Brian's Sermons

What's New (in the Desert)?

2012-01-29T07:25:00.000-08:00

What’sNew?

Isaiah43:18-21

InSeptember 2004, I went to Phoenix, Arizona for a youth ministry conference. Ihad never been to Arizona before that, but when I was there, every day thetemperature was over 100°. We would walk on one side of the street on the wayfrom 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 theheat 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’sa reason the Bible continually references the desert as the place where Godisn’t. At best, it is the place in between. At worst, it’s a place of testing.

Perhapsthe defining moment in Jewish history is the Exodus – God delivering his peoplefrom slavery in Egypt. Sometimes memories can be a little deceiving; when theIsraelites looked back at the Exodus, they focused on God’s power anddeliverance. By day the LORD went aheadof them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in apillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night. (Exodus13:21) The actual event was a little less straightforward. God delivered themfrom slavery, but He did not lead them directly from Egypt into the PromisedLand.

Pharaohand the Egyptians began chasing them, and the Israelites became terrified andcried out, “Was it because there were nograves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done tous by bringing us out of Egypt?” (Exodus 14:11)

Haveyou ever found yourself in the desert? If you’ve never been there, it’s hard todescribe. The desert saps your strength. Maybe you’ve gone through some stuffand now you’re just tired. You don’t have the energy to fight anymore. You’vethought about giving up. Maybe you’re even too tired to give up. If you’ve everfelt like that, you’ve experienced the desert. Maybe you’ve even gotten to thepoint 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-churchesaccessed 1/26/12). That means they have been in church, but they have neverexperienced God there.

I’mnot saying that to shame anyone or to put down any churches, because it’s notnecessarily anyone’s fault that you feel far from God. One of the difficultthings is that someone who is going through a spiritual desert often feelsshame because you know intellectually that God will never leave you nor forsakeyou, but it’s been a while since you really experienced God.

Listento how Deuteronomy describes the time in the desert: Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert theseforty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in yourheart, whether or not you would keep his commands. He humbled you, causing youto hunger then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers hadknown, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every wordthat comes from the mouth of the LORD. Your clothes did not wear out and yourfeet did not swell during these forty years. Know then in your heart that as aman disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you. (Deuteronomy8:2-5).

Iwant you to notice a few things about the desert from this passage. First ofall, the purpose of the desert: the words “humble” and “test” are probably noton most of our list of “things I’d like to have happen to me today.” Yet Goduses the desert to humble his people and to test us, to know what is in ourhearts. And what is in our hearts?Jeremiah 17:9 tells us that on its own theheart 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 goanother way, but that it takes a lot of work. God therefore tests us to knowwhat is in our hearts, to see if we will keep his commands.

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

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

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

Whenwe follow the symptoms to the root cause, it is a need for full and completereliance on God for everything. The desert teaches us humility. Humility isrecognizing our place – it never compares itself to other people; in theeconomy of the Kingdom, there is no such thing as one gift being better thanothers. Instead, humility is recognizing our role as submitted to the will ofGod and fully relying on God for everything.God fed the Israelites manna in the desert, not simply to feed them, but toteach them that He can be trusted for everything. What is it that you don’ttrust God for?

Thereare many times when we find ourselves in the desert, and I have heard peoplevent a lot of anger against God. Where is God – why has God left me? But theBible affirms something else about the desert – not only is it a place oftesting, but it is a place ordained byGod for that kind of testing. In fact, God was the one who led theIsraelites 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 desertto be tempted by the devil (Matthew 4:1).

Itwas the Holy Spirit who led Jesus into the desert to face temptation. Rememberthat God never tempts us; it is never God who dangles temptations in front ofus. But God certainly allows temptations to exist, again, to test us, todiscipline us, and to give us humility and to assure that we rely on Him forour every need.

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

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

Werethe 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 inEgypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but youhave brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.” (Exodus16:3)

Allthey 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 thekilling of Hebrew children. Sometimes we forget what really happened in thegood old days. But even when the good old days were really good, we can neverrecreate them. Today is a new day, and God tells us to forget the formerthings. Why is that? Because when we simply focus on the past, we fail toperceive the new things that God might be doing in our midst.

