke, so he comes and he starts a riot. He stirs up the crowd as Pauls ministry is just beginning to take off. He says, This man is against the goddess, because he was attacking the very economy. This was the center of the economy for that region. A riot breaks out, and Tychicus is there. Down here, revival takes place. Theres a fire there. Thats not a campfire. That's not wood. Those are scrolls that are burning there. Those are magic spells and incantations that the people used to offer up to the goddess, Artemis. Theyre burning them-millions and millions of dollars worth of spells and incantations that they had purchased are burning up. They start to put their hope and trust in the living God. Revival breaks out in Ephesus, and Tychicus is there. See that boat right there? Theyre saying good-bye in Acts 20 to the elders in the church in Ephesus. Theyre taking off for Rome. Tychicus is on that boat. Theyre going to go through a shipwreck and Tychicus is there. Eventually, theyre going to arrive in Rome, and hes there as well. He is a loyal man of God. He is with Paul when things are going great and revival breaks out. He is with Paul in the riots. He is with Paul in the prison. He is with Paul in the shipwreck. Thats a servant. A servant is loyal in good times and bad. Muzzy served the people of East when we were winning state championships, and Muzzy was there when they did the redistricting. The population of the school dropped to a thousand or fewer, and we became terrible in sports-just awful in sports. Muzzy was there in the good times and the bad times. If Muzzys that loyal to a high school sports program, how much more loyal should we be to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords when things are hard and when things are going well? When revival is happening, when spiritual life seems dry, a servant is faithful. He is a trusted confidant. Do you know how you have longevity? You serve Jesus Christ first. Tychicus could keep faithful over the long haul because he was loyal first and foremost not to Paul, not to the church, but to Jesus Christ. How do you stay loyal in ministry over the long haul? You dont serve man; you dont serve a denomination; you dont serve a structure, a building. You serve the Lord, Jesus Christ; and that keeps you going over the long haul because you know He didnt give up on you. He was faithful to you. When times got hard, Jesus didnt quit on you, so you make that determination. You say, Im not going to quit on Him. You serve first and foremost the Lord, Jesus Christ. Because you serve the Lord, you dont have to have pats on the back. Theyre nice, but you dont have to have them. You dont have to have the limelight because you are content as a servant to put the spotlight where it belongs, and that's on the name of Jesus. That was Tychicus. Thats the kind of guy he was. He was loyal. He was so loyal to Paul; Paul had disclosed to him everything. Paul said, He will tell you everything about me. He had total and complete trust in Tychicus because he had proven himself over the decades to be loyal and faithful. Would that be said of us-that we are loyal to the Lord, Jesus, and loyal to the cause of the Gospel-that we are servants like this man? Theres a third aspect I want to talk about. I want you to turn to the Book of Titus 3 with me (page 1182 of pew Bibles). Titus was written, of course, to Titus. Titus is a pastor. He is an elder of a church that Paul started on the island of Crete. He is writing him. Paul wants to meet with Titus. How is he going to meet with Titus? He says in Verse 12, As soon as I sent Artemas, not Artemis-the goddess. This means gift of the goddess, so this was a man who was probably raised in a Pagan family, worshipping Artemis and now had converted to Christianity. Tychicus probably did too, by the way. Tychicus was raised in Asia, so in Asia Minor, he probably worshipped the goddess, Artemis, himself; so these two former goddess worshippers are now followers of Christ. He says, Im going to send them to you. Do your best to come to me at Nicopolis, because I have decided to winter there. In other words, as soon as Tychicus gets there, then you come to me. Think about the versatility of this guy. I mean he is doing everything. How do you think these letters got to 2 Timothy, Colossians, Ephesians, Colossae, Crete? How did they get there? Tychicus brought them. He was the messenger, church tradition tells us. He was the bearer of the letter. Howd you like to have that responsibility? Wow! Youre boarding a boat to sail to Crete, and your cargo is the literal Book of Titus, the literal Word of God, and its entrusted to your care. Talk about responsibility. You dont want to get that thing wet! Paul doesnt have a backup on his computer. He hasnt Xeroxed a bunch of copies. This is it-that one parchment that is tucked under his cloak next to his heart is the only copy of the Word of God. Hes going to bring that to the church in Crete. Hes going to carry the letter Ephesians that we have just studied for months. He is going to carry that with him. Hes from Asia. He says, You know Asia? You carry this letter. This letter is going to be circular. Its understood to be circular. Its going to go to all the churches of Asia Minor, not just Ephesus. You are trusted with carrying literal Scripture-at that time, the only copy of that manuscript, so he was a messenger. He was also somebody who was there to deliver a message. He was a spokesperson. He was the point-person for Pauls ministry. When Tychicus gets there, he will tell you everything. Paul was going through a lot, and there was a lot he could say about himself, but that was not the purpose of the letter. The purpose of the letter was to address doctrinal concerns, to address heresies, to encourage the church, to keep them on track. The letter was about them-not Paul, so when Tychicus came, he would give them personal information about the Apostle Paul and his ministry. Hes also there to encourage. He says in both passages, He will encourage you, so he is to wear the hat of an encourager. He must have been a positive person. He wasnt there going, Well, you know, Pauls in prison. Were all going to die. It aint looking good. Pray for us because the Gospel just aint doing anything right now. That wouldnt encourage a soul. Tychicus is going over there and saying, Listen, even though Paul is in prison, here are the letters he is writing, and here are the things that are happening in the churches. Here are the people who are stepping up. Here is whats going on. Theres revival breaking out in the prison where Paul is changing these guards. He would just tell them the whole story. He would encourage them. Now we find in the Book of Titus, this guy who is content to be behind the scenes-nobody knows his name-now, for a period of time, is going to be the interim elder at the church in Crete so that Titus can go and see Paul. Some even believe in 2 Timothy he sent Tychicus to Ephesus to relieve Timothy because hed done such a good job in Crete, so now hes going to replace Timothy for a little while so Timothy can go and visit Paul in prison. He was the kind of guy behind the scenes. I guarantee you Tychicus was the kind of guy who said, Anything you need me to do, Paul-anything you need me to do… Ill be your messenger. Ill be your mouthpiece. Ill be your encourager. Ill be a point-person, so these guys can come and see you. Ill travel the miles. Ill scale the mountains. Ill sail the sea. Ill do whatever it takes to serve the cause of Christ. Thats the kind of servant he was. Thats called flexibility, and thats the third important attribute of a servant. Longevity-hes in it for the long haul from coming in; loyalty, in the good and the bad, hes there-hes faithful; and flexibility. We understand we operate our church on the areas of spiritual gifts and passion. I understand that, but its the kind of person who says, Hey, we really need you to do this. Were running late or we need some more chairs. Can you set up some chairs? Actually, help is not on my GPS. I took my test, and thats not what I do. Hey, the nursery worker didnt show up. There are crying kids. Can you just take five minutes in the nursery until the leaders get here? Ah, thats not my calling. Thats not the kind of [person who is a servant for God]. You ask him to do something, and he comes up with 1,001 excuses why they cant do something. Its kind of like this fellow here. This is a tragic story of a hiker, a woman who is trapped in the woods. A big tree has fallen on her. Shes in need of help, and she just encounters the wrong guy-not flexible at all. Lets take a look at this. (Link can be found here: http://www.bluefishtv.com/Store/Downloadable_Video_Illustrations/2904/Not_An_Expert/f=s1&s=not%20an%20expert). Quite an ending, right? Heres Tychicus. Hes like, I just want to be behind the scenes. Paul says, Im going to send you to Crete. Youre going to pastor the church for Titus while he comes and sees me. Tychicus says, I dont have any former theological training. No, he just does it. He just does it. That's what a servant does. A servant is flexible. A servant says he understands, Heres what my prime gift is in. Heres what Im passionate in, but there are times that we serve outside of our gifting simply because theres a need, and it needs to be met-a servants heart. I am so grateful in our church for all you Tychicuses out there, and I hope that this sermon has been something thats helped you to realize how valuable you are. Youre the oil that keeps us going and the glue that helps hold us together. Im so grateful that the Holy Spirit has sent so many faithful servants to our body who are faithful, loyal, committed to the cause of Christ here in Janesville for the long haul. Would you join me in prayer as we thank God? Father, were thankful today for the lesson of Tychicus. Hes a man who was so integral to the ministry of Paul and carried these letters for many, many miles. We owe him a debt of gratitude, yet up until this morning, many of us had never, ever heard his name. He was content to be behind the scenes. He was content to let the spotlight shine on someone else, but his work is incredibly valuable. Lord, for the Tychicuses out there, I thank You. I thank You for their faithful service-for their loyalty, their longevity, their flexibility. Lord, as we serve You together, weve seen You do some amazing, wonderful things. We pray that they would continue to serve You faithfully, knowing it is You they serve and not man. Thank You for the lessons that we have learned in Ephesians, the many weeks, the many months we have spent studying this Book. That has changed us. We take those lessons with us, and might Your Holy Spirit empower us to live out the message of this letter. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
Right now, were going to get back in to Ephesians. We are in Chapter 6 together. We have one more week after this week, and the Book of Ephesians will be wrapped up. Were talking about spiritual warfare, and weve spent several weeks now [on this topic]. This is our third week on that chapter, and were talking about the opposition that the church encounters; and Paul here, as he calls himself, an Ambassador in Chains, writes from prison in Rome. He concludes his letter by talking about these unseen forces that are working against the purposes and plan of God. Theyre an opposition to the teaching and the work of the church. I had an opportunity this past week to play in a father/son game at my daughters school. Even though I dont have a son at this school, I have a daughter; and if you have a daughter playing basketball there, then the dads are welcome to play in that game. So I was reminded of a couple things. Number one, the game was for fun-it was just an exhibition game-but I was also reminded that the fathers have never lost to the sons and that this year should be no different. We should make sure that we have fun but make sure that we win, so during the game we started off a little slow, but we picked things up. We started to get a little bit of a lead, and then the ref kinda helped out. If the ball was gonna go out of bounds for the boys, theyd push it back in or theyd give them an extra free through, or theyd not call a foul that they should have called. They were just kinda helping the boys to stay in the game. It just seemed to me like no matter how many baskets we scored, it seemed to me like they were always closer than I thought they should be. I remember saying to the ref several times during the game, Are you sure that's the right score? Id just be scratching my head, thinking, It seems like we should be ahead by so much more than that. It got to the point where our regulation, we were tied. There was just a few seconds left, but we could lose the game, so our guys call a time-out. So we go, Okay, were going to set up a play. One of the dads says, Okay, were going to line up on the free throw line, and were going to form a wall. Well throw it in to you, and then were just gonna charge towards the boys. I was like, Are we playing football or what? But it was getting serious now. Then you dribble behind this wall, and then you make the winning basket. Ill try. So we in bounded them. I go up to shoot, and this boy comes and just grabs my arm-not even close. He just grabs my arm. Im waiting for the whistle to shoot free throws, and no call-game overtime. Im thinking to the ref, Well, if youre not gonna call that, what in the world would you call? Why are you even here, you know? That was obviously a foul. So we go in to overtime, and again were scoring baskets, but yet we never can take a lead. It just seems like theyre always like two points down. What started off as being fun is now serious. Seventh and eighth graders are dropping. The body count is getting high. Elbows are being thrown, and its go time because you dont want to be a part of the first dads to ever lose. Finally, we eke out a win, and I remember just being really tired. I was thinking, This is supposed to be a fun exhibition game, and Im just exhausted. Thats when I found out about the conspiracy. I was right about the rest, but it was more than that. The pastor came in, and hed say, Oh, I wanted to give a point to the boys every time the dads missed a shot. Or, Hey, that was a good shot. Give them three points. Or, That was a really good shot. Give the boys four points, so they were doctoring up the score, so youve got the referees, youve got the book keeper or the clock manager, and then youve got the pastor with the sinister plot of making the fathers lose. They were working behind the scenes-like you dont even know. You can see the evidence, but youre unaware of whats going on behind the scenes. Theyre all working together in this corrupt plan to defeat the dads, which they could not do by the way. Paul is describing here a battle that is taking place. He says, As were seeking to advance the Kingdom, as were seeking to preach the Gospel, there are forces at work that you dont see. There is hierarchy behind the scenes, and they are seeking to oppose our mission. They are working against the purposes of the church. Youre going to encounter their opposition. You dont see them, but theyre there. Youll experience the evidence of their work, but be sure that they are behind the scenes. Paul says, Make sure you know that there is a concerted effort. There is opposition that is working against our purposes. He says, So you have to put on your armor. You have to be ready because the enemy is going to attack. Now one thing thats important to understand is the context of this Scripture and about the armor. What he is saying is that Satan is going to attack the church and individuals as we seek to fulfill the purposes of God; as we seek to share the Gospel with the world, Satan will attack. That is what the point is. Its not about somebody who is not living for God or not living for the Gospel being attacked by the enemy. If youre not living out the Gospel, Satans probably not too worried about you. Whatever attacks youre going through are most likely of your own flesh and of your own doing; but the moment you begin to seek to build the Kingdom of God, to share the Gospel and live the Gospel, you will encounter opposition. You might be stung by a bee. You might be out having a picnic or mowing your grass this summer, and a bee stings you. That happens, so Im not saying the enemy doesnt attack here or there; but you go to a bees nest and you shake it up, you try to get honey out of a bees nest, or you bang on that bees nest with a stick, whats going to happen? You agitate those bees-youre threatening them, they are going to come after you with everything theyve got. That hives gonna empty out, and those bees are gonna make a beeline for you-the threat, the enemy-to stop you from what youre doing. Have you ever looked at a beekeeper and watched how they operated, what do they do? How do they dress? The beekeeper is going to come out and get honey and tend to his bees. What does he wear? Does he wear flip-flips, a baseball cap, and a T-shirt? No. He has his bee-gear. He has his hat on which is screened. He has on a full uniform; he has gloves; he has boots, and he is equipped because when he goes to those bees, there are going to be some bees that are going to attack him. He knows hes going to be stung. The attack will happen. So thats what Paul is saying. He is saying, Listen, if you are seeking to accomplish Gods purposes, you are rattling the nest. You are disturbing the hive. You are a threat to Satan, and he will attack you. He will attack individuals. He will attack churches. He will come against. We see evidence of that in our world today. We see evidence of his activity, so Paul says equip yourself. Dont pretend like you can go into this battle unequipped. Make sure you put on the armor of God. He talks about our headgear, our uniform, our boots and our swords, and all the things we use for defense and for offense as we accomplish Gods purpose. Thats the context of the Passage. Now, lets go ahead and open up to Ephesians 6. Pastor Jerry left off at Verse 17, so we are going to begin with Verse 18 (page 1160 in pew Bibles). Were going to talk this morning about the benefits of prayer. We dont have to read very far in this Passage before you realize the importance of prayer to the Apostle Paul. He says, And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind… What does he mean with this in mind? The warfare. The attacks. The opposition. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. Pray also for me that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the Gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should. Before we talk about the benefits of prayer, were going to watch a media our production team has ready for us that talks about prayer. Lets listen. (Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTK57Pw6iPI) Well, one thing about the Thyphone-they are on sale by the way in the foyer as you leave today. No matter how technology increases-you know we have the riding lawn mower, which is great; we have our remote controls; sadly, some of you even have the clapper. No matter how technology advances, prayer is going to remain old school. Prayer is not going to change. Prayer is going to always and forever be you talking to your Creator and your Creator talking to you. Its always going to be hard work too; but there are benefits to prayer, and we want to talk about those benefits this morning. The first one is found in Verse 18. He says, And pray in the Spirit on all occasions… Praying in the Spirit… The Bible teaches us that when we receive Christ as our Lord and Savior, He gives to us His Spirit, the person of the Holy Spirit, to come and reside within the heart and life of the believer. Through the Holy Spirit, we can talk to God, the benefit of prayer. By the way, some of you say, Well, why do we pray? Why does God even have prayer? If Gods sovereign-He can do anything He wants, Hes all powerful, Hes going to do His will anyway-why is prayer even necessary? I mean why does God require prayer or ask for prayer? Why doesnt God just do what He wants to do? Why does He instruct us to pray? You wouldnt think God would need prayer. Well, its not that God needs prayer; its that we need prayer. We need prayer for many reasons. Number one, we need prayer because its a means of fellowship with God. The only way you can have fellowship is through communication, and prayer is a form of communication. Communication works best when its two ways, when its reciprocal; when we pray, prayer is a two-way street. It is through prayer that we not only talk with God, but God talks with us. Its in times of prayer that we receive His wisdom. He imparts to us. Not every time do I pray that I sense a leading from God, but many times we do. Its through prayer that we have discernment of His will, and that comes through fellowship. He helps us to know what decision to make. We experience through prayer His presence. We get to know Him through prayer. It all has to do with fellowship. Have you ever had someone in your life that you were close to at one time and you stopped communicating with them? Maybe they moved away, got another job, went to another church-whatever [it was] your means of communication seemed to leave. What happened in that relationship? You, over time, began to get more distant, right? Because you hardly ever communicated anymore. It seems like weeks turned in to months and months in to years. The next thing you know, if you encounter that person, boy, its almost like theyre a total stranger because there hasnt been communication. Prayer is how we stay in contact with the Lord, how the Lord never becomes a stranger to us because we are in communication. In prayer, we experience His presence. In prayer, we experience His guidance. In prayer, we experience His power, and that might be power to persevere in a struggle or it could be power to equip us to accomplish His purposes; but we experience His power in prayer. Thats the number one benefit of prayer-that it is fellowship with God. Its an opportunity for you and me to engage in dialogue. Notice Paul says that that dialogue is to be ongoing. He says, Pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests, all the time. Keep on praying for the saints. Its not something that you cross off your list. You have lists you take with you, right? You accomplish a task. You go to the grocery store, and you cross it off your list. You get gas; you cross it off your list. You have an appointment; you cross it off your list. Prayer is not that. Prayer should never be on your list for you to cross off because prayer is to be a running dialogue. The people that you are close to in your life, you have a running dialogue with. You might have a running dialogue with your spouse, a running dialogue with your children, or a running dialogue with a close friend; so thats not something you cross off your list. Thats always on there. Its always happening, and God is inviting you and me to a constant communication. Thats what He means when He says pray without ceasing. It says that during our whole lives, prayer is a lifestyle. Its not an event. Its not an occasion. Church, ideally, is bathed in prayer in everything they do, but some churches have prayer meetings every week. Thats wonderful as long as you dont cross prayer off the list as soon as thats done, Okay, were done with that for the week. Just like we do our exercise, Oh, I exercised. Im done with that for a couple days. No, no, no. Paul says were to pray all the time, pray without ceasing. That dialogue needs to always be running, always be ongoing. Ill share with you a quick story Ive shared in the past. I didnt share it in any of the services except for this one. If youve heard this story before, and some of you probably have, Ill tell it quick. Its about a pastor by the name of Ken Meyer. He had an opportunity to share a room with a pastor of pastors at a leadership retreat. He was so excited to see this mans prayer life and see how he studied the Bible. He went to bed early that night. As he climbed into bed and he waited for this pastor of pastors to come in the room so he could observe quietly, he watched the man get ready for bed, crawl in his bed, pull the covers up over him, turn out the light and say, Good night, Lord. He thought to himself, What a rip-off! Ive been waiting for this, and all he says is good night, Lord. It was then he realized what he had just witnessed, that this man had had a dialogue with God all day long, so he wasnt coming to the end of a long day and having to kind of just dump all this out at one time; but he had been in a dialogue with the Lord all day long, so when he came to the end of the day, all he simply had to say was good night. Paul is encouraging the believers to enter in to fellowship with the living God. He says, …and always be praying for all the saints. The second benefit of prayer is that it brings us into community with one another. Hes talking about saints that are involved in one anothers lives through prayer. Theyre praying for each other. Youve shared whats going on in your life, and you know whats going on in their life; and you are lifting up one another in prayer. It builds a spiritual bond. It builds a friendship that is strong. I have a friend in our church that I meet with every week. We try to make sure we get together at least once a week to talk. We always talk about sports. One thing we have in common is our love of sports, but we talk about more than that. We talk about our marriages; we talk about our children; we talk about our jobs; we talk about matters of faith. We talk about difficulties were facing, and we commit to pray for each other. We do that every week. Weve done that for years and years, and Ive learned I can trust him. Hes learned he can trust me, and its not uncommon for me to get a text, a phone call or an email that says, Hey, pray about this. This is whats going on with me. Heres a problem that were facing. Ill call him to talk about that, or Ill call him and say, Hey, Ive been praying about it. Whats going on? Hows that going? Thats one of the benefits. You cant have that if youre in isolation, so when were praying, for one another, thats one of the ways God brings us in to community with each other. Were trying to not isolate [ourselves]. Were trying to not just be a lone ranger, but youre sharing your walk with your brothers and sisters in Christ; and youre building those bonds and those friendships so you grow in community. Verse 19, Paul says, Dont worry about praying for me. Ive got everything under control. Theres no better speaker than I, and I am the greatest missionary of all time. So basically hes encouraging them to use their prayer for somebody else because he has the matter under control. Was Paul the greatest missionary ever? Yup, he was. Was he one of the greatest teachers of the Word of God ever? He was. But what does he do? Here in this Passage, he is asking for help. Prayer fosters humility because when you pray and when you seek prayer, when you seek to have others pray for you, what are you saying? Youre saying, I cant do it. Youre saying, I need help, and thats an act of humility. It would be a crazy thing for a soldier to step on a battlefield and say, Well, I dont need my colleagues here. I dont need my fellow soldiers to watch my back, to watch against enemies fire, snipers and all of that. I can see everything, and I can take care of things myself. How foolish that soldier would be. He is dependent upon his fellow soldiers to watch his back, and he watches theirs. They advance together and they accomplish their mission together. Hes not haughty; hes not proud. The Bible says that prayer brings us into a spirit of humility. You cannot do the work of God; you cannot oppose those spiritual forces of darkness in high places in and of yourself. You cannot do ministry in and of your own strength and mind. How arrogant it is to think you can accomplish the work and ministry of God without Gods help. You want to know a boring sermon? Its a sermon that has not been prayed for. The pastor has not come and sought Gods will and sought to hear Gods voice and prayed for Gods anointing and powers for Him to bring that message. Ive taught a few of those before. Theyre bad. You dont preach many of them because you learn really quickly. If you dont pray, it doesnt matter how funny your jokes are, how good your stories or illustrations are, what insights you think you have. If you havent prayed up, that is going to just be a disaster. People are going to be looking at their watch and falling asleep. Nobody [better] look at their watches now. I can see you. Ill use this if I have to. But Ill tell you what-Ive been in places where I listened to a pastor, and maybe it was monotone or boring on the surface, but I can tell when hes been praying because youll get something out of that. Youll be moved by the Spirit. If a church wants to be effective for the Gospel, it has to be a praying church. We have pockets of prayer. We have people who pray, but were not where we should be. We know that. You can say, Well, what if this Passage was about you? What if Verse 18 was written about you? What do you think it would say? He says heres the Will of God. The Will of God is that you pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests, and you pray [while being] so alert. What would you say if it was about you? I pray in the Spirit sometimes. I pray in the Spirit when Im at church with everybody else or would it say, I never pray in the Spirit on really any occasion. I just dont pray. How would that description be if it were spoken of you today? Think about that. If you dont like the answer, you know you can do something about that. You can change that. Through the help of the Spirit of God, you can become a person who enters in to fellowship with God through prayer, community with other believers through prayer who have humble spirits, who obey the Lord, who grow in faith. When you pray, you grow in faith because youre trusting that the prayer is answered. Youve grown in faith because youve seen answered prayer. If the prayer is unanswered, and you continue to pray, youre learning patience. Youre learning perseverance, youre learning to trust in spite of circumstances, and youre growing in faith as well. Prayer is for our benefit; prayer is for our wellbeing. Im going to have a couple in our church, Dennis and Judy Babish [come forward]; hes one of the teaching elders of our church. They have been going through a battle, and Judy is going to tell you about that-a health battle that theyve been struggling with; but as they go through this battle, they dont go through this battle alone. Theyre gone through this battle with their brothers and sisters in Christ at this church. Theyre going to come and theyre going to talk as a living illustration about the benefits of prayer. Dennis and Judy, why dont you come at this time. Judy: Okay, first of all, Id like to share with you that this is a testimony, but I really want it to be more of a testimony to Gods faithfulness and the power of prayer that weve been experiencing over the past several months. I know that there are many people out here that are suffering also from serious testing even now, and I hope that this testimony will encourage you to trust God, not underestimate what He can do, and seek Him through prayer and reaching out to the community of believers here at Faith Community. I also want to encourage you to pray unceasingly with your families, your children. I want to share with you that Dennis and I do pray together, and I never feel more in love with him than I do when were praying because I see that hes vulnerable, and its just a wonderful thing. Its a blessing for both of us. In October 2009, during a routine physical, an X-ray was taken showing a large suspicious tumor on the left lobe of my lung. A smaller tumor on the right lung [was also present], along with various suspicious lymph nodes. After a few short shocking moments, Dennis and I began to pray for the Lords leading and His perfect will. God began directing us to the right people for wisdom, and we knew immediately that He would be along for this next trial in our lives, and God has definitely been faithful to do so. We then called a long-time Christian doctor friend asking him where to begin for medical recommendations. Dennis called the recommended oncologist immediately, and she-the doctor-actually answered her own phone because she happened to be in the office early that day. Surprisingly, she gave us an appointment for the very first time slot the next morning. God had wasted no time. After several biopsies, scans, and an MRI, I was diagnosed with Stage 4 non-small cell lung cancer, Stage 5 being the only worse thing, a cancer that statistically has a one percent rate of survival and possibly one to two years of life remaining. While our minds and bodies were somewhat numb, our spirits were at peace for we already knew-that God was in charge. We immediately put this prayer request out to the branch of the Lord Prayer Team. We asked Pastor Jeff to arrange for the elders to pray over me as stated in James 5:14. A surprising number of prayer team members, some of whom I had never met, and many friends were present during the elder prayer. It would be impossible to tell you in this short message how the Lord has blessed us with the faithful community of this church with fasting and prayer and offers for help in the way of day-to-day activities-sufficed to know that this community is ready, willing and waiting to serve on our behalf for the glory of God and for yours too. After two chemotherapy sessions, much to the doctors surprise, a scan was done and found the tumor had shrunk by one third. The power of God continued to be demonstrated. It was decided to try two more chemo sessions to see what would happen. This past Wednesday, I had another scan and then met with my oncologist. Up until now, this very serious professional woman had never revealed one single emotion, but that day when she walked into the room, she was smiling and didnt waste much time before sharing that the tumors had shrunk another one third. She was quick to say this was highly unusually and not expected. At that moment, she recalled that I had told her that I had a very strong faith and that it was Gods statistics that I was interested in. Then she said that something unusual was happening, and she definitely was linking this positive outcome to prayer. I asked her if she believed in prayer, and she said in her usual one-word answers, Yes. Dennis: Well, I know the shrinkage was caused by God, and He was moved because of the prayers and the diligence of those prayers. They were flooding His throne. We can talk about the power of prayer, but these results demonstrate that power. It also glorifies God. In 1 Peter 3:12, it says, For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and His ears are attentive to their prayer… God enjoys hearing our prayers and as a loving Father, He doesnt like our suffering. Why is it then so often that we ignore God and not take our sufferings, trials and needs to Him in prayer? Instead we rely on what the doctors say and what the politicians promise. Paul said in Philippians 4:6 that were to present everything to God in prayer and petitions. James also wrote that the prayers of righteous people are powerful and effective. Here at Faith, we have an excellent prayer group called the Branch of the Lord, led by Lori Fish, but there are way too few members who diligently pray for the request of others and could use more members. Its a blessing to be considered part of this team. If our church became a total house of prayer, God would unleash His power and do things that we cant even imagine, even a revival. The testimony you just heard about demonstrates that power of prayer and Gods faithfulness to each of us. Judy: So, where are we going to go from here in our life? We will continue to trust that God is in charge of our lives, and I want to share too one of the more miraculous things that has taken place. That is that one of our three sons who hasnt known the Lord has accepted Him in the last three months (congregation applauding), so praise God! And it is our deepest desire to glorify God regardless of whatever the outcome is. He and He alone will decide when I will see Him in eternity and what my life in this world will accomplish for His Kingdom. Thank you (congregation applauding). Thank you, Judy. Its not an easy thing to do-to get up in front of people. Youre a scary group (congregation laughing). They did a terrific job. Dennis talked about the fact that prayer changes things. Why is that? Does God change? No, we change. We change. I hope that you will recommit yourselves to prayer. Youll pray for your brothers and sisters in Christ; youll pray for our leadership; youll pray for our church; youll pray for the ministries of our church as we are seeking to share the Gospel. They come under attack in different ways at different times, so I hope youll be praying for that. I hope you will open up and share with others prayer concerns that you have and the context of your ministry, or your relationships, whatever groups you belong to-your small group, the mens group, the womens group, your Christian education classes, wherever youre at, that you will open up and share whats going on in your life as well so that you can enter in to that community with your brothers and sisters. How many of you would love to do that? Youd love to grow in your prayer life? Amen. Lets pray together: Father, Paul has thrown down the gauntlet that prayer is not an event. Its not just an occasion that we cross off the list, but it is a lifestyle. It is an ongoing dialogue with the living God through which we can enter in to fellowship. As we enter in to that fellowship, through that fellowship, we discern Your will. We experience Your leadership, Your wisdom. You endue us with power to persevere, equip us with power to accomplish Your purposes. Its through that prayer that we enter in to community with brothers and sisters. Its through that prayer that we learn obedience, that we grow in faith, and that we grow in humility. Lord, each person in this room raised their hand basically to signify that we all need to improve in this area. Lord, with all those benefits, its just a wonder why it sometimes is a struggle. The reason its a struggle is the enemy is opposed to it. Lord, we thank you that no matter how technology advances, prayer is going to remain the same. Prayer is going to remain the Creator talking to His creation and the creation talking back. Lord, I pray that we would become a people of prayer, a church of prayer, an ever-increasing dimension, that You might change us from the inside out, that we might impact our world knowing that the attack of the enemy is near.
Well, Ephesians 6 is where were at today. In this passage, Paul sounds the alarm. Weve been following the news, this big earthquake in Chile, and a tsunami is going to follow, so in Hawaii and Japan and other places, they were bracing yesterday for the tsunami. It turned out that it wasnt that bad, but they didnt know what was going to happen; so sirens were going off. People were driving around in cars warning people to evacuate and head to higher ground because there is a threat. Its very real, and its coming. Weve spotted the tsunami at sea. Were not sure how large its going to become, so move to higher ground. Evacuate. They were pretty confident that if they responded to that, they would be safe. They boarded up their homes. They headed to higher ground to wait out the tsunami. So thats wisdom. Thats wisdom because when there is a threat, you prepare. You take every means you can to protect yourself and your family. Paul is going to talk here about a very real threat, a very real enemy that is seeking to destroy anyone in his path. Hes going to introduce us to a spiritual world of darkness, a hierarchy, a struggle in which there is conflict between the forces of God and the forces of the enemy. He sounds the alarm, and he says, Prepare yourselves. Get ready so that youre able to stand. Verse 10 (page 1160 of pew Bibles) Paul writes, Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. Notice Paul says you have to stand in His power. You dont fight a tsunami because it will defeat you. Youre not powerful enough to fight it. In the same way you cannot fight the force of darkness in and of your own strength. You have to fight and stand in the power of God, and hes going to tell us how to do that. He says to do that, you must, Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devils schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the Heavenly realms, or in the Greek, it just says in the Heavenly. So he talks about this hierarchy, this unseen force. We see the manifestation of evil in our world, but he says, We are talking about principalities and powers that we cannot see. We cannot see the wind, but we see the effects of the wind. We see what it does. We cannot see the earthquake. We cannot see the platelets moving. We see effect. So we cannot see the enemy, but we can see his effect. We can feel the opposition. Ill tell you when this really became real to me. Ill give you a couple dramatic stories. Ill just tell these really quickly because we want to get in the text, but these are times when this whole idea of warfare became real to me. It went from beyond just words in the Scripture to a reality that I was engaged in. If you are skeptical here today-if you dont believe in spiritual warfare or you dont believe in the existence of a literal devil as Jesus obviously did-these stories arent necessarily going to convince you otherwise; but I share these because these were defining moments for me, and they were very early on in my ministry. I was in my 20s. I was pretty green, and Rockford-where Im from-actually became a hotbed for satanic activity. There was a church of Satan-and may still be; I dont know-that was in conflict with one of the local churches in the community. There was satanic ritual activity at the local parks. One of our pastors had a deliverance-based ministry, and people would come out of that lifestyle and want to be delivered. Theyd come to our church, so we had to deal with this on a regular basis-people who had taken part in various satanic ceremonies and activities who were wanting freedom. That pastor would work with law enforcement because they would try to track down [victims who participated in this satanic lifestyle] because crimes had been committed. There were evidences of it in the parks and so forth. Our pastor would work with investigators, so it was not uncommon for us to deal with this in Rockford, Illinois. One particular time, this young man about 17 years old [came to us]. Hed had a real troubled childhood, was really depressed, and he was on his bed listening to Motley Crew. I think it was a Shout at the Devil, song like that. On his bed, he said, I asked Satan to possess me. I asked him to come and live inside of me. Im really afraid now because things are happening in me that I dont understand. This morning at school, I wrote a letter. Its almost like it wasnt even my words and something dark was writing through me, and Im scared. I need help. So several of us began to pray for this young man named John. As we were praying, he gets this sinister grin, and he opens up the desk, almost as if he knows where to look, and he grabs a large pair of scissors-not school scissors, but a large pair that really was a weapon. He stars to glare at everybody in the room. One of the pastors goes, Jeff, you go find the letter. We have to take him on a prayer to renounce these things he said. This letter Im sensing is a key, so go back to the classroom and find this letter. Id like to tell you that I was real brave. Id like to tell you that I was like, Yeah, Satans going to get it now! but I leave the room where he is holding a knife on these guys. I go to the classroom, I have to find the letter! I have to find the letter! Hes going to kill people! (Pastor is saying this with a shaky voice.) So Im just all in a dither, and I get to the room; and there is no trash in the trashcans. We had said, What did you do with the letter? He said, I threw it away. I saw the janitor, Where, where is the letter? Wheres the trash? He goes, Oh, I just emptied everything into the dumpster. I went, Great! I go outside to the dumpster, a big dumpster. I open up the lid, and you know we have a school K-12. He has just emptied every trash can in all the classrooms. Do you know whats in pretty much every trashcan? Crumpled up white pieces of paper, so literally the bin is entirely full with crumpled up white pieces of paper. I mean there are hundreds and hundreds of crumpled up white pieces of paper, and Im supposed to find one letter. Im like, This is impossible. Hes in the church. He has a knife. I dont know if hes stabbing people right now. Im supposed to find this letter. I was like, Lord, please help me find this letter. Im not going to climb in the bin and start looking through hundreds of sheets of paper. What am I going to do? I reach in and I grab a piece of paper, and I unfold it. The first one-gang, the first one, I grab-is the letter from the kid. I couldnt believe it! That was a real sign to me. Now you might be skeptical and say, Well, it just happened, you know. People win the lottery too. Thats fine, but for me, that was really something-that I would find that letter on the first shot. I took it in, read it. It was like, Im going to kill the principal. Im going to kill myself. I hate God! It was just filled with all this bad stuff. We led the kid on a prayer of confession and renouncing of the decisions that he made. Long story short, I got a call from him actually a year ago, just to let me know he was doing well and say he was doing well and thank you for helping me when I was a young man. Now Im a father, and blah, blah, blah; and we reminisced for a little bit. The second story, really quick, is when a guy called the church. He said, Ive made some bad decisions, and Im involved with what I shouldnt be. I feel like Satan has really attacked me. I dont know if Im possessed or oppressed or what, but I need help. So he came to church. Id never seen him before in my life. I open up the door. Have you ever met somebody who just gives you the heebie-jeebies when you meet them? This guy had these beady eyes and this kind of devilish grin. I was like, Hello, come in. I was like making sure my door handle was not locked because I didnt trust this guy. I was like, I dont want to be in the office with this guy with the door locked. I was like triple checking it, Okay, its not locked. Great. I shut the door and sat down. I had not my main desk-which was behind me-but just this desk a bit smaller that I just met with people at and so forth. Its a light desk. It wasnt wood or anything like that, just a light desk. We were sitting there talking, and he started telling me all the perverse things he was involved with. I was like, Man, no wonder. This is just bad. You have to confess this to the Lord. You have to ask His forgiveness, His cleansing, ask Him to come into your life. We have to get rid of this. This is bad stuff! I said, Can I pray with you? At that point, I was young. I wasnt even old enough to realize, Does this guy even want to get rid of this stuff? I would have handled this situation a whole lot differently now than I did then, but we started to pray. As we were praying, have you ever just sensed somebody was glaring at you? I sensed he was glaring at me. I could just sense it. I knew if I opened my eyes, he would be looking at me with an evil look. That was creeping me out. So I was just praying, and pretty soon his hands started to shake violently, and Im just holding on. Then he starts to go, Grrrr. GRrr! GRRR! He started to growl. I just kept praying. I felt like I got on the back of a tiger now, and I didnt know how to get off. He started to shake even more violently and growl louder. I was like help us, Jesus! Help us, Lord! (Pastor is talking with a shaky voice.) Im just scared. All of the sudden, he stands up; and when he stand up, he pushes the table onto me. The table is now at my waist, and his full body weight is against the table; so I cant move my lower body. Im trapped. He takes my suit coat-yes, my boss made us wear a suit coat-grabs it, pulls it up over my head so sleeves are where my elbows are, and I cant move my arms. Im like in a straight jacket. I literally cant move. Im trapped by the table; he was over me; the suit coat was over my head; and he was shaking me while going, Rrrr! RRRR! Im going, Help. Help. Im in my 20s and Im scared! This guy is… Gary, the expert over here, says, Im on my way! I hear him through the wall. He comes around the door, and he goes shake, shake, shake [on the doorknob]. Just a second. The door is locked. I have to go get a key. Im like, The door is not locked. Im thinking, How can this be locked? and right there in that moment, I said, This is real. I know I didnt lock it. I know that door is not locked! How did that door get locked? Something is going on here. Long story short, they got the key. They came. We restrained the guy and prayed with the guy. It was a battle. He was very violent to himself. Eventually, we got him calmed down; and last I heard about this fellow was he was a pastor in Freeport, Illinois. Last I heard-that was many years ago. This would have been almost 30 years ago that this story took place; so a lot transpired in that time. That event, that locking of the door-when I knew that the door was not locked-how did that happen? I had no explanation for that. So those events kind of woke me up early to the fact that spiritual warfare is real. Now hes going to use an interesting word in this passage. It says, Our struggle. That is the word wrestling. We wrestle not, some of your translations may say. We wrestle not. This wrestling, it would be very similar to our wrestling. This would have been the first Olympic sport that did not involve running in 707 B.C.-pale (pay-lay). Its where you throw your opponent several times. You have to throw your opponent, and then you are the victor when you can stand over your opponent and put your hand on this throat, signifying you are the victor. He uses that word and that word picture. He says, We are in a heated match. I have to tell you I respect wrestlers out here. How many of you high school wrestlers or college wrestlers do we have here today? Yeah, dont mess with those guys. That is a grueling sport. I just thank God He made me a basketball player. I used to see their workouts, and I know what they went through to lose weight, to get in shape. It is a hard sport. So he picks one of the most grueling, physical sports-wrestling, and he says, This is like a wrestling match. Paul is acting here as a scout. A good scout, or a good coach, scouts the other team and say, Okay, your opponent today, here are his strengths. Heres what he likes to do. Here are your weaknesses. Heres where youre vulnerable in your match today, so dont let yourself get in this position. Make sure you dont put your hand here or your foot here. Be on guard against this because heres where he always attacks. Hes going to dive for your legs. When he does that, do this. The coach is helping you in advance. Hes warning you in advance of how your enemy will attack. He says, We are not ignorant of his schemes, of his devices, or of his trickery. Paul is saying he has the same moves every time. He has the same moves every time. The place where he attacks first and foremost is where our greatest strength is because if he can attack our greatest strength and have victory there, then everything falls in place like dominos. What is the greatest strength we have? What is the greatest weapon in our arsenal? Its the first weapon that Paul gives us. He gives it to us first for a reason. The greatest weapon that you and I have is Truth. Well I thought the goodness of God or the love of God is the greatest thing we have. The greatness of God, the goodness of God, and the love of God are only wonderful and great because they are true. The Gospel and our faith, I thought that was the greatest weapon we had. We can only have faith because it is based upon what is true, so Truth is our greatest strength; so when Satan attacks, he will attack the Truth. I guarantee you that, and he will always attack it in the same way. He operates by the if its not broke, dont fix it school of thought. Hes been using the same techniques since the dawn of Creation. They always work, so he continues to use those techniques. So if we want to say, In this wrestling match, we know his schemes. What are his schemes? What do they look like? How does he operate? Then we can expect them and respond to them when they happen. I was talking with a woman in our 9:30 service, and she was able to connect the dots in something she was going through, a struggle she was going through. She said, I didnt realize that what I was going through was a spiritual attack until the message today. She said, Now Im ready! Im ready! I have my armor on. Now I understand whats coming, who it is, and how I can defend against it. Lets turn to the Book of Genesis 3 (page 3 of pew Bibles). The setting is Eden; its paradise. The account is the fall of men, and our concern is with the first five verses of the chapter. We kind of know what happens in the rest of the story, but were going to focus on Verses 1-5. It says, Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, Did God really say, You must not eat from any tree in the garden? Method number one is doubt, to get you to question the Truth. Thats method number one that the enemy will use. He will get you to doubt what you know to be true. Now, Im not talking about a healthy doubt or a healthy skepticism. Every one of us should have that. If you hear something that doesnt sound quite right or read something that doesnt seem quite right, you go to the Word of God and you say, Is this true or not? Im just doubting what I hear today-Im not talking about that. Thats good. You keep that up. However, Im talking about doubting what we know to be true. Eve knew that was true. He tries to introduce doubt to get her to question the Truth. Thats how he operates. He gets us to try to question the Truth. Our children in the schools-growing up in the church-understand that theyve been made imago Dei, in the image of God. Theyre learning that they are evolved, and that they are simply an accident from cosmic goo. Theres no divine plan or purpose for their life. They simply happen. Theyre an accident. They begin to doubt what theyve been taught that is true. Sometimes because of our sin, were ashamed or we feel guilty because of things weve done or said or the things we didnt do that we should have done or didnt say that we should have said. We start to feel like well, God doesnt love me or I cant be a Christian. He will get us to doubt our salvation. God doesnt really love you. You do not really belong to Him. If you really belonged to Him, then you wouldnt do this. You wouldnt say that. He gets us to question what we know is true. Thats how the enemy operates. There were times when the Apostle Paul, I think, struggled with everything that were going to talk about today. One thing we know about Paul is that Paul was a very timid individual. He writes really bold in his letters. He even talks about that. He says, You know, I came to you. You thought youd see this bold man, and when you actually met me, you saw how timid I was, and you were surprised. You were like, Is this Paul? Youre so loud and demonstrative in your letters, but when we meet you, youre just timid. Thats the way he was. There were times when Paul would say, Pray for me that I can proclaim the Gospel. Pray for me that I have confidence to speak the Word as I should. There were times Paul struggled with doubts, even though he knew God had called him to that mission. He knew the Truth. There were times when he began to question what he knew to be true, and he asked for help in that area. So thats how Satan works, because if he can get us to doubt, then we are susceptible to deceit, to desires-the other things were going to talk about-and begin to fall like dominos. Well, Eve holds up pretty well in this first test. If you question and try to get them to doubt the Truth-what did Jesus do in the wilderness? When Satan tried to get Him to question the Truth, He quoted the Scripture. He quoted the Truth. The woman said, We may not eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say… She affirms the Truth. …that you must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the midst of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die. Then Satan goes, Oh, okay. Ill leave you alone then. Thanks. No, no, no. Hes relentless. He tries another tactic. Verse 4, You will not surely die. The serpent said to the woman. He tries the tactic of deceit-deceit. Deceit is when you have some truth, and you just twist it a little bit. She wasnt going to physically die. She was going to spiritually die. She said she would physically remain alive, but there was going to be a death. There was going to be a separation, but he was like, Oh, youre going to be fine. Deceit. And with this deceit comes a false justification. We begin to say, I am justified in my behavior because it has just enough Truth even though the Truth is skewed. Ill give you a couple examples. Somebody is working, and theyre handling money. Maybe its their job or maybe theyre a volunteer, but theyre around funds. Thats a very trustworthy thing. I have no authority to sign checks. I dont transfer payroll. I cant determine wages. I dont see deposits or offerings. I just try to stay out of that. Im part of the board, but I dont handle any monies. I dont have the authority to handle any monies as far as writing checks or authorizing salary. I just stay out of that, but there are some people that have been put in that position where they have to handle finances. Maybe things are difficult for them. Theyre struggling. Maybe something has happened in their lifestyle where they have bills to pay and they have a lot of pressures; so they take the money, and they say, I know this money isnt mine, but Im going to pay it back. Because they have an intention to pay it back, they take the money, and they use it for their own purposes. Or they might say, I work hard, but Im just underappreciated. Im not paid what Im worth. This company needs to pay me more, so they actually take the money not with the intention of paying it back. They take it because they think they deserve it. They work hard. But the truth of the matter is it was not authorized. They dont have the authority to take it, but they tell themselves they do. They say, I work hard, which is true. They say, I should make more than I do, which might be true, but theyve not been authorized or entitled to take more; and they take it anyway because of this deceit. They cover it up. They hide it. I had a friend who told me this week that an employee embezzled $200,000 from his company-a person that he had trusted for these very reasons. A person is in a relationship, in a marriage, and theyre not happy. The marriage is not going well. Maybe one of the spouses is just very absent, emotionally or physically absent. Theres another person thats paying attention to him, and they start to have feelings for that person. They say, Well, you know, these feelings are justified because after all, so and so doesnt love me anymore. Theyre always gone. That is true. Theyre always gone. It might be true that they dont feel the same way about you, but its not true that youre justified in having this relationship while youre married; so deceit sets in, and they follow and they act on that impulse. What happens? Counselors will tell you this. People in the mental health profession will tell you this. People in the ministry will tell you this-that a person who lives enough in the pattern of deceit pretty soon is not able to discern truth from a lie. They become so wrapped up in deceit that that becomes their reality. They will tell you without feeling any guilt. Its almost like in their minds its not a lie because theyve just lived with that deceit so long, its become a part of who they are. You probably know some people like that. It started with a lie; it started with deceit, twisting of the truth. That justified our actions, our attitudes. The next thing you know, we are engrained in this pattern of deceit, and Satan has us exactly where he wants us. Theres a third way that he attacks the Truth. Verse 5, the serpents says, For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. Be like God. Those words ring over in her mind-to be like God. In this tactic, he takes a lie and magnifies it. He takes our desires and then magnifies a lie, and that lie has to do with the promise, the promise of some sort of pleasure, promise of some sort of gain-a promise thats never delivered. Its a promise that never lives up to expectation, but the promise goes like this: If you just had this person… If you just had this object… If you just had this accomplishment… If you just had this much money…then you will happy. Then you will be fulfilled. Then you will be satisfied. Then life will be good. So a person will compromise their integrity. Theyll compromise their family. Theyll sacrifice their family on the altar. Theyll sacrifice any number of things to obtain what they believe is going to bring them happiness. Youve seen that, havent you? Youve even heard that in your ear. Youve heard a little voice telling you when youre looking at something-this forbidden fruit that youre not supposed to have- and saying, Even if you had that, youd be so much better. If you had that, life would be so good, so youre willing to compromise your standards, your ethics, to acquire because theres this promise. The problem is when you finally sink your teeth into that fruit-and you partake of it and taste it-it is not what it was built to be. It does not live up. It does not satisfy. It leaves you empty and void until the next thing comes along, the next promise comes along and says, Well, not that, but this. So this whole idea of being like God was a temptation. Sometimes its not even these things that we would say, Well, thats blatant sin. Sometimes Satan can tempt us with something that is good, but its not the will of God. You know how the Apostle Paul would say, Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and work with your hands? Hed write that. That's Scripture, Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and work with your hands. I bet you there were times when Paul would write that, and he would go, Man, that sounds good. I bet there were times when Satan would whisper in his ear and say, Paul, youve worked really hard. Youve put up with a lot of stuff. Pauls life was anything but quiet-shipwrecks, riots in which he was the focal point, imprisoned, beaten, starved-all these threats upon him-ridiculed, mocked. And whats more-the pressures of the church as he fights a false doctrine and he fights against those who attack the Truth of the church. We talked earlier about the importance of standing up to deceit. Much of the New Testament was written as a response to deceit, as a response to people who were twisting the Truth. There was a group that would attack the deity of Christ. They were called the Docetists. They began to teach false doctrine about who Jesus was and of His nature. Paul had to attack docetism. There was another heresy called Gnosticism which attacked how a person received salvation; and much of the New Testament is written as a response to defend the Gospel against Gnosticism. There was another school of thought called antinomianism, which is against the law. It was thought that there was no law. As a Christian, you could live any way you wanted to live. Paul defends that in the Book of Romans and elsewhere. He comes against antinomianism. All these other isms, we could go on. They all existed in the first century, and they attacked the church. They attacked the church. All the problems with ethics that we have, they had. Utilitarianism-which says the end justifies the means, that existed in the first century. So Paul, Peter, and the others write against these twistings of the Truth, to uphold and defend the Truth-the very fact that our New Testament exists. Now I understand its the Holy Spirit who inspired the Books and wrote the Books through men and put it all together, but what Im saying to you is understand it didnt drop from Heaven like this. It didnt drop where they picked it up and say, Oh, its the New Testament! It didnt happen that way. The church put together the cannon, or the rule of Scripture. Why? Because the Gospel was attacked. There was man by the name of Marcian, and Marcian attacked the New Testament and the Old Testament. Any reference to the God of the Old Testament was removed. He was an anti-Semite, and by the time he got through slicing and dicing the New Testament, just a little bit of Luke was left and a little bit of some other Books. Hed say, Here, this is all thats left. This is all thats from God. The church went, Oh, we have to do something about this hieratic, Marcian. So they assembled the Books of the Bible together. For the first time-the oldest time we have-is called the Moratorium Fragment from 170 A.D. They wrote a letter and said, Here are the inspired Books of the Bible. They have Apostolicity. Theyd been written by an Apostle. They were inspired by the Holy Spirit, and that was a response to somebody twisting the Truth. Paul was right in the thick of this, right in the heart. There was never a days rest for Paul. He was advancing the Gospel, but while he was doing that, he was encountering opposition from every front. Sometimes it was heresy within the church. Sometimes it was attacks outside of the church. Sometimes it was his health. Sometimes it was any number of things. He was a tent maker. Thats what he did to support himself. Im sure it was tempting for Paul that the enemy would just whisper in his ear as he was writing and say, Make it your ambition to live a quiet life and work with your hands. Doesnt that sound good, Paul? How about when you go to one of those islands to share the Gospel, why dont you just settle down there? Just make tents the rest of your life. Satans not asking him to go against the Gospel, to attack the church, or to tear down what hes built. No, no, no, no. But, you know, youve done your share. Youve gone through more than anybodys gone through emotionally, physically. It has been taxing on you. Live the good life. Just retire. Retire from the Gospel, and go make some tents for a while. Is it an evil thing to retire? Do pastors retire? Sure, pastors retire. And Im sure Paul has thought about that. He was thinking, Yeah, thats probably not a bad idea, but it wasnt the will of God. The will of God was that Paul was going to eventually give his life for the cause of Christ. Im telling you any pastor who is honest with you will tell you if theyve been in the ministry long enough, there are days when they say, Hey, I dont need this. Im going to go do something… Not me. No, Ive never had those days, but there are other pastors that I know of whove said that this is a lot of work. This is trouble. Ill just do this over here, a 9-5 kind of a job. Its hard. Some of you are engaged in ministry. You know what Im talking about. If youre engaged in ministry, especially if youre on the front lines, it gets hard. You might just want to say, Oh, you know. Let somebody else fight this battle. Im going to go do something else. So Paul dealt with those temptations. He kept performing the same techniques. He used the same tactics because doubt, deceit, and desires still work-twisting the Truth, getting us to question the Truth, and magnifying a lie still are believed and acted upon. We can get to the point where we know those attacks are coming and we recognize those attacks. When the Holy Spirit sounds His siren within our heart, and we know that a wave is eminent and a tsunami-a spiritual tsunami-is coming, And I need to prepare myself. I need to put on the armor of God that I can stand against this attack. Thats what were going to do. Next week, were going to actually get into the pieces of armor, and were going to see how each piece of armor has to do with holding on to the Truth. Because we have the Truth in Christ, we have the shield of faith. We have the sword of the Spirit. Its the sword of the Spirit thats powerful and active because it is true. So Satan is going to attack the truth; we are called to defend the Truth and stand for the Truth. To do that we place on the armor, so thats going to be our subject matter next week. Before we move on in the service, lets just spend some time in prayer and lifting up these concerns to the Lord because I know some of you are going through these struggles right now. Father, right now I want to lift up Your people, Your children. Lord, there are some people here who are struggling with doubts this week. Theyre questioning what they know to be true. Maybe theyre questioning that You love them or theyre questioning that Youve saved them. Theyre questioning a promise in Your Word. Theyre questioning Your presence in their lives. Theyre questioning something in the midst of a storm, in the midst of doubt. Father, I pray this morning that Your perfect love would drive out that doubt, remove that fear. Help them to know that Your promises are the same yesterday, today, and forever. They can trust in You. They can trust in Your Word. I pray for those this morning who are [involved in] various levels of deceit. Maybe its in its beginning stages, or maybe its advanced. I pray this morning that Your Truth would remove that darkness, that lies would be exposed, repented of and forsaken. Lord, if theyve engaged themselves in a destructive pattern of behavior or if they are beginning to go down a path which can bring destruction and harm to them or their family, [I pray] this morning is a wake-up call; that they heed the siren; that, Lord, they would no longer be the victim of that deceit; that they would be a follower of Truth. Father, for those of us who believed that temptation of desire, whatever that desire might be, the Word talks about the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, the pride of life, the elements in which Satan uses desire-that we follow that carrot, that promise that says if we just have this, well be happy. Well have power; well have contentment. Father, I pray that we would see right now that what we must desire more than any thing or any one is You. Its only in You, Father, that we find the rest for our souls that we seek. Its only in You that we find the fulfillment that we hope for and long for. So I pray that Truth will be magnified and not a lie. Father, I pray too that we as the church of the living God can come alongside those who have succumb to this trickery; those who have magnified the lie; those who have engaged in deceit; and those who have entertained doubt. Right now they are struggling. Theyre wrestling and theyre losing. We will come alongside and help them, stand with them, pray with them, and encourage them in their faith. Help us to be the church today to one another. Grant us wisdom through Your Spirit; [teach us] how to apply this message to our hearts and lives. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
Today were going to talk about the story of William Wilberforce who lived in England, late 1700s, early 1800s and was a one-man wrecking crew against slavery; and before he died-three days before he died-the Parliament passed a law that slavery was now illegal in England. Well be talking a little bit more about him in the service as we go. Were going through the Book of Ephesians together as a church, and were going through every chapter, every verse; and were in Chapter 6 right now, and were coming to some Scripture that is controversial. Its controversial not because of the fact that its the subject of slavery. Its not controversial in the sense that were in an ethical dilemma as to how we feel about slavery. If we were to take a survey, all of us would go, Yeah, slavery is bad. Slavery is wrong. Theres no question about that. However, where the controversy is is in how the Bible deals with slavery. Why does the Bible not take a stronger stand against slavery? Why is Paul not condemning slavery or Jesus condemning slavery? Why is He not demanding masters to release their slaves or slaves to run away from the masters? This becomes a stumbling block for people. Some people will use those Scriptures as a means to point fingers and say, Well, look the Bible doesnt condemn slavery like it should. Why is that? If youre reading your devotion, sometimes you just kinda dance around those passages because theyre all over the New Testament. Theyre all over. Were going to mention several Books this morning that talk about the subject. Theres one entire Book of the New Testament thats devoted to the subject of slavery. Yet, when was the last time you heard a sermon on this subject in a church? Let me see your hand if you could remember sitting in church on a Sunday morning and listening to a sermon about slavery. Let me see your hands. If you have, let us know. Dont you find it peculiar that something thats talked about so much in the Bible-in the Old Testament; in the Gospels Jesus uses slaves in parables; in the New Testament in so many of Pauls Books, and yet you and I, for the most part, have never sat through a sermon that talks about that and how to deal with this dilemma…until today. Today were going to deal with it. Were going to try to look at the whole picture and gain a whole understanding. Sometimes our understanding is limited because we only have gathered so many facts. You might go home tonight after being out and about, and you come home and drive by your neighbors house. Somebodys trying to break in their house. You call 911 and say, Somebodys trying to break in my neighbors house. The police arrive and it turns out its your neighbor, and they didnt have their keys, so theyre breaking in. Well, you did what you thought was the right thing, but you really didnt have all the facts. So what we want to have this morning is a good old fashion Bible study. This is not a one, two, three point sermon kind of a thing. This is a Bible study. This is [here to] help us to understand why the Bible says what it says and why it doesnt say what it doesnt say. Lets turn to Ephesians 6 (page 1160 of pew Bibles). Remember this morning the nursery is closed because its not getting hot air. Of course youre getting hot air from more than one source right now. That was just too easy. There might be some infants in here. If they fuss today, just focus. Were not going to ask the parents to go into the conference room and watch it on TV. They can just stay right here, so well just have extra grace today, and well get the problem fixed. Ephesians 6:5, Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. Serve whole-heartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men, because you know the Lord will reward anyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free. You know, one of the things we have to decide in Scripture, when we see a command like that, is is that command cultural or is that command trans-cultural. By that I mean is it a part for that culture, for that time, and for that people only, or is it good for all people, all cultures, all times? For instance if I say the commandment of the Bible is Thou shall not kill, is that just for one region, one time, one people, or is that for everybody of all times, of all nations? Thats for everybody. If I say, Love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, was that just for the Israelites? Was that just for the time of Deuteronomy, or is that for everybody, all times? Its trans-cultural. That's for everybody. If I quote from 1 Thessalonians when Paul says, Greet one another with a holy kiss. Men, greet one another with a holy kiss. Is that cultural or trans-cultural? Thats cultural. Any of you dudes try to greet me with a holy kiss, Im gonna drop you. Or if youre bigger than me, Im gonna run (congregation laughing). Were going to look at a side note here. I remember going to a seminar, and there were like thousands of people there. There must have been some church where they kind of believe like every Scripture we read, ever command we have to do today is [still existent]. They were going around greeting each other with holy kisses. It was just weird. Its like, Thats not our culture. We shake your hand, give you a hug, How you doing? But were not going around, you know, kissing. I can see that would be a problem. Oh, good morning, smooch. I dont think thats what a holy kiss is, but I can just see theres going to be some problems with that doctrine. Were not going to go there. Thats a cultural thing. When He says, Slaves, obey your masters, that is a cultural command. That was for that point in time. Were not preaching that today because culture has changed. Now heres the problem. You say, Well why doesnt Paul just say slavery is evil? Masters, free your slaves. Slaves run away from your masters. Come to the church. Well give you refuge. Why? Lets talk about that. Do you have any idea how many slaves lived in the Roman Empire when Paul wrote this? Any idea? Was it 6,000 slaves? No. Was it 60,000 slaves? No. Was it 600,000 slaves? No, its higher. Was it 6 million slaves? No, no, no. Way higher-60 million slaves! That is a staggering figure. Slavery was interwoven into every fabric of society, every city, every region, every country. Under the hands of the Roman Empire, there were slaves; and there had been for generations and generations. Its the only life that they knew. That was normal-60 million slaves! There was also the reality of the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire ruled with an iron fist. If you were to rebel against them and cause social unrest, civil disobedience, they would crack down on you. You would be beaten, imprisoned, or executed as an example. So anything that was done to disturb the peace of Rome, Pax Romana, was met with force, and it was met right away. If Paul would have caused this civil disobedience, this social unrest, and millions of slaves are now leaving their masters, do you have any idea the massacre that would have taken place? People by the hundreds of thousands would lose their lives. Whats more? Christianity was brand new. It was just in its infancy. It was very fragile, very new. It was only a couple decades old. Paul was very careful of the image of Christianity, how we were being portrayed to the world. In fact, if you look in 1 Timothy 6:1, if youd turn there (page 1177 of pew Bibles), Paul says these words, All who are under the yoke of slavery should consider their masters worthy of full respect, so that Gods name and our teaching may not be slandered. Slaves, rather than staging an insurrection and rebelling against the government, you are going to be model slaves. Slaves who are Christians are going to be exemplary in society. God in His wisdom goes the exact opposite direction. He is going to work not with dynamite, but God is going to use leaven. God is going to use a yeast of His Word and His Spirit to work in the hearts of men, to lift up equality, to lift up freedom, to lift up justice and fairness; and as those values are lifted up, then culture is going to rise. Culture is going to change from the inside out, not through dynamite, but through leaven-not through a massacre. Not only the Roman government-but if you were a slave and you ran away from your master and you were found, best case scenario is you would be severely beaten and then have and F seared into your forehead for fugitive, which meant runaway in the Greek. Fugitive for the rest of your life. More than likely youd be executed. You would be made an example because you were simply property. You were a living tool. You were a talking animal. You had no rights. You had no worth beyond what you could produce for your master. If you ran away, they would send a strong message, and more than likely, you were dead. If Paul were to preach that, and by the way-if you study the Scripture, if you read Romans 13, if you read 1 Peter 2, if you read the teachings of Jesus-Jesus never taught revolt against the government. God is going to work in and through the culture and change the hearts of men, and in doing so, liberty will be gained-not just in Biblical times. Were going to see all the way through today, the Spirit of God is at work in the world bringing about His purposes. So Paul doesnt do that. Paul in the wisdom of God is going to seek to change the hearts of men. I want you to turn in your Bibles to the Book of Galatians. Would you turn there please? Galatians 3:28 (page 1153), this is one of the key verses in all the Bible. Now, Judaism-in Israel, slavery was not banned. Slavery was a part of life in all cultures, but in Israel, I mean if you were going to be a slave, that was probably the best place to be a slave. You practiced the Sabbath in which you were able to rest. You could participate in worship. You were set free on the seventh year. There were limitations as to what a master could do, and if they exceeded those limitations and cruelty, theyd be punished. Israel could be a city of refuge if you were a runaway slave-where you could come for safety; so if you had to be a slave, that was a good place to be one. But Paul is going to take it, and hes going to lift it to a new height. He is going to talk about something radically different than the societal norm. If youre treated like property, pretty soon you start to see yourself as property. If youre treated as sub-human, pretty soon you start to see yourself as sub-human. So when this letter is read to the church in Galatia, slaves and free masters would be listening to these words because slaves worshipped right alongside [their masters]. They were so much a part of society-they were part of the family-they would be worshipped right with their masters, so its very possible that in the church, youve got a slave and a master sitting in the same pew. It happened. Paul says these words in Verse 28 [of Galatians 3], There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ. You are one in Christ. There is equality in Christ. There is not discrimination in God. You are equal in the sight of God. You are all heirs of salvation. How would that make you feel if you were a slave? How would that make you feel if youd been treated as less than human? Remember the video that showed our team when we were working in ministry in the D.R.? There was this beautiful little Haitian girl, and they were talking to her. They told her she was beautiful. Do you remember that? You showed the media, Youre beautiful. She says, No, Im not beautiful. Im black. It just broke our hearts! Then we began to explain to her how God had made her, how God loved her. We began to share Scripture truth into her spirit, and she was like, Me? Me? She started to laugh. [She realized] she had that value and worth. Powerful! I mean you couldnt watch without crying. I watched it four times that weekend and cried every time. I stood up to preach in the Haitian church in the D.R. Here are these people that remind me so much of what it would have been like to be a slave because though theyre not beaten and theyre not property, they cant own property. They cant send their children to school. They have to fight for any kind of medical treatment. They get the worst jobs, the most deplorable living conditions, and theyre not wanted there. They get the scummiest jobs for the lowest pay, and theyre not welcome. They cant own homes, cant get an education. We worship with them in that dark room lit only by lanterns and candlelight. Theyre just loving the Lord, and I preach and I let them know, You are rich in Christ. You matter to God as much as I do. They say, Oh, youre America. Youre from America. Youre rich. Youre important. God must love you more than He loves us. No, no, no, no. Even Pastor Jean struggles sometimes with his self-image and his self-worth. He will make me cry. Hell email me and say, I feel so badly for myself because Im Haitian sometimes, but you call me my brother, and it makes me feel like I matter. To just get up there and preach the Gospel and lift their spirits and get them to see themselves as God sees them. Thats what Paul is going to do. Hes going to say, You are one. You are one. So hes going to raise the bar. Hes going to talk in this passage to the slave masters as well. Verse 9 of Ephesians 6, And, masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that He who is both their Master and yours is in Heaven, and there is no favoritism with Him. That was radical teaching. Slaves were property; slaves were animals; slaves were not human. He said, Treat your slaves in the same way, the same way youd want to be treated-with respect. Treat them with respect. That was radical. In the Book of Colossians 4:1, if you want to turn there or watch on the screen, Masters, provide your slaves with what is right and fair, because you know that you also have a Master in Heaven. God is watching you. Do what is right and fair. God through His Word and through His Spirit, like leaven, is going to begin to lift up the values of rightness, fairness, and equality, and what were going to see next-freedom. I want you to turn in your Bibles to a Book [that is] read very little. Its called Philemon, page 1183. The entire subject matter of this Book is on slavery. Its just a little Book. We dont talk about it a lot, but whats going on here is that Paul has a friendship and relationship with a slave owner whose name is Philemon. He has a slave by the name of Onesimus. Onesimus steals his masters money, and he runs away-risking not only prison, but risking his life; but he thinks its worth it for freedom. He steals the money and he leaves Philemon and goes to Rome. While he is in Rome, he encounters the Apostle Paul in prison. Maybe either Onesimus recognizes Paul from his visits to Philemons house, or maybe Philemon recognizes Paul. However that happens, they hook up and have a conversation. Eventually, Paul leads Philemon to Christ. He becomes a Christian. He (Onesimus) becomes a tremendous help to Paul in his ministry, and Paul says, You know what? You need to go back. You need to go back to your master. You need to go back to Philemon, and were going to ask for your freedom. Were not going to demand your freedom, but were going to ask for your freedom. So Paul writes this letter, and he puts it in the hand of the slave, Onesimus. He asks him to risk his very life, his very freedom that he has now gained-illegally-and go back and throw yourself on the grace and mercy of his master. So hes going to give this letter, and hes going to hope that Philemon reads it and agrees with it because if he doesnt, hes in big trouble. Thats the drama, and thats whats going on as we look at this Book. So lets break it down-lets look at Verse 8. At first he kind of butters up Philemon and calls him a dear friend and a fellow soldier. He tells him how great of a guy he is, how much he loves him. He tells him that he prays for him. Have you ever had somebody butter you up? Somebody gives you a call who hasnt talked to you in a while. Theyre like, Hey, man. Im telling you, boy, you are just fantastic. Youre the greatest friend! I love you! I miss you! And youre like, Okay, what do you want? What do you want? Whats up with you? So he starts off by just telling Philemon what a great guy he is. Philemon has to be thinking, Whats this letter about? Ive not heard from old Paul in a while. Then hes going to eventually get to the news. He says, Therefore, although in Christ, I could be bold and order you to do what you ought to do… In other words, Paul is an Apostle. People understand-listen, church-people understand when Paul writes a letter, its Scripture. They understand that. Peter talked about Paul when he wrote and how certain men distorted his words even as they do the rest of the Scriptures. They understood that Paul wrote with authority as an Apostle of Christ. He says, I could force you to do this, but Im not going to do that. Im going to allow you to make the right decision by a choice. Verse 9, …yet I appeal to you on the basis of love. I then, as Paul-an old man and now also a prisoner of Christ Jesus… By the way, I resent that because I know from church history when this Book was written, and I know about how old Paul was here. And if my calculations are correct, Paul is about 52 years old. I turn 50 this year. I dont like that (congregation laughing), An old man? Were going to set him straight one day. Okay, I then, as Paul-a fairly young middle-aged man and now a prisoner of Christ Jesus-I appeal to you for my son, Onesimus. Thats interesting here. Remember last week we talked about children, Obey your parents in the Lord and we said, That might not be little children because he uses the word offspring and not the word for a child? No matter how old you were, if your father was living, you were under his authority in that society? So we said thats the word he uses. This is the word he uses here, the same word where he says, Children, obey your parents in the Lord. He uses the male form of that word right here in talking about an adult-Onesimus. So it establishes that that could very well be the case of Ephesians 6:1, Children, obey your parents in the Lord. Hes talking to us as well. …who became my son while I was in chains… So he says, He became my offspring, meaning that Paul led him to Christ while he was in prison, so thats what that means. Hes saying he converted to Christianity while he went to see Paul in Rome. Formerly he was useless to you, but now he has become useful both to you and to me. Some scholars believe thats a play on words because the name Onesimus means useful. So hes saying, Well, he didnt used to live up to his name, but now he does. Now useful really is useful, so they think its kind of a pun. I dont know-it could be. I am sending him with my very heart back to you. I would have liked to keep him with me so that he could take your place in helping me while I am in chains for the Gospel. I did not want to do anything without your consent, so that any favor you do will be spontaneous and not forced. Perhaps the reason he was separated from you for a little while was that you might have him back for good… And I want you to hone in on Verse 16. …no longer as a slave. No longer as a slave, …but better than a slave, as a dear brother. He is very dear to me and even dearer to you both as a man and as a brother in the Lord. Paul begins to extol the virtue of freedom and equality. He is your brother in Christ. Hes not property. Hes not subhuman. Let him be no longer considered a slave, but your brother, and Paul shows his heart. Paul upholds slavery but he recognized he had to work in and through the culture-the Spirit of God-had to work in and through the hearts of men to this very day. Notice when we leave Paul in the Bible, we leave him in the Book of Acts as an older man in prison kind of walking around teaching the Gospel, and that's how it ends. The Book of Acts ends with kind of a question, kind of an undone feeling. Have you ever been watching a movie and the movie ends, and youre surprised it ended. Youre like, Huh? What else happens? Whats next? Whats next? Of course we read the Book of Acts, and were like, Well, what happened to Paul? Whered he go? What happened to Paul in prison? What happened? It doesnt tell us. You know why? Because the Book of Acts of the Apostles is really the Acts of the Spirit. It really is. Its the Acts of the Spirit, and the acts of the Spirit continue to this day. The story of the church is still being written, so it doesnt come to this closure. It doesnt come to this finality. It is left open-ended because the acts of the Spirit continue to this day. God is still working and moving in the hearts of His people. As the Word of God lifted up freedom, as the Word of God lifted up equality and fairness, like leaven, culture would begin to rise to it. In the 1800s, a man lived by the name of William Wilberforce who dedicated himself tirelessly to ending slavery. We heard about his story and how he worked with America and how he worked in his own country. Three days before he died, freedom was gained for the slaves in England. We know the story of Abraham Lincoln and how he fought for freedom. We know he based his beliefs on the Judeo-Christian ethic of equality in the sight of God. I read one quote from Mr. Lincoln that Id never read before, I found it very insightful and humorous. He says-comparing himself to the shepherd, the slave owners as wolves, and the slaves as sheep, he says, The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep, which the sheep thanks the shepherd as his liberator while the wolf denounces him for the same act as the destroyer of liberty. Plainly the wolf and the sheep are not agreed on the definition of liberty. There are still wolves out there today. Theres still injustice out there today. Theres still people that are prejudice today, people [who are treated] like property today who are abused by other people today. Theres still illegal slavery in the world today. Theres still every cause to stand up for righteousness, justice and equality and stand up against oppression-whatever form it takes. What I want us to do right now is watch a clip from this movie-again from Amazing Grace, and were going to talk about our response. In this movie, William Wilberforce is talking to an old man. You know something about this old man, this friend of his. This old man that were going to encounter was a slave trader. He made his living off the sweat, blood and death of slaves. While hes at sea, he almost dies. He has a God encounter. He has to chain himself to something on the bow of the boat to prevent himself from being thrown into sea. There he encounters the living Christ. He changes his heart. He leaves the slave-trade business, and he becomes a pastor and a songwriter. He looks back on his life and the things he used to do, the way he used to treat people that had been made in the image of God. He is amazed at the grace of God that could save a wretch like him. His name is John Newton. I want you to listen as he confronts his past, and he encourages his friend William Wilberforce to press on in the cause of freedom. Lets watch. (You can find the clip here: http://www.wingclips.com/cart.php?target=product&product_id=16260&substring=amazing+grace). They ended that-he said, Weve got some work to do, you and I, and thats what I say to you today, We have some work to do, you and I. I mean we might feel a little bit helpless because we cant-were not in law enforcement. We cant stop human trafficking. Prostitution is a form of slavery. We feel limited in what we can do there. We know that sweat shops exist and child labor and these other things-we know these things exist in our world today. We feel helpless in that regard, but we also know there are some things we can do. Weve tried to take those steps as a church. This past year we talked about the children in our county whod been sexually abused and how they are receiving help at CARE House. The [trained staff] records the testimony of what their abuser had done to them. We mentioned that those little innocent ones that are abused need our help. The funding is gone from the GM plant. Theyre lost 40 percent of their support, and they need a new recording system. I threw that out to you. We took up an offering, and we paid cash for an $11,000 system from your generosity. I talked to you about the Haitian church that we partner with in the Dominican Republic. I talked to you about the refugees from the earthquake, and theyre coming now and here is Pastor Jean getting up to preach. There are a hundred new faces, and they only have the clothes on their back. They have no food. They have no shelter. What is he going to do? I mentioned that to you. Without even taking an offering, we were able to take in almost $4,500 and shot it right back out that week in cash. We just sent off 600 pounds of clothing to his church for his congregation. Were selling our recipes, our cookbooks, and every bit of that is going to buy food. Well be sending them another check at the end of this month because theres no time to just sit on it. We have to act. Any time you stand up for the oppressed, the downtrodden, those who are treated as less than human, any time you take a stand against prejudice, you are called to be the church of Jesus Christ, to lift up these values of equality, fairness and freedom; and thats our job. I dont know why Ive never preached on the subject of slavery before. I dont know why churches dont because its all over the pages of our Bible. Slavery was caused by mans sin. God did not institute slavery. Man did. Slavery has ended through the grace of God. Its God and His Spirit working in the hearts of man to overcome that greed and selfishness. Abraham Lincoln said, You know you wolves out there, you think Im bad. You think Im against you being rich and owning your plantations. Im not against you being rich, but I am against you owning people as if they were property. Theyre people, and they have a right to be free. Their right to be free is greater than your right to be rich. They hated him, but he stood up for what was right. As a church, we know there are still wolves out there, wolves in our world. There are wolves in our culture. There are wolves in our society that still try to exploit people, and as a church of Christ, we stand up against that, and we lift up these values, virtues and truths. As Gods Spirit works in us and through as leaven, we raise up the culture. We raise up the value. I hope that thats been helpful for you today to address that subject. Maybe youve read that in the Bible before and wondered, Why does Paul say that? Hopefully thats helped answer some of those questions that you have had. We are going to continue next week in our series, and were going to talk about the armor of God. Were going to spend a few weeks on that subject in Ephesians 6-the armor of God. What is it? Why is it important? Paul says to put it on. How do we do that? So that is what we will direct our attention to in the weeks that are ahead. We just keep plodding along trying to get done with this Book before Easter.
Well, in case you havent guessed it, were talking about parenting today. Thank you to Tom and Susan for the good job you did for us this weekend (they performed a drama). We are in the last chapter of Ephesians. Wow, that was quick. That only took us about four months. Ephesians 6 is where were going to be, if you want to turn your Bibles there (page 1160). Well, 26 and a half years ago, I became a dad for the first time. I know what youre thinking, and youre right. My wife is getting up there. But it seems like yesterday that we were leaving the hospital. The nurse was wheeling her out in the wheelchair. We had the baby, and they said, Good luck to you! Congratulations! We hope everything goes well, and youre like, You guys are coming too, right? You nurses, youre coming with us, right? Because we dont know what were doing. I can remember we put her in the car seat. She was just five pounds, three ounces-really little. We were strapping her in there and thinking, I dont know what Im doing. I mean theres no manual that comes with this kid. This kid is completely dependent upon us for everything, and I dont know what Im doing. Sometimes 26 and a half years later, I still dont know what Im doing. I mean we wish there was a manual that we could look at and say, Okay, now when this happens, what do you do? Whats the next step we need to take in this scenario? What do I do now? Parenting is just a tough job, and I didnt realize how long it would last. I didnt realize that you parent at 6, and you parent when theyre 26. Its a big job. So Im hoping that we can help you a little bit with that job this morning. Those of you who are parents now or will be parents someday or are grandparents, Im hoping that wherever youre at, were going to share some things that will help you. Lets begin with Verse 1 of Chapter 6. Paul is writing to the church in Ephesus, and he says, Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. It might surprise you to know that when Paul says children, hes not necessarily talking to little children. The word that is given here is the word offspring. Now he doesnt use the word. He could have used the word for little children, but he doesnt do that. He uses the word offspring. Offspring, obey your parents in the Lord. I need to introduce you to a Latin term which describes the societal reality of the day. Its the term, patria potesta, power of the father, paternal power, or the power of the father. In that day in Roman culture, if you were the father, you were in charge of the family to the point where you could almost say the family was your property to do with as you please. You had ultimate authority, and it didnt matter how old you were if your father was alive, he was the patria potesta for your family. So you might be 60 years old, and you would still be under the authority of your dad. So when he says, Children, obey your parents in the Lord, hes not necessarily just talking about the little runts that are running around Ephesus at that time. He could be talking to adult children as well. He says, Obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother… Or give value to your father and mother. …which is the first commandment with a promise… And the promise is this, …that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth. I think this is a very practical promise from Gods Word. This word obey-there are different words for obey. This one has to do with listening or harkening. It was a military term. There is an operation right now our military is conducting in Afghanistan. I dont know if youve been following this in the news, but it is this major offensive that is undergoing right now with Afghan and United States forces. Theyre trying to surround the Taliban, so they have no place to go and squeeze them out. I watched footage of the training as all the Marines gathered around the commander, and he was telling them what they were going to do. Im telling you they were listening intently because their lives depended upon-their safety depended upon following their commander. That's the word that is here. It is to listen intently. Its to harken. He says if youll do that-if youll listen to the counsel of your parents-life will go well for you because your parents love you more than anybody, so theyre going to tell you-theyre going to try to give you advice that is helpful to you. Many times we have not heeded our parents advice, and it didnt go well, right? We could all raise our hands and go, Yeah, there are some things that I… And if you cant raise your hands to that, youve probably forgotten. If we were to play your life tape back, youd go, Oh, yeah. Numerous times. And so its a practical promise. If we listen to our moms and dads, they have our best interest at heart; and its going to help your life go well. So were going to share some parenting principles now from Verse 4. Thats where were going to be for the duration of our time together. Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord. The first thing I want you to note in that verse is who does he say? Does he say moms and dads? Does he say parents? Does he say mothers and fathers? What does he say? Fathers. Why is that? Again, societal, cultural-patria potesta. He was the guy. This is not a portrait of a father who is divorced from the raising of his children. Hes out as the breadwinner, and the mom is doing all the raising and so forth while Dads out making the money. Occasionally he comes home as the disciplinarian. This was a home in which the father was central to the running of that household. So Paul is speaking-cause this is the culture they lived in-Paul is speaking to the fathers, so bear that in mind that we are talking to moms and dads today; but when Paul originally penned these words-because of the culture in which they lived, in the society to which he wrote-he writes these words on parenting, primarily to the dads. Were going to see that this blows away the myths of the macho man. Were going to see that it talks about manhood and fatherhood in a different way than some of the cultural myths and some of the cultural realities that are in our society today. He says first of all, …do not exasperate your children… Your translation might say, Do not provoke your children to anger. Do not provoke them to anger. Some of us think it should read, Children, do not provoke your parents to anger, cause it seems like thats the way it usually is. Do not provoke your children to anger. The man in the skit that we saw this morning (the audio is available at the beginning of this file online) was angry. He was angry. Why? Did you pick up on that? Why was he angry? He was angry about two things. He was angry, number one, at neglect or perceived neglect. That is something that will manifest into adulthood. If your parents neglected you, you will find anger there. Anger was a demand; anger is a demand, and the demand is you didnt value me. You didnt love me. You didnt support me, and that will lead to anger in their lives; so thats one of the ways, parents, that we can avoid provoking our children to anger-let them know and demonstrate always how important they are to us. They not only provide physical needs, but spending time with them, affirming their value and worth to us. I heard a story about a little boy. One day his dad came home, and he said, Daddy, can I ask you a question? He said, Sure, pal. Whats going on? He said, How much money do you make? He said, Well, Son, thats kind of a personal question. Why do you need to know how much money I make? I cant tell you, Dad, but how much money does your boss pay you an hour? He said, Well, if you must know, Son, I make $20 an hour. His son said, Wow! Thats a lot of money, Dad. I didnt realize that you were paid that much. Can I borrow $10? Well, you little rascal! You just wanted to know how much money I made. When you found out I made good money, you wanted to take my money to buy some toy or something selfish like that! You go to your room right now! He said, But, Dad! Just go to your room! I dont want to hear it! Go to your room right now! Okay, and the little guy trotted off to his room, and Dad started feeling bad. Maybe I was too harsh, too judgmental. Maybe theres a good reason that he wants this money. So Dad knocks on the door. The son opens up the door. Can I come in? Sure, Dad. He said, Listen, I was too hard on you. I dont know what you need the money for, but heres $10. His eyes light up, Thanks, Dad! He reaches under his pillow, and he pulls out a bunch of ones all crumpled up. He counts out ten more, and Dad says, Why did you need more money when you already have that much money? He starts to get mad all over again. He said, Because, Dad. Now I have $20. Can I buy an hour of your time? Wow is right. So desperate to be with his dad, hes willing to pay for that opportunity. Sadly, sometimes children feel that way. They feel like everything comes first except for them. That neglect can rise up with an anger in their lives, provoke them to anger. Now the other extreme, and we probably have more of these than neglecters, is the smotherers. Thats the parents who are over-protective. They never want to let their child have any freedom, never want to let their child have any freedom, never want to let their child take any risks. Theyre so over-protective, and what that does is that sends a message to the child that you dont trust me. That doesnt mean that they turn 13, and theyre on their own or turn 16 or 18 and theyre on their own. This is a gradual weaning process. You give them some freedom, and they show they can be trusted. Then you give them some more, right? Thats the text book, but some parents wont even do that. They wont give their child any freedom, and that sends a message that says, I dont trust you. Whats more, you interrupt the natural process of growing up because our job as parents is to raise them to independence. Thats our job. Its not that they can come into adulthood and still be dependent upon us. We want to train them to independence, so they can think for themselves and make right decisions. Sometimes that involves making wrong decisions and experiencing those consequences for those wrong decisions. Smothering can lead to resentment. Smothering can lead to anger as its a natural process for that child to want their freedom and to want their independence. If your child grows up and wants independence-theyre 18, 19, 20, theyre ready to go off to college-thats good! It means youve done your job. Theyre willing to stand on their own two feet. Youve done a good job. So over-protection-you know who you are. Youre out there. Weve seen a lot of kids elbowing parents this morning when I made that point. Smothering can have negative or adverse effects as well. Then the third one, Im going to just touch base on it briefly, and that was portrayed in our drama. That is favoritism, having a child who is favored, one over the other; and that can lead to some negative consequences. Joseph was a favorite of Jacob. In Genesis 37, we read of a tunic that his father made for him, special clothing of many colors, and it said that Josephs brothers hated him because of that. That leads to resentment among siblings, so the importance of affirming-every child is different, but affirm and value all our children all the same. Love them the same. Though theyre different and they have different skills, different temperaments, and different personalities, appreciate those differences in our children and make sure that were not showing favoritism in our home that could lead them to jealousy and resentment of their siblings or of us. Now, lets move on in this verse. So he gives a warning, but then he gives an encouragement. Heres what you shouldnt do. Now heres what you should do. He says, Instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord. I want to focus in on that verb-bring them up. Bring them up. This verb is used only twice in all the Bible, so its a very rare verb. Both instances of this verb bring them up are used in the Book of Ephesians. Thats the first example in Verse 4, where he says bring them up. The second, if youd just turn one page back in your Bibles, is found in Verse 29. Paul is speaking about the relationship between husbands and wives and says, After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it just as Christ does the church. You may not see the verb there, but its there. Right there where he says he feeds, …but he feeds. Thats the same verb as we find bring them up in Verse 4 of Chapter 6. It means to nourish or to nurture. Isnt it interesting? Who is Paul talking to primarily as his audience in this verse? Fathers. And what does he say to the fathers? Nurture. Well, we think, Well, thats the moms job, right? Thats the moms job. Dad, you know, hes the tough disciplinarian guy. No, the Scripture says, Dad, if hes a true mans man, is tender. Hes involved in the physical upbringing of the child. He is helping to meet the physical needs of the child. He is involved in the nourishing and the nurturing of the child. Thats the Biblical model of a father. I changed as many diapers as my wife changed. One of the happiest days of my life was going through the grocery store and realizing I didnt have to buy any more diapers. What a wonderful day that was! I probably twirled the cart around and danced. People thought I was probably crazy. I dont have to get diapers anymore! If I ever become a grandparent, Im going to wear a sign that says, I do not do diapers. I dont know if the Bible addresses grandparents in diapers. If it does, dont tell me about it. I dont want to hear it. Im done. But I got up in the middle of the night. I changed the children, bathed the children, and clothed the children. I was limited in how I could feed the children, but I could handle a bottle. I couldnt nurse them, but I could feed them the bottle. I got very proficient at it. By the end of the third child, I was like, phew, phew, phew, phew! I could really handle that bottle, rock them and burp them and all that stuff. Thats part of fatherhood, guys. Some of our guys out there who have young children or are going to, you should be involved in that whole nurturing process and just as involved as they grow. It involves touch and affirming through touch, hugging and telling them how much you love them. [It involves] being involved in the physical raising of that child. Its just as much the job of the father as the mother. So Paul puts that on the father. He says nurture them. There are a couple ways that he wants the child to be nurtured. He says to bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord. Bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord. Lets talk about the word training, first of all. I want you to turn in your Bibles to Hebrews 12. Look at Verse 5 (page 1193 of pew Bibles). My son, do not make light of the Lords discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those He loves and punishes everyone He accepts as a son. So discipline is a form of love. If you love someone, youll discipline them. If you dont discipline them, its a sign that you dont love them because if you love them, you will care about their attitudes and actions and habits. This same word discipline here in Hebrews 12 is the word that we find translated training in Ephesians 6. So really Paul is speaking about discipline here. Hes saying, Discipline your children. You know, in our society today, it seems like there are a lot of parents who want to be popular to the point where theyll forego discipline. They want to be the cool parent-the parent of so and sos mom and dad lets him do everything. They want to be that. You can either choose to be popular short-term or popular long-term. Choose to be popular long-term. Choose to be the kind of parent who uses discipline, so your children wont say, You know, when I was growing up, you wouldnt let me do this and that, and boy Im so glad now. Im so glad that you had a control over our family, that you exerted discipline in our household. Teachers will tell you on a grade school, high school, college level of the struggle they have teaching children because they lack discipline in the home today. It becomes almost intolerable. The children that do not learn authority, that did not learn to respect authority, they dont understand discipline. Our teachers are telling you they are having a hard time. It has reached an epidemic proportion. I know who are our teachers are, and I look out over them this weekend in our services. Invariably, the teachers are looking back at me going, Yup, welcome to my world. That's what I live. They will tell you that it is-and if theyve been in the teaching profession for a long time, they will tell you that its getting worse and worse. Parents are neglecting their children, or they are not disciplining their children because they want to be the cool parent. Friends, one of the greatest privileges and responsibilities we have is to discipline our children. Dont choose to be popular. Choose to be a parent. You have minors in your home? They dont need a buddy and a pal. They need a mom and a dad who are going to guide them, instruct them and teach them morality and virtue; and thats the goal of discipline. Verse 7 says, Endure hardship as discipline… training. God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you are not disciplined, then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. However, we all have human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in His holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. And so the writer talks about this. He says that that discipline is for your benefit. Its to change your attitudes. Its to change your behavior. Its to help you grow in virtues. It might be painful, but its necessary. The goal is not to punish. The goal is to teach. Sometimes children dont understand that. They think youre just trying to be mean. I had to discipline my youngest this week. We were in a restaurant-shes 13-and they have this newfangled technology called texting. Shes got her cell phone, and we are having dinner at a local restaurant. Its family time, and were talking. I look over and shes texting a friend. I go, What are you doing? Texting. I said, Not now, youre not. Were having family time, so you need to text your friends and tell them that you wont be able to talk for a while. Okay? She said, Okay. She puts the phone away. About 20 minutes later, were having conversation. I look over. I see her heads down. I go, What are you doing? Are you texting? Give me your phone. Give me your phone. She gave me the phone, didnt give me a hassle. She just gave me the phone. I said, When were having time as a family, then you need to be talking to us. Its rude for you to talk to your friends on the telephone while we are trying to have a conversation. Your attention needs to be right here. You can have this back in the morning, so you wont be talking to your friends anymore tonight. Am I trying to be mean? Do I not want her to have a social life? Am I going, Oh, my evil plan is working! Now she cannot speak to her friends. Ive cut off communication! Of course, then they just go on Facebook and find another way around it. What am I trying to teach her? Im trying to teach her some manners. Im trying to teach her about whats important, Right now, this is the time for your family, so the next time were in a restaurant, I dont even have to have that conversation with her because she knows this is the time where were doing something together as a family. This is the time were together as a family. Thats the goal of discipline. Its the goal of training or shaping that child and helping to shape their attitudes, actions and behaviors. That is the responsibility of a parent. We should not shirk that to the church or to the schools. That is our responsibility-to teach them to respect authority and to discipline them at home. Going back to Ephesians then and trying to finish out Verse 4. He says, …bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord. Instruction of the Lord. This is a twofold process that involves speaking and modeling. Both are important-teaching and instructing. Deuteronomy 6, God is speaking and reiterating the law. Jesus said this commandment was the most important commandment of all-Chapter 6:4 (page 178). Lets read that together, Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is One. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. You know if youre able to have a family devotion time, a structured time every week, thats wonderful. Ive had a difficult time doing that. I have to confess to you. That's been difficult, but I also think that the life is the classroom. The best times Ive talked with my children about matters of faith have been when were in a car going somewhere, were on a vacation, were going to a ball game, or were just going out and doing something together. Those are some of the most meaningful teaching times. If its in a structured setting only, thats too small. The classroom has to be life. The class is always in session, always instructing. Notice what it says. He says, You are to impress them on your children, these commandments, these truths about Me. Impress them upon your children. Ive never understood these parents who say, My children-when it comes to my faith-Im not going to cram my religion down their throats. Im going to let them decide what they want to do. Thats up to them, however they want to serve and follow God. Thats up to them. Im not going to try to impose my beliefs on them. Okay, heres a problem, guys. Number one, I believe that children ultimately are going to make their own choices. I dont question that, but to say, Im going to take the most important responsibility I have-teaching my children about God and about eternity-the most important thing, and Im just going to leave that up to chance. Im just going to say, Well, you know, whatever you want to do. It just does not compute and that's not what the Scripture says. We are to impress them upon our children. The highest value you have is to transfer your faith to your children. Now they could choose to reject that faith, but if youre teaching and modeling, the chances of that are pretty slim. Your modeling is important because if youre not modeling it, it really doesnt matter what you say. You say, The Lord says thus and so. The Bible says, Thus and so. But youre not doing that if youre living in hypocrisy. Your children will see through that, and theyre not going to want to have anything to do with your God and your faith. No matter what youve said, theyre going to be looking at your example; so it is both our teaching and our modeling that are important. We learn many times by viewing and seeing. When I took a job in Rockford as an assistant pastor there, my boss had been a pastor already for 30 years by the time I got there. So here I am, green as grass. Hed been there for 30 years. Its like, Im going to learn a lot. I had this mistaken notion that we would sit down and have actual teaching times. Wed say, Okay, heres what a pastor does. Heres what a pastor says, and Id just take notes. Well, that never happened. What did happen was over that seven and a half year period, I was able to observe him-how he led our staff, how he led me, and how he handled certain crises and things in the church. When I left for Wisconsin, I said, You know Im going to have to call you every week because Im going to run into scenarios where I dont know what to do. This eight year period has really helped me, but I still have so much to learn. You know Ill be calling you. He said, Thats fine. Ive had to call him maybe a half a dozen times in 20 years. Thats not a lot-once every almost four years or so I make a call. What do I do now? Hes still, by the way, pasturing at age 79-same town, same church. I dont hope to be pasturing when Im 80. Ill just let you in on a little secret there. But hes still doing it. I called him one time. I said, Listen. I dont call you a lot for advice because you did such a great job. Ill get in to situations, and Ill know what to do because Ill remember, Well, we were in a similar situation in Rockford. Heres how we handled it. [To Pastor Lyon in Rockford], So I learned from your model. He didnt actually come down and say, Heres what you do. But I watched it, and I learned from it; so modeling is important. Modeling does not usurp the teaching. Im not saying its one or the other. It is both working together in harmony. It is instructing verbally and modeling that are both important as we seek to raise those children to know the Lord and follow Him; and you have no higher priority in your life than to do that. What I want to do in the time we have remaining is take some time of extended prayer. I want to pray for our parents today, and then I want to pray for those who are maybe dealing with some of the anger, some of the bitterness from problems in your childhood that you could [maybe] identify with that skit today with. Maybe that stirred up some emotions in you. Im going to invite you to just bow your heads and close your eyes as we look to the Lord in prayer. First of all I want to address you parents out here. Are there any moms and dads right now-youre just struggling? Maybe your kids are rebelling, and theyre pressuring you. You just dont know what to do sometimes. You just need some wisdom and strength. Let me see your hands right now. All right, all around this room: Father, I just want to lift up those moms and dads. That hand is a sign of faith. It is a cry for help. They are humbly saying that they dont have all the answers and that Lord, this parenting job sometimes is overwhelming, and we wish we had a textbook we could turn to each and every page for and every scenario. But, Lord, we have You. Lord, we know that even in the Garden, in perfect conditions, idyllic conditions, Your children rebelled. We know even in the dessert, as You provided for the children of Israel, many of them rebelled against You; so even if we are the perfect parent, we can still encounter opposition from our children. Sometimes we are tempted to cave in because of their strong will and their relentless pressure. Lord, I pray that these parents would hold fast, that theyd have the courage to stick to their convictions, to live out their convictions. I pray that Youd give them wisdom and discernment in the situations that they are now facing. As they raise their hand to signify a need, there is probably a specific situation-circumstances-that are tied to that need, to that hand. I pray for wisdom and counsel by Your Spirit to guide them as they make decisions, as they take action steps-that they will be the right ones. Lord, I want to pray now for those of us who struggle with anger. Can I see your hands if you struggle with some anger from your childhood and things that your parents did. Oh, man. Lord, some of those memories are so fresh in our minds, and some of those wounds feel as if theyd happened yesterday. Lord, there are a lot of hurting people today. A lot of hands went up. They right now are having to deal with hurt and even anger from something that happened and sometimes even decades ago. Lord, I ask You right now because You know us better than we know ourselves. You are the great physician. You can help us better than any doctor, any psychologist, any pastor, or any therapist. You can help us better than anyone. I ask You right now to bring ministry and healing to those memories. I pray, Father, that You would bring restoration and forgiveness. Lord, in those areas where we need to make amends, I pray that wed be willing to go back to our children when possible and ask for their forgiveness for the things weve done and said that we shouldnt have said or done, the things we didnt do or didnt say that we should have said but did not. Lord, I pray that there could be steps taken for healing, for forgiveness, that were not bound to the past-the past is not repeated in our lives, that we will be able to release and be free. Certainly forgiveness does not justify wrong behavior, but what it does is it frees us to begin to rebuild and to begin to restore what has been lost. I pray right now for those whove had pain brought up today to the surface that Youd minister to them through Your Holy Spirit and that You would bring healing to them and help in this time of need. In Jesus name, we pray. Amen.
Some of us feel a little anxiety if we are divorced or going through a divorce. You feel like, Oh, man. Theyre going to bash me this morning. Im really going to walk out of here and feel like a second class citizen. I want you to set your mind at ease. That's not going to happen today. We just love you. Were glad youre here, and we want you to be ministered to. This topic, its involved. It can be complex. There are a lot of scenarios and trails we could go down. We are giving this a one-week shot, so Im not going to be able to go down every scenario, every trail. Im not going to be able to talk about every Scripture in the Bible that deals with divorce and remarriage. Were going to deal with some of the key issues, the key points; but Im aware that there are other trails we could go down and other Scriptures we could involve, other issues. Im aware of all that, but just within the time constraints, I would encourage you-if you still want more information on the subject-there are plenty of excellent books out there that would help you. Other resources are out there to help guide you along this path. The third thing I want to share is that we can study these passages and the passage were going to read this morning, and there are well-meaning Godly, God-fearing Christians who can come to different conclusions on these passages. You put ten Christians in a room and ask them to share their beliefs on the end times, and you might get ten different opinions. You might say, Well you ten people talk about the spiritual gifts, if theyre for today and how they operate. Youd get ten different responses. Sometimes in that same vein, Christians can study these Scriptures and come to different conclusions as to what they mean; so I hope that you come to your conclusion on the basis of thought, prayer and study, and then well respect one anothers points of view even if we disagree. Okay? Fair enough? So having said that, were going to begin this morning, and were going to begin with a little bit of a survey, okay? It might seem like it has nothing to do with our topic, but just kind of bear with me. Let me see the hands if you are Team Peyton this morning? Team Peyton. Let me see your hands. How many of you are Team Drew today? Good. How many of you have no idea what were doing right now? We are talking about the Super Bowl. Were talking about the quarterbacks for the Colts and the Saints and which team were going to be pulling for today. How many of you are Team Edward? Let me see your hands. Team Edward? Team Jacob? Let me see your hands, okay. Teenagers putting their hands up. How many of you dont know what were talking about? Okay, were talking about Twilight or New Moon or whatever that is. Its a movie. Are you going to be a werewolf or vampire here? You have to pick your side. One more. How many of you are Team Shammai? Then you must be Team Hillel. How many of you are Team Hillel? How many of you have no idea what I am talking about? I dont either, so… No, youre in the right place. I want to tell you about two rabbis. These two rabbis were VIPs. Now were not going to find them in the Bible, but theyre very important to the Scripture were going to look at today because these two men were alive at the time of Jesus, and their schools were very much in their hay-day when Jesus was ministering. So open your Bibles up to the Book of Matthew 19, and were going to find that the Pharisees are coming to Jesus, and theyre going to try to trip him up on the subject of divorce. Theyre going to try to pit him against-really pit him against-Moses. Verse 3 (page 975 of pew Bibles), Some Pharisees… Remember who the Pharisees are. Theyre the religious elite. They are religious leaders. They know the Bible inside and out. They come to Jesus to test Him, and they ask him, Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason? What they were really asking is are you Team Shammai or are you Team Hillel? Shammai was a very conservative rabbi. Shammai actually rose to be the president of the Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin was like the Congress and the Supreme Court rolled in to one. It was these 70 men who ruled legislatively and spiritually over Israel, and he rose to the top. Then later on Hillel would rise to the top. These two guys were polar opposites-not only in their beliefs but in their temperament. Shammai was very reserved and quiet, very restrained but yet had strong opinions; and Hillel was very passionate, very fervent, very emotional and expressed his opinions as well. Shammai said there was only one reason that you can get divorced and one reason alone. That is if there had been adultery that has been committed. So if there has been sexual sin in the form of adultery, then God will permit divorce-but only under those circumstances. Whereas Hillel taught anything goes. Your wife burns your toast, grounds for divorce. You find another woman you like better, grounds for divorce. So Hillel was very liberal in his interpretation of Scripture. So thats what theyre saying. Can he divorce for any reason? Some reason? Are you Team Hillel, or are you Team Shammai? That was the question that was posed of Jesus. Now what is He going to do? I want you to notice in Verse 4 a bit of sarcasm. Youre going to notice that theres a cut down here. It says, Havent you read, he replied, that at the beginning the Creator made them male and female… Do you see the cut down there? Whos he talking to? Hes talking to the Pharisees. These guys are Biblical experts. He says to them, Havent you read Genesis? You mean you havent read Genesis 2? You know the answer to this question? Dont you read your Bible? Thats a dig! Jesus even admitted. He said, You diligently search the Scriptures, He said in the Book of John, because you think that in them you have eternal life. Biblical experts-and Jesus starts off by saying, You mean you havent read about Genesis and Adam and Eve? God made them …male and female and said, For this reason… Because I have made the woman as your help mate, because I have made you for one another. You complete one another. Because Ive made you to have companionship and designed you to be together. For this reason, …a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife… That comes from the root word to glue. What kind of glue do you think God uses? Pretty strong stuff, right? He says, Im going to glue you together, and you will be two, but one flesh. He gave the command to be fruitful and multiply to fill the earth and subdue it. They were going to have offspring. Think about it. Offspring is a manifestation of the spiritual union as husband and wife, isnt it? An offspring is a physical manifestation of the oneness of husband and wife. You are one spiritually or one in the sight of God, and from that union, from that oneness comes a child who is your one flesh-who is both of you but yet his own person. So Jesus takes them right to the very beginning. This is the right person to ask this question of. As Christians we believe that Jesus simply didnt come into being in Bethlehem 2,000 years ago, but He is the eternal Son of God that He has always been. There came a point in time when he entered into this world and took on flesh. Prior to that, the Bible teaches that He was at Creation. It says, All things came in to being, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come in to being. So Christ is in the Garden. He is the One who institutes marriage. He is the One who brings the covenant into being. What a better person to ask than the Lord Jesus about what marriage and divorce mean. Think about that. Notice that Jesus is going to say, I say to you, but I say to you, in a little while. When Jesus said that, that was extremely radical. That was talking at the highest authority. He would say, You have heard it said, but I said to you… In fact there was an oral tradition. An oral tradition was written down-it was called the Talmud, and the oral tradition or the Talmud was based on mans interpretation of Gods written law. Guess what two men were very influential in the writing of the Talmud? Shammai and Hillel-very influential in the oral tradition. So Jesus would talk about that oral tradition. He would say, You have heard it said, but I say to you… That was unheard of. Every other rabbi would base what they were about to teach on the rabbis who had come before them. They would say, Well, you know Rabbi so and so who lived 400 years ago said this… The people would say, Oh, well if Rabbi so and so said it, then it must be true. Jesus comes along, and He teaches radical teaching, contrary to much of the oral law-based only on the authority that Hes the One who said it. Wow! How about if I were to come up before you this morning and say, Well, the Bible says…but I say to you…? I get up here and correct the Bible. How would that go over? Not too well, right? You wouldnt be here very long. At least you shouldnt be. Jesus says, But I say to you. So He is saying, I am going to use My authority to tell you the way it should be, and Jesus is going to go back to the original marriage. Hes going to go all the way back to Eden and say, This is the way it was supposed to be. God made them male and female, and for this reason a man shall leave his father and mother, be glued to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. Friends, if youre trying to have an understanding of what divorce is, you first have to understand how sacred marriage is. If you dont understand how sacred marriage is, you can become very flippant in divorce, very casual in divorce; and we see that prevalent in our society today. We see those schools of thought begin to creep even into the church. There are different schools of thought. There are those who think no divorce whatsoever. There are some Christians who think no divorce under any circumstances; you cannot get a divorce under any circumstances. They say that because in Mark 10 and in Luke 16, Jesus does not give the exception of adultery that Hes going to give here in Matthew 19 or in Matthew 5. Hes not going to do that, so they say, therefore, no grounds for divorce at any time. Other Christians say only adultery. That's the only exception, and that has two schools of thought well talk about later. There is a third group that says there are two reasons: theres adultery, and theres desertion. They cite 1 Corinthians 7, which says if you were married to an unbeliever, dont divorce them because of an unbeliever, but if they leave, they leave and youre not bound. Youre free. You can marry again, and divorce is okay. So they think that desertion is a second reason. Then theres a fourth school of thought which seems to be very prevalent and that is anything goes. Thats Team Hillel. You dont feel like you love them anymore. Thats good enough. Youre not getting along anymore. You dont see eye to eye anymore. The passion is not there. Well, thats good enough. I dont love you anymore. Listen, what God says about love is very different than what we say about love. When he says, I dont love you anymore, or she says, I dont love you anymore, it means I dont feel passionate toward you. I dont feel sexual feelings toward you. I dont feel intimacy toward you. The Bible says the word love is much more than that. Its the word agape. Its the God kind-of-love that were to love our spouses with. Its not based upon our emotions, but its based upon our will. It is a decision we make whether our emotions line up with it or not that I am going to seek your highest and best as my spouse. Over the passing of time if emotions wane, Im still going to seek your highest and best. What happens when we do things the right way, when we love our husbands and wives with an agape love, we find emotions begin to conform to our actions rather than letting our actions dictate what we do or dont do. We let Gods Word dictate to us. See, you always go back to the original. You dont look to society. You dont look to culture. You dont look to the popular authors of the talking heads on TV to tell you, What does marriage look like? You go to the source of marriage. You go to the first one and say, What did that look like? What was that intended to be? A man and a woman for life. A man and a woman for life-you go to the original. If youre cutting something, always cut by the original. You measure and cut the original, and then every subsequent copy, you go back to the original because otherwise youll be off. If youre trying to base your measurements and cutting on that sixth piece that you cut off, its going to be wrong. Go back to the original. You want to see what the church of the Lord Jesus is supposed to look like? Read Acts 2. Read the first church and how they treated one another and how they lived and responded. You go to the original. The same is true with our words. How many of you have had words distorted because somebody has taken something out of context or its repeated? Second, third, fourth, sixth person, and finally that sixth person comes back to you. Theyll obey what the Bible says, and theyll go right to the source and say, Did you say this or did you do that? Youre like, What? No! Anybody [out there that] that happened to? Let me see your hands. It gets so distorted and perverted that by the time it gets back to you, its like, That was not my intent. That was not the context. Thats not what I said. Heres the truth, so you go back to the source. So Jesus takes them back to the source, and heres what it is: God designed marriage. God created marriage. Its a covenant that He established. Its one man, its one woman, and its for a lifetime. Therefore, God permits divorce-were going to read about that, but divorce is not in His perfect will-if anything falls short of Gods perfect ideal, its called sin. Now that does not mean if you seek a divorce on Biblical grounds, youve committed sin. What Im saying is that divorce is from the will of man, not the will of God because Jesus is very clear of what the will of God is. Sin means to fall short. Its an archery term; thats where it came from. Hamartia-you shoot an arrow, and if you miss the target, youve committed sin. Youve committed Hamartia. Youve fallen short of your goal. Youve not hit the bulls-eye. Youve missed. So heres Gods ideal, and anything less than Gods ideal is sin. It misses the mark. Some of you say, Well, boy. I didnt know about this, and Ive divorced, and I really didnt have Biblical grounds. Well talk about that. Ive got some good news for you too as well. Divorce is not the unpardonable sin. God offers grace, forgiveness, and restoration to you. We think about the woman at the well who in John 4 had been married five times and was living with a man that was not her husband. What did Jesus offer for her? Condemnation or restoration? He gave her a new start. God can forgive you and give you a new start. We always go back to the original, and that is what we form our opinion on-not upon what is popular in culture of society because society and culture at that point had deteriorated, so that it was nothing like what God had intended it to be-nothing like that. So they ask a follow-up question of Jesus. Theyre a little bit confused. It says, Why then did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away. Theyre making it sound like Moses commanded divorce. Moses never commanded divorce. Moses permitted divorce. Jesus replied, Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard, but it is not the way it was from the beginning. Its not the way God intended it to be, and its not the way that it should be. Gods intention and plan have not changed. So He talks about the ideal first. Next Hes going to talk about the real, but lets take a look. What does He mean when they say, Well Moses said certificate of divorce… Lets look on the screen to Deuteronomy 24:1. This is from Deuteronomy 24 (page 194), and this is the passage that these men were referring to. It says, If a man marries a woman who becomes displeasing to him because he finds something indecent about her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house… That's it. That's how easy it was to get a divorce. There was no judge. There were no lawyers. There wasnt tons of paperwork, dividing of assets. You would write a letter called a Writ of Divorce. Two witnesses would sign off on that letter, youd give it to your wife, and youd say, Were done. Youre free to marry somebody else. Heres this loophole, this big black hole if you found something indecent with your wife. What does that mean? What does indecent mean? Shammai said indecent means only if there is sexual sin, and Hillel said anything-anything, any reason. Shes just no longer acceptable to you. Sadly, thats pervaded into the church-that we think we can just-whatever the grounds, we can divorce. Ill never forget when I was a pastor in Rockford, an assistant pastor, it was a Wednesday night and we were preparing our talk. A couple came to me and they said, We have to talk to you because were going to get a divorce. I said, Well, its Wednesday night. Weve got church. Were really busy. Can I see you tomorrow? No, we have to talk to you now. If we dont talk to a pastor now, our marriage is over with. It was like, Really? I dont want to be responsible for your marriage ending, so if its that much of an emergency, come on in. So the couple came in and sat down. Id never seen them before. I said, Okay, well whats going on? Whats the big, big emergency here? She said, Well this is my second marriage. I have a son through my first marriage. I said, Okay. She said, He disciplines him when he comes over to the house, and I dont like it. He said, Well, if hes in my house, then Ive got a right to discipline him. She said, No, you dont. Hes my son, not yours. She said, He sits at the table and he chews his food, and he yells at him for chewing his food too loud! He said, He does chew his food too loud, and he does it on purpose to irritate me! He doesnt do it on purpose! He has to. He has an overbite. No he doesnt! He just does it to make me mad! No… Im like, Wait, wait, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! Time out! Time out! Time out! Lets not deal with that right now. Lets deal with the real issues. Why are you here today? What has causing your marriage to end? Guess what I found out? It never got any deeper than that. That was the reason that they had to see me that day. That was the reason their marriage would end if they didnt talk to a pastor. I was thinking, Youve got to be kidding me! You have got to be kidding me! I just remember giving them a lecture about where Jesus sets the bar, and He sets it high. Theyre like, Wow! I dont know what happened to them. I never seen them before. I have no idea how that story ended, but probably-I dont know. I dont know what to say, but I reminded them of the covenant of marriage, where God has set the bar, and what marriage is. I mean listen to the response of the Disciples in Verse 10, not the Pharisees, but the Disciples. After Jesus says this about marriage, the Disciples got all choked up. Then they said, If this is the situation between a husband and a wife, it is better not to marry. Wow! If this is the level of commitment you have to have, its probably better not to get married, isnt it? Wow! You really have to be serious because in their society, marriage had become disposable, just like in ours. Sadly just like sometimes in the church. Now Jesus gives an exception here. He does not give this in Luke; He does not give this in Mark, but He does talk about this twice in the Book of Matthew. He says in Verse 9 (back to Matthew 19, page 975), I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery. Hes saying because of your sin, God will allow this. God will permit this in this situation when vows are broken. Two schools of thought: there are some who say this is only adultery. If youre married and you have a relationship, a sexual relationship, with somebody else other than your husband or wife, thats the only grounds for divorce. Theres another school of thought which believes that it is sexual immorality-which is a much broader term than just adultery. Notice that there are two words in this passage. One says marital unfaithfulness, and one says, adultery. Those are not the same words, and theyre not synonymous in their meaning. The first two words here come from one word. Where it says marital unfaithfulness, it comes from one word in the Greek, which is the word porne (pronounced por-ne-a). We get the word pornography from it. It means sexual immorality. Sexual immorality. So it is a broader term. If Jesus wanted to say adultery, then He would have used the word adultery here, but He does not do that. He doesnt say, But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife except for adultery in marriage and marries another woman commits adultery. He uses an entirely different word. If theres a situation where a spouse is having an affair with somebody of the same sex, that is porne. If theres a situation that there is incestuous behavior on behalf of a parent, that is porne. That is sexual immorality. There are others we could talk about where there has been an indecent sexual act that has violated that marriage covenant. There are many who believe that that as well is grounds for divorce. Whatever the situation, I strongly believe that our first option is not to run to a lawyer or to a judge, but our first option should be that of reconciliation-especially as believers, our goal should be to save the marriage when possible, when it is right to do so. There are some situations. There was a situation in the media. This is not gossip. It was all over the news of a governor who had an affair. The affair was discovered, and he went in and had an awkward press conference. His wife chose not to stand by her man at the press conference, but she did decide to try to reconcile the relationship; but he would not end his relationship with this woman from another country. He still wanted to see her. That was his soul mate. Well, what is she supposed to do then? At that point, she had to seek a divorce because he was continuing to be unfaithful to his vows and unfaithful to her. In that situation, according to what I understand from Matthew 19 and Matthew 5, Jesus says God permits it in that situation. We believe that reconciliation is the first goal, but reconciliation is hard work. There are a lot of people that will whisper in your ear when youre going through marital difficulties, Just divorce him. Just divorce her. Take the easy way out, but it is impossible to rip apart one flesh without there being suffering, without there being heartache. So God says the first desire is to be reconciled with our mate, and that takes hard work. It takes owning our sin, owning our part of the relationship or the things that we have done wrong, the things that we have said that are wrong, the things that we should have done that we didnt do. It requires forgiveness to the person who has been wronged. Usually thats mutual of forgiving one another of the harms and the wrongs theyve done. It requires communication. It requires changing patterns of behavior and patterns of speech. It is hard work, but if we will commit to God and to one another, marriages can be reconciled; and you can find that that union is stronger than it was before if couples will commit to that end. Our production team has put together a media. Im very proud of them. I think its one of the best things theyve ever done. It is put to a song called, While Im waiting, which gives us a word picture of what Ive talked about. I want us to listen now to that song. (Lyrics can be found at: http://www.lyricsmania.com/while_im_waiting_lyrics_john_waller.html).
Were going to get into Ephesians, and were going to be talking about husbands today, so I know wives have been spending the week sharpening your elbows. Hopefully husbands, you purchased elbow pads and made your wife put them on today. Ill try to be as gentle as possible with you guys, but I do want to address some things that Ive heard in the news. I think it was kicked off most prominently through the words of Pat Robertson. And I understand that his ministry has done some good things in Haiti and in the aftermath. I appreciate that very much, but theres been a lot of talk in Christian circles about whats going on in Haiti as being a judgment from God because of a voodoo ritual that took place that they made a pact with the devil. Although if folklore is correct, it was a voodoo god. [People are saying] that this has come upon them because of that curse. You know what? I think we are on very dangerous ground when we start connecting the dots and saying, Well, this judgment happened because of this. God did this because of that. Thats very dangerous ground to be on. We can connect certain dots in the Bible in history because the Bible talks about this happened because of that, but we cant do that here; and we cant do that with future events. So unless youre a Prophet on par with Elijah or Jeremiah or something, its best not to even go there. Jesus was addressing some followers about this very question-about why evil and suffering take place. Is it because of Gods judgment over mans sin? Is that why these things take place? In the Gospel of Luke 13:1 (page 1032 of pew Bibles), it says, Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. What probably had happened here was Pilot, who was the governor and a Roman official, had maybe tried to stomp out some insurrectionist; and it killed those who were rebelling against the authority of Rome near the temple grounds or on the temple grounds. It caused that holy place to be a place of bloodshed. So theyre talking to Jesus about this, Well, how could this happen? Theyre either coming from the point of why do bad things happen to good people? or How could Pilot do something like this? They want some answers. They want Him to get philosophical with them and explain to them why this happened to these people, and Jesus refused to go there. He says, Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? Because they suffered… Does that mean they were bad people? What do you think? Theres a pause there as they probably debate this and maybe go back and forth and share their opinions. Then Jesus gives the answer, and He says, I tell you, no! No. They were not worse people. God wasnt punishing them here because of their sin. He says, But unless you repent, you too will all perish. Now the word perish here-He doesnt mean simply die. Everybodys going to die, right? Hes not talking about death. This word means to destroy. Hes talking about eternal death. Hes saying, Listen, youre a sinner too. We like to think, Oh, this couldnt happen to me; but we live in a very fragile world. We live in a world where we just dont know whats going to happen. Sometimes good people suffer as well as evil people. He says the main thing you need to do is you need to make sure youre right with God. Then He goes on, and He tells them another story. He says, Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them-do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? In other words, it was some sort of a wrong place, wrong time event. A tower fell; innocent people died because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time just like in the quake. If you were in the wrong place at the wrong time, theres a good chance you perished in that quake in Haiti. Jesus is saying, Did these people die from this freak accident because of their sin? Did God cause this tower to fall on them because of judgment? Im sure there were people speculating about that at that time. They were probably sending emails to each other back and forth, What do you think? Is this Gods judgment here with the tower of Siloam? Jesus says, No, that's not the reason the tower fell on them. He says, But you know what? Youre sinners too. You need to make sure youre right with God. These kinds of events tell us about the fragileness of life and the uncertainty of life-that we need to always live in a right relationship with God. Ive heard stories of people being pulled through the rubble in Haiti, and what Ive heard is tremendous stories of faith. Ive heard all kinds of people say, Jesus sustained me. Jesus helped me. There are some Godly people in Haiti; some of the most Godly people I have ever met in my life are the Haitians. We ministered to them last year and the two years before that. They are some of the most Godly people you will ever want to meet on the face of the earth, the Haitians. I understand voodoo is a bad thing. I mean if were going to say that God has brought this judgment on Haiti because of these voodoo practices, then He could open up our earth and swallow us in America tomorrow because weve done some pretty bad things too. Im just sharing that with you, that I think its a dangerous thing to start connecting dots and going, Well, God did this to these people because of that. If that were true, would our response be any different? Would we still not be compelled to reach out with the love of Christ and minister and help those who are hurting and dying? Children were trapped under rubble-orphanages, hospitals, for goodness sakes-people who God loves, and we are compelled to reach out and minister to them. So every time these natural disasters occur or these inhumane acts to man, I always hear these this is that. This is that [comments]. It just makes my blood boil, and I just wanted to share that with you this morning. So thats a free sermon and no extra offerings. Right now, were going to direct our attention to Ephesians; but before we do that, we are going to show a little clip. One of my favorite movies is Rocky. I really liked [Rocky] I and II. I thought those were well done. I thought they taught good values, courage and faith, loyalty, perseverance; so [Rocky] I and II, I thought were excellent. The next 12, not so much; but then when he came around with that last one, Rock Balboa, and he wrapped things up, that was a really good movie. If youve not seen the last installment, that was excellent. When we think of a mans man and how Hollywood portrays a mans man-rugged, tough, spitting nails… From what I see in that film, Rocky was a good husband. He did a lot of the things were going to be talking about today. He was a tender and compassionate man. This clip isnt long, but lets watch this short clip from Rocky Balboa as he says good-bye to his wife Adrian, his faithful companion in life. If you were a woman growing up in a Hellenistic Greek culture, you were a wife, you were the property of the man. He could write a letter and dismiss you if he grew tired of you. He didnt even need to have any grounds for his divorce other than he was tired of you. It was understood in that culture that he was going to have concubines for his pleasure. It was also understood that he may engage in relations with the temple prophetesses and the worship of Artemis. That was simply an acceptable part of the Greek culture. So your job was to kind of stay behind the scenes, run the household and take care of things. You tried your best to please him, and you lived in a little bit of fear and trepidation because at any time, you could be dismissed. Divorce and remarriage were rampant. It was not uncommon to have wives in the double digits. So into this society and into this culture, it is difficult to conceive. Paul talks about the wife, and he elevates her place in the home to a height and a level that was not seen before. He says in Verse 25 (of Ephesians 5, page 1159 of pew Bibles), Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her… Were going to be talking about these three manifestations of love in which Christ loved the church. Talk about raising the bar high. Paul takes a bar that was down here, and he raises it to a height that no man can attain. There is no man here that can attain the standard to which Paul has just raised. Christ loves the church with a perfect and complete love that we will not measure up to. I mean itd be like the board telling me, Hey, listen. Unless you preach like Billy Graham every Sunday, were going to have to let you go. Id say, Let me go now, then, because I cant do that. Somebody tries to hold you to an unattainable standard. Your son or daughter is going off to college to study business and start a business, and you say, Listen, unless you make as much money and are as successful in business as Bill Gates, Ill disown you. Hey, disown me now because that's probably not going to happen. I mean thats a really high standard! And so, Paul says, You must love your wives as Christ loved the church. I realize today now that not everybody here is a husband. Some of you are husbands; some of you will be husbands; some of you were husbands; some of you will be husbands again; some of you maybe not for many years, but I want to talk with you this morning about our responsibility as husbands. I stand before you today, no paragon of what a husband is. I certainly have not been a perfect husband. You may feel free to talk to my wife and ask her how I score out on all the things I may be talking about today. Shes right here in the front row. You can talk to her. Shell be happy to answer those questions. Thats fine; thats a fair game, but Im just telling you right now, Im not a perfect husband. I fall short, and we all do; but that does not mean that we dont strive. That does not mean that we dont seek to attain the standard which God has established for us. So number one is Christ loved the church. Christ loves us with the sacrificial love. Christ loves us with a sold-out love. He loves us to the point where He gave His life for the church. The highest priority on Gods list is our souls, our spiritual well-being; so Christs number one mission when He came to this earth was to make payment for sin, was to bring us back into a right standing with God. In the Book of Hebrews 12:2 (page 1193), the topic is on perseverance. The topic is on faith, not giving up and running the race, finishing strong. Some have other theories about who wrote Hebrews [besides Paul], but the author is going to be saying look, heres our standard. Lets keep our eyes on Jesus… Verse 2, …the author and perfecter of our faith who for the joy set before Him endured the cross. For the joy set before Him… What kind of joy is he speaking about here? Is it the joy of Heaven? Is He looking forward to Heaven when the suffering of the cross will be over, and Hell be in eternity? Is that what hes speaking of? I believe the joy that is set before Jesus is redemption of His people. I believe thats why Jesus endures the cross, not just the physical suffering of the cross, but the spiritual suffering-the weight of sin that was placed upon Him-our sin-was put up on Christ on the cross. Jesus bore that sin and suffered in a way that you and I can never begin to understand. When He dies, He says, It is finished. The debt has been paid-tetelestai. The debt has been paid. That was what was on His mind. That was what was on His heart-to bring back and restore that which had been lost in the fall. His highest priority was to restore us to our fellowship with God, that we could come into the presence of God, know grace, know forgiveness and know eternal life. Husbands, the highest priorities you have is to look after the spiritual needs of your wife, to make sure that she is growing in God, to help her as she serves God. Ive now been a pastor-this May-it will be 28 years in full-time ministry. Then if you talk about full-time preparation, it was many years before that; so Ive been at this a long time, and I learned very early on. I had a friend whose wife had written him a letter, and she talked to him about the imbalance of his life because he was never home. He was gone seven nights a week. She wrote about her frustration, her anger and her hurt. He kept that in his Bible, and he showed it to me really early on. I came home, and I said, Honey, if I ever do that to you, would you please let me know because my first obligation of ministry is to her. Thats my first obligation of ministry. I have other responsibilities, but none greater than to my wife; and so thats priority number one, gentlemen-ministering to our wives spiritually. Now theres another priority that he speaks about in the Book of Ephesians 5. He says, …to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the Word, and to present her to Himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. This word holy is very important. Some of your Bibles might say to sanctify. Christ loves us secondly with a sanctifying love or a set-apart love. To sanctify something means to set apart for a sacred purpose. It comes from the root word hagios, which means different. The word holy means different. The Bible is a holy Bible because it is different than any other book. Its divinely-inspired. In this Book, we read the name of a king who is going to bring revival to the people of Israel. Hundreds of years before He is born, Josiah is called by name. In this Book, we read of a king who is going to speak the word for Israel to go back and begin to reassemble and rebuild the temple and begin to worship again in the Israel. His name is Cyrus, and hundreds of years before he is born, the Prophet Isaiah names him by name. We read about a King who will be born in Bethlehem whose days are from the days of eternity, about the life He will live, the death He will die, the sacrifice He will make, and His resurrection hundreds of years before He fulfills them in the person of Christ. The Bible is a supernatural Book, and so therefore it is holy and special. Jesus exalts the church. Jesus says to the church, You are special. Ive given my life for you. Ive redeemed you. And, husbands, we have a responsibility to love our wives with a sanctifying and a set-apart love. In the Book of Genesis 2, if youll turn there please, there is a passage, a Scripture, where God brings Eve to Adam. When I was preparing for ministry, one of my favorite professors was Dr. Linton. Dr. Linton was a Hebrew scholar, and he could read Hebrew from the text, from the Torah, like you and I could pick up and read a magazine. He understood nuances of words. It was just a fascinating class. To this day, he is my favorite professor at any level-grade school-junior high, high school, college, graduate school; he is my favorite professor. He would just teach us so much. He talked one day about what was going on here. Adam was looking for a helpmate, and there was no helpmate to be found; yet God made him for companionship. Here in the Garden, it says no helpmate was to be found; so God causes him to sleep, removes the rib, and He fashions a woman and brings her to the man. Adam sees her, and for a moment they look at one another. He looks at this person who is like him but very different from him at the same time. He likes what he sees. He says, This is bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. She shall be called ishshah because she was taken out of ish. That's how you say that in Hebrew. He says, this is. He doesnt say it like this. He doesnt go (in a monotone voice), This is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman… This is one lonely guy, and he has seen all this life, but theres no helpmate for him. Hes feeling very alone, and God creates this perfect mate. He sees her, his eyes get big, and his eyebrows go up. He smiles and Professor Linton said it doesnt really translate into our English Bible. He says, The closest word we can find that I can think of to tell you, class, is Adam says, Eureka! Whoa, God, You did fantastic! This is the one I have been looking for! Wow! Eves emotional tank is full now. I mean she just feels so esteemed and so valued as he affirms her, This is the one Ive been looking for. Can you imagine you are in an interview, and your potential employer interviews you and says, Youre the one this company needs! You are the one we have to have! Man, I have interviewed a lot of applicants, and I cant find anybody who compares to you. You are the person that we need, that this company needs! Youre hired! Your emotional tank is full when you leave that office. Youre like, Wow! If somebody builds into your life and tells you how much worth you have and sets you apart as something special or someone special. That is affirmation, isnt it? Any other collectors out here? I collect stuff. Anybody else collect stuff? Maybe you have something valuable. Dont worry-were not going to rob you. Its okay. You collect stuff, and maybe you have some stuff thats really rare. Maybe its in plastic or in glass or framed, or maybe its in a safe or maybe even a safety deposit box where you show people because it has value. Its rare and people want it. Maybe it has value because of who gave it to you and the significance of it. Its an heirloom. Maybe someone very special made you something, and so for that reason, Wow! This is really something. You treasure it, and you tell people about it. Its set apart; its unique; its of great value. Paul says, Husbands, we are to value our wives in this way. They are to be set apart. They are to know that they are unique, to know that they are special, and you are to affirm them. Jesus affirms the church. He told us how special we are, how much He loves us. Husbands, affirm your wives. Tell her how special she is; tell her how much you love her; tell her how wonderful she is; how thankful you are to her; fill her emotional tank. Let her know that she is unique in your life. Now theres a third attribute that is discussed in Ephesians 5. It says, In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it… Some of your translations might read nourishes or cherishes it. …just as Christ does the church-for we are members of His body. Now Paul talks about something very physical. He talks about, Guys, love your wives as you care for yourself. We care of our bodies. We keep our bodies clean. You may exercise; you may try to eat healthy; you groom; you comb your hair and cut your hair. You brush your teeth and all of that. If you have a wound, you minister to it physically. You put a band-aid on it or a brace on it, whatever it is. If youre sick, you take care of yourself. You take medicine. If youre cold, you put on a coat or a sweater or something. You take care of your body. Youre gentle with your body, and you take care of it. This is talking here about physical love. Isnt it amazing that God here is talking in this passage about the kinds of love that we are to have for our wives, and He talks about the spiritual; He talks about the emotional; and He talks about the physical-to love our wives in all three of those dimensions. Now Brenda had a procedure done recently. It was where they had to put the scope down and explore the esophagus and the stomach. It was a precautionary thing. Everythings okay, and I ask you not to ask Brenda about it; so dont go up to her and go, What was wrong? Its okay. She had a procedure. It was precautionary; its fine, and that's all anybody needs to know, so she went to the hospital and she had this done. Now I had to go with because they give you this drug that gives you this little bit of amnesia, so youre not going to remember what the doctor said afterwards. I have to be there to listen to the doctor and to drive her home because shes going to be drowsy, possibly a little bit nauseous; so she goes through this procedure, and she comes out. Shes kind of groggy, and I say, Everythings okay. She goes, Its all done? Its all done. Oh, good. She closes her eyes. They roll her in the corner and let her kind of slowly wake up. About 20 minutes or so later, the machine beeps. Beep. On cue, she opens her eyes, Is it done? Its done. Am I okay? Youre fine. Oh, good. She closes her eyes. About a half hour later, beep. She opens her eyes, Am I okay? Yeah. Is it all done? Its all done. They find anything? They didnt find anything. Go back to sleep. Okay. All right, good. Its time to wake up. The nurse is there. Lets go home. Oh, is it all done? Yeah. This conversation was going on, you know. Shes sleeping in the car. Finally I said Im going to have a little fun with this, like that movie 50 First Dates. So she would go, So, are we done with it already? Are we going home now? Yeah. Whatd they find out? Youve got no stomach! I dont have a stomach? No. They couldnt find it. They were down there exploring it. Theres no stomach. He doesnt know how you even eat. Youre going to lose a lot of weight now because they just sealed up your esophagus. You dont need to eat anymore because you dont have a stomach. That doesnt seem right. Zzzzzz. I had some more fun with that too, just that dark humor coming out in me. I had to take care of her. Shes coming home, and Im ministering to her. Now Im giving her ice water and ice chips and making sure shes covered. She has her bucket there if she needs it. Im checking on her and giving her her medicine. For about 24 hours, Im having to provide TLC here and minister to her. Hes talking here about ministering physically. …as you take care of your bodies, love your wives. Hes talking about the importance of touch and affirmation. I say to my wife, When do you most feel loved? She says, I like it when you put your arm around me. If Im putting my arm around her at church, at a movie, or wherever, she likes that. Affirming touch. Stroking your wifes back, rubbing her neck, kissing her cheek, giving her a hug, minister to her physical needs-thats important. That helps her to feel loved. So Paul is dealing with the totality of man. Hes saying, Minister to her physically, spiritually, emotionally. Minister to your wife. Love your wife as Christ loved the church. Now a couple practical things to help you with doing this: If youre really brave, ask your wife, How am I measuring up? How am I doing in these areas? Youre going to find out, wives, if your husbands are chicken or not. Then wives, you need to say how hes doing in each of these areas. Ive tried to explain it in such a way that you can remember it when you go home, so talk about it. Heres when I feel loved. Heres when I dont feel loved. Heres… Talk about how you can improve as a husband. Secondly, once youve done your homework, find a buddy. Find a friend and say, Hey, listen. We were talking at church about being better husbands, and as head of my household, I want to love my wife as Christ loved the church; so heres where Im falling short. Can you hold me accountable in this? Youre giving that brother permission to talk to you and ask you questions about your marriage and how youre doing in a certain area; so thats your homework for the message today. That's what I want you to work on. Now next week, were going to stay on this topic. As you can see in the passage, it talks about oneness, so were going to finish out Chapter 5 in talking about oneness, the oneness of marriage and what that means. Before we take care of other church business and what not, lets bow for prayer: Father, I pray that our husbands would be the heads that Youve called them to be, that they would love their wives as Christ loved the church. We thank You for setting the bar high, that our comparison is not with another individual. Our comparison is none other than to the perfect love of Christ for His church. We have been sold a line of goods that a mans man spits out nails, is tough and never cries. Hes kind of hard and cold, and thats not the case. A man is a man who is loving. He takes care of his family. He ministers to his wife. Lord, I pray that You would help us to seek to live up to that standard. I pray that where there is correction that needs to be done in marriages, that by Your grace and through Your Spirit, Youd bring that correction this week and we would partner together as husbands and wives to work on our marriages, to help them to be accurate reflections of Christ in His church. In Jesus name, we pray. Amen.
Well, were going through the Book of Ephesians together, chapter by chapter, verse by verse; and then Christmas came, so we had to take a bit of a hiatus. Then New Years and then our anniversary, so its been awhile since we have been in this passage; but now were back to Ephesians. Were going to pick up where we left off, and were going to be dealing with a couple controversial topics this weekend and in the Sundays to come. Lets begin reading with Verse 21. Remember that these verses and that gap there in your church Bibles where it says husbands and wives, thats not in the original text. Thats provided by our editor, so Verse 21 is very important even though weve already talked about it. Its very important to our understanding of the text because its the key verse. If this were an outline, that would be the key point; and then hes going to give us examples of submission following the rest of the chapter and into Chapter 6, hes going to give us sub-points that are saying, Heres what I mean when I say, Submit one to another. Here are some examples. So lets read together the passage at Ephesians 5:21-24 (page 1159 of pew Bibles): Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. Now this word, the verb submit, in Verse 22 is inferred or its implicit from Verse 21. Its not actually in the Greek. In the Greek, it simply says wives to your husbands as to the Lord, of course being implied from Verse 21. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, His body, for which He is the Savior. Now [we have] the verse that many husbands deem the most important, valuable verse in all of Scripture-their life verse on their refrigerators, Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. Thank you for coming. God bless you! [Congregation laughing.] This is the one Ive been trying to avoid now. The Lord didnt come back, and we have to keep going. I thought maybe I could go to Chapter 6, and you guys would forget that we didnt cover the rest of Chapter 5, but all right-here we go. Well, first of all when I read that, for some of you, it might ruffle your feathers a little bit. What do you mean submit to my husband in everything!?! You dont know my husband! and you get all riled up. It kind of reminds me of the story of the woman whose husband was very ill. He ran through some tests, and the doctor reached the conclusion. They called his wife into the doctors office and said, You know, hes not going to remember a whole lot of this, so while hes a little sleepy, we need to tell you whats happened. Your husband has a rare form of anemia, and its fatal if he doesnt get the iron that he needs. So what I need from you… Now [by doing this] we can save his life. Its not too late, but I need you to make him a hearty breakfast every morning: bacon, eggs and sausage. I need you to make him a good lunch and a good dinner-meat and potatoes-and just really feed him good. I need that every day-three squares, and I need you to keep the house spotless because his immune system is very week; and if the house isnt clean, he could catch a germ or something and die. If youll do this, if youll cook these meals and youll clean the house immaculately, your husband will live. If you do not do these things, your husband will die. Should I break the news to your husband? No, no. Ill do it. Ill take care of it. So she walks out there solemn. He looks at her and hes like, What is it, honey? Whats wrong? Am I going to be okay? She looks at him and tears well up in her eyes, and she says, He said youre going to die. [Congregation laughing.] [That is] just a really dark, dark joke. I just have to laugh at that one for a while because that one is kind of funny. I want to give you-my goal is to give you-better understanding of this passage and talk about some of the problems in this passage, some of the debate in the interpretation of this passage and really complete it next week when we talk about the husbands; so this morning were focusing on the wives. This word submit is important in active submission-wives, submit to your husband as to the Lord. Hes saying youre submitting first to the Lord. Right away, there is a feeling by some, This means somehow that the husbands more important, and the wife is inferior; theres this lack of equality in the marriage bond. Thats of course not what we want. Well, thats not what the Scripture is teaching. Its not teaching at all about a superiority/inferiority in this passage. In fact, this word submit we see again. In fact, we talked about it a couple weeks ago in our anniversary service. Turn to Luke 2; remember the story of when Jesus was at the Temple and He was 12 years old? His mother and Joseph find him, and He says, I must be in My Fathers house. It says after that in Luke 2:51 (page 1016 of pew Bibles), Then He… [Meaning Jesus.] …went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. He was obedient to Mary and Joseph. This word obedient is the exact same word that we find here in Ephesians translated as submit. So would you say that Jesus was inferior to Mary and Joseph? Would you say Jesus was not as important as Mary and Joseph? No. Jesus understood that His role now as a child in this home was to submit to His mother and father, so thats what the word means. It means a voluntary submission. In fact, Paul is an advocate of equality. Paul understands the equality of men and women. He was the one who said in Galatians 3:28, …neither…male nor female, but we are one in Christ. Remember when He said that: …neither…male nor female, but we are one in Christ. We are co-equal in Christ? But understand hes not talking here about the genders beyond the marital relationship. He is talking within the confines of marriage. He says that the woman is to voluntarily submit to the husband. We must make a clear statement here, something thats also inferred in this text because he has told us to first submit to God that the husbands that He is asking the wives to submit to have first and foremost submitted themselves to God. Thats very important. This whole notion that youre the Lord of the home and your wives are subservient to you is not a Biblical concept. This is a husband who has first submitted to God. I cant stress that enough. There are examples in Scripture of wives who submitted to their husbands who werent submitted to God, and that didnt go so well. Ananias and Sapphira stand out as a prominent story in Acts 5. The church is selling off-people are selling off-land and homes and giving the money to the poor in the church. Ananias wants to be a hero, and he sells land, which is a good thing; and then he gives the money to the church, which is a good thing; but he gives the money to the church saying that he has given all when in fact hes only given some. That's not a good thing. I mean it would have been his prerogative to sell and say, Well, okay. Im going to give a tithe to the church or Im going to give half to the church. Theres nothing wrong with that; but to sell and give a portion to the church and portray it as all of it, thats another story. Thats what he did. He devised a plan and he went to his wife and said, Heres what Im going to do. Im going to sell all the land, but Im not going to give it all. Im just going to give a portion, but I want you to say if they ask us, Yes, that's all of it. So he asked his wife to submit to that plan, and she did. If you read the story in the Book of Acts, it doesnt go well. Peter has discernment through the Holy Spirit, and he says, Is this all of it, Ananias? Ananias says, It is. Peter says, Why has Satan filled your heart to lie? You have not lied to men but to God. Ananias gets all worked up, and he has a heart attack and dies. Sapphira comes in, and she is submissive to her husband all right, but shes not submissive to God. She goes along with his story, and Peter says, The feed of the men who carried your husband out are at the door, and theyre going to carry you out as well, and she drops too. The Bible says that great fear seized the church. From time to time, there will be women-quite often-who will come to me. Ill say, Edna, whereve you been? We havent seen you for a long time. I picked that name because we dont have any Ednas as far as I know. I heard youre not coming to Bible study. We dont see you at church. Well, my husband says I cant come to church anymore. He doesnt want me to come to Bible study. He doesnt want me to come to church. I would tithe but my husband wont let me tithe on my paycheck, and all of this other stuff. You know, you say, Listen. The most important covenant you have is your covenant with God. The most important submission in your life is to be submitted to God. If your husbands asking you to do something that is contrary to what God has clearly desired of you, then your first obligation is to obey God. So we want to understand that Paul is speaking here of husbands who have submitted to Christ. This is a man who is loving and serving the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife… Now this is where it gets a little interesting. The husband is the head of the wife… This is the Greek word kephale. Normally this word means head. So say they cut of John the Baptists kephale. They cut off his head. Thats normally what it means, but when its used as a metaphor, it means pretty much what we would associate it with. Youd say, Well, hes the head of that organization. Shes the head of that company, so thats what the word head mean. Now the big debate-and it is a debate-is this: does the word head mean authority, or does the word head mean source? Thats a whole different rendering and meaning. Im going to introduce to you a couple big words here that you may or may not have heard before, and you may or may not remember after youve heard them. The first school of thought-these are two dominant schools of thought-one is called the egalitarian position. The egalitarian position is very prevalent in society today, and its very prevalent in all spectrums of the church. The egalitarians believe that basically men and women are interchangeable. We have differences in our genitalia, but thats it. Thats the only difference. The role of the husband is the same as the role of the wife. The role of the father is the same as the role of the mother. Weve been created by God to be identical with identical roles and purposes in the home, and that is interchangeable; and that extends also to marriage. So from the egalitarian position, equality, which is something that Paul would say amen to… If you are submitting to your husband, then you are not equal; so therefore, that cannot be the rendering of head. Head must mean source. Its basically retelling the story of Creation. God created man, and woman came from man; so God used man as a source, so it doesnt mean anything other than theyre co-equals in the marriage relationship. Thats an egalitarian position. Im sure that there are some in our church who hold this position as well. Then there is a second position, and that's called the complementarian position or the traditional point of view. They too would say, Yes, men and women are created by God equally. Theyre just as valuable as one another; however they have different roles within the marriage relationship. God ordained marriage, so God defines what those roles are. So though they are equal, they have a different role in that relationship; and the husband is the head in the sense of authority. He is the leader. Now you say, Well, Pastor Jeff, which one do you think? Ive studied the Word and the nuances and so forth. Every use of the word head Ive seen in a metaphorical sense has to do with authority, both in Scripture and in other writings at the time. I also look at the text because what is it a metaphor of? Marriage is to be a metaphor of Christ and the church. With that as an understanding-as a backdrop-do I follow Christ? Does the church follow Christ? Or do we follow Christ? Which is it? Does the church take initiative or does Jesus take initiative? Jesus is our leader, and we follow Jesus. We submit to Him, so this is as Christ loves the church and serves the church, so I believe I would hold a complementarian point of view in regards to this passage. Now, Ill give you an example in my home. We work as a team-my wife and I, were a team. We make decisions together; many times as were talking, her idea is just simply better than mine. Its the way to go. We work together to make decisions, but there have been times when Ive needed to set our family in a certain direction. One that stands out was about 21 years ago. I was ministering at a church in Rockford called Faith Center, and God was really working in my heart to maybe move into the role of a senior pastor. I wont go into all the details as to how I was discerning that, but over a period of time, thats what I really felt then. Wed been to Janesville. We even owned some land in the place where its now our home that we had purchased. At that time, we were pretty much set in Rockford, and God was just working in my heart through different circumstances and through His Holy Spirit. I was really feeling the pull to Janesville, and there came a time to actually tell my wife. I remember I came home, and it was the time to give the announcement. It was time to drop the bomb. I remember she was standing in the kitchen. Her back was to me, and she was chopping up some salad or something. I remember being very concerned of the news I was about to tell her and the fact that she had a knife. I said, Honey, I have to tell you something. She stopped chopping and turned around, knife in hand, Yes? I believe that God is calling us to Janesville to start a church, and she said, Oh, no. Oh, no. You go. Im staying right here. Shes like half laughing and half serious. She said, My home is here. This is where I was born and raised. I love our home. Our jobs are here. Our daughters school is here. Our friends are here. No, you go and have fun. Im staying right here. I kind of laughed back and said, Well, listen. I really feel thats the direction that God is leading our family. So my wife, probably later that day, came to me. She really did love her home, her church and of course her family and all that, and she said, Listen, if thats where you feel that God is leading our family, Im with you. Ill go wherever you go. Wherever you go, that's home. Im on board. Im your partner in life, and Im with you. And she has been-believe you, me-shes teaching the children right now, so shes been my partner in this adventure that weve been on for the last 20 years; but thats an example to me of Biblical submission. I see that in my wife, but we understand in the eyes of God that were the same. We have the same values, but in that marriage relationship, we have roles that we play. Husbands, if you are out here and are thinking, Well, you know, Im the king of the castle, lord of my house. What I say goes. If thats what you think this passage is giving you license to do and be, I would advise you not to come to church next weekend because youre going to get a couple spiritual black eyes because Im coming at you. Thats a wrong understanding of what it means to be a servant leader in your household. You are to lead as Christ leads the church, as Christ loves the church and gives His life for the church. Its a great responsibility, so well be talking more in depth about that next week. Lets continue on in this passage. So that is the debate. What does the word head mean, kephale? So I believe the metaphor gives us the meaning of that word, head-as Christ is the head of the church, so husbands are the head of the wives. Ephesians 5:24, Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. Understand we are saying that the husband is submitting to Christ. Paul is not having mind here a husband who is telling you to do something contrary to the Will of God. Now that particular verse really causes people to get upset. It really causes people to get angry and many times to-and this is exactly the wrong way to interpret Scripture… Many times what people will do-and Im not saying everybody who holds the egalitarian position has done this-but sometimes we kind of take, put our finger in the air, and, Whats the political climate? Whats pop culture say? What do the Talking Heads say on TV? Whats the predominant philosophy in our culture? Now Im going to take that philosophy and try to make the Bible say that rather than let the Bible speak for what it really says. Thats doing the Scripture a disservice. You dont start from culture and interpret the Bible. You start with the Bible and you interpret your culture from this as your base because Truth doesnt change. Cultures change; the mores of society change. How marriage was regarded in society 100 years ago was probably a whole lot different than it is now, and its probably going to be-should the Lord allow-a whole lot different 100 years from now than it is now. We cant speak to what society will say 100 years from now; but I tell you what. Ephesians 5 wont change because Gods Truth doesnt change because God doesnt change. God is Truth, so He is immutable. He does not change, so we dont allow society to color how we feel about Gods Word. Gods Word is the standard. Ill give you an example of what I mean by that. This is the irony of the whole thing because there are people who will read that and say, Well, you know, Paul is a male chauvinist. Paul is a misogynistic. He hates women. He just has this old archaic mindset and rejects Paul because obviously hes not with it. We know society changes, right? We know that slavery has been condoned in certain societies, and we know thats wrong. Yet, society condones it. Just because society condones something does not mean thats right or acceptable in the eyes of God. So, heres Paul, and we look at him and go, Oh, look at that Paul. Boy, that guy, hes really got some twisted ideas about women and their roles. What a misogynist! What a woman-hater that guy is! Well, let me tell you something. When this was written, Paul was viewed as a radical by the old schoolers. Who does he think he is giving women and wives that much importance in the home? Want to know why? This is an example of something that was wrong because in that culture-in that Roman culture-the wife was the property of the husband. Isnt that ironic that some would look at him today and call him a woman-hater? Then when he wrote these words to the church in Ephesus, there were many who thought just the exact opposite of him. Hes a liberal! He is trying to exalt the role of the women higher than it should be. Now that was a wrong view for society to hold. Wives are not property. Theyre our partners. God, when he created man, He gave man dominion. It says, A male and female created He them, so we were created co-equal at creation. So thats not Gods view of women, but that was how women were esteemed. They were property. They were just a little bit above slaves, and thats wrong. Slaves are wrong, so societys not always right, friends; and this is a prime example of that. If you wanted to divorce your wife, all you had to do was write a letter, and she was dismissed as your wife. Thats all you had to do. There were some men who would just go through wives. As soon as theyd get tired of one, theyd just write her off. Now the woman couldnt do that with the man, but the man could do that with the woman; so marriage was not valued, and marriage was not esteemed. The wife was not esteemed. The wife was property, just a little bit above a slave in that culture. So Paul comes on the scene, and he says, Love your wives as Christ loved the church! Love your wives as you love your own body. Love and care for your wife. He values marriage, values the role of the wife in marriage and lifts her up to heights unseen prior to that. The people of that culture say, Paul is just radical. Hes lost his mind! Isnt that interesting? Why is that? Because culture and society change; mores change; how we view things changes, but God hadnt changed. The importance and worth of women and wives in the eyes of God had not changed, so Paul was simply writing down what had been true all along. That's the way God intended it to be. She is going to be your helpmate, and together you will serve Me, and He brought the woman to the man, and they became one flesh in the eyes of God. So God is the originator of marriage. He determines the role of the husband and the role of the wife, and we have a decision to make. Are we going to submit to what God has said, or are we going to submit to society? Who is our master? Who is our teacher when it comes to these kinds of things? Now next week, were going to look at the role of the husband. What does it mean to lead a household? Were going to examine the other side of the coin, which is very important for us to talk about as well to get a correct picture and understanding of this important passage. Well, thank you for listening to me today. Thank you for not throwing anything at me for those of you who would disagree with what Ive said. I teach this message unapologetically because I believe when this is being lived out, its a beautiful thing. Its something no one would object to, and a marriage is a reflection of Christ in His church. When there is mutual love and servanthood, then it is a sight to behold. I would encourage you to keep an open mind to what this text is saying and study for yourself if you differ. Study it for yourself and see how the Holy Spirit would lead you. Lets go ahead and pray, and then well receive our offering. Father, we thank You for the Truth that Youve revealed in Scripture to us. We thank You, Lord, that though society changes, cultural mores change, Your Truth does not change because You are Truth, and You are immutable; so we seek not to adjust the Truth to our viewpoint but to judge our viewpoint on the basis of the Truth and what Your Word says. Weve tried to study this passage, and I hope we will study this with an open mind and conform ourselves to what Your Word says. Father, I do pray for our marriages this morning. I do pray that for husbands and wives, we will follow the commands and the precepts laid out for us in Ephesians 5.
Pastor Jeff Williams: December 24, 2009 The Poverty of God.
Thank you to the production team for putting that media together for us and having that synchronized with the song. That was beautiful. Im always a little nervous when the overflow is used, and you can just reassure me everybody is hearing everything-thumbs up. Okay, so we want to say hi to the people that are in the overflow, so everybody say, Hi. [Hi.] We are one body, one church. I hope youll have an opportunity maybe to meet some of the folks from some of the other services and meet some of the folks at the other end of the building and say hi to them as well. We appreciate you coming out on such a blustery winter night. I was worried that many of us wouldnt be here at all because if this were snow, wed be in big trouble; but it warmed up enough so that its just a cold rain, but it was pretty miserable from the car to the building. How many of you braved and became street parkers and walked in from the street? Thank you, you folks. I appreciate that so very much and those of you at the other end that did it as well-some of you not by choice-we appreciate it just the same. Id like us to open our Bibles please to the Gospel of Luke 2 that Pastor Tim read from this evening. I just want to share some thoughts with you. I realize that we have toddlers, infants and family plans, so my sermon will not be as long as it normally might be out of respect for our families and moms and dads. We do want to remind you that if your little one acts up, there is a crying baby room just around the corner, across from the womens restroom. There is a TV where you are able to listen to and watch the service. If theyre really rambunctious, if that isnt working out, the toddler room-the first room you come to as you go down the patio. That is open as well. Im also taking it you guys will be staying there, so occasionally Ill have to see if youre awake. You never know when Im going to turn around. At any point during the sermon, Ill try to catch you napping. We see in the Christmas story a repetition of an attribute, a character trait of God-not only in the Christmas story, but over and over again in the life and even the death of our Lord. It really tells us about who God is. People talk about the birth of Jesus and what it demonstrated about what He was trying to teach by the way Christ came into the world, and I think that is true; but I think even more importantly, it tells us about His essence. It tells us about who God is. Im going to be sharing a little bit about that birth story tonight and even looking up some passages about His life and His death, and I want you to see if you can pick up on what I pick up on-pick up on the theme that beats like a steady drum throughout the course of His life, a marvelous truth that is revealed in the story of Christmas and beyond. In Luke 2, we look at the way in which Jesus came into the world. It was not an accident; it was not a coincidence. It didnt just happen this way; it was planned. The Prophet Micah, hundreds of years before Christ was born, tells us in Micah 5:2 (page 922 of pew Bibles) that from Bethlehem the King would be born, whose days are from the days of eternity. We think about Bethlehem; its an obscure place. We think about Nazareth, the town where He grew up. It was not some metropolitan city; it was not some large population base. It was a tiny little obscure town. We think about His parents, Mary and Joseph. These were not Aristocracy; these are not the elite; this was not the affluent. This was a common laborer or carpenter and his wife. They were ordinary people, and God chose ordinary people to be earthly parents of His Son. Thats not an accident. I think about the place in which Jesus was born and the circumstances in which He was born. As Pastor Tim read that story, there was no room for them in the inn. These were not VIPs. The inn keeper had no idea who was being carried in the womb of Mary that night. He came in in relative obscurity, and there was no room; but they did find a manger, a feeding troth, a place where animals could come and maybe even still were. It had barn smells; it had barn sounds. It was not a private sterile environment like a mom who is bringing a newborn into the world would want to have. It was the antithesis of that; it was unsterile. He was semi-public, and yet that is the place in which Christ was born. I think about the audience who came to witness His birth. Who was it that God sent notice to? Was it the kings? Was it the religious leaders? Who found out? The shepherds. The shepherds were lower than the common laborer. Shepherds were, in fact, regarded as unclean because they could not participate in ceremonial law. They were the lowest of the low, even though they had a very important job. God chose the shepherds to be the ones to witness the birth of His Son. That was going to be a foreshadowing of what was to come because the number one criticism rendered of Jesus by His enemies and by His opponents were that He was a friend of…tax collectors and sinners, ordinary people. He didnt hobnob with the rich; He didnt hang out with the powerful. In fact, those people usually, in His presence, felt very uncomfortable. Their hypocrisy was exposed. They didnt want to be in His presence, but to the ordinary man-He was approachable. Why do think that was? Think about how the beggars of society, the blind, the lame, and the lepers-all wanted to talk to Jesus and all felt comfortable enough to come into His presence. What about His appearance? We dont know a lot about his appearance. In fact, the only reference we have to His appearance is spoken of by the Prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 53:2 (page 731 of pew Bibles). In his prophesy, he says this about Jesus, He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him. Friends, this is not the way the man would write the script. If man were writing the script, Christ would have movie star good looks, have some sort of great physique. He would be born in wealth; he would be born in affluence and in power, and He live in a palace in some metropolitan city, but thats not the way the story played out. Obscure village, common parents… In fact, His trade would be that of a common laborer or carpenter for most of His life. Here we find that even His appearance was that of an ordinary person. Are you starting to catch on to what this is telling us about the person of God, the attribute that is so attractive? We think about His life as a friend of the ordinary man. We think about the fact in Matthew 8, when those who are wanting to follow Him and be a part of His ministry, be one of His Disciples, what does He say to them in Verse 20 (page 962 of pew Bibles)? ‘Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head. So Im going to be telling you the truth if youre going to follow Me. Jesus was not a prosperity preacher. He didnt have His own private jet. He didnt tour with an entourage of body guards in rich suits and shoes. He says, If youre going to follow Me, you need to realize that we dont know where we will sleep tonight. Jesus lived as simple of a life as you can imagine. We also reflect upon His death. Lets turn to the Book of Philippians 2 (page 1162). We see the Apostle Paul inviting us to consider Jesus. It says in Verse 5, Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death-even death on a cross! The cross was the most humiliating, shameful death that one could experience, and yet that was the death that was chosen by the Father as He became the sacrifice to bear the sin of the world. What does that teach us? The circumstances of His birth, the way He conducted His life, the way He died teaches something very wonderful about God and very astonishing. That is the person in the world who deserves the most worship, the person in the world who is the most important person-the most powerful person-is the humblest. Isnt that astonishing? The person who is the only one who deserves our worship and praise is the humblest human being who ever walked the planet. You see it was that humility that made Christ approachable. What is it like when you encounter an arrogant, prideful person? What does that do? Does that not repel you? If somebody really is condescending and arrogant, you really say, I dont want to be around that person. Why? Because theyre arrogant; theyre condescending; theyre proud. They really think theyre hot stuff, and you dont want to associate with a person like that. You dont want to be near or best friends with a person like that who thinks theyre so wonderful and great; but what about a person who is truly humble? Not inauthentically so, but authentically so. What about a person who is truly humble of spirit? You are attracted and drawn to that person. You say, That person Id like to be like. I admire that quality, because they have traits that you admire; but yet they never pretend to be more than they really are. Jesus was the most important, most powerful human being that ever walked the planet; yet He was the most humble. That humility is an invitation to us. In the Gospel of Matthew 11:28 (page 966), Jesus says these words of invitation to us, ‘Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light. I bet if I asked for a raise of hands tonight and said, How many of you are weary and heavy laden, hands would go up all over the place, especially in this Christmas season. A yoke was one you united. You yoked oxen together. Jesus says if you unite yourself with the world, its going to wear you down. The world is brutal; it is ruthless, but, Yoke yourself with Me because I love you. Youll find that Im gentle and that Im humble, and you will find rest for your souls. No wonder the Prophet in the Book of Hebrews 4:14 (page 1186) says these words, Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have One who has been tempted in every way, just as we are-yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. Jesus is approachable. He was one of us. There was nothing about Him that made Him seem like He was any different until the words came forth from His mouth, until the miracles through His hands. Im going to close with this: the Apostle Paul makes a declaration of what Im this evening calling, The Poverty of God. In 2 Corinthians 8:9 (page 1146), the Apostle Paul writes these words, For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, so that through His poverty, you might become rich. We give thanks to God our Father for the baby in Bethlehem, born in those poor circumstances, in those humble circumstances. It is through His poverty that we have entered into our inheritance in Christ. It is through His poverty that we have come to know the riches of forgiveness of sin, of grace, of mercy, and the hope of eternal life through Christ Jesus, our Lord. Would you join me as we give thanks to God this evening? Father, as we look at the story of Christmas again, we see in Christmas great humility, that our Lord was not born in pomp and circumstance, palaces and splendor, affluence and power; but He was born in poverty, and He lived a humble, simple life. That made Him approachable. People from all walks of life could call out the name and dare to come and touch the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. You, Yourself, said, I am humble of heart, and You still are; and so, Lord, those of us who would affirm that we are weary and heavy laden can come to You, even tonight, even now, and find rest for our souls. My prayer, Lord, is for those who are here tonight and they have never received You as their Savior and Lord, that they would recognize that Your life is the gift of Heaven to bring them the hope of eternal life. Lord Jesus, tonight we worship You. Were grateful that You are the conquering King, that You conquered sin and the grave, and You offer the hope of eternal life to all those who will call upon Your name. That is the good news of the Gospel. That is the hope in which we rejoice, the hope and light of the world. Shine Your light in our hearts tonight, we pray. In Jesus name, Amen.
Pastor Jeff Williams: December 20, 2009 The Light of the World.
Would you stand please and open your Bibles to Isaiah 9 (page 683 of pew Bibles)? If you dont have a Bible, were going to put it on the wall as well. Now were going to do a responsive reading, and so far its been rough. The Saturday night service didnt get it. The 8 oclock service didnt get it. I didnt think it was that hard, but apparently it is. Heres what were going to do. Im going to read Verse 2 of Chapter 9. Youre going to read Verse 6 of Chapter 9. Then together, were going to read Verse 7. Its not that hard, right? We can do this. I would read my Verse 2, and then it would be like silence, like one person-like, Lets do it again. This passage is a very familiar passage of Scripture to us. Youre going to get at least one Christmas card, probably more, that will have this passage of Scripture. This was written by the Prophet Isaiah. He wrote 750 years before Christ was born. This is a prophesy. This is a foretelling about the people who walk in darkness, seeing a great light; and that great light will come in the form of a person, a child-a male child-who will be born in Israel, and His name will be called Mighty God, the Prince of Peace. His Kingdom will never end. That is the Prophesy, and 750 years later (it is fulfilled that Christmas morning as the light comes into the world); and were going to talk about that today. So Im Verse 2; youre Verse 6; and were all Verse 7. Im nervous-lets do this. [Pastor Jeff:] The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned. [Congregation:] For to us a Child, to us a Son is given, and the government will be on His shoulders. And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. [Everyone:] Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on Davids throne and over His Kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this. Lord, through Your Prophet, You spoke of a Kingdom and a King who had reigned for all eternity. That King is Jesus, and the light has come. We come this morning to celebrate Him and to celebrate the light that has come into the world. I pray that Your light would shine upon us today, and I pray that You would eliminate Your Truth. I pray that Your light would drive out darkness in our lives; that it would bring hope; that it would calm our fears; that it would bring rest to our souls. We give You thanks, Lord, for coming into the world, for revealing Truth to us, illuminating our souls that we could know God. In Jesus name, we pray, Amen. Before youre seated this morning, turn around and tell somebody what you want for Christmas; and then you can have a seat, okay? Would you open your Bibles please this morning to John 8? Once youve opened it there, just leave it. We wont need to look at it for a while-just be ready. Ive got some good news for you and some bad news. The good news is the sermon is going to be shorter today than it normally is. The bad news is youre not going to get out any earlier than you normally would. I want to preface the sermon with that because with the Saturday night crowd, I said, Amen. They were looking at their watches, going, Yeah! I love Christmas! This is great! Little did they know that they were going to stick around as long as they always do, so Im just giving you a heads up. We have a special video presentation that were going to watch at the conclusion of our service, so Im going to have to cut things just a little bit short. Were talking this morning about the light of the world, the light of Christmas. Light, of course, is a big part of our holiday, isnt it? In your homes, you probably have some lights. Maybe you have lights on your tree, your candles or other decorations that have light. Maybe you have lights on your house, or there are lights certainly on houses in your neighborhood or as you drive around. We celebrate with light. We have put a light on top of the Christmas tree-a star-because Christmas is about light. This is the time of the winter solstice. This is the time when very soon, actually sometime between tomorrow and Tuesday, it will be the time when the Northern Hemisphere is as far away from the sun as its ever going to get this year. After that day, after that moment, then we begin to get closer to the sun, and the days get longer. The nights get shorter, so Christmas was chosen for December 25 because of the winter solstice-because of the time that light begins to last longer because the light of the world has come. We see the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights, is also this time of year. They light their menorahs. Remembering the days when the Temple was cleansed and Antiochus was defeated, the Temple was restored to Jerusalem; and God miraculously kept the lamp lit while there was just a little bit of oil as they waited for more oil to come. So they celebrate light. Light was a very important element of the celebration. I want to share with you about a holiday that the Jews celebrated. This was a holiday that they celebrated in the fall. At this holiday, a very important proclamation was made that we need to talk about today. It was called the Feast of Booths, and that was a holiday to commemorate the time of their forefathers wandering in the wilderness for 40 years. They used to live in these little huts, these little houses, that are called Sukkoths. Just think if you have a friend named Sue, and she has a coat, thats a Sukkoth right there. These Sukkoths were made out of leaves, palm branches and reeds, whatever you could find. You could assemble this small makeshift home. That is where your family would live. Now when they were wandering in the Dessert, that was their home. It didnt protect well from the elements for certain, but it was a shelter; and they would just find whatever organic material was around. They would make for themselves these homes. Now, when you celebrated that, everybody would go to Jerusalem. This was a major holiday, so people would go there from all over-not only Jews, but also Gentiles who were God-fearing, Gentiles who followed the Lord. They would come as well, so hundreds of thousands of people would convey upon Jerusalem and to the Temple. They would set up and build these Sukkoths, and they would have their major meal in the Sukkoth. They would stay in the Sukkoth, weather permitting. They remember that heres where our ancestors live, and heres how we lived as God led us out of the Egyptian bondage and into the Promise land. A big part of that celebration, of course, was their sacrifices and their time of praise and worship. They had 70 candles. These candles were like 5 feet high, and they would mount them at various heights. The light was so brilliant that it would totally illuminate the Temple. If youve ever seen the Temple-maybe you took Pastor Garys class on the Temple-you know it was a magnificent structure. Just imagine a life so brilliant from these 70 candles that it just lit the area for miles. You could see it from miles away. It was just gorgeous, so illuminating the courtyard at night-it was in the courtyard of the women; and it was in the courtyard of the women because that way anybody could go: man, woman, Jew, Gentile-all were welcome in the court of the women; so there stood these large candles of light. They would dance amongst the candles, and they would sing. The Levites would come with their instruments, and they would just rejoice and praise God. Those lights at night stood for a couple things. They stood, number one, for the fact that God guided them through the wilderness as a pillar of fire at night; so it stood for His presence with His people. It also stood for the fact that the Messiah was coming-the hope, the light of the world, was going to come. There was a Prophet by the name of Zechariah. He is one of the great post-exilic Prophets in the Old Testament. He was one who was preaching about their spiritual health as they began to return to Jerusalem after exile and began to worship again in the Temple. He was a very influential Prophet. Zechariah said that theres coming a day when Messiah will come, and He will participate in the Feast of Booths with us. He will come, and He will celebrate with us here in the Temple. The Messiah will be amongst us celebrating this holiday. So this stood for the presence of Messiah, and then every year, the seventh day was done; and the morning of the eight day, the lights would be extinguished. Messiah had not come. The time of the festival was over. It was time to return to our homes. They would have one last invocation, sing final songs, final sacrifice, and then they would disperse to their homes. Its there in this courtyard the morning after the festival is done, the lights are extinguished, but the people are still gathered. Theres a smell of smoke in the air. Jesus stands up before a crowd of people, and He says, I am the light of the world. In that context, in that place, in that courtyard, with the light extinguished in the background, He stands in front of them and He says, I am the One that youve been waiting for. Im the One youve been hoping for. Im the One that Zechariah said would come and have this festival with you and celebrate with you. I am here, and Im the light of the world. Can you imagine if you were to say something like that and really mean it? If you got up in front of a group of people and said, I am the light of the world. People would think youve got an incredible ego to the point of being insane-youre crazy. Maybe youre some sort of a lunatic cult leader or something, but nobodys going to take you serious that youre the light of the world. But with the works that Jesus had done, the miracles He had performed, the teaching that He had given, friends, when He uttered those words, people paid attention. I want us to look at those words together this morning. John 8:12 (page 1059 of pew Bibles), When Jesus spoke again to the people, He said, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. The first thing I want you to notice is He says, I am the light. This is an authoritative statement. He is saying, I am light. Hes not saying, I have light. Im going to bring light. Im going to carry light. He is saying, I am light. I am the source of light. Light emanates from Me. I am the light, not a light, not one of the lights. I am the light. Im not a light of this region. Im not a light of this time period. Im not a light of this race. I am a light of the world-all peoples, all times, all places. I am the light of the world. Make no mistake about it. Jesus is making a declaration of the fact that He is Messiah. The place that He said that, the timing of when He said it, the authority in which He spoke it-make no mistake about it, Jesus was saying, Im the One youve been waiting for. Im the One who has been promised by the Prophets. These candles are extinguished, but Im telling you, I am here. Im the light of the world. Now He is going from being the light of the world all the way down to the personal, to the individual-from the world to the individual because then He says, Whoever follows Me… Whoever follows Me… …will never walk in darkness. So they had a choice to make, didnt they? We have a choice to make. Is He in fact the light of the world? Is He who He said He was or is He not? If He is the light of the world, then if we follow any other voice or any other direction besides His, we do so to our own peril-if He is the light of the world, if He is the one who is to serve as our great guide, as a source of Truth. There are some who think that they have a better way, some who choose not to follow that voice. Maybe they think that they know a better way to live their lives. Theyre sadly mistaken. There is a story told of a naval captain who was sailing the seas. It was a dark and foggy night, and he saw another ship coming straight at him; so he got on the radio, and he radioed the ship. He said, We are on a collision course, and you need to alter the course of your ship by 20 degrees. Otherwise were going to collide. The radio answered back and said, No, you need to alter your course 20 degrees. The captain got a little bit upset with that. After all, he is the captain of this naval, so he starts to let the fact that hes offended be a little bit known. He starts talking about his ship, the name of his ship, how important it is and the mission it is on. He says, Now you alter your course by 20 degrees. Radioed back from the light, it says, No, you need to alter your course 20 degrees. The captain is furious. He says, I am a captain! Radioed back and said, I am a lighthouse! If youve ever sailed at sea, you know how that works. Lighthouse vs. ship doesnt work so well for the ship. There are times that we can become defiant. The light of the world? Well say, No, I have my own light. I determine my own course. To take that attitude is to do so to your own peril. There is one light to the world, and He has spoken. He has spoken authoritatively. We have a choice to follow, to surrender to His Lordship, or to set our own course. People still have that decision to make, but He says, If you follow Me, youll never walk in darkness, but you shall have the light of life. Youll have the light of life. In other words, youll have My presence within you. Thats what Jesus promised. He said that when He goes, He will send His presence here to earth in the person of the Holy Spirit who is God. So God will live within us through His Spirit, and so we will become little lights,Small L. Well become little reflections of the great light. Thats what He talked about to His church in the Sermon on the Mount. Please turn to the Book of Matthew 5:14 (page 958). Jesus is speaking to His followers. Hes speaking to the church, and He says, You are the light of the world. Thats an awesome responsibility. When Jesus says that we are to be the ones carrying His light to the world, that is a great responsibility. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on a stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise Your Father in Heaven. You know in those days in the house, it was usually a small one-room house, and the lamp stand was actually built into the wall. It wasnt a separate stand that we have. It was actually a ledge that was built into the home. The candle, of course, was their only source of light. They didnt have flashlights. They didnt have the electricity, and so that was their light. It was very hard to start a fire. There was no gas. There were no matches, so youd keep that light lit. Youd keep a lot of oil in there and a long wick, and that light would stay on even when you were gone. You didnt want to start a fire in your house, so youd put the light under a bushel. This was not what we think of as a bushel basket. This wasnt some sort of wicker or plastic basket. This was an earthen vessel that would not catch fire, would allow enough oxygen in there to keep the flame lit, and youd cover it up. Then youd go and as soon as you came home, you took the bushel off, and the light would again illuminate the house. He says, So your light is to be seen by all men. The first thing that that tells me is number one, it destroys the myth that we often hear of. You know, my faith is a private matter. I dont talk about my faith. I keep it a secret because its private. Its between me and God. Weve all heard people say that, and I want you to know something. The Bible knows nothing of that kind of faith. That is about as anti-Biblical of an expression of faith as you can find. Jesus says, and I think I prefer Jesus as the authority on the subject of faith rather than Uncle Bill, You are to live your faith out to the world. Youre to be a light for the world to see. Your faith should be very much a public matter. There are a couple of reasons for that. Number one, were to take Christs light to the world. How can we do that if we keep it private? How can we do that if we keep it hidden? It has to be seen. Number two, if you are silent about your faith, then when you do good works-when you do the kind of things that Hes talking about here, and people praise you-who gets the glory? You or God? If nobody knows why youve done something, you get the praise, right? People start going, Oh, what a great guy! What a super gal. Isnt she fantastic? because youve kept your faith hidden. Youve kept it secret. Thirdly, Jesus is the light of the world; so therefore any time we are a reflection of that light, ultimately the praise goes back to God, doesnt it? Because He is source of goodness. And so we reflect that praise back to Him. Now its very important that we understand what He means when He says a good work. So let your light shine that they may see your good works. There were two words for good. One was just a plain, ordinary word for good. Yeah, thats good. That works. Thats fine. But then there was another higher word for good, and that word meant that which is not only good, but what was attractive, appealing, beautiful-that drew people to it. That is the word that was used here by Matthew. Not just a good, not just functional, but beautiful. These should be beautiful works. Now what is the number one purpose of light? What does light do? Light is here to overcome darkness. That is the number one purpose of light. Its to overcome darkness. We read in the Book of John 1:4 (page 1047) where it says of Jesus, In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. The next verse, Verse 5 says, The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. Its interesting in the Greek when you look up that word understood, it means overtaken. The darkness is not overpowered or overtaken the light, so the purpose of light, we can safely say is to defeat darkness. Its to illuminate; its to reveal. So a good deed here would be that which conquers darkness. Weve been talking about that in this little mini-series on Christmas, what were to be about. The church is to be about the things that Jesus is about. Were to be about overcoming darkness. If you are standing up for the innocent, if you are protecting the weak, if you are standing up for righteousness and justice, if you are speaking out against hatred and prejudice and bigotry, if you are proclaiming hope of Christ, if you are doing these things, you are the light. Those are good deeds. Those are deeds that we are to be a part of and engaged in. Weve said before, and well say it again, that the reason we do these good deeds, and Christ wants us to-He says, I want you to do these good deeds, is two-fold. We do these good deeds number one because we belong to God. Number two, we do them to bring glory to God because He wants the light to shine. When the light shines, its to shine on the Lord. Its to make Him greater. Its to make His love more fully-known. Its to make His light manifest in the world. And so we do these good deeds not in order to be right with God but because we are right with God. We do these because if the light is in us, then we should be doing what the light did. In 1 John 2:6 (page 1207) it says, Those who claim His name should walk as He walked, do the things that He did. Im paraphrasing now. Those who name His name should walk as He walked, do the things that He did. So its because we are children of the most high, because we are children of the light, that we engage in deeds that glorify God. Now, Ive got some flashlights in front of you, and were going to dim the lights just a little bit this morning. Maybe we wont go totally dark, but well just dim them. Ive got a flashlight here. And the first flashlight here, you cant see the light. That's because this light is blocked. That represents somebody who has hidden their light. This is the person Jesus said who is silent about his or her faith. They keep their faith private. They dont want to talk about it. They dont want to live it out. Its a private light, and it really does no good, does it, because nobody can see it? Then we have a second kind of light, and thats a dim light. Im shining it out there. Nobodys really-a couple of you are reacting, but its not that strong. Its kind of dim, and thats a person who really has allowed their light to grow dim. Its not as bright as it once was. Its not as bright as it could be because the cares of this world have caused it to go dim. Were busy with so many other things, busy with life, busy with our agendas that we forget why were here. We forget Gods purposes and His calling. If were not careful, then our light becomes dim. This life over here-remember the Bible says, Let your light shine. It doesnt say, Make your light shine. Let it shine. If Jesus is in you, the light is there. This is a little brighter. When I shine this at you, some of you close your eyes-especially those who are in the front row. I am watching you right now because some of you think, Well, its dark. I can sleep, but this way I can see you even when its dark and make sure that you are not asleep. Even in the tech booth, I can watch you. Back in the sound room, I see you back there. I keep an eye on you. This is bright. This is a life that is following what it says in James. God says, Draw near to Me, and I will draw near to you. This spotlight, this light, is to be shining not on ourselves. Jesus says, Its to be shining on God. Thats the purpose of this light. Its not to say, Oh, look at me! Im a great guy. Its to shine and say, Look at God! Look at how magnificent He is! Why do you do what you do? Why have you done this wonderful thing? Why have you given in this way? Well, because I belong to Jesus Christ, and He wants us to share His love with the world and shine that light to Him. So I want to encourage you today who are letting the light of Christ shine through you-continue on. Let it shine even brighter. There is no limit to how bright that light can get. So as we draw near to God, He draws near to us; and we reflect His light. Moses was so near to God that his face glowed. His face glowed. I heard a story about D.L. Moody, the famous evangelist and minister. He was sharing how theyd had an all night prayer vigil. Some of the students at Moody Bible were so excited they said, Dr. Moody, look at our faces. They glow! Dr. Moody looked at them and said, Yes, they glow like Moses! Weve been in the presence of God. Our faces are glowing like Moses. Yes, but Moses did not like the fact that his face glowed. Moses was humble. Moses realized that he was unworthy. So were going to pray together, and were going to ask for Gods help to be light in this world, in this dark world. Would you bow your heads for prayer? The first folks we want to pray for this morning are those whove not received the light. Its our prayer this morning that you would follow the light, that you would hear His voice even today to receive Him into your hearts as Lord. You cannot earn your salvation. You cannot work for your salvation. It is something that was bought for you through His sacrifice, through His life, His blood shed on the cross; and that by faith, you would receive Him as your Savior and invite Him into your life; that His light would come inside of you; that He would cleanse you of sin and give you His spirit; that you might follow Him all the days of your life. That is our prayer. Secondly, Lord, I pray for those who are blocking their light. They have hidden their light. Lord, they have become private. They dont speak. They dont act; in His essence, their faith is useless because our faith is meant to be lived out. Its meant to be seen. You could not have made it any clearer than You did. No one who lights a light puts it under a bushel. Lord, I pray for those who are under the bushel right now, that, Lord, their light would be seen, and theyd go public with their faith and demonstration of it for Your glory. Father, for those of us whove allowed our lights to grow dim, weve allowed the cares of this world and distractions of this world to zap us of our light and rob us of the brightness that we once had, we pray that we would affirm once again that there is nothing more important than our walk with You, that we would draw near to You, that You might draw near to us.
Pastor Jeff Williams: December 13, 2009 What Are You Giving God for Christmas?
Were breaking from our series on Ephesians for a while, and were just going to focus on this message of hope and light. How many of you have your Christmas shopping all done? Let me see your hands. Thats good. Thats not-thats good. I like that-a few hands, makes me feel better. How many of you have not even started? Excellent! This is the right group. Thats what I wanted to see-putting it off till the last minute. I will see you in ShopKo on the 23rd. Theyre open till midnight. So we have people that we buy for every year. We have the Christmas list. I want to encourage you this morning how to shop for God this Christmas. I want you to buy a gift for God, and youre going to find out that Im not just simply trying to be funny here. Im dead serious. I want you to present a gift to God this Christmas, and Im going to give you some shopping tips. Shopping tips are important, so you know how to present the right gift. So heres tip number one: when you are giving a gift to God, the motivation of your heart is everything. Motivation, thats what gets us going-you know, the catalyst that spurs us into action. If its the right motivation, we can accomplish great things. You know that snow day on Wednesday-those are the kind of fun days, just relax and putz around the house-maybe take a nap, get some things done, watch a little extra TV, spend some time with the family. Snow days are fun, so that was kind of my mindset-just kind of a laid back kind of a day. Snow is accumulating on the sidewalk, and Brendas like, You know, we need to shovel that sidewalk-if we have visitors tomorrow or our mailman or whatever. Yeah, well, right now Im going to do this. A couple hours later, theres more snow. Did you get that? You didnt shovel that sidewalk? Yeah, yeah, were going to shovel that sidewalk, but right now I have to do this over here, and I was just kind of putting it off all day long. I just couldnt get motivated. Its cold, and the snow, and its work; I just really couldnt get myself motivated for that task. I sat down to try to watch the Badger game, and there was no signal on the TV. The dish was full of snow and ice. All of the sudden, I am just energized! Im like, I gotta get the snow off the dish! Im pulling out the ladder, and Im climbing up to the roof. Im scrubbing and cleaning with warm water. I am just working like a dog to get this signal in. What was the difference? I was motivated for one and not motivated for the other. One sounded like work, and the other one was for fun; and all the sudden, all this energy came, and I became Mr. Johnny Fix-it climbing up the ladder-which was a lot more work than just shoveling off the sidewalk by the way. When you are motivated to give to God, then motivation is everything. Thats my job this morning-to try to get you motivated. When you leave this place, you are motivated to give a gift to God this Christmas. God looks at our heart. It doesnt matter what we are giving. Its how we are giving it, why we are giving it, that is all important. It doesnt matter the size the gift or how extravagant the gift… In fact, some of the most humble gifts, if given with the right motivation, are great gifts in the eyes of God. Someone had sent a letter to our church. It was addressed to me, and apparently we had helped them out financially. They were really struggling and were still struggling, but they were so appreciative of what the church had done for them that they sent the church a gift card for Culvers. It had $1.90 left. I saw this gift, and this really touched my heart. I said, You know, for that person this represents a meal or a portion of a meal. When youre really struggling to make ends meet, to give this gift card, whats left on your gift card to the church and say, You know, Ill give more when I can. This has a whole lot of significance to me-more than $1.90 from Culvers. Somebody has given from their heart, and thats what God wants us to do. He wants us to give from our hearts. In fact, if we are living a life that is contrary to Gods commands and then think we can just go out, just come to church, put some money in the offering, and then just go out and live any way you want to live and treat people any way that we want to treat them, God is not fooled by that. God sees through that veneer and that façade. I want us to turn to the Book of Amos this morning. I will tell you, if there were ever a Prophet from Tennessee, its Amos. The girls and I were talking about that between services. Amos is just a country boy. Hes a shepherd, and hes a farmer. Hes not been educated. He has no fancy title. Hes not a professional Prophet. Hes not a Rabbi. Hes not anybody in any position of authority. Hes just a guy, and hes a guy that God uses; and he speaks the truth. He speaks not what people want to hear, but he speaks what God has instructed him to speak. In Chapter 5, now whats going on with Israel is Israel is a divided kingdom-north and south: king of the north in Israel; the king of the south in Judah. This is 750 B.C. now. Israel is in peace and prosperous. Economically, they are prospering. There are no enemies attacking at this point in time, but thats going to change because in the midst of this prosperity-in the midst of this wonderful time, there was corruption. In fact, the way many had gotten rich was on the backs of the poor. They had taken advantage of the innocent. They had exploited the weak. They had used people. Theyd use the innocent, exploiting the poor and using deceit, and God saw that. God has a strong message to them. He says in Verse 21 (page 909 of pew Bibles), I hate, I despise… God is just emphasizing this, I hate. I despise your religious feast. I cannot stand your assemblies… And by the way, these are religious feasts and assemblies that he had ordained-established by God. Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings… You bring Me the best. I will have no regard for them, offerings that he had ordained. God says, I have no use for them. Away with the noise of your songs, I will not listen to the music of your harps. The worship that He had commanded. God says, Its noise to Me. Why? Because their lies were so contrary to what God stood for, to the attributes and qualities that emanate from Him. God says, I want no part of your worship. I see the hypocrisy. He says, Your lives are not right. Dont think you can come to the synagogue on the Sabbath, come to the temple on the Sabbath and present an offering of an animal, and give some money in the offering plate and then go out and live any way you want to live Sunday through Friday and then come and repeat the process again. He says, Dont think that. Im not a fool! I see through that hypocrisy. Change your life. So it didnt matter how extravagant the gift of the offering. If its not given with the right motivation, God was not impressed. God was not pleased. Some of us hear that, and we say, You know, Im off the hook today because the pastors talking about people that oppress the poor, people who commit injustices to other people, people who exploit other people, people who live in bigotry, prejudice, and deceit and hypocrisy, and thats not me. Im a pretty straight forward person, an honest person, a hard-working person. I try to treat people all right. I know there are a lot of needs around me; and I know there are a lot of people who are hurting right now. There are a lot victims out there; a lot of innocent people are suffering, but you know, I cant help them. I cant do anything about that. I have to live my own life. I have enough problems to take care of myself, but I just take some solace in knowing that Im not like that. Im not like the oppressor. Well, before you get too impressed with yourself, before you feel too comfortable, I want you to read whats in Chapter 6. It says, Woe to you who are complacent in Zion… Zion is the spiritual name for Jerusalem. Now hes talking to his own people here cause thats where hes from. Hes from the Jerusalem area. He says, Woe to you who are complacent in Jerusalem. Verse 4, You lie on beds inlaid with ivory and lounge on your couches. You dine on choice lambs and fattened calves. You strum away on your harps like David and improvise on musical instruments. You drink wine by the bowlful and use the finest lotions… Boy, life is good. Right? Life is good. Theyve got all the material things they need. Theyre living in comfort, security, pleasure, but heres the problem. …but you do not grieve over the ruin of Joseph. You do not grieve over the ruin on Joseph. You know the story of Joseph, right? You remember what happened to Joseph when he was just a young man? He was his fathers favorite son. He bought him a special robe of many colors. He was sent out to find his brothers and deliver a message, and he told them a dream. In that dream, he talked about how God was going to use him in leadership one day and how they were going to bow down to him; and they became so angry and jealous that they devised a plan to get rid of their brother. They beat him up, and they threw him in a well. And one time, they were intending to kill him. They threw him in this empty well. You know what the Bible says they were doing while he was suffering in that well broken, bleeding, crying and calling out for help, afraid? Do you know what his brothers were doing? Eating a sandwich. Thats what it says. It says they were having a meal. The caravan came, and they sold their brother into Egypt. So while their own flesh and blood is suffering and hurting, they were so cold and callous that they went on with life as if nothing was wrong, eating their sandwiches, talking and laughing. They did not care about the ruin of their brother Joseph. God says if we are complacent, if we know these things are happening around us and we do nothing, we are part of the problem; and so we are taking great effort; and we will do more so as a church to reach out to our community, to reach out to our world and help those who are oppressed-reach out to the poor, reach out to those that are hurting. Thats what God has called us to do. But if we become complacent, if we just throw up our hands and say, Theres nothing I can do. Ive got a good life here. Were not going to get our hands dirty, God says, Youre part of the problem. Im holding you responsible too. The second thing we need to remember if we are shopping for God is that we need to know whats on Gods wish list. Its really important. If youre shopping for somebody, you better know what they like, right? Weve all gotten those gifts, we go, Oh! We open up and go, You, you shouldnt have. You really shouldnt have. This is… And you know its not something youd want or ever want; and maybe they just didnt even know you. Maybe they were a Secret Santa or something and gave you a present. Youre still trying to figure out what it is. You know the person. You know their needs. You know their wants. Im telling you that God has not been silent about what He wants. Gods wish list is not unknown. Its not a big secret. In fact, He has shared with us time and time again in His Word what He desires from us. I want you to look back in Amos 5. This is the purpose statement of the Book of Amos. This really is the purpose statement of most of the Minor Prophets as they write. God had just talked about I dont want your offerings. I dont want your assemblies. I dont want your music. He says what He wants in Verse 24, But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream! You want to know what I want? I want righteousness. I want justice. I want the innocent helped. I want the weak protected. Thats what I want. I want you to be a part of the solution, not a part of the problem. In the Book of Micah-if you would turn there. Its just a couple of Books over. Micah is a contemporary. He writes about the same time that Amos wrote. Micah 6:6, he asks the question, With what shall I come before the Lord and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil? Hes getting really extravagant here. Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? I mean hes getting really dramatic here. Shall I sacrifice my child? What is it that God wants? He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? Heres the answer, To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. I want you to be people of mercy, people who love justice, people who walk humbly with their God. Thats what I want from you. God has made His wish list known, so what I am saying to you is I want you to consider what you are going to give God for Christmas. Have you ever considered that? Have you ever put God on your shopping list? Im asking for a specific. What are you going to do? How are you going to advance righteousness and justice in the world? What cause are you going to give towards? What cause are you going to volunteer for? What are you going to give of your resources to uphold what is important to God? Now we as a church are taking on a project this Christmas. Im going to tell you about it right now. Every year on Christmas Eve, we take a love offering for our local charities. This year were going to do it just a little bit differently. Some of the charities were helping on a monthly basis now. Some of them were helping throughout the year with our CARE Ministry, so what were going to do-since those things have changed-is were going to focus in and hone in on a specific ministry. This Christmas Eve, we are going to be helping the CARE House here in Janesville. You may have never heard of the CARE House. The CARE House is a ministry of the YWCA. Its on the south side of town. Its there as an advocacy for children, specifically those children that have been sexually abused. A child will come to this home, and theyll receive support and love; and therell be caring, compassionate people who listen to them tell their story. When they tell their story, its very hard because usually it involves somebody that they trust, somebody who is supposed to protect them who has hurt them. Its hard for them to share those details, so they record that testimony. In another room, therell be somebody from the D.A.s office. Therell be somebody from law enforcement, and they will be listening to the story and taking notes. As theyre asking questions, this is being recorded so that the child doesnt have to repeat the testimony in a court of law and repeat it several times because its so difficult. They record it once, and then its over with. Then the parents come in after that. Then they share with the parents as well what was said and what took place. They really provide a meaningful service to our community. Its sad that this house has to exist, but it does exist. Then when its through, they take the little hands, and they put them in the paint. They start to put them on the wall and on the ceiling, and they sign their name by their handprints to say, Im not alone. These people went through this, and they survived, and Im going to survive. Im going to make it through. As you look at that ceiling and you look at those walls, there are hundreds of little handprints through the years. Now one of the fallouts from G.M. was that 40 percent of the funding went down. And so the CARE House is really struggling. Now we as a church have started to support the CARE House, but they have some special needs right now. They have a need for a recording system. The cameras are old. The recording devices are old, and the estimate of what its going to cost is about $10,000, and they dont have it. So as a church, thats going to be our project. When you give on Christmas Eve, youre going to be giving to the CARE House-specifically to buy that new recording system. If you want more information on the CARE House, next week, were going to show a video on the CARE House and Mary Burheimer, the director of the CARE House, attends our church. Shes in charge of Saturday night communion, and shes here every week. She, next week, is going to be at every single service we have to answer your questions. Then on the way out, there are brochures that you can grab, and that will tell you a little bit about it. This is one of those ministries where you cant go and volunteer. This is very sensitive, very confidential, but you can pray, and you can give; so I want you to consider giving something substantial this Christmas. I want you to consider maybe a three-figure gift if God has blessed you or a four-figure gift that you can give, so every penny that we raise will go to this worthy cause this Christmas Eve, so keep that in mind. If for some reason, youre not going to be here Christmas Eve, mail that gift. Bring it in to the church during working hours, and well let you know. Thats a whopping-I mean $10,000 is a lot of money. Were just going to do the best we can. Thats all you can do, right? Were just doing the best we can, but thats our project; so maybe you write that check, and you say, This is my gift to help. This is my gift to You, God. When you do it, Matthew 6 says, Do it in secret. Dont be telling everybody, You know, Im going to give $5,000. Dont do that. Theres your reward right there. Do what you do in secret. The Bible says, Dont let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Dont blow a trumpet. Thats another important thing when youre shopping for God. When you give a gift for God, He really doesnt want you to tell people about it. You just give it anonymously if you want, just give it from a pure heart. Give it because you want it to uphold justice and righteousness and help the weak and the innocent in our community. So thats the project. You can pick one of your own, or you can help us by tagging on with us. Lets get back to the message. So God is practical. He is easy to shop for. Hes made it clear what He wants on His wish list. The fourth thing I want us to understand is found in the Book of Acts, if you want to turn to Acts 20. Paul is saying good bye to the church in Emphasis, a church that we know pretty well, having spent months talking on that Book. Acts 20, Paul is saying good bye, and he says in Verse 34 (page 1102 of pew Bibles), You yourselves know that these hands of mine have supplied my own needs and the needs of my companions. In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak… Well, this is important. As we understand, this is not an event. This is a lifestyle. Standing up for righteousness and justice is not something we do once a year. Oh, its Christmastime, so I have to stand up for that. I have to be involved with that. No, this is year-round; this is a lifestyle. Its not an event. Its who we are to be. Its one of the things we are to be about. It is one of the ways we live out the Gospel. Understand, I am not teaching you this morning any kind of a works righteousness here. I am not saying we give this gift or we do these things to belong to God or to be in right standing with God. Salvation is a gift that cannot be earned. In fact, it was bought for you through the life and sacrifice of Jesus Christ. But because we do belong to God, this is what we are called to be about; so please understand that. Were not doing this to try to earn favor, to try to be right with God; but because we have made peace with God through Christ, we are expressing that love through our gifts and through our actions and upholding righteousness and justice. Lastly, and this is the fun part, he says, …remembering the words of the Lord Jesus Himself said: It is more blessed to give than to receive. Now, if youre a student of the Gospels, youll know that nowhere in the Gospels did Jesus say that. But you also know, remember John said in the Gospel of John, Now, not everything Jesus said or did is recorded in these Books, but these things are written that you might know Jesus, the Son of God, and have life through His name. He says if we wrote down everything Jesus said and did, not even the world could contain all the volumes that would be written. So apparently Paul had access to some of the teaching of Jesus that was not recorded in the Scripture. Jesus says, It is more blessed to give and receive… The word blessed means happy. He says, Youre going to find you experience more happiness when you give something than when you receive something, cause thats how God has wired you. I was talking to some of our Angel Tree participants. As theyre able to give gifts and serve residents in our community yesterday, there was a joy in their hearts; and they said, Pastor, that was fun! That was a good day! I got an email. You know weve helped the church in the Dominican Republic, the Haitian Church. The Haitians come to the D.R. for a better life. Its the poorest country in the world. Well, they are oppressed there in the D.R. Weve been to the D.R. twice now as a church and built homes and so forth, so you know about the D.R. What well do, like I said, Well, why doesnt the mission we support there just fix up some of these homes, so they dont live in squalor like we fixed up the Dominican homes. The problem is they dont own their homes. Theyre not allowed to own homes. We fix up the Haitian homes. Then the Dominican landlords kick the Haitians out and then rent out their homes now to Dominicans for more money. Theres nothing we can do. They cant go to school. They cant have medical care, so we call it something else besides school. We call it something else, and we provide a building for them to worship in every Sunday. So we have a big goal of $12,000. I think were up over $7,000 now. We had a pie sale, and you guys sold pies at Thanksgiving and raised almost $1,500. I sent that to Pastor Jean [pronounced John], and we sent them some extra money. We sent them $3,000, and I said, Now, $700 of this is going to be for instruments. You choose whatever instruments you want. Thats their Christmas gift from Faith Community. Then the rest is going to go toward rent and some toward the clinic. They got that money, and Pastor Jean sent me an email to all of you. He said, I want you to know every time we play our instruments-every time, ever note, every sound our instruments make-we are reminded that the people of Faith Community love us. He said, We will play those instruments with joy, and every Sunday, we will think of you. So this is the last part, and that is we simply get to enjoy the rewards of giving. You get to bask in that and feel Gods favor rest upon you. You can just experience that joy. Thats the funnest part-thats a word, right? The best part of the whole thing is you get to experience the joy of giving. Lets pray together, and then well share some announcements and so forth before we go home. Father, this morning thank You for challenging us through the Prophet Amos-this good old boy, nobody he had to answer to but You. He spoke the Word of God with boldness. He spoke it to neighboring countries. He spoke it to Israel, and he spoke it to his own land of Judah. It was a message that You desire, righteousness and justice to roll like a river and a stream. Thats what You expect from Your people. Lord, we live in a world that is fallen, and there are wicked people who do abuse the innocent, the poor. They do hurt people. We have a free will. It would be a greater tragedy to take that free will away, and so You allow us to make wrong choices. Then You call Your people. You call Your church to action. You say, We need to be part of the healing. We need to be part of the solution, and we are becoming that. I thank You for the progress that we have made, and we ask for Your help for the progress that we have yet to make. I pray that You would help us as we adopt this goal of helping the CARE House with their recording needs. Help all of us to just simply do our best this holiday season. Guide us and teach us, Lord, and share with us what Youd have each one of us do as individuals, to bring a gift to You this Christmas. In Jesus name, we pray, Amen.
Pastor Jeff Williams: December 6, 2009 Meet the Ephesians, Part XV: Climbing the Walls.
Good morning. How many hardcore shoppers do we have out here today? Anybody participate in Black Friday as far as getting up early in the morning? Wow, there are some hardcores-wow. That's just something. Ive never done that before, but I hear stories that that can get a little brutal, get a little competitive. There are parents trying to get that toy before it runs out, that popular toy. Definitely, this time of year brings out the consumer in us, right? Were looking for the best deals. Were looking for that bargain. Were searching for coupons. Were out and about. But its not just Christmastime. We are a consumer-oriented society all the time because we tend to be by our very nature self-centered, so Madison Avenue fits right well with that. Because that is our nature, its very easy for us to put ourselves first and to push and to shove to get and acquire. Sadly, many times we take that mentality, that consumer mentality-and not that theres anything wrong with shopping for deals on Black Friday-dont get me wrong. Im not saying that, but the consumer mentality-we sometimes take that to church. We start approaching church. Were looking around for a church. Were at a church, and we say, What can this church do for me? How can this ministry serve me? How is this going to help me and my family? So the words me, my, mine are spoken a lot. What do you think if you were to go back to the first century church? What if you could participate in their worship or see what worship was like in the first century church? What do you think that would have been like? I mean before denominations, before man-made hierarchies and structures, when it was just new and pure and fresh: what would the worship be like? Would it be a consumer mindset? What do you think? We have some glimpses. We have some windows, some snapshots, into what worship was to be in the New Testament Church. Were going to take a look at a few of them this morning. I want you to turn first to the Book of Colossians 3. What I want to do is really not dwell on these passages very much, but just read through them; and I want you to look for the common theme in the passages were going to read. That's going to be your goal. Verse 15 of Colossians 3 (page 1167 of pew Bibles), Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. Remember those phrases. Remember those words. Remember the Spirit of that passage. Turn then also to the Book of Hebrews 10:23 (page 1191 of pew Bibles). Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another-and all the more as you see the Day approaching. Consider one another-how to stimulate one another to good deeds; good deeds encourage one another. Then turn to Ephesians 5:19 (page 1159), Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Did you see the common theme there? Did you see the theme? You saw words repeated like one another. You saw things plural, we, our. What Paul is saying is the Christian life is to be lived in the context of community, of oneness, of unity. It is not meant to be something that is lived out in isolation, but it is meant to be lived together-a journey that we take together. I want you to particularly note Verse 21 of this passage. It says, Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. That could be a misunderstood verse. That could even be a malign verse because that does not sound like fun. That's probably not a verse thats on your refrigerator or hanging from the dashboard of your car. Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. You say, I dont want to submit to you. Ill say, I dont want to submit to you, right? I want to be the boss! You want to be the boss. You want to be in charge. It says submit-not to a pastor, not to elders; it says submit to what? One another. Its mutual; its reciprocal-a voluntary submission. Its not a matter of saying one is inferior to another, one is superior to another. It is saying, Listen, for our common interest, for our common goal, we submit to one another to accomplish what God has called us to do and be. I shared with you a few weeks ago about my dark side on the basketball court. I shared with you about a game I was in, and you know Ive been playing basketball for 87 years. I have never done this before, but I did it a few weeks ago. I got so frustrated and angry with a teammate, who was also a friend, that I shoved him with everything I had. I felt really bad later, but what was happening around it was the guy I was guarding-they were setting picks for him because hes a pretty good shot; so they werent calling out the picks. My guy scored and one of my teammates got mad at me. Id say, Well, how about you call out the picks? Say pick right or pick left so I know whats coming. Because if youre really playing defense, your peripheral sometimes is not what it needs to be. I was told by a coach, Watch their belly button when you play defense. If you watch the ball, you can be faked. If you watch the eyes, you can be faked. If you watch the feet, you can be faked, but they dont go anywhere without that belly button. So Im watching the belly button, and Im getting blindsided by picks. Then he scored another shot, made another basket. My teammate yelled at me again. Frustration is building. I said, Well, how about we switch? When I get picked off my guy, help out! Call the picks. You know its your fault too. One of my teammates said, Let me guard this guy. Lets switch. Lets switch, and I took that personally. I thought he was saying to me, I think Im a better defender than you. You cant guard that guy. I can, so you guard my guy, and then Ill guard the good guy. Then Ill guard the good guy. I said, I can guard him! Ive guarded him many times. Really, if youd just help me out on the picks, wed be fine. Now theyre setting picks right and left. I get another pick. He scores again. Im frustrated. My teammate, thats when he said the word that really tripped my trigger, and I pushed him. We go on, and my guy doesnt score anymore. I didnt switch. We lose the game. Everybody is frustrated. I call out to my friend afterwards. This is the guy who said, Lets switch. Lets switch, and I said, No, we dont need to switch. He said, I thought we would switch. I said, But I didnt think it was a good idea because my guy is so much taller and stronger than you. I didnt think that was a good idea. I thought he would overpower you under the hoop. He goes, Yes, but Im faster than you. And I couldnt argue with him there. Pretty much everybody within the sound of my voice is faster than me right now. I cannot argue with that. What he was saying is, Listen, you might be bigger than me and stronger than me, but I can get around that pick quicker than you; and I can get around that pick and maybe get a hand in his face and maybe stop some of those shots. So one of us was thinking for the common good of the tea, and winning and succeeding, and the other one was thinking about their ego and their pride. Which one do you think that was? Who was the self-centered one there? No, it was me. You were wrong. It was me. That was a joke. I know I was self-centered. He said, Lets work to the common interest, and I was thinking about my own interest. Thats what Paul is talking about here, this mutual submission. Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ because we are working together for a common goal. There are times when I need to submit to you and take the backseat, and there are times when you submit to me. There are times when this person takes the lead, times when that person takes the lead. You take this role. I take that, and we switch, because we are working together to say, Who can get the job done? How are we going to get this done? Lets get it together. Lets put the goal of oneness first, not individual agendas-not pride. Thats what hes talking about here, and that, I think, we can salute. That I think we can embrace. The world looks within first right. The consumer mentality says, Im going to look for me-my needs, my desires, what I can have for me. Thats not the way it works in the spiritual life. The Bible says to be filled with the Spirit. How does that happen? How are you filled with the Spirit? Is it you just need to sit down with your Bible for three hours a day and pray for three hours a day? No, those are wonderful things, but you know when it talks about being filled in the Spirit-as it does here-its in the context of community, isnt it? So what I do is I look up first. Thats the first place I look. Yes, I have needs. Yes, I want to grow, but I look up first. I look to God first. When I look to God first, God changes my heart. God takes the cold parts and makes them warm. He takes the rough parts and makes them smooth. When He changes my heart, He changes my focus from inside to outside, and I begin to reach out. I begin to look at the needs around me and try to respond to the people that are around me. Then when I respond to that and I learn to love and to give and to serve, I am filled with the Spirit so that I can further serve, love greater, and give more. You see, its, I look up, look out, and then in. The consumer looks first in and only in, and it turns a deaf ear to the cries for help and a blind eye to the needs that are around. Paul said, Thats not what the church is to be about. This is about us. This is about climbing together on this journey. I want to share a story with you of something that happened to me about 13 years ago. I know it was over 13 years ago because my wife was expecting our youngest child. We said, You know, were going to have another baby. Its probably going to be awhile before we can get away by ourselves like this again, so lets go someplace fun and warm. Lets go someplace by ourselves, and we chose to go to Jamaica. So we would spend a week in Jamaica, and we were trying to figure out what was fun to do in Jamaica. Everybody kept saying, You have to go to Dunns River Falls. Anybody here ever been to Dunns River Falls in Jamaica? Anybody climb the Falls before? Okay, so I have some alumni here. Ive had alumni in every service. Its in Ocho Rios, Eight Rivers. In the city of Ocho Rios, these rivers come together, and they form this beautiful cascading waterfall that flows into the Caribbean Sea. Were going to see some pictures right now. Lets go ahead and show those pictures, and youll see some of the grandeur of this; but really it doesnt entirely do it justice-you know, the sound of the waters; the mist; the rocks; the vegetation on either side of this area; the beautiful turquoise water as it flows into the Sea. Its beautiful, and youll notice that there are people climbing this. Youll notice as you see them that theyre climbing together, so when you meet for your instruction… Brenda couldnt climb because she was pregnant; so I went by myself, and she was going to take photographs. He said, Listen, two rules. Number one, you listen to me. You follow me. I know my way to the top of this waterfall. I climb this every day, many times a day. I know the rocks we need to step on. I know the pitfalls. If you leave this group, thats dangerous. Stay with the group and listen to me. I know these falls like the back of my hand, and if you follow me, Ill get you there safely. Listen to my voice. Number two, stay together. We are going to form a line, and we are going to hold one anothers hands. We are going to help one another up this waterfall. Talk to each other. If something is dangerous, let somebody else know. When somebody is stuck or they slip, help them. The whole line will stop as we wait for you to help them, but stay together. Dont think you can do it faster or better and leave the line. Hold hands and together we will safely navigate the Falls. I soon realized as I was climbing that this was not Great America. This was not a controlled environment. There was a real current here. These were not Styrofoam boulders; these are real boulders. Most of it was moderate, but there was one area in particular-I dont know if you guys remember this, but there was one area in particular that was a little bit hairy, that you had to really step up; and it got just a little bit steeper than other areas. In fact, thats one area where an elderly man that was with our group slipped and fell and slid down the rocks for about 30 feet. He just tore up his back. The paramedics had to come in and help him. This was a dangerous situation. This was not by any means something to be taken lightly. So we started our climb. Really, to me its a microcosm of what Paul is talking about. Number one, were looking up. Were looking to our goal; were looking to our leader; and were listening to his voice just like we listen to Jesus and we look to Jesus; and He is our leader. He calls the shots. Number two, we were climbing in community. We were hand in hand. In the Passage we read in the Bible, it says, Instruct one another. Teach one another with all wisdom. Admonish one another. What do those words mean? In Colossians, admonish means to warn. So youd be coming, and youd say, Look, be careful. This rock is really slippery. So the person in front of you would say, Be careful. This rock is really slippery. Then Id turn to the person behind me and say, Be careful. This rock is really slippery. Theyd say to the others, Be careful. This rock is really slippery. Avoid this rock. If somebody would get stuck, we would wait and help pull them out. Or wed say, This area is muddy, so we were continually experiencing things and passing what we learned from that experience on to the next climber. Thats what the church does. You go through things I havent gone through. I go through things you havent gone through. Together, we help each other out. Someone may have gone through a divorce, and others who have gone through a divorce can come alongside and help. Or maybe youve struggled with alcohol abuse. We have a divorce recovery group. We have an alcohol abuse recovery group in our church. Maybe youve gone through a death of a loved one. We have a bereavement group in our church that meets throughout the year. Maybe you have a parent with Alzheimers or some sort of disease. You come together in community. Number one, you get in the line-you get in the line. I cant help but to use Judy as an example, Dennis, if its okay with you? Judy is in the line. Judy Babish is struggling with some health concerns right now. When she came forward to pray after a service, it was like a group of people because she was so plugged into community. It wasnt just her and Dennis going through this battle. It is the church thats fighting this battle and praying with her and supporting her. You have to get in line. It was interesting to me that so many people disregarded the command of the leader and thought they knew better and left the line. They just totally ignored his instructions and went off by themselves to climb because they were being slowed down because they had a better way. They had a more efficient way, so theyd leave the group. Id want to tattle, Hey, leaving the group… But you know what, you have a free will. If you want to break your neck, thats your choice. The leader would just let them go, and it wasnt long before theyd eat some humble pie. Theyd be doing fine for a while. Theyd climb ahead of the group, but soon theyd reach an area of impasse, and theyd humbly come back to the line, join hands and continue the climb. Some of you have left the group. In the Book of Hebrews, it says, Do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together. Some have done that. Some have said, I dont need anybody to hold my hand. Theyve gone off to forge their own way, their own climb; and its hard. Its hard to do it by yourself. When youre by yourself, theres nobody to help you up in those steep climbs. Theres nobody to say, You know what? You need to be careful here. You need to watch out for that. This is dangerous. Ive tripped on this rock, and so can you. When youre by yourself, you learn things the hard way. Its my prayer that some of you who are in isolation tonight will come back, come back and listen to the voice of the Master, come back and put your hands in the hands of your brothers and sisters in Christ as we climb-because I tell you what, the current in that river was relentless. It never let up. If you were stuck, it was still coming down. If you slipped, it would still come down. There were some times over the boulders that that current was really pushing against you. Im telling you, friends, the current of this world is relentless. It does not let up, not even for a second. It is pushing you away from the Will of God. It is pushing away from the person of Christ. It is pushing you toward self-centeredness. It is pushing you toward this consumer mentality. It is pushing you away from a life of love and service and giving. It is pushing you away from those things. It is tempting you, and the current is relentless. Thats why its so important that we have community because when we are locked together by a common goal and a common faith, we help one another to make it against the current. We fight together against the current, and we are triumphant because we are together. As I hold on to that hand, Im not just holding on to the hand of the person in front of me, but theyre holding on to the next; and that person is holding on to the next; and that person is holding on to the next; and we are one. Thats the vision that Paul has for the church. So where are you in this picture? If we were to show you there, are you in the line? Are you saying, Listen, I need to be a part of community? or are you a lone ranger out here trying to forge your own way? Friends, the current is swift. There was a family sadly, and I havent heard any more news, but in Oregon, they got lost. They were parents of four children. They went off to the top of a mountain to find a rare Christmas tree and never came home. I hadnt heard any news that they were found. They were found? Pretty cold, I bet though, ha? Yeah. When you isolate yourself, you take a risk. When youre lost, who is going to bring you back to the path? When you fall, who is going to be there to pick you up? Its a dangerous thing. She made it back. Thats good news. Some people arent so fortunate. So Paul encourages the church, Dont have blinders on. Take off the blinders to see not only your own needs, but to see the needs that are around you, to hear the cries that are around you. As Im climbing those Falls, Im following this principal. Im looking up. Im looking to the finish line. Im looking to my leader. Then I am reaching out, and I am holding on to the hand in front of me and the hand behind me. As I do that, as I keep my eyes on the goal and as I stay in community, I find I am climbing. I am going closer to my goal-upwards, outwards, then inwards, and then progress. Thats how it takes place. Now you and I take communion. In this church we do it every month. In some churches we do it every week, but theres a familiar passage that we read in 1 Corinthians 11. You know the passage Im talking about? For I have received from the Lord what Ive also passed on to you, Paul writes? Lets take a look at that chapter, and lets find out why that passage is there. Would you do that with me please? Turn your Bible to 1 Corinthians 11. Because sometimes we ignore the context of passages and verses. We dont grasp the full meaning of what they are trying to communicate or why they are there. Let me give you a little bit of historical background before we delve into this text. The first century Christians were ostracized by culture. In fact, not only were they ostracized, but they were seen as social outcasts; and you know from history, they were emperors such as Trajan and Domitian and Diocletian and other emperors who would actually torture and kill the Christians in those first and second centuries. Why? Christians love people. They want to serve people. They love God. Why were they held with such disdain? Christians were viewed by the pop culture-the popular point of view-as atheists, immoral atheists, who were against the government. You say, How in the world? What? Well, number one, they dont worship the Greek and Roman gods. If youre not going to worship the pantheon of Greek and Roman gods, you must be an atheist. Youre not going to come and burn incense to Zeus? You have a problem. Youre an atheist. You say, Well, I believe in the God of Heaven, the Son Jesus Christ. You dont believe in our gods. You dont come and celebrate our national holidays. You dont come and burn incense and pray. You dont acknowledge that Caesar is god. Youre anti-government and you are an atheist. Whats more, youre immoral. Where did that come from? When the church had the Lords Supper, it was not just what we have. You know, we come together and we have the cup and the bread, but the Lords Supper in the New Testament Church was a meal. It wasnt just a ritual or ceremony. The service was actually part of a broader meal. It was called the agape feast. Agape means love. It was the love feast. Those who were outside the church heard that. They didnt understand what was going on with this new sect, this new group, so when they heard they were going to the love feast, they thought it was the love feast. Going down to the Love Shack kind of thing. This is the love feast, and boy I tell you what, these Christians, these immoral atheistic Christians, man, you know what theyre doing? Theyre perverts. Thats what they are. Theyre immoral people. So they thought all kinds of immoral activities were happening at these love feasts. Isnt it something how Satan takes the truth and he just twists it, distorts it and people believe it? He doesnt do that anymore, but Im saying back in the day, that's what he did (sarcasm). He doesnt take any good words and twist them and change their meaning now, no. Evangelical means you believe the Bible is the Word of God. Plain and simple-that's what it means. What do you think the average person things evangelical means? Yeah. You know what I mean, right? Born again-back in the 70s, born again was simply a term that Jesus used to describe this new spiritual birth. Youre reborn of the Spirit. What did the media and Hollywood do with the phrase born again? If you were born again, you were some sort of crazy religious wacko! But its a word right out of the mouth of Jesus. Thats what Satan does. So they turned against the church. Now at the church in Corinth, as in any city, there were the haves and the have nots. So when you come to this meal, you were to eat a meal, and then youd receive together of the Lords Supper. There were those in the church who had plenty. There were those in the church who had just enough, and there were those in the church who didnt have enough-those in the church who really werent getting by. Maybe it was a widow whod lost her husband, and she was struggling to make ends meet, or maybe it was somebody who had lost a job and lost their income. They didnt have enough to support their family. That time, that love feast, might have been the only good meal they were going to get all week long. What was starting to happen here was they were using that as a very cliquish place for those who had to flaunt what they had. This person comes in, and she barely puts together a sandwich from what shes going to feed her children. This person comes in, and he has nothing. He was hoping for some crumbs. He was hoping for some scraps because hes hungry. This person comes in, and she has a roast. She has wine. She has cheeses and spices, and theyre living large. Man, theyre eating and laughing, toasting and drinking. Everything is wonderful, and these poor Christians were looking at those people; and they wouldnt share. They were gorging themselves. They wouldnt look around and say, Well, do you need something too? Can I help you? They would just eat this meal and care only about themselves. Some would come to the love feast hungry and leave hungry. Some would come to the love feast full and leave even fuller. This was not what the church was to be about. This is something that made the Apostle Paul very angry. Hes going to write them and give them a piece of his mind here in Verse 17 (page 1136). He says, In the following directives, I have no praise for you. For your meetings do more harm than good. How about that? Youre better off not having church. You do more harm than good. In the first place… If you say in the first place, that means theres probably going to be a second and a third place. He has some points to make. In the first place, I hear that when you come to church, there are divisions among you. Youre not just the Body of Christ. Youre all these little segments and sects. To some extent, I believe it. No doubt there has to be differences among you to show which of you have Gods approval. Now understand, friends, thats sarcasm. Paul is saying, Well, of course, we have to have the visions. Of course, we have to have the haves or the have nots because we have to know who Gods favorites are. Of course! We know that the rich God loves more. The people who have an abundance-God must love them more. Thats why hes blessed them more. Of course we have to have the visions because after all, thats how we tell who God really likes. So theres sarcasm in that statement. He says in the next verse, When you come together, it is not the Lords Supper you eat… Oh, yeah, yeah it is. Yeah, its the Lords Supper. No it isnt. It might be your supper, but its not the Lords Supper. Im going to tell you in a little bit what the Lords Supper looks like, but what youre doing isnt the Lords Supper. …for as you eat, each of you goes ahead without waiting for anyone else. One remains hungry, another gets drunk. Excess. While some dont have any, one is eating and drinking to the point of excess. Dont you have homes to eat and drink in? Of do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? When youre home, its all about you; but when you are at the church, its about us. What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you for this? Certainly not! Pauls ashamed of their behavior. Then he goes on and talks of the text well read in a little while, For I have received to you… Let me tell you what the Supper really is supposed to be about and look like. Verse 27, Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. You come to this communion, and you totally neglect the church. You neglect your brothers and sisters. You have sinned against Christ. A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. What is he speaking of here? Who is the body? The body was the church. When you ignore the needs that are around you, you turn a deaf ear and a blind eye to the needs of the hurting, to the needs of the helpless, to the needs of the vulnerable, guess what? You are bringing judgment upon yourself. Verse 30, That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep, or died. Some people have read that passage and said, Oh, well we have to be careful. If we dont take communion the right way, God might strike you dead or God might make you sick. Friends, this is not a passage about God being a child abuser. This is not a passage about God abusing His children. This is a very practical teaching. Paul is saying, Look, there are people around you that are sick because theyre not eating. In fact, there are people around you not getting the basics of life, and its causing them to die. Isnt it sad that people become so hungry that they have to die; but isnt it even more tragic that its happening right under your noses, and youre not doing anything about it. Youre letting it happen. Maybe the New Testament Church is not as perfect as we thought it was. Maybe they had some blemishes too. Maybe they were made up of self-centered people just like you and me. That is why many sleep. For if we were to judge ourselves, we would not come under judgment. When we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world. So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for each other. Dont put yourself first. Its not every man for himself. We are doing this in community. I have to tell you something-some of us are really getting that message. I dont think theres ever been a time in our church where there have been more individuals loving, serving and giving. Im seeing it across the board. Guess whats happening? Youre growing. Youre growing because you first reached up. God changed your heart, so you reached out; and when you reached out, you were filled with the Spirit and changed from within. If you start with the within; all youre doing is robbing yourself, robbing others and robbing God. Thats not the way God designed it to work. Up, out, in. We climb it together. We climb it in community. The first century church struggled with the same problems, and Paul says, Open your eyes to the needs that are around you. We dont have a love feast. We dont have a big meal every time we have communion. You know what? We can do the same thing in our lifestyle. We can leave this place and live self-centered lives, putting ourselves first and doing the same thing the church in Corinth did. So where are you? Where is your focus? Is it up first or in first? Is it out? Talking about my need for help and helping those behind me-thats your decision to make. Would you join me in prayer? Father, we thank You for the teaching of Your Word. We see that its one another. Were called to teach one another, to admonish one another, to sing, to pray, to give, to help, to encourage one another, Lord, so I want to pray for those in isolation, for those whove left the community, that theyd come back. I pray that theyd not have that same consumer mindset when it comes to the church. When a consumer doesnt like something, they move on. They try another product. They go another place. Thats not what the church is to be. Its a place where we work through our problems. Its a place where we serve together. We help one another through obstacles. We help one another through the strong current. Together we climb towards the upward goal of Heaven. We follow the voice of our Savior, our Lord, as He leads and as He instructs. As we do that, we grow; we progress. Lord, as we come to this communion time, we remember the One who said that the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, to give His life as ransom for many. We recognize this communion commemorates the ultimate sacrifice, the ultimate in loving, serving and giving. Prepare our hearts now to receive of Your body. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
Pastor Jeff Williams: November 22, 2009 Meet the Ephesians, Part XIII: Blocking the Son.
How many of you can do an imitation, somebody whose voice you can do? Nobody? Okay, Im not going to call on you and ask you to do your imitation here. When I was a little boy, my first impression was Louie Armstrong. I remember meeting Louie Armstrong at a fair when he came to Rockford, jumping over a fence and going to meet him. My family used to laugh at me when Id do, Hello, Dolly. This is Louis, Dolly. What a wonderful world. Im doing a concert tonight, so come on back, but it says in the Bible here that we are called to imitate God. Ephesians 5:1 (page 1159 of pew Bibles)-imitate God. How do you imitate God? Have you thought about that? I mean do you speak in a booming voice in King James? Is that how you imitate God? Do you talk like this to imitate God? Thank you, Jim. Bless thee. How do you imitate God? Do you go around smiting people or what do you do? What does it mean to imitate God-because thats who were called to be like? He says, Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love… So he defines imitating God as living a life of love because that makes sense, doesnt it? If God is love, therefore, if we live a life of love-because God is love-we are therefore imitating God. When we live a life of love, Gods power is released in our lives, and change takes place. Now Im going to have these two glasses represent two different lives. This glass over here represents a person who really is just consumed with themselves, really consumed with their priorities, their agenda, and their need. Theyre pretty self-centered, and that really is the natural inclination of all of us, isnt it? You dont have to teach your child to be selfish. You have to teach your child to share, but you dont have to teach your child to be selfish. They come around to being selfish quite naturally, dont they? But this represents a life where maybe you know the Lord. Youve trusted in Christ, but youre really not living for Him. Youre pretty much living for yourself, and as far as spiritually-speaking, youre not passionate about the things of God. We would not characterize your life as living a life of love. This glass over here is going to represent a person who loves the Lord and is passionate about the things of God. You use the expression, They are on fire, in their faith. This tea bag is going to represent the Holy Spirit. Its going to represent the power and the change the Holy Spirit wants to bring in our lives. When I put it in this glass, youre going to notice over time that the change over here is barely noticeable. The change in this glass, where the heart is passionate about the things of God and is living a life of love, youre going to notice that its going to begin to change the water. The waters actually going to become something entirely different. Its going to be transformed; its going to be changed because when we live a life of love and were passionate about the things of God and about the things God cares for, we cannot help but to be changed. When we are changed, we become literally different people. We are not the same people we were before. The Holy Spirit begins to permeate, fill and change your life; and when He changes your life, that begins to change the lives of other people. We change the temperature of this church. We raise the temperature of this church. So that we grow in our passion and our love for God, we change this church. We change this church; we change our community, and we are doing that. You are having a part in doing that. But which of these glasses here characterizes you? You know the same bag is in both; but in one its making a tremendous impact and making a tremendous difference. In the other, its hardly doing anything. The Holy Spirit can reside within a person who is barely making an impact in the world because their heart is cold to the things of God. That same Holy Spirit in a life that is on fire for God is going to change and is going to make an impact. Whats the temperature of your heart today? Is it a heart that is cold, or is it a heart that is on fire for God, is in love with God and passionate about the things of God. Thats my goal today-as you say, This is me-that we can raise the heat. We can turn up the heat. If you say, Well, this is me. Im really on fire for God! I really love the Lord! then this message will encourage you to keep up the good work. What does it look like to live a life of love? Its said if youre imitating God, youre going to live a life of love. What does that look like? The next verse says, …just as Christ loved us and gave Himself for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. The result of his love was He did what? He gave. In the Book of Matthew 20:28 (page 977 of pew Bibles), Jesus utters a purpose statement. Hes telling us what Hes about. Hes defining Himself. Hes defining His mission. He says in Chapter 20:28, …just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many. So a life of love is characterized by two qualities, two gauges, two measurements: servanthood and giving; so love is action; love is demonstrated; love is a choice. It is not a feeling. It is not an emotion. Living a life of love does not mean you be gooey, syrupy, or a sweet, fake kind-of-thing. It is a life that is spent in service. It is a life that is spent in giving. It is a life that is faithful and honoring to God. Its a decision you make. What does God say in James 4:8 (page 1198, although Pastor is paraphrasing)? He says, Draw near to Me, and I will..? Draw near to you. God says, If you take a step of faith towards Me, I will move towards you. So this is not something we manufacture in and of ourselves. To imitate God is not something you can do in and of yourself. It is a cooperative team effort. As I cooperate with the Holy Spirit, as I move towards Him, He works in my life as well. You know, this is not the way it was for the Ephesians. This is a radical change for them. When it came to matters of faith for the Ephesians, it was an entirely different story; so Paul is having to relearn them. He is having to teach them anew because their religion was not about relationships. Their religion was not about relationship. Their religion was about certain hoops that they would go through. We see in the banner over here, hes holding up a statue. Of course, the statue of Artemis was much bigger than that. We have it; its in one of the museums. We can go and look at it, but she was the fertility goddess. Her name was Diana-Artemis. She was worshipped in all of Asia Minor. It was one of the Seven Wonders of the World. You would come to Artemis, and you would pray to her. You would give gifts to her. You would say certain spells and incantations, hopefully, that Artemis would give you a lot of children and healthy children, that she would give you a good harvest, and that she would give you a successful hunt. So I say the right things; I do the right things. Other than that, it doesnt matter how you live. As long as youve gone to the Temple and as long as youve taken care of the ceremony and ritual, then hopefully Artemis will take care of your needs. So when they came to Christ, Paul had to train them to say, Thats not the way it is. God is not an idol. God is the living God. He is a person, and He wants to have a relationship with you, so how you live does matter. We talked in Ephesians 4 last week about things that cause your heart to be cold-things like unforgiveness-things like unwholesome words that proceed out of your mouth that tear people down, a selfishness and deceit. Those things keep your heart cold. Then he talked about forgiveness, and he talked about giving. He talked about serving, and he talked about speaking words that edify, that keep passion for God strong in our lives and keep life change happening. Notice theres some change here. Its not that this is void of change, but nowhere near the change, nowhere near the impact of the heart that is on fire for God. So Paul is telling them, Look, God is a person, and it matters how you live. You cannot just simply say, If I say this ritual, if I say this incantation, if I give this gift, then the goddess will bless my life. Yet, there are some Christians who do that same thing with Christianity. If I just say this confession… If I just give this… If I just give this… If I just do that, then Gods going to bless my life. It doesnt matter how I live; it doesnt matter about my attitude; the Bible says, God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap. Since God is a person, ritual and ceremony are not the ways that we please Him. What pleases Him is a life thats lived in love. So some people want the blessing of God, but they think they can have the blessing of God without the passion, without living a life of love. I want the blessing of God, but yet I want to live for myself, and it doesnt work that way. It doesnt work that way. In the Book of 1 Samuel 7 (page 268), if youll turn there, were going to look at a story in the Old Testament this morning about a people who thought they could use God. They thought they could have Gods blessing without having a heart for God, without having a passion for the things of God. While youre finding 1 Samuel 7, I want to tell you the story of whats going on. Israel is now in the Promised Land that Moses had promised them. Joshua has led them into it. They received a command to not turn to the right or the left, to follow the commands of God and not follow after the other gods; but they did. Right now, their lives were characterized by compromise. They did not worship the true God, yet they wanted the God of Heavens blessing. They were following after the foreign gods and worshipping the foreign gods. They had a period of whats called the judges where they were led not by a king, not by David or Solomon or Saul, but they were lead by these charismatic leaders who God would raise up and deliver them because their lives would be characterized by sin. They would cry out to God, and then God would send a deliverer. Then things would be okay, and then theyd fall right back into the same patterns. Then theyd cry for mercy. God would raise up a judge, a deliverer and deliver them from their oppression, from their enemies. Things would be great. Then theyd fall back in the same spiral of sin, and it was just a cyclical pattern. Some of you might say, Well, that sounds familiar to me. That's my life. Thats the way it is. So here they are. There is a man by the name of Eli, and he is a judge. Hes also the high priest. He has two sons that are knuckleheads. These guys just dont have a clue. Not only do they seem like they dont have too much going on, they are corrupt. They are corrupt in how they misuse the temple offerings. They are corrupt in their having sexual relationships with all kinds of women. Its bad. Their father tries to correct them, but these guys-they dont want to be corrected. Theyre just an embarrassment to their father, an embarrassment to God. So they go to war, and these two guys lead them into battle. Theyre going to fight the Philistines. You remember the Philistines, David and Goliath. This is before that. So they fight the Philistines, and it goes terribly. They lose 4,000 men in this battle. It does not go well. They come home with their tales between their legs; and theyre like, We got defeated. Were supposed to be the people of God. If God is with us, how can we lose to the Philistines? One of the sons, whose name is Phinehas-if you could pop that slide up for Brenda-says, I have a great idea. Lets go to Shiloh and get the Ark of the Covenant, and we will take the Ark of the Covenant in with us to battle. If we have the Ark of the Covenant, we cannot lose. We will win. You remember the Ark of the Covenant, right? They were looking at it like in the movie Indiana Jones, Raiders of the Lost Ark. Remember in the movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark, it was taught that lightning bolts shoot out of the Ark of the Covenant and consume the enemies. The Nazis open up the ark, in the movie-not in the Bible. They open up the ark, and ghosts fly out. The guys face melts and all that stuff. They start looking at the Ark of the Covenant like its some sort of a magic thing. It doesnt matter how we live. We can worship the foreign gods, but if we just bring the Ark with us, were going to win. Oh, that's a great idea. Fantastic idea! So they go and they get the Ark of the Covenant, and they march it on to battle. Oh, yeah! Were bringing the big guy now. Lets see if you can beat us now that weve got God here, the Ark of the Covenant! Youre going down! They start shouting at the top of their lungs. I mean just making this tremendous roar like a team that has their star player come on the field. Then you start to cheer; its like, Youre going to get it now, man! We have the big guy here. When the Philistines hear this, they go, Whats going on? Why is Israel shouting? They were just defeated by us. Why are they shouting? Why are they so confident? Why are they so arrogant? They go out in the field, and they find out that the Ark of the Covenant is there. The spies go back to the Philistines as they go, Were in trouble, man! Theyve got reinforcements. They go, How many? Its not a matter of how many. Its who. Theyve got their gods with them! No way! The God of Israel had a reputation. He was the same God that had triumphed over Pharaoh in Egypt, the most powerful civilization at the time. They knew those stories. They knew about the Ark of the Covenant. They were like, What chance do we have against a God? We are doomed. Were going to lose because they have a God! You know what? We have a god too, so well call to our god. Hopefully our god will lead and triumph over their God, but you have to fight like youve never fought before-even if they have that Ark there. So there stands the Ark of the Covenant. Its gold; its glimmering in the sunshine. They just know theyre going to win, and the battle is on. What do you think happens? You think God is going to allow them to just use Him like that? You think Gods going to say, Well, you know, you can forget about Me, and you can worship other gods; but as long as youre bringing the Ark of the Covenant in this battle, Im going to have to win it for you. It doesnt work that way. Not only are they defeated, but they lose 30,000 men-30,000 men! God says, Im not going to have any part of that. Dont think Me for a fool. Dont think you can live any way you want to live and be cold and insensitive towards My commands and then want My blessing too. Its not going to work that way. So they are defeated soundly. Elis sons are killed in the battle, and the Ark of the Covenant is taken into enemy hands. The Philistines take it. It becomes part of their prize for defeating Israel. News is brought back to Eli, the high priest. He says, How did it go in the Battle, and how is the Ark of the Covenant? Hes nervous about it. Thats his job as the high priest-to watch over the Ark of the Covenant, and he lets his sons talk him into letting it go out into battle. Hes nervous about it. That's his job. They said, The battle went terrible. We lost thousands of men. Your two sons are dead. He said, What of the Ark of the Covenant? They said, The Ark of the Covenant is in the hands of the enemy. Its been taken. Eli falls over in his chair, breaks his neck and dies. His daughter-in-law is there-Phinehas wife-and she is pregnant. She is so traumatized by the loss of her father-in-law and by the loss of her husband that she goes in to labor. The labor is not going well. She gives birth to a son, and she is just grieving over whats going on. The midwives are trying to console her, trying to comfort her and say, Its okay. Youve a healthy baby boy! She will not be consoled. She says, His name is Ichabod, for the glory of the Lord has left Israel. She names her son Ichabod, meaning no glory, and she dies. This is a really sad story. Its really a dark time in Israel. Its this period of Ichabod. Its this period of no glory. Theres no Ark of the Covenant. Its like Gods presence-it was a way… Even though God didnt live in the Ark of the Covenant because He is God, it represented His presence with them; and now that is gone. Israel feels alone. Israels God is in a foreign land. Now, well get back to Israel in a second, but I want to tell you what happens with the Ark of the Covenant because its not related to our subject matter, but it is interesting. I find it a little bit humorous as well. The Philistines take the Ark of the Covenant, and theyre thinking, Our god just scored a knock-out and defeated the God of the Israelites, so now we have this cool golden Ark of the Covenant. Lets just take it home. They put it next to their fertility god, whose name is Dagon. Dagon is a god-we have a slide for that as well for Brenda. Dagon is the fertility god who has a mans face, a mans hands but kind a fish-like body. Hes kind of the male equivalent of Artemis of the Ephesians. They put the Ark of the Covenant next to Dagon. When the priests of Dagon arrive the next morning, Dagon is lying next to the Ark of the Covenant on the ground. Well, how did that happen? How in the world did Dagon get on the ground like this? They cant figure it out, so they pick the idol back up. They put it back on its pedestal. They go about their priestly activities. The next morning, they come in. Dagon is on the ground again, only this time his head is removed and his arms are removed. He has no power. He is a helpless Dagon, and he is lying there on the ground. Nobody did that, right? Nobodys going to dare do that. They look at the Ark of the Covenant, and they look at the decapitated Dagon; and they say, Uh-oh. We have to get this thing out of here. We think our gods greater than this God, but now were not so sure. Then things start to happen physically to the people. They start to get tumors, and its not good. Theyre like, We have to get rid of this Ark of the Covenant, and it ends up going back to Israel. They said, Take this thing. We dont want it! They march it out of their city, and theyre like, Here! People are dying. Idols are getting maimed. No! You take this back. It ends up going to a young man by the name of Eleazar. It stays at his home. This young man watches this for about 20 years. Israel is going through this period of Ichabod, this period of no glory. When you are in this state where youre living for yourself, youre doing whatever you want to do, and youre disregarding the things of God, its fun for a while; but after a while, its not fun anymore. After a while, that kind of life takes its toll, and you start to reap what youve sown. You think, I remember when we were on fire for God. I remember, and you want to change. So they start to desire the Lord. They start to want to live for God. Samuel goes, I can work with this because the principal of draw near to God and He will draw near to you was just as true back then as it is now, so Samuel has a word of counsel. Samuel the Prophet speaks to them in Verse 3 of Chapter 7 (page 268). And Samuel said to the whole house of Israel, If you are returning to the Lord with all your hearts, then rid yourselves of the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths and commit yourselves to the Lord and serve Him only, and He will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines. So the Israelites put away their Baals and Ashtoreths, and served the Lord only. What did they do? They decided to live a life of love. Were going to serve God. Were going to serve God because its the right thing to do. Were not going to serve God because we want victory in the battle, but were going to serve God because we love Him, because we miss His presence and His love. We miss His blessing-because Hes worthy of our praise. Samuel, youre right. Were going to live for God. They take this compromise, these idols, and they destroy them. They say, Were going to worship the God of Heaven. Remember how they were so cocky and arrogant when they were living ungodly lives and they brought the Ark of the Covenant to the battlefield and get pummeled? They were so cocky and arrogant, and this time they are humble and meek. They say to Samuel, Pray for us. We dont have the ability to beat the Philistines. Pray for us that God will be with us. We dont want to live subservient to the Philistines any longer. Verse 12, Then Samuel took a stone… I will tell you the story. They fight the Philistines, and this time they triumph. This time they win. Samuel takes a stone, and he says, We will name this place Ebenezer, for God has been with us and helped us. He names the place Ebenezer, which means rock of help or stone of help. Would you say your life is characterized by Ichabod or by Ebenezer? Would you say your life is characterized by a life that is passionate for God or a life where the glory of God seems like it has departed. What would you say? Ichabod or Ebenezer? Some of you recognize that name-Ebenezer because of The Christmas Carol. You watched Ebenezer Scrooge. Every Christmas I watch The Christmas Carol. Its just one of our family traditions. It just gets me in the mood for the season. What happens to Ebenezer? When he starts off his life, hes really an Ichabod. Hes living for himself. He is a miser; hes greedy; hes selfish. He turns a blind eye to the needs of the poor. He turns a deaf ear to the cry for help, and he lives only for himself. He begins to see the consequences. He is shown visions of his past, of his present, and of his future; and he sees the direction his life is heading, and he starts to have an awakening. Ebenezer says, Im going to live up to my name. Im going to live a life of love. Im going to change. Im going to become a giver. Im going to become a servant, and Ebenezer changes and is transformed into a new person; and he changes his community and impacts lives. Its my prayer for you this morning that if you say, Im an Ichabod. Theres no glory in my life, its my prayer for you today that youll receive the Lord, Jesus Christ, that youll give your life fully to Him. If youre already received the Spirit of God, you will make a choice to take a step toward Him, that He might draw near to you and say, I want to live for the things of God and not for myself. Heres the deal: when you live for God, you get everything else thrown in, Seek ye first the kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you. Seek all these things, and you miss everything, but seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and then all these things will be added unto you. When they sought the Lord, their God, all the blessings of God came with it. When they lived for themselves, they experienced the consequences of that decision as well. Would you join me in prayer this morning? Father, our time together goes so quickly. As I look at the clock, it seems like we had just begun. Its already time for us to go. Yet, I pray that the words of this Scripture, the meaning of this story, will last long beyond our time here today. Paul was trying to get the church in Ephesus to wake up, to realize the great potential that they had, that if they would live a life of love, characterized by service and giving, that You would transform them and that they would transform their world. The same message was communicated by Samuel to the children of Israel, Devote yourself fully to God. Remove that from your life, which is compromise, which is self-centered, which is causing you to be defeated. Draw near to God that He can draw near to you. I pray today for those who have not yet received Christ Jesus as Lord, that this morning they would take that step of faith and receive the Gospel, invite You into their lives-the good news of Christ. I pray for those who name the name of Christ today, whose faith has grown cold. I pray that You would rekindle a fire in their hearts, that Your Holy Spirit, that the influence of Your Spirit, would begin to permeate every aspect of their lives, that they would change. Lord, for those of us who are living for You and are passionate about the things of God, that we could not grow weary in well-doing, that we would press on and persevere and allow You to live through us. In Jesus name, we pray, Amen. Amen.
Good morning to you. How many of you when you were growing up had somebody that you emulated and said, I want to be like this person? because they did what you wanted to do. They did it really well, and you wanted to be like them. How many of you fell pretty willfully short when it came down to it? My favorite sport is basketball, and when I was growing up, my favorite player was a man by the name of Walk Frazier who played for the New York Knicks in the 70s when they were the world champs; so I wanted to be like Walt Clyde Frazier. Well, number one Walt Clyde Frazier is African American, so that was a challenge for me. He was also very rich and drove a Rolls Royce. That was a challenge for me. I could not run, jump, shoot like him, or play defense like him; but there were a couple things I tried to emulate. One was I always put on his number, so number 10 was everywhere-you know, my shirts. When I played sports, I would try to wear number 10 if possible. Then I tried to keep my cool because Walt would always keep his cool. There could be chaos around him, and Walt would be cool. One time somebody grabbed his jersey and pulled on it. Walt didnt retaliate; he just made his free throws and went on and scored 30 points on the guy. Walt was just the epitome of cool; so as I got into playing in high school and college, I tried to just be cool all the time as far as keeping my cool and composure no matter what the ref called-no matter what other players might do. If you were at church a week or so ago, you found out that Ive not kept that vow beyond that. I tried to be like Walt, but I fell woefully short of that goal. You might say, Well, I wish I could be as cool as Clint Eastwood. I wish I could invest like Warren Buffett. I wish I could dance like this person; sing like that person; draw or paint like this person; act like that person; look like this person; run as fast as or be as strong as, you fill in the blanks with whom that person is in your life. Now if youre a golfer today-do we have any golfers this morning? Anybody like to play golf? A few of you. Now, most golfers today-if you would say, Who would you like to play golf like, their response is probably going to be Tiger Woods right? We have a gentleman that agreed to an interview and told us a little bit about his desire to play golf like Tiger Woods, so were going to watch right now what he has to say as he talks about the player that he emulates the most, so lets listen. [You can view the clip here: http://www.sermonspice.com/product/19156/like-tiger.] What Id like you to do is envision, imagine, that youre a golfer, and imagine that you had an inner Tiger when you played golf; and I have to be careful how I talk here because I dont play golf, so I could easily sound pretty stupid up here. Imagine that youre teeing off and youve got this inner Tiger, but its still you-same body, same personality, and same set of clubs. Its still you but youve got an inner tiger, and you can draw on Tigers experience. When you get ready to hit the shot, youll know what club to use. When you see the lay of the green, you can find out what angle to hit the ball and how to compensate for the wind. When you get in a sand trap, [you can think], What club should I use to get out of this, and how should I angle my swing? When Im puting, how do I adjust my shot to the lay of the green? Using his knowledge and using his wisdom and drawing from them, how many of you think if you had an inner Tiger, if you play golf-even though it was still you, that you would be a better golfer if you could call on his experience and wisdom? A few of you do. You would be-take my word for it-you would be a better golfer. You would have wisdom and discernment. You could use his knowledge for technique and all of that if you had in inner Tiger. The bad news is you dont have an inner Tiger if you play golf. The good news is that if you today have put your faith and trust in the living God, through the Lord Jesus Christ, you have the Holy Spirit inside of you. The Holy Spirit, Jesus says in John 14, will be with you, and He will be in you-in you. He said, I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you; so if we have the Holy Spirit, we have the presence of Christ in our lives. Whats more? In 1 Corinthians 2:16, Paul says that we have the mind of Christ-the mind of Christ-if you are in Christ today. How many times do we start our day-we walk out and we dont know what sand traps lie ahead of us? We dont know what challenges [are coming]. Is it going to be a great day today, or are there going to be a lot of challenges that were going to face? We start that day and we dont call upon the Lord for His wisdom; we dont call upon Him for discernment; we dont call upon Him for direction; we dont call upon Him for strength. We simply go out and just hack away at the day. It makes about as much sense as if you were playing golf and had an inner Tiger and didnt utilize it, didnt talk to him, didnt take advantage of his years of experience and his knowledge of the game. Were going to talk this morning about having the Holy Spirit in this whole process that we call sanctification. We are still in our series on Ephesians, and we will get there this morning. I promise you we will open up Ephesians, but we have a little ground to cover. Were going to kind of take that path that we saw for the golf ball to get there (from the clip). Salvation-deliverance-is something that happens to us instantaneously. The moment you put your faith, trust and hope in Jesus Christ, the Bible says, Your sins are forgiven, and the penalty of sin, which is death, has been removed, because it was placed upon Christ; so that is complete. There is nothing you can add to it or take away from it; it is complete. However the process of salvation or of sanctification is a fancy word… Sometimes we say discipleship or becoming spiritually mature; however you want to phrase it, that is a lifelong process and very much a partnership. A cooperative effort between the work of God in our lives and our effort, our will, our energies-working toward the common goal of becoming like Christ. Now I said how many of you have somebody you emulate, somebody you desire to be like, and hands went up. I would hope that if I were to say the same thing, How many of you would seek to be like Jesus? hands would go up. We would all say, Well, Id love to be like the Lord. God wants you to be like Him too. He has given you His spirit to work within your life, to bring about that very goal; but it is a process. It is not simply us sitting back and saying, Okay, God, Ive received Your Son. By faith, make me like You. And then youd wait. Nor is it God being a spectator while you work really hard, and He just kind of watches. The Bible says, It is a team effort. The Book of Philippians 2 talks about that very thing. We see in Philippians 2 the will of man and the will of God both working in harmony towards a common goal. Verse 12 of Philippians 2, (page 1162 of pew Bibles), Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed-not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence-continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling… Notice he doesnt say, Work for your salvation. He says, Work out your salvation. You are saved. Its something you possess; its something you have. However, there is still much to do. We still very much live in our flesh. We still live in a fallen world, and theres still a tempter; so we have opposition. We have an inner struggle, an inner conflict; so there are things we must work out. He says to do so with fear and trembling. That means to do so with a somber attitude; realize that theres much to be done, and we have to take that seriously. Its not going to just happen without our effort or cooperation. Verse 13 says, …for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose. So God is our partner, and God is working in us. Now in the Bible, the word work looks to be the same in Verse 12 and Verse 13; but in the Greek its a different word. The first word work in Verse 12 means to work on something, like if youre working on a project. Maybe Im going to repair something or fix something. You might say, Well, Im going to work on the house today. Im going to work in the garage today. Im going to work on the car today. Its that word work. It means to put forth the energy, to put forth an effort, to be diligent in a goal. That's the first word work. The work that is used of God is a different word in Verse 13 where it says, …for it is God who works in you… Its the word energeo. What does that sound like? Energy, right? Its the word we get energy from. It means to energize, to provide the spark, to provide the charge, to add something that we cannot do ourselves; so it says God provides the energy, the strength-even the goal itself comes from Him, to carry out this mission of Christ-likeness. I went into the boiler room, and I got a chemical here. Its called Krud Kutter. Somebody from our church purchased this at one time. Now when they bought it, it was like this. It was done. The mix was complete. They didnt have to add to it or take away from it. When they bought Krud Kutter, it was ready to use. They didnt have to go into a laboratory, put all these chemicals together, mix them all up, risk blowing things up or causing a fire or something, killing themselves. They bought it ready to go. They didnt have to experiment to get the chemicals just right. Krud Kutter came just the way it is, and so it is with our salvation. Our salvation comes to us complete. Theres nothing we can add to it, nothing we can take away from it. The wonderful thing is it was purchased for us. God purchased your salvation. You didnt purchase it. It is the gift of God. Its not something you work for or earn. It is the gift of God. Now lets say I have some crud. I have a stain. The way Krud Kutter works is Ive got a stain on my table that I just happen to really have a stain, believe it or not, for real up here. Now the way I think it works is you just take this bottle of Krud Kutter, and you place it on the crud like that; and that should do it, right? Isnt that all you have to do? No. That's not how it works, is it? I lift this up, and its still on there. What do I have to do? I have to number one, apply the Krud Kutter and squirt it out. There it is. Now what happens? Is that all I have to do? I just apply it on there, and its done. Is that right? No. What I do is I let it work a little bit, right? It starts to bubble and it starts to work. It works at this molecular level. It starts to break down these bonds and the chemical reactions are going on-stuff that I dont understand is happening at the very fiber of that stain, the very core of that stain. Its starting to dissolve and break down. Its starting to do for me what I cannot do myself, and that is to break down and remove that stain. Then once it is broken down, then I have something to do, dont I? I have to put in some elbow grease, and I have to actually take a rag or towel and begin to wipe that away. I maybe have to even put a little effort behind that. Now some stains come off really easily, and some stains are really hard. Some stains I have to work at for a while. I might need to use Krud Kutter a second or a third time to really get that stain off. Now Im not endorsing Krud Kutter. I dont know about this product. I would consider endorsing them if they paid me, even if it doesnt work; so you work on that. How many of you have some crud in your lives right now? Yeah, boy, what a messy group this morning. Youve got some crud on your soul, right? So salvation is complete, but we must apply that salvation; and we do that by faith. Now heres the good news. The good news is because the Spirit of God lives in you, and theres nothing greater than the Spirit of God. Theres nothing that is too great for the power of God to remove. If you have decided that this is not something you want in your life-this crud, this sin-this stain is not something you want, and you put your effort behind that, cooperate with the Holy Spirit, you acknowledge that sin, and you repent of that sin… Repentance means to say the same thing that God says about sin. You repent of it. Ask God to remove it. Heres the good news. It doesnt stand a chance. If theres sin in the life of the believer, its not because God is incapable of removing it. Its because you dont want it removed. I promise you if you want it removed-and youre serious about wanting it removed-and you apply Gods grace to that area and then with your own effort as you work on it, God works in and through to begin to dissolve, break it down and remove it from your life. Jesus said, The Son of Man has come that you might be free. That's the wonderful news. What Paul is saying here that were going to read in Ephesians 4 is not a self-help kind of a manual. Its not Paul saying, Look, you need to remove this. You need to remove that. You need to remove this, because hes going to be talking about removing crud as we will see in Ephesians 4. Its not Paul being a motivational speaker and saying, Okay, guys, you can do it! You know, just try harder. Just do more! Just work at it more diligently, and you can remove all these things from your lives! Pauls not saying that. Look at Verse 25 of Ephesians 4 (page 1158 of pre Bibles). Ephesians 4:25 begins with the word therefore. Whenever you see the word therefore, you need to find out what it is there for. Why did he say therefore? He said, Therefore each of you must put off… Hes going to start talking about crud removal here. Its therefore because of Verse 23 that Verse 25 can be a reality. What does Verse 32 say? …to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. Paul is saying being aware of the presence of God; acknowledging the presence of God; inviting God to work; inviting God to energize you; inviting God to use His power and His grace in your life and apply it to that crud-to remove that crud. That is what the Word of God is saying. Therefore because of this, its not just simply your willpower. Its not simply your effort. Its because you have God living inside of you and the person of the Holy Spirit that enables you to carry this out. If youve never committed your life to Christ and you do not have the Holy Spirit, friends, you are in this struggle on your own. You are doing it in your flesh of your own strength and your own might, and its probably not working very well. In fact, I know its not working well. Youre tripping on the same rock over and over and over again. Its like that guy on the golf course. He has the inner Tiger Woods, but he fails to acknowledge him. She fails to ask for direction and discernment in leadership and just goes ahead, plays the course and hacks away with her own wisdom, strength and might; and it doesnt work out. The Lord wants to partner with you to bring about this Christ-likeness in your life. Now were going to read through the list, and youre going to see some crud thats in your life. I promise you. As we read through this list, youre going to identify and say, Oh, yeah, that, thats me. Yeah, Im dealing with that. Now youre not dealing with the whole list, but youre going to be able to identify with some of them. Verse 25, Therefore each of you must put of falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body. The first thing he deals with is the issue of honesty and honesty in the way we speak. He says if you struggle with that-if you dont speak truthfully, maybe you tell outright lies or white lies or you exaggerate-he says you need to speak the truth. Maybe you withhold information. Whatever it is, speak truthfully to one another because we belong to Christ, because the Spirit of God is working within us, we can put off deceit. We can learn to speak truthfully to each other. In your anger, do not sin. Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry… Some of you have problems with anger, your emotions, and rage; and the Word of God deals with that. He says, Listen, you can get those emotions in check. Jesus was always under control, wasnt He? You never see Jesus in a hurry. You never see Him out of control, but the Spirit of the living God resides within you. You can bring those emotions into check. If you dont, Paul reminds us that it gives the enemy an opportunity. He will use anger. He will use rage. He says, …do not give the devil a foothold, Verse 27. He will use that anger against us. He who has been stealing must steal no longer, and must work, doing something useful with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with those in need. You can rob from your employer in a lot of ways. You cannot do your job when nobody is looking, take some time off and do some other things. You can take from your employer in a lot of different ways. You can steal from the government with your taxes. You can steal from God. There are a lot of ways you can steal. You dont just have to rob a bank to steal, friends. You can steal in a lot of different ways. He said, With the Spirit of God working in us, we become generous instead of selfish, giving instead of hoarding. Verse 29, Do not let unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. What does unwholesome talk mean? Hes talking about words that are the opposite of words that build up, words that edify. Unwholesome words means words that are corrupt, words that tear down. They can be outright ridicule, or it can be something more subtle-gossip is words that tear down. When you malign someones character, those are words that tear down. He said, …so out of your mouth should come words that build up. If out of your mouth come words that are retaliatory, words that are vengeful, words that are meant to hurt, retaliation always leads to escalation. Keep that in mind. Retaliation always leads to escalation. He says, What should come out of your mouth are words that lead to reconciliation, words that lead to peace, words that lead to a solution because the Spirit of God is in you, the words that come out of your mouth can be words that edify and build up. Notice Paul is dealing with every aspect of the human existence. Hes talking about our lives ethically; hes talking about our lives morally; emotionally; physically; socially-every aspect of our experience, Paul is dealing with here. [Verse 30], And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. He says when were working against what the Spirit of God is doing in our lives, we grieve the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not an it. The Holy Spirit is not a force. The Holy Spirit is a person, the person of the Holy Spirit. Have you ever tried to help somebody, and they work against you? Maybe youve been trying to give advice to a child because you see the direction theyre going or a student, and they actually go the opposite way. Maybe its a spouse; maybe its a co-worker, and youre sharing something thats helpful. Instead of listening to you and doing what you say, theyre doing the exact opposite; and you know it leads to destruction. What does it cause you? Grief. It causes you grief, and you go, Ugh! You just shake your head and you go, I guess theyre going to have to learn the hard way. That says we grieve the Holy Spirit. There are times in your life when the Holy Spirit has said, Man… I dont know if the Holy Spirit actually says man, but Hes grieved (congregation laughing). Paul says, Dont grieve the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is working with you. Its like that inner Tiger we talked about-the inner Tiger Woods-if you had it on the golf course-and he says, Make sure you grab your nine iron on this shot, and you grab your putter. You hack away at the ball, and it goes terrible. Your inner Tiger goes, Ahh! What are you doing? Why dont you listen? …do not grieve the Holy Spirit. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. Because the Holy Spirit is inside of you-through the Holy Spirit-we receive forgiveness. Weve received pardon and redemption. Because that Spirit is in you, youve become forgiving. Youve become people of grace. Youve become people who release debt. You dont become people who hold a grudge because what happens is that anger, bitterness, and resentment will eat you up inside. You have to release that. Did you ever see the documentary, Super Size Me? It was about the guy who lived on McDonalds. Did you see that? Now McDonalds is okay. I like to go to McDonalds from time to time, but this guy lived on Big Macs and French fries day after day, three meals a day, week after week; he lived on McDonalds. He kept going to the doctor getting physicals. The stuff was killing him. It was killing him! It was turning his insides to mush. He said, Its not meant to be lived on. The grease, the salt, and the fat and all that, its going to hurt your pipes here. Paul is saying, Listen, if you harbor unforgiveness, resentment, bitterness. Its going to kill you slowly. Have you ever met a person who refuses to forgive, holds on to resentments and grudges for long enough? What does it do? It taints their whole world. It makes him a very unpleasant person to be around because theyre just consumed by this anger and this hatred. Paul says, You dont want to be like that. You dont need to be like that as a child of God. As God has forgiven you, you need to forgive. Its a decision you make by the grace and the help of God to get rid of that crud thats in your life. Now you said you have some crud in your life, and I believe you because I do too. Ive got crud. Were going to ask the Lord, and were going to say, Lord, you are the ultimate crud cutter. We want to apply our faith. We want to apply Your grace to that area of our lives. We commit, and its not just this prayer that were going to pray in a moment. Its not just that. Its committing yourself, your energy, your will as He supplies. Remember what God does? When we work on, He works in and through-dissolving, breaking apart; it is a process. It is a struggle that is our work, our efforts, but its also the Holy Spirit who is energizing us, helping us, and assisting us; and I want to tell you, church, I want to reiterate and say it again; if you are sick and tired of being sick and tired of an area of your life, you bring that to the cross this morning. Were going to ask for the help and strength of the Holy Spirit. Were going to ask that He would begin to dissolve and break that down, so as you work on it, you can start to see it improve and pretty soon see it removed. Thats good news. The bad news is theres always going to be a project to work on. Have you ever noticed that with your house? You get one thing done, but theres always something else to work on. It just never ends. So it is in our lives. Maybe youre working on anger issues; maybe youre working on forgiveness issues; maybe youre working on mouth/word issues; maybe youre working on honesty issues. Whatever it is, when you start to get a handle on something, theres going to be another area that needs your attention; but lets identify that area this morning. What is the biggest stain right now in your soul? Where is the most gunk and crud piled up? Thats what we want to identify as we pray and seek for Gods help in that area. Would you bow your heads with me in prayer? My first prayer this morning is for those of you who have never received or trusted in the Lord, Jesus Christ, and youre on this battle on your own. I want to pray for you this morning. Father, I pray today for those whove not received Christ, that they would put their faith and trust in You, that they might receive Your Spirit. I pray that they would pray this prayer with me: Heavenly Father, I come to You today in Jesus name. I confess my sin before You. I have done what is wrong. Ive done what is evil in Your sight, and I ask today for Your forgiveness. I pray that the Holy Spirit would come inside of me, energize me and empower me to live a right life. I believe in my heart that Jesus Christ is Lord, that He died on the cross for my sin, and that He rose again and conquered the grave. Because He lives, I shall live. I invite Him into my life. I want to partner with the Lord from here on out. In Jesus name, forgive my sins. Save my soul. If you prayed that prayer this morning, God has answered that prayer, and youve begun a spiritual journey. We focus our attention now on that journey. Lord, around this room today, we are a room today full of people with weaknesses and shortcomings. Lord, there have been times in our lives when we have rebelled against You and rebelled against Your commands. There are areas that we need to fix. There are areas we need to work on, but we know that we cannot do it of our own strength and mind. We cannot fix our heart spiritually any more than we can fix our heart physically. The greatest heart surgeon in the world cannot operate on his own heart. He needs outside intervention, and we need Your help and Your intervention. As I pray this prayer, I want You to focus on that crud. I want You to name that crud. Lord, I ask for Your forgiveness today. Confess that to Him all around the room today. All those who are listening, confess that sin to Him-that lust, the greed, the pride. Confess that act; confess those words; confess that omission. Lord, Your Word says Youre not only just to forgive us our sins, but to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. By faith we ask that through Your Holy Spirit, You would work in our hearts and lives to remove the sin, remove the stain, and remove the crud from our souls-that we might be cleansed. We want to partner with You. We want to put forth our effort, our thought processes, and our will to see that happen. Lord, were believing You for great things today in our hearts and lives. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
Its very true that we cant control a lot of times the cards that we have. What we can control is how we respond to them, what we do with the cards that weve been dealt. Were going to talk this morning about our will. Were going to talk about consequences. Were going to talk about decisions. If youve been following the news, you were probably as taken back as I was by the atrocities that happened at Fort Hood in Texas. A military psychiatrist went ballistic, killed 13 people-13 soldiers, and then was shot and is apparently going to recover. [Hes in] critical but stable condition. The irony is that his job was that of a military psychiatrist, trained to help his fellow soldiers cope with the stress of war. He was trained to help them through their problems, psychologically or emotionally, that they were struggling with. From all accounts, he seemed to be doing a reasonably good job, and yet he was conflicted inside. He felt like the war in Afghanistan and Iraq was a war against Islam; and he, being a Muslim, began to be vexed inside and troubled and then finally snapped and took innocent lives. You read the account of his activities the day he perpetrated that act. The words of kindness he spoke to his neighbors, the acts of generosity, the words that were spoken in love to the people in his life; and you wonder how a man like that could commit such atrocities. The truth of the matter is that all of us are capable of deeds of good and kindness; and all of us are capable of evil and darkness. God has given you and me a free will, and He has set before us life and death, blessings and curses. The Word of God encourages us to put on Christ, to put on the new self, which is made in His likeness; and thats what were going to talk about today. Were going to talk about the power of our choices, how we respond to cards that we have been given-whether we choose bitterness, resentment, forgiveness-whether we choose life or death. Lets turn in our Bibles to the Book of Ephesians 4:17(page 1158 of pew Bibles). Our series is called Meet the Ephesians, and were going through this Book, verse by verse, chapter by chapter. We last left off in Verse 17, and Paul is going to begin a new theme called living as children of the light. Verse 17 reads this way; Paul writes and says, So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in very kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more. He describes a very bleak picture. He describes a culture that had become desensitized to sin. If you recall, we were talking about historical background. The focal point of this community was the worship of the fertility goddess, Artemis. Shes represented in a statue in the top column there. She was the goddess who gave you healthy children and a healthy hunt, and she would help with your crops and so forth; so really she represented life. This temple was one of the Seven Wonders of the World. It was the center of their economy. It was the center of their religion, and in this temple, being a fertility goddess, there were many priests and priestesses of the goddess. Part of the ritual was you would come and engage in sexual acts with these temple priests and priestesses, so this religion became a veiled expression of promiscuity and immorality. Because they grew up with it, they became desensitized to it. They no longer saw it as something wrong. It was just simply their religion that they were practicing. Their hearts became hardened towards sin. When I was a boy, I had a cat named Cuddles. It was kind of an oxymoron name for Cuddles because Cuddles was not cuddly at all. We did not have our cat declawed, and I would engage in boxing with my cat. This was my right and this was my left-my thumb and my middle finger. This was kind of a head. He really didnt do anything, but I would just go up like this; and then Cuddles and I would box. As soon as the cat would see that, her ears would go back; and shed jump on the hand, and Id flip her over and wed start to fight. I would just play with my cat, and it would just be a lot of fun. She would kick me with her claws down here and just kind of rip the skin. Then back here those claws would just rip across my hand both ways, just leaving these red marks-red scratches, deep red scratches-all the way. In fact, I still have scars on the back of my hands from that cat. I would go, Oh, man! It hurts! Cuddles! Id look down and say, Boy, that one hurt. Itd be bleeding and Id be like, Ow! and Id stop. My mom would say, You have to stop doing that! You know, youre hurting yourself. And it really looked the sight; it really looked ugly. After a few days, it would heal up, and Id come back for more. Wed have round two, All right. Lets go! And Id flip, box, box, box, scratch, Ow, man! That one hurt! This process repeated itself for weeks, months and years. By the time years had gone by, my skin was like leather back here. I mean my cat could just do her darndest, and it wouldnt do a thing because the skin had become so hard because it became scarred, torn and healed back so many times that it became desensitized-the pain. It didnt hurt anymore, and Id be like, Ha ha! That does not hurt anymore! Now put this hand in there, and you have a whole other story. This hand had become desensitized. That's what sin does. At first when we sin, it causes grief. It causes pain. Our soul bleeds; we feel remorse; we feel sorry, and we say, Im not going to do that again; but over time we forget, and over time things kind of heal up, and we end up repeating the same offense. We still feel guilty; we still feel bad but maybe not as bad as we did at first. If that cycle repeats long enough and often enough, pretty soon in that area, our hearts become calloused, desensitized, unable to feel the remorse of sin. Thats what Paul is talking about. He says, As Christians, I have a higher expectation of you. As people who name the name of Christ, there is a responsibility that you carry. Paul is going to remind them of that in Verse 20. He says, You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. Surely you heard of Him and were taught in Him in accordance with the Truth that is in Jesus. You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires… Notice its still there. It hasnt gone anywhere. Youve come to Christ. Youve received the Spirit of God, but the sin nature is still very much present, isnt it? Its something that must be put off. …to be made new in the attitude of your minds… And thats key. …and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. This new self is a new card. It is introduced to your hand, the Holy Spirit of God who is present in your life all the time, all the time. So what does it mean to put on Christ? Obviously Jesus is not a garment that we [put on]. We dont put on our Jesus garment. How do you put on someone whos always present with you? What does Paul mean with this, you know, you put on Christ? Well, Christ is always with me. How can I put on Him who is always with me? I dont put on my hair. I dont put on my teeth. Some of you might put in your teeth; I dont know. Some of you might even put on your hair; I dont know. Im not even going to ask. That's your business but normally things that you put on and have with you all the time-okay, well use our ears. That's safe. Nobodys putting on their ears. You dont put on ears. You dont put on your nose. Its there. Well, why do you put on Christ if Christ is always there? Number one, though Christ is always there, He does not overwhelm us with His presence, does He? He does not overwhelm us and prevent us from saying wrong things, doing wrong things. He does not violate our free will, and He will speak to us in our wrong choices. He will convict us of sin, but He does not overwhelm us to the presence to the point where we are not free any longer. Paul is talking about being aware of the presence of Christ. Hes talking about decisions based on Whose likeness we have been made. He reminds us that this new self is in the likeness of Christ, that you are called to be like Christ, so there are certain responsibilities. Sometimes being reminded of that can be very painful. Some of you know that while Im able to, I like to play basketball. That's how I get my cardio in, and now Im playing ball most of the time against guys that are much younger than me. Sometimes on the basketball court-if youre a basketball player, youll understand this-it gets competitive. Tempers can fly even amongst friends, and such was the case in my life this week. We were engaged in a pretty heated competition. I was guarding a very good player. Hes the kind of player that can shoot from the outside and drive inside and score as well. [He has] a big body, is strong, and I knew I had my hands full as I was guarding him. In basketball, when theres a good shooter, a lot of times the other team will set picks. What the offense does then is theyll stand in the way of the defender and try to get you to run into them. When they do that, then it frees up their man to get the ball or to take a shot. So I was getting picked all the time. Whats supposed to happen is when somebody is going to pick you, the other teammate, Youre playing defense, youre playing defense. Youre looking at your guy, so your defenders are to say pick, pick left, pick right, so that you are aware of the pick coming, so you can get ready to go around the pick, through the pick, whatever. If they dont do that and if they miss the pick, then theyre supposed to help you out. If you lose your guy, theyre supposed to go off their guy and try to stop the shot. You kind of switch guys. Well, that was happening. The picks werent being called. The guys werent switching, and before I could get around the pick, he was hitting a shot. Everything was okay after that first shot, but once he hit a second shot, one of the guys on our team started getting mad. He said, Let me cover him then! Im going, Yeah, like you could do any better. How about calling picks? How about switching? Words are going back and forth. He hits another shot. Im upset because I dont like to be scored on like this, and hes even madder; so words are going back and forth. I can feel myself just getting angrier and angrier. I dont remember what he said to me, but he pushed a button. I am embarrassed to tell you this, but I lost my cool. As soon as he said whatever he said, I shoved him as hard as I could. I just went bam! I pushed him. As soon as I did that, I went, Oh, no. Oh, no. This is a friend of mine, so I feel bad on that level because I pushed a friend. It would be one thing if it was a schnook. You know you wouldnt care so badly, but this is a friend. I was like, Oh, man! And I knew I was wrong. I immediately thought about a young man on the other side of the gym who goes to our church, a teenager whos watching this game. What does he think seeing his pastor shove another guy? So this guy is mad, and he shoves me back. I said, Yup, I deserve that. We run down the court, and hes still jawing. Then he kind of comes up to me, and he goes bam! He kind of lowered his shoulder into me. I was like, Yup, deserve that too. Thats probably all I deserve. That's probably sufficient payback. You know Ill take the two shots, but you know you got a third; and that might be a problem. But, yeah, I deserve that. So I dont remember all the things hes saying, but one of the things he said to me really stood out. He said, Youre a pastor! Act like it! I couldnt argue with him. He had me dead to rights. I was like, Hes right. At this time, anger was gone. I was just embarrassed and ashamed. I wanted to apologize to him, but he was just so mad that you couldnt. So we played the game out, and we lost. My guy didnt score anymore, thankfully, but we lost the game. I go walking over to him, and I just have to tell you hes a real stand-up guy. Im the one thats at fault, and before I could even get a word out of my mouth, his hand is out; and hes saying, Im sorry about my mouth and making you mad. Im really sorry. I said, Man, its my fault. I shouldnt have done what I did. I love you, man, and Im really sorry. I shook his hand and we are friends. We were talking. We were talking about his job and his life. We played ball yesterday, and everythings fine. You know, thats kind of how guys are. You leave it on the court, and were fine. We can go on and play. But I was just ashamed because who was watching me? Whos been thinking about coming to our church that might reconsider now since theyve seen me lose my cool? We have a responsibility in how we act. He says, Remember who you belong to. You have been made in the image of Christ. Paul says, I expect better things from you. You dont control where youre born. You dont control when youre born, the family youre born into, the city youre born into, the culture youre born into; you dont control those cards, but you control how you respond. All of these temptations are going to be around these Ephesians. The temple of Diana or Artemis is still going to be there. All these temptations are still going to be there. This way of life is still acceptable, but you need to be different. You need to put on Christ. There are opportunities for blessings and curses every day. There are rewards for right decisions; there are consequences for wrong decisions. Paul says, Be aware of whom you are. Be aware of Whom you belong to. Be aware of the Spirit which youve received in righteousness and holiness. That's very similar to what God says in the Book of Deuteronomy 30, if youd please turn to the Old Testament. In Deuteronomy 30, God is going to give commands to his people. God could have revealed Himself to us in many ways, but the way he chose to reveal Himself to man is through whats called a Covenant Treaty. God speaks to us in the language of a covenant. When a king made a treaty with his people, in agreement with his people, the first thing it would be would be the preamble; and hed talk about who he was. Hed talk about how great he was, his majesty, his authority and his rule, his sovereignty. God talks in the preamble; if you read the law, He talks about who He is. He talks about His greatness, His glory, His grandeur. Then theres an historic prologue, and thats where the king talks about what he has done for his people, how hes protected for them, how hes provided for them; and thats what God does in His Word as well. He talks about what He has done for His people, how He has guided them, how He has led them, how He has taught them, how He has been patient with them. Then there are stipulations. The king talks about what is expected of his subjects. Here are the rules; heres how you should conduct yourself; heres what I expect from you. Then there are blessings and curses. The king says, If you follow my decrees, here are the good things that will happen in your life. If you choose to disobey what I have said, here are the bad things that are going to happen. Its like a parent says to a child, You do this. You do this. You do that, and youre going to get privileges. Youll get allowances. Youll get freedoms. Youll have fun. But if you disobey me… Not that your children would ever disobey you. I bet in the 11 oclock service, some of those kids get a little out of control-not you guys kids, but… Here are the bad things that are going to happen. Youre going to lose some privileges. Youre going to lose some freedoms. Things are not going to go well for you. So God gives these blessings and curses to the people of Israel. We find that in Verse 11 of Chapter 30 (page 201 of pew Bibles). He says, Now what I am commanding you today is too difficult for you or beyond your reach. It is not up in Heaven, so that you have to ask, Who will ascend into Heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it? Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it? No, My Word isnt in Heaven. My Word isnt in the sea. My Word, My expectations are right here. No, the Word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so that you may obey it. If this is true for the people of the Old Covenant who did not have the Spirit of God, how much truer is it for us of the New Covenant who have the Holy Spirit residing in our hearts? He says, See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess. But if you turn your hearts away and are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them… Can we do that today? Absolutely. Weve talked about idols not long ago, and we definitely do bow down and worship other gods in our society. I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. This day I call Heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life… In other words, God says, Im on your side. I want you to win. I want you to succeed. Choose life so that you and your children may live. The choices that we make every day, the cards that weve been dealt-how do we respond? What do we do with the opportunities that God has given to us? I want to present to you a microcosm thats going on in your life right now. I want to use an illustration of the here and now-this very moment in time-to illustrate this point. A lot of you made a decision-well, all of you, not a lot of you-all of you made the decision to come to church today. Number one, that is a correct choice. Hopefully, you agree with that choice now, and youre glad you came. Its a choice of obedience because God says in His Word, Do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together. Its a command. Dont do it. Yet, there are many who arent here this morning who have chosen not to obey that command. They chose not to come to church. Now we know coming to church is beneficial. We know its a commandment of God. We know that we come not just for our benefit, but for what we can give to the body as well. I was talking with somebody recently, and I said, So are you going to church? She said, No, Im not going to church, but theres this program on TV I like to watch. Thats my church. I said, Well, thats just a small part of church. Hearing the sermons, thats one thing, but you come not just for what you can receive, but you come because of what you want to give. The Bible says that when we come together, were to encourage one another and share with one another. Youve got spiritual gifts that you can give to the body and so forth. She was having none of that. She didnt want to listen. Thats what Gods Word says, so you made the right decision to come today. You had a choice to choose to attend church or to clean your garage, rake your leaves, garden, plant your tulips-whatever youre going to do. You chose to come here today, and Im grateful for that; but thats just the beginning of the choices that you have made or are going to make while youre here. First of all, when you come through this door and as you leave when we are done, you have a choice to enter into community or into isolation. Some of you will come late and leave early. Some of you come in without hardly talking to anybody except those you have to-take your bulletin or whatever. You sit down; you dont talk to a soul. We say amen, and you leave without talking. You dont make eye contact. You dont initiate contact, just bee-line for the car. Now youve come to church, but you havent entered into community, have you? Theres potentially a new friend for you to meet. You could welcome a visitor. You could renew a friendship. You could spend time with somebody whos already your friend; and you know the benefits of community, right? You know the benefits of friendship. We have friends in our lives. It helps us to bare the load. We have people to help carry the load. It divides our sorrows; it multiples our joys. We have someone to share our joys with as well. Its reciprocal. I give to my friend. My friend gives to me; and there are benefits from community, but some of us choose-even though community is available-we choose isolation even though we know there are harmful consequences for being isolated, for being a loner. We know there are consequences for that; yet many times well choose that anyway, so then you sit down. Now its time to sing. Youve got a choice to make. When you sing are you going to express worship to the Lord, or are you just going to kind of stand there and not participate and say, Lets wait for this part to get over with, so that we can get to the good stuff. Some of you think the singing is the good stuff. Lets make that last forever, right? I understand that, but when it comes to worship, is that the time when your mind is wandering? Are you engaged? You say, Aw! I dont sing. Its not about the quality of your voice. There is no microphone on you if youre out in the congregation. Its about expressing your love for God. Are you going to be passive, or are you going to be active? Are there benefits to worship? Absolutely. This is our time to say, God, I love you, to focus on Him, meditate upon Him, and really enjoy His fellowship. You can choose to do that and enter in and express, or you can choose that song time to be a time when you just tune out. You are just kind of standing up, listening, but youre not participating. Then we pray. Its usually what we do. What are you going to do when we pray? Is that a time when you say, Boy, I hope the prayer is long because my eyes are really tired. I could use a little rest; or are you going to enter into that prayer. Are you going to engage in that prayer and say, Lord, yes, we agree with that, and kind of pray to the Lord on your own too and be in agreement with the prayer thats being shared; but you are engaging mentally with that prayer, and you are participating in that prayer. Sometime we should pray like the Haitian church does. In the Haitian church when its time to pray, everybody prays out loud-everybody, and its just whoa! It is wild, but they are participating. In our culture, we simply agree; but are you agreeing? Are you engaged? Are you using that time to talk with God? How many of you think prayer is beneficial? We think prayer is beneficial, yet there are times when prayer comes, and were using that time to just space out, think about the ball game, think about what were going to have for lunch, think about this or that. Its an opportunity that's wasted. Then the message starts. You have a choice to make. I could be Billy Graham up here preaching, but unless your heart is open and receptive to receive the Word of God, it wouldnt matter. Sometimes you can sit and be present, but youre really not listening to a thing. You have a choice to make. Are you going to engage in whats being said? Are you going to study the Scripture as we read it? Are you going to ponder and think about it, be challenged by it, and commit to change as Gods Truth is spoken? We know the benefits of the Word of God, yet sometimes during the message time, we can drift. Everybody drifts. Everybodys mind can drift on occasion during the message. The chances of you being 100 percent tuned into the sermon, 100 percent of the time, are pretty slim. Im not even tuned into the sermon 100 percent of the time (congregation laughing), and Im the one giving it. I thought about the Bears game 25 times since the 8 oclock service-just kidding, 24. But we try to engage. Its having that mindset that today, I want to hear from God. Im going to engage. Then we take the offering, and the offering bag passes by. We have an opportunity. We have an opportunity to respond. Do we know the benefits of giving? We do. God loves a cheerful giver. God blesses the person who gives. We have a chance to honor the Lord with our tithe or maybe you choose to tip God, Heres five bucks. What are you going to do? How are you going to respond when its time to give? This is an opportunity for blessing. Are you going to ignore that opportunity, or are you going to participate in giving? We have announcement time. We talk about ways you can get involved. We talk about opportunities to serve. You walk by flyers on the table. You walk by the angel tree. You walk by the ministry display board, and you see these opportunities for outreach; and you have a decision to make. GPS is coming today. Will I go to that or not? Will I use my gifts for God or not? Will I serve the church or not? You have a choice to make. Are there benefits for serving God? Absolutely. Were going to grow and mature as a Christian if we use our gifts. Were going to build up the Body of Christ. Were going to glorify God if we use our gifts and talents for Him. At the same token, you have a chance to not become involved at all. There are people whove come to our church-and Im not thinking of any specific person right now, so dont get offended-but there are people whove come-because there are many-to our church for years and years and never got involved, never served. They have no intention of serving. I could preach a year-long series on service, and they will not change or budge. A friend of mine-hes a good teacher of the Word of God-used to say the smallest package in the world is a person all wrapped up in themselves. You have an opportunity to give of yourself, serve the body, and reap the benefits and blessings of that, or you can choose to simply serve yourself. Its your choice. That leads to self-centeredness. It leads to stinginess. Youre not going to grow, but thats a choice. God gives you the opportunity to make that choice. You walk out in the patio, and theres a person that maybe you had a bad experience with. I promise you in a church like ours, there are hundreds of people. There are all kinds of ministry going on throughout the week. There will be people who rub you the wrong way, who say something they shouldnt say, who do something they shouldnt have done, dont do something they should have done, of look at you funny. Whatever it is, you have an opportunity to make amends. You have an opportunity to say, Listen, did I hear that right? Listen, I apologize for what I said. Can we talk? You have that opportunity to engage that person and mend. See, heres the choice. Are you going to choose forgiveness or bitterness? You have a choice to make. Are there benefits for forgiveness? Absolutely. The benefit of forgiveness is that it removes bitterness from your life. If you have unforgiveness, you have bitterness. If you have unforgiveness, it hinders your walk spiritually. Unforgiveness binds you to the past, but if you have forgiveness, you have freedom and joy. So you have a choice because I promise you… Some people have a bad experience with somebody or somebody hurts their feelings; and believe it or not, they will even leave the church rather than work it out. Well, Im mad at so and so, so Im leaving and going to church XYZ. Oh, thats good because nobody will ever hurt your feelings over there. Everybodys perfect over there, so everything will always go wonderfully for you. Thats a good decision. Dont work it out; just leave. You have a choice. How are you going to respond to this opportunity? Then you get in your car, and its still not done. You drive home and now guess what? You are responsible for what youve just heard from Gods Word. Are you going to seek to apply this message? Is it going to bring about life change in you? Are you determined to change things and say, You know; thats true. Im not giving; thats true. Im not serving; its true. Im not experiencing community; its true. Im not engaged in worship; its true. Im not attentive to the Word; its true. All of these things-are you going to change them or is it status quo for you? Are you just going to pretend like you didnt hear? Thats a choice that you make. God sets these choices before us every day, blessings and curses, life and death. There are consequences and there are rewards. Gods Word says put on Christ. Put on that new self. Remember who you are. Be aware of His presence in our life. Allow Him to use you. Make right decisions, and as you make those decisions, the Word of God says in Romans 12:2, Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the Will of God is, that which is good, acceptable, and perfect. As you do the Will of God, you prove the Will of God; and there is a reward, and that reward is a reinforcement. It reinforces that behavior, reinforces that attitude. That person begins to engage in service, and he/she reaps the benefits of that. That person begins to give; and he/she reaps the benefits, so they want to give more. The person enters into community, reaps the benefits, and begins to get more involved with community. Brenda, Ill use this illustration. She is an exercise fanatic now. She will get up at 5 in the morning to exercise. She exercises at least four days a week, sometimes five days a week. That was not always the case. There was a time when she didnt exercise at all, and we had memberships at the YMCA. She didnt like exercise. It just was painful for her, and it was drudgery. She wasnt reaping the benefits when she did. I said, Thats because its too sporadic. It needs to be something thats regular in your life. I said, Listen, you either have to go, or were going to cancel your membership because Im not going to keep paying for something youre not going to use. Fine, she said, so she goes there, and she starts to work out. I remember seeing her on the Stairmaster. I said, How you doing? She was not happy, not happy with me; but over time as she continued to do it for weeks, pretty soon she went from walking to jogging to running. She began to feel better about herself. She began to fit into clothes that she hadnt fit into for a while. She would say, I like this, and she began to reap the rewards of putting on this new self. That became a lifestyle. It became a habit, and now its like you cant keep her away from the gym. We put on Christ. As we do that, there are rewards-inner rewards-that will cause us to continue to come back, continue to put on Christ as we reap the benefits of those decisions, of those blessings. Lets pray together, Father, we thank You for challenging us this morning in Your Word through the writings of the Apostle Paul. He challenged us to put on the new self. He challenges us to exercise our will; to practice an awareness of your presence; to think about the consequences for our decisions and our actions; to think about the responsibility that we have as a child of God, as someone who bears your name; that our lives are being examined and judged by others. We are called to a higher responsibility. We are called to take the cards we have been dealt and play them in a way that honors You and gives glory to You. Lord Jesus, help us to apply this message today. Help us to make the changes we need to make, to put on the new self, made in your likeness-in true righteousness and holiness. In Jesus name, I pray. Amen.
[A clip from the movie City of Embers is played first, which is what Pastor Jeff is referring to.] When you graduate from high school there, you have to function in the community; and so you reach into a bag, and you pull out your vocation. It has nothing to do with your personality, your talents, your gifts or abilities. Its simply random chance. Hopefully youll pull out something youre good at, something you like to do; but you just never know. Into the bag goes your hand, and comes something that will be your label, your job for the rest of your life. Im glad it doesnt work that way in our society; I dont know about you. But were going to be talking about spiritual gifts this morning. Were going to be in Ephesians 4 as were studying through the Book of Ephesians together. And like this story, the Bible says each one of us has a gift; each one of us has a gift from the Lord. Verse 7 (page 1158 of pew Bibles) reads, But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it, to each one of us-not to a chosen few, not to the elite, but to each and every person. If you are a part of the Body of Christ, you have a spiritual gift. You have a gift thats been parted to you by the Lord. In that movie (World vs. Christian: The Bible), that gift was imparted to every single person in that society; and likewise that gift was imparted for the benefit or the building up of society. In order for society to function, we must all have different roles and capacities; and their job was to help the benefit of greater society, so the gifts that you receive from the Holy Spirit are not for you. Theyre not for your benefit; theyre for the benefit of the church. Were going to receive gifts coming up next month right for Christmas. Hopefully some of you will receive at least one present. When you receive that present, it has the name of the person who gave it to you; and it has your name on it as a recipient. You open up the gift, and its for you to use for yourself, for your enjoyment, for your use, your purpose. However, the gifts that God gives are for the benefit of the church. He gives gifts to the Body of Christ to build up the Body of Christ, so the gifts that you have are gifts from God. Theyre not for you, but theyre for one another, and theyre not going to be natural gifts. What were talking about here are supernatural gifts that are not gifts youre born with. These are not innate talents and abilities that you might have; but unlike the movie, God gifts us in such a way that we are able to accomplish the purposes for which He made us. Its not like God gifts you a gift, and you go, Oh, mold scraper. Its going to be something you dont want-something you dont desire, something youre like, Oh, man. Why do I have to be…? Now, we cant pick our gifts. Just like in that clip, they didnt pick their job. It wasnt of their free will and volition; they picked it. Neither do you pick your gift, but the gifts are given by the Lord as He sees fit; but I promise you this: the gift He gives you will be fulfilling to you. When you use your gift, it will be a blessing to others, and it will give you an inner-satisfaction and fulfillment that Im being used by God. Now it might enhance your natural talents and abilities. Maybe youre a craftsman here today. You can build things with your hands. Thats not me, but maybe you have that talent and ability. Then the Holy Spirit may impart to you the gift of help, so you use that gift of craftsmanship to benefit another person; so the gifts of help-when you have that gift, you derive a satisfaction from helping others and ministering to others. So you dont pick your gift. Your gift is chosen by God, but God hand picks that gift, or I should say those gifts, for you. We have innate talents and abilities. God has wired us in such a way. Some of us are artistic; some of us are mechanical; some are athletic; some are analytical. We have different bends and skills, but that's not what Im talking about. What Im talking about is something thats given to you when you come to Christ; and when the Holy Spirit comes to live within you, God gives you a gift. Youll never guess what my greatest fear was growing up. I tried to avoid this like the plague. Grade school, junior high, high school, college, grad school-you name it: public speaking. Public speaking-wasnt good at it, hated it, and tried to avoid it at all possible costs. My mouth would get dry; my knees would knock; my palms would get sweaty; my voice would squeak; words would not come out right. The idea of being a pastor and speaking in front of people would have been a paralyzing thought to me; but when I came to Christ, guess what the Holy Spirit imparted to me? And some of you might question that; some of you might not be sure that He did [give that gift to me]. Maybe I should be a mold scraper, but thats your opinion. I found myself being able to do something at that age that I never could do before. It was not natural to me. It does not come natural to me. The Holy Spirit imparts to each of us a gift. Now as believers we have a responsibility: number one to find out the gift; and number two, use the gift and develop the gift for the glory of God in the building up of the church. But God has given you a gift. Its interesting in the next verse, Verse 8, Paul quotes the Book of Psalms, and he says, When He ascended on high, He led captives in his train and gave gifts to men. Now His train here is not a choo-choo train. Obviously, trains had not been invented. The train of course was the long flowing robe, the regal robe of the king or the emperor-the long train. He quotes here Psalm 68:18. In Psalm 68:18, God is pictured as a conquering king, as a victorious emperor who comes into a city and His enemies are in His train. In other words, when the king would be victorious in battle, he would come into the city, and following him would be his conquered foes. The king and his subjects were taken prisoner many times and brought into the city, and gifts were given to the king. Gifts would be given by the king that was being conquered in hopes that maybe his life would be spared. Gifts would be given to the king by thankful subjects as an act of worship. So he pictures God in Psalm 68 as the One receiving gifts as a conquering King, but notice how Paul changes it. Notice in Verse 8 of Ephesians 4, God is not the One receiving gifts. Jesus, the conquering King, is the One thats giving gifts. This is one of four passages in the New Testament that talk about spiritual gifts. Another word for spiritual gifts is the word called the Grace Gifts. Remember because Paul says here, He imparted to you grace. Right? Isnt that what he says in Verse 7? To each one of us grace has been given, of a gift. These grace gifts are called the charismata. Have you ever heard of charismatic before? Some of you might say youre charismatic. Others of you might say, Well, Im not charismatic. Well, if youre in Christ, you better be! The charismata are for all believers: the spiritual gifts, the charismata, are imparted to every single one of us. And so the Apostle Paul talks about the gifts that the Spirit gives to the churches. As in not only Ephesians 4, but if you want to study this sometime, you want to turn to the Book of 1 Peter 4; you want to turn to 1 Corinthians 12; and you want to turn to Romans 12. In those four passages, you will learn about the Spiritual gifts. Now these gifts, he says, It was He who gave some to be Apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers. So like it or not, I am a gift to you from God. I just turned 49 this week, and just because Im old doesnt mean you can turn me in for a newer model. You are stuck with me. You have to keep me. I am a gift. No refunds or exchanges permitted. A pastor is a gift to the Body of Christ. Teachers are a gift to the Body of Christ. You know I cant think of a time in the history of our church when weve had stronger teachers than we do right now. When I look at our team of teachers, I think of Pastor Tim and Pastor Jerry. Theres Dennis Babish who completed Chuck Colsons training. Theres Dr. Doerfer. Hes a missionary in Ecuador and has been for many years. Hes a physician; hes one of our teachers. Theres Pastor Gary Shields, a pastor in our community for many years. We have a good core of teachers, and you know what, church? We dont take advantage of them as we should. That's just the God-honest truth. Every class we have on Sunday mornings at 9:30 and 11 should be full, and theyre not. Theyre not. We should take advantage of those opportunities to hear these men who are gifts of God to this church. Take advantage of those classes when they start. Take advantage of them when they form. Learn from the Word of God every opportunity you can. But it says that the church has been given pastors and teachers, evangelists. Verse 12, why? …to prepare Gods people for works of service, so that the Body of Christ may be built up… That is an extremely important verse of Scripture, Verse 12, …to prepare Gods people… You. For what? …for works of service…that the Body of Christ may be built up… What thats teaching, friends, is quite simply this: every believer is a minister-not just those that are paid, not just those who are trained, but every believer is a minister; and one of the jobs of pastors and teachers is to equip you so that you can use your gifts, your talents and abilities, to minister to others-to do the work of the ministry, to serve. Every believer is a minister, and I want to illustrate this to you from one of my family traditions. Our family has several seasonal traditions. In the fall, we like to go look at leaves. It usually turns into a contest to see who can find the best leaf. It has to have the right symmetry, color and it cant have holes in it and all that. At Christmastime, we have a tradition to find the best Christmas tree. You win if your tree gets chosen and is cut down. In the fall, we go and apple pick. Usually that turns into a contest to see who can find the best apple. There are certain criteria. It has to be a nice big size; it should be nice and ripe and red. It should be nicely formed. It shouldnt have any worm holes in it or bumps in it. It should be a really nice apple. We judge to see who gets the best apple, so were going to use an apple orchard as our illustration. Now were going to envision us as sitting in an apple orchard for church. There we are around an apple tree, and whoever the pastor is in your illustration, he/she is preaching from the apple pickers manual. You are gathered around in your chairs; and along the orchard, there are various other congregations around other apple trees studying the apple pickers manual. The pastor-the head apple picker-is up there, and hes teaching. Hes saying, Now the way we pick apples is we grab the apple. We twist the apple, and we pull on the apple. It is then put into the bushel at your feet. We gather the apple. There are many apples that we need to pick. All around this orchard, there are apples that are going to fall. There are apples that are going to hit the ground unless somebody picks them, so we must not allow them to be trampled under foot. We must pick the apples. Then you watch as the pastor picks the apple and puts it gently into the basket, and everybody claps. He talks about apple cider, apple pie and all the wonderful things that can be made from apples. Every week, he teaches you about apples and apple picking. Then what usually happens is the way the church is structured normally in our society, the pastor says, Amen. Everybody remains in the chairs while the pastor starts picking apples. He picks apples and puts them in the basket, and they form opinions on the job hes done. They might come and look at the bushel and go, Well, those are some nice apples, Pastor. Youve done a good job. This bushel is half full! There might be others who are in important apple picking committees who will come by and go, You know, he used to pick more apples than this. The apples used to be riper than they are. They seem like theyre a little yellow this year, a little green. You know that tree over there, that pastor picked his bushel full. Its overflowing. How come our baskets not overflowing? Then theyll study it. Theyll say to the pastor, You know, Pastor, you did a great job this year. There are a lot of apples in this bushel. Were going to give you a raise. Or theyre say, You know, Pastor, we dont know how to tell you this, but theres not as many apples in your bushel as there used to be. You know our rival-I mean our fellow church across town-there seems to be a lot more apples in their bushel than ours. We dont know how to tell you this, but unless you start picking more apples, we might have to look for another apple picker. You know you go out there and you work hard. You pick apples, and well be pulling for you. Remember, were paying you. You pick those apples. Isnt that how it goes? What does the Bible say? The Bible says thats not Biblical at all. In a Biblical church, the pastor preaches from the Bible. He says, Heres what a Christian is, and heres what a Christian is called to do. Heres how a Christian does it. If we transfer this into the illustration of the apple orchard, when you say, Amen, everybody rises from their seats and goes out throughout the orchard and everybody picks apples. This guy, hes got a lot of balance, so he climbs the ladder. This ones tall, and he can reach other apples from the ground. This one has a good eye, so she can spot apples. This ones a good cook, so hes able to make apple pie and apple crisp. This one goes in the ground and picks apples that are falling but are still salvageable and good. We all have different gifts and callings, we all go around the orchard, and we all work together to pick the apples. We bring them together and we rejoice and say, Look what God has done. Look at this harvest. Its everybodys job, not just those that are trained from the apple pickers manual or whove been to apple pickers school. Its every single believers responsibility; so when I say Amen, and we go home, throughout the week, the work of the ministry goes on. You use your gifts to touch lives. You use your gifts of compassion, mercy, administration, helps and leadership, and hospitality to make a difference for Jesus Christ in your world. Its the responsibility of every one of us. However that basket looks, full or empty, is our responsibility jointly. Thats what the Bible teaches. Until we all reach unity in the faith, in the knowledge of the Son of God, and become mature… The word mature means perfect. Some of your translations may say that-perfect. You say, Well, Im not perfect. I dont know anybody who is perfect. Well, thats a good point. Its an important word for us to understand. Its the Greek word teleios. Teleios means something that is fulfilling the purpose for which it was created. Really when you think about it, the key verse in Ephesians is Ephesians 2:10 (page 1157 of pew Bibles), For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God created in advance that we should walk in, meaning that we were created for a purpose; and our spiritual gifts help us accomplish that purpose. They help us to move towards perfection, towards maturity. The chairs you are sitting on right now are teleios. They are perfect in the sense that they are accomplishing the purpose for which they are made. They are holding you up. I dont see anybody collapsing. I dont see anybody wobbling. I dont see anybody saying, Whoa! This is hard. Youre comfortable, youre relaxed, and the chair is functioning; its working. But if you were to truly look at that chair and scrutinize that chair, youre going to find flaws. You might find a thread thats torn; you might find some fabric that is scratched; you might find a chip of paint somewhere; you might find a stain from a communion glass that was spilled there; youre not going to find a perfect chair. Maybe its missing a tip, so its a little wobbly; but its functioning as it was created for. Its working; its accomplishing its purpose. Youre not perfect. Im not perfect. Were far from perfect. We have scratches, dings, and were damaged goods here today. However, if we are accomplishing what God sent us to do, we are in the process of being made perfect-teleios, becoming mature. So the question I have to ask you, and I dont want you to raise your hands. I dont want to embarrass you in any way, but number one, do you know what your gifts are from the Holy Spirit? Do you know what your gifts are? And number two, are you using those gifts? Its for a lifetime. Its not for a season. It has nothing to do with your age. The gifts the Holy Spirit is giving you are for a lifetime of service. Not only will you build up the body, but the Bible says this is one of the ways you mature. So if youre not maturing, if youre stagnant in your spiritual work, one thing I ask you are you using your spiritual gifts? That's one of the biggest ways to be stagnate, by not using your gifts. You see, the wonderful thing about Christianity is in so many ways, its the fountain of youth. You want to know what the fountain of youth is? Its in our faith because physically we grow old, but spiritually we never have to grow old. Outwardly, were aging; inwardly, the Bible says we can be renewed day by day. You mature physically. You reach a certain age-maybe its 16. For me, it was about 16. For some of you, it could be 18; some of you, it could be 20, but right in that range, you are going to mature. You are going to get as tall as you will ever get. You may grow in other ways if you know what I mean; Thanksgiving and Christmas will help us grow in other ways. Ive been getting a lot of birthday treats lately. I might be growing in other ways, but Ive stopped growing up this way. You reach the age of maturity. Youre born as a baby, and youre bald; and you reach a certain age, and youre getting all the hair youre going to get. Then it starts falling out. Then it starts growing in other places where you dont want it to grow; so we grow up, then we mature, but then we start to grow old. In the things of God, we dont have to grow old. In the things of God, we can stay forever young. The Bible talks about that dynamic in Chapter 4. He says that we are to mature to the fullness of Christ. What does that mean? That means you never reach the point. If the definition of maturity is you are like Christ, then friends youre never going to reach that, right? In spiritually speaking, you can continue to mature till the day you die; and you will never reach the fullness of Christ. You will never be as mature or perfect as Christ. That process continues into eternity. So as a Christian, you should be maturing and growing through every stage and every age of your Christian experience. When this happens, Paul says in Verse 14 (page 1158), Then we will no longer be infants tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. The Ephesians knew about that all too well. You see, over here in the banner to my left, do you see the second picture-the burning scrolls? What were those? The Bible tells us in the Book of Acts that when they came to Christ, they took their witchcraft, their spells, their incarnations, their chance, and they burned them. You see prior to that time, their worship of the goddess of fertility-Artemis or Diana-consisted of offering certain prayers to Diana: Just say this prayer. We said this prayer to Diana, and we had a great sacrifice. Or they would say, Just make this gift to Artemis. We did it and we had a wonderful hunt that year. If youll just read this spell, say these words, youre going to be blessed, so many of the spells and incantations that were burned were the same because a lot of people had them. This is the one. This is what you need. Until a new spell came along, till a new incantation came along, somebody would fool you into buying that; so youd buy that. Then they came to Christ, and they said, We dont need these things anymore. These are not applicable to our lives anymore. Lets burn them. Lets get rid of them. Friends, if youve been around Christianity long enough, theres certain waves that come through where somebody gets a new idea or a new teaching that the church has never seen before. Look what the Holy Spirits doing over here. I have a friend that flies all around the country, Oh, Gods doing something great in Canada. Lets go there. Gods doing something great over here. People are getting in the spirit in Canada now. Theyre barking like dogs. Wow, thats exciting! Its the latest trend. You read certain books that say, Nobodys ever discovered this before, but if you say these things, then Gods going to do this for you. Friends, thats elementary. That is not something that we should be interested in. Gods Word is once and for all delivered to the saints. We have everything we need right here (in the Bible). We dont need to look for the newest way or the newest trend. Gods Word is once and for all delivered to the saints. You get your email or a chain letter that says, So and so said this prayer to this saint ten times, and they won the lottery, or, they won a new car. So you need to say this and pass this on to ten friends. Dont break this curse. Dont break this or youll be cursed. Im telling you-break it! Delete the email. Throw the letter away. You dont need that. You have Christ. We should not be vulnerable to those kinds of things-those surface Christianity things. Paul says we need to go deeper. Dont be affected by the wind and the waves at the surface. Go deeper. As some of you know, Im a recreational diver. Im not a serious guy thats going 300 feet deep to find black coral or something. Im staying at the surface. I was in Florida and we like to dive in the Keys because the water is so clear. I was on a boat, and I had the same captain. Ive told you about him before from another experience. This is the same captain who said something to me in an accent. I was a little nervous about my first dive in the ocean, what I would see. You go like six miles out from shore, and its the real thing out there. I was just nervous about sharks. I said, Hey, I wont see any sharks, will I, Captain? I wanted him to go, Oh, no. No, dont worry about that. He looks at me rather serious, and he says, I cant tell you whether or not youll see sharks, Mate, but I will tell you this: theyll see you. Thanks, Captain. I feel so much better now. That's the guy. We were on the choppy sea, and Im the kind of guy who when I go to Great America, you can twirl me, put me upside down, spin me; it doesnt bother me at all. I could do that all day and not get sick, but we were on this boat; and it was up and down for hours, riding the waves. Even when we sat, we werent anchored for a dive. The boat was just constantly rocking. I said, Captain, I dont know if I can do this dive. Im just not feeling good. I feel terrible. I feel like Im going to throw up. Ah, go in the water. If you go in the water, youll feel better. All right, Captain. So I jumped in the water, and I was about 10 feet deep; and the whole sea was rocking. I remember just making this big circle about ten feed going down and up and down and up. I was thinking, Oh yeah. This is a lot better. This is a lot better. Then I had the bright idea that I should go deeper. Maybe he means I should go deeper in the water, so I went down 30 or 40 feet. Guess what happened? Just like that, I felt better. Instantly the nauseousness was gone. At the surface, everything was moving and churning-the waves and the wind, but I went deep and things settled down. When I went deep, things became stable. I was not susceptible anymore to the wind and the waves. Thats what they experience on the surface. I was now deep. It was calm down there regardless of what was going on up above. That's what the Holy Spirit is saying to us in this passage. Surface Christianity-were susceptible to the winds and the waves, but when you go deep in God, its stable there. It can be still there and quiet there. Youre not as vulnerable there. The waters are calm there. Paul is encouraging you and me to go deep in the things of the Lord. One of the ways we go deep is through serving the Body of Christ, using our gifts. Verse 15 says, Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into Him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From Him, the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. You have a part to play. You have a job to fulfill. He talks about the church as this dynamic, living expression of Christ-the Body of Christ growing, changing lives. Be aware of His Spirit, be aware of what He is doing in us, and what He desires to do through us, allowing us to go deep in the things of God beyond the surface, so we can mature and grow up-so that we can be effective, bring about life change, and be transformed ourselves. I have a mediation that I would like you to listen to today. Id like you to listen to this gentleman as he talks about this even flow, this dynamic changing in the Christian life as God seeks to build His image into us. Lets listen together. (The flow of development" can be found at http://www.sermonspice.com/product/16952/the-flow-of-development.) Lets pray: Lord, Your truth does not change, but we should. Were called to continue to mature and grow. Lord, some of us today-if we were to be honest-we would say that our spiritual lives have become stagnant. Were not changing; were not growing. Some of us are treading water. Some of us might even feel like were drowning. I pray this morning wed do some of that reflection-that we would be bold enough to pray the prayer and say, Lord, why did You put me here? Whats my purpose? Whats my calling? I want to fulfill that call. Lord, if we will pray that prayer, You will answer that prayer. Lord, for those of us who know our gifts and know our callings but are not actively serving, Lord, speak to these hearts as well. Bring them to that place of service. I know that people get tired. I know sometimes people feel burned out. Lord, the gifts Youve given us are for a lifetime. Its not like an earthly vacation that we choose 40 years and retire. Its something that Youve called us to all our days. Lord, help us to enter into that dynamic flow and that awareness of Your Spirit. Lord, bring us to that point where we desire the maturity, the Christ-likeness that You are seeking to bring about in our lives; that we would discover, deploy and develop our spiritual gifts to build up the Body of Christ and to serve You; to recognize that we each have a part to play. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
Pastor Jeff Williams: October 25, 2009 Meet the Ephesians, Part IX: The Power of One.
We are on a series called Meet the Ephesians. Were going through the Book together, and we are reaching a transition point. The first half of the Book of Ephesians, Chapters 1-3, has focused on the church as a whole-the corporate church. The second half of the Book, Chapters 4-6, is focusing on the individual. The church in Ephesus was going to have to learn a new way of life. It had been every man for himself. You worship the goddess Artemis; you go there by yourself; you give your gifts to the goddess of fertility; you say your spells, your incantations, and you go back home. Now they were part of community. Now they were part of a body, part of a church family, so they were having to learn what that meant. In the second half of the Book, Paul shifts his focus to the individuals. Before we start looking at new material, we want to just review what we were talking about two weeks ago. We talked about the fact that God had sent to Abraham a message, a promise, a covenant. He said that through Abraham, He would be a blessing to all the peoples of the earth. Well, something happened to that covenant of blessing. Instead of sharing that covenant, the reality of God with the world, the Jews began to hoard that message and began to look down with disdain upon the Gentiles, who did not have the Truth. It became an exclusive club rather than an inclusive club. Rather than reaching out, they stayed within. Before as Christians we judge them, realize the church has done much the same thing-that instead of taking the message of God to the world, we have started to look in a condescending way on those who dont know God or share our faith. We began to separate ourselves from them, began to form little Christian clubs; so Christianity becomes exclusive rather than inclusive. Rather than building relationships with lost people like Jesus did, we tend to exclude them from our lives and build only friendships with those who share our faith and share our interests. So we become guilty of the same thing that they did. How many of you like the Mac PC commercials on TV? You get a kick out of those? Those are great, arent they? Well, we have a different version of that. This is the world in the Christian that we want to show you before we transition into Chapter 4, so lets watch that right now. (Heres a link: http://www.skitguys.com/store/detail/439/). Well, heres the problem. The problem is that not only do sometimes Christians include those who dont know the Lord and look down on them in a condescending way, within Christianity itself, there are factions. There is the contemporary guy over here who looks down on the traditional one over here. Theres the mainline group over here that looks down on the evangelicals and vice versa. There are all these different denominations, all these different factions. If we look at our church history, the church has done some wonderful things in the world. The church has also done some detestable things in the world. One of the things that weve done thats detestable is infighting. We think of the wars between the Catholics and the Protestants in Ireland. We think of how some denominations tend to start now rather… Well, there is division, but they dont kill each other over it. If you look at church history, some denominations were started with bloodshed. You feel differently about infant baptism than we do, so were going to kill you. You feel differently about womens rights in the church, so we disagree with you so strongly, were going to kill you. These things really happened within the church. Youve probably been in a discussion with another Christian that maybe has led to an argument about a doctrinal difference. You and I know that there are factions within the church, and the world looks at the church and sees all the denominations. All you have to do is open up a phonebook and look at churches, and youll see all the various denominations. I didnt Google how many there are, but there are a lot of denominations out there, arent there? They all start the same way, I disagree with something youve said. I disagree with the philosophy or doctrines, so were going to break off; and were going to get it right this time. So they start a new denomination, a new structure, a new organization with a new game plan to fix the heirs or the heresy of this one over here; and thats going on in our world right now. New denominations and new churches are being formed all the time. Janesville is well-known for being the town of church-splits. I can remember when I first came to town, a lady received some advice from a fellow. He said, Why go to Faith Community Church? They havent even had their first church split yet! [He was] implying that not only are they going to have one. Its inevitable, but thats just the first one. So almost 20 years later, we still havent had that first one, praise God. But theres an expectation there that you come to Janesville, and this church started to split up over here. This church started to split off over here, and this church is a split of that church over there. I think, My goodness, there have been a lot of church splits and faction and division in this town, so we see it even in our own community. So with that as a backdrop, lets turn to Ephesians 4 (page 1158), and lets talk about this whole idea of unity, oneness and diversity within the church. I dont think Ive ever devoted a weekend to this topic before. Weve touched on it here and there-usually more in our Membership Matters class we have periodically than in the weekend service, but I thought, Well, this weekend, lets talk about it since our text is talking about the oneness of the church. We begin with 4:1, As a prisoner for the Lord… Remember Paul writes from the prison in Rome. …then I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. How is the unity maintained? Its maintained through the bond of peace of the Spirit, and there is effort involved. There is work involved, and thats important for us to remember. Its something we do. It doesnt happen automatically. There is one body and one Spirit-just as you were called to one hope when you were called-one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. When you look at the church today, do you see unity? Not a whole lot, right? On the surface, we dont see a whole lot of unity-even within churches today, there are divisions, factions and strife. In fact, Jesus prayed a prayer, and I want to look at that prayer. Keep your place in Ephesians 4, but take a look at the Lords prayer in John 17 (page 1071). Jesus is praying whats called the high priestly prayer. Its an intercessory prayer that He prayed for His Disciples as He entered into His last days on this earth. In Verse 20, Hes going to pray for us, literally-not figuratively, but literally. He says, My prayer is not for them alone. Meaning, the Disciples that were gathered and those listening to His voice. I pray also for those who will believe in Me through their message… That's you and me. Thats the message that would be carried down from one to the next, to future generations. Jesus includes us in His prayer. …that all of them may be one, Father, just as You are in me and I am in You. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that You have sent me. I have given them the glory that You gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in Me. May they be brought to complete unity... Now that word unity there is a different word for unity than Paul uses in Ephesians 4. This word unity in John 17:23 is the same word as one. Its exactly the same word as we talked about that they may be one, so we can read that and say that they be brought to complete oneness… …let the world know that You sent Me and have loved them even as You have loved Me. So the Apostle Paul emphasizes oneness of the body. Jesus emphasizes in His prayer that the church will be one, so the question I have for you is…if we agree that there is not unity within the church-we have Protestants; we have Catholics; we have Orthodox. Within the Protestant faith, we have many different denominations. Why is that so? You have to ask the question then-did the Father not answer the Sons prayer? Did Jesus ask God for oneness of the church, and so far God hasnt been able to answer that prayer? Or maybe its futuristic and its going to be that way some day. Maybe this is a prayer for the kingdom come kind-of-thing, that in Heaven, there are no denominations. Were one church there. However, the problem is that when you read the context, Jesus is talking to the church here and now. In the world, Hes saying, Im asking you not to take them out of the world, but keep them from the evil one. Im asking-that way they will be one as a witness to the world that You sent me. So Jesus is very much talking about the here and now. Hes talking about life on planet earth-that the church will be one. How many of you think that the Father answers the prayers of the Son? I do too, so thats not an option. The second option is that its futuristic. When you read the context, its really not. Hes talking about the here and now. So what is the answer? I think the answer is that we confuse unity and oneness, that unity and oneness are not the same things. In the Book of Ephesians, notice when he talks about unity, what are the words that Paul uses? He says, Make every effort to keep the unity. Keeping unity is something you must work towards, something that you must strive to. Its something that requires energy spent on your part. Verse 13 of Chapter 4, …until we all reach unity in the faith… Its something we reach towards. Its something we seek to attain, something we desire-whereas oneness, when its talked about in the Scripture, is always talked about as something we possess. Its something that is here and now. Its something that is reality. Verse 4, There is one body… Paul does not say, Strive to be one body. There is one Spirit. There is one hope, one Lord, one faith. One faith. So oneness is something that is. You see, we strive for unity because we are one. Ill explain it this way. This word in the Bible, unity, in fact, its only used right here in Ephesians 4:13 and Verse 3 in Ephesians. Those are the only places this word is used in the whole Bible. It means to be in agreement or in harmony with: unity, agreement, harmony. You are one body today. Your physical body-when you came here, you brought your whole body. Sometimes I think I leave my head at home, but you come here as a whole-every appendage accounted for, every internal organ present. You come here as one. Now, when there is not harmony in your body, what are you? Youre injured or you are sick. Your desire is to restore harmony. Its to restore this unity in your body. If you have the flu, you hope to get rid of the flu. If you are out of balance, Whats out of whack? Whats causing me to be dizzy? If there are other problems and complications, it could even be something more serious. Maybe a bone is broken or something is wrong, and you have these symptoms that are concerning you; so you go to a physician, and you want to restore that harmony. You want to bring agreement among the members of the body because you are one. Oneness and unity are not the same thing. We strive for unity because we are one. E Pluribus Unum-on our coins, from many, one. Thats a Latin phrase. It talks about this country. We are diverse, diverse individuals, diverse states. We have a lot of different cultures and sub-cultures within the states. Yet, we are one country. We are the United States of America. We have one government. If there is disunity, if there is a state that said, You know, were going to secede from the union in 2010, what would the federal government do? They would take action to stop that secession because we are one country. Are there differences amongst individuals or differences amongst states? Is there diversity? There certainly is. Absolutely, there is. But, we are one country, and because we are one country, we desire to have harmony. There is law enforcement to maintain harmony. We desire to work together-we should desire anyway to work together and help. [We should desire] things like helping our planet, having clean water and a clean environment, plenty of food for everybody-things like that. We should all work together. Those should not be political issues. Those are humanitarian concerns, and we should work together as Americans, protect our country and provide for our country. If there is a disease, like H1N1 is spreading, we work together because were one county. So because we are one, we strive for unity. Now hes going to give us some reasons to be unified. Hes going to tell us why we need to strive for this unity. He says number one, in Verse 4, …because you are one body. You should strive for unity because youre one body. It talks about that in the previous chapter, the last verse. It says, …to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever! Amen. All generations, one body. The church is established by God. Therefore, the church is one. The church is not mans idea; the church is Gods idea. Man does not build the church; God builds the church. Jesus says, I will build My church. Hes going to build it; Hes the One who puts the church together. God does that. Denominations are built by whom? Man. Our differences-we cant get along, so we establish a new denomination, but the church is established by God. Denominations are temporal; the church is eternal. The church is one; denominations will never be one. There is always going to be differences in theology, in structure, and philosophy; but the true church, the church of Jesus Christ, is in oneness. Its in agreement. Its one body. All generations-those whove gone before us, those who are here now, and those who will come after us-from all areas and all regions of the world, all countries, all tongues, all peoples-we are one church. One church. I had the opportunity to attend a University of Notre Dame football game last weekend. I worked last week, so I was not on vacation, but I did take Saturday off. We went to a football game. Now Im not a Notre Dame fan; Im a Badger game, but I went because my son is a college football Notre Dame fan. So, well, lets experience this tradition because Im not anti-Notre Dame either, and I certainly can appreciate the tradition. Its a Catholic university. It was founded in the 1800s, so lets walk around the university. Lets take it in and get a feel for it, so that all this tradition and so forth-lets experience it. We get there early, and were walking around the campus, all these buildings that we dont know what they are, but wed seen them before. We go into the building with the golden dome on it, the administrative building. Were walking up the steps, and hes like, Can we go in here? Were just concerned that theres going to be like alarms going off or something, Weve got a Protestant in the administrative building. Some sirens are going to go off or something. Were going to get arrested-we dont know. So we walk in there, and theyre singing the fight song; and theyre saying prayers. Theyre getting ready to take on USC-big game. We come out and we explore the buildings, some of them, and now were going to go to the game. Hey, lets go there early and get our seats, watch the teams warm up and whatever. But we dont know how to get to the stadium. Its really embarrassing on the sprawling campus to walk up and say to somebody, Can you help us find the building that holds 80,000 people? We cant seem to find that. So we were like, Well, the game is going to be starting really soon. I dont understand-this big national game-and there are like thousands and thousands of people here mingling about, eating bratwursts and visiting. The game is going to start! Whats going on? Somebody some time is going to make their way to the stadium. We noticed that lines started to form on either side of the sidewalk. We were like, Whats going on here? First time at Notre Dame. Go Irish! Whats going on here? They said, Well, were waiting for the band. This is Americas first school marching band-the University of Notre Dame. Talk about a heritage, right? Theyre going to come out, and theyre going to play the fight song. You would recognize the fight song. I promise youd recognize the fight song. Even if youre not a Notre Dame fan, not a college football fan, you will recognize this fight song. They were like, Well, here comes the band now. They got on their poker faces. They were going to lead us into the stadium. Thats what they do. Theyre going to go on through, and then as soon as they pass us, thousands of us are going to fall in line; and they will lead us in to battle. Lets go ahead and play this music. So Im standing there, and here comes the band marching, the flautist symbols, the trumpets; and they look like theyre the ones that are going to put on the uniform and bang out there in the field. Just imagine this like ten times louder, and there they go-one after another. All around me are alumni, and theyre taking it in. Theyre singing the song. All I can do is go, Bum, bum, bum, bum… Theyre singing the song. They know every word. Students said they used to be in that band. They used to be in those stands, maybe even on the field. There are generations of Notre Dame coming together. It was at that moment I realized that tradition. Notre Dame wasnt just that team that was taking the field, but it was the band. It was the students in the stands, and its the alumni and the fans from around America that were gathering together to defend their honor, to defend their tradition. We went, This is pretty cool. Then we go marching into the stadium, and they lost. It was a really close game if you watched it on television. They had like five chances at the one yard marker, and with one second left on the clock, we couldnt get it through. Anyway, that tradition-its all of them. Thats what hes talking about-were one body. There are many different traditions, but there is one body. Its all the generations coming together with a common purpose and a common bond; however, heres what sets us apart from a man-made institution or a man-made organization. Heres what sets us apart. Paul says, …and one Spirit. Thats what makes the church unique. The church is a living organism; it is the body of Christ. The Holy Spirit residing within you is what makes us the church. Its not the charter; its not the 501C3-thats what you have to get to be tax exempt. Its not that. Its not our articles of incorporation that makes us the church. It is the Holy Spirit of God residing within the heart of the believer that makes us the church of Jesus Christ. The church is alive. It is growing; it is changing; it is expanding, and the Holy Spirit is at work in the world non-stop around the clock, adding every day to His church and growing our body. Im going to show you something thats really cool right now. This is a website that you can go to. In fact, you may want to write this down. Its called www.greatcommission2020.com. Greatcommission2020 links with these various online websites that are designed to lead people to Christ, to answer their questions and lead them to Christ. What were going to see here is the world. Somebody write this number down or memorize this number-10,488. You have it? Okay. That's how many people have come to Christ according to this website online today. By the time I finish describing this, were going to see how many there are. When we started at the 8 oclock service, it was in the 7,000 range. So just since the 8 oclock service, just on these online websites, 3,000 people have come to Christ. Every time you see a yellow, thats somebody who has received the Lord. Every time you see a blue, thats somebody who has come on the website and is asking questions and trying to find out information about Christianity. Theyre trying to learn about the Lord. When you see a yellow, that person has indicated theyve made a decision to follow Christ. We are actually working with a ministry called World Mission Outreach, to partner with them so that people in our church can help disciple some of these people that are making decisions to follow Christ. How cool is that? We have a little pilot program working right now. Jason Raddenbach and Pastor Tim are working on that. We have a little small group in our church that is right now helping do this, but you would respond to one email a day. Its not an overwhelming thing, but you would respond to one email a day. We work together to help disciple these people around the world who have made decisions to follow Christ. So 24/7, every day of the year, you could go to this website and you can see the work of the Holy Spirit. These are individuals Christ touched. You see, Jesus didnt die for denomination. He didnt die for a man-made structure. He doesnt die for an organization or a building. He dies to redeem people. Each time this moves somewhere, thats an individual that was touched for Him. Its an individual that Hes redeemed, an individual who has turned their life over to Him and has received His Holy Spirit. Church, the Holy Spirit is alive. The church is a living thing. Its the body of Christ, and you have a part to play in that body. You have a role to play in that body. One body, one Spirit-this is your call to one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all, through all, and in all-one faith. Some of us pause right there, and we go, Well, how can we be one faith? There are so many different denominations, so much infighting. How can we be one faith? Well, thats kind of looking at it from the negative prospective. I want us to look at it from the positive perspective. How many of you here this morning are people? You are human beings? Let me see your hands. Most of you. Most of you are fitting in to that category. Thats good. Now, would you say that all of us who are human beings are different, or are we alike? Were all different. Number one, half of us-approximately-are females, and half of us are males. Thats a huge difference right there, but differences go beyond that. We have extreme differences in personality. Some of you-when I say amen and church is done-you are like the flash. We dont even see you get from here to your car and out. We cant even physically detect you. Youre like pfew! Youre gone. Others of you linger. You linger. Youre like the bee, and youre going from flower to flower. Youre just buzzing around here, and its really a problem if youre married because then you have the spouse who made a beeline for the car. Theyre like, Come on! Come on! Football is on. Lets go! Honk! Honk! Honk! Youre talking and having another cup of coffee. So we have these personality differences. Some of us are outgoing, and some of us are shy-introvert/extrovert. We have a lot of different talents. Some of you here are very mathematical. You can solve equations and problems. Others of you struggle with basic math. Without a calculator, youre lost. Some of you are very artistic and can draw, paint and work with your hands. Others of you just struggle with Pictionary because you couldnt even make a stick man if your life depended on it. Some of you are very athletic, and you have balance. You can jump and run. Others of you are struggling just to maintain balance in your seat right now as you listen to me. Some of you are musical; your voice can just fill a room. Others of you when you sing, everybody leaves the room and wants to get out. So all different talents, and we have different passions too. Some of you have a heart for the elderly, and some of you have a heart for young people. Some-you have a heart for new believers, and others help those whove gone through divorce and others who have gone through problems with alcohol or drug dependency. You have a heart to work with those who are suicidal. You have a heart to work with the poor. You have a heart to work with those who are struggling with same sex attraction. You have a heart to work with those who are intellectual. You want to help them with their intellectual stumbling blocks. You want to work over here with world missions, and thats where its at. There are all different passions. But is that a strength…or a weakness? Its a strength because what you cant do, I can do. What I cant do, you can do; and what we both cant do, somebody over here can. Because youre passionate about this need, that gets met. Because youre passionate about that need, that gets met. Every church tries to do all of them, but we cant, right? Just like theres no one person thats completely well-rounded and does everything right, there is no one church that does everything right. Some people come to Faith Community and think were going to do everything right, and we dont; so they go to this church over here, but guess what? That church doesnt do it all right either. Nobody does. Nobody is perfectly balanced and gets it all right. Just as human beings are expressions of Christ, so is the church. God is a God of structure and order. Just read the Old Testament, and heres how you make the Ark of the Covenant. Heres how things are going to happen in the Temple. In the Book of Corinthians, heres how worship is going to happen-structure and order. There are denominations that show Gods structure and order. There are denominations that excel in ministering to the poor. They do a fantastic job in reaching out to the downtrodden. There are churches that do a great job reaching barriers that are established through prejudice and hate. They break through those. They do a fantastic job with that. There are some churches where we learn reverence for God. You walk in them, and it just communicates from start to finish-reverence, solitude, quietness for the holiness of God. There are other churches where we learn to celebrate, and we learn the joy. The Lord is our strength! You go in there, and theres a party going on. Celebrate in the same Lord. This one you think is a funeral; this one is a party! Theyre worshipping the same God! This church really lifts up the value of Biblical preaching. This one esteems the value of worship. Everything they do revolves around worship through music. This church over here emphasizes healing. Every week, theyre praying for the sick. Thats important. This church over here emphasizes certain doctrines, certain gifts that others dont. Do you see what Im saying? Theyre all important. Theyre all important. Theyre all different. They all meet a different need, and its not that this one is right and these are all wrong. Its that they are all different expressions of God, and theyre all doing something really well. There are things they dont do as well, and there are other things they do fantastically; but they together are the body of Christ. Together, we are the body of Christ. There are different doctrinal differences. This one believes differently about baptism; and this one the second coming; and this one spiritual gifts. There are all these differences; yet you look at their statement of faith, and you will find this common ground, We believe Jesus is the Son of God who came to this earth, who died on the cross for my sin, and rose again on the third day; and I am saved through Him. We see common ground, dont we? You may not be comfortable in worshipping in their church, just like they may not be comfortable in worshipping in yours; but together we are the body of Christ. Friends, there is oneness in the body of Christ-despite the divisions, despite the denominations-because the Holy Spirit resides within the true believer. One of these days on those doctrinal issues, well find out who was right and who was wrong. Chances are, you were right on some of them and wrong on others; but well find that out. Well find out in Heaven that theres no such thing as a Catholic, a Lutheran, a Presbyterian, a Methodist, a Baptist-just followers of Christ and those who put their hearts and their souls in His care. I hope today that this lesson has helped you to understand the difference between unity and oneness and helped you to maybe see the church through different eyes. Father, as we move on to other parts of the service now, we just want to thank You for challenging us through the words of the Apostle Paul; that we seek to attain unity; that we make an effort to have that unity because we are one; because the prayer of our Lord from John 17 has been answered. The Holy Spirit has come, and there is one body; there is one Lord; there is one faith. Might we work together, partner together, with the churches of Janesville for our common calling. I thank You that we do. If we work in the GIFTS Homeless Shelter, were working with one church. If we work in the meals program, were working with another. If we work through our CAREs ministry, we are constantly joining hands and hearts with other churches in our community. Might we continue to be-as a church and as individuals-people that strive for the unity of the body of Christ and strive for that unity within our church-in spite of our differences. Were thankful that we can belong to a church where we can come into agreement under the name of Christ and say, Here is what we agree on, rather than fight on what we disagree on. Here is our common ground. Heres where we are staking our claim. Help us to be that kind of a church, Father. In Jesus name, I pray. Amen.
Do we have any fans of CSI, Monk? Is it Psych? Is that one of the new ones? Ive not seen that, but… Okay, Murder, She Wrote; Matlock? I like watching a good mystery suspense thriller. You know the people I dont like are the people who figure out the plot and solve the mystery at the beginning of the movie and then feel like they need to tell you. You know, like in the beginning of the movie, so it kind of spoils the whole thing for you. If you figured it out, just keep it to yourself. But we all like a good mystery and the plots, twists and turns and hows this all going to figure out? You know things happen during the movie or during the episode that you dont understand, but you know there is a director. You know theres a script. You know its going somewhere, and you know that somebody somewhere understands how this things supposed to end. Eventually, its all going to make sense. Its all going to come together. Then, when it does, what do you like to do? Sometimes if its a DVD, you like to go back, and then you can look for the clues and see what you missed the first time through. Its like, Oh, I missed that the first time! Why didnt I see that? Yes, that makes sense that he said this. Yes, that makes sense that he did that! And you work during the film to solve the mystery. Who did it? Why did he do it? One of my favorite games to play, family games, is Clue. That's fun too. Youre solving a mystery. I like to fix the puzzle and have everything come together and have everything make sense. Sometimes in our lives, there are mysteries, things we dont understand. Whats God trying to do here? Whats the direction Im going in? It doesnt make any sense. One of the things that the Bible says about the Gospel is the Gospel is a mystery. Pauls going to say that several times in the Book of Ephesians, The mystery of the Gospel. What did Paul mean when he called the Gospel a mystery? Thats what were going to talk about today as we go through the Book of Ephesians together. We are in Chapter 3. That's where we left off last week, and so we finished Chapter 2. In Chapter 3:1 (page 1157 of pew Bibles), if youd like to read with us... If youre new to Faith Community, were a church that teaches from the Bible, so you have to have your Bible or use the church Bible. We want you just not to hear a good story or a funny joke; we want you to understand the Bible and understand the Gospel and what Christ has done for you, so every week we open our Bibles. Page 1157, we begin with Verse 1 of Chapter 3. Paul writes, For this reason, I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles… Well pause right there, and its not so much that this has to do with our topic of the mystery; its just that this is a good time to just review a little bit what we talked about from last week. Paul says hes the prisoner for the sake of the Gentiles. Wheres Paul? Paul is in Rome. Why is he there? Hes there because he stood up for the Gentiles. Hes there because he believed that you and I have been given the gift, the opportunity, to hear the Gospel. In the Book of Acts 21, Paul arrives back in Jerusalem ignoring the warnings of people who tried to tell him, Dont go there. Prison could await you. Maybe even death awaits you. Dont go, but Paul went anyway. He said, Im willing even to die if necessary. I feel compelled to go to Jerusalem. When hes there, he hears the wonderful news that many Jews are coming to faith in Christ. However, they believe that you are against the law of Moses. Theres a rumor going on that you are against Moses and against the law. Paul had a philosophy, and that philosophy was-he said to the Jew, I am a Jew. To the Greek, Im a Greek. That by all means I might win some. In other words, he would adapt his custom and his teaching to whatever group he was trying to reach and influence. They said, We want you to go to the temple and participate in a ceremony, a cleansing ritual with these Jewish converts. Youre going to shave your head, and wed like you to pay for their vow, go to the temple, and show the Jewish Christians that youre not against Christianity. Paul says, Ill do that; so they shave their heads and they go to the temple to give this vow. While theyre there, there are some men from the city of Ephesus-the Book were studying. You say, How do you know? The Bible says theyre from Asia. How do you know theyre from Ephesus? Number one, they recognize Paul. Number two, they recognize his companion named Trophimos who is from Ephesus. He is a Gentile, not a Jew. Remember back then, they didnt have CNN. You didnt have Facebook. You werent sending photos on your cell phone. The only way to know what Paul looked like was to actually have seen Paul, so Paul spends three years in Ephesus; so these guys see Paul and they see Trophimos. They know hes a friend of Pauls, and they start a rumor and say, Paul has taken Trophimos, a Gentile, right into the court of the Israelites in the temple. It wasnt true, but they started that rumor; and a lynch mob ensues. Paul starts to be beaten. I mean he is just being hit. Romans hear theres a disturbance. Something bad is happening at the temple, so the Romans arrive on horseback. They break through the crowd. They see this man just being pulverized. Its the Apostle Paul. He is beaten and bloody. They rescue him from the lynch mob, so hes not killed. They sort through everything, and they say, Listen, you need to go before your own people of Sanhedrin and figure this out. Paul gets to the Sanhedrin, and he starts to share his story. He says how he tried to attack the church. His mission was to stop the church. He is the most unlikely person to be a Christian that you can imagine. Can you imagine somebody like Osama bin Laden who is trying to destroy the non-Muslims and the capitalists from the West converting from Islam to Christianity? That'd be pretty radical, wouldnt it? Well, Paul is literally killing Christians and dragging them into prison when their only crime is wanting to follow Christ; but Paul converts. He becomes a Christian. He starts sharing his story of how it happened. He says, I was on the road to Damascus. I had letters. I was going to arrest Christians, and a bright light [came]. It was Jesus, and He spoke to me. Heres what He said… Hes telling his story and theyre all listening until he says, God sent me to the Gentiles. As soon as he says, God sent me to the Gentiles, they say, Thats enough with you. Get away with this man. We dont want to hear any more, so Paul is then taken away. That's why he says, I am in prison for the sake of the Gentiles, because Paul knew what their reaction was going to be. As soon as he said it, he knew how they would react. Friends, to a large degree, you and I-mostly of European decent here today-we are here because of people like the Apostle Paul who said, God means the Gospel for everybody-not just for one race, but its for everyone. Were here today obviously because of the Lord, but God used a man like the Apostle Paul in a great way; so here we sit because he stood up for us. That's why hes in prison. What had happened was the Jews had had this exclusive mentality. Remember they were supposed to be inclusive? The Abraham a covenant of Genesis 15. God said to Abraham, Through you, Abraham, all peoples of the earth will be blessed. All peoples-not just one region; not just one race; but all people of the earth will be blessed through you. You are the first person of the covenant, but this covenant is going to be for all people. Instead of it becoming for all people, it became exclusive. They became angry when he said he wanted to reach Gentiles with the Gospel. It made him mad. Remember the story of Jonah? Jonahs a Jew. He is sent to Nineveh. The Ninevites were the enemies of Israel. Nineveh is where Iraq is today. Some things never change, right? So he is sent there to bring a message. Their message is repent or God is going to destroy you. You are doing detestable things, so he brings that news and theres a certain satisfaction because hes talking to his enemy. He kind of wants to see his enemy get whats coming, right? So he says, Unless you repent, God is going to destroy you, but because Hes a gracious God, Hes giving you one chance. Guess what the Ninevites do? They repent. They repent, and God relents. Judgment doesnt come. Instead of rejoicing because a whole nation of people are coming to God, he gets mad. He goes, I knew Youd do this! I knew You were a loving God! I knew You were a gracious God! I knew if You gave them a chance and they repented, You wouldnt kill them! I just knew this was going to happen! God says, Are you angry, Jonah? He says, Im angry enough to die! Why was he so mad? Because his enemies came to know God. Youd think Jonah would have rejoiced in that and be inclusive and, Isnt it great? But thats kind of human nature. Thats kind of how we operate, right? You and I are here today because America received our ancestors. Thats why were here today. What does the Statue of Liberty say? On the base of the Statue of Liberty, theres a poem written by Emma Lazarus that says towards the end, Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door! We stress we want them to come through the door, not over the wall. But there are some who will say, You know, we dont want anybody else coming to America-just us! Just right here! But America is offering freedom to all who will come through her door. That's what were to be about. Thats why you and I are here today because America offered safe harbor. It offered freedom to our ancestors. Thank God for that-that were here. We talked about the fact that the church-the Gospel is meant to be brought to the world. What does the church do? The church hides the message. The church keeps the message to itself. I see somebody who doesnt believe in God or maybe is of a different religion. I begin to disassociate myself with them-or theyre an atheist or theyre this or that, so I cut off and say, I only have friendships and only have relationships with those who think like me, talk like me and act like me. Christianity becomes this exclusive club, and its meant to be inclusive. When Jesus saw a person who did not know the Lord, He made a beeline to that person. Paul talked to a Greek, a philosopher, who could care nothing about God; Paul made a beeline to that man. Jesus was accused by His enemies of being the friend of sinners, the friend of people who did not know God. Why? Because He was. So we, as a church, need to be reaching out. We need to be sharing the message, not hoarding it, not looking down with disdain on those who dont share our faith-but seeking to build a relationship, build a bridge of friendship with them. Dont allow the barriers of prejudice, differences, stand in our way; so thats what we talked about last week. Thats why Paul is writing from prison. Now he says in Verse 2, Surely you have heard about the administration of Gods grace that was given to me for you, that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly. In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to men in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to Gods holy Apostles and Prophets, the mystery. What does it mean in the Bible when it says, A mystery? Is it something that well never know, like Colonel Sanders fried chicken secret recipe? Wouldnt you like to know what thats made of? Why didnt you think of it first? Or who shot JFK? Theres still a mystery surrounding that. There are unsolved mysteries. This mystery that Pauls talking about, is it kind of an unsolved mystery? Is that what he means? Is this a mystery well never understand? No. The word means something that is hidden that once disclosed, you understand. In other words, its a mystery until it is revealed to you. The word is apocalypses, to reveal. Once it is revealed to you, you will understand and discern the mystery. You are able to unravel; youre able to decode the mystery. Im going to ask my assistant Dennis Heider if he will leave our sanctuary for just a moment, so go out and dont listen in the sanctuary; dont listen to me. Plug your ears out there-we trust him. Hes an honest and a good man. I want you to think of a word that hes not going to be able to hear, and were going to try to give him some clues-a code-for him to decipher, this word. Give me a word, somebody-not like a long word, but… Packers, bad word, but what? What was the other one? F-r-e-e-z-e? All right. Well go with Packers, just so you dont… We went with Bears at 8 oclock. Well go with Packers at 9:30 just to be fair. Okay, lets go ahead and-though I like yours better-lets go ahead and bring him in. Im from Illinois; Im a Bears fan. Please forgive me. Jim, bring Dennis back in. Just have Dennis come right back in. Thank you, Dennis. Dennis, while you were out in the patio area, did you hear the word that the congregation decided on? [No.] So you have no idea what the word is? [No.] Okay, well I would like you to use your powers of discernment and figure out this word. Ready to begin? [Yes.] Okay. Please know that God loves you. ## Can you handle the truth? Keep Gods promises. ## Return to me, says the Lord. So be it. Do you know the word, Dennis? [Yes.] What is it? [Packers.] Packers is correct. Thank you for working on it. He understood the word from what I said. How many of you figured out how he knew that? Anybody figure that out? All right, Ill tell you. Right now its a mystery. That's the Biblical word, mystery. Its hidden. Its a secret until it is apocalypses-until it is revealed, so now I will reveal it to you. All Dennis had to remember was the first letter of the first word that I said in the sentence. So I used a word with a P. Then when it came to the vowels, I hit the table, A. It goes like this, A, E, I, O-wherever I stop, thats the vowel. Then I say a letter with a C; then another sentence with the letter beginning with K; and then A, E, all the way through till we spell out the word Packers. Now, if I did it again, would it be a mystery to you? No. It would no longer be a mystery. Youd understand. In fact, you could take that secret-that mystery-once its been revealed to you, and you can share it with others. Thats what the Gospel is. It begins as a mystery. Then it is revealed to us; and then once its revealed, we can take that secret-take that mystery-and share it with other people. So Paul is going to reveal to us the mystery. Look at the next verse, Verse 6. Hes going to give us the end of the Book. Hes going to tell us what the mystery is. This mystery is that through the Gospel, the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus. I became a servant of this Gospel, or this good news, by the gift of Gods grace given me through the working of His power. Although I am the least of Gods people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things. Turn in your Bibles please to the Book of 1 Peter 1 (page 1201 of pew Bibles). In 1 Peter 1, the Apostle Peter is speaking about this same mystery. Lets begin reading in Verse 8, Though you have not seen Him, you love Him; and even though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls. Concerning this salvation, the Prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. In other words as they wrote the Scripture, they wondered, Who am I talking about? Who is this One who is going to suffer? How is God going to bring about this redemption that Im writing about? They didnt understand. They couldnt see it. It was revealed to them, but they were not serving themselves but you… In other words, they would never know the answer in their lifetime. …when they spoke of the things that have now been told to you by those who have preached the Gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from Heaven. Even angels long to look into these things. So he speaks about the mystery-the mystery is all of it. Its not just only that the Gentiles are going to come to faith too-that the Gospel is for everybody. It is the fact of the cross. It is the fact of the incarnation. It is the death, burial and Resurrection of Christ. It is salvation through Him. All of those things together are the mystery. Remember Jesus is speaking to these Apostles about His death, burial and Resurrection and they dont understand, do they? It didnt make any sense to them because in their minds, Messiah comes, and He is going to set it straight. He is going to conquer Rome. He is going to be a military political figure that will establish the thrown as king and rule from Jerusalem in a literal kingdom. He will judge sin and the wrath of God will be delivered against the unrighteous by Him. That in their minds was what was going to happen. They didnt know how God was going to bring salvation. They didnt understand how God was going to reach all people. They didnt understand how God was going to reconcile man to Himself. They simply knew it was going to happen. When the mystery began to unfold and unravel, they were caught off guard. They didnt understand that the One who was to come was going to actually be God in the flesh-that in the incarnation, that God, the Son, would take on human form and live and die on the cross. They didnt understand. They thought that Gods wrath would come on man because of sin, but what they didnt realize was the wrath of God came on Jesus because of sin. Through that He offered a pardon to mankind. The mystery, friends, is simply how God did it. Its how God did it. How is God going to take these people, these Gentiles, who dont know Him, dont serve Him, dont care about Him-how is He going to reach them? Hes going to reach them, number one, through love; and Hes going to reach them, number two, through revelation. What He did-the story of the Gospel-is going to be told to man. In telling of the Gospel, they will understand what God did, and its all going to make sense. Why did a lamb have to be sacrificed? Why would sins be transferred to that lamb-the sins of the people-and then that lamb be slaughtered? Why did that happen? What about all these prophesies? How is this all going to happen? And then when it all comes together, man begins to understand how God brought redemption about, and the mystery is explained. The mystery of the Gospel is the fact that God is the God of all people; that He loves all people; that He made a way of redemption for all people through Christ; that Christ is the fulfillment of Old Testament prophesy; that Christ atoned and paid the price for mans sin on the cross; that He is Lord and that salvation is through faith as a gift of God. Its not through the works of the law. Abraham-remember what it says about Abraham? I think Jesse read it. He believed God and it was accredited to Him as righteousness. Thats the Gospel in Genesis 15, so we see the Gospel all the way back to the very beginning in Genesis 15. He was the first of the covenant. We are also children of the covenant. The covenant that we are in is a covenant of faith. Now you and I are engaged in a mystery. Were living our lives, and there are things we dont understand as we go through our lives; but understanding that the God of creation is in control; that there is a director; that there is a script; that someone is in charge-that this is coming to a climax-to an end-gives us an assurance. Thats what enabled Paul to fight the faith. Thats what enables you and me to fight the faith. The Apostle Paul says-and I think this really tells us about the heart of Paul-he says, In Him, through faith, we may approach God with freedom and confidence. He says, number one, approach God with a freedom and a confidence. God loves you. God wants to have a relationship with you. He wants to communicate to you. Remember when Jesus dies, he says in Chapter 2, The barriers been removed. What was the barrier? In the temple, there were different barriers between the Gentiles and the Jews; the men and the women; the priests and the high priest-all these different barriers. The most important barrier was in the Holy of Holies. That was the room where the Ark of the Covenant was kept-the presence of God. Only one man-the high priest-and only one day of the year-on the day of atonement-could go in the room and sacrifice and make atonement for the sins of the nation at the Ark of the Covenant. That room had a veil 4 inches think, 60 feet high, 30 feet wide. When Christ dies and He says, It is finished, the veil was torn in two, split, signifying that man now has access to God-direct access to God. The day after the Resurrection of Christ, a Gentile could not walk into the Holy of the Holies-still could not do it; but I want to tell you one thing: in the real Holy of Holies in Heaven, through Christ, that man now has access to the very thrown of God-bold and confident access. God says theres nothing more important to Me than you. My family calls my cell phone; its not an interruption. Theres nothing more important than them; so when they ring, Im answering the phone, Whats going on? Is everything okay? They can access me with confidence, knowing that theyre not an intrusion in my life because theyre important to me; and so it is with God. Paul says we can come with bold and confident access to the thrown-walk right into the throne room of God. I ask you therefore not to be discouraged because of my sufferings for you, which are for your glory. Look at Verse 13 (page 1157, Ephesians 3). I mean what about this Apostle Paul. Man-you know, here he is in prison. Hes been beaten, so hes recovering from wounds from a lynch mob, and what is his concern? His concern is for the people who love him. Hes saying, Its okay. Its all right. Dont worry about me. I did this for you. I did this for your well-being. I did this for your benefit. Now Paul didnt understand everything that happened to him, but he knew there was One who did. When Paul is in prison earlier in the Book of Acts and hes been beaten and is suffering, at midnight he is overheard by the jailers. What do the jailers hear? Do they hear Paul whining and complaining? Do they hear Paul going, I thought you were a loving God! All Im doing is Your will, and Im beaten and put in prison! You dont love me! You dont care about me! This wouldnt have happened if You were really a God, so I quit! I give up! No more! Is that what Paul said? Is that what he did? What was he doing at midnight in the prison cell? Singing! The guard said, Ive never seen a prisoner like this before! Then when the escape happens, the jailer is going to kill himself because he knows if the prisoner escapes, that means his life. Before he kills himself, Paul goes, Hey, dont kill yourself. Im right here. What prisoner when given freedom doesnt run into the night looking for refuge? The prisoner didnt even escape. Hes still standing right there. You looking for me? Dont kill yourself on the count of me. Im right here. I havent gone anywhere. Ive not run away. That night, he leads the jailer to Christ, and then the jailer comes to know Christ as well. Paul said, Itd be worth it for me to go prison just to lead that family to Christ! Friends, you and I go through prison experiences. We go through times where we are beaten up. Were taken from and robbed. Sometimes we get angry at God, and we say, You know, I thought it I were a child of God-I thought I put my faith and trust in You, bad things would never happen to me, so Youve let me down! I would say to you, Who told you that? Whoever told you that is not telling you the truth! Whoever told you that isnt reading their Bible! Did Paul have a cushy life? Did Peter have a gravy life? Did Jesus have a gravy life? What makes you think you should? You know, when we encounter the hardships in our lives, it is a mystery sometimes. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:12 (page 1137), lets take a look at what that says. I hadnt planned on looking at this, but lets look at it. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. Paul says there are some mysteries that remain. How many of you have ever gone through hardships in your lives, difficulties in your lives; and then over a period of time, weeks, months, or even years, you look back and theres been a revelation? You look back and you understand how God used those difficult periods in your lives? Let me see your hands. Wow, thats something, isnt it? When youre going through it, its a mystery. Why in the world did this happen to me? Im not saying that God is the author of that misery. I am saying that God uses those difficulties and uses those challenges to produce faith and perseverance and character in our lives. We look back and we can see mystery solved, I see how God used that in me. I see how God produced patience in going through that time in my life. I see how God produced long suffering in my life through that experience. But Paul says there are going to be some things that will remain a mystery. When he says, Then we shall know, what is he talking about? Hes talking about in Heaven-the final apocalypses, the final revelation. Then we shall know fully even as we have been fully known. But until this time, because he understood the mystery of the Gospel, Paul was able to persevere. When you understand the mystery of the Gospel, you know even though life sometimes does not make sense, God is good. God loves me. God demonstrated my worth in the price that was paid for my redemption. The price that was paid was the blood of the Son of God. I have value and worth and significance. Though I dont understand all the plots, twists and turns, and sometimes in the movie of your life, there are chapters within that episode that arent too pleasant to go through-understand theres a Director. Someday for you, its going to be, Cut! Take! and youll understand how God was working, how God was using you, how God was shaping you. It was that understanding that enabled Paul to persevere, continue and be able to say, I have fought the good fight. I have finished the course. I have kept the faith. Jesse and Joy Thompson are coming at this time to sing a song that at one time would have been a mystery. (Here is a link to the lyrics of In Christ Alone: (http://www.higherpraise.com/lyrics/yeshua/yeshua0603.html). There was a time when the people of God could not even sing this song because they wouldnt even understand what it meant. It wasnt until after the Resurrection that the mystery began to make sense. Now I understand the prophesies. Now I understand why Christ had to die. Jesus in Luke 24 is walking with those two believers on the road to Emmaus, and Hes explaining from the Psalms and the Prophets why Christ had to suffer and die, and they say, Were not our ears burning as he told us, explained to us the prophesies, as he explained to us the mystery, as he revealed to us the Gospel? Friends, I pray in your hearts today that youd respond to the message of the Gospel. When the mystery has been explained to you, a gift has been offered to you, you must receive that gift by faith. Receive Christ into your hearts by faith. Listen as they sing this song. It talks about this wonderful good news, or the mystery of Gospel of Christ. We understand it. We receive it. We share it. Lets pray: Father, we thank You we were able to understand today the mystery of the Gospel, that which was secret and hidden was then revealed to us. Lord, weve been called to share that Truth with others as well. The Christianity, our faith, is meant to be inclusive. Its for the world, so Lord help us to be faithful as individuals and as a church and as the Apostle Paul did, to share Your love and Your hope with a world that so desperately needs to know You. I pray that those today who have heard the Gospel, its been explained to them, that theyll receive and trust in the provision that Youve made for them, the gift of salvation through Christ, our Lord. In His name, we pray, Amen.
Dr. King is a tough act to follow. Thats for sure, but Id like you to open your Bibles up this morning, if you would please, to the Book of Acts. Prejudice takes many different forms, doesnt it? People are discriminated against because of the color of their skin, because of their ethnicity or their religion. It could be because of geographic location. In moving here from Illinois, I encountered that there were some hostilities-people of the dairy land. It could be a physical abnormality. Unfortunately in grade school, its one of the hardest places I think. There are a lot of problems that go on in grade school as children pick on other children. I remember seeing children picked on because of their teeth; their nose; or their ears; or ones too fat; ones too thin. I remember seeing a child being picked on because she was homely or unattractive, another one being picked on because she was poor and didnt have good clothes. Another one was picked on because he had cerebral palsy. I remember seeing one picked on because he or she had braces or freckles-you name it. One of my first encounters with prejudice was when I was in grade school. When I was in grade school, Sesame Street was a new neighborhood. It had just been launched. There was a song made popular by Ernie. It went, Rubber ducky, youre the one. Remember that song? Well, one of the kids started calling me, Duck. He said, You walk like a duck, and I had broken arches, fallen arches. I had special shoes to correct them, so the only way I could really be comfortable was to kind of keep my feet like this when I walked, kind of like Charlie Chaplin. I ran an errand and came back to music class, and the kids broke into a rendition of Rubber Ducky with the music teacher leading the way. I remember just being devastated. I put a smile on the outside, but inside I was just crushed that they were making fun of me. Im walking home. It was a winter day, and I remember turning around looking at my tracks in the snow with my feet going like this. I was saying to myself, I do walk like a duck, and was just feeling about this big. I remember thinking, How can these kids, some of them my friends, make fun of me for something I cannot help. They make fun of me for something that really, really hurts. I realized at an early age that prejudiced is based on ignorance. Its based on ignorance. You dont have all the facts, or youre ignoring the facts, but its based upon ignorance. I learned its also based upon insecurities-that I feel better; I feel more secure about myself if I make you feel less than you are because I see you as a threat-because I see your very existence as a threat to me. I have fears and insecurities, so that causes me to rise up against you and seek to bully you and intimidate you. I have a dog that is three quarter Border Collie and one quarter Chihuahua. It looks like you took a Border Collie and put her in a shrinking machine. Shes very cute, however she has some personality disorders. You put those two mixes together, and she thinks shes a Border Collie, so she tries to act really tough; but if you challenge that-if you call her bluff, she turns into a Chihuahua and starts shaking. One of the low points of her existence on this planet was when I took her to a dog park. Shell bark at the other dogs even though shes been to puppy school and graduated. She should be beyond this. Then if the dog does not listen, then she comes to me to be picked up and rescued. Well, there was this little ball of fur no bigger than your fist that came at her, and she was barking at that dog; and the dog just kept coming. She came to me for help. Its like, Penny, this is a low point-even for you. You are afraid of a midget little pup here. This thing was about as big as your fist. At night when we let her out-only at night, its dark-she doesnt see whats going on out there; and when she comes out of the house, she just phew! She runs in the yard barking for all shes worth-just this ferocious mean bark. Shes talking and shes saying, Whoever you are out here, you better not be here! This is my turf! My master says its time to go potty, and you better not be here. If you are here, I will hurt you bad! This is what I think shes saying; so shell run all around the yard barking at night. We know, the cat-whatevers out there-might not know, but we know shes just a coward. We know all that is is her trying to bully and intimidate, but really the base of that is insecurity. There is a rise in hate groups in our country right now. They get together and they try to bully and intimidate. Theyre loud and boisterous, but the core is insecurity and fear. Inside, they are cowards, so they ban together to make their loud noise; but we know what the base of that is. The third base of prejudice is pride. I want to think of myself better than you. I want to think of myself as superior to you, so if I can belittle you, ridicule you and demean you in some way, then somehow I am exalted and I feel better about myself knowing that Im better than somebody else. It could be somebody was discriminated because theyre the haves and not the have nots. I remember myself being born into poverty. There were times when I was discriminated against because I didnt have anything. I remember thinking, I didnt choose to be born in affluence or poverty. You dont choose what family youre born into. How can you judge me on the basis of where I live or what I dont have; but yet theyd feel better if they could do that. Heres the thing: you say, Why are you talking to the church about this? You know, prejudice can exist within churches too and within Christians too. We need to be careful because if we allow that to exist-and listen, it is very easy to return hate for hate, isnt it? When I see those hate groups and you see prejudice and you see innocent people being hurt, doesnt it make you angry? Doesnt it make you want to respond in kind? Sure it does. Its real easy to stoop down to that level, but we have to guard that. We have to guard our hearts against hatred. When you feed something, what does it do? It grows, right? Good or bad? You feed your flowers; theyre going to grow. You feed your weeds; theyre going to grow. Dont feed the weeds. You are allowing prejudice to exist in your life or to grow in your life; you are also growing an insecurity and an ignorance in pride. You dont want to grow an ignorance; you dont want to grow in pride; you dont want to grow in insecurities. Dont feed the weed. Understand that we are all equal. Gods Word talks about that in the Book of Acts. In Act 17, Paul is speaking to the people of Athens. The Greeks thought they were very intellectually superior to everyone else. In fact, there is evidence that they thought of themselves as a superior race because of their advancements, because of their wisdom, their knowledge. They saw themselves as special, more important than the people around them. Paul is preaching to them, and he says in Verse 26 (page 1098 of pew Bibles) about the God who made Heaven and earth, From one man… How many men? From one man. He made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and He determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. We came from One: One God and Adam and Eve. We are from one Man, so none are better than anyone else; so thats the lesson were going to talk about in the Book of Ephesians today. Were going to look at a people who had religious and race hostilities towards one another. Now as Paul writes the Book of Ephesians, he is writing to a predominately Gentile audience; however, we know there were Jews present. Paul preached in the synagogue when he started the church in Ephesus. Yet there were tensions and hostilities between the Gentiles and the Jews. Paul is going to address that. Hes going to address the topic of religious and racial prejudice in the verses were going to examine this morning. Lets look at Verse 11 of Ephesians 2 (page 1157 of pew Bibles). He says, Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called uncircumcised by those who call themselves the circumcision… That was a derogatory term. He said, Listen, you were born a Gentile. There was no reason for you to be circumcised because you were not born into the Jewish religion. However those who have gone through the ritual of circumcision were looking down upon those who had not. They were saying, We are the people of the covenant. We are the circumcised. You are the uncircumcised. So it was a term of slander. It was saying, We think less of you. You are the uncircumcised. We are the circumcised. …remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. What a destitute description: without God and without hope-foreigners, aliens, cut off from the promise. Wow! That is a destitute condition to be in, but why were they in that? Why were they cut off from the promise? Did God cut them off from the promise? Is that what happened? You know we see the hostilities. If you are a student of the New Testament, we encountered in Luke 4, Jesus is in His hometown, right? Hes preaching to the people He grew up with; and theyre so proud of Him, theyre going, Here He comes-hometown boy! Hes really made a name for Himself. Hes really done well for Himself. He starts to preach in the synagogue; and the place is packed. Jesus starts to speak and He starts to esteem the Gentiles in His first sermon ever, and they get so enraged that they drag Him outside of the city to kill Him. Why? Because He esteemed the Gentiles. The church spreads from the Jew to the Gentile. The first Gentile converted is Cornelius. Peter comes to his home because he had a dream and a vision to go to Cornelius house. What does he say as hes sitting in Cornelius living room? Cornelius family is gathered around, and heres Peter a Jew in the home of this Gentile. He says in Acts 10, You know its unlawful for me to be here. You know that a Jew is not to associate with a Gentile, eat with a Gentile, or be in the home of a Gentile. Its wrong for me to be here. You know its breaking the law. What law was it breaking? Gods law? No. Mans law. See, listen to what God said. Now turn to Genesis 12 (page 11 of pew Bibles). Listen to what God said when He called Abraham to start a nation. Abraham is minding his own business; hes living a good life; hes married. He doesnt have a son. Hes accepted that. Hes getting up in years, and hes just living the good life. All the sudden one day, God speaks to him and tells him as the stars in the sky, so will be his descendants. Thats a very peculiar thing to say to a man who has no son and is elderly. Hes up there in years, but everythings going to change, and He says to Abraham in Verse 1, Leave your country, your people and your fathers household… Everything that is familiar to you, …and go to the land I will show you. How would you like to be Abraham over the dinner that night? Honey, why is there a U-Haul in the driveway? Well, God has called us to a new land. Where? He will show us as we drive down the highway. Just pack your bags. Thats not going to go over too well, but this is going to be an entire faith journey. God says to him, and heres the covenant; heres the promise, I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and some people on earth will be blessed through you. What does it say? …all peoples on earth… The covenant of promise was for everyone! It was for everyone; all peoples were to be blessed through Abraham, so what happened? Well, if we read our Bibles, what happened was pride began to set in. They began to think, Well, you know what? Were the race of the promise. Were the race of the covenant, and they began to look down upon those who were not. Were chosen of God. Were better than anyone else. Lets not associate with anyone else. Lets live in a bubble here. Lets not take this message of Gods existence to the world. Lets keep it to ourselves. Lets exclude others. Now God had called them to be separate. God had called them to be holy. They were not to engage in the practices of the Pagans that might be around them or the other things that were evil or detestable. They were not to engage in that. They were not to become like the nations that were around them, but they were to influence those people. Instead, they chose to hoard the message. Before we judge them, how many Christians do you know that that have done the same thing? Christians who look down their noses at other people and say, Well, you know, I am a person of the covenant. I belong to the Lord, Jesus Christ, and they treat others with disdain as if they were better than them. Have any of you ever encountered a Christian who does that? Three of you? Wow! Thats pretty good. We laugh because we know we were just too lazy to raise our hands. The question really should be, You mean this week? Theyre everywhere out there! Yes, were not to look like the world. Yes, were not to compromise our faith, but we were called to be salt and light. The number one criticism rendered against Jesus was what? He was a friend of sinners-people they looked down upon, the leaders and Scribes. Jesus hung with them. He was friends with them. Look at your circle of friends, people that youre hanging out with the most-people that youre spending time with the most. Theres nothing wrong with having Christian friends. We have to have Christian brothers, sisters, friends and close friends; but if we say that Christians are our only friends-theyre the only ones were spending time with, were out of balance. How in the world can you be salt and light if the only people that you know and spend time with are people who know Christ? Sometimes our motives are like, Thats just because were busy. Other times, the motive is wrong. Christians look down upon those who dont know the Lord. Those who dont know the Lord sense that, and they say, If thats what Christianity is about, I dont want any part of it. They reject that and its not Christ theyre rejecting. Its arrogance and pride that theyre rejecting. So Paul talks about the solution to that. He says in Verse 13 (of Ephesians 2, page 1157), But now in Christ Jesus, you who are far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace… It doesnt say that He has peace or He brings peace; it says He is peace. …who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility… Friends, you are either destroying the barrier or allowing the barrier to continue to exist. Those are your options. Youre either bringing down barriers, or youre creating barriers. Which is it? I have a friend in the Dominican Republic. His name is Pastor Jean. Youve maybe heard me talk about him or our church talk about him. Weve taken two missions trips to the Dominican Republic. The island of Hispaniola has two countries. Two thirds of the island is the Dominican; one third is Haiti. Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. When our group goes to the Dominican Republic, we say, Look how poor this country is. When the Haitians go to the D.R., they say, Look how rich this country is. One of the foods that is in their diet, if you can call it that, is a cake that is made with sugar, oil, butter and dirt; and they eat that because it makes their stomachs not hurt so much. They come to the D.R., and they have no rights. They cant vote; cant go to school-cant send your children to school; receive no medical coverage. You get the worst jobs with the lowest pay. In Haiti, you make $2 a day if youre a labor person-$2 a day! Thats all they make, and that would be for a full days work. If you come to the D.R., you make a little bit more; but they still receive the lowest pay, the worst jobs, and live in the most deplorable conditions. When youre there you encounter that hostility. The Dominicans, they speak Spanish. The Haitians, they speak French and Creole. You can tell-if youve been there-the Haitians are much darker if you can recognize them. Theres a definite distinction between the Haitians and the Dominicans. You encounter the prejudice right away, right off the bat. You sense in. You hear it in conversations, so we partner with this church. We partner with this pastor. They have nothing, so our church provides a church for them-a nice building where they rent for services on Sunday morning, where they have school. They have to call it something else, but they have school for the children there. Some of you sponsor some of those children, but we pay for the facility. We help support the church in a number of ways. We have a fund thats ongoing if you want to contribute to it. Its a $12,000 goal. Were at about $5,000 now, so were on our way. Pastor Jean and I, we correspond with each other. We email back and forth. His English is not so good, but I understand what hes trying to say to me. I just sent him an email just to encourage him. I wasnt really thinking about it or anything. He sent an email back to me. He described that that day he had gone on a bus to the university. He had to do some studying. He said he was on the bus, and he overheard the Dominicans talking about the Haitians. He can understand Spanish enough to know what people are saying. They said, We dont want to ride the bus with the Haitians. Its impossible to ride the bus with the Haitians. Our president is going to make it so that we have our own bus, so we wont have to ride with the Haitians anymore. How do you think this beautiful man now feels because he is looked down upon because of where he was born, because of his race? He said, I felt awful. I felt terrible inside. He said, Then I came home and I read your email, and you said to me one strong word; and it brought joy to my heart. You said to me, My brother. He said, And I know that you have for me love. God bless you, Pastor Jeff. Im praying for you, your family and your congregation. He came home dejected and he read an email. I didnt think anything of it. He looks and he says, I am his brother. They put us Americans up on a pedestal. If youre from America, whether we deserve to be there or not-and we dont-were there. The pastor from America says I am his brother. I am his friend. I wrote back to him, and I said, Theyre no better than you. The same Savior that died for them died for you. The same blood that was shed for their sins was shed for you sins. We are all equal at the cross, my brother. You remember that, and you have immeasurable value and worth in Jesus Christ. What walls or barriers are we removing, and what are we allowing to stay up? (Picking back up in the middle of Verse 15), His purpose was to create in Himself one new man out of the two and thus make peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which He put to death their hostility. He removed it. At the cross we see that God created us equal, that He loves us all, and He redeemed us all-that we all matter to Him. He didnt die for a region; He didnt die for a country; He didnt die for a race; He died for mankind. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through Him, we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. The same family, and thats going to be Pauls theme. He says, Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens of Gods people and members of Gods household… You are a part of Gods family. I have two nametags on this morning if youre observant. The first nametag is mine. The second nametag belongs to a young man in our church. Its Devon Servin. He is being adopted by a family in our church. He came to me last night, and he took his old nametag off and says, This is not my name anymore. He said, You can have it, Pastor, and he put it on my shirt. As soon as he did that, I went, Ah ha, sermon illustration. Can I talk about this to our church? He goes, Sure. So hes not only taking on a new last name, he has a new first name. His new first name is David, and he was so proud when he put on his nametag for the first time, David Schumacher. He said, Im adopted. I am David Schumacher. He had a big smile on his face, right? I have a family that loves me and that wants me. He was so proud. He was one of our ushers last night-very cute, cute kid. He is so proud of his identity, so proud of who he was. He had a new family. He had somebody who loved him. He had a place where he belonged. Paul talks about that in the Book of Galatians, if youd just flip back one book to Galatians 3. Paul writes this powerful verse of Scripture-Galatians 3:26 (page 1153), You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abrahams seed, and heirs according to the promise. He said your ethnicity doesnt matter. Your status doesnt matter. Your gender doesnt matter. You are one in Christ. The most important identification you have is not your political party. Its not the civic organization you belong to. Its not the union you belong to. Its not the fact that youre a veteran. Its not the citizenship of your country. Its not even the name of your family. The most important identification that you have is that you belong to God, and youre part of Gods household-that you have a name of Jesus on your sticker. It says, I belong to God, and God loves me. God has redeemed me. Hes paid the price for my sin. That is the most important affiliation that I have. He says, If you belong to Christ, then are you Abrahams seed and heirs according to the promise. He said what man took and distorted and messed up, God has made right. In Christ, the prophesy was fulfilled. In Christ, all the nations have been blessed through Abrahams seed. Jesus is a direct descendent of Abraham, so through Abraham, all the nations of the world have been blessed. We have to take that message of oneness to our world. We have to make sure that prejudice is not reigning in our hearts, that were not feeding the weeds of insecurity, ignorance and pride. With that we recognize that God loves all people. Therefore, were to love all people. Were not to succumb to that and allow ourselves to stoop down to the level of those who would hate and those who would raise barriers, but we are seeking to bring them down by the words we speak, by the life that we live. Lets pray together: Father, what an appropriate thing to do, to receive communion after a message like this-to talk about what the cross has done, how on the cross You destroyed the hostility, the prejudice of one thinking they are superior to another. The Word says, For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. In John 12:32, our Lord Jesus says, If I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men unto Me. So, Lord, we thank You for the promise of salvation through Christ. Help us to be a people who live lives worthy of the price that was paid for us-to be a people, Lord, who are tearing down barriers and not erecting them. Father, as we receive this communion now, search our hearts. If there are any weeds in our garden, Lord, help us to root them out even now-to bring them to the cross, confess them and forsake them. I pray this in Jesus name, Amen.
Pastor Jeff Williams: September 27, 2009 Meet the Ephesians, Part V: The Most Important Message You Will Ever Hear.
Im calling this message this morning, The Most Important Message You Will Ever Hear, and that's the truth. This is the most important message. I didnt say it was the greatest sermon youll ever hear. Its far from that, but it is the most important message that you will ever hear because when it comes to the matter of eternity-the message of salvation-there is no message that is more important. Thats the primary reason our church exists, to share this message with our world-that Christ is the hope of the world. Its amazing to me-you know, the Gospel is very clear, and were going to see it. Its black and white, but its amazing to me how many people still dont have a proper understanding of what the New Testament says regarding salvation. They still have a very skewed view of how a person is right with God. What Im going to share this morning is not my opinion. I am sharing with you what the Word of God says. Its important for two reasons. Its important number one, because there are going to be people who need to hear it. They have a wrong understanding of how salvation is experienced and realized. They have never received Christ as their Lord, so we share this message for them first and foremost. Secondly, we share this message because its important for you as you are going about your life, as you have doors of opportunity to share your faith; its important that you know how to respond. If somebody says, Well, whats a Christian? or Why are you a Christian? or How do you become a Christian? What do you believe? You need to be able to articulate your faith, what Scriptures to turn to, and how to explain the plan of salvation to someone; so for that reason, this message is important. So lets open our Bibles up to Ephesians 2. Were going to break this into three segments this morning. First were going to talk about our condition, our destitute condition. Paul is writing to the church in Ephesus, [which is] located in Asia. We begin reading in Verse 1 (page 1156 of pew Bibles), As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the Spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. The first thing that Paul explains is that we are in a destitute condition; that you and I have a sin nature; that every day we both sin and transgress. Both words are similar in meaning. To sin means to miss the mark, and to transgress means to not live up to or fulfill all that youre required to. We think about the Ten Commandments, and we should. We say, Well, Im going to try to obey the Ten Commandments. These are things Im not going to do. But you know whats important as well is there are sins of omission. There are transgressions that you and I commit every day. Do you always stand up for injustice when you see it? Do you always stand up against prejudice when its around you? Do you always stand up for righteousness and truth when given the opportunity? Are you always the best husband/father/wife/mother/friend/brother/ sister/servant of the Lord that you should be? How many of you are always that? None of us can raise our hand. We fall short each day, so everyday there are things that we are supposed to do that we do not do, things we are supposed to say that we dont say; and there are things that we dont do that we should. Every day, we fall willfully short. So Paul describes this sin nature that is within all of us, and the Word of God says that we fall short of the glory of God-Romans 3:23 (page 1114 of pew Bibles), For we all sin and fall short of the glory of God. This was certainly true in Ephesus. He talks about engaging in sinful patterns and sensuality-worshipping of the goddess of fertility; you can only begin to imagine what that involved. The worship of Artemis, the goddess, or Diana, the goddess of Ephesus, was something the whole city was engaged in. Part of that, as they would come to the Temple-it was the number one employer in the city-there were Eunuchs who were priests, and there were Temple prostitutes. We have children present. I wont go into the acts that were committed in the name of Artemis, but you kind of get the picture. This was a very sensual religion. There was a lot of immorality that was taking place in Ephesus. Paul says, You used to be part of that. That was your lifestyle, but now God has called you to a different lifestyle. Hes going to explain that youve earned death by your lifestyle, but God has chosen to impart grace. Romans 6:23 (page 1117 of pew Bibles) says, The wages of sin is death… Whats a wage? A wage is something youve earned. Its something you have coming. When you get a paycheck, maybe you get paid every Friday or every other Friday, and your boss hands you the paycheck, do you go, Oh, man! Thanks! You shouldnt have done that! I dont know what to say! Im going to cry! This is so nice! I worked and you gave me this money! Wow! Youre awesome! Give me a hug! Is that what you do? You earned that, right? What if they say to you, You know, I cant pay you this week, but I want you to know youre doing a good job. What do you say to that? I probably cant pay you next week, but keep up the good work. That isnt going to work out, is it? If we said to our staff, Hey, you know what? You guys are doing a great job, but you know we work for a church. We serve the Lord, so, yeah… Just let this be your thanks this week. Thats not going to go over too well, is it? Because youve earned that. Youve earned that check. You went to work; you did your job; you put in your time. Show me the money. Its mine. Well, the Bible says the wage of sin is death, separation. Thats what weve earned. So Paul is explaining to them the destitute condition. He said, Because of your sin, you were separated from a Holy God. Because God is holy and God is righteous, the moral law of the universe says when we sin, justice must be served. Punishment must be merited out for that sin. So he says, Because of that, before you came to know the Lord, you were objects of wrath. Because you sinned, you fell short because sin must be punished. Therefore, Gods holiness and justice demands it. You are separated from God. Death is your fate. There is some good news though. The good news is talked about in Verse 4 (of Ephesians 2, page 1157). He says, But because you are such neat people, God is rich in mercy. No. It says, But because of His great love for us… Why did God make a way of salvation available? Because He loves us. Its not hard; its pretty easy. He loves us. He chose to deliver us. …God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions… and sin. While you were rebelling against God, God chose to do a resurrection in you. Thats why its so ridiculous to think that you can save yourself by your own merits and your own works. Salvation is nothing less than taking what is dead and making it alive-spiritually dead and being brought back to life. If somebody dies, he/she had a heart attack and stops breathing, [when] the paramedics arrive, do they give the defibrillators to the dead person? Do they say, Well, you know, youre not breathing any more. You really need these. Put one in your right hand, one in your left hand, and good luck to you. Youre going to have to shock yourself here in hopes that… You know, you really need some mouth to mouth too, so go ahead and resuscitate yourself. How is that going to work out? Thats not going to work out because theyre dead. They need outside intervention to be made alive. And so, the Bible says were spiritually dead. How can what is spiritually dead come alive? It cannot without the help of God, so God does a resurrection. He draws us to Himself. Jesus says in John 6:44, 65 (page 1056, 1057, respectively), No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him… God has drawn you to Himself and made you alive. Paul is making sure we understand that salvation is the work of God from beginning to end. You receive no credit along the way. You say, Well, Im glad I found the Lord. You didnt find the Lord; the Lord found you. Well, you know, I led this person to Christ. No, you didnt. Christ led that person to Himself. He used you; thank God for that. Youre an instrument, but the glory goes to God, not to you. Salvation is from beginning to end the work of God as He seeks to bring us to Himself. It is an exchange of position. We talked about our destitute condition. This is about our exalted position. Positions were exchanged. It says that He left Heaven and the privileges of Heaven and the privileges of deity and took on flesh, lived a perfect sinless life and offered that life up on the cross as a sacrifice for sin. Those who believe and follow have been imparted His righteousness. So in exchange of positions, He left His home and came to our home that one day we can be where He is. He who knew no sin was made to be sin that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ. He took on our sin. Gods wrath was poured out, but it was poured out upon Jesus. Sin was punished. The penalty of death was carried out, but He served the penalty and chose to impart to us grace, forgiveness and mercy. That is the Gospel. Paul is going to expound upon that because now were going to focus on our eternal salvation in the next verses. Paul says, For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-not by works, so that no one can boast. For by grace, you have been saved. What is grace? Grace means favor; its divine favor-Gods favor on your behalf-that God does something for you that you do not deserve. Thats grace. Im going to give you a word picture about what grace is, but first, I want to define the term so we understand what grace is. Grace has nothing to do with your balance or coordination or your ability to dance. Grace has to do with favor that God has chosen to give you because He loves you. Youve earned death, and God has chosen to give instead life. God has chosen to give instead a pardon. Thats grace. For by grace, you have been saved. The word saved is a military term. It means to deliver. When the Spartans went to war, they wanted to have favor. Remember that Artemis is also a goddess of the hunt and could give victory and war, so you would come and sacrifice to Artemis that she would give you victory, that she would deliver you from the hands of your enemies; so thats what salvation means. Weve been delivered-delivered from what? Delivered from wrath-delivered from the penalty of sin, which is death. So that is the word salvation. It means deliverance through faith. Faith is simply trust. Faith takes somebody at their word, and there is corresponding action. Somebody says something, you believe it, and you act upon it. A friend calls you and says, Hey, lets have breakfast at 9 oclock tomorrow morning. You show up at 9 oclock tomorrow morning, and your friend is not there. You call him up. You say, Hey, where were you? Oh, yeah I forgot. Lets meet tomorrow at 9 oclock. You show up the next day at 9 oclock in the morning, and your friend is not there. Where were you? You call him [and he says], I was there. Oh, Im sorry. I forgot. Lets meet tomorrow at 9 oclock. What are you going to do? How about you get to the restaurant and call me from there, all right? If youre actually physically at the restaurant and say, Im here, Ill show up. Because Ive learned I cant trust what you say. I cant act on what you say. I cant demonstrate health. So faith is a demonstration of trust-that I believe what someone has said. Then fourthly, it says that it is a gift of God. A gift is something that you receive that you have not worked for. If somebody gives you a gift, you open up the package, and you go, Oh, its great! and attached is a bill, its not a gift. If they give you a present, and they say, Okay, you owe me $100, its not a gift. Or you open up the present, and you go, Oh, its great! and they take it back and say, Not until you give me what Im looking for. As soon as you buy this for me, you can have this gift. Thats an exchange; thats not a gift. A gift is something that comes with your name on it thats for you, thats been given to express kindness or love to you-appreciation for you. That is a gift. Because we could not earn salvation-because every day we dig deeper into spiritual debt-the only way we could be saved and be made right was if God were to give a gift; and this is radical for the Ephesians because gods dont give gifts. If youve grew up in Ephesus, [you knew] Artemis would take, take, take. If you wanted to have a healthy child, youd give a gift to Artemis, and maybe shed give you a healthy child. Maybe shed give you a healthy child. If you wanted to have a good harvest, youd give a gift to Artemis. Maybe Artemis would give you a gift of a good harvest, but it was always something that was reciprocated. You placate Artemis; you give to Artemis; you give the gifts. Gods dont give gifts; they receive gifts. So Paul is coming along, and hes teaching this radical doctrine that God is the initiator, that God has taken the first step, that God is the One who is reaching. In every other religion, they have man reaching up to [their] god. Christianity is God reaching down to man. God is the One who shows and demonstrates His love. God is the One who reaches down, saves and delivers. Think about a movie. Youve seen movies before. Ive seen this scenario played out in different ways, different plot twists, but its basically the same in this genre of movie. Usually it has to do with somebody trying to kill somebody else, and theyre the enemy. The script writers, the director, and the actor have done their best job to make us not like this villain; so the climax of the movie comes. The villain attacks the hero. It looks like the hero is going to die, but there is a twist of fate, and somehow the villain is now in peril. They are hanging on to a cliff. They are about ready to plunge into the ocean. Theyre about ready to get sawed in half or something happens, and they are in a destitute situation. Unless they are delivered, they are going to die. The only hope they have is the hero. What will the hero do? Will the hero allow them to perish or will the hero rise above? Will the hero say, Im better than you, so even though all youve done is try to kill me and harm me, now that your life is in the balance instead of mine, what will I do? Now, in most of the movies Ive seen, the hero will then say something like this, Take my hand. Right? Take my hand. That, friends, is grace. Thats grace. What does that villain deserve? The villain deserves what theyre getting because theyve been awful to you. They have been mean, vindictive and hateful to you. Now they have a chance to get whats due to them, and instead you chose to extend grace to them. Its Saul trying to kill David, and David having an opportunity to take Sauls life, but he extends grace instead. We read about that in Samuel. When the hero reaches down to the villain and says, Even though youve tried to kill me, Im going to save you. He reaches down with his hand. Now the villain has a choice to make, Are they trying to trick me? Well, you know what? If I dont take the hand, Im going to die anyway, so the villain takes the hand and is lifted to safety. Thats faith when they grab the hand, and that is salvation when they pull them up. That is deliverance. Then usually what happens is the bad guy tries to kill him again. Ive never quite understood why it works that way. That's kind of how it goes, but that is deliverance. Theyve pulled them out. That word picture is an understanding of grace, faith, salvation and what a gift looks like-the gift of another star. The Bible says were repellant against God and have turned our backs against God. In spite of that, in spite of our sin, God extended His hand, and He said, Take My hand. Believe that I love you. Believe that Ive saved you. We put our faith and trust in Christ, and we reach up and we take that hand; and He delivers us. He delivers us from the wages of sin, which is death. He forgives us and offers us eternal life. Paul says at that moment, you are seated in the Heavenly realms. Even though youre still here on earth, in the realm of the Spirit, you are with God. Your eternal destiny is sealed. You are heaven-bound, and it is the work of grace. If somebody does something wonderful for you, somebody saves your life or does something great for you, what is your natural response to that person? Your natural response is to do what? To show your appreciation and your gratitude, and that's what Paul talks about in the next verse. He says, For we are Gods workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. The word workmanship is the word we get poem from. Its the Greek word poema, that which has been made for a purpose. This really is neat because what Paul is saying is this, Youre writing a poem for God. Your life is a poem, and every day, you add another verse. [Hes also saying], God created these works in advance for you to do. In other words, there is a purpose for your life. God had put a gift in you. Hes put talents in you. Hes put passions in you that are there to glorify Him. You are to be an expression of Gods love to the world. You are to be an expression of His nature to the world. You are a living poem that God is writing. You are an expression of God to the world. He has put something in you, a purpose in you that you are to live out. So because I am appreciative, because I am thankful, because I am humble, what God has done for me, I now serve Him. I work to serve Him. We are not saved by good works; we are saved for good works, and that's important. There are people-and you might be one of them-who think that you just do good works and you score enough. If you score enough, you do more good things than bad things, score enough points-it will make up for the bad things you do, then God is going to kind of tally it up at the end and go, Oh, yeah. You did more bad than good. Come on in. He doesnt work that way because even the good things we do are tainted. God says in the Book of Isaiah, Even your righteousness is as filthy rags. And so, we understand that salvation is not something we earn. Its something we humbly receive. I dont know if you ever saw the film by Steven Spielberg called, Saving Private Ryan. Its a pretty riveting movie-World War II, loosely based on a true story in which a woman with many sons who had all been killed in the war except for one. In the beginning we see him standing by a graveside, meditating at the name on the stone. There are tears in his eyes. His wife is by his side, and hes obviously thinking and reflecting. Then the movie goes to the war, and we learn the story of how these men are dispatched to save Private Ryan. They have to go in the fiercest fighting of World War II. They have to go right into Germany, and theyre going to try to find number one and rescue Private Ryan. In doing so, they put their lives on the line. In fact, many of them die in the process of saving this soldier and bringing him back home to his mom. As one of them is dying, I believe it might be Tom Hanks character-though Ive not seen the movie for a long time-Matt Damons character is looking at him dying, and he says, Earn this, kid. Earn this. So now we go to the end of the movie, and hes standing in front of the tomb of this man who lost his life so that he might be delivered and brought home safely. He turns to his wife, and he says, Have I been a good man? Have I been a good man? Have I earned this? Have I done what I needed to do to express my thanks to these men who gave their lives for me? Am I living up to the sacrifice that they made? Friends, that is a word picture of what Paul is talking about here, of the One who sought you out, the One who rescued you, the One who surrendered His life so you can live. You reflect back and you say, Have I been a good person? Have I lived up to the sacrifice that Christ has made? Now none of us ever will, but its a question that we ask. Do I recognize that Im His workmanship? Im His poem that Hes writing to the world. Im an expression of His glory, an expression of His nature. Ive been created with a purpose-to exalt Him, so the things that I do, the way I serve Him is not to earn Heaven; but its out of humility and appreciation and love for what He has done for me. I recognize in a group this size, and there might be some listening or maybe watching on television or listening online, that there are going to be many who have never heard the message of the Gospel or who are trusting in their own goodness. Im going to pray that today, in this moment, it would be the time that you reach up and take the hand that God has extended to you-that nail-pierced hand-who says, I am here to save you and rescue you. Apart from Me, unless you grab My hand, you will perish; that you will put your faith and trust in the living God and believe what He has said; that you will take hold of that hand by faith and allow Him to rescue your soul. Im going to ask if every head could bow and every eye close for a moment. If youre here this morning and youve never trusted in the Lord, Jesus Christ, I pray that you would pray this prayer with me. Heavenly Father, I come to You today. I recognize that Ive missed the mark. Ive sinned. Ive fallen short, and I recognize that Youre a holy and just God, that sin must be punished. I believe that You did punish sin. You put Your sin upon Your Son on the cross. He died in my place. He suffered the penalty of death that was meant for me so I could know forgiveness and grace; but in order to receive that, I must have faith. I must believe. Lord, Youre working in my heart right now. Youre drawing me to Yourself right now, so today I ask for Your forgiveness. Forgive my sins. I confess my sins to You. I believe in my heart that Jesus Christ is Lord, that He died for my sins, that He rose from the dead, and Hes alive. Ive been living for myself, but I want to live for You. I invite Your Holy Spirit to come and live within me. Empower me and guide me to live a life that pleases You. From this day forward, I will serve You. Cleanse me from my sins. Receive me as Your child, I ask in Jesus name. Lord, if they prayed that prayer this morning, Your Word says that Youve heard and answered. You have forgiven sins. They may or may not feel any different; but Lord, if they prayed that prayer in sincerity of heart and with faith, Youve answered that prayer and Youve brought them unto Yourself. Youve responded to the cries of their heart, and they are a new person in Christ.
Were going to flip the service around today. Because of the nature of the topic that we have, were going to have our music at the end of the service because we want our music to be a response to the things that we have learned. Normally we sing first. It prepares our hearts to receive the Word of God. This morning, were going to share the Word of God first and then our hearts will respond to what we have heard by expressing our love for God. Were going to open our Bibles to Ephesians 1 (page 1156 of pew Bibles). We have been on a series called, Meet the Ephesians. Were going through the Book of Ephesians, but we have not actually been in the Book. We have been taking some time to lay the groundwork and learn about the church in Ephesus, what their life was like and what their culture was like. Paul spent three years there. Weve gone into great detail about their religion, about their lifestyle, about why Paul wrote what he wrote about-why Jesus wrote what He wrote in Revelation 2 to the church in Ephesus. This morning were going to actually get into the Book itself. I know some of you have been reading in Ephesians. Anybody read Chapter 1 recently? Yeah, excellent. Thats a good response. Im glad to see that youve been into it. Were going to focus this morning on the blessings that God has given us, so I get to get up here and tell you about good news today. That's always fun-just get up here and give a sermon full of nothing but good news from Gods Word. Paul writes this as he is in jail in Rome. He is reaching the end of his ministry. Hes not sure how many days he has left, and he looks back and he reflects upon these people to whom he spent three years with. He remembers them in fondness, and he writes this letter encouraging them in their faith and instructing them in their walk. He starts his letter off as he normally does. He says, Paul, an Apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ, who has blessed us in the Heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. What a beginning! So right after the greeting, he goes into a verse which is packed full. You realize what Paul is saying to us here? Hes saying that God has blessed us-past tense-has blessed us, already been done-with every spiritual blessing in Christ. How many spiritual blessings? Every spiritual blessing. You say, Well, whats the difference between a spiritual blessing and a physical blessing? We certainly dont want to diminish the importance of physical blessings; earthly blessings are important. We need earthly blessings, right? Rainfall is a blessing. A family is our blessing. We can think of all kinds of earthly things that are blessings, and theyre important. But a spiritual blessing is number one, secure. God has already given these to us. The full manifestation of them is yet to be revealed, but they are already present in your lives; so they are secure, has given us.
Secondly, they are eternal. They are in what kind of places? Heavenly places. Though we put importance to earthly blessing, the greatest importance should be those that are in Heavenly places because they are eternal. The stuff of earth is temporal; the stuff of eternity-the blessings of eternity-last forever. So were going to share some of those blessings with you today. Im going to use the analogy of football since this is a football season and the opening day. I know some of your hearts are going to wander in that direction anyway, so why not just embrace it? Why fight it? Lets just attach a word picture to it, and well use it because your minds are already thinking about the games this afternoon or tonight; so lets just play with that and use that. How many of you out here-men-ever had a dream at any point in your life from the childhood into adulthood of playing in the NFL, that at some point you wanted to play in the NFL? Yeah. Howd that work out? [Congregation laughing.] Not too well, ha? Okay. I didnt think so. Some of you are saying, Theres still hope. Theres still hope for a middle-aged, overweight guy. Well, anyway, I would say you maybe want to set another goal, but… So in our imagination here, were going to pretend, guys, that its draft day. Were going to pretend youve got skills to the level enough that an NFL team who scouted you is going to want you, so its going to be fun. This is our own version of fantasy football, different from the kind you might play-fantasy football in which you are going to be drafted by a team. That's blessing number one-as you look at Verse 4. It says, For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. Blessing number one is you have been chosen by God. When draft day comes, those teams that have scouted are in their war room. Theyre having a conversation, and somebody picks you. Somebody says, You have the talents and abilities that we need on our team. You will make our team better than it is. Were aware of you. We know of you. Whats more, we want you, so the commissioner comes out and calls your name. He says, You have been picked by this team. What a happy day that is for that player, and all their hard work has paid off. Their family and friends rejoice. They think about all the money thats coming their way, right? Theyre ecstatic because they finally get to fulfill their dream of being a professional football player but somebody picked me. It is a wonderful thing to be picked, isnt it? If youre married today, somebody picked you. They had a choice, and they said, I want to spend the rest of my life with you. (Pastor, turning to his wife, Brenda), Honey, what were you thinking? You could have had your pick. I want to spend the rest of my life with you, good and bad. What a compliment that is! Some of you have close friends in your lives. You know what? You chose them. Somebody likes you enough to say, I want to be your friend. I want to hang out with you. I want to spend time with you. I want us to do things together. Friendship is a wonderful blessing. Somebody chose you to be their friend. Hopefully the one youre married to is your best friend. Thats the best of both worlds. Maybe you applied for a job. You sent out your resume, and somebody chose you. They interviewed you. They read your resume, and they said, You have the experience and the talents that this company is looking for. We have a place for you, and so they hired you. Maybe a teacher chose you at school for a project, or maybe somebody in ministry at your church chose you to help in ministry; but if youve been picked by somebody, its an honor because it recognizes your worth and value. Friends, greater than being picked by any person, any organization or any ministry is being chosen by God. John 15:16, Jesus says, You did not choose Me, but I have chosen you that you might bear much fruit. What a humbling thought to think that God has chosen us. Hes looked upon us and said, There are talents and gifts and abilities I can use in My Kingdom, and Im choosing you. God has chosen us. It says Hes chosen us to be holy and blameless. How many of you this morning are holy and blameless? Let me see your hands-holy and blameless. Anybody? Oh, boy. We have problems. We have problems because if youre not holy and blameless, that means God didnt keep this promise. Remember it says He has given us these things. The word holy comes from the root word hagios, which means different. Thats the root word of holiness-different. How many of you are different this morning? Oh, a lot more respond, Yeah, Im different. How many of you know some Christians that are different? Yeah, sure-okay. Now were getting it. They were called to be different. The people of Ephesus, they worshipped Artemis, as weve learned-the goddess of fertility, the goddess of the hunt. Everything they did focused on the here and now, so well sacrifice to Artemis; we will give to Artemis; we will say this incantation and this magic spell, and Artemis will bless us. So everything was concerned with here and now, the stuff of earth. Paul says, I want you to change your mindset. I want you to begin to see, value and appreciate the blessings of Heaven-not just living for the here and now, but those matters that are eternal as well. Hes chosen us in Him to be holy and blameless. Were going to talk in our third blessing about how that is a fulfillment now in your life. Then we will ask for a raise of hands a second time. But speaking of second, lets look at that second blessing in Verse 5, In love He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will-to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the One He loves. The second blessing in Verse 5-it says that you and I have been adopted by God. To be adopted by God. We belong to a family. When Gods family photo is taken, you are in the portrait. Youre there. You know when that player is chosen by that team, that team begins to share their traditions with that player. Heres what were about. Heres our goal as an organization. Heres our history. This is our rival. This is the team we really want to beat. Heres our playbook, important information about that team. Heres what were about. You get a jersey that has the name, a symbol, of that franchise, and your name is on the back. You represent that team. You belong. You matter. You have been adopted. Thats a responsibility. Thats a huge responsibility, and its a huge honor to say that I belong. I matter. Im a part. God says, I have chosen you to be a part of My family, be a part of My team. Hes given us His jersey to wear. Youll recognize if youre watching football this week because youll look for a team that has a big C for Christian on their helmets. Youll recognize them. Some of them are already playing today. But we get to put on His jersey, His symbol, His name. We have been adopted into His family. When we think of adoption, our minds primarily think about little children, right? Little children are adopted maybe from an orphanage or from another country, and thats our understanding of adoption; but you know, in the Bible times-in Roman culture-you could be adopted even as an adult. When you were adopted, you became a new person. Not only did your name change, but your past sins, offenses, your past debt-everything was wiped away; and in the eyes of the law, you literally became a new person. So when the Ephesians would have read that they were adopted by God, it would have a greater significance, a greater grip on that than it does for us. They would have seen adoption as something that can happen even into adult life. They would have recognized that adoption is a new identity; its a new beginning. And so we have been chosen by God. We have been adopted into His family. If that's not enough-there is a third blessing that Paul writes about. He says in Verse 7, In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of Gods grace that He lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. And He made known to us the mystery of His Will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment… In other words, when the time of prophesy had come, Christ was born. When the time had been fulfilled, He offered up His life upon the cross. …to bring all things in Heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ. The third blessing we want to focus on and remember this morning is that we have been redeemed. We have been redeemed. We have been purchased. When you purchase something, when you are that player, and the team says, Okay, we will draft you. Weve chosen you. Youre a part of our team. Now, heres what we have to do! We have to decide what your worth is to this team. Youre going to have a contract that says were going to agree to pay you X amount of dollars for your talents and abilities to help us win games this season. So the team says, Weve picked you. Since this is our football fantasy, well say you win in the first round-good player. Picked you in the first round, and heres what were going to pay you. Your agent goes, Oh, no, no, no, no, no. Maybe youre not aware of the records my clients set in college. Have you seen the game film or the things my client can do? Your pay is much too low. We think our client is worth this. Then the team kind of chokes and coughs and says, Oh, thats veteran money there. This is a rookie just starting out of college. We really think that this figure is more reasonable, so back and forth the two sides go until they finally come to a settlement. They say, Here is what we are willing to pay you. Heres what you are worth to the team this year as a rookie, and you say, I am agreeing to play for that price. That is what I am worth as a rookie. You sign the contract, and they sign the contract; and the deal is made. You have been purchased. Your talents have been purchased. So the question then is what is the purchase price for you and me? What is the price for our redemption, when God pays the price for our soul, what was He willing to pay for you and me? Because what you are willing to pay for something determines the worth of it. It might be a painting by Vincent van Gogh thats worth millions of dollars auctioned off to the highest bidder. Maybe you went to a garage sale this summer, and you bartered back and forth to buy a toaster; and you ended up buying it for $5. They came down from $15, so you agree that this is the price I want to sell it for. Heres what Im willing to pay for that toaster. Its worth $5. That painting is worth $5 million. The marketplace determines that. Those who purchase determine the worth and value of that item. What is the value and worth that God has assigned to us? Turn in your Bibles please to 1 Peter 1. Keep Ephesians 1 available though because were going to come back. In 1 Peter 1:17, page 1200, the Apostle Peter writes these words, Since you call on a Father who judges each mans work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear. For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers…but you were redeemed, he says in Verse 19, with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world but was reveled in these last times for your sake. Through Him you believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and glorified Him, and so your faith and hope are in God. The price of your redemption is nothing less than the blood of the Son of God, the life of the Son of God. Could there be a greater price paid for your soul? If there had been another way to redeem you, God would have done it; but there was no other way to purchase your salvation. The blood of the sinless Son of God was shed. In 2 Corinthians 5:21 says (page 1145), He made Him who knew no sin… Thats Jesus. …to be sin for us on the cross that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. In other words, an exchange was made. Christ on the cross took our sin upon Himself. By faith, we receive His gift of forgiveness, and then His righteousness is imputed to us. It is given to us as a gift, as an act of grace and love by our Heavenly Father, and so we become righteous in Christ. He sees us through Christ. The blood of Christ is applied to our souls, and our sins are forgiven. Ill ask you the question again, How many of you this morning are holy and blameless? Its hard to raise your hand to that, but thats the reality of the spiritual blessing. You better hope you are because one day youre going to have to stand before God. If youre having to stand before God in your own righteousness, good luck to you; but if you can stand before God clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, you have entrance into the eternal Kingdom. So though it goes against our nature to say, Yeah, Im holy and blameless, cause we know in and of ourselves we are not, but in Him, we are. Its a blessing thats already been bestowed upon you-the forgiveness of sins. Justification: one way to remember what that means is to say just-as-if-I-never-sinned, a new beginning for you. Youve been redeemed; youve been purchased by God. The blessing of being chosen; the blessing of being adopted; the blessing of being redeemed-we could close the book and go home and say, Thats enough blessings for me! But we have one more. Verse 11, In Him we were also chosen, haven been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will, in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of His glory. And you also were included in Christ when you heard the Word of Truth, the Gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are Gods possession-to the praise of His glory. In other words, What we have is now, but not yet. We are saved now, but its not yet revealed the fullness of our salvation. Now are we the sons of God? It is not yet revealed what we shall be, but we shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is, John writes in 1 John 3:2. The fourth blessing that this says here is that you and I in Christ-that we together-have been sealed by the Spirit of God. Weve been sealed. We have a deposit. You know when that player gets ready to sign his contract-he signs his contract, the team says this: Listen, I know youve been in college, and I know youve not been making any money. Youve been playing under a scholarship, but now that youre a pro, youre going to be paid for your services; and because you probably need some money to get situated in your new city and youre thinking about all the dollars youre going to earn, were going to give you some of your contract now. Its called a bonus. They might give you a million dollars just for signing. You havent played a down yet; you havent played a game yet, and the team has said, Listen, just so you know were serious and we value your services, just for signing the contract, heres a million dollars. Quarterback Drew Bledsoe, who used to play for the Dallas Cowboys, said that when he was drafted and got his signing bonus, he would call his bank over and over again; and it would say, For your balance, press this, just so he could hear the voice at the other end saying, You have a million dollars! Then hed hang up and hed call it again just to hear that. When you go to buy a house, you give earnest money to say, Im serious about this. Heres $1,000 or however much people are giving for earnest money these days. Im serious about buying this house. If you walk away from that deal, that earnest money is theirs to keep. Your financing collapses. That earnest money is theirs to keep. Youre saying, Im putting down this deposit because I intend to purchase this house. Heres the earnest money. Its yours, and theres more to come. The Bible says the Holy Spirit is our earnest money. He is our seal. He has been given to us by God. The Holy Spirit is God, and so we have the presence of God in our lives through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is here to comfort us. The Word of God says He is the Parakletos, the One called alongside to help. So when we need to be comforted and encouraged, we have the Spirit. We have the Holy Spirit who guides us into truth and teaches us about Jesus. The Holy Spirit gives us insights into the Word of God. As Im sharing the Word of God with you this morning, the Holy Spirit is your teacher, and Hes pointing things out to you. Hes seeking to make changes in your life. Hes applying this to your life, so youll take this message, and He will adapt it in your life in one way and in your neighbors life over here in another way. The Holy Spirit is working in each of our lives uniquely right now. For some of you who dont know the Lord, the Holy Spirit is using this to draw you to Himself. Sometimes were seeking direction in our lives about a decision we must make, and the Holy Spirit will use His Word or His presence to steer you in a direction; so He leads us. He guides us. When our lives dont honor the Lord, He convicts us of sin and gently draws us back to the cross and says, Heres the kind of life that youre to live. The Holy Spirit empowers us to live a Godly life. All of these things are given by God as a witness of His promise that He means business, that theres more to come, so we have been sealed by the Holy Spirit who will not be taken from us and is ours as our guide, as our friend, for the rest of our lives until faith becomes sight. I love what Peter had to say in 1 Peter when he said, If you call God your Father, then live your lives in fear in your stay on the earth. I love the way he says it-your stay on the earth-like its a night in Motel 6 here on earth. Hes saying, In the eyes of eternity, this is just a visit. Its just a stay in a hotel for the weekend. Thats all this is. Friends, this is the practice field. This is where we get dirty; this is where we make mistakes; this is where we learn our purpose, our talents and our gifts. This is where we learn the playbook, whats expected of us. This is practice. This is pre-season right now, friends. Opening day is yet to come, and opening day comes and the lights go on, its going to be something to be in the presence of God! Well be transformed into the image of Christ. But until that day comes, God has already given us blessings from His Word. Theyre yours. Theyre spiritual blessings. You cant touch it, look at it; but its more real than our earthly blessings because its in Heavenly places. Its secure and its eternal because Christ has risen from the dead. Everything He said of Himself, everything He said about Heaven, is true. His resurrection is proof of that. We rest in faith until our faith becomes sight. We are blessed as believers. In just a moment, were going to listen to a song and reflect on a song; and then were going to have a chance to sing. As we sing this morning, our singing is going to be an expression of our love and worship to God for all the blessings Hes bestowed on us in Christ. You have much to be thankful for today, church. Father, we thank You for the blessings that weve received; the blessing of being chosen, of saying that You want us on Your team; the blessing of being adopted-that You want us in Your family-we belong; that weve been given a new identity and a new life; the blessing of redemption-that weve been redeemed; that we have been purchased with nothing less than the blood of Christ; that we have immeasurable worth in Your eyes; and the blessing of being sealed by the Holy Spirit-the promise, the earnest money; that there is more to come; that we belong to You. Father, for all these blessings and more, we give You thanks today. In Jesus name, Amen.
Im glad youre here. We are studying the [Book of] Ephesians together, Meet the Ephesians. Before we get in to the Book of Ephesians, it is important that we have an understanding of the city, the culture, the people that were studying; and we learned about that city last week. Were going to learn some more again this week. We learned that its a city that was very historic. It was the key city of Asia Minor. It was the place of one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World-the Temple of the goddess, Artemis (was there). She was the goddess of fertility. She was the goddess of the hunt, so if you wanted healthy babies, many babies, a good hunt, you would come and sacrifice and pray to the goddess, Artemis. Hopefully, she would grant you favor and blessing. You would come if you were a tourist, simply to see a magnificent structure that took over 100 years to build-massive structure. It had beautiful marble pillars; only one pillar is standing today there where Ephesus used to be in the country that is now Turkey. People would come in the droves. Theyd spend their money there, and theyd buy little models of the goddess, Artemis, or buy models of the shrine. Those who had money would buy silver ones. They would also come to get what were called the Ephesian letters. These were letters that came from the temple that were probably blessed by a temple priest. Some sort of spell was placed on them; and if you owned them, magic things would come your way. Special blessings would come your way. They also practiced witchcraft. They had a lot of spells and incantations and things they would say in order to receive what they were hoping for from the powers that be. That was a focal point of the community religiously, a focal point of the community economically. Paul comes into this city, and he says, Gods made by man are not gods at all! Ive come to proclaim the true God! Wonderful miracles start to happen. Jesus blesses the ministry of Paul. People see the miracles taking place. They start to think, Hey, I think the true God is over here. Maybe all along, weve been worshipping a false god. They start to convert to the Way, to Christianity. People stop buying the shrines. Theres a man by the name of Demetrius who gets all upset and angry. He says, Hey, we have to stop this Paul. My orders have gone way down. This guy over here is not buying as many shrines. This person is a Christian now, and theyre buying none! We have to stop this man! Hes attacking our goddess, and hes attacking our way of life! A big riot ensued. When the riot finally dissipated, the dust finally settled, there in Ephesus was the Church of the Living God. How would you like to have Paul as your Sunday School teacher? How about that? Who is your Sunday School teacher? Oh, the Apostle Paul. Its a good class. You should check it out. For three years, he is there-three years! Thats longer than he spent in any other city by far. Three years, he is shepherding, teaching and discipling because the city was so dark. There was so much they needed, so much help they needed. They bonded at this time. Then came the time when the Holy Spirit moved him on. All leadership is transitional. We fill our role. We serve the Lord faithfully; God moves us on either through going to another ministry, through death or some other issue, but all leadership is transitional. His time to leave had come. I want you to envision yourself saying good-bye to a friend thats dear to you-maybe somebody who has mentored you and coached you. Maybe they have been close with you. Theyre your confident and advisor. Understand now in Bible days, they cant just say, Hey, Paul, give me your email. Let me get you on Facebook, and well stay in touch. When he goes away to Jerusalem, theyre not going to see him again. Paul knows by the Holy Spirit that they will never see him again; so imagine saying good-bye to a friend thats been dear to you, knowing that when they get in that airplane, they get in that car, they get in that boat, you will never, ever see their face again or hear their voice again. You cant call them on the cell phone. This is an emotional time for Paul. Its an emotional time for the leaders of the church in Ephesus. They gather together by the shore. The boat is waiting. Paul calls for the elders of the church. They gather in a port city called Miletus. There Paul gives them his farewell address. Lets turn to it in the Book of Acts 20 (page 1101 of pew Bibles), and lets hear what the Apostle Paul says. He is going to give them a charge. He is going to begin by talking about himself, and then he is going to transition to talking about them. Lets begin reading when the elders arrive in Chapter 20:18, When they arrived, he said to them: You know how I lived the whole time I was with you, from the first day I came into the province of Asia. I served the Lord with great humility and with tears, although I was severely tested by the plots of the Jews. You know that I have not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you but have taught you publicly and from house to house. I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus. And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardship are facing me. Lets pause right there. So much for the health, prosperity and wealth gospel. Always be comfortable, always be at ease-no problems or worries, right? Jesus is leading him in to hardship in a prison experience. He will experience the grace and the presence of God. God will be with him through it, but make no mistake about it, he is going to go through it; and it was by the Will of God. However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me-the task of testifying to the Gospel of Gods grace. Now I know that none of you among whom I have gone about preaching the Kingdom will ever see me again. Therefore, I declare to you today I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole Will of God. Now he turns his attention to them. Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the Church of God, which He bought with His own blood. If you notice there, that is a bold assertion of deity. God bought the church with His own blood. Whose own blood? Gods blood. This is an assertion of the deity of Christ. There is no other way to parse this. There is no other way to translate this in the Greek. Paul is saying that God the Son shed His blood for us. I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the Truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard! Even from within this church are going to come people who do not preach the Truth and are going to try to lead people away. Guard against that! Were going to see how they do. This is prophetic, and its going to happen. In a moment, were going to look back and see how they responded to it. Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears. Now I commit you to God and to the Word of His grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. I have not coveted anyones silver or gold or clothing. You yourselves know that these hands of mine have supplied my own needs and the needs of my companions. In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus Himself said: It is more blessed to give than to receive. When he had said this, he knelt down with all of them and prayed. They all wept as they embraced him and kissed him. What grieved them most was his statement that they would never see his face again. Then they accompanied him to the ship. They said their good-byes. So Paul had given them a charge. The theme was Stay faithful. You are going to be tested. Stay faithful. Keep the faith. Guard the church to make sure the church is doctrinally pure. Dont go after the wolves in sheeps clothing. Persevere. Do the Will of God. You have a good foundation. Youre off to a right start. Stay the course. Obey the Lord; persevere; guard the church; remain doctrinally pure. This was the charge to the Ephesians. I wonder how they did. I wonder if Jesus would give them a report card. What would He say decades later? We know because we have that in the Bible. I want you to turn in your Bible to the Book of Revelation 2. Whereas the Book of Acts 19 and 20 tell us the beginning of the story of the church in Ephesus, here in Acts, we look back decades later as John writes on the Island of Patmos; and Jesus Himself is the One who dictates the letter. Were going to find out that many of the things that Paul said came to pass, and were going to see how they responded to his charge of faithfulness. Revelation 2:1 (page 1216 of pew Bibles), To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: These are the words of Him who holds the seven stars in His right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands. That is a reference to the fact of these seven churches in Asia Minor, and I could name them, but Angel would have to fingerspell them all. I could be mean: Thyatira, Pergamum, Sardis, Laodicea, Philadelphia, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah (congregation laughing). These churches of Asia Minor are the seven lights. Theyre stars, the candlestick; theyre holders; theyre containers of the light. They represent Christ to this region of the world, and that's what that language means in Verse 1. I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. You do good things. You work hard, and you dont give up. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not… Youve done what Paul told you to do. …youve found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. So far, straight As, right? Theyve done everything that God has called them to do. What else, besides being obedient-to persevere and uphold the Truth, whats left? I mean what in the world is left? Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. Youre going to lose your influence. Youre going to lose authority in the region. He says, Listen, your first love, the word first means the preeminent love, the priority love. What he is saying here, his big criticism, is look, youre doing all the right things, but there is no love for Me. Your passion for Me has waned. Your love for Me, the relationship I have with you, its not there anymore. Youre doing the right things. Youre saying the right things. Youre standing up for the Truth, but theres no love. Parents, what if you had a child that always obeyed everything you said? Wow. Who always persevered and never gave up, no matter what job you gave them around the house, whether they were at school, in the athletic field, music-whatever it is-they never gave up. They always persevered, so they always obeyed, always persevered, always upheld what you said and made sure everybody understood what Mom or Dad said. Nope, this is what Mom and Dad said. This is what they meant, and they always upheld your words but did not love you? How would you feel as a parent? Your kid is a model kid. He does great in school. You say, Clean your room, his room is clean. Wash the dishes, he washes the dishes. Cut the grass, he cuts the grass. Go to bed, he goes to bed. Do your homework, he does his homework. Theyre respectful. They say, Yes, sir. Yes, Maam. They do everything you tell them to do, but they never reciprocate your love. They never say, demonstrate or show that they love you, that theyre grateful for you. How do you feel as a parent? Does that feel empty, do you think? That child doesnt return your love. The greatest thing about being a dad is when my children show love for me. I can provide for them, protect them, teach them, and model for them; but the coolest thing is when they show me love. If you could ask God a question and say, God, what is the greatest thing about being God? What is the most awesome thing about being God? What would God say? Well, you know its the sunsets. Its the stars that I put in the universe. Im still making those. Its the intricate things about the universe that I design, like that flower. Thats the coolest thing about being God. You know what the Bible says God would say? The most awesome thing about being God? Its when people who have a free will choose to return love to Him. The coolest thing about being God that God would say is when the people who Ive made in My image love Me back, want to spend time with Me, want to know Me, and they cherish Me. Thats what this sermon is about today. Were going to talk about a church that did everything right, said everything right, but still missed the boat. Theyd forgotten their first love. You know, its easy to do. Some of you have done that here. Youve let love wane in your life in one way or another. Fifty percent of all marriages end in divorce. There was a time when that couple walked down the aisle and were madly in love. When youre in love with somebody, theyre all you think about. Theyre on your mind all the time; but over the years, the pressures of life, the schedules we keep, the problems we face, sometimes couples can be torn apart. Pretty soon they forget their first love. You start a job; its a good job. You like your job. You get a promotion; you get a raise. Its rewarding work, but if you lose your passion for that job, pretty soon it just becomes a job. Its just a way to pay the bills, and it becomes hard for you to get up and go to work. Some of you work hard for stuff-some knickknack you want, some gadget or gizmo that you think will be cool. You get that gizmo, you get that what-not, you get that thing-a-ma-bob. You save for it; you work for it, and over time it becomes just another thing gathering dust or rust or it ends up in the attic in a box. Youre soon on to the next thing because you lost your passion for that. Could we do the same thing with the living God, that we do with stuff, that we do with people, that we do with our jobs? The Bible says we can. You see the Ephesians were used to life like this, I pray to Artemis, and Artemis does this for me. I sacrifice to Artemis, and Artemis gives me a good hunt. I take this letter to the Ephesians, and I pray over it, and the magic in this letter blesses me. I say this spell or incantation… Remember they had a big bonfire in Ephesus, and they burned up all the witchcraft books and all the spells? They just had this holy bonfire in the middle of the city. They just got rid of it. But when they used to rely on that, thats what theyd do. Theyd recite that incantation, and then theyd wait for something good to happen. Pretty soon, God became like that to them. God became simply one they prayed to and followed to get what they needed. You know there are some schools of thought, there are some elements of Christianity that God is the Heavenly-blessing dispenser. If I just say the right things and read the right Scripture, pray the right thing, God does His part. I say this; God does that. I do this; God does that. Our faith is reduced to a formula, an equation. Say the right things, and God spits out the right answer, does the right thing. When that doesnt work, we become disillusioned. We become angry. Faith becomes something robotic. We simply are going through the motions. We are missing the most important ingredient, and thats our love and our passion for the living God. That can happen to any of us. As I was preparing the message, the Holy Spirit was knocking on my door with some things that were a little bit hard to take. He says three things. He says, Remember, repent, and repeat. Remember your first love. Remember the height from which youve fallen. Repent, and do the things you did at first, or I will come and remove your lampstand. You will no longer be effective. Remember. The Lord took me down memory lane this week. Forty-eight years old. Ive been in full-time preparation or in full-time ministry for over 30 straight years. When I first started out, 17, 18 years old, I gave my life to Christ. I can remember driving in my car and heading to Sinissippi Park. I remember getting under a tree, opening up my Bible, spending time there praying and crying, and thanking the Lord for what He means in my life. I wasnt preparing a sermon. I didnt even know I was going to be a pastor. I wasnt getting ready for a class in graduate school-preparing for a test, writing a paper. I just wanted to read Gods love letter to me. Id end up under that tree day after day. Id take time to drive in my car to that spot for that time with God. When class was too busy, Id head out to my car in between classes and get out my Bible. There Id read and pray, for no other reason-just to enjoy Gods company. Im not telling you I dont open the Bible up at times just to enjoy God, but Im telling you Sunday after Sunday comes for me; and I still take classes. I always will. So Im preparing for tests; Im writing papers; Im preparing sermons; Im getting devotionals ready. The Lord says, What about that guy that used to drive to that tree? I like squeezing it in when I can, you know? I need to just read something here to spend time with God. Imagine me driving in my car listening to-at that time-Keith Green and the second chapter of Acts, singing awful, awful-not them, me-awful singing. Yet, I was trying to express my love for God. The Holy Spirit said, Whens the last time you were driving down in your car singing to Me? I said, Its been awhile. Could it be that that 17, 18 year old kid who didnt know a whole lot about the Bible and wasnt a leader of any church had a whole lot more passion and love for God than the 48 year old version of me in front of you today? Is it possible the church in Ephesus which started out so strong-started doing the right things-and forgot what it was all about in the first place? If we were to take a survey-and Im not going to do this-but if I said how many of you can relate to what Im talking about: you feel like you have lost passion and zeal for Christ? Sometimes your faith is a matter of going through the motions. Youre not living a radical, disobedient life. Youre not giving up your faith. Youre upholding the Truth. Youre serving in ministry. Youre doing the right things. Youre striving to live a good life, yet there is missing in your life a passion and love for Christ that used to be there. I bet you a lot of hands go up. I bet you a lot of hands would go up. Jesus says, Remember, and do the deeds you did at first. He cannot be talking about good deeds. When He says, Do the deeds you did at first, He cannot be talking about just going out and doing good stuff-because, remember, they were already doing good stuff. What are the deeds He is talking about? He is talking about their lifestyle-the things that enhance their love, the things that grew their passion for Christ. Those are the things you need to engage in. Remember those things. So in my life, the Holy Spirit is saying, Get under a tree. Get in your car and go some place with the sole intent of spending time with Me. Turn off Sports Talk Radio, put in a CD, and sing to it. That's what Hes saying to me. Do the things you did at first. Recapture that first love. You ask the couple who no longer feel love or passion for one another, Where did you used to like to go? What did you used to like to do when you fell in love when you first met? Well, we used to go to Lake Somerset. Well, go there. Do that! Go to that restaurant. Visit that campground. Recapture that love. Jesus is saying the same thing. He wants his children to reciprocate love. How can you demonstrate your love for Christ this week? How can you show him that you love Him? You probably dont know my sister. I have two sisters. Theyre both a lot older than me. One is 14 years older than I, and one is 18 years older than I. My sister thats 14 years older than I, she lives in Iowa. She is a spitfire. She-boy, I tell you-she doesnt take any guff from anybody. Shes not even 5 feet, but shes tough. My sister is a smoker, and when I say she is a smoker, my sister will finish a cigarette, and shell light up another one. Shes always been proud of the fact that shes a smoker, Yup, I smoke. Thats what I do. If people dont like it, tough. Then shell laugh. Thats what she does. Over the years, I would try to say, You know, thats bad for you. There are bad things in those cigarettes. Oh, you know, she didnt want to hear it. You know, if you smoke a cigarette, it takes five minutes off your life. Yeah, I smoke. I enjoy it. I like it. Thats what Im going to do. So, you give up. You just say, Well, you know, shes going to smoke, and thats just the way it is. Youre going to love her anyway, but shes a smoker. Shes been having some health concerns, and Ive been trying to call her to see how shes feeling. Shes been a little uncomfortable. Howre you doing, Judy? Whats going on? She says, Well, you know, what makes this more difficult for me is the fact that I havent had a cigarette in 47 days. I said, Wait, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa-you havent had a cigarette? You havent had a cigarette? I mean that is as dramatic of a quit-smoking story… I mean this is the equivalent of Saul becoming Paul the Apostle. This is the one you would not expect. So when she tells me, I quit smoking, Im like, Whoa! Youve got to be kidding me! I mean cigarette companies are going to go under now! She is not smoking! I go, Judy, that is just wonderful news! Yeah, she says. But its hard. There are symptoms you have when you quit smoking. I dont want to go in to it, but you can look it up on the internet. Do you know there are 4,000 chemicals in a single cigarette? Now shes preaching to me what I used to try to preach to her. I go, Yeah! Those things are bad for you! So shes studying up on the effects of tobacco, and shes studying up on the symptoms that shes working through. Shes saying, This is a struggle. You know, its hard enough to go through this illness, but to go through it when you cant rely on your smokes, its hard-47 days! So I said, Listen, Im really proud of you, but I have to ask you a question. What led you to quit smoking? In my mind, Im thinking she went to the doctor. The doctor said she cant smoke anymore. Maybe she just got an understanding that as you reach the twilight years, and she was starting to approach those eventually, you have to really watch after your health; so maybe she something happened. She was watching after her health, so I asked, What happened? Well, this decision was made before she started having health concerns. I said, How did you quit smoking? because I never would have guessed this in a million years. She said, One day, I was praying to God. I said, God, how can I demonstrate my love for You? What could I do to show You that I love You? The Holy Spirit answered her and said, Id like you to stop smoking. I said, You mean to tell me you stopped smoking to show Jesus that you love Him? She said, Yeah. Thats why I stopped. Im not saying that Im not up here teaching you salvation by works. Im not saying, Okay, being a Christian, we dont do this. We dont say that. We do this. We do that. Thats how we earn Gods love. Im not saying that. But Im saying to give up something, to surrender something that is that important to you, and to suffer the consequences of giving it up because you love someone, is an act of love. If I truly love… Is there something in your life that you are engaged in-an attitude, a habit-and you know that its destructive, will you say to that this week, Lord, because I love You more than this, Im surrendering this. Im giving this up. Im walking away. Remember we said you dont wean from sin-they took their spell and their incantations-they didnt say, Well, Im just going to read fewer spells. Im just going to read less witchcraft. Im just not going to go to the temple to worship Artemis as often. They got rid of it all. They burned up the idols. They burned up the spells-everything gone. She quit cold turkey. She said, Thats it. Gods going to help me through this. Shes making me look bad. Shes showing me up-that little stinker. She had never been to Bible school. Shes never been to seminary. She has no degree; she doesnt pastor a church. Right now, my sis is showing more love for Christ than I am. She loves the Lord with all of her heart, and Im so very proud of her. What is it in your life? Like my sister, you can look at it, and you can say, You know what? This does not honor You. This does not glorify You. This is a part of me, but Im making a decision every day, and every day Ive chosen to say I love this more than You, Lord. I love that more than You, Lord. I want to serve this more than I want to serve You, Lord. Maybe one of the ways you demonstrate your love for Christ is to say, Lord, I love You more than this. I love You more than him, than her, than that, and I know to give that up. Its gone. Its not going to be easy, but, Lord, I want You to know that I love You. Its possible that a church could do all the right things-obey God, stand up for the Truth, persevere, and miss the boat. Friends, everything we do-the gifts we give, the ministries we do, the people that we help, the songs we sing-everything is to be about loving Jesus. We become passionate about loving Jesus. The Lord practices what He preaches. Jesus was sent to the cross, and He obeyed the Father; but He didnt go to the cross with an attitude of, You know what? Im only doing this because I have to. He went to the cross, the Bible says, No one takes My life from Me. I lay it down. I lay it down of My own initiative. I lay it down, and I take it back up. This command, Ive received from My Father, it says in John 10. Jesus surrenders His life not just because Hes commanded to, but because He wants to. He wants to give up His life. He wants to redeem humanity. He wanted to because He loves us. What He wants from us first and foremost is not robotic obedience, but He wants us to love Him with a passionate love. Because we love Him, then we do persevere. We do stand for Truth. We do obey. Maybe you need to do a spirit check today. As we receive communion, just search your heart and say, Lord, here are some things in my life that need change. Lets pray together: Lord, some hard lessons-a church that was given the charge to do all the right things, and they did. When their report card came out, they expected straight As. Then they got a grade that they hadnt been expecting. They had failed, and they had failed in the area of loving You. They had forgotten their first love. They began to treat you like they treated the goddess, Artemis, or the magic spells. They went through the motions, but it was void of significance because it was void of love. Lord, we learned today that the greatest thing about being God is when Your people love You back. I pray that You would help us to make the changes we need to make in our lives, to remember, to repent, and to repeat the change-that we might show You that we love You, that we might demonstrate our love for You. Lord, if we will do that, it will change our world. Everything else will come alive, and well see things in a different way. Lord, as we partake of communion, remember the One who suffered and died in our place upon the cross and did so willingly, did so with love. We remember that now in Christs name, Amen.
Were going to start a series this morning talking about a culture that was just as dark-the culture of the Ephesians, the city of Ephesus. Thats a drawing that Pastor Tim whipped up for us. Isnt that something? Hes quite an artist. Its good to see you this morning. Did anybody get a chance to read a little bit of Ephesians or Acts 19-20? Good for you. Im proud, very good-very good. When I was in junior high school, I used to hate swimming class because I dont swim very well. Something about swimming class-it would just be something I would dread. This particular day was a lot of fun. This particular day was free day. This was the day where we got to play games and have fun in the pool. The teacher made us get in and start swimming around the pool and running around the pool in the same direction. I didnt swim; I ran. We started going around the pool, and it wasnt long before we whipped up a great current. I mean we got that pool just whipping around, and the teacher blew his whistle. We had no idea why we were doing that. We were just doing it because he told us to do it. [There were] thirty guys all going around in the same direction, and that water was just churning. The teacher blew his whistle and said, Okay, everybody. Go in the opposite direction now. It was like, Whoa! We encountered this current, these waves, and it just impacted us. We started laughing. We thought that was great fun. We started to notice all these waves in the pool as we were just splashing around. Then we started going the other way. It was just a matter of time before we got the current going again in the opposite direction this time. Enough people going in one direction can change the current. Would you say the current of our culture, of our society-is it moving toward God or away from God? Its moving away from God at a pretty rapid pace, isnt it? Swim against the current, and you will encounter opposition. Run against the wind, and you will feel its force. If youre running with the world, you are carried along by it; but if you try to live a counter-culture life, if you try to live a life that honors Christ, you will encounter opposition. You just will. Its not the current; its not the direction the world is going. Were going to see how enough Christians understanding the Gospel, working together, can change the culture of a city-even when its as dark as Ephesus. Before I tell you about the culture of Ephesus, I want to try to give you an analogy from a culture in our society. You all know of the Salem Witch Trials, what went on in Salem, Massachusetts, and the women that were found guilty of witchcraft who were innocent. The whole thing was just a way to make money. It was a disgraceful period in the history of the church in that region of the country. As we were driving through Salem, my children didnt even understand the historical significance of that city. Yet, as we were driving through, they were like, Dad, this city gives me the creeps. We dont have to stay here, do we? Can we leave soon? I mean there was just something about the atmosphere of that community that was just not pleasant at all. We drove into the city, and the first thing we saw was this large structure. It looked like an old church-a huge gothic-looking building. It was painted completely black. The doors that used to be red were black; the windows that used to be stained glass were completely black. All the walls were black; the steps were black; the handles on the door were black. There were two large gargoyles on the front of this building. There was a big sign that said, This is not a church. Get over it! So I dont know what it was, but whatever it was really gave us the creeps because somebody was gathering there to worship someone, and it wasnt God. We went to this city, and they give you the different tours and so forth. They have these different magazines you can purchase or look at. It just exalted witchcraft. There were warlocks, sorcerers, wizards and witches. There was promotion of their incantations and their spells and all of that. They were just really extolling the virtues of witchcraft, and it was over the whole city. The atmosphere there was just dark. We wanted to learn what we needed to from history. It took us awhile to finally find a venue that we thought would be a safe place to learn that, and then we got out of there as quickly as we could. Ephesus was a dark place. It was the center of sorcery, witchcraft and idol worship for the whole region. It was a booming metropolis. A third of a million people lived there, and tourism was the number one business in Ephesus. They had a temple there that was one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Youve heard about the Wonders of the World, right? The Temple of Artemis was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. It was a magnificent structure-beautiful pillars of marble-just exquisite. It took over 100 years to build this temple. The goddess Artemis was worshipped for generations. In fact, even as old as the story is from the Book of Acts, even as old as that story is, the rock there that they made an idol of Artemis of, was so old that people thought it fell from space. Nobody even knew the origin of this stone, so worshipping of this goddess goes way back. If you wanted healthy children, if you wanted a lot of children, youd come and sacrifice and give gifts to Artemis, and she would bless you. If you wanted to have a good hunt, be able to provide for your family, she was a huntress. You could come and you could pay homage to the goddess, Artemis, and maybe she would bless you. She was involved in the giving of life and the sustaining of life. There was this beautiful temple, and everything-the economy-all evolved around this temple and the worship of this idol. You could take home shrines. Some were made out of wood; and if you had money, you could get one made out of silver. They were replicas of the temple, or you could even take home a replica of Artemis. You could take that home, so take the goddess with you and pray to the goddess at home-wherever you lived. People would come to actually engage in worship of the goddess. People would come just to see the temple because it was exquisite and just marvel at what man can make. Imagine a building that takes over 100 years to finish. Generations of people would live and die without seeing that building completed. You could get letters to the Ephesians. A letter of the Ephesians was a letter that was blessed. It had a spell over it, an incantation over it, and it was supposed to bring you luck. You know we get those chain emails or chain letters that say, Pray this prayer 8 times or 12 times, and good things are going to happen to you. So and So prayed this prayer, and they won the lottery. Dont break this chain. I get some of those from time to time. I break every one of them. I let the person know Im going to do it. I say, Just so you know, Im about to break the chain. But that was the idea. You had this letter and you were going to be blessed. They had little charms, embraces that they would wear with images of the goddess. They had a lot of spells and incantations that they would practice in exchange and chant and say; so the whole society is based on this temple worship and the practice of witchcraft. Paul is going to come on the scene, and he is going to attack the core of that economy. He is going to declare that Artemis is not a god at all. Shes a false god, and there is the true God of Heaven. How do you think thats going to go over when you attack the core of their religious life, and you attack the core of their economy? Any time you take a stand for God, you will encounter opposition, but he was not just attacking their religious beliefs. He was attacking their pocketbooks. Thats not a good way to start a church. It would be like me coming to Janesville 20 years ago and going, GM is bad! Buy foreign cars! Dont buy from GM! If I would have come to town and said that, how well do you think our church would have done? We wouldnt be here today. Ill tell you that! So Paul is going to come on the scene, and hes going to attack the goddess, Artemis, and he is going to exalt the true and living God. We find this story in the Book of Acts, so lets turn there-Acts 19. If youre new to our church, we spend a lot of time with our faces in the Word. We like to preach and teach directly from the Scripture, so wed like you to open up your Bibles if you dont mind to the Book of Acts 19, page 1099. What Im going to do this morning is just tell you the story. This is not going to be a three-point sermon kind-of-thing. Im just going to read through the text, comment on different things, make some application, and just tell you the story of how the church began because were going to study this Book. This is an important church. This is where Paul spent more time than any other church that he started. This is a church that inspired the Book were about to study for months. This is the first church that Jesus speaks to in the Book of Revelation when he writes the letters to the churches in Asia. This is the first church that he addresses. This is an important church. It has great significance. If were going to truly understand it correctly, we need to know what it was like. What was it like to live there? What was the culture like? What were the people like? What were going to find is that even though its a different time in history, a different place, a different culture, they are more like us than they are different from us. There is going to be a lot were going to be able to glean from the people of Ephesus. Paul wanted to come earlier. In Acts 16:6, we read that Paul wanted to come to Asia a long time ago, but the Holy Spirit said no. The timing wasnt right. There were some key leaders that needed to come to that place. This is going to be in a region that would require a lot of groundwork, a lot of preparation of the soil. God was going to bring some key players into this city. There was a married couple by the name of Priscilla and Aquila, and like Paul, they were tentmakers. Paul discipled them, and they in turn discipled a man by the name of Apollos; so if you read the New Testament, you encounter those names quite often-Apollos, Priscilla and Aquila. Theyre not major players, but they were key players. Theyre going to be part of the leadership of this church in Ephesus. They come to live there, so there are a lot of outstanding Christians that are living there; but the church really has not begun an earnest until Acts 19. There are some men there who are familiar with John the Baptist. They followed John the Baptist, but they didnt know about Jesus. They didnt know about the Holy Spirit. Paul tells them about the Holy Spirit; about 12 of them receive the Holy Spirit, and the church has begun. Now, one of the first things that happened in Verse 8 is Paul went into the synagogue to preach. Hes there for three months, trying to speak to the Jews who lived in Ephesus; but they resisted his message. Verse 9 says, They became obstinate and refused to believe and publically maligned the Way. So Paul left them… Theres an old saying that says a man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still. They werent ready to receive the message. When somebody is obstinate, somebody has no interest in your faith, your Lord, your God, Paul says, Im not going to waste my time trying to reach a people who at this point have no desire to hear the truth. So he changed his methodology and began to use a school of a man by the name of Tyrannus; and at this school, he taught for two years. For Paul, thats an eternity. For two years, people would come to this school. One of the Codexes tell us that it was from 11 oclock to 4 oclock, so from late morning to early afternoon. Actually that was their siesta in Ephesus. When it got really hot, they would shut things down; so late morning, early afternoon, theyd go home and take a nap, but Paul would be there teaching the people-every day discipling them, and wonderful things began to happen. Miracles began happening-extraordinary miracles! People are taking Pauls apron and the handkerchief he used to tie over his head to hold back the sweat and bring them to sick people and possessed people. These people are being delivered and being healed. Now this isnt one of those things thats like on television where the evangelist is going, If you send me $1,000, and Ill send you this miracle handkerchief. Youve all seen those hucksters out there. Pauls not doing that. Paul is showing up at the shop to work trying to find his handkerchief. Hey, wheres my apron? Whered it go? Somebody has taken it and dragged it off. They would say, This is the Apostle Pauls. They would put it on the person to heal them. God did that to confirm that Paul was speaking the truth. Paul was His servant. This was an extraordinary miracle. This was not the norm. God still does miracles, but this is the way He chose to operate uniquely at this point in history. So word is beginning to spread that Paul and his message seem to be even greater than the power of Artemis of the Ephesians. Then there is a group of exorcists, and exorcist guys were paid to perform exorcisms. That was their job. These seven sons of Sceva-that was their job-to go around doing these exorcisms for money. They get a hold of this, and, Boy, this Jesus stuff really seems to work, so theyre going to try it too. They have a client with them who is possessed. There was no shortage of possessed people in Ephesus. If youre an exorcist, thats a good place to be because there are a lot of potential customers there. They say, We want to speak to you in the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches. The Spirit says, Jesus, I know, and I know about Paul, but who are you? They dont have an answer, and they are beaten, naked and bloody and are running out of that house; and this starts to spread throughout the whole city of Ephesus, and this was a real catalyst. Paul is the real deal, and they saw the counterfeit exposed. They came to Christ by the droves. I want you to notice in Verse 17 (page 1100 of pew Bibles) what it says, When this became known to the Jews and Greeks living in Ephesus, they were all seized with fear, and the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high honor. Thats a key phrase. The name of the Lord Jesus was held in high honor. When the name of the Lord Jesus is held in high honor in your life, there are things that will happen. There are things that will not be tolerated. There are things that will be removed if Christ is held in high honor. If Christ is held in high honor, and there are certain sins you have been quite comfortable with and are embracing, I would question whether Christ is held in fact in high honor in your life. Is your life consistent with what Christ has called us to be and do, or isnt it? Were all sinners; every one of us is in the same boat. We all miss God. We all fall short, but because they held Christ in high honor, look what happened. Many of those who had believed now came and openly confessed their evil deeds. Thats number one. There will be confession of sin. A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. Paul didnt tell them to do that. That was the work of the Holy Spirit. They wanted to do that. They were changed from the inside out. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas, about $10,000-which was a lot of money back then. Its a lot of money now, but back then it was a ton of money. They said, Listen, we found the real thing, and we dont need the counterfeit anymore. When you have the genuine article, and then you look at the counterfeit, you realize how inferior it is. You dont want it anymore. Occasionally my wife will try to save money. Ill open up the fridge, and Ill be looking for the Heinz ketchup for my burger. Theres a jar there of some kind of ketchup Ive never heard of before. Ill say, Wheres the ketchup? Oh, its right there. This just says ketchup on it. Wheres the Heinz? Its okay to pay the extra $0.50 to get the real stuff. My mom used to do that. Shed try to save money. Id say, Mom, wheres the Coke? Its in the fridge. Theres just a can there that says Cola on it. I want the Coke. Give me the real stuff. Once you have the real stuff, youre not happy with the fake stuff anymore. These people began to find out that Artemis didnt have real power. The name of the Lord Jesus had the real power. They started coming to him, and they started to see it for what it was. Artemis wasnt their friend. These spells that they have been counting on-theyre not what they should put their trust in. They shouldnt put their trust in incantations. They need to put their trust and hope in the living God. There had to be a transformation in the way they saw those things and viewed those things. They werent their friend. They werent their ally. They were their enemy. They were keeping them from serving the true and living God. I use the example of somebody who is trying to eat right. For a lot of us here-were not going to do this, but if I said, How many of you today need to lose some weight? almost every hand in this building would go up; so were not alone. Those hands that would not go up, we all hate you! You need to leave, you skinny people! We dont like you at all, but youre out there. You know who you are! You need to go eat a Twinkie or something (congregation laughing)! We know that some people are overweight because of heredity or maybe because theres a glandular problem. We understand that, but others of us, we have some weight to lose because we eat the wrong food or we eat too much food and we dont get enough exercise. One of the things we have to do is we have to change our habits, right? You have to stop seeing that Culvers sundae as your buddy. I know Im meddling now. Im getting really personal, but thats your buddy. Youre hungry, and youre sad or depressed or stressed, Oh, Culvers sundae is just so good. Im expecting a check from Culvers now for promoting their product. Or maybe you rearrange your route to go by a certain restaurant because man, they have the best fries or they have the best pizza. Thats my downfall, pizza. If I could go back in time and not eat a pizza my whole life, Id weigh like ten pounds today. Thats my big downfall, and you have yours. I mean its okay to eat a brownie or a cupcake or pie or something occasionally, but some of us are eating it like five times a week. Thats not good. That is not good, so you have to learn to see that that comfort food is not your ally. It is actually taking you further away from your goal. Its not good for your waistline; its not good for your heart. All that grease and stuff like that-you need to stop seeing that as your buddy, and you need to start seeing that as your enemy. Thats hard to do with somebody thats been your pal. Those fries have been your pal. That sundae has been your buddy. Its helped you through some tough times. You say, You know what? This really doesnt help me. This really isnt going to do me any good, so I need to make some changes if Im going to be serious. Notice with sin, you dont wean from sin. You prune it. Now sometimes were trying to break smoking habits, and you kind of wean from it. When it comes to sin, sin means to miss the mark. The Bible says the best thing to do is cut it off. Jesus says if your right hand offends you, cut it off. If your eye offends you, tear it out. Now did Jesus mean that literally? Ive heard some skeptics attack that and go, Well, look at Christians. Jesus taught people to pull their eyes out. Well, you dont understand-thats rabbinic hyperbole. Rabbis did that all the time-used exaggerations to illustrate a point. What hes saying is deal with it expediently, deal with it now, deal with it aggressively-remove it from your life. Dont coddle it; dont befriend it; dont become comfortable with it. See it for what it is and remove it. That's what these people tried to do. They didnt wean themselves off of it. They just said, Im done with it. They didnt pass it on to somebody else either. They didnt go, You know, Im done casting spells, so here you go. Or [they didnt say], Im done worshipping Artemis, so heres an idol for you. They just said, We want this out of our lives. Some of you have some things in your lives that you should do a private burning in the backyard with. I could be saying that figuratively or literally. There might be some things in your lives that youre looking at, listening to or reading that need to be removed-just get rid of them; and maybe that will require you to destroy that, but thats what they did. They said, Were not going to mess around anymore. Were going to remove this from our lives, so they have this holy bonfire. Smoke is rising in the sky, and they celebrate. They say, Were free from that. We have a new way of life. Now thats going to cause a lot of problems because if people arent buying spells, if people arent buying idols-remember the economy is fueled by that-who is that going to hurt? Its going to hurt the businesses, right? Its going to hurt the foundation of that economy in Ephesus, and it starts doing that. Were going to encounter a man by the name of Demetrius. Verse 23 says at that time there arose a great disturbance about the Way. The Way was Christianity. It was called the Way. A silversmith named Demetrius, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought in no little business for the craftsmen. In other words, this guy was making a killing, and so were the leather people, and so were the wood people. The craftsmen were making a ton on these souvenirs and these idols that they would make. Now, Im guessing heres how it went down. Business was booming. This guy was loaded. He loved Artemis; he loves her because shes a goddess, and hes blessed and prosperous, but this business is really good for him. Hes making these silver shrines and hes making these images of Artemis for people to take home. You could buy big ones if you had a lot of money. You could buy small ones if you didnt have a lot of money, but he is making a killing. He goes to the local merchant who is selling near the temple. He says, Hey, I have some more temples for you today. I have some more images of goddess, Artemis, for you today. He says, I just dont need any right now. What do you mean, you dont need any? He says, Well, business has not been good. Theyre just not selling like they used to! In fact, my sales are down 50 percent! I still have temples from the last time you came in. Really? Is it my craftsmanship? Am I slipping? Am I not doing…? Oh, no, no. Youre great! Theyre fantastic. Its just people arent buying them anymore. Theyre not even coming into my store anymore! Im hurting too! I cant afford to buy them right now, so hopefully it will turn around. It will come back next month, but things are tight for me! Okay. All right, thanks. He goes to the store down the block. Hey, Tobias, how many can I put you down for this month? Oh, Demetrius, yeah, listen. Ive been meaning to talk to you. I dont know how to say this, and I dont want you to take this personally because I like you. I think youre a great guy, and youre obviously a wonderful craftsman, but Im not going to be selling them anymore. What? Who are you selling with? Whos your partner now? I mean am I not doing a good job? No, theyre fantastic! What? Did I offend you in some way? No, no, no, no, no. Its not you. Youre a great guy! Well then who are you getting your business from? Nobody. Im not going to sell the goddess anymore. Why? Im a Christian now, Demetrius. I went to the school of Tyrannus, and I heard a man named Paul talk about Jesus, and Ive given my life to Christ. Im a follower of the Way, Demetrius. A follower of the what? The who? Paul? What are you talking about? Hes a wonderful man, and he serves the living God, the true God. Oh, I dont want to hear this nonsense. Im going to go down the road, and Im going to see what he wants to buy down the road. He said, Dont bother. Hes a Christian too. Oh, great! This is just wonderful! Now Im going to go bankrupt now because of this stupid Paul and his dumb way-whatever it is! Something has to be done about this! He calls a meeting, and he gathers all the craftsmen from around Ephesus because theyre all feeling the pinch in their pocketbooks. Theyre like, We have to do something! This guy sees the writing on the wall. He says, We have to do something. Hes sounding the alarm. Remember years ago when people were saying, We have to start building economy cars. We have to start building them. Gas prices are going up. The world is changing. They were sounding the alarms. The writing is on the wall! Thats what he does. He says, We have to make a change or were going to hurt. We have to stop this! So he calls this meeting together. Heres what he says in Verse 25, Men, you know we receive a good income from this business. And you see and hear how this fellow Paul has convinced and led astray large numbers of people here in Ephesus and in practically the whole province of Asia. He says that man-made gods are no gods at all. How dare he! There is danger not only to our trade that will lose its good name, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be discredited, and the goddess herself, who is worshiped throughout the province of Asia and the world, will be robbed of her divine majesty. Hes up on his soapbox. Hes preaching, man. He is preaching with all his heart for Artemis, but the bottom line is he wants to keep his job. He wants to keep his lifestyle, and he works them to a frenzy. They get mad, and they start shouting, Great is Artemis of the Ephesians! Soon the whole city was in an uproar. The people hear this commotion, and then they start joining in. Whats going on? Somebodys trying to destroy the temple! No! Somebody is trying to attack Artemis and say shes not a true god! No! And they start chanting, Great is Artemis of the Ephesians! Pretty soon, thousands of people are chanting. They try to find some scapegoats. They cant find Paul, so they grab a couple other guys. They grab Gaius and they grab Aristarchus, and they say, These guys are with Paul. The crowd wont be satisfied. They grab a Jew named Alexander. They shout this guy down. For two hours straight, they chant, Great is Artemis of the Ephesians! Great is Artemis of the Ephesians! Nobody can reason with them until finally the city clerk comes. The city official comes. It doesnt say his name, but hes much respected. He calms them down. He says, Listen, theres no crime that has been committed here today. If Demetrius and the others have a charge to bring against Paul, we have a court system. We have a legal system. Let them bring their charge the right way. Right now, youre in danger of calling Rome down upon us for a riot, so I suggest everybody calm down and go home. Lets do things the right way. It works! The crowd subsides, and they go on their way. Make no mistake about it. The church of God in Ephesus was alive and real. Thats a whirlwind story, isnt it? There is a lot of drama packed in Chapter 19, but when we go back to Ephesians 1 in a couple weeks and start reading, youre going to know these people better. Youre going to know their lifestyle, why Paul writes what he writes, and how they would understand it. As we close today, I want to focus in on Verse 17. I want us to look at that. It says, …the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high honor. The first thing they did was confess, so were going to confess today. Im going to lead you in a public confession. That is one of the ways we hold God in high honor because to confess means to agree. When we agree with God, we are esteeming Him and holding Him in high honor. The second thing I want to ask you is is there something in your life you need to forsake? If I asked for a raise of hands on this question, pretty much every hand would go up and say, Is there some housecleaning you need to do? Are there some things you need to remove in your life that are a hindrance in your walk? Every honest hand would go up in this place today. What is it? Is there a relationship that is destructive and harmful? Is there a habit that is destructive and harmful that you have become comfortable with and just accepted it, but you know it doesnt please God? Is there an attitude that you know doesnt please God? Is there blatant disobedience? God has said, Dont gossip, and youre impugning the integrity of another person through gossip. God has said, Forgive, and youre holding on to unforgiveness for all its worth. There are some things that you need to purge in your life. The name of Jesus is held in high esteem; you will seek to purge those things. You will not coddle them, but you can have a figurative or a literal ceremony like the Ephesians had and say, God, I want to cut it out right now. I want to break free from this from the power of the Holy Spirit. Thats what I want to lead you in-a prayer of confession. I want you to open up your Bibles to Psalm 51. This is the Psalm that David wrote when he had been confronted of his sin with Bathsheba, the murdering of Uriah, her husband, the covering up of his sin. He prayed this prayer; he wrote this prayer to God, so were going to multi-task today. Were going to read this prayer, and while were reading this prayer, were going to make this prayer our confession of faith. Normally if you pray and confess, your eyes are closed; but were going to have our eyes open because were going to be reading. Were going to read this out loud together. Were going to read Verses 1-13. Im going to read Verse 1; you read Verse 2; Ill read Verse 3, etc. The way to remember this-memory device-is Pastor Jeff is odd, and we are even. Im odd, and you are even. Thats how you remember this. Then at Verse 13, were going to read that together in unison. Instead of saying, Then I will teach, were going to say, Then we will teach. Were going to put that in the third person as we read that together. Now listen, if you want to go home and not change a thing-if you want to go home and just stay the way you are-you have no intention of removing anything from your life that displeases God-I want to encourage you not to read this prayer. Dont be a hypocrite today, but if you mean business with God, and you say, Lord, there are some things Ive become comfortable with, and I know theyre not right-some attitudes, some habits, some action, some possessions, then I need to purge my life of, and youre serious about that, it begins with confession-then I want you to pray this prayer with me. So, lets open our Bibles, and Im going to begin reading with Verse 1. Then you will follow out loud with Verse 2 (page 562 of pew Bibles). Pastor Jeff: Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your unfailing love; according to Your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Congregation: Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. Pastor Jeff: For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Congregation: Against You, You only, have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, so that You are proved right when You speak and justified when You judge. Pastor Jeff: Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Congregation: Surely You desire truth in the inner parts; You teach me wisdom in the inmost place. Pastor Jeff: Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Congregation: Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. Pastor Jeff: Hide Your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity. Congregation: Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Pastor Jeff: Do not cast me from Your presence or take Your Holy Spirit from me. Congregation: Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. All: Then we will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners will turn back to You. Lets pray: Father, as we read Your Word, we are challenged today. We see in our lives that rebellion as well. Weve tried to go our own ways. We have idols too. Our idols are not made of silver, and we do not bow down and worship them, but we do worship idols. We may worship the car we drive or the home we live in. We may worship a person. We may worship our jobs. We may worship money. We may worship our physical self in some way. There are many things that we ascribe ultimate worth and value to, so we do worship idols in this culture. We do engage in behavior and practices that are not pleasing to You, so that is why weve come today-to confess that sin. We pray by the help of Your Holy Spirit we would forsake that, that we would live lives and honor You, that Your name would be held in high regard in our lives. The Psalm we just read said that You anoint us with hyssop. Lord, we know that hyssop was the herb that was used to apply the blood during the Passover. It is the blood of Christ applied to our soul that pardons our sins. It is not through our works or our own righteousness, but it is by Your grace, through Your love-the blood shed for us upon the cross that we are forgiven and free. Lord, we dedicate ourselves to the Gospel to the cause of Christ. We pray that in this series, we will draw even closer to You. We pray that You would apply this truth to our hearts today, help us to make the changes we need to make, that our lives might honor You. In Jesus name we pray, amen.
Think of the effect that that had on that man. This is a man who lived out in the open in the desert, and he went when he pleased, said what he pleased; and now he is confined to a lonely prison cell. What was his crime? His crime was he stood up to Herod and said, The lifestyle youre living is wrong. Youve taken Philips wife to be your wife, your brothers wife to be your wife. Thats wrong. And Herod had an attitude, Who does this man think he is to question me? Im in control, and he has John arrested. Before John goes to prison though, he does baptize Jesus. Remember Johns ministry had been a hellfire and brimstone message. It was a turn or burn. Messiah is coming, and He is ticked. That's kind of the gist of it. He is coming with the wrath of God. He used word pictures like, Hes going to baptize you with fire. That stood for judgment and purification. He said, Hes going to separate the wheat from the chaff, and the wheat is going to gather, and the chaff is going to burn up; so you better make sure youre wheat. If youre not right with God, you better get down to this river and be baptized because when Messiah comes, it might be too late for you. Wrath is coming, and its on its way. People are coming by droves to be baptized by John in the Jordan. His ministry begins-Jesus ministry begins; Johns basically comes to an end. As hes sitting in prison, Jesus starts to say and do things that He did not expect Jesus to say and do. Instead of overthrowing Rome, coming with this show of force and power and crushing their enemy, Jesus is saying things like, Love your enemies. Instead of smiting sinners, Jesus is talking about lilies and sparrows and turning the other cheek. This is not what John planned. You see, John thought Jesus was going to come and deliver the wrath of God to people; but actually what happened is Jesus took the wrath of God on Himself for people. John didnt see that. People are being healed and while thats all great and wonderful, but, When do we get to the good stuff? thinks John, and when do You come and get me out of prison? And John stayed in prison. The longer he stayed, the more his doubts grew until he finally reached the point where he sent a Disciple to Jesus with this question, Are You the expected One or should we wait for another? Jesus had been baptized by John; John had heard the voice of God with audible ear, saying, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased. He saw the Holy Spirit descend as a dove, and yet in this jail, in this darkness, he begins to question his faith. We said last week that some of you had been in the same place. Youd been in a jail experience, a dark experience and begun to question your faith at times. If John the Baptist could have questions and doubts, certainly you and I can have questions and doubts. Some of you have been in those jail experiences, and some of you are there right now. The door seems to stay locked too long; its too dark; and its lonely there. You want out, and it seems like Gods not answering your prayer; or maybe God doesnt care about your situation. Weve all been there, and thats why this series relates to us so well, because it is life. Well, one day the prison cell opened up. As the guard approaches with the key, John is thinking as he hears the footsteps, Maybe this is my day. Maybe this is the day Ill be free, and I can resume my ministry. How I long to be back in the desert. How I long to be used of God again, but that was not to be. The man standing outside the cell was an executioner, and his hood was on. The news he has for John is not good. He said, John, this is your last day. Herod wants your head, and John is led off to be executed. I didnt talk about that last week because thats heavy. You dont just drop that on a congregation and pass it by because as soon as you do that, you have a lot of questions. You say, Well how could God let this happen to John? Did God drop the ball on this? Did He let John down? Did God fail John? Did He break a promise? Did Satan win in this one? Because this is not a happy ending, is it? That is not the dream that John had. Thats a shattered dream if there ever was one. Were going to answer those questions, talking about a different individual. Were going to get back to John, but I want to talk to you about another young man. You know, John had words to say, and he didnt care what the people who heard them thought about him-not a sensitive guy. He was confrontational. He was in your face. Heres the way it is. The man Im talking to you about was not that way. He cared very much what people thought about him. He cared very much about how they responded and how they treated him. He was very sensitive, which if youre going to be a prophet, being sensitive is not a good thing to be. He often cried, and he wore his heart on his sleeve. He often struggled with self-doubt-whether he was worthy and capable of doing what God had called him to do. There was an inner turmoil in this young man throughout his ministry. One day, early on, God called him and sent him to the potters shop. The potter was a very important man. He made the vessels for your food, for your water and for your bathing; so he goes down to the potters shop, and God says just do down there and watch the potter. So he arrived that morning. Good morning, said the potter as he worked on the wheel, shaping his next work of art. Oh, ah no, Im just here to watch you today. Thank you. Oh, okay, he said as he worked. He said, Listen if theres anything I can do to help you, just let me know. Sure, sure. I will do that. Oh, look what Ive done! said the potter. Ive messed this up. I have to start over now. I guess I wasnt paying attention, so he gets a little bit more clay and a little bit more water. He starts to mold, and he goes, This is a water jar. Im making the wrong thing, and he chuckles and laughs. The young man hears a message then from God and says, This is what I will do to Israel if Israel does not repent of her sin. Israel is like the clay in the hands of the potter to me. I am the potter. Israel is the clay and I can reshape her and mold her any way I want to. You bring that message to Israel, and he does; but Israel does not change. In fact, the leaders form a pact and say, Lets never listen to this man again. Whatever he says, we are going to tune him out. Were not going to listen. God sends him back to the potters house a second time. Good morning, he says. Good to see you again! Do you want to buy something today, or are you just here to watch me this time, too? No, today Im want to buy a jar, and he picks a large jar. He buys it; he takes it to the city and he stands outside the temple with a message given by God. He says, God has called you today to repent. You are doing things that are detestable in His sight. You are committing murder. You are taking innocent lives, and God has said you will reap what youve sown if you dont turn and repent. He takes the jar; he lifts it over his head in dramatic fashion; he throws it to the ground, and it breaks in 100 pieces. He says, This is what God will do to you unless you change. He will break you to the point where cannot be repaired. What do you think the people did? They laughed at him. They got angry at him. They beat him; they stripped him of his robe; they put him in shackles outside the temple, and there he sat all day long, beaten, bloody and broken. People are laughing at him. Theyre mocking him. Theyre spitting at him. He must have done something awful to be in this embarrassing situation. For a sensitive guy, can you imagine what this is doing to his self-image, to have people treat him this way? His only crime was to share what God had told him to share. Thats all he had done. Now he is being treated in this manner. It is a devastating event in his life. When he is freed from his shackles, he has an opportunity to tell God exactly what he thinks of Him at that point in time; and were going to read what he said right now. I want you to open your Bibles up to the Book of Jeremiah 20 (page 770 of pew Bibles). Lets read that today. Were going to start reading in Verse 7. Were not going to read the entire chapter, but were going to read some verses that are indicative of his response to God from his treatment. He begins with a bang, O Lord, You deceived me, and I was deceived… Thats quite a charge to make, isnt it? You werent honest with me, God! You didnt play fair with me. …you overpowered me and prevailed… Youre a bully! This is some strong language here. Jeremiah is upset. Hes mad. …I am ridiculed all day long; everyone mocks me. Whenever I speak, I cry out proclaiming violence and destruction. So the Word of the Lord has brought me insult and reproach all day long. This is the thanks I get. I preach Your Word, and the result is I am ridiculed and mocked. Anybody ever done the right thing? You did what you thought was going to please God, and you just got beat over the head as a result? It doesnt feel too good, does it? Jeremiah is not happy. Jeremiah-whats more-is suicidal at this point. He doesnt want to live anymore. Look at Verse 14, Cursed be the day I was born! May the day my mother bore me not be blessed! He doesnt want a birthday. Say happy birthday to Jeremiah, and youre probably going to get a punch in the nose. Cursed be the man who brought my father the news, who made him very glad, saying, A child is born to you-a son! Hes even mad at the guy passing out cigars. Hes even mad at that guy! He wishes he were dead. Verse 18, Why did I ever come out of the womb to see trouble and sorrow and to end my days in shame? This is it. He cant even see tomorrow. This is going to be it for him. Thats how mad he is, but what I really want you to focus on is his statement. He says, Lord, You deceived me! Then I want to ask you the question-did God deceive Jeremiah? Did He? Did God say to Jeremiah, Jeremiah, if you proclaim this message, everybodys going to love you and repent of their sins? Did He say that? No. Did He say, Everybodys going to listen and follow what you say, Jeremiah? No, God never said that. I mean I dont blame Jeremiah for being angry. When I give a sermon, theres usually a few of you every Sunday that will come up to me and say, That was a good sermon, Pastor Jeff. I really got a lot out of that. That makes me feel good. It makes me feel like Im doing what God wants me to do. Ive never had anybody come up to me and go, That was terrible! and start hitting me. Be quiet! I dont like you, and Im going to shackle you up! You need to be quiet! Thats never happened to me. If you guys started yelling at me, booing me and throwing things at me, I might not like my job anymore. I can understand how Jeremiah would be upset. He has grounds to be upset, but God did not break a promise to Jeremiah. God did not deceive Jeremiah because God never promised Jeremiah that he wouldnt get hurt, that people wouldnt listen or that people would love him or like him. We have this understanding. Its kind of taught in our culture. Its taught by a lot of preachers and authors that we serve God. We make a commitment to God, try to live a good life, and then God does things for us; and well be reasonably happy, successful, prosperous and healthy. When things dont go our way, we get upset with God. We say, Youve broken your end of the bargain. About 30 years ago, I was much younger, thinner, and more athletic. I was getting ready to play basketball at the university that I was enrolled at, so I took my sport very seriously. I was 18, 19 years old. I was getting in shape, and I remember this like it was yesterday. I went in the gym to scrimmage, and I prayed this prayer because I have a weak ankle from a bad injury when I was a boy. I would have a tendency to sprain it all the time. Every season Id sprain my ankle bad. I said, Lord, please prevent me from being injured today. Lord, I pray especially that I will not turn my ankle. In Jesus name, Amen. Im playing maybe five minutes, and I come down. I go up five, six feet in the air [congregation laughing], and I come back down after that monstrous dunk, and I woke up. No. I jumped up in the air, and I came down on my foot, and I rolled it bad. Im lying there on the ground, and Im in pain; but I am angry. I slam my fist on the ground, and I thought to myself, He let me down. God let me down. I asked Him specifically not to turn the ankle, and thats the thing [I hurt]; and He could have stopped that! He could have stopped it, but He didnt stop it. In fact, thats the very thing I hurt! I was mad! God had let me down. Have any of you ever prayed for something, and the exact opposite of what you prayed for happened? Did you get mad? I didnt pray that prayer for years. Id say, Well, I would pray that I wont get hurt, but I know how that one goes. Till I had to learn some things-I had to learn some things; and when I prayed it, I prayed it differently. I prayed a prayer that goes like this-and I still do-I still pray this prayer, Lord, Im going out today. Now Im an old man, sports-wise. Im now playing against the sons of the guys I used to play with. Im going out there today, Lord, whether I get hurt or I dont get hurt, whether I win or lose, whether I play well or play poorly-help me to have the right attitude and be a good reflection of You in the gym today. Now I dont always-Im not always that… Im a human being. If you get fouled or something, you get mad, or [if there is] a bad call, you get mad. Its part of being a person, but my prayer is different. Do you know why? Because I found out what Jesus really did promise. Jesus didnt break a promise to me, Jeremiah or to John the Baptist. In fact, Ill tell you what Jesus promised you, and you tell me if He broke His promise. John 16:33 (page 1070): Jesus says, I spoke these things that you may have peace. In this world, you might have trouble… Is that what He says? In this world, its possible that one day you might have a little trouble. No. In this world, theres a good chance youre going to have trouble. No. In this world, you will have trouble. The world trouble means pressures, problems. That's a promise. Has God kept that promise? Have you had trouble in this world? [Congregation laughing.] Has anybody-God broke the promise, and you have never had a day of trouble, pressure or problems in your life? Let me see your hand because we all hate you [congregation laughing]. God has kept this promise, hasnt He? We have all had troubles, and we will continue to have troubles because that is the nature of this fallen world; and Jesus is quite up front with that. There are people who believe a Gospel thats very different than this. They think Gods supposed to keep them healthy, happy and rich. When those things dont happen, they get ticked off; and they leave their faith. They think like Jeremiah, God has deceived me. God has abandoned me; and I say to you, God did not abandon you or deceive you. That is a promise; that is a bill of goods. That is not the promise of the Bible. That is not the promise of the Gospel. That is the promise of man. God said quite the opposite. In this world, you will have trouble, but fear not or be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. So lets turn our attention to Jesus and see how He was able to do that. If you would turn in your Bibles please to the Book of Matthew 26, we are going to see that Jesus… This is the passion period in His life-before the cross. Hes been betrayed. Hes gone away to Gethsemane with His Disciples to pray. Judas has already betrayed Him. Soon there will be hundreds of men who will come to arrest Him-not a few, hundreds. Theyll come with lanterns, torches and spears, knives and swords. Right now its quiet. Right now, its just the crickets, just the owls and His Disciples in the Garden. Its dark. He takes Peter, James and John with Him, and He begins to be troubled. He tells them whats on His heart. Verse 38 (page 985), He said, My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with Me. Going a little farther-and by the way, you and I face our own sin. We have bore the weight of our sin. We have felt shame, guilt, remorse and regret over things weve done; but can you imagine-and you cant-what it would be like to bear the weight of the world, of the worlds sin upon you as He is about to on the cross? This moment is facing Him square in the eye. He falls on His face to the ground. He lies prostrate on the ground, and He prays this prayer, …My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from Me. In other words, Jesus wasnt looking to go to the cross. It was not something that He was joyful about. Nobody is asking you to be a martyr. Nobodys asking you to want to be a martyr. John didnt necessarily want to be beheaded, Im sure, that day. Christians didnt want to be burned at the stake. They didnt want to be stoned to death, but they were willing to. Altaf, our missionary in Pakistan-hes not flaunting his faith to his Taliban neighbors. He lives near them. He doesnt flaunt his faith and go, Hey, Im a Christian! Shoot me! But hes willing to die. Hes ready to die if that happens, if God calls him to lay down his life. Jesus says, Nevertheless, not as I will, but Your will be done. I will drink this cup if theres no other way to win mans salvation, and so there was no other way. If the law would have been good enough, Jesus would not have had to go to the cross. If your good works were good enough, Jesus would not have gone to the cross. If some other way was adequate, Jesus would not have had to go to the cross. Jesus goes to the cross, suffers and dies because that was the only price that was sufficient enough to pay for your salvation. There was one way to God, and that's through the shed blood of Jesus Christ and faith in His name. Because there was no other way, He went and was obedient and laid down His life. Friends, this prayer, as powerful and dangerous-and if you can pray this prayer, you know that you are mature as a believer. If you can pray the prayer and say, Lord, this isnt something I like. This isnt something I want to experience. I want to get out of this prison. I dont want my dreams to be shattered. I dont like this but if this is Your will for me, I will drink it. If you can pray that prayer, if you can be faithful to God in the midst of adversity, then friends youre on your way to being mature in Christ. You say, Well, you know what? Were not playing with an even field here because this is Jesus were talking about. This is divinity. Im all for trying to be like Jesus, but come on! Compare us to Jeremiah. We understand that, but to compare us to the Son of God, we cant live up that standard! Thats too high! Well, okay. Youre making a good point, but I want to counter that with another point. I want you to turn in your Bibles to the Book of Revelation 2. Revelation, at the beginning of the Book, is unique. We have letters that Paul wrote to churches. Other Disciples wrote letters to Christians and churches. In Revelation, the first few chapters, we have Jesus writing letters to actual churches. John is His amanuensis, but Jesus is the One thats giving the dictation; so Jesus is writing to a specific body, so this church in Smyrna was a church that existed just like we do. They had a building; had a leader; had elders; they came to church on Sunday morning and worshipped God just like we do; and Jesus sent them a letter. Heres what He had to say in Verse 10, Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, but I will protect you and make sure that no bad thing ever happens to you because I love you and I want to spoil you like a house pet. We think thats what we should be-Gods little house pets. You know how we have this perfect environment-no predators. Nothing bad happens, and everythings always provided for us. Were always petted and treated nicely, and we think we should be like that-little fat, lazy, sassy pets who God pats on the head and says, Good girl. Good boy. I love you. We wag our tails and work hard for treats. He said, I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer… Hes not going to try to stop it. Hes not going to try to prevent it. He says, You will suffer persecution for ten days. Its going to be a little while, and during that time you will suffer. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life, on the other side. What does Jesus want more than anything from His believers? Faithfulness. Faithfulness. He says when adversity comes, be faithful. When you feel like you dont feel My presence, be faithful. When life does not go your way, when prayers are unanswered, be faithful. When youre in that prison experience and dreams are shattered, be faithful. Dream a bigger dream because there is no bigger dream than living to be in the middle of the will of God. There is no bigger dream than being in a right relationship with the Father. There is no bigger dream than being faithful to God even unto death. Friends, if that is your dream, then there is literally nothing in this world that can happen, even death itself, that can keep you from fulfilling that dream. Think about that. Any other dream you have can be taken from you, but the dream to love God and know God-if everything in my life happens for a good, it makes me love God more; and everything that happens in my life for the bad makes me depend on Him and know Him more, then there is nothing that can happen in your life that can separate you from the highest dream. Christians all through the ages have had what seemed like bad endings. John had a bad ending from an earthly perspective, but when he said good-bye to this world, he was welcomed in Heaven with the words, Well done, my good and faithful servant. When those in Smyrna who suffered and even died for their faith left this home, they were welcomed in glory, Well done, my good and faithful servants. I want to close by reading from Chapter 11 of the Book of Hebrews. The author is talking about the importance of faith, and he then lists examples of faith. Then he begins to talk about just some of the nameless, faceless martyrs who have perished over the centuries. At the end of Verse 35 (page 1193), the author says this, Others were tortured and refused to be released so they might gain a better resurrection. Verse 36, Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated-the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground. These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us, a greater dream, so that only together with us would they be made perfect. The dream of God is that we will be perfect. Right now, He is building within us character and faith, Christ-likeness, working toward that perfection. Friends, I want to dare you to dream the greatest dream of all; and that is when your dreams are shattered, dream the biggest dream-to be faithful to God, no matter what happens, until death; to serve Him in adversity and in prosperity; in freedom and imprisonment. Whether things have gone well or have not gone well, He wants you to be faithful to serve Him, obey Him, yield to Him and love Him all the days of your lives. God says in Heaven, Eye has not seen, nor ear heard what God has prepared for those who love Him. That is our goal. That is our home-not this earth. I wish I had better news for you. I wish it could be like one of those best-selling authors and tell you that God wants you always laughing, rich and happy all the time; but you know from the Word of God and you know from your experience that thats not true. Thats not the way life is. Lets dream the greatest dream today. Would you join me in prayer this morning? Father, we can identify with Jeremiah. There have been times when we have felt deceived as though Youre not keeping Your promise. Youre not living up to Your end of the bargain-when actually its a promise You never made. A promise You made is in this world, we will have trouble, and that promise has been kept. We all identify with that, but the second part of that promise is to have good cheer in spite of the adversity because You have overcome the world. You conquered death from the grave. Because we are in You, we too will overcome. My prayer is for those who have never made a commitment to follow and serve the Lord Jesus Christ-that today they would put the trust of their eternal soul into Your care. Jesus, help us to dream the greatest dream, the dream that nothing that happens in this life can thwart or stop. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
In spite of his this incredible faith, John the Baptist went through an experience in his life of great doubt where his dreams were shattered. I want to make sure Im talking to the right crowd today. I want to take a little survey here. How many of you have ever had a dream shattered? Youve been disappointed, had unmet expectations? Okay, it looks like we have the right crowd the right group. It could be something trivial. It could be something like we go to our favorite restaurant to get our favorite sandwich, and its been taken off the menu. Thats a devastating thing. Our favorite team doesnt win the game; our favorite team doesnt win the World Series for the 101st year in a row. It could be something more serious. It could be that husband and wife that walked down the aisle with all these great expectations, and it didnt work out. How many times have I seen parents who are so excited about the pregnancy, and the pregnancy ends in a miscarriage and the child is gone? The nursery stays empty. You see a lot of heartbreak in ministry. Its true that every single person here has gone through struggle and heartache of one kind or another, so thats why we spent time on this series because its where we live. Its our reality. I want to focus in on John the Baptist because hes not a man that you normally associate with shattered dreams, is he? Yet he was one who lived a life of unmet expectations. I want you to turn in your Bibles please to the Book of Matthew 3 (page 957 of pew Bibles). Were going to read his story. John is a Prophet. Prophets dont care a lot about what other people think, what other people say or who they offend. All a Prophet cares about is speaking the Truth. A Prophet does so boldly, and a Prophet does so without apologies because Truth is the most important thing in the life of a Prophet. There are still Prophets walking around today. I read about one such man, a prophet who liked to speak the Truth above all things. He was hired by the Health Department in Pensacola, Florida. His job was to look after the peoples health. Did you read about him this week? When he took over, he started putting signs up that said things like, Sweet tea equals liquid sugar. French fries equal thunder thighs. Then he started to attack businesses like KFC and Dunkin Donuts and name them by name. America dies by Dunkin it said on the clinic. He ruffled the wrong feathers, and they had this guy run out of town, run out of his job. They said, We dont want to listen to you preach to us. We dont want to hear what you have to say, so he was fired. He was released from his duties. He just got a little bit too personal and stepped on too many toes. He said, I dont care if people dont like it. I was hired to protect the health of the citizens and to speak the truth. It doesnt matter who listens to me or if I lose my job. Thats a Prophets mentality. Many times in the Bible, Prophets would end up beaten, imprisoned or even killed for speaking the Truth. John the Baptist-as bold as he was-you know there is going to come a time when hes going to ruffle the wrong feathers, and hes going to get himself into trouble with his mouth. Thats whats going to happen. When it starts off, his ministry is well-received, and things are going great. Lets look at Verse 1 together. In this passage, youre going to see Johns dream. Youre going to see his expectation. Youre going to understand how John interprets his role in the ministry and his expectation of what Messiah will do when He comes. In those days, John the Baptist came, preaching in the Desert of Judea and saying, Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near. Repent is in the continuous tense, meaning he would say these repeatedly. It was something he beat like a drum: repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is near. Matthew writes, This is he who was spoken of through the Prophet Isaiah. A voice of one calling in the desert, Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for Him. So Isaiah identifies this voice as the one who will herald Messiah. John sees himself as the fulfillment of that prophesy. Johns clothes were made of camels hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. He sounds a little bit eccentric, doesnt he? Thats because he was. He wanted nothing to do with establishment. His clothes were a statement. His diet was a statement. He was saying, I dont need your fancy clothes. I dont need your fancy houses. I dont need your city life. I can be happy here in the desert wearing these clothes, eating this food, this high-protein diet; and Im going to get along just fine. I dont need the trappings of society. Verse 5, People went out to him from Jerusalem, all of Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. His ministry is effective. People are coming; theyre repenting; theyre turning to God. When he saw the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them… Wanting to be loved and popular, You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Its a rhetorical question, but the answer is, You did, John. You warned us. Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. In other words, this is not a game. And do not think you can say to yourselves, We have Abraham as our father. I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. Dont count on your ancestry. Dont count on your heritage. Friends, if youve grown up in Janesville, and maybe your church has been a part of the church for generations, dont count on that. Dont count on your upbringing. Dont count on your fathers faith, your mothers faith. What is your faith? What is the status of your walk with Christ? This is a personal matter. He was saying, Dont just trust in how you were raised or how you were born. Johns question to them was, Where do you stand before our Holy God? The ax is already at the root of the trees… God means business. …and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. What did the trees represent? These are people, right? He said, If your life is not conforming to the will of God, youre in hot water. Youre in big trouble. I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come One who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. Fire represents judgment and purification. Hes not messing around. Hes going to do this. His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will clear His threshing floor, gathering His wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire. You take that winnowing fork and you lift the wheat into the air. The wheat falls on the threshing floor, and the chaff blows away. You sweep the chaff up, and you burn it. God means business. When Messiah comes, if your life is not right, you could be consumed. Hes painting a picture of a Messiah who is not going to mess around. Hes coming real soon, and Hes coming right here; so you better get your life together. John is one of the original Hellfire and Brimstone teachers, isnt he? So its very clear what Johns message is of what the Messiah will look like. Hes a Messiah that will cause fear-a holy fear-to rise up in your heart. Youd be best to repent right now and turn right now before its too late. Thats his message. He sees his ministry as an important part as he prepares peoples hearts for what is to come. Now we said that Johns mouth will get him in trouble; it does. There is a ruler in the area named Herod. Now its not Herod the Great. Its Herod the great son, Herod Antipas. Hes a tetrarch, so he rules one quarter of the region, but he is the top dog in that region. He had taken his brother Philips wife to be his wife, Herodias. When John the Baptist catches wind of this, he points it out and says, Youre living in sin. What youre doing is wrong. You should not have your brothers wife. Herodias is fit to be tied. She says to Herod, That man has embarrassed me. That man has embarrassed you. Who does he think he is, a desert dweller, telling us how to live, telling us what to do? Sometimes if a Prophet speaks truth into your life, you are offended by what the Prophet says. You need to get rid of him. Shut him up. Make him quiet. So Herod orders John the Baptist to be arrested and thrown into prison. Can you imagine what that does to him? This guy is a free spirit. This guy is out in the wilderness, and hes out in the open air in the desert, sun, the wind and the water. Here is a free spirit proclaiming the will of God and proclaiming the coming of King, and now hes in prison. Now hes in darkness; now he is in isolation; now he is pacing the floor. How could God let this happen to him? How could God allow this to happen to him? Whats more-not only is he in prison, but he is in prison for what? For speaking truth. Have you ever tried to do the right thing and got in trouble for it? Has anybody done that? You spoke truth, and you got in trouble. Many times, Prophets would speak the Truth-theyd speak Gods Word-and they would get in trouble. Thats what happens here. John the Baptists only crime is standing up for righteousness. Now hes in jail and his ministry has come to a grounding halt. Now were going to look at some lessons from prison from John. What are the things we can learn from Johns imprisonment? While hes in prison, hes getting reports back from his Disciples. His Disciples are coming and telling him all the things that Jesus is saying and doing. Remember John baptized Jesus shortly after the passage we read, and Jesus began His ministry in earnest. While Hes beginning His ministry, all these wonderful things John had been waiting to see-all these wonderful things he had been waiting to hear-where is he? Hes locked up. He doesnt get to hear it. He doesnt get to see anything firsthand. Its all second-hand. Its all coming to him through the mouths of other people. So thats lesson #1: a lesson in humility. John learned it wasnt about him. John learned that the work of God was going to go on with or without him. Thats an important thing for us to learn: God can use us, but Gods ministry goes on with or without us. If God calls you to a purpose-God calls you to a ministry-if you say no, then the one who misses out is you because Gods work is going to go forward. God will raise someone else up to do it. God doesnt go, Oh, boy. I wanted to accomplish My purpose. Now I cant because they said no! No, youll go on, but Gods purpose will go on too. So John learns that hes not the show. John had been so intrical to what God was doing in the region, and now he is in prison; yet the work of God is going stronger than ever, so John learns a lesson in humility. He learns its not about him. As people, we learn that its not about us. The infant cries. Hes hungry and wants to be fed. Shes thirsty; she wants a drink. If theyre messy, they want to be changed. If theyre restless, they want out of the playpen. Everything revolves around them, and you have to learn as a human being that the world does not revolve around you. You have to learn patience. You have to learn to share and all of these other things that arent too much fun to learn. Sometimes as Christians, its the same thing. When we become Christians, we think everything revolves around us, right? Oh, God loves me. He wants to forgive my sins. He has a plan for my life. He has a ministry, a spiritual gift, a calling and me, me, me. You come to find out its all about Him. You are redeemed for His glory. Youre called to His purpose. Its about Him. So John had to learn that lesson the hard way. The second lesson he learns is that often times what we desire and what God desires are two different things. John wants to be let out of prison, and youd think if your cousins the Messiah, you have a pretty good shot. If there were ever a get-out-of-jail free pass, that had to be it, right? My cousin Jesus-He is going to get me out of jail. He is the Messiah. All He has to do is say, Im the Messiah. Im here, and Im standing up for righteousness, and Herod doesnt have a chance. Herodias doesnt stand a chance. Ill walk out of here a free man, but that get-out-of-jail free pass never comes. He stays in jail. Days turn to weeks; weeks turn to months, and John doesnt understand. Some of you have been in that jail place. You know that place of darkness, isolation and loneliness? Youre wondering why in the world God doesnt get me out of there. If I would take a little small poll-which I wont do at this time-some of you would raise your hands and say, Im in there right now, and you want to get out. You want to get out in the most desperate way, but there is something that God wants to teach you. Thats what you have to find out; that's what you have to listen for; thats what you have to be watching for. There is holiness that He wants to produce in you. That process sometimes involves pain. The things we want that God doesnt want-we want all the problems and all the pain to just go away, and God wants to form character and holiness in our lives. I just want to know my future. I want to know exactly whats going on. I want all the questions answered, and God wants you to learn to live by something called faith. I want to make this world my home. I want to just snuggle up and cozy down and live as though I will live here for eternity! God wants you to desire Heaven. God wants you to desire the things above. Sometimes our desires and His desires are not the same. The Apostle Paul has a thorn in the flesh, and he prays to God and says, Lord, take this thorn from me! God doesnt, so Paul asks a second time, and he asks a third time. Jesus responds back and says, My grace is sufficient for My strength is perfected in weakness. We want the problems to go away, and He wants us to learn that His grace is sufficient. John doesnt understand why hes not being released from prison. John doesnt understand why Jesus is not acting the way the Messiah is supposed to act. You read the description, right? You read how he expected Jesus to act-you know, separating the wheat from the chaff and burning the chaff; the ax is at the root; Hes going to come with fire. You read what Johns expecting. Jesus comes on the scene and instead of leading His revolution against Rome, Hes talking about sparrows and lilies. Instead of overthrowing the enemy, Hes saying, If your enemy strikes you on the cheek, turn to him the other also. Instead of smiting the foes of God, Hes saying, Love your enemies. Bless those who persecute you. John catches wind of it, and hes like, What is this? What is this? When does the good stuff start? When does the fire start to fall? When are you going to set them straight? All the healing and all of that is nice, but come on! Do what Youre supposed to do! Look what it says in Chapter 11:2 (page 965 of pew Bibles), When John heard in prison what Christ was doing… What Christ was doing… It was what Christ was doing that was throwing him for a loop-the things He was saying, the way He was acting. It was not at all what John expected Him to say and do. …He sent His disciples to ask Him… And, boy, I want you to see how deep this question is. Are You the One who was to come, or should we expect someone else? Wow! Heres a guy who saw the Heavens open; saw the Spirit descent as a dove and rest upon Jesus; heard the voice of God the Father speak and say from Heaven, This is My beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased. In spite of all of that in this prison, he doubts God. He doubts Jesus. He doubts his own perceptions. Friends, if doubts could arise in the heart of John the Baptist in the midst of his prison time, dont be surprised when you have to grapple with doubts and fears in your prison experiences. Its going to happen. This guy should know beyond any shadow of a doubt that Jesus is the Messiah. Yet in this prison receiving only second-hand news, his dreams are shattered. He says, Did I miss something? Sometimes our problem is we just dont see the whole picture, or we only see what we want to see. Heres the thing: John is in prison, and hes waiting for wrath to come. Gods wrath is going to come. But instead of being delivered by Jesus to the people, the wrath of God comes on Jesus for the sins of the people. John did not see that one coming. John did not expect that. That was not in the cards. He didnt see the tender side of God. He didnt see the mercy side of God; yet it was in Gods Word all along. It was there the whole time, and John missed it. That passage that John had read so many times in Isaiah 40 and came to the realization that that was talking about him-lets turn there: Isaiah 40:10 (page 714). This is the passage that talks about the voice crying in the desert. This is John the Baptist. John would echo… It says, See the Sovereign Lord comes with power, and John would say, Yeah! …and his arm rules for Him. Yeah! See, His reward is with Him, and His recompense accompanies Him. Yes! He is going to bring recompense! He gets excited about that verse, but he must have stopped right there. The next verse was missing in his scroll or somehow he missed it. Look at Verse 11, He tends His flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in His arms and carries them close to His heart; He gently leads those that have young. The tenderness of Jesus, the love and compassion of the Savior-John didnt see it. Its been in the Bible the whole time. Sometimes you and I miss it. We dont see the whole picture. We dont see the other side of the coin. John is expecting judgment and wrath to come; and when it comes, it comes in the form of a sacrifice as God Himself bares the wrath. Its interesting that when Jesus answers Johns question, He does not answer it directly. By the way, when you are going through those prison experiences, its important to express your doubts, your fears and your confusions to Jesus. Dont just keep them inside. Express them to the Lord. Thats what John does. Ask the questions; seek the answers. John does that. Are You the One, or should we expect someone else? Its a cut-and-dry answer. Its a yes or no answer with some explanations, but Jesus does not directly say yes or no. He answers this way: He says, Go back and report to John what you hear and see. Tell him the blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of Me. [Its like Jesus saying], So, John, you dont understand. Im not acting like you expect Me to act. Im not delivering you from prison. Im not delivering the Jewish people from Roman rule, but I am doing the work of My Father. I am doing what I was sent to do. John, you dont understand. I want you to trust Me. Trust that I know what Im doing. Trust that Im doing exactly what the Father has sent Me to do. God says that same thing to us today. God says, In your prison experiences, I want you to understand there are things in this experience you need to learn. There is character that needs to be formed. There is faith that needs to grow. There is humility that needs to be forged. There is a big picture that needs to be seen, and there is a faith that must be discovered. Understand that God does His best work in those prison experiences of your lives because there is no other time when you are more ready to listen and more willing to see than right there. When you have the world by the tail, and everything is wonderful and good, sometimes its hard to get your attention. This free spirit is now in prison. Instead of the sunshine, he has a prison wall over his head. Instead of the wind in his face, there is a musty prison smell-a stench; and God speaks to him. We dont know what Johns response is, but his silence tells us that he understood. It wasnt Johns plan for John, but it was Gods plan for John. I want you to pray a prayer with me right now. I want you to open up your Bibles to the Book of Psalm 86 (page 585). Were going to do two things at once. In response to the message weve heard this morning, were going to read. While we read, were going to pray. This is a prayer that you might want to put to memory. This is a prayer that you might want to mediate on in your prison experience, a prayer that you might want to confess-not only this morning but tomorrow and the next day as well. Its a prayer of David. Were going to read this prayer out loud together. As we say this prayer, were going to say this prayer from our hearts to God. Lets read together aloud Verses 1-7, Hear, O Lord, and answer me, for I am poor and needy. Guard my life, for I am devoted to You. You are my God; save Your servant who trusts in You. Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I call to You all day long. Bring joy to Your servant, for to You, O Lord, I lift up my soul. You are forgiving and good, O Lord, abounding in love to all who call to You. Hear my prayer, O Lord; listen to my cry for mercy. In the day of my trouble I will call to You, for You will answer me. Confession prayer starts off with, For I am poor and needy. When you come to the Lord, and you say, Im poor in spirit. Im in need of Your council and strength, friends, in that moment, you instantly become spiritually richer. If you say, I dont need help. I dont need guidance. I understand it all. I know whats going on, you have no idea how blind and poor you are, spiritually-speaking. When our hearts are broken, and we are receptive and ready, then God is ready to do tremendous work in our lives. I want to pray especially this morning for those of us who are going through those difficult prison experiences right now. Id like it if every head could bow and every eye could close for a moment. In this private time, I just want to ask a question. If you are in that time right now, and you say, Im in that John the Baptist experience where things are happening in my life I dont understand; I feel like a victim… Maybe youre suffering for things youve done, or maybe youre suffering for what others have done; and youre in that place where you need to hear the Will of God; you need to experience the presence of God, and you need prayer this morning, can I see your hand? Just put it up. Thank you for your honesty today. I want to pray for you. Father, all over this sanctuary there were hands that went up. Those hands represent a pain-emotional and sometimes physical anguish. When they have found themselves in a circumstance beyond their control or sometimes it was through their control but they dont want to be there, Lord, they have said, Rescue me. And theyre still there. Sometimes like John the Baptist, days turn into weeks, and weeks turn into months, these have been desperate times. Lord, I want to take a moment, and I want to pray for my brothers and sisters whose hands are upheld. You know those stories. You know that pain. Father, just like John didnt understand that the wrath of God would come, but it would not come as he saw it, Jesus was not there to judge or to destroy, but to shepherd and to forgive. Lord, help us to trust in those times of darkness when we dont see the bigger picture; when we dont see the other side of the coin; we dont see the purposes. Lord, I pray that each one would be in tune to what Your voice is saying, how Youre leading them, what You want them to learn, how they need to grow-that they listen even now. God, I pray that You will reveal Yourself to them, that You will reveal Your purposes in them, and You will produce the fruit in them that You desire. Father, I pray for Your grace-that they would see that Your grace is sufficient for them. I pray that Lord, they would emerge from that experience with joy, hope and a renewed faith in You. Lord, these who have hurt and suffered, I pray that they might be able to come alongside those in the future who will hurt and suffer and minister and comfort them with the comfort that they received. Sustain them, we pray, in Jesus name, Amen.
Rev Gary Shields is a guest speaker who touched our church with true life stories about broken dreams and how God works in the "dry creek beds" of our lives.
Were starting a new series this morning called, Shattered Dreams. Well be talking about the importance of dreams, and dreams are huge. God put dreams in the hearts of His people to accomplish great things for His glory. Dreams get us up in the morning; dreams can occupy our minds at night. We have goals, but those goals are usually to attain a dream. When dreams are shattered, it just takes away hope. When dreams are shattered, it gives us less of a reason to get up in the morning. It can lead to depression. It can lead to other things. Dreams are very much a Biblical concept, so this series in my estimation is not just fluff. Its not fluff at all. Dreams are substance. Having a vision for the future, the Bible says, Without that, My people perish; so were going to spend about a month or so talking about the importance of dreams, how those dreams are fulfilled and lived out. I thought who better to address that subject than the one who was called, The Dreamer, and that's Joseph. Were going to take a little bit of a panorama view from age 17 to around age 37 in Josephs life. If youd turn in your Bibles please to Genesis 37, we will find the story of Joseph. The spotlight changes now from Jacob or Israel, his father, to his 17-year-old son who shows this remarkable gift of leadership at a very young age. So were introduced to Joseph here in Genesis 37:2 (page 38 of pew Bibles). Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his fathers wives, and he brought their father a bad report about them. Lets pause right there for a moment. We might think that Joseph is a tattletale. He is 17. He sees his brothers doing something wrong, and he goes back to his father and tells on them. Im going to demonstrate to you today that its more than that. Joseph at age 17, though he is the 11th son, is in a role of a supervisor. He has been put in charge of his brothers. By the time Joseph is born, there are 10 other brothers. I guarantee you theres been a hierarchy. Probably Ruben, the oldest, is at the top. Hes probably the leader. By the time Joseph comes along, he is the surprise. Nobody is expecting to have a brother. Joseph comes into the pecking order, and guess where his dad puts him? His dad puts him at the very top of the pecking order. At age 17, he is his brothers boss. It has to do with a couple things. Number one, though he is the 11th son, he is the first son of Jacobs first love, Rachel. For that reason, he has a special place in Jacobs heart. Secondly, there are natural or innate gifts of leadership that are in place in this young mans life. Theyre going to manifest themselves time and time again. How do you think his brothers feel when this youngster, this little brother, is promoted and advanced above them? Have you ever been on a job-maybe youve been there a long time-and you feel youre more qualified than some young whipper-snapper just out of college? He comes in and starts getting more responsibility than you. Have you seen that happen? How do the co-workers feel about that? Usually, they dont look at it too kindly. What about in a family? Did you have a family where there was a brother or sister that was favored more than another? There was a favorite in the family; anybody have that? In my family, it was me! I could do no wrong in my mothers eyes. I would get my sisters into trouble all of the time. They are 14 and 18 years older than I am. Ill tell you an example of how mean I could be. When I was a teenager, my sister Sandy and I would be in there eating lunch, and I would look at my sister and smile because I knew what I was about to do. Nothing I was about to say was true, but I just wanted to get her in trouble. I said, Ma! Sandys taking my food! Without even finding out the facts, Sandy! Stop taking his food! Brenda laughs because she saw that happen many times. Id start laughing. Shed be like, Mom! I wasnt doing it! No matter what I said or did, I was the favorite! So it is with Joseph. He is a daddys boy. He can do no wrong, and his brothers cant stand the sight of him. Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons because he had been born to him in his old age, and he made a richly ornamented robe for him. When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him. His father said only positive things to Joseph-always telling him what a good son he was, always telling him what a good leader he was, always speaking about his future. His brothers couldnt say a kind word. Everything his father said, his brothers would say the opposite. Then his father demonstrates that love by providing for Joseph a robe, this multi-colored robe of fine linen that he would wear. This is not the robe of a laborer. This was yet another thing to make a distinction between him and his brothers. They were the laborers. They were in the fields with the sheep. He was their supervisor. You dont go out to the fields to work with sheep with these kinds of fancy duds on, hand-made linen from the finest material with beautiful colors. What it stood for was his authority. It stood for his prominence. His father saw leadership in him that made him stand out from the rest. These clothes were symbolic of that. These clothes tell Joseph that he was different, that his father had put a special authority and trust upon him and in his life; this robe or tunic, whatever you want to call it, was very significant to Joseph. When he put it on, he felt special. When he put it on, he saw the dream his father had for him. He saw his worth and significance in his fathers eyes. Every time his brothers saw it, it reminded them that he was their fathers favorite. It reminded them that he had a position of authority over them when he was the youngest, and he shouldnt have it; so their hatred for him grew. It gets worse. Joseph has a dream in Verse 5, …and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. He said to them, Listen to this dream I had: We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, and your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it. His brothers said to him, Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us? And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said. It seems like that phrase gets repeated. Just when you think they cant hate him any more, they hate him even more. Were going to see their hatred advance to a point where they actually want to take his life. Thats how bad its going to get. Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. Listen, he said, I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me. Thats probably his father and either his step-mother, because Rachel is deceased-she died giving birth to Benjamin-or it could be his sister; but the 11 stars are definitely his other brothers. When he told this to his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you? His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind. His father understood that God speaks through dreams, that maybe this dream was a prophesy. Maybe it would come to pass. Well, a sad turn of events happens in Josephs life. Again, in his supervisor capacity, he is sent out to the field to bring a word from his father. He is wearing his multi-colored robe. He cant find his brothers at first. When he finally finds them, while hes off in a distance, theyre plotting to kill him. Verse 18, But they saw him at a distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him. Here comes that dreamer! they said to each other. That word in the Hebrew means the master dreamer, the chief dreamer, the captain of dreamers. It was meant to be derogatory. It was meant to be a condescending term. He didnt mean it in a positive way at all, Here comes that dreamer. Come now, lets kill him and throw him into one of those cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then well see what comes of his dreams. Now the older brother, Ruben, hears of this. He says, No, no, no, lets not kill him. After all, he is our brother. Lets throw him down into a well and just let him die there. So that was the plan-to throw him in this empty cistern, this empty well, and let him die. Ruben said that because his plan was to come back later and take him out, rescue him and bring him back to his father. That was the plan. That way he wasnt going to die. He was being a big brother; he was being kind of protective of his little brother, so when Joseph comes, heres what they do. Verse 23, …when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe-richly ornamented robe that he was wearing-and they took him and threw him into the cistern. Now the cistern was empty; and there was no water in it. So an act of violence is committed. Their hatred and bitterness boiled over. They grabbed their brother, and he was confused. These are his brothers; he loves them, and they are ripping the robe off his back. Listen, they could have beat him up, and they could have thrown him in the well without doing that; but they take the robe off of him. Why? Because they hated what it represented. They hated the dream it stood for. Every time they saw that robe, it reminded them that their father loved Joseph more than them. He was in a position that they didnt rightfully think he should have, so they attacked the robe. They shredded the robe; they removed the robe. In doing so, their thinking was they were destroying that dream and the dreamer in the process. They throw him in the well, but the story doesnt work out well. Ruben comes back to get him, and hes gone. Hes gone because his brothers sold him to some men-the Ishmaelites-that were traveling through. The Ishmaelites would then in turn sell him to the Egyptians, and Joseph would become a slave. Now they have to go back to their father and bring the news that his favorite son is dead. Isnt it something that when we sin, we often dont think about how much pain it is going to cause other people in our lives, people that we love? They loved their dad. That wasnt the issue. In their hatred for their brother, they didnt stop to think that by doing this, it was going to destroy their father-just destroy their father. When we go into sin sometimes, we dont play it all the way through and think, What is this action going to do to my family? What will it do to the people who love me? Sin doesnt think that way. It thinks only of itself, so they thought only of themselves. Now all of the sudden they come to the realization that we have to break our fathers heart. So they concoct a story that a beast devoured their brother. They kill an animal; they dip the robe in the blood, and they bring it back to their father. Jacob is devastated. Jacob says, This is going to kill me! This is going to bring me to the grave! I cannot live through this! He refuses to be comforted. The boys, hypocritically, who had taken his son and sold him into slavery try to comfort their dad over their loss-hypocrisy. Now we see in this story three types of people. The first one we see is Jacob. He is what we are going to call this morning a dream waker. A dream waker is somebody who awakens a dream in another person. A dream waker is somebody who causes the potential that lies within a person or a group to come alive, to be lived out and to be realized. A dream waker could be a pastor; it could be a coach; a teacher; a Scout leader; a parent; a sibling; a President; some other figure. It could be an author. I was reading Dr. Kings speech in its entirety just this past week. When he spoke from the Abraham Lincoln Memorial and said, I have a dream, he awakened that dream inside of people. When John F. Kennedy gets up and he says, Ask not what the country can do for you but what you can do for your country… President Barack Obama says, We are the ones weve been waiting for. When you hear those kinds of words, it inspires you to great things. It inspires you to be who God created you to be. Hopefully, there have been in your life some dream wakers, some people who saw the potential in you and spoke to it and spoke to your future. By a dream waker, I dont mean somebody who is just this kind of pabulum of a motivational speaker who gets up and goes, You can do it! You can be all you can be! Go get it! You can do it! Thats not what were talking about here today. Were talking about somebody who sees a specific goal, trait, talent, gift, ability, and speaks about that in your life. They say, You are this, and you can accomplish that! Go get it! Realize what you can do with your life for the Lord! In my life, I think of Pastor Lyon in Rockford. When I was getting ready to leave for school and study for the ministry, he identified a leadership gift in me. I was just a teenager. Our church was very small at the time. He said in front of the whole church, Gods going to use Jeff. Gods going to use Jeff in leadership. Gods going to use Jeff in the ministry. I remember thinking, He is? I dont know about that! He must see something in me that I dont see. He must see a gift or a calling in me that I dont see. So he spoke to that calling in my life. I remember just thinking, Well, if he thinks thats true, that must be true. If he thinks there is a gift in me, there must be! If he thinks theres a calling in me, there must be! So that served as a catalyst in me to prepare, to study and to serve because he saw something in me and he spoke to it. It wasnt just this generic, You can do it! You can be all you can be! kind of thing. He saw a gift, and he spoke to that gift. He said, This is in you! Heres what you can be, and heres what you can do, and that inspired me. How many of you have had some dream wakers in your life? A lot of you have. I hope youll be a dream waker for people in your lives. Parents, I hope youll be a dream waker for your children to see the potential in gifts that God has placed in your childrens lives and speak to them. Dont be a parent who is always negative talking about what they dont do. Talk to them about what they can do, what they should do, what they will do for the Lord. Speak good things into their lives. Speak hopes and dreams. That's what Jacob did. You can make it casual. You can say, Well, you know as parents, we shouldnt have favorites. I wont argue with you, but one thing that Joseph knew, he knew that his father believed in him. His father saw leadership in him, and he spoke it into his sons life. His father demonstrated a confidence in him. When I was growing up all the way through, my mom would speak life to my future. She would affirm the good qualities that are in me. She would speak to my future. Thats what Jacob did. Jacob spoke to his son, and he said, Youre a leader, Son. Youre going to lead your brothers. Me, Dad? Even Ruben? Even Ruben. Im going to give you a special robe that talks about the place you have in my heart, that speaks about the authority Im entrusting to you and about the fact that youre a leader, so Jacob blessed his son. He was a dream awakener in his son. Just like there are dream wakers, Im sad to say there are also dream breakers. Dont let a dream breaker become a dream taker. Dont let somebody who wants to steal your dream succeed. Do you know how to identify dream breakers? A couple ways. Number one, theyre going to speak pretty much the exact opposite of what the dream waker speaks into your lives. The dream waker says, Youre a leader. The dream breaker says, Youre not a leader. Everything Jacob would say to Joseph, his brothers would say, You think youre going to lead over us? You think were going to bow down to you? You think youre going to have authority? Youre nothing! Youre a squirt! Youre our little brother. Go get us a sandwich! Go get us a juice box, Joey! Youre not leader-you dreamer! Youre nothing! Who does Joseph now believe? Does he believe the words of his father who is speaking into his life, or is he going to believe the dream breakers? You said you had some dream wakers in your lives. Have you had any dream breakers? Let me see those hands. Some people that told you all the reasons youre going to fail, and you cant make it with this and that. Do you listen to them? I bet some of you have. You know, its interesting our human nature. Somebody speaks positive into our lives, and we just go, Oh, shucks. That isnt true! But if somebody speaks something negative into your life, you soak it in like a sponge. I was in the ministry for two weeks-two weeks! I was fresh out of school, wet behind the ears, and I was a youth pastor. I had my little congregation there of 15 kids or whatever it was. I had to get up and give my little sermon. There was a girl in our youth group who was the daughter of a prominent family in our church, the family that was in leadership in our church; and she knew it too. Believe me, she knew it. When I started to give my message, she was talking. I did all the techniques Id learned: I try to make eye contact; I try to actually walk toward her in the group, get her attention and speak to her. Nothing worked. She did not want to listen to anything I had to say, so I finally had to say something to her, Now, you need to pay attention to what Im saying. She didnt. She was talking. She and her friends were talking and being very disruptive, and Im getting upset. I finally say to her, Listen, thats enough. You need to stop talking, or youre going to have to leave this group. Pay attention and respect the Word of God. What do you think she does? She gets up, walks out and she takes her little friend with her. They leave the room. Im going, Great! This is a great start! Ive been on the job for two weeks, and now this prominent members daughter has just stormed out of the group. Great! So I finish the message, and I go out in the hallway; and theres the mom waiting for me. Im thinking, Okay, Ive always had a pretty good relationship with the mom. Im just going to tell her what happened. I can hardly get a word out of my mouth, and she says, Well, I dont blame her for walking out of your group! I was listening outside here in the hallway, and you are the most boring speaker Ive ever heard! I dont blame her for not paying attention! I dont know how anybody could pay attention to you! She began to say one thing after another about what a terrible speaker, what a terrible teacher, what a bad leader… I dont know how in the world anybody can learn anything from you because that was so boring! She then walked away, and I was just like, Ahhh! She had taken my dream. My dream was to be a pastor. I wanted to be effective; I wanted to help change those kids lives, and she just told me I was in the wrong line of work. Thats pretty devastating! I remember just standing in the hallway going, Am I in the right job? Am I supposed to be doing what Im doing? Maybe shes right. Maybe Pastor Lyon was wrong! Maybe my professors were wrong. Maybe my mommy was wrong. I dont belong here. This isnt my thing. The way this story ends is I went to my boss, and I said, Pastor, heres what happened. Long story short, she had to come and apologize to me-the mom did. He said, We cant teach your children if youre not going to work with us. I was like, Yeah! And 27 years later, Im still here. Now, watch one of you will come to me, That was a terrible sermon today! You have no business being in the ministry! Mark my words, there will be dream breakers in your life! Heres another way to recognize them. He says in Verse 20, Were going to kill him, right? Throw him in the cistern. Then well see what comes of his dreams! There is a dark pleasure there in those words. A dream breaker-youll recognize them because they actually take pleasure in watching you fail. They actually take pleasure in seeing your dreams go unfulfilled. Thats another way to recognize it. Thats just dark stuff. Somehow they feel better about their lives when they can make you fail or when they can make you feel not as good about yourself as you should. Those are ways to recognize dream takers. I guarantee you if you start to pursue a dream for God, something thats going to glorify God, youre going to encounter dream breakers. Youre going to encounter them, but dont let them take your dream because thats the third person were going to talk about here today. Those are called dream makers. I would call them dream keepers, but it doesnt rhyme. Dream makers. Because God can put gifts in your lives, talents and abilities in your lives, and God can give you a purpose-if people can be dream wakers in your lives and stir up that dream, speak to that potential, speak to your future, ultimately who is responsible for making that dream become a reality? Who is? You are. You have to take ownership for your dreams. You have to pursue those dreams regardless of the adversity; regardless of the negative people that are around you; regardless of whether things work out, you have to take ownership of that dream if its going to become a reality because I want to tell you something. Things were not rosy for young Joseph. I want you to think about what he went through. He is 17 years old. He has the world by the tail. He has the robe going on. Hes bossing around his older brothers. Hes going to be the head of the household. He has this leadership going on, and all of the sudden hes taken away from his dad, his home, his brothers, and he is now a slave. Hes a slave. He is property. He is owned by Potiphar. Potiphar is one of Pharaohs officials. He is now property. Yet, even in that adverse circumstance, hes a leader, and God begins to use him. He rises to prominence in Potiphars household, so he begins to run the household. Potiphar turns everything over to Joseph, and Joseph is now the boss. He entrusts everything into his care, so even in adversity, his leadership gifts rise to the top. Now, I guess hes a good-looking kid because Potiphars wife takes a fancy to him. She says, Hey, good looking. Whatve you got cooking? He says, Nothing for you. She gets offended, grabs him and his robe rips off. Apparently this is a common thread running through Josephs life-pun intended. Then after he leaves, shes offended and hurt, and she tells her husband, Your Hebrew slave here, look what he tried to do to me. He tried to rape me! She makes up this whole story. Potiphar is enraged, and Joseph is thrown into prison. Hes thrown into prison for a crime he did not commit. Now, can you get lower than this? You were once on the road to success, Easy Street, and now you are a prisoner slave-a prisoner slave with no rights, no importance, and no clout. A prisoner slave. How many times could Joseph have said, Oh, is this what your plan is for me, God? Forget it. Is this what it means to be a follower of You? Forget it. You told me I was going to be somebody of influence, power and authority. Im a prisoner and Im a slave. If this is what it means to follow You, God, no thanks! For some of you, God has given you a dream, and as soon as its gotten hard, you have said, Well, if this is what it means to be a follower of Christ, well, see You later. I dont need this. Friends, I can tell you if its a worthwhile dream, its going to be hard. There are going to be difficult circumstances, but its in those difficult circumstances that God will hone your character. Its in those difficult circumstances that God will take those gifts, sharpen those gifts and use those gifts for His glory. Dont despise those adverse circumstances. Realize that God does His best work in and amongst those adverse circumstances. While hes in prison, while hes a slave, he is a leader. He is growing in his character. Hes growing in his people skills. Hes developing his leadership gifts. In spite of adversity, Joseph holds on to his dream. He doesnt let the words of his brothers take his dream; he doesnt let his life circumstances take his dream; he doesnt let false acquisitions take his dream. Joseph holds on to the promise of leadership given to him by his father and ultimately from God. He holds on to it with a tenacious grip. He wont let it go. Then things seem to break. Hes in prison and there are two other cellmates with him-the cupbearer and the baker. It sounds like a nursery rhyme. One of these guys was the chief baker for the Pharaoh, and the other one was the cupbearer. He would take a sip of the wine and make sure it wasnt poisoned before he handed it to Pharaoh. These two guys are perplexed, and he says, Whats wrong with you guys? They say, Well, we had a dream. Well, tell me about the dream. The cupbearer goes first. He says, Well, theres this branch, this vine, and there are three branches coming off of it. It buds, and theres a cluster and grapes come out of it. I squeeze them into the cup that Pharaoh is holding, and he drinks of the cup. What does that mean? Oh, well heres what it means. It means in three days, Pharaoh is going to take you out of prison, and hes going to restore you to your place as cupbearer. Youre going to get your job back. Youre going to be the cupbearer for the King in three days again, and everything is going to be great. Youre going to live happily ever after. Youll be back in the thrown with the King, and it will be wonderful for you. Thanks, Joe! Thats an awesome dream! Thank you! All of the sudden, his hope is restored. Then the baker comes, and he says, Hey, I have a dream too. He says, Whats your dream? He says, Well, there are these three baskets on my head. The top basket is all of these baked goods. There are these birds coming around them. Theyre eating the bread and the food, and I have to keep batting them away. What does that mean, Joseph? He says, Well, in three days, youre going to be taken out of prison. Pharaoh is going to hang you, and the birds are going to come and eat your flesh. Thanks, Joe! I appreciate that! His dream gets interpreted too. Both dreams come to pass. Joseph says to the cupbearer, Listen, when you get out of prison, would you be kind to me? Would you remember me? Will you tell Pharaoh what I did for you because Im in here without cause? I didnt do anything wrong. Could you remember me and say a good thing for me to Pharaoh? Sure, of course I will, Joe. Dont worry about it. No problem. Ill remember you. Lets look at Chapter 40:23 (page 42 of pew Bibles). The chief cupbearer, however, did not remember Joseph. He forgot him. When two full years had passed, Pharaoh had a dream… Think about that! Two full years: he continues to sit in that prison cell for over two years for a crime he did not commit. Joseph now is 30 years old. He had the dream when he was 17. He is now 30. Pharaoh has a dream. There are two dreams, and there are weak cows and fat cows. The fat cows are eating by the weak cows. Then there were sickly grain and healthy grain, and the sickly grain eats the healthy grain. There are seven grains; there are seven cows, and what does all that mean? Nobody can interpret it, and the cupbearer goes, I know a guy! Hes a Hebrew. His name is Joseph. Hes in prison, and he interprets dreams. Pharaoh says, Tell me this dream. He says, Well, I dont know the dream, but God does. He tells him the dream, and he says, Well, I dont know the dream, but God does. He tells him the dream, and he says, Well, heres what it is. There are going to be seven years of plenty, and then there are going to be seven years of famine. What you need to do is take a fifth of your grain for seven years and store it, so that when the famine comes, therell be enough grain to survive. You need to take somebody who has wisdom and discernment and put them in charge of this project. Pharaoh goes, You know what? God gave you the interpretation for the dream. Youre going to be my guy. Youre going to be my guy. Talk about a promotion! Look at Chapter 41:41, So Pharaoh said to Joseph, I hereby put you in charge of the whole land of Egypt. Then Pharaoh took his signet ring from his finger and put it on Josephs finger. He dressed him in robes of fine linen and put a gold chain around his neck. He had him ride in a chariot as his second-in-command, and men shouted before him, Make way! or bow down. Thus he put him in charge of the whole land of Egypt. Notice what it says here in Verse 42, the second part, He dressed him in robes of fine linen. Does that sound familiar? Remember when his dream is taken from him and stripped from his brothers? He holds on to it all the way through the decades. What happens? God then puts the robe back on him. God wants to put the robe back on some of you. Youve allowed people to take away your robes. Youve allowed people to take away your dreams and shred them. God says, I want to put that robe back on you. I want to restore your dream. I want to restore whats been shattered and whats been taken from you. Pharaoh puts that robe on Joseph, and it has fancy linen and fine colors. It says, Im a leader. Im going to lead! Nine years later, the dream is ultimately fulfilled when at age 39 after seven years of prosperity and two years of famine, his brothers come before him and bow down before their brother. They dont know its him. I would encourage you when you get home to read beyond what weve read today. I mean I was reading this story this week all the way through to where Jacob and Joseph are reunited and when Joseph and Benjamin, his little brother, are reunited; and I actually cried like a girly man. This is a powerful story. I hope Spielberg can get a hold of this someday and make a movie out of it. Its really awesome! There is a Scripture in Ephesians I want to read for you-Ephesians 5:14 (page 1159). Some believe that Verse 14 is a hymn of the early church. Paul writes this, Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. Hes speaking to the church, and hes saying, There are some out there who are sleeping. There are some out there who are wasting their gifts; theyre wasting their potential. He says, You need to wake up and fulfill the dream, fulfill the potential, develop the gift, use the talent, and Christ will shine on you. You will be a reflection of Christ to the world. You will be a reflection to glorify the Lord to the world. He will shine on you. Be careful then how you live-not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity… Use your time wisely. …because the days are evil. When he says the days are evil, its not talking about the corruption in the world. That Greek word has more to do with like the bumper stickers that are on our cars that say, Stuff happens. That Greek word evil means stuff. Its the things that distract us away from Gods purpose and calling. Its the bad things. Its the adverse things that happen to us that causes light not to shine through us. He says to be aware of that. Let Christ shine on you. Wake up! Maybe for some of you this morning, this sermon-Im being a dream waker for you. Maybe there are some dreams that are awakening in your lives. Maybe there is a robe or a calling that God has placed on you thats been taken off, and you need to put it back on. You say, Lord, Im going to live out my potential for You. I want to live out my calling for You today. Were going to listen to a song. This song we are getting from our archives. This was in the day when our production team-before we had all of these moving and fancy images and stuff like that-so the sound isnt that good either.
Can anybody here identify with the character in the skit? Is there something youd want to change if you could? Maybe youd like to be taller. Anybody wish they were taller? Anybody wish you were skinnier? Anybody wish you were heavier? I was going to say you people need to leave (congregation laughing). Well, we all have something we wish we could change. Maybe its our ears, our eyes, our noses, our chins, the way we walk or some sort of attribute. All of us in this room [have something wed like to change]. Let me see your hands if there is something that you could change, you would. Sure. How many of you think that maybe you fixate on that a little bit more than you should? Yeah, a lot of us do. We fixate on that. Its just really important to us, and that becomes what we focus on. Instead of being thankful for the attributes that we do have from God, we begin to focus on the things that we wish were different. We begin to focus on our outward self. Sometimes we neglect our inward self, and that's what were going to be talking about this morning. Its interesting-we dont know what Jesus looked like. We have an idea. We can have conjecture, but we dont know what He looked like. We do have a physical description of Him in Isaiah 53. Its interesting-when you think about it-when God took on flesh, He could have chosen to look any way He wanted to look. He could have been the Biblical Brad Pitt, but it says in Isaiah 53:2 (page 731 of pew Bibles) He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him-nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him. God took on flesh; He chose to become just an average-looking individual, nothing out of the ordinary-nothing striking about His physical features. He was simply an average-looking man. Were going to be talking about that this morning. Were going to be talking about just the way God made us. Were going to talk about some-I guess-of the downfalls or the pitfalls of fixation on outward appearance. Often, we spend a lot of money in our society in outward appearance. I want to say off the bat that those things arent necessarily wrong. We should care about our appearance. I dont want you to come to church next Sunday looking like you just rolled out of bed with your hair undone, your teeth not brushed. You should care about your appearance. Those things are important, but as a society, we become fixated with those things. How many billions of dollars are spent every year on our hair, how our hair looks and feels; our eyebrows; our toenails; our fingernails; our clothing; diet; exercise; cosmetic surgery. All of these things focus on the external, and the external is important; but we as a society fixate on that, and when we fixate on that, there are certain detriments from that sort of fixation. There are certain negative consequences that we need to be mindful of. The first thing were going to talk about-if youll turn in your Bibles to 1 Samuel 16-is that is the deception of outward appearance. Outward appearance can be something that is deceptive. Were going to look at an example in Israels history of a time when they had rejected God as their King and chose instead to have a man as their King. That man was Saul. They wanted to do this because they wanted to be like other nations. They wanted to have a King like other nations. They wanted a man to lead them into battle. They didnt want to just say God was their King anymore. They wanted to say, Look, here is our King. So Saul was chosen, and Saul looked like a King. He stood head and shoulders above everybody else. He was this large stature of a man. He just looked like a King, so he became the King of Israel; but he lacked character. He was not a good leader. He was very self-serving. In fact, Samuel tried to warn them that the King would be self-serving; whereas God would look after their best interest, the King would look after himself. Israel would hear none of it, so God relented and said to Samuel, Give them a King. A successor was going to be chosen. That successor lived in a city called Bethlehem. Bethlehem at that time was not famous, and the successor was not famous. He was simply Davie in the field, a pimply-faced kid going through adolescence, being picked on by his big brothers. He loved to be outside; loved being a shepherd; loved to play with his slingshot; loved to read the Bible; to write music; to play his harp; but he was not famous. He was not well-known, nor was his family. It was to that town that God sent the Prophet, Samuel. Samuel kind of reminds me of an old Jedi Knight from Star Wars. You look at an old Jedi Knight, and theres nothing scary about them. Theres nothing intimidating about them from their physical appearance, but youre intimidated because you know they have power, right? They have the Force behind them, and they can do things. They can manipulate; they can levitate; they can do all these things. They have power, so Yoda or Obi-Wan come to town and youre afraid of them. Hes powerful. Im showing you what a geek I am right now. So Samuel comes to town, and hes old. Hes frail. Hes probably using a cane to walk, but when Samuel comes in town, it would strike fear into your heart because he was a man of God. He had the power of God behind his words. Whatever he said came to pass, so when he comes to town, they say, Are you here for good or bad, Samuel? Are you going to give us a prophesy of something bad thats going to happen to us by the hand of God? He says, No, Ive come in peace. Ive come for something good. Ive come for something righteous. He met Jesse and his sons, and he shared a meal with them. He had a horn full of oil that he was going to anoint the next King with. Jesse is to bring his sons one by one to the Prophet, and God will show him which one will be the next king of Israel. Verse 6 (page 278 of pew Bibles) says, When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and thought, Surely the Lords anointed stands here before the Lord. He saw him and he said to himself, This guy looks like a King. We dont need to know what Eliab looked like. We can tell from Samuels response that Eliab looked the part. He was probably tall, muscular, chiseled, Hollywood good-looks. He looked brave and courageous. Eliab walks into the room, and you go, Theres a leader. Theres the King. That has to be the guy. Isnt it good to know that even somebody like Samuel can learn a lesson from time to time? Even an old wise Prophet can learn a thing or two, and God uses that as a teaching moment. He says to him in Verse 7, …the Lord said to Samuel, Do not consider his appearance or height… Dont put more weight on his physical appearance than you should. …for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. You and I look at outward appearance. We do, but God looks at the heart. One by one the sons paraded in front of Samuel, and one by one he rejected them. Finally, they reached the end, and he was like, Are there no other sons? Is there nobody else you can bring? He says, Theres Davie in the field, my youngest, but you know. That's Davie. Bring him here. So they go out in the field and get David. David comes in all gangly, What, Dad? The Prophet Samuel is here. God speaks to Samuels heart, and He says, This is the one Ive chosen to be King. In this young man is a heart that seeks Me. Dont judge by outward appearance. Outward appearances can be deceptive. The Pharisees look so holy and righteous. They paraded around in their robes, their long robes, their phylacteries and all the ornaments, trimmings and colors. People would look at them and say, Look how handsome! Look how powerful! Look how righteous they are! Jesus warned them in Matthew 23:27-28 (page 981). He said, You look beautiful on the outside, but inside you are unclean. Youre like a whitewash tomb that looks beautiful on the outside, but inside is full of corruption and decay. Theres a story I love to tell about a little boy named Charlie. Charlie Willette was four years old. When he was three years old, he went through a terrible burning accident. He had burns over his whole body, second- and third-degree burns. The mortality rate for somebody with Charlies degrees of burns was 100 percent. He should have been dead. There was no way he should have lived, but he did. Through the help of cosmetic surgery, they tried their best to reconstruct a face. I dont mean this in any way to be demeaning to him because hes a precious, precious young man, but his face looked like that of a monster-literally. It you were a child, it would have been very scary to look at him. Charlie came to school. His parents wanted him to have as normal of an upbringing as he could, so they brought him to preschool. When Charlie walked into the room, the children screamed and cried because of his appearance. They hid their faces in their moms and dads laps. They went to their teachers for help and security. How did that affect that little guy? How do you think that affected him? Would he cry? Would he want to leave? His parents had trained him better than that. Charlie looked at the children, and he said, You may not like me now, but wait until you get to know me! The article said within days the children would run up to Charlie and hug him as their new friend because Charlie had an inner beauty that was appealing. Beauty-outward appearance-is deceptive. There is another warning that Gods Word has for us. That is that outward appearance or a fixation on outward appearance can at times be destructive. It can be a destructive thing. Turn in your Bibles to the Book of Ezekiel 28 (page 848). In the Book of Ezekiel, the Prophet has a very unusual prophesy here. Hes talking about the King of Tyre, and at a certain point-right around Verses 11-12, the prophesy transitions from being that of a man to speaking now of a supernatural being, of an angelic being. We know that because he speaks of this being as being in the Garden of Eden. He speaks of this being as being a guardian cherub. When you think of Lucifer, do you think of beauty? When you think of the devil, you dont think of beauty, do you? The downfall of Lucifer, according to the Scripture, was beauty. Verse 17, Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor. So I threw you to the earth… Pride. Satan became consumed with himself, with his beauty, with his splendor. There is a danger if you have a preoccupation with your looks. Lets say you are very handsome or you are very beautiful. There can be a propensity for you to be prideful in your appearance. Lets say you succeed, guys, and you get that six-pack. Lets say, ladies, you succeed and you get that six inch waist that you want. Theres a danger in that. I remember years ago in Rockford at the YMCA, we used to have a guy that would come into the weight room who we called the Peacock. The Peacock would come in the weight room, and we called him Peacock because he was always strutting. He was always just admiring himself. He had his chest out, his arms up, and he had this look on his face like, Thats right. Thats right-Im better looking than you. That's right. I have muscles everywhere. He would walk around just strutting and looking in the mirror all the time-all the time. He was just looking at himself and posing. Wed say, Here comes the Peacock. Here comes the Peacock! There is a little bit of a danger in that-a pride factor that can enter in. Or there can be the desire to look like that or be like that can be detrimental. Eating disorders happen that way. A girl gets an image in her mind of what she should look like, and so an eating disorder sets in because she wants to look like that; so shell eat, and then shell force her food to come back up, so she can be skinny. There is an epidemic in our athletic community-even in high school and college. There are young students that want to look like the guys in the magazine. They want to have the big guns, the big arms. A big chest, they want to be strong and muscular and look like those guys; so they shoot up anabolic steroids to the destruction of their own health, to the shortness of their own life expectancy. Vanity-dangerous. The Bible says be mindful of that. An outward appearance can lead to pride if one is successful or one is beautiful or handsome. It can also lead to a detriment to our health in the steps or lengths that people will go to acquire and achieve the look that they desire. There is a third aspect of a fixation of an outward appearance that we need to be mindful of. That is a fixation of an outward appearance is relative. Its relative. It really is. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I remember hearing about a missionary who went to a culture in Africa. The missionary had a very thin wife, and when they saw the wife, they quickly told the missionary, You do not take care of your wife, and your wife is not very attractive. She is not attractive at all in fact. In that culture, the bigger the woman was, the more attractive she was because the size represented prosperity, wealth, and health. They have a saying in that culture-there is a saying that I dont remember exactly how it goes, but the gist of it is like this: If you have a camel and your wife gets on a camel, and she is so big the camel cannot rise, that is a beautiful woman. Its true. Im not making this stuff up. That's what they believe in that culture. It would be interesting if the travel agencies start calling me going, Why are we getting all these requests for tickets to Africa from your congregation? I dont know exactly what tribe it is, but I can find out for you. It starts with a T. They have a whole different concept of beauty than we do. Again, I wont elaborate on this much longer because we touched on it a little bit a couple weeks ago, but just envision a back. Its a healthy, strong back-a muscular back. On the other side, theres another back. That back is a little bit arthritic. Its a little bit hunched over. There are knots on it; there are sores on it; and there are scars on it up and down, side to side, long grotesque scars. There is scar tissue everywhere across that back. I say to you, Which back is more beautiful? Youd be inclined to say, Well, this back over here, this muscular back. What if I told you that the back over here was the back of the Apostle Paul? Galatians 6:17 said that his back bears the scars of the Lord Jesus Christ. He had been beaten 39 times with the cat-o-nine-tails because of his faith and because he would not deny the Lord. You look at those backs, and you say, Which back is the most beautiful? Thats relative, isnt it? I think we would say this back over here with the scars because we understand what those scars came from. We might walk into our church some Sunday-maybe before Laura can tidy up the care station; maybe it looks untidy. They do a good job with it. They do a really good job with it because its a dynamic changing thing all the time. Maybe there are clothes out of place, or maybe there are some diapers strewn-not used ones, mind you, but the ones in the package. I want to tell you something-that care station is beautiful! Its beautiful. There was a time in our old building when the children would get so loud that it was sometimes distracting to the adult service, but the noise coming from that portion of the building is beautiful because those children were learning about the Lord. Beauty is relative. I have in my yard a ground cover I dont want anymore. At one time I wanted the ground cover, but I dont want it anymore. Its become a little bit of a problem for me. It seems like I cannot get rid of it. Ive tried to pull it up. Ive tried spraying stuff on it. It just keeps coming back because Ive never gotten to the root system. There are all kinds of rocks over it. Now Id have to move all these rocks, dig in the soil and get out the root system, and put all the rocks back. I dont want to do that; so instead every spring I just keep pulling the ground cover and trying again to get rid of it, but I cant because roots are there. What is the root cause of this? What is the root cause of our need for approval, our fixation on outward appearance? The root cause is an insecurity. The root cause is a lack of self-worth, of self-esteem. God wants you to have a healthy self-esteem. God does not want you to be prideful or arrogant, but God wants you to realize that your life has purpose. He has put things within you of value, worth and significance. We have to deal with the root cause. If Im secure in whom I am-if Im secure in how God made me to be rather than fixated on my shortcomings, I can be content inside. Psalm 139 (page 618)-a passage that we looked at earlier-if youd turn there in your Bibles. It was written by David, King David-Psalm, a song, for the Jewish people. I want to draw your attention to Verse 13. David writes, For You created me in my inmost being; You knit me together in my mothers womb. I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, I know that full well. David recognized that God had made things in him that were good, and he praised God for that. He didnt go, Oh, shucks. Theres nothing good in me. Thats not healthy. He was able to see there were certain aspects of his life. There were certain attributes and characteristics. There are certain qualities that I possess that are good, that are wonderful. Whats more-he acknowledged that God was the source of those things. There is nothing wrong with that, friends. In fact, that is a healthy thing to do. Have you ever noticed how its so easy to just disregard compliments, but even the most subtle criticism is devastating? Have you noticed that? Somebody will say something very flattering, Oh, shucks. Thats not true. But if somebody maybe looks at you funny or says something that you take the wrong way, youre devastated by it. There is nothing wrong with saying, You know, listen, I have some strengths. I have some things about me that are beneficial for others. I have some qualities that I possess that are good, and Im thankful for them. I recognize that God is the source, and I attribute to Him thanks for those qualities. Thats a healthy thing to do. My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are Your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with You. David recognized his worth in the sight of God. David recognized the fact that he had been made with design and purpose. Its not an accident. You are the result of divine creation. When I truly come to understand the worth that I have-that its intrinsic-because of my Creator, He has made me in His image, that I have a purpose to live out. There are days ordained from me. There is a purpose that I am to walk in. There are gifts, talents and abilities that He has placed within my heart to be a blessing to other people, to be a blessing to the Kingdom. I can then form a sense of healthy self-worth, a healthy self-image, not strutting around like a peacock looking in the mirror, but a sense of humility. It says that God has placed within me some good things. Im going to develop them, and Im going to use them to help others and to bring God glory. I want us to focus on a few questions this morning and just reflect on them. Before I asked you to raise your hand and respond. This time were not going to do that. These are just questions that youre going to reflect on, but the answers to these questions really will be a reflection on your inner man. Question #1: What receives more of your thoughts, efforts and resources: your outward appearance or your inner self? Think about that. The amount of time you spend on your appearance, the clothing, your hair, your makeup, your nails, your body, your diet and exercise: think about all the time you spend on a given day or in a given week on your appearance, and if we were to put that on a scale, thats on one side; on this side is the amount of time you spend developing your character, your Godliness and righteousness. How does that compare? Which side of the scale is carrying the most weight in your life? How about another question? What matters to you the most: what other people think about you or what God thinks about you? What matters to you the most? What are you more concerned about? If you were to do something that you know God is pleased with but others might not necessarily be, how would you choose to live? What would you choose to do? The third question to reflect on: If you could choose only one, which would you choose: inner our outer beauty? If you could choose only one… Guys, you could be as handsome as you wanted to be, as muscular as you want to be. Ladies, you could have any kind of face that you wanted, any kind of figure you wanted-would you choose that, or would you choose to be a man or woman of impeccable character and integrity, kindness, gentleness, love and compassion? You can have one or the other, but you cant have both. Have you ever been with somebody who maybe outwardly has an attractive appearance but wasnt a very nice person? After a while, they really started to seem kind of unattractive. Or the transverse is true, youve been with a person who is really nothing to look at-just an average person like you and I; but once you got to know him or her, he or she was so beautiful on the inside. This became beautiful in his or her appearance to you. I remember hearing a story. Supposedly it was a true story about something that happened at Disneyland. You know if you ever have taken your kids there-I dont know if you have or not-but Cinderellas castle is there, and thats always a highlight. So much of what they do has Cinderellas palace in the background. Occasionally they will bring out Cinderella. You know if Disneyland is going to cast a woman as Cinderella, she is going to be pretty, right? She will come out in her gown, her hair is done up, she has on her princess crown, and she has on the big gown. The children see her and they just go bananas, especially the little girls. They want to be by Cinderella; they want to touch Cinderella; they want Cinderella to sign their books. They want to ask questions to Cinderella about Prince Charming, so its quite a scene as shes just mobbed as she comes out. What a fun gig, right? So one day this Cinderella, a beautiful young girl, was out there meeting the children and talking. In the corner of her eye, she saw a little girl who was standing in the background. This little girl had a deformity. There was something wrong with her face. When Cinderella made eye contact with her, she looked away. She was embarrassed and ashamed. She didnt want to be seen by Cinderella. There was something about Cinderellas beauty that made her disfigurements seem even more grotesque and unpleasant, so she hid her face. Cinderella began walking in her direction until she met her. She got down face to face, and she made eye contact. She made her look at her. She stroked her hair, and she looked at that little face and saw how inferior she felt. She saw how out of place she felt next to the beauty of Cinderella. Cinderella bent over, whispered in her ear and said these words, I wish you were my little girl. I wish you belonged to me. How did that raise that little girls spirit, her self-worth? [She was probably thinking], Cinderella sees something in me that she values, and she wishes I were hers. Ladies, would you rather have the beauty of Cinderella or have the heart of the girl, a woman, who would do that for a little girl? Psalm 139, as we read that, it says, If God were whispering in our ears and saying to you and I, Im glad youre Mine. Im glad you belong to Me. Im glad I made you. I made you talented. I made you musical. I made you athletic. I made you smart. I made you reflective. I made you a social butterfly. I made you skilled with your hands. How did God make you? Lets take a moment to just thank Him for the way Hes made us. Lets take a moment to ask God to help us to have contentment. Lets ask God to help us to focus on our inner self and put that first. If youre here this morning, and youve never given your life to Christ, thats a starting point for you. I just want to invite you today to invite Christ to be Lord of your life; to come into your heart; to forgive your sins; to give you His spirit to guide you, to lead you and to empower you to be the person that He wants you to be-that you want to be. Lets pray together. Would you stand, please? Father, when Samuel came walking into that village an old man bent over and using a cane, there was something in him that was powerful. That something was You. That someone was You. Your power was in him. There was an inner strength that Samuel possessed, a faith, a trust. That same spirit was in David, though on the outward hes just the opposite of Samuel-young, strong, but just a child. His appearance fooled his father, fooled his brother. It even fooled Samuel, but, Lord, You saw his heart. You saw within him great strength. You saw within him the heart of a shepherd. As he would shepherd the sheep, one day he would shepherd Your people. Lord, when You look at us, you dont just see whats on the outside. You see our hearts. You see our longings; You see our insecurities. I pray this morning that You would deal with those insecurities; that Youd help us to get to the roots of those insecurities; that we will see ourselves for what we are-people that have been made in the image of God, people who have an inner beauty that can be developed and can grow. Lord, we sometimes buy into the lie of the world. We become fixated with external things, what man sees-what we see in the mirror. We begin to place more importance, more of our time, resources, efforts and thoughts and we become consumed with that which is temporal. Lord, beauty is relative. Help us to see beauty through your eyes. Help us to strive to be beautiful on the inside while we still take care of our outside. Help us to have that healthy self-esteem which sees the gifts You have given us, acknowledges them and then offers the thanks back to You for them. In Jesus name, we pray-entrusting in You, the One who took our place on the cross. Youre the One who could have come to look anyway You wanted, but You chose to be just an average person in Your looks. Inside, Lord Jesus, You are the most beautiful person that ever walked the face of the earth. Your life was the most precious life that ever lived, and You offer that life in our place. This morning, we worship You. We give You thanks. We pray that You would help us to remember this message as we go about now our days, our weeks-that we would apply this to our lives by the wisdom of Your Spirit. In Jesus name, we pray. Amen.
Well, lets dig in-week two. Were talking about Dancing With the Stars this morning. Were talking about our need for notoriety, our need to be noticed, our need to be important. You know there is nothing wrong with having a sense of significance, meaning and purpose. I think thats innate within us. I think God has put within our hearts a sense of worth and dignity, and there is nothing wrong with that. I read this week about a discovery at Auschwitz. They were tearing down a wall, and inside a wall they found a bottle. Inside the bottle was a paper with names of six different prisoners-their names and their cell ID numbers. Did you see that? They are thinking, Who are these people who wrote this, and are they still alive? It turns out that four of the six are. They talked with the men, and they said that they had become masons, and they had built this building there in Auschwitz. While they were demolishing this wall, they found the bottle. He said, What we did is we thought we were going to die... These men were like 18, 19, 20 years old. … and nobody would ever know who we were or that we were alive, so just so that people would know we existed… because they werent going to have a burial. They werent going to have a marker. …just so somebody would know that we existed, that we had life, we put our names and serial numbers on a piece of paper, put it in a bottle and put the bottle in the wall. They never dreamed it would be found in their lifetime. They probably had forgotten all about it. Theres nothing wrong with that. Theres nothing wrong with having that sense of significance. What were talking about is a perversion of that. What were talking about is as old as the Garden when man [and woman] said, I want to be like God and were willing to put their own needs above the law of God. There are times when people will sacrifice their integrity. They will sacrifice their bodies; they will sacrifice anything to get what they want. We see in our world today the advent of technology-youtube.com for instance. People will do crazy things on youtube.com or on reality television to be noticed and to have people know who they are. There are celebrities-and Im not going to name any names-but if theyre not making a hit record or theyre not starring in a hit movie, its almost like theyll do things intentionally to shipwreck their lives just so theyll be noticed-just so theyll get press. Theyll do outrageous things because theres such a need. Their egos are so big that they have to be noticed. They have to be the center of attention. This whole thing that we just need to be noticed, need to be important-more so a preoccupation with self to the exclusion of others, a preoccupation with my needs to the exclusions of the needs around me-pride: those are the kinds of things were going to be talking about this morning. I want to tell you a story about a mom. Shes a good mom. Shes a well-meaning mom, but she was a little out of line in what she requested and what she did. Her husband was a very successful business man, and the practice-his business-was passed down to his two sons. It was going well. They werent rich by any stretch of the imagination, but they did well. They had many employees. They had a lot of inventory. They lived a comfortable life; and the plan was that they would grow up, they too would have sons, and those sons would take over the family business. This mom would have grandchildren, and they would all stay in that region. The business would thrive and be successful. They were proud of what they did; they were proud of their work, and it changed one day. The father and his two sons who were now young men went out for a normal days work. While they were there, a man came. The man was very charismatic. He was a strong leader, and He had a vision. He said to the man, You could be doing so much more with your life than what youre doing now. You can come with Me, and we will change the world. He was a very spiritual man, and He had a vision of reaching the world for God, touching one life at a time. He invited these men to leave their business, to leave parents, to leave home and join Him on this mission, this dream. To the fathers surprise, they did. Imagine the conversation when he went home and had to tell his wife that the sons arent coming home tonight, and theyre not coming home tomorrow either. Theyre on a mission. Theyre off to change the world. Nonsense, she probably thought. How could they be so crazy? They had a good life here. They had a home. They have their parents. They have jobs! Now theyre going off for how long to who knows where. How are they going to live? How are they going to eat? How are they going to support themselves? Whats going to happen to our family business? Whats going to happen to my grandbabies? Will I have grandbabies? All these things were going through the mothers mind, but wouldnt you know this man is everything He says He is, and He starts to literally change the world. He starts to reach people for God, and it is an amazing success. There are others involved now besides her sons, but she knows that her sons are the top. Theyre the best. So as time passes and success of this endeavor is sealed, she buys in. She realizes its going to work, so she comes to the leader. She asks the leader that in the future could her sons be considered His number one and number two guys in his organization. My boys are good boys, and they believe in You. Theyre following You. Theyve given up everything for You. Could they be number one and number two of what Youre building? She gets down on her knees-literally-and she asks this question of the leader… Are you following me? Do you think you know who Im talking about yet? Anybody have an idea? Lets turn in our Bibles to Matthew 20 and find out what happened. The two men are Jimmy and Johnnie, James and John. Their father is Zebedee. Hes a fisherman. They have servants; they have boats, and its going well. One day they leave to follow this young preacher, young rabbi named Jesus, to travel the countryside to preach the Kingdom. It starts to work. Jesus has been talking about setting up thrones because Peter asks Him in the previous chapter, Hey, weve left everything. Whats in it for us? What do we get? We left everything to follow You. Jesus says to them, Everyone, when I come into My Kingdom, you who have left home to follow Me-you will sit on thrones and judge the tribes of Israel. When Mom gets this news, Mom is not thinking of eternity. Shes not thinking of Heaven. Shes thinking here and now. Shes thinking this throne thing is going to happen right now-that Jesus is the Messiah, which He is-but He is going to establish an earthly throne in Jerusalem. Hes going to rule and reign, and her sons are going to reign with Him; so she wants James and John-after all they are His brightest Disciples… Theyre the best; theyre the most handsome, the most able Disciples that He has, so why dont they become the person who sits on His right and His left, His co-leaders in this new Kingdom. The timing of this could not be worse. Jesus has just told the Disciples that there is a mole in the organization. There is a rat. Somebody is going to betray; somebody is going to give some top secret information. That information is going to lead to His capture. While He is captured, He is going to be beaten and eventually be crucified and die. As awful as it sounds, God is going to turn it around, and Hes going to make it something wonderful. Hes going to make it something good. Its part of His plan, so while theyre all processing this information, the mother comes. She says, Jesus, can I talk to You? I have a favor to ask of You. Verse 21 (page 977 of pew Bibles), What is it you want? He asked. She said, Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at Your right and the other at Your left in Your Kingdom. You dont know what youre asking, Jesus said to them. Can you drink the cup I am going to drink? We can, they answered, without even thinking. Sure we can. It was the cup of death. Thats what it was. Without even thinking, without even really understanding what the cup was… By the way, theyre not there against their will. Its not one of those things where their mom is embarrassing them while theyre standing there with Jesus going, Mom, come on! Youre embarrassing me! These guys are right there. In fact, Marks account tells us that theyre echoing the words of the mom. They want this gig. This thing is going to work, and we want to be Your top two Disciples. We want to be noticed. We want to be important. Jesus looks at them and He says, You will drink from My cup. In other words, He looks into their future, and He knows that they will die for the Gospel. They will drink of the cup. In fact, James will be the first one. Under Herod Agrippa, he will be run through with the sword, and he will be a martyr. Hell be the first of the Disciples to parish-not the first martyr, but the first of the Disciples to parish. John will die in banishment. So Jesus looks in their future, and He says, Yes, you will drink of My cup, but to sit at My right and My left is not for Me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared by My Father. Now, what happens when people are putting their needs above everybody elses? What happens? Whether its a family, whether its an organization, whether its a church-what happens? Disunity, disharmony, jealousy, bickering-thats exactly what happens. When the Ten heard about this, they were indignant with the two brothers. Jesus called them together and said, You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and they high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant… This is revolutionary. This is counter-culture. Its as counter-culture now as it was then. …and whoever wants to be first must be your slave… This is radical stuff. Jesus is literally redefining what greatness means. Think about who you think is great in our society. When you think about greatness in our country today, who comes to your mind? Do you think of a political figure? Do you think of a business person? Do you think of an athlete? I grew up in Illinois, so Im a Bulls fan. I remember watching Michael Jordan play. I remember them saying this time and time again. It said, Set your VCR. This was before DVR days-no TVO. It was just the VCR. Some of you still have them and use them. Theyre fine. Dont get mad. But I would watch him play basketball, and I would have to rewind like 12 times a game, What did he just do? Sometimes Id watch a play three, four, five times. It took a long time to watch a game. It was like, Wow! What did I just see? They show plays on TV over and over again-kind of the same plays. Those were not his best plays. Those were good plays, but he did some things that were just amazing with the basketball. He was one of the greatest athletes and the greatest basketball player ever. Theyd say, Set your tapes. This is like watching a master painter paint. Youre not going to see this again, so set your VCRs. As they would give him the accolades and talk about his play, you know one of the things I never heard about Michael Jordan? I didnt hear things like this, What a great player! Look how Michael Jordan has made sure all of his teammates have a towel! Look how hes even wiping the sweat from their brow. Oh, Scottie Pippens shoe is untied. Oh, Michael Jordan has gone down. He is now tying Scottie Pippens shoes! Hes passing out the Gatorade. Oh, theyre one short. Michael Jordan is giving that to his teammate. He is going to go without, so his teammates can all have some. What an assist by Michael Jordan! His 30th of the game! I never heard things like that. He was great! He was great not because he served; he was great because he dominated. He intimidated. He was just better. He was superior, so he was great. Thats how we define greatness. When Jesus comes and He reverses the paradigm, and He says, We have a new paradigm. We have a new definition for greatness. The greatness is the servant. The greatness is the slave, who voluntarily submits. I want you to envision two pairs of feet. On one side, we have a beautiful pair of feet. Well, theres a pedicure; theyre painted. They look nice. Theyre clean, soft skin-nice feet. On this other side is a pair of feet that are deformed. Theyre all twisted and distorted, kind of small and really rather homely to look at. In fact, they look like they could be diseased or something, and theyre dirty. I ask you the question in your minds eyes-which of those two pairs of feet are the most beautiful? Before you answer the question, I want to tell you about the deformed feet. You might have heard of a saintly woman by the name of Mother Teresa who ministered to the poor in Calcutta. I read of a woman who had gone to minister with her for several summers, and she talks about Mother Teresa being a normal person like you and me as far as there was no halo. There was no glow when she walked. She was just this little wrinkly, shriveled up, tiny and sometimes ornery old lady. Yet, she had a heart as big as the Grand Canyon. When they would bow to pray, she would look at Mother Teresas feet, and they were deformed. She would think, What happened to Mother? Did she have leprosy or whats going on that her feet are all twisted and deformed like this? She just couldnt help but wonder what caused that. One day one of the sisters saw her looking at Mother Teresas feet, and she came over and said, You see Mothers feet are all deformed, dont you? She said, Yeah. Howd that happen? She said, Well, heres how it happened. Every year, we get new shoes, and we get just enough pairs so that everybody gets one. Everybody in the convent gets a pair of shoes-just enough, no more, no less. What Mother does is she goes through all the shoes, and she picks out the worst pair because she doesnt want anybody else to have the worst pair of shoes. She picks out the worst pair before anybody can pick theirs out, and those become her shoes. Years of wearing these bad shoes, years of putting other people first have deformed her feet, and that was the explanation. Now when you look down at those feet, which is the greatest? In Gods eyes, Mother Teresas feet-those deformed feet-are the greatest. The interesting thing is God does not say, Dont be great. That should not be something you take away. You should not walk out of here going, God doesnt want me to be great. God does not say, Be mediocre. Be average. Be less than good. God does not say that anywhere. God says, Be great! Be a great person, but understand what true greatness is. The greatness as the world defines it is vanity. Its fleeting. Its temporal, but the greatness that God describes is eternal. Jesus says, Im your example. He says, …just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many. Just as the Son of Man did not come to serve… Hes saying, I came from Heaven, but yet I didnt come to be served. I came to serve. I came to give. I came to give My life, to lay My life down. Paul talks about this in Philippians 2:1 (page 1162), If theres any encouragement from being untied with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Just like self-serving brings disunity and disharmony, serving others and serving God brings a unity. The more our church reaches out to our community, the more we reach in to serve one another and the more we reach out to the world, as our team goes out to the Dominican this summer-the more we do those kinds of things, the more unified we become-unified in our purpose, unified in our faith. He says, Each of you should look out not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Another thing you should not take away from this message is that you are not to look after your own needs. The Bible doesnt teach that. It says, Dont look out only for your needs, but also for the interest of others. It does not say, Dont look out for your needs. Listen, you know who I need to talk to probably more than anybody else is our moms. I need to talk to our moms on this one because nobody else on the planet gives of themselves until they cant give anymore than our moms do; so moms, Im talking to you. Im talking to you people who are on the other side of this other extreme. Your problem isnt that youre self-serving. Your problem is you care about everybodys needs but your own. You just sometimes are a doormat for people to walk on. You just dont care about yourself; you just care about other people. Let me talk to you for a second because there are a few of you out there. When you fill your tank, how far does your vehicle go? The answer is the same for all of us. Whether you drive a truck, a car or a hybrid or a bus or a Hummer, whatever you drive, the answer is the same. How far can you go on a tank of gas? Till the gas is gone. Thats how far you can go. Once the gas is gone and your energy supply is gone, whats going to happen? Its going to sputter and its going to quit and die. It will run out of gas, and youre dead in the water right there. So in order to keep that car going, what must you do? You must take time to pull off, turn off, fill up and then turn back on and go. You get where Im going with this? You have to take some time for yourself. You have to take time to do things you enjoy, to minister to your needs, to enjoy life a little bit. Jesus would minister to the multitudes, but before or after, where would you find Jesus? Youd find Him alone. Youd find Him in a mountain; youd find Him at the lake; Hed talk by Himself with the Father. You would find Him doing things to recharge and replenish. Friends, if you dont take time to replenish, recharge and minister to your own needs as well, youre not going to have anything left in the tank to give anybody else, are you? Its really important. So God doesnt say just always worry about everybody else and never worry about yourself. Unless you minister to your own needs, youre not going to have anything left to minister to the needs around you, so in that sense, ministering to yourself is not a selfish thing. I minister to myself so I can be strong to minister to others. My staff knows if they send me emails and call me about church stuff on their days off, theyre going to get in trouble. Sometimes Ive been known to even send out test emails. Ill send out an email on their day off, and if I hear back, Ill go, What are you doing contacting me today? Why are you answering this today? Dont worry about this today. Be with your families. Relax and enjoy. Take a trip, because I want them fresh. I want them in it for the long haul. Were lifers here. Were not going to do that if we burn each other out. You need to take that time to get refreshed. Lets go back to Verse 6. Now Verse 6 starts a hymn. The reason its written differently in your Bibles is because this is a hymn of the early church. The way its structured in the Greek, the way it is written, the way it is quoted, we know that Paul is quoting one of the hymns of the early church. Paul writes here in about 50 A.D., so this is one of the very… Talk about old hymns, How Great Thou Art or Old Rugged Cross, they dont compare to this one. This one would have been one of the very first song confessions said by the church when it was brand new, shortly after the Resurrection of Christ. It says in Verse 6, Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death-even death on a cross! Paul is talking here about the incarnation. Hes talking about the deity of Christ, and hes talking about the crucifixion-what He did for us. The words he uses here-you notice it twice. You notice it in Verse 6 and Verse 7, once in reference to Him being God and the second in reference to Him being a servant. It says, …the very nature of a servant and being in very nature God. What does he mean? There are two words in the Greek for form: one is the word schema, and that is a form that is always changing. The other word for form is the word morphe. We get the word metamorphosis or change from that. Morphe means though the outward may change, the schema may change, the essence of who we are does not change; thats morphe. Our essence does not change. For instance, if we were to have a panorama of your life on the screen behind me-if we were to see you as an infant, to a child, to a pre-teen, to a teenager, to a young adult, to an adult, to a middle-aged person, to an older person, we would see changes, but your essence would be the same. It would still be you. We would see your hair change, and to be optimistic, for those of you losing hair, youre not losing hair-youre gaining face. Just think about that. Look on the bright side of things. Wed see the color change. Itd start to get a little whiter. Wed see our bodies change. You start going from firm to flabby. Our chest drops into our drawers, and other kinds of things happen. We dont look the same way at age 65 as we did when we were 5. We dont have the same energy, but yet its still you. Those are the same eyes you had when you were born, the same genetic code-its still you. Your essence, your morphe has not changed; though your schema or your outward appearance is temporal, and its changed. So what did Paul use when he talked about the deity of Christ? Did he use the word that was temporal or did he use the word that essence, that doesnt change? He used morphe; it doesnt change. It says the very nature of God. That did not change. When God became flesh, He did not lose His deity. He lost the privilege of deity. He surrendered the privilege of deity to take on humanity. Also as a servant-He became a servant because thats who He was. He was a servant. Years ago, we did a series called, The Life Youve Wanted. We used this book as a supplement, so I turned to that chapter. Pastor Ortberg is writing about this verse, and he says, When Jesus came in the form of a servant, He was not disguising who God is. He was revealing who God is. I remember hearing a Christian speaker say once that pride is forbidden to human beings, but its okay with God because after all, Hes God. This is wrong. God is the infinite servant. God is the most humble being in all the universe. Jesus did not come as a servant in spite of the fact that He is God; He came precisely because of the fact that He is God. It is His essence; it is who He is. So Paul says, Have this attitude in you which is also in Christ Jesus. Its an attitude. Everybody here has an attitude. Its either a good attitude or a bad attitude. Its a right attitude or a wrong attitude, but everybody here has an attitude. He says, Have this attitude of humility which was also in Jesus. Displayed in the Billy Goats-two Billy goats are walking on a mountain. On this mountain, there is a cliff which would lead to instant death if you fell. You would die-no chance, just a steep drop. On the other side is a mountain that is too steep even for a Billy goat to climb. There is a small path that they are walking on, but it is not wide enough for them to pass one another, so what will they do? They cannot back up and each try to back up around the other. Its too dangerous to go backwards down the mountain. You cant turn around. If theyre no smarter than people, maybe they have a head-butt contest. Maybe they see who the strongest goat is, get their horns ready and start head-butting until one of them falls off-survival of the fittest. Thats what people do. My mountain! Get your horns down! Its only big enough for one of us here. Ram until you win! Whats the solution? The Billy goat does something very unusual. He bows down and gets down on his stomach and allows the other Billy goat to walk over him and continue his path down the mountain. Which are you? If you were to be at that impasse, would you be the one that says, Im not bowing down for anybody! This is my mountain! or are you going to be the one that bows down and serves? Jesus was the One who served. Jesus was the One who bowed down. He said, James, John, with all due respect, Mrs. Zebedee, thats not what we are about. We are about greatness, but greatness has a new definition. Greatness involves servanthood. Spend your life on yourself, your goals and your agenda; and in the end, you will be very poor indeed. But spend your life-give of yourself, your time, your resources, your treasures, for the Kingdom of God and to serve people, and youll leave this planet rich in what really counts. Our dance team right now is coming to minister to us through music, so if our dancers would come at this time. The song that theyre dancing to has a lot of meaningful words to it, so I encourage you to reflect on it, see it in their emotions, listen to it with your ears and allow them to minister to you this morning. (Heres a link to the lyrics of the song, One Life to Live, by 33 Miles: http://www.6lyrics.com/music/33_miles/lyrics/one_life_to_love.aspx) Thank you, girls. Thats a lot to remember, isnt it? Lets stand together as we close. I hope you have a wonderful afternoon. Ive got my work cut out for me. We have our orders for our family. I know what Im cooking, what Im doing and pray for me today. If we just hear a message and dont do anything about it, it really hasnt done any good. This is one of those things you really want to put feet to our faith for. Its an attitude of our heart to be like Christ. Just understand that all of us should strive for greatness, a greatness as God defines it. If we have a church and everybody here is striving after that greatness, and we are great in Gods eyes, what a difference we can make in our world. Lets pray: Father, we thank You for the lessons we learned in Matthew 20-this mother who had her heart in the right place. Its not a wrong thing to want your sons to be close to Jesus, but it was about their advancement-not the Kingdom. It was about their importance and worth-not being a servant. James and John didnt get it. We thank You that the Master used that as a perfect opportunity to explain what its all about, to show them that even He was the ultimate servant; the One who should have been served was served and had become a man. He chose to give His life away. Lord, sometimes we try to hold on and we try to pursue that which is vanity, that which is fleeting. Lord, I pray that all of us would strive for greatness-not in the eyes of this world, which is so temporal, but in Your eyes and that we would be the church of servants. In Jesus name I pray, Amen.
(A media clip is played. You can listen here: http://faithcommunitychurch.net/sermon_player) We look to the Commandment, Thou Shall Have No Other Gods Before Me. Do not bow down to any idols. We said that the Commandments that we have, the foundation is love. There are a lot of prohibitions, a lot of dont do this. Dont do that, but the foundation of it is love. Jesus said in Matthew 22, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and your neighbor as yourself. On these two Commandments, hang all the Laws and the Prophets. If we love God, were not going to follow other gods. If we love our neighbor, were not going to steal or kill. This week, were talking about contentment, the last Commandment in Verse 17. God says, You shall not covet your neighbors house. You should not covet your neighbors wife or his man servant or maid servant, his ox or donkey… Today we might say his car or his boat. …or anything else that belongs to your neighbor. While God is saying dont covet, He is also saying to us, Be content. Be content with what you have. Be content with the blessings that you have in your life. Thats going to be our focal point. One of the problems-one of the ways to resolve a problem-is to recognize when we have a problem, right? Its to be open and honest about our feelings and our thoughts. Sometimes we have conversations and sometimes things come out of your mouths that sound good, but they arent necessarily true. It might be the answer that is politically correct or the answer you think somebody wants to hear, but if we were to kind of peel off the veneer and look inside your soul, wed find a different answer. [This is] like this gentleman right here that we asked if he was content or not. Lets listen to his response. (You can read it here or find the whole clip here: http://www.sermonspice.com/product/16465/am-i-content-3f) Am I content? Well, sure. Sure, Im content. If by content you mean that I believe Im not going to be getting a raise for a long time-therefore cant buy that new flat panel television, then, yes. Yes, I am content. See the key is look at everything like its a blessing, the house, the car, the family, your health-blessings. Bills, broken toilet seat, not having a convertible-blessings. They say the grass is greener on the other side, and that is true, but only because my neighbor just had a sprinkler system put in, and he got a new lawn mower. Its like one of those 500 horsepower John Does. It has the four-titanium blades. You could probably shave with it. The 12-inch rims, lift kit on it-the whole nine yards. I think he has a grill in the back too. It cooks steaks while mowing the lawn, but thats his world. Thats not my world. Im content with what I have. Im content with my push mower. It was my grandfathers, so it has sentimental value to me when it works; but see my neighbor wouldnt know anything about sentimental value because all he got from his grandfather was money. Well, you cant buy sentimental value with money. You could buy my mower, but you cant buy whats in here-unless he made me a good offer. See, whats in here is what matters-whats in here. Thats where contentment lives-in here. You have to know who you are in here, and in here, I am not a pool owner. My neighbor is, but thats his in here, not mine. I dont need a pool. Im content with what I have, and what I have is a garden hose-turn it on high, use my thumb. I get some good pressure going-same thing. Pools have drawbacks. You get out of a pool, and youre wet. You have to dry off. Im not saying being content is easy. If you watch TV long enough, you get bombarded with advertisement about everything you need. Do I need all those things I see on TV? Probably. Am I going to get a blender that also makes salsa? Not unless my wife changes her mind. So then how am I content? Well, Im not. I will be…come Christmas when I buy her one for a gift. Sometimes contentment is a journey and not a destination, like Hawaii. Ive never been to Hawaii. Ill never be to Hawaii, but I dont need to because Im happy where I am. So three weeks out of the year when my neighbor goes to Hawaii, I sneak over to his pool. Thats my Hawaii. I buy some Tiki torches, have a pig roast-thats my Hawaii, same thing. So, yes I am content. You see contentment is about looking around you, seeing whats around you, what you have and trying not to notice that your neighbor has a Ferrari. A Ferrari is a car, a mode of transportation. Im content with what I have. Would I like a Ferrari? Sure. Would a Ferrari make me happy? Yes. Am I going to buy a Ferrari? Well, I could. I could mortgage my house, sure. Am I going to do that? No. The reason-it all comes down to the C word, cost. I dont know what my house is worth. Im having it appraised. Life is too short not to be content to just enjoy what you have, so its about being thankful. Thank you, God. Thank you, God, that I have so little because if I had a lot I would have to insure it and claim it on my taxes. Besides the Bible says that the rich are more likely to have their eyes struck out by a camel, but I dont hate my neighbor. I love him. I love him; I do. I really do. I love my enemies. To answer your question, yes. Yes, I am content-very content. Very, very content. If I were any more content, I would be dead. Thats how content I am. I love the smell of fresh cut grass and A-1 Sauce. No, no, Im fine. Thank you. I already ate. Have you ever found yourself saying the right answer, but inside youre thinking… I might catch you. Im going to test you at some point in the service this morning. Im going to see if you give me the churchy answer or if you give me the honest one, so be on guard for that, all right? Youre going to be tested today. Lets open our Bibles to Philippians 4 (page 1164 of pew Bibles) and see what Gods Word says about contentment. Verse 10, Paul says, I rejoice greatly in the Lord that at last you have renewed your concern for me. Indeed you have been concerned but had no opportunity to show it. I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through Him who gives me strength. The first thing I want you to note there is that Paul says, I have learned contentment. Contentment is not something you and I are born with, is it? Be a parent for one day, and youll discover thats true. We are not born content. We dont just say, Hey, take your time getting me that bottle. Take your time changing the diaper here. Im fine. Mom, I know youre busy. Whenever you get around to it, Ill be here. No, no, no. The baby kicks and screams because it is the center of its own world. The whole world revolves around its needs, right? So contentment is something we learn. Everything we learn in life we learn from one of two ways. We either learn it through our personal experience, or we learn it through the testimony experience of teaching of other people. One is the easy way, and one is the hard way. If I watch you walk at night and fall into a hole and I avoid that hole, thats the easy way. If I fall in the hole myself, thats the hard way; so sometimes its called the School of Hard Knocks. We have to learn things through our own life experiences. How do you think Paul learned contentment? Do you think he learned it from observation, or do you think he learned it from experience? I think he learned it from experience. You and I cannot say to Paul, Well, Paul, its easy for you to say be content. You dont know what Im going through. You dont know what Ive been through. You dont know the circumstances that Im dealing with. I would say to you, Then you have no idea what Paul was dealing with. Paul was not writing on a hammock, on a tropical island with a lemonade in one hand and a book in the other. Paul wrote these words from prison. Paul was awaiting a sentence which would possibly involve his execution. Paul was in darkness. Paul was without air conditioning and heat. Paul was in chains. Paul was in prison. His freedom was taken away, his ministry taken away, and possibly his life was soon to be taken away. From that context, in that circumstance, Paul says, Rejoice in the Lord always, in Chapter 3. Be content, in Chapter 4. This certainly wasnt based on circumstances, was it? No, God had seen him through difficulties-riots, beatings, famine, imprisonment; all of these things God had seen Paul through, so Paul had not a self-sufficiency but a Christ sufficiency. He said, Ive learned that in every situation, I can trust Christ. I know He is sufficient for me. He did something else that was pretty significant. The church in Philippi is a relationship hed had now over a decade. It was his second missionary journey. A man appeared to Paul in a vision and said, Come over here. It is called the Macedonian Call. They got in a boat, and they sailed and landed in Philippi. They took the Gospel to a new continent. There he began to spread the truth of Jesus Christ. Now some 12 years later, they send him-not only a gift, but they send him a person. The persons name is Epaphroditus. Epaphroditus job is to take care of Paul, watch over Paul and make sure that Pauls needs are met. He is also putting his life on the line because when you are associated under that close proximity to someone who is possibly facing execution, there is a chance you could be implicated and charged with him as well. He realizes this, but he still serves. He still goes. While he is there, he becomes ill. In this ironic twist of fate, the man who was sent to minister to Paul now becomes the recipient of Pauls care; and Paul has to take care of Epaphroditus. The people back home are worried about him. His family is worried about him, whether hell live or die; and he pulls through. Paul writes and he says, God saved you and me heartache upon heartache. I want you to know that he risked his life for the Gospel. Now I am returning him to you. I am sending him back to you. He is a dear brother. Hes done a wonderful work. Hes given it all, but now Im sending him back, but I want you to know Im going to be okay. You love him. Youre concerned about him. I want him to go back home. I want you to know Im in this prison, and its hard, but I also have a living faith-a real faith in Christ. Im going to be okay. Those are the circumstances in which Paul writes those words. Paul had learned the secret of being content. I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. Ive been in want, and Ive been in plenty; and Im content. Let me ask you a hypothetical question this morning. If you had much greater wisdom than you had right now; you had more money than you could count or spend in a lifetime-I mean you were rich beyond your wildest dreams; and you were like a king or a queen and had all the power that was invested in the country in which you lived; you were protected by the military; your word was law-you werent an elected official; you were in power, how many of you think under those conditions-great wisdom, great wealthy, great power-that you could be a happy person? Let me see your hands. I am testing you right now, and a lot of you just failed big time. Im looking at the guy on the tractor back here. Thank you for the honest answer. I think if I had all the money, all the smarts, and all the power, I could have a reasonable shot at being happy. I bet there are some of you out there who didnt raise your hand and are going, Well, its because Im in church. Im going to buy the lottery and pretty soon, thatll be it. Honestly, I wont ask you again, but I bet you there are a lot of people who raised their hands and said, Yeah, if that really can be the case, I think Id have a good shot at happiness. Well, let me tell you the story about a man who did have all of that. His name was King Solomon. He was the wisest man that ever lived. He was the king, so he had all the power, all the authority; and he was wealthy beyond your wildest imaginations. Whatever he wanted, he could have. How did things go for him? Turn the Bible to Ecclesiastes 2. Listen to his conclusion. Now everything that he writes here is looking back. Everything that Solomon writes here is from him looking back and drawing conclusions. You and I will never live in the circumstances that Solomon lived in. Weve always wondered what it would be like, so heres somebody who experienced it; and heres what they had to say. Verse 10 (page 659), he says, I denied myself nothing my eyes desired. I refused my heart of no pleasure. Anything on this banner over here that you want? Solomon could have it, and he says, I took it all. My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor. Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve… I look back on everything, …everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun. It did not satisfy. You see friends, this is a lie. This is a lot of things, but one of the things it is-is a lie. The lie the world tell us is if we just had more, if we just had bigger, if we just had better, wed be happy. Wed be fulfilled. Heres the ironic thing. Fulfillment never comes and satisfaction never comes from the acquisition of things or stuff. It comes from the relinquishing of, the releasing of, the letting go of… Socrates was once asked, Who was the richest man in the world? Socrates said, The man who was the richest in the world is not the one who has the most. Its the one who needs the least. Thats a wise man. Its easy to buy into this lie. Sometimes in the ministry, pastors buy into this lie. I mean even if you go to a pastors conference or if you have lunch with other ministers, its kind of the same. They ask the questions, Well, how many people go to your church? How many are on your staff? How big is your budget? I dont even like having those kinds of conversations because they seem so superfluous to me. Thats what goes on. Heres how it works: you graduate and you get a job either at a really tiny church or as an entry-level position as an associate pastor in some capacity. Then you work your way up. Maybe you become an associate pastor in a bigger church. Maybe you become a senior pastor of a church. Then you put in some time there, and then you go on to a bigger church in a bigger city, bigger building, bigger budget, bigger staff and you keep going and going; so thats success. You know success is when you have this monster-sized building with thousands of people, this budget of millions of dollars and this huge staff; so the grass is greener, right? Bigger this-bigger is better, so even pastors buy into that lie. Ive had that tested, and Ill tell you a couple things right now. I had a church [contact me] that was a large church-big building and lots of people. Several people came to me and said, The pastoral committee is talking about you. Your name is being thrown around. They are interested in you becoming the senior pastor here. Well thats something to think about. Then I started thinking about you guys. I said, You know, I love our church. I love our community. I like it here. I said, Im not interested. A few weeks ago, I got another call. There is a church in Colorado Springs-a booming community whereas recession, economic downturn [is here], but Colorado Springs is going crazy. There is new construction and all kinds of ministry there. There is a large population there. They said, Would you come and duplicate the infrastructure Faith Community has here and lead our church? You have great potential in Colorado Springs. I started thinking about that. I said, But, you know, I like it here in Janesville. I like our staff. I like the people I work with. Just because you have a bigger salary or a bigger church where there are more people, it doesnt mean Im going to be happier. I might get there and say, You know what? I miss Janes-burg. I miss everybody. I miss the donuts that come into the church on Sunday mornings. I would miss all of you. Its true. Sometimes I learn the hard way just like you do. We all do, but one important lesson we can learn in life is bigger is not always better. More is not always going to satisfy. Its a trap. Paul goes on to say its a lie, and its a trap. Look what he says in 1 Timothy 6. He says, …but godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. Now before we go on in that text, what do you think he means by that? Paul says, …godliness with contentment is great gain. What kind of gain is he talking about because hes not talking about material gain? His topic is contentment remember. He says, You arent going to take anything with you. Hes probably the first one that says it. Whoever says that is kind of a variation or take on what Gods Word says here. So hes not talking about stuff. So whats he talking about? You might be getting your lawn ready because spring is here, so maybe youre out pulling weeks, spraying weeds, cutting grass, planning, raking. That's hard work, right? When you finish, you need to do what? Rest. Finals are coming up. If youre in school, high school, college, graduate school, finals are coming up, and you study hard. Youre writing papers; youre studying for a test, and youre cramming. You take the test and the semester is done. What do you need to do with your mind? Rest. Youve been dealing with an emotionally difficult situation. Maybe youre trying to reconcile with somebody. Youre trying to serve as a reconciler for somebody else. Its this emotional draining exercise, and youre working hard. Youre just emotionally tired. When thats done, what do you need to do? Rest. You know what contentment is? Its rest for your soul. Thats where the gain comes in because the soul is always longing. It wants fulfillment and satisfaction. It buys the lie that its something tangible that I can buy or have. Its in this person, its in this position, or its in this possession. Its in power. Whatever you deem happiness is, the soul is pursuing. When we come to contentment, the soul says, God is enough. Im going to rest. Im going to release. Im going to let go. Contentment allows your soul to rest. Thats why Jesus said in Matthew 11, Come unto Me all ye who are weary and heavy laden for My yoke is easy and My burden is light, and you will find, what? Rest for your souls. It happens in contentment. When we dont practice contentment, then what is the object? Our soul is in turmoil. Our soul is always striving, always reaching. Its believing this lie, and Paul talks about that. He says in the next verse, People who want to get rich fall into temptation. By the way, thats both rich and poor. The rich want to get richer, and the poor want to get rich. Thats everybody. (1 Timothy 6:9) People who want to get rich fall into temptation into which many foolish and harmful desires plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. It didnt say money is. He said the love of money or pursing money above all things-even if you have to hurt someone to get it or give up something precious to get it. The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. This thing thats supposed to be so good and so fulfilling ends up being something that snares their soul, something that consumes them and traps them. Its like catching a monkey. Do you know how you catch a monkey? What you do is you take a pot-apparently this is true. You take a big old pot, a big heavy pot that there is no way a monkey could lift it or move it. You make the opening just big enough for the monkey to get his hand through. Then you put at the bottom of the pot a banana or an orange, something that a monkey is going to want to have. You put that out at night where the monkey likes to go, and then you wait. The monkey smells the banana, looks down in the pot, smells inside the pot and says, Oh, theres a banana in the pot. The monkey goes, Oh, this is my lucky day. The monkey reaches in, grabs the banana and starts to pull it out but his hand gets stuck because now its making a fist; and its no longer able to pull the hand through. Itll work on that thing all night long and try to get its hand out. Even when the trappers come with their nets, the monkey will not let go of the banana. Hell work harder. Hell start screeching, but he wont let go. All the monkey has to do is go, You know, maybe this wasnt a good idea. Maybe I should let go of the banana and live to fight another day. Maybe there are other bananas in other trees. I didnt get this one. I tried my best. These guys are coming. Im scared. Im going to get out of here, but they dont do that. They hold on to the banana, panicking and screeching, until the net goes over their head and theyre caught. They dont want to let go of that banana. Now wed never be as dumb as monkeys, right? People would never be that dumb. We would never hold onto something we shouldnt have even if its going to lead to our own ruin and destruction, right. No…not us. The monkey trap. Paul says its a monkey trap. Freedom comes in the ability to release and to let go. He says in the next verse, But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love… He says, God expects more from you. He expects better things from you-that youll not succumb to the lie of the world, that youll have a realization of where fulfillment really comes from. Its not in what you can acquire or hold on to. Paul says, I learn contentment when I let go. I was willing to let Epaphroditus go home because I trust in Christ. What about those of us who have more than enough? Basically, by the worlds standards, isnt that pretty much everybody in this room? We have more than enough? What does he say? Verse 17, Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain… Boy, have we ever learned that to be true in our economy-the stock market, the Ponsy schemes and all thats going on. No matter how much health or how much money you have, if you have a certain sickness-there are some sicknesses it cant cure. It cant buy love; it cant buy character. It cant buy contentment, yet some pursue it with everything they have. He said instead, …put their hope in God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Acknowledge God as a source. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life. He says if you want to truly be rich, it does not come through selfish means. Being truly rich means to be rich in the soul-it means from being a generous and giving person, a willingness to share. A friend of mine, Harry, used to say, The smallest person in the world is a person all wrapped up in themselves. Thats why were trying as a church to become a more giving church, a more generous church, and its working. Thats why I had Laura make all these little pieces of paper because I want you to all take them home with you-these little shopping lists. This isnt just for this week. This isnt for this month; this is for this year, its for next year and its for the year after that. Its in my checkbook, your wallet or your purse. You take it with you when you go shopping. You buy three things. You dont have to buy the whole list. Now you can if you want to, but buy three things. Can you imagine if 700 plus people every week went in and went shopping and bought three things? There would be over 2,000 items turned in each week. We wouldnt be able to keep up. Give us that problem. Give us the problem where Laura has to scratch her head and say, Hows our team going to get rid of all this stuff? We have so much stuff, how are we going to get rid of this? Give us that problem. Well work on that one. We can be a blessing to our community. Get your kids involved. Tell them about it. They can take this to the grocery store. Maybe they can give some of their allowance and buy a can of corn. When they put that can of corn out there and they say, I bought this, and there is going to be a family thats going to have a meal with this can of corn that I provided. See if that doesnt bring the contentment and fulfillment that is truly significant. I get so blessed when I hear stories like the Worthing family. Sara Worthing, a young mother in our church who just lost the use of her legs due to illness and is paralyzed, I hear stories on how youre coming around her, giving gifts to her and helping her and serving her. I just see our church becoming giving. The people that are selling the walking tacos-why are we doing that? Why are we working so hard so that we can send 30 people to the Dominican Republic to take a week and just serve people, just give of our resources, our talents and our treasures and be a blessing to the people of the Dominican? So were blessing our community, and were blessing across the Ocean. Thats what the Gospel says. We are going to be a much happier church because we are outreaching and giving more than if we were just consumed with ourselves and everything that just goes on within Faith Community. That's all we need to do-focus on right here. Instead were reaching out with the Gospel, with love and through tangible ways to serve and help people. There is a man I respect by the name of Dr. Erwin Lutzer. He had this to say-a quote I want to read to you this morning, Its better to love God and die unknown than to love the world and be a hero; better to be content with poverty than to die a slave to wealth; better to have taken some risks and lost than to have done nothing and succeeded at it; better to have lost some battles than to have retreated from the war; better to have failed when serving God than to have succeeded when serving the devil. What a tragedy to climb the ladder of success only to discover that the ladder was leaning against the wrong wall. Before we receive communion this morning, lets take some time to pray. Father, Your Word has given us some things to think about today through the teaching and example of the Apostle Paul who in the most adverse of circumstances had learned contentment. He had learned contentment because of the difficulties hed been through and found You to be faithful. We learned about Solomon-who had tried everything he could to find fulfillment outside of You and in the end came to the conclusion when all is said and done, remember your Creator and the days of your youth; he concluded in his book, for everything else under the sun is meaningless. As we prepare our hearts to receive of this cup and the bread, were reminded of the One who said, Come unto Me all ye who are weary and heavy laden. You will find rest for your souls. The world stirs us up with a promise, but it does not deliver. Only You truly satisfy, so with thankful and humble hearts, we come before you now to receive this communion supper. In Jesus name, Amen.
Its good to see you this morning on this beautiful spring day. Enjoying the sunshine, here we are in our coats and sweaters again-not fun, not fun. Would you open your Bibles to Exodus 20 with me this morning? While youre finding that, are there any American Idol watchers out here? Are you pulling for the hometown boy, Danny Gohlke? All right, good, good. What about Adam? Anybody a big Adam fan? Not too many Adam fans? All right a few. Any for the red-haired girl? The guy with the hat? Okay, just polling everybody. Well, we are not going to be talking about the television show this whole series. Its just simply a name we have used. What it does signify is that there are things in America that we hold in the place of God. There are people and things we idolize that fill a place in our lives that only God should have, and those are the things we will be talking about. If you look to the banner at my left, you will see some of those things. We will be an equal-opportunity toe-stepper on-er this series. You can see some of the things that are represented there of passion, power, prestige, possessions-all of those things we will be addressing in this series. Were going to lay the foundation this morning in talking about idols. Like the media said, Is that something thats still applicable today? We dont have idols that we bow down to, right? Dont be so sure to judge that one. I think we do. Lets take a look at Exodus 20. This is where God gives the commandment originally. This is the Decalogue or the Ten Commandments. Its really important for us when we read the Ten Commandments to understand the historical context in which they are given. God gave these Commandments to all of us-for all people at all times; but He did give them specifically to the nation of Israel for a specific period of their history. It doesnt mean that its not relevant; it doesnt mean that theyre still not in effect; they certainly are. This is Law. Sometimes Law gets a bad rap, Oh, were not under the Law. Were under grace. Thats true in regards to righteousness. We are made righteous by grace through faith-not by the works of the Law. The Law is certainly not irrelevant. Though shall not kill is very much relevant, isnt it? Law points us to God. It points us to our need for God. Now legalism-thats bad. Legalism is when we take a man-made concept or tradition and we elevate that until it becomes an authority. If I am living by Gods Law as its written in His Word, thats one thing. But to take a man-made concept or principle and say, You must conform to this in order to be righteous, thats legalism, and thats not healthy. The Law is good. The Law points to our sin and our name for a Savior. Law gives us a guideline as to what God expects from us, so it is very much relevant to our lives. God speaks this to a people who have just come from a culture in Egypt where they worship many gods, polytheism. They are going to a region where there is also the practice of worshipping many gods-the Canaanites and the other surrounding people groups, the practice of many gods. Why? Because gods were limited in their territory, and they were limited in their powers; so you had a god who was over your region. There was another god over here who was over another region. Gods were limited in what they could do. This god might be power in the weather, so you would pray to that god and sacrifice to that god in hopes that you would have a good crop. Maybe you were having problems conceiving a child, so there was a fertility goddess that you would pray to in hopes that that goddess would enable you to have a child. You might be going to war with another tribe or another nation, so you would pray to the god of battle to give you favor in that war. There were multiple gods and multiple specialties that they had. The relationship was very shallow. You didnt really love that god; you didnt really worship that god, but you tried to placate that god because of what that god could do for you. Ill worship this god. Ill sacrifice this god in hopes that that god will send the rain, so Ill have a good harvest or hopes, that god will allow my wife to have many children, or hopes that god will give me victory in battle. Really, if you think about it, its kind of the spiritual mafia. Ill give you a price, and youll protect me. Ill give you something, and youll do this. These were a desperate people because it was a desperate time to be alive. If there was famine, you could starve. If a storm came and flooded away your crops, you could starve. You couldnt just go down to the local grocery store. You cant trust the Red Cross to come in and save you or get government assistance. Its not going to happen. Those things dont exist, so a health concern that we might be able to go and take a pill for or go see the doctor and it goes away like that, those infections would kill those people. It was a whole different time. Science wasnt what it is now, so life was very fragile. It didnt take much, so they did this idol worship out of fear and out of their needs. They were desperate, desperate people. Desperate people do desperate things. I was driving in Chicago this week-in downtown Chicago. You know how it is if youve been to downtown Chicago when you see somebody with a sign, a cardboard sign, that usually says, Will work for food or something? They look like youd expect them to look. They usually look rather unkempt, unpleasant, unshaven, and shabby with greasy clothes. You try not to look at them because its uncomfortable, so people just continued to drive by; but this was a different situation for me. This was a young girl-probably 17 years old. She was standing out there, and she had a sign that said, Im homeless. Im hungry. Please help. I hadnt seen that one before. As a dad, immediately my heart went out to that child. If there were ever a time I was tempted to stop and do something, that was one of them. At the same token, you see that, you also know the world we live in and you start thinking, Is she part of a scam? Is somebody going to rob me? Is she addicted to drugs? Is she a street-wise kid who is going to pull a knife or a gun on me to get money? So, you keep driving, but I looked in her eyes as I drove by. There was just fear and desperation. As a dad, you think, Man, how does a girl get to this point? Do her parents know she is in such a vulnerable dangerous position with predators who could take advantage of her? It was the worst place to be holding a sign that says, I have no home. I have no money. I have nobody protecting me and watching out for me. That touched my heartstrings, but desperate people will do desperate things. People in Biblical times were so desperate that they would even sacrifice people-children, their livestock-to these gods in hopes that their lives could be spared or that they could have abundance. It was a desperate, desperate time. So onto this scene God comes with these Commandments-telling them about living in a new culture, forming a new nation in which there would be one God. God is going to say, Have no other gods before Me. It is a declaration of His all sufficiency. He is saying, Im not God over a territory. Im not God over a region. I dont have a limited power. I am the only God that you need to have. I am the God of gods. I am the Lord of lords. I am the Lord of Heaven and Earth. No other god is before Me. Exodus 20:1 (page 73 of pew Bibles), And God spoke all these words: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in Heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God… Well stop right there. No other gods, no other idols-is that still applicable? No other idols? We dont have the wooden images or the images of stone. Do we have idols? We most certainly do. In fact, Paul talks about that if youd turn please to the Book of Colossians 3:1-5 (page 1167 of pew Bibles). He says, Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. Not on this stuff over here thats seen in this banner. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. It is idolatry, so Paul says idolatry is very much alive and well, and its living in our hearts. We start to idolize these things. We start to pursue these things. We start to bow down to these things, lay our lives down for them, sacrifice for them. People sacrifice for the house, the car, the mansion. Theyll cheat; theyll lie; theyll steal; theyll hurt others. They will do whatever it takes to acquire what they think is going to make them happy and be deemed a success. Let me ask you this question-is it possible that you could worship the true God and still practice idolatry? Dont give me an answer right away. Think about that-is it possible to be worshipping the true God and still practice idolatry? Its a trick question. Do you know there are some pastors, teachers, authors, speakers who teach that if you will follow God-you will give your life to Christ-if you worship God, He is going to give you stuff. So they worship God-not because God is worthy of our worship and praise, not to adore Him for who He is-but they worship Him because theyll get stuff. If I worship God, Ill be rich! Thats what the preacher on TV says. If I just worship God, everybody is going to like me. Ill be popular! If I worship God, God will keep me from ever being sick or depressed, and life will always be wonderful-all the time! So they worship God because of what they can receive. Have you heard that Gospel before? How is that different than what they did in idol worship? Thats why it was called harlotry-because there was no emotion; there was no love. It was like, Okay, Ill give this to the god, and the god will give this to me. Its a business transaction. I wont send that tornado. I wont send that flood if youll give me what I need, so they worshipped that god for what that god could do for them. Friends, if you worship in the living God for what He can do for you, that is a form of idolatry. We worship God for who He is, His essence, His divine nature, because He is worthy of our praise-not for any promise of stuff. [Theres] this wonderful thing Hell do; Hell make you successful, popular, rich and healthy all the time. So idolatry is very much alive and well. Now we have to ask the question why did God give these Commandments. Why did God give this Commandment? Because when you first read it, it sounds as though God is a little bit insecure because number one, He says He is a jealous God. Jealousy is not an admirable quality, is it? If youre a jealous person, that means you are a very insecure person. That's not something you want to be, so when God says, Im a jealous God, immediately thats kind of a negative connotation. We say, Oh, Gods above that, isnt He? Thats a little petty for God to be jealous! He cant be insecure. Hes God. No other gods before Me. I want to be the only God! Well, God has an ego problem then, doesnt He? Why is it, God, You have to have all the attention, all the worship, all the accolades? You have a problem? You have an ego problem? You have insecurity issues, God? Does God need to be psycho-analyzed or something? He has some real serious issues here apparently. Well, were looking at it hrough the wrong lens if were seeing it that way. Were not understanding how Law operates. See when you read the Ten Commandments, theyre pretty negative. You dont do this; you dont do that. Most of the Commandments are of a negative nature in that they are prohibitions. I dont want you to lie. I dont want you steal or cheat. Dont covet. Dont do this; dont do that. Dont worship idols. There are a few positives in there, but most of it seems to be this negative prohibition. Why is that? Because, the Law is first and foremost built on a positive. The positives are that the Law is relational; above all things, the Law is relational and foundational. What do you mean by that? I want you to turn to Matthew 22. Were going to have you see the Ten Commandments in a whole different light. Verse 34 of Matthew 22 (page 980), it says, Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. This is their counterpart-Oh, the Sadducees couldnt get the best of them, so we will. One of them, an expert in the Law, tested Him with this question: Teacher, which is the greatest Commandment in the Law? Now, we dont know what he had up his sleeve, but he in some way was trying to entrap Jesus with that question. He was waiting for whatever answer Jesus was going to give and somehow, some way try to turn it around and use it against Him. Listen to the response that Jesus gives. Its just brilliant! He says, Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest Commandment. And the second is like it, Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and Prophets hang on these two commandments. Thats absolutely brilliant because if I truly love, there are things I will not do because those things will cause you pain and hurt. If somebody tells you they love you and they do this painful thing to you or if somebody tells you they love you and they steal from you, kill you or any other thing in this Book here, they probably dont love you as much as they say they do. The Law is based on love. If you truly love God, you wont take His name in vain. If you truly love God, you wont follow any other gods. If you truly love God, you will worship Him and you wont bow down to idols. If you truly love your parents, youre going to honor them. If you love other people, youre not going to steal their stuff. Youre not going to kill them. Think about the Commandments: theyre based in foundational on love. Because I love this positive, wonderful thing, there are things Im not going to do-these negative things. So the Law might seem like its a negative-dont do this; dont do that-but its really foundational. It is love. God establishes those Commandments because He loves you, because He doesnt want you to hurt yourself; He doesnt want you to hurt others; and He doesnt want you to squander your life. The Law is based on love. Its foundational to an understanding of Gods nature. God doesnt want to see you suffer. God doesnt want to see you suffer, and God doesnt want you to cause suffering to other people; so He gives you this standard to live by. He gives you this Law that you are to adhere to. Its not like Gods up there with a list and Hes a law-monger. Hes not like, Oh, you didnt do this. You didnt do that! If we break His law, we first and foremost break His heart. Law is based on love. Jesus says the foundation of the Law is we love God and we love others. Because we love God and because we love others, here are the things that we will not do. Now there is another thing thats important. My Greek is okay; my Hebrew, not so good. In my Hebrew, I really am relying upon what a commentator might say. One of these days, Ill have to go back and take some more Hebrew, but I just find that a real challenge. I listen to what they say, and I have no reason to doubt what they said. It was very interesting. I was reading a commentary on this passage, and the author said that you would think that when God would speak to the nation of Israel from Sinai and give them the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments, that when He says the word you it would be plural because He was talking to a people group. Actually, when He says you, He uses the singular form. Thats very significant. That means the Ten Commandments, though they were given to all people and though they were given at this point to a nation, it was very much individuals-very much personal. God is saying to you, Heres how I expect you to live. Heres what I expect you to abide by, very personal. These are the Commandments you shall live by as a people. So the Commandments are relational; theyre foundational; theyre personal; and they are absolutely essential. They are essential. Im going to pick on your dad this morning, Joy, because I picked on him already. It worked out. It was a spontaneous thing on Saturday night, and it worked so Ive been following that pattern all the way through. You know Joy Thompson and Jesse, our music minister, heard that Mom and Dad are now coming to Faith Community-John and Mary Dorfer; and John is a retired physician. Mary is a teacher. They were missionaries in Ecuador for over a decade, so Joy spent her childhood growing up in Ecuador. In this hypothetical situation were going to make Dr. John the good guy. You know we have the swine flu outbreak right now. In Mexico its now crossed the border into the United States, so we should be concerned. If we see our children have these flu-like symptoms, the swine flu is spreading in a new form. Its dangerous. The fear that it generates-you can just imagine. So (hypothetically) in Ecuador, there was this outbreak of an epidemic, and nobody knows a cure. Well, in this story, John has the cure. He has it in a pill form, and if youll take this pill and follow his instructions, soon youll see the symptoms begin to dissipate; and you will see your health begin to return. You can be expected to have a full recovery. Now there are others in Ecuador who see this happening. They become jealous. They see this as a way to make money, so they start to sell or market a placebo, a sugar pill. Theres nothing to it. Its not a drug. Its not medicine. The only benefits would be psychological. So you take this pill, and nothing would happen because its not real. There is no medicine in that. Its not a drug; its just psycho-somatic. Thats all; but people are selling it, and theyre making money. John is watching people die right and left in this epidemic because theyre believing a lie. The people are falling prey to this deceit of people saying this pill is a cure, This will fix your problem. This will enable you to live and not die. He knows that he has the only true cure. He knows it for a scientific fact. Some do-they take it and they get better and get well. Others, for whatever reason-they buy the lie. They take the placebo, and they die. Hes angry; hes angry because hes a good man, and he wants to see people get better. Isnt that right, John? Thats right. He wants to see people get better. Thats why he went into medicine. That's why he became a doctor, and now hes having to watch this entire village parish because people are going after a lie. Would you think he has an ego problem if he went around to people and said, I want you to take this medicine only from me? All of those other doctors are false doctors. Those medicines really dont work. Its a trap; its a deadly trap. If you believe it and you succumb to it, youre going to die. This is the cure. This is the only medicine that treats this problem, so I am begging you-come to me because I have the answer youre seeking. I have the cure to what is ailing you. Would you say, Boy, that Dr. John, he sure is insecure-wanting everybody to come to him? Boy, he sure has an ego problem, that guy. He thinks hes the only show in town. In this scenario, he is. Over here are all of these pretty little pills, right? Each represents fame and possessions, passion, power. Do this and youll be beautiful. Do this and youll be popular. Do this and youll be rich and youll be happy and healthy. Life will be wonderful. But theyre placebos; theyre not real. They dont cure what ails you. The world is relentless, isnt it? The world just keeps beating us over the head with this stuff. In our newspapers, in our magazines, on our billboards, on our televisions, on the radio-its flashing its lights and looking appealing. There is a journalist who I read an article from years ago that I thought was pretty funny. This isnt the funny part. He had a friend who had passed away who was from Russia. It was a close friend, and the friend wanted to be buried in his native land so the funeral was going to be in Russia. He and his American buddies were going to fly to Russia to pay tribute to their friend and attend this Russian Orthodox service. I dont know if its the custom for all Russian Orthodox churches, just the ones in this region or just this church, but the practice was that when you walked by the deceased you would bend down and kiss the deceased on his or her forehead. It was just a sign of respect, a sign of love. Right away, these three Americans see this, and theyre like, No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I am not doing that. I love the guy, but I wouldnt kiss him when he was alive; and Im certainly not going to kiss him now. So they make up their mind and form this little pact that theyre not going to kiss their dead friend. As theyre walking from the casket, the moment of truth is coming. What really makes this difficult is above the casket there is this huge Russian Orthodox priest with big bushy eyebrows. He is looking firm, stern and mean. They come up and he picks up on the fact that theyre not going to kiss [their friend]. He looks at them, and he bows down and says, Kiss. No, Im not going to kiss. Kiss. No, no. We Americans-we dont kiss dead people in America. In Russia, well respect it, but well do this but were not going to kiss. Kiss! Listen, I know how forceful they can be. I sat by a babushka one time on a plane if you heard that story. They can be very forceful. This guy just wont give up, so he gets a little angry and says, Kiss! The guy is like, Okay. He kisses his friend. The next guy kisses, and the next guy kisses. Theyre like, Oh, man. I cant believe we did that! That's a humorous way of conveying what sometimes happens to us. The world is clamoring, Just bend over and kiss. Just embrace. Were like, No, no, I cant do that. I cant do that! but there is within us the flesh that entices. There is a tempter outside of us that seeks to make darkness look like light. There is the relentless bombarding of the world that says, Bend down and kiss. Bend down and worship. Bend down and ascribe worth to these things, and we do. Were like, Man, I cant believe I did that! We come to find out that they dont satisfy like they promised they do. That power corrupts; those possessions dont satisfy, so we end up suckers, duped, fooled, bamboozled-I could go on. So when God says He is a jealous God, it is not as we think jealousy. It is not based on insecurity. It is based on love because God knows that if we bow down to another god, if we bow down to serve another idol-we serve these things-its going to be empty. Its going to be unfulfilled. There is nothing inherently wrong with many of the things here. There is nothing wrong with beauty, but you and I have all seen Hollywood celebrities that will pay thousands of dollars to preserve their youth through cosmetic surgery. Most of them end up looking worse than they did before. They just let things go. We read in the paper all the time people who sacrificed their integrity to acquire one of these things. Its empty. Its not what was promised. God knows that since He is the one who made us and knows how we tick; and He knows what we need and that if we will give our allegiance to Him, He knows well truly experience the fulfillment that we seek-only through Him. So when He says no other gods and when He says dont bow down to an idol, its not based on any insecurity. Its based on love. The jealousy is an anger that is angry at those who would steal away the hearts of His people, getting them to buy a lie. Only He has the cure that we need. Only in Christ do we find what we are looking for. Only in Christ do we have the answer to the sin that besets our souls. That is the Gospel, and Law is foundation is love. The children of Israel did not want to forsake God. That was never their plan. When they went into this region and they started worshipping other gods, it wasnt to forsake God. They just wanted to have God and the other gods too. Im still going to worship the God of Israel. Im still going to worship the God of my fathers, but, you know, its probably not a bad idea to have an ace in the whole, a little something in my back pocket in case. Im going to have God plus Im going to have the other gods too. Thats idolatry. Idolatry is a lack of faith. It is trusting in something or someone other than the living God to supply what we need. What we have to do in this series is we have to do some introspection. We have to make sure that God is on the thrown in our hearts; that there arent idols that were bowing down to; that were not buying in to the placebos the world offers us. We know there is only one cure to what ails us; its only been found in one place, and thats the living God-the God of the Scripture, Lord Jesus Christ. We have to make sure because it is so easy to compromise, it is so easy to buy into the lie, its so easy to give in to the pressure… God is looking after a people who will return His love, whose hearts will belong solely to Him. Thats what this series is about. I hope youll join us. Were going to cover a lot of ground together in the next few weeks. Lets pray together: Father, as I bring this portion of the service to a close, our hearts reflect upon these Commandments. To those who would lack in understanding of Your Word, those who would not dig deeper below the Commandment, when Your Word says You are jealous, they are quick to point a finger and say that You are insecure, that You have an ego problem. Lord, when we understand that the Law is based upon love, we understand that this Commandment is here so that we would not ruin our lives or ruin other lives, that we could know true joy and peace. Father, wed come to embrace it. Wed come to see it for what it is, its value and its words in significance. Lord, till the day we die, these other voices will clamor and compete for our allegiance, commanding us to bow down, to give in, to sacrifice, to pursue that which does not satisfy. Lord, help us to be wiser than that, to rise above that, to see the air in the lie, to be drawn to the Truth that is found in You, Lord Jesus. Lord, help us in this series to break through some walls that have kept us back, to gain victory in areas where we have known defeat, to bring some things to the cross that have waged war against our souls, that we might know the freedom that You desire to bring us in Christ. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
Its hard to believe, but we are on Week 11 of this series on apologetics. Apologetics means defending your faith. We have spent two weeks on the Nature of Truth; three weeks on the Existence of God; two weeks on the Problem of Evil; one week on Science; one week on the Credibility of the New Testament; a week on the Deity of Christ; and this week on the Resurrection. If you missed any of those weeks, remember we have a tape ministry that is available. All you do is you go out to the patio. On the counter there is a form. You just fill it out and leave it on the table. There is a little box for a freewill donation if you want to make one of those. Chip Jacobs will make sure its there for you the next week-a tape or a CD. Of course, theyre always available online. Then you should have received a Faith News. Did you receive that, a little slip of paper? If you are not on faith news or youve changed your email, this is an update we send out a couple times a month to let you know whats going on at Faith. Maybe its to move your clocks ahead, or maybe its some event thats transpiring like the Good Friday service this past Friday. Thats our way of communicating-one of the ways we do, so just fill this out and drop it in the offering box on the way out this morning. Would you turn with me please to the Gospel of Luke 23 (page 1046 of pew Bibles)? Since were going to be eating today quite a bit, lets work some of that off; lets stand up. You are going to play the part of the angels this morning since you all look like a bunch of angels to me. Im buttering you up, so youll like the sermon, see? Were going to read together 24:1-12, and you will read the part of the angels. We are talking about the Resurrection since it is Easter. On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightening stood beside them. In their fright, the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, Why do you look for living among the dead? He is not here; He has risen! Remember how He told you, while He was still with you in Galilee. The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again Then they remembered His words. When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the Apostles. But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened. Please be seated. We talked in our series several times about a naturalist point of view. In the naturalists point of view, the universe is a closed system. There is nothing that comes in and nothing that goes out. Everything that we see is all there is. There is no spiritual; there is only the physical. Life as we know it came as a result of random chance and evolution, survival of the fittest; so you and I, when we die, thats the end of our existence. We return to the dust from which we came, and everyone that has gone before us, our loved ones, they exist only in our memories. Those who will go after us when they pass away, that is the end of them as well. Thats a naturalists point of view. Thats difficult, so you have to find some sort of meaning in your existence because this is all that there is. Ultimately, if we are the product of random chance, there is no real meaning to our lives. We are accidents. We know that there has to be something more than just this natural stuff that we look at. We know there is something more to us than the face that we look at in the mirror. The Bible teaches that there is a spiritual reality to this life as well, so we have to make a decision about Christianity. Is Christianity just wishful thinking? Is it just a superstitious relic of the past that we try to hold on to or is there sufficient evidence to believe that Christ is who He said He was and that He did in fact rise from the dead? One thing we must keep in mind as we ponder this question is these events at this point in time in history; Jesus of Nazareth walked this earth; He walked the streets of Palestine; that we read about kings and governors; we read about places that we can go to and visit today. The Bible tells in detail, so these things are not described in mythical manner. These are events that happened in history. Twenty-five thousand surviving manuscripts of the New Testament testify to the accuracy of this account. Now here is some common ground. Those who lived at the time Christ was crucified all had agreement on several major things, truths. Number one, that Jesus of Nazareth was crucified under Pontius Pilate by Rome. Thats historical fact thats agreed upon, number one. Number two, He was buried in a tomb after He died. Number three, somehow the tomb became empty. The enemies of Christ-the Jewish leadership, the Romans, the Christians-all agree on those three facts. Thats very important for us to understand. There was no debate that Christ had died on the cross, that He was buried and that the tomb was empty. The debate is how did the tomb come to be empty? Thats the debate. That's what all the bru-haha is about. Im going to read to you quickly an account from Josephus. Im going to read this entire book this morning-no (congregation laughing). Im just going to read a quote. Josephus is very important because much of the history that we have about what happened in Palestine and about what happened in the history of the Jewish nation comes from Josephus. He was an historian extraordinaire. He was born in 37 A.D., just four years after Christ was crucified. He began life as a Jew, and then he fought the Romans in 66. He was captured, survived the war and eventually became a Roman citizen. He was commissioned by the Vespasian to write histories; so for the next two, almost three, decades, he recorded the histories of the Jews. There is an excerpt I want you to read. I think its important to understand this: Josephus is not a Christian. In fact, when he lived in Jerusalem, he was a Pharisee. Hes recording about Christ, but he himself is not a Christian. Heres what he says in Chapter 3:3, Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call Him a man; for He was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He dew over to Him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. He was [the] Christ. And when Pilate, at the suggestion of principal men amongst us, had condemned Him to the cross, those that loved Him at the first did not forsake him; for He appeared to them alive again the third day; as the divine Prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning Him. And the tribe of Christians, so named from Him, are not extinct at this day. So he calls us a tribe. Josephus there verifies that He died under Pilate on the cross, was buried, and that the account was that He was alive again-that was the rumor that was circulating; so what are the theories? Lets take a look quickly at some of the theories that are out there. The first one is really far-fetched. Since everyone in Biblical times was in agreement that Christ died on the cross, this theory didnt come into play until centuries later. Its whats called the swoon theory, and that is that Jesus didnt really die on the cross. Somehow He survived the cross and later in the coolness of the tomb revived. So heres what were supposed to believe in the swoon theory. First of all, the Romans had every interest in killing Jesus because that was their job. Just as if somebody is commissioned to carry out capital punishment, you better believe that theyre going to make sure whether its through the gas chamber, the electric chair or a chemical injection, their job is to make sure that prisoner is dead. The Romans job was to make sure that their prisoner was dead. Thats why they thrust the spear into His side, and out flew the blood and the plasma, indicating that He had already died. I guarantee you the enemies of Christ were going to make sure Jesus was dead. They wanted to rid their region of this scourge, this man who had taken so many of their flock; this man who had contradicted their teachings. He had been under their skin; He had been a thorn in their sides, and they were so tired of Him, so sick of Him. He had embarrassed them; He had outthought them. He had acted in a blasphemous way as a heretic claiming to be the Son of God. They wanted Him dead, and I guarantee you they were going to make sure that He didnt come down from that cross alive. Lets say for the sake of the swoon theorists that their theory is correct-that Christ survived. Heres what I am led to believe then: Christ is going to take 39 lashes with a cat of nine tails; and glass, bone, metal are going to come against His back, rip His flesh. Many people did not survive that part of the torture, but then lets say He does, and He goes to the cross. Hes going to be crucified on the cross. Hes going to hang on the cross for hours. Most people would die quickly from affixation because they couldnt breathe. Somehow, He survives that. He is then stuck in the side with a spear, and somehow He survives that too. He is then wrapped up like a mummy by Joseph and Nicodemus, wrapped up with linen; and then this sticky, gooey substance with perfumes and spices is wrapped around that so He is like sealed in this cocoon. He survives that. He is then put in a tomb and sealed without air for three days, without food, without water, and without medical attention. He revives Himself, undoes the bandages, moves a one-ton stone and presents Himself alive to His Disciples as the conqueror of death. To me, that takes more faith to believe than Him being raised from the dead and Hes Lord. There is another theory. The theory is that the women went to the wrong tomb. You know men thought of that one; lets blame it on the ladies to go to the wrong tomb. First of all, thats hard to do because its the only tomb with guards around it. Secondly, in Luke 23:55 (page 1047), it says, The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how His body was laid in it. So they followed them. They saw where the tomb was. They went home and rested on the Sabbath and came back the next morning. There was no mistaking where the tomb was. Besides that, the tomb belongs to Joseph of Arimathea. He is rich, and he is a member of the Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin was the elite. That was the top of the food chain. These guys-there were 71 of them. They were like our Congress and our Supreme Court combined into one. Do you think it would make the news today if one of the Supreme Court justices gave their cemetery plot to a convicted criminal who was executed by the state? Would that make the news? If they said, You know, I really love this criminal. I think this criminal has been unjustly sentenced to execution, and to show my love, Im going to give them my family burial plot. Would that make CNN? Yeah. This was no secret tomb. This was a prominent tomb in a garden, so everyone knew where the tomb of Jesus was. It was no secret place. That theory does not hold a lot of water. The third theory is that the Jews took the body of Jesus-the enemies of Christ took the body of Jesus. Well, listen friends, thats the last thing they wanted to do. They wanted to end this rumor once and for all. In the Book of Matthew 27:62 (page 989 of pew Bibles), it says, The next day after Christ had died… The Jews are going to just make sure Hes dead, number one; but number two, were going to make sure that we never have to hear anything more about this Jesus and that this movement comes to an end. …the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. Sir, they said, we remember that while He was still alive that deceiver said, After three days I will rise again. So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, His Disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that He has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first. The first deception is that He was the Son of God. The second deception, that He is risen from the dead, is much worse. Then Pilate agrees. Take a guard, Pilate answered. Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how. Thats their job. Theyre guards; theyre professionals. So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard. So the Roman guards post, and the seal of Rome is put over the tomb. That is something you dont want to break. That is something you dont want to tamper with because you do so at the risk of your very life. The Jews made every effort they could to prevent this rumor from happening. Its the last thing that they wanted. Theres a fourth theory, and this is probably the most prominent: that is the Disciples stole the body. The followers of Christ came into the tomb and stole the body of Jesus. Matthew 28:11, after Christ has risen from the dead, the soldiers now fearing for their very lives leave their post and go and report what had happened. Verse 11, While the women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened. These guys are panicking. Theyre like white as ghosts. Theyre like, There was an angel, a stone and an earthquake, and they rolled back the stone. Theyre just trying to cover their tracks as best as they can. When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, telling them, You are to say, His Disciples came during the night and stole Him away while we were asleep. If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble. So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day. Well, lets talk about that. Lets begin to pick apart that argument because this one has the most teeth, and its the most believed or the most prevalent argument-the alternate alternative to the fact that He rose from the dead. So, its a conspiracy. These guys fabricated this story about Christ being risen from the dead when they knew in fact He was not because they are the ones who started it. They perpetrated this lie that they stole the body. Number one-lets begin to look at some of these things. What happens to a group, especially a group thats dependent upon a very charismatic individual-that individual when he dies, what usually happens to that group? It disbands, doesnt it? It goes away. Well, were going to find that this particular following is going to increase in its influence; increase in its power; increase in its numbers after its very charismatic leader is executed. Its an unheard of thing to happen. The second reason: Are we to believe that these men were going to be transformed by a lie? Are these men who have been cowards, who have been hiding in secret, are going to be so transformed by this hoax, theyre going to go out in the streets and preach the Gospel to thousands of people while risking their very lives. The Sanhedrin-the most powerful group of men-was going to call them and say, Were going to imprison you. Were going to beat you. Were going to torture you. Were going to even kill you if you continue to talk about the Resurrection. Knowing its a lie, they say, Beat us! Imprison us! Kill us if you have to! We cannot stop talking about what we have seen and heard. Do you know how hard it is to keep a conspiracy or a cover-up? You dont have to go back very far in history. Think of the Watergate cover-up. It didnt last very long. Those men started to crack under pressure, and everyone gives the other one up as soon as they start talking about jail. Yeah, Ill talk. Ill talk. These men went to their deaths refusing to change their story. You know people will die for something they think is true thats not. Terrorists blow themselves up because they think its an instant ticket to paradise. How many people will die for something they know is a lie? These men would have known the truth. Yet, one after another… Peter will be crucified upside down. Paul will lay his head on a chopping block. None of them will change their story, and their stories are all the same. He was crucified. Hes alive, and weve seen Him. Kill us if you have to. We must obey God more than men. Lies are things that make us ashamed. Lies make us hang our heads. Lies arent things that make us bolder, stronger and more courageous; but they will be punished and die for it. Lets go ahead and look to the next point I want to make. These are cowards for a time being until the Holy Spirit comes on them. Theyre going to break a Roman seal. It would take some nerve for you if while youre in Washington D.C., you see something that says Top Secret, Property of the United States Government, and you go ahead and violate that. For these men to risk their lives for this lie is quite extraordinary. What is the reason to do that? Think about this. When Jesus was alive and He was doing these great miracles and teaching, it was still difficult for people to believe He was the Messiah. Why? Because He was not acting as a Messiah should act. He was not defeating the Roman Government. He was not gathering up a following or an army to rebel. He was not doing that at all. Hes reaching out to people like lepers and Samaritans. He was healing the sick; He was preaching love, forgiveness and grace. Thats not how a Messiah is supposed to be. It was really a tough sell when Jesus Himself was proclaiming who He was and doing wonderful miracles. Now, youre going to try to market a dead Messiah to the people? Now youre going to try to tell them this Man who was a criminal, was crucified on the cross and died this humiliating death is really, truly the Son of God? You need to come up with a different marketing strategy because that one is not going to work! It was one thing when Jesus was alive to believe He was the Messiah, and they struggled with that. Now that Hes dead and considering the manner in which He died, youre going to now convince these people that He is the divine Son of God? That's not going to work unless that plan really is from God, unless it is the truth. Lets play along with their story here. Lets imagine for a moment that theyre going to overpower the guards. Theyre going to steal it [with them there] because thats the alternative. Either the guards are sleeping or the guards are awake. Lets say the guards are awake. Can you imagine this group of unarmed men overpowering Roman guards with their spears, their swords and their knives? These are non-violent Disciples of Christ, and were expected to believe theyre going to overpower Roman soldiers? Highly unlikely. What about the fact that theyre sleeping? Would you fall asleep if your life depended on it? If this was your job and if you fell asleep, it meant you died, would you fall asleep? I dont think you would. Now you might sleep, but youd trade off, right? Youd take a session and youd sleep, then Ill sleep and so forth; but if your life depends on it, youre not going to fall asleep. In the Book of Acts 12, Herod Agrippa has Peter in prison. He has already killed James, the brother of John; and the Jews liked it. He wants to be popular, and he likes the response; so he decides hes going to kill Peter too. He imprisons Peter, and Peter is in jail and the church is praying. An angel comes and releases Peter from his bonds, and Peter walks out free. When the soldiers wake up in the morning, they find that Peter is no longer in the prison. They know their lives are at stake. We find the story in Acts 12:18 (page 1091), In the morning, there was no small commotion among the soldiers as to what had become of Peter. After Herod had a thorough search made for him and did not find him, he cross-examined the guards and ordered that they be executed. That was the punishment. Earlier in the Book of Acts in that chapter, we know that there are 16 of those guards from the Greek-16 men are killed at Herods hands. Herod can do anything he wants. He is the close friend of Emperor Caligula-childhood friends. So he has carblanche-do whatever you want. Hes like a little mini-dictator there. King Herod has those men killed. Why? Because they usurped their responsibility, and they let the prisoner go free. These men are not going to fall asleep. Lets say they did. Lets play along. You know, how hard would it be to move a one-ton plus stone in the middle of the night and not wake up the guards? Think about the ridiculousness of their story. My wife goes to bed early. Shes an early riser; Im a night owl, so invariably when I go to bed, shes sleeping. Shes also a light sleeper, so I try not to wake her up; but we have a board that when I step on it, it squeaks all the time. Ill come in the room and be really quiet and creak. Then shell start to stir. Ill go to the restroom real quick, and Ill try to shut the door. Shell wake up. Im trying to be as quiet as I possibly can. Its just me walking in the bedroom to go to bed, not saying a word and trying to tiptoe. Am I really supposed to believe that the Apostles are going to come, find the guards sleeping and theyre going to ever so quietly move a one-ton stone? You try that. Get a one-ton stone and try to quietly move it. Its so easy. Those one-ton stones just roll so smoothly and quietly. Come on! Lets be real! You know what the best explanation is? Its not that the ladies went to the wrong tomb. Its not that Jesus didnt really die from the sufferings and torture. Its not that the Jews took Him. Its not that the Disciples took Him. The explanation that makes by far the most sense-the only one thats rational-is that He rose from the dead, that He was who He said He was. With that promise, we have the hope of the Resurrection because if Christ did in fact rise from the dead, then the world and human beings are more than just physical; we are also spiritual. There is a part of us that will survive death. Paul talks about this in the Book of 1 Corinthians. He talks about the fact that the Resurrection of Jesus was not just the resuscitation of a corpse. Jesus resurrected body was different. He was still Jesus; He was still recognizable as Jesus, but He had changed. His body was now a body that could inhabit eternity. Paul writes and says that you and I one day will have a body like Jesus. Verse 12 of 1 Corinthians 15 (page 1139), Paul says, But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then now even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that He raised Christ from the dead. But He did not raise Him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. Thats it; its done. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. A new and improved you. My computer went on the fritz, and I depend a lot on my computer. It started to make a funny movement. It started to fade in and out; it took longer to boot up every time, and it would go off quickly. Over the period of days, it would boot up and go off real fast, and then it wouldnt even boot up at all. I said, My computer is sick. Then I finally said, My computer is dead. I took it to Apple to see the computer doctor. He took it in the back room. He came out after a few minutes, and he said, Your computer is dead. You need a new logic board. He said, Thats pretty expensive. Youre better off just getting a brand new laptop. My concern was this: I said, Listen, I understand that, but I just feel so bad. I started venting. I started pouring out my heart to this guy. I was like, I had my files on there. I had all the sites that I liked bookmarked. I had sermons on there. I had papers that Ive written on there. I had everything the way I wanted it, emails and everything. Im just sick about it. He said, Oh, we got all of those. We got all of those. He says, No problem. In this new computer, this desktop is going to look the same. All your bookmarks will still be there. All your scans will be there. All your files will be there; all your papers will be there. All your emails will be there. Itll just be a better computer. I was like, Slick. I took it home, I had sharper graphics. I had faster speed; I had a newer version, but I had the same old stuff that made it feel like it was my computer. No analogy is perfect, but the Bible says were going to get a new body, A new and improved you. A body that can inhabit eternity, but it will still be you. Jesus was still Jesus. You will still be you-your personality; your memories; the things that make you will still be you, but you will have a body like Christ that can inhabit eternity and live in the presence of God; a body without sin; a body that will not know pain or death. Its because of Christ; because of His obedience; His suffering; and His Resurrection. Were going to sing about that right now as we prepare to close out our service, Our God is Mighty to Save. (Here is a link to the lyrics: http://www.keepandshare.com/htm/music_lyrics/christian/mighty_to_save.php). Im going to ask if our team would come forward and lead us. Im going to ask if you would stand and prepare to sing to the Lord. As soon as were done, Ill come back and dismiss us in prayer and give a couple of announcements before we go home. Lord, were so thankful for Your Truth. It was no debate that the tomb was empty. The debate was why it was empty. When we lay out the facts, the only one that makes sense is that He is risen, that He is Lord. Because we have put our hope and trust in You, we have hope beyond the grave. The firstfruits have come, and we will live with You for all eternity through Jesus Christ our Lord. In the name of the risen Savior, we pray. All Gods people said, Amen.
Were continuing our series, Looking Under the Hood. Were talking about not just the what of our faith but the why and the how. This morning we are turning our attention to understanding why the church believes that Christ is divine and not just a man, not just a good teacher or even a Prophet. Why do we believe He is God incarnate? Many of you know Im a Bears fan. I have not attempted to hide that fact over the years. Years ago, it was a Sunday night game, and the Bears were playing the Falcons. To show you what a diehard fan I am, it was seven below zero for that Sunday night game. It was just freezing. The quarterback that we had-this was B.C., before Cutler. If youre a sports fan, you understand that. We had a quarterback by the name of Rex Grossman who was hurt. His backup, Kyle Orton, was in the game, and he was not doing well. Everybody in the stands was cheering, Rex! Rex! Rex! Rex! In the second half, he comes running out-the first action since his injury, and the place goes nuts. Hes moving the ball, we scored and we won the game. Everybody loved him, Rex is a savior! Rex is going to lead us to the Promised Land. The next year, he was not having a good season. I made my annual voyage to Soldier Field. While he was playing, they were booing basically every time he came onto the field. We want Orton back! We want the other guy back! The guy that we booed last year-now were cheering him, and we want him in the game. The guy that we cheered for last year-the guy that was our savior-were now booing him and we want him out! I just remember thinking to myself how fickle people are, how fickle we are. Friends, people have not changed. If people are fickle now, they were fickle in the times of the Bible too. This crowd-this Palm Sunday that we reflect on and are chanting, Here comes the King! Hosanna Lord, save us! Those who are pledging their allegiance to Him, throwing down their cloaks and throwing down their palm branches, some of that same crowd just days later is going to be cheering for Him to be crucified. They dont like the idea of the Messiah being arrested or the Messiah being beaten. Thats not their idea of the Messiah. The Messiah is to come and conquer. Hes going to lead, and there were times when they tried to get Jesus to be king if you recall; and He rejected those attempts, but the crowd was fickle. Thats how people are. Jesus was not a safe teacher. There are some churches in America where you hear a very different Gospel. They try to present Jesus as somebody who is very safe, somebody who only said nice things like turn the other cheek and love your enemies- the Golden Rule. But Jesus was anything but a safe teacher. In fact the Bible says that many of the things Jesus said were scandalous. The Old Testament-the Prophet Isaiah said that the Messiah would be a scandalon. Peter in 1 Peter 2:8 said that Jesus was a scandalon. That meant a trap, a rock of offense, something that causes people to stumble and fall. Jesus was not safe. Jesus said things that were controversial. Jesus said things that caused men to stumble in their walk and their faith-not in the sense of telling them air, but in the sense that though it was true, they could not understand it. It was offensive to say the things that He said about Himself. Still today, if you say that Christ is God in the flesh, it is offensive to people. Say that to somebody who is an Orthodox Jew and see what their response is. Say that to somebody who is committed to Allah-that Jesus was not just a Prophet but He is the divine Son of God, and watch the response. The response to the things that Jesus said was very strong in the times of the Bible. In fact there were times when He said things that were so egregious that they immediately were filled with rage and wanted to kill Him. Have you ever heard somebody say something that just enraged you instantly? Maybe youre traveling abroad and somebody says something about your country, says something about Americans, and it just makes you mad. I remember I was a pretty peaceful kid growing up. In grade school, I got into a couple scraps. Both times it was when they said something about my mom. Say anything you want about me, but if you say something about my mama, theres trouble. To this day if you say something about my mom, Ill punch you in the nose. If someone says something about your child or somebody that is precious to you, it immediately causes this visceral reaction, this rage. If somebody says something derogatory about your God or if somebody says something blasphemous about Jesus… Maybe youre watching television. Theyll do something that mocks Christ. Tell me that doesnt cause anger to well up inside of you. Friends, there were things Jesus said about Himself, things that He did that caused this kind of anger-this kind of rage. Were going to join the story here in John 8 of a dialogue that has become increasingly tense between the Pharisees and Jesus. Keep in mind that the Pharisees are the religious leaders. The Pharisees are the ones who claim to know God the most. Yet, they were the very ones that Christ had the most confrontations with. In Verse 48 of John 8 (page 1060 of pew Bibles), The Jews answered Him and said, Arent we right in saying that you are a Samaritan and demon-possessed? To call Christ a Samaritan was a racial slur. Think of a racial slur, something very derogatory you could say about another race that would cause instant anger. Thats what theyre seeking to entice in Christ; by calling Him a Samaritan, they are making a racially prejudice remark designed to get under His skin-designed to cause Him to become angry or to be hurt. Of course, saying Hes possessed of a demon is to have a similar effect. I am not possessed by a demon, said Jesus, but I honor My Father and you dishonor Me. I am not seeking glory for Myself; but there is One who seeks it, and He is the judge. I tell you the truth, if anyone keeps My Word, he will never see death. Thats a controversial thing to say, isnt it? Now Hes talking here not about physical death, but Hes talking about spiritual death. They understand it to be physical death. …the Jews exclaimed, Now we know that You are demon-possessed! Abraham died and so did the Prophets, yet You say that if anyone keeps Your Word, he will never taste death. Are You greater than our father Abraham? He died, and so did the Prophets. Who do You think You are? Thats an interesting question. Thats a question that people have been trying to answer for many centuries. Who is Jesus? Who did He claim to be? Some would have us believe that Hes just a man, that He taught that He was just a man, or that His followers believed He was nothing more than a great man or a Prophet of God. Were going to listen right now to a short clip before we finish this text from the movie, Da Vinci Code, which we started last week. Last week, by the way, over 40 percent of you were gone because of the weather; so we did talk about the credibility of the New Testament and how the Bible came to be. You might want to pick that up as part of your series in case you missed it. We showed a clip from the Da Vinci Code with Leigh Teabing, also known as Professor X or Gandalf the Grey. It is talking about how the Bible came to be and how the deity of Christ came to be, so lets listen to what he says. Well I could take the remainder of our time this morning and correct a lot of the things that he said there. Im not going to do that because thats not our topic, but the deity of the Christ-the divinity of Christ-was not at stake at Nicaea. Nicaea was about whether He was equal with the Father and co-eternal with the Father; or the same substance as the Father; or was He of a similar substance-still divine but also created by God? That was the debate. Bishops from around the world-the east and the west-gathered in Nicaea. They did hold a vote; they did adopt a creed. The vote was over 300 to 2. There were 2 that sided with whats called Aryanism-that He is a created being. The majority of the bishops-99 point some percent of the bishops-said and affirmed the deity of Christ, what the church had always believed. Lets look at history. Does it make sense that the Apostles died for their faith-that they thought that Christ was just a man or a Prophet? That would not get them killed. Would it make sense that under Nero and other emperors that Christians would be fed to the lions and burned alive at the stake if all they thought was that Christ was a man? They were tortured and killed because they would not worship the Roman gods; because they would not worship Caesar as God; because their allegiance was to Christ as God. So where does that come from? Where does this whole idea of the divinity of Christ come from? It comes from Christ Himself. It comes from the words that He spoke. Remember this dialogue that were in, and its getting increasingly agitated. Theyre getting increasingly hot under the collar, so theyve resorted to name calling back and forth. Who do you think You are? Jesus replied in Verse 54, If I glorify Myself, My glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the One who glorifies Me. Though you do not know Him, I know Him. Understand Hes saying this to the religious leaders. These are the poster boys for faith, and Jesus has the audacity to say, You dont even know God! That's certainly going to demand a response! Though you do not know Him, I know Him. If I said I did not, I would be a liar like you… Well, that will calm things down right away. But I do know Him and keep His Word. Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing My day. He saw it and was glad. Oh, time out. Wait a second now; youve just taken a train to crazy town here. You are saying that You saw Abrahams response to Your coming? Abraham is a couple thousand years old, right? You have to be thinking this? You would think somebody was delusional if they are being patriotic and she or he says, You know, when our country signed the Declaration of Independence, what a great day that was! I remember watching George Washington and Thomas Jefferson and seeing the smiles on their faces when they signed that document! Youd go, You know, come on! Who are you kidding? So thats what they say to Jesus. They say, Youre not even fifty years old, and Youve seen Abraham? You have to know that some are chuckling and laughing. This guy is wacked! He is absolutely crazy if He thinks He has seen Abraham with His own eyes. Then Jesus is going to take the conversation to another level. He is going to say something that is so controversial that causes such anger that the dialogue is going to end. Its going to end with them wanting to kill Him. I tell you the truth, Jesus answered, before Abraham was born, I am! At this, they picked up stones to stone Him, but Jesus hid Himself, slipping away from the temple grounds. If your Bible says, I am He, the He will be in italics. Most of your Bibles will simply say, I am. Why did that so enrage the Pharisees? The words I am or the verb to be is the covenant name for God. In the Old Testament when God appears to Moses in the burning bush, thats whats called a theophany or physical manifestation of the presence of God that can be seen by the eye of man. Moses is told to go to Pharaoh to say, Let my people go, and he says, Who shall I say sent me? God says through the burning bush, Tell him I am. Tell them I am has sent you, so that became the covenant name for God. Jehovah, Yahweh, I am. So when Jesus takes and says, Before Abraham was born, I am, He has taken the covenant name of God to Himself and applying it to Himself. They understand that, and you can tell they understand it because theyre going to pick up rocks. If He is just a crazy man, hed be like, Yeah, Im 2,000 years old! I lived before Abraham! Whoo! Im crazy! Theyre not going to pick up rocks; theyre going to feel sorry for the guy. Theyd probably pat Him on the back and go, Okay, sure you were. Thats all right, pal. Yeah, sure, You knew Abraham. Lets leave Him alone. Hes nuts! But straight-faced, He takes the covenant name for God to Himself, meaning that He saw Abrahams day. It gets worse after that. John 10, Jesus is talking about the fact that Hes our good shepherd-that were His flock. He even talks about you and me here, literally. In Verse 16, He says, I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen… Thats Gentiles. …I must bring them also. They too will listen to My voice, and there shall be one flock… Following this discourse, many of these same people confront Christ again in Verse 19. At these words the Jews were again divided. Many of them said, He is demon-possessed and raving mad. Why listen to Him? But others said, These are not the sayings of a man possessed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind? They start to use their reason. Demon-possessed people froth at the mouth; they cut themselves; they growl; they snarl. They dont teach as Christ taught. They dont say things that will stump the wisest theologian of the day. No, no-these are not the words of a crazy man. There must be another explanation. Verse 22, Then came the Feast of Dedication at Jerusalem. Whats that? Do you know what that is? Its winter-thats a clue. Its Hanukkah; its the Festival of lights. Its the rededication of the temple when Maccabeus drove out Antiochus, Epiphanies and the Seleucids. Actually for a period of time, Jerusalem is in control of their destiny. Theyre not under Rome; theyre not under anybody. Its a very happy time in the history of Israel. Jesus comes, and Hes celebrating that. Its the Feast of Dedication; its Hanukkah. While Hes walking there in Solomons Colonnade, it said that Jews gathered around Him. Theyre curious-who is this Man? They say, How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly. He has their curiosity aroused. Apparently, taking the covenant name of Jehovah on to Himself was not enough. Some want more proof. Jesus answered, I did tell you, but you do not believe. The miracles I do in My Fathers name speak for Me. Its interesting, and this is an apologetic in and of itself, the miracles of Christ testify to His deity. Do they not? If you have control over the elements, if you have control over life and death, is that not a testament to the deity of Christ? Whats more is the critics of Christ-the enemies of Christ-do not question the miracles. That is an apologetic. That is a defense of the faith. They try to come up with other rational explanations for the miracles, but they never question the miracles. They become angry about how He did it and when He did it, but they never question the fact that He did it. So before you got me off track, where was I here? He says, …but you do not believe because you are not My sheep. My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life… That is a bold thing to say, to tell someone you give them eternal life-that you have the authority and capability to give someone eternal life. …and they shall never parish; no one shall snatch them out of my hand. They understand when He says My Father that Hes speaking about God in Heaven. My Father is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of My Fathers hand. I and the Father are one. Some have taught that when He says one, it means Hes in agreement with God. Theyre on the same page. Hes saying, Yeah God! Im on Gods side. Were one. Were united. Were a team! Really, does that get rocks thrown at you? If you go to religious people, and you say, Hey, thumbs up for God, are they going to try to kill you? No, theyre going to go, Oh, okay. Yeah, youre one of us. You love God too. Would you say that these people understood the language Christ was speaking and that words meant better than the scholars that are alive today? If English became extinct like Koinonia Greek is no longer spoken, if our English-our modern-day English became extinct, in 2,000 years from now if somebody was an expert in English, would they understand the language better than us who lived it? No way. We would know the language better than them. Even the most-learned scholar 2,000 years from now would not understand our language because we speak it every day. Make no mistake about it when Christ claims the oneness with the Father, they understand He is referencing His equality with God. That is seen by their words; that is seen by their response. It says, Again the Jews picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus said to them, I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone Me? We are not stoning You for any of these, replied the Jews, but for blasphemy, because You, a mere man, claim to be God. The understanding that Christ is divine comes from none other than Christ Himself. It is what the early church taught and believed. It was not the result of a council in Nicaea in 325 A.D. It was not the decree of an emperor. It was from the words of Christ Himself. The visceral response was, Were going to murder You! The law said in Leviticus if somebody blasphemes God, you stone them; but that was only after trial and evidence and a jury made a verdict. Then you were sentenced and then you were stoned. They were saying, Were going to be Your judge and Your jury. Were going to kill You right now! They were so angry, so offended. He is a scandalon; He is a rock of offense that causes men to stumble. That was a scandalous thing to say, and, friends, it still is. If someone were to say the things that Jesus said, you would be offended. You certainly would not follow them. Jesus said to see Him was to see God; to know Him was to know God; to believe in Him was to believe in God; to obey Him was to obey God; to follow Him was to follow God; to serve Him was to serve God. He was the source of eternal life; no one came to God but through Him; that He was the way to Heaven; He was the truth of God. Can you imagine? Ill pick on Pastor Jerry now. Hes not here, so Ill pick on him. Oh, he is here. Sorry, Jerry. Ill do it anyway. You go to Pastor Jerrys class. I dont normally do that, Jerry. I dont pick on you because youre not here. Anyway, Im in big trouble. Jerrys a good teacher, so you go to one of his classes. Ill always ask, Hey, how was that marriage class with Pastor Jerry today? Its a normal conversation. Ill hear, Oh, it was great. So you go to Pastor Jerrys class, How was Pastor Jerrys class? It was great! Thats good to hear. Hes a good teacher! Yeah, yeah. We learned a lot today. I learned this and that. I am like, Wonderful! Great, Im glad you liked the class. The next week, I say, How was class with Pastor Jerry? Oh, it was really good. Today Pastor Jerry told us hes athletic. Yeah, he is. He played three sports, and hes a pretty athletic guy. Hes a coach; yeah thats true. Yeah, hes an athletic guy. I see you the next week, How were things with Pastor Jerry? Oh, it was a great class. Jerry is a good Bible teacher. Today he told us that he was strong, and he broke a railroad tie with his hands. These are things Jerry actually does-truthfully. Hes won some contests-bench press contests. Hes a strong guy. He told us that today. Well, thats true. He is a strong guy. How was class with Jerry? I ask the next week. Oh, it was good. Jerry told us today hes a good-looking man. Well, yeah. Jerrys a good-looking guy, sure. And he reminded us again that he was athletic. Well, yeah, he is. I see you the next week, How was class with Pastor Jerry? Well, you know, hes a good teacher, but today he told us that if we saw him, we saw God, and he told us that hes the way to Heaven. He did? Are you sure you werent mistaken? No, he wrote it on the board, Im the way to Heaven. Im the truth, and no one gets to Heaven but through me. Now what do you think about Pastor Jerry? Do you think hes a great teacher still, or do you think maybe hes cuckoo? He has issues, loco in the cabeza. Good teachers dont go around claiming to be God. That's the point of C.S. Lewis in his book, Mere Christianity. C.S. Lewis says, Look at the claims of Christ. You have the same choices to make about the words of Christ according to Scripture as you would with our hypothetical story of Pastor Jerry. Either he is crazy, delusional, really believes that he is the Messiah-you could go into any psychiatric ward in the country and you could find a lot of Jesuses… But nobody believes them. Theyre not walking on any water. Or, around our world today there are cult leaders. Right now there is a Hispanic-Latin man who is teaching that hes Jesus, and people believe him-whether you know that or not. They believe he is God incarnate. He smokes; he drinks; he tells people there is no sin. Sin is a bad word. This is true! People believe he is the incarnation of Christ. Hes rich; hes making a lot of money. Hes living quite a lifestyle. You could say, Well, hes trying to deceive people. He knows hes not. In that case, hes wicked. Listen, Jesus said in John 8 to His enemies, Who among you accuses Me of sin? Try saying that even to your family. Go to your family and say, Hey, have I ever done anything wrong? Do that to your friends, Hey, youve never seen me do anything wrong, have you? We laugh, but try doing that with your enemies. Go to somebody who doesnt like you-if there is such a person-and say, Hey, Ive never done anything wrong, have I? That takes a lot of nerve to go to your enemies and say, Who of you accuses Me of sin, and have silence be the response. Jesus is a moral man. No one questioned that. Hes an intelligent man. Nobody thought He was crazy. Whats our third alternative? Our third alternative is He is who He claimed to be. He is Lord. His miracles testify; His Resurrection testifies that He is who He claimed to be. Now this kind of an understanding of the nature of Jesus should not be reserved to a theological discussion, a creed or an intellectual statement or doctrine. This truth demands much more personal response, an emotional spiritual response. In the same Book, we find the story of a man who had been born blind. Jesus encounters him begging and uses him as a moment to teach. He says in Verse 5 of Chapter 9 (page 1061 of pew Bibles), While I am in the world, I am the light of the world. He spits upon the mud, and He makes clay and rubs it on the mans eyes. He tells him to go and wash in the Pool of Siloam. The mans eyes are open, and he begins to see. For the first time in his life, he sees color. He sees people; he sees his own hand; he sees trees; he sees water. His senses are overwhelmed. This man who was a beggar now has sight, and the people who have seen him year after year after year-the people are coming up to him and saying, Arent you the guy? Who did this to you? What happened? They ask him in Verse 10, How were your eyes opened? He replied, The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see. Where is this man? they asked him. I dont know, he said. How does he see Jesus? He sees Him as a man. Hes a pretty special man, but as far as this man knows, Hes a man. Thats all he knows. Then they bring him before the Pharisees. The Pharisees ask him what happened. He tells them the same story again. The Pharisees say, Well, this man is not from God. He doesnt keep the Sabbath. Theyre not rejoicing in this miracle of a blind man seeing. Theyre upset because it happened on the Sabbath day when you shouldnt work. To make mud was to work. …How can a sinner do such miraculous signs? others asked. Finally they turned to the blind man and said, What do you have to say about Him? It was your eyes He opened. The man replied, He is a Prophet. His viewpoint has changed, hasnt it? I now dont just see Him as a man, I see Him as a Prophet of God. I have new understanding of who He is because of what He has done. He couldnt possibly be just a man. The dialogue deteriorates here. As they question the man, he gets a little snotty. He gets a little bit too big for his britches, and they cast him out of the synagogue. Who are you to talk to us like that? You were born in sin. Were the leaders, and get out of here, so they kick him out. Verse 35, it says, Jesus heard that theyd thrown him out, and when He found him… Who found whom? Did the blind man find Jesus, or did Jesus find the blind man? Jesus found the blind man, and it still works that way, friends. God is a seeker. God is the initiator. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. If youve found Christ today, its not that you found Christ; its that Christ found you. Christ is the seeker of the souls of men. He said, Do you belive in the Son of Man? Jesus still asks that question. The Son of Man, by the way, comes from the Book of Daniel. In Daniel, he prophesized about the Son of Man receiving a kingdom from the ancient of days-thats an eternal kingdom, and that Hell rule over that kingdom for all of eternity. So it was understood that the Son of Man was a Messianic figure, the Son of God. This is one like the Son of God who received a kingdom that would last forever. Jesus takes that prophesy from Daniel, and He applies it to Himself. Again, an assertion of deity. Who is He, sir? the man asked. Tell me so that I may believe in Him. Jesus said, You have now seen Him; in fact, He is the One speaking with you. In other words, I am the Son of Man. The man replied, Lord, I believe, and he worshipped Him. How had he changed? Hed gone from seeing Him as a man to a Prophet, and now he sees Him as Lord. Hes the Lord, and he worships Him. What does Jesus do when the man worships Him? Does Jesus say, Oh, dont worship Me. Im just a Man. Dont worship Me! Im a Prophet!? Anytime in the Bible like somebody like Paul or Peter or a Prophet-when people try to worship them, what did they do? An angel? Dont worship me. Im just a man! When Jesus is worshipped, what does He do? He receives the worship. He receives the worship. Only God receives worship, right? Correct. By Jesus receiving the worship, that also is a statement of deity. Jesus still demands a response from every single person. The Jesus that we preach here is not a safe Jesus. Hes not just a good teacher that walks around blessing everybody, healing people and saying, Love your neighbor. He is a Jesus that came and died for your sins. He is a Jesus that said, Unless you believe I am He, you will remain in your sins. He is a Jesus who said, I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father but through Me. Friends, those words are as offensive as when they were spoken to some people. That is a stumbling block for them. But there are many ways to God! There are many sources of salvation! they will say. There is only One who died for you, and that is Christ. There is only One qualified to save your soul; and that is Jesus. Its a scandal. Its a stumbling block. One of my favorite artists-I dont know if hes recording music so much anymore, but because he is a scholar and a theologian, he wrote some very rich music. One of his most famous tunes, Love Crucified a Rose, will be sung on Easter Sunday around the nation. His name is Michael Card. He wrote a song called, Scandalon, using this Greek word, using this Old Testament Prophesy from Isaiah about the Messiah. Were going to listen to song-just text only. There are no images in this one. Lets reflect on Michal Cards song. (Click here for lyrics: http://www.stlyrics.com/songs/m/michaelcard9232/lovecrucifiedarose543715.html). It is my prayer today that if youre here this morning, and you dont know Christ, you can know Him today. It is Jesus who we studied and learned so much about and longs to have a relationship with you. Pray this with me: If youre here this morning, you do not know Christ and you wish to respond to Him today-Heavenly Father, I come to You today in Jesus name. Lord, I believe in my heart that You are the Son of God, that You died in my place upon the cross and that You rose again on the third day-that Youre Lord. I give my life to You, my soul to You. Forgive my sins and cleanse me. I pray your Holy Spirit would enter my life, empower me to live for You all my days and that one day I will live with You in Heaven for all eternity. In Jesus name. Father, for those who prayed that prayer, extended their faith, received You by faith, Your promise is their sins are forgiven. A miracle of a different kind is taking place, a miracle that we cannot see with our eyes, but we can know with our hearts a new life in Christ is theirs. Lord, weve tried to present an accurate representation of what You taught and what You did at our church, that You are not a safe teacher. Your message was a very dangerous one, and there were many who fell. It was a scandalous thing and still is to say that a human being is divine. You demonstrated that not only through Your teaching as You taught as no man has ever taught; and only through Your miracles which even your enemies could not dismiss; but Lord most importantly through Your Resurrection and the empty tomb. Next week well talk about that. Well invite friends, families, coworkers and neighbors to come and hear this message, to come and hear the story of the Savior who loved them, who was crucified and who rose again. I pray even now that You prepare hearts, grant us favor as we speak, that this place would be full of people who want to hear the good news of Christ. Lord, like the blind man who had seen physically and then began to see spiritually, might we see You for who You are. Might we celebrate that every day of our lives-that the God of the universe visited this planet and that He gives our life meaning, significance and purpose-we might be determined all the more to live for You. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
Its hard to believe, but we are on Week 11 of this series on apologetics. Apologetics means defending your faith. We have spent two weeks on the Nature of Truth; three weeks on the Existence of God; two weeks on the Problem of Evil; one week on Science; one week on the Credibility of the New Testament; a week on the Deity of Christ; and this week on the Resurrection. If you missed any of those weeks, remember we have a tape ministry that is available. All you do is you go out to the patio. On the counter there is a form. You just fill it out and leave it on the table. There is a little box for a freewill donation if you want to make one of those. Chip Jacobs will make sure its there for you the next week-a tape or a CD. Of course, theyre always available online. Then you should have received a Faith News. Did you receive that, a little slip of paper? If you are not on faith news or youve changed your email, this is an update we send out a couple times a month to let you know whats going on at Faith. Maybe its to move your clocks ahead, or maybe its some event thats transpiring like the Good Friday service this past Friday. Thats our way of communicating-one of the ways we do, so just fill this out and drop it in the offering box on the way out this morning. Would you turn with me please to the Gospel of Luke 23 (page 1046 of pew Bibles)? Since were going to be eating today quite a bit, lets work some of that off; lets stand up. You are going to play the part of the angels this morning since you all look like a bunch of angels to me. Im buttering you up, so youll like the sermon, see? Were going to read together 24:1-12, and you will read the part of the angels. We are talking about the Resurrection since it is Easter. On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightening stood beside them. In their fright, the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, Why do you look for living among the dead? He is not here; He has risen! Remember how He told you, while He was still with you in Galilee. The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again Then they remembered His words. When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the Apostles. But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened. Please be seated. We talked in our series several times about a naturalist point of view. In the naturalists point of view, the universe is a closed system. There is nothing that comes in and nothing that goes out. Everything that we see is all there is. There is no spiritual; there is only the physical. Life as we know it came as a result of random chance and evolution, survival of the fittest; so you and I, when we die, thats the end of our existence. We return to the dust from which we came, and everyone that has gone before us, our loved ones, they exist only in our memories. Those who will go after us when they pass away, that is the end of them as well. Thats a naturalists point of view. Thats difficult, so you have to find some sort of meaning in your existence because this is all that there is. Ultimately, if we are the product of random chance, there is no real meaning to our lives. We are accidents. We know that there has to be something more than just this natural stuff that we look at. We know there is something more to us than the face that we look at in the mirror. The Bible teaches that there is a spiritual reality to this life as well, so we have to make a decision about Christianity. Is Christianity just wishful thinking? Is it just a superstitious relic of the past that we try to hold on to or is there sufficient evidence to believe that Christ is who He said He was and that He did in fact rise from the dead? One thing we must keep in mind as we ponder this question is these events at this point in time in history; Jesus of Nazareth walked this earth; He walked the streets of Palestine; that we read about kings and governors; we read about places that we can go to and visit today. The Bible tells in detail, so these things are not described in mythical manner. These are events that happened in history. Twenty-five thousand surviving manuscripts of the New Testament testify to the accuracy of this account. Now here is some common ground. Those who lived at the time Christ was crucified all had agreement on several major things, truths. Number one, that Jesus of Nazareth was crucified under Pontius Pilate by Rome. Thats historical fact thats agreed upon, number one. Number two, He was buried in a tomb after He died. Number three, somehow the tomb became empty. The enemies of Christ-the Jewish leadership, the Romans, the Christians-all agree on those three facts. Thats very important for us to understand. There was no debate that Christ had died on the cross, that He was buried and that the tomb was empty. The debate is how did the tomb come to be empty? Thats the debate. That's what all the bru-haha is about. Im going to read to you quickly an account from Josephus. Im going to read this entire book this morning-no (congregation laughing). Im just going to read a quote. Josephus is very important because much of the history that we have about what happened in Palestine and about what happened in the history of the Jewish nation comes from Josephus. He was an historian extraordinaire. He was born in 37 A.D., just four years after Christ was crucified. He began life as a Jew, and then he fought the Romans in 66. He was captured, survived the war and eventually became a Roman citizen. He was commissioned by the Vespasian to write histories; so for the next two, almost three, decades, he recorded the histories of the Jews. There is an excerpt I want you to read. I think its important to understand this: Josephus is not a Christian. In fact, when he lived in Jerusalem, he was a Pharisee. Hes recording about Christ, but he himself is not a Christian. Heres what he says in Chapter 3:3, Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call Him a man; for He was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He dew over to Him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. He was [the] Christ. And when Pilate, at the suggestion of principal men amongst us, had condemned Him to the cross, those that loved Him at the first did not forsake him; for He appeared to them alive again the third day; as the divine Prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning Him. And the tribe of Christians, so named from Him, are not extinct at this day. So he calls us a tribe. Josephus there verifies that He died under Pilate on the cross, was buried, and that the account was that He was alive again-that was the rumor that was circulating; so what are the theories? Lets take a look quickly at some of the theories that are out there. The first one is really far-fetched. Since everyone in Biblical times was in agreement that Christ died on the cross, this theory didnt come into play until centuries later. Its whats called the swoon theory, and that is that Jesus didnt really die on the cross. Somehow He survived the cross and later in the coolness of the tomb revived. So heres what were supposed to believe in the swoon theory. First of all, the Romans had every interest in killing Jesus because that was their job. Just as if somebody is commissioned to carry out capital punishment, you better believe that theyre going to make sure whether its through the gas chamber, the electric chair or a chemical injection, their job is to make sure that prisoner is dead. The Romans job was to make sure that their prisoner was dead. Thats why they thrust the spear into His side, and out flew the blood and the plasma, indicating that He had already died. I guarantee you the enemies of Christ were going to make sure Jesus was dead. They wanted to rid their region of this scourge, this man who had taken so many of their flock; this man who had contradicted their teachings. He had been under their skin; He had been a thorn in their sides, and they were so tired of Him, so sick of Him. He had embarrassed them; He had outthought them. He had acted in a blasphemous way as a heretic claiming to be the Son of God. They wanted Him dead, and I guarantee you they were going to make sure that He didnt come down from that cross alive. Lets say for the sake of the swoon theorists that their theory is correct-that Christ survived. Heres what I am led to believe then: Christ is going to take 39 lashes with a cat of nine tails; and glass, bone, metal are going to come against His back, rip His flesh. Many people did not survive that part of the torture, but then lets say He does, and He goes to the cross. Hes going to be crucified on the cross. Hes going to hang on the cross for hours. Most people would die quickly from affixation because they couldnt breathe. Somehow, He survives that. He is then stuck in the side with a spear, and somehow He survives that too. He is then wrapped up like a mummy by Joseph and Nicodemus, wrapped up with linen; and then this sticky, gooey substance with perfumes and spices is wrapped around that so He is like sealed in this cocoon. He survives that. He is then put in a tomb and sealed without air for three days, without food, without water, and without medical attention. He revives Himself, undoes the bandages, moves a one-ton stone and presents Himself alive to His Disciples as the conqueror of death. To me, that takes more faith to believe than Him being raised from the dead and Hes Lord. There is another theory. The theory is that the women went to the wrong tomb. You know men thought of that one; lets blame it on the ladies to go to the wrong tomb. First of all, thats hard to do because its the only tomb with guards around it. Secondly, in Luke 23:55 (page 1047), it says, The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how His body was laid in it. So they followed them. They saw where the tomb was. They went home and rested on the Sabbath and came back the next morning. There was no mistaking where the tomb was. Besides that, the tomb belongs to Joseph of Arimathea. He is rich, and he is a member of the Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin was the elite. That was the top of the food chain. These guys-there were 71 of them. They were like our Congress and our Supreme Court combined into one. Do you think it would make the news today if one of the Supreme Court justices gave their cemetery plot to a convicted criminal who was executed by the state? Would that make the news? If they said, You know, I really love this criminal. I think this criminal has been unjustly sentenced to execution, and to show my love, Im going to give them my family burial plot. Would that make CNN? Yeah. This was no secret tomb. This was a prominent tomb in a garden, so everyone knew where the tomb of Jesus was. It was no secret place. That theory does not hold a lot of water. The third theory is that the Jews took the body of Jesus-the enemies of Christ took the body of Jesus. Well, listen friends, thats the last thing they wanted to do. They wanted to end this rumor once and for all. In the Book of Matthew 27:62 (page 989 of pew Bibles), it says, The next day after Christ had died… The Jews are going to just make sure Hes dead, number one; but number two, were going to make sure that we never have to hear anything more about this Jesus and that this movement comes to an end. …the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. Sir, they said, we remember that while He was still alive that deceiver said, After three days I will rise again. So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, His Disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that He has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first. The first deception is that He was the Son of God. The second deception, that He is risen from the dead, is much worse. Then Pilate agrees. Take a guard, Pilate answered. Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how. Thats their job. Theyre guards; theyre professionals. So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard. So the Roman guards post, and the seal of Rome is put over the tomb. That is something you dont want to break. That is something you dont want to tamper with because you do so at the risk of your very life. The Jews made every effort they could to prevent this rumor from happening. Its the last thing that they wanted. Theres a fourth theory, and this is probably the most prominent: that is the Disciples stole the body. The followers of Christ came into the tomb and stole the body of Jesus. Matthew 28:11, after Christ has risen from the dead, the soldiers now fearing for their very lives leave their post and go and report what had happened. Verse 11, While the women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened. These guys are panicking. Theyre like white as ghosts. Theyre like, There was an angel, a stone and an earthquake, and they rolled back the stone. Theyre just trying to cover their tracks as best as they can. When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, telling them, You are to say, His Disciples came during the night and stole Him away while we were asleep. If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble. So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day. Well, lets talk about that. Lets begin to pick apart that argument because this one has the most teeth, and its the most believed or the most prevalent argument-the alternate alternative to the fact that He rose from the dead. So, its a conspiracy. These guys fabricated this story about Christ being risen from the dead when they knew in fact He was not because they are the ones who started it. They perpetrated this lie that they stole the body. Number one-lets begin to look at some of these things. What happens to a group, especially a group thats dependent upon a very charismatic individual-that individual when he dies, what usually happens to that group? It disbands, doesnt it? It goes away. Well, were going to find that this particular following is going to increase in its influence; increase in its power; increase in its numbers after its very charismatic leader is executed. Its an unheard of thing to happen. The second reason: Are we to believe that these men were going to be transformed by a lie? Are these men who have been cowards, who have been hiding in secret, are going to be so transformed by this hoax, theyre going to go out in the streets and preach the Gospel to thousands of people while risking their very lives. The Sanhedrin-the most powerful group of men-was going to call them and say, Were going to imprison you. Were going to beat you. Were going to torture you. Were going to even kill you if you continue to talk about the Resurrection. Knowing its a lie, they say, Beat us! Imprison us! Kill us if you have to! We cannot stop talking about what we have seen and heard. Do you know how hard it is to keep a conspiracy or a cover-up? You dont have to go back very far in history. Think of the Watergate cover-up. It didnt last very long. Those men started to crack under pressure, and everyone gives the other one up as soon as they start talking about jail. Yeah, Ill talk. Ill talk. These men went to their deaths refusing to change their story. You know people will die for something they think is true thats not. Terrorists blow themselves up because they think its an instant ticket to paradise. How many people will die for something they know is a lie? These men would have known the truth. Yet, one after another… Peter will be crucified upside down. Paul will lay his head on a chopping block. None of them will change their story, and their stories are all the same. He was crucified. Hes alive, and weve seen Him. Kill us if you have to. We must obey God more than men. Lies are things that make us ashamed. Lies make us hang our heads. Lies arent things that make us bolder, stronger and more courageous; but they will be punished and die for it. Lets go ahead and look to the next point I want to make. These are cowards for a time being until the Holy Spirit comes on them. Theyre going to break a Roman seal. It would take some nerve for you if while youre in Washington D.C., you see something that says Top Secret, Property of the United States Government, and you go ahead and violate that. For these men to risk their lives for this lie is quite extraordinary. What is the reason to do that? Think about this. When Jesus was alive and He was doing these great miracles and teaching, it was still difficult for people to believe He was the Messiah. Why? Because He was not acting as a Messiah should act. He was not defeating the Roman Government. He was not gathering up a following or an army to rebel. He was not doing that at all. Hes reaching out to people like lepers and Samaritans. He was healing the sick; He was preaching love, forgiveness and grace. Thats not how a Messiah is supposed to be. It was really a tough sell when Jesus Himself was proclaiming who He was and doing wonderful miracles. Now, youre going to try to market a dead Messiah to the people? Now youre going to try to tell them this Man who was a criminal, was crucified on the cross and died this humiliating death is really, truly the Son of God? You need to come up with a different marketing strategy because that one is not going to work! It was one thing when Jesus was alive to believe He was the Messiah, and they struggled with that. Now that Hes dead and considering the manner in which He died, youre going to now convince these people that He is the divine Son of God? That's not going to work unless that plan really is from God, unless it is the truth. Lets play along with their story here. Lets imagine for a moment that theyre going to overpower the guards. Theyre going to steal it [with them there] because thats the alternative. Either the guards are sleeping or the guards are awake. Lets say the guards are awake. Can you imagine this group of unarmed men overpowering Roman guards with their spears, their swords and their knives? These are non-violent Disciples of Christ, and were expected to believe theyre going to overpower Roman soldiers? Highly unlikely. What about the fact that theyre sleeping? Would you fall asleep if your life depended on it? If this was your job and if you fell asleep, it meant you died, would you fall asleep? I dont think you would. Now you might sleep, but youd trade off, right? Youd take a session and youd sleep, then Ill sleep and so forth; but if your life depends on it, youre not going to fall asleep. In the Book of Acts 12, Herod Agrippa has Peter in prison. He has already killed James, the brother of John; and the Jews liked it. He wants to be popular, and he likes the response; so he decides hes going to kill Peter too. He imprisons Peter, and Peter is in jail and the church is praying. An angel comes and releases Peter from his bonds, and Peter walks out free. When the soldiers wake up in the morning, they find that Peter is no longer in the prison. They know their lives are at stake. We find the story in Acts 12:18 (page 1091), In the morning, there was no small commotion among the soldiers as to what had become of Peter. After Herod had a thorough search made for him and did not find him, he cross-examined the guards and ordered that they be executed. That was the punishment. Earlier in the Book of Acts in that chapter, we know that there are 16 of those guards from the Greek-16 men are killed at Herods hands. Herod can do anything he wants. He is the close friend of Emperor Caligula-childhood friends. So he has carblanche-do whatever you want. Hes like a little mini-dictator there. King Herod has those men killed. Why? Because they usurped their responsibility, and they let the prisoner go free. These men are not going to fall asleep. Lets say they did. Lets play along. You know, how hard would it be to move a one-ton plus stone in the middle of the night and not wake up the guards? Think about the ridiculousness of their story. My wife goes to bed early. Shes an early riser; Im a night owl, so invariably when I go to bed, shes sleeping. Shes also a light sleeper, so I try not to wake her up; but we have a board that when I step on it, it squeaks all the time. Ill come in the room and be really quiet and creak. Then shell start to stir. Ill go to the restroom real quick, and Ill try to shut the door. Shell wake up. Im trying to be as quiet as I possibly can. Its just me walking in the bedroom to go to bed, not saying a word and trying to tiptoe. Am I really supposed to believe that the Apostles are going to come, find the guards sleeping and theyre going to ever so quietly move a one-ton stone? You try that. Get a one-ton stone and try to quietly move it. Its so easy. Those one-ton stones just roll so smoothly and quietly. Come on! Lets be real! You know what the best explanation is? Its not that the ladies went to the wrong tomb. Its not that Jesus didnt really die from the sufferings and torture. Its not that the Jews took Him. Its not that the Disciples took Him. The explanation that makes by far the most sense-the only one thats rational-is that He rose from the dead, that He was who He said He was. With that promise, we have the hope of the Resurrection because if Christ did in fact rise from the dead, then the world and human beings are more than just physical; we are also spiritual. There is a part of us that will survive death. Paul talks about this in the Book of 1 Corinthians. He talks about the fact that the Resurrection of Jesus was not just the resuscitation of a corpse. Jesus resurrected body was different. He was still Jesus; He was still recognizable as Jesus, but He had changed. His body was now a body that could inhabit eternity. Paul writes and says that you and I one day will have a body like Jesus. Verse 12 of 1 Corinthians 15 (page 1139), Paul says, But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then now even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that He raised Christ from the dead. But He did not raise Him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. Thats it; its done. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. A new and improved you. My computer went on the fritz, and I depend a lot on my computer. It started to make a funny movement. It started to fade in and out; it took longer to boot up every time, and it would go off quickly. Over the period of days, it would boot up and go off real fast, and then it wouldnt even boot up at all. I said, My computer is sick. Then I finally said, My computer is dead. I took it to Apple to see the computer doctor. He took it in the back room. He came out after a few minutes, and he said, Your computer is dead. You need a new logic board. He said, Thats pretty expensive. Youre better off just getting a brand new laptop. My concern was this: I said, Listen, I understand that, but I just feel so bad. I started venting. I started pouring out my heart to this guy. I was like, I had my files on there. I had all the sites that I liked bookmarked. I had sermons on there. I had papers that Ive written on there. I had everything the way I wanted it, emails and everything. Im just sick about it. He said, Oh, we got all of those. We got all of those. He says, No problem. In this new computer, this desktop is going to look the same. All your bookmarks will still be there. All your scans will be there. All your files will be there; all your papers will be there. All your emails will be there. Itll just be a better computer. I was like, Slick. I took it home, I had sharper graphics. I had faster speed; I had a newer version, but I had the same old stuff that made it feel like it was my computer. No analogy is perfect, but the Bible says were going to get a new body, A new and improved you. A body that can inhabit eternity, but it will still be you. Jesus was still Jesus. You will still be you-your personality; your memories; the things that make you will still be you, but you will have a body like Christ that can inhabit eternity and live in the presence of God; a body without sin; a body that will not know pain or death. Its because of Christ; because of His obedience; His suffering; and His Resurrection. Were going to sing about that right now as we prepare to close out our service, Our God is Mighty to Save. (Here is a link to the lyrics: http://www.keepandshare.com/htm/music_lyrics/christian/mighty_to_save.php). Im going to ask if our team would come forward and lead us. Im going to ask if you would stand and prepare to sing to the Lord. As soon as were done, Ill come back and dismiss us in prayer and give a couple of announcements before we go home. Lord, were so thankful for Your Truth. It was no debate that the tomb was empty. The debate was why it was empty. When we lay out the facts, the only one that makes sense is that He is risen, that He is Lord. Because we have put our hope and trust in You, we have hope beyond the grave. The firstfruits have come, and we will live with You for all eternity through Jesus Christ our Lord. In the name of the risen Savior, we pray. All Gods people said, Amen.
When I was a little boy growing up, I used to watch The Tonight Show a lot; my mom and I did. One of the frequent guests Johnny Carson had was a man by the name of Carl Sagan. Some of you might remember Carl Sagan. He had a television show, and he was kind of famous for saying, Billions and billions. I dont know if he ever actually said that, but youd see him on the Discovery Show and what have you. Were going to show a reprise, a clip, that we showed during The Truth Project, and then were going to talk about it. Lets show the clip right now of Carl Sagan, who was a naturalist. All that we see is right here. Thats what a natural is. This is a closed box, a closed system. Everything that we have is explained right here. (You can find a link here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lqsG9_ughU). Thats quite a statement he makes there, Cosmos are all there ever have been, all there is, all there ever will be. There is a statement that God makes of Himself in Revelations 1:8. Jesus appears to John the Apostle, and He says, I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty. There are two competing world views there, arent there? One is saying that this is a closed box. Its a naturalist point of view that all the answers to the mysteries of life can be solved in whats here and whats around us, whats in the universe and whats here. There is no supernatural; there is no God; the explanation of life and how we came to be and everything is all right here. Then there is the atheist point of view. Weve talked about that now for quite a while. Its talking about cause and effect, the first cause, the design argument and all these things that weve talked about, so two competing world views. I want to begin by telling a story of a young man. Like a lot of young men, he didnt know what direction he was going to go with his life. It was a what am I going to be when I grow up kind-of-thing. He struggled with school; school was not his forte. He just never seemed to find a niche, never seemed to find a place to belong. His father was really worried about him. He was really worried about his future, his career, what he was going to do because he didnt seem to show a lot of initiative. He didnt seem to show a lot of drive or direction one way or another, so the father-afraid he was going to squander his life-was trying to steer him in the direction of the family; that was to go in the ministry and become a pastor, a minister. So he went to theological training. He didnt really like it that much. He really struggled through and barely got his degree in theological training. He studied the natural sciences and all the arguments weve talked about-natural theology rather. He studied that and all these theological concepts. When he graduated, he still was a little bit unsure of what he wanted to do with his life. Then an opportunity embarked. For a young man in his mid-20s to be able to sail on the ocean and travel to places far away was a dream come true, and this was the right time. He said, Im not married. I dont have children. I havent started my career. Im going to take advantage of this opportunity to go on this expedition, so he climbed aboard the Beagle. He set off to sea, and for over four years he was at sea, traveling from place to place writing down his observations. He finally found his niche. He finally found something that he was good at. He was good at observing. He was good at recording data and analyzing data. He came home, and after about a little over two decades later, he published his most famous work that we know as the origin of species, Charles Darwin. Its a name that 200 years after he was born is still being talked about. We talk about him in our high schools, our universities and our colleges-these theories of evolution, the origins of life, how we came to be. He came to the conclusion that everything we know comes from a process of natural selection. Natural selection is really the survival of the fittest-that if you have character traits and qualities that enable you to adapt to your environment, flourish in your environment and have off-spring, those creatures are most likely to survive and reproduce; so the fastest, the strongest, the smartest will survive, and the weakest or those who dont have traits that can adapt or arent conducive to their environment will parish. Certainly, wed all agree that theres truth in that. That natural selection does happen. Where we would differ is that he believes that natural selection is the reason for all the diversity that we find in the world and that all of life came back from a common ancestor-a single cell life form; which as Im helping my oldest daughter study for her biology exam, Im being reminded again how complex just that one single cell of life is. From non-organic matter, time and random chance, the right chemicals, the right events all coming together-nobody is quite sure how it happened. Even if youre a naturalist or someone who adheres to evolution, youre not sure how it began or how it happened, but somehow or some scientific way, lightening or whatever it was, something sparked this non-organic matter alive. It came alive, and then it began to multiply and produce. Through natural selection diversity and the tree of life began to spring out over billions of years, and thats really important because anything can happen in billions of years, right? Or so the premise goes. From the giraffe to the ape to the dog to people to things that swim in the sea to things that fly in the sky, the diversity of skin and creatures from fish to amphibians and reptiles, primates-all of us have a common ancestor; and all of life came from that single-cell organism, through this process of adaptation, mutation, random selection, survival of the fittest. Thats the theory. Now we could go off and we could talk about some of the problems with that theory, and some of you might believe that and may believe in evolution. We certainly are not trying to disrespect you in any way. There are some arguments that we have though, some problems with that. We could talk about the fact that the fossil record and Darwin felt like thered be a plethora of transitional fossils we could examine that would show those changes, those mutations coming in to place and see that species. We all believe microevolution-variations within species, variations within a genetic code exist. How many have dogs? If we brought your dog to church, no two dogs would look alike. We know there are variations and microevolution takes place. We know in culture things change and adapt. If youre a grasshopper and youre green, youre less likely to be eaten where theres vegetation than if youre a grasshopper and youre white. There are more chances youre going to be prey, so the green ones survive. We understand that, the natural selection, survival of the fittest, microevolution-there is no debating those things and that they happen in nature. What we do debate is that one species becomes another species. It hasnt happened. It hasnt happened in the fossil record. We could talk about the fact that we should see in the Precambrian period these evolving fossils, and theyre not there. Then we come into the Cambrian period, and all of the sudden, Boom! There is life! and its fully developed. Its not showing it evolving. Its just there, Boom! Here it is! Its diverse, and its developed. So really this fossil record is not supporting these conclusions as it should be, and this is empirical evidence. This is something we can observe and see. We could debate how something like an eye would show such meticulous design could evolve. What good is 5 percent of an eye or a wing? What good is 10 percent of a wing? What good does that do? Obviously the wing just didnt spread out. It had a beginning. What adaptation before a wing was a wing, how could that help the organism survive? But wings and eyes certainly show evidence of design, dont they? We could talk about that. We could talk about some of these problems, but I really want to focus in on one aspect of this issue that I really believe points to a Creator like no other-no other evidence that we have. Youre going to love this illustration because you get to go to some warm place. We are going to use our imaginations. We are going to put you on a beach by the ocean. There is a beautiful blue sea, a crystal clear sky, a warm sun, nice tropical breeze, white sand squishing through your toes as youre walking down the beach listening to the waves. Youre listening to the sea gulls, listening to the sound of the breeze in the trees. Isnt this great? This is good, right? Good stuff. You can either be by yourself or you can be with someone else. This is your fantasy, whoever you want to walk down the shore with-thats up to you. Youre walking down the shore and enjoying Gods creation and youre watching the sand and seeing the ripples in the sand and its so beautiful. Its so untouched, and all of the sudden you come across a word in the sand. In big letters, H-E-L-P! Help. You read the word help in the sand perfectly formed. Now what do you think when you see that? Immediately you go, Isnt it amazing how water and sand and wind can form these letters? Is that what you think? Not at all. You go, Whoa! That is one smart monkey or something around somewhere, a seal or a dolphin or something. It is scratching out these words, and boy, how did that monkey learn English. Thats just an amazing thing! No, you dont think any of those things. You wonder first of all who is in trouble. This is distress. This is a language. Languages can be signs; they can be words, characters, pictures, numbers, notes. It can be any number of things, but theyre designed to convey a message. There is intent; there is purpose; there is an author. The first thing you would do is look in the water. Youd look around you. Somebodys in trouble. Are they still in trouble? Do they need my help? Who needs my help? Theres an explanation point. That means distress. I need help now! Somebody is communicating clear intent. This is information, and you know information does not come from nature, so youd look to see who the author of that information was. Youd come to the conclusion that whoever it was, theyd be the guy to help; or they met their demise. Either way there is nothing I can do about it, so you continue your walk on the beach. Then you come across some musical notes in the sand. Somebody has drawn a quarter note. Thats the only one I can use because thats the only one I know. I make a circle, color it in and add a stem for a quarter note, and then Im done. I have nothing left, but I can recognize it. If I open my hymnal, I can recognize that thats music. So you see this in the sand, and what do you think? Well, somebody either wants me to know this song; or was trying to teach somebody a song; or theyve written a song and want to remember it and theyre writing in the sand; but one thing you dont question is that there is an author to that song because those notes are a language. They are communicating information to you, and you know that language does not come from natural causes. Information does not just happen. If there is information, there is a mind. I think anybody on either school of thought would agree with that. Information requires a mind, so who wrote this music to us? Or what if you turned on the TV and FOX News or CNN or whatever said, Aliens have communicated! There is life from beyond. There was a mathematical code that was sent to our planet or a binary code-ones and zeros; but somebody was trying to communicate to earth from space. The news was, This is amazing! Weve picked this up. Its coming from light years away. Its coming from outer space. Definitely were traced it. We know now that there is intelligent life besides our own on the planet because weve had this language! Somebody is trying to communicate with us. Somehow there is information here, so scientists are going to scramble to decipher what this code is; but we know for a fact that its intelligent language-like the movie Contact. Have you seen Contact with Jodie Foster years ago? Carl Sagan was the one who inspired that movie. In fact, he once said that if there could be a communication from space, we would know that there is intelligence outside of our world. He said that himself, If we could just receive information from space… Well, its a paradox for me that Mr. Sagan would take a message from space as proof for the existence of God, yet ignores the overwhelming evidence that is here already on this planet. You and I-every single person in this room-was once a goat, a special kind of a goat. You were a zygote, a fertilized egg. Your mothers and your fathers DNA in the form of chromosomes-I dont need to explain all of this to you. You understand it. It came together and formed a unique human being-that single cell had a unique DNA that was all its own. Now Charles Darwin didnt have the benefit of knowing about DNA. Charles Darwins DNA really came to be in the late 1800s. Certainly we didnt unlock it, begin to unlock it, until the 1950s with Dr. Watson and other scientists who unlocked the secrets of DNA and found out it was this double helix, that it contained information. In fact, it contained a code. We call these four letters, A-C-T-G, that really stand for chemicals. They tell the body how to arrange those amino acids, those proteins, to form you. So it is a map; it is an instruction manual; it is a code, and it is incredibly complex and incredibly dense. In fact, there is no way that man can even come close to competing with how God has made the DNA, the information that can be stored in the DNA. Were still mapping the human genome. Were discovering all kinds of things all the time, but if you take the information in one strand of DNA and you unroll it, its six feet long, and its in every cell of your body. There is enough information in that one strand of DNA to fill 500,000 sheets of paper with information about how to make you. Did you know that? That does not point just to intelligence. That points to incredible intelligence, intelligence that we dont even have on this planet in and of ourselves. We talk about intelligent design! Wow! Intelligent design vs. whats the opposite of intelligent design? Dumb accident. These are our alternatives. Either all of this happened by dumb accident, blind chance, or there is a designer behind the DNA. This is a language. This is a map. This is communicating how to make you and your DNA. You know how we talked about the chemicals, A, C, T and G? Three billion of those make up three chemicals in each DNA to make up you. There are trillions of cells in your body. I put together a little multimedia at the last second last night that I wanted to show you right now. There are some graphics, a narrator and some images. This is going to talk to us a little bit about DNA. Matter and energy-thats what they say is all there was. We dont know how that matter and energy got to be, but it was there. We do know this: that information is neither matter nor energy. Matter and energy convey information. Our Bibles, these are matter. Its ink on paper. It has information on it. This is matter. We sometimes watch the television or go to our computer for information. Thats matter and energy communicating information, but information is not neither matter nor energy. Information is communicating through code, through pictures, through words, characters and notes-intent, a message comes from a mind. DNA is a language and that language-that code-speaks loudly of a Creator. In the Book of Colossians 1:16 (page 1165 of pew Bibles), it says, For by Him all things were created: things in Heaven and on earth, visible and invisible… Things under the microscope are invisible to the naked eye. …whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. We see in Creation; we see in something like the DNA, the fingerprint of God. There is no way that something so intelligent that we cannot even understand can just happen by accident-it can come from non-living matter. That to me, above all the other arguments, speaks to the existence of God, the power of God and the wisdom of God. The Scripture says in Romans 1, Professing to be wise, they became fools. There are times when I will follow a story-maybe its on Dateline or something else. Well find out how there was a rush to judgment about a certain suspect. Police ignored other leads because they were so convinced that they had the guy. They pursued the guy and arrested the guy, and then they found out years later through DNA testing that they had the wrong guy. Whoever it was that was responsible-sometimes they catch them, sometimes they dont-those leads are cold now because the police ignored that evidence. Somebody will get on and theyll say, Well, I said this. I said that, but they didnt want to listen. And this is not a knock on law enforcement. Law enforcement does a great job, but law enforcement is also made up of fallible people. From time to time, youll hear a story like that. Theyre so convinced that theyre right, they try to make the evidence fit their conclusions. I believe the same thing is going on here. Were so convinced that for a naturalist there cannot be a God; there cannot be a supernatural. Its a closed system, a closed box, that they dont even entertain the idea that there could be a God. So they try to make evidence fit even if it doesnt fit. Even if the fossil record is not demonstrating my conviction, its true. Even if these others-as we are finding out so much more through science about the human body and the wonder of creation-even though thats pointing to a God, Ill choose to ignore that because Im so convinced that Im right. Becoming a Christian or being a person of faith does not mean you leave your intellect at the door. It does not mean you cannot embrace science. All truth is Gods truth. As we continue to unravel the mysteries of the world, well become all the more convinced of the reality of God. There is a nano-scientist that Id like to quote this morning by the name of James Tour from Rice University. He has written a statement here. He said, I stand in awe of God. This man tries to understand molecules for a living, so hes a little smarter than us. He says, I stand in awe of God because of what He has done through His creation. Only a rookie who knows nothing about science would say that science takes away from faith. If you really study science, it will bring you closer to God, James Tour. Weve learned a lot of things. Weve studied a lot as weve talked about reasons to believe in God, reasons in Creation point to the existence of God. Now were going to start taking things in a different direction. Now were going to start talking about matters of faith. Were going to continue in our series on apologetics, Looking Under the Hood, trying to understand not just the what but the why and the how. Were going to go from natural science in Creation and all these arguments-theodicy and things weve talked about. We are going to start talking about matters of faith. Were going to begin by talking about the New Testament next week. Is the New Testament reliable? How did this document that we call the New Testament, how did it come to be? Is it trustworthy? How do we know who wrote it? You and I have heard a lot of things that arent true. People have said, Well, you know the Bible was written by men who were not eyewitnesses or who were second and third century after Christ. Or, There were a lot of political reasons why we have the books we have and some other Gospels that were just as real and just as authentic were left out of the text. Youve heard a lot of things like that in movies like the Da Vinci Code and other places. Were going to show a couple of those clips, and Ive studied that field. I feel a whole lot more comfortable in that field than I do in biology, Ill tell you that. Ive got some things to share with you, so well be talking about that next week. Lets stand together and lets open our Bibles up to Psalm 139 (pg 618 of pew Bibles). In Psalm 139, we find the Psalmist David talking about the wonder of Creation. There is a passage that were going to read together out loud. Were going to begin reading with Verse 13, and were going to read through Verse 18. I think that even though were familiar with this Scripture, as some of you are, the things that weve talked about this morning, seen and learned, are going to make this text even more true, even more real, even more alive to us. So were going to begin reading at Verse 13, and were going to read aloud. For You created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mothers womb. I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful; I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are Your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with You. Lets pray: Father, we know so much more than David knew when he wrote that about the wonder of Creation. Were learning more things all the time. DNA speaks like an alarm. These other things that weve talked about bear witness to our Creator, bear witness the information-communication comes from a mind. This code, this language, these building blocks of life are amazing. Lord, now as we transition from these natural sciences and these proofs to talking about matters of faith-who You are and how Youve revealed Yourself, be with us on that study, direct us, teach us and show us. Help us, Lord, to take the things that weve already learned and apply them-not only to our lives but use them to help others who are looking for answers, who are looking for truth. We are thankful that all truth is Your truth. Lord, we can either recognize that we are here because of intelligent design, or we are here because of a dumb accident, random chance. If thats the case, life has no meaning. It has no purpose. Its random; its an accident. But Your Word is very clear that we are not accidents. We have design and we have purpose. All things that have been made have been made by You and for You. So, Lord, we thank You for that Truth that is shaping our lives. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
Now were going to watch a video presentation about one of our young people named Amber and what shes gone through in her battle for her health. Were studying the problem of evil and suffering-last week and this week. We asked her to share her story, to share her testimony. Our production team did an excellent job filming this and putting it together, so we want to thank Sheila, Mary and Brenda for the fine work they did. Lets listen now to Ambers story and then well talk about this problem. My name is Amber, and Ive been coming to Faith Community since August, 2008. I grew up in church all my life, and I was saved at a backyard Bible club that my parents were hosting when I was six years old. The summer I turned 14, I got really sick. I ended up in the ER. They admitted me to the hospital, and the next morning, they gave me the diagnosis of acute lymphocytic leukemia-cancer. I couldnt even imagine everything that was about to happen to me. I was scared. In one day, I had turned from a normal teenage girl into someone who was fighting for her life. The good news was that the type of cancer I had was very treatable with a 90 percent cure rate. The bad news was that the treatment would take 2 ½ years. By the time I was done with treatment, I would be a junior in high school. The next couple of weeks were really busy. The doctors were telling us about all of the chemotherapy that I had to start. Within a couple of months, my hair had fallen out and I got really sick to my stomach. I couldnt eat without throwing up. I couldnt go to school anymore, and I really missed my friends. I just missed being a normal kid. Eventually my body did respond to the chemo, and I got better-slowly but surely. Two and a half years later, I was a junior in high school-actually in school-and happy, living a normal life. After six months of being normal again, I relapsed two months into my senior year. This time the chemotherapy was going to be even harder, two more years of chemo. This time I had to have radiation. The side effects were worse because the chemo was more intense. I was more nauseous. My hair fell out again, and I had a reaction to one of the chemotherapy drugs which led to a blood clot. I would be lying if I said that during this whole time my faith never wavered. It did. There were nights that I would cry myself to sleep asking God why He would do this and why He would let it happen to me. I even wrote a song a few days after I was diagnosed that expressed my feelings toward God at that time. Its called, Hold On. I was so accustomed to my ordinary life, ordinary days and ordinary nights. Well, I asked for something different, and this is what You gave. Though beggars cant be choosers, I admit that Im enraged. Tell me. Tell me-I just dont understand how this uncertainty could be part of Your plan. I never let them tell me that my dreams were out of reach, my goals a little shaky, and my hopes a little bleak. Now I dont know what to do; I dont know what to think. It seems they are in ruins, all shattered at my feet. Tell me. Tell me-I just dont understand how this uncertainty could be part of Your plan, but You say, Just hold on. Hold on. (click here for a video from Natalie Grant related to this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOufqWodFNo) Even though I didnt realize it at the time, cancer was a great opportunity. I got to do a lot of things I never would have gotten to do if cancer hadnt come my way. I got to go to New York and see all the sights there. I met so many people that are still in my life today and mean so much to me, the nurses and the doctors and other patients in the hospital. I was able to use my story in many situations to help other people. I even had the opportunity to go to Africa and share with a group of 165 girls my story and to give them hope in their time of need. Over in Africa, they have a lot of disease and poverty. For them to hear my story, it really encouraged them; and it made me feel like what I went through was worth something, and it wasnt all for nothing. Ive been cancer-free for over a year. Looking back on all of those years I spent in a hospital bed, I realized that those were the best times I spent with God. He was the only One I could depend on. Because of all those trials I went though, it made me the person I am today. It brought me so much closer to God, to the point where Hes the only reason Im alive. Lets thank Amber for telling us her story. I know God has used your story and will continue to use it. One of the reasons Hes using it is because you are making yourself available, and youre telling your story. Thank you for that. Last Sunday night, we had our Overtime here at the church. In the afternoon when I was kind of getting my thoughts together, I just checked the news one last time and heard the tragic story about the pastor in Maryville, Illinois, who was shot and killed during their early morning service. A man had walked down the aisle; apparently nobody really knew who he was. He pulled a gun and shot the Bible [in the pastors pocket]. The first shot hit the Bible, and the pages blew up like confetti. The people in the congregation thought it was a skit of some sort at first. I just want to take an opportunity to say this. Im being totally serious when I say this. Youll never see a skit in our church like that. If you see somebody with a gun or a knife or some sort of weapon, explosive device or whatever, thats real. Thats not a skit. We will not have a skit like that ever in our church, so just be aware of that. If you see something suspicious, let the authorities know or let somebody know. But he killed him-right there. You hear this story, and you know hes a good man. You read about his life and the things hed done in that church. He served faithfully there for 22 years. You ask yourself the questions of, Well, how could this happen? Why didnt God stop this man? Why didnt God redirect that bullet so it missed him? Why didnt God prevent it? Why didnt God attack? Why? Why? Why? Why? All these questions… We go back to some of the questions we talked about last week, these philosophical questions. We believe God is good and loving. If God is good and loving, he must want to do something about the problem of evil, right? We talked about the fact that God is all powerful. If God is all powerful, He must be able to do something about the problem of evil and suffering. We believe God is all-knowing, so if God is all-knowing, He must know how to do something about the problem of evil and suffering in the world. Yet, in spite of the fact that God is all good, God is all knowing, and God is all powerful, evil still exists. So either some would say God is not loving and good because He can do something about it, He knows how to do something about it, but, He doesnt want to. Hes not good, or, Hes not all-powerful. He really wants to do something about it, but He cant or-Hes not all-knowing. He doesnt know everything thats going to happen, and He cant prevent those things-or, Hes not. Some believe the existence of evil and suffering in the world is a proof that there is no God. Any evil, any suffering in the world-any amount and degree-is proof that God does not exist. So what are the arguments for that? How can we as Christians maintain our belief in the goodness of God and all these other attributes of God and at the same time acknowledge that evil and suffering are in the world; so thats what were going to try and get our arms around today. So right now youre thinking, Better him than me, right? So lets open our Bibles up to the Book of Job together. Job is, I guess, the most common Book to turn to in the Bible when it comes to the problem of evil and suffering. Job is the oldest Book in the Bible. This Book was written before any other Book in the Bible. Though Genesis tells what happened before the Book of Job, Job is the oldest Book. Job was written before the law, before Abraham and Moses. Its a very old Book, and Job was a good man. He loved his family. He had a wife, seven sons and three daughters. They lived this ideal life. The Bible talks about the brothers and sisters all loving each other. They used to get together for family potlucks. They just had a great time together enjoying one anothers presence, enjoying one anothers company. One day, everything changes. Jobs dream life turns into a nightmare. Now when we say evil, there are two types of evil that were going to talk about. The first type of evil is natural evil. Natural evil has to do with the elements-nature and our world. It involves things like flooding, famine, earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, icy bridges, diseases and things that go wrong. Plagues and epidemics-things that happen in the world that are not the responsibility of man but happen as a result of nature. The second kind of evil is moral evil. Moral evil is mans inhumanity to man. Its man doing things to man that are wrong. We think about the things that have gone on in our world-genocide and terrorism and even things locally that are stories of moral evil where people make wrong choices. Listening to the story about Madoff, the investor who embezzled $50 billion of peoples money-including charities-that is moral evil. Were going to see both addressed in this story-both moral and natural evil being addressed. So Jobs having a great day, and all of the sudden his world comes crashing in. Verse 13 (of Job 1, page 496 of pew Bibles), One day when Jobs sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brothers house, a messenger came to Job and said, The oxen were plowing and the donkeys were grazing nearby, and the Sabeans attacked and carried them off. They put the servants to the sword, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you! Thats moral evil-the Sabeans attacked these innocent people. While he was still speaking, another messenger came and said, The fire of God fell from the sky and burned up the sheep and the servants, and I am the only who has escaped to tell you! That's natural evil-probably some sort of a lightning bolt caused a fire. While he was still speaking, another messenger came and said, The Chaldeans formed three raiding parties and swept down on your camels and carried them off. They put the servants to the sword, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you! Again, moral evil-the Chaldeans attacking these innocent people and stealing the camels. While he was still speaking, yet another messenger came and said, Your sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brothers house, when suddenly a mighty wind swept in from the desert… A natural evil. …came and struck the four corners of the house and collapsed on them and they are all dead, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you! So all of the sudden, Jobs paradise is destroyed. In the span of a few moments, he has lost just about everything that matters to him and that he loves. Hes devastated-as anyone would be. He got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship… Interesting response, isnt it-when youve gone through something like this-to worship God? Thats what Job does. Naked I came from my mothers womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised. In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing. Job recognizes the sovereignty of God-that all life belongs ultimately to God. Everything that He possesses belongs ultimately to God, and Job recognizes that. Then his health is taken from him. In the next chapter, we read about that. Then finally people come on the scene to try to give Job their advice. The wife is the first one. Shes not exactly tactful. She says (Job 2:9, page 497), Are you still trying to hold on to your integrity? Curse God and die! Honey… This is the way it is. She might have been a nurse. Im married to a nurse-very straight-forward, very compassionate, but [theyll] tell it to you like it is. Then the friends come on the scene. He has three friends. So far, Bildad, Eliphaz and Zophar, and theyve all got their theories. They all have their philosophies, and they start to try to help Job; but they end up just irritating them. They end up saying things that arent true about God and about Job, and Job just gets mad; and they dont help him at all. They make it worse. We read a story like Jobs, and we think, Why didnt God prevent the Chaldeans? Why didnt God prevent the wind? Why didnt God prevent the fire? Why didnt He stop these attacks? We ask ourselves, If God is all powerful, why did He…? Everything is possible to Him-why didnt He stop this? So I want to back up, and I want to ask that question of you right now. Its a theological question and I want you to answer it internally. Dont audibly answer it or raise your hand. Just keep this one private. Im going to make a statement, and I want you to tell me if its true or false. God is all powerful; therefore, God can do anything. Is that true or false? That is a false statement. God cannot do anything. Ill show you a couple things just from Scripture. This is not meant to be an exhaustive list by any stretch of the imagination, but in Hebrews 6:13 (page 1187) it says, When God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for him to swear by, he swore by himself… The President goes to take the oath of office, and he says at the end, So help me, God. In other words, he swears to keep this promise by a power greater-an authority greater than Himself. If God were to take an oath, He would have to say, So help Me, Me. God cannot swear by a power greater than Himself. It also says in Verse 18 in the middle, …it is impossible for God to lie… God cannot lie. It is impossible for God to lie. Its impossible for God to lie. God cannot do things that are contrary to His nature. God cannot do things that are contrary to His righteousness and His holiness. He cannot act in an unholy manner. Another thing God cannot do and God will not do is God will not stop an evil or prevent a disaster if doing so produces a greater evil or a lesser good. Im going to say that one more time, and then well talk about it. God will not prevent an evil-moral or natural-if in doing so it causes a greater evil or prevents a greater good. Ill give you a hypothetical situation. Lets say you get a sliver in your foot, and this is a pretty serious thing. Its in the toe. Its lodged in there, and it hurts like the dickens. Youre afraid to get it out, so you say, You know what? Im just going to let this thing be. It will work itself out, but it doesnt. All that happens is the skin grows over it; it gets infected; and it gets just stuck in there. I mean its deep inside, so its red. Every time you step on it, it hurts. You say, You know what? I have to go to the doctor. This thing isnt coming out on its own. Theres no sterile needle thats going to get this thing out. I feel silly going to the doctor over a sliver in my toe, but I have to get this thing out! This is like a little minor surgery here, so you go to the doctor. You say, I have a sliver. I should have taken it out earlier, but I was a chicken. Boy, here I am. Its infected. Its covered up, and I need help. Can you get this out? He says, No problem. Were going to put a local anesthetic there. Were going to freeze the foot. You can watch it if you want to. Were just going to take care of that sliver, and you wont feel it anymore. Great, you say. So he gives you a little shot there and puts your foot to sleep, and he gets out a hacksaw. He puts it right at your ankle bone, and he starts getting ready to saw. You say, Well, wait! Wait! Wait! Wait! What are you doing? He says, Ill tell you what; I promise you once I get this foot off, you will never feel that sliver again! You go, Isnt that a little drastic? Isnt that a little severe? All I need is my sliver out, and youre taking off my foot! I would rather have the sliver in my toe than go without a foot! Thats much worse, Doc. You should know that! See thats the greater evil. Now how does that apply to what we just said? Sometimes we ask, Why didnt God change the path of the bullet? Why didnt he stop that man from pulling the trigger and making that choice? In other words, why didnt God suspend natural order? Because we need to know once we shoot a gun-you know when you shoot a gun whats going to happen. When the bullets in the chamber and its discharged, you know whats going to happen. There are laws in the universe. You know that bullet is going to come out of the chamber at a high rate of speed, and it will penetrate a human being and possibly kill that human being. Thats why youre accountable for murder if you point a gun and shoot it at someone. That's a natural law. Why doesnt God suspend natural law? Why didnt God stop him from making that choice? Sometimes we dont think about what we are saying when we say that because if God were to go around preventing all evil and stopping all disasters, do you recognize that the consequence of that is you and I are no longer free. Were not free human beings. If God suspends the natural order all the time on the wide scale, we dont know how the world is going to operate. We dont know how the world is going to work. We cant be free. We cant be free to love because you know true love is a choice you make. Its not just a feeling; its a choice you make. If somebody shows love to you only because they have to, thats not love, is it? Goodness is also a choice. If you are truly expressing goodness or kindness to somebody, if youre doing it because you have to do it, thats not a choice. Have you ever had somebody be nice to you because they have to be nice to you? Maybe youre their boss or something, so youve got to be nice. The policemans used to people being nice when he pulls them over for a ticket. Hello Officer. You look nice today. Youre trying to get out of the ticket, right? People know when theyre being buttered up. Thats very disingenuous, very unauthentic. God doesnt want that kind of love. God doesnt want us to love Him because we have to love Him-because we are created to be robots who have no other choice but to love Him. Thats not the kind of love that God is desiring from you and me. God made the world in which mankind is free to choose. If were free to choose good, were also free to choose evil. We have a mouth that can say words of kindness, or we can have a mouth that can say words that are full of hatred and are demeaning. With our hands we can do works of great good, or we can do works of great pain. Our physical sensation-we can experience pleasure-and with those same nerve endings, we can experience great pain. From wind can come a refreshing breeze, and from wind can come a devastating torrent. From water, we get refreshing baths or showers-a means to boil things, sterilize them or to cook, but that same water can also drown you. That same water can also flood. Fire can be used to warm you and toast your marshmallows, and that same fire can also burn down a house or a forest or kill a person. Think about that-the natural world. Fire is going to always burn. Water is going to maintain its properties all the time. If God were to suspend the way fire operates, the way water operates, to prevent every natural disaster, we would not live in a free world. There would be no cause and effect. We would not know whats going to happen from one event to the next. If God were to take away our freedom of choice, He takes away our free will; He takes away our ability to love; He takes away our ability to do good. Friends, that is a greater evil, and its a lesser good. Its a world thats not as loving. Its a world thats not as good, and its a world thats not free. That's hard. Thats not exactly a satisfying answer, but its a true answer. God in His wisdom… Job at one point says, These things are too wonderful for my mind to grasp. You know whats interesting? After all these chapters of dialogue, God finally crashes the party in Chapter 28. He finally comes on the scene. Job and his friends have asked all these ultimate reality questions, and theyre intelligent guys. These guys could debate theology and philosophy with the best. When He finally comes on the scene, you know what happens? God does not directly answer any of those questions. Why do you think that is? What God does not say to Job tells us as much as what He does say. He does not say, Okay, you want to know all the evil and suffering in the world? Here you go, Job. He does not do that. Why? I shared a story on Sunday night for the Overtime. A lot of you werent here for that, so Im going to share it again. Imagine a hunter has set a trap, but a bear gets caught in the trap. Hes not trying to get a bear. Hes trying to capture something else, so when he sees the bear, he wants to help the bear. He sees the bear in the trap, and he decides that hes going to have to shoot the bear with a tranquilizer gun to get it to fall asleep, so he can release the trap. Now the bear is in the trap. Hes in pain. He sees the hunter come at him with a gun. From the bears perspective, is the hunter good or bad? Does he have bad intent or good intent? He has bad intent. Can the hunter explain what hes about to do to the bear? Can he say, Now, Mr. Bear, Im really your friend. Im on your side. Youre in an evil situation, but Im going to do something good; but its going to look like something bad is taking place here. Im going to shoot you, but this gun will not kill you. It will merely put you to sleep. Its called a tranquilizer. This is a tranquilizer dart. Youre going to feel a little groggy, a little woozy. Youre going to pass out, and youre going to fall asleep, but Mr. Bear, when you awake, the trap will be off your ankle. Youre going to be sore; youre going to be hurting, but as you come to your senses, everything is going to be okay. Youre going to go into the woods, and youre going to be fine. Can the bear understand that? Why not? Its a bear. It doesnt speak English. It has a very limited amount of knowledge. He just knows by what he experiences. Its learning from that pain. Then imagine as that bear is starting to drift off from the tranquilizer, the hunter now closes the trap even more to release the spring. In doing so, it causes greater pain to that bear. Now the bear is absolutely convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that his hunter is evil and means the bear harm. The truth of the matter is the hunter desires to help the bear. Now just for you emotional people out there, I want you to know he got the trap off. The bear ran in the woods and healed up and lived happily ever after. He married, had other cubs and actually grew up to be from Snow White and the Three Bears or whatever that story is. I dont know. I think in a way the fact that God does not come and explain all the questions of the universe to Job, it tells us something. The distance between us and God is certainly a whole lot farther than between us and a bear. We dont explain what were going to do to the bear because the bear doesnt understand. I think there is a lot to be said, that God does not explain the particulars of the universe to us and pain and suffering because in our finite minds, were not going to fully grasp it. Its interesting what God does. He explains natural order. He talks about loss that exists that He created-that must be upheld in the world. For four chapters, God talks about natural orders. Look at Chapter 38:1, The the Lord answered Job out of the storm. He said: Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me. Where were you when I laid the earths foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone-while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy? Who shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb, when I made the clouds its garment and wrapped it in thick darkness, when I fixed limits for it and set its doors and bars in place, when I said, This far you may come and no farther; here is where your proud waves halt? This will go on through Chapter 38, 39, 40 and 41. God is talking about the orderly universe, the laws of nature. So this problem of evil must have something to do with the natural order. Now God does suspend natural order for a period of time for miracles. There is no question about that. Were not questioning miracles-that God can do miracles or has done miracles or can do a miracle; but for God to suspend the natural order all the time, in all circumstances and prevent all evils-moral and natural-the end result is we live in a world without love, without goodness that we wouldnt produce and without free will. That, friends, is the greater evil. God finishes His speech, and Job comes to a conclusion. Gods like, You think this job is easy, pal? You try it for awhile. You think its easy to be God? Heres what I have to do. Heres my job description. How many of you at any time in your life have ever criticized any President weve ever had? There has been a President youve criticized at one time or another. Maybe you even thought you could do a better job running the country. I guarantee if you were to spend one week in the Oval Office and all the weight of the world was on your shoulders, youd finish that week and come out of there saying, Man, thats a tough job! That is a hard job to do! If 50 percent of the people like what you do, thatd be pretty good. Its not an easy job God has. Job listens to him, and he says-and Im paraphrasing but not by much-Job says, Im going to shut my pie hole because I dont know squat. Thats kind of what he says in Chapter 42. Im just going to trust You. Obviously Im looking at your resume. You know a whole lot more about this God job than I do. There are things I dont understand, but Im going to trust You. There is moral law; there is natural law; there is free will. Having a world that preserves that is painful as it is. As hard as it is to understand, its a lesser evil if we had a world where those things were taken away from us. I want to close by saying this: Before Jobs friends got it terribly wrong, they got it really right. I want you to turn to Job 2. I want you to know if you know somebody who has gone through evil and suffering, what they need from you is not a great argument. They dont need you to philosophize; they dont need you to have all the answers. You know what they need more than anything else? Its for you to be a friend, to show compassion and love. All the arguments in the world-when youve encountered evil or suffering-really dont help a whole lot. What does help is when we show the mercy, love, grace and compassion of God through us. Look what it says here in Verse 12 (page 497 of pew Bibles). This is his three friends. When they saw Job from a distance, they could hardly recognize him; they began to weep aloud, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads. Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights. They didnt just drop off a roast and give a card and say, See you later. Sorry. These people invested themselves. No one said a word to him, because they saw how great his suffering was. Friends, it was when they opened their mouths that things went downhill. It was when they tried to lecture him that things went downhill. You dont need a lecture at this point; you need a friend. When they were just hanging with Job, crying with Job, putting their hands on his shoulders and just expressing love to them… Do you know why they stayed seven days? Job didnt want them to leave. When they opened their mouths and tried to answer all these questions, Job couldnt wait for them to go. You dont need to be Mr. or Ms. Answer Person. In fact, thats not the purpose of our talking about these arguments or theodicies. When its all said and done, when there is a friend that needs our help, just be a friend. Just come alongside of them. Weep with them; listen to them; pray with them. Lastly, what did Jesus do when He saw evil and suffering? He opposed evil, and He sought to eliminate suffering. Thats what God has called the church to do. When you see evil, you oppose it. When there is suffering, you do something to alleviate it. You try to make a difference in your world, and thats what God has called us to do and to be. The clock on the wall says we are done, so were going to stand together as we close in prayer. Now next week-you know weve been doing these little mini-series within our series-next week, were going to talk about naturalism, Darwinism and evolution. Its going to be called, Chuck, the Zoo and You. Charles Darwin-get it? Chuck, the Zoo and You. Weve got a lot of friends who believe that life simply evolved and there is no purpose or design. It just kind of all happened, so you are the result of time, chance and matter coming together. Were going to talk about that for the next couple of weeks. Lets pray: Father, we see in Job an example of moral and natural evil that was allowed to exist. Lord, we see that through that, You formed character in Job. You formed faith in Job and endurance in Job, just like You did in Amber as we saw in her story today. We also contemplate as much as wed love to live in a world where You prevent every disaster and stop every wrong choice. To live in a world where there was not genuine free will, love and goodness is a greater evil. So as much as we still have questions, we are going to trust You. When the story is all played out, well be able to say as Paul did in Romans 6:18-that the sufferings of this world did not compare to the glory that is to be revealed. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
Well, you and I have all been through our share of heartache, hardship and suffering-pain in our lives. All of us have. My pain and my heartache are different than yours, but weve all had our share; and our stories are still being written. The bad news is life will not always be roses, wonderful and good from here on out for any of us. We will encounter more trials, struggles and hardships. I went through the death of my father at age 5. He died from cancer. That was hard. I grew up in poverty; our family didnt have anything. I came to appreciate the shoes on my feet and the clothes on my back, my food and a place to live. Having a car was an extreme luxury for our family. There were times that was a struggle and a hardship-to wonder if you were going to be kicked out by the landlord any day. I watched my mother who I was very close to-I watched her deteriorate through Alzheimers to the point where she could no longer remember even who I was and watched that take her life slowly. You know you do not go through experiences like that without asking questions, without that raising a struggle in your heart, in your mind. In my years of ministry, going on now 27 years of full-time ministry, I have been with parents of children whove drowned, who have been burned to death in fires, who have died in surgeries, who have been killed in car accidents. Ive been with wives whose husbands have committed suicide. Ive seen a lot of things that have broken my heart and have made me ask a lot of questions. Ive seen things in our world, natural evils and man-made evils, terrorist attacks, genocide and other things that really get us to scratch our heads, dont they? So we would be less than honest if we didnt ask those questions. By the way, those questions have been asked for centuries. We are not attempting to have all the answers in this little mini-series, not at all. We realize that only God has all the answers, but were going to try to answer some of the questions. There was a philosopher who lived years ago-300 years before Christ-named Epicurus. He started the Epicurean Philosophy. He raised a question. He said and Im paraphrasing, You know if God is able to cure the things that are in the world and He doesnt, then it either means He is impotent and He cant, or maybe He can cure them but He doesnt. That means Hes wicked. If God is both willing to get rid of the evil and can get rid of the evil and is powerful enough to get rid of the evil but doesnt, why is evil still in the world? That same question has been in your minds. There are people that are not in this church today because something bad has happened in their lives. I can think of people who went through painful tragedies. Theyre no longer walking with the Lord because theyre angry, and theyre hurt. Theyve come to the conclusion either that God doesnt exist, or if He does exist, I dont want to follow a God like that. Perhaps youve heard of the author Elie Wiesel, holocaust survivor, and his book, Night. I believe thats the book that I read. He talked about the fact that if God does exist and the atrocities He saw in the holocaust, he says, I will spit in His face. There are people who do not come to church at all or do not engage in worship with the Lord at all because of these questions and these concerns. You and I have all experienced people whove gone through the same things and ended up taking a different path. For some, it has brought them closer to God. And for others, it has caused them to move away from God. Isnt that interesting how people maybe even in the same family can go through the exact same tragedies and heartaches; and for some, they move closer to God and others they move away? There is a saying that says that some ships sail to the east, and some ships sail to the west by the self-same winds that blow; but it is the set of the sails and not the gales that determine which way they go. How are your sails set this morning? What direction-when the winds of adversity blow in your life, is it going to take you toward the Lord? Is it going to take you farther away from Him? With that as an introduction, lets begin talking about this problem. Lets open our Bibles up to the Book of Romans 8:28 (page 1119 of pew Bibles). This is one of the most precious promises in all the Bible. I guess what makes it so precious is that it is a promise. It is a certainty. God is saying that as sure as the heartache that befell you happened, this promise will come to pass as well. Romans 8:28, And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. In other words, hes going to identify what it means for those who love Him. What does it mean when you say, Paul, for those who love God, what does that mean? He says, …those who have been called according to His purpose. To live out the purposes of God is to demonstrate love for God; to work against the principles of God and the purposes of God would be the opposite of love. If somebody says, Oh, I love you, and stabs you in the back, your response is, Well, I dont think I need that kind of love. If somebody hurts you or harms you, its very difficult for them to go, But you know I love you. If you love somebody, your actions are consistent with that love, and thats what Paul is saying here. He says, …and we know. And he uses that word first as a means to observe firsthand or to know empirically whether something is true or not. We know that God does this. He doesnt say, Well, Im crossing my fingers and hoping for the best. It doesnt say, Well, sometimes God does this, or maybe God works all things together for good. He says, We know this. He knew this from experience. He knew this from being in prison. Pauls in prison; do you think his ministry shuts down? Thats not the case. In fact the Gospel begins to spread through the Praetorian Guard. In fact, those out in the mission field begin to step up their game; just like a team when their star player goes down-they step up their game. Pauls companions step up their game. Paul, in prison, writes the prison epistles that mean so much to you and me, that have inspired us like Ephesians and Philippians; he inspired billions of Christians through the ages. Paul has come to the point where he sees his spiritual weaknesses as strengths, and he writes, When I am week, then I am strong, because Paul has seen good things come out of his weaknesses. So Paul says, We know these things are true. We know that in some things, God works for the good. Is that what he says? We know that in most things… No. We know that in all things… I looked up the words all things in the Greek, and it means all things. In all things, God works for the good. Now he doesnt say all things are good. It doesnt say all things. If something evil happened to you, that is evil, and it will always be evil. Think of something evil: rape, murder, whatever. You think of something evil; that is always evil. God does not transform that evil thing into something good. Thats impossible. Not even God can do that, but what God will do is He will work in your life to bring about a good from the evil that has taken place in your life. Its very important to understand this word, and I do want to teach you a little Greek this morning. This phrase here says that God works together for good. That is one word, and its the word we get synergy from. Its the Greek word that we get synergy from. You know what synergy is-when youre working together and one is compensating for the weaknesses of the other toward a common goal or a synergistic effect. What this is saying is not that we are passive and that God is going to do everything for us, that if something bad has happened in our life, all we have to do is sit back, twiddle our thumbs and wait and that God is going to poof-magically bring about good. What this is saying is God wants to partner with us. God wants to work with us. God is saying, Listen, we are in this together. Together we are going to bring about a good from this bad circumstance. That's what its saying. Its not an invitation for you to be spiritually lazy. Its not an invitation to say, Okay, well this bad thing has happened. You know all I have to do is wait and just over time, its going to become… You have work to do as well. In fact, think of every virtue thats in your life, every virtue thats in your life now happened because of struggle. If you are a generous person, that does not come natural. Its because you have struggled with selfishness and come out on top. If you have patience in your life right now as a virtue, it is because you have struggled with impatience at some point. Its not because you said a prayer and said, Lord, give me patience, and God went, Okay, and sprinkled Heavenly dust on you. You woke up with this incredible amount of patience, no matter what the children did, what your boss did. You just said, Oh, its okay. I have patience now. I just prayed. It doesnt happen like that. You worked through impatient situations. If you have a virtue of purity in your life, its because you have wrestled with impurity. If you have faith in your life, it is because you have grappled with doubt. If you have perseverance in your life, it is because you have faced obstacles that drained you of your strength and made you feel like quitting but you continued to fight on. Every attribute in your life-every virtue in your life that God is producing-has come at a price. Its come with a struggle, and you appreciate it because of that. What are children like who get everything they want without any kind of struggle? Their parents say yes to them about everything. Imagine if you were growing up, and your maids always cleaned your room and made your bed. Your tutors always did your homework for you. You got every material blessing your eyes wanted. You got every food your eyes wanted. You lived by no rules and got to stay up as late as you wanted, eat whatever you wanted, and take whatever vacations you wanted. What would you end up being? Those of you who are just going, Well, happy, youre wrong. You would be spoiled, lazy, self-serving, ungrateful, unappreciative people. Sometimes its like we expect God to treat us like household pets. Some of your household pets I know live in Utopias. They have it so good. They have a warm place to sleep; theyre always well-fed, usually too well-fed. You protect them from harm. Theyre never hungry. They just live the life oRiley. Its just a wonderful existence. Sometimes I think that… Have you ever watched your pets take that for granted? They get a little sassy, a little fussy. Theyre yawning a little bit too much, sleeping a little bit too much. Sometimes I think we expect God to treat us like household pets, just take away all discomfort. Just take away all pain. Just provide for me everything I want. Just give me Utopia, and Ill be happy. No you wont! No you wont! Youll be spoiled, sassy, lazy and ungrateful. I appreciate what I have now materially because there was a day when I did not have those things. Nobody appreciates being loved more than a person whos been unloved. Nobody appreciates health more than a person who has not had health. We appreciate the summer more than the people in California or Arizona do, dont we? Because weve gone through six months of winter. That was a joke, but not really. So he says God causes all things to work together for good. It is a synergy. We are working together in tandem, in partnership, to bring about a greater good. How can Paul say this with such certainty? You know the way he can say it with such certainty? Its because God took the most negative event in the history of mankind and turned it in to the greatest positive the world has ever known. If God can do that with the worst event that ever happened, God can do it in your life as well. Jesus who knew no sin; who healed the lepers; who opened the eyes of the blind and the ears of the deaf; made the lame walk; who fed the hungry; who ministered and counseled with His word and loved and guided people, met His fate on a cruel Roman cross; his family and His friends gathered around in tears, sorrow and heartache. They went in to hiding for fear of the Jews. What possible good could come from killing such a wonderful man? We know, as the late Paul Harvey said, we know the rest of the story, dont we? What a great man passed away this week there. Now we know the rest of the story. How did God respond to the pain-when God became incarnate, when He became a man, what did He do of the problem of pain and suffering? He alleviated it, didnt He? When He saw pain and suffering, He alleviated it. That tells us that pain and suffering is not in His perfect will. Otherwise, He would go around and say, Well, thats just the way I want it to be. Well talk a little bit more about that tonight. What did God do of the problem of pain? Did Jesus seek to avoid pain at all cost? Did He seek to live a life of comfort and ease? No, the truth of the matter is God entered our pain. He entered our pain to a degree and to a dimension that you and I cannot even begin to fathom. I want to talk a little bit about some of the things that you and I go through, some of the negative experiences and negative emotions we have that cause us to ask these kinds of questions about the nature of God and the nature of the world. I put some of these words on the wall, so we can talk about them. What about loneliness? The Bible says that Jesus in His time of greatest need was abandoned by His friends. The time when He needed people the most, they scattered and went away. In the Garden of Gethsemane when He needed His closest friends to pray with Him and watch with Him, they fell asleep. He knows what its like to be alone. What about depression? Sometimes you struggle with depression. It just is a heaviness weighing down on you, a dark cloud encompassing you. Its hard to be positive, and you just are struggling with that. Can the Lord relate to emotion as dark as depression? When Jesus is in the Garden, what does He say to Peter, James and John? He says, My soul is troubled and overwhelmed to the point of death. What does that sound like to you? If somebody comes to you and says, I am overwhelmed to the point where I think Im going to die, that heaviness-the Lord can relate to the feelings of depression. What about rejection? The Bible says we despised and esteemed Him not. He was rejected by-He came into His own it says in John. And His own received Him not. Jesus knows what its like to be rejected. What about betrayed? His friend, His Disciples, Judas betrayed Him for money. Sometimes people that you know and you trust will betray that trust. When you go through that in your life, Jesus knows what thats like. What about death? Jesus would taste physical death, but Jesus also encountered the death of loved ones. Most scholars believe the reason we dont encounter Joseph anymore is because Joseph had died when Jesus was still a teenager. Jesus was left to be the head of the household and provide for His mother and be an example to His half brothers and sisters. Jesus encountered the death of His cousin, John the Baptist. The news was overwhelming and He went by Himself to be alone with His thoughts. When Jesus encountered the death of His friend Lazarus, the Bible says he wept. He can understand what its like to lose one that He loves. What about escape? Sometimes people want to escape. I just want to get away. I just wish there was another way out. I wish there were some different way I could go. Some people try to find that escape. Theyll use addictions to escape. Theyll use stuff. Theyll use pleasure. Theyll maybe even take their own life to escape the world. Can the Lord relate to that feeling of just wanting a way out? Jesus is in the Garden again, and He prays three times. He says, Father, if there be any other way, may this cup pass from Me. Jesus wants to know if there is another way. Is the cross inevitable? Sometimes youve gone through trials, and you go, I dont want to go through this. I dont want to go through this storm. The Lord understands that thought and emotion. Lets go to the next slide. What about abuse? Some of you have gone through abuse. What did Jesus endure? Abuse. They spit upon Him. They mocked Him. They struck His face. They pulled out His beard. The Bible says He was unrecognizable as a man. You couldnt even tell who He was anymore. They ripped off His robe and beat His back with a cat of nine tails. The Lord endured abuse: verbal, physical abuse. Misunderstood? Hed been misunderstood. How many of you have been misunderstood? Your words misunderstood? Your words misconstrued and misinterpreted? How many times did they misinterpret Jesus? Misunderstood Him? Called Him a blasphemer; called Him an illegitimate son; called Him a son of the devil. They took His words out of context. He was a man despised and we esteemed Him not, Isaiah Says. Humiliation, have you gone through humiliation? Jesus was stripped naked. He did not have a cloth on as the pictures and statues portray Him. He was naked-beaten, naked and raised in front of His mother, His family, His Disciples, His friends and His enemies to suffer and die. Dragging a cross through the cruel streets, enduring the taunting and ridicule of those on the side of the streets. He endured humiliation. Distant from God-have you ever felt that way? God is not hearing or answering your prayers. Christ cried on the cross, My God! My God! Why hast thou forsaken me as the weight of sin was placed upon Him. The fellowship that He had known from all eternity with the Father was broken, and He felt alone on the cross. Do you suffer with pain? Do you have chronic pain, arthritis, an injury or some other problem? Who suffered more than the Lord? The agony of crucifixion, the pain of the nails, the effort to get another breath as He suffered for hours. Most crucifixion victims would die from suffocation and not from loss of blood. Then, something we cannot understand-to have sin placed upon Him and to bear that punishment. Its a suffering you and I cannot even conceive. Thats why it says in the Book of Hebrews 4-the author talks about what we should do. He says, Verse 15 (page 1186 of pew Bibles), For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses… Our weaknesses-hes talking here about humanity, the things you and I struggle with-the emotions, the human frailty we have. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses but one who has been tempted in every way just as we are-yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. Have you ever been at work, at school or working on a project and you get stuck? You dont know what button to press, or you dont know what the answer is. You dont know what youre supposed to do in this situation. What do I say now? What do I do now? But your boss knows, your teacher knows, your coach knows, your supervisor knows or the co-worker whos been there longer and used to be on that machine before you were for 20 years knows. You go to that person with confidence because you know they have an answer. Number one, theyre able; and secondly, you know theyre willing. If you know theyre able and you know theyre willing, you go to them with confidence. Hebrews tells us, Come to God with confidence. You dont have a God who is up in Heaven and cant identify with things of earth. Well, Lord, you dont know what its like to go through what Ive gone through. You dont know what its like to encounter evil. Jesus encountered evil and overcame evil. You can bring that heartache and pain to the Lord. Thats the message I want to get through in Week 1 as we take on that topic.
Were going to get into our topic this morning as we talk about, God, Are You There? Were talking about the existence of God, a little two-part, three-part miniseries in our series as a whole. Last year I went to go see a documentary by a comedian/talk show host, Bill Maher. I dont know if youve ever watched his program on television, but the documentary was called, Religulous. Did anybody see it? I felt I needed to see it because there might be some questions that would be raised. I knew he was going to come down hard on faith, so in case anybody saw it and it caused some doubts or concerns, I wanted to see it so I could address those. He really was looking for answers. He did the best he could sometimes. His lack of theological training really showed up; it was really apparent in some of the things he didnt know or the way he would ask questions. Sometimes he asked the wrong people the answers to the questions or came to the wrong conclusions that contradicted what Christianity really teaches; so it was a little frustrating at times to watch it. One of the things that he was saying was: Why is faith even important? Why even have faith? Why doesnt God just stomp out the devil? Why doesnt He just show Himself, manifest Himself and be done with it? Really, how relevant is faith? How important is faith? Really, he was belittling faith or people of faith, and we want to talk about that today. We want to talk about faith; what are obstacles to faith; why its important; what is not and what it is in our time together today. We talked a little bit about it. For these first few Scriptures, were going to kind of go through them rather quickly. In others, well linger. Remember we talked about faith. We talked about Jeremiah 29:13. Remember He said to Jeremiah that if you seek Me with all your heart, you will find Me. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, when you seek Me. As we read through these, I want you to just reflect on what are some of the commonalities that we see in these Scriptures. We talked also about the Book of Acts 17:27. The Apostle Paul talks about God creating man and putting him in a certain place at a certain time. It said He did this that man might reach out and seek Him, grow for Him and find Him. He says, Though He is not far from every one of us. God wants us to seek, but He will show Himself to us. Then one I think we didnt look at last week, but I think its very important is Hebrews 11:6. It says, …without faith, it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him. So what do we see are the commonalities? We see number one that faith is active. Faith is a verb; its something we do. Some of you passively sit back and say, Well, when the circumstances are right, everything is provided for me and all the doors are open, Ill step forward. Thats not faith. Thats now how it works, friends. God has chosen to use the virtue of faith to teach us of Himself, to help us to learn to trust like a child. This life is training for the next, and faith is a very important component of that training-building Christ-likeness in our lives and what He is trying to do in our hearts and lives. Yet, some people resist faith. They have obstacles for their faith. Some would say, Well, if God would just come down and show Himself to me, do a miracle or something, then Ill believe. Well, you know, Jesus did. Christianity teaches that God became a man, and He did incredible works-incredible miracles: raising people from the dead; feeding of thousands with a few fish; calming storms; and healing the blind. All of these miracles, and yet there were still so many that refused to believe. Why is that? The Book of John 12 gives us some clues. In John 12, Jesus is speaking about those to whom Christ gave convincing proofs, but they refused to follow. John writes in Verse 39 of Chapter 12 (page 1066 of pew Bibles) that even after Jesus had done all of these miraculous signs in their presence, they still would not believe Him. He did so many things in their presence, so sometimes I even wonder if God did manifest Himself in that way, would that skeptic still hold on to their skepticism? Verse 39 says, For this reason they could not believe… For this reason. Because they would not believe? They could not believe. The evidence was there. There are some people that no matter how many arguments we present, weve talked about Creation. Well continue to talk about Creation in this series of order and design as a proof of the Creator. Well talk about Biblical prophecy. Well talk about the trustworthiness of the Biblical account of the Resurrection and the deity of Christ. Well address all these concerns, but no matter how many convinces and arguments you give, there are still people who will refuse to believe and do that for many reasons. The number one reason might be, It will change and impact my lifestyle in a way that I dont want. I like the way I live, and if theres a God who is going to hold me accountable-if Im going to be judged some day, then that means Im going to have to stop doing what Im doing; so Ill refuse to believe because its going to mess up my way of life if I have to have a Lord that I answer to. I want to be my own boss. I want to be in charge of my own life. If there are others who coming to Christ would be something that would cause them the possibility of being rejected by family or peers… Maybe you grew up in a Christian home, and so your decision to follow Christ was regarded as something to be celebrated. Others of us were not so fortunate. Maybe you grew up in a home where for you to commit your life to Christ, youd be seen as a crazy person. You know there are some families or even some cultures in the world where you commit your life to Christianity. In Islam they will hold a funeral for you because youre considered dead to that family. Maybe its a family where atheism or agnosticism is celebrated. For you to become a person of faith, it might cause you a chance that your family members will reject you or your peers. When I was 17 years old, I put my faith and trust in Christ, and many of my friends said, I dont want to be Williams friend anymore. I want nothing to do with that guy. Hes one of those ‘Christians now. I dont want anything to do with that guy. What does it say in Verse 42? It says, Yet at the same time many even among the leaders believed in Him. But because of the Pharisees they would not confess their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue; for they loved praise from men more than praise from God. Another reason might be pride. Anyone here ever defended yourself when you know youre wrong? Youve been in an argument, and theyre making points that are really good. You know youre wrong and youre still defending yourself? We dont like to admit were wrong, do we? If somebody said, Well, the Bible is not the Word of God or Christ is not Lord. He was just a man or the Resurrection did not take place. God does not exist. To then turn and say, Well, I was wrong, is a difficult thing to do. Sometimes pride gets in the way. There is a speaker, author, pastor by the name of Lee Stroble. He was once at Willow Creek, and is now I believe with Rick Warren at Saddleback Church in California. He was an atheist-die hard atheist at the Chicago Tribune. His job was to be a reporter and expose-get to the truth at the bottom of scandals and expose fraud; so he had a very skeptical mind. His wife became a Christian. That caused a little tension in the home. He decided that he was going to approach Christianity with the same tenacity as he went after a story for the Tribune. He was going to disprove the claims of Christ and dispute Christianity. He began to objectively-and in an unbiased-well, it was not unbiased because he was biased against Christianity. He began to investigate the claims of Christ, the truth of the Bible, the existence of God-all those things, and began to record evidence. One time, he was investigating a story for the Tribune about this man who was a criminal who supposedly had become a Christian. He interviewed police officers in Chicago who said, Hes scum. Hes garbage. Hes ‘this. Hes ‘that. Hes just a piece of trash. Then he started a new life in another area of the country, and he interviewed the pastor, people of the church, people that knew him; and they said he was the most wonderful guy they ever met. So he said, Well, this guy cant be the same guy. Somethings going on. He is pulling a con move here. He said, Im going to get to the bottom of it. Im going to expose this guy. His wife said, The reason you want to come after him-is it because it couldnt happen or because you dont want it to happen? Because you dont think Christianity is true? He got all defensive, but she was right. Later on, by the way, he did meet the man; and they eventually became friends. This guy is still working with inner city kids in his local church 20 years later. Hes the real deal. But this is a documentary Lee Strobel made that Id like to see sometime. Maybe we can show it at our church, but here are the conclusions he came to while having to examine the evidence of Christianity. Lets watch that clip right now as Lee Stroble talks about his journey to faith. (Heres a link to view it: http://www.wingclips.com/cart.php?target=product&product_id=16464&substring=Lee+Strobel) Do you think when Lee Stroble made that decision that he still had some questions and doubts in his heart? Did he have all the questions answered? All doubts resolved? All mysteries solved when he took that step of faith? No. The fourth reason that people will refuse to cross the line of faith is they have a misperception that faith is the absence of all doubt. I cant believe in the Lord because I have these questions. Sometimes Ill have dialogue with somebody, and theyll start throwing things at me that really in the scheme of things are not important at all. Theyre little rabbit trails were chasing and kind of bringing it back. Well, wait a second now, I can answer that question or that concern, but lets really talk about the core issue here. Who was Jesus? Was He raised from the dead? What did He accomplish when He was here? Is He God or is He just a philosopher and teacher, a prophet? Lets deal with the really core. So Im thinking well, I have to answer all these questions first. Friends, doubt is not the absence of faith. In fact, doubt is an important part of coming to faith. The things that I hold to be true, the convictions that I have are because I once struggled with certain doubts in those areas and became convinced in my spirit that this was truth. I dont have all questions answered. I have a friend who is right now dying of cancer, and he has two little girls. Hes a little bit younger than I. The last three, four times Ive set up a meeting to go and see him-a friend of mine and I were going to go see him-hes had to cancel because Hospice was there, he was feeling sick or had to go to the doctor. It just seems like its not working out. I get frustrated by that. This is a good guy, and he has children to raise. How can this be happening? I have questions and concerns, but they do not negate my faith. It is possible that faith and doubt can coexist. In fact, turn in your Bibles to Marks Gospel, Chapter 9. In Mark 9, we find the story of a father bringing his son to Jesus. The son has a demonic presence in his life. It is causing him to get thrown into convulsions. It tries to destroy him by throwing him in fire and water. He brings him to Jesus, and Jesus asks him how long this has been going on. He said, Since he was a child, this has happened. Its been tormenting him since childhood. So heres this father, and he loves his boy. He loves his boy more than his own life-as any father would. He says, Can you help my son? If You can, will You have pity and have mercy on him? If You can… Jesus says, If I can? If I can? Do you know who youre talking to here? It would be like going to Michael Jordan in his prime and saying, Now if you can dunk a basketball… What do you mean if I can dunk. Matt Kenseth won the Daytona, right? Hey, if you can drive a car, could you run this… What do you mean if I could drive a car? Go to Martha Stewart, Now if you could cook, could you make this recipe? What do you mean if I could cook? Im Martha Stewart. Dont you know who I am? Youre coming to Jesus, and you are saying, If you can. Jesus says, If I can? All things are possible to him who believes. Listen to the fathers response. Its very real, and its very authentic in Verse 24 (of Chapter 9, page 1000 of pew Bibles), Immediately, the boys father exclaimed, ‘I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief! He said, I believe. With all my heart, I believe. Help me overcome my doubts. Jesus rebuked him and said, Shame on you for having doubts! If youre going to have any kind of doubts at all, we cannot do business. Im sorry! I cant help you today! No, Jesus understood. Im going to talk to you and give you a little illustration this morning about what faith is and faith is not. Im going to reach in my pocket, and Im going to pull out a piece of candy. I have a guy in our church who gives me candy every weekend. It kind of gives me energy boosts, right, or keeps the throat from getting too dry. Im not going to give you one of my favorites because I like those, but Ill give this away to somebody who wants it at the conclusion. These are hard candies wrapped in cellophane. Its good; its never been used. I didnt put it back in or anything like that. You have to open it for the first time, but there is a piece of candy in my… You cant see it, but Im telling you its in there. Im not lying to you. Im not trying to trick you. I really do have a piece of candy in my hand. Ill open my hand in just a little while and show you whats inside my hand; but how many of you today believe that I have a piece of candy in my hand? Let me see your hands. Okay. How many of you think I might be pulling the rug over your eyes? Okay, all right. Some of the hands surprise me; some dont. All right, now, thats faith because you didnt see for sure whats in my hand, but youre trusting me. You say, You know me. I trust you. Youre going to tell me the truth. If you say theres candy there, theres candy there. Thats faith and trust. You have some evidences because you have a history with me, but faith is like that. Were taking God at His word. Were trusting in something that we dont see with our eyes but we believe to be true because of who said it. Now for those of you who raised your hands, and you said, I believe. I have faith that you have candy in your hands, I am going to destroy your faith right now. This is what Im going to do. Im going to destroy your faith by opening my hand. See that candy? Its great. You say, Well, you didnt destroy my faith. You confirmed my faith. Yes, but I also destroyed your faith. You no longer have faith the candys in my hand. You now know the candys in my hand. You know it because you can see it. Anybody want it? Anybody like grape? Nobody? Who was first? (Pastor threw it and the congregation is laughing.) Can you…? I dont always throw that bad. At 8 oclock, I nailed Kayla Powers in the back row. Im feeling a little attacked here. I was just trying to be gentle. You dont have faith that the sun is going to rise tomorrow. You know it will. You dont have faith that spring will come. You know spring will come, and you know that empirically. You know that from your experience-that seasons come and go. This morning you exhibited faith when you got in your car. You started your car; you put it in drive. You exhibited faith that that car would take you to the 11 oclock service at Faith Community Church. When you stepped on the brakes, you exhibited faith that the brakes would stop your car-that 3,000 pound, or however much our cars weigh, machine was going to stop at that intersection. Where if hadnt stopped, your life was in jeopardy because you would have gone headlong into that intersection with oncoming traffic. So you showed faith. Once you got here-arrived here-put your car in park, turned off the keys and got out of your car, did you still have faith that the car was going to bring you to the 11 oclock service, or did you have knowledge? You had knowledge. Faith is not necessary where there is knowledge. What people like that are saying, Well, if God would just come down and show me… What youre in essence saying is if God would just come down and destroy my faith… If God would just come down and wipe out my faith, then Id believe. Well, thats not really faith, is it? That's knowledge. Did Peter have a faith-after Christ appeared to him-that Christ rose from the dead? No, he had a knowledge that Jesus rose from the dead. Did John have a faith that Christ rose from the dead after seeing him and walking and talking with Him for a period of 40 days about the Kingdom? No, John had knowledge. That's why those men said, Beat me! Imprison me! Even kill me, but I will not stop talking about what Ive seen and heard. They had heard the risen Christs voice. They had touched Him. They had seen Him with their eyes. They had spoken with Him. They had been with him. They knew it was true, so therefore, they said, Take the body if you want to. I know its true, and God has commanded me to preach and teach, so I will not be silent. Thats an apologetic that well look at down the road. Now theres another Disciple who was not a man of faith, and his name was Thomas. I know its not Easter yet, and this might be illegal; but were going to look at John 20 anyway. In John 20:24, Thomas is present. It says now Thomas-one of the Twelve-was not with Disciples when Jesus came; so the other Disciples told him, We have seen the Lord! Peter, James, John-theyre excited. These are men of integrity. These are his friends, his peers. He has spent time with them for three years. He knows them, and they are saying to him, all of them, Its true. Jesus rose from the dead. Theyre not saying it as a joke. You dont joke around about your friends death. They are saying it with sincerity. Whats more, Jesus prophesied and said He would rise from the dead. There were times it was a little veiled, but He had said it on more than one occasion. Thomas refuses to acknowledge any of that and said these words (page 1075 of pew Bible), ‘But unless I see the nail marks in His hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe. I will not believe. I refuse. A week later, His Disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you! The first thing He did was calm them down. What would you do if you were in a room with a closed door and the door was locked, and all the sudden somebodys in the room that wasnt there before? Ahhh! Calm down. Be at peace. Its okay. Its Me. What does He do? He said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here; see My hands. Reach out your hand and put it into My side. Stop doubting and believe. Isnt it interesting that Jesus still bares the marks of the cross in His glorified, resurrected body? Thats another sermon for another time. Theres a reason for that. Then Thomas says, ‘My Lord and my God! My Lord and my God and worships Jesus. Then Jesus says, Stop worshipping Me. Im just a man like you! Im just a really good Prophet, moral teacher and religious leader, but Im not divine; so dont say that! No, Jesus receives the title of Lord and God, both of which are divine titles. He receives the worship of Thomas, and He uses it to teach him. He says, ‘Because you have seen Me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. That's you and me. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe. Thomas did not have faith any more that Christ was raised from the dead. He now had knowledge. What Thomas in essence was saying was I refuse to have faith! The only thing that will work for me is knowledge. But faith for the one who has faith is real. Because we have learned through our experience, God has shown Himself real to us. Jesus made that promise. In John 7, the same book, verse 17 (page 1058), Jesus is speaking about people who had questioned His words-whether or not they were divine. We all know theyre good, but are they divine? He says in Verse 17, ‘If anyone chooses to do Gods will, he will find out whether My teaching comes from God or whether I speak on My own. Jesus says, You wonder whether or not My words are true? Live them. Do them. Follow them. Taste and see the Lord is good. Youll see that theyre real. Faith is a verb. Do you want God to show Himself to you? Seek Him. Do you want to find out if His Word is true? Obey it! Do it! Live it! How many of you like to receive presents? You like gifts, birthdays and Christmases? You like presents? As fun as it is to receive presents, Jesus said, It is more blessed to give than receive. The word blessed means happy. He says, You will be a happier person being a giver than you are being a receiver. Is that true? Try it! Start giving away stuff. Start giving to people. That teaching will either be confirmed or denied in your experience. Jesus says, Just do what Ive said, and youll see whether or not My words are from God. Test Me here. When we begin our faith journey, we are a little bit faith and a little bit knowledge; but as our faith grows, our knowledge grows. Because as we experience God, as we experience His presence, as we experience answered prayer-maybe not always in the way we want it-but it comes to confirm what God has said in His Word and what He has said to be true. Then our knowledge begins to increase as well until our faith becomes something that is just precious to us. In the Book of Peter, 1 Peter 1 (page 1200), Peter writes to those who are not as privileged as he to see Jesus personally or hear His words personally. He says in Verse 8, Though you have not yet seen him; you love Him; and even though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls. He talks about the realness of faith-if thats a word. He talks about the benefits of faith. He talks about the fact that we are receiving the goal of our faith-not having just received because salvation is and it is to come. It is now and it is not yet. Certain aspects of our salvation weve received; others are yet to come. I want to talk as we close to two groups of people. I want to first of all talk to those who are here who are seekers or skeptics. Youre coming to this service, and youre going to come to this series. You have questions and you have some doubts. The truth of the matter is you have enough evidence to make a decision. Dont wait until you have every question answered, every mystery solved. That day will never come. As long as we live, there will always be an element of faith that we have to live by; and that's how God has made it. The just shall live by faith. But you have enough-this morning-to make that decision to be a Christ-follower. God has revealed enough of His Truth to you. I want to encourage you to take that step of faith today in just a few moments. Secondly, I want to talk to those who are already believers, already followers of Christ. Maybe there are some things in your life where youre waiting on God-a step He wants you to take, a step of obedience for your ministry, in a relationship, a vocation or whatever it is; and youre saying, Oh you know when circumstances are just perfect-when God opens the door… When God provides this or that, then Ill believe. No, that's knowledge; thats not faith. Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you shall find; knock and the door shall be opened to you. Its active. You go forth. Some of you are waiting for the door to open, so you can say, Well then Ill go through. Well good for you. Moses, when he was going to cross the Red Sea, when he starts to cross the Red Sea, the waters are still full. Its as he crosses that they open. As he takes the step of faith, they open. Remember the people who had leprosy? The lepers, Jesus says, they come and say, Lord, have mercy on us. Jesus says, Go, and show yourselves to the priests. The Bible says, As they were going, they were cleansed. That means when they started their journey to the priests, they were still lepers; but as they took that step of faith, God met them there and brought the answer they were looking for. Some of you are being too tentative, too laid back-youre waiting for too much. God wants you to take a step of faith right now. Though you dont know how the door is going to be opened, take that step of faith. That's how He made the world. That's how He wants us to live. He wants us to learn to trust. He wants us to trust His Word, even though we dont hear Him or see Him, Hes given us clues. Hes given us proof of evidence, but ultimately God wants us to have faith. As you extend that faith and use that faith, He will confirm Himself to you. He will open those doors of opportunity. Would you bow your heads with me as we pray? First of all if youre here this morning and youve not made a decision to follow Christ but youd like to today, I want to lead you in prayer. Just pray this prayer with me. Say: Heavenly Father, I come to You today in Jesus name. Lord, I use what little faith I have to receive You into my heart and life. Lord, I recognize that Im a sinner-that Ive missed the mark, that Ive fallen short. I ask for Your forgiveness. I ask for Your cleansing. I pray for a new start today. I pray that Your Holy Spirit would come and live in my heart, that Youd make me a new person who might follow You all the days of my life and one day live in Your Heaven in Your presence. By faith, I receive Jesus Christ as my Savior and as my Lord. Father, if they prayed that prayer, You have answered that prayer, and God, you will meet them right there. Even in the midst of some of their doubts, Lord, we dont have all the answers. We dont have all doubts settled, but we know enough that we can follow the evidence where its leading to make that decision to receive You as our Lord and Savior. Lord, I thank You for each and every person who has made that decision today. Father, I pray secondly for those who are believers. What they have sought for is not faith; its knowledge. Theyve waited for everything to align, every provision to be met, every circumstance to be right and have said, Then Ill be obedient. That's not what Youve called us to. Youve called us to a life of faith. Abraham was sent to go to the land that You would show him. As he was going, You showed him where You wanted him to be. All he knew at the time was to follow. He didnt have all the answers. He still had doubts, and yet he acted on what he knew. We would act on what we know and trust You to provide the answers that we seek. Know, Lord, that if we will follow Your Word and obey Your Word, You will show Yourself to be true, show Yourself to be real. I pray for those who are still holding on-for whatever reason or obstacle theyre facing right now-they still have not crossed that line of faith, I pray that they would keep coming. I pray that they keep listening, and one day they too would receive You as their Lord and Savior. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
I, like a lot of people, decided that we were going to get rid of our land line. It just seemed to be that all it existed for was telemarketers to leave messages. Were using it that much, really. The big drawback of that was they said, Your internet is going to be down for 5, 10 minutes. When this happens, give us a call-call tech support. Well walk you through it, no big deal. So sure enough, a week later the internet goes down-very inopportune time. I call them, and they say, Oh, yeah-5, 10 minutes, well have you back on line, Mr. Williams. Dont worry, no problem. I said, Great. Three and a half hours and four tech people later, Im still trying to figure it out. The fourth tech was just-he was so frustrated. He basically just gave up. He said, I have nothing else to tell you. I have nothing else to show you. Really, you just need to call back and talk to somebody else, because they were having me do the same thing. Every tech guy was saying, Okay, now. Unplug your modem. Re-plug it in. We were just walking through the same steps, and I would say, Listen, Ive done this a dozen times before. It hasnt helped, but, okay; Ill do it again. Wed try to go to different websites and just nothing was coming through. Finally, I talked to the fifth technician. I explained my story, and I could tell right off the bat that this guy had a working understanding of the computers-not just what he was trained to troubleshoot, but overall how a computer operates and works. This guy knew it and you could just tell. Any technician-if you tried to take them off the script-you take them off the track they were trained in, they got confused; and they didnt know what to do. This guy, he had such knowledge; I could tell right off the bat it was going to be different. In five minutes, I was online-just that fast. He didnt just understand what he was trying to spit back out. He understood how everything worked and how it all fit together. This series that were on called, Looking Under the Hood, investigating our Christianity, investigating our faith, is like that. Its like that so that you can go off-script. If youre trying to share your faith, you dont just simply memorize certain answers. If somebody asks you a question thats not on the script and you panic and dont know what to say or do, but that you have an understanding not only of the what of the Bible, but the why and the how and are able to share that with other people... Weve been on this series for three weeks now, and weve got quite a while to go. Were definitely going up through Easter and maybe beyond. Were going to cover a lot of ground. In this next couple weeks, were talking about, God, are you there? and understanding how God has revealed Himself to us. Could it be like Jim Carey in that movie that God has shown signs to us that we sometimes ignore or dont pay attention to, that He is there? Its an interesting study if you ever want to do a cultural study or sociological study to look at other civilizations from civilized society to tribal society. You will see within those societies a desire or a need to worship someone or something higher than themselves. Maybe they have ancestor worship. Maybe they worship certain animals or idols or gods; but in that society-in that people group-there will be an acknowledgement that someone or something beyond their own selves must exist. In the Book of Acts 17 in Athens, Paul is walking around. With the Athenians, that was like the intellectual hotbed of the day-the epicurean and the stoic philosophers and all these different groups of people did nothing but talk about the latest ideas; so when Paul comes on the scene they think hes just an idol babbler. Thats what they call him, a babbler. In fact it was the word bird seed picker. They thought Paul just really didnt know what he was talking about. He was like a bird. He picks up a seed and flies it to another area and drops it off, But you know what, well listen to him. That was their TV; that was their internet; that was their movies; that was their entertainment-to just talk about new stuff. So Paul comes on the scene, and he examines the statues. He examines the art and the idols, the poets and the philosophers. Then he uses those things to communicate the Gospel. He says, You have an idol to an unknown god. What you worship is unknown I now proclaim to you, and he then began to teach them about God. He said how God in His sovereignty established every people group and every nation. He said, He did this so that we might seek Him and find Him though He is not far from each one of us, Paul said. Paul says that God put within man this innate desire to know Him and to find Him, to seek after Him. One of my favorite methods of entertaining the children when they were growing up was hide and seek. Did you play that with your children too? It was just a game that you knew could really occupy them for a while. In hide and go seek, if youre a good seeker, you learn not just to look with your eyes but to listen with your ears. Youre looking for clues. Is that blanket moving? Do I hear a snicker? Do I see something ajar that shouldnt be ajar? So you are approaching that game with your antennas up. Youre looking. As we go through life, there are certain clues that God leaves us. Sometimes we are oblivious to them; were not looking for [them]; were not listening with our ears; were not searching with our eyes. You know how it is if you are the one who is hiding? Sometimes you want to be found because maybe youre getting claustrophobic because youve been in the same spot for too long, or youre just tired. Youre all cramped up, so youll cough or youll do something to be found because you want the game to end. God is a God who is not hidden from us. God wants to be found, but He also wants us to seek. So no matter what evidences we talk about today-or what proofs we talk about today, ultimately it comes down to a matter of faith; and thats the way God created the world. Thats the way He designed the world. He wants you and me to be a person of faith. The full reasoning-the full rationale for that-maybe well not know until we get to the other side; but God makes it abundantly clear in His Word that He wants you and me to be a people of faith. Why doesnt God just come down and stop traffic in the middle of a busy street and say, ‘Here I am? Well, God did come on this planet at one time, He did live among us for a period of years; taught among us as no man had ever taught; did works that no man has ever done; and there were still those who questioned Him. So were going to be talking about several evidences or proofs for Gods existence. Some of these were not going to spend a lot of time on because were going to come back to them, possibly next week or even down the road. Well talk about science. But Im going to give you the big $10 word for some of these proofs because one thing I notice on your surveys-we have surveys for classes-I dont know where mine is, but apologetics has popped up as a subject matter you want to learn about. I thought Id just give you the big word so you can do some studying on it on your own, look it up on your own and study some of the arguments for yourselves. Whats really important is not the philosophical word but its understanding the concept behind that word thats important. Were going to follow Paul as he uses these arguments and as he shares truth with people who need to know and see what we can learn from Paul. The first argument were going to talk briefly about is the cosmological argument. That is found it the Book of Colossians 1. Colossians 1, he is speaking to the church, and he is letting us know who Jesus is-that He is not a created being; that He is not a creature; that He is in fact an agent of creation; that He is with God in the beginning. He says in Verse 16 (page 1165 of pew Bibles), For by Him all things were created: things in Heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. So hes speaking in the cosmological argument about there must be a first cause. Aristotle talked about the first mover. Theologians, like Thomas Aquinas, in the Middle Ages talked about the Uncaused Cause. There must be-if everything is cause and effect-there must be in our world a first cause, a prime mover-somebody who put it into motion. I guess the most common illustration is dominos. If you lined up dominos end to end, every domino falls because its hit by the domino in front of it; so if you trace that string of dominos back, there must be someone along the way who tripped that first domino-somebody who started that in motion. Even if youre the Big Bang theorist… The Big Bang talks about there was nothing but matter, and then all of the sudden, this burst of energy, and theres the world. Where did that come from? How did the explosion happen? Who was the first mover-if you trace every cause and effect back, somewhere there must be a first cause; and that first cause is God. Now none of these proofs stand on their own as a deductive proof that totally convinces us of the existence of God; but as we look at inductive proof, as we look at one argument after another argument after another, together collectively they make a compelling case for the existence of God. The second argument is called the teleological argument. It comes from the word that has to do with design and purpose, and we find that in the Book of Romans 1 (page 1112 of pew Bibles). Paul is writing and he says in Verse 18, The wrath of God is being revealed from Heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the Creation of the world. Gods invisible qualities-His eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. Turn also to the Book of Psalms 19:1 (page 541 of pew Bibles). The Heavens declare the glory of God… The heavens speak. …the skies proclaim the work of His hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth… So the Psalmist tells us that the Creation speaks of the Creator. Who among us hasnt identified with these words, hasnt looked at a sunrise or a sunset and saw the brilliant colors? Was it Brian that was talking about in our 8 oclock service this morning-I stole his sheet here-the eye can distinguish 1.5 million messages simultaneously? It can see millions of colors. Evolution has yet to come up with any kind of explanation remotely close to figuring out how the human eye came to be and how it works. When we look at that sunrise and that sunset, and we see those brilliant colors, it testifies to the Creator. Have you ever been driving out at night where theres no light pollution or up north and you look at the sky and its clear? It just looks like a salt shaker-that God just poured a salt shaker into the sky, and all of these millions of stars [came about]. Ever been and seen a storm come rolling in? Ill never forget the Grand Canyon. I was standing in the Grand Canyon, and a storm came rolling in. Being able to look at the lightening, hear the thunder and watch the clouds just come rolling in, it just speaks of the majesty of God. But when I see design, I know theres a designer. When I see Mt. Rushmore, I know somebody had to make that. When Im driving around in the wintertime and I see a snowman in the yard, I know there was a designer. I dont think, Oh, theres snow. Its a windy day, so maybe the wind blew the snow and the buttons, the carrot, the coal, the hat and the scarf all together to form this snowman. Yet we are expected to believe that time, chance and the right set of circumstances along with mutation, adaptations, survival of the fittest and all of that-all this works together and somehow from non-life comes life. Somehow from chaos comes order and design. How can there be law without a law-giver? How can there be design without a designer? That's the teleological argument. There is a third argument. Well spend some more time on that one in the days ahead. There is another argument found in the Book of Romans. Its what we call the moral argument. In Romans 2:14-15 (page 1113), Paul is talking here about the fact that Gods laws are written in our heart. Hes talking about people-he calls them Gentiles-who dont have the Bible. (Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.) If we are simply the product of chance, the product of random collisions of atoms and molecules, where does morality come from? Why is it that in the cultures of the world-from civilized societies to tribal societies, there is a basic understanding of right and wrong-that they understand that murder is wrong? Taking what belongs to somebody else is wrong. Who tells us that? Who taught us that? I even watched one time in amazement a documentary on seals. It was a slow day. I long for the day when I have the time to sit down and watch a documentary on seals again. But they showed this seal that had lost her pup in seal birth. She stole the pup of another mother seal. They found her, and they chased her down; and she fell into this crevice in the ice. She was down there with this other mother seals pup. The whole tribe or clan, whatever, a gathering flock of seals-whatever theyre called-are gathering around looking down at this mother who stole this other seals baby pup; and they are barking at her. I dont speak seal, but I think it was like, Shame on you! Whats wrong with you? How could you do this? Look how distraught she is! Nobody was barking louder and longer than the mama. The mama was just giving her a piece of her mind! She was telling her what an awful seal she was. Down below, the mother seal who took the pup was like, Yeah, I know! I suck, and was just feeling terrible about herself; and she should have! Shame on her! Where does this-that even seals… You go in the toddler classroom and watch as toddlers are interacting. One toddler takes a toy from another toddler. Maybe they dont even know how to talk yet, but there will be this look on his or her face. Theyll point to the teacher, the authority figure, and theyll go, Ahh, ahh. ‘A crime, a crime has been committed! How does that baby know that? Does the baby have a set of rules that says, Well, you know if you turn to paragraph 3 of code…? Is that how the baby knows that something wrong has happened, or does the baby innately know something wrong has taken place? I mean there are things in our society that we see or hear that we just have moral outrage, and we go, That is wrong! We know it internally. If we are simply the product of chance, where does that morality come from? Where does that shame when you do or say something that you feel, where does that come from? Why is that a universal thing in mankind? Could it be that we are the creation of a moral God that has a moral law that He has put within our hearts? There is a fourth tool that I want to talk about, and thats called a testimonial tool. Some of you might say, Well, Im not sure if I could explain the teleological argument you had, the cosmological argument or ontological or whatever moral-whatever one youre looking at; but you know one thing that you could-you can tell your story. I want to take a look at the Apostle Paul and see how effectively he shared his story. If youd turn to the Book of Acts, there are numerous places we could look, but were going to look at Acts 22 (page 1103). In Acts 22, Paul is defending himself. He has caused an uproar in the temple by his very presence. His enemies have stirred up the crowd and began telling lies and distortions about Paul. So the disturbance reaches the ears of the Roman soldiers. One thing Rome does not like is disturbance. They want their community to be orderly and peaceful, and the Jews are under Roman control. Any disorder threatens their independence as a nation. Right now they have a lot of freedoms: religious freedom, freedom to govern themselves; but if Israel gets too much out of line-if it can't police itself and Rome has to keep coming down on them, that could be a threat to their very independence. They come on the scene, and they dont really know who Paul is. Theyre not sure why everybodys mad, but he must have really done something wrong for them to be this angry that they want to kill him; so they give Paul an opportunity to share to both Jews and to the Romans why he is in so much hot water. He tells the story in Verse 1, ‘Brothers and fathers, listen now to my defense. By the way, we know that word there when he says, Listen to my defense. That's the word apologia, from which we get apologetics-which is the series that were on-the apologetics of defending our faith. When they heard him speak to them in Aramaic, they became very quiet. Then Paul said: ‘I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city. Under Gamaliel I was thoroughly trained in the law of our fathers and was just as zealous for God as any of you are today. I persecuted the followers of this Way to their death, arresting both men and women and throwing them into prison, as also the high priest and all the Council can testify. I want to stop just for a moment there in Verse 4. Do you see how the word Way is capitalized? It tells you that its being used as a proper noun. What were Christians called before they were called Christians? What did they call themselves? They called themselves the Way. They said, I am a follower. Instead of saying the word Christian-it didnt even exist yet; they would say, We are followers of ‘the Way. Whered they get that from? Well, we talked about it last week in John 14:6. Jesus says, I am the way, the truth and the life. So this new religion, this new group that was forming, identified them by that statement, We are the Way. Its not a very politically-correct name to have, is it? It is a very clear indication of who they thought they were or what they thought Jesus had done. He had provided the Way to know God. So Paul is a persecutor of that Way. Pauls desire is not to slow down the spread of Christianity. When it says he persecutes the church, make no mistake about it. He wanted to eradicate the church. The church was contained enough that if he could just stop the spread, if he could go after some of the key preachers, teachers and leaders, Paul envisioned a day when Christianity-the Way-would not even exist on the planet. It would be wiped out, done away with, eradicated-rid the world of this scourge called Christianity that teaches blasphemy that this common criminal that was crucified and died is somehow the Messiah. This group needs to be stopped, and Im going to do it single-handedly if I have to. Thats was Pauls intention. Paul would arrest them; Paul would have them killed. In fact, Paul was the one who orchestrated and oversaw the first martyr of the Christian Church and the stoning of Steven in Acts 7; and everybody knows that. Everybody knows [about] Pauls life before he became a Christian. He says in Verse 5, …‘I even obtained letters from them to their brothers in Damascus, and went there to bring these people as prisoners to Jerusalem to be punished. ‘About noon as I came near Damascus, suddenly a bright light from Heaven flashed around me. I fell to the ground and heard a voice say to me, Saul! Saul! Why do you persecute Me? ‘Who are You, Lord? I asked ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, who you are persecuting, He replied. Notice Jesus identifies with the church. The Lords in Heaven, but He says to Paul, Youre persecuting Me. To persecute the church was to persecute Him. ‘My companions saw the light, but they did not understand the voice of Him who was speaking to me. ‘What shall I do, Lord? I asked. ‘Get up, the Lord said, and go into Damascus. There you will be told all that you have been assigned to do. ‘My companions led me by the hand into Damascus, because the brilliance of the light had blinded me. So heres Paul. He thinks he sees the truth, and then God blinds him to teach him something, You dont see what you think you see. You and I have friends who think they see the world the way it is. We have friends who think for sure that there is no God, but theyre not seeing the world as it is. Paul becomes literally blind to realize that metaphorically hes also spiritually blind-that he does not see the reality, the very God that hes been seeking to-the very one hes been seeking to persecute-is in fact God. Hes kicking against the goads. The goads were the sharp medal objects you used to keep the oxen straight. Another time is [when] hes retelling his testimony, and Jesus says to Paul, Is it hard to kick against the goads? Youre fighting a battle you cant win. So the oxen would get in line when they realized that if they tried to get out of line, it was going to hit those goads; so it would just plow that field-no questions asked. Paul starts to realize hes fighting a losing battle. Hes fighting against God, and he better come in line or youre going to continue to kick against the goads. So Paul is Mr. Independent. Hes Mr. Ill take on Christianity by myself if I have to, and now hes been reduced to a dependent individual who has to be led around by the hand and told what hes supposed to do. Paul is a humbled man. Then Paul shares that hes been called to the Gentiles, and thats as far as his testimony is going to get because the Jews dont want to hear that. They get upset and the ruckus starts all over again in our story. Every good testimony has what happened before-how God intervened in our life and what has happened since. You know these intellectual arguments are good, and they have a purpose; but you know Im convinced that the most powerful argument is not the objective or intellectual argument. The most powerful argument that you and I have-and when I say the word argue, understand Im not talking about arguing with somebody, but Im talking about a premise that leads to a conclusion, a logical conclusion. The most powerful tool we have is our testimony, to say, Heres what my life was like before God intervened. Heres what He did, and heres my life now. That might be when you came to the Lord, or that might be something thats happening in your life today. But there are people all around us that we work with; people that we carpool with; people that we go to school with; people that we know in our neighborhood or in various clubs that we belong to, organizations; family members who need to hear the story that we have to tell. You might say, Well, Im not verse enough in these arguments to articulate them as I would like to. You know one thing is for sure-you can tell your story because you lived it. You lived it. [Its] one thing they couldnt dispute. They could maybe dispute that Jesus was Lord; they could dispute the Resurrection. They could try to argue those things with Paul, but one thing they could not dispute was that he was an enemy of the church and was now serving the very One that he tried to eradicate. They couldnt deny that. That was a fact. Your story is a powerful thing. What is happening to the testimony in your life? Is your testimony gathering dust? You say, Well, my testimony is not as dramatic as Pauls. I didnt see a bright light or hear a voice from Heaven. But your story is important, and its an ongoing testimony; its an ongoing story. How has God sustained you in the midst of adversity? Theres somebody that needs to know that. How did God bring hope to you when everything around you said your situation was one of despair? How did God bring insight and truth to you when you needed guidance? How did God bring comfort to you when your heart was broken? How did He impart wisdom to you when you didnt know what to do? How did He provide for you when it seemed like there was no provision possible? All of those things are part of your story, and God gave you that blessing-not just so that you would keep it inside to encourage yourself. He wants you to use that story to let people know that He exists and that He cares about our lives-that we are not just the product of time, chance and circumstances falling in line, that we have been made with purpose and design. You can argue with Him all day and try to prove that theres no way that life can come from non-life, intelligence from non-intelligence or design from chaos; but to tell them your story-thats your reality. Thats what happened to you. Something happened to you that needs to be shared. When I was 17 years old, I was not in a good way. I was ready to begin college. I didnt have any idea what I was going to do with my life. I just knew I wasnt happy with myself. Things had not turned out the way I had hoped they would. I was a difficult person to live with because I was kind of unhappy. I remember thinking, Whats this all about? Whats my purpose? and becoming so anguished-such anguish that I asked my boss at the factory that I worked at if I could leave for the day because I just felt so terrible about life. I went out to the store, and I bought a book called, What Happens After You Graduate? It was a Christian book. Here I am-I dont know anything about my future. I certainly am not thinking about the ministry because I dont even know God exists. I sat down on a park bench in Sinnissippi Park in Rockford. I read the book for a while, and then I prayed. I said, God, if You really are there, show Yourself to me. If You really are there, can You do something with my life because Ive messed it up? Im not proud of who I am, and I dont know what to do about it; so if You really exist, could You change me? Could You help me? I didnt see a light; I didnt hear a voice, but Im going to tell you something. I knew somehow I was a new person when I got up from that table. It manifested itself. I treated my loved ones differently. I treated my friends differently. I started making amends to anybody Id harmed or done anything wrong to. I started to have a new desire to read this book, to go to church and hang out with Christian kids. Id never had that desire before. Church was the most boring place in the world. How does the pastor stand it? I would think to myself. How can he do that week after week? How can they listen to these boring sermons and read this boring book? And all of the sudden, it became alive to me. I just couldnt get enough of it. I was just reading it and reading it and reading it. I started going to Bible studies. I did crazy things like I broke up with this beautiful girl because she wasnt a Christian. What am I doing? Whats wrong with me? Well, you know what? I just found my purpose. I just found out that I was created with a design, and I was so excited to find out what that purpose was. I went back to my friends, and I shared my story. I told them my story. You have a story to tell. Im praying that God will give you opportunities this week to tell your story-not just your conversion, but what has happened to you since and whats happening to you now. I want you to know if youre here this morning, and you do not know the Lord, God promised this: In the Book of Jeremiah 29, He said, Then I will be found by you when you seek Me and you find Me. Search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord. He is a God who wants to be found. I pray that youll open your heart to Him today. Would you stand with me as we close in prayer this morning? Ive got some good news for you besides just the prayers were about to pray. We have cake today. We are opening our library. Pastor Tim has worked very hard and has been compiling resources. We even have free resources for you to take home in that room, but there is cake and punch; so go down to the end of the hallway, go past the bathrooms, into the childrens church room. Before you get to the youth room, you open that door, and youll just kind of follow the line. Youll see it. There is our library, and thats a resource for you to take advantage of. There are some books and tapes and things you might be interested in listening to and reading. Well grow that resource over time, but stop in and check it out. Take some of the free stuff home with you. Take that cake home with you, so I dont eat it. We have plenty, and its really good too. I had some last night. Its really good. All right, lets pray together: Father, we are so thankful that we can be on this adventure, this journey of knowing You. Were so grateful that we have a God who created us in His image, who put His moral stamp on our hearts. We can see evidence of a law-giver because we see laws in our natural world. We see design, and we see order. We know there must be a first cause, an unmoved mover. Lord, all of these things are important and good; and well study them, and well learn them. Lord, also we never want to underestimate our story, the testimony of how You are at work in our lives-that You are a personal God who loves us and who desires to reveal Yourself to us. I pray this morning if there are any here who have never yielded their life to You, that they would pray a prayer similar to the prayer I prayed. They would say, God, show Yourself to me, and Youll answer that prayer. Thats Your promise. Challenge them today, Lord, to take You up on Your offer. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
We are going to be talking this morning about the nature of truth. Jesus made the boldest outrageous, powerful significant truth claim that man ever made-that was ever made by somebody on this earth. The most important, the most profound truth claim ever uttered on this earth if it is true was said in John 14:6, I am the way, the truth and the life. Jesus chose those words very carefully. He did not say, I have some truth to share with you, or, I am going to lead you in the truth, or, I am going to teach you some truth. He said, I am truth. The essence of truth emanates from Me. I am truth. Wow! I mean that is one whopper of a lie or it is one God-sized truth. Either He was who He said He was or He was not; and we have to weigh those words. We have to look at His life, look at the testimony of His life and decide whether or not He was who He claimed to be. But if He is in fact the way, the truth and the life, then there has never been a more profound, significant statement uttered in regards to truth. We're going to talk about that statement. We're going to unpack a little bit, and we're going to talk about each of those I am statements. Of course we're going to take them in order-the first one [being], I am the way. What is the significance of saying, I am the way? I shared with you that my son and I [went to the Inauguration]. My son really wanted to attend the Inauguration. The first event that we were going to go to was the concert-the We are One concert. It was designed to be a non-political event, celebrating what we all have in common as Americans-no political speeches, just celebrating liberty and freedom. Some of the most famous artists in the world were there, like Bruce Springsteen, U2, Sheryl Crow, John Bon Jovi, Stevie Wonder, John Mellencamp, Usher and on and on the list goes, James Taylor-all generations of singers. There were readers like Denzel Washington and Martin Luther King III, Tiger Woods, Tom Hanks-just a number of respected individuals [were there]. The one who kicked it off was a Bishop by the name of Gene Robinson. I couldn't hear what he was saying because the speaker in our area was temporarily out, but he opened with a prayer; and I wanted to know what that prayer was. When I got home I googled his prayer. What did he say? He began the prayer by saying this, Oh God, of our many understandings… Now, I thought that was interesting; and I really wanted to know what he meant when he said, Oh, God of our many understandings. It said what he was trying to say was God you revealed Yourself in many different ways. You've all heard that before-that there are many paths to one God. There is one God; this religion has this truth; and this religion has that truth, but they're all pointing in the same direction and they're all paths to the same God who has revealed Himself-as that man said-in many ways. There are many understandings, Oh God of our many understandings... That is a truth claim; that is saying that there are many truths; there are many ways to one God. All religions coming together, we recognize that when you get to the core of the faith, they're all teaching the brotherhood of man and the Fatherhood of God. I'm going to talk about that a little bit. We want to take those faiths-and this is not a series on world religion-but we're going to present to you and put them in a juxtaposition quickly-and tell you what they believe about God. We're not going to try to do this with every world religion of course and even all the major religions, we're not going to hit all of those either. There will just be a sampling, a cross section, of some of these world views and some of these world religions to see what they say at that core about who God is and about our destiny as people. Well, we know what Christian theism teaches, and we don't have to spend a lot of time on that. We know that we believe that God created us in His image, that we are separate and distinct from our Creator. There is the Creator, and there is His creation. We are creature; He is creator. We are made in His image. We have personality as He has personality. We know that He has a plan and a destiny; the earth is going somewhere. We are following His divine providence; that He's sovereign; that He is everywhere, but not in everything. It's not pantheism we believe in. God is separate and distinct from His creation, but He's very much involved in His creation. He's eminent; He's here for us. He wants us to worship Him, and He wants us to know Him. He wants us to understand His truth. Now there is another belief system called deism, and many people practice deism. They believe that God created the world. Thomas Jefferson was such a person. He created the world, but He's not involved in the world. It's like a clock maker who made the clock and set the clock ticking. The world's spinning, and He started the spinning, but He's not involved in the everyday affairs of man. He's really not a personal, loving God; but there is a God who created the world-just not a God that we can know. Then there is Eastern pantheistic monism. There are a lot of religions that encompass this world view. Pantheism means God is everywhere; God is in everything. Monism has to do with oneness, oneness of the universe. I want you to think of the Force in Star Wars. That might help you. We can��"t see the Force, but we see the effects of the Force. The Force is in the entire universe; the Force sustains; the Force unites. You have to tap into the Force. If you can become like a priest, like a Jedi, who really knows how to use the Force that's all around us and in us… I think of the scene where Luke's trying to get his ship out of the muddy swamp. He lifts it a little bit, and it drops down. He says to Yoda, I can't do it. Yoda says, And that is why you fail. Then he lifts it up out of the swamp because he had the Force. He understood how to channel the Force. So in Eastern pantheistic monism, you want to tap into this oneness. You really want to come to a realization of this oneism. With Buddhism-life is suffering. Life is suffering because we desire. We have to break free from desire, and then we will cease suffering. We do this by working through karma. You can have bad karma from previous lives, and you have to work through it; so through a series of life, death and rebirth, you work through this karma and can escape desire. Eventually, you can reach nirvana where you are basically absorbed into God like a drop of water in the ocean. You are absorbed into this oneness. God is impersonal; there isn't a personal God you can point to and say, Well, that's God. Hinduism is a little different. Again, we're just giving brief synopsis. We could elaborate more if we had time-if we were doing a series on each of these religions. Since we're not, we're kind of skipping through this. In Hinduism, there are actually hundreds of thousands of gods-manifestation of the Brahman. When we think about God, He's not to be understood as theism-that God is the man upstairs kind of thing. God is in every one of us. God is in all of us, and we need to really tap into the fact that we are divine. Everything that we see is divine. It's pantheism; it's all divine. There are different levels of divineness. There are certain things that are more divine than other things. Matter is the least divine. Vegetables would be next on the chain. Then animals next on the chain-that's why you don't eat the cows. It's not so much that it's Uncle Henry there; it's just that the cow is divine. All of the Brahman is in that cow; then [there are] humans, then the Brahman-you go into the priests and so forth. There are various cast systems within Hinduism. So through this process of life and death, you want to work through this karma until you reach this oneness. Then you can escape this cycle of life, death and rebirth. Again, God is impersonal. It's really even hard to define God in Hinduism, but we are God. The one is the whole; and the whole is in the one, and we need to tap into that and reach enlightenment. We could talk a little bit about a new age philosophy. In the new age philosophy, we come to the realization that we are God. In this religion, we are God. We are divine. It's an amalgamation. It takes a little bit of everything. There's animism, like even a tree can have a soul. There's a little bit of theism in that the individual really matters but a little bit of naturalism [is in there] too because there is no divine being. Then there's Eastern pantheistic monism because we're reincarnated. You have to come to this realization that you are God. Now, there are other religions we could talk about, but we're not going to take the time to do that. Suffice it to say, those are some very different views of reality, aren't they? So, I would say to the person who says there are many ways to God, many different paths- I would say, How can God be a loving creator; separate and distinct from His creation; and at the same time be a God who created the world but doesn't care anything about the world; to an impersonal force that's really not a person at all, but this force that permeates the world-this oneness that permeates the world; to the fact that we as individual human beings are divine. Throw in numerous other world views and religions-how in the world can things that are so diametrically opposed to one another all be true at the same time? Common sense tells us that either one is true and the rest are false or they're all false and something else is true; but things that are that opposite cannot be true at the same time. Friends, those world views are going in opposite directions. It's like saying, Listen, we're going to go start a church in Florida. We're tired of the cold, and one of you gets a map that goes north; one gets a map that goes east; one gets one that goes west; and one gets one that goes south; and we all expect to end up in the same place. How can you end up in the same place if we're going in completely different directions? So I challenge that statement that says that we all just believe the same thing because those religions-at their very core-teach very different things about human beings and who we are. In Hinduism, you have a soul that is you reincarnated in different lives. In Buddhism, you are a non-soul. You really are a mixture of people, and it's really not you that is reincarnated in the next life. You are this mixture of people. Christianity says we have a soul. In deism, there is no afterlife. These things can't all be true because they're saying some very different things, so individuals have to decide. Either one is true and the rest are false; or they're all false and there's another way; but it is not logical to say that they're all true. But in post-modernism, truth is relative and you can kind of come to your own truth deductions and conclusions. Jesus says, I am the truth. Truth is exclusive by its very definition and nature. He didn't say, I am a truth. He said, I am the truth. Imagine if we took this same mindset and applied it to other facets of our life. What if we did that in our educational system? That whole mindset? Everybody has to come up with your truth, and your truth is as valid as the next person's truth. So you said, Okay, Johnny, what's two plus two? Five. That's correct because that's your truth, Johnny, and I would have accepted actually any number that you could have thought of and said that was two plus two because I don't want to offend your truth, your belief system. If we were in history class, Susie, who was the first President of the United States? Benjamin Franklin. Correct. I would have accepted any answer because that's what you believe; and that is what must be true because you believe it. Try that if you were on your way home today, and you ran a red light. I don't mean a pink one; I mean a red one. The officer pulls you over and says, What were you doing? You just ran a red light. You go, Oh, in my truth system, see, red is the new green. I really feel like I've got my own set of laws. I could show you. I have my own speed limits. I have my own rules of what the different colors mean to me. Red actually means speed up in my rule book. How does that go over with the officer? Does the officer go, Oh, in that case…? I didn't know that was your truth. Well, that's fine then. Or does he say, We have a different truth? He says, The State of Wisconsin has a rule book called the Rules of the Road. You are not abiding by those rules, so I'm going to issue a citation because regardless of what you think reality is, my friend, this is reality-what the state has established for you. You will abide by that or you will experience the consequences. Imagine if we did that in sports or in games, like if you're playing chess. In fact, I'm going to ask our team, Could you guys just whip up something really quick that involves, say like, a chess game with no rules? Could you do that real quickly? Thanks. They're working on that. Let's see if they come up with something. (Two media clips are played here: 1) Some things aren't meant to be stretched, and 2) A Few Good Men.) It makes a good point, doesn't it? There is objective truth. There is objective reality. The next time somebody says to you, Well, I don't understand you Christians thinking you're the only way to God, your truth is the only truth, friends, every religion teaches that their way is the correct way. Talk to somebody who is a Muslim, and they will tell you Allah is the only God. Now, it's true with Hinduism, they might say Jesus was a Prophet and accept that, but they really believe their version of reality is reality regardless of what other religions do, teach or say, this is the way it is. Every religion believes its truth. Even atheism-when you talk about atheism-it says there is no God. That is a truth claim. When an atheist makes a proclamation and says, There is no God. There is no afterlife. There is no soul, that is a truth claim. It is. You��"re saying that my way is right; everybody else is wrong. So, when you make a stand and make a truth claim, all of us are saying that this is how reality is. You don't have to agree with everybody to be tolerant of other faiths. It's very important we be tolerant of other faiths, but just because I might disagree with something you said, it does not make me intolerant-not at all. We can't apply that logic in life either. There are people that we love and respect. You don't agree with your spouse about everything. You don't agree with your best friend about everything. So we come to those conclusions, and we respect one another's opinions. Remember we talked about that last week? If somebody asks you to give a defense or an apologia-an apologetic, a reason why you believe, you do so with gentleness and respect. We have to respect the point of view of one another; but having a belief system, a conviction that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life does not mean that you are an intolerant person. It simply means that you believe what Jesus said; you believe who He was. He says, I am the way. He says, I am the truth. The truth is exclusive by its very definition, and He says, I am the life. What did He mean when He said, I am the life? Does Jesus mean He just came to give us a certain quality? I came to give you a good life. You listen to some preachers or evangelists, and they might get up here and say, Jesus came to give you a great life so that you will be happy, rich and health all the time. Jesus came to give you an enhanced quality of life. They might further surmise that how we live our life is more important than what we believe. That's teaching that really how you live your life-what you do-is more important than what you believe; and I would challenge that statement because I would say that what you do, how you live, is based upon at the core of what you believe. What I believe determines the kind of person I am and how I live my life. It's at the very core, so it's even more fundamental than what I do. It is the reason I do what I do or say what I say. I'll give you an illustration from world religion and Hinduism. We talked about the different cast system. You start at the top with the priests and scholars and teachers. Then you go to those who work in artisans and agriculture and commerce all the way down to the lowly Untouchables. The Untouchables look like anybody else. You could not distinguish an Untouchable simply by looking at them because they look like any other Hindu. It is a social reality, however, that the Untouchable is an outcast. In your Untouchable, you're born into poverty. You don't have access to the health care that others have. You might be confined to almost slave labor. You don't receive the education that others would. You are often times a victim of violence. Your existence is very painful if you are an Untouchable. The reason you live as an Untouchable and the reason your life is so miserable is because of bad karma. You are working through the result of bad karma from a previous life, so you are suffering so that you can work through that and continue to progress upwards toward being a Brahman. Now if I try to help an Untouchable, I am actually usurping the process. I am hurting that person because I am stopping them or preventing them from moving on in the next life. They're going to have to do this whole thing all over again and suffer all over again because you interfered. I could use the analogy of parents where they have different parenting philosophies, and their child does something that deserves punishment. One parent punishes the child and says, Because you did this, you're going to be punished. You're going to be grounded. We're going to take away your privileges and all of that. The other parent comes on the scene and says, Oh, he/she won't do it again. It wasn't so bad. They either cut the discipline short, or they remove it all together. That can create friction in the home, can't it? The parent who administered the discipline will say, What are you doing? Our son or daughter is never going to learn until they experience the consequence of their behavior. They're going to repeat this behavior now. Until we teach them a lesson, it's just going to keep repeating in their life. So don't do that. Let them experience the full consequence of their decision. The same thing is true here. If you try to help an Untouchable, you are usurping the process. You're going to make them come back in the next life, so it's hands off. You let them suffer; you let them be poor; you let them be homeless; you let them go through these negative things so they can work through this bad karma and be reincarnated as an individual that is higher or closer to reaching nirvana-absorbed into God and to end this cycle of life, death and rebirth. So Christianity comes on the scene with people like Mother Teresa, and they help the Untouchables. They begin to minister to the lepers, minister to the poor; feed the sick; and treat the diseases. Why are they doing what they are doing? Because of what they believe-because of what they believe about reality, what God has called them to do; so it is the belief that determines the way they live. That's why in the Untouchable realm, Christianity is very effective because those who are ministered by people like Mother Teresa want to know more about the God who motivated them to show compassion, love and concern. Really, when Jesus is talking about I'm the way, the truth and the life, remember what He's saying. He says, I am the life. One of my favorite teachers-I don't know if you know who Ravi Zacharias is. He's a fellow trinity person like myself. Ravi for decades has traveled the world and taught on a number of things. Ravi Zacharias said this: Jesus did not come to make bad people good. Jesus came to make dead people alive again. That's profound. That's a whole different ball game. If someone is dead, they cannot resuscitate themselves. The Bible says we are spiritually dead or separated from God because of sin. Sin means to miss the mark, to fall short. One who is dead cannot resuscitate him or herself. It is the work of God. Jesus came to make those who are dead in trespasses and sins alive again spiritually to God, to make it so that one day we can inhabit the very presence of God. So as you examine these truth claims, you put them side to side, you realize that we have to make a decision, friends. We have to weigh the evidence. We have to make a conclusion. God has given us minds to think, to reason; so that's what we're going to do in this series. We're going to talk about ultimate reality; we're going to talk about objective truth. We're going to talk about reasons why we believe what we believe-not just the what but the why and the how; not just looking at an engine under the hood and knowing that when I turn the key it goes, but I want to be more like a mechanic so I can understand how it all fits together and why it works. We're going to talk in this series to those of our friends who are skeptical, who have questions. Their questions are valid. Those questions are important. We hope in the weeks ahead to address those questions and concerns, so I hope that you'll invite somebody to join you next week. Next week we're going to talk about God, are you there? We're going to talk for a couple weeks about why we believe and why we have faith in the Lord, so that's going to be our subject matter. Again, the series is called, Under the Hood: Examining Christianity, kicking the tires, giving it a test drive, finding out the why and the how-not just the what. We're going to focus on the existence of God together. Would you join me in prayer? Father, I want to thank You that You've revealed Yourself to us; that we're not on this planet spinning through space with no one in charge; that You're sovereign-that You're in control even when life seems chaotic, sometimes without meaning or purpose. There is purpose and meaning. Because we've been made in Your image and because we have Your Word, we know we have responsibilities as individuals that determine how we live our lives, what we do; but our faith is core to who we are. Lord, I pray that You would help us to live out our faith in a way that is powerful, that impacts our world with the love that You have for people. Lord, that those who believe differently than us-though we may not agree with them-we will love them, and we will seek to understand them. With gentleness and reverence, we will share our thoughts and how we see the world. We pray that we can influence them for Christ; but Lord only You can bring what is dead back to life, so ultimately You receive all the glory and praise for anything we're able to accomplish in this regard. But I pray for conversations to develop, conversations with friends and coworkers, family members, that we can in a loving way share Your truth with people who desperately need to know that there is a Savior; that You came to make the way of salvation known; that we can know You personally even as You know us. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.
We are starting a new series this morning called, Looking Under the Hood. Were going to talk about what that means. Were going to begin by watching a clip. This is a movie that came out recently called, The Bucket List. Some of you might have seen this movie with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. They are making a list of all the things they want to do before they kick the bucket. This is a conversation that theyre having on the airplane as they fly over the polar ice caps. The next thing you know it leads into a spiritual discussion, so well watch this and then talk about it. The reason we put that at the end is because thats what were going to be talking about this morning. Part I is Handling the Truth-Looking Under the Hood, the new series that were starting this morning. When I was 16 years old, I bought my first car with earnings from the grocery store that I worked at as a grocery clerk and bag boy. I bought a 69 Camaro from a buddy of mine. It was blue, 327 Camaro. In case you ever think Im intelligent-I dont know if any of you ever do-I sold that and bought an AMC Hornet several years later (congregation laughing); just know that Im not intelligent. I wanted to learn about the car, so I took shop class. I really didnt know anything about automobiles. I would just open up the hood and say, Thats the engine, and thats the engine, and that was the extent of my knowledge. I learned a little bit about sparkplugs and how to change sparkplugs; how to change my oil; what my alternator was; what it was for and how to change that; the battery and all of that. I learned some of the basics about the engine block and the pistons and how it all worked. That was back in the day when you could actually fix something on your car if it went wrong. I knew kind of enough to be dangerous. When we look under the hood, some of you just see an engine, and thats all you see. You know that you turn the key; the car starts; you press the gas and go; you hit the break and it stops. Thats the extend of your knowledge of automobiles. Others of you, you have been to shop class. You have kind of a basic understanding of how the engine works. You dont know all the intricacies. You dont know all the whys and the hows. You kind of have a little bit of an understanding. Others of you have really studied the engine and worked on cars. Youve had the grease under the fingernails and the cuts. You know some things about a car. Theres this small percentage of you that are what we could call mechanics. You know cars. When you look under that hood, you see entirely different things than I see. You understand systems; you understand how everything interrelates and how it all works together to make that car go; and I envy you. When we lift the proverbial of our faith and we look down at our faith and say, Heres our faith, some of you really-your knowledge does not go beyond the very basic elements of the faith. In fact, youre not even sure why it works. You know it works; you know some basic things about your faith, but you dont really understand the hows, the whys and how things work together and how it all fits; and others of you have really studied the Word. None of us know all the answers, but youve got some pretty basic-pretty beyond basic-understanding of matters of faith and spirituality. If you say, Im a mechanic, were going to make assumptions that you know more than the average Joe about how to fix a car. If you say, Im a Christian, there is an underlying assumption that you know more than the average Joe about spiritual matters. The problem is many times when we engage in a conversation like the one we just saw, some of us feel woefully inadequate in how to address concerns or answer questions that are raised. How many of you have ever been in a conversation and at the end of the conversation it either led to an argument or you felt like you did not accurately answer the question? That led to frustration of the person who posed the question, or you answered it wrong. You did something that just basically discouraged you, and you felt like, Boy, I didnt do a very good job there with that. A lot of us, yeah. Usually, the response is one of two things: Either we say, Thats it. I dont know squat. Im going to keep my yapper shut and not speak anymore about my faith… Some sadly take that route. Others of you may say, I have to get myself some learning. I remember I was 17 years old, a college freshman. My professor said, You can use any source but the Bible because it contradicts itself. My little freshman hand went up there, and I tried to take on this doctor. He had me for lunch. He made me look ridiculous, and classmates laughed. Christian classmates stared silently with a silly grin on their faces, looking straight ahead and refusing to help me out. I remember saying to myself, You know, I can either be quiet the rest of the semester, the rest of my time in school, or I can get some answers to these questions; and thats what I did. I rolled up my sleeves, and I said, When round two comes around, Im going to be ready. Later on in the semester, we had round two. I did a better job in round two than I did in round one. I think thats the attitude we have to have. We have to recognize that even God expects a higher standard of us many times than we have of ourselves. In the Book of 2 Timothy 2:15 (page 1179 of pew Bibles), Paul gives a command. He says, We are to study to show ourselves approved, …a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles… or rightly divides …the Word of truth. So thats where the title comes from, Can You Handle the Truth? Do you know this book (the Bible)? Do you know it well enough that you can communicate and articulate its truths to people? You can answer questions; you can have solidified in your own heart and mind-not only what you believe, but why you believe it. Its vitally important. Were going to be talking to two groups in this series. The first group were going to talk to are those who are seekers and skeptics. That might be you today. You might say, Well, Im just not sure about Christianity. Im just not sure about certain beliefs. You come with a lot of questions, and Im hoping that in the weeks ahead we can answer some of our questions on our weekend services or whether or not its a Sunday night Overtime session that well have down the road; but well address those valid concerns and questions head-on. We want you to know how much we welcome you at this church. We dont see you or your questions as any kind of threat. We believe that Christianity-when you lift up the hood and look at it, and you kick the tires-it will stand the test of scrutiny; so we are ready for those questions. We want to address those questions I hope you too will invite people who maybe dont go to church on a regular basis. Say, Hey, were going to be tackling some of these issues. Why dont you come with me to Faith Community? The second group of people is a much larger group. That is those of you who have already committed your lives to Christ, but you still would say, I can improve in this area. I can grow in my understanding of the Word of God to be able to answer questions, to have a more systematic understanding of the truths of the Bible. I think everybody here, regardless of whether youve been a Christian for a day or 50 years, all of us would say, I can learn more. I can grow, myself included. All of us can learn and grow. There is still so much to know and understand. This is called Apologetics. You may have heard of that word before. Apologetics-some of you have heard of a Christian rock band called Apologetics. Thats not what were talking about, nor are we talking about saying youre sorry for something. Apologetics-if we could snap that word up there on the screen so people can see how its spelled please-apologetics is a defense of the faith. We defend our faith; we communicate our faith to three groups or three types of people. Number one: those who desire the truth and want to know-just like Jack Nicholson. You know something I dont know? Is there something you can share with me? Secondly: those who distort the truth and thirdly: those who would deny the truth. My attempt this morning is just to vision-cast for our series, just to lay the groundwork or the foundation of why this series is so vitally important and get you excited about studying. Thats my job-to get you excited about studying. Some of you thought-your moms and dads thought-that would never be possible to do, and Im going to endeavor to do that today. So lets open our Bibles up to what I think is the key verse that we get the word apologetics from; and that is from 1 Peter 3:15 (page 1202 of pew Bibles). The Apostle Peter is addressing this very concern. Were going to read it in its entirety and then go back and talk a little bit about some of the words. But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. So he says first of all in your hearts; that is the core of your being-cardia. …set apart… or sanctify …Christ as Lord… as sovereign, as deity, as your ultimate authority. That is the why we defend our faith because Christ is Lord. When someone or something you care about comes under attack or assault, your natural instinct is to defend that because it is important to you. So the Gospel, the Lord-He is important to us, so we are called to defend the Gospel from those outside or those within who would attack its integrity. Its truth, so he says thats number one: set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared… Is that you-always prepared? Never let your guard down; always be prepared ...to give an answer… That word answer is the word we get apologetics from. The word answer is the word apologia; it literally means a defense. He says to be prepared to give a defense, …to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. Now the hope that we have is a not blind, cross your fingers, blind faith, a hope-for-the-best kind of thing like we saw in the clip. I hope youre right. Yeah, I hope I am, too. We have no evidence; we have no proof, but we just kind of hope thats the way it is. Im going to share with you in this series that there are evidences. There are proofs; there is rationale; there is reason for our faith. It is not a blind faith. We have a confident expectation. Thats what the word hope means in the New Testament. A confident expectation based upon history-that Jesus lived among us in history, in space and time-that we can go to the streets where He walked. We can stand in the places where He taught, the Sermon on the Mount and other places. We can read the words that were recorded that He spoke. We can go to the place where He died. We know who was governor; we know who was emperor. We know the place where He rose and for 40 days to over 500 people, He appeared and taught about the Kingdom. Well be looking at these various evidences in the weeks ahead, but our faith is a valid faith. It is not a pie in the sky, Pollyanna hope-for-the-best with no basis whatsoever. I hope that if you are a seeker or a skeptic this morning, you will allow us the opportunity to prove that to you. So, he says we need to make a defense, and we do this, how? Oh, I wanted to give you an illustration of hope, too. We have had a really cold winter, I think. I dont know about you, but it seems like December and January were very cold. So we might say it gets warm soon. We all would say that, I hope it gets warm soon. That is Biblical hope. When we say that, are we questioning whether its going to get warm? We know its going to get warm. Its just a matter of time based upon history, based upon the past-we know that spring is coming. Were not questioning the reality of spring or the coming of spring, but we are questioning is it going to be today? Is it going to be next week, next month? When are we going to catch a break here? Thats hope: I hope it gets warm soon. So the hope we have in Christ is not a hope of it being true, of it happening; it is a confident expectation of a reality that is ours based upon evidence, but also upon faith. So, he talks lastly in this verse about how, …give a reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect. Do you know of anyone who ever maybe witnessed to you or shared the faith with somebody else who did not do so with gentleness and respect? Do you know of situations like that? Do you think it says, Give the reason for the hope that you have, but do this with an attitude, demonstrating that you are superior to them and are right in every way; and they are wrong in every way? How did that go? When you tried to force yourself, disrespected and did not use gentleness, how did that go? Did they really say, Man, Im really-I need to be a Christian too. How did it go? Not too good. About as good as what happened to me when we were on the mall in D.C. It was the night before the big Inauguration, and we were walking with about a million [other] people walking around. This street preacher was there, and he had a bullhorn and was shouting at the people. He was really sending the message of judgment, gloom and hell. He was telling them what bad people they were. [He was] talking about impending judgment. It was not going well for him. There were a lot of things that were being said by him and things that were being said back that I didnt agree with. They would attack the Bible or attack the Lord, and I wanted to say something back once, Well, theres an answer to what you just said; but being in the public with a million people, it was probably not the best time for me to address that to this total stranger. Neither was his way or his methodology of presenting the Gospel effectively. What he was doing was making people angry and making them mad. Im watching this scenario, almost like a spectator as these guys with the bullhorns are getting into these heated debates with the crowd that was swinging around them. I was doing okay. I was reading a sign that said, Warning, judgment is coming. He was talking about women baby killers, homos, Mormons… The sign was just going down this list of all the people that he said God was going to judge. At the bottom of the list, it said, sports fans. Then I took issue here. I thought, Wait a second here. Time out. Who do you think you are? What do you mean sports fans? Where is that in the Bible? I got a little upset with him. Anyway… That technique does not work. Its not effective. What is effective is when I have a conversation with somebody, and they know that I care about them. I take time to listen to them; listen to their concerns; listen to their questions and share my answers to things Ive learned in gentleness and respect-respecting them; respecting their opinions and being humble. You can go a long way with that, friends. You can go a long way. You can get further with a little bit of knowledge and a whole lot of gentleness and respect than the person who has all kinds of knowledge but has no gentleness and no respect. You will; you can take that to the bank. So when people are seeking truth, they really want to know, thats the spirit that we should have. Now there is another side of that coin. What do we do when somebody really is not seeking truth, but they are attacking truth? Theyre deliberately seeking to lead people astray by distorting the truth or denying the truth. Now we have a whole other scenario that we have to address. Lets turn our Bibles to the Book of Jude. Go to Revelation and go back one page. Jude is only one chapter long, and it is on page 1213 in your church Bibles. It was written by the Lords half-brother, Jude. Matthew 13 gives us the list of the names of Jesus half brothers, and Jude is on that list [along with] James, a man named Simon and others. John 7 tells us that at one time, none of the brothers believed in Him; but after awhile with all they had seen and all they heard, Im sure the whole household came to realize that their brother was not like them. He was, in fact, divine. So Jude says of himself that hes a servant of Jesus Christ. He came to realize that Christ was Lord. He is going to address this very concern in Verse 3. He says, Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. [This is a] very important verse in the Bible because it demonstrates that our faith was communicated once and for all. Any group or individual that tries to tell you that the Canon Scripture is open, that God is still revealing Himself in written form, that is an error. It is the faith once and for all and delivered for the saints. Its a done deal. When John put the period after the last word of the Book of Revelation, the Canon of the New Testament was closed. God has not revealed in written form since that time: …once and for all delivered to the saints. Jude speaks of it as something you and I are to contend for. This is an important word. Its only written once in the entire New Testament-one time this word is used. He goes for a strong word. He talks about the faith. Thats shorthand. When he says, …talk about the faith, synecdoche; [its ] a shorthand saying that everything about the Gospel that weve communicated to you is summed up in that word, the faith. All of that is summed up there. He says, You and I are to contend for the faith because the faith was under attack. It was under attack from without and from within; and we are called the contenders. Its a strong word, this word contend. It comes from a root: to be contentious. It has to do with protecting something that is sacred, something that has been entrusted into our care. It talks about a responsibility that you and I are to take seriously, and it is the responsibility of the church. Each individual here-if you name the name of Christ, you have a responsibility to contend for the faith and protect the faith. I had the opportunity to go to the Tomb of the Unknowns. I dont know if youve ever been to Arlington before; but if you go to Arlington, you have to go to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Resting there are the remains of an unknown soldier from World War I, World War II and the Korean War. The soldier that was there from the Vietnam War has since been identified, and the remains were returned to his loved ones. These three remains are there. The Tomb of the Unknowns signifies all these values that we hold dear-of patriotism, of freedom, of honor. Those fallen soldiers stand for all the brave men and women who have shed their blood and died for our country and for our freedoms; so this is a very sacred place, and to be a part of the Old Guard and watch over this tomb is an honor. You have to meet a very stringent set of requirements. You dont just have to be a good soldier, but you have to study. Those men who guard that tomb are there 365 days a year, 24 hours a day, year after year. Right now, there is a soldier walking 21 paces, stopping for 21 seconds and turning, 21 more seconds and turning, 21 more seconds and turning and walking back 21 more steps. Every half an hour, a new soldier takes place, and they have the changing of the guard; and thats what we wanted to see. We watched, and there was a woman-very innocently-who dropped her program or dropped her tour guide of Arlington and bent over to pick it up. There was a railing there, and we were standing on the railing. She bent over, and the program just barely went over the railing on the ground. She picks it up, and the soldier turns, puts down his rifle and says, Maam, out of the respect for the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, please refrain from reaching over the railing! It was louder than that. She was like, Ahhhhh. All of us were like, Ahhhh! scared, you know. Later on, he was walking this way, and facing the opposite direction, a little boy over here who was kind of bored with everything kind of bent over the railing a little bit. He either had eyes in the back of his head or mirrors in his sunglasses because he does an about face immediately. We dont even know whats going on. Were all watching him. Hes walking that way, and he immediately turns on his heals to the little boy over here and says, Young man, out of respect for the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier…! The kid was frightened and crying. Man, it was intimidating! They are sending an emphatic point that this is a sacred place, and were protecting this. Were guarding this. Their weapon is always between the tomb and the crowd, symbolic of the fact that they are guarding the tomb against all threats. They have an extensive knowledge of Arlington. They can tell you who lies in hundreds of markers. They take a code, a pledge of a code of conduct that extends beyond their years of service at the Tomb of the Unknown. If they ever dishonor by their conduct the Tomb of the Unknown, their medal will be taken from them if theyve earned one. You just realize how serious this thing is-this thing youre protecting. How many of us Christians could learn a lesson from that? How flippantly or casually do we treat this sacred trust that God has given to us? If you are not studying Gods Word, then you are being too casual about this command. If you are not studying the Word of God, you are not obeying this command. Study to show yourself approved. Its not a suggestion; its a command. When he says, Be ready; thats the imperative. God wants you to be ready. You are a soldier in His army. That soldier meticulously spends hours on his uniform. He memorizes page after page of history of Arlington. He knows it inside and out. He can answer any question-not when hes on duty-but any question that you might have. Hes prepared. Friends, do you see yourselves as soldiers in the army of God? Are you prepared? If you say, Im not, then youre in the right place because were going to work in the weeks ahead to get you to that point. Not that youll become a Bible scholar in two months; but youll be able to identify truth from error; be able to answer questions; be able to recognize and know the why and the how behind things-not just the what. He talks about this in Verse 4. He says, For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord. Hes talking about two groups of people. One is those who distort the truth. In this series, we will talk about them. They take the truth and they twist it and change it to fit their code of conduct or their understanding. Instead of adjusting themselves to the Bible, they adjust the Bible to themselves. Its called the distortion or twisting of the truth. He talks about a group of people here called the Antinomians who said, Oh, you can go out and live any way you want to live because God will forgive you. They were seeking to exploit the grace of God, and Jude addresses them. Then thirdly, he addresses the group that denies. This group wasnt denying what the Bible said. They were simply saying, Its not true. They werent trying to twist it; rather, [they were trying to] change it and say, Yeah, thats what the Bible says, but thats not true. Thats not the way it is. They were called the Gnostics. They believed that matter was evil, so Jesus really didnt take on the body. He really didnt suffer and die on the cross. It was impossible. So they were denying the Sovereignty, the Lordship, that Christ had come in the flesh. Jude says, We had to take a strong stand against heresy. If we had a small group-somebody was teaching a small group or a class in our church-and we found out that they were teaching something contrary to the Gospel, the first thing we would do was say, Listen, youve been teaching this and this? Yeah, well thats not what the Bible said. The Bible teaches us this and this. If they said, Oh, okay. Were sorry. From now on, well teach it that way. Yeah, okay, thanks for showing us. Thats fine, but if somebody says, Well, thats not what the Bible says… and theyre trying to twist or deny the truth, theyre not going to be teaching the Bible here very long. In fact, thats their last class. We have a responsibility to watch over. We would then say, Listen, we have the authority that Gods given us as shepherds of this flock. You need to leave this flock because your teaching is harmful, destructive and is contrary to the Scripture. Do you allow yourself to be influenced by somebody who is teaching something that is twisting, distorting the truth or denying the truth? Its a dangerous place to be-under the influence of a person or a group that is doing that. We want you to come to the point where you can recognize truth from error, what the church has taught and believed since its inception vs. those who are still today seeking to distort and deny the truth. Ill tell you how we do that. One of the ways we do that is like this man who wanted to buy an engagement ring for his wife. He wanted to buy a diamond ring, so he didnt want to be taken in. He didnt want to buy a counterfeit, so he went to a man who had the reputation for being an excellent jeweler who was able to spot a real diamond from a fake diamond because some of the fakes can be real convincing. So he went for lessons, and he paid out good money. He said, I want to buy my fianc�
You know I thought hell was going to be the big controversial traffic, so we had our Overtime for that-and actually double Overtime. That went on for about 2½ hours that Sunday night. After looking at all those questions, [I thought] maybe we should have had one for Heaven too. I will say this: Ill try to tackle one of them. It seems like people say, Well, will we still be us? Will we look the same? Will we have the same personality? Will we be recognizable? Will we know one another? The Bible says that we will have a body like Jesus. He is the first fruits of those risen from the dead; so I asked the question of you: Did the Disciples recognize Jesus? Was Jesus still Jesus? Did He still look like Jesus? So youll still look like you, which for some of you might not be good news; but well also be eternal, so our personalities continue. Our relationships continue. I think thats pretty fair to say based on what weve learned through the Resurrection appearances of our Lord. This is not going to be a Q&A on Heaven, but we are going to talk about some good news today. When we started this series, Life After Life, our first three topics were death, judgment and hell. Thats not fun to talk about, but its necessary; so I have a little bit more spring in my step this morning to know I get to talk about Heaven, glorification and what thats like. Were going to learn some things. Weve been doing a kind of hybrid Bible study/message, talking about these theological truths and then trying to bring personal day-to-day application to that theological message. In 1982, my wife and I were married. We decided to go on our honeymoon to Colorado-Estes Park, Colorado, Rocky Mountain National Park. I was 21 years old. Prior to that, I had been to the Wisconsin Dells and Dubuque, Iowa; thats it. I really hadnt seen anything, gone anywhere to speak of. To see the mountains was something Id only seen in a book, so I was very excited to witness that firsthand. As we crossed the border into Colorado, it didnt look like anything exciting. After we got a little bit closer to our destination, I saw either this tiny mountain or a really big hill with a stream running down it. It was kind of a muddy, brown stream. I went, Wow! Look at that! I remember getting out of my car and snapping several pictures of this muddy, brown stream running down the side of a hill. I was like, Magnificent! Its incredible! Well, I had to laugh at those pictures later. We got home, and we started looking at pictures that we shot of the Grand Tetons from Trail Ridge Road. Have you ever been on Trail Ridge Road? Its the highest paved road in the world. I didnt get to enjoy a lot of the scenery because if you go off the road there, there is no barrier in some places, and youre dead. Its way up in the air. Brenda would go, Look at that gorge! Look at that valley! Id be like, Ah ha. I wasnt taking my eyes off the road at all. Getting up there, shooting pictures of the Rockies and the waterfalls-when we got home and looked at those magnificent pictures and compared them to the muddy stream on a hill-I was like, Man, that was nothing! I thought that was something because it was beyond what I had seen, but really, that was nothing! Everything we saw paled in comparison to the majesty of the Rocky Mountains. I think in a way thats what Heavens going to be like. The best experience weve had down here, the most magnificent thing weve experienced, the grandest presence of God weve felt in our lives pales in comparison to what is to be revealed. In 1 Corinthians 2:9 (page 1129 of pew Bibles), it says, No eye has seen, no ear has heard…what God has in store for those who love Him. Its going to be magnificent! What we have is just a taste. We have human beings; we have Paul using divine words to try to explain this event-this happening-that is very hard to explain or capture since it has not happened to any of us; so he can only use human word pictures, things that we will understand, like a seed dying in the soil and rising up in a new form to try to help us grasp and wrap our arms around this new Heavenly reality we who are in Christ will experience. Id like you to turn to the Book of 1 John 3:2 (page 1208 of pew Bibles). I think that verse really captures the essence of what Im speaking of. John writes and says, Dear friends, now we are the children of God… So were that right now, and thats wonderful. Thats magnificent. He says, …and what we will be has not yet been made known. Theres coming a change. Theres another step. There is a climax. There is a culmination that we are only in the beginning stages of salvation. We have been delivered from the power of sin. When we die at judgment, we will be delivered from the penalty of sin; but theres coming a day when we will be delivered from the very presence of sin. What in the world will that be like? He says it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we shall be like Him. But we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is. Isnt that a staggering truth to think that you will one day be like Christ? It doesnt say youll be equal to Christ or youll be a Christ. Youll be like the Lord. Youll have characteristics and attributes of the Lord. Isnt it ironic that in the beginning when man strove to be like God and disobeyed the Lord so he could be like God-that in that time, he fell and the image of God was tarnished in him-that it is only through the submission to the will of God that that image is restored? Taking in your own hands and striving to be like Him meant the fall of man; but when man learns to submit and humble himself before God, man receives what he has strived for all along-to be like his Creator. So John tells us that its a process. We have experienced some of the process of salvation, but we have not experienced it in its totality. The deliverance is complete when we are delivered from the presence of sin and live in the presence of God. That is why it is laughable that anybody would think that they can attain salvation on their own. Its ludicrous because salvation ultimately is this total and complete deliverance of sin and being made into the likeness of God. That's a supernatural event. How in the world can natural people transform themselves supernaturally? So if you truly understand what salvation is, you will give up entirely the notion that you can somehow attain or achieve it on your own efforts. It is a supernatural work of the living God. The passage that speaks to the glorified state-the resurrection state, the state in Heaven-the best-is 1 Corinthians 15 (page 1140); so if youll turn there in your Bibles, thats where were going to park for the rest of our study this morning. The whole chapter deals with resurrection and the importance of the resurrection; how resurrection is foundational to our faith-the Resurrection of Christ; how Christ is the first fruits, so what happened to Christ will one day happen to those who are in Christ. Paul is going to do his best to describe this supernatural Heavenly reality in earthly terms. He uses the illustration of a seed dying in the soil and being raised in a new form. He talks about the different forms of life on earth; how creatures-how humans-differ from fish and birds and so forth; and how the planets differ from the stars and how stars differ from stars. Then he goes on to talk about our Heavenly bodies, and that is the focus of our discussion this morning. So were going to begin in Verse 42 with having that understanding of the context of the backdrop which Paul speaks. Were going to look at these attributes together: 1 Corinthians 15:42, So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable… So hes going to talk in each of these attributes about what we are now and about what we will become. He says, …it is sown or it dies. He is speaking of our death when he says it is sown. We will die perishable human beings. Paul is saying that you and I are not built to last forever. We are built to last a lifetime, however long that is; but we are not built to last forever. We cannot inhabit eternity. In fact, later on in this form-later on in this chapter-Paul will say flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. We must be changed; we must be transformed by the Lord and by His power in order to inhabit eternity. We are right now creatures of time, creatures of earth, and we are temporal beings in this body. This body is temporal, so Paul says were perishable. How many of you have an ache or a pain with you today in some part of your body, something that hurts and you wish would go away? Did you happen to see all the cripples that are all around you here today? I mean some people have things like an earache or a headache or a chronic thing like arthritis; but others of you have more serious conditions. Some of you have been to the doctor for your conditions. Maybe you have an old war injury, an old sports injury or something; but you have aches and pains, and there are signs that your body is deteriorating. You see physical deterioration. As you get older, you see that more readily, dont you? Hair that used to be there a year ago is gone; the color of the hair that used to be there has changed. Wrinkles that were not there before have appeared. Aches and pains that were not there… We see the signs of aging; we feel the signs of corruption that we in fact live in a perishable body. Paul says, Ive got some good news. The next body that you will dwell in is imperishable. It doesnt get old; it doesnt die; it doesnt get sick. I mean I dont know if were all going to walk around with six packs or not. I cant say, ladies, youll never have a bad hair day in Heaven; I dont know. Guys, I cant say if youre going to have a full head of hair; I dont know what all the cosmetic stuff looks like, but I do know that the bodies will be imperishable. I have a lot of good news for you today. I have such good news that some of you might think, Man, I want to go now! But, I invite you just to wait because the Lord might not be through with you yet. You might have people that are counting on you to stick around. Its like the man who got to Heaven with his wife. They were going through the Pearly Gates and ran into St. Peter-true story (congregation laughing). Theyre walking through Heaven, and he comes to his mansion. Peter says, This is where youre going to live, and its just decked out. He says, I cant afford this place. How much does it cost to live in this mansion? Peter says, Dont worry about the price. Its Heaven; its free. He says, Wow! This is magnificent. I never thought Id live in a place [like this]. This is like a palace! Its incredible! They continue on and they came to a banquet hall-this large spread. He said, Wow! Ive never seen such food! It just smells so wonderful, and he tastes it. He says, Oh, its the best cooking Ive ever had. I cant afford this food! How much does this cost? Wheres the menu? He said, Its free. Its Heaven; youre going to eat like this every day-as much as you want; and youll never gain weight! He was like, Wow! Then he came to a golf course, the most magnificent golf course. It was acres and acres of rolling hills and plush grass. He said, How do you get to tee-off on this course? He said, You can play on this course any day you want, as much as you want, as long as you want for free. Its Heaven. Elation turned to anger. He looked to his wife, and he said in disgust, If not for you and your dumb bran muffins, I could have been up in this place ten years ago! You want to get there now. Well, Im cautioning you to hold off. Let God decide when you go, but I do have some more good news. Look at the next verse. He says, …it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory… Now the word glory is the word doxa, and it has to do with splendor and majesty. Its always used in the context of worshipping God. Is Paul saying here that you and I are one day going to turn into creatures that one would worship? That we will receive glory like God has glory? I dont think so. In fact, I know so. This passage, this phrase, really speaks to our purpose. Our purpose is to glorify God. Its to bring glory to God. In fact, you can find out really what these words signify by looking at the perishable or the earthly description of our condition now. The first word is our condition now; the second word in the phrase is what we will become. So we are now perishable; we will one day be imperishable. He says our body is sown in dishonor. It will be raised in glory. In other words, now we sow dishonor. We live for ourselves. In this eternal state, we will live for the glory of God. Sow and in dishonor… How many of you today or this week have said, done or thought something that dishonors God? Let me see your hands. Boy, this is one hurting group of people today. All of us. You could be as sincere as you wanted to be, and you could say, I will never, ever sin against God again. For the rest of my life, I will only live for the glory of God. Every thought, every word, every deed is going to only be for the glory of God. I will not sin from this moment forward. The only way, the only way that that pledge will come true is if you are hit by a Mack truck as soon as you walk out the door in the parking lot. Because you are a fallen people; we are a fallen people. We struggle with our flesh; we struggle with temptation; we struggle with our weaknesses. We are not perfect, and we do not always live for the glory of God. We sometimes live for the glory of God, but we cannot sustain that day after day, year after year into forever, always and forever living for the glory of God. Paul says we have sown bodies that dishonor the Lord and live for self, but one day we will live for the glory of God. That is our glory; our glory will be that we are living for the glory of God. We will have the power to do that. Right now we might have the desire to do that, but we dont have the ability to do that. Thats what the next passage or phrase speaks to. It says, …it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power… Does this mean youre going to become some sort of cosmic superhero? God is going to endow you with power? Youre going to have big old muscles, fly around and be powerful. No. The power speaks to our ability. We will now have not only the desire to always live for God, but in that glorified state, we will have the ability to always live for God. The power and the ability; see, both are essential. If you have the ability but not the power, youre impotent. If you have the power but not the ability, then all you have is that desire. Combine the two-heres my purpose and I have the ability to live out that purpose-and that is a powerful combination. Ill use an illustration from what happened in the news this week. When President Obama was Senator Obama, he said in his campaign, I want to close Guantanamo Bay. Now were not going to debate this morning whether you think that should stay open or be closed. Were just going to say as point of illustration, if you were to say, I think we should close Guantanamo Bay, does that close Guantanamo Bay? Why not? Because you are just a citizen. You dont have that kind of power. You can have an opinion, but because you say, I want Guantanamo Bay closed, nobody is going to jump. The Pentagon isnt going to start scurrying to get that job done because you dont have that power. Neither did Barack Obama when he made that pledge. He was a senator, and as senator, he had a desire to close it; but he didnt have the authority to close it. His words speaking, I want to close Guantanamo Bay when Im President were simply a desire. They did not have the power and authority behind them. Now when he took the oath of office, and as soon as he said, So help me, God, and the chief justice said, Congratulations, Mr. President, at that moment, the Constitution transfers the power and authority to carry out that directive. So now when he held his press conference the next day or two and he said, Im going to close Guantanamo Bay, its closing. Do you see the difference? Its having a desire vs. having the ability. Paul says, One day we will have the desire to glorify God, but we will also have the power to do that. Can you imagine a state in which you always want to do the thing that pleases God-which you always want to do the right thing? Can you imagine that state-of-being in which you always love your brother? You always get along with one another; there is no more need to say Im sorry. There is no more need to forgive one another because were not going to wrong each other. You always live for the glory of God; you always live to serve one another; you always have the right motive. Can you and I imagine such a state? Because one day we will live in that state-live to fulfill our purpose and have the ability to do so. Raised in glory-sown in weakness and raised in power. He goes on to say [Verse 44], …it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. I believe thats an all-encompassing term for what he has already described. The spiritual body-the spiritual existence-has the ability to live eternally. It has the ability to live for the glory of God eternally because it is made of the stuff of Heaven, not the stuff of earth. In Verse 47 he says, The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from Heaven. As was the earthly man… Adam, …so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from Heaven… Jesus, …so also are those who are of Heaven. And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man… Thats us right now. …so shall we bear the likeness of the man from Heaven. Youll be made of the stuff of Heaven. Your essence, your spirit-you-will be in an entirely different vessel, one thats made to inhabit eternity. Now what is the application of this? This is all well and good for one day. This is all good for Heaven, but what about the here and now? I mean that glorified body doesnt help me right now. Im still struggling with weakness. Im still struggling to fulfill my purpose. Im still dealing with a perishable body. How does that help me here and now? Paul speaks of that in Verse 58. He says, Therefore… Whenever you see the word therefore, find out what its there for. Therefore pertains to everything hes just said about this glorified state. He says, Therefore, my dear brothers… In light of all this thats going to happen; in light of the fact that God knows you; in light of the fact that God is going to glorify us, …stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. Its not in vain. What you do for Christ matters. What you do in ministry to serve Him matters. Your struggle to obey matters. Your struggle to fight temptation matters. Everything you do is not in vain. God sees; God knows; and God will reward. I saw vanity this week. My son and I went to the Inauguration in Washington. Its history. To me it transcends any political party. It was a historic event as the first African American President was sworn in to the highest office in our land. It was going to be the largest gathering in the history of our Republic. We went to the We Are One concert at Lincoln Memorial on Sunday with U2, Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, Beyonce and Bono, Sheryl Crow, James Taylor, Usher and all those people who were there. There were a half million people there. Well, this is going to be four times that: 2 million people gathered in the mall to witness history. I was fortunate enough to land a couple of tickets from a friend of mine who works in the political field, so we made plans to head to D.C. On Monday, we had to go pick up our tickets at the Senate Office Building. We got there early and waited in line. We got our tickets, and people were excited by the thousands. Everywhere you went, it was just a jovial high-spirited atmosphere. We looked at our tickets like we were Charlie Bucket in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. We had the golden ticket. We have to take this thing back to the train, get back to our car, and hide it in our trunk, so it doesnt get stolen, ruined or lost. Once that settled, we went back and enjoyed our time in D.C. We had a meal in Chinatown, got back on the train and got back to our rooms at 11:30 at night. We had enough time to shower, change into our Inauguration duds, get back in our car and drive back to the Metro so we could be at our designated gate by 5:30 in the morning. At 5:30 in the morning, there we stood-freezing cold, 10 degrees-waiting with everybody else. Conversations were going on around us. The gate was to open at 8 oclock instead of 9 they said because there were so many people. I said I thought they should have opened at 5 because I didnt know how they were going to screen all those people in that short of a period of time. Then 8 oclock came and went and nothing happened. The crowd had grown bigger, but they were still happy. Occasionally theyd break into a patriotic song, and conversations continued. By 9 oclock, the gate was still not opened, and the crowd had grown to the point where you couldnt move. If you were claustrophobic, that was not the place to be. For blocks, people were packed in like sardines. I couldnt even reach down and grab my cell phone to see what time it was. I couldnt get my arm down. That's how tight we were. An ambulance came through and couldnt reach the person that had fallen. It was a potential situation where if there was something that went wrong, people could have easily been trampled to death in this crowd. It was a volatile situation, no policemen, no security, nobody with a megaphone or in a brightly colored vest telling us where to go-nothing. We felt very left out and very bewildered. There was no TV to watch; there were no reports coming in; there was nobody, just this mass of people. Some had tickets; and then [there were] thousands and thousands without tickets who had flooded the area and clogged and congested it. I spent most of my time talking to a dear woman in her 70s from Atlanta, Georgia. [She was an] African American, [and it was the] proudest day of her life. She knew the reverend who was going to give the benediction at the Inauguration. She knew Jesse Jackson. In fact, earlier on, the crowd started to cheer. We thought, Oh, the gates are going up, but it was just Jesse Jackson walking through the crowd. He walked right by us. I dont know where he was going, but if you would have come a couple hours later, he wouldnt have gotten through either. Andrew Young-all these great Civil Rights leaders were her friends. She had worked tirelessly on this campaign, and it looked like she wasnt going to see anything. I spent a lot of time trying to keep people off of her back because they were pushing against her, and she was complaining how it was hurting her back; so I was pushing back this way with my arm. My arm was getting very tired as I tried to protect her for hours. Then over here was a little girl, and she was crushed between two strangers-about the age of my youngest daughter. She was about to cry, and I looked in her eyes, and I said, Its going to be okay. Dont be afraid. Its going to be okay. It was not a pleasant situation. Then 10:30 came, and the music started. My son turned to me and he said, We arent going to get in, are we, Dad? We were approaching 11 oclock. I thought this day that was supposed to be so joyous-wed spent so much money and wed spent so much time-and so much hope was going to end for us in despair. I offered up a prayer. I didnt know what else to do, so I prayed. I closed my eyes and said, Lord, I dont know how were going to get in this place. There are so many people, and we cant move; but Im asking You somehow, some way if Youd get us in that Inauguration in time. At 11:30, the gates would close. These were not just-we were fortunate. Many of the people in line were people of prominence. Theyd worked hard on the campaign. They were people who really belonged more so than we did in this event. I dont know how to explain this to you, but a few minutes after we left-after I prayed-the couple next to me said, Were out of here. We give up. They started to walk sideways out of the crowd. I turned to my boy, and without saying much other than lets go, we knew if we stayed where we were at wed miss everything. If we left, there was a good chance we wouldnt get in, and we might get turned back because we jumped the line-if you could call it that. It was just this mass of people, but it was our only chance. We started to go sideways, and I dont know how in the world to explain this to you except that we saw a seam. Instead of going out to leave, I said, Lets go; and we went down that seam, and it parted. It got a little wider and a little wider. Friends, I kid you not; we walked out of the crowd. If you want to read about this, go online and punch in purple tickets Inauguration. Tell me if you see any other people who are in those lines who made it to the event. I didnt see a one. We walked through the crowd all the way around, down the block, around the corner to the gate and into the Inauguration. One minute we were in the crowd, and the next thing we knew we were going through security two blocks away. We made it into the Inauguration onto the lawn of the Capital Building just as President Clinton was being seated. When the cannons went off, [they] were just to our left. We could see the fire and smoke come out of the cannons when they went off. We were able to hear and see the event, but the thousands and thousands that we stood in line with for five hours in the freezing cold… Mystic, people were in tears. They were crying. Theyd come all this way; theyd spent all this money and all this hope, and it was vanity. Their government had let them down; the police had let them down; the representatives had let them down. The man who got me a ticket was the chief of staff for a senator-a United States Senator-he did not get in. Thousands of people did not get in: vanity. Paul writes the church, and he says, Listen, church, this is for a purpose. Your God is not going to let you down. You might feel like you dont matter; you might feel like youre insignificant; you might feel like youre a face in the crowd-that youve been ignored or forgotten. Paul says, I want you to know this is not in vain. What you do matters. The work you do matters. Those people had put all kinds of time into that campaign and saw and heard nothing of this day that was supposed to be so significant because the powers that be let them down. Paul says, Gods not going to let you down. God has something awaiting for you that you cannot even begin to imagine. Because of that very fact, he says, You press on. You press on and you give it all youve got as long as you can while youre here because theres coming a day when any hardship or struggle on this earth will be but a distant memory. It will all be worth it. Would you bow your heads in prayer with me this morning? If youre here this morning and youve never trusted Christ as your Lord and Savior-youre trying to attain this salvation of your own merit-I hope youve seen this morning that that is absolutely impossible. I hope you will humble yourself before the Lord this morning. Pray this prayer with me: Heavenly Father, I come to You in Jesus name. I realize that salvation is only in You, that it cannot be earned; it cannot be achieved by human effort. I humbly ask You to forgive my sins. I pray that Your Holy Spirit would live inside of me, empower me and help me to live for You all the days of my life. It is my desire to become Your child and that You will be my Father for all eternity. In Jesus name, I pray. If you prayed that prayer this morning, you can have the assurance that God has heard that prayer, and Hes answered that prayer. Lord, I pray this morning for those who are weary, that they would press on; to know that we are moving toward an end, and that end for the believer is glorious. Because of Your grace, Your mercy and Your love, well be transformed into Your image in a greater likeness than we are now. The images of this earth, of this existence, will pale in comparison to what is to come. Lord, we worship You. We are humbled by that revelation today. In Jesus name, we pray. Amen.
Lets open our Bibles up to the Book of Matthew 25. Were not going to be spending a lot of time on these first characteristics-not that theyre not important, but because our focus is going to be on that last characteristic which is something we can change and do something about. I want to mention to you quickly Matthew 25:31 (page 984 of pew Bibles). It talks about the judgment. There are two points: the judgment is universal. It says that ‘The Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, He will sit on His throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him... So when judgment comes, it will be for all people-all nations, all people; all eons of time; every nation; every civilization; every man thats ever lived will stand before the Lord. Second [of point number one], it will be eternal in its consequence. He talks in Verse 34 about the inheritance of the righteous; and he talks in Verse 41 about the inheritance of the wicked. Hes speaking an eternal language. So judgment is universal and judgment is eternal. Judgment also is essential. In the Book of Acts 17:30-31 (page 1098 of pew Bibles), Paul is speaking to the men of Athens, and he says, ‘In the past, God overlooked such ignorance, but now He commands all people everywhere to repent. For He has set a day when He will judge the world with justice by the Man He has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising Him from the dead. He speaks about Gods grace. He says God has been gracious. God has overlooked sin. God has not brought judgment on you, but that will not last forever. There will come a day when you will be accountable to God. That is because justice demands it. There is a moral law in the universe that demands justice, that demands wickedness be punished. So the third point is that judgment is essential. It is essential because the moral law demands that it be so. God has put that moral law in you. I [want to] tell you [something]. You [probably] dont remember grade school too much, but when you were in second or third grade, there was probably something that happened like this: maybe one of the kids punched you. You punched them back in reaction, but the teacher didnt see the first punch. They didnt see the kid who started it, and you got caught, right? You got in trouble, and what came out of your mouth? Thats not fair! They started it! How many of you have ever said those words? Sure! Justice! I want justice! Theyre the problem! You and I read the newspaper and watch television. Every day well hear about a story that makes our blood curdle. We just become so livid, so angry with what people have done! Well think, Well, they hurt that child! What did they do to the elderly [person]? They did that to that elderly person? Why, they did that to that homeless man? They took advantage of that woman like that? That conman took advantage of all those people and took their money? The terrorists did what to whom? That crooked politician did what? When we hear that story, we just become angry. We think, Boy, I hope they get whats due them! I hope they get their just-deserves because that is innate within all of us-that sense of justice. Wed love it when the bad guy gets whats coming to him, right? Theres a movie with Clint Eastwood right now, and Ive seen the clip a few times. [It shows] the introduction where he is confronting some gang members who are picking on a girl. He says-as only Eastwood can-You know those times when you mess with the wrong people? Thats me! Youre thinking, Yeah, Clint! Go get them! We love it when the good guy gets the bad guy! Its part of our nature. We cry out for justice and fairness. We want to know when guys like Hitler stand before their Maker that theyre going to get what is due them, right? We cry out for justice; we cry out for righteousness. Of course, when its us, we cry out for mercy. Justice for you; mercy for me, right? But God, His moral law requires-it is essential-that judgment take place. The fourth aspect about judgment I want us to focus on quickly is the fact that judgment is internal. Gods judgment will not just be on what man sees, on outward actions; but God will judge the heart as well-thoughts and intentions of the heart. [Were going to look] in the Book of Hebrews 4. By the way, while youre turning to Hebrews 4 (page 1186), Im going to read to you a verse from John 12; if you want to flip there fast, you can (page 1066). In John 12:48, Jesus says, ‘There is a judge for the one who rejects Me and does not accept My words; that very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day, or will judge him at the last day. Those words are interchangeable-judgment and condemnation. It says, The very words I spoke… So the criteria in which you and I will be judged is the Word of God, and the words that Christ spoke will be our judge. So how powerful-how effective-is this judge, is this Word? Listen to what Hebrews 4:12 (flip back to page 1186) says, For the Word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from Gods sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account. [Thats a] rather ominous Scripture, wouldnt you say? All things are naked and vulnerable. Thats the word there that is used. The word literally means naked. We are naked and exposed before God. Also, the second word [group] used there that talks about laid bare-it means if you take somebodys head and pull their head back, exposing their neck as if someone was going to slay an individual. Thats the word that is used. Its saying, Listen, you are at the mercy of God, and God will judge you. He will not only judge what man sees, He will judge your heart. You cannot pull the wool over Gods eyes because He sees the inside like you and I see the outside. I was following a story this week about a Christian author who was accused of plagiarizing. He took another womans story and made it his own. He put his name to it and said this was his experience when it was not. When she confronted him on that plagiarism, his excuse was, Well, yeah that didnt happen to me, but I told the story so many times I began to internalize the experience and began to think it was my experience. Somehow I thought it was my memory even though it really wasnt. I read that and thought, Who is going to buy that? Who is going to buy that nonsense? You cant stand before God on Judgment Day and concoct a story like that. Dont even try. All things are open and laid bare. So His judgment is universal; His judgment is eternal; His judgment is also internal; and His judgment is final and inevitable according to the Book of Hebrews 9:27 (page 1190), Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment… It is final, and it is inevitable; and if its final and if its inevitable, it is something that we must talk about. Now I do have some good news for you. The good news is this: if you are in Christ this morning, the judgment that you will face is not a judgment to determine whether or not you are safe. That judgment has already been determined; if you have received Christ, His righteousness has been imparted to you as a gift, as an act of grace. You have received a pardon; you have been declared righteous in the sight of God. Of course, we know that. We know that from a couple of passages. We know that from the Book of Romans 8:1 (page 1118), of course, where it says, …there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus… We know that from passages like Johns Gospel, Chapter 5:24 (page 1054). Jesus says, ‘I tell you the truth, whoever hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life and will not be condemned, or not be judged, …but he has crossed over from death to life. So it is not a question of judgment as to determine our eternal destiny. It is a question of judgment as to determine our reward. What did we do with what God has given us? The passions that He put in our hearts, the gifts, the talents, the abilities, the time, the resources: what did we do with those things to further His Kingdom? So the last attributes of judgment that I want to discuss with you are the ones were going to linger on. Those are the facts that His judgment is going to be personal. Were not going to be judged as a member of a congregation or denomination, Bible study or small group. Youre not going to be represented by your spiritual, heavenly attorney. You will be represented by Christ, but I mean there is not going to be a lawyer that youre going to hire when you get to Heaven. This will be my spiritual representation, here. You will represent yourself. You will stand for yourself. The judgment will be personal, and the rewards will be conditional. So the judgment is conditional in that sense that we will not all receive the same reward. There are believers who will take their gifts and squander their gifts, and there are believers who will take their gifts and abilities and use them in a mediocre sense. There will be some who will use their gifts, abilities and resources in a way that honors God and blesses Him. One passage Id like us to turn to is the Book of 2 Corinthians 5:10 (page 1144). In this passage Paul says, For we must… Must is important. It means its something you have to do. This is not optional: we must. Its required. …we must all appear… How many of us? All of us. That means you. …we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Isnt it good to know that the One who knows us best is our judge? Isnt it good to know the One who loves you so much-that He shed His blood, that He gave His life for you, that He took on flesh for you-is the One who will judge your soul? Its Christ Himself who is our judge. …that each one… Youre an each one. …may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body whether good or bad. God will hold you accountable. Theres another passage Id like us to look at. Remember this is a Bible study this morning. Its not just a sermon, so were flipping around and looking at different passages. Ephesians 2:9-10 (page 1157) is a very important Scripture. Paul has just talked about the fact that we are saved by grace through faith, that it is a gift-not by works, lest any man should boast. So what he is saying here in Verse 10 in no way is about earning your salvation. We have been saved for good works, not by good works; and thats an important distinction. He says, For we… the church, the redeemed, …we are Gods workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. This verse is rich in its meaning. First of all, that word workmanship-its the Greek word poiema. Poiema, what does that sound like? Poiema, poiema…poem, doesnt it? It sounds like poem. In fact, that is the word that we get our word poem from. Hes saying that God has written a script for you. Its not haphazard; it wasnt last minute; it was prepared beforehand that you should walk in Him. He has a perfect will for you. There are things that all of us are to do. In Matthew 25, it talked about being concerned for humanity. Dont just be self-absorbed. When you see needs that are around you, become engaged in meeting those needs. Do something significant with your life. Dont just be about yourself. Its been said that the smallest package in the world is a person all wrapped up in themselves. Dont be that. Be involved with humanity; be the body of Christ. Meet needs when you can. Thats all of us, but what Ephesians 2:10 is talking about is specifically for the individual-that God has a plan for your life. The word means that which has been made, poiema-that which has been made. You have been made for a specific purpose, that there is a destiny that you are to fulfill. Until you fulfill that destiny, you will feel a frustration. You will feel a sense of There must be something more inside of you. Pastor Sean and Heather are getting ready to leave for Haiti on Wednesday. It will be several years before we see them again. Theyre fulfilling their God-given destiny. Pastor Sean and Heather, I guarantee you had you not submitted to the call of God, the will of God, you would be very restless right now. Youd be very frustrated right now because you would know in your hearts that you were not being obedient to what God had called you to do. Remember the flooding that was going on in our community this summer, how bad that was? One day, my family and I, we were sitting around and were thinking, What are we going to do? I said, Hey, lets go downtown and lets witness firsthand whats going on. We got in our car and drove downtown. Apparently the rest of the city had the idea at the same time because there were cars for blocks. People were just walking around looking at these odd things. One of the things that really sticks out in my mind is how the river overflowed the bank, onto the grass and onto the pavement-the sidewalk thats by the river-and fish were now on top of the lawn and the pavement swimming around. There was so much water on the driveway itself-it was a slopping driveway-fish were trying to swim out of the river and were swimming up the driveway. Youd watch them swim out, and then theyd go so far. Then water began to get shallower and shallower, and theyd be flopping around and then theyd just kind of slide back down. Gravity would take them back down, and theyd get tired and slide back down into the water. Some had even found a groove, and they got in the right channel and would make it all the way to the street. Thats bad because theres nothing there for you. Life is not going to sustain in that street. God has made a place for you to swim, fish. I wanted to communicate that to them, that what Youre doing is vanity. What youre intending to do in going this wrong direction is vanity. Really, if you continue to pursue this direction, its going to end in death for you. This is not a good direction for you. This is not how you were created. This is not how you were made. You were created to be swimming in that river right now. You were created to be flowing with that current. Thats what God made you for. Thats what youre equipped for. That is your destiny. If you come out here and youre going in the opposite direction of the way you should be going, this is not good news for you, fish. Youre going to parish. The Scripture says theres a way that seems right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. If I could become a fish and say in fish, This way! Hang a right! Right there! This is the river. Youre going the wrong way, and save them… God became a man to tell us the way of salvation, the way we need to go; and God has a plan. I tell you what-if you forsake that plan and you start to go your own way, you start to go your own direction, youre going to find that you are frustrated. Youre going to find that things dont go well in your life. Youre going to find-like that fish-youre going to be flopping around. If you continue on that path, youre going to meet a fate that is not too friendly. When our church was really new, we were still meeting in the hotel. There was a guy coming that seemed like just a great guy. I got to know him a little bit. He had some good gifts that our church could use. Then as I began to find out some more things, I began to get very concerned. His wife started coming, and she began to tell me that he had a problem with alcohol. He had some DUIs. He didnt work very often; and when he did, he didnt pay child support. They had just recently gone through a divorce, and he never seen the children-like ever. They wanted their father. I called him and I said, Can I talk to you? Could you come in my office? Could we talk? He said, Sure, yeah. Ill come in. He sits down, and hes very cynical. He says to me, You know, I know what youre going to say. Ive heard it all before. Youre going to say God will forgive me. Youre going to say Im a good guy and Gods gracious. I need to ask for forgiveness, and everythings going to be great, blah, blah, blah. He was just real cynical and skeptical. Basically, he thought I was going to give him a pep talk and just try to cheer him up a little bit. I said, Thats not what Im about at all, today, Ron. I said, Im here to tell you to grow up. Im here to tell you to take care of the children that God has entrusted you to provide for and protect for. You need to spend time with your children. You are squandering your opportunity to be a dad. Youre a stranger to them. You need to pay your child support. You need to get a job. You need to go to alcohol rehabilitation. You need to get help. You are not living out Gods purpose. This is not Gods plan for your life. Unless you turn around-unless you change the course of your life-youre heading to death. Thats where youre heading. Im telling you as a friend because I care about you, but youre heading to death. Youre heading to destruction. You want to know something, church? That did no good. That man died long before he should have, a stranger to his kids. He missed the purpose of God. Now thats a drastic case. That's an extreme case, but thats where that road eventually leads. If you leave the river, if you leave the place that God made for you-the purpose that God made for you-the best case scenario is frustration and a feeling of futility. The worst case scenario is death. [Imagine] standing before our Holy God, and He says, What did you do with the gift I gave you, the resources I entrusted to you? You and I will stand accountable to God. Each one of us will give an account of our lives. Poiema-workmanship which God created beforehand. That speaks to your worth as an individual. The fact that you arent an accident in Gods eyes. God wasnt like, Oh, whoops. I didnt even think about him or her. God has a plan that He made beforehand, and it is perfect. It is not easy; dont get me wrong. It is not an easy plan, but it is a perfect plan. Thats where you need to be swimming. Thats where you need to be putting your energy. Everything you do needs to be fulfilling [that plan]. At your workplace, are you fulfilling Gods purpose for your life in your workplace; with your family; with your children? Are you being moms and dads? Are you modeling Christ to those children? Husbands and wives, are you treating your spouse as Christ would have you to treat them? In your ministry, are you honoring the Lord in your ministry? Are you faithful in your ministry? Do you do your ministry with excellence as unto a King? In all of these matters, we will stand before Lord one day and give an account-not a judgment as a believer whether or not were going to hell or Heaven, but a judgment thats conditional. Reward is conditional. In 1 Corinthians 3, it says that if we build on the foundation of Christ with wood, hay and stubble, it will be burned. Well be saved, but as one passing through fire, the Word says, but if we build upon the foundation of Christ with gold, silver and precious stones, that work will last- that work that has been about Him and has been about His will and His Kingdom and purpose. There is a song that were going to play right now. This song was kind of a last minute idea, so we dont have our normal images, pictures and moving things. Its just the text-just the words for this song; but I want you to listen and reflect on its meaning and significance. (Click to read the lyrics: http://www.christian-lyrics.net/artist/chris-tomlin/track/the-way-i-was-made-lyrics.html) Would you bow your heads with me in prayer, please? First Id like to pray this morning if there are any here who have not made a commitment to Christ as your Lord and Savior, you would have to say, If I was to go to judgment today, I would not know if my name was written in the book of life, wouldnt you want to know that? Would you raise your hand right now so I can pray with you right now and lead you into prayer? All our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed. Pray with me. Father, in Jesus name I come to You, and I give You my soul. I ask for Your forgiveness of my sins. I confess, Lord, that I have sinned against You. I ask for Your forgiveness and for Your cleansing. I ask Your Holy Spirit to come into my heart and life. I want to live for You from this day forward. In Jesus name, be my Lord and be my Savior from now into eternity. Amen. If youre here this morning-with heads still bowed, eyes still closed-and you say, You know, Im frustrated. I cant find my purpose. I feel sometimes like that fish, that Im floundering a little bit. I know there is something more for me to do. Can I see your hands, so I can pray with you this morning? Thank you for those hands. I also want to pray for the people that say, I know what Im supposed to be doing. I think Im where God wants me to be, but sometimes Im tired. Its not easy. I just need to pray for Gods strength and endurance with this. Would you show me your hands, so we can pray with you? A lot of hands there. Father, I pray for the hands that went up that said, You know Im struggling. I want to know Gods perfect will for my life, but Im searching for what that is. Lord, honor that. Your Word says ask, seek and knock, and the door will be opened unto you. So there a hand upraised is a sign of their seeking heart. Honor that, Lord. Reveal Your will to their lives that they might follow in the path that Youve called them to. For the hands that were raised concerning the fact that theyre weary and tired, strengthen them by Your Holy Spirit. Help them to know that theyre not alone on this journey. The Spirit of God is within them; their brothers and sisters in Christ are with them as well. Lord, help them find hope and the promise of Your presence and strength today. In Jesus name, Amen.
Just like there are seasons and there is the life, death and back to life again in nature, those seasons are inevitable; and so in our lives, there are seasons. They, too, are inevitable. What if you could capture your life on kind of a time-lapse photography like that? What if you could watch yourself from birth into the transformation of a toddler, to a child, to a preteen, to a teenager, to a young adult, to a maturing adult, to middle-aged, to an older person? Youd watch all of these changes. Youd watch your body do this, and then youd watch it do this. Then youd watch it do this and then maybe do this and then maybe do this again and maybe that again. Ladies, youd watch your hair do this and that and this. Guys, youd just watch it leave. Both sexes would watch it change colors. Wed see the wrinkles come, and [wed] start to hunch over a little bit. Maybe the appearance of a cane and a walker or wheelchair [would transpire]. Eventually, wed be gone. I dont mean to be doom and gloomy on you today, but the truth of the matter is were aging here. If were to look through your family photo album, we would see that you are changing. You dont look the same as you did 10 years ago or 20 years ago. You wont look the same 10 years from now or 20 years from now as you do today. The age process has begun. Unless the Lord comes, you and I will one day die. It will be the end of our physical life on this planet. So its really important we talk about what happens when we die. Do you have a soul? What is that like? What happens to our souls after we die? There are a lot of theories on that. Death: we really need to start with the foundation and talk about what death is. The word death-Thanatos-in the Bible is the word separation. It means to separate. So, if we talk about physical death, were talking about the separation of the Spirit from the body. I dont know if youve ever seen somebody shortly after theyre deceased, but in years of ministry, there have been times when Ive been called into hospital rooms in situations where somebodys passed. Its just amazing the difference you see in that person when life is gone. Weve all heard stories about the person who leaves their body and sees the light and the tunnel, [hears] the voice and feels the presence of God. A couple of those stories have really hit home for me. One is from my wife; she is an intensive care nurse, so over the years shes told me some really amazing stories. I consider her a credible and reliable source. One of them was really something. The man that they were working on coded-died-and they called the code blue team; so they came from all over the hospital, and theyre specialists. While they were working there, they were working on him, one of the nurses said, There is no shot with this guy. Hes not going to make it. Hes not going to resuscitate, and she quit. She gave up. The code blue team kept working, and they finally got the guy back to life. Later on in that day, he was talking to my wife; and he named the nurse-described the nurse-and he said, I dont want her in my room anymore. She says, Why? He says, Because she gave up on me. Brenda goes, How would you even know that? You were dead. He described the situation. Hed seen the whole thing; he saw his body, he saw the team working on him. Hed heard what she said; he described what she was wearing-the color of her hair and so forth. He said, I dont want her in my room anymore. Thats kind of creepy. Then there is somebody in our church whod been coming to our church for about 15 years-a very godly woman, a very level-headed woman. I dont see her here this weekend, so Ill go ahead and talk about her. When she was a little girl-not real little-but a young girl, she had a respiratory condition that took her life. She described being in this breathing chamber tent-kind of a thing and dying. [She saw herself] coming up out of her body, seeing her body, seeing her mom crying and experiencing this peace, this light and this presence of God. Seeing her mother crying and being conflicted, she said, I dont want my mom to be sad. I dont want her to cry. I want to go back. She heard a voice saying to her-not audibly-but saying to her, I will let you go back, but its going to hurt if you go back. She had a decision to make and chose to go back. It was like in our video this morning. He didnt make the choice, but she went back. She says that today she has no fear of death at all-none whatsoever. So, a separation had taken place in those people-the beginning of that separation process. So what does that look like? Are we still us? Im going to ask a philosophical question: are we still us when we die? Your personality, those memories, all the stuff that makes you, you: does that survive death? Some say that the spirits exist here as an energy. Some say theyre reincarnated. There are Christians who believe in purgatory, where we go to this intermediate state. There are some Christians who believe that the souls are dormant in whats called soul sleep, that the next conscious thought you have after you die is judgment and resurrection at the end of time. There are other believers who believe that when you die, your spirit goes to be in Gods presence. So, who is right? What does the preponderance of Biblical evidence support? Which argument does it support? Now in the Old Testament, the preponderance of evidence would seem to indicate a soul sleep. It talks a lot about the grave, the sheol, the place of the dead, the land of shadows. There is no life there; however, we know that there is something a principal in theology called Progressive Revelation. That tells us that as God reveals Himself over time-as He revealed Himself through the law and Moses; as He revealed Himself through the Prophets; that He revealed Himself through the Son; He revealed Himself further through the writings of the Apostles that were inspired by the Spirit-that we know more about Heaven and understand more about the afterlife now than they would have under the old covenant because God has progressively revealed Himself in His Word. We have a greater understanding of the nature of God and the things of God in Revelation-the last book of the Bible-than we do in the Book of Genesis. God slowly begins to reveal Himself. He reveals Himself in Exodus as the I Am. He reveals Himself through Isaiah, through all the Prophets, through Jesus and through the Apostles. Though the Bible doesnt say tons about what happens after we die and tons about Heaven and hell, it does give us some clues, some glimpses, some windows that we can see into the afterlife and try to draw some conclusions from. Ill share with you some of my thoughts on that, and I want to explore that question about Are we still us? Is there such a thing as soul sleep or do we go in the presence of the Lord? One of the first clues Id like you to look at is in the Book of Matthew 17. What were going to do this morning is a hybrid. Its kind of like a message/Bible study, so were going to be flipping around a lot today. Normally we stay in one passage and we go through it. Were going to be kind of flipping around to a lot of different verses. You can read along in your Bibles or watch it on the screen, whichever youd prefer. In Matthew 17, there is whats called the transfiguration. Some believe its the fulfillment to the prophesy Jesus utters in Matthew 16 that Many here will not taste death until they see the Kingdom of God. Be that as it may, our purpose is not to discuss the transfiguration, per se, but were going to discuss an event that happened in the transfiguration since thats our subject matter. Matthew 17:1 (page 973 of pew Bibles) says, After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There He was transfigured before them, metamorphosized-changed, a literal physical change. Then he tries to use metaphors to describe what they were seeing. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. Then there appeared… and heres our key… …appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus. [There are] a couple observations there. Now you dont have to be a Bible scholar to know that Moses and Elijah are long gone, right? Theyre dead. Theyre physically dead and have been so for hundreds of years. Yet, there they are. Its still them; its still Moses and Elijah. How do we know? They didnt look at a photograph, obviously. It could be from Jesus identifying them as such or from dialogue that is not given to us in the Scripture, but they were able to ascertain who it was; so they were still very much them and without saying if they were having a conversation with Jesus, they were very much alive. In that same vein in Matthew 22, a group of men by the name of Sadducees-they were trying to trick Jesus with a question. Sadducees believed in no afterlife-no soul survived death, no Heaven, no hell. Jesus is addressing their question about marriage and Heaven and so forth, but again, thats not our topic. Our topic is the afterlife, so as we look at Verse 31 (page 980 of pew Bibles), Jesus addresses head on their view of the afterlife-the fact that theres no resurrection. He says, ‘But about the resurrection of the dead-have you not read what God said to you, I am… and thats the key verse-I am, the verb to be… ‘…I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? He is not the God of the dead but of the living. That speaks strongly to me that the continuation of the soul, not in the sense of a soul sleep, but of being very much aware of personhood, of identity, of personality and of being alive. He doesnt say, I was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob when they were alive. He says, I am now. Theyre dead physically, but they are alive in the presence of God. There is one more, and thats in the Book of Luke 23. Even though its not Easter, were going to read it anyway. At the Crucifixion, there are two criminals there. One is hurling abuse. In Luke 23:40, the other criminal has a change of heart. It says, ‘Dont you fear God, He said, ‘since you are under the same sentence? Youre going to die too. ‘We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong. Then he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom. We dont think of this as the typical sinners prayer, but it really is. When you boil this down to its essence, it is a sinners prayer. The sinners prayer says it acknowledges God, it acknowledges what the Lord did on the cross-His resurrection, His death; he confesses our sin and our need for Him. Thats what this man did. He confessed his sin. He said, I know what Ive done. I deserve [what I get]. Im a bad man. Im getting whats due me. The second thing is he acknowledges that Jesus is going into a Kingdom, that Hes a King. He acknowledges the Lordship of Christ; and thirdly, he acknowledges his desire to be with the Lord, to be with this King. There was a repentance there. There was faith there. [Its] not your typical Lords prayer, but it worked. Jesus says to him in the next verse, this day, ‘I tell you the truth, today you will be with Me in paradise. Soul sleepers have a problem with this. They try to hop, skip and dance around this day. I looked up the word day in the Greek. Do you know what it means? Today. Today means today. Every time its used, it means today. So He says, Today, you will be physically dead but spiritually very much alive and in My presence. You will still be you. I am still Me. Because of your decision today, you will be with Me in paradise. The Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 5 talks about being at home with the Lord and away from the body. Were away from the body; were at home with the Lord. We are either with the Lord or in the flesh. We are either in the physical or in the spiritual realm. He talks again about the continuation and continuity of life beyond the grave. That transitions nicely into our second form of death we want to talk about, which is spiritual death-spiritual death-spiritual separation from God because of sin. Spiritual death is a separation that I cannot have fellowship/relationship with God because of my sin. I am spiritually dead. So when did that take place? Well, if you read the Book of Genesis 2, it talks about these idyllic conditions. [Its] not quite as splendorous as our friend in the Ice Age clip, but [it has] the absence of death, the absence of pain. Man has a free will, and with that free will comes this grave responsibility, this loaded gun with terrible consequences. They are told they can partake of any tree in the garden but the one of the knowledge of good and evil. They shall not eat of it because when they do, For when you eat of it, you will surely die. You will surely die. So let me ask you the question. When the woman caused all the problems, joke (congregation laughing). When man fell, they didnt die, did they? They didnt like hold their heart, Die. They were very much alive. So did God lie or was God like parents who say, If you do that, youre in big trouble? The kid does it, and they go, Next time you do it, youre in big trouble! Was God like, The day you eat it, youre going to die? We dont know what dying is; it doesnt sound good, but boy that fruit looks good. We want to be like God, so well eat it. God seen what they did and He says, Okay. Well, next time youre going to die! God very much kept His word, so when they partook of the fruit, death set in. From that moment on, Adam and Eve began to age. The aging process set in. The effects of the fall are going to be experienced in the world. An animal will be killed. In fact, two animals will be killed and their skin will be covering for mankind. Death had come to our planet, but another kind of death had come as well-another kind of separation had come. That was manifested in Chapter 3 when Adam and Eve were removed from the very presence of God; separation had taken place. God is holy, righteous and pure; and man is now sinful and rebellious. So a separation [had taken place]. Man had walked and talked with God and communed with God, and now man was banished from the presence of God; spiritual death-spiritual separation-had taken place that day. So how is it that we can have this situation made right? How can what is dead be brought back to life? One thing I know for sure is that dead people dont resuscitate themselves. We saw an individual-it was a terrible thing this summer-whose heart stopped at a baseball game. We were all gathered around and prayed for him as they worked tirelessly for about a half hour to try to revive him. He couldnt revive himself. What makes people think they can revive themselves, that they can bring to life that which is dead of their own efforts? You can. How does it happen? Ephesians 2:1 tells us the answer. If you turn to Ephesians (page 1156), Paul says, As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the Kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. So he describes the people that are living out or manifesting their spiritual condition. They are separated from God, so they dont care about the things of God, the virtues of God; so theyre living any way they want to live. You and I are seeking to live for God, and we still struggle with sin. Its still a struggle, but its a struggle. If youre running with the wind, the wind pushes you along. If youre swimming against the current, it works against you; but if youre swimming with the current or running with the wind, it pushes you along. Paul describes-he says, You usually just kind of give in. But now that youre living for God, you recognize that that road leads to destruction; so you fight with that sinful nature. Heres the problem: youre spiritually dead, so what happens? Paul says in Verse 4, But because of your great personality, God loves us and had mercy on you. Because of the great gift in the offering or because of the short-term missions trip or because of your impeccable church attendance… Does it say that? Because you put your name tag on every weekend… Because you read your bulletin… Because you shared the Lord… No, [it says] none of those things. It says, But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions-it is by grace you have been saved. You have received what you did not deserve because God has chosen to have mercy on you. God has chosen to-just as He breathed life into man in Genesis 2:7, and man became an nephesh hayyah-a living soul-so, too, He chose to breathe life into spiritually dead human beings by His grace, the offer of salvation was made to us. The Gospel of John brings this out further. In John 11, we find the story of Lazarus, Mary and Martha-his sisters. Theyre distraught because Jesus does not come in a timely manner. They feel like if Jesus had come earlier, their brother would not have died; so they reprimand Jesus. Jesus assures them in Verse 23 (page 1063) that their brother will live again. Martha answers and says, ‘I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day. Marthas understanding of death is very much Old Testament-based. Hes in sheol right now. He is sleeping right now, but some day at the end of time, he will live again. Jesus speaks to that and addresses. He says, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me will live, even though he dies… Jesus speaks of a continuation, a continuity of life even after death. What kind of death does He speak about here in Verse 25 even though he dies? That is? Physical death. Then the next verse says, ‘…whoever lives and believes in Me will never die. Obviously, Hes not talking about physical death there because were all going to die. There was a church in Rockford that taught that the literal interpretation of that passage was if you went to that church and followed the pastor, youd never die-physically. I dont know what happened because that pastor died a few years ago. Im not sure what happened there. Obviously, Hes not talking about physical death. [Were] a dark church, laughing at somebodys death there. Hes talking about spiritual death, the continuation of our soul in the presence of God. So in the same two verses, the same word death has a different meaning in each verse, You will pass from death into life. So God in His grace, His mercy and His knowledge has made a way of salvation to deliver us from death. Now was that something that God thought of on the fly? Was that sort of like a Heavenly pun like God creates man; man falls; and God goes, Now, what do I do? Was that like a Katrina moment for God? You know [Hurricane] Katrina caught us off guard; we werent ready. People lost their lives; they went for long periods of time without being rescued, and it was a debacle. Locally, statewide, nationally-everybody looked at that and says, That was terrible! We didnt plan for this devastation! We should have had a plan in place. We should have worked the plan! Whatever plan we had, it was inadequate. Is this a Katrina moment for God? When Adam and Eve fell and death entered into the world-sin entered in the world, did God kind of go, Oh, no! This is not what I planned. This is not what intended! What am I going to do? Oh, I got it! Ill send My Son! Is that how it went down? We often think its Creation, fall and redemption, right? God comes up with a cure for sin and death. In actuality, there is more to the story than Genesis 1:1. Something happened before God said, Let there be light. It really is redemption, Creation, fall and the fulfillment of the plan of redemption. The Bible says in many places that the plan of salvation was brought into being before the foundation of the world. God is not a God who says, Oops! God is not a God who scratches his head and goes, Oh, now what am I going to do? We dont understand all the mysteries of life, death and the presence of evil, but we do know that God had a solution even before man sinned. In 1 Peter 1:18 (page 1200), Peter writes and says, For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers… You cant redeem yourself by what you buy. You cant buy your way to redemption. You cant earn your way to redemption. Some people think not only that they can resuscitate themselves spiritually, but they can earn their way to Heaven. I dont want to ruin the movie for you, but theres a movie… I wont tell you the plot or the ending, but theres a movie called Seven Pounds right now. Its a story of redemption. How far will a person go to redeem themselves, to try to remove their guilt? But you cant. Only the One that youve sinned against and have offended-He is the one who can redeem you. He is the One who determines the price of redemption. It says in Verse 19, We have been redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen, and listen to this phrase, before the foundation of the world. Before there was Creation, before there was fall, redemption was in the mind and heart of God …but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through Him you believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and glorified Him, and so your faith and hope are in God. Well stop right there for today.
Lets open our Bibles up to Lukes Gospel, the first chapter-the Christmas story. [This is] one of the important events of the Christmas story. Were ending our series this morning on The Cold War. Weve been talking about the importance of reconciliation, peace, forgiving one another, peace between man and our fellow men. This morning, were going to talk about the highest form of peace that there is. Have you ever had something happen that was not what you were expecting, but once you experienced it, it was better than what you had hoped for. It was better for you, more beneficial for you than what you were expecting and planning for. I know you Packer fans did. I remember years ago when your quarter back-who was a pretty good quarterback, I think Don Majkowski was his name-was hurt. Your second stringer from Atlanta-a guy named Brett Favre-came in the game. How many of you were disappointed when Majkowski got hurt and Brett Favre came in the game? Oh, you fibbers! You didnt know who he was! I remember that! Nobody knew of him. They said, Oh, dont worry about it! One of the greatest quarterbacks of all times is going to come in and take his place. Hell lead us to the Super Bowl! Relax! You werent thinking of that! You were thinking, This is bad news! You got more than you were bargaining for. Im a Bears fan, but Ill call it the way it is. Thats just the way it is. You were blessed by that. Sometimes in life, we dont get what were expecting. Thats true in the realm of spiritual matters as well. God sometimes does not give us what were hoping for or expecting, but He gives us what we need. He gives us whats beneficial for us. Thats what were going to see this morning in our story. Whats happening here in the Christmas story is there has been an announcement made by the Angel, Gabriel. Before he came to Mary, he came first to a man by the name of Zachariah. Zachariah was told by the Angel, Gabriel, as he was doing his duties in the temple, that his wife Elizabeth-though they were both old in age-they were going to conceive a male child. They would name him John, and he would be the one who would herald the coming of the Messiah, the King. Zechariah didnt understand how this was possible. He doubted the word of the Angel Gabriel. Gabriel said, I stand before the presence of God. Ive been sent by God to give you this message. Because youve not believed, you will be unable to speak. Zechariah lost his voice until such a time when his son was born, and he wrote on paper, His name is John. As soon as he did that, he was able to speak. The first words out of his mouth were praise-praise unto God. Were going to read that in Verse 67 of Luke 1 (page 1014 of pew Bibles). As we read it, I want you to notice the expectation that he has, the expectation of what this child, this King, will do. His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied: ‘Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because He has come and has redeemed His people. He speaks prophetically of what is in the future as though it had already happened. ‘He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of our servant David (as He said through His holy prophets of long ago), salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us-to show mercy to our fathers and to remember His holy covenant, the oath He swore to our father Abraham: to rescue us from the hand of our enemies and enable us to serve Him without fear in holiness and righteousness before Him all our days. He reiterated that same thing twice. Did you catch it? To live in freedom from fear of our enemies. His expectation was when this little child grew up, he will be a military, political leader who will lead a conquest to defeat Rome, who was their occupying country. They had a freedom, but that freedom was determined by Rome. If they got out of line-if there was a disturbance, that freedom was fragile and could be removed from them. They were not a sovereign, independent nation. They were under the dictate and rule of Rome. When the Messiah comes, He is going to reestablish us. Hes going to set up a throne in David, and Hes going to rule a kingdom from there. That was the expectation of Zechariah. He will bring peace, but that peace will come at the conquest of the enemies of Israel. We all know thats not the peace that God was coming to bring. He turns to his son, John, ‘And you, my child, you will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for Him, to give His people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God. Notice, why will our sins be forgiven? Because were great, wonderful, good and righteous? No. Because God is merciful. ‘To shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace. He will bring us into peace. The peace he was looking for was physical peace. That didnt come, did it? Is the peace that Jesus was going to bring a peace that would end conflict in the world? Is it a peace that would end trouble between man and man or nation and nation or race and race? If that was the peace that Jesus came to bring, then He failed in His mission at this event because all we have to do is turn on our television and open up the paper. We know that the world is not a peaceful place. We know that conflict, tension and evil are still very much a part of our existence and our world. The peace that Jesus came to bring was the highest form of peace. It was a peace between God and man. [It is] the highest form of peace because it is an eternal peace, because it is a spiritual peace. How would Jesus accomplish this? As He comes is He going to flex His spiritual muscles or his Godly muscles and just impress us with His strength? Is He going to overpower us and intimidate us into submission-because God could do that? Thats an effective tool you know. I am now 48 years old. I play basketball against guys that are half my age. The sons of the men I used to play against I now play against. Im older than they are, slower than they are. I dont jump as high as they do, but Im stronger than they are. Thats the one thing I have going for me. Anytime an old man can show up a young person, thats a good thing to do. A couple of these guys-big guys-are 63; one is 67; theyre well-built guys. Theyre in the weight room, and I saw them on the bench press. A couple of these guys get really feisty on the court. I like them, but one guy in particular gets a little feisty and his temper has gotten the best of him a couple times. A couple times when I was guarding him, he got a little jumpy. I looked at him and I thought, Theyre on my turf now. Now we can have some fun. So they were doing the bench press, and they were [saying], Ahhh, one. Ahhh, two. They were grunting, and I said, Hey, can I jump in here? They said, Sure. Are you sure you can lift this? Ive been doing that for years. They said, You need a spot? I said, No, Im fine. I lifted it off, and I did ten. I had plenty of room left over, and I racked the bar without warming up. They were like, Whoa! One guy goes, I will never mess with you again. I swear I will never, ever… He was serious. He said, I will never, ever mess with you. He kept saying that for the next half hour. He said, I will never… Did you hear me? I will never mess with you again. So is God going to come down and just show us how strong He is and cause us to go, Oh, man, Lord, Youre strong, so Im going to submit to you. He could have, but thats not what He chose to do. Is He going to come down and kind of call a truce? Is it a ceasefire? Is He going to come down and say, Well, listen, time out? Lets cease hostilities for just a period of time. While Im here, therell be peace. After Im gone, trouble will happen again. Its kind of like the woman who found out that her husband was going to write her out of his will. He wrote her out of the will, and she was so angry with him that when he died, she put on his tombstone, Rest in peace…until I arrive. Ill deal with you. Is this going to be a temporary peace? Not at all. The peace that Hes going to bring is an eternal peace. Or maybe Jesus will come, and Hell compromise with us. Maybe when He grows up, Hell negotiate. Hell say, You know, I know the bar has been raised too high. What Im here to do is kind of lower the bar. God is going to kind of look the other way at some sins now. Were just going to kind of meet in the middle. You do your best, and Well lower Our standards. Well just kind of meet in the middle somewhere. What do you think? Well just kind of negotiate on this salvation thing. Well, God cant do that. God is righteous and holy. His holiness demands judgment, purity. So how will God, who is holy, still exercise justice at the same time He exhibits His love? He will establish peace by removing the very thing that has caused hostility, by removing the very thing that has stood between us and God-removing the barrier which is sin. In the Book of Colossians 1 (page 1165 of pew Bibles), the Apostle Paul writes about that. Were going to see the story of the Gospel from the Creation of the world to the manger to the cross. In Colossians 1:15, the Apostle Paul writes these words: He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created; things in Heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by Him and for Him. He didnt simply come into existence in Bethlehem in a manager. He is God. He is God, the Son. He created the world. For, He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. And He is the head of the body, the church; He is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything He might have the supremacy. So we see Jesus before the incarnation. We see Jesus in Heaven. We see Jesus in eternity. We see Jesus as Creator, and then Paul takes us to the incarnation. He takes us to Bethlehem; he takes us to Christmas. He says, For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him… Were mindful as we think about the child in the manger-that its not just a child whos simply blessed by God but gifted by God or God is present by him in a strong way, no. All of the fullness of God dwelled in that little child. All the fullness of the deity was wrapped in Him. Then he talks about the cross, and he says, …and through Him to reconcile Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in Heaven, by making peace through His blood, shed on the cross. Shed on the cross… Once you were alienated from God, you were enemies in your minds because of your evil behaviors; but now He has reconciled you by Christs physical body through death to present you holy in His sight without blemish and free from accusation. How can we be free from accusation because we all know that we continue to sin; we continue to struggle because though we are free from the penalty of sin, presence of sin is still very much in our world. We are righteous because we have been declared righteous by faith as an act of grace. Jesus received our sin and imparted to us His righteousness. In the incarnation was the continuation of a divine conspiracy-conspiracy for harmony and for good because it says that He is the lamb slain before the foundation of the world. God knew man would fall; and even before man was created, a plan was made for man to be redeemed. The next step in that redemption would be for God to take on flesh, and He would live a life that would be a perfect life offered as a sin sacrifice for us on the cross. That is the message of the Gospel-that He Himself is our peace. Paul says in Ephesians 2:14 (page 1157 of pew Bibles) that He, Jesus, is our peace. He didnt just come to bring peace; He was peace and is peace. There was a story told on the mission field, a true story, of a man by the name of Don Richardson. He and his wife Carol left the comforts of home. They received their education-he in linguistics training and Carol in medicine. God sent them to reach an unreached people group in Indonesia. They lived in the west part of Indonesia in the jungle. They were a remote tribe-an unreached people group called the Sawi. The Sawi were cannibalistic headhunters. You have to know that God is calling you if youre going to go and try to reach cannibalistic headhunters, right? God, Ill go anywhere You want me to go. You tell me where to go, and then God says, Fine, Im sending you to cannibalistic headhunters. You might say, Well, is there any place else? Could that be like Option Z maybe? Are there other choices that You have for me? They took their 7-month old child, and they embarked to this little island in Indonesia. There they met the Sawi people. They knew they were different. Theyd never seen any people like this before, but they brought with them tools, and they brought with them medicine. This medicine was like magic. It treated their illnesses and sicknesses and made them better. So they didnt understand who they were; they didnt understand why they were there, why they were so interested in their customs, their culture and their language; but the tools and the medicine, they liked having them around. Now whats really interesting about this people group is they valued among all things… We might say, Well, we value faith, we value truth or we value love. Sawi valued treachery above all things. Murder was a common place, but not just murder-murder with a twist. If you really wanted to be esteemed in the Sawi culture, then what you would do was get somebody to think they were your friend, gain their trust and then kill them-betray them and kill them. As crazy as that sounds to us, that was their culture; so thats how they esteemed one another. [Its] like when you have a pig thats a family pet. You fatten the pig; you have it at your table. The pig thinks hes one of the family, one of the gang. Then one day you rise up, slaughter the pig and eat him. Thats what youd do. Youd make your enemy your friend, kill them and eat them. Finally the day came after many years of study and preparation. Don Richardson translated enough of the Gospel into Sawi that he began to convey the story of the Gospel. He told them about Jesus, and he told them about the Twelve. He told them how Jesus was betrayed by Judas and how then Jesus was crucified. As the Sawi listened to the story, the hero of the story to them was Judas. They clapped at Judas; he was their hero. He pulled it off. Hed gotten Jesus to trust him and then betrayed Him and had Him killed. Jesus was the dupe; He was the one you laughed at in the story, and Richardson thought, How in the world can I reach this people when they think Jesus is someone to be laughed at and Judas is one to be admired? In fact, he was so discouraged that he decided he would quit. For whatever reason-maybe hed miss God, maybe he wasnt the man for the job-but he was unable to communicate. How in the world could he reach a people whose thinking was so perverse, so different from ours? He informed the warring tribes that he and his wife would be leaving, and of course if they left, the medicine would go too. They didnt want that, so they decided that they were going to call a truce. There were three warring Sawi tribes, and they called a truce. Skeptical of the truce, Richardson said, How in the world can I trust people who make friends and then kill them? He could trust them because they had what was called the Peace Child. What would happen was if tribes wanted to call peace, then the leaders of the tribe would take their son and offer him to the leader of the other tribe as a Peace Child. All the cultures valued the life of the Peace Child. No one could take the life of the Peace Child. As long as the Peace Child was alive, there was peace. As soon as he saw that, he realized he had an inroad. He shared with the Sawi people that Jesus Christ was the Peace Child, that mankind had rebelled against God. We had sinned against God-that we are making ourselves to be Gods enemy by breaking His law-and that God has offered us peace. God wants to have a relationship with us and in order to demonstrate His love and His sincerity, He has given us; His Son and His Son lives for all eternity. The peace that God offers is for eternity. Salvation came to that little village. If you looked that little village-the Sawi village-up on your computer, youd see the major religion there is Christianity. The church is alive and well. In the 70s, Don left that region, and he is now a missionary at large for a team called World Team where Pastor Sean and Heather Christensen from our church are. So, again, [heres] another famous missionary story with ties to our church. I just found this interesting too. I knew I was going to be talking about this missionary story in Indonesia, and I came to the service last night and went through my mailbox. I pulled out something and said, Whats this? I read it and it said, Voice of the Martyrs has received a gift in honor of Reverend Jeff Williams. Hey, that's me! Whos it from? Oh, thats nice. It says, The donor has requested that the gift be used for Village Outreach to Indonesia. They had no way of knowing I was going to talk on this story, and thats what I found last night as I was here. It was just kind of God giving a see, there, God giving us a nod and saying, Thats the message I want to share. I want people to know that Ive offered them peace. Im going to ask if youd bow your head in prayer. We still have some more things to take care of before we go home, but Id like us just to take some time and to pray. Father, were grateful today for the child that brought peace, not a temporary peace. It was not a political peace. It was not a physical peace that would end hostilities between man and his fellow man of the races. There is coming a day when You will physically rule. The peace that Youd come to bring in Your first Advent was a lasting peace, the highest form of peace. It was a peace and reconciliation between us and You. You demonstrated Your sincerity; You demonstrated Your commitment by offering us Your Son. Remove the barrier of sin, so we can come right into Your presence through His name. Father, my prayer this morning is for those who might be here whove not yet received that gift. As Im praying, if youre here today and youve never trusted in Christ as your Lord and Savior, I invite you to pray this prayer with me. In your heart, pray, Heavenly Father, I come to You in Jesus name today. I confess to You that my heart has not been where it should be. I confess to You that Ive wondered and that Ive done things that I know are not pleasing to You. This morning, I come and ask for Your forgiveness. I confess to You my sins. I ask that the blood of Jesus Christ shed on the cross be applied to the sin in my life; that You would forgive me; that You would cleanse me; that Your Holy Spirit would reside within me; that Youd give me a new Heart. Its my desire to live for You all the days of my life. I enter in to the peace that You have offered me through Christ, and I give You thanks for it. In Jesus name, Amen. Father, we have the assurance that if we prayed that prayer, prayed it in faith, that our sins are forgiven, that Your Holy Spirit lives inside of us, and we have the promise of Heaven. Its not an empty, shallow promise based upon myth or superstition, but there is an empty grave. There is a place where You are not because, Lord, You rose again from the dead and have offered life eternal for all those who would follow You. God, were grateful for Your redemption, for Your gift. We celebrate that gift this morning. We pray in Jesus name, Amen.
Obviously you can tell from that song that the message this morning is a little bit dark. (Because of You by Kelly Clarkson-lyrics can be found here: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/kellyclarkson/becauseofyou.html) Its not the kind of stuff that I get excited about preaching about. Its not full of happy thoughts and words, but hopefully good things will come from it. You know, we all love the happy endings, dont we? We watch the movies we love [like] when the guy gets the girl-you know, An Officer and a Gentleman. We love when victory happens to the good guy-when Rocky stands in the ring and says, Yo, Adrian, I did it! [We love it] when the Death Star gets blown up and harmony comes to the Galaxy; when E.T. comes alive again; when in Home Alone, the family is reunited at Christmastime; [and when] everything is great and there are happy endings. We know in life it often doesnt work that way. We know sometimes things dont end like wed like them to. When we are talking about ending the Cold War, there are times when forgiveness happens, reconciliation happens, and that's wonderful. Its great; thats a happy ending. There are other times when it doesnt happen. In fact, circumstances make it improbable if not impossible for a good ending to come. Everybody in this room has relational graveyards in their lives. If you were to take a moment to walk through your mind and think about the friendships and relationships you used to have, youd be amazed at how many tombstones youd find and the names that are written on those tombstones. Some of the names were people that you didnt know that well and were in your life for a period of time. Other names are names that were close friends. Some of the names are even family members. Youve cried over a lot of those graves, maybe even this week. Youve looked at the names, and youve wished circumstances would be better. Some of the graves have been there for a long time; time has taken its toll. With others, the dirt is fresh; the graves are new. The pain is very much real. Its my prayer, my hope, that through our series in some cases when its beneficial and helpful, God can do some resurrections of some relationships. We talked about forgiveness last week. If you want to follow along-if you remember the story-and you want to open your Bibles up to 2 Corinthians 2:5-11 (page 1143 of pew Bibles), [youll recall that] Paul had all kinds of problems with the church in Corinth. There were problems with womens roles in the church, spiritual gifts in the church, doctrinal issues and moral issues. Paul was always having to bring correction, rebuke and instruction to the church in Corinth. In 2 Corinthians 2, it tells us about an individual who had committed a sin so egregious that he was removed from fellowship in the body. Verses 5-11 of that chapter talk about the process of forgiveness and reconciliation. We learned a series of statements called Forgiveness is. We learn from Verse 5-6 that forgiveness is an acknowledgement of pain as Paul talked about the mutual pain between the one who had offended and those who were offended. Forgiveness is not pushing things under the rug; its just the opposite. Its bringing it out to the open. Its acknowledging the pain, the hardship and the struggle that the behavior caused. We learned from Verse 7 that forgiveness is the beginning of the healing process. Paul said that he suffered enough, and it was time to bring mending-time to bring healing. He said that forgiveness is an event, but its also a process like when a doctor sets your bone. When a bone is broken and he sets the bone to heal, that does not instantly heal that bone. The bone is still tender to the touch; its still sensitive. Its going to take time for that to heal. So it is when there are breaks in our relationships; we might pronounce forgiveness, but that memory-that event-is still very tender. It still needs time to heal. If you dont set the bone, your body will work to heal; but it will not heal as well, as effectively, or as thoroughly as when it is set; so it is forgiveness that aligns it. Verse 8 talked about forgiveness being a new beginning. Reaffirm your love for Him, Paul says. Its a new start for him. When we forgive, truly, we wipe the slate clean, and we begin anew. Verse 9 talked about the fact that forgiveness is an act of obedience. Its not just an emotion, not a feeling; its an act of our will. We choose to forgive because God has commanded it, because the circumstances or conditions for not forgiving are severe. When we dont forgive, we seal in the bitterness rather than letting it be expressed, dealt with and removed. Verse 10 talked about the fact that forgiveness was an act of faith and grace-that were trusting God. Well do our part; God will do His. So as I take that step of faith, Gods grace works in me and in them. God begins to remove the pain, heal the pain, heal the hurt and remove the bitterness and anger. In Verse 11, we talked about the fact that forgiveness is a means of prevention. We know how the devil works. We know how he uses bitterness and anger as a tool, so we forgive; we keep our hearts warm. We keep our hearts from becoming cold and hard and blocking the flow of Gods love and grace in and through us. I had some problems with my satellite dish as some of you may have had this week if you have satellite. We had the ice storm followed by the snowstorm, so it gathered up on my dish quite a bit. Now I-number one, dont like heights; number two, I dont like to get on a roof thats slippery and icy, so this is a bad combination for me. No TV Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Now, on Thursday night, the Bears game is coming on, so it is time to risk life and limb here. Up the ladder I go, and I start sweeping away the snow and ice. Then I get to the point where the ice just wont come off, so I began to apply warm water to the ice. I just kept doing that, and as I did it, I could chip away more and more until eventually all the ice was gone. The warm water had removed it all. That's what forgiveness does. That signal returned, and I watched the game. There is a healthy warmth, and it keeps our hearts from becoming cold, bitter and hard when forgiveness happens in our lives. Restoration is more possible when our hearts are soft and open to Gods grace and love. Reconciliation happened in the church in Corinth. The man was received back into fellowship, and there was a happy ending. It was a happy ending because the man repented of his sin, but what if he hadnt? What if he continued to have a hard heart? What if he continued to live in the lifestyle that was contrary to the Scriptures? Were going to meet this man again. Were going to find out what, in fact, he did that merited him to get the boot from this church. We find this story, most scholars believe, in 1 Corinthians 5. If youll turn there, thats where well start fresh. From 1 Corinthians 5 (page 1131 of pew Bibles), lets begin reading with 5:1. Paul is miffed. He is going to use the full weight of his apostolic authority to bring correction in this situation. He says, It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that does not occur even among pagans… In other words, even people who dont know the Lord have a higher morality than this individual has. …a man has his fathers wife. What that's saying is a man in the congregation was shacking up with his step-mom. Thats what was going on. We dont know if the dad was alive or divorced or what was going on, but he is shacking up with his step-mother. Hes come to church, and the church has probably talked to him about the situation; but he hasnt changed, and nothing has been done. He keeps coming to the church, and they were just kind of going on as if nothing was wrong. Paul is going to address that. …And you are proud! Shouldnt you rather have been filled with grief and have put out of your fellowship the man who did this? Even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit and have already passed judgment on the one who did this, just as if I were present. When you are assembled of our Lord Jesus and I am with you in spirit, and the power of the Lord Jesus is present, hand this man over to Satan so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord. Your boasting is not good. Dont you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough? So discipline had to be merited out, and that discipline was for a two-fold benefit. Number one, it was for the benefit of the individual. He says, Hand him over to Satan. Well, thats obviously metaphorically speaking, right? For the destruction of the flesh. Hes not talking about physically turning him over to the devil, Here, you kill him. Okay, thank you. No, its not that at all. It is metaphorically saying, Listen, remove him from the fellowship of the church. Remove him from the family that he has known. Allow him to experience the brunt of his sin. Now, when you were in the church of Corinth, that was the only church. There was only the church of Corinth. In the length of time we have denominations, other churches, splits and so forth. That wasnt the case in Corinth, so this is actually more effective. If it happens today, a person just goes to church down the road and that church probably doesnt hear the story of what happened over here or there. When they do, they probably hear a much skewed story. Oh, we love you anyway. Come and fellowship with us. They really dont get the full weight of that discipline, but in that day when you were cut off from your church, you really experienced the full weight of that discipline. The motivation for Paul was love. He said, Were doing this so that his sinful nature can be destroyed- so hell repent. Hell realize what hes doing is wrong, and hell come and return to the Lord. Thats what we want to happen, so his spirit can be saved, Paul says. Discipline is an act of love. What Paul is suggesting here-though it sounds harsh-is an act of love. What the church would do would be an act of love, and it worked! In 2 Corinthians, we read that he is restored into fellowship. His life has changed and he is now a better person. It worked! It doesnt always work, but in this situation-in this scenario-it worked. Parents, when you discipline your children, its an act of love. Youre saying to your children, Listen, there is a behavior that we dont want repeated. Because of that, we are punishing you. We are taking away something from you, and we want you to reflect on that. We want you to learn, so you will change your actions. You will change your attitude, and this will be removed from your life. The child might think the discipline is harsh, but the end result is you want him or her to be a better person. You want this removed from his or her life, so discipline is actually an act of love. So they administered love to this man. Paul is going to go on and clarify a former letter. Now, he wrote three letters to the church in Corinth. We have the first and the third; we dont have the second. He is going to address the second letter that he wrote and clarify some of the points that he made. Verse 9, I have written you in my letter… Thats the second one that we dont have. …not to associate with sexually immoral people-not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat. That's pretty steep. We want to make sure that you understand that hes talking here about a person or individual who this is now their lifestyle. There is a difference between corporate sin, public sin and private personal sin. Sin thats between individuals can cause division and problems; but there is also sin thats known to everybody. Its corporate; its public; its out there. Thats dealt with in a different way. Were going to talk about both circumstances today. So in this corporate situation, there is this struggle that is taking place. Paul says these individuals have embraced a lifestyle that is characteristic of these negative attributes. Its not that they occasionally did this or struggled one time with that. We all do that; we can all read through this list and say, Yeah, there have been times Ive been greedy. Oh, yeah, there was that time at the New Years Eve party when I got a little intoxicated. That's not good. Yeah, there have been times when I have slandered somebody, but I made it right. Were not talking about people who struggle with sin. That's all of us. Were talking about people whove embraced this as a lifestyle right now. Theres a struggle going on in Illinois politics, and some are contending that the governor has embraced a lifestyle that hes using his office for personal gain. Theyre going to try to prove that in a court of law. It is who they are; it is the essence of who they are. Now theyre saying hes unfit to govern the state of Illinois, and thats what theyre going to try to prove. Paul is saying this is a lifestyle. Its typifies who they are. Its not just an occasional fall; it is the essence of their makeup and their character. Paul says, Dont associate with them! Why? Because its harmful to your walk. It is harmful to your walk. We saw hypocrisy in Galatians 2 when Paul and Barnabas began to pull away from the Gentile Christians; so even good people if theyre not careful-if they associate with the wrong crowd-can succumb. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:33, and he says, Bad company corrupts good morals. If you begin to spend time with and associate with the people he is describing here, its going to affect you adversely. If you take some clean gloves and you start playing in the mud, do your gloves get muddy or does the mud get glovey? What happens? It starts to wear off on you, and Paul says, Dont take the risk. If somebody is naming Christ and living in this hypocrisy, dont associate with that person. Verse 12, What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? The answer to this rhetorical question is Yes, we are to judge those inside. God will judge those outside. ‘Expel the wicked man from among you. He quotes Deuteronomy 17. Now isnt it interesting that Paul talks about judgment in the church. He says, Ive cast judgment on this man. You need to put judgment on [as well]. For some of you, I know what youre thinking. Youre out there going, Well, Jesus said we shouldnt judge. ‘Judge not lest you be judged. Well, we have a little problem here, right? Is the Bible contradicting itself? Is Paul contradicting Jesus? What did Jesus mean? One of the most misunderstood, misconstrued verses in all the Bible is Matthew 7:1 (page 961 of pew Bibles). Lets turn there, and lets talk about what Jesus meant when He said those words in the Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew 7:1, Jesus says, ‘Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Now hes going to use some hyperbole or exaggeration to illustrate a point. Its a rather humorous word picture for the listener. He says, ‘Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brothers eye and pay no attention to the plank that is in your own? How can you say to your brother, Let me take the speck out of your eye, when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brothers eye. The word judge here is the word we get critic from-Krino. It means to be a critic. Jesus here is talking about a superficial judgment-a judgment that does not gather the facts, a judgment that is made in haste, a judgment that is hypocritical, a judgment that is hypercritical. You and I have all been guilty of this. Have you ever had a co-worker, a parent or a friend or someone that gave you a negative first impression? Once you got to know him or her, you realized how wrong that first impression was? You thought they were stuck-up, you thought they were stingy, or you thought they were mean? Whatever it was, when you got to know them, you realized your judgment was wrong. You had a critical spirit with that person. Jesus is saying, You have a critical spirit? Dont be surprised if people dont have a critical spirit back at you. I was exercising at The Athletic Club this week, and I heard a couple guys talking. They worked together for the same company, and they were talking about their boss. Ill try not to get too descriptive, so I dont give anything away. One guy was saying-he was apparently new-and he was saying, Look, I cant do anything right. Hes always telling me what a bad job Ive done even though I know Im not doing a bad job. I show up every day. Not only am I on time, Im early. I stay late. I fill in other shifts when were short. I work my tail off, and all he does is complain. He doesnt appreciate a thing I do. Not one positive thing has he ever said to me since Ive been there, and Im so sick of his criticism. I thought if you were a supervisor, you were supposed to lift up your employees-not tear them down. The other guy says, Well, if it makes you feel any better, he does it to me too. He doesnt say anything positive. He just judges me, and hes critical of everything I do. When I do something right, he doesnt say anything. When I do something wrong, he blows it out of proportion. Then these two start attacking this guy. I thought, Well, there you go. Theres Matthew 7 in action: ‘Judge not lest ye be judged. If youre going to judge others critically like that, its going to come right back to you; and thats exactly what was taking place in that exercise room-this being lived out. Now, the interpretation cannot mean that we are not to use discernment, not to use evidence, not to use actions to form critical opinions and judge the character of other people. That cannot be what this is saying. It cannot be so because of the text, and it cannot be so because-just in practical terms-thats not true. You and I use judgment all the time. If you voted in November, you judged. You listened to the candidates; you weighed their point of view, and you went and made a choice on your ballet based on a judgment of that candidate and the job they do in office. When you hire somebody, if youre an employer, you make a judgment on their character. If somebody hired you, they made a judgment on you and said, We listened to the interview. Weve looked over the resume, and we think this person will be a good fit for our company. If youre married here today, you made a judgment on the character of that individual. If you joined a church, you made a judgment about that church-their pastor, their message, their fruit, what theyre about. We make rational judgments based on the evidence all the time. Jesus cant mean that! Whats more, the very text would dictate that that cant be the meaning-that we cant judge anybody at any time. Verse 6 says, Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under your feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces. The dogs were talking about arent domestic little pets; these were scavenger dogs that roamed the streets, had sores and fleas, rabies and bad news. What does he mean as he talks about these dogs and hogs? What is he talking about here? Well, a dog was an idiom or slang for a person who lacked character-a person who lacked discretion. Jesus is saying, Listen, dont take these truths, these precious pearls of Gods truth, and just give them out indiscriminately. When you are investing in somebodys life, make sure theyll understand how valuable what theyre hearing is, how precious what they are learning is. This is from God; this has value, so you dont just give it out to anybody. You make sure that the person who is receiving it and hearing it is going to appreciate it. Otherwise, they might take it and even use it against you down the road. In order to make that decision, what must you first exercise? Judgment, right? You have to use discretion and judgment. Look at Verse 15 in the same chapter, ‘Watch out for false prophets. How do you know theyre false, folks? You made a judgment. ‘They come to you in sheeps clothing…. They look really safe, friendly and nice, …‘but inwardly, they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Verses 17-19 talk about good trees bearing good fruit and bad trees bearing bad fruit. ‘Thus, by their fruit, you will recognize them. When you go to pick apples, you are a fruit inspector. You say, Well, this one has a worm. I dont want that. This ones not ripe. I dont want that. This one looks red, juicy and ripe. I want that. Youre a fruit inspector. Youve made a judgment on that apple. When you determine that someone has bad fruit and theyre not somebody you should associate with, you have made a judgment. So in Verse 1, Jesus cannot be saying that you and I can never use discretion, form an opinion and judge another person based on the evidence-based on their actions and their words. Its not saying that at all. Its talking about a critical spirit. It doesnt weigh both sides; it doesnt know the facts; its hypocritical, and Jesus condemns that. He says, If you live like that-if youre a hypocritical person-dont be surprised when it comes back around. Now, what do we do… That was a corporate matter. This was a public matter for this church in Corinth. What about private matters and most sin issues in the church that you have to deal with? All churches deal with conflict. The Disciples dealt with it; there were only 12 of them. They had run-ins with Jesus; they had run-ins with each other. The Apostles, as they went to carry the news out into the world in the Book of Acts, there was confrontation. We know Peter and Paul had issues. Paul and Barnabas had issues. We know there were issues in Acts 6 with the Hebrews and the Greeks. We know there were problems in the early church. Churches of any size-small, medium, or large-have conflict. Most of them arent public or corporate. Most of them are private and personal, so how do we deal with that kind of conflict when reconciliation seems unlikely there? Turn to Matthew 18. Dont necessarily understand this as a formula, as you want to see the heart of Jesus. Jesus is saying how we need to value reconciliation, how we need to work toward reconciliation when there has been a breach in relationships. Dont be quick to get out the relational shovel in your graveyard. Go the extra mile. He says in Verse 15 (page 974 of pew Bibles). Im using a little different translation. Yours might be a little different than mine. This one says, If your brother sins against you, go and ignore him, send him dirty looks and make him feel really bad and guilty about what he said or did to you. Does yours not say that? Some of you might have this translation; it goes like this, If your brother sins against you, go and write him a nasty letter or email telling him all the bad things about him and write him off. Yours doesnt say that either? Do any of you have this version? If your brother sins against you, immediately go and tell as many of your close friends as possible the bad thing this meanie did to you-of course inviting them to pray for him or her. Anybody have that version? No? Okay, well heres the version I have for real. ‘If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the… Do the math-how many? …‘two of you. One, two of you. Not the committee-the two of you. ‘If he listens to you, you have won over your brother. Usually circumstances like this can be solved pretty easily. The people sit down and they clarify the facts, Heres what I said. Heres what you said. No I didnt mean that. Heres what I did. No I didnt do that. I did this. Usually, it can be handled pretty quickly when you do it the right way. If Matthew 7 is one of the most misunderstood Scriptures, then Matthew 18 is one of the most ignored Scriptures. People bypass entire steps or do none of the steps, yet Jesus has given this as a pattern and as a command that were to follow. He says, ‘If he listens to you, youve won over your brother, but if he will not listen, take one or two others along. This does not mean find somebody who is biased toward you and go and gang up on the individual. Common sense needs to prevail here. He is saying, Listen, find another party who can come in and weigh the facts, help arbitrate the situation, help both to see each others point of view and come to an agreement-work through the matter. That's what hes saying. It says then if that doesnt work, ‘If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church… Again, common sense. Telling it to the church does not mean hundreds of people need to know about your situation. Tell it to the church- the noun is plural of course. Hes talking here about the plurality of leadership in the local body. Hes saying, Bring it to the leadership of the church. Thats the final phase. Sometimes people want to bypass that, and they go right to the staff and say, Hey, you know what Brother or Sister ‘so-and-so did or said to me? You go, No, but have you talked to Brother or Sister ‘so-and-so? I dont want to talk to them. Theyre a snake in the grass. Well, you know what? The Bible says before you talk to us, you really need to talk to that person. Then, if that doesnt work, you need to bring in a couple friends and try to work it through. Then, come to us and well see what we can do. Thats what hes saying here. Now, what if that doesnt work? ‘If he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector. What does that mean? We all know how wed like to treat tax collectors now, but understand what it meant. Is Jesus saying be mean to them? Whats He saying here? What Jesus was saying in essence is, Let it go. Youve done what you can. Youve got to let it go; youve tried. You followed the principles; you followed the steps. It isnt working out. They do not want to forgive; they do not want to reconcile. He says, Let it go. It doesnt mean hate them; it doesnt mean mistreat them. You still love them, but you let it go. Youve done your best. Jesus says, Let it go. Let it go. Its not very different than 1 Corinthians 5. There is going to be a break in the association. Hopefully, its not forever; hopefully, theyll come around, but you have the spirit of reconciliation. You try to resolve it as best you can. You know the Bible says, Be at peace with all men as it depends upon you. Sometimes you can do everything you can, and still reconciliation becomes impossible. Either the person is stubborn, or maybe theyre continuing to live in that sin. Its a lifestyle for them, and they continue to live in that sin. You cant reconcile then. The church in Corinth compromised. That wasnt reconciliation. This guy comes in the body; they send a message to the whole church. By tolerating his presence there, number one, they send a message to that man that condoned what he was doing by their silence. By their lack of discipline, theyre saying to him, Its okay. You can live any way you want to live. If you want to shack up with your step-mom, go ahead. Its okay by us. Thats what their silence sent to him. Secondly, it said to the congregation, You know, you can go out in this church and live any way you want to live. Whatever lifestyle you want to live in, its totally acceptable here. That was a dangerous message to send to that congregation. Paul said it needed to stop. Action was taken, but the goal first and foremost, when possible, is reconciliation. So Im praying that in relationships that you have, maybe there are some people youve wronged who you need to go to and say, Im sorry for what I did. I need to take ownership for what I said. Im sorry. [You need to] own that as a man or a woman of God and say, This is mine. Maybe there has been somebody who has come to you and said, You know, Im sorry for what I said and did. Please forgive me. Youve chosen instead to get out the old shovel and dig a hole for that friendship. Maybe its time you extend forgiveness and grace to them. Ill just be praying that God can bring about reconciliation and that there can be resurrections all over the place here today. Lets pray: Father, we have much to think about, much to ponder. We are challenged again by Your Word. We pray that You would help us to take care of the business that we need to take care of: to forgive always, to reconcile when possible. Lord, in these hard times, these dark times, when reconciliation seems impossible or improbable because of hardness of heart, Lord, we know that we have to let those things go from time to time. But we can still pray for them; we can still love them; we can still hope that one day theyll come around and that fellowship can again be restored. The church is a place of love. Sometimes that love is extended through forgiveness and restoration. Sometimes that love is even extended through discipline. Lord, I pray that You would help all of us to have a clear understanding of what Your Word is teaching us today. We pray, Lord, that there are cold wars we can throw in the white flag of surrender to, and we can have peace once again. In Jesus name I pray, Amen.
(We being with Pastor Jeff reading from Psalms 109, page 602 of pew Bibles.) O God, whom I praise, do not remain silent, for wicked and deceitful men have opened their mouths against me; they have spoken against me with lying tongues. With words of hatred they surround me; they attack me without cause. In return for my friendship they accuse me, but I am a man of prayer. They repay me evil for good, and hatred for my friendship. You and I have all been there. You and I have all been victims of somebody elses lies or gossip, somebody else saying things about us that arent true or telling things that are true needlessly to people who dont need to know. Weve all had opportunities to feel what David is feeling here right now in this Psalm. This is a tremendous opportunity for him to forgive, isnt it? Its a tremendous opportunity to exercise the grace of God and release the offenders. Were going to see what he does. Verse 6, Appoint an evil man to oppose him; let an accuser stand at his right hand. When he is tried, let him be found guilty, and may his prayers condemn him. May his days be few; may another take his place of leadership. May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow. May his children be wandering beggars; may they be driven from their ruined homes. Thats pretty dark, isnt it? When you start picking on his wife and kids too, thats pretty dark stuff. May a creditor seize all he has; may strangers plunder the fruits of his labor. May no one extend kindness to him or take pity on his fatherless children. May his descendants be cut off, their names blotted out from the next generation. May the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the Lord; may the sin of his mother never be blotted out. Now, hes even picking on the guys mom. This is dark stuff! This is some bitter stuff right here. May their sins always remain before the Lord, that He may cut off the memory of them from the earth. He says, I dont want them blessed as a family. I dont want them blessed financially. I dont want them blessed spiritually. I want this guy to suffer because of what hes done to me. Thats not saying thats Gods will. Thats simply saying those were Davids feelings about what had happened. Thats a pretty natural thing. When somebody strikes you, your nature is to strike them back. When they say something bad about you, your tendency is to say something back or harbor resentment towards that. If somebody gossips about you or hurts you, there is a part of you that wants to get even or rejoices when failure or calamity comes or hits their lives. So David is just being totally honest about his frustration and what he is feeling here. The reason I mention that to you is because that is not unusual in the Bible-for us to see a Psalmist or a Prophet by Jeremiah, when he is wrong-the anger that comes forth out of his mouth… Jeremiah is so mad he says, Curse be the man who brought the news that it is a son into the world when I was born. He just spews out these feelings of ill will. The reason I bring that up is so that you can realize when Jesus comes on the scene and says-youve heard it said, An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, but I say to you… or when He says, Love your enemies. When He talks about forgiving those whove wronged us, thats radical stuff. The Disciples had been brought up to know that not loving your enemies or… That's why when they went to the Samaritan village and Jesus was rejected, the Disciples say, Lord, do you want us to call down fire from Heaven and consume them? Jesus replies and says, You dont know what Spirit youre of. Jesus comes along, and He begins to teach forgiveness, grace and restoration, and its radical! Its new. We take it for granted when we hear it. We know that's what expected of us from God; but when Jesus comes on the scene and says, When somebody strikes you on the cheek, turn to them the other also, that was revolutionary teaching. The natural tendency is not to forgive; its to get even. Forgiveness is a supernatural work, and we are directing our attention to that this morning. Were going to show a clip at this time from the movie, The End of the Spear. The End of the Spear was a low-budget movie which was very well done. It tells a story of five men who left America-Jim Elliot, Nate Saint and others-to preach the Gospel in the jungles of Ecuador. They met their demise there. They were speared; they were killed by the Auca Indians. Joy Thompson-we have a connection there, her family-Dr. John and Mary Doerfer-were missionaries in Ecuador; so she grew up in the jungles of Ecuador. They actually played… Were going to see the clip of Nate Saints son coming back to the jungles of Ecuador to find out what happened to his fathers wreckage and how his father died; and hes going to put all those pieces together. The sister of that young man, Joy would have played with her children; so the nieces of the man were going to see in the video-Joy-played with growing up. Thats kind of a cool connection for our church. This story was shared in the Gates of Splendor by Elisabeth Elliot as she retold the incredible story of Jim Elliot, her husband, and what happened there. Then, of course, the daughter of Nate Saint coming back again with the Gospel and seeing the Gospel begin to spread through that region [is what will take place in the clip]. This is a little longer than normal. Its a few minutes long, but were going to see it as Nate Saints son returns to the scene of the crime, if you will, and begins to put the pieces together about what happened to his father. It is a vivid word picture that I want us to remember about what forgiveness is, and its something that well be drawing upon as we share from the Word this morning. Im going to go over here and sit down. For some of you, its going to be hard to see the words because theyre at the bottom of the screen-either because your vision doesnt pick them up or the music stands are in the way or whatever. When English is not being spoken and subtitles are at the bottom, I will translate that for you. I will read that for you, so you know whats being said. Lets watch the clip from The End of the Spear. Id like you to open your Bibles with me, please, to the Book of 2 Corinthians 2 (page 1143 of pew Bibles) as we talk about this subject of forgiveness. The Apostle Paul had a lot of trouble with this church. There was a lot of division in the church of Corinth. Immorality was constantly happening there. Paul is talking about a disciplinary issue that happened in this church with this individual-we dont have exact details about what he did. Well talk a little bit more about it next week; but he was obviously an important member of the congregation because of the pain that is caused by his absence, by his actions; the difficulty the church is having, that he was very much loved and had fallen; and the pain that this causes. Paul is going to talk about forgiveness and restoration in this mans life. Hes going to teach us some principles about what forgiveness is. Im going to read through the text of Verses 5-11, and then were going to go back verse by verse and talk about the principles of what forgiveness is from this text. Lets read Verses 5-11 in its entirety, and then well go back. Paul writes and says, If anyone has caused grief, he has not so much grieved me as he has grieved all of you, to some extent-not to put it too severely. The punishment inflicted on him by the majority is sufficient for him. Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him. The reason I wrote you was to see if you would stand the test and be obedient in everything. If you forgive anyone, I also forgive him. And what I have forgiven-if there was anything to forgive-I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake, in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes. Principle number one is found in Verses 5-6. Paul talks about the grief and the pain that this sin has caused-both in the church and in the life of the individual. Forgiveness is an acknowledgment of the pain. Its an acknowledgement of the consequences of the action. Some think when you forgive somebody, youre simply glossing over all of that, sweeping it under the rug, not dealing with the emotions and just mechanically doing this act of forgiveness when actually just the opposite is true. Its when we choose not to work through the issues of forgiveness and reconciliation that were sweeping things under the rug. When you forgive, you acknowledge the pain; you get the cards on the table, and you say, This is what happened. These are the consequences. This is the pain that is or was felt. This is the damage that was done, and that is essential in this process of forgiveness; so there is acknowledgement of the pain. Secondly, it teaches us in Verse 7 that forgiveness is the beginning of the healing process. He says, Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. Paul says hes suffering, and youre suffering; and we need to end the suffering. We need to begin the healing, and the way this happens is that you release him. You drop the spear. You are going to forgive this man, so healing can begin. We think mistakenly that all I have to do is say the magic words Im sorry, and that person says, I forgive you; and magically, all the pain goes away and instantly we are healed. Thats not the way it works in the real world. That's the way it works if somebody accidently steps on your toe, but thats not the way it works when somebody does the things that David talks about in Psalm 109. Thats not the way it works when somebody like Nate Saints son has to go face to face with someone he thought was his friend. It turned out to be the man that murdered his father. The emotions and the pain that he dealt with-thats not going to instantly heal. You can compare forgiveness to a break of a bone. When you break your bone, what does the doctor do? The doctor sets your bone. Does that heal the bone? Do you say, Oh, my ankle has been set. Now I can walk on my foot? No. Oh, my wrist has been set now. I can play tennis tomorrow. No because all youve done is put proper alignment so that the bone can heal. Thats what forgiveness does. Forgiveness starts the process. Not forgiving prohibits the process. So forgiveness aligns it so that healing can take place, but it is a process. There is a period of time when that is sensitive to the touch, when it is tender, when it needs to be protected because mending has to take place. The more egregious the offense-the greater the betrayal, the greater the hurt, the longer period of time-just like in the natural body, in the emotional/spiritual realm-the longer it will take for healing to take place. So dont be surprised when after youve pronounced forgiveness that you are still dealing with pain and anguish-that some of these echoes are still present in your life. Corrie ten Boom-some of you have heard of Corrie ten Boom. She was a Holocaust survivor and spoke and wrote of atrocities that happened to her family; she became very famous for her work, The Hiding Place. Corrie ten Boom was on a lecture tour for awhile, and she shared a story that she had forgiven one of the Nazis for killing a family member. She had obeyed God; she had forgiven him. She was still, however, struggling with thoughts of hate, struggling with bitterness and having these memories come back. It was to the point where she couldnt even sleep at night. She talked to a pastor friend of hers. She said, I dont understand why Im having such difficulties. I dont understand why Im still having these thoughts when Ive forgiven. Did I not forgive? Did I not do it right? Everybody in this room has struggled with that, right? Everybody in this room as forgiven somebody and still had resentments and thought, Why is that? Why am I still struggling with this? The Lutheran pastor pointed Corrie to the church steeple. He said, You see that steeple, Corrie? Every day the sexton comes in there, and he pulls on the rope and rings the bell. Then after hes done that many times, he releases the rope. Does that stop the bell? He said, Not at first. At first, the ding dong continues, and then it gets softer and quieter. Then pretty soon it disappears all together. He says, Thats the way it is with forgiveness. When you forgive, you let go of the rope. But if youve been tugging on that rope of resentment for a long time, dont be surprised if the bell continues to clang inside. Over time it will diminish, and eventually it will disappear all together. So forgiveness is an event, but its also a process. Its a decision we make, but there is a work that has to be done in our spirit; so thats important for us to understand. Paul says, Begin that work. This brother obviously was genuine and authentic in his repentance, and Paul says, Its time to restore him. Verse 8, I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for HIMMMM. The next principle is that forgiveness is a new start. Biblical forgiveness wipes the slate clean. When you confess your sin to God and you ask for Gods forgiveness, God is not going to bring that up to you in the future. Its a new beginning for you; its a new day for you. Thomas Edison-we take the light bulb so for granted. We just take it out of the package, screw it in and turn on our light. We dont realize what a painstaking process that was for Edison and his men to assemble a light bulb. I read that in those first light bulbs, it took them 24 hours to make that light bulb. They worked continuously around the clock to make that happen. After it was done, when the first light bulbs-it had to be just painstakingly and carefully handled at the risk of breaking this precious, fragile commodity… One of the younger apprentices was entrusted to take it from the work station to the place where they would plug it in. In his care, he was overly cautious, bobbled the light bulb and it broke-24 hours of labor! Thomas Edison and the crew were so discouraged. Of course, the young man felt terrible for what he had done. The crew again began to work another 24 hours without sleep to put together another light bulb. When Edison finished, he took the light bulb and he gave it to the same young man. That's forgiveness. He had another opportunity, another chance. Paul said, This man deserves it. This man deserves to be reinstated into the body. He has confessed his sin. He is right before God, and he needs to be right before you as well. Verse 9, The reason I wrote you was to see if you would stand the test and be obedient in everything. Forgiveness is also an act of obedience. It is in the realm of the will more than it is in the realm of the emotions and the feelings. Forgiveness is an act of obedience. God commands forgiveness. I read to you that the verbs from the Book of Ephesians are in the imperative tense. When he says (Ephesians 4:32, page 1159 of pew Bibles), Be kind and compassionate, forgiving one another just as in Christ God forgave you. It is not an option; it is not a suggestion. It is a command of God. God commands that we forgive. God expects us to make decisions that are contrary many times to our emotions and our feelings. Our feelings might say to us, Dont forgive. Our emotions might say to us, They dont deserve forgiveness, but God has commanded it; and its important we understand that. It is an act of our will. Every day you do things that are acts of your will. You go to work when you dont feel like it; thats an act of your will. You open your books and study or write a paper when you dont feel like it. Maybe your emotions say, Stay in bed, go shopping, or go play in the snow and have fun; but you choose to do something contrary to your emotions and your feelings because there are severe consequences. If you dont go to work, you lose your job. If you dont study, youre going to flunk your class. The consequences go on from there. You make a decision on the basis of your will and not your emotions. Forgiveness often is the same thing. Many times when you go to work or you do the schoolwork, youre glad you did. You get into the project, and its fun. You come to church-you didnt want to go that Sunday, but you came and it was beneficial. Youre glad you came. Not that that would ever happen here, but there are some homes where they fuss about going to church before its time to go. So, Paul says, This is a choice that we make. Its an act of our will. Its an act of obedience. Verse 10, If you forgive anyone, I also forgive him. Forgiveness is a declaration that we are making a pronouncement of forgiveness when possible. It is important that we say to the person that has wronged us or hurt us, I forgive you. We make that declaration with our mouth. Its also a work of faith and grace; forgiveness is a work of faith and grace. He says, …if there was anything to forgive-I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake. God is involved in this process. In order for that healing to take place… How does God take this decision and take this declaration and bring about healing in our emotions and our spirit. How does that fully work? I dont really fully understand it; I just know it does. I know we do our part. When we are obedient, God will do His part. When you confess your sins to the Lord and you ask for His forgiveness, youre doing your part and youre trusting that God is doing something in you that you cannot do for yourself. Hes removing the guilt of your sin. He is cleansing you from unrighteousness; He is making you righteous. You cannot do that; God is doing His part. So, forgiveness is an act of faith. Im saying, Okay, God, Im going to be obedient. Im going to do what Youve commanded me to do even though I dont feel like it, and Im going to make this declaration of forgiveness. Im trusting that You will work in my spirit, remove pain, bring healing and bring deliverance to me in my life. So forgiveness is also an act of faith, trusting God to do His part-to do His work of grace in our lives and in the lives of those that we need to be reconciled with. Verse 11 says, …in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes. What is the context here? The context which hes talking about is Paul saying that Satan will use unforgiveness, resentment, bitterness, and hatred as weapons in our lives. Satan means slanderer; he slanders us. Hes the accuser of the brethren. As long as we harbor these things in our lives, we are giving Satan ammunition to use against us. We are giving him ammunition to hurt us spiritually; so when you disobey God and choose not to forgive, you are actually working against yourself. Youre actually harming yourself. Youre harming yourself spiritually; youre harming yourself emotionally because where forgiveness releases the bitterness, unforgiveness locks it in. It seals it inside of you, and thats not something you want to do. You dont want to seal unforgiveness and bitterness inside of you. Hatred acts as a poison. Bitterness acts as a cancer, and it spreads and destroys from the inside out. Thats why when we swallow something that is bad for us, our bodies naturally regurgitate that. When we go into the hospital, and they cleanse our system-they pump our stomachs to get that out… Bitterness is not something you want to reside; its not something you want to make a nest in your lives, in your heart and your mind because it will follow you. It will corrupt you. So unforgiveness seals that inside of you. God says, I want you to release that. I want you to be free. I dont want you to be bitter, angry people. I want you to be a healed people, a gracious people. You know one of the hardest things to do is to forgive ourselves. Have you found that to be true? One of the hardest things to do is to forgive ourselves. We become angry with ourselves; we hold resentment toward ourselves. We begin to think, Maybe God cant forgive me, God cant use me, or God doesnt love me because of what Ive done or havent done. The accuser, the brethren, uses that. How can you be used of God? How can God love you? Look at what youve done? The accuser, the brethren, uses that in our lives, so I want to also talk to you this morning about forgiving yourself. I think thats important to do, too. A little boy and a little girl, Johnny and Sally, went to Grandma and Grandpas house as they often did. Grandpa bought Johnny a slingshot, and he said, Im going to teach you how to use this slingshot, Johnny. They went into the woods, and they practiced. He was terrible at it. I remember getting my first slingshot and shooting myself in the thumb. It was terrible; I couldnt hit anything. So Johnny was really discouraged, and Grandpa said, Dont give up. If you just keep trying, you keep practicing, pretty soon youre going to be as good as David in a sling. He said, You think so, Grandpa? He said, I know so. Well, the little boy headed to the house, and before he went inside, he decided hed give it one more shot. Almost without thinking, he turned and he saw a duck moving out in the woods. He pulled back and he let go, and a miracle took place; he hit the duck. The duck died on the spot from the impact of the stone. The problem was, that was not just any duck. That was grandmas favorite pet duck, Quackers, and now Quackers was dead. What was he going to do? How does he break the news to Grandma that number one, he killed her favorite duck; and number two, it was him-the grandson that she loved. Shell hate me now. She wont like me anymore. I cant tell her this awful secret. I must cover it up. No one must ever know that I was the one who took the life of Quackers. As he is covering this duck up with the last piece of wood in the wood pile, he looks up and sees his sister Sally standing there and grinning from ear to ear. She knows the secret. She doesnt say a word, but she has ammunition galore. That night when it was time to do the dishes, Grandma said, Sally, its your day to do the chores. Lets wash the dishes. Sally pipes up and says, Oh, Johnny said he wants to do the dishes tonight. Dont you, Johnny? Johnny looks up and says, Uh-ha. Well, thats very good, says Grandma. You can help me with the dishes. As Sally exited the room to go watch TV, she whispered in her brothers ear, Dont forget the duck! Later that night, Grandpa said, Lets go fishing, guys! Grandma says, Oh, Sally cant go fishing tonight. She has chores to do. This is her day for chores. She turned to her brother, Johnny; he knew what was next. She looked at Grandma and said, Johnny said he wants to do the chores tonight, Grandma. He loves working with you in the house. Is that true, Johnny? Uh-ha. As she walks out with her pole to go fishing, she whispers in Johnnys ear, Remember the duck. This scenario repeats itself for days, and finally Johnny cant take it. He cant take it because of the grief, and he cant take it because of the torment. He finally confesses to Grandma in tears. He says, Grandma, I killed Quackers with my slingshot. I hope you can forgive me. I hope you still love me, and he broke down. She said, Honey, I know. I saw you. I know it was you, and I forgave you the day it happened because I love you. She wiped away his tears, and she held him close. Then she looked in his eyes smiling, and said, Johnny, I was wondering how long you were going to let your sister hold you as a slave. You know, thats the way it is in our lives. This horrible secret that God knows-we want to hide it. We want to cover it up. Were angry with ourselves. How can God love us? The truth of the matter is God knows, and He loves you. He has extended grace to you. Lets not allow the devil to continue to beat us up and brow beat us over the sins of our past. Make sure that on your list this morning, one of the names you cross off of who you need to forgive is yourself. You need to forgive yourself. That disarms the enemy when you receive that forgiveness. When you forgive others, when you forgive yourself, it lessens the ammunition that he has to use against you because its in the open. Its been dealt with; its been forgiven, and you have a new start. If youre here this morning and youve not given your life to Christ, its very important that you do that. Were talking about this issue of forgiveness. You need to understand that Christ wants to give a pardon to you. I recently read about a man who lived when President Andrew Jackson was President. He had committed a crime; hed stolen from the U.S. Mail (Post Office). The severity of the crime, the amount of mail he took-at least in that day-was enough to warrant his execution. They appealed his execution, and it went all the way to the President. President Jackson studied the case, and he issued a pardon to the man-pardoned by the President. The problem was the man was so wracked with guilt and grief and so ashamed of his sin, he felt like he didnt deserve a pardon. He rejected President Jacksons pardon. His attorneys appealed all the way to the Supreme Court. The Chief Justice wrote the decision and said that the man would be executed. He said the value of the pardon is only a pardon-unless the guilty party receives the pardon. Because this man has rejected the pardon, his guilt remains; and he is to be executed. We love to quote John 3:16 (page 1052 of pew Bibles), For God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son that who so ever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. What we dont quote is John 3:36 (page 1052 as well) when Jesus says, The one who rejects the Son, the wrath of God abides on him still. If we spurn Gods pardon, if we reject His offer of grace, our guilt remains. That's why its so important that we receive His forgiveness, receive His grace. Would you pray with me this morning? Father, we are so thankful for the opportunity of a second start, so thankful this morning for an opportunity to know the joy of a clean slate, forgiveness of our sins. I pray this morning if there be one here who has never trusted in You as his or her Lord and Savior, this would be the day when he or she will receive that pardon. If youre here this morning, and youve not trusted in Christ as your Lord and Savior, I invite you to pray with me now. Say, Heavenly Father, I come to You in Jesus name. Im guilty of sin. Ive rebelled against You and Your Lordship; and I have committed acts that I am ashamed of. I ask today for Your pardon. I receive the sacrifice of Your Son on the cross as payment for my sin. Forgive me, Lord, and cleanse me. I pray that Your Holy Spirit would come inside of me; [I pray that] the Spirit that raised Christ from the dead would live in my life, that You would make me a new person and give me the power to live for You all the days of my life. From this day forward, Ill give You my heart. I receive you as my God and King. In Jesus name. Lord, if they prayed that prayer this morning, then their sins are forgiven. They have received the pardon; the promise of Heaven is theirs. Lord, I also pray for us this morning who need to confess. We need to go to somebody and tell them were sorry and own our sin. [I pray] that we would have the courage to take this step of obedience. Lord, for those of us who have been wronged or hurt, by the work of grace [I pray] that we would forgive those who have hurt us, offended us and wronged us. Even this morning as we prepare to receive communion, we will name their name. Well name the offense, and well make a declaration of obedience and faith and pronounce forgiveness. Father, I pray that all over this church in all these lives, we will see these pockets of reconciliation, this groundswell of forgiveness, and the healing process will begin in their hearts and lives even now as we pray. Lord, by Your grace this morning [I pray] that we would forgive ourselves. We make that declaration and say, Today, Lord Jesus, I forgive myself. We would name that offense. Even as You have forgiven me and pardoned me, I now release myself. I drop the spear; I let go of the bell that, Lord, I might experience wholeness, that Satan might no longer have grounds to accuse-that I can walk in freedom and newness of life. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
Lets open our Bibles to Galatians 1 (page 1151 of pew Bibles). [Id like to] just review with you what weve covered so far. The first week we talked about the mission of the church. The mission of the church is to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the good news that is summed up in 2 Corinthians 5:20 (page 1151 of pew Bibles). God was in Christ reconciling Himself for the world, not counting mens sins against them as entrusted to the church, the ministry of reconciliation. Paul writes and says, We implore you, therefore, as Christs ambassadors. Be reconciled to God. So first and foremost, we take this message of the good news: that God took on flesh; that He lived a perfect and sinless life; that He offered that life on the cross as a payment for sin. Gods justice, Gods holiness, the demands of the law were met, and Gods grace and love were demonstrated in the pardon that He offered to all who would come. That message of new life in Christ-that message of repentance and that you can know God, have your sins forgiven and know the promise of Heaven-is the mission of the church. Now there is an enemy that we face, and Satan seeks to thwart that mission-to divide the church, to cause a stumbling block for believers, to cause a tension amongst believers, to divert us from our mission. We said last week that Paul said were not to be ignorant of his schemes or his devices-to know how he operates. His method of operation is first and foremost to distort the truth. In the Garden when he attacks and tempts mankind, he does so by distorting the truth. Did God really say you would die? He distorts the truth. When he attacks the Gospel, what he usually does is distort the truth of the Gospel: minimizing what Jesus did; minimizing who Jesus was-making Jesus to be simply a man and not the divine Son of God. [He used] many other tactics, but he attacks the truth, the purity of the Gospel. When that happens, unity breaks down in the church because the truth is what binds us together. When truth is distorted, and then that distortion is believed, unity is broken down. When unity is broken down, love is displaced. Instead of loving God and loving our brothers, we begin to love ourselves, our system, our structure, our denomination, our agenda-whatever it might be. That becomes first. We saw that happen in the churches of Galatia. We turned to the Book of Galatia, and we saw how Satan had gotten a foothold in those churches. Galatia is a region; its not a city. There are many cities of Galatia, this Roman province, to which Paul writes. Thats why this is so crucial to the spreading of the Gospel. There was a group of people called the Judaisers. Judaisers were a group of men from Jerusalem who basically set out to make Christianity just another sect of Judaism, to render Christianity innocuous. [They set out] to say, Listen, if youre a Gentile. You want to follow Christ. What you need to do is be circumcised; you need to follow the Mosaic Law. You need to observe the customs and rituals of the law; and if youll do that, youll be right with God. Its not enough to simply have faith in Christ and trust Him to be your righteousness. It is Christ plus your good deeds. The churches of Galatia started to believe that message, that perversion, that distortion of the Gospel. As a result, unity broke down. The church became divided. They began to fight in and amongst themselves, and love was displaced. We saw that in Peter of all people-Peter reverting back to his old ways. Remember in the Garden when Christ was betrayed? He is questioned, and they say, Arent you one of His followers? Peter says, No, Im not, because hes afraid of what they might do to him. Well, sadly, Peter reverts back to that pattern. The Judaisers-these men are very intimidating. They use bully tactics. They come into a meeting where Peter is in Antioch; and as soon as they come into the meeting, Peter leaves the Gentile Christians and goes and associates with the Judaisers from Jerusalem. Paul then confronts him because the unity of the church is broken down. He says, Listen, you do not live by the law. Youre being a hypocrite here. You are breaking down the church. You and I both know that it is faith in Jesus that justifies us and not the works of the law. So Paul seeks to restore the unity of the church. So, those three things [are what we are talking about today]: the truth is distorted; when truth is distorted, unity is destroyed; when unity is destroyed, love is displaced. So Peter begins to love himself. He begins to protect his own self over and above the Gentile believers, so thats what happened. There needs to then be a reconciliation or a restoration in the church, and Paul sets out to do that. Now were going to look at what happens once that breach has occurred-once there has been a breakdown in relationships between individuals or groups. How is that restored or reconciled? Were going to turn to Ephesians 4-what were going to call the reconciliation chapter. Were going to see how it works in reverse order. There are some prerequisites that must take place in order for reconciliation to happen, just the reverse order of what we talked about last week when conflict occurs. For reconciliation to take place, the base of the fundamental issue is love. Love must be preeminent; love must be supreme. Paul writes in Verse 1 of Ephesians 4 (page 1158 of pew Bibles), As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Love is fundamental. Notice that everything that he talks about-the patience, the humility, the gentleness-all spring from love, a spirit of love. So when there is a conflict, and I need to approach that group or those individuals about restoring peace and harmony, I come in a spirit of love-not in a spirit of seeking to win. There is a principle that we need to remember: retaliation always leads to escalation. If we come with rhetoric, if we come with inflammatory words, we exacerbate the problem-not solve the problem. Love is preeminent. Secondly, Paul seeks that unity to be restored. He says, Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit-just as you were called to one hope when you were called-one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. What is the word that Paul repeats here over and over again in that verse? One. He wants us to understand the concept of the fact that we are one in Christ. Hes not speaking in a metaphoric way. He is not speaking just in a poetic way. Paul means this literally. We are members of one another. We are one spiritual family, like it or not. He says in Verse 3, Make every effort to keep the bond of unity. It is not easy to have unity when there is a group of people. You have your family come home for the holidays. The bigger that family reunion is, the more likely [it is that] there is going to be some relatives there that you dont necessarily like or are in agreement with, right? Maybe when it is your immediate family, you do fine; but the more extended family you invite-aunts, uncles, cousins, in-laws and out-laws, when all brought together-the more chances there are for conflict or for disagreements, right? Some of you can relate with that-such as over the holiday that we just went through. In a church of our size, when you get over 700 people gathered together as a church, I guarantee you, there are going to be some people in here that you dont agree with or that you dont like. They rub you the wrong way. Its an effort to maintain. You have to be diligent to maintain unity. Just like in a family when there is conflict, you work it through. So in the church, when there is conflict, we work it through because we are one. We are literally a family. We belong to each other. So many times through the years, people just leave the church. You have no idea when they went or why-no idea. Usually, its something really petty. Theyre offended or somebody looked at them cross-eyed or something insignificant [occurred]. Rather than working it through, they leave. Were a family. Family members dont just walk out on other family members. We work through to solve our problems in the church; were a family. We are one; we are brothers and sisters in Christ. Unity must be preserved. I believe the greatest president-well, with Washington and Lincoln, its hard to… You can make a case for either one. President Lincoln came into office at a crucial time in our nations history. The North and South were divided. The South was going to secede from the union. President Lincoln wanted to preserve the union at all costs. He did not want war; but should they secede from the union, then war would be forced upon them. If they were the aggressors, the North would not be the aggressor. Lincoln comes to the inauguration address. The South is watching them very carefully. There is a lot of tension and a lot of hostility. They think that Lincoln is going to take from them. They fear Lincoln; they fear what he is going to do; and [they fear] this new political party called the Republicans of which he is a part. What will he do? So Lincoln seeks to avert those fears and concerns. In his inaugural address, he says to the people of the South toward the very end of it… Civil war is going to start in a matter of a month-right after this speech. He says, We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearth-stone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union… He says, Like it or not, we are one nation. We have to live together. We have to work through these differences. We are the United States of America. We are not the North; we are not the South, and I will not allow us to be a divided people. Lincoln came with a spirit of reconciliation. He did not come to seek to make the matters worse or to agitate the South. He said, We are one. Paul wants the church to understand that we are one. When there is conflict, we are not enemies; we are friends. We work through those issues. We want to talk about how to do that in the rest of our time together. Were going to focus on that last item, talking about when love breaks down-when love is displaced-we redirect love to God, to one another. Then we seek to restore unity, the bond of peace, because we are a family. We are brothers and sisters in Christ. We do that by getting to the truth. Verse 25, Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body. What is the truth? Putting off falsehood could take many forms. Putting off falsehood could be simply clarifying a rumor or clarifying a position; or falsehood could be actual deceit on somebodys part; it could be poor judgment. Whatever it is, you desire to get to the truth. You strip away all of that, and you focus on the truth-both content and intent. Content and intent-because intent is important. How many in this room have ever caused conflict or hurt somebody, and it was not your intention to do so? Right, sure. It happens, right? Our hearts might have been innocent; either words were misconstrued or whatever it was that we believe or thought hurt somebody, and that was not our intention at all. Intent is important. I was coming home from a class recently in Milwaukee. It was about 11:30 at night, and everybody was sleeping. So I wanted to be really quiet and not wake up the dog, get her barking and wake up everybody in the house. On my keychain, I have two keyless entries-one for each car. Some of you can kind of guess whats going to happen here as Im feeling in the night and accidently press the panic button; so the alarm starts to go off on the car. I was like, Oh, no! Now I have to turn that off! Im turning that off, and its dark. I dont know which car is for which, so I turn on the panic button on the second car. Now both cars are blaring horns. Rather than just calmly going, Okay, if I just press both red buttons at the same time, it will turn off, Im panicking. Im turning them on, turning them off, turning them on, turning them off. The dog is barking. Man, it was not good, but that was not my intention to cause that conflict, to hurt my neighborhood or my family. That was not my intention. It would have been pretty sinister if I had been out there and was going, Its midnight. Theyre sleeping. I should now press the red buttons and wake up the neighborhood. Ha ha ha ha. That would have been evil, right? There are times we do things intentionally, and there are times we do things quite not so intentionally. The end result is the same: conflict has happened. So Paul says, We get to the truth. We get to the truth in an expeditious manner. Thats important. Notice Verse 26, ‘In your anger do not sin: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. What does he mean by that? The longer you put off resolving conflict, dealing with tension, the harder it is to resolve [issues] because what happens is anger many times does not subside. You get increasingly angrier or increasingly bitter. It has a way of doing that, so we are to resolve those conflicts in an expeditious manner because if we wait, Satan has a foothold then to work. Hell use that. Hell whisper untruths in our ears. Well embellish the facts. Well see things as worse than they really are. That time factor is very crucial. That's why when Paul has a conflict with Peter, what does he do? We read about that in Galatians 2. As soon as he sees the hypocrisy, he says, As soon as I saw what Peter was doing, I gave him the silent treatment. Is that what he did? No. As soon as I saw what Peter was doing, I wrote him a nasty ten-page letter. No. As soon as I saw what Peter was doing, I said I cant wait until I get back and tell Timothy and Titus all the bad things that Peter has done! Is that what he does? No. He says, As soon as I saw what he was doing, I opposed him to his face! He sought to restore unity in the church. He did not procrastinate. The more I procrastinate, the worse it gets. I want to share a story with you of a family that I know that you dont know, but Im not going to divulge the facts. There was a conflict that happened between the mother and her daughter. The daughter had children. The grandmother was very close to both her daughter and the children. Something happened involving the womans husband, which would have been the step-father to the daughter. The accusation was so egregious that it caused a division in the household. The wife sided with her husband, and the daughter then became hurt because she had chosen her husband over her and her children; and a breach took place in the relationship. I tried to encourage the parties to get together and talk, but they would have nothing to do with it. They were too mad. After a period of time of nasty letters being sent back and forth disowning one another, the mother wrote the daughter out of her will. The daughter would have nothing to do with her mother. [She began] referring to the mother by her first name and not by Mom. The children were the innocent victims because they very much wanted to have a relationship with their grandmother, but now they were cut off from the grandmother; and there was no contact. Whats more, the families were divided because certain family members began to side with the mother, and certain family members began to side with the daughter. Both sides, when listened to, had a very perverted version of the truth. It was thought if they could just get together and share the truth and share what happened, they could resolve this conflict. At this point, it was going to take a miracle, and I would simply tell them, I am praying for a miracle. I would say this to both sides, I am praying. You are so far apart; its going to take an act of God. You love one another. No, she doesnt love me! Yes, she does. No, she doesnt love me! Yes, she does, Id say to the other party. Im praying for restoration. One day-I believe it was an answer to prayer-the daughter and her children went out for breakfast at the same time as the mother, who lives in another state, went out to breakfast. She had visited the city and went out to breakfast that same day, the same time, and at the same restaurant. They met one another at the buffet, unexpectedly. What do you think transpired? Rather than exchanging angry words and hurtful thoughts, they began to cry and embrace-in a public restaurant, of all places. For 20 minutes, the daughter, her mother and the granddaughter embraced, cried and wept. Finally, the daughter said, I dont care what happened. I just want to have my mother back in my life. I need you in my life, and I love you. The mother said, I do too. Ive missed you. Ive cried. I want you back in my life. More crying and more hugging [took place]. Reconciliation took place that day because they realized though they were not able to agree on the facts, their bond was more important than anything. They were a family. They were called to love one another. Friends, we may not agree on everything, but we are a family. We are brothers and sisters in Christ, and our love for one another is greater than anything that might divide us. Paul stresses that to the church. He says, You deal with the truth. You deal with it quickly. Also in Verse 29, he talks about the importance of focusing on the goal. He says, Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. The word unwholesome does not mean naughty talk; it does not mean bad words, cuss words. Unwholesome means corrupt. Unwholesome means words that are inflammatory, words that make the matter worse instead of better. It says when you have a conflict; the goal is not to win the argument. The goal is not to be right. That's the way it is in the world. Thats the way it is in the video with Ms. Ding Dong talking to us about how to solve [problems]. (There was a clip played from the movie The Bucket List). That's the way it is there. Thats not the way it is in the church. The church is entirely different. The goal is to restore what has been broken; its to rebuild the bridge. Its to reestablish communication; it is about restoration first and foremost, so the words coming out of my mouth are meant to restore unity. Yes, sometimes that involves confrontation. Paul confronted Peter, but the goal of that confrontation was the unity of the church and the purity of the Gospel which was being compromised. It was not that Paul ceased to love his brother Peter. He did not; they still were brothers. This would be the springboard to the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15 where Peter, Paul and the others came together and made that public stand: We are saved by grace through faith in Jesus and not by the works of the law. There was reconciliation between Peter and Paul as well. The questions that Paul asked, the open-ended questions that he asked, were meant to bring about the reconciliation and unity of the church. So when you do speak, guard your words. Guard your words. The words Im speaking-are they unwholesome? Do they break down or do they edify and build up? Are they spoken in a spirit of love or in retaliation? Retaliation leads to escalation. Then we have to talk about the final step. Look at Verse 30-32. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. The final step is forgiveness. Now were going to talk more about forgiveness next week, but I want to touch on it now because you dont know what next week looks like. Maybe youre planning on being here, but maybe something happens and you cant make it. So lets talk about it a little bit this week, and well develop it more next week. I want you to know that everything that Paul says here as he gives these commands to us: Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger. Be kind and compassionate, forgiving each other, those are all in whats called the imperative tense, which means they are not suggestions. They are commands. What Im sharing with you this morning is not my opinion on this subject. This is the Word of God; so if you do not adhere to whats being said today, its not that youre disagreeing with me or that youre disagreeing with Paul. You are disagreeing with the Word of God as Paul writes [while being] inspired by the Holy Spirit. God commands forgiveness; He does not suggest it-He commands it. A command can be two things, plain and simple. A command can be followed, or a command can be disobeyed. You dont kind of sort of obey a command. You either follow through with a command and obey the command, or you disobey the command. Now, were going to be talking in about two weeks about situations where reconciliation is not a good idea. There are times when we do not reconcile. They are not often; theyre more rare. We can always forgive, but reconciliation is a second step. Its usually the right thing to do, but not always. I guarantee you God and Satan are not going to reconcile any time soon. There are times in the Bible where its not healthy to reconcile. In those times when it is the right thing to do, which is most of the time, forgiveness is key. If forgiveness is a command, then you and I have a choice; and thats the one point I want to bring home about forgiveness this morning: forgiveness is a choice. It is not an emotion; it is not a feeling. For the believer, its not an option. Its not just an alternative. It is a choice that we must make. It is a choice between freedom and bondage; a choice to be free in spirit from bitterness and resentment; or a choice from bondage to the past; a choice between doing things the way I would like to do in my flesh or a choice between obeying the will of God in the Spirit. That is the choice that I make. It is an act of the will that is brought about through the grace of God working in our lives. There is a story or an image that we have all seen-or most of us have seen-from the Vietnam War. Its a story of a little girl. We see her running down the streets of Vietnam, and shes naked. Shes probably about six or seven years old, and she has a look of terror on her face. How many of you have seen that picture before? On her face are emotional distress, physical distress and confusion. What you may not know is the story behind the picture. That little girl had just been the victim of a napalm strike. As those chemicals landed on her back, her clothes were removed from her. She was running down the street in terror with burns on her back. That same bomb took the life of her grandmother; that same bomb took the lives of her brothers. Shes running down that street, and its captured by the photographer who then helped her, by the way, and brought her to the hospital after that picture was taken. What you may not know is the rest of the story. Have you ever wondered what happened to her? Did she survive? Is she alive? What happened to her? Interesting that you would ask because I have an answer. She is very much alive. She grew up; she married. She married a Christian man. Shortly after her marriage to this man, she too gave her life to Jesus Christ. She asked Him to come into her life, forgive her sins and be her Lord and Savior. Today, she is a Christian. Whats more, she is desiring to train for the ministry. She wants to go to Bible College to study and be able to go back to Vietnam and share the message of the Gospel with her people. In giving an address recently, she had these words to say about man who had dropped the bomb. If she could speak to him-she doesnt know who he is-but if she could speak to him, what would she say? She said, I would say these words-I would tell him that he is forgiven. I would tell him that he cannot change the past, and he cannot change what happened. What he can do is he can choose to live for peace. Words of reconciliation, words of forgiveness. Friends, I dont know whats happened to you in your life. I bet you have some pretty horrific stories you can tell of people whove hurt you and wronged you. I do know this: if that little girl who was a victim of war, saw her mother and brothers taken from her and felt the pains literally, emotionally and physically of those burns-if she could forgive the man who dropped that bomb by the grace of God-you can forgive the person in your life or the people in your life whove hurt you. God will help you to do that. The grace of the Holy Spirit will help you to do that. As I said, were going to talk more about that next week, but I want to lead us in a prayer right now before the team comes up to lead us in music. Would you pray with me right now? Father, we have been challenged today through Your word. We are challenged because we know our mission. Our mission is to spread the Gospel to the world. We know the enemy seeks to thwart that mission, and he does so by attacking the truth, seeking to cause division in the church and to get us fighting with one another. Lord, you called us to love one another; to recognize the oneness that we have; to preserve the unity that we have; to forgive one another; to reconcile with one another. Lord, we recognize further that this is the work of the Spirit in our lives. This does not happen through our sheer will and determination. This takes place as we yield to the Spirit of God and choose to obey the command of God; so I pray that all over this room-all those who are listening would take those steps, hard though they may be; take those steps to reconcile. Take those steps to forgive by the grace of God. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
In our first installment in our series, we talked about the mission of the church and how God has given to the church its precious message-the good news of Jesus Christ. God was in the world reconciling Himself to men through the cross. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5 (page 1144 of pew Bibles) that He has given to us the church, the ministry of reconciliation. We are ambassadors for Christ, making an appeal to the world to be reconciled to God. The Bible also says theres an enemy. God has an enemy; the church has an enemy who is named Satan, and he desires to thwart that mission. Paul says in the Book of 2 Corinthians 2:11 (page 1143 of pew Bibles), the church is not to be ignorant of his schemes or ignorant of his devices. How does he work? How does he operate? His method of operation has not changed since the beginning. It has not changed since the Garden of Eden. The first thing that Satan will do is he will attack the truth. Paul says of first importance, in 1 Corinthians 15:3 (page 1139), …I delivered unto you of first importance: that Jesus was crucified for our sins according to the Scripture, that He was buried and that He rose again on the third day. That is of first importance to the church. That is our mission: to protect, to defend, to communicate and share with the world that important news of Gods hope-of our hope, of salvation through Christ. So, where does Satan attack first? Satan will attack the truth of the Gospel. Satan will attack the integrity of the Gospel. He will seek to pervert it; to distort it; to dilute it, but he attacks the truth. When he attacks the truth, that leads to a breakdown in unity. We become divided or fragmented as the body of Christ. When that happens, we are not as effective as we could be because we are a divided people. Our energies are not channeled in the same direction. I read an article recently about a man who found a large amount of money hidden inside a wall. When he tore down the wall in the bathroom of a church, there inside the wall were these two medal cases filled with envelopes of money from the Depression Era. We all have fantasies of finding something like that, right? Wouldnt that be fun if you were renovating a house and found almost $200,000 in currency, in cash? Wow! [He said], So, what can I do? I can keep it to myself, which wouldnt be moral, thought the man, or I can share with the owner of the house this good news of the money I found. She was about ready to declare bankruptcy, so she was ecstatic. I saw a picture of them in happier times around their hoard, holding up the money with big smiles on their faces. They had all the dreams of the things they were going to buy and the things they were going to do with all of that money. The relationship soured when he said, I think Im entitled to some of this since I found it. You wouldnt know about it if not for me. She said, Well, I think you can have 10 percent. He was offended by that and wanted much more. She was offended by that, Hes greedy. So their relationship broke down, and it made the newspapers. When it made the newspapers, the heirs of the original homeowner, the man who put the money in the wall, heard about it and hired a lawyer. They sued those two and won. The remodeler and the woman who now owned the house got a pittance. The lawyer for the family said, You know, if they would have just worked out their differences, they would have split these thousands and thousands of dollars; and the family would not have known. When unity broke down, of course, problems began to ensue. When we break down as brothers and sisters in Christ, when Christians are fighting amongst themselves or denominations are fighting amongst ourselves, we lose our effectiveness. Thirdly then, love is damaged. The first thing that Satan does is he distorts the truth. He attacks the Gospel. We see that, the rise of Gnosticism, in movies like the Da Vinci Code-where they are trying to attack the integrity, the purity of the Gospel message. Thats where he attacks first and foremost. If the church does not rise up and defend that, then what happens is unity breaks down. When unity is destroyed, love is displaced. He seeks to get us to love our structures, our denominations, our buildings, our programs, our systems more than we love God, more than we love one another and more than we love the message that has been entrusted to us. He gets us to diminish in our love, and that is to be our witness to the world. They will know you are My Disciples, and that you love one another, said Christ. We saw that in the media this morning. When the truth was distorted, that distortion was adhered to and believed, unity broke down, and love was diminished. We see the same thing happen in relationships, and we can see the same thing happen in the church from time to time. You and I have all heard stories like that. Were going to take a look in the Bible and see what happened when Satan attacked the church. There was a region in which he got a foothold in. There was a region that we read about in which he attacked the truth, and the domino effect took place. Unity was damaged, and love was diminished amongst those believers; and there are lessons we can learn from them. Lets open our Bibles up to the Book of Galatians 1 (page 1151 of pew Bibles). I want to first of all draw your attention to the uniqueness of this book. If you look at Verse 2, [youll see] what Paul says to the churches in Galatia. Youll notice that in the other epistles that he writes, he writes it either to a person as in the Pastoral Epistles, or he writes it to a specific church: the church in Rome, the church in Corinth, or the church in Ephesus. Here he writes to a group of churches in Asia Minor, which is now Turkey, that he visited on his first missionary journey. Among them are Iconia, Lystra and Derbe. All these cities represent this Roman providence called Galatia. He writes to this region because this region had come under a satanic attack. The mission of the church-the all important mission of communicating the Gospel-was under attack. Were going to see that domino effect that I talked about happen, and were going to see how Paul counter-attacks the enemy. Before we begin reading, let me tell you a little bit about whats going on. There are a group of men that history now looks back on and calls Judaisers. The Judaisers were men who were always going around stirring up trouble for Paul. When Paul would preach, they would come around, and they would say, Oh, hes against the law of Moses. Theyd stir the crowd up against Paul. Recall that happening: the riots and troubles that followed Paul because of them? The Judaisers taught that its not just enough to believe in Jesus. You have to believe in Jesus and practice the law. Men, if youre going to convert to Christianity, you Gentiles, you Greeks out here, you need to become circumcised as a sign of the covenant. You need to follow these laws, these principles, of the Mosaic Law. It is Christ plus the law, Christ plus the works of the law, that justify you before God. So, in essence, the Gospel becomes this innocuous thing. Its just added to this list of requirements. Its simply another requirement to add. It is the Jesus plus theology. Paul sees this as an extreme threat to the church. It still is a threat to the church. The essence of that said, that Christs atonement was not enough… When Jesus said on the cross, It is finished, bowed his head and gave up His spirit, the debt was not paid. You have to add to what Christ has already done. You have to add through your righteous works of the law. They shared this with the Galatian churches, and they believed it. Now, Paul is writing, and he is angry at the men who have perpetrated this perversion of the Gospel. He has grieved because he taught them better. When you see your children do something contrary to what you taught them, youre grieved. You might say to them, I taught you better than this. You know better than that. Thats what is happening here. Paul is reprimanding them. They should have known better. Chapter 1:6 (page 1151), he says, I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the One who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel… The word different is heteros. Youve all heard of the word hetero. It means of another kind. Youve turned to another gospel… This is not the same Gospel I taught you. When you add Christ to the old covenant, this is not what I taught you. …which is no gospel at all. The word Gospel means good news. It means saying, Listen, if you have to be justified by the works of the law, that is not good news. If nothing has changed but we simply added Christ, and you still have to rely upon your righteous works to be right with God, thats not good news, and its not the Gospel that was delivered to you. I want you to notice how Paul uses the strongest words he can possibly use to communicate with the churches. Thats because so much is at stake. This is not a minor difference of opinion. This is not a peripheral, doctrinal matter. This is the core of the Gospel that is under attack. He is perverting the truth of the Gospel, and Paul says, We must rise to defend that. [Verse 7], …Evidently, some people are throwing you into confusion or trying to pervert the Gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from Heaven… Wow! …should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! Anathema-cursed, cut off from God. If an angel comes to you in glowing robes and speaks to you in an angelic, heavenly, majestic voice and tells you a different gospel, let him be cursed. [Verse 9], As I have already said and now say again: if anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned! How strong of words could Paul have used here? [There is] nothing stronger than the word he used. They had believed a lie. They had bought in to this perversion of the gospel. As a result, disunity had taken hold in the Church of Christ because thats what happens. When truth is attacked and a lie is believed, disunity is the result. Even good people can be led astray. Thats why its so important in churches, and our elders and our ministerial staff and all of us-all of us from the youngest to the oldest-from those who have been Christians for a short period of time to those who have been Christians their entire lives-guard the truth of the Gospel. In Chapter 2:11 (page 1152), were going to read about a confrontation or a conflict between the Apostle Paul and the Apostle Peter. Judaisers are going to come into the group that is meeting, and Peter is going to withdraw from the Gentile Christians. Verse 11 says, When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. Before certain men from James… That means from Jerusalem. Its not at all saying that James believes or aligns himself with the Judaisers; he simply wants us to identify that these men had come from Jerusalem where James was the head of the church. …he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. The Judaisers. The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray. A wonderful man of God. When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the Gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all… I made Peter an example. ‘…You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile… You live under the new covenant. You dont follow the law anymore. …‘and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs? Why do you seem not to be aligning yourself with the party of the circumcision? Gentiles are hurt, and that was part of it. Paul is coming to their defense. Imagine youre in junior high, and you are a nerd. Youre a dweeb. A cool kid comes and sits by you in the lunchroom. Youre like, Wow! Ive arrived. A cool kid is eating with me. I matter! Into the lunchroom comes a bigger group of cool kids. Immediately, they realize they are with a nerd, so they stand up and leave you alone and go and sit with the cool kids. Aw, I wasnt really sitting with that guy. He had to help me with my homework. Then youre embarrassed and ashamed. Thats what they feel like. Peter and others immediately withdraw from them and head over and associate with the Judaisers. The Judaisers are bullies. They were intimidators. They had some power and clout. There is peer pressure that is taking place here, and Peter, sadly, lets us down; but a bigger picture is what is at stake. You can see unity begin to break down. Unity was breaking down in the church-churches in this region. Peter is going to stress to them the importance of oneness and unity in Christ. As Satan seeks to destroy unity, the church must display unity-unity in the midst of our diversity. In Chapter 3:26 (page 1153), Paul writes, You are the sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourself with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. These divisions have to seize. These barriers have to be brought down. We are one in Christ. We are a body of believers. The same Spirit we are baptized into is in all of us. The same Gospel ties us together and unifies us. The Gospel, the truth of the Gospel, is our unity. Thats why when the Gospel is attacked and that distortion is believed, unity breaks down because it is that unity which ties us together as brothers and sisters in Christ. That unity should be seen by the world. Sometimes its not. Sometimes what the world sees from Christians is our infighting, squabbling and bickering as we parse verbs. Im not talking about the core of the Gospel. Im not talking about the 1 Corinthians 15:3 (page 1139), the Lord Jesus, the deity of Christ, the atonement on the cross, the resurrection. Im not talking about that. Im talking about other matters that divide Christians. Augustine said, In the essentials, unity; in the non-essentials, liberty; and in all things, love. What do we communicate to the world when we squabble and fight and cant get along as Christians? I heard about a man who wanted to end his life. This is an illustration; this is not true. He walked on top of a bridge; he looked at the raging waters below; and he said, All I have to do is jump off, and Ill end my life. A passerby came and saw the man ready to jump. He said, Dont do it! Dont do it! The man said, Why should I live? Thinking quickly, he said, Do you believe in God? Well, yes, I believe in God. Well, see, thats a reason. You believe in God. Now, Im just curious, do you believe in the Christian God, the Muslim god or….where are you coming from here? He said, Oh, Im a Christian. Oh, good. Im a Christian too. Now are you a Protestant or a Catholic? He said, Well, Im a Protestant. Oh, yeah, me too. Im a Protestant too. Now are you Episcopalian or a Baptist, Assembly of God or Presbyterian, Methodist? He tells him what denomination he is and says, I am too. Thats the denomination I am. Thats really cool! So are you like pre-trib or post-trib? Me too! Im pretrib. Now, in our denomination, we revitalized our bylaws. Are you from the 1936 convention or the 1954 revised convention? Oh, Im of the 1954 revised convention. Then he pushed him off the bridge and said, Die heretic! The message Im trying to convey to you: in the Gospel, if we are in agreement on the essentials, you are my brother and my sister, regardless of your denomination. You are my brother and sister in Christ regardless of some of the differences we have in those peripheral matters. One of the things I love about our church is we come from all different backgrounds, all different denominations and theologies, and we love each other. We love each other, and that always has gotten me excited to think about because unity, when it is displayed, is a powerful manifestation of the presence of God in the church. Some of us were moved by the story of genocide in Rwanda in 1994. The civil war there between the Hutus and the Tutsis-and Im not going to get into that; you can look that up. Thats why God made Wikipedia. If you have any questions about that, you can study it for yourself. There were some Tutsi warriors who wanted to kill the Hutus in a region. They went into the church with guns, and they told the pastor, We demand you to tell us who are the Tutsis and who are the Hutus in your congregation. The pastor said, We have no Tutsis and Hutus here, only Christians. He said, I need to know! I must know! You tell me now who the Hutus are in your congregation! He said, We are Christians here. There are no Tutsis. There are no Hutus in this body. We all belong to Jesus Christ. He said, I have orders to kill the Hutus in this church. If you value your life, you will tell me who in your church is a Hutu. The pastor understanding what was on the line stared the man in the face, and he said, There are no Hutus and Tutsis in this church. We are all Christians here. The men with the guns then broke their way into the church and killed every single Christian. We are going to live together, or were going to die together. We are not Hutus or Tutsis. We belong to Christ. Friends, I dont know what your political persuasion is; I dont know what your theological background is; I dont know what union or non-union you belong to, but the highest bond we have is the bond that we have in Jesus Christ. That is our greatest loyalty: the blood of Christ which has taken away our sin. The grace of Christ that has forgiven us our sins is what binds us together as brothers and sisters. When the unity is present, it is a powerful witness to the world that God is among us. We said the third thing that happens is when the truth is distorted; thats how the enemy attacks, distorts and perverts the truth. The church is called to defend the truth, and Paul defended the truth of the Gospel-the churches in Galatia. We said the second thing that happens, the second domino that falls, is unity is destroyed; so Paul encourages the churches to display unity. The third domino that falls is when love is displaced. People start to love the wrong things, to love themselves and their mission or their cause, rather than the cause of Christ or the mission of the church. So Paul is going to encourage the churches of Galatia to demonstrate love. In Galatians 5:5 (page 1154), Paul says hes going to try to put them on the right track here, But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts… How many things count? The only thing that counts-this one thing. …is faith expressing itself through love? You are running a good race. Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth? What kind of persuasion? That kind of persuasion does not come from the One who calls you. ‘A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough. I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is throwing you into confusion will pay the penalty, whoever he may be. Brothers, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished. As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves! If theyre going to go around saying they had to circumcise the Greeks, why dont they just go all the way and castrate themselves? Tell us how you really feel about this issue, Paul. I understand when Paul says, I am serious about defending the purity of the Gospel. When somebody attacks the purity of the Gospel, the church has to be serious about that and in defending that. It says, You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge in the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. How many of you know of churches that have allowed this kind of disunity to happen in the body and ended up devouring each other and causing the church to split? Let me see your hand if you know churches like that? That's sad, isnt it? Isnt that just pitiful sad? That happened in this church. They werent loving each other. They werent demonstrating love. They were fighting amongst themselves. Thats what happens when we depart from the truth-when the truth is not protected. I see its time for me to be quiet, but I want to just share one more illustration with you. In the Holy Land, the church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, supposedly the burial place of Christ-on top of that, above that, on the ground there is a monastery, a chapel. Theres a big debate over who owns the rights to that property between the Coptic or the Egyptian Christians and the Ethiopian Christians. They have guards up there. They have a priest up there at the top of the chapel from the Coptic Church and one from the Ethiopian Church. One time, the Ethiopian priest was too hot in the sun, so he moved his chair toward the shade and got too close to the Coptic side. A big fist fight broke out. Christians from either side came up and began to fight. The police were called, and people were hospitalized because of this. There was a ladder that was put up there to repair something that has never been brought down because they cant agree on who has authority to take the ladder down. There was a needed fire exit that Israel wanted to put in the building in case there was a fire, but the Coptics and the Ethiopians cannot decide where the exit should go. More importantly, there are repairs that need to be done. There are people who are afraid that structurally if these repairs are not done, this building could collapse-not only destroying the chapel, but possibly causing damage to the church of the Holy Sepulcher, including the loss of life. Israel says, We will do these repairs for you, but we first have to know who were working with. Who is in charge? They, of course, cannot agree. So this chapel that they claim to love so much, in order to be right-in order for their cause to win-they are willing to let the building collapse under their feet and be destroyed. Its a sad thing when we put our agendas, our structures and our systems over the unity that is in Christ. What does that say to the non-Christians in Jerusalem when these two groups of people who both claim to love the Lord Jesus Christ are fighting like children over territory of a place that is so holy? Its sad! Its sad when it happens there; its sad when it happens in the churches of Galatia; its sad when it happens here. Augustine said, In the essentials, unity; the non-essentials, liberty; and in all things, love. Might we follow that creed today.
Were starting a new series. You may notice the VR (Virtuous Reality) banner is gone. Next week, a new banner will go up; but were starting it this week. Its called Ending the Cold War. Remember the Cold War? Some of our young people might not know what Im talking about. After World War II, we gradually changed from seeing the Nazis as the bad guys to the Russians being the bad guys. In our movies of James Bond, hed fight the Russians. They were the bad guys, and there was a lot of rhetoric going back and forth. Sometimes that rhetoric got pretty intense. There were times when President Kennedy had to draw a line in the sand, like with the Cuban missile crisis. There were times when President Reagan would speak out forcefully against the evil empire. We remember MAD, Mutually Assured Destruction. We remember words like D
Would you open your Bibles up to 2 Peter 1 (page 1204 of pew Bibles)? Its just an amazing thing to think about; we are on our last virtue. Were not on the last of the series. Next week we finish, and well be talking about the promise next week. Pastor Jerry Dean will be bringing that message, and that will wrap that series up. Were going to start reading with the fifth verse in 2 Peter 1 and read through to the end of the passage weve been studying. Lets begin reading with Verse 5, For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith, goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. Thats our focus this morning. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But if anyone does not have them, he is near-sighted and blind and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins. Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It is talking about love. Love is the greatest commandment, Love the Lord your God will all your heart, soul, mind and strength. To love our enemies is the most difficult commandment. Its the greatest virtue. We read from 1 Corinthians 13:13 (page 1137 of pew Bibles), And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. We are never more like God than when we love; 1 John says, God is love. Its not a quality He possesses; it is His essence. God is love. If love is so significant-and its no coincidence that Peter has it last; its no coincidence that he has faith first; its no coincidence his last virtue is love-its imperative for us to understand what it means. There are in the Greek many words for the word love. Each has a different nuance, a different significance. In our language, we have one word, and thats love; and we interchange it with everything we love. We say, I love my favorite team; I love the fall; I love the holidays; I love pizza; I love puppies; I love God; I love my country; I love my family. Love is used for all those kinds of loves. Those vary greatly in their degrees, dont they-from the trivial to the extremely significant? Yet, we use one word, love. The Bible uses many different words for love. Its a progressive thing. There is a human love, a soul love and a spirit love or divine love. Were going to talk a little bit about all three, but mostly the God kind-of-love. The first love in the Greek is eros. Eros is usually associated with sensuality or passion, but what it basically is about is your pleasure, your happiness. Anything you love because of what it does for you and gives you-thats eros. You can have eros for alcohol or drugs. You can have eros for pornography. You can have eros for a person. You can have eros for money. If it contributes to your happiness, and you love it for that reason, thats eros. Its a very human, very conditional love. Thats why people who get married for eros-those marriages dont last too long. If you marry for looks, and the looks go south-or marry because he has big muscles, and they become flabby as he gets old-your marriage is in trouble. If you get married because he or she has money, and they lose it in the stock market, that marriage is in trouble. If you marry them because of their fame, and their fame dissipates-thats why a lot of Hollywood marriages dont last very long… If you marry them because of their status, and they lose their job… Relationships based on eros are very shaky. Then there is another level up; that is phileo. We talked about a derivative of that, philadelphia-brotherly love-last week. Phileo is that: its brotherly love; its kindness; its friendship. Whereas eros says my happiness, phileo says our happiness, but its still conditional. If its strictly a phileo relationship, its kind of a give and take. Its like a 50/50. I reciprocate; I give, and then you reciprocate. Theres a mutual friendship there, but its still conditional. If friendship is solely phileo love, then its not as sturdy as a relationship thats based on the highest level of love. How many of you have somebody who was a close friend in your life at one time who is no longer a friend or no longer a close friend in your life? Its conditional, right? If we had a perfect world, we would have this third level of love every time; and thats agape love. Whereas eros is a human love; phileo is a soul love; agape is a spirit love. Agape is a God kind-of-love. Agape is the highest level of love, and it says, No matter what you do to me, whether you reciprocate my love or not-you might even be my enemy. When Jesus says, Love your enemies, He uses the word agape. It didnt say you have to be buddies with them, but you have to seek their highest and best. Thats agape love, unconditional love that seeks the highest and best for another regardless of how they treat you, what they say or what they dont do. Thats a God kind-of-love. Only God can enable a person to do that. I heard a story recently about a woman, and her son was a boxer. His name was Jimmy Garcia. He was climbing the ranks, and he was fighting the champion at that time in the flyweight division back in the 90s, and his name was Gabriel Ruelas. They fought in Las Vegas. It did not go well for Jimmy Garcia. He fought valiantly; but in the eleventh round, he went down and he did not get back up. He went into a coma. They rushed him to the hospital. His father and brother who were in his corner were also by his bedside. So came Gabriel Ruelas, the champion. He felt terrible about what happened. He prayed. He held the hand of his opponent. He didnt mean to put him in a coma. He didnt mean to hurt him like that, but the worst happened. Jimmy Garcia died as a young man in his 20s. His mother was a woman of faith who lived in Columbia. She arrived in America grief-stricken over the loss of her son. She said the greatest love in her life was God, and the second greatest love was her children. Now one of her children had been taken away from her, and she did not understand. She met Gabriel Ruelas, and he didnt know what to say. After all, he was the man responsible for her son losing his life. He went to reach out to her, and she turned away. She gained her composure, and she turned back and said, I cannot look at your hands, Gabriel. Your hands killed my son. She said, Your hands are like knives. Gabriel said, Im very sorry for what happened to your son. Through tears he said, If I could trade places with him, I would. I dont know what to say to you other than Im sorry. She turned back around, and Gabriel said she walked toward him, outstretched her arms, put them around him and hugged him like a son for a long time. She looked him in the eye, and she said, I am praying for you, and I forgive you. When I see you, I will see my son. Whats that called? Its agape love. Its not eros love; there is nothing in it for her. Its not phileo love. Thats a God kind-of-love. Thats a Spirit supernatural kind-of-love. Thats the kind of love that God calls us to, so we need His help. We need the help of the Spirit if were to love at that level. Now lets turn in our Bibles to an example of this. Lets go to John 21 (page 1075-76 of pew Bibles). Weve been in this verse. I dont remember what series we were talking about, but we looked at these passages not long ago. There are passages that are so rich that you can come to them time after time and preach on different topics from the same Scripture. This is certainly one of those. Jesus is making His third resurrection appearance. Peter has gone back to fishing-meaning not that hed gone back to it as a hobby, but as a way of life. This is going to be his livelihood. Jesus had been resurrected, which is wonderful, but life as theyd known it had ended. He had been a fisher of men, but now its time to be a fisher of fish. Hell always treasure what Jesus had done and said, but life must go on; so he and the Disciples cast their nets out, and they catch nothing. Reprising the miracle from Luke 5 when Jesus called him into the ministry, Jesus again appears on the shore. They dont know it is Him. Cast your nets on the other side. They do, and it fills with fish. The boat begins to sink, and Peter says, Its the Lord. They come to shore, and Jesus is cooking breakfast. They have breakfast together and then, remember, their relationship is estranged because Peter had denied Jesus three times in the courtyard several nights before. They have a moment-a private conversation-in which Jesus is going to confront Peter about his love. Verse 15 (page 1075) says, When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon son of John, do you truly love Me more than these? This did not mean James, John, Matthew and the others, but meaning the fish, the boats, the nets. Are you going to be a fisher of men or fish? Are you going to be engaged in spiritual matters or the things of this world, Peter, because My calling is still there? He said, Yes, Lord, You know that I love You. Jesus said, Feed my lambs. Again Jesus said, Simon son of John, do you truly love Me? He answered, Yes, Lord, You know that I love You. Jesus said, Take care of My sheep. The third time He said to him, Simon son of John, do you love Me? Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, Do you love Me? He said, Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You. Jesus said, Feed My sheep. Sometimes people trivialize this passage and teach that the only reason Jesus asked, Do you love Me three times was to affirm Peters denial three times. It may have had something to do with it, but I really dont think-and I dont think you will either-that thats the full reason why Jesus said that three times. Hes making an emphasis to be sure. That's definitely one of the things He is trying to do. Its like what we might say, Its location, location, location. Now we might even revise that to say, Economy, economy, economy, right? There is something more pointed thats taking place here. Were going to reread this, and were going to reread this with the knowledge that weve learned about Greek. In our vernacular-or our language-love is love. In the Greek, its not necessarily true. It describes a certain kind of love, so lets read it again: Simon son of John, do you truly agape Me more than these? Peter, do you love Me at the highest level of love? Do you love Me with the God kind-of-love, Peter? Listen to Peters response, Yes, Lord, You know that I phileo You. I love You as a brother. I love you as a friend. Were BFFs. Were buds. You know how much I think about You. That's not the question Jesus asked, so Jesus asked the same question a second time. Again Jesus said, Simon son of John, do you agape Me? Do you truly agape Me? Do you truly love Me at the highest form of love? Now, remember, you and I know that Peter cannot lie to Jesus because Jesus knows all. Peter has lived with Jesus long enough to know that Jesus knows his heart, so Peter cant lie. He has to tell the truth. We also know that phileo is conditional. There was a time when being Jesus friend and being a disciple was cool. Thousands of people are following you, so youre like a celebrity by association. You are seeing miracles that no eye has ever seen. The events that we only imagined: Peter saw them. Talk about the sermons he heard! We only read about the tip of the iceberg of what Peter experienced. So it was cool to be a Disciple of Christ, but now, Im not so cool. Now it could cost you your life. Now youre public enemy number one. The Disciples are scattered, and there was pressure on Peter. He was confronted, Do you know this man? Arent you a follower of Christ? In the courtyard, in the trial leading up to the crucifixion, Peter denies Him three times. We know that Peters love was not agape at that point because agape love says, Do what You want to me. Hes my Lord; Hes my Savior. Ill follow Him even onto death. Peter has to tell the truth. So he answers Jesus the second time in Verse 16. He says, Yes, Lord, You know that I phileo You. So twice, Do you agape Me? Lord, You know I phileo You, two times. The third time Jesus says in Verse 17, Do you phileo Me? Jesus says, Im going to come down now. Im going to condescend in the love youre talking about. Im going to ask you if you even phileo Me. Do you love Me as a brother even, Peter, because youre not acting the way a friend should? What you did to Me is not what a friend does. Youre bailing even right now on the mission. I called you to be a fisher of men, and youre going back to your old way of life; so I have to ask you, Peter, do you even love me as a brother and as a friend? Thats why Peter was so exasperated because Jesus is even questioning phileo love. He says, Lord, You know all things! You know I phileo You! You know I love You as my brother and friend. Phileo love is about us. Eros love is about me; phileo love is about us; agape love is about you-its about others. Peter cant say that. Before you and I judge people, you have to look in the mirror. You have to say, If Jesus somehow, someway right now, and it was you and Him in a room, and He was in a physical manifestation… You could really see Jesus, really touch Jesus and really hear Jesus, and He looked you in the eye, called you by name, and said, Do you agape Me? Do you love Me with the highest level of love, what would your answer be? Could you truthfully and honestly look Him in the eye and say, I love You with the highest form of love? Some Christians love God with an eros love, a human love. They read in a book or they listen to a preacher tell them that if they follow Christ, theyre going to be rich, never sick and never have any problems; and they say, Im in! Thats a conditional love. Im loving You, God, because of what You do for me, how You make me feel, what Youll provide for me; and when things dont work out the way they think they should-trials come, temptations come, heartache comes, trouble comes, See ya, God! Thats because their relationship is just eros; its just human love. There are some-and a lot of them-who love God with phileo love, like Peter. They say, Lord, its about us. Its about You and me. Were in this together. I bless You; You bless me, and then we reciprocate. Its a friendship here. I love You, Lord. Youre my best friend. We have a phileo love, but thats also conditional. The highest form of love is when we can say to God, I agape You. No matter what happens in my life-good or bad; it doesnt matter the heartaches or the victories; I love God. Im going to serve God, and its about You. Its not about me. Its about Your kingdom-not about my agenda. Then no matter what happens in life, nothing is going to shake my love for God. How many Christians function at that level? Thats the level of love that God has called us to. Hes called us to agape love. The good news is that Peter will get there. You ask, How do you know this? Well, first of all, we see progress. Look at Verse 18. Remember this is the same context. Jesus says, I tell you the truth, when you were younger, you dressed yourself and went where you wanted… What does that tell you about Peter? When you were a young man, Peter, that was about eros. You loved you. You were independent, free-spirited, did what you wanted to do, went where you wanted to go. Life was all about you, Peter. You graduated from eros. Thats very true. Right now, in the present, Peter was about phileo. He even admitted it, Lord, You know I phileo You. This is about us. Peter is going to get to the point of agape, where its about You, Lord, because Jesus says, When youre an old man, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go. When it talks about stretching out your hands and being led to someplace you dont want to go, the phraseology of that would seem to signify a crucifixion. John looks back on this event and tells us that its a reference to Peters death, the death in which he would glorify God. Peter dies in about 65 A.D. John writes, some say at the earliest 70 A.D. and even as late as 90 A.D.; so by the time John writes this letter, he knows how Peter died. The church tradition tells us that Peter was crucified upside down because he did not consider himself worthy to be crucified as Christ. He was sentenced to death under the reign of Emperor Nero in his great persecution of Christians in the mid-sixties. So Peter at this stage, at this juncture, denied Christ to a few strangers in a courtyard by a fire. This same Peter would reach a point in his spiritual walk-whereas before a maniacal emperor/director who threatened his very life would not deny Christ. If Jesus were to appear to Peter before he was crucified and say, Peter, do you agape Me? Peter could look at the cross that was awaiting him, look back in the eyes of Jesus and say, Lord, You know I agape You. You know its not about me; its about You and how I can glorify You. Peter reached that level. My prayers is that our eros friends would go from loving God-being it about you-to being about us, about phileo love; [and I pray that] those whove come to that level of phileo could come to the point of agape love-that divine love. Its beyond a soul love; its a God kind-of-love. Its my prayer that all of us would get there eventually. What does it look like? The highest expression of agape love, I think, is demonstrated in our Lord. If you could turn to the Book of Luke 23:33 (page 1046), [we will look at] the story of the crucifixion. Verse 33 says, When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified Him, along with the criminals-one on His right, the other on His left. Jesus said, Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. What kind of love is that? Thats agape love. He looks down at the people who had stripped Him of His robe; had beat His back; had beat Him about the head; had pulled out His beard; had put a crown of thorns on His head, on His brow; had punched Him; had spit upon Him; had mocked Him and cursed and ridiculed Him in front of His friends, His family, His mother; and hung Him up on a cross. Jesus looks down at those same men, and He prayed for their souls. That's interesting as we read this passage on Good Friday and at Easter time. We read it like its an event. We read it like Jesus just said these words one time, and then that was it. The one time He looked down and said, Father, forgive them. They know not what they do; but thats not how it happened. Thats not how it happened. Look at the word in Verse 34. Look at the word said-lego. Jesus said. The tense for that verb is the imperfect tense. What that means is it is a continuous action in the past. You could accurately translate this as Jesus was saying. In fact, the New American Standard version translates it exactly that way, Jesus was saying. Jesus continued to say, Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. Not just one time, but over and over and over. What does that tell you about the heart of the Savior? What does that tell you about God? God is agape. When you sin and you fail God, you think, Oh, man! Lightening from Heaven and here comes my punishment. Then something back happens, and you say, Oh, God is just punishing me! Hes so angry with me! The Bible says Jesus ever lives to make intersession for His saints. What if instead of when you fall and you fail, instead of imagining Him gritting His teach, going, I cant wait to get that guy! I cant wait to teach her a lesson? What if instead Jesus is broken-hearted? Hes praying a prayer of compassion. It changes everything, doesnt it? God is agape. Friends, I know youve done some bad things in your lives, but I dont think youve ever done anything as horrible as killed literally the Son of God. If Jesus could look down on those men from the cross and have agape from them, He has agape for you. Thats the Savior that we worship today. Im going to invite our communion team to come forward and distribute the communion elements right now. What a great message to receive communion for. What a perfect time as were reflecting on this to receive. As the ushers now turn around and come back by you and distribute the elements… The way we receive communion here is we ask you to all wait together. When the tray passes by you, grab on to the cup and the bread and hold on to it. Dont receive it yet because were going to do a couple things together. We also want to say that if youre a visitor or youre new to our church, and youre kind of wondering, Is it okay to receive communion? Will bells and whistles go off because Im a visitor or a guest? If you have made a profession of faith and Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior, you are our brother; you are our sister, and we welcome you to receive the communion with us this morning. If youre here today, and you honestly say, Im not. Im thinking about it, or Im not interested at this time, let this time be a time of reflection and meditation. I invite us all to do that. In a few moments, Ill stop talking. Then there will be some quietness and some nice music that will play. Were just going to reflect back on our week and our day. Were just going to ask the Lord to search our hearts. If the Lord brings anything to our mind, were going to confess it to Him. Then were going to pause and just say thank you. Were going to worship Him and say, Thank you, Lord, for what You did for me. Thank You for Your love and Your grace. It says in Ephesians 2, Because of His great love-because God is rich in mercy and because of His great love, He has extended grace to us in Christ Jesus. Its not because of our goodness, our greatness, or our righteousness. Its only because of His righteousness, His love and His grace that He has made a way for our sins to be forgiven; so for the next few minutes, reflection, prayer, pray privately in your heart to the Lord. Then I will read from the Book of Corinthians 11. Then well receive together, so lets search our hearts now before Him. Father, as we search our hearts this morning, we each ponder the question, What would we say if You were here and face-to-face You asked us the question-You called us by name and You said, Do you agape Me? Would our honest answer be that we eros-that we have a human love, a conditional love? Would it be that-like Peter-we phileo, we have a brotherly love and friendship, a kinship with You? Or, would it in fact be agape? There is nothing that can happen in this life that can stop us from loving You. Its not about us; its about You. If our answer is truly that, then we have to humbly thank You for Your grace is at work within us. Lord, as we have contemplated these virtues, we come to the greatest one of all. That's the virtue of love. To love with an agape, a God kind-of-love, is not a human effort; its not a soul love; its not a body love. Its a love that is from the Spirit, so we ask You to bring us to that level. Help us to love You as Peter loved You before his death. Lord, this morning we reflect upon the cross. We reflect upon the heart of a Savior who-even while You were dying, even as Your life-blood was spilling forth to the earth-it was not about You. Your agape love was there. It was being poured out. There is no way that You could have been a soldier at the foot of the cross or a spectator and not see that or hear that and not be impacted. When we experience agape love, agape love changes us from the inside out. As we have seen Your agape love this morning in Christ, it has changed us, so we worship You and give thanks to You this morning for Your love, Your grace and Your sacrifice through Christ. In Jesus name, we pray, Amen.
This morning well be talking about Brotherly Love. When I was a student at Trinity, we used to try to find different ways to make money and do different jobs in the community. One particular job we had was a painting job. I could still take you to this house on RTE 41 and Clavey. It was a small house made out of little shingles. The roof and all these walls made out of these shingles. There were four of us, and we each had a bucket of stain: dark blue, dark green, dark orange and dark red. We would go around the house, find a shingle and paint it these awful colors. It looked as hideous as it sounds; but it was money, so we took the job. There was a woman there probably in her late 50s and a man probably in his early 30s who had a very unusual relationship. She complained a lot about things, and he yelled at her. She never really acknowledged him. It kind of went like this: shed be complaining about something, and hed look at her and say, Just shut up! Just shut your mouth, Tilley. Shut your mouth! Im tired of hearing you! She would just keep talking. Then he would continue to yell at her and say, Just shut your mouth, lips! Shut your mouth! Shut your pie hole, lips! Im tired of hearing it! She would go on and on, and this went back and forth all day. We were thinking, What kind of dysfunctional relationship is this? Im up painting a landing on a portion of the roof, and the guy climbs up the ladder and says, What do you want from McDonalds? I told him. He was climbing back down, and he looked through the window into the house. Tilley obviously was trying to communicate something to him from in the house. He was going, What? What? Huh? Aw, shut up, lips! He climbed down the ladder and was getting ready to leave. I said, Listen, I have to ask you a question. Can you tell me who Tilley is to you? Are you neighbors? Are you friends? Then he gets this look of shame on his face, and he says, Oh, yeah, thats my mom. I know I dont talk to her right, but if anybody else ever did that, Id get really mad at them. Okay, yeah [I thought to myself]. I got really mad at him, Thats no way to talk to your mom. There was something so unnatural and so wrong about him treating his mother like that because…thats his mom! Theyre family! There is a bond there that should not lend itself to that sort of behavior. Paul talks and Peter writes about brotherly kindness. Its so important because what they are saying is you and I are family. Were brothers and were sisters in Christ; were family. We should treat each other as family. We should honor one another as family. Lets turn in our Bibles to the Book of Romans 12 (page 1123 of pew Bibles). Were going to study a passage this morning that speaks about what brotherly kindness looks like, how it is lived out in the real world. In this passage, Paul tells us what the Christian life should look like, and then he gives us examples of it or defines what he means. For instance, in Verse 9, Paul says, Love must be sincere… or without hypocrisy. What does Paul mean by that? He means this, Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. So a love that is sincere will be characterized by a life that hates what is evil and clings to what is good. Then he goes on and says, Be devoted to one another in brotherly kindness… or Philadelphia. What does it look like to be devoted in love to one another? Hes going to explain that to us in this passage. I want to begin by talking about that word devoted and what that means. Its an interesting word. There are a lot of words in the Greek for love. We simply have love and we use it for everything. I love my child; I love God; I love pizza; I love the Bears; I love the fall. We just use that one word, love. These are things I love. In the Bible, in the Greek, there are all kinds of words for love. Theres agape love, which is unconditional love; there is phileo love, which is brotherly love; theres eros love, which is sensual love; and there is another kind of love expressed here in this word mutual. It is an intimate love that is expressed in the family: husband and wife; parent and child. Its that kind of love that its talking about here. Its an intimate, close love. In essence, what Paul was saying in this passage is, Like it or not, were family. There is a bond in us through Christ. We have the same Father; we have the same Spirit. In fact in the Book of 1 Corinthians 12:12-13 (refer to page 1137 of pew Bibles), Paul says, You and I are one body. Though we are many parts, were one body, and weve all been made to drink from the same Spirit. We all drink from the same Spirit. When I was in Sweden, I spoke at a conference there. After it was done, I had an opportunity to meet my family. I literally met first cousins that I didnt even know existed-total strangers. After we spent the day together, we looked at pictures of relatives. Wed say, I dont know you. I live in America. You live in Sweden, but this woman that were looking at here, thats our grandmother. You have the same picture in your living room that I grew up with in my living room in America. We have the same blood; we have the same DNA. Were family. It wasnt long before my cousin was putting my arm around my shoulder, putting her head on my shoulder, squeezing me and saying, My cousin, in her best English. My cousin. That bond-that affinity-happened because we were family. Paul says, You have the same spiritual DNA; the same Spirit that unites you; the same faith in Jesus; the same Father, and youre family. He says, As a result of that, you should be devoted to one another in love and honor one another above yourselves. You express that devotion through your honor: the way we speak to one another; the way we treat one another should be reflective of how a healthy family would treat one another. There should be a level of respect and honor there. Im kind of dating myself here, but I started attending church in the ‘60s and the ‘70s. The church I grew up in-though I continued on in that church into adulthood and followed that pastor to his next church-[we had] this tradition we kind of got away from, but in the early days of our church, and nod if you did this too-we would speak to one another as brother and sister. Did your church tradition do that back in the day? Anybody else? Nobody else? Okay. This wasnt a cult thing. This was the way churches back in the days-thats the way we talked. Wed walk into church with my step-father and mother, and wed say, Good morning, Brother Dibble. Good morning, Sister Dibble. Theyd say, Well, good morning, Brother Benson. Good morning, Sister Benson. I just thought that was the way all churches and Christians talked. The old-schoolers, when we got into the new church in the new building, when I saw Brother Benson, it was still, Good morning, Brother Benson. We referred to our pastors by Pastor. When I see Pastor Lyon when he came for our dedication, I didnt say, Hey, Don. I said, Hi Pastor, just like when I was a kid. I have little kids coming up to me on Sunday mornings saying, Hey, Jeff! When I was a kid, man, you didnt do that. We just spoke with such respect for one another. I think Paul talks about that in Galatians. He says, If youre not careful of the way you speak to one another, you keep biting at one another, then youre going to devour each other. Youre family, he reminds us in Galatians 5 (refer to page 1154 and 1155 of pew Bibles). Youre the church. So Paul reminds us by saying [in Romans 12:9], Listen, honor one another as family. Be devoted to one another in love. He says, Never lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. One of the things I saw about this video with Mike and the youth group is the contagiousness of what they did. Now with the money being gone, were going to continue it because its not just what it does for the people-the flowers have wilted, and the gas is used up (probably that day)-but what the children will remember from that experience, they will take with them as well as the inner-joy that kindness brings. Have you noticed that when you do something kind or say something kind to your brother and sister in Christ, you can get choked up sometimes? Anybody else get like that? Do you feel goose bumps sometimes? You just get this inner reward because God has wired us that way. God has wired us to reinforce acts of kindness. I had a person come up to me this week, and he said something kind about… I was talking to the owner of Lighthouse, Dean. I said, Thank you for your ministry in our church. Were sorry to hear youre closing your doors. He said something very kind about me and about our church; and as he did that, he got a little choked up. Why is that? God has wired us that way. God reinforces that behavior because thats how He wants us to live. Thats what He wants us to do. When I think of keeping fervor, Im thinking of our missions team. Im reading these emails back and forth as theyre preparing to go to the D.R. Stop by their fundraiser table on the way out too if you get a chance. Theyre selling some elegant farmer pies. Their enthusiasm comes as they plan and as they work hard to raise money for what? Why are they working so hard? Why are they planning so much? Why are they serving to raise money to work hard and serve? Thats what theyre trying to do. Normally if youre in Scouts or a school fundraiser, [youre] working hard to get the prize. Maybe at work youre working hard to get promotion or a raise. Maybe at school, youre working hard to get good grades or a reward that is coming to you. These people are working hard and serving in order to continue to work hard and serve. Whats going to happen when they come home? Are they going to come home to, How was the D.R? It was awful. It was hot. I got blisters. My back hurts; my feet hurt. I got sweaty and dirty. It was just hard work! No, theyre going to come home with enthusiasm and joy because all week long, these inner buttons are going to be pressed. Theyre going to be doing works of kindness and speaking words of kindness to their brothers and sisters in Christ in the D.R. Theyre going to come back, and theyre just going to be even more enthusiastic about what they did because theyre going to feel good about the part they played, about the part our church played in helping their brothers and sisters in the Dominican. Paul says to maintain that enthusiasm; maintain that fervor spirit as you serve one another. In Verse 12 [of Romans 12, page 1123), Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Hes talking about that in the context of loving one another. Hes saying, Look, stand with one another in your afflictions. Rejoice in hope with one another. Remember the promises; remember His presence. Hope in the Bible is different than hope in our everyday vernacular. When you and I say hope, we use it in the context of wishful thinking. Its kind of you crossing your fingers. Baseball season started; I might say, I hope the Cubs can win the World Series this year. I hope its not a winter like last year. I hope the pastors sermon isnt as long and boring as it was last time he preached. These are things you cross your fingers and hope for. I hope when I leave the house in such a hurry, I dont get stuck by a train. I hope. You have no control over that. You have no way of knowing whether its going to happen or not; its just wishful thinking. When the Bible says hope, its not talking about crossing your fingers and hoping for the best. The Biblical hope is a confident expectation that what youre desiring is going to come to pass. When I get stuck by that train, Biblical hope can happen. Biblical hope doesnt wonder whether something is going to happen. It wonders when its going to happen. Thats Biblical hope. I get by the train, and I say, Well, I hope this train ends soon. Im looking off in the horizon, and I dont see the train anymore. Maybe its done. It turns out its just those trailers going by. Then it resumes again. I hope this one is the caboose. I hope it ends soon. Now, do you know the train is going to end? Absolutely. You have a confident expectation that its going to end. Youre just not sure when. You know its going to eventually happen. Thats Biblical hope. Were reminding one another in the context of our family relationships. Remember the hope; remember the promise; remember His presence; remember His power, and we rejoice in what God has said and what God has done. We remind one another of that in the context of these loving relationships. Paul says that should characterize the Christian family. He tells us another example of what it means to be devoted to one another in love. He says [in Romans 12:13], Share with Gods people who are in need. If you are devoted to one another in love, you will share of your resources, your time, your talents and your treasures. I was privileged to know about a situation in our church. We have a brother in our church who has a physical condition that is beyond his control. Its caused his health to deteriorate, and its caused an adverse effect on his finances. As a result, he fell far behind in his mortgage and was going to lose his house. Foreclosure proceedings had begun. Without him asking, his small group that he is a part of went to work. They started to pool their resources together and gather funds together-thousands of dollars, and they saved his house through [generous people in] our church. They said, Here you go. We want you to know God loves you, and we love you. We want you to keep your house. Thats this in action; thats this being lived out. We give to one another. Pastor Sean and Heather Christensen are preparing to leave for Haiti. They said, We have some needs. I said, Whats going on? He said, Well, we have a shortfall. We need a new vehicle. The terrain is very rough, and its very expensive to repair used cars. They really stick it to you, so we need something new with a warranty. I asked, How short are you. Well, were $7,000 short. I said, Were going to get it done, Sean. Just relax. Im going to have Tim make a display for us. Were going to talk to the congregation and receive a love offering. Were going to get it done. It sounds like a lot of money, and it is a lot of money-$7,000! Within about three weeks, we were about $500 from our goal. I emailed Sean and Heather and said, Just count on it. Its going to be done. They were so joyful of your generosity. Thats the church being the church. Its not just in money. Its giving of your time. Its being a listening ear. Its giving of your talents. Its serving one another and looking for opportunity. If you lift the blinders-its so easy in our society and with the way life is right now-its so easy to just be concerned with myself, my situation. If I ask God, Lord, lift the blinders off my eyes. Help me to see the needs around me. Help my ears to be attentive. Help me to know ways that I can demonstrate brotherly kindness. Youd be surprised at the opportunities God sends your way. He will send you so many opportunities that youll have to say, Stop. Thats enough. Thats all I have time for. In the next part of the verse here, Verse 13, it says, Practice hospitality. Now that does not mean inviting friends over to your house. That word literally means to remember strangers, to be hospitable to strangers. Paul is saying here that brotherly kindness has to go outside of our four walls. We should extend to those outside the church as well who are strangers to us. I want to share a story with you on that, and Id like you to turn in your Bibles if you would please to the Book of Hebrews 13 (page 1194). Were going to read Verses 1-2 of Hebrews 13. The author to Hebrews says this: Keep on loving each other as brothers. Whats that word? Whats that verb? Philadelphia. That's what the word is. Keep on loving one another as brothers. Do not forget to entertain strangers. By the way, what we translated of practice hospitality in Romans 12 is the same word as entertain strangers here. Its the exact same verb. Entertain strangers for by doing so, some of you have entertained angels without knowing it. Do you think thats true? Ive heard some weird angel stories in my life. You probably have too. He says, You dont even know whether God is sending you an opportunity [or not or if] God is testing you, because God will test you. This life is a preparation for eternity. Thats why faith is so important. Why is faith so important? Because God is preparing us for the life to come, and He wants us to use faith. The world doesnt understand that. Bill Maher has a new movie out. He doesnt understand why faith is so important. Why do we have to have faith? he asked the question. We have to have faith because faith is preparation. God tests us in this life in preparation for the next. When I was a youth pastor, World Vision started a new ministry called The Plan Famine. The idea was a brand new ministry, and I think weve done this in our church too. You go 30 hours without food, and you get people to sponsor you so much an hour. You gather that money, and then you give that to World Vision, and they use it to feed the poor. Now, thats a great idea, but the greatest benefit is what its going to teach the young people about responsibility and about brotherly kindness and how it can be used to build character in their lives. Thats the lasting benefit of that. So, we gathered at the church on Friday night at about 6 oclock. We did all kinds of activities during the evening. At midnight, I was so cruel, I even showed them a video that had pizza, cheeseburgers and shakes in it. Then during the night, we had activities planned; and then in the morning we woke up and wrapped things up. I cant be sure of the events; this was like 1983 or 1984. I couldnt tell you what we did, but I do remember how it wound up. We were down in our prayer room, and I was preaching on this passage. The Bible is open to Hebrews 13, and Im telling our kids about this verse, about entertaining angels unaware and showing hospitality to strangers. Im teaching on that verse, and there is a knock on the door. I am irritated. Im thinking who in the world [could that be]? We were the only people in the church at the time. It is two or three in the afternoon. We were the only ones here. Whoever that person is, they know that Im preaching. They can hear me outside the door. Why would they interrupt the sermon? So I kept preaching. They knocked again a second time. Excuse me, I say to the youth, Ill be right back. I go answer the door, and a young girl is there named Sue. I say, Sue, Im preaching. You shouldnt knock right now. She said, Pastor Jeff, you really need to come out of there. Somebody needs to talk to you. I said, Ill be done soon, and Ill come out and talk to them. She said, Really, I dont think it can wait. I think you need to come right now. Im wondering what in the world it is that cant wait. I go back to our youth, and I say, Excuse me. Ill be right back. I go upstairs and there is a man there who looks like he has not changed his clothes in days. He looks very dirty, unshaven, unkempt, and he says, Im really sorry to bother you. Im out of work, and Im on my way to a town down south. I have not eaten food in three days. Is there anything your church can do to help me? Im very hungry. I cant believe it. I go downstairs to our youth group, and I say, Listen, there is a man here who has not eaten in three days. I want you to know this is not a setup, kids. I didnt plan this out, but he needs food. Now what are the odds? Think about that. As far as I know that has never happened in the history of that church before, and it never happened since. We had been in the church building almost 24 hours. The moment this homeless man comes, this hungry man comes to our church, is the exact moment I am teaching on this on this text. What are the odds of that? You do the math. Its not very good. This is divine intervention, friends. God is saying, Listen, you want opportunities to put Me to the test? You want opportunities to show brotherly kindness? Ill bring you one. So while Im teaching about entertaining angels unaware when strangers come to your door, this man knocks and says, Can you give me food? Its been three days. So our kids go upstairs; they make this guy the best meal they could find in that kitchen: a sandwich, fruit, juice boxes, and they were just loading this guy up. He had a big old knapsack. [He left and ] walked down the highway, HWY 2, walking south. We all step outside the building watching him. We were kind of expecting him to disappear like in Touched by an Angel. Hes was going to walk, and pretty soon he was just going to be gone (congregation laughing). I look back and it was amazing when it happened; and when I look back over the years, I just say, Did that really happen? It did; it really happened. Friends, if you say to the Lord, Lord, I need to grow in brotherly love. I need to grow in brotherly kindness, thats a dangerous prayer. Hes going to tap you on the shoulder. Hes going to bring opportunities along your way. God expects you to act upon them, to do something to make a difference in the life of a brother or sister. We are very gifted in our church to have some talented people who are gifted in different areas. One of them is multi-media. There is a song called The Twenty-First Time which speaks about that very thing. I want you to listen to the words of this song, and then Ill come up and tell you something that we can do tangibly. Lets watch. (To listen and read the lyrics, click here and scroll down: http://www.jesusfreakhideout.com/cdreviews/TheTwenty-FirstTime.asp). All right, lets pray together. Father, thank You for what Youve challenged us to do through Your Word this morning. Lord, we have seen brotherly kindness lived out in the words of the Apostle Paul, and weve seen what it looks like. We see it lived out in our church, and, Lord, I pray that it be lived out in each individuals life. We pray now this dangerous prayer-that You would help us to see how we can demonstrate brotherly kindness and love to our church family and to our world. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
Lets open our Bibles up to 2 Peter 1 (page 1204 of pew Bibles). After five weeks of teaching it, youd think Id know what chapter were on by now. This series is called Virtuous Reality, and our virtue this morning is Self-Control. Its found in Verse 6. He says, …and add to your knowledge, self-control… [Verse 5], For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to your goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control… Now weve been trying to define these words. Its pretty important to define what they are. One of the best ways to remember what self-control means in the Greek is to think of a phrase that you and I often use. When we say to somebody, Get a grip! Get a grip on yourself, thats what the definition is. It means to get a grip on yourself-literally, to bring something under control; under management; to get a handle on something. Everybody has areas in their lives where they struggle with self-control. You might struggle with laziness or messiness, your diet, your exercise program or lack thereof. You might struggle with your temper; you might struggle with greed or lust or coveting. You might struggle with gossip. The list of things that we struggle in goes on. Sometimes well be doing well for a period of time, and then well have relapses; and then well feel bad that we thought we were on the right path. We thought wed changed, and here we are back at square one all over again. One of the things I think that all of us struggle with from time to time is when were in our car. I dont know about you, but when Im in my car sometimes, I can lose my religion-as the saying goes. Its never to the point of road rage…but close. If somebody cuts you off or somebody runs a light or the traffic lights-the fact that theyre not synchronized-[you might think] somebody is deliberately trying to unsynchronize the lights. Theres a gremlin that comes in and makes it so theyre not synchronized. One of my pet peeves is the train. It seems like theres never a good time to run into a train-well, literally, but-figuratively, youre always on a mission. You hit the train, and you think, Oh, why do they have to have these things during the day? They should outlaw them. Well, this week, I was double-trained. Have you ever been double-trained? I never had been double-trained. I came on HWY 14-I live off HWY 14, so Im on 14 a lot. Just past the jail, there is a set of railroad tracks. I got caught by that train. I was a little annoyed and irritated because it was making me late. Finally, I take off for freedom, and I get by K & W, and I got hit by the second train; so I was double-trained. That one decided to stop on the tracks just so I could admire its cargo. It just sat there for the longest time. I just thought about the message for this weekend. I thought, Well, there are things you can control, and there are things you cant control. I cant control the fact that I left the house as two trains were coming, crossing the street I was driving on. I can control my response to those trains. Am I just going to sit here and seethe, be angry, irritated and cranky? Or, can I use this time for something productive? So I made a choice to get out my cell phone and make some phone calls. Who do I need to talk to? What are my messages? What am I forgetting? I spent the time very productively and rather calmly as I waited for the train to pass. There is a saying by Martin Luther. He says, You cant stop the birds from flying over your head, but you can stop them from making a nest in your hair. You can say a mess in your hair too. We cannot stop temptation. We cant stop wrong desires from crossing our minds, but we can do something about how we respond to those temptations when those buttons are pushed. What can we do? Struggling with temptation and the will is as old as the beginning of man. Think about Adam and Eve and their struggle in the Garden for the fruit. Dont eat from the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. That didnt work out so well, right? I think about Cain and Abel, and they had a little bit of sibling rivalry there. Cain especially had resentment toward Abel because Abels offering was received, but Cains offering was not; so he started to plot in his mind some revenge-ways he was going to get even. God knew this, so God confronted Cain about the temptation-about his need for control to not enact revenge against his brother. Lets turn there to the Book of Genesis 4 (page 4 of pew Bibles). I think one of the things we need to do if were to resist temptation is to see sin for what it is and what its intention is. I think this passage helps us to see that. In of Genesis 4:6, God says to Cain, ‘Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it. So we get this word picture of sin like some sort of beast crouching at the door, waiting because its desire is you. Now we should talk about that word desire. When I looked up that word, I saw that it had two meanings. One was a craving of a man for a woman; it had to do with sexuality. The second meaning of the word was a craving of a beast to devour its prey. So the meaning of that word desire depends on the context. Based on the context, what is the meaning of desire? Its of a beast wanting to devour its prey. So God is telling us here that sins intent is to destroy. Sins intent is to devour. Sins intent is to kill, and thats what the Bible says: sin leads to death, so we should not be surprised by that. The problem is that you and I-if were not careful-begin to be at home with sin. If were not careful, we can actually start to welcome it in our lives and become accustomed to its presence. Weve talked a lot about the role of the Holy Spirit in these virtues when it comes to moral excellence, when it comes to knowledge and understanding the Word of God; so it should be no surprise again that we talk about the role of the Spirit in regards to self-control. So in the Book of Galatians 5, Id like to examine what Paul says about the part the Spirit plays as you and I struggle to resist sin-as we have this inner conflict-this inner battle that we go through. Paul says in Verse 16 (page 1155), So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. It doesnt say that God will take the sinful nature away-not at all. He simply says that we will not gratify them if we are living by the Spirit for the flesh the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. So, weve all experienced that conflict. Well experience that conflict today; well experience that conflict tomorrow. It is a part of the human nature, of the sin nature, that you and I struggle with. So he talks about that, and he further talks about the results of that. [Verse 19], The acts of the sinful nature are obvious; sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies and the like. In other words, this is not an exhaustive list. Ive given you a representative sample here. I think you get the picture, Paul is saying. [Verse 21], …I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the Kingdom of God. Well, youve found yourself on that list; I guarantee it. Youve found yourself in several different places. Youre probably a little bit alarmed at the company youre keeping here. It talks about anger; it talks about jealousy; it talks about hatred; it talks about factions and envy. You go, Boy, thats me. Why do you have to put me in a crowd with witchcraft, orgies and all of that? The core of sin is rebellion against God, so Paul puts them in the same list. The second thing you think of is Paul said they shall not inherit the Kingdom of God, and you say, Oh no, Im in trouble because Im guilty of checking off many of these on the list. Well, theres a real important point that you need to understand. That is when Paul says in Verse 21, Those who live like this… That means to habitually practice something. This becomes norm for them. This is their lifestyle. Theyre not struggling with sin and feeling bad when they fall; they basically accepted that as an acceptable lifestyle. It becomes the norm rather than the acceptation. Paul is not saying, Look, if you do these things, you are going to spend a Christ-less eternity. The only thing that causes us to spend a Christ-less eternity is when we refuse to be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ. Paul says a life that is not reconciled to God will manifest these tendencies, these behavior patterns, so he tells us what sin is. Sin causes separation from God. Sin is not something we should take lightly; sin is not something we should coddle and be comfortable with in our life. See sin for what it is: its desire. Its like a beast to devour. Its like a cancer that eats from the inside out. It grows; and it spreads; it causes corruption, and it causes destruction. Were going to watch a media right now which is kind of a humorous way to illustrate the point of how you and I can sometimes get comfortable with sin in our lives. (This is a clip from the movie End of the Spear). Im not hungry anymore [after viewing that clip]. Notice he goes from saying, This is nasty to This is good. Theres an old saying when you drink something or eat something that you dont like, but you keep drinking or eating it: an acquired taste. What was once repulsive becomes something good. Thats what sin will do. [Imagine] the person who is overseeing funds of some sort, and they get desperate for the dollar; so they take from that and feel guilty. However, they continue to take when they continue to face hardship. The next thing you know, it doesnt feel so bad. The next thing you know, theyre really enjoying the lifestyle that they have because of these extra funds that are coming into their life. Theyre no longer feeling guilty about robbing from the till. Its a man or a woman-maybe he or she is single or divorced or having marriage problems. They find a man or a woman theyre attracted to; they become intimate, and they feel bad. They do it again; they feel bad. Maybe as they continue on, they dont feel so bad anymore. Theyre enjoying that elicit relationship. You can go on with examples, but you understand what were talking about. We can become callous toward sin and become accepting of it in our lives. When the Holy Spirit is working in our lives, we come to see it for what it is; and we become repulsed by it. We say, I dont want that in my life. How do I get rid of this in my life? God says there is a better way. In Genesis, when God says to Cain, You must master it, hes talking there about his willpower. The Holy Spirit did not come as He has now, so Cain is pretty much on his own to resist this temptation for revenge. He doesnt fare so well. We live in a better day. We have the Holy Spirit who is promised to the Believer to come and indwell us and empower us to live an upright life. Lets look at what Paul says as we continue on in this text because there is going to be a change. Hes been talking about the horrendous consequences of sin. Now hes going to talk about the fruit of the Spirit. He says [in Galatians 5:22, page 1155], But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Thats the one were on. Against such things there is no law. Lets just leave self-control for one moment and talk about the fruit of the Holy Spirit. One of the most common things or misconceptions or wrong interpretations you and I hear of Scripture a lot is when people talk about the fruits of the Spirit. Theyll say, Well, there are nine fruits of the Spirit. No, there is not. How many fruits of the Spirit are there? One. There is one fruit of the Spirit. Some of you are looking at me cross-eyed. Look at your Bible. How many is that? Is there an S after that word? This is the only passage that talks about this. Paul says, But the fruit, singular, of the Spirit is. There is one fruit of the Spirit, and it has these nine different manifestations or characteristics. Tomorrow I have an important date to keep. I have been asked by Red Robin to be a judge of their burger contest for their cooks. How in the world Red Robin thought of me, that I would want to eat their burgers and judge them, is beyond me. I guess thats one of the mysteries when we get to Heaven that we will find out about how they asked me. Ive been studying my judge criteria. Dont laugh! They award ten points just for the wrapping. You know that thing I rip off to get to the burger? There are like ten points in how you wrap that, so Im going to be more careful with it from now on. You judge it on the patty-how is it cooked? How is it centered on the bun? You judge the bun-is the bun broken? Is the cheese melted right on it? Is it angled correctly? How are the condiments? Are they placed on there the right way? Is it centered in the basked as it should be? You have all these criteria, and they talk about the different characteristics of a hamburger. Now when I judge that burger, I have one burger. It has many different characteristics, but I have a single burger. You have an apple. That apple has many characteristics. You can say, Well, its red. Its soft. Its hard. Its sweet. Its sour. Its juicy. Hard, soft, whatever the characteristics that apple has, youre not talking about multiple apples. Youre talking about one apple. So the fruit of the Spirit has manifested itself through these characteristics. Now heres why this is important. There is the fruit of the Holy Spirit, and there are the gifts of the Holy Spirit-plural. The Holy Spirit gives different gifts to His church. So all of us, it says, have a gift-first of all. Second of all, none of us have all the gifts. So we have a combination of gifts. We have some primary gifts, some dominant gifts and some more secondary gifts; but you and I all have gift-mix that the Holy Spirit gives to us. Some of you are servers; you love to serve and help people. Some of you are teachers; some of you are administrative; some of you have the gift of help; some have the gift of leadership or administration. We try to put the right people in the right places. We have GPS; we try to find your giftedness and plug you into the right area. If you dont do that, you have a person in administration, and they say, Look, Im not very administrative. Then we need to say, Oh, okay. Youre not administrative. You shouldnt be in administration. If we have somebody in a teaching role who is not a teacher, thats not going to edify. We need to pull them back and say, We need to find something else for you. Youre not a teacher. We only have certain gifts. We cant say that with the fruit of the Spirit. You cant lay into somebody with your tongue and say evil, bad things about him or her and say, Well, I just dont have the fruit of gentleness. No, you do! You cant blow your gasket and start throwing things and hitting people and say, Well, I just dont have the gift of self-control. Yes, you do! If the Holy Spirit is residing in you, then all these manifestations of the fruit of the Spirit should be present in your life. Every believer should have each manifestation in their lives, so thats why thats important. Now lets get back to the subject matter. We talked about no fruit and good fruit; I do think its possible to have fruit thats not so good. I do think as believers, we can have fruit; but that fruit is not as tasty-not as desirable-as it should be. I think sin causes that. Our family went with another family to an apple orchard in the area. Its a trip we make every year. Its a good orchard with good apples. This year was different. Every tree we went to, the fruit was small. It had bumps on it; it was deformed. It didnt taste right. It didnt look good. We thought maybe they were be more ripe up above on the hill, so we went up on the hill. It was the same deal. [We thought] maybe we were in the wrong region; maybe we needed to go over here, so we went all around that orchard. There was bad fruit everywhere; deformed fruit everywhere; bumps and bruises everywhere. We brought our basket back to the clerk empty-not one apple. Wed bit the apple; it didnt taste as good, so I said, Listen, what happened to your apples this year? She said, Oh, we had a hail storm here. The hail storm hit the apples at a very important time in their formation. All those little dings and bruises-those arent worms. Thats where the hail struck the apples, and it impeded its growth; but they still taste good. I wanted to say, Actually, they dont. They dont taste good. I think thats what sin does. Sin damages us. It sells us short; it robs from you. Your fruit might be there, but may not be as ripe as it should be, as appetizing as it should be or as mature as it should be. So Paul says, Dont be a friend to sin. Look at the destruction, the havoc that it can bring. Instead, you learn to walk by the Spirit. He is going to reiterate that. In Verse 24, he says, Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Now he says that a second and third time. Anytime you see a passage emphasize something two and three times, the author is saying, This is really important. We need to understand what it means to live by the Spirit. Paul says, I really want you to get that. So lets talk about that. What does it mean to live by the Spirit? We saw a bad example of it in Cain with what its like to live by the flesh and use only our willpower to try to overcome temptation. Lets see what it looks like when the Spirit is in control; lets look at a positive example. Lets look at the life of Christ in Luke 4 as He is undergoing temptation in the wilderness. If we want to learn how to be self-controlled, we should look at the master of self-control-the One who was tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Verse 1 of Luke 4 (page 1017 of pew Bibles) says, Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert. So who led the Lord to the dessert? The Holy Spirit did. Were naïve to think that because the Holy Spirit is present in our lives were not going to undergo temptation-desert, wilderness experiences-because we will. So He leads Him there where for forty days He was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them He was hungry. Jesus is fully God, but Hes also fully man. When He is tired, He needs to sleep; when He is thirsty, He needs a drink; and when Hes hungry, He needs to eat. You and I have probably not gone a week in our lives without food. Most of us have never gone a day without food. I cant imagine what He is experiencing as systems kind of begin to shut down. Youre in a desert; its hot, and your mind begins to hallucinate a little bit and plays tricks on you. He sees a stone there; and the stone, really if you look at it, its white and its round. Its about this big. It kind of looks like a loaf of bread, and He starts to think about that. He starts to think, Wow. I remember the bread that my mother would make for Me. I can just smell that bread. Wouldnt it be wonderful if that stone were bread, and I could eat and satisfy my hunger? Its there that Satan comes on, and hes going to use that desire because Satan uses our desires. Hes not going to temp you with something thats undesirable. Hes not going to wake you in the middle of the night and tempt you to go in the kitchen. You wake up all groggy, Walk into the kitchen. Open the kitchen drawer. Pull out a knife. Cut off your finger. Oh, I really want to but… No, hes not going to tempt you to do something like that. He is going to use natural inclinations and desires. Jesus is hungry, and hes going to use that hunger as a vehicle to tempt. The first thing hes going to do is what he always does: get Jesus to question what He knows. That's the method of operation hes always used: Adam and Eve-did God really say, Will you really die? He puts those doubts in our mind, and he says to Jesus, If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread. Give in. Jesus responded, ‘It is written: Man does not live on bread alone. Whats so bad about that? you might say. Why would that be so harmful if Jesus would just turn the stone into bread? After all, Willie Nelson sang the song about it in ‘We Are the World. As God has shown us, by turning stone to bread… God did not do that. It was actually the opposite: He did not turn stone to bread because that would be taking a shortcut. If He turned stone to bread, then you truly cant say He was tempted in all things as we are yet without sin. The truth of the matter is He could have cheated. Instead of trusting the Father to provide food for Him to live, He could have bypassed that and took matters into His own hands. He wouldnt have waited on God and showed a lack of faith and trust. Its the example of the person dipping into the till that we talked about. Im going to bypass. Im not going to trust God to meet My needs, so Im going to rob this organization. Its a person who is single or in a troubled marriage and says, Well, Im not going to wait on God either to bring healing to my marriage or bring a mate. Im just going to bypass all of that and have this affair. Im going to take the shortcut. Again, you could use a number of examples in that area. Im not going to do the hard work. Im not going to trust. Im just going to bypass. So what we see here is Jesus response to temptation. Its not just saying no to sin; its saying yes to God, and thats important. Being in self-control, really-ironically, is a matter of Spirit control. We say self-control in the Bible; its not just your willpower. It is the Spirits power. Its not just self-control. It is Spirit control. It is you yielding to the Spirit; its you saying yes to God. Thats what Jesus did. He said, Im going to trust My Father to meet my needs. Im not going to bypass. Im not going to take a shortcut. Im going to trust and rest in Gods provision. Thats what God has called you and me to do. We talked about how you dont want to estimate the power of sin in your life; neither do you want to underestimate the power of God in your life. We say the Holy Spirit is working in us and through us. That's no small thing. What does the Bible say in the Book of Romans 8:11, if youd turn there as we close? In Romans 8:11 (page 1118), Paul is dealing with the church in Rome, and he says to them, And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit, who lives in you. The Spirit that raised Christ from the dead: is there power in that? When you think of the lifeless corpse of Jesus lying on that stone in the tomb, there is dried blood mixed with spices, crucified, buried for three days-do you think about that lifeless pale corpse all of the sudden being energized and brought back to life and strength by the power of the Holy Spirit? It says the same Spirit which raised Christ from the dead dwells in you. You have not been freed from the presence of sin, but you have been freed from the power and the penalty of sin. You have life a whole lot better than Cain had it. Its not just your willpower. Right now, for sure, if you sin, its because that was your choice; because I guarantee you that if you had yielded to the Lord, if you would have responded to that sin by not only saying no to sin but saying yes to God, you would have overcome that temptation. We all know that were going to fail in certain areas, but failure becomes the exception rather than the norm when the fruit of the Spirit is active in our lives and were growing in the virtue of self-control as we surrender that to Him, yield that to Him and allow His Spirit to work in us and through us. Father, we come before You today, and we ask for Your forgiveness for our sins. There have been times where we have lost control, the times that weve acted upon those impulses, those urges, those desires. We very much let our flesh control our lives. Weve tried to use willpower, and it hasnt worked. We want to surrender to the control of the Spirit today. We pray that Your Spirit work in us and through us, and we will grow in the virtue of self-control, learning not only to say no to sin but say yes to You and Your will. We want our lives to bear good fruit, mature fruit that is good to the taste and pleasing to the eye. Father, we remember the sacrifice of Your Son. We remember the body that was broken and the blood that was shed for the remission of our sins, and we worship You. We give You thanks. In Jesus name, Amen.
Lets open our Bibles up this morning to 2 Peter 1 (page 1204 of pew Bibles). This is the fourth week of the series weve been on called Virtuous Reality. This morning, were talking about knowledge. Its our third book of virtues that well be discussing today. Remember back in the day when you would get the knock on the door, and it would be the encyclopedia salesman? Im dating myself here, but we really dont see encyclopedia salesmen too often [anymore], do we? This encyclopedia salesman was trying his best to get this family to buy a set of encyclopedias. No matter how hard he tried to sell them, the father was not interested. He said, I dont need those. Oh, but you do. It has everything you need, A to Z. There is so much information packed in here. This is the best. No, really I dont need the encyclopedia. But you dont understand. When the kids have projects, the kids have reports to do, or you need information about a vacation destination youre going to or whatever… He was thinking off all kinds of uses for the encyclopedia, but to no avail. Everything he said, the man responded back simply by saying, We dont need those encyclopedias. Finally in exasperation, the salesman said, Why? Why dont you need this set of encyclopedias? Im offering you a great deal here. Finally, the man said, Well, I dont need those encyclopedias because I have a set of teenagers, and they know everything. You might have some of those at your home right now. The truth of the matter is none of us know everything. We are always learning and always growing on this spiritual walk, this spiritual journey. So Peter tells us that knowledge is the key to this completeness, to this wholeness in Christ that we desire. Were going to start reading with Verse 2 of this passage that weve read and read and read. You almost have it memorized by now, Im sure. Ive not talked a whole lot about Verse 2. We usually just read it and scan over it. Today, I want to talk a little bit more about it because of the subject matter. Ive been kind of saving it until this week. Verse 2 says, Grace and peace be yours in abundance... How many of you would like more grace and more peace in your life? About half of you. The other half has all the grace and peace you possibly can need. What a group! Wow! Grace and peace be yours in abundance, how? …through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. So grace and peace grow in our lives; [they] are ours in abundance through our knowledge. That word, that preposition in can mean through; it can mean by; it can mean with. You can insert any of those prepositions in there, and it wont change the meaning. Grace and peace come by or through or in our knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. Now is he teaching here that all you and I have to do is stuff our heads with information and facts? Is that what hes teaching? If you just amass this volume of information, this knowledge, that somehow thats going to multiply grace and peace… Well, I dont think thats true. I think there are a lot of people that have a lot of knowledge that are still very miserable inside and still lack grace and peace. Its interesting when you study this that this word in Verses 2 and 3 for knowledge is different than the word for knowledge in 5. When we look down to Verse 5, we see the word knowledge, it looks exactly the same in our Bibles; but in the Greek, there was a nuance there that we dont have in our English. It adds the word epi in front of the word knowledge. Epi means to move toward something. So Peter is not teaching here that you just need to amass knowledge, but it is a knowledge that moves toward [something]. In other words, what Peter is saying is, The more you know Jesus, the more you will experience grace and peace. Thats what hes saying here. As you draw nearer to the Lord, as you learn about Him, youre drawn toward Him; in the process of drawing toward Him-drawing near Him, you will experience more grace and peace in your lives. Verse 5 says, For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness… Thats moral excellence. …and to your moral excellence, knowledge. Thats the normal word for knowledge. Of course, the implication is that it is knowledge of spiritual things: knowledge of God and His Word that Peter is addressing here. Just like last week, we talked about moral excellence. That does not happen through your willpower. It is a partnership. Remember we talked about partaker of the divine nature and what that meant? It meant you are a partner with God. You are a sharer of the divine nature-not that you are in any way divine, but God is wanting to partner in you to bring about His will and purpose in your life. You work on your salvation; He works in and through His Spirit and through His Word. So as it is true in the area of our moral excellence or goodness, it is also true in the area of knowledge that we need to partner with the Holy Spirit. Its not just about your human mind trying to wrap itself around these great theological concepts and truths; it is about the Holy Spirit illuminating and disclosing His truth to us. Please turn to the Book of John 16. John 16 is a part of a discourse in which Jesus is imparting to His Disciples important truths about the working of the Spirit and about the fact that He is going to be leaving soon. He says in Verse 12 (page 1069 of pew Bibles), I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. In other words, You dont know everything about Me, the Gospel or the Kingdom that youre going to learn; but you know enough for right now. As you grow and as you mature, I will impart more to you. Our dancers this morning did not start off in the first lesson standing on their toes like they did this morning. They started with basic fundamental movements in ballet that probably even you and I could do. Then they became increasingly more difficult as they learned. Our musicians didnt start off playing guitar, drums or keyboards like that. They started off with very fundamental scales and grew more complicated-harder-as they learned. So it is with revelation God revealed Himself progressively: through His Word, through the Prophets, through Jesus and through the Apostles. So He says in Verse 13 that …when He, the Spirit of truth… Thats the Holy Spirit. …comes, He will guide you into all truth. So the Holy Spirit will be a guide; the Holy Spirit will be a teacher guiding you into truth. …He will not speak on His own; He will speak only what He hears, and He will tell you what is yet to come. So, theyll be a prophetic element to this Holy Spirits teaching. He will bring glory to Me from taking what is Mine and making it known to you. Knowledge, again the Holy Spirit will impart knowledge. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is Mine and make it known to you. Reveal it to you. Now, this Scripture is true for you and me in the general sense. The Holy Spirit is still teaching us, guiding us, in the truth. However, this passage is true in a specific sense to the Apostles. I believe Jesus here is speaking of what is to come. He is speaking of the revelation that they would hear from the Holy Spirit and write down for us this Word of truth that we call the Bible, the new covenant. Jesus was speaking that day to the Apostles and Matthew, John and Peter. He said the Holy Spirit is going to speak to you. This word speak wasnt just an interleading or impression; it meant to communicate in a way that was unmistakable-a clear form of communication. We know that the Holy Spirit communicated to these men the truth about the Lord Jesus Christ, and they wrote it down for us; and thats what we study. The words that were given by the Holy Spirit to the Apostles and written down for us-that is the truth that Jesus said He would reveal about Himself to them and impart to them. So we need the Spirits help to understand the words of the Spirit as we study them. Paul talks about that in the Book of 2 Timothy-if youd turn to 2 Timothy 15. [This is] a well-known verse of Scripture that were going to spend some time on this morning. This is page 1179 if youre looking in your church Bible, or you can read it on the wall there. It says, Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the Word of truth. The first thing I want to draw your attention to is the phrase do your best. Some translate it as be diligent. The New American translates it as to be diligent. It means to make haste or to exhort an effort. In other words, God is not simply just going to dump knowledge into your head while you sleep. You have a part to play. You have to put yourself in a place to hear or to read. You have to be listening. You have to be humble and teachable. You have to work, grapple and wrestle with these truths because sometimes truths are difficult to understand; so I have to study, meditate, and reflect on and work through these principles. He says, You and I are going to be diligent. Were to have that desire in our spirits. Socrates, the famous philosopher, was said to have had a student come up to him. The student said, Oh Master Socrates, if I could just have your wisdom. If I could just have your knowledge… Socrates says, Come with me. He took him into a body of water. He did something very unusual. He dunked the young man in the water. He held him down until the man would have had a difficult time not taking a breath, and then he lifted him back up. He said, What is it you seek? The young man said, I seek knowledge. Down again he went. He held him down a little longer this time. He pulled him up a second time, and he said, What is it you seek, young man? Wisdom! I want to be wise like you… Down again, he went a third time into the water. He had to be processing this thinking, Boy, Im not coming up with the right answer. I thought he wanted me to say wisdom or knowledge, but Im still under the water. Other students are looking in thinking maybe Socrates is going to drown this young man. He finally pulls him up. Hes grasping for air, and he says, What is it you want, young man? He said, Air! I want to breathe! I want air! He was gasping, and Socrates said, Young man, when you desire as you desire your next breath, you shall find it. I dont know if that really happened or not, but its a good story, right? It tells us the importance of desiring knowledge, desiring truth. Is that you? I think the fact that youre here this morning wanting to study the Word of God is a good indication, but what do we do beyond that? I was so thrilled to see between our youth, our college and our adults approaching 100 people in Real Zeal, the one-on-one mentoring ministry that has begun. Thats an exciting thing to me to see that take place. I was, then on the other hand, disappointed when our Theology for Dummies class-which starts at 11 oclock-the enrollment was not what it needs to be for that class. Maybe youre offended because somebody is going to think youre dumb, I aint no dummy! But its basic theology; its not for dummies, really. Its just a play on the book, Computers for Dummies. It is an important theology class. Are you taking advantage of the opportunities that the church has to increase your knowledge? Parents, let me talk to you for a second. Our daughter is engaged in a lot of activities right now. She does ballet, Dance Attitudes-like these girls did on stage here. Shes there year-round. She takes piano every week; shes classically trained on the piano. She studies that, and shes involved in sports at her school. So she is a very busy young lady, but there is no higher priority than we have as parents than to get her here on Wednesday nights for F.R.O.G. Club. Thats her time of discipleship. Thats her time when she memorizes the Word of God, when shes trained in the Word of God to increase her knowledge of the Word of God. If anything was to go from that list, sports or dance or piano, they would all go before we would get rid of that Wednesday night commitment to F.R.O.G. Club. As parents, we have to make those decisions. Whats going to come first in our childs life? Making a priority of the knowledge of Gods Word is imperative. He says in Verse 15, …present yourself to God as one approved… I want to talk about that word approved for a moment. It was most often used in coinage. Their currency was a lot different than ours. They didnt have the banking system. They had a whole different financial economy than we have, which was probably a good thing for them. They didnt have dollars; they had metal-different metals. It was not just the metal that the coin was made from; it was also the weight of the coin that determined the value. There were these people called the money changers who were a dangerous group. The coins were a little bit softer and more pliable than our coins. One of the things they would do was actually shave off some metal to make it lighter when they would exchange money. Youd give them your money, and you would think you were getting back an equal amount of money, but you werent because theyd literally shave the coins. You were not getting what that amount of coin should normally be because it was shaved. Those who refused to practice that were called The Approved. They wouldnt take any shortcuts. They wouldnt compromise. They were people of integrity. They had values. Hes saying here that you and I are not to compromise when it comes to our study of being a student of the work of God. We are to put forth effort to show ourselves approved. Pastor Tim, to me, is a poster boy for this. I think about the fact that when Pastor Tim worked for Patch Products, he was doing artwork for places like Wal-Mart, Target, and McDonalds who would contract Patch to design their materials. He was learning how to do things like this banner that were using today. While he was doing that, he was in school studying for the ministry for years, diligently taking class after class to earn his degree. While he was in school earning his degree, he was ministering and leading our mens ministry here at the church, Brother to Brother. He was taking what he learned at school and applying it to ministry as he went on, but he was making knowledge of Gods Word a priority in his life. That's the next part of this verse. It says, A workman who does not need to be ashamed… A workman or a laborer. God says Hes not just about stuffing our head with knowledge for the sake of having knowledge so you can impress your friends with Bible trivia, so you can get puffed up and impress people with your knowledge of the Word of God. Thats not the purpose. The purpose is that it goes from your head to your heart; and from your heart to your mouth; and from your heart to your hands and feet; and you become a laborer. One of the reasons we have the mentoring ministry that weve started is that we dont want those people who are mentors to then after the end of this year say, Okay, Ive done that mentoring thing. Im done with that now for the rest of my life. Were hoping that group will take another group and mentor them. It doesnt have to just be people within our church. You can mentor somebody outside of our church. Were just interested in building the Kingdom-not just Faith Community. Those who are mentored-[we hope] they will not just say, Thanks! Okay, I have more knowledge. Ive been mentored. See you later. [We hope] the following year, they can become mentors. They can begin investing in other peoples lives as well; so that group of near 100 people doesnt just fade into the sunset, but they find another group they can mentor and invest in. God doesnt want us to just accumulate. Paul says, These things entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. Dennis Babish is one of our teachers here at the church. He invested much of his time in recent years into the theology program through the Centurion ministry. He didnt just amass knowledge and say, Okay, I have a bunch of knowledge. He is teaching classes here at Faith. I would encourage you to check that theology class out, to start looking and say, What are the opportunities to increase my knowledge? Maybe some of you want to consider going back to school and studying the Bible. Even if you dont want to go into ministry full-time, its a worthy thing to do. Janet Bales is back in college studying the Bible. Jesse Thompson, our minister to college, is working on his masters degree. Im always taking some. Our trustees are gracious enough to send me to class, so Im taking classes year-round, always, because theres so much to learn. There are so many ways we can grow in our knowledge of the Word of God. He wants us to be workmen. Why is that so important? He says in the remaining of that verse, …who correctly handles the Word of truth. God wants you to be able to correctly handle His Word. When you can correctly handle His Word, it forms a Biblical-role view. As you process the events of your world, you can align them with Gods Word and make right decisions. Your decisions should not be based on what an author says, what a talking head on TV says or what a politician says. Your views should be formed by what Gods Word has said. Form a Biblical-role view, so you can guard yourself against air-both air from within and air from without. Paul made it very clear that there would be air within the church. There would be people who would succumb to aberrant doctrines and even heresy, false teaching within the church. There are churches out there, for instance, that say, Dont question me. A teacher or leader might say, Never question what I say. You know what thats called? A cult. If somebody is up there saying, Dont question anything I say, thats a cult. The Bible says that when Paul spoke to the Bereans, they called them noble-minded. Why? Because they went back to the Word of God to determine whether what Paul said was true [or not]. Right away when somebody says, This is the only way to God. Listen to what I say. This is the only church that has it right. Im the only person who has it right, a flag should go off. There was a church near Rockford where I lived. The pastor taught if you believed, followed that church and followed that pastor, you would never die. [You would] physically, literally never die. I ran into somebody from that church when I was having lunch in Rockford years ago. I said, How is that pastor doing? He said, Oh, shes dead. That theology didnt work out so well. How do these cults come about? Its because people are careless and dont investigate truth and align it with the Word of God. God wants us to be discerning. Then there are attacks from without too. There is a deceiver in the world, and he is spreading lies and half-truths. God wants us to guide and be careful. It says in the Book of Colossians 2:8 (page 1166 of pew Bibles), See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of the world rather than on Christ. There are lies out there. There are distortions and perversions. When you know the truth, youre not going to succumb to those lies and perversions. One of the most prominent examples I can think of in recent times is the rise of Gnosticism. It is a first, second and third century heresy that the church-much of the New Testament writings-exists to counteract and fight that heresy of Gnosticism. There was a book out, a best seller book, called The Da Vinci Code and a subsequent movie that was made by Ron Howard. It starred Tom Hanks. They told a lot of lies, perversions and distortions about the Church and about the Bible. I could elaborate on this for quite a while, but Ill take just a couple from that movie. This is a very prevalent point of view. There is a push in the world, a deception, thats trying to teach that Jesus never claimed to be God. There was a struggle within the church for the deity of Christ. There were those in the church who believed Christ was a man, and there were those who believed He was God; and there was this struggle. Those who believed He was God won, and they did away with the books of the Bible, the Gospels that talked about the humanity of Christ. In the book, the professor says that there was this struggle. The books that talk about the humanity of Christ were removed, and the Gospels that talk about the deity of Christ were kept. What a lie! They were presenting that as fact, but thats a lie. In the Gnostic gospels that were removed, Jesus is a God who creates the world; but Hes incapable of pain. He is not really a man; Hes not fully a man. Hes really still a God, so thats a heresy. It is only in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John that Jesus cries; that He feels pain; that He struggles with temptation; that He is sleepy; that He is hungry. It is the Gospels that we have that preserve the humanity of Jesus. The Gospels where He was not human or rejected by the church-they are second and third century writings called Gnostic Gospels-pseudopigrafa that has the names of people who didnt write the books. It told in that movie that Mary Magdalene is the wife of Jesus. That was something that as soon as I heard that, I just could not believe what I was hearing. Ive had conversations with people who believe it because it says that in the Da Vinci Code. What is the evidence that Mary Magdalene was the wife of Christ? Zero, nada, zilch. There is one manuscript from the Gospel of Philip-again a Gnostic gospel written in the second and third centuries. There was one extant copy or one existing copy of that manuscript. There are words missing, and it says that Jesus would kiss Mary often on the blank. It doesnt say if its forehead or cheeks, but theyre going to assume it was the lips. That made the Disciples angry. They said, You love her more than us. Because of this little paragraph in the Gospel of Philip [they believe] that Mary Magdalene was the wife of Christ. Wow! What a stretch! Lets say I gather male staff in our church, so I have a meeting. Jesse is there; Mikes there; Jim is there; Tulio is there; Jerrys there; Tims there, and I have this meeting. My wife walks in. I stand up and I give her a kiss. Would they get mad and go, You love her more than us! Id go, Yeah, I do, and Im not going to kiss you either. If she was truly Jesus wife, would the Disciples have gotten mad that He kissed her? Would they get mad that He loved her more than them? This is ridiculous, but people just swallow things hook, line and sinker. It said in the movie there was a vote of the Council of Nicaea as to whether Jesus was man or God. After a close vote, they affirmed with Constantine that Jesus was God. Those who decided that Jesus was a man were expelled from the church. Now what makes this so serious is although this is a fictional story, they are portraying it as being fact. What happened in Nicaea is a historical fact. There was a vote. Bishops and church leaders from the east and the west did assemble. Constantine was neutral in the struggle. There was a vote. It was not on the humanity of Christ vs. the deity of Christ. It was a debate on whether Jesus was of similar substance or the same substance as God. Is He in fact equal with God or was He still divine, but lesser than God the Father? He still created the world but not of the same substance as the Father. That was the debate-not man vs. God, but God vs. divine. There was a vote. It was 316 to 2 affirming the deity of Christ-that He is of the same substance as the Father. Two bishops from Egypt voted that He was of a similar substance-He created the world, but He was not of the same substance as God. They were expelled and excommunicated from the church. Its a heresy called Arianism. It still exists in religions today: the belief that Jesus is a lesser being, that He is created. Would you call 316 to 2 a close vote like the movie said? In our Presidential Election in November, if one of the candidates gets 99 percent and the other one gets 1 percent, are the commentators going to come on the air and say, Well, that was a really close vote this year? I know people that cross Christianity off their list because they said, Well, it must not be authentic. It must not be real because of the claims of this book and this movie. I know of Christians whove said, Im not going to church anymore because I feel like Ive been duped. I feel like its a scam or fraud because Ive been believing a lie. Friends, thats sad, and that makes me angry. At the same time, those people have a responsibility to check out the facts. They have a responsibility to be discerning, to investigate claims for themselves. Dont be lazy and just listen to everything that you hear and swallow it hook, line and sinker. You need to be students of the Word of God, so you can discern truth from air. When we find truth-when truth enters our spirit, that knowledge draws us toward the Lord, so we grow in grace and peace. God doesnt want it just to sit up there in our skulls. He wants us to become laborers so that it goes from our heart to our mouth to our feet to our hands. We begin to pour in to others; we begin to invest in ministry and carry out His will. Thats why He wants us to grow in knowledge.
Lets open our Bibles up to 2 Peter 1. As were on our series of Virtuous Reality, were looking in depth at these eight virtues that Peter says were to have. I think its right-maybe not necessarily every week, but often-to go back through the text, so were familiar with it. On page 1204 in your church Bible, 1 Peter 1:3, it says, His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness. Through these He has given us His very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But if anyone does not have them, he is near-sighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins. Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So we mentioned that this is not a self-help text. It is not Peter telling you to try harder, do more, work harder and youll earn your way to Heaven. Its not that at all. We do have a part to play. There is work to be done; however, God is at work, too. Neither is it just kicking back and saying, Okay, God, You do all these things in me. Ill just coast and twiddle my thumbs. No, we have a part to play. God has a part to play. We work on our salvation; God works in and through through His spirit in our lives. My wife had pink eye this week. Her eye was sore, running, itchy and red, so she went to the doctor and got a medicine. Her part was to admit her weakness, to say, Heres what Im struggling with. Heres the pain; heres the hurt. Heres whats going on. So we confess to God. Then we have to exercise faith. She gets that little bottle of prescription pills. She has to trust A) that the doctor prescribed the right medicine, that its not rat poison, a vitamin or a sugar pill. It really is a medication to help with pink eye. Then, B), she ultimately exercises faith when she puts it in her mouth and swallows it. Faith, we said, was a conviction-pistis-a conviction followed by corresponding action, demonstrating that what you believe is true. So, she partakes of the medicine-thats her part, to confess, to have faith and trust. Then the medicine works in and through her system to rid her of the pink eye. So God works in our lives and through us to remove sin-to cleanse us from unrighteousness; thats something we cannot do ourselves. So, how does He do that? Say were looking at this bookshelf. We say on one end we have Gods provision. On the other end, we have Gods promise. In between, we have these eight books of virtue that were going to pull off the shelf each week. This week were talking about goodness. Thats the second book on our shelf. What does goodness mean? Does it just mean being a nice person? Is that what its talking about? Actually, the word means moral excellence. Moral excellence. You and I have had times in our lives when weve been morally excellent. Weve had times in our lives when weve been morally average. Weve had times when weve been morally below average. Weve been failing in that area. So everybody in this room can grow in moral excellence. Would you agree? Sometimes we are miserable failures in this area. How does God work in us and through us to bring about goodness or moral excellence? Turn in your Bibles please to the Book of John, the Gospel of John, the first chapter (page 1050 in church Bibles). John the Baptist, who is the fore-runner of the Messiah, his job was to usher in the Messiah. Remember the Old Testament closes with a prophesy that One in the spirit of Elijah is coming. He will prepare the way for the Lord. John the Baptist is the fulfillment of that prophesy; 400 years later he appears on the scene, announces the coming of Messiah. He is baptizing; he is preaching; people are coming to him and listening to his message of repentance. Now Jesus is about ready to make His way on the scene and begin His earthly ministry. Verse 29 tells us this story: The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! The Lamb of God meant that was drawing a comparison to a sacrificial lamb. When the Jews would sacrifice for sin, they would sacrifice that innocent, spotless lamb as an atonement; and the sins of the people would be placed upon that lamb, and it would be slain. They understand the Lamb of God signifies death and sacrifice. Isnt it interesting that as Jesus begins His ministry, before He has uttered a word of His official public ministry, it already speaks of His death? Just as He is beginning to serve, John foreshadows His death-the fact that He will die on behalf of the world, that He will die for sin. He will become a lamb. I find that very fascinating. He takes away the sin of the world, and then Verse 32, Then John gave this testimony: I saw the Spirit come down from Heaven as a dove and remain on Him. I would not have known Him… In other words, there is nothing exceptional about Him. There are no angels floating around Him. There is no halo over His head. He walks on the ground just like you and I; Hes not floating on a cloud. Hes just like a normal man. I would not have known Him except that the One who sent me to baptize with water told me, The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is He who will baptize with the Holy Spirit. I have seen and I testify that this is the Son of God. So John says, He will come. He will baptize you in the Holy Spirit. So this text talks about a removal and a bestowing; a taking and a giving. God is going to remove sin; Hes going to take away sin-the penalty for sin; but Hes going to bestow His spirit. He is going to give His spirit. From time to time, Ill talk a little bit about the original languages to give you some nuances and some insight. Im going to talk about it a lot this week. Last week, we talked about faith, and I told you some stories about a miracle bus ride. We just had fun together. This week, I really need you to have your A game and really be focused and listening because the theology were talking about-its a little bit difficult to understand; but then well bring it around to something intensely practical at the end. Were talking about the baptism of the Holy Spirit. There is a giving and a taking. In the Greek, those verbs-talking about taking away the sin of the world and baptizing in the Holy Spirit-the giving and the taking-are whats called the present active indicative. This means that Jesus took away the sins of the world; is continuing to take away the sin of the world; and will continue to take away the sin of the world. He is still forgiving sins, baptizing in the Holy Spirit. He has baptized; He is baptizing; and He will continue to baptize new believers in the Holy Spirit, so this work is ongoing and continuing to this day. That gives us the right understanding of what hes talking about here; so the giving and the taking-an ongoing work of the Spirit of God. Now the baptism of the Holy Spirit-thats kind of a controversial subject matter, and it really shouldnt be. It appears seven times in the Scripture. Six times its in reference to this quote from John the Baptist, so six of the seven times it says the baptism of the Holy Spirit… By the way, that preposition in can mean with, by, or in; it can be any of those: in the Holy Spirit; with the Holy Spirit; by the Holy Spirit-all good. It all means the same thing. Seven times it appears: six times its in reference to John the Baptist-four times by John in each of the Gospels; once by Jesus quoting John; and once by Peter going back to this quote by John. To be baptized in the Spirit-the word baptism, baptiso, means to immerse, to submerge. One of the ways to learn what a word means in the Bible is to see how it was used in contemporary literature outside the Bible. That word is most often used when you take a cucumber, and you pickle it. You put in water, spices and salt; you would can it. That began to change that cucumber into a pickle. It was immersed in it, and it began to change it from the inside out so that it was different. It wasnt the same anymore; it has a different flavor; it has a different look. Its a pickle. The Holy Spirit in, through and around begins to baptize us and change us from the inside out. So how do we have the power to live a morally-excellent life? How do we have the power to live for God? It is through the power of the Spirit of God. Now we should talk about the Spirit of God because the Spirit of God is not an impersonal force. The Spirit of God is not a ghost. Theres an unfortunate translation of that in the King James where it says the Holy Ghost. Spirit means wind, numa-wind. Normally in the Bible, translated, he would say here, I saw the wind come down from Heaven. Hes not talking about wind here. Hes talking about spirit. In the Greek, this word spirit has the masculine to it. Normally, wind is neutral, so it would be neuter, so it wouldnt be masculine or feminine. Since hes talking about a person, he uses the masculine word for spirit. When he talks about the spirit, he says He; he doesnt say it. The Holy Spirit is a person. The Holy Spirit does things only a person can do. The Holy Spirit teaches; the Holy Spirit guides; the Holy Spirit comforts; the Holy Spirit strengthens; the Holy Spirit can be grieved, and only a person can be grieved. The Holy Spirit can be blasphemed, and only a person can be blasphemed. So the Spirit is a person, and the Holy Spirit is also God. There are many evidences of that. If this were a different Bible study, we could spend our whole time talking about that, but often the Holy Spirit is interchanged with God. Sometimes it will say Spirit; sometimes it will say God. It will say in one passage, Your body is a temple of God. The next verse, Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is called the Eternal Spirit in Hebrews. Only God is eternal, so if the Spirit is eternal, the Holy Spirit must also be God. So what this means is something very exciting. This means that Jesus promised and John promised that they would baptize in the Spirit, so the Holy Spirit would not only come upon you but reside in you. When does that happen? Act 2, On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit falls and indwells the believers in a new dimension, a new realm that it never had happened before. In the past, Hed come on people, but now the Holy Spirit is coming in to empower us, dunamis, power. So the baptism of the Holy Spirit is an event that happens at the new birth, but it is also a process because the Bible says, Be filled with the Spirit. Again, present active imperative this time. Its a command. Imperative means to command. It is ongoing, Be filled with the Spirit, continue to be filled with the Spirit. Just like you have air in your tires, occasionally you have to put air in that tower. God exhorts us to be filled with the Spirit because sometimes we become dull or less aware of His presence. His presence isnt diminished; He hasnt gone away, but we become less aware of His presence in our lives. Its like a story I told several years ago about a lady who went to church. Every Sunday, there was a guy there who was a very charismatic individual. Hed pray, and hed say, Oh, fill me Jesus, and hed shake his hands. Hed go, Oh, Lord, fill me with Your Spirit, Lord! I can just see somebody tuning into our television program that is on cable watching; theyd be saying, What kind of guy…? Whats up with that guy? (referring to what Pastor is doing by waving his arms around). But he would be going, Oh, Lord, fill me with Your Spirit! Oh, more of the Holy Spirit, Lord! Oh, Lord! She would know that he would go out on Monday and live like the devil. She knew that he didnt have moral excellence, that he was somebody who was vulgar, rude and unethical. He didnt treat people with kindness. She just thought, Boy, this guy… This is so hypocritical to ask God to fill you with His Spirit and then go out and live like that! So one Sunday, shed had enough. He starts his thing, and hes like, Oh, fill me, Jesus! Oh, fill me with Your Spirit! Oh, Lord, fill me! She finally stands up and she says, Lord, dont fill him, Jesus! He leaks! (congregation laughing). See you and I, we leak, dont we? You and I leak; we do. There are times when we dont live by the power of the Spirit. We live in our flesh, very much so. We indulge in our sinful nature. We do not live morally, excellent lives. This being filled with the Spirit is something we should probably look into, right, because it holds the key on how to live a morally excellent life? Lets turn to that text in Ephesians 5. This is page 1159. Were going to start reading with Verse 15 of Ephesians 5. Paul writes to the church in Ephesus, and he says, Be very careful, then, how you live-not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lords will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery... or a lack of restraint and destruction. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. Its interesting that he makes a contrast of somebody whos intoxicated and somebody who is filled with the Spirit. Of course, in Acts 2, when they were baptized in the Spirit, people thought they were intoxicated, didnt they? When you become intoxicated, what you have done is you have yielded much of the control of your body, your mind and your mouth to alcohol. When you put yourself in an environment where alcohol is consumed or you purchase alcohol, or if you consume alcohol, now youve yielded to that and you start to be under its control. It affects your speech; it affects your motor skills; your balance; your reflexes. It makes you more vulnerable. You may say things that embarrass you. You may disclose things that are embarrassing. You may say things that are offensive; you may change your personality so that you become rude and obnoxious or silly and crazy. [You may] do embarrassing things, but it will blur your judgment, your reaction, your reflexes. It will have an effect on your attitude and your behavior. When I grew up, I saw this lived out so many times. As you know, the area of Rockford I grew up in was not the best area of town. There were two bars right by our house. To see winos coming by or people passing out in the street was a regular occurrence for me; I saw it all the time. It was also in our family; my father was an alcoholic. My brother-in-law was an alcoholic. He would get mean when he was drunk. Hed be mean, and my sister would have to leave with her daughters. She had to leave with her two daughters, and theyd come to our house and hide. Hed come pounding on the door. My little heart would pound. Sometimes wed have to leave the house and wonder the streets from him, hoping he wouldnt find us. It was kind of traumatic to be woken up in the middle of the night to stuff like that. His sons drank too and from time to time, there were physical altercations. My step-dad and my brother-in-law got into a fist fight. My step-dad and my brother-in-laws son got into fist fights, drunken alcoholic brawls. I had two neighbors, one up above and one next door, who when they drank would cause trouble. One would yell at his wife and was abusive to her and abusive to the children. These were nice people if they werent drinking! Youd talk to them, and they were nice people, good people; but when they got drunk, they got mean. They did despicable things, and they said despicable things. I saw what happened when they were under that influence in their lives. I made a decision then. I said, I want no part of that in my life when I grow up. I saw what it did. What being filled with the Spirit means is that you and I are putting ourselves under the control of the Spirit. It means to yield to the Spirit. When he says, Be filled with the Spirit, its not a matter of you trying harder and going, Ahhh, I have to be filled with the Spirit. What it is, in fact, is in whats called the passive voice. When you see something in the passive voice, it means the subject is being acted upon; so Paul is saying, You are being acted upon by the Spirit. You are the passive one here. The Spirit one is the active one here, and you must allow yourself or yield to the Holy Spirit. So I put myself in an environment where the Holy Spirit can fill me. That's what youve done this morning. Youre now in an environment where the Holy Spirit can fill you. I consume that which the Holy Spirit can use in my life to fill me. I consume spiritual things. I read His Word; I pray; I serve; I meditate; I fellowship with other believers. I consume that spiritual food. The Holy Spirit uses that to fill me. When I yield to the Spirit, the Spirit begins to work in and through me and change me, like that cucumber is changed by that vinegar, salt and spices. We become changed as were baptized in His spirit. It begins to change the way we talk; it begins to change our attitude; it begins to change our actions. I say to you, What does a spirit-filled life look like? If I said, What if everybody in this church was filled with the Spirit, what would that look like? For some of you when you hear spirit-filled life, maybe it conjures up images of a holy roller. Well, if we were all filled with the Spirit, wed be rolling in the aisles and stuff. Maybe its just something kind of spooky, mystical and kind of weird if were all filled with the Spirit, right? Hes going to tell us what life looks like when were filled with the Spirit. There are four participles in this passage we want to look at beginning with Verse 19. So, do not be drunk with wine…but be filled with the Spirit. Heres what its going to look like. Speak to one another with Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. In other words, positive things are going to come out of your mouth-words of encouragement; words of truth; words of hope and life are going to come from your mouth to other people. When were filled with the Spirit, it says, we will sing and make music in our hearts to the Lord. Youll enter into praise and worship of God. When we are filled with the Spirit, we will give thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. It will change our attitudes. It will change the words that come from our mouths. It will change our attitude. In Verse 21, Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. We will be humble with our brothers and sisters. It will change our actions. When were under the influence of the Holy Spirit, it changes our words; it changes our actions; it changes our attitudes. When weve yielded to alcohol-too much of it-it changes to the negative, so yielding to the Spirit changes us in the positive. Now, what is the greatest commandment according to the Bible? It is to love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and your neighbors as yourself. So, what is this passage saying? Two things. If were filled with the Spirit, its going to help us to love God; and its going to help us to love our neighbor, right? So a spirit-filled life isnt this weird, mystical thing. A spirit-filled life manifests itself in greater community, community with God, community with one another. The Spirit works in us and through us; it changes our tone, our heart, our mouth, our behavior. Now, being filled with the Spirit is having an awareness of the Spirit of God in your life. I want you to think of a good friend in your life, somebody that youre very close to-maybe its your spouse; maybe its a parent; maybe its your best friend-somebody that youre very close to in your life. Imagine if for whatever reason, they stopped talking to you. Now, they didnt talk bad about you. They didnt say mean things; they just stopped talking to you. So as youre in your car, theyre not talking. Youll speak, and they dont answer. Occasionally, theyll respond, but just occasionally. And they seldom, if ever, initiate anything. They never turn to you and start a conversation. They respond occasionally, never initiate, but they usually dont even respond. You write them letters, Im your friend. I love you. I appreciate you. Ive got something to offer you, but they dont read the letters. How would you feel if that relationship was a one-way relationship? Youd be very discouraged by that. You would think, Man, I have something to offer this person. I have friendship I can give this person. Let me ask you a question using that illustration. How many of you this week practiced the presence of God in your lives? How many of you initiated conversation with God? How many of you? Because the Holy Spirit is with us and in us all the time-even when we dont feel Him. The way we acknowledge His presence-the Bible says to pray continually. Paul doesnt mean walk around like this all the time. Paul says, Be in a continual conversation with the Lord. Talk to the Lord about your hopes; your dreams; your frustrations; your sadness; what youre frustrated and angry about; what youre confused about; what youre struggling with; your weaknesses. Who did Jesus say the Holy Spirit would be to us? Our comforter, very good. Comforter means a Paraclete or one called alongside to help. He says, I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you. Who will come to us? He says, I will, in the person of the Holy Spirit who is God. He is in our lives, called alongside to help to comfort us. Are you taking advantage of what God has provided for you? Are you taking advantage of the Holy Spirit that lives inside of you? Are you reading the letters that He has written to you? Are you responding to His Spirits promptings? Are you initiating conversation with Him? I want to encourage you this week to practice the presence of the Lord. Recognize you can pray to Him any hour of any day, but bring the Lord into your lives. Christianity is not just about a set-up, doctrines, a dogma or a creed-something that we recite and repeat back, and thats our Christianity. Christianity is about a relationship with the Lord, Jesus Christ who loves you, who indwells you. He wants to have a relationship with you. When I put myself in an environment for the Holy Spirit to fill me, when I consume spiritual food that the Holy Spirit can use to fill me, when I acknowledge the presence of the Lord in my life and I pray with Him and dialogue with Him and have that awareness, when I yield to what He is doing in my life instead of fighting and resisting, I am filled with His Spirit. When I am filled with His Spirit, I will live out His greatest command: to love God and love my neighbor. I will grow in moral excellence; thats the promise of His Word. Amen? Now, next week were going to talk about the third part, which is knowledge-why knowledge is important, what knowledge means, and what some of the dangers of acquiring knowledge are. There are some dangers, and were going to get you so excited that youre going to say, I have to go out and do something. I have to go learn something! So thats going to be our virtue that we talk about next week.
Would you open your Bibles please to 2 Peter 1? The series we are on is called Virtuous Reality. We said that this section of text from Verse 3-11 we described it as this little library. It has bookends on each end. There is the provision of God on one side, and theres the promise of God at the end of the text. In between are these virtues that were going to examine each and every week. We made the point last week that Peter is not teaching a self-help lesson here. This is not about you just trying harder, having more willpower, digging deeper and doing all of that. It is about effort, but its not about you exclusively helping yourself. It is about a partnership between you and God. Peter says, Through these promises, we become partakers of the divine nature. To be a partaker of the divine nature means to partner with God. You work with God, in tandem with God, to bring about His redemptive plan in the world and in your life. We talked about Philippians 2:12-13 (page 1162 in pew Bibles) where Paul says, Work out your salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who is at work in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. We said in our English Bible, the word work appears to be the same in both verses. When we examine it in the Greek, the word work is two different words. The first word for work as its used for people is to work on something, to work on a project and bring it to completion. The second word work that is used of God is to work in and through something-to accomplish a change from the inside out. So we gave you an example. We gave you an example; we asked how many of you took a shower this morning. Hands went up all over the place. I asked how many of you needed help; all the hands went down. Well, it was a trick question; I said, You mean you walked into the shower with no shampoo, no running water, and no soap? You said, Oh, yeah, I guess I did need help. You work on the body, and the products worked in your pores. You put the toothpaste on, and the toothpaste does its job cleaning the teeth. We work on, and these products work in and through. We talked about a stain. You cant remove a stain with your own efforts, so you buy Formula 409. You spray it on there, and it starts dissolving. While youre working on the stain, the product is working in and through to remove it and do for you what you cannot do for yourself. The same thing is true here. We work on our salvation; God works in us and through us-through His Spirit, through His promises-to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves, to change our hearts and purify our souls. Thats Gods responsibility, so its a joint effort. Now, Peter says for this reason, for this reality, this provision, it says that you and I, in Verse 5, …are to make every effort. So we have a part to play too. Were to make every effort to add to your faith goodness. Now well stop right there. He says add to your faith. Faith is foundational. Its not a coincidence that he says add to your faith and not to your knowledge, not add to your goodness or kindness. He says first and foremost add to your faith. It is fundamental. It is foundational. Its like water is the universal solvent; we add ingredients to the water. Faith is like that. It is what we add to. It is the basis of what we have. If we dont have that strong basis, then we arent going to have anything to add to it. If you dont have that basis of faith, Peter says, then its useless to try to grow in these other areas because you dont have the foundation. Try erecting walls in a house without laying the foundation first, and see how that house stands up to the elements and to time. You have to have the foundation, and the foundation for the believer is faith. We are called to be in Christ; and if we are in Christ, then faith should be something that is manifested in our lives. It says, The just shall live by faith. Hebrews 11 says, It is impossible to please God without faith. Brenda and I went to the Brewers game with our good friends, Mark and Sherry. They have a minivan, and we were driving in the parking lot. I had the window rolled down, and there was this guy who started talking to me. He has a big smile on his face, so I knew he was friendly. I dont know if he had a little bit too much to drink or something, but he looked at me and he said, Youre in a minivan! I said, Huh? He goes, Youre in a minivan! I go, Yeah. He goes, Youre the minivan man! Ive never been called that. I didnt know quite what to do. Wow! Im the minivan man! What hes saying is, Youre characterized by what youre in. Youre known by what youre in. I was in a minivan, so Im the minivan man. We are in Christ; we should be characterized, the Bible says, by faith. We should live by faith. It should be what we are known for. Now, if faith is that important, if were known by our faith-if without faith, its impossible to please God, we better understand what it is and what it isnt, right? The word faith here in Peter and elsewhere is the Greek word pistis. Pistis has a very distinct meaning. We saw some eloquent and poetic definitions, but the real base hard line definition of faith is a conviction that something is true that manifests itself with corresponding action, a conviction that something is true that is lived out or demonstrated through action. Thats conviction. Did any of you watch the Hurricane Ike coverage a couple of days ago? Wasnt that just like riveting television? Im watching Geraldo standing on the beach of Galveston getting pummeled by 120 mile an hour winds. Hes talking to the camera man; hes getting hit in the head. The image is going out and coming back. I just want to say, Geraldo, just go inside. We get it. Its windy; its wet. Geraldo was saying that the crew was staying at some hotel, CNN or FOX. They were staying at this hotel: the mayor of Galveston, the first responders, this large hotel that had been built for a category five hurricane. Nobodys ever experienced a category five hurricane there, but we have been told that the building will stand a category five hurricane; so when they stay in that hotel during a hurricane, what were they demonstrating? Faith? Faith doesnt just say something is possible. Faith begins to live as if it is possible-through its experience, through its living out-it demonstrates that that is true. It demonstrates that what has been said is true. It would be one thing if they said, Well, we believe this hotel could withstand a category five hurricane, but were out of here. Were heading to Arizona. See you later. Thats not really faith. Its not just enough to say something. They occupied that building. They stayed there all night, and it did live up to its promise. They interviewed a man, 77 years old. They said, Are you going to evacuate? He said, Nope. I believe in the man upstairs, and Im going to stay right here. I think Hes going to keep me safe. Im not going anywhere, and he stayed. You can call that crazy if you want to, but he demonstrated faith, didnt he? He backed his talk; he walked his talk. The Bible demonstrates this also in the Book of James, if youll turn there to the second chapter. This is page 1197. James writes in Verse 18, But someone will say, ‘You have faith; I have deeds, as though those two can be separated. ‘Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. You believe there is one God. Good! Youre on the right track. ‘Even the demons believe that-and shudder. It says Satan doesnt doubt the existence of God. Demons dont doubt the existence of God. This word here, thats pretty powerful stuff, and shudder… Youve done that. If something is really creepy or scary, you kind of go, Ooooohh. In the Greek, this verb is in the present active indicative which means theyre still shuddering. Its not a past tense shudder. Theyre still shuddering because they know God exists, and they know their faith. He demonstrates that. He gives some examples of faith-Abraham believing. Then it says in Verse 26, As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead. What hes saying is thats not really faith. If all it is is empty words, thats not faith at all. Faith is more than just an intellectual assent. Its more than just a creed we can say and acknowledge and say, Yeah, I think thats true. Faith is lived out in the real world-true biblical faith. Someone said that James contradicts Paul because Paul says, We are saved by grace through faith, not by works. James says, Were not saved by faith alone, right? So you say, Oh, those two are contradicting. Not at all. Each is dealing with the extreme points of view of faith. Paul is attacking those who would say, Well, I just have to work harder for my salvation. I just have to try more. If Im just a good enough person, I can earn Heaven. Paul says, No, you cant. No, you cant. You are saved by the grace of God through faith. You cannot work for it. James is attacking the other extreme, the extreme that says, All I have to do is just believe the right thing and then just kick back and relax. He says, No, thats not a true faith because if you truly had a faith in God, that faith would be lived out in the real world. You have an intellectual knowledge of God, but youre not living out your faith. Youre not putting feet to your faith. There is no action behind your faith. Peter says if these things arent in our lives in increasing, weve forgotten our purification from sin. Faith is taking a risk. Its having the audacity to believe a promise of God. About 12 years ago, I was playing basketball and I jumped in the air. This guy undercut me and kind of catapulted me in the air. I came down with my full weight on my right knee. I went to the doctor, and he said, You have some loose bodies floating around. We need to scope you. I went in, and I was frozen from the waist down so I was actually watching the operation on the little monitor. He was wiggling around my ACL, and he was saying, See and this is all loose like that? Its kind of like when you stretch out a rubber band. We cant fix that. Youre just going to have to live with that. Maybe you can get a brace and try to brace that leg. Then he said, See this meniscus? This is torn. Were going to fix that. Then he goes, Oh, man, there are a lot of loose bodies. Lets get these all out of here. Well get you back out on the court in a few weeks, Mr. Williams. I went, Well, thats great. He goes, Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Then they started mumbling. I didnt like that. I said, Whats going on? He said, See how that looks like the Grand Canyon? I said, Yeah. He said, Thats where your cartilage used to be. Now thats just bone. Im going to drill holes in your bone that is going to cause blood to come into the cavity. I watched that happen. He said, Its going to take you about four months for that to clot. Youre going to have to have no activity; just lie on your back for four months. That was a long four months while that clotted. He says, And your sports days are over. You can ride a bike; you can swim; you can play golf; coach, but youll never do anything with running or jumping the rest of your life. I said, Well, what if I dont play as hard? What if I dont play as long? They all laughed, and they said, Thats just the anesthetic talking. He went on, You have no cartilage. There is no way to grow cartilage; theres no way to get cartilage in there. You cant run and jump without cartilage. He said, Its time to coach. I was so depressed. Im just lying on that couch. I worked, but I lived on that couch. I told Brenda one day, Im going to play ball again. Im going to find a doctor friend, Dr. Hubrets, who I know likes athletics. Hes going to understand. Hell get me a brace, and Im going to play. She said, Thats crazy. I said, I know, but I just know Gods used me. I know God can heal me, and Im going to play. I got out there in this brace. You know when youre at the dentist and he hits a nerve, and it sends a shock? Every once in a while Id hit that on my knee, and Id just fall. Id have to quit. The way I stopped myself was I would just slow down a little bit, and then I would use the wall to stop to run the other way. It was not a pretty sight. I said, Lord, Im not healed now, but Youre going to have to heal me because Im going to keep going on this court. Im going to keep putting on this brace, and Im going to keep playing until You do. There is aggressiveness to faith. Its Jacob touching the angel, I wont let you go until you bless me. Faith is not passive; faith doesnt just sit back and wait for things to happen. Faith goes and gets it. So I showed up the next day, and I said, Im here, bobbling and hobbling, running into the walls and falling down. I strapped on my brace the next week, Im here. I played a little longer, and a little longer and a little longer. Now, Im playing in a normal week about three days a week at the club. Sometimes Ill go to the Y and see my old friends, but three days a week, I play full-court basketball. [I am out there] dunking the ball-no; Im not doing that (congregation laughing), but Im playing. Im out there. I dont know how much of its my age, how much of it is my knee. I cant play like I used to, but Im out there. Im trying; Im working. God did a work [in me]. I dont even use a brace anymore now, no brace. Thats what faith does. Faith straps on the brace. Are there things in your life? Is there a storm in your life, and everything in you is telling you to run? Everything in you is telling you to leave? God says, I have enabled you to withstand this storm. I have built strength in you through My Spirit that you can withstand this storm. You need to stay. The hurricane looks ominous; it looks scary; it looks powerful, but greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world. Im going to tell you a story that is going to seem amazing to you, but its true. Many years ago-this was probably 23 years ago when this took place. I was the youth minister in Rockford at our church. We took a trip to Great America every year. We needed a bus driver, and a lady from our church said, Well, I have a friend of mine who is a bus driver, but hes not a Christian. Is that okay? I said, Listen, we need a bus driver, absolutely. Hes a nice guy, but he just doesnt believe in God. I said, Okay. Well have a chance to talk. Maybe well have a chance to tell him a little bit about the Lord. So we get on the bus, and we get there and have a fun day. We said, Okay, were going to meet at 10 oclock at the bus. You know teenagers. They dont come on time, so by the time we got ready to roll, its close to 11 oclock, and the bus doesnt start. We call Great America security, and they came and jumped it. We take off, and we get as far as the gas station in Gurnee about two blocks away, and it dies again. We roll into the gas station, no juice. There happened to be a mechanic there at 11 oclock at night. You could tell this was 23 years ago; try finding a mechanic at 11 oclock at night in a gas station now. We take the battery out; he tests the battery, and he says, Man, this thing is low. Im going to put it on the charger, but its going to take quite a while to charge this thing up. Its really dead. I called the boss and said, Hey, boss. Im sorry were stuck here in Gurnee. We have no battery. Were trying to get home. We also have no money because you know whatever money the parents gave the children was gone by noon, right? Its 12 oclock soon, and we had no money for a hotel. What are we going we do? I had worried parents back home. I have this bus full of teenagers. What are we going to do? I kept checking, Hows it going? He said, Its not very good. It has increased a little bit, but its nowhere close what you need to drive home. So another half hour goes by. The next thing you know wed been at the station for an hour. I said, Hows it going? He said, Its not good. Its maybe a third of where it needs to be. Its not safe to drive. I said, Well, I dont know what to do. Were here. We have no money. We have no place to stay. I have 50 kids with worried parents. Im going to pray, and I want you to put the battery back in the bus. The mechanic said, Thats not a good idea. The bus driver said, Youre only going to get a couple blocks down the road. Were not going to make it. The mechanic said, Listen, youre going to get stranded on the interstate with 50 kids. Youd rather be here than on the interstate with 50 kids. But there was something in me that just said, We need to give this a go. I gathered the kids together. I said, Come on, kids. Come off the bus. Were going to talk. So we gathered together. I explained the situation, and I said, We are going to ask God to touch our bus, and we are going to ask God to bring us safely to Rockford. I start telling them about who God is, reminding them about who God is and the power God has. We believe that God is able to do this, dont we, kids? Yeah! So, Lord, were asking You right now that You touch our bus, that You bring us safely to Rockford, so we get on the bus. The bus driver is like, This is a bad idea. I was like, I know youve shared that. We used no defroster because we didnt want to use energy, so I would have to wipe off the windshield every few minutes. We werent running the fan because we wanted to save energy, so I had to kind of fan him as he was driving. Im standing next to him as hes driving, fanning and wiping off the windshield. I said, Were just going to go straight through, so we started on the journey. We get on the interstate, and we get a few miles out of town; the bus driver says, I dont believe this. I said, Well, its happening. So we would drive 10, 15, 20 miles, I dont believe this. Did I tell you-you know I dont believe in God, right? I said, Yeah, youve shared that with me. He said, Yeah, but this is really-this is a miracle. This is amazing. I said, Yeah, its pretty cool. We just kept driving. Hed say, Wow! I just really cant get over whats happening! He kept saying it over and over and over again. Finally, at 1 oclock or 1:30 in the morning, we pulled into the parking lot of the church. He said to me, Pastor, you dont understand. At the gas station, I disconnected the battery from the alternator. Were not having mechanical energy turned to electrical energy to charge the battery because its not hooked up to the alternator. We started on a dead battery, which should have gone to a completely dead battery. Yet, we made it here. I dont know how to explain that. A long story short, that bus driver became a Christian. Through that incident, he gave his life to Christ. He said, I cant deny whats happened today. It defies logic. Sometimes in faith, God will ask you to do something that doesnt make sense in the natural mind, but make sure its God, right? Dont do something just crazy for no reason and test God. Dont jump off a building and say, I think youre going to rescue me, God. Jesus says, Dont put the Lord, your God, to the test. There will be times in your life when God says, Test me. I think God loves it when we step out in faith. I think God loves it when we say, Lord, for man, this is impossible; but, God, with You, it is possible. We take that step of obedience and faith. [If you] remember who our God is, then its not such a leap of faith. Remember what He has done. Rick Warren says were all banking on something. Were all batting on something. He said, The atheists-theyre betting that theres no God that they have to give an account to. The Hindus? Theyre betting on reincarnation and good karma to keep coming back as a higher life form until they can reach nirvana. The Muslim terrorist extremists? Theyre counting on Allah being on their side; so when they blow themselves up, theyre going to go to paradise. Theyre banking on that. Were banking on the One that said, Im the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father but through Me. He lived a perfect, sinless life all for that sinless life on the cross, died and was buried, and on the third day rose again. Today, we could go to Jerusalem and go inside the empty tomb to see where He is not. Thats who were banking on. Thats who were putting our faith and our trust in. We talked a little bit about the miraculous. Sometimes in everyday life there are things around us that are special. Miracles are around us every day that we just take for granted. Were going to close out our service this morning with just a reflective song which talks about the greatness of God and the miracles that you and I see every day. Lets listen to this song called Ordinary Miracle. (Click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8SMsMnA1cI for this video) Its a beautiful song by Sarah McLachlan. Were going to pick up next week from where we left off, so next week well talk on the next virtue. I believe it is goodness. We hope to see you back for that. Lets pray: Father, as we reflect on Your creation, we see Your greatness and Your glory. We think that a God who made all of that surely can help me in the problems and struggles I face. We see Your grandeur; we see Your majesty. We can have the faith to believe You to meet the needs of everyday life. Lord, were thankful we can enter into that divine partnership, that we can add to our faith. Our faith is our foundation. It is our conviction that You are God. It is our conviction that You are Lord. It is our conviction that You have given us all things pertaining unto life and godliness and that we are in You. Being in You, our life should be a life of faith. I pray that Youd help us to put feet to our faith, to live out our faith. I pray for the one who is facing a storm right now-that they will be able to stand. I pray for the one who is contemplating a risk, something Youve asked them to do that is difficult-that, Lord, they get on the bus, that theyd trust You. Father, help us to grow in our faith, that our lives might reflect Your glory. In Jesus name I pray, amen.
We are going to be watching a little short video now that our programming team has put together for us for this series. Well be meeting these two from time to time throughout the Virtuous Reality series. (This was a movie clip from Disneys Wall-E.) You thought the Jokers performance was something this summer. I think were right up there with that, so well be watching that adventure unfold before our eyes. Lets open the Bible this morning to 2 Peter 1. While youre finding 2 Peter 1, I want you to know who Peter is writing to, why he is writing. This, like the book we looked at last week-2 Timothy, is Peters last book. Its a testamental book. He is going to die very shortly. He speaks about his departure. He, too, like Paul, would die under the reign of Emperor Nero. He is fighting, whereas Paul wrote to Timothy trying to mentor him one last time. Peter is writing to the church to warn them about a heresy, a false doctrine that was becoming pervasive. Its called antinomianism. Antinomianism means anti-law. There was a group within the region that was teaching that God is so loving and gracious; the Gospel is so wonderful that you can go out and live anyway you want to live, and God will forgive you. It says, Go out and commit any sin you want to, pursue any desire you want to, its okay because Gods grace will cover it. So live any way you want to live because your soul will be saved. Thats antinomianism, against the law. There should be no law, and everybody can just do what they want. Peter is writing them, and he says, Listen, we need to live a virtuous life. If Gods called us to belong to Him, we have to fight those temptations. We have to fight that sinful nature. We have to strive to live, be diligent to live virtuous lives. Then toward the end of the book, hes going to really come out and attack those false teachers. Hes going to say some very unkind things about them, but he is fighting this battle here. Understanding that as a backdrop, it will help us understand why Peter says the things that he says. Were going to read the first 11 verses, and then were going to talk about one phrase. Were going to hone in on it. Verse 1 (page 1204 of pew Bibles), Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours… Who does Peter think Jesus is? A good teacher? A good leader? Philosopher? How does he address Jesus? God and Savior. He recognizes the deity of Jesus. Can you imagine living with somebody for three years and still recognizing their deity? You live with somebody, and you find out the shortcomings really quick, dont you? He lived with Jesus and knew Him to be divine. Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has given us… Past tense-not will but has. …everything we need for life and godliness. Through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness. Through these… That is through His goodness, His glory, and His divine power. …He has given us His very great and precious promises so that through them… And heres the phrase were going to study today. …you may participate in the divine nature. What does that mean? …and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. Dont give into them. We can escape them. We can overcome them. For this reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Those words seem very similar, but really theyre quite different. The first word, ineffective, comes from the root word of lazy. It means its going to keep you from being lazy in your Christian walk. The second word is a word of somebody who is very busy but just not very productive. Have you ever been really busy and unproductive? You worked really hard and accomplished nothing? Like your last garage sale kind-of-thing. You say, Listen if you will grow in these virtues, you are going to be productive, and you are going to be fruitful. Youre going to accomplish things for the kingdom. But if anyone does not have them, he is near-sighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins. Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things… And listen to this, …you will never fall. So, theoretically, Peter said, if you actually lived a life with all these virtues and were increasing in these virtues, youd never fall. Youd never stumble. Thats quite a thing to think about. Im not there yet; I dont know about you, but Peter said if a person theoretically did this, they would never fall. …And you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So if you think about this passage as there is a book in it, this end of the bookend is the power and provision of God. This end of the book is the promises; this is Verse 3-4, and this is Verse 11, the promise. In between are these eight volumes of virtues. This morning, were talking about the provision, and then were going to end the series talking about the promise. In between, were going to pull out those virtues one book at a time and look at them-whether its perseverance, self-control, love or whatever it is-and talk about what Gods Word says about how that virtue can be cultivated in our lives. Now, when youre first reading this, it almost sounds like a self-help book. There are a lot of self-help books in the marketplace today. You can do it; you just read this and follow these easy steps, and you can change your life. Well, youre the problem, right? Youre the one who got yourself into this mess. How in the world are you going to fix yourself? You need outside intervention. Peter is not saying here that its just a matter of your willpower and your strength. You say, Well, he says well never fall. Is Peter wanting us to be Superman or some of these super Christians who never, never fall? This passage is about corruption; its about a corrupt world; its about a dark world. Hes saying, With Gods help, with His divine power, Hes given us everything we need for life in godliness. We can, with the help of God, grow in these virtues. Did you know that Superman originated from a young mans vulnerability as he looked at the darkness of the world? There are some interesting things that have come to light just recently about the creator of the Superman character. In 1932, the father of a young man by the name of Jerry Siegel owned a business and was killed during a robbery of his business. Jerry Siegels young world was shattered. His father he was so close to was gone. His whole world had come apart. Any coincidence that a year later in 1933, he introduced a character to the world called Superman? He was a boy who had lost his father, and his whole world had been destroyed on another planet. He comes to the earth, and hes invincible. Bullets wont touch him; bullets cant hurt him. The first illustration you ever see Superman in is not action number one. It precedes that by five years. Its a cartoon of showing the Superman coming to rescue a man who is being robbed at gunpoint like his father was. No question, no doubt where the inspiration for Superman came from. It came from the vulnerability of a young boy. It came as a young boy was looking at a world that was now very scary and dark and wishing there was a savior who could fly in and save the day-one that could have protected his father from the harm that came to him. Peter is not asking that you or I be Superman here. He knows were very much vulnerable. He knows the world is very corrupt, but what he is offering us is hope. Hes saying, Listen, you need to understand something. God has invited you to partner with Him in this spiritual journey. In fact, in Verse 4, thats the phrase. It says, You might participate in the divine nature. Participate in the divine nature. What does that mean? Does that mean that we become like God, we become divine in some way? There are false religions or cults who might take this verse and twist it in that way, but thats not what he means. The word here means a partnership or to become a sharer with. Hes saying, God wants to partner with you on this faith journey. You wont walk alone. God wants to be with you. You have a part to play, and God has a part to play. Did you hear about the guy who wanted to get rich? He prayed to God that he would win the lottery? So every night hed pray, Lord, help me to win the lottery, and he wouldnt win it. Week after week, hed say, Lord, Ill give money to the church. Ill do good things for the kingdom. Just help me to win the lottery. He wouldnt win it. Lord, you said if we asked anything in Your name, itll be done, and Im asking in faith to please help me win the lottery. He didnt win. Finally, he gets angry and says to God, I dont understand! Why wont You answer this prayer? You know my heart. You know Id help the church. The Lord answered him and said, Work with Me on this one. Buy a ticket. There is something you have to do; its not just to sit back. We have to purchase a ticket. We have to get involved here. When I was a young man, I grew up in poverty. My father came from Sweden, as was very common for immigrants. They would take the medial jobs, the hard jobs with little pay. Then after a bout with cancer, he passed away when I was five years old. Our family was very poor. When I grew up, we were still poor; and there was no way we could have afforded college. I wanted to go; my mother wanted to go, so we applied for grants. Because we had so little money, I was able to get a lot of grants, a lot of scholarships from the state that enabled me to get my education. The state did their part; it was as if they said, Were going to partner with you to get an education. What was my part? Did I just sit back and collect the checks, or did I do something else? I showed up for class; I took notes; I listened; I studied; I took the tests; I wrote the papers. I passed the class, and if I did enough of that-get enough credits-then I could graduate. It was a partnership, but the partnership that Gods talking about here is much deeper than that. Its much more intimate than that. Were going to see what Im talking about. I want you to turn to Philippians 2, or you can watch this on the screen-either way. Philippians 2:12 (page 1162 in church Bibles), the Apostle Paul is going to give an admonition to the believers in Philippi. He says, Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed-not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence-continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling… comma. Be thankful that theres a comma there instead of a period. If there were a period there, end of story-you and I would be hurting right now. If Paul said, Look, there is such a thing called salvation. Work it out. Struggle. Some people believe that. They still think they work out their salvation, that they earn in some way their salvation. There is not a period there; there is a comma there. Theres another verse, …for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose. So God is there. Hes partnering with you on this journey. Now, youll notice in Verse 12-13, each one uses the word work, right? Were to work out our salvation. It says, Gods at work in you. Now in our Bibles, the word work is the same in both verses; but in the Greek Bible, its a different word. The word work in 12 is different than the word work in Verse 13. In Verse 12, the word work is the same word that we would use to work on a project. Im working on adding a room to my house. Or you might say, Im making an outfit for my grandchild. Im working on the car. Im trying to fix the car. Its a project that youre doing where youre working on something. Youre involved; youre participating; youre laboring an endeavor. The second word in verse 13 that pertains to God is the word we get energy from. Its always used in the contents of working in and through-in and through something. God is not just working with us; He is working in us and through our lives, in our lives and through the Spirit to bring about transformation and change from the inside out. He is doing something for us that we cannot do for ourselves. Its a totally different word. God provides the energy. He is a catalyst for that change. How many of you this morning practiced good personal hygiene before you came to church this morning? You had cleaned up, took a shower, washed your hair, brushed your teeth and all that good stuff? Let me see your hands. Those who did not raise your hands, in the foyer we do have a TV if you could please dismiss yourselves at this time for the good of the body-our body, not yours (congregation laughing). But you did-you practiced good hygiene. As I look out, I see shampooed, combed hair, and Im really proud of you. Listen, how many of you this morning who cleaned up needed some help? Let me see your hands if you needed help this morning. Oh, got you-trick question. You didnt need help? You mean to tell me you just stepped in the shower with your clothes? No water, no shampoo, no soap, and you came out clean? Wow! Can you tell me how you did that? How many of you needed help this morning to get clean? All right. Yeah, you needed water; you needed soap; you needed shampoo. You worked on it, right? You scrubbed it in. You rubbed in the soap, and you went under the water and rinsed. You did work, and while you worked on your body, the shampoo and the soap worked in and through. They did for you what you could not do for yourself. The shampoo does shampooey things. It removes those things that need to be removed. The soap goes into the pores, and it cleanses you deep in those pores. It does for you what you cannot do for yourself. Maybe you encounter a stain. It just seems like youre scrubbing, and youre sweaty. Its just not coming out. Youre frustrated and youre exasperated because you scrub it with hot water, and its just not coming out. You say, I have to get some help. You go to the grocery store, and you buy Lysol or Formula 409, whatever you like to use. You come home and you spray it on that stain, and immediately it starts to bubble. It starts to get kind of all oozy and drippy and everything. You say, Somethings happening there. Now you take your towel and you start rubbing it, and that stain comes off. Whats happened? That chemical began to work in and through that stain to break it up and dissolve it, so you can wipe it away. It did for you something you could not do for yourself. You partnered with that product. You still had an effort to make. You had to go out and buy it; apply it; wait; scrub it, but you still had something to do. So it had a part, and you had a part. Yours was to work on; the agent was to work in and through. When I go to prepare a message, I study the text. I dont just show up on Sunday morning and say, Okay, God, lets teach. Tell me what to say. I pray and I pray; I study; I meditate; I think, but at a certain point, the Holy Spirit has to come, and He has to help me. He has to give me insight. He has to help me to see things. Sometimes there is a hunch like those words work, like Im going to study those two words of work and see if there is any difference between those two words, where that thought came from. It came from the Lord. Hes guiding me on that journey. He gives me illustrations; He talks to me throughout the week. He helps me prepare a message; and then as I give it, Im working here this morning, but the Lord is working, and youre listening. He is working in and through this message through the Holy Spirit. Hes working in your lives. So even this morning, there is a partnership going on between the Lord and myself and between you and the Lord as youre listening to His Word. Were working on this stuff, but He is working in us and through us. The farmer plants the seed that God gave. God gave the seed; God gave the soil; God gives the sun; God sends the rain. The farmer has to buy the seed; plant the seed; sometimes water the seed; weed; fertilize; harvest. There is a divine partnership because the farmer cant make the seed, and he cant cause whats inside that seed to grow. Thats Gods part. God does for us what we cannot do for ourselves. Were starting to understand this now, right? Remember he says in 2 Peter, …but if anyone does not have them… these virtues, …he is nearsighted and blind and has forgotten he has been cleansed from his past sins. You and I forget things, dont we? Just this week, I went to pump my gas, and it wasnt coming out. I went in to talk to the clerk, and he says, Well, you have to pump the gas first. I said, But theres no sign that says that, and there wasnt. I went back and checked, so I paid for my gas. I have such a habit of coming out to the car after I paid and getting in the car to go; so I still have the hose in the car; I get in the car, and I start driving off. Now, I dont think starting your car with a gas hose in the tank is probably a good idea, but a fellow actually pulled his car in front of me and stopped. I was like, What does this guy want here? He said, You have the hose in the gas tank. Then I wanted to go hug him, Thanks! I turned off my car. We forget stuff. We forget spiritual things too. We forget very important spiritual matters, very life-essential spiritual matters. Peter says, Its very possible that if youre not seeing these virtues increase or if youre seeing these virtues diminishing your life, youve really forgotten what the Lord has done for you; and I need to remind you of what He did. So thats what Im going to do this morning; Im going to remind you. Turn one page over to 1 John 1:5 (page 1207 in pew Bibles). It says, This is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you: God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with Him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. Now hes not talking here about your sinning. Hes talking about you living in a lifestyle of sin. Hes talking about how you walk in it; youre embracing it. Thats become the normal for you. He says, If youre living in that state, then youre lying. Youre just deceiving yourself. The truths not in you. …But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. Thats the promise. So what is our part? Our part is to confess. Confess comes from two words: homologeo, meaning the same word. It means to say the same thing that God says about our sins. To confess means to be in agreement with God. So I come to Him, and I say, Im sorry for my sins. Im in agreement. Youre right; Im wrong. Forgive me. That is our part-to come in faith to confess our sin, to repent. What is Gods part? Gods part is to cleanse. Talking about a cleansing agent, he said, The blood of Jesus is such an effective stain remover that it even removes the sin on your soul, the result of your unrighteousness. Those [are the] things you did do that you shouldnt have done or you didnt do and should have, your sin-where you missed the mark. His blood will remove that, the consequence of that. Even more, Gods part-it says, He will not only cleanse us of our sin, but He will cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Thats the source; thats talking about your heart. Sin is the act; its the result, but the very source is your heart. He says, God will even work in your heart to change your heart if you will work with Him, if you will partner with Him, be in agreement with Him, God will work to change your heart. God will do something for you that you cannot do yourself. If you know somebody who has had a heart procedure done-maybe theyve had open-heart surgery… Anybody know anybody like that in your life? Did they do it themselves? Did they get in front of a mirror and try to unplug the artery? Did they or did they need outside intervention for that? They needed somebody else to do that. They had to cooperate. They had to sign the papers, go see the doctor, submit to the anesthetic and say, Here I am. They had to admit themselves in the hospital, put their trust in the doctor. Then the doctor partnered with them to bring about a healing for that heart. Friends, just like you cannot operate on your own physical heart, you cannot operate on your spiritual heart. You cannot cleanse your spiritual heart. If you have some self-help books out there, the best thing you can do is put them in the trash because, friends, youre the problem. Youre not going to fix yourselves. You need to understand that. You need outside intervention. You need somebody to do for you what you cannot do for yourself. You cannot remove sin, and you cannot remove unrighteousness from your soul. So Peter is not giving us a self-help chapter here. Everything he said, every virtue he talked about he said, This is possible because of His divine power has given us everything pertaining to life and godliness. We are invited in Verse 4 to partner with Him, become a partaker of the divine nature. So what were talking about doing is planting some good seeds here, watering them and watching God grow them. How many of you a few months from now would like a nice harvest to perseverance, self-control, love or kindness in your lives? So youre in the right place. Thats what this series is about. Its about removing those things from our lives that plague us. Were going to illustrate this in closing with one of our friends weve come to know and love from another civilization. His name is Wall-E, and hes going to show us right now, so lets watch old Wall-E here right now and see if this doesnt look familiar. You think you get rid of evidence, but its right there behind you. You cant shake it; you cant move it. Probably as you go through all of this to virtue, there are areas that you really struggle with-perseverance. Boy, it seems like I always quit too soon when opposition comes. Or its self-control. You just cant get a handle on that self-control, that area of your life. Brotherly-kindness: sometimes my tongue is so sharp, and my words are so binding. I really need help or I need to just love more. There is something that youve tried to change, and it just seems like you cant change it. Lets believe and trust God in this series that Hell bring about the change as we plant these seeds; as we cooperate with Him, that Hell grow those in our lives. Does that sound like a plan? Okay, thats our plan. Bring somebody with you next week. Were going to start that first virtue.
Open your Bibles if you would please to 1 Samuel 30 (page 292 of pew Bibles). We are winding to a close our series that weve been on: Is There Life After GM? or Is There Life After Loss? The bad news that has come to our community-were talking about the things that are associated with that: dealing with fear and dealing with anxiety. What does Gods Word say to us about those topics? Its rich in what is said to us about change, about faith. This morning were talking about discouragement. Its something we all face. How many of you here have been discouraged by something this week? Almost everybody. It could be a big thing, or it could be something small. Weve been discouraged by something. Maybe your athlete didnt win the event. Everybody was kind of sad when the mom, the 41-year-old, didnt win the gold. She lost by 1/100th of a second. That was discouraging. Maybe youre discouraged because your favorite football player was traded to an East Coast team or something. As a Bears fan, Im encouraged by that news because he scared us, and he hurt us many times. Depending on where youre at, there are things youre encouraged about and there are things youre discouraged about. Maybe there is something in the home relationship, something in your marriage or with your children that just causes you to be discouraged. Maybe on the job, things arent going as you hoped. Maybe in school, things arent going as you planned. Maybe youre in a weight loss program, and the scales not cooperating. Its just discouraging. There could be health concerns, some problem that doesnt seem to get any better. Maybe its a ministry thats not being blessed as you thought it would be. You can think of any number of things that you and I struggle with on a daily, weekly basis. There are plenty of reasons to be discouraged. Were going to see what David did. [These are] some very discouraging times in his life. In fact, its hard to imagine having a worse day than David is about to have. Were going to see what he does to deal with that discouragement. That will help us to deal with discouragement in our lives as well. So whats happening here in 1 Samuel? David is a young man. David came to prominence when he slew Goliath, as you and I know. David became a warrior, and he fought many great battles for Israel. He gained a reputation as a man of God, as a warrior. As a result of that, King Saul became jealous because the people seemed to love David more than they loved Saul. In fact, it got so intense between the two that Saul actually tried to take Davids life-pursued him, hunted him down to try to take his life. Twice, Saul was delivered into Davids hand, and David spared his life. David knew that he was not safe in Israel, so David wanted to go to the one place in the world where he knew he was safe from Sauls attack. That was, of all places, a city called Gath. Remember Gath? Who else was from Gath? Goliath, Goliath of Gath. Of all places for David to take refuge but in the land of the Philistines-very ironic; but he developed a relationship, a faith and a trust, with a king whose name was Achish. Achish loved David and began to trust David. He began to think that David had indeed broken off of Israel, and he [became] welcome in the land of the Philistines. Long story short, David asked for a city. He said, There are a lot of us here. David had 600 men with him, fighting with him along with their families; so there are maybe 1,500 Israelites that have been displaced. David asked for a city, and he gave him a southern city by the name of Ziklag. David built houses there and they had a settlement there. For over a year, they lived there in peace and quiet; and that was their home. One day, David is put in a precarious situation. David thought he would buy time. One day Saul would die, and then it would be safe to go back home; but the Philistines go to war, and they go to war against the Israelites. Guess who they enlist to join their army? Its David. If David doesnt go, his cover is blown, right? Because he still loves his people, but Achish believes David no longer loves his people. He says, Youre going to come with us, and youre going to help us fight against the Philistines. What will David do? Will he fight with the Philistines against his king, against Jonathan and against his own race or will he turn on Achish and fight against the Philistines? We dont know what will happen because the drama never unfolds. When David gets to the city of Aphek, guess what happens? The other Philistine commanders say, Were not going to fight with that. No matter what you say, King Achish, were not going to fight with him because as soon as we do, hes going to turn on us. Hes going to fight against us. We dont trust him; so regardless of what you say, he needs to go home. Achish says, Listen, David, youre a good guy. Im sorry I have to do this, but you and your men need to go back to Ziklag because we cant use you here. So David and his men return home. As they are approaching their city, they begin to notice some eerie and strange things. Number one is they smell smoke. It seems to be coming from their village. There is a stench and aroma coming from their building, from their village. Secondly, as they get closer, they dont hear any sound. They dont hear the livestock; they dont hear children playing; they dont hear the sound of community. This is very odd; this is very strange. Im sure at a certain point they began to run toward the city. When they reached the clearing and came into the city, the sight that they see is devastating to their eyes. Their city has been burned to the ground. Who has done it? Why did they do it; they dont know. All they know is their homes, their place of worship, their place of businesses; everything is down and smoldering in ruin, and their families are gone. Not one child; not one wife; not one elderly parent; not one animal is left. The good news, if theres good news in this situation, is that theyre not dead-as far as they know. Theyre not lying on the ground somewhere. Theyre gone. They may be dead, but they may very well be alive. Had they seen them dead, there would be no hope. Now at least there is some hope, but where do you go? They dont know where to go. They dont know who took their families. They dont know what direction they took them in, so they are just desperate and helpless. They break down and they start to cry. These brave warriors cry. The Bible says they cry until they had no more tears to cry. They dont know what to do. Then, their tears become anger. They say to David, Youre our leader. You brought us to the land of the Philistines. You brought us to Ziklag. It was your idea to follow after Achish for this war that never happened. Youre the problem. You made us leave our families. If it hadnt been for you, they would still be here. They decided that they were going to stone David, kill him. So heres David. The king is trying to assassinate him-the head of state. Hes in exile from his country, his family, his friends, his home. His family is now missing along with all of his comrades, their families; and the men who hes gone to battle with-his friends-they want to kill him. Do you think that qualifies as a day that could lead one to be discouraged? I mean that is a bad day. What will David do? Will he try to commit suicide? Will he run? Will he curse God? What will David do? Were going to find out what David does; its going to help you and me when we encounter our discouraging days. Look at Verse 6. David was greatly distressed because the men were talking of stoning him; each one was bitter in spirit because of his sons and daughters. But David found strength in the Lord his God. Other versions render that, but David encouraged himself in the Lord, his God. David encouraged himself. You know, you can encourage yourself, or you can discourage yourself. Have you ever discouraged yourself? Do you ever have a pity party and youre the only one invited to it? You just start negative talking about I never do this. This never works out. Its all my fault. Im a loser. This is bad. Itll never be good. Next thing, you know, you have talked yourself into a bad mood. Youve talked yourself into discouragement. In that same way, you can do things that will allow God to encourage you rather than discourage you because you and I as a people are very prone to negativism. Somebody says a compliment about you, and you go, Aw, shucks, and you brush it off. Somebody says something bad about you, true or not, and you soak it in like a sponge. You think about it all day, maybe into the next day. You cry and you get depressed. Youre like, Why dont they like me? Whats wrong with me? You just really take it in. Its easy to do. If youre around a negative influence at the workplace or someplace else, if youre around people that talk negative long enough, pretty soon, its starts to impact you. You begin to thing negatively as well. I was playing ball a couple weeks ago. We were playing some full-court basketball, and our team was winning. I was happy. Then we started to make bad decisions, and they started gaining ground. We needed one more basket to go. We just couldnt get it done. There was a guy on our squad who kept saying, Were going to lose. Thats it. Were going to lose. Hes yelling at everybody; hes mad. Hes like, Were going to lose. Thats it. Thats it. The games done, and I would say, No were not. He would say, Yes we are. Were going to lose. He keeps this up. Finally the games done, and we lost. So I go over to him-hes a friend of mine. Hes a good guy. I say, Look, that doesnt help. When youre yelling at everybody, that doesnt help any of us play better. In fact, it makes matters worse. When you say were going to lose, that makes it even worse. He goes, I said we were going to lose; I thought we were going to lose; and we lost. I go, Well, keep it to yourself. You know, in Jesus name (congregation laughing). Im being polite. But just keep it to yourself because I dont want to hear that. Lets be positive the next time we play, all right? It brings you down. So heres David. Theres loss, theres devastation and negativity all around him. Where does he go? He goes to God. He says, Im going to go to the one source that doesnt change, and Im going to reflect upon His promise. I cant die this way because Gods promised through Samuel Im going to be king. So he focuses on Gods promise; he focuses on Gods goodness; he focuses on Gods faithfulness; he focuses on Gods love. The next thing you know, in the midst of this despair and this chaos, David finds encouragement and hope. Isnt that amazing? David finds encouragement and hope. David had been doing this since he was a lad. Goliath comes and he challenges the armies of Israel. Everybody goes, Oh, Goliath, look how great he is. Look how strong he is. We cant beat him. Hes too great; hes too strong; hes too mighty. David comes on the scene, and what does he do? He encourages himself in the Lord his God. He says, I was shepherding the sheep, and a lion came. I grabbed it by its beard, and I killed it. I was shepherding the sheep, and a bear came, and I killed it. The same God who was with me when I killed the bear and the lion will be with me as I battle this uncircumcised Philistine. He has defied the God of Heaven, and this day he will know that there is a God in Heaven. He began to speak of life and truth and encourage himself in the Lord his God. The next thing you know, he has a whole army of Israelites and a king believing this pimply-faced teenage boy can take on that monster giant because he spoke words of life and hope. So here is David in his time of great despair. He seeks God. He enquires of God. Now he had to enquire of God in a different way than you and I enquire our God. We seek Gods written Word, and we pray. We trust the guidance of the Holy Spirit who indwells us as believers. Before the Holy Spirit came and Pentecost, the Holy Spirit did not dwell in believers. He would come on an individual for a task, but He did not live within us. So to seek Gods guidance back in those days, they relied on something that was in the ephod or the high priestly garment. There were some stones there called the Urim and the Thummim. Thats kind of a funny name. It means light and reflection; and somehow, God would speak to them through this. We dont exactly know how it happened. It may have been a casting of lots in some way. Maybe one stone meant yes, and another stone meant no. We dont know that. So David received clear guidance from God that he was to pursue and that he would overtake. So he gathers the men together. He says, Men, we are going to go after our families. Were going to go after our property, and God is going to give us victory. Now heres the problem. They dont know where theyre going. They dont know who the enemy is. They dont know what direction to go-north, south, east or west; so they are just trusting God. Sometimes when you trust God, you dont always know where to go, right? You dont always know which direction to take, but David and his men are tired and in spite of their fatigue, they are going to persevere. In fact, the Bible tells us that theyre so tired that when they get to the Stream of Besor, 200 of them cant go on any farther. Verse 10 (still on page 292), …two hundred men were too exhausted to cross the ravine. But David and four hundred men continued the pursuit. So here they are. To go from Ziklag to Aphek was 45 miles. They went there on foot. Can you imagine hiking for 45 miles with all your gear, all your food, your equipment? You get there and they say, We dont need you, and you have to hike 45 miles back. Ninety miles! You finally get home; you finally get to rest and see your family. Your family is now gone. Your feet are blistered and sore; youre hungry and youre thirsty; and you have to turn around and march right back into the wilderness. This time, you dont know where youre going. Persevere-they persevere because God had given them a promise. God had given them a purpose that allowed them to endure. God will also allow us to endure and persevere through those times of disappointment and discouragement because we, too, have a purpose and a promise. There was a man who lived back in the early 1900s. He was a brilliant man by the name of Clarence Jordan. Clarence grew up and received two PhDs-one in agriculture and one in Hebrew and Greek; so he was a farmer and a theologian. He combined those two educations beautifully by starting a ministry called Koinonia Farms in Georgia, in the Deep South. The concept was, Listen, were going to help the poor. Were going to start these farms. He bought over 400 acres, and they began to farm them. They would distribute them, and the poor would be able to buy food very inexpensively. So he was helping to solve the hunger problem. He was also providing jobs and a place to live. On this land, they built houses, so families would actually come together and live in community. Now, there was not a cult. There wasnt anything weird going on. Nobody was worshipping Clarence Jordan or anything like that. It was just a community, and they would grow these crops, they would sell them, and they would help the poor with them. Blacks and whites were working together in harmony-as it should be. Well, there were some white supremacists that didnt like what was going on. They wanted to cause some trouble for Clarence Jordan. They let him know in no uncertain terms that if he didnt shut down the farm, some bad things would happen. He informed the authorities but there was some corruption going on, and nobody was coming to his defense. One day, the KKK-these idiots-came into the farm, and they burned it down. They burned down every building. They burned down the farm; they ransacked the fields-every home except for one because Clarence Jordan refused to abandon his home. They burned them all down. It was gone. Koinonia Farms was gone. The next morning, a reporter from the newspaper came. Clarence Jordan would later say he recognized that mans voice as being one of the men under a hood the night before. Clarence Jordan was out in the field with his hoe. He was working. [There were] charred remains, rubble, smolder, smoke all around. The reporter pulled up kind of smug, and he said (Pastors speaking with a southern accent), Well now, Dr. Jordan, Im here to do a story on the paper about the closing of Koinonia Farms. How do you feel about that? Dr. Jordan just ignored him and kept working, kept hoeing. The reporter decided to get a little rise out of him. He said, Dr. Jordan, you have two PhDs. Youve given 14 years of your life to this farm. Now, you have nothing to show for it. Now tell me, how successful do you think youve been? That caused Dr. Jordan to stop. That would have caused me to wrap him upside the head with my hoe, but he was a more Godly man than I. He stopped, he looked the reporter in the eye, and he said, How successful have we been? The reporter had his piece of paper and pen in hand ready to write a story on the closing of the farm. He said, I think weve been as successful as the cross of Jesus Christ. You see, Sir, this farm is not about success. This farm is about faithfulness, and were not going anywhere. Were staying right here. Good day, and he went back to work. You can go online today, and you can type in Koinonia Farms in Georgia. You would find that its still thriving. Its still going strong. The communities there have devotions in the morning and devotions at night; and in between, they work. In fact, you could even go and stay a couple weeks if you wanted to and hear the story for yourself and work on the farms. Theyre still doing wonderful work. They could do that because they had received a call from God, a purpose from God and a promise from God that He would never leave them nor forsake them. The same God who was Davids God in his day of discouragement is the same God who is Clarence Jordans God who is your God. It doesnt matter what discouraging times you go through, what dreams dash or what is taken away from us. In those times, we encourage ourselves in the Lord our God, and we press on. Youre going to find a theme. Weve found a theme, havent we? We found a theme. That is we see Gods providence; we see God working in adverse situations; and we also see God bringing restoration. We see His providence, and we see His restoration. David and his men take off. They dont know where theyre going. They run across a man who they think might be dead, but they arose him and they found out he was alive-but just barely. They give him rice cakes; they give him raisins it says or figs and cakes of raisins. He eats them and he drinks, and hes revived. David says in Verse 13, Who are you? To whom do you belong, and where do you come from? He explains, I am an Egyptian, the slave of an Amalekite. He goes on to say that he had been a part of the raids in the Negev and that he had been in Ziklag. Hed been a part of that raid as well. Hed become ill, and his master had left him there to die. Hed been there for three days. David says, Will you take us? Do you know where they are? He says, Yeah, I know where they are. They told me where they were going to go. He said, Can you take us there? Now the man knows that hed just been a part of a raid that had taken these mens families captive and destroyed their village, so he wants to first secure his own well-being; and he says, I will if you promise you wont kill me. David says, I promise. You take us to our families. We wont kill you. So the man then becomes their guide, their means to find their loved ones and their possessions. What a coincidence, ha? What a coincidence that this guy is abandoned by his owner, that hes still alive three days later and that hes exactly the guy that they need to give them the directions to find their families. What a coincidence. Just by chance, ha? You ever notice that when you truly trust God and put yourself in His hands and His care, all of the random coincidences that you have happen? All the divine appointments, the people that you just happen to meet? I had a lot of time with Pastor Sean this week. We spent several hours together. It was just fun to hear all the divine coincidences that happened for him to provide for he and Heather and for their ministry. God will do that. Youll see His hand in those situations. I remember I was on a trip-this was before GPS was available. This was when you had to rely on your instinct or the gas station, if you didnt have a map. I pulled into a lot of gas stations back in the day. Im on my way, and Im late. Im in a region Im not familiar with, and Im pretty lost; and now Im getting pretty late. I finally pray. I say, Lord, Im lost. I dont know where Im at. I dont know where Im going. Please, Lord, can you guide me to my destination? I felt a prompting to pull off to a gas station. I pulled off to the gas station, and I get inside the convenience store. There is a clerk, myself and there is one other individual. I go in and I say, Im looking to find this industrial park. She says, How did you get out here? Youre lost. I said, Yeah, I know. The man behind me in the checkout, he says, Im going there. Just follow me. I thought, Well, how about that? I pull in, and there is only one customer in the store besides myself, and he happens to be going to the exact same location Im going. Coincidence, right? If I hadnt prayed, Id still be lost. I dont know if I would have ever found my way home. I would have started a church in Timbuktu somewhere. God will do that when you trust Him with that reckless abandon. Hell send people across your way. Look at these negative circumstances. This man was left behind to die. He became their guide. They are sent back from Aphek. If they stay any longer, there is no hope to find their family. Because they come back so quickly, they can be hot on the trail. Ziklag is destroyed, but that will serve as a catalyst for David to move back to Judah and become king because Saul will die in that battle that David will not get to participate in. Saul dies there, and David becomes the king. Then the bounty that David gets, he distributes it to all these regions. That endears him so when he does become the king, they love him. Have you noticed a theme? Pastor Tim talked about Joseph and all that was lost, and God gave back to Joseph everything he had lost and then some. We talked about Job, and Job lost everything; and God gave him back everything hed lost and then some. Here, David loses everything, and God gives back everything hes lost and then some; because he comes into the village and it says… Remember now, these are the men who were cowards; and they know that the Israelites have left the village. They know its vulnerable because its only men and children and old people left. Thats when they choose to attack. These guys are thugs and bullies; so when David finds them, it doesnt go well for these guys. It says in Verse 16, this Egyptian led David down, and there they were, scattered over the countryside, eating, drinking and reveling because of the great amount of plunder they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from Judah. They were just having a good time. Theyre not ready to fight. In fact, half of them are drunk; theyre reveling-theyre drunk. David fought them from dusk until the evening of the next day. None of them got away except 400 men who rode off on their camels. David recovered everything the Amalekites had taken, including his two wives. One he had taken in as a widow. This is another culture. Were not going to go there right now. Nothing was missing: young or old, boy or girl, plunder or anything else that had been taken. David brought everything back. He took all the flocks and herds, and his men drove them ahead of the other livestock, saying, This is Davids plunder. Friends, when we go through those discouraging times, we focus on Gods Promise. We persevere; we encourage ourselves in the Lord our God, and were going to find inevitably that God will restore what was lost and then some. We know there are times were discouraged. We know there are times we want to quit, give up or run and hide; but God is faithful. There is a song that is sung by Martina McBride, a country music artist. She occasionally has a song that crosses over on the popular charts. This song was such a song. Its called, Anyways, so lets listen and reflect on the words of this song. Its powerful. (Lyrics can be found here: http://www.lyricsondemand.com/m/martinamcbridelyrics/anywaylyrics.html) Lets close our service in prayer: Father, thank You for the things that Youve shown us in our series, and thank You for the encouraging words today in the example of David. In the midst of this incredible adversity, chaos and heartache, he found hope, faith and courage in the Lord his God. I pray that these who come forward would find that same encouragement. Those who could have come forward who are facing discouraging situations will not give up hope. Because You have given a promise, and because You have given a purpose and because we live for the glory of our God, that we will persevere with the strength of Your spirit; that we will press on to see You work in and through the negative circumstances; that we will not succumb to them and begin to speak negatively. Lord, we will hold fast to Your promise, and that we will see Your restoration because Youre the God who gives back and then some-the same God of Clarence Jordan, the same God of David is our God. We trust and hope in You. In Jesus name, I pray. Amen.
Would you open your Bibles up to Jeremiah 29 (page 780 of pew Bibles)? Were on a series called, Is There Life after GM? or life after loss? This is our fourth part, fourth week already. Weve talked about fear and the anxiety over what might happen. We talked about what to do when that which we have feared has happened. This week, were talking about change-the inevitability of change. I was looking at an old church directory this week. I was doing some things in my office and ran across a directory from ten years ago, and some of you were in it. You look a little different today than you did ten years ago. I wont go into any details, but a little different. Then I couldnt just help but remark at all of the change that had taken place. I thought about just the change in our building, all the new things we have, the new construction. I thought about some changes in staff. There were people that had moved away. There were families that had gone through a divorce. There were people that had passed away. There were people that I had no idea where they are now. It was just an interesting snapshot of our church. I thought about the inevitability of change. You and I sometimes dont embrace change very well. We just dont. Its what Im going to call this morning the Fluffy Factor. I was in a home recently, and there was an elderly woman, her adult son and two dogs. One of the dogs was a dog that is about 211 years old in dog years, and it was named Fluffy; and Fluffy did not like me there. Fluffy made it known constantly that she did not like me there. From the time I walked through the door to the time I left, for three hours, except for a quick nap, Fluffy never took her eyes off me and never stopped doing this, Rrrrrr. Shed catch her breath and then, Rrrrrr. The lady would say, Now, Fluffy, stop that. No matter what I did to Fluffy, I just could not make friends with Fluffy. Fluffy was saying, I dont want you here. We already have an adult male in the household. We dont need you. I dont like you. I dont like anything about you. I like things the way they are. When are you going to leave? If you dont leave soon, Im going to make you leave. Im going to gum you to death. Some of us in this room here, were like Fluffy in regards to change. Something comes at work. Its not the way its supposed to be, and they change it, Rrrrrr. You come into church, and theyve changed something you like in the service, Rrrrrr. Your wife cooks a meatloaf in a way that youre not used to, Rrrrrr. We just get growly and ornery because we dont like change. We like things the way they are. One of the reasons why were going through this change potentially with losing our plant and losing the other jobs, Lear and LSI and so forth, is because of the change in our economy. Gas prices are sky-high, and we cant afford to buy the trucks. Its a change, and of course the marketplace adapts to change. You have to change. It reminds me of a story I heard about Henry Ford. Ford, of course, had the Model T and was very successful; but there was a bit of a clamoring for change within the company that we need to compete, and we need to change things. Weve got some ideas for the Model T that we think are going to make it a little bit more modern, a little bit more contemporary. Henry Ford wanted nothing to do with the changes. While he was gone on vacation out of the country, an engineer by the name of Knutson decided that he would make those changes. One day the car was all done; Henry Ford was in Michigan, and they unveiled this new, improved Model T. It was red in color. The top was down, four doors, shining; it looked gorgeous. [Everyone] was the like, Whats the boss going to do? Hes going to love it, right? Because who wouldnt love it? This is just an amazing car. Henry Ford walked around the car with his hands in his pockets, two or three times. He finally reached out and grabbed the door. There were a couple whispers, I think he likes it. I think he likes it. It said they dont know how he did it, but he managed to pull the door off the hinges; [he] was so mad; climbed in the door; started kicking the other door; started kicking the roof of the car; destroying everything he can get his hands on. I guess he didnt like it too well. Knutson, needless to say, had to get another job. He took a job at GM and began to make some progressive designs for that company. Ford eventually realized he had to change the way he did things, but he wasnt ready at that time. He didnt like change because this is the way it always has been. This is the way I made it. This is what Im comfortable with. This is the way I want it to be. Sometimes change can bring about good things in our lives. God can sometimes use changes, and God can use negative circumstances to bring about some very positive things in our lives and in our community. One of my favorite films is Walk the Line, the story of Johnny Cash. Maybe you saw that film. [He was] brilliantly portrayed by Joaquin Phoenix. In this clip were about to see, Johnny goes into record a record. Hes going to sing the only song he knows to sing, which is gospel. Thats what everybody sang. Thats what he sang his whole life. Then the record producer tells him that gospel doesnt sell anymore. Its the same thing everybody else is doing. We need something different. What else do you have? So hes forcing Johnny to change on the spot. This time, hes called J.R. So how will he respond to this demand that he change? Lets go ahead and watch the clip. What I wanted you to see in that clip, and I know some of you would like to just watch the rest of the movie (congregation laughing), is that there is a progression there. At first, were just uncomfortable with the change. Were taking this risk, and theres fear. Then, others begin to see the benefit of that change. They begin to play their part, and they begin to play their role. Then something wonderful emerges from that change-that challenge, that risk-which they take. So, were going to be talking about that this morning, and I want you to open your Bibles up to the Book of Jeremiah 29. Were going to look at a story about some people who went through radical change-radical change. We read the Scripture this morning, Jeremiah 29:11 (page 780 of pew Bibles). Youve probably heard it quoted. It might be one of your favorite Scriptures when God says in His Word, I know the plans I have for you, plans for welfare, not for calamity-to give you hope and a future. How many of you is that one of your favorite verses in the Bible? A lot of you. I love that verse. Many times we say that verse, we recite it, we think about it, but we dont understand the context in which it was spoken. We dont understand the events that were taking place in the history of Israel. The meaning and impact those words would have had… Its my goal that when you leave here today, when you read that Scripture, its going to take on a whole new significance in your life. The Book of Jeremiah was written in approximately 600 B.C. It was a very pivotal time in the history of the nation of Israel. The northern kingdom is gone, wiped off the face of the map. The Assyrians came in, invaded and took them away. The southern kingdom, the capital-Jerusalem-was left. There is a warning that is being given by the Prophets, and Jeremiah is one of them. Jeremiah is telling the people that the way you are living your lives is destructive. Youve abandoned God. You are following after other gods. You are doing detestable things in His sight, and it needs to stop because God loves you, but God is also righteous and God is holy. God will judge, so you need to repent. You need to stop doing what youre doing so you can live. If you dont repent, if you dont change, God says judgment is coming. Judgment will be for the purpose-not simply a punishment-but for the purpose of getting the attention of the Israelites, so they would once again listen and follow after the Lord, their God. At one time in exasperation, they say to Jeremiah, Were going to ignore him. Then they beat him, put him in stocks and laughed at him. Then it got so bad that they threatened to kill him because he was preaching the truth. Jeremiah says, For 23 years, Ive been giving you the same message, and you dont listen. For 23 years, Ive been warning you of the wrath that will come if you dont repent, and time is running out. You need to change. Israel didnt repent. If somebody told you something was going to happen for 23 years, youd start to doubt it was going to happen, right? The new math is coming. I always heard that. I heard that my entire education. The metric system-everybody is going to be using that when youre an adult. Im still waiting for that. I still have my old ruler and yardstick out. All these changes will be coming, and when they dont come, you start to think, Well, he must not know what hes talking about. Then one day, it came. A ruler by the name of Nebuchadnezzar came, and he captured thousands of Israelites and brought them to Babylon. Daniel was one of them; Shadrack, Meshack and Abednego were others. They took them to Babylon to live. Then he came a second time, and he got thousands more. Then he came a third time to get thousands more and bring them into exile, but then something terrible happened as well. He destroyed the temple that Solomon had built. The Temple was destroyed. If you resisted Nebuchadnezzar, you would die. If you cooperated, you would live and go into exile. Some people would rather die than go into exile. So, you want to talk about change? Its one thing to have a struggling economy and to lose a job or lose our plant-thats one thing; but these people lost their lives; these people lost their homes, their businesses, their synagogues, and their temple. They were taken in force to live in this strange land with a new king, King Nebuchadnezzar. You want to talk about upheaval? You want to talk about change? It doesnt get more radical than the change that these people endure. Were going to see what God says to them, and Jeremiah weeps over this. This is his home. He loves Judah. He loves Jerusalem. He loves the temple. Hed been trying to avert this for over two decades of this life. The entire Book of Lamentations, the next book over, is poems that he wrote in his grieving. Hes called the weeping prophet. He just grieves the loss of this country. He just pours his heart out, Jeremiah does. Now that the people are in captivity, now that they are in exile, and they will be so for the next 70 years, they are ready to listen to what Jeremiah has to say. Normally, Jeremiah would just speak. Hes a Prophet; prophet means oracle. He would just speak, and an amanuensis would write down everything he said. This time, hes the amanuensis. This time, hes writing down Gods dictation, and he is going to dictate a letter. Jeremiah is going to write this out, and hes going to send it to the priests and the Prophets and the people that are in exile in Babylon. So, what were going to read is an actual letter written in Jeremiahs hand and dictated by God. We start reading it in Verse 4 (page 779), This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and settle down; plant dens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Isnt it interesting that the first thing God tells them in the midst of all this change that theyre going through is God says, As much as possible, I want you to live a normal life. God called them to stability in the midst of the change that was all around them. It says, Youre going to make the best you can-do the best you can-with this difficult situation. Youre going to start new lives there. Youre going to live in stability. The underlying message there is God is going to protect and provide. Though youre in a foreign land, though youre where theres a new language spoken and a new government in power, you are going to adapt. Im going to provide for you. Im going to protect you, and you are going to live stable lives. Normal is going to return to you. What God is promising is if this thing happens to our community, and it looks like it will, there is going to be a time of difficulty and adjustment, but God is able to make our lives stable. Were not going to abandon ship. God called the people of Israel to community. He called them to stability, and God will do the same for us. I want you to notice something extremely interesting. How do you think you would feel about Nebuchadnezzar if you were living in Judah? How would you feel about a king who killed some of your loved ones and friends? How would you feel about his army that destroyed your homes, your synagogues, and temple? How would you feel about living in this strange land? How would you feel about those people? Would you be tempted to be angry and be bitter toward them? Absolutely. But what does He call them to do? It says in Verse 7, Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper. God is calling them to spiritual growth in the midst of conditions which are adverse, in the midst of conditions which would leave one to be a person of bitterness. God is calling them to new spiritual growth. God is saying, Look, you have been spiritual-not just infants. You have been spiritually opposed. You have been in rebellion against me. Now that I have your ear, now that I have your attention, you are going to grow spiritually. Youre going to pray for your enemies. This was radical stuff. Jeremiah, if you read the Book of Jeremiah, he wants God to kill his enemies. Thats Jeremiah! This is unheard of. Youre going to pray for the country and the city that stole you from your home. God says, Youre going to pray. Im not going to allow you to go into bitterness and anger. You are going to pray for your captors, and youre going to pray for their prosperity. God wanted to bless them. God wanted them to prosper in this new land. Isnt that an amazing thing to think about? In the midst of this upheaval and change, lives turned upside down; this negative event, God was going to do something good in their lives. God was going to grow them in their faith and grow them in their spirituality. When I was a little boy, one of the worst things that could happen to a boy happened to me. I lost my dad. My dad died of cancer of the pancreas; so at age five, I no longer had a father. Who was going to be a model for me? Who was going to teach me all the things that a father teaches a son? My dad was not a spiritual man. He grew up in Sweden. Of course, everybody is Lutheran in Sweden; theyre all Lutherans. Its a state religion. When he came to America, [his family didnt go to church; therefore] we didnt go to church. Maybe Id go to a VBS (vacation Bible school). I remember going to church maybe once or twice, but church and spirituality was just not a part of our lives. My dad, on the weekends, didnt go to church; he went to the club. He did shots, drank beer and had fun with his friends. He was not a church-going man at all, so there was no spiritual upbringing in my life. When I was told that God had taken my daddy, I became very angry and bitter. I remember shaking my fist at Heaven and commanding God to bring my daddy back. Several years later, my mom remarried. This particular man was a Christian. He started taking us to church, so we started going to Open Bible Church in Rockford. The pastor there was a man by the name of Don Lyon, whom you met at the dedication of our new building. At nine years old, that was my pastor. I gave my life to Christ in that church; my mother came to the church and gave her life to Christ; my sister came [and] gave her life to Christ. My other sister came [and] gave her life to Christ; her husband gave his life to Christ; her daughters gave their lives to Christ. I began to live in a Christian home. I grew up in the things of God. I became involved with ministry at that church. I went out to prepare for full-time ministry, and eventually came back, married, settled down and served in my home church until they sent me out the door. My wife and I [came] to Janesville to start a church called Faith Community. Let me ask you a question here. That was a negative situation, losing my father. Through that circumstance, did not good things eventually come? There was a spiritual awakening that took place in my family that probably would not have happened had not my mom remarried to a Christian man. There are events that happen to us that are negative-loss, things that are gut wrenching. What you have to understand is God is greater than those events. Those things will always be negative, bad, hard or wrong; but God can work amongst it and through it and bring about something that is positive in our lives, in our church, in our community if well allow Him to. So they could go down the path of bitterness, or they could go down the path of spiritual growth and allow God to take something that has been painful and bring about something good in their lives. Thats whats going to happen. God is going to do that for the people of Israel. For 70 years, God has called them to live in stability in the midst of that adversity. God is calling them to spiritual growth in an atmosphere that is prone to bitterness. When we go through loss, and we go through pain, its easy to get bitter. We have to fight that. We have to recognize that God wants to be at work in our lives. So its in the context, its in that as a background that we then read again these famous words, Verse 10 (page 780). This is what the Lord says: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. Back to Jerusalem. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you, declares the Lord, and will bring you back to the place from which I have carried you into exile. Youre going to go home. God says, Youre going to come alive spiritually. Now that I have your attention, now that youre really listening, youre going to come, and youre going to have a relationship with Me. Youre going to find Me, and were going to commune together. Were going to have a friendship together. You think Im against you. You think because this bad thing has happened to you that Im not on your side; but the truth of the matter is I am on your side. The truth of the matter is your future is bright. The truth of the matter is you can have hope in the midst of disparity. God had called them to optimism in the midst of a situation that was adverse, to a situation where it would be so easy to be pessimistic. God had called them in optimism, and they can take God at His word, why? Because God is able to do what He said. Its His nature, and its within His power to do so. Words are meaningless unless you have the power to make or bring about the change that youre expressing. If I say to you, Im going to lower the price of gas in our country. Im going to bring gas prices to where they were in 1978 when I graduated from high school-$0.62 a gallon. Do you get excited? Do you run out of here going, Pastor Jeffs going to lower gas! Oh, its going to be awesome! Well, youre going to be in for a surprise tomorrow when you get to the gas pump, and youre still paying four bucks. Why? Because I cant do a thing about it. But if the Arab nations get together, and theres a news conference, and they say, Were going to put gas at $20. Oil is now going to be $20 a barrel. If they make a statement like that, you get excited, right? Why? Because you know they have the power to do what they said theyre going to do. When God says, I dont care how dismal the circumstances, I dont care how dark, I dont care how drastic the change, He says, Im going to give you a bright future and a hope, I can believe it because God can do what He said. The encouraging thing is the same God who wrote these words is your God. The same promise that He spoke to His people, He speaks to us today-the same promise. Hes just as able to bring it about as He was when He spoke these words through Jeremiah in 586 B.C. When I was in high school, I went to this school called Rockford East. We were very good in athletics. We had a large school. My freshman class had almost 1,000 kids in it to start. [We were] very competitive in almost every sport. Our best sport was football. We were on a roll. When I was a freshman in high school, our football team was phenomenal. These guys hadnt lost a game since they were in junior high school-all the way through high school, undefeated freshman, undefeated sophomores, undefeated… Now, they were entering into this new bracket in the state tournament. Theyre beating everybody. They went on and they just won. When they got to the state championship game, it wasnt even close. They blew everybody away. Ten guys from that team played Division 1 football. They went on to play Division 1. Four guys from that team ended up being drafted by the NFL. Can you imagine that? Four guys from one high school team drafted by the NFL. I watched them play in bowl games when I was a kid. I remember watching our star running back, a guy by the name of Ira Matthews. He went on to play for the Wisconsin Badgers. Some of you guys remember Ira? He set some school records. He was drafted by the Oakland Raiders, led the NFL in kickoff returns. I remember watching Howard Cosell when he returned a touchdown back. Some of you guys might remember that game. Ira returned a touchdown, and Howard Cosell was calling the play. I remember watching that little black and white TV going, I know that guy! Howard Cosells talking about him! It was just surreal. Anyway, before any of that, while he was a senior and I was a freshman, we were playing a game of basketball. It was the starting center for the sophomore team and the starting forward for the freshman team, both really good players on one side. On the other side, it was Ira and myself. So, were playing ball, and were playing to 20 by 2s. There were no 3s back when I was playing basketball. That dates myself a little bit. So, were playing ball, and were losing 16-4. Its make-it/take-it, which means if you make the shot, you get the ball back. As long as you score and you keep the ball… And when you played make-it/take-it, you could run up some pretty lopsided scores because youre never getting the ball. Youre never getting on offense. Its 16-4. Were playing to 20. They need two more baskets to win. Ira calls a time-out. So we go off to the side, and we start working on some strategies, Okay, heres some things we need to do. Ira was very calm; he was very poised. He was not riled or upset. Hes not trash-talking. They cant hear anything that were saying. Then he looks at me with this intent look on his face. The last thing he says to me-I dont remember the strategy. I just remember the last words he said to me before he broke the huddle. He said, Were going to win this game, just like that. Maybe I looked down; maybe I looked discouraged. Were going to win. My first reaction was, How? Were losing 16-4. Theyre killing us! I didnt say that, but my first reaction was, How? Then I remembered something. This was Ira Matthews. This guy was going to play for the Badgers. This guy led our team to state. This guy is a phenomenal athlete. This guy has uncanny speed, instinct and ability. We broke the huddle; I walked out of the huddle thinking, I think were going to win. I dont know how, but I think we will. [The score was] 16-4, and Im optimistic. Guess what happened? We won the game. We came back and beat them! When we beat them, I wasnt surprised because I knew that those werent just empty words; but this was a guy who could bring it to pass. Of course, I did most of the scoring (congregation laughing), a few dunks and 360s and stuff, but anyway, that's another sermon. Im glad you see the humor in that. So, heres Israel. They look like theyre out of it; they look like theyre going to lose. Theres no hope, Were abandoned as a nation, as a people; the life we knew, its gone. It will never return. God says, Listen, Israel, this is the place I wanted you to be at all the time. This change has come on you, and its hard; but guess what? Youre going to grow spiritually through this event. Youre going to learn to have faith in the midst of adversity. Youre going to call upon My name and guess what? Youre going to win. Youre going to come out on top. It looks bleak right now, but youre going to win. Those werent just empty words. Those were spoken by a God who had the power to do what He said He could do, and He still does; this promise still applies. I dont know what change or hardship that youre going through, but this promise is for you today. God is still on the throne. Somebody greater than Ira is on your team, and He says, Youre going to win today. Youre going to prevail. One of my favorite artists is a singer by the name of Steven Curtis Chapman. He wrote a lot of good songs, and we have remembered him in our prayers recently after the loss of his daughter. He wrote a song about change, taking risks and walking in faith. Its a song called Diving In. He talks about Gods promise, and he says, The rivers deep. The rivers wide. The rivers water is alive, but sink or swim, Im diving in. Were going to listen to that song right now, and end on that positive note, so lets watch Diving In. (Lyrics can be found here: http://www.christianlyricsonline.com/artists/steven-curtis-chapman/dive.html.) All right, lets pray together. Thank you for your love offering as well. Im excited to hear what Gods going to do through that. Father, we thank You for Jeremiah. We thank You that this man of God who for over two decades faithfully proclaimed Your truth. In spite of the ridicule, in spite of being ignored, in spite of being beaten, in spite of his life being threatened, he did. He was broken-hearted when the city fell, and the people didnt listen. Then You used him to write a powerful letter. This time the people were ready to listen. The letter said that Youd not abandoned them. Though their lives were going through tremendous upheaval and change, Lord, You were calling them to stability in the midst of that change. You were calling them to spiritual growth, and You were calling them to have optimism and hope in spite of the negative things that had happened to them. Those words had power and meaning because You were able to do exactly what You said You could do. You still are, so Lord I pray for the one this morning whos gone through change that is negative; who has gone through loss and hardship; whos tempted to struggle in bitterness; whos tempted to retreat. I pray that they would hold fast to that promise. I pray they would grow in their faith. I pray their lives are returned to normal. I pray that they would have optimism and hope because of the God whose they are and whom they serve. In Jesus name, we pray, Amen.
We are on a series, Is There Life After GM? GM-it either represents literal GM, General Motors Company and Companies like LSI, Lear Seating and others who are going to be affected by the plant closing, or it represents just loss in general. It represents the things that are taken from us and how we cope with that, how we handle those changes. Last week we talked about anxiety and fear of something that might happen. We talked about how anxiety and fear have emotional, psychological and sometimes physical tolls on our well-being and how we need to deal with anxiety from the Bible perspective. This week were going to be looking at it from the opposite perspective. Were going to be talking about it from the perspective or the vantage point of if it does happen… The thing that we have feared has happened. Job talks about that in the book were going to be looking-Job 3:25 (page 498 of pew Bibles). Job says, The thing that I feared has come upon me; what I dreaded has happened to me. Job says, The thing that I feared; so if it happens, what do we do? There are things that happen in all of our lives that cause anger, suffering and the loss that we endure. Those hardships-and Ive observed this and youve observed this-those things can either draw us closer to God or push us further away. They can either make us grow in our character, Godliness and righteousness, or they can cause us to be bitter, angry and resentful. I recently went to-or actually this Friday-my 10-year high school reunion (congregation laughing). Okay, my 20-year high school reunion (congregation laughing more); okay, my 30-year high school reunion; are you happy? Do you feel better about yourselves now? Thats as far as Im going right there. Im not going anymore, 30 years! Having conversations with classmates that literally Id not seen since 1978 when I graduated from high school. I heard a lot of stories and a lot of hardship stories, deaths, divorces and physical hardships. It was interesting-there were some I talked to who had emerged from those hardships and storms and were stronger as a person. They would tell me all the wonderful things that they appreciate about life and how it strengthened their faith and made them a better person. There were others I talked to who had gone through similar storms who were still stuck in the storm. The storm had hit years ago, and they were still stuck there. Theyre angry; theyre bitter; and theyre resentful. Rather than growing them as a person, it seems like its diminished them as people. There are decisions we can make and action steps we can take that will bring us closer to where we need to be. My family and I were hiking at Starved Rock this week in Illinois-La Salle/Peru. Its hard to get lost in Starved Rock in the hiking trails because on every trail, so many feet, there are signs that either say away or return. Its very nice. So Im on this trail. The way Im going-if Im going the wrong way, it says return-Ill know I need to turn around and walk the other way on the trail to get back to headquarters, to get back to home base where my car is parked. If Im walking where it says away, Im going farther and farther from home base. It would be kind of nice if life were like that as we traveled-decisions that weve made-there was a sign that said, Wrong way. Wrong decision. Thatd be nice. We have that in our cars now; its our GPS. We sometimes even argue with that. I got into an argument with my GPS a couple weeks ago. I was on a road going north. Wisconsins north of Illinois; I was in Illinois. I caught a road north, and it was telling me to turn around. I said, No. I am going north, and I want to go north. It would say, Please turn your car around immediately. I would say, I am going north. Youre wrong! I kept watching the time of arrival get longer and longer. It was getting mad at me. It was like, Turn around, you loser! I finally gave in, relented and turned around. It was right. I was going the wrong direction. There are times we think were going the right [direction], but were going to talk about some action steps that Job took that led him closer to God. Talk about laws. Its one thing to lose our jobs; its one thing to struggle in our economy; but to lose what Job lost and still keep your faith is an amazing accomplishment. It really is. Turn in your Bibles to the Book of Job 1. While youre turning there, Ill just tell you a little bit about Job. Job is the oldest book in the Bible as far as when it was written. Genesis, of course, talks about the beginning. Genesis was written by Moses. Job lived before Moses, so this is the oldest book in all the Bible. It tells a story about a man who lived before there was a nation of Israel, before God had set apart a people for Himself, the struggles and trials he went though. Job was a blessed man. He had a wonderful family; he had ten children. He loved these children so much that he would sacrifice for them every morning in case they had sinned, and he wasnt aware of it. Thats how much he loved his kids-every morning. He had thousands of sheep, thousands of camels, oxen, donkeys; he was worth a lot of money. That was his livelihood and his lifestyle. He had many servants. Job was a blessed man. The Bible says he was the greatest man in the East. One day calamity struck Job; a storm struck Job. Have you ever had those days where it just seems like one thing after another is going wrong? Well, whatever day youve had, it doesnt compare to what Job had. He had a day where one servant after another came in and told him devastating news. The first guy comes in and says, The sheep were all slaughtered. Sabeans came in and took all the sheep, and theyre gone. Another army came in and took all the camels. Theyre gone. Another thing happened, and all the servants were taken. One after another of these bad reports. I, alone, am left. Finally, the worst report-the worst he could ever hear-he received a report that all of his children-all ten-were at one of the brothers homes celebrating; and a storm came. The pillars of the house were taken, and the roof collapsed; and all of Jobs children were gone-all of his children. Job is crushed; hes devastated. The Bible says he ripped his robe, and he shaved his head, which was a Hebrew custom when you went into mourning. The Bible said after doing that, he fell on the ground and…? Worshipped. He ascribed worth to God. What does that tell us about the integrity and mindset of Job? He understood that God was sovereign or that God was in control, that God ultimately owned all things and all people; they all belonged to Him, not to Job. So, Job said these words-very famous (Job 1:21, page 497 of pew Bibles), Naked I came from my mothers womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised. In all of this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing. How about that? He understood the sovereignty of God. That is going to be a foundation that will serve him well. Understanding that everything we have, everyone in our lives, belong to Him. So [these were] some practical steps that Job took that will lead us closer to where we need to be. Number one: Job learned how to shed bad advice. There are going to be some friends there to come on the scene pretty soon, Bildad, Zophar, Eliphaz; theyre going to come on the scene. Theyre going to lecture Job. Theyre going to try to give Job some correction. Theyre very self-righteous and arrogant. Job is going to take whats good, and hes going to reject whats bad. Even his own wife is going to give him some bad counsel. Job learned how to shed bad advice. You and I, we go through times of emotional hardship and loss; we are very vulnerable. We need to learn to use wisdom and discretion and weigh what people say to us. If it doesnt line up with the Word of God, if it doesnt line up with righteousness and truth, then we dont take it in to our vessel that causes us to sink even further. We need to learn how to shed bad counsel, no matter who the source is. Job did that, Chapter 2:9 (page 497). His pain has gotten even worse because now he has boils all over his body. Now he is suffering physically as well as emotionally and spiritually. His wife sees his condition, and she says, Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die. Wow! Those are some pretty harsh words there, arent they? What shes saying is this: Listen, if thats the way Gods going to treat you, obviously He wants to kill you; get it over with. Curse Him and die! He replied, Are you talking like a foolish woman? Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble? Youre talking like a foolish woman. My wife gave me some bad counsel this week. I had to just shed it, reject it. She said, We dont really need the NFL season ticket this year. I said, Youre talking like a crazy woman! Just reject that advice; its bad counsel. You have to learn what youre going to take in and what youre going to dispel, so thats what Job does. I noticed also that Job grieved his loss. He grieved his loss. You dont need to suppress it; repress it; grieve it; experience the emotion of it. When youre sad, cry. When youre in mourning, if you need to be silent, be silent; but grieve the loss that youre going through. If this plant shuts down, we should grieve that as a community; but then we move on. Then we take those same skills and that work ethic that has made it successful, and we begin to put it into other areas. Well be just as successful. Its not that we value that any less; its the fact that we have hard workers, the fact that we have good work ethic. That has made that plant successful. Those skills and that hard work ethic are still in our community, but there is going to be a time when we need to grieve that loss. If something happens to you-the divorce takes place that you feared, you lose your job, economic hardship, physical hardship-its important that you grieve that loss of what youre going through. It says in the Bible that Job and his friends mourned for seven days, Verse 13. It says, Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights. No one said a word to him, because they saw how great his suffering was. I want to tell you something. Thats the best job they did. Its when they opened their mouths that they got in trouble. Sometimes you think if youre coming by a person whos grieving, who is suffering, who has gone through a loss, and you have to come up with something wonderful to say… You have to be this spiritual Dr. Phil and give this great advice. The best thing his friends did was just listened, just sat with him, just loved on him. Thats the best thing you can do for somebody thats really hurting. Just be with them; just tell them you love them; just spend time with them if they want you to. Its the best thing you can do. You dont have to have all the answers. They finally opened up their mouths, and a lot of the things they said were the wrong stuff. Job probably wishes they were quiet again. Another thing that Job did here was Job expressed his thoughts and his feelings. When the time came for Job to talk, he talked. When he was frustrated, he talked about his frustration. When he was confused, he talked about his confusion. When he was angry, he expressed his anger. When he was sorrowful, he expressed his sorrow. Job was real and authentic about his thoughts and feelings about his friends, about God, about life and about his circumstances. One of the unhealthiest things you can do… You want to get fixated or stuck and not process grief, suppress it. If you dont talk about it-pretend it didnt happen-youll get stuck right there. One of the healthiest things you can do is to talk about what youre going through, your thoughts and your feelings. No holds barred, and thats what he did here. Job says in Chapter 7:11 (page 501), Therefore I will not keep silent; I will speak out in the anguish of my spirit, I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. Did he lose his faith in God? No. But he did struggle with his reality. He did let God know what he was thinking and feeling. There are a lot of things we could read, a lot of examples, but I picked out Chapter 30. A lot of things Job said are dark. We should never read it and go, Well, Job really didnt mean that. What Job really meant was this, because Job really did mean what he said. He says some dark things in there; he really meant it. If youd lost all your children, your job, your finances and your health, you might say some dark things too. You have to understand when they came with the news to Job and said, Youve lost 7,000 camels and so many oxen and sheep, that was his livelihood. That was his future. That would be like somebody coming to you and saying, The stock market crashed. Your portfolios worthless. Of course, thats kind of happening now, isnt it? Someone might come to you and say, The economy is terrible, and were cutting back your job. Now you cant pay your mortgage, and you lose your home. That was the economic news that was brought. Not only have you lost your livelihood now, but youve lost your retirement, Job. Then he lost his health. Thats the equivalent of what Job went through, so this is a very appropriate example for us to look at. Verse 19 of Chapter 30 (page 519), Job is speaking of God. He said, He throws me into the mud, and I am reduced to dust and ashes. I cry out to You, O God, but You do not answer; I stand up, but You merely look at me. God, you dont do anything about my condition. You dont seem to care what Im going through. You turn on me ruthlessly; with the might of Your hand You attack me. You snatch me up and dry me before the wind; You toss me about in the storm. Youre like a bully, God, because youre more powerful than I. Youre pushing me around. I know youll bring me down to death to the place appointed for all the living. Surely no one lays a hand on a broken man when he cries for help in his distress. Have I not wept for those in trouble? Has not my soul grieved for the poor? Havent I been a good person? Havent I been a righteousness man? Yet when I hoped for good, evil came; and when I looked for light, then came darkness. Thats the kind of thing that Job expresses. Job is real and authentic in his faith; and being real and authentic in his faith enabled him to keep his faith. Thats what we need to be. Were going through hardship and loss. We need to express to others and to God what were thinking, feeling and going through. Its a healthy thing to do. Now because of those right actions, Job is going to reap some precise results in his life. Were going to turn all the way to Chapter 42 in Job. If you want to read the rest of the book, thats all right. There is a lot of dialogue; Bildad will say his point of view, and Job will answer; Eliphaz will say his thing; Zophar will say his thing, and Job will answer. They have this debate, and he raises a lot of questions to God. He asks God why a lot of times. He talks about his destitute situation, and God finally comes on the scene-Chapter 38. God comes on the scene, and Job has asked why, why, why. God comes on the scene and starts to answer Job, and guess what God does not do? He does not answer the why questions? Interesting, isnt it? What does God do? Instead of saying, Okay Job, heres why this. Heres why that. Heres why bad things happen to good people. Heres why suffering and evil are present in the world. Heres why death… Heres why this; heres why that… God does not do that. God, instead, begins to list His credentials. From Chapters 38, 39, 40 and 41, one verse after another, God begins to list his credentials, what He does. He asks the question, Can you do this? Do you understand this? Were you there when this happened, when I created this, when I called forth that? Do you know this? Do you know that? Of course, Job knows the answer to none of those things. Job was criticizing His job as being God, Youre not doing Your job the right way. If I were God, heres how Id do it. God comes down and says, You dont have a clue what its like to be God. Its kind of like that movie Bruce Almighty, if you ever saw that movie with Jim Carey and Morgan Freeman. You think its so easy to be God? Here, Ill give you My powers for awhile. You take over. Have you ever had anybody criticize you for the job that you do who knows nothing about your job? Yet, they think they know better than you? Anybody ever had that happen? They know nothing about your job. I never have. Ive never had anybody criticize my job as senior pastor who knows nothing about what it takes to lead a church, what you do. Its never happened to me, but maybe it will someday. You listen to those criticisms sometimes, and you think to yourself, They just dont know. They just dont understand. If they only understood, they wouldnt make that statement. God comes on the scene and says, Job, you just dont understand. Job learns something very significant. Job learned that why questions are not the questions he should be asking, but the how and what are the questions he should be asking. By the way, before I read this, I want to tell you something really weird that happened. Remember Thursday night that thunderstorm? Im trying to read through all of Job-all the way through it; Im right around Chapter 40, and its 2 A.M. Im in bed, Im reading this, Brendas sleeping, and right as I read, God says, Do you have an arm like Me? Can you speak with a voice of thunder? it goes CRASH outside! Do you remember that storm Thursday night? Was that scary or what? That was just loud. There were some claps of thunder that were so [loud]. That one was the worst! Brenda woke up instantly. I said, I bet you Lindseys in here any second now. Sure enough, she and the puppy come walking in the room right as Im finishing that sentence. Do you have a voice like thunder? and the thunder crashed! Wow! That was scary. Verse 1 of 42, Job replied to the Lord: I know that You can do all things; no plan (or no purpose) of Yours can be thwarted. You asked, Who is this that obscures My counsel without knowledge? Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know. You said, Listen now, and I will speak; I will question you, and you shall answer Me. Job learned the questions that he needed to be asking were the questions of what and how. Job says, Its about Your purpose, God. So if Im asking purpose questions, it is what can You teach me through this loss? How can this loss bring me into the person that You want me to be? How can this make me more righteous? How can this make me more Christ-like? How can this strengthen my faith? What will this teach me that I can teach to others? Those are the kinds of questions that we need to be asking, those purpose questions-the what and the how. Not necessarily the why; I think the reason that God did not answer the why for Jobs questions is because literally Job and I and you would not be able to understand the answers. Ill give you an example of this, and Ive shared this illustration before, so some of you might have heard it; but until you can give me a better one, Im going to keep using it. My daughter was one-year-old, my oldest daughter. She had eye issues, so she was going to have to get a prescription for her eyes. I thought how in the world do you get a prescription for a one-year-old who cant talk, cant tell you what theyre seeing? She cant tell me where the red dot is. She cant communicate to them, but they have specialists that do that. So we took her to Madison. It was just her and me and the doctor. He put the solution in her eyes to dilate her pupils. It burned, and she started to cry. Then he had to do the other eye. The look on her face… He said, Dad, Im going to need you to… She wasnt about to let him do the second eye. Burn me once, shame on you; burn me twice… She wasnt about to do the second eye. He said, Dad, Im going to need you to hold back her hands. How tough is that to do? How do you explain to a one-year-old not only is Dad going to let this bad man put another drop in your other eye that hurts, but Dads going to hold your arms back so he can do it. How do you explain that? The look on her face was like, Dad! Youre going to hold me back so this man can do this again? Im talking to her, and its like, Its okay, sweetheart. Its going to be okay. Youre just hoping in her little spirit with all the love youve given her and all the support youve given her that she knows your nature and she knows your heart and that she will allow you [to do this]. Though I know she doesnt understand it, she will trust me as her dad to know that if this man was trying to destroy her, I would stop him. You just have to trust that. She just got that look in her face like, How could you let this happen? Why is this going on? He put that second drop in, and I just held her while she cried, trying to make it better. The truth of the matter is thats all I had going for me-her to trust that I love her. If I would have answered the why question for my daughter at age one, if I would have said, Listen, sweetheart, heres whats going on. You have eye issues, and this is a pediatric optometrist, and he is going to be running a series of tests. This solution will dilate your pupils. Its going to enable him to run some series of tests, and then hell prescribe some glasses for you. With these glasses, youll have better vision in your eyes. Okay, sweetie? Understand that now? You know where she was at in the realm of eyes at that age? Heres where she was at: Eye? Thats right; thats an eye. Then shed come up to my face, and shed touch mine and go, Eye? Right, Daddy has an eye, too. These are eyes. We see with our eyes. Thats where she was at when she was age one. If the doctor had come to me and said, Listen, Jeff, let me explain to you how this solution dilates a pupil. Let me explain to you the intricacies of every test Im going to use to evaluate your daughters eyesight. Hed used all of his medical school training and every technical word. When he would have finished, I would have looked at him, and I would have said, Eye? (Congregation laughing.) Dr. Eye? I wouldnt have caught any of that. You know why? Because I had not been to eye doctor school. So my daughters here. Im here. The eye doctor is up here somewhere. (Pastor is using his hands to portray a chart in front of him.) So heres Job. Job and you and I-when it comes to just what life is, and I dont care how smart you think you are-youre at that very base level of life; and God is way up here-way above the doctor somewhere. God tries to explain. He says, Listen, He talks about putting the stars in place and the sea and the waves. He talks about the ecosystem and the sun coming forth. He says, Listen, you cant even understand, Job, the things you see every day, the things you take for granted in life that you see every day. You dont even understand how I did that. How in the world, Job, will you ever understand the intricacies of life, why things happen and how they happen? Job, even if I answered your question, youre not going to understand, so Ill simply give you my credentials. If the doctor would have explained to me all the intricacies of what he was doing, I wouldnt have understood. I would have gone back to, You know what? I see the credentials on the wall. I see patients in your office. I see a clinic. Theres a reputation here. You seem to know what youre talking about. I am going to trust the care of my daughters eyesight into your hands. This was a man I had never met before. [I trusted him] because of the evidence that is around me. So God says, Look at My credentials. Look at the evidence that is all around you, and trust Me. Is not the food I give you good to taste? Did not His Son die on the cross for our sins? Did not he offer up His Son? We trust in the goodness of God, and we entrust the care of our soul and life over to Him-though we dont understand everything that happens, the loss were going through. Job came to the point of acceptance. He once said, Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him. What Job was saying is, I trust in the wisdom of God. I trust in the sovereignty of God, the knowledge of God, that He is qualified to do the job Hes doing. Im entrusting the care of myself to Him. There are sometimes that life puts solution in our eyes, and it hurts. When its all said and done, we see better. We see more clearly. You know that road map I was telling you about at the park? We carried it with us everywhere to see the different canyons and waterfalls, but there was also a map posted so many places along the road. Every time there was a fork in the road, thered be another map, You are here. Where the home base was, there was a question mark. There was a big question mark on the map, so you could find it. Whyd they put that there? It was the visitors center; thats where you go to get all your questions answered. God says, As were on this journey, we follow the signs that bring us closer to home. Theres coming a day when you and I will arrive home. There, the questions will be answered. Paul says, Now we see through a glass dimly. Then, we will know fully even as we have been fully known. Until then, we are in the realm of faith and trust. Sometimes thats very hard. I spoke to a man Saturday night after church. Hed not been to church since he was a little child. He came to service for the first time since he was a little child last night. He said to me, I lost both my children-one in 2004 and one in 2005. God really spoke to me today. It wasnt a coincidence that Im here today. Thats what Job learned. He said, Thats going to be my job. Im going to trust You, God. Another thing that Job did, and Ill just touch on this, was Job had a lot of animosity towards his friends because of the things they said to him, Youre a sinful man. Thats why this is happening to you, and all of these other kinds of things. Job would be sarcastic. Hed give it right back. He would say, Oh, yeah sure, Bildad, and wisdom started with you, and its going to die with you. Oh, yeah Zophar, youre so smart, and I dont know anything. Hed give it right back; so there was a little bit of animosity and anger because instead of helping them, they troubled him. Eventually, after meeting with God, he heals to the point where hes able to take his eyes off himself and focus on his friends. It says in Verse 10, After Job had prayed for his friends, when? After Job had prayed for his friends-he had taken his eyes off himself, and he began to look around him. It says, Then God made him prosperous again and gave him twice as much as he had before. No coincidence. When Job forgave and released and began to pray for his friends, he took his eyes off himself. He began to minister to others. God released blessing into Jobs live. Job learned to take life day by day. Job once had the world by the tail. He had a family; he was rich; he had security for the future; he had his health, and in one day-one moment-it was all taken away. He learned the fragileness of life; he learned the fickleness of life. He learned to hold things loosely. He needed to trust God and take life one day at a time. You say, How do you know Job learned that? I know that from Verse 14. Look at Verse 14. Remember he had ten children. God gives him ten more children. Of course you cant replace the ten that you lost, but God gives him ten more. It says in Verse 14, The first daughter he named Jemimah. See, I told you. You know what it means in the Hebrew, Jemimah? Literally, [it means] day by day. Thats what the word means. So his child comes into the world, and Job says, Im going to name my child day by day because thats how Im going to live my life, one day at a time. I dont know what the future holds, but I do know this: God was with me in the storm, and Im going to trust Him to be with me in the future. I dont know what tomorrow holds for our community; what it holds for the plant; what it holds for your job, for our economy; what kind of losses you might face; but I do know one thing-Gods already there. We look to Him. [If] we follow these principals from His word, well be as ready for the storm as we can possibly be. The storm will still be hard; it will still be difficult to navigate, but well be ready. When its all done, well be stronger; our faith will be greater. One of my favorite song writers, a man that can really write a song, is Rich Mullins. I know you know Our God is an Awesome God and those kinds of songs. If youve never bought any of his music, its not too late. Hes still selling it, and the money still goes to benefit Native American children. One of my favorite songs Rich Mullins ever penned was a song called, Ready for the Storm. So were pulling this out of our achieves. We did this a long time ago; but as we conclude our sermon this morning, Id just like you to listen to the words of this song as Rich Mullins sings about that fact. Lets go ahead and play the song. (You can find the lyrics here: http://www.kidbrothers.net/wohsoe.html#rfts.) Well, next week is part four-already part four of the series that weve been on. Were going to be talking about change. As they say, the only consistent thing in life is change. Its going to be taking a rigid stand of flexibility. So well be talking about change over the next couple of weeks together. I invite you to bow your head with me as we close in prayer. Anybody here this morning who really needs special prayer, a loss youre going through, a hardship, a difficulty-could you just raise your hand so we can see that and be praying for you? Lets see those hands all around our sanctuary. We have people up front who are going to be praying with you too for those who raised their hands and others would like to come forward. You can come forward for special prayer. Theyre your brothers and sisters in Christ; and they want to just stand with you and meet in prayer for what youre going through. I just encourage you to come forward as soon as we say Amen. You can meet with them up here in front for a few moments and share whats going on in your heart and in your life. Father, we thank You for the example of Job, this great man. We see, definitely, that bad things happen to good people. We know that, and we are tempted to ask the why question. We get certain answers, but Lord, the ultimate answers are beyond what we can grasp-a perfect opportunity to answer those ultimate questions. God, You have made Your credentials known. You humbled Job, and You humble us. We really have no idea what its like to rule the world, so Lord, as Your servants-as Your creation-we humbly submit and bow. We trust in Your sovereignty, Your goodness. We trust our souls to Your care. Sometimes the things that are put into our eyes sting and hurt. We see life more preciously. We struggle and we fight. We dont want those drops to get inside because they hurt. Sometimes we feel Your restraint as You hold us and try to tell us, Trust Me. God, help us to do that. Help us to make decisions and follow steps that will take us closer, not farther away-closer to that place where all the questions are ultimately answered. Father, help us to be a people who grieve our losses, who have discernment and know what advice to take in and what advice and counsel to cast off. Help us to be people who are genuine, real and express our feelings, thoughts and emotions; who are able to take our eyes off of our own lives and pray for and be concerned over others; people who learn to ask the what and the how questions when we go through those difficulties; and people who learn to take life day by day. Thank You for the things Youre teaching us. Thank You for growing us. Thank You that Youre going to use these messages not only for the people that are here, but people that we know-people on the internet, people in television and people that weve yet to know. Youre going to use these words from the Scripture, and Youre going to bring comfort and hope to their lives. I pray that You bring us back here safely next week as we talk about change and just take reassurance that the one person who does not change is You. In Your name, we rest and trust, Amen.
Lets open our Bibles up this morning to Acts 27. The series were beginning today is called, Is There Life After GM? The answer, of course, is yes. We are still praying for a miracle. Were still praying that some solution could be reached, of course; but this is so significant because as a community, we have heard about the rumor or the possibility of this happening for decades. When I came to town in 1990, it was something you heard almost every year-that GM is going to shut down; GM is going to shut down. The rumors would not always be true. We would all kind of breathe a sigh of relief knowing that they would resurface again down the road. However, this time it appears as though its going to happen. What I want to do is minister to the anxieties and fears that we might be experiencing right now because if this happens, it means a loss of thousands of jobs in our community. We need to be on the cutting edge of that as a church, saying, Well, heres what the Word of God says. Heres what we can offer as hope to people who are struggling with those kinds of fears and anxieties. [As a church we] also [need] to put together a resource, a tool that six months from now, a year from now, two years from now, when we feel like theres somebody in our lives who would really benefit from this series [we will have it readily available]. Maybe they have lost their job at LSI, GM, Lear Seating or one of the companies. Maybe theyre just going through a loss because GM for us, if you dont work there or you dont work at one of the subsidies means loss. It means something that is a threat to us, something that we have feared that has finally come to pass. This week and next week, the topic is what do I do when the thing that I have feared happens? There are good fears, and there are bad fears. Good fear is not touching something thats hot or not getting too close to a cliff. When Im at the Grand Canyon, I can see just fine from back here, thank you. Thats wisdom; thats a good fear. Then there are fears that are not so good. The anxiety that builds up over what may or may not happen-thats the kind of fear that God doesnt want you to live in. Thats the kind of fear that if you live in it, it will make you physically ill; mentally unstable; deplete you spiritually. Thats the kind of fear that God always said, Do not be afraid, because He doesnt want us to live in that fear. It happens. Its a part of the human process. There are times we go through those periods, but God does not want us to live there. God wants us to live in faith; so were going to take a look at the Apostle Paul, and were going to see what happened in his life and how he was able to stay in faith when all those around him were living in fear. Whats going on in Pauls life here is you know Paul is a seasoned traveler and a seasoned sailor-greatest missionary of all time, always going around the world proclaiming the Gospel where Christ had not been preached about yet. He had been on ships many times and gone to many places, but this one was different. This time was different: the same salty taste in the air; the same crispness as fall approached; seagulls flying; the blue Mediterranean Sea: all the sights and sounds he was familiar with. This time instead of embarking on an exciting adventure to preach the Gospel, he was on his way to Rome to testify before Caesar about his faith. His fate was unknown. Would he be imprisoned? Would he be killed? As Paul embarked on that journey, all these questions were with him. Some companions were with him; Luke was with him; Aristarchus was with him; possibly others were there to support him on this journey. Many commentators have said that possibly these men sold themselves into slavery to be able to go along with Paul. Well never know for sure, but this was a mission or a trip in which prisoners were there. They were all being brought to Rome. Normally, prisoners dont speak. Youre a prisoner; you dont have any rights. Paul had earned such favor with the centurion, the Roman soldier who was in charge of the ship, that he allowed Paul the right to speak. Paul began to admonish them. In Acts 27, he had been on the sea many times. He knew that you didnt sail in the fall in the Mediterranean Sea. Many a ship had ended up in a graveyard in northern Africa. In fact it was kind of like the ancient Bermuda Triangle; if you sailed in the fall on the Mediterranean Sea into the Adriatic Sea, the current and the winds would push you into the rocks of northern Africa. Thats where you would parish, and he knew that. It was the stuff of legends, the stuff of folklore. He is given an audience, and he speaks. He says, Its not wise for us to sail at this time. Lets stay here. Theyre in a place called Fair Haven, a small port in the island of Crete. He said, Its not ideal, the winter here, but its a whole lot better than perishing at sea. Paul says, I want you to know that if you embark on this journey… The feast had already come and passed. It was now October; October was not a good time to sail. Paul says, If we sail right now, its going to mean the loss of your cargo. Its going to mean the loss of your ship, and it probably will mean the loss of lives at sea. Its not worth it. Lets stay here, cope the best we can and well leave again in the spring. The Centurion listened to Paul. Then he went and talked to the ships captain and the people in charge of the cargo. What do you think they said? Money talks, right? Theyve got wheat; theyve got corn from Egypt; they want to get to Rome and sell it to make a profit. There are jobs at stake; the livelihood is at stake. Besides that, the weathers not bad. It seems to be a nice breeze, and Finix (sounds like Phoenix) is not that far away; so that was their goal-to get to the next port of call, which is Finix-not Arizona-but Finix, Crete. They said, Well winter there. Its a bigger city. Winters a long time. Well have ample supply, so they did not head Pauls admonition. They got on the ship and sailed out to sea. Not long after they were at sea, a noreaster came, a storm of tremendous winds and waves. It just began to damage that boat. It just began to scare those men. They actually had some cables and physically wrapped them around the boat to hold it together. Otherwise, it would have just broken apart right there in the middle of the sea. The winds were so great, they couldnt even sail. They simply let the winds push them along the sea. This was a destitute situation. The Bible says they began to throw out cargo. I mean quicker than Brett Favre can come back from retirement, they were throwing things out right and left. Anything that wasnt nailed down, they were throwing it out. They were throwing out some of the grain as well. They were throwing out the ships tackle. Just about everything was fair game. They were throwing it out trying to make the ship lighter. Paul gets up to preach. Really the meat of the text, the heart of the text, is the verses were going to look at right now beginning with Verse 20. Lets take a look. The storm is at sea. The worst thing that could happen when youre at sea is the ship goes under-the ship breaks apart. Verse 20 (of Acts 27, page 1109 of pew Bibles) says-remember now Luke is writing; Luke the author is with Paul, so hes writing in the first person. He says we because hes there. When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the storm continued raging, we finally gave up all hope of being saved. If he says we gave up, that is an inclusive term, isnt it? Hes saying all of us gave up hope of being saved, so who would that include? Paul. Paul would be among those who at that point in time had entered into despair and given up hope. You know, even if youre a Godly person and you go through a storm, if you take your eyes off where theyre supposed to be and whom theyre supposed to be on, you too can lose hope and faith. Pauls not going to stay there; but for a time, Paul had given despair, according to Luke, of his very life. After the men had gone a long time without food, Paul stood up before them and said: Men, you should have taken my advice not to sail from Crete; then you would have spared yourselves this damage and loss. Some have thought, well maybe Paul is doing like a na-na-na-na-na kind of a thing, an I told you so. You didnt listen to me kind of a lecture. I really think what Pauls doing is trying to give Crete some credibility to what hes about to say. Hes saying, Listen, some of you didnt listen to me. All you know is Im a prisoner, but you didnt listen to me the first time, and look what happened. So, Im asking you-Im reminding you of that-so youll listen to me; youll heed my warning this time around. He said, But now I urge you to keep up your courage; because not one of you will be lost; only the ship will be destroyed. This is kind of a good news/bad news kind of a thing. Nobody is going to die, but the ships going to be destroyed. You start thinking about it; you go, Wait a second. Im on the ship. The ships at sea. The ships going to be destroyed, yet Im going to be okay. This is kind of a paradox. This is not good news. A pilot gets on the intercom in the airplane and says, Listen. Good news and bad news. Bad news is were going to crash. The good news is everybodys going to survive. That's not the greatest of news. The ships going to be destroyed, but youre going to make it. What happened to Paul to bring him from despair to hope? From fear to faith? What happened? It says in Verse 23, he says, Last night, an angel of the God whose I am and whom I serve stood beside me and said, Do not be afraid, Paul. Step number one-action step number one by Paul, and if you can do it, its great. Its to have an angel come and speak to you-Gods Will. That's always good. So step number one-if you can do it, have an angel appear to you and tell you everythings going to be okay. Just remember that. If you cant do that, I have some more steps, but thats always a good one if you can do that. He said, Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand trial before Caesar; and God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you. So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will happen just as He told me. Thats a definition of faith, right there. Paul says, I believe that God will do what He said He will do. You want a definition of faith, thats it. Trust in God; believe that God will do what He said He will do regardless of the circumstances that surround. Nevertheless, we must run aground on some island. I dont know where; I dont know how; I dont know when, but he reiterates a second time theyre going to crash. Three action steps that Paul took to get out of fear and into faith, out of anxiety and into trust: number one, Paul recognized the personal care of God. Notice in Verse 23 the intimate language that Paul uses. He says an angel of the God whose I am-whose I am; I belong to Him. I am His. Jesus is not just a theological figure to Paul. Hes not some creed or some doctrine. He is His Lord and Savior. He knows Jesus, and Jesus knows Him. Paul remembers that. You and I, when we encounter the storms of our lives [need] to remember that God is not ignorant of the storms that were not in. God is aware of our situation, and God knows us. Whose I am; I belong to Him. This brings to mind a passage in 1 Peter 5. If you could keep your place in Acts, turn to 1 Peter 5. One of my favorite verses in all of Scripture-especially as it pertains to the subject matter-is found here. Verse 6 (page 1203), Peter writes and says, Humble yourselves, therefore, under Gods mighty hand, that He may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you. By the way, that word cast; you know I live in Wisconsin, so I know there are outdoorsmen here and fishermen here. I have to remind you that that word cast isnt the kind of cast where you throw it out and you reel it back in. Some of you like to practice that kind of casting. You know what Im talking about. You cast it out and reel it back. Anybody here ever do that? A couple of you; the rest of you arent being very honest with me this morning. You cast it out, and you reel it back. Its not that kind of cast. Its the kind of cast where you throw a rock, and you let it go. He says, Cast your anxiety upon me because I care for you. Im aware of the storm. Im aware of the situation that you are in. One of the ways we cast our anxiety upon the Lord is to be honest about it. When Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane feeling anxious about the cross, He would say, Father, if it be Thy will, let this cup pass from Me, but nevertheless let Thy will be done. Its not faith to go through something and pretend like youre not going through it. Dont be in denial about what youre going through. If youre struggling with anxiety or fear, the way to get rid of it is to confess faith, but its also to acknowledge I dont want to stay here, God. Heres what Im going through. Heres what Im facing. Heres what Im coping with. Get it out so you can get rid of it. One of my favorite movies, the series, is Rocky. Ive seen all 22 Rocky movies. I liked all of them but the fifth one. The fifth one was not that good. The last one was very good. This particular scene were going to watch is from Rocky III. Rocky, I believe, is going to fight Mr. T., Clubber Lang. He just lost his heart; he is just ready to quit. His wife, Adrienne, is going to confront him about quitting because hes never quit before. Lets go ahead and watch this scene from the movie. Get your popcorn out, and lets watch. Lets go back to 1 Peter 5. Its part of human experience-to have fear in a fearful situation. When the angel comes to Paul and says, Dont be afraid, what was Paul? Why would you say dont be afraid unless you are… Afraid. Paul was afraid. Many great women and men of God have been afraid, but God doesnt want you to stay there. Part of getting rid of that is just to confess it. You say, Lord, I want to confess this. I want to get rid of this fear, this anxiety that Im feeling. Heres what Im going through. You cast it on Him. Cast your anxiety on Him because He cares for you. God doesnt want you to live there. Its not something you keep. Its not something you reel back. Cast it upon Him. Tell Him what youre going through because He cares for you. So you say, Well, you dont know what Im going through. Its easy just to say cast your cares. Its just kind of an easy thing to say there, but its easier said than done. I wish Peter could be in my shoes and face what Im facing. The truth of the matter is you wouldnt have wanted to have been in Peters shoes right now. The truth of the matter is that this letter was written in 64 A.D. You know whats going on in history? Whats going on in Rome? Who is in control and power in 64 A.D.? Its Nero, and hes nuts. He has a vendetta against Christians. Hes using Christians as scapegoats. Im not going into details here because there are children present, but he does some despicable acts, deplorable acts, barbaric acts against Christians. Its one thing to execute; its another thing to torture, mame and murder the way Nero did. Some of the people that Peter writes to are people who are facing this tyranny-this tyrant in Rome by the name of Nero. In fact, 2 Peter, 2 Timothy and 2 Peter are both testamental books, meaning they were the last will and testament of their authors, Paul and Peter. They were both written about the same time. Shortly after that, church historians tell us that both Peter and Paul were martyred under the reign of Nero. He writes to Christians, Its one thing to think about losing your job or the struggling economy; its quite another thing to face losing your life in this manner. Peter says to those Christians, Cast your care on Him. Verse 9 (of 1 Peter 5, page 1203), Resist him. Were talking about Satan. Resist him, standing firm in your faith because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. And heres your promise, friends. And the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, and I wish that part wasnt there. That's not a great promise, but there are times when God does allow storms in our lives. The storm will not defeat you; the storm will not conquer you. You will overcome the storm because you are in Christ. After awhile, he says, He Himself, notice the personal care. God Himself, He himself, will restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. To Him be the power forever and ever. Amen. Was Paul stronger in his faith when he emerged from that storm at sea? Absolutely, he was stronger. God Himself, that's His promise. Friends, what you need to do, not only remember the personal care of God, but focus on the promise of God-not the circumstances that are around you. You focus on the negative reports that are around you, the negative people that are around you, the adverse circumstances that are around you; the next thing you know you go from faith to fear. Youll find yourself starting to go under, just like Peter when he tried to walk on the water. He took his eyes off of Christ. You know what it says in Verse 23 back in Acts 27? Turn to Verse 23. Peter was speaking, and he said, Last night an angel of the God whose I am and whom I serve stood beside me and said, Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand trial before Caesar. That's not the first time that Paul heard those words, You must stand trial before Caesar. Do you know where Paul first heard those words? Not from the angel, but from Jesus Himself. In the Book of Acts 23:11, Paul had just finished testifying in front of the Sanhedrin. He was concerned about his future, and Jesus appeared. It says, The following night the Lord stood near Paul and said, Take Courage! As you have testified about Me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome. Jesus Himself said those words to Paul, You will testify to me in Rome. Now remember in Verse 20, Luke told us that everybody had given up all hope of being saved. So Paul had taken his eyes off the ball. Hed taken his eyes off the promise for a moment. He began to look on the circumstances that were around him because either Jesus was going to see him safely through that storm and testify in Rome, or Jesus lied and Paul was going to parish at sea. Either Christ was going to keep His promise, or He was not going to keep His promise. Paul should have known that even though it looked terrible, it looked like theyre either going to starve to death or parish at sea, Jesus had promised he was going to go to Rome; but Paul took his eyes off the promise and put them on the storm. Even a good person, even a Godly person; if theyre not careful can do that. Thats why Peter said in 1 Peter 5, Be sober and be alert. Be aware of whats going around you. Be aware and be alert. What happens when you take your eyes off the promise? You panic, right? You panic. Look at these guys in Verse 27. It was the fourteenth night. Can you imagine two weeks at sea, and now theyre making progress? Theyve gone from the Mediterranean Sea to the Adriatic Sea. Theyre starting to approach; theyre making some headway; and land is approaching. This is the island of Malta, although they dont know its Malta. They are now due south of Italy, quite a ways south by the way; but there is land approaching. Its a small island; they dont even know what it is. They take some measuring. Theyre 120 feet deep; then theyre 90 feet deep; land is getting closer. Its not a nice plush beach; there are jaded rocks. This is treacherous. They are going to crash into these rocks, and the sailors that are on board panic. They take their eyes off the promise that Paul had given. Paul said, Stay with the ship, and youll be okay. The angel of the God whose I am, whom I serve appeared to me. Not one life will be lost. These people take matters into their own hands, press the panic button and lower the lifeboat. Theyre going to get in the lifeboat and go off. There are times you and I think we know better, and were going to abandon ship. This waiting on God stuff? Too hard, too scary. I think I have a better way. You make that decision, that's the wrong decision to make. Paul saw what was going on and told the captain, If these men want to be saved-they want to live, they better not get in that boat. If they get in that boat and they go their own way, theyre going to parish. If they stay with the boat, theyre going to be saved. They listened to Paul, and they cut the cables. The dingy went out to sea. You and I have all pressed the panic button at some point in time. You know the panic button. When you take your eyes off the promise, and you start focusing on the storm, you start thinking of all the things that might go wrong-all the things that could go wrong; and then you go from there to all the things that youre certain will go wrong. You start to speak negative things instead of positive things. You start to lose faith and confidence in God, and you start to believe in the inevitable of the storm. I have a hobby, a sickness, since about age four: these old comic books I like to have around, so every year this is this big national convention in Chicago. I go and try to find some deals. I did it this year, but I did not want to miss Todd. Im glad I came back because I wanted to hear what he had to say about mentoring, and I wanted to be here for Missions weekend; so I was back and forth every day from Chicago. It was worth it; it was fantastic. While I was there, one of my friends [who was also there] was from New York. I was at his booth with him and his wife. We were the only ones there, just kind of relaxing. The show was just getting under way. He was looking for things that I might like. There was a comic there. Youre familiar with Fantastic Four; it was the first issue of that comic. It was battered up; it was not in that great of shape, but it was still worth several thousand dollars. He couldnt find it. He said, Wheres that FF1? I cant find it. He told his wife, It was here. It was just here. Where is it? She said, I dont know. Maybe you put it in the box. He starts looking through the boxes. At first he was pretty calm about it. Well, I put it here. I know I brought it with me. We were offering suggestions, Maybe its… No, its not in that box. I said, Well, listen. Obviously its someplace where its not, so we better look everywhere because if its somewhere where its not, that means its somewhere you dont expect it to be. Lets look here. I was just trying to be a voice of calm. He starts to get edgier. He starts panicking. Hes going through the boxes more furiously. Hes looking through the stacks more quickly, more hastily. Then he says, I know its gone. I know its gone! It was right here, and its gone! Its been taken! I know its been taken! I can feel it right here. Somebody took it! Somebody took it-I just know it! I just know it! I just know it! I said, Well, maybe its on the floor. Lets look at all the places it might be. Maybe it fell. Well, no, it didnt fall. It was right up here! It was right up here! Im trying to remain calm. I said, Maybe its behind one of the books. Maybe we should pull the books on your display down because its behind one of the books. At this point, he was just ignoring me. He was blocking everything out; he was shutting it down. Then he starts to get even more panicked, and he says, I remember when it happened. I remember when it happened. Yesterday, this guy reached across the table. I turned away, and thats when he took it! Thats when he took it! Its gone! Then he goes up to this display worth thousands of dollars, and he starts shoving the stuff off and onto the floor. Hes in a rage now. Hes just uncontrolled. He goes, Thats it. Were closing down. Were shutting down. This guy has to make thousands of dollars to break even. These booths arent cheap. Theres transportation and food to get there. Hes not thinking anymore with reason and logic. He is just throwing all this stuff down. There was a guy there that was ready to make a purchase, and he was kind of like, Ill come back another time (with a shaky voice); and walked away. As he was shoving all the books, there it is. There it is. He sees it behind another book, and he goes, Ahhh, and sits down. His wife says, Jeff told you to look behind the books. I dont want to hear it, Kathy! I dont know if youve ever heard an old married couple from the Bronx fight before, but its quite entertaining. You should charge admission for it. I thought about that, and I thought there have been times you and I have been there. We start off thinking, I wonder if this could happen. I wonder if that happened. We definitely take our eyes off the promise, and we start focusing on what might, what could. It goes from what might to could to probably and certainly will to definitely can and is going to happen. The next thing you know you find yourself pressing the panic button. We wont ask for a raise of hands, but some of you might have even done the tossing and throwing thing bit in your house, or as we call it a Jakey, a little fit, little tantrum. It turns out to be not as bad as you thought it was, right? So these guys, they see the rocks, they know the promise-promise, rocks! Promise, rocks! Lets get in the boat. They panic. Paul says, They have to remain in the promise. They stay in the boat; they stay with the promise. Notice where Pauls faith is: Pauls faith is not in the storm subsiding; its not in the ship holding together; its not in the centurion; its not in the captain; its not even in his own abilities to navigate or to swim. His faith and trust ultimately is completely in the promise, the character, the goodness of God. Thats where it needs to be, friends. Youre going through a loss for GM workers? We appreciate the leaders, the work of our government leaders to try to save it; our union leaders who are trying to save it; but our faith and hope ultimately is not in our leaders. Its not in the company; its not in the economy; its not in our own ingenuity or creativity; it is in the living God who has promised, I will see you through the storm. I will make you steadfast, establish you and make you firm in your faith. That is where your promise is, and you cannot take your eyes off the prize-no matter what the circumstances are around you. Paul knew that he was going to be delivered. He didnt know how. Were going to crash; Were going to run aground, but somehow, were going to be saved. Heres the amazing thing. Watch what happens. The worst thing that could happen at sea is for your boat to crash, so heres what happens. They cut lose the anchors, and they prayed for daylight. Thats an expression meaning many of them were trying to remain in faith, but they were just struggling with it. One of the gentlemen at the 8 oclock service shared with me that they found these anchors right off the coast of Malta recently in an archeological discovery. I told him to send me that information. I like reading about that sort of thing. On Malta, Paul is the man. They still talk about this shipwreck on that island. What happens is the bow of the boat, the front of the boat, gets caught in a sandbar. The waves are so ferocious and so relentless that now that the boat is stuck, it begins to break apart and crash. I could just hear the men going, Here it is! You told us we were going to be saved, and now the boat is coming apart under our feet. Were going to drown at sea! I dont care how good of a swimmer you are; if its you, the sea and the rocks, and thats all you have, you arent going to make it. God uses something that nobody thought of. God does something amazing. The boat breaks apart, 276 people, and becomes hundreds of life preservers floating in the water. Isnt that cool? The very thing that they thought would cause them to parish became the very thing that they held on to for God to deliver them. All of the sudden, there are 200, 300 life preservers floating in the water around them. They grabbed onto them and floated to security-to safety. Friends, sometimes we talk about GM, Oh, GM is going to go down. Were going to lose all these jobs. Sometimes the very thing that has caused us the great fear can be the very thing God uses to bring deliverance. I believe years from now, Janesville is going to be stronger-not weaker. Its not that we dont value GM; its not that we dont value the jobs we have, but Ill tell you what: what has made companies like LSI, Lear and GM successful in our community? Its not just because of the good products; its because of the hard workers. Its because of the work ethic, their knowledge, their coming to the job and doing it correctly, the education, the experience. We could take those same assets and use them in other areas, in other fields, in other jobs. Sometimes the best thing that can happen to you is the worst thing that you think can happen to you. God took the worst thing that could happen to them, and He turned it into the source of their blessing. I dont know what its going to look like for you when it comes, when that life preserver comes, but I guarantee you next time youre in the storm, you find yourself in the water, you trust the promise. You look for that life preserver. When you see it, youll recognize it. You hold on to it, and it will take you exactly where you need to go. You have to trust number one in the personal care of God, the God whose I am. God Himself will restore and establish you. Secondly, you have to trust in the promise, regardless of the circumstances, regardless of the negative reports. Trust in the promise-not in people, not in yourself. Thirdly, trust in His provision. God can provide for you in miraculous ways that you dont even see, that you cant even comprehend. They never dreamed in a hundred years that the very thing they were most afraid of would be the source of their rescue. Lets pray together, and well receive of the Lords Supper. Father, we thank You for the example in this story of Paul, this great man of God, and Luke-great man of God. Men of faith who for a period of time-even for a day or a moment of that day-had given up hope of being saved. Let that be something that causes us to be sober, to be alert. We should not become arrogant in ourselves, but we are confident in You. God, the storms of this life-the economy that were struggling with; some who are facing difficulties from the flood this past month; others might be facing health concerns; marriage concerns; financial storms, Lord we focus on that promise of 1 Peter 5:10. God Himself will come through that storm and strengthen us. Thank you, Father, for this story of inspiration, of hope and of courage. Lord, we want to stand in faith. We want to stand as Paul and say that we believe it will turn out exactly as You have said. We want to cast our anxiety and cast our fear upon You and not real it back. Leave it there that we might walk in faith and hope. In Jesus name, we pray, Amen.
Would you open your Bibles please to Matthew 5? Were going to break from our series on Luke for a little while, and well come back to it. The message this morning is going to be called, Out of the Salt Shaker. All of us have heard for many years the rumors about the GM plant shutting down. We think about the ramifications of that, how it will affect not only GM, but all the other companies; thats equally as important. Loss of jobs at Lear… Some of you need to come up afterwards, educate me and tell me the companies that will be affected by this. I want to remember them as well, but the former Gilman Engineering Company; theres another company-the name escapes me-with letters…LSI. Thank you. Come and talk to me afterwards; I need your help. When I talk about the GM situation, Im talking about everybody thats affected by this. When gas prices went up, I guess all of us could read the writing on the wall and knew that something might happen. Still, when it happens, theres a bit of a shock. I still woke up for days afterward going, I cant believe thats going to happen. Really, were praying that it doesnt happen. Theyre still trying to come up with ideas, other autos that we can build here and retool. Theyre talking and negotiating, so theres a possibility that something can happen. We pray that becomes a reality, but, listen, even if it does, good news happens. That limbo period is still a difficult time. To wait for something… If you have a test done on a physical problem, and the doctor says, Well know the answer in a week. Thats a long week. If somebody tells you that you might lose your job this year, you might lose your job next year, but youre going to lose your job; thats a long time. Thats a long time to worry about financial matters, where youre going to live, what lifes going to look like for you and your family; something youve always depended on is taken away. I felt the Lord impressing on my heart that we need to just change gears for a little while. We need to address this topic for our community. The church needs to be salt and light. There are people out there who are struggling with fear. Theyre struggling with anxiety, depression, change, and the church has to have answers to those concerns. So thats what this series will be about. It starts two weeks from today, and its going to be called, Is There Life After GM? Its not just for those who work at GM, LSI or Lear; its for all of us. GM for you might represent a major change, a loss or a potential loss-something that causes you anxiety or dread. How does Gods Word say we cope when those things happen in our lives? So, this series will be for all of us, but its going to be my job and its going to be your job to go into our community and come alongside any of these companies that are going to be affected by this loss and let them know that were praying for them. [We will] let them know that if they would like to come, our church is doing a series that will help them; not just for the moment-not just for now-but I believe a year down the road, two years down the road, this is going to be a tool that well be able to refer back to. [Well be able to say] back in 2008, our church did a series on this, and here you go. Just listen to this. It will bless you. It will help you because its Gods Word. How many of you today know someone personally who works at one of these companies who will be affected if in fact GM closes? You know them personally? Those are the people Im talking about. I dont care if we fill every chair and have people standing in the back. You need to let them know that this is happening. You need to let them know that there is a church that is standing with them and praying. This series will not be political. This is not going to be looking back and pointing a finger of blame. This is going to be about looking to the future. Its going to be about looking ahead. Ive heard people say, Well, you know, Janesvilles going to become a ghost town. Its going to be like another Flint, Michigan. Everybodys going to move away. I dont believe that. There are other people Ive heard say, Its nothing. Its a drop in the water, well be fine and we dont need them. I dont believe that either. I dont think you can lose thousands of jobs in a community and have that not affect the community. Its going to affect us. The key is how are we going to respond to it? Are we going to rise to meet the challenge? Is this going to be the greatest hour for our community? Is this going to be the greatest hour for our church? It can be. It can be, but weve got work to do, and we have to come together. As I think about this, I just kind of vision cast for this series. I thought a good place to start would be in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5. Jesus is speaking to His followers. When He says, You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world, Hes talking to those who would follow Him. Hes talking to those who are saying, We want to go where You go, Jesus. We want to do what You tell us to do. He says in Matthew 5, 6 and 7, (page 958 of pew Bible), Those who follow Me, this is how their lives will be. This is the behavior that will characterize them, the attitudes they will possess. This is the kind of person they will be. So Matthew 5 tells us He went out up on a mountainside, sat down and began to teach them. Notice Jesus sat down. My preferred method of teaching is sitting down right there. Its still there taunting me, tantalizing me. He sat down to teach. Some will say, Well, why do you like to sit down and teach? Every other preacher we see stands up, waves their arms and walks around. If it was good enough for Jesus, its good enough for me, okay? You guys got me off track here. Lets go back to Verse 13. It says, ‘You are the salt of the earth. What do you think that meant? You are the salt of the earth. Its really important if were going to understand the Bible that we kind of put ourselves in the place of the people that the words were spoken to the first time. What would that expression mean to a person 2,000 years ago? It meant something different than what it means to us today. Now salt still enhanced the flavor of food for us today, but it was much more than just something you put on your potatoes or your sweet corn. It was a vital necessity for civilization. Why? Because salt has a preservative quality. Salt prevents decay. Salt prevents meat from decaying and spoiling; so if you caught a fish in the Sea of Galilee, lets have it this weekend. Go ahead and put it in the freezer. You couldnt do that. How would you keep that fish fresh? How would you keep the mean fresh? The salt. It preserved; it staved off this decay. Jesus is saying, You and I are going to be a preservative in our society. You and I are going to be an agent to prohibit corruption and decay. Salt was so valuable that it was used as a means of exchange. Sometimes Roman soldiers were paid a solarium; a portion of their income was paid in salt. That word solarium or that payment of salt is where we get the word salary from. The expression, Hes not worth his salt, civilizations would often settle around where there was salt. Monarchies would control salt. If you had salt, you had power. You had something everybody wanted. You had something of great value. Wouldnt it be nice if it still was like that? You go to a restaurant, and the bill comes. Youd say, Hey, give me your hand. Here you go, and a tip for you too. It would be kind of nice. Its not like that. Ive tried that, but it doesnt work. Jesus is paying the church a compliment here. Hes saying, You are salt. You are light. He doesnt say salt and light is something we will be, something we can be, something we need to strive to be; its something we are now. If we have Christ in our life, through His Holy Spirit, we are now salt and light. The question then is, Is the salt out affecting the world, or is it in the salt shaker? Is the light shining in the darkness, or is it under a bushel? That phrase under a bushel meant it was a big wooden vessel that was used to measure grain, Jesus says, It doesnt make any sense to light a light and then put this big wooden bushel over the top of it. Number one, light was a necessity. They had no electricity. Fires were very hard to start. There were no matches. If you started your wick burning, that was an effort to do that, and you wanted to keep it lit. Jesus says, It makes no sense to take something that is lit and hide it. Hes saying, I have put My light in you. Youre either hiding it or youre letting it shine. Notice Jesus says in that next verse about the light, ‘You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine... Its something you allow. Its something you let happen. …‘that men may see your good works and praise your Father in Heaven. It says, See your good works. Thats a very important distinction right here that I want to talk about. In the Bible, there are two words predominantly for the word good. I want to illustrate this by having us flip one page over to Matthew 7:17 (page 961 of pew Bibles). This is what it says: Jesus is still speaking in the Sermon on the Mount. He says, ‘Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. As we look at our Bibles, we see the word good in two places in that verse, and its the same word, right? Its not so when you look it up in the Greek Bible. In the Greek Bible, that first word good is the word agathos, which means something that is by its very nature good; something that is performing up to expectations; something that is living up to its design and purpose; something that is good and upright. The second word good is a different word. It means callous. Callous means beautify; pleasing to look at; pleasing to see; that which is excellent. So it says if its a good tree, its going to produce beautiful fruit; fruit that is ripe; fruit that is ready to eat; full color. It looks delicious and it looks inviting. Youre attracted and youre draw to it. So what word do you think is used here in Matthew 5, which of those two words for good? Its the second; its callous. Jesus is saying, Let your good deeds, the beautiful things your life does, draw glory to God. What He is saying here is if you and I are living these principals in Matthew 5-the Beatitudes, Matthew 6, Matthew 7; if were living out what Hes called us to do-and thats not a bad exercise, its not a bad thing to do. Tonight, go home and read the Sermon on the Mount. He says, If youre living these principals, you are going to stand out. Your life is going to be something beautiful to see; your life is going to be something attractive; your life is going to be something compelling; your life is going to be something people would be drawn to; your life is going to be something people might aspire to because you are allowing them to see Me through you. Notice He says that men may see your good works and praise your Father in Heaven. What does that mean to you as far as what must have transpired? If youre looking at my life and you see something exemplary, something attractive in my life, and theyre able to equate that with God and give glory to God for that, what must have happened? Some sort of a verbal witness, right? Because if all Im doing is good things in my life, Im showing compassion, mercy, love and grace, and I dont say anything about the Lord, then people are going to go what a great guy; what a neat lady; and whos going to get the glory? Not God, you. So that statement, there was an implication of the church giving glory to God, that God is the reason I am whom I am; or a reason I have done what I have done; or the source thats enabled me to give or to serve or to share what Ive shared. Sometimes thats difficult for us. Its difficult for us-it seems like-to open our mouths. Well get right to the edge, and then well be silent. We need to break that pattern. Growing up in Rockford, I became a Bulls fan at the very early age. We had some pretty bad teams until this player from North Carolina was drafted by the name of Michael Jordan. I watched him play in college and in the pros, and he was my favorite player. He retired from basketball. It was a very sad day for me. His father passed away. His father was murdered. It seemed like he was just searching for his identity. Maybe part of his grieving process, I dont know, but for awhile, he went to play minor league baseball in the White Sox franchise for a team called the Birmingham Barons. We were on vacation, a family vacation, down south, and I said, Look, the Birmingham Barons are going to be in town. Were not far from Alabama. Lets swing to Alabama, and maybe well watch Michael Jordan play baseball. So we did that, and I said, Lets go to the ballpark early, get our tickets, then well go get a bite to eat and then well come back. Wouldnt it be something if I got to see him? What would I say if I saw him? Well, we get there early. We go to buy the tickets. We were probably there two hours before the game time, and there is Michael Jordan. He just came walking out of the dugout, from about me to John. Heres my opportunity. I can say something. There arent thousands of people around. Its just us, and I can actually say something to him. So while hes walking our way, Im thinking, Well, I can say this. No, that sounds stupid. I can say that. He might think thats dumb. What if he ignores me, or what if he makes a face or thinks what I just said was stupid? All these things are going through my mind, so by the time he gets in front of me and I have my video camera on my shoulder, all that I say is this: There he is. (Congregation laughing.) Thats it! I look back, and I just kick myself. I get so angry. I though what if I would have struck up a conversation? What if I would have said something? What is the risk reward factor? The worst thing that could ever happen was maybe hed say something sarcastic or whatever and hurt my feelings. The chances of that are pretty slim. He could ignore me, and that would embarrass me in front of my family. Hes probably not going to do that either, but on the upside, he might come over and we might have a conversation. Maybe wed be best buddies today, pen pals. Ill never know because I didnt take the risk. Some of you get close and youre just about ready to offer to pray or offer to share your testimony; invite them to church; share a Scripture or share something in your life. Youre just about ready, and then the thought comes into your mind, Well, what if they misinterpret this? What if they ignore this? What if this makes them angry? What if they reject me? Friends, what you need to be thinking about is the risk reward. The worst case scenario happens, how really bad is that? What about the upside? What about if they do say, Yes, you can pray with me? What if they do listen to your story? What if they do come with you to church? Wheres the upside on that? Its way up here. Friends, its a gamble or a risk thats worth taking. They might see your good works and glorify your Father who is in Heaven. Does this sound to you like Christianity is this private thing that you live, is lived within your church and doesnt go beyond the four walls of this church? No. He says you are the salt of, what? The earth. You are the light of, what? The world. The world in here? The worlds out there. Is the earth in here? The earths out there. What Jesus wants to do-if you think of Faith Community Church as a salt shaker, and each of you are grains of salt, He wants to take us up, tip us and start sprinkling us all over Rock County-start making a difference in our world, giving people hope, giving people direction. This is a pro-active thing Jesus is talking about here. This is really a command to go. When He says, You are the light of the world, Hes telling you to go. Hes telling you to speak. When he says, Youre the salt of the earth, Hes saying it doesnt do any good to be the salt shaker. You have to be out in the world that youre seeking to affect and make a difference. I want to share with you an amazing story this morning. This is a story that is happening even today. There are pages being added to this story. There was a man in Japan whose name is Yukio Shige. If Im getting that wrong, you dont know the difference. Ive been working on my Japanese. I can speak some Japanese. You might not even want to interpret this, but some words Ive learned (Pastor Jeff speaks several Japanese words here). These are some Japanese words. How many of you know what Im talking about? Okay. A lot of major league baseball fans out there, and I was trying to impress you too. Those really are Japanese words. This gentleman had a job, and on this job, he received a letter from a couple that was distraught. They had financial problems. They didnt know what to do. They were elderly, late in life, and they were feeling destitute. He says, Well, listen. Heres the authority. Heres the agency you need to contact, and maybe they can help you. So he sent them there. They wrote a letter, and they explained their situation. It said, Sometimes we just feel like killing ourselves. The agency wrote back and said, We cant help you. Why dont you then go kill yourselves? Whoever it was said that. The couple did. The couple went to a cliff in Japan near where he lived and jumped to their death. This cliff is a place where about 25 Japanese citizens take their lives every year. Its a beautiful setting, beautiful cliffs and the ocean. Every year, over two dozen people jump to their death because they think they have nothing to live for. So Yukio decided to make a difference. He began to dedicate his life to that cause. Two times every day, he walks out to the cliff and starts conversations with people. Some are there just to take pictures, admire the scenery, meditate and read a book. They just have a little chat, and he moves on his way. Many of those people are there to end their lives. Theyre there because theyre destitute. Theyre there because they have no hope. He comes alongside them, and he starts conversations with them. He finds out what theyre going through. There was one particular young man who said that hed come out to the cliff that day to end his life. His mother had passed away. He had no friends, he had all kinds of debt and he had no money. He said, I came to this cliff because it was a beautiful day, and I wanted my life to end on a sunshiny, beautiful day. He said, Thats when I met Yukio. He came here to this cliff, and he talked to me. I found out there was at least one person on this earth who cared whether I lived or died. That made a difference to me. He went home that day, and those two became friends. Since he started to do this, and he had his log there, he has saved the lives of 129 people. That list is probably a little longer today than it was when this story came out last week. Hes still doing it. Hes still on the job. You say, Well, Pastor, what are you saying? Should we go down the river and make sure people dont jump in the river and kill themselves? I dont want you to focus on that aspect. I want you to focus on the destitute situations and peril that people were living in. I want you to focus on this agent of hope, this little source of light, this little grain of salt-what a difference one life made that was proactive; one life who had his radar on; one life that was looking for opportunities to bring hope where there was despair. So hed come alongside those people, and hed give them some resources. Heres a person you can talk to. Heres a person you can call. I care very much about you. I hope that you wont do this. He offered them hope. He said that most of those 129 people, he still corresponds with. He still communicates with. Friends, what would happen if we turned loose hundreds of little Yukios around this community who had the message of Christ to share? What would happen if God took our church and other churches in our community and began to sprinkle us around this town? We could come alongside those who are anxious about their futures; come alongside those who are afraid; come alongside those who are depressed; and even come alongside those who are suicidal and say there is hope. You might say, Well, I dont know what to share. I dont know what Id say. I dont know what to do. All were asking you to do is invite them. Well let Gods Word do the talking; well let Gods Word do the sharing. You just come, and you bring them here. Gods Word, His promise and His Spirit, will give life, and it will give hope. So that is our mission. Next week, we will have something for you to take out and mail, hand to friends or to email out to people inviting them to come to this series. I promise you that theyll be edified, and theyll be ministered to. I hope that youll join me in praying for those families, praying for our community, praying for our church and other churches in our community-that we will be in fact salt and light during this time. Lets pray together. Father, we thank You for the instruction in the Sermon on the Mount. The great compliment that is given to the church, that we are salt and we are light to the world. Its only because of the presence of Jesus in our lives that we are those things. You said that if youre not being salt, which is your purpose, what is your purpose? Its just discarded because its not serving its purpose. Its not teaching that You discard us. Its teaching us that You created us, and You want us here living up to our purpose. Its like a car is made to drive; a chair is made to sit in; food is made to eat; the church is made to be salt and light. If we keep our light hidden-if we keep our salt contained-we are not accomplishing the mission for which You sent us into the world. Its not just about keeping our message contained in this building, but it is about going out into our community-sharing the love, hope and truth of Your Word; sharing the person of Jesus Christ. Lord, help us to be that light. Help us to be that salt. Help like-minded churches in this community to recognize this as an opportunity to minister to families that are troubled, fearful and anxious about the future. With Your help, Your strength, and Your guidance, as You illuminate, as You guide through Your light, we will be seen through this difficult time. Guide the union leaders as they make decisions and as they negotiate. Be with the families as they struggle and all these companies, all these thousands of workers and businesses as they [work through this]. Help us to know that You function by a different economy. The economy of Heaven is not in a recession; its not in a depression. The God who made Heaven and earth is the same God whos watching over us. We commit our lives into Your hands. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
Lets open our Bibles up to the Book of Luke this morning-Luke 10 (page 1028 of pew Bibles), as we have been going through that in a series. Im going to grab a chair here as I want to illustrate something from my life, a phenomena that Ive observed. Maybe this has happened to you. Again, I was a little late in passing the plate here, so I know there is a lot of activity going on and a lot of things happening. I want you to just focus in. Have you ever gone to a ball game, a concert or play, something like that, where there is close seating in the aisles, and you have to get up every time somebody goes by to buy popcorn or use the restroom? When I go to a ballgame, the Brewers, Cubs, Bears or Bucks-whatever it might be-and Im sitting there-somebody has to go by and I have to stand up-I just really struggle with that. I find that I all of the sudden become weak and kind of have a bad attitude. Ill stand up and Ill say things to myself like, You again? How many times do you need to go and use the bathroom? Maybe if you stopped drinking so much beer, you wouldnt have to go to the bathroom all the time. I sit back down, and then I have to get back up again, Of course, here you come again. Sure. I find myself getting a little irritated, especially if you have to stand up and sit down so many times in an inning. My knees hurt and my attitudes bad. Its up and down, and you just spilled your drink on me again. Here we go… But…when my team hits a homerun, and I say, Whoa! Yeah! I stand up and the pain is gone, Ive got all of this energy and strength. Its amazing that the seventh inning stretch comes, and I have to stand, Oh, you again. Okay, here we go. Then all the sudden I get weak again. Every time I stand up, its painful and hard. Why is that? I think thats a microcosm because I think its very easy for us to do things that are for ourselves, to do things that bring us pleasure, to do things that energize us. Sometimes when it comes to serving others, and doing things especially for people we dont know, its easy to get an attitude. Its easy to be a little lazy; its easy to be a little selfish, right? Youre inconveniencing me. Youre an intrusion on my space. I wish youd go away. I wish youd sit someplace else, and all these unpleasant, un-Christian thoughts come floating through your mind. Then when its something that involves you, when your team wins, your team scores, youve got all the strength and all the energy in the world. You might be drudging through some assignment or some chore or work, responsibility, and your best friend calls you and says, Hey, lets do some shopping. Lets go out to eat. Lets go to a movie. All of the sudden you have all this energy and strength. Where did that come from? Because we are by nature a self-absorbed people. Thats why serving comes by so difficult for us. Thats why its not a natural thing for you and me to be servants. Now this story were going to look at this morning is a story of the Good Samaritan. Jesus tells this story in response to a question. The man says, What must I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus says, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and your neighbor as yourself. Do this and youll live. Then he says, Well, whos my neighbor? Jesus conveys a parable to the Good Samaritan. Now I want you to know something. When we talk about the Good Samaritan, you and I always think about the Good Samaritan as pertaining to how we minister to our neighbor, how we show love to our neighbor. You know what? The story of the Good Samaritan is just about how much we love God as it is about how we love our neighbor. Jesus answers the question, and He says, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and your neighbor as yourself. The parable that Hes about to tell is an illustration of both. Its an illustration of loving God, and its an illustration of loving our neighbor. It was in response to a question, a question that demanded a further explanation; so the parable comes alongside to explain this in action. Loving God and loving man, what does it look like? To love man, to help and to serve people is to love and to serve God. If you show kindness to people who are made in His image, youre showing kindness to God. When I was a new parent, every time I became a parent, our children were little (congregation laughing). People would come up to us, and theyd see them in the car seat, and theyd go, Oh, what a cute little baby. You know, when you say nice things to my child, youre saying nice things to me. When you show kindness to my child, youre showing kindness to me. That child is in my image. I would personally take offense if you came up and said, Oh! What happened? That is just one homely baby! I might take offense at that. If you say something about my child, you might as well say it to me. The way we treat others is a reflection of how we feel about God. Now, there are many ways that you and I express love for people. There are books written on that. Some of us are good at saying the words I love you. Others of us struggle with that. Some of us are able to touch and affirm through touch, and others of us struggle with that. For some their love language is time. They need to spend time. My wife, thats her love language. I can hug her till shes blue or tell her I love her, but if Im not spending time with her, she doesnt feel real loved. For some, its giving of gifts. For some, they express love though serving. The same thing is true in the realm of the spirit. You and I express our love for God differently. Im reading a book by Pastor Gary Thomas called Sacred Pathways this week. Sacred Pathways is an excellent book, and it talks about nine different pathways, nine different ways God has wired us to express our love for Him. Hes saying we tend to have the same prescription for every believer. Its like, Oh, express your love for God, what we think of-we worship, we sing. Thats just one way. For Janet, thats one of the most dominate ways for her to express her love for God is though song. For others of you, its when youre in nature. For others of you, its when your intellect is stimulated, and your mind is learning something new about God. For others of you, its when youre caring for people. There is a certain group of people here who feel most in touch with God and most attuned with the spirit when they are serving other people in His name. Thats when you feel His presence; thats when you feel His affirmation, when youre tangibly helping and serving other people. So this story is about loving God as well. This tangible way we express our love for God, and its a valid way, its just as valid as any other way of expressing our love for the Lord. Now, in this story, there are three men. One is a priest; one is a Levite; and one is a Samaritan. Samaritans, of course, were enemies of the Jews. There was a racial difference. There was a religious difference, so there was a lot of misunderstanding and disdain between the two peoples. It is very interesting that Jesus would choose the Samaritan as the hero of the story. The priest and the Levite, two men of God, [who] you would think would be the ones that would stop and help, are the ones who turn and walk away. You know, I ask myself, What are the reasons why one might do that? You know, if youve ever been involved in full-time ministry, or youve been involved in ministry to people as a volunteer intensively, one of the things youll find and experience is that people can burn you out because the needs just never stop coming. Sometimes people will abuse your kindness and your generosity. Sometimes you can get a little jaded in ministry; sometimes that can happen. I remember when we went to Universal Studios, and [we took] my youngest-she was about 3 years old- into the part of the park where its more little children oriented. On this ride, youd save E.T.; and on this ride you save Scooby Doo; on this ride you save Elroy Jetson. She kind of catches on to the theme, and she figures out whats going on. I remember us going up to our fourth ride and being excited, saying, Oh, now, this is going to be a great ride. She looked up and me, holding my hand, and she said-exact quote, Who are we going to save this time? All excited, you know Im all excited, and shes jaded at age 3. Who are we going to save now? Ive caught on. Somebody is going to be in trouble, and were coming to help them out. Sometimes in ministry, you can have that same attitude, Who needs my help today? Whos got the problem today? If youre not careful, you can find yourself getting a very hard heart towards ministry. Maybe these guys say, Oh, I dont want to be bothered today. I dont want to be inconvenienced today. But along the road comes a Samaritan, and he stops. Notice what he does. It says he stops, He took pity on him. But he does more than that. He bandages him, pours on oil and wine-the closest thing to medicine that he could have; put him on his own donkey, so he rode while the Samaritan walked; brought him to an inn and took care of him; and then after that gave money to the innkeeper and said, Look after him while Im gone. If you need more money, Ill pay you that when I come back. This man went the extra mile. You know, if youre going to be a servant, you have to be willing to go the extra mile. You have to know that it can get messy. You have to know that it can get costly. Its not easy investing in peoples lives. You drive by the interstate and see cars stranded all the time as youre driving. Usually, you just go on, right? Usually you just go your way. Youre busy; you have things to do. Somebody else will help them. I remember one time I wasnt in a hurry, and the man looked really destitute, so I stopped. I went and got him some gas, drove to the Oasis, got the gas; and as I was coming back, the gas can spilled on my back through my T-shirt. If youve ever had gas on your body before, I dont recommend it. It really hurts. Its not like getting water on there, believe me. There is some sort of reaction going on there, and its like a burn. For hours, I felt like my back was on fire. I could hardly put my back against the seat of my car. I came back; I paid for his gas; helped him get his car started and sent him on his road. That was an investment of my time. My time, my energy, my resources, and I got burned. That also was a microcosm, friends, because if you help somebody, theres a really good chance you could get burned. Should you help them anyway? Absolutely if youre doing it in the name of Christ. If youre doing it in the name of Jesus, youre doing it for God first and foremost and to express your love for Him first and foremost, but it will cost you. You have to know going into it. Its going to cost you of your time and your resources, your energies and your emotions. Theres a chance that you could get burned. Why do we have to do it anyway? Another reason why you and I are called to be servants in spite of those facts is what Jesus says at the end of the passage. (Luke 10:37, page 1028 of pew Bibles), The expert in the law replied, The one who had mercy on him. That was the neighbor. Jesus told him, Go and do likewise. Let me ask you a question: was this parable only for this man? Did He tell this parable only for his benefit? No. So when Jesus says, "Go and do likewise," who else is He talking to? Hes talking to us. Did he commit a sin? Do these two who walked by commit a sin? They didnt do anything, right? They didnt do anything wrong, did they? Thats the problem: they didnt do anything. You see, we tend to look at what are called the sins of commission-the things that we do-and we tend to focus on that. Sometimes we pat ourselves on the back because we obey the Ten Commandments; and we look at the list, and we check them over, Well, I didnt do that. I didnt murder anybody this week-the great Christian I am. I didnt do that. I dont lie. I dont cheat. I didnt commit adultery. I didnt steal. I didnt worship false gods. Boy, Im really doing good! You know, sin means to miss the mark. Theres another side of that sin coin that you and I dont like to talk about because its a side that usually you and I fail miserably at. See, on the other side, this side is the sins of commission, the things that we do that God has told us not to do. That is sin when we do those. The flip side of that coin are the sins of omission. Those are the things that God has told us to do that we have not done. We dont talk about that too often. In fact, some of you want us to change the subject right now. [Those are the] things that God has called us to do that we dont do. In the Book of Ezekiel 16:49 (page 833 of pew Bibles), Ezekiel is talking about the city of Sodom. We know Sodom was notorious for sin. This is what Ezekiel says, Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were, what? Arrogant. Have you ever been arrogant, prideful? Yes. Overfed? Have you ever been…? Never mind (congregation laughing). I know the answer to that one. And unconcerned? Have you ever been unconcerned, apathetic? Some of you are looking at me like, I dont know, and I dont care. Arrogant, overfed and unconcerned. So far, Im three for three. …and they did not help the poor and the needy. Do you see that? Their great sin: they did not help the poor and the needy. Its what they did not do that God held them accountable for. You see, in this story of the Good Samaritan, there are no bystanders. There are no spectators. Youre in the story. You are the traveler going down the road, lifes road; and know as you go down lifes road, there will be opportunities where God has called you to be the minister. These interruptions, these intrusions, or these initiations: it depends on how you look at it. For you to use the gifts, talents and passions to express your love for God and for your neighbor and stop and help. Use of your time, of your resources, of your energies: financially, physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, minister to that one who has fallen. There are no bystanders and theres no neutral. Youre either a person who is stopping, or youre a person who is passing by. Youre either a person who is disobedient or a person who is obedient. Youre either a person who is committing a sin of omission or you are not. But this parable includes us. When He says, Go and do likewise, Hes talking to you and me. Now, how are you doing here? I dont need a raise of hands or anything like that. Just as you reflect on that, how are you doing here? Have there been some areas where you know you should stop? You know you should do something, but you dont? You pass on by because youve been burned, because youre tired, because youre preoccupied with other things, other commitments-youre busy? Those are excuses that God doesnt buy a whole lot. You know, you cant do everything, right? You cant minister to every need, every concern, but you can stop and do what the Lord tells you to do. If youre listening, youre watching, there will be times when God will tap you on the shoulder, and Hell whisper in your ear. He says, You right here. You right here. Sometimes youre heard that voice, and youre passed by anyway. Im asking you today go back. Im asking you to go back and just minister to them. Our teams are going to do something this summer. Its pretty radical, right? Theyre going to take some money, and theyre just going to go out and serve people. Theyre going to go to the gas stations and help people buy gas. Theyre going to say, This gas was provided to you by Faith Community Church youth ministry, and give them a card. Of course, theyre only going to be able to do that to one person, and then theyre going to be out of money, but thats the idea (congregation laughing). We can either buy one person gas or feed a thousand. Were trying to figure out what were going to do with that. I set a new personal goal at $58 this week to fill up my tank. I really believe if I just put my mind to it and accomplish it, I can go over $60. Pray with me that I can meet that goal. Im just really excited about that personal record that Ive set. One word of caution before we go, and I think its always important to talk about this aspect of it because there might be some of you who take this and run with it and get yourself in some trouble if youre not careful. Galatians 6:2 (page 1155), the Apostle Paul says, Carry each others burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. Notice, it says carry each others. Its reciprocal. Sometimes I have a burden; sometimes you have a burden. We carry each others burdens. Its not a matter of you carrying everybody elses burden, and nobody carries yours-which means you have to communicate. A burden means a boulder, a heavy weight-something that is overtaking you that is very difficult for you to carry on your own. Its something out of the normal; its something out of the usual. Some of you boulder bearers out there, and you know who you are, you could be bent over in pain and somebody would say, You okay? Yeah, Im just fine. Dont worry about me, and youre carrying a boulder because you dont want to inconvenience. You know who you are. You need to start sharing, saying, This is a physical, emotional, financial, spiritual-whatever it is-boulder that Im carrying, and I need your help. You help each other through those difficult times that life brings us. In the next verse-Verse 4, it says, Each one should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else, for each one should carry his own load. Well, which is it, Paul? We carry it or they carry it? Well, theres a difference. The word load means your everyday provisions. It means the things that you do to take care of yourself on a daily basis. The word could be associated with one of those sacks or bags we use to put your stuff in that youre going to need for the day; for your food and for your maintenance and upkeep-all the things youre going to need, your daily provision. Paul is saying, Everybody should take care of those themselves, but with our burdens, we should help one another. Do you know what its called if youre helping somebody else with their daily load that they should be doing? Thats called being an enabler. Thats called making somebody a co-dependent. Thats not what were trying to do here. Make that distinction. Paul is not contradicting himself. Paul says when circumstances come on, like this Good Samaritan-that man that he helped, when circumstances came on his life that were beyond his control, he needed the help of others. He needed intervention. Im encouraging you this week to walk with your eyes open and your ears open, watching and listening. Is there a need I can respond to? Or maybe theres something God has already tapped you on the shoulder for, and you have passed it by. Im encouraging you to do an about face, go back to that person or back to that situation and say, What can I do to help? Im here to serve. Make that investment of your time and your resources in the name of God, to show the love of God to the people who are made in His image. Will you commit to do that this week? A couple of you will? All right. Lets stand together as we close in prayer. Father, every time we read that parable, we think its a great parable about how to show our love for our neighbor. We recall as we read it in the context, You were talking about the love of God as well. So this parable is an illustration of both, loving man, loving our neighbor and loving You. In fact, to love our neighbor and to help those who have need is a tangible way that we express our love for You. Lord, sometimes weve been like the Levite and the priest, and weve passed by for whatever reason, but I pray we be like the Samaritan-we would take the time to stop, and we would invest ourselves to help carry that burden. It would be reciprocal, bear one anothers burdens, that we would open and share with people in our lives about what were going through. [Wed] ask for their prayer, for their support, humble ourselves to do that. We pray that You give it discernment since we cant help every situation we encounter along lifes road, that Youll point us to which ones You do want us to help. Looking at our passions, our gifts, our calling and our talents and abilities, that You will speak to us clearly and say, This is an area where Ive called You to serve. [I pray] that well serve You faithfully; even if we get burned, we will serve You faithfully; even if we get tired or when we get tired, we will serve You faithfully. It cost the Good Samaritan something to serve. Youve commanded us, Go and do likewise, not to just passively wait, but Youve called us to be actively looking and responding to those opportunities to serve You. Give us discernment in knowing the difference between a burden and a daily load of the people we encounter. Thank You for the things Youve taught us today from Your Word. Help us, Lord, as we go our way to be mindful of the things that weve learned and heard. Lord, I pray that even this morning, as some who have some burdens out there-maybe theyve been burying them alone- I pray that theyll come forward after service and pray with those here in the front. Theyll just come and say, You know what? I just need a brother or sister to stand with me in prayer about a situation Im going through, about a situation somebody else is going through. We just want to intercede on their behalf. We pray that theyd come, even this morning, and meet and pray with those here. Dismiss us from this service with Your blessing. Help us to be a light in a dark world for Christ. In Jesus name, we pray. Amen.
We are going through Luke chapter by chapter. Weve been doing a mini-series the last few weeks called From the Comfort Zone to the War Zone. The comfort zone is that which is familiar. My comfort zone is sitting behind that table and that chair. This is unfamiliar territory to me. The comfort zone is that which is safe, that which we know and are comfortable with. Its the path of least resistance; its the path thats easiest for us. Its where you and I really gravitate towards. We gravitate toward the comfort zone. We gravitate toward what we know. The war zone is when you go [into an uncomfortable setting]. The war zone is when you encounter opposition. Now that opposition might be the devil; that opposition might be your own flesh. That opposition might be the apathy of others or other obstacles that are in your way. To enter the war zone, thats where opposition takes place. Its risk. Its faith. It is a place of dependency upon God. But thats what God has called us to. In this particular point of the ministry of Jesus, He is calling Disciples to go from having listened to Him, watched what He did, to actually preaching what He preached and doing what He did. So, they are having to leave their comfort zones, and they are having to go enter into ministry at a whole other level of experience. Jesus is still calling His followers to that. Lets read the passage in Luke 10:1 (page 1027 of pew Bibles), After this the Lord appointed 72 others and sent them two by two ahead of Him to every town and place where He was about to go. He told them, The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. Do not take a purse or bag or sandals. Do not greet anyone on the road. We spoke on those four verses last week. Now, this is all new territory for us-Verse 5 and on. When you enter a house, first say Peace to this house. If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; if not, it will return to you. What Jesus is saying here is when you go in the house, you are on a peace mission. You pronounce a blessing on that house. If he does not receive your blessing-if he does not receive your peace, it comes back to you. Youre blessed for having blessed him. God is going to bless you for having spoken in His Word. Its not going to be wasted; its going to come right back to you. Then Hes going to give some protocol about staying in the house, not going from house to house, eat what is given to you, and some other protocol on their journey. Verse 9, Heal the sick who are there and tell them, The kingdom of God is near you. Jesus said a similar thing in Luke 9 when He sent out the 12. He said, Tell them the kingdom of God is at hand. That is what we call shorthand. Dont take that literal in the sense that theyre just going to go from town to town, person to person, just repeating this one sentence over and over again. Hi, were the Disciples. Were followers of Jesus Christ. The kingdom of God is near you. Have a nice day, and then you move on. That was shorthand for saying, Youre going to tell them everything Ive told you about the kingdom. When the Apostles say earnestly contend for the faith once and for all delivered for the saints, the word faith is shorthand for everything the faith signifies and is. When Paul says, We preach the Gospel, that word Gospel is short for everything the Gospel represents. There is a lot of content there, so He says, Go and preach the kingdom of God that is near you, that is everything that Jesus taught them is what they are to do. They are to pray as He prayed; theyre to deliver; theyre to heal; and theyre to bring the message to the kingdom as He presented it to them. [Luke 10:10, page 1028), When you enter a town and you are not welcome, go into its streets and say, Even the dust of your town that sticks to our feet we wipe off against you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God is near. Notice they say this to cities, not to people. They go out in the streets… Its a Hebrew-idiom; its a way of saying-I guess the closest in our vernacular would be to say, [when] somebody gets hurt or stumbles, and youd say, Hey, shake it off. Shake it off! Get up! Get going! Dont let it stop you! Thats what Hes saying. We have a mission to do. Were going to keep going. Shake it off. [Picking up at Verse 12], I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town. Now, Hes going to talk about some towns that He ministered to in the region of Galilee. He says, Woe to you, Korazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted up to the skies? No, you will go down to the depths. He who listens to you listens to Me; he who rejects you rejects Me; but he who rejects Me rejects Him who sent Me. So there is a lot at stake. To reject Jesus was to reject the Father. Were going to talk about that passage a little bit because some of it is a bit harder to understand than other parts are. Were going to attack this text in the idea of Myth Busters. There is a show on television called Myth Busters, if youve ever seen it, where they either confirm myths or prove certain myths are untrue. Were going to talk about some myths. Were going to talk about some myths that are untrue. Theyre regardless true within some circles of Christianity or regardless true within the world, but they are not true according to Scriptures. The first myth we are going to talk about is this whole understanding of a philosophy-way of thinking that Jesus came to give you a comfortable, easy, care-free life. Thats a myth. There is a lot of popular preaching going on, a lot of best-selling books talking about how life… Now, God loves you and wants to bless you, but anybody who thinks that God is here to give you a comfortable life, a care-free, problem-free life isnt reading their Bible very well. Id like to know what Bible they have because its not this one. In fact, what I have found, and what Scriptures attest to, is that when life gets too comfortable for Christians, it actually has a negative impact in their lives and ministries. Would you say the Apostles and the followers of Christ in the first century church had an easy life? Not at all. Did Jesus have an easy life? Not at all. It was a hard life. In fact, there is one church that had it pretty easy. There is one church that had it pretty nice. They had everything the world could offer. They were success in the eyes of the world. Remember the Book of Revelations written to seven churches in Asia Minor? Those were real churches, and these letters of John were really circulated there. There was a Sunday when the elder, or the pastor of the church in these various cities, would have stood up and read a letter from Jesus to the congregation. So the congregation in Thyatira received a letter; one in Pergamum received a letter; Philadelphia; Laodicea; Sardis; Smyrna; Ephesus; all these cities received a letter from Jesus. Imagine how nervous you are that Sunday. Nobody was falling asleep that Sunday. Okay, Im about to read a letter from Jesus to our congregation. Wow! Wed be listening intently. A couple of churches did really well. They had straight As. A couple churches got what Id call Bs or a couple Cs. There was one church that just flunked. It didnt have anything good said about it; a church called Smyrna went through tremendous persecution, and they were very poor. So here they are, humble in spirit, broken and they get this letter from Jesus. Boy, I hope we dont get in trouble from Jesus. Were just struggling here, but were trying to fight the fight. We know we dont have any money. We know were being persecuted, but were not going to give up, and its straight As. Jesus says, I know your persecution, and I know your poverty, but youre rich. They say, We are? Youre rich! Youre rich in what counts. Youre rich spiritually. Youre in the game! Youre fighting. Youre taking the risks. Youre defending My name. Now the other church that did not do so well is a church called Laodicea. They were so blessed to be right on a very prosperous trade route, so commercially they prospered and they had everything they wanted. Jesus says, You say I am wealthy, and I have need of nothing, but you are poor, blind, miserable and naked. Buy from Me gold that is refined with fire. He says, Youre just living the life of ease and comfort. There was nothing in there about them standing up for the Lord, standing up to opposition or taking risk. They simply existed. The Lord was not really happy with them. We find in history when the church became comfortable, the church became corrupt. We know about the persecutions of Nero, the emperor. We know of the persecutions when Revelation was written from Emperor Domitian. They were terrible. We know they continued on and off in different regions and in different intensity. It reached its apex right after the year 300. There was a man by the name of Diocletian who was emperor of Rome. Things were not going well. They said, Why are things going badly? Their theory was that it was the Christians. They werent worshipping the Roman gods, so they had to get rid of the Christians. If they got rid of the Christians, [they believed] that would placate the gods, and everything would go well for them again. So a time of intense persecution broke out against the church, and it lasted for eight years. They did things to Christians that Nero couldnt even think of. His purpose was not to punish the church. His purpose was to eradicate the church. Did it eradicate the church? Not at all. The church grew. The church showed that it was a supernatural entity. It was not the work of man. It continued to grow; it continued to thrive under the reign. He said, Christians, we were seen as atheists because we didnt believe in the Roman gods. We didnt follow the Pagan rituals, so we were atheists in the eyes of Rome. Finally, Diocletian gives up. Finally he says, Ah, you know. There is nothing I can do. So he stops. Then another emperor named Constantine comes to power. He passes whats called the Edict of Milan that says, Well, you Christians can be Christians, and you can move around freely. You can practice your faith. In fact, Constantine became a Christian too. Christians lived in peace and harmony. Then something happened in 380; another emperor by the name of Theodosius came to power. Remember him by just saying, supercalifragilisticexptheodosius. Theodosius came to power, and he said, Im going to make a rule that you can only be a Christian in Rome. If youre anything other than a Christian, youre in hot water. Isnt that interesting that in the span of 70 years, Christians went from being the persecuted ones to the persecutors. They went from being the lowest in society to in complete and utter power, and the church became corrupt. They lived in comfort; they called the shots; and they became corrupt. You can cite examples of that all the way through history. I can cite examples in my own life of what the comfort zone can do. When I started my education after high school, I was pretty young. I was 17 years old. I wanted to stay close to home, so I went to a local community college for a couple years. At that community college, my faith was challenged. It was challenged by professors. I had some science teachers who were saying some things about creation. I had some philosophy teachers who were saying things about theology. I had some English teachers who were attacking the Bible and attacking Christianity. Do you know what I would do? Id stand up for myself. Id stand up for my faith. I stood up to students who opposed the Gospel. Id raise my hand. Id respectfully disagree. I would debate. I would exchange, and my faith would be challenged. Id go to the Word, and Id study. Id go to my pastors, and Id ask, Hey, what about this? Id talk to friends, and then Id come back for round two and round three. I found my faith growing. I found my faith sharp. I found I was making an influence in our campus. I found that this little group of Christians would assemble for inner-varsity fellowship every Friday morning at 7 oclock. Wed ban together, and wed talk about what we were going through. Wed talk about the war, and wed pray for each other. Wed go back out determined to make a difference in our campus for Christ. Wed hold functions, have activities and invite the campus, trying to be alike for Christ, and my faith grew for those two years. I always envisioned, You know when I get to Trinity, and I really start preparing for the ministry, boy, lifes going to be good because were going to all be Christians. Were going to all love Jesus, and all of my professors are going to be Christians. Everything is going to be wonderful! All those things were true. All of my professors loved Jesus. All of my classmates were Christians, and guess what happened? I became very, very comfortable. There was a time when I started saying, I dont need to go to church this weekend. I dont need to serve right now. I was kind of apathetic. I was getting lazy and spoiled and getting very comfortable because nobody was challenging me. I found that I became very susceptible. I became very vulnerable. I began to not wane in my faith. I still believed in Jesus, but my life could not be described as being cutting edge in any way, shape or form. I was simply learning stuff. It wasnt until one of our courses challenged us to go to Northwestern every weekend and begin debating theology with the students at Northwestern. It wasnt until a professor got smart, and he would bring guest speakers into our class that would challenge our faith that I began to grow. I found that I grew out of the comfort zone, not in the comfort zone. Jesus is the One who says, Behold, I send you out as sheep among wolves. Jesus did that. Jesus is the center. So this myth that He called us to live a comfortable, safe life is not in the Bible. Growth is in the warzone. Growth is when we go; growth is when we take risks and meet challenges; its when we serve Him with our whole heart. The second myth I want to address is in this passage, and you have your Bibles [to reference to]. Its a lot easier for me to just talk right now than try to hold it, look and turn pages. You can look and be my eyes. We dont have any power point we can show you. When you look in your text, do you notice that He says to those cities… Remember these are cities-regions-that He ministered to in Galilee? these are places Hed been. Theyd heard Him talk. Theyd seen the miracles. He compares them to some of these well-known rebellious cities like Tyre, Sidon and Sodom. He said, Its going to be worse for them in judgment because of what theyve seen and heard. The second myth I want to address is this myth that says, All sins are the same in Gods eyes. All sins are the same: have you ever heard that? All sins are the same to God; all sins are alike. Thats a myth. Thats not true. Thats not true from a common sense point of view, and its not true from a Biblical point of view. Just from a common sense point of view, Jesus teaches in the Sermon on the Mount, If you lust after a woman, you say dont commit adultery. I say if you lust, youve committed adultery in your heart. Now is lusting the same severity as actually committing the physical act of adultery? I understand that lusting is where it begins. If were going to equate that and say lust is the same degree of severity and the same sin as adultery… Im not going to ask for a raise of hand for how many men in this congregation have ever lusted, but Im going to guess that most women now would have Biblical grounds for divorce if those are the same thing. Jesus is trying to get them to understand that its not the letter of the law, that this is sin too. This lust is sin too. You say, Dont commit murder; I say to you, If you hate your brother, youve committed murder in your heart. Now is hating somebody the same severity as actually physically murdering them? Lets get real here. Lets think about what were saying. Those are not even close to being the same thing. Thats where it begins, with hate, but actually following through and taking a life, of course, would be a greater sin. Jesus says they have the greater sin for two reasons. Number one, because of what theyve seen. Theyve seen the miracles; theyve heard the teaching. To then reject that, Jesus says, is a greater sin. Remember in John 19, when Jesus is before Pilate. Pilate is a little worked up about whats happening and feeling a little bit funny about the decisions that hes making. Jesus says to Pilate, Those who turn Me over to you have the what? Greater sin. They have the greater sin. They knew better. They were the chief priests, teachers of law. They have the greater sin. There is more accountability. To whom much is given, much is required. There was a sin that was so great that Jesus says, If you blast through the Holy Spirit, you will not be forgiven. Its called the unpartable sin. To sin means to miss the mark. Thats what it literally means: hamartia, to miss the mark. You can miss the mark by a little, or you can miss the mark by a lot. The end result is the same: youve missed the mark. Sin separates me from God. All sin does that, but all sin is not the same. If Im playing basketball, and I miss a shot and hit the back iron, and it bounces out-which has happened once or twice-thats missing. But if I miss everything, thats called an air ball. If you do that in your opponents gym, theyll let you know it. Theyll say, Air ball! Air ball! Air ball! Air ball! Theyll remind you of that for awhile. They are saying, You really missed. You blew it. If Jesus is the target, if Jesus is the goal, to reject Jesus-thats the greatest sin. So what Hes saying to you [is], Listen, you cities of Galilee, your sin is worse than that of Sodom and Gomorrah because the greatest sin you can possibly do is to reject the truth. Its to reject the love and grace of Jesus Christ. That is the greatest sin. If you reject Jesus, you have totally and completely missed the mark. What Jesus is saying is there is nothing left for Me to do for you. If you reject My love, if you reject My grace, theres nothing left I can offer. You have committed the most egregious sin. You have missed the mark completely. Thats the greatest sin, to reject Jesus. Thats why He says they have a greater judgment-because they have rejected the truth. Thats what is going to lead to the next warning here, this next declaration. Jesus knows their fate is sealed if they reject Him, so He says (Verse 13, page 1028), Woe to you, Korazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! Woe to you Capernaum! When He says woe, at first we might interpret that and think Hes saying like a spiritual-trash talk kind of thing. Hes saying, Youre going to get it now. Youre busted! Youre in trouble. You rejected Me; Im going to have the last word. You might read through that and think thats what Jesus is saying. Thats myth number three. Myth number three is that God is vindictive, that God is a god who is out to get you. God wants revenge if you reject Him. Thats a misunderstanding of this Word. In fact, remember in Luke 9 when the Disciples realize they have the power. Theyve seen the miracles so they know in Jesus, they have the power. When the Samaritans reject Jesus, James and John say what? Do you want us to call down fire from Heaven and destroy them? Jesus probably wanted to slap them upside the head and go, What are you thinking? You dont know what spirit you are of. The Son of Man did not come to destroy mens lives, but to save mens lives. The word woe in the Greek is the word alas. Have you ever had somebody that you love and care about, and you see them going down a wrong path-you know the wrong path is going to lead to destruction, and you tell them it is, but they go down it anyway? Have you seen that happen? You see it happen, and it just breaks your heart. The closest thing we have to this word in our form of communication is not a word at all. The closest word we have to what Jesus said would probably be a sigh. You see them going down that wrong path; they ignore your counsel and advice. You see whats going to happen to their life if they dont turn around. You think, Hoohh. Thats what Jesus is doing here. He is mourning over these cities where He has invested, where Hes ministered, where He knows people. He says, If you reject My message, woe to you. There is nothing I can do for you. Many years ago when I was a pastor in Rockford, and I do mean many years ago, there was a lady who came to our church, and she had been beaten by her husband. She had bruises and cuts; she was crying, and she explained to me what happened. I remember being very angry. I just wanted to see this guy thrown in the slammer. I said, You know this has to stop. If you dont have him arrested and put in jail, hes going to continue to do this to you. Do you understand that? She said, I know. I said, Can I call the police? We should call the police? She said, Yeah, lets call the police. The police came out. We filled out a long report. He was in my office over an hour. We finally get to the end of the report, and he says, Okay, maam, can I press charges? She puts her head down, and she says, No. You see, her comfort zone was a dark place. He was all she knew. She didnt want to take the risk. Whats going to happen to me if he leaves? How will I live? How will I support myself? How will I support my children? So she was going to stay in that comfort zone even though that comfort zone was an awful place to be. She said, I dont want to fight that battle. The policeman said, You understand that unless you file charges, there is nothing I can do. She said, I know. I said, Maam, you understand if you go back to this home, the same thing is going to happen and only worse. He has to learn a lesson. I know, but I cant, she said, crying. I let out a sign when she left because I knew she was going to go back to that which was familiar, and I knew what was going to happen. A couple of years later, I received another call from a lady. I went to the house to go see how I could help, pray with her. Guess who it was? It was the same lady in the same situation. Sometimes people learn the hard way. Sometimes people want to stay in the comfort zone because its familiar, even if its destructive. So even though it was destructive, the people in Capernaum and these other towns wanted to stay there because it was all they knew. It was an easy path for them. We brought in a friend of Janet Bales, who is becoming a friend of mine, Jay Bellard and his wife Theresa from Beloit. He is going to share right now a short testimony of his life and what Christ did for him while he was in that comfort zone, when he was in that path of having a stubborn, unrepentant heart and how Christ brought him back into the way of the truth. Is this like the light FM crowd or this is the rocker crowd? Youre a little later, so the easy listening was the service before this. Welcome to Faith Community Church unplugged. Thank God for change. Id be thanking God for a pastor who wants to make changes. You dont want the same hairdo all the time. I cant change my hairdo. Its kind of the same, but its either that or the comb-over. My days with a comb are over, so thats why I dont do that. Anyway, Im here to just tell some things about what happened in my life and what my life was all about. I was born and raised in Beloit, the evil empire south of here that you all think it is. I basically had a non-resident father and a mother who was very liberal, so I pretty much raised myself. You start getting into things. You get into your teen years, and you start to see some things and do some things. When I was 13, I began smoking dope for the first time. When I was 13, I began drinking alcohol for the first time. I had sex for the first time when I was 13 years old. A lot of you are gasping right now. I thought they only did that now. Nothing is new. A lot of times when I was doing stuff, I was doing stuff with people you probably knew. Going through life, I was tearing it up. I went through my teen years, and I was just living the life that I knew, the life that I loved, the life that I wanted to do and be. Through a set of circumstances when God ordained circumstances by the time I was 18-19, I started wondering what was going on in the world, who was in charge, maybe there was some beings; maybe there were aliens; you just start to wonder where all this comes from. Whats happening? Through a set of circumstances, my wife and I were born-again and gave our lives to Christ. Okay, halleluiah, great! Whats the big deal? I was 19; she was 18, and we got married. That wasnt smart. It wasnt a good idea that young, but we thought we had it all figured out because we were born again; we knew what was going on. What happened was over time, my mind was not renewed with the Word of God. I was not changing my mind [set]. I was repentant, but I didnt change my mind. After awhile, my mind started to drag me down. I wanted my old life back, and just like it says in the Bible, my house was clean and swept, but I wanted my old life back, and it came back times seven. I was actually probably seven times worse than I was before. The devil comes to steal, kill and destroy everybodys lives. He wants to rip you away from God. He knows that youre Gods anointed being, Gods creation, and he wants to ruin you because misery loves company. I began my decent on this slippery slope downward. Basically I was trying to destroy my own life with self-destructive behavior. I was drinking, smoking weed, riding my Harley. That was my life, but now I had a wife and pretty soon, two kids. Well, I didnt want anything to do with that. I couldnt be responsible for myself, let alone family. So, what did I do? I did what my dad wanted to do. I wanted to abandon. I left my wife; I left my kids. For two and a half years, I lived with another woman. My wife now says, Hey, I need to hear from God. She was praying, and God said to her, Your husband will come back. Otherwise, she would have been gone. She would have moved on. So I did go back to my family after two and a half years, but I was still a mess. I was not repentant. I wasnt saved, but hey, I was tearing it up. I was living the good life, or so I thought. Twelve and a half years goes by, and I was living that way. Twelve and a half years! Thats a long time for you; it seemed like 40 [to me]. Shes praying. Shes a woman of God. Shes praying and interceding for me all the time. Things in my life began to change. God began changing my heart. Circumstances began to turn and change in my life. My friends who I got high with a lot, partied with and did things with, things began to happen there. One of my best friends came over, and he and my wife began talking about church and what was going on at church. I was like, Shut up! Youre giving me a headache! Dont ruin my friend! So then he went to church the next day. This was on a Saturday night. He went to church the next day. He was saved! He was born again, and he gave his life to God. My wife has to be sitting there thinking, No, God! This one, over here is my husband! God doesnt know what Hes doing! Arent you glad that God is in charge? God operates in our lives without permission. How do you like that? Isnt that annoying sometimes? He began to change things in my life, and I didnt want Him to change things in my life, but my wife was praying. God was honoring that. As these things began changing, and my friend was born again, he was gone and out of my life. He still came to visit, but I wasnt impressed with that anymore. I just wanted to live a bad life. There were a lot of people out there who are happy that Im saved. Theyre happy Im saved. Even people who arent saved are happy Im saved. Thats where I was at. The devil was like, I cant hang with you no more. Youre giving me a bad reputation. Youre messing up my life. I used to sell dope. I had just sold him dope one day, and the very next day he was arrested for possession. He was out of my life. There was a falling out between my brother and me, and he was out of my life. Then, I was alone. God worked all of this out. It was all happening by the hand of God. God began to change my heart. Every day, every day, every day from the first day that I walked away from Him, God was still speaking to my heart-every single day, I love you, son. You matter to Me. You matter to me. Everybody is important to God. Every person, all of the people you know-even the people you dont like. That neighbor that acts like I used to, Oh, look at him. He needs to go to church. Well, get him to church. Be his friend! Its getting quiet (referring to the congregation). Anyway, I always said, If they had a first service at that church, Id go because, man, you guys get home late. I want to get in and get out, do my thing! As if God were interested in my thing. Anyway, my friend came over because he knew I always said that. He said, Hey, Pastor announced were starting a first service next week. I was just like, Oh, man. This is it. I had heard things this man of God said because my wife would come home and say, This is what Pastor said. I said, You know what? I know this is a man of God by the things he said because I knew other men of God. I knew them. I was like, No, I couldnt follow them guys because I actually knew them. I had to have somebody who was strong, that was a strong man of God. You have a strong man of God here. Thank God for him. So, I would hear things. I said, Man, I know this is the man of God that I will serve under. I knew it. Being a man of my word, such integrity, I said, Hey, I have to go. I have to go to church. I have to go to first service. So I did go to the first service, and I sat right in the front row just like many of you arent. Nothing changes, does it? Some things never change. There is plenty of room for people like me. Anyway, I sat right in the front row because I wanted it all. I wanted it right in my face. When altar-time came, I was like, Man, do I do it? Im done messing around! Im done! Im sick of my life! Im done messing around! I lifted my hand; I gave my heart to God, and my whole life changed that day. This was 14 years ago, and God has just blessed my life day by day by day. Your life is guided by your decisions, so if you make Godly decisions, your life will have a better outcome. God has blessed my life so much. My wife and I celebrated our 28th wedding anniversary yesterday, so we have been married 28 years now. Give God glory! Thats God! God did that! A week ago, I was ordained as a pastor in our church. So God has blessed my life so much. Just remember that. Every person counts. Every person is important to God. Every person God loves so much the same way He loved you when you were a mess or whatever you were. He loves every one of us as His children, just as you love your children. You might kick them out of the house, but you dont want to condemn them. You want them to serve God. Just remember that everybody is reachable. Everybody is teachable, and pray for them. Ask God to intervene in their lives the same way He did with mine. Thank you. (Pastor Jeff speaking) So for Jay, Theresa was a type of Christ, showing him unconditional love and praying for him. That is what God has called you to do for the people in your life, these people you see and that you know and love who are going down the wrong road. Sometimes our comfort zone is a place of destruction as well. We may or may not be blinded to, but its all we know. So, I pray that youll give your life to Christ, that youll choose His path. Lets stand together for prayer, and then were going to sing a couple more songs before we go. Id like you to pray with me. Father, first of all, I pray for Christians who are here this morning who are apathetic. Weve been living in a place in our lives where we no longer take risks. We no longer respond to challenges. We stay with whats familiar and known. Lord, as You spoke to believers and said, Go. I send you out as sheep among wolves, You are still giving that same command. Youve called us to go into our world to make a difference. We reach out to our community and invite people to come to our 12-step ministry. We reach out through our divorce recovery ministry and invite people to come. Were doing Your work. When we go outside our four walls, when we go to Monterey this afternoon and minister there, were leaving the comfort zone. When we go into nursing homes and reach the elderly, we are doing Your work. We reach out to children through Angel Tree. When we reach out to our community through camp, we are doing Your will. We are going where You want us to go. When we sit across a table over a cup of coffee or when were watching our children play sports and talk a parent about the things of God, we are leaving the comfort zone. So, I pray that Youd push us out of that nest. I also want to pray for us that we will have faithfulness to pray for those who are in harms way, that well not give up. Theresa did not give up on Jay. [I pray] that well not give up on family members and friends we care about. Lord, we pray, too, for those who are in a comfort zone thats destructive, but its all they know. Its like the children of Israel who wanted to go back into slavery in Egypt because at least there they knew they were going to have a meal and a place to stay. They wanted to go back. It was their comfort zone. I pray that Your Holy Spirit would personalize this message to each and every heart and life-that we might follow Your will. In Jesus name we pray, Amen
Were talking about taking off that protection and being all in today. When youre in football, there are times when you practice without your pads and helmet, and youre just going through the motions. There are other times when you say, Okay, its full contact. You put your helmet on; you put your pads on, and say, Were going to hit each other today. Were all in, and thats what were talking about today: being all in. We want to turn in our Bibles to Luke 9. While youre doing that, I want to remind you of a couple of things. We have GPS today after the 11 oclock service. If you need to plug into ministry here at Faith and have not already done so, that class will help you to do that. Lunch is provided. Whats going on in the ministry of Jesus right now is a very defining moment for them (the Disciples). Christ has announced and affirmed to the Apostles that He is the Son of the living God, that He is the Christ. He has begun to tell them some seemingly bad news: that He is going to be betrayed, that He is going to suffer, that Hes going to be crucified. Hell be buried, and then the third day, Hell rise again. They dont understand the full significance of that. They dont understand the theological significance of it. What Jesus begins to do now is send them out. Theyve been watching Him, listening to Him, following Him, but now its their turn to begin to do the things Hes done. Jesus is going to [take the] bubble wrap off and send them out unprotected into the world. Its all in. Its all or nothing right now. Its where the rubber meets the road in this Comfort Zone to the War Zone; thats what were talking about here. Lets take a look at Verse 57 [of Luke 9]. Were going to pick up where we left off (page 1027 of pew Bibles) from last week. Were going to encounter a series of three different men. Usually when you read this passage, these three men are presented in the light that they went AWOL, that they didnt follow through. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that. We simply dont know whom they were. We dont know what the outcome was. All three may very well have followed Christ. It could be that when He sends out the 72 in the next chapter, that these three men were a part of that 72. We simply dont know what their fate is. These verses are very much applicable to our lives and ministries today. As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, ‘I will follow You wherever You go. Jesus replied, ‘Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head. Ive heard people talk about that and say, That means Jesus was homeless. Well, thats not entirely true. When you read the Gospels, when Hes in Capernaum, He definitely had a headquarters there where He stayed. There were times when He stayed at Peters house; there were times when He stayed at the home of Mary and Martha; there were times, Im sure, when he was at His mothers home, so there were many times when He had a home. However, at this particular juncture-remember the Samaritans would not allow Him to stay in their villages because He was on His way to Jerusalem (He didnt have a home). We talked about that last week. They said, Were not going to let You stay here, so for that particular night, there was no lodging. Jesus, here, is giving him a realistic view of what its like to be a follower of His. Youve seen the miracles; youve seen the thousands of people fed. Youve seen the demonstrations of power; youve seen this dynamic ministry unfold in front of you, and you want to be a part of that. [Jesus says], You want to be a part of the adventure. What you need to know is that its not always roses. You need to know that sometimes there are sacrifices. Sometimes there are inconveniences, so you need to be aware. Its not all the glamour that it looks like. Tonight were sleeping under the stars. So Hes making him aware of the reality of what it means to follow Him. Its not always going to be an easy path. Sometimes we want to be engaged in certain ministries because we think, Oh, thats where its at. We forget that often times there is a lot of hard work and preparation that goes on underneath. I was watching American Idol, which is kind of a tradition of our family on Tuesday nights. The idols get advice from different stars. This time it was a group called Maroon 5. The lead singer was asked a question, What would you tell the idols to prepare them for their future? What bit of advice do you have? The lead singer said, Just be prepared to work. If you become a professional, just know it requires long hours, and its hard, hard work. People just see the lights, the fame and the glitter. Its hard work. Its rehearsals; its traveling; its different hotels every night. Youre away from home and family. Its hard. I was talking with somebody who was in an elected office recently; he was a friend of mine. He said, You know, sometimes people want to do what I do because they see that there is a certain amount of power; there is a certain amount of notoriety, but they dont see that this is a hard job. They dont see all the research and all the studying, all the preparation and the long hours, and the many different demands. Im sure that sometimes people see you preach on a Sunday and say, ‘I want to be a pastor because I want to do that. But how much of your week as a pastor is spent preaching? I said, A few hours a week. [He said], Its just the tip of the iceberg of what you do. So it is with me. So Jesus is saying, Look, be realistic. Understand the consequences and the potential sacrifice. This whole segment of the chapter is about what were going to call divine priorities, Jesus making sure our priorities are in the right place for life in ministry. Then He encounters a second man. He says, ‘Follow Me, but the man replied, ‘Lord, first let me go and bury my father. It seems like a reasonable request, doesnt it? Jesus said to him, ‘Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God. He seems to be saying no to this mans request to bury his father. When you first read that, you go, Well, thats kind of mean. You would think Jesus would say, Well, sure, if your dad died, you better go bury your dad, and I understand, but thats really not whats happening here. Think about it: if this mans dad had just died, would he be out there with Jesus? Where would he be? Hed be with his family. He would be with his mom if she was still living; hed be with his siblings. Hed be with his family. What he is saying here to Jesus is, Listen, my father was up in years. What You are doing sounds important. It sounds good, but let me take care of my dad first. When my dad passes away, then Ill follow You, but right now Im concerned. I dont want to leave him. Hes getting older. His health isnt the greatest, and I just have to be around for him, but someday, Ill follow You. Remember Jesus is not going to be around much longer. He doesnt have many days left, so if hes going to follow Christ, its expedient that he does so now. In essence what this man did was he said, My family is a greater priority to me than the call You put on my life. Sometimes, when people talk about ministry and why they cant serve or why they cant fulfill their call, the excuses they give are really good ones. One of the best ones you hear is family. I cant tell you how many times Ive heard-I mean numerous, numerous times through the years-people who cant serve because of family obligations. Do you think Jesus buys that excuse here? Does Jesus go, Oh, its your family. I understand. Oh, forget about the call and purpose I have on your life. Your family, after all, has to be the number one priority in your life. Is that what Christ would teach? What did Christ say? Do you remember the teaching that is really misunderstood sometimes? Unless you hate mother, father, sister, brother, child more than Me, you cannot be My disciple. What was He saying there? Did He literally mean to hate? No. He meant that every other love we have should pale in our comparison to our love for Him, that He should be the number one priority in our lives. We met Pastor Lyon a few weeks ago when he gave our dedication for our new building. When his son, Curtis, was four years old, he developed a brain tumor. When Dr. Mano performed the surgery, he found that the brain tumor was malignant, and it was too large to remove. It would either kill him or make him a vegetable. They sewed him back up, and they said, The only thing you can do is wait. Im sorry there is nothing earthly speaking that we can do for your boy. [It was] devastating news! With each passing day, Curtis condition decreased. There were many nights when he was gasping for breath and looked like he would die right there. His parents began to take care of him, of course. It was an around-the-clock job, but what was interesting was Pastor Lyon never quit the ministry. He never stepped down from ministry. People would criticize him and say, Look, your son is dying. Why dont you step aside from your responsibilities or dont work so much. Go home and take care of your boy because you dont know how many days you have left with him. I want to tell you something. Nobody, not a board member, not a staff member, not a parishioner, not one person, would have judged or criticized him if he said, Listen, my little boy is dying right now, so I need to stop ministry. Do you know what Pastor Lyon would say to them, time and time again? Hed said, I take care of Gods business. Hell take care of my business. Seek ye first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. So while he ministered to his son, he continued to serve the Lord. Do you know what happened? God miraculously healed Curtis. Eventually with X-rays of his skull, all they found where the tumor used to be was fluid. The malignant tumor was completely dissolved and gone. I would just see pictures of Curtis with the bandage around his head. It looked like a big turban. Id hear the stories. He grew up to be one of my best friends. See, thats the principle here. Friends, families are wonderful. Families are ordained from God. Even something as wonderful as your family should not be an excuse for doing the Lords work and following His call. Jesus didnt buy it. He didnt say, Oh, your dad, sure hes more important than I. Then theres the third person who comes up [to Him.] He says, ‘I will follow you, Lord, but first let me go back and say good-bye to my family. Notice the pattern with man number two and man number three; First let me is in both stories. Me first. My priorities, my needs first. Jesus would say, Me first, then you. Jesus is going to correct them on their priorities. He says, Let me go and say good-bye to my family. It seems like a reasonable request. Jesus replied, ‘No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God. Now, was Jesus saying, No, you cant say good-bye? Thats not what He was saying at all. He was simply letting the man know that if a result of meeting his family caused him to turn away from the call-have second thoughts about the call-he was not fit for service. Hes going to go back and say good-bye, but whats going to happen when he goes to say good-bye? Whats going to happen when he goes home and says, Mom, Dad, Im going to follow Jesus. When he tells his siblings, a spouse if he has one, children or his friends, Im leaving home, and Im going to follow this Jesus. I dont know where Im going to go. I dont know what Im going to do, but Im going to follow Him. How do you think that would go over back at home base? When I announced to my wife that we were moving to Janesville, and by the way, thats how poorly I did it, I did not do it the way you were supposed to do it. I remember I came home, and she was chopping onions or something. We had lived in Rockford our whole lives. I had a good job; we had a nice house; our daughter was in a nice school; our friends were there; our families were there. All we knew was there, and I said, Were going to go to Janesville and start a church. I think God wants us to start a church in Janesville. She stopped chopping those onions, turned and looked at me and said, Well, you have fun in Janesville because Im staying right here. (Congregation laughing). [She was] one quarter joking and three quarters serious. She began to tell me all of the advantages of staying there, and besides that all of our bills come with us. We had a house payment; we had a car payment. We had this and that. Before you think Im picking on her, I want you to know I was ten times more stubborn than she was. When God told me to go to Janesville, I said, No thank you, Sir. No thank you. No thank you, Sir. I am not going to do that. I was much worse than she was because she eventually, and it wasnt that long, said, If thats what you feel Gods plan is for us, Im in. Im all in. I went and told my mom; now I was a mamas boy when my mom was living. When I told her I was going to take her baby, which was me, she had me late in life and move to Wisconsin and take her grandbabies with me, how do you think that went over? Why would you do that? You love Pastor Lyon. You love your job. You have your new home. You have this and that. Why would you do that? I need you to stay here. I talked to my close friends who were in ministry with me at the church. I said, Im going to be leaving our team and moving to Wisconsin. How do you think that went in there? What did they say? Some of them got mad at me. They saw that as a betrayal. Whats wrong with us that you want to leave us? Why are you going to leave? We have a good thing going here. Why are you going? They were upset with me. These are people who loved me, but what was more, these were people who loved God. My heartstrings would be pulled on, and there would be a passing thought that would say, No, maybe I just need to stay here. Do you know what came to mind? This Scripture right here, Jesus is still teaching this Scripture. That verse would go through my head, No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is worthy of the call. I said, You know what? I have to go. Thats what Hes talking about here. Hes not saying to the man, Dont go back and say good-bye. If you go back, and they convince you not to follow Me, be prepared. That could happen. Divine priorities: Gods call must come first. The second thing we want to talk about is in Verse 1-2 of Chapter 10. It says, After this, the Lord appointed seventy-two others… It could have been these three among them. …and sent them out two by two ahead of Him to every town and place where He was about to go. He told them, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. This talks about divine partnership. Were not going to say a lot about this because in six weeks it will be World Missions weekend at Faith Community. Twice a year, we devote our weekend services to World Missions. We have a wonderful speaker; Todd Powers is going to be back ministering to us that last weekend in July. Right now he is serving the Lord in Myanmar, in the tragedy that is unfolding there. He is one of the few that got visas to go over there. He did a tremendous job last time he was with us. So Im going to have him preach from this text. This is where he is going to preach from, so Im not going to talk a lot about that. Im going to leave that for him to talk about. I do want to point out something here and that is what we think about personal evangelism. Usually, you think of it as something you do; its kind of all on you, right? You have to listen to the call; you have to go out; you have to share Christ; you have to bring them to faith. What this is really talking about here is not your being a one-man show, like the girl I read about in Texas this week. Did you read about Bonnie Richardson, the student in Texas? Shes a track and field athlete for her high school. She was the only student in her high school to qualify for the state meet, Division 1A in Texas. She went as the sole person for her school, her high school, and ended up winning the state title for her school as an individual. She threw the discus, high jump, long jump, 100, 200. She accumulated enough points as an individual to win the team trophy for her school. Thats never been done before; shes just an amazing athlete. Sometimes we think we have to be like Bonnie Richardson; we have to do it all. Jesus talks here about when we go out and share our faith, it is a partnership. We are partnering with each other, and were doing it as a community. Were doing it as a team. There is a dependency upon God to equip us and send us out. There is a notice on us to own that message, be obedient, and to proclaim it, and then have God follow through and bring the results. It is a divine partnership that we seek. More about that in six weeks. Verse 3, He says, Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. Remember, this is Jesus army-out of the comfort zone into the war zone. Hes sending these people out into the world. Have you noticed the descriptive words? Some of you think of it as being warriors for God. Have you noticed the words Jesus used for the people He is sending out? He calls us lambs, sheep. He says were to be childlike. He calls us servants. [Its] not the mindset you would normally think of, right? Servants and sheep, be like these children. Youd think sometimes-the way believers attack non-believers-that Jesus said, I want you to go out and be wolves among sheep. Youd think Hed sent them out, Devour them! No, He says, Listen, I want you to go out, and youre going to be sheep among wolves. There are people out there who want to destroy you, who want to stop our mission. There are people out there with bad intent. They are evil people; theyre ravenous wolves. Because of their presence, I am sending you out to them. There is a line from a movie I want us to focus in on right now. This movie was recently out, and it is called I am Legend. It stars Will Smith, and its a future apocalyptic science-fiction movie in which all but a remnant of mankind has been wiped out. He has just discovered he is not the only person on the planet. There are some other people like him, and hes trying to find a cure because there are these people out there who have been transformed by this disease. I wont get into all of it. These people are relentless, and theyre trying to destroy him. At the same time, he is trying to find a cure for their condition. This is a dialogue he has, and there is a line in here I want to focus in on. Lets watch this short clip from I am Legend and then talk about it. Heres the line right here: The people who are wanting to make this world worse are not taking a day off. Its true now; it was true then. Jesus says, Im sending you out. This is about divine protection. There is an underlying implication that He is going to protect them. He doesnt say Im sending you out as sheep among wolves to be devoured or to be slaughtered. After all, what chance does a sheep have against a wolf? None, unless there were a shepherd who was greater than the wolf. He says, You dont need to fear the wolves because you have a shepherd who will be watching over you. Until God is finished with you, youre invincible. Until He has finished the work He has called you to do, youre invincible. There was a lady I read about this week. I had never heard of her before. Her name was Irene Sendler. She was a social worker in Poland in 1939. WWII, the Nazis came into the town. She knew what the fate of those children she was in charge of would be. In the course of her time there during WWII-from 1939-1943, she rescued 2,500 children-she and her little team of social workers she lead. [There were] 2,500 children! One of those children she rescued was quoted as saying, She not only rescued us, but she rescued our children and our grandchildren. She rescued generations of people because of her bravery. The Nazis were wolves. The Nazis never took a day off; the Nazis had evil intent. They were going to devour the innocent. They were going to take lives. In a few short years, they would round those people up and send them to death camps. Until that time came, she did her best to save those childrens lives one at a time, one at a time. In 1943, she was captured. She knew if she were ever found out, she could be tortured or killed because of what she was trying to do. During the Gestapo raid in 1943, she was rounded up, and she was tortured. She was tortured repeatedly. She had scars on her body for the torturing, this sweet little old lady. She said, But I kept silent because I would rather die than tell them about our mission. So the underground agency that was trying to liberate Jews bribed the Nazi soldiers. The Nazis-the moral giants they were-took the bribe and set her free. She spent the rest of her days trying to reunite those 2,500 children with any family members who might have still been alive. She tried to give them a life again. She took their names, wrote them down on paper, put them in a jar and she put it under a tree. When the war was over, she dug that up and spent the rest of her life continuing to minister to those kids. She died at the age of 98, just this week. Irene Sendler was a sheep among wolves. She never took a day off because they never took a day off. The mission was worth it. The cause was worth it. Jesus says, Look, I am sending you out there. I know how wicked they are, and I know the potential danger and threat, but understand this: Im going to protect you and watch over you. Pastor Sean and Heather, one of our pastors who left for Haiti, were asked repeatedly, How could you go to Haiti? How can you take your four little children to the poorest nation in the world, the voodoo capital of the world? [There is] a high crime rate in Haiti. How can you take your four children? Pastor Sean understood this principle. He would say to you, The safest place on the planet is in the center of the will of God. Until God is done with me, Im invincible. In January, their language training will be over, and January 09, they move to Haiti long-term. Its possibly for the rest of their lives because they feel thats where God wants them to be. Are there wolves in Haiti? Sure. There are shepherds there too. The shepherd is greater than the wolves, and He has a mission for them to reach the Haitian people. [Lets pick up at] Verse 4 where He says, ‘Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road. Jesus is not telling them, Hey, be rude. Dont talk to people. Be rude. No, what Hes saying is there is expediency to your mission. I dont want you to be deterred or side-tracked. You have a job to do, and time is short. There are times when I go to exercise at the club, and I have time to kill. I can talk and chat, have a conversation. Maybe Ill talk with several people. Well stop our workout and talk sports, the weather or whatever. Well have a nice conversation. There are other times when I have like 20 minutes before I have to be out of there. Ive tried to stare straight ahead. I try not to get in conversations. If somebody wants to talk to me, they are going to have to talk to me while Im exercising because Im not going to stop. I have a mission to do here. Thats the mindset. Its not being rude; its more like you have a job to do. Notice He basically says, Just bring the clothes on your back. It wasnt the first time He told his followers that. Flip back one page to Chapter 9 where He sends out the 12. He told them in Verse 3, Take nothing for the journey-no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra tunic. The bag contained their provisions. Dont take provisions. The staff would ward off potential predators, like wolves. Dont take a staff; dont take extra shoes; dont take extra clothes; dont take food; dont take money. Wow! This is talking about divine provision. What do you think is going to happen? Were not there yet. We wont get there until next week, but what do you think happens when these 72 come back? Do they all die of starvation or dehydration? Are they chewed up by wolves? Do they get infections because their feet are not taken care of? What is going to happen to them? Do you know what? They are all going to find lodging; theyre all going to have their meals; their needs are going to be met. Jesus says, If you trust Me to send you out, trust Me to provide for you while youre doing what Ive called you to do. Heavens economy. There are a lot of us in the community that are worried about whats going to happen this summer. We know for a fact that GM is scaling back. We know were going to lose hundreds of jobs. We know were going to lose hundreds more jobs of subsidiaries who are dependent on GM. We know further that economically, that can trickle down on other businesses-less money for entertainment, less money for restaurants, less money all the way around. Yet, the demands are going up, and sometimes fear rises in the hearts even of believers. Let me ask you a question: Is your job your source, or is God your source? God is able to provide for you in ways that you cant even imagine, that you cant even conceive. You have to work; you have to look sometimes, but you have to keep in mind, if you belong to Him, you are under Heavens economy. Heavens economy never goes through recession, depression, inflation or any other shun you can think of. He says, Trust Me to meet your needs. So as we look back now in this passage, how are you doing here? What about in the areas of divine priorities? Are you finding good excuses like family to keep you from doing the best thing, which is fulfilling the call Hes placed on your life? Are you finding all kinds of reasons why you cant, or are you going forward in faith? If you go forward in faith, then the other three enter into the picture. Its a divine partnership with divine protection and divine provision. Like a child, I trust my heavenly Father to meet my needs. Were going to pick up there next week. Were going to find out what happens when these 72 go out. Some are going to receive their mission, their message. Others are going to reject theirs. Well talk about stubborn and unrepentant hearts next week as we wrap up From the Comfort Zone to the War Zone. I invite you to stand with me as we close in prayer this morning. We are going to pray, and after were done praying, if you have anything you would like to pray about, well have a team of people up here in the front who will be willing to pray with you. The first people I want to talk to are those who are here this morning and who have trusted Christ as your Lord and Savior-youve never prayed to receive Him and trust the care of your soul to Him. That needs to be Job #1 today. When we pray, I invite you to come forward today and pray with our volunteers in the front. They want to pray with you. They have a packet of materials they want to give you that will help you start a journey of your own, as God has called you to a journey too. They want to pray with you. Its not hard; its not painful. In fact, youll feel wonderful when youre through. Theyd like to lead you in prayer to receive Christ as your Lord and Savior. Secondly, if youre here and youre struggling with any of these areas and divine priorities, you need to get those right, make some different decisions. Maybe youve been dealing with some anxiety or fear because youve not been trusting in divine protection or provision. Maybe youve been trying to do it on your own, not entering into that divine partnership. They would like to pray with you about any of those concerns, so I invite you to just come forward. If youre here with somebody, they can wait a few minutes while you come up and allow somebody to pray with you and stand with you in faith. [Come forward] especially those this morning who have never started that journey. Let this be the moment; let this be the time when you start that journey today. Lets pray: Father, we thank You for this example that Youve given us. We dont know who these men were. We dont know what they ultimately decided to do, but for the purposes of Lukes Gospel, it wasnt important. What was important is that the message get there because His call is still going forward, and there are still people giving the same excuses. Youve said whoever puts their hand to the plow and turns back is not worthy of the call. My prayer is that we be found worthy today, that we would not look back. I pray for that one who has not yet started that journey, that they would come forward this morning and pray and receive You as their savior and as their Lord. Maybe theyre not trusting in baptism, not trusting in membership, not trusting in their goodness and their righteousness, but be trusting solely in the grace of God as its been revealed through Jesus Christ as their means of salvation and forgiveness. Then I also pray for those of us who have entered into that partnership as we encounter the wolves along the way. Lord, [I pray] that we would acknowledge You as our shepherd, that we need not fear the wolves that would devour. [We know] that those who have evil intent never take a day off, nor should we. Father, [I pray] that we come to the place as these Disciples [did]. Their trust was solely and completely in You, not in themselves, not in what theyd stacked up or saved up. They left with only the sandals on their feet and clothes on their backs, and You met their needs. We trust You to meet ours as well. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
I sure appreciate the multi-media our programming team did for the service this morning for our moms. Were going to be talking about a subject I think moms can relate to really well today. Weve watched on our televisions the different ad campaigns for the military through the years, effective ones. Some of the best commercials on TV have to do with the military. Have you noticed that? Some of the best special effects, some of the commercials that get you the most charged up and make you want to go out there and conquer the hill, are those commercials. I think of the Army of One, Army-Tough, Army-Strong, A Few Good Men, slogans of the Marines-before they became a Hollywood movie. The Few, the Proud, the Marines [was another]. As we assemble our elite military, our defense, were looking for the best. Were looking for the strongest, the most courageous. The job of the military is to try to bring that out of you. We received a mailing this week from the Marines. It was a very expensive mailing. [It read], Never fail with some striking images and photography. It was encouraging you to be all you can be. That is effective. We appeal to that strength. We are going to look this morning at a time when Jesus was recruiting a team around Himself, an army, that He was sending out. We see that Jesus ministry began to change. It was once Him doing all of the teaching, all of the praying, all of the healing; and then, at a certain point, Peter affirms that He (Jesus) is the Christ, the Messiah-the Son of God. Jesus affirms Peters answer; and then from that point on, He began to tell them that he was going to have to be betrayed, that He would suffer, that He would be crucified and would die, and three days later would rise again. From that point on, we see Jesus ministry take a distinctive turn. He now begins to send out His Disciples. Were going to see Him sending the 12 out in Luke 9. Well talk about that next week. He sends out even more in Luke 10 to do the very things Hes been doing. They will preach; they will pray; they will heal. What are the criteria? Who will be the poster boy for this ad campaign for this all-out blitz to try to recruit this faithful army to go out and disseminate the Word of God? Whats Jesus looking for? We know our government is looking for the few, the proud. What is Jesus looking for? The poster boy for his campaign is somebody you would not expect, and it still is. Lets turn to the Book of Luke 9. Remember what is going on in the Gospels. We talked last week about From the Mountain to the Valley. They had a mountaintop experience with the transfiguration, and then [they had] a valley experience encountering the man and his possessed boy. Then they had a valley experience as the boy went through deliverance and was set free. Then, as everybody was celebrating and was astonished, what happens is Jesus reminds them again that the valley is coming. In Verse 44 (page 1027 of pew Bibles), He says, Listen carefully to what I am about to tell you: The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. But they did not understand what this meant. It was hidden from them, so that they did not grasp it, and they were afraid to ask Him about it. When Luke says they didnt understand, what he means is not that they didnt understand the words Jesus spoke. Obviously, they understood the words; they understood the what; they understood that Jesus was saying He was going to die. What they didnt understand, and what was escaping their grasp, was the why: the theological ramifications, the theological implications, what the cross would mean, why the cross was necessary, and the significance of the Resurrection. So they understood the words; they just didnt understand the impact spiritually that those words would have, the significance of those words. Those words were the fulfillment of Old Testament prophesies concerning the Messiah. They didnt understand the full scope of the words. They understood the words themselves. Thats why Peter says, This should never happen to you. He gets all upset. He understood full well what Jesus was saying, but he didnt understand the why. Thats why the next verse takes place. Thats why the argument we are about to read in Verse 46 [takes place]. An argument started among the Disciples as to which of them would be the greatest. The argument starts right after Jesus announces His death. What do you think motivated that argument? What the Disciples are doing, friends, is they are grappling for position. They are jockeying for position. If Jesus is going to be gone, were going to need a successor. Were going to need somebody to take over what has begun. [They were thinking], So who among us, since Jesus has not designated and we dont know if He ever will, but who do we think among us is the greatest? Who is the most effective leader? Who has the most courage? Who has the most faith? So they start to debate amongst themselves as to who was the greatest. Its an oxymoron in the Kingdom. Thats like having an argument with somebody about who is the most humble. It doesnt work out. So Jesus confronts them on this hypocrisy. In Verse 47, it says, [Jesus,] knowing their thoughts, took a little child and had him stand beside Him. Now, this is going to be the poster boy. Jesus is saying if you want to follow Me, if you want to be like Me, you want to be a part of My team-a part of My army, here is what I am looking for. He doesnt find the most courageous, brave Disciple. He finds a little child. Jesus loved children and was always esteeming children and the characteristics that children had. [What] He was saying [to the Disciples was], You need to be like this little fellow right here, this little girl right here. He takes a little child in front of them and says, Whoever welcomes this little child in My name welcomes Me; and whoever welcomes Me welcomes the One who sent Me. For he who is least among you all-he is the greatest. He was totally taking the worlds idea of greatness and turning it upside down. [He was giving] an entirely new definition of what greatness would mean. Now, in Matthew 18, we find this same story. If you read in Matthew what just happened in 17, the transfiguration, the mountaintop experience and then the healing of the demon-possessed boy, what follows that is this discussion. This is the same event, but Matthew gives us some dialogue that Luke doesnt give us that is significant. Verse 1 [of Matthew 18, page 974 of pew Bibles], At that time the Disciples came to Jesus and asked, Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven? He called a little child and had him stand among them. And He said, I tell you the truth, unless you change… or turn, change your way of thinking, … and become like little children, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Thats pretty important, right? If Jesus says, This will prohibit you-if you dont do this, it will prohibit you from entering the Kingdom of Heaven, you and I should be all ears because how many of you want to go into the Kingdom of Heaven? So, we want to go to the Kingdom of Heaven, and Jesus says, Unless you have this, youre not going to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. You and I would do well to pay attention to what Hes about to say. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child… If you become like this child, youre on the right path. You are the kind of person I can use in the army that I am building. Were going to talk this morning about the characteristics of a child. Jesus unique ad campaign, as He assembles His team: the few, the humble, the child-like. Its a very different ad campaign. I dont think the Marines would do well with that one, but for Jesus, it worked, and it still does. First of all, when I think of a child, I think of a child being carefree. Im going to speak to our adults this morning. This is an acrostic, by the way, if you are taking notes. Each letter is going to stand for something significant, a characteristic of a child. There was a time in your life when you were Carefree [which is the C in child]. There was a time in your life when you didnt worry about bills and gasoline. You didnt worry about the economy. You didnt worry about how you were going to pay for retirement, all those kinds of things. You simply trusted that your parents, or your guardians, were going to take care of you. Thats the child-like faith Jesus wants us to have. He is always saying, Dont worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will take care of itself. Your heavenly Father knows you need these things, but seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness, and all of these things will be added unto you. In another place, He says, It is the Fathers good pleasure to give you His Kingdom, so do not fear, little flock. [In yet] another place, He says, Come unto Me all ye who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Many times, He would say, Do not fear. Peter writes, Cast all your cares upon Him because He cares for you. Jesus wants you and I to have a carefree spirit that we are entrusting our lives, our futures, into His hands. The second is an H, and that stands for Humility. That teachable spirit, that willing spirit, that humble spirit that the Lord says is teachable, moldable and able to be shaped. God wants us to have that kind of a heart. We spent some time looking for an example of humility. We came across a lady who demonstrates a service heart. You may want to get some Kleenexes out when you listen to her. Shes a bell ringer for the Salvation Army. Lets go ahead and listen to this humble servant of God. (It is titled A Servants Heart, and you can view it here: www.sermonspice.com.) Dont be like her. It was an example of being a servant; I just forgot to tell you it was a bad example of servanthood. Doing what you do to be seen, doing what you do for notoriety and praise… A humble, teachable spirit is what Christ is looking for. The I stands for Innocence. I listened to a tape recording of myself years ago. I didnt even know anything like this existed, but I was like four years old. I was doing a funny joke. There was a group called the Ink Spots, apparently, and I would make ink spots on my hand and hold my palm up to somebodys ears. Id say, Youre now listening to the sound of the ink spots. I thought that was hilarious. I was listening to myself on this tape, and its me, but I dont recognize that its me. I dont remember ever sounding like that. I was just roaring. I was busting a gut at my own joke. That laughter
We are studying Luke chapter by chapter together. This morning, we are going to be talking about From the Mountain to the Valley. That is our subject matter today. Life is full of mountains and valleys. When I was a little guy, my father had passed away, and my mother remarried. There was a period even before they were married when he would be at our house a lot. We used to play a game together. He would sing a song. The song was, The stars at night are big and bright, deep in the heart of Texas. The prairie moon shines above, deep in the heart of Texas. What was so fun about this song was that he would pick me up in his arms, and he would go around in a circle as he sang that song. Then at the end of the song, he would start spinning a little faster. Hed say, Deep in the heart offff TEXAS! and hed throw me up in the air and onto the bed. I just remember thinking that was the funnest thing in the world. I felt very safe in my dads arms. Usually it was before bed. I was kind of settling down, and he would tell me to close my eyes, so I would. As I was spinning around, I would think any second now. Its going to go faster, and hes going to throw me in the air. I had that feeling of weightlessness as I would sail through the air. Then came the bounce. I never knew how I was going to land. [There was] that tickle in my stomach and the bouncing on that bed. I would spring to my feet, and I would say what any 6, 7, 8 or 9 year old boy would say: I would look at Dad, and Id say, Again! Lets do it again! Hed pick me up again, and the stars at night are big and bright, and around wed go. Deep in the heart of TEXAS, and hed throw me again. Id get up and say, Lets do it again! My children [were] the same way through the years. Theyd want me to do it again and again to them. There is a part of us when we just have a God moment, when God just reveals to us that Hes there, that He loves us, that were in His presence, that were in His arms. Its thrilling; its invigorating; its exciting. There is a certain part of us that just says, Again! Thrill me again! Help me to just live in Your presence. I just want to experience that mountaintop sensation, that overwhelming sense of His love, of His presence, of adventure. We would love to stay in those mountaintop experiences, but we dont. We dont stay there. There are valleys we have to go through. Were going to learn this morning how those mountaintop experiences can help us as we go through the valleys of life as well. The story we are reading today is the story of the transfiguration of the metamorphosis of the change Jesus went through. When we see Jesus in Renaissance paintings, often times, there is a glow about Him. There is a halo… Thats really not how it was. The angels didnt say to the shepherds, This is how youll know the baby. You will find a baby glowing in a manger. They didnt say that. They had told them what kind of clothes He had, so they would be able to identify Him because He was like a normal man. On this day, though, in this moment, there was what I like to call a glimpse of glory. The Disciples were given a short glimpse, a taste, of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. [They were given] a unique sense of His splendor and His majesty in a mountaintop experience. We had just come through the time of the confession of Peter that He (Jesus) is the Christ. Jesus went on to talk about His death, how He would be crucified, betrayed, would die and three days later would rise again. About a week after that, Jesus takes Peter, James and John up onto a mountaintop to pray. Thats where this transfiguration takes place. The Bible says in Verse 29 (page 1026 of pew Bibles), As He was praying, the appearance of His face changed, and His clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning. There was something brilliant, not only about His face, but His clothing as well. Mark describes it this way: It became whiter than any bleach could bleach it. Matthew describes it as like light from the sun, brighter than the sun. Obviously, something supernatural was taking place for this glimpse of glory. It says the two men, Moses and Elijah… Now, why Moses and Elijah? Well, we can only speculate, but some say Moses represents the law, and Elijah represents the Prophets. It was as if the law and the Prophets were with Jesus. Others have other theories as to why those two [were mentioned]. Were not going to get into those this morning. They also appeared in this glory of slender talking with Jesus. They spoke about His departure, which He was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem. This word departure pertained to His death. It was not a departure from the mountain or departure from the city, but a departure from this earth. Jesus had gone to the mountain to pray, and He was praying about the cross. He was praying about His death. He was praying about His departure from this earth, the culmination of His ministry. These two had come in a response. There was this dialogue that were not privileged to. Luke tells us what the gist of the conversation was, although he does not go into any details. The reason is because John, James and Peter fell asleep. This seems to be the beginning of a trend for these three. These are great prayer buddies. Here, the Garden of Gethsemane: every time Jesus says, Come with Me and pray, they look at that as snooze time. So, they wake up and they see whats going on. … [when] they became fully awake then, they saw His glory and the two men standing with Him. As the men were leaving Jesus, Peter said to Him, Master, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters-one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah. Luke adds a little commentary here: (He did not know what he was saying.) This meant he was just speaking off the top of his head. Who, Peter? No way! Not Peter. Hed never do anything like that. What was Peter saying? He was saying, It is good for us to be here. Lets stay here! Do it again! The glowing, thats cool! This is awesome! I feel Gods presence. Lets just stay here! Lets just live here! And that really is how you feel, right? I have a friend; I call him a God-chaser in an affectionate way. Every time he hears about something going on, some supernatural manifestation of God, he is on a plane, and he is out of here. He will fly to wherever in the country those kind of things are happening. He wants to live in that sustained mountaintop spirituality. We have to be careful. Though God encounters our good, if all were doing is pursuing God encounters, that spiritual euphoria and emotion, traveling around following this speaker or this prophet: although God moments are wonderful and good if theyre authentic and real, if were searching for simply an experience, weve not crossed over into that consumer mentality we warned about a couple of weeks ago. We dont want to be in that. We pursue God for whom He is regardless of what happens to us, our emotions or whatever kind of euphoria we may or may not feel. Chances are if we are truly and earnestly seeking God and seeking His presence, there will be those God-moment times. Sometimes theyll come when we are not looking for them. Thats often one of the best ways you know its an authentic manifestation, an authentic glimpse of glory. Youre not even looking for it to happen, and it simply happens. Peter wants to stay there, but hes not going to stay there. It says, …the next day when they came down from the mountain. Its not meant to last forever. Its a glimpse of glory. In this frame, in this place on earth, we only see a manifestation of God in his glory for a short time. We only experience that presence for a little while. Listen to what happens next. Were going to list some benefits of those God-moments in our life, those times when God reveals Himself in a greater way. We feel His presence. They are the goose bumps moments. They are the times of conformation. They are the times of the miraculous, the times of the supernatural. When something intervenes in our lives, and we say, That has to be God, a God sighting, those are the kinds of things we are talking about today. So in Verse 34, While Peter was speaking, a cloud appeared and enveloped them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. It was not a dark cloud. One of the other Gospels describes it as a bright cloud. This cloud represented the presence of a Father. It was theologically what we call a theophany, a physical manifestation of some way of the tangible presence of God. From this cloud, the voice of God speaks. This happens three times. It happens at the baptism of Christ; it happens at the transfiguration-here in this passage in Mark 9 and Matthew 17; and it also happens in John 12 as Jesus comes into Jerusalem. When God spoke, it was unmistakable. God was speaking from Heaven. Its not like the voice of a man. This is a voice that doesnt come from this plain. This is a voice that comes from up here [and goes] down. This is a voice of incredible authority and power. This was an overwhelming experience for Peter that he would write about just days before he died. Well look at that as we close our service this morning. The voice came from the clouds, saying, This is my Son, whom I have chosen. Listen to Him. When the voice had spoken, they found that Jesus was alone. The Disciples kept this to themselves, and told no one at that time what they had seen. Do you think there was any doubt, after hearing the voice coming from the cloud, seeing the cloud, seeing the glory of Jesus, hearing the voice, was there any doubt in Peters, James, and Johns minds that Jesus was the Christ at that point? Was there any doubt that He was divine? Was there any doubt He was whom He said He was, that He had come from Heaven to this earth? Was there any doubt of the reality of the presence of God? Was there any doubt they were going in the direction God wanted them to go? No. Where there going to be valley experiences for Peter, James and John? Absolutely. But they would know because of this mountaintop experience that regardless of what valleys they would face of persecutions and suffering they would endure, they were on the right path. Years ago, when I was probably 18, my sisters husband developed brain cancer. He was suffering tremendously. He had never been a spiritual person, never been a Christian, but through this difficult life experience, Matt came to trust Christ as his Lord and Savior. He began to attend Faith Center, Pastor Lyons ministry that many of you experienced last Sunday as he was here speaking for our dedication for our new building. So he started coming, and he really enjoyed being a part of our church. Our church was very small at that time, so he got a lot of individual attention from Pastor Lyon. He really got to know him pretty well. One day, I went over to the house. My sister said, We had a special visitor today. She had a big glowing smile on her face. I said, Who was that? She goes, Well, its pretty special. I said, Oh, Pastor Lyon was here. She said, Oh, no. More special than Pastor Lyon. Now, I know the esteem they hold him in, so I thought if it was more special than Pastor Lyon, thats a pretty short list. In fact, I had no idea who that would be. I said, I have no idea who. She said, Jesus was here today. So my first response was when I heard Jesus was here today was absolutely. Sure He is. You bet, Sis. He is with us every day; Hes with us all the time. She said, No, you dont understand. Jesus was here today! She began to convey to me how she was struggling. Here is her husband, dying. Hes suffering; hes in pain. Youre praying, and he doesnt seem to get better. So, you have all of these cosmic questions. Why is he suffering? Why us? What happens if he dies? What happens if hes not healed, and I have these two girls to raise, and were all alone without his income? Whats going to happen to me? So far from worshipping, she had this heavy stuff, this cloud of wonder and anxiety that she was enveloped with. Shes vacuuming the floor, not exactly a spiritual task. Shes sweating, vacuuming, working hard. Matt is on the couch. In fact, there is no dialogue. In fact, he can hardly talk at this point. Hes very weak. She said all of the sudden into her house, she felt an overwhelming sense of the presence of Jesus. Whats that? She turned off her vacuum cleaner. She walked into the living room, and she said to her husband, Mac, Do you feel that? Mac right now cant speak, but Mac is aware of his environment, and he says, Gods here. She said, I sat down on the couch, and the two of us just began to weep in the presence of Jesus. She said, I felt an overwhelming assurance that He was with me, that He knew what was going on, that whatever the valley-whatever was going to happen-it was going to be okay. It was going to be difficult, but it was going to be okay. He was going to be with me. She said it lasted for about five minutes, and then it left. Shed never gone through an experience like that before. Shes never gone through an experience like that since. There were difficult times. We lost Mac weeks later. He passed away. He went to go be with the Lord in Heaven. The one thing that really sustained her was that God moment, that time when God revealed [Himself]. Now, Im not getting us to rely on our emotions. We dont rely on our emotions. We rely on His Word. We rely on the promises of His Word, but there are times when a God moment is authentic and real, when God gives us a glimpse of His presence. We just want to linger there. We just want to say, Do it again! We feel His embrace. Those moments affirm our faith. They help us in those valley times of life to know He is with us. Hes real. Now, those mountaintops dont last forever. Were going to find in Verse 37, it says, The next day, when they came down from the mountain, a large crowd met Him. A man in the crowd called out, Teacher, I beg You to look at my son, for he is my only child. He went on to describe how a spirit would come and seize the boy, how hed go into convulsions, how hed foam at the mouth. This spirit would throw him into fire and water, trying to destroy him. The father was beside himself, begging for his sons life. The Apostles, on one of their previous excursions, had encountered this man. This man had asked them to heal and deliver their son, and they could not, but he believes that Jesus can. Then there is this incredible God moment. Jesus speaks to this demonic spirit. He casts it from the boy. The boy falls lifelessly to the ground, almost looking dead. Eventually, he stands up and is united with his father. He is a new boy. Hes free, and its an amazing thing. These God moments enable us to face the present. They enable us to have hope for the future as well. But to face the present and know there was something about His presence, something about His Word, that this father knew, Theres hope for me today. There is going to be hope for us. Were going to have deliverance. Our subject matter is not demonic possession, but there really are spirits of darkness. This kind of thing, these kind of manifestations can still happen and do happen today. Years ago, when I was a youth pastor-this was probably 23 years ago that this happened to me, I had a very unusual day. We had a school in our church. It went preschool through 12th grade. Some of you have asked when we are going to start a Christian school. My response is when God speaks to me audibly through a cloud, when that envelopes me and then God speaks in an audible, thunderous voice, Start a school. Then. But, anyway, thats another story. So, this young man, a nice likeable kid, a funny kid, athletic, did not like church. He did not like the Christian school. He was there because he had to be. He came to youth group because he liked some of the cute girls there, but his heart was not in the right place at all. He had taken a turn for the worse. Hed gone from being a kid who was struggling with spirituality… Something really bad happened to him. As we began to find out, it turned out that he was listening to Motley Crue, and they had some satanic kind of a song they sing. [He was] listening to that song over and over again. He was lying in his bed, and he asked Satan to possess his body, so he answered that. Thats not a good idea. This is not normative; what Im going to tell you, this is not a normal experience, what we went through. This is a pretty normal school, a pretty normal church, but that day was something supernatural. This young man had a pair of scissors that hed pulled from one of the pastors desks and was threatening the life of one of the pastors with these scissors. He had a real sinister look on his face. I came in there, and I said, What is going on? We eventually talked the scissors out of this boys hands, and others came in. There were three pastors and two others who came in to try to intercede and gain victory. We learned that this boy had written something in the classroom on a piece of paper. He said it scared him because he didnt remember writing it. It was like after he wrote it, he looked at the words, and they were full of hate. They were threatening to kill people in the school. This was a serious situation. He became so frightened, he crumpled it up and he threw it away. One of the pastors said, I think that paper has insight that we need on it. Would you go see if you can find that piece of paper? I said, Sure, Ill go look, so I went into all the classrooms, and all of the garbage baskets were emptied. It was after school Friday afternoon. I went to the janitor and I said, Wheres the trash from today? He said, Oh, thats out in the dumpster. I said, Great. I went out in the parking lot. I opened up the dumpster, and the whole thing was full of crumpled white paper. You can imagine: [it was] the end of the week in a school of preschool through 12th, all of the crumpled up sheets of paper that would be in a garbage can. This thing was full to the rim with crumpled up white sheets of paper. I was like, Theres no way! I dont have the time to climb into this dumpster and look through these hundreds of sheets of paper. What am I going to do? So, I prayed. I said, Lord, please help me to find that sheet of paper. I randomly reached in, and this is the Gods truth. I reached in that dumpster and I pulled out the first piece of paper. It was that boys note. The first one. I shut the dumpster, and I remember it being a windy day. You can attribute this to wind, and I wont argue with you. I shut the dumpster lid-it was a plastic lid, not a heavy metal one; it was a plastic lid. I shut it, and as I walked off, the lid opened up really hard and bang, bang against the metal part. I went, This is a strange day. I walked in the room, and we began to read. We got some clues, some things he needed to renounce, confess and get rid of. We broke through and had deliverance in his life. It was a long afternoon, but I remember that God moment. I remember that time when God let me know He was going to give us victory. I shared that with the other pastors, the miraculous find of that letter. I was like, God is going to see us through this, guys. That became a God moment that allowed us to face that valley we were in. That young man called me just several months ago out of the clear blue sky, and hes now married with children. He said, I want you to know how much you meant to me and your ministry meant to me. I hope to come to Faith Community some time. You just were a real blessing in my life. That was a shocker to me. I had no idea I had gotten through to that kid up to that point. There is another thing we want to look at here. Heres this wonderful experience, and everybody is amazed. They were all amazed at the greatness of God, while everyone was marveling at all that Jesus did. While this mountaintop experience took place, Jesus said to His Disciples, Listen carefully to what Im about to tell you. Whenever somebody tells you that, it means there is something really important; youd better sober up and listen. He said, The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. Thats a downer, isnt it? Youve just seen this deliverance. This boys excited, and his dads excited. They know what Hes been through. They see that Hes free. He looks like a new young man. Theres a mountaintop experience. Jesus all of the sudden comes with this bad news. Why? Was He being a killjoy? Was He being a party crasher? He didnt want them to be happy? Not at all. What Jesus was telling them was reminding them, Listen, the valley is coming. The valley is coming. When the valley comes, men, you need to remember these times. Remember the manifestations of Gods power? Remember His presence. Remember the words I spoke to you because some dark days are coming. Be aware! These God moments help prepare us for our future because you and I dont know what valley experiences we might face tomorrow, next week or next year. In our lives, in the lives of people we care about, every single person in this room-and I dont mean to be doom and gloom-but in the near future, probably in some way you will encounter a valley. Some of us are going to encounter economic valleys with the economy. Some of us already have. Its not good right now. There are layoffs coming in our community this summer. In fact, I think were probably going to do a series as we get close to that on Gods economy. Were going to start talking words of hope and faith into the people of this community. Valleys come. Do you know this God moment helped prepare Peter for his death-this story, right here, of the transfiguration? Ill show you. Lets turn in our Bibles to 2 Peter 1. First and second Peter are written in the mid 60s. If you recall in the history of the Roman Empire, at this time, a man by the name of Nero came to power. Rumor has it that he burned down Rome. To squash that rumor, Christians became the scapegoat. Some horrendous, wicked things were done to the Christians under Neros reign. It was under Neros reign that Paul would lose his life and that Peter-a short time from when this book was written-would lose his life as well. There are two what we call testamental books in the New Testament. They were kind of written as a last will and testament because they knew death was eminent. One of them was 2 Peter. This was Peters sort of last will and testament. The other is 2 Timothy as Paul writes from prison knowing that his death was eminent. Both of them used the same word departure that Luke used in Luke 9 about Christs death. So Peter knows that death is eminent. What does he recall to give him hope about the future? Lets read it in Verse 13 (page 1204). He reminds him of certain truths, and he says, I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body, because I know that I will soon put it aside, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made it clear to me. And I will make every effort to see that after my departure you will always be able to remember these things. We did not follow cleverly-invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For He received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, This is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased. We ourselves heard this voice that came from Heaven when we were with Him on the sacred mountain. Peter recalls the transfiguration. As he looks towards his departure, he doesnt know what that valley is going to look like. He doesnt know how he is going to die or when hes going to die. He simply knows its eminent, but he looks back on that day. He remembers that moment where Jesus was radiant, where the Father spoke and He was in His presence and wanted to build a shelter and just live there. Peter says, I know my God is in charge. He uses that same story to give them hope. He says, We have the word of the prophets made more certain, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. He writes to these people who may too fall prey to Neros persecution. His audience is enduring suffering. He writes about that a lot in 1 Peter. He says, You know what? Youre going through a valley right now, but I want you to know Ive been to the mountain. Gods real, and Gods going to see you through. That same word is for us as well. We dont know what days lie ahead, what valleys we might face. We know this one thing: Psalms 23. What does it tell us? Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will not fear for thou art with me. God doesnt leave us in the mountaintops and say, Oh, I see youre going to the valley. Im just going to stay here. When you come back, well talk about it. No, He goes down in the valley too. About a year ago, we had a very special singer with us named Jeannie Owens. Jeannie wrote a song which I think is one of the greatest songs that has ever been written in contemporary Christian music. It has to do with Gods presence and comfort. She sang that on this stage not that long ago. Before we receive communion, were going to reflect on that. Im going to ask our ushers to come forward and begin to distribute the communion elements. As the elements are being passed out, Id like you to just reflect on the message and the words of this song. If youre here this morning, and you are a believer, [then] you are a part of our family. Whether you have been attending here for a short period of time or just here if you are a confessor of the Lord Jesus Christ, youre welcome to receive communion with us. Lets listen to this song, If You Want Me To. Were going to read from 1 Peter 2:24. He himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by His wounds you have been healed. Chapter 3:18, For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit. Lets pray: Lord, this morning weve been talking about from the mountain to the valley and how those God moments, those glimpses of glory, prepare us for the valleys of life. Regardless of what emotions we go through, what experiences we have, Your word is real. We depend on that. Were not looking for our emotions to be our strength but [for] the reality of Your promise and the presence of Your Holy Spirit. What we just read in 1 Peter was talking about that from the other end of the spectrum. It was talking about one who went into the valley, so we could go to the mountain. It was talking about a Savior who bore sin so we could be forgiven of sin, a Savior who tasted death so we could know life, a Savior who entered into the realm of the dead so we could one day live in the very presence of God. For that this morning, we worship You and celebrate You. Thank you for the gift of salvation, for our Lord Jesus Christ, for the blood that was shed, for His body that was given up and for the atonement and sacrifice that brought us life. Remembering His suffering, celebrating His resurrection, we now receive of this Lords Supper. I will read to you this morning from 1 Corinthians 11:23 (page 1136). Paul says, For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night He was betrayed, took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me. Lets receive together of the Lords body. In the same way, after supper He took the cup, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of Me. For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lords death until He comes. Lets receive together of His blood. Amen. Well be closing our service in just a moment. I want to invite you [forward]. If you need prayer for anything today, we have people who are ready, willing and able to pray with you. They are simply your brothers and sisters in Christ. Theyre not more holy than you, more spiritual than you. Theyre simply just fellow people on the journey that would like to pray with you. Ive noticed that in different services, we kind of trickle up a little bit. Id love to see the floodgates open up. Id love to see some of you [come forward] after having a message like this, and maybe you just [say], I need somebody to talk to and pray with me. Theres a response that comes when we hear about these kinds of messages about Gods presence. So, I invite you to come forward for whatever it is you need to pray about. We have people who will meet you up front, pray with you and minister to you today. Lets stand together as we close in prayer. Were going to continue on in Luke next week where we left off. Pastor Tulios services start at 11 oclock, so that is exciting! We are starting a new church within our church. Well start off small, and well grow, but our Spanish-speaking service starts at 11 oclock in the youth room today.
Pastor Don Lyon from Faith Center in Rockford IL comes to share in the Phase 3 building dedication of Faith Community Church in Janesville, WI. Pastor Jeff Williams served as a Youth Pastor under Pastor Don Lyon in the 1980s.
Were going to read from the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 9. Would you stand with me? Were on a series going through the Gospel of Luke together. We will come back to the first verses of this because in Chapter 10, Jesus talks about sending out others as well. Well hit both sections the next time we talk on Luke. Were going to begin our reading in Verse 12 (page 1026 of pew Bibles). Late in the afternoon the Twelve came to Him and said, Send the crowd away so they can go to the surrounding villages and countryside and find food and lodging, because we are in a remote place here. In other words, if we keep them any longer, they arent going to be able to find anything to eat. He replied, You give them something to eat. They answered, We have only five loaves of bread and two fish… Now, we get that from Johns Gospel because John tells us about the feeding of the 5,000 and the little boy with his five loaves and two fish. …unless we go and buy food for all this crowd. (About five thousand men were there.) So thats just the men, so there are probably about 15,000 people if we include the women and children. But He said to His disciples, Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each. The disciples did so, and everybody sat down. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to Heaven, He gave thanks and broke them. Then He gave them to the disciples to set before the people. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. Lets pray: Lord, we cant begin to imagine what bread that is cooked by You or fish that is cooked by You taste like. What a treat! What a delicious treat to be served in this way by the Master. This was a miracle. Thousands of people were fed by such a small amount of food, but it was meant to illustrate something greater: that the bread of life was present; that the One from whom life emanated from was there; that they had no limit to the supply of life that He can bring; that they should come to Him and find that life eternal. That message of the Gospel, I pray, is the message we will hear and understand this morning. Open our minds to understand, our ears to hear, our eyes to see Your truth and our hearts to receive it as well. In Jesus name we pray, Amen. We live in a consumer society. I mean everything around us is about meeting our wants, needs and desires. You drive in your car, and you see the billboards that are clamoring for your attention, for your money. You turn on your TV, and we have the commercials. All tell you if you buy this product, youll look better, be thinner or be stronger. Youll have a better appearance. We see it in our newspapers; we hear it on the radio; everywhere we go, we are bombarded. We read it in our books. People are appealing to the consumer mentality that we have as a people. There is a temptation sometimes to think that its about us, that this world is about us. The pursuit of life is about making ourselves happy and living for our own comfort, our own pleasure and our own desires. The problem then is that mindset trickles into the church. Sometimes we begin to think that our faith and matters of spirituality are about us. We come at spiritual matters with that same kind of consumer mentality. It asks the question, Whats in it for me? What can Jesus do for me? There are all kinds of best-selling Christian books that tell you about how your life is going to be blessed if you become a Christian. There are all kinds of speakers and churches that cater to the consumer mentality. Many of them are really big! Im not bashing anybody, but sometimes authors can sell all kinds of books. Youre not going to find best-selling books that say, Deny yourself, and follow Christ. Those arent exactly hot sellers on the shelves right now. Thats the message of the Gospel. The message of the Gospel is its not about you, and thats counter-culture. Were going to find out what happens the next day after Jesus had performed this miracle. There is going to be a group that follows Him. Keeping your place in Luke, turn to John 6. You know that Jesus was obviously a good cook, right? If Gods preparing your lunch, its good. So theyre thinking about the bread, and theyre thinking about the fish, and they want to find Jesus. They go back to the place where they were fed, and they cant find Him anywhere. There are so desperate to find Jesus, they go in some empty boats that are not theirs, and they battle those boats to Capernaum. There, they find Jesus. It says in Verse 25 (page 1056 of pew Bibles), When they found Him on the other side of the lake, they asked Him, Rabbi, when did You get here? Remember, Jesus knows their hearts. He sees their motivation. He says, I tell you the truth, you are looking for Me, not because you saw miraculous signs… Not because youve learned Im the Messiah, the bread of life, and youve come to find out how you can serve and follow God and build the Kingdom. Thats not why youve come. You came because you ate the loaves and had your fill but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. You came because your tummies were full, and you want more food. Sadly, thats the reason why many Christians come to Christ and what they think it is about. Im going to come to Jesus because of what Jesus can do for me. That is the polar opposite of what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. Ill prove that from Gods Word to you this morning. In fact, they come at Jesus with this consumer mentality, Ive come for fish. Give me some more bread! Give me some more fish! Jesus says, Youre here for the wrong reason. Verse 27, Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. Let your food be doing the will of God. Let your food be working for that which lasts forever. Dont be about that which is temporary. Christ says, I am so much more than a provider of that which is temporary! I know you need those things, but dont seek those things first. Matthew 6:36 says, Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. God knows that we need stuff. He knows we need things, but things should not be our highest pursuit. Our agenda, our goals, our pleasures should not be what its about. Hes going to go on and speak to them in Luke 9:18. Lets go back to Luke. This is right after the miracle. It says He was praying in private, and the disciples were with Him. He asked them, Who do the crowds say I am? They replied, Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, that one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life. But what about you? He asked. Who do you say I am? Peter answered, The Christ of God. Matthew 16 phrases it this way, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus strictly warned them not to tell this to anyone. In other words, He says, Youre right. I am exactly whom you said. Im the promised one. Im the anointed one. Im the Messiah. I am the Christ. I am the fulfillment of Old Testament prophesy. I am the one you have been waiting for. Then He refers to Himself as the Son of Man. Only Jesus referred to Himself as the Son of Man. Others didnt, but Jesus did. He took that name on to Himself strategically. In the minds of His listeners, the Son of Man was a very important person. In the Old Testament, in the Book of Daniel, we read about the Son of Man in Chapter 7. This prophetic messianic Scripture says that the Son of Man will one day come before the ancient of days. When He comes in the clouds of Heaven, Hell approach the ancient of days in His presence, and Hell be worshipped. Hell receive a kingdom. This kingdom will last forever. So Jesus says, I am that man. I am the Christ. I am the Son of Man. I am the one who will receive the eternal kingdom from the ancient of days. Just imagine hearing those words and then hearing the words Hes about to say. He says, The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and He must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. What a radical thing Jesus said! What a radical thing: the Son of Man killed! In fact, when He says these words in Matthews account of that dialogue, Peter says, Well, thats just wrong! That should never happen! Youll never go to the cross! Jesus says what? Get thee behind me, Satan! Youre acting not for the purposes of God, but youre acting in the will of man. You dont understand that I must come and sacrifice. Now Jesus would come and sacrifice as an atonement or a payment for sin, but also His life-including His death-left an example for you and I to follow. This is where the message this morning gets a little thick. This is where it gets a little unpleasant because of what Hes about to say. Then He said to them all: If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me. These are what I call the Four Ds. It begins with the Desire, the desire to follow Jesus, to be like Jesus, to do what Jesus wants us to do. Thats a healthy desire. If I were to say, Who has this desire? hands would go up all over the place. However, how does that desire become a reality? Jesus tells us. He says, First of all, its Denial of self. There must be willingness to deny self. [Its] not a popular notion in a consumer-oriented society. I dont want to deny self; I want to please self. I want to live for self. Jesus says, Deny self. Its not just enough to deny yourself. Its not about you just denying yourself. Its about what you then live for, or who you then live for, after you have denied yourself. That comes down to a decision. Jesus says, You take up your cross daily. Thats a Decision, a decision to be willing to sacrifice what I have or whom I am for the kingdom of God. Its a daily decision that you and I make, a daily decision to be willing to sacrifice what we have, who we are, for the sake of the kingdom. Thirdly, its about Direction. Jesus said, Follow Me. Follow My example is what Hes saying to us. You have to be willing to do as I did. The Son of Man came, and He did not come to be served but He came to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many. Youre to follow My example, but this is not about you. If you think its about you and if you approach your faith with a consumer mentality, youre getting it wrong. There was a man by the name of Simon in the Book of Acts 8. If you want to turn there, thats fine. Simon was called Simon the sorcerer, Simon the magician; Simon was famous for doing magic tricks and sorcery, things like that. He lived in a place called Samaria. The Gospel reached Samaria by a Christ-follower named Philip. He began to preach the Gospel, and power was manifested. People are being healed, and miracles are taking place. Simon sees this and he goes, How are they doing this? This is amazing! Wow! This looks so real. This almost seems real! A seed is planted in Simons mind: If I could just have that power! Right now, Simon has fame. It says, From the least to the greatest, he was known as having the power of God! He is famous. Hes probably wealthy. Hes powerful. Everybody looks to Simon. When the Gospel comes Simon says, Ive been licked. I cant compete with these guys. So it says even Simon believes the message of the Gospel and is baptized. Im a little skeptical, and others have been real skeptical. Did Simon have a real conversion experience or was he just trying to find out what was going on and how they got that power? His true colors begin to come out because Peter and John are sent to Samaria. They are laying hands on people, and the power of God is falling on them. They are receiving the spirit of God, and great things are happening. Simon says, I have to have that! He starts to think of the notoriety, of the power, of the fame, of the increase. If he could possess that ability to lay his hands on people, and they would experience the power of God… He says, I have to have that too! He sort of does what is like a shady, back-room deal with Peter. Thats the wrong guy to do that with, believe me. He pulls Peter aside, and he says, How much for the power? I have a lot of money. Ive made a lot. Im very famous. I have a lot of money. How much for this Holy Spirit? I want to have the ability to lay my hands on people and experience the power. Peter says, in Verse 20 (page 1086), May your money parish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money! You have no part of share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God. Youre coming at it as a consumer! What can this Gospel, what can this gift, do for me? Peter says thats not where your heart is supposed to be. Its not what this can do for you! Its not what notoriety or prosperity or success can bring to you; this is about God! He said, Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord. Perhaps He will forgive you for having such a thought in your heart. For I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin. Full of bitterness does not mean there what you might think it does. In the surface rendering of that, hes not saying Simon is a bitter man. Hes not saying Simon is angry or has hate in his heart. This word bitterness had to do with a drink. The drink, if you read in the Old Testament, was often a poisonous drink. It was the same thing that Hebrews talks about in Chapter 12, You see that a root of bitterness does not spring in you and defile you. Peter is saying this mindset, Simon, is poisoning you. He says, This mindset, Simon, is setting a trap for you, a bondage for you. Youre captive to sin. Friends, any human being who thinks that this message of the Gospel is about them, their happiness, and their well-being is setting themselves up for a trap. Theyre following a mindset that in the end is poison because its not about them. All things have been created by Him and for Him. Its about Him. Simon learns this lesson the hard way. You see, Jesus was defining success in a very different way than the world defined success, wasnt He? We know how the world defines success. We dont have to elaborate on how the world defines success. God defines success in a much different way. He says, Let him deny himself. Take up His cross daily and follow after Me. There are a couple of churches we are going to look at very quickly in the Book of Revelation. Turn if you would to Revelation 2. We think of Revelation in futurist terms, and we should, but we have to remember that first and foremost, Revelation was written to seven real churches in Asia Minor. [There were] real pastors, real congregations, with real problems. Jesus addresses these churches about specifics. He names names. He names specific situations that we dont even know about. There are people in here that Jesus mentions that we dont even know who they are today. We dont know who this Antipas is. We dont know who the Nicolaitans are. We dont know who this woman, who was a type of Jezebel, was. Some of these false doctrines, we dont even know what they were. This is a very real letter to very real people. There are two chuches, and Jesus kind of gives a report card to these seven churches of Asia Minor. Theyre all in close proximity to each other. The second church he talks about is a church called Smyrna. In Smyrna, they are very poor. Jesus acknowledges that in Verse 9 (page 1216). He says, I know your afflictions and your poverty-yet you are rich! How were they rich? They were rich in the things that mattered to God. They caught it! They knew what it was about. They knew it was about Jesus Christ, and they were laying their lives down for the service of the Kingdom. He says, In the world, it looks like youre poor, but in Gods eyes, in My eyes, church in Smyrna, youre rich. Now, the next chapter in Verse 17, there is another church. There is a church in Laodicea. This is what He says to the Laodiceans, You say, I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing. But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. Youre naked! You think you have the world by the tail because you have this worlds goods. You have stuff, but Jesus says stuff isnt where its at in Gods Kingdom. He says, In My eyes, youre poor and miserable. Friends, would you rather be rich in the eyes of God or rich in the eyes of the world? That which is rich in the eyes of the world, thats passing. Thats the fish that you eat and use the energy for a day, and its done. Jesus says, Youre missing the boat. Pursue that which lasts into eternal life. He goes on in the Gospel of Luke. Lets talk about that. In Luke 9:24, For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self? Others of us have read this usually from Matthew where it says the word soul. What would it profit a man if he gained the whole world and yet lose his soul? Those are the same words. Those are interchangeable, the word life and the word soul. In the Greek, if you read it in Matthew, its the same word, and its translated as soul. Here its translated life. Its the same exact word. So, you could say it like this: You could say, For whoever wants to save his soul will lose it, and whoever loses his soul for Me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world yet lose or forfeit his very soul? So your most important possession is something you cannot see. Its not your house, your car, your IRA, your vacation property or something else you own, its not even your marriage or your children. Your most important possession is your eternal soul. Jesus says, You must be willing, if youre going to be My follower, to die for Me. You must be willing to lay down desires, hopes and dreams. This is really not a depressing Scripture because when you first read it, you think this is just depressing. This is just a bad dome and gloom sermon! I have to deny myself and take up my cross and follow Jesus to the death. Ahh, ha ha. How bad is this? Actually, what did He say? He said, Whoever loses his life for My sake will? Find it. Whoever gives it up for Me will? Keep it. Its not a bad Scripture; its a good Scripture. Its not a doom and gloom Scripture. Its the only Scripture that leads to life. Its the only principle understanding that leads to life. Its not easy to live it because its never easy to deny ourselves. Its never easy to be willing to sacrifice; but when we finally do make that sacrifice, we find that Gods way is the best way. We find life there at the end of that sacrifice. Ill give you an example from my own life. Some of you may not know this, but after high school, I had a real dramatic experience with God. I began to get serious about my Christianity. I grew up in poverty. I had a dream or a goal that I was going to have a PHD and be a therapist. I was going to make a lot of money and live in a nice house. I would have all the things I never had. Especially when you havent had any of that stuff, it can become an overwhelming temptation for you. That was my goal, to be a high-paid therapist, have all these degrees, make a lot of money, and have nice stuff. In fact, I think that might have even been my goal when I met Brenda. Then, God began to work on me. I started to be involved in leadership in our local church. I was teaching Sunday School to the junior high students every weekend. You think [I was] 18; they were 13, it doesnt seem like that much of a gap, but it was back then. I was doing Childrens Church once a month. In the summertime, I lead a Awana ministry. I also lead a ministry called Teen Boys, where about 30-50 kids every week would gather. Wed play basketball, ping pong, and pool. Then, theyd have to listen to me and my friend preach. Wed take turns preaching every week. I am 18 years old, and Im doing all these things with leadership and ministry. People would come up to me and say, You know, Jeff, have you ever thought about ministry? I think maybe you have some gifts. Maybe you could be a pastor, or maybe you could teach Gods Word. I would say, No, no, no, no. That isnt me. I knew I was going to be a therapist and make big bucks. As far as I knew, pastors didnt make big bucks. They are all sort of poor, and I had poor. I didnt want more poor. I said, Ill do this stuff for the church. Ill be a volunteer, but when it comes down to it, Im going to get my PHD. I would dismiss more people. I really started to get annoyed by people telling me that. I would say, Thats not me. I remember having a devotional. I was reading in the Gospel of Luke. I remember this devotional talking about commitment, putting your hand to the plow, so I prayed this prayer: Lord, Ill be anything You want me to be. Ill do anything You want me to do. Just please dont make me a pastor. I dont want to do that. I am not interested in doing that. Then I felt a strong leading from the Holy Spirit into the ministry. I was like, I cant believe this. I dont want to do that. Honestly, when I said yes to that, I was giving up on this huge dream. I was giving up that career, those degrees, that prosperity. I was giving all of that up in my mind to follow this path. You know what? As soon as I made that decision, I said, Okay. Im in the parking lot, I just had my frozen yogurt. I remember it like it was yesterday. I said, Okay, Ill follow You. I went and told my mom, and I told Brenda. I told my sisters, my friends and I told my pastor. I said, Im going to go into the ministry. I began to get excited about it. I remember we announced our engagement, and I mentioned my plans. My pastor, Pastor Lyon, said, When he gets his degree and finishes, hes going to come back to our church and be a pastor here. I thought, I even have a job now! How cool is this? I look at my life, and ministry has challenges, but I am so glad that I laid that down. I am so glad I said yes to God because He has made my life, my ministry, so rewarding and fulfilling. When I see how life has changed, and when I see ministry happening; I see the new building; I think of all the new ministering that will happen there, I get excited. I say, God, this is really exciting for me. I cant imagine doing anything else. So when you read that, know it might be hard, but get excited. When you do make that decision to say, Yes, Ill sacrifice, whether its my resources, my time, my talents or a direction, I say, Im going to follow Christs example and lay it down, you have a blessing in store for you, my friend. You have rewards in store for you in this life and in the life to come. Thats what God wants to do in your heart and your life. Dont let anybody tell you the Gospel is about your happiness, your prosperity and your blessing. But, heres the thing: when you pursue the glory of God, when you pursue the building of the Kingdom, the byproduct is He blesses you. Seek first His Kingdom, His righteousness. The clock on the wall says were done. Lets stand together as we close in prayer. Were going to continue in this Book in two weeks. Well take a week off, of course, for our dedication next Sunday at 11 oclock. That way, if anybody comes early, if they come to Saturday night, 8 oclock or 9:30, they havent missed it. It will be at 11 oclock. Im excited about what Gods going to do in our church through us. I hope you are too.
Lets open your Bibles up to the Gospel of Luke. Were going to resume a series we started quite a while ago. We took a hiatus, and now were resuming it again. While youre turning there, I want to read to you from 1 Peter 1:3. You dont have to turn there; I just want you to listen to what Peter says. Peter says, Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. A living hope… I want you to know that when the Bible mentions the word hope, or you see hope exemplified, hope is not what we associate it to be today. Hope today is like crossing your fingers and wishing for the best kind of thing. Thats hope. Its an optimistic attitude that there is a chance this might happen; I hope it does. Thats not what the Bible means when it says a living hope. [An example of] the kind of hope we normally have, for instance: you read the news about Brett Favre saying, Well, you know, if Aaron Rodgers gets hurt, and the team needs me, I might come back. So, you may have read that and may have some hope that Brett Favre will play for the Packers this upcoming season. If youre like me, April rolls around, and baseball season is here. My hope is that this year the Cubs will win the World Series. Thats my hope, but thats not Biblical hope. Biblical hope would be more like this: We have gone through a tough winter; all of us have. Spring, so far, has not been great. Im not sure what its like out there today, but yesterday was icky. Its been kind of wet, cold, chilly and cloudy. We know that good weather is going to come eventually, right? Eventually, its going to get here. We can say, I hope good weather comes soon. I hope it gets warm and sunny soon. Thats Biblical hope. Its inevitable; you know its going to happen. Youre just not sure when. How many of you think this year that Brett Favre is going to come back and play for the Packers? For real? How many of you think its going to happen? A couple people [do]. How many of you think the Cubs are going to win the World Series this year? I was kind of hoping for more. How many of you think that good weather is going to eventually come to us? All right, its coming, right? Do you see the difference? The hope we have in Christ isnt one of these. Its not wishful thinking. Peter says its a living hope based upon the Resurrection of Christ, based upon whom God is and that what He has promised will come to pass. So with that as an understanding of hope, lets turn and look at a couple of examples of hope in Lukes Gospel, the eighth chapter. These two people couldnt be more opposite. One is prominent. Were going to know his name; were going to know his job-a very influential job. The other person is somebody who we dont know her name. The other person is a person who isnt prominent. The other person is a person who has spent every last dime she had. Shes poor, and shes weak. Tragedy has struck both of their lives. Tragedy is a great equalizer, isnt it? No matter whom we are, where were from, what our background, what our social/economic status is, when hardship comes, were all in the same playing field. Pain hurts the same for all of us; loss hurts the same for all of us. Lets read the story together: Verse 40 (page 1025 of pew Bibles). Now when Jesus returned, a crowd welcomed Him, for they were all expecting Him. Then a man names Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue, came and fell at Jesus feet, pleading with Him to come to his house because his only daughter, a girl of about twelve, was dying. You and I cant begin to imagine the fear and anxiety this father felt. As Jesus was on His way, the crowds almost crushed Him. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years… Imagine suffering for 12 years from the same condition. She came up behind Him and touched the edge of His cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped. Who touched me? Jesus asked. When they all denied it, Peter said, Master, the people are crowding and pressing against You. In other words, What do you mean who touched You? Really the question is who hasnt touched You? Were all touching You. What do You mean who touched You? He said I know somebody touched Me; I know that power has gone out from Me. Then the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at His feet. In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched Him and how she had been instantly healed. Were going to see details of that in Mark shortly. Then He said to her, Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace. This word healed is the word sozo, which means salvation. He didnt just pronounce a physical healing on her; He pronounced salvation to her. In essence, He said, Your faith has saved you. He touched her not only physically, but spiritually as well. While Jesus was still speaking, someone came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue ruler… and said the worst possible news. Your daughter is dead. Dont bother the teacher anymore. Hearing this, Jesus said to Jairus, Dont be afraid; just believe, and she will be healed. When He arrived at the house of Jairus, He did not let anyone go in with Him except Peter, John and James, and the childs father and mother. Meanwhile, all the people were wailing and mourning for her. Stop wailing, Jesus said. She is not dead but asleep. To the one who had the power of life and death, it was like she was asleep even though she was dead. They laughed at Him, knowing that she was dead. But He took her by the hand and said, My child, get up! Her spirit returned, and at once she stood up. Then Jesus told them to give her something to eat. Her parents were astonished, but He ordered them not to tell anyone what had happened. There are three characteristics that Id like us to consider in this passage. First of all, Id like us to consider their situation. Their situation was one of desperation. We see this man who was about to lose his most precious possession: his little child. She was sick, and she was dying. He was not sure if she would be alive or not by the time he made it home. We see him-no matter how much power, no matter how prominent his name, how important his position, how much money [he had] in the bank-tragedy has come to his life. He was a desperate man. We see this woman who for 12 years had suffered from this condition. No one could cure her, and shed spent all she had. She was desperate. He lived his life in community. He was the head of the synagogue. She lived her life in isolation. If youve studied Old Testament law, you know that the issue she had of a blood disorder made her unclean. She could not participate in the ceremony of the church. She could not be a part of temple worship. She could not be a part of Passover or any celebration. She was removed from the spiritual community for 12 years. With one, we know his name; one is anonymous. With the Lord, no one is anonymous. She wanted to be a nameless, faceless person in the crowd, but Jesus knew who she was. Jesus took the time to talk to her, Youre not a nameless, faceless person to God. Both situations were desperate. Truth be told: in life, we will go through desperate situations, every single one of us here. It will come at different times; it will come in different ways, but problems are going to come. Storms and trials are going to come to all of us. The key is how we deal with them, what we do or dont do when they come. It is a when, not an if. So into their lives came the storm. I want you to watch how they deal, how they cope, with it. The first thing I want you to see is the declarations that come out of their mouths. I want you to notice the words that come out of their mouths in spite of the desperate circumstances. To do that, Id like us to turn to the Gospel of Mark, Chapter 5. Would you turn there, please? In Mark 5, Mark gives us an insight that Luke does not. There is more detail to the story with the words and thoughts they had. Lets pick up the reading in Verse 22 (page 995 of pew Bibles), Then one of the synagogue rulers, named Jairus, came there. Seeing Jesus, he fell at His feet and pleaded earnestly with Him, My little daughter is dying. Please come and put Your hands on her so that she will be healed and live. Notice he doesnt say may or might. Notice the confident expectation. Notice the hope and faith and the declaration of his mouth. Jesus, if You will come, and You will touch her, she will live. This man had no doubt-no question-in his mind, in his heart, that Jesus could heal his daughter. Then I want us to turn to the woman and listen to her confession [in Mark 5:24], So Jesus went with him. A large crowd followed and pressed around him. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind Him in the crowd and touched His cloak, because she thought, If I just touch His clothes, I will be healed. Do you see that declaration? If I just… He is busy; he has more important things to do. He has more important issues than mine; but if I could just touch Him, I will be healed. [It was] a declaration of faith in the midst of her adversity. Let me ask you this question; its a rather personal one: What are the words that come out of your mouths in times of desperation? What are the words you speak in times of testing and trial? What are they? Do you sing the Hee Haw song? Do you remember that? Did you ever watch Hee Haw back in the 70s? Those old farmers would get out there and sing gloom, despair and agony on me. Ohhhh. Deep dark depression, excessive misery, if it werent for bad luck, Id have no luck at all. Ohhhh. Gloom, despair, and agony on me. How many of you ever sang that song in life before? You sang it, right? Some of the young people are saying, What is he talking about? What kind of crazy show was that? Hee Haw? Well, it was about as dumb as it sounded, but we used to watch it anyway. Theyd sing that song. You and I have sung that song. We didnt realize we were singing the Hee Haw song, but we were. We say, Why did this happen to me? What have I ever done to make God hate me? Im a good person. How could this happen? I dont deserve it. Sometimes we sing all three verses. We sing them for a long time. Do you know that when you do that, youre working against the very good that God wants to do in your life? What comes out of our mouths is a reflection of our heart. What you want to come out of your mouth is Gods truth, not what is dictated by your circumstances or your emotions. You want what comes out of your mouth to be what God has said, not what others have said, not what environment might dictate. You want to speak Gods words, Gods word of life-His declaration. Friends, if these two could say it, you can say it. Here is this woman who had spent all she had. If a doctor had come forward and said, Hey, good news. I finally have a cure for you, it would have done her no good. She had no money left. Even though she went to all of those doctors and had the doors slammed in her face saying, You know what? We cant help you. We have done everything we can do, and we cant help you, she doesnt give up hope. You would think if anybody could have sung the Hee Haw song, it would have been her. She has a confident expectation, and she says, If I just touch Him… Thirdly, I want you to notice their determination. Notice their determination. Notice heres this little frail woman. Could you imagine bleeding for 12 years? All the iron youve lost, how weak you would be? If you were fighting that condition for 12 years… Im sure at this point, shes a little bit frail, a little bit weak. However, she is bound and determined to press on through that tough crowd and touch Jesus. She is not going to let anything stop her. Everybody was pushing and shoving, and theyre trying to get to Jesus. This woman says, You know what? Im weak. Im frail, but Im going to get through to Him. Im going to touch Him. She pressed on through that crowd. I want you to think of the determination of Jairus. Jairus gets the worst possible awful news he could get. A man comes up to Jairus and puts his hand on his shoulder. Jairus knows what hes going to say before a word even comes out of his mouth. He says, Jairus, dont bother Him anymore. Its too late. As he says that, he probably begins to cry himself. Jairus hangs his head and instantly, Im sure, begins to weep. It would have been easy for Jairus at that point to say to Jesus through his tears, You know what, Jesus? I appreciate Your willingness to help me. I appreciate the fact that You are willing to drop everything and follow me, a person you dont even know, and help me in my time of need. I appreciate everything You are willing to do, but its too late. Shes gone. Even though she was gone, he still brought Jesus to his house. What does that tell you about his faith? What does that tell you about his determination? Let me ask you a question: a woman who had suffered for 12 years spent all she had. No doctor could help her. The man had lost his daughter. She was already dead, and yet he still had Jesus come over, believing for a miracle. Let me ask you a question: What stops you? The first question is what comes out of your mouth in desperate times? The next question is what stops you? What stops you in your tracks? Is it because somebody told you it couldnt be done? Somebody told you to give up or youre discouraged, and you quit? What stops you today? This faith that we see, this hope we see in the Bible does not have to be contained within the pages of this Bible because the same Jesus who touched Jairus daughter and healed the woman is alive today. That same hope and faith can be yours today as well. I have a friend who I think illustrates this in a very tremendous way. Many years ago when I was an assistant pastor in Rockford, Illinois, a friend of mine by the name of George-Big George-was in a trucking accident. He jack-knifed his truck and broke his neck. When I say Big George, George is about 62 and 350 pounds. There is George lying in a hospital bed with this big halo around his neck and his forehead. He received the news from the X-rays that he would never walk again. Too much damage had been done. George let me know what the boundaries were right off the bat when I walked in his room. Imagine what youd be thinking or feeling. There would be temptation when you got that news for the declaration to come out of your mouth to say, Why me? Poor me. Im just trying to make a living. Im just driving my truck. What have I done to deserve this fate? Thats not what George says. George says to me, Pastor Willie, if youre going to be in this room, youre going to have to believe that Im going to walk again. Thats what he called me. George, after a period of time, met with all of his specialists. He went to his rehab in his wheel chair. He met with the head doctor and the therapists, all of those people. He looked the head guy in the eye and said, Will I walk again? Do you believe I will walk again? The doctor took off his glasses and said, Well, Mr. Hertzner, you have a fracture in your… He was using medical terminology. George said, Its a yes or no answer. I just want to know, do you think-as the head of this team-that Ill walk again? Well, Mr. Hersner, I cant lie to you. Its a medical impossibility. Is it scientifically possible? No. No, youre not going to walk again. Im sorry. George does his best Donald Trump impersonation. He says, Well, then, youre fired. Youre done. I dont want the head of my team telling everybody on my team Im not walking. Youre fired. People would come into Georges room-I kid you not-singing the Hee Haw song, saying, Oh, George, George, youll never walk again. What have you done to deserve it, George? You know what George would say? I dont mean to be rude, but you need to leave now because I need people in my room who believe that Im going to walk again. George was determined to walk again. He had a living faith because his faith was not based upon the medical report. It was not based upon what the doctor said. It was not even based upon his X-rays. Georges faith was a living hope based upon his believe in Jesus Christ. It was as if the same Jesus who walked the streets that day was alive today. I was with George the first day he stood up. I remember that. There were these two long railings. He had wobbly knees as we helped him out of his chair. He stood up and was like thats it. Thats it, and he went back down. That was all he could do. I remember hed stand a little bit longer with each passing day. I remember the first time he took a step on that railing, a shaky step. Okay, thats enough, and he sat down. I remember when he took two steps. I remember the day he walked shaking from one end to the other; his muscles were just trembling. It was all he could do to hold himself up with his upper body. He progressed in time. Months later, I remember when George took his first steps with a walker down the hallway. One person was on each side, and a wheelchair was behind him. I remember the day George took his first steps with a four-pronged cane. I remember the day that George walked out of that hospital but nothing but a cane. Howd that happen? George would tell you he had something to do with it, but George would tell you it was the strength and the promise of Gods word that sustained him. Times of desperation had come to Big George, but he aligned his faith and his words with what the word of God said, not with his emotions, his circumstances, and not with the bad report. What comes out of your mouth? Are you speaking Gods word to those situations? If youre not, youre working against yourself. Youre working against the very blessing that God wants to give you. Is there a determination in your life, or have you given up? Have you just thrown in the towel, It isnt meant to be? Maybe its time to resurrect that hope. Maybe its time to say you know what, God? If that little woman who was bleeding for 12 years, as weak as she was, as frail as she was, could fight that crowd and press on to You… If Jairus, after receiving the disturbing, terrifying news that his daughter was dead, would still bring You into his home, I guess I can believe too. One of my favorite artists is named Rich Mullins. He wrote Our God is an Awesome God. You remember that song? He wrote many songs. One of the songs that has really ministered to me through the years is a song that talks about this very truth. Id like you to mediate during this song. The tech team is going to play this song for us. There are no fancy pictures, no special effects; its just the music and the words. I want you to read and listen to this song as Rich Mullins talks about the reality of this life. What we do when we receive communion [is] we hold onto the elements together until weve all received. Then well read the Scripture, and well partake together. So dont receive it as it passes by; just hold it until weve all received. As they are passing this out, we have a media that we would like you to look at. This is a quiet reflective media we prepared on hope. As were waiting, you may choose to close your eyes and worship. Or, you may want to listen or read the words of this presentation to prepare your heart to receive from the Lords Supper. Lets go ahead and play that now. You dont have to be a member of Faith Community Church to receive communion with us today. If you are here and youve made a confession of faith and Christ is your Lord and Savior, youre welcome to receive with us today. Would you bow your head with me in prayer? Father, we take comfort today in knowing that Youre with us. We know desperate times will come, and how we respond to them is key. Lord, the cross speaks of desperation. It speaks of a desperate condition in which man was in. It also speaks of a declaration. It speaks of Your declaration of love, of Your declaration of grace-the forgiveness of a new beginning. It speaks of your determination as well that there is no limit to which your love would take you. As our Lord Jesus left Heaven, and went in flesh, walked this earth as a man and lived a perfect sinless life, that determination took Him to the cross where He would pay the ultimate price to bring man back to God. We are thankful this morning that the same hands which touched the daughter of Jairus by the hand and raised her up, those hands were once spread out and nailed to a cross. The same feet stopped what they were doing, headed a different direction and walked all of those miles to where that little girl lay. Those same calloused feet one day walked to Calvary where they were laid and stretched upon a cross and nailed there. Our sin was nailed with You. By Your resurrection, a way to eternal life, a living hope was realized. That is what we remember, and that is what we celebrate, give thanks and worship You for this morning. In Jesus name. Paul writes and says, For I receive from the Lord what I also passed on to you. Lord Jesus, on the night He was betrayed, took bread. When He had given thanks, He broke it and said, This is My body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of Me. Lets receive together of the Lords body this morning. In the same way after supper, He took the cup, saying, This cup is the new covenant in My blood. Do this whenever you drink in remembrance of Me. Whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lords death until He comes. Lets receive together of His blood. Amen. I invite you to stand as we close our service in prayer. Sometimes after a message like this, it maybe stirs up some things. It stirs up some concerns, some needs. Maybe youd like to make a declaration this morning. Maybe youd like to pray about a desperate situation, or maybe youd like somebody to agree and pray with you about a determination in your life. Maybe its something entirely different. Im going to ask our prayer team to come forward now and stand up here. If youd like prayer, theyre here for you. Theyre your friends. This service tends to be a little shy and bashful. Im not sure why. [In] other services, people come forward a little bit more readily, but Im asking you not to be shy. There is nothing wrong with saying, I need a friend to pray with me and stand and agree with me in prayer. Please come forward after we close. Lets pray together. Father, we are so encouraged when we see the faith of Jairus and see the faith of this woman. Maybe our problems dont look like their problems, but, Lord, there are desperate times that have come into our lives or will come. I pray that in those times, we will emulate that kind of declaration; that we would speak words of life and hope; that we would speak Your promises, not what our fickle emotions or changing circumstances might dictate. Lord [I pray], we would not work against You with the words of our mouth and that we would put feet to our faith; feet to our hope; that we would not let those negative words or negative circumstances cause us to lose heart, lose hope, and quit. Like this woman, and like this father, we will be determined. We will press on to touch You. Faith still touches, Jesus. Help us to be a people of faith and people of hope. We pray this in Jesus name, Amen.
Youth Minister Mike Powers shares on Creationism and Gods intelligent design in nature and man.
Pastor Jeff speaks about Easter and its references to us today. He uses comical reference to the TV show Cheers and Spock from Star Trek
Pastor Jeff Williams shares on how Jesus experienced an unfair life and set the example for us all.
Pastor Jeff Williams gives a message on the different forms of worship. It is more than just singing.
We have had weather every which way we could have it this winter, right? Tornado warnings, thunderstorms, hail, freezing rain, 50 mile-per-hour winds, six feet of snow: its been something! Life comes at you in a lot of different ways, too, doesnt it? Im glad youre here. We had a crowd last night. People were anticipating the fun stuff, so they were saying, Were going to stay home [tomorrow], and they came out in large numbers last night to the Saturday night service. I am glad you braved this out and chose to come here. Were going to wrap up our series on Heroes this evening. That scene is reminiscent of a famous novel by Robert Louis Stevenson. If you remember Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, that allegory about human nature: the tug of war, the battle within, the part of us that wants to do right, wants to be respectful, and then the side of us that is dark. Somebody said that people are like the moon. They have the side you see, and then theres another dark side you never see. In Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, he has that war going on. The experiment is what if you release those two? What if instead of those two combating, what if you allowed all to pursue that primal side. Then this side would be allowed to pursue the dignified side. What would the result be? In us, in our case, we have that war within. Paul talks about that battle in the Book of Romans 7:19 (page 1118 in pew Bibles), if youd turn there with me please. There is a debate we will not get into as to whether Paul is speaking here of his life before Christ or his life as a Christian. We wont get into that debate. Its a rather lengthy one, but suffice it to say, this is a turmoil-an inner turmoil-that people can identify with. Hey says, For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do-this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in Gods law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind… Theres that whole imagery of an inner conflict, an inner war. …making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Of course, were going to go on to find out the answer to that question in just a moment. There is a show on television right now. I dont know if youve seen it; Ive never seen it. Ive seen enough of the previews to get a good taste of it. Its called Moment of Truth. Have you seen that? The premise of Moment of Truth is they hook you up to a lie detector test that measures your responses to tell if youre telling the truth or not. It asks you these embarrassing questions. Have you ever done this? Have you ever cheated here? Have you ever done that? Your wife is there; the audience is there; and all of America is watching as you answer these questions. If you answer them right, even if its demeaning or degrading to do so, you win money. So you air your dirty laundry on national television. Ive never seen the show, but thats the premise of it. So if this was the Moment of Truth, and you were going to be on it on Monday-I dont know what day its on, but lets say youre the next contestant, and you had to answer those questions truthfully. You had no idea what was going to be said, asked of you, or the consequences. [Lets say] we were to watch that episode, what do you think wed think? What would we think of you as you answer truthfully of those questions? Would we go, Awww, and she teaches Sunday School! or Awww! And hes a trustee! [Would we say], And theyre on staff at our church? You know that you would! The truth is all of us struggle with this conflict. Pastor Rick Warren, the pastor of the second largest church in America, Saddleback, said this, Any one of us is capable of any sin, given the right set of circumstances. Do you think thats true? Thats a pretty ominous thing to say. Its a pretty scary thing to say. Jeremiah talks about our condition in the Jeremiah 13:23 (page 763 of pew Bibles). He asks a rhetorical question. He says, Can an Ethiopian change the color of his skin? Can a leopard change his spots? Neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil. Hes talking about our nature; its our flesh. Its a part of us. So, what do we do? We looked at a lot of different heroes, and were going to go back and revisit Peter again. I think in Peter we find this dynamic that were looking for, this Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde here, this struggle within. Id like you to turn to the Gospel of Luke 22:31 (page 1044). Were about to begin the passion narrative in this Gospel. Things are going to move rather quickly. Life as the Disciples have known is coming to a rapid end, and it will never be the same. Jesus instructs them that its time to receive the Last Supper. At the Last Supper, He tells them the significance of the bread and of the cup. He also informs them that one of them will betray Him. That leads to a discussion as to whom that might be. That is followed up with a discussion about who is the greatest. Jesus then uses that as a teaching moment. What a time to squabble! What a time to be petty; what a time to worry about our egos! Just as Jesus is pouring out His soul to us, but that is what Disciples sometimes do. Sometimes were rather self-centered. Were not thinking so much about the Lord as ourselves. Then He says to Peter, Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat… He wants to shake you up. He wants to rattle you. Notice, it says hes asked permission. God does not tempt us, but God also makes sure we are not tempted beyond that which we can bear. Jesus says, But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. When you have turned back, strengthen your brothers. When youve turned back gives us the implication that he is going to turn away for a time. He is going to walk in the exact opposite way of what he should. He is going to walk away from Christ instead of toward Christ. Jesus says when you turn back, not if you turn back. When you turn back, and repentance means to turn around, when you repent, strengthen your brothers. Use what youve been through to strengthen your brothers in the faith. Of course, these words dont sit well with Peter. Knowing Peter, hes not going to keep his objection to himself. If anybody is going to speak their mind, its going to be Peter. So he says in the next verse, Lord… What hes basically saying here is Jesus, youre wrong. I am ready to go with You to prison and to death. Youre wrong about me. I am willing to go with You wherever you go. Ill go to prison. Ill die if necessary. How many of you think Peter was sincere? I do. I think he really believed everything he said, but we all know that Peter would fail miserably. There have been times when you and I have been as sincere as Peter. We have said, Lord, Ill never do that again. Lord, this. Lord, that. Lord, I promise… Im not going to fail this time. Have you made those promises to the Lord before? Youve failed, havent you? Each and every one of us has done that. Jesus says, I tell you, Peter, before the rooster crows today, you will deny three times that you know Me. He gives him a timetable. He said before morning comes, before you hear the sound of the rooster crow, youll deny Me not once, not twice, but three times. I wonder how those words impacted Peter. I bet you Peter was bound and determined to prove the Lord wrong, but we know that the Lord would be right. The Garden of Gethsemane happens; then the betrayal [happens]; then Jesus is seized, and they bring Him to the home of Caiaphas, the high priest. Were going to pick up the story at the end of Verse 54. It says Peter followed at a distance when they had kindled the fire in the middle of a courtyard and had sat down, Peter sat down with them. A servant girl saw them seated in the firelight. She looked closely at him and said, This man was with Him. But he denied it. Woman, I dont know him, he said. A little later someone else saw him and said, You also are one of them. Man, I am not! he replied. About an hour later, another asserted, Certainly this fellow was with Him for he is a Galilean. Peter replied, Man, I dont know what youre talking about! Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed. The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him: Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times. And he went outside and wept bitterly. That is drama, isnt it? What kind of look did Jesus give Peter? Just think of the shame Peter felt inside. He wanted to be a hero, Im willing to surrender my life… His heart was in the right place, but he failed the Lord. Hed failed Him again just that day in the Garden of Gethsemane. He was asked to pray, and he said, Ill pray, and he couldnt even do that. He fell asleep. That is sometimes the destitute lot of you and I who really want to please the Lord, really want to serve Christ, but we fail. On the good side, the good side is that there is a battle, right? The good side is were trying. We long to. The bad side seems to be tripping on that rock over and over. Think about this: this would be the last exchange that we know of between Peter and Jesus before the cross. Think about if the last experience you had was somebody you loved and cared about was to utterly fail them miserably. Then they look at you. That look says, Remember what I said? Remember what I said you would do? As far as you know, that will be the last exchange. It would have been a loving, caring relationship, and now it ends this way. Peter was devastated. Now were going to turn to the Resurrection. Were going to turn to Marks Gospel, and there is an important point I want you to catch here. That is when we fall, when we fail, where is the heart of our Lord? Is the Lord out to get us because we failed Him? Is He somehow trying to get back at us? I know people that do that, that think that way. [That is] their theology. I knew somebody who had a skiing accident and was lying in bed. He was a friend of mine. He said, God must really be punishing me. He could tell what he did and this is the reason why Im here. So God sent him into that tree because he sinned over here. There are a lot of people who view God in that way. Do you know of anybody who looks at God that way, that God will punish you when you fail Him? So that sickness, that death, or that heartache was sent by God? What kind of a god is that? Vindictive, revengeful. So we read the story in Marks Gospel, the 16th chapter (page 1010). This is the oldest Gospel; even though it is second in its order, it is our oldest Gospel we believe. When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome… Ive heard people pronounce that salami, and thats not good. Its actually a beautiful name, so dont mispronounce it like that. … brought spices so that they might anoint Jesus body. Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb and they asked each other, Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb? But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed. Dont be alarmed, he said. You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But His Disciples and Peter, He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see Him, just as He told you. Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid. Did you catch the phrase here? It is two words that are significant. Tell the Disciples…and the two words are? And Peter. Why would Jesus do that? It would be sufficient to say, Tell the Disciples since Peter is a Disciple, but He doesnt say that. He says, Tell the Disciples and Peter. Janet [Bales, the music and arts minister at FCC- Pastor is asking for her during the sermon] are you still back there? Is she in there? Okay, thats fine. She doesnt have to come out. I just pick on her because she is here. If I say, Tell the staff and Janet this message. Right away, thats singling out Janet, and its saying to her, There is something significant in that fact that he singled you out. Tell the Disciples and Peter… Jesus is sending a message to Peter, and its a message of hope. Its a message of restoration. When they finally meet one another, we wont read the text in John, but He says three times, Simon, do you love Me? Peter says, Lord, You know I love You. Then He says, Feed My sheep. Three times He asks him. Remember the prophesy? …Satans desire to sift you as wheat, and when you turn, strengthen your brothers. Thats the fulfillment of that prophesy. He says, Now that youve repented, Peter, feed My sheep. Tend My lambs. So, thats our dilemma, right? We think that through our willpower, through our sheer determination, were going to live for Christ. We soon learn that doesnt work because Christianity is not about self-help. You can read plenty of books on willpower and self-help books out there. Christianity is not that. Christianity tells us the truth about ourselves that we dont want to hear. That is that you and I are morally bankrupt and that we are spiritually lost. We need a savior. The promise of Scripture-lets turn to the book of Ezekiel-is that God will do a supernatural work in the heart of the believer. Ezekiel 36:26 (page 857), God says to the Prophet Ezekiel these words in regard to their impurities and their sins. He says, And you will work really hard, and try really hard and exercise great willpower. Because of your shear raw determination, you will succeed in crucifying your flesh and committing righteous acts. Is that what it says? If that were the case, who would get the glory? We would, right? If that were the case, we dont really need a savior if we can do it ourselves. But God says (in Ezekiel 36:26), I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. Those areas that are callous; those areas that are hard toward God; those areas that are bent towards sin, God says, I can remove that and give you a heart which is tender, which is pliable, which is shapeable. …And I will put My Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep My laws. So when we keep the decrees of God, when we keep the laws of God, who even gets the glory for that? God does. Thats why Paul says so that no man can boast. I had a physical problem. Under my arm, I was putting on deodorant one day, and I noticed it hurt. I began to probe around a little bit, and I felt a bump. I said, Well, thats unusual. It was just a little nodule, and then it began to grow over a period of days. Then I noticed another one. I said, Well, this isnt right. Now Ive got two lumps that are getting bigger; theyre sore; so Im going to go to the doctor. The doctor said, Well, you have some tumors underneath your arm, so were going to have to remove those. Well have to go in and see what they are, and well probably have to take them out. Now, is that something I could do for myself? No. I cant go in the mirror and hey, I can do this a lot cheaper than the old doc can. I cant do that. So my job was to submit to the doctor to do for me what I could not do for myself. I lay down on the table. I remember the last words I spoke were something like this, I dont think this stuff is working. Then, I heard laughter. The next thing I knew, I was waking up. I dont think this stuff is working, ha, ha, ha, and then I wake up. There was a big bandage under there. How do I know the doctor did what he said he was going to do? First of all, I see the evidence of it. I see that when I feel my arm now, those lumps are gone. Im still a little sore. There is evidence of change. How do I know all the lumps are gone? I know that because number one, hes a doctor with a good reputation. Number two, he said so. He promised me he took them all out. So, really, what it boils down to is faith. You see, I believe God for righteousness in my life the same way I believed him for salvation. How do you know youre saved this morning? Do you have a plaque on your wall from Heaven? Is there a plaque on your wall that says, On this date, so and so: Saved. Signed, the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you have that? You dont have that. How do you know youre saved? Well, I see evidence of Christ in my life. I see evidence of the work of the Spirit. The main way you know youre saved is because God made a promise. You received that promise, so by faith, you believe you are saved. In that same way, Paul says in the Book of Romans 6:11 (page 1117). He says, In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. So when I come to Christ with a problem, and Im serious about it…because it doesnt matter what your weakness is: if your weakness is pride; if your weakness is lust; if your weakness is greed; if your weakness is dishonestly; a need for power of envy. Whatever you weakness is, or any variety of the weaknesses that you have, the cure is always the same. Thats why were not going to go down a list and say, Well, what about this? What about that? Because at the core or the root, its all the same. When youre serious about that area of your life, the way you gain victory is to admit defeat. There is not a self-help book that is going to teach you that. Paul says, When I am weak, then I am strong. If I come to Christ, and I am truly and genuinely repentant of my sin; I am sick and tired of being sick and tired; I am disgusted by it; I am repulsed by it; I want it removed from my heart and my life, I come to God and confess it and say, You have to take this away from me. Thats when action takes place; thats when it happens. If youre playing a game, and youre not really serious. You say, That was bad. Please forgive me, but youre not really serious about it, chances are nothing is happening there. But if you come to God in genuineness and sincerity and say, God, do for me what I cannot do for myself. I am coming to You. I am falling on Your mercy, you can expect God to act. Thats when you exercise faith that says, I believe God will not only forgive my sin but cleanse me from unrighteousness. Thats His promise. There has been testimony after testimony after testimony of people who have for instance kicked an alcohol habit, maybe an anger issue or a forgiveness issue, you name it. Theyve tried and tried, and they keep tripping on that same rock until they finally come to Christ with a reckless abandon and throw it at the foot of the cross. They say, Lord, I cant do this. Thats when God takes your heart of stone and gives you a heart of flesh. No matter what the area, the solution is the same. Its a supernatural work. I cant perform surgery on my own heart, physically; neither can I do it in the realm of the spirit. A person who thinks they can is just deceiving themselves. Because we got ourselves in the predicament we are in; who are we to think were going to get ourselves out? We need a Savior. What a fitting way for us to wind down our series on Heroes by talking about the one true hero. There is a song that has really ministered to me over the years. Its a song I really think will set the stage and prepare our hearts to receive of the Lords Supper. Its a song by Chris Rice. It just wraps up not only this message, but it wraps up our series. We need a hero, and that hero is Christ. Lets listen to the words of this song. Its called I Need a Hero. (This is a link to read the lyrics: http://www.christianlyricsonline.com/artists/chris-rice/i-need-a-hero.html) Father, we can identify with Peter. There have been times we have been so determined and so focused, This time, this time I wont let You down. Our willpower has failed us time and time again. We want so desperately to be a hero. We want so desperately to please You. Lord, we have acknowledged today there is a war within. Theres an enemy without, and there is a war within. We have been freed from the penalty of sin. We are not free from the presence of sin. We are very much people who if left our own accord, we would leave our lives to destruction. You did send a Savior into the world. Lord Jesus Christ is our hero, and He does for us what we cannot do for ourselves. Its fitting, and its right. We will conclude this series with focusing on the true hero, the one who took our place, the one who bravely faced sin, death and the grave and conquered them. Its through Him that we conquer; its not through ourselves. We humbly admit our defeat. Its then that You reign through us. So, Lord, as we receive the communion this morning, we celebrate Your victory, and we ponder Your love, we reflect on Your goodness. As we partake of the elements, we partake of your life. We affirm our covenant with You. We are so glad that we belong to You, Lord. In Jesus name, Amen. Im going to ask the ushers to pass out the communion. Lets just have a moment of reflective and quiet personal prayer between you and the Lord. Then, well receive together. I hope this series has been a blessing to you. I hope youve been challenged. I hope youve been ministered to these last six weeks. Were going to start a new series on worship next week. One aspect of worship as we come together to sing and pray, reflect on His word, thats one aspect. Thats certainly not the entirety of worship, so were going to be focusing on what is worship? Why is it important? Does God just need His ego stroked? Is He insecure in some way and needs us to affirm who He is? No. There is a whole lot more to it than that, so next week well begin talking about that. After a few weeks, Easter is coming, and then well return to the Gospel of Luke together. Thats what lies ahead. Lets close in prayer. Father, the Book of Psalms 103:14 says that You are mindful of our frame. You remember that we are but dust. Sometimes we think we are more than that, but we are reminded again and again that we are not. We are the created one; we are the creature, and You are the creator. We have a dependency upon You from the time we take our first breathes until the time we take our lasts and then into eternity. Father, I pray you would help us to take these lessons weve learned over these last six weeks as we study men like Gideon, Elijah, Nehemiah, Peter and Paul, they did heroic things for You because they lived a life of abandonment of faith through themselves upon Your mercy, through themselves upon Your grace. Then, and only then, were they able to be used by You. So, Father, we commit ourselves to you again this morning. We pray that Youd use our lives in a way that glorifies Your name. Lord, I also want to pray for those who have been traveling. I pray for these who are here as they travel home that You would keep Your hand upon the wheel of that care and bring them home safely. We also pray for those who are venturing out at 9:30 and 11 that Your hand would protect and rest upon them as well. Lord, You are our hero. Youre the one we want to be like. Youre the one we worship and love. We pray this in Your name, Jesus, Amen.
I want to thank you for coming out on this cold February morning. We salute our heroes today. [There are] icy roads and what a winter its been! Im grateful you took the chance, your car started, and that you made it here safe and sound. That film (Flight 93) really is an experience that hopefully none of us will ever be in. Thats the essence of what were talking about in this series called Heroes. That flight was [filled with] ordinary people who ended up doing an extraordinarily brave thing. There are times when God calls on ordinary people like you and me to do something extraordinary. We can do something extraordinary because we serve a supernatural God. We have been challenged from His word and from heroes of the faith to be more than what we are, to recognize that our lives-when used by God-can make an impact, and we can change our world. So, as we approach the sermon this morning, were thinking, Why are we saluting military, police, and firemen? Its not Memorial Day or Veterans Day. You know what? It doesnt have to be. It is a just because day. I recently had a friend who rather spontaneously decided to tell me what my friendship meant to them and how Id inspired them to be more than what they were over the years. I was very humbled by the words spoken of how Id invested in their lives. Because of that investment, it has contributed largely to who they are and what they have been able to accomplish. I was very humbled by that but also very appreciative of that simple thank you. Our service this morning is not going to be elaborate. Its not going to be full of pomp and circumstance. Its just a simple acknowledgment of thanks. I think sometimes those are the best kind of thanks. You say, Why would we honor our police, firemen, and military in this series that weve been on? Well, its a natural outflow, really. We have learned in this series that when you stand up for those who cannot stand up for themselves, when you protect and defend the innocent, when you oppose evil-you stand up against it, youre doing the work of God. Our law enforcement who are fighting crime here at home or those who are fighting terrorists overseas, [we honor them as heroes]. It never amazes me how low the terrorists can go, but just this past week, you heard the nauseating story about how in Iraq, they put bombs on two disabled women and put them in a crowd of people. They then detonated them. How low can you go? How evil can you be? Thats what our troops are up against there. I think of the people in our church who have left and who are heroes. We honor them, so it is fitting and appropriate that we do that this morning. As an example to a hero of faith, Im going to turn in our Bibles to the Book of Acts. The Apostle Paul in the 14th chapter is on a mission. He is on a mission to share the Gospel with everyone he can. He wanted to tell all he could about the Good News of Jesus Christ. His companion there is Barnabas, which means son of encouragement. He is such an encourager that they changed his name to son of encouragement. The two of them are doing some amazing things as they leave that which is familiar. Theyve traveled in Jewish circles, and now they are going into Gentile cities where they dont have the law. They dont have the Old Testament. They dont know of the Prophets. They are just learning who God is, and Paul is bringing a very basic message of hope, peace and faith. While in a city called Lystra, in Acts 14:8, we read an account of him healing a man who was born without the ability to walk. People see this, and they are astounded at the miracle. They come to the conclusion that these men in fact are not men; these men are gods who have come down to us in human flesh. According to their religion, that must mean that Barnabas is Zeus, and Paul-since he is the chief spokesman-is Hermes or Mercury. So the high priest goes to get bulls to sacrifice to Paul and Barnabas. When Paul and Barnabas see this, they are appalled by that. Were not here for us! We didnt heal this man. We dont have that kind of power. Were here to testify to the living God who created the Heavens and the earth-who made you. We have a message from Him to you. Dont worship us! Were simply the messengers! In spite of this, they still can hardly keep the crowd from worshipping them. Then, some enemies of the Gospel come in from a city called Iconium and Antioch. It says in Verse 19 (page 1094 of pew Bibles) that they won the crowd over. They began to work the crowd; they began to lobby the crowd; they began to tell lies and distortions about the Apostles Paul and Barnabas. These are bad men! These are evil men! These are men who are opposed to God! These are men who cause trouble wherever they go! Then in a matter of moments, this crowd that had once worshipped them was now trying to destroy them. In fact, the very next verse says they stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead. One moment, he was a hero. One moment, he was worshipped and praised. The next moment, that fickle crowd wanted to take his life. How quickly people forgot the miracle. How quickly people forgot the gift. Ive shared with you in the past that my family and I were on vacation in New York right after the events of 9-11. It was a vacation we had previously planned [before the events of 9-11], so we decided to go through with it, keep our flight, and not let what had happened ruin our vacation. We happened to be there the first day in Manhattan where they opened up Ground Zero to the public. We were able to walk right up to the ruins, look inside, and see the devastation. We could smell the smell and see-a couple months-later how they were still pouring water every 15 minutes on the wreckage and debris. The smoke was still ascending into the air all those weeks later. It was an astonishing thing. One thing that was really astonishing to see was if you were wearing a uniform, you were a hero. If you were in a policemans uniform, a firemans uniform, or a military uniform, people were coming up to you in droves, posing with you for pictures and shaking your hand. [People were] even giving hugs out, telling them how much they appreciated their sacrifice and diligence. There were some officers who literally had lines around them as tourists and New Yorkers waited to get close to them for a picture. There were guys who a couple of months ago, you would have walked right by them and not even have acknowledged them, and now they are heroes. Yankees and Mets caps were traded for caps of NYPD and the fire department. People were walking around with those T-shirts and those hats all over the city. These men are just being worshipped as heroes-and rightly so. Hundreds lost their lives that fateful day trying to save people. I happen to believe that had something like that-had a terrorist attack happen in our community-law enforcement and our responders in this community would have likewise put their lives on the line to save and protect us. I wonder what its like in New York today. I have not been back. I wonder if the crowds are still coming up to the officers and asking to pose for a picture. I wonder if they are still coming up to the firemen and saying thank you. We walked by many different places. We walked a lot in New York. You dont drive; you walk. We learned our lesson right away as we drove our van with our Wisconsin license plates into New York-big mistake. We didnt even do anything wrong, and they were like, Go back to Wisconsin! It was a little bit rude. If youre not in a taxi cab there, youre really not welcome, so everybody walks or takes the subways. We parked our car, and we walked everywhere. We walked to Times Square; we walked to Broadway; we walked to the parade; we walked to the Empire State Building. Other places, we would take a taxi or a bus. We walked by several fire departments and saw pictures there of those from that ladder who had been slain. It made it so real when youd walk by that station and think just a couple of months ago, these young men Im looking at were fathers, husbands and sons full of life, health and energy. Now, theyre in the ground. Maybe they are still buried in those ruins a couple blocks from where I am right now. All around those sites were flowers, candles, teddy bears, notes and cards. I wonder if theyre still there. I wonder if youd walk by those same stations and see that kind of thing. The truth of it is people are fickle, and people forget. We shouldnt forget. We should always honor and appreciate. Thats what this is about. So, they turn on Paul. They throw stones at him, and one those stones causes Paul to fall. Then another and another [are thrown]. Pretty soon, Paul is lying lifeless. Whether hes unconscious or whether he is faking in some way to pretend like hes dead so they wont continue to strike him with stones, we dont know. They drag him outside the city, and they leave him for dead. Barnabas and the others gather around him and pray. Something astonishing happens in Verse 20. It says, But after the Disciples had gathered around him… presumable to check out the extent of his injuries and to pray for him, to cry and do what they could to help, …he got up… Thats not the most miraculous thing; thats not the most miraculous thing that Paul could go through this kind of a trauma and get up. To me, the most miraculous thing about this verse is what Paul does after he gets up. It says that he got up and went back into the city. He went back in! How traumatized would you be after something like that. Would you go back to the same place that had just tried to harm you? Odds are, youd say, Man, Id try to get as far away from that place as I could! Paul goes back in, why? Because of his mission. Because of the mission. There was a call; there was a need. Christ had called him, and Christ compelled him to go. There is another time in Scripture that is very similar (in Acts 21) where Pauls journeys are taking him to the city of Jerusalem. In Jerusalem, as you know, they are hostile to the message of the Gospel. They see the message of the Gospel as something that must be stopped, as something that is not of God. Paul is determined to go there. While hes there, he meets some believers on his way in a city called Ptolemais. They meet some believers there, and eventually they go to Caesarea, to the home of Philip-the evangelist. In Verse 11 of Chapter 21 (page 1102 of pew Bibles), we meet a new character. His name is Agabus. Some of you expectant mothers out there looking for a nice Biblical name for your children: Agabus. It could work for a female too; you could call her Aggie. Then again, the name means locus, so maybe you better not. Sometimes I kind of wonder what the parents were thinking, a little locus, Well, he eats a lot and has a weird hum. What about Agabus? Whatever the reason why, here he comes. He must be a man of respect because Paul and everybody recognize him. They give him an audience. They listen to what he has to say. It says, Coming over to us, Agabus took Pauls belt… Paul has no idea what hes going to do; he just trusts him. …and he ties his own hands and feet with it and said, The Holy Spirit says, In this way the Jews of Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles. Thats not good news. The last time one of theirs was handed over to the Gentiles in this manner, it was the Lord Jesus Christ. We know what happened to Him; He was crucified. Now theyre very concerned, not only for Pauls safety-not only for Pauls ministry-but for his very life. Verse 12 says, When we heard this, we and the people there pleaded with Paul not to go up to Jerusalem. They begged him! Dont go, why? They loved him. They didnt want to see any harm brought to him. They didnt want his ministry to come to an end. Hed been a father to them. Hed been a mentor in the faith to them. Hed been a brother to them, and they didnt want to see him hurt anymore. Do you know what that verse reminds me of? That verse reminds me of the brave fathers and mothers who send their sons and daughters in harms way; the brave spouses, husbands and wives who let their loved one go off to fight the battle; the brave little sons and daughters who have to say good-bye to mommies and daddies. If one of my children came home and told me they wanted to go into law enforcement, the fire-fighting business, wanted to join the military, there would be part of me that would be very proud, and there would also be the dad part of me that would be very scared. I would have to take that fear and bring it to the throne of God and ask for Gods help and strength. That is these brave people. I think we need to acknowledge them and thank them for their bravery and their sacrifice. Listen to what Paul says, Because youre obviously sad and crying, I guess I wont go… Nope. Paul is moved by them, but he says, Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem… He said, I understand the risks. I know whats at stake. I know what can happen to me, but it doesnt deter me. It doesnt slow me down. This is where I feel God is compelling me to go. I need to go. I appreciate your love; I appreciate your concern, and I love you too, but the Gospel is the most important thing to me. My mission, and so I must go. I think there are some heroes in this congregation. I think of Dani Dean, Pastor Jerrys oldest daughter. A couple of weeks ago, we called her out of church at the 11 oclock service and brought her forward. We prayed for her. She is right now preparing herself to go to Iraq. She is going to be driving a supply truck, like Brenda did, and serving our country there. I said, How are you feeling about this, Dani? She said, Im ready. I know theyre going to prepare me. I know theyre going to get me ready. I know its a dangerous place, but Im not afraid. Im ready to go. I think about Sergeant Lalor right here at our church. His job is to keep order in the jail. Hes attacked every week. Hes threatened every week. He gets up, puts on his uniform, and he goes and does his job. When I was growing up, I lived near a fire station. I mean right smack next to a fire station. There was our apartment complex, a four-family dwelling, there was another building, and then there was the fire department. The firemen there were not just firemen. They were some of my friends. This weather brings back memories because they used to plow around the flag pole this big pile of snow. The firemen would let us go out there and play king of the mountain, one of the funnest games ever invented. There is still a part of me that when I see a big hill wants to climb to the top of it and say, Go on! Thats a fun game. Theyd come out there and play with us sometimes. We had snowball fights with Hummer and Doc. These were my friends. Many times, we played basketball with them behind the firehouse in the driveway there. We shot hoops with them into my teen years. I remember so many nights lying in my bedroom, and that siren would go off. It was so loud because we were right there. It would pretty much wake you up every time. It could be a cold wintery day like this, maybe 2 or 3 oclock in the morning, and the siren would go off. Youd lay in bed going, Oh, man, Im glad thats not me going off to fight a fire at this time of night. Or there would be a thunderstorm, thunder and lightning crashing. There were dangerous conditions, and youd hear that siren. More often than not, youd hear that siren when there was a really bad thunderstorm. Almost every time, theyd go out. Id think, Oh, man, Im glad Im not going out in this scary thunderstorm to fight a fire. You know what I would think even as a little guy? I would think, I sure am glad they are there. I sure am glad theyre there. I would think if a fire ever happened in our house, man, its pretty cool they are only a hundred feet away. Thats kind of a cool thing. They could almost reach their hoses to our apartment from there. That would have helped us a lot! I appreciated the fact that they knew the danger; yet, they were willing to go. You and I go to work on Monday morning-although I dont; Mondays my day off, ha ha. When we go to work on Monday, we dont worry about boy, I hope I dont get killed at the office today! You know when they put on that uniform, they put on that badge, they put that gun in its holster and they go to work, they could be [killed] that day. They could be in a life-threatening situation that day. Of course, our brave fighting men and women are in harms way in the line of duty every day because there is a mission; there is a cause. It might be the cost of freedom; it might be the cost of protecting the innocent. That cause they put over self-preservation, and they go, just like the Apostle Paul. Notice what he says. Paul is not just foolishly trying to be careless with his life. He says, I am willing to die for the name of the Lord Jesus. Hes not simply trying to impress, trying to show off with a bunch of false bravado about how brave he is, how courageous he is. Paul says, I will die for the mission of the Lord Jesus Christ. I will risk my life to save people and to serve Him. Why was Paul so passionate? Because Paul had been given a great gift. Do you know anything about church history? Do you know anything about what Paul was? Before he was Paul, he was Saul of Tarsus. He was an enemy of the church. In fact, he was public enemy number one. His goal and his quest were not just to thwart Christianity. It was to eradicate Christianity and Christians from the face of the earth, not just through teaching and philosophy, but through violence and death if necessary. In the Book of Acts, we read about the first Christian martyr Steven. It says that men were throwing their cloaks, throwing their tunics, at the feet of the Apostle Paul-of a young man named Saul. That means that Paul was not only giving approval, but he was the instigator. He was the organizer of that lynch mob which took that innocent mans life. He was going into homes, arresting them, dragging them out, throwing them in prison and killing them if necessary. He was doing it, he thought, in the name of his god. One day, Paul was on the road to Damascus. Several others were with him, and he was seeking government papers to continue on his raid of Christians when he encountered a bright light-a brilliant light like you and I have never seen. It knocks him off his horse, knocks him to the ground, and a voice speaks from that light. It calls him by name, and it asks him a question. The voice says, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Paul has to think, Persecuting? How can I persecute You, whoever You are? Youre divine. Youre speaking from Heaven in a light. How have I persecuted You? Who are You, Lord? He says, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. Christ identifies Himself with His church. I am Jesus. Can you imagine whats going through Pauls mind when he finds out? He thinks all this time hes been fighting for the big guy upstairs. Hes been fighting against this heretic Jesus and his blasphemy and all these other heretics that are following him. Hes trying to rid Jerusalem and the surrounding regions of this plague called the way that is converting people by the thousands. It seems like the harder he works, the bigger it grows. It seems like the more he punishes and the more he persecutes, the wider it spreads. Hes frustrated, yet he fights on to end this scourge. Then you find out that the one you are fighting against is actually the big guy upstairs. I wonder if this is what was going through Pauls mind, Uh oh! Uh oh! Big trouble! Right? Do you think if anybody is going to get a lightning bolt, if anybody is going to get judged, its going to be the guy thats trying to destroy the work of God? Everybody in this room is a sinner here today. Everybody in this room struggles with sin. I dont think anybody here has ever tried to single-handedly eradicate Christianity off the face of the earth even if it meant killing other Christians. Thats what Paul did. I think if God was going to forgive Paul for that, maybe he could forgive you too for your sins. Do you think? Christ extends grace and love to Paul. This one who he could have just punished, judged and struck down, He extends grace and He gives him a mission. He gives him restoration and forgiveness. He says, Paul, I can use a guy like you. Your courage and your zeal and your passion… If you were on My side, Paul, we could impact this world. Paul will never forget the grace, the love, and the forgiveness that he received on that road. Paul says, Friends, I know youre concerned for me, but I want you to know this: Ill go to prison; Ill be beaten; Ill even die for that name, Jesus Christ, because I am so grateful for the life that I have, scars and all. We have people in this country serving our country and serving our citizenship who love America so much-they love our citizens so much-that theyd put their very life at risk to do that. They have a purpose and a mission that is greater than their own agendas. We want to honor them this morning. We are going to watch a clip right now, and this is just a very short clip of one of our Veterans talking about his experience in the war. Lets watch that together.. One of the most powerful quotes I ever read was from one of the survivors of 9-11. He was talking about how law enforcement, the EMTs, and the fire departments were responding. He said, As we were running out of the buildings to save our lives, as we were running out, they were running in. They were running in. Thats the kind of bravery and courage we salute today. Im going to ask if you are here this morning and you have served in our military or are serving in our military-maybe youre on leave; if you have been involved in the volunteer fire department or as a fireman; if you are in law enforcement, serving us in that way, would you come forward right now and stand right here facing the congregation? Im not going to ask you to make a speech. You just have to save your name and tell us where you served. If you were in the war, where did you serve? What operation or what department were you in? Were not going to embarrass you. Youre not going to have to say anything. We just want to acknowledge you. Last night, at the Saturday night service, we were lined up-as bad as the weather was-all the way across. Men from the VFW were here in their uniforms. It was a very moving thing. Come on up and dont be shy. We would appreciate that. Wed like you to say your name, where you served and maybe what years you were there or what your position was. Father, we thank You for these men and women who have come forward. We thank You for their faithfulness in responding to the call of their country and the citizens. Lord, we dont want to forget their training, their sacrifice, their hard work, their willingness to serve. We thank You this morning for their bravery. We pray also for those who are currently in service. We pray for Cricket, Joshuas mom, in Iraq. We pray for Dani Dean as well as she prepares to depart for Iraq. We pray for those in law enforcement in this congregation. Lord, Your word says that when you stand up for the innocent-when you stand up against injustice, evil, whatever form it might manifest itself in, You save and protect lives. Youre doing the Lords work, so we honor you for that. We thank You that they are a part of our church and a part of our community. We pray Your blessings upon them, upon their walk, and upon their families. We thank You that they are here safely this morning. We respect and honor them today. In Jesus name, I pray. Amen. Thank you for coming forward today and letting us demonstrate our love for you today. Ive learned-just in a few services-some of our body who are involved in this way that I didnt even realize. I hope that some of you will buy this tape and give it to some friends. You can say, This is what we did at our church this week, and this is a thank you-a little bit about what you mean to me. I wanted you to hear these words. I hope that youll do that. You could be sending the sermon to some other part of the country. You can send it on a link. Maybe well get some other churches around the country to do something similar in their churches. Maybe we can create a little ripple here. I hope so.
We are talking this morning about Enemy Encounters. When you seek to do a good work for the Lord, you will encounter opposition. You will encounter attack. Mark my words; [I] guarantee it. It will happen. So were going to see from Nehemiah how he was attacked and how he dealt with those attacks. Im going to begin with reading a quote from Robert Kennedy. I was too young to remember when JFK was assassinated, and I barely remember when Dr. King was assassinated. I do have a little stronger recollection of when Bobby Kennedy was assassinated. What a dark time when so many promising men were taken from us in the 60s. I remember even as a young boy his words really inspiring me. There was something about the things that he said that inspired me to think about possibilities. This is what Bobby Kennedy wrote in one of his speeches: The future does not belong to those who are content with today, apathetic toward common problems and their fellow man alike, timid and fearful in the face of new ideas and bold projects. Rather it will belong to those who can blend vision, reason and courage in a personal commitment to the ideals and great enterprises of American Society. It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands for an ideal or acts to improve the lot of others or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope. There are those who look at things the way they are and ask why. I dream of things that never were and ask why not. (All three quotes above were from R. Kennedy; however, they were from different speeches.) [Those are] some pretty powerful words spoken there. They are words that could have been spoken by Nehemiah because he was such a heroic man. He was such a man who would stand up against injustice. He was a man who when he saw a need, [he] looked at his abilities and said, I can fill that. I can do something about that. He was a man who wanted to make-and did make-a difference in his world. He was one of the heroes of the Bible. We are going to see how he dealt with opposition and how he took on the challenges God had in store for his life. Nehemiah lived in a time when what seems like most of Israels existence was under oppression under the rule of foreign powers. If you recall history, Nebekenezzer had swept in and taken the Israelites and Judea into captivity. For 70 years, they lived under the hand of Nebekenezzer when the Meads and Persians came, and they conquered the Babylonians. So as Nehemiah writes this book, he is under the Persian Empire. The king is a man by the name of Artaxerxes. Israel is still his homeland. Hed never lived there, but that was the place of his ancestors. That was the place of his faith. He was still very much a Hebrew. Its in his blood. It was in his faith, so that is his homeland. One day, as he was working as the cupbearer for the king… The cupbearer was the one who tasted the food and tasted the wine to make sure nobody was trying to take the life of the king, so he had a very important position-a very trustworthy position-of protecting the king. Job security was the king didnt die. As long as the king didnt die from something he ate or drank, your job was safe. So he had this cushy job working in a palace, tasting food for the king-not a bad gig, right? God is going to call him to leave that place of comfort, a place of familiarity, and go to the land of his ancestors to begin the work of building the wall of Jerusalem. The wall in those days was the first line of defense. In fact, if you didnt have a wall around your capital, you really couldnt be considered a credible nation or country. Today, it would be like a country having no defense whatsoever. How credible are they? They are vulnerable to attack. Israel was vulnerable to extinction because its walls were down. There was a temple there; there was a remnant that was living there. Yet, it still remained in a state of disarray and chaos because its wall was down. Nehemiahs brother came to visit him. Nehemiah inquired about his trip to Jerusalem. How is Jerusalem? Whats going on? He said, Its bad news, bro. Israel is in ruins. The wall is down; its rubble. There is not one stone left upon another. Its burned. Its a sad state of affairs. We are a laughing stock for the surrounding nations. When Nehemiah heard this news, he was troubled and disturbed. He went to God in prayer. As he was praying, God laid it upon his heart to rebuild the wall, to do something about the problem he found. Friends, God has called you and me to be builders of walls. When we see a breach; when we see something that is destroyed; when we see something that is knocked down that should be built up-it might be a life, it might be a marriage, it might be a particular people group who are suffering… It could be the elderly; it could be the oppressed in some way; it could be the poor; it could be children; it could be abused women; it could be the homeless; it could be anything that is broken down that God has called the church to respond to and to rebuild that which is broken-thats your wall. Were going to see from Nehemiah that building a wall of brick and mortar was an intensely spiritual thing. You wouldnt think that rebuilding a wall was a spiritual act, but it was because Satan did not want that wall to go up. He did not want Jerusalem to be reestablished again as the capital and worship of God; [he did not want] revival of that land to take place. So he is going to throw everything at Nehemiah that he possibly can. The same weapons that he used against Nehemiah are the weapons that are used against the church today. Were going to see how he combated those things. Some of you might want to read Nehemiah; well get to it eventually in our year study, but some of you may want to go home and start reading some of it. Were going to scan over these chapters, and well focus in on several verses. The first thing Nehemiah does is pray. He prays a prayer of confession, of his sins and the sins of his country, his people. Then he prays a prayer of recollection to God of his promises. Hes reminded that if God says, If my people will repent, I will restore them, so that promise stays with Nehemiah all the way through the project. He remembers the promise of God. Its a reliable promise. Its not like the promises man gives. God is not like man; God keeps his promises. We had a promise from a new garbage company (in our neighborhood). They wanted to take over our garbage pickup. The way they sold it was by telling the township, We even come on Christmas and Thanksgiving. Well pick up your trash every week, every time. Then it got to be, We want to take Christmas and Thanksgiving off. Then, as years when by, it was like, Its Arbor Day. We cant come today. Its Flag Day. They broke their promise. People break their promises; God doesnt. Nehemiah remembers that fact, the faithfulness of God. Thirdly, he prays for favor with King Artaxerxes because if hes going to leave and go back to his homeland, he needs permission from his boss to do so. He might be killed if he deserts his post. So, he has to have favor with the king. Thats what his prayer consists of. I want you to notice all the way through the book before he begins his ministry, while his ministry is going on, Nehemiah prays all the time. In fact, the king is going to ask him in the next chapter, Nehemiah, whats wrong? Nehemiah says, Then I prayed, and he begins to speak. Nehemiah was always surrounding everything he did in prayer. Where would Faith Community Church be today if not for prayer? The answer: it wouldnt be. It wouldnt be. This church exists because of prayers. Before we even started, there were months of prayer. Hundreds of people were praying for this ministry to come into existence. There was praying for Gods guidance and praying for Gods favor. Prayer is a key. When you struggle in the flesh to do something, its one thing; but when you struggle first in prayer… How does the saying go? When we work, we work, but when we pray, God works. For a long time, we talked about wanting to get a Hispanic ministry going here at Faith Community Church. It seems like we have a large amount of people who speak Spanish in our church and have a passion for Spanish-speaking people. It seems like every mission trip we take, we go to a Spanish-speaking community. The missions team just voted again to go to the D.R. in 2009, so were going back again. Every time we take a love offering, thousands of dollars come in-whether its for Guatemala or Dominican Republic. The last two love offerings collected over $12,000! Thats a lot of money for two spontaneous offerings. Weve got a heart for those folks. In our church, people ask, Pastor, when are we going to start a ministry for the Spanish community? We have others with gifts and so forth, so we pray. Are we going to rent a 12-step building? Will we start holding them on Sunday afternoons like when we have our ministry there on Sundays? Do we start holding them here once our new building is done, and Ill just get a translator? Ill preach a message here. While music is going on here, Ill preach in there. How are we going to work this? Who can translate? Or maybe Jesse Thompson, one of our pastors on staff, maybe he should preach. Were grappling with this thing; were trying to figure it out. Im thinking, How can I communicate and reach the Spanish? Im not sure I can totally relate to that sub-culture as Id like to. I can preach all right, but wouldnt it be great to have somebody who really understands what theyre going through to minister them? So, we as a staff would pray about it. Wed think about it, wed brainstorm, but we would pray. Let me tell you some news. Our trustees know about this; our elders are behind it; our staff knows about it. Some of the people in missions know about it, but some of you might not know about this. Two weeks ago, we added a full-time minister to our staff. His name is Pastor Tulio Durãn. His children have been in our childrens ministry. He is full-time to the Spanish-speaking of Rock County, and its not going to cost our church a dime, not a dime. He has been a missionary in Spain, the same mission as Tim and Susana Gretschmann, who came and spoke and said a prayer a couple of weeks ago. His mission organization sent him to Janesville to start a church for the Hispanic community. Theyre paying 100 percent of his salary, and that church is going to start right here. Its going to be a ministry of our church. Hes starting a Bible study locally very soon. Were forming a team from our congregation of Spanish-speaking people with computer skills, administrative skills, music skills and talents, and Pastor Tulio will be their pastor. Hell give the sermons in Spanish, and that will be our congregation. They will meet at 11 oclock in the morning on Sundays, the same slot as our 11 oclock service. [Theyll] utilize our nursery, our childrens church. Theyll be on our computer web site. Everything we do, everything we have, is theirs. Theyre our church, our ministry. How did that happen? Howd we go from scratching our heads, saying, How in the world are we going to minister to this growing population in our community? Do you see a lot of Spanish-speaking services, churches, as you drive around town? Theyre everywhere, arent they? No, theyre hardly anywhere, hardly anywhere. I believe were going to draw from Rockford; were going to draw from Madison, being right on the interstate; were going to draw from surrounding communities as Tulio pastors that flock. That, friends, was prayer. Nehemiah realizes that. He goes before the king. The king says, Why are you sad? Youre not usually sad, Nehemiah. Why are you sad today? Nehemiah said, Why shouldnt I be sad? My home land is in ruins. The wall is down. He starts telling the king all the problems. The king says, What do you want me to do? Nehemiah says, Well, what Id really like to do is have permission to go back. He says, What do you need? How long are you going to be gone? So Nehemiah starts telling him, I need this many supplies. Im going to need this person to help me. Im going to need this permission. Im going to need this much support. Heres how long Ill be gone. King Artaxerxes says, Go with my blessing. The first thing he does is he scouts it out. He goes with a few guys, and he goes at night. He just begins to ride around by himself. Those three guys stay put, and he goes around looking at the different gates and walls. While hes looking, God bursts in his heart, You can do this. Heres how. Then Nehemiahs going to go back, having clearly heard from God and receiving favor from the king, hes going to go back and vision cast. Hes going to say, Heres what were going to do. Heres how were going to rebuild the walls. Verse 17 of Nehemiah Chap 2 (page 473 of the pew Bibles) reads, 'You see the trouble we are in: Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace. I also told them about the gracious hand of my God upon me and what the king had said to me. They replied, Let us start rebuilding. So they began this good work. Now they stay there for a time, and theyre trying to recruit volunteers. Theyre trying to assess a strategy and a plan. While theyre there working on this, word gets out to the enemies of Israel that Israel is going to rebuild the wall. Now, Israel becomes a threat to them again because they remember the glory days. They remember the other situations when Israel was great. They start to see Israel as a threat. They begin saying, We have to stop this. We have to stop it. In Verse 19 there are three men we are going to be very familiar with before were done: Sanballat, Tobiah and Geshem. But when Sanballat, Tobiah and Geshem heard about it, they mocked and ridiculed us. What is this you are doing? they asked. Are you rebelling against the kings? I answered them by saying, The God of Heaven will give success. We his servants will start rebuilding, but as for you, you have no share in Jerusalem or any claim or historic right to it. We said earlier when you seek to do a good work for God, when you seek to rebuild a wall, youre going to encounter opposition. The opposition were going to talk about this morning is opposition from without, attacks in the way that they come-but they will come. The first methodology they try is ridicule. Now, were going to skip over Chapter 3. Chapter 3, though, I want you to look at for a second. Look at Chapter 3. Do you see all those big words? Do you see all those big names you cant pronounce? This guy is going to do this job; this guy is the son of that guy. Turn the page, and all of the way through there… Do you see that chapter? That probably looks like some of the most boring reading youve ever seen, right? Well, in two months, were going to give an update as to how the adults are doing against the children in Bible reading. If were losing, Im preaching this chapter, okay? If we start losing, Im coming back here. Were going to go through every name in Hebrew. I dont care how many weeks it takes us. Its going to be long and dry. Be forewarned. So were going to jump to Chapter 4. In Chapter 4, Sanballat hears the news, and hes mad. Heres what he says (page 474 of pew Bibles), What are those feeble Jews doing? Will they restore their wall? Yes. Will they offer sacrifices? Yes. Will they finish in a day? No. Can they bring the stones back to life from these heaps of rubble-burned as they are? Yes. Tobiah jumps in, and he says, What they are building
Were talking this morning about the power of one, the power of conviction, and the power of decisions. Were on a series about Superheroes, about being a hero for the Lord. I mentioned to you that my favorite superhero was Spiderman because he was vulnerable. He was funny. I love the movies because its not just the special effects, but there is substance in those movies. This scene were about to watch is Uncle Ben telling Peter Parker about this great responsibility he has with these powers. Hes trying to get him to become a man of conviction. He [is telling him] hed use these things for humanity, to serve people, for good, for right, rather than for selfish reasons or misusing these powers. We have been given a great power. The Holy Spirit has come into believers. Weve been given a great responsibility, and that is to share the truth of the Gospel with our world. So that is applicable to us as well. Were going to be talking about conviction. Were talking about responsibility; were talking about taking a stand for our Lord. When I think of responsibility, I cant think of a job with greater responsibility than that of the President of the United States, leader of the free world. That is an ominous job. I think of those who have studied history, most all would agree that Abraham Lincoln is one of the greatest Presidents, if not the greatest President, that ever lived. To try to preserve the union and remove the blight of slavery from our land, he had written the Emancipation Proclamation. He brought it to his Cabinet. He went around the Cabinet and asked the different secretaries to vote on what they thought about the Emancipation Proclamation with a yea or a nay. He went around the room: the Secretary of Interior-nay; Secretary of Defense-nay and all the way around. He went all the way around the Cabinet, and all them said nay. They thought it was going to cause too much destruction to the Union. Abraham Lincoln looked around the room then, and he said, There. The vote is unanimous. The ayes have it. The ayes have it. If I have to stand alone on this one, Im going to because its the right thing to do. In The Emancipation Proclamation, you read the words as he evokes the grace of God in this decision. What Lincoln is saying here is Im doing this because its the right thing to do. Making a stand is what were going to talk about today. All of us in this room have at sometime made right stands; and all of us at times have not made stands when we should have. How many of you have had an opportunity to take a stand, and you didnt take it? You walked away thinking, I wish I would have said this or I could have said that. You thought of all of these wonderful things you could have said after the fact. Let me see your hands. Okay, so we have the right group. I remember the first two years of my education were at a local school because I wanted to get those done. They were a bit more cost-effective. I then transferred on. I remember engaging some of my professors in the secular school in some theological discussions. There were times when I raised my hand and stood up to the professors. Even thought they sliced and diced me because I didnt have a lot of knowledge at that time-I had great zeal with very little knowledge-I always felt good about it. I said, At least I stood up. There were other times when I didnt. I kept my yapper shut, and remember feeling badly about that. Were going to be talking about ways that you and I can take a stand and speak up for our Lord. Christians throughout history have gone through persecution because of our convictions. Hebrews 11 speaks of the heroes of the faith who were persecuted and killed for their faith. We would seek to emulate their faith and their example. This morning, were going to look at the Apostle Peter, a man who started off with little conviction. He was very impulsive. He was a man who when confronted by total strangers of the Crucifixion denied Christ and even cursed Christ. Were going to see a transformation in this man when Pentecost comes and the Holy Spirit comes upon the believers. It dwells upon the believers. Peter is filled with a new confidence and a new boldness that allows him to proclaim the Gospel. No matter who listens, no matter what the outcome, no matter what the threat… Peter and John were on their way to the temple. They encountered a man who was lame since birth. The man was asking for money. Peter says, I dont have any money, but what I do have, I give to you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Walk! He grabs him by the hand. His legs are strengthened, and he walks. Its a miracle. The man was over 40 years old, which is pretty young-I think anyway-didnt used to think that, but it seems very young now. He picks this kid up, and the guy is walking around. Hes strong. [This creates] an uproar. Theres a hubbub. Thousands of people come to Christ that day. Now, the people who are in power see this, and they dont like it-especially a group called the Sadducees. The Sadducees were people who said, Lets just keep the peace. Lets let Rome do what Rome wants to do as long as theyre giving us freedom to worship. Lets not make waves. There was another group called the Pharisees that felt differently about it. In fact, from them a group would come-would emerge-called the Zealots. The Zealots would eventually rise up against Rome. That would lead to the destruction of Rome under the leadership of Titus. The temple would be destroyed; Jerusalem would fall; and a couple of years later Masada would fall as thousands of Israelites took their own lives. At this juncture, the Sadducees are saying, Lets jut play along. By the way, they became extinct after the destruction of Jerusalem-shortly thereafter. They also did not believe in Heaven. They didnt believe in miracles. They didnt believe in the Resurrection, though they did believe in God. So they are upset two-fold. They are upset because of -number one-the hubbub and what they were going to do about it. They wanted to keep peace. Secondly, theyre upset theologically because of the words coming out of Peters mouth as he explains the reason for the miracle. Hes saying, We thought this Christianity thing was gone, dead and buried literally in Jesus Christ. We thought when we crucified the leader, this nonsense would just go away. Boy, were they wrong. It just began multiplying and spreading. They said, We have to do something. So, they arrested Peter and John. They stayed the night in jail. In the morning, the Sanhedrin assembled. Think of the Sanhedrin as the Supreme Court and the Congress. Its the legislative branch and the judicial branch combined. They made the laws; they interpreted; and they enforced the laws. They had power. These are the same men who days before had crucified Jesus Christ. So, if they say, Youre going to be executed, then you would be executed. So the lives of Peter and John are in the balance here. On the same token, there is popularity. They know if they kill Peter and John, they might have an uproar, and Rome will come and really tighten the reins on them. They are afraid of this uprising. Peter and John are between a rock and a hard place. They really want to kill them. Thats what theyd prefer to do, but they dont want to make any waves. They know all they can really do is slap their wrists. So the first strategy is to try to bully and intimidate. When that doesnt work, theyre begin making threats. Lets see what happens. Lets pick up the story in Verse 5 of Acts 4 (page 1080 of pew Bibles), The next day the rulers, elders and teachers of the law met in Jerusalem. Annas, the high priest was there, and so were Caiaphas, John, Alexander and the other men of the high priests family. They had Peter and John brought before them and began to question them… Imagine yourself…two people, and youre in front of the most powerful body. You can tell by the verbiage of this sentence, they are trying to bully and intimidate Peter and John. By what power or what name did you do this? Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, Rulers and elders of the people! It was Johns idea. I had nothing to do with it. I didnt want to do it, and Im sorry it happened... No, no, no. This is a different Peter. This is a Peter who is empowered by the Holy Spirit. This is a Peter of conviction. This is a Peter of responsibility. So he stands up to them, and he says, If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a cripple and are asked how he was healed, then know this… About that time, you can feel them squirm, going, Oh, boy, here it comes! …It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. He is the stone (and he quotes prophesy) you builders rejected which has become the capstone. Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under Heaven given to men by which we must be saved. When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. But since they could see the man who had been healed standing there with them, there was nothing they could say. So they ordered them to withdraw from the Sanhedrin and then conferred together. Heres a little bit of what was said behind closed doors, What are we going to do with these men? they asked. Everybody living in Jerusalem knows they have done an outstanding miracle, and we cannot deny it. But to stop this thing from spreading any further among the people, we must warn these men to speak no longer to anyone in this name. Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John replied, Judge for yourselves whether it is right in Gods sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard. Or, you could say, We will not stop speaking about what we have seen and heard. Conviction. Peter would not stop speaking until the day he died. Jesus will talk about that in John 21. Im going to give you my paraphrase here. Jesus says to Peter in speaking of His death, When you were a young buck, Peter, you did whatever you wanted, you went wherever you wanted to go, you said whatever you wanted to say. You were an independent free spirit, but when you become an old man, someone will take you where you do not want to go, and you will stretch out your hands. Jesus said this to signify the death in which He would glorify God. When we think of stretching out our hands, we think of crucifixion, dont we? Thats exactly what Jesus was telling him. He may not have understood that at the time. Then again, he may have. He was telling Peter, Someday theyre going to take you, and they are going to crucify you Peter. Youre going to lay your life down. Youre going to become a martyr for your faith. History tells us that happened under the reign of Nero. Nero was a maniacal emperor-a crazy man with a huge ego. In 64, Rome suffered a great fire. Thousands of lives were lost. Many buildings were lost, and much property was destroyed. Nero had plans to rebuild Rome. Nero had plans to rebuild some of the buildings, especially his new palace-which was going to be posh, really nice. People didnt like Nero to begin with, but then they began saying, You know what? We think Nero started this fire. Nero started this fire so he could rebuild the city. That rumor began spreading like the fire through the land. Nero caused the loss of our property. Nero caused the loss of our homes and our businesses. Nero caused the loss of lives of our loved ones and friends. It was Nero! Nero hears the tide of public opinion. Nero decides he needs to find a group people hate Christians more than him. He needs to find a scapegoat. Nero comes up with a plan because some people were saying he was playing his fiddle as Rome burned. So Nero devised a plan that the Christians would become the scapegoat. Im going to blame it on the Christians because theyre even more hated than I am. We dont really think of ourselves as Christians, as a people who would be hated, but we were. Im going to read for you right now a quote from an historian who was born in the first century. His name is Tacitus . When the fire of Rome happened, Tacitus was a boy. Now, he is a man, and hes writing about Nero, Christians, and the events of that day, less than a generation removed from those events. Tacitus writes, Consequently, to get rid of the report that he [Nero] had started the fire, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations... Thats us, hated for their abominations. …called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius… Thats the crucifixion of course. …at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition… Thats Christianity. …thus checked for the moment, again broke out… Were reading about that. …not only in Judaea, the first source of the evil… He calls Christianity an evil. …but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular. So, he lumps Christianity in with everything that is hideous and shameful. Accordingly, an arrest was first made of all who pleaded guilty; then, upon their information, an immense multitude was convicted, not so much of the crime of firing the city… They arent going to be killed for destroying Rome, but, …as of hatred against mankind. The Christians were going to be killed for their hatred of mankind. Ill explain that in a moment. Mockery of every sort was added to their deaths. Covered with the skins of beasts, they were torn by dogs and perished, or were nailed to crosses, or were doomed to the flames and burnt, to serve as a nightly illumination, when daylight had expired. Our spiritual ancestors endured these kinds of persecutions, this kind of suffering. This martyred them. Paul and Peter would also perish under the reign of Nero. Why such venom? Why such hate? Do you think if you stand up for convictions, there is a chance youll be mistreated? Well, in this country youre certainly not going to be martyred. You will in other countries; maybe in North Korea youll be martyred. Maybe in Pakistan or Afghanistan, youll be martyred. Certainly, you may be ostracized. You may be rejected; you may be ignored; you may be mocked or ridiculed; but certainly youll undergo some persecution if you stand up for conviction. Christians had a conviction that only Jesus Christ was Lord. When Rome would have its festivals, its holy days-its celebrations-they would worship and honor the Pagan gods, and they would pray to and worship the emperor as God. Christians would have nothing to do with it. Do you know what Christians were seen as, believe it or not? Atheists! We were the atheists because we didnt believe in the Roman gods or worship the emperor. We didnt burn incense in his name. We were atheists! Whats more: we were not seen as very good citizens of Rome, not very patriotic. You dont go to the holidays; you dont celebrate the festivals. We look at somebody who doesnt put their hand on their heart when they say the Pledge of Allegiance, wont sing the Star-Spangled Banner, wont celebrate the Fourth of July, Boy, that person is unpatriotic! So they regarded Christians as not very good citizens. They said, Besides that, they meet in these little groups where they eat flesh and drink blood. Communion. They saw the early Christians as cannibals. Some people believed that. There was a form of cannibalism going on in these secret little huddles, these little underground huddles. So this went on, and this went on for generations to come, friends. There was a test by the time omission came to power. They would kill you unless you burned incense to the Roman gods, prayed to the emperor, and cursed Christ. So from generation to generation, this went on. Christians by the thousands lost their lives. They knew that if they didnt renounce Christ, they would die; yet they refused to renounce Christ. They refused to be silent. Let me ask you the question, What stops you? Death didnt stop them. What stops you? You see, we know in our society that if I claim Im a Christian-we have freedom of speech and so forth, many of the people in our nation are Christians-but if I speak up for conviction, Im not going to be beheaded or set on fire. But, does persecution still exist? Is it possible that you could be misunderstood and mistreated nowadays? Certainly. Lets go back to the text here. Lets look at Verse 12 of Peters words (of Acts 4, page 1080). These words were very unpopular when they were spoken. Understand he speaks these to the Sanhedrin. They hate Jesus Christ; they see Him as a blasphemer, a heretic, as a criminal, a deceiver, and now, Peter is going to inform that He is the only way to Heaven-the only way to Heaven! These are words that cause anger to these men! Listen to what he says, Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under Heaven given to men by which we must be saved. Peter says for mankind, there is no other means of salvation. There is no other name; there is no other way. How do you think that went over that day? Not very well! How does it go over today? If you as a Christian take a stand, and youre having a discussion in the workplace, and you say, I believe Christ is the only way to Heaven, how does that go over? If you are a politician running for office, and you made a statement like that, I believe that Jesus is the only means of salvation, how does that go over? Do you think theres a chance you might be misunderstood, mistreated, or persecuted in some way because youve made those statements? The Gazette has a blog now. There was an article in which a young man had torn out some pages of the Bible. They wrote a story about that. Then there was this debate, and people could weigh in on the issues. It was interesting. The venom that was going back and forth between the Christians and the atheists. Atheists from other parts of the country were logging in and blogging on this Gazette site. It became pretty nasty, the comments. I would tune in everyday to read some of the comments. It was interesting dialogue, but the Gazette then ran some rules in light of what transpired. They said, Here are our rules. Make sure you dont cuss; even if you get creative with your cuss words, well figure it out and remove your comment. You cant slander. They had all of these rules. Then at the end, the last rule they had was remember this is our site. This is our newspaper. This is our blog. We pay for this. We make the rules. If you dont abide by the rules, well remove you. Thats their right, isnt it? That is their site. They make the rules. Who makes the rules for God? If the people who made the Gazette or created the website determined the rules for their website, who determines the rules for God? Do you and I? No. Who does? God does. Theres a problem when man takes rules and changes them without the permission or consent of those who made the rules. Lets take, for instance, the football game this afternoon? Is anybody going to watch the NFC championship game? Nobody? Okay. Lets say kick-off is on the 20; everybody is wondering if theyre going to run. Its windy and cold: are they going to run, or are they going to pass? Something very unusual happens. Brett Favre takes a snap, and he drops back, fakes a pass, and turns around and runs into the Giants end zone. [He] spikes the ball and starts celebrating like hes made a touchdown. All the Packers are jumping up and down and on each other saying, We scored the first touchdown in the NFC championship game! What would you do if you were watching that from home? Youd go, Ha? Whats going on? You watch the referees signal a safety. Two points are put on the board for the Giants. Theyre going to get the ball back. The Packers are protesting, What do you mean safety? We just scored a touchdown! The fans are all thinking, Whats going on? This is crazy! By halftime, the score is 50-0 because there have been 25 consecutive safeties because Brett Favre keeps running into his own end zone. At halftime, they interview him, and they say, Mr. Favre, what is going on? You have scored 25 consecutive safeties. Brett says, You know what? We consider those touchdowns. We had a meeting, the coaches, staff, and all the players. We decided to make a new rule that whenever we have the ball, both end zones are touchdowns. Thats our rule. We voted unanimously. Do you think that would work? Why not? Theres a rule, right? The commissioner of the NFL and the owners have a rule book . They say, We created this league. We determine the rules. We determine what you wear, when you play. We determine what a penalty is and whats not. We determine whether there is going to be instant replay or not, whats going to be reviewed and whats not. Im still trying to figure that one out. We determine all these rules because its our league. We created it. So, we have authority no matter how popular you are or how great your career is. You cant make your own rules. Its not your job. If you make them, theyre not real. Theyre just in your head because we create the rules for the game that we have. This is our game. Do you see where Im going here? There are a lot of people who think they can make up the rules for God. They say, Well, you know, I believe that all religions are the truth, and every religion leads to Heaven. So my question is how do religions which are very opposed to one another and say very different things about God, how can they all be true at the same time? They all have different ideas of what Heaven is. How can that all be true at the same time? Either one is true and the rest are false, or theyre all false. They cant all be true! I believe that if youre just a good person, you go to Heaven. If you just follow the golden rule, you go to Heaven. You made up a rule. Does that agree with what God has said? Well, I believe that all people go to Heaven no matter how they live or what they believe because God is a loving God, so everybody goes. Thats another rule. Well, who makes the rules? God does! Peter is telling us a rule here. He says, There is no other name given among men under Heaven by which you must be saved. On this planet, under Heaven-this world, this is the means of salvation. He is reiterating what Jesus said. Jesus Himself said, I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father, but through Me. Thats what He said. For God so loved the world that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but has everlasting life. He didnt come to provide an alternative. He came to be the means of salvation. What we believe as Christians is that God, the Son, the second person of the trinity, came and took on flesh and lived among us. [He] lived a perfect, sinless life and offered that life up on the cross. [It was] an offer in exchange: His righteousness for our sins. If we would put our faith and trust in Him, He will forgive us our sins, and He will impart to us His righteousness. Our sins can be forgiven, and one day when we die, we can go and live with Him in His presence in Heaven. God made those rules. Who can come? All can come. When? Anytime. How? Through Jesus Christ and His shed blood. He died for us, so we could live. Thats what we believe. Now, I might share that with somebody, and I could share it in a nice way. Somebody might still say, Well, youre a bigot. Youre a religious bigot. Youre narrow-minded or youre intolerant! In our fictions, hypothetical story, Brett Favre might say, Well, the NFL is intolerant! The NFL is bigoted against the Packers players. Theyre prejudiced! The NFL hates the Packers! Its not true. I can espouse my beliefs, and somebody can say, Well, you hate people of other religions. Ill say, Thats not true. I respect them very much. Youre this or youre that! [I would answer], No, there is love in my heart, but I believe this is the Word of God. If the Bible said something different-if the Bible said, Jesus came to provide a means of salvation among the many, and this is one of them, thats what Id be preaching up here. But to preach something different, Im calling Peter a liar. To preach something different, Im calling the Lord Jesus a liar. Im not prepared to do that. I believe what they said was the truth, and so thats a conviction, so Ill stand for that. Mark my words: you go out there and you say something to that effect, its not going to be very well-received. This is the year 2008. Convictions can still get you into trouble. Convictions can still get you misunderstood; convictions can still get you mistreated, but who would you rather please? Would you rather please men, or would you rather please God? Would you rather live for people and their opinions, or would you rather live for an audience of one? In the Book of John 12, Jesus is gaining in popularity in the following. Lazarus has been raised from the dead, and thats a miracle. Everybody can attest. Even the enemies dont question that Lazarus was dead for four days and is now alive. Even they dont debate that that happened. How are we going to stop them? Verse 42 of John 12 (page 1067 of pew Bibles), many of the Jews believed, Yet at the same time many even among the leaders believed in Him. But because of the Pharisees they would not confess their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the praise from men more than the praise from God. Is that you today? Which praise do you covet? Who do you want to please? Social pressures and social constraints sometimes prohibit us from sharing what we believe. Why? Because we value what people think-that passing, fleeting thing that people think more than what God thinks. If somebody asks me my belief or the topic of conversation comes up in this aspect or other aspects, we could have chosen any number of roads to go down, Im going to share my conviction. Im going to share my belief. The ancestors of our faith did so at the cost of their own lives and their own freedom. Are we going to resemble Peter or are we going to resemble the people in John 12 who said, Yeah, I believe in Him, but as soon as the pressure was on, they became silent. Choose to be a hero for God; choose to stand up for righteousness and truth. Dont be obnoxious. Dont be hateful. Be loving; be gentle; be meek; be kind, but stand up for truth. Peter, I guarantee when he said these words, was respectful. When you read the sentence structure, he addressed them with respect. He was like, Rulers, I respect you. I will abide by all the laws. Im going to be a good citizen, but youre asking me to do something I cannot do. I must obey God rather than man. Thats a choice you and I have to make. Im going to ask if every head would bow and every eye would close for a moment. Some of you right now are facing situations where there is that pressure. There is a pressure to be silent. Theres a pressure to conform. Maybe its in the workplace with a co-worker, a boss, or an employee. Maybe its in your home, maybe in your own marriage. Maybe its with a friend; maybe its in an association you belong to. You know you need to make a stand. You need to stand up for the Lord; you need to stand up for truth. You need to come out of the closet with your faith. You need courage to do that. You need wisdom for the words to say. Im not going to ask you to come forward, but I just want to pray for you specifically right where you are at for just a moment before we close. I guarantee you if you cant stand up in a church service while heads are bowed and eyes are closed, youre not going to stand up out there. Any others who would like to stand? All around our sanctuary, people are starting to stand. Thats good. Ill pause just a moment longer. If youre facing something right now and just want prayer, [please stand]. Amen. Im going to ask those who are seated, would you pray and agree with those who are standing in prayer: Father, right now, I pray for these who are standing. The fact that they are standing is expressing their devotion, their love for you. Theyre saying, God, I want to make a stand. I want to do whats right. I want to do the right thing. I want to say the right thing. Theyre standing because they are people of conviction. Lord, we also know there is opposition when we seek to live a convicted life, when we seek to stand up for truth. [We can fear] being misunderstood, misrepresented, or mistreated. I pray for those who are standing that Youd give them the courage this week to make that stand-give them the wisdom to know what to say, how to say it, when to say it. We pray that those words would be received. We pray that they would be understood. We pray that there would be reconciliation when that is needed. But, Lord, regardless of the response, we pray they would do what is right. We ask this in Jesus name. We thank You for the courage and strength that You give through Your Holy Spirit, as You gave to Peter, as You gave to John, as You gave to all the believers who perished under Nero and the emperors in Rome. [I pray that] through all the generations, that we might live for an audience of One. In Jesus name I pray. Thank you for standing and Ill pray for you. Ill try to think of you throughout the week.
Id like you to turn in your Bibles to Matthew 20, if you would please. Weve been talking about superheroes. Are you a hero? That was our topic last week. You might not even remember this. Im sure you probably do, but from the time you were yeah high to the time you grew up, you were asked the same question over and over and over again. You were asked this by your parents multiple times. You were asked this by teachers, coaches, Sunday School teachers, neighbors, friends, siblings. You were asked this same question over and over and over and over. Your answer to this question probably changed through the years. Do you know what that question was? What are you going to be when you grow up? What are you going to do? When you grow up, what are you going to spend your time doing? What will you become? You were asked that question over and over. When you were really little, it was probably something like an astronaut, Im going to be the President of the United States. Im going to play for the Bears. (Congregation laughing.) Hey, let me have my moment here. My season is done. But it was probably something pretty glamorous or famous, heroic. It may have changed over the years. You may have become more realistic as you grew older. You might have said, I want to be a teacher, a fireman, a businessman, or all these good professions you can choose. I guarantee, when asked the question, What do you want to be when you grow up? probably none of you answered, I want to be a servant. I want to grow up and serve people. You probably didnt say that. You may have said, I want to grow up and have servants. That would be cool, people to wait on [me at] my beck and call, but you probably didnt say, I want to grow up and be a servant. I want to grow up and be a slave. I want to serve people for the rest of my life. You probably didnt say that. Its not glamorous. It doesnt sound desirable. Yet, Jesus, when He came, said the greatest thing that you and I can be is a servant. The most heroic thing we can do is serve people. The way you can be a champion for God is to have a humble heart, the heart of a servant. That is still radical thinking and teaching, but it was extremely radical because servants were the lowest of the low. The servant had no rights. The servant really didnt have freedom. The servant was controlled. To say: The greatest thing is to be a servant, if thats what Jesus says, talk about out of the box! Jesus is going to be approached by the mother of James and John, the sons of Zebedee. She is going to ask Jesus if her sons can sit at His right and left side when He comes into power. Can they be Your number one? I know Youve got 12, but can my boys-little Jimmy and little Johnnie, can they be number one and number two in Your kingdom? Her heart was in the right place, but this action was probably not the best action. Anybody here ever had good intentions. You wanted to do right, and it ended up being the wrong thing to do? Anyone here? I am talking to the right crowd, right? I heard about this woman who wanted to help this little boy. He couldnt reach the doorbell. He was struggling, trying to reach the doorknob. She said, Hey, let me help you out. So she picks him up and holds him up to the doorbell, and he goes ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong. She puts him down, and she says, Okay, what next? He says, Run like crazy. (Congregation laughing). She meant well, but it was not the right thing to do. So the mother comes and she says, My boys are nice boys. Can they sit with You on Your thrown? So there is this dialogue between Jesus and the mom. Maybe James and John are embarrassed, but they seem to be cooperating in the effort. But it trickles down to the other Disciples. They get very angry and jealous that James and John-or at least their mother thinks-are more important, more devoted to Jesus than they are. So they start to weight in and say, Well, if anybody can sit at the right hand, it should be me. Oh no, it should be me. So, they start to squabble as to who is going to have the most in the Kingdom. Jesus uses that as a teaching moment. He says in Verse 25 (of Matthew 20, page 977 of pew Bibles), He called them together and said, You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave… Thats the word doulos, a bond-servant. Its used over and over again. James calls himself a bond-servant. Paul does. Just about all of the writers in the New Testament [call themselves a bond-servant]. Peter does; Jude does; they all call themselves bond-servants. That meant you belonged to somebody else; you were under somebody elses control. He said, You have to be a servant. You have to be a slave. So the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many. [Jesus would have said], If anyone should be served, it should be Me. Im the Son of Man, yet I have come not to be served but to serve. Ive come to give and lay down my life. Jesus had a humility about Him. There are some times when we Christians think, for some strange reason, that its about us-that Christianity is about our advancement. Its about our well-being; its about God blessing us. Its about whats in it for us. Im telling you, friends, the Bible doesnt know anything about that kind of Christianity. Christianity, when its lived out, is about humility. Its about servanthood. If God calls us to do anything for Him, none of us are above that. Pastor Jerrys first job in ministry was cleaning toilets. My first job in ministry was driving kids on the bus and doing all kinds of unpleasant things those first years, but it was for the Lord. It was for the Lord. I remember hearing a story about-this act took place in the Revolutionary War-where some of the American soldiers were fixing a breach; a beam had broken in one of their defenses. They were trying to lift this heavy piece of wood up, and they were struggling. The man who was their superior was barking orders at them, shouting at them to try harder-to lift harder. They werent working hard enough. So he was shouting orders, saying, You guys have to work harder. A man wearing plain clothes came up on his horse. He says, Sir, why dont you come down from your horse and help these men? Theyre struggling. He says, Well, you must not know whom I am. I am a corporal. The man in the plain clothes says, Im sorry. I didnt realize. He saluted the corporal. He got off his horse, went down, and he helped the men. He struggled with them, lifted, and finally they put the beam back in place. The man mounted his horse and said good-bye to the corporal. He said, Corporal, next time you need assistance, if you get a job you dont have enough men for, give a call to your commander-in-chief, and Ill be glad to come and help you again. George Washington then rode off. Hes not above getting in the trenches. So when it comes to rolling up our sleeves and serving, contributing, even to the least of these, Jesus says, None of us are above that. God has called us all to humility. Hes called us all to servanthood because people matter to Him. In fact, Jesus equated loving Him with ministering to people. Remember when Peter denies Jesus three times before the cross and after the Resurrection? Jesus gives Peter an opportunity to affirm his love for Christ three times and asks him the same question three times, Peter, do you love me? Peters response is the same, Yes, Lord, you know I love You. What does Jesus say every time? Then feed my sheep. Then tend to my lambs. The way you demonstrate love for Christ is by loving people, by serving people. We see in this same Book of Matthew, the 25th chapter; [there is] a glimpse of the judgment. I guess what is so ominous about this passage is this is not an allegorical passage. This is not a parable. This is Jesus speaking of a literal event that will take place at the consummation of the ages, the last of time. Verse 31 (page 984, Matthew 25) says, When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, He will sit on His throne in Heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on His right and the goats on His left. Then the King will say to those on His right, Come, you who are blessed by My Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For you gave a lot of offering in the offering plate; you never missed a Sunday; you memorized all kinds of Scripture; and you were perceived to be holy by everyone around you. Is that what He says? No. He says, For I was hungry and you gave Me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited Me in, I needed clothes and you clothed Me, I was sick and you looked after Me, I was in prison and you came to visit Me. Then the righteous will answer Him, Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You something to drink? When did we see You a stranger and invite You in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you? The King will reply, I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for Me. Then He turns to the others and says, Whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for Me. Jesus identifies love for Him and service for Him where meeting-not only the spiritual needs-but the physical needs of people who are around us. We minister in Dominican Republic not only to the spiritual needs of the people, but we minister to their physical needs. We built homes; we repaired walls. The church there was just finishing their water filtration system. [They now are] distributing water at a fraction of the cost for the people in the village to buy. [We are] starting schools, establishing clinics. Ministries like Doug and Jan Welborn in Mexico who we support, the Voice of Love… People are taken by shysters all the time. They think theyre filing the right paperwork and paying the right amounts of money [to get out of the country] only to find out theyve been taken to the cleaners. Theyre turned away from the border, and theyre sent back to Mexico with no money, no clothing, and no food. Doug and Jan take them in, and they give them a bed. They give them food and they pray with them. They read Scripture with them, and they share the love of Christ with them. They say, Heres why we are doing this. Its a package deal. Its part of the ministry of the church. We see the suffering around us. One woman was so upset, she said, Lord, I dont understand all the suffering. Why dont You do something about the pain and heartache thats in the world? God responded back and He said, I did. I created you. To the least of these… That man we saw in the video was one of the least of these. He was a statistic. He was one of the five to seven that would die in the streets that night from exposure to the cold. He was a man who was homeless, a man without a job, a man who was an alcoholic. He was a consumer of society. People by the hundreds drove by in their cars as he slept there on that sidewalk. People by the dozens walked by him, and one person said, You know what? I cant save them all, but I can save this one. I can save this life. People matter to God; they should matter to us. This command, this admonition from Jesus, is a call to action to the church that we should be about more than what were doing now. Dont worry, listen: Before I gave you this message, Id already been convicted of the Holy Spirit. I figure if Im going to be miserable, you might as well be miserable with me. Well be miserable together. The goal isnt to walk out of here and say, Boy, I tell you, Im not doing all I should do or can do. The goal is that we leave this place with the determination to do more than we are doing. Thats what the church is about. Theres this misconception-and I dont know where it started from, but I do know it didnt start from the Scripture-this idea that the church hires the pastor; the pastor goes in the hospitals; the pastor goes in the prisons; the pastor goes in the nursing homes; the pastor goes into the homes and visits the sick; the pastor does all of these things, and we pay him to do it. We cheer him on, and we encourage him, and if hes not doing the job, we fire him and we hire somebody who will do the job. Basically, were spectators while the pastor or the pastors-depending on how big the church is-do the work in the ministry. Its kind of like watching the football game: 60,000 people who desperately need to exercise watching 22 men who desperately need rest. Its a spectator sport. Christianity is not meant to be a spectator sport. The church is not meant to be a place of spectators. Its meant to be a place of ministers. The Apostle Paul, in the Book of Ephesians 4:11 (page 1158 of pew Bibles), talked about the fact that the Holy Spirit gives gifts to the church. Those gifts are in the form of people. He says, …some are apostles; some are prophets; some are evangelists, and some are pastors and teachers… Why are they here? Why did God give them to the Body of Christ? It says, …to prepare Gods people thats you, for what? …for works of service that the Body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. When you enter into this aspect of ministry, you become more like Christ. You grow, and you become mature. You start to understand what its about. The church is the place where I and the other ministers equip you to be ministers. Thats what its about. You are called by God to be a minister. Youre called to do works of service. You are called to be servants. The church is the place where you come when youve been serving, and youre tired. You can get that shot in the arm, get that encouragement. You need instruction; you can get that instruction. You need correction; you can get that correction. You need a place to rest; you can get that rest. Thats what we are. Were not about being spectators. My wife and I have the parenting philosophy that one of the things we wanted to do was give our children opportunities to see our country. We wanted to do the Disneyworld vacation, and we did do that, but we also wanted to do trips where our children were learning about our great nation and about our history. So, weve taken many such vacations. In fact, my daughter was in class when the teacher said, Heres the Liberty Bell. Every time theyd show something, shed say, Oh, Ive been there. Ive seen that. Finally, they asked her, Well, Lindsey, is there any place you havent been? because weve been around. One of the trips I wanted to take was to New York City. We booked our flight in the year 2001. We were supposed to go to the Macys Parade and Broadway and see some of the historic sites. When the terrorist attack came, I was leaning strongly towards canceling the flight and thought wed just do something else. Do you remember the paranoia that existed? It was at an alert at that time because you were afraid of your plane being next. Certainly, New York City is a target for terrorists. So I thought what if while we were there at the parade or in the Empire State Building, terrorists came and attacked again? What if they have a bomb this time? What if they high jacked our plane? These are very real fears, and maybe they diminish a little bit each year, but theyre still actually very strong in the minds and hearts of most Americans. Thats a good thing; we should be on the alert. We decided we would keep our flight. We would go on vacation to New York. We had one of our most enjoyable family vacations there. We saw the parade, we went to Broadway and saw Beauty and the Beast, and did some fun things. Now, we were going to take care of the educational part of our trip. We decided we would go to Ground Zero. This is now the Thanksgiving after 9-11. This was over two months past the 9-11 events, yet it is still smoking. Every 15 minutes, they still had to use their hoses and spray water at various points of the wreckage. The day we went there was the first day that the grounds were open for the public to view. Prior to that, it had been barricaded off. This particular day, the day after Thanksgiving, you were allowed to go right up to the edge of that block. There was still a barrier, a perimeter, around it. Sometimes it was plywood; sometimes it was fencing; sometimes it was big plastic sheets. We could peek around and see the devastation. It looked like a bomb had gone off. It was so strange, so surreal, to see the largest city in America looking like a battleground. Smelling that and seeing the workers working… Right there at Ground Zero, right adjacent near Wall Street, near all of this action, there stands a church. The church is called St. Pauls Chapel. Its an arm of the Trinity Church which was the church featured in the movie National Treasure, if youve seen that with Nicolas Cage. Its a very historic church. This church was established in 1766; so before Washington was sworn in as our first President, this church was there. Its the oldest, continuously-operated public facility in New York. In fact, this was George Washingtons church. We didnt get to go in it, but it showed the pew where Washington used to sit. It shows where Jefferson used to sit; heres where Hamilton is buried. It was the church where George Washington did his first inaugural address. Its a very historic building. It had been transformed into something quite different after the events of 9-11. This church is amazing for not only its history but also because of its survivability. The great fire of the Revolutionary War that wiped out much of Manhattan did not affect this little chapel. The falling of the Towers in its backyard [did not affect this church]. The only thing that happened to St. Pauls Chapel was it suffered a broken window. The pastor thought, looking at the buildings destroyed all around it, it would be down to the ground. It only had one broken pane and glass in the entire building. There was one hurting sycamore tree though. That [tree] absorbed the brunt of the debris. There stood the church. For 24 hours a day, week after week, month after month, St. Pauls Chapel was open as a place to minister to the ministers. Firefighters were working around the clock; policemen were working around the clock; medical workers working around the clock; and can you imagine the toll it takes not only on your body, but on your spirit and on your emotions. Youre cleaning up not only debris, but every so often as you were clearing debris, you would encounter a victim of 9-11. You would encounter remains; you would encounter body parts. Can you imagine the toll that would take on those people? So when they were hungry, when they were just too tired or exhausted, or when their spirits were crushed, they would leave the worksite and would go into St. Pauls Church. They would lie down on the pews. They would have a hot meal. There were massage therapists there to massage aching joints. There were counselors there to listen to them as they talked about their grief, their depression. Theyd lost friends in that building; theyd lost coworkers in that building. Ministers were there and would pray to them. After they spent a period of time there, after theyd had a nice hot meal, they would walk back out the church through the barrier and into the worksite to continue on with their good work. Friends, that is the church. Thats what the church is supposed to be. We are designed to minister to the ministers. You are called to minister, so you minister. When you minister, you get tired. [When] you come here, we give you a good meal. We encourage you in the Word of God. We remind you of why youre in the fight. Then you go back into your world, and you serve. If youre on the front lines, and some of you are on the front lines of ministry, you get tired. You need rest sometimes. They would gather in that building, and theyd talk together about what they were going through and how they were struggling. Theyd encourage one another too, and then theyd go back out. Thats what the church does. Thats what happens in our small groups, in our support groups, in our friendships. We encourage one another. Then we go back out into the world, and we serve the Lord because being a servant is tiresome work. If youre listening to me this morning, and youre saying, Well, I dont feel tired. I dont feel burned out. I dont ever feel discouraged, my question to you is, Are you engaged in the things Christ called you to be engaged in? Are you involved in service at the level that God has called you to serve? Maybe you need to be challenged this morning to understand what it means to be a champion for God and a hero for God. Maybe you need to be determined to make some changes in your personal life because its overwhelming when you see the needs in our community, when you see the needs in the world. You say, I cant help everyone, so [in turn] we help no one. Say, like that little boy, I can help this one, or like that woman, I can help this person. I want us to watch a media right now on one of the greatest people who lived. She walked our world. Listen as Dan Rather describes the ministry of Mother Teresa. (You can preview a clip at this site: http://www.screenvue.com/Pages/Scene%20Preview.aspx?scene={291F351E-D148-499F-AC13-04FFE728156D} Lets watch. That quote reminds me of the doctor at the leprosarium when we were in the Dominican Republic. I had an opportunity to lay my hands on him as our group prayed for him. He talked about ministering to the lepers. He said, When I see them, I look at the face of Christ. I will die here, serving Christ by ministering to these people who so desperately need love. So its an overwhelming feeling sometimes. I dont want you to leave overwhelmed this morning. I want you to leave either with a plan of action, to begin a plan of action, or to be encouraged in the plan of action youre already in. When I was 18 years old, thats when I began to be serious about my faith. I had a job, and the Lord began to impress upon me. I just want to talk about some practical things we can do [to serve]. The Lord began to impress upon me to help the poor. At age 18, I began to sponsor a child in Haiti named Dominique Gilberet. Every month at that time, the sponsorship was $18, and I would send him $18. I watched him grow up from the age of 9 all the way through, I think, the age of 21. [We received] the letters about how much our support meant to him. Every month, wed get letters from a little girl in Tanzania and a little boy in Peru that would tell about how much our family support meant to them. Were heroes to them because our gifts enable them to go to school and to receive medical attention, to have food. You can do that. You could sponsor a child. You can become engaged in ministries here at the church. One of the ministries Im excited about-we go into nursing homes-is coming up in the near future. Many churches in Janesville are linking arms. It started at St. John Vianney on Christmas Eve. Then it went to Roxbury Road. Eventually, it will come here. Its a ministry to the homeless men. We have a homeless shelter in town for women and families. Ive spent many a night there ministering with those folks and volunteering out there. Thats a very worthwhile ministry, but [single] men arent allowed to stay there. So where do the homeless men go? Well, churches are opening up, and this ministry will be starting in the spring. That might be something youll want to help out with. For one week, they will be staying here. They get here between 7-10 PM, and they have to leave by 8 AM. We will provide a meal for them when they get here, breakfast when they leave, [and send them off with] a sack lunch. Two people from our church will stay all night with them. Wal-Mart provides the beds. We provide the shelter. Theyll probably be staying in the new section of our building for that week. You could help with that ministry. [There are other] ministries such as Echo, the Salvation Army, and buying groceries to put in those bins as you come into our church. When we are go on our missions trip, which is only a year and a half away, that will involve humanitarian assistance as well. There are trips people take as individuals. Brandt Uppencamp returned recently from visiting his sponsor child. Take initiative. Volunteer and say, You know what? I can contribute in some way. I want to close our service with prayer. I want to pray for those of us who need to have direction. We say, I know I can do more. I know I can use my gifts to serve Christ. Maybe Ive seen today-theres been an awakening-just how important this is to Jesus. Maybe I have been so self-absorbed and so consumed with myself, I have not thought about how blessed I am and how important it is to serve humanity, so I want to do more. You need direction. I also would like to pray for those who already are engaged in ministry. There are some times you just need rest. I think of my wife as she comes home every Sunday from ministering in Monterey. Sometimes shes discouraged, and she just needs me to encourage her. Sometimes shes tired, and she just needs to rest. We can pray for you for God to give you that strength. Lets stand together. Im going to ask if there are those this morning who would respond to a possible ministry. You say, You know, I can do more. I should be doing more, but Im just not sure what it is I should be doing. Im going to ask you to come forward. Our team is going to be playing a song here. I just want you to come forward and stand right here. In a few moments, were going to pray for you. Nothing weird is going to happen. Were just going to pray a prayer of dedication for you. If youre here this morning, and you say, I just need an encouragement. I need God to strengthen me because Im a little tired or a little discouraged, Id like you to come too. Those of you who remain in your seats, understand that those who come forward arent more spiritual than you. Were not saying that. Feel free to just stay in your seats. We want to pray a special prayer of dedication to the ministers who need ministering to and for those of us who are just seeking Gods purpose in a greater dimension than regards to servanthood. As this song is played, would you come forward if you need that special prayer?
Well, were starting a new series this morning called Heroes. Well be talking about finding the hero within us. By the way, I want to thank the Vegter family for their good sportsmanship here, especially for Brian-Mr. Incredible-for working with that. I love that poster, and I just think its genius. Would you open your Bibles up to Judges 6, please? I dont know about you… I cant speak for the ladies out here, but for the guys…All the guys in this room at some point or another fanaticized about being a hero. I know I sure had my fair share of that. I remember putting on a mask, getting a cape, making a utility belt [and looking just] like Superman. I remember pretending I could fly and jumping off the couch. [I remember] just being a superhero and saving the world for hours, until Brenda (Pastor Jeffs wife) said, Thats enough! Youre too old for that! (Congregation laughing) She spoiled the fun; she doesnt understand. We try to be a hero. We want to save the world. My first exposure to superheroes was Superman, the black and white version-the guy who bounced bullets off his chest; yet, when you threw the pistol at him, he had to duck-that guy. Remember him? I remember Superman being so cool. He was always on his game. He never had a bad fight, never an untimely word; [he] was always there on time; [he] did the job; he loved being a superhero. He was like goody two-shoes perfection, squeaky clean-you know, the hero. Well, thats not you, and thats not me. Thats not what were striving for today. Were not trying to be the superhero that never makes a mistake and always does the job. There was another superhero that I really identified with. He was a teenager. He didnt fit in at school; he was a nerd, a geek. There was a guy named Flash who used to pick on him all the time. In fact, he beat him up. His aunt told him what to do all the time. He had glasses. He obtained these super powers, and he really didnt want them. He was reluctant, but Grandpa always said, With great power comes great responsibility. I could identify with Spidey. When Stan Lee brought the idea for Spiderman to his boss at Marvel Comics, the guy said, No way! First of all, spiders are creepy. Nobody wants to be a spider. Second of all, nobody wants a superhero who is depressed, who struggles with life, cant get a girl, doesnt have big muscles, lives with his aunt: nobody wants a superhero like that. Nobody wants a vulnerable superhero. It turned out, he couldnt have been more wrong, right? They said no, and then in the last issue of Amazing Fantasy, Stan Lee sort of snuck him in without permission. It was a big hit, and you know the rest of the story. People identify with Spiderman more than we do with Superman. We identify with a guy who struggles with life; who sometimes makes wrong choices; who struggles with wanting to quit; who is just a human being-only hes been gifted with these powers that he doesnt necessarily want. Real life does not always match up to our idealized self-who we think we should be, who we think we could be, and who we desire to be. When I was in grade school, I thought there was a conspiracy. I felt like my teachers all got together and corroborated what to put on my report card because second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth grade [they would write], Jeff is a good boy, but hes not working up to his potential. I just figured they all got together and said, Well, heres what I said last year. Use it if you want to. How come they all write the same thing about me? Whats potential anyway? What they were saying was hes a smart boy, but he doesnt try. He is apathetic toward school, and that was the truth. I didnt try. What about you this morning? Are you living up to your potential? Are you all that you think you could be for God? Are you all that you think God desires you to be? Are you accomplishing everything He created you to accomplish? Are you fulfilling the purpose and mission for which He created you? What do you think today? Are you living up to your potential? Do you have room for improvement in your life today? How many of you think you can improve a little bit-you have some room? Let me see your hands. Okay, so Im talking to the right crowd. So, whats it going to take to get that potential out of you? Whats it going to take to motivate you? Do you know what it was for me? It was a good swift kick in the seat. In seventh grade, I had a teacher named Mr. Trotter. Mr. Trotter was my biology teacher. Like normal, I was doing an average to a below-average job in his class. I didnt really care. One day, I felt like I received an unjust mark on a test. I thought I should have received a C instead of a C- sort of thing. I raised my hand to object to what was on my paper, Mr. Trotter! Mr. Trotter! I stated my case, and basically the gist of what he said was what do you care? You dont try. That embarrassed me. It also made me angry. I remember saying, Ill show you, Mr. Trotter. Ill show you I can try. So, I began applying myself and began receiving good grades. Then I began to discover that getting As and Bs is a whole lot more fun that Cs and Ds. I [found] I could do the work; I wasnt dumb. I worked harder and I got good grades. That change lasted all the way through middle school, high school, college, and graduate school. I earned good grades because I tried. I had the same mind; I had the same abilities, but I wasnt living up to my potential until somebody kicked me in the pants. This morning is going to be a seat-kicker sermon. For some of you, its just a good wake-up call kind of a sermon that says-Im not going to call you out by name like Mr. Trotter did. Im not going to pull you out in front of the congregation and say, You could be doing more! Thats not going to happen. Were going to see an example of a man who definitely was not living up to his potential. Lets turn our Bibles to the Book of Judges 6. Joshua has passed away. Israel is in a world of hurt. Theyre going through the cyclical pattern called the time of the judges. Theyd fall into sin; then theyd pray to God; God would bring a judge or deliverer. Things would go well for a while, and then he or she would die. Then theyd fall back into these same patterns-this cyclical pattern. Now that Joshua is gone; theyre like people without a shepherd. Theres no king; theres no leader. So, they struggle. They had just come through a very wonderful time-40 years of living for God under the leadership of Deborah and Barak. This is not Barack Obama; this is a different Barak. Deborah and Barak provided great leadership; and now that they were gone, Israel fell back into this pattern of idolatry. A prophet is sent by God. They pray; they cry out to God, and a prophet comes. He says, Look, heres the problem. The problem is youve forsaken the Lord, your God. The problem is youre following after the Gods of the Amorites, the Jebusites, Hittites, Midianites, and all the other ites around there, and God has not called you to do that. God is expecting better things from you. Right now, youre reaping what youve sown. You need to get your act together. There was a group of people called the Midianites who were harassing, intimidating, and bullying the Israelites. They were like the high school bully or the grade school bully that comes to you, looks in your lunch, and he says, What have you got there, jerk? He starts picking through it, and he takes all the Ho Hos, Ding Dongs, and cookies-all the good stuff. Whatever he wants [he takes], and he just ransacks your lunch and steals your lunch money. He pushes you around a little bit. He bullies and intimidates you, so you dont even want to go to the lunch room anymore because youre afraid youre going to find that guy. You look for any other place in the school or on the campus to eat your lunch because this guy is going to ransack and pillage your stuff. Thats [what] the Midianites [were like]. As soon as Israel would grow a crop, they would come in and take it all. Theyd raise livestock. The Midianites would come in and take the livestock. [They] just bullied and pushed. Economically, Israel struggled because they were out-manned and out-numbered by this civilization called the Midianites. They cry out to God, and God is going to raise up a deliverer. He is not going to be your typical superhero. When its time to apply for superheroes, Gideon is not going to be on list. Gideon is an average guy. In fact, on the social economic scale, hes the bottom of the barrel. He is young; his family is poor; and he is the least in his family. He is a man nobody really knows; he is man who is not of the military at all; he has had no experience in leadership. Yet, God is going to pick him to lead Israel out of this time of bondage. We pick up the story in Verse 11 (of Judges 6, page 239 of pew Bibles), The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah… Weve had Barak, and now we have Ophrah. This is kind of a democratic service here today, ha? …that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite… I struggle with this word; Ive even looked it up in Hebrew, and I still struggle. You probably do too. …where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. So he is hiding where they cant see him. When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon… By the way, wherever it says the angel of the Lord, youre always going to notice it seems like after a while, people start talking like theyre talking to God and not talking to an angel. Youll see that all the way through the Old Testament-when it says the angel of the Lord…When it says an angel, you dont see this, but when it says the angel of the Lord, youll see that person refer to that angel as the Lord, as Jehovah, every time. Thats because many scholars feel that this is a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ, a theophany, a physical manifestation of God in the world. Im not saying thats so, but Im just saying there are many scholars who think that way. Anyway, before you distracted me, we were here in Verse 12, When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, The Lord is with you, mighty warrior. This has to be where De Niro got his inspiration for his character in Taxi Driver. You remember that part where he ad-libs in the movie where hes looking in the mirror? Its not in the script. Gideon is probably the first one to go, You talking to me? Mighty warrior, are you talking to me? I dont see anybody around. You must be talking to [someone else]. Are you talking to me? Me? Mighty warrior? Gideon is thinking, You have the wrong guy! Mighty warrior? I am hiding in a winepress because Im afraid of the bad guy. The angel doesnt have the wrong guy. Gideon speaks. He says, But sir, Gideon replied, if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all His wonders that our fathers told us about when they said, Did not the Lord bring us out of Egypt? But now the Lord has abandoned us and put us into the hand of Midian. Has the Lord abandoned him? No. Has the Lord put them in the hands of the Midianites? No. They did it themselves. They abandoned God. Theyre simply reaping the consequences of their poor decisions. Sometimes you and I make poor decisions, and then we blame God for the outcome. Not you, but the 11 oclock service… No, but they get all upset like this is Your fault, God, that I am the way I am or that this has happened to me in my life. Did Gideon sound to you like hes a man of great faith? No, hes not. Hes rather skeptical. Hes rather pessimistic about God. He sees God as a God who abandoned him. He sees God as a God who has shirked his responsibility. He sees God as a God who is not trustworthy. Isnt it peculiar that God would tap a guy like that on the shoulders and say, Im going to use you? Thats strange, isnt it? Gideon is saying, You know, look around you. We are just an oppressed people. This is the way its always going to be. When we do not live up to our potential, we have to ask first why not. One of the first reasons you come up with… When you say, I cant be a hero for God. I cant be a champion for God. I cant do this or that, its because your circumstances dictate otherwise. You look around at your circumstances, and you think, Well, look at my life! Look at where Im at! Look at my surroundings! Look at whats going on in my country! Look whats going on in my church! Look whats going on in my family! Look whats happening in my school! Look whats going on in my workplace. Instead of focusing on God and His promise, you focus on the circumstances around you which change and fluctuate, but God does not. Through the whole story, God is going to try to get Gideons attention and say, Dont look at your circumstances, Gideon. Dont look at your situation. That will change, but I dont. Sometimes you and I do not live up to our potential, do not become all we can be in God because instead of looking at God and His promises, we look at our circumstances. Frankly, were rather skeptical or rather pessimistic. Because of the way things are, we think maybe thats the way they always will be. Thats not true. God doesnt buy the excuse at all. The response says, The Lord turned to him and said, Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midians hand. Am I not sending you? Save Israel. You, Gideon, are going to save Israel. Gideon, with no military experience, youre going to save Israel. Gideon says, But Lord, Gideon asked, how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family. Do you know another reason why not? We dont live up to our potential because we think we just dont have what it takes. Were not good enough; were not smart enough; were not talented enough; were not motivated enough; were not energetic enough. You look at yourself, and you say, I fall short. Look at his resume. Youre sending out a resume for a hero, someone who can deliver a country from oppression. God looks at all the applicants, right? He looks over the whole land, and then Gideons resume comes into His hands. He says, Gideon, young Gideon, background: poorest in the poorest family; youngest in the weakest family. Military experience? None. Leadership experience? None. Level of faith? Weak. Outlook on life? Pessimistic. Current situation: Hiding in fear from the bully. God looks at that resume, and He says, This one looks good. This is the guy I choose to lead My people. Thats not logical, is it? Have you noticed how it seems like every time God taps somebody on the shoulder and says, I pick you, he or she says, Me? You have the wrong person! Im not this. Im not that. Im not old enough. I dont speak well. There are all these excuses. Did you notice that God never picked somebody, tapped him or her on the shoulder, and said, I choose you, and he or she said, About time. Thats right. Youre lucky to have me on Your side. Im the man. Im the woman for this job. It doesnt happen because it says, God opposes the proud, and He gives grace to the humble. So, if youre using the excuse, the second excuse, that you just dont have what it takes, I just dont have what it takes. Im not smart enough. Im not talented enough; Im not this, Im not that, God looks at you and says, Exactly. Exactly. You are the person Im looking for. If you are humble in spirit, willing to step out in faith, allow God to live through you and minister truth through you, touch lives through you, though you have these shortcomings, you are exactly who God is looking for. So, you cant use that excuse. God uses the weak; God uses the humble-not the proud, not the strong. Gideon, youre the man for the job. Well, Gideon shows us a little bit about himself. It says, The Lord answered, I will be with you… God doesnt accept that excuse, the excuse of self-doubt. He says, …you will strike down all the Midianites together. Gideon replied, If now I have found favor in Your eyes, give me a sign that it is really You talking to me. Apparently, the sign of the angels appearance is not good enough for Gideon. [Imagine] youre in your room tonight, and God sends an angel who appears in your room. The angel says, I have a mission from God, and God wants you to do this or that. Are you going to look at the angel and say, Yeah, I just need a sign. If I could just have a sign… The angel might say, Well, hey? Isnt this good enough? Physical manifestation, audible voice, directly from heaven, just left His presence… What do you say? Yeah, I just need a sign. Gideons going to need many signs before its through. Gideon is going to encounter more obstacles. Gideon is going to encounter the third reason-or the third excuse-you and I dont live up to our potential in just a little while. That is that others let me down. I cant do it because others let me down; because I got burned; because when I count on people; they dont follow through. They may not follow through, they may let you down, but what in the world does that have to do with you? What does that have to do with what God called you to do or say or be? Nothing, absolutely nothing. Others can give up, quit, and surrender, but you dont have to. You stay the course. Gideon assembles his army of 32,000 untrained men. They dont have a leader; [they] havent had a leader. They finally do get a leader, and hes untrained. Theyre under-manned, so there are over 100,000 highly-trained specialized Midianite warriors, and they have 32,000 guys they just pulled together. Gideon has to give a speech because God looked at those 32,000 guys, and He said, There are too many men. Youre already out-numbered 10 to 1, and God says, Too many. Gideon obeys God. He says, Give a speech. Those who are afraid can go home. Those who are not can stay and fight, so Gideon gives his best brave heart speech. Theyll take away our lives, but never our freedom. Hes like, Whos with me? Im sure you want to stay! Im sure youre not going to abandon God; youre not going to abandon me! If God can use me, God can use you! Im sure you understand. Youre tired of being bullied! Whos with me? Hes talking to this crowd, and finally he says, If youre afraid, you can go, though Im sure youre not. Twenty-two thousand people leave. Talk about being let down by others. Im counting on you a hundred percent to stay! and 22,000 people leave. More than two-thirds of the people leave. He is just let down. Do you just quit? Do you give up? Theres no way youre going to defeat the armies of the Midianites with 10,000 men. Gideons frustrated. God looks down and says, Still too many men. Yeah, thats what I was thinking, You know. Too many guys. God says, You can take them to the stream, and theyre going to drink. Youre going to separate them from those who get down like a dog and drink and those who get down on one knee and sip the water. Youre going to put them in a separate group. So he was like, Okay, you go over here. You have one knee down; you go over here. When its all done, there are 300 guys over here, and there are 9,700 over here. Gideon looks at that, and he says, You know Id like to have all 10,000, but Im going to lose 300. Thats not as bad as it could be. Its a lot better than losing 9,700 guys. God says, Yeah, send them home. Keep the 300. With the 300, I will deliver you from the hand of the Midianites. Gideon doesnt want to let them go. They dont want to go, but he sends them home. God, with 300 men, delivers the army of Israel from the Midianites. Read the story when you get home. Its a cool story. Gideon learned something before the battle. Look at Verse 15 of Chapter 7. He had just finished spying on the camp that night, the night before they were going to attack. It says, When Gideon heard the dream and its interpretation, he worshiped God. He returned to the camp of Israel and called out, Get up! The Lord has given the Midianite camp into your hands. Do you see there? What did Gideon learn? Its not about you, Gideon. Its not about depending on others, Gideon. Its not about your circumstances because your circumstances are more dismal now than ever. Its about God. Its about allowing God to work in you and through you. Gideon learns that lesson. What a contrast between Gideon hiding in the winepress from the bullies to Gideon ready to have 300 men take on an entire highly-trained army of warriors. God doesnt buy his excuses. What if youre here today, and you say, You know, I havent lived the excuses. Ive obeyed what God has told me to do. Ive gone where Hes called me to go. Ive said what Hes called me to say. Im not seeing the results. Im not seeing everything that was promised. Im not seeing everything that was expected. What do I do? Do I call it quits? To answer that, I want us to turn to the Book of Genesis 12 (page 11 of pew Bibles). A man named Abram is living there. Hes been living in the same spot his family has for generations. Hes at the stage in life when you kick back a little bit, not work as hard and enjoy your remaining days; but God has other plans for Abram. In Verse 1, The Lord had said to Abram, Leave your country, your people and your fathers household… Leave everything youve known, everything that is familiar, everything that is comfortable to you, …and go to the land I will show you. Its one thing to leave everything youve known your whole life. Its another thing to do that at an old age, and its another thing to do that by going to another country you dont even know about. It would have been an interesting dinner table conversation that night with his wife, Im sure. …I will make you a great nation… Now, understand, he doesnt have a son. He doesnt have an heir with his wife. …I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you, I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you. Thats quite a promise: All peoples on earth, all people everywhere. Hes talking here about the future, isnt He? Because, obviously its going to take a long time if you have one guy. When He talks about nations, obviously its a promise thats going to outlive Abram by a long shot. All those nations will be blessed by his seed. He doesnt understand that what God is saying here is a prophesy. The Messiah will come from his lineage. The Messiah will be a direct descendent of Abraham. So Abraham left. He did what the Lord told him. He took Lot, his nephew, with him. Abraham was 75 years old when he set out from Haran. How old was he? Seventy five, seventy five years old. I want you to remember that because you might have missed that when you heard this story before. You may not have caught what I am about to share with you. Maybe you did, and thats great, but I want you to turn to Chapter 17 (of Genesis, page 14). Abraham, this great man of faith, this man who is the first one who is saved by faith: He is the first one whose righteousness is imputed to because of his faith in Genesis Chapter 15. Hes not only the father of Israel; he is the father of faith. He is a key figure in the Scriptures. We pick up his story in Chapter 17, and were going to find out how much time has passed. When Abram was ninety-nine years old… How old? Ninety nine. How old was he the first time he received a call? Seventy five. Now, theyre not expecting yet, but they will be soon. When Abrahams son is born, hes 100 years old. You do the math. One hundred minus 75: how long did Abraham wait before God fulfilled his promise? A quarter of a century. You get upset when God doesnt answer your prayers in two weeks. You get upset when you dont see the results you desire in two months. Maybe Ive missed God. Maybe Gods not there. Maybe God doesnt understand! You become all frustrated and bent. Abraham receives the promise for 25 years; nothing happens! Its abnormal to come home to your wife when youre 90 years old and say, Any news? Is the strip blue? Are you pregnant? Thats just not normal. Its not normal to be walking around an older woman with a baby. She thought that was humorous. She said, Everybody is going to laugh at me. God has a sense of humor too. He says, His name will be Isaac. Laughter. You can be reminded of this incredible story. So God reiterates the promise to Abraham. Hes expanded it and says, Not only will you be the father of a nation, Im going to change your name to Abraham because youll be the father of many nations. Your decedents will be as the sand of the seashore. Because you have been faithful, Abraham, I will enlarge your responsibility. What do you do if youve done everything Gods called you to do, and youre not seeing the results youre expecting? You stay faithful. You persevere. You obey, and God will reward. Because its not about numbers; its not about earthy success; its about faithfulness and obedience. Thats how you become a hero for God. Dont let those excuses stand in your way. Self doubt-you wonder whether others will let you down, if they have let you down, or whatever your circumstances are. Some of you have been looking for signs like Gideon. Give me a sign. God gave you a sign. You say, God, give me another sign. He gives you another sign. Give me another sign. Its time to stop looking for signs, and its time to get busy. Lets pray together, and well receive communion: Father, we thank You this morning for an opportunity to study an important life. There have been times we have been like Gideon. There have been times weve needed sign after sign when Youve given enough signs. There have been times when weve used excuses of our circumstances. [Weve] looked around us, and weve said, No way. A leader doesnt do that. A leader doesnt allow circumstances to dictate our actions and attitudes. Youve called us to persevere regardless of the doubts we have. The truth is we all have self-doubts. We all have shortcomings, but You are able to use us in spite of those. The truth of the matter is others have let us down, and they will-just as we will let down others, but that has absolutely nothing to do with the call, the purposes, Youve placed on our lives. I pray that we together would strive to live up to the potential that Youve placed within us-the call and purposes that Youve put in our lives and our hearts. [I pray] that wed be like Abraham, that wed be faithful one decade, two decades, half of another decade. And even with no resolve, he did not abandon the mission, and he never gave up hope that You would answer. Help us to be people like Abraham. Now when we receive communion we think of our hero who faced the cross, who faced everything the world had to give-every temptation and more. [He] experienced the pain of the cross and not just the pain of the nails, the weight of His body against those nails, the struggle to breathe but the weight of sin that was placed upon Him. He did that willingly. In the Garden of Gethsemane, they came to arrest Him. It says, Knowing all these things were coming upon Him, He went forth, and He said to them, Whom do you seek? They said to Him, Jesus of Nazareth. He said, I am. You went without a fight. You endured their trial; you endured the beating. You did not fight as they stripped You of Your robes. You did not pull back Your hand as it went to be nailed to the cross. You fought the battle, and You took on the cause of sin and death to redeem a fallen mankind. You are our hero, Lord Jesus. Because of what You have done, we want to lay down our lives for You, to be all that we can become for You. In Jesus name, I pray. Amen. As the ushers distribute the communion, just hold on to the elements until weve all received. Were going to use this time for quiet reflection, meditation, and prayer. Maybe there are some things that youre struggling with. Maybe you need to say, God, here are some excuses Ive had that have been holding me back. I need to lay those excuses down today. Maybe its a time to just thank Him for being your hero, for being your leader-your champion. Whatever that is, just spend a time of prayer and meditation, and then together well receive of the Lords supper. If youre here this morning, and youre a first-time visitor-new to our church-if youre a believer in the Lord, Jesus Christ, you are welcome to participate. Youre one of us; youre part of our family, the Body of Christ. Im reading from 1 Corinthians 11:23 (page 1136 of pew Bibles). The Apostle Paul writes these words to the church. He says, For I receive from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night He was betrayed, took bread. When He had given thanks, He broke it and said, This is My body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of Me. In the same way after supper, He took the cup, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this whenever you drink it in remembrance of Me. Remembering His broken body and His shed blood, lets receive together of the bread and of the cup this morning. Are we onboard? Are you going to commit yourself these next few weeks to reaching the potential, being a person who desires to live your whole life wholeheartedly for the things of God? Let me see your hands. All right, lets do it together. Go in His name. God bless you, and thank you for being here this morning.
We have been on Luke for a long time. As youre finding Luke 8, I want you to think about something here. As you look at the life of Jesus, you see Him deal with all the things human beings deal with. You see Him becoming hungry; you see Him thirsty; you see Him tired; you see Him tempted. You see Him deal with a range of human emotions that you and I face. You see Jesus angry when He cleanses the temple, when He deals with the hardness of heart of the Pharisee. Hes angry. We see Him grapple with the emotion of sorrow and sadness as He reflects on the death of his friend Lazarus-as He laments over Jerusalem having rejected Him, while He prays in the Garden of Gethsemane. The Greek uses the strongest word for sorry there is. We know He was happy. He was a man who went to weddings, feasts, and festivals. We know He celebrated life, so joy and happiness was an emotion He exuded. One emotion you never see Jesus deal with, never see Him encounter-a very human emotion you never see Him have…Do you know what it is? Fear. You never see Him afraid. Even though He is in a fearful situation, twice in asserting His deity, they tried to stone Him. You see Him threatened; you see Him in the Garden, and theyre coming to arrest Him. That should cause fear, right? But instead, He goes to meet them and find them. They dont find Him. We see Him willingly go to the cross. Jesus is encountering these intensely fearful situations, and yet, there is a calm demeanor. There is a peace about Him. Even in the midst of the storm were going to face here, we dont see the fear. Why is that? Were going to talk about why that is today and how we can have just a taste of what Jesus had. We know that fear is normal; fear is something we will have the rest of our lives. Were not going to say, Okay, well listen to this sermon, and well never have fear again. No, thats not true. Fear is a part of our experience. Sometimes, fear is a healthy thing. There are some fears that are good fears. Were not talking about those. Were not talking this morning about phobias or irrational fears. What we are talking about is living in habitual fear, perpetual fear. God does not want us to do that. In fact, no command was given more frequently than the command, Do not be afraid. God does not want you to live in a state of perpetual fear. So lets look at Luke 8 (page 1024 of pew Bibles) and see some principles that will help us as we struggle with fear. Verse 22, One day Jesus said to his disciples, Lets go over to the other side of the lake. So they got into a boat and set out. As they sailed, He fell asleep. A squall came down on the lake, so that the boat was being swamped, and they were in great danger. In other words, the boat was going to fill up with water, so it would become a submarine. Then, they would be out on the lake with no boat, no life preservers-because they werent invented yet, and it wouldnt matter how good of a swimmer you are, youd drown. When I was in Sweden, I read the obituary of my grandfather who was a wonderful swimmer; he drowned in a storm on a lake. It doesnt matter how good you are; youre going to perish. So, they are frightened. So they went and woke Him up and said, Master, Master, were going to drown! Although, it was probably something more like this: MASTER, MASTER!! WERE GOING TO DROWN!! Im guessing. He got up and rebuked the wind and raging waters; the storm subsided… Now, thats not what they expected. They expected maybe Hed say a prayer. Maybe, Hed help bail water, I dont know, but they certainly dont expect Him to speak to the elements. Yet, thats what He does. Im sure they certainly dont expect the elements to obey the sound of His voice instantaneously; yet thats what they do. It says immediately, all was calm. It had been raging life-threatening [waves]. He speaks the words, and immediately it was calm. Weve never experienced that in our day. Weve seen storms subside. Weve never seen it go from raging to calm in a moment, especially after somebody told it to. Theyre shocked. Jesus says to them in Verse 25, Where is your faith? He asked His disciples. In fear and amazement they asked one another, Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey Him. This morning, were going to look at three questions that are asked in this story; three questions that are probing; three questions we would do well to ask ourselves as we seek to endure storms and to calm fears in our lives. Two of the three questions are here. The first question is another account of this story that we find in Marks Gospel. So, keeping your place in Luke, I want you to momentarily turn to Mark 4. You know when two people tell a story, sometimes theyll give different emphasis, or theyll fill in gaps the other one doesnt say. Nothing in here contradicts Luke. Its just that Mark gives us additional information; he fills in some gaps of some things that were said that Luke does not tell us. Its a short story, so were going to read it a second time through. Verse 35 (page 994 of pew Bibles), That day when evening came, He said to His disciples, Let us go over to the other side. Leaving the crowd behind, they took Him along, just as He was, in the boat. There were also other boats with Him. A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, or the back of the boat, sleeping on a cushion. I want to pause right there for a second. I just want to conjecture a little bit here. When I read that, my first question I ask myself is how in the world do you sleep through that? Understand, Hes been tired from ministering. I know after my fourth time giving this sermon, when I get home, I eat lunch and I am tired. I cant imagine after the intense ministry experience Jesus went through how exhausted He must be. So, its not long before the rhythm of the boat on the water puts Him out, and Hes sleeping in the stern. Once the wind starts to blow, and the waves start to rock the boat, and the water comes crashing in, I would think He would wake up. Wouldnt you? Water is coming on you. It is wetting the cushion you are lying on. Grown men are screaming and crying out in fear. Its hard to sleep through that. I wonder, and I cant say for certain, but I wonder if Jesus isnt pulling one of those things our parents used to do to us. Do you know what I mean? When theyre lying on the couch, and one eye is open and one eye is closed while theyre watching to see what we do. Your parents ever do that to you? They were lying on the couch, and you thought they were sleeping, but theyre watching to make sure you dont touch what you werent supposed to touch. You werent doing what they said you shouldnt do. I wonder if Jesus is not in the stern of the boat, and they think Hes sleeping, but He has one eye on them. He is watching them to see how theyre going to react to this storm. Now, Marks going to give us some information here, as I said, that Luke does not. The disciples woke Him up and said, Teacher, dont You care if we drown? Thats a pretty intense question. Dont You care if we drown? He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, Quiet! Be still! Who was He talking to, they wondered? Hes talking to the sea. Hes talking to the waves. Then the wind died down, and it was completely calm. He said to His disciples, Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith? They were terrified and asked each other, Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey Him! The first question is found there in Verse 38, Teacher, dont You care? Dont you care? Its a question of apathy. Friends, you and I, most of us here have asked this question of God as weve encountered lifes storms. Weve said, God, dont You care? If You cared, You could so something about this storm. Why did You not prevent this storm from happening? or Why are You allowing this storm to linger so long? or Why are You allowing this storm to rage as intensely as it is? If You really cared, You would take it away. If You really cared, You would lessen its intensity. Is that not true? Lets get really brave this morning and ask the question, How many of you have ever asked God the question of apathy or pondered it in your heart, God, do You care? See, youre not alone. Three fourths of our hands went up here. You felt this in your spirit. I wonder if God really cares because why is He allowing this? There is fear, but theres also some animosity. Were confused, and we dont understand. What they didnt understand was even though it seemed like it was out of control, Jesus was in control. Even though it seemed like the storm was going to encompass them, Christ was not going to allow it. He knew He was greater than the storm. He knew if He said a word, the storm would subside. This week, I had a scare. My sister-in-law was in town, and my wife and I took her out to eat. While we were at the restaurant, I swallowed some food, but I didnt chew it well enough. It got stuck in my throat. This is different from the time that I overheated and my blood vessels constricted. I felt like I was going to faint. Some people asked, Didnt that happen to you another time? That was a different thing. This actually was the food being caught. It was stuck right here. I could feel it, and it hurt. I was having a hard time breathing because maybe there was a lack of oxygen in my body, and I started to hyperventilate. So, I stopped talking, and I started gasping. I was pointing to my chest and barely breathing. They asked, Have you got something caught? I kept trying to breathe and was patting my chest. I was looking at them like what do I do? I was afraid. Now I want you to know something about my wife. She is an intensive care nurse, so you pretty much have to be on deaths door before youre really going to get the time of day in regard to health matters. So she and my sister-in-law start cracking a joke about my condition. Im was upset, but I didnt have time to be upset because I was so afraid. I was trying to simply survive. I pointed to the water like do I drink the water? They were like, Yup, thats water. I was breaking out in a cold sweat. It hurt, and Im thinking if I keep swallowing, is it going to get lodged and I wont be able to breathe? Whats going to happen if I cant breathe? They were like, Just relax. Just stay calm. Slow down your breathing. They were trying to coach me. You have to understand something. The only thing worse than having this kind of thing happen when there is an intensive care nurse with you is when there are two intensive care nurses. My sister-in-law is also an intensive care nurse, so they were still cutting jokes back and forth. They were laughing! She said, Yes, drink the water. So, I took another drink of water. I felt it go down a little bit more. I took another drink of water, and then there was really a sharp pain. Then it went into my stomach. I took a deep breath, and I was like whoo. I could relax, and the pain was gone. I could breathe. I started to breathe and started to relax. I looked at those two, and I had some things to say. They sounded very similar to what these guys said. I said, Dont you care that Im choking to death over here? My sister-in-law says, You were still breathing. You were fine. As long as youre breathing, were not worried. I said, Well, what if I would have stopped breathing? She said, Then we would have done something. See, what you dont understand is these nurses, theyve dealt with patients who cant breathe, and they know exactly what to do. They know how to open their airways, so they were calm, cool, and collected while I was nervous for my life. Then, my sister-in-law says these words, and she doesnt say them jokingly. She was dead serious. She said, We were in control all the time. What did she mean by that? They knew exactly what was going on. They knew the fact that I could breathe meant my life wasnt threatened. She said, We were watching all the signs, the palms, the sweaty hands, the hyperventilation. Those are all normal things. We knew if you just relaxed and drank water, you would be okay. If you werent, we knew exactly what to do. Sometimes, you and I underestimate who is in our boat, dont we? We get all excited and say, Dont You know? Dont You care? Dont You understand were going to drown here? Im going to choke to death here. Jesus does not get in a dither. Im going to tell you something. If those two had gotten in a dither, I really would have been concerned, come to think about it. If those two would have said, Oh my! We need to act! then I really would have had fear. Jesus stands up, and He says, I think they forgot whom I am. Im in control. Im greater than the wind. Im greater than the waves. I know exactly what to do which leads us to the second question. The first was the question of apathy: do you care? His actions and His words showed that He did. The second question is a question of authenticity. Its asked by Jesus. He says, Where is your faith? Where is your faith? Is your faith really real? Does your faith count when it matters the most? Is your faith where it should be? Is it in the right place? Where is your faith? What are their alternatives? They have some. They could put their faith in their boat. They could put their faith in their possessions. Some of us do that. Do you know what? Possessions arent very reliable, just like that boat wasnt. That boat could have broken apart. The boat could have sprung a leak and sunk. Even if it didnt, it could fill up with water and sink. Its not a stable thing to hope in; neither are possessions. Some of us trust in our jobs or our 401K, our houses, or our bank accounts. We trust in stuff; stuff can let you down. Stuff can let you sink. Some people trust in their circumstances. They could have done that. They could have trusted in their circumstances and said, Well, we just hope that the wind dies down, and the waves crash, the boat doesnt fill up. We just trust that things are going to change. Some of us do that. We trust in circumstances. For some people, thats all they have. They dont know the Lord, so they simply cross their fingers, knock on wood, and hope for the best. Thats all they have going for them. They just hope that circumstances will change at some point in time. Ill tell you something. The way things were going, circumstances were not a good thing to trust in. That storm was not going to let up. There certainly wasnt going to be less water in that boat. Something had to happen, and something had to happen fast or they would have perished. You could trust in people. You could trust in other people. You can trust in yourself, but every man in that boat knew that they could not calm that storm. They could not stop that water from getting in the boat. If they went in that water, they were in trouble. Every man knew that. They knew they were powerless to stop it. You and I, we sometimes put our trust in others; we sometimes put our trust in ourselves, but we know our limitations. In fact, we might be the very reason were in a storm right now. No, no, no. The answer is not in trusting others because others can let you down. Its not in yourself because youre finite as well. The fourth option is you can put your trust in the One who is over the storm, the One who has all power and knowledge, the One who does not fail, the One who is eternal. Paul did that. Paul was facing a storm when he was in prison. In 2 Timothy 4 (page 1180), Paul talks about the end of his ministry, in fact the end of his life. He knew his time on the earth was short. In Verse 16, he says, At my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them. Thats sad because Paul was always there for everybody else; yet, when he needed support, it seemed like nobody was there. Even though Paul trusted his friends, his ultimate faith and trust was not in people. It was not in himself because he knew his shortcomings. He once called himself the captain of sinners, the chief of sinners. It was certainly not in his circumstances. His circumstances were that he was in a prison, and enemies meant to harm him. They were going to tell lies about him, whatever they could to destroy him. Their goal was to have him executed and have his ministry stopped. The circumstances of being in that prison and standing before that man were not good for Paul. He couldnt trust in his possessions because he had none. In fact, he asked Timothy to bring him a coat because winter was coming. He said, Bring the parchment because he had no Scripture to read. All he had were the clothes on his back, but though he is alone and has no possessions, though he has adverse circumstances, he does have the Lord. Thats the one person that matters the most. He says, But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. Notice that Paul, even in adversity, is concerned more about his message than himself. It shows us where his heart is. And I was delivered from the lions mouth. He said he was in the lions mouth, and he was delivered from the lions mouth. We dont know exactly what the lions mouth means here. The lions mouth could be Rome; the lions mouth could be Nero-under whose emperorship he was executed. The lion could be a literal lion in the coliseum to which maybe he had been sentenced. It's a real possibility that he literally means a lion. This was the time, folks. These things were going on, and no greater time than under the reign of Nero. He might literally mean a lion, or he could mean Satan. Whatever this adversity is, the lion meant to harm him. It could very well be a literal lion. He says, But God delivered me from the lions mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To Him be glory forever and ever. You should notice Paul doesnt say, And Im just hoping, crossing my fingers, knock on wood… Paul doesnt put his faith in circumstances. He says, And God will deliver me. So in the midst of that adversity, he has courage to face that which causes him fear because God spoke into his life. God told him, Its going to be okay. Nothing outside of My will is going to happen to you, Paul. Im not going to allow it. We had a commotion in our house about a week or so ago. As many of you know, years ago, I told the story about a pregnant flying squirrel that somehow got into my house above the ceiling and had babies there. I took them on and named them Rocky, and then I found out there was Rocky 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. I stayed up all night catching these things in a laundry basket and setting them free outside. I have heard the pitter patter of little feet since then, so Ive always believed there is a surviving squirrel up there. He came out through some sort of a vent or something. He got into the house. I heard this commotion, and I said, Well, that sounds like the cat has something, a mouse or something. I go in the other room, and he has a flying squirrel in his mouth. I want to tell you right off the bat, this story is not going to be gross. Im not going to spoil anybodys lunch. The story, Ill tell you right off the bat, has a happy ending. The squirrel will live, so nobody needs to be afraid. The squirrel is going to be okay. So, Tiger is showing me this prize. Im going, You know what? You and the squirrel are going outside. I grab the cat, and thusly the squirrel, and we head outdoors. I shut the door, and Im looking at this squirrel. The squirrel is still alive. The squirrel is looking up at me, and it is so cute. It has these big old eyes, and its looking at me like you have to do something about this. I say, Okay, listen, buddy. Im going to get you set free. Ive done this before with my cat. Im holding the cat tilted, and I take my pointer finger and my thumb and put them around his jaw. What that does is two things. It prohibits him from clamping down so hard that he would kill the squirrel, and it also allows me to work my way, so I can start to release the jaw and set the squirrel free. So, Im like, Tiger, youre going to let go. Let go of him, Tiger. I start to tip the cat upside down. Shes a little uncomfortable because now you have the weight of gravity holding the squirrel. I start to increase the pressure a little bit, not to hurt the cat, but to release the jaw. Let him go, Tiger. Let him go, Tiger. Tiger is not letting go. Tiger does not want this one to get away. If I could speak squirrel-now, Im squirrelly, but I cant speak squirrel. There is a difference between those two. If I could speak squirrel, I would say to the squirrel, Listen, Mr. Squirrel, you are in an awful predicament right now. In fact, had I not found you, you would be dead by now. You have a right to be concerned because the cat that has you has a death grip on you. He will kill you. However, the good news is that Im stronger than the cat that has you, and I have that cat. Im not going to allow that cat to kill you. The good news, Mr. Squirrel, is that Im going to stay on this job, and Im going to put pressure on this cat until he releases you. After he releases you, hes going to want to pursue you, but Im not going to allow him to. Im going to hold on to him, and youre going to be okay. I cant say that though because I dont speak squirrel. The squirrel doesnt know if Im good or bad, but pretty soon, I squeeze him, and Tiger releases the squirrel. The squirrel runs off into the woods. Hes probably back in my house by now-I dont know. Tiger tries really hard to get away. I hold on to him and say, Youre not going anywhere but back in the house. Then back into the house we go. That is an analogy I want us to consider. Because what this says to me is God will allow us to spend some time in the lions mouth, but Gods in control. Even when were in the lions mouth… The Bible says, Greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world. Whatever has attacked you, whoever has attacked you, God has said, There is nothing greater than Me. There is no force greater than Me. There is no power greater than Mine, and Im in control, and youre going to be set free. Youre not going to be consumed. Youre not going to be devoured. Its a fearful situation, but as you entrust yourself into My care, Ill deliver. We have an interesting passage in Luke 22, if youll turn there (page 1044). In Luke 22, Satan is the lion, and he wants to destroy Peter. Were going to see a little bit behind the scenes. Thats why this verse is so priceless because it allows us to see into some spiritual reality behind closed doors. It allows us to see a little bit of how things work in the spiritual realm because there is no way that Peter would know what Jesus is about to say. In Verse 31, Jesus is about ready to go to the cross, okay? Theyve just concluded the Lords Supper. Jesus is about to be betrayed. He says, Simon, Simon… that was his name before Jesus changed it to Peter. Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. Lets stop right there. Satan has asked. You have the RSV, it will say demanded. If you have the NAS, it will probably say demanded permission. The NIV says has asked. The Word in the Greek means to beg for permission. Satans intent would be to destroy, but since he cant destroy, he wants to just ruffle him up a little bit. He wants to attack Peter. He cant do that unless hes first asked for what? Permission. The Word says to beg, to beg for something either to the ill or to the good. If you go to somebody and you say, Please let him or her go, somebody who maybe is a hostage, and youre begging, saying to the person who is holding him or her, Please let him or her go. Please let them live. Its like what has happened with the Koreans and the Taliban. They were saying, Please let them go. Set them free. Thats a terrible story. Thats the word thats used here. Satan tries to get you to think hes all-powerful and can do what he wants, but the bottom line is he has to ask. God will only allow it if its going to accomplish something good in your life. Notice what happens. Permission is granted. Jesus says, But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail, and when you have turned back, not if, when you have turned back, strengthen in your brothers. He was sifted as wheat. The heat came on; Peter became more fearful for himself and his safety than he was concerned for the Lord. He denied Christ three times. He ran and hid. He abandoned the Lord. He was sifted his wheat, but did he turn? Oh yeah. And when he came back, did he strengthen his brothers? He became the leader of the church. He stood up in front of thousands and didnt care who heard what he said. He stood before kings and didnt care what they did or said. He stood before the Sanhedrin and said, You can imprison me. You can beat me, and you can kill me, but I will not be silenced. I will not stop talking about what Ive seen and heard. The end result of Satans sifting his wheat, the end result of that period in the lions mouth, was he came out stronger than before, and so will you. So will you. Listen to what Job says in the Book of Job 23 (page 514), if youll turn there. Job has encountered intense suffering. He has lost his sons, his daughters, his health, and his possessions. His friends are around him. Theyre trying to make him feel better, but nothing will help. Listen to what Job says in Verse 8, But if I go to the east, He is not there; if I go to the west, I do not find Him. When He is at work in the north, I do not see him; when He turns to the south, I catch no glimpse of Him. Everywhere I go, I dont see God. I desperately need to see God. I desperately need to know Hes there, but I do not see His evidence in my life. Yet in the midst of that despair in Verse 10, he utters these words: But He knows the way that I take; and when He has tested me, I will come forth as gold. That verse is gold. Underline that verse. Memorize that verse. Talk about that thing that is causing you fear. Write it down; meditate on it. I ask myself first the question of apathy, Does God care? Read the Scriptures that talk about His care, and say, Yes, I know He does. Write down the second question, the question of authenticity. Where is my faith, and answer it. If its in circumstances, if its in people, if its in possessions, if its in yourself, put it in the right place. Put it in the Lord, and then ask yourself the third question found in Luke 8. After Jesus calmed the sea, they said, Who is this? Its a question of authority. Who is this? Who actually is it that Im serving and following? How is it that the waves died down, that the wind died down? Because He is the first one who spoke the wind into existence. He is the one who spoke the waves and the waters into existence. He is the Lord of life. He is the Lord of death. He is the Savior, and He is in your boat. Remind yourself of whom it is that you serve and whom it is that you follow. Who is He? Hes the Lord of all, and Hes with me. I want you to notice something about the fear. They still had fear, only now the fear was redirected. It starts off with them fearing the wind; they fear the waves; they fear for their lives, but in Verse 25, it says, In fear and amazement, they asked… Fear of whom? Fear of the storm? Fear of what? The storm? No, the storm is gone. The threat is gone. The fear was directed toward the Lord. In Mark, it says they were terrified of Jesus, not because they were afraid He was going to harm them, but a fear in a healthy sense that someone greater than the storm-that we might in fact have God in the flesh in this boat with us. One theologian said, Fear God and fear nothing else. Fear God and you have nothing else to fear. I know Gods in control, and He is. I dont have to fear the mouth of a lion. Where is my faith? My faith is in the Lord of all. Lets pray together, and well receive communion. Lord, we see in this story the emotion that we have all encountered. We have all felt threatened. Weve all experienced fear. The fear was the one emotion we cannot see any trace of You experiencing because You knew who You were, and You knew the Father. You understood His will, and You knew His purposes would be accomplished. Lord, help us to have that kind of faith and courage as we encounter the storms of life and fear rises in our spirit. We are tempted to ask the question of apathy: Do You care? Help us to remember the cross demonstrates that You do. As You ask the question of us, Where is our faith? my prayer is that our response will be that it is in You, not in ourselves. Its not in people; its not in our circumstances; its not in our possessions-the boat. We will answer that third all-important question: Who is this? This question of authority, that the One whom all authority in Heaven and earth and all power has been given is our Lord and our Savior. He is in our lives. We can have courage to face the storms of this life and to overcome them and come out as gold. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
One of the best ways for you and I to understand and learn is this story, isnt it? I might make some points in this sermon that youll forget, but ten years from now you will be able to remember some story that was told. Thats how our minds think. They didnt have tapes, books, or CDs, DVDs. They would hear this once, and that was it. They couldnt go back and read it like we can, time and again. Jesus would tell us in a parable, so people could retain that and think about what He said. [It would give them] that word picture that they would take home with them that day. So, He is going to tell the parable of the sower and the seed to teach them an important point about how we receive the Word of God and how it grows in our lives. In Luke 8:4, we will start reading (page 1023 of pew Bibles). It says, While a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from town after town, He told this parable: A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering his seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds of the air ate it up. Some fell on rock, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown. When He said this, He called out, He who has ears to hear, let him hear. He would often say that. What does that mean: he who has ears to hear let him hear? What Hes really saying there is those who are seeking truth, those who are listening for truth, Youll find it. You know you can listen and not really listen. By the way, just so you know, were flipping our service this morning. Were doing the preaching first and the music second. So, if youre walking in, and Im already preaching and youre really confused, thats why. Were preaching first this morning. So, ears to hear…Sometimes, even on a Sunday morning, I can look out, and some of you look like youre really listening to what I have to say. But, if I were to walk down to you and say, What did I just say? youd say, I dont know. I wasnt listening. At some point in time, youre going to tune out during the sermon. Have you ever experienced this: somebody is talking to you, and it dawns on you that you havent heard what he or she has said for like the last three minutes or so? You look like youre listening, but you really havent listened. Sometimes Ill have to have my wife repeat something to me, and Ill say, You said all of that? Where was I? She said, You were right here. I heard about a man who read a story on men and women and how they communicate. He went home and he told his wife, Honey, this study is really scientific, and it says that women speak twice as much as men. You girls just love to talk. You use twice as many words to communicate as men do. She said, Well, honey, thats easy to figure out. Its because we have to say everything twice because you never hear it the first time. He replied, Did you say something? Verse 9, His disciples asked him what this parable meant. He said, The knowledge of the secrets of the Kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that, though seeing, they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand. Thats also a little bit of a perplexing verse. Jesus is saying, Parables both reveal and conceal. It depends on where your heart is. There were those in the audience who were coming not to learn from Jesus but to find words that would accuse Him, to find evidence against Him, to affirm what they already believed about Him-that He was a deceiver. He was an imposter. So those were the kind of ears they listened with. They listened not with ears to learn, but ears ready to accuse, ready to catch Him in something. So Jesus would tell them a parable, and the one who was really seeking truth would meditate on it, pray about it, reflect on it, and discuss it. Over time, they would start to remember things. Yes, I understand what Jesus meant now. For those who were looking for reasons to accuse and condemn, theyd go home and someone would ask, What did you think about this Jesus of Nazareth? Hes quite a teacher, ha? Oh, no. Overrated. He had some story about birds, seeds, and plants. It really wasnt that good. He just talked about nature. It wasnt deep at all. They totally missed the mark. It was concealed from them. So Jesus talks about that. It depends on the condition of our hearts. This morning, were going to focus on how to prepare our hearts to receive the seed of the Word of God. Jesus is going to explain the parable here. He doesnt always do that. We wish He would. We wish after every parable, Jesus would go back and say, Now, let Me tell you what it meant. Some of them, we have to scratch our heads and really read them through again and again to try to figure out what Hes saying. This one, He goes back and says, Let Me explain to you what it means. Verse 11, The seed is the Word of God. Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the Word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. That, right away, should get our attention. It talks about spiritual conflict. It talks about the fact that God wants to plant His Word-or His truth-in our lives. The enemy wants to take it away. When we share the Word of God on a Sunday morning, you should be all the more ready and all the more prepared and sober-minded and alert because there is somebody who is trying to steal it from you. [That gives you] all the more reason to be on your guard. How does he steal it? How does that happen? If I know how he steals it, then I can prevent him from stealing it, correct? If I know what his methodology is? Keeping our place in Luke, lets turn to Matthew 13 together. In Matthew 13:18 (page 968 of pew Bibles), Jesus also was explaining the same parable, but He adds a phrase in this book that we dont read in Luke. This phrase is very insightful. Listen to what the parable of the sower means: When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. So how does he steal it from us? Because we dont what? Understand. Its easy for him to take away what we dont understand. You cannot retain-is another way to put it-what you dont understand. If I say something to you in French right now, probably only Tim and maybe a handful of others are going to be able to understand what I said. If you dont speak that language, it doesnt mean anything to you. You dont understand it. Have you ever had somebody explain a concept to you-it could be a theological concept? It could be mathematical. It could be something to do with construction or mechanical or musical. Youre listening to what theyre saying, and youre saying, Ah ha, and youre pretending like you understand everything thats being said. If we were to ask you, What did they say? youd say, I have no clue. But, you act like you know what they are saying. You dont even tell them you dont understand. Have you ever done that? Some of you are nodding your head. Does that mean you understand me or are you doing what I just talked about? Weve all done that. Weve all gone, Mmm. Yeah. Mmm hmm. They walk away, and one person turns to you and says, What did that mean? You say, I have no idea, but you pretend like you did, right? Sometimes well talk about theological matters, and maybe youre in cross training or maybe its a weekend message, and there is something you dont understand. Rather than seeking out the answer, rather than studying it more and gaining understanding, asking the right questions, you dont do anything with it. Whats going to happen to that seed? Its gone. That will be stolen. You dont understand it. I would rather humble myself and admit I dont know something and learn than have it stolen away from me. All of us are students. Never be ashamed or embarrassed to ask a question. Everybody in this room is a student. Im a student of the Word of God. Im learning and growing. Youre a student of the Word of God. You learn from me; I learn from you. We learn from each other. Never think, I dont want this person to think I dont understand or I am too embarrassed to admit I need help. Thats just pride, and that will hinder you. That will prohibit the seed from growing in your life as God wants it to. Lets return back to the parable in Luke 8. Jesus then goes on to explain what the other seed that was sown means. Verse 13, Those on the rock are the ones who receive the Word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away. In other words, when some sort of persecution arose, in those days, if you were to be a follower of Christ, it would cost you. When I was ministering in Sweden-to be a Christian in Sweden, it costs you something. They didnt understand that. They would ridicule you in that secular society. They didnt understand in America: You mean in America, you can go to church and be a Christian, and its acceptable? I said, Yes. They thought we lived in a Utopia of some sort. They couldnt conceive of living in a country like we live in. When were persecuted or the threat of persecution arises, Jesus says, People neglect the Word that has been sown in their hearts. The seed that fell among the thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way, they are choked by lifes worries, riches and pleasures… There are three distractions, the worries of life. We all have worries and concerns and riches, the good things the world has to offer us materially and by pleasures-the good things the world has to offer us sensually, through our senses. We become distracted from Godly things or spiritual matters and begin to pursue these other matters. When that plant is growing up, if its surrounded by weeds, thorns, and other things, those things steal and rob the nutrition thats meant for that good plan. They robb the rays of the sun. They rob the water, the nutrients that are in the soil. In that same way, these concerns of this life rob you and me of what we need to have Gods Word grow in our lives. The result is our growth is stunted. We dont grow and mature as we should. Notice, what the Lord says here. He did not say the plants in this case died. He says, in Verse 14, …and they do not mature. They dont grow up. They become spiritual Peter Pans. Weve heard the Word. Were excited about the Word, but we become distracted by these other things. But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the Word, Number one. …retain it… They seek to understand it. They contemplate it. They discuss it. They ask questions; they ponder it. …and by perseverance, produce a good crop. Even good seed doesnt grow up over night. The things were talking about, this is Jesus Word, so this is good seed, but it may not produce a crop in you instantly. Its not going to grow instantly. It could be that a year from now, when you come to church, you will be coming to church with a different mindset. Heres what I mean: Because the enemy is trying to snatch away the seed, when you come to the services, are you preparing your heart? When youre driving here in your car, what are you doing? Do you pray? Do you spend any time cracking the Bible on a Sunday morning before the service starts? Have you ever opened up Luke to read through it before we get here? To specifically pray and say, Lord, I need to hear from You today. We sang a hymn in our traditional service this morning that Neil picked out. Understand, he knew the topic, but he didnt know exactly how I was going to preach it. I just know what my topic is. The programming team does their thing, and the music team picks out their music, but I dont prepare sermons weeks in advance. I havent started on next weeks message yet because I just finished this one. So, its hard to tell them every detail of what Im going to say because I havent prepared it yet. When I got done, the team came up and led us in music. Listen to the song they picked out: Open my eyes that I might see, glimpses of truth Thou has for me. Place in my hands the wonderful key that shall unclasp and set me free (unlock the mysteries of the Word). Silently now I wait for Thee, ready my God, thou will to see. Open my eyes, illumine me, Spirit Divine. Thats what Im talking about, that we prepare our heart to receive. Maybe a year from now or a month from now, when you come to church, youll have a different mindset. Ill walk around sometimes, and Ill see people who get here early. Ill see them reading the text that were going to talk about. Or, Ill see them with their head bowed in prayer. Ill say to myself, Theres a person with ears to hear this morning. I guarantee when I look at them, theyre going to be locked in. Ill be able to tell theyre receiving the same Word. Another person will come in here, and their mind is somewhere else. [They come in with the] worries of life, the pleasures of life, the material things of life, other distractions, and theyll walk out of here. Youll say, What did the pastor talk about? I dont know, but I have to get home. I didnt really get anything out of it this morning. Another person thought it was great. [Even if you have] the most boring speaker, the most boring monotone lecture in the world, if someone is preaching the Word of God, you should get something from that if your soil is prepared. You should walk away with something from that. Were going to do a little case study this morning with the time we have left. Were going to look at a man who had seeds sown in his life by the ultimate sower of seeds. He had Jesus Himself plant seed of the Word of God in his life. Were going to watch how he deals with it when he doesnt understand it, how he deals with it when theres persecution, and how he deals with it when there are distractions in his life. Were going to find out if it grows. Before we talk about whom he is, I want us to turn in our Bibles to John 12 (page 1066) and talk about the situation thats going on here. Lets read together verses 42 and 43 of John 12. John writes, Yet at the same time many even among the leaders believed in Him. But because of the Pharisees they would not confess their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue… In other words, the fear of persecution; the fear of a loss of their privilege-of their status; of their position as theyre seeking to climb in the ranks of the hierarchy, seeking advancement, the loss of friends and colleagues and peers; the loss of the reputation prohibited them from saying, Im a believer in Jesus. If he or she said, Im a believer in Jesus, they would be ostracized. …for they loved the praise from men more than praise from God, John writes. Sometimes, that can be said of you and me. There have been times in our lives when we have been silent or have not acted because we are afraid of what others might think or do, so at that particular moment-in that particular day, we cared more about what men thought about us than what God thought about us. The Pharisees-for the most part-were the enemies of Christ. They didnt like the way He acted. He broke their traditions, not Gods traditions-not Gods love, but mans love. He broke them. He went out of his way to cause trouble for them. They didnt approve of his theology. He would say things like, I and the Father are One. If youve seen Me, youve seen the Father. They didnt approve of that. They saw that as blasphemy. They didnt like the fact that this man-who had gone through no formal education-was attracting followers by the thousands; He was a threat to their powerbase. He was a threat to their security. They deemed him a blasphemer; they deemed him a heretic; they even believed He needed to die because He was having too much negative influence. He was teaching too contrary to what they believed. He was bucking the system. If you swore allegiance to Jesus, you were seen as a betrayer by the other Pharisees. So, to come out as a Pharisee and say, Im a believer in Jesus meant the loss of all of these other things. Really, its a gain, but they were looking at it from an earthly perspective and said, Its a loss. So, they would refuse allegiance to Christ. They refused to verbalize their faith in Him. The seed would be choked in their lives. Now, there was a man by the name of Nicodemus in John 3 (page 1051) who were going to meet. Lets read about him together in Verse 1, Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. This is an important individual. His name means conqueror, so hes maybe grown up with a little bit of an ego because every time hes addressed, he hears the word conqueror. How would you like to hear that? What if your parents had named you Conqueror? Conqueror, its time to eat. Conqueror, have you done your homework yet? I dont have to. Im the conqueror. Nicodemus, his mindset is that of a leader from the very onset. He is a Pharisee, so that means hes one of the most religiously powerful people of the day. Hes also a member of the Jewish ruling council, the Sanhedrin. The ruling council was like the Supreme Court and Congress all rolled into one. That is what were talking about. So this is a man who was wealthy, educated, powerful in religious circles, powerful in the government circles. This man also is a key teacher. He was very prominent in society. He comes to the Lord it says at night. Why does he come at night? He didnt want to be seen. He didnt want to stir up any rumors. He didnt want anyone to think he was a follower of Christ, so he comes at night. He comes in secret. In Verse 2, he says, Rabbi, we know… Now, when he says we know, he doesnt mean all of the Pharisees. Hes probably talking about a few, maybe Joseph of Arimathea or a couple others that were talked about in John 12 who recognized that Jesus is from God, but they were afraid to speak out of fear. When he says we, its probably a few people that hes referring to. We know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him. In reply, Jesus declared, I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again. These are the first times these words are every uttered, to be born again. Understand, weve heard those words. Many of us have grown up with those words. Those words have been used in our pop culture. Theyve been misconstrued, but Jesus spoke those words, and those words still apply. We still better understand what they mean because Jesus says, You have to be born again to see the Kingdom of God. If Jesus said it, I better listen to it, right, because it still applies? It hasnt changed. He is very perplexed at that statement, I must be born again. You might be afraid to ask some stupid questions, but I promise you-you will never ask as dumb of a question as Nicodemus is about to ask. He listens to Him and he says, How can a man be born again when he is old? Nicodemus asked. Surely, he cannot enter a second time into his mothers womb to be born! The Nicodemus question is well how does that work? You have to go back inside there somehow? I dont get it? You may have asked some doosies in your life, but you think, Well, I wouldnt have asked that. Common sense tells you thats impossible. Lets give Nicodemus the credit. He asked the question. The teacher asked the question. He becomes the pupil, the student. When Jesus says you must be born again, Nicodemus doesnt say, Oh, yes. Thats what I thought. Thank You, Jesus, and you have a good day. He walks out and reports to his friends who ask, What did He say? He said we must be born again to see the Kingdom of God. Whats that mean? I dont know. He asked the question. Hes not too proud to say, I dont know what that means. Jesus explains what He means. Nicodemus still does not understand what Hes talking about, so what does he do? Verse 9, a second time, he says, How can this be? Im still lost. Im still confused. Nicodemus is grappling with this. Nicodemus has questions, so hes not just allowing those questions to be unanswered because if he does, that seed is going to be gone. He wants to be sure he understands, I need more information. I need more facts. I need more knowledge. I need more. I need more, Jesus. Thats what we have to be like. We have to be tenacious like that. When we dont know the answer, [we need to] get the answer. Study it. Dig into it. Discuss it. Ask more questions. Dont walk away and pretend like you know it when you dont. You want that seed to grow? Dig into the Word of God and say, Okay. Because once you say, Okay, now I get it, then no one can take it from you. Its not going to be stolen. It takes work, but you can say, Now, Ive got it. Now its mine. Jesus replies and says, You are Israels teacher, and do you not understand these things? Now, He is not cutting Nicodemus down. Jesus is just a little bit taken back at Nicodemuss total lack of understanding of spiritual matters because…Listen to what Jesus says, You are Israels teacher. When you read this in the Greek, theres a definite article there. In other words, it could be read like this: You are the teacher of Israel, and you dont understand these things? Nicodemus wasnt just a teacher; he was a teacher. He was regarded as one of the premier teachers in the land. We learn that simply from what Jesus says here, You are Israels teacher. Youre the teacher of Israel, and you dont understand these things? I mean, here he is. Everybody comes to Nicodemus to get their questions answered, and here is Nicodemus coming to Jesus like a little kid and saying, Im lost. I dont understand anything You said. Think of the greatest teacher you know, a math teacher, science teacher-somebody you learned the most from. Think of that person talking to somebody else about that subject they are so good at, and saying, Im lost. Could you explain it to me? But Nicodemus, to his credit, asks the question. He was not content with simply being confused. He wants to know the truth. Now, lets watch what happens as that seed is in his life because I guarantee he has ears to hear. I guarantee hes reflecting on it; hes contemplating it; hes continuing to search. Were going to meet him again in John 7 (page 1058). Theres persecution that has starting to come because of the teachings of Christ. Verse 44, Some wanted to seize Him, but no one laid a hand on Him. Finally the temple guards went back to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, Why didnt you bring Him in? We wanted to talk to Him. Why didnt you bring Him in like we asked? No one ever spoke the way this man does, the guards declared. You mean the guy you told us to go seize? When we went to seize Him, [we learned] that guy can talk! That guy is smart! I dont think we should be bringing Him anywhere! You should go listen to what He has to say! You mean He has deceived you also? the Pharisees retorted. Has any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in Him? No! There sits Nicodemus sort of going, Mmmm. I do. Remember Nicodemus says, I believe in the Lord. I believe youre from God. Right? But Nicodemus isnt going to tell his peers that he thinks Jesus is from God because he is afraid. That persecution is choking out that seed, causing that seed to not grow. He could lose his place. He could lose his status as a teacher of Israel. Hes been a Pharisee, Sanhedrin, teacher, and [it would all be] gone, all of it! The money, the status, the power, [it would be] gone. So Nicodemus zips his lip, sort of. He doesnt come out and say, Well, I think Jesus is from God because no body could do the works He did. I went to Jesus and spoke to Him. Heres what He said. Nobody knows. Its still a secret. By the way, let me ask you this question: John records for us [what happens] behind closed doors with the Pharisees, right? He tells us the discussion. He tells us what Nicodemus said. John was not there. Jesus was not there. Who is the source of this conversation behind closed doors? Were going to learn at the end of the message this morning that it might be Nicodemus. He could be the very man who tells John what happened that day. There were no apostles back there when they were having this discussion. How did they find out? Nicodemus speaks in Verse 50, Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and who was one of their own number, asked, Does our law condemn anyone without first hearing him to find out what he is doing? What Nicodemus is saying is listen, we have to give this guy a fair shake. We have to cut Him some slack. We have to hear what He has for us before we judge Him. So hes speaking up and defending the Lord, but not fully coming out all the way. They replied, Are you from Galilee, too? Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee. Now, lets turn to John 19 (page 1074). In John 19, Jesus is dead. Theyve had their way. Now at the foot of the cross are those who have to be there, the Romans. Its their job. Those who want to be there are because theyre saying good-bye. His followers, His family, are there. Theyre weeping and theyre crying. Theyre crushed. His enemies are there too. Theyre making sure the job is done. They want to make sure Hes dead. They want to be sure Hes buried and gone. Its no longer nighttime. Its daytime. Who emerges from the people to take care of the body of Jesus? The Pharisees want Him buried with the two thieves. [They want to] just dump the corpse in the ground. The world is rid of a nuisance. His voice is silenced forever. He got what He deserved. They have no care for the body, but two very unlikely people step forward. Both of them are Pharisees. One is named Joseph of Arimathea, and the other is named Nicodemus. They come out; they take the body of Jesus down from the cross. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds. I didnt research how much this would have cost him, but myrrh was very expensive. Remember when the kings brought Jesus gold, frankincense and myrrh. This is very costly, and [they have] 75 pounds of it! Nicodemus spent a lot of money. Taking Jesus body, the two of them wrapped it with the spices and strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. They found the tomb where nobody had been laid, and in there they put Jesus. They came out and said, Listen, we dont care who knows anymore. We love this man. They took his body with loving care, wrapped it, anointed it, and placed it in a tomb with expensive spices. We dont have the words he spoke here, but his actions spoke volumes. His actions said Nicodemus no longer was hiding, no longer coming at night. He didnt care anymore who knew that he loved this man Jesus. The seed had taken root. The seed had grown. Persecution didnt matter. The loss of the comforts of this world-those worries-didnt matter anymore. All that mattered was Jesus.
Were in Luke 7. Were on a series going through Luke, chapter by chapter, verse by verse. We are finishing up Chapter 7 this morning. Imagine that you invite someone you want to get to know out to eat. You invite her to a restaurant, and you say, This is going to be a good chance to get to know this person. I think this person could be a really good friend in my life. Ive heard good things about her. Im curious to see what kind of person she really is. So, you invite your friend out to this restaurant to eat, and youre having a good conversation. Things are going well when into the restaurant walks a person who has a very poor reputation in the community. He is known by most people in the community as a very corrupt individual. Maybe he has been not only accused but found guilty of a crime. Maybe he has been in the newspaper. People know who this person is. He starts making his way to your table. Youre thinking, What in the world could he want to come to my table for? Then he begins a conversation with this person youre trying to get to know. Youre a little embarrassed because you think somebody might see you in the restaurant and think youre associated with this corrupt person. Youre curious as to how your friend will respond to this person. The person is not put off by the presence of your friend. In fact, she welcomes him and even invites him to sit down with you, which really makes you uncomfortable. The person begins to cry and tells your friend what an impact she has made in his life. In fact, she has changed his life, and he is no longer going to live a corrupt life. He wants to live a good life and is sorry for his past. Because of the influence of this friend, there is going to be a new future in his life. How do you feel about your perspective friend now? Has your opinion of her gone up or has it gone down because she is associating with this notorious person? Or are you still undecided? Something very similar is happening in the Scripture. There is a man by the name of Simon. Hes a Pharisee. Hes probably well to do, and hes certainly powerful. He wants to know more about Jesus. Hes heard some good things, and hes heard some bad things. Some have said Jesus is of God, and others have said Hes a deceiver. Hes corrupt. Simon is a free thinker, and he wants to come to his own conclusions. So, he invites Jesus to join him at his house. Now, you might be thinking-if youre familiar with the story-how did this woman of ill-repute get into Simons house? Shes not on the guest list. She wasnt invited. The reason she is able to do that is because just like restaurants are a public place, so often in a rich persons home, they had a court yard where they would meet for gatherings like this, and that was open to the community as well. Beggars could come and take scraps of food that were left behind. The curious could come and listen to the rabbi or whoever was the dignitary that was there that day. So in this courtyard, it was public domain. Into this courtyard comes strolling this woman who is known to have a poor reputation among everyone there. How will Jesus respond, and how will the host respond to what Jesus does? Lets read it together in Verse 36 (of Luke 7, page 1023 of pew Bibles), Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went to the Pharisees house and reclined at the table. When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisees house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume… Now, I want to pause there in Verse 37. It says a woman who had lived a sinful life. We could say, Well, all of us have lived a sinful life, but the way this is structured in the Greek, it says she devoted herself to a life of sin. Thats what its saying to us. Its saying that emotionally, financially, physically, mentally, she was devoted to living a corrupt lifestyle. She spent her time living in this corrupt lifestyle. Most scholars say she was a prostitute. I wouldnt argue with that conclusion. It doesnt exactly say what she did, but by the verbiage thats used, by the stir her presence caused, it would tend to make one think that is what she was. Maybe some of the people were uncomfortable that day because maybe they were her clients as well. We just dont know. She comes walking in, and she comes up to Jesus. She begins to cry. She is overcome with emotions. It says that as she stood behind Him at His feet weeping she began to wet His feet with her tears. Shes crying so profusely that tears are dropping onto His feet. Youre probably thinking if Hes eating dinner and shes behind Him, how in the world is she dropping tears on His feet. Is she crawling under the table or whats going on here? The Da Vinci picture that we see of the Last Supper where theyre all sitting at the table, thats not the way it was. They didnt have a table and chairs like we have now. The table would have been very low to the ground, and you would have lain down. Thats why it said reclined at the table. You would have literally lain down, put your elbow in the table, and you would have had your feet and legs stretched out or bent or curled behind you. Then if somebody came up from behind you, the first thing they would encounter is your feet. Thats why when she cried, her tears fell on His feet. Then, she began wiping them with her hair. Now, a womans hair was to be kept up. If you had your hair down, that was a sign you were a loose woman. I want you women who have your hair down this morning to relax. In our culture, youre okay. It doesnt mean anything, but in that culture, it meant something. The something it meant was not good. But what we see in this woman was not anything provocative about her appearance or her actions. She let her hair down and was worshipping Jesus with a reckless abandon. She really didnt care who was watching or what they thought. All she was devoted to was worshipping the Lord Jesus and showing gratefulness to Him. Its quite possible that this was not the first encounter shed had with Jesus. In fact, as you read the text, it would seem to indicate that there had been a previous encounter. Maybe He had spoken directly to her, or she had been in one of His audiences and had heard something that had really changed her life; so she was coming to express thankfulness and gratitude for this new life she had been given. The Bible says not everything Jesus did or said is recorded in these Gospels. John said if everything Jesus did or said was recorded, The world itself could not contain all that would be written. So we have just a representative sampling of what Jesus said and did. So quite possibly, this is her second encounter with the Lord, but one thing is emphatically clear: she is a changed person. She had been fully devoted to a life of sin, and now she was fully devoted to Jesus Christ. Emotionally, she is invested; physically, mentally, spiritually, financially [she is invested] because the perfume was very costly. She has given everything she has to this person. We would do well to learn from her. We would do well to learn that no matter what life you have lived in the past with Jesus Christ, you can have a new life in the future. Wed do well to learn from her that there comes times in our lives when we should serve the Lord or worship the Lord with a reckless abandon. We are far too cautious, far too reserved considering what Jesus has done for us. She is now a fully-devoted follower. There has been repentance, and her actions are demonstrating that repentance. When the Pharisee who had invited her saw her wipe His feet with her hair, she kissed His feet; she poured perfume on His feet. [This was] very similar to what Mary of Bethany had done. Remember when Mary did that? Judith said, Oh, this money should be sent to the poor. It was a different incident but very similar in Jesus ministry. The Scripture says, When the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he said to himself, If this man were a Prophet, He would know who was touching Him and what kind of woman she is-that she is a sinner. When he says that she is a sinner, he is implying that he is what? He is not a sinner or certainly not as bad of a sinner, not in need of as much help as she is. Were going to find out in a moment that that is not true. I want you to notice that he says it to himself. It says, …said to himself. Then it says Jesus answered him. Thats kind of scary. Its one thing to have a thought, but its another thing when somebody else answers the thought thats in your head. I have thought I said something to myself and said it aloud. Maybe youve done that. I was in a restaurant-I think it was Subway-a couple of weeks ago. This guy was ordering like his tenth sub in a row. She said, Will that be all? He said, No, Ill have another. I said, Of course you will. Im thinking this to myself…I thought. Then he turns around and goes, Oh, Im sorry. Did you need to go through the line? I didnt realize I had said that aloud. I was like, Oh no, sorry, go right ahead. So, if thats you, I apologize to you. I didnt even know I said that aloud. I was like, Oh yeah, of course. Another sandwich for you. In this case, Simon is not saying this aloud. Hes thinking it, and Jesus is going to address his thoughts. That has to wake you up right there a little bit. Simon is saying, Well, He is a fraud. What my friends have said about Him is true. If He truly was a prophet of God, He would know this person is not a good person. Hed have nothing to do with her. He would shun her. Jesus answered him and said, Simon, I have something to tell you. Tell me, teacher, he said. Two men owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. So [that was] about ten times more than the other person. You think of the two men we saw in the bank video this morning. One had a small debt, and one had a great debt. I know what you were thinking as you watched that video. You were thinking, Are there any banks like that? and Can I move my money there? It says, Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he canceled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more? Simon replied, I suppose the one who had the bigger debt canceled. You have judged correctly, Jesus said. Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon… Notice Hes speaking to Simon, but He looks at the woman. Do you see this woman? Now all the things Hes about to say are customs that are standard operating procedure if youre going to be a good host in that culture. Simon does none of them, either by intention or omission, but he does none of them. I came into your house. You did not give Me any water for My feet… His feet would have been dirty because He was wearing sandals and had been traveling. …but she wet My feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give Me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing My feet. You did not put oil on My head, but she has poured perfume on My feet. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven-for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little. Then Jesus said to her… and this is really going to make him mad, …your sins are forgiven. Who can forgive sins? Only God. Thats why what He says irks them. The other guests began to say amongst themselves, Who is this who even forgives sins? Jesus said to the woman, Your faith has saved you; go in peace. It really bothered them. Number one, He receives her; number two, He pronounces her sins forgiven; and number three, He declares her right with God. Man cant do that. Jesus is asserting His deity. He is asserting whom He is in the presence of all. Now, I want to focus in on Verses 41-42. Its the real heart of this text. Jesus tells a parable. In the parable, there is a moneylender. There are two people who owe him debt: one great and one small. Then there are some commonalities, some parallels between the two. A parable means to lie alongside; so its an earthly story with a spiritual significance. The moneylender is God. The money, or the debt, is our sin that we owe to God. The people are simply people. One of them has tried to live a godly life like the Pharisee and occasionally sins. The other is like the woman who just lives life with a reckless abandon toward sin. Then were going to talk about three spiritual realities or commonalities that exist between these two groups of people. You might be here this morning, and you might say, Well, you know I endeavor to live a good life or upright life. Or, you might be coming in here this morning, and you might say, I know my life isnt upright. I know Gods not pleased with my life. I am living a life of sin, and I know that. So there are two different ends of the spectrum, but were going to see from this text that you have more in common spiritually than you think you do. The first thing we notice is that both of them have a debt. One debt is greater than another, but both of them have a debt. You might be here this morning, and youve endeavored to live a righteous life, but the bottom line is youre still a sinner. The bottom line is you still fall short. In fact, Romans 3:23 (page 1114 of pew Bibles) says, For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Hes speaking of humankind, of mankind. Paul says, Every single one of us falls short. Not one of us hits the mark all the time. In fact, the word sin means to miss the mark. We might hit the target some of the time, but often times, we miss the target. If you miss the target, it doesnt matter if you missed it by one inch or a mile: the outcome is the same. You missed the target. In the Book of Psalms 14:1 (page 538), it talks about our spiritual condition. David writes and says, The fool says in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good. The Lord looks down from Heaven on the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. So what does God find when He looks down? All have turned aside… How many have turned aside? All-at one point or another-have turned aside, done our own thing, and showed distain for the law of God. …they have together become correct. There is no one who does good, not even one. Well, thats a very different picture than sometimes we are told. We have friends who might say to us, Well, you know, I think you go to Heaven by being a good person. Ive heard that countless times. There are so many good people in our community who would preach that same thing, but that is not the Gospel. We talked last week that the cross is an offense. Remember, Jesus said, Blessed is the one who is not offended on account of Me. The word offend means a stumbling block or that which causes us to fall. One would think we would certainly not fall on Jesus. He certainly would be the one that helps us or prevents us from falling, but we said the Bible says, The cross is a stumbling block. It is an offense. Why? Because we like to think of ourselves as basically good people who just need a little nudge or a little push. What the cross says is that you and I are morally bankrupt and lost apart from a Savior. What the cross says is what Psalms 14 bears out. There is not one person who is righteous in and of himself. If we could attain salvation on our own accord, then Christ would not have come. Christ would not have had to die. Though Simon was trusting in his righteousness, he was actually in the same boat as the sinful woman. They were both lost. They both fell short without Christ. I heard a story about a contest in which you could win a million dollars if you could swim from California to Hawaii. Some contestants lined up-a wide array of contestants. There was Teenage Tony. Teenage Tony was a fit young man, high school varsity swimmer, very lean, no body fat, and high metabolism. He did a great job. He swam five miles. Pretty soon, that no body fat got to him. He got the chills, then the cramps, and he finally had to get out. Then there was Prime of Life Patrick. This guy was 25 years old, in the best shape of his life. As was a college swimmer, an Olympic hopeful, Patrick swam 25 miles. Thats a long way. The cold of the water, swallowing salt water, the wind and the waves finally got to him. Even in the prime of his life, even with a million dollars at stake, he couldnt do it, and he quit. Then there was Middle-age Melvin. Middle-age Melvin heard about this contest, and he decided he would climb in. A million bucks? Lets give it a shot. The closest thing Melvin had come to swimming was when he slipped in the bathtub. His only exercise was going up to get another brat when it was commercial time during the Packer game. He was in trouble, but it was a million bucks. Middle-age Melvin jumps in the water. He splashed, spluttered, and swallowed water. He didnt even make it a half of a block, and he said, It isnt worth it, and came back. Did one make it farther than another? Sure. Absolutely! But the bottom line is they all fell short. If youre listening this morning, and youre trusting in your goodness-you might be a great person, a wonderful person, but if you trust your own merits-the Bible says youll fall short. Its impossible to live a godly life 100 percent of the time and never sin. If you sin one time, you fall short of the glory of God. You need a Savior. The second thing they have in common is an inability to pay him back. It says, Neither of them had the money to pay him back. We think, If Ill just do more good deeds than bad deeds, I can offset. Thats not what the Scripture says. The Scripture says when you and I add to our moral bankruptcy, we add to the tally on a daily basis. The sad news about our sin is that it separates us from God. In the Book of Isaiah 59:1 (page 736), the Prophet Isaiah says this, Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor His ear too dull to hear. In other words, the problem isnt on Gods end. If there is not a spiritual connection here, the problem isnt on Gods end. Its our end. Verse 2 says, But your iniquities have separated you from your God… Your iniquities, your sins, have separated you from God. Your sins have hidden His face from you so that He will not hear. So Isaiah writes of our spiritual condition, and he says its impossible for you to be reconciled to a God of your own accord because your sinful nature have separated you from God; so its impossible. Everyday, we simply add to that moral debt. Well, the third spiritual reality they have in common in this text is that each of them in order to be restored to a right relationship have to have their debts cancelled. Thats the only option. Since they cant repay it, it has to be canceled. It has to be on the goodness or the graciousness of the man to whom they owe the debt. Thats the only way it can be done. The only way you and I can receive from the goodness, receive forgiveness of our sins, is the goodness of God. Thats it! Its a gift. Notice what it says in Verse 50 of our text, Jesus said to the woman, Your good works have saved you. Go in peace. Right? Your tears and your expensive perfume have saved you. Go in peace. What saved her? What wonderful good works had she done? Her faith saved her. Her trust in Jesus… She took Jesus at His word and believed that in Him, there was redemption. Thats what it says in the Book of Romans 3 that we referenced to earlier. [We have] the Apostle Paul talking about our spiritual condition. Verse 23 (page 1114) said, …for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely how? …freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. How does redemption come? Christ Jesus. Were having a water baptism this evening. Water baptism is commanded of God: repent and be baptized-every one of you. Its a commandment. Salvation is not found in baptism. Salvation is found in the person of Jesus Christ. Its important, but that which is most important is Jesus. [Continuing on in Verse 25], God presented Him as a sacrifice of atonement through faith in His blood. He did this to demonstrate His justice, because in His forbearance He had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished-He did it to demonstrate His justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. So at the cross, we see the justice of God in that sin is punished, the wrath that was meant for us is poured out upon Jesus, and we also see the grace of God as He justifies those who deserve death. [Verse 27], Where, then, is boasting? Who can say, Well, I can go to Heaven because Im a wonderful, good person? There are all of these wonderful things Ive done. Wheres the boasting? Paul says, It is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law. It couldnt be any clearer. Ephesians 2:8-9 (page 1157) says, For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-not by works, so that no one can boast. So, its not your righteousness. This woman gave to the Lord, served the Lord, and loved on the Lord because she was saved, because she had received a new life-not in order to get a new life or to get forgiveness. Therein is where we become confused. Some think we do those things in order to be saved, but the matter is we do those things because we are [saved]. They are a natural expression of a grateful heart. I have in my pocket a dollar. I would like to give it to one of you. Would somebody like this dollar? Okay, Jeremy-youre the first one. You come on up here and get this dollar. Jeremy, before service, did you and I talk about this, and did I say, Raise your hand. Im going to give you a dollar? [Jeremy answers], No. Did I say, Hey, if you flatter me in the foyer after the service and talk about what a wonderful sermon it was after church, I would give you this dollar? [Jeremy answers], Nope. You understand Im really giving you this dollar. Im not going to ask for this back. This is your dollar. You can go to Hawaii or buy a house, whatever you want with this dollar. This is yours. Here you go. Now, that was a gift to Jeremy. Jeremy had done nothing to earn that dollar, nor will I ask Jeremy to do anything to earn that dollar. That dollar is his. How did Jeremy receive that dollar? With open arms. Yeah, yeah. He came and got it, didnt he? What if he would have remained in his seat and just nodded his head and said, Yeah, I believe thats a dollar. Yeah, I believe he would give it away, would he have it? He wouldnt have it. He might even believe I have a dollar, that Im willing to give it to him, but until he exercises his faith, gets up from his seat, comes forward, takes the dollar, he doesnt have it. He trusted what I said, and to be honest, some of you looked at me rather skeptically, wondering if I was really giving away a dollar. I really did. I gave away a dollar. Its my third one to give away this weekend. The good news is that none of them have been mine (congregation laughs). Ive bummed one off people before every service and will continue that practice. I forgot, okay? Its a good illustration, and I still wanted to do it. I tried bumming one off my wife first, but shes broke, so… You might be next, so dont laugh. But thats a gift. Salvation is something we freely receive. Its like the bank (in the media played at the beginning of the service). He protested. He said, Well, Im not worthy of that. You guys have better customers. [The other character in the media said}, You know what? If I were you, I would just say thank you and receive the gift. Salvation is not earned; its received by grace. It is provided through Jesus Christ. Its important for us to remember that. If youre here this morning, and you dont know the Lord-youre trusting in yourself, the Scripture says that your sin separates you from God. What you need to do is-with reckless abandon- throw yourself on the mercy of the Lord. Allow him to forgive your sins and to give you a new life in Christ-His gift. If youre here this morning, and youre a believer, and you say, Well, Im grateful. I have received that gift of salvation, the action step Id like you to consider today is how can you demonstrate your gratitude to the Lord this week? I want you to pray that daring prayer with me today, and Hell show you. It might involve sacrifice; it might involve humility; it might involve you giving of yourself to someone or something, but how, Lord, can I this week love You with a reckless abandon? How can I let my hair down, let it all hang out, whatever expression you want to use, like this woman here, and just show You how much I appreciate what Youve done? If the Gospel is true, and it is, then you owe it a debt that you could not pay. Jesus Christ paid that debt, and you can receive that gift, that forgiveness. Would you join me in prayer? Im going to lead two groups in prayer this morning. The first group were going to pray for is those who have not trusted Christ. The second group were going to pray for is those who have who need to demonstrate gratitude. Lets pray. If youre here this morning, and youre hearing the Gospel-maybe for the first time-youre understanding for the first time that Heaven is not something that you earn; forgiveness of sins is not something you work towards; its something you humbly and with gratefulness receive. If youre here this morning, and youd like to receive Christ, I invite you to pray this prayer with me: Heavenly Father, I am a sinner. I recognize that my sin has separated me from a Holy God, and Im sorry for the life that Ive lived. I ask for Your forgiveness. I believe that Jesus Christ is Lord, that He died on the cross in my place. I trust what He said and who He was; that He did what He said He would do; that He was who He said He was; that He is Lord; that He took my place upon the cross. I ask Him into my life. Lord Jesus, come into my heart, forgive my sins, make me a new person, give me a new start. I pray Your Holy Spirit would come and reside within me, and I would live for You all of my days. In Jesus name. Father, I pray for those who will make that commitment. Lord, that they would know the presence of the Holy Spirit in their lives today, and that their heart would overflow with thankfulness and gratitude for the gift that Youve given to them. I pray for those of us who, like Simon, are ungrateful. We have failed to see what has been provided for us. This woman who was notorious for an immoral lifestyle, when all is said and done, was known for her active worship and devotion. Lord, its never too late with Your help to turn our life around. For those of us who have been recipients of Your grace and forgiveness, Lord, what can we do this week to tangibly show our love? What can we do that will demonstrate with a reckless abandon our devotion for You? I pray that You would show us, Holy Spirit, that we might be a light to the world. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen. God bless you. Have a great week!
If you werent here last week, you missed out. Todd Powers did a wonderful job speaking on faith. I would encourage you to get that tape. It was a real blessing. We also had him minister our leadership on faithfulness. Some of our leaders who werent here-were sending you a copy of that tape. Dont take it personal. Dont say, Oh, what are they trying to tell me here? We just want you to hear it. In fact, I would really like to see that be a part of our GPS. If youre taking GPS, you get one of those tapes to listen to. It talks about faithfulness in the ministry. So we appreciate his dealing with the first part of the chapter, and well pick up where he left off at Verse 18 (of Luke 7, page 1022 of pew Bibles). Were going to talk about disappointment with God today. My first experience with God was one of disappointment. At age four, my father came down with cancer of the pancreas. I knew he was sick, but I didnt know he was going to die. In fact, really at age four, I was unfamiliar with death-the whole concept of death. One day I came home, and my father had passed away. My mother explained to me that my dad was not coming back. He had died and gone to Heaven. This God, who I was hearing about for the first time, lived there, and He needed my daddy, so He took him. He took him forever, and he would never be back. When I heard those words, I remember it like it was yesterday. I remember being angry. I remember going out in the back porch and shaking my fists at God and shouting to the Heavens, saying, God, you bring my daddy back. I need my daddy. I was crying, and I was angry. I remember being disappointed. I remember thinking a pretty deep thought for a four-almost five-year old, How could a God take away a little boys dad? So, I was disappointed. Everybody in this room, if were going to tell the truth, has been disappointed in their Christian walk. Or, some of you have not become a Christian up to this point because of disappointment that youve had: something that God has allowed in your life-something that has happened to you or did not happen to you-has left a bitter taste in your mouth. Youre a little bit disgruntled today, a little bit disappointed; [you have] a little bit of doubt and discouragement. Youre not alone. This whole room-we have experienced similar things. People in the Bible did as well. One of them that were going to look at this morning is John the Baptist. We think of John the Baptist as a guy who pretty much had it all together. He knew what his mission and his calling were from the time he was born. He knew he was destined to be the forerunner of the Messiah and prepare the people to receive the anointed One who was to come. John heard-from the time he was a little lad-that he was a special boy. His father told him about the angel Gabriels visit and how he first did not believe the words of the angel and thus could then not speak. [He told him] how God Himself had named him, how He had set him apart from the womb to be a Prophet-to prepare the way for the Messiah. John had heard these things from a little guy up, so he knew he had a special purpose in his life. At a very young age, John left home and went and lived in the wilderness. This was an eccentric guy. The Bible talks about his wardrobe choice: camel hair was what he wore. Lets see, should I wear this camel hair or this camel hair or maybe this camel hair? That was all of it: camel hair. Locus and wild honey were his diet, a high protein and high fiber kind of a diet. It is a strange diet, even back then, folks. That was not your normal cuisine. He lived out in the wilderness, and he dressed funny and ate funny. He proclaimed a message… He was not regarded as crazy because the words coming out of his mouth were just cutting edge. The words coming out of his mouth were of God. The words coming out of his mouth made people think about their lives. It lead them to repentance; it lead them to contemplate the meaning of life and the place that God had in their lives. John lived in the open sky, wind in his face, preaching in a loud voice for all who would hear. It didnt matter whom you were; it didnt matter how much money you had; it didnt matter how much power you had: John was going to tell it like it was. One day, he even spoke up to King Herod. He said, Your lifes not right. He confronted him on the sins in his life. One of them, in particular: he had stolen his brothers wife. He went to go visit his brother and took his wife. He (John) said, Thats wrong. Herod didnt like to be talked down to; he didnt like to be corrected, so he had John thrown in prison. Now John is sitting in prison. Just imagine: you lived in the wilderness, the desert, and the sky is your ceiling. All of the sudden, your confined to a dungeon. Youve been proclaiming out in the open air, and now all the sudden, your voice is silenced inside this cell. Hes thinking at the time Jesus has finally come, Im going to join forces with Him, and were going to take the region by storm. You find your ministry has come to a screeching halt. Imagine what hes going through. John preached a message of wrath. He would say, Who warned you to free from the wrath thats to come? He talked about His winnowing fork is in His hand, how you would throw the wheat into the air with the winnowing fork. The chaff would separate and blow away. He said, Hes going to burn the chaff; judgment is coming; Hes going to baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. Jesus comes, but Hes not preaching judgment. Hes preaching mercy. Hes not getting in the face of kings and Pharisees; well, He does get in the face of Pharisees, but Hes not going after the government of Rome like the Messiah is supposed to do. Hes doing ministry; Hes touching lives, and John is confused. John is confused by the actions of Christ; Hes not acting as he thought the Messiah would act. Hes not bringing judgment-thats for sure. Hes certainly letting John down. Do you think if Jesus had the power to raise the dead, He has the power to let John out of prison? [Of course], but He doesnt do it. He lets John stay in prison. In fact, John will eventually be beheaded in that same prison. His only crime was standing up for righteousness. Jesus is allowing all of this to happen. So, John is disappointed; hed discouraged; hes confused; hes frustrated. [He has] all of these emotions going on, and he sends some messengers to Jesus. [In] Verse 19, …He sent them to the Lord to ask, Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else? When the men came to Jesus, they said, John the Baptist sent us to You to ask, Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else? Understand the implications of that question. The implications of that question are derogatory in nature. Youre not doing the job. Youre not acting like youre supposed to act. Did I make a mistake? Are You the one? Because Im just not sure. Im here in a prison. Ive lost my freedom, and Youre not acting at all as I thought You would act. Youd think Jesus might get defensive-He might shout an attack back, but He doesnt do that. In fact, He says, Of those born of women, John is the greatest. Thats what Hes going to say. Hes like what did you expect to see when you went into the wilderness? A reed swaying in the wind? He says, No. A man? No, more than a man. A prophet. He was a man of courage. He was the greatest man born of women. Thats what Jesus said, but its interesting when they ask the question, Jesus does not immediately answer them. If you dont look carefully at the text, youre going to miss it. Take a look at what happens. Are You the one we should expect? Should we expect someone else? In other words, Youre not living up to what Youre supposed to live up to. At that very time… meaning when they asked the question. …at that very time, Jesus cured many who had diseases, sicknesses, and evil spirits, and gave sight to many who were blind. So He replied to the messengers, Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. See whats going on there? He does not answer their question. Are you the one? He simply starts to do the work that Hes been sent to do. He starts healing people. He starts delivering people. He starts doing all these wonderful things, and then He goes back to the men and answers the question. He says, Tell John what youve just seen. Tell him what youve heard. Let him know Im doing exactly what the Father sent Me here to do. In the early years of our church… I dont know if youve ever had anybody question you or contemplate whether what youre doing is with God in your ministry, but I know we have-especially in the early days when we met in a hotel. That has a certain stigma to it. Youre in a hotel. Youre non-denominational. What is that? Were [very much] a denominational town. Back then, churches didnt start in hotels. Its a pretty common place now, but they used to look at us funny. I once heard the word cult being whispered. My natural tendency when I heard that was to get very defensive…17 years ago. I said, Cult!?! Dont you know what a cult is? Nobody is worshipping me! Were not living in a commune here. I have my degree. Im a pastor! I was in Rockford, and Id start lecturing them on what a cult is. I prayed about it. The Holy Spirit said to me, Just be the church. Just speak sound doctrine, and just do the work Ive called you to do, and those kinds of people will learn the truth. Theyll see the truth. And, they did. I havent heard that for a long time. We put our services on the airways. Im not ashamed of anything we say or do here at Faith Community. We have a good reputation in our community. We didnt have to get all defensive and get in the flesh to get that. [We had to] simply do the work God called us to do. But, I was offended when that word was said. We rent a 12/12 building in the Fourth Ward every Sunday for services. My wife goes around in our church van, and she picks up the children. Parents-especially at first-begin to look at her funny. What church? What building? [There is] a certain stigma there or hesitance to send their children. Shed be frustrated. I said, You know what? Just keep doing the ministry. Keep faithfully sharing the Scriptures. Keep faithfully loving on the children. Those parents will come around. Theyll see who we are. Jesus talked about that very thing. He talked about the fickleness of people, their opinions, and their judgments. Look at Verse 31. He says, To what, then, can I compare the people of this generation? What are they like? They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling out to each other… In other words, Hes saying theyre rather childish. Theyre rather spoiled; theyre rather hard to please. We played the flute for You, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge (a song)… and you did not cry. For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, He has a demon. The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners. But wisdom is proved right by all her children. He says, You know, John the Baptist comes and hes in the wilderness, and he has a pretty sad message. Its kind of a doom and gloom. Its a sort of dark message, judgment. Hes very aloof. He doesnt mingle with the people much. He comes and he gives his message. He baptizes and goes back into the desert, and you didnt like him. You thought he should be with the people more. We dont like his sad song. If hes really a prophet to the people, he should be among us, but he doesnt come with us. Jesus comes on the scene, and Hes the polar opposite. Hes not in the desert, the wilderness. Hes right there amongst the people. He goes to weddings; He goes to funerals-although the funerals dont last long when He was there. He goes to weddings, and Hes with the people. Hes going to their homes, and Hes having dinner. Hes spending time with people. They say, Hes too friendly. He eats too much. Hes a drunkard. Hes friends with sinners. We dont like that guy. Jesus is saying, Youre like little spoiled children that are impossible to please. You had John; you didnt like him. You have Me-the opposite-and you dont like Me either. You make judgments. Thats no way for a Prophet to carry on like that! He said, But wisdom is vindicated by your children. The fruit of My ministry, the fruit of Johns ministry, is going to bear witness that we are of the truth, that we are of God. If you know what you are doing is of God, and youre drawing criticism or slack, dont get in the flesh. Dont get all defensive. Simply keep doing what God has called you to do. Continue to be a light. Continue to speak truth. He says something very peculiar next. Look at Verse 23, Blessed is the man… or happy is the man, who does not fall away on a count of sin? No. The devil? No. The world? No. Me. …Blessed is the man who does not fall away because of Me. Isnt that a peculiar thing to say? Blessed is the man who does not stumble in their walk… They walk in faith because of Jesus. Well, I thought He was the one who kept us from stumbling, right? Now, Jesus is saying happy is the one who doesnt stumble because of Me. Thats what the word means. Fall away is the word we get scandal from. It means to stumble or to take offense at. So Jesus is saying happy is the man who does not take offense at the things I say or the things I do. Jesus was always offending people by what He said and did. He would do things on the Sabbath, and theyd be offended. He would say things about God. He would say things about Himself that would offend them. Sometimes, He would make them so mad, theyd pick up stones to try to kill Him. Theyd try to seize Him to try to kill Him. His ministry was very controversial. Jesus was not safe. He did not teach a safe message. It was a very dangerous message, and it offended a lot of people. In John 6, He talked about eating His flesh and drinking His blood. People said, Who can listen to this? and they walked away. He talked about His plan for His life. In Matthew 16, He said, I must go to the cross and suffer many things at the hand of evil men. I am going to die. He offended Peter. He became offended. Remember Peter says, It will never happen, Lord, that You would die. The Messiah is not supposed to die. Hes supposed to conquer. Jesus said, Get thee behind Me, Satan. You are a stumbling block for Me. You are a scandalon and offense to me. Your purposes are the purposes of man and not the purposes of God. See, Peter didnt understand the cross. Nobody really did. When Jesus died on the cross, were the believers excited? Did the believers leave Golgotha cheering and saying, Look, Jesus just conquered sin? My sin was with Him on the cross, and now I am free from the penalty of sin-which is death! Jesus had just sacrificed for my sin! Is that what they said when they left the cross? Not even close. They left the cross with their heads down; they left the cross crying; they left the cross defeated. Their dream was dead; it was gone. The cross was not a victory for them. The cross was a terrible, awful thing, but God was in control. There was a reason for that. You see, Christ becomes a stumbling block for us when you and I resist His sovereignty, when we think that our plan is better than His plan. Isaiah 55 says, As the Heavens are above the earth, so are My ways above your ways and My thoughts above your thoughts. As far as the Heavens are above the earth… When my dad died, I struggled with that for a long time. Years later, because a little boy needs his dad, my mom remarried. This new father became a Christian. He starting attending a church where they preached from the Bible. Id never really gone to church before. Id never heard the Gospel before. They began to preach the Gospel. I, as a little boy, prayed to receive Christ as my Lord and Savior. I grew up in that church. When I became a man, that same pastor became my boss. For almost eight years, I worked under his leadership and continued learning and growing. Then, that same man helped send me and my wife to Janesville to start a church called Faith Community that you are sitting in right now. I ponder to think how differently my life would have been. I am not saying its a good thing my father passed away or Im glad my father passed away. Im not saying that at all, but my father didnt walk with the Lord. My father had a drinking problem. He was not about to introduce me to church or the things of God. How would my life have been different if my dad hadnt come into the picture at age nine and become my father? [How different would it have been if he hadnt] taken me to church every Sunday? How different would my life have been? So Ive come to accept Gods sovereignty in that area. Thats an important step in the life of a believer: when we realize were not God; when we realize we dont have all the answers. Jesus is confronted with this question by John, and He simply does the work Hes been sent to do. Remember in the Book of Job [how] it deals with suffering and disappointment with God? Suffering of humanity? They have a lot of questions they pose of God, and God comes on the scene, and how does He respond to Job? Four chapters of resume. For chapters, He simply talks about His credentials. Were you there when I laid the foundation of the earth? Were you there when I told the proud waves of the ocean here is where you will stop? Were you there when I put the constellations in place? Were you there when I formed the delicate balance of nature? For four chapters, He does not answer the question that Job poses, but He talks about His credentials. He invites Job to contemplate those. Jesus sends word back to John the Baptist and says, Tell John the dead have been raised. I think if the dead are raised, He might know what He is doing. If leprosy is cured, if blind eyes are opened, if deaf ears are opened, maybe God is at work. You see, we try to put God in our image, and thats when He becomes a stumbling block to us because we try to create Him into an image He never intended us to have of Him. Sometimes we want to make God [out to be] the friendly grandfather, the grandfather who was a disciplinarian when you were a kid; but now all the sudden, Hes out buying ice cream cones, patting you on the head, and letting you watch as much TV as you want. Im just being stereotypical now. There might be some grandpas out there that arent like that. We want God to be this jolly grandfather who looks the other way with sin and just accepts everything, and thats not God. Thats not the God of the Bible. The God of the Bible holds us accountable. Hes not the friendly grandfather that only exists to spoil you and give you gifts. Others of us want to see God as the soft teacher. Hes the God who drops our lowest scores, kind of forgets they ever happened. Hes the God who grades on the curve, so we can all pass. Were confronted with the God of the Bible, and thats not the God at all who grades on a curve. Hes the God who says be holy because I am holy. We want God to be our guardian, protect us from all the storms in life and all the trials of life, and all the hardship and loss. Thats not Him. In fact, if Im reading my Bible correctly in John 16, it says in this world, Jesus says you will have trouble. Theres a promise memory verse thats probably not on your refrigerator today. In this world, you will have trouble, but fear not. I have overcome the world. He could have rescued John from the prison. He could have stopped John from being beheaded, but He didnt. That tells us a lot, doesnt it? It probably raises a lot of questions too. Could it be that God sees life and death differently than we do? The Word says, Precious in the eyes of the Lord is the death of His saints. [He says] the murder of John was not a sad thing, but [it was] something that was precious in the eyes of God as he went home to glory. Peter crucified upside down. Jesus foretells its going to happen. He says he indicated that to show what kind of death he would glorify God with. If Gods your guardian, and His job is to insure nothing bad ever happens to you, Hes doing an awful job, isnt He? This life is so temporary and fleeting. I get a feeling sometimes from when I read Scripture that Jesus says even if He were to explain everything that happens in this life, our minds wouldnt even be able to comprehend. In fact, there were times Jesus would say, I have more to tell you right now, but youre not ready. Youre not able to grasp what I have to say. Jesus becomes a stumbling block to us when we dont want to go to the cross. Do you know the Bible says the cross is an offence? The cross is a stumbling block? Thats what it says in 1 Corinthians 1. The cross is a scandalon. Its a stumbling block. Its an offensive. Jesus words still offend people today. The cross still offends people today. Why? The cross does not say, Youre basically a good person, and you need a little nudge. You just need a little help. Because God saw you were good, He sent a Savior to give you that little push, just to help you be a little bit better of a person; so, He sent Jesus. Thats not the message of the cross. The message of the cross is not youre basically a good person and need a little help. The message of the cross is that you and I are lost, and we need a Savior. Apart from a savior, we parish. Thats the message of the cross. The message of the cross is you cant do it, not even close. That goes against our pride, Well, we can do anything. Were Americans. If we just put our minds to it, we can accomplish it. You cant save your own soul, friends. Nobody can do that. The message of the cross is that your soul is dark, youre morally bankrupt, and that you need a Savior. For some, thats offensive. Ive been told by some who are skeptical or are not followers, I dont need a crutch. Thats what Christianity is, just a crutch for people. I want to ask them, Where did you get that idea? Where in the world does the Bible say Christianity is a crutch? A crutch is something someone needs to lean on because they need a little help. You had a little minor surgery. You had a little ankle sprain, so you had a crutch temporarily. The Bible doesnt say you need a crutch; it says you need an overhaul. It says you need open-heart surgery. You are corrupt, and you need a change of your heart that only God can do. Christianity is not about a crutch. Its about becoming a new person in Christ, a new creation in Christ. Thats offensive to people. Because we want to think of ourselves as basically good, that we can accomplish anything we put our minds to… Were not that. You cant rid your soul of the darkness of sin. If Christ is not going to be a stumbling block for me, I must not try to make Him into a man-made image but allow Him to be who He is. Know you are susceptible for Christ being a stumbling block… He was a stumbling block because he did not act the way he should act; he was disappointed that he was confined; Jesus became a stumbling block to John. Jesus was a stumbling block to Peter because of the cross. Peter said he would never be a stumbling block to Jesus, remember that? He said, Lord, others may deny You. Everyone will deny You, but I will never what? …fall away. Theres that word again. Scandalon. I will never fall away from You. Jesus says, Before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times, Peter. We should not think we are exempt from this. If we start to make Christ in our image, how we want Him to be instead of whom He is, if we wrestle with His sovereignty-which is vanity in and of itself, we dont allow Him to be God-we dont accept His plan and Christ becomes a stumbling block for us. His words are offensive to us. But, if we have abandonment in our soul that says, You are God. Ill accept Your plan even though I dont understand it. Ill follow You wherever You take me, then He is not a stumbling block. He is our source of eternal life. No matter what we face, we face the reality that God is sovereign, that He has a plan. We talked about the darkness of the cross. We talked about how dark life can be, and maybe youre in a dark time right now. I want us to watch this media together that talks about that very truth. (You may purchase this video on sermonspice.com. The title is God Has a Plan. There is a three minute summary available there also.) Im going to ask our ushers to come forward and prepare to receive communion right now. Janet is also coming at this time and is going to share a song that talks about the subject matter weve been dealing with today. There is a tendency when communion trays are being passed in front of us, and there is motion with the communion ushers up and down, to be somewhat distracted. I want you to really focus. I want you to focus in on the message of this song. I want you to allow this song to help prepare your heart to receive of the Lords Supper this morning. The words are going to be on the background. You could put your song in here, your life story in here, and know that God is faithful. Just hold on to the elements until weve all received. In a few moments, Ill lead us together in partaking in the bread and cup. Lets listen as Janet sings Held. Lord, You could have rebuked John for questioning and doubting in his disappointment, but You chose not to. You allowed him to ask the question. You demonstrated that You were sovereign, that You are Lord. You asked him to trust You. The questions have not changed, and neither have the answers. Neither do You condemn us when we ask them. You also did not glorify them. You said, Happy is the man who does not fall away on account of Me. Happy is the one who has learned to trust in the Lordship and sovereignty of the Savior. Your way is the right way, and its not always the easiest way. This is demonstrated in no greater way than the cross. The cross was seen as defeat, as a place of suffering, torment, and death; but in Your wisdom and Your power, You transformed that. That was the place our sin was atoned for. That was the place where the opportunity to be made right before the Holy God was made available, where lost people could be found. Dark hearts can be cleansed, forgiven. You sealed that by rising from the dead, walking out of that tomb, to demonstrate that You accomplished what You said You would accomplish. So, Lord, help us in our struggle. Help us to live out that passage; to be happy that Youre Lord, and were not; to rejoice that Your ways are above our ways; Your thoughts above our thoughts; and to rest in that promise. In Jesus name, we pray. Amen Im reading from 1 Corinthians 11. The Apostle Paul says, For I receive from the Lord what I also passed on to you. The Lord Jesus, on the night He was betrayed, took bread; when Hed given thanks, He broke it and said, This is My body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of Me. Lets receive together of the bread. In the same way after supper, He took the cup saying, This cup is the new covenant in My blood. Do this whenever you drink it in remembrance of Me. Lets receive together of the Lords shed blood. Amen. Pastor Sean is going to continue on in Luke next week and pick up where we left off.
I know were in Luke, but were going to start in Proverbs 4 this morning. How many of you this morning have gardens of some sort? A vegetable garden, a flower garden, a rock garden, landscaping? Let me see your hands? How many of you have weeds in that garden? Oh yeah, everybody. Weeds come, dont they? Its just part of the curse. We dont have to look for them; they find us. This is an interesting question: how many of you who have weeds ever dug a hole, deliberately planted a weed, and watered that weed so that it would grow in your landscaping or your yard? Let me see your hands if you planted a weed on purpose. One person…okay. Well have to find out afterwards why he did that, but there is a reason for it. For most of us, we dont have to plant weeds. We dont want weeds. Weeds are unsightly. Weeds rob the nutrients from the vegetables and the plants that we want to have the nutrients. Weeds rob sun, so they take from us. Theyre a curse-not a blessing. We dont want weeds in our garden. The Bible often referred to the heart as soil where seeds are planted and where weeds grow as well. So, were going to use that analogy this morning. Were going to talk about some gardening tips. Were going to talk about some ways we can keep the garden of our heart free from the weeds, free from corruption. We think of weeds as things like greed, selfishness, unforgiveness-all those kinds of things that are opposed to God, against Gods Word. These are the unpleasant things that take root in our lives if were not careful. They can grow and rob us from the blessings that God wants us to have. In the Book of Proverbs 4:23 (page 628 of pew Bibles), Solomon says, Above all else… If he says above all else, it must be pretty important, right? If you say above all else, youre saying, This is top priority. Do this above all things. We had better listen to what hes about to say. Hes using the strongest words in the Hebrew that he can to tell us that what hes about to say is something we all must heed. Above all else… make lots of money? No. Above all else, guard your heart... Guard your heart. Watch over your heart. Why? …for it is the wellspring of life. Its what everything comes from. Your decision to follow the Lord Jesus Christ is in your heart. Everyday to be a Disciple of the Lord is in your heart. Your decision to obey God or to follow your own path, that comes from your heart. So, he says, Guard it. Watch over it. This happened to me: I had an area of my house that, in the spring, I got it just the way I wanted it. I raked it. I spread the mulch. I put plants in. I trimmed back other things. I got it looking really spiffy. I said, Now, I can go to work on another area. I knew it was going to be a big project. It lasted the rest of the spring. It lasted through the summer, and it lasted into the fall. In the meantime, I had not visited that part of my landscaping for a long time. I finally walked over there one day and looked at it in the fall. I had not seen it since the spring, and I was like hey, what happened? Weeds had started overtaking it. It looked terrible. It had been totally neglected, and as a result it was starting to return back to the wild. Have you ever had a part of your life where you work on it, and you think, Boy, Im getting the best of this and its starting to really straighten up. Now I can work on this other area? You neglect it, and what happens? It starts to go back to the way it was before-if not worse, doesnt it? This guarding our heart business, thats a full-time gig, isnt it? Thats a full-time job. The enemy plants weeds in our hearts. The world plants weeds in our hearts. If were going to sabotage our own garden, we really have our work cut out for it. If youre planting weeds in the very garden youre trying to keep pure from it, youre going to have a struggle. Yet, God says when we harbor these things, when we allow these things-we partake of-these things that displease Him, in essence, were planting weeds in our own garden. Were sabotaging ourselves and our walk. Thats why this is so important that we guard our hearts above all things. Were going to read in Luke today how Jesus gives us five manifestations of love that will help us to guard our heart. [In] Luke 6, remember that the law is summed up in love, or the basis of the law is love. Jesus said that. The law is summed up in these two things: love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and [love] your neighbor as yourself. The whole of the law is found in that. So these five manifestations are ways we guard our heart. They are ways we weed; they are ways we prevent weeds from growing and forming. When I treat my lawn, I not only treat the weeds that are there, but [I] put chemicals in the ground to prevent weeds from growing as well; so this is both proactive/preventative and curative-ways to get rid of things already there. Jesus is going to help us guard our hearts. If we follow these five precepts, it will help us guard our hearts. Were going to touch on them briefly and expound on some more in depth as we go. [Starting with] Verse 36 (page 1021 of pew Bibles), Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Notice first of all that our comparison-our standard- is whom? Its God. You say, Well, you know, if you think Im prejudice, you should talk to Bill at the shop. Hes really prejudice; that guy is! You should talk to Frank. If you think Im prejudice, you should talk to Frank over at the factory. Hes really prejudice. Your standard isnt Frank. You say, I like to gossip, but Suzy, shes really bad! She really gossips all the time! Well, your standard isnt Suzy. You prepare yourselves to the Lord. He is our standard. So, …be merciful or have compassion. Thats what this word means. If you have a compassionate heart, if you are walking in mercy, then it is less likely that weeds are going to grow in your garden. Youre fostering that kind of a heart, and that is, of course, an outflow of love. Mercy or compassion is an outflow of love. Do not judge, and you will not be judged. The word judge is where we get the word critical, or criticism, from in the Greek. This word here means to not be hypercritical of another person. Certainly gossip and slander would fall into this as well, malicious slander. Dont be quick to judge; dont be hypercritical. Dont make decisions on somebody without weighing all the facts and without investigating. Then He says (continuing in verse 37 of Luke 6), Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Now this word-condemned-ironically is a word that has the meaning of judgment. This is the one that we would use to say, Do not judge. Really, that word means dont be critical. This word do not condemn in essence means dont judge. Dont come to rash decisions and conclusions. Dont think that without the facts, you know whats on a persons heart and mind and condemn them for it. People do that. Sometimes people might look at you, and theyll say to you, Well, you dont like me because you looked at me funny. Have you ever had that happen? Or people will hear half of the story, draw a conclusion and condemn you. Jesus forbids that. He says, Dont do that. Dont be judgmental; dont be condemning. When you do those kinds of things, youre just planting one weed after another in the garden of your heart. Youre sabotaging your own spiritual walk when you engage in this kind of criticism and judgment and condemnation. Thats all youre doing, sabotaging your own life and your own heart. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. This word means to pardon or release, to let go of something-to release something. If Im having a tug-of-war, and I let go of the rope, thats forgiveness. Youre letting go. Weve talked about this, and weve explained that it is a decision we make. Its not an emotion; its an act of the will. Thats what it is. We saw an example of this in our community. There was a sad story in the news about a woman who was killed by a drunk driver. She was in the car with a drunk driver, and she was with child. [It was] a very sad story. The mother of the woman who lost her life practiced forgiveness. She said she didnt want charges to be brought against him because hed suffered enough, because he was genuinely sorry about what had happened. She chose to forgive him. He would have to suffer for the rest of his life, she said, so the charges of reckless homicide should be dropped according to the mom. What was that? That was forgiveness. Was that a warm, gushy feeling, or was that a decision she made? Was that an act of her will? Forgiveness doesnt mean that what the person did was right or justified. Forgiveness is necessary because God commands it; [he commands it] because if we dont forgive, the only alternative is bitterness. In the Book of James, it says, The root of bitterness grows in our life, and it defiles us. James says we are to be on guard against it. It will spread like a weed in your life. Guard against bitterness. The way to remove that weed is forgiveness. Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. You give… Thats whats so scary to me about our church-in a good way-right now. I see how we are becoming such a giving church. I think of our giving right now in Monterey Ministry. We sent a group of 28 people to the Dominican Republic, but the congregation sacrificed a lot to send us there. While we were there, these 28 people gave of ourselves to people who could not give back. You are continuing to give, continuing to send. The trustees, we were going over our missions giving for the last quarter. [There were] almost $10,000 given to world missions, not including the trips weve been on. You sent me, as a thank you for 25 years of ministry, to Sweden to minister there at that camp conference. God blessed that ministry. Youre giving, and if you keep this up, watch out! Watch out in a good way because God is going to bless our socks off! What He is saying here is you cant outgive God. You can try, but the more you give, the more God blesses. Ive seen our [church] body really grow in the area of our time, our resources, and of our own energies. I saw a lady who was wearing a T-shirt that said, We all have problems, but mine are more important than yours (the congregation laughs). Thats the problem with selfishness and greed. Were just planting all these weeds, planting all these unsightly things in the garden of our hearts. But giving, having a giving heart, rids us of selfishness and greed. It cleans us out; it cleans the garden; it pulls the weeds. Jesus says, It will work at guarding our hearts. This is how we do it, these five manifestations of love. Were going to be merciful, not be quick to judge, quick to condemn, [and well be quick] to forgive and to give. I found that gardening my heart is a full-time job. I think that youve found that gardening your heart, watching over your heart, is a full-time job. Thats why Im always so amazed that there are some people who can garden their hearts-as big of a job as that is-and still have enough time to garden yours. Isnt that amazing? They are so efficient-they are so good at what they do-that it almost seems like they have more time to work on the garden of your heart than they do on their own garden. Isnt that amazing? Teach me those skills, how you can be so proficient as weeding and taking care of all the problems in your own life-that you can spend the majority of your time working on somebody elses. You understand Im being facetious. Jesus talks about that. He says, Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brothers eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? No attention! In other words, youre spending so much time taking inventory for others, youre not even paying attention to whats going on in your own life. You come with a bucket or a shovel. Are you coming to take it in, or are you coming to elbow and say, Boy, Im glad so-and-so is here to hear that!? Do you know who the Lord is glad to have been here and heard that? You! He says, How can you say to your brother, Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye, when you yourself failed to see the plank in your own? You hypocrite! First take the plank out of your own eye! First deal with your own problems, your own weeds. Then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brothers eye. We dont normally do this: [record] conversations that [take place] behind closed doors, tape them and show them in church. We thought wed make an exception this Sunday. These two guys are out of town, so were going to show you this confrontation that weve taped here as one brother confronts another brother about the sin in his life. Lets watch. You may have been involved in a conversation like that at some point-its a comedic. I think when Jesus told this, when he talked about the speck and the plank, I bet there were some chuckles. Its a funny thing to think about, somebody doing this, but we do it. Jesus is saying here, You have enough work cut out for you with just your own life. Watching over your own heart requires diligence. Some have taken these passages, such as the one we just read: Do not judge; do not condemn and the part about the speck and the log in your eye, and theyve said, This is teaching that we cant judge people. We cant form opinions. We cant take any action steps. The church can never discipline. This is just the way it is. How many of you have heard this passage interpreted that way? A lot of us have. A lot of us have. Lets read on to what Jesus says in Verse 43, No good tree bears bad fruit… By the way, the tree is representative of a life, in this analogy, and the fruit is the representative of our actions and our deeds. No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree or each person is recognized by its own fruit. In Matthew 7:20 (page 961), Jesus gives a similar teaching and sums it up by saying, By their fruits, you will know them, or by our fruits, you will recognize them. God says, You can be a fruit inspector if you look at the fruits of someones life. People do not pick figs from thornbushes or grapes from briers. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. Youd almost think there that Jesus is talking about us forming judgments based upon facts, wouldnt you? For out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. Jesus says you will know that somebody is what they say they are or not by their actions and by the words that come out of their mouths. He is saying here that you can form an opinion. You can make a judgment when you have facts, when you have proof. If there is a consistent lifestyle, consistent things that are happening, you can form an opinion. It does not at all mean that you and I can ever form judgments about people or situations. It condemns a superficial judgment, a judgment that has not weighed the facts, a judgment that has not heard both sides. That is a judgment that is wrong and should have no part in our lives. Jesus says you can weigh a life; you can look at consistent fruit and the overflow of the heart and form an opinion. Paul talks about this in 1 Corinthians 5. Lets turn there (page 1131). In 1 Corinthians 5, hes writing about immorality in the church in Corinth. That immorality involves a person who is unrepentant. They are not sorry for what they have done, and they are continuing to do the very thing that God does not approve of. Theyre doing it in a blatant way, and the church is looking the other way. The church is doing nothing about the problem. It is simply allowing it to exist. Paul is appalled not only by the sin, but he is equally appalled by the church turning the other way and not dealing with the sin. Have you ever read in the newspaper or seen in the news about churches or denominations or groups that have had sin within their church, and leadership has looked the other way? How about almost every week? Almost every week it happens. I deal with it. Ive dealt with leaders who have come to me and have said, Can you help us? Heres what has happened in our church. Can you help guide us through this situation? Because they know weve been through situations, they have come to us and said, You handled this right. Can you help us to deal with this? [This is] because churches do not often deal with things biblically. Many do, but many dont and have disastrous results as a result of that. They look the other way, probably because there were some people in the church saying, You know you shouldnt judge. You know we shouldnt condemn, shouldnt judge people. Paul says, Wait a second. Youre not understanding that Scripture. Youre not rightly applying the word of truth. He says in Verse 3, Even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit. And I have already passed what? …judgment on the one who did this as if I were present. He talks about why this person needs to be removed from the body. He talks about how yeast gets in a loaf of bread and spreads all through the bread. So if this sin is allowed to exist in your body, it will befoul your body. It will spread throughout your body. We need to do something with it. Verse 12, What business of it is mine to judge those outside the church? Now listen to the next rhetorical question. Paul says, Are you not to judge those inside? Its a rhetorical question. The answer is yes. God will judge those outside. Then he quotes Deuteronomy and says, Expel the wicked man from among you. When Jesus gave that teaching in Luke, it was an apparent contradiction. If were to understand when he says, Do not judge and do not condemn, does it mean we can never form a judgment or opinion or take an action based upon behavioral words? [If thats the case] then Paul contradicted Jesus because he just said we could. Sometimes the church does have to take this action. Its rare. Were going on 18 years of ministry this January, and the amount of times weve had to remove people from our body you can count on one hand and not use every finger. When its done, its done with the plurality of leadership. Its something the elders would be in agreement upon as a body. When youre dealing with an individual who is in sin and is unrepentant of that sin and in your opinion is harmful to the body… If a person is repentant, remorseful, and makes amends, you can do wonders, but if a person is not, then leadership has a responsibility to act in the best interest of the church and according to the commands of Gods Word. We read the story in John 8 about the woman caught in adultery. The men gather stones in their hands, and they come to Jesus to trap Him. They say, The law says we should stone this woman caught in adultery. What do You say? Jesus says, Let her go. They will say, What about the law? and if Jesus says, Stone her, theyll say, What about all the forgiveness and grace you talk about? No matter which way He goes, Hes trapped. Jesus then stoops down to the ground and begins to write, and the word is katagraphien, [meaning] to write against. Its not just doodling or scribbling. Hes writing on the ground. They look down and see what Jesus is doing. They read the words. Jesus stands up and says, He who is without sin casts the first stone. Youre so busy taking the inventory of this woman; youre so busy pointing out the weeds in her garden, what about those in yours? You have enough to take care of. You need to get home and start doing some pulling in your own garden. One by one, they drop their stones and walk away. There is one who could throw a stone. There was one without sin, but He does not throw a stone. He sees her repentant spirit. He sees her brokenness. He sees her sorrow and grief. She knows what she did was wrong, and shes embarrassed and ashamed. She wants to live a life that honors God, so He says, Neither do I condemn you. He practices the very thing He preached. He said, Go on. Leave your life of sin. I guarantee you that story would have had a different ending. The reason that woman was able to go and have a new start was because of her repentant spirit, her brokenness over sin. I guarantee you that if Jesus had said, Neither do I condemn you. Go, leave your life of sin, and she would have stood up and said, What do you mean, sin? Its not sin. I dont believe in sin. Ill do what I want with whom I want, when I want, where I want, whenever I want, and You cant tell me what to do. I guarantee you that the story in John wouldnt end the same way. Jesus might have a response to that. Jesus might have something He would say to her about her lifestyle and choice. When somebody has made that decision to defy the Lord and is unrepentant, church leadership has a responsibility then to act in the best interest of the body. By the way, two years from now or five years from now, when somebody you know is removed from the church, there is really good reason for it. We may not be able to give you all the salacious details, but know that decision was made in community and know that decision was made with investigation. Feel free to come to us and talk with us. [You can] say, I want to know. I liked Charlie. I liked Mary Sue. Whered they go? Without divulging confidentiality, we will share with you why the elders made the decision they made without breaking or giving salacious details away. Its okay to ask that question. Know its done in community, and know its rare. My prayer is that it will never happen again in this body. Should that situation ever arise, the leadership will address it and deal with it. We will not cover it up. We will not hide it. Paul is not done. Look at Verse 9. He says, I have written to you in my letter, not to associate with sexually immoral people-not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral… Thats not what I meant. …or the greedy or swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. But now I am writing you that you must not associate… That means to have a close friendship with. …not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother… calls himself a Christian. …but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man… such a person, …do not even eat. Does it sound to you there like Paul is saying its okay to form a judgment when you have facts? There are times when judging is necessary, but its not superficial. Its not assumptive-if that is a word. It is something when one has heard both sides of an issue, when one has pondered, one has investigated, one has looked at the acts of a life and made a decision. The people Paul is talking about here are not people who occasionally have struggled with this, repented and moved on. What Paul here is talking about is habitual sin Somebody who names the name of Christ and has lived a lifestyle contrary to the Word of God does so blatantly and openly and without repentance. Paul says, That is a person you break fellowship from. You make a judgment and you break fellowship. Some of you have been in relationships that are harmful and destructive because youve been taught you shouldnt judge. You need to make some decisions. If thats the case, you need to be seeking some pastoral counsel, some professional help and guidance because those webs can get pretty complicated and pretty hard to untangle. You can say, Im in a friendship, Im in a relationship, where somebody names the name of Christ, and yet, they live totally contrary to that. Its inconsistent. Their behavior, their confession of Christ, and their lifestyle are totally incongruent with one another. As Christians, Paul says, You can make a judgment about that individual. You can take action steps and [decide] with whom you will spend time. As a church, leadership has responsibility from time to time to make judgment and in extreme cases, even expel someone from fellowship because of it. So what are our action steps this morning? There are a lot of them. The first thing you must do is you must look at your garden and say, How am I doing in those manifestations? Am I guarding my heart? Am I trying to live my life with compassion and forgiveness, trying not to be quick to condemn or judge? [Am I] a forgiving and giving person? What weeds are in my garden that need to be removed right now? Who do I need to forgive? Who do I need to show mercy toward? If youre really brave, find somebody and say, Hey, help me with my garden. I give you permission to tell me areas that need help, areas Ive neglected. Help me to be a gardener, and Ill help you, not in the spirit of the guy in the video. When youve given permission for somebody to do that, thats for the brave. Secondly, determine if youre making sure you are taking care of your garden first, your heart first, watching over your heart first. Youre not so busy taking others inventory or watching over others hearts that youre neglecting your own? The Lord said thats hypocritical. He said, First take care of your own life. Guard over your own heart. Make sure youre putting that first. Thirdly, and this will not be the majority of this-this will be a minority-but there are some who need to make some judgments. Maybe youre involved in a relationship or a friendship that is destructive. Somebody is naming the name of Christ and yet living contrary to everything the Lord stands for. You need help in that area; you need advice. Im not telling you to make any rash decisions, but Im telling you to pray, seek counsel, and in many cases, take action. It is a misnomer to say, We dont judge people. Thats a blanket statement. Its not what Christ meant. Christ would be contradicting His own self in that passage if that were the correct interpretation of that verse. So we have a lot to do, dont we? Every person here has a lot to do. Guarding our hearts is something that is a lifetime job, 24/7. God has promised to help us do that. God is using this message in many of your lives this morning to do that very thing. Following these precepts, following these directives, will enable you to guard your heart. Lets stand for prayer. Well pick up there next week. Im going to ask our youth minister, Mike Powers, to close us in prayer this morning.
I heard about a trucker who pulled off [the road] and wanted to get a cup of coffee, a burger, some fries, and just relax a little bit before he went back on the road. While he was in there, some bikers came by,tough guys. They decided they were going to cause some trouble by having a little fun with this man. They were acting like punks and took off his hat, drank his coffee, grabbed his fries, and just harassed him. They embarrassed him, intimidated him. He was afraid. He didnt know what to do; there were three of them and one of him. He basically just took it. He didnt say a word in his defense. He got up, paid for his meal, and he left the restaurant. One of the bikers looked at the waitress and made a snide remark. He said, That guy sure wasnt much of a man. Thats for sure. The waitress looked out the window and said, Well, I dont know if hes much of a man or not, but Ill tell you this: hes not much of a driver because he just ran over three motorcycles in the driveway. That is our natural tendency, is it not, when we have been wronged? Its to wrong back. When we have been hurt, its to hurt back. If weve been punched, its to punch back. Jesus is going to come and teach something radical. The words He is about to say have never been said. Thats how radical they are. Lets take a look [in Luke 6:27, page 1021 of pew Bibles), But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies… Love your enemies. What would you say had you been there that day for the sermon on the plain and you heard Him say that? You might say, What? Come again? Did I hear you correctly? Love my enemies? I can understand if I heard You say to tolerate my enemies. I can understand if You said dont seek revenge against my enemies, but come on? Love my enemies? How about if I just ignore my enemies? Maybe thats good enough, but love my enemies? We need to first understand what the word love means. The Greeks had many words for love. We have one word for love, and we use it for every kind of love we have. We might say, I love my family. I love my country. I love my favorite team. I love my church. I love pizza. I love puppies. One word covers the whole lot; but in the Greek, there were different words for different kinds of love because the love you have for your family is different than the love you have for your friends. Its a different kind of love than the love you have for your enemies. I have Eros for my wife; thats a passionate love. I have Phileo for my friends; thats a brotherly love. Agape love is something we should have for everybody, including our enemies. Agape love is a love that is not an emotion, as it is an act of the will. Its a decision to seek the highest and best for another-even the people you dont like or the people that dont like you. Rather than plotting revenge or wishing ill upon, you hope for the highest and best. Thats called agape love. Thats a God-kind of love. That does not come naturally. Jesus says it will manifest in several ways. First, He says it will manifest by the fact that you will do good to those who hate you. Secondly, you will bless those who curse you. Third, you will pray for those who mistreat you. Youll notice that each of these three things is an action, is it not? We think, I forgive and dont think about my enemies anymore. I tolerate my enemies. I should get a pat on the back. Thats good enough, right? Jesus says there is action to be done. Everything here is an action. Its taking initiative. Its a verb-to bless, to pray, to do good. Its not simply enough to tolerate. Do we do this? What does it look like when we do it-to do good for those who hate us? I head an example of a church that was very much involved in the pro-life movement. They were out there. They were picketing clinics, [putting out] a lot of literature, very active, a lot of sermons about the topic, very vocal, and really on the edge of that movement. There were some opponents who decided they were going to picket that church. Three groups banded together and showed up at the church. They said, Now its your turn to be picketed. So imagine coming to church on a Sunday morning. Youre going to come worship God and hear the Word, and you have to go through a line of angry protestors with signs saying bad things about you and your church. What would that church do? What would that pastor do? How would they respond? Would they retaliate? Would they exchange rhetoric? Would they make up signs and try to drown out the protestors? Or would they simply ignore them and pretend they werent there, hoping theyd go away? Heres what they did. They chose to follow the precepts in this message. They ordered extra coffee to be made that day and extra donuts to be bought. They would bring those to the protestors. Its really hard to be angry at somebody who brings you a donut. It really is. It would be like, Ahhhh! Ahhh! Ahh! Oh, thank you! Cream-filled. Oh, how nice. Or if that particular day was a cold, windy, rainy day, somebody brings you something warm to drink on a day like that, its hard to be angry, isnt it? It was also a rainy day, so they asked their parishioners to bring extra umbrellas. When the rain started to come down, they brought the umbrellas out to the protestors and gave them to them. They were ordered not to shout back. They were told to dialog if they wanted to, but they could just talk-not shout and not exchange rhetoric; they were there to listen and answer, not to exchange remarks of hatred. Do you think that church handled it the right way? They did, didnt they? They lived out what Jesus said here. Youre going to do good to those who hate you. Youre going to bless those who curse you. Remember we talked about bless last week. Jesus began His sermon on the plain by saying, Blessed are you when? We learned that that word bless is a different word than this word bless. That word bless was an adjective and described the emotion of happiness. Happy are you when you follow after God. This is a verb, and it comes from two words: good [and] word. Legeco. [It meant] to say a good thing about someone. So if somebody is saying ill about you and trashing you, rather than offer back more vial, venom and hate-filled speech in their direction, Jesus says, Bless them. Say a good word about them. Find something admirable that you can say. I think one of the best people I ever heard about doing this was Abraham Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln was a man who made friends out of his enemies. One of his arch rivals was a man by the name of Edwin Stanton. Edwin Stanton was the polar opposite of Abraham Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln was tall and gangly. This guy was short and stocky. Abraham Lincoln was a laid back good guy [with a] good sense of humor. This man was all business and did not have a good sense of humor. He was very high strung, very hyper. One was a republican; one was a democrat. Both had very different philosophies of what to do with slavery. They were both against it, but they had a different idea of how to handle things in the civil war. Politically, philosophically, temperament-wise, these two men were different. Stanton took every opportunity he had to attack Lincoln. He called him the original gorilla. Im not exactly sure what he meant by that, but he would say that a lot. He would not only attack mean-spirited stuff, but he would attack his appearance. He would talk about how ugly he was. When you look at the pictures, he was no prize himself. He would talk about his lack of intellect, how dumb he was. He would talk about how bad his policies were. He would just attack him at every front. Lincoln, of course, made it to the office, the Oval Office. He started to think about a secretary of war. He said, We need a man of conviction. We need a man of courage; a man that will stay his ground; a man who will work hard; a man who understands the cause. He said, Ive decided that man is Edwin Stanton. They said, Mr. Lincoln, you cannot be serious. You know the things he said about you. Mr. Lincoln said, Ive looked over the land. Hes the best man for the job. Hes the best man for our country at this time. So he made his nemesis the secretary of war. When it was all said and done and Lincoln lay dying in that bed across from Fords Theatre… Weve been there [by the way]; you can still see the blood-stained sheets and pillows, just like it was the day he died... They havent changed it, havent moved it. Stanton took off his hat and said, Now, he belongs to the ages. It is a famous quote. He said, Of the leaders of men, there was none greater than Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln made a friend of an enemy. Lincoln followed this precept. He could have exchanged rhetoric. They never would have had a friendship, and our country would have lost out on a good secretary of war when we needed him in our nations history. Do you read this stuff? Isnt this radical stuff here? Pray for those who mistreat you. Its hard to hate somebody that youre praying for. Pray for those who mistreat you. (Picking up on Luke 6:28, still page 1021), If somebody strikes you on the cheek, turn the other cheek also. If he takes your cloak, give him your tunic. Give to everyone who asks of you, and anyone who takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do you do that? Do unto others as youd have them do to you. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? How different from the world is that? Even sinners do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. So if youre truly going to stand out from the world, you have to be different from the world. When Christians follow these precepts and principles, they do stand out. They do look different. There is a striking resemblance to the Lord, and there is a cause to go who in the world are these people? How in the world can they do that and think that way? Remember the story in the news not long ago, the tragic story about the man who-for whatever reason-broke into an Amish schoolhouse and killed five little girls in cold blood? That is a horrific story. Its hard to imagine a worse story than that. We dont know a lot about the Amish, really. We know how they dress; we know theyre religious; we know theyre separatists. We understand they dont participate with the culture-they have their own culture. They dont watch television, have electricity, or any of that. We understand that, but really, do we understand the inns and outs? Maybe we have seen a documentary from time to time or toured an Amish community. We have some knowledge, but they are a bit of an enigma to us, arent they? When we see them in a restaurant-occasionally theyll come out in public… They dress differently; they look differently; its a little awkward. How many [of you] have ever had a meaningful conversation with somebody who is Amish? A few of us. The bottom line is other than those things, they are just people like us, but we tend to not understand them. I tell you what, the world stood up and took notice because the world watched how they responded. I watched as the leader of that group got up and stood in front of those cameras. We want the world to know that we forgive this man. Peoples jaws dropped, and they said, How in the world do you forgive a man who did what he did? That family, that Amish community, that night was at the home of the killer-the family of the killer-reaching out to them. Radical? Crazy? [Yes], but Biblical. Its what a Christ-follower is expected to do. When you truly live the way Jesus said to live here, you will stand out. You will not blend in. Its pretty radical stuff. People respond to it. They were praying for the victims family. He said, We can only do this by the grace of God. Jesus commanded us to do this. We want Jesus to forgive us, so we have made a choice to forgive this man from our hearts. I met man while I was playing basketball-hopefully, Ill play again one day… He was pretty active; he just moved into the community. There are times when people just rub you the wrong way, and we kind of rubbed each other the wrong way. I remember during one game, we had an argument about what the score was. I got a little demonstrative about the score. I said, Thats not the score! He didnt like my tone, so he decided he was going to show me one of his fingers…for an extended period of time. He really wanted me to see it good and study it for some reason. I took offense to that. I just looked at him and didnt say anything back. I didnt show him any of my fingers. I said, Okay, all right. Not long after that, the play resumed, and he was hit in the head. [He received] a pretty good cut. The Lord spoke to me and said-not audibly, but I just felt impressed that this was the time to make a move, so I finished him off. I beat him to a pulp (congregation laughing). I ran out, ran down and grabbed an ice pack. I came back, gave it to him, and helped him off the court. I checked up on him and made sure he was okay. Guess what two guys became friends from that day to this, almost 17 years later? Thats right. How did that happen? I did [a] good [thing] to somebody who didnt like me. I followed these principles. I dont always do it the right way. You dont always do it the right way. Sometimes we falter; but when we truly do it the way God wants us to do it, well stand out. Why? Because well be like God. He says, …but love your enemies and do good to them. Lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and youll be like sons of the Most High because He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful just as your Father in Heaven is merciful. He says, Youre going to be like God if you do this. Have you ever heard the Scripture that says, You know he causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust. People will usually quote that, meaning that bad things happen to good people. They say, Rain falls on the just and the unjust. Thats not what Jesus is talking about. Hes talking about just the exact opposite. He says in Matthew 5[:45], He caused the rain to fall to the just and the unjust. It was blessings. He causes the sun to shine on the just and the unjust. Its talking about the goodness of God to people who dont love Him. Jesus says, When you do that, youre like God. Thats what got us in trouble to begin with, because we wanted to be like God. We thought to be like God, we should be in charge of our own life and our own destiny. He says, No, if you are merciful, if you do the things Im talking about here today, youre going to be like God. Theres a law at work, and that law is called the Law of Reciprocity. The Law of Reciprocity is described in these verses. It says (in Luke 6:37), Do not judge and you will not be judged. By the way, were going to talk about that the next time Im here because thats one of the most quoted, misunderstood verses in the Bible. Do not condemn and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. The Law of Reciprocity: its going to come back to you. Its a strange expression, isnt it? Will it be poured into your lap? Where does that come from? Some of your Bibles might say be poured into your bosom. They had the robes, and they would tie them up with the belt. It would form a pocket here. They could actually carry things; if we needed to carry something, we just put it in your pocket. It was right here (pointing to the bosom area). It was in your clothing. So, Jesus is using a word picture. He says, Well…give into your bosom or put on your lap… Its like a guy sitting down with his breasts full or his lap full of stuff in his pocket. If Jesus were giving the sermon today, He might say, Men are going to give to you until your pockets are full. Youre going to be blessed. If the Law of Reciprocity is true in the positive-if we give, well be given unto us; if we forgive, well be forgiven; if we love, well receive love back; its also true in the negative. If we hate, we will what? Reap hate. If we have unforgiveness, we will reap? Unforgiveness. If we dont have mercy, we will not receive mercy. You say, Well, why do I have to love my enemies? If you dont love your enemies, youll hate your enemies. If you have hate and unforgiveness in your heart, it will consume you. It will take over you. Were going to watch a vivid illustration of this. Theres an alien symbiote that lands on our friend, Peter Parker (from Spiderman 3), transforming him from a good guy to a bad guy. He kind of likes the power; he kind of likes the edginess, but pretty soon he finds out he cant live with himself. He wants to get rid of this presence in his life that has started taking over. While hes doing that, his nemesis, Eddie Brock, is praying for revenge. Lets watch. Some of you are thinking, How in the world did you get a clip from Spiderman 3? We know people. [No], its legal. He just consumed it. I hate it when that happens, but hate takes over, and it consumes. It will transform you into a person you do not want to become. It will begin to infiltrate and penetrate into every area of your life. Jesus says, God wants you free from that. Its a choice you make. Through unforgiveness, through hatred, through bitterness, we allow that to reside. We give it permission to be in our lives. What youll find is over time, when resentments and wrongs and so forth arent dealt with as Christ wants them to be dealt with, they dont go away. They spread. They grow, and they mutate. They transform, and its not a good transformation. I have a laptop, and Ive been playing with the laptop. Were using it for our ministry here, and the family computer-in the meantime-got a hold of one of those crazy pop-ups [that come up] all the time. They said, We cant use the computer. Its just popping up all the time. So you try to run the scanning programs to get rid of it, but it wouldnt get rid of it. I started researching it. It said you cant get rid of it because you gave it permission to be there. It was the kind of thing you had to manually download into your computer, so it overrode the protection because you gave it permission to be there. Therefore, you have to get rid of it manually. It comes on your computer and says, Warning! Your computer has been attacked. Download this now to protect your computer. This is an anti-virus, anti-spam that will protect your computer. When you downloaded it, it actually was the problem. It is the enemy. It is what you dont want, but it comes in disguise. Does that sound familiar to you? The Bible says the enemy comes like an angel of light. He tries to make the wrong thing sound very good. He tries to give us all the right reasons why we dont need to follow what God says to do, and we allow it in. I couldnt get it off. I tried scanning. I tried talking with tech-support. It would pop up during tech support, and it wouldnt go away. In fact, I would try to read, and it would block half of what tech support from Norton was saying. I could only read the right half and try to figure it out. I typed back, Can you please type on the right side only because I cant see what youre saying. Heres whats going on. I was supposed to start the computer in safe mode. Even in safe mode, it would attack. It would pop up. It wouldnt let me run safe mode. This was a problem! I started doing some research, and I found that there was a company that had found a way to isolate this particular problem, so I purchased it. As I was buying it, it was a war. This thing had pop-ups like six in a row, boom, boom, boom. You couldnt click them out fast enough. It was just me and this adware thing! It was two in the morning, and I was thinking, I will defeat you! The closer I got to a solution, the crazier this thing got. Finally, I have to be careful what I say because if I say I have it solved, I will go home and find pop-ups everywhere. Finally, for the first time in any scan, I captured something that said it was that very thing. Then the computer asked me the question, Would you like to remove this? There it was, this monster, this pop-up maniac. It was reduced to this little file with a check mark in it. Do you want to remove it? I was like, I shall destroy you!! Ahhhh! So far, its doing pretty well. But friends, if you have that in your lives, you have to remove that because its only going to get worse over time. It will consume you. It may not turn you into our friend Venom on the screen, but its venomness. Its poison, and it spreads. Jesus says, I dont want that in My followers. God wants us free. What a perfect time and what a perfect message to receive communion. Think about it. Jesus modeled this Scripture, didnt He, on the cross? He did good for those who hated Him. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. He blessed those who cursed Him. He prayed for those who mistreated Him. Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. God chose, instead of wrath, upon a rebellious people, He chose to pay the price by sending His Son. [He chose to] offer forgiveness and eternal life. Jesus was not a hypocrite. He lived what He preached. On the Sermon on the Mount and on the Sermon on the Plain, He did that very thing. So many of the followers of Christ, and the Apostle Paul, were going to read about the Apostle Paul was His enemy. His job was to destroy the church. He wanted to literally eliminate Christianity from the globe. He became the most radical, sold-out missionary for Christ ever. God loves His enemies. If youre here today and you dont know the Lord, youre not serving the Lord, He doesnt hate you. Hes not looking to punish you. He loves you. He wants to have a relationship with you through Jesus Christ, if youll allow Him to-if you will invite Him in, even today. Were going to ask you to bow your heads right now and just pray. Were going to have some music playing for us as we prepare our hearts. I believe well have communion if our ushers could serve that for us at this time. Just use this as a time of meditation and reflection. If youre here this morning and you are not a member of our church, but you are a follower of Christ, then you are welcome to receive with us today. This is open communion. You are a part of our family if you name His name. Id like to read from 1 Corinthians 11. The Apostle Paul says, For I receive from the Lord what I also passed onto you The Lord Jesus, on the night He was betrayed, took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me. In the same way, after supper, He took the cup, saying, This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of Me. He was sharing with the Disciples something they did not understand. That is He was not going to offer up a lamb. He was going to offer up His life. He was going to become a lamb. He was going to become the sacrifice. He says, Its for you. Its personal. Its for you. Christ died for you, not just for humanity. He died for you. So as we pray, say, Thank you for dying for me. Anything you need to confess to Him, confess it this morning. Any unforgiveness in your heart, make it right. Choose today to agape. God will give you the strength to do that. Choose today to be free. We saw that clip. We are either seeking to get rid of those demons, remove them from our lives, or we are allowing them to stay. Which are you today? Its my hope that you will walk out of this place-if thats you-free men and women because as you have been forgiven, you have chosen to forgive. Lets just have a few minutes of quiet reflection and meditation, and then I will pray. Well then receive of the elements together. Maybe some of those pop-ups are going off in your minds right now-just all the reasons why you shouldnt do this, all the reasons why you shouldnt forgive. Friends, that should be a warning flag to you-the reason that you need to. It is going to want to hold on; its going to want to stay; its going to want to hide, but you have to bring it into the light, so the Lord can remove it from your life. Father, as we gather around Your table today, we are mindful of a Savior who practiced what He preached, who loved those who did not love Him back, who did good to those who hated Him, who blessed those who cursed Him, who prayed for those who mistreated Him, who gave His life even for people who tried to destroy His church. Lord, we are recipients of that love today, so we give You thanks and praise, and we worship You for who You are. We thank You for all Youve done. We pray for Your forgiveness for our sins. Lord, as You taught us to forgive, help us to be forgiving people. As You demonstrated love, help us to be a loving people, to live out-with Your help-these principles You taught that day and are still teaching. We pray that we would be free, that the Law of Reciprocity would work in our favor, that our lap would be full of blessings. Thank You for Your sacrifice, for Your love. My prayer today is for those whove not received You, that even this morning, they would say, Come into my life, Lord Jesus. Forgive my sins. Change me. Make me new. In Your name we pray, Amen. Remembering His sacrifice, lets receive together of His broken body and of His shed blood with grateful hearts.
You dont necessarily have to be somebody who follows the stock market or Wall Street to be aware of what happened in our country in the 90s, early 2000. A company named Enron really took off-an energy company that thought outside the box. They diversified the kinds of energy they dealt with. They would use innovative ways to draw investors into the market, really capitalizing on the internet as no other company had done. They made billions of dollars and thousands for their investors. Their stock climbed and had a great rate of return, so they became this paradigm for how to do business in the 90s. In fact, Fortune Magazine-six years in the running-said they were the most innovative company in America. Then, in 2001, the empire came crashing down. It turns out they were not a rich, successful company at all. What they were doing was hiding money in offshore companies, hiding their losses. Then, a reputable accounting firm, Arthur Anderson, was working with them. They were presenting books to the public and to their investors that were inaccurate. They were actually hurting. They then began to encourage their investors to buy stock, their company employees to buy stock, while they-the big wigs, the executives, were selling theirs because they knew of the impending disaster. So this entire insider trading went on while they sold their stock. Then, of course, the company went bankrupt. The stock plummeted to about a dollar a share. People lost their entire life savings. It was not insured. Retirement was gone; college funds were gone, everything. To this day, theyre still fighting to get some of the money back. There have been indictments; some people went to prison. There has been some justice that was merited out, but it was a wake up call to the business world, to investors. It was an example of what greed will do and what selfishness will do-that someone would put their own family and their own needs ahead of an entire company. They really could have cared less [about] the working man who kept the company going. They ruined his entire retirement. As long as they were fat and sassy, they were okay. It was just a sad story. Thats a true story; however, what Im going to say to you right now is not a true story. This is fictitious, but I want you to imagine what if there had been a congressional hearing. Enron executives came, those who had thought up the scheme and carried it out came, and then those who were the investors-the innocent parties, the victims-also came before Congress. Testimony was heard for days and weeks. Finally, the gavel was hit on the table, and the one who ruled over the meeting said, We find that Enron is guilty. We are going to pursue legal action. There are going to be indictments, and people are going to go to prison. We want you to know that youve done wrong. There is coming a day of reckoning. Youre living high in the land now, but there will come a day when youre going to pay the fiddler. You people who have lost everything, we promise you-we guarantee you-youll get back everything youve lost. Were going to give you back interest too. Your sorrow is going to turn to joy when you get that fat check in the mail. Youre going to have a happy ending because were going to see to it that you do. If you had been in that room that day-if this had taken place-those same words would have been both good news and bad news, depending on what side of the fence you were on. If you were one of the investors, that would have been really good news. If you were one of the swindlers, that would have been really bad news. Its a wake-up call that accountability is coming. Jesus in Luke 6 is going to say some words that for some are really good news and for others are a wake-up call. There is an accountability-there is a reckoning-coming. This is called The Sermon on the Plain. It sounds like The Sermon on the Mountain a little bit because it talks about the Beatitudes; but if you compare the two, the Beatitudes in Matthew are different than the ones in Luke. Instead of preaching from a mountain, Hes on a plain. This is called the Sermon on the Plain, and its the first time Jesus and the 12 Apostles are together as a team. Prior to this Jesus has either been by Himself or with a few, but now He goes into a mountain and prays all night on the mountain. He comes down and He chooses twelve. He appoints them as His Apostles. Then they begin as the team of Jesus and the 12 Apostles for the first time right here. So this is the first teaching out of the blocks as that team that were so familiar with. In Verse 17 (of Luke 6, page 1020 of pew Bibles), He went down with them and stood on a level place… Thus, the Sermon on Plain. A large crowd of His Disciples was there and a great number of people all over Judea, from Jerusalem, and from the coast of Tyre and Sidon, who had come to hear Him and to be healed of their diseases. Those troubled by evil spirits were cured, and the people all tried to touch Him, because power was coming from Him and healing them all. So, this is a hurting group; this is a needy group that has assembled to meet Jesus. (Continuing on page 1021, Verse 20), Looking at His Disciples, He said: Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man. Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult your name as evil, because of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in Heaven. For that is how their fathers treated the prophets. When we talked about these Beatitudes, the first thing we need to talk about is what this word blessed means because He uses it four times. Its a significant word. Its saying something they are, and we need to understand what it is. As often times is the case, in the original languages, there are several words that translate into our language as a common word. Love, for instance: we read the word love, but if you look in the Greek, it could be a different word. It could be Phileo; it could be Agape. It could be Eros. The same thing is true with this word, bless. There are two dominant words in the Greek for the word blessed. They mean two different things. When its translated into our language, it simply says blessed or blessing. Its the same word for us, but its really a different word that was used. The first word, and the most common-when we think of a blessing-is Eulogeo. That means to pronounce a blessing, to be blessed. Its a verb; its an action. That word was used when Jesus broke bread. He blessed the bread and broke it. It was used when He came into Israel, and they said, Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. It was used when Mary went to Elizabeth, and she said, Blessed are you among women and blessed is your womb. That was the word. It meant divine favor, a verb of action-a blessing of somebody. Thats not the word He uses here. Thats the word we would think He would use, but Hes actually not using that word. Hes using a different word. Hes using the word happy. Now, its accurately translated as blessed. Thats an accurate translation, but it is an adjective, not a verb. It is talking about a state of mind, a state of being-an emotion. Jesus says, Happy are you. Ive heard this taught many times through the years that we shouldnt use the word happy or we shouldnt be happy. We instead want to have joy. Have you heard that? A few of us have heard that. Its not necessarily a bad teaching, but we should not teach happiness as thought its taboo either or some sort of Christian swear word we should avoid, Dont say happy. Thats based on circumstances. This word happy [is used for] circumstances, so if its happiness, that changes with circumstances and emotion. Joy, thats a constant regardless of the circumstances. Its true, but here Jesus said, Be happy or have happiness, so it cant be a bad thing, right? I have a friend who has Christian swear words. His name is Greg Speck. Hes a youth minister. If he hits his thumb with a hammer, hell say dance! or cigarettes! He even invented a word called ginortenfortz. He likes to play basketball, and he fouled somebody. He got mad at the ref and said, I got ginortenfortz. The ref said, What did you say? Ginortenfortz. Oh, okay? I guess. So thats what I think of when I think of the word happy. Oh, dont say that! like its some sort of bad word. Its okay to be happy, Jesus says. Its okay to have the emotion of happiness because in this situation, that emotion is based upon facts that do not change. Theyre based upon a God who does not change. He says, If this is your mindset, you will have the emotion of happiness. This is translated here, accurately, blessed. It is another word for the word blessed, not the one we would normally think of, but accurate nonetheless. Whats interesting is who He says is blessed. Youd think the people who are blessed would be the people who are rich, well-fed, happy, and well-liked. Jesus says, Blessed are the poor; blessed are those who weep; blessed are those who are hungry; blessed are those who are hated. How in the world can that be? Well talk about it in just a few moments, but what I want you to get right now is a different mindset because Jesus is teaching a radical thing here. Jesus is teaching a different mentality, a different way to see the world-a different way to look at the world. Since it is the weekend of Memorial Day, we remember our soldiers and the Military who fought and died for our country, for our freedom. Were going to take a look at an elite group right now of people who pit their lives on the line for humanity. Lets take a look at this, and then well talk about their mindset. This is from the movie, The Guardian. They didnt get paid much money, and there was a very good chance they would die at sea-slowly, cold and alone. Where do we sign up? Theyre saying sign me up because they see the cause. They see a bigger picture. Theyre living for something greater than themselves. Jesus, here, is going to deal with the hurting. Hes going to get them to see that something greater than themselves is at stake here. Notice who Jesus is talking to because thats really the key. If you dont catch whom He is talking to here, then you might read these words and think, Oh, its good to be poor. Oh, its good to be hungry. Its good to cry. Its good to be hated and rejected. Thats not what He was saying at all. Notice in Verse 20, He says, Looking at His disciples, He said… Who was He speaking to here? His followers. The first thing I notice when I read this passage is it communicates to me that even followers of Jesus will struggle in life. Even followers of Christ will experience hardship and loss. Its diverse too, isnt it? Its talking about the poor, financial hardship; he talks about those who are sad-emotional hardship; those who are hungry-physical hardship; those who are hated and rejected-mental hardship. Followers of Christ will suffer. There is a group or a school of thought that is called the Prosperity Gospel. They teach you that if you are a person of faith, youll never suffer or never go through loss. Everything is always going to be great. Everything you touch will turn to gold. Youll always be healed, and everything is always going to be wonderful and rosy in your life. Who lives that kind of life for long? Jesus and the Disciples certainly didnt live that kind of a life. Who am I to think that I should live that kind of a life? Thats not what God promises in His Word. God says, Reality check here. This life can be hard, and you will experience some struggles, but Jesus also says in this passage, God has the last word. He says, Just as sure right now as youre hurting, yours is the Kingdom of God. Just as real right now as youre suffering, you should rejoice because you belong to Me, and great is your reward in Heaven. Jesus says, Number 2: God has the last word. God is in charge. He says, Thirdly, what you see is not the end of the story. There is a bigger picture here. There is something we are working for, and in, and with, and that is the Kingdom of God, and it is eternal. There is going to be partial fulfillment of these Beatitudes here, but there is going to be ultimate fulfillment in Heaven. Jesus says, Thirdly, have a Kingdom mindset. See the big picture. Recognize, just as we saw the Coast Guard here: Yeah, youre not going to be paid much money here; yeah, youre putting your life at risk, but see the big picture. You are working to save lives. What a great cause that is! Jesus is saying, Understand the big picture. See the kingdom in the midst of your suffering! It reminds me of the passage we looked at weeks ago; maybe it was the Clinker Brick series. Remember what an irritant the Apostles were to the Sanhedrin, the men who wanted to shut them up? Remember Peter and John on their way to Solomons Colonnade? Thats where the early church used to meet. They didnt just meet in homes; they also met in a large group. They met in Solomons porch in the temple. They would meet there, and miracles would take place. Preaching would take place. Salvation would happen. They called them in and said, Stop preaching in that name. They didnt. They went back out and continued to do it, and more miracles took place. They called them in a second time, put them in jail and said, Youre going to have a trial tomorrow. Youre in trouble. During the night, and angel came and released them from prison. They left. The guards came in the morning. Peter and John were gone. A meeting was assembled, and they said, What are we going to do? Theyre gone! A guy looks out the window and says, Dont worry. Theyre back at it again! Right there they are. They go and get them a third time and bring them in. This time, they beat them. They flogged them. They stripped them of their robes, they took out a whip, and they beat their flesh. What does the Bible say they do on their way back? Do they get mad? Do they cuss? They dance! I cant believe this happened to me! Is that what it means to be a Christian? Are they crying? No, the Bible says in Acts 5, theyre rejoicing! Theyre happy! Why? Because they had been considered worthy to suffer for His name. Thats what Jesus is talking about here. Yeah, you will go through hardship, but God has the last word. God is in control, and its important that you see the Kingdom-you see the whole picture and know what God is up to. [You shouldnt think only] of what is here on earth, not just whats temporary, but look at life through the lens of eternity. Before we move on to these four woes here, before Jesus changes gears, I want us to watch a unique media. This media is more something we read, meditate and reflect on. It is really a summation of what weve been talking about, so just kind of let this soak in. Just have a mediation time here, and then well continue in Luke here in just a moment. Lets go ahead and show that. Now, were going to have Jesus talking to the Enron folks, the fatcats. Remember there are two kinds of people who are there that day. There are the Disciples, and there is the crowd-the onlookers, the curious. Many of them have lifestyles that definitely dont please the Lord. If you were there that day, you would know when He was talking to you. You knew when He was talking to His followers, and you knew when He was speaking to those who were not [His followers]. These four woes are not meant to be this is just the way it is. This is fate. This is your end. These are meant to be warnings. These are meant to be wake-up calls to do an about face with their lives. Verse 24 (still in Luke 6, page 1021), But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort. Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep. Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets. If you dont understand the context, you might think Jesus is saying, Bad to have money, bad to have food, bad to be happy, and bad to be well liked. But what Jesus is talking about here is a consumer mentality. Hes talking about a person who is self-absorbed. Theyre not thinking about the Kingdom; theyre not thinking about others. Theyre thinking only of themselves. Its like the Enron executives who could have cared less what happened to the rest of the people, investors, as long as they had their wealth. That was all that mattered. So Jesus speaks to that consumer mentality, that me-ism that puts self first. That is certainly our culture. We live in a very self-centered culture, and Madison Avenue plays to that. Its easy to do because thats our bend. There is not a lot of ba-ba sharing going on in that nursery. There arent a lot of babies going, Oh, are you hungry? Did you not have breakfast? Heres mine. Did you like this toy? Sure, Im done playing with it. You play with it for a while. Thats not taking place back there. Its every baby for him or herself. Its a baby-eat-baby mentality. We have to teach how to share and teach how to give because it doesnt come naturally to us. Jesus is speaking to these people who have never grown up. All they care about is their own belly, their own popularity, their own name and fame. He says, You know what? There is coming a wake-up call for you. Anybody who trusts in riches, anybody who trusts in themselves, anybody who trusts in this life alone-everybody who does that has a wake-up call. One day, their fatcat lifestyles are going to be over. Theyre going to recognize that there is accountability. Theyre going to recognize there is responsibility. Theyre going to know there is a God that they answer to. Their joy is going to turn to sorrow. Anytime you get a wake-up call like that, its a hard thing, but hopefully its a good think for people. I know when I think of somebody who is selfless, somebody who could care less about the spotlight, somebody who basically lives only for the joy of others and gives all their possessions away, I dont know about you, but I always think of Paris Hilton (congregation laughing). In case you havent been following the news, this socialite, this heiress, was on probation with the law. While she was on probation, she received a DUI. She went before the judge, and of course, her defense was Im Paris Hilton. That was basically it. You know who my dad is. You know who I am, so give me a fine. Ill pay it, and Ill go home. The judge had the audacity to uphold the law and sentence her to jail, which I think she starts serving very soon here. They appealed to Arnold Schwarzenegger, the governor of California, to set her free. The mother protested, This is unfair. She protested. The judge basically said, I dont care who you are, and I dont care who your father is. I dont care how much money you have. You drove while intoxicated. You were on probation. You violated the law, and heres what you get. Youre going to go to jail. That was a wake-up call. There were tears and mourning. The judge said, Youre accountable. Youre a citizen like everybody else. When somebody else does what you did, they go to jail, and so will you. Jesus gives a wake-up call here. A lot of these people remembered Matthew or Levi. He just comes to the Lord, and he invites his friends over. I bet you some of those people are there, some of these fatcat tax collectors. Jesus gives them a wake-up call and says, Listen! You have a responsibility! Theres something called the Kingdom of God. Right now youre living for the kingdom of self. You think you have the world by the tail, but youre going to find out that tail is attached to a tiger, and it will devour you. Woe to you who are well fed. Woe to you who are popular. Woe to you. Wake-up call time. Jesus still preaches this sermon. Did you know that? He preached it this morning, the Sermon on the Plain. Its still being preached. Every time somebody reads these words, Jesus is preaching this sermon. Guess who is listening? The same two groups of people: the Disciples and the crowd. It still encourages the Disciples, and it still challenges the crowd. You know who it also challenges? It also challenges the Disciples because sometimes you and I forget what it means to be a Christian. This passage causes us to reevaluate our faith. For some of us, our Christianity basically means we know the right answers. When somebody asks us a theological question, we know the answer. We maybe can even turn to the right page and quote it. Our Christianity is our knowledge. For some of us, our Christianity is defined by this: that we come together once a week and huddle up-either on a Saturday or Sunday morning. We sing some songs. We pray. We hear the Word, and we go home. This is our essence of our Christianity. So we say, What does it mean to be a Christian? Well, you go to church. Well, this is an important aspect of our faith, but its simply an aspect. What Jesus called the church to be and do was to be world changers. Remember in the Sermon on the Mount? It was kind of like the sister sermon of this in Matthew 5? He said, Youre salt. Youre light. Let your light shine before men. Salt gets on what it is called to preserve. Were called to be in the world. We get out of the salt shaker and get in the world. We come here and get equipped and prepared to go out and be ministers. We have the Kingdom responsibilities beyond sitting in a church for an hour on Sunday. So, I start to evaluate my life. I think of our church. I think of the good things we do, but is it enough? Could we-and should we-do more? Lets pray together: Father, we just come before You now, and were simply asking for wisdom. I pray for wisdom for myself and wisdom for our leaders, our elders, our trustees as we make decisions. We dont want to go ahead of You, neither do we want to go behind You, neither do we want to inhabit-in fact we cant. Your purposes will be accomplished. I pray that You would clearly lead this church, that we would know Your purposes and walk in them. God, we just ask You for Your will. Father, as we reflect upon this Scripture, we think of this sermon, which is still very much being preached to the same two groups. To the believers who are struggling, You still speak encouragement. You still say to Your Disciples, yes, in this world you have troubles. You have struggles, loss and hardship, but God has the last word. You still encourage us to be Kingdom-minded, Kingdom-focused, not just on what is temporary-what is seen. Father, You still speak to the other group, to the fatcats-rich, sassy, and lazy. In America, in the eyes of the world, were those fatcats. We have a consumer mentality, a me-first mentality. Lord, I pray that it would not be so in the church. I pray that in the church, we would be about the Kingdom, using our gifts, our passions, our talents, for the good of the Kingdom and for the good of humanity. I pray that we would live for a cause greater than ourselves. That cause is the Kingdom of God. Lord, if there are any who feel like they fall under that second charge, the woe, I pray that Your Holy Spirit would give them a wake-up call, let them know and speak to their hearts. I pray that they would change. I pray they would repent and follow after Your Kingdom. Thank You for teaching us this morning, for challenging us, for leading, guiding, and for providing. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
Last week, I was at a wedding, and you took a love offering for me so I could go to Sweden. My ancestry is from Sweden, so I've always wanted to go to Sweden. Pastor Voss, in Sweden, called me and said, “Would you come and speak at a camp conference we have?” I also have my twenty-fifth year of ministry, my twenty-fifth anniversary now. I was licensed in May of 1982, ordained in June of 1982, so what a better way to celebrate than to go work. I am going to be speaking, I think, about eight times over a period of four days in Sweden. You made that possible, so thank you for your love offering, your giving, to that. I�"ll let you know how it goes. I�"ll hopefully come back with some good illustrations for you. I just might be talking a little funny because that�"s in me. (Pastor talks with an accent), “Let�"s open up the Bibles” to Luke Chapter 6 (page 1020 of pew Bibles). Have you ever enjoyed the comedy of Jeff Foxworthy? He does those “You Might Be a Redneck if” Jokes. I usually laugh at him until he says something that resembles me. Then, it�"s not so funny anymore. I was thinking, “Hey, that�"s cutting close to home there. I don�"t want to be a Redneck.” I wrote down a few that I thought were somewhat funny: You might be a Redneck if the UFO hotline limits you to one call a day; You might be a Redneck if you refer to your fifth grade year as your senior year in school; If you think a three-piece suit is a pair of overhauls, a plaid flannel shirt, and thermal underwear, you just might be a Redneck; You might be a Redneck if Thanksgiving Dinner was ruined because you ran out of ketchup. I was thinking, “Hey, that�"s not funny. Mine was.” No… I�"m going to be sharing with you this morning, “You Might Be a Legalist if…” Understand when I say my “You Might Be a Legalist if” statements, I�"m not trying to be funny with them. That�"s really important because the Saturday night crowd, I didn�"t say that, and I did my first “You Might Be a Legalist if” statement, and they looked at me like “that�"s not funny.” It might be true, but it�"s not funny. They�"re not intended to be funny. They�"re just meant to be principles or truths for us to think about and meditate on. What is a “Legalist?” Understand when I say a legalist, I�"m not referring at all to secular law or secular society. I am speaking within the confines of Christianity, the confines of the faith. What does it mean to be a legalist? What is legalism? We often hear that talked about. Jesus dealt with legalism on a regular basis. He opposed legalism. Legalism, by my definition-you might have a different one, at its very core is law without love. There�"s nothing wrong with law. Law is a good thing, but in the church, law without love quickly becomes what we call legalism. There is a danger in legalism because it�"s so hard to detect. Really, it�"s hard to detect because legalism is pride in disguise. Legalism says the right things, tries to look right-play the part; but at the core of it, it�"s about exaltation of self. The Pharisees did the right things: [These were] the people that Jesus was always confronting, or they were always confronting Him. It worked both ways. The Pharisees prayed and gave and fasted, but they did so for the wrong reasons. They did so to be seen by men. Jesus was pointing out their hypocrisy, how they would put standards on people that they could not live up to and keep. Legalism is a dangerous thing because it sounds so religious, and it is. Sometimes you can be sucked into legalism and not even be aware of it. Sometimes you can be a legalist and not even be aware of it. So maybe it�"s possible, this morning, that if I say, “If you�"re struggling with such and such, you might be a legalist,” that you might go “okay, yeah, well, I can relate to that a little bit here.” Let�"s look at the story in Luke 6:1 (page 1020), “One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and His disciples began to pick some heads of grain, rub them in their hands and eat the kernels. Some of the Pharisees asked, ‘why are You doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?�" “Jesus answered them, ‘Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God, and taking the consecrated bread, he ate what is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions.�" “Then Jesus said to them, ‘the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.�"” The first thing that Jesus establishes with them is the fact that what He has done is not unlawful. It�"s not unlawful. It might have broke man�"s law, but it didn�"t break God�"s law. Secondly, He lets them know that the Sabbath they�"re talking about keeping, He�"s Lord of it. It�"s His idea. It came from Him. The whole Sabbath concept [was] His call, so He makes sure they understand that He is Lord of the Sabbath. For man, it was unlawful. God had said, “You shall not work on the Sabbath. The Sabbath shall be a day of rest.” Good idea! We need to have a time of rest, right? If we don�"t have a time of rest, it�"s like the two men I told you about a long time ago who were having a contest cutting down trees with their axes. The one guy was cutting down a tree, and every time he saw his opponent sit down, he would chop all [that much] harder. He�"s like, “I�"m going to be way ahead because I�"ve never taken a break, and he�"s taken frequent breaks.” Well, long story short, the guy who was sitting down chopped more wood, and the guy says, “I don�"t understand. I never took a break. How is it you chopped more wood than I?” He said, “Every time I took a break, I sharpened my ax.” So, his ax became sharper, and the rest was a good thing. Rest is a sharpening thing in your life. It�"s important to have rest. That�"s not the problem. The problem is the Pharisees and the teachers of the law wrote a book of oral tradition called “The Talmud.” It was thick and big, kind of like a book we�"re going to see in a media [presentation] in just a few minutes. It was a big, thick book of law, not God�"s law-but man�"s law, what man had said about what God had said. They held that up to the same value or greater than what God said. If you take the traditions of men, the laws of men, and hold them up as the same value as God�"s law, or a greater value than God�"s law, you might be a legalist. I saw an extreme example of this years ago when I was a youth minister. Our church in Rockford had a Christian school, and we had a varsity basketball team. The basketball team was competing in the state tournament. When you get to the state tournament, Christian schools from all over the state were there, but the sponsoring church was very legalistic in their approach to things. The first thing they said was “you have to have a haircut,” and not just a haircut, you have to have a haircut. You have to have your hair an inch off your ear and an inch off your collar all the way around, and your hair has to be tapered down. If you don�"t adhere to this policy, they will cut your hair for you. I should say they will “butcher your hair for you,” and it will cost you $10 in the process. If you don�"t submit to that, you�"re kicked out. One time I didn�"t cut my hair short enough, and they butchered me. It was awful. I don�"t think I had my haircut that badly since I was four years old. They shaved it and I went around wearing a Cubs hat for two weeks. They also had a rule of modesty. The cheerleaders had to have skirts down to their ankles. The guys had to have, underneath their basketball jerseys, T-shirts, and underneath their shorts, [they] had to have sweatpants-all the guys. If you ran in track or basketball, same deal. There were just a lot of rules. They had these rallies, and the rallies were more or less places to tell you, “Here�"s what a Christian does and doesn�"t do. Here�"s what we listen to. Here�"s what we don�"t…” blah, blah, blah, blah. One of our kids, well-meaning kid, goes up to the pastor. He�"s feeling convicted because of some of the music he�"s listened to. It could very well be that the music was not good; in fact, I think it probably was not the best music for him to listen to. It was probably something we�"d already talked to him about, but he goes to the pastor and says, “How can I get rid of this? This is wrong. I shouldn�"t be listening to this. Can you help me?” The pastor used that as an opportunity to berate the kid publicly in the youth rally. He tells the kid, “It�"s written right there” and “you�"re listening to the devil�"s music,” and [he] berates him in front of all his peers. I�"m livid; the principal is livid. Here�"s this group that wouldn�"t have even let Jesus in the door of their convention without giving Him a haircut. Here�"s this group saying, “You do not dress this way, cut your hair this way” and so forth. “These man-made laws are really important, but the Law of God which says that we�"re to love you is not important-not as important as our haircut and clothing policy.” I was going to tell the pastor what I thought when our principal took care of it for me. He did a good enough job for both of us. He let him know what he thought of his double standard. Sometimes people will take man-made laws that are not in here (in the Bible) and enforce them on people. Sometimes, even good things, even boundaries, people who have set good, healthy boundaries…but if it�"s not in the Good Book here, it�"s not something you should be telling somebody else they need to do. Now, you can do it, but it�"s not something you should impose on me and say, “Unless you do this, you�"re not righteous or holy.” I�"ve had examples where over the years I�"ll say, “Hey! Did you catch this show on TV that was really good?” “Oh…” A holy look will come over their face. “Our family does not watch TV.” “Okay. That�"s your choice, I guess, but that�"s not going to happen any time soon for me.” [Another example is] “Did you go see this movie?” “Oh, our family does not watch any movies that are over G rating.” “Okay, well that�"s fine, but don�"t put that standard on everybody.” I was in youth group when I was a kid, and they�"d be like “let�"s play some cards to pass the time.” “We don�"t play cards. Christians don�"t play cards.” You could go on and on. There are those who have standards-they have boundaries-and they�"re good, but when they try to make that standard and boundary-which they believe is pure, right, and good-yours and mine, there�"s a problem with that. If you try to preach something that�"s not in here (the Bible) to somebody and say, “This is the way you should be too,” you�"re bordering on legalism. That�"s not a good place to be. Pretty soon, our Christianity becomes defined by what we do or don�"t do rather than Whom we belong to. Are there standards as Christians? Are there things we do and things we don�"t do? Absolutely, but it�"s not what defines us. The fact that we are followers of Jesus Christ, that we love Him, serve Him and put our faith and trust in Him as our Redeemer-Savior, that defines us. That�"s what makes us believers. If we�"re not careful, Christianity becomes a very complicated thing, full of a lot of rules and regulations that are difficult to follow. We�"re going to watch an example of that in a media [clip] right now. Let�"s take a look. They had a book like that, literally. Jesus attacked that book on a regular basis. If we wouldn�"t know any better, all the things He did wrong on the Sabbath, it seemed like He was picking a fight. He was. He was trying to expose their hypocrisy. In Verse 6, “On another Sabbath, He went into the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was shriveled.” Only Luke tells us which hand was shriveled. Matthew and Mark do not, but Luke, the doctor, gives us that detail. “The Pharisees and the teachers of the law were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched Him closely to see if He would heal on the Sabbath. But Jesus knew what they were thinking and said to the man with the shriveled man, ‘Get up and stand in front of everyone.�" So he got up and stood there.” Can you imagine the tension here? They�"re watching to see what Jesus is going to do. If Jesus heals on the Sabbath, they will declare that to be work, and again-He is a violator of the Sabbath; He is guilty of death. Can you believe that? What will Jesus do? Will Jesus cower under that pressure, or will He defy their man-made traditions? “Then Jesus said to them, ‘I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do well or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?�" “He looked around at them all, and then said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.�" He did so, and his hand was completely restored. But they were furious and began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus.” If you think that God is more concerned about rituals and rules than He is about people, you might be a legalist. They thought in their minds that God was more concerned about keeping the Sabbath and not working than healing the man with the withered hand, [that] the God they served was more concerned that His law be kept than that the man who had the shriveled hand be healed. That�"s a perverted view of God, is it not? I talked to a lady about a story, first hand from her, and she told me she had been baptized seven times-seven times. I said, “Well, how in the world are you baptized seven times?” She had gone to a church that was pretty legalistic in its practice. They believe in a total submersion as in every body part under the water, and she had long hair. What would happen is the hair would rise to the surface, and the tip-top tips of the follicles would come out of the water. The pastor said, “Well, that one doesn�"t count. You weren�"t totally submersed,” so they dove her down another time, and the hair came up again. They�"d go down deeper, and the hair still managed to come up. She had long hair. They tried to pull the hair back, tried to hold it down four, five, six…It didn�"t work, and finally, number seven, somehow they managed. I don�"t know if they came in and had some people tag-teaming the hair, double teaming the hair, under the water, but they got it done. She was submersed, and number seven counted. She was officially baptized. I thought to myself, “What kind of god do they have there?” They have a god who is looking at that situation and instead of rejoicing that this person is now following Him, has made a decision to publicly profess their faith in Jesus, instead of that, God is focusing on follicles coming out of the water and going, “Ah, didn�"t count! Going to do it again! No, no, no, no, no, still hair coming out over here.” Okay, finally after the seventh time, the guy goes, “Okay? Thumbs up, Pastor. That one counts.” That�"s kind of the view of a legalist, that God is more concerned-He has His little record keeping out there, His little rule book-and He is marking down, kind of like Santa Claus, whether we are naughty or nice. When I was studying for the ministry, there was this young man by the name of Ed, and Ed was very pious. Most of the guys that were studying were just normal guys. We were all playing video games and sports. But Ed was pretty prized. He tended to walk around like this a lot and was just mature and so forth. Jack, his cousin, who became a pastor in Rockford with me for awhile, told a story about his cousin Ed when they were nine years old. They were driving down the street in the family car, and Ed noticed a store with a sign in the window while looking out the car window. It said, “Liquor for sale.” Little nine year old Ed went, “Sin!” Then, underneath that sign, it said, “Open on Sunday. Ed said, “Double Sin!” Nine year old Ed was outraged that this store was selling liquor on Sunday. A legalist will look at a law that is broken and say, “Sin!” and be outraged. Jesus would look at that liquor store differently. Jesus would be focusing not on the sign or the rule that was broken; Jesus would be focusing on the people that are coming in and out. Jesus would say, “What can we do to help that man who is drinking away his marriage, his life? What can we do to help that person who will die soon if he doesn�"t stop drinking or will kill somebody with his car? What can we do to help those people that are coming in and out?” That�"s the difference with how a legalist sees things and how Jesus sees things, the way we should see things. “Sin!” But what about the broken lives that sin represents and causes? Thirdly, did you notice the theme here in this passage? There is quite a theme that is going on. Notice that no matter what Jesus does in the Pharisees�" eyes, it�"s wrong. Basically, it�"s like they are consumed with spying on Jesus. Luke 5, they�"re criticizing them for not fasting and praying at a party they�"re not invited to. Here the Disciples are going through a field, picking grain. They are not traveling with the Pharisees, yet the Pharisees expressed an opinion of displeasure over what they�"ve done. In the synagogue, Jesus does the wrong thing by healing the man with the shriveled hand, but notice they were looking, Verse 7, “for a reason to accuse Jesus, they watched Him closely…” They were consumed with Jesus. Do you think the Pharisees had any problems of their own? Do you think they had any sin issues in their own lives to deal with? Probably. Yet, they were consumed with what Jesus and the Disciples were doing. You might be a legalist if you are more concerned about pointing out sin in others than dealing with the sin that�"s in your own life. How many of us are sinners out here this morning? The majority. There are a few saints here, and you know who you are, but most of us are sinners. How many of you have enough to do just taking care of your own life and your own bad attitudes and actions? Thank you, Chris, I see that hand. Okay, a few more. We have our hands full with ourselves, don�"t we? We�"re problems enough. We open our yapper when we should keep our yapper shut. We don�"t open our yapper when we should open our yapper. Our eyes go where they shouldn�"t go. Our hands do what they shouldn�"t do. Our mind thinks about what it shouldn�"t think about. It doesn�"t think about what it should. Our feet go where they shouldn�"t go. We�"ve go problems, yet sometimes there are folks who are more concerned over what other people are doing and finding fault in somebody else rather than dealing with the faults that are in their own lives first. Jesus talked about this to this group. He said, “You�"re trying to take the speck out of your brother�"s eye, when you have a log in your own. First take the log out of your own eye, and then you can see clearly to help your brother with the splinter in his eye.” Years ago we were meeting in another building. There was a man in our church who just loved the Lord. That hadn�"t always been the case. He was a man who had recently divorced. He was an alcoholic and had been so for years, and he had been suicidal. After coming to our church over a period of weeks, he gave his life to Christ-[he] had a dramatic conversion experience. He became a new person. He hadn�"t drunk in years; he was plugged into ministry, happy in his walk, but there was still a little bit of French in his vocabulary. You know what I mean by that, right? Maybe he�"d be doing something for the church, building something and hit his thumb with a hammer, and a little French would come out. There was a couple who had come from a pretty legalistic background, and they did not at all approve of the word they heard this man say. So they wanted a meeting to discuss this problem. So the couple and I and this new Christian met in church, and they opened their Bibles up to Ephesians 4. They began to beat him over the head with it. They said, “In Ephesians 4, it says, ‘Let no unwholesome word come out of your mouth,�" and yet you swore by saying this word. Christians do not swear. If you were a Christian, you wouldn�"t swear, and you�"ve let unwholesome words come out of your mouth. You shouldn�"t be a part of this church. The pastor should kick you out of leadership because you swear,” and there was all of this other stuff coming out. I am trying to temper the conversation, trying to get us back to reality a little bit here, but he just got offended and hurt, angry. He stands up and he says, “If this is what Christianity is about, if this is what this church is about, I want no part of it,” and he walks out of the church. Now, everything ended okay because I called him as soon as I got home. We talked. Everything is fine. He still goes to our church. As a matter of fact, you know this story happened 12 years ago, maybe 14 years ago, he was here last night. However, I didn�"t tell him-he didn�"t know the rest of the story, which is what I�"m about to tell you. I spoke to the couple after he left, and I said, “Can I explain Ephesians 4 to you here? The word ‘unwholesome�" does not mean swearing here. Notice it says, ‘Don�"t let any unwholesome word proceed out of your mouth, but only that which is for ratification,” so this word in the Greek is the opposite of the word edify. The word edify means to build up. This word unwholesome in the Greek means corrupt or to tear down. “Don�"t let a word that tears down proceed out of your mouth.” [I said], “The irony is in lecturing him on Ephesians 4, you just broke it. Ironic isn�"t it? You just violated Ephesians 4 by tearing that man down. Shouldn�"t we be more excited about the fact that he is now a Christian and is no longer suicidal and is no longer drinking and serving the Lord? Shouldn�"t we be more excited over that than concerned over the fact that the Holy Spirit has a little work to do yet in his mouth? And He�"ll work on that.” “Oh, you�"re looking at the wrong thing.” I said, “He knows that is wrong. He knows he shouldn�"t do it. The Lord�"s working on him. But we�"re not going to be legalistic here.” I�"ll tell you what happened. A couple of weeks later, I get a phone call from the woman, and it�"s a totally different situation. She leaves a message for me, but she doesn�"t hang up the phone. In those days, I had a machine that would record forever. It was like an hour long tape. I�"m listening to the message, and I notice she is continuing to talk to her husband. I was like, “Oh, she�"s recording on my machine here.” I felt like I shouldn�"t listen to it because it�"s like eavesdropping, but then I thought, “It is my machine. It�"s my tape.” I don�"t know what you would have done, but I decided to put my feet up and listen. So, I�"m listening, and she starts to get upset about something. She can�"t find the remote control, and I�"m listening because she�"s getting hotter and hotter. You know how it is when you can�"t find the remote control. You get mad really quick, right? “Where is that…?” So, I�"m listening to this, and I�"m thinking to myself, “I wonder…” and sure enough. It reached a fever pitch, and she said to her husband-she called out his name-“I can�"t find the blankety blank remote!” Ohhh! Only she didn�"t say “blankety blank” on the tape. She said a French word, the same word in fact that she had just lectured this fellow on about a month earlier. Now, I should have probably taken the tape and said, “Can I play this for you?” but I didn�"t do that. I just let it go, but I had a good chuckle in my office. I just shook my head. God might sometimes shake his head at some of our hypocrisy. The Pharisees saw a violated law, and Jesus saw a man who needed a miracle. That was more important than their man-made laws and traditions. Jesus saw a group of people that desperately needed to work on issues in their lives [yet they were] consumed with trying to fix Him, and He didn�"t need to be fixed. Legalism can be a scary thing because sometimes we don�"t even detect it in our lives. Pride is a very blind thing. When Jesus was once asked, “What�"s the greatest commandment?” Sum up the law, basically. “Sum up the law; tell us what�"s in the law.” What did Jesus say when He was asked that question? The most important part of the law…Did Jesus go, “Okay, rule number one” and then continue to recite 500 things? Did He do that? When Jesus was asked to tell the most important part of the law, He said two things. What were they? “Love the Lord, your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.” The common theme in both is what? Love. So what Jesus is saying is that the core of the law is love. The laws that God has for us are not meant for us to use as weapons to beat one another over the head with. They�"re not meant to invent new laws that nobody can attain. It is meant to keep us from hurting others, from hurting ourselves, or squandering our one and only life. That is the purpose of law. Law without love is legalism, and legalism smothers and destroys people. The core is love. Michael W. Smith sings a song about the fallings and shortcomings of you and me; but he�"s quick to point out of all the things that we have done wrong and all the things we�"ve failed, God never stops loving us. And we are lucky to have that song for you right now. So let�"s listen to Michael W. Smith as he talks about this important truth. (You can view this by clicking on this link: http://www.sermonspice.com/search?fpage=1&q=never%20been%20unloved) We�"re going to continue on in Luke 6 next week, so feel free to read ahead, think on that, mediate on that and prepare your hearts. Let�"s pray: Father, as we look at this passage today, we see the lesson that Jesus was trying to teach. We see that Jesus was trying to say that man is more important to God than anything. There are times when we take man-made traditions and rules, and we elevate them to be equal or put them over the laws of God. It�"s legalism. Help us not to do that. There are times when we view you as a God who is more concerned about the rules we break than the broken lives. You are a God who is concerned with people. You�"re a God who loves us in spite of our sin, in spite of our shortcomings. Forgive us for those times when we have done that in our own lives. We put programs over people. We�"ve made the wrong things our priority. There have been times in our lives where, like the Pharisees, we have been more concerned at pointing out faults in others than we have in dealing with the sin in our own lives. Law without love is legalism. Law in itself is good. You want us to be believers who uphold law and value law, but love is the core of that law. The danger is that we don�"t see it. The danger is that we can practice it and not be aware. Legalism is pride in the disguise of righteousness. Might the righteousness that is in our lives come from Jesus, not man-made righteousness, not righteousness that we try to create of ourselves, but righteousness that is a gift and is by faith. Thank you for the things we have learned this morning and seen. We pray that through the presence of Your Holy Spirit, we will put these things into practice and live them ,and our church will be a place and our people would be a people who are free from legalism but alive in Christ. In Jesus�" name, I pray, Amen.
Were people of habit. We like to do things the same way. We have our routines. We have our ruts as they are called, but there is a resistance to change. Its just part of our nature. Its how we are wired. There are also those who want to be agents of change and want to see change happen. So, they work against one another. Theres a tension there. I remember one of the funniest vacations we ever had was when we took a little trip to Door County. We went bike riding through Peninsula State Park. When we finished, we went to this little hamburger joint. We wanted to get something to eat. I remember that guy [who worked there] because it was so unique. I dont know if he was the owner or who he was, but he was fighting me on everything I ordered. I said, Id like the pork tenderloin, and I want to have ketchup, pickles, and onions please. He said, Ill put the works on there for you. I dont want the works. I just want it this way. He said, We serve it best with onions, mustard, mayonnaise, and lettuce. Im going to fix you up. I dont want to be fixed up. This is the way I want my sandwich. I would like to try some of your baked fries. Ive never had the baked fries before. I think Im going to try the baked fries. He goes, Ill get you some French fries. I said, I dont want French fries. I want to try something new. I want to try something different. He says, Those arent very good. Let me get you the real thing. I know what the real thing tastes like. I just had this healthy bike ride. I want to be healthy. Im going to try your baked fries. Ill get you the real thing. There was just this tension going on with him trying to impose change upon me and my resisting that change. All around our world, we have churches where theres that dynamic going, where there are those who say, Hey, Ive got this idea. Ive got this thing I think would be really cool. Leadership goes, Thats not the way we do things around here. Were just going to kind of keep it the same. They say, Over here, God is doing this wonderful thing. What do you think if we just do this wonderful thing? What do you think if we just do this and make this change? I dont think so. This is the way we do it here. Change happens. Jesus was an agent of change. One of the things He did is he brought about change and how we interpret Scripture, the meaning of things. He was constantly butting heads with the Pharisees and scribes and teachers of the law because He said things that you normally didnt say. He did things you shouldnt do. He bucked their traditions, but never Gods Word; so there was friction-there was tension-taking place. One such time is what weve been talking about in Luke 5, if you want to turn there. Remember, Hes already criticized for hanging around with tax collectors and sinners. As we go through this Book of Luke together, were going to find that criticism rendered quite a bit. Thats not the way spiritual leaders do things. One thing they noticed about Him was He didnt fast. They didnt pray like they saw other religious groups doing and other religious leaders doing. So they were judgmental of that. In Verse 33 (of Luke 5, page 1020 of pew Bibles), it says, They said to him, Johns disciples often fast and pray, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours go on eating and drinking. [The Pharisees were thinking], Do you know what? When You think about it, You must not be too spiritual because Youre not doing all the spiritual things. Youre not doing things You should do if Youre going to be a spiritual leader. Even John the Baptist, he fasts and prays. What Jesus is going to say in the next verses here is, basically, John the Baptist was praying and fasting for the coming of the Messiah, and Im here. Im the bridegroom and Im here. Therefore, theres coming a day when Ill be gone. You can fast then, but Im here now. Things have changed. When I was in school, there was always a threat of the new math coming. One of the things I liked about math was that it was always the same. Two plus two is always four. You can count on it, and there are not a lot of things I liked about math, quite frankly. But we were always threatened with the new math. I dont know if the new math ever came. I dont know what the new math ever was, but we were always threatened by that-that and the metric system. When you grow up, youre going to be using the metric system. Wrong! I dont. But I was always threatened with this new math, whatever it was. Im going to give you the new spiritual math today. Im going to give you some equations that are truth, that are always true, some equations that I discerned from this text. The first equation, lets put that up, is that the disciplines minus Jesus equal abuse. The Pharisees thought that if they just did the right things, that was what made them righteous-that fasting, in itself, was righteousness. Studying the Bible in itself was righteousness. Giving and praying were righteousness. Actually, those things are what are designed to lead us to righteousness, to lead us to Jesus-to lead us to a deeper path, a deeper walk. Take Jesus out of the equation; its abuse. These men did the right things, but they did them for the wrong reasons. So, theyre studying lead to arrogance. Their fasting and praying lead to their own self-advancement because they would do those things for all to see and all to hear. Jesus says, You have your reward. When you fast, do it in your closet. Dont put on a sad face. Put on a happy face. Clean and wash up. Shower, comb your hair, put on a smile, and dont let anybody know. When youre praying, go in a room, and shut the door. When youre studying, He said to them one time, you diligently study the Scriptures-Ill give you that-you diligently study; but the Scriptures bear witness of Me, and you refuse to come to Me that you might have life. Misuse, abuse. How many of you know what our horn is for in our car? Our horn is for warning people and protecting ourselves or protecting others. How many of you know that thats not always what the horn is used for on the road? I was driving this week on a service road trying to get on to Milton Avenue, by the Applebees side there. Do you know how it is sometimes you have to go up a few intersections before you can finally break through the traffic and get on Milton Avenue? So, thats what I was doing, going to several stoplights and trying to break in there. I ended up all the way to the mall before I could finally get on. I noticed somebody hitting their horn incessantly, just non stop, Beep, beep, beeeepp. Isnt that awful? Thats just annoying. Thats what it was like. I was really getting mad. Im like, Who is doing that? The next intersection, it would start all over again, and the next intersection it would start all over again. I finally figured out that the car in front of me was honking at the car in front of them-for some reason I dont know about because whatever happened between those two cars happened before I got there. I finally got on Milton Avenue. I was just curious as to who these participants were, the honkee and the honker. So I drove by the first car, the one that was being honked at. Im guessing because I passed that one first, they were being honked at because they were so slow or something. I noticed as I drove by, the car that was being honked at for minutes, non-stop, was a little old man and a little old lady, about 157 years old. They were just little tiny things. He is doing like this (Pastor shows what a little old man behind the wheel would look like), and you can barely see her all shriveled up in the seat next to him. They looked at me with just this saddest puppy dog face like they were just traumatized by what had taken place. So I went by to see who in the world would honk at old people like that; 157 years old, leave them alone! I drove up there, looked, and there was this middle-aged lady just with a frown on her face, still angry, with her teenage boy sitting next to her. I thought, You know what, maybe I should just get behind you and start honking at you. Thats what I wanted to do, but instead I gave her one of those looks like, Whats the matter with you? I heard her shout something back to me. I thought, Well, Im probably next. But she was abusing the horn. Thats not what its intention was. What these people were doing, pun intended, was they were using the disciplines to toot their own horn. They were misusing the disciplines. They were saying, Look at me. Im righteous. Im holy because I fast. Look at me. Im righteous and holy because I pray. Look at me. Look how much I give. Look how much I serve. Look at my clothing. Look how fancy it is. Look how righteous I am. These things are righteous, arent they, and Jesus says, No, theyre not. Those things are designed to lead you to Me, to lead you to righteousness. They are not, in and of themselves, righteous. If you take Jesus out of the equation, its abuse. It leads to arrogance, pride, and self-centeredness. You say, Well, look. You dont even pray. You dont even fast. You must not be spiritual. Its not even a question. Theyre not asking a question here, if you read it. Theyre making a judgmental statement toward Jesus, and Jesus is going to go on to say, in Verse 34, Can you make the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken away [from them]; in those days they will fast. Jesus was not saying the tradition was wrong. He was saying eventually the tradition will be resumed, but for right now-for always-I am greater than the tradition. Thats important. The next equation is that when we have the tradition being greater than Jesus, it equals imbalance. Any church that tries to put man-made traditions over Jesus is in trouble. Theyre in trouble. Thats not the way its intended. Jesus is bigger than our traditions. Jesus is greater than our customs. No matter how good our customs are, He is preeminent. Its important that this church makes the primary the primary, the main thing the main thing. Anybody who does this…its out of whack-its not right. Businesses sometimes can do this. You and I have all been to restaurants where they have great advertising campaigns, great atmosphere, slick menus, and you get your food, and its sub-par. Its just not that good. Isnt that the main point of the restaurant? You want good food, good service? No matter how good the advertising is, and how good the menu looks, if the food is not good, and the service isnt good, youre probably not going to go. Id say that restaurant is in trouble. I remember in Rockford when the ad campaign for Wendys was going on-the Wheres the Beef? there was this Marys Kitchen [sign out front that read], Wheres the Bun? They had this poor location, photo-copied menu, greasy spoon diner-no advertising, but the place was packed because they made a good burger. They had generous portions at a reasonable price. They made the main thing-the main thing. Our church, in our early days, we didnt have a very good location. We were way south of town, or we were in between Janesville and Milton. We were in a hotel, or we were in a school, in a gym. These were not the best locations. We often didnt have the best conditions. Our air conditioning would go out in the summer, and our heater would go out in the winter. The room was musty; it was inconvenient. We had to set up our chairs, take down our chairs, set up our sound and lighting every week, and tear it down. We didnt have all the amenities, but one thing we knew we had was we had the Gospel. We could minister and we could have the Gospel. We know we have that; keep the main thing, the main thing. Teenagers, some of the cars just crack me up. Somebody will pull up to you at an intersection, and the muffler is loud. The brakes are squeaking, the body is rusted, and you wonder how the thing ever started; but, boy, that stereo works. When things come out of there, its enough to raise the dead. Youd think if you looked at an average teenagers car, what goes inside the car is the most important thing; but if they put more time and money into the stereo and the interior than they do the mechanics of the car, eventually, thats going to lead to a problem, isnt it? Because the main thing about a car is does it start? Does it drive? Does it get me to where I want to go safely? The main thing has to be the main thing. When it ceases to be the main thing, you have problems. In any church, Jesus must be the main thing. When Jesus is the main thing, when Jesus is greater than our traditions, greater than our structures, it leads to unity within the body. Thats true. One thing I love about our church is we come from all different backgrounds: Catholic, Lutheran, main-line, some from revivalist kinds of backgrounds, Baptist, whatever-you name it; yet, we all get along because the main thing is Jesus and His word. So we focus on what we agree on, rather than what we disagree on. I was bragging on our church just recently to some believers who werent experiencing this. They said, How in the world does your church do that? You guys should write a book or something. I said, You know what? God is so good because [with] such [diverse] backgrounds, and some with no church backgrounds, we get along well. We function well because Jesus is what its about. Now, the remaining verses here-lets take a look at those. He says [Verse 36], No one tears a patch from a new garment and sews it on an old one. If he does, he will have torn the new garment… because the old fabric wont bend with it. It wont shape with it. Plus, the new one will not match the old one. …no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. So the wine was put in animal skin because the animal skin was pliable, flexible. What happened is as the wine fermented, gases would be admitted, it would expand, and the new wineskin could adjust to that expansion. If it was an old wineskin that was already stretched out and expanded, it couldnt adjust. It would actually burst, and the wine would come out of the wineskin. The wineskin would be ruined. No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for he says, The old is better. Manmade structures have to change. The wine doesnt change, but the structures do. We think of the wineskin as the container. Its how the Gospel comes in contact with the world. That changes with every generation, but the wine doesnt. The wine is whats sacred. The wineskins are important; but theyre not sacred-theyre secondary. They have to change. If they dont, theyll burst. Years ago, we watched a movie I really enjoyed called Sister Act. In Sister Act, Whoopi Goldberg comes into a church as a nun and ends up directing a choir, among other things that go on in the movie. The choir sings the same old songs in the same old way, and the church is dead. The priest gets up to speak, and there are just a handful of people every week. The choir is very bad and out of tune. She comes in and she gets them in tune. She gets them to sing and sound right. Then on their debut Sunday, they get up to sing. They sing the normal song, but they sing it a whole lot better than they usually do. Then after theyre done singing it the old way, they start singing it a new way. This new way causes waves because change causes waves. In this clip were going to see, well see the choir already well into the song in the new way. Watch their faces as they sing. What does it communicate? Watch the face of the Reverend Mother as she hears this new way. Watch the face of the priest, watch the congregation, and watch how it affects the outsiders as God wants to bring change in this inner-city Catholic Church. God wants to take the same Gospel and put it in a new wineskin to reach a new generation. Did you see the dynamic there? The choir is singing [and thinking], Are we sure this is okay? Sometimes when you make changes, you think, Is this legal? Boy, we really enjoy this. Its really effective. The Reverend Mother wanted nothing to do with that, but the priest, he saw, that this was something God could use. This is something good. He saw that that was a wineskin. The wineskin wasnt sacred. The Gospel is sacred. This will enable us to communicate more effectively. He saw the impact on the congregation. He said, Gods doing something new. In our church, its okay to do something new. Its okay to think outside the box. One of the things Ive enjoyed about ministering here is when we do make changes, people might [think], Oh, boy, Im not sure, but you know what? We dont hear that excuse and say, Well, thats not the way weve always done it, so we cant do it that way anymore. Theres another formula I want to leave with you. It is [this]: the Gospel plus new wineskins equals a healthy church. When the church says, You know what? The Gospel has to be protected. How we communicate that…its okay that that changes if its effective. It doesnt mean the old is bad. Music is one of the greatest sources of tension in churches. Contemporary churches are churches that are traditionally trying to transition into contemporary and basically kick the old stuff out, or occasionally throw them a bone. Most people were kind of cast aside. At our church, we started off as a contemporary church, but we recognized that those traditions are so important that we started a church just for the tradition, for the old wineskin, because its important. Its not that its wrong or bad, but that God also does new things too, so we use culture in our congregation. We will do dramas, media, or music where we can attach the Gospel to it to communicate effectively to our people. The church doesnt have to be archaic, boring, and dull to be exciting and life-giving. Change, if its done correctly, is a good thing. In organizations and ministries that refuse to adapt, the wineskin bursts, and eventually they die. I did a wedding in Rockford years ago, and a buddy of mine was there. I asked, Do you go to church here? Youre having the wedding here. He said, No, I dont go to church here. Man, its the most boring place in the world. It hasnt ever changed since I was a little kid. There have been some people who have tried to do some new things and tried to do some good things, but its always been turned away. As a result, over the years, the people have left, and new ones arent coming in. I said, Well, thats sad. I started talking to the minister before the wedding, just making small talk. I said, How many people do you have here that visit on a regular basis? He said, Well, you know, I think two. We have two. I said, Two? Thats not bad. We usually get about six, Im going to say, in the average weekend. Sometimes we get more; sometimes we get fewer, but two a week isnt bad. He said, No, no, I didnt mean two a week. I meant two a year. He said, We had two visitors last year. I said, For the entire year? Yeah, we had two. Thats not good. What was happening is that was the congregation where God was doing some new things, but they refused to change. By the way, some of you get nervous and say, Hes going to make some changes. I just know it. No, Im not thinking about making changes. Dont worry; this is not a prepare-you-for-something kind of a talk. What this is saying is that you know what? We are open to new wineskins in this church. The way were doing ministry, over the years, theres going to be some new wineskins. There are going to be some creative ways, some out of the box thinking, and thats okay. Were not going to fight that; were going to embrace that. If it honors God, its effective for the Gospel, we welcome that change. Everything Jesus did and taught was about change. The communion table in front of us, this morning, is about change. It is about looking at life a new way. The bread was no longer going to represent the old, the land that was slain at the Passover. The cup was no longer going to represent the blood of the lamb. It was going to represent the Lord Jesus because He was going to do something unthinkable. He was going to do something man could not even conceive. Every year, theyd come together; theyd commemorate the Passover. Theyd sacrifice the lamb. Theyd have the Passover meal. Theyd remember what God did. Jesus said, Thats going to change. From now on, when you observe this meal, youre going to think of Me because Im going to become the lamb of God. Im going to give of My blood. Im going to give of My body to set man free. The wages of sin is death. Jesus Christ was going to serve that sentence. He was going to die. He was going to become a curse in order that you and I could have forgiveness of sins and eternal life. That was something so radical, something a man could not have conceived in his wildest dreams. It took years for us to figure it all out. It took many explanations of Jesus to His disciples after the Resurrection, explaining from the Scriptures that the Messiah must suffer and die. It was a new way. It was a new covenant. The old covenant was going to go away, and the new covenant had come. This morning, as we receive communion, just prepare your hearts. Just thank God for the new things He is doing. Thank God for the things He wants to do in your life that are new. Be open and receptive to that. Were going to have some music playing in the background as we prepare our hearts to receive, and then after weve all received, just hold on to the elements and well partake together. Father, we thank You for the lesson today from Luke, the importance of the new wineskins. We said that change is difficult for us. We like the old better, and thats true. The same token that we need to have open minds, open hearts to see the new things Youre doing in our lives, the new things You are doing in our church, that You break through our traditions and our structures because You are bigger than them, so we might have a sensitivity to Your voice and to Your leading and always recognize that You are greater than the structure, that we might always keep You at the forefront as our top priority. You are what we are about, what this church is about. We pray that we might preserve unity in the faith. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.
Would you stand please? Lets pray together. Father, the story was told of a person who needed You so desperately and about a people who are so preoccupied with their own lives that we fail to see and fail to notice, fail to do something. I pray that we would take that message to heart this morning. I pray that You would help us to leave this place more effective because of what we have learned, what we have heard. I pray we will see the world in a different way; well see the difference we can make, and well determine to be that difference. I pray that You would also minister to those who are hurt this morning, those who desperately need Your touch. Touch them today, we pray in Your name, Amen. Lets open our Bibles up to Lukes Gospel, the fifth chapter. We left off in Verse 26, so today were in Verse 27. Were going through Luke together. We will be taking a hiatus along the way, a couple of them, because its going to take a long time to get through this book. Well go off and do some short mini-series along the way, but well always try to return to Luke until we do finish our task. This morning we want to talk about Witnessing for Dummies. Its not calling you and me a dummy. Its simply has become, in our modern day vernacular, a way of explaining something that seems to be hard or difficult and making it easier: Computers for Dummies. You buy that book Computer for Dummies, and it helps you learn how to work the computer. I dont know about you, but sometimes there are projects I start to do, and once Im into them, I find out they arent as hard as I thought they were. I had to put together a vacuum cleaner for my oldest child this week. I thought it would be hard. I looked at the instructions and thought, Man, how am I going to figure this out? I got into it, and it wasnt bad. Have you ever done that? You start doing something, and it just isnt as bad as you thought. Maybe, you were so spooked by a project because it seemed so hard-it seemed like it was going to be tedious or difficult-that you didnt get started. You thought, What if I fail? What if I cant do this? Its going to take so much of my time and resources, Im not even going to start, so you didnt start a project because of an anxiety about what was involved in that project. Sometimes witnessing is like that. You and I should speak, we should say something, but we dont because were afraid. What if I say the wrong thing? What if I misunderstood? What if I confuse the person instead of helping the person? What if I interpret the scriptures wrong and lead them in the wrong direction? What if I make them mad, and then he or she never comes to Christ because I screwed up my opportunity to share Him? So because of this anxiety and apprehension, because of the unknown factors of what theyll do or say, we keep our mouths shut when we should be opening it. Youre like the person in the drama we saw at the very beginning of the service this morning where the body parts were saying all the reasons why they shouldnt share the Lord. Maybe you have felt that way, so as a result, you kept your mouth shut when you should have said something. Anybody here like that this morning? Look around-you have company. Youre not the only one. My job this morning is to share some truths from Gods Word that will enable you to open your eyes and go, You know what? Its not as hard as I thought. Its not as difficult as I was making it out to be. In fact, the way youre saying it, it takes the pressure off of me. Now, Im actually looking forward to witnessing, believe it or not; because as soon as we start saying, Oh, were talking about witnessing, you think, Oh boy, here it comes. He is just going to lay into me and make me feel all guilty. Im going to leave and go find a victim. Ill just dump all this theological stuff on them and go whew! There, thats done until the next sermon. Thats not what were going to do. I promise you that you will leave this place thinking, I can do that. I can be an effective witness for Christ. Are you ready to begin? In Luke 5:27 (page 1020 of pew Bibles), Jesus is beginning His earthly ministry. He is assembling His team of disciples. We read about Peter, James, John and Andrew coming to Him, the miracle of the fish with the nets, and now Hes going to add another important disciple by the name of Levi, or Matthew. This is the same man who would eventually write the Gospel of Matthew-a very key player. Hes called Levi here. He goes by either name. After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. Follow me, Jesus said to him, and Levi got up, left everything and followed Him. Now we should not think that this is all Jesus said. It wasnt like there was some sort of mysterious trance Jesus put him in [where] a total stranger went up and said, Follow meee, and Matthew went okay. There was a dialog here. We are not privileged to read the dialog. We just see the outcome of the dialog. Jesus certainly challenged him, and he caught the vision. Maybe He said something similar to Peter, Instead of fishing for fish, youre going to be fishing for men. Maybe He used some sort of play on words to talk about what Matthew was going to be doing. Whatever He said, Matthew followed him. Verse 29, Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. The first thing I notice about Matthew is he has this tremendous change in his life. He is now following Jesus. Hes excited about it. Hes so excited, hes leaving his business and hes going to pursue a new life with Christ. Hes invited his new friends: Peter, James, and John. They are coming over too with his old friends. Hes not abandoned his old friends. He has not disowned his old friends. His old friends are still going to very much be a part of his life. The longer you are a Christian, you will notice the easier it is to have only friends around you who are Christians. If you are not careful, pretty soon everything you do socially, everything you do otherwise, you are going to be surrounded by Christians because we tend to like to be around people who think like we do, who share the same values we do. Its kind of an easy thing. Theyre like us so we want to be like them and be around them. Sometimes its harder to be around somebody who doesnt think, talk, value or believe the same things we do. It can be an irritant sometimes. Just because our lives are so busy, we tend to see people at church or people involved in ministry and tend to spend time with them exclusively. We certainly encourage relationships and friendships within the Body of Christ, but not to the point of exclusivity-not to the point where the only people we are hanging around with are fellow believers because Jesus definitely gave us an example that was contrary to that. Jesus was always criticized because He was a friend of whom? Sinners. He loved to hang around with people who didnt know the Lord. He loved to hang around with people who needed God. He didnt just spend time with only the disciples. You would find Jesus at weddings, parties, other get-togethers and festivals, talking with people in the street. You would find Jesus interacting with non-believers all the time. If we look at our lives and say, Over the last six months, I havent hung out with a non-Christian other than people I have to work next to or I havent shared my faith or I havent invited a person to church in about a year or longer, friends, if thats you-something is wrong. Chances are whats wrong is some of these fear factors were going to talk about and get rid of today. Were going to free you up to be effective. So Matthew has a party. He invites his old friends and his new Christian friends to come and join them. Thats not a bad idea because in that context, as they intermingle, there is going to be some interaction that takes place. Since 1982, I have organized a reunion of my friends. There are guys, a lot of them, who I went to grade school with. A lot of these guys, all of them, we all went to high school together. One of the things a lot of us had in common was hoops. So every year we get together, we rent a gym, we play basketball, and then we go out for pizza. Its been interesting to watch over the years now, as some of those guys now are 50 or approaching 50 years old, our skills are rapidly deteriorating. Were watching ourselves become these old, slow middle-aged guys trying to play a young mans game. Ill go around to some of the sons that are now playing with us, and Ill say, Your dad used to be an athlete. Your dad used to be able to play. They are like, Are you serious? Yeah, he really did. Then we go out for pizza, and we do that really well. In fact, were starting to play ball less and less and eat pizza more and more. Its getting to be where one of these days we will get together, play a game of horse and probably go out and eat after that. But its an interesting mix when we get together because a few of the guys, maybe five-maybe six-of us are Christians, and the other six are not. Its interesting how you catch up on your families and your business and tell some stories. Invariably, as youre sitting around that table, you start talking about spiritual matters. Maybe this guy is going through a divorce; maybe this guy has had some health issues; or this guy has other kinds of problems. Almost all of us were drinking pop, but there was one guy drinking beer. Hed had a couple, and he came up to me, put his hand on my shoulder-a little private conversation- and says, I love you, buddy. I said, I love you too. He said, Ive done some bad things. I said, What did you do? He said, I told some lies. I feel bad about it. Do you think God could forgive me? I said, You bet He could. I shared a little bit with him. I felt a little tug of the Holy Spirit telling me, You need to talk to this guy more than twice a year because some of those guys I see more often than others. Some of them I just see once or twice a year. I felt a little tug and said, I need to spend some more time with him. But every year we interact. We share some spiritual things together, and some good things happen. Ive noticed over the years, certain ones will come to Christ and start thinking about spiritual matters or start to seek the Lord. So I think our getting together is a good thing, that inner mix. Keeping those relationships alive is a good thing. Maybe there are some people you know that you havent touched based with in awhile…maybe there are some phone calls you need to make or some emails you need to send out, some letters you need to write, saying, You know what? Weve lost touch. We need to get together because you need to be having relationships with friends who dont know the Lord. Im not at all suggesting we have friendships only for the purpose of sharing our faith. That would be inauthentic. The buddy I was telling you about-should he never come to Christ, 20 years from now, God willing, hes still my friend. I will love him just as much then as I do now. In fact, if he becomes a Christian, I wont love him anymore than I do now. In fact, we will just be able to have a whole other dimension of conversation together, a whole other realm of relationship we can have together. Hell always be my friend. There are some people in your life that you can get together with and have a little mini-Matthew party with, hang out, talk about life, and just see where that conversation goes. You can try to steer that conversation in a spiritual direction. Share your faith! Share what the Lord means to you. Talk about your ministry; talk about your church; talk about a message youve heard. [You think], I dont know. What if I mess it up? What if I dont say things right, and the person ends up going away from Jesus instead of going toward Jesus? What if he doesnt become a Christian? Friends, Im going to tell you something that will both humble you and free you. Youve never converted a soul, and you never will. Salvation begins and ends with God-not with you. Theres no pressure on you. Youre simply a vessel. Youre simply a mouthpiece, a vehicle, a servant through which God speaks. Theres no pressure on you for that person. Thats in Gods camp-whether that person receives Christ of not. You plant the seed, and you come along and water the seed, but God is the One who makes it grow. Lets turn in our Bibles to 1 Corinthians 3. Lets look at that. Paul is writing to the church in Corinth and telling them how immature they were because they were talking more about Apollos and Paul than about Jesus. Paul is like, Listen, theres no room for celebrity in the Body of Christ. The only star in this operation is Jesus, so when you make a big deal out of Paul or Apollos, we are only servants. All we are is a mouthpiece for the Lord. Listen to what he says [in 1 Corinthians 3:5, page 1129 of pew Bibles], What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe-as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God… Say that with me, Only God. …only God, who makes things grow. Remember last week? All you do is cast the net; God is the One who fills it, right? He says, …only God who makes it grow. The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. For we are Gods fellow workers, you are Gods field, Gods building. I have a part to play. Its an important part, and I partner with God as a seed planter and as a seed waterer; but when that seed takes root, God is the One who gets the glory, not me. Thats Gods job, not mine. Lets pretend we live in California or Arizona. My mother-in-law lives in Arizona and has an orange tree in her yard. Its kind of handy; if you ever want a snack, just go out and pick one. If somebody comes over to your house, and youre going to have a snack together, theres this orange on the table there; they take the orange and bite it. They say, Oh, man. This orange is so good. How did you get this orange so juicy? Whats your secret? It is so orange. The color on this orange is unbelievable. How did you make this so orange? It smells so citrusy. Do you want orange juice right now? It just smells…oh, man. It makes my mouth water. How did you make this orange taste so good? You will say, Well, five years ago, I dug a hole. I put in an orange tree, and I covered it and I watered it. Thats what you did. Who made the orange so juicy, orange, and taste so good? God did. If they walk in and notice some flowers on your table, and they smell them and say, Oh, what is that? You say, Thats a Fragrant Viburnum. They say, Man, that just smells like spring. How did you do that? How did you get those little flowers on there like that? And the green of the leaves, how did you make that so green? How did you make that smell so good? Can you teach me how to do that because Id love to be able to do that? That is just amazing how you did that. Can you share with me how you made this? I bought a Viburnum bush, and I dug a hole. I put it in the ground, covered it up with dirt, and I watered it. Did you put those flowers on there? Did you make it smell like that? Did you make it green like that? We got ready to have a sandwich, so we got some meat and veggies from your garden. You got some green peppers, onions, and cucumbers. You make a sandwich and take a bite of your onion, and you say, Man, this onion is sweet! You know the story. How did you do that? How did you get all those layers on there like that? All that skin! How in the world did you make that onion taste so good? You say, I dug a hole, I put in an onion seed, I covered it with dirt, and I watered it. God made the onion, didnt He? God made all the layers and the flavor in that onion. If you share your faith with somebody, and they come to Christ, and their life starts to change, they start to produce fruit, and then somebody comes up to you and says, Man! You led that person to Jesus, and now hes a Christian! His whole life has changed! Isnt it great what is happening in his life! How did you do it? You say [arrogantly], Just a servant of the Lord, thats all. Im a borderline theological genius. Its just a gift I have. I knew exactly what to say, what to do, and, you know, Im a good example. He followed me. What can I say? You better not do that. Do you know what you had better say? I planted a seed, and I watered it. God caused it to grow. Youre not powerful enough to convert anyone. You cant forgive sins. You cant create new life in a person. All you can do is faithfully be a witness of what you have seen and what you have heard. Once you plant that seed, its Gods business. Its Gods business that oranges come on that orange tree. Its Gods business that flowers smell good from that Fragrant Viburnum. Its Gods business that this onion is sweet and flavorful. He does that-not you. Youre the seed planter. Thats fun. You plant a garden, or you landscape and plant things. Its fun, but certainly dont take credit for the beauty of the flowers and the taste of vegetables. Thats Gods department. Number one: pressure off. Thats not your responsibility that they cross the line of faith. Thats in Gods department. Your job is to faithfully share the message or invite them to hear the message. The pressure is off there. The second thing I want you to notice in this text is the heart that Matthew has. Matthew doesnt just think of himself, but Matthew thinks of his friends. He says, You know what? Jesus made such a difference in my life; I want Him to make a difference in my friends lives too. So Matthew says, I want my friends to meet this Jesus and His followers who have made such a difference for me. Matthew sees with a spiritual lens. See, for us, theyre just a nameless, faceless crowd that we read about. For Matthew, these were people he knew and cared about. He wanted to see them influenced for Christ. Do you see through the right spiritual lenses today? Or do you have such tunnel vision that the only thing you see is your world, your troubles, and your concerns. Its important as believers that we develop eyes to see and ears to hear. Remember what Jesus said, He who has ears to hear, let him hear. Hes talking about a certain type of hearing, a certain type of seeing, where we can train ourselves to be aware of the needs that are around us, so we will know how to respond, so well know how to share the Gospel to meet that need. My wife is an intensive care nurse. Over the years, shes treated thousands of patients, so shes learned different signs and symptoms to look for. Occasionally, well see somebody, and shell say, See that person? I will say, Yup. Shell say, They have such and such. How do you know that? Ive seen it a thousand times. They have this, this, this and this. That organ is failing, or this is going on. Theyre going to need a transplant there. Shell recognize those signs because shes been trained. I dont want you to get all nervous and think when you talk to her, shes diagnosing you or anything like that. Medical people see things differently than you and I do. When you walk into that doctors office, that doctor is already sizing you up before you tell him about your owies. Theyre looking at your skin color; theyre looking at your skin-period; theyre looking at your gate, how you walk, your posture, if youre favoring anything; theyre looking at your nose and your eyes, your teeth; theyre listening to your voice. When they listen to your chest, they hear things, your breathing and your heart. They hear things that you and I wouldnt hear because their eyes and ears have been trained to do that. What Im suggesting to you this morning is that you and I, if we will ask God to help us do this and we are willing to do this, we can start to see and hear things in a sensitive way to be able to respond to the needs that are around us. Wouldnt it be cool if there were just an easier way? If you could put on a pair of glasses, and when you put on this pair of glasses, magically you could see not only the person but their need? You could see why that grumpy person is grumpy; or why that talkative person is so talkative; why that quiet person is so quiet; or why that person who cut you off was in a hurry, why they were in a hurry. Do you think that would give you more patience, more sensitivity? Maybe youd see the world differently. Were going to watch the story of a guy right now who did find a pair of those glasses and how it changed his life. Lets tune in. (Click on this link to see a preview: http://www.sermonspice.com/search?fpage=1&q=get%20service) Matthew sees the needs of his friends. Jesus gets it. He sees their needs. The Pharisees dont get it. In Verse 30 [back to Luke 5:30, page 1020], …Pharisees and the teachers of the law… There is an open courtyard here. Its a big house. Its very common in a big house with a large crowd, they would go out in the courtyard-not in the house proper, so this is where this conversation takes place. By the way, the name Pharisees means the separated ones. The only people the Pharisees hung out with were other Pharisees, people just like them-thought like them, believed like they did, valued what they did, and talked like they did. They only hung out with other people like themselves. They complained to the disciples, Why do you eat and drink with sinners? Notice in Verse 31, they complained to the disciples, but who answered? Jesus did. He said, I think the problem you have is with Me. Whats the question? [Jesus answered] Its not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. Jesus refers to Himself as a doctor. Have you ever referred somebody to a doctor, a medical professional of some sort? Eye or heart? Skin? Dentist? Have you ever done that? Ever been referred to? I have. I had a problem with my arches years ago from playing too much ball. I was talking to a buddy of mine, and I said, Man, when I get up, right here-my heal-it just hurts. I can hardly walk in the morning. He said, You have planter fasciitis. I said, Planter whatsa whosit? He said, Planter fasciitis. Its an inflammation of the tendon. You have to go to this doctor in Beloit. What hell do is hell make a cast of your foot, and hell make some orthotics for your foot. I said, Orthotics? That sounds like something an old person wears. I dont want to wear something called an orthotic. Cant I just get those spongy things for my shoes, so I can be jellin? He said, No, no, no, no. These are better. Theyre hard, but theyre shaped just to your foot. Itll make you feel a whole lot better. So I went to go see the doctor, and he made some forms of my foot. Then he made these orthotics, which I will be putting in after this sermon. I wore them, and he said, Two weeks from now, youre going to feel great. Two weeks later, I felt great. Since then, I havent had that problem again. Did my friend have to understand the inner workings of the foot? Did he have to know about every bone, every tendon and muscle and how it connects in my foot to help me? Did he have to know how to make the cast or how to make the orthotic itself? What did my friend have to do? Point me to the direction of the doctor. The doctor had to do the work. The doctor is the guy that I said a friend referred me to you, so the pressure is on him. Hes the one who has to use his knowledge and expertise, experience, to help me with my problem. The pressure is on him-its not on my friend. My friend knows, based on experience, that if he sends me to him, Im going to get the help that I need. Maybe youve had a toothache, and you say, Boy, Ive got a good dentist. Hes really good. Or maybe you have a friend who struggles with vision, and you say, You know, theres a guy who does this great LASIK procedure, and my friend had it done. He can see 20/20 now. If you have a friend whose breathing is bad. He says, Boy, Im always out of breath, and Im having some pain, youd say, You know what? Maybe you have a heart blockage. Maybe you need to see a cardiologist. I have a friend who had this cardiologist who did a great job. He did a procedure on him, and he feels wonderful now. Do you need to know anything about the heart? For the dentist, do you need to know about teeth to refer somebody to a good dentist? Or [do you have to know] how eye surgery works? Somebody has a rash; do you need to know what that rash is and what medicine makes it better to send him to a dermatologist? Whats the answer? No. You simply need to know what direction to point them. Friends, you dont need to understand everything about the persons condition. You dont need to understand everything about the cure for their condition. You have to simply point them to Jesus because if theyll go to Him, theyre going to find a cure. Theyre going to find the help they need. Thats your job. Your job is to say, I cant help you with that, but theres somebody who can, and then point them in that direction. I have heard many people, over the years, use the excuse-some of you have used this excuse, You know, I just dont know the Bible as well as I should. Ive never been theologically trained. Im afraid I will say something wrong or misinterpret Scripture or not be able to answer the question correctly. I think if I just had more theological training, then Id be able to do it. How much theological training did Matthew have? How much? None. How about the woman at the well who lives a loose life, comes to Jesus, and He administers to her. She runs back and says, Come meet a man who told me everything Ive ever done. He could even be the Messiah. The village comes, and heres Jesus, and they all become Christians. How about Andrew who just meets Jesus and goes back to Peter and says, We found the Messiah. Come and meet Him. Come and hear! How much theological training did he have? How about any of them: Peter the fisherman and John? How much theological training did they have? You know what, friends? Speaking as a person who has had theological training, it helps, but not as much as you think it does. Sometimes, it complicates things. Theological training comes in handy if youre talking to somebody who has had theological training. If theyve had systematic theology, it helps really well. If theyre a normal everyday person, like you, probably just talking an everyday normal language is what works best. Recently my wife typed up a paper I did. The title of my paper was a Soteriological Study of Substitutionary and Governmental Theories of Atonement. In it, I Juxtaposed Reformed and Armenian theology as it pertains to atonement. My wife read my title, and she said, Boring! She read the paper, and she said, You guys make this stuff not fun! (Pastor looks toward his wife, Brenda and asks) Did anything in that paper help you, spiritually, really? Nothing. Its a good trade off though. She typed my paper, and I got to cut off the craft [for this week in Childrens Church], so when you come home with the drawing with the kids, and it says, Keep learning about God and theres Jesus and a kid on the popsicle stick, I did that. I was watching the Cubbies last night, cutting paper. It was a fair tradeoff. It was boring to her. I said, It might be boring to you, but this stuff helps me be a better pastor and teacher, just like your boring medical journals help the body come alive to you and help you to be a better critical care nurse. People dont want you to talk theology with them. They dont need deep terminology. They need Jesus. Have you ever had an experience with the Lord? Hes blessed your life, and you want to bless somebody elses. Youre excited about your faith. Guess what? You are qualified. You might be a more effective witness than Professor so-and-so or Dr. so-and-so or Pastor so-and-so, who knows a whole lot more about the scripture than you do. That does not mean they are a better witness than you are. Its not so much about knowledge. You need to have some knowledge. Im not belittling that, but if theres enthusiasm, if theres sincerity, authenticity, if there is concern and respect, that goes a long way. That goes a really long way. In my early years as a Christian, there were times when I shared my faith, and it didnt go so well. There were some times when I overreacted to people who didnt believe as I believe. I was like, You believe what? Youre wrong! Youre dumb. Heres the truth. Bam! That didnt go well. Then I learned a principle. Peter said that we gently correct; we use meekness and gentleness, humbly correct. I have yet to have somebody who sees that I am showing them respect…even though I disagree with their viewpoint-I respect them. I am showing genuine concern and compassion. I have yet to see anybody offended in those contexts. It doesnt happen. Thats a myth. If somebody knows you care about them, somebody knows youre not trying to be condescending or judgmental, but youre going to truly listen to them, value and respect their opinion, and youre going to authentically share yours, and you do so with gentleness as the Scripture tells you to do it, youre not going to offend anybody. Youre not going to turn off anybody. If you do run across a question that you dont have an answer for, you simply say, I dont have an answer for that. Thats an excellent question, and Ill try to find out for you. Its not as hard and scary as we make it out to be. If it were up to me to make this thing (an orange) juicy or orangey or taste good, Id feel a lot of pressure. Its simply up to me to put the seed in the ground. Its not up to me to make this smell good or this taste good. Its just up to me to put the seed in the ground and water it. Thats all you do. You put the seed in the ground, and you water it. God causes the growth. Its not that hard. You try to learn to live life with ears to hear and eyes to see. As youre going through the course of life, and you see a need and hear a need, you respond to it. You dont have to have all the answers; you dont have to understand everything thats going on. You just simply have to say, I know somebody who can help you with that. Heres how the Lord helped me, and you refer them to Dr. Jesus. Let Him do His thing. Is that scary to you? Friends, the most effective witness for Christ isnt always our most highly-trained theologian, nor is it the person who stands on the street corner and hands out tracks. The most effective witness for Christ is when you go to a person you work with or you know, and you share from your heart what the Lord means to you. You plant a seed; you water a seed; and when that seed grows, you cant take any credit for it, gang, because that was Gods doing-not yours. Does that help you today? Does that take some of the pressure off of you and maybe even get you a little excited about the next opportunity to share your faith? I hope so. I see a team coming up to the platform right now, and that means theyre kicking me off, so I will take my orthotics and leave. Its time to sing. Lets stand together. Well continue on in Luke next week. * (This is a story about a man who is complaining of all sorts of things: First, its the kid who pulls out in front of his car, and he thinks, That kid, every time Im pulling out, hes right there! Man. I think somebody needs to talk to his parents-if theyre ever home. Then he begins complaining about the traffic and how everyday its congested. What is it with these dumb roads? he asks. Next, he reflects on how a driver cuts him off and then states how badly a car is parked in a parking lot. He walks into a restaurant and waits in line to order while he looks at the long line and grumbles about the man in line ordering a cookie (who doesnt need it). He orders a latte and is thanked for his patience in the wait for his order. The wait is quite long. Then, he puts on a pair of glasses and begins to see all the reasons for each situation. He starts to think things through differently when he sees all the reasons why each person reacted the way they did to the situation (i.e. why the boy rides in the street with no supervision, why the overweight man eats so much…). He changes his thought process and becomes more patient, more helpful to the people he comes across.
Lets open our Bibles up to Luke 5 together. I talked about impossibilities and the importance of faith. Were going to look this morning at two examples found in Luke 5, which is the series we are on. Were going through the Gospel of Luke together. The first example is a man with leprosy, a condition that eventually would take his life. Hes an outcast, yet he comes to Jesus and says in Verse 12 (page 1019 of pew Bibles), Lord, if You are willing, you can make me clean. Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. I am willing, He said. Be clean! And immediately the leprosy left him. Then the second story in this chapter is about Jesus teaching in a house. There are so many people coming that there is no room. They bring their friend who is paralyzed, and they cant fit into the building. Everywhere they go, the building is full, so they come up with the idea of lowering him from the roof. They climb up on top, and they start to lower him down in front of Jesus. I bet you anything, Jesus stops talking at this point. You cant compete with a crumbling roof. If all the sudden the drywall started coming down here, and somebody is dropping someone through the roof, Im not preaching anymore. Lets see whats going on. So they drop him in front of Jesus, and what will He do? It says in Verse 20, When Jesus saw their faith, He said, Friend, your sins are forgiven, and He healed the man. Well be looking more at some other scriptures in this passage, but I want you to notice something. First of all, theres a common theme, and that is that each one of these men-each one of these people-were proactive in their faith. Faith is not a passive thing. Faith is not sitting on your hands, twiddling your thumbs waiting for God to act. Faith takes initiative. This man took initiative. This man said, Lord, heal me. I have seen people go to the other extreme because there was a segment, or a thing christened them, that people have said, Well, theyre the name-it-claim-its, so theyre treating God like Hes a cosmic vending machine, like He is a genie. You say the words and rub the lamp, and Hell dispense blessings to you. So, I dont want to do that. I know its not about me; its about Him, so I make sure everything I do is about Him-not about me. Ive even heard believers say, Well, I dont pray for myself. I pray for others. I pray for our church. I pray for our country and world, but I really dont pray for myself. Have you heard people say that? I want to say, Why not? Why dont you? How effective can you be if youre struggling with sickness, depression, pain and anxiety? How effective will you be for Christ if youre being oppressed by those things? Think of a soldier who is on the battlefield, and hes wounded. The paramedic comes up to him and says, Let me help you. Let me stop that bleeding. Let me take care of that infection. The soldier says, Oh, no, no, no. Im not thinking of myself right now. Theres a war going on, and I have to be strong to help this guy, this guy, and this guy. The paramedic, if hes smart, says, Thats exactly why I need to help you today. Thats exactly why we need to stop the bleeding, exactly why we need to take care of the infection-bandage the wounds and set the bones, so you can be healed, so you can be strong, so you can be effective, so you can minister. Jesus doesnt rebuke this man. He says, Lord, if youre willing, You can help me. Jesus reached out His hand and scolded the man and said, You selfish man! Shame on you for only thinking of yourself! Jesus doesnt rebuke him. Jesus meets the need. Its an okay thing to pray for personal needs. I know most of us do, but we have a few martyrs out there who we have to talk to for just a moment. Its an okay thing. Now, if youre only praying for yourself, thats a problem, right? If youre only praying for selfish needs, thats a problem; but if you have a legitimate need, God cares about that need. You are well within His will to pray for that. I notice how this faith is persistent. They go after it. Sometimes we see obstacles, and we walk away-not these guys. Thats not what faith does. Faith presses through obstacles. You say, The door is full. Im going to go through the roof. Jesus says in the Book of Matthew 7:7-8 (page 961 of pew Bibles), Ask… Lets turn there. Well come back to Luke, but lets turn there. This is teaching from the Sermon on the Mount. Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. Jesus is inviting you. Jesus is challenging you to pursue Him, to persist in faith. If it is true that I ask and seek and knock, the door is open to me, is it also true that if I do not ask, I do not seek, and I do not knock, the door will not be open? You think? Try a little experiment and be so bold. Go to somebodys house after church in the neighborhood, and stand at their front door and see what happens. If you start grumbling and complaining, Better go to Eds house since Ed goes to our church. He might tolerate a little bit more. But if you go there and stand at the front of the door, are you surprised when nobody answers? Do you start grumbling and complaining because nobody is answering the door? You say, Well, of course not. I havent knocked or rang the doorbell. If this were done in a modern translation, Jesus might say, For he who rings the doorbell, the door will be open unto you. If you want the door to open, you have to knock. As ridiculous as that illustration sounds, some of us stand in front of closed doors complaining and grumbling about why the door hasnt opened. The truth of the matter is we havent knocked. Were just expecting, Open Sesame. God knows my needs. Hes going to do it, right? Hes going to open the door. Jesus says, I want you to ask. I want you to seek. I want you to knock. As a parent rewards good behavior and withholds for bad behavior, the Lord does the same thing. In the Book of Mark 6, He comes to His hometown, and the hometown wants nothing to do with Him. It says they knew Him, Isnt this Joseph and Marys son? Dont we know His brothers? Isnt He the son of a carpenter? Who does He think He is doing all these miracles? The Bible says He could not perform many miracles there but healed a few. He was amazed at their lack of faith. Was it that He couldnt do the miracles there or He chose to not perform the miracles there? He chose to not do the miracles there. He chose to withhold blessings. There were people who could have been healed who went home the same way they came because they didnt seek. God will bless when we ask, seek and knock. He will withhold when we dont. I was in Lighthouse Bookstore here when Lindsey was about four, so it was about six years ago. She is normally very good, but on this particular day, she was a little fussy. I gave some reinforcement. I said, If youre good, well pick out a little prize for you to take home with you. So she was pretty good until she saw something else she wanted. She said, I want that, Dad. I said, Okay, then you have to put this back. No, I dont want to put this back. I want that too. I said, Well, you cant have that, too. You can have this or that, but you cant have both this and that. So she started to throw a tantrum there in the store. She started to fuss. I said, If you continue to do this, not only will you not get the new thing you want, but youre not going to get the old thing you wanted. You will get nothing. If you behave yourself like I said, I will keep my promise, and I will buy you one thing. If you continue to act up, you will go home with nothing. She continued to act up, so I took both things out of her hand and put them back. We left the store empty-handed. Sometimes we think God is dumb, that we can fool Him. God is smarter than you and I. It says [in Galatians 6:7, page 1155 of pew Bibles], Do not be deceived. God is not mocked. A man reaps what he sows. But God withholds when we dont have faith. Hebrews 11:6 (page 1192) says, …without faith it is impossible to please God for he who comes to God must believe that He exists and that He is the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. In James 1:6-8, the Word says that when we ask, We must ask in faith and not doubt, for the one who doubts is like the waves tossed back and forth by the sea. Let not that man think he will receive anything from the Lord, being unstable in all of his ways. Hes double-minded. So God withholds from us. Had this man not sought Jesus-had this group of men not made that hole through the roof and let their friend through-he would have died paralyzed. Jesus wants us to ask, to seek, to knock. Notice that when they do this, there is an expectation. Faith has an expectation that an answer is coming. When faith knocks on the door, it expects the door to open. He says, Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean. Do you see the expectation there? Hes anticipating that God is going to do something good in his life. Because I know the nature of God, because I know the character and the faithfulness of God, when I ask, I can ask with an expectation. Ill tell you a puppy story this morning. I havent done any animal stories for awhile. I have a little dog named Penny who likes to play ball. Occasionally, her ball will get under the couch where she cant reach it. Shell try with her snout and then her paw. If its right there, in fact it doesnt have to be in there very far, she knows its impossible to get. So what shell do is shell start going around the couch, looking at it from every different perspective, and then the next phase is she starts to whine (Pastor makes the sound of a dog whining). Sometimes shell do this for quite a while. Then shell finally get around to asking me because she knows I can do the impossible (congregation laughing). I can get balls out from under the couch, which from her perspective is impossible. From her perspective, thats quite a miracle; but from my perspective, its pretty easy. I dont just get up and get it. I wait for her to come and ask me, so she comes over to me, and she asks. God kind of does the same thing. Hell watch us struggle with the problem, look at it from every angle, and try to figure it out. When we cant, we start whimpering, complaining and grumbling. Eventually, we get around to asking, right? Youd think she would just wise up and, as soon as that ball runs under the couch, run likity split to me and go, You know, Im never going to get that. Im going to need your help. Youd think wed get it: when things would come our way, instead of scratching our heads trying to figure this all out, run around, look at it from every angle, grumble and complain, and then we would finally say, Okay, I need help. Youd think that as soon as we get in that situation, wed go, Okay, I need help right away. She asks me and she uses a different language when she comes to me. Shell come to me and look at me and get a little louder, whining like rrrr, rrrr, rrrrr, rrrrr. That means, I cant get the ball. Can you help? When I make eye contact, and as soon as I say, You lost your ball? Do you want me to get your ball? her ears go up, eyes get big, and her tail starts to wag because she knows that Im going to get the ball. If I get up from that chair and start walking toward the couch, as far as shes concerned, that ball is as good as in her mouth. She knows something good is coming her way, so she gets all excited. When you pray, do you get excited? Do you say, Im just excited to hear or see how God is going to answer this prayer? It may not be in the way or when you expect Him to or how, but Hes going to. You get excited. You anticipate. You have expectations that rise in your spirit. Because my dog knows Im able-she knows Im willing, and she knows I can, she gets excited as if that ball were right there. Notice when you act in faith, God rewards. So, youre going to see this man get more than he asks for. God loves to do that. The Word of God says Hes able to exceedingly, abundantly [give] above all that we can ask or think. We tend to put Him in that box that we saw. We tend to have those limitations because we see the world through our perspective, through our natural limitations, but its not the way it is. Look at what happens here in Verse 20, When Jesus saw their faith, He said, Friend, your sins are forgiven. What did he come for? Did he come to have his sins forgiven? Did he come down there, and the words out of his mouth were, Jesus, forgive me for I have sinned? He didnt come for forgiveness; he came for healing, and he got both. He wanted this, and he got this and that. He got it all. God loves to reward our faith. Not only was he healed physically, but he was cleansed from sin. When Jesus says, Your sins are forgiven you, Hes not just simply talking about I forgive you or you forgive me like we did a wrong against one another. Its not that kind of forgiveness. What Jesus is talking about here is removing the guilt of sin. What Jesus is saying here is Im going to cleanse your soul. Now, I can forgive you, or you can forgive me, but I cant cleanse your soul. I can point you in the right direction for Who can, but I cant cleanse your soul. I cant cleanse my soul; how am I going to cleanse your soul? We cant wipe out sin like God can wipe out sin. The Pharisees understand exactly what Jesus is saying because in Verse 21, it says they began thinking to themselves. Notice, they dont ever utter it. They dont say it-they just think it. Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone? Exactly. No one-only God. So, Jesus here is manifesting or asserting who He is. Hes showing that He can forgive sins. Verse 22, Jesus knew what they were thinking and asked, Why are you thinking these things in your hearts? Which is easier to say: Your sins are forgiven, or to say, Get up and walk? By the way, this man gets up to walk, and he leaves with a clean soul. You get more than you bargain for when you walk in faith. I got down underneath that couch, and I saw toy-heaven under there. Not only did I get, and this usually happens, I got the ball, but I got a couple other balls and I got that empty Culvers sundae container she likes to chew on. Usually, she likes the stuff she finds more than the stuff you buy. She got that empty two-liter bottle of pop that she loves to chew on and chase. She got that half of a plastic Easter egg from Easter shes been chewing on. She wanted the ball, and she got the whole shebang. She got toy heaven. I started bringing all of this stuff out, and she was like, This is amazing! The two-liter bottle, the Culvers now. Wow, man! Dont be surprised-when you act in faith-if God doesnt give you more than you asked for, more than you bargained for. These men saw things from Gods perspective, not from mans perspective. Mans perspective is if youre paralyzed, youre paralyzed for life. If youre a leper, youre going to die that way. They saw in terms of the natural, just like we do. We tend to think that if you live in the Bible times, you expected miracles, that supernatural was taken for granted because after all, you live in Bible times. These people hadnt seen miracles until Jesus came. Yeah, there were some miracles in the Old Testament. By the time Jesus came, those stories were already hundreds of years old. They hadnt seen any of that. They lived in a natural world. Many of them had secular mindsets-Im talking Jewish people. They had secular mindsets. Practicers of the Law had secular mindsets. We always talk about the Pharisees. Have you ever heard of the Sadducees? The Sadducees believe that this is all there is. There is no heaven; there is no resurrection; there are no spirits; there are no angels. None of that exists. No one expected miracles. The average guy wasnt expecting them. He lived in the real world. Yet, these men had faith, a supernatural faith in a real world, and God is asking us to do the same thing. He is asking us to see through that same lens, to see things from His perspective. He lets us in on that perspective a little bit here when he confronts the Pharisees for their thinking. He says [in Verse 23], Which is easier: to say, Your sins are forgiven, or to say, Get up and walk? But you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins…. He said to the paralyzed man, I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home. Immediately he stood up in front of them, took what he had been lying on and went home praising God. Everyone was amazed and gave praise to God. They were filled with awe and said, We have seen remarkable things today. Notice, Jesus doesnt say, Which is harder? If that had been me, I would have said, Which is harder? What do you mean which is easier? Neither one of them is easy. Here are my choices: to cleanse a mans soul by forgiving his sin and removing his guilt; or enabling a paralyzed man to walk. I dont think either of those is too easy. From my perspective, those are both impossible; but from the perspective of Jesus, He said, Which is easier? [Jesus says,] If theyre both easy, which one should I do? Ive already done the one, but just so you know that I can, hell walk too. The fact that he was able to walk validates, substantiates and proves that his sins were forgiven. The fact of what they saw demonstrated and proved that what they could not see was true as well. When we encounter the problems of our lives that just seem to get insurmountable and grow larger and bigger, are we looking from a human perspective or are we looking from Gods perspective? If were looking from our perspective, were going to say, Man, look how big that is compared to me. That is overwhelming to me. I dont see a solution. I dont know what to do. Its getting bigger and larger and more overwhelming in my life. If were looking at it from Gods perspective, wed say, Look how small this is compared to God, how easy this is for God. Do you see the difference? People of faith see the difference when they look from Gods perspective. Which is easier? Let me ask you a question. Is the God of the Bible alive today? Yes. Is Jesus of Nazareth alive today? He is. The grave could not hold him. He is alive. Has He lost any power? No. Does He still care about our needs? Yes, He does. If thats the case, why dont we pray anymore? Why arent we asking more? Why arent we seeking? Why arent we persisting? Why arent we pursuing more? I wanted to take some time this morning to pray and lift up some of these things that are weighing on your soul. Were going to believe God for the impossible this morning. Would you bow your heads with me in prayer? Father, the first thing we want to do this morning is confess. We want to confess to you that sometimes we look from the perspective of man rather than from Your perspective. We look at problems in our lives, and we say, Boy, which one of these is harder? Theyre both hard. Theyre both impossible. Theyre both overwhelming, but You would look at those, and You would say, Which is easier? Forgive us for the times we have put You in a box. Weve not asked. We have not sought. Weve not knocked. In fact, weve been quite passive in our faith, quite nonchalant. Weve stood in front of doors that are not open, and weve grumbled and complained, but we havent knocked. Weve seen problems that are out of our reach, and we circle them and try to figure them out if we can. We grumble and complain and finally get around to praying. Forgive us for that. Thank you for these men who took these spiritual risks, this man who interrupted You as You were walking-the man who interrupted You as You were preaching. You didnt see them as interruptions. You saw them as opportunities to reward faith. There are blessings that we could have, but You have withheld them because we have not learned how to walk in faith; so its my prayer this morning that as we envision, as we see, these obstacles, these problems-be they physical, be they financial, be they relational or emotional, or maybe even something we cant put our fingers on-wed have the confidence to know that You see and Youre aware and we would ask, even now, even today. We would say, God bring healing. God bring deliverance. God bring restoration. God take this weight from me. God, help me to see clearly. I need you. …that we would ask with a confident expectation, knowing Your nature, knowing Your willingness and Your ability to use Your power in our behalf, that we might be a people of faith. I pray this in Jesus name, Amen.
We are going to continue on in our series in the Gospel of Luke, and we are in Chapter 5. We are going to do something a little different this morning. Occasionally, from time to time, I grab the stool here and sit down. We just have a devotional time together, so thats what were going to do this morning-have a little devotional time from Luke 5. You are possibly looking at the worlds worst fisherman. I used to go fishing with my dad almost every weekend. I never caught a thing but snags and discarded boots, things like that. The only time I remember catching a fish was when we left our fishing poles in the water and went to go get firewood. I came back and had a fish on the line. Thats about it for me. Thats about all I have ever caught. I can remember feeling empty, thinking, Boy, that was just… I was too young to be philosophical and go, Well, I got to spend time with my dad. I always looked at it like, Boy, that was boring. I didnt catch anything. It was kind of a little feeling of vanity. Multiply that many times over. What must have Peter felt when he had spent all day working and had nothing to show for it? No fish. This was not Peter and James and John out for a good time together as buddies hanging out in the boat. This was their livelihood. They were professional fisherman. There were boats; there were nets; they would cast a net, and if they didnt have fish, they didnt have anything to sell. If they didnt have anything to sell, they didnt have any money; if they didnt have money, there was nothing to buy food with. This was a bad day for Peter. He was a pro. He knew the ins and outs of Lake Gennesaret, which is simply another name for the Sea of Galilee. Thats where he was, the Sea of Galilee-which is really a big lake, and he had nothing to show for it. Have you ever had days like that? You put in a day, you worked hard all day, and when you got to the end of the day, you say, What did I do? Why did I do it? What was that about? I remember spending long hours when I worked in a grocery store cleaning out the dumpster and sweeping out the alley. I would think in the end, Thats going to be messy before I go home from work today. Thats just vanity. Peter was just really feeling defeated. Then Jesus has the audacity, the nerve, to ask him to go around and put his nets back in. He is basically saying, Go back to work. Peter, clean the nets. That was a job, bringing in those big heavy nets, cleaning them and packing things away. Hes already switched gears. Hes thinking about what he was going to do after work. Hes thinking about the next day, How am I going to make it better? He is going to go home and get some sleep. Jesus says, Go back to work. Cast your nets again. How would you like that? Youve clocked out and youre tired, and your boss says, Hey, clock in again for me. I mean, youre done. Its like the painter who has painted all day. Its been a long, arduous day, and he cleans off his brushes and everything else. Hes ready to go home and shower and get his paint clothes off. The owner says, Hey, can you go back to work? That takes a lot of nerve, especially if it had been a bad day. If it had been a good day, and Peter caught a lot of fish, Yeah, maybe okay. Im on a roll anyway. But on a day when youve caught nothing, you are already discouraged. To go back to work… When you think about it, what Jesus asked him to do took a lot of nerve, but to Peters credit, he complied-not without complaining a little bit first, mind you. He did let Jesus know where he stood on the issue before he complied, but he did do what Jesus asked him to do. He was going to find that was the right thing to do. Do you know what? It also wasnt logical. Not only was it inconvenient, it wasnt logical. When you fish the Sea of Galilee, you did your best fishing at night. Theyd fished all night long and caught nothing. Jesus was asking to fish during the day. Thats the wrong time. They used drift nets that would skim the surface of the water. Jesus said, Put your nets deep. Thats not where the fish were. The fish were near the top, but He said, Put your nets deep. So He has the wrong technique, the wrong time of day, bad timing on a day when the fish just arent there. Everything, from Peters perspective, was wrong, wrong, wrong. It wasnt logical. This guys a carpenter, for goodness sake. Who does He think He is telling me how to do my job? Im not sure what all of your lines of work are, but I guarantee you, you know how to do your profession a whole lot better than I do. Imagine somebody who doesnt work in your line of work, has never worked in your line of work a day in his or her life, coming and telling you how to do things. You might take a little offense to that, right? You might think, Well who are you to tell me how to do my job? I wonder if Peter took a little offense from this carpenter, telling him how to be a fisherman. He was a pro, for goodness sake. Besides that, it just wasnt logical the way He was asking Peter to do it. Peter knew the result; it wasnt going to work. Has God ever asked you to do something that was either inconvenient or didnt make sense, wasnt logical? Has God ever asked you that? Nobody? Okay. Well, someday He will. Sometimes God asks us to do things we dont want to do. Its just a fact; but if youve been in the faith long enough, you know that when you follow the Lords leading, even when you dont want to and even when its not logical, if Gods in it, Hell fill the nets. Hell get it done. Pretty soon, you learn to trust, so you dont argue, complain and grumble as much when He asks you to do that. My biological father passed away when I was a little boy. Several years later, my mom remarried, and that man became my dad. Hes the guy that taught me to fish, play sports, ride my bike, and swim. My dad was a checker pro. We had trophies all around our house. He was the state champion of Illinois 16 or 17 times. He was a nationally-ranked player. He would study checkers for hours a day. He had newspaper clippings-I still have them-of him going to fairs where he would play somewhere around 10 tables at a time and never lose. He would go up and down making the moves. My dad would blindfold himself. Wed number the checkers, and he would play the game against me blindfolded. He would tell me where to move his checker, and I would tell him, I just went one to four, Dad, and he would say, Okay, now move me this to that. Then Id say, Okay, Im moving this to that. Wed play the whole game, and hed beat me. Dont laugh because he would have beaten you too. Then he would take his blindfold off and go back through the whole game by memory, move for move-every move you did and every move he did, all the way to the conclusion of the game. He was like a genius. When I was a little guy, wed play, and sometimes he would start giving me checkers. Id get all excited, thinking he didnt know what he was doing and I was going to win. Then, just like in the movies or in a cartoon, after hed give me about four checkers, jump, jump, jump, jump, jump, King! Id be going, Huh? Why did that happen? As I got older, as soon as he started giving me checkers, Id go, Im done. I have no idea what hes going to do, but Im toast. Im just done. I never beat my dad. Two days before he passed away-he had leukemia, and he was in his bed all the time with a lot of pain-he wanted to play checkers. I wasnt trying to go easy on him because I had never won. I wanted to beat him. Here he is, two days away from going to Heaven, and he cleaned my clock for four games. I had to give up. My dad was so far ahead that sometimes three moves into a game, hed say, Oh, son, you were playing a good game up to this point, but Im going to beat you now. He would not only know the outcome of the game, hed know how he would beat me. He would know all the moves he would make. Before he passed away, he had a dream to play on the internet. Hed heard about that. Really good checker players get on the internet and play; so he came out to my house, and we went on Yahoo! We went to the masters division, the highest division there is. Hed tell me where to move, and Id move the mouse. We got up where there were some really good players, really good players, and he would do that thing where he would give away checkers. I could just see some guy on the other end in some other country or other state smiling and thinking, Whats this guy doing in the masters division? He doesnt know what hes doing. I would just smile and think if they only knew what was coming their way… I just wanted to see the look on their face when he started jumping all their checkers. He played like four games in the masters, and finally he got bored because there was no competition there for him. When my dad said, This was the right way to move, I had learned over experience that he knew what he was talking about. When he told me the game was over and how he was going to beat me, I knew he knew what he was talking about. He saw the game in a completely different way than I saw it. I could see it one, two moves at a time. He saw the whole game. He saw it in a completely different way, a whole different league than I. I learned if he said something about checkers, I could trust him, and that was the way it was going to be. You know, God doesnt just know the next move. God knows the whole game. He knows the end from the beginning. He knows your next move before you make it. He knows the outcome. When God asks you to do something, when God asks you to throw out your nets, you can be confident its the right decision. You can trust Him. Jesus knew exactly what was going to happen when Peter cast those nets. Whats more, I think he had a little hand in the fact that Peter caught nothing before that. I do. Im not so sure Peter would have gone out a second time if his nets had been full the first time. I think there was a little mixed blessing in there that he didnt have a very good catch that first time in order that Jesus might bless his socks off that second time. I think sometimes God puts us in a situation where we are forced to trust. Were forced to cast again, but I love Peters attitude. I love the fact that though he was tired, though Jesus used all the wrong techniques, though it made no logical sense, Peter still did it. He says weve worked hard. Weve tolled all night, [in Paul 5:5, page 1019 of pew Bibles], …but, because You say so, I will let down the nets. For no other reason than because You said so. Friends, you know youre mature in your faith when you obey God for no other reason than because God asked you to do it. As far as Peter knew, there was nothing in it for him but more work and another redo on cleaning the nets. When our will and Gods will, our feelings and what God is telling us to do, collide and we make a decision to follow God, we know we are maturing as a believer. When God says to forgive but you still are angry, and you choose to forgive anyway, you know you are maturing. When God tells you to give, and you very much want to keep and it makes sense to keep, but you choose to give, you know you are maturing as a believer. That never-the-less attitude, that becauseYou say so attitude…and because You say so is reason enough, because Youre my Lord, Youre my master, and You know whats best for me; therefore, because You say so, Lord, I will do this thing that is inconvenient or I will do this thing that is hard. I will do this thing that is not logical. Those are the times you live out Proverbs 3:5-6 [page 627 of pew Bibles]: Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways, acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight. When I started this church, that was my theme verse everyday because it made no sense. I was a happy flatlander, and I didnt know any of you. It didnt make sense to come to work for a church that didnt exist when I had bills to pay and a happy family life in Illinois. But you trust and when God tells you to cast a net, He knows what Hes doing. Hes proven Himself faithful, so you cast the net and obey. Thats my prayer that this body of believers will be a mature body of believers who when Jesus says cast the net, we cast the net. We may grumble and complain a little bit; we may try to state our case, but when its all said and done, we obey; nevertheless, because You say so. Theres a song right now that tells a similar story by an artist named Martina McBride. Do you know her? Its a good song, so Im going to let her make this point-point number two-this morning as we listen to Do It Anyway. So Peter obeys in Verse 6 (page 1019, Luke 5:6), When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink. When you obey God, even when you complain or even when its not logical and God answers, God comes on the scene and does for you what you could not do for yourself. Who gets the glory for that? God does, doesnt He? God proves Himself sovereign. He proves Himself Lord. Ill share a couple of examples with you this morning. One is in our church: years ago we were looking at-back when we were in a hotel-buying some land, five acres on the interstate behind Menards-off Pontiac. Have you heard of that property? It was $32,500, and I think its a little bit more than that today probably. But in 1990, that was what it was worth. You might as well have said $32 million to that little congregation. We decided we were going to give the first money that came in for the building fund to our home church, the church that started us in Rockford, as a thank you. We were sewing some seed. You think, logically, you would have said, We need that. We need every penny we get for a down payment. Or you could say, Well, well tithe on that or once we get our down payment, well give something over and above that. But we decided we were going to give what came in, so that little group of people with a big vision, but not a lot of money, we gave the first $1,000 to Faith Center in Rockford. Within a week, I dont even know if they even had time to cash the check, a person in Janesville who does not attend our church, wrote us a check for $10,000, and that became the down payment we needed for our church property. It didnt make sense, but we cast the net because we felt like it was what God wanted us to do, and God filled it. Remember Hazel Kjell talking to our church almost three years ago when we launched our building campaign. She had inherited a business, a chemical business, Shell Corporation in Beloit. It made chemicals. She knew nothing about chemicals. She knew nothing about business. Her husband suddenly passed away, and this business is now hers. Of course, its not doing well, and she certainly knows nothing about business to turn it around. Everybody says, You need to sell it or just declare bankruptcy. One thing is for sure-you dont know how to run a company. She didnt know how to run a company, but she knew how to obey God, and she started to help missions. She had the bookkeeper write a check for $1,000 for missions. The bookkeeper said, Theres not $1,000 in the account, Mrs. Kjell. She said, Just write the check. Now, Im not telling you to go out and do that. Im telling you this is what the Lord told Hazel, so she did it. When the check was cashed, there was money there to pay for it. The next month, she had her write it out for a little bit more. The bookkeeper said it again, Hazel, theres no money in the account. She said, Just write the check. If it bounces, remember you work for me. I dont work for you. Ill be the one in trouble, not you; so she wrote the check, and it cleared. Hazel wrote it out for $5,000 the next month, same thing. Two months later she started writing out a check for $10,000 for missions. By this time, the bookkeeper no longer asked the question. She simply wrote the check. She watched that business transform from a fledgling operation about ready to go into bankruptcy to a multi-million dollar corporation. She knew nothing about business, nothing about chemicals, but a lot about faith. All she did differently-same product, same employees, same facility, same marketing plan-was she cast her net, and God filled it. Friends, the one who cast the net is nothing, but the One who fills it is everything. You and I, when we share our faith, we dont need to worry about results. Just share your faith. Cast the net. The one who shares his or her faith is nothing. Were seed planters. The One who causes the seed to grow is everything. What does Peter say when this miracle happens because he knows that lake, and he knows this isnt supposed to happen? He casts out the net, and two boats full of fish… Look what the Word says (Luke 5:8), When Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus knees and said, Im an awesome fisherman! I cant believe it! Im magnificent! Look at what I did! Guys, James, John, see I knew we could fool those fish and come back a second time… and go in deeper…and went in the daytime…on the day when they werent out there before…I knew wed get them, but I mean, man, Im good. They need to name this the Sea of Simon or Peters Lake or something because can I fish or what, guys? Ha? The moment you start taking credit for what God has done is the moment your net breaks, right? Nebuchadnezzar* will tell you about that. You could tell me about that because youve probably done that. The moment you start taking credit for what God has done, watch the net break and the fish go swimming back into the water. When I think of our church and people say, Well, arent you proud of our church? I say, Im proud of God. Im proud of God. We did everything wrong. Youre supposed to get a small group, start a small group, then get a core, and eventually, a year or so later, go public. Thats how every church planning text book will tell you to do it. We opened our doors from day one. I didnt read those text books. I didnt know any better. We opened our door not knowing if a soul was going to come and say, Okay, were here. Were a church. That was the wrong way to do it [according to textbooks]. God birthed the church from it. God gets the glory. Peter knew he had nothing to do with that. All he did was faithfully obey it and cast the net. Some of you, when God tells you to cast the net, have nets you should have been casting a long time ago when they were still in your boat. You know who you are, and you know what Im talking about. Peter says, Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man! If I do something in the flesh, and it works out, what does it lead to? Pride or even arrogance. But if I do something in the spirit, I do something in faith, and it works out, what does it lead to? Humility because I know its God and not me. There is probably nothing more unattractive than arrogance. There are few things more attractive than true humility. Dont you find that to be true in a person? I have a friend I want to tell you about this morning. His name is Derrick Jackson. I met him in the early 80s. We were coaching our respective churches high school basketball teams. We were at a tournament, and we started talking about hoops. I asked him, Did you play ball anywhere? He said, Yeah, I did. Did you? Yeah, yeah I played high school ball, played a little college ball, yeah…a little bit (with an arrogant tone). I was kind of dropping that in there. He didnt say anything back. What about you? Did you play college ball? Yup. I did. He starts talking about something else, and finally I said, Where did you play? Um, Georgetown. You played for Georgetown? Yeah, yeah. Now that was at a time, if you remember the early 80s, when Georgetown was a national power. It still is, but they had just really come on the scene out of nowhere. Ill tell you more about that in a little bit. There was a player named Patrick Ewing that played for them. In 1982 everybody turned to their TVs to watch Patrick Ewing and Georgetown win their championship. In the last second, an unknown player named Michael Jordan hit a shot to win the game and the title. Georgetown then lost to Villanova. They finally won it. Everybody knew Georgetown, so I was like, Wow! But thats all he said. So I said, Did you ever get in? To be a bench warmer is still cool if youre with Georgetown. He said, Yeah, I did. Oh. Did you start? Yeah. Oh, how many years? All four. Oh. Um…how many points did you get? He told me. Oh. Is that like a record or something? He said, Yeah, I hold the record for the all-time score for Georgetown, but theres a guy named Sleepy Floyd that might break my record. Oh, okay. I was dealing with a superstar here. We formed a friendship and over the years, getting things out of him were difficult. He was probably like the most humble guy Ive ever met. He was all-state basketball, all-state baseball, last guy cut from the 76 Olympic team because Coach Thompson didnt want to appear to be patronizing and bring his own player on the gold metal team, so he let him go. He was drafted by the NBA, but chose to not go into the NBA. He instead went with Athletes in Action so he could share the Gospel around the world and travel. He is an amazing guy. Hed come and play ball with me in Janesville, and hed always say, Dont tell the guys I played for Georgetown. He didnt want anybody to know. I remember one time we were losing 8 to 2. The first game we won; that was 2-11. The second game was to 9 points. I told the guy, Game point. He said, Game point? What do you mean game point? Dont we play to 11? I said, No we only played to 11 the first game. This game is to 9. He said, Oh! Then he went into some other zone, some other world. He was grabbing rebounds off the backboard. He was only 6 foot tall. We won the game 9-8. Who was that guy? everybody said. Hes just a friend of mine. I wanted to tell them so bad! I was thinking about Derrick as I prepared this message on humility-because Im thinking about this passage and the humble spirit of Peter. I thought, I need to call Derrick and find out what hes up to. I wanted to just make sure hes at the same church. I punched in his name, and I found out something new! There were all these articles that began popping up. In 1975, Georgetown was an unknown program until a freshman by the name of Derrick Jackson hit a shot with two seconds left to propel Georgetown into the NCAA tournament for the first time in decades. It said Derrick Jackson is the one who put Georgetown back on the map. I never knew that about him. I have known him since 1984. If you were to ask Derrick today, Derrick, why dont you talk about what you did? If that had been me, Derrick would have said, You play ball? I would say, Oh yeah. I started four years in Georgetown, all-time scorer…I was the last guy cut before the Olympic gold metal team. I was drafted… Not a peep because Derrick will tell you everything I have comes from God, the mental toughness, the physical ability, the tenacity, the competitive nature, the instincts, the ability to jump; whatever I can do, it all comes from God. All I do is cast the net. The net-caster is nothing. The One who fills the net is everything. If thats true, then there is nothing I need to be proud about, except for Him. Peter is not saying, Go around thinking youre scum. Thats not what that is about. God wants you to have a healthy esteem, but have your healthy self-esteem in Him-that youre created in the image of God and with a plan for your life by God. Theres no room for pride and arrogance in the body of Christ. Everything this church accomplishes, its because of God. We are only net-casters. If all you are is a net-caster, and you still have nets in your boat and want to know why, lets get them out of the boat, all right? Lets watch God fill them. Peter does that, and Jesus says, Dont be afraid. From now on, you will catch men. So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed Him. Theres nothing wrong with being a fisherman. Theres nothing wrong with your vocation, whatever it is, but it doesnt compare to building the Kingdom. Dont ever think that life is about what you do for a living or-if youre retired-what you did for a living. What you do for a living should be a tool, a means to pay the bills, but its not your life. Your life, whatever it is you do, should always be about the Kingdom of God. Catching the boat full of fish was fun, but Jesus says, Wait until you start catching men. Wait until you start changing lives, Peter. You wont believe how fun that is. See, God blessed him so he could be a blessing. It wasnt so Peter could say, Oh, Im rich! Oh man! Jesus, what time tomorrow? Can you come back? Lets do it again. If we can do this every week, Im going to have so many boats and so many guys that Im going to be rich and retire. No, no, no. God blessed Hazel so Hazel could be a blessing. God blesses our church so we can be a blessing. God fills your nets so you can be a blessing. God thank you for the lessons from the lake this morning that Jesus taught through His words and through His examples. You are still teaching. You are still encouraging us to cast our nets when its inconvenient, when it doesnt make sense. You are still filling nets, so, Lord, help us to be faithful to cast those nets and be careful to give You praise when the nets are filled. Were reminded that the one who casts is nothing, but the One who fills is everything. Our worth is from being in You. We thank You for that. In Jesus name, Amen.
Now that you are comfortable and situated, Im going to make you stand. Lets stand together and open our Bibles up to Luke 4. Pastor Jerry left off with Verse 30. Were going to read Verses 18-19, and then well jump over to Verse 31 and read through the end of the chapter and talk about it. As you recall, Jesus is in His hometown and He is reading His purpose statement, Here is what Im going to be about. Here is what I was sent to do. Here is what I have been anointed to accomplish. Then were going to read in the subsequent verses that He starts right off the bat, right from the get-go to live out the purposes for which He was sent. He begins by reading in the synagogue the scroll of the Prophet Isaiah and says [in Luke 4:18, page 1018 of pew Bibles], The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lords favor. Understand as Jesus says those words, He means those in the literal, but also the spiritual, sense. Not only is He going to free blind eyes to see, but blind minds to understand truth. Hes going to release the oppressed: those who are possessed, those who are sick, those who are in bondage to sin. He is going to set them free. What Jesus is saying, in essence, is My ministry is people, and I have come to minister, to set people free, to love people. Ive not come to conquer Rome. Ive not come to establish an earthly throne. I have come to minister and love people and set them free. Verse 31, Jesus begins His earthly ministry with a bang, and notice everything He does-from teaching to deliverance to healing-is all a part of the mission that He declared when He declared the prophesy of Isaiah to be fulfilled in His coming. Verse 31, Then He went down to Capernaum, a town in Galilee, and on the Sabbath began to teach the people. They were amazed at His teaching, because His message had authority. In the synagogue there was a man possessed by a demon, an evil spirit. He cried out at the top of his voice, Ha! What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are-the Holy One of God! Be quiet! Jesus said sternly. Come out of him! Then the demon threw the man down before them all and came out without injuring him. All the people were amazed and said to each other, What is this teaching? With authority and power He gives orders to evil spirits and they come out! And the news about Him spread throughout the surrounding area. Jesus left the synagogue and went to the home of Simon… (or Peter) Now Simons mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked Jesus to help her. So He bent over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. She got up at once and began to wait on them. When the sun was setting, the people brought to Jesus all who had various kinds of sickness, and laying His hands on each one, He healed them. Moreover, demons came out of many people, shouting, You are the Son of God! But He rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew He was the Christ. At daybreak Jesus went out to a solitary place. The people were looking for Him and when they came to where He was, they tried to keep Him from leaving them. But He said, I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent. And He kept on preaching in the synagogues of Judea. Well stop right there and minister, so go ahead and have a seat. Years ago, I watched a movie called City Slickers. Did you see that movie with Billy Crystal? He and his friends are going through a mid-life crisis, similar to the gentleman we watched in the video. They figure a little trip outdoors is going to help, so their leader is a man named Curly who is played by Big Jack Palance. They head out on their horses to find themselves out in the wilderness having one of those chats around the campfire conversations, talking about the meaning of life. Getting very philosophical, Jack Palance raises his big old hand, and he says, Life is about this, and he holds up a finger. Billy Crystal goes, What? About your finger? He says, No, no, no. He said, Life is about one thing. Billy Crystal goes, Yes! But whats that one thing? He says, Thats for you to find out. Thats for you to find out. Jesus, it says in Verse 18, was anointed for the purpose of His life. Well, we have been given gifts as well. We have been given purpose by God. We have a one-thing. We have a giftedness. We have a contribution to make to the world. Theres a reason why God put us here. If you have not found that out, you need to. God will show that to you. If you can identify with the man sitting at the church bench, saying, You know what? There has to be something more to life than this. Maybe just the routine of life: we work so we can get money so we can buy food so we can continue to work and live. Sometimes through the monotony and mundane routine of life, we start to ask ourselves, Is this all there is? Its like the story I heard of the lark and the canary. Im not sure if this is a true story or not, but, apparently, a lark came and started talking to the canary. She came down to the window and saw the canary in the cage. He said, Hey, what are you doing? The canary said, Im singing. The lark said, Why are you singing? He said, When I sing, they give me food. The lark said, Why do you need food? He said, Well, when I have food, Im strong. The lark said, Why do you need to be strong? The canary said, I need to be strong so I can sing. The lark said, Oh, I get it, so that you can get more food, right? He said, Right. Even the canary began to recognize the boringness of his life. He said, You know theres something more to life. You could be flying over trees. You could be flying up near the clouds and enjoying the adventure of life. The canary said, How do I do that? He said, The first thing you have to do is you have to get out of your cage. That could be a threatening thing to people sometimes. Sometimes we like our cage, our boring cage where everything is the same. Life is always the same, but we know our rut. We sing. We eat. We get stronger, and we sing, but maybe God is calling some of us to step out of our cages, to step out of our comfort zone. Sometimes we dont. We are afraid. I was walking at The Athletic Club this week and saw a poster that had a basketball on a court and said, You miss 100 percent of the shots you dont take. I read that, and Ive read it before, but I really thought about it this time. I said, No, you dont. Thats not true. If I didnt take a shot, how can I miss it? You cant miss a shot you dont take. I understand the gist of the poster. Its saying, Dont be so afraid that youre going to miss a shot that you dont take. Dont be so afraid to miss that you dont take a shot. Sometimes fear keeps us from doing what God has called us to do. Sometimes other good things distract us from what God has called us to do. Maybe theyre good, but maybe theyre not the best that God has called to you. Until were doing what God has created us to do, there will be restlessness inside. There will be a question inside that says, Is this all there is? Should I be doing something more? Should I be doing something different? Even if were doing something good and right, if its not Gods best, that restlessness will be there. If its God, it wont go away until you act on it. I can remember being hesitant. I grappled with the decision to leave Rockford long before I told my wife. The big nagging fear was what if nobody comes? What if we never have our own church? What if we never have a staff? What if we just fall miserably flat on our face? How embarrassing that will be to come back home with our tales between our legs and say, We failed'? Failure is not an embarrassment. I have learned from every failure Ive had. Some of the best lessons Ive learned are from my failures. When it came down to it, I said, You know what? Id rather try and fail than to spend my whole life wondering what would have happened if I had tried. President Roosevelt gave this speech in Chicago. Theres a certain portion of that speech Id like to read for you this morning. He said, Its not the critic who counts. Its not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled or where the doer of deeds could have done better. Do you have any of those critics in your life? Sure you do. They will always be there to tell you how you could do things differently or you should have done things better, to second guess you. Its part of life. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error… Thats important to know. …and shortcoming…who does actually try to do the deed, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails daring greatly. Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in the great twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat. We dont want to be one of them. If you are, you can change. Jesus began His ministry right off the get-go because He knew exactly what His purpose was. He knew what His destination was. If you know your destination, if you know where youre going and you have a map to get there, you dont have to meander. You dont have to wander. You dont have to waste time; you can go right to your destination. Jesus does that. Jesus moves with purpose. At every stop and every point, His mission is accomplished. Gods purposes are lived out through His life, but you have to get out of the cage. Find out what it is, and pursue it and keep pursuing it until the mission is accomplished. There will be signs along the way. Notice that everywhere Jesus went, when He prayed, there was a sign that followed. When He spoke, there was a sign that followed. Lives were changed. When you are doing Gods will, there will be signs along the way. Some of those signs will be internal signs. Some of those signs will be an inner-confirmation that says, This is what God wants me to do. This is what Ive been created to do. Its the counterpart of not doing something and having a restlessness that says, I should be doing something. When Im doing the will of God, even if Im preparing to do something that hasnt happened yet, Ill feel a sense of Gods confirmation, an inner sign. Then there will be outer signs where doing Gods will, what we do, will edify. It will produce results. If you say, I think God has called me to be a leader, and you look around behind you, and nobody is following you, theres a problem. If you think God has called you to sing, and when you sing, people start doing this (plugging their ears), theres a problem. There will be an outer confirmation that you are on the right path. People will affirm, This is what you should be doing or you need to do more of this or thank you. That really ministered or blessed me. Sometimes there are supernatural confirmations that were on the right path, things that only God can do. I could share a bunch of them with you. One of them was last week. We do a ministry in Monterey, and my wife was going to pick up some children. One of the children said, Hey, weve got some cousins that want to come with us. Do you think theyll go? So Brenda said, Well, well ask. So she took the church van over there. She was thinking to herself, How am I going to get this mom to send these three children with this stranger to go in this van? Who is going to do that? Who just sends their children off with someone theyve never met before and says, Yeah, sure. Go to the 12-Step building with my children. Shes coming up the sidewalk, and another woman meets her. Shes bringing formula. She says, Hi! Hi! Im just bringing formula. They are in need of some formula, so Im making an emergency, spontaneous unplanned stop here. Brenda said, Well, our church has a ministry in this neighborhood every Sunday, so Im here to try to pick up the children. She said, Well, I know. We go to the same church, Faith Community. I go to Faith Community too. So when they get to the door, the lady of the house knows the formula lady from our church. She thinks shes wonderful and great. Shes happy to see her. So when she finds out Brenda goes to the same church, and Brenda says, Can I take the children? she says, Sure! Absolutely! Brenda comes home and says, What are the odds that walking up the sidewalk at the exact same time as somebody from our church she already knows would be there, and she would say, Absolutely they can go with you? Last Sunday, Pastor Jerry spoke. Sometimes you think if Im not speaking, Im on vacation, and thats not true. There are times when I have other things to work on. This week I did a lot of work for Phase III. Pastor Jerry spoke, and on Sundays [when I dont preach], sometimes Ill maybe come to the service here or go to another church and see what other churches are doing, see what I can learn. I pull up to another church, and the pastor sees me. He looks up to Heaven and says, You have a sense of humor. I said, Whats that about? He said, I had a day today. I got some really bad news today. I kid you not, I was just thinking to myself, I wish Jeff were here so I could talk to him. I know he went through something similar like this when his ministry first started, and Id love to hear that story again and how God provided for him. He said, And then you came up, as Im thinking this thought. He said, God really has a sense of humor. These are little supernatural signs. There are more that I could share, but you will see signs. Thirdly, I want you to look at Verse 42 again. It says, The people were looking for Jesus and when they came to where He was, they tried to keep Him from leaving. So they are going to say, You just need to stay here. We want you to stay here and just minister to us. They were selfish that way. When we get sick, we know were going to get better because Youre here. Theres nothing to worry about. It would be a good thing to stay and minister to that group, but that was not His purpose. When you know your purpose, you learn to say a magic little word called no. Even if its a good thing, if its keeping you from your best, the answer has to be no. So Jesus says, because He knows His purpose, I must preach the good news of the Kingdom to the other towns also because that is why I was sent. So because He knows His purpose, He is not going to be sidetracked. Hes not going to go on a detour. Years ago, I used to speak all the time. The jail would say, Can you come and speak? Schools, colleges, camps, nursing homes, churches, and I was speaking all the time. I would ask, Whats the subject? Okay. What am I talking about? So I had all these messages spinning around in my head, and it was starting to deter me from my weekend message. I was living my life at a state of continual message prep. Finally, I began to say, even though those are good things, what God has called me to focus on is our church. So I began to say, No, no, no. I cant come to that release time. I cant do that university. I cant do that camp. No. Were those bad things? No. Those were good things, but I had a purpose that God had given to me that I had to fulfill. So I had to take charge, and I had to make up my mind. If you dont make up your mind, other people will try to make up your mind for you. They were trying to force Jesus to do something Jesus was not ready to do. I heard a story about Ronald Reagan when he was a little boy growing up in Dixon, Illinois. His aunt took him to get some custom-made shoes. They went to the cobbler and took measurements, picked up the kind of material the shoes would be made out of, and then the cobbler said, Ronny, do you want round toes or do you want square toes? Ronald Reagan said, I dont know. He said, Listen, you dont need to know that. Ill get the leather ready, get everything set, get the sole ready. Youll need to tell me in a week whether you want square or round. A week later, he ran into Ronald Reagan on the street, and he said, Well, Ronny, what do you want? Square or round? Ronald said, I still dont know. He said, Okay. You come back to the shop tomorrow, and Ill have your shoes ready. The next day Ronald Reagan went to the cobbler shop and got his two shoes, one with a round toe and one with a square toe. He said, Every time I look down at my shoes, I remembered the important lesson: if you dont make the decision, somebody else will make it for you. Are you allowing other people to set your agenda or are you allowing God to set it? Are you allowing other people to determine the course of your life? Are you living by default or by design? If its by design, youll know the direction youre going. Youll know when to say no and what to say yes to. Verse 44, And He kept on preaching in the synagogues of Judea. Thats important. Jesus knows His purpose. He speaks His purpose in [Verse] 18-19. The subsequent verse says He lives out His purpose, but then what does He do? He keeps on living out His purpose. When I know my one thing, I prepare and I begin to implement and live out that one thing. Then what do you do? You keep living that one thing. Now it might change a little bit, how its lived out or where its lived out, but the one thing doesnt change. What youll find is over time, you begin to develop your gift and grow in your gifts and your passions. Then you become more effective. A fruit tree that is planted and grows deep roots will bear fruit, whether its apples or oranges, whatever it is. If its allowed to remain, its going to bear fruit; but if you dig it up and replant it, youre going to stunt its growth. Youre going to limit the amount of fruit it can produce. It will have to start over. Sometimes people are finding a new purpose every year instead of growing in their one thing. Heres my new thing or heres my new purpose. Churches will do that, Heres our new mission statement. Oh, we dont like that one, so three years later, Now we have a new mission. Now were this. Now were that. Or maybe they have all kinds of purposes, so theyre doing all kinds of things. At Faith Community Church, we have one thing. Jesus had one thing. Luke 19, He says, Ive come to seek and to save that which is lost. At Faith Community Church, our mission is to bring people to faith and maturity in Christ. Thats our purpose-thats what were about. I received a really nice email from somebody. I mean this seriously. It was a nice email. It said, Pastor, what are we doing for the environment? What is our church doing to pull our resources and our people and our talents for clean water and clean air? My response, and I didnt even feel bad doing it, was, Nothing. Am I in favor of a good environment? Absolutely. Thumbs up to clean air and clean water. I get upset when people try to politicize that issue. It is not a matter of republican or democrat. Everybody should want clean air and clean water and a healthy, strong earth for the generations. But the churchs mission is about the Gospel. Thats what we are about. What are we doing to cure cancer in the world? Nothing. Do I think cancer is bad? Yes. Do I want them to find a cure for cancer? Yes. Do I support ministries and organizations that seek to cure cancer? Yes. What are we doing about it? Nothing. Thats not our mission. There are other organizations that are doing a good job. Support them, and thats wonderful. Volunteer for them if thats the mission, but the mission of this church is to bring people to faith and maturity in Christ. Period. If we start taking on every cause, and no matter how good they are, were going to be spread so thin, were not going to be able to do anything effectively. Were going to lose sight of the reason we exist. It would be like the chili dinner. Did you come to the chili dinner and silent auction? Good chili! We said, Well that chili is really good. We need to have it again next week. So we make it again next week, and pretty soon, people from the community start coming around to buy our chili. We say, Well, its really helping out financially. Lets sell chili on Sunday mornings too. So we start selling chili on Sunday mornings, and pretty soon, we have to cut down to one service because there is so much demand for chili. Pretty soon we close our doors because everybody wants our chili. We exist to make chili instead of using the chili to fund our ministry. We laugh at that. There is a restaurant in Atlanta, or at least there was at one time, called The Church of God Grill. Somebody went into the Church of God Grill and said, This is a weird name for a restaurant. How did you get the name Church of God Grill? He said, Well, years ago, there was a church here called The Church of God. We sold chicken to supplement the church because it was difficult for the church in its early years. The chicken caught on so much, we actually had to cut back our services so we could sell more chicken. Eventually it grew to be so popular in the community and be such a moneymaker that we shut down the church, and now were just The Church of God Grill. We exist to sell chicken. That really happened. Talk about losing sight of your mission. Were not about chili. Were not about chicken. Were not about cancer; were not about the environment. Those things are all wonderful and good, and I support them whole-heartedly. Good chili, good chicken: this place is about the Gospel. This place is about sharing with the world the name of Jesus and growing people up into maturity in Christ. What about you? Whats your purpose? Are you living that out? Are you spread so thin that you feel like you have so many purposes youre not getting anything done? Or are you so compromised that you are more about the chicken than the substance? Youve lost track of what God has called you to be and do? One thing. One thing. Do you know your one thing this morning? Lets pray together, and then Ill share some announcements with you before we go. Father, we see a focused Savior in this chapter who clearly annunciated His mission and purpose and then without delay went about fulfilling that mission. No matter how old we are here, no matter how many years weve been in our career or vocation, if were not doing what youve called us to do, we can change. We must change. If theres restlessness inside, we must find out what that one thing is. Maybe we know what that thing is and were afraid to leave our routine to step out of our cage and take a step of faith. I pray, Lord, that You would help us to take that step. For those of us who know what that is that we are to do, engage in, were mindful of Your example that You kept on doing what You were called to do, that we might grow deep in our calling and our giftedness, that we might through the obstacles and hindrances and stumbling blocks that come our way, that we will not be detoured but remain focused on accomplishing Your purpose and mission. We pray this in Jesus name, Amen.
Two weeks ago, on Saturday night, I finished the sermon to the Saturday night crowd and didnt like it. I thought, Thats not that great. I need to fix this. So I went to Red Robin by myself and reworked everything, and it [the snow] was coming down pretty good. By the time I left, it was blowing hard. I went, Oh, man. I should not have been here. I should have left for home earlier. I live kind of out in the country, and theres a stretch of road there on County F where there is a bunch of open fields. The blowing and drifting is pretty bad. By the time I got to that point, I just knew when I saw the drift, Im going to get stuck. Theres no way around it. And I was stuck. I do not have a four-wheel drive or a front-wheel drive; I have a rear-wheel drive car, and I went in the snow and was stuck. I was stuck for about a half of an hour. Id still be there if not for two men who stopped and helped me. One stopped out of kindness and a servants heart. The other stopped because we managed to push the car into the center of the road, and he had no choice. He wanted to continue on his trip. That was the worst weather Ive ever been in in my life. The winds were blowing at least 40 miles per hour. Snow was just pelting you. It was cold, and you couldnt see anything. It was like you were in Antarctica or something. What made it worse was I had no gloves, so I was digging snow with my bare hands and my shoes. I had no boots. I had no hat so my head was freezing cold. I had no shovel, so I was there probably longer than I should have been. I finally got out, made it home, and my wife was there to greet me. I got a little bit of sympathy from her, which is hard to do being a critical care nurse. Then she finally couldnt contain herself anymore, and she said to me, Did you not know the blizzard was coming? Did you not read the paper? Did you not hear everybody talking about the big snow and the storm and the wind and all of that? Did that miss you? Do you know whats in the trunk of my car? She starts telling me the supplies and rations for five years. Would I have been stuck in that drift had I had gloves and boots and a hat and shovel? Sure. But it would not have just beaten me up like it did. I wouldnt have been as cold as I was; I wouldnt have been stuck as long as I was had I been prepared. What were talking about this morning is preparing for temptation because it comes. Dont say if Im tempted. Say when Im tempted because the Bible makes it very clear in 1 Corinthians 10:12 [on page 1135 of pew Bibles]. He says, So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you dont fall! Warning! Blizzard coming-spiritually speaking. No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will provide a way out so that you can stand up under it. When you are tempted, its going to happen. So if its going to happen, you should not be nonchalant, go into the week without being spiritually prepared for the temptations that will come your way. Would you agree with that? The storm is coming, spiritually speaking. You cant stop it. You also cant stop yourself from occasionally getting stuck in those temptations, but you can make sure they dont last as long. Its kind of like a baseball player. A baseball player will never get to the point where he gets a hit every time at the plate. He can hone his skills, spend extra time in the batting cage, prepare and study pictures, and work out weaknesses so that his batting average improves. Hes not going to bat 1,000, but he wants to improve. Our goal is not that we bat 1,000; in fact, its too late for us to bat 1,000. Once youve struck out one time, youre not batting 1,000 anymore-no matter how many hits you get. After that, its too late for us to bat 1,000, but we can increase our batting average. We can strike out fewer times. We can pop up fewer times. We can be more effective. When temptation hits us, and we succumb to it, we dont have to stay down as long or succumb as frequently if we follow these principles. So thats our goal this morning. In the Book of Genesis 3, in the fall of man, we find out that temptation is as old as Creation. We also find out that Satans methodology has not changed since the Garden of Eden. The Bible teaches that there is a tempter, that hes real, that he does entice us to sin, that there is within us a sin nature that is willing to cooperate, and that there is a spiritual struggle that is taking place. Genesis talks about that. It talks about the three deadly Ds. If you are a note-taker this morning, Im going to give you my outline right now. Im not going to string you along this morning. Im going to give you the outline. Here are the three Ds. Number one is Doubt; number two is Deceit; number three is Desire. Those are the things that he uses. Desire isnt always bad. If we desire the right things, desire is good. If we desire the wrong things, desire is bad. Desire comes in three forms: there is the lust of the flesh, that which feels good; there is the lust of the eyes, that which looks good; and there is the boastful pride of the life, that which makes me look good. Theres doubt; theres deceit; theres desire, and Satan uses those three because they work. If its not broke, dont fix it, and its working well-100 percent success rate so far. Desire comes in three forms: lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh, and pride of life-that which looks good, that which feels good, and that which makes me look good. Were going to see him employ all three here in this text. In Verse 1, Now the serpent was more crafty than all the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, Did God really say, You must not eat from any tree in the garden? Which one is that? Thats doubt, isnt it? They doubted Gods promises, Did God really say that? Satan will do that. He will try to get you to doubt Gods Word, to doubt what God has said. The woman said to the serpent, We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die. You will not surely die, the serpent said to the woman. Which one was that? That was deceit. Thats a lie. The moment they partook of the fruit, they became separated from God, didnt they? Spiritual death took place. God kept his promise, so that was deceit. That was a lie, but he gets us to question the Lord. He gets us to believe his lies. He promises pleasure, but ultimately delivers pain. He promises short-term gain, but there is long-term loss. He promises victory that leads to defeat; he promises life, and it leads to death. You have to see the lie; you have to see the deceit behind that half truth. For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. What is that? That is desire. Im going to be like God. That would be a wonderful thing to be like God! Im going to have his knowledge. Im going to know good from evil. So he uses desire against her. When the woman saw the fruit of the tree was good for food… Whats that? What kind of desire is that? Lust of the flesh. Oh, is that going to taste good. Oh does that look good. Right? When we cant have desserts, oh do they look good. When we cant have desserts, it seems like everybody and their brother is making them for us too. Oh, does that look good. …and pleasing to the eye... Thats a no-brainer, lust of the eyes. It looks good. …and also desirable for gaining wisdom… Whats that? Thats pride of life, that which makes me look good. Im going to be smart. Im going to be something, boy, after I partake of this fruit. So …she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. We know the rest of the story. He has not changed his methodology since Day One. Lets take a look at what it might be like if you were a new demon or a transferred demon or trying to learn how to tempt Gods people. You can hear Jerry whisper in our ears-not Pastor Jerry, Jerry the tempter. Lets look in Luke 4 [page 1017 of pew Bibles], and I will finally get in our text. Were going to read 1-13 of Chapter 4 from Luke. Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert… Who led the Lord into the desert? The Holy Spirit. God does not tempt us, but God allows us to be tempted so that we might grow in our faith. In the desert, the devil tempted Him for forty days He was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them He was hungry. I guess! Forty days without food. Four hours for me, and its like hey, hey, hey! Forty days… The devil said to him, If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread. Jesus answered, It is written: Man does not live on bread alone. By the way, remember when Willie Nelson used to sing We Are the World, and he would sing as God has shown us by turning stone to bread? I would always want to shout at the radio, He didnt do that, Willie! He resisted that temptation. It was a temptation to take the shortcut. Youre in the wilderness. Are you going to trust the Father to provide for you, or are you going to take matters into your own hands? So he uses the first of the deadly deed. He gets the Lord to try to doubt, to doubt who He is. Are you the Son of God? If you are the Son of God… Satan will try to doubt who we are. If you know that you are a child of God and know that God is with you in the temptation, what an advantage that is to know that Im not in this desert alone. I have the help of the Lord with me. Years ago, and Ive shared this story before so Ill make it quick, I was at the YMCA. I had just finished a ball game, and I was out getting a drink. There was a little boy who tried to get my attention. He was about three years old. He said, Hey, hey mister. Hey mister. I said, Yeah? He said, Hi. Hi. My name is Chris, and Im a son. Wow, Chris! Thats really impressive. Yeah, yeah, Im a son. Well, good. I am too, Chris. Nice to meet you. I went back in and played ball. That was about the length of the conversation, but what struck me about this boy was he was beaming and glowing ear to ear because of whom he belongs to. He knows whom he belongs to. His identity is wrapped up in the fact that hes a son. Know that as you enter into temptation, God is on your side. What a difference that is-Hes not the tempter. Hes not the one tempting you, but He is on your side. The Scripture we began with stated with the temptation, He will provide a way of escape. So know who you are in God. The second thing he tries to get Jesus to doubt is the fact that the Father will provide, Just turn the stone to bread. Lust to the flesh, Oh, it would taste so good. Just do it. Snap your fingers, and its done, and you can end this hunger right now. Has the enemy ever tempted you to take a shortcut? Sure he has. Hes tempted you to bypass faith and take a shortcut-immediate provision. People who never dreamed of taking money have encountered financial difficulties and embezzled funds. Athletes who have a strong faith, who try to live for God, have been overcome by the temptation to succeed in their sport and have taken steroids. People who are tempted to wait on the Lord go ahead and have it now and make financial decisions in a hurry rather than wait. You can go on and on. People enter into promiscuity because they dont want to wait until they are married. We want to take a shortcut. We dont think God will provide for us the right mate, so instead of waiting, we hurry along to a bad relationship. On and on the list goes. When we doubt, were tempted to take the shortcuts, but Jesus doesnt respond to that. He says, It is written: Man does not live by bread alone, so hes going to try a different one. Verse 5, The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to Him, I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. So if You worship me, it will all be Yours. Jesus answered, It is written: Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only. So he tries to tempt Jesus with the lust of the eyes, Just look at these kingdoms of the world. They can all be yours if you will just worship me. I can give them to anybody I want. I have the authority. Its all mine. Ive actually had people quote this as a proof that the kingdoms of this world belong to the devil. You know hes the god of this world. It says in Luke 4 all the kingdoms belong to him. Did it ever occur to you that maybe he was lying? Are you honestly going to use the words of Satan to form theology? I sure hope not. That was a lie. The earth is the Lords and the fullness thereof. It was not in his authority to give it to anyone he pleased; it was not even his! He uses deceit to try to entice Jesus, and Jesus doesnt buy it. So now hes going to go on to number three, and thats going to be desire. Hes going to use the pride of life, that which makes me look good. Verse 9, The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. If you are the Son of God, he said, throw yourself down from here. He quotes scripture from Psalms 91. Jesus answered, It says: Do not put the Lord your God to the test. Why Jerusalem? Why the temple? Why the highest point? Why not in the desert? There are no people in the desert. Go to Jerusalem, the most-populated city, the temple, the most-populated place, draw a crowd, jump off the building. When you are rescued and fall safely to the ground without being harmed, everybody will worship you, and theyll know you are the Messiah, How good youre going to look. Jesus doesnt buy into it-the pride of life: that which makes me look good, that which makes me not want to look bad. Well go to great lengths to pursue the pride of life. Just this week, I had to pay a bill that has been sitting on the desk for a while. Its one of those bills you hated to pay because I needed some computer work, and they came out and couldnt fix it; however, they still charged me for coming out, so basically youre paying for nothing. I am thinking, Thats the last priority right there. Ill put that aside. And then its past due. I was like, I better get this paid. So I put it in an envelope and looked down at the envelope, and the red Past Due was shining through. Do you know what I did? I took the envelope, tore it open, and folded the bill the other way so the Past Due wouldnt be seen. Then I put it back in the envelope. What caused me to do that? Pride. Right? I dont want my wife to see a bill past due on the table. I dont want the postman who comes to the mailbox to pick it up to see that Im paying something past due. Its the pride of life. Well buy things we cant afford, so people will be impressed by our lifestyle. Go places we cant afford… Well say things about ourselves that make us sound more holy or religious than we are, As I was doing my devotions at 3 oclock this morning, before I began my four hours of daily prayer… Well do that, the pride of life, that which makes me look good. Its a temptation. The devil knows what buttons to push. The buttons of doubt, the buttons of elicit desire-those still work, and they work very effectively. We still buy the lies; promise pleasure and bring pain, and we buy them. Notice Verse 13, When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left Him… Wouldnt it be nice if we just stopped right there? But it doesnt stop there. It says, …he left Him until an opportune time. Hes coming back. Hes relentless. It would be nice if you and I had to face temptation. We faced it once, and we struggle with it, and its over with. You can say, Well, Im glad thats over with. Hey, howd your temptation go? Oh, it was tough, but I made it through. Thank God! I dont have to face that again until the day I die. It doesnt happen that way, does it? Its everyday. Sometimes its a trickle, and sometimes its a blizzard. Sometimes it knocks you off your feet, but its relentless. Any gardeners out here today? Anybody grow vegetables or flowers? A couple gardeners? That would be like if somebody everyday was coming and putting weeds in your garden. How frustrating would that be? Some of you are saying, I think somebody does do that! How frustrating to everyday say, How did that weed get there? Thats what temptation is like. It comes everyday. You have to always be on your toes. You have to be relentless because temptations are relentless. When you do neglect, and a weed starts to grow, what happens to it? It grows deeper, gets bigger, gets stronger, and harder to remove. So it is with sin when we give into temptation and it becomes sin. The Bible says it doesnt just remain stagnant. It grows. James 1 says when a sin matures, it leads to, what? Death. Thats pretty serious stuff. We neglect it: it grows in our lives. Thats why its so important to understand how Jesus dealt with it. I want you to notice a couple things about how we dealt with it. One is a basic question that you may have never thought of before, How did we find out about the wilderness experience? How did we know what the temptations were and how Jesus responded to those temptations? Was anybody with Him? Any human being with Him? No. He was alone. He just started His earthly ministry, or was about to, so there were no disciples yet. He has not yet met Peter, James, John and the rest. How do we know about the temptations? He told His followers. He told His disciples. He told Matthew, He told John, and they recorded it for us to read. Jesus actually shared what He was going through, the struggles. These were real temptations. You say, Oh, you know, He was the Son of God. He was also the son of man, fully God, but He was fully man. The temptation to turn the stone to bread, to take the shortcut after 40 days without food, was very real. Jesus really was tempted. He really did go without sin, without yielding to those temptations, but He shared with them. Sometimes thats a scary thing to do. I dont want to share what Im struggling with because people might not like me, or its embarrassing, or they might be shocked and appalled, but you know what? The Bible says [1 Corinthians 10:13] no temptation has taken you except that which is common to man. When you share a struggle, you dont share with the world. When there are one or two really close people you can say heres what Im struggling with to, theres accountability right away. There is support and help. Maybe theyve gone through the same struggle. You know they have, and they can help you along the way. This week, my wife and I were having lunch. All of the sudden, I start to have a difficult time breathing. I thought maybe I had swallowed wrong, but this wasnt a choking kind of thing. This was definitely a breathing thing. My breath was laboring (as Pastor is taking deep, slow breaths), and I started to panic. When I started to panic, I started to hyperventilate. I started to try to really breathe fast. I felt my fingers start to tingle. I felt myself get a little queezy. You know what that is, right? You get a little bit of nauseousness and dizziness at the same time. I thought to myself, Im going to faint. I have never fainted in my life. I didnt know what it was like, but for the first time, Im going down. I couldnt share this with Brenda. She was saying, Whats wrong? Whats the matter? I just sat there with this look of shock on my face, concentrating on two things: Number one, breathing; and number two, not falling down. I didnt want a scene, but I was so confused, Whats wrong with me? I wish this would go away. I wanted to talk to her, but I couldnt. Finally, after what seemed like forever, it subsided. I shared with her what was going on. Heres what I was struggling with. Heres what was going on internally that you couldnt know because I couldnt tell you, but now Ill tell you whats going on inside of me. She knew exactly what was going on. She says, Thats Vaso-vagal. Sounds like a vegetarian bagel or something, Ill have the Vaso-vagal please. Im a vegan. She can explain this better than I, but my particular case of Vaso-vagal was because I was overheated. When I left the house, it was really cold, so I put on a bunch of layers of clothing. When we got in the car, the sun came out and it got really warm. I kept my clothing on. When I got out of the car and went into the restaurant, it was cold. When I got in the restaurant, it was hot. I kept my clothing on, and I was overheated. The blood vessels dilate, and more blood gets through and less gets to the brain. You start to feel dizzy, and you pass out. Thats the bodys way of protecting itself. Once you lie flat on the ground and relax, normal blood flow is restored to the body, something like that, right? Sorta, kinda…close enough. If you have any questions, talk to Brenda. Sometimes having a critical care nurse as a wife is a helpful thing. Other times, its not because you tend to not get sympathy too often when you hurt yourself. So, she said, Get rid of some of those layers of clothing. That helped. It helped me to share what I was going through, that inner struggle that she couldnt know. In that same way, when you share that inner struggle and say, Heres what Im going through, you gain support, you gain knowledge and you gain accountability. Youre able to remove some of those things from your life that have been causing you to have those problems. The second thing I want you to note is how Jesus dealt with the temptation. It says, He left Him until an opportune time. So Jesus was tempted here, and Satan is doing his thing. Theres a struggle going on, and then its finally over with. The passage we read in 1 Corinthians 10 talked about this resisting of sin. It said, When you are tempted, He will also provide a way so that you can stand up under it. How did Jesus stand up under it? Every time the temptation came, what did He do? He quoted the Word; He stood upon His relationship with the Father; He trusted the Father to give Him strength to resist the temptation. Resisting temptation is not-and listen carefully to this because I think this is important-its not about you saying no to sin. Some of you are shocked to hear that. I thought thats what the whole thing was. No, no, no. Temptation is about you saying yes to God. Theres a big difference between the two. Its not about your willpower and your struggling and you overcoming temptation. Who gets the glory then? You do and ultimately the defeat because you are eventually going to succumb. Its about yielding to God and saying, God, I cant. You can, and Ill let you. Using a weight-lifting analogy…I will use another one. I used one Saturday when I talked to our leadership. Im going to use another one today. Say youre doing a bench press. It doesnt matter how much you have on the bar. If you did enough reps, eventually, youre going to get tired, and youre going to need help, right? You could say, I have an empty bar, and you could maybe do 200 of them, but eventually, youre going to quit. Youre going to struggle, and youre going to need help. Resisting temptation is not you pushing up the bar. Its about you saying to your spotter, God, Take it. Take it. When you struggle, and you cant get that last one off your chest, your spotter comes and grabs it and pulls it off of you and racks it, thats what God wants you to do. God doesnt want you to struggle and say, Oh, look at me, how tough I am. I battled against temptation and won. God wants you to turn that temptation over to Him. Stand upon His Word. Stand upon His presence, His promise. Will we ever get to the point where we dont succumb to doubt or deceit or wrong desires? No. Will the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life always be effective? Yes, but we can increase our batting average. We can have more victories and fewer defeats. We can stay down for a shorter amount of time, get stuck for a shorter time, when we are not just saying no to sin but yes to God. Thats the example that Christ gave us in His Word. Amen? Amen.
I think this will be the first time our 8:00 service was bigger than our 9:30 Sunday morning service. I appreciate your coming out. Actually, yesterday was much worse (Pastor is referring to the weather. We were in the middle of a heavy snow storm.). If we were going to cancel anything, we should have cancelled yesterday because this is nothing compared to yesterday. I got stuck going home. I was stuck for a while. That was the worst weather Id been in in my life. The snow was hitting me so hard, it hurt while I was trying to get my car out of there. I think we cancel churches in our city largely on the forecast rather than reality because, unless you are coming from where the Jacobs did-coming from Clinton, it wasnt that bad. I wanted to get on WCLO and put Faith Community Church-OPEN in big letters; but Im guessing, having seen three [services] now, well probably be down about 400 people or so-which means we need to take another offering (congregation laughs along with Pastor Jeff). Im glad you appreciate the Saturday night team here this morning. Mrs. Bales is now back, but Mrs. Bales team is taking the night off. Peter and Janet are back from Costa Rico, and were looking forward to hearing some good stories there and adventures. They just had one of those laid-back honeymoons, kayaking, zip-lining, whitewater rafting-one of those quiet ones. So anyway, Im glad youre here. I am wearing a shirt that is supporting our missions team. Well be telling you why were wearing these at the closing of the service today. So lets go ahead and dig into the Word, shall we? In the Book of Luke, I believe, is where were parked for a while. Youre getting version #3. I preached this last night. I didnt like it, so I parked in a restaurant after the service for about an hour. That was my mistake last night because I let the snow get worse, and that got me stuck. I revised it, and then I got home and I still didnt like it. So, at one in the morning, I finally said, Okay, Im happy with this now. So I did the third revision, so youre getting version #3 there, which were going to stick with. So, last time we left John the Baptist, he was a baby. He was the fulfillment of the prophesy of Isaiah, of the prophesy of Malachi, that one would be born to prepare the way for Messiah. Zachariah and his wife, Elizabeth, welcomed their son, John, into the world. Thirty years have now passed, nearly 30 years, and John the Baptist goes into the desert to hear from God. He goes where he can be alone. He goes away from the hustle and bustle of the city, but now the time of ministry has come, so he leaves the desert and goes back towards the city. He stays on the outskirts in the countryside. The people meet him half way-they come to Him. He has an in-your-face style. John is brazen. He is probably the first hellfire and brimstone preacher. He is a turn and burn kind of guy. Yet, the audience, the crowd, theyre listening to John. Theyre compelled. After all, hes wearing camels hair for clothes. He has a leather belt. He lives on locus and wild honey. I would bet you his hair is not exactly G-Q. Its probably…Hes been in the desert, windblown, sun…Hes quite a sight. Yet, hes not a raving lunatic. The words that come out of his mouth are true, and theyre from God. This man is anointed of the spirit. So people come to him, and they want to find out what do I have to do? Whats required of me? The first thing that John will do is tell them they are accountable to God. Hell talk about accountability. In Verse 3 [of Luke Chapter 3, page 1016 of pew Bibles], it says, He went into all the country around Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. If you didnt have your sins forgiven, you must repent. Its not enough to simply go through the rituals, the hand washing, ceremonies, observing the festivals and the Sabbath, put your phylactery on and recite your prayers-your schema-and do all these things a good Israelite does. You have to repent. You have to get your life right before God. Repent means to change your mind, to do an about face- to rethink your attitude, rethink your position and make a change: thats repentance. He says, Youre accountable to God. Stop the excuses. Stop passing the buck. The buck stops with you. Thats Johns message. Johns message is still as appropriate, still as applicable, to us today as it was when he first spoke these words. All of us try to justify our sins, justify our wrongdoings. We come up with reasons why we do or say what weve done or said. We learn from the Book of Genesis that God holds us responsible, doesnt He? Lets take a look right now at a clip which is reminiscent of Genesis. You might even see yourself in it a time or two (log on to www.sermonspice.com and type in the title the bite in the search box you can view what was played). I think we get the drift, dont we? Weve offered up some of those excuses. They offered up the same ones. John the Baptist said, God doesnt buy it, and I dont either. Were accountable to God. He gave them a reality check. Lets look at the next verses, 7-9, John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, You brood of vipers! Thats a good way to start your message, John. Thatll really hook them in right there, get them on your side. …Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, We have Abraham as our father. For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. For ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. Thats a pretty graphic word picture there. John is pretty straight forward. He pulls no punches. His reality check, Have you been trusting in your own goodness, your own righteousness, your spiritual heritage? Oh, because we are descendents of Abraham, thats good enough. Because we were lucky to be born as descendents of Abraham, as Israelites, then were righteous. We have favor before God. John the Baptist says, Reality check. That doesnt mean anything. It doesnt mean a thing. Do you know of people who trust in that sort of thing? Are you somebody who trusted in that, a member of the right church, growing up in the right denomination, the right spiritual family? Maybe you had gone through the right ceremony as an infant or a young adult, so youre all set in matters of eternity? You can recite the right creeds and say the right thing. Because I can say the right thing, therefore I must be okay. John says, Those things dont mean anything. Those things mean nothing. If you think because youre a child of Abraham, youre right before God, God can raise up from these stones, children of Abraham. What a blow to their system, to find out that the spiritual reality they had thought was true was an illusion. My wife used to give me points for certain things Id do around the house. I would negotiate on those points. I would ask her, How many points is that worth? Doing the dishes, thats 5,000 points. Id be excited about it, so Id do the dishes thinking, Im getting 5,000 points. I was supposed to take out the garbage or cut the grass, but instead Id make a meal-which doesnt happen very often. That has to be worth some points. Id negotiate, This was harder than that. I got 5,000 points for that! This should at least be worth 10,000! Sometimes, shed say, Okay, 10,000 points! Id say, Oh yeah! Im amassing this volume of points. Im talking six figures worth of points. So there was coming a day when I decided I was going to cash in my chips. I went to her, all excited, and I said, I have like 100,000 points. What can I get? I was like a little kid redeeming his coupons at Happy Joes or Chucky Cheese, How many presents will these tickets buy? What can I get? She looks at me and says, Nothing. My points are worthless? Yeah. I guess so. But I did jobs and I got points. What do I get? Thanks. Thanks for carrying out your share of the load as a member of this family. What a rip off! Ive been trusting in these points! Ive been working for these points. These points are meaningless! I was devastated. Never again will I fall for the point system. If I just know the right stuff…If I just go through the right ritual, the right ceremony, certainly thats going to score points with God. If I just dress the right way, if I just say the right things…If I just make sure I give the right amount of money, do the right good deeds… We were joking around this week about a very sad chapter in the history of the church. Some of you might have heard during the reformation…Now this is not a knock on, this is just a history reality. The Catholic Church-Catholics-would be ashamed of this, just like Protestants have done things we are ashamed of, the Catholic Church-before the reformation-sold letters of indulgences. They needed money to build St. Peters Basilica. The dome was not there, so rain and the elements and wind and birds could fly in the Basilica. It was a disgrace, so Leo-the Pope-came up with an idea that some people just barely make it into heaven, but other people get into Heaven with righteousness to spare. You can tap into that righteousness, and for the right amount of money, well give you an indulgence that will pardon you of your sin. It will even free your loved ones from purgatory. Theres a man by the name of Johann Tetzel, who was the marketing guru. He traveled around Germany selling these things. He had a catchy little phrase that says, When into the coffer a coin rings a soul from purgatory springs, and they made all kinds of money. The more you gave, the more sins were atoned for; you could even free loved ones from purgatory; you could even pay for freedom from future sins with enough money. What do you think their surprise and shock is when they get to Heaven and find out the letter is no good there? Their money is no good there. And Luther says, You dont get to Heaven by buying indulgences. We get to Heaven by grace through faith. Thats what Christ has done. You cant purchase your way to Heaven. We shake our heads at them, and we say, I cant believe people really believe that. Yet, people believe that now. Some people will listen hook, line and sinker to evangelists who tell them on television, If you just send me $1,000, youll be in right standing with God. He is going to bless your life. So they write the check. But it doesnt matter, just like if I say, If you give a million dollars to the building fund, youre going to go to Heaven. Wait a second, now well have to think about that. I want to get the elders together and talk that through. Nope, not even then. Its by the grace of God. Its not what you do; its not your goodness and morality. There are people who are thinking they have a whole mess of points, only to find out thats not the system that God uses. Thats not where righteousness comes from. Salvation is a gift that was purchased at a very expensive price through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. So John gives him a reality check. Thirdly, he talks about consistency. We are in Luke, Chapter 3. In Verses 2-3, he talks about accountability. In Verses 7-9, he talks about reality, and in Verses 10-14, he is going to talk about consistency. The way you live your life matters. What should we do then? the crowd asked. John answered, The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same. Tax collectors also came to be baptized. Teacher, they asked, what should we do? Dont collect any more than you are required to, he told them. Then some soldiers asked him, And what should we do? He replied, Dont extort money and dont accuse people falsely-be content with your pay. So he is telling them the way you live your life matters. If youre here today, and you think youre right with God, but if your life is not displaying the fruits of repentance, true repentance has not happened. If there is true repentance, there will be a change. If there is true repentance, it will affect how you treat your fellow man, how you live your life. What you do matters. What you do is a reflection of whom you belong to, of the condition of your heart. Thats what the Lord is concerned with. Some of you know Im an old comic book geek. When the movie Batman Begins came out, I was really excited. I went to go watch the movie, and there was a line in the movie that was probably one of my favorite lines in a movie of all times. Let me set the stage for you. Multi-millionaire Bruce Wayne is coming back to Wayne Manor, but hes not Batman yet. He doesnt know who he is. He has millions of dollars, but he has no job. So he decides to spend the money on wine, women and song. He is living the life of a playboy, and he is in some fancy restaurant having dinner with some attractive women. One of them jumps into the restaurant fountain, and soon he follows suit. They are frolicking in the fountain in their clothes. Hes all wet; he comes out, and he runs into a childhood sweetheart, a childhood friend. Hes embarrassed about his appearance and his behavior. Then he gives her a nice excuse as to why he is the way he is. Lets watch and see. This is from Batman Begins. (Summary: Bruce is seen frolicking with two young socialites. He sees an old flame and says, rather embarrassed, All this, this is not me. The old flame replies, Bruce, its not what you are on the inside that counts. Its what you are on the outside that truly matters.) Its not who you are underneath. Its what you do that defines you. John says, You have to have your walk match your talk. If your walk doesnt match your talk, your talk doesnt matter. Youre not fooling God; youre not fooling me, John says. You need to have consistency between the two. If youre going to really be serious about God and really repent…But youll notice the one thing that John cant say. He cant say, And the Holy Spirit will help you do this. Why? Because the Holy Spirit did not yet come. The Holy Spirit was promised by John. He foretold of the Holy Spirit. In the Book of Acts 2, Peter gives a similar message. Its a call to repentance. People ask, What must we do? He says, Repent, but then Peter adds something that John cant. He says, We baptize in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. What we have that those people did not have is we have the Holy Spirit of the living God who lives and dwells the believer, and He powers us and equips us to live a kind of life that pleases God. He equips us to say no to sin. He equips us to live lives free. Its not that were not sinners; were still sinners, but were no longer bound by the power of sin. We sin, but we sin because we choose to. Were not a slave of sin any longer. Were certainly free from the penalty of sin because Christ took that penalty for us. So he says, Youre accountable to God. He talks about accountability. He talks about spiritual reality; the point system you are trusting in is invalid. God doesnt grade on a curve. God doesnt hand out arbitrary points for your good deeds. He is looking for authenticity, sincerity of heart. Thats what hes going to talk about in these last verses. In Verse 15, The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Christ. John answered them all, I baptize you with water. But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. And with many other words John exhorted the people and preached the good news to them. As abrasive as John was, as in your face as John was, his motivation was right, and his desire was to see people come to Christ. He talks about it with a word picture here of a winnowing fork. What was that? A winnowing fork was when you would take your harvest of grain, while it was on your threshing floor, and youd take the fork (we do it with combines now) and lift that wheat into the air. The heavy stuff, the grain, would come down on the floor, and the chaff would blow away. Usually, youd just sweep it up and youd burn it. So youd separate the wheat from the chaff. John says, When He comes, Hes going to separate true believers from those who are just putting on a good act. How will He do that? Lets turn to Matthew 5 together. Jesus is teaching in what is called the Sermon on the Mount. He is going to raise the bar to an unbelievable height. Who are the most righteous people of the day? The Pharisees? The teachers of the law. They were regarded as the holy men. They were the elite of society. The common people deemed them as being right with God. There was no way they could obtain to their level. Jesus, with that as a backdrop, says something unimaginable to them. Verse 20 [page 959], For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of Heaven. Surpasses! Not just equal to, or not close to their righteousness: you have to pass their righteousness. That must have been such a defeating thing to have heard if you were listening that day because you would have said, I dont compare to the Pharisees let alone surpass them in their righteousness. Those guys are as righteous as it gets. It would be like saying to you, Unless your golf game is better than Tiger Woods, you will not be considered a golfer. I guess theres no hope for me. But the stakes here are a lot more serious than a game of golf. He says, You will not enter the kingdom of Heaven. Whoa! This is bad news. How in the world can my righteousness succeed? Their righteousness was a false righteousness. Their righteousness was a righteousness concerned with externals. It was concerned with appearance. It was concerned with the temporal. Christ spoke of a righteousness which came from God. The righteousness that you have that surpasses the righteousness of the Pharisees is none other than the righteousness of Christ. Its received as a gift. Its offered to you freely through Gods grace and mercy. Its a righteousness thats more concerned about the inside than the outside, about condition of the heart. Its more about the life we live than just the words we profess. He talks about how its enough to say dont murder. Jesus says, You shouldnt even hate. You think youre doing great when you dont commit adultery. Jesus says, Dont lust. Do not oppose the sacredness of marriage. He talks about forgiving those who strike you. He talks about loving your enemies. He talks about taking righteousness to a new level. Thats what it means to exceed. What it meant to exceed was the righteousness of the Pharisees was all about them. It was about self-advancement, self-promotion, self-preservation; it was about me. What would this do for me? How will this improve my standing? How will this improve my clout? Jesus said the righteousness from God is not about advancing your kingdom and your agenda. Its about advancing the kingdom of the Lord Jesus. Its about His cause in the world. Authenticity. How did John do in that regard? Lets turn to John 3. This is some more teaching by John the Baptist. John the Baptist, his ministry is about to end. Its about to subside because the Messiah has come. So John baptizes Jesus, and now Jesus launches His earthly ministry. Whats happening is a lot of the people who are following John are now starting to follow Jesus. A lot of the crowd that was following John is now going after this new young upstart, Jesus of Nazareth. He not only gives a good sermon; He performs miracles too. He starts to steal John the Baptists press. How is John going to handle that? In Verse 26 [page 1052], They came to John and said to him, Rabbi, that man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan-the one you testified about… Were talking about Jesus now. …well, He is baptizing, and everyone is going to him. Hes stealing your thunder! Hes stealing your sheep! What are we going to do? John the Baptist says, That dirty rascal! That dirty dog! I gave Him His start! Without me, Hed be nothing! Now Hes taking away my sheep! All right, boys! New marketing campaign! New strategy here! Gather around! Were going to take back whats ours! Hes not going to steal our good givers! Does John get territorial on Him? John simply says, You know what, guys? It was never about me. He gives them a little speech about the bridegroom and the bride. He says, You know what? Verse 30, He must become greater; I must become less. He said, This has to happen. He has to increase, and I have to decrease. This should be what every believer believes in his or her heart and practices in his or her life. There is no such thing as a superstar in the Kingdom of God. I cant tell you a single Christian singer, author, pastor, you name it, that I would meet-well, maybe Billy Graham, I take that back; other than him, theres probably not a one that I would meet and go, Ahhh. Its you. Theres no such thing as a superstar in the Kingdom of God. A Christian celebrity-thats an oxymoron. It makes you want to gag. Its about Jesus. Its not about us. The greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven are not going to be the pastors with 15,000 people in the congregation and diamond rings on their fingers. Its going to be the shut-in who never stopped praying, the person who gave everything they could to fund missions and never told anybody. It will be the people who left everything they had to follow Christ. The Bible knows nothing about celebrities. Building our name, building a name for ourselves, is nothing but vain and glory. It just passes. Its nothing. Vanity. Forty years from now, my prayer is that Faith Community Church is still here, and the Gospel is being preached, people are hearing the name of Christ. Will it matter whether they knew that Jeff Williams was the founding minister? Nope. All Star Ministries is going, and there are 150-200 kids coming. Mike [Powers], if they never heard your name, does it matter? It doesnt matter. All that matters is that you know Christ. You see, if thats my attitude when I started ministry or served in a ministry and I didnt receive accolades or praise, nobody strokes me, I dont get offended. I dont quit because nobody appreciates me. They dont appreciate what I do. Nobody patted me on the back. If youre doing it for the reward, and not for Him, it doesnt matter. If not one person this weekend says, That was a good sermon, Pastor Jeff, am I going to get offended and say, Nobody cares. Do you know how much time I put into that? Three drafts and nobody liked it? I quit. Im going to sell shoes. No. Its not about us. John said, It is not about me. Ive done my part. John now is going to fade into the annuls of history. Soon he will be arrested for exposing immorality. Thats going to backfire on him. Hell fade into a memory in church history. As far as John was concerned, it didnt matter because the One he was there to serve, the One he was there to prepare the way for, had come. His job was done. Someday well all be gone. But if we have lived our lives for the advancement of the Gospel and made Jesus known to the world, we truly have not lived in vain. Lets pray: Father, thank You for the message of John. Thank you for the importance of authenticity, being real. You look at the heart and not the appearance. Thank you for the importance of consistency that our walk matches our talk. Thank you for the reality check, the point systems that we trust in that are erroneous. What matters is the grace of God, the love of God. Thats reality: the accountability that we are to repent, that there is a God we answer to, no excuses. Johns message is just as pertinent today as it was then. We thank you for teaching us through Your Word this morning, through Your Holy Spirit. In Jesus name, I pray, Amen.
Lets open our Bibles up to the Book of Luke, the first chapter. Let me just remind you of where we left off. Last week, the angel, Gabriel, had come to bring news of a miraculous baby boy-two different baby boys, born to two different households and two very different circumstances. The first was a priest by the name of Zechariah, who was very old, and his wife, Elizabeth. Theyd tried to conceive for many years and could not. A prayer long since forgotten, Zechariah had asked for a son. When the angel Gabriel came, he reminded him of the prayer. He said, God has heard your prayer. God never forgets our prayers-even the ones we long forget. God was faithful to answer that prayer, so he said, Youre going to have a son. Zechariah sees an angel. He hears this incredible news. The angel describes in great detail the name of his son and what he will be like and what he will do, and Zechariah says, How can I be sure? Having an angel come wasnt quite convincing enough for him. He wanted more information, so he responds in doubt. Mary, on the other hand, a young woman just starting out in life, wants a child-but not until after shes married. When she receives the news that shes going to give birth to a son, instead of responding with doubt, she responds in faith and says, How will this be since I am a virgin? She asks the question, I dont question that its going to happen; I simply want to know how. So God, through the angel, tells her what is going to happen to her. One responded in doubt; one responded in faith. Both received very different news. Life was going to take a very unexpected twist, and you might say an unwanted twist-especially for Zechariah. Mary doesnt want to have a baby before shes married. Zechariah doesnt want to have a child when hes well up in years; chasing around that little booger when youre ready to retire is no picnic. How do we handle it when God throws us a curve ball? Has God ever thrown you a curve ball? Life took an unexpected twist in the road? Your prayers were answered in an unexpected way? Or has God ever asked you to do something you didnt want to do, go where you didnt want to go and say something you didnt want to say? How did you handle it? We said its analogous to a flying trapeze in which there is the flyer and the catcher. The flyer has to let go of the trapeze bar, sail through the air, and be caught by the catcher who is hanging upside down. We said thats faith. Faith is when you let go of the bar. Once you are caught, you no longer need faith. Once Elizabeth became pregnant-once Mary became pregnant-they no longer needed faith to believe the words of the angel. So once God manifests a promise, we are not any longer in faith because the answer is here. We, as a congregation, are believing for a new sanctuary. Thats faith. We believed for this one, and were in it! We dont need faith anymore. So faith comes the moment you let go of the bar until you are caught. We said sometimes we dont let go of the bar. Were afraid if we let go of the bar, were going to fall. When we look down, it looks like a long way down; so we dont want to take that risk, and we hold on. We said once you let go, your job is to, what? Is it to catch the catcher? No. Its to be still and let the catcher catch you. If you try to catch the catcher, chances are you are going to fall. You have to be still. You have to yield and let the catcher catch you. We said God has never dropped anyone. So this morning, we are at the yield phase. Last week, I was trying to convince you to let go of some things. I hope you did. This week, Im talking to you about what it means to yield and allow God-trust God-to catch you. When we pick up the story, Mary takes this news to a relative, Elizabeth, and shes excited. We dont know how shes related to Mary; we just know that theyre related. When she gets there, Elizabeth says, Oh, the baby, who is John the Baptist, it leaped for joy in my womb when it heard your voice. She says in [Luke Chapter 1] Verse 43 (page 1013 of pew Bibles), Why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? The mother of my Lord…Does Elizabeth know who is in Marys womb? The mother of my Lord… The Lord is going to be born into this world. Thats the Lord in your womb! Does Mary correct her and say, Well, Im just going to have a special child. Hes going to be a prophet. Hes going to be a great man, but Hes not the Lord. Does she correct Elizabeth? No. Because Elizabeth is correct. Mary understands who was in her womb: The Lord. Jehovah is coming into this world. The Diety is going to be made into flesh. They understand that. Mary begins to sing Gods praise. Its called The Magnificent. Its the Song of Mary. She talks about the praise of God, and in one particular verse here-verse 48, she says, From now on all generations will call me blessed… Does Mary understand the impact of this birth? Does she understand the significance of who is in her womb? She does. In other words, Until the end of time, Mary says, everybody is going to know my name, and theyre going to know about the child that is in my womb. She understood that it was not just some regional thing that was going to go away with a generation. She understood that this event was going to change the world. She understood the Lord was coming into her womb. In fact, Zechariah-were going to read soon-at one point is prophesying to the people when he gets his voice box back; but then he picks up his son, John, and he holds him up and he starts prophesying into his life. He says, Youre going to prepare the way for the Lord. Does Zechariah understand who is coming into the world? The Lord is going to come into the world. Isnt it amazing? Everybody who lived the events understood exactly who was coming into the world, but now weve got some liberal scholars, some revisionists-historians going, Well, you know the deity of Christ, its just… They didnt really understand that when Jesus was born, they understood Him to be just a man. It wasnt until centuries later that we began to create this idea of Him being divine. Does that sound to you like that is what Mary believes? Or Zechariah? Or Elizabeth? Not at all…Not at all. They understood the historical and spiritual significance as much as they could to that point. Then we change scenes to Zechariah who still cannot speak, and his son is eight days old. Zechariah has to wonder here, Hey, you said as soon as this child comes into the world, I could speak again. Hes been here eight days, and I still cant talk. I have some jokes to tell. I have some things I want to say. So Zechariahs son is eight days old, and theyre going to name him Zechariah. Elizabeth says, No, his name is John. They say, Well, theres nobody in your family named John. They said, Well ask Zechariah. Zechariah gets a tablet and writes, His name is John. Immediately he begins to speak, and, boy, does he speak. Not only does he speak, the Bible says he starts to prophesize. He starts to foretell the future. We pick up the words in Verse 68 [Luke, Chapter 1, page 1014 of pew Bibles], filled with the Holy Spirit, he said, Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come and has redeemed his people. Notice Zechariah uses the past tense, has come, has redeemed. Has Jesus been born yet? No. Has he redeemed yet? No. But in the prophetic, you speak of the future as though it is past because if God is in charge of it, and God said its so, then it is so. Its a certainty. He has raised up a horn of salvation for us… The horn was symbolic of strength. …a horn of salvation in the house of his servant David. This is the fulfillment of the prophesy, the messianic prophesy, that salvation would come. Now when he says the word salvation, he is literally thinking of deliverance. Thats what the word means. Salvation means deliverance. So you have to look at the context and decide what you are being delivered from. Zechariah is going to talk about three kinds of salvation or three kinds of deliverance in this passage. The first kind he will speak of is that of physical deliverance. He said in Verse 71, …salvation from our enemies, from the hand of all who hate us-to show mercy to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath he swore to our father Abraham: to rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. In other words, hes talking about a literal physical, visual deliverance in which Israels enemies are defeated, and were able to worship and serve God in peace without any fear. Is that the aspect of salvation that Jesus had come to bring at this first coming? No. We studied this. He came to bring a spiritual salvation, but the physical salvation is something that will come, but not yet. The Book of Revelation talks about that. Revelation 21 is one of my favorite passages. In fact, its hard to imagine a passage better than this one. Revelation 21:1, …a new Heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of Heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be His people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. He who is seated on the throne said, I am making everything new! Then he said, Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true. God has spoken to them, and they will come to pass. There will come a time of physical manifestation of salvation. We will be delivered totally and completely from sin, death, pain, and heartache. Zechariah looks forward to that day, and so do we. That day is not yet. Then he talks about a second type of salvation. In Verse 76, remember he transitions to his son. He picks his little son up, eight days old, in his arms. He holds him high, and he looks him in the eye. With a smile on his face, and enthusiasm in his voice, he says, And you, my child, you will be called a prophet of the Most High, and you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for Him to give His people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins. That is a spiritual salvation, that the Messiah when He comes is going to enable you and me to have our sins forgiven. Somehow, some way, Zechariah doesnt fully understand how, but somehow this child that you will usher in will bring about the forgiveness of sins-a spiritual deliverance. The first deliverance he speaks of is a deliverance of oppression, a physical salvation. This is a spiritual salvation, the deliverance from sin. Now that kind of salvation, spiritual salvation, has three components to it as well. The first component we would call redemption. Redemption was a word that was used to purchase the freedom of a slave, to redeem-to buy back. Redemption means that you and I have been purchased; we have been paid for. That happened on the cross. That happened in the past, didnt it? In the Book of 1 Peter 3:18 (page 1202), it says that Christ died once for all, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God. With the death and the body that we might be made alive in the spirit. Once and for all. Its an event in the past that is completed and done. It does not need to be repeated again. Thats called the perfect tense. In John, when he says, It is finished, to tetelastai; that is in the perfect tense. This is a one-time deal. Its done and its completed. Jesus paid the price for our sins in the past. So when you, by faith, receive Christ, you are redeemed. You are set free from the penalty and the power of sin. Now, when you become a Christian, whether its at age four like Lindsey, or whether its as an adult, are you perfect? Are you spiritually perfect? No. Theres work to be done, isnt there? Thats a process called sanctification. That is the work of the Spirit, whereas the work of the Son is in the past, the work of the Spirit is in the present. The Holy Spirit works in our lives to bring us to maturity. Philippians 1:6 (page 1161) says, …He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it. In that same book, Chapter 2:12-13 (page 1162), he says, …work out not work for …your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose. So God is at work in us, and He is conforming us to Christ. There are bad attitudes and behaviors and actions. There is sin in us, a sin nature. The process of bringing us into submission and bringing us into Christ likeness is until the day we die. Thats called sanctification. Theres a third aspect which is Future. That is the work of the Father. Thats called Glorification. That has not yet happened, believe me. Glorification is when we literally are in the image of Jesus. In 1 John 3:2 (page 1208), it says, Now we are the children of God, but has not yet appeared what we shall be. But when we see Him, we shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is. We are going to be transformed. Paul talks about that in 1 Corinthians 15:42 (page 1140). He talks about our body. He says it was sown or died, put into the earth; a perishable body-its risen imperishable. Its sown in dishonor; its raised in glory. Its raised in power. It is sown a natural, physical body. It is raised a spiritual body. We will experience a glorification. We dont know exactly how that looks, but well have a body like Jesus had. Its an amazing thing to think about. How many of you watch Extreme Home Makeover? Compare it to a house. You buy a house, you redeem a house, you purchase a house: thats a one-time event in the past. When you buy that house, even when you build a house, there are things that need to be done, things that need to be repaired, things that need to be improved, things that need to be removed, right? That old carpet needs to be removed; that wall needs to be repainted; that fixture needs to be replaced. You start working on improving that house. Does it ever end if you own a house? Do you ever sit back and go, You know what? There is nothing else to do to this house. Everything is just the way I like it, and it will always be so. Isnt that great? How many of you have ever gotten to that point, where there is absolutely nothing else you can do in your house? No cleaning, no improvements, no repairs. Nobody? Neither will you get to the point where you look in the mirror one day and say, You know what, this is perfect-right here. My attitude is right exactly; Im as godly as I could possibly be. Nothing left to fix; nothing left to improve or remove. All right, now I just have to keep it that way. It doesnt happen. So that could be compared to sanctification. Youre always working on that house, always trying to improve it and make it better. Its ongoing as long as you own your house, but what if that TV show called you, and they surprised you? While you were gone, they gutted your house. You came back, and there were new cabinets, new flooring, new walls, the old walls are gone, new exterior, new everything! New appliances! They decked it out, and they transformed that house so its barely recognizable as your house! Thats the glorification part! When what we cant do ourselves, someone else does do, you cannot sanctify yourself. You cannot redeem yourself, and you cannot glorify yourself. It is the work of the Son; it is the work of the Spirit; and it is the work of the Father. It is past; it is present; and it is future. Those are all part of the salvation, the spiritual renewal that has been promised for us in Christ. There is a third kind of salvation, and thats found in the next verse. He still is speaking to his son. He says (Luke 1:78, page 1014), …because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun… This is speaking of Jesus, metaphorically, as a literal Son. …will come to us from Heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace. This third aspect of salvation is an intellectual salvation. It has to do with our minds. The Son will come and illuminate. We will understand God. Jesus came to make God known, John 1:18 says. But is that complete? Thats not complete either. So we know more about God than we did before, but Paul says there is coming a day when we will fully know God. In 1 Corinthians 13:12 says, For now we know in part, but then we shall know fully, even as we have been fully known. That our understanding of who God is will come into a full realization. So the Messiah will bring a salvation-or deliverance-from ignorance. Zechariah says, Were going to know God. Hes going to bring understanding like the sun shining drives away the darkness. Ignorance will be driven out. We will understand God when this child comes into the world. We do, but not like we will when we are glorified. So that is a present and a future fulfillment. If you think about it, think about what happened in our country in 1863. In 1863, a proclamation was made that changed history, the Emancipation Proclamation. Lincoln said slavery was wrong. Its not consistent with Gods laws. Its not consistent with our Constitution. It is abolished, and he made it legal. It was done. Just like on the cross, Christ won the victory. Sin was defeated, and He delivered us from the penalty-the power of sin. The slave had to be freed in his mind. He had to no longer see himself as a slave. Thats the sanctification part. You and I need to see ourselves as no longer slaves to sin, but alive to God. When Abraham Lincoln passed the Emancipation Proclamation or wrote it, did it rid our world of hatred, prejudice, bigotry, discrimination? No, its still here, isnt it? When Christ paid the penalty on the cross to defeat the power of sin, is sin still present in this world? It is, but it will not always be so. There will come a day when the salvation of our God will be complete in the very presence of sin. Satan, himself, our sin nature will be done away with, and our salvation will be complete. Our salvation is in the past, through the work of the Son. It is in the present, the sanctification, the work of the Spirit; and it is in the end in that complete perfection in which the Father in the future brings the new Heaven and the new earth. Thats what we look toward. Zechariah looks toward that salvation that Jesus would bring. Zechariah, himself, goes through renewal, doesnt he? What kind of renewal does he go through? Well, look. This is the same guy who just nine months earlier just went um, how can I be sure, angels and all that, but I need more. Was there a transformation? The lesson to be learned here is if God can just shut our mouths for nine months, he can teach us a lot of things (congregation laughing). As soon as he shut his yapper, Zechariah learned a lot. Was it a good thing or a bad thing? How do you think he viewed losing his speech? A good thing or a bad thing? How would you feel if you got zapped, and you couldnt talk for nine months? Would that bother you? You couldnt laugh; you couldnt tell a joke. You couldnt tell somebody what you were feeling. It would be frustrating. It wasnt a bad thing for Elizabeth. Elizabeth probably kind of liked it (congregation laughing), and thought it was a good thing. But for Zechariah, it wasnt a good thing. Ultimately, it was a good thing because through that, God transformed that man. The man learned the importance of yielding. He let go, and he was yielding to God. Why is it that God waited until the eighth day, until that moment, to release his mouth? What happened? When he writes down on that paper, and he says his name is John, that was a yield. That was a yield right then and there. Right then and there, it was lifted, and he could speak. He had struggled with God, and as long as you struggle with God, you will not know the fullness of Gods blessing; but when you let go and you yield and trust yourself, turn yourself over to God, thats when youre going to experience the manifestation of His power and His provision. Its not a coincidence that the moment he writes down his name is John, that he can speak. Some of you who have been struggling, fighting God, do you know what you need to do? Just confess what he said. Confess his promise. Write it down. You know what? Thus say it the Lord. This is the way it is, and youll find that that is going to be your key to victory and release. Lets stand together as we close in prayer this morning. Were going to pick up where we left off. Were going to jump into Chapter 2 of Luke, so feel free to read on ahead and see where were going to be at.
Were starting a new series today. While youre finding Luke 1, Ill give you just a little bit of the background of Luke. Luke is a physician by trade, by vocation, so during the course of our study, well often find him using medical terminology. He describes miracles Jesus performed in a very clinical way. This morning will be no exception. Well talk about one of the words he uses. So we see that element he uses throughout his book. Luke, as far as I know, is the only Gentile writer in all of Scripture. Luke traveled with Paul in his second and third missionary journeys. In the Book of Acts, there are periods when he writes in the first person and says we, the first person plural. He says we did this or we did that. He was a close companion of Paul. He was a faithful companion of Paul. He was with him even when others had deserted him. Luke quantitatively wrote the most in the New Testament. If you put the Book of Luke and the Book of Acts, which Luke also wrote, together, quantitatively, he wrote more than anybody else in the New Testament-more than Paul, more than John. So, Luke is a very important person for us as we study his writings. So, lets begin with Verse 1 [of Chapter 1-page 1012 of pew Bibles]. It says, Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the Word. Luke says that truth was just handed from Jesus to the Apostles. It has been handed from the Apostles to us. The first church handed it down all the way through the generations to us. A week or so ago, do you remember that cold winter day when the schools were closed because of the cold? I started a fire in the morning, and I kept that fire going all the way though into the evening. It took me awhile to get that first log going, but once I got it going, I had a good fire. Even the coldest logs from outside, Id put in there, and in a matter of seconds, they would catch on fire. The last fire I had that night, it was the same fire that I had started early in the morning. That fire had passed down from log to log. The first log had turned to ashes. The heat had gone up, and the log had turned to ashes, but the fire had passed on. That is the fire we have received. That is the fire we pass on, the same fire that happened so long ago; long after our spirits have ascended and our bodies have turned to ashes, that fire is the one we pass on to our children and grandchildren and friends. That will burn on. Its the same fire. Thats what Luke talks about. He says [picking up in Verse 3], Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught. So, we dont know who Theophilus is. We have theories, but we dont know exactly who he is. He says with the care of a surgeon, I am going to investigate. I am going to carefully study and examine the truth as its been given to us and convey it to you. The word investigate is the Greek word that we get autopsy from. Theres a little bit of the Doctor Luke coming out right there in Verse 3. He says, Im just going to do as close of an investigation as humanly possible from the very beginning of the truth, of the things, that we have received so you can know the certainty of what youve been taught. When an autopsy is performed, theyre looking for facts. Why did something happen? How did it happen? What does all this mean? They study in greater detail, under the microscope, and its just examined every way possible. Thats what Luke is going to do for us. Now hes going to get into a story about the birth of Jesus, and you know its okay to talk about the birth of Jesus when its not December. You understand that? We can talk about the resurrection when its not Easter; we can talk about His birth when its not December. Were going to see a story of two people who are given much the same word and have two very different responses. One responded in faith, the other in doubt. Before we talk about that, were going to watch a short clip from the Chronicles of Narnia, the allegory written by C.S. Lewis which Aslan represents the Lord. He has been shaved of his mane, seemingly stripped of his power, as Christ became a man for us, and Aslan is going to offer his life up to try to free Narnia. Lets watch as this clip takes place. I love when he roars later on. Hes been resurrected. Did you see the look on the little girls faces? Thats what were talking about. Thats doubt. When something you had trusted in, something you had expected, is all the sudden taken away from you-when life does not go the way you thought it should-something unexpected happens, that same doubt and confusion would have been on the face of the Apostles when Christ died on the cross. Thats not what Messiah is supposed to do. The cross is a place of a weakness. The cross is a place of death and defeat. He was supposed to be their king, and their dream died that day. They despaired. They doubted. They questioned God. What was this all about? There have been times you and I have done that same thing. When life has not gone the way we expected it to go, we struggle with doubt-when God does not answer our prayers in the way we think He should. That didnt happen for Zechariah. Zechariah wanted nothing more than to have a child, especially to have a male offspring to carry on his name. He and his wife, Elizabeth, had been married a long time but with no offspring. Its sad when a couple wants to conceive and cant. In those days, it was more than just that. In those days, if you did not conceive a child, the woman would have been viewed upon with disgrace. So, Elizabeth and Zechariah prayed. God did not answer their prayers. Were going to find in this story that God is going to break a silence of 400 years, and Hes going to speak for the first time in 400 years though the angel Gabriel to Zechariah. Zechariah is a priest, and he has a duty that day. He has been chosen by lot to go in the temple and burn incense, one of those divine coincidences that weve encountered from time to time. While in the temple, he encounters an angel, and hes afraid. Every time that man encounters an angel in the Bible, he is afraid. Do you notice that? Do you think angels look like those little chubby things that we always see Renaissance art? Probably not. They were probably pretty imposing and terrifying figures. So, he says, Do not be afraid, Zechariah…Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name John. I want to back up a second. Do not be afraid Zechariah. Your prayer has been heard. Zechariah is probably thinking, What prayer? The prayer to have a son. Zechariah had long forgotten about that prayer, but God hadnt. God has never forgotten one prayer that youve prayed. There are prayers that youve have forgotten decades ago, but God has not forgotten them. Zechariah had given up hope. He was old. He should be a grandparent. Theres no way hes going to be a parent. That was a dream that had died. Some of us will pray something for days, weeks, months, maybe even years, but soon we give up and stop and we forget, but God has not forgotten. God says, That prayer is going to be answered. Youre going to have a son. You will name him John, the graciousness of God. John the Baptist is going to be born from him. We think of John the Baptist as this bold in your face kind of a person, wrath of God kind of person, but actually John was about the grace of God, wasnt he? He was about repentance and forgiveness and restoration, so he lived up to his name. Thats for sure. [Continuing with Verse 14] He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from birth. Many of the people of Israel will he bring back to the Lord their God. And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous--to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. Hes going to have a place of honor. He is going to usher in the time of Messiah. He is the one spoken of by the prophets who prepares the way. Can we put up [on the overhead] the verse from Malachi Chapter 4? Do we have that? There it is. This is the last of the Old Testament, right here. After Malachi, Malachi is the last writer of the Old Testament… When he makes this last statement, that closes out the old covenant. [Malachi 4:5, page 951 of pew Bibles] See, I send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers… Do you recall reading those words recently? Is that not what Gabriel said to Zechariah about his son John? You see, between Malachi and Luke, its a seamless transition. God picks up exactly where He left off. The last thing God spoke was that a prophet in the tradition of Elijah was coming to prepare for the coming of the Messiah, and the first words spoken of God through Gabriel were that time is now. God breaks the silence and continues on right where He left off. He said, That time is here. Youd think Zechariah would just be thrilled. Youd think hed go, Wow! I get to be the father of Messiah! but look at his response. [Luke 1, middle of Verse 18] How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years. Some of us have said, Well, I wish I knew the will of God better. I wish God would just send an angel to tell me His will. Well, that wasnt even good enough for Zechariah. God did that very thing, and he still needed to know more: Youve called me by my name. Youve called me by my wifes name. You reminded me about a prayer long forgotten. Youve told me the gender of my child, the first name of my child, what hes going to be like, his temperament, his ministry, what he will accomplish, what his task will be, but you know, I still need some more. Im still not sure. It doesnt go over well with Gabriel. It doesnt go well. He says, Im Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God. If that would have been me, I would have went (Pastor flicks his head), Come on! Wake up! Im an angel and he cant speak. Hes not allowed to speak until the prophesy is fulfilled. He comes out, and his family is like, Whats going on? He is using sign language. They realize hes seen a vision. Finally, the son is born, and they name him John. Well learn about that next week. Then we transition to Mary. We find Mary, a young maiden. She is going to be married to a man named Joseph. That same angel, Gabriel, is sent to her in Galilee. He greets her and says in Verse 28, The angel went to her and said, Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you. Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of this Father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end. Verse 34, How will this be, Mary asked the angel since I am a virgin? Notice they were both told by the angel they were going to have a child unexpectedly. The old man, the old priest, the ministry professional questions God, but this young maiden does not. You can be old in the Lord and have less faith than somebody who is young in the Lord. You can grow chronologically in years, but God never wants you to grow old in faith. He had been a priest in the Lord a long time; yet when it came down to God giving him his plan, it was the old priest who doubted and the young maiden who believed. Dont their questions sound sort of similar? They both question the angel. One of them is unable to speak. Im sure glad God doesnt act that way toward us when we doubt Him. If that were to happen, Id say more than half of us on any given Sunday couldnt speak. He doesnt act that way. Didnt Mary question too? Lets look at those two verses. Lets look at Zechariahs response and Marys response together. Zechariah says, How can I be sure of this? Im not sure what you said is going to happen. I need to know. I need more proof. Mary, on the other hand, says, How will this be? Mary doesnt question that its going to happen. She just wants to know how. She has a right to know quite frankly. If you had been told by God, Youre going to have a baby. Youre going to bear the Messiah, and youre not married, and God is going to impregnate you somehow, youve got a right to know some details. Its a logical question. As best he could, Gabriel tried to give her an answer. Which are you here? When life pulls the rug out from under your feet…When life takes an unexpected turn, and youre future looks uncertain, do you respond as Zechariah or Mary? When something happens in your life, God has asked you to do something or say something you are not necessarily comfortable with, how do you respond? Like Zechariah? Or like Mary? Are you the kind of person that needs signs upon signs? Or do you say, God, Im going to take You at Your Word. Im going to trust You. Mary looked at the promise. Zechariah looked at the problem. If youre in doubt this morning, I guarantee you the place youre looking is at the problem and not at the promise. If you look at the problem, youre going to be shook up. If you look at the promise, youre going to have faith. Zechariah looked at himself because he was the problem. He said, Well, I cant. Im old. I should be a grandpa, and youre telling me Im going to be a dad. I think youve made a mistake. Im not sure this is really going to happen because, you know, Elizabeth is really not a spring chicken either here. He looked at himself. Sometimes we do that. We look at ourselves and say, Well, I cant. How many times in the Bible did God call somebody to do something, and their response was, Well, I cant do that. Im too young or Im too old or whatever excuse they give. You and I have given the same excuses to God because weve looked at the problem. God never told you to look at the problem. He told you to look at the promise. Dont look within; look to Him. Mary looked to Him, and she said, I dont know exactly how its going to happen, but you know what? Youre in charge. Be it done unto me according to Your Word. Faith is kind of like a trapeze, a flying trapeze. Whenever I go to the circus, Im always amazed at the flying trapeze. I think one of the reasons is because I am deathly afraid of heights. If I were the flying trapeze guy, I would climb up about one-third of the ladder, look down, see how far up I was and think, Ive accomplished something significant here, and go, Ta-da! Then Id climb back down. Thats about all youd get from me, but these guys climb way up, and they get on those bars. They start swinging back and forth. Theres the flyer and the catcher. The flyer is going back and forth, and the catcher is upside down, holding on with his knees. He has his arms extended. Theyre flying back and forth, waiting for the right time. At a certain designated time, the flyer releases the bar, and he has now entered the realm of faith. He is now trusting someone else to catch him. If youre the flyer, you dont try to catch the catcher. You let the catcher catch you. Ive never done this before. I never want to do this. But from what I understand, if youre flailing your arms or moving around, the catcher cant catch you. Your job is to be still and allow the catcher to catch you. You do not catch God; God catches you. Faith is that time from the time you release the bar until the time God catches you. That time in between-which sometimes seems forever-thats the realm of faith. To some of us, God has said, Let go of the bar, and we look down and go, Uh-uh. Not yet, a few more swings because we like to be in control, dont we? We want to be in charge. Last week, we said that if you have not accepted Christ, you have rejected Christ. If youre in charge of your life, Hes not. Let go and trust Him. Take that step of faith. But some people want to be in charge and do not like to let go. When you let go, thats faith. Then when God answers, when God grabs a hold of you; and you no longer need faith, do you? Because now the answers come. The manifestations come. When Mary became pregnant, and her belly started to swell up, and she knew she had not had relations with Joseph, did she need faith to believe that shed be pregnant at that point? No. When Elizabeth starts to show, will Zechariah need faith to believe that she is pregnant? No. He needed faith before. From the time you let go until the time God catches you, that time right in there, thats faith. Thats not fun for a lot of us. Thats not a natural thing. A natural thing is to hold on. Its unnatural to let go. Its unnatural to be dependent upon somebody else, but thats exactly what God has called you and me to do. Habakkuk 2:4 says the just shall what by faith? Live by faith. God has called this to be a lifestyle for you and me. What was Mary called? Mary was called highly favored, wasnt she? It says, You are highly favored. God thinks a lot of you, Mary. God has chosen you for a very special path. What was Marys response? May it be done to me as you have said. I am the Lords servant. Do you think thats the first time Mary responded that way to God? No. I think Mary was a person who had a reckless abandon in her faith and trust. Thats exactly the reason why she was chosen. She was chosen because of that very fact that faith for Mary had become a lifestyle. God doesnt want faith to be an event for us that every once in a while, we muster up some faith. He wants you to live by faith. When was the last time that you let go of the bar, figuratively speaking, and had to trust God or you would have fallen? If its been a long time, youre not living by faith. When was the last time you did something on the edge? You said, Im just going to trust you, God. Thats faith. Thats where God wants us to live, and its not easy to live there. Its much easier to just hold on to the bar and trust myself than to let go and let God. God doesnt call us to do something ridiculous and stupid. Dont run out on HWY 90 and say, Stop in the name of the Lord. Youre going to be a pancake. But if God has called you to do something, take that step of faith. God has called you and I as believers and as a church not to take the safe road all the time. Its not natural, but do you know what? The more you live in faith, the more natural it becomes. After a while, those catchers and flyers become so skilled and proficient that you can take the net away, and some do. They take the net away, risking their very lives; and they let go of the bar and just be still, and they let the catcher catch them. God wants us to come to the point, like Mary, when things happen that we dont understand or we may not like- we might be surprised by-and we can say, I dont understand everything thats going on, but Im going to trust You. Im going to let go of the bar, whatever that bar represents in your life, and Im going to trust you. The good news is that for those who release the bar and enter into the realm of faith, God has never dropped any of them. He has never dropped a single person. Five or so years ago, we decided we were going to learn to go scuba diving. We took some classes and went into the pool at Milton High School. That was going to be our first experience. Wed read about scuba diving. Wed watch people scuba dive. We became familiar with the equipment, but we had never actually gone under the water. Your first task as a student is simply to breathe, to get used to being under water breathing because its not natural. There is a problem. Man was not made-created-to breathe under water. The promise is that this equipment has the design to enable me to do something I cannot do on my own, cannot do naturally. So I put my faith in that equipment and I inhale when Im submerged under water. Thats the job. All you have to do first up is just breathe. So you go down there, and theres a little bit of anxiety before you take that first breath. You know you have the equipment on, but you also know this is water and you think, What if some of this gets in my lungs? Then you think, Im in the shallow end of a pool. I think Ill make it. You go, Here goes nothing. You let go of the bar, and you go, Pffffff. You get air, and you breathe it out. Usually, you watch all these rookies learning how to scuba dive; theyre all kind of hyperventilating under the water. When you go up, there are a lot of bubbles because you are breathing in and out very, very fast. Youre a little bit scared. After a while, you start to relax, and you take long, deep breathes. You start to trust, and you say, You know what? This stuff works. Im breathing, and Im under water. The next time you go scuba diving, youre not anxious about that because you know this stuff works. The promise works. That is what its like in the realm of faith. Mary, even at this young age, knew that faith worked. She knew that God would equip her and enable her to do something she couldnt otherwise naturally do, so Mary doesnt have time to process it. She doesnt say, Give me a few days to think about this. I need more proof, like Zechariah. Mary just says, I dont understand everything. I dont know how its all going to work, but you know what? Youre God. Lets do it. She lets go. Thats where God wants you and me to be, a person who lives a lifestyle of faith, who takes some spiritual risks. Im not saying you all have to sell your homes and move to Haiti like Pastor Sean and Heather, but what if He does call you to do that? What if God does tell you to do something radical for Him? What if God tells you on Monday morning to share about Him to the cranky guy at work? As soon as you open your mouth and start to speak and start sharing your faith, youve let go of the bar. So if youre saying, How do you like the weather today? Its pretty cold, isnt it? Youre holding on. But as soon as you say, You know, I just wanted to invite you to my church. Or you go, You know, Ive been going through what youve gone through, and my faith has helped me. Heres how. The moment you start to speak that, youve just let go. You are now in the realm of faith. When was the last time you let go of the bar and trusted God? Lets pray: Father, Your Word says that we are to be people of faith. Its not to be something sporadic or occasional. It is to be normative. It is to be characteristic of who we are. You want us to live by this stuff called faith, to trust. Its a dependency in something other than ourselves. Its a trust in You. We can also have a confidence knowing that weve got the best catcher in the business. Youve never dropped one who has surrendered to You. Those who fight and struggle have a difficult time; but those who surrender and are still, like Mary, theyre caught and theyre sustained. I pray that Your Holy Spirit would tell us what that bar is in our lives that we need to let go of. Those who are right now in that act of faith, who have taken those steps of obedience and have not yet been caught; theres not yet been a manifestation of the promise, my prayer, Lord, is theyll stay the course. They will realize that You are aware, that You will provide. Lord, we have been Zechariah all too often. We have heard Your leading, and weve not followed. We have seen a turn in the road that we did not like, an unexpected obstacle along our path, and weve desired to turn back instead of pressing on. Help us as a people and as a church to be a people of faith, to trust You. In Your name we pray, Amen.
I hope this is a series youve enjoyed. Ive enjoyed teaching this series and feel like the Lord has shared some things with us and blessed us. This morning, we will finish it up. How many of you have ever had an opportunity, where something good has come your way-maybe it was a business opportunity; maybe it was an investment opportunity; maybe it was an opportunity for advancement in a job; [maybe it was] a good boyfriend or girlfriend that could have made a good husband or wife; whatever the scenario-you passed [on it], and you rejected something really good and felt bad about it later. It is like a Hollywood movie where you pass on it, and it goes on to become a Blockbuster hit. Have any of you had that experience where youve done that? A few of us have made some choices we regret. When I was growing up, we were keenly aware that my moms boss, a confectionary near our house, had an opportunity to make a business investment years before. Somebody said, Hey, this new business is really going to kick off. Its this new concept in food, and we think its going to take off like gangbusters. With a small investment in this business, you might be wealthy someday. He said, That isnt going to work. Im in the food preparation business. I know that isnt going to work. He rejected it. Well, as years went by, you could never talk about McDonalds in his presence. You could never mention the name McDonalds because he passed on their stock when they were at ground level. Weve all had those McDonalds kind of experiences. Weve rejected something good, something beneficial, something wonderful. This morning, were talking about something wonderful. This morning, were talking about an Unlikely Clinker Brick in our series. A clinker brick has a defect of character. A clinker brick struggles with sin and as a result has been rejected. However, our clinker brick this morning has no flaws-never committed a sin; it has no defects of character, judgment or conduct. I think that narrows it down, doesnt it? Our clinker brick we are going to talk about this morning is Jesus. [He was] perfect in every way, without sin, and yet He was rejected by men. He was cast aside like a clinker brick, unworthy of construction. He was cast aside. Were going to talk about why, and were going to talk about what that means to you and me. One thing we will not do today is pull a character out of church history and talk about him or her because there is no person we can compare to the Lord. There is no person who has done what He has done. Thats one element that will be different this week. What we want to focus on is why was Jesus rejected? There are a number of reasons why, but one primary reason why men rejected Jesus is because of expectations: unmet expectations, false expectations of what the Messiah would say and do and how He would act. Have any of you ever been the victim of somebody elses expectations, maybe a parent, maybe a spouse, maybe a coach or a teacher, or a pastor? Somebody in your life has put expectations on you that you couldnt live up to, had no desire to live up to, or werent designed to live up to. [Has] any of you had that in your life? Most of us have. I thought it was interesting listening to some of the pre-Super Bowl hype. They were talking to Archie Manning, Peyton Mannings father, who also was an NFL quarterback. Youd think looking at his sons, Peyton and Eli, both professional quarterbacks, you would have thought that guy must have really pushed his sons. He said, I didnt. I could have cared less if they played football. They could have done whatever they wanted to do. They could have played or not played. It didnt matter to me. They played because they had the talents and the desire to play. Now, I thought that was refreshing to hear, coming from a sports dad. He just let his kids grow up anyway they wanted to grow up. Of course, we Bears fans are hoping Peyton regrets that decision by the end of the day to go and be quarterback. Well find out [today]. But he was free to pursue his talents and dreams wherever that might take him. When I made the decision to go into the ministry, I was a very young man. I told my-I dont know if you were my girlfriend or my fianc
Lets turn to Isaiah 6. While youre finding that, remember I spoke about Rich Mullins? He is the Christian artist who wrote Our God is an Awesome God, Step by Step, Sing Your Praise to the Lord, and a number of other songs. Ten years ago, he passed away in an untimely death. A car accident took his life ten years ago. He was a man who took a vow of poverty and gave every penny-every dime-of every record, every concert, every royalty, to the poor. He lived on an Indian reservation, having a meager salary from a small church on a Navajo Indian reservation when he could have been a pretty wealthy man. He was a young man who really captured my attention early in the ministry. I not only bought his music, but I really enjoyed what he had to say. I thought by way of introduction this week, we would play a little clip of Rich Mullins. Those of you who have never seen what he looks like can see him and hear his heart a little bit as he talks about the glory of God. Lets play a little clip, and then well get into the Word. At the close of the service this morning, were going to see Rich Mullins video called The Other Side of the World about missions. Youre going to see the setting as a dump in Guatemala City. If youve gone on any of our church missions trips to Guatemala City, you will recognize that dump. Its a place where our church has ministered on a number of occasions. Shelley and Jason Raddenbach, from our church-we send there as missionaries-live near that area and have been to that dump many times. So when that video comes up, some of you will recognize that scene that he sings in as a backdrop. We talked about the glory of the Lord and what that is. Isaiah is going to encounter that in the sixth chapter of his book that bears his name. Isaiah receives a vision from God. This is not a dream. This is not some sort of something that happens only in his mind. This is something Isaiah experiences, and he is trying to communicate to us the reality of what he saw in Heaven. He sees the Lord and the Lord is on His thrown, and he says this train filled the temple. He talks about the angels flying overhead. He talks about what they were saying. He speaks of how their voices shook the room. Thats the angels now, not God-just the angels voices shook the room. Now the room was filled with smoke and incense. Hes trying to describe this heavenly scene as best he can. He sees God and hears his response. He says in Verse 5 (of Isaiah 6, page 680 of pew Bibles), Woe to me! I cried. I am ruined! The word ruined means to be cut off, to be destroyed. What Isaiah is saying here is he encounters God in all of His holiness. The first thing he reflects upon is his own impurity, his own sin, and he says, I should just die right now because Ive seen God. He says, …I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips… If your lips are unclean, if what comes out of your mouth is unclean, its because what is on the inside is unclean. Jesus says out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. What Isaiah is saying here is I am unclean. I am impure from the inside out. There is nothing about me that should stand in the presence of the Holy God. Then an angel does something very symbolic. He takes a coal from the fire with tongs, and he comes over and touches Isaiahs mouth. The angel says, Your sin has been atoned for. Youve been forgiven. That fire represented Gods purity and His ability to cleanse from sin. Then, the Word of God says God speaks. Isnt it interesting that before Isaiah hears Gods plan and purpose for his life, he first must deal with the sin issue? If there are unconfessed sins in your life, dont expect to hear from God. Dont expect to know His plan. You first deal with the sin issue. Then, I can hear and then God will speak. God says (Isaiah 6:8, page 681), Whom shall I send? And who will go for us? He doesnt specifically call Isaiah. He doesnt say, Isaiah, will you go? He simply puts the question out there, Who can I send? Who will be my mouthpiece? Who will go to my people and share my message? Isaiah responds by saying, Here am I. Send me! Was Isaiahs confidence in himself? Not at all. He just said, I should just die right now because I am impure. Isaiahs confidence was in God because if God was sending him, God would equip him. Because God had touched him, he knew he could carry out whatever God had called him to do. So he says, Here am I. Send me! Just a few moments earlier, Isaiah was saying, Im a clinker brick. Im scarred. Im flawed. I have defects. Thats [the topic of] our series: a clinker brick, a brick that is damaged and tossed aside, not fit for construction. Whats more miraculous than Isaiah saying, Here I am. Send me! is God saying to Isaiah, Go! God is saying, In spite of your impurity, in spite of your fallenness and your sinfulness, Isaiah, I will use you. God will use us if we are broken, if we are humble before Him. God will use us in all of our defects, all of our impurities for His glory and for His purposes. Thats our introduction this morning. I notice some of you are tuning out when I introduce the series. I did it the same week every week, so I thought I would introduce it a little differently this week. So weve looked at a different example of a clinker brick, a different example in church history of a clinker brick, and then we talk about how it applies to our lives. This morning were talking about whether we are Excuse Makers or Difference Makers in the Kingdom. Id like you to turn, if you would please, to Luke 14. Speaking of excuses, I dont think anybody hears more excuses than police officers do. Police officers pull you over for speeding or going through a light. Theyve heard pretty much every excuse in the book when they pull drivers over. I heard a story about an officer who pulled a guy over for speeding. It was the end of his shift, and he was in a pretty good mood. It was the last thing hed have to do for the night before he signed out. He pulled the guy over and said, Hey, listen. Tell me one I havent heard before, and Ill let you off the hook. The guy said, Well, officer, 20 years ago, a police officer took away my wife, stole my wife from me. I saw you in my rearview mirror with that siren, and I thought maybe you were bringing her back. Then the officer said, Well, have a good day, sir. He gave him his license back and left. We come up with excuses. Ive heard some duzies over the years as to why people have missed church, havent been in church for awhile, or stopped ministering. I wont say any of them because you might have said one to me, and I dont want to embarrass you. Right now, you guys are playing tape really fast and thinking of excuses you might have given. Excuses really are not so much lies as they are polite ways of not telling the truth. For instance, the Bears quarterback Rex Grossman loses to Green Bay. He speaks at the press conference, and he says, Yeah, I didnt prepare for the game. The game didnt mean anything. Its New Years Day, a lot of things going on. I should have planned; I should have been better. I wont do that next week. [He just gave] a bunch of excuses instead of getting up there and saying, The Packers played better. They played like a team on a mission. This could be Brett Favres last game, so those guys played like warriors, and we came out flat. They were a better team today. That was the truth, but thats not what he said. He gave excuses, right? Some of you cant believe your ears right now, but Im just speaking the truth. I remember a woman named Sandy Cane who was leading a church musical, a drama musical. She wanted a quote from me. I was just a young buck. I was in my early 20s, and I was thinking, Wow, somebody wants a quote from me. Somebody is actually going to get up in a drama and say, Pastor Jeff Williams says… Thats kind of cool. Then I promptly forgot about it until the day of the performance. She said, Remember I need that quote. I thought, Oh, yeah, the quote. Okay, now I have to write something down. I took out my pen and thought for a moment. I wrote down something profoundly stupid, something dumb like it had a youth theme to it. It was [something like], The youth of tomorrow or youth of today… It was something ignorant that was not in the slightest bit memorable. I handed it to her, and I said, Heres my quote. Hours later she came back. She said, Hey…yeah. Hey thanks for turning in that quote, but we did get a lot of quotes. The performance is going to go long, and we just dont have a lot of time, so were going to have to eliminate your quote. It was really good, and thanks for sharing that. I was thinking, Okay. I knew exactly what she was saying. Obviously my quote would have taken about three seconds to read. Why didnt she just come out and say, You know, you didnt put any thought into your quote. Your quote was very sub-par and not in the least bit memorable, so theres no reason to share it with anybody at any time-ever-in the history of the human race. But, she just did it in a nice way. Some of you, maybe in high school or more recently, somebody has asked you out on a date, and youve come up with a polite excuse as to why you cant go. We use excuses all the time. Were going to see some chart toppers right here in Luke 14. Were going to see some real excuse makers here. Jesus is staying at the home of a prominent Pharisee. The man is powerful; he is wealthy; and he has invited Jesus into his home as a guest. A lot of VIPs are there, and theyre not Jesus friends. Theyre watching Jesus with a skeptical eye. Theyre waiting for Him to slip up. Theyre waiting for a way to entrap Him with His words or His actions. They were talking about banquets and the Kingdom, and one of the men reclined at the table and gave this impromptu outburst. He said, Its going to be great! Were in the Kingdom of Heaven and partaking in the feast of God! Hes saying, Wont it be great at the end of the ages when we sit down in the messianic reign and share a meal with God? Jesus uses that outburst as a teaching moment and starts to talk about the Kingdom. We pick up the story in [Luke] 14:16 (page 1034 of pew Bibles), Jesus replied: A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. So these men and women had already received invitations. I dont throw many parties because I dont like the feeling of people calling and canceling at the last minute. Because of that, I only have one party a year, and thats for my staff-and they pretty much have to come. I know somebody is going to come. So he had already given out the RSVPs, regrets only. These are people who had already accepted the invitation and had put it down on their calendar to come to the banquet. At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, Come, for everything is now ready. You said you were going to be there, so we bought food for you. Theres a spot on the table that has your name on the card. You committed to being there; youre expected to be there; we have prepared for you to be there; and Im sending out this notice, this invite that is like the courtesy phone call. This is like the reminder that says, Hey, remember, Friday night at 6 oclock. Be there! So the servant goes out and reminds people. Verse 18 says, But they all alike began to make excuses… Theyre not giving reasons, because sometimes there are valid reasons why we cant do something. Other times, there are excuses. Last Sunday, some of you came from far away and live on country roads where there was drifting. [And for others] it was dangerous and hazardous to drive, so you stayed home. That was a reason. Some of you who live two blocks away looked out the window and saw the cold and wind and said, Im going back to bed. That was an excuse. Thats an example between the two: reason vs. excuse. He comes out and says, Remember, we have that banquet today. Youre invited! He comes to the first guy in Verse 18 and says, Yeah, that banquet. I wanted to go to that, see, but I just bought this field, and I must go see it. Please send my regrets. I must go see it. Is it going somewhere? The field that you just bought, why do you need to see it now? Has it changed since you bought it? Does it look the same? Why the urgency? Why the rush to go see this field you bought? Cant you eat first and then go see the field? We dont know what the behind-the-scene story is here. Maybe the guy just gives bad banquets. Maybe there is just a bad cook. Brenda had a family member that would invite us over to eat, and it was awful! It was horrendous! She could not cook a lick, not even a frozen pizza. Twice, we went over there for frozen pizza. The first time she burned it to a crisp, and the second time she burned it to a crisp. I think we ended up eating it the second time. You had to hammer and chisel. It was like Jell-O that would not come off the spoon, no matter how many times you shook it. When Aunt Blanch would invite us over, it was like, Aw, gee, Aunt Blanch, I have to clip my nails. How many of you have ever given a flimsy excuse to somebody and thought, They have to see through that. Thats pretty weak. Usually theyre just right off the top of your head. Thats what I understand some of these to be. The second person, in Verse 19, says, I have just bought five yoke of oxen… Yeah, that banquet sounds like fun, but Im on my way to try them out, so can you send my regrets? So you bought the oxen, and now youre going to try them out? Isnt that like saying, Hey, I bought a car, and I cant come to your house to eat because I have to go give it a test drive? Isnt the time to give the test drive before you buy it? Isnt the time to try out the oxen before you made the purchase? And where are the oxen going? Why is there such a big hurry that you have to check out the oxen you bought right now? The third guy, in Verse 20, said, Boy, yeah, that banquet, thats really good. I know I committed to go to it, but I just got married. I cant come. He didnt mean this was his wedding day. He meant he was a newlywed. Youre going to be together for the rest of your lives-can you spare a meal to go to this guys place who was prepared for you? No. Even though were going to be together for the next 40, 50, 60 years, I dont have time to go to your banquet because I have to… This is the only guy who is half-way legitimate. Maybe, his wife had laid down the law, right? Maybe there were things he had to do around the house that day. This guy could be legit. The other two…not a chance. We laugh at these guys, but the truth is, we are these guys. The truth of the matter is: Theyre clinker bricks. Every excuse they gave had to do with themselves. [They were] putting something [first] in their lives that was more important than the commitment they made to a friend. They didnt think about his feelings. They didnt think about the expense he had gone through in buying that meal or preparing that meal. They didnt think about how disappointed he would be when they committed to come and didnt show up because their needs were more important. Thats us. Were clinker bricks too. You and I have all made excuses as to why we cant do what God has called us to do; go where Hes called us to go; give what Hes called us to give; say what Hes called us to say; share what Hes called us to share. Were clinker bricks. Im painting a picture right now. After the service this morning, Im going to come back over here, and Im going to paint this entire canvas black. Im not going to take the time to do it right now, but you can watch me [later]. As soon as we say Amen, Im heading over here. Im going to cover this entire canvas with black paint. This represents the darkness thats in our souls. This represents this clinker brickness-this new word weve coined-that is a part of all of us. Next week, at some point during the service, youre going [to be thinking], That transformed into something good, something beautiful. We promise you… Ill be kind of glad because Im tired of getting paint all over my hands and my clothes. Thats coming up next week. That reminds us of who we are. That reminds us of our sin nature, of our fallenness-were clinker bricks. The question we pose is this: Are you an excuse maker or are you a difference maker? A difference maker says, It doesnt matter what the obstacles are, were going to overcome it. Were going to get it done. As we form our team for our new building, we want to have people who are difference makers saying, Yeah, we have obstacles. We have work, but were going to get this thing done. No matter what endeavor you entertain, no matter what endeavor you join together to accomplish, you want people on that team who are going to say, Were going to get this done. Were going to meet challenges, and were going to overcome those challenges. We may not know how, but we know we will. You dont want a team of excuse makers. Excuse makers, as soon as they run into conflict or obstacles, quit. We cant do it. Why? Because of that. If that werent there, we could do it. But because thats there, we better stop. If everybody in the world were excuse makers, nothing would get done. The same thing is true in the church. If were excuse makers, things arent going to be done because as soon as they get difficult, were going to quit. Were not going to try to think outside the box, go outside of the lines. Were just going to say, Oh, we cant do it. The great commission. Now, look at the servant here. The servant is sent out, but he doesnt make excuses. This guy gets the job done. He comes back with the news, and the owner of the house is very angry. He says, Go out quickly into the streets and the alleys of the town. Bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame, folks like Rich Mullins was talking about in this clip earlier. He says, Sir, the servant said what you have ordered has been done. There is still more room. This guy didnt say, Well, what if they dont come? Look at the success weve had in the past. What makes us think its going to be any better? He doesnt do any of that. He does what he is told. He comes back and he says, There is more room. The master told his servant, Go out into the roads and country lanes and make them come in, so that my house will be full. I tell you not one of those men who were invited will get a taste of my banquet. Theologically speaking, Jesus is talking here, but the invitation was first given to the Jews. Many of them received, and many rejected. Jesus said then the message will be taken to all people, and all will be invited. It was a servants job to go out into the world and take that message, that invitation of the king, and say, You are invited. Friends, that servant is the church. You and I have been called by God to take this message of the Gospel to the world-no excuses. No excuses. Every generation has had its challenges in church history, in the Gospel, as far as carrying out the great commission. It seems like God always raises up some people who refuse to make excuses and say, Lets get the job done. I want to tell you this morning about a man by the name of William Carey. William Carey lived in the late 1700s, early 1800s. William Carey was born in England, and he was a shoe cobbler. While he would perform his vocation, he would learn. He was a multi-tasker, so he would learn languages [while he was working on shoes]. In fact, he became the master of many languages. God would use that when He would send William Carey to the country of India. In India, William would labor for seven years before he lead the first person to Christ. He would translate the Bible into 40 different languages and dialects. Can you imagine that? This man had a brilliant mind. He was also a clinker brick. He became so consumed with his ministry and translation and pastoring that he neglected his family. He had four small boys. What were told in church history is they were obnoxious, rude, had no manners, no structure, and no discipline at all. It was co-workers on the field in India who literally raised William Careys boys because he didnt do it. He was a clinker brick. He was a bad parent, but he was an incredible missionary. He is called the Founder of Modern Missions-a very important person in church history. There were a lot of excuses being told as to why we werent getting the job done around the world. People were saying things like you know, it costs a lot of money. Its very dangerous. You have to sail the oceans to get to some of these countries. When you get there, the indigenous people are often hostile not only to our message, but to us. Besides that, there are language barriers. Sometimes we dont speak their languages. They dont have the Bible in their language. Some climates are cold; some climates are hot. There are all these problems and difficulties we have to overcome, so its much easier to just not go. But William Carey was a difference maker and not an excuse maker. His response to the one who said, Well, they dont have a Bible in their language was Well, write one. If they talked about that climate being unsafe or that group of people being hostile, hed say, What about Paul? What about the groups he ministered to? What about the times he was in riot and shipwreck? Well, its expensive. Sometimes its cold and its hot… William Carey wrote a book. The book was entitled, in 1792, this catchy little title-easy to remember. It was called An Inquiry into the Obligations of Christians to use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens. Easy, thats what it was called. That was literally the title of the book. In the book he says something very poignant. He says, Listen, you Christian merchants out there who have money, how did you get that money? Some of you put your life at risk to cross treacherous seas. Some of you faced hostile people to mine for gold. Some of you went into unfamiliar climates in Africa, for instance, and faced heat to sell, to trade, and to buy into a choir. If youre going to go all around the globe and go to all different kinds of cultures and all different kinds of languages for the sake of a buck, how much more should we do it for the sake of a soul and the God who has called us to do it because Hes given us that command? He laid down His life for us. Whoa! Ive read the book. Its not a long read. He talks about the history of missions, how we go about missions. He talks in one chapter about charts, all the countries, all the people groups who havent heard, where the Gospel has been preached. Here are how many people who are not Christians? Then in Chapter 4, he blows out all the excuses. In Chapter 5, he talks about using their culture, their languages, to get the job done, just like as a church we believe and practice. He says, Use their culture. Use their language. Love them. Heres how you reach them for Christ. William Carey became the Father of Modern Missions. Ive been talking a lot about Pastor Sean Christensen lately. I said I hope our staff doesnt get jealous because Ive talked so much about him lately. Just to let our staff know, should you ever choose to go overseas full-time to a place like Haiti, Ill talk about you a lot too. Look at the things Pastor Sean has to do. Number one, look what he is giving up. Hes selling his home. He is leaving his job, his family, and his friends, and his country. Hes taking his four children and his wife, and he is going to a completely different culture-the voodoo capital of the world, Haiti. [This country is] the poorest of the poor. Then he has to face the challenge of raising the support; $5,400 a month is what he has to raise. Thats a lot of money. You say, Why does it cost $5,400 to live in Haiti? Its the poorest country in the world. You can live there for $2,000 a year. Right, you could if you wanted to live on a dirt floor with no air conditioning, no electricity, no plumbing, no running water, no car, all of that. Hes already giving up a lot. Lets not put him in that kind of a situation. Lets have him at least have electricity, plumbing, running water, a refrigerator, and a car for goodness sakes. So not only does he have the financial challenges, but he has to learn two languages: Creole and French. He has to learn them, not just to communicate the basics to function in society. He has to learn French well enough to teach local pastors the Bible. Thats going to be his job. Hes going to be teaching the Haitian pastors, so they can teach their congregation. Many of them could not go to school. What you could hear from Sean is a lot of excuses, couldnt you? I cant go… You could think of any one of those things, and you could run with it, but he is saying, Im going to get it done. With Gods help, the help from my family and friends, the church, were going to get this done. Hes at 10 percent, so he has 90 percent to go. Hes just starting out here. It puts some of our excuses to shame, doesnt it? He wants to make a difference in the world for Christ. Do you want to make a difference in the world for Christ? We are either-we talked about this a few weeks ago-the ones sent, or we are senders. We have to recognize this is our mission. Were going to watch a song [video clip] by Rich Mullins called The Other Side of the World as he sings in Guatemala City (lyrics can be read at http://www.kidbrothers.net/wohsoe.html#tosotw). Its a song you might not be as familiar with, but I want you to listen to the lyrics as he talks about it being an ominous job. There is so much to do, yet there is optimism in his voice. There is a can-do spirit behind his words. Lets listen to the song, The Other Side of the World. We as a church want to be difference makers in our world for Christ. We shared several weeks ago about World War II, how it was a very different war than the one we are facing now. We tend to just listen on the news, watch, or read articles, but unless we have somebody [we love] in the war, other than the price of gas for instance, our lives are not affected in a personal way. There is no sacrifice we are making unless we have somebody in the war. World War II was not like that. World War II was seen as everybodys war. The home front was just as important as the front line. The conservation, the sacrifice, the war bonds, Rosie the Riveter, woman going back to work-converting factories into places that made weapons, financing the war: that was vital to the success of what America was doing in Europe in fighting Hitler and the Nazis and imperious forces. We saw this as our battle. We couldnt have won it without the home front. In regards to missions, we have to see it as our fight. It is a fight; it is a battle, but its our battle. We have to say to Pastor Sean-more than just patting him on the back-Hey, good luck with that! Youre leaving everybody you love and going off to Haiti! Best of luck to you! We have to do more than that. Parents in our church, Jim and Lita Powers, their son went off to Thailand, left a prominent church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, to go and minister to the orphans in Thailand. Now he is giving 100 percent of his time and energy to reach the people of Pakistan. Talk about dangerous missions. Talk about a land that needs the Gospel. He is there ministering. We have to do more with Todd Powers than say, Hey, good luck Todd! Our D.R. team: we have friends and some people in church we know, maybe even some family members, who are taking a week of their time this summer. Theyre leaving their jobs, leaving all of you, boarding on a plane and going off to an unknown country to minister and love people in the name of Christ. [They are] going to minister to lepers, orphans, and children. Theyre sharing the love of Christ to the people who are hurting. We have to do more than just say, Hey, good luck to you. We have to be behind them in our prayers, our giving, and any way we can use our talents and resources to make it happen. This team, as I met with them last week in our meeting, we dont know how were going to get everything we need. We dont know how were going to do everything we need to do, but its a journey of faith, and were not offering any excuses. Were saying, Were going to get it done, but we need your help to do that. Every two years, our church embarks on a major missions outreach. This year, its the Dominican Republic. Every two years, we take an offering to benefit missions. This is not giving to an agency. This is not giving to a nameless, faceless group or something where we put money into a pot and really dont know whats done with it. This offering will benefit Pastor Sean Christensen and his ministry to Haiti. It will benefit Todd Powers in Pakistan. It will benefit our church, the folks who are going to the Dominican Republic. Im going to ask our ushers to come forward at this time, and well receive that love offering for missions. If youre not ready or not prepared, just let us know if you want to bring something by on Monday or Tuesday. We just want to bless these people we know and love in a tangible way. This is not the be-all end-all, but it is part. It is a practical way we can participate in world missions. These dollars will send people you know and love to people you dont know. I hope even though you dont know them, you still love them and reach them for Christ.
This is not what I wanted to look up and see when I pulled into church today, the snow, the sleet, and the slick roads. I commend you for being here today, and why dont you just give yourselves a round of applause. I was nervous and scared thinking there wouldnt be many people to talk to today, but there are a few more than I anticipated-not the normal, but better than I anticipated and hoped. The earlier service was as well. Weve gotten a little soft this winter. Weve not really had much in the way of snow, and we toughen up as the season goes by. Sometimes we are a little bit of pansies when winter first starts. This really is about the second snow we have had. Im glad you guys are all tough. Were continuing in our Clinker Brick series this morning. For the sake of those who are new, I want to talk to you about what a Clinker Brick is. This series is called Hand Me Another Clinker Brick. A clinker brick is a brick that is damaged, either when it was manufactured or somewhere along the construction site it became damaged like this brick (holding one up) which is missing a corner. A mason would look at this brick and say, Oh, this is no good. This brick is damaged, and he would cast it aside. There are those who see the value in clinker bricks, see the beauty in them since no two are exactly the same. Theyre actually used for other purposes; maybe a wall would be made of clinker bricks. Sometimes, as in the case of a church in New England, the entire structure is built with clinker bricks. What that means is that though we have flaws, though we make mistakes, God sees fit to use us to build His church because we will never be rid of our shortcomings-to the day we die. We should not use that as an excuse or be content with that. We should strive to have those imperfections removed, but we also know at the same time we will struggle with sin and our sin nature until the day we die. We were born, and we will die, a clinker bricks. People have flaws. Were not talking here about defects that were born with or illnesses. Were talking about defects of character, bad behaviors and attitudes-sin that we harbor in our lives. Each week were looking at a different person in the Scripture, a different clinker brick. Were talking about them and ourselves. This week will be no different. Were talking this morning about Defining Discipleship. Anyone here today ever bit off more than you could chew on a project or undertaking? You start; maybe youre going to remodel your home. Youre tearing up the carpet and the floor, and all the sudden you think, What am I getting myself into? Maybe youve gone to run something like a marathon. About halfway through that marathon, you think, What in the world am I doing? Sometimes people will go into marriage, believe it or not, not really counting the cost. They will be three years into a marriage, or sometimes three weeks, and theyll go, What was I thinking? Ive encountered that on many occasions. People do not fully contemplate… Maybe a business venture… You invest a lot of capital to start something off, or you put a lot of money into an investment that starts to go south. You say, What was I thinking? I can remember back in 1989 as I was laying the foundation to start our church. I resigned from the position in Rockford. This church did not exist. I was thinking to myself, What am I doing? Im going to work for a church that does not exist. I would think, I must be nuts. I must be crazy. We all have bit off seemingly more than we can chew: to start up a new ministry or whatever it might be. Financially, you name it. Jesus wanted those who were seeking to be His followers to understand the commitment they were making before they made it. He wanted them to grasp the importance of the decision to be His disciples. To become a disciple of Christ was not something you would do casually or flippantly and without weighing what was at stake. It was a decision He wanted you to make sure that you really pondered and thought it through. Thats why, as a church, we value seekers who come through and who ask questions, who investigate, who take time and ponder this important decision. We would rather have that and have them make a quality, sound decision to follow Christ than [to make] an impulsive, emotional decision which doesnt last. Wed rather they really think through their commitment. Jesus talks about this in Luke 14, if youd turn there please this morning. Were going to begin reading with Verse 25 (page 1034 of pew Bibles), Large crowds were traveling with Jesus… Thats where were going to pause for a second: large crowds. Jesus was not into large crowds. Jesus did not care about large crowds. Jesus was not interested so much in a quantity as quality. He wanted fully-devoted followers. So He is going to separate the men from the boys, those who are really serious and those who are just following Him because theyre curious; want to see a miracle; its the latest thing to do; its the latest fad to follow Jesus. I went to a large high school in Rockford. I remember freshman basketball: 60 guys tried out that first day. We hardly touched a basketball except for a drill. All we did was run, exercise and run. The next day 40 guys showed up. All we did was exercise and run until we wanted to throw up. The next day, 25 guys show up. We ran until we dropped. Then, the coach says, Okay, now that the guys who werent serious about it are gone, now well get down to playing some basketball. So Jesus is going to give a defining moment, an address to say, Heres what it means to be My follower. This is not something you want to be casual about. Really think about the decision youre making. …and turning to them He said: If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters-yes, even his own life-he cannot be My disciple. That verse has been very misconstrued and misinterpreted over the years. Well talk about it again in a few moments. (Picking up on Luke 14:27) And anyone who does not carry His cross and follow Me cannot be My disciple. Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will you not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying, This fellow began to build and was not able to finish. Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. In the same way, any of you who do not give up everything he has cannot be My disciple. How many of you this morning consider yourselves to be disciples of Christ? Let me see your hands. How many of you read that definition and then start to wonder, Am I truly a disciple? Yeah, one of us (as in one persons hand went up). I read that and it scares me. …in the same way, he who does not give up everything cannot be My disciple. And I say, I havent given up everything. Ive given up some things to follow where I think He wants me to go. I ask you this question quite literally this morning: how many of you think it sounds good to you to sell your homes, quit your jobs, leave your families and friends, and move to Illinois? How many of you think that sounds like a good idea, and you are wanting to do that? One of you wants to move to Illinois (again, one hand went up-congregation laughing). Nobody else wants to move to Illinois, right? It doesnt sound good. Im going to be quite frank and honest with you. How I felt about moving to Wisconsin was about how you feel about moving to Illinois. I didnt want to. I didnt know any of you. I loved my home and my church, my job; my friends and my family were there. I didnt want to move here. I gave up some things. I didnt want to come here any more than you want to go there. Now that Im here, I like it. Now that Im here, I dont want to go back. I didnt want to go. I didnt give up everything. My family is with me. I gained more than I gave up. Thats the way God works. He is more of a giver than a taker. But…He says, Unless you give up everything… Are we to take that literally? Because if we take that literally, we are all in trouble this morning. If being a disciple of Christ means you give up everything you have to follow Him, there is not a person here who could raise their hand by that definition and say, Im a disciple because nobody here has given up everything to follow Him. Let me explain this passage: Jesus often speaks in extremes or hyperbolae to illustrate a point. For instance, I might say to you, Today, Chicago Bears will kill the Saints to advance to the Super Bowl. I dont mean it literally. I dont mean theyre literally going to kill them. Its an expression to illustrate a point. It almost sounds like blasphemy, doesnt it? Theyre going to kill the Saints. Plus, theyve been crowned like Gods team now, so you almost feel like youre anti-American by not pulling for the Bears. If the Bears lose, and I hope they dont, but if they do, I will pull for the Saints in the Super Bowl like the rest of you. Its kind of like us against America right now. Before you got me off track, what I was saying is what He says is unless you hate your mother and father and children and brother and sister-even your own wife… does He literally mean hate? Does Jesus want you to hate people? No. Jesus says, Love the Lord your God with all your heart. Love your neighbor as you love yourself. Jesus is not contradicting Himself. He is not contradicting the Scripture. What Jesus is trying to say here is your earthly relationships, even the closest relationships, have to be superceded by your relationship to Him. He is to be more important than any earthly relationship, even more so than your family. Hes talking here about a level of commitment. He says, Im not just going to be one of your choices. Im not just going to be the slice of the pie. I want to be the pie. I want to be the focus of your life. Is your relationship with Me your most important relationship? When He says, Pick up your cross and follow after Me or you cannot be My disciple, we should not understand that in a literal sense. Jesus does not want you to cut down a tree, strip its bark, make a cross beam, nail them together, strap it on your back and carry it everyday everywhere. He doesnt mean that. The cross represents sacrifice. The cross represents humility. So Hes saying to His followers, Listen, if you follow Me, its not about advancement. You have to be willing to lay down pride. You have to be willing to die to yourself. Following Me is not about power. Its about humility. Its about sacrifice. You have to crucify self if you want to be My disciple. Thats what He means when He says pick up your cross. He did not literally mean hate. He does not literally mean pick up a cross. For most of us, He does not literally mean give up everything and follow Him. What He is talking about here is willingness, about the attitude of a disciple-an attitude that says, Everything I have belongs to You, God. I will go where You want me to go; I will say what You want me to say; I will do what You want me to do; I will serve where You want me to serve; I will give what You ask me to give. Jesus, oftentimes, would have people who wanted to follow Him, and Hed say, No, you stay right here. If we all sold everything we had, who would fund the Gospel? There are some people who work and make investments to give resources for the Gospel. Thats why they work. God doesnt expect the whole church to sell everything it has to follow Him. What Hes talking about here is an acknowledgment that everything you own belongs to Him. When you have that understanding, the giving is not a sensitive subject anymore. Serving is not a touchy subject anymore. When the church talks about giving a tithe or ten percent of our income as required in the Scripture, a lot of people get upset with that. If youre truly a disciple, you know its not your money. Its Gods money-100 percent of it. Its all His. He allows us to keep 90 percent. When we talk about serving, its not about you giving your leftovers to the Lord. Its about you giving your best to the Lord. (In a grumbly voice) Oh, the church always wants you to volunteer for everything under the sun… You understand that everything you have, your gifts, your talents, they come from God. God wants you to offer them back, to give them back. If youre a disciple, you understand that. That does not urk you; that does not irritate you. You know why youre on this planet: to serve Him. I said (this is) not for everybody because there are some people He has called to radical commitments. I want you to flip over a few pages to Luke 18:18 (page 1039); we find the story of the rich ruler. Hes been a good man; hes lived a good life. Hes also accumulated a lot of worldly goods. He just wants to know, Am I good enough? Have I made the grade? Is there something else I have to do or is what Ive done good enough? He comes to Jesus and asks Him a question, …Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Why do you call Me good? Jesus answered. No one is good-except God alone. You know the commandments: Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother. All these things I have kept since I was a boy. [Hes a] pretty good guy. Hes saying in regards to this brick, if this brick were his life, hes saying, You really cant find any flaws in me. Theres no clink here. There are no stars here. Every command Ive been given to do, I have done. I have done exactly what God has asked me to do. Now, is there anything else I need to do? Hes hoping Jesus is going to reply and say, Just keep doing what youre doing, and youre in. Jesus doesnt do that. Jesus gives a very unexpected reply. He says, You still lack one thing. [The man would reply] You know, one thing isnt bad. If all I have to do is one more thing, thats good news, really. Hes done all but this one thing he has to do. If youre in some sort of project, maybe one of those some assembly required things that takes you a couple of weeks, you get to the last step, and all you have to do is one more thing. Maybe youve been filling out forms for the some government bureaucracy, and they say, This is your last form. You say, All right! Were at the end of the tunnel here. One more thing, and then were done. Youre running your marathon. You have your last mile, one more mile. So, one thing isnt bad. He says, One thing. Sell everything you have... Everything you have… …and give it to the poor, and you will have treasure in Heaven. Then come, follow Me. Notice, Jesus says one thing you lack, and then He listed three: Sell everything you have, give it to the poor, and follow Me. What He was saying here was the essence of discipleship. Sell everything you have... Youll do what I tell you to do. …and give it to the poor…. Youll give what I tell you to give. …and come and follow Me. Youll go where I tell you to go. Thats a disciple. He doesnt do it. It says, When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was a man of great wealth. He was not willing to give up the stuff of this earth for the Kingdom of Heaven. That didnt seem like a good deal. He saw God as more of a taker than a giver. He weighed those two on the scale, and he found Jesus offer wanting. He was consumed with the here and now. You see, a true disciple lives in the here and now, but their true focus is on eternity. Its on the Kingdom. Then he walked away. Let me ask you a question: where are these mans possessions today? Where are these things he was unwilling to sacrifice? Where is his nice home? It is dust. His nice furniture, his jewelry and his possessions, theyre gone with the winds of time. What about his money? Where is that? Where is his gold? Where is his silver? Its gone. What about eternity? Eternity is just as real and as present and alive as the day he asked the question. He chose wrongly. A disciple, when it comes to choice between earth and Heaven, chooses Heaven. The temporal and the eternal, [and the disciple] chooses the eternal. He began to look at what it was going to cost him, what he was going to lose, instead of what he was going to gain. Before were too hard on this rich ruler, before we point a finger at him and shake it, there have been times you and I have walked away. There have been times you and I have listened to God tell us to do something, and we have not done it; or to say something, and we have not said it; or to go somewhere, and we have not gone there; or to serve in some capacity, and we have not served. You and I are guilty of this same thing, arent we? A true disciple lives on earth, but his or her focus is the Kingdom. Were going to listen to a song called Not of this World right now by a group called Petra. (You can find lyrics at http://www.christianrocklyrics.com/petra/notofthisworld.php) If youve been coming here for awhile, you know that I am working on a canvas in all four services. How many of you think you know what it is yet? Nobody? How many believe me when I say that by the time Im through, some of you might even want this picture? Nobody? Its true. This blackness represents sin. It represents our clinker brickness-remember thats a word we invented? See this rich ruler thought he was pretty together. He thought he had it all right. Jesus says, Youre lacking one thing. What was the one thing he lacked? The one thing he lacked was: The word of God says you shall have no other gods before me, so love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength. Who did he love the most in his life? Himself. What did he value more than anything else? His possessions. Sometimes, thats you and I. Sometimes, were just like that guy in the story, just like the rich young ruler. We value the wrong things. We value the things of this earth, the people of this earth. Were not willing to pick up our cross, deny ourselves, and follow after Him. I want to share a couple of examples for you of people who I think have lived out this passage in radical ways. One is a man by the name of St. Francis of Assisi? When you think of St. Francis, you probably think of a monk with a robe and his head shaven. Thats accurate. …living in the woods and loving nature and birds, and thats accurate. What you dont know about Francis of Assisi is that he began life as the son of a well-to-do clothing merchant in Italy. It was assumed he would grow up to be the heir for the business. That was the custom. You did what your father did, so he would be the next in line to run the successful clothing business. He had money, and he spent it. He spent it on himself, pretty lavishly. He spent it on his friends. He was very popular, very talented, very gifted, a great personality, a lot of money, so he attracted a lot of friends. He was generous with them; he was generous with himself. Really, he was a clinker brick in that sense because he didnt use his money for good things. He used it only for Francis and the benefit of Francis. Then things began changing. He began to see the needs around him, and he began to have a desire to help the poor. That desire increased over time to the point where he actually began to focus, not so much on himself, but, upon the needs that were around him. He started rebuilding a chapel that had become dilapidated and was in ruins. He started to give excessive amounts of his money, really, his fathers money to the poor. He once went so far as to tell his friends he was getting married. They said, Francis, you dont have a girlfriend. Who in the world are you marrying? He said, Im marrying the finest lady of them all. They were all baffled, much like you are about this painting over here. He said, Im marrying Lady Poverty. His giving to the poor bothered his father so much that he though maybe his son had lost his marbles, so he locked him up in the cellar. He literally locked him up and would not let him come out. He went to the bishop-he was there for a long period of time-and he said, You have to come and speak to my son. Hes crazy. Hes giving away all of my money to the poor. You have to do something about this. The bishop talked to Francis. Francis explained his conviction and that he was going to take a vow of poverty. He was going to give away everything he had. The bishop said, Thats fine. You can give away what you have, but this is what belongs to your father, so you have to make a decision. Either you renounce the business, or you choose to be a part of the business and follow after the footsteps of your dad. Francis did something very peculiar. He renounces everything. He takes all of his possessions; he puts them in a pile; he literally strips down to his birthday suit; he takes all of the clothes off his back, including his undergarments, and he lays them on the ground. [That was] very symbolic because his father was a clothing merchant. He said, I give these things back to you, Father. I am devoting myself fully to God. He walked in the buff into the woods. He eventually does get a robe and puts it on. He walks around, prays, and he sings hymns. Hes happy. People start asking, Why are you so happy? You lost everything. You gave up everything. How can you be so happy? He started telling them about God. He started telling them about his vow of poverty. Pretty soon, there are about 11 other guys who join in and form this Little Brothers of St. Francis. They would become the Franciscan Monks. A woman, Clare, would also devote herself to the group, and she would start the Poor Clare Nuns. They would be blessed by the Pope, and he would bless their order. He (Francis) spent his time like a hermit in the woods. Then one day, a scripture impacted him. It was Matthew 10. It talked about going on and ministering, getting rid of everything-even your shoes. You go around and minister to people, and thats what he did. He began to devote himself to ministering to the poor. He began to minister to the sick and the lepers. They did good things. They werent just living in isolation by themselves. They eventually began to use their spirituality and their love for God in the real world and do some amazing things in helping the poor. Here is a guy who literally lived out the commands of Luke 14. Is there anybody like that today? Is there anybody who has a radical faith like that? Most of us, Hes not going to call us to give up everything, but are there some that He still speaks to in that way? How many of you have ever heard of a song called Our God is an Awesome God? How about a song called Oh God, You Are My God, I Will Ever Praise You, Step by Step Youll Lead Me, and I Will Follow You All of my Days? That and many other songs were written by a man by the name of Rich Mullins. Rich died untimely at the age of 42, about 10 years ago. Prior to that, he wrote songs for Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith, and other leading contemporary Christian artists. He launched his own solo career. When he wrote Awesome God, his sales took off. His career took off to the top of the charts. He became a household name in many Christian families. His music was played on the radio all the time. One of the last things I did, one of my last responsibilities in Rockford when I was a youth minister there, was [to schedule Rich Mullins to sing before an evangelist spoke at the Metro Centre]. The churches of Rockford banned together, 150 churches strong-thats pretty impressive, to bring in an evangelist by the name of John Guest. He was an Episcopalian, so the mainline churches were in favor of it; but he was strongly evangelical, so the evangelical churches were in favor of it. Catholic, Protestant, mainline and contemporary-150 strong-onboard to bring in a person. It was an amazing thing. We rented out the Metro Centre, which holds about 7,000 people. We came close to filling it every night of the week. We would bring in a Christian artist, and then John Guest would speak and give an invitation to receive Christ. I was in charge of the two youth nights, Wednesday and Saturday. The Saturday night one was the same night my son was born, so I was trying to direct everything from the hospital. It was an interesting day. I just said, I hope he comes any day but Wednesday or Saturday because those are pretty intense days for me. I was in the hospital directing traffic from there. My favorite artist was Rich Mullins. I loved his music. We had deep pockets. We could write a check, so we could ask anybody. I said, We have to get Rich in here. He is so anointed and has such a strong message. Lets get Rich. The chairman, as we were listening to Rich warm up, saw Rich with the long hair, unshaven, and a bit sloppily dressed. His first impression wasnt too good. He kind of looked at me like, Are you sure you know what youre doing here? Is this the right guy? I said, Trust me, Dennis, by the time hes through, youll know hes the right guy. He did; he ministered to us. Just in talking with this guy, I noticed he was very much a part of this earth, but his focus was on the Kingdom. He had some radical ideas and radical thoughts. He was a great guy. I spent time with him. We took him to an interview on QFL. We took him out to eat and spent a lot of time with him, getting to know him. One thing that was interesting is the check; he asked that we make it out to the Kid Brothers of St. Frank for $2,500. I still have the contract-I was looking at it this week. I thought to myself, Who? What is the Kid Brothers of St. Frank? How come Im not making it out to Rich Mullins or some promotional company or agent? I didnt find out until later that Kid Brothers of St. Frank…St. Francis, St. Frank-its the same guy. Rich Mullins was a huge fan of St. Francis of Assisi. Rich Mullins had taken, like Francis, a vow of poverty. He had every penny he made given to a charity that ministered to the Navajo Indians. Thats where he lived. He lived on the Navajo reservation. He worked for a church. A small church on the reservation paid him a pittance of a salary, just enough to buy food. This is a guy who could have been, or would have been, a millionaire with the royalty from the songs he wrote, the royalty from his albums which sold number one best sellers-the royalties from all of his concerts; he kept not one cent. He lived with the Navajos in the same one-room, made of wood-basically the size of your bathroom-and he taught the children music. He shared the Gospel with the Indians on that reservation. That was his life. His music was just something that was a way to help these people. He said, My real job is I teach music to a small group of Navajo children. [He was] quite an interesting fellow, wasnt he? That was Rich Mullins. What a great guy! You say, What are you doing, Pastor? Are you trying to tell us we need to sell everything we have and strip into our birthday suits and walk into the woods? Or [should we] go live in a one-room place somewhere? Is that what youre saying to us? Yeah. No, no, no, no. What Im saying to you is a disciple has two things: a disciple has a willingness to do whatever God has called him to do, and a disciple has a focus on the Kingdom. Those two men are examples of people who made radical decisions to follow what God had called them to do, whose focuses were on the Kingdom of Heaven, not on this earth. Imagine, as we close our service this morning, we decide as a church that we are tired of the cold. We love Wisconsin, but were tired of snow and cold and dreary skies. Were going to all move to Florida, and were going to start a church in Florida where its sunny and warm. Were all going to live there. This is just hypothetical now. Were not some sort of a cult who travels together. For the sake of an illustration, were going to say we do. We all load up our cars, and we meet here at the church. We take off for sunny Florida to live. Thats our destination. We drive for several hours, and we pull into a rest area. We use the bathroom; we stretch; we get a drink; we talk a little bit. We load up in our vehicles, and we continue on driving. We drive a few more hours, and we pull off at the next rest area. We notice something. Youre not there. Where are you? We wait, but you never show up. I say, We cant leave without them. Theyre part of us. So we all get in our cars and turn around and go back to the last place we saw you, which is at that rest stop. Low and behold, there you still are. Only, youve unpacked your car; youve set up a tent; youve got stakes in the ground; youve inflated some furniture and put that in your tent; youve built a little fire to stay warm; youve got some books and a little radio and a TV with rabbit ears youre trying to tune in. You see me and you say, Hey, how are you doing? I say, What are you doing? Why are you here? Why are you making a home here? You say, Well, I kind of like it. I didnt plan it. I know we were just here for a moment. I know were on our way to Florida, but it just started to feel like home for me after awhile, so I decided Im going to stay. Youre going to live in a rest area? Yeah, I kind of like it. Theres a bathroom right there. Theres a vending machine thats always full. People come and go. Its an exciting place. Its scenic; there are trees, and I kind of like it here. I think Im going to call this home. I would say, Are you nuts? Weve got something so much better ahead of us. This is not our destination. This was just a temporary stop. Our destination is Florida where its sunny and warm. Were going together as a community. Its going to be great! Come on! Oh, I know. Maybe someday, but right now I really want to set my home up here. That would never happen in real life. You wouldnt do that. The government would not let you do that, in case Ive given you any ideas. Sometimes we do that here. This place, this earth, is just a temporary stop. Its a pit stop. In the span of eternity, were here for a rest area stay. Its just a short visit. Were on a destination to a much better place. Dont get side-tracked. Dont think the temporary stop is where you need to be putting up your tent and making your home, focusing here. Keep your eyes on the destination. Follow the Lord. Thats what a disciple does. Hes willing to go, willing to serve, willing to give whatever God calls him to do, to say or to give. Follow where He leads, and His focus-though He is on earth-His focus is the Kingdom. The Kingdom is a much better place, and its for eternity. Lets stand together as we close in prayer. Next week, well continue in our series on Clinker Bricks. Then the following week as well, on communion Sunday, we will conclude our series on Clinker Bricks, and we will find out what in the world is going on with this portrait. (Pastor has added a layer of black each week to a canvas.)
There is a movie, Schindlers List, which is about Oskar Schindler-a doctor-and his endeavors to try to save the lives of as many of the Jews as he can-to prevent extermination. If he would have had space for more [Jews who were trying to escape], he would have taken more. Tomorrow, our country remembers Dr. King and his teachings, his life, his battle for equal rights for all races, how he sought to combat poverty, and we reflect upon those higher values we have as human beings. Were talking this morning in our series about prejudice, about discrimination, about exploitation, and how we need to oppose such things. This is one of those messages that is a little bit heavy, but its something that needs to be said and something that needs to be spoken and addressed because this is a spiritual matter. This is a part of the Gospel. I know some Christians, not us, but there are some Christians who will say, We need to just focus on telling people about Jesus. Let other organizations, activist groups and so forth take care of those concerns. But, this is a part of the Gospel. This is part of what Jesus came to bring an end to, so it is very much a part of the churchs responsibility to address those concerns. Turn in your Bibles this morning to the Book of Luke 4. Jesus is about to begin the onset of His earthly ministry. He has just gone through the 40 days of temptation in the wilderness, and now the time has come for Him to begin His ministry. He finds Himself in His hometown in a synagogue in Nazareth. Hes going to read from the scroll, from the prophet Isaiah. Were going to find that Scripture together in Verse 17 (page 1018 of pew Bibles). The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. Unrolling it, He found the place where it is written: The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me… The word Christ or Messiah means anointed one, so it was understood by the Jews that this is a Messianic prophesy. These are the acts of the Messiah. This is what the Messiah will do when He comes. …He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim freedom to the prisoners… I dont believe here Hes talking about people who have done dastardly deeds. I dont think Hes talking here about sending people who (should be out of the public) into the public. Hes not talking about sending murderers free and rapists free. I believe Hes talking about those who have been imprisoned wrongly or those who are imprisoned of spirit. …recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lords favor. Then He stops right there, mid-verse, because the rest of the verse in Isaiah says, …and to proclaim the vengeance of our God, but He had not come for vengeance. He had not come for wrath. He had come to dispense grace and mercy. He stops right there. Then He rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, and He began by saying to them, Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. In other words, I am the fulfillment of this Scripture. I am the Messiah. Of course, that didnt go over well. The text will go on to tell us that they tried to kill Him for saying those words. [He was] not reading from Isaiah, but attributing Isaiahs prophesy to Himself as the Messiah. This is a purpose statement; this is a mission statement. He says, Heres what Ive come to do. Notice, He doesnt say, Ive come for the kings; Ive come for the elite-the religious elite; Ive come to minister to the wealthy. Who was the target audience of Jesus? He said, Ive come to the poor, the imprisoned, the blind, and the oppressed. My goodness, if I didnt know any better, Id think that might be the speech of a civil rights leader, dont you [agree]? Does it sound like civil rights and human rights were important to the Lord Jesus? Absolutely. Thats what He read in His mission statement of why He had come. If its important to Jesus, its important to His church. Were going to talk about that this morning. He would live a life where He would break down racial barriers and gender barriers and proclaim the love of God for all people. Brooke is coming to sing about that invitation right now. Lets listen to Come Onto Me. You did a great job, but theyre really clapping because they want to hear more teaching. Thats why theyre clapping. Theyre excited, Oh! We get to hear more teaching! She did a great job! Lets open our Bibles up to Galatians 2. The series were on is called Hand me Another Clinker Brick. In case you dont know what that is, a clinker brick looks something like this (Pastor holds up a brick with a defect to show the congregation). The brick is otherwise fine, but its been damaged. Either its been manufactured [incorrectly] or somebody has dropped it, so this clinker brick has a defect. Builders would cast it aside because it was not good enough for the project. Just like clinker bricks, you and I have defects. We have areas where we have been wounded or hurt. We have attitudes and habits, behaviors that are not right, and theyre not pleasing to God. God says to get rid of those things. He doesnt want us to keep those things in our lives. At the same time, we know that until the day we die, were going to be clinker bricks. Were going to have flaws and problems, so we know in spite of those things, God uses us. He has a place for us in His kingdom; He has a place for us in His church. In fact, architects began to see the value of clinker bricks and sometimes would design a wall entirely consisting of clinker bricks. Sometimes [they would] design a whole building made [up of clinker bricks]. When theyre put together with all their defects and flaws, they make a beautiful aesthetic building. God can take us and, in spite of our weaknesses, use us to build a church that brings glory to His name. So our pattern is that we find a clinker brick in Scripture-we find a clinker brick in the history of the church-that maybe youre not aware of, and then we make application to our own lives and how God can use us in that topic. So this morning, were talking about Opposing Oppression. Were talking about the mission of Dr. King-and others like him-who sought to end discrimination and prejudice in the name of the Lord. In Galatians 2, we find a conflict that we would not imagine we would see. The conflict is between Peter and Paul, two brothers, two leaders, two men who love and respect each other but yet, there was a conflict. There was hypocrisy, and that hypocrisy had to be dealt with. There was prejudice, and that prejudice had to be removed. Verse 11 (of Galatians 2, page 1152 of pew Bibles) says, When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. Before certain men came from James… Now, let me clarify this: James was the leader and one of the Apostles of the church in Jerusalem. When he says, ….men came from James, he is not saying there are emissaries. Hes not saying that these men represent the views or opinions of James; hes simply saying theyre from Jerusalem. They were Jewish believers. They were of the party of circumcision. It says that Peter used to eat with the Gentiles. Gentiles were anyone who wasnt a Jew. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles… The word in the Greek means to hold yourself aloof. More than just pulling back, he was treating his Gentile brothers in a condescending manner, as inferior to him because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. Does that sound familiar to you? Do you ever remember Peter in a time of pressure taking the easy way out? Do you remember Peter, in a time of pressure, looking for self-preservation in his own interests instead of standing up for what was right? Remember that? I do. He denied Jesus three times when Jesus was about to be crucified. He said he never knew Him. So, Peter struggled in this area. Peter is a clinker brick. Remember we said that were painting a portrait right now. It doesnt look like much right now, but by the time Im through with it, its going to look like something. In fact, this painting might look so good by the time were done that you might want this in your home. You laugh, but Im as serious as a heart attack because youre going to see this picture become something desirable when were all through. There was darkness in Peters soul. Peter was acting in a discriminatory manner against his Gentile brothers. He pulled away from them when he should have stood with them. Peter knows better. Keep your place here in Galatians, and turn quickly to the Book of Acts 10. [Well have] a little history lesson. Im going to touch on this really quickly. Up to this point, the Gospel was contained within the Jewish community. Peter was a Jew, James, John, Paul-all of them Jews. The message was spread in Jerusalem, but it was basically spread to the Jews. One day, God calls Peter to minister to a man named Cornelius who is a Gentile. At first, he resists the vision, but when he finds out its from God, he goes. He preaches to Cornelius. Cornelius and his household are safe. They receive Christ; they are baptized; they receive the Holy Spirit. Peter comes back home, but instead of getting a heros welcome, hes greeted with hostility from the Jewish brothers. They confront Peter in Verse 3 (page 1090 of pew Bibles). You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them. Whats the matter with you? Peter tells them the story. He said, God has a heart for the Gentiles. Weve been called to reach the Gentiles. They too received the Holy Spirit, just as we did. They seemed to relax; they seemed to be okay with the story, but thats not the end of it. In Acts 15, Paul and Barnabas have been ministering to Gentiles all over the region. When they get back to their home base-which is Antioch, thats the place where Christians were first called Christians, the church in Antioch which is in Syria-theyre confronted with the same problem. In says in Verse 1 [of Acts 15, page 1094), Some men came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the brothers: Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved. So [in other words], You Gentiles-who are wanting to come into the church, you have to get snipped, or you arent coming in. This was not good news if you were a male Gentile of age. This was not good news. You have to go through this hoop. You have to get circumcised; you have to obey the Law of Moses, or you dont get in. In other words, its Jesus Christ plus this-your religious acts. These people were called the Judaizers. There are still Judaizers today. They live in our city. There are still the people that say Jesus isnt enough; Its Jesus Christ plus this; Jesus Christ plus church membership; Jesus Christ plus good works; Jesus Christ plus this hoop that you jump through. If you werent baptized as an infant or confirmed as a child, youre not getting into the Kingdom of Heaven. We add to the righteousness of Christ, and we dont need to do that. When Jesus says, It is finished, He declared It is done, that His bloodshed-His life-was enough to atone for sin. There is nothing you need to add to it and nothing you can take away from it. Paul was one of the Jesus Christ plus nothing school of salvation. There are things we do because we are believers, but we dont do those things to become believers. The only thing we do to be saved is believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and fall upon the mercy and grace of a holy and loving God. [We] confess our sins, receive Him into our heart and life, and then He-through the Holy Spirit-begins to change our lives and change our acts and attitudes. So there are confrontation and conflict because Paul takes issue with their words. They decide, Lets let the big dogs settle it. Lets go to Jerusalem. Lets talk to Peter, James and John, the closest Apostles to the Lord. Lets see what they think about this issue of the Gentiles coming into the church. So, thats what they do. They meet, they gather in whats called the Jerusalem council-the first council in the history of the church. The Apostles are there; the elders of the church are there. Peter is there and [so are] James and John. Paul and Barnabas are there to make their case. The Jewish Christians, a certain sect of them called the Judaizers, are there to make their case. Verse 5 [of Acts 15], Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to obey the law of Moses. Thats what we believe. Basically they wanted to turn Christianity into a sect of Judaism. You can have Jesus-thats fine, but you still have to keep the law. You still have to be circumcised. The Apostles and elders met to consider this question and went to discuss it. In Verse 7, After much discussion, Peter… Who is it? Who? Peter. …got up and addressed them: Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the Gospel and believe. Thats a reference back to Acts 10 and Cornelius. God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as He did to us. He made no distinction between us and them, for He purified their hearts by faith. God is not a discriminating God. He loves us all the same, Peter says. Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear? No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are. So, Peter takes a stand and says, They are part of the church. They are one of us, and they came by the same way we came-by faith, not by works. Shortly after that, God calls Paul-it was called the Macedonian Call in Acts 16, and Paul begins to speak in places like Galatia. What were reading about in Galatians 2 happens after what we just read in Acts 15. What Paul is basically saying to Peter is Peter, you know better. Peter, youre the one that God sent to Cornelius. You started the conversion of Gentiles. Peter, you know better. Youre the one who stood up at the council in Jerusalem and gave the speech that said were all equal. Were all brothers. Peter! Paul says, Youre being a hypocrite. Thats what he told him. He said, Youre being a hypocrite. Youre showing prejudice. Youre showing favor against these Gentile brothers and for these Jewish brothers; and, Peter, thats wrong! Was Peter a good man? He was a good man. Peter was a clinker brick. There are some things in his spirit that werent right. Before you or I can get up on a soap box, we have to look in our lives to see is there prejudice in us? Is there prejudice? Sometimes, we can be blinded to our own prejudice. It comes in many different shapes, sizes and forms. The first thing you have to do before you speak up is you have to look inside. Thats what I had to do, look inside my life. You have to look inside your life before you can speak. I want to tell you about a man named Bartolom
We are about to embark on a new series called Hand Me Another Clinker Brick. If you have not read your bulletin, Im going to talk to you a little bit about what a clinker brick is. This is the brick (Pastor holds up a brick for the congregation to see) that is used from my house. As you can see, hopefully, the corner of this brick is gone. Its missing, so if this is one of the bricks that was used on my house, the mason would look at that and say, Well, we cant use that, and he would cast that aside. Thats what is called a clinker brick. Theyre called clinker bricks because they make a different sound when theyre hit than a normal brick would make. Sometimes clinker bricks are born that way. They start life as clinker bricks. Theyve been manufactured with a defect. It could be their shape, or it could be the wrong color. Something has happened to that brick that has caused it to be an outcast. It could be the brick has been damaged or scarred just in handling, so part of it is missing. The mason will then set that aside and not use it on the project because it will stand out. Over time, builders and architects began to recognize the value of the clinker brick, even though it may be scarred or damaged, it looks different-its unique. There are no two clinker bricks that are exactly the same, just like there are no two of us that are exactly the same. Architects began to use them. In fact, I would like to see us, in our new building, somewhere in that sanctuary-maybe around the baptismal-or somewhere we could have a little wall of clinker bricks. What it demonstrates is that though we are imperfect, though we have defects, God still uses us and values us in His church. There is a church, in fact, in New England that is made up entirely of clinker bricks. Its a beautiful church. In the brick, there are different colors that are reflected by the sun because of the misshaped bricks, so it looks different every time you look at it. Its a beautiful building, and they did that on purpose. They did that to reflect this very truth. Paul talks about that in the Book of 1 Corinthians 1:26 (on page 1128 of pew Bibles). Paul writes, Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things-and the things that are not-to nullify the things that are… Paul says, You were clinker bricks. You were flawed. You were rejects. You were cast aside, but God saw fit to use you to build His church. Peter uses the analogy of a building to speak of the church in his book. In 1 Peter 2:1 (page 1200 of pew Bibles), Peter writes these words: Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy and slander of every kind. If youre going to rid yourself of something, you must first what? [You must first] have it. You cant get rid of something that you dont have in the first place. So when Peter says to them, Get rid of envy and slander and hypocrisy, that means they have what? Envy, slander, malice and hypocrisy. They have all those things. If they didnt have them, they couldnt get rid of them. So what is Peter saying? Peter is saying, Theyre clinker bricks. Theyre messed up. Theyre not perfect. They have flaws. Yet look at what Verse 4 says, As you come to Him, the living Stone-rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to Him… Jesus was the perfect brick. Jesus was perfect, yet He was cast aside like a clinker brick by men. Peter says, …you also, like livings stones, like living bricks, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Though you are imperfect, you have malice, you slander, and sometimes youre a hypocrite; though you have all these problems, God is still using you to build His church. The church is made up of imperfect people who serve a perfect God. We dont come to this church with halos over our heads. We dont come into this church walking on the clouds or walking on water. We come into this church, all of us, as fallen people redeemed by the grace of God. Were all clinker bricks, every last one of us. My clinks are different than your clinks, but we all clink if you hit us. During the Truth Project, we encountered a man by the name of Flash. Do you remember Flash, the tattoo artist? * Flash was an intriguing character to me. It seemed like Flash had quite a chip on his shoulder, and every time he talked about the church, you would notice he would get angry. Why is Flash so angry? I thought. Theres a story behind that. Focus on the Family chose-in their last installment-to highlight Flash, to zoom in on Flash and interview him to find out what made him tick. Were going to watch a little bit of that interview this morning. I will say this: during the interview, Flash swears four times. Two of the times, Focus on the Family edited them out; two of the times, they did not. He says the word hell twice. Hell is one of those words that is a word you can say, and its also a swear word, isnt it? If I say, The Devil is going to go to hell, thats an acceptable thing to say. If I hit my thumb with a hammer and say it, you would go, Ohhh! You shouldnt say that. Well, if you wonder why we dont edit it out, Focus on the Family chose not to edit it out, and we-because of copyright laws-cannot edit what they do not edit. Thats a violation of copyright laws, so we have to let it play the way it was said. So lets listen to Flash. Were not going to miss the forest for the trees, are we? Lets listen to this important message. Did you hear that? He had his mother who went to church, but then shed drink, shed burn him with cigarettes, shed beat him. He was one angry man. He went back to church, and what did they call him? Pagan. As soon as he found out what a pagan was, he said, I want no part of you. What were they saying? They were saying, Flash, youre not as good as we are. Flash, youre not as holy as we are. Youre not as righteous as we are. Youre not churchy like us was the word he used. We have to be careful that we convey to the world not an attitude of haughtiness-that were better than anybody-but an attitude of humility. That humility should say, You know what? Were the same as you except we know of a God who forgives our sins. When the Flash comes through our doors, or a girl Flash-Flashette-comes through our doors, that he or she feels welcome and loved. So, thats a clinker brick. A clinker brick is not a weakness like a learning disability. Thats not what were talking about. Were not talking about a disability such as blindness or deafness. Were so blessed to have Brenda this morning signing for us as a new ministry were beginning at our church. We hope that God will bless that. Were not talking about that. Were not talking about somebody who is unable to walk. Thats not a clinker brick. By clinker bricks, Im talking about our moral, ethical weaknesses, rotten attitudes, poor values and standards. Thats what Im talking about, things that we choose that dont honor God. We will struggle with our humanity until the day we die. Until the day you and I die, we will be clinker bricks. Now, we are not content with that. We dont say, Thats just the way I am. Im a clinker brick, big deal! No, Peter said, Rid yourself of these things. Dont be content with it. Try to rid yourself, but know you will struggle with your humanity until the day you die. What you will find is that people use these character defects to disqualify themselves from ministry. Now, if youre living an immoral lifestyle, thats a different thing; but if youre a fellow traveler who struggles with sin, wants to live a righteous life, but you trip on occasion, you fall and get mad and repent, you get back up and you keep on plugging on, youre a clinker brick. You will do that until the day you die. Were all in the same boat. You might struggle with temper; you might struggle with greed; you might struggle with lust; you might struggle with power; you might struggle with gossip; you can struggle with any number of things, but we all struggle. So what were going to do is were going to find a clinker brick in the Bible, and theyre full of them-I have plenty of illustrations there. Im also going to try to find somebody from church history who is doing the thing were talking about correctly. Then Im going to make that application to you. What youre going to find is that things youve used as an excuse or a hindrance, [times when] youve said, Well, I cant do ministry or I cant be effective for God because of this and that, those excuses are going to fall by the wayside. Youre going to realize that God has used people just like you in the past, and He wants to use you in the present in this church. So thats the concept. This is an easel I will literally be painting on during the services for the next four or five weeks. Youll find out that at the very end of the service why. I will literally be painting on that toward the end of the sermon today. Shall we hit our first brick? Lets turn to 1 Kings 18 (page 329 of pew Bibles). Were going to talk about Elijah. Before we discuss Elijah, I want to convey a story to you that will serve as a backdrop, a word picture, that we will play off of during this message today. About seven years ago, my family and I were returning from a vacation somewhere. Wed had a lot of fun. We were down south somewhere, and we were coming back up through Missouri and into southern Illinois. We stopped to eat. It was going to be our last pit stop before we made the final cruise home. Wed been driving and we decided, Lets not do any McDonalds or [other fast food]. Lets do a nice restaurant. I found a buffet sign. Of course, whenever I see a buffet sign, Thumbs up! Lets stop there! We stopped, and it was a spread. There were all kinds of dishes and desserts. It looked good, smelled good. We sat down and started to have fun. [We were] talking about the fun things we did. What was your favorite thing? What was funny? What goofy thing happened? [We were] just having a good time talking before we headed home. A woman comes into the restaurant who had a very imposing presence. She was a tall woman with a large frame. She was dressed entirely in black, from head to toe: a black blouse, black suit coat, black pants, and black shoes. She had on a big head of Dolly Parton hair; Im talking Dolly Parton from the 70s. Remember Dolly from Johnny Carson? You know-the big old bee hive? [Hers was like that but it was] jet black hair. It was like a bad Dolly Parton wig. [She had a] white face and came in and sat down at the table right across from us, so Im very close. Im pretty close. We start to eat, and she begins to glare at our family. I didnt say stare, glare! Shes not just looking at us, but looking at us with a hateful kind of look. I think maybe Im the only one who notices it, and I think maybe shes looking at me because every time I would look up, she would be scowling at me. We were hush-hush about it. We began feeling uncomfortable. You know how it is when somebody is looking at you. Have you ever had the feeling somebody is looking at you? You turn to look, and all the sudden they go (Pastor quickly turns his head) and look away. Theyd been looking at you. Or youll look at the back of somebodys head-now dont try this this morning-long enough, pretty soon they get fidgety and are like whats going on? Theres something that happens when somebody stares at you. Its this beyond the five senses kind of an E.S.P. sort of thing. Its just really different. You just know it. So we dont have to just sense it; we see this girl just glaring at us. Pretty soon, we start to mumble, Whats going on? Just eat your food, eat your food. Lets get out of here. We stop talking about our vacation. We stop having fun. We lose our appetite because this goes on for minutes, and shes relentless. Every time I look up, she is glaring. So our method of coping was to just look away, just ignore her; part of me wanted to say, Whats the problem? Why dont you like us? I dont know how to describe it other than it felt icky. It felt somewhat creepy because it was just a mean, hateful look. So our strategy was to look away except for one family member; we have one little family member who doesnt want to back down from a fight. So during the meal, I noticed my three-year-old was now engaged in a death lock, stare down, grudge match to the end with the lady in black. She stopped eating-she was about three-and shes giving it back. Shes not just looking; shes giving it back. I said, Lindsey, you need to eat. Without looking at me or anybody else, without looking at her food, without breaking a stare, she stared back at the black lady, and she said, That lady is looking at me! We said, Yes, Lindsey, just please look down and eat your food. Whys that lady looking at me? I looked at the lady, and shes staring back at Lindsey. I was like, Lets just eat our food and get out of here. Lets go. So when my wife-when she gets in these nervous situations-has a propensity to laugh. So shes feeling uncomfortable, and Im afraid shes going to start laughing. I thought, We have to get her out of here. So we finally all five of us get out the door, and as soon as were out of sight of the lady, we could almost feel her spirit as we left. We were all saying, Ahhh. What was that? That was just…. Ahhh! Ewww! We were just scared. We said, We have to pray for the lady in black. Somethings not right there. So we did. We prayed for the lady in black. We walked by a car that we didnt notice when we came in, but it was an older car that was full of trash, garbage and debris all the way to the windows in the back seat and the front passenger seat. I dont know, but likely it was her car. There werent many people there. Something wasnt right, so we prayed for her. We just felt like, Man, shes casting a spell on us. We prayed for ourselves too. The point I make in that story is…do not eat at buffets in southern Illinois. No, the point is what do you do when evil… and Im using this…I dont know her. I cant say shes evil, but work with me on this analogy here. What do you do when evil looks at you? Do you look back or do you look away? Do you face it and oppose it or do you run and hide? Do you leave? Do you hope it will just stop looking at you? Because in our lives, as believers, we encounter evil. What do you think God wants you to do? What does God want the believers to do when the believer encounters evil in society or in themselves? Look away? Or does He want us to, in fact, face it? Does He want us, in fact, to oppose it? Does he want us to, in fact, look it in the eye and say, Because of Jesus Christ, I am not afraid of you, and I will stand up to you? Elijah lived in a time when Israels history was corrupt. There were two people, a king named Ahab, who was written about and said to be the worst, most corrupt evil king Israel ever had to that point. Thats pretty bad. His wife was no better. She was a woman named Jezebel. To this day, if you encounter a woman who is somewhat snarley, you say, Shes a real Jezebel. Evil? That was Jezebel. So these two formed this unholy union, this evil marriage. It was not a good time to be an Israelite. They began to promote the worship of Baal, a pagan god, to which often human sacrifice would take place. [It was] an awful religion. They began to also worship Asherah and all these pagan gods and goddesses, and they erected temples to worship them. Nobody was doing anything to oppose them. In fact, the Israelites began leaving the faith of their forefathers and following after the gods of Baal. There was one man, and how many of you know if there is one man-and God is on your side, one man is enough? One man looked evil in the face and said, I am not going to run; I am not going to turn away; and Im not going to hide. His name was Elijah. Elijah is going to confront Ahab. We find it in Verse 16 of 1 Kings 18 (page 350), So Obadiah… By the way Obadiah is one of the good guys. Jezebel is literally killing the prophets of the Lord-literally. So Obadiah who works in the palace, he starts to hide the prophets in caves. He saved the lives of 100 prophets, feeds them and gives them water. He is a good guy. Elijah says, Tell the king Im coming to meet him. Elijah is a wanted man because Elijah said to King Ahab, Because of your sin, God is going to bring a famine on the land. Hes going to close up the sky, and its not going to rain. But now, several years have gone by. The people have lived in drought. They are desperate and they are ready to listen to the message of Elijah. They wouldnt have listened before, but now that they are destitute, they are all ears. So Obadiah went to meet Ahab and told him, and Ahab went to meet Elijah. When he saw Elijah, he said to him, Is that you, you troubler of Israel? Hes blaming the problems of Israel on him. You need to have a heads up here. Whenever you oppose evil, do not be surprised and alarmed when evil says, Youre the problem. Evil will turn it right back on you and say, Youre the reason this has happened. Its your fault-not my fault. Evil will do that, and Ahab says, Youre the problem. Elijah has none of it. You know how they say all the water in the world wont sink a ship unless it gets on the inside? If you know something is a lie, dont believe it. Elijah doesnt believe it. He says, I have not made trouble for Israel, Elijah replied. But you and your fathers family have. You have abandoned the Lords commands and have followed the Baals. Now summon the people from all over Israel to meet me on Mount Carmel. And bring the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebels table. In other words, she supports them. There is going to be a showdown. Israel gathers and Elijah says, How long will you waver between two opinions? Youre trying to follow Baal, and youre trying to follow God, and it doesnt work. If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal is God, follow him. Heres the contest. Heres the stare down. Were going to put a sacrifice on the alter, and whosever God sends fire from Heaven and consumes the sacrifice, thats the true God who we worship. You guys go first. So Baals prophets sacrificed an animal, and they began to call on and pray to Baal to consume the sacrifice by fire. Nothing happens. Youve heard of trash talking? Elijah is the original trash talker. Hours go by, and nothing happens, so he says, Hey, maybe your god is sleeping. Maybe you need to wake him up. Maybe Baal is taking a nap and you need to shout his name louder. So they start shouting louder, Oh Baal! and theyre cutting themselves to show how desperate they are. Theyre bleeding all over the place and mutilating themselves. Nothing happens. Elijah says, Maybe your god is on a trip. Maybe hes on a vacation. Maybe he wont be back for a while. Hes just taunting them. Finally after hours in vain, they give up exhausted, exasperated. They are all bloody messes. Elijah says, My turn. No knife, no sword to cut himself, no screaming, he calmly looks up to Heaven, prays to the God of Heaven who sends fire from Heaven and consumes the sacrifice. By the way, before he prayed, he had water dumped on the sacrifice and formed a trench around it. The fire comes down and lights up even the water in the trench. Everybody says, The God of Elijah is the one true God. Lets worship Him! Then he has the prophets of Baal destroyed, as in killed. It was a different time, but hes going to rid the land of those who are opposed to the living God. So its an incredible victory for Elijah, miraculous manifestation of the Hand of God. Before we tell you what happens next, I want to share a little bit of history with you this morning. I want to tell you the story of a man by the name of Boniface. There are many Bonifaces in history. Several of them were popes, but this one was not the pope. This one was a missionary. He was a missionary to the country or the region of what is now Germany. When you think of Germany, you think of the currently modern society. When you think of World War II, thats not the Germany you are to think of. Youre to think of a Germany that lives in unorganized tribes of people. There is a pagan superstitious religion that is going on. Theyre worshipping other gods and goddesses. Theyre worshipping things like trees. In fact, most believe the reason why we as Christians have Christmas trees in our homes is because of Boniface. The tree was used in pagan worship. Were going to find that out in just a little bit. Boniface said, How can I communicate the Gospel to these pagans? Ill use their stuff. Ill use their symbols. So he noticed the fur tree was triangular in shape, so Boniface began to talk about the trinity and teach the people of Germany the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He began hanging the trees upside down in his home, and he would use the tree-not for worship-but to explain the Lord. Thats why we can trace Christmas trees back to Germany, and really it goes back to Boniface. This is a guy who has influenced your life, and you didnt even know about it. Boniface could have lived a life of comfort and splendor in England. He was climbing the hierarchy within the church at a fast rate. He was offered prestigious jobs, and he said, I dont want that. I want to go where the Gospel is not being preached. He wanted to be sent to Germany. So he goes to Germany with two helpers and starts his ministry. He earns the favor of the pope and favor of a local duke. He has both civil authority and spiritual authority. He starts to learn the culture of people, and he finds out that they worship the god Thor, the god of thunder. If you read Marvel Comics, hes often portrayed as long-haired, blue eyed, Swedish-looking guy with a hammer…Thor. Well, they literally see Thor-not as a comic book character, Thor as a real guy. Thor is the god of thunder, and hes not somebody to mess with. Thor owns a tree, literally, in Germany. It is the giant, ancient oak that they call the Tree of Thor. When they wanted to worship Thor, they would come to the tree and offer sacrifices and gifts to the god of thunder, so lightening wouldnt strike their home, so they wouldnt be killed in a storm. [Theyd ask that] he will be kind to them, that therell be gentle rains instead of thunder and lightening. If theres a god you dont want to mess with, you dont want to mess with Thor. That tree, literally, in their minds belonged to Thor, so Boniface has this idea. He challenges Thor, just like Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal and gods of Baal. The gods of Baal werent real-they were Satan in disguise. There really was no Baal. There really is no Thor, but they think there is. He challenges Thor, and he says, I want you to meet me at Thors giant oak tomorrow, and Im going to take on the god of thunder. That draws a crowd. The townsfolk all show up to watch this show down. Boniface is there with an ax with his two friends. He says, Were going to see who the true god is. In the name of my God, the Lord Jesus Christ, I challenge Thor, the god of thunder. I will strike down his tree. The people are flabbergasted. The people are amazed as he takes his ax and begins to chop down the tree of Thor. No lightening, no thunder, the only clap you hear is the clap of the tree trunk breaking as it falls. People wait for lightening to strike Boniface dead, but nothing happens. Boniface stands over the fallen giant oak, and he says, In the name of the God whom I serve, youre going to hear an important message. They said, If your God is so powerful that He can defeat the god of thunder, were going to listen to what you have to say. And, Christianity came to Germany. Boniface is called the father or the apostle to Germany. He took that tree, and he used the wood to build a chapel for the Lord there in Germany. The church exists today on the spot where the giant oak of Thor once stood. It happened because one man chose not to look away. Superstition and fear looked him right in the eyes, and he said, Im not afraid. I will stand up to you. I will oppose you, and God used him in a great way. What happens in our lives many times? Hed gone through this Biblical time. He just opposed an evil king and his wife. He just stood up against 850 pagan high priests. He just finished a military conquest. He is mentally, spiritually, physically exhausted. You know when that happens to you, youre vulnerable. Are you aware of that? Whatever your clinker brick-nish is (I just invented that word), whatever your weakness or defect is, you become more vulnerable in that area when youre under stress, when youre tired. If its anger, anger is going to come out. If its drugs or alcohol, youre more likely to abuse at that time. If its lust, youre more likely to cheat on your spouse. If its greed, youre more likely to steal. If its lying, youre more likely to be deceitful when youre going through those periods. Elijah has shown himself to be this great man of God, but now the light comes on, and hes in a moment of vulnerability. We find out that Elijah is a clinker brick, just like you and me. He has some problems. In Verse 1 of Chapter 19, Now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say… Please forgive me Elijah. Your God is the true God. Im so sorry I was wrong. Love Jez. No, she is livid. Shes ticked. He has killed her spiritual leaders, and she sends a message back. She says, May the gods deal with me. Be it ever so severely. If by this time tomorrow, I do not make your life like one of them. Im going to kill you. Now you would think that Elijah might say, Bring it on. I just faced 850 prophets, and I just faced your god. Im still kicking, so if you think you can defeat my God, bring it on, but hes tired and hes vulnerable. His defects, his weaknesses, manifest themselves. In Verse 3 it says, Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, while he himself went a days journey into the desert. He came to a broom tree… Im not sure what a broom tree was, but the area was very well swept (congregation barely laughing). Tough crowd. He sat down under it and prayed that he might die. I have had enough, Lord… Have you ever said that? I quit! He says, I am no better than my ancestors. Hes feeling inferior, [feeling] no self esteem. [Did] you know God wants you to have a good, healthy self-esteem? Im not talking about arrogance, haughtiness, but He says, Love your neighbor like you love yourself. God wants you to have a good image of yourself, and sin gives you a bad image of yourself. Sin makes you think poorly of yourself. It takes away your confidence. He knows what hes doing is wrong, and he says, Im no better than my ancestors. He lay down under the tree and fell asleep. Let me ask you a question. Did all of these things all of the sudden surface in Elijahs life for the first time? I dont believe that. I believe some of these things Elijah had struggled with his whole life and was struggling with even when he faced the prophets on Mount Carmel. Apparently he struggled with emotional depression. Apparently there were times when he even wanted to end his life. Some of you have been that destitute. Some of you have been so discouraged and so defeated that youre literally entertained thoughts of suicide. He wants to quit. Some of you have been tempted to quit or have quit when things became difficult. He struggles with doubt and fear. All of the sudden he things Jezebel can take his God. You have struggled with doubt and fear. You have struggled with low self-esteem, thinking youre not worthy, youre not valuable; youre not good enough-just like Elijah. You see, Elijah was a clinker brick, just like you and me. What Im going to do here is Im going to paint for you a little bit this morning. Im going to do this over the next four or five weeks, however long were in this series. Im going to paint a little bit each time on this portrait. You didnt know I had this talent, did you? Are you just surprised right now that I can paint this good? Do you like my picture? The blackness of this picture represents the sin thats in our lives. It represents the attitudes that oppose God. It represents how sometimes well tolerate evil in ourselves or in the world and say nothing and do nothing about it. This blackness is in all of our hearts and souls. It was in Elijahs as well. Let me ask you a couple of very pertinent questions. Number one, was Elijah a clinker brick? Did he have flaws and defects of character? Yeah. The second question: Did God still use Elijah? In a great way, God still used Elijah. Guess what? You are a clinker brick; you will always be a clinker brick, but God does not give up on you. God sees within you something of value and worth. Hes put within you passions, talents and gifts that He wants to use. Dont allow periods of doubt or fear or inferiority to rob you of what God wants to do with your life. Thats what this series is about. Lets pray together. Father, as we look on that canvas, we see sin represented through black. Its a reminder of the sin thats in all of our hearts and lives. None of us are righteous. We are only righteous this morning through You, through Jesus Christ. Lord, each of us struggle with sinful habits, attitudes, patterns, and behaviors. We will do so our whole lives, but you are not a God who has abandoned us or rejected us. You are a God who uses us in spite of those things. You use us to build Your church. Help those of us who struggle with these things to see that we have value in spite of them, that we will not be content with them; we will continue to work to rid ourselves of them as Peter said. We will know that You will use us, that You see something beautiful in us. That is why it can be said-while we were yet sinners- Christ died for us. We remember that now and celebrate that in this communion time. In Jesus name, Amen.
* Flash was a man who was badly mistreated as a child by the church he went to and by his mom. His dad came to Christ through a woman who was named Millie. With Millie, Flash saw true Christianity, but she was the only one in his life that showed him that. He was burned by his mom with cigarettes and made to stay in seclusion a lot when his mom was not home. Millie showed him unconditional love while the church people made fun of him and in essence made him an outcast in a place where everyone was supposed to have been accepted
We come to this last week as an involvement. God Cares, Do I? is the subject matter. We learned that our faith is not simply a matter of just having it, but its meant to be lived out and expressed in the world around us. I thought it would be appropriate this morning for us to talk on the Good Samaritan, so I want you to turn in your Bibles to Luke 10. The Saturday night crowd caught me off guard. I started to read from Luke 10, and, unrehearsed and unannounced, they all started to take the part of the man who comes to ask Jesus the question; rather spontaneously, they start reading his part. I was taken off guard by that, but I liked that. It was good. So what were going to do this morning is repeat that, not so spontaneously. Youre going to take the part of the man who comes to ask Jesus the question; so when hes speaking, thats you. Ill take the other part. Ill be the narrator here, and Ill do the words of Christ. Bear in mind now, you have a couple of lines; you have a word of dialog right in the middle, and then you have one on the end, so stay on your toes. Lets begin reading where you start with Verse 25 (page 1028 of pew Bibles). Go ahead, anytime you are ready. Congregation: On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. Teacher, he asked, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Pastor Jeff: What is written in the Law? he replied. How do you read it? Congregation: He answered: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, Love your neighbor as yourself. Pastor Jeff: You have answered correctly, Jesus replied. Do this and you will live. Congregation: But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, And who is my neighbor? Pastor Jeff: In reply Jesus said: A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper, Look after him he said, and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have. Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers? Congregation: The expert in the law replied, The one who had mercy on him. Pastor Jeff: Jesus told him, Go and do likewise. So He asks the question, Who is my neighbor? Possibly a descendent of Mr. Rogers? I dont know. Whos my neighbor? Not funny? Okay. (Congregation laughing). I wont do that the next round. But he wants to know, and Jesus is going to give him a response that is beyond his question. Hes going to answer not only who his neighbor is but what the responsibility of a neighbor is. Notice He says-about the traveler-he is a man. He doesnt tell us what country he is from. He doesnt tell us what religion he is. He doesnt tell us his race. I think thats strategic on the part of the Lord. I think Jesus wants this man to be an every man kind-of person. He wants him to represent anybody at any place in any time. He doesnt pinpoint a certain type of a person or from a certain region. He is simply a person. Jesus is trying to convey that your neighbor is anybody with whom you come in contact with. It is your fellow traveler along lifes road. But its not so with who comes to minister to him. The man who comes to minister, the hero of our story, is a very unlikely hero, and He names what he is. He is a Samaritan. That tells us where he is from. That tells us his race, and that tells us his religion. He was half Jewish, half Gentile. He had a kind of high-bread religion which had some Judaism in it. It tells us the geographic area where he is from, so we know a lot about that man. Why did Jesus tell us a lot about the man who comes to help and nothing about the man whom he had to help? The reason is that Jesus is speaking to a Jewish audience, so He is identifying the hero of the story as an unlikely source because the Jews had prejudice against the Samaritan, racial prejudice and religious prejudice. He is trying to establish the fact that our neighbor relationship goes beyond racial, religious, geographical lines. If He had been preaching this parable in the Middle East to the Arabs, then the Good Samaritan probably would have been a Jew. Had He been preaching this today in Iraq to a group of Sunnis, the traveler would probably have been a Shiite. He is trying to establish the fact that our neighbor is off times very different from us, that loving and showing compassion knows no boundaries. So Jesus is very strategic in whom He identifies and whom He chooses not to identify. Now were going to talk about lessons in living the life of a Good Samaritan. Whats involved? If youre going to live this kind of life, if youre going to say, Hey, I have a responsibility to my world, what does it look like when you put shoes on this thing, and you start to live this faith? What does it look like? The first thing you notice in the first few verses is who passes him by. The priest passes by; the Levite passes by. A Levite was of the priestly line. They were priests, and he passed him by. It could have been a number of reasons. It could have been apathy. It could have been the fact that they simply didnt have time. How many times have you passed somebody on the interstate, and their hood is up and smoke is coming out, but you dont have time to stop? You drive by and look, and you say, Oh, thats too bad. If I had time, I would help. But you dont help because you have someplace to go. Youve got things to do, people to see, so you drive by. When we were on our way to Yellowstone years ago, we were out in the middle of nowhere on this highway. The car broke down. Hundreds of people passed us by, hundreds of people. If it hadnt been for AAA and my cell phone, wed still be there. Nobody stopped. They saw children too. Youd think somebody would go, Oh, they have children. Lets stop. Not one. By the thousands, the cars drove by as we waited. Why is that? Apathy and time. A friend of mine named Harry Conn used to say, The smallest package in the world is a person all wrapped up in themselves. Thats what were trying to get away from here-unwrapping that package and giving ourselves to the world. Whether its something like Angel Tree or whether its through a missions trip that were going on to the Dominican Republic this summer, whatever the means, its about giving ourselves away to serve the Lord. People are busy, so its truly rare to be a Good Samaritan. If youre going to be a Good Samaritan, you are not like the rest of the world. You are definitely swimming upstream. The second thing I want you to notice about a Good Samaritan is that a Good Samaritan is discerning. In Verse 33, he comes to the man and he sees the man has a need and has gone through adversity that is beyond his control. He sees that somebody has attacked this man, its not his fault, and he needs help. You have to use discernment because if youre going to be a Good Samaritan, youre going to help people, people are going to come calling to be helped. When the word gets out, there will be people calling your phone and knocking at your door with their hand out too. People call our church all the time, especially during the holidays, and they want help. We try to help, but we also use discernment. If a person needs to pay their heating bill, because they dont have a job, we want to know, Do you not have a job because something unexpected happened? Was it a layoff due to the economy? Or did you have a bad attitude at your last job and have been too lazy to go out and get a new job? In that case, were not helping you by giving you a check. Our best help to you would be telling you that you need to find a job. If you dont have money for groceries, is it because of an illness that has happened, something bad that has happened? Or do you not have money for groceries because youre buying cigarettes and alcohol and lottery tickets? If its because youre buying cigarettes and alcohol and lottery tickets, were not going to help you buy those things. See, you have to use discernment. This man used discernment. He said, This man is having problems outside of his control, and he needs help. What does Paul say in Galatians? He says, Bear one anothers burdens. That was the word for boulder, something that comes on you that is overwhelming. Later, Paul says in Chapter 6 of Galatians, …but each one should carry his own load. That had to do with daily provisions. Youre responsible for yourself and your family, but when circumstances happen to you that are unexpected, and you need help, thats legitimate. These children that were helping through Angel Tree, its not their fault that a parent is incarcerated. Its not their fault that they cant afford Christmas gifts and food this holiday season. So, we are coming alongside of them as friends, and we are helping them. Thats Biblical. Thats discerning. The next verse, Verse 34 (Page 1028, still on Chapter 10)… See, in Verse 33, he takes pity, but if youre going to be a Good Samaritan, it involves more than pity; it involves action. Not only did he take pity on him, but it says he went to him, bandaged his wounds, poured on oil and wine, put him on his donkey, and took him to the inn and took care of him. If youre going to be a Good Samaritan, it involves action-more than just words, more than just saying, Oh, thats too bad. A lot of people will do that. I mentioned the Michael Jordan Birmingham Baron story to you a couple of weeks ago. My family was on a vacation down south at that time. Jordan was playing for the Birmingham Barons. We were watching the game, and there was about 4-5,000 people there. The manager for the Barons is developmentally disabled. This man would get the bats and the balls, foul balls, and he would catch the balls that would come down from the netting. What he would do was catch them, and everybody would clap. He would get a big smile on his face, and hed run back to the dugout. Somewhere around the sixth inning or so, at the end of the inning, this guy popped one out in the netting. He went to catch it, and he missed it in front of all these people! Everybody was watching it, and he missed it. The crowd went awwww, but the knuckleheads and the other minor league dugout started to use that as an opportunity to make fun of the man. I remember being really ticked off, like, How low do you have to be to make fun of a developmentally disabled man because he missed the ball? How low is that? Everybody felt sorry for the guy, but only one person did something about it. Do you know who it was? Michael. He walked over to the guy, put his arm on his shoulder and talked to him as they walked back to the dugout. He talked to him for a little while, and as soon as he was done talking to him, he muffed up his cap a little bit and ran to the outfield. The guy was grinning from ear to ear. One of the greatest athletes in history had just taken time to come buy, put his arm on him, and say, Hey, man, its okay. Youre going to get the next one. Dont listen to those knuckleheads! Youre doing a good job! Its coming alongside a person, putting your arm around them, and speaking encouragement, showing compassion. It is a demonstration. I heard another story about Michael, really quick here, because you know Im a Bulls fan. A lady came up Saturday night, and she said, I was a nurse and we had a young boy dying from cancer. The nurse sent Michael Jordan a letter saying, This boy idolizes you. Could you send him an autographed picture? Unannounced, not only does Michael send a picture, he shows up at the hospital. Nobody knew he was coming. He shows up with a life-size poster of himself signed by all the Chicago Bulls. He has all kinds of gifts for the kid. He sits down for an hour and a half and talks to the kid. He was just loving on the kid. Nobody knew he was coming. No pomp and circumstance, and then he walked out. I went, Thats really cool. It wasnt Michael just saying, Oh, the kid has cancer. Thats too bad. But he knew he could do something about it. He put feet to his faith, and he lived out compassion. Thats important. So, this man does something in Verse 35, The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. Look after him, he said, and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have. Notice that the guy doesnt get all upset. The innkeeper doesnt go, How can I trust you? This guy probably has already established a report. He knows hes credible. He knows hes trustworthy. He knows that if he says hell be back, he will be back. A Good Samaritan is a trustworthy person. If youre going to be a Samaritan, it will cost you. You have to know this going into it. It will cost you of your time; it will cost you of your energies; it will cost you of your resources, including money. Were sending a group to the Dominican Republic. We dont call them and say, Hey, Jack. Were sending 20 people to the Dominican Republic; can you talk to them about coming up with $1,500 for each of us so we can come? Who is covering that money for us to go? We are-all of us are. Were working. Its taking our energy and our time and our resources, so we can go and show compassion. If you dont have that mindset, if you dont go into service with the idea it will cost you, its going to be a rude awakening to you. To have that mindset before you go in prepares you to be a servant with a good heart. I spent many a night in the Homeless Shelter. Each night, your job is from 7-10. You answer the phone, you give out medicine, you check off jobs that are done. At 10 PM, lights go out, doors are locked, and you can retire to the guest room. Theres a television there; theres a bed there. You can go to bed, whatever you want to do. Youre tired because its pretty much non-stop for those three hours. During the night, its not uncommon to be woken up to let somebody in the door who is returning from work. Dont let anybody tell you that the people in the shelter are there because theyre lazy, and they dont want to work. The people that are there are working, and they are trying to get out of their circumstance. So, every time I am there, I get up in the middle of the night to let them in. This particular night, I was sound asleep. At midnight, the doorbell rings. It rings in your room, and I wake up disoriented, Where am I? Oh yeah, Im at the House of Mercy. Somebody wants to get in. So, I walk out of there and said, Hey, how are you doing? You open the door, Dont forget to sign in. Good to see you. Talk to you later. Then I went back to bed. At 1 AM, the doorbell rang again. I got up, and I said, Oh, what time is it? One oclock in the morning. I walk out, Come on in. Dont forget to sign in. I go back to bed. At two oclock in the morning, it rings again. I had just went back to sleep. I get up… Every time I get up, Im a little grumpier. Im a little less disoriented and a little bothered. I go back to bed. Three oclock in the morning, it goes off again. I was like, How am I going to get any sleep? I was not rude to any of the guests, but I wanted to get to bed. My attitude was pretty rotten. I remember walking back thinking about one thing, going to bed. I was not contemplating spiritual thoughts. I was not meditating. I was not praying, and then the Holy Spirit spoke. Has that ever happened to you? Sometimes He can speak at the most inappropriate times (congregation laughing), times when I really dont feel like hearing it. I wanted to get to bed, and Im just grumbling and complaining, Im not going to get any sleep tonight! I wonder who is going to come at five in the morning. Rarrr! Rrrrr! Then a voice says, not audibly-mind you, inside of my spirit says, What are you here for? I thought, Oh, man! That one hurt! My response was something anemic like to serve? Serving has as much to do with attitude as actions. Okay, all right. Thank you. Well talk about this in the morning. But you have to be prepared for it to cost you. This guy was willing to pay that price. Jesus says in Verse 36, Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers? The expert in the law replies, The one who had mercy on him. Notice, he still cant bring himself to say Samaritan. He still cant say the Samaritan is the good guy, so he goes, The one who had mercy on him. Jesus says, Go and do likewise. Now, here is where it gets tough. Heres where you wish you would not have come to church this morning. Go and do likewise is in whats called the imperative. Thats the command. Jesus speaks these words as a command. When He says go and do likewise, Hes not saying, You know, it would be a good idea when things slow down for you, if you get a chance…try to help someone. You know, after Christmas is done; youre done shopping and all the programs are all through. Or maybe this summer when the kids are out of school, and things slow down, maybe think about doing something good for somebody else. Its a command. Jesus is commanding us to live a life like this guy lives. Whats more, it is in the present tense. In other words, you could read this as go and do likewise and keep doing likewise. Jesus is saying, Not only is this a command, but this is a lifestyle. Its not an event. Its not something you check off your list and go, Be a Good Samaritan. There, done. I bought my Angel Tree gift; there, Im done until next year. Or, I dont have to worry about that until this summer in the Dominican Republic. It is a lifestyle. Its not an event. Its not something you cross off the list. Jesus said, This is what My people who name My name should be doing. We care about sharing the Gospel with people who have not heard or not received, and were going to keep doing that; but its important for the church to be involved also in the practical hands-on need of our community and our world. Im starting to see our church do a little bit more about that. When I speak, I mean not just our church, but churches around the nation. Theyre using some tangible ways-expressions of Christs love to the world. We see that, and we have some going to Louisiana or Mississippi just ministering to people who have lost things in the flood. Thats good stuff. Thats what were commanded to do. Its a lifestyle that were commanded to have. Also, lets back up for the next point. The next point is it is rewarding. Look at Verse 28 (still in Luke 10, page 1028). This is the beginning when he first asked the question, What must I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus says, What does the law say? He says, Love you neighbor, love God. Jesus said, You answered correctly. Do this and you will live. This word, live, meant a quality of life: Zao, a quality of life, a high quality of life. Do this, Jesus said, and youre going to feel an inner reward, an inner satisfaction that youve done something good. Have you ever done something for somebody, and it just feels good inside? Maybe theres somebody that cant pay you back or youve helped them, and it brought tears to their eyes because they were so glad that you helped them? That feels good inside. God wired us that way, so it would feel good. Thats what it means. It has nothing to do here with material rewards; this is about an inner reward. Bill Gates worked his whole life for a material reward-to build a company, a big huge company, Microsoft. It is worth billions of dollars, and at some point, that got old. At some point, Bill Gates said, I dont need anymore money. I dont need a bigger company. Im going to start giving it away. So Bill Gates starts to give away his fortune. If you read any articles, like the one in Time, hes having the time of his life. Hes finding out that living for humanity is a whole lot more fun than living for himself, building his own kingdom. Warren Buffett saw what he was doing. Hes the second richest man in the world. He has about $77 billion or something like that. He says, How much money do I need? So he starts to divest of his fortune to the Bill Gates Foundation, which is doing monstrous things around the world. There is not a charity that is a close second to what these guys are doing. They are pouring billions of dollars into the world to combat diseases and other problems in the world. Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are having the time of their lives serving people. Now that is Zao life. What Jesus says here in Verse 28 is true for everybody. This is not just for Christians. This is for any person on the planet who serves his fellow man with a pure motive; he or she will experience Zao. He or she will experience a quality of life. God says its rewarding, its inner fun and satisfaction, and its good. The last point I want to make about being a Good Samaritan is that it is dangerous. I want to spend some time on this last point. You say, What do you mean its dangerous? Well, when you read this passage, if you dont know about salvation, if you dont know the things you know about Jesus and the Cross, the Resurrection and faith, youd be tempted to read this passage and walk away with the conclusion that if Im just a good person, Im going to go to Heaven, right? The man says, What must I do to earn eternal life; hes talking about eternal life, Heaven. What do I have to do to live forever? Jesus talks about obeying certain commands, but He says, Do this and you will live. Then when He talks about the Good Samaritan, one could draw the conclusion that if Im just a Good Samaritan, when I see needs and I respond-Im a good person, Im going to rack up enough points to make it. The problem is that Heaven isnt on the point system. God doesnt grade on a curve. If my going to the homeless shelter is worth ten points, what happens when I went to the door at two oclock in the morning with a bad attitude? Did I lose half of my ten points? Did I lose all ten of my points? Did I go negative ten points? You and I dont know, do we, if its a point system. If its about our goodness, merits, and our works counting for us in Gods log, when do you and I know weve done enough good? How much does the bad we do or the things we dont do negate the good things weve done? You and I would never be able to rest, would we, because wed never know? Not only what the standard is, but wed never know what our grade is. We wouldnt know where we were at. We wouldnt know if we had to work harder or if wed done enough. God does not grade on a curve, and God does not hand out merit points for good works. You receive Heaven not on the basis of what you do, but on the basis of what Christ has done. Notice the word of the question he asked. The question is What must I do to inherit eternal life? Thats the wrong question to ask. Inheriting eternal life is not about something you do. Eternal life is something you receive. You receive what He has done for you. You receive-by faith-His grace, His provision. There is something really interesting in the text. This is one of the reasons why you need pastors. I dont say that in any kind of arrogance or any kind of a condescending way. Its just that those of us who have been educated in how to read the Word of God, especially in the original languages, can see some things that are important; just like the word love has several meanings in the Greek, theres Philia, theres brotherly love, theres agape love, unconditional love, eros, passionate love, and youve got to know what the word is to know which word is being used. You have to know in the Greek that there are several words for live. I want you to focus with me right now. Theres the word weve already talked about which is Zao, which has to do with the quality of living. If you read the times in which it is used, its referring to a quality of life. That could be a low quality of life or a high quality of life. It is living out a quality of life. That is Zao. Then theres Psuche. Thats just life. Thats soul. Thats from the word breath. It simply means youre alive. It doesnt refer to a quality of life as much as it does to life itself. Youre a living being occupying space on this planet, taking in oxygen. You have a soul. Then there is another kind of life, the highers kind of life. Just like agape love is the highest kind of love, its a God kind of love; there is a word called Zoe which is the highest form of life. It is a God-kind of life. It is life as God knows it and as God experiences it. So when Jesus says, I have come that you might have life, what word does He use? Zoe, not Zao. Ive come that you might have eternal life; in John 3:16, what word is used? Zoe. Ive come that you might have a God-kind of life, a life that only God can give-a life that only emanates from Him. So, look at this passage, Verse 25. He says, Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Guess which word he uses for life here? Zoe, God-kind of life. What can I do to go to Heaven? How can I have eternal life? Thats his question. Jesus answers his question about good works; what you can do with good works. If you live a life with good works, youre going to have a good life. Jesus says in Verse 28, Do this, and you will live… What word does He use for live? Zao, quality of life. Jesus doesnt say, Do this and you will have eternal life. He asked about eternal life, but because eternal life does not come from things we do, Jesus does not tell him how to inherit eternal life. Jesus tells him how to be a good person, how to be a good neighbor, how to fulfill the Law of God, Do these things, and you will live: Zao. The only way to receive eternal life is to receive Jesus. Because youll never be good enough. Youll never score enough points. Only He lived a perfect, sinless life, and offered that life up for you as a gift, as an exchange. Your sinfulness for His righteousness. You receive that by faith as a gift. Christianity is not spelled D-O. Its spelled D-O-N-E. Its not what you do; its what Christ has done. Therefore, being a Good Samaritan is a dangerous thing. No matter how good Michael Jordan is… No matter how many good words Bill Gates and Warren Buffett do, no matter how many billions they give away, theyre goodness will not merit eternal life. You could hear this message, sell everything you have, give it to the poor, go live in Calcutta and feed orphans and take care of Lepers until the day you die, like Mother Teresa, and that will not merit Heaven for you. You will never be good enough for Heaven. The quality or the entrance exam for Heaven is 100 percent. It means to live a sinless, flawless life, and only Christ did that. Christ offers that life up to you as a gift that you will receive. So, its dangerous, but God has called us to live that life-not trusting in ourselves or our goodness, but trusting in His goodness, His righteousness. Live the life… Put shoes on your faith. Walk it out. The stuff weve learned, its not just so we can amass knowledge, but its so we can be the light of Christ. We can be the life of God in the world, doing things in Christs name to give Him the glory. Ill stop preaching right there. I hope that makes sense to you. If it didnt, come and see me.
Its so hard to believe that we are only one week away from the conclusion of The Truth Project that weve been on. Wow! That does not seem possible. Ephesians 2:10, were going to read this together out loud, For we are Gods workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. By the way, the word workmanship is the word from which we get poem from. Its the word that means poema, that which has been made. Its meaning that we are an expression of Gods creativity. He has created us to be an expression of Him. We are His workmanship. So turn to someone near you and say, You are a beautiful poem or something like that. Then you may be seated. Id sure like to know what all those little conversations sounded like. Mine sure didnt come out too well; what I was trying to say didnt come out right. Have you taken some time to look at some of the works of art that are up here in the front and in the foyer as you came in? Everything you see, everything that was on display has been made from somebody in our church. So, it shows some of the creativity that is in this body. We definitely have some artistic people here, dont we? I hope if youve not done so, youll take a look at them before you go. Let me ask you a question; answer with a raise of hands. How many of you see yourselves as creative people? How many of you say, Im a creative person? Okay. Thats pretty good. That was close to half. Im going to say normally its about a quarter when we ask that question. Now for this, Im not going to ask you to raise your hand, but I want to talk about some creative things, and you check off the list of these things that youve done. How many of you have ever written a story? How many of you have ever written a poem? Or a play? How many of you have written a sermon? Or a lesson plan? A skit? How many of you here have designed a craft, a flower arrangement, a floor plan or have invented something? How about a landscape design? What about those who have designed a house or a machine? A computer program or a website? A multi-media? A play for a sports team that you coach? How many have made-with your hands-a painting, a drawing, or pottery? What about furniture? How many have renovated a house, a car, or a room? How many have fabricated metal and enjoyed it? You did something, you created something, and when you were finished, you said, That felt good. Im pleased with that. I feel good inside about what I just designed, made, or built. Let me ask you the question again, considering that list. How many of you would identify yourselves as creative people? Let me see your hands. Many more hands go up this time because sometimes our view of creativity is too narrow. We start reading that list, and we think, You know, I guess I am a little creative. It should not be a surprise because you and I are created by a creative God. Think about it, God has never stopped creating. Every second a life comes into the world, God is creating all the time. Each of those lives is unique. Each of those lives has a unique face, a unique personality, a unique expression of the Creator. Billions and billions of people, and none of us are the same. Our God is an amazingly creative God. Paul writes in Ephesians that when we express that creativity, we are expressing God. We are part of what it means to be made in the image of God because God is creative; so when we create, we are being like our Father. Ephesians 2:10, we are going to break this down. Paul says, We are Gods workmanship. We are Gods poem. This answers the who we are question. This is vitally important. This is the question of our personhood, who we are. The worth of something is determined by who made an object or a thing. If I were to take a canvas and put paint on it, it would actually de-value the canvas. People would look at that and say, Why? What were you thinking? Why would you even try to do something like that? Im less of a person for having viewed what you have painted on that canvas. However, if an artist were to take that canvas and put paint on it, as Im looking at Tim Bales painting right here, that becomes something that is good to look at. If youre an artist, you put paint on there, and its worth something of value. How many of you have heard of Pablo Picasso, a Spanish artist? Cubism, I think, is his specialty-putting eyes where ears should be. There was a man who collected replicas of Pablo Picassos work, of course, because originals are worth millions of dollars. Most people cant afford them. One day, he was going through a second-hand store. In the back of the store was a replica of one of Pablo Picassos works. Hed never seen it before. So he paid the $200 to the store keeper. He took it home and brushed it off. He began looking at it. Soon he began to wonder, Is it a fake? Is it a copy? Could this be real? He could see brush strokes on the painting. He sent it off to the art institute. They determined it was, in fact, an original Pablo Picasso worth millions of dollars. They interviewed the store owner on CNN. He was like, Yeah, it was one of my favorite paintings. Thats why I put it in the back. I didnt want anybody to buy it, really. You know hes kicking himself because he could have been a millionaire and didnt realize it. Why was it worth millions of dollars? Because of who made it. Picasso did. Its worth that much because its a one of a kind. There is no other like it. Its not a copy-its the original. Because of who made it and because of its rarity, it has enormous value. So Paul speaks to us, especially those of us who sometimes struggle with poor self-esteem. He says, I want you to know something. You have enormous value because of who made you and because of how rare you are. You are one of a kind. You are workmanship designed by God. You are a unique creation and expression of the Designer of the universe. You are a thought in the mind of God, and you are an expression of His personhood. Paul talks about, secondly, our purpose, the fact that God didnt just create us. He has a purpose in creating us. For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus to sit in a church and do nothing until the day we die or He returns. Is that when is says we become a Christian? Were created in Christ Jesus to do. This is a purpose statement, okay? Hes about to say something significant here. Hes saying, This is why you are in Christ. You are in Christ to do what? What does it say? Good works. Now, dont get confused and say that good works earns you a trip to Heaven because Paul just went on to explain that we are saved by grace through faith, not of yourselves. It is the gift of God less any man should boast. However, once we do come to Christ, our lives should be characterized by ministry. Were called to express what God has placed within us. To not do so is to not live out our purpose. The church is not just about a place to be ministered to. It is that. Its also a place where we minister. What does Paul say in the Book of Ephesians? God gave pastors to equip the saints for what? For works of service. You and I are called to serve Christ. Soon well have Christmas trees in our home, and soon presents will be under those trees, presents we bought for loved ones and family and presents that have bought by others for us. Theyll have our names on them. The interesting thing about Gods gift is Gods gift is a gift given to you for other people. Thats pretty unique. Normally, if I receive a gift, its for me. Now, if I have the gift of teaching, or preaching, and some of you may beg to differ with that, its not for me. I dont go home and look in the mirror and say, Okay, open your Bible up to… Let me show you some things, pal. Its not for me. I actually used to do that when I was fresh out of the blocks. Id get my Bible and go to the mirror and give my sermon. Somebody said that would help. It didnt. I was even nervous to talk to myself. My gift is for you. Your gift is for me. Its reciprocal. Its not a one-way street. If all I am doing is being ministered and ministered to and soaking it up like a sponge, thats not how God intended us to be. God says we receive and we give. Were ministered to, and we minister using the gifts and abilities and talents God gave for the glory of God, for the building up of the body of Christ, and to make this world a better place. So that answers our purpose. Were here to do good work, which God prepared beforehand. Do you see that? God prepared this in advance. That has to do with our plan. We dont come into the world and then God says, Oh, I didnt expect them. I better figure out what I am going to do here with this guy or Hmmm, I didnt expect her to be born, but now that shes here, I better come up with something. What can this person do? It didnt work that way. It said, God prepared the works that we are to walk in in advance. In advance of what? In advance of you. God knew you would be born, and before you were born, David tells us in Psalms 1:39 that God knew you. God knew you while you were still in the womb, and God had a plan for you. Have you ever tried to design something, live out something, without a plan? I tried one time to landscape an area of my house without a plan. It didnt work well. I said, I can do this pretty well, so Im just going to dig and plant and kind of make it up as I go. It wasnt good. It wasnt good, was it (looking at Brenda)? She just smiles. So we had to dig it up, and I tried again the next year. It was better, but it still was actually not good. This year, I said, Ive got ideas, and Im going to get some help. So, I called a local landscaper, and I said, Here are my ideas. He said, Those are good ideas, but here are some things to think about as youre putting this together. I said, No, I want different colors for different seasons. Help me to know what plants work in what areas. Together, we came up with a plan. I took his plan and made a lot of changes, but basically, we worked together, and I had a plan. I knew what plant was going to go in what spot. Now I look at it and think, Okay. We can live with this because there is a plan. Sometimes people will say they want to start a ministry at Faith Community Church. We dont just say, Go at it! Go get it! and have them create as they go. If you start a ministry at our church, the first thing youre going to get is a form that says the words Strategic Plan. What does that mean? That means we want to know these things: Number one: What is your purpose? Number two: Does your purpose coincide or work with the purpose of our church? What are the four critical success factors of your plan? What has to happen in order for that plan to succeed? What kind of people have to be plugged into this ministry to make it go? What should their gifts and their passions be? What are your goals for this ministry? They have to come up with this plan. A lot of times, things dont come into being because people just didnt want to put in the work. The ones that do put in the work, those plans stick around, dont they Pastor Sean? If they will take the time to put in a plan, and put that plan into operation, it goes. Thats why when we say if you want to plug into ministry at Faith Community, we dont just turn you loose. You come to something called GPS. In GPS, we help you help discover your gifts and your passion and where you should serve. Its an assessment. Then, theres a consultation. We say, We think this might be a good way for you to go. We point you in a direction. You go, and its trial and error. Eventually, we find your nitch. Its young and old. I want my children to serve the Lord. They do. They have areas of ministry they have to plug into in our church. It doesnt matter if youre young; it doesnt matter if youre retired. You never stop serving the Lord. You never stop living out Ephesians 2:10. All of us should be engaged in ministry for the glory of God and the building up of the Body of Christ until the day we die. God says thats why were here. Some of us dont do that. Look at the last part, the way it ends here, …which God prepared in advance for us to do. Some translations render …that we should walk in them. That has to do with our path. Thats where we should go. Were called to walk in the steps that God has given us to walk in. I want you to read Ephesians 2:10 with me again. When he says the word we here, For we are, who is he talking to? Us, the church. We, the church, are His workmanship. Are you part of the church? Say yes? Yes. So, this is you. Paul is speaking to you. So we can say this in the first person. In fact, this would be a very good way to start your day. Some of you might even want to make this a little morning ritual. When you get up, you say this verse in the first person, okay? Lets do this right now. Lets read it in the first person, for I am. For I am Gods workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for me to do. Wouldnt that be a great way to start a day? Then you simply say a prayer and say, Okay, Lord, Im here. You show me what Im to walk in. You show me the path today that Im to follow. Unless I hear different from You, I know where Im going today, and Im going to represent you the best I can. Im going to serve you the best I can. You offer up that prayer to the Lord, make this a confession of faith and start your day. Sometimes we dont do that. Sometimes we dont live out what God has called us to do. One thing Ive noticed about God is that His plans never change. I noticed that God is relentless. Sometimes people will come up to me and say, You know, I feel like I really should have been in the ministry. Ill say, Whats stopping you? I really feel like I should have gone in the mission field. Whats stopping you? Why arent you preparing that? You feel that inside, that burning, and it goes away for awhile, but eventually, it comes back. Usually, it intensifies. Sometimes people will be 40, 50, 60 years old and say, I wish I would have gone into the ministry. Well, go for it! If God has put that plan in your heart, and by the way, His plan unfolds, it doesnt just boom! there it is. Its an unfolding. A couple of years ago, Pastor Sean and I were talking and he said, Eventually, Im going to go on the mission field. We talked about it, and he said, I dont have a clue? I am really very happy where I am. I dont want to go anywhere. Im very happy in Janesville. I love my job. Love my church. Love my house. I love Janesville. Everythings great! A year later, we met, and he says, I think God wants us in Haiti. I thought, Haiti?! Voo Doo! What are you doing?? But he said, This is what God has called. This is Gods will for our family, so were going to follow that. Whenever God calls you, wherever He calls you, its never too late to do what God has called you to do. Its never too late to be who God desires you to be, to express that creativity. Michael Angelo was once asked, When you look at a big block of marble, what do you see? Michael Angelo said, I see a work of art inside that I have to take my hammer and chisel to. My responsibility is simply to let it out. He said, I see it entrapped inside of there, and I have to let it out. For some of us, that creativity-that expression of God-is trapped inside of us, and we havent let it out. Maybe we havent let it out because of something our parents have said or what others have said about our gifts or talents. We have failed. Maybe theyre tried to put us into a different mode than the way God has made us, so its a self-confidence issue. Lets take a look right now at a short skit from Willow Creek called Wonderfully Made, which talks about that. (For a fee, you can download it at this site: http://www.willowcreek.com/product.asp?invtid=PR00535&action=details) Lets pray: Father, we thank You for our personhood. We have been made in Your image, that we are Your workmanship. Because of who made us, and because we are one of a kind, we have infinite worth. You made us with purpose, for good works, to express You through our lives, to minister. You have a plan, not haphazard. The what question has been answered-what we are to do. Where we are to go, our path, is set. Lord, help us to not let anything thwart that, the schedule that we keep, the things that have been said, self-confidence that we struggle with, but let us take that risk of faith, take that action step to thank You for who You made us-to be that and allow that to come out of us to bless Your name. We pray this in Jesus name, Amen.
Lets read together 1 Thessalonians 5:18 (Page 1171 of pew Bibles). This is where were going to park it this morning. This is not a long verse, but its packed full. Give thanks in all circumstances for this is Gods will for you in Christ Jesus. How many of you have ever said I want to know Gods will for my life? Youve said that prayer like that. This is one of those where it says, Heres Gods will for you. You might read a scripture like that and say, Well, does He maybe have another will? Any other scriptures you could say are His will? This is one of the toughest scriptures there is to live out, to give thanks in all circumstances. This is Gods will for you. How many of you this week have grumbled or complained or had negative thoughts and expressed those about something going on in your life? Let me see those hands. Look around you. Not many saints here today. Before youre seated, turn around to the person next to you, and say, Looks like hes going to be talking about you this morning, and then you can have a seat. Sometimes we try to change our services up, and I try to do that with our preaching too. Sometimes were in the Old Testament; sometimes were in the New Testament. Sometimes were having a Bible study. Ill just sit down on the stool, and well just go through verse by verse. Sometimes its a topical sermon; sometimes its a sermon on the text; sometimes its devotional. I try to change the preaching style as well. This morning with Thanksgiving coming, I thought itd be good to have more of a devotional style of our time together. So what this time is this morning is really a time of reflection, just to give you a thought to ponder. Im really focusing on a central theme to take home with you that will just help you in your outlook of the day. Thats what a devotional does. So, its Thanksgiving-a patriotic and religious holiday. It conjures up those feelings of patriotism and of faith. Were also, in our series on the Truth Project, talking about the American experiment. We talked about it with our Forefathers, so I thought maybe well put a little pilgrim stuff in there. So, were going to combine this morning; well have a devotional that combines our theme along with some thoughts on the Thanksgiving holiday. Im going to be asking you to participate in the service this morning. We have a tradition come Thanksgiving. Sometimes we do this on Wednesday nights, sometimes on the weekend service, where you have an opportunity to share something youre thankful for. Were not going to do the traditional kind of way this morning. Youll see what I mean in just a little while. Thanksgiving really is an attitude. Its an expression of an attitude or an outlook on our circumstances. Its a matter of perspective. Were going to talk a little bit about attitude. I heard a story about a woman who had a tremendously positive, optimistic attitude towards life. For a guy to lose our hair, we dont like it, but we kind of accept it. Thats part of our life. When I was losing my hair and I was bummed out about it, my wife once said to me, Well, thats just what guys do. I said, Well, would you like it? She said, No. I said, What makes you think we like it? It happens, but we dont necessarily like it. Well, theres this story about a woman was losing hair. She decided she was going to keep a positive outlook. She woke up, it was just falling out, less and less hair everyday. She woke up one day and only had three long hairs left on her whole head. But her attitude of optimism was really important to her, so she woke up, looked in the mirror and smiled, and said, I have three hairs. I shall braid my hair today. So she braided her three hairs, and she had a great day. The next day she woke up and had two hairs left on her head. She said, I have two hairs. That means I shall part my hair today. So she parted her hair, one hair going this way and one hair going that way. She parted her hair and she had a great day. The next day she woke up, she had one hair left. Thats all, one hair. She said, I only have one hair, so Im going to have a ponytail today. So she made a ponytail out of her one strand of hair. The next day she woke up, no hair-not a strand. She looked in the mirror and said, What a wonderful day. I dont even have to mess with my hair today. So no matter what the circumstance was, she found a way to be thankful in it. Thats what were going to be talking about. From the raise of hands I saw earlier, it looks like were talking to the right crowd. So, in 1 Thessalonians 5, Paul says first of all, Give thanks. Thanksgiving is something you give. It is something you express. It is something that you have. Its an active thing, not a passive thing, to give thanks. Why do you think its so important? This certainly isnt the only place where God says to give thanks. Why does God stress this so much? Why is this so important for you and me to express our thanks? Because…whats the alternative? If we dont express Thanksgiving, we become angry, bitter, negative, a downward spiral, depressed, despair. God wants us to have a vital optimism in life. After all, Hes still the Lord, so we give thanks, and it has to be expressed. Ive looked through the glass here, and I have a note. The note is actually to you too. It says, Pastor Jeff and Brenda, I love you both very much. Its signed by a member of our congregation. It was here one day when I came up to preach. I thought, Oh, thats nice. Im going to keep it there. I looked down there, and I see somebody loves me, and they expressed it. You give thanks. As we think about Thanksgiving, we reflect on our Forefathers. We reflect on the first Thanksgiving. I had the opportunity to go with my family to Massachusetts several years ago. It was a very memorable family vacation. Our goal was to become familiar with the Pilgrims, so we went to Plymouth Plantation. We went to the replica of the Mayflower. We just took it all in and learned a lot. We learned about the sacrifices they made. It started back in England, back in the early 1600s. They desired to remove themselves from the Anglican Church. The Anglican Church had a rather suspicious beginning. It was not a matter of reform that they pulled away from the Catholic Church. It was because the king wanted to marry another woman, and the Pope would not grant his divorce. So, in order to do what he wanted to do, he withdrew from the Catholic Church, and they started the Anglican Church. The Anglican Church had a very set way of doing things. Whats more, it was illegal not to go to church. If you didnt go to church, you were fined. Then, if you continued on in that practice, you could be imprisoned. If you continued on in that practice, you could be punished more severely. You could even die. So many of the first separatists-I use the word separatists for pilgrims because they didnt know they were pilgrims; the word pilgrims was not used until 170 years later. They saw themselves as saints, and the people who were on the boat with them were the strangers. They were the saints, the separatists. So they decided that there was no reconciling with the Anglican Church. The puritans wanted to look within the church to have reform. The separatists said, Theres no hope. So they set sail for the Netherlands. For 12 years, they stayed there. The children were becoming more Dutch than English. They didnt like that either. So they decided to come to America for an experiment, if you will. They received some financing from some adventurers, some merchant capitalists. In agreement to send back a percentage of their profits for seven years, they would finance their expedition. There were two ships; one didnt sail very well-I think it was called the Speedwell. So they embarked on the second ship called the Mayflower. Weve been in an exact replica of the Mayflower, and its not very big. Think about 102 people traveling in that little space; not just traveling, we have to think about them crossing the ocean. We are talking about 3,000 miles at 2 miles an hour. That was the speed from which they crossed the ocean. To give you a perspective, school started around September 5 or so. One week later, September 12, if you had a child in school, theyd been in a school for a week when you started your journey on the Mayflower. You would have just arrived in Plymouth. Now, 66 days later, howd you like to be on that trip? Talk about sea-sick. For 66 days, there had been non-stop movement. They encountered storms; they encountered a ship wreck; they encountered a passenger dying. There was a little bit of a mutiny on the ship because when they didnt land in Virginia, then instead landed in Cape Cod, they said, Hey, we dont have to follow the direction of King James. We can do our own thing. So right away, the pilgrims thought this whole thing is just going to blow up. So they drafted a document called the Mayflower Compact. Im not reading the whole thing for you, but I will read their purpose statement. In the Mayflower Compact, they said they had two purposes for coming to North America. Number one was for the glory of God, that they could worship any way they wanted to. They had religious freedom, freedom to express their faith as they were lead of God to do so. Secondly, they came for the advancement of the Christian faith. When they got here, they were going to share their faith. From those who were in Jamestown to the indigenous natives they would encounter, their purpose was to share their faith. Theres a lot of revisionist history going out there. It will tell you different reasons why the pilgrims came here and different reasons why they had Thanksgiving, Oh it was only to thank the Indians. You have no idea who these people were then if thats what you believe. These were people of strong conviction, of strong faith who literally risked their lives to come to this country to start a new world in which they would share their faith and in which they were free to worship God as they believed. But when they got to our country, it was not a good situation. Number one, it was November. Winter was coming. Think about it, as they got off the Mayflower, there was nobody. The Indians, many of them had died off from small pox not long ago, not long before their arrival. There is no Holiday Inn; theres no Howard Johnson. There is no McDonalds. Theres no place to eat; theres no place to sleep. They had no homes. They had limited supplies, and winter was coming. They get off the boat. Think about that. Think about the sacrifice they would make. The cold came, and they did not have adequate housing. They did not have adequate food because they were farmers. They were not hunters. They were not fishermen. They were farmers who lived in a city, so they didnt have those skills. So, historically, the first month, they caught one fish, and they shot no game. You do the math, one fish, no game. So they lived on their rations. Many of them would become ill and starve. One life was lost on the Mayflower; almost half were lost in that first winter. In the spring, hope came. An Indian came by the name of Samoset. He said, Hello English, I am Samoset. Do you have beer? Thats not a joke. Thats literally what he said because he had encountered other ships from other sailors like in Jamestown. They always had beer, so he wanted to find out if they had brought that beverage which was unique from their land. He said, Do you have beer? The pilgrims could not believe that God had sent an English-speaking Indian their way. Soon, were introduced to Squanto. He spoke fluent English. He showed them how to plant and how to hunt, to trap, and fish. So in October, they gathered together with 90 Braves. Massasoit, the King of the tribe, Squanto, and Samoset, Bradford and all the other pilgrims celebrated and gave thanks to God for His blessing. Think about it. They had just gone through a period of cold. They suffered from starvation; they lost family members and friends, their church members. Theyd gone through all of the suffering; yet, in spite of that, they were able to offer up thanks. For three days, they gathered. The main course was deer, not turkey. For three days they gathered, played games, held competitions, and enjoyed fellowship with one another. The fact that they could give thanks in those situations humbles me. I dont know what kind of year youve had, but I dont think it includes the threat of starvation. I dont think this winter youre anticipating that youre going to be in a situation where you might freeze to death. Thats what they encountered. They encountered that to experience what you and I now enjoy, freedom of religion, the ability to share our faith and freedom. Thats why they endured that. It says, Give thanks in all circumstances, Paul writes. He didnt say, Give thanks for all circumstances. He said, Give thanks in all circumstances. That says you look at your circumstances through a different lens, a different perspective. Lieutenant Harper likes to send out emails to me, and I save them every once in a while. One really ministered to me. Some of these things Im going to share with you, you might have even grumbled and complained about this very week. This person says to give thanks in all things, and I give thanks for the taxes I pay because it means that Im employed. Give thanks for the mess after the get together because it means I have friends. Give thanks for the clothes that fit too snug because it means I have enough to eat. Dont let that stop you from getting pies after church, though. Give thanks for the lawn mowing and the shoveling and the windows that need to be cleaned because it means I have a home. I give thanks for all the complaining about the government because it means we have free speech. Give thanks for my huge heating bill because it means I am warm. Give thanks for the lady behind me who sings off key because it means I can hear. Give thanks for the pile of laundry and ironing because I have a wife who will do that for me. No, it is not that (congregation laughing). I do other things, the trash and all of that. Rough crowd today. Give thanks for the pile of laundry and ironing because it means I have clothes to wear. For the alarm clock that goes off early in the morning, I have nothing good to say about it. No, it says, …because it means Im alive. For weariness and achy muscles at the end of the day because it means I am capable of work. Perspective and attitude, the thankfulness. Paul could write that to us. Do you know why? Because he practiced what he preached. He was a man who could give thanks in all circumstances. In the Book of Philippians, the first chapter, if you could please turn there, it is on page 1163 if youre grabbing a church Bible. Paul writes these words from prison, and I dont know what kind of week youve had, but probably you have not been in prison, dark and dungy and chained to guards, suffered with bad prison food. Paul was. One of the most dominant themes in the Book of Philippians is Paul saying to us in Chapter 4, Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! He writes this from prison, Chapter 1, Verse13, and he says, Now I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really angered me! If this is what it means to be a Christian, to be locked up in jail, this is how God pays me back, I want you to know something: I no longer want to be a Christian. My whole ministry has come to a grinding, screeching halt. The food is bad. I cant sleep. Im in chains. If this is what it means to be a Christian, thanks but no thanks. Love, Paul. He doesnt say that. We might say that, but Paul doesnt say that. It says, As a result… They served for the advance of the Gospel. How in the world, Paul, can you advance the Gospel in prison? He said, As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. Paul says, Now everybody knows why Im here. Every time they lock up a new guard to Paul, he says, Fresh meat. Heres somebody who hasnt heard the message. Every time somebody brought water or food, Paul was able to share his faith, his testimony. What happened to him on the road to Damascus? Paul says, Conversions are happening. People are coming to know the Gospel through the entire palace. He says, Whats more, because of my chains most of the brothers in the Lord have been encouraged to speak the Word of God more courageously and fearlessly. What happens if your star player goes down? Everybody on the team has to take it to a new level. He says people who would rely on me say, Paul would do it. Paul would go to that city. Paul would go to that church. Now they realize they have to do it, and theyre stepping up their game. Theyre getting bolder and theyre getting courageous. Paul says, I give thanks for that. Whats more, Paul wrote some of his best letters, his most meaningful letters. How many millions of believers has the Book of Philippians encouraged? Paul wrote from prison. His ministry was not chained even though he was. Paul had the ability to give thanks in all circumstances, and so can you. Paul says, We can give thanks in all circumstances, for this is Gods will for you in Christ Jesus. Its because we are in Christ. If we are in Christ this morning, then the blessings that we have, we cant even begin to conceive. We have a Savior who gave His life, so you and I could have our sins forgiven and the assurance of Heaven. Im reminded of a story I heard. I may have shared this years ago, but there was a man who would come to a pier every Friday for 30 years in south Florida. At the end of that pier, he would stand with a bucket, and the seagulls would come from all around when they saw him appear. He would feed them shrimp, a bucket of shrimp until it was gone. Then they would linger on his shoulder and his hat. He seemed to have a bond with these seagulls that was almost unexplainable. One day he was asked, Why do you go every Friday on the end of the pier, and why do you feed those seagulls? Do you like seagulls? Why do you do that? He explained that it was out of thankfulness; it was out of appreciation. For seagulls? He explained this story. In 1942, hed been given orders to fly across the South Pacific to bring a message to General Douglas Macarthur. He and a small hand-picked crew were flying a B17 called something I dont remember. What was it called? The Flying Fortress. The Flying Fortress got lost, and they ran out of gas and had to land in the ocean. All crew members survived, and they got in their lifeboats and took their rations out of the plane. They then waited for rescue, but rescue never came. One, two, three, finally eight days had gone by with no rescue. The rations were completely exhausted. They were exhausted. They had survived the sun, the storms, and the sharks, but the one thing they could not survive was starvation. They just had a devotional and prayed for rescue and deliverance. Then they closed their eyes and tried to get some rest. Shortly thereafter, Eddie Rickenbocker had something land on his hat. He said, I knew it was a seagull without even looking. He said, Dont ask me how; I just knew it. He said, I looked and I saw under the brim of my cap all the other crew looking at me with their jaws dropped. They knew what those seagulls meant. It was not only a meal they could share amongst themselves, but you could use some of the parts from that seagull as bait to catch fish and survive longer. The trick would be to catch it. The interesting thing was the seagull didnt move. The seagull stayed still and allowed itself to be captured. What was a seagull doing hundreds of miles from land by itself? It was sent from God; it was an answered prayer. Through that seagull, life was preserved, and finally rescue came. So every Friday, 1500 Fridays in a row until his death in 1973, Eddie Rickenbocker had a Thanksgiving to remember the seagull that offered up his life so his crew could live. As I reflect on that story, I think about what we have in Christ, one who freely and willingly offered up His life without a fight so we could live spiritually, and we could have our sins forgiven. If youre here this morning, I dont know what health problems youre facing or financial problems, family difficulties, whatever difficulties youre challenged with today, your sins are forgiven. Eternal life has been gained through Christ, and you have much to be thankful for. Lets pray together. Father, we thank You for this one verse that is so packed full of meaning, to give thanks-something that we must express. I pray that this week, You will do something in a tangible way through our words, through our actions, through our writing to express thanks. We would express thanks to You in all circumstances, that we would look with different eyes, and we would hear with different ears to perceive blessing in adversity, to give You thanks for it as the pilgrims did, as the Apostle Paul did in prison, that we, too, will learn to give thanks in all circumstances and recognize we can do this because it is Your will for us in Christ Jesus. In Christ we have blessings beyond measure, blessings beyond words. Through this devotional today, help us to take that thought with us. As we leave, we ask You to help us live it. In Jesus name, Amen.
Turn to Matthew 26. What is the one thing God said was not good. The answer is Its not good for man to be alone. God created man to experience community, relationships: relationship with Him and relationships with one another. Even you introverts out there, even you hermit crabs out there, and Im one of them… Its not like an introvert doesnt like people or doesnt like activity; its just that when the activity is done, the people contact is done, you need to crawl in a corner somewhere and recharge your battery. You extroverts can go all day, and if youre cooped up and alone, you start climbing the walls. You have to have contact and activity. Im not one of you. Usually when Im done on Sundays, Give me my remote control and the Bears game, and Im a happy guy. Ill do ministry again in a few hours, but right now, its just me and my boy watching the ball game or Im over at my buddys house. I have to recharge. God created us for community. He created us for relationships. Sometimes you and I feel very alone. Sometimes we feel disconnected from God. Sometimes we feel disconnected from our fellow man. Thats what were going to be talking about today. Everybody goes through those periods of loneliness. Everybody goes through those periods where he or she feels isolated. Sometimes its not even of our own doing. I remember going to Great America the first year they opened up, and the friend I invited was sick. Our youth group had three people, so there was me, Brad, and Carla. Brad and Carla were a couple, so after a couple hours of walking around with me, they said, Hey, Jeff, nothing personal, but Carla and I would like to walk around by ourselves for a little while. We hope you dont mind. Weve really enjoyed being with you today. I was like, No problem. I understand. For the rest of the day on every roller coaster, every log ride, Who doesnt have a partner? I raised my hand, I dont. You feel like such an outcast. All these people were having fun, and Im thinking, I do have friends. There was somebody I was with. I did have a date, but she got sick. There are people that like me. You get kind of self-conscious. Sometimes you feel lonely; you can be a little self-conscious about that. That was out of my control. Sometimes you and I feel isolated and cut off, and its on purpose. Were the ones doing the isolating. Were the ones doing the cutting off. It could be weve been burned in a relationship. It could be that weve been misunderstood, so we withdraw. It could be that its just hard work to have a friendship. In a relationship of any kind, you have to invest to have that relationship. Its just much easier to be by yourself, so you take the path of least residence. Thats not good. We send out signals, sometimes overtly and sometimes passively, to leave me alone. We have a dog named Penny. Shes three-quarters Border Collie and one-quarter Chihuahua, which means shes very active but also very timid. Penny takes a liking to our cat, Garfield, Tiger, and Tiger does not care for Odie, Penny, and tries to avoid Penny. They started to warm up a little bit, but the other day they were walking around the house, and Penny is hanging with Tiger. Penny is not jumping on Tiger, bothering Tiger, just saying, Where do you want to go now, Tiger? Okay, lets go in there. Tiger is walking around, looking over her shoulder. Penny would stop, wag her tail, like Okay, what do we do now? Tiger would start walking, and shed start walking. Then Tiger would stop, and Penny would stop. Then Tiger turned around, unprovoked, and went, Pffffffff. She had spit and arched her back. I was like, Tiger! Penny did nothing to you! Penny looks at me like, What? I didnt do anything. The cat was saying, Leave me alone! I dont want to be bothered. I dont want you around me. I just want to be alone. Dont you understand that? Thats what the dirty looks mean. You made me spit! This is your fault! So they parted company. Im not saying you and I are turning around spitting at people. I hope were not doing that. Sometimes we can send signals that say, Hands off! Stay back! We can isolate ourselves. God says thats not good. God created you and me for community, for oneness, for relationship. Were going to take a look at, I think, the best example of community we can find. That is Jesus and the Disciples. Were going to see that not everything was perfect in their relationship, and well see how the Lord handled that relationship. This has been an increasingly stressful time for the Disciples. They have been living in adventure. Jesus has performed miracles and tremendous things. Hes taught, and theyve learned so much. Its been an adventure, a ride. Now Jesus is breaking the news to them at the Last Supper that its coming to an end. His enemies, theyre going to win. Theyre going to finally get a hold of him. Theyre going to torture, beat, and crucify him. Hes going to die. Theyre devastated by this news that this person they love so deeply and trust so intensely is going to leave them. Whats more, they find out theyre going to betray Him too. In fact, He says one of you will betray me. Every one of them says, Not me, Lord. Peter says, Others might desert you, I wont. Ill die for you. We always talk about Peter saying that; well Matthew 26 says they all said it. It says right after Peter says that, they all said the same thing, Were with you, Lord. Well not desert you. Jesus says, Ill tell you the truth. Youll all scatter. So not only do they find out Jesus is going to die, but they find out in the end this person theyve been so loyal to, theyre going to desert Him. They are just devastated. They are emotional wrecks. Then the moment of truth… Jesus is about to be betrayed, so He calls the Disciples, and they go to the Garden of Gethsemane, after the Last Supper, to pray. Thats where we pick up the story in Verse 36 [or Matthew Chapter 26, page 985 of pew Bibles]. Then Jesus went with the Disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and He said to them, Sit here while I go over there and pray. He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee… That would be James and John. …along with him, and He began to be sorrowful and troubled. Notice here a pattern. All eleven come, because Judas is already gone. He is in the process of betraying Christ at this moment. There are eleven. Eight remain in one spot, and he takes three, and they go deeper into Gethsemane. Once theyre in Gethsemane, He begins to bear His soul. He begins to say, I am deeply troubled and disturbed, and heres why: He becomes vulnerable. He becomes a person who says, You know what? Ive been your master, your Lord, your teacher. Right now, Im putting on my friend hat. I need you right now. Isnt it interesting that Jesus didnt bear His soul to all eleven? He only did it to three. The first principle I want to talk to you about is the principle of limited access. If youre going to experience Biblical community with somebody, theyre going to really know you, and youre going to really know them, and youre going to be able to talk about some really important, serious stuff, Heres what Im frustrated about or heres what Im angry about; that is a quality relationship, not a quantity relationship. Youre not going to have tons of this kind. You know why? They take a lot of time; they take a lot of investment and energy. Quite frankly, you dont have the kind of time. If youre like a normal person, you dont have the kind of time to invest in many, many people to have this level of friendship with. Its best to have a few that you have an affinity with, that you have established a trust with through trial and error. You open your heart, and you find out they dont reject you, they listen to you; and its reciprocal. You find out theyre not slandering you or gossiping about you, but they love you. They dont reject you, and you can open up. Over time, a close bond forms and you can have this kind of a friendship. Its not going to be a lot, and its not about cliques. Jesus wasnt saying, We four no more. The other eight werent offended. They understood that Jesus had a close relationship with those three. So, its okay. Jesus had opened up His ministry up to the thousands, to everybody, every race, everyone. It wasnt a matter of cliques, but when it came to those who knew Him the most, who knew Him intimately, there were only three. Limited access. Theyre going to build these kinds of relationships. Its not going to be a matter of quantity. Verse 38, Then He said to them, My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me. Do you realize the gravity of the words that Christ is saying right here? When is the last time or any other time when you heard Jesus use the words overwhelmed about Himself? Zero. The waves are crashing against the boat; theyre afraid theyre going to drown. Jesus wakes up and Hes not overwhelmed. He simply says, Peace be still, and the waves die down. Theres a lynch mob, and they think Hes blasphemed against God. They want to take Him and throw Him off a cliff in Luke. Jesus is not overwhelmed by this angry mob. It says He passes through their mitts, and He goes on His way. Jesus encounters death on more than one occasion, and theyre looking at Jesus and saying, What are you going to do? Jesus is not overwhelmed by death. He simply raises them from the dead. But in this situation on this night, Jesus is overwhelmed. Wow! Think about that. The One who made the world-and is now in the world-is overwhelmed. Why? Because though He is fully God, He is fully man, and He has the full range of emotions that any man would have. We use the expression, Hes carrying the weight of the world on His shoulders right now. Jesus was literally about to. He was about to carry the weight of the world, the weight of sin, literally on His shoulders. The man, Jesus, was deeply, deeply troubled. The word that He uses here overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death, that word sorrow, theres three words for depression in the Greek. This is the most intense word for depression right here. This moment, Im not saying His whole life-but at this moment- it was hard. You cannot go to the Lord and say, Lord you dont know what its like to face depression and be lonely and struggle like I do. No, the truth of the matter is youll never know what He went through. What He went through was incomprehensible to you and me. Notice what Jesus does here. He takes off His master, Lord, and teacher hat, and He puts on his fellow journeyman hat, his fellow spiritual traveler hat, and He says, I need you guys today to watch and to pray. The second healthy ingredient of Biblical community and friendship is that of mutual assistance, mutual assistance. Jesus had been there for them, and now He says, I need you to be here for Me. Thats important. A couple weeks ago at church on a Saturday night, to people whove been part of our church for years, I said, Hey, lets go out. I need to take my pastor hat off and put on my friend hat tonight. I need to share some things with you. I have friends I can talk to about anything. Thats what you do. Its mutual. There are times when your friends need to talk to you, and they need you to listen. There are times when you need to talk to them. There are times when they give of themselves their energies and resources to you, and there are times when you give to them. Its mutual because if its one way, its dysfunctional. If its one way, its called enabling. Its called co-dependency, whatever label you want to put on it. If youve got a relationship where its always you give, you give, you give, you give, and you never receive, thats not Biblical community. If its you who is always receiving, receiving, receiving, and never giving, thats out of balance too. My wife and I, we give and receive. Its a mutual system, a mutual relationship. Thats what God has called friends to do with one another, so thats what Jesus does. On to the next verse [Verse 39 of Matthew Chapter 26], Going a little farther, He fell with His face to the ground and prayed, My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from Me. Yet not as I will, but as You will. Then He returned to His Disciples and found them sleeping. Could you men not keep watch with Me for one hour? He asked Peter. Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak. Were going to talk next about the importance of a lifestyle of authenticity, of being real. I want you to notice that Jesus is real with God, and He is real with the Disciples. Do you see that? When He prays to the Father, He says, Father, if theres any other way, I am struggling. I am in emotional pain and torment. I am in spiritual anguish. If theres any other way, take this cup from me. Jesus bears His soul to the Father. Sometimes we pray what we think God wants to hear instead of what we really feel. Do you think God wants to hear what you think He wants to hear or does He want to hear what youre really going through? He knows it anyway! You might as well be real. You say, God, Im angry, and heres why or God, Im confused, and heres why. You dont have to put on facade. Dont play a game with God. Jesus is authentic. He says, Father, I know this is why Im here, but right now Im just having second thoughts. Im just wondering if theres not another way. Jesus is real with the Father. Jesus is real with His disciples. Hes saying, You disappointed me. Could you not pray with Me? Could you not watch with Me? Why is it that the one time I need you, you let me down? Notice that Jesus is very real. He confronts them. He says, Heres what Im going through. He confronts them face to face. He doesnt send them a letter or an email. Do you remember the old-fashioned conversations when youd sit down and talk about something? Remember that? I kid you not, since the dawning of emails, one of my pet-peeves, something Ive had to share over 100 times-Im sure-to numerous people, when theres confrontation-somebodys confronting or angry at someone, and they send an email, Ive had to say, Dont do that! Thats the worst form of communication that you can imagine, a letter or email. If you can talk to the person, you try to talk to them. Sometimes its not healthy to. I understand that. Were not going to go down every rabbit trail. Usually, it is okay to talk face to face. Do you know why thats such a poor form of communication? Because words are just a small part of communication. Some of you think, Well, I thought words were a huge part of communication. Nope, theyre just a small part. Lets play a little experiment here. I want you to ask me the question, Whats wrong? and Im going to respond. One, two, three (and the congregation says), Whats wrong? Nothing, (Pastor Jeff responds in a normal tone of voice). So what have I just said? I said there is nothing wrong. Ask me again, Whats wrong? Nothing!(he shouts this time). Why do you keep asking me that? Nothings wrong! What have I just communicated? Ive expressed that there is something wrong. I said nothings wrong, but my face is scrunched, and Im tense and yelling, and Im gesturing like this. You know from my body language and my voice inflection, my facial expression, Im communicating something very different from my words. Ask me again. Whats wrong? Nothing? (he responds like hes asking a question). What did I just communicate? Im surprised that you would ask me. Theres nothing wrong. I shrugged my shoulders; I raised my eyebrows; I put a question in my voice. Same word, three different times, communicated three entirely different messages. Thats why its so important that we communicate face to face. I had a friend, a sister in Christ, a couple weeks ago that had a problem with something I had said. She came up to me and said, Pastor, I have a problem. She shared what the problem was. Did I get mad? I thought, Boy, thats the way it should be all the time. Most of the time if somebodys mad at you, you have to figure it out the hard way. Theyll send you the message rather than just tell you about it. Notice here it says Jesus comes back, finds them sleeping, and then Peter says, Whats wrong, Lord? Jesus replies, Nothing! (Pastors voice displays anger.) Then Peter asked Him again and said, Whats wrong, Lord? Jesus says, Well you know… Then Jesus turned away and refused to talk to them for the rest of the night, make them think about what theyd done (Pastor is being sarcastic here). He doesnt do that. He just says, Heres how you let me down. Heres what I was expecting. Heres how you fell short. Listen, friends, were all going to fall short, but dont put on a facade. Dont pretend everythings fine when its not fine. I heard about a guy whod been promoted to colonial during the Golf War. He thought, Man, I cant believe Im a colonial. This is really cool. Im pretty high up there. So he got his new office and was sitting at his desk, and he could see this private coming. He was going to impress the private, so he picks up the phone and says, Hello General Schwarzkopf. How are you? Yes, I did receive the email. I have somebody in my office right now. Ill be calling you shortly to give you my feedback on the plan. All right, good, Norm. Thanks. All right. All right. Goodbye General. Then he turns and says, Yes, Private, how can I help you? Ah, yeah, Colonial, Im just here to get your phone hooked up. Weve all had those kinds of situations. Were trying to put on an impressive front, and it doesnt work, right? Being inauthentic doesnt work. Be real. Jesus communicates with God, Heres what Im feeling; He communicates with the Disciples, Heres what Im experiencing. Thats part of authentic friendship and relationship. Lets see what else we can learn from this passage. Verse 42 [still of Matthew 26, page 986], He went away a second time and prayed, My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may Your will be done. When He came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. So He left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing. Then he returned to the Disciples and said to them, Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour is near, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us go! Here comes my betrayer! The fourth point is the unconditional acceptance of the Lord. Sometimes we say that Verse 39 and Verse 42 are the same prayer; theyre not. You put those in juxtaposition, and look at them, and theyre not the same. I literally copied and pasted them above each other on my computer, so I could look at them. Theyre not the same prayer. Verse 39 is an ask prayer. It says, My Father, if it is possible, may this cup pass from Me. Its a question. Verse 42, He says, My father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may Your will be done. Verse 42 is an acceptance prayer. Do you see the difference? One is saying, Is this okay? Can we find another way? The second one is saying, Im coming to terms with the fact that Youre saying no, and Im okay with that. What do you do when God says no to your prayers? Has anybody here ever had God say no to your prayers? What do you do when God says no? You are a little upset sometimes. Sometimes you can get a little passive/aggressive with God and start to withdraw from God. The nerve of Him not answering my prayers the way I want them answered! The nerve of the Creator of the Universe to think He knows better than me! Who does He think He is? God? Yeah. We get pretty upset, and we start to withdraw from God. Im just going to punish God. Im not going to go to church. God says, Whats wrong? through the Holy Spirit. We say, Nothing! Im not going to read the Bible. Im not going to pray. Im mad because You said no. Jesus says, Father, if You say no, Ill accept that. Thats as high as maturity gets. God is going to allow His son to go through this dark period of time. Hes going to allow it to happen. You might get angry with God. Sometimes you go through valleys of darkness, and God allows it to happen. You say, God, I dont understand why Youre doing this to me. I thought You loved me. Jesus knows the Father knows best. I think that was a series once upon a time before my day. Father knows best, and Im going to trust Him, Jesus says. There was a tribe I read about where they would take the 13-year olds when they wanted to become Braves, and what they would do was something very unique. They would take that Brave who had never been away from his tribe or his family, ever, and theyd blindfold that young boy. They would go miles away from home, and theyd get in the middle of the woods, take off the blindfold, and leave the Brave there alone for the night. That Brave would just stay right there. Every time they boy would hear a stick in the night, hed look and wonder what was going to pounce on him. Hed hear a howl and imagine a wolf coming out to jump on him any second. Hed hear the wind whisper through the trees and wonder, Whats coming? What is that? He would be shivering cold and scared all night long. Then the morning would come, the sun would come up, and hed see the flowers, birds, and hed breathe a sigh of relief. Hed see the path that would lead back to the village. Hed look and not far from him, hed see the image of a man with a bow and arrow, and it was his father. The father had been there all night on the watch. The son didnt know it. The father would be ready to shoot whatever would attack his boy. There are times when we go through the valleys of life, and it seems dark and like Gods not around, but Hes around. Hell let you go through those valleys, but He said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. Thats a promise. God keeps His promise. When that boy emerged from that valley, what was his courage like? It was at a new level. He had a new confidence. He was a Brave. When we come through those valleys, our faith is stronger. We understand life better. We understand the will of God more clearly. It turns out that dark valley was a blessing. That time we felt so alone and isolated, God was there. So Jesus knows, Though You said no, and I know Im going to go through darkness, Father, youve not abandoned me. He comes to His Disciples, and His Disciples have failed Him three times now. Three times theyve let Him down, and what does He say? He says in Verse 46, Im done with you guys! You annoy Me! You failed me three times, and youre going to scatter pretty soon. Im done with you. Im so done with you! Nope. Jesus starts to understand that theyre under a lot of pressure right now. Theyre going through a lot emotionally. Theyre drained. He says, Come on, men. Lets go. If youre in a friendship, from time to time a friend is going to fail you, or youre going to fail them, but you move on. You move on together. Having community with God and having a community with believers gives me the courage to face the challenges that life brings. Thats why Jesus says these words, Here comes My betrayer. Lets go meet him. In John 18:4 (page 1071), we pick up the story. It says, Jesus, knowing all that was going to happen to Him, went forth. He didnt say, Lets run. Lets hide. Hide Me! He went forth to meet the challenge because He had been in communion with His Father. Hed experienced oneness with His Father. He was going to face His accuser with His brothers. When youre in community, you can face lifes challenges; but when youre alone, its really hard. I would encourage you to pursue these kinds of friendships. Theyre not going to just fall in your lap. Nobody is going to show up at your door one day and say, Hi! I want to be your close companion through lifes journey. Ill listen to your problems; you can listen to mine. Well love each other. Well forgive each other, and well be real. What do you say? My name is Bill. It doesnt happen that way. You have to put yourself in those relationships. You have to invest in those kinds of relationships. The church, we have ministries that you can be a part of. We have small groups that you can join, places where you can live life together and get to know people. Do you know that Sunday morning is designed to get to know the back of the persons head in front of you, to be quite blunt with you? Sometimes people will say, You know, I feel like the Sunday morning service is not really having fellowship. Ill say, Thats correct. Theyll look at you like, What? Ill say, Well, thats not what its designed for. Its kind of hard to get all of that done in an hour, you know? Corporate prayer and worship through music, instruction in the Word, and still have time for you to get to know somebody to that level? There are pockets of community. Ill see people linger, especially on Saturday nights or after the 11:00 service when you dont have to shuffle out for the next group to come in. Sometimes after this service, pockets will meet and pray and talk, but thats not what this service is designed for. Its not its purpose. We have other ministries in the church that are designed for that. Thats like going to a Chinese restaurant. I went to World Buffet, was it Saturday? It was good Chinese food. It would be like walking out of there and saying, You know, their American food here is just terrible. Im telling you this Chinese restaurant has the worst pizza in town. Im not coming back here! People would look at you and say, If you want pizza, you dont go there. If you want a burger, you dont go there. Its a Chinese restaurant. Dont have that expectation! Its not what its for. You know Sunday mornings, I just dont feel like I know anybody. Thats not what this service is for. This is to hear the Word. Weve got 30 small groups that meet during the week, so you can get to know people. We have 80 sub-ministries in our church that you can get involved with and get to know people. You can pick up your phone and call somebody and get to know people. Pursue that. Its not going to just happen. Its not going to just fall in your lap. Lets pray, Father, thank You for the instruction in Your Word as we look at Jesus and the Disciples. It was not always perfect, not always rosy, but weve gleaned so much from the way You handled those relationships. Weve learned about limited access. Father, we learned in that prayer, in that Scripture, about mutual assistance, about a lifestyle of authenticity, about unconditional acceptance. We thank You, Lord, that You love us. Help us, Lord, to find those and build those relationships in our lives. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
They had to break the law of the land because there was a higher law: the law of God. The only time that God says in His Word that its permissible to break mans law is when mans law conflicts with the law of God. For instance when the Apostles in the Book of Acts 5 were reprimanded for preaching the Gospel and told not to, they said, We must obey God rather than man. We cannot disobey God. We want to respect you. We mean no disrespect to you, but a higher law has spoken. We must obey that law. Why? The highest law is from God. In fact, law emanates from God. The first thing God did when He created man was what? He established law. You can eat from any tree, but that tree. Because law emanates from God, law exists as a servant of God. In the Book of Romans 13, it says that God establishes government for the purpose of punishing those who break His law. They are servants of God, Paul says. How did Iraq react to today? They passed a judgment on Saddam Hussein. Did you hear about that? Death by hanging-that is the judgment because he took hundreds of lives of innocent men, women, children and babies-infants. He is going to die. Government is to bring about justice. Only when government does not rule as Gods Word demonstrates should you and I seek to disobey that law. In fact, we should never disobey unless we have no other choice. The fact of the matter is sometimes man enacts laws, and sometimes the ways of society will have laws in place that are contrary to the laws of God. Theres no more resounding example of that than slavery, which was once legal in this country-legal by mans definition but not right in the eyes of God. Legislation did not make it right. We could pass a law today that says stealing is legal. If we passed that law, would it make it right? Some of you say, Well, that already exists. Its called the IRS. Were not going to go there. But if we said, Stealing is legal today, you would be upset if someone stole from you regardless of the law because you would know in your spirit stealing was wrong. You would feel guilt and shame if you stole from somebody because you know in your heart that stealing is wrong. So man can legislate all he wants to, but it doesnt change the law of God. Im going to speak this morning about a controversial subject because I feel like its my responsibility to do so as a pastor. Im going to talk this morning, since were talking about law, about the marriage amendment that is pending on Tuesday (November 7, 2006). I want you to hear me out. Some of you who might be voting against that amendment, I want you to listen to me. Its okay to disagree with me. We can have a dialogue. We wont argue. We can dialog. Ill respect your point of view, and I hope youll respect mine enough to listen and at least contemplate what Im saying today. Its a controversial issue. The issue before us on Tuesday is not a political issue. No matter who would try to make it so, it-to me-is a moral issue. You will never hear this church endorse a political candidate. You will never hear us endorse a political party. When I vote, I vote for a person, not a party. You may vote differently; thats your prerogative. Were not going to discuss those matters in our church. But when its an issue that emanates from the pages of this Book [the Bible], that emanates from God, we have every right; in fact, we have an obligation to speak on it. So thats what we are going to do today. Marriage is defined by God. The language says were defining marriage as…but God has already defined marriage. All we simply might do is affirm what God has already said. If a Republican tries to tell me this is a political issue, I say, No, its not. If a democrat tries to tell me that, I say, No, its not. If an organization or a union tries to tell me its political, I say, No, its not. It is a moral issue because it is addressed in Gods Word. Turn in your Bibles to the Book of Genesis 2 (Page 2-3 of Pew Bibles). When two people meet, they fall in love. First each is alone; then he or she meets someone and matches up. It works. Theres a connection there. Theres a completion there, and a wedding date is set. Have you seen the farmer commercial on TV [during election time-regarding the vote for marriage to be defined as a woman and a man] where the guy says, I dont know. It doesnt hurt me. Theyre not hurting me. Have you seen that commercial? Im voting no because theyre not hurting me. Its a good commercial from the standpoint of those who oppose the Amendment. Its well done. Im not saying I agree with it, but its effective. But I want to ask Mr. Farmer, Whats wrong with that? Anytime we, as a society, try to alter and change what God has ordained, society is hurt. When we try to bless and sanction what God has prohibited, society is hurt. The moral fiber of our country is hurt. Im going to talk about why that is so, using the Book of Genesis. So they meet, they fall in love, and a typical wedding looks like this: The father walks the bride down the aisle, and she looks lovely and radiant. The husband is waiting with anticipation. He presents her to the husband. He gives her away. Then they go before the minister, and there are witnesses there, and they express verbally their commitment to each other, that they are going to be together-that they are going to be one. During the wedding, they talk about the covenant of marriage, why its important, what it is, and what its purpose is. They are united as man and wife, and usually-not always-but usually, the woman takes part or all of the husbands name. I wanted to show you that the weddings that we experience now are a little different from the first wedding that ever took place. God created for six days; on the seventh day, he rested. But I want you to know, come Monday morning, He went back to work. What did God do when He got to work? What did He do when He was on the job again? He continued to create. He didnt create an animal or a fish or a bird. Those had already been created. Instead, God created marriage, ordained marriage and ordained the family. In Verse 22 of Genesis 2 (page 3), Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib He had taken out of the man, and He brought her to the man. Here we see God bringing the bride down the aisle and giving her away to her husband. Its a beautiful picture. God is the matchmaker, and I bet He did a good job too. I bet He created a woman He knew Adam would really like because if Adam didnt like her, its slim pickings out there. I bet He does a good job. I bet He designs a mate that Adam thinks is wonderful. God brings her to the man; He presents her to him; He gives her away. Then the man reads a vow. He makes a promise, a commitment. He said, This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh… He is not saying, Shes me, because obviously she wasnt him. What he is saying is She is a part of me. We are committed to each other. We are one flesh. He verbalizes his commitment, just as we do at our weddings. Then, a name is given, …she shall be called woman, for she was taken out of man. The Hebrew name for a man is ish. And she shall be called isha, for she was taken from ish. So she receives the mans name. It says, For this reason… For what reason? For the reasons above, the reasons of completion, the reason of Gods purpose and design, the reason of the fact that this is what God has established for humankind. This whole idea of oneness between a man and a woman, For this reason… Who? …a man will leave his father and mother and be united to… Who? …his wife... One man and one woman as one flesh. …and they will become one flesh. The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame. So there is a pronouncement of marriage. The officiate states the purpose of the marriage. It is oneness. It is completion. It is by Gods plan and by Gods design. Its hard to read that as a believer; its hard to read that as anybody, even a non-believer, and think that marriage is not found in the Scripture. To think that God did not ordain or begin the foundation of marriage in that way… Then, if we look back one chapter, Genesis 1:28, it says, God blessed them. God said, This union is good: Adam and Eve, husband and wife. This is what I want. This is my desire. God blessed them, and again, We dare not tear down what God had blessed, Mr. Farmer. When we tear down what God has ordained and sanctioned, were in trouble as a society. He said [Verse 28], Be fruitful and increase in number… Have babies. Adam says, Okay, boss, whatever you say. So they have babies. They increase. He gives them the directive here to rule over the earth, Youre in charge of the Creation, the animals, and everything Ive made. You are the stewards of that. Our environment is not a political issue. I get upset when politicians try to make clean air a political issue or water, clean water, a political issue, when they try to make the care of our environment-of our natural resources-a political issue. It is not. It is not liberal, conservative, Republican, Democrat. It is a responsibility given to us by Almighty God-as caretakers of this earth-to take care of what Hes entrusted to us. We should protect our environment. We should also protect the covenant of marriage that Hes given to us. There are some who would preach, teach, and believe, and its their right to do so, that we should sanction and bless the union of man and man or woman and woman. I disagree. I believe its against what God had designed. They say they ordain homosexual ministers, both men and women. They perform marriages for same-sex couples. When asked to justify why they would do that, they say, Well the Scriptures are ambiguous on this subject. Its hard to interpret. Its confusing; its not clear. Thats your interpretation of things. How many have heard that before? A lot of us have. Some things are confusing. Buying a TV for me was confusing. Twelve years ago when we bought a TV, we walked into the store and said, Id like to buy a TV, and they said, TVs are over there. You went over to the TVs, looked at the pictures, and you said, I like that. You made a decision based on what the pictures looked like and how expensive it was. I like that one, but I cant afford it. Thats the nicest one I can afford; Ill buy that. They were all tubes. You were happy with it, and you loved it! Now, my TV goes on the fritz, and its time to buy a new TV. I go into the store and say, I want to buy a TV, expecting the old days. Holy macarol! What kind of TV? Do you want to watch HD? Sure, that would be good. I know what that is, high definition. Absolutely! I want to cheer for my Bears, and I can see them better that way. Give me the HD! Im thinking they are going to take me to the HD section, but no. Im going to start telling you about LCDs. Now, they have a new technology called DLP, the mirrors. Then, over here youve got your plasmas. Plasmas? Im not giving you any plasma. What are you talking about, plasma? They have gas inside of it. If you tip this TV, its destroyed. Im like, WOW! TVs have gotten complicated. I better go home and do some research before I lay down some cha-ching for a television set because theyve changed. That was unclear to me. Im going to read some scriptures to you this morning, or with you, and you tell me if theyre unclear. Lets open to Leviticus 18:22 (page 115). In Leviticus 18, God is laying down some prohibitions regarding sexual relations. I will not take time to read all of them, but most of these are what you would call no-brainers. He says in Verse 22, Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable. Tell us what you really think, God. Other translations say abomination. Its a nice way of saying God doesnt approve. Verse 24 [still in Leviticus 18], Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways… Any of these ways above… …because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled. This defiled the nation. If you try to bless what I have prohibited, it will not go well for you. In the Book of Leviticus 20:13, it says, If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads. We are under grace, and not law. The wrath of the law of sin was put upon Christ. We are not under time of the law. This is not a law that is being carried out today, but there was a time when it was. Its very graphic; its very hard, but God feels strongly about sin. In the Book of 1 Corinthians 6, if youd turn there please (page 1131). So far, is anything weve read unclear? Does it seem to you ambiguous? In 1 Corinthians 6:9, it says, Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived… That means dont be lead astray. Dont be fed a line. Dont buy into a distortion of the truth. Be wise. …Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders… Some Ive heard say, pathetically, That doesnt really refer to homosexuals. It actually does. I wonder how much Greek they studied. Ive studied quite a bit, and it does. They say, Well, thats male prostitutes. No, thatd be the word before that. Actually, in Corinth, there was a lot of temple prostitution; pagan rituals and male prostitutes were involved. Those were the passive partners in the homosexual relationship. Some of your translations will say effeminate. Thats what that word is, the passive partner. …nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. Some of you read that list and go, Uh oh. Ive done some of those things. Understand what Paul is saying here in the present act of indicative tense. It is something that you have done, are doing, and are going to continue to do. It is a lifestyle you have chosen that you are defiant concerning Gods law, that you are blatant in your opposition to Gods law, that you are living in this lifestyle unashamedly and unrepentedly. Im not talking about some of you who sin and feel bad and ask for forgiveness. Its talking about somebody who shakes their fist at God and says, I dont care what you say, Im going to continue to do what I want to do. Paul says, Know that that person has no part in the kingdom of God. That is what some of you were, but you were washed; you were sanctified; you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus by the spirit of our God. They changed from the way they had behaved in the past. One more, in the Book of Romans 1:26 (page 1113), Paul is speaking about how men suppress the truth and exchange the truth of God. He says in Verse 26, Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way, the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. Is that unclear? Is it confusing? Okay. Paul uses the word natural. Im told that its natural for them. It might be unnatural for you, but its a natural behavior for them. The Word says its unnatural. So if what an argument that is in the world is saying its natural, and Gods Word says its unnatural, who are you going to believe? Do you believe this? When he says its unnatural, what Paul is saying is its not according to the plan of God. Its not according to the design of God like that which we read in Genesis 1 and 2, that a man and a woman come together, that God blesses that union; they become one flesh, and they procreate. They become fruitful and multiply and increase. That is what is natural. That is design. That is purpose. When Paul says its unnatural, thats what hes referring to. Hes saying its against the plan. When I have to make a decision, and the world is saying one thing, and people are saying another, where do I line up? So those are just some of the Scriptures that speak of this behavior? So what do we do as a body of believers? How do we respond to that situation? I think we read from John 8 and see how Jesus dealt with it. In John 8:1, a woman is caught in adultery. You say, Well, adultery is different than homosexuality. What I have found in my years of ministry, and there are many who believe this, is that when there is sexual immoral behavior-whether its adultery or fornication or homosexuality-there are some unmet love needs there. There are some unmet emotional needs, possibly some abuse that has taken place. There is no conclusive study that says people are born with an innate attraction to the opposite sex. This behavior comes when something is missing, and we seek to fill that void through those kinds of relationships. The book Im reading from is from Richard Cohen, and he writes these words. He says, Same-sex attraction has nothing to do with sex. Within the person who experiences same-sex attraction is a hurt child looking for love. The author talks about cases where once those love needs are met, they are returned to a kind of expression of love and sexuality that God had ordained in Scripture. After adolescence, emotional needs for bonding are eroticized. When you encounter a person with a same-sex attraction, regardless of his or her age, imagine them as a hurt child who is simply looking for love. If that is the case, then we would not respond in hate. Jesus does not respond in hate, and youll see that in this passage. In John 8, a woman is caught in adultery, and she is brought before Him as He teaches in the temple. The Pharisees and the teachers of the law are trying to trap Jesus. They say, This woman is caught in adultery. In the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do You say? They were using this question as a trap in order to have a basis for accusing Him. This is a sting operation. The mans not present, and he should be. The reason hes not present is because they used this woman as a pawn, a setup. It just so happens, it conveniently coincides with the time that Jesus is teaching. So they bring her into the circle, and they confess her sin to the public. Not only is she embarrassed and ashamed that she has been caught in adultery, but now she is afraid that she very well could die. Shes afraid. Shes ashamed. She is hurting. If Jesus says, Let her go, then theyd say, What about the Law of Moses? We thought You believed in Moses, Jesus, and youre just a big softie. If Jesus says, Stone her, then theyll say, Oh, what about all this love and forgiveness you preach, Jesus? So Jesus is going to be attacked no matter what He does, right? Wrong. Only God could respond in this way. Watch what He does. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with His finger. The word here write is different than the word in Verse 8 when it says, He stooped down and wrote on the ground. Those two words for write are two different words. You wouldnt see that unless you looked in the Greek. The Greek word for write is normally graphien. However, the original Greek uses the word katagraphien. This is profound because any time kata is used in front of a word, it means against. In other words, Jesus was writing things against some of those in the Temple. Many scholars believe that when Jesus bent down and started writing on the ground, Hes not doodling. Hes not biding time for thinking up something to say, but Hes actually writing down sins, maybe even including names in the dirt. So their responses might have been to look at that and go, How in the world did Jesus know I did that? He stands up, and if thats the case, then what He says makes total sense because He stands up and says, He who is without sin must be the first to thrown a stone at her. Then He stooped on the ground and began to write some more. One by one, they started dropping their rocks. I dont want my name to be next. The leaders start to walk away. Maybe somebody got slapped on the back of the head, like the three stooges, Told you! Dumb idea! Wouldnt work! They walk away embarrassed and ashamed. So she stands there. The accusers are gone, and their rocks are on the ground. Jesus straightened up and asked her, Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you? No one, sir, she said. She was probably rather startled and surprised. Jesus says, Well, I do, you wicked woman! Shame on you! Is that what He says? Its not what He says. Does He say, Forget about it! Hey, its just the way you are. No big deal, everybody has a vice. I wont tell anybody. He winks at her and says, Lets pretend this conversation never happened. Is that what He does? He doesnt do that either. He says, Neither do I condemn you, Jesus declared. Go now and leave your life of sin. Brilliant!! Do you see what He did here? He loves her! He offers forgiveness and restoration to her. He sees this is a hurt person who is looking for love in all the wrong places. He says, You dont have to live this way. You dont have to look in those places. From now on, leave your life of sin. How powerful is that? He acknowledges that her behavior is not right. He doesnt sanction; He doesnt condone it; He calls it for what it is, but He offers her hope and says, You dont have to continue in that way. You can have a different life. So He loves and He still stands up for whats right. Only God could come up with a solution like that in a situation like that. On Tuesday, we will have a responsibility to protect what God has begun as the foundation of our society. I want to read a quote for you. Ill do a Paul Harvey moment with you. I wont tell you who said it until Im done. The quote reads like this, For certainly no legislation can be supposed more holsum and necessary than the founding of a free self-governing commonwealth... In other words, there is no law more important than this. …than that which seeks to establish it on the basis of the idea of the family as consisting in and springing from the union for life of one man and one woman in the holy state of matrimony. Further it said that this is the sure foundation of all that is stable and knowable in our society. Do you know who stated that? It wasnt just one person. It was our Supreme Court. The year was 1885. Now, lets go to today. I want to read from what a Congressman from Wisconsin, from New Berlin, Mark Gundrum, co-sponsor of this legislation, said. He said, Wisconsin citizens now have an opportunity to vote to protect marriage from activist judges like those in Massachusetts. The amendment not only defines marriage as a union between one man and woman, but also prevents courts from legalizing same-sex marriages giving other names, such as civil union or civil covenant. Significantly, though… This is very important, because Ive heard this argument from the other side. …Significantly, though, the language does not prohibit the legislature, local governments, or private businesses from extended particular benefits to same-sex partners as those legal entities might choose to do. Whether you think those benefits should be given or not is beside the point; this amendment does not speak to that concern. He goes on further and says, Marriage is more than just eight letters used to describe it or a mechanism to secure a basket of government benefits. It is the cornerstone of our society. We cant just sit back and let four lawyers in black robes take this fundamental institution away from people. That is what this Congressman writes. If you agree with what Ive said, and its your desire to affirm the covenant of marriage as God established in the beginning, then you would vote Yes. Yes, I affirm that marriage is between a man and a woman. I hope that you will do that on Tuesday. I hope that you will educate any friends around the water cooler as they try to portray this amendment as something it isnt. It is about saying marriage is a man and a woman, not a man and man, a woman and a woman, Hugh Hefner and his Playboy Bunnies. Its more than just a contract between two people who love and care about each other. A man and a woman: our gender roles mean something. God created us that way. When somebody loses a family member who is a father, people try to come and help that family out, help provide for that family, protect that family. When theres a mother thats lost, people come by and they try to help nurture those children. We as a society dont want to deliberately create homes where there is no father, where there is no mother. This is not a knock on single-parent homes either. We have many single-parent homes in our church. God bless them. Were here to help them. But we dont want to legislate and deliberately create homes where the child isnt going to have a father or mother and say thats okay with us. God created us different, man and woman, and He did so for a reason. He established the family clearly in His Word. I hope that you will affirm what God has established. Should we choose not to, and theyre expecting our state to be the weak link, it will not change what God has designed and what God has established. Therell be consequences, but it will not change His law. Law comes from Him.
Good morning on this beautiful fall morning. This morning we sang the Song, Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of Creation, written by a young man named Joachim Neander. Joachim, interestingly enough, at the age of 18, went to a church service with several of his friends to make fun of the preacher; only, things didnt turn out how he thought. Do you know what happened? He heard the Gospel, and He was saved. He gave his heart and life to Christ. He only lived to be 30 years old, but during that span, he wrote 60 Songs. He loved nature and Creation. In an ironic twist, his most well-known hymn that he wrote was Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of Creation. He loved Creation and nature so much. There was a cave and a valley where he inhabited quite often. He went there to pray and meditate. He was so well known that that valley actually became Neander Valley. About 100 years later when supposedly some missing links were found, guess what one of those missing links was named? Neanderfall Man. Isnt that amazing? Only the real Neander for whom Neanderfall Man was named would tell you that the God of Creation changed His life. There is design everywhere you see. Weve talked about that in many messages before, so I want to talk today about Gods design and order in society: Social Order and Sociology. Turn, if you will, to the Book of Matthew 12:31 (Page 967 of pew Bibles). Our wonderful tech team is going to put it on the screen, so I dont have to read it out of the Bible. I can save my eyeballs. Jesus is speaking to the religious leaders of His day, and He said, And so I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. We are not even talking about blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, but youre thinking, What in the world does this have to do with social order, right? Heres my question: how many of you have ever watched a pro sports game and the player makes some fabulous play, especially in football, and the camera focuses in on him-zeros in on him-and all the sudden the player turns, looks at the camera, waves and says, Hi Mom. How come they dont say, Hi Dad? In fact, one of the most hilarious things I ever saw was about six or seven years ago. NFL Films made a movie, or a video clip, of all these guys saying, Hi Mom. They put it to Tchaikovskys 1812 Overture. It was fabulous. It had all these different players saying hi mom in all these different ways. It was absolutely great. There is this honor of Mother. Where did that come from? It is in fact among young men. Sometimes you make fun of each others dads, but who is the one person you dont make fun of, and you know if you do, youre going to pay a price for it? Mom. Its still etched in my memory, in very vivid living color, my senior year in high school in shop class. I walked in one day, and a young man who was very arrogant and cocky walked in after I did. His name was Bruce. In front of everybody, he started to sing really filthy and crude things about my mother. At that point in my life, Id realized I couldnt fight. As much as I would have liked to put him on the floor, I could not do that. So I said, Bruce, I tell you what. You deserve to get slapped and smacked and beaten to a bloody pulp, but I cant do that, so I tell you what Im going to do. Im not going to hit you; Im going to let you hit me. Ill give you a free shot. You hit me in the stomach as hard as you jolly well please. His eyes got big. He was like, Youre kidding me! I said, No! As hard as you want. Crank it up and hammer me. I dont care. Unbeknownst to Bruce, I had spent the last four years of my life doing 400 sit-ups a day, every single day. So Bruces eyes get wide, and his mouth is salivating, and he draws back and swings, and his wrist goes all wobbly. He sprained his wrist very badly, and all the guys in the shop class were sitting there laughing at him. I said, Bruce, that ought to teach you not to make fun of other peoples mothers, especially mothers who make their sons go down in the basement and do 400 sit-ups a night. There is this desire to defend and protect Moms name. Where did that come from? Where did that come from? I submit to you this morning that that comes from the relationship of God the Son to God the Holy Spirit and God the Father to God the Holy Spirit. There have been many illustrations of the Trinity and the Godhead, none of which are perfect. Its with humility that I give you this one. As you think about the Trinity and the Godhead, how many cans of racquetballs am I holding up? One. Okay, thank you very much. Not two cans, which are also tropical birds with big beaks and colorful… Not two cans, not three cans, not four cans: One can. But inside that can, you have how many balls? Three. You guys are awesome! The interesting thing is you couldnt tell one from the other, right? Theyre all interchangeable. Thats maybe in some ways where our illustration breaks down because in the Godhead, there are various roles that the members of the Godhead perform. The Westminster Shorter Catechism said 200 years ago the members of the Godhead are the same in essence and equal in power and glory. To see one is to see the other. So that Jesus said, If youve seen me, youve seen the Father. They bear the same essence, the same substance, and the same characteristics, the same quality; yet, they are three individuals. How does the Godhead work? Well, the Son, interestingly enough, He is going to rule and reign on this earth. In fact, the Son says that He is going to reign until He puts all enemies under his feet. Paul says, Then when He has done that, He will deliver up the Kingdom to the Father. So you have the Son in subjection in honoring the Father. You see that in the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus prays to the Father, Not my will, but Yours be done. If there is one member of the Godhead that is seemingly left out sometimes, and the least well-known, who is that? The Holy Spirit. Interestingly enough, the Holy Spirit is the one who seemingly gets less honor, less attention, and the members of the Godhead say that member, the Holy Spirit, Youd better not say anything about Him. Interesting, right? So we get ticked off as young man if they say something about our mothers. Look what Jesus says. He says, You can blaspheme the Father, and you can find forgiveness. You can blaspheme Me, the Son, and you can find forgiveness, but youd better not blaspheme the Holy Spirit. You do that, the Son says, You blaspheme the Holy Spirit, and youre in trouble. Isnt that interesting? Why do we react that way with our moms? Friends, that is the stamp of the Godhead in our families. We ask ourselves, in our societies, our families, our government, and at work, How do we function? God is a God of word. Hes not a God of confusion. Hes a God of design. You see it everywhere in Creation. As we look at that pattern in families, labor, and governments today, we want to take some lessons from there, and we want to see Gods design and how that applies to our lives. First of all, in families, I would say that because of that stamp of God, friends, as a human being, you cannot stand chaos. You cant abide it. What happens in a family when order is thrown out and theres no order in a family? You have fracturing of families; divorce follows. What is the foundation of that kind of order? Id call it the Two Ss: submission, which in our culture is almost a dirty word, isnt it? The second is servant leadership, but thats what you have: Service and Submission, leaders using their positions to serve others, and those under authority submitting themselves to the leadership of those over them. Thats the model of the Godhead, service and submission, among the members of the Godhead. Thats what creates order. When you have leaders in homes and parents who are servants to each other and children who honor their parents, who are in submission to them. You have order. When that is violated, you have chaos. The same thing happens in governments, and the same thing happens at work and on the job. If you watched the videos, Del Tackett will talk about the family a little more extensively and government and labor a little less extensively, so we want to jump into that today. If we can turn to Romans 13:1 (page 1123), look at what it says, Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which god has established. Theres the S word again, which, again, is almost like a curse word in our culture. Everyone must, what? Submit himself to the governing authorities. Whats your attitude about that? Submission, honor, respect. Those are like lost words in our culture, arent they? Some of you that were teachers 50 years ago in our schools, the worst crimes were running in the halls and chewing gum. I know Im getting older, but when I graduated from a four-year high school with over 2,000 kids, I knew one child who came from divorced parents. There was one pregnancy in our school. That was from a school of 2,000 kids! What has happened is we have gotten away from respect, honor, authority, and submission. We have reaped the consequences of that, right? We pay the price in our society as that order breaks down. Interestingly enough, where did that start? We were talking about evolution. When you begin to say that everything got here by accident, by chance, we just happened to show up here…POOF! And things magically appeared. There was no design, no order, and no structure, which basically means as Huxley, Darwins bulldog, said, Do you know why everyone embraces evolution? This is interesting. …because evolution says there is no God, and it gives us license to do anything that we want to do. Huxley said, …especially that allows us to do anything we want sexually. Isnt that interesting? Those are the words of an atheist and an evolutionist, not a Creationist. But what happens when we throw God and His pattern out, you reap the consequences; you reap chaos. Friends, in our societies and our government, this is the one thing we cannot abide. Its the one thing we have to understand or realize. When we throw off order, and we throw off self-control, we get basically the type of government that we deserve. Do you realize that? How many of us have every complained about bigger and bigger government, higher taxes, more byrocracy? Theres a verse in Proverbs that the wisest man that ever lived, Proverbs 28:2 (page 653), Solomon says, For the transgression of a land, many are its princes. In other words, the less self-control that people have, the more bureaucrats have to control them and tell them what to do. The songwriter, 100 years ago, wrote America, confirm my soul. America, America, God shed His grace on thee. Confirm thy soul and self-control by liberty and law. When people have self-control, you dont need near as big of a government telling you what to do, right? This is not politically correct to say, okay? Im not taking potshots at anybody elses religion; although, there is truth, but I will never forget until the day I die a week after we liberated Baghdad, one of the holiest shrines in a small city a few miles away from there-the shrine of Mohammads nephew, the Shiites holiest shrine, was now open. National Geographic had pictures of thousands and thousands of men, women, dads, sons, grandfathers, grandsons, all dressed in white, streaming to this holiest site. Do you know what they were doing? They had machetes and knives, and the grandfathers, sons, and grandsons were cutting themselves, cutting their sons, cutting their grandsons. There was blood streaming down their faces. This was in National Geographic. You can look it up. Blood was streaming down their white garments. If you are a grandfather, could you imagine taking a machete and cutting your grandson, taking a dagger and slicing your son or your grandson? I could not imagine such a thing! I said to myself, And we are going to bring democracy to these people? You have got to be kidding me! I, in no way, in no way at all, condone anything Saddam Hussein did, but you know why he existed? Do you know why he ruled with a ruthless iron fist for 20 years? Because for 2,000 years, those people have been killing each other, slitting each others throats, and shedding each others blood. Because they have very little self-control, somebody with an iron hand and an iron rod has to bring order because people cannot abide chaos. Weve seen this in the last 100 years in the world: how many of you have ever heard the lie that all wars in history have been started over religion and that all wars are religious wars. If you go to many history classes, you hear that lie. There have been some awful atrocities committed in the name of religion. Im not lying to you. In fact, one of the degrees I have is in history. Im being honest. There have been atrocities committed in the name of religion; however, do you know what they dont tell you? In the last 100 years, in the 20th Century, more people have died in the 20th Century under atheistic regimes. That threw God out of the picture and denied His order. More people died under those brutal regimes than all the other wars of all of history, of all the years put together. Isnt that amazing? They dont tell you that, do they? Adolf Hitler, by conservative estimates-and hes the boogieman of the 20th Century, killed 3 million people. In moderate estimates, he killed 6 million. Adolf Hitler was a kindergartner compared to what Joseph Stalin did in Russia. When communism outlawed Christianity, outlawed God, and instituted atheistic government and denied Gods social orders and regimes, do you know what happened? Joseph Stalin ended up butchering, conservative estimates, 30 million of his own people. Moderated estimates say 50 million of his own people. Joseph Stalin was in junior high compared to what Mao Zedong did in communist, atheistic China. Mao Zedong ran Chiang Kai-shek as a Christian out of China. Chiang Kai-shek fled to Formosa, now Taiwan. And interestingly enough Hong Kong and Taiwan are some of the tiniest and most prosperous countries in the world founded with a Christian leader. When Mao Zedong ran Chiang Kai-shek out of China, communism and atheism took over. Christianity, religion, was outlawed in China, and Mao proceeded to butcher, by conservative estimates, 70 million of his own people. By liberal estimates, or moderate estimates, 100 million plus of his own people were butchered. Thats what Godlessness gets you. On the other hand, contrary to the American Revolution, we sent letters to King George III and said, Why can we do this? Because you, as a king, cannot do whatever you jolly well please. But what did our Forefathers write to him? We hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights. There are universal laws, King, that apply to you. There are truths; there are absolutes; there are laws that apply to everybody whether you sit on the thrown or youre the lowliest pheasant. These laws apply to you. So the American Revolution, even though there was bloodshed, was characterized by one word: order and not by chaos. We instituted the government and George Washington. At the chance where he could have made himself King, the most powerful man in the country, he stepped down after two terms. King George III saw that George Washington, this powerful leader, stepped out and submitted himself to the rule of everybody and was a true servant. King George III said that George Washington truly was the most powerful man in the world, to have power and give it up. What happened, on the other hand, in France? During the French Revolution, where they threw off God, distained God, at the Age of Enlightenment from Locke and Montesquieu and Rousseau, it lead to butchery everywhere. You know the symbol of the French Revolution, the Guillotine. The whole symbolism, throw God out of the picture and heads roll. You talk about social order! They went so far as to deny God and say that, Since God instituted the seven-day week, were going to institute the eight-day week. Only, do you know what? It didnt work. People were breaking down; horses were breaking down; things did not work because they denied the very creative order of God. This is what happens in societies and countries where you deny that: chaos reigns. Ill go one step further. When we talk about a Christian worldview, what makes government work? Is there any perfect form of government? The answer is no. Its interesting to think of what form of government the new Heaven and the new earth will be? It will be a monarchy. Jesus is King; He reigns. Will it work? Will it be wonderful? Absolutely. Why? Because the King is perfect and good and just. If the people in charge, those in charge, are holy, good, just, and right, guess what? Any form of government will work. If theyre not, it wont. To contrast philosophically, what do we hear everywhere, which kind of government are we-98 percent of the time? Ninety-eight percent of the time, youll hear that America is a democracy. My question to you: Is that true? The answer is no. Remember what you said everyday in school growing up? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands... Democracy is ruled by the majority. To break to down to the bear essence, its mob rule. So what if the mob is bad? What if the mob is evil? Democracy isnt so wonderful, is it? How many of you have ever experienced fighting? That is one reason why it bothers me so much when I see people get picked on and abused; I used to be that. How many of you have ever experienced mob rule in junior high or high school? Ive seen it; youve seen it. Its not fun, is it? When the majority decides they are going to pick on the weak, the helpless, and the innocent. The contrast that was with the Republic, which is intended to be ruled by law, was there are certain absolutes, certain truths that you cannot deny. These exist. Thats what America was founded as. It was because our leaders believed in the Word of God. There are absolutes that God designed. Lets jump into labor really quickly. Flash forward to 1 Peter 2:18 (page 1201). Slavery was outlawed in the United States, over 140 years ago, so lets substitute workers in this passage. Workers, submit yourselves to your masters (or bosses) with all respect, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh. Okay, well stop right there for a second. As you look at the social, are you talking about the levels of the Godhead, the three persons of the Godhead? Do you know that government can talk about it? Government worked the same way. In work and government, what do you have? You have three levels of authority or three levels of rules, three levels of existence in government or work. You have in government, in the United States, a federal government, a state government, and a local government. Any form of government, whether its autocratic-ruled by a dictator or an individual; monarchy; ruled by a king; democracy; republic communism; any of those, you may have one visionary-one lead person. But if you have a society of several million people, can that one lead person and that one visionary, that one ruler, can they minister and rule everybody by themselves. The answer is no. You cant be that many places at once. So the gap between the leader and the people is bridged by middle management, right? Bureaucracy. Let me tell you something; those of you who are in middle management know it. Those of you who are under middle management, give them a break. They have the toughest job in the world. People in middle management have to be in submission and honor and respect of the people over them, right? Then they have to deal with the people under them. They have a tough job. The Godhead shows again what happens when there is honor given all the way around, where there is a servant-like attitude. Theres submission; theres honor and respect for every member. Theres complete and incredible harmony. But what happens when that isnt happening, when workers rise up against bosses, and bosses use their position to grind workers under their heal and gain advantage? What kind of a workplace do you have? Not very fun, is it? Not very enjoyable. But on the other hand, when you have a workplace where bosses, owners and CEOs use their position to be servant leaders, and workers respect them, and people in middle management honor, serve, and respect both ways, you have an amazing place. One of my favorite stories ever is of Henry Heinz. Do you know who Henry Heinz was? Youve heard of Heinz Ketchup. It used to be Heinz 57 Varieties. Henry Heinz knew what it was like to grow up with nothing. He grew up on a small farm, and at nine years old, he was given two acres of his own, from which he grew fresh vegetables. At nine years old, Henry Heinz started making horseradish. By his teens, he had a booming business. By the age of 21, he was making $2,400 a year, which doesnt sound like a lot now, but in the early 1900s, that was a lot of money. He went on to found his company, Heinz and named it 57 Varieties even thought they used way more varieties than that, he thought 57 sounded like a cool number. When the Labor Movement came in and unions came in, they repeatedly tried to enter Henry Heinzs companies, and nobody wanted them. Why do you think that was? It was because Henry Heinz was a Christian. He had a huge impact in Pittsburghs Sunday Schools. Henry Heinz was the first man to build swimming pools for his employees. Henry Heinz built gymnasiums for his employees. He had his people hold classes so that if his employees wanted to better themselves, they could take classes and better themselves. Henry was one of the first people in America to provide free medical benefits with doctors and nurses on hand for his workers. Isnt that amazing? So when people came in and started trying to stir them up against management, the workers were saying, You have to be out of your mind! Everybody wanted to work for Henry Heinz. Weve got benefits. Weve got swimming pools. Weve got gymnasiums. Weve got free medical care. Wow! How incredible when somebody uses their resources, money, to care for their workers, right? The workers in turn show honor and respect. Yet, heres the last thing God says in this passage. Thats the idea, what if isnt true? He says, For it is commendable if a man bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because he is conscious of God. When you realize God put those bosses, good or bad, over you, it changes your attitude. Do you also realize that the way you treat your boss is the way you would treat Jesus Christ. How is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing a wrong and endure it, but if you suffer for doing well and you endure it, this is commendable before God? To this you were called because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in His steps. Lets go back to Heavenly families. Let me ask you. Kids, God says Honor Your Parents- point blank, cut and dried, end of discussion. Let me ask you a question. Has any Father ever asked any more of a kid or a son or a child than God the Father asked of His Son, Jesus Christ? Son, I have a plan. Youre going to go through hell, multi-billions of times over to suffer for all the sins of the world, even though You didnt ever commit a sin in Your life. Did Jesus throw a hissy fit? Did Jesus say, Well, how dare You treat Me that way? Did He slam the bedroom door on the Heavenly Godhead and say, Forget You Dad? No. In the Garden of Gethsemane, He falls on His face before God and says, Father, not My will, but Yours be done. Have you ever gotten in trouble from being way too respectful, way too honorable, and way too noble? You are going to see your kids teachers, and the teacher is like, Well, your child is just way too respectful. They honor everybody in the school way too much, will you please, please get them to quit? Did Jesus suffer? Absolutely. Even though He committed no sin, and no deceit was in His mouth, did He suffer more than any son has ever suffered for a father? Absolutely. What did it get Him though? Therefore, God is also highly exalted Him and given Him a name which is above every name. At the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Will He be rewarded? Absolutely. Has any king or any nation ever asked anything as much out of their citizens as the King of the Universe asked out of His Son? The answer is no. Has any boss ever asked as much out of their workers as God the Father, the Heavenly Master, asked out of His Son, the Servant? The answer is no. What did it get Him? The greatest reward, the greatest honors, the greatest position the world has ever seen. God asks us to mimic and to mirror His example. Though He committed no sin and no deceit was found in His mouth, yet what happened? When they hurled insults at Him, He did not retaliate. When He suffered, He made no threats. Instead, He entrusted Himself to the One who judges justly. God knows that if you show honor, you show respect, you know what will happen? The way you treat your boss is the way you treat Jesus Christ. He sees everything, doesnt He? He sees all the things that you go through, and there is not one thing that happens to you that He does not see. He will reward you for your attitude. He will reward you for your goodness. He will reward you for doing your job to the best of your ability. I was just talking with a gentleman on the way out. He said, I started working in a factory… He could tell the difference between the people who were Christians and who were not. The people who were not were griping about everything under the sun, from the boss to the pay… He said, I could walk up to people who were Christians and say, Are you a Christian? and theyd say, Yeah, howd you know? Because you dont whine, you dont gripe, and you dont run your mouth. Isnt that amazing? Thats the example of Jesus Christ. That helps us to bring order to the world that we live in. So pray that God will encourage you. If youre in a position of authority, use that to serve and to bless and build up others. If youre in a position with people under you, honor them, so give them reverence, respect. Youll reap the rewards of that. Maybe not today, maybe not next week, but down the road and for all eternity. God bless you.
Were in the Book of Ezra this morning. Right off the bat, let's turn to Ezra 1. Youre thinking, Okay. We're talking about history this morning. The pastor has opened the book up to the Book of Ezra. Get your elbows ready, Hazel, its going to be a snoozer this morning. Im going to need a poke every now and then. I can assure you, thats not the case. Were going to read a passage of scripture that is historical, but if Ive done my job, if you were to read it again later on, its going to take on a whole new significance to you. This is page 461 [from Ezra 1]. The year is 538 B.C. Does everybody have it? Okay. In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the Word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah, the Lord moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and to put it in writing: This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: The Lord, the God of Heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and He has appointed me to build a temple for Him at Jerusalem in Judah. Well stop there. What is the name of the king? Cyrus. What is the name of his kingdom? Persia. And what is he called to do? To issue a decree to rebuild the temple. He acknowledges God is giving him a kingdom. A little historical tidbit this morning: We all know of Alexander the Great and other world dictators. No one has ever ruled more area, more space-a bigger area of the globe, than Cyrus of Persia, so those words are certainly true. Now, were going to talk about what happened before those words were spoken. Turn in your Bibles to Isaiah 46 (Page 723 of pew Bibles). While youre turning there, you are saying so far, Pastor, this is a snoozer, man. Youre wrong. Hang with me. How many of you have been in traffic…Maybe theres construction you didnt know about. Something has happened on the toll road, and its backed up. Its moving slow. Sometimes its not moving at all. You say, I wish I never would have gotten on this road. I wish I would have gotten off at the last exit. This is a mistake. Then you look across the way, and you see traffic flowing. You say, I wish I were over there. Those people are lucky. Or, youve been at the opposite end of the spectrum. Youve been cruising along and looked at the oncoming traffic going the other direction, and theyre at a total standstill for miles. You say, I sure am glad I am not over there. When I come home, Im going to make sure I go a different route. Thats called learning from history. The same thing is true in life. Sometimes you and I will make mistakes, and well say, I should have never agreed to that contract. I should have never taken this job. I should have never become friends with that person. I should never have started this project. I should have never bought that car. Hands would go up all over the place for that one. Ive learned from my mistakes. Im not going to do that again, right? How many of you have ever said that and then went and repeated the same mistake years down the road? A bunch of knuckleheads, myself included. Hard-headed stubborn people. Or, we have watched somebody else make a mistake, and we have seen the heartache and the consequences; and weve said, I dont want to ever do that because I see the pain it has brought. Thats learning from history. We do that. In the Book of Isaiah 46, God is speaking to the people of Israel who are economically prosperous but spiritually impoverished. They are beginning to follow the gods of Babylon as referenced in the first verse when he says, Bel bows down, Nebo stoops low; their idols are born by beasts of burden. Bel was the Babylon equivalent of Baal, and Nebo was his son according to their gods. Of course, we know Nebuchadnezzar and Belteshazzar. We can see the names of those Pagan Gods in their names. And so that influence had infiltrated Israel, and Israel was in idolatry. Instead of serving the living God, they began to bow down to idols and statues and things made by man. God said as a result of that, Punishment is going to come your way. You are going to be taken captive. You are going to be exiled to a foreign land. Isaiah speaks of this in the 39th chapter of this book. He tells King Hezekiah that another country is going to come down, and, Youre going to be taken captive. For 70 years, Jeremiah also prophesized that they would be taken captive by the Babylonians, and that is fulfilled. And into exile they go. Nebuchadnezzars desire is that they forget the Lord, their God, and they follow after the pagan-the babylonian gods. In fact, they even worship his image. But Israel will not do that. Israel will continue to serve and follow; certainly a remnant will. Eventually, God is going to bring them back to the Holy Land. Why? Jesus is to be born. Where? Where do the prophets say He will be born? In Bethlehem. Micah 5:2 tells us that the King, the Messiah, will come from Bethlehem. We know from the prophesies in Isaiah that the Holy One will be born in Israel. So, if that is to happen, Israel must do what? They must return to the Holy Land. They cannot stay in Babylon. Were going to see how our God is the God of history and how He accomplishes His purpose. Lets start with Verse 8 [of Isaiah 46] (page 723). Remember this, fix it in mind, take it to heart, you rebels. Its talking about us stubborn people who dont learn from our mistakes. Remember the former things, those of long ago… God is saying history is significant. We learn from history. We learn about ourselves, and we learn about Him through our history. Remember it. I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. God does not see like you and I. We get caught by the traffic jams; we get caught by the accidents; we get caught with the detours because we dont see them. God sees them. God sees the whole road. He knows every twist and turn and bump. He does not see as you and I. The next page, begin reading with the rest of Verse 10, I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please. That is a workable definition of sovereignty. Say sovereignty. When we say God is sovereign, that means Gods purposes will be accomplished. You are free to choose or reject Him, to follow after Him or go your own way. However, His purposes will not be ported by your decision. He is sovereign, and His will will be accomplished. From Verse 11, From the east I summon a bird of pretty; from a far-off land, a man to fulfill my purpose. What I have said, that will I bring about; what I have planned, that will I do. So the bird of prey Hes talking about from the east is actually a man. If you go east of Judah, what county do you find in those times? Persia. So the man we are speaking of from the east, this bird of prey that will swoop in to accomplish the purposes of God is a man named Cyrus whose prophesy was fulfilled as we read in Ezra 1. Now were going to see something really cool. When I first learned of this, probably back in the late 70s while preparing for ministry, it just blew me away. Turn to Isaiah 44:28 (page 721). God is speaking through Isaiah, and He says, ...who says of Cyrus, He is my shepherd and will accomplish all that I please; he will say of Jerusalem, Let it be rebuilt, and of the temple, Let its foundation be laid. When does Isaiah write? In the mid-700s. Heres what gets really cool: God is speaking for a man who will not be born for almost 200 years, and He is telling us exactly what that man will do and how He will accomplish his purpose. Is God sovereign? Is God the God of history? This isnt one of those horoscope prophesy kind of things. This isnt one of the vague generalities that you read in the newspaper, This is a good day to make a friend kind of thing. This is talking about a man by name who will come from the country of Persia and who will deliver Israel to rebuild the temple. Isaiah likes this, by the power of God. Now, something very interesting happens. In Chapter 45, God begins to speak to Cyrus. Help me, you Bible scholars out there. You cross trainers out there. You help me. But its pretty rare, if not unique, that God speaks to an individual by name in scripture hundreds of years before he is born, by specific name. God is now, in Isaiah 45, beginning to speak directly to a person. The verses we are about to read are written to a person yet to be born. I want to stress that. This is what the Lord says to His anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I take hold of to subdue nations before him and to strip kings of their armor… Look at Verse 5; flip over one page. Still speaking to Cyrus, He says, I am the Lord, and there is not other; apart from me there is no God. I will strengthen you… Cyrus, …though you have not acknowledged me… Cyrus did not acknowledge God. You are thinking, I thought we read in Ezra 1 that he mentioned God and all of that. What Cyrus did was very different than what conquerors would do historically. Normally, I would come into your culture, if Im a conquering king, and strip you of your religion, tear down your altars, your temples, and your idols of worship and make you conform to my God. He didnt do that. He was a monotheist; he believed in one God, but he didnt worship the God of Israel. What he would do was he would try to placate the gods of the countries that he would overtake. You might say he was a benevolent dictator. So when Cyrus takes over Babylon, he says to the Israelites, who are going oh no, whats this landlord going to be like? he says, Go home. Go home. Build your temple. Rebuild your city. Ill help you do it. There is probably not a Gentile in the history of Israel with more esteem than was King Cyrus. He said, Go worship your God; youre under our rule, but you go home and you worship your God. So Israel returns, but the Messiah can be born there. Look in Verse 12 back in Chapter 46 (page 724). He says, Listen to me, you stubborn-hearted, you who are far from righteousness. I am bringing my righteousness near, it is not far away; and my salvation will not be delayed. I will grant salvation to Zion, and my splendor to Israel. Salvation is coming to the Holy Land. Delivery is going to be born. The Redeemer is going to come, and Gods people will come back. They will reestablish as a nation; and from there, salvation will come to the whole world, and this prophesy will be fulfilled. When I see Gods hand in history like this, do you know what it makes me do? It makes me trust. It makes me know that when things seem dark, and Im in a traffic jam, metaphorically speaking, I hit a roadblock, I hit a detour or a wreck I did not expect, and Im frustrated and angry and upset, God is still in control. You have put your hope and trust in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob-the God who speaks to people before theyre even born by name, and says, You will fulfill my purpose. Hes a sovereign God. He is the God that we serve, that even when things seem dark, He is still sovereign, and guess what? We only see a glimpse. We only see what lies ahead, but He sees the whole thing. You and I only see a chapter, a page, but God knows the whole book, so we can trust in Him because Hes the God of history. Isaiah 53, theres a famous prophesy if youll turn there. Isaiah 53 is the most astounding prophesy concerning the Messiah that has ever been written. Again, Isaiah writes 700 years before the birth of Christ, and he foretells of the sufferings of Christ and the details of His life and of His death with breath-taking accuracy in a manner we can only say that the Lord, Jesus Christ, the historical Jesus of Nazareth, fulfilled these verses spoken 700 years before he was born. Lets join in the prophesy in Verse 4 (page 731), Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered Him stricken by God… Isaiah is going to write of a future event as though it were past tense because why? God sees the end from the beginning. So he is writing of the Messiah coming, suffering and dying, and being resurrected, but he is speaking of it in a past tense. They thought He was smitten by God; they thought He was punished by God when He died on the cross, but He was pierced for our transgressions; He was crushed for our inequities. The word pierced in the Hebrew is always used for a literal piercing. It is not used in a metaphoric sense. I might say, Boy those words pierced my heart. The scripture doesnt use it in that way. Its always meant for a piercing of the skin, a breaking of the skin, by an object. It says this suffering servant, this servant of mine, will be pierced-literally-for our transgressions, for our sins. (Pick up on verse 5 of Isaiah 53, page 731)) …He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed. Not a physical peace, but a spiritual peace, and that which alienates us from God, has been resolved. The debt of sin has been paid, but not just the debt, the crimes that have been committed against God. When we sin, we break moral law; we commit crimes. Its not just a debt thats erased. Its a crime that must be atoned for. Justice must be served since God is just. So, Christ bears that punishment for us. (Pick up here on verse 6 of Isaiah 53) We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so He did not open his mouth. Other than His testimony in private before Pontius Pilate, as they were beating Him publicly, as they were striking Him and pulling out His beard, as they were cursing upon the cross, He did not say a word in His defense. [Continuing on with Isaiah 53:8] By oppression and judgment, He was taken away. And who can speak of His descendants? For He was cut off from the land of the living… The person who was pierced for sin is going to die says Isaiah. …for the transgression or sin of my people He was stricken. He was assigned a grave with the wicked… He was supposed to be buried between two thieves. …but with the rich in His death… Nope, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus took Him down from the cross, and in a rich mans tomb He was laid. Astoundingly accurate is the prophesy of Isaiah, breathtaking details of the death of Christ. [Continuing on with the rest of Isaiah 53:9] …though He had done no violence, nor was any deceit found in His mouth. Heres what we hone in on, Verse 10, Yet it was the Lords will to crush Him and cause Him to suffer… Stop right there. If you just stopped right there, and that was the end of the chapter, youd come to the conclusion that God is pretty mean. Why would you want to cause an innocent person to suffer? We just said Hed done nothing wrong. There was no inequity in Him. There was no sin in Him, yet God was pleased to cause Him to suffer, to have pain, to crush. It was Gods will, it says. The word will means desire, and God desired His servant to suffer and die. That sounds pretty harsh. When we look at the cross, did the disciples of Jesus take joy in His death? When He gave up His spirit and He hung His head, did they go, Oh! Awesome! Our God reigns! Did they see Gods purpose? They cried. They ran. They gave up the dream. They hid, and when they thought the coast was clear, they came out of hiding and said, Lets go back to fishing. The dream is over. As far as they knew, it was gone. We thought He was the one; we were wrong. It was quite an adventure, but its over. Well get on with our lives. Did Mary or the friends of Jesus look upon the cross as a great victory? It was a loss of a son; it was a loss of a brother; it was the loss of a friend, and He was not going to return. They saw that as something awful, yet the Bible says, God was pleased with it. Why? Because God sees the end from the beginning; because He is sovereign, because He is working in and through history to accomplish His purpose. God looks at the suffering of His son, and He sees you and me. He sees the church; He sees redemption; He sees the good that will come of it. Sometimes when you and I are going through suffering, all we see is the darkness. All we experience is the heartache, and we just shake our heads and think, Why, God? You dont see the whole story, church. You dont see the end. You see a chapter. You see a page, but the God of history, the God who is sovereign is your God. God has said, I will bring about My purposes in your life. Its in those times of darkness that we trust Him. Its those times that the disciples said, God, what is going on, Father? Why dont You save Him? Its those times when Jesus said, My God! My God! Why have Thou forsaken Me? But God had not forsaken Him. God does not and will not forsake you. Read in this passage further. We see the resurrection here. It says, ...and though the Lord makes His life a guilt offering… In other words, His life is literally going to be a sacrifice. …He will see his offspring… That is, you and I; we are His offspring; we are His children; we are the ones who believed in Him. …and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in His hand. Wait a second, I thought He was dead. Whats going on? After the suffering of His soul, He will see the light of life and be satisfied. Life from death. …by His knowledge, my righteous servant will justify man… Thats you and us, you and I. …and He will bear their iniquities. Just one of those stab in the dark prophesies, Isaiah. You just got lucky that time. Do you see here in history that God is the God of history? God is the God who was sovereign? It encourages us to persevere when things get dark because we know what God has said in His Word. In 1 Corinthians 15:58 (page 1140), Be steadfast. Be immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. Your life matters. What were doing as a church matters in the King of God. God has allowed you and me to be part of history, to be part of His redemptive plan. We are making history. My aunt passed away. She was 95 years old. Every time I spoke to my aunt, she reminded me of my heritage. I would say, Hello Aunt Gully. Hello Ya-free [instead of Jeffrey], how are ewe? We are Svenska. My four grandparents were born there. My father was born there, and my cousin recently sent our family a family tree from Sweden. Im processing it now, but it has traced my relatives on my fathers side back before the beginnings of America. Its pretty cool. There are a couple of things Ive noticed. One is I noticed a trend. Everybody I read about seems to die. Theres a trend there. So your own mortality strikes you right between the eyes. Youre like, Im part of that tree, and pretty soon, Im going to be a dash and a date. It really hits you. I dont know if youve ever seen a family tree or not. The second thing that dawned on me is all these names of people that I dont know and never will because they were born before photography, and their histories are long gone. Because they existed, Im here. Because they lived and carried out their lives, married, had children, those children had children: because of that, Im here. So I am from them, a part of them. It just gave me a greater understanding of my heritage. Friends, our church is a part of a heritage. Have you ever stopped to think about Faith Community 40-50 years from now? Have you ever stopped to think about that? I do. I think about it all the time. My desire wasnt to start a church that as soon as I kicked the bucket would go away. My desire is to build a church that is about bringing people to faith and maturity in Christ for long after you and I are gone. Thats my hope and desire. We are building a legacy for our future. Should the Lord provide, 40-50 years from now, I pray that Faith Community Church is right here in this community, still proclaiming the Gospel, supporting missions around the world, sending out missionaries, discipling people. Thats my prayer. The building that were trying to build, thats in the future for them, thatll be the old building, that the roof leaks in and the carpeting needs replacing, and the parking lot needs to be redone. But, more important than the structures is the faith that we are carrying to the next generation. They will not know our names. They will gather at celebrations. They will look at pictures of you and me, of church baptisms or groundbreakings and other ceremonies, theyll watch you at a picnic eating potato salad, but they wont know your name. You know what? They will recognize that because of you, they are here. You played a part in them coming to Christ, that your life made a difference in their lives. You and I dont know the full impact of our ministry, as individuals and as a church. We have no way to comprehend that because we see just whats in front of us. We see just our lifetime, but God sees the future generations; not only our children, but our childrens children are going to grow to serve and know the Lord because of your faith. We have no idea that from this body of believers that God might raise up another Billy Graham, or a missionary to go to parts of the world where the Gospel has not been preached, or that God will raise up from this congregation your great-grandchild who will faithfully teach little children for 30 or 40 years and help build a solid generation of believers. Thats what were doing here. Were not just coming here just to have a good time and have some fun. We, it says, are making a difference in eternity. God is allowing us to be a part of history. What we do for Him is not in vain. So, Paul says keep on keeping on. Sometimes in ministry, you get tired, but you keep on keeping on. You know why you get tired? Because youre a pastor, and sheep make messes (congregation laughing), and somebody has to clean them up. Sometimes sheep make big messes, and its a tireless job. You keep on keeping on, and you do it as a family. Pretty soon, you see that God is doing something beyond what you could ever do. Hes using all of us to do it. We are a spiritual family tree for the generations to come. They wont know us, and we wont know them, but well impact their lives. The values that we uphold, the truths that we preach will be a foundation that they will go by. Remember that. Lets pray.
Father, in our finite minds, we are blown away when we read in the scripture of you speaking to a man named Cyrus who was not yet born. You told him what he would do and how he would glorify Your name though he didnt call on Your name. We marvel at the prophesy of our Savior, who talked about His sufferings, His death, and His resurrection 700 years before He was born. We see that greatest, darkest hour in human history, and You said it pleased You because You see the end from the beginning. So were going through times of darkness. We dont understand whats going on. We know that we serve a God who doesnt scratch His head, a God who doesnt say oops, and a God who knows the end from the beginning, and He knows our end. We know youre a God who is working out His purposes even when we cant see, that will not draw a conclusion having read only one chapter of the book. but we know that You, the author, have it in Your hand, and we will trust you. Youre sovereign, and Youre good. In Jesus name I pray, Amen.
If you were to say to somebody, I know God, whats their response? If you were to make a statement that says, I know the God of the Universe, do they look at you funny when you say something like that? Do they think you may be a little kooky? A little weird? Maybe they think youre arrogant to make such a statement. You know God, ha? What an arrogant thing to say. Yet, when we read Gods word, thats exactly what God wants us to be able to say. One of the most profound scriptures is found in the Book of 1 John 5:20 (Page 1210 of pew Bibles). John says, We know, not we have a good idea or we think so, We know. …also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding… What the man [in the film that was played at the beginning of the service] said, Hey, knowing God, thats just a fantasy concept to me. It doesnt have to be. …He came to give us understanding so that we may know Him who is true... We can know truth. We can know God in a personal way, not just know about Him. God says know Him. …We are in Him who is true... Intimacy is in that word. …-even in His Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. Who? Jesus. True God and eternal life. Lets read that together out loud, shall we, as a profession of faith? We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know Him who is true. And we are in Him who is true-even in His Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. The Bible says there are four ways that you and I can know God, four ways that God has revealed Himself to us. The first is found in the Book of Romans 1:18 (page 1112). We wont elaborate on this very long because it really was our subject matter last week when Michael Powers spoke on science and talked about creation. Paul says, The wrath of God is being revealed from Heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness. Since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. How has God made it plain? Paul says, For since the creation of the world, Gods invisible qualities-His eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. What Paul is saying here is you and I can use our reason. We can use logic when we look at the universe. I was driving home from a trip, and my daughter and I were together. The moon was a particular kind of beautiful. It had an orange color. It was very full. I said, Honey, thats a harvest moon. Its just a beautiful moon in the sky. We were talking about the cosmos and how we go around the sun, and the moon goes around us, and how theres an orbit and an order where the planets arent knocking into each other. Theyre not falling from the galaxy. Were just there in space, and isnt God amazing? Isnt God something? So you can just look, Paul says, and you can see theres a God. Theres order and design in the universe. GK Chesterson said if only one elephant came out with a long trunk, we would think it odd; but the fact that they all come out with long trunks makes it seem like theres a plot. Maybe theres design here. Maybe theres order here. One of the greatest theologians, possibly the greatest theologians who ever lived, was a man by the name of Thomas Aquinas, and he lived in the Middle Ages. He wrote like very few who have ever written. In fact, when he was in high school, he was called the dumb ox, ironically. He didnt speak much, and he had an appearance that did not portray the intelligence that he possessed. I started reading his work; I dont want to tell you how long ago back in the late 70s that was. Its amazing the words that come out of this mans mouth. He started to write a book called the Summary of Theology. It took him seven years to finish it, seven years! Three scribes had to write down everything he was saying, and he talked about the world. You know how we talk about intelligent design verses evolution? Thomas Aquinas was one of the first people we got that from, intelligent design. He said there cannot be design without a designer. There cannot be laws without there being a lawgiver. He was one of the first proponents of the teleological argument for the existence of God. Paul says we can look at creation-we can know that God exists. Secondly, lets turn to Hebrews 1, the second way we can know who God is-the second way Hes revealed Himself. My dog is afraid of the dark. She is. The reason we know this is because when you take her out at night, the darker it is, the louder she will bark. Brenda took her out a couple of nights ago. Remember how dark it was a couple of nights ago? She doesnt see anything, mind you, because its so dark, but its the thought of what might be out there that she cant see that frightens her. So she goes out there, and the fur stands up on her neck. She starts barking and growling, sending a message, Whatever is out there, you better watch out. Im a killer puppy. You better run and hide. Im going to get you. If there ever were anything out there, shed run in the house likidy-split, as fast as she could. The darker it is, the louder and more furiously she will bark. Darkness and the unknown promote fear within us. We fear what we dont know, what we dont understand. But when its light and you bring my dog out, she doesnt do that. If its a moonlit night, she doesnt do that, but when she cant see, fear rises up in her. God brought revelation. He brought light to our understanding. It talks about that in the Book of John, the first chapter. It says that the light came into the world, and that light enlightens every man. It enables us to see and understand our world and whom God is. It removes fear. Hebrews 1:1 says, In the past, God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways. Not just one time and not in one way, but He used people, and He spoke through people. As we read the Word, we learn even more about God because we can see His divine attributes in the creation, but we dont know His nature. Through the Word of God, we see His nature. We learn that He is immutable, that He does not change. We learn that He is righteousness and just. We learn that He is good and loving. We learn that He is gracious, but also just. We read the Prophets and see how God pours out His heart through the Prophets. God talks about emotions; what makes Him angry; as Janet [DeRosier] said-what makes Him jealous; and about His thoughts. You know, God has thoughts, and He shares those thoughts with us in His word. So this is a written revelation of whom He is. It helps us to know His character and to know His nature, so we can know what Hes like. Del Tackett does an excellent job talking about this in his DVD teaching this week. The third way that God reveals Himself to us, and not only through the creation-not only through His written revelation, is also through the incarnation. The author of the Book of Hebrews 1:2 (page 1184) says this, …but in these last days, He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, and through whom He made the universe. The son is a close approximation to the Father? Nope. The Son is the radiance of Gods glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful Word. In John 1:18 (page 1049), John writes these words, No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Fathers side, has made him known. He has made Him known. He has brought a revelation through the incarnation of whom God is so we can know God. One of my favorite passages of scripture is found in John 14:5 (page 1067), if you would turn there please. We are going to be here for our duration together. Jesus was speaking about going away, and Thomas said to Him, Lord, we dont know where you are going, so how can we know the way? Jesus answered, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you really knew Me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know Him and have seen Him. This was going to be a turning point. He says, From now on, from this point on, you know Him and have seen Him. What Jesus is saying is, I am about to reveal to you more of whom I am, and doing so, Im going to reveal to you more of whom the Father is. Hes baiting them for a question, and the question is asked by Philip. Philip says, Lord, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us. You show us God, we wont need anything from You again. We promise. No more questions, just show us God, and were done. Our lips are sealed. Jesus answered, Dont you know me, Philip, even after Ive been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, Show us the Father? How can you say show us God? Whatever I say is what the Father says. Whatever I do is what the Father does. If youve seen me, Philip, youve seen God. We see Jesus love personified, dont we? We see grace personified. We see how He went out of His way to minister to the broken-hearted, to reach the lost, to lift up the down-trodden. Last Sunday, my family and I, as part of my studies, had to go to a Greek Orthodox church. Our class got to take a field trip. My wife likes to make fun of me because we color maps, and we go on field trips. The priest even addressed us as The Sunday School class from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. That was the hardest Sunday School class I ever had. So, were there, and its a very different experience. The service was an hour and a half long, and you stood for about an hour of that, so I dont want to hear anybody complaining about standing too long. It was different. During the service, they took an offering. Our class and their families were mostly in four pews in the back of the sanctuary. The offering came by, and they were passing the bucket; but when they got to our row, I guess they thought we wouldnt want to give, so the ushers pretty much passed us by. They didnt even make eye contact. They didnt even try to pass the plate. You come to our church, and youre a visitor, the plate is going to get to you. They didnt do that there. They just walked right on by us. It was like, Hey, hey, hey. Ive got money. I wanted to give something, so I reached in my pocket, and I pulled out a five dollar bill. Ive been carrying this five dollar bill for a long time. I know what it looked like because I would always pull it out when I was either grabbing my keys, a piece of paper, another bill or something. This five dollar bill seemed to be hanging around. I knew how it was folded. I knew the angles. I recognized this bill. So I pull it out, and he turned around. I had to reach back. I put my five in the offering. At the conclusion of the service, we were walking out. Im just kind of looking around the foyer, kind of taking in some of the iconography, seeing what else I can identify. There on the table is my five dollar bill. Its just lying there. I recognize it. I know the folds. Thats my five. My first response is What? You dont want my five? Is it like Protestant money, ewww? I dont know. Is it you dont present a folded bill in the offering? Im starting to wonder. I have to be honest with you; I was a little put off. I was a little offended. The thought crossed my mind, You dont want it? Fine. Ill put it back. It spends. Why dont you want my five? What is it? (Congregation is chuckling.) I just felt really put off by it, kind of like second class, You dont even want my money. I had no idea what the reasoning was behind why they singled out that bill and took it out, but you know what? Some people feel like that five dollar bill. There are a lot of people that feel rejected. There are a lot of people that feel like they just dont measure up. They feel they arent worthy, that theyre not accepted. They feel because of what theyve done, they could never earn Gods love or acceptance. Thats true-we cant earn Gods love. But what Jesus demonstrated to all those five dollar bills out there, and youd never know them… Sometimes those of us who feel unworthy or unloved or rejected, we put on a pretty good act, a pretty good mask. We dont talk about it, or we put on a nice smiley face. We dont share what is going on inside, but inside you feel like a very second class Christian. How does God feel about you? You dont even have to wonder or ask that question, because Hes already addressed it in His Word. Look at Jesus; if you see Jesus, youve seen the Father. Jesus went out of His way to minister to the broken-hearted. I think of Zacchaeus. I think of the woman at the well, Sychar, in John 4. I think of the woman in John 8 who is caught in adultery. I think of the woman who came and wiped off the tears with her hair. I think of so many people, blind Bartimaeus. I think of the beggar that couldnt walk, all of the lepers, all of these outcasts and rejects. Through Jesus Christ, we know God cares about all people. We know that He loves people. We know Hes a gracious God because of the incarnation. We see God in His birth, Christmas. We see God in the life He lived. We see God revealed: His wisdom as He spoke, His power as He worked miracles. We see His great love in the cross. One of my favorite books, I read this back around 1980, was called Knowing God by JI Packer. I can still remember a quote from this book. Has anybody read that? Its a good book. Packer is no relation to the Green Bay Packers. I dont think. I dont think I would have read it if it were (congregation laughing). Im going to decide here and now, because of whats going on, Im not going to say another bad thing about Green Bay the rest of this year. Im going to declare a truce, right? Okay. So JI Packer said, The most amazing thing, if Jesus Christ is God in the flesh-if He is the divine Son of God, is not that He would rise from the dead. If He were the Son of God, one would expect that He would have victory over death. The most amazing thing, if He is the incarnate Son of God, is that He would die. I read that, I underlined that, put stars by that, and I went, Wow! The most amazing thing is that He would die. Revelations 1, right around Verse 17-18: this is in the beginning and the end, the Alpha Omega, Im God. I was dead, and Im alive forever more. So in His death, He reveals His nature to us that He is a loving God. Through his resurrection, He reveals His glory. In the incarnation, God has shown Himself to us. The fourth way that God lets us know who He is, is the witness of regeneration. In John 14:15 (page 1068), just a few verses down here, Jesus is trying to comfort them because He is leaving. If youve ever lost a loved one or a close friend, youre saddened by that. So, Hes trying to bring comfort to them. He says, If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Counselor… Counselor is the word comforter. In the Greek, its Parakletos, one called alongside to help us. Jesus is saying, Im going to send another one just like Me to you to be with you till you sin. Then Hes gone. To be with you until you die… then youre on your own. The comforter comes, and He will be with you, how long does Jesus say? Forever. Last time I checked, forever was a long time. …the spirit of truth. Hes going to bring you into Gods truth. Hes going to reveal Gods truth to you, He says elsewhere in this chapter. Hes going to bring back to your mind the things I have taught you. …the spirit of truth. The world cannot accept Him because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you know Him, for He lives with you and will be… where? … in you. We talk about intimacy; it doesnt get any closer than that. It doesnt get any more intimate than that, than in you. Thats the regeneration of the Holy Spirit. He comes within us at the new birth and makes us alive. It enables us; it empowers us to do Gods will and to know God. I will not leave you as orphans; Jesus said, I will come to you. Whos coming? The Holy Spirit. Jesus says, I will come to you. Do you see the Trinity here in this chapter? Jesus says, If youve seen me, youve seen the Father. The Father is in Me. We receive the Holy Spirit; Jesus is in the Holy Spirit, so through the Holy Spirit, the fullness of the Godhead, it dwells the believer. The Trinity is seen here in Chapter 4. The Father is in the Son; the Son is in the Spirit; and the Spirit is in us. Jesus says, You can know Him, not just know about God, but know Him-not just be able to point out from creation whats been made, but you can know Him. Years ago, my family and I were on vacation down south and decided… I grew up in Illinois, and that affected my choice of sports teams, of course. There was a player youve probably never heard of who played for the Bulls, whose name was Michael Jordan, an obscure name. He went through like a period of temporary insanity where he decided he was going to leave basketball and play baseball. Do you remember that? He played for the Birmingham Barons, if you remember that. While we were on vacation, we were going near Alabama, so we said, Lets see if Birmingham is on the schedule. Sure enough, it was a home game. I said, Hey, lets go, and maybe well see Michael Jordan. The point wasnt to see him play baseball; thats not something you really want to see, but it was to see him. So we got there early, and I thought to myself the night before, What if I got to see Michael Jordan? What would I say? Its a more intimate setting; its not a packed-out United Center with cameras, press, and security all around. Its a ballpark, and were there early. What if hes there early? What if we can see him? What if I can talk to him? What would I say? Everything I said sounded stupid in my head. Then I thought, What will he do? Will he reject me? Will he look at me in disgust and shake his head? Will he ignore me, and if does that, Im going to be embarrassed and embarrassed in front of my family. What will I say? I thought about everything. Finally, the scenario happened. Were down there, and Im looking at the field. Ive got my video camera with me, and Michael Jordan comes walking by. Hes closer to me than Ben is right now. Hes like halfway between us. So this is my moment. My sports idol is walking by, and my whole family is just gawking. So what will I say? Ill tell you what I said. Ive got the camera going, and heres what I said, There he is (congregation laughing). That was it! I could have had a conversation with him. In fact, he says one of his favorite things to do is not to sign autographs-its to talk to fans. He says in the long run, that would mean more to you than an autograph, if you actually had a conversation and got to know each other a little bit. I could have said something like, So what part of the game are you working on today, Michael? Maybe he would have responded and told me, Im working on hitting a curve ball. I would have said, Well, were the Williams family from Wisconsin. Were here to support you today. We could have had a conversation! I could have said, I dont just know about Michael Jordan, but now I feel like I know him a little bit. Ive talked to him; and somewhere in some remote part of his brain, he has a memory of me, but it didnt happen. When you are with somebody who you think is greater than you are, the tendency is they need to talk first, and you will respond. Its true. God doesnt want us to just say, There He is. There He is. I see evidence of Him. His word says He wants us to know Him. He has told us whom He is through His creation, through His Word, through His Son, and through the Holy Spirit-through creation, through revelation, through incarnation, and through regeneration. He has revealed Himself to us, and whats more, He has made the invitation. It would be as if Michael came up to me and said, Hey, where are you guys from? Lets talk. Matthew 11:28 (page 966), Jesus is speaking to whoever will listen, and He says, Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light. What an invitation you and I have! How foolish we would be to walk away from such an invitation. So my question this morning is this: If God has revealed Himself, He wants us to know Him so we can say, I know God, what are you doing with that invitation? What are you doing with that revelation? Are you seeking to know Him more? Not just know about Him. Thats not what The Truth Project is about. Its about knowing Him. Hes given us the privilege to do that. Amen? Amen.
Pastor Michael Powers: October 8, 2006 The Truth Project, Part 5: Science-What is True?
We’re going to have a lot of visuals today up on the screen behind you. What we’re basically talking about, in the whole Truth Project, is being able to view everything in life through a Biblical lens and through the eyes of God. First of all, I remember being in school and seeing this slow-motion sneeze. I thought that was so cool. The thought that mucus and stuff can fly out of you at 100 miles per hour: now you know why I’m a youth pastor. Why do we not stop and just take a look around? God is calling out to us from His Creation everywhere we go. So we’re going to start with the fourth day of the Creation week: the sun, the moon, and the stars. Follow along with me here [in Genesis 1:14 (Page 1 of pew Bibles)], “And God said, ‘Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years to separate the day from the night and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth.’ And it was so. God made two great lights-the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning-the fourth day.” We’re going to focus in on one little sentence fragment: “He also made the stars.” I find this amazing. It’s an afterthought, “Oh yeah, by the way, He also made the stars.” And then they just move on. Let’s take a look through the Hubble telescope, and you, as an American citizen, own these images. If you go to a site called Hubble.org, you will find these. Are you ready? Let’s look at the afterthought of the stars (pictures are showing on the screen): the Cat’s Eye Nebula; the Orion Nebula; the Boomerang Nebula; the Helix Nebula; Derek Pratt’s personal favorite, the Sombrero Galaxy; the Ring Galaxy; the Whirlpool Galaxy; Planetary Nebula M29; Nebula NGC 3603 (What? All the cool names are taken, so now we’re just going with numbers apparently.); the Mosaic of the Crab Nebula; the Eagle Nebula; just in is N7 635; and finally the Cone Nebula. Those are the stars that are just flippantly mentioned there. By the Word of the Lord where the Heavens made their starry host by the breath of His mouth. Can you imagine being there when God went, “Hoohhh,” and an entire Whirlpool Galaxy came out of His mouth and was set into place? Now just for fun, this morning, turn to the person next to you and go, “Hoohhh” (congregation laughing). Just kidding. Wouldn’t that be fun, to find out who brushed their teeth this morning? He determined the number of the stars and called them each by name. Absolutely amazing to me. If you watch the Truth Project DVD this week, you’re going to find out that as of 2003, they figured there are 70 sextillion stars. I don’t know what that number means. I think it’s kind of a risky name, but that’s what we are calling it. That is the number 70 followed by 21 zeros. You cannot fathom, I cannot fathom, what that number means. God called them by name. He doesn’t call them N76305; God has really cool names for all of them. Now, just for the purpose of scale, let’s just take a look at…(Attention is focused on the screen behind Pastor Michael where pictures are displayed of planets)There’s the earth compared to that; Jupiter got cut off in order for me to fit this picture on it, but there’s the earth down in the lower left hand corner compared to Jupiter and Saturn. Not there’s the sun. Look how small Jupiter is now. The earth is one little dot. That’s what most of us would be familiar with. Let’s start looking at some suns and things out there that we are not so familiar with. (For a visual for this section, go here: www.hubblesite.org) There’s your sun down there, the little BB. Jupiter is one pixel in size. The earth is invisible at this scale. Let’s find Arcturus (pointing to it on the current slide) on this next one. Jupiter is invisible at this scale. The sun is one pixel in size. Arcturus looks like a little BB or a marble, and Antares is that huge. This is what is out there. It’s almost as if God was like, “You know what? There are some things out there that humans will never see even through the most powerful telescope, but I made it. Why? Because I’m God, and I can.” I find that amazing. He has stuff out there that only He and the angels will see until eternity. (Another clip is played) Psalm 19:1-4, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.” One of the things that we are going to skip because we don’t have time is a video I found that takes us on a six-minute journey from our sun to the outer known edge of our solar system and then to the outer known edge of the universe. If you were to travel at the speed of light, it would take 3 billion years to reach the outer edge of our known universe. We’re going to find out later this idea of millions and billions of years, as far as how old the earth of the universe is, is totally unbiblical. That is a fictional journey, if we could take that journey at the speed of light. That’s how vast our universe is. As you look at the Hubble stars, and you look at these verses [in Psalm8:3, page 535], “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars that You have set in place, what is man that You are mindful of him?” See, we’re taught that we are this insignificant speck in the universe, and we know the size of the known universe, and even the earth is an insignificant speck. As we will learn, and hopefully you have learned in your relationship with Christ, is that the God of the universe who breathes galaxies into existence cares about each and every one of us. Not only that, but He knows how many hairs are on our heads. That is an incredible, incredible God. Isaiah 45:18 (page 722) says, “For this is what the Lord says-He who created the Heavens, He is God; He who fashioned and made the earth, He founded it; He did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited-He says: ‘I am the Lord, and there is no other. I have not spoken in secret, from somewhere in a land of darkness; I have not said to Jacob’s descendants, “Seek me in Vain.” I, the Lord, speak the truth; I declare what is right.’” God said it; I believe it; that settles it; thanks for coming, ladies and gentleman. Have a nice day. We literally, if we really believe that what we have faith in is really real, we should be able to walk out of here just on that statement alone. But here’s what science teaches us, “And this new discovery completely changes / everything you were ever taught about the origin of life. Oh, wait! A newer discovery totally changes what I just reported,” and on and on it goes because our ideas are fallible. They are man’s ideas. When I was growing up, eggs were very good to eat. Then, sometime between my childhood and now, “Eggs are very bad to eat. They are evil. Don’t put them in your body.” Now, eggs are good again. Have you ever thought, “What can I eat anymore? I don’t know what air I should breathe,” because things change so much as they get all of this new information. The Word of God never changes. Man’s ideas change with the wind. This is why it’s so important. We’d like to show you the life-changing power of God’s word. To start, please write your opinions here in the Book of Genesis, where it doesn’t matter what you believe. And that’s what we do. It doesn’t mean six literal days. You’ve got God’s Word as truth, and man decides what truth is. We put on our glasses, and we look: the facts are the same. Evolution and the Big Bang stories sound interesting. God says the earth was created first and then the sun, the moon, and the stars. Billions of years, the Heat Death, starting with the Big Bang: that’s the history according to evolution. You have a six-day Creation. Man sins. You have thousands of years of sin and death. You have a heat destruction. God creates a new heaven and a new earth, and then you have eternity. What happens is we throw the Bible out. We decide, “Hmmm. That sounds interesting. Let’s use man-made ideas and revelations.” Six literal days or millions of years? This is why it’s important. Don’t let anybody tell you that this is a side issue. You look in the Creation story, and it says over and over and over, “There was evening and the morning, first day.” It’s almost as if God knew. Caleb, my 11-year old, when I was preparing for kids’ camp this summer…As we were going through this, he was kind of paying attention to what I was studying. He said, “Dad, it’s almost as if God knew that people were going to come along and say that each day was millions or billions of years. It’s like God has a sense of humor, and he put that in there, so there would be no question.” The Hebrew word for day here is the word Yom. It always, always, always means “a literal 24-hour day.” If you were to ask any Hebrew scholar, going just by what the Bible says, “Are these literal days or not?” they would say, “Absolutely, positively it says they are literal 24-hour days.” Then, millions of years come up because of man’s outside influence on the Word of God. Also interesting, if you believe in theistic evolution or that God used evolution, and each of those days aren’t literal days, they stand for millions or billions of years, I find it interesting that God created the plants on day three and the sun on day four. You tell me how those plants survive on photosynthesis. It’s almost as if God says, “Yup, I’m going to throw this one in there. Just wait.” (Genesis 1:31), “God saw all that He had made, and it was very good, and there was evening and morning the sixth day.” Here’s what the Bible teaches: Six-day Creation; man; Adam and Eve sin; that causes death and the curse; and everything that goes wrong with the earth is because of that. Evolution teaches that if evolution is true and millions of years are true, you have sin and death before Adam and Eve and before the Garden of Eden. These are two very conflicting stories. So, if God looks down and says, “It is very good,” He should be able to say that; but if evolution is true, and there’s all that before Adam and Eve, then God looks down and says, “It is very good.” Or… “After millions of years of mutations, vast extinctions, devastating diseases, and violent death, God saw all that He had evolved, and behold, it was very good.” God created a perfect world. Sin enters the picture, and now we have a cursed world full of sin and death and destruction. Then Jesus comes on the cross, and He makes a way so that our separation from God can be made as far as a relationship goes; and in the future, He’s going to make a new Heaven and a new earth. It’s going to be like the Garden of Eden all over again. Are you going to base your belief on the infallible Word of God or on man’s fallible ideas? Here’s the deal: If six Creation days are in your path, then God’s the authority. He sets the rules, and you’re made with a purpose; but if millions of years are in your past, man is the authority and relative morality. It makes sense why a kid would go to school, pull out a gun, and start shooting people. If kids really are believing what they are taught in our schools, they are taught that they are an accident; there is no God, there is no higher calling that they are accountable to, you can do whatever you want. It’s amazing that we’re shocked that our students actually believe what they are taught. Here’s what it really comes down to. Evolution destroys utterly and finely the very reason Jesus’ earthly life was supposedly made necessary. Destroy Adam and Eve and the original sin, and in the rubble, you will find the sorry remains of the Son of God. If Jesus was not the Redeemer who died for our sins and this is what evolution means, then Christianity is nothing. If you include millions of years and evolution and all of that, Jesus Christ is a liar. The Bible should be thrown out the window. Jesus referred to Genesis many, many times. He is called the “second Adam.” He had to come make right what we made wrong. Here’s the deal: the Bible talks about preaching to the Jews and preaching to the Greeks. Preaching to the Jews are people that already have a Creation background. The Jewish people of the time had the Old Testament. They knew the story accurately. When it comes to the cross, that’s their stumbling point. You speak to the Greeks, and the cross is foolishness. You have to take them back to the beginning of the story because that has been left out. If you’re preaching to the world of Jews, meaning that they have a Creation background, it makes sense that you need to repent, and Jesus died for your sins; but if they don’t know that, if that’s been taken out of everything, it doesn’t make sense at all. Now, we have a second or third generation Greek who has been indoctrinated in this. The Creation has been taken out-God has been taken out-and now they have been trained that way. Now they’re teaching our students-our children-and it doesn’t make sense. The cross is foolishness. We try to tell them to repent; repent from what? What is sin? We have to take them back to the beginning of the story. See, here’s the problem. Satan knows exactly what to do. You destroy the foundation, and everything else comes down. What we do is we shoot at each other-we shoot at the issues, we don’t deal with the foundation. We need to build that foundation back up. When you are witnessing to people, you have to know your soil. In the old days, we could just talk about Jesus from the start, and people would understand. Now, we have no understanding. Why? Why aren’t people just falling on their knees when they hear the message of the cross? It’s because they have not been told the beginning of the story. Let’s switch gears. Let’s talk about Charles Darwin. Charles Darwin said this: “If it could be demonstrated that any complex organism existed which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down. Let’s see if Charles Darwin’s words come true or not. (Another video is played.) Alright, let’s talk about dinosaurs. If there is one tool that has been used to perpetuate the theory of evolution, it’s the dinosaurs. We’re going to find out if you’re indoctrinated or not. A Tyrannosaurus Rex had teeth up to six inches long. So, here’s my question for you: how would this dinosaur originally been described: A plant eater, a meat eater, a scavenger, or a plant and meat eater? A plant eater. I know what you’re thinking, “Oh, come on. Maybe I’ve been with you up to this point, but now you are one crazy youth pastor.” Guess what the Bible says? This is what they would have been after the fall of man and the curse that was placed on the earth, but before that, they were created to be plant eaters. Genesis 1:30 (page 2), “‘And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground-everything that has the breath of life in it-I give every green plant for food.’ And it was so.” So let’s just take a look. Here’s a skull of an animal. Look at those teeth. What do you think that animal eats? It’s a panda bear; it eats bamboo. Look at this one. It’s a fruit bat; it only eats fruit. Here’s a creature for you to be glad that it isn't running around Wisconsin. You look at that, and you think “wow!” It could rip a vein out of your neck. It eats seeds. The animal extracts with its sharp K9s, opening up a fruit and splitting the seeds using its incisors. Do you know what big, long scary teeth mean, if an animal has that? It means the animal has long, sharp teeth. That’s all it means, but we have been indoctrinated into thinking other things. So how many of you would like to know how we fit dinosaurs in the Bible? I have heard pastors say before, “The Bible is really not a science book; that’s why it doesn’t mention dinosaurs. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.” Dinosaurs are in the Bible, but you don’t fit them into the Bible because then you’re using our ideas of what we believe has happened. You take the Bible and by using the history book of the universe, you explain dinosaurs because this should be our thinking in every area if we’re looking through our Biblical glasses. The Bible is never wrong on anything, whether it’s science, anthropology, anything. So, let’s look at what the Bible says. You look in Job 40:15 (page 529); it talks about a creature called the behemoth. I want you in your head to get an image of what this creature is by God’s description, “Look at the behemoth, which I made along with you and which feeds on grass like an ox. What strength he has in his loins, what power in the muscles of his belly! His tail sways like a cedar; the sinews of his thighs are close-knit. His bones are tubes of bronze, his limbs like rods of iron.” He is the chief of the ways of God. “He ranks first among the words of God…” Verse 23 picks up, “When the river rages, he is not alarmed; he is secure, though the Jordan should surge against his mouth.” Okay? National Geographic: Here is just the leg bone of a dinosaur. In 1994, the biggest dinosaur they had ever discovered was called Sauroposeidon, 60 tons and 60 feet tall. Since then, they have found a dinosaur called the Argentinasaurus, 125 feet long and 110 tons. One hundred tons is 14 school buses. Let’s look at Verse 17, “His tail sways like a cedar.” Do you know what a cedar is? A cedar is a huge tree. The Bible talks about the cedars of Lebanon being used to build Solomon’s temple. Now, if you were open up your NIV Bible, you will see a footnote, a little asterisk, by this animal, and it says, “Possibly the hippopotamus or the elephant.” So let’s just think about that. There is a tail that sways like a cedar, and let’s see if that fits with the elephant. Okay, maybe it’s not the elephant; maybe it’s the hippopotamus. Have you seen the hippopotamus’ tail? It’s this little flap of skin like a little yappy dog, and it just goes like that (waving hand back and forth). An elephant’s no better. It’s a little bit longer, but it’s this thin wisp of a thing. What this shows is it has to be…You look at that description, and you tell me what you think that is. What this shows is this: The Bible is the inspired Word of God, but footnotes are not. So, why doesn’t the word dinosaur appear in the Bible? Why couldn’t God just say, “And let there be dinosaurs,” and there were dinosaurs? Wouldn’t that just settle everything? King James’ version was transferred into English in the year. The word dinosaur was invented in the year 1841. That’s 230 years after the Bible was translated into English. Sir Richard Owen was the one who coined that term first in 1841. That is 230 years after the Bible was translated into English. If you look in an 1891 dictionary, the word dinosaur still does not appear-even in our dictionary 50 years later. Before they were called dinosaurs, they were called dragons by the people who lived on this earth. Now, the dragon that congers up an image in your mind is totally different than a dinosaur now because of the way things have changed as stories have been passed down. In a 1946 dictionary, the first listing: dragon-now rare. That doesn’t appear in our dictionaries anymore. The dragons of old are the dinosaurs in history. Evolution teaches that dinosaurs died out 65 million years before man appeared on earth. If that’s the case, I want to know how this man knew how to put a cave painting of a dinosaur on the wall if he had never seen a dinosaur and if we hadn’t ever dug up the fossils of it until the late 1700s and the 1800s. That looks like a dinosaur to me. There’s a petroglyph in National Bridges National Monument that bares striking resemblance to a dinosaur, specifically a branasaurus. What a coincidence. These guys [who drew on their walls] must have had visions of what they were, since they had never seen one. A mummified dinosaur carcass was found in Montana. Soft tissues covering 90 percent of the fossil, nail material, a beak, and skin were preserved. Here’s the kicker, if this died out 65 million years ago, you tell me how all of this has been preserved. You say 65 million years ago, but we have no clue; we can’t even fathom how long that is. This was in National Geographic. This wasn’t some kooky guy making this up. You tell me how that lasted for 65 million years like that. Now, we have found T-Rex elastic tissue, fresh tissue, soft fibers tissue, red blood cells from a T-Rex, blood vessels, and microscopic structure squeezed out of blood vessels. That’s made up mostly of water that was found in the leg bone of a T-Rex. You tell me how that lasted 65 million years and never disintegrated, never evaporated, never dried up. It’s because we’ve been lied to. I wish I could talk more about dinosaurs, but I can’t because we don’t have enough time. Okay, on to fossils. This is how we are taught a fossil forms. A fish dies, it gradually sinks to the bottom. It’s slowly covered with sediment, and the minerals and the bones are changed into a fossil. I don’t know about you, but any fish I have ever seen floats to the surface, gets eaten, and there is nothing left. The only way that can happen is to be covered in sediments in a very quick process, perhaps Noah’s flood; and if you think Noah’s flood is 40 days and 40 nights of a soft rain that you could sleep to, you have not read your Bible. They have found fossils that have other fish fossils inside the stomach. Tell me how that happened, if it happened slowly over millions of years. Here is a dinosaur that was giving birth when it was covered so fast that it could not complete the birthing process. This one which is probably my favorite-my youth pastor, 21 years ago, showed this to me when he was teaching us, and it blew me away because of what I had been taught in school. This fish did not have a chance to swallow its dinner before it was covered in sediments. We are taught that the layers of rocks happened over millions and billions of years, slowly over time, and each layer represents long periods of time. Tell me how a tree can be down all the way through millions of years, so that tree just stood there for millions of years, never rotted, never died, never fell over, and the sediment slowly covered the tree. Now, I have two cats. I like cats; forgive me for this scientific experiment. Day 1, you’ve got a dead cat in the grass. Day 3, you’ve got a smelly dead cat on the grass-a very smelly dead cat by day 9. Now, part of your dead cat is missing. More of the dead cat is missing. By day 65, you don’t have a cat anymore. That’s what we observe happening to animals when they die. The Grand Canyon: I remember watching Fred Flintstone. He and Barney are looking at this little sign that says, “The Grand Canyon.” There is a little trickle of water, and Barney says, “Hey, Fred, I don’t get it.” Fred says, “Hey, Barney, it isn’t anything now, but in a few million years, it’s supposed to be really something.” That’s how we were taught the Grand Canyon was carved out. These are our standard beliefs. The fossil record was a gradual progression over billions of years. The formation of large canyons? Millions of years. Fossil fuels took millions of years. The geological time scale, the geological column, millions of years. Do you remember Mount St. Helens? We learned by observing science as it happened that you can have rapid sedimentation and rapid canyon formation. Let me read this to you, “Stratified layers up to 400 feet thick formed as a result of landslides, pyroclastic flow, mud flows during Mount St. Helen’s eruption. Fine laminae from only a millimeter thick to more than a meter high formed in just a few seconds each. A deposit of more than 25 feet in thickness and containing upwards of 100 thin layers accumulated in just one day on June 12, 1980. We are taught that that is impossible; it takes millions of years. Perhaps the most remarkable, catastrophic event to have occurred at Mount St. Helens was a rapid erosion that was accomplished by mudflows, landslides, and waves of water. On March 19, 1982, a small eruption melted the snow that had accumulated in the crater over the winter. A resulting mudflow eroded a canyon system up to 140 feet deep. The deepest of the canyons pictured (on the screen) here has actually been called the “Little Grand Canyon.” It’s 1/40th the size of its namesake. The small creek that now flows through the bottom would appear to have carved this canyon over a great length of time, but this unique event has demonstrated that rapid, catastrophic processes were instead responsible for the canyon. Here’s another one. This is near Walla Walla, Washington. The top picture shows a drainage ditch off to the left. In six days, it became 1500 feet long and 120 feet deep. There was so much water that was backed up through this one river system-because of flooding and conditions that had happened which reached this damn section-that it just exploded out, and it carved this in six days. We’re taught that fossils formed over long periods of time. Guess what we found? Fossilized manmade clocks; fossilized bells; a fossilized spark plug that fell off of an outboard motor, sank to the bottom of the ocean, and over a period of 30-40 years, a rock formed around it; a fossilized miner’s hat-50 years of being dropped in this mine with this mineralized water, and it is totally rock hard. You see, we have been taught that all this has happened over millions of years, and again, I wish I had time to even talk to you about Noah’s flood in that. The majority of the fossil record was laid down through Noah’s flood. People will tell you it was a local flood. You read the description in the Bible of what it says; here’s your local flood: If it was a local flood, why didn’t all the people just leave that area? Why did two of every animal have to be on the arc if they could have just lived? Especially the birds, why couldn’t they have just flown to a different area? As we close this up [we again refer to Psalm 8:3, page 535], “When I consider Your Heavens, the work of your fingers-the moon and the stars which You have set in place-what is man that you are mindful of him?” God had a plan. We’re going to watch a video called “The One Thing You Would Need.” This is God reaching out to His Creation, not abandoning us when we sin, but reaching out to His Creation. I don’t know about you, but I am so glad that God did not just abandon us and go His own way. The handout that you hopefully received as you came in (if you didn’t, you should be able to grab one on the way out) talks about the history of the universe according to the Word of God. The Seven “Cs” of Creation: Creation; Corruption (the fall of man); Catastrophe (the worldwide cataclysm of Noah’s flood); you’ve got Confusion at the tower of Babel; Christ coming to earth to make things right; what he did on the Cross to allow us to have a relationship with the God of the universe; and in the future, when God takes everything back to the way he originally intended it-Consummation. I hope you take some time to read that through today. I gave that to you beforehand in case I was boring, and you needed something to read. At the back, we have a table that has a lot of resources, and if you want one book that would give you an overview (in case this is all new to you) of this whole controversy and the war of the world views, this is the one to get. It’s back there. Paul Ryan has just an amazing knowledge of this subject. If you have any questions, you’re welcome to ask me afterwards. You’re welcome to talk with him, and hopefully we should be able to answer any questions. If we don’t know the answer, we’ll make something up (congregation laughing). No, we’ll find out the answer for you and get back to you. If something comes up in a discussion, and you have no idea how to answer it, go to www.answersingenesis.org. In case you don’t know who Ken Hamm is, he the Australian guy who has a Creation museum opening up in April of next year in Kentucky. Also, my wife and I have a website that if you go to www.heartforteens.com or www.hearthtouchers.com and go to Creation_evolution, it opens up a whole super library of Creation things which should give you answers to anything you’d like. All right, let’s pray. Heavenly Father, thank you so much that Your Word does not change and that we can put our trust in something that has not changed, will not change, and will never change in the future, and that we can trust every single word of Your Bible. Lord, we pray that you will help us to have our Biblical glasses on, that all the training we have had in worldview, that comes from a world’s perspective, Lord, you will help us to filter all that stuff through Your Word and be able to live our lives, living out as children of the King of the Universe. I pray this in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Lets open our Bibles to Genesis 1 this morning. While youre looking at Genesis 1, I think most of you can find that, I think of the words of the Psalm thats in Chapter 8 (Page 535 of pew Bibles). He says, When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your hands…what is man that You are mindful of him… He looked to the cosmos, and he said, What is man? Who am I that You would care about me? This morning on our tour, Worldview Tour, were talking about anthropology, the nature of man. Now that sounds boring at first. Anthropology?!? Man! I wish I wouldnt have come. Its not boring. Its not boring when you find out who God made you to be, so lets take a look at Genesis 1:26. In creation, God has been very active in making the world. Right before He makes man, he pauses. There is a conference, if you will, a consultation amongst the Trinity. Even here in the first chapter of the first book of the Bible, we see the triune nature of God. We see Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Bible says, Then God said let us make man in our image, in our likeness. Notice the plural. The word God here, Elohim, is plural in the original Hebrew. When God speaks, its in the plural. He says, Let us make man in Our image. So already we see Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in community, speaking about our creation. There is a pause. He doesnt just go right into man; there is a consideration, if you will, a discussion in the Godhead. Then God creates man in his image. How many of you ever read that weve been created in an image of God and just wonder, What does that mean? Does that mean that God has a nose and ears like we do? Does that mean He has feet like us and looks like us? Is that what it means? Does God have hair, and were made in His image? Were going to take a look at the creation of man, and then were going to talk a little bit about what it means when we say that we have been made in the image of God. Chapter 2:7 really is what happens after Verse 26. In fact, you could take out much of that first part of Chapter 2 from Verse 7 on and put it right in there after Verse 26 because Verse 27 is sort of a summary after Hes already created woman. In Chapter 2, He has not yet created her as He has man. Adam is there, and he is lifeless. He is flesh; he is bone, and he is lifeless. Remember, were taught in the world that were made out of the stuff in the box, the stuff in the cube. Everything that we see is all that there is and all there ever will be, and that is the stuff from which you and I come. But yet, we know as we look at man that we see stuff thats not in the box. Thats what were going to find in Genesis 2:7. It says (Page 2), The Lord God formed the man with the dust of the ground, the stuff in the box, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. What God breathed into man is not in the box. Its not the stuff of earth. Its not the stuff in the cube. Its what makes us in His image. Man became a living being, or a living soul, and only here-and only for man-are these words used. No other creation is described in this way. But when the creation of man comes, he is described as a living soul-a nephish haiah-made in the image of the living God. I believe the image of the living God is…when we look at creation, what we see in man that is unique and distinct from other creation; that is in part what it means to be made in the image of God. Now, were going to put up a little list this morning that is not meant to be exhausted at all. Im sure you might be able to identify other characteristics, other uniqueness, that make us in the image of God, but here are a few. Lets put up the first one (C-R-E-A-T-E). Think of the words Create Man. How did God create man? He created him in His image. What does that mean? The C stands for create. The word Create and the C also stand for create. That part of the image barring is that you and I can create. Now, we cant create like God creates. God creates Ex Nihilo. He creates from nothing. Theres nothing, and then theres something. Thats how God creates. We can use the stuff that God has made, and we can create. My daughter makes beautiful paintings and drawings. She creates them on blank canvas. You might be able to build a house. You might be able to design landscaping. You might be able to build a machine or make an invention. Man can design and create. We can take the stuff that God has made, put it together and arrange it in a complex manner, and make something. Thats what I mean by create and design. Only man can do that. Im sure a beaver can build a damn, but Im talking about something complex that requires thought process, complexity of design that only man can create. Its part of what it means to be made in the image of God. He is the creator so that you and I can create. He is the designer so you and I design. The R stands for reason. Some of you might want to scratch some of these things down because youre not going to find this in a book somewhere. If it will help you to understand what the image of God is, write it down. So R is for reason. Reason makes us unique in that we can think. We can process information. We can make sense of the world around us. We can draw conclusions; we can discern. Part of being made in the image of God is the ability to reason. The next letter E stands for ethics. Romans says that God has put a sense of right or wrong inside of each one of us. We just know innately whether something is right or wrong. Have you ever had a little child, if you have children, and when youve come home, the child is acting sad with his/her head down or afraid, and you say, What did you do? You dont even know what they did, but you know they did something because they are acting like they are ashamed of something. God has put that innate in each of us, the knowledge of right and wrong. Hes written His law on our hearts. The A stands for authority. God created man to have authority and dominion. He said in that Verse 26 that Hed given authority over the creatures of the sea, on land, and in the air. We can make Shamoo, the whale, obey us. We can make the lion, the king of the beast, jump through hoops. Man has dominion in the earth. He is the highest form of life. God has authority and dominion. Because we are made in His image, we have authority and the ability to rule. Thats part of being made in the image of God. T is a simple but profound one. Talk. We can talk. As we saw in the Godhead in Verse 26, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit talking about the creation of man, you and I can talk. You say, Well, my dog talks. He has different bark languages. Sure, animals can have distress, anger, and happiness, but try carrying on a conversation with your dog. Its a little different. Only man can communicate at the level that we do using complex words, and sentences, and thoughts. Man can speak and talk because God can speak. God talks. We saw that demonstrated in Verse 26 of Chapter 1. The E stands for eternal or eternity. It says, God breathed into man, and man became a living soul. Now, were not eternal in this sense that Gods eternal. God has always been and always will be. There was a time when we were not. We have not always been, but now that we are, we always will be. Were eternal, and only man is eternal as God: that is part of being made in His image. Lets look at the word Man. The M stands for me. Now, not me (Pastor Jeff is pointing to himself), you and me. Youre a me. The ability to know that youre a me, to have self-awareness, to be aware of whom you are, that you exist, and that you are a person; you have a personality. You exist. A self-awareness is something that creation does not have. They may know they exist, but they dont know theyre me. You have an identity and a personality. You dont just act on instinct. You have an awareness. A and N are in order here for a reason. The first one [A] is ascribe worth; that means worship. You and I can use our reason to form a deduction that God exists and choose to worship Him or not worship Him. The second part, the N is we can also choose to neglect God. Basically put those two together, and they stand for free will. Man was created with a free will, an ability to choose. God says to man, You can have any tree in the garden, any fruit in the garden except that tree and that fruit. What he laid in front of man was a choice. Man chose incorrectly. He said to Adam that day, which by the way means man. Adam is man. Some of us think that God was just picking out a nice name. Jesus, what do you think? Holy Spirit, what do you think? Adam? I like Adam. Adam means man. So, you read that and it says, …and then He formed Adam out of the earth. So He named him man, but man and Adam are the same thing. So Adam, or man, has the ability to acknowledge God and worship God or neglect God. Romans 1 says we can either exchange the truth for a lie, or we can suppress the truth and follow after a lie, exchange the glory of God. We can do that because we have free will. Thats how God created man. Its one of those things that makes us unique by design, one of the things that make us in the image of God. Now you might be able to come up with more, and thats good. Im not saying its exhausted, but, to me, those are some of the reasons-or some of the things that are encompassed-in being made in the image of God. Now we all know what happens in the next chapter. Man falls. Man partakes of the forbidden fruit. In essence, he disobeys God. Sin is sin. You might think, Well thats overkill. I think if my child took fruit I told him not to take, I wouldnt send judgment on the whole earth. Understand sin is sin. Man chose to disobey God. Man chose to rebel against God. That was the way he chose to do that. So, man fell. Man was still in the image of God, but we are not as we are fully intended to be. Man lost that communion with God, that community. Man could talk to God. In the Garden, man could have a conversation with God, and that is lost. Man is banished from His presence. God said in the Word, The day you eat of the fruit, you shall surely die. Adam partakes of the fruit, does he die? Physically, no, but spiritually, yes. He is separated from the presence of the living God. Do you ever go to a carnival and go into those mirrors at the funhouse? Theres the mirrors that make you look short and fat, and then there are the ones that make you look really tall and skinny? I like those. I stay in front of those for awhile, Look at that 15-inch waist! Look at that! Some of them make you look like you have a big head. You recognize thats you, and youre able to laugh at it because you know I dont really look like that. Its a distortion of reality. Theres enough that resembles what you really look like to recognize its you, but its not as youre intended to look. The same thing is true in creation and the fall. Mankind is now not what God fully intended mankind to look like and to be. Its enough resemblance that we recognize its mankind, but we are now a twisted, distorted reality from what God intends us to be, a creation of what God intends us to be, and from what He will restore us to be one day. One day, we will have communion with God and conversation with God, just like man had in the beginning. Well have that in Heaven. So, man is a fallen being. God is going to come, and He is going to give an accounting of mankind. How do we get in this state? What happened? Man sinned. When God comes into the Garden, Hes normally greeted by Adam and Eve, but this day He is not. Adam and Eve are not there; they are hiding. They are hiding because they know what they did was wrong. Nobody has to tell them. They are ashamed. There is an innate knowledge of right and wrong; and they know that they are naked, theyre ashamed, and they know theyre in trouble, so they hide. Thats usually what we do, isnt it? When we do something wrong, we try to conceal, cover up and hide because were embarrassed. We think were going to get in trouble, so we hide. God comes in and God makes them render in accounting of their actions. He says to the man, What have you done? How did you know you were naked? Did you partake of the fruit that I told you not to partake of? Adams response was, Well, its her, the woman you put here. She made me eat it. Its kind of Your fault, God. Then He turns to her and says, What do you have to say for yourself? She says, Well, its the serpent that You put here. So its nobodys fault but Gods, right? We laugh at that, but have you ever done that? Have you ever made bad choices in your life, and you reap bad consequences, and then you say, God, how could you let this happen to me? Nobody? Okay. Just thought Id ask. Sure! God is going to render out here the consequences. Hes going to explain to them the gravity of the situation. The first one, He speaks to is the serpent-Satan. He says these words…Now many people believe, many scholars believe, this is not just an issue between Adam and Eve and the serpent, but a foreshadowing of the conflict between good and evil, a foreshadowing of the conflict between the Redeemer-who will come to set things right-and Satan, a battle between lies and the truth. God says, I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and hers. Satans offspring. Who might Satans offspring be? What He is talking about is Satan deceived with a lie. All those who will believe the lie, who will believe the deception of the enemy, are from the enemy. They emanate from him in that sense. What did Jesus say to the Pharisee when they said, Well, God is our father, Jesus said, God is not your father. Youre of your father, who? Who? The devil. Because he was a liar from the beginning, and he is a father of lies. So, to buy into those lies, to succumb to those lies, in essence is he has reproduced himself into you. You have bought the lie. Theres going to be a struggle between the seed of the woman and the serpent. He identifies, now, in the third person, He will crush your head, and you will strike his heal. Any of you ever been killed by getting hit in the heel? Anybody here ever die from being hit in the heel? Nobodys dead from being hit in the heel? That was a joke. Anybody ever known anybody who died from being hit in the heel. I think if we could die from being hit in the heal, wed wear some bigger boots, wouldnt we? If you were hit in the heal, thats going to hurt, but its not going to kill you. But if your head is crushed, that will do it. That will do it. So He talks about this conflict for those who will believe the lies of the enemy and those who will follow the woman seed, and He says, Theres going to be an ultimate conflict, an ultimate climax, to the conflict between the lies and the truth. Whats going to happen is youre going to wound him, and he is going to crush you. Evil is going to be defeated. All the way from the very beginning, God had a plan of redemption that was going into effect. Jesus at the cross would be wounded, but through his resurrection, Satan will be crushed. Evil and sin and death will be crushed, and victory will be gained. Amen? Amen. The cross and the resurrection is the fulfillment of what God spoke of in Genesis 3:15. The serpent was crushed. The serpent was defeated. His lie was conquered by the truth. Does that mean he gives up? Does that mean he goes away? Not at all. His job now is to distort the truth, to discredit the message. His tool is still going to be the lie. Lets listen attentively to this conversation between some demonic entities as they discuss what theyre going to do now that Satan has been dealt this blow, now that hes been defeated. What is going to be Satans plan to conquer this truth with a lie? (Clip played.) What God is going to do in the Garden is begin a plan to take what Satan has made that is ugly and rotten, and He is going to begin a plan of salvation. Ive been doing some work in my house, some landscaping. Ive shared with you all the rocks Ive encountered and how difficult its been. Ive realized Rock County is called Rock County because of all the rocks that are buried in our soil. Ive also encountered a lot of lumber. I found out that the carpenters who built my home used to use my front lawn as burial for all their blocks of wood. Thats another thing Ive been running into as I dig. I ran into the mother of all blocks of wood. It seemed like everyplace I dug, there it was. I ended up having to dig a much bigger hole than Id hoped for because I had to get this big block of wood out. It was really annoying. In fact, I brought it with me today. Its an ugly rotting post. This rotten dirty rascal was a real headache for me, a real problem for me. I pulled it out of the soil, and I threw it off to the side. I said, Oh, Im glad I got that thing out of the way. I went and bought a tree. The tree weighed, they said, between two and three hundred pounds. So, my wife and I had a wonderful time getting that thing out of the trunk of the car. Then she had to leave, and I had to scoot the thing toward the hole. Id get down, and Id grab the wires, and Id tug to get it a few inches, take a break, regroup, and Id tug again. It took me quite a while to get it from the driveway to the place where it was supposed to go. I was trying to figure out how I was going to get it in the hole. I cant pick it up and put it in there, and Im afraid the thing is going to topple. If I could just have something that would help me to ease this tree into this hole, that would be good. Then, bing! Thats my sound effect for an idea. An idea hit me. Wheres that rotten piece of wood? Wheres my nemesis? Wheres my enemy? I went and found him. I said, Thats perfect! I took this wedge part, put it in the hole, rested this toward the top of the hole, and then took the tree and slid it down this post. It was slick; down to the hole it went. It was perfect. This block of wood that I saw as evil and bad, rotten and ugly, turned into something that was useful for me, something that was beneficial for me. The wonderful thing about the Gospel is Jesus does that for us. Jesus can take something from that very ground that brought this pain in the neck and make it became a source of good for me. Think about the cross for a moment. Think about the cross a moment. Think about the ugliness of the cross. Think about the fact that an innocent man whod done nothing but good-shared nothing but good-loved people. He told us what Heaven is like, shared what God is like, healed people, brought hope and life. How did we return that? We returned that by crucifying Him. We think about the cross; we think about death and suffering. Think of the evil that was present that day and how dark that day was, the tears that were shed by His mother, by His followers, by His disciples. It was a bad day; it was an evil day. Yet from that very ground, from that very awful thing, God brought the most wonderful thing he could ever bring. He brought forgiveness. He brought a restoration of what was lost in the Garden through mans fall. From something evil, He brought for us something good. God still does that. God will still do that in your life, church, if you will allow Him to. His Word says He takes what is evil, and He will use it for the good in your life. As we think about the cross, it really is significant from the viewpoint of whom is man because it tells us how valuable we are in Gods sight. I was doing a little search online to see what my car is worth. I have a tan 2001 Lincoln Town Car. I was going to sell it, so I wanted to know its worth. So, I searched it out, and it was up to $39,000. Thirty-nine thousand dollars! Why in the world is my car selling for $39,000? Wow! Its worth maybe $8,000-$9,000. I had to find out what was going on. So, I clicked on it, and sure enough, it was a 2001 Lincoln Town Car, same color, same series-signature series-exactly the same, only one catch: The car belonged to Warren Buffett, not Jimmy Buffett-not Margaritaville dude-but the second richest man in all the world. The car was talking about his thriftiness and how he doesnt have chauffeurs, and he doesnt drive around in limos. It said when Mr. Buffett wants to go to McDonalds, he drives his 2001 Lincoln Town Car. He drives it everywhere he goes. It said that if you win this car, two things would happen. One, all the money would go toward charity. Two, Mr. Buffett will put, will don, a chauffer cap, come to the airport, pick you up in person and take you to the car. Youll have a chance to meet him and sit down and talk with him. The car sold for $73,000! Seventy-three thousand dollars! So, Im figuring I can get $60,000 for mine, maybe (congregation laughing). Okay, ask $60,000, take $50,000. Why did it sell for so much money? Because of whom it belonged to. Whom it belonged to determined its worth and value. You are not the stuff of cosmic gas and stardust and ooze. You are the stuff of God. You are made in His image. The fact is you belong to Him, and because you belong to Him, you have incredible worth and value. That worth and value were further demonstrated not just by the fact that you are created in His image, but that He would send His son to suffer and die in your place. Something is worth the price that youre willing to pay for it. What was the price that God was willing to pay for you? It was the life of His Son. Would you bow in prayer as we prepare to receive communion this morning? Father, the Gospel is always, if anything, something that humbles us. Just as we look in creation and see its vastness and its glory and say, What is man? Whom am I? so we look at the cross, and we say, Whom am I that You would do this for me? I pray for those this morning who struggle with a low self-esteem, a low self-worth, who do not see themselves as valuable. Father, let them grasp this truth in their spirit, that they are far more valuable than they can ever imagine because they belong to-because theyve been created in-Your image. Father, might the lies of the world have a deaf ear turned toward them, might not only their ears but their eyes and their heart turn to Your truth and receive it into their souls. I pray this in Jesus name, Amen.
Lets open our Bibles up to Hebrews 5:11 (page 1187 of pew Bibles). Today, well be talking The Truth Project, Part 3: philosophy. I want to give a word of encouragement to you as we begin today. I have heard it said on more than one occasion, for those of you who are coming to class, listening to Del, and those of you who are coming to the talks on the weekend and dialoging on these things, Hey, this is hard, youll say. So, if youve come up to me and said that, youre not the only one who has. A lot of folks have said that, but I want to encourage you with these words today. In the Book of Hebrews, it says, We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. Now, hes being very frank, isnt he? And Im not at all equating them with you, but he is going to tell them like it is. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of Gods word all over again. You need milk, not solid food. How about if you came over to somebodys house to eat, and they were serving Gerbers [baby food]? What would you do? Would you nicely eat the strained peas and say, They were delicious? Or would you say, Why do you have Gerbers here? They would say, Well, we have Gerbers to eat and ba-bas to drink from. I dont think youre ready for solid food. Youd be offended. You would say, Why would you think that of me? I wonder if they were offended at what was written here. Part of them might have said, What do you mean were not ready for solid food? What he is saying here is youre not ready for the deeper truth of Gods word. Were going back to the elementary things all over again. Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. Hes saying if youre in the Word, and youre growing in the Word-youre growing and understanding- and youre grappling with deeper truths, the end result is youre going to mature. When you mature, your discernment is going to increase. As your discernment decreases, you will be able to distinguish right from wrong. Youre going to just know those things. He says you who have trained themselves to distinguish… The Truth Project, the reason were raising the bar intellectually, is not so that you can spit out and say, Well, as a Christian, this is what I believe about that. Were not here to say, Heres how you think. Were here to give you a framework, principles that you can use to know what you believe, to be able to discern right from wrong, to discern truth from error. When I say this, theres nothing wrong with going to a pastor or another Christian and asking them, but you will be able to discern for yourselves theological questions. Thats what this is about. This is about maturity. What he says there in that last verse is practice makes perfect. This word maturity is the word perfect, the word teleos. The second word trained there means to exercise vigorously; gymnasium comes from that word. Hes saying as you practice and exercise in the Word, you will come to perfect your faith, not that you will be perfect, but that you will be mature. Thats our goal. In the Book of Second Timothy 2:15 (pg 1179), Paul says, Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. The word workman was the word most commonly used of a farmer, somebody who worked with their hands and worked hard. Hes saying you need to labor in the field. You need to work hard. I am doing some landscaping, a project I told my wife is such a big project. Im tearing up an area and rebuilding a whole large area, and it has taken me from the beginning of summer, and Ill be lucky if I get this done by the time frost comes. Its a big job. For a long time, it looked like I did absolutely nothing because so much of whats involved is digging. I know why they named this Rock County because it is a rock almost every shovelful. It has just been a chore to trench, dig, and uproot. Im now getting to the point where Im actually starting to plant stuff, and thats fun. One thing is that its one of the only excuses you have to get dirty and play in the dirt like you did when you were a kid. I come in the house, and shes like, Yuck! Im just covered with mud from head to toe. With all the rain weve been having, youre down there on your hands and knees digging in this stuff. Where else can you do that, if youre an adult, except to do landscaping? So, thats fun. But, youre toiling and what keeps you going is you vision of what it will look like when its done. When this area is cleaned up… When this area is planted… When the rocks go down here… When the bolts go down here, heres what its going to look like. So this toil and effort is worth it as I see that finished product. Were going to watch a quick clip from a show I believe it is called Lost. Ive never seen it. Some of you have seen it and think its good. Lets watch that. Were trying to make you struggle a little bit. Were trying to make you think, grapple with these truths-these ultimate reality questions. We dont just want menial Sunday school answers, but we really want to make you think, Why do I believe? Do I believe what I believe is really real? Now, you struggle with this stuff. You begin to mature. You begin to get understanding. You begin to grow in your faith. If you want to change the heart, you have to first change the mind. Remember that? Romans 12:2: To be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Transformation happens first here [in your mind] before it happens here [in your heart]. So, I want to encourage you, keep going! Keep coming; keep reading; keep learning; keep challenging yourself. You may not take it all in and understand it all, but when its all said and done, youll be stronger than when you started. Youll know more. Youll love God more. So, I hope thats a word of encouragement to you…I hope. Lets talk about philosophy. Lets turn to the Book of Acts 17. Were going to watch Paul go head to head and toe to toe with some of the great minds of his day. When you think of Athens, you think of philosophy. When you think of Greece, you think about soccer teams and Aristotle, these great minds-these great theologians; really, thats what they were. Their philosophy was their religion. It was not just a school of thought that theyd adhere to. It was a way of life for them. This was serious stuff. So, Paul comes in and questions their philosophy. Hes really questioning their belief system, their way of life. Thats what hes going to do. He is by himself for a little bit. We have separated the team, STP-Silas, Timothy, and Paul. Theres been a bit of a commotion in Thessalonica and Burea. Theres a group thats going around stirring up trouble. Everywhere Paul went in a Jewish area, they would say, Hes teaching against Moses. But when they are in a Greco-Roman area, theyd say, Hes teaching against the emperor. Hes teaching false gods. They tried to get Paul in trouble everywhere he went, and usually it worked. So, they stay behind, and Paul goes ahead to Athens. Hes walking around the city. It says in Verse 16, While he was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. The word distressed means provoked. He was upset. Have you ever been in an environment that just upset your spirit? You look around you and you say, Things are not right here. This is not good. This is disturbing. I remember we were driving through Salem, Massachusetts. We were going to stay there; we were on vacation. We planned to stay the night in Salem, even though thats where all the witch trials were. It was a really dark time in the history of the church. Once you get there, you understand what was going on. These people werent possessed by demons and werent really witches. It was just a racket, an extortion racket to get money from people. Innocent people were going to prison and were losing their lives. It was an ugly, dark period in the church. So, we went there to learn about this. As we drove into town, the children didnt have an understanding of what Salem was all about, but we didnt have to say anything. We just drove through the town, and they were like, Ick! This is a creepy place. Dad, how long do we have to stay here? Are we going to stay here long? Well, we were going to stay here all night, but were not going to anymore. And that was just driving in. We saw this big black gothic-looking building. It looked like it was a church, but it was painted completely black. There was not one square inch on the building that was not jet black. The roof, the walls, the windows, they were all painted black. There were big black gargoyles painted on the outside of it. It said on the side of the building, This is not a church-get over it! I dont know what it was, but whatever it was, it wasnt good. We began to circulate downtown to find out where we wanted to go to learn a little about the history. We wanted to make sure we found something that dealt with the history and not something that was promoting witchcraft. We had to look very hard. Almost every exhibit was promoting witchcraft. You can go and talk to this witch or this warlock, and it was a dark place. It was really disturbed and distressed. This place needed the Gospel. We prayed for the churches that were there, that are preaching the Gospel. We saw it, learned about it, and left. Paul is not going to do that. He is distressed, but he is going to stay and do something about that uneasiness he feels. This is an intellectual hotbed. This is a place where philosophers go to philosophize. This is a think tank. Its a place where it would be very intimidating for the average Joe to come in and debate these guys because this is all they do. Its their lives. This is what they know. It says, A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to dispute with him. They began to argue with Paul. Were going to find out pretty soon how different these two philosophies were and how they would be at each others throats most of the time. Most of the time, theyd be knocking heads, but they united forces to debate the Apostle Paul because hes coming in as the stranger, the newbie, and hes refuting their belief system. They come together to attack him even though theyre very opposed to one another usually. It reminds me of what happened this week in the U.N. Hugo Chavez, the president of Venezuela, came to the UN. He comes in and addresses the United Nations there in New York, and he says, You can still smell the sulfur in this building because the President of the United States was here, and hes a devil. Your President is a devil. He began to say very demeaning things as one head of state about another head of state. It was interesting to watch the democratic response. Normally, they are political enemies, but I listened to Charles Rangel from the congressional district there in New York. He said to the president of Venezuela, You dont come in to my country, to my city, to my district and talk about my President. We can talk about him. We can disagree, but you cant. In essence, shut your mouth and go home. Nancy Pelosi, not a big friend of the president politically, said, You are a thug, and you have abused your freedom. You have disgraced yourself, and you have disgraced your country by coming in and using this opportunity as a chance to trash our President. I thought, Whoa, this is pretty cool. We are sending a message that weve got our differences of opinions, but the bottom line is we are America. When you come into our country, youll respect our government. So, heres these political foes joining together to dispute the common enemy. Thats whats going on here. Lets read with the Epicureans say, Some of them asked, What is this babbler trying to say? The word babbler means bird-seed picker, literally. What theyre trying to say is Paul picks up a little of this; he picks up a little of that; he picks up a little of this, and then he spits it out. He really doesnt know anything. He is just a guy who grabs some truth over here and there, and he tries to tell you like he knows something, but he really doesnt. Hes not smart like we are. Hes just a babbler. Others remarked, He seems to be advocating foreign gods. Notice the plural: gods. They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. They believed the resurrection was a separate god, another god. There is the God, Jesus, and there is the god, resurrection. So, lets listen to Paul as he talks about these two gods, Jesus and the resurrection. Thats how confused and lost they were from what he was talking about. Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him… This is where we debate; this is where we learn. …may we know this new idea that you are presenting? You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we want to know what they mean. Now, theres a little commentary here by Luke in the parentheses. He says, (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.) So, this is a think tank. These are professional debaters. These are the theologians of that region. Before we talk about what Paul says, we want to know a little bit more about them because thats important. Youll see why Paul says what he says once you know about them. You may say, Why do we need to know about Epicureans and Stoics? Theyre still here. They dont know theyre Epicureans and Stoics, but their philosophy of life is still here. In fact, you know some of them. Lets talk about the Epicureans first. Lets put a little picture up here that is an understanding of what the Epicureans are. The Epicureans philosophy of life can be described in three words: here, now, wow. I borrowed that from Gestalt, psychology. Here, now, wow. This is it, man. We are an assembly of atoms, and when we die, the atoms disintegrate, and then there is nothing. Are there gods? Yeah, theres gods. Were not atheists, but the gods dont care about human existence. Theyre off making other planets and solar systems. Theyre out having a good time. They dont care about us. Everything here is just random chance. You might as well live life to the fullest. The highest goal of the Epicurean was to live life pain free, to pursue pleasure. That can get a following, right? To pursue pleasure, it means you wont have pain. Live the way you want to live because your time here is very short, so pack as much into it as you can, experience as little pain as you can, and thats good living. How many of you know some Epicureans? Its Friday night, going to Joes. Going to get drunk-going to party! Go for all the gusto you can. Those are our Epicurean friends. On the other side, we have our Stoic friends. Youre heard the word Stoic before. It usually means somebody who lacks emotion, or they are sober, somber. Stoics believe that there was a cosmic force or a cosmic energy, a kind of god who pervaded everything. I dont know if its as much polytheists as pantheists. There were gods everywhere and in everything. There was this energy called logos. When we say logos, we mean something entirely different than they did. They meant reason. Reason reigned supreme. So, youve got to tap into this universal reason which goes through all of nature. If you do that, you get rid of passion. So you dont have a lot of highs, and you dont have a lot of lows. You are kind of even-keel. You make every decision based on logic and reason, and you control that by the choices that you make. So the world around us functions by these universal rules, so you want to go with the flow. There is order and design. There is reason for the universe. In fact, not only is there-as the Epicureans think-everything is by chance, but the Stoic says everything is on purpose. Everything happens because this is the way its supposed to happen. If its not right with you, its because youre out of touch with the reason that pervades this whole universe, this logic. You might think of the Stoics as Star Wars meets Star Trek, as Yoda meets Spock. That was their point of view. Is that different from the Epicurean, the bar scene guys? Its night and day. So, when these two get together, sparks fly. So, Paul is going to come in and go toe to toe with them. Hes going to discuss their point of view. Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said, Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. That was meant to be a compliment. He was trying to build a bridge, not erect a wall. Remember, Pauls goal is transformation. He wants to transform them, so he is going to appeal to, what? Their minds-because their minds are the key to their hearts-especially these guys. Im going to engage your intellect so I can win your heart. So his goal was transformation. Its going to happen through the mind, so Paul comes in to seek to build a bridge, not erect a wall. Hes not interested just in conformity; hes interested in transformation. Hes not coming in there with a sledge hammer and trashing them saying, Now, Im going to break down your idols! Bam! Bam! Bam! How many of you have ever seen the Christians try to win transformation by forcing conformity without changing the mind or heart? They just come in with their sledge hammer and start trashing, banging, and breaking. They say, Im going to show you that youre wrong, and Im right. Heres what I think about your thinking and your way of life! Bam! Bam! Trash! Pow! Have you seen that? Does it work? What does it do? It makes them mad. Youre not going to come down here and break our idols. Well show you! Were not going to listen to you. Paul doesnt do that. Paul is much smarter than that. He is going to engage their minds to win their hearts. So he seeks to build a bridge. Hes going to compliment them. Hes going to compliment their culture. Hes going to quote from their poets, their philosophers. He says, For I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship. I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you. There is a commercial out right now with two little animated figures who come up with an idea, usually a bad idea, and the one looks at the other and says, Brilliant! Paul is Brilliant! He is being chased around, and everywhere he goes in this area, they are saying, Youre preaching against the emperor! Youre preaching foreign gods! You could only talk about the gods Rome wanted you to talk about. Those were the only ones that were legal, so they were having a lot of success stirring up trouble for Paul. So what does Paul do? He doesnt want to be locked up! He doesnt want to cause a riot! He wants to communicate with these people and then move to the next town, so what does he do? He finds an altar that says TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. He says, Im going to talk about that god. Your unknown god? Lets talk about him. So it becomes perfectly legal by Rome. Brilliant! Well talk about that unknown god. Theyre being very careful here. Theyre saying, Look, weve got all these altars to all these gods, all these idols, but we might have left one out, so we dont want the gods to look down and see all these other idols and say, Okay, wheres mine? You forgot about me! Ooohhh, TO AN UNKNOWN IDOL, they just dont know my name yet. Yeah, theyre worshipping me, there. Thats mine! Thats the superstition so that well placate all the gods in case we missed one. This unknown god, yeah we have him too. Paul says, Im going to talk to you about that guy. Now, before we talk about what he says, lets take a listen to a little excerpt from week two from the Del Tackett teaching on philosophy, ethics, and morality. Lets hear what he has to say. Everything there is, and everything there will be, is in this box. From our eyes, this box is huge. Maybe from Gods vantage point, this is very small. Its a matter of perspective. So they reasoned everything. The ultimate truths of life and the universe must be contained within the cube, within what I see, within the stuff I observe. Paul is going to address that way of thinking. In Verse 24, The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of Heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And He is not served by human hands, as if He needed anything, because He Himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man He made every nation of men… All of us came, no matter our races, no matter what country: all of us came from one. Were all from the same family. …that they should inhabit the whole earth; and He determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. Does that sound like, to the Epicureans, that Gods not involved in His creation? They would take issue with what Paul was saying here. God did this so that men would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being. As some of your own poets have said, We are His offspring. Theyre using their own poets, whom they respect. Ive read that poem by the way. Its a long poem, but he uses it. Use their culture! Win their minds to win their hearts! Therefore since we are Gods offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone-an image made by mans design and skill. In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now He commands all people everywhere to repent. Does He suggest we repent? Does He invite us to repent? He commands we repent. What does repent mean? Literally to change your mind, to change your way of thinking. Who does He command to repent? All people, everywhere! Who does that leave out? Nobody anywhere. Thats everybody. For He has set a day when He will judge the world by justice. Uh-oh. Uh-oh, Epicureans. Youre not going to turn into dust. Theres coming a day of accountability where He will judge the world by justice by the man He has appointed. Lets read on. He says, He has given us proof of this to all men by raising Him from the dead. When he uses the word men there, thats the word anthropos. It means man and woman, mankind; so ladies, dont get offended, Is he being sexist here? What about us? That means you too. Mankind is what he is saying: men and women. Hes given us proof by raising Him from the dead. I bet you Paul is saying that your founder, Stoics, Mr. Zeno, I bet he was a great teacher. But Zeno, not to be confused with Zena-the warrior princess, Zeno is dead and gone for 300 years. Epicureans, Im sure he was a good teacher, but hes been dead and gone for hundreds of years. Paul speaks with authority because his teacher was dead, and now Hes alive. He says, I have proof. These were all good men, but the man who Im sharing about, the philosophy and way of thinking Im sharing about, my teacher died and is alive. Paul spoke not as somebody hemming and hawing, like Aw, gee. Shucks, I know you guys are smart, and youre philosophers, but golly gee, listen to what I have to say too. Youve been around for hundreds of years. Were just getting started. I dont know anything, but here we go. I know Im just a babbler, just a bird-seed picker, and you guys are all smart. Im just a hick… Thats not what Paul does. Paul comes in there, and he speaks with authority and confidence like I know something you dont know, and youre wise to listen to me. What Paul is saying is guys, there has to be something outside the cube. There has to be something outside the box. Youre looking in the wrong place for the ultimate meaning of life. Philosophy points to the existence of a higher power. The Stoics thought everything was cause and effect; everything happens for a reason. Paul says, There has to be a first cause. There has to be a first mover. Thats called the cosmological argument. Paul used it. Great philosophers have used it. Thomas Aquinas, the uncaused cause, the first cause: there has to be somebody who tipped that first domino and caused all the cause and effect that you see in the world around you. Thats the God Im telling you about. There were two different responses. Some sneered, and some said, We want to hear you again on this. Probably the ones who sneered were the Epicureans because their worldview was challenged the most. Probably the Stoics said, Youre using some logic here. Youre using some reason. I want to know more about the God that you profess. If youre listening to this, and youre a Stoic and youre not a believer, but were talking to your mind and youre listening-keep listening. Keep coming and hearing the message that we have to say.
Lets turn in our Bibles to John 18:28 (page 1072 of pew Bibles), if you would please. Lets go ahead, while theyre finding that, and find the picture of Behold the Man from our intro, which I forgot to let run. You think after the third time, I could get it right. Its a beautiful picture by Antonio Cesari in the 1800s. He was a wonderful artist who in this particular piece shows Pilate with Jesus. Thats the scene were going to begin with today. Then the Jews lead Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor. By now it was early morning and to avoid ceremonial uncleanness, the Jews did not enter the palace. They wanted to be able to eat the Passover. So Pilate came out to them and asked, What charges do you bring against this man? Understand, now, Pilate is being woken up in the middle of the night. Its early in the morning. Hes a little disoriented. Hes probably a little cranky. A few of us wake up chipper in the middle of the night after a disturbance. Governor, there are some Jews here, and theyre upset. They want to speak to you. Pilate looks at the clock and says, Tell them to go away. Its an urgent matter, sir. They need your attention at once. What, now? Pilate probably said as he threw off the covers and put on his robe. He went out to meet the Jews with his hair disheveled, his face unshaved, his teeth unbrushed. So Pilate came out to them and said, What are the charges that youre bringing against this man? Lets cut to the chase. Lets get this over with, so I can go back to bed. What are the charges? If He were not a criminal, they replied, we would not have handed Him over to you. Well, that straightens things out, doesnt it? Theres a nice non-specific answer. Pilate said, Take Him yourselves, and judge Him by your own law. Let me go back to bed. We have no right to execute anyone, the Jews objected. Im sure that word execute got his attention. The Jews, by law, could not execute, but the Romans could. Execution: what could this man have done that could be worthy of execution. So Pilate goes back inside, and he summons Jesus (in Verse 33). He asked him, Are you the King of the Jews? Who are you? Are you a political figure? Thats what hes saying. Are you somebody whos a threat to Chiapas? Are you a threat to me? This is not a spiritual question. Hes not saying, Are you the Messiah? Hes saying, Are you the King? What is your authority? Is that your own idea? Jesus asked, or did others talk to you about me? Am I a Jew? Do I care? Im still tired. Im still cranky. He was rather short with his reply. Its Your people who handed You over to me. What is it Youve done? Cut to the chase here. I want to know what was so important that I had to be woken up in the middle of the night that I had to address You. What did You do? They want to kill You. What did You do? Jesus answer will not clarify anything. He says, My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, My servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews, but now My kingdom is from another place. It would have been fine if youd have just said, My kingdom is from another planet, but he says, My kingdom is not of this world. Right away, your radar goes up if somebody says that to you. If youre having a conversation, and you introduce yourself, you say, Hi, Im from Janesville, Wisconsin. They say, Hi, Im from a different world. Right away, youre thinking, Ugh oh. Houston, we have a problem. Somebodys not dealing with a full deck. I wonder if that thought crossed his mind, What does Jesus mean Hes not from this world? What other world is there? Youre not of this world? Pilate might have thought for a moment, Is this man crazy? But then he had to rationalize that a crazy man is not going to stir the Jews up into such an uproar that they want to execute Him. If He were crazy, the Jews would not be taking him seriously. The Jews would either ignore Him or laugh at Him. They certainly would not be waking the governor up in the middle of the night saying, Kill Him! No, this mans not crazy. Something else is going on here. He speaking of a world that He is from that is different from this world. How many think Pilates curiosity would be pretty aroused at this point? Yeah. Hed never met a man like this, never met a man who talked like this before. There have been discoveries and revelations that have changed our perception of reality. They havent changed reality, mind you. These things always were, but the discoveries brought them into our line of sight, so we found out of their existence. One I can think of is the telescope. As Galileo was looking into the Heavens, he saw planets, orbits and stars that the man had never yet seen. His discovery changed our world. Did it change reality? No. It changed our perception of reality. Those planets were always there. Those orbits were always there. Those stars and moons were always there. Galaxies were always there, but wed never seen them before. Through that discovery, a revelation of a reality that we did not know existed came into our minds. Is it Leeunwenhoek? Its been a long time since Ive been in freshman biology. He was the father of the microscope. Looking through that microscope, seeing a world that we didnt know existed…these little bacteria, ameba, and all these little things that we cant see with our naked eye that you can see under that microscope. We found out what causes some illnesses and diseases and how to cure them. It changed our world. Did it change reality? No, but it changed our perception of reality. Those things were always there. Theyre still there. Every once in a while Ill see a special on TV where theyll go into a hotel and use some special camera to show you all the germs. Theyre on your pillow case, all these bugs and everything. It changed our perception of reality. They were always there, but we didnt know about them. Jesus comes and says, Im telling you about a world which you do not know of, but its real. Its the kingdom of God. Its called Heaven, and thats where Im from. Ive come into your world. Ive come into this world that I have made to explain to you the ultimate truth. So Pilate is baffled. He says, You are a king, then? You are right in saying I am a king. Now, listen. What Jesus is going to say here is very important. He says, In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this, I came into the world. Now, stop right there and look up at me. For those of you who have already seen Del Tackett, you cant play. If you have not, just answer to yourself when we ask the question, Why did Jesus come in the world? What do you think he would say? If I asked you, as a Christian, why did Jesus come, what would your response be? Many of you would say, Well He came to die for my sins. I would say, Correct answer. Some would say, He came to conquer death and rose again from the grave. I would say, Correct answer. Some of you would say, Well, He came to show us what God is like. He came to reveal God to us. I would say, That is a correct answer. But the foundational answer, the foundation which all those important truths rest is this one foundation right here. Jesus says, For this I was born, and for this I came into the world to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of the truth listens to Me. This foundation, this important foundation which is called the truth, is what everything else rests on. The revelations that He gave us of Heaven, the revelations that He gave us of the Father, rest on the foundation of truth. What He came to do upon the cross, what He came to do through His death, burial, and resurrection, to conquer sin-to conquer the grave, those all rest on the foundation of truth that Jesus came to bring us. Thats the reason He came, to reveal truth. Talk to us about ultimate realities that have existed, that exist, we didnt know about them. He came to make them known. Pilate then asked the question that mankind has always asked from generation to generation. He says, What is truth? But the sad thing is that he has the right question, and hes asking it to the right person. This is incarnate truth standing in front of him, but he chooses not to wait for the reply. Instead, it says, And then he went away. He didnt hear the answer. I hope and pray this morning that those of you who have come to the series on the truth project, who are asking the right questions and asking them of the right person, will stay and hear the answer because Jesus did answer this question. But before we get to His answer, I want us to listen to some other answers. Youre going to recognize these people. Youre probably not going to recognize their faces or know their names, but youre going to recognize their answers to the question of what is truth because youve heard them before. Well roll the video, and then well talk about them. Jesus says, I have come to bring truth. Were familiar with that word, truth, in the Greek. We have a band by that name that comes to sing almost every year. Its three Southern girls from Tennessee. They are...what? Who? Alathea, truth. The word means objective reality, something that is true whether I believe it or no, something that is true for all people at all times. Jesus is saying, There is a thing known as objective truth. There is a reality that is real whether I accept it or whether I know about it. The universe, the cosmos that were seeing through the telescope were real. Whether we knew about them or not, they were there. What exists in the form of something only seen under a microscope is real, whether we see it or not or know about it. It was always there. The same thing is true with the world under the sea, the things that are under the sea that we now know about-the things previous generations did not. They didnt simply come into being because we saw them; they were always there. Thats objective reality. This whole concept that you can define your own reality, or your truth is your truth, if you want to believe it sincerely enough, then its true. It boggles my mind sometimes how logically-reasoning people present that as an argument, Well, youve got your truth, and Ive got my truth. I was walking to my car recently. It was late at night, and I was kind of tired. I went and got some gas, went in to pay for it, get something to drink, and I came out. I opened up my car door, and there was a guy there on his cell phone. I opened up the door, and he looked at me and said, Hey! He felt threatened, and he was angry. My first thought was, What are you doing in my car?!? But my second though, which came very close to my first thought, was, I must have the wrong car. How does that commercial go on TV for Southwest Airlines, Wish you could be someplace else? Thats what I felt like. I looked up, and I saw my car at the pump. Sometimes you go in the gas station and get gas. Other times you just go in there to get something to drink, a cup of coffee or whatever you like. So, it wasnt unusual for me to park there. I went up and said, Im sorry. I have a Lincoln, same kind, same color, and same year as you. Im parked back here. He did a little shoulder check, realized I wasnt some sort of a nut trying to rob him, and he said, Oh, okay. Thats okay. No problem. Ill let you go, I said and walked back to my car. If Im going to buy into this philosophy, I might say something different to him. I might say, You know, you think this is your car, but let me tell you about my truth. My truth is that every Lincoln this year and this color belongs to me. Thats my truth. He would have a problem with my truth. If I tried to get in his car, hed probably call the authorities, and they would come out. Theyd say, Whats going on here? Hed say, Officers, this is my car, and this nut thinks its his. I would say, Yes it is, officer. Thats my car. All Lincolns from that year with that color are my car. He would produce his proof of insurance with the VIN on it, his registration and title, his license, and everything else in his name, and the officer would turn to me and say, I dont need to see what youve got. I know whose car this is. Get on your way. Theres objective reality. Now people might have different perceptions of reality that arent true, and once they find out the truth, it changes their perception. You know our brothers and sisters in Christ from the first century were called atheists because they didnt believe in Roman gods. When they were to be executed, the emperor would say, Bring the atheists forward, and the Christian would come forward. We were called cannibals because we had communion, and we would say, Well, we eat the flesh of Christ and drink His blood. People would understand that as cannibalism. There was a love-feast. Christians called communion love feasts. Did you know that? Agape feast. Folks thought that meant something entirely different. We were a strange lot walking around calling each other brother and sister. We didnt go to the Roman holidays because they worshipped Pagan gods, and we wanted no part in it. We were odd. People judged the Christians. Was that reality? Not at all. It was their perception. It was a subjective reality. But Christ says there is objective reality. There is truth, and thats what I have come to bring. Jesus did answer the question that Pilot posed. Because Pilot then asked the question, What is truth? Jesus would answer that question, if youd just flip back to John 14, back up a page. Theyre inquiring of Jesus where Hes going because He says He is going to prepare a place. Thomas said to Him, Lord, we dont know where Youre going, so how could we know the way? Jesus answer is radical. Jesus answer is out there. Its as far out there as what He said to Pilate when he said, Im from another world. Unless, its true… He says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. Who comes to the Father except through Him? Answer that question for me. No one. That sounds pretty exclusive, doesnt it? That sounds pretty narrow, doesnt it? What did Jesus say? He said, Narrow is the path that leads to life, and few find it, but broad is the road that leads to destruction. Truth by the very definition is exclusive and narrow. Notice, Jesus doesnt say, I am a truth. He says, I am the truth. He uses the definite article. I can say to you, Hand me a book. Hand me any book. Maybe Im trying to prop something up, but if I say to you, Hand me the book, Im talking about a specific book. Jesus says, I am the truth. Have you noticed how, when you read the Epistles or any of the books, as Paul, John, Peter, or Luke-as they talk about the Gospel-how do they refer to it? Do they call it a truth? Weve come to bear witness to a truth. We need to bear a truth? No. They say, We need to defend the truth. Were called to share the truth. Ive come to proclaim to you the truth. Jesus says, and this is very important, I am the truth. He doesnt say, I have the truth. I am the truth. I am reality, or, I am the source of reality. I am He from Whom reality emanates. Now, Im not going to ask you to turn to these passages, but Im going to read them to you in succession. I just want you to listen. If youre taking notes, you can write it down and look at it later, but listen to what the Word of God says about the person of Jesus Christ: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made, and without Him, nothing was made that has been made. In the Book of Colossians 1:16, it says this, For by Him, all things were created, things in Heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by Him and for Him. In the Book of Hebrews, the first chapter, it says this: In the past, God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times in various ways, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, and through whom He made the universe. The son is the exact radiance of Gods glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful word. Who were all those passages speaking of? The Lord, Jesus Christ. Jesus is saying in this passage, I am the source of reality. I created reality, the universe you see around you, the physical laws, and the creation: those came from Me. I am truth. So if you and I are going to fully grasp the truth, we must grasp that truth through Jesus Christ. We must go through the source. What the world would tell you, and many in the world would tell you, is that you know there are many different ways to God. There are many different truths. You have a part of the truth; I have a part of the truth. Thats what the Unitarian universalis minister said in the clip, I have a part of the truth. You have a part of the truth. Put those truths together, and we have the whole truth. Im going to share an illustration with you which Ive heard that people have given to support this worldview. Then, when Im done, Ill ask you if youve heard this before. The story goes like this: Blind men come to an elephant, and theyre trying to figure out what the elephant is. The first blind man comes, and he feels the side of the elephant. He says, The elephant is a wall. Thats what it is. Its hard and solid. Its immovable. The elephant is a wall. The second blind man comes to the same elephant. He gets a hold of the tusks, and he says, No, no, no, no, no. An elephant is not like a wall. An elephant is sharp. Its like a spear. The elephant is like a weapon. Its like a moving weapon. Its a spear. The third blind man comes, and he grabs the ear. He says, No, no, no. I dont know what you two are talking about. As I feel the elephant, the elephant is more like a fan. Its light and it moves. Its like a fan. In fact, I can feel its air as it moves in front of me right now. The fourth comes up and says, No, youre all wrong. He starts to feel the legs of the elephant, and he says, The elephant is like a tree. Its round and its solid. Its virtually immovable. Yet, another comes, and he says, Youre all wrong. I felt the elephant as he hangs from its trunk, and the elephant is like a snake. It moves and its round like a snake, like a big python. Yet, another comes and says, Youre all wrong, as he grabs on to the tail. He says, The elephant is very much like a rope, a sturdy, well-made rope. So the story is told that each of them had a part of the truth, but not all of the truth, but if you put all of their truths together, you will find out what an elephant is like. This religion has a part of the truth; this religion has a part; this has a part: we put them all together, and they form a whole better understanding of truth, even though they seem to contradict each other. How many have heard that philosophy, that illustration? I asked myself the question from whence did that come. Where did that story originate? It turns out that illustration was written in the 1800s. It was written by a man by the name of John Godfrey Sachs. It was a poem. It was actually not a story, but a poem. It was called the Men of Indostan. It was about this wise king who brings these blind men to the elephant, and they each give their feedback on the elephant. If youre doing a search like this as a pastor and come across something like this, its gold. He was actually trying to prove a theological point. I thought, Well, thats interesting. This elephant story is, in fact, about theology. Is what they say that story means what the author of the poem meant? Lets listen to the end of this poem, after he finishes with the sixth blind man: So oft in theologic wars, the disputants, I ween, rail on in utter ignorance of what each other mean, and prate about an elephant not one of them has seen! Hes not saying theyre all right because they have a bit of the truth. Hes saying theyre discoursing on that which they know very little about. Contrast that to Jesus, who is the source of truth. When He says, I am the truth. When He says, Not only was I there from the beginning, I am in the beginning. The universe emanated from Me. When He says, I am the truth, Hes not saying, Ive got a part of the truth. Ive got a little bit of the truth, and you can take my part of the truth and add it to your other parts of the truth. Its going to form a whole truth. He says, I am the truth. Is it exclusive? Yes. Is it narrow? Yes. Did I say it? No. He did. So you have a choice: I am repeating to you His words, You have a choice whether to accept the truth as Christ has revealed it to us or find another truth, find another reality. I choose to follow the One who died and rose again. I choose to follow the One who spoke as no man has ever spoken, did what no man has ever done, and who changed the course of the world. If we really believe what He says, that no man comes to the Father but through Me, and our church does, it will change your world. Were going to hear Del Tackett talk about that right now. Lets listen as he gives us a short teaching from our media from this week. Father, we thank you for truth this morning. What a dark, aimless, and pointless world this would be without Your truth. To know that creation has meaning, that mankind has purpose, it means all the world. To know that You, the God of the universe, cared enough of Your creation to enter it, to reveal to us, reality-objective reality, means all the world to us. And, Father, that truth is not something thats convenient. That truth is something thats very unsettling. That truth transformed like an irritant, like a grain of sand in a clam that turns into a pearl. That begins to work in our spirit. We say, Weve got to do something. Ive got to take this information, and I have to share it. I have to make known Your truth. Father, our church exists to make Your truth known, to make You known to all the world. As believers, take what we are learning, transform us, renew our minds, that we-in turn-can transform our world. We thank you, Father, that Jesus is the way; that Hes made a way for us to be free from the penalty of sin; that He is the truth; that Hes made a way for us to be removed from ignorance; that He is the life; that Hes found a way for us to conquer the grave through His resurrection. We thank you for these things, in Jesus name, Amen.
Good morning. Today is the opening day of some season, football season? Some of you have thought Im going to be really cocky and arrogant in regards to the Bears and Packers game this year, but in light of the season each respective team had last year, thats not the case. The Bears, this is the truth-Im not being funny, the Bears have not won a season opener on a visiting field since 1970 (congregation clapping!). So, well break that today. Im not cocky about it at all. Ive asked this question of the first two services this weekend. Since you like to make fun of me because Im a Bears fan, how many of you feel like its most important that you root for the team thats close to home? How many feel that way? A few of you, right? You know Chicago is 50 miles closer than Green Bay (congregation laughing), so I welcome you new fans to the Chicago Bears. We are starting a series called The Truth Project. It is a series on worldview. Whats a worldview? Some have asked that question. We remembered 9-11 this morning; 9-11 is something that is seen in very different ways, depending on whom you talk to. Most of us Americans see it the same, but there are some in this world who see that as not a tragedy-but as a good thing. They saw that as the will of Allah being carried out and destroying the infidel, the unbeliever. So, this is a day coming up that they will rejoice in as a victory. Others of us, certain human beings, see it as-and I dont agree with this, but they say-its the judgment of God. Because of Americas sin and our tolerance of sin, God is judging us, so He has allowed these airplanes to crash and innocent people to die to teach us a lesson, to wake us up spiritually and morally. Theres another school of thought that says its not about God or Allah; its not about religion at all. Its about mans inhumanity to man. Its a tragedy, and we need to learn from it, prevent it, and move on. Its an awful thing. Then theres another school of thought that says God does his best work in tragedies. Though God did not cause this event, God is working in it and through it, and He is seeking to bring about His greater good and purpose through the tragedy of that day. Those are four completely different worldviews. Thats an example of a worldview. A worldview takes the same event and, because of our worldview, sees that event in a completely different way than somebody else sees it. Our worldview is comprised of how we see God. What kind of a God is He? Is He the kind of God who runs planes into buildings? Or is He a kind, loving, forgiving God? Or is He a distant and aloof God? What kind of a God is He, really? Or is He even there? Maybe we dont even believe in God; that could be a worldview that some have: theres no God; theres no Heaven; theres no anything. How do we see man? Is man good by nature, or is man evil by nature? Is man a created being, or is man the result of an accident of evolution? How did man come into being? Those ideas, those beliefs, form a worldview. Your worldview will determine how you spend your time, whom you spend your time with-whom your friends are, and whom you associate with. Its going to determine what political party, possibly, you belong to. It will determine what church you belong to or if you belong to a church at all. It will determine how you spend your money, your resources, whom you marry, what you do; all of those things are impacted by your worldview. So, having said that, our worldview is extremely important, isnt it? And, its important that we have the right one, and thats God! I think wed all agree on that; if there is a God, its important to think as He thinks. Its important to see the world as He sees it. What do we learn in 1 John, 2:17? The world is passing away, but the one who does the will of God…what? Abides forever. Its what lasts. Let me ask you the question, what is your greatest allegiance? Ive looked around this morning, and I see some shirts that tell me of an allegiance that you might have. You have an allegiance to a sports team or loyalty to a sports team. Whats your greatest allegiance? Certainly its not to a sports team. One might say, Well, its to my country. Its to my political party. Its to my business, my union, my club. Its to my family. Its to my church. Where is your greatest allegiance this morning? Where is your greatest loyalty? What is your greatest loyalty? Your greatest loyalty should be to the Lord, Jesus Christ. That should be your highest and greatest loyalty. So, to find out what He says about the world and to conform or transform our mind to that way of thinking is our task and our goal in these next three months together as we begin The Truth Project. This morning is going to be foundational. This morning is laying the groundwork and vision-casting what this is about. I told you last week, Id be back at the pulpit this week, but I changed my mind, one more week of sitting down teaching. This is more of a teaching kind of lesson than a preaching, more of a Bible study, and then next week Ill be back hollering up there. So were going to take as a theme verse this morning Romans 12:2 (page 1123 of pew Bibles), if youd turn there please. This is going to be, not only this series, but particularly this morning, its a thinker kind of series. So, when you come this morning, dont have the mindset, Im going to sit back. Pastors going to tell some funny stories; Im going to laugh… You need to be thinking today. You need to be aware. You need to be focused, and hopefully youll be able to retain what we share today. Romans 12:2 says, Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what Gods will is-his good, pleasing and perfect will. Thats an important passage of scripture. Thats going to be our theme verse, not just for today, but all the way through this series. Paul, here, is talking about worldview. Hes saying, If you will allow your mind to be transformed by God, renewed by God, you will be able to see the world as God sees it. Thats exciting, isnt it? You will know, he says. You will learn what Gods will is. Thats exciting to me. That which is good and acceptable and perfect will be a part of your life, and I dont think theres a person here who wouldnt salute that, wouldnt get excited about that. Were going to break this verse down and unpack it a little bit. Were going to spend an inordinate amount of time on the definition of worlds because to truly understand this verse, we have to really understand the words and what Paul is saying and trying to communicate to us. The two verbs that were going to look at are transformed and conformed. Conform and transform: theyre important. The tense and the mood, the voice they are in, and the original Greek is important. They are in whats called the present passive imperative. What that means in the present tense is Paul saying, Its in the now. Its happening now. Passive means that the subject is being acted upon. Its not doing the action. Imperative means it is a command. So, in the present passive imperative tense, we can understand that Paul is saying, Stop allowing the world to shape you. Stop allowing the world to conform you. Stop resembling the world. Transformed is in the same present passive imperative. The subject is being acted upon. Paul is not saying, You transform yourselves. You stop being like the world; you transform yourself. Thats not what Paul is saying because its passive, so Paul is saying, Allow the Lord to transform you. Stop allowing yourselves to take on the pattern of this world. By the way, we talked about the word world several times. We said the word cosmos can mean creation-world, but it can also mean, depending on the context, the world system. That is, that which is opposed to God, that which is corrupt, that which we should seek to separate ourselves from. Remember John said, Any man who loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him, for the world is passing away. That was the world cosmos. The world system is passing away. In James 4:4, James says, Anybody who makes himself a friend with the world, cosmos, the world system, that which is opposed to God is an enemy of God. If you make yourself a friend of the world, youre an enemy of God. Now this word world is a different word world. This is the word world that stands for age. It means this present age; this is an entirely different word. We understand what Paul is saying here. Hes saying, Dont be conformed to this present age, this age that we see. That has been the command of God since He began to call on people. That has been His command. When I was in school, one day I remember show and tell. A kid brought in a chameleon. I thought that was the coolest thing Id ever seen. He put it on the green, and it started to turn green. No big deal because thats what color it was. But then, he put it on the brown, and we all watched the chameleon begin to turn brown. I thought, Cool! I think he might have put it on red or something. Im not sure of all the colors a chameleon can turn to. I dont know if it turns purple or polka dots, but I just remember it being several different colors and thinking, That is so cool! Ive got to get a chameleon. I just wanted to experiment, buy a bunch of color swatches and put it on there. What happens when you put it on plaid? I could just imagine what happens. I probably went home and said, Mom, there was a chameleon in school. It was so cool! Can we get one? I probably said something like that, and she probably said, The cat wants one too, honey, so its not a good idea. I never got a chameleon, but I thought it was so cool. Really, what hes saying here is dont be like the chameleon. The chameleon adapts and begins to resemble its environment. Paul says, When we look at the church, we should not see the world reflect it back. Did you hear that? When we look at the church, we should not see the world reflected back: We should see Christ. Do not conform. When God called Abraham and Moses, first He called Abraham to make a nation. He said, Dont be like the nations around you. Im making a new people who will follow after Me and serve Me and be devoted to Me. Dont conform to the people around you. What were the people around Israel? All of them were what we called polytheists; only the Israelites-only the Israelites-were monotheists-one God. They were the religious weirdoes. Can you imagine those discussions? You only have one God? Ha ha! This guys only got one God. They had all kinds of Gods. Israel only had one God. That one God is a very jealous God. He says that. He says, Youre to follow Me and serve Me. Youre not to serve the idols and worship the Gods of the Amorites and Hittites and all the other ites that are out there, but youre to belong to Me. He said the same thing to Moses and the same thing to Joshua as they led the nation of Israel, Dont be like the world thats around you. The Christians of that first century, their worldview got them into trouble, didnt it? Weve learned about all the persecutions that the church had gone through. Remember hearing about Emperor Nero, the sick man? There was a great fire in Rome in 64. It burned down Rome. He had to blame it on somebody, so he blamed it on the Christians. He said the Christians started it. After all, these are the people who wont bow down and worship the Pagan gods. They wont burn incense to the gods; they wont worship the emperor. Theyre troublemakers. According to their worldview, Christians were troublemakers. Eventually Christians became something that needed to be disposed of and gotten rid of, so he torched them alive. He had them torn apart, limb by limb. He had them crucified. He persecuted the Christians. Why? Because they didnt conform. They refused to conform. They refused to worship because according to our worldview, if we bow down and worship your God, we are no longer worshipping the one true God. Christians were radical in and of themselves. The Romans really viewed Christianity as a sect of Judaism. Christians didnt see it that way. When they started talking to their Hebrew brothers about Jesus Christ, being the fulfillment of messianic prophesy, that went against the grain. That was against their worldview, and they were persecuted because of that. Then when they scattered all throughout the ages, Christians have been persecuted for our worldview because we wont compromise who God is and what He has said. So the values of the first century are the same values of the church in the twenty-first century. They are. Has society changed since the first century? Oh yeah. A lot of things have remained the same, but a lot of things have changed. A lot of things that we find acceptable, other cultures might have found apprehensible. But you know what? The church has remained the same. Our convictions on who God is, our faith, its the same. Thats what God says. Society is going to change. Society is going to be a chameleon, but you are not, no matter what culture, age, country, or time, You are my people, and you are to resemble Me, and you are to reflect Me and not the world. The word conform here is the word schema. The Bears are going to scheme a way to beat the Packers. Schema. Schema means the outward appearance which always changes. Your schema changed from the time you woke up until now, your outward appearance. Right? Im assuming that the way youre looking right now is not the way you looked when you woke up and looked in the mirror. Your schema needed to change. There was some hair that needed to be combed, some whiskers that needed to shaved, teeth that needed to be brushed, and clothes that needed to be changed. You changed your outward appearance. You changed your schema. But, what you did not change was that second word. It says be transformed. The root word there is your morph. Remember metamorphis? Weve heard of that word; it comes from that word morph. That means your nature or your essence cannot change. So the schema, that word conform, is that outward appearance which is in continual change. Your schema when you are the age of four is very different from your schema now, right? If you look at a picture of yourself at age four, your outward appearance was extremely different than your outward appearance is now. Youre taller. You probably have less hair, some of you guys-different color hair, some of you girls. Youve got some wrinkles you didnt have at age four. Your body is obviously different. Its been rearranged. Your chest has dropped into your drawers and that kind of thing. Theres some changes there, some for the good-some not so good, but your outward appearance has definitely changed, yet your morph has not. You are still the same person. The essence of whom you are has not changed a bit. Youre still you, same DNA, right? Same eyes, same bones, some of the same personality traits: youre you. Even though you were four, and now youre however old you are, you are you. The essence of whom you are has not changed. So Paul says, The world around you is going to change. You have to remain the same. You have to conform to Christ, not to the world, because God doesnt change. Remember what the Word said? Hes immutable. Hebrews says, Jesus Christ, He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. His character does not change; His nature does not change, and since we are His followers, the essence of whom we are as Christians is not to change. Lets go to Philippians 2:5, and well read this together. Well see these words again. It says, Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped. Stop right there, go back up. Very nature God… Guess what word that is there? Morph. Remember what morph is? That which does not change the nature of something, the essence which does not change: what thats saying here is Jesus is God, and that did not change when He was incarnated-when He became a man. Dont let anybody tell you the Bible preaches that Christ was just a man and not divine. Weve pointed out numerous scriptures to you, and this is one of the key ones: the word morph. This is His essence. He is and always will be God. That cannot change. Next verse: …but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. Stop there and go back, that word right there: very nature is the word morph. He really is man. He really took on the nature of man. He really took on the essence of man, and that will not change. So, Pauls saying this is a teaching on the deity of Christ and the humanity of Christ. He is 100 percent God, and He is 100 percent man. He has a divine nature, and He has a human nature. That qualified Him and Him alone to be the Savior of the world. There was no other name given among men by which we must be saved. God has only taken one body, and that is the Lord, Jesus Christ. So He in essence does not change His nature as God and man. It cannot change. Lets read on, And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-even death on a cross! The word appearance there is the word schema, the outward appearance. Those Doecetic people weve learned about, they might say, Oh, look at there. He only appeared to be a man. No, thats not what Paul is saying. Paul just said in the previous verse, He really did become a man. That is His nature and His essence. What Paul is saying here is His outward appearance would change. He would become a man. He would age like us. He would start off as a baby in the manger, and He would grow to be a man. Luke tells us that He matured in stature. He grew up. His hair became long. He grew facial hair and a beard. You say, How do we know that? We know that because the Word says they pulled it out at the crucifixion. They pulled it out of His face. His voice would crack as an adolescent, and He would become mature as an adult. He became a man. His outward appearance, His schema, would change just like ours. He would have the appearance of a mortal man, like somebody who is going to be born, live the course of their life, and die. That was His appearance, but He really is God. He really is from eternity. So thats another example of those two words. Hopefully, by those two examples, you have a good understanding of those words transform and conform and why theyre important. Lets go back to Romans 12:2 and read on. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world… this age, …but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Allow God to transform you. Its passive. How many of you watch Extreme Makeover Home Edition? Thats good, isnt it? Its a good show. How many of you are aware of Habitat for Humanity? What they do is completely different, right? The end result is the same, but Habitat starts from scratch, and it makes something completely new that wasnt there-neos, new-point in time new. Thats not the word were looking at here. Anakainosis is a different word. This means to take something that is existing and to transform it from the inside out. Its Extreme Makeover-soul edition. Thats why religion doesnt work. Thats why external stuff doesnt work. Ritual stuff doesnt work. It does not transform the heart and soul. It might look good, but trying to say the right words and do the right thing isnt going to get anything done. It has to be a transformation from the inside out. Jesus stressed that to the Pharisees, didnt He? He said, Youre doing all this external stuff, but it doesnt change your heart. Youve got to allow God to change and transform your heart and your soul-to renew-thats what this word is. It takes something thats existing, renovates it, guts it out, and changes it from the inside out so that by the time youre through, it does not even resemble what it started [out looking like]. It might have some of the same schema, outward appearances, somewhat. But when you do the makeover, the schema changes, right? There are new windows, new doors, new paint, new walls. The morph of the house is the same. Its the same house; its on the same geographic location; its on the same foundation; its the same address; morph hasnt changed, but it is schema thats changed drastically. Its the change that happened from the inside out. So God says, if we will allow Him to, He will transform us from the inside out, starting with our minds. So we begin to think as He thinks. We begin to see the world as He sees it. We see His truth in every facet of life. As a result of that, He renews our minds. He transforms us so we might know that which is good and acceptable and perfect. Does that sound exciting to you? Does that sound like a worthwhile use of your time? Yes? No? Yes? Thats what were getting ready to embark on for these next three months. Im excited, and I want you to see this not as a sacrifice, but as an investment in yourself. Im back taking classes again for myself. Is it a sacrifice? Yes, it is, but its also an investment, right? Its not about someday somebody saying, Oh, Dr. Williams, oh, Im impressed. Its about being a better pastor, a better minister, a better Christian, having a better understanding of whom God is so I can impact my world for Him in a greater capacity. Thats what this is about, The Truth Project. Its about us impacting our world for Christ, not about accumulating a bunch of information so we can impress people with our knowledge. It is about life change. Our lives are being transformed, and then God can use us to help transform our world; so instead of us coming to resemble the world, hopefully by the time they put us in the ground, weve done more transformation than conformity. Im excited. We are bringing in one of the best teachers in the entire world on world view. Hes not going to be here in physical form; hes going to be here on DVD, but hes still coming. His name is Del Tackett; hes from Focus on the Family. Were going to take a look as he introduces The Truth Project to us this morning. Then well close. Pastor Sean, youll be gone from here, wont you, this next service? Youll be teaching cross training, so Ill call upon you to close our service this morning, please.
Are you building the kingdom of God. Are you working with the church and playing your part in the body. Pastor Jeff used St Pauls cathedral in London as a word picture.
Pastor Jeff talks about the popular movie and book "Davinci Code" and rebuttles the claims of the author.
Were going to share right now, and were going to dig into Gods Word together. Living Free is our topic. Were studying the 12 steps of recovery. We said that were all in recovery; every last one of us is in recovery from something. We all need to be healed in some area. We have memories; we have all hurt others; weve all been hurt by others, so we are all in recovery today. These steps are for all of us. We talked about Step 1, which is to admit we are powerless. That has to do with saying, God, I cant. Step 2 has to do with He can. Step 2 is about faith; its about knowing that we need a power greater than ourselves to bring restoration to our lives. Step 3 today is to make a decision to turn our will over to the will of God. Step 3 is about surrender. Step 3 is about saying, I cant. It seems to me like if were going to get stuck, we usually get stuck in Step 3. If theres going to be one we struggle with, its usually going to be Step 3. I think it has to do with one word; it starts with a D and ends with a T. Do you know what that word is? It rhymes with shout. Doubt. We struggle with doubt. We have doubts about the Lord. Is He willing? Is He powerful enough? We talked about that last week, doubts within ourselves, all kinds of doubts. There might be intellectual doubts, just questions that you have that need to be answered before you can turn over. You see, its impossible to turn over something so important and precious to you unless you know the person youre turning something over to is trustworthy, right? So you have to have those doubts addressed. It could be psychological doubts. Sometimes people have a hard time turning their lives over to their Heavenly Father if theyve had an abusive earthly father. They project that onto their Heavenly Father, and they struggle with that-psychological doubts. Emotional doubts: sometimes well be doing fine in our faith, but when our emotions are down, our faith is down, and we have doubts because we put so must trust in our emotions. It could be theological doubts, those questions: How do I know the Bible is the Word of God? How do I know Christ was the Son of God? Or that Hes been raised? So there are theological questions that need to be answered. Theres all kinds of different doubts that you and I might be dealing with. The first thing were going to have to do is come clean and acknowledge that we have doubts. One of the things we do as Christians is we tend to look at doubts like a secret sin that we dont talk about. I was watching a show called Wife Swap, and its not as bad as it sounds. Its about families that trade wives, usually extreme opposites. One went from a household where she had no rules at all, no etiquette, to a household where the mother was an etiquette teacher. What was her name again? Ms. Lydia. And Ms. Lydia taught her children to swallow their burps. When youre at a table, swallow burps. Their table was a belch-free zone. The other lady was let it all hang out. Her kids were like the louder, the better. So Ms. Lydia taught them how to swallow their burps, this new mom did. She believed if you belch, thats just shameful-thats just wrong, so we tend to swallow our doubts. We tend to think if we articulate our doubts; people will think less of us. Its similar to our not wanting to admit that were struggling with some aspect of our faith because we want people to think highly of us, so we keep that inside. We dont want to admit that were struggling with doubt. The truth is we all struggle with doubt, even you whove been believers for decades. You struggle with doubts. There are periods in your life when you ask questions. You have philosophical doubts, theological doubts, and you struggle with them. The first thing you have to do is you have to acknowledge that. You have to talk about that. In Mark 9, theres a gentleman who brings his son to Jesus. His son is possessed of a demon. Theres no cure; theres no answer. This has been going on since childhood. The demon comes on the boy, and it tries to destroy him and kill him. This is a terrible situation. The father is powerless over the situation. The son is powerless over the situation. They believe Jesus can help them. His struggle comes in Step 3 of turning over his faith and letting go, letting Jesus perform this work in his sons life. Listen to what Jesus says, How long has this been happening? The father says, Its from childhood. Itll throw him in the fire and put him in the water to kill him, but if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us. If you can? said Jesus. Im not sure you can. Im not sure youre willing, but if you can…and Jesus jumps on that and says, If you can? Everything is possible for him who believes. Immediately the boys father exclaimed, I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief. Can you relate to that statement? See, doubt really is an inner-struggle. Doubt is not the opposite of faith. Sometimes you hear people say, Well, theres faith, and the opposite of faith is doubt. No. The opposite is unbelief. The opposite of faith is an unwillingness to believe. Thats not his problem. He says, I believe, but I doubt. I have unbelief. I struggle. See, I would go so far as to say not only is doubt not the opposite of faith, doubt is very much a part of faith. Doubting Thomas: he said he didnt want to believe Christ rose from the dead. No. He did but he struggled intellectually with what they were saying because Thomas knew he was dead. So its an intellectual doubt, a stumbling block, Unless I see Him and can put my finger in His side and see the scars in His hands, I will not believe. Doubt is something we grapple with to bring us to faith. All through the scripture, disciples, men and women, had doubts that they struggled with. You and I, first thing were going to do, were going to be able to fully turn over (Step3) acknowledge that not everything is okay. There have been some things that have happened in our lives that cause us to have doubts and struggles. Were going to watch a media right now that talks about that. Brenda put this together for us. I want us to reflect on the words of the song and the meaning of the song as it talks about our humanity, our struggle in our faith. Then were going to look at a very unusual case study and see how he dealt with his doubt. Lets go ahead and play it. (The song is Im Not All Right by Sanctus Real-see bottom of text for lyrics and link to song.) When I say John the Baptist, what do you think of? Do you think of somebody a little crazy? Somebody with a wardrobe malfunction, right? Strange diet, locus and honey, the first Atkins diet. Think of somebody in your face, somebody out there, and all those things are true. One thing you dont think about John the Baptist is you dont think about doubt, do you? Did you know John the Baptist struggled with doubt, the thing weve been talking about this morning? He did. He struggled with doubt. He questioned whether or not Jesus was the Messiah. In Matthew 11:1, Jesus begins his Galilean Ministry. When John heard (John is in prison by the way because he had confronted Herod, and Herod didnt like it and had him incarcerated) in prison what Christ was doing, he sent his disciples to ask him, Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else? In other words, youre not acting like I thought you should act. Youre not doing the things that I thought you should do as the Messiah, so Im wondering, do we have the right guy? Are you the one Ive built you to be? John had turned over his whole ministry to Jesus. In John 3, Johns disciples are coming up to him and saying, Hey, everybodys following Jesus. What are we going to do? Were losing power. Were losing ground. John says, Thats exactly the way its supposed to be. He must increase, and I must decrease. Im not worthy to carry his sandals. He is the man. He is the one who came from Heaven. Hes the real thing. I was just here to announce his coming and get out of the way. Im rejoicing that the bridegroom is finally here, John 3. And now, hes scratching his head. You see, when Jesus comes on the scene, the Holy Spirit said to John, Whoever you see the Holy Spirit ascend on as a dove and remain, Hes the Messiah. So, he sees Jesus, and the Holy Spirit remains on Him like a dove, and he says, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He announces to everybody, This is the Son of God. You can read that in your Bibles. This is the Son of God, he says in John 1. He just tells everybody. In Matthew 3, he talks about what he expected the Messiah to be. Lets turn there really quick, Matthew 3, page 957. You get a little taste of Johns preaching style. In Verse 7, the Pharisees and Sadducees are coming to him. These are important people. These are the religious elite; the Conservatives were the Pharisees; the Liberals were the Sadducees; but both groups were men of means. Youre thinking John is going to be on his best behavior because if it gets these two groups as part of his following, its really going to help the economy of his ministry. He could buy some better clothing, maybe eat some better food, maybe move out of the wilderness and get a condo in the burbs of Jerusalem. Lets be nice to these guys-these are powerful men, but when he sees them coming, he says, You brood of viper! Not a good start. You poison the snakes. Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Whats coming? Wrath is coming. Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. Do not think you can say to yourselves, We have Abraham as our father. I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. In other words, dont trust in your religious affiliation and background-heritage, to be your salvation. Thats a good lesson to learn. Dont trust in whatever church membership you have or church affiliation or the faith of your mom and dad. John says, What about you? What is the condition of your heart? Have you repented? Are you following the Lord? He says, The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come One who is more powerful than I… You havent seen anything yet! You think Im tough, wait until you see the next guy! He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. What does fire signify? Judgment. Purging. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and He will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire. You take the winnowing fork, and you lift the wheat into the air. The chaff would blow away, the wheat would fall down, and youd gather that up, use it, and then youd burn the chaff. When He comes, Hes going to judge. Hes going to separate, and if youre not on the right side, youre going to burn, baby. So hes got a hell fire and brimstone message, and he says, Wrath is coming. The next guy makes me look like a puppy. So Jesus comes on the scene, and what does Jesus do? Is it wrath? Does He roar? Does the Lion of Judah roar? What does He do? He starts healing people and helping people. His teaching is extremely different from Johns. He starts talking about the lilies of field as theyre clothed, how God supplies for the birds, and how He loves you too, the hairs on your head are numbered. He talks about how Hes a good God. Johns scratching his head. Hes saying, Come on! Get rid of the soft stuff! Tell them what they need to hear! None of this feel-good stuff! Hes teaching differently. Hes helping people. Hes forgiving sins. He thought Jesus would come and punish for sin, bring judgment. But what he didnt understand was Jesus hadnt come to bring the wrath of God onto people. Jesus had come to take Gods wrath against mans sin onto Himself. He had come for redemption, not for judgment. John didnt understand that, so he sends a note from prison, Are you the Messiah, or did I make a mistake? Should I look for somebody else? Jesus does all these wonderful miracles, and what did He say after He was done? He said, Shhhh. Dont tell anybody. Dont let anybody know I did that for you. Remember the man last week who He healed from Leprosy? What did he say after He healed him? Dont say a word. I dont want anybody to know. He did that all through the Gospels until the time was right. Hed say, You need to be quiet about what happened today. John is saying to the whole world, Hes the Son of God. Hes the lamb of God. And Jesus goes, Shhhh. Be quiet. Not My time yet. Jesus did something very interesting in the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 4. We really dont have time to turn there, but sometime read Luke 4 because it parallels Matthew 11. We will turn there, Matthew 11. Right yourself a note to look up Luke 4. Matthew 11: How is Jesus going to respond to Johns doubt? Whats he going to say? Jesus replied, Go back and report to John and say you turncoat, you betrayer, you unfaithful doubter. How could you question me? I disown you! No! Thats not what He said. He says, Go back and tell John the blind receive their sight.; the lame walk; those who have Leprosy are cured; the deaf hear; the dead are raised; and good news is preached to the poor. He answered the question. You say, What do you mean He answered the question? In Isaiah 61:1,2, there is a prophesy about Messiah. It says, When the anointed One comes, (thats what Christ mean-Anointed One, Messiah-same word in the Hebrew. Christ in the Greek, Messiah in the Hebrew-both words mean anointed one), heres what He will do: The blind will see; the lame will walk, etc. Jesus read this in Luke 7 as He began His ministry in Nazareth, His hometown. He goes into the Synagogue, and they hand Him a scroll from Isaiah, and He starts to read Isaiah 61:1, 2. He reads this passage right here about what the Anointed One will do. Then He rolls it up, and He says, Today, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. In other words, Im the fulfillment of this Messianic Prophesy. Im the person Isaiah wrote about-Me. That didnt go over real well. Hometown boy, who do you think you are? It says they grabbed Him, and they wanted to throw Him off a cliff. It says Jesus just passed through their mitts because it was not His time. How would you like to be at the front of that line? Whered He go? What happened? He was gone. He stopped short. As Hes reading that scripture in Luke, He stops right in the middle of the verse, right in the middle of Verse 2 of Isaiah 61. He stops halfway through. He leaves out a phrase. The phrase is this: And to proclaim the day of vengeance of our God. Judgment and wrath. When Jesus quotes that prophesy from Isaiah in Nazareth, He reads from the scroll, He stops mid-sentence and leaves out the rest of the verse, To proclaim the day of vengeance of our God. Is that an accident? No. Because He had come, in His first coming, not to bring vengeance and wrath, but to bring redemption. The wrath would come on Him, not on people. John didnt understand that, but now He did. Its a good thing. Did John swallow his doubt? Nope. John didnt swallow his doubt. You and I dont swallow our doubts. Dont pretend its not there. You address your doubts. What is the specific area the doubt I have comes from? And then you address the doubt. Get your answers. Thats what John did. Thats healthy. Whenever I hear people express doubts to me, do I go, Ahhh! No! You have doubts! Having doubts and addressing those doubts is a part of faith, not of unbelief. Its a part of faith. Its a part of our struggle as Christians. Is Jesus going to think less of John now? Lets find out. Look at Verse 11. This is after John questioned if He was in fact the Messiah. He says, I tell you the truth. Among those who are born of women, there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist. Does that sound like Jesus thinks less of John the Baptist? Does that sound like someone whod say, Boy, I used to think he was a great guy, but he just really lowered himself in my eyes when he started doubting like that. You doubted Me, for goodness sake. No, hes not as good of a guy as I thought. Hes not as strong of a follower as I once thought he was. Jesus esteems him. Friends, its a lie. Express, pinpoint the area, talk about it, and get your answers. Pursue healing, because once doubts are answered, then action takes place. When action takes place, were able to turn our lives over more completely to the Lord because those doubts and those questions are answered. Do not be afraid of doubts. Sometimes Christians are afraid of their doubts. They think, Somethings wrong with me. Im doubting something about God. Im doubting something about my faith. There must be something wrong with me. We are afraid of our doubts. Do you know what Ive found in my life? When doubts are addressed, when questions are answered, my faith becomes stronger or weaker? Stronger. Every time my faith has been rocked, Ive gone after the answers to the questions. When I was 17 years old, in English class, Mr. Connally said, You can write your paper on anything. You can use any source but the Bible because it contradicts itself, and its unreliable. Eww. Eww, like Horshack (from Welcome Back Kotter), Mr. Connally, Mr. Connally, Ive got a question. And he dissected me. He tore me apart. I was no match for this guy intellectually. He began to raise all kinds of questions about the Bible that Id never heard before. You know what I did? I went and God answers because I had doubts after talking to him. I went and talked to my professors, and I came back and said, Ive got some answers for you. In front of the whole class, I was able to share those answers. I remember being a student, studying for the ministry at Trinity. Remember old Dr. Linton I talked about last week. Dr. Linton brings in a liberal scholar who says Genesis is just symbolism, just allegory. Its an allegory of what happened. There really wasnt an Adam and Eve. There really wasnt a garden. Its just a story so we can understand our sinful condition. And then I thought, Well, Dr. Lintons going to beat him up. Hes tearing us up, but Dr. Linton will set him straight. And he didnt. I was thinking, Dr. Linton, take care of this guy. He said, You guys go back to your dorms, and you study these questions. Hell be back tomorrow. I went back. I was in Genesis. I was there! Williams! Wanna go shoot some buckets? No, no, no. Im in Genesis. Wanna go get some pizza? No, right here. Im staying right here. And the next day, I came back to class and so did the rest of my peers, and we nailed that guy! If its an allegory, why did Jesus refer to him as a real person? Why does Paul refer to him as a real person? And that is a real event. Why is He listed in the genealogies of Abraham and others? We just had questions that left him scratching his head and having some doubts when He left. You become stronger. You know, were all worked up about the DiVinci Code. Were going to address this in two weeks in our church. This movie thats coming out says Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene. They had children. Theyre still living in France, their descendents. Mary Magdalene is the Holy Grail. Its craziness. The secrets societies and Leonardo DiVinci, Sir Isaac Newton and so on. This is the only time Ive ever seen liberal scholars and conservative scholars in agreement; I have never seen this before, but right now liberal scholars and conservative scholars say, These people that believe this are nuts. There is no evidence. This is just out there. This is far-fetched. This is crazy. You know what I believe? I believe this film has just as much potential, and you might think Im nuts, but just as much potential to bring people to Christ as did The Passion of the Christ. Do you know why? Because people have their faith questioned, and it raises doubts. What do they do? They say, Ive got to find out. Ive got to know. Im sure theres going to be some that its going to hurt because doubt is a dangerous thing. If you know nothing about your doubts, you just let it linger and live within you, it will paralyze you; it will impede your growth. It will cripple you, and it will spread. But if you address those doubts, I think youre going find people whose faith becomes stronger, not weaker. Youre going to find people coming to Christ because theyre going to start investigating this and thinking about whom Jesus is. Watch, watch and wait. It happens every time. Dont be afraid of your doubts because your doubts can be turned to areas of great faith. The ushers are coming forward, and theyre going to be distributing the communion. Hold on to the elements. Hold on to the bread, the cup, do not partake them. If youre here this morning, and youre a believer, youve made a commitment to Christ, youre welcome to receive with us today. You dont have to be a member of our church to partake; we will not exclude you. If youre not sure if youre a Christian, or you know youre not, let this time be a time of meditation, reflection for you. We want you to know how glad we are that youre here and how much we hope and pray that youll come and join us next week.
Artist: Sanctus Real
Album: The Face Of Love Song: I'm Not Alright If weakness is a wound That no one wants to speak of Then cool is just how far we have to fall I am not immune I only want to be loved But I feel safe behind the firewall Can I lose my need to impress? If you want the truth, I need to confess
Im not alright Im broken inside, broken inside And all I go through It leads me to you, it leads me to you
Burn away the pride Bring me to my weakness Until everything I hide behind is gone And when Im open wide With nothing left to cling to Only you are there to lead me on Cause honestly, Im not that strong
Im not alright Im broken inside, broken inside And all I go through It leads me to you, it leads me to you
And I move, and I move, and I move...closer to you And I move, and I move, and I move...closer to you And I move, and I move, and I move...closer to you And I move, and I move, and I move...
Im not alright Im broken inside, broken inside broken inside, broken inside And all I go through Leads me to you, leads me to you
Im not alright, Im not alright, Im not alright...thats why I need you http://www.christianrocklyrics.com/sanctusreal/imnotalright.php
You know sometimes people like to portray Jesus as a safe teacher. Hes kind of a good philosopher, good moral teacher; hes an excellent teacher. Everybody loved Him; he said good things; he made people feel good. Well, I want to tell you something. He was anything but a safe teacher. In fact, sometimes when Jesus was done teaching, thousands of people would leave and say, Who could stomach that? Who could listen to that? When Jesus would say, Unless you eat of my flesh and drink of my blood, you cannot have a part of me, sometimes people would say outlandish things. Theyd say, Who can listen to this? Other times, He would say, I am the way, the truth, and the life. The way. The truth. The life. The people understood the full ramifications of what he was saying. At times people got offended. Sometimes people got so angry that the Bible says they would tear their clothes off and shout at Him and threaten to kill Him because of the words that came out of His mouth. No, dont ever try to say Jesus was a safe teacher. He said outlandish, outrageous, maniacal crazy things unless…they were in fact true, unless they were true. In John, Chapter 10, hes talking, using the analogy of shepherds and sheep. Out in the field, not in the main gate where all the sheep were kept in the night, but in the nice climate, they would have little sheep foals in the pasture. The shepherd would lie down and literally become the gate of a shepherd pen to keep the sheep in and to keep predators out. Jesus says in Verse 9, I am the gate. Think about that-thats radical stuff. I am the gate. Whoever enters through Me will be saved. Thats pretty bold, isnt it? Thats pretty outrageous to say, If you want to be saved, you want to go to heaven after you die, youve got to come through Me. Thats radical stuff! Whoever comes in through Me will come in and go out and find pasture. Verse 14, I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep, and my sheep know me, just as the Father knows Me, and I know the Father. And now Hes going to foreshadow the cross and the resurrection a long time before He would have to walk that road. He said, I lay My life down for the sheep. Now, Hes going to talk about you. He says, I have other sheep that are not of this pen, not of Israel. Thats you and me. I must bring them also. They, too, will listen to my voice, and there will be one flock and one shepherd. The reason my Father loves me is I lay down my life-only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father. He just said some radical things. He just called himself the entrance to salvation. He just said, You can take my life, but Ill raise it back up. So whats their response? The Jews were again divided. Verse 20 (pg 1062 in church Bibles) said, Hes demon-possessed. Hes raving mad! Why listen to Him? Thats a choice some made. Only a crazy person would say something like that. Only a person thats out of his mind would say those kinds of words. But others said, These are not the sayings of a man possessed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind? In other words, others were saying, Look at His miracles. For goodness sakes, listen to the teachings that flow from His mouth. Those are not the teachings of a crazy person. These are not the miracles of a man thats possessed by the devil. Then came the Feast of Dedication at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was in the temple area, walking in Solomons Colonnade. The Jews gathered around Him, saying, How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly. Jesus answered, I did tell you, but you do not believe. The miracles I do in my Fathers name speak for Me, but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life… Who does He say gives them eternal life? I do. Pretty bold, outrageous, audacious claim…unless its true. …and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Fathers hand. I and the Father are one. Again the Jews picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus said to them, I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone me? We are not stoning you for any of these, replied the Jews, but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God. Is there any question whom Jesus was claiming to be? God had come to this planet in the flesh. Is there any question in the mind of those who are listening whom he was portraying Himself to be? Not at all. They were not very happy about it. To understand the full ramifications of the cross, you must understand who was on the cross. If you see Him as just a good teacher, a good philosopher, a moral man that got in trouble for His own words, youre missing the point. God was on the cross. God was in Christ reconciling a falling world to Himself. Thats why the cross is so amazing and the resurrection is so glorious. Jesus was saying to them, in no uncertain terms, Youve got to choose. Youve got to choose. I am the gate. If you want to go to heaven, if you want to be saved, you must come through Me. Speaking of gates, I had some gate problems a couple weeks ago. I was in Los Angeles and on my way home, and I had to stay in Las Vegas for three hours. I thought, Well, you know, if you have to stay in an airport for three hours, Las Vegas would be a good one to stay in. My son and I stayed in El Pasos airport for three hours, seemed like three days. Three hours in Las Vegas went by like that (snapped his fingers). My strategy was to go get a Pepsi at Burger King and just sit back and watch the show. I mean, it was a display, this cross-section of humanity-you know gamblers that couldnt get enough, continued to gamble; star seekers would say, Oh, I saw Vanilla Ice! tee hee hee. People would be going off, That Todd Hamilton guy, hes over here. Theyre seeing celebrities. There are people that are intoxicated. There are people that are loud and obnoxious. Time just flew by. And then, as we were watching, we realized it was time to get to the gate, so I take out my boarding pass. My boarding pass has no gate assignment. I thought, Huh? How about that? I go to the TV monitor and look to see, Theres my flight. Okay, but it doesnt say what gate on that. So I got a little bit of a predicament. So I go to somebody, and I said, Can you tell me where Northwest flies out of? At what gate? They said, Oh yeah, you want to go to Gate C. Thank you very much. Go through security, and I get to Gate C, and I find out that Gate C can be reached by getting on a tram. You had to get on a tram, and it took you far away to another terminal, a whole different terminal. It was a long ride. I thought to myself, Oh boy! If this isnt the right gate, Im now away from the rest of the airport. Ive got to make sure Gate C is the right gate. So, I asked a person just for reassurance. Can you please tell me? Im on Northwest, going to Wisconsin. Is this the right gate, Gate C? Oh, no no. You need to go to Gate AB. Ohhhh. Good thing I asked you. He said, Yeah, you have to go through this new part of our airport. The doors are locked. Ill have to take you there. So he unlocked the doors, and I said, Thank you very much. I started walking down the corridor. Im like the only person. Its like 12:15 in the morning in Las Vegas, and Im the only person walking down this terminal. Im thinking, This doesnt seem right. So I finally get to the end of this long hallway, and I say, So, Northwest flies out of this gate, right? This area? This terminal? Oh, no, no, no, no. You dont want AB. You want to go to D. Oh, Deeeee. Okay, I gotcha. Thank you very much. I almost got on the wrong…Im glad you… So I turned around and I start walking the opposite direction, to Gate D. Now, Im getting concerned because Ive been told C, AB, and now D. Nothings on my boarding pass. Nothings on the monitors. All I have are these three testimonies, so I finally started thinking about this and I thought, I still dont know. I still dont know. So, I went up to another gentleman, and I said, Listen, I really need some help. Ive been all over this airport trying to find this gate. Where does Northwest fly out of? He says, Ohhh. You want to go to C. Thats where I was to begin with! Are you sure? He says, Ive worked in this airport for 20 years! Im telling you Northwest flies out of Gate C. So back I went through security. Only this time, there was a long line, and I was just fuming mad. So the whole point of that story is…dont fly Northwest! (Congregation laughing). It has nothing to do with Easter or anything else. I just had to vent somewhere. Sometimes, its really helpful if we tie spiritual truths to a word picture we can relate to. It helps us to retain. It helps us to learn, so thats what Id like to do. The first point I want to make is that Las Vegas was not my home. I was just there for a bit, just visiting, just temporary. But this is my home, and I was on my way to that home. I wasnt going to stay in that airport. In the same way, the Bible says Earth is not our home. Were here for a short period of time. Sometimes we can get pretty comfortable. Sometimes we could think, Hey, this is our home. The Bible says all of us are just passing through, that our life span is just a moment, just a blink of an eye in eternity. Someday our bodies will die, and our spirits will leave this shell. We will either live in eternity with God or apart from God, but this home is just temporary. There is coming another home that is eternal. Secondly, I had to make a choice. I had to choose. I couldnt just stand there and say, Yup. Is it C or D or AB or G or Z? I dont know. I couldnt just stand there and twiddle my thumbs. My flight was getting ready to leave! I had to make a choice to go. And I had all these competing voices telling me which gate to choose. You know, you have to make a choice when it comes to matters of eternity. You have to make a choice about which voice youre going to believe as to whats on the other side of deaths door. Theres some who have that Vegas mentality, that hedonism. They say, Hey man, lifes short. Live it to the fullest! Just go for it! Just go for it! Just live it up and party. What happens in Vegas…stays in Vegas. What happens on Earth...stays on Earth. This is it, man, so you best go for all the gusto you can. Just live it up! Thats a voice. There are a lot of people that follow that voice. Jesus says, Broad is the way that leads to destruction. Many go that way, but few there are who follow the narrow way that leads to eternal life. For a lot of people, that is their philosophy of living. There are other philosophies that talk about what Heaven is like. There are religions that say life is a series of reincarnations, that you come back as a higher or lesser form of life depending on your karma; life is just this never-ending series of reincarnations. How depressing is that? Eventually, you can get to the point where you cease to exist. Wow! Thats a happy one, isnt it? Then theres nirvana, where you just reincarnate, and then youre absorbed into God. You just become absorbed into this being called God. Theres some that are pantheists. They think that God is just everywhere and in every thing. God is in you. Gods in the trees, and Gods in the animals. Theres some who teach that. They believe youre just absorbed into nothingness and you cease to exist. Some say youre absorbed into God. Christianity teaches that after you die, your spirit goes to stand before the judgment seat. Youll be judged for the works that youve done and the decisions youve made, and you will be you. Those of you whove made that decision, to yield your life to Christ, will live in a Heaven with a real God, and youll really be you. So those are all different choices, arent they? Another thing I want to tell you about is truth. Only one gate was correct. It didnt matter how much I believed that Gate AB was the right gate. If Gate AB was not Northwests gate, I wasnt coming home that way. I had a ticket for one flight, and only one gate was going to have that plane. Some people say, Well, you know, whats true for you is true you. Whats true for me is true for me. Thats not the way truth works guys. Well, you know if you just believe it with all your heart, thats what counts. No, its not! Because I could go to Gate AB, and they would say, Sorry, sir. You missed your flight. Northwest flew out of Gate C. I could stand there and say, But I really believed this was the right gate! I could beg and cry and complain and moan, which I was doing a lot of by the way, but it wouldnt have changed reality. Reality was…my flight left on Gate C. Thats where my flight was from. Thats the ticket I had. That was the only flight that would take me home. There are a lot of competing voices out there telling you which way to go, but friends, only one is correct. You cannot say, Well, youre going to cease to exist, or youre going to be absorbed into God, or youre going to continue to be reincarnated, or youre going to go to Heaven. With those four, theres nothing in common. One of those is true, and the rest are false, but they cant all be true. They cant all be true. You have to make a choice which gate youre going to follow. So, as Christians we listen to the testimony of Jesus. We read His Word. We hear His miracles. We read the account of His resurrection, and weve made a choice to follow Him, those of you who are believers here today. Its hard. I finally made a choice. I chose Gate C. Two people told me Gate C. The last person was really convincing and seemed credible, so I got on Gate C, but it was still a leap of faith. When I got on Gate C, I didnt have a boarding pass that said I needed to get on Gate C. I didnt see anything on the monitors that said Gate C, so when I got on that tram to go to Gate C, I was doing this (scratching head). Because when I took off on it, I thought, Man, I hope this is it, because if this isnt it, Im staying in Vegas. Just take the building fund and let her ride on lucky number 7, do something to kill my time (congregation laughing). So, it was the right one, but it was still a leap of faith. It was kind of like this: If youre a Christian, is that what you have? Is this your hope? Its like, Ive listened to all these voices, and I want to know is it Ala? Is it Buddha? Is it Jesus? Is it some other way? Is it nothing? What is it? Im going to choose the Jesus gate, Oh boy! Here I go! and you hope for the best. Is that the faith we have? Ill describe that to you. We got a phone call about three weeks ago, and it was a really weird phone call. I came home, and Brenda told me she got a phone call, and the guy said that we are heirs to oil rights on some land. I went, Yeah, right. She said, Yeah, seriously. Her grandma Leatha had left her and her three siblings five acres of land in southern Illinois. She said they believe there is oil on the land-we own 1.25 acres. We have oil rights on the property and all the children must sign a notarized release so they can begin to drill for oil. They have two years to find oil, and if they find oil, we get a percentage of it. Now, before you get all excited for me or before you get all jealous of me, I want you to know, were not going to be the Clampetts. Its not going to be much. They said between $80 and $250 a month coming in, if they find oil. Well, thats okay. Ill take that, right? Thats better than a kick in the head, but, you know, Im not going to be Jed, sons not going to be Jethro, daughters not going to be Elly May, and Brendas not going to be Granny-although she does get cranky once in a while, she gets a little cranky (congregation laughing!). I couldnt say that at 8 oclock because she was sitting right there, but I know none of you will ever tell her that because you dont see the humor in that. So, you wont say anything, right? Were not going to get rich, so what were doing right now is signing these documents, notarizing them and sending them in. Theyre going to then start drilling for oil. Heres what Im doing (rubbing hands together), Come on! Come on! Find the oil! This is not what youre doing as a Christian. Christ has been raised. Oil has been found, and the well is capped, and more is coming. Thats the faith we have. More is on the way; 1 Corinthians 15:20, He is the firstfruits of whats come. Its happened! Theres already been a resurrection. More resurrections are on the way! Thats the hope we have. In the Book of Acts 17:30 (pg 1098) Paul is speaking to a group of men in Athens, and he says, In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. What does the word repent mean? Repent means to change your direction. When I was in the airport, I repented many times. I was going this way, and then I repented and changed my mind and when another way. Based on what another person said, I repented and went another way. Thats repentance. You change your mind; you change and you walk in a different direction. Does God suggest repentance? Does God say repentance, I think, is a good idea? If you ever get around to it, itd be nice if youd repent. What does God say of repentance? He commands it. Who does He command it of? All people. How many of you are in all people? Saturday night, like two people raised their hands. Weve got problems, right? All people, everywhere. I think that means you, guys, because he has been talking about how all people came from One, and God determined what lands and times and boundaries where they lived. …For He has set a day when He will judge the world… Uh-oh. What happens in Vegas…stays in Vegas. What happens on earth stays on earth, not true. It transfers to Heaven it says. …For He will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. Who has He appointed to judge the world? Just a nice moral teacher? A nice philosopher? No. God, the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And He has given what? Proof of this to all men by raising Him from the dead. What the resurrection is, is proof. Our faith is not a blind faith. Our faith is not that we cross our fingers and hope we got the right choice. Your faith is only as valid as the person or thing youve placed it in. And when you put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, you have put your faith in the most reliable person in the universe. Youve put your faith in a person who cannot lie, a person who has perfect character. Jesus fulfilled His promise in John 10 (pg 1062), and He did rise from the dead, just as He said. You know, Ive gathered my evidence. Ive made my decision, but the fourth point I want to make about that gate is that I could intellectually believe that that tram takes me to Gate C, and Gate C is the gate thats going to take me home. But it does me of no good until I do what? I board the tram, right? You have to board the tram. I could sit there in the airport, You know, hey, you looking for Northwest? Yeah. Right there, that tram to Gate C. I believe thats the gate. Guys come up to me and say, Hey, you still waiting for your flight? Well, yeah, but you know I believe youre right. Thats the gate right there, Gate C. That tram right there is going to take me there. And he might say, Well, you know if you want to catch the flight, you still have to get on it. Its not enough to simply say I believe something. The same thing is true in the realm of the spirit. Its not enough to say, I believe Jesus is the Son of God. I believe He died on the cross. I believe He rose again. I believe Hes Lord. You have to get on the tram. You have to make a commitment to Him. Verbally confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, receive Him into your life, repent-turn, change directions-and follow His way and His will. Its a full commitment of your life. Because Jesus didnt give you another option. He didnt say, Im a gate. Im a way. Im a truth. Im one of your choices. He said, Im the way, the truth and the life. You say, Well, thats pretty narrow! The truth is narrow! Who decides who accesses you? You do. Who decides when youre accessed? You do. Who decides how youre accessed? You do. Does God have fewer rights than you? Everybody is going around trying to determine how they access God and when and who? Thats His decision to make, and He took on flesh and came to this planet to communicate to us through Jesus. How do you come to Him? You must come in faith. That Hes paid a provision for your sins to be forgiven so you can be put back in right standing with God, and one day when you die, you will pass from death to life, but you have to make that decision. Youve got to board. Its not enough to hang around the airport. You know, some of us, were a seeker-friendly church; we love seekers. We invite seekers to our doors. We say, We dont care. You can be agnostic or an atheist. If youre serious about investigating the faith, we welcome you here. Some of you have been coming for a while- youve been hanging around the airport-and you even say, I believe that Jesus is the Son of God. I believe the Bible. But youve never made a commitment of faith. You need to. Youre thinking too hard. Youre thinking too long. Eventually youve got to make a decision. Theres this writer for Sports Illustrated who shared a story I read of how his dad was in UCLA taking a test. It was his last test. It was the final exam-worth a lot of points. The teacher asked a hypothetical question. So he gets to the final exam, and its one question. One question! This is it. You get this question right-you pass the test; you get this question wrong-you flunk the test. Theres only A or E; theres no C or B or D. Its pass or fail, and it all comes down to one question. The teacher wrote out the hypothetical question that said, Yes or no: if yes, please explain. So everybody is writing his or her answers. Everybody is scribbling these long page after page essays of why thats true. Well, this guys dad, he studied, hed looked at the test question. Yes or No. If yes, please explain. If you think no, it didnt say explain, so he just went with no, and he got up and left. The other people there, the whole class, were writing, and all he did was come down look at it, read about it, thought about what he knew and went, No. He got up and left; that was it. Everybody was looking at him like how can you be done so fast? He said, By the way, only one person got an A on that paper. That was his dad. His dad knew what he knew, and he made his choice. This morning, Im talking specifically right now to those of you, good people, moral people, religious people and maybe even church people or maybe worldly people. I dont know who all of you are, but I do know this: Earth is not your home. I do know this: You have to make a choice. I know this: Only one choice is correct. And I also know Acts 17:31 (pg 1098), theres going to be a final exam. Theres going to be a day when well stand to give account of our lives to the Lord Jesus Christ. Thats the only answer that really matters. If you have not made a commitment of your life to Him, I invite you to pray, and I want to lead you in a prayer. Some of you say, Well, I dont know how. Some of you have been hanging around church, good folks, but never made that commitment. This is your opportunity. Would everybody please bow your heads, close your eyes, and pray this prayer. If youve never committed your life to Christ, Im going to give you an opportunity to do that right now. Pray this prayer with me: Heavenly Father, I come to you in Jesus name. I believe in my heart that Jesus Christ is Lord, that He was crucified for my sins, that He rose again from the grave, that death could not hold Him. I ask you to forgive my sins, forgive my rebellion, my defiance-when Ive chosen my own way, my own gate. I want to choose Your way. I want You to be my gate, my passage. I receive You into my life. I ask Your Holy Spirit to come and reside within me, to make me a new person, to forgive my sins. I want to live my life for You from this day forward, so one day I can go and be with You in Heaven forever. I ask this in Jesus name, Amen. If you prayed that prayer this morning, then the Bible says that you are a Christian, in the Biblical sense of the word. Youve made a choice to be a God-follower. You say, Well, what do I have to do now? Well, now you live the life but not to earn salvation because salvation is a free gift. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that who so ever believith in Him shall not parish but have everlasting life (John 3:16, pg 1052). You cannot earn it. It has to be given to you as a gift. But a gift is only yours when you receive it. This morning, if you prayed that prayer in sincerity and authenticity, you have received the Lords gift, and we rejoice with you today. I hope youll tell somebody about the decision that youve made. Wed love to know and share and rejoice in what God is doing. People come to Christ in this church all the time in different ways. Surprisingly enough, its not usually in the service. Its usually someplace else, but it happens here too. So if it happened here for you today, let us know about that decision. Lets all stand together. Im excited about the series on Living Free that were starting next week. Be praying for that, letting folks know thats coming. We continue to be in prayer for the Titanic. Remember to grab tickets on your way out and sign up for faith news. I wish you a blessed Easter, and remember to celebrate the resurrection every day. Thats where our faith is. The faith we have is precious. The faith we have, people have given their lives for. It would have been so easy for Paul and Peter and the others if they knew what they were proclaiming was a lie. Before they were killed, they could have said, Oh, I have to tell you something. Its not true. We didnt really rise from the dead. But something happened that transformed those men from cowards who coward in hiding, shaking and trembling behind a locked door for fear of the Jews, into men who said, Imprison me, beat me, kill me, do whatever you have to do. I wont stop preaching about what I have seen and heard. The Lord Jesus Christ whom you crucified is alive, and Hes Lord of all! That is our hope. Thats what we celebrate. Its not a cross your fingers kind of hope. Its a hope that says we struck oil, weve capped the well, and more is coming. Thats the promise. He is the firstfruits.
The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me. This familiar verse is often read when we observe communion. We gather together tonight because it is Good Friday, the day we remember our Lords crucifixion. He would have breathed his last at 3:00 this afternoon and by this time Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus would have laid him in the borrowed tomb and returned to their homes because by nightfall the Sabbath had begun. But the night before this was the Passover, which Jesus celebrated with his disciples in a spacious, second-story room in the wealthy section of Jerusalem. Passover is one of the most sacred events in the Jewish calendar. It was one of three times a year when Jewish families would travel to Jerusalem to sacrifice at the temple and commemorate the occasion as a nation, as Gods covenant people. For 400 years the Israelites lived as foreigners in the land of Egypt and in the latter part of that period, the Egyptian Pharaoh made them his slaves. And if you watched Charlton Heston in the Ten Commandments this week, you know that God sent Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt and into the Promised Land. But Pharaoh refused and so God brought ten plagues on Egypt to show his power over the false gods worshiped by the Egyptians. It is the tenth plague, the most sobering of them all, that set the occasion for the first Passover. Moses warned Pharaoh that if he refused to let the Israelites go as the Lord commanded, then God would send the angel of death to kill the firstborn sons in all of Egypt. But there was one way to escape Gods judgment. Read Exodus 12:1-14 (verses 12-13 the congregation reads aloud) Read Exodus 13:8-10 Every year after this on the appointed time, Israel would select lambs on the 10th day of their first month and slaughter, cook and eat them on the appointed 14th day. In the year AD 30 the 10th day of the first month occurred on a Sunday. On that day, according to the Scriptures, the Passover lambs were selected and brought into Jerusalem. On that same day, Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, rode into Jerusalem riding on a donkey. Now on Thursday, at twilight, Jesus sits with his disciples to lead them in his final Passover observance. Read Matthew 26:17-20 (stress my appointed time) Judas sits at Jesus left and John at his right. There are four cups involved in the Passover observance representing the four promises the Lord through Moses, as it is written in Ex 6:6-8. First Cup: Sanctification bring you out (poured) To sanctify means to set apart for a unique purpose. The Passover service is hereby sanctified, but much more so, our participation is a symbol that God has set us apart to know Him and to make Him known to the rest of the world. Benediction of Thanksgiving over the first cup: Blessed art Thou, LORD our God, Who hast created the fruit of the Vine! [Drink first cup] Head of the Company washes his hands. Jesus instead washes his disciples feet! He does the most menial task of a servant to teach his disciples servant leadership and sacrificial love. A lesson in sanctification indeed! The Head of the Company would dip some of the bitter herbs into the salt-water or vinegar, Speak a blessing, Blessed art Thou, LORD our God, Who creates the fruit of the earth. · Bitter herbs represent the bitterness of slavery (symbolic of the hyssop) · Salt water represents tears of affliction · Jesus came, not to rescue the Jewish people from Roman occupation, but to free all people from slavery to sin and the grief that sin causes. Next, he would break the middle of the three unleavened cakes Unleavened (1 Corinthians 5:6-8) Striped (Isaiah 53:5) Pierced (Zechariah 12:10
We are in between series right now. We are coming up on Easter, and then after Easter, we will start a series on the 12 steps which are not just for those recovering from drug or alcohol abuse. The 12 steps are a way of life. Theyre from the scripture, and theyre designed to help us break the patterns of sin and destruction in our lives. We did it years ago, and it has been by far the most used series weve ever done. So I encourage you to bring someone with you who will benefit from that. I was on a plane coming back from Arizona, reading a book called Courageous Leadership, a book Id been meaning to read for a while by Pastor Bill Hybels. He talked about spiritual pathways. He captured a concept or a teaching that Id understood, Id observed it, but never could quite capture it. So, what Im going to do is borrow that terminology and borrow some of the verbiage but add to it my own illustrations and my own thoughts. So I got the concept from the book and some of the verbiage from the book, but Im adding onto that some of my own illustrations and ideas. I want to share with you because I think what it will do for you is, Number 1: It will make you feel better about how God has made you, give you more of a freedom. Number 2: It will make you less judgmental of others who are not like you in these areas, more accepting of them. It will give us a freedom to be who God made us to be. Spiritual pathways. There are many spiritual pathways to experience God. Theres only one pathway to know God. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father accept through Me. I am the door that leads to heaven. God took on flesh and came to this earth, came to this earth, and told us what he was like-how we can approach him, how we can gain favor with him. Im not talking about many pathways to know God; Im talking about many pathways to experience God, once we know Him. Just like we have different gifts, different talents, different passions, different ways we give love, different ways we receive love, there are different ways that you and I connect with God. We tend to think we should all connect in one way. Everybody should love to go to Promise Keepers. Everybody should love to go to mens and womens seminars; thats not the case. Everybody should love to go by himself or herself and study the Bible somewhere in nature; thats not the case. Everybody should connect to God through praise and worship music; that doesnt happen. Everybody should connect through intellect and studying complex theological and philosophical questions; it doesnt happen that way. We all have different pathways that we experience God. Were going to share some of those pathways; see if you can identify your pathway. Youre going to see some, Oh, I can identify with a couple of these pathways, but there will be a prominent or dominant pathway, okay? I would encourage you to take notes because youve never heard a sermon like this before. Ive been a Christian for a long time, and Ive never heard a sermon on this topic. Ive never given a sermon on this topic. I thought it was great that Saturday night and the 8 AM service this morning, nobody had to take notes because they all knew what I was sharing with them. Im hoping thats not the case here, that Ill be teaching somebody something new today. The first pathway were going to talk about was introduced in our media, the pathway of Solitude. When Elijah was bombarded with the threats of Ahab and Jezebel and the context of all the people, when he was burned out, what did he do? He had to get away, he had to run, he had to leave. For some of us, the best way we recharge our batteries is to get away from people, be by ourselves and be alone with our God. Thats how we recharge. Thats how were wired; thats how we experience. One of the most peaceful experiences I ever had, ironically, was at the North Bridge in Lexington, Concord, where the Revolutionary War was started. The shot heard around the world was fired as Ralph Waldo Emerson called it. I lay there by that pond, and it was so relaxing and so peaceful, beautiful, golden leaves reflecting off the still pond. It was a fall day, we were on vacation, and I remember lying down thinking, I could stay here all day. I could stay here tomorrow too. I just remember we lingered there. The family wanted to go on, Lets continue our hike. I said, No, lets just stay. Lets just stay. Something about that solitude, something about that serenity, being able to talk to the Lord in that quietness was recharging my soul. I can identify with Henry David Thoreau in Walden Pond, not very far away from that spot. When he went through a hurt and pain and loss in his life, he then decided to go into nature. He decided to live in isolation. He built a little one-room cabin and wrote the book, Walden Pond. He says, I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life. Its different for us, each one of us, to live deep. To live deep for you spiritually is different than to live deep for me. For some of us, its that solitude. Its the walk by ourselves, the time in our study when the kids go to bed. Its the time in the morning before everybody wakes up and before the phone starts ringing. Its going for a jog-that one Ive never understood. Im speaking from some of you whove said to me you have God-time when you jog. You pray when you jog. I cant relate to that one. All I pray when I jog is God, when will this be over? God, how much more can I take? My calves kill me; my lungs are dying. How long has it been? Five minutes! Oh! Please, Lord, rescue me. Come now, quickly, Lord Jesus! You solitude people, you resist. Lets go to Promise Keepers! Lets go to a mens retreat! Lets go to a womens retreat! Lets just fellowship all day long! and youre like, No, thats not going to recharge my batteries. Its going to drain me! If I go on a three-day retreat, Im going to need another three days of solitude to recharge my batteries from the three-day retreat. Im a solitude guy. Any other people, solitude people, out there? I love you!! Lets talk about the other folks, shall we? Lets talk about those Relational junkies. In Acts, Chapter 2:42-47, they talked about those believers who are recharged and energized and connect with God through relationships. They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and the fellowship, and the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everything they did was together. Every day, verse 46, they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. Those of us who are relational, we read those verses, and we just start to drool. We say, Thats me! Everything we do has to be in community. When you serve, you want to serve in community; when you pray, you want to pray in community; when you study the Bible, you want to do it in community; when you eat, you want to eat in community; when you worship, you want to worship in community. Sometimes, youve wondered if youre not spiritual like some of the other folks because every time you sit down to read the Bible by yourself, your mind goes somewhere else. Every time you sit down to pray, your mind drifts to another place. But when youre in community, you can study the Bible for a long time. When you pray and there are other believers with you, you can pray and become engaged for a long time mentally because youre doing it in a community. When you serve in community, you get fired up. You watch the faith of others and the actions of some of the others, and it gets you excited and you stay in the game longer. But when you serve by yourself, you lose interest really fast. You think, Somethings wrong with me. To be really spiritual, youre almost monastic, right? You just like that solitude and quietness and alonetime. If I were really spiritual, I wouldnt always have to have other brothers and sisters with me all the time to connect with God. Id be able to do my God-time alone, like this brother or this sister. The truth of the matter is Gods made you relational. Dont feel bad about it-embrace it, lean in to it. Do what you do in community. Its okay. Thats how God made you to be; its how Gods made you connect. Go to camps and retreats and fellowship away! Thats awesome! Thats how you connect. Dont feel you have to be a spiritual monk to be mature. You dont. God has not made you like these solitude folks. Hes made you relational. Embrace that! Then there are those who literally feel more connection with God when they are in Creation. When they are out and about in Gods world, when theyre under a starry sky or when theyre by the water, when theyre by a garden or when theyre outside, they just come alive spiritually. They see God in Creation. One of the reasons I came to Christ, the dominant reason I prayed at age 17 to find out if God was real, was Creation. I wasnt buying what I was hearing at school, that I was an accident-that I had evolved over millions of years. I had a head to think too, and I started seeing design and the complexity of nature. I said, No way. Im not buying it. Ive got faith, but I dont have that much faith. You try to tell me all this came from nothing. I see the evidence of a God. I went to a park, and I got alone in creation, and I said, God, if Youre real, if You really exist and Im not sure He does, but if He really exists, please come into my life. Please change me. Please make me a new person. Im not happy with the person that I am. And I want to tell you something: from that day to this, my life has never been the same. God changed me. The scriptures opened up to me. I began to understand and be excited about what I was reading for the first time. I studied Biblical prophecy and became convinced that Christ was the fulfillment of those prophesies, and I gave my heart and life to Him. That was in 1978, before my 18th birthday. So, that was a pathway for me, creation. There is a slideshow I want to show you that is going to take us from 10 million light years away from our Galaxy, Milky Way, and its going to get closer frame by frame, 100,000 light years, 10,000 light years, 1,000 light years, in about a minute and 20 seconds. Then its going to take us to the Western Hemisphere, to Florida, to a city in Florida, to a tree in Florida, then to the top of the tree, then to a leaf on top of the tree, then into the leaf. Were going to see the vastness of God from the cosmos to the simplicity of a single cell. Lets watch. (Film shows exactly as Pastor Jeff described, frame by frame from 10 million light years all the way into the nucleus of the cell from the leaf.) How do you go from such vastness of the universe down to the most microscopic element of life to see that design and have that not bear witness to the Creator? Lets back up. Were still on creation. Lets turn in our Bibles to the Book of Psalms. It should not surprise us that we see God in creation because in the Book of Romans 1:19-20, it tells us that the glory of God is revealed in His creation and what can be known about God is eternal power to defy nature or clearly see what has been made. What thats called, if youre talking about philosophy, proving the existence of God, is the teleological argument. It says that when we see design, there must be a designer. When we see a law, or we see laws in nature, there cannot be laws without a lawgiver. In Psalms 104, the author of Psalms talks about this teleological argument, about seeing God in nature. Were not going to read the scripture in its entirety, but he begins by talking about the Heavens. He talks about what he observes. He starts talking about the laws of nature, the boundaries that were set in verse 9. And then he goes in to the ecosystem. He starts talking about how God uses grass for the cattle and then plants to cultivate to bring food and how everything works together, the balance of life, how God feeds the birds and provides for them. Pastor Jerry shared this week about a man who came to Christ from looking at a flock of geese. He said, in looking at the way the geese fly, There must be a God. And that led him to explore and investigate and eventually give his life to Christ. Psalms 104 talks about how God provides for even the fish of the sea, and then he looks at all of this-the heavens, on earth, and under the earth-and in verse 24, he says, How many are your works, O Lord! In wisdom You made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. Verse 33, I will sing to the Lord all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live. May my medication be pleasing to Him as I rejoice in the Lord. In other words, may God be as excited about me as I am about Him. What got this man so excited, so pumped up? What made him feel so energizing that he couldnt contain himself? Creation! Creation spoke of the greatness and the power of God. And just by observing His world and the laws of nature and the design of the world, the complexities of life, he said, God-you exist, and I celebrate you! Lets turn to the Intellectual argument, if you would please. In the Book of Acts 17:1 (pg 1097), Paul would relate through his intellect. It says, When they passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. As his custom was, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead. This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Christ, he said. How did he deal with those Greeks, those intellectuals? Paul was an intellectual. He proved, he reasoned, logic. With an intellectual, logic reigns supreme. Logic is it. Reason is it. They will never get excited. If somebody comes in, they come into the service, and theres a bunch of testimonies and its all warm, fuzzy stuff, that doesnt get him or her excited. Their connecting needle says uh-uh. But throw some theological questions their way, some deep philosophical kinds of thoughts, truth in the universe-all kinds of truth, and they get excited when theyre learning new things-when theyre engaging their lives; when the puzzle pieces start to fit, things start to make sense, they get excited about their faith. Theyre intellectuals. You know, sometimes we share Christ-this is important when it comes to Christ-because you want to share Christ according to the pathway of the person youre trying to reach. Notice that Paul didnt say, Lets hear his testimony instead. And then since I was knocked off my horse, I just never felt the same. Im so in love with God, and everythings changed. I just feel warm and fuzzy all over. I just know God loves me and my spirit. Thats not what Paul did to prove Christ existed to the intellectuals. Sometimes, if thats our pathway, our relational pathway, and we start sharing with an intellectual about mushy-gushy stories; and we wonder why theyre not crying and singing Kum By Ya with us; its because thats not how they connect with God. They need to engage their minds and challenge their minds. Try going to a person who is relational and tell them they have to isolate themselves and study. Thats not going to work. Find their pathway! How do they connect with God? If its a nature person, lets start there. Lets talk about nature a little bit. How did this world come into existence? How do we see design with our Designer? Deal with the pathway where theyre at. The intellectual gets excited by truth, all truth. I read an article in Discover Magazine about a woman named Dr. Schweitzer. Shes a doctor my age, 29 (congregation laughing), and she lives in… You think discover is funny? (congregation still laughing). She lives in North Carolina and Montana, and she goes to a church just like ours, a very committed believer. She is a biologist who converted to a paleontologist, so shes looking at these bones through a whole different set of glasses. She starts looking at these bones, not just as a paleontologist (minerals and all), she starts looking at it through the eyes of a biologist. She goes to Hell Creek, Montana, two years ago and starts gathering bones and thinking, They smell funny. She tells her boss, Those smell funny. He says, All the bones from Hell Creek smell like that. She says, No, no, no. They smell like the cadavers that I used to work on. So she takes these bones, and she begins to examine them. Do you know what she found traces of? Soft tissue. How does soft tissue exist on a bone 65 million years old? Thats a different story all together, isnt it? So she began to record these findings. The part I would recommend that you read out of that article, especially if you have any interest in dinosaurs, is where she started to repeat the process in different bones and was discovering all kinds of things. This is really going to change paleontology. Its a very revolutionary discovery. But if shes been a scientist I thought if you were going to become a scientist or believe in science, you would have to give up your Christianity because theyre incongruent. Not at all. Do you know what this woman as a biologist and a paleontologist says? She says, My God has gotten so much bigger since Ive been a scientist. He doesnt stay in my boxes. Through her intellect, through her knowledge of the world, God has gotten bigger to Dr. Schweitzer-not smaller-as she sees His greatness in the world around here. Lastly, lets turn to 2 Samuel, Chapter 6:14-16. Another way people connect is through the Arts. When we are expressing and creating, a person has a drawing or a canvas, and they begin to paint or they write a poem, they start to come alive inside. David was a man who connected with God through the arts. David was never more spiritually alive than when he was playing his harp, when he was writing music, singing music, or playing music. He wrote most of the Psalms, which were songs back in their day and still today, they are a big part of our music. Thats when he felt most alive. In fact, sometimes he would get so excited about God that he would dance. Dance is an expression-its one of the arts. He would dance before the Lord, something youll never see this pastor do (congregation laughing). Amen to that! Second Samuel, Chapter 6:14 (pg 301), David is returning the Ark of the Covenant. Theres music going on, people are singing, playing instruments, and David gets spiritually overwhelmed, and he starts to dance. David, wearing a linen ephod, danced before the Lord with all his might… It didnt matter who was around him or who was watching. …while the entire house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouts and the sound of trumpets. Now, somebody else is watching this whole scenario. It says, As the ark of the Lord was entering the City of David, Michal-daughter of Saul-watched from a window. Thats his wife, and when she saw David leaping and dancing before the Lord, she was moved by his spirit, and she started to dance too. Uh-uh. She didnt like it. It says, And when she saw him dancing in front of the Lord, she despised him in her heart. She didnt like what he was doing. This is how God made David to be. She just thought that was improper. That was no way for a king to act. That was no way to be dignified, be a leader of Israel. If youre going to go around, expressing yourself like that like some idiot in the street…and she became very irritated. You know, sometimes we judge people in the Body of Christ because their gifts are different than ours. We can use the service on Sunday morning as an example. Sometimes we really get rolling in praise and worship, and those of you who relate to God through the arts, music is a thing that you get excited about. As far as youre concerned, we could have most of the service be music, and youd be happy. Just fill the whole service with music, and thats what gets you excited more than the Word. Theres never enough music for you. You just love music. You love to praise and worship through music, and you get excited about that. There are others of you who cant wait until its done, no matter how good it is, so we can to the important stuff. Lets get to the Word, right? You dont connect with God in that way. So if somebody is really connecting with God, and they lift their hands up and they worship, and a person around them looks at them and says, Look at that super-spiritual person! Who do they think they are? Look at them! Theyre pretending like nobodys around them, kind of like David dancing in the street. Dont they realize how silly they look? Dont they realize that this is Janesville? We dont do things like that in Janesville! Were proper here! They judge that person because the music makes them come alive in their spirit, and they connect to God. They think, They should just be like me, be an intellectual and be reserved or be excited about the sermon thats about to come instead of acting like that. A spiritual person might look around and say, Look at all these people who dont have their arms in the air. Theyre not connecting with God like I am. Theyre not as spiritual as me. If they were spiritual like me, their arms would be up in the air, and their eyes would be closed. Oh yeah! (how can I see them when my eyes are closed.) And they judge those around them because they dont express and connect in the same way. Hey, why dont you get excited about coming with me to mens retreats? I dont like mens retreats. Give me a Bible and let me go under a tree if you want to recharge my spiritual battery. Sometimes, Ive felt bad. People have judged me because Im not a retreat dude. Or the person who is a solitude person judges all the retreat people and says, You bunch of spiritual babies! You always have to have people with you! Why cant you be strong like me and do it yourself? We judge each other, and God says, You know what? Stop judging each other and accept each other. God has made each of you connect with Him differently. Rejoice in that! Watch what David does. He comes home, and hes all excited. Do you ever come home all excited, you had a good day, and your spouse is in a bad mood. I have! Ill know nothing about that in the 11 oclock service when my wife comes to sit down; but in this service, I can safely say it because you will not say a word. I trust you. I understand what this is like, and she does too. Back to 2 Samuel, 6:20, When David returned home to bless his household… Hello honey, Im home! …Michal, daughter of Saul, came out to meet him and said, in her sarcastic tone, How the kind of Israel has distinguished himself today, disrobing in the sight of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would do! She is reading him the riot act. Youve embarrassed me! Youve embarrassed your kingdom! Youre not acting like a king, expressing in song and dance and music like that! You should be reserved and dignified like me! Whats Davids response? David said to his wife, Youre right. Im sorry honey. I will never dance again. I will not sing; I will not play instruments; I will not use the art that God has put in my life, but I will be a quite, reserved intellectual as you are, my dear, (sarcasm here) And thus, the Psalms were never written… No, this is what David says, It was before the Lord, who chose me rather than your father (ouch!) or anyone from His house when he appointed me ruler over the Lords people Israel-I will celebrate before the Lord. (Davids really saying) Im not going to stop being who God made me to be. I will become even more undignified than this… Honey, you havent seen anything yet! …and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. Theres a story of a guy who understood how he was made. You know what? I love you, but Im not going to stop being who God made me to be. I love the way God made me! Im going to celebrate God, and when I celebrate Him through the art, when I sing and dance, I feel His presence. So, sweetheart, I respectively disagree. Im going to get even funkier than this! You watch! Im going to get down again in the streets and boogie even more than this. You just watch and see. Sometimes you and I have allowed people to try to put us into their mold, and we think, Because I am not like that person, Im not somehow spiritual. Weve allowed others to judge us. Weve stopped being who we are in Christ. Be who you are! Walk the pathway God has given you to walk, In Jesus name. Lets stand together as we close: Father, I want thank to you for the fact that youve made us all differently, that each of us are a reflection of your image; that we would come to know our differences, know how youve made us. Let these palms (Palm Sunday) that we take home with us be a reminder of our spiritual pathway; to find, to walk in it, to celebrate, to allow others to celebrate and walk in the pathway that youve given them as well. In Jesus name we pray, Amen
Do you remember the excitement of the New Millennium, when the year 2000 came around? I remember being in elementary school and doing the math. I figured out I was going to be 31 years old when the year 2000 rolled around. I could not fathom at that time the thought of being 31 years old.
All that stuff that went on, remember the Y2K bug? The world was going to come crashing to an end. I remember looking in the papers to see if the world ended in Australia because I knew that 12 hours later, the world would end here for us.
Today, instead of Welcome to the New Millennium, I want to talk about Welcome to the New Me-llenium.
I think one story that totally sums this up happened in March of 2003. Its about a young lady named Chante Mallard, and Im going to read you the police report.
In March of 2003, Chante Mallard, who was 25, was charged with the murder in the death of Gregory Glenn Biggs, 37, a former Ft. Worth school bus driver, who was recently homeless. On October 25, Ms. Mallard left the bar at 3 AM and was on her way home when she hit a homeless man who was walking along US HWY 287. She continued the four miles to her home with the man still stuck in the windshield and hid her Chevy Cavalier inside her garage. The injured man, later identified as Mr. Biggs, was stuck head first, partially through the passenger side of the windshield, and his legs, broken in several places, were folded over the roof. There he remained alive for a couple of days, unable to extricate himself from the windshield, and slowly dying from loss of blood and shock. Authorities say that there was apparently some conversation between them. She kept saying she was sorry, and he kept begging for her help. Police said that after Mr. Biggs died, Ms. Mallard and at least one friend then took the body to Cobb Park, a few blocks from her home and dumped it. The body was found a few days later near the edge of the parking lot. In an affidavit, Maranda Daniel told police that she had been out with Ms. Mallard and several other women in mid-February when Ms. Mallard giggled as she explained how she had hit a man with her car. As she jokingly told the story to the women of what happened that night, she even shared with them of how she would go into the garage, tell the homeless man to hurry up and die because he was ruining her life.
When I first read that, I was shocked. I had this pit, this feeling of a knife being stuck in my stomach, of how we can get to that point where were that distressed. Can you imagine her looking at this guy as hes screaming and begging for help? He had no other injuries that would have killed him, other than the broken bones and the fact that he was bleeding. If she would have sought out medical attention, it would have saved his life. How do we get to this point? Number 1: Sin doesnt bother us anymore. Its a taboo word in our culture. We hardly ever talk about sin. Words that once shocked us, if we heard on TV, dont shock us anymore. I remember, when I was in junior high, the first time I heard a swear word on TV, my mouth just dropped open because I didnt think you could do that on TV. Now, almost anything goes in primetime.
Because the Bible clearly teaches that sex outside of marriage is morally wrong, it used to be called a sin when a man and woman lived together before marriage. Now we call it a compatibility test. The slaughter of unborn babies is called murder in the Bible. We now call it choice. Having sex with someone elses wife or husband is called adultery in the Bible. We have a nice word for it called an affair. What the Bible calls sodomy, we now call an alternative lifestyle.
When was the last time that you or I were so overcome with our sense of sin in our lives that we fell on our knees, face down, before a Holy God? We dont feel sinful. In fact, usually we feel as sinful as we do dirty. I would assume that most of us here dont feel too dirty because we probably took a bath or a shower this morning or last night. But if you look with a microscope at your skin, youd be amazed that there are probably 20 million different microbes that are crawling all over your skin. I know you can just feel them right now. We think were clean, but if we really took a good look, were not. Thats what our perception of purity is. We are sinful to the core.
Every single one of us has a terminal infection called sin. Adam and Eve turned their heads toward the hiss of a snake instead of God. Did you ever think of that? Theyre in the Garden, and the serpent comes to Eve and tries to tempt her. God is there. Instead of going to God and saying, Hey God! I have a question for you. Ive got this serpent over here, and hes telling me this. What should I do? Instead, she acted as if there were no God. How many times do we do that in our lives? We act as if there were no God? Sin entered the world, and sin seized the world with no God in it. The Chante Mallard story shocks us, and we think we would never get to that point. We would never be that bad. But really, just choosing to do what you want to do with your life instead of allowing God to decide what His will is for your life is sin. God-less attitudes lead to God-less actions.
In Isaiah 53:6, it says, We all, like sheep, have gone astray, and each of us has turned to his own way.
When your life is not God-centered, it becomes self-centered. Sin celebrates its middle letter��"sIn. The letter I. Sin begins to tell you, Its your life, right? You can do whatever you want.
One of the things weve asked our youth group is, What comes to mind when you think of the word Satanist? Most times, its killing babies, drinking blood, wearing long flowing black robes and having pentagrams on your forehead.
Do you know what being a Satanist, or someone who follows Satan, really deals with? Theres actually a Satanic Bible written by a man named Anton Lavey from the Church of Satan in California, and this is their main motto from that book: Do what thou wilt should be the whole of the law. Do what thou wilt is the whole of the law. If you want to be a Satanist, all you have to do is say, God, I want to live my life the way I want to, not Your way, and thats it.
Adam and Eve said, We know better than God. The next reason (Number 2) we got to this point in the new Me-llennium is sin is fun, so we choose to do it.
One of the things that Ive been trying to talk myself into doing is to jump out of an airplane. I think that would be the most incredible experience. For those of you who have done it, I dont know [what it would feel like yet]. If you didnt have an enjoyable experience, dont tell me, because I want to do this at some time in my life. But the idea of jumping out of an airplane and free-falling, for however long you get to do that, before the shoot opens must be the most intense experience that you could ever imagine. I want to do that someday, but can you imagine jumping out of an airplane without a parachute? I cant imagine doing that. Im assuming the free-fall would still be fun, if you didnt realize the parachute was not on your back, until you slammed face first into the ground in one splat.
But thats what sin is like. Sin is like jumping out of an airplane without a parachute. We tell the youth, Sin is fun. The Bible says that sin is fun for season, but it never has a parachute. There are always consequences.
Over and over again you read and hear or know people like this: • A man who flirts with a co-worker, never realizing that within six months, his family, his business, his reputation, his friends, and his future will be gone because that flirting lead to adultery. • A girl goes to a party to have fun and try to fit in with the in-crowd, but before the night is over, she becomes drunk and is raped by a guy who takes advantage of her. • A husband and father stumbles upon a pornography site on the Internet and stays a few minutes out of curiosity. In a short time, he finds that he is addicted and spends hours viewing things that will destroy his relationship with his God, his wife, and his kids. • A woman makes it her practice to hang out at the bars until late into the evening. She tells herself that she needs this time to unwind. She has always made it home safely before and will be shocked that tonight, as her car crosses the center line, she will kill an entire family. Those are just a few examples of the thousands of ways that sin promises you a free-fall experience, but not only does the parachute not open, its not even on your back. We think that we can get away with sin. Its kind of like this mouse here. We think that somehow, some way, were going to get away with something. So we do whatever we can to try and get to the point where we can do that.
In Numbers 32:23, it says this: You may be sure that your sin will find you out.
There is always a hard landing ahead, always. God will forgive you, and does, if you ask for it, but you still face the consequences of your sin.
Reason Number 3, is: We view sin as freedom to do what we want to do in life. We hear this all the time as we work with youth. Im free. As soon as you get out of your home, and you go off to college or get a job and move out, theres this sense of freedom that I can do whatever I want to do now. No one is looking over my shoulder. No ones going to tell me what to do or not to do.
About a month or so ago, we talked to the youth group about quenching their thirst at the Fountain of God, plugging themselves into God on a daily basis-that thirst that all of us have for something with meaning in our life, and letting God be the one who does that. The problem is sin also quenches your thirst for awhile. Its like drinking salt water. For a little bit, it will quench your thirst, but then what happens? Your thirst comes back stronger and stronger and more powerful than it even was before.
Ephesians 4:19 says, Having lost all sensitivity, theyve given themselves to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity with a continual lust for more. Little by little, you give up control of your life to sin, and sin is never satisfied. Its like a roaring fire that no matter how much fuel you put into it, it is never satisfied. You are not free when you choose to sin. It actually enslaves you. Were going to watch a video called My Own Prison by Creed: Lyrics @ http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/creed/myownprison.html
"My Own Prison"
A court is in session, a verdict is in No appeal on the docket today Just my own sin The walls are cold and pale The cage made of steel Screams fill the room Alone I drop and kneel Silence now the sound My breath the only motion around Demons cluttering around My face showing no emotion Shackled by my sentence Expecting no return Here there is no penance My skin begins to burn
(And I said oh) So I held my head up high Hiding hate that burns inside Which only fuels their selfish pride (And I said oh) We're all held captive Out from the sun A sun that shines on only some We the meek are all in one
I hear a thunder in the distance See a vision of a cross I feel the pain that was given On that sad day of loss A lion roars in the darkness Only he holds the key A light to free me from my burden And grant me life eternally
Should have been dead On a Sunday morning Banging my head No time for mourning Ain't got no time
(And I said oh) So I held my head up high Hiding hate that burns inside Which only fuels their selfish pride (And I said oh) We're all held captive Out from the sun A sun that shines on only some We the meek are all in one
[Guitar break]
I cry out to God Seeking only his decision Gabriel stands and confirms I've created my own prison I cry out to God Seeking only his decision Gabriel stands and confirms I've created my own prison
(And I said oh) So I held my head up high Hiding hate that burns inside Which only fuels their selfish pride (And I said oh) We're all held captive Out from the sun A sun that shines on only some We the meek are all in one
(And I said oh) So I held my head up high Hiding hate that burns inside Which only fuels their selfish pride (And I said oh) We're all held captive Out from the sun A sun that shines on only some We the meek are all in one
Should've been dead on a Sunday morning banging my head No time for mourning Ain't got no time
Sin creates chains that bind us. Theres no freedom there. It promises freedom, but its not there. Its not that God doesnt want us to have fun. We have this view that God is just this ogre with the white hair, the spiritual hammer, the lightening bolt, that as soon as you do something thats even remotely wrong, he just wants to zap you. Thats not it. God wants to protect you. He wants to protect his relationship with you. He wants to keep you from the consequences that He knows will come. He really wants us to have freedom. Reason Number 4, is: We dont consider sin as a crime against God. We dont consider sin as a crime against God. Jerry Bridges, in his book The Pursuit of Holiness, writes this: We never see sin correctly until we see it as against God. All sin is against God in this sense, that it is His law that is broken; His authority that is despised. Pharaoh, Saul, and Judas each said, I have sinned, but the returning prodigal said, I have sinned against heaven and before Thee. King David said, Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned. Its pretty simple: Sin has made us enemies of God and continues to do that.
Colossians 1:21 says, Once you are alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior.
God made it very clear that the infection of sin is not going to make it past the pearly gates. God is a holy God, absolutely cannot stand sin in His presence. If you lead a God-less life, you can expect a God-less eternity. If you spend a lifetime telling God to leave you alone, He will give you your wish.
In 2 Thessalonians 1:8-9 says this, He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the Gospel of our Lord, Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of His power.
So what can you do? If everyone is infected, how do we find a cure? Since we are enemies of God, we have to be reconciled. What Adam and Eve did caused us to be out of Gods family. God looks down, and He sees enemies, so what do we do to bring reconciliation.
We are going to watch a video called An Angel Story. Its from a book by Max Lucado. There are some scarier images, and its a conversation between Satan and God and the Angel, Gabriel, is also there. Were going to watch and see what Gods plan is.
Lucifer lurked around the room, breathing loudly, searching for words to say and a shadow from which to say them. He finally found the words but never the shadow. Show me, 0 King of Light, show me one person on the Earth who always does right and obeys Your will. Dare you ask? You know there need be only one perfect one, only one sinless one to die for all the others. I know Your plans and You have failed! No Messiah will come from Your people. There is none who is sinless. Not one. He turned his back to the desk and began naming the children. Not Moses. Not Abraham. Not Lot. Not Rebekah. Not Elijah. . . . The Father stood up from His throne, releasing a wave of holy light so intense that Lucifer staggered backward and fell. THOSE ARE MY CHILDREN YOU MOCK. God's voice boomed. You think you know much, fallen angel, but you know so little. Your mind dwells in the valley of self. Your eyes see no further than your own needs. The King walked over and reached for the book. He turned it toward Lucifer and commanded, Come, Deceiver, read the name of the One who will call your bluff. Read the name of the One who will storm your gates. Satan rose slowly off his haunches. Like a wary wolf, he walked a wide circle toward the desk until he stood before the volume and read the word: IMMANUEL. Immanual? he muttered to himself, then spoke in atone of disbelief. God with us? For the first time the hooded head turned squarely toward the face of the Father. No. Not even You would do that. Not even You would go so far. You've never believed Me, Satan. But Immanuel? The plan is bizarre! You don't know what it is like on Earth! You don't know how dark I've made it. It's putrid. It's evil. It's ... IT IS MINE, PROCLAIMED THE KING. AND I WILL RECLAIM WHAT IS MINE. I WILL BECOME FLESH. I WILL FEEL WHAT MY CREATURES FEEL. I WILL SEE WHAT THEY SEE. But what of their sin? I will bring mercy. What of their death? I will give life. Satan stood speechless. God spoke, I love My children. Love does not take away the beloved's freedom. But love takes away fear. And Immanuel will leave behind a tribe of fearless children. They will not fear you or your hell. Satan stepped back at the thought. His retort was childish. Th th they will too! I will take away all sin. I will take away death. Without sin and without death, you have no power. Around and around in a circle Satan paced, clenching and unclenching his wiry fingers. When he finally stopped, he asked a question that even I was thinking. Why? Why would You do this? The Father's voice was deep and soft. Because I love them.
(Excerpt from "An Angel's Story" by Max Lucado �© 2002 Used by permission.)
Jesus was not surprised when He was crucified. That was the plan from the beginning. That was the plan from the beginning. Somebody had to be sent as a sacrifice. So how do we get right with God? How do we break those chains? Acts 16:30 says, What must I do to be saved? The next verse says, Believe in the Lord, Jesus, and you will be saved.
Why Jesus? Why not Buddha? Or Mohammed?
Acts 4:12 says, Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men, whereby we must be saved.
What qualifies Jesus to do that and not anybody else?
Look in 2 Corinthians 5:21. God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.
Max Lucado wrote it this way, Christ, the sinless, became sin so that we, sinners, could be counted sinless.
He became the sin offering, and God poured out His wrath on His son. Remember that this morning. Everything that Jesus went through is because God had to pour out His wrath as punishment for sin. Instead of doing it to us, He did it to His own son, and thats why Jesus can be our substitute. One of lifes greatest tragedies is that people will still die in their sins.
John 8:24 says, and Jesus warned us about this twice in this verse, I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be, you will indeed die in your sins.
Forget terrorist attacks; forget tsunamis; forget hurricanes; the worst tragedy and disaster on the earth is taking your sins to your casket. That is the worst tragedy that faces mankind, taking your sins to your casket.
God provided a way for us to be free.
Isaiah 53:5-6 says this, But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us have turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
In verse 12 of Isaiah 53, it says, Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and He will divide the spoils with the strong, because He poured out His life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For He bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors.
Its almost like this: it would be like a man visiting a cancer ward and walking to each bedside. As they are in the last stages of cancer, and their body is totally ravished. Its like this man kneeling down to the bed, touching them, and in an instant, the mans health and vitality is transferred to the cancer patient. The cancer patients disease and ravished body is transferred to this man. In an instant, the person on the bed is totally healthy, and the man collapses to the floor with the cancer all through his system.
Thats what Jesus did for us. That is what Jesus did for us. I know I shared this in a sermon last year, but I dont know any better way to describe this. In Matthew 27:45, just to get an idea of what Jesus had to go through on the cross, it says this, From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land. About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabach-thani?-which means, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Abba Father, do you know what Abba Father is? Its a term of endearment, like Daddy, Daddy! Why have you forsaken me? Why would Jesus say that?
When my son Connor was three years old, he was in the backyard, and he had a stick in his hand. My other son had pruning shears in his hand. Connor reached out the stick and said, Caleb, cut the stick. Caleb went to cut the stick, but instead he caught his finger. I remember this blood-curdling scream from my backyard. I ran out there, and here is my precious three year old. I want you to picture this as a vision of God, my precious three-year old with blood dripping off his fingers, grabbing it, and hes screaming, Daddy! Help! Daddy, I need a band-aid. In his mind, he thought if his daddy would come, his daddy would take care of everything.
Jesus had our sin placed on His back. Our sin! Can you imagine what that would have been like for a pure and sinless God to have our sin placed on Him? This is going to be really cruel, but the best way I can describe it is like you and I taking dog manure and rubbing it on ourselves, all over, in our mouth, up our nose, in our eyes. Thats what our sin must have felt like to a holy, pure, and sinless Jesus. God looked down at the blackness of every single sin that you and I have committed, and He had to look away. He had to turn his back on his Son because He cannot stand the presence of sin. That would be me as my son is screaming for help, walking out in the backyard, looking at it, shaking my head and going back in the house, closing the door and locking it. My sin killed Jesus Christ. Your sin killed Jesus Christ. The crucifixion and everything He went through did not kill Him. Im going to give you a couple of hints of what I think killed Him.
Psalm 40:12, the prophesy hints at this, and it says, For evils beyond number have surrounded me; iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to see. They are more numerous than the hairs of my head, and my heart has failed me.
I believe that Jesus died of a broken heart or a ruptured heart.
The second hint comes from Matthew 27:50. It says this, And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, He gave up his spirit.
When you are approaching death, your voice gets softer. As you lose strength, it gets softer and softer. This verse says right before He died, He cried out in a loud voice. If you are under great stress, your heart can actually just burst. Its happened, and its medically proven. What happens every time is there is an intense pain, and the person would scream out and grab his or her chest. Since Jesus arms were nailed to the cross, He could not grab His cheat, but I think His heart just ruptured when God turned His back on Him and He died.
The third and most convincing hint is in John, 19:33-34. It says, When they came to Jesus and found that He was already dead, they did not break His legs. Instead one of the soldiers pierced Jesus side with a spear, bringing His sudden flow of blood and water. When your heart ruptures, it separates into coagulated blood, water and serum. It will flow out in large quantities.
Christ endured all that pain and torture. But when the Father turned away from Him, it was too much. When that sinks in, for me, that makes me want to fall flat on my face in front of the Holy God, in recognition of my sin and my life.
We use the word grace so flippantly, but grace is never as powerful as when we recognize our sin and realize what grace really means-that Jesus took my place. Thats when grace becomes powerful.
Do you want to know why Jesus had to scream out the words, Daddy! Daddy! Why have you forsaken me? He had to scream out those words so that you and I did not have to.
We dont have to be enemies of God any longer. If you have done that, God looks down and sees you differently. He doesnt look down and see that Im sinful to the core. He looks down and He sees the righteousness of His son, Jesus Christ. He looks down and sees me covered by the precious blood of Christ. He no longer sees the sin; He sees His Sons righteousness.
As we end today, we started out with a lady named Chante Mallard, who represents the New Me-llennium, I want to introduce to you a young girl named Haeli Schwandt. Haeli shared a testimony with us at our youth group, and it just so touched my heart because she admitted how she had a me-first attitude in this New Me-llennium. The difference is she has allowed God to infiltrate her life, and she has allowed God to change her heart. Were going to watch her testimony, and then shes going to dance to a song called Undone by Mercy Me.
In middle school, I was mean! I was a mean girl. My behavior consisted of the only person that mattered in the whole world was me. I didnt care if I hurt my parents, my siblings, or my best friends. If there was any opportunity for me to make myself look better or make myself happier, I would take it even though it might be hurting those closest to me. My grandpa was diagnosed with cancer around this time, and my family was dealing with it in their own ways. My sister, she kind of holds her feelings in. I did not help the situation. How I was dealing with it was I would take it out on everyone around me, so when wed get home from school, Id call her names. I would make sure that everything she did, she knew it was not good enough, just to try to make myself feel better. Almost every day, I would try to bring Taylor down. We had a very broken relationship at this time, and my relationship with my parents was also falling apart. I was getting poor grades. I was lying, and they knew I was lying. Lets just say everything that came out of my mouth was very negative. They were ready to vote me off the island. They were ready to get rid of me, but God knew what needed to be done, and slowly He reached out to me through different things. I called myself, before, a Sunday School Christian. I knew what the Bible taught; I knew what it said; and I knew what was right, and I knew what was wrong, but I wasnt living it. It was never real to me. It was a religion, not a relationship. After a certain time, it seemed like whenever I came to church, the message was written just for me. I was faced with the biggest decision Ive ever made in my whole life-to change or not to change. I became aware that to stay the same, which was a horrible, rotten person, was to outwardly reject the One who loved me the most. I chose to change. I hurt a lot of people, mostly my family, and my grandpa who died of cancer. My mom was feeling a lot of regrets because when they were young, they didnt get along, so she was talking about a lot of wasted years. This was a huge wake-up call because I didnt want to have wasted years. I didnt want to look back and have to reason with why I treated my family so horribly. I began to feel Taylors pain and my familys sadness. Even though my grandpas death was not a great thing, it really opened my eyes. I decided to have a personal relationship with Jesus, instead of just a religion. Now, Im sure I can see that Im not wasting years. I keep wondering how God changed me so much, but He knew all the right things to say to me. He came into my heart and changed it from one of bitterness, hurtfulness, and hatred to one of compassion and hope. The best thing of all: He is still not done changing me. God never gave up on me, and He led me to a place of love where there are no more wasted years. Thats my testimony.
Haeli Dances to the Mercy Me song entitled: Undone
No apologies For who I'm meant to be The only thing that matters is I am free When I am overwhelmed Holding pieces of my heart When I feel my world Start to fall apart
To the cross I run Holding high my chains undone Now I am finally free Free to be what I've become Undone
Even in defeat The face of tragedy Still you'd have to say that I found victory In brokenness comes beauty Divine fragility Reminding me of nail scarred hands Reaching out for me
To the cross I run Holding high my chains undone Now I am finally free Free to be what I've become
To the cross I run Holding high my chains undone Now I am finally free Free to be what I've become Undone
Hallelujah I'm undone!
To the cross I run Holding high my chains undone Now I am finally free Free to be what I've become
To the cross I run Holding high my chains undone Now I am finally free Free to be what I've become Undone
To the cross I run To be what I've become And I'm undone
Let me just touch upon one set of lyrics from that song:
No apologies for whom I meant to be. The only thing that matters is that Im free. When Im overwhelmed holding pieces of my heart, when I feel my world start to fall apart, to the cross I run, holding high my chains undone. Now I am finally free, free to be what Ive become.
I dont know where youre at. I dont know if youve ever allowed Christ to take away your sins, and youre heading toward your casket-taking those sins with you, or if you have made that decision, and youre letting sin chain you by the small decisions that you or I make every day. Youre letting sin have a hold. Do you have a room in your house that you dont let God into? The house of your life? Are you holding onto something that you know is sinful and wrong, and youre playing the game. God is allowed everywhere else in your life but that one compartment. You need to open it up, and we need to expose it to the light. Its going to be painful, but its a lot less painful when we do it on our own than when God has to force that door open and expose that.
Lets pray, Heavenly Father, we just thank you for what grace really means. We thank You for sending Your son. I thank You for pouring Your wrath on Your precious Son instead of me. Lord, I pray that You help me to view sin for what it really is, as against You. Lord, I pray You will convict all of us to have a proper recognition of what sin is in our lives. We thank you so much for what You have done, Lord., I am continually amazed, Lord, how you change a human heart. To me that is the biggest miracle that can ever be done on this earth, to change a human heart. As I watch Haeli share her testimony and dance, Lord, I am just amazed at what have done. I pray that will be done for all of us. We pray...
Father, as we begin the world that we learned about you as a child, we freely sing the song that You Hold the Whole World in Your Hands. Sometimes, as we get older, we forget who You are and how big You are. Problems become bigger and greater and more intimidating. But, Father, help us to capture the faith of our youth, to see You for the God that You are, how big You are and how great You are. Let us see that greatness be manifested in our lives. I pray in Jesus name, Amen. Weve been sharing for 10 weeks in a row these scriptures. It would probably be good to recap the story one more time. As I read through it, my mind thinks of lessons that we talked about, about fear, courage, and patience. The story is rich in its content. We begin reading with Verse 22 of Matthew 14 (page 970 in pew Bibles), Immediately, Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of Him to the other side while he dismissed the crowd. After He had dismissed them, He went up on a mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, He was there alone, but the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind against it. During the fourth watch of the night, Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw Him walking on the lake, they were terrified. Its a ghost, they said and cried out in fear. But Jesus immediately said to them, Take courage! It is I. Dont be afraid. Lord, if its You, Peter replied, tell me to come to You on the water. Come, He said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, Lord, save me! Immediately Jesus reached out His hand and caught him. You of little faith, He said, why did you doubt? When they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. And heres our focal point this morning, Verse 33: Then those who were in the boat worshiped Him, saying, Truly You are the Son of God. God had become bigger in their eyes. This morning, we ask the question, How big is your God? I want to read a quote from our book today. He tends to like to quote C.S. Lewis in the Chronicles of Narnia. As you know, the lion figure represents the Lord. His name is Aslan. One of the children comes across Aslan after not seeing him for a long time. She says, Aslan, youre bigger. That is because you are older, little one, he answered. Not because you are? Im not, but every year you grow, you will find me bigger. And so its true with us. Every year we grow, and hopefully through this series that weve been on, we see God bigger than we did before. Were more willing to take steps of faith and spiritual risks, knowing that God is with us. Lets turn in our Bibles to 1 Kings, Chapter 18. Were going to stay here for a little while. This is a story about a man who really had a big view of God. His name was Elijah. Elijah lived in a time when Israel was trying to follow after many gods. There was the god of the Canaanites, the Baals and the Ashtoreth. There was Pagan worship that was everywhere in the land. Elijah was one of the few voices that stood up for the God of Heaven. One day, they squared off. Elijah verses 850 (count them), 850 Pagan prophets. It seems like hes outnumbered, doesnt it? The rules were Lets have it out. Lets have a show-down. Lets see whose God is the greatest God. Here are the rules: Were going to have a sacrifice, but were not going to start our own fire to consume the sacrifice. Were going to depend on the God of Heaven or Baal to send fire to consume the sacrifice. So, were going to see whose God is really powerful. Were going to see whose God really does answer prayers. So, Elijah says to all the people who had assembled to watch this spectacle, this showdown; in Verse 21 (page 350), Elijah addresses the people by saying, How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal is God, follow him. Theres not room in your life for two gods. If God of Heaven is God, He is so big that there is no room for any other gods. You need to make a choice. Are you going to follow the gods of this world, or are you going to follow the one true God? So the stage is set. Elijah, being the gentleman that he is, says to the prophets of Baal, You can have the stage first. So they do. They take the sacrifice, put it on the altar, and they begin to pray to Baal to send fire to consume the sacrifice. Things arent going well. From morning till noon, they cry out (Verse 26), Oh Baal, answer us! they shouted. But there was no response; no one answered. And they danced around the altar they had made. This was not a beautiful dance like Elizabeth did this morning for us. They werent twirling and spinning. They were crying and moaning and cutting themselves. Now Elijah is going to go from being confident to cocky. Im afraid hes going to cross a line here. Elijah began to taunt them, Shout louder! he said. In sports, its called trash talking. Surely, he is a god. Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened. All right, Elijah, youre trash talking. That takes nerve! It takes nerve if your opponent is 850 strong, and theres only one of you. But he knows how big his God is. So they shouted louder and slashed themselves with swords and spears, as was their custom, until their blood flowed. What a fun religion that is! Midday passed, and they continued their frantic prophesying until the time for the evening sacrifice. If we just cut ourselves more, if we just shout louder, maybe hell answer us. But there was no response. No one answered-no one paid attention. So it is with everyone who puts hope in a God other than the God of Heaven. Any other thing, any other person you make your God besides the God of Heaven, youre going to find the same thing is true: therell be no response. Then Elijah said to all of the people, Come here to me. Hed earned an audience. They were willing to listen. He had them prepare the altar, and he did something unusual. He dug a trench around the altar, and he had them take these large jars of water, these four large jars, and dump water on the sacrifice. Then he said, Do it again. Then he said a third time, Do it again. So after the third time, it was just drenched with water. He drenched the wood and filled the trench hed made around the sacrifice. Then Elijah was going to prepare to call on God to send fire from Heaven. Imagine if youre Elijah. Its easy for us to sit here because we know the end of the story, but what if that had been you that day? What if the prophets of Baal are looking at you to find out that they are worshiping the wrong God? What if the people of Israel are looking at you to see if your God answers by fire? The pressure is on, right? What if you get up there and say, Oh God of Heaven, send fire! and no fire comes? Youre on the line, right? People are going to say, Well your God is not powerful either! Its a tie! There is no powerful God. Now we really have problems! Then it rests on your shoulders. That took a lot of faith, didnt it? Its called Fire from Heaven. Well, I have a buddy who is a pastor who has a bold faith. Its one thing I respect about the guy. He just has a bold faith. He went on a missions trip recently to Kenya. In Kenya, theyre going through a drought, and it had not rained in months. They were explaining that to him, and he says, We need to pray for rain. The pastor agreed, Yes, we need to pray for rain. Rain is good. Weve been praying for rain. He said, No! We need to pray for it to rain today. Im not sure thats such a good idea, Pastor thought to himself. So my friend got up to speak, and he prayed for rain today. See, a lot of people had asked for it to rain, but nobody had ever asked for it to rain today. He prayed the prayer. The people got excited. They clapped and praised God. They were excited because they knew their God was a big God! The leadership of the church confronted him afterwards and said, You shouldnt do that! You shouldnt get the peoples hopes up like that. His response was, Is not God a big God? Didnt He send rain in the Bible? Well, yes. Well, why cant He deal with today? Well, He can. But what if He doesnt? they would say. Guess what happened that afternoon? Storm clouds rolled in. He said it rained for hours and hours. He said, I changed my mission. I began to go around Kenya praying for rain everywhere I went. He said, And God sent rain. So its a no-brainer that his new nickname is Rainman. So, now when I see him, I say, Hey, its Rainman. Yup, definitely. Yup, definitely its the Rainman. Remember that movie? If youve not seen that movie, I just looked like a total idiot saying that. If you havent seen it, its Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise. Its a good movie, rent it, and then I wont seem so dumb. He is a big God, and God sent rain in Kenya. So Elijah looks to Heaven and he says, Oh, Lord God, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. In other words, he wasnt just there showing off. Answer me, O Lord, answer me so these people will know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again. Then when he prayed that prayer, the fire consumed the sacrifice in the water. The fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench. When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, The Lord-He is God! The Lord-He is God! Was God bigger in their eyes at that point in time? Absolutely. God had become bigger. They began to realize who the true God is, that there was room for worship of no one else. I want to share a story with you. Do you like stories this morning? You could get some popcorn and come back and listen. I want to share a true story of a friend of mine. The reason I want to share this story is because it captures this truth. It brings it to modern times of somebody I know. His name is Greg Speck. He is a youth speaker extraordinaire. He was in youth ministry before I went into youth ministry, which was 1982, and he is still going strong, so hes like a guru. He travels around the world as a youth minister. Greg shared a story in the early 1980s. He was a pastor at a church called Temple Baptist in Rockford, Illinois. Its a good, solid church there. We worked with them when I was in Rockford. Pastor Ortberg who wrote the book that we just concluded studying was from that church. Gary Smalley, another well-known speaker, is from that church. Greg got his start there as well. It was after a Sunday night service that he received a phone call. One of his parishioners said, Hey, Greg, can you come out to the house? He said, Well, sure. Whats up? He said, Weve got a young man that showed up on our doorstep, and we think hes demonized. Were not used to doing anything about this because were Baptists. We dont know what to do. Can you help us? He said, Well, Ill try. So he gets in his car and drives over to the house. When he gets there, a young man, tall and thin in his early 20s, is on the floor on his hands and knees. He is making a growling sound. Greg says, What happened? He said, He rang the doorbell. We answered. This young man was covered in blood from head to toe. We began to clean him up, thinking hed been in some sort of an accident. When we cleaned him up, we saw no cuts, no injuries, nothing. We asked him what happened. He explained he was involved in a satanic ritual that night and had washed himself in the blood. He was confused and he was scared. They began to talk to him about the Lord, and as soon as they mentioned Jesus Christ, he went ballistic. He began to throw himself into things, crash into the wall. He ended up on all fours, and hes been like that ever since. Greg though he would just establish a rapport with him. So Greg said he went over to him and put his right arm on his left shoulder and said, Hi, Im Greg. When he put his arm on his shoulder, the young man reared up, eyes closed, and started swinging his arms in Gregs direction. Greg said, I reached up to cover because I knew I was going to get tagged, but then after a few seconds I realized not one blow was landing. He said that began a battle. And, Im not saying this is the best way to perform an exorcism, but what they decided to do was one man got on his left arm, one man got on his right arm, one man got on both legs, and Greg got on his chest. They said, In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I command you to leave this young mans body. The young man would become, at certain points, normal. You could even talk to him. At other times, his pupils would dilate, and his voice would change. He would have this super-human strength and would be shouting, LEAVE ME ALONE! He would kind of lift them up with his arms. They would be like, WHOA! Were dealing with something supernatural here. A breakthrough came when Greg felt the Holy Spirit draw his attention to a ring on his finger. He said, Whats that ring? Can you tell me about that ring, Dave? (His name has been changed to protect his identity.) A voice came out of that young man and said, That ring is my life! You touch the ring, and I die! Greg says, I took the ring. I knew what we had to do. He went on, Not long after that, it broke. Whatever the spirit was, it broke. He had deliverance, and he was like, What are you guys doing on my arms? Where am I? I want out of here! And he was free. Greg took the ring and said, Im going to use this ring when I go to speak around the country. He had a cassette tape made of the exorcism because he wanted the young man to hear the torment he was going through after he was set free. He said, Ill just take this tape and this ring, and Ill play it for kids. Ill say, Dont get involved in the occult. Dont get involved in this kind of thing. The Holy Spirit impressed upon Greg that he needed to destroy the ring. So when he got home, he took the ring and smashed it up. He obliterated it. He went inside the house, thinking that was the end, and he had quite a story to tell tomorrow. Soon after that, the phone rings. Its a nice man, very polite man. He said, Hello, is this Pastor Greg Speck? He said, Yes it is. He said, Do you know a young man named Dave? He began to put two and two together and said, Kind of. Were not best friends or anything, but I know who he is. He said, Did you take from him a ring? He said, I did. He said, Mr. Speck, we need to have that ring back. Greg said, Well, weve got a little problem. I dont have the ring. The man said, That ring is very important to us, Mr. Speck. Were going to need to have it back. I dont have the ring. I destroyed the ring. Im very sorry to hear that, Mr. Speck. The man hung up the phone. Fifteen minutes later, he called back again. He said, Were going to need that ring, Mr. Speck. He said, I dont have the ring, but I will tell you this. If I did have the ring, I wouldnt give it to you. Greg said he had a boldness that was not from me. He said, Well, Mr. Speck, then youre going to have to get forgiveness. Greg said, What do you mean Im going to have to get forgiveness? He began to describe a ritual. Greg said, By the way, who are you? He said, I cant tell you who I am, but I will tell you where Im from. Im from the church of Satan here in Rockford. Greg thought to himself, Didnt know we had a church of Satan here in Rockford. Never saw that building before. He says, We will come to your home. They described a ritual in which they would sacrifice an animal. Theyd wash his hands in the blood and repeat an incantation, and hed have forgiveness. He said, Im not going to do that. Im not going to wash my hands in any…No! No! He said, Well, Mr. Speck, you know, animal sacrifice for forgiveness of sin is in the Bible. He had him look up a passage in Leviticus. He said, Its very Biblical, Greg. He said, Well come to your house, and besides that, whos going to know? Greg said, Ive heard the enemy say that to me many times when he temps me. Whos going to know? Ive never heard it in an audible voice before. He said, Two people: Gods going to know, and Im going to know, and the answer is no, and he ended the conversation. The phone rings again a half hour later, and its his buddy. He said, Its interesting how Satan describes himself as an angel of light. This guy didnt call (with a rough voice) and say, Im from the church of Satan. Ahhhh! He was as polite as could be. He said, Mr. Speck, Ive talked to our leader, our high priest, and shes very upset with you. She has destroyed men greater than you, Godly men. He said, Really? Have you seen her do it? The voice answered and said, No, but shes told me about it, and she can destroy you as well if we dont get the ring back. I dont have the ring. Ive destroyed the ring. I will not give the ring to you. Then his demeanor changed. He went from being friendly and nice to not very nice at all. He changed his tone and said, Well, then, Mr. Speck, Im afraid were going to have to destroy your church, and he hung up the phone. Well, thats not good news. He said, Well, this is wonderful. Ill show up in the morning for work, and there will be blood all over the walls, and there will be things desecrated and furniture broken up, windows smashed, and my pastor will say, Whos responsible for this? Ill say, ah ah ah. He says, I have to call him. So he called Pastor Gordon Hanstead and said, Pastor Hanstead, weve got a problem. He explained the whole scenario, and he said, Now, they said theyre going to destroy our church. Do you know what Pastor Hanstead said? Good job, Greg! Excellent work! Let them come and do something like that! Well call the newspaper. Well call the television. Well call radio! Well expose them! Excellent job, Greg! Greg was like, I knew that. So he felt like he could go to sleep and rest and know everything was going to be fine. The phone rings. Its his buddy, Mr. Speck? He said, Yes? Greg said he wanted to answer the phone and go, Hello, Won-Ton Laundry. Greg said, Do you need directions? Cant find me? He said, Mr. Speck, you know we need to have the ring. Greg said he wanted to say, What part of I dont have the ring; Ive destroyed the ring; even if I had the ring, I wouldnt give it to you dont you understand? The man ran through that dialog, and he said, Youll have to gain forgiveness. Those are your two choices. He said, I have a third choice besides giving you the ring and gaining forgiveness, and that is to do none of the above. Thats what I choose. He said, I want you to do me a favor. You quoted Leviticus to me tonight. Let me read to you from Isaiah, the 41st chapter. I want you to find your high priest, and I want you to read her this scripture from Isaiah. In Verse 10, you can read along if youd like, this is what Greg Speck read to the man from the church of Satan, So do not fear, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed, I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. You read that to her, and you tell her that thats me. Then he continued to read, All who rage against you will surely be ashamed and disgraced. Those who oppose you will be as nothing and parish. Though you search for your enemies, you will not find them. Those who wage war against you will be as nothing at all. For I am the Lord, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, 'Do not fear; I will help you. Tell her those verses are about her. He said, Well, Mr. Speck, I dont think Ill be able to do that. I just need to have the ring. He said, You can go ahead and destroy my church if you want to, but youre not going to get the ring. Then he said these words, Well, Mr. Speck, I doubt very seriously if youll see the light of day, and he hung up the phone. Talk about Satan as a roaring lion, ha? He said, Ive never had my life threatened before. Its not a fun thing. The thought of people from this church of Satan showing up at your house in black robes with daggers, that youre going to be a sacrifice of some sort, thats not a very pleasant thought. I was scared. My heart began to pound, my throat became dry, and my hands became cold. I walked around the house, and I turned on every light I could find. I lay in bed and just began to stare at the ceiling. I was listening for every sound. Do you know what it is? Have you ever been scared and every sound is just magnified? Whats that? He said, My neighbor would yawn, and Id go, wahhhh! I was just on edge. The Lord said to him, Greg, read your Bible. He said, So I began to continue to read in Isaiah, but if you would have asked me what I read, I would tell you I had no idea. He was reading the Bible, but his mind was someplace else. His mind was thinking, Ive got these guys coming to get me, and who knows what theyre going to do to me? Hes thinking about his wife; hes thinking about his child; hes thinking about his church. Hes full of fear. For a moment, Greg forgot how big his God was. He said, Then something changed as I was reading through the words, I came across Isaiah 51:12, and it came alive to me. This is what it says (page 729), I, even I, am He who comforts you. Who are you that you fear mortal men, the sons of men, who are but grass... God reminds him, these people are just men. …that you forget the Lord, your Maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth, that you live in constant terror every day because of the wrath of the oppressor, who is bent on destruction? Thats me! Thats what he said, Thats me! For where is the wrath of the oppressor? The cowering prisoners will soon be set free… There he was, a prisoner in his own home, cowering in his own bed. Whos he going to call? Remember this is the early 1980s. Later on, the church of Satan would become almost obnoxious. Theyd be out doing rituals in our local parks, and wed read stories in the news about sacrifices going on. So, we woke up and said, Hey, this is real. Its not just the exorcist. There are people who really believe this, worship the devil and practice this kind of black magic and sorcery and Satanism. It really happens. But in 1982, or whatever year this was in the early 80s, you couldnt call the police and say, Hi, yeah this is Greg Speck. I was wondering if you could come to my home. There are some people who want to kill me. Yeah, from the church of Satan in Rockford. That wasnt going to fly. So, he said, Im just trapped in my own home. What do I do? God says, …they will not die in their dungeon, nor will they lack bread. For I am the Lord your God, who churns up the sea so that its waves roar-the Lord Almighty is his name. Remember who I am, Greg. I have put my words in your mouth and covered you with the shadow of my hand. Do you know what Greg did after he read that scripture? He said, I felt such a peace, such a presence that I went around the house, and I turned off every light. I came into my bedroom, and I got my pajamas on, turned off my light, and I lay down. Within a few minutes, I was sound asleep. The next sound I heard was the alarm clock. I saw the sun shining, and I heard the birds singing outside my window. I was alive. Nobody had come. Nobody had hurt me. He went to work and told the story to his pastor and his colleagues, this amazing story. He came home that night, and at 11 oclock, the phone rang. Its his good friend. He said, Hello, Mr. Speck. He said, Hello. He said, I want you to know something. Our high priest has decided that she will forgive you. He said, What? He said, She is going to forgive you. Forgive me? He said, You come and you say I need to gain forgiveness and wash my hands in the blood. Youre going to destroy my church. Im not going to see the light of day, and now youre telling me you forgave me? Let me tell you something. With all your leaders power, all her rituals, and all her ceremonies, and all of her incantations, the truth of the matter is, she couldnt even harm a speck. Little pun there. Then he confesses, I really didnt say that. I thought of that later. But what I said to her is, With all of her power, she couldnt hurt me because she serves a second rate power. We never want to try to take on the enemy in our own might and strength. The Bible says hes a fallen being, the highest angel who has fallen. Hes a powerful being, but as powerful as he is, if you are in Christ this morning, you need not fear him. If he were to manifest himself in your room tonight, physically manifest himself, little you, who says Im not that strong in my faith. Im not that knowledgeable of the Bible, little you could turn to him and say, In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, whom I serve, leave my presence, and he would have to go. Greg said, With all her power, she couldnt harm me. He said, I want to meet your leader. Well go to McDonalds. Well talk face to face. I want a chance to talk to her. He said, I dont think shell do that Mr. Speck, but I just wanted to call and let you know that news. The turning point for the story, and that was the last contact he ever had by the way, was when Greg remembered how big his God was. Thats when he got out of the boat. He remembered how big his God was. The turning point for Elijah was to remember how big his God is. The turning point for you is to remember how big your God is. Its been my prayer that through this series that weve studied these principles of faith, that you see how big God is. In Elijahs words, If the gods of this world are God, then worship them, but if God in Heaven is God, then Hes worth everything! Hes big! Theres no room for another God. Our faith will rise to the point where we take those spiritual risks. We dare to believe God. We dare to trust Him. We dare to act upon His word. He is the God who sent the rain. Hes the God who caused Peter to walk in the water. Hes the God who consumed the sacrifice. Hes the God who protected that young youth pastor, and Hes your God as well. What were going to do this morning to end our service is something a little different. Normally, we have one of our pastors or me close in prayer. Our programming team does a wonderful job of bringing elements of programming into our services to help communicate a message-be it a clip, a song, a drama, or media. One of the things we did a while ago, I cant think of an element of programming in the service that elicited more of a response in a positive way than did this excerpt from this sermon. It talks about the greatness of God and the bigness of God, so I thought it would be appropriate to end our service in that same way, to reprise that clip. So this is something were going to listen to and look at as he talks about the greatness of God. This will conclude our service. Im not going to come back up. Nobody else is going to lead us in prayer. Were going to listen to this, and then what Id like us to do when its all said and done is just give the Lord a round of applause, thanking Him for His greatness, thanking Him for the principles of faith that we have learned and celebrating who He is. As soon as those applauds are done, our service is dismissed. (You can purchase a copy of it here: http://www.sermonspice.com/search/that+s+my+king/) Besides that, after the first time, I dont want to follow this guy again. Lets listen.
Were talking about patience this morning. Have you run out of that lately? Nobody? A couple of you? Well, Ill just preach to the Roberts then this morning. Learning to wait. He talks in the book about the fourth watch. Jesus walks to the disciples. Its the fourth watch between 3 oclock and 6 oclock in the morning. The storm is still going on. Why did Jesus wait so long? Why not come earlier? Why not calm the storm first before Peter walks on the water? Why not calm the storm before you get to the disciples? Why did He have the storm last? Why did He wait until that late in the night to come, the fourth watch? Because God is obviously trying to teach them something. Hes trying to teach them to learn to wait. We have fourth watch experiences. The Bible is full of fourth watch experiences. Theres Daniel in the lions den. Youd think God would deliver him before he gets in the lions den, right, if youre Daniel? But, God waits until he gets in the lions den. If youre Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, you hope God will deliver you before you get into the fiery furnace, but God waits until theyre in the fiery furnace. If youre Moses, youre hoping that God parts the Sea before the Egyptians get to you, but God waits until the last minute when the Egyptians are right there and the Sea is right on the other side before He parts the water. How many of you have had fourth watch experiences where it seems like God waits until the last possible minute and sometimes even beyond that? Let me see your hands. All right, so Im talking to the right group here. Were going to look at a fourth watch situation here in John 11, if you would turn there. We talk about patience; the truth of the matter is sometimes we are impatient with God. Sometimes before we can gather all the facts, we make assumptions about Gods character. We make assumptions about Gods nature. If God is allowing me to go through this, He couldnt be good. If God is not going to answer my prayers, maybe He doesnt hear, or maybe He doesnt care, or maybe He is not powerful enough to intervene in this situation. Therefore, we make judgment calls. We become impatient with God. We disagree with the way He has worked or what He has done. Anybody here ever made a judgment without getting all the facts? All of us have, right? Its easy to do. Its called an assumption. I wont go there, to the definition of that, but… I definitely demonstrated that a couple of weeks ago when I was driving home. My oldest daughter drives a forest green Dodge Neon. So I saw a forest green Dodge Neon. I dont get close enough to see my daughter, but I know its her, so I start waving at the Dodge Neon going, Hi Honey! Hi Honey! Boy, the look on his face when I got close enough to see him. That was a little embarrassing. I was like, Oh, sorry. He was happy to see me, kind of thing. I heard one even worse than that. A gentleman was woken up at 3 oclock in the morning from a sound sleep. He wakes up; the doorbell is ringing. Its 3 oclock in the morning, and hes saying, This better be important. He goes down the stairs, opens the door, and heres this intoxicated man on his front step. The man says, Yes? The man on the front step replies, Can you give me a pussshh? He says, No, I cant give you a push. Its 3 oclock in the morning. I have to get up early. Besides that, its raining outside. Youre on your own. He closes the door. He goes upstairs. He feels a little bit bad, but come on; he has to take care of himself. He gets into bed, and his wife says, Who was that, honey? Some drunken guy. Well, what did he want? He wanted a push. Did you give him a push? Well, no. Its 3 oclock in the morning. Its raining, and I have to get up early. Silence. Well, you remember, two months ago, we were stranded, and those strangers helped us out by pushing our car off the side of the road. Dont you think you should return the favor? OKAY! he said. He gets out of bed, puts on his shoes and his coat. He goes outside in the dark and the rain and says, Hello, are you still out here? Yes! says the drunk man. Do you still need a push? Yes! said the drunk man. Where are you? he asked. Im over here on your porch swing. Youve got to get the facts, right? If you dont get the facts, youre in trouble. Sometimes we can make judgments without getting all the facts. Were going to find in this story an angry Mary and Martha. Why are they angry? Because Jesus didnt act in a timely manner, and Jesus didnt act in the way that they thought He should. Lazarus, His friend, is sick, and they send an urgent message in Verse 3 of John 11 (page 1063 of pew Bibles), So the sisters sent word to Jesus, Lord, the one you love is sick. The messenger brought this with a sense of urgency. He said, Master, You need to come, Lazarus is very sick. This word means badly sick. Hes not saying, Hey, just wanted to let you know Lazarus has a tummy ache. This is the kind of word that says if you want to see this person again, you better come now. Theyre very sick. These are the kind of words that mean, Hey, if you want to see this person that you love, you better get here right away because they might not last much longer. That kind of urgency, only in this case, its You better come right now because Youre our only hope. Thats what theyre saying to Jesus. We need You because if You would come, You could heal Lazarus, and Youre his only chance, so You need to come right away. Now, one thing the author talked about is Jesus identified with us in so many ways. Hes tempted as we are. Hes part of our human emotions. He gets happy; Hes sad; Hes gone through betrayal and rejection, pain, hunger, thirst, exhaustion, all of those things. But, He was never frantic. Have you noticed that? And he identifies with almost all of our human emotions, except Hes never frantic. Hes never hurried. Hes never out of sorts. Jesus gets this news, and the disciples are expecting a quick exodus, but what does it say in Verse 6? It says, Yet, when He heard that Lazarus was sick, He stayed where He was two more days. Didnt expect that! They expected, Lets go! Come on! Lazarus is sick! We have to get going! Hurry, hurry, hurry!! He does something very unexpected. He waits. Sometimes when we pray, and we want God to move right now. We say, God this is really important. You have to act right now! You have to move! You have to intervene! Go! Go! Go! And He has not moved. He doesnt listen to us! We cant control Him! And that makes us mad. I love Johns [Ortberg] quote in the book. He said, Sometimes we are double espresso followers of a decaf God. Were all hyped up with caffeine, Look at us go! Were following a decaf God. Hes not in a hurry. Were so in a hurry that we want what we want, and we want it now. We cant stand to wait. I remember we wanted to build this building. I wanted it so bad. For years, we were setting up and tearing down every week. What a hassle! You set up all your chairs, and you tear all your chairs down. You set up all your lighting, and you tear all your lighting down. You set up all your sound equipment and you tear all your sound equipment down. You set up your nursery, and you tear it down. You set up your childrens church, and you tear that down. In the wintertime, the heat doesnt work half the time. In the summertime, theres no air conditioning. It smelled musty. We wanted to use the building at other times, and theyd say we couldnt. We just wanted our own building so bad. At one point, I was like, God, I dont understand. Why cant you provide this now? Then, I came to our board and said, Guys, why dont we just sell the back acres that we wont need and just build on this front end? Why dont we just mortgage our future so we can have a building now? Needless to say, that didnt go over real well. And thank God it didnt, right? Because were getting ready to build. By the way, since December, January, February, the last three months, this body has given about one quarter of a million dollars to ministry, $246,000 in the last three months. Praise God for that! In the last two months, weve knocked off $50,000 principal on this building in January, and then we just did it again! Its possible we could get this thing paid for this year and get going, so keep it up. Keep it up! So, thats a praise. But, the board said, No, we cant sell our future. And sometimes we want to do that. Im reminded of a scene from Willy Wonka. Do you remember Veronica Salt? Remember her? Spoiled Veronica. She wants what she wants, and she wants it now. Im not going to ask for a raise of hands this morning. Weve all had our share of being Veruca Salt, havent we? God, youre supposed to meet my demands the way I want it, when I want it, and how I want it; and if I dont get the things Im after, Im going to scream! Im going to throw a fit because I know best! One of the marks of maturity in the life of a believer is when we come to not only recognize Gods sovereignty but to celebrate Gods sovereignty. Gods sovereignty means that He is in control, and we are not. Lets look again at the story. Jesus now comes to Bethany, and Lazarus has already passed away. In Verse 21, Martha confronts the Lord. You remember Martha, dont you? She was the same one who confronted Jesus before when Mary was sitting at His feet while she was doing all the household chores. She says, Lord, dont you care that she is just sitting here while Im doing all the work? Jesus says, Martha, Martha, Martha. So, theres another Martha moment here. Shes always correcting Jesus; she always knows better. Shes got some control issues. She says, Lord, if you had been there, my brother would not have died. Shes trying to cast a little guilt complex onto the Lord. This is all Your fault. Weve done that. Were guilty of that. Lord, this is Your fault. If You would have answered the prayers I gave, this wouldnt have happened. If You would have done it at the time I… If You would have given me what I wanted when I wanted it, this wouldnt have happened. So, Martha tries to lecture the Lord, If You had been here… Who can blame her? Its the truth. If Jesus had come sooner, Lazarus would not have died, but God had other plans. She needed to trust His sovereignty. In Verse 22, She says, But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask. Thats sovereignty. I know that even now, God will give you whatever you ask. We had a definition of peace last week. Do you remember what it was? Peace is not the absence of conflict but the presence of Christ. Ill give you a working definition of patience: Patience is a calm assurance based on a certain knowledge that God is in control. Romans 8:28, God causes all things to work together for good. How many things? All things to work together for good. For everybody? Those who love Him are called according to His purpose. I heard a story about a woman who had a very dear handkerchief that had great sentimental value to her. She became careless with it. She put a pen in her pocket on the handkerchief, and the ink from the pen made a big stain or a big blotch. A friend of hers who was a very well known, very respected artist saw the handkerchief and said, It just breaks my heart. This has such sentimental value to me, and Ive ruined it. Ive destroyed it. The artist said, Well, why dont you let me have the handkerchief? She said, I guess so. Its of no value to me anymore. I was too careless with it. So she gave the artist her handkerchief. A few days later she got it back. The artist had taken that ink spot in the middle of her handkerchief and used it as the base of his design and formed a design around it, incorporating the ink spot. It became more beautiful than it ever was before, more valuable than it ever was before, and more dear than it ever was before. Not only was it this meaningful handkerchief, but now her artist friend had made it even more significant and valuable to her and returned it to her. Thats the way God works. He takes the carelessness of our lives, the ink blots, the stains, and we say, Lord, Ive made a mess of this. I really messed this up. God, Im going to give it to you, and we trust His sovereignty. He can take that ink blot, and He can begin to make something beautiful out of it. Thats His promise. Only God can do that. You and I cant do that. We have to trust when we encounter those storms in our lives, when we encounter those fourth watch experiences of our lives, that God is up to something wonderful in our lives. See, patience is not just sitting back and doing nothing. Patience is doing everything you can and trusting God to take care of the rest. Martha did everything she knew to do. She sent word to Jesus. She prayed. She took care of Lazarus the best she could, and she waited. Ephesians 6 says, Having done everything to stand firm… what? Stand firm, therefore. Having done everything to stand firm, having done everything you know to do, thats when you wait and trust that in Gods time and in Gods way, Hes going to take care of it. Hell do it in a way thats for your best interest and for His glory. Janet [Pascal] has come to sing a song that talks about the fact that God is up to something good in our lives. (_________________) Thirdly, we respect His wisdom. He [John Ortberg] wants us to take a look at the 38th verse of that chapter. Jesus is now at the tomb of His friend Lazarus who has passed away. It says, Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. Take away the stone, he said. But, Lord, said Martha, the sister of the dead man, by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days. Again, Martha takes issue with Jesus. Again, she disagrees with His wisdom. She thinks thats a bad idea. Then Jesus said, Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God? So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. I know that You always hear Me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that You sent Me. When He had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, Lazarus, come out! The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, Take off the grave clothes and let him go. In mans wisdom, the best thing to do would have been to heal Lazarus before he died, correct? Save the heartache; save the pain, none of this coming in the fourth watch of the night sort of thing. Dont let Lazarus suffer anymore. Dont make us suffer by watching him suffer. Dont make us go through the agony of death and the loss of our brother, our friend. Heal him now! Thats what human wisdom says, but Jesus allowed him to physically die. Roll away the stone! No, thats not a good idea! You think Martha learned to respect the wisdom of Jesus after this scenario? See, our human wisdom, our rationale, well, lets look at it after what happened with God, the way God did it. Jesus had taught in this chapter, I am the Resurrection and the Life. After Lazarus rises again from the dead, do you think that phrase took on a new meaning to her? I am the resurrection and the life? Talk about an object lesson, right? Its one thing to say, I am the Resurrection and Life; you can kind of understand what that means; but then watching Him say the word and speak life to a dead man. Then you see that dead man come out; I really understand that scripture now, that You werent kidding, were You? You are the Resurrection and the Life. Secondly, think of all the people that benefited. If Lazarus would have been healed before he died, Mary and Martha and Lazarus would have known about it, and they would have celebrated. But now, just think of all the people who were there who witnessed this miracle. Think of all the hundreds of people who came to Christ that day because of what happened. Think of all the generations of believers who had been moved and blessed and understood the truth that He is the Resurrection and the Life through the recounting of the story of the resurrection of Lazarus. How many millions of believers have been touched because God did it His way? Do you think Mary and Marthas faith was strengthened after the resurrection of Lazarus? Hello? Talk about faith thats now off the charts! Whatever You say, were going to do! We know You are who You say You are, and You can do what You say You can do. They have faith that is off the charts because Jesus did it His way. They didnt trust His way; they trusted their way. They were angry at Him, but He was sovereign. He knew what He was doing. So often, we think we know, but our knowledge is so limited. I was watching a television program this week. You have to take turns. Its one way to a happy marriage. Sometimes you have to put on sports; most times you have sports on; but sometimes you have to watch what she wants to watch. What she likes to watch is medical shows, not like E.R. She likes the real stuff, like gross operations and emergency room shows. So were watching the Discovery Channel, and theyre telling this story about a motorcycle rider who ran into a tree. The branch of the tree broke off and went into his head. When he came into the ER, he had this tree coming out of his head. It was sticking out of his helmet, and he didnt know how bad it was. It had leaves on it and twigs, everything. He was walking in there. They had to go get the gardener to bring his shears to the emergency room. I bet that was a peculiar call, Hey, we need you in surgery. Can you bring those clippers with you? He was like, Okay?!? So, they clipped the tree, they take his helmet off, and they say, Whoa! Look at this thing! It went in here and came out up here and went out his head. He had no idea the severity of it, and neither did they. The first thing they had to do was get some X-Rays. They would have to see if this thing hit something important in there and what would happen if they tried to pull it out. Do you know what he wanted to do? He wanted to take matters into his own hands. He even tried to take it out. He said, Cant I just take this out? Get this out of my head! They would grab his hands and put them down. Trust us! Later on, when he understood the severity of it, when he began to realize this thing was sticking out of his head and maybe he could lose his life, he began to panic and say, I want to get it out now! The doctors were basically saying, Look, you trusted us enough to come in here. Trust us enough to fix the problem. Trust our wisdom. Trust that we know what we are doing. Sure enough, they found out that luck was with this guy. The tree had missed everything important inside there, any artery or anything that would have affected his breathing. He got lucky. So they were able to take the branch out of his head and stitch him up. He put his helmet back on and rode his motorcycle away from the hospital. Believe it…or not. That was an amazing story. But I thought about that guy as I was preparing this message, and I thought, Isnt that us sometimes? We have these intrusions and obstacles in our lives, and we give it to God, and God doesnt do it as quickly as we want Him to. We dont agree with His procedures, so were tempted to just say, Let me take care of it myself! We dont even realize the damage we could cause, how we could complicate the matter even more. Weve done that. You and I have all done that. Weve all failed to recognize or celebrate Gods sovereignty and said, Im going to control. I know better. Instead of respecting His wisdom, we take matters into our own hands, and we make things worse. How many times have we dealt with situations where a couple wants a divorce? Or we have a believing spouse that is married to a non-believing spouse, and he or she just wants out. We take them to 1 Corinthians 7, and we say, "You know what?" Gods word says, If youre a believing spouse, and youre married to a non-believing spouse, dont divorce them. You dont know, Paul says, whether God can use you to bring your husband [or wife] to salvation. Theyll argue with you. They know better. Their wisdom knows better. Ill say, Look, Ive seen marriages where there has been adultery, marriages where there has been alcoholism, marriages where one spouse doesnt know the Lord, and God-over time-has worked a miracle there. Those couples have strong, happy marriages now. They will argue with you. They dont care what Gods word says. They want out now. They know better than God. The opposite is couples that want to shack up, and [they think] its okay, Well just live together. Gods word says thats wrong. Well, show me where it says that is wrong in Gods Word. Youll show them, and theyll get mad at you! Youre like, Look, I didnt write this stuff. Im just telling you what it says. Theyll say, Well, we know better than that. Our wisdom is greater than that. Friends, anytime you think your wiser than God, youre in trouble. Youre in big trouble. Youre heading for a fall. Youre in for a crash. Come to the place in our lives where we trust His timing. Im not saying we understand His timing. Im not saying we ever get to the point where we like the fourth watch appearances. I dont think that will ever happen. I think we always want the waters parted before we have to step into the water. I think we would rather be spared the lions den or the fiery furnace if at all possible. Its just like Mary and Martha if they could have been spared the loss of their brother, but Gods way was the best. We come to the point where we celebrate His sovereignty and say, Thank God Youre in control and not me because when I mess up my life with the ink stains and blotches of my life, only You can turn this into something wonderful, God, so Im going to allow you to. Im going to respect Your wisdom because Your wisdom is higher than mine. Nowhere is that demonstrated more powerfully than the cross. Think about the cross. The cross was a place of defeat, and God in His wisdom and His sovereignty turned it into a place of victory. The cross was a place of despair, and God turned it into a place of hope. The cross was a place of death. Its where people go to die, and now its a reminder of the resurrection and the life. Only God can do that. The disciples said, Thats it. His voice is silenced. Our cause is gone. Its lost. Evil has triumphed over good. Sin has triumphed over righteousness. God in His sovereignty, God in His timing, God in His wisdom, turns something bad into the greatest event in the history of mankind: The resurrection of our Lord, Jesus Christ. If you can trust your life into His hands, you can trust your circumstances into His hands, you can trust His wisdom. When you come across the obstacles and intrusions in your life, dont take the matters into your own hands. Dont say, Just let me take care of this. You might be the person who put that there in the first place. Let Him work it out for you.
Lets pray together. Father, as we prepare to receive communion, it is a reminder to us of Your wisdom, of Your sovereignty, of Your goodness. Forgive us for the time when we have judged You. We have made assessments without gathering all the facts, and because You did not answer in the way we expected You to, Lord, or how we expected You to, or when we expected You to, we have made judgments about You. We have said, Youre not good; or Youre not caring; or Youre not powerful enough; or Youre not listening to us. Lord, those judgments were unfair. Youve already demonstrated Your goodness, Your kindness and Your love. Help us to come to the place where we celebrate Your sovereignty, that You are in control and not us. Help us come to the place where we respect Your wisdom. Lord, Im convinced that was the last time Martha ever questioned You, the last time she ever became angry at Your actions or Your inactions. Lord, help us to do everything we can, everything we know to do, and having done all to stand firm-stand firm therefore. Wait upon You. I pray for the ones who are in a fourth watch experience even now, that they would trust in Your goodness; they would trust that Romans 8:28 is for them as well. I pray this in Jesus name, Amen.
Lets open our Bibles up to the Book of Hebrews 12. As we go through the story of Peter walking on the water, were talking about faith principles that we encounter along the way. Theres a storm at sea, Jesus comes by the boat, and theyre afraid-they think Hes a ghost. Peter says, If thats You, Lord, command me to come. Jesus says, Come. So Peter steped out of the boat and began to walk on the water. Then he seen the wind and the waves, heard the wind, and he became afraid and sank. He cried out to the Lord, Lord, save me. The Lord grabbed him and pulled him out of the water. They came back into the boat, and then Jesus said to Peter, Oh, you have little faith. Why did you doubt? This is going to be a teaching moment for Peter. Why did he give up? Why did he lose hope? Why did he sink? We all do, you know. In our spiritual journey, theres always a time when we see the wind, when we become discouraged, when we feel hopeless, when we despair, when we give up. Lets talk about that. The Book of Hebrews is written at a time when the church is in great conflict due to persecution. The chapter starts off saying in Hebrews 12:1, Therefore. Whenever you see the word therefore, find out what its there for. So you have to go back one chapter. Hes talking about the hall of faith and all the great patriarchs, all the great saints, and their examples of faith. Then he comes down to the very present day, and the executions that he talks about there at the end of Chapter 11 are those similar to what happened under the reign of terror of Emperor Nero. So we know that the dating of this book is about 65 AD. The church is encountering great hardship and persecution. The words of the author of the Book of Hebrews are very timely, very pertinent because of what they are enduring and what they are engaged in. He tells them to do three things. Number 1, he talks about the importance of inspiration. Secondly, he talks about the need for fixation. Thirdly, he talks about the importance of observation. Were going to talk about what each of those are today and why theyre important to prevent us from becoming weary and losing heart. Lets begin reading with Verse 1 of Chapter 12 (page 1193 of pew Bibles), Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses… By this he means the people that hes already spoken of, the believers that have gone on before us and lived lives of faith. …let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. Why does he say so that you will not grow weary and lose heart? because we, what? We sometimes grow weary and lose heart. The first thing he says that we are to do is to find inspiration in others; thats number one. Therefore, since we have such a great cloud of witnesses… those whove gone on before-consider their example, be inspired by their lives. Be inspired by their sacrifices, by their acts of faith, by their faithfulness. The first thing we need to do, if we are going to persevere and not lose hope, is have people in our lives and know of people who inspire us, people who have done what we want to do and who have done it successfully. We need people who are facing what we have faced before and have overcome. Rather than just trying to bear it ourselves or figure out how to invent the wheel ourselves, become a student of people who have done it, people who are alive and people who have already passed away. We can learn from them and be inspired-people that we know and people that we will never meet. There are all kinds of examples out there that will inspire you. I dont care what it is youre facing, whatever the challenge. Some of you want to lose weight today. Im not asking for a raise of hands because if some of you skinny people try to raise your hands, somebody is going to punch you, so we wont do that one. Some of you want to get in shape. You can be skinny and not be in shape. Some of you want to start a ministry. Its a challenge. Who has done it before? When I wanted to start a church, I thought, Who has done it? How did they do it? When I wanted to become a pastor, I interviewed pastors. Whats it like? How do you become one? I sought them out. Some of you want to change vocations, start a business. Whats that like? Some want to get married: talk to people who have successful marriages. And some want children: learn from those who are good parents. Raise a teenager: Ive got nothing here for you (congregation laughing). Youre on your own on that one. Overcome an addiction? Plenty of positive examples. Grieve a loss, face cancer or some other illness? Somebody has faced what you are facing. Go back to school at an old age: Somebody has done that. Feel like youre ready to give up and quit; other people have felt the same way. The list could go on and on. Somebody has faced the challenges that you have faced. Find them. Find them from history. Find them in your life. Learn from them. Be inspired by their examples. Become a student of what they did, their philosophies, their ideas, their examples, and their faith. Emulate them. So the writer is saying, Think about other people. Its important. Have you ever been by somebody that just drains you? A negative person that just drains you? Thats hard, isnt it? You hang around a person that is just negative and just drains you long enough. You leave their presence, and you feel like, Oh, man! Youre just kind of beat up! You know, like after one of my messages. You walk out of here, Oh, man! How does anybody put up with that? Oh, man! It just kind of drains you. Its important not only to have inspiration from people that have done what we want to do or have been successful at what we are facing, but its also important to find inspiration from people who are in our lives that we know, who are people we can turn to strategically when we need encouragement. Do you have people like that in your life-people who believe in you? Thats important. Its important to have people in your life who believe in what youre doing and can encourage you in that. Thats so important. If you dont have those kinds of people in your life, pray that you will have. How many of you have those kinds of people in your life? Thats wonderful. When my mom passed away, she was my biggest fan. She would come up to our church, and if you sat within a 10-foot radius of my mom, you would know I was her son. We would go into restaurants with my two sisters, who are older than I am. Wed go into the restaurants, and my mom would come up to total strangers and say, This is my son, Jeff, and hes a pastor. Shed go on and on and on. Sandy and Judy would be like, Hey, were here too, Mom. They thought it was sort of humorous. So many times, she inspired me. I would want to keep going because I knew she believed in me. I still take out the card she wrote me for my ordination back in 1982. Ill still read that from time to time and draw inspiration from it. Its important to have those kinds of people in our lives. Thats why these testimonies are important. I talked to you about the fact that were videotaping testimonies, things that have happened in your lives that other people can benefit from. If youve gone through a divorce, depression, whatever it might be, tell your story to the camera. We can say, Cut. We can edit. If you make a mistake, well start over. The first thing people think of when they hear that is oh, I could never do that! Its not about you. We learned about that in the 40 Days. Its not about you. Get out of your boat. Make that phone call, and say, You know, I have a story to tell that could help somebody My wife is a nurse, has been for 50-60 years (congregation laughing). I dont know how long, a long time anyway. This happened when she was a nurse in Rockford. Shes now an intensive care nurse at Beloit Memorial, but she was a coronary care nurse in Rockford when we lived there. Dealing with critical issues, she faces a lot of life and death situations. One time she was working on resuscitating a patient who had coded. His name was John. John was gone. He was not breathing; there was no breathing. They were working on John feverishly, and one of the nurses made a statement to this effect, Its no use. Lets give up on him. Hes not going to make it. Were wasting our time. She made that statement. Well, he surprised them. He came back. When he came back, he said to Brenda, I dont want that nurse in my room because she gave up on me. Nobody had told him that. There was no way for him to know that. He was clinically gone. When asked how he knew that, he mentioned that during this whole scene, when he was clinically dead, he was over his body watching this stuff, and not only did he hear, but he saw who it was and heard the statement that she made. He said, I dont want her in my room anymore because she gave up on me. Brendas right there, so you can ask her. Thats the way it happened, isnt it? Thats the way it happened. She gave up on me he said. That story is kind of icky, goose-bumpy, I admit that, but it illustrates the point that its important to have people in our lives who believe in us and can cheer us on. Its equally defeating to have people who dont believe in us. Try not to fill your life with those kinds of people. When possible, try not to spend great deals of time with people [who can bring you down]. Maybe you work with one or live with one, I dont know, but its a defeating thing. The second thing he talks about not only is inspiration, but he talks about the principle of fixation in verse 2. He says, Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfector of our faith. Fix our eyes, fixation. It means not just a casual glance, but an intense focus on something or someone. Thats what this word means in the Greek. We had our first child 22, almost 23, years ago now. Can you believe Brendas that old? Wow! We had to go through this class called Lamaze. Lamaze means breathing techniques, so you learn how to breathe, and I am the coach. Im going to give her ice cubes, but more than that, Im to help her with the breathing techniques, which Ive long forgotten. Were all nervous. The first time we practiced. With each step of labor, as it gets more intense, there are different breathing techniques. So I have to remind her about that. And I have to help her remember her focal point. Thats where you find something in the room and focus on it. Many people like to bring things in the room that are going to be pleasant to look at. Maybe it will be a picture of other children that they have. That could remind you that, Hey, theres a reward coming. Or maybe an outfit could remind you, maybe a cute outfit or cute booties to remind you that this pain is going to produce a child. Maybe a poem inspired you or a cross, some religious symbol, and you focus on that instead of your pain. Some women even use their husbands eyes, which I do not recommend. Later on in the delivery process, that can get pretty scary, You … Dont do that one. But you find a focal point, and you focus in on that. That helps you to concentrate. When the pain comes, youve got something that is drawing your attention. So I ask you the question: who or what is your focal point in life? When you encounter opposition, which you will; when you encounter hardship, which you will; who or what is your focal point? He says, Focus on Jesus. If you have the wrong focal point, youre going to get off track. I remember one time coming up from a dive and heading for the wrong dive boat. I had a focal point, all right, but it was the wrong one, and I got way off course. Oh, it was that boat. Oh, okay. If you lose sight of your focal point, its very easy to quit, isnt it? Anyone ever heard of a woman named Florence Chadwick? In 1952, she went out to sail from Catalina Island to the Coast of California. It was a foggy day, a cold day, and the water was just freezing. She got into the water; it was so foggy, she couldnt even see the boats that were in her party. It was a dangerous day. They had to use a rifle to shoot into the water to scare away the sharks. I always hate it when that happens when Im swimming. She swam 15 straight miles that day in that cold water, 15 miles! She was going to quit. Every time she looked up, she could never see the land. She said, I have to quit! I have to quit! The boatmen said, Keep going Florence! Weve got to be getting close! They couldnt see the land either. Keep going Florence! Fifteen miles! Were almost there! She couldnt see the land, and she quit! When she got into the boat, and they kept paddling, land was only a half mile away, only a half mile away! It wasnt fatigue, fear, sharks or anything else that stopped Florence. It was the fact that she couldnt see the land. She said, Im not trying to excuse myself, but I know if I could have seen it, I would have made it. If I would have seen it in sight… By the way, two months later, on a clear day, she did it. She completed the swim, and she did it in a record setting time. Thats why its so important to have a focal point. Do you have a focal point? You know, sadly, sometimes, the focal point we have is our own self. Do you realize that? When youre going through a hardship, sometimes the only person you focus on is yourself. How can I get out of this? What can I do? What am I going to do now? You start focusing on your abilities and your strengths, and theres a good chance youre the one that got yourself in that mess in the first place. Sometimes we dont want to focus on Jesus because what in the world is He going to ask me to do? Whats He going to ask me to give up or sacrifice? What demand is He going to make on me? Pastor Sean gives me feedback and tells me whats going on in our small groups as we get together and discuss this. He tells me whats going on in his own heart in life through this series. He said, You know, this series is challenging people in our church. Its challenging us. We talk about faith and stepping out of the boat. Its a little scary. He said, Its going to be 2 ½ months by the time were through. Maybe we need a break. Hes being facetious now. He says, Ive got a new idea for an upcoming series. Heres Pastor Seans idea of what well talk about If You Want to Walk on Water, You Have to Get Out of the Boat: Dont Rock the Boat: Living a Safe Life in Comfortable Mediocrity. Does that sound good to you? Just a little break from all this fake stuff. Courage, endurance, and lets just take a break. Some of the songs we might be able to sing are I Surrender Some, I know those hymns; Take My Life and Let Me Be; Have Mine Own Way, Lord, and Oh, How I Like Jesus, not How I Love Jesus. LCD song possibility might be Please Dont Send Me to Africa. Were afraid of what Hes going to do and expect, but the author says focus on Jesus. Observe Him; thats his next point. Observation: Verse 3, Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. Consider Him. When he asks us to consider Jesus, he is speaking of considering His earthly ministry here. Thats the context. Because hes been talking in Verse 2 about the cross and for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame. What does scorning its shame mean? Scorning its shame was a comparison. What thats saying is Jesus looked at the cross, and He endured the cross because of the joy that was set before Him. His focal point was Heaven. His focal point was the union of bringing a fallen man back into a right relationship with a Holy God. His focal point was the joy of being reunited with His Father. That was His focal point. Jesus focal point was not the cross, but He looked beyond the cross. Its just like a woman in labor who looks beyond the labor to the joy that is set before when she holds that newborn in her arms. So Jesus looked beyond the cross and said, Compared to the glory that is to come, and the reward that is to come, its nothing compared to the suffering I must endure now. In 2 Corinthians 4, Paul talks about his persecution, Theres nothing compared to the glory that is to be revealed. So when were going through those difficult times, make a comparison. You should be saying, You know what? This is hard, but is not what Im going to focus on. Im not going to focus on the storm. Im not going to focus on the wind. Im not going to focus on the waves. Im going to focus on Jesus. Im going to focus on His promise. Im going to focus on His example. How did he consider Jesus? How did he act? What did he do? When Jesus was here on Earth, His overriding passion was to accomplish the Mission, wasnt it? It was to do the will of the Father. If I take care of the Fathers business, Hell take care of Me. Remember Jesus, at age 12, in the Temple: they cant find Him anywhere. They go back and find Him in the Temple and they rebuke Him. They say, Weve been looking all over for You. Know ye not, I must be about My Fathers Business. Jesus knew if He took care of Gods business, the Father would take care of Him. The same thing is true with us. When we encounter storms, our focus has to stay on Jesus. As we take care of the Lords work, and the Lords business, Hes going to take care of us, seeking first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things shall be unto you. Sometimes as we go through these crises, we become self-absorbed. We should become Christ-absorbed. Observe Him. Observe the fact that He willingly laid His life down; no miracle that Jesus ever performed was for His benefit-it was always for the benefit of others. It was always for the benefit of others. Turn in your Bibles to John 16:33 (page 1070 of pew Bibles), if you would please. In Hebrews 12, what did Jesus do when He encountered opposition? Number 1 is He expected it. Expect it. Expect opposition. Ive heard Christians say many times, Im a Christian, and God is supposed to love me. How in the world could I go through this trial, this storm? Im so discouraged, so weary. Im losing hope. Who in the world told you that the Christian life was going to be easy? Where in the world does it say in here that the Christian life is without pain and suffering and hardship? Show me an example of somebody who trusted God and did not encounter hardship. Show me one. Nobody suffered more hardship than God Himself when He took on flesh. So, lets have a realistic viewpoint of what this life is and what we might face and encounter. Jesus does. He says that in Verse 33. He says, I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have peace. Notice, He says in Me. Jesus does not say in the world. Someone defined peace in this way: We define peace as when everything is calm. Waters are calm. There is no wind. There is no rain. There is no opposition. Really, that never happens, does it? Sometimes it seems like we go from one to the next to the next to the next. It says, Peace is not the absence of conflict, but the presence of Christ. I thought that was a good definition for peace. Jesus goes on to say, In this world you will have trouble. Thats a promise. Thats not an exciting promise. Thats not one we pull out of our daily bread and say, Oh boy! Im going to have trouble! Yeah! But its a fact. He says very forthright, You will have trouble, but it doesnt end there. It continues, But take… courage or take …heart! I have overcome the world. The Greek language is rich and full and alive, especially the Greek verbs. Sometimes, Ill try to study the verbs and their significance because its just loaded with good stuff. This particular verb here where He talks about have overcome is whats called the perfect indicative active, the perfect tense. The perfect tense is important because it means its something in the past, something that was completed in the past, has bearing on the future, or has results in the present. Ill use an illustration from football since were kind of a football town here, a football church. Im going to give a hypothetical example to you to try to explain when Jesus says, Take courage, Ive overcome the world, what that means. Imagine with me next season that Brett Favre returns to the Packers, that not only do they have a better season, but he leads them to the Super Bowl. Again now, this is extremely hypothetical (congregation laughing loudly). Its the Super Bowl game, and you guys are all watching the Super Bowl together. Im home crying by myself. Its 4th and 1. The Packers are down by 5 points. Theres one second on the clock. They call a time out. So theyre either going to score a touch-down and win the game, or theyre going to be stopped, and its over. So they call a time-out, and everybodys trying to guess, What are they going to run? Are they going to hand it to Green to jump over the offensive line? Is Brett Favre going to do a quarterback-keeper? Is it going to be a play action? Whats going to happen? So they snap the ball, and the offensive line surges forward, and Brett Favre, again hypothetical situation, jumps over the pile and scores a touchdown. Its not even close. The booth doesnt need to review it. No penalties, no flag, its six points. The Packers are the Super Bowl Champions. The clock expires. Yippie Yah Whoo! Did you enjoy that? That was fun for most of you? Yeah! Tell us another story! So he jumps over and everybodys celebrating. You could say, The Packers have overcome and won the Super Bowl. Something that happened in the past has barring now in the present and cannot be changed. Its reality and its done. He uses what is called the indicative mood. The indicative mood for this verse means the subject is stating a fact. Thats what it means. Indicative means youre stating a fact. Youre stating reality. Jesus is not saying in this passage, But, be hopeful because theres a good chance Im going to win this thing. Hes not saying, You know what? Get your chin up. Keep praying because maybe, just maybe, Im going to concur sin and the grave. Im not saying Im gonna, but I might. Theres hope. Thats not what Hes saying. Do you see any kind of doubt or question or wonder in the statement Jesus makes? He says, Take courage. Ive overcome the world. Brett Favre jumps over that end zone line and scores a touchdown. If youre wearing a Green Bay Packer uniform, you win because of what he did. You win because of what the offensive line did. If you are on that team, you win. All the Packer fans out there in Packerland win because of what he did. When Jesus went to the cross and conquered sin and conquered death, and you are on His team, by faith, you said, Im a Christian. I want to follow You. Youve got J.C. on your back. Because of what He did, you win. Get it? You win. The outcome is certain. Its a statement of fact. Because Ive overcome, youre going to overcome. There may be some tough waters. There may be some periods of doubt and fear and so forth, but if youre on My team, youve got Christian on your jersey, youre going to prevail. Its a promise. Its reality. Thats what Jesus speaks of here. He says, Dont be hopeless. Dont lose heart. Take courage. Youre going to have problems. Youre going to have troubles. Theyre going to come, but theyre not greater than Me. Because youre with Me, because youre on My team, you are in Me, and I am in you. Youre going to overcome. Youre going to win. Nothing can change what Jesus did. Nothing can ever change the fact that in Jerusalem today, the tomb is empty. Nothing can or ever will change that reality. Its a done deal. Its a statement, a fact. Draw hope in that. The author of Hebrews says, Draw hope from inspiration. Look at the examples of those who have gone before you. Seek them out. Learn about them. Become a student of them. Put people in your life who will inspire you, who believe in you. Secondly, fixation: Make sure you have the right focal point. When youre going through pain, dont just look at the pain, look beyond the pain to see the reward. Thirdly, observation: We look at Jesus. We learn from His example. We encounter opposition; we expect it. Not only do we expect it, but we know we will be victorious through it. Thats the promise of Gods word today. Would you stand together as we close in prayer? Next week, were going to talk about patience, and I know no one can use that, right? Were going to talk about learning to wait, one of the hardest things that you and I do. Were at a stoplight for 30 seconds, and, Come on! Were in the grocery store line for a couple minutes, Come on! We just have a hard time waiting. So well be talking about learning to wait together. Then the following week, were going to wrap it up and talk about How Big is Your God? So its been an enjoyable series. Weve learned a lot. Weve been challenged. God has been faithful. You can join small groups at any time; remember that. Small groups are running through May, and you can jump on board anytime you want to. How many of you today are not going to lose heart, not going to grow weary but are going to have hope because Hes overcome today? Amen.
The subject matter were dealing with this morning is fear. My wife asked me not to ask if youve read the chapter because she didnt, so I cant ask. If I ask, I get in trouble. But Im already in trouble, so how many of you read the chapter today? (Congregation laughing). There you go. Shes smiling. Thats a good sign. The part of the story that were focusing on today is the part where Peter starts to walk on the water; he sees the wind, and you know what happens, it begins to sink. We will talk next week about the sinking feeling. But, he cries out in fear and says, Lord, save me. But were talking this morning about fear. Theres a healthy fear, and theres unhealthy fear. I have a fear of heights. I happen to think thats a good fear. My wife does not share that fear. We were at the Grand Canyon a month or so ago, and she was going right to the edge of the canyon, just driving me nuts. I would say, Get back from there. She was trying to bring our offspring to the edge of the canyon. Thats a good fear; keep safe, stay back here. But there are other fears that are not good. There are fears that can stunt our growth, just like we saw in the video this morning. The young man who had still not jumped into the water at age 16. He had not experienced the exhilaration or the joy or jumping, taking that step of faith, because of fear. Theres a fear that will paralyze us. Theres a fear that robs us of joy. Theres a fear that robs us of potential. It robs us of life. Thats the kind of fear that we want to deal with. Pastor Ortberg talked in his book about the causes of fear and the consequences of fear. Were going to be talking about how to overcome fear today. He mentioned about growing up in a cultural fear. He said in a joking manner that many of us grew up in a cultural era because of our moms. Very few moms, when you left the house to go to school, would say, Embrace danger today, darlings. Look one way when you cross the street. Take chances. Take risks! Thats not what moms do. He talks about in his books how moms would say, Dont make an ugly face, or itll stay that way, which is true by the way. That explains what you see today. He said in his book, a mom would say, Dont carry that stick because you could fall and poke your eye out. He asked the question, How many people know somebody who fell with a stick and poked their eye out? My response would be, My mom did. My mom knew just about every kid who ever had a near accident or fatal accident from anything. Id be carrying a spoon in my mouth, and shed say, Little Jimmy Johnson fell and the spoon got stuck in his mouth, and he had to go to the doctor and have it surgically removed. Id be blowing up a balloon, and shed say, Little Timmy Smith blew up a balloon and it went into his lungs, so he choked to death almost. I remember asking her one time, Mom, how do you know all these people who had these near-death experiences from these freak accidents? She just seemed to know so many! My mom would use fear as a control mechanism for me. Like when I would run away from home at age 4 or 5, I packed my knapsack just like Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer, put in my sandwich and my apple and a couple quarters, tied it on a stick, and Id take off. Id get as far as the fire station, and shed call me. Shed try to coax me with what was on TV or what was on the stove, but what worked were these two words. Shed say, Jeff, Billy Budd is going to get you. Billy Budd! To this day, I dont know who Billy Budd is, but I just know every time I hear Billy Budd, I still get scared. It mustve been a movie I once seen. That name just strikes fear in my heart. Shed say, Billy Budds out there. I would say, Is he? Billy Budd? Id run home as fast as I could because of Billy Budd. What is it that makes you afraid? All of us have something or someone in our lives that causes this fear. Another close relative of fear is something called worry. Any worrywarts out here this morning? Any worrywarts? Most of you worrywarts didnt want to raise your hands because oohh, whats he going to do? Is he going to make us stand up? What? What does he mean? My mom was a worrywart. She transferred some of those warts on to me as well. Worry, Pastor Ortberg described in his book this way. He says in some cases fear ceases to be sporadic and becomes habitual. When this happens, we become worriers. Worry is a special form of fear. The traditional distinction is that fear is caused by an external source while worry and anxiety are produced from the inside. Yet they produce the same physical responses. Worry is fear that has unpacked its bags and signed a long-term lease. Worry never moves out on its own accord. It has to be evicted. Thats what were going to talk about this morning: the principles of eviction-to remove worry and fear from our lives. In other words, pictures as fear have been described as the dark room where negatives are developed. That was a good word picture. So how is it that we evict fear? It doesnt go on its own. Worry doesnt just up and leave. We have to take some steps to evict it. In 2 Chronicles, Chapter 20 (page 441 of pew Bibles), were going to look at a man by the name of Jehoshaphat. He was a king, and he lived at a time of great peace and prosperity. He was the king of Judah. There was no war. There was peace, love, and harmony, and economic prosperity. Everything was going great. Everybody loved Jehoshaphat. He was a Godly man. Israel was serving the Lord, their God. Everything was going well, and then a bad day came. It was totally off guard, totally unexpected. Three nations teamed their armies together to come and attack Jerusalem, to attack Judah. Unexpected. Unprovoked. They are not ready. The army is assembled. They are at the foot of Judah. The next day, theyll probably invade. The news comes to King Jehoshaphat. In Verse 3, it says he was alarmed at the news. The reason why this is so important is because sooner or later, things come into your lives that are going to rock your world. Youre going to receive news that alarms you, that causes you fear. Sooner or later, some of you might be living in that right now: that alarm state right now, that code red, but if youre not now, there will come a day when you are. Something will happen that will cause you fear and alarm in your life. What does he do? He takes some very classical steps. You and I can take those same steps. Were going to see Jehoshaphat evict or eradicate fear and worry from the people of Israel at a time when they so desperately need his leadership. We start now in 2 Chronicles 20:3, The people of Judah came together to seek help from the Lord; indeed, they came from every town in Judah to seek him. Whats the first thing that Jehoshaphat did? He gathered everyone together. One of the first and most powerful steps you can take is to address your fear and say, Heres what Im afraid of, and heres what Im worried about. Dont be subtle with it. Dont think you have to be the Lone Ranger. You enlist support. If it involves more than one party, you come together and say, Were together in this thing. We dont know whats going to happen, but were together. Thats Number 1. Enlist Support. Be open and honest about your fear, your worry, your struggles, and what youre going through. The second thing that happens is he seeks God (prayer). He says, Were going to pray, and were going to seek God. If you sense danger in your life, the number one priority needs to be prayer: praying for your protection, the protection of your family, the protection of your church, your business or whatever it is. You need to say, God, Im calling on You today. I want you to take a look at his prayer. He does several things here. Were not going to read the prayer in its entirety. Its a very solid example for us in regards to how evict fear. Jehoshaphat starts up in Verse 6 and says, O Lord, God of our fathers, are You not the God who is in Heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. Power and might are in Your hand, and no one can withstand You. The first thing he does is reminds himself, and the people, who God is, the power of God, the strength of God, and the might of God. He reminds them of who God is. The second thing is in Verse 9, If calamity comes upon us, whether the sword of judgment, or plague or famine, we will stand in Your presence before this temple that bears Your Name and will cry out to You in our distress, and You will hear us and save us. He reminds himself, and he reminds the people, of Gods character, of Gods nature, that God is good. He reminds them that God not only has power, but He is willing to use that power on our behalf. The third thing he does is in Verse 12. He says, O our God, will you not judge them? For we have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon You. That is an excellent model prayer when it comes to evicting fear. You say to God in humility, I dont know what to do. This is more powerful than me. This is greater than me. God, if you dont help me, I dont know what Im going to do, but Im looking to You. We have, in our society, something called the Twelve Steps, a very good program. Steps 1, 2, and 3, are: 1. I cant, 2. He can, 3. Ill let Him. Thats what Jehoshaphat played, God, You can. I cant, and were asking for Your help today. That should be our top priority when fear comes knocking at your door. Enlist support of others, and make prayer a priority. So they reach this climax of fear. Fear is palpable among the people. In Verse 13, All of the men of Judah, with their wives and children and little ones, stood there before the Lord. Do you see the fear and the helplessness there? The ambush is coming, and theyre not ready for it. The children are tugging on their dads or moms and are saying, Whats this about? Why are we here? Why is everybody afraid? Why are people crying? They knew that something was wrong. The moms and dads had to say, Some bad men are coming. What do they want to do? What are they going to do to us? Theyre going to hurt us. They want to hurt us. They want to destroy our homes. They want to hurt us. Well, what are we going to do, Dad? What are we going to do, Mom? They were calling on the Lord, our God. God will help us. God will deliver us. Can you imagine being that mom or dad and having to explain the terror to your children? Then God speaks through a prophet named Jahaziel in Verse 15, Listen, King Jehoshaphat and all who live in Judah and Jerusalem! This is what the Lord says to you: Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours, but Gods. What is the number one command in all the Scripture? It talks about it in this chapter. The number one thing repeated more than anything else in the Bible is what? Do not be afraid. Do not be afraid. The prophet says, Dont be afraid, for the battle is not yours, but Gods. Remember, they are coming up against you, but because you are Gods people, they are coming up against God. That changes everything. Instead of three against one, it is now those three against God. Work with me on this: Hypothetically, lets say tomorrow, youre on your way to school, or work, running errands, whatever, you leave the house, and out from the bushes steps this mean, cantankerous, scowling 6 4, 250 pound man. Hes looking at you. Youve never seen him before, but you can tell he means business. He comes up against you and says, I dont like you. And you say (trembling), You dont? No! I dont like the way you look. I dont like the way you talk. I dont like anything about you. When I get a chance, Im going to getcha, and Im gonna hurt ya. You are like, Ahhhh! and you start backing up. Then you back into something else, and you turn around and look up. Theres a guy 7 tall, solid as a rock, 350 pounds. Youre thinking, Oh boy! What a day! You look up at his face, and hes looking down smiling at you. He says to you, Know what? I like you! You do? Yeah! I like everything about you. I like the way you look, the way you talk, and the way you carry yourself. I want to be your friend. Thats why I want to protect you. Every time you leave the house, I will make sure Im here to see you safely to your car. Every time you leave work, Ill meet you right there and see you back home. Do you see that little 64 puny guy over here? You dont need to worry about him. I dont like him, and Im going to make sure that he doesnt touch a hair on your head. Now, how do you feel about this guy over here right now? Just a few seconds ago, you were in terror. You were intimidated and bullied by him. Now that you got this big guy on your side, he doesnt look so scary anymore, does he? The Word of God says in 1 John 4:4 that Greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world. That doesnt mean just with us, alongside of us, but in us. The prophet comes to Jehoshaphat, and he says to the people, God is with us. Change your perspective. Dont look at the army thats gathered out there and go, Oh man! Look how much more powerful they are than we are! Because we are on the Lords side, we can say, Look how much more powerful God is than the enemy who seeks to destroy us! Thats a perspective of faith. Can every believer say that? Can every person say that, I should say? Can you just go out and live any way you want to live and live in unrepented sin and rebellion and claim the scripture The battle is not mine, its the Lords? You cant. How could Jehoshaphat do that? Well, just turn back a few chapters to Chapter 17 (page 439). Jehoshaphat takes the thrown. It says in Verse 3, The Lord was with Jehoshaphat because in his early years he walked in the ways of his father David had followed. He did not consult the Baals (thats the pagan gods) but sought the God of his father and followed his commands rather than the practices of Israel. Israel had gone the wrong way, and Jehoshaphat says, Im not going to go that way. It doesnt matter if the whole nation goes that way, Im going to go the way of God. In Verse 6, it continues, His heart was devoted to the ways of the Lord; furthermore… This is once he became king. …he removed the high places and the Asherah poles from Judah. All the places of pagan worship, he removed those. Jehoshaphat said, This nation is going to serve the Lord, our God. Were going to walk in the ways of God. As a result of that, the prophets words could be spoken of. The battle is not yours; its the Lords. None of us here are perfect. All of us are sinners. Theres no question about that. But if youre seeking to live a life that honors the Lord, and the enemy attacks you, you can say, in confidence, God, fight my battles. God, be my strength. He says, Go and face them tomorrow, and the Lord will be with you. You know, one of the biggest fears you and I have is tomorrow. We fear the unknown. But guess who is in tomorrow? Gods already there. A friend of mine sent me an email about a man who went to a physicians house. Remember the days when physicians used to practice in their homes. My doctor growing up practiced in his home. He had his residence upstairs and his practice down below. A man received a notification that he was going to pass away. He said, Dr, youre a doctor, but youre also a Christian. Can you tell me what its like on the other side of deaths door? He said, I dont know. The patient said, Well, here you are, a doctor, a believer, and you dont know whats beyond deaths door. How can you help me? Just then he thought of something. He heard some scratching on the other side of door, coming from his dog. He did something he normally didnt do. He opened the door, and the dog came running in, unafraid, and began to play with his master. The doctor said to his patient, You know, my dog has never been in this room before, but he came in his room unafraid because his master is here. I dont know whats on the other side of deaths door, but I do know my master is already there. I dont need to be afraid anymore. You dont need to be afraid of the unknown. They were so afraid of tomorrow because tomorrow is the day the army was going to invade. The prophet says, Gods already in tomorrow. Heres what I want you to do: Verse 17 (page 442), I [God] want you to go out and face them tomorrow. Face who? Face the source of your fear. Face the bully. Sooner or later if you want to evict fear and worry from your life, you have to face the bully. The bully isnt just going to go away. The bully isnt going to just back down. You have to face the bully. I think Israel would have liked it better if they could have just stayed in their homes and made a fire, cooked some popcorn, played Monopoly. They would have liked to have said, God, You take care of it. But God says, No, armor up! Get your men. Go to the front of the lines. Go and face the bully, because when you face the bully and you overcome the bully, you prevail against the bully, the bully loses the most powerful weapon, and thats fear. That robs you. My son wanted to go on roller coasters at Great America, but he was afraid. Wed always try to coax him and encourage him to go, but he never would go. One year, we really got him to go. It was the Batman Roller Coaster. I dont know if youve been on that ride. It twists and turns, but he loved Batman. We said, You get to go in the Batcave, and you see Batmans uniform, Gotham City. Its really cool! Sure enough, he said, Okay, Im going to go. So we get all the way up to the very top, and he says, Dad, I dont want to go anymore. I said, Son, weve got to go. So we get up there, and he sits down. As soon as he sits down, he springs back up and tries to get out. Now, the harness is half down. The guys about ready to give the thumbs up with the button, hit the green button, and off you go. Im like, Pal, like it or not, youre going, and I pushed him hard as I could back down in the seat. I put his harness down and said, Here we go. So he had his teeth clenched and every muscle contracted, eyes closed, and he stayed in that posture the whole ride. I remember watching him. He didnt want to see a thing. As soon as we were done and coming in for the stop, the harness goes up, we walk off the coaster. Hes glad its done. We see the loop to loops, and he says, Did I do that? I said, You did! He got a big smile. He looked over and saw the double helix, and he said, I did that? I said, You did! He got so excited, he started walking along the coaster looking at all the things he did. He said, Lets go on another coaster, Dad! Fear was gone. It had dissipated because he faced the bully, and he won. He turned into a coaster maniac from that point on. Wheres the Iron Wolf? Let me at it! We were off and running. Hes never been afraid of a coaster since! He entered into a whole other dimension of living. He realized the thrill of a coaster, which hed been robbed of because of his fear. When we face the bully, and God enables us to overcome, we can look back and say, With Gods help, I did that! With Gods help, I faced that fear! With Gods help, I conquered that bully! That causes fear to leave and faith to rise up in our spirits. We begin to experience life to a greater degree of fullness and significance. So, what happens? Remember what weve learned about faith? The only thing that conquers fear is, what? Faith. Faith is the only thing that conquers fear. Weve learned about fear, that fear is passive? No. Fear gets out of the boat. Fear goes after Gods promises. I want you to see after this sermon how Jehoshaphat goes after the promises. I want you to see his faith. First thing, Verse 18, Jehoshaphat bowed with his face to the ground, and all the people of Judah and Jerusalem fell down in worship before the Lord. The first thing Jehoshaphat does is begin to thank God and worship God for the promise even before the manifestation of the promise. Thats faith. Its one thing to thank God after hes answered the prayer. Its another thing to thank God before hes answered the prayer, when its still in its promise form, isnt it? Thats what faith does. They got down and worshiped God and thanked God for their victory before they even experienced it. Thats faith! Then he goes on in Verse 20, As they set out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, Listen to me, Judah and people of Jerusalem! Have faith in the Lord your God and you will be upheld… He begins to speak words of faith and life. One of the greatest things you can do to evict fear is begin to speak Gods promises, begin to speak hope to dark situations. Whatever has caused fear to rise up in your heart, speak to it! Speak words of faith, in Jesus name. …After consulting the people, Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the Lord and to praise him for the splendor of his holiness as they went out at the head of the army, saying: Give thanks to the Lord for his love endures forever. How about that for a front line? Wow! The singing army! This is the military strategy rarely used today! Okay, men, were getting ready to fight the army. Okay, how are our basses doing? How are our tenors? All right! Lets sing boys! You dont see that philosophy working too often. But Jehoshaphat says, Were going to go out in this battle, and were going to sing praise to God. One of our pastors was having a very discouraging time a couple weeks ago. It just seemed like something was consuming his or her mind, and he or she was just a little bit discouraged about it. I said, Well, whatd you do? Because you dont sound discouraged now. He said, I forgot about the problem, and I just started to praise God and sing! He just started to sing. When you sing and focus on God in his greatness, its amazing how your perspective can change! What had changed? Had the circumstance changed? The army was still camped about. Nothing had changed? Everything had changed because their attitude, their perspective, had changed. Fear had been evicted. Faith had taken its place. The Bible said they went out. What happened was God caused confusion. The three armies turned on each other and destroyed each other, very similar to what we read about Gideon a couple weeks back. All that Jehoshaphat and his men had to do was gather the plunder, and it took days to do it. Verse 26, On the fourth day they assembled in the Valley of Beracah, where they praised the Lord. This is why it is called the Valley of Beracah to this day. What does the word beracah mean? It means blessing. When we follow these principles, we can see God take that which was once a source of fear and turn it into a source of blessing. Thats the kind of God we serve. We can look back on that experience that we dreaded and say, You know what? That was a place in my life where God manifested His power. That was a place in my life where God showed me He was watching my back. Thats what the Bible says in Isaiah. Hell be your rear guard. Hell watch your back. That could become a place of blessing to you. In Verse 29, The fear of God came upon all the kingdoms of the countries when they heard how the Lord had fought against the enemies of Israel. And the kingdom of Jehoshaphat was at peace, for his God had given him rest on every side. Theres another fear that is a good fear that we want to conclude with today, and thats talking about the fear of God. Some of us fear God in the wrong way. We believe the fear of God means you need to be afraid of God as though God is going to bring punishment or harm you in some way. I was driving to pick up my boy. It was dark, and we live out in the country. I turned onto a country road, and there was a squad car behind me. His lights came on-he was pulling me over! Im doing the check. My license is current. Ive got my seat belt on. Im not speeding. I came to a full and complete stop. Ive got my hands at 10 and 20. What did I do? Youve done that before. What in the world are they pulling me over for? I get my license out, thinking, Oh brother! I hold it out for him. The officer comes to the car and says, You have headlights and tail lights there? I said, Well, yeah. I turned them on. Its one of those cars that it is automatic. You dont have to ever turn it on. When you get home and turn off the car, it goes off by itself. When its dark, it comes on by itself. Does yours do that? So, somebody had turned it into the off position, and I didnt realize it. I went, Oh! When they came on, he said, Okay. Just wanted to make sure you were safe, and he walked back to his squad car. Did you want to see my license? Its current. He just walked off. That was the quickest stop I ever had with a police officer, right there. Sometimes, God comes on the scene, and we get a little paranoid, thinking, Whats He want? Whats He going to do? Is He going to punish me? What you dont realize is Gods on your side. The laws that Hes established are for your protection. If you fear Him and obey His commands, you need fear nothing else. You can say, like Twila Paris says in this song, I Am Not Afraid Anymore. Lets listen to this media. (Lyrics @ http://www.lyricskeeper.com/twila_paris-lyrics/212130-i_am_not_afraid_any_more-lyrics.htm) Were going to be turning to 1 John, Chapter 4:18 (page 1209). I want to tell a little story first. I read about a woman who wanted 1 John 4:18 read at her wedding, and the gentleman who was reading didnt realize there was two Johns in the Bible, the Gospel of John and 1 John. So he read from John 4:18 at the wedding. John 4:18 is the story of the woman at the well, and the verse says, It is right that you say you have no husband. In fact youve had five husbands, and the man youre living with now is not your husband. Not a good one to read at a wedding. In 1 John 4:18, it says, There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. Fear of God does not mean fear of punishment. Fear of God has to do with the respect and the reverence for Him. We desire to obey His law. When we do that, when the battles of life come against us, we can truly say, The battle is not ours. The battle belongs to Him. Then we turn it over to Him, and we watch Him turn that source of fear into blessings.
Lets turn in our Bibles this morning to Judges, Chapter 6. Were talking about walking on water this morning, looking at the biblical principals of faith that we found in the story of Peter. Peter was following the Lords example of calling him out of the boat to walk on the water. Pastor Ortberg said one of the greatest possible things that happened in that story was that little phrase that Peter walked on water. Though it was brief, Peter walked on water-a truly amazing thing. Walking on water means that you allow God to use you to do extraordinary things. You allow God to use you, an ordinary person, to do extraordinary leaps of faith and use you in a way that brings honor and glory to Him, a way that you could never have done on your own. In order to do that, you have to get out of your boat. Theres a man by the name of Gideon who is very content with his boat. He lived in a time when Israel was oppressed by a group of people called the Midianites. The best way to describe the Midianites is to say they were bullies. They picked on Israel because they could. Israel would grow crops, and theyd come and just burn them down. Israel would try to raise livestock. Theyd come in and kill them. Theyd just pick on them. Have you ever had any bullies in your life? Anybody here, maybe when you were in grade school? Maybe at work you have some bullies that pick on you? Maybe youre married to a bully. I dont know. Im looking around for elbows right now. Im looking for dirt right now. I dont see any elbowing going on (congregation laughing). A bully tries to intimidate through fear. It says here in the beginning, Verse 2, that the Israelites prepared shelter for themselves in mountain clefs and caves and strongholds. Entire families were hiding their activities and their way of life for fear that the Midianites would come and take what they had. You and I may not live with bullies in the physical sense of the word, but we all have bullies in our lives. Sometimes the bully takes the form of fear and tries to intimidate us, telling us lies and getting us to paralyze ourselves into inactivity; then we wont take a step of faith or get out of the boat because fear will paralyze us. For some of you its a bully of anxiety. You worry about the what-ifs and the what-thens. For some of us, the bully might be a low self-esteem that tells you that youre inferior or you dont belong. That bully inhibits you and impedes you from doing what God has called you to do and becoming what God wants you to be. So God wants you to go from succumbing to those bullies and allowing those bullies to intimidate you to being a person who gets out of your boat and pursues Gods call on your life. Thats what this storys about. Gideon receives his call of God while he is hiding from the Midianites in a wine press threshing wheat. At the time we find Gideon, he is doing a menial-labor job in a place where the Midianites wont see what he is doing, so they cant come and take his work. So right now, hes living an intimidated lifestyle. He is a victim of fear and bullying. We pick up the story when the angel of the Lord comes to him in Verse 12 (pg. 239 of pew Bibles). He says, …The Lord is with you, mighty warrior. Right there, Gideon is looking around like, You talking to me? Hes doing a De Niro, You talking to me? I dont see anyone around. You must be. You talking to me? Im not a mighty warrior. Far from it. Hes an ordinary guy. …But sir, if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all the wonders that our fathers told us about when they said, Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt? But now the Lord has abandoned us and put us into the hand of Midian. Sometimes we feel that way. Sometimes, even believers can get to the point where we say, God, are you even there? Are you still with me? If youre in my life, how can all these bad things happen to me? Well, the bad that Israel was going through, at the beginning of the chapter, tells us that its because of sin they had fallen into this. Sometimes, what were reaping-sometimes, not all the time-is the consequence of our own sin, the consequences of our own lack of faith. The Lord turned to him and said, Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midians hand. Am I not sending you? Go in the strength you have. How much strength did Gideon have? Not much. Not much. It doesnt take much, you might have a little strength and a little faith, but if youre willing to yield that to God, He can do great things with it. You dont just say, Im a person of great strength or I have to be a person of great faith before God can use me. No, you have to be willing to be a person who will let God use what little faith and what little strength you have. Go in the strength you have. He says, Go! God is a God of action. We get it backwards. We wait for God to zap us, spiritually shoot us with a bullet of faith. Then, when God energizes us with faith, He clears all the obstacles out of the way, and weve seen that demonstration of His power, then well step out of the boat. It never works that way. It never will work that way. Years ago, we took our family to Yellowstone. Lindsey was five, and we decided we were going to go see Old Faithful. We were trying to explain to this five-year old what a geyser was, that water heats up and it shoots way up in the sky, Its going to be really cool. Were going to see Old Faithful erupt! Wow! So, were there. This is a child whos been to Disney World. This is a child whos seen Mickey Mouse and Cinderellas castle. You plop her in front of a hole in the ground, and youre like, There it is. She is waiting. Pretty soon, waters going to come out, and theres going to be this display of power! Its Old Faithful! Its going to erupt! Shes waiting… This is boring! To a five-year old, this is like an eternity. She finally in exasperation looks up and me and says, Daddy, when does Old Faithful throw up? Whens it going to happen? I said, Honey, its erupt. Its not throw up. Its erupt. Its going to happen soon. We waited some more, and pretty soon, it shot up. Shes like, Whoa! We see Old Faithful go up in the air, this powerful demonstration, and then she believed. Then she understood. Thats how some believers are. We kind of think, we just sit back and wait for Old Faithful. We just kind of twiddle our fingers and tap our feet and go, When does Old Faithful show up? Whens Old Faithful going to display his power? Whens Old Faithful going to act? God has said, You act. You act on my commands now. You take a step of faith, and then I will demonstrate My power. Its not just information. We think its just information. All of our classes are great. I love cross training, marriage encounter, experiencing God class. Those are all wonderful, but do you notice what the class said, the subtitle for Blackabys book? Experiencing and Doing the Will of God. Doing the will of God. Its information plus a step of faith or action. That leads to a demonstration, and that demonstration leads to transformation. We want to bypass all that and go, Information, transformation. It doesnt work that way. Its not information, transfmoration. Its information, action, demonstration, transformation. We see God act. We see the display of His power, and we know He is with us, and we step out in faith. Gideon had to take some steps of faith. He had to do several things. God told him to tear down the altar to Baal and tear down the Asherah pole, goddess of fertility, and he did that, risking his very own life. He did it at night because he was afraid. They were going to kill him the next day. His dad said, Well, if Baal is so strong, why cant Baal stick up for himself? Why does he need you guys? If Baal is so all powerful, let him take care of Gideon. So they left Gideon alone. Gideon sends out the police, and all these things happen, but one of the biggest steps of faith that Gideon took was to assemble an army. That took a step of faith right there. Gideon assembles the army. Lets look at Chapter 7 together. So heres the scenario. On this side, we have Midianites, the Amalekits, 135,000 fighting men-trained soldiers, career soldiers. They had experience in war; they were the oppressors. On the other side, we have 32,000 untrained bullied, intimidated men lead by a common laborer who up until a couple days ago, nobody even knew who he was. Gideon, who had no military experience, is going to lead these spontaneous 32,000 men who are going to fight. Theyre tired of the bullying, so theyre going to pick on the big guys who the Bible says are like locusts. Their camels were like the sand in the seashore. They couldnt even be counted. What are the odds there? Thats not good, right? So we pick up the story as Gideon is looking at this situation and saying, Boy, are we outnumbered. I dont do the math here, but 32,000 and 135,000-Im not sure how many to one that is, but its not good. So hes looking at this situation, and Gods going to speak to him. He probably thinks God agrees. Gods probably going to say something like, You know what Gideon? I have to get you some reinforcement. I have to get you some help. You dont have enough guys, but thats not what Gods thinking. He says to him in Verse 2, The Lord said to Gideon, You have too many men. Im sure Gideon was thinking the same thing. You have too many men for Me to deliver Midian into their hands. In order that Israel may not boast against me that her own strength has saved her, announce now to the people, Anyone who trembles with fear may burn back and leave Mount Gilead. Can you hear that speech? I bet you Gideon is doing his best Braveheart impersonation, riding on his horse, They may take our lives, but theyll never take away our freedom! Whos going to stand? Whos going to fight? I know youre not afraid of the enemy, and I know you want to fight for your family and your heritage and for your God, but if you are afraid-which I know youre not-anybody whos afraid, one or two wimps out there, you can go home, and the rest of us are going to fight! Twenty-two thousand guys head for the exit. Not a good motivational speech. It didnt work. Braveheart, he was not. After listening to Mel Gibson in Braveheart, I was ready to go fight the bad guys, put blue makeup on my face, Lets go! Gideon didnt have that gift, so they all leave. So now hes left with 10,000 men, and hes thinking, Oh boy. Im in trouble now. This is not going to work with 10,000 guys. But at least theyre brave. Well just do the best we can with 10,000 guys. The Lord speaks again. He says, Gideon, there are still too many men. Gideon at this point has got to be wondering if God was using that new math or maybe theres something wrong with his calculator. Ive got 10,000, and Youre saying thats too many? He says, Take them down to the water hole and those who get down like a dog and drink, youre going to send home, but whoever laps with water in their hands, youre going to keep those guys. Can you see Gideon bringing them down there probably giving him some lessons on how to drink, Okay, here we are. Do like this. Laps for the enemy. This is how were going to drink. Okay, everybody get a drink. They all start drinking like dogs except for 300 men, so 9,700 men go home. That leaves Gideon with 300. If Im Gideon at that point, Id be tempted to use a little sarcasm and say, What? Still too many? Maybe I should just go at it by myself. Would that please You? God finally looks at that number and says, Thats enough. With this group, I will lead you in to defeat the Midianites. Well, Gideon still has some fear. Thats normal. Anytime you encounter or want to step out of the boat in faith, youre going to encounter some fear. Its just normal. So God says, Get up, go down to the camp because Im going to give it into your hands. If you are afraid to attack, Ive got a message for you. Go down and hear it. So he goes down at night, and he gets in the outskirts of the camp of the Midianites, and he and his servant listen outside the tent. The man inside the tent describes a dream, and this loaf of barley roles down and wipes out the tent with great force. The guy says, Well, you know what that is. Thats Gideons son, Joash. Hes a mighty warrior. Gods going to deliver Midianites into his hands. Thats a sign from God. Thats what that is. Were doomed. Gideon hears his name spoken of by the enemy. Thats a confirmation. He says, They even know who I am. A couple days ago, nobody knew who I was. Now even the Midianites know who I am, and theyre afraid! Unbelievable! Hes excited, and he gets up and starts saying, Get up! Get up! He goes back to the camp and says in Verse 17, Watch me! Follow my lead. What a transformation! How do we get from hiding to Watch me! Follow me! leading 300 men into battle against the Israelites? Do you know what the key was? The fear was gone. When fear is gone, the bully has lost his power because thats the bullys leverage. If he gets fear from you, hes got you because fear makes a situation worse than it really is. Fear intimidates. When fear left, all that was left was faith. I had a bully pick on me named Noah when I was a little boy. One day he pushed me so far that I finally tried to defend myself, and I ended up beating him up. This was second grade. Do you think Noah could bully me anymore? I remember watching Mike Tyson win fights just in the stare down before the bell rang. Wed be watching over at Kens house, Ken Bergerons house. Id say, Look at him! He cant even look Tyson in the eye. This fights done. Theyd go Ding, and the guy would almost lie down. One day, he fought Evander Holyfield. Tyson looked him in the eye, and I said, Look at Evanders face. Hes not afraid. That put a little fear in Tysons face. When you take away that element of fear, what does the bully have to work with anymore? Gideon says, Lets go. Lets go get it done. This was a demonstration of Gods power. He says, God knows where I am. He knows Im here. Im in the right place. I want to share a story with you quickly if I could. Have any of you heard of Ken Gaub before? Ken Gaub, the speaker/author? He was on I75 near Dayton, Ohio, with his wife and his children on a vacation. He was having a downtime in his ministry. He felt empty and was having doubts, just like Gideon had. He was afraid of the wind that was around him, feeling like he was going to sink into the water. Hes walking by, sipping on a drink, and he walks by-in the middle of nowhere-a random stop on his vacation-and the telephone booth is ringing. Why doesnt somebody get that? he says. He ends up going to answer it when nobody answers it. He says, Hello? The operator says, Long distance call for Ken Gaub. He said, I started looking around for Candid Camera. He says, Youre crazy. Then, he says, I realized I couldnt speak to an operator like that. He thought, This cant be. Im just walking down the road, and the phones ringing. Is Ken Gaub there? she interrupted. I have a long distance phone call for him. He stopped and said, Yes, Im here, but how in the world did you reach me here? She says, Well, is Mr. Gaub there or isnt he there? She doesnt have time for this. He said, Yes, Im here. The voice on the other line said, Thats him. Thats Ken Gaub. He listened as a woman identified herself as Millie from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. You dont know me Mr. Gaub, but Im desperate. Please help me. What can I do for you? She described how she was going to commit suicide. She wrote her suicide note, and then she remembers praying to God, saying, God, I really dont want to do this. I really dont want to take my life. Then she said, I remembered you. I remembered watching you on television and thinking to myself, I know Mr. Gaub could help me if he were here. Then all of the sudden numbers came to my mind, and I started writing the numbers down, and I said, Wouldnt it be a miracle if these numbers were the numbers of Ken Gaubs office? So I called the number. Are you in your office in California? He said, Lady, I dont have an office in California because shed called in California. He said, My office is in Yakima, Washington. A little surprised? She says, Oh really? Where are you? He said, Dont you know? You made the call. She said, I dont even know what area Im calling. I just dialed the numbers that came to my mind. He said, Maam, you wouldnt believe this, but Im at a payphone in Dayton, Ohio. She said, Really, what are you doing there? I kidded her gently and said, Well, I answered the phone. It was ringing. I walked by, so I answered it, and Im talking to you. Isnt that amazing? Its just amazing to me. He randomly pulls off the road; the phones ringing out in the middle of nowhere, and the woman on the other end wants to speak with Ken Gaub because shes going to take her life. He said, Only God could have done that. Of all the combinations of phone numbers in the world, of all the phones you could call, all the places I could be at that given time, only God could have arranged that. He said, Words came out of my mouth that were beyond my intelligence, and he lead her to Christ that day. He went back to tell his wife, and he said, Youll never believe this, but I couldnt contain it. He said, Barb, you wont believe this. God knows where I am. God knows where we are. The same God of Gideon was the God of Ken Gaub. The same God of Ken Gaub is our God. He knows where we are, so when we understand that, we can take those steps of faith. Instead of being the one bullied, the one doing the hiding, we can become the pursuer. Look at Verse 12 of Chapter 8 (pg 242). It says, Zebah and Zalmunna, the two kings of Midian, fled, but he (Gideon) pursued them and captured them, routing their entire army. I thought, Whoa, talk about transformation. One minute, youre bullied, and youre hiding. Im nobody and how in the world can God use me? He takes some steps of faith. God demonstrated His power. God transformed Gideon to now chasing the kinds of Midian. Can you imagine if He would have told Gideon when he was threshing that wheat, Hey Gideon, a few days from now youre going to be chasing the kings and the Midianites. He would have said, You know what? I think youre hitting the sauce a little bit too hard, pal. God can do things through your life, days from now, years from now, that if somebody would have told you today this was going to happen, you would have said, Youre crazy. Youre nuts. Thats because its not you; its Him. You take the little faith, the little strength you have, and you allow Him to use it. But its not a matter of Im going to sit back and let Old Faithful do his thing. Im going to sit back and wait. You pursue Gods call. You pursue the dream Hes put on your life. Dont be the victim; be the victor. Dont be the pursued; be the pursuer. Dont allow the bully to intimidate you and hold you back. You step out in faith and pursue the dreams, the passions, the callings God has placed on your life. Years ago, Im talking way back in the establishing of our church, I had found some land that I thought would be good for our church to buy. There were 15 acres. It was bare. There was no Holiday Inn Express, no houses here. The owner of the land just wanted to sell the five acres near the interstate. I thought that looked pretty good. Thatd give us some good visibility. You know how much this land was in 1990? It was $32,500 for five acres on I90. Thats a pretty good deal. We were offered well over six figures just a couple years after that. In those days, we had just a few small handfuls of families, no rich people in our body. That $32,500 seemed like a ton of money. We needed $10,000 down. We were going to finance the rest with three years on a balloon, but how would we come up with that kind of money? So, I said to our leadership, I would like to take the first thousand dollars in our building fund and give it to the church in Rockford as a thank you for helping us out and getting us started. Thats what we did. We took the first thousand, and we gave it away. We didnt tithe on our building fund. We basically gave our entire building fund away. They had not even cashed that check-it was that same week-when later in that week, a businessman came in my office and said he wanted to help with what our church was doing. He gave us a check for $10,000. That became our down payment on our land. So what do you do? Do you say, Hey God, we need ten grand? Heres our bank account number, okay? Whens Old Faithful going to show up? Whens Old Faithful going to put ten grand in the bank account? I dont understand whats taking so long. Is that how you do it? Or do you take an act of faith? God gives a demonstration, and that demonstration leads to transformation, and thats when we begin to realize, Hey, Gods in this thing. There are more stories I could tell you. Some of you know those stories. This is Gods work, not our work. This is exciting. This is fun. Lets do this some more. Lets dive in to what God has for us. Lets watch now a song by Steven Curtis Chapman by that same name called Diving In. (http://www.christianlyricsonline.com/artists/steven-curtis-chapman/dive.html) Isnt that passive? Faith dives in. It says, Sink or swim, Im diving in. Thats the faith Gideon had. Thats the faith Peter had. Thats the faith God wants us to have.
I want to say thank you to our music team. They really blessed me this morning. I know we dont take you for granted. Thanks for your commitment to excellence and leading us in worship through music every weekend like you do. We very much appreciate that. This morning were talking about Discerning the Call. How many of you read Chapter 3 in your book, by the way? (A few hands raise.) Its getting better. Not where we need to be though. We spent about 40 days talking about this not too long ago, didnt we, in our 40 Days of Purpose? We talked about the fact that all of us have a mission, so in a way, I feel like its a little bit of a rerun, but its important to talk about. Hopefully, well hit it from a different angle this morning. We all have a mission. We all have a purpose. Pastor Rick Warren reminded us that everything God created has a mission and a purpose. Even my dog has a mission and a purpose. We have a dog that loves to protect our house, and she sees that as her mission; so every time a bus will go by or a jogger will go by, shell jump on the couch and start barking until it passes. As soon as it passes, she tromps around the house like I just did something wonderful! I protected our abode. Arent you proud of me? Shes three-quarters border collie and one-quarter chiwawa, so when she gets up there like that and starts barking, we call that border patrol. Get it? Border collie…not that funny, but it is creative (congregation laughing). The Saturday night service, Im talking total silence. Dont say anything to those people if you know who they are. Im glad you can see the humor in that. Everybody has a purpose, everything God created. Just like you dont choose where youre born, you dont choose who your parents are, you dont choose your physical attributes, you dont choose how youre going to talk, how your voice is going to sound, so you dont choose your purpose. You dont choose your call. That is chosen for you by God as He pleases. Its our task to discover that calling. Its our task to develop that calling. Its our task to implement that calling, but its not our task to choose that calling. You can choose a lot of things: you can choose whom you marry, you can choose what your career will be, but you cannot choose a calling. Jeremiah was a great prophet of God. In the Book of Jeremiah, the first Chapter, he receives that call from the Lord. Lets turn there together. This is where were going to park this morning. Were going to do a little study in Jeremiah and find out how he handled his call. Jeremiah 1:4 (pg 746 in pew Bibles), The word of the Lord came to me, saying, Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you… Isnt that something? Before I formed you… Not while you were in the womb forming, but before I formed you, before there was even a cell that could be traced back to you, Jeremiah, I knew you. God knew you before you were born, God knew you before you were in the womb, and God has a purpose for your life. Thats an amazing thing, isnt it? …before you were born, I set you apart; and I appointed you as a prophet to the nations. Thats going to be your call. You will be my spokesman. You will be my mouthpiece. You will carry my message to the nations. It continues, Ah, Sovereign Lord… (I said, I think you chose wisely. Im the correct man for this job.) Thats not what Jeremiah says. He said thats never how it goes in the Bible. Anytime God makes a call, it is usually met with feelings of inferiority, feelings of I cant do this. If youve sent a call from God in your life, and your natural inclination is to say, I must be off because I could never do that. Thats above my head, thats exactly right. Thats normal. You should feel that way. I know when I sensed the Lord calling me to be a senior pastor, I thought I would be a youth pastor forever. My first response was, I cant do that. Im too young to do that. I was in my 20s. I said, Theres no way I should be pasturing people that are older than me and some that had been Christians longer than Ive been alive. So, I questioned that, It must not be God. Thats exactly what Jeremiah says. He said, I do not know how to speak; I am only a child. The world child there in the Hebrew meant not a small tot, but a young man; it could be a teenager, could be a young man just starting off in his life in his early 20s, a young man, an older boy, but not a little tot. Jeremiah received his call as a very young boy, and as I look around our room, I see young people this morning. You dont have to be old to have a call. You dont have to be married, have children, or be out of high school or college to walk in your call. God has a call and a purpose for you from the time you are born until now. Your job is to discover that call and use it. How did God wire you? What did he make you? What are you about? God has equipped us all differently. Let me give you a little bit of a quiz this morning. Who can tell me what they think Billy Grahams call and purpose is? Whats his call? Shout it out! Evangelize the world, change the world. Thats what Dr. Billy Graham has been about, to bring the Gospel to the world. John Walsh, from Americas Most Wanted, whats his mission? To catch the bad guys, right? Because of what happened to his son, he has no fear. He will get up and talk about armed and dangerous criminals, hardened criminals that are on the lose. Hell look at a national audience, and hell say, This guys a scumbag! He doesnt care if he [the criminal] hears him. He gets death threats all the time. He doesnt care! Hes relentless because of what happened to his boy. He wants justice, and his anger has driven out all fear, all fear, because the worst thing that could happen to him has already happened to him. He wants justice. Thats his mission. Its not just a job for him; its his mission. Now, Im going to give you a couple that arent so obvious. What about Bono from U2? Whats his mission? Some of you older folks are saying, Whos Bono? You mean Sonny and Cher? Sonny Bono? No. Bono, from U2. But if you said music, you would definitely be right. But, he is much more than music. His goal is to end poverty, to help the poor, to get countries to forgive Third World debt, to help bring relief to countries in poverty, people in poverty. He meets with heads of state; he meets with the presidents of countries, and he meets as an Ambassador to the poor. He uses his music as a platform, as a stage, to get across his message. Unless youve been doing some reading on this, this one will really throw you a curve, what is Bill Gates mission? Everybody wants to say computers, right? Until recently, that was it, but Bill Gates is a changed man. Did you know his charity is the number one charity in all the world as far as giving of money to stop diseases around the world? Hes attacking it like he attacks business. Before he allocates millions of dollars of resources to buy a certain vaccine or bring help to a certain country or region, he strategizes. He has a team, they meet, and they strategize to eradicate diseases. He now sees Microsoft as a means to fund these diseases, helping to eradicate certain crippling diseases in our world. Thats wonderful news! But even Bill Gates with all the billions of dollars he has, the need is still too great. We read in our book about a gentleman who was wealthy. He wanted to go from success to significance, remember that? His accountant said, Sell your business and give all your money away. He began to counsel with people, counsel with friends, and they said, Dont do that! God has given you an ability to make wealth. Keep your business and use that business as a means to fund the Gospel, the Lords work. Hazel Kjell, who spoke at our celebration event for the 40 Days, does the same thing with the Shell Corporation. She keeps that business going to fund the Gospel and sees that as her purpose, as her calling. Ephesians 2:10 (pg 1157), remember your memory verse? It said that God has made us His workmanship, his poema (thats the word we get poem from). That which has been made for a purpose, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God created before the foundation of the world, that we should walk in them. So Jeremiah hears his purpose. He hears his call. He accepts the call. What were going to look at now is what happens to Jeremiah after hes received the call. Hes no longer a rookie. Hes no longer a young man. Hes a seasoned veteran, a seasoned prophet. Lets turn to Chapter 20 of Jeremiah. The first point I want to make about the call is that the call costs. The call will cost. Underline it, know it, anytime you seek to follow the call of God, it will cost you. Always, always, it will cost you. Itll cost you time, itll cost you resources, itll cost you a job, itll cost you a location, itll cost you to be misunderstood, itll cause a loss of pay. I mean on and on the list goes. It will cost. Jeremiah preaches the Word of the Lord, and hes not making a lot of friends. God takes him in Chapter 18 to a potters house and says, Look at the potter who is making this pot. He says, Thats me. Im the potter, and Israel is clay, and I can form this nation. If this nation is not going to repent of her sin, then I can have this nation removed because Im sovereign. Im God. Then he has Jeremiah purchase a pot. He says, Use that pot as an object lesson, and bring it down to the town square and say, This is Israel. God says, Take that pot and smash it into all kinds of little pieces and say, If you do not repent of your sins, the great nation of Babylon is going to come in and judgment is going to be rendered upon you. Its going to be something that you cannot repair. Youre going to be smashed like this pot before you. You need to repent so that as a country, as a people, we can be spared of this wrath because of our sin. The message does not go over well. Its not well received. Those in high places demand that Jeremiah be punished. The chief officer in the temple, Verse 1, tells us he heard Jeremiah prophesying these things, and he had Jeremiah the prophet beaten and put in stocks at the Upper Gate of Benjamin at the Lords temple. So here he is, doing Gods business, doing Gods Word, and what happens? He is beaten. He is imprisoned and put in stocks, so he loses his freedom. Hes put in a public place, not downstairs in a dungeon somewhere, but where everybody can see you at the temple. And people knock him, people ridicule him, people look at him and think, Whats wrong with this guy? He must be a criminal. His only crime was to speak Gods word. Did Jeremiah pay a price? He paid the loss of his reputation. It was a huge price. People were looking at Jeremiah thinking, Boy, I thought he was supposed to be somebody of respect, and hes in stocks. He must not be a very good guy! He must not be the Godly man he claims to be! And they hurl verbal abuse at Jeremiah. There is a cost to pay. How many of you are familiar with Willow Creek in South Barrington? Let me see your hands. It is a church that has meant a lot to our ministry over the years. Its been very influential. Its one of the top three largest churches in America: Saddleback, Willow Creek, and Pastor Osteens church in Houston, large churches. There are 22,000-23,000 people coming through on the weekends in South Barrington near Chicago. But what you dont know is when that church began, the founding pastor who is still the senior pastor is a man by the name of Bill Hybels. He was going to school at Trinity. He was working with the Awanas Ministry, and he had a job as a part-time youth pastor at a church in Park Ridge. His father owned a produce company and was very successful, very successful in Kalamazoo, Michigan. It was always understood that Bill would work for his dad when he graduated from school. He would work the company and one day run the company. Hed worked with his father in the company from a very young age. He knew it from the ground level up. He had the skills of a businessman, and there was a day when God called him from that into the ministry. Willow Creek did not exist at that point in time. All he knew was hed listened to his professor at Trinity, Dr. Bill Ezekien, talk about the dream of community, and he wanted that. What would it be like if the church of Acts, Chapter 2, was lived today? What would it be like if I could take my business skills and my know-how and apply that to the church? What would happen? So one day, he met with his father and told his dad that he would not be joining the company, which would have been the death to a dream of his father. He had to give up a lot of stuff. He had to turn in the company credit cards. He had to turn in the keys for the company airplanes. He had to turn in the keys for the company boats. His dad said, If you leave the company, youre on your own. You do what you need to do, but when you leave the company, you lose the privileges of the company. I think more than the boats, and more than the planes, and more than the credit cards and expense accounts, what hurt him the most was his father shaking his head wondering what in the world had become of his boy because he loved his dad and didnt want to disappoint his dad. Did obeying God and going into the ministry cost him? It cost him a lot. He gave up a lot to pursue his call, but when it was all said and done, he gained so much more than he lost. Im sure his father very soon would affirm that his son had made the right decision. Well, hows Jeremiah going to handle this? Jeremiah is a straight shooter. Hes a guy that doesnt hold back. He just bears his heart. Hes called the Weeping Prophet because hes very emotional, very authentic. Listen to what he says in Verse 7 (pg 770), O Lord, you deceived me, and I was deceived... (God, youre a con artist, and You conned me, and I fell for it. Tell us how you really feel Jeremiah) …you overpowered me and prevailed. (Youre a bully God!) I am ridiculed all day long; and everyone mocks me. Whenever I speak, I cry out proclaiming violence and destruction. So the word of the Lord has brought me insult and reproach all day long. (What are the rewards I get for doing what you called me to do? Insults and reproach and a beating and ridicule.) He is ready to turn in his badge. Hes ready to turn in his prophet membership card and say, I want nothing to do with this. If thats the kind of boss You are, thats the kind of God You are, thats how You treat Your servants, then Im out of here. See ya! But, he reconsiders when he ponders this one truth. He says, But if I say, I will not mention Him, (which is what I want to do right now, because Im mad) …or speak any more in His name, His word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot. He said, Thats what Im made to be. Im a prophet. Im called, so I cannot stop fulfilling my call. The second point is that a call burns. How do you know what God made you to be? What burns in you? What if it was taken away from you? It would just hurt you so much because God made you to be that. If you take away the ability to draw or paint from an artist, you take away the ability to dance from a dancer, or to sing from a singer, or to preach from a preacher, to teach for a teacher, to run for an athlete, they just feel so empty inside. They feel like their purpose is taken away. Jeremiah says, Thats my call. The call burns, and its that burning that leads us to make those sacrifices. Its that burning that leads us to make those demotions. Ill date myself here. One of my favorite movies was To Sir, With Love with Sidney Poitier. Anybody ever see that movie? Great movie, very inspirational. He was one of the greatest actors of all time. Sidney Poitier plays a black teacher in an inner-city white school. The kids are vile, vulgar, and he insists they call him Sir. The transformation takes place with a lot of trials along the way, but by the end of the year, they grow to love and respect their teacher whom they now call Sir. They became proper gentleman and proper ladies. He, in the meantime, has accepted a position at a prestigious high school, no longer in the inner-city. Hes probably going to be in a more affluent suburb, more money, a dream position for any teacher. As hes packing up his briefcase for the last time, reflecting on the memories he has, two students come in the room [thinking he will be returning to the same school next year rather than moving on]. Immediately, they begin to ridicule him, We know who you are. You dont know whom we are, but youre going to know next year. Were going to make your life miserable. They are just rude and obnoxious, and they threaten him and run out of the room laughing. Sidney Poitier ponders for a moment, takes the letter of acceptance from the school, and he tears it up and throws it in the trash. Hes coming back next year. Why? Its his call. Look what hes made to be. He knows he made a difference in the lives of that classroom that he just had, and he knows he can make a difference in the lives of the students that are coming in. Jonanne Manogue, and I love all of our staff equally and appreciate them all equally, so I dont want any staff members to get upset when I tell this story and say, Why didnt you tell my story? Do you know who Jonanne was before she was our childrens pastor? Shes been our childrens pastor for nine years. She was the professor of kinesiology at University of Wisconsin, head of the department. That wasnt her call. Her call was children. She wanted to make a difference in childrens lives and in womens lives, so she left that position and came here, and were so glad she did. I bragged on her last night, too, even when she was here. I could brag on all of our staff. Im reading a quote now from page 68 of our book. The author is named Arthur Miller, and Pastor Ortberg quotes him. Arthur Miller says, It is wrong. It is sin... Remember sin is to fall short. Sin is to not reach your potential. Its not just the grotesque or repulsive or the dark and evil. Sin means to fall short. It is sin to accept or remain in a position that you know is a mismatch for you. Perhaps thats a form of sin youve never even considered, the sin of staying in the wrong job, but God did not place you on this earth to waste away your years in labor that does not employ a design or purpose for your life no matter how much you may be getting paid for it. I know Im stepping on toes, so Ill stop and well keep moving on. The third thing I want you to notice is that a call is affirmed. Turn to Chapter 38 of this book. A call is affirmed. As I said, Jeremiah did not have high friends in high places. He had friends who did not like his message. In verse 4 (page 791), there are some officials who go to the king to protest Jeremiahs message. One of them is the son of the man who had Jeremiah beaten and put in stocks. They said, This man should be put to death. He is discouraging the soldiers who are left in the city, as well as all the people, by the things he is saying to them. This man is not seeking the good of these people but their ruin. In other words, hes not telling us things we want to hear. Hes telling us bad things, sad things. We want to hear him prophesy wonderful things, but because hes speaking these words we dont like to hear, therefore he must be a false prophet. Because he will not be quiet and go away, you, King, must make him go away. So what does this spineless king say? He says, He is in your hands, King Zedekiah answered. The king can do nothing to oppose you. Its not that he can do nothing. Its that he will do nothing. He says, Do with him what you will. So what they do is very cruel. So they took Jeremiah and put him in a cistern (like a man-made reservoir) …of Malkijah, the kings son, which was in the courtyard of the guard. They lowered him by the ropes into the cistern; it had no water in it, only mud, and Jeremiah sank down into the mud, so no way out. He was going to be there until he died. Isnt that cruel? That was going to be his fate. A man named Ebed-Melech finds out about this, and he goes to the king and pleads his case. He says, Theyve acted wickedly. This is a prophet. This is a man of God. You must save him. You must rescue him. Theyve thrown him in a cistern, and hes going to starve to death. So the king changes his mind and says in verse 10, Take thirty men from here with you and lift Jeremiah the prophet out of the cistern before he dies. One thing I want you to notice is this phrase: Lift Jeremiah the prophet. Hes in there because hes a false prophet. The king realizes that Jeremiah truly is a prophet. Even though he doesnt like what hes saying, even though he doesnt agree with what hes saying, he recognizes his office and his authority. He recognizes hes made a mistake, and he affirms whom Jeremiah is. Pastor Ortberg talks about the fact that you need to form a team around you who you know and trust, and they know and trust you. If youre living Gods call, even those who are not your friends can affirm your call. He calls it the Clearing Committee. You know you can bounce things off of one another, people who can affirm a call in your life. They can deny a call in your life as well. If youre going to make a decision, pursue a direction, take a course of action, you have this team around you-people who care about you and love you. They know you can speak the truth in your life. I want to confess to you a guilty pleasure this morning. I have become a fan of American Idol. A few years ago, I didnt watch it. I would just watch the blooper part, and then when it got serious, I wouldnt watch it. Last year, for the first time, I watched it all the way through. So this year, Im hooked. My family is into it. I think weve all seen it. There are three judges. Theres Paula, who wants to be nice. She wants everybody to like her, so even if youre just awful, shell say, You tried really hard. You have a lot of energy. Thanks for coming in today. Then you have Randy who just wants to be cool. He still wants to be friends with you, and its like, Oh, you know, dawg, you tried, dawg, but you just didnt do it, dude. You know what Im saying, dude? Its not for you dawg. So you know even though he rejected you, you still like him. Then we come to Simon. Simons job is to speak the truth and not in love. His job is to say what he is thinking, and he has no editing button. He just lets it go. The contestants will be looking at him smiling, thinking he or she is the next thing since Frank Sinatra, and hell say (in a Simon Cowell voice), That was simply dreadful. They are devastated. It sounds like you were pulling a cats tale. Meeoooww. He says what he thinks, right? You know weve got friends in our lives that just want to be nice. We could do anything or say anything, and they come back like Paula and say something nice. They just want to be our friend. I just robbed a bank. Yes, but you didnt kill anyone. Thats good. And then you have friends that just want to be cool, right? They just want you to like them, so whatever you do… But then, I think, and you might think Im nuts, but I think we need some Simons in our lives. I dont think we need a lot of Simons in our lives (congregation laughing), but to have some people in our lives who can be straight shooters with us and say, Thats a good idea or no, thats not for you, and heres why or what business do you think you have doing that? People like to walk on eggshells. Sometimes even the people closest to us will walk on eggshells around us. I had the privilege of marrying my sister-in-law to her husband in 1984. I performed the ceremony, and everything went well. We were looking at the wedding pictures afterwards. My hair looked nice, and my suit looked nice, and my smile looked nice, but my bowtie is doing this (looking crooked). In every picture, during the ceremony, afterwards where Im standing there, my tie is crooked. They are laughing at me, Look at the bowtie. Im like, You know, you could have told me. You could have embarrassed me for just a couple of seconds before the wedding and said, Your bowtie is crooked, so I wouldnt have to know that for decades to come, people are going to look at your wedding pictures and laugh at me. If somebody cared enough about me, theyd have straightened my bowtie. You say, Why didnt Brenda do it? She was at the hospital with Kari. Kari was very ill at the time. So apparently, my sister-in-law felt like she couldnt tell me my bowtie was crooked. You need people in your life who can say, Your bowties crooked. Somethings out of balance in your life. Something needs to be adjusted in your life. They might tell you the truth even if you dont want to hear the truth. Lets move on. That clock on the wall is ticking. Lets turn to Lamentations, Chapter 3 (pg 816). The call speaks, the call costs, the call burns, the call is affirmed, and the call lasts a lifetime. Lamentations, Chapter 3: This is the book really where Jeremiah gets the title the Weeping Prophet because hes crying all the time. He has good reason to because remember he prophesized Babylonians coming down, If you dont repent, youre going to be wiped out as a nation and please listen to me. Please heed my words? They dont, and Nebuchadnezzar does, and he ransacked the temple, pillages, and the city. People are taken captive, and those who are left behind are starving in the streets. Theyre sick and dying. Atrocity is being committed. This is the nation he loves. This is the people he gave his life to. Youd think that now that Israel is no more, that would be the end, right? Youd think Jeremiah would say, You know, Im going to close my briefcase. My prophet job is done. Im going to ride into the sunset. I did the best I could. It didnt work out, and Im done. But now Jeremiah looks back. Israel is scattered. He looks back, and hes lamenting that hes crying about it. Lets begin reading in Verse 18, So I say, My splendor is gone… (Thats the city; thats the temple. Thats his heritage.) …and all that I had hoped from the Lord. (Thats that Israel would repent and be spared. Thats gone.) I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall… (Hes angry at Israel. Hes a wonder. He thinks, Whats my purpose now? All Ive been doing is prophesizing and trying to spare Israel, and its too late.) …I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lords great love, we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for Him. The Lord is good to those whose hope is in Him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. Even in the midst of despair, Jeremiah has hope. Even when it seems like his mission is over, Jeremiah continues to prophesize and write one of the most touching books in all the Bible, the Book of Lamentations. The calling of God is for a lifetime. Its not like a job where you put in your 30 or 40 years, get a watch and retire and go fishing. Its for a lifetime. As long as you are able, as long as you can, fulfill your call until the day you die. Lets pray: Father, thank you for the message of Jeremiah. Thank you for the example of Jeremiah, that the call costs, and he was willing to pay that cost. He was willing to hear that call. The call burned within him. Jeremiah was willing to listen to truth and proclaim the truth. I pray that we would be the same: Jeremiah served his call for a lifetime, that we also would do that. For those who need clarity as to what their call is, we pray for that clarity. For those who need perseverance as theyre fulfilling their call, we pray for that perseverance. For those who know their call and are not living their call, we pray that they would know its never too late to fulfill that call. Its like the disciples who were fishing, and they were willing to drop their nets to abandon everything to follow You. I pray we would have that kind of dedication as we get out of our spiritual boats and follow after your voice. In Jesus name, Amen.
Were talking about Boat Potatoes. How many have read Chapter 2 in your book? Let me see your hands. All right. Well, Im hoping that that number is going to go up as time goes by. Then, for those of you who have read in advance, youll have some questions, thoughts, understanding on the subject matter that were going to be dealing with for that particular weekend. He talks about Boat Potatoes. He (the author, John Ortberg) coins a new phrase. Its a spin-off of course of a couch potato. Years ago, and it was before my time, I think it was in the early 50s maybe, the invention of the television set changed the American way of life. People began to gather around this what we call the boob tube. These black and white images came on the screen and made us laugh with Milton Burrow and Variety Shows. It took sports to a whole other level of popularity and things began to evolve: things called game shows, soap operas and prime-time dramas, primetime news, and TV movies changed our culture. People began spending hours at a time in front of their televisions. Then, another invention happened. Im not sure exactly when that happened, the late 60s or early 70s-I dont know. Something was invented that changed the way we watched television. Its called the what? The remote control. Its amazing how lazy and dependent we are on the remote control. I will confess to you that when I go down to watch the television set, if I cant find the remote control, it sends me into a dither. Im like, Where is it?? It should be right here! Why would it need to be any place else? Where did the children put the remote control?!? I will spend 20 minutes looking for that thing. Ill lift up cushions, going under the couches, looking behind chairs, walking around the house, Wheres the remote control? Ill do all this to save myself two or three trips to the television set. Ill spend 20 minutes of kinetic energy. You laugh because youve done the same thing, right? When you cant find it, you really cant relax. You just sit there frustrated because you know sooner or later, Ive got to get up and change the channel. You almost cant even enjoy the show because you have to take that trip 10 feet and actually press a button, so that just sends you into a tailspin. The remote control: so thats kind of how lazy we are. We laugh at our laziness. Were not appalled at laziness. We dont see laziness as some great character defect. Its certainly not sin! But what is the definition of sin? The definition of sin is the word harmartia, which means to miss the mark or to fall short. Laziness calls a person to fall short of what God intended him or her to be and do. Laziness robs us of the potential that God put within us. Its like the car we saw that had all this power and all this potential, but in neutral, it could do nothing. So, thats what laziness is like. Its life in neutral. Its not using what God has placed within us to become what He wants us to become and serve Him how He wants us to. The Bible esteems work and it admonishes us against laziness. If somebody starts to gossip about something somebody did that was unmoral and unethical, He did what? Ah! No! She did what? Ah! No! But if you say, So and so is kind of lazy! usually the response is laughter. We just kind of laugh it off! Ah! Lazy. Ah! Slacker. No big deal. But understanding the Biblical definition that sin is falling short, laziness is sin. The Bible addresses laziness. It talks about that in the Book of Proverbs 6, if you would turn there. Turn to Chapter 6:9 (pg. 630 in pew Bibles), How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest-and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man. In other words, theres going to be consequences for your laziness. It admonishes you. There should be consequences for laziness. In Proverbs 26:14 (pg. 651), he says, As a door turns on its hinges, so a sluggard turns on his bed. (Word picture: a guy being hinged to his bed, flipping from side to side.) The sluggard buries his hand in the dish; he is too lazy to bring it back to his mouth. That guy has it really bad, right? Thats a really bad case! It goes on and talks about laziness and being a slacker and how its not a good thing. Not only does it admonish us against laziness, the Bible esteems work. It says work is a good thing. Did you know that work existed before The Fall? It wasnt like man sinned, then man fell, and then God initiated work. Work existed before The Fall. God worked. Works a good thing. God worked in Creation. God is still at work in the world, and Hes still at work within the church. The Bible says that one day when we get to Heaven, were going to work for the Lord. Remember reading the book about the three servants? The job of the two who used their talents wisely, Youve been faithful for a few things? I will give you many things. Enter into the joy of your reward. The reward for a job well done is more work to do. Heaven is not going to be about sitting on a cloud and playing harps. Were going to serve the Lord. Before you start throwing things at me and saying, Oh! Come on! I thought Heaven was one big long eternal retirement party, no. Evil is gone; youre in Gods presence. God created you to work. Its going to be good! Whatever it is we do, youll like it! Its going to be good! Youd get a little bored after a couple thousand years sitting on a cloud anyway. I guarantee you! Remember reading in the book about the ameba that had ideal conditions? What happened to that ameba? It died. Even amebas need work. People need work. We want to live in comfort and relax, but God said, Work is good. Everybody has a job to do. Everybody has a contribution to make. This past year I had the unfortunate responsibility of burying a life-long friends father. This man had been my first coach when I was nine years old. Hed been a friend. Hed always been good to me and kind. I remember watching his life as I grew older; he was a very nice gentleman. He never lost that, but I began to see how he lived. He dressed very shabbily. He was almost always intoxicated. He went from job to job to job. He lived in squalor. I went to his funeral and saw pictures of him all dapper and dressed up and thought, How did he go from that little boy that I see to what I knew and the way he passed away? My childhood friend got up to sing, and before he sang at the funeral, he said, He was my best friend growing up. Growing up, nobody dressed as sharply as he did. There was nobody more dapper than Gary. He was sheltered by his mom. He came from a family of affluents. She sheltered him and protected him. Once she passed away, she left him a trust. He wouldnt have to work the rest of his life. He wouldnt be rich, but there was a certain amount of money coming in every month until the day he died. What that did was enable him. He didnt have to lick that habit of alcohol. He didnt have to hold down a steady job because no matter how irresponsible he was, a check was coming in that didnt judge him or hold him accountable. The money had no consequences. Every month, hed say, I can blow that money any way I want to-on booze, and next month, there sits another check. Im not saying every inheritance or every trust fund leads a person down the wrong path, but Im saying he pursued a life of hedonism of a sort where he became consumed with himself and didnt worry about serving other people. He (the author) talks about boat potatoes. Whats a boat potato? A boat potato is a spiritually-lazy person. Just like there are couch potatoes, people that are physically lazy, there are also people that are lazy spiritually; and sometimes, theyre both: couch and boat. He addresses that when we see Peter getting out of the boat, we demean Peter for this, and we say, Well, Peter got out of the boat, and he fell. But…he got out of the boat. Lets stop knocking Peter, and lets start talking about the 11 who didnt have the courage or faith to step out of the boat and trust Jesus to do the same thing for them. Why are we boat potatoes or are you a boat potato? Were going to do a little quiz. Its an internal quiz. Dont worry. You dont have to raise your hand in front of everybody and say, Oh! Im a boat potato! Thats me! You dont have to do that! Its just a little quiz. You know youre a boat potato if (1.) serving others is a great inconvenience and intrusion in your life rather than an opportunity for blessing. Dont raise your hand. You may be a boat potato if when serving people and opportunities to serve or help come along become work, a chore, or drudgery; but when it comes to serving yourself, its fun. I am a Bears fan. Most of you, if you come to this church, know that. By the way, not to brag, dont boo me, I just want to state some facts here. Today, if the Bears beat the Panthers, then we play for the Championship next week and the right to go to the Super Bowl. Now, we are from the same division [as Packers]. Theyre from the Midwest. How many of you Packer fans and other folks who are not normally Bears fans will be going for the Bears today? For the North? Let me see your hands. All right! You guys can leave, the rest of you turn to Leviticus. Were going to be here quite awhile. New topic. High priestly garments. Lets dig in (congregation laughing). So, were at the Bears game; its the Bears vs. Falcons, Michael Vick vs. Urlacher, and were excited. The problem is its 7 below 0, windshield factor. How would you like to be in Chicago, open stadium, Lake Michigan, at night (it was a Sunday night game), watching the Bears. So, we dressed warmly, we sit down there, and I noticed the phenomenon during the course of the game: people had to use the bathroom, go get snacks or food. Every time, they would have to walk by me, which is quite a bit during the course of three hours, it would be a chore for me. I would think to myself, We have to get up again! How many times do you need to use the bathroom? How many beers do you need buddy? Id stand up, Excuse me, and theyd step on my toe, walk in front of me during a key part of the game, and then Id sit back down. It was just work. But then, thered be a fumble, and the Bears would recover, or thered be a long run or a long pass or wed sack their quarterback, or an interception, wed score a touchdown, and wed be up on our feet, Yeah! It was the easiest thing to do. It was effortless! I was up and down and up and down, Yeah! Whoo! Then Id sit back down, That was awesome! And then somebody would say, Excuse me. Id go, Ahh! I have to get up again. How many times do you have to pee? It left me frustrated. Isnt that the way it is? If I have to serve somebody, I have to work. If I have to serve me…fun! But God has designed us in a way that serving others is fun too. Lets talk about that. In the Book of Romans 2:14-15 (pg. 1113), hes going to talk here about people who dont have the written word of God. They dont have Gods law, Gods code of conduct, Gods Commandments to know right from wrong. Hes going to talk about how God has given them what we call a conscience. Its innate. They know right from wrong. (Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.) Paul says when you do something wrong, you murder somebody, not in self-defense, you know its wrong. When you lie, you know its wrong. If you steal, you know its wrong. When you harm somebody, all of us here who have harmed somebody didnt have to have anybody tell us that it was wrong, and we felt bad. We contact them and say, Im sorry for what I said. Im sorry for what I did. Im sorry. I was wrong. Do you know what happens when our conscience or the Holy Spirit (thats a different reality-thats a supernatural reality) comes and lives within the believer at the new birth when we make our confession of faith in Christ? He can convict us as well; when we ignore the conviction of the Holy Spirit or when we ignore the conscience that God has given to us, if we do that too many times, what happens? Our senses become dulled, dont they? We start to justify our sin. We start to justify our actions, and the next thing you know, we can actually live in the lifestyle that we were first ashamed of and embarrassed about and felt guilty about. Thats why you can see people on daytime talk shows who are living immoral lives that just shock you. Theyll talk about it like its the most natural, acceptable thing in the world. It wasnt always that way. There was a time when they felt shame. There was a time when they cried, but they continued to repeat the behavior, and their hearts became calloused. They became desensitized to it. God has also put within us an inner affirmation, an inner fun when we do something that we know pleases Him, we know helps other people. Its kind of a tingly, warm fuzzy, gushy good, but not when youre manipulating, not when youre trying to get something from it. If youre genuinely helping somebody because they really need the help, somebodys down, and you encourage them, you say a kind word, you write a kind note, and it makes them smile or brings tears of joy, making them laugh, it makes you feel good. If a friend needs some money because of circumstances beyond their control, you help them out and they cry and say, Im so thankful. It makes you feel good. You serve somebody. You serve a lady who has a leaky faucet. She has no money to fix it. You go into her home and fix the faucet. She says, Thank you. I didnt know what I was going to do. You walk out of that house, and how do you feel? I mean, I could stand here all day and give examples. If you helped somebody in some way that you know was genuine and really helped that person, and you know Gods pleased with that, how do you feel inside? We have a dog named Penny, a new dog who is five or six months old. She is part border collie, part chiwawa and part hyper. We decided we were going to take her to puppy school. We found what we heard was the best. We went do KenLyn Kennels in Edgerton. John and Sara have a done a wonderful job, and we have enrolled in our second class with Penny. Shes better, but we have some work to do yet. They introduced something called the clicker. This clicker is one of the best ways to train dogs. He trained a dog to do something in a matter of a couple minutes who had never performed that task before. The clicker tells the dog when it does something right. As soon as the dog does something right, you click it, and then you treat the dog. That tells the dog, I did something right. I better figure out what it was! They start to think so they can repeat the behavior to get another treat. In puppy school, you dont treat with dry dog biscuits. He said those things arent really that appetizing to a dog. Sometimes theyre not the best for the dog, so when you treat the dog, you give them chicken, steak, cheese, sausage, things that theyre going to want to work for. He said, Its good for the dog to want to work. Its very good. So even in Dog World, its good to think, to try to figure things out. He said, Make the dog work for everything it gets. If he wants a treat, he has to sit, or she has to stand or lie down. He has to work for everything he gets. Some of you are thinking, Boy, does my dog have it easy. My dog needs to go to school too. Let the dog work. Work is a good thing. It makes the dog feel good. The dog gets rewarded for doing something right. Hes (the trainer) going to do it for us too (the students). Theres going to be a person click. When we train our dog right, theyre going to do a different kind of a click, and well all get candy. True. Itll be interesting. God has put that in us that when we obey Him, when we serve other people, look what happens. God says, Click. You did the right thing. Reward. Not money. Not stuff, but an inner contentment and satisfaction that says, That was right. That was good. I served somebody. Click. I encouraged somebody. Click. That was good. Well done. I helped somebody in someway that blessed. God says, Here you go. Thats what Im looking for. Do you know what Ive found? When I say no to sin, I become desensitized to it. You can justify your sin, and your senses become dull. But, that inner reward for doing the right thing, it never lessens. Have you noticed that? Do any of you feel that goose bumpy inside, and you get a little teary-eyed because you really helped somebody? It never goes away. God has made it so its always inner fun, and its always click rewarded. Tap into that. Its a good thing. God wants you to have that spiritual treat that makes you say, I pleased the Lord today. I have to get scooting here. Lets move on. You know youre a boat potato if you (2.) find yourself saying when then? He made the point about saying when then. When things are right, then Ill do it. When circumstances are just what I need them to be… The apostles might have said, Well, I would have gotten out of the boat and walked like Peter when the wind died down, when the waves died down, when it wasnt so dark, when fewer people were watching...then Ill walk on water. Next time were in the boat… Next time never comes. Ecclesiastes 11:4 (pg. 666), let me read it for you: Whoever watches the wind will not plant; whoever looks at the clouds will not reap. If youre waiting for circumstances to be ideal or a situation to be ideal, it isnt going to happen. The Bible says, Now is the day of salvation. God is always in the now. If you want to get out of the boat, the best time to do so is now. When my finances straighten out, Ill give. It doesnt happen. When my schedule settles down, Ill serve. Ill spend more time with my spouse or my children. It doesnt happen. Ill spend more time in ministry when this is done and when this happens or that happens. It doesnt happen. If youre going to get out of the boat, the best time to get out of the boat is now. You know youre a boat potato if you (3.) play the comparison game. Do you ever do that? Paul says, Well, I would get out of the boat, but Im not as brave as Peter. I dont have as much faith as Peter. Im not as important to Jesus as Peter. Jesus loves Peter more than He loves me. Hed just let me sink. Hed be the kind of guy with an inferiority complex, What I have to give isnt valued or I cant do it as well as he does or as good as she does. So, we stay in our proverbial boats because of the comparison game. Do you ever notice that every time God seemed to call somebody in the Scripture, the response was nearly always the same? God calls Jeremiah and says, Youre going to get out of your boat, and youre going to be a prophet to the nations. Jeremiah says, What? Im too young. He says to Gideon, Gideon, get out of your boat! Youre going to lead us to deliver Israel from the Midianites. Gideon said, I cant get out of the boat. You have the wrong guy. My tribe is the least tribe, and Im the least in my family. Im at the bottom of the totem pole. God said, Exactly. Thats why Im going to use you. God calls a fugitive named Moses who killed a man and fled so he would not be punished by Pharaoh. He becomes a shepherd and lives out in the wilderness. He lives a comfortable life with a wealthy father-in-law. He is a spiritual couch potato. He is squandering all that leadership God has placed within him. God speaks to him through a bush and says, Moses, I want you to step out of the boat. Youre going to go speak to the most powerful man in all the world, the Pharaoh. Youre going to command him to let my people go. What did Moses say? I dont talk very good. What if Pharaoh doesnt listen? Moses has so many excuses that it carries over into the next chapter. He would have an excuse, and when then? He had the comparison going on, Im just not as smart as some people. Im not as eloquent as some people. God addresses every single thing. Moses always has an excuse. God finally says, You know, pal, you get out of the boat. Im giving you more lectures on this than anybody! Youre two chapters, Moses! Get out of the boat! (congregation laughing). Do you notice that God never seems to call somebody and say, Get out of your boat and take a step of faith that honors me, and the person says, Well, Ive been waiting for you to say this for a long time, and finally you recognize my greatness and my worth. Its about time, God! You finally saw it in me! Im the man for the job! Im the woman for the job! I dont even need you! Just step out of my way! Ill get the job done! About time you recognized what I can do, Lord! Thanks a lot! Why does God not call those people? Because God despises arrogance and pride. Those who are full of pride and arrogance fall, and when they do, its somebody elses fault, not theirs. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 1:20 (pg. 1128), Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Where is the guy that thinks he knows it all? God has made him foolish. For the foolishness of God is wiser than mans greatest wisdom, and the weakness of God is greater than mans strength. God has chosen the foolish. God has chosen the unwise. God has chosen those who arent powerful. He says, How many of you are powerful? How many of you when you were called are from a noble background? How many of you were influential? The response is hardly any of us. Paul says, Exactly. If you feel like youre inferior, youre exactly the kind of person God can use. Get out of the boat! Get out of the boat, and let Him use you. I want to wrap up our message this morning by reading a quote from the book were studying, page 47. It says: I want to ask you to exercise your imagination for a moment. Imagine that your life is over, and you are led to a small room. In this small room, there are two chairs. One is for you; one is for God. He gets a very big chair. Theres a VCR, and theres a tape. On the tape, it says, What Might Have Been, and its got your name on it. God takes you into the room, and He begins to show you on the tape all that would have been done with your life if you had let Him. Imagine seeing what He might have done with your financial resources if you trusted Him to be generous. Imagine seeing what He might have done with your giftedness if youd trusted Him to be daring. Imagine what He might have done in your relationship if you had trusted Him enough to be fully truthful and fully loving. Imagine what He might have done with your character if you had dared to confess sin, acknowledge temptation and pursue growth. Imagine.
Lets pray: Father, we desire to get out of the boat in our spirit, but sometimes we look at the water, and were tempted to stay in the boat. Were tempted to be boat potatoes. Sometimes we compare and we dont think were as good as somebody else, or maybe You love him or her more. We feel inferior. Sometimes we wait for circumstances to align themselves just perfectly, when and then, and it never happens. Sometimes we just dont understand the concept of serving and the reward that You give on the inside of us for a job well done, how to pursue that reinforcement, to pursue obeying Your commands to serve others and to serve You by getting out of our boats. Its work, and its easier to do nothing. We dont want to be like the silly childrens song we saw, the Christians who dont do anything. We dont want to look at a tape one day of what our lives might have been. We want to make a difference now, so enable us and equip us to do that through the Holy Spirit. In Jesus name, Amen.
Lets open our Bibles up to the Book of Matthew, the fourteenth chapter. Were going to be very familiar with this passage of scripture before were through. Its our theme scripture for this series. Jesus had just finished performing a miracle, and He went off by Himself to pray. The disciples were on a boat in a lake and could not come back because of the storm that had arisen on the lake. Of course, its 3 oclock in the morning. Its nighttime, the wind is blowing, water is in their faces, and they dont recognize who is coming to them on the water. As a result, theyre very afraid. Peter does something incredible in this story, as well find out. Verse 23: But after He had dismissed them, He went to a mountainside by Himself to pray. When evening came, He was there alone, but the boat was already a considerable distance from the land buffeted by the waves, because the wind was against it. During the fourth watch of the night, Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw Him walking on the lake, they were terrified. Its a ghost, they said, and they cried out in fear. But Jesus immediately said to them, Take courage. It is I. Dont be afraid. Lord, if its you, tell me to come to you on the water. Come, He said. Then Peter got down from the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. When he saw the wind, he was afraid and began to sink and cry, Lord save me. Immediately, Jesus reached out His hand and caught him. You have little faith, He said, why did you doubt? When they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, Truly You are the Son of God, and Jesus received their worship. You know, if you were to poll the disciples as theyre watching Jesus walk on water, and ask, How many of you think Jesus would help you walk on water? Probably all of them would raise their hands. If you would have said, How many of you think if you fall and sink into the water, Jesus could save you? Probably all would raise their hands, Yeah, I believe that. But only one had the faith to get out of the boat, and that was Peter. We criticize him because he took his eyes off Jesus, and he sank, but only Peter knew what it was like to walk on water. Only Peter dared to go on just a belief and actually take action to his faith. Before we get into the meat of the word, were going to be listening to a media right now that our programming team has put together. Its a song by Petra called Beyond Belief (see last page for lyrics). Lets listen and reflect on that, and then Ill come back and begin sharing some of the Word. This morning, we want to remember Patricia Harris, Linda Smiths mom. She was a faithful listener of our churchs broadcast during the week. She went to be with the Lord this week, and Im told that if she missed the broadcast at 10 oclock at night, shed stay awake until one in the morning to watch it. She never missed it. She was a part of our congregation, so we dedicate the service to her this morning. I just want the folks at home to know that those who cant make it to church, sometimes this is their only church, we appreciate you and consider you a part of our body. Lets be remembering her family in prayer this week, shall we? On Water Walking: my son and I went to Key Largo and did a father/son dive trip. Were novice divers; we dont go deep. We dont dive in caves; we go simply just for recreation. It was a little risky that day because the sea was very choppy, very windy, and was full of high waves. The visibility was not as good as it normally was, but we were in Florida-we were there; we were going to dive. Some divers got seasick by the time they got out. They forgot the Dramamine; and by the time they got out there, they were already sick, so they couldnt dive. I remember getting on all my gear walking out with my big fins on, tank on which is kind of heavy and cumbersome. Youre walking out there, and the boats doing this (tilting back and forth). So youre walking out there with one step forward and two steps back, and you finally get to the edge. You know, when the waves were up, it didnt look that bad, but when the waves were down, it looked like it was a mile away down there. I remember thinking while looking at the boat that was rocking, At least I know its safe. I looked at the waves at thought, It looks violent down there. I know whats here, but I dont know whats down there. Here there is a bored captain; down there, there could be a shark. I tried to reassure myself by saying to the captain, Tell me. This part where were going to be diving, it is normal to see sharks? Are we going to see sharks? He paused and said these reassuring words, I cant say for sure if youre going to see a shark today, but I will tell you this: as soon as you get in the water, theyll see you. I appreciate that, makes me feel real good. I got up there and wanted to look back. I remember thinking, Do I have to do this? But my son was watching, so I had to step off and drop in there. I dont know what Im going to see, but here we go. You know what? No stories are told about what happens on the boat. Whats on the boat doesnt change. The captains there, a couple of seasick divers are there. Theres water as far as the eye can see doing this (waving-the waters choppy). Nothing changes; there are no stories to tell. But when you come out of the water, you say, Oh, I saw a shark, which my son did. I saw an eagle ray, which I saw. I saw an eel. I saw this. I saw that. You see the coral reef, and you see the colors and all these different kinds of fish, and you experience this different world. You come back, everybodys excited and were all saying, This is what I saw! Did you see this too? Thats where the stories are. Thats where the action is. Thats where the life is. Nobody gets up and talks about what happened on the deck of the boat when you were under the water. Nothing happened. The same is true in our faith. Its not in the boat. Its not in the realm of safety and familiarity where exciting things happen. Faith is when we dare to believe God and step out of our boat, out of our comfort zone, into the water. In the water is where Jesus is. Theres where faith is. Thats where the action is. Thats where the stories are told. Whats your boat this morning? All of us have different boats here today. A boat is something that you trust more than God or someone you trust in more than God. You say, What do you mean? Jesus said to Peter, Come. If Peter would have heard Jesus say come and then looked at the waves, listened to the wind, decided it was too risky, and stayed in the boat, what would that mean? That would mean he trusted the boat more than he trusted Jesus, right? So all of us have boats that we put our trust in from time to time. For some of you, its the boat of security. Maybe its your vocation, your job. Youve had a job for a long time, and if God were to call you to leave that job, that would just rock your world. Or maybe its your 401K or something else youre trusting in. Thats your next egg. Thats your protection. Its like the rich young man in the Books of Mark (10:17), Matthew (19:1), and Luke (16:18). Remember he said, What must I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus talked about obeying the commandments, and he says, All these, Ive kept from my youth. Jesus says, One think you lack. Sell what you have, give your money to the poor. Then you come and follow me. Get out of your boat! Dont trust in your riches. Trust in Me. Come on! Were going to go on an adventure, a life of faith. The response from the man was what? It says he walked away because he was very rich. That was where his trust was. That was where he had put his hope. That was his security. That was his boat, and he refused to leave it to follow Jesus. I wonder what he thought about that decision as years went by. For some of us, our boat is familiarity. We dont want to get out of the boat because its all we know. Its what were familiar with. The Book were studying right now, or using along with our study on faith, says, If you want to walk on water, thats a valid question, If you want to… A lot of people dont. Last call, when Jesus said, Come, only one stepped out of the boat, right? Eleven stayed behind. Not all of us want to walk on water. In the Gospel of John, the fifth chapter, theres a story of a man who was an invalid. Hes been an invalid for 38 years. He goes by the pool, and hes waiting for a miracle for thirty-eight years! Jesus comes upon the man, and we pick up the story in Verse 3. It says there at this pool a great number of disabled people used to lie-the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, and get this question, Do you want to get well? What kind of a question is that to ask a man who has been an invalid for 38 years? Dont you think thatd be a no-brainer? Wouldnt you think He would just know he wants to get well, that the desire of his heart would be to walk like a normal person, get a job like a normal person? Well, wait a second. Thats all he knew. That was his life for 38 years! That would be his life tomorrow; that would be his life next year; thats where he would die. Its all he knew. Maybe hed become accustomed to that because as soon as he starts to walk, he has joined the ranks of the unemployed. He has to get a job. He has to start supporting himself. So, Jesus asked a very valid question, Do you wish to get well or have you become accustomed to your handicap, this way of life? Its easy to do because were creatures of habit. Were people of familiarity. I remember when I felt the Lord leading me to leave the church I was at in Rockford. Id been a pastor in Rockford for almost eight years. Growing up in the church, Id had the same pastor since I was nine years old. Rockford was all I knew other than the time I went off to study and get my degree for the ministry. That was the only place I lived. My family was there: my mom, my sisters, my nieces, my wifes parents, her sister, friends since kindergarten, the church that we were familiar with, people we knew, a job we both loved, a new home we both loved. We were snug as a bug in a rug and did not want to leave that which was familiar. I know its very hard for you to conceive that somebody would actually not want to leave Illinois. I know what youre thinking, Thats not that hard! To leave Illinois? Come on! What does that scripture say? No good thing can come out of Rockford, but…I did. I didnt want to leave because it was what I knew. God kept saying, Get out of the boat! So I had to say, Am I going to trust in this boat, what is familiar, or am I going to step out in faith and obey God? So I stayed in Rockford to this day (congregation laughing). The third thing is serenity. People think their boat is serenity, and they dont leave it because in their boat is the peace of mind they want, the fulfillment they want for life. Heres the serenity that I need. They look for it in this boat that they have, a person or a thing, and they wonder why theyre always so empty and why theyre never fulfilled. Its because its not in the boat! Youre looking in the wrong place! They think, This is whats going to give me my significance. Its not. We were at the Grand Canyon last weekend, and we went to visit my wifes parents. We decided wed take a day to see the Grand Canyon. They said, Whatever you do, make sure you go to Hopi Point to watch the sunset. So we showed up about a half hour before the sunset, and we waited. About a quarter after, all these people started showing up with these cameras. We were looking at the sunset and thinking, Whats the big deal? It was kind of a cloudy day. If youve ever experienced a cloudy day…I know theyre rare around here. I tried to be optimistic when I came home because in Arizona, thered be a little cloud over here. A few miles over here, thered be another little cloud, but the rest of the sky was all blue. It was 75 degrees everyday. So, I came home and said, Back in Arizona there were three or four clouds. Here theres only one cloud, but it encompasses the entire sky and nevers go away, but its only one cloud. So, were watching the Grand Canyon sunset and thinking what is the big whoop? I mean, I can understand a sunset in Florida or Mexico where the sun meets the ocean, and its magnificent. In fact, Ive seen better sunsets at home. There really werent many colors. It was just kind of cloudy, and I wanted to say to all people with their cameras, You showed up on the wrong day because there really isnt a thing to see! Were sitting there. Im holding Brenda, and its kind of romantic. It was kind of fun while we were sitting there. The children were in the car because in that part of Arizona, its a little chilly. We were saying, Oh, this is nice. Its not what its cracked up to be, but its nice. All the sudden we notice all the cameras are sitting the opposite way were looking. Were looking at the sunset one way, and the cameras are facing the other way. And being the Sherlock Holmeses we are, finally after 20 minutes, we catch on and say, Wait a second. The sun starts to set; it shoots its rays across the Canyon and just lights up the canyon. The top of the rim became brilliant and alive with color, yellows and golds and browns, just like it was on fire, and we thought, Ohhh. Thats the sunset! Were looking in the wrong spot. Were looking over here. This is the spot. And its my prayer that thered be a realization for some of you whove been putting your trust in your boats to find your serenity, and all the sudden therell be a trigger, Ohhh. Its not in the boat! Im looking in the wrong spot. The glory of God is over here. Its stepping out in faith. Its in the water where Jesus is. So, for some of you its that serenity that youre hoping to find in what we call our figurative boats. For some of us, its familiarity; for others of us, its the security that we have. For most of us, do you know what keeps us in our boats? Anxiety. Fear. We get a case of the what ifs. Have you ever had a case of the what ifs before? What if this? What if that? I remember when I was going to leave Rockford, I had a case of the what ifs. I would wake up in the middle of the night and say, I am leaving what is familiar to go to work for a church that does not exist. What if nobody comes? What if I cant pay my bills? If nobody comes, we cant pay our bills. We lose our home; we lose our cars. What if I dont have what it takes to be a senior pastor of a church? What if I fail? Thats what I said, What if I fail? Then I would say, You know what? Ill never know unless we try. Pastor Ortberg in his book talks about failure. He talks about failure as not an event but rather a judgment about an event. He says about Peter failing because he sank, There were 11 bigger failures. They were the ones who never got out of the boat. Only Peter knew the glory of being lifted up by Jesus at that moment of desperate need. Peter knew in a way others could not that when he had sunk, Jesus would be wholly adequate to save him. He had shared a moment, a shared connection, a shared trust in Jesus that none of the others had. They couldnt because they didnt even get out of the boat. The worst failure is not to sink in the waves. The worst failure is to never get out of the boat. What cures the what ifs is a good dose of faith because the what ifs are contagious. Did you know that? If youve got a case of the what ifs, that can be contagious especially if youre a leader. If Im leading this church with a case of the what ifs, were in trouble. If youre leading your household with a case of the what ifs, youre in trouble. I remember we had a really high-strung lady in Rockford. She was heading our pre-school, and she was nervous about everything. I can remember her just like yesterday. At the pre-school Christmas program, I was walking down the hallway, waving and saying, All right, kids, do a good job! Shes walking with these 10 little preschoolers behind her, and shes like, Pray for us Pastor Jeff. Were so nervous. She walked by and you could just see it in every little kids face, Hi Pastor Jeff! Were nervous! What if we forget our lines? What if we trip on the stage? They had all these what ifs? Just relax out there! You practiced. Go have a good time! She had them all in a dither! What if this? What if that? What ifs are cured through faith. Faith is not a passive thing. Faith is an active thing. Pastor Ortberg says in his book, If you wait for fear to leave, youll never step out in faith because a certain element of fear is always present. It may diminish over time, but stepping out in the boat, whether its to share your faith with somebody or Gods calling you to give something sacrificially, or Gods calling you to start a ministry or get engaged in a ministry, its always going to have an element of fear, always. Its through that experience that Peter found Jesus to be faithful. For me this summer, it was not a matter of getting out of the boat, it was getting in a boat. About two years ago, my son, my two nephews and I went Whitewater rafting and capsized on a waterfall. The river was high that day, and we went tumbling down a waterfall. I remember thinking, What if we hit a boulder? What if we drowned? What if we broke a bone? What if we got hurt? So I was afraid to get back in a raft and go Whitewater rafting. I told the children if we went to Colorado, we were going to go Whitewater rafting, so I wanted to keep my promise. I said, This time, well get a guide. Its not going to be Dad leading us down the river. Were going to get a guide. I remember we were pulling up to the Arkansas River there in Pueblo. It was 111-degree day, a good day to go rafting. I remember as we pulled in, we saw this big raft stuck on a boulder with the leader of the raft on a cell phone calling for help. I thought, Thats reassuring. But I said I had to get back on the raft. I had a fear, but I had to get back on the raft. I thought the guides looked pretty able. These guys looked pretty rugged like theyd been outdoorsmen; theyd probably been down that river hundreds of times. I started to feel a sense of reassurance. I wonder if hes going to be the guide. He looks like he knows what hes doing. Or this guy, here, he seems to talk the lingo. I could feel confident in his boat. Those guys all left, and there stood this little girl who looked like she was still in high school. She said, Ill be your guide today. No, you wont. I said, Does your daddy know youre here? Could he come and lead us down the nice river? (Congregation laughing). I said, How old are you? Im 19. How long have you been doing this? She said, Ive been doing this for four years. I said, Have you ever gotten stuck on the River? She said, and I loved her answer, Ive never gotten stuck on the River, and I dont intend to start today. Thats a good answer. She said, If you do what I say when I say and how I say, were going to be just fine. So I put my family in the raft, and I said, Lets go. My son and I were in front, helping to give some power. She was in the middle steering. She would tell us how many strokes to make, when to do it, and how hard to do it. What was interesting was as she navigated, shed say, Okay, around the corner, were going to be coming onto rapids. Heres what were going to try to avoid. Theres something over here that could tear out boat, so well go this way or heres this big boulder where people get stuck, so were going to start paddling hard to the left. You know what I found out? She had been on that river before, so she knew exactly every twist and turn, exactly what was happening, so we could avoid getting stuck or capsizing. So, we just did what she told us to do, and everything was fine. I will tell you this: every time it looked like we were going to go down a little fall, every time we were going to go through a rapid, or every time we approached a big boulder where we could get stuck, I had fear. The fear began to dissipate as, through experience, she would navigate around that boulder and navigate through those rapids. Pretty soon, fear began to subside, and it began to be replaced with faith. I knew this was going to be okay. It was fun, and I was able to let my guard down, knowing we were going to be okay. See, just like she knew every twist and turn of the river and knew what was going to happen when we got there, so the Lord does too. He knows exactly what lies ahead. Thats why you get in trouble when you take the oars from the Lord and think you know better; you start paddling your own boat. Thats when you get in trouble. If we would have said, We dont need you or were going to stroke when we want to stroke, we wouldve been in trouble. Peter would have been in trouble if he said to the Lord, Jesus, could you command me to come? and Jesus would have said, No, Peter, you stay. You stay right there. Dont you realize this is water, and youre a human being? This is a storm. Dont get out of the boat. If Jesus would have said no, and Peter would have walked out on the water, he wouldve been in trouble, right? Is there anybody here who ever got out of the boat and started walking when Jesus didnt tell you to? What happened? You sank, didnt you? Well, I asked Jesus, and He didnt say no. He didnt say yes, but He didnt say no. If He didnt say yes, then you stay in the boat! Im talking to the folks who when God has given you clear command to step out of the boat, to step out of the comfort zone in faith to meet Him, to do something for Him that you know He would want you to do, and you allow your fear to hold you back. Thats what were trying to break free from. Were not talking about being reckless and careless in our faith. Peter was not reckless. He said, Lord, is this what You want? Is this Your will for me? Is this what You want me to do? Jesus says, It is. Come. Peter played the tape through. He played it all the way through. Peter began to ask himself, What is the worst thing that can happen to me? The worst thing that can happen is I sink. If I sink, what will Jesus do? Hell rescue me. Peter understood an important principle. We need to understand this as well. God will allow storms in your life. He will. He will allow storms in your life. He could have stopped the storm from ever happening in the first place, but He didnt do it because there were things that they needed to learn through that storm. God will allow storms in your lives. God will also allow you to sink. He will allow you to sink, but He will never allow you to perish. Thats an important distinction. Peter says, Hes allowed this storm, and He may allow me to sink, but Hes never going to allow me to perish. It was that assurance that enabled Peter to step out of his boat. It is that assurance that enables you and I to step out in faith and obey Gods command. Pastor Ortberg, in the first chapter, says these words, Maybe there was a time in your life when you were walking on the water on a regular basis, a time when your heart was much like Peters: Command me, tell me to come to You, a time when you would risk sharing your faith, even if it meant rejection; giving, even if it meant sacrifice; and serving, even if it meant the possibility of failure. Sometimes you sank, sometimes you soared, but you lived on the edge of faith. Maybe now, though, you havent been out of the boat in a long time. I like this part, You have a nice boat, with padded deck chairs and stabilizers, so you never get seasick in the storm. Youve gotten quite comfortable sitting in your boat, but if you get out, I believe two things will happen: The first thing is when you fail, and sometimes you will fail, Jesus will be there to pick you up. You will not fail alone. You will find that He is wholly adequate to save. The other thing is every once in a while you will walk on water.
Lets pray together. Father, we are all in this adventure together. Youve called us to live a life of faith. In fact, youve said a life of faith is the only kind of life that would please You, but yet we want comfort. We want that which is familiar. We want to live without anxiety. We want to live in our security, our familiarity. Youve called us out of those boats to take a step of faith. Father, for the one who needs clarity, I pray that Youd clarify exactly what that means for him or her to walk on water. For those whove already received that command, they understand that theyre in the boat, they understand they need to step out in faith, give them the courage to do that. I pray that we, as a church, we as individuals, would not be paralyzed by the what ifs, that we will step out in faith and obey Your call, for thats where the stories are. Thats where the glory is, in the water where you are, Jesus. Help us, Father, to live in the series ahead. Help us to invite friends and family and coworkers and acquaintances who need these principles in operation in their lives. They can come and hear and be inspired through Your word, to step out of their boat and walk on water. I pray this in Jesus name, Amen.
Artist: Petra
Album: Beyond Belief Song: Beyond Belief
We're content to pitch our tent When the glory's evident Seldom do we know the glory came and went
Moving can seem dangerous In this stranger's pilgrimage Knowing that you can't stand still, you cross the bridge
(Chorus) There's a higher place to go, beyond belief, beyond belief Where we reach the next plateau, beyond belief, beyond belief And from faith to faith we grow Towards the center of the flow Where He beckons us to go, beyond belief, beyond belief
Leap of faith without a net Makes us want to hedge our bet Waters never part until our feet get wet
There's a deeper place to go Where the road seems hard to hoe He who has begun this work won't let it go
And it takes so long to see the change But we look around and it seems so strange
We have come so far but the journey's long And we once were weak but now we're strong. Link: http://www.christianrocklyrics.com/petra/beyondbelief.php
Isnt it wonderful to all be together? Its great, isnt it? Can everybody hear okay? Some of you are so far away. Its good to know that even when were in a different location, we can run into some of the same problems. Could somebody help me with the pulpit? I could really use that. There are all kinds of details going in to this planning. Wont it be nice when were able to be together anytime we want to? Well be able to have our own facility that will accommodate all of us. If you did not believe we needed Phase 3, just look around. I think everybody understands that now if you didnt before. It will be nice when we can be together anytime we so choose. Well just have to flip on the light switch, and thats it. Timing is so important in life. My daughter has been asking us for a dog for years, Dad, when can we have a dog? Since she was about 4, shes talked about having a dog and wanting a Border Collie girl puppy. That was her request. She just kept on and on, getting more and more intense. Finally, I said to her, We will have a dog, but I dont know if its going to be a Border Collie girl puppy because were going to go to the Humane Society and find a stray dog. Were going to give a stray dog a home. She was so glad to have a dog that it didnt matter. That was okay. So, we went to the Humane Society and went through the first kennel. They said, There arent a lot of breeds here. Most of them are bigger dogs, so dont get your heart set. The first kennel, we looked at all the dogs there. We went to the second kennel. We got to literally the very last kennel, last cage of the second kennel, and guess what was there? Two Border Collie girl puppies. We put our name on one of them. We now have Penny Williams in our home. I asked the agency, When did that puppy come up for adoption? She said, Well, just today. Just today. I said, Well, isnt that interesting? My daughter has been asking for years and years, and I keep saying no, no, no. Finally the day I say yes, that very day, a female Border Collie puppy comes up for adoption. I believe God answers even childrens prayers for dogs. Timing is so important. Forty Days of Purpose is not something new. The Purpose Driven Life has been around for several years now. People would always come up to me and say, Pastor, can we do the 40 Days of Purpose? Id say, We have this going on. I just dont think its right. Not right now. Down the road… Then, a year later, Hey, 40 Days of Purpose? Can we do that? You know, we have this going on. I just dont think its right. For several years, I would say no. It seemed like every church in the world was doing a 40 Days of Purpose except for us. Well, this fall-the summer after we were praying and all these things were going on, the missions trip and all the things we were engaged in-I really felt in my spirit that God was saying it was time, Its time. Pastor Sean and I had our regular meeting, and we got together. I said, Pastor Sean, I think its time we do the 40 Days. I want you to get on it, make it happen. Find out whatever you can. Lets get going. So that summer, we started working on it. Pastor Sean got it launched. Then we tapped Pastor John Voss to chair and Tim Bales to co-chair, and things took off. I know Pastor Voss thanked a lot of folks as he kicked off our service this morning, but I want to make sure we thank Pastor John Voss for all of his hard work. Thank you, Pastor John. We love you and appreciate your ministry. They were the right men for the job, and Gods timing was right in your lives. He is accomplishing His purpose through our church. Im going to invite you to stand and open your Bibles to the Book of Philippians (page 1163 of pew Bibles). Normally, youd grab a church Bible, and Id tell you what page, or itd be on the wall. We dont have the church Bibles, so hopefully you brought one. If you didnt, just listen along. Timing is important. In the Book of Acts 16, read how Paul had his mind set to go to Asia and preach the Gospel; but God said no-it wasnt time. Then Paul said, Okay, were going to go to Mysia and preach the Gospel. It said the Spirit of Jesus said, No. Paul didnt understand. Mysia, no? Asia, no? Where am I supposed to go? That night, he had a dream. In that dream, a man he did not know appeared to him from Macedonia, where Greece is. He said, Come over here! We need you! Come over here! We need you! So Paul woke up and said, Ive had a vision. Were to go to Macedonia. So the Gospel would cross the continent and minister to the people of Macedonia. The Macedonian Call is what they call it in Acts 16. The first city they went to when Paul answered that call was the city of Philippi. You can read about that in the Book of Acts. Here hes writing to that church. We call it the letter of Philippians. He writes it while in jail, and he writes it to encourage them. He writes it to thank them for their support. Were going to see from these Scriptures this morning how Paul lived out Gods purpose in his life. Im going to begin with Verse 10 of Philippians 3. Paul says, I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that Ive already obtained all of this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me Heavenward in Christ Jesus. Lets pray: Father, we have devoted ourselves to studying what Your purposes are for our lives, and we have learned much. There is still much to learn. For many of us, its required some serious life-changing decisions. Its required us to see the world in a different way, to realize it is not Day 41-back to business as usual, but it will never be business as usual. We have a much keener awareness of why we are here, what we are called to do and be. This morning, Father, as we look at Your Word, and as we finish this series weve been on, its so much more than a series; its a way of life, so equip us. Help us, enable us, open our minds to understand Your Word and our hearts to obey it as we move on to Day 41. I pray this in Jesus name, Amen. Thats what I want to talk to you about today, Day 41: life after the 40 Days. I want you to notice that Paul uses the word perfect. He says, Not that Ive already become perfect… The word perfect in the Greek is the word teleios, which means to complete, to bring to completion, or to accomplish the task it was created to do. It does not mean perfect in the sense of morally perfect, as in never sinning, but complete in that we are accomplishing and fulfilling Gods purposes for our lives. Notice Paul says that its his desire to press on, to take hold, of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me… What is the that? What is this word that? Its everything weve talked about. So much of what weve learned in the 40 Days has come from the writings of the Apostle Paul. Weve learned about the importance of sharing Christ and evangelism, of loving Christ through worship, serving others through ministry, loving others in fellowship, becoming like Christ in discipleship. All of these are the that. Does it sound like Paul lived a purpose-driven life to you? Does it sound like he was about fulfilling Gods purposes? He says, Thats what Im all about. Im about pressing on and living out what You have called us to do and be. How did he do that? How did Paul accomplish Gods purposes? Look at what he says. How many things does Paul engage in here? Look at Verse 13, But these twelve things I do. How many does he do? One thing. This one thing I do. Paul was a focused man. He was single-minded. He said, I am all about fulfilling Gods purposes, becoming who He wanted me to be and doing what He wanted me to do. If we were to ask that question of you, what would the answer be? Are you a single minded-purpose individual? Are you single minded? Are you going in a lot of different directions all at once? Some of you would say, Well, I think I am single-minded. If you are single-minded, then is that purpose for eternity? Is that purpose something that is going to matter and live on beyond your life? Paul said, These things I do… These things I do. We have learned in this series that there are certain things God does, and there are certain things we do. Remember when we talked about working out your salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who is at work within you to will and to do His good purpose? There are certain things we do, and there are certain things God does. I want to talk to you just a moment about the difference between religion and Christianity. You can spell religion d-o. It is things you do, things you try to do to please God or to earn Gods favor. Christianity is spelled d-o-n-e. It is receiving what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for us. Paul here is not talking about working for salvation or trying to obtain salvation on his own merits. In fact, the whole chapter is about the fact that he puts no confidence in the flesh. If you read the previous verses, he talks about the futility of the flesh. But there were certain things he was called to do. Though there were certain things he was called to do, he said, One thing I can never do is I can never earn my salvation. He speaks about that in the previous verses, Verses 5 & 6. He says, If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more. Circumcised on the eighth day… He went through that ceremony, that ritual of circumcision, which was a sign of the Hebrew covenant, but that was not going to put him in right standing with God. We have symbols of our covenant, baptism for instance, or communion, or a conformation-whatever it might be. Those are all wonderful good things, but things we do-ceremonies and rituals we go through-do not put us in right standing with God. He said, I am of the people of Israel of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews. Your heritage does not put you in right standing with God. The country youre from, the church you grew up in, the denomination you are a part of… Young people and children-because your parents go to a Bible-believing church, and you belong there, does not make you a Christian or a believer. It didnt with Paul. It said, Even though he was a Hebrew, even though he was an Israelite, that did not make him in right standing with God. He goes on to say, I was a Pharisee. Pharisees were highly-educated, highly-skilled and schooled. Your education, how much you know about the Bible, does not put you in right standing with God. He says, As for zeal, persecuting the church, nobody was more zealous than me. Zeal and believing something sincerely with all your heart does not put you in right standing with God. He says for legalistic righteousness, faultless, being a good person, having good morals and trying your best to do what God tells you to do does not put you in right standing with God. The only thing that puts us with right standing with God is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. What He has done is finished work [for us] on the cross. Let me ask a question of you this morning. How many of you here today earned your citizenship as an American? You had to go through classes, you had to study, take a test and earn your citizenship. Anybody here earn your citizenship? How many of you here today were born with your citizenship? Looks like 100 percent. We vote, we obey the laws of the land, we perform jury duty when called upon, we pay our taxes, we run for office, and all of these other things because we are citizens-not to become citizens, right? Our citizenship was given to us as a gift, but not a free gift. It was purchased by the blood of brave men and women who gave their lives for the cause of freedom for our country. So, we were born with this gift of being citizens of the United States of America, and its a privilege. There are certain things we do because we are citizens, but we dont do them to become citizens. The same thing is true in matters of the faith. We do these things. We live out these purposes not to become Christians, but because we are Christians. Salvation is not something that can be earned. Salvation is something that was won through the bloodshed of the Lord Jesus Christ as He bore our sins on the cross and gave His life for us. We receive Gods forgiveness by faith and trust. Paul says, But whatever was my profit, I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord for whose sake I have lost all things. Is Paul weeping over that? Is Paul weeping over all he lost? No. He says, I consider them rubbish, garbage, that I might gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law or by what I do, but that which is through faith in Christ-the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. By faith, I receive a salvation as a gift that was given to me by someone else. That is the only thing that puts me in right standing with God. We would be amiss if we did not talk about that this morning and did not rightly understand that the salvation we have was purchased by the blood of Christ. We receive it by faith as a gift. Now Paul, in Verse 13, talks about two keys that he has in his life in fulfilling Gods purpose. Verse 13, Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind… One of the ways I fulfill Gods purpose in my life is I forget what is behind. Was he talking about the good things or the bad things in his life? Both. We want to talk about the word forget, the fact that he doesnt mean that those things dont matter. He doesnt mean he doesnt learn from the bad things that happen or he doesnt appreciate the good things that happen. Paul talks about the Philippians, and he says, I remember the wonderful gifts you gave me, the good things you did for me, how you stood by me and prayed for me and encouraged me. By forget, Paul means focus really. Hes saying, One thing I do is I focus on what is ahead, that and what is behind. I have some bad news for you this morning. Winter is coming. We can feel it in the air. We are wearing our sweaters. Its getting a little chilly. You know what that means, right? Driving in potholes again! Now, when you drive into a pothole, you have a choice. You can look in your rearview mirror and say, Why didnt I see that pothole? and keep looking at that pothole, that mistake. You can say, Boy, was I dumb! I should have seen that coming! Thats the third time Ive driven through that same pothole. Why dont they fix that pothole? If you keep looking at your rearview mirror, whats going to happen? Youre going to crash your car. You think driving through a pothole is bad, try running into a tree or the car in front of you. It is a lot worse. Paul says, Ive made mistakes. Im going to learn from them and move to the future. Im not going to dwell on the mistakes of my past. Thats wisdom. Everybody here has failed the Lord. Everybody here has failed other people. Everyone here has failed yourselves miserably and made mistakes. But are we going to learn from them and keep our eyes toward the future, or are we going to be fixated in the past? Paul says, If you want to accomplish Gods purpose, dont be fixated in the past. Look to the future. Some of us are good drivers. When snow and ice come, we have to be extra cautious, extra careful on the roads, dont we? Just because youve had a good experience, you can say, You know, Ive been driving on roads in the winter in Wisconsin for many years, and Ive never had an accident-not one fender bender, Does that help you when you drive the first snowfall this year? How much does that help you? Not one iota. So the success of your past isnt going to help you when youre driving your car this winter. Everytime you drive your car, you have to drive it with a sober-mindedness, an alertness, an awareness, and with care and consideration of everybody who is on the road and everything that is going on. The past victories on the road do not necessarily mean or translate into future victories on the road, so you have to be careful. So the good things in your life, though theyre good and you appreciate them and value them, tomorrow is a new day. Paul says, Neither am I going to rest in the accomplishments of my past, but Im pressing on toward what lies in the future. I want our churchs vision to always be to the future. I dont want us to be going around saying, Remember the days, remember when we used to have people coming to our church and we had programs, visions, and ministry… I dont want to do that. I want us to be always looking ahead. We appreciate the things God has done through us that are good. We learn from the mistakes we have made, but our focus is toward the future and what God is going to do. Our best days as a body are ahead of us, not behind us. Paul sought to fulfill his purpose secondly by forging ahead with total commitment. He was not only forgetting what was behind, but he said straining towards what is ahead. Notice the words that he uses: Straining towards what is ahead, pressing on toward the goal. Those words have a connotation of effort, dont they? The words he is using here are the words here of a runner who is straining to reach the finish line. He sees the finish line. She sees the finish line. They are putting everything they have-straining, running, pressing on, though they are tired-though their muscles are sore, though they are weary-they are pressing on to the finish. Thats Paul. Listen, church, you are the runner that Paul speaks of. Youre running the race; whether you want to or not, you are in the race. So the question is [this]: How are you running today? How are you running toward the finish? Are you jogging? Are you trotting? Are you giving it what you have or are you coasting? He says, One thing I do, Im pressing on. Im moving forward. What were talking about here in Day 41 is a life status like, Oh, man, Im glad that worship stuff is over with. Im glad those small groups are over with. I dont have to do small groups anymore. All of that Bible study, Im glad that is done. That was kind of hard. Glad all that fellowship and sharing my faith and all of that is all done. No way. That is the course. Thats the purpose God has called us to live and run. Its a marathon, and we keep pressing on. Paul had that mindset that said, Im not done. Im going to keep on going. [He had] total commitment, striving to the end. You are that runner. Weve learned in this series that there are no shortcuts in spiritual growth, no shortcuts in spiritual growth. Usually, shortcuts end up bad. We know some shortcuts that are good, but how many of you have ever been on a shortcut, and it ended up being longer than if you had just gone the right way? Shortcuts, if youre driving somewhere, can be good. But other than that, in pretty much every other area of life, shortcuts are bad. Somebody wants to get fit, [so] they try to take a shortcut. Somebody on TV says if youll just take these pills, youre going to lose 100 pounds and look like this guy-Mr. Six Pack over here. Take a shortcut. You mean, all I have to do is swallow that pill, and everything is just going to go off of me? Ill be in shape? So they take the shortcut, right? Somebody might inject steroids because they want to grow muscles, so rather than working hard, they take a shortcut. We see people like that; we know people like that. If somebody wants to get rich, and rather than making wise investments and saving money, making sound business decisions, they put their hopes in the lottery or embezzle money from their company or fall prey to get-rich-quick schemes and gimmicks. Anytime we take a shortcut, it backfires. There is no shortcut to spiritual growth. We have learned that. Spiritual growth comes as we partner with the Holy Spirit; as we live out these purposes; as we serve others; tell others about the Lord; as we love one another; as we love the Lord in worship; serve one another in ministry; as we become more like Christ through discipleship, spiritual growth takes place, and it happens over the long haul-not over the short term. I think its interesting how the Book of Acts ends in Acts 28. If you have your Bible, you might want to turn there. I love the end of the Book of Acts! It seems like every Book in the Bible you read, it comes to this conclusion, right? It comes to this final period, and boom! The Book is over. The Book of Acts doesnt end that way! We find Paul in Rome in custody for his faith. It says in Verse 30, For two whole years, Paul stayed there in his own rented house and welcomed all who came to him. Boldly and without hindrance, he preached the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ. What do you find Paul doing at the end of his days? Is he retiring? Is he fishing on a boat somewhere? Paul is doing what God had called him to do. Hes fulfilling his purpose. Acts has this open-ended ending because Acts 29 is still being lived out. The church is still accomplishing Christs mission in the world. I love what Kelly said in her testimony about Day 41 and Day 42. What it is-is we just do life together. So, whats the next program? Whats the next campaign? Life! Day 41. We continue to live out these purposes. One thing I would encourage you to do is as we learned about these five purposes, all of us are not as strong in one area as every other area. Identify one area where you are weak. Maybe its in worship; its in loving the Lord, passion and spirituality. Maybe its in sharing your faith. Maybe its in fellowship. You tend to be an isolated kind of believer. Maybe its in service or in ministry. Youre not really finding or using your spiritual gift. Maybe its in discipleship. Youre really not a student of the Word in growing and becoming like Christ. Re-read those chapters in your book. Spend some time going through those chapters again, looking up those Scriptures, praying about them, putting yourself strategically in areas where you can learn and grow in that spiritual gift. Remember what he says when God wants to grow a fruit of the spirit in our lives? What does He do? He puts us in the exact opposite situation. If He wants us to grow in patience, God will put you in a situation where you have to use your patience, where you are tempted to be impatient. If youre not good at service, begin to serve. If youre not good in understanding the Word of God, sign up for cross-training. Utilize the ministries of the church. This is not a program. This is life. We do life together. Our mission as a church is to bring people to faith and maturity in Christ; both bring them to the Lord. Once they come to the Lord, we watch them grow up in their faith. So, God wants to use each and every one of us to do that. We continue as a body to reach out to our friends, to reach out to our loved ones, reach out to our neighbors, tell them of the love of Christ, invite them to a church where they will be loved, and they can come to know their purposes. Some of you are new to our church, and youre liking what you see. In November, were going to start a series on seeing the bigger picture. Its kind of like your being on a boat. You say, I like this boat. I like the crew. This is a good trip. I like the people. Im enjoying this trip on this boat. Hey, where is this boat going? Thats what were going to be talking about, spending a few weeks talking about where were going as a body. This has been about us as individuals. Where are we going as a body? What is Faith Community all about? How are we accomplishing Gods purposes? At this time, Im going to close us in prayer. The first thing I want us to do is Im going to pray for those of you among us who are not believers today. I want you to pray to the Lord and ask the Lord into your heart today if youve not already done so. Then were going to pray for those of you who are believers, that we would stay the course-finish strong and press on. Lets pray: Father, my first prayer, this morning, is for those who in this spiritual journey are learning about You but do not know You yet. Lord, to receive the gift of salvation, we must receive it by faith. It is something we do not work for but has been provided by You for us. Its not a matter of our knowledge, our zeal, our heritage, our good works, or what rituals or ceremonies weve gone through; its a matter of the heart-that we have yielded our heart to Your Lordship, that we have received Your sacrifice as payments for our sin, for each one of us are sinners. If youre here this morning, and youve never prayed to receive Christ, I would like you to pray this prayer with me right now in your heart to the Lord: Heavenly Father, I come to You in Jesus name. I understand that its not about me. Its about You. Its about Your purposes being fulfilled in my life. This morning, I surrender my heart to You. I surrender my life to You. Accomplish Your purposes through me. Forgive my sin. Come into my heart, Lord Jesus. I pray that Your Holy Spirit will enter me. Make me a new person. Its my desire to live for You, to serve and follow You all the days of my life. I trust in You, Lord Jesus, as my means of salvation, and my only hope in eternity. In Jesus name, I pray, Amen. Father, I pray for those who have made that decision this morning, that they will grow up in their faith; they will become a part of our body; they will enter into small groups and serve in ministries; continue to [come to our] services and learn about Your Word; meet other believers and grow in their spiritual walk. I pray for those of us who have applied ourselves to understanding and knowing Your purposes, that as we move on to Day 41, we will continue what we have learned because we are that runner. Paul says, Were not to look back. We are thankful for the victories. We learned from our mistakes, but our focus is toward the future, and we will press on. We will not take our spiritual walk haphazardly, flippantly or lightly. We realize that we are engaged in a spiritual conflict in this world of good vs. evil, of light vs. darkness, of the forces of the Kingdom of God vs. the forces of the kingdom of darkness. We have to choose which side were on. We have chosen the Kingdom of Light. We have chosen to represent the Lord Jesus Christ on this earth, that through the empowerment of Your Holy Spirit, we will be the Church; we will be the light to a dark world. We will accomplish Your purposes. We will bring as many others as we can with us on this important journey. We commit ourselves to that end. Would you pray with me aloud as I say these words? As I say these words, would you repeat them aloud? Heavenly Father, In Jesus name, I commit to love You more deeply, to serve You with a whole heart, to tell others about You, to worship You, and to give my life completely to You. I thank You, Lord, for all I have learned and all I have yet to learn. I dedicate myself to You. I give my all to You, even as You give Your all to me. In Jesus name, I pray. Amen.
Were continuing on in The Purpose Driven Life. We are on Mission VI: You Were Made for a Mission. We are talking about evangelism. Pastor Rick Warren said, Believers and unbelievers have a lot in common with that word. We both dislike it. It conjures up images when you think of an evangelist. [You think] probably of somebody with big hair who is angry, yelling at the TV, begging for your money, crying or something else. Its just not a pleasant picture you conjure up in your mind when you think of an evangelist. The things Im going to share with you, I dont think youre going to hear them and say, Oh, I didnt know that! Thats a revelation! Its more trying to put things in such a way that provoke our thoughts and provoke our actions in a positive way. In Acts 1:8 (page 1075 of pew Bibles), Jesus gives one of His commissions to the Church, and He says, But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. It says, …you will be My witnesses. Now, this is not just for the Apostles and the early believers. This is for the church today. Would the early believers go to the ends of the earth? No. But, we can. This commission is for the church from generation to generation, not just for the small few that were gathered that day to hear Jesus talk before He was ascended to Heaven. So, He has given us all a mission. This is our mission-to share with people we know what God has done for us. Thats what a witness does. Its really not complicated, and its really not hard. What is a witness? A witness is somebody who testifies to what they have seen and heard, testifies to what they know. A witness speaks; a witness is not silent. God does not call you to be silent in your faith. Hes called you to speak your faith. Hes called you to testify about what you see and what you know. We should not be intimidated and think, Oh, I dont know about the Bible to engage in a spiritual discussion. What you do know is you know your story. You know your testimony. Im not just talking about the new birth experience. Im talking about if youre a believer, God is doing things in your life all the time. Hes helping you; Hes encouraging you; Hes strengthening you; Hes teaching you. All through your life, you testify-or you share-what God is doing in your life. Thats what it means to be a witness. Sometimes we make it too complicated. Sometimes we try to turn it into…Theres nothing wrong with having a plan or a strategy or knowing Scripture, but let me illustrate to you a good example of what witnessing is not. When I was a young man studying for the ministry, one of the pastors took me under his wing. His name was Dane Christensen. He called me the puppy. I guess [he called me this] because I was young and eager, naïve, and hed say, Come on, puppy, lets go. Id just follow him around. Wed tour the campus of Northwestern, and Dane would share his faith. He was very good at that. We had this little posse of students. One day, Dane said, Okay, today when you get to the campus, you are going to share, not me. You are going to share. Were going to pair up by twos, and were going to circulate around the campus of Northwestern, and youre going to share your faith. I was not excited about that prospect. I was scared, but I knew I had to do it. There we were. We had a system. We were going to start off saying, Were from Trinity, and were here to do a survey. Do you have a moment to answer a question? You know what? That wasnt really truthful, as I look back in retrospect. We werent really conducting a survey in the sense of recording data, analyzing it, and getting statistics. It was our way to ask these questions that would lead to spiritual questions. What are your goals and purposes in life? If you were to die, why should God let you into Heaven? Those kinds of things [were what we were asking], and eventually we would share the Gospel. We had a nice diagram we had drawn and had key verses memorized. So we went into this cafeteria, and we looked for our first victim, first guinea pig. I was partnered with a young lady named Sue. I saw a young lady over here that looked very friendly, very nice, and very innocent. I said, I think God is calling us to speak to her. She looks like she needs the Lord. Sue picked out the meanest, toughest (if thats even a word), scruffiest, toughest-looking guy and said, I think God wants us to share our faith with him! I beg to differ. I think she really…shes lost right there. She said, No, I think God wants us to reach him. I said, Okay, compromise. Well go talk to him. You go first. She said, Okay. She came out, Hello, sir, were from Trinity, and were here to ask you survey questions if you have a moment. He said, Sure, as he was eating his ice cream sundae. So she starts asking him questions, and at first he was cooperative. Then he started scowling a little bit. Then you could tell he was starting to resent what was going on a little bit. We didnt know his name; we didnt know anything about him? He sees that were on an assignment, and hes one of our projects. Pretty soon, he interrupts the speech, and he says, What is this? Theres no survey! He grabs the piece of paper, and he starts reading the questions. He says, Where would I put myself on this diagram? He grabbed the pen, and he said, Id say right about here, and he makes a big old circle on it. He hands it back and says, I had religion shoved down my throat my whole life. Ive had it up to here. Im not dealing with this anymore. Leave me alone. We said, Okay. We backed off and walked away. We were walking down the hallway in silence, embarrassed and feeling like total failures. I think I said something really dumb like, I guess this is what the Apostles felt like when they got rejected. I look back on that, and I think we did so many things wrong. One was we didnt know the person. We should have started out by being honest. We should have said, Were here on campus from Trinity. Were preparing for the ministry. We thought wed come to Northwestern today. We thought we would ask you questions about spiritual matters. Do you have some time to talk with us today? Maybe then the first 20 minutes to a half hour should have been about him, finding out about who he was and what his needs were, and adapting the message we had to share to his needs. We should have shared from our own lives what the Lord has done for us. Maybe if we would have loved on him and took time to get to know him, so we really begin to care about the issues in his life, that experience would not have gone so wrong. Theres an expression that says, People dont care what you know till they know that you care. Isnt that true? People can see when youre disengenuine. People can see when theyre your project. They can tell when your pastor is giving a message on sharing your faith and you felt guilty, so you had to find somebody to dump everything you know about the Bible on them. They can tell that. They resent that. But if they know that you love them and genuinely care for them, and youre just sharing what you know, a witness should be a natural flow of good news. When good news happens to you, you tell people around you. Hey, my team won the big ball game. How about those Badgers? Wasnt that great yesterday? That sort of thing. Guess what? I got this check in the mail I wasnt expecting. When something good happens, it is a natural thing to share it. Thats what witnessing is. Its a natural flow. Its saying, Heres what the Lord has done in my life. Heres what Im excited about. If somebody thinks they are a notch on your spiritual belt, theyre going to resent that. I had a high school reunion. It was our 20th anniversary. At the reunion, we all get a book. It lists where everybody is at, names and addresses, emails. I dont even think there were emails back then. One of the guys called me a few days later and said, Hey Jeff, this is Bob. Hey, Bob. Boy, I havent seen you for 20 years. Now I saw you at the reunion, and you call me on the phone. Whats up? I just wanted to know if you wanted to get together and play some ball sometime. Sure, Bob. Lets get together and play some ball like old times. Yeah! We talked for a little bit. I asked, What made you call me, Bob? What made you, out of the clear blue sky? He said, Well, just going down the directory here, and I was thinking old friends…and I thought wed play some ball. Then I have a business opportunity to discuss with you. I said, Really? What kind of business is that, Bob? He said, Well, you know, you work for yourself. Pretty soon, youll be financially independent. You can retire. You wont have to work for anybody. Its a great opportunity for you. Bob, is this what I think it is? Im not interested in retiring. Im a pastor. I really dont want to retire. Im not interesting in financial independence. Im planning to do what I do until I cant do it anymore. But we can get together and play some ball sometime if you want to, Bob? Hello, Bob? Bob? He was gone. I think he said something quickly while I was talking and hung up. I didnt even realize he hung up. He didnt care about me. He didnt care about playing ball with me. I was a dollar sign to him. I was a project to him. I was a name in the book. If a witness is disengenuine, if were just doing it out of a sense of obligation or doing it so we can say, Hey, I witnessed to somebody, people will see right though that. If our witness is judgmental or if its demeaning or condescending-saying, Why cant you be a believer like me?… But if its done in love and in a natural flow of life, and Im sharing what the Lord has done for me that will help this person… Here, you can read this, or, Here, listen to this, or, Come with me, our church is talking about that, or, Heres what happened in my life, and the person knows you know and love him and care about him, friends, theres nothing to be afraid of. People are not going to repel that kind of a witness. Jesus says, We are called to be a witness to whom? He says, We start in Jerusalem. What was Jerusalem for them? Home. Home base. He said you start where youre at; you start at home. In the Book of Luke 8, if youd turn there, a man who is demon-possessed is healed dramatically and cleansed. The demons leave the man. [The man] is so excited and so thrilled that he wants to follow Jesus. In Verse 38 (page 1025 of pew Bibles), The man from whom the demons had gone out begged to go with Him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, return home and tell how much God has done for you. So the man went away and told all over town how much Jesus had done for him. Thats witnessing. What was his theological degree? Tell me. What class in witnessing had he gone to? You know what? He knew what the Lord had done for him. The change in his life was evident to all. He shared with enthusiasm, with joy, and with love to the people he cared about. I bet you he was effective. Jesus says, You start at home. Go back to your friends, neighbors, and family. Just tell them whats happened to you. You may not be an expert on the Bible, but youre an expert on your life. Youre the leading expert on your life. Nobody else knows more about your life than you do, so you are qualified to share what youve experienced. Bear witness to what youve seen and heard. He said it doesnt just stop in Jerusalem. It says we go to Samaria, we go to Judea, we go to people who are different-near to us-but different from us, and then we go to the ends of the earth. Thats everywhere else. Were called to take the Gospel to all the world. When you come to the banquet on Friday night, youre going to hear how Faith Community is strategically trying to take the Gospel to all the world. Were not just trying to focus on one area of the globe, but we want to bring the Gospel-we want to influence every area of the globe. Thats why we sent teams to Guatemala. Somebody asked me, Pastor, why did we send a team to Guatemala two times when there are needs in Rock County? There will always be needs in Rock County. We will never get to the point where we say, Rock County has totally reached for Christ. Now lets go to the world. That will never happen. So we do these things concurrently. We reach to our local community through things like Angel Tree thats coming up around Christmastime. Around Thanksgiving, youll start hearing about it. We do it through things like the Day of Compassion in the summer. We do it through our relationships. We are reaching out, but were also called to reach the world. Thats why we support missionaries around the world. Thats why we send teams to places like Guatemala. Right now, were going to watch a media that was taken on our first trip to Guatemala. This isnt the most recent trip, but our first trip in 2003 set to the song, Such a Time as This,by Wayne Watson. See if you recognize some of the faces of your church family in this video. I think that video speaks for itself. Im so proud of our team, our missions teams. God has given the mission call to each one of us, so what remains is what is our response? I want to talk to you this morning about three different responses to the call. The first is Who, me? Its found in the Book of Judges 6. There was a man by the name of Gideon. The Bible says he was the least in his family. His family was the least of all the clans of Israel. God literally picked the lowest of the totem pole to carry out His mission. In Judges 6:11 (page 239), remember were talking about the angel of the Lord. If you remember our series in the Minor Prophets, where we speak and the angel of the Lord speaks, its a pre-incarnate appearance of the Lord Jesus. The angel of the Lord always speaks in the first person. He doesnt speak [as], God sent me to tell you this… He always says, Thus sayeth Me. When Hes addressed, Hes addressed as the Lord. So thats who is speaking to Gideon. Lets start in Verse 12, When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, He said, The Lord is with you, mighty warrior. I guarantee you Gideon does a double take right then. Hes probably looking around his shoulder like, You talking to me? Im not mighty. Im not a warrior. Are you sure you have the right guy? …But sir, Gideon replied, if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all His wonders that our fathers told us about when they said, Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt? But now the Lord has abandoned us and put us into the hand of Midian. Boy, one thing Gideon is-is honest, right? He speaks his mind. Then the Lord turned to him and said, Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midians hand. Am I not sending you? But Lord, Gideon asked, how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family. The Lord answered, I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites together. The first response is who, me? You have to be kidding? I cant do that. Dont you know my weaknesses? Dont you know my shortcomings? Dont you know my fears and anxieties? I dont think I can do that. There are some of us whom God called to be a witness to fill His purpose, mating for a mission of sharing the good news with people we come in contact with, and our response is I cant do that. Im not a speaker. Im not a Bible scholar. Im not an evangelist. Im not a Billy Graham. I think you have the wrong person. Do you know what the Lord delights in? He delights in people who are weak. He delights in people who are humble. He delights in people who dont think they have what it takes to get the job done because then He shows them that its Him. Its not them. He says, Gideon, youre factoring something very important out of the equation. I will be with you. I will equip you. Listen, the attitude you dont want to have if youre a servant is that God gives you a mission, and you go, Hey, about time You asked me. You asked the right person. Ive been waiting and wondering what took You so long. Im Your man. Im Your woman. You picked correctly. In fact, Im not even sure I need Your help on this one. I think I have it from here. Thats not the attitude you want to have. Theres nothing wrong with feeling inadequate, not up to the task, having anxiety or fear and looking at your weaknesses, but what is wrong is to look at your weaknesses and your fears and say, I cant now because… I wont accept the mission because Im weak or because Im not this or because Im not that. If God has called you to that mission, you fulfill that mission. God will use you even in your weakness and even in your shortcomings. The second response is found in Book of Exodus. Lets turn there if you would please to Exodus 4. God is going to call a fugitive, a man who had committed murder and then ran away to a foreign land. Hes going to call that man to come back into the land where he is wanted, back to the place he has avoided. God is going to use him to lead His people out of Israel, out of bondage. That mans name is Moses. Moses encounters God through a burning bush, a theophany-a physical manifestation of Gods appearance that could be seen. Moses hears his mission. He asks questions. How will they know God is with me? God gives him answers, Heres the signs youll do. How will I know what to say when they ask Who sent me? God gives him an answer. He clearly understands his mission. He clearly understands hes the one God has chosen to carry out the mission. God addresses his shortcomings and fears, and heres the response, Chapter 4:10 (page 57): Moses said to the Lord, O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since You have spoken to Your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue. The Lord said to him, Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say. But Moses said, O Lord, please send someone else to do it. The second response is not me. Not me. Moses said, You know what? I like my life. I like being a shepherd. I dont want to go back to the place where my face is hanging on the post office wall for killing an Egyptian all those years ago. I have it made. I have a good life. Why would I want to throw that away and do something like confront the Pharaoh and lead a nation out of bondage to freedom? That sounds adventurous and exciting, but please ask somebody else. Moses said, No, no. He gave every reason, every excuse, and God said, Youre still the man. God counted every excuse he gave. Then, when it was all said and done, he still answered, I wont go. I wont go. Eventually he would go, of course. We know that, but for quite a while, it was a tug of war. Most of us dont blatantly say to the Lord, I wont do it. You told me to be a witness. I wont do it. Not going to say anything! Most of us dont do that, blatantly. But, guess what we say by our silence? Guess what we say by the fact that we dont obey and fulfill the purpose? What are we saying when we never share with another person who doesnt know the Lord what the Lord means to us, how He has helped us, how He has blessed us, we never share any of our testimony, or what He is doing in our lives, we never tell a sole, we never invite anybody to church: what are we communicating? We are saying in essence, no. If I ask my child to do something, and my child says, Okay, and I come back an hour later and its still not done, I say, I thought I told you to take the dog out. We have a dog now, by the way. There are probably some stories coming about that. I come back an hour later, and [they say], Yeah, Ill take care of that. You can comply all you want to, but by your disobedience, youre saying no. Youre not fulfilling the directive Ive called you to do. Some believers do that. They simply say, Not me. We simply dig our heals into the ground, put our brakes on, and say, I shall not be moved. Thats my theme song. Im not going to speak. Im not going to be a witness. There is a third response. Thats found in the Book of Isaiah 6, if youd turn there. Isaiah is having a vision of Heaven and the thrown of God. This is an interesting study to do sometime. Look in Ezekiel and look in Revelation and Isaiah and start righting down the similarities of these visions which were written hundreds of years apart. Youre going to notice they are very similar in what they see. Why is that? Because theyre seeing the same God. Theyre seeing a glimpse of Heaven. So Isaiah is totally intimidated, as anybody would be. He is in the presence of the living God. He says in Verse 5 (page 680), Woe to me! I cried. I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty. In other words, friends, thats all of us. Isaiah said, Im no better than anybody else. Im an unclean man. If being totally upright all the time is the qualification for fulfilling this mission, none of us could fulfill it because we are all sinners. Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for. Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send? God doesnt say anything about where Hes going to send them or what Hes going to do once they get there. And he says, And who will go for us? And I said, Here am I, Send me! The third response is send me. Gideon has the mission spelled out and says, Who me? I dont think so. I dont think I could do that. Im flattered, but You have the wrong guy. Moses says, Not me. I understand the mission, but I dont want to go. I like my life the way it is. Isaiah doesnt even know what the mission is, and he says, Im in. I dont know where Im going. I dont know what Im going to do when I get there, but if You need somebody-even though Im a sinner-if Youre asking, Im going. Im signing up. Thats the kind of mentality God wants a witness for Christ to have-an enthusiasm, an eagerness that says, You want to use me in that way? I dont understand all You want me to do, and Im not sure Im going to be that good at it. I dont understand all it entails, but send me. Send me-Ill go. My wife alerted me to a song on the radio by Mercy Me called Blink of an Eye. She said you have to do that in church sometime. Its really a good song for the series were on. I said, I think I know what week to work it in. So we asked Mike Powers, our youth pastor, who is also our tech guy, our media guy, if he could put together a media for us to Blink of an Eye by Mercy Me. Mike did an outstanding job. Lets watch it right now. We talked about the three responses to the mission the Lord has given us: Who Me? Not Me, and Send Me. Lets talk about Plan B. Verse 18 of Matthew 28 (page 989), Then Jesus said to them All authority in Heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations… Notice, a witness is not like a witness in a court system where you wait to be summoned to appear. A witness, spiritually-for Christ-goes, initiates, starts. …baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. And in case you fail in your mission, I will then send the angels of Heaven to pick up where you fail. Does your Bible have that verse in there? What about this version? See if you have that. I have commanded you. Surely, I am with you always, even to the end of the age, and should you not accept this mission, my Father will write the Gospel in the clouds of the sky and will speak with an audible voice from Heaven. Is that in your Bibles too? Its not in your Bibles. Okay, so Plan A is the Holy Spirit empowers the believer, and the believer goes to all the world and tells the story of Jesus. Whats Plan B? There is no Plan B. There is no back-up plan. Its entrusted to us. We are Plan A for this generation. Thats why its imperative that we take this mission so seriously. As a church body to reach the world, we should have so many people coming to that missions banquet Friday, we cant contain them in the multi-purpose room. We need to understand that we are a part of what God is doing, that we seize the moment and say, Im going to be a witness for Christ in Jerusalem or at home or to the ends of the earth. I want to be an Acts 1:8 Christian. I want to be a Matthew 28:18 Christian. I want to make a difference in my world, in the blink of an eye that I am here. Amen? No Plan B. We take it as serious as a heart attack-the mission that God has given us to do.
As you can see from the board here, we were shaped for serving God. Thats going to be the purpose that well be examining this morning: Shaped to Serve. Have any of you ever called for an appliance repairman or somebody to repair something in your home? [Have you ever called] someone to fix your car or paint something in your house? It ended up being worse than when they started? You know that whats on their business card should probably not be what theyre doing because theyre not that good at it. Has anybody ever had that experience? You hire somebody to do something for you, and you say, I could have done a better job than that one person? Wow! Can I have your references afterwards because Ive had some bad experiences? Thats what they say theyre good at, but really theyre not that good at it. When that happens in the church, thats frustrating. Its frustrating for the people around you. Its frustrating for you. If youre in a ministry, and its a drudgery, and you dont get motivated to do it; you cant wait until its over with; and when its over with, youre glad its done, youre not in the right place. When you are using your spiritual gifts, it should energize you. It should energize those who listen, and it should build up the Body of Christ. In 1 Corinthians 12:7 (page 1136 of the pew Bibles), Paul says, Now to each one… Now if you have your own Bible, you might want to circle that-each one, because youre an each one. To every person, not one is left out. If its a church Bible, dont circle it. Its not your Bible. If you have your own Bible, circle the words each one. …the manifestation of the spirit is given for you to look good? No, its given for what? The common good. The common good. Do you know whats so unique about the giftedness of the Holy Spirit? Normally, when you get a gift, it has your name on it, and its for you. The gift that God has given you is for everybody but you. Everybody but you-its for others. If I have an ability to communicate, I dont go home and preach a sermon to myself. If you have a gift of mercy or whatever it is, whatever that gift is, its for the Body of Christ. Verse 27 says, Now you are the Body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. Youre a part; you belong. Somewhere God has made you to be a 10. Its your job and our job as a church to help you find that and to plug in and serve the Lord. When we have the right people in the right place for the right reasons, things go well. When we have the wrong people in the wrong places for the wrong reasons, things dont go so well. Right now were going to watch and see if young Derrick has found his purpose. Hes going to begin hospital ministry. (This drama was produced by Pastor Michael Powers. If youd like to see it, you can contact him.) Pastor Rick has an acrostic in his book called Shape. God has a shape for you. Im not going to spend a lot of time talking about this because the book does a very good job with it. GPS class tomorrow and today will do a good job talking about it, but I did want to mention it. He said, The S is for spiritual gifts. God has given you a spiritual gift. Every gift is different. For some, its encouragement; some its mercy; some its help; some its leadership; some its faith. It just depends on how God has wired you, but you have a spiritual gift. The H stands for heart. That has to do with your passion. Not all of us share the same passion. For some of us, its world missions; for some its youth; for others, its the elderly; for some its childrens ministry; for some, its a tech team; some its the arts, and on and on the list goes. God has given you a passion for something. A stands for abilities. God wants to use your abilities too, your talents. That is not a spiritual gift, but its a gift that God can use. Maybe youre a craftsman; maybe youre mechanical, artistic, or athletic. Whatever your abilities are, God can use them. P stands for your personality. How has God wired you? Are you a structured person or an unstructured person? If youre a structured person, we dont want to put you in an unstructured ministry and say, Hey, do whatever you feel like because youd go oh, I need some structure! I need some help. Are you an introvert or an extrovert? If youre an introvert, we probably shouldnt put you in charge of the welcome center or being a greeter, right? Its probably not the place for you. So whats your personality? How has God wired you? E stands for experiences. What are your life experiences? What about your background, other things that youve done in your life? Those together form your shape and will help you determine where to fit in the Body of Christ. One of our jobs as a church is to help you to know where to fit. Id like us to turn to the Book of Mark 10. Were going to see servanthood modeled for us. Before we see servanthood modeled for us, were going to see an example of the exact opposite of what servanthood is. In Verse 35 (page 1002), I want you to notice the heart of James and John here. Talk about its not about me. These two men are so full of oozing of servanthood, its unbelievable. Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. Teacher, they said, we want You to do for us whatever we ask. Its all about me. There are some people that think that is whats Christianity is about. Thats what God is here for. Hes here for you. God I want you to do for me whatever I ask. As long as you have that kind of mentality, you will never truly be a servant. You will never fulfill Gods purpose for your life because you dont understand the basis of why youre here. You dont understand the basis of what Christianity is all about. Its not about you. Its about Him. What do you want Me to do for you? he asked. They replied, Let one of us sit at Your right and the other at Your left in Your glory. Exalt us! Make us important! Make us prominent! Make us the envy of all Disciples. We know were Your favorites! We know were the best. Put us in a place where everybody can see and say what great guys we are. Their motivation was in the wrong place. When we do ministry, it is never for the praise of men. Its never to exalt ourselves or to show off our talents and abilities. Its always to glorify the Lord. So Jesus saw this as a tremendous opportunity for a teaching moment. In Verse 42, it said, Jesus called them together and said, You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Have you ever been in a situation where somebody has loaded over you? Theyre the boss, and they want you to know it? Maybe its a coach; maybe its a teacher; maybe its an employer; maybe its a co-worker; and they just think you know what? Youre going to listen to me, and what I say goes no matter what. Anybody ever been in that situation before? Its frustrating, isnt it? That doesnt really motivate you to serve. You just feel like its overbearing. One of the most important jobs I have at our church-we have ten other staff at our church, employees-is to make sure their jobs, their goals are fulfilled. Theyre not here to serve me; Im here to serve them. I want them to be the best they can at what they do because when their ministry succeeds, my ministry succeeds. Maybe it (the experience of the overbearing person) was at a church, a pastor situation, wherever it might be-in a home or a family… When somebody is overbearing, that just wears you down. Jesus said, Its not to be that way with you-not so in the church. Verse 43, Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of… those who can pay them back? …must be the slave of… those who have money and power? Nope. It says, …must be the slave of all. For even the Son of Man… Even Me! The top banana, the big man, even Me! …the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. When God took on flesh, the two dominant characteristics of His life were serving and giving, serving and giving. Well, how about us, His creation? Sometimes the two most dominant characteristics of our lives are we want to be served and we want to take. God came and He served and He gave. This isnt the world; its a rat race. Its dog eat dog, and every man for themselves, survival of the fittest. He said its not to be that way in the church. Were called to serve one another and love one another. Years ago in my home, I had a war going on up in the ceiling. I would hear squabbles during the night. I didnt know whether they were chipmunks or what they were, but they would be making noises and scratching the walls, running. Sometimes it sounded like people were fighting up in my roof. I was thinking, How in the world did those things get in there, and when are they going to leave? It would be late at night when the house was quiet. Youd hear them up there running around. One night, whatever was up there came down, and it was stuck in my wall. It was jumping up in the wall trying to get out. It sounded like it was kind of big, and I wasnt sure what it was. I cut a hole in the wall, and I put a laundry basket over it to try to catch whatever was inside my wall. I sat down to watch some television, and I heard a commotion in there, and sure enough, I had caught a flying squirrel-a little gray squirrel, skinny, scrawny. Most of its fur was gone; it was very disoriented and very weak. I thought, What in the world is this flying squirrel doing here? I took him outside and he stumbled off the deck. I named him Rocky. I thought flying squirrel, Ill just name him Rocky. Over the course of the night, more squirrels came. Every squirrel that came was stronger and quicker than the squirrel before. I began thinking to myself, How many Rocky movies were there? One, two, three… This could be a long night. It was a long night. I was catching squirrels for the longest time. Finally, I said, If theres a Rocky five, hes going to be tough to catch. About midnight, you could almost hear the music (Pastor is humming the Rocky theme); he comes out like you took care of my brothers, man. Im going to take care of you. I finally caught him, and he was like a flying squirrel on steroids. He was in the laundry basket with his face right here (in Pastors face), and Im carrying him out. Hes chomping on that thing, and he almost chewed through it. He was like, Im going to kill you. I have to get this guy outside, I was thinking. He went flying into a tree. He was the top of the food chain. He was the Big Kahuna inside the walls there. How were they getting food? They were climbing through a hole where our exhaust used to be for our dryer and getting some sunflower seeds that were on a top shelf. When I plugged that hole, they lost their food source and got desperate. Thats how they ended up in the walls. Thats the world. The strongest gets the nuts, the most powerful or whatever it might be. Jesus says, Thats not what the church should be like. The church needs to invert that. The greatest shall be the servant of all. He is going to model that for us in this passage in Verse 46 (still in Mark 10) as we read on. [There will be] an opportunity for Jesus to serve. Then they came to Jericho. As Jesus and His disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus, was sitting by the roadside. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me! Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, Son of David, have mercy on me! Thats what faith does. Faith is tenacious. Faith does not let go of Gods promises. He just kept pressing on. Jesus stopped and called him and they called to the blind man, Cheer up! On your feet! Hes calling you. Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus. Can you just see the excitement and enthusiasm? Faith anticipates. Faith expects. If you truly are walking in faith, it energizes you. There is an expectation of God answering prayer, so he gets up and he just cant wait to come to Jesus and see what He will do for him. Verse 51, What do you want me to do for you? Jesus asked him. The blind man said, Rabbi, I want to see. Go, said Jesus, your faith has healed you. Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road. You and I cannot begin to imagine the exuberance and the joy of being able to see for the very first time. We cant even imagine what that man experienced. We see in Jesus here the model of what a servant does. If youre taking notes, I want to tell you some things a servant does. Again, when Im giving a message, even thought its based on the chapters were reading during the week, its not from the book. Its not like Im just parroting back something Pastor Warren has said. I hope some of you whove taken notes will capture some of these things because theyre important. What does a servant do? The first thing a servant does is a servant sees. A servant lives in a state of awareness, awareness of our environment, awareness of the needs that are going on around us. I heard a friend recently talk about being somewhere where they were talking about meeting the needs of the poor. Somebody said, I just try to pretend like those people dont even exist. Thats like living life with blinders on. [Thats like] focusing on myself and my needs and my concerns. Thats not what a servant does. A servant is aware of the needs that are around him or her. Secondly, a servant stops. Notice what Jesus does when He hears of a need. He stops. A servant is willing to be interrupted. Servanthood does not fall neatly into your schedule. If you want to be a servant, you dont schedule servanthood. Notice how many times Jesus was going about ministry, going one city or one place, and somebody would interrupt Him. What did He say? I dont have time for you. I dont have time for your need. Im doing this over here. Is that what Hed do? No. He was going off to visit this person, and the woman who needed healing touched Him, and He stopped. Zacchaeus was lonely and an outcast, when He walked under the tree and looked up. Always, Jesus was stopping. He was willing to be interrupted. This week, I had needs, and I had to be served, and I also helped to serve. Do you see those things as interruptions, or do you see those as opportunities? A servant sees those as opportunities to demonstrate the love of Christ. Do you stop? Are you willing to be interrupted? Because servanthood will not fit in to your schedule. The third thing a servant does, if we look at verse 51, is a servant seeks. A servant inquires. A servant tries to find out what the answers are, how to meet the needs, and what the needs are. So Jesus asked an open-ended question. He said, What do you want Me to do for you? Obviously, the man was blind, but maybe he didnt want healing. Maybe he wanted food; maybe he wanted money or shelter. Maybe he didnt want the responsibility of being able to see because then he was going to have to work. So Jesus says, What do you want? Jesus was the Son of God, and heres this man who is a blind beggar. He was the lowest in society at that time, a blind beggar. He had no power, no clout-nothing. Heres God in the flesh, and what is God going to do? God is going to reach down, and Hes going to serve. He says, What can I do for you? If you are a servant, you seek answers to questions. So before you just jump in and do something, you inquire. You seek out. What are the needs, and how are these needs best served, best met? So a servant sees, a servant stops, a servant also seeks, and a servant starts. A true servant initiates. Jesus says, Bring the man here to Me. Let Me minister to him. Servanthood is not a passive thing. We dont decide, Well, I think Id like to be a servant of God and go home and wait for the doorbell to ring or the phone to ring. Just sit at your couch and watch TV, and you say, Well, nobody called and said, Hey, can you serve me today? I guess Im off the hook for today. Thats good. I had a busy schedule anyway. Thats not a servant. A servant does not passively wait. A servant initiates. [A servant] sees the need and initiates a response to that need. In Verse 52, He meets that need. He had the ability to meet the need, so Jesus met the need. The last thing a servant does is a servant shows and demonstrates the love of God. A servant finishes the job. A servant sees the need and responds to the need and meets the need. The Word of God says in 1 John 3:16-18 that when we love, dont just love in word and in deed, love in action and truth. Put muscle behind that. Put effort behind that. Follow through with what you say youre going to do. When my son and I were vacationing in Key Largo, we took a father/son trip. We were on our way from Key Largo to Key West. It was a hot day. We were more thirsty than hungry. We stopped at a restaurant. Our food came, and the waitress saw that all of our waters were gone. She looked at my son, and she said, Are you thirsty? He said, Man, am I thirsty! She said, How about instead of refilling your glass, I bring you a whole pitcher of ice water. Would you like that? He just looked and thought that would be great. Id love a pitcher of water. Thats what Im going to do. Im going to bring you a whole pitcher of water. And that was good. So far, she was aware, she stopped and inquired, and shed taken initiation. The problem was she never showed up. She never came back. We sat there for almost an hour, and nobody ever came back to ask, Hows your grilled cheese? How are those French fries? Have you enough water? She left us. She just showed up to give us a bill. We had to stand up and seek her out to get that. We left a really good tip on that one. Do you know what? When we fail to show up and serve, when we fail to find out our spiritual gifts and use them for Gods glory, somebodys missing out on some water. Somebody is missing out on a blessing. You are that important to the body of Christ. Each one of you has a part, and when you fail to fulfill that mission and fulfill that call, and you fail to serve, somebody is missing out. Youre missing out on the blessing of serving. Those who God called you to serve are missing out on the blessing of your using your gifts to serve them. We have an important part to play in what Gods doing. Where do you fit in in this scenario? Would you say in your life at this point in time, do you resemble James and John? Lord, heres what I want You to do for me. Exalt me. Notice me. Is that you? Or would you say you more resemble Jesus in this story? If youre a servant; if youre fulfilling this purpose; its your shape to serve God; that you are all the time finding out more about your shape; you are seeing needs around you; youre aware; youre stopping-youre willing to be interrupted as you go about your day; youre seeking and inquiring how you can meet those needs; youre starting; youre initiating; youre taking action steps; and youre showing and demonstrating the love of Christ by following through and carrying it out, I hope that is the case in your life.
We begin by saying, Its not about us. Its about Him. We talked about two of our purposes: We were planned for a purpose. We talked about worship and what that is. Our second purpose was fellowship; we were formed for Gods family. This morning were looking at our third purpose: You were created to become like Christ. Paul speaks of that purpose in Galatians 4:19 (page 1154 of the pew Bibles) when he says, My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth, until Christ is formed in you... So, that is the goal of the Holy Spirit. He works within our life to form Christ in us. That is what God desires: that our character-our person, reflects His Son. That is the third purpose of our life that were going to be speaking on this morning. You notice he uses the word until. What does that signify to you, the word until? Until Christ is formed in you? That this thing we call discipleship is not an event; its not a program. Starting a discipleship…you dont understand discipleship. Discipleship is not contained in a program anymore than fellowship is contained in its totality in a small group. No, a small group cannot contain the totality of Koinonia. It has to go beyond a small group where you do life together. Discipleship is the whole of your Christian experience, not a program or an event. Its all of it, and it is a process. That process is discussed in Philippians 1:6 (page 1161 of pew Bibles), if youll flip over to that. Paul writes, …being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. The tense of the verb is the future active, which means God is doing it, was doing it, He is doing it now, and He will continue to do so. God will continue to work in your life to conform you to the image of His Son. Discipleship is a process. That is something God is doing. Hes using the circumstances, the people, your environment, your heredity, the things youre learning, the ways youre serving, the relationships and friendships you have, the spiritual disciplines, your spiritual gifts. All of these things in totality, God is using to form Jesus in you. That process lasts our whole life long. That process is called discipleship. God wants you to grow up and mature in Him. God doesnt want a bunch of spiritual Peter Pans running around that just choose to never grow up. There are some Christians who are just content to stay immature their whole lives. Babies are cute; we like babies. Theyre cute, and sometimes theyre messy. They drool and spit up, but theyve very dependent. They have diapers that need to be changed; they need to be spoon fed, but theyre cute. Let me tell you something: thirty year olds who are in diapers and need to be spoon fed, have pacifiers, and drool arent cute. You have to grow up. The same thing is true in the realm of the spirit. God wants you to mature. God wants you to grow up in him. You have a part to play in that. When I was a young believer, this verse ministered to me so much because I felt like I am willfully inadequate when it comes to being a disciple of Christ. I bet Gods ready to kick me out. I bet hes ready to throw in the towel and say, This guy isnt going to make it. The pastor preached on this verse when I was 18 years old. It said to me, God is not going to give up on me. Even though Im unfaithful, even though Im not always what Im supposed to be, God is going to continue to work in me. Hes not a quitter. So, that is a good promise, isnt it? Thats a wonderful promise of His Word. But that promise is based on a partnership. You may want to read Philippians 1:6 and say, Oh, all I have to do is kick back, put my hands behind my head, feet up on the footstool, and, God, do your thing. It says Youre going to work in me until the day of completion. Well, thats not Biblical. We have a part to play in our discipleship as well. Flip over one page to Philippians 2: 12-13. Paul writes, Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed-not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence-continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling… Notice he says-and this isnt going to be in your book as youre reading this week, youre going to run across a phrase: its work out not work for your salvation. If he had said work for your salvation, wed all be in trouble. How do we know when weve worked enough? How do we know when its good enough? Well, you dont have to work for your salvation because you cannot earn it. Christ bought it for you. You receive it by faith. You dont work for it. Continue to work out your salvation. He says, You dont work for a body. You work out your body. You work out because you have a body. In the same token, you dont work for your salvation; you work out your salvation. Its because you are saved that you want to be discipled. You want to grow in the image of Christ. He says you do so with fear and trembling. What does that mean? Does that mean God wants us to be afraid of Him? Does that mean we are going to lose our salvation, so we better work hard on it or were going to lose it. No. Its talking here about sober-mindedness. Its talking about how some people approach their spirituality and their own discipleship rather casually, rather flippantly, as if itll happen. Gods in charge of that. Its going to happen. Thats careless. Thats going to hurt you. That is going to cripple you, and its going to cause you to not grow in Christ as God desires you to grow in Christ. That kind of mentality is not Biblical. He says when you approach the subject of discipleship, there is a sober-mindedness to it. Youre serious about it. Go to the gym and be haphazard sometime. What kind of results are you going to get? You walk in [and someone asks], [Are] you going to work out today? I dont know. I think Im just going to stand in the weight room. Ill get big muscles. Ill get toned. Ill just stand here. It doesnt work that way, right? You have to be sober-minded. If youre going to develop into a person thats fit, youre going to have to do something about that. Thats what hes talking about here: approach your spirituality seriously. Recognize you have a part to play. You have a responsibility in what God is doing in your life. Verse 13 says, For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose. Its not about you. Whose good purpose? His good purpose. Hes working in you for His good purpose. Its not about you. Notice something interesting: sometimes people get hung up in certain theological circles about free will and sovereignty issues. Do you see that sovereignty and free will exist in perfect harmony in these two verses? Do you put verse 12-13 in juxtaposition? One is talking about mans free will, and the other is talking about Gods total sovereignty, and guess what? They coexist. They get along. Paul had no problem with it. God is sovereign, and man is free. I did a little detective work for you, free of charge. I decided I was going to investigate the word work in Verse 12. I knew I wouldnt be content with investigating Verse 12. I wanted it investigated in Verse 13 [as well]. What if the word work in Verse 13 is a different word from the word work in Verse 12? I was just curious because I didnt know. I dont have the Greek New Testament memorized. I dont know what every single word is, right? So I thought, What is this word? I looked it up in Verse 13, and guess what? It was a different word for work. I dont know if that gets you excited, but if youre a pastor, that gets you really excited. I just found a clue! I just found something! Its like a detective when he finds a clue, and he gets all excited. Hes gathering evidence. I think Im starting to figure this out! Whats this other word work here? Well, the first word work had to do with performing a task, going through directives, accomplishing a mission, and youre carrying out a task. It has to do with you fulfilling your purpose. You do what God has called you to do. You work on the commands God has given you to work on. You do your part. Thats the first word work. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Its work to love when you dont want to love, to forgive when you dont want to forgive, to speak out when you dont want to speak out, to not quit when you want to quit. Thats work. Work out your salvation. Do what God has called you to do and be. Put elbow grease into it. You have a part to play. The second word for work in Verse 13 was used exclusively for what God does. That word meant to work within for a purpose. I looked up every incidence of these two words in the Bible, and it was very clear that that meaning was different, to work within something for a purpose. Ill give you a couple of illustrations of this working hand in hand. Lets say you have a stain in your bathtub, and you cant get it out. Youre scrubbing, and youre trying what they say on the commercials. Nothing is working, so you call Grandma. You say, Hey, Grandma, I have a stain in my bathtub. How do I get it out? Grandma says, You just buy… You say, Okay, I will, so you go to the store, buy this product, and you put it on. You notice that the stain starts to dissolve. You start seeing some bubbles. You start to work at it; you put your elbow into it. Pretty soon, you look at the rag, and that stain is coming up. Youre getting all excited. You put more on there, and you start scrubbing away. Next thing you know, that stain comes out. Now, the first word work is in Verse 12. Thats what you do. Thats the elbow grease, I have to get this stain out of here. I have to put some effort into it, some sweat and hard work. When youre watching that product work on that stain, and it starts to dissolve, what do you usually say when that happens? You look at it, and you go, Its working! Its working! Its happening! Thats the word work that God does. Its working within for a desired purpose, a desired result. Its breaking down that stain so it can be clean. You need both because you cant get that stain out of yourself. There are sins in your soul that-I dont care how much you work-youre never going to remove them. If you just sat and worked on your own strength and might, you will never remove that stain no matter how hard you try. You need the Holy Spirit. Its not simply a matter of Holy Spirit, remove that stain from my life. Ill just watch Oprah while you do that. Ill just watch the ballgame today while you work that stain out of my life, Lord. It doesnt work that way either, folks. You see, I do my part, and God does His part. I work out; God works within. Ill give you another illustration. Im taking a class now called Power Pump. I had to have my arm twisted a little bit to do it because I thought it sounded like it was for women. I didnt want to be dancing around with weights going four more and three more, that kind of thing. Im not doing that. I was told, No, its not just going to be just for men or women. Its light weights, high rep. There is music, but youre not dancing to it. I said I would give it a shot. It was work. Some of you women work muscles that we guys didnt even know we had. They had me doing something where I had a band, and I was lying on my side doing this. I didnt know I had muscles up and down here. Boy was I sore the next day. Women were just flying with that thing. The guys were like, Ahhhhhh! It was terrible-and embarrassing. You work out everything; you work out your chest, your back, and your legs; everything gets worked out during the course of that hour, which seems like it lasts a long time. A couple of my friends from the church are in it too, and were kind of teasing each other as we work out. Were stretching-which is another thing most guys dont do-and Ive started noticing some results. Its like Im a little bit more flexible. Im starting to feel some muscles that werent toned and now are. They are making a difference when Im walking, going up steps, or playing basketball. Im starting to see some results here. What happens is when I work out, I go through the task that my teacher tells me to do, and I do them to the best of my ability, and I do them in the right form. I work hard at them. After that, what do I do? Whats my responsibility? Eat and rest. What happens then is my muscles work within to strengthen. I dont have any control over that. I dont turn to my quadriceps and think, How am I going to make that quadriceps tone up? Ive done my part. Now, within my body, my muscle fibers begin to grow and build back up to make me stronger. I work out, and my body works within, two different kinds of work. Both are essential. If I do my part, my body is going to do its part. So it is in spirituality, in discipleship. As we engage in all the things were doing right now-were memorizing Scripture; were reading the Word or reading a book thats Scripture-based; were going to small groups; were attending weekend services; were reading the book and discussing the sermons and all were learning; what happens is when we do that and put those things into practice, the Holy Spirit then starts to produce Christ in us. Sometimes changes arent seen right away. Ive been doing this for 20 days, and I still sin… Were never going to get there, folks, but Im telling you if youll apply yourself over these 40 days, youre going to see change. Whats more, youre going to form new habits that are going to carry on for the rest of your life-long after this time of ministry is done. This passage talked about Gods sovereignty. I want to talk about another passage that talks about His sovereignty in the Book of Romans 8, if youd turn there (page 1119 of pew Bibles). This is a verse many of us are familiar with. Gods purpose is that we be conformed unto His Son. Thats a process-not an event or program; it is a partnership of us working in conjunction with the Lord in our lives. We do our part, and the Lord does His part. In Romans 8, it says God has a plan. There is a plan in His sovereignty to form Christ in us. Romans 8:28 says, And we know that in all things… Notice it doesnt say in some things or in most things-in all things. …God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to… their purpose? Whose purpose? …His purpose. Is it about you? Its not about you. Its about Him. Called according to His purpose. Does it say all things are good? No. It doesnt say all things are good. If something is evil and is bad, its evil and bad. It will always be evil and bad. Sickness-bad; death-bad; somebody steals from you-bad. If you go through a divorce-bad. Bad! If you get injured and break a bone-bad. What it says is that God will work through that situation and turn it into something good in your life to transform you more into the image of His Son. When our car breaks down, we go to a mechanic. We say, My window isnt working anymore. Can you fix it? My air conditioning isnt working anymore. Can you fix it? My muffler is loud. Can you fix it? The mechanic makes your car run the way it used to. It makes the window function. He makes the exhaust system quiet. He makes it start when it doesnt start. He fixes it so it performs the way it did before. You break something; if something goes wrong inside, you go to the doctor. He fixes it so it can perform at or close to the level it used to. He repairs it. We thank God for doctors. We thank God for mechanics, but God does something better. God does something eternal. God says, I will use those things in your life-those things that have been taken from you, those things that have been broken, those hurts and losses-and I will make you better than you were before. Thats what He promises to do. I will use them and weave them into your life better than you were before, more like Christ than you were before. Sometimes thats a hard pill to swallow. Years ago, I would say over 10 years ago, I was-and this is the truth-30 pounds lighter than I am now. Im not heavy; Im not skinny either, but Im not heavy. I was 30 pounds lighter. I was in the best shape of my life. I was playing basketball at a pretty high level. One day I got hurt. I came down on my knee; I got catapulted in the air and came down directly [on my knee] on the gym floor. I put the patella into the femur so hard, it shattered my cartilage. The doctor said it looked like Id been in a car accident. When he got in there, he said, No more sports for you. You can ride a bike. You can play golf; you can swim, but you will never be able to play basketball, volleyball, football, baseball-anything with running or jumping is done for you for the rest of your life. I said, What if I dont play as hard, as long, or as often. He laughed and said, Thats the anesthetic talking, Mr. Williams. Your athletic career is over. You have no cartilage. He drilled holes in my bone, and for four months, I laid on my back. The only time I would get up was Sunday morning to give my one sermon [while I] was sitting down in a chair with my leg up and elevated. Then Id go back to my couch for the rest of the week while that blood clot formed. I began focusing on my pain and my problem, and I was miserable. I was angry. I said, God, how can you take this away from me? This was my release. I have my friends. Its something I enjoyed doing. How could you do this to me? I was angry. Pastor Rick Warren said something in his book on Day 25. He said, When were going through problems, it is vital that you stay focused on Gods plan and not your pain or problem. Vital that you stay focused on Gods plan and not your pain or problem. I had a turning point in my recovery. I began to focus on Gods plan. I began to say, Okay, God, what are you going to teach me? If this is gone from me, Im going to accept that, but the thought of never running again bothered me, so Im going to believe you. Maybe you want to teach me some things about faith. As I looked back, I learned some tremendous things about faith and patience. I learned that faith is not a passive thing; faith is an aggressive thing. Faith goes after stuff relentlessly. I learned that. Faith is not waiting for God to part the waters. Faith is God, we need these waters parted, and You know that, so Im going in the water and Im heading out. Im expecting You to part them as I go. Thats faith. I went out there with my brace, and the doctor said, You shouldnt do it, but I know youre stubborn. Im going to give you one anyway. I went out there with my brace, and the only way I could stop myself [when I was running] was to hit a wall. Thats how Id stop myself. Id feel sharp pain, and Id fall down. Id get back up. I played 15 minutes. Two weeks later, I could play for 20 minutes. Then I could play two days a week. Then I played for nine years until I had my second surgery. My second surgery took me a year and a half to rehab. I wanted to play basketball with our church team. In December, I couldnt run from here to the wall. The games were in January. I got out there with my brace, and I said, Im staying, God. I want to play, so you have to touch me. I played all season. Now, Im back up to playing three days a week. Im not very good anymore. I recognize that I occasionally can get the ball in the basket. Im not sure how much of its age, but I know a lot of it has to do with just the cartilage issue. Im out there; Im playing; Im contributing. Im working up a sweat. Im hanging out with some of my friends again. I learn that faith is something you just press on. Its aggressive. The things I learned about patience and faith, I wouldnt trade them. God took that very difficult situation, and as soon as I turned it over to Him, guess what? He used it. He used it to make my faith stronger than it ever was before. I would not trade that experience. The fourth point we want to make has to do with the fact that when we yield to the Lord, when we yield to Him, He produces in us Christ-likeness. I want you to turn in your Bibles to Matthew 26. While were turning there, were going to listen to a song by Joy Williams called Do They See Jesus in Me? (To read the lyrics, click here: http://www.christian-lyrics.net/artist/joy-williams/track/do-they-see-jesus-in-me) Christ is formed when the person yields to the Lord. When our desire and Gods will collide, who wins? Who wins? Its the mark of maturity. The spiritual Peter Pans who dont want to grow up, they win. In a mature believers life, the Lord wins. I had a birthday party this week to go to for my great niece. Right before she got ready to eat the birthday cake, ready to sing, the ice cream was out, everything was ready to go, she got an attitude and started pouting. The next thing you know, were ready to sing, and she walks away. She leaves. Wheres Brittney? my niece says. Brittneys gone. Brittney they call. Brittney is pouting. She doesnt want to come to her party. The ice cream is melting, the candles are burning, Mom makes a call and says, Lets sing and lets eat. So we sing Happy Birthday in part to the guest that is not there, and we cut the cake and we feast. Who missed out? Brittney did. We think we win by saying no to God and not yielding to God and doing our own thing. We dont win. We lose. We missed the party; we missed the blessing. Somebody else gets to enjoy what was meant for us. Our Lord Jesus, in Matthew 26-we looked at this last week in talking about relationships and friendships-He brought Peter, James and John into His inner-circle and bared His soul. He said in Verse 38 (page 985), My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with Me. Going a little farther, He fell with His face to the ground and prayed, My Father, if it possible, may this cup be taken from Me. Yet not as I will, but as You will. Can you pray that prayer? If you can pray that prayer, Christ is being formed in you because thats what He looks like. Pastor Warren said that the change discipleship comes about not by imitation, but by habitation: the Holy Spirit residing in our lives, changing us. Our responsibility when our will and Gods will collide is to yield. Can you pray that prayer? Or do you say, I dont want to drink that cup! I didnt ask for that cup! Whyd you give me that cup? Im not going to drink that cup! Or do you say, Father, if it possible, let this cup pass from me, yet not my will, but Your will be done because, God, I know you work all things for good. Even though I dont understand it, I trust You, and Ill drink of the cup. What is it You want to teach me? How are you going to use this to conform me to the image of Your Son? If you can pray this prayer and say, Not my will, but Your will be done, discipleship is happening in your life. Maturity [is going on]. Youre growing. Youre getting stronger. Youre becoming like Jesus. Lets pray and then well receive communion together. Father, thank You for the purpose You have for us in Discipleship, to be formed to the image of Your Son. We thank You that that is a process that Youre working in us to this day and for the rest of our lives. We thank You that it is a partnership between us and You, that its not all You, and its not all us. We work in harmony in conjunction with Your spirit. I thank You that You have a plan in Your sovereignty. You are working all things together for good in our lives according to Your purpose. Father, I thank You that as we yield to You, You will produce Christ-likeness in us. Lord, there is a lot we have to work on. We want to start right here and right now; and I pray during this communion time, Youd speak to our hearts; [if there is] anything that is non-conforming, any area where our desire and Your will are colliding, and were winning right now-we [understand] were really losing. I pray that even here, even now-this morning, the process of yielding, the decision to yield would start right here. In Jesus name I pray, Amen.
Lets open the Word of God this morning to the Book of Hebrews 2. We are in the 40 Days of Purpose, and this is what is going on, our services and our small groups. In Hebrews 2:11 (page 1185 of pew Bibles), Both the One who makes men holy… Who is that? Who is the one who makes men holy? God. …and those who are made holy… Who is that? Us. …are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers. Were of the same family. Thats our purpose this morning. You were formed for Gods family. Purpose number two: were going to talk about fellowship and what it is and is not. Im going to talk about four types of people or four groups of people, and were going to see if you find yourself in any of these groups. The first thing were going to talk about are the outsiders. These are the people who dont feel like theyre part of Gods family. They dont feel connected to the church. Theyre just not a part. Maybe its because they feel like theyre different; they dont fit in; or maybe its because of a low self-esteem, …maybe something I have done in my past that has, in my opinion, disqualified me from being a part of Gods family. I saw a movie called Cheaper by the Dozen about a year or so ago. In the movie, they had a little boy that just didnt fit in, didnt look like the rest, didnt act like the rest, so they nicknamed him FedEx, meaning you arrived by FedEx; youre not one of us. Were going to watch that short clip right now, and were going to talk about it. Probably all of us have felt like a spiritual FedEx at one time or another. Were going to look at one this morning in the Gospel of Luke, the 19th chapter. The first verse (page 1039), we find a man by the name of Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus was an outsider. He was ostracized by his community; he felt like he didnt fit in, which is astounding because he had a job that everybody loved. He was a tax collector, so youd think everybody would just automatically love him, but that wasnt the case. One day, Jesus is passing by, and hes heard of Jesus. He doesnt know who Jesus is, but he just wants to catch a glimpse and wants to listen and find out what all the ruckus is about. So, he joins the line of people waiting for the procession to come through, but he cant see because hes short in stature, the Bible says. Because hes not very well liked, because hes an outsider and doesnt fit in, nobodys going to let him through. Nobody will make room for him, so he is forced to climb a tree to get a glimpse of Jesus. While Jesus, this important figure, this VIP, is passing his way, Zacchaeus is in the tree above him. Hes looking and there He is! and people are shouting out to Jesus. There are all kinds of distractions and noise. All of the sudden, the Lord stops dead in his tracks, and he looks up at this man He has never physically met and calls him by his name. He says, Zacchaeus, I need you to come down. I need to stay in your house. Isnt that amazing? Isnt it wonderful when somebody important knows your name? Some of us here could name-drop today and say, You know, I know so-and-so, and they know who I am. The Lord knows who you are. He knows your name. He says, Zacchaeus, in My book, youre not an outcast. Youre not an outsider. Youre going to become a part of Gods family today, Zacchaeus. Thats what youre formed for. Thats what youre made for. Zacchaeus comes down, and its not well-received by the endearing throng of people. They say in Verse 7 [of Luke 19, page 1039], All the people saw this and began to mutter, He has gone to the guest of a sinner. FedEx: doesnt fit in. He doesnt belong; hes not like us, but Jesus says, Youre not an outsider, Zacchaeus. You matter to me. I love you. If youre here today, and you hear my voice, God doesnt want you to be an outsider. He wants you to know that He loves you and wants you to be a part of His family. Between Verse 7 & 8, theres a conversation. Its in the home of Zacchaeus, and were not privileged to hear all that was said. That conversation [that] the Lord chose to keep private, between He and Zacchaeus, we do see the outcome or the fruit of that conversation. Zacchaeus stood up, and he said to the Lord, Look, Lord! By the way, its interesting: the first time he sees Jesus, he doesnt really know who He is. He just wants to see this Jesus everybody is talking about. By the time they are through, he knows who Jesus is, and he calls Him Lord. He says, Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount. Jesus said to him, Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. That meant a man of the faith. He has the same faith as Abraham had. …for the Son of Man… And you want a purpose statement? Remember when we talked about the importance of purpose statements? Heres the Lords purpose statement, For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost. He says, This is why I am here. Its about people. Its about relationships. Its about reaching those who are outside the family and saying, You are a part. Youre not a FedEx. You fit in. You have a purpose. Thats why Im here, and thats what happened that day. Notice the first thing that happens to Zacchaeus: as soon as he enters into a right relationship with God, his desire was what? Community. His desire was to enter into a right relationship with his fellow men. I remember when I was 17 years old, and I gave my life to Christ and got serious about God. Do you know what the first thing the Holy Spirit prompted me to do? Make things right with everybody. [To] anybody I had a grudge against or anybody I had wronged, I wrote letters; I made phone calls; I made visits, and all of this love started coming out of me from nowhere. I was like, Where did that come from? [I said], Im sorry for disrespecting you, Mom. Im sorry for what I said, Dad. I appreciate your friendship… and Im writing to people who I never thought Id write to. Sorry for the jerk Ive been. Thats the fruit of the spirit. When the spirit comes in our life, and we make reconciliation with God, He wants us to make reconciliation with our fellow man. Zacchaeus says, I want to fit in. I want to be a part. I dont want to be an outsider anymore. I want to be a part of Gods family. The Book of Revelations 3:20 (page 1218), Jesus says, Here I am. Here I am. Behold I stand at the door and knock. Stand at the door of your heart, and I knock. Im not going to barge in. Im going to knock. If any man, if any person, opens the door, I will come in and fellowship with him. Thats Gods promise. God says, I know you. Not only do I know you, but Im knocking at your hearts door. If youll just open up, Ill come in. You dont have to feel like an outsider anymore. You can know that you belong. You can know that youre a part of Gods purpose, Gods plan, and Gods eternal family. The second group I want to talk about briefly is the outcasts-those who have been a part of a family but usually because of sin have been put out of that family. There are instances, and they are extreme, where somebody becomes, maybe, harmful to somebody in the family or is just so out of control with their life, they have to leave a family. That happens. There are times when society will take a person out of the home setting because its a harmful situation. The same thing happens in the church. It doesnt happen too often, but there have been a couple of times in the history of our church. Weve had two times, exactly. Once [it was] a man, and once a woman. They were like wolves in sheeps clothing. They were just starting to cause havoc and disruption in the body. I had to talk to them and say, Youre not welcome here. Youre named in the name of Christ, but youre sure not acting like a son or daughter of God. Your behavior is out of control, and its causing problems in this body. Until you get your life right with the Lord, youre not welcome here. This happened two times in 15 years. It doesnt happen much. It certainly is your last resort, but sometimes that happens, and thats biblical. One of the most misunderstood Scriptures is, Were not to judge one another. So people tend to think you can do anything you want to do because we cant judge. The Word says we cant judge the thoughts and retentions of one anothers hearts. Only God can do that. But if somebody is shaking their fist at God and living openly in sin and defiance of God and the church, the Apostle, Paul, says, You dont just ignore that. You dont just turn and walk away from that. In the Book of 1 Corinthians 5, there is a man who is living in gross immorality. The church is just allowing it to exist. What Paul is basically saying is by allowing it to exist, you become arrogant and youre condoning that behavior. He says, The yeast gets in and it spreads. If you allow this man to live an open rebellion against God, its going to contaminate your whole church. Its going to contaminate your whole congregation. Paul says, Its time to get rid of this man. Its time to remove him from the body, so he can be saved and so hell learn the consequences of his behavior, of his immorality. In Verse 12 of 1 Corinthians 5 (page 1131), Paul writes, What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are we not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. Expel the wicked man from among you. This man is living in blatant, open sin, and he says, We cannot tolerate that. Its going to take down the whole church. For the good of the church, for the honor of the Lord, Jesus Christ, and for his own good, he needs to be removed. Thats what happens. Most scholars believe [that], what were going to find in 2 Corinthians 2 is Pauls response. He writes the church in Corinth about the situation. They act; they remove the rebellious family member. He becomes an outcast from the church. In 2 Corinthians 2:6-8 (page 1143), Paul speaks about him being reinstated. He says, The punishment inflicted on him by the majority is sufficient for him. Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him. The reason I wrote you was to see if you would stand the test and be obedient in everything. The man had repented. The man had said, Im following God. Im seeking to live a righteous life. Im sorry for what Ive done. Paul says the responsibility of the church is to receive him with open arms, forgive him, and restore him. If youre living in sin, and youve removed yourself or somebody removed you from the church-or excommunicated you-this is a rare thing. Theres probably not a person here who has experienced that. Hopefully, you never will, but its happened. We have to talk about this because we have to realize that our ministry goes far beyond our four walls. We have a website thats getting about 100 hits a day, and I dont believe those are all from Wisconsin. I believe that somebody in Australia or somewhere else could be downloading messages of cross-training, Sunday morning services, and becoming a part of our congregation. Maybe this is not for you today, but it needs to be said. If you are living in rebellion against the Lord, God doesnt want you to be an outcast. If you repent and return to Him, the church will welcome you and receive you back into the family. The third group I want to talk about this morning is the orphans. Those are people with no family. Theyre not connected to the church body; [theyre called] spiritual orphans. God doesnt want spiritual orphans either. Usually, if youre a spiritual orphan, its because of one of two things. One is because there is a spirit of independence. Ive heard this said, and youve heard this said, I dont need the church to be a Christian. I can worship God in the park. I dont need to go to church. Its kind of a spirit of haughtiness, of rebellion. Some of you have probably sung that tune at one time in your life. But, when you become a part of Gods family, you realize the error in that thinking. You can kind of sing that tune that Simon and Garfunkel-Im dating myself here-used to sing, I am a Rock. I am an Island. A rock feels no pain, and an island never cries. I dont need anybody; Im independent. Im a rock; I can do it myself. That kind of independence goes full-face contrary to what Gods Word said. God says the phrase one another so many times in the New Testament. It says, Were to bear one anothers burdens. Were to be compassionate to one another, to love one another, to serve one another, to encourage one another, to honor one another, accept one another, forgive one another, be devoted to one another, and on and on it goes. [It says] Gods family is meant to be lived in community. Hebrews 10:25 (page 1191) says, Do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together. Do you know what the word church means? Ecclesia, the assembled ones? Hebrews 10:25 says, Dont stop going to church as some do. Dont have that independent streak. Why? The writer says because its not about you. When you come together, encourage one another, support one another to do good deeds. Thats an important consideration. Its not just about you. Its not only what you need to receive; its what you have to give thats so vitally important for you to become a part of Gods family. Its a two-way street. Its a reciprocal thing. I receive and I give. Im ministered, and I minister to. I serve, and I am served. A relationship thats only one way is dysfunctional; its co-dependent and not healthy. Thats a haughty attitude, and it doesnt line up with Gods Word. If you want to say youre a Christian, one of the definitions of a Christian is you obey what God said. God has said, Dont stop going to church. Dont be a rock; dont be an island. You werent created for that. You were created for community. You were formed to be a part of a family. The second reason that happens sometimes, again, has to do with a little bit of an independent, stubborn streak. That is because people become spiritual orphans and arent connected to Gods family because they transfer churches so much. Thats a phenomenon that happens in almost every community. Sometimes there are legitimate reasons to leave a church. Im not saying there arent. Most of the time when people leave, theyre not for legitimate reasons; theyre for rather frivolous reasons. If you take an apple tree and you plant it, and then you dig that up in a year or two and replant it; and then you dig that up in six months and replant it; then you dig it up after another year and replant it, how much fruit is that apple tree going to bear? How productive of an apple tree is that really going to be? Not too good, why? Because it never grows roots. It never settles in so it can produce a crop. Its always being uprooted and moved. Thats what happens in a Christians life. I look around our church, and I see some stable believers. When somebody comes in here and tells me theyve been to six churches in seven years, I usually think to myself, Well, youre not going to be here very long because as soon as they find something wrong, theyre out the door. Thats not how its supposed to work. There is no church thats perfect. If there were such a thing as a perfect church, the moment you joined it, it would cease to be a perfect church because youre not perfect. How many of you belong to part of a family? How many of you who belong to a family have perfect families? Nothing ever goes wrong. Nothing is ever said or done. Just one person? We all congratulate that person. Do you leave your family because its not perfect? No. You work through your difficulties together the best you can. How many of you today who are listening to me have a physical body? Okay, most of you. Thats good. How many of those bodies are perfect? Theres nothing youd change. Just one again? It is a different person. Theres nothing youd change in your face or your body; everythings perfect? No. All of us would say, No, Ill change that. Do you cut it off or remove it because its not perfect? No, that which you can change, you work on, right? Those things you cannot change, you accept. You say, You know what? My body isnt perfect, but its the best that I have. Its all I have. The same thing is true in the church. Theres no church thats perfect. This church certainly is not perfect. When things happen and things arent right, we work through them together. Some people say, I hate to bring this to you, Pastor, but I have a problem with this or that. Do you know what I say? I appreciate that. One thousand times over, I would rather you come to my face and say, Heres a problem that I have than talk about me behind my back. Dont you prefer that too? Come to my face. Thats the mature, biblical way to deal with it. Dont gossip and spread it around. Im not perfect. I have to apologize all the time for oversights and things I neglect or dont do right. Im sure you do too. Theres no perfect pastor. You have to love me the way I am. Im doing the best job I can up here-this is what you get. None of us are perfect, but were a family and we stick together and work things through. I had a brother… One time, one of the members of our family was disappointed because things didnt go the way she wanted them to, so she said, Im just going to leave. He said, You cant leave. Were a family. Families stay together. She left anyway. Not long after that, something happened he didnt like, so he left. I was like, Hey, hey, hey, hey. What was that speech you gave? Were a family. Sometimes people just get up and walk for the most frivolous reasons. They sever themselves from the body. The word the Bible uses for the church family is member. Member implies an intimacy, an attachment, a belonging, a connectedness. You dont just sever. Just think, if you severed parts of your body just because they dont work right or theyre sore or irritable, youd be a mess. You dont sever relationships because something doesnt go perfect. You work through those Biblically; you talk to one another; you love one another; you forgive one another, and you grow together. Theres a fourth group we want to talk about this morning, and thats offspring. Thats what God wants. God doesnt want us to be outcasts, orphans, or outsiders. God wants us to be His offspring. God doesnt have grandchildren, somebody once said. [He has] only children, no grandchildren. He wants to have a personal relationship with you. He wants you to be His offspring. Enter into a relationship with Him as your Heavenly Father. One of the groups weve adopted in our church is a group called Alethea, and theyve been here several times. Theyre three young ladies from the hills of Tennessee. They wrote a song called My Family. Were going to see some images that have to do with our earthly families, but bear in mind as she writes these words, she wrote these words to talk about not her earthly family, but her heavenly family-the church. Lets watch and listen to this song, and then well come back and talk about it. Yesterday, we had the privilege of being with my wifes family as her niece was married. In a family-even a close family-sometimes youre closer to some members of the family than others. Its just simply the way it is. The same thing is true in the church. Were a part of Gods family. We know each other. We love each other. Sometimes we enter into closer relationship with some than others because, lets be honest, you can only have so many intimate relationships in your life. True? You can only sustain so many close friendships in your life because of the time, the resources, and the energies that such friendships take. We believe that its about relationships, and thats one of the reasons why we are encouraging small groups and meeting during the week for the 40 Days of Purpose we are on. Right now, there are 450 of us that meet during the week. Pastor Sean says were on pace to be at 500 people meeting during the week to discuss these questions and these concerns. Thats tremendous! Its a tremendous part of our body that is meeting together and forming relationships. Some of those are friends you can greet and say hi to, but there are going to be a few of those friendships that are going to go much deeper than that. Youre going to go into Biblical community where you would lay down your lives for each other. Youre going to go into a point where you have deep love for one another in a healthy, Biblical way. Just like in a family, we might love our family, but were closer to some than others. The same thing was true with Jesus and the Disciples. In the Book of Matthew 26… Though Jesus loved all of His Disciples, there were three He had entered into an even closer relationship with: Peter, James, and John. When His time had come to go to the cross, He went to the garden to pray. He brought the 11 with Him. Judas had already betrayed. They came to the Garden of Gethsemane for Jesus to pray. He said to them (Matthew 26:36, page 985), Sit here while I go over there to pray. So they sat, but then He took three of them, Peter, James, and John, to separate from the rest of the Disciples. He was going to confide in them in a much deeper way, a much more significant kind of way. It said He took Peter, James and John the sons of Zebedee along with Him, and He began to be sorrowful and troubled… Prior to that, He was not. Prior to that, they did not know the depth of the sorrow. Matthew and the others, they didnt know the depth of what He was going through. They knew He was hurting, they knew they needed to pray, but they didnt understand the depth of His sorrow and His suffering. Jesus was going to let those three into His suffering. He was going to invite them in. If you want to enter into deep community with somebody in your spiritual family, step number one is you have to invite them in. You cant barge in. You cant go up to somebody and say, Hey, Im going to be your close personal friend, whether you like it or not. It doesnt work that way. You invite them in, and they invite you in. Its a reciprocal thing, but when that happens and people say, You know what? I need somebody in my life I can be accountable to and somebody I can share with, and Id like you to be that person. Were going to take our friendship to another level, and that takes time and trust. Thats what Jesus had here with James, John, and Peter. He said …and then He began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then He said to them, My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me. Talk about being open; talk about being honest and vulnerable. He says, Guys, I have to tell you something. Right now, my soul, my heart is just breaking. I am about to bear sin. Im about to fulfill my purpose. Im inside; there is turmoil in my spirit. Im praying for strength, that the Father will give me strength to fulfill this purpose. He was going to literally carry the weight of the world upon Him. The first thing a deep community friendship does in the family of God is it invites. The second thing is it shares. It takes a risk. It makes itself vulnerable. It takes a step of faith. It opens up our lives and says, Heres what Im going through. Heres what Im thinking. Heres what Im dealing with. It goes beyond the weather. It goes beyond the ball game, and theres nothing wrong with talking about the ball game or the weather. It goes beyond where you like to eat. It goes beyond that surface stuff to the point where it says, Heres what Im dealing with in my soul. It transcends a small group; those small groups are wonderful. These folks enter into life together, and they share. Our church could be a thousand people in a couple years. Thats the pace were on. You dont get to know a thousand people. Thats not going to happen. You are going to get to know a close circle of friends. There is nothing wrong with that. Youll be able to share your soul with them. You invite them in, and you share. A third thing… for those who want to enter into deep community in Gods family do, they bear. They bear. You share, and the other person bears. It says, I invite you to pray with me. Jesus says, I need you. Im sharing this burden with you. You pray with Me. And, they did actually. Im sure they were very sincere. When they started out, they were over there praying, saying, Father, Your Son needs you today. We dont understand what all Hes going through, but, Father, Hes fulfilling Your mission, Your purpose. Father, just strengthen Him today. Strengthen Him for what Hes about to go through. At some point, they fell asleep. When they fell asleep, Jesus came back. He saw them sleeping, and He said, Hahhhh. Whats the matter, Jesus? Nothing. Nothing. No, somethings wrong. Nope, nothings wrong. Nothings wrong. Is that what He did? He said, Couldnt you wait with Me one hour? Couldnt you pray with Me? You see, their relationship was so open and honest, He didnt have to disguise His feelings. He didnt have to hide behind some relational mask. He said, You disappointed me. Thats an okay thing to do. When youre a family, you can share. You dont stuff things down inside and put on pretend masks and pretend everythings okay. You can be real and authentic. Youre my friends. Youre the ones I was counting on, and you dropped the ball. That hurts too. When that happens, then you can reconcile, and you can make things right. Friends, when you put on masks and you say everything is fine when everything is not fine, and you passively/aggressively ignore a person because theyve hurt you instead of dealing with the problem, youre just as much a part of the problem as they are. In a deep family relationship, you put the cards on the table, invite them in; you share and you bear. You bear one anothers burdens. Some of you are saying, I dont want to be a problem. I dont want to be a burden to anybody. If youve entered into deep community and friendship, youre not a burden to that person. That person loves you deeply. They want to know, and they want to share. They want to pray, and they want to help bear. If youre an isolate, an orphan, or an outsider, I encourage you this morning to get involved with community. Take some of those risks. Make some of those steps. Start to build some of those friendships. In your Christian walk, your experience will never be the same if you do. God doesnt want you to be an outcast or an outsider. He doesnt want you to be an orphan. He wants you to know youre his offspring; youre his child. He wants to enter deep community with you. Youre part of His family. He wants that relationship to extend to your brothers and sisters. He set a model for us here in Matthew 26 that He desires us to follow. Lets pray together. Wont you stand with me this morning? I hope that youre reading faithfully in your book. If you get behind a day or two, dont kick yourself. Our family was out of town yesterday, so were actually two days behind. We have to do a couple double duties here and read a couple chapters. Continue to be faithful to your small group. Maybe there is a week where you dont get much out of it. Pastor Warren wasnt that good on the video this week or the sermon was a dud this week. Be faithful. Stick it through. Follow through these 40 days. Were about halfway through now, and press on. Follow through with that commitment. Keep coming to the weekend services. Keep reading in your book; keep memorizing your Scripture; keep praying. These truths are just going to sink into your spirit to the point where they saturate your being, and they change the way you live. When you realize that youre created for Gods purpose, you learn what worship is, you truly start to offer your lives to the Lord, you learn what fellowship is, and you truly start to enter into that purpose of fellowship, your life will never be the same. It will literally never be the same. Im excited about what God is doing in our church and what Hes doing in each of your lives.
This morning, were in our second part in our series, The Purpose Driven Life, talking about Planned for Gods Pleasure. Were going to talk today about worship and what that means. Have you ever done something like this? Hey, I cant find my sunglasses? Somebody says, Oh, you mean the ones that are on your forehead? Oh, oh yeah, sorry about that. Or youve said, I cant find my pen. Whered I put that? Theyll say, The one thats there on your ear? Oh, silly me. [Has] anybody done that before? [Were] just space-cadets out here. Sure, Ive done that; youve done that. Were looking really hard for whats obvious and whats evident. This morning, we saw in our video a young man desperately looking for his purpose, looking hard and trying to discover what hes here for and how he can worship God. I understand he will be back on a weekly basis as he continues his journey to find his purpose. God has revealed His purposes to us for our lives. There are things God has clearly said in His Word, Heres why Ive created you. Here is your purpose. Were going to be studying those purposes over the next five weeks together. In Colossians 1:16 (page 1165 of pew Bibles), Paul writes about the Lord Jesus, and it says, For by Him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by Him and… and what? For Him. Are you an all thing? Are you included in the all things that God made? Absolutely, you are. So who does God say you were made for? You were made for Him. Do you remember at the kick-off event we held at First Lutheran Church, if you were there when we watched this simulcast that Pastor Rick Warren from Saddleback Church in California. One of the most profound things he said was that the greatest thing you can do in life is to discover that God loves you. The greatest thing you can learn in life, rather, is to find out how much God loves you. The greatest thing you can do in this life is to love Him back. Remember that statement? I just thought that was a profound thing, and I wrote that down as I was taking notes. I think taking notes is important because you never know when something is going to be said or the Holy Spirit is going to give you an insight that can change your life. You want to seize that moment. You want to capture that moment. I never know when the Holy Spirit is going to give me some leading or direction through a Scripture or something that is said; so I always want to have, when Im listening to a sermon, a pen and paper in hand, so I can capture that moment and write it down. So, I wrote that down: the greatest thing in life I can do is to love Him back. When we love God back, when we offer ourselves back to Him, whats that called? Worship. Thats worship. When I love God back, when I offer myself back to Him, that is worship. What we have done, sadly, is we have confined worship to a category. When were singing music to the Lord, thats worship. Pastor Warren also talked about that. He said we even classify it as a style of music. Theres the praise music… By the way, were having our music at the end of the service this morning. Our praise team has this Sunday off, so Janet is going to be leading us in some music, but its going to be at the close when we receive communion-in case you were wondering where the music went. Its still to come. But…we confine worship as its this kind or music, this slow music. Thats worship. Worship is so much more than music. Music is one aspect of worship, but its certainly not worship in its totality. We might say worship is a posture. If Im doing this, some people say, Well, youre worshiping God. In some churches, everybody goes like this (raising your hands in the air), Now were worshipping. Thats one way to worship. [Theres nothing] wrong with that. The Scripture says lift up holy hands and praise the Lord. Thats fine. Some people think this is worship. If youre not doing this, youre not worshipping. Worship is not a posture. Worship is not a place. What did you do Sunday morning? Well, I went to go worship. So, now that youve left church, are you done? Its not a place. Its not an event. Scripture does not teach anywhere that worship is an event that you go to, spend some time, and leave. It is not an act. It is a lifestyle. In the Book of Romans 12:1 (page 1123 of pew Bibles), it says you and I are to offer our bodies up as a living sacrifice. Thats not talking about giving your body as a literal sacrifice, killing yourself for Him, for goodness sake. Thats not what it means. If thats not what it means, what does it mean? It means to lay your life down for Him. Offer your body as a living sacrifice, holy, set apart, and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual act of worship. When I offer my life to the Lord…how often do you sing? According to a viewer take, the minutes that you sing in a given week or the minutes that you pray in a given week, what percentage of that of that is your week? If you sing worship for 20 minutes a week, what percentage of that is your total week? Thats a pretty small percentage, isnt it? What percentage of your week do you spend going to church? If you count small groups, [is it a] couple hours? Thats a pretty small percentage of your week. Are we to say to God that .0005 percent of our week is about worship, and the rest of our week is about us? If thats how were going to define worship, thats what were saying. The Scripture says its life in its totality offered up to God. Ive heard some reports about some people [who are] very discouraged in your small groups. Some of your small groups are large, and theyre full, and you cant squeeze any more in. Others were just like, You know, I invited a lot of people. I prayed and I studied, and two people showed up or one person showed up. Youre all discouraged. I want to share with you a little bit this morning that you shouldnt be. When our church was relatively new-we were just weeks old-I remember a Sunday morning service. My wife was probably doing the Childrens Church or something [else], and there was a woman-Ill call her Sister Jones, okay? Its not her real name, but were going to call her that. Sister Jones would come to church and almost every Sunday, she would sleep during the sermon. Id put her out. When Sister Jones would sleep, she would sleep as unto the Lord and not unto men. She gave her whole heart into it. She would look something like this (Pastor imitates her sleeping with her head way back and her neck bent). I can even get my head back as far as she could get her head back. Her mouth would be wide open, and shed just be singing unto the Lord: kuuunngg, kuuunngg… Sometimes, during the service, she would just start snoring, so Id be competing with her. I would want to get an usher to just wake her up. Bless her heart; we loved her. She was a wonderful lady, but one Sunday morning, I got up to speak. When I started my message, I got up to speak. Sister Jones was the only person in the congregation as I began speaking. We started church, and she was looking around, and then it wasnt long before she was out. I thought to myself, This is a personal low for me. Theres nothing worse than being a pastor, youve studied hard all week, and you have this message thats going to change the world… I was 29 years old, and I was naïve, thinking I was going to change the world. I get in there, and I start preaching, and I have one person to preach to, and shes sleeping. I was so discouraged. In fact, there were a couple services that were very sparse in attendance. I would think, What am I doing? I need to go back to Rockford. Maybe this thing isnt going to go. Maybe I missed God in this thing. I remember talking to my pastor about it, Don Lyon, and saying, Im discouraged. Ill never forget what he said. He said, But you were there. You were there. You studied, you prayed, you prepared, you brought the message that God called you to bring. You were there. Worship took place because I had offered myself to the Lord. Friends, [if] you have a small group, you study and prepare, you pray, you read, and nobody shows up-worship took place because you offered yourself up to the Lord. You have to start thinking of worship in much bigger terms than the narrow-minded blinders we put on. Worship is offering yourself to God. Dont measure the success of worship or your ministry in terms of numbers. You measure it in terms of faithfulness. Were you faithful to God? Did you do what He called you to do? Did you faithfully bring the Word He called you to bring? Jesus addresses this subject in Mark 12. Hes asked a very poignant question. The question He has asked is what is the greatest commandment? Thats a pretty important question. The answer to that is going to be extremely important to know, isnt it? Hes saying, Whats the most important thing we can do? What is the most important purpose we can have? Jesus answer is found in Verse 30 of Mark 12 (page 1005). He says, Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these. Jesus knew that you and I would love somebody or someone supremely. He said, When its all said and done, make sure the one you love supremely is God. Thats why youre here. Were going to listen to a song right now by Point of Grace called I Choose You (Lyrics can be found at http://www.christianlyricsonline.com/artists/point-of-grace/i-choose-you.html) Lets talk about that verse 30 (of Mark 12, page 1005)) for a moment. It says were to love the Lord our God with our heart and our soul, to love Him with all our affection, as that song said. The person who says I love you first takes a risk in a relationship, dont they? There is a chance that someone could say or not say I love you back. When you say I love you to somebody, you make yourself vulnerable. God made Himself vulnerable. The Scripture says in Romans 5:8, While we were yet sinners, God demonstrated His love for us; and while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. God said I love you first. He could have chosen to make us in such a way that we were compelled to love Him, that we had no choice but to do so. He didnt do it that way. God, instead, chose to make a creation who could choose to not love Him back, and many dont. Years ago, my wife and I had one of our first arguments. I was probably 18 years old, and she was like 16 or 17. We went to a lake in the Dells, and she had forgotten her blow dryer. She said she couldnt swim, and I was really ticked off. I decided to paddle my raft out and just cool off. I heard a commotion. I turned to see what it was. At first I thought it was a man and his son at play, but as I watched longer and closer, I realized that something very serious was taking place. The man was taking the little boy, [who] was about 10 years old-and I dont know if he was the father, step-father, or boyfriend of the mom or whom he was-but he would hold the boy under the water and lift him back up. Then he would say this, Tell me you love me. The boy would say, No! I dont love you, and hed put him back under the water and hold him down longer. Hed pull him back up, and the boy would say, No! I dont love you! Hed hold him back down and pull him back up, saying, Tell me you love me! Finally the little boy was exasperated, and he said while gasping for air, I love you! I love you! Then the guy let him go and went back to shore. The little boy went and continued to play. I was furious as I watched that! I said, How in the world could that give you pleasure? How in the world could that kind of I love you that was coerced and bullied out of that little boy bring any kind of satisfaction to that man? What kind of a father holds his son under the water and forces him to say I love you? Thats not the kind of love that God wants us to have. God does not compel us or force us to love Him even though that is His desire. God wants us to love Him because we want to love Him. Think about it: God put Himself on a cross, put Himself in a position of weakness, and what did they say? Youre the Son of God, come down from the cross or Youre the Son of God, you can call legions of angels to help You. Youre the Son of God, deliver Yourself. Look at You, Youre weak. Are You just going to stay up there and bleed? I thought You were going to save the world! Thats exactly what He did. His only response from the cross was Father, forgive them, they know not what they do. Who needs a weak God like that? I do. You do. Hes not a God who comes down and says, Love Me or Ill punish you, but [Hes] a God who loves us first and then waits for us to love Him back. You say, Well, thats my problem, Pastor; I just dont love God as much as I should. I would say to that, No, thats not your problem. Your problem is not that you dont love God as much as you should. Your problem is you dont realize how much God loves you. If you were to realize how much God loves you, you would have no problem loving Him back. If you realize the attention that God gives to you… What does Matthew 10:30 say? It says, The very hairs on your head are numbered. God loves you so much, He knows how many hairs are on your head at a given time. Some of you have made His job very easy over the years. Im sure He appreciates it (congregation laughing). Thats incredible to think about. Jesus didnt say that in a metaphorical sense. He said it in a literal sense. Thats how well God knows you. Youre on His mind and His heart. When you fall in love with somebody, you think about them all the time. God loves you and He wants you to love Him back. The best way to love Him back is to realize how much He loves you. I want to share a story about a man whose name is Joe Morgan. Joe went to visit some missionaries in Eastern Europe. He thought, You know, before I go visit these missionaries, I better get some snacks because I heard they dont have snacks over there in Romania. So he went to the grocery store, and before he started shopping, he prayed. He said, Lord what would You have me get? He says, I think Ill get myself some Reeses Peanut Butter Cups, some tapioca, some malted milk, some hard candy, and Im going to get myself some fruit cocktail. That is what he got. He shows up, and they have a wonderful time at fellowship. He decides before he leaves that he remembers these items in his backpack. He says, Why not have Christmas in October? Why not? Lets give you a little something from home. He looked at the teenage girls of the missionary couple and said, What is it from home that if you had, it would make you really happy. The girls looked at each other, giggled and said, Candy! He said, What kind of candy? The mom chimed in and said, The girls really love Reeses Peanut Butter Cups, but they dont have them here. He couldnt believe it. He reached into his pouch and pulled out a king-size package of Reeses Peanut Butter Cups, one of the things God told him to buy in the grocery store. The girls were ecstatic. He said, What about you, Mom? He said, What do you want? She says, You know, the thing I really miss the most is fruit, citrus fruit. He couldnt believe his ears. He reached in his pouch which must have seemed like magic to them, and he pulled out a can of fruit cocktail and a can of mandarin oranges. She began to cry. He thought, I better stop there. Two out of three miracles isnt bad, but something inside of him was telling him to go for it. Before he could say no to God, he said, John, what is it that you want from home? He said, You know, most people dont like this, but I love it. I miss Tapioca pudding. He said, I almost broke my arm reaching into the bag to grab my snack pack of Tapioca pudding that God had me buy seven days earlier, 4,000 miles away from home. He handed it to the man. He said, There we stood in that little home in Romania, and we cried, wept, laughed, worshipped, and gave thanks to a God who loves us enough to care about the little details of our life. The problem is not that you dont love God; the problem is you dont realize how much God loves you. Jesus said were to love Him with our heart, soul, and affection. Were also to love Him with our minds, with our attention. Weve done that. In these 40 days, were engaging our minds. Some religions empty their minds. In Christianity, we want to fill our minds with God. Weve read the Bible; were memorizing Scripture; were doing our purpose-driven life. Were doing ours as a family devotional everyday. Maybe some of you are too. Maybe youre coming to a small group, and youre reading that chapter and meditating on it, discussing it together. Youre coming to weekend services, and youre listening to it and studying it. Were trying to fill our minds with a greater understanding of Gods love, arent we? I have to race through these points. I apologize. Were called to love the Lord, our God, with all of our affection, all of our attention, and lastly, He says, our strength. That has to do with our abilities. When you walked into church, did you see a little display there? That is people from our church showing how they worship God in the things they make. There is a person who makes quilts for the elderly, so theyre worshipping God even through what they make…every aspect of our lives. Colossians 3:23 says, Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as working for the Lord, not for men… I bet you spend a lot of your time working, dont you, during the week? If you have a full-time job, you work 40, 50, sometimes 60 hours a week. Some of you work two jobs. God says, Dont confine worship to what happens at church, when you sing, or when you pray. See your job as an act of worship. Offer your job up to the Lord. Work as unto the Lord and not to men. Well, you dont know my boss. If you knew the boss I had, boy, I tell you, youd understand. Im just kind of making contact with all the staff, making sure theyre not nodding their heads in agreement with that one. So far, so good. If you just knew my boss, youd know he just makes my life so burdensome, my job so hard. You dont work for your boss ultimately; you work for the Lord. Thats what the Scripture says. I understand you work for your boss, and he tells you what to do, but most importantly, you work for God, whatever your job is. Well, if you just knew how much they paid me… They pay me a pittance, and Im worth much more that that, so I can fudge a little bit because of what they pay me. Im not paid what Im worth. Ill tell you that. First and foremost, you dont work for a wage. You work for Him, so you give it your best. You dont know the people I work with. Oh, Man, theyre busy bodies, nosey, and they cause me trouble. You work for the Lord. Every aspect of your life should be offered up to the Lord. It is amazing how it will change your work environment when you go in and say, Today, Im reporting and punching in for the Lord, and Im going to work for Him. Its amazing how that will revolutionize the way you do your job. Were going to watch a short clip right now from the movie, Chariots of Fire. It won an Academy Award for best picture years ago. It was about a runner by the name of Eric Liddell running for Scotland. God had called him into the mission field in China. Hes bringing the news to his sister that he is going to go to China and become a missionary. But before he does that, there is something he has to do. He said, He made me for a purpose. He made me for China, but He also made me fast. When I run, I feel His pleasure. To win is to honor Him. Is that your mindset? Are you able to see that everything you do could be an act of worship, and that God made you for a purpose and had pleasure in making you, that you were made for Him? Thats the basic fundamental purpose that we want to begin our talk on this weekend. Im going to ask the ushers to come forward and get ready to distribute the communion elements.
Lets pray: Father, we are so thankful that You have made us with a purpose. You have made us for Your pleasure. Its not about us-its about You. Lord, forgive us for the time we seem to confine worship to something we do as an act, a place, a moment or an event. We fail to see that worship is when we offer the totality of our life-whatever were doing-up to You. Worship is where we realize how much You love us and we love You back. Help us to be a people of worship today. As we prepare to receive communion, were reminded of a God who loved us first, a God who took a risk, a God who made Himself vulnerable and weak, and said I love you to a people who would turn their backs on Him. As we receive of the bread and the cup, we affirm our covenant, and we affirm our love with You, Father. In Jesus name, I pray, Amen.
Before we begin, I do want to say thank you to all those who helped with our kick-off event at the First Lutheran Church Friday night. Thank you to those who worked with music, tech teams, food preparations, set up and tear down, curriculum distribution… So many people helped, and were very appreciative. About 370 of our people showed up to kick us off, so over half of our [church] body was there. It was a fun night. The sanctuary [there] is a little hot. We appreciate our air conditioning so very much this morning, but we had a good day, and were off to a good start. You can go ahead and start reading [the book, 40 Days of Purpose]. In fact, Pastor Voss asked me to mention that each week, just for the 40 Days of Purpose, we have its own little bulletin here. There is a little tool for day one through day seven. Were going to read ours as a family. However you choose to read it, you can check that off and follow along, but this is not the kind of book where you just sit down and say, Oh, its so good, I couldnt put it down. Put this one down. This is one where you read for the day, and even if its good and you want to read on, you wait. You resist the temptation. I was once told that I dont eat my food; I inhale my food. My boss back in Rockford told me that. He said, Just slow down and enjoy your meal. You dont have to breathe it in. Actually, you get more nutritional value out of it if youll just take your time, chew the food, and absorb the nutrients. So, Im still not sure if Ive done that or not, but it was good counsel, especially in regards to the words here. Its not the quantity. Its the quality. Lets read through it bit by bit over these 40 days [and] process the Scripture that is given. There is a lot of Scripture given in this book. Take your time as you go through it. Meditate on what you read each and every day. Lets open our Bibles to the Gospel of Luke 12. Well begin our first installment in our 40 day journey-as far as our weekend services are concerned. Youre only going to get out of this what you put into it. Coming to weekend services, thats great, but its just one element. Join a small group. [Over] 70 different small groups exist and are available to you. If you enjoyed Pastor Rick Warrens message on Friday night, and that was a terrific message, hes going to be speaking to the small groups every week. We have new teachings that hes going to be bringing us in short video segments. You watch those as a group, and then you talk about them in your small group. You work through your reading, and then you do your Bible verse each week. In fact, those are available on the way out today, a little Bible verse. The first one goes on your keychain and will help you memorize it as youre waiting in line at the grocery store, or wherever you might be. You can read through that verse and memorize it. All of these things working together produce a dynamic that will help you to grow in the process and learn these truths; so by the time its done, you will have a firm handle on what your purpose is in this life. In Luke 12, the Lord is going to describe a man in a parable that very much resembles you and me. He doesnt live a purpose-driven life; he lives a self-centered life. Most of us today live self-centered lives. Madison Avenue appeals to that. It tries to sell us on how were worth it, and youre the best. You deserve the best kind of thing. That appeals to our narcissistic nature-our tendency to seek first our comfort, our pleasure and our security above all things. That is how were wired. Right off the get-go, the first line is, Its not about you. Its not about you. Thats a rude awakening, and if we can get that down-that one truth down-what a foundation that is! In order to really understand it, live it, and say, Its not about me as this sign around you here says; thats key. Thats significant to realize its not about you. So, if its not about us, whats it about? Who is about? Jesus is going to use a teaching moment here in Luke 12:14 to talk about that very thing. A man comes up and wants Jesus to be a judge between him and his brother in regards to an inheritance. Jesus was like (page 1031 of pew Bibles), Im not a judge. Im not an arbiter person… but He uses that as a teaching moment. Then He said to them, Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed. When Jesus says watch out, we better what? Watch out. You had better beware. When somebody says to you, Hey, watch out! what do you do? Your spider sense goes on, Whats going on here? Something important can happen. When Jesus says watch out, you better pay attention to what Hes about to say. Hes going to warn us of three things that happen when a person lives a self-centered life. …a mans life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. Of course, our society would say, He who dies with the most poise wins kind of thing; but thats not the case. He told them this parable: The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, What shall I do? Now right there, were going to stop for a second because this is a defining moment, and thats a defining question. When a person says, What shall I do? What is my purpose? What direction am I going to go? thats a key moment right there. Its going to set the course of your life. Pastor Warren points out in the book that one of the first mistakes we make is when we ask that question, and we look to the wrong source for the answer. We look to ourselves for the answer. Because you didnt make yourself, how are you going to know what your purpose is? He said Oprah Winfrey was doing a show about (and this is not a knock on Oprah) what your purpose in life is. He said he wanted to hear what Oprah said was his purpose. He taped the show, came home and started to watch it. After the first break, Oprah said, After this commercial break, well be right back with your purpose. He thought, All right, lets hear it. He fast forwarded through the commercials, and they he watched the next segment. Oprah would again say, After this message, your purpose in life… He would stick around, and she kept baiting him. He kept coming back and watched the whole hour. At the end of the hour, they hadnt answered the question. They were rolling the credits, and Oprah said, Whats the purpose for your life? You have to find that out yourself. And that was the show. Its within you. He was thinking, I didnt make me, so how do I know what Im made for? Have you ever seen this happen-you go to the gym and somebody wants to get in shape? They go out and buy new leotards, and they come in and are ready to work out, but they dont know how to use the equipment. Have you seen that? Some of the equipment, if youve never seen it or worked it before or ever seen anybody use it, is somewhat foreign to you. I had that happen this week. I wanted to use something, and I said, Ive never used it, never seen anybody use it, so I said to somebody, Whats that for? Its an important question to ask. Usually, there is a sign right there on most machines, the new ones, and it has a diagram of a man or a woman seated in the equipment the way youre supposed to be seated in the equipment. The muscle group thats being exercised is highlighted in red in the picture. There are little instructions that say, Heres what youre going to push, and heres what youre going to pull. It will guide you through the work-out process. A lot of people dont want to take the trouble to do that. They say, Im just going to figure it out myself, so they sit in it incorrectly; they pull things that shouldnt be pulled, and they push things that shouldnt be pushed. The best case scenario is they end up working something but not as effectively as they could. The worst case scenario is they end up hurting themselves. Now Ive seen that happen. You want to step in and say, No, thats not the way to do that! You need to ask somebody or better yet, the manufacturer has told you exactly how to use this machine. [It says] where your head should be, where your arms should be, what the motion should be. Read it. What Jesus is saying here is this man consults in the purpose of his life, but he consults the wrong place. He consults within, but we should be consulting revelation. We should be consulting what God has said is our purpose, not what we think our purpose might be. So he comes to a conclusion. He says, What shall I do? This is what Ill do. Heres his answer [in Luke 12:18], I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. That was his answer. The self-centered life never has enough. Beware of that, Jesus says. (Here, Pastor is imitating what this greedy man is thinking…) I already have barns, and I already have them full, but thats not enough. Now I want bigger barns, so I can fill those too. The self-centered life never has enough. Its never satisfied. The purpose-driven life is satisfied because its doing the will of God. The purpose-driven life is satisfied because its living for something greater than itself. Did you read about the king in Africa this week? They were talking about this king on CNN. Hes 35 years old, and he has a kingdom of a million people somewhere in Africa. Hes a monarch. He is sovereign there. What he says goes. The slogan for his country is its all about me. Every year, I dont know how many thousands of young girls-like 10,000 or 50,000, something astronomical-come, dance, promenade and prance around the king, and he gets to choose a new wife every year. This year hes working on wife number 14. I think ones enough, dont you? (congregation laughing) I mean that in a good way. I better… I havent said anything about scheduling a birthday party during the Bears game next week. Thats just fine with me. Another subject… His whole point was its about me. Some of us want to be our own little kings and build our own little kingdom and amass, amass, amass. Why? Whats the end result of that? Whats the purpose of that? Whats that going to accomplish when its all said and done? Whats ultimately the significance of a life like that? Harry Conn, a friend of mine who passed away not that long ago, once said to me, The smallest package in the world is a person all wrapped up in themselves. I thought, Well, thats significant. Thats one of those things that if you hear it once, youre going to remember that, arent you? The smallest package in the world is a person all wrapped up in themselves. What the purpose-driven life is about is unwrapping that package. Its about saying, God, here I am. God, I realize its not about me. Its about You, so You show me. You give me directions. I dont want to be king. I want You to be king. I want You to call the shots. I recognize that Im never satisfied, but if its about You, I can be satisfied because I know Im accomplishing Your mission and Your purpose and living for something greater that myself. Theres a man by the name of George Eliot who said this, Its never too late to be who you might have been. That really spoke to me. Its never too late to be who you might have been. Another way to say that is to say, Its never too late to become who God intended you to become. Its never too late to do what God intended you to do. As he mentions in the book, this is just dress rehearsal. This is just the opening act. This is just for a brief period of time. This is just practice for whats to come. That was the warning in Verse 18. A self-centered life never has enough. If youre living a self-centered life today, you will never find contentment-never find contentment- because its never going to be enough. As soon as you get or acquire what you think it is you need, youre going to want more. It will lose its luster after awhile. Its never going to be enough. He goes on to give a second warning in Verse 19, a second beware. And Ill say to myself, You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry. The second warning is a self-centered life squanders its blessings. A self-centered life squanders its blessings whereas the purpose-driven life seizes the day. It says every day I have is another day to fulfill my God-given mission. Every day I live is another day to make my life complete. When the world looks at this guys life, what does the world think? Thats a good life. Thats a great life. Id like to live a life like that. I model my life after that guy. Look at him! Hes rich; hes successful; he can retire at a young age. He doesnt have a care in the world. The world looks at the guy and says, Thats who you want to be. Thats the guy you want to become, that self-made, independent guy who just has everything you could ever want. God looks at his life, and what does He say to him? He says, Youre a fool. Were going to read on, and God is going to call him a fool. You say, Is God calling names now? Thats kind of low of God to start using name-calling, isnt it? A fool meant a person who lived as if God didnt exist. Thats the biblical meaning of the word fool. We use it as a derogatory, and it is derogatory, name-calling kind of thing. It means a person who has no moral compass, and they live as though God didnt exist. Thats a fool. The world says, This guys a success. God says, Hes a failure. Hes a failure. How about that? Because the self-centered life squanders its blessings, [think of] all of the blessings he could have been, the people around him he could have blessed with what he had and the talents he had. He chose instead to squander it. He stored it, he kept it, and he died, and it was gone. God basically says to him, What was that all about? Thats not what I put you down there for. Thats not what I breathed life into you for. Its not what I designed you for. There is more to life than that, than stuff. No, thats not a successful life. Imagine this life with a different scenario. What if instead of saying to himself, What shall I do? What is my purpose? this same guy would have said, Okay God, you tell me what my purpose is? God, Im asking You, I dont know. You created me. You tell me what is my purpose? What should I do with the talents Youve given me, the resources Youve given me, the passions Youve given me? What do You want me to do, God? God would have given him a different answer than to build bigger barns and fill them up for yourself. God probably would have said something like you know that widow down the street who just lost her husband? Yeah, I know her. You know what? She has some little boys. I know them, yeah. I want you to first of all go give her some food because they dont know how theyre going to eat tonight. I also want you to teach those boys how to farm, teach them the techniques that have made you so successful, so they can be successful and not go hungry too. That man would have done that, and it would have been so contagious. [It would have shown him] so much joy if he saw their smiles and tears. As he saw their full bellies and knew he had a part in saving them and helping them in their future, he would have said, God, this is fun, this helping people and serving humanity! I think I want to do it again! Maybe he then starts putting on clinics to help people. Maybe he starts a food distribution center for the poor, and guess what? He never runs out. He never runs out. By the time hes finished, his silos are just as full as when he started because you cant out-give God. He starts offering himself up to God in worship-which is what we will talk about next week, and God just starts filling his life with blessing after blessing! He says, This is fun! That beats going, This is mine! Nobody else can have it! Its mine! I want more! Thats mine too! He could instead say, Im giving this to you, and this is to you. God is going to use my talents, abilities, and passions to help the people around me and build them up. [Think of] all the friends he would have gotten [had he followed God instead], all the relationships and community he would have established… How different a life [he would have lived] than this lonely life where he died by himself with all this stuff. He gets to Heaven, and God says, So what? Youre a fool. Thats a completely different scenario, this self-centered life that never has enough. The self-centered life squanders its opportunity. So he gets to Heaven, and he asks the question, What should I do? When he asked himself, his answer was Im going to build bigger. Im going to get more. God says, Is that your final answer? Is that the way its going to be? No, God says, I have the final word. God said to him, You fool. This very night, youre life will be demanded of you. You have no choice when God says your times up, its up. Then who will get what you prepared for yourself? This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God. Anybody. This is your fate. This is your end here. The self-centered life ends in vanity. It ends in vanity, whereas the purpose-driven life ends in significance. Which would you rather have? Last weekend, Labor Day weekend, it was one last chance to get away for the summer. I gave my video announcement on Saturday night during the service, and then we took off Saturday night for a city called Bayfield up near Superior. Has anybody been up there? The Apostle Islands? Its a fun place. Lake Superior is just beautiful. Its clear because its so cold, and there arent a lot of things growing in there. Its very clear. We dove a shipwreck there a couple years ago, and its cold in Superior. Thats why things dont grow there right. It has a beautiful color. Whats interesting is I could see in Superior almost as far as I can see in Key Largo when youre diving. You can see about 50 or 60 feet down. It has a good visibility. There are many shipwrecks in Superior, and those are fun things to look at and explore. You wonder what the story was behind it. What were the men doing? How did it happen? We were taking a trip to Bayfield. We try to get up there at least once every other year. We decided we were going to take a kayaking trip and kayak on Superior to a shipwreck. So were kayaking away, and we look out and see what we think is a bunch of seagulls. As you get closer, you see theyre not moving. What it actually was was some of the wreckage actually was sticking out of Lake Superior. We get there. I cant remember if we were at the bow of the boat or where we were, but it was interesting because the boat was wooden. While we were heading toward it, I was thinking, Wow, this thing is old. He (the tour guide) says, This boat sank in 1870. It was at that juncture where prior to that all the cargo boats were made of wood. Later on, they would be made of medal, but this was a transition period where they just started to introduce medal into the making of ships. On one of its early voyages, it had caught on fire-somebody was careless and caught the ship on fire, and the ship sank not that far from shore. There were no causalities, but there it sat at the bottom of Superior. You can see everything as youre kayaking over it. You can see it perfectly. Its really not that deep. What really struck me was when he said how many years it took them to make the boat. It wasnt months; it was years. Men gave years of their lives to make this boat that sunk right away. That would be discouraging if I were working on that boat; we christened it and sent it out. You were all excited and [would have] said, Howd it do? It sunk! It burned up and it sunk! Its going to be there for the passage of time. Discouraging. You might be tempted to say, That was vanity. All that work, years of my life, and now its lying on the bottom of the lake. Jesus is saying here, I dont want you to live a vain life. Thats what hes saying. He says, Then who is going to get what you prepared for yourself? What was your purpose? What were you thinking? Why didnt you talk to Me first? Why didnt you ask that question of Me? Jesus is giving us a beware here. He says, Dont live for vanity. Dont live for the temporal. If you live for the temporal, its vanity. Its going to parish. Its going to be gone. Its gone. But if you live for the eternal, thats significant. Its not vanity, because youre living for that which is going to go on with you into eternity. Some of us are going to really be investing right now in friends and relationships. Weve invited them to our small groups and invited them to church. Some of those people are going to make decisions to follow the Lord this month. Theyre going to be with you in Heaven. Compare that to your car. Compare that to your vacation. Compare that to whatever it is, whatever tower you want to build and fill it with stuff. Having that friend you care about with you in Heaven, how can you compare that to anything? God says, I want your life to have significance, value, and meaning. In order to do that, you have to live by purpose. To know your purpose, you need to seek Me. For this man in the parable book, that was all she wrote. He was up before the Lord, and it was a done deal. He couldnt go back. You and I are right here. Were right here. You have to ask yourself the question, Which does my life resemble? Im not going to ask for a raise of hands today. I dont want to embarrass anybody, but in Luke 12, do you resemble this guy? At this point in time, are you living a self-centered life, or are you living a purpose-driven life? All of us have to take care of ourselves. All of us have to provide for ourselves. All of us should have goals. Im not saying that [we shouldnt], but the bottom line is from the way you live your life, is it about you? If the answer to that question is its about me, thats a self-centered life; thats a life that will never have enough. Thats a life that will squander the blessings. Thats a life that will be lived in vain. If I can say, Its about Him and God, I want to know what Your purposes are for me, [then Im living a purpose-driven life]. Just like that man said, Its never too late to become who God intended you to be. Start today. Were going to get out of it what we put into it. I hope we will take these 40 days, this spiritually-significant timeframe, in the Scriptures and say, Im going to apply myself to understanding, knowing and learning Gods purposes. Then we live them and walk them in my life so that when I get to Heaven, I dont have to hear the words, You fool. I can hear the words, Well done, well done good and faithful servant. Lets pray together: Father in Heaven, we thank You for this teaching from Luke 12 today. I know that Your Holy Spirit has spoken to some hearts. Some of us have some important decisions to make. The first one we need to make is to come to the realization that its not about us. We are created, designed, and put on this planet and draw a breath for a reason. That reason has so much more to do than building barns, filling them up with stuff, tearing them down and building bigger ones and filling them up with more stuff. Father, that we would live for Your purposes and we would be able to come to the end of our days and say, My life is not lived in vain. I live for the living God. I live for His purposes. Thats a life You bless. Thats the life You reward. Thats the irony. Those who seek to keep their lives shall lose them, but whoever loses their life for Your sake shall find it. I pray for those who have just begun the journey-theyre either seeking right now or just recently made a commitment to follow You. I pray that Your Holy Spirit, Lord, will guide them as they take these steps. Bring them into community and friendship in the body. Help them to know their spiritual gift and give them a continued hunger for Your word and Your truth that they might grow in the things of God. Lord, we pray for the spiritual babies who are going to be coming into this congregation. We dont even see their faces yet, but theyre coming. Theyll be here next week or the week after or the week after that. Somewhere down the road, theyre going to come and be born into the Kingdom. Theyre going to find this completely new world-[and find out] theyve been made with a purpose. Equip us as a church to be able to minister to them, love them, equip them, and grow them up in the things of God. We pray this, Father, in Jesus name, Amen.
Were going to talk about the greatest story ever told. Ive been involved in youth ministry for 19 years, and let me tell you about a pregnant teenager whose story I came across. Shes about 14 years old, and shes pregnant. She has a boyfriend, and the baby is not the boyfriends baby. Now, shes stuck in a situation where she has to face her parents; she has to face her boyfriend and try to deal with this situation. Put yourself in this situation. I dont know, for a guy, this may be hard to imagine. But can you imagine being a 14 year old girl and being in that situation? I came across this story, and I was just amazed. Her name is Mary, and she lived about 2,000 years ago.
Were going to talk a little bit about the Christmas story and the Easter story and Jesus in between. I dont know about you, but sometimes Easter and Christmas, because you hear the same story, because it is the same story, we kind of gloss over it. So were going to hit it from some different angles, some angles that you may never have thought about. Picture you are the 14-year old girl, and an angel appears to you and says, Im going to place a baby inside of your womb. Any 14-year old girl I know right now would say, Im sorry, but that doesnt fit in my plans. How am I going to go to prom? But seriously, would you be willing to give up the next 18 or so years of your life by an angel saying, Im going to place a baby inside you. Now, obviously, its God. That would be pretty cool, but would you be willing to not only give up your time, but your body and your self?
How does Mary tell Joseph? Have you ever thought of that? She has to go to her future husband and say, Im pregnant. The babys not yours, but its Gods.
Can you imagine? Okay, Ive heard stories before, but now youre saying the baby is Gods. Okay!
Imagine what that would have been like. Think of God as a fetus, leaving Heaven and all its splendor, and Jesus coming down and becoming one of the most fragile things on Earth. An animal baby is more able to defend and adapt when they are born than when a human is. Im continually amazed at how fragile and how tiny babies are when they first come out. Some of them fit in the palm of your hand. God went from Heaven to a fragile human being.
As a writer, I would never have written the story this way. If Im going to write the story of God coming to Earth, Hes going to be on a white stallion, and Hes going to ride out of Heaven. Hes going to come in the clouds, and Hes going to circle the entire Earth from east to west, back from west to east, and the clouds will trail behind Him as He zooms through. The stars will line up and say, The King is coming. Itll blink, and itll be the most amazing thing. Therell be trumpets and choruses of angels. Thats how Id write it.
God says, Nope. Hes going to live inside of a teenage unwed girl. Hes going to be born in a stable, which is a really nice word for a hole in a mountain, probably a cave, where smelly animals lived. There was manure and urine on the floor, and Hes laid in a manger, which is a feeding trough. The cows put their tongues in there to lick up the food. Thats where the King of the Universe was laid.
We dont think of it that way. The first people who come besides a teenage mom and Joseph are shepherds. If you know anything about the culture at that time, they were the lowest of the low, the lowest class of people. I think that is so cool that God chooses all of that to bring Jesus into the world.
Psalm 33:6 reads, By the word of the LORD were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth. The One who breathed galaxies into existence, now depended on an umbilical cord for His oxygen. Amazing!
The person who best understands God is a teenage girl in a smelly stable.
If Mary would have written a book, it would be on the New York Times Best-Selling List. The title of the book would have been, I Changed Gods Diapers. Have you ever thought of that? Someone had to change the God of the universes diapers. This gets a little gross, and Im used to talking to youth, so forgive me, but human waste was next to Jesus skin. Thats how He humbled himself to come down to Earth.
Max Lucado, one of my favorite authors, has some questions that if he were to meet Mary today, he would ask her.
What was it like watching Him pray?
How did He respond when He saw other kids giggling during the service at the Synagogue?
Did you ever feel awkward teaching Him how He created the world?
When He saw a lamb being led to slaughter, did He act differently?
Did the thought ever occur to you that the God to whom you were praying was asleep under your roof in the next room?
Did you ever try to count the stars with Him and succeed? Did He ever get angry when someone was dishonest with Him?
Can you imagine that? How would you like to be able to know everyones thoughts? And while they are telling you lies, you can tell exactly what theyre thinking and feeling and still be able to look them in the eyes.
Did you ever accidentally call Him Father?
I love this one, Did you ever think, Thats God eating my soup?
Maybe when He was five years old and Mary and Joseph took him down to a hill and looked at the sky, the question was asked, Why is the sky blue? Only Jesus wasnt asking the question, Mary and Joseph were asking their five-year old that question. Did Jesus ever go around as He went through His daily life singing, This is the day? This is the day that I have made. Because, He could have sang that.
Or Jesus, at the age of 12, its amazing to me how we go from the age of 2 with the Wise men coming to visit, and then the Bible is silent until the age of 12. You all know the story. Jesus is at the temple, and Hes amazing the rabbi. Can you imagine being a rabbi and preaching a sermon, and God is in the congregation listening to your sermon? If they would have known that, how nervous would they have been?
But Hes at the age of 12, and at the end of the story it says that Mary and Joseph left, and they left Jesus behind. They left their 12-year old behind.
Im thinking, How can you leave your kid behind? Its like two or three days later before they realize, Um. Wheres Jesus? The reason that happened is because back then, they would travel in caravans, not your Dodge Caravan, your caravan of many, many people for safety. So it would have been very easy to think that Jesus was with his cousins at the end of the caravan or somewhere else. By the time they realized it, can you imagine the panic?
Joseph goes to Mary because we guys, we always blame the women. What did you do with God? I thought you were watching God. And then he would be praying, Dear God, could you help us find God? Then they would be going back to try to find Jesus.
Or how about Jesus as a teenager? Can you imagine Jesus on the swim team? The gun goes off, everyone dives in the water, and Jesus runs across and stands at the other side, waiting for them.
Did He wear WWID bracelets when he was a teenager?
How would you like to be the brother or sister of Jesus? Why cant you be more like Jesus? Can you imagine the pressure of trying to live up to Jesus as your brother? We dont think about Jesus having siblings and what that would have been like.
Or if Mary and Joseph go out on a date, and they come back and their favorite clay pot is broken. They line up the kids, Who did it? No ones going to answer. So they say, Okay Jesus, who did it? He would have to tell.
Maybe Jesus would magically fix the clay pot before the parents got home.
What did Jesus look like? Did you know that we have only one verse in the Bible? If youll turn with me to Isaiah 53:2 on page 731 [of NIV, pew Bibles], He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we esteemed Him not.
I wouldnt have written it that way! Jesus would have looked a lot like me, a big handsome, muscular guy. But God says that Jesus looked plain. Do you feel plain today? Youre in very good company. He was very average-looking.
But where the greatest story ever told really gets good is the Garden of Gethsemane, so were going to skip ahead. When Jesus is in the Garden, he knows--think of this--whats going to happen. If youve seen The Passion of the Christ movie, you get just a glimpse of what Jesus had to go through. Have you ever thought about wanting to know when you would die and how you would die? If you right now could know that, exactly how, would you want to know? Jesus knows exactly what Hes going to go through. And because He has the human side of Him, He knows whats going to happen, and Hes agonizing over this. He even says, Father, if theres any other way, but I dont want to do anything but Your will, not My will, God, but Yours.
It says He was under such great stress that He sweat drops of blood. Ive never seen anybody sweat drops of blood. Its a condition called hematohidrosis. Its when your capillaries and veins expand under great stress, and they actually contact your sweat glands and blood leaks right through your sweat glands. Then he goes back to His three closest friends, and He asks, Please, just stay up with Me a short while and pray with Me because of the great stress Im going through. He comes back and He finds them asleep. Have you ever thought of this? Why do we die a physical death? We die a physical death because of sin. Sin gets passed down through our fathers. Jesus never had an earthly father, so I think of this: He would never have been able to physically die. Did you ever wonder why he was up on the side of the cliff, and they were trying to stone him. The Bible says all the sudden He just walked right through the crowd, and nobody touched Him. I believe its because Jesus could not have physically died. He would have lived forever if He had stayed on Earth. The reason I bring that up is this: He had to willfully give up His life. There was no way they could have taken it from Him. He made that choice because He loved you and me. He willfully gave up His life.
Think of the Last Supper, of Judas Iscariot. Jesus knows what Hes going to do, and I never thought of this until this last year. Yet, Jesus washes Judas feet. If you knew that the person who was going to betray you was right there, would you humble yourself by placing a towel around you with nothing else on, washing his dirty, slimy, grimy feet and wiping it off in an act of love, all the while knowing that this person-in a few hours-is going to leave and betray you?
Look at John 18:3-6, which is page 1071. This is where the story really gets good. Verse 3 says this: So Judas came to the grove, guiding a detachment of soldiers and some officials from the chief priests and Pharisees. They were carrying torches, lanterns and weapons. Jesus, knowing all that was going to happen to him, went out and asked them, Who is it you want?
Jesus of Nazareth, they replied.
I am He, Jesus said. (And Judas the traitor was standing there with them.) When Jesus said, I am He, they drew back and fell to the ground.
There are probably two reasons for this. I know Pastor Jeff has shared that just the act of saying, I am, probably was the force, the Godly force of that, a detachment of soldiers right around 600 soldiers at least, would have knocked them all to the ground.
The other option would have been theyd heard the stories about the God-man who could perform all these miracles, and they were probably scared to death. Thats why they took 600 people to arrest Him, with weapons, lanterns and torches. When He started to talk, they probably thought that fire was going to shoot out of His fingers and destroy them all.
When he finally started talking, they probably all fell back-just scared that they would be destroyed. Then when it doesnt happen, they get bolder and bolder. Then Judas walks up to Him and betrays Him with a kiss. Ive often wondered, did Judas look him right in the eye when He went up to Him? Could he even look Him in the eye? He betrays the Savior. Have you ever been betrayed by someone, by a close friend that youve spent the last three years with? I know what betrayal feels like. One day, my son Caleb, when he was about five years old, he woke up and walked out to me. He said, Dad, I dont think Im a Bears fan anymore. I want to move to Green Bay, and I want to be a Packer fan.
You laugh, but Im telling you it was like a stab in my heart because for generations my family has always been Bears fans.
But your best friend betrays you with a kiss. When they go to see Jesus, Peter takes a sword out and cuts off the soldiers ear. Im thinking, Peter? How could you have such bad aim? How do you go to cut a guys head off and just get his ear?
The only think I can think of is that if he took the sword out and went for the guys head, and the sword was coming this way, the guy started ducking and maybe Peter just sliced off the ear.
Think about this: Jesus reaches down and picks up this bloody mass of meat that was attached to this guys head, picks it up, puts it next to his head, and takes His hand away. The ear was perfectly attached. If you are that soldier, you probably run from that place because theres no way you can continue doing what you were doing. Instead of fighting back, just think about that! He takes this guys ear and puts it back. What affect that must have had. I would love to see what happened to that guys life after that.
Then, one of my favorite verses in the Bible, Mark 14:50, on page 1008, Then everyone deserted him and fled.
A young man, wearing nothing but a linen garment, was following Jesus. When they seized him, he fled naked, leaving his garment behind.
That wasnt in the Passion movie, not a verse that you usually come across. Let me do a quick review: Sweating drops of blood; 600 soldiers come to get Him, and he says, I am. They all fall down, go boom; Peter takes out a sword and cuts this guys ear off. Jesus puts it back on; now, naked man is fleeing from the scene.
Wednesday nights, we have the youth group over at our house. One time after small group, this tan blur came flying out of my sons bedroom-right in the middle of our living room where all the youth are standing. He yells, I am naked man! Then he swooshes back into the buff cave.
This is just knowledge you dont think about when you hear about the Easter story. Can you imagine this scene of everything taking place here? Jesus allows them to seethe Him. Its an illegal trial at night. All kinds of false accusations. Have you ever had a time when someone said you did something, and it was extremely false? It never happened, and it was extremely damaging to your reputation. You know what that feels like.
Then they begin to punch Him in the face as hard as they can after they blindfolded Him. They say, If youre God, tell me who just hit You in the face!
Then they mock Him.
Then they begin to spit on Him.
I think maybe up to this point, I couldve taken all this-probably not because Im a girly-man, but at this point, when somebody spit on me…
When I was in about fourth grade, I was walking across this bridge over this small river near our house in the suburbs of Chicago. Some evil teenager, for no reason, hocked a big loogie on my face. To this day, I can still smell the smell, feel the warmth, feel it dripping down my face. If youve ever had somebody spit on you, its one of the most degrading things you can ever imagine. Jesus put up with it because He loved you, and He loved me. If I were there, and the spit started coming, Id go like all Matrix on them. The spit would slowly slow down and stop in the air, and it would fall to the ground because there is no way Im letting another person spit on me, ever! But He never fought back, not even once.
The Roman soldiers mock and beat Jesus. They strip Him and put a scarlet robe on Him, and they twist together a crown of thorns and set it on His head. They put a staff in His right hand, knelt in front of Him and mocked Him, Hail, King of the Jews. They spit on Him, took the staff and struck Him on the head again and again. Have you ever noticed the symbolism in there? The crown of thorns is from Genesis 3:17-18. It says, Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.
The thorns that were placed on His head were part of the curse back in Genesis. The scarlet robe was also from Isaiah 1:18 (pg 676). It says, Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.
Turn to Isaiah 50:6, on page 7:28. If youve seen The Passion movie, I know you know what Jesus went through. One of the things that they didnt show in the Passion movie are here. I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard; I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting.
Turn three pages over to Isaiah 52:14, page 731. Verse 14 says, Just as there were many who were appalled at Him-His appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness…
Jesus had people grab His facial hair and rip it out of his face along with chunks of skin. The Bible here says that He was so beat up that not only could you not tell that was Jesus, you couldnt even tell He was a human being by the time they got done with Him. He did it willingly because He loves you and me.
Then Jesus was crucified. The 40 lashes-I will spare you the details-whips with bone, metal and glass ripped Him to shreds.
Then He was crucified. If you know anything about crucifixion, they would sometimes hang up there for three and four days. Thats why they went to break the legs of the two guys next to Him. It was the most devious, painful torturing way you could ever kill somebody.
Every breath that Jesus had to take, He would have to push up on the nail that was through both feet, push up to release the pressure from his diaphragm, take in a breath. Then when His legs cramped up, and His muscles would give out, He would sag back down and put all his weight on the two nails in His wrists.
Then when He couldnt take that any more because He could not breathe, it would be like drowning in air. Every breath, He had to push Himself for every breath. Think of that. Then darkness falls over the land for three hours, and Jesus cries out these words: Eloi, Eloi, lama sabach-thani, which means Abba Father, why have you forsaken me? Or Daddy! Daddy! Why have you abandoned me?
My son Connor was three years old; he was in our back yard with my son Caleb who was six. They found the pruning shears. Caleb took the pruning shears, and Connor, my three year old, took the stick. He held it out to Caleb and said, Caleb, cut the stick! Caleb took the pruning shears and attempted to cut the stick. Not only did he cut the stick, but he cut right into my sons fingers. Im so thankful that he didnt cut his fingers right off. We were in the kitchen, by our patio window, and I heard this scream. And as you know, if youre a mom or a dad, theres nothing like the scream of your child who is in trouble. I rushed out my backyard, and there was my three year old, holding his hand with blood dripping and squirting out his hand. He was jumping up and down, screaming for his daddy. Then he kept screaming, Daddy, I need a Band Aid! I need a Band Aid! My heart just broke.
God turned His back on His son. It would be like me rushing out into my backyard, seeing my three year old, my heart breaking, him screaming for His daddy who will make everything better, and looking at him, turning around, walking back into the house and locking the door.
Why would God do such a thing? Why would God turn His back on His son at the time in Jesus life when He needed Him the most?
Every persons sin who has ever lived, ever will live, and who is living now, every lie that weve told, rape, murder, every single sin was placed on Jesus back. When God looked down, a holy God who cannot stand the presence of sin, He could not stand to look at His own son.
Can you imagine what that felt like for Jesus? Again, this is gross, but I cannot explain it in any other way. It would be like us taking dog manure, spreading it all over our bodies, up our nose, and in our mouths. Because a pure Lamb of God, even having one sin touch his existence, would have been like that. It would have made your skin crawl, and thats what Jesus did because He loved us so much. When God looked down, He could not even look at His son. He turned His back.
Jesus died of a broken heart. I know thats kind of a clich
Were starting this morning with 2 Corinthians, Chapter 5. We begin a new series, Extreme Makeovers, Spiritual Edition. Extreme makeovers are everywhere, arent they? Have you noticed that? It seems like you cant turn on the television without some sort of extreme makeover kind of show being on. Theyll makeover your home; theyll come in and knock down walls and do incredible things in peoples homes. They will incredible things to peoples faces. The Swan, Ive never seen it but I know of it, is the show where they do cosmetic surgery to transform their faces. There are other kinds of makeover shows where they will come in and do your hair, makeup, and clothing and make a new you. Theyve got makeovers for automobiles. They even have makeovers for dysfunctional families. I caught a show called Nanny 911, where she comes in your home and tries to teach you how to discipline children and set up a schedule, so you do an extreme makeover for your family life. Well, God is into extreme makeovers. Did you know that? He does the spiritual kind. Theyre extreme. God is not into fine tuning or minor adjustments; they are extreme makeovers for people who are willing to submit to Him. In 2 Corinthians, Chapter 5:17 says, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old one has gone, the new has come! Theres enthusiasm in Pauls voice as he writes this. This is radical; its extreme! Its a new start. Verse 18, And all this is from your hard work… Nope, it doesnt say that! And all this is from your great book smarts… Nope, it doesnt say that either! It says, This tremendous spiritual renewal and change is from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting mens sins against them. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christs ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christs behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. If youre ever looking for a snapshot, a short passage, theres a synopsis in the Gospel that you can share with somebody who has spiritual questions; I cant think of a better one than this. This is a tremendous snapshot of what the Gospel is. This says, Gods in the renewal business. So for the next few weeks, were going to talk about renewing our minds, renewing our spirits, renewing our wills. This week were talking about renewing our mind or our heart. I want you to turn to the Book of Ephesians with me this morning, and were going to spend the rest of our time in Ephesians, Chapter 4. In the book of Ephesians, Paul is making a contrast. He is going to contrast the truth of the Gospel, the reality of the resurrection in the Lordship of Christ and lay that in a juxtaposition position with the traditions of men, the philosophies of men, and their thinking. Hes going to demonstrate the superiority of the truth of the Gospel. In Verse 17 of Chapter 4, he says, So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. So he said the word futility, and futility or vernacular means useless. If you say something is futile, you mean its useless. Biblically, this word meant a lot more than that. It meant void of truth or empty, lacking substance. So when Paul says, It is futile thinking, he means it doesnt have any substance. Paul is saying people are entrusting their eternal souls on the philosophy or world-view or a belief system that is empty and void of truth. Its not going to stand the test or hold up. There is only one truth, and truth is objective. I was emptying a truck when I was in high school. I had a job at a factory, and we had to empty a big truck. Im standing up in the truck, the semi, unloading it, putting boxes down on the gravel ground, and Im stepping on the boxes as we spread them out. I stepped on one box, and the next thing I knew, down on my face I went. See, what I stepped on wasnt a box. I stepped on a lid of a box. It looked like a box, a big lid that had been opened up. What I thought was going to hold me turned out to be empty, without substance. Down on my head I went, kiss the gravel! That explains a lot, doesnt it? Now you start to understand a little bit more about why I lose my train of thought. See thats what Paul is talking about. It has the illusion of substance. It has the illusion of durability. When its all said and done, when it is really put to the test, its void of truth. He says thats what mans philosophies are. Thats what mans traditions are, rather than the truth of Christ, which is solid and eternal. In Verse 18, They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Notice, its a process. Its a hardening; its not instantaneous; its a process well explain in a moment. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more. It wasnt always like that. There was one time, a time when sin grieved their hearts, but now because of this habitual practice, their hearts have become hardened, desensitized toward the truth of Gods word. When I was a young man, I had a cat named Cuddles. Cuddles and I used to fight. I would put my hand up, and I would play box him; and then wed grapple and Id flip him around and wed fight and wrestle. I just had a great time with my cat. Now my mom chose not to declaw our cat, so my cat Cuddles had some pretty good front claws; so she would just start to tear up the skin on the top of my right hand. It would hurt something fierce. I would have to pull my hand back and say, Ow, that hurt! but it was fun, so Id go back in. Wed fight some more, and Id play and laugh. By the time I was finished, my hand would be all scratched up. Mom would say, Why do you do that? Look at your hand! You need to stop! Id say, Because its fun! I like it! Sometimes Id have to wait a few days for my hand to heal up, and then Id go back to fighting again. Over a period of literally years, literally years, of fighting with Cuddles on a weekly basis, the skin would get cut and heal up and get cut and heal up, that it got to be so tough, it was like rawhide. It got to where the cat could just scratch; it would leave a mark but wouldnt cut me anymore. That skin had become desensitized, that I could just get in there, grapple with that cat and not feel the pain of the claws. I put my left hand in there, and oh man. That would hurt, but the right hand had become callous. Thats what sin does. At first when we sin, we grieve. Were embarrassed; were ashamed. We have scars, theres cut, theres pain. But if we dont then confess and repent and forsake, and go back and indulge again, we say, You know, I kind of liked that. We are hurt again, but this time its not as bad. Over a period of time, through this habitual cycle, we can become desensitized and the effects are sin. Our heart can become callous, so were no longer responding to the voice of God or to the word of truth. Paul warns against that. He says in Verse 20, You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. Surely you heard of Him and were taught in Him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. Paul is talking here about the word truth or lathia. It is objective reality. It is something that is real or true, regardless of the circumstances. Like what Paul says, I could believe that was a real box lid, but the truth of it is, it was just a lid. It wasnt a box. It wasnt going to sustain me. You can think that gravity is not real, but if you step off the roof of this church, youre going to fall. Because reality is objective; its true whether you believe it or not. Regardless of what you believe about Christ and who He is, He is the truth Paul says. He is the alathia. He is the one we rest in. So, the world has changing philosophies. They come and they go. Their heresies are recycled over the centuries, but Gods truth remains the same. I loved what our current Pope of the Catholic Church said, Pope Benedict. I was thinking about what he had said in a speech he gave before the first conclave, and I thought, Im going to try to look up what he said. I had no idea, but when I looked up his remarks, he was commenting on what? Ephesians, Chapter 4. I thought, Well, thats a coincidence right there. But listen to what the Pope had to say, How many winds of doctrine have we known in the last ten years? He looks back on his panoramic view of his life, his theological experiences over the decades. How many ideological currents, how many fashions of thinking? The small boat of thought of many Christians has been tossed about by these waves? Sometimes we, too, can succumb to those lines of thinking. Thats what Paul is warning about in Ephesians. The Pope continued, Thrown from one extreme to the other, from Marxism to Liberalism, even to Libertinism-to just be a free thinker and think whatever you want to think. From collectivism to radical individualism. And certainly he experienced collectivism, that mindset, that political theory or belief that this group, because we think something is right, is therefore the truth. They redefine truth. He grew up under Hitlers regime. He grew up with that collectivism mindset. From atheism to a vague religious mysticism, from agnosticism (questions the existence of God) to secretism, which tries to combine all sorts of beliefs and philosophies, everyday, new sets are created. What St. Paul says about human trickery comes true with cunning, which tries to draw those into air. Having a clear faith, based on the creed of the church is often labeled as fundamentalism. How many of you ever thought because you believe the Bible, something must be wrong with you, the way the world speaks? Sometimes when people throw a label on you, its fundamentalism. Whereas relativism, which is letting oneself be tossed and swept along by wind of teaching, looks like the only attitude acceptable to todays standards. In other words, you become your own truth or reality. We are moving toward a dictatorship of relativism, which does not recognize anything as for certain and has as its highest goal ones own ego and ones own desires. Notice he says a dictatorship of relativism. What does that mean? It means everybody could become, under that school of thought, their own little dictator. Right? Because relativism is very individual. Its saying that your truth is your truth, and my truth is my truth. So everybody becomes their own little island of truth, and the Pope says, No, thats not reality. And Paul says, No, there is one truth, and that truth is in Jesus. Its only in Jesus that our minds could be transformed and renewed. It talks in Verse 22-24 about our part and Gods part. He says, You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds, and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. Paul does something here that you cannot detect unless you study it in the original languages here. What Im going to share with you doesnt change the meaning of anything, but its important for you to know that Paul changes voices here in this passage. You say, What do you mean he changes his voice? A voice in the Greek is how the subject relates to the verb, whether the subject is doing the action or the subject is being acted upon. In Verse 22 and 24, when he talks about putting off and putting on, he uses whats called the middle voice, which means the subject, you and I, are doing the action. We are putting off, and we are putting on. However, in Verse 23, when it talks about being made new, he uses something called the passive voice, which means you, the subject, are being acted upon by an outside person or thing. Youre not the one doing the action. Youre being acted upon. So what does that mean? That means when it comes to renewing our spirits, renewing our minds, only God can do that. That is what Paul is saying here. Its in the passive voice. That comes from God. You cannot renew your heart. You cannot renew your mind to obey Gods truth in and of yourself. I was kind of grappling about this. I was trying to think about an illustration that would help me communicate the middle and the passive voices to you and our part and Gods part. I came across an illustration. God gave me an illustration, and I want to share that with you this morning. Hypothetically, imagine you had to go to the doctor to have your heart checked. When you went to the doctor, the doctor found an irregular heartbeat. Something was wrong, and he gave a diagnosis. He said, We think there is reason to believe that your arteries are clogged, that you are going to have to have bypass surgery. Or he said, We have reason to believe that a valve isnt functioning right. Youre going to have to have valve replacement surgery. At that point, you have a decision to make. You could either accept what the doctor has said, or you could reject what the doctor has said. Correct? You can either say, Thats true, and I need to trust your judgment. You have the education. You have the expertise. You have the equipment, and Im going to submit to this operation or you can reject it. You can say, Well, Im still alive. I dont feel that bad. Im just not going to listen to you and go on and live my life. Well, if you do that, chances are you wont be with us long, right? Chances are youre going to succumb to that heart condition, and youre going to pass away because you chose to reject the truth. Paul says, You and I have a disease called sin. God says the wages of sin is death, and all of sin falls short of the glory of God. But there is a solution to that sin. That sin is found in the Lord Jesus Christ. That solution is found in the Lord Jesus Christ. Youre going to choose to accept that reality and do something about it. Let God do something about it, or you can reject that news and say, Im not that bad. I dont have that much of sin problem. The scripture says, You will die in your sin because theres a spiritual law. The law says the one who sins will die. Thats your choice. You answer to God. So what can you do, and what cant you do? Well, youre going under this health procedure. The doctor says, Okay, Im going to teach you about the heart. This habit youve gotten into about drinking bacon grease for breakfast, were going to put that off, and were going to put on orange juice. So, you start drinking orange juice. You know that habit youve gotten into of being so lazy that you dont even get off the couch to change the channel because if you dont have your remote, you cant even watch TV because youre so lazy? Were going to put that off, and youre going to be stepping on the stair master while youre watching TV. So were going to put off a lack of exercising, and were going to put on a healthy routine, so you can strengthen that heart muscle and have a healthy cardio-vascular system. Or were going to put off ignorance of the heart. Right now, you hardly know anything about your own heart. Were going to teach you about your heart, and were going to teach you about this procedure. Youre going to put on knowledge. Heres the key. You can put on healthier habits, and you can put on healthier exercise, healthier eating habits and exercise, and you can put on education and put off all those bad habits, but you will never, ever, no matter how smart you get about the heart, no matter how fit you get from exercise, no matter how trim you get from diet, you will never be able to perform open heart surgery on yourself. Youre never going to come to the point where you can stand in front of a mirror and go, Scalpel. Oh yeah, theres that little clog thingy right now. Let me just take a vein out of my leg and sew that right in there. You cant do it! Youre going to need an outside person who is an expert, who has the knowledge to do what you cannot do to make that physical change in your heart. The same thing is true in the realm of the spirit. If youre trying to change your mind spiritually, your heart spiritually, in and off your effort, you will not do it. There are certain things you can put on, certain things you can put off, but only God does the transformation. Only God does that. Your job and responsibility as a follower of Christ or as a human being is to, what? Submit. Its to submit. I go to the doctor, and I say, Im agreeing with your truth. You said this is my condition. You said this will cure me. Im going to take this risk of faith, and Im going to sign my name on this paper that gives you permission to open up my chest and renew my heart. When you succumb to that anesthetic and go into that operating room, you are totally and completely surrendered, arent you? When youre under anesthesia, theres no fighting you. You totally trust that doctor. The same thing is true in the realm of the spirit. When you come to Christ, what you have to say in response to your sin condition, the fact that your heart needs to be renewed, is to say, God, I am powerless to renewing my own heart, and Im by faith going to sign this contract that says I am yielding my spirit to you, the care and concern of my soul to you. Im just going to lay it all out. Im going to lay my soul there. God, you do the work in me. God, you forgive me. God, you renew me. God, your restore me. And then I will do my part to make sure Im meditating on your word and your truth and allowing your Holy Spirit to renew my mind, but I know only you can do the renewal God, not me. Only you can do that. Man can fix cars and houses and faces, but only God can do a makeover in the heart. Are you trusting Him? What voice are you listening to today? Are you succumbing to the traditions and the winds of doctrine that blow through, or are you on the rock that doesnt change, the truth that is reality because its Gods truth. How are you trying to change your heart? Are you trying the self-help technique? Or will you just fall down at the foot of the cross and cry out to a living God and say, God, change me, because I cant do it myself. If youll do that, God will do an operation on you that we wont be able to see with the naked eye, but well be able to see it, the results of it. Well see a new you, a healthier you, once you submit. There are things you can do, and there are things you cannot do. Humankind has lost a few patients on the operating table during heart surgery. But Im happy to announce to you that God has never lost one. There is not one person who has come to Doctor Jesus and said, Lord Jesus, change my heart. I trust your authority; I trust your rule, and Im submitting to it by faith. Be the Lord of my life. I lay my soul, my eternal soul, into your care. Theres not a one hes dropped. And you wont be the first this morning. A lot of competing voices out there. Are we listening to the voice of truth? Gordy and Brook are coming to sing a song now that we started to sing on Saturday night in our plug service, and then Id catch it on the radio every now and then. Ive come to really appreciate this song and its message. What Id like you to do is reflect upon the words of this song and reflect on its meaning as it applies to the message weve heard this morning. Normally when we pray, I pray or one of the pastors prays, and your heads are bowed, your eyes are closed and your mouths are closed. Were going to pray a little differently this morning. I want to lead you in a confession of your faith and what weve talked about today from Gods word, so I invite you to speak out loud. Whisper if you want to, but move your lips. Say these words, making your confession. Would you bow your heads with me in prayer. Heavenly Father, I come to you in Jesus name. For truth is found in that name. I submit to your truth and to your Lordship. I confess I cannot renew my heart. I need you to do that. I ask your Holy Spirit to renew my heart today. Forgive my sins, my weaknesses, my tendency to stray. It is my desire to put off that which does not please you and put on the new man who was made in the likeness of Christ, in Jesus name I pray. Amen. Happy Mothers Day to you moms!
We re talking about spiritual champions. You know I love it when the bully gets it. You re watching a movie and the bad guy gets what s coming to him. That s always the highlight of the film for me. Or even in real life, when a bully gets it, gets his/her just due, it s a good thing. I came across a video that really tickled my funny bone. It was a shot where a martial arts expert was in one of our large cities to film a video on how to defend yourself against street attacks. Ironically, one of those happens while he is there filming this video. Across the street from the hotel where he was staying, a pimp was physically abusing a woman, assuming she was one of the women that worked for him. The man heard the commotion and went across the street, confronting the pimp. He said, Take your hands off that woman; leave her alone. Something bad s gonna happen to ya if ya don t. Scared enough sense into the pimp that the pimp backed off and the karate instructor felt like it was a safe situation, turned around and started to walk back to the hotel. The pimp had lost face there in front of his pimp friends, and he decided he was going to defend his honor. So he proceeds to verbally challenge the instructor. You don t hear this on the tape; and there is no audio other than the narrator telling us what is going on because it is shot from inside a building looking down on the scene of the street. You can t hear the dialog outside; you just rely on the narrator. So they grab the pimp, and they re trying to hold him back, and he s pulling and tugging to the point where his t-shirt is starting to rip off, kinda like the Incredible Hulk when he changes. He bursts out of the t-shirt, and now nothing is holding him back. He starts going across the street to confront the martial arts instructor, who has now stopped, turned around, and begins assessing the situation. The narrator is describing that what the pimp doesn t know is that the man he is about to affront is a martial arts instructor. I m sitting there thinking, This is gonna be good. This is gonna be good. He comes walking up there as such, and the pimp just waits calmly for him. As soon as he gets within striking distance, what is he going to do? Hay-ya! Yah! I don t know what he s going to do. I m just excited, and he goes like this; I didn t expect this move and neither did the pimp: He goes BAMB, with his forearm, catches the guy across the face and the neck, and drops him like a rock. The pimp is lying in the street-OUT. The martial arts instructor waits, makes sure he s taken care of. Finally, he turns around, raised his shoulders like what else could I do? and walked away. They pick up the pimp, and he kind of staggers across the other street, embarrassed and rightly so. It s good when the bully gets it, right? We like to see strong people come to the defense of the helpless and the weak. So what does that have to do with Special Touch Ministries? I m working on that. I haven t figured it out, but it was a good story, and I did want to share it with you. It does have something to do with today s message. In Psalms 82:3, God s word says, Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless. Maintain the right to the poor and repressed. Rescue the weak and needy. Deliver them from the hand of the wicked. In other words, God says, If you want to be a hero in my sight, help those who cannot help themselves. Defend those who need defending. Help those who are bullied. He s talking here about bullies. God is saying, Beat up a bully! Come to the defense of those who need your help! The media we saw was very well done today. But I want to tell you something: Every single person you saw at that camp has been bullied. And I don t mean physically. Maybe some of them have been physically bullied. But there are some bullies that torment those people. There is the bully of despair, which tells them they are different, and there is no hope, and life will never change for them. There is the bully of loneliness, which says, You know what? This is your lot in life, and you re different. You re not going to have happiness. There is the bully of rejection, as people who may laugh at them, or make fun of them, or turn away from them in disgust. That bully picks on them all the time. There are bullies of fear. There are bullies of being devalued by the world, because they are not normal; they are of less value. God says in his word, Beat up a bully. Find somebody who is weak or lonely or in despair, and beat that bully up. Beat loneliness up. Strike a death blow to despair. Show somebody who needs your help that they matter to you, and they matter to God. That s what this is about today. This isn t just about Special Touch. This is about our church becoming strategic with reaching out to people with special needs. You know Jesus was strategic with that. Look at his body of work. Who did Jesus spend most of his time ministering to and helping? Was it the rich? Was it the elite? The politically prominent? The powerful? The aristocracy of his day? Or was it in fact the poor? The oppressed? The defenseless? The children who didn t have a voice? The widows who didn t have a voice? The crippled? The paralyzed? The blind? The beggar? The diseased? The man or woman struck with leprosy? Jesus was continually drawn and attracted to them. The disciples would say, He doesn t have time for you. And the crowd would push him back. He doesn t have time for you outcasts! Jesus would always correct them. Jesus would always go against the status quo, and he would reach out and minister to those who had special needs. There is a verse in the Bible that I ve read and you ve read, and it just caught me between the eyes this week. I thought Man-o-man! When I read that and really caught a hold of it, I thought, Boy, have I dropped the ball on this one! And I bet you have too. Luke 14:12, it says, Jesus had just finished dining at the home of a prominent Pharisee, and he said, When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends. I want to say this: this verb, do not invite, meant do not invite-to the exclusion of others, or do not only invite. Jesus isn t saying here, When you throw a party, don t ever invite your family; don t ever invite friends. He s not saying that s bad or wrong. What he s trying to admonish us is don t only, always, and forever invite only family and friends. Invite your brothers or sisters, or relatives, or rich neighbors. If you do, they may invite you back, and so you ll be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you ll be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the Resurrection of the Righteous. And usually when you read that, you say, Wasn t that kind of cute, kind of nice? But did he really mean it? Did he really mean for the church to get strategic and go out of our way to invite people with special needs into our lives, into our homes? I think he did. I think he did because it s in the imperative tense, which is a command tense, present and active-meaning now. Be strategic. When was the last time some people with economic concerns were invited into your home for a meal? Or somebody with other special needs that you reached out to strategically and invited them in and built a friendship with them. I will tell you something: I read this and I went, I have dropped the ball. And I bet you if we took a raise of hands this morning, a lot of hands would go up and say, I dropped the ball. We want to change that as a body and as a church. We believe God has some good things for our church to do, and we re going to start with Special Touch Ministries and the ministry of Pastor Brad. Brad has been a friend of mine for years, as well as Pastor Sean. I was helping him as his proctor when he was studying for the ministry, and what he has done is prepared a message to us about what the body of Christ is to be about. What we will be doing while Brad is reading his text, is reading it off the screen. If for some reason you have problems reading from the screen, feel free to move up toward the front. Most of you should be able to see the words. The font is big enough so that you can read along with what he has to share. Lets welcome Pastor Brad to our church this morning.
When I was a sophomore in high school, the fall of my sophomore year, I did not have my license yet. I was playing football, and I was injured. Actually, I fell down on a rainy day and hurt my butt. I had to have an adjustment on my tailbone, of all things. My future wife, Kristi, who Id already been dating for a couple years, was three years older than me, so she offered to drive me to my chiropractors appointment. I thought this was really cool because when I would sit in the passengers side, I would reach over and get to steer. She decided to drop me off at the chiropractor clinic. We were running late, as most of you know the Powers family is always late. She dropped me off at the door and went and parked the car. I thought, even though Im late, this is a perfect time to scare my future wife. So I hid around the corner of the building and waited until I heard her footsteps. I heard her coming, and just as she rounded the building, I went Raaaahhh! Except…it wasnt my wife. It was a 75-year-old man who was coming to the chiropractor to get an adjustment. I probably had just adjusted it for him. I was mortified. I said, Im so sorry. I thought you were someone else. I just kept saying, Im so sorry. He looked at me with this fear and trembling, and he was like, Just stay away from me, man. He walked into the chiropractors office. What I probably did that day was breathe death into that mans life. What were going to talk about today is breathing life into other people. If you will open your Bibles to Genesis 2:7, page 2 [of NIV pew Bibles], it says, …the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. Wouldnt it have been so cool to be there in the Garden as God took the ground and formed it into a man? But, it was totally lifeless. Then God bent down into His creation and went wheww and just breathed life into the first human being. Thats what God has called us to do for each other. All of us know somebody that when you spend time with them, they are so negative. By the time you walk away, you feel worthless. You feel like you cant do anything; they have pounded you down into the ground, and you cant wait to get away from them. Then there are those rare people in our lives who when we are around them, we feel like we can accomplish anything. When we walk away, we are on Cloud 9. They have so built us up that we cant imagine not being able to anything in our lives. Thats what God has called us to be. If you turn in your Bibles to 2 Corinthians 3:2-3, which is page 1143. This is what the model is for our lives: You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody. You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. Did you know that if you have Jesus Christ living inside of you, you are a living letter-no matter you go? People are reading you like a book without your even saying a word. How you act and how you are around other people is your living letter to them. So wherever we go, we can breathe life into other people. Have you ever been at a toll booth and not only paid for yourself but paid for the person behind you? Now, dont try this at the automatic ones because it doesnt work, and youre just getting ripped off. But on the manual toll booths, just once in your life, pay for the car behind you whether you know them or not. Then, as you drive away, imagine the look on their face when they come up to the grumpy old toll booth person, and that person probably has to smile now and say, Youre already paid for. Go on through. Have you ever noticed toll booth people? We took a youth trip down to Chicago on a seminar. Every toll booth we went through, it was like this, Good morning! How are you? Arrgghhh! Blah, blah, blah! This one lady, I just wanted to reach down into the booth and go, Its okay if you smile. Finally, the last lady we had, her face lit up, and she said, Im doing great! How are you doing? I was like, Yes! I finally got to one! Or if you shovel snow, especially if you have a snow blower, and you go out to the six inches of snow, instead of just doing your sidewalk, you do your neighbors or the whole block. When that person gets up in the morning, and they know they have to go out and break their back doing that, they look out and the snow has been cleared. You have just breathed life into somebody without quoting a Bible verse, without saying anything about God. How about letting someone actually get in front of you when youre driving-or at the grocery store? This last week, I was at Woodmans, and I had a whole cartload of groceries. A person came up behind me, and he had just two or three items in his hands. I was like, Agghh! I know what I have to do. So I turned and looked at the man and said, You know, I have a whole cartload of groceries, and I notice you only have a couple of items. So I just want you to know Im probably going to be here for some time while theyre checking me out, so you have plenty of time to go get more stuff. No, I didnt say that, but let someone in front of you at the grocery store, and youll be amazed at the reaction youll get because the world does not do that. Remember peoples birthdays. When I used to work for the postal service, there was a lady there that always remembered my birthday. Its been almost four years since Ive quit there. Every year, she sends me a card or an email. I cannot tell you what that means to me. I found out that she does that for over 100 people that she works with, and she never, ever forgets one. Remember peoples birthdays. We took a trip to Guatemala a couple of years ago. It was a church missions trip. One of the things that we did was we went to a childrens hospital in Guatemala City. As we walked through there, our job was to play with the kids who arent so sick that they would be confined to their beds. So, a number of kids bailed out of that ward of the childrens hospital, and we started playing games. As we were walking by this room, we heard this terrible crying and wailing. And as we walked by, we saw this little boy-about three or four years old, and with the quick glance I got, I noticed some of his toes were missing. The toes that he had left were all black. I dont know what he had, but it was as if they were just rotting off, it was causing him intense pain. I saw in the room, there was not a single soul with him, not a mom, not a dad, not a grandpa or grandma, not a brother or sister, not even a doctor or nurse. I was thinking, This poor little boy. Two Godly women from our church, Lori Bower and Berti Baker, made their way down the hall and into that room. One of my jobs on that trip was to video tape, to make a video of the trip, so I snuck in behind them. They didnt even know I was there, and this is the video tape scene I have. Lori Bower was stroking his sweaty little head, and he continued to cry. Berti Baker just stroked his arm, and she started singing to him. Pretty soon, his wailing and his crying turned into just a little whimper. Pretty soon the whimper turned into silence. Then I saw little eyes start to flutter, and he fell asleep. It was such an amazing scene of how God used these two Godly women who live half a world away. By a sense of touch and singing words he didnt understand, they breathed life into this little boy. He felt the human touch and the comfort it brought to him was just enough so he could fall asleep probably for the first time in a long time. Then on our way home from that trip, we had always been warned, Dont drink the water. I did really well. I didnt drink any water I wasnt supposed to. Then on the last night of the trip, we went to a restaurant for the first time. I ordered a Coca-Cola, and the evil little ice cubes that were in the Coca-Cola snuck past me. It was the worst night of my entire life. I started timing how many times I would get up. I would sleep for about five minutes, and then I would wake up. Every twelve minutes, I had to go to the bathroom, either to throw up or use the facilities, as they say. We had to get up at 4 AM the next morning, and I probably got 20 minutes of sleep the whole night. I was just miserable. We got in this van, and they gave me a plastic bag, which was my friend. I held that plastic bag, and then I started throwing up. Its amazing how fast the van driver would pull over when he hears those noises coming from the back of the van. Rrrr Rrrr, as he pulled over to the side of the road. I stumbled out past the curb and onto the grass. If youve ever been to Guatemala City, there is trash and garbage and refuse everywhere. I kneeled down in other peoples trash, and two inches from my right knee was the nastiest, dirtiest diaper Ive ever seen in my life, and I could smell it. Not only was it the worst night of my life, now I am sitting here, throwing up my guts, kneeling down in refuse, and human waste is right next to me. It was the lowest point of my life. Then I felt a hand on my shoulder, and it was Jason Raddenbach, from our church. All he did was get out of the van and put his hand on my shoulder. You cannot believe the difference that made to me. He didnt say a word; he just let me know, Im here for you. I was like, Thank you, God. It was like God reached down from Heaven and, through his [Jasons] hand, touched me at one of the lowest points of my life. I know theres inappropriate touch, and Im not saying go up and kiss the first person you see and say, God loves you, but we have lost that. We need to hug people, and we need to put appropriate touch on people and let them know that you love them. Do you want to share Christ with others? Are you a Christian here today, and you want to share Christ with others? Do you know the first thing you can do? Keep your mouth closed. Dont say a word. Be a living letter, and show that by how you live and how you breathe life into them and let them know, because people dont care how much you know until they know how much you care. When I was a sophomore in high school, there was a senior student who was a special education student. Every day, I would come to school, and before the bell would ring for first hour, a number of kids would gather around him and make fun of him. They would say, Hey, be the Incredible Hulk! He would say, Rahh! and hed run through the halls thinking that they were his friends. They were just laughing at him, and it got worse and worse. I knew I had to do something, but there was a voice inside my head that kept saying, If you become friends with him, what are the other kids going to think? Finally, the whisper of God said, Dont you dare worry about what other people think! You need to worry about what I think about you. I got up enough courage one morning, and I looked at those kids and said, Knock it off. That is enough. I am sick and tired of you guys picking on him. Come on, man! Were just having fun. I said, Knock it off! They slowly dispersed. I would like to tell you from that day on, they never picked on him again, but that didnt happen. It did stop for a little while. What happened was this young man became my best buddy in the whole world. I started breathing life into him. Eventually, I invited him over to my house, and we would play Intellivision, and wed drink Tang. Hey, Im an 80s child. While we were doing that one day, he started asking me questions. He said, Mike, where do you go to church? I told him I would go to Peoples Church in Beloit. I was so competitive; I would keep playing because I was beating him. Then hed ask questions like, Hey, Mike, how come youre so different than the other kids at school? I knew it was time to talk to him. I said, Brian, lets go in my room. So we went into my room, and I pulled out my Bible, and I shared God with him. I told him exactly what God meant in my life, and I said, If you were the last person on Earth, Jesus Christ would still come down and die just for you! When I shared the Plan of Salvation with him, I said, Would you like to pray with me? He said, Yeah, and he prayed and accepted Christ into his heart. I looked at him and said, If you meant those words that you said, where is Jesus right now? He pointed to his heart, and he said, Right here. Then he did something I will never, ever forget. He grabbed my Bible, and he lay down on my bed, and he just hugged it, and he just started crying. Now, when I see Mufasa die in the Disney movies, I cry, and I cry loudly. But he didnt make a sound, and I had never seen this in another person. The tears just streamed down his face all over my Bible and all over his shirt, but he didnt even make so much as a whimper. Then he stopped crying, and he looked at me and said, Mike, did you know the love that God has for me must be like the love that a husband has for his wife. I was absolutely floored. Here was a student who could not grasp the little things in school and was having so much trouble, and he grasped one of lifes greatest truths. It wasnt until a couple weeks later that I really understood what had been going on in his life. You see, when he was five years old, he stood on his porch and saw his dad, who had a suitcase, and his dad looked him right in the eye and said, I cant stand having a son like you, and Im leaving and never coming back. So the last words that this five year old heard from his earthly dad were, I cannot stand having a son like you. Then is father drove out of his life, and he never saw him again. Now I understood why that meant so much to Brian when he asked Jesus Christ into his life. What hed been searching for his entire life was a fathers love. What he got was the unconditional love only a Heavenly Father could give him. Get your radar going in your life and seek out the people who are lonely, the people you dont normally take notice of, and breathe life into them. Kids become what you expect of them. If a kid is told everyday of his life, You will never amount to anything, do not be surprised when thats exactly what happens. When I was a freshman in high school, I was on the JV baseball team in Clinton. Our coach that I had couldnt have cared less about us. One day, he was sick, and we had a substitute coach; his name was Bill Greer. We loved Mr. Greer. He was our Phy. Ed teacher in junior high, and it was the first and only time I had him as a coach. By the time he stepped on that bus as we went to Beloit Turner to play baseball, he breathed life into us. He told us, You are the best team that has ever lived in the face of the earth, the best JV team ever! By the time we got off that bus, if he would have said, Mike, I want you to run through that brick wall, I would have banged my head against it 17 times before I realized its not humanly possible. We killed that team that day! Thats the only time we had him as a coach, and thats the only game we won the entire year! Its because he expected us to win, and we did. Theres a young lady named Sam Risseeuw, who has been on my basketball team for the past couple years. In our sophomore year, she came up to me before the season even started, and she said, Coach Powers, and the tears were just pouring down her face. She said, Coach Powers, I dont think Im good enough for basketball this year. I said, Why, Sam? She said, I dont think many kids on that team even like me, and I dont know if I can do that for a whole year. I put my arm around her, and I said, Sam, dont you dare not come out. Dont you let them dictate to you what youre going to do. If you want to play basketball, you come and play basketball. You let me worry about the rest! And Im not naïve enough to say that everything was peachy because I know things go on behind a coachs back, but she worked so hard; and by the time her junior year came around, she worked her way into the starting line-up. And shes nowhere near the most gifted athlete Ive ever had, but Ive never had someone work as hard as Sam. One day after practice, she came up to me and said, Coach, Im going to shoot free throws until I make five in a row, and then Im going to leave. I said, Sam, if you want to do that, Ill rebound for you. So, one hour later, she still had not made five free throws in a row. It was a Wednesday night, and I had youth group, small groups at our house that I had to go to, but I made a promise to Sam. I stayed, and I prayed, Please let her make the fifth free throw. And finally, she made the fifth one, and her face lit up, and she walked out of that gym with her head held high. Two weeks after that, we were playing Edgerton, and there were 10 seconds left in the game. We were down by one, and the other team got a technical foul. I had to pick somebody from my team to shoot two free throws. There was a girl named Abby Holcomb, who was on our team. She was probably one of the best free throw shooters Ive ever had, and I didnt even think twice about her. I said, Sam, youre my man. I said, You go shoot those free throws for me. She walked up to that line, and if you know anything about a technical free throw, everybody else is behind half court. Shes the only one there. She took three dribbles, bent her knees, and she shot. The ball spun perfectly, and then it clanked off the back of the rim. She looked over at me, Sam, piece of cake. I said, Sam, I know you can make this next one. She smiled and took the ball from the ref. She bent her knees, took three dribbles, and she shot again. I knew it was going in. I knew all those free throws were for that moment. She clanked it off the back of the rim. My heart just died. I was like, What have I done to this girl? I thought I had ruined her life. We still had a chance to win. We had 10 seconds left. We got the ball back. We had a really good shot, and we missed that shot too. The buzzer sounded, and we walked off the floor. When I first started coaching, I was so afraid of the power that you have as a coach. Just a smile or a smirk can change a kids life. I though I had ruined her life. I asked her later on, Sam, I have to ask you about this. How did you feel when I had you do that? She said, Coach, Im not going to lie to you. I felt terrible when I missed those free throws and let our team down. But you know what? I want to tell you this: it meant so much to me that those girls on that team knew you picked me when the game was on the line. She said, I will never forget that for as long as I live. See, sometimes you dont know how things are going to turn out. You just have to breathe life into them, the way that you think God is telling you to do, and let God work out the details. See, if we could only see with some kind of spiritual glasses and look to see what people are really like. Its like the prom queen that is so beautiful and looks like she has everything together. When she looks in the mirror, she sees this fat, unattractive, worthless person, but when she goes to school, you would never guess it. Or the shy girl who never opens up to anybody, and if you only knew that her step-father was visiting her room at night, and shes trying to get the courage up to tell her mom whats going on. Shes afraid to say anything because she doesnt think her mom is going to believe her. Or the jock athlete who looks like he has everything together, and almost every single night he goes home, and his father drinks until he gets drunk. Then he beats him and his mom, and he doesnt know how hes going to live and face each day. Or how about the mean person at work or the person you come across, and they are so mean! You hate being around them, but if you only knew that they have been beat down so many times in their lives. Theyve been hurt in their heart, and people have stuck knives in there and just twisted. Their only defense mechanism is to lash out and hurt you first before you get a chance to hurt them. We need to look the way Jesus would. Or how about that person that you really cant stand? Do you know that you only love Jesus as much as the person you love the least? You only love Jesus as much as the person you love the least. There are some people we dont think are deserving of that. Think of Peter and Jesus. At one of the lowest times of Jesus life on Earth, everybody deserted him. His three closest friends deserted him, and Peter was one of them. Not only did he deny Him, but the last time he said, I dont blank-edy-blank know the man! When Jesus came back from the dead, and He saw Peter again, he said, Peter, you are the rock upon which I will build My church. We would never have picked Peter to be that one, but God saw through that and saw the potential for that. When I was in 7th grade, there was a girl that had a crush on me, and she let me know that. Instead of letting her down easy and letting her know I did not like her, I started making fun of her. I started writing songs about her. She was going out for the student council, and I started campaigning against her-even though I wasnt even running for it. I would tell people, Dont vote for her! Id like to say that I wasnt a Christian at the time, but I was. I made her life miserable. One day as I was walking out of school, Mr. Greer said, Hey, Mike! You got a second? I said, Sure. He walked up to me, and he looked at me and said, Hey, I heard a rumor that you are going around picking on this girl. I was like (jaw drops). He said, You know what I told that person? I said, That cant possibly be true because the Michael Powers I know would never treat another human being like that, especially a young girl. Then he put his hand on my shoulder, and he said, I just thought you should know that. I was like double (jaw dropping). He walked away and didnt say another word. My face just burned with shame. He had this incredible gift of breathing life into you in such a way that nobody else would have thought of. I deserved a lot less than that. Have you ever judged people too quickly, when you dont know the circumstances? This last summer, I had finished up a wedding video for my video business, and I needed to ship it overnight to a customer. I went into FedEx with my two $20 bills because I wasnt sure how much it was going to cost. I had a pair of shorts on that had no pockets, so when I walked in to the store and up to the counter, he gave me the address label. I put the two $20 bills on the counter. As I turned this way to fill out the address label, and as he bent down behind the counter to get a package out for me to mail it in, somebody came in behind us, opened the door, put some pre-labeled packages on the counter and walked out. When Mr. FedEx said, How would you like to pay for this, cash or charge? I said, Cash. I went to grab my two $20 bills, only they were not there. Then we thought maybe when this person came in, the wind blew the $20 bills off the counter. So we looked all around the floor on this side of the counter and that side of the counter. For five minutes, we looked for the money and could not find it. Then Mr. FedEx looked at me, and I looked at him, and we both said at the same time, No way! When I had turned this way, and while he was down behind the counter getting the package, the person who dropped off the packages-in a 10-second span of time-swiped the two $20 bills, put them in his pocket, and walked out. I was so mad! I went home, got some more money, came back, shipped the package out, and then I looked at the man and said, Do you mind if I see the name on those packages that were dropped off? I walked over and got this guys name and address. I went out in my truck, took my cell phone, and I called the police. I knew there was probably nothing they would be able to do, but I wanted this guy to know he did not (the master thief that he was) get away with it. Then I called information, and I gave the name and address, and I asked for a phone number of the master thief. I called the number because I was going to let him know that he did not get away with what he thought he got away with. I got the answering machine. It was a ladys voice, and I thought this is his wife. I was going to say to her on the answering machine, Get out of the house now! Youre married to a crook! I lost my nerve, and before it beeped, I hung up the phone. The police came. They pretty much told me there was not much they could do about it, but they would pay this man a visit and put a little scare into him. I went home and told my wife what happened. I was fuming mad. As I walked down the stairs, I felt a little itch in the waistband of my shorts. I reached in, and I pulled out my two $20 bills. I got on the phone and called the police, and I said, Please stop! You dont want to ruin this mans life! Stop! They got a hold of them about five minutes before they pulled into this guys driveway. They turned around. I called Mr. FedEx, and I said, Please…I made a terrible mistake. Im so sorry. If this is a regular customer, do not think anything. I am the idiot. Then my wife looked at me and said, Michael! The next time you think someone has stolen $40 from you, strip down naked before you call the police! One of the segments of our society that I think does not have enough life breathed into it is the elderly. Im going to read you a poem, and its called Crabby Old Woman. There was an old woman who died in a geriatric ward in Scotland, and they didnt think she had a dime to her name. As they went through her meager possessions, they found a hand-written poem that she had penned. It went like this:
What do you see, nurses? What do you see? What are you thinking when you're looking at me?
A crabby old woman, not very wise, Uncertain of habit, with faraway eyes?
Who dribbles her food and makes no reply When you say in a loud voice, "I do wish you'd try!"
Who seems not to notice the things that you do, And forever is losing a stocking or shoe?
Who, resisting or not, lets you do as you will, With bathing and feeding, the long day to fill?
Is that what you're thinking? Is that what you see? Then open your eyes, nurse, you're not looking at me.
I'll tell you who I am as I sit here so still, As I do at your bidding, as I eat at your will.
I'm a small child of ten with a father and mother, Brothers and sisters, who love one another.
A young girl of sixteen with wings on her feet Dreaming that soon now a husband she'll meet.
A bride soon at twenty, my heart gives a leap, Remembering the vows that I promised to keep.
At twenty-five now, I have young of my own, Who need me to guide and a secure happy home.
A woman of thirty, my young now grown fast, Bound to each other with ties that should last.
At forty, my young sons have grown and are gone, But my man's beside me to see I don't mourn.
At fifty once more, babies play round my knee, Again we know children, my loved one and me.
Dark days are upon me, my husband is dead, I look at the future, I shudder with dread.
For my young are all rearing young of their own, And I think of the years and the love that I've known.
I'm now an old woman and nature is cruel; 'Tis jest to make old age look like a fool.
The body, it crumbles, grace and vigor depart, There is now a stone where I once had a heart.
But inside this old carcass a young girl still dwells, And now and again, my battered heart swells.
I remember the joys, I remember the pain, And I'm loving and living life over again.
I think of the years, all too few, gone too fast, And accept the stark fact that nothing can last.
So open your eyes, people, open and see, Not a crabby old woman; Look closer and see me.
You do not know what is going on in a persons life that makes them do the things they do. We took our youth group to go visit some nursing home residents a while go. It stretched our youth because its hard to go outside of your boundaries and be stretched to do that. There was one lady in a wheelchair who had this little stuffed rabbit, and she held it on her lap and just rocked. She never talked. A couple of our braver kids went up and sat at her table and talked to her. She never said a word back, but she would smile at them. Then when we left, a young man in our youth group named Brock Messner, who was in 6th grade at the time, walked up to this lady, looked her in the eye, and said, Can I give you a hug? He reached down, she put the rabbit in her lap and reached up, and they hugged. They were standing sideways to me, and I could see them. As Brock was hugging her, all the sudden his eyes went like this (popped out of his head), and then he looked at me, and I looked. That old lady had slipped her hand down and grabbed his butt and squeezed it. When we walked out of there, there was no one with a bigger smile on her face than this lady. I thought, There are other ways to breathe life into people apparently. What do you do when you dont feel like life has been breathed into you? When my son, Caleb, was three or four, I walked by his room, and I heard him singing a song. The song went like this, I love my daddy. I love my daddy. I love my da-ddy! My heart started to swell. Then I heard the second verse, …but I dont know why. No, I dont know why. Then it was back to I love my daddy. It just took the wind right out of me. If youve ever felt like that, dont wait until someone breathes life into you. Go and breathe life into other people, and youll be amazed at how God breathes life into you through that simple act. I absolutely love my job as a youth pastor! Every single day, I get the chance to make a difference in a teenagers life. We have the most awesome youth leaders in our church that I can possible imagine having working with me. Do you know what the secret to youth ministry is? Its not what we say on Sunday nights; its not what we say on Wednesday nights; its going to a soccer game when its 40 degrees out, and youre shivering and shaking. Then a student looks up and sees that their youth leader or youth pastor is there. Its going to a school play. Its making a phone call. One of our youth leaders made a phone call to a young man in our church, and as he talked to him, all pretty much the young man said was ah ha. When he got off the phone, he thought, I dont know if that made any difference at all. Then, the mom called him and said, When he got off the phone, all he could talk about was that his youth leader called him at home and wanted to talk to him. You never know what youre going to do that is going to make a difference in someones life. After a basketball game last year, one of the parents of one of my players came up to me and started talking to me about church. He looked at me and said, So when are you going to move up to big church and be a real pastor? I knew that he didnt mean anything by it. I looked at him and said, How about never? I dont ever want to do that. Dont get me wrong, youre all cool and stuff, but God made me to reach teenagers, mostly because I act like one. Someday if God says thats what Im supposed to do, I will do it, but Ill probably do it kicking and screaming. But I love what I do. Im going to end with this: Ways that you can apply this to your life. I have an email list and a website called Heart Touchers. There are thousands and thousands of people all over the world who we send a weekly email to. A couple years ago, we challenged them to write a hero letter to somebody in their life who has made a difference. I have a number of people in my life who have mentored me and made a difference. I had a youth pastor that at the age of 17; he looked at me-even though I was only 17 years old-and he said, Michael I want you to be in charge of the whole junior high ministry at our church. He asked me to do something I never thought I could do, and he stretched me. That turned the corner in my life. I have a man named Dennis Roach, who is an older gentleman Ive known since I was a little boy. Everyday he sees me, he breathes life into me. He knows everything about me, everything about me, and he still loves me unconditionally. So we ask asked these people to write a letter to somebody, and Im going to read to you what I got back from one person. It says, Dearest Michael, I cannot thank you enough for encouraging us to write letters to our heroes. Yesterday, I got a letter back from my dad, to whom I had sent my hero letter, and I cant believe the timing. Hed become very depressed because he has a heart condition. Basically, the doctor said there was nothing more they could do for him. They also told him he needed to limit his driving, which affects his independence. I guess you can see where all this is going. The letter I received from him said, Thank you for sending me such a nice letter. The timing was perfect and literally kept me from doing something stupid. The girl went on and said, Thank God I sent that letter when I did, and thank you for suggesting it. The Lord truly does work in mysterious ways! If she had waited even a day to write that letter, her dad probably would have blown his brains out. Not every letter we got was this traumatic, but we got hundreds of letters that said, You would not believe how God used that in their lives at a time when they desperately needed some life breathed into them. Davids Staff: the thing that we are doing at our church, if people look at Christians, and we arent loving each other and encouraging each other, theres no way we are going to be an influence on someone whos not a Christian. Last night, I had a lady come up to me, and she said, You know what? I didnt think I could do that Davids Staff thing. I didnt think I had the gift for it. Now, I know I can write a letter or make a phone call. That is a tangible way that you can make a difference in someones life. Now, Im going to end with one poem. Most of you who know me know Im a girly man, so Im going to recite poetry-from memory hopefully. It says this: I would rather see a sermon than hear one any day. Id rather have you walk with me than merely point the way. The eye is a more ready pupil than ever was the ear, And good advice is often confusing, But example is always clear. Lets pray: Heavenly Father, we just thank You so much for sending Your Son to die in our place, Lord, and when You look down on us, You do not see the sin and the darkness that is in our lives. You look past that, and You see the righteousness of Your Son, Jesus Christ. Thank You, Lord, that we can be called Children of God, that You adopted us into Your family. As we look through the Bible, we see so many verses that show how You lavish Your love on us, and You love us unconditionally. Lord, I pray that with Jesus inside of us, He will come out of every word, every thought, every deed, and every smile that crosses our faces. As we walk by, we will be living letters of every person we come into contact with. I pray this in Your precious name, Amen.
Well, I think that the thing that he really forgot to tell you is that he asked me to preach, and I said, I dont preach. What I said was, after some time, I could do a presentation, so thats why Im using Power Point, because this is comfortable for me. I do want to thank you so much for the opportunity to work with your children. I want you to know that not only do I count it a privilege, but all those from childrens ministry count it a privilege to work with your children. Its fun to come each week and to dig into Gods word and see what he wants us to learn together. And I want to guarantee this: Its not just for the children; its for us too. We learn a lot together, and we are grateful for that privilege. I am going to talk about transforming children into spiritual champions this morning, but what I want you to know is this: Yes, it is for children, but it is also important for all of us to know this information. Parents and grandparents, what I want you to take away, more than anything, is that we need to be diligently praying for our children. They need our prayers. There is a big world out there that has a lot of distractions for them. So, if nothing else, I want you to come away with some information where you can be praying for our children. When I came into the world, my mother was a Christian, but my father was not. As our family grew a little bit, I have a younger brother and a younger sister, my mother decided that it was going to be really important that we grew up to know and love the Lord and that as a family, we would attend church and find a church home. So we began looking for a church home, and I remember so clearly, at the age of eight, visiting North Scott Baptist Church in Pardeeville. Even to think about North Scott brings lots of good memories for me. But, at the age of eight, at North Scott Baptist, I attended a Vacation Bible School during a summertime. This wonderful lady by the name of Gladys Jenkins was the teacher that day. She shared about God and it wasnt that I didnt know about God, because I did, but on that day, she really connected with some of the questions that I had and made me see God in a very different way. At the end of that time, she asked if anyone wanted to pray the prayer of Salvation and ask Jesus into their heart. I accepted Jesus on that day into my heart, and I clearly remember the joy that came into my life on that day. In fact, I remember going to my grandparents home after that and just having that joy in my life and skipping around their yard and the joy that really did come into my life. Not too much longer after that, my father accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior as well. I remember, my memories of growing up, then, are in a Christian home where my parents did value spiritual development and taught us. They also taught us that we were a part of a church family. I know that I would not be standing here today if it werent for the spiritual nurturing that my parents gave to me and the support and love that our church family gave to us as well. A couple of months ago, I started reading a book called Transforming Children into Spiritual Champions. That is where I came up with the title. George Barna is the author of that book, and he did a really extensive survey nationwide and found some information. What I want to do is to share that information with you today, pieces of that information. I think it helps us see things in a different way. Maybe we get a little bit more comfortable right here in our church family, but I think its important for us to take a look at some things. One of the things that he said that was so important, and when I first started reading the book, my intent was, What can we do differently in childrens ministry? or How can we offer different kinds of programs so we can raise children to be spiritual champions? As I read a little bit into the book, I realized some of my motives were actually un-biblical. It isnt the churchs job to raise spiritual children. In fact, in Deuteronomy, and Im going to show you that first, Chap 6: verse 5-7, it says, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Its really, truly the parents responsibility and privilege to raise children and help them develop and grow spiritually. Again, I knew that as a childrens pastor. In fact, our Mission Statement is, in the Garden, to supplement the family as they lay down a spiritual foundation that nurtures spiritual growth, so a child can receive the Lord as their personal Savior in a lasting relationship with God through Jesus Christ. I knew that, and I read a little bit further, and there were some things in there, that I thought were important for us to all know. One of the first things he said was, Fewer than ten percent of all parents that attend church on a regular basis with their children, either read the Bible together, pray together as a family, other than at mealtime, or spend time together as a family serving others in some way. Its really important for us to think about that. What are parents seeing? What is it theyre missing? He went on to say that according to his research, parents basically model what was modeled for them when they were younger, or they feel that they are not capable of training their children spiritually, like the church can. He also went on to take a look at when children receive Jesus. And what found from his research, was this: The probability of children between the ages of 5 and 12 receiving Jesus as their Lord and Savior is 32 percent. Between the ages of 13 and 18, it drops to 4 percent. Nineteen and over, it drops to 4 percent. Nineteen and over, it is 6 percent. I think one of those things we see with those numbers is Wow, theres this drastic difference between 32 percent and then four and six percent. And there is; thats a big difference. The other thing I think we can see there is, God has created children in such a unique and special way, that they are really sensitive and receptive to Jesus. I think those numbers reflect that as well. Then he went on to talk about a world view, and for our purpose today, a world view is really how we see and interpret the world around us; what we believe to be true and what we base that truth on. What he said was this: By the age of 13, children have established their world view. Theyve established how they see the world, how they interpret the world, what they believe to be true, and what they base that truth on. He went on to say , It wont change much after that, but the reason that it wont change much after the age of 13 is because very few teens or adults ever cross paths with another person that has such a drastically different world view than they do, that challenges what they believe to be true. I want you to keep that in mind as we talk a little bit more. So by the age of 13, childrens spiritual identity is pretty much set in place. I was curious what our children were thinking too.
The group of children I meet with on Wednesday night are between the ages of 8 and 12. I was interested in what was going on in their thoughts. I asked them two questions: First How many of them believe in Jesus as their Lord and Savior? And how many of them are going to live for Jesus the rest of their lives? All of them said yes to both of those. They believed in Jesus, and they were committed to living for Jesus for the rest of their lives. But, I wanted to know why. What did they base that response on? I want to share some of those responses with you. Some responses were as follows: Because I asked Him into my life, and I dont think I could live without Him. Because I know Jesus loves me and died for my sins. Im going to go to church, read all the Bible, pray, listen to Christian music and just do all God stuff. I know because I already started to say stuff about Jesus to my friends, and I wont stop there. Because Im a strong believer, and I think I can do it. Because I really believe in Him, and I want to do things for Him. Because I pray and ask Him to help me everyday. I will live for Jesus and keep believing in Him. I also wanted to know where the children thought they learned the most about God. So I asked them that, and the response was this: 63% said they learned the most about God from the church. Twenty-seven percent said they learned the most about God from other places. Nine percent said they learned the most about God from home. I guess we are going to ask ourselves this question, What does all that mean? I think it means this: It means, again, that God has created children in such a special, unique way that they are receptive to Him, and they are sensitive to His leading. Its up to us, not just parents and grandparents, but all of us, to support them and to reach them at a very, very young age. What I want to do is to share some scriptures with you that will help us see how precious children are to God. So if you want to go ahead and grab the Bibles in front of you. Children are so special to God that He considers them to be a gift. I bet there are some days that the behavior of your children makes you question that gift, but children are a gift from God. That gift reminds us of His love for us and His desire to be in a relationship with us. So, children are so precious to God that he considers them to be a gift. Were going to look at Deuteronomy 7-13. It says this: He will love you, and bless you, and increase your numbers. He will bless the fruit of your womb, the crops of your land, your grain, new wine and oil, the calves of your herds, and lambs of your flocks, in the land He swore to your forefathers to give to you. The verse starts out with He will love you, and bless you, and increase your numbers. God loves us so much that children are a gift that reflects his love. Im sure that all of us have received gifts at some time, and sometimes gifts have special meaning to us, and sometimes theyre just gifts. When my grandmother went to California, during the time I was in high school, shortly after my grandfather passed away. When she came back, she brought for me a yellow sweater vest, and I loved that yellow sweater vest. I wore it and I tried to figure out how many different outfits I could make out of that yellow sweater vest. Well, yellow sweater vests dont stay in style very long. I had to put it in a box, but I still have that yellow sweater vest. To me (you know what), it reminds me so much of that love my grandmother had for me, that while she was in California, she would buy something special for me. And, that special relationship that I had with her, and she is no longer with us, but it still reminds me of that special relationship that I did have with her. Children are like that yellow sweater vest. Theyre a precious gift that reminds us about how much God loves us and the special relationship that he wants to have with us. Children are so special to God that he has created them in a very, very special way. Lets look at Matthew 18: 1-4. Well start out with Verse 1, and Verse 1 says this: At that time, the disciples came to Jesus and asked Who is the greatest in the kingdom of Heaven? That was a pretty bold statement or question for the disciples to ask. I know they were not expecting the answer that Jesus would go on to give them. Lets look at Verse 2: He called the little child and had him stand among them. Dont you just think that Jesus said, Not only am I going to say this to you, but Im going to have you see it as well. And he brought this little child to stand with all these adults, so they could get a clear message about what he was going to say. Verse 3 says this: And he said, I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like these little children, you will never enter the kingdom of Heaven. We need to become like little children. What are children like? Theyre trusting and theyre sincere. They just desire to take everything in, and they want so much to be cared for and valued. And thats what Jesus said we need to be like too. We need to trust Him and be sincere about our belief in Him and desire to take in everything we can about Jesus and be loved and valued by Jesus. Lets end with Verse 4: Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. Gods standard is that we be like a child. Children are so precious to God that He has created them in a very special way. There is woman who was getting ready to be a gardener for the first time. For us, a gardener means a teacher, in childrens ministry. She was a little bit nervous, and her preschooler picked up on that. She said to her mother, God wouldnt ask us to do something that we werent good at. And arent those the words that children would say when they are so precious to God that theyre created in a very, very special way. Lets look at another scripture. Children are so special to God that He desires to spend time with them. Lets look at Mark 10: 13-16. Verse 13 says, People were bringing little children to Jesus to have Him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, He was indignant. He said to them, Let the little children come to Me and do not hinder them for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God, like a child, will never enter it. And He took the children in His arms, put his hands on them, and He blessed them. Cant you just picture Jesus? Hes sitting there and Hes heard the woes and the troubles of the adults all day long. And then, He sees the children, and He says to them, There you are children. Ive been waiting for you all day. Ive been looking forward to this time that I can spend just with you. Youre so refreshing from the troubles of adults. He scoops them up in his arms, and He hugs them. He probably laughs with them. I can picture Jesus doing that. They are so precious to God. A couple weeks ago, I had a chance to talk to the children about how important it is to not misuse Gods name and how it hurts Him when we do that. A week later, a little gal brought back a story. She said, I was out on the playground, and a classmate used Gods name wrong, and I told him that it hurts God when he does that. Well, the classmate just shrugged it off, and then she said to him, You know what? The only reason that you dont know how much it hurts God is because you dont God. And, arent those the words of a child so precious to God that He desires to spend time with them. Children are so precious to God that He gave specific ideas on training and instructions for them. We started out by talking about the verse in Deuteronomy 6:5-7 to impress on your children how important Gods commandments are-what we need to know about God. Lets look at Ephesians 6:4. 6:4 says, Fathers do not exasperate your children in God. Bring them up in the training and the instruction of the Lord. The battlefield is really in homes, isnt it? The hearts of the souls of the minds of children are on the frontline, and Satan knows this: If he can reach children, he can change the course or the direction for an entire generation. God wants so much for us to grasp this, to understand that all of us together, whether its through prayer or contact with children, or the children that God has given to us as gifts, we need to train them to know and to love the Lord. Lets go on and talk a little bit about what we do with this information, but more importantly, how can we train children, or transfer children, into spiritual champions? Again, spiritual champions are children who know what they believe in, why they believe in it, reflect Biblical principles, or Biblical perspectives, and love God and love others as well. Were going to talk about transforming children into spiritual champions using the four Ps. The first P is this: PURPOSE: Children need to understand their purpose. They need to know why God created them and what theyre doing here. We need to help them with that. Sometimes I think that we can make that a little bit more complicated than it is, but Luke 10:27 gives us a good idea of what God says is the purpose. It reads this: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind. Love your neighbor as yourself. Weve heard that before this morning, havent we? God wants children to know that their purpose it to love Him and to love others as well. How can we do that? How can we help children know what their purpose is? We can do that by helping them know God intimately through prayers, Bible study, and reflecting and applying some of the lessons that we learn through life. One example that we could use with that would be, possibly, movies. Children love to watch videos of different kinds. I dont know about you, but sometimes its pretty discouraging to see what is available to children. Sometimes they bring on those cute animated stories, and theyre rated PG. So, it is important that we evaluate those things. Thats a real life application that children can make in their homes. Thats just one example. Lets go ahead and go on. Were going to talk about the second P. The second P is PERSPECTIVE: Children really need to understand and be able to develop their perspective. Again, what they believe to be true and what they base that truth on. From early on, children are taking in all kinds of information, trying to figure out the world around them, placing it in categories so it makes sense to them. As Ive already stated, what Barnes research shows us is that by the age of 13, pretty much their spiritual identity is in place. Theyve developed their spiritual direction or their Biblical perspective. Again, we can see how important it is for us to reach children at a very young age. How can we do that? How can we help children develop a Biblical perspective? We can help them by really reading, knowing, and applying Gods word and by lovingly motivating them to be obedient to God. An example that we might think of there, with perspective is, first, memorization. Thats a challenge for all of us, but memorizing verses that we, for our children, want them to store in their hearts to take with them and will remember and use for a lifetime. We want to start that early with them, so memorization is a good one for perspective. The next P is PROVISION: Provision means this: Children more than anything need to know that theyre loved, theyre cared for, and theyre valued. Through Barnas research, he found that if children really feel that theyre a significant human being, theyre really going to take more ownership of their spiritual development. What does that mean? It means that were going to see children if its modeled for them and they understand it, read the Bible on their own when they get to an age where they can do that, or pray on their own. So again, theyll take more ownership of their spiritual development. Again, how can we provide for children? Well, we want to provide for them by letting them know in a very tangible way that theyre loved, theyre cared for, and theyre valued. I think valued is a really important word in this piece. That is, again, children need to understand that they have some significance. An example we might use there is) around the home. Children could be given a task thats age-appropriate for them to do to contribute to the role of the family. The last P is PERFORMANCE: Performance means this: Children need to know that their spiritual development is NOT something that happens on a Sunday morning or even a devotional time at night. What they need to understand is that their spiritual development is life-long, and its moment to moment. Its something we live every single second of our lives. We could go on and talk about a lot of different things in there, but really what children need here is to be able to participate and do some kind of performance or act in a way that shows other people that they care about other people. One way they could do that is helping out a grandparent, maybe, or a neighbor. Theres lots of other ways children can help. Ive been so pleased with our children on Wednesday nights. The third Wednesday of the month, I go and pick up children from the House of Mercy, and Brenda and I have talked to the children about how important it is to make them feel welcomed in a place that feels like an okay place to be. We cant make them do that, but we have been so proud of them because they have done that. We call them our guests, and as our guests are here, we can see children going and sitting by our guests and initiating conversation with them. Can I go get you a snack? and really reaching out to them in a very tangible way. We are so pleased with what the children are doing. I think children do that a little bit better than we do many times. I want to be able to share a lot more about the 4 Ps with you, and Ill come back to that in a little bit as far as what I want to do with that. I just want to leave you with a couple thoughts. The first is this: If youre parents, it feels overwhelming. Thats true, because it is overwhelming. The other thing is this: If you have children that are over the age of 13, I dont want you to feel like its hopeless. This is the reason: Remember that Barna said the only reason that the world view doesnt change after the age of 13 is because they dont cross paths with anybody who challenges what they believe in a very, very real way. So we can challenge those teens and adults and make them really reflect on their world view that theyve developed. The other thing is this: Those numbers that I gave you, thats just Barnas research, isnt it? Those are what we see around us, but thats not Gods research at all. Thats not what God desires, and, in fact, in Second Peter, he tells us this: He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to parish, but everyone to come to repent Him. God doesnt want a 32 percent; He wants a 100 percent, but we can rest assured in this: We CAN reach children, and we can reach others for Him. What we need to do more than anything is to be willing. We need to be diligent about our own spiritual growth. With that, we need to invest in children and the life of those around us. Sometimes, again, what we can know is this: God will work. He will work sometimes through us, but sometimes Hell just work in spite of us. What I want to do is to let you know about something thats coming up in childrens ministry. This is really for those of you that do have children in the Garden, but we have a special, what were going to call a newsletter, but its called Growing in the Garden. What it will do is be able to give you an opportunity to take some information that the children learn on Sunday morning and reinforce that throughout the week. Because I cant talk about it now, there just isnt time, I set aside some time this week for you to meet together in the multi-purpose room, April 5 or April 9-Tuesday night or Saturday morning. Were going to meet together. I want to share that resource with you and some other resources. If you have some questions, we can talk about those as well. I want to thank you so much for the opportunity to come and share with you. Then well come back and share some songs with you. At that time, our children can come forward come up along the sides. If you have children in this preschool group that is coming up, what were going to do is- theyre going to end today. What I want to do is-youll just come up here and check them out with us after their song is done. Thank you.
Pastor Jeff: The truths that weve learned today help them to apply to us and just to live them; that as parents, grandparents, we will be more determined than ever to, not only to model, but to teach your values and your truths to our children. Thank you for the ministry that we have here, for Jonanne, for Brenda, for all the teachers, Gardeners, we ask You to bless them. In Jesus name we pray, Amen!