Not a Fan

This week we will be kicking off a Lenten Sermon series, using Kyle Idleman's Not a Fan. Because I am using his sermons for this series, I will not be posting them to the sermon blog or the church website. If you want more information about the series, go to http://www.notafan.com/.

A New Heart

Ezekiel 36:22-32

At the end of last year, I preached a sermon called “Because of Jesus” and went through all of the things that are true because of Jesus. Because of Jesus, I am hopeful, I am found, I am free, I am able, I am loved, I am saved, and I am new. One comment I received after the final sermon was “there was so much in there – you could have preached a sermon on every one of those scriptures you used.” So ever since then, I have been preaching from the scriptures I used in that sermon. Kind of like a spin-off series.

In Christ, we have the hope of heaven, where God makes all things new. This can give us comfort when we face sorrow and struggle in this life – we’ve seen plenty of that around here recently. We are told to set our hearts on things above; when we set our hearts on things above, when everything is Holy-Spirit oriented and initiated, we see transformation. But there are times when God’s people are God’s people in name only. When we are not known by our love, but by how we bicker. Thursday I spent quite a while with Rick from the funeral home, and we spent the entire drive from Millersport to Hanover and back talking about horribly mean thing church people have done.

This is unfortunately nothing new – the scripture I read today from Ezekiel came when the people of Israel were in exile. In this occasion, God used exile to humble his people, to test them, to show them their sin, and to turn their hearts back to Him. For some of you who have felt the pain of the desert, know that God has not left you. Even though it sometimes seems like God is far, He will never forget you, leave you, or forsake you.

In fact, while God’s people are in exile, God is speaking to them through a prophet. I want to make something clear – we often think of a prophet as someone telling the future; prophecy is often simply truth-telling. When my college friend David told me he didn’t see me living the Christian life, he was speaking prophetically. Ezekiel tells the Israelites that it is because of their sin that God has exiled them, that it is a time of purification.

God tells Ezekiel to speak to the house of Israel, speaking the word of the Sovereign LORD. Whenever you see the name “LORD” in all caps, you should read it: Yahweh. This is God’s Holy Name – a name so holy that Jews refused to write it out. In fact, if you read Hebrew, you will find it written out with the consonants YHWH but the vowels from Adonai (meaning “Lord”); the Jews were so mindful of not accidentally using the God’s name wrongly that they wouldn’t even write Yahweh. Incidentally, German scholars read the consonants of Yahweh + the vowels of Adonai and that came out to be Jehovah.

Anyway, the one of the worst things that any follower of God can possibly do is profane God’s name. We don’t use phrases like that these days, but what that means is to bring dishonor or disrespect to God’s name.

There was a time in our country when Christian people would not think of using God’s name as a swear word. They would say something else, like “Gosh” instead of using God’s name. Thus they felt safe – they weren’t disobeying the Commandment. But the truth is, every time we disobey God and claim to be Christian, we are profaning his name. When I talk to people who aren’t Christians, when they find out I’m a pastor, I almost always get one reaction or the other. The first reaction is that they give their apologies for not being in church. The other is that they give their reasons why they are not, usually because of church people who have wronged them. They see us as inward-focused and constantly in-fighting, and they are, to an extent, right. And by living this out, we have dishonored God’s name. We have equated God’s name with pointless religion. We have equated God’s name with living in the past.

We have also strayed from the truth and have accepted an ego-centric view of God, that God does everything he does for our sake. Most of us know that God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. (John3:16) So we think that what God does is all about us. This is the modern heresy of the American Church – that it is all about us.

It isn’t all about us! It’s all about God. Did you notice what God says to the people of Israel?

 “Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am going to do these things, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you have gone. I will show the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, the name you have profaned among them. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Sovereign LORD, when I show myself holy through you before their eyes.

Have you ever thought of this: God has every right and reason to just wipe us all off the face of the earth right now. His justice demands payment. So the very fact that he doesn’t just wipe us out is a demonstration of God’s grace. He is so very patient with us when we don’t deserve it.

God wants to use His people to demonstrate His holiness. This is why God has gathered people together, why He has adopted us into his family. Not because we were something special, not because we are Americans, not because our families have been Christians and not because we’ve been in church for however long. It is always because of His Holy Name. To say anything otherwise is to profane God’s Name.

As we realize how far we have fallen from God’s plan and recognize that we are indeed the ones who have profaned God’s name, then we can go on to the next paragraph. If you won’t admit that you have been part of the problem, I give you permission to spend the next few minutes reading your bulletin or checking your calendar or thinking about what you’re going to do after church. I’m not going to point at someone or other and say “he or she is part of the problem” because we all have been part of the problem. Whenever we are selfish, whenever we think of ourselves before God, whenever we are inward-focused instead of sharing God’s blessing with others, whenever we gossip or badmouth one another or promote our own agendas, we profane God’s name, and we are the problem.

We can easily point our fingers out at “them” but they aren’t the problem. We, who are called by Christ’s name, are the ones who are held accountable to His standards, and we are the problem if we are not following the lead of the Holy Spirit.

But when we recognize that we have profaned God’s Holy Name and realize our role, to allow God to show Himself holy through us, then we can get to the next step. God promises to reward us!

God’s promise was cleansing. What kind of cleansing is it? From all impurities and from all idols. When I was a kid, I went on a lot of canoe trips with my dad. Those were really special times, and I’ll always appreciate that my dad would do that with us. One thing I never understood as a kid and still don’t as an adult: we would be camping for the night along the river, and us kids would be playing in the water, and my dad would toss us a bar of soap and tell us to wash up. So we would wash up in the river. Guess how clean we ended up?! Of course we weren’t clean – we stunk like the river. Why? Because we “cleaned” ourselves while we were in the filth and we stayed in the filth.

If God is saying He will cleanse his people, God is going to have to pull us out of our filth. When God says he will cleanse us from our impurities and from our idols, that just won’t happen if we’re sitting in our filth.

A common misconception about confession of sins and about sanctification is that we are initially made perfect by Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, and as long as we keep confessing our sins, we’re fine. Actually, I see a lot of church people who bank on Jesus’ sacrifice but do not submit to the Holy Spirit. If that’s you, you are not a Christian. If your life hasn’t changed because of the Spirit dwelling in you, then there is something wrong.

But we can’t just work harder and do it, because on our own, we’re still washing in a filthy river. But when God intervenes, he doesn’t just clean the outside, and he doesn’t just clean the inside. He actually gives us a heart transplant. (I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.)

This new heart loves differently than the old heart. It looks at people with Jesus’ eyes. When I’ve talked about loving unlovely people, this is what I’m talking about. We can’t do it on our own!

And God promises blessing – God will provide for all our needs. Some people read this and believe that God will give us financial and material wealth. Ezekiel doesn’t say that. Notice that the things he talks about are food and subsistence. God will provide for us.

And why will God provide for us? To remind us of His goodness and our sins, to turn us back to him. Remember that it’s not about what you’re doing, but about what Jesus did. And it’s not about our image; it’s all about God’s glory.

A New Command

John 13:34-35

As young adults, my brother and sister and I invented a new card game that we always liked to play at family gatherings. The notable feature of this game was that whenever you won a hand, you got to create a new rule. Sometimes the new rules made the game more fun, and other times you’d hope to win a hand so you could overrule the old rule with a new one. We would usually have to write down all of the rules so we could keep straight what to do when a particular card was played.

Whenever there are new rules, there are bound to be rule breakers. Sometimes it’s just because of plain ignorance of the rules, but other times it’s because people just don’t like the new rules. Someone does not necessarily have to be a rule-breaker to not like new rules – it sometimes just happens.

Jesus had just served the Last Supper to his disciples, and Judas had gone to betray Jesus. Jesus was telling the remaining eleven that the time had come for God to glorify Him, and that he would only be with them a little while longer. Then he sprung a new command on them. Love one another.

Now, there are new commands and there are not-new commands, and if you’ve been playing along at home, love is certainly not a new command. In fact, you can go back to Leviticus 19:18 and find God’s rule: Love your neighbor as yourself.

So how can Jesus be presenting something as old as this concept is as a new command? It would be like me standing in front of you and saying, “I have a new idea about how to be Christians. We should meet together every Sunday and in homes!” To some, this could possibly sound like a new idea, but it’s not new. John Wesley built Methodism on its Class Meetings, and the early Christians met together daily. Likewise, love for neighbor is not a new concept.

What is new in this command, however, is how Jesus commands every Christian to love. I’m glad he clarifies, because it can be pretty easy for us to dilute love. Our culture has no idea what love is. This week in preschool, Andrew wrote a book about love. Each page contains something that he loves: his dad and mom and family; his toys; mashed potatoes… So as long as I love you like mashed potatoes, we’re all good, right?

Except that Jesus clarifies the love that his followers are supposed to live out: as I have loved you, so you must love one another. As Christians, our call is to love one another as Jesus loved his disciples. That clears things up a little bit, but not completely. What exactly was Jesus talking about?  This all goes back to what is actually the main question of life: Who is Jesus?

People in our culture love Jesus. Mostly among young people, there is a mostly-unorganized movement against organized religion – the focus is on relationship with Jesus, not the outer trappings of religion. There are even some who don’t believe that Jesus ever did anything miraculous, that he was simply a fantastic moral teacher.  

If that’s all Jesus is, loving one another is simply teaching good morals. There are many churches where this is the extent of loving one another – in these cases, “church” has become a judgmental school of morals where people are required to live an outward obedience of these morals but nobody gets beneath the surface to really love one another.

But that’s not all Jesus is. When we love others like Jesus loved us, that love is first based on Jesus’ identity as the Second Person in the Trinity. Our One God exists eternally in Three Persons, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. This concept is central to orthodox Christian belief – it’s no coincidence that one common attribute of cults is the denial of the Trinity.

Trinitarian love is continually receiving and giving love. God is the Father, God is the Son, God is the Spirit, but the Father is not the Son is not the Spirit. All three exist together in community, loving one another sacrificially. When God was creating humanity, God declares, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness.” (Genesis 1:26a) God created us to be in community, but God also defines what that community looks like.

There are Dead Sea community members and Sea of Galilee community members.  The Dead Sea has the lowest elevation on the planet, so while there is continually drainage into it, no water flows out. The Dead Sea cannot sustain life. But the Sea of Galilee is different. The source of the Sea of Galilee is two-fold; the Jordan River flows into it, as do springs on the lake floor. But the Jordan River continues to also flow out of the Sea of Galilee, and its water is fresh. Living Water, as the Hebrew people called it.

Why am I talking about rivers and seas when I started out talking about love? Because what our culture defines as love looks a lot like the Dead Sea. It’s all about what people can do for me, about my expectations, about my needs. This is why marriages fail every day – because every day couples discover that this man or this woman who was supposed to be my savior isn’t meeting my needs. But true agape love is more like the Sea of Galilee, which is a love that is forever receiving and giving. If you think you love someone and your expectation is that they will complete you or make you happy, then you are just using them. That is not love.

Love isn’t love if it’s just receiving. Love is giving.

But when Jesus tells his followers to love one another as I have loved you, he has something deeper in mind. In the Greek, in the phrase “as I have loved you,” Jesus uses what is called the aorist tense agapasa, while the command to love one another is in the present tense. The aorist tense is best described as a snapshot – one moment in time, captured in a verb. Jesus is showing his disciples what love is, and he points to one moment in time… his sacrificial death on the cross.

So not only is real love always sacrificial, always giving, but it gives everything.

Jesus goes on to say that this kind of love is the identifying mark of Christians. “By this everyone will know you are my disciples, if you love one another.” This is how the world will know we are Jesus’ followers. Not because of what we don’t do. Not because of how we dress or what we do on Sunday mornings, but because of our love for one another. As John puts it later (in 1 John 4:7-8) Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

Or how about this in 1 John 4:11-12: Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.  No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

Or this from 1 John 4:19-21 We love because he first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.

Can it be any clearer? Our call is to sacrificial, giving love for one another. If we don’t love, we cannot be identified as Christians. If we do not love one another, the Bible says we can’t love God.

As long as we’re good with this, let’s dive one level deeper. In Matthew 5:43-48, Jesus says, “You have heard that it was said ,‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

So what Jesus says is the love that we share with our friends and family… that’s not the mark of the Christian. It’s the love we have for our enemies that identifies us as God’s children. When it comes to God’s demands on us, let’s just be honest and admit that we can’t just buckle down and try harder. It’s not about working harder. God’s requirement is perfection.

And there is only one way to get there: surrender. Total surrender to the Holy Spirit. Because Jesus already made us perfect if we will surrender to him. But He won’t make you surrender. You have to be willing to do so. This is also how you love your enemies. Let me tell you this: fake it ‘til you make it doesn’t work. It’ll work for a while but then it’ll all come crashing down and you’ll end up worse off than before. But allowing the Holy Spirit to shape you and to love your enemies through you – now that is love.

Everything is New

Isaiah 65:17-25 

Have you ever had an experience where you thought you knew what you were getting into because you had done something similar before, yet when you got there, it was a whole lot different than you had ever expected?

I was a picky eater as a kid but I found out that I was missing out on a lot of good stuff by being so picky. But the fact is, we are only used to the things that we are used to, and we tend to see things in terms of what we know. As we talked about the desert last week, it became clear that many of us are way-too-familiar with the desert. It got me thinking about the Israelites who left Egypt – could they really have been so short-sighted that they really forgot how bad the slavery in Egypt, or did they have expectations that their trip out of Egypt would be instantaneous? Did they think that immediately after they walked through the dry Red Sea, that they would be all set? Instead they found a place of testing and purification. 

If we fast forward from the Exodus to the Exile, we can find another time of testing and purification. Isaiah wrote to a people in exile. We can be tempted to think of exile in purely physical terms, but exile in the ancient near east wasn’t simply physical; it was through a spiritual lens. The thought was “if my people defeated yours, it was because my god was superior to yours.” So the Jews who had been conquered now face the possibility that it was because their God was less powerful than Babylon’s god. Talk about being in a spiritual desert! 

If you’ve read the Bible, you’ll know that Israel (by Israel I mean both Israel and Judah) were exiled as punishment for disobeying God. It’s sometimes mindboggling how someone will know the consequences for disobedience, disobey, and then rail at the injustice when they receive the consequences due them. It’s like the criminal who was injured in the midst of robbing someone who then has the audacity to sue the homeowner. Yet, again and again, when someone is living out the consequences of sin, I still hear complaining against God. We have such a skewed version of justice; we demand justice, as long as the offense was against us, but when we are the offender, we cry for mercy.

There are times when it seems like God is far from us. I will be the first to admit this. There are times when we wonder why God would leave us on our own. Why doesn’t God show up in miraculous ways right now? In these times, it’s important to remember that when God was delivering Israel from Egypt, bringing plagues (the sky turning dark, the Red Sea turning into blood, frogs, locusts, hail, boils, and all firstborn sons dying), leading Israel through the Red Sea as if on dry ground, physically being there as a cloud in the day and a pillar of fire at night to lead the people. Yet it is precisely in this moment when Israel begins to question where God is, why God “led them into the desert to die.” It is only weeks after God has miraculously led them out of Egypt when they come to Mt. Sinai and build a golden calf to worship.

But the other reminder is that God never leaves his people. In fact, we have an advantage over the people of Israel, in that we have God Himself, in the Person of the Holy Spirit, living in us. 

This isn’t to say that things should all of a sudden be easy – in fact, the Bible assures us that if we are following Jesus with everything, that it will cost us. When the disciples were flogged by the Jewish leaders and ordered not to speak in Jesus’ Name, they rejoiced, because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name. (Acts 5:41). 

Romans 5 tells us that suffering produces perseverance, which produces character, which produces a hope which will not disappoint us. (Romans 5:3-5 We rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.)

And listen to this word from 1 Peter 4:12-19: Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.  But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.  If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler.  However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name.  For it is time for judgment to begin with God’s household; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God?  And, “If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?” 

So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.

So we see from the scriptures that God uses suffering to shape us into the people he created us to be and that suffering for the gospel is commendable before God, but this teaching has been widely criticized in today’s culture. Popular preachers are on TV every day telling us that God’s plan for your life is to be healthy and wealthy and if you aren’t, you must have given Satan control over some area of your life. The problem with this approach is that it’s not biblical! It is a damaging heresy. The truth is, the Christian life is wrought with suffering. To suggest anything else is to deny the Scriptures.

What do you say to someone who is suffering? There are times when “it’s going to get better” is simply a lie. All of us have seen someone suffer clear until their death. If this world was all there was, death would simply be the exclamation point on a “life stinks and then you die” philosophy.

But that philosophy completely ignores what we know: this life is not all there is. The prophet Isaiah told the exiles God’s promise, that God will create new heavens and a new earth. I’ve heard various Enlightenment heresies that suggest that heaven is right here, right now, and if this life is heaven, I quit. Because if this is heaven, if this is the best God can give us, it’s not good enough.

But Isaiah describes the new heaven and new earth as so amazing and fantastic that the former things will not be remembered nor will they come to mind. We are so used to that which we are familiar with that we cannot even fathom that something could be better. Think of the most beautiful scenes of nature that you can imagine. The Grand Canyon? A drainage ditch. The Caribbean Sea? A muddy kiddy pool. Even the strongest emotions you feel are nothing compared to the redeemed, glorified emotions we will experience in heaven. 

There are reasons why earth is not perfect. First of all, the cause: in one word, the cause is sin. The entire order of things was destroyed when Adam and Eve sinned. And God can even use this fallen earth to point us toward himself. As Joni Eareckson Tada put it, “Suffering keeps swelling our feet so that earth’s shoes won’t fit.”

Everything good about earth simply points us toward heaven. Everything. Every relationship, every bit of beauty, everything good, noble, true, and praiseworthy. It doesn’t point to itself. Beauty does not exist simply for the sake of beauty. It all points to God. And when we arrive in Heaven and see God face to face, we will forget all of the former things. 

So often we focus on what is not in Heaven, and Isaiah talks about this: no more weeping or crying. Why? Because there will be no reason for crying. Never again will parents mourn over the loss of a child. No more will we have to cover the grief of losing a grandparent with the cliché “she lived such a full life” because there will be no more death. 

We usually focus on what is not in Heaven because we don’t have any frame of reference to even understand how fantastic it will be. So we focus on the pain of this life, the desert we walk through, and we take comfort in knowing that things like death, sorrow, illness, suffering, and tears will not exist there, but Isaiah says that the new creation will be a delight. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy.

There will be true justice in Heaven – no more oppression. No more debt. This is what he is talking about when he talks about building houses and living in them, planting vineyards and eating their fruit.

God also promises to redeem our work. Have any of you ever worked a pointless job? One where your work never amounted to anything? OK, today your job is to dig a ditch. Tomorrow your job will be to fill in the ditch. Or you worked all those years and finally retired and it tore an empty place in your heart when you left. Or you retired only to find that your retirement had been embezzled or lost in the stock market. Or you got downsized (which is employers’ way of not feeling so badly when they fire you) and you lost a part of yourself when you lost the job. In Heaven, we will enjoy the works of our hands. We will not work in vain. We will reap the benefits of our work.

But better than all of this is that we will never again feel far from God. I love how Isaiah prophesies this: Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear. If you’ve ever felt far from God, you might have prayed a prayer and just asked God, “Will you please just answer me?” And then you’ve waited. And waited. And there are times it just doesn’t seem like he is listening. But no more. Because before we even call, God will answer. 

This is the God we serve. And God will redeem our sojourn in the desert with the glory of Heaven. In the meantime, we pray for God’s will to be done, here on earth – through us, even, so that God will be glorified and so that others may enjoy Heaven as well.

What's New (in the Desert)?

What’s New?

Isaiah 43:18-21

In September 2004, I went to Phoenix, Arizona for a youth ministry conference. I had never been to Arizona before that, but when I was there, every day the temperature was over 100°. We would walk on one side of the street on the way from the hotel to the conference center and on the other side on the way back, just so we could stay in the shade. The comedian Jeff Allen talked about the heat how people say, “It’s a dry heat – it doesn’t feel 118°. Now, it feels 290°! Run for it, kids, God has abandoned this place!”

There’s a reason the Bible continually references the desert as the place where God isn’t. At best, it is the place in between. At worst, it’s a place of testing.

Perhaps the defining moment in Jewish history is the Exodus – God delivering his people from slavery in Egypt. Sometimes memories can be a little deceiving; when the Israelites looked back at the Exodus, they focused on God’s power and deliverance. By day the LORD went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night. (Exodus 13:21) The actual event was a little less straightforward. God delivered them from slavery, but He did not lead them directly from Egypt into the Promised Land.

Pharaoh and the Egyptians began chasing them, and the Israelites became terrified and cried out, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt?” (Exodus 14:11)

Have you ever found yourself in the desert? If you’ve never been there, it’s hard to describe. The desert saps your strength. Maybe you’ve gone through some stuff and now you’re just tired. You don’t have the energy to fight anymore. You’ve thought about giving up. Maybe you’re even too tired to give up. If you’ve ever felt like that, you’ve experienced the desert. Maybe you’ve even gotten to the point where you feel like God has abandoned you. In one of his recent surveys, George Barna reports that 1/3 of church attenders have never felt God’s presence in a congregational setting (http://www.barna.org/congregations-articles/556-what-people-experience-in-churches accessed 1/26/12). That means they have been in church, but they have never experienced God there.

I’m not saying that to shame anyone or to put down any churches, because it’s not necessarily anyone’s fault that you feel far from God. One of the difficult things is that someone who is going through a spiritual desert often feels shame because you know intellectually that God will never leave you nor forsake you, but it’s been a while since you really experienced God.

Listen to how Deuteronomy describes the time in the desert: Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. He humbled you, causing you to hunger then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years. Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you. (Deuteronomy 8:2-5).

I want you to notice a few things about the desert from this passage. First of all, the purpose of the desert: the words “humble” and “test” are probably not on most of our list of “things I’d like to have happen to me today.” Yet God uses the desert to humble his people and to test us, to know what is in our hearts. And what is in our hearts? Jeremiah 17:9 tells us that on its own the heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? The last two weeks I have been stressing that we can teach our hearts to go another way, but that it takes a lot of work. God therefore tests us to know what is in our hearts, to see if we will keep his commands.

When it comes to God, there are no standardized tests. The things that test one person might not be a test for someone else. The test isn’t how you perform in church. It’s never about looking the part. I’ve heard integrity described as who you are when nobody is looking – most tests don’t come when everything is fine (actually, one important test comes when everything is going well; that is the “who gets the credit?” test).  Tests come when things are tough. How do you respond when you are angry or frustrated? What kind of language do you use?  How do you treat other people?

The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks. (Luke 6:45)

I have heard a lot about building character – if something is hard, it’s said it builds our character. But the desert doesn’t build character; it reveals it. Why would God allow us to go through times in the desert? Because he wants to reveal our character. So often we allow external circumstances and situations to cover our character. We feel an emptiness inside, so we eat. Or we shop. Or we have another drink. But that emptiness is there on purpose: to steer us toward God. It’s kind of like when we have a fever; our culture wants to dispense fever-reducing medicines immediately, but a fever is an indicator that something else is wrong. If all we do is treat the symptoms and never get to the underlying cause, we will never get well.

When we follow the symptoms to the root cause, it is a need for full and complete reliance on God for everything. The desert teaches us humility. Humility is recognizing our place – it never compares itself to other people; in the economy of the Kingdom, there is no such thing as one gift being better than others. Instead, humility is recognizing our role as submitted to the will of God and fully relying on God for everything. God fed the Israelites manna in the desert, not simply to feed them, but to teach them that He can be trusted for everything. What is it that you don’t trust God for?

There are many times when we find ourselves in the desert, and I have heard people vent a lot of anger against God. Where is God – why has God left me? But the Bible affirms something else about the desert – not only is it a place of testing, but it is a place ordained by God for that kind of testing. In fact, God was the one who led the Israelites in the desert and who took care of them for forty years.  And in the New Testament, we read that Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil (Matthew 4:1).

It was the Holy Spirit who led Jesus into the desert to face temptation. Remember that God never tempts us; it is never God who dangles temptations in front of us. But God certainly allows temptations to exist, again, to test us, to discipline us, and to give us humility and to assure that we rely on Him for our every need.

I had to get to the purpose and existence of the desert to get to the scripture from Isaiah 43. “Forget the former things; do not dwell in the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland. The wild animals honor me, the jackals and the owls, because I provide water in the desert and streams in the wasteland, to give drink to my people, my chosen, the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise.

In a time of testing, it can be easy to regress, to go backwards. Our view of the past is often colored by our perception and our memory is often selective. We talk about the good old days when everything was better. Was it really better? Even if it was, it doesn’t matter. Today is a new day – and to dwell in the past is to deny that God is doing something new.

Were the Israelites better off in Egyptian slavery? When they were wandering in the desert, they began to grumble against Moses and Aaron. The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the LORD’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.” (Exodus 16:3)

All they did all day was sit around at the Golden Corral, eating and hanging out. Never mind the little issues like backbreaking labor and laws requiring the killing of Hebrew children. Sometimes we forget what really happened in the good old days. But even when the good old days were really good, we can never recreate them. Today is a new day, and God tells us to forget the former things. Why is that? Because when we simply focus on the past, we fail to perceive the new things that God might be doing in our midst.

God is doing a new thing, and it might not be where you expect it. God describes it as making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland, where you might least expect it. God has a tendency to do things like this – to do things in such a way that only He can get credit for it. God took Gideon, the weakest one of all, as the leader of Israel’s army. You can read about it in Judges 7, where The LORD said to Gideon, “You have too many men for me to deliver Midian into their hands. So in order that Israel wouldn’t boast against God that their own strength had saved them, God cut down the size of the army to 300 men. Thus God gets all the credit for the victory.

When God makes a way in the desert and provides streams in the wastelands, did you notice what the prophet says happens? The wild animals honor him. Jackals and owls are never presented positively in the Old Testament. They are animals who appear in desolate places. And they honor the God who makes their desolate places into paradise. It is God who does it, so that we, his people, will bring him praise.

Can you look at your circumstances and realize that God is making a way in the desert? Our church attendance has been down. Finances have been tight. And guess what: God is still here. Some of you have been going through tough times. And guess what: God is still here.

So God tells us to forget the old things and to open our eyes to see the new things he is doing and to bring him praise and glory!

Live as God's Chosen

Colossians 3:12-17

Last week we looked at the first ten verses of Colossians 3; Jesus took upon himself every one of our sins and nailed them to the cross and we were raised with Christ, and because of this, we are commanded to set our hearts on things above. This isn’t just a suggestion; it’s a command. We can’t just expect our minds to go where they aren’t trained to go. I don’t ever remember being told how important it is to train my mind. Our culture lies to us and tells us how we are is how we are going to be, that there is no changing. Of course, every parent and teacher works on the assumption that we can change our kids, and society expects us to be able to, but why should we even want to change ourselves? Or to allow God to do so?

As we set our hearts and minds on things above, it is going to change who we are. Paul continues by telling us: Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, This is the context of God’s commands. God isn’t some cosmic meanie, just up there in the sky trying to bully us into changing. This is God’s love for us. If you hear nothing else today, hear that God has chosen you. God doesn’t choose based on the criteria that our cultures chooses; God chooses based on what would bring Himself glory. God didn’t choose you because you were already holy; God chooses you to make you holy. Because of what Jesus did on the cross, you have been made holy, which doesn’t mean you’re perfect. It means you are set apart by God for God. This is our primary identity now: God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved.

If you have ever watched a professional sports draft, there is a moment when each player is called up that the player will put on the cap or a jersey of their new team. We, too, are called to wear the clothing of our new team. We are called, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, to clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.

When anyone looks at us, they see what we’re wearing. Without these garments, we are naked, and the idea here is that if we’re walking around naked, without these clothes, we will be ashamed. So when someone looks at us, this is what they should see.

Compassion is not only feeling sorry for someone’s suffering, but is also working to relieve that suffering. I’ve heard it said: “let your heart dictate to your hand” – in other words, don’t just feel bad about people going hungry right here in our area, because feeling bad isn’t compassion. Compassion is working with the Food Pantry to feed them and working to find the underlying causes of their hunger, then working to alleviate those causes. Kindness goes along with this; it is abundant mercy put into practice.

We are also supposed to exhibit humility. We generally accept the ethos of Muhammad Ali: “It’s hard to be humble when you’re as great as I am” – when someone is good at something, we generally expect them to toot their own horn. After all, who else is going to speak up on your behalf? That comes in direct contrast to biblical humility, which recognizes that we are hopeless sinners, capable of only evil on our own, but that the Holy Spirit is the one who moves in us to do good.

The Greek word that the NIV translates “gentleness” might be better translated “meekness” – even though we don’t use that term much these days. Meekness is great strength held under control. Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you do it. Realize that you have great power. Your words carry great weight, having the power to heal or to hurt. Meek people recognize that God is a God of justice – he will repay. This goes along with the next garment:

Patience.We often look at patience through a short-sighted lens: let me be patient while I’m driving. I need patience for waiting in line. Give me patience with my kids. All these things are just practice to help give us real patience, the kind of patience that allows us to bear up under injustice and to allow God to bring justice. Do you really trust that God’s justice is enough? Or do you need to provide it yourself?  

Instead, we are called to Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. Last week I mentioned that the default position of our hearts is evil and deceit, and our hearts won’t go where they aren’t trained to go. Bearing with one another and forgiveness are not our default settings; who had to teach you to hold a grudge? Plotting revenge, gossiping, complaining, and grumping are not living as God’s chosen. God did not call us to clothe ourselves in these things! We ought to be ashamed when we stick to that default position. What are the issues we have with one another? Think about them in light of what Christ did for us. While we were still sinners, rebelling openly against him, setting ourselves up as little gods, saying we don’t need him. While we were in the middle of that rebellion, Jesus went to the cross for us. It wasn’t after we had repented. It wasn’t after we had told him sorry. We hadn’t even changed our actions.

That is how the Lord forgave us. We often require someone to have gotten their act completely together before we will forgive them. I know people who have resolved to never forgive. As a Christian, this is never an option. If you call yourself a Christian, yet you are unwilling to forgive, you are deluding yourself about your Christianity. I understand personally that forgiveness is hard and that it takes time to get there. I can understand needing to take the time to forgive and to then work through the pain that someone has caused you. I also understand that forgiving doesn’t mean becoming a doormat and allowing someone to trample you or abuse you. But if you are withholding forgiveness, you are setting yourself up as the Judge, a position that is only held by God Himself.

Remember that God is a God of perfect justice, that he will leave no sin unpunished. This means that even a so-called “little” sin that “doesn’t bother anybody” is an affront against God and it must be punished. Everything. And God, being perfectly just, will punish every sin. As Christians, we know that Jesus’ death has paid the price for all of our sin, but we have to accept that gift by faith. Otherwise God won’t force his forgiveness upon us.

When Jesus teaches us to pray, asking God to forgive us our trespasses just as we forgive those who trespass against us, he’s serious. We will be forgiven in the same manner we forgive others. Why? If you have ever been to school, you’ll know that there are tests. There are various reasons behind school tests – lately they have been tied to school funding and held as indicators of teacher performance, but the real reason for tests is to determine whether or not a student has learned the material. We get plenty of tests on this subject, don’t we? The big question remains: has God’s forgiveness of us transformed our lives, or hasn’t it?

In Matthew 18:22, Peter, who is probably the most outspoken of Jesus’ disciples, asks Jesus: “How many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.” (Matthew 18:22-23) Then Jesus told a story about a servant who owed his master millions of dollars and couldn’t pay him back. When the master threatened to imprison the servant, he begged for forgiveness, and the master forgave his debt. But when that servant saw a fellow servant who owed him a few bucks, he choked him, demanded payment, and had him thrown in prison. When the other servants saw what happened, they told the master.

“Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to.  Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.

"This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.” (Matthew 18:32-35)

Have you forgiven? Remember that Jesus, through his death on the cross, has provided forgiveness for all your sins, every last one. So if you refuse to forgive others, remember that the consequence is that you will have to stand responsible for your own sin against God.

One of the biggest problems I’ve seen is grudges held within churches. People get into it with each other – of course we do. Everyone who has ever been in a relationship knows that there will be conflict in relationships. I always ask couples in premarital counseling how they fight, and if they say they don’t fight, their assignment before the next session is to have a good fight and report back to me. The only reasons why a couple doesn’t have conflict is if one member always gives in to the other or if they just don’t care enough to fight. Where there is no passion, there is no conflict. I can wear my Northwestern sweatshirt all over Columbus and never get a single comment about it, but when one of my sons wears a Michigan sweatshirt, I get a lot of comments. Why? Because Ohio State fans don’t have any passion about a rivalry with Northwestern; it’s not much of a rivalry. But they are passionate about the rivalry with Michigan.

There will be conflict in the church. Frankly, it is biblical. Acts 15 is all about conflict within the church. The church was depending on the tradition of circumcision, making it difficult for Gentiles to become Christians. Paul and Barnabas went up to Jerusalem to settle the dispute. The dispute ended with everyone encouraged, but at the end of Acts 15, Barnabas and Paul have such a sharp disagreement over bringing John Mark along that they part ways.

Even the Apostle Paul had a falling out with his close friend and mentor, Barnabas. But understand that never do we hear Paul badmouth Barnabas. They don’t go their own way, constantly belittling the other or complaining about the other. No, they go their separate way, ministering in the power of the Holy Spirit. Never does the scripture tell us who was right and who was wrong – there was simply a difference of opinion that was so strong these two separated.

Sometimes in our lives there comes a time when we separate from one another, only to minister fully in a new context. We have seen the issues firsthand. We have two services, not necessarily because we don’t have the room for everyone in one, but because we can’t agree on worship style. We don’t agree on the use of furniture. We don’t agree on the instrumentation. We don’t agree on the method of Communion. We don’t agree on what the pastor should wear. We don’t agree on the mission of the church or how to live it out. But the fantastic thing is what happened when Paul and Barnabas agreed to part, with Barnabas taking John Mark and Paul taking Silas. Instead of going off and complaining about the other pair – we don’t have Paul writing about what a loser and a traitor Barnabas is – the two pairs go their separate ways and minister in the power of the Holy Spirit, effectively doubling their witness.

Because they knew that the love of Christ binds us together – it does not separate. I think we can learn a lot from Colossians 3:14: And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

When Jesus was asked what the most important commandment was, he said “love.” Love God, love neighbor. That’s what binds us together. It’s not about music style. It’s not about hymns or praise songs, about guitar or organ. It’s not about robe or suit or jeans and t-shirt. It’s not about Communion by Intinction or in the pews. It’s about love. If your decisions are about taste and preference, remember that love is what binds us together in perfect unity. And that is what God calls us to: perfect unity.

So we can Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.  Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. I wonder if they had “worship wars” about which kind of music was best for worship!  And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

My prayer for us is that we move forward in unity and love. If we are to do that, we have to do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus. Recognize and understand that not everyone gets along together, not even as Christians. But that is no reason for us to make a public spectacle of our disagreement! I’ve told you before about the ministry colleague who I felt betrayed me – when that happened, I wrote a really pointed letter to the church. I had it all written out and ready to go, and I deleted it. That’s one of the problems with e-mail, facebook and twitter; people can type their zingers and hit “enter” or “send” and it’s out there. This isn’t the place or the forum for Christian disagreement! As it was, when I finally came to the place of healing and forgiveness, I realized that my former colleague really is a great administrator. That is where his gifting lies. And so when I needed some help in a matter where I saw him excelling, I asked him for help. And guess what: he was happy to give it. Remember the fight that Paul and Barnabas had over John Mark? Though they parted ways, by the end of Paul’s ministry, he writes to Timothy to Get Mark and bring him with you, because he is helpful to me in my ministry. (2 Timothy 4:11).

This is what I pray for us; that while we may have some differences of style and form, that we may be helpful to one another in ministry. May God’s love provide unity – may we live as God’s chosen!

Set Your Hearts

Colossians 3:1-10

What do you have your heart set on? I’m not just talking about something you want, I’m asking what you really have your heart set on. There’s a difference. For example, once my dad and I were going out to eat, and there was one restaurant I really wanted to take him to. We got there only to find out that it was closed. I had my heart set on eating there, and although we ended up going somewhere else, nothing else really would satisfy. That is a good way to describe someone with their heart set on something; when nothing else will satisfy.

In Colossians 2, Paul makes the case for the new life we live in Christ. When [we] were dead in our sins and in the uncircumcision of [our] sinful nature, God made [us] alive in Christ. (Colossians 2:13)

Remember that this new life in Christ is not because of anything we do; we aren’t good people who sometimes do bad things; we are by nature evil and only by God’s common grace are we even able to do the slightest good thing. But if we have by faith received Jesus’ gift for us, the gift paid for in Jesus’ blood, that old person is no longer who we are. The old person is dead, having been buried with Him in baptism and raised with Him through your faith in the power of God, who raised Him from the dead. (Colossians 2:12)

Because of this exchange, all of the former rules and regulations by which the world lives are revealed as mere shadows of the things to come, but the reality is found only in Jesus Christ.

Now that I’ve set the stage, let’s shift our focus this morning on Colossians 3. Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.

The old “me” is dead and buried; the “me” who stands here today has been raised with Christ. If you are a Christian, this is true of you as well. So God commands us to set our hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. I remember the old song with the lyric: “you’re so heavenly minded that you’re no earthly good” – does anyone remember that song? Well, that song is a lie. There’s a “socially acceptable” amount of Christianity – if you go to church and maybe have a fish decal on your car and if you behave nicely, that’s surely enough, isn’t it? That way you’re “well-rounded” but you can still enjoy yourself; you can work hard enough to have a good career; you have something to talk about at the water cooler; you have a nice car and all the latest toys, and you make it to all the games. And you still have time to read your Bible and go to church and to serve in the food pantry once a month.

All good things, but there is a problem with this approach. God is a jealous God; God isn’t just one among many. God isn’t just part of a checklist or to-do list. God is the list. If your heart and mind aren’t set on him, you are missing the mark.

So set your heart on him.

Many of our problems in this life are really heart problems; we’ve set our heart on all kinds of other things, and when they don’t come through for us, we’re offended. As young people, many of us set our hearts on meeting just the right someone; if you can catch the right one, if you can just find your “soul mate,” then you’ll be fulfilled. First of all, understand that soul mates are made, not found. Love is intentional and requires lots of hard work. But if you’ve been in any relationship very long at all, you’ve already found out that people will fail you every time. You’ve set your heart on the wrong things, and your heart was broken.

Maybe you’ve set your heart on the American Dream; if you work really hard (or borrow way too much money) so you can buy all the stuff that will make you happy. But then the stock market crashed and you lost your retirement. Or you got sick and now you can’t enjoy everything you worked so hard for. Or maybe you got every toy you ever wanted and all it got you was a desire for more, more, more.

You will never be satisfied as long as your heart is set on anything of this earth. This earth, even the best aspects of it, are mere shadows of what is to come. That can be hard to grasp because this world is all we know, but have you ever seen a sunset that takes your breath away? Have you ever stared in awe at a natural wonder like Niagara Falls or the Grand Canyon? There is a reason when you see them, your impulse is to praise God; it’s because God made them as a shadow of the things to come.

Set your heart on things above.

Sometimes we can just read over phrases like this. You can read right past this because you’ve heard it before. You read this scripture, then you finish up your Bible reading, say your prayer, then you shut your Bible and go about your day. If that’s you, and you think you’re pretty special because you got your quiet time in today, let me let you in on a secret: It doesn’t mean anything that you “got your quiet time in” if that’s all the time you’re spending with Jesus. The Bible tells us to set our minds on him, not just offer him a nod and get on with what we want.

I don’t say this to downplay the importance of spending quiet time with God; on the contrary, you should spend quiet time with God and you should spend loud time with God. You should spend alone time with God and you should bring God along with you to work and to the game and out with your friends. Your heart should constantly be set upon things above, which just might revolutionize the rest of your time.

What might your work look like if you are setting your heart on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God the Father? Maybe you think you work in a school, but God is calling you to be a missionary there. Many of us have the wrong idea about our careers; your job is your mission field. Sure, it’s a way for you to get money, but really it’s just an avenue for you to glorify God.

Set your hearts on things above.

Maybe this is all new to you, and you’re wondering how this happens. After all, nobody ever taught you how to do it. Someone brought you to church and you’ve been in Sunday School or even a Community Group, but you’ve never been taught how to control your mind or your heart. Here’s a little secret: your heart won’t just go the right way on its own. As Jeremiah 17:9 questions: The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?

On my computer, when I create PowerPoint presentations, the default font is one I don’t like, so every time I type a on it, I have to go in and change the font. By nature our hearts are evil; deceit is their default position. Our hearts don’t just naturally go to things above. Don’t expect your heart to go where it’s not trained to go.

You are going to have to train your heart and your mind to go where you want them to go. Otherwise they will wander wherever. Setting your hearts on things above is intentional. Romans 12:2 tells us: Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. You’re way more conformed to the patterns of this world than you would ever believe! Renew your mind!

This goes right along with setting your heart and your mind on things above. If you want to think about something, you’re going to have to think about it. You will think about what you are thinking about. I remember when I was a kid, my brother got this cool computer game called Dungeons of Daggorath and we used to play for hours at a time. It had terrible 1982 graphics that I thought were really cool, and it had these roaring sounds to let you know a monster was close. After we’d played the game for a long time, it would be stuck in my head for hours. I’d even dream about it. This was what my mind was set on.

What do you set your mind on? What are you feeding your heart? Statistics tell me that there are some among us who are feeding their mind explicit images. Whether it’s internet pornography or movies, or trashy novels, or indecent television programs, whatever you’re feeding your heart is what your heart is growing into. There is no way your heart is growing into Christ’s likeness if you are feeding your mind something else.

Once when I was a little kid, I went with my neighbors to see the movie Darby O’Gill and the Little People, and it terrified me. I had nightmares about it, and it took me weeks to get over it. Finally the nightmares started to fade and after a time, they were gone. Why did they fade? Because I didn’t watch the movie again.

If you want your mind to be renewed, it won’t happen by filling it with the same old stuff! Continuing to do the same thing and expecting a different result is a good working definition for insanity. That’s why Paul says in Philippians 4:8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

This is why setting your heart on things above requires us to have renewed minds. Because without that renewal, we will return to default settings. But if you have accepted Christ, you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you will also appear with him in glory. (Colossians 3:3-4)

This is why Paul tells us (Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature; sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Colossians 3:5) to put to death everything that belongs to that earthly nature. He lists out sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, greed, and idolatry. 

Then Paul goes where our culture doesn’t want him to go. (Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. Colossians 3:6) He goes all “wrath of God.” Our culture emphasizes God’s love, and, yes, God is love. We don’t like to hear about a wrathful God. But God is wrath – God will destroy sin and sinners. God loves us enough to not let our sin go unpunished. That’s why Good Friday is so personal to me; Jesus took my punishment, facing the fullness of God’s wrath.  He did that for us, so we don’t have to.

Because of the great exchange, we are no longer the same people we once were. This is why the Bible tells us to rid ourselves of anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips and not to lie to each other. (Colossians 3:8-9a)

A lot of Christians have somehow gotten the idea that all of this is the end goal of Christianity, that to be a Christian, you have to be nice to each other. That’s not how it happens. There are a lot of nice people out there who have no love for Jesus, are not Christians, and are on their way to Hell. Just because someone is nice and doesn’t use bad language doesn’t mean they are on their way to heaven.

Paul explains the reason we are on our best behavior: you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. (Colossians 3:9b-10)

The good news is that when you do set your heart on things above, God is continually renewing you into His image. Everything about you is coming into conformity with Christ. It’s not just about working to keep a New Year’s resolution; God has made you into a new person completely. And so, because of that, God is renewing you in His image. So set your heart on him.

If you are wondering how to set your heart on things above, it all starts with your prayer life. What do your prayers look like? I know this church has some wonderful intercessors in it, people who are always praying for one another. In fact, we put great emphasis on intercessory prayer, having a time for it every Sunday and have a prayer chain that anyone can call to enlist others in intercessory prayer. But that’s only a tiny aspect of prayer. Yes, God tells us to come to him with our needs, so don’t stop! But if you’re not praying in other ways as well, you’re missing out on a transformative relationship with God! Ask God questions, expecting answers. Ask God to speak directly to you through His Word.

Look around you for evidence of God at work. Whether it’s thanksgiving for the beauty of another day in which to serve Him, or praises for answered prayers, make sure you are paying attention to what God is doing and how God is working.

When you read the Bible (not if, but when), read for the big picture, but then go back and meditate on it. Look to see what the application is for you. Start evaluating everything you are doing with regard to its Kingdom value.