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

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

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

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

Live as God's Chosen

2012-01-22T13:00:00.000-08:00

Colossians3:12-17

Last week we looked at the first tenverses of Colossians 3; Jesus took upon himself every one of our sins andnailed 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 asuggestion; it’s a command. We can’t just expect our minds to go where theyaren’t trained to go. I don’t ever remember being told how important it is totrain my mind. Our culture lies to us and tells us how we are is how we aregoing to be, that there is no changing. Of course, every parent and teacherworks on the assumption that we can change our kids, and society expects us tobe able to, but why should we even want to change ourselves? Or to allow God todo so?

As we set our hearts and minds onthings 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 contextof God’s commands. God isn’t some cosmic meanie, just up there in the skytrying to bully us into changing. This is God’s love for us. If you hearnothing else today, hear that God has chosen you. God doesn’t choose based onthe criteria that our cultures chooses; God chooses based on what would bringHimself glory. God didn’t choose you because you were already holy; God choosesyou to make you holy. Because of what Jesus did on the cross, you have beenmade holy, which doesn’t mean you’re perfect. It means you are set apart by Godfor God. This is our primary identity now: God’s chosen people, holy and dearlyloved.

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

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

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

We are also supposed to exhibithumility. We generally accept the ethos of Muhammad Ali: “It’s hard to behumble when you’re as great as I am” – when someone is good at something, wegenerally expect them to toot their own horn. After all, who else is going tospeak 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 NIVtranslates “gentleness” might be better translated “meekness” – even though wedon’t use that term much these days. Meekness is great strength held undercontrol. Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you do it. Realize thatyou have great power. Your words carry great weight, having the power to healor to hurt. Meek people recognize that God is a God of justice – he willrepay. This goes along with the next garment:

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

Instead, we are called to Bear with each other and forgive whatevergrievances 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 anddeceit, and our hearts won’t go where they aren’t trained to go. Bearing withone another and forgiveness are not our default settings; who had to teach youto hold a grudge? Plotting revenge, gossiping, complaining, and grumping arenot living as God’s chosen. God did not call us to clothe ourselves in thesethings! We ought to be ashamed when we stick to that default position. What arethe issues we have with one another? Think about them in light of what Christdid for us. While we were still sinners, rebelling openly against him, settingourselves up as little gods, saying we don’t need him. While we were in themiddle of that rebellion, Jesus went to the cross for us. It wasn’t after wehad repented. It wasn’t after we had told him sorry. We hadn’t even changed ouractions.

That is how the Lord forgave us. Weoften require someone to have gotten their act completely together before wewill forgive them. I know people who have resolved to never forgive. As a Christian,this is never an option. If you callyourself a Christian, yet you are unwilling to forgive, you are deludingyourself about your Christianity. I understand personally that forgiveness ishard and that it takes time to get there. I can understand needing to take thetime 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 allowingsomeone 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 GodHimself.

Remember that God is a God of perfectjustice, 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 byfaith. Otherwise God won’t force his forgiveness upon us.

When Jesus teaches us to pray, askingGod to forgive us our trespasses just as we forgive those who trespass againstus, 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. Thereare various reasons behind school tests – lately they have been tied to schoolfunding and held as indicators of teacher performance, but the real reason fortests is to determine whether or not a student has learned the material. We getplenty of tests on this subject, don’t we? The big question remains: has God’sforgiveness of us transformed our lives, or hasn’t it?

In Matthew 18:22, Peter, who isprobably the most outspoken of Jesus’ disciples, asks Jesus: “How many times shall I forgive my brotheror 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 mastermillions of dollars and couldn’t pay him back. When the master threatened toimprison the servant, he begged for forgiveness, and the master forgave hisdebt. But when that servant saw a fellow servant who owed him a few bucks, hechoked him, demanded payment, and had him thrown in prison. When the otherservants saw what happened, they told the master.

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

"This is how my heavenly Fatherwill treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from yourheart.” (Matthew18:32-35)

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

One of the biggest problems I’ve seenis grudges held within churches. People get into it with each other – of coursewe do. Everyone who has ever been in a relationship knows that there will beconflict in relationships. I always ask couples in premarital counseling howthey fight, and if they say they don’t fight, their assignment before the nextsession is to have a good fight and report back to me. The only reasons why acouple doesn’t have conflict is if one member always gives in to the other orif they just don’t care enough to fight. Where there is no passion, there is noconflict. I can wear my Northwestern sweatshirt all over Columbus and never geta single comment about it, but when one of my sons wears a Michigan sweatshirt,I get a lot of comments. Why? BecauseOhio State fans don’t have any passion about a rivalry with Northwestern; it’snot 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. Thechurch was depending on the tradition of circumcision, making it difficult forGentiles to become Christians. Paul and Barnabas went up to Jerusalem to settlethe dispute. The dispute ended with everyone encouraged, but at the end of Acts15, Barnabas and Paul have such a sharp disagreement over bringing John Markalong that they part ways.

Even the Apostle Paul had a fallingout with his close friend and mentor, Barnabas. But understand that never do wehear Paul badmouth Barnabas. They don’t go their own way, constantly belittlingthe 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 uswho was right and who was wrong – there was simply a difference of opinion thatwas so strong these two separated.

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

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

When Jesus was asked what the mostimportant commandment was, he said “love.” Love God, love neighbor. That’s whatbinds us together. It’s not about music style. It’s not about hymns or praisesongs, 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 yourdecisions are about taste and preference, remember that love is what binds ustogether 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 onebody you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the message of Christdwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdomthrough psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitudein your hearts. I wonder if they had “worship wars” about which kind ofmusic was best for worship! Andwhatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the LordJesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

My prayer for us is that we moveforward in unity and love. If we are to do that, we have to do everything inthe name of the Lord Jesus. Recognize and understand that not everyone getsalong together, not even as Christians. But that is no reason for us to make apublic spectacle of our disagreement! I’ve told you before about the ministrycolleague who I felt betrayed me – when that happened, I wrote a really pointedletter to the church. I had it all written out and ready to go, and I deletedit. That’s one of the problems with e-mail, facebook and twitter; people cantype their zingers and hit “enter” or “send” and it’s out there. This isn’t theplace or the forum for Christian disagreement! As it was, when I finally cameto the place of healing and forgiveness, I realized that my former colleaguereally is a great administrator. That is where his gifting lies. And so when Ineeded 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 andBarnabas had over John Mark? Though they parted ways, by the end of Paul’sministry, he writes to Timothy to GetMark and bring him with you, because he is helpful to me in my ministry. (2Timothy 4:11).

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

Set Your Hearts

2012-01-15T05:36:00.000-08:00

Colossians 3:1-10

Whatdo 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. Forexample, once my dad and I were going out to eat, and there was one restaurantI really wanted to take him to. Wegot there only to find out that it was closed. I had my heart set on eatingthere, and although we ended up going somewhere else, nothing else really wouldsatisfy. That is a good way to describe someone with their heart set onsomething; when nothing else will satisfy.

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

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

Becauseof this exchange, all of the former rules and regulations by which the worldlives are revealed as mere shadows of the things to come, but the reality isfound only in Jesus Christ.

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

Theold “me” is dead and buried; the “me” who stands here today has been raisedwith Christ. If you are a Christian, this is true of you as well. So Godcommands us to set our hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at theright hand of God. I remember the old song with the lyric: “you’re so heavenlyminded that you’re no earthly good” – does anyone remember that song? Well, thatsong is a lie. There’s a “socially acceptable” amount of Christianity – if yougo 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 canstill enjoy yourself; you can work hard enough to have a good career; you havesomething to talk about at the water cooler; you have a nice car and all thelatest toys, and you make it to all the games. And you still have time to readyour Bible and go to church and to serve in the food pantry once a month.

Allgood 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-dolist. God is the list. If your heartand mind aren’t set on him, you are missing the mark.

Soset your heart on him.

Manyof our problems in this life are really heart problems; we’ve set our heart onall kinds of other things, and when they don’t come through for us, we’reoffended. 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 andrequires lots of hard work. But if you’ve been in any relationship very long atall, you’ve already found out that people will fail you every time. You’ve setyour heart on the wrong things, and your heart was broken.

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

Youwill 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 everseen a sunset that takes your breath away? Have you ever stared in awe at anatural wonder like Niagara Falls or the Grand Canyon? There is a reason whenyou see them, your impulse is to praise God; it’s because God made them as ashadow of the things to come.

Setyour heart on things above.

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

Idon’t say this to downplay the importance of spending quiet time with God; onthe contrary, you should spend quiet time with God and you should spend loudtime with God. You should spend alone time with God and you should bring Godalong with you to work and to the game and out with your friends. Your heartshould constantly be set upon things above, which just might revolutionize therest of your time.

Whatmight your work look like if you are setting your heart on things above, whereChrist is seated at the right hand of God the Father? Maybe you think you work in a school, but God iscalling you to be a missionary there. Many of us have the wrong idea about ourcareers; 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.

Setyour hearts on things above.

Maybethis 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’vebeen in Sunday School or even a Community Group, but you’ve never been taughthow to control your mind or your heart. Here’s a little secret: your heartwon’t just go the right way on its own. As Jeremiah 17:9 questions: The heart is deceitful above all things andbeyond cure. Who can understand it?

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

Youare going to have to train your heart and your mind to go where you want themto go. Otherwise they will wander wherever. Setting your hearts on things aboveis intentional. Romans 12:2 tells us: Donot conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing ofyour mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—hisgood, pleasing and perfect will. You’re way more conformed to the patternsof this world than you would ever believe! Renew your mind!

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

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

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

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

Thisis 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 youhave accepted Christ, you died, and your life isnow hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then youwill also appear with him in glory. (Colossians 3:3-4)

Thisis 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 outsexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, greed, and idolatry.

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

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

Alot of Christians have somehow gotten the idea that all of this is the end goalof 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 nolove for Jesus, are not Christians, and are on their way to Hell. Just becausesomeone is nice and doesn’t use bad language doesn’t mean they are on their wayto heaven.

Paulexplains the reason we are on our best behavior: you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on thenew self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. (Colossians3:9b-10)

Thegood news is that when you do set your heart on things above, God is continuallyrenewing you into His image. Everything about you is coming into conformitywith Christ. It’s not just about working to keep a New Year’s resolution; Godhas made you into a new person completely. And so, because of that, God isrenewing you in His image. So set your heart on him.

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

Lookaround you for evidence of God at work. Whether it’s thanksgiving for thebeauty 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.

Whenyou read the Bible (not if, but when), read for the big picture, but then goback and meditate on it. Look to see what the application is for you. Startevaluating everything you are doingwith regard to its Kingdom value.

Because of Jesus, I am New

2012-01-01T06:26:00.000-08:00

Becauseof Jesus, I am New

Thereis nothing like early Christmas morning, seeing the joyful sight of a Christmastree with beautiful gifts under it. My kids are at the age where there is suchexcitement about what is under the tree. Really, who doesn’t love getting new toys? There are some areas where almostall of us like the new. I think I can safely say we all appreciate our indoorplumbing, furnaces, air conditioning in the summer. Who still uses rabbit earsto watch your black and white TV? Does anyone still use an 8-track player or aVictrola?

Onthe other hand, I remember when Tara’s grandfather died, his closet was full ofgift boxes, all filled with the sweaters everyone had given him for Christmas.He would get a gift, look at it, grimace, and say, “ugh, another sweater”without ever even opening it. He didn’t want anything new; he was comfortablewith his old, threadbare sweaters. I think it’s a man thing: we call it “myfavorite” while our wives call it “a rag.” When we put it on, they ask us,“Were you going to wear that oldthing?”

Thereis often something comfortable about the old, the familiar. Sometimes the newcomes with the fear of the unknown or (even worse) the fear of the known. Oneof the problems with the new is that it’s hard to adjust, especially whenyou’ve been doing something one way for years. Learning a new skill or a newlanguage can be hard. I’ve found that every year, running shoe companies adjusttheir shoes – the kind I ran in for 5 years suddenly didn’t fit right anymore,and you couldn’t get the old ones anywhere. Many of us remember the New Cokefiasco from the late 80s, where Coca-Cola changed their formula and nobodyliked the new stuff.

Butwhat happens when the old way wasn’t working at all?

Inthe time of Isaiah, God’s people had disobeyed, and the leaders of Israel hadgone astray. They had turned to idols and set themselves up as gods, and this hasangered the Lord. Their prophets were all false, but God has something new instore. In Isaiah 42:10, he declares, Singto the Lord a new song, his praise from the ends of the earth, you who go downto the sea, and all that is in it, you islands, and all who live in them. Letthe desert and its towns raise their voices; let the settlements where Kedarlives rejoice. Let the people of Sela sing for joy; let them shout from themountaintops. Let them give glory to the Lord and proclaim his praise in theislands. (Isaiah 42:10-12)

Godcommands that his people sing a new song. Why would God want a new song sung?Because God is doing a new thing! Songs in Bible times often (if not always)tell stories; every time you see a Bible character singing, whether it’s Moses,Zechariah, Mary, or people in heaven, read the lyrics of the song, becausethat’s going to be the most important part of that scripture. When God says wewill sing a new song, he says that because he is going to give us new materialfor that song. God isn’t glorified in stale testimony; if your testimony ofwhat God has done in your life is over a year old, then your testimony is staleand you need to sing a new song!

Whois singing? Everyone – from the ends of the earth. Those who go down to thesea, and the sea itself, which represented chaos and trouble. The desert, theplace of trouble and temptation, is raising its voice. Even the homes of theenemies of God’s people are singing God’s praises, represented by Kedar(Ishmael’s son) and Sela (stronghold of Edom).

Whyare they singing this new song? In Isaiah 43:18-21, God says: “Forget the former things; do not dwell inthe past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceiveit? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.The wild animals honor me, the jackals andthe 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 theymay proclaim my praise.

Ilove this scripture; it’s not a new thing just for the sake of doing a newthing. God is doing a new thing so God can receive the glory. God makes a wayin the desert and streams in the wasteland. God takes troubles, difficulties, theworst times, the worst places, and uses them to show his glory. Why is this?Because if God just used the good times, the nice places, and the easy, wewould so easily be convinced that we had something to do with it. Because wewill get the glory. Because we will not even notice that God has done anythingat all.

Godpromises to make all things new. Listen to His words in Isaiah 65:17: “Behold, I will create new heavens and a newearth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind.

Thereis a time and place for remembering the past. I remember listening to mygrandmother tell stories about what things were like way back when – especiallybecause the stories got better with each retelling. God doesn’t tell us toforget the past. Look through the scriptures and see how many times you findthe word “remember.” God actually calls us to remember – why? To remember Him andwho He is and what He has done. Has God blessed you? Remember! Has Goddelivered you? Remember! So why would God tell Isaiah that the former thingswill not be remembered or come to mind? It is precisely because God is talkingabout past troubles, troubles caused by our sin, and because of Jesus, God hasforgiven us and has wiped them out. It’s not that God has somehow forgottenthem; He has made them not-exist.

Becauseof Jesus, we are new! God is doing a new thing with us! This is what Godintended when he spoke through Ezekiel: Iwill give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from youyour heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit inyou and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. (Ezekiel36:26-27)

Yousee, we can never make ourselves new. Why is it most of us make the same NewYear’s Resolutions every year? Because we aren’t any good at changing who weare. But the Bible tells us in 2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old hasgone, the new has come!

Thisis why the former things aren’t remembered. Because we are not the same personany longer! When I was in high school, once a discipline notice came to my homeregarding skipping school. Fortunately (for me) I was not the offender; it wasa classmate with a similar name. So I wasn’t punished for the offense. This issomething like what Jesus does for us, because we aren’t the same people whoonce lived sinful lives!

InColossians 3, Paul explains what it means to live as new creations. The keypoint he makes is that we have taken off our old self with its practices andhave put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image ofits Creator. (You have taken off your oldself with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed inknowledge in the image of its Creator. Colossians 3:9b-10).

Becauseof this, we are called to put everything that belongs to our earthly nature todeath (Put to death, therefore, whatever belongsto your earthly nature; sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires andgreed, which is idolatry. Colossians 3:5) and to rid ourselves of all kindof sins that punctuate our before-Christ lives (But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger,rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Colossians 3:8).The

Christiansdo not continue to sin like that. If your life is punctuated by anger, rage,slander, and filthy language, if you are consumed by evil desires and greed, ifanything takes precedence over God, then you might want to consider whether ornot you really are a Christian. If there is no evidence to support the factthat you are new, you might not be! That would be like taking a defective itemback to the store for exchange, only to be given the same item in return. Wehave been made new in Christ; there is no reason to have all the same defectsas the old!

Whatdoes a new creation look like? Here’s how Paul describes the new creation tothe church in Colossae: as God’s chosenpeople, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness,humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatevergrievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together inperfect unity. (Colossians 3:12-14) We are compassionate, kind, humble,gentle, and patient. We bear with each other and forgive one another. And overeverything, we love. What do you say – do you look like this? This can be theday you do. They say a tiger can’t change its stripes, but God can and will transform a person.

Ifthese words don’t describe you yet, there are all kinds of books and studiesthat say they will get you there, the ten easy steps to patience or two weeksto compassion, and I’ve even heard sermons telling me to “fake it until youmake it,” but the truth is we can’t achieve any of this by working harder ortrying harder.

Ifwe could succeed by trying harder, then Jesus would never have had to come. Godwould have just put on a pep rally and we would have tried harder. But we needJesus. On our own, we fail again and again, but Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for hiscompassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.(Lamentations 3:22-23) God’s mercy and compassion are new for us every morning.God has every reason to wipe us out every day, but because of God’s great love,we aren’t. Instead, through Jesus Christ, God makes us new.

Sohow do we become new? Remember your baptism and be thankful, because it isthrough our baptism that we are made new. Romans 6:4 tells us: We were therefore buried with him throughbaptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the deadthrough the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

Weare given a new life by the same power that raised Christ from the dead. It isthe glory of the Father that enables us to live a new life. When we try to doit on our own, we are essentially telling God that we don’t need him, that wecan do it without him. So instead, we press into God, actually relying on himfor everything. It will make everything different. It will transform yourapproach to finances. It will transform your relationships with other people.It will transform the way you work. It will transform everything. If this isn’t happening, it’s not because you don’thave enough of God; it’s only because you are not surrendering everything toHim. If you are a Christian, if you have accepted Jesus’ free gift,God has already given you all of Himselfin the Person of the Holy Spirit. So invite the Holy Spirit’s transformation.Because of Jesus, you are a new creation.

Tothe new us, Jesus gives us a command. In John 13:34, he makes the command, evencalling it a new command: Anew command I give you; Love one another. That doesn’t seem new, does it?We all know we’re supposed to love one another. But Jesus takes it to anotherlevel. As I have loved you, soyou must love one another. (John 13:34)

Don’tthink this is just some touchy-feely version of love when we just forceourselves to just nice to each other. How did Jesus love his followers? He gavehis life for us. When we love each other with the love of Jesus, we sacrificefor one another. The Christian life is notall about you. It’s not all about me. It’s never about each one of us lookingout for our own interests. It’s about loving one another. It’s about lovingother people, even when you don’t like them very much. There are some peoplewho have stubbornly refused to love. I know this because God has convicted meon this, that there are people I don’t want to love. So what do I do? Pray for them. Ask God totransform your heart to make you loving.

Becauseof Jesus, we are new.

Because of Jesus, I am Saved

2011-12-25T09:20:00.000-08:00

WhenI was in seminary, our neighborhood was a regular target for Mormonmissionaries. We lived across the street from a Mormon family, so whenever wewould have block parties, they would invite the Mormon Elders over. One thing Irealized in talking to these young men was that we could talk for hours withoutreally understanding what the other one was saying. The problem was that wetalked right past one another. We used the same words, but they had differentmeanings.

Thereare words we sometimes find in church that are unclear or just don’t carry thesame meanings in our culture as they did when they were written. For example, Iremember being rather confused that my church would sing “How Great Thou Aren’t” and that we would pray, “OurFather, who aren’t in heaven…” Or howabout the familiar words of the 23^rd Psalm which declare that “TheLord is my shepherd I shall not want.”

Thereare other words we tend to overuse to the extent that the word loses itsmeaning. This is true of a lot of church words. “Save” and “salvation” are suchwords. As Christians, we often talk about salvation without being really clearwhat salvation means.

Whenwe look at the term “salvation” through the Old Testament, we find a contextthat seems completely different than ours. Salvation terminology often has todo with national identity and security. When the Lord saved Moses and theIsraelites from the Egyptians, Moses sang a song to the Lord including thislyric: The Lord is my strength and mysong; he has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise him, myfather’s God, and I will exalt him. (Exodus 15:2)

Whenthe Lord delivered David from Saul, he said, “The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer, my God is my rock,in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation. He is mystronghold, my refuge and my savior – from violent men you save me.” (2Samuel 22:2-3)

Salvationin Old Testament times was something real, and everyone knew what it meant. Itmeant being delivered from one’s enemies, being brought out of slavery,returning home from exile. In the face of life-threatening circumstances or inthe midst of the bondage of slavery, salvation was the hope and dream of everyIsraelite. It meant freedom.

TheIsraelites recognized the domination of their enemies as God’s directpunishment. They were exiled as punishment. So salvation also meant restorationof their relationship with God. BeforeJohn the Baptist came, preaching, “Prepare the way for the Lord” and “Allpeople will see God’s salvation,” his father, Zechariah, prophesied (Luke1:68-75):

“Praise be to the Lord, the God ofIsrael, because he has come to his people and redeemed them. He hasraised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servantDavid (as he said through his holy prophets of long ago), salvationfrom our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us— to show mercyto our ancestors and to remember his holy covenant, the oath he sworeto our father Abraham: to rescue us from the hand of our enemies, andto enable us to serve him without fear in holiness and righteousnessbefore him all our days.

OnChristmas morning, we focus on the baby in the manger, which is right – Christis the reason for the season. But there is a reason for the reason for theseason, and salvation is that reason. Let’s look at salvation throughZechariah’s prophesy. He begins by praising God. Why is God worthy of praise?Because he has come to his people and redeemed them.

Jesusbirth is the beginning of redemption, which can be defined as the act ofrecovering ownership by paying a specified sum. The covenant God made withAbraham was a covenant in blood, and Abraham and his descendants became God’scovenant people, set aside for God. There were specific rules, lots of them,defining God’s people, and for each specific sin there was a payment required. Everytime there was a sin, there was a payment required, again and again. But insending His Son, Jesus Christ, God has redeemed us. No longer are we requiredto pay sacrifices again and again, because our debt has been paid in advance.

TheApostle Paul writes to Titus, saying: Forthe grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. Itteaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to liveself-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait forthe blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, JesusChrist, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purifyfor himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good. (Titus2:11-14) Jesus came to redeem us, to pay the required payment for our sin, andto purify us so we can be eager to do what is good.

God’ssalvation is always two-fold. It means rescue from our enemies, but it alsomeans empowerment. Remember what salvation is for Zechariah? To rescue us from the hand of our enemies,and to enable us to serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness beforehim all our days. (Luke 1:74-75)

Becauseof Jesus, we are saved. But what does salvation mean to us who live in a freecountry, a land of plenty, a land of opportunity? Often we live in bondage,even in a free country. A couple of weeks ago, I preached a message called“Because of Jesus… I am Free” – it is important for everyone to understand thatwe can be easily enslaved by almost anything. But freedom in Christ is not justfreedom from… it is also freedom for.

Becauseof Jesus, we are enabled to serve God without fear. Fear is paralyzing.Once Tara and I went hiking in Zion National Park, and there’s a rugged hikecalled Angel’s Landing, and at one point you have to climb along a sheerdrop-off. I got to the drop-off and my intellect told me I would make it but mylegs and my stomach told me was going to fall to my death. I started to getvertigo and the path started to move. I just couldn’t continue. Unfortunately Isee Christians who are afraid. Afraid to share their faith. Afraid to invitesomeone to church. Afraid to confront sin. Afraid to trust God fully.

Thisis not the kind of life God has called us to. Because of Jesus, I am saved fromfear to live a fearless life. If God isfor us, who can be against us? (Romans 8:31b)

Itcan be daunting to face our fears, but God never does the miraculous when wecomplacently sit on our hands. It is always when we fearlessly follow Him thatGod honors us with amazing results.

Becauseof Jesus, we are enabled to serve God in holiness. Holiness means being setapart by God for God. We have no claim to holiness on our own; we can’t setourselves apart for anything greater than ourselves. We do not get there on ourown; it is only because of what Jesus did for us that we are saved from oursinful existence and made holy. God isn’t fooled; he doesn’t just say, “boyswill be boys” or “humans will be sinful” and pretend we’re set apart. Thatwould be like me putting on a Buckeyes jersey, thinking that would allow me tosuit up for the Gator Bowl. No, God actually makes us holy, and that only happens through the action of JesusChrist. Because of Jesus, I am saved from unholiness to serve God in holiness.

Becauseof Jesus, we are enabled to serve God in righteousness. Righteousness isanother church-word that has often lost its impact. It simply means “in rightrelationship with God.” In our sin, our relationship with God was non-existent,and there was no way for us to restore it.

Titus3:4-7 But when the kindness and love ofGod our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we haddone, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth andrenewal by the Holy Spirit,whom he poured out on us generously throughJesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we mightbecome heirs having the hope of eternal life.

Becauseof Jesus, we are saved from unrighteousness so we can serve God inrighteousness! We are saved from sin so we can have the hope of eternal life!

Thisis the joy of Christmas – not simply the joy of a baby born, as babies are bornevery day. But the joy is that the baby who was born is Jesus Christ, theSavior of the world. For God so loved theworld that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall notperish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

Thesepast couple of weeks have been difficult in the life of the church. Thoughwe’ve been doing a lot of celebrating, truth is there has been a lot of loss.We’ve had three funerals in two weeks, and I’ve been at the hospital more thesepast couple of weeks than I had in months. Even in the Christmas season, whenwe celebrate the birth of Christ, we are reminded of the brevity of life. Weare not promised tomorrow. But the great thing is that if you haven’t yetsurrendered to God through Jesus Christ, you don’t have to wait.

Aswe read in 2 Corinthians 6:2b, I tellyou, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.

Many,if not most, of us have accepted Jesus’ free gift of salvation, but some of usstopped there. If that’s you, Peter tells the church to grow up. In 1 Peter2:2-3, he writes: Like newborn babies,crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation nowthat you have tasted that the Lord is good.

Wecelebrate today that Jesus was born. But Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, andhe calls us to do the same, to bring the most glory to God.

Because of Jesus, I am Loved

2011-12-24T16:19:00.000-08:00

Gymclass could be a cruel place. There were some kids who were really fastrunners, and they got picked first. Then the most popular kids got picked andthen the captains’ friends. Finally all who were left were the chubby kid, theclumsy kid, and the unpopular kid, and the teams argued over who had to take them. At least at recessthey were allowed to do their own thing and weren’t forced to play sports. Forthose few short minutes they could ignore the fact that they didn’t belong. Butwhen the bell rang, they were dragged back to reality, a reality that hurt.

Andmaybe home wasn’t any better. Absent or uninvolved parents. An older siblingwho seemed to “get” everything on the first try. Maybe tonight would be thenight when someone would call and invite you out… or maybe not.

Alone.Not good enough. Not pretty enough. Not athletic enough. Not rich enough. Notpopular.

TheChristmas story is full of these characters. When Gabriel meets Mary, she is anunmarried woman. In these times, a woman was always given her worth based onthe man she was associated with, and the Bible does not record who Mary’sfather was. Thus she is recorded as a woman without a man, a person of lowstatus.

Joseph,a carpenter, had some status, but what does it say about his status that therewas “no room” for him in the inn? The concept of “the inn” has caused someconfusion in our culture; this wasn’t a hotel with some grumpy innkeeper whoturned a pregnant woman out. No, it was worse than that; the word translated“inn” here carries the meaning of guest house or guest room. When we read“there was no room in the inn” the literal meaning is that their family didn’thave room for them.

Iremember a trip we took about a month before Jonathan was born. We drove tovisit our seminary friends in Texas. They lived in a rather small parsonagewith their two small children, but when we came, they gave up their bedroom forus. That’s hospitality. But Mary and Joseph were not afforded that kind ofhospitality, even by their family. The Bible doesn’t tell us why not, but Iimagine the fact of Mary’s pregnancy has something to do with it.

Therewere shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flocks atnight.

Shepherdsin Jesus day were dirty and smelly, and they were considered untrustworthy.They were usually nomadic, traveling from place to place reflecting thechanging seasons, so they were not tied into the society around them. So theywere nobodies. They were invisible. They didn’t show up in polite company. Theyweren’t invited to parties.

Everythingabout the culture pointed to the wealthy and the connected. Yet God sent hisangel Gabriel to Mary, to Joseph, and to the shepherds. Why would God do this?Why would God choose the lowly? Wouldn’t God have done this all a little moreefficiently if he had sent Jesus as a conquering king? After all, this is whatprophecy led the Jews to expect, a Messiah in the line of David, a powerfulking and strong deliverer.

HadGod chosen to come to the mighty, strong, and wealthy, who could stand againsthim? But, on the other hand, had God chosen the mighty, what would that meanfor the lowly and the humble? It would be just like the elementary school gymclass all over again. “I choose the rich! I choose the strong! I choose thepopular! I choose the connected! Oh, the weak? The poor? I guess I’ll takethem. But I don’t want them.”

Furthermore,had God chosen to do things this way, there would be some people who would cometo the conclusion that they hadsomething to do with God’s choice. Because Idid this, God chose me. Because of me, God…

Thisisn’t the way God works. Why not? Because God actually loves the last onechosen. There is enough bad theology out there that says that God’s love isdemonstrated in how wealthy and healthy you are. So many times I’ve seen healthand wealth equated with God’s favor, but this just doesn’t match with God’scharacter. God loves those who culture bypasses. God loves Mary and Joseph. Godloves smelly shepherds. God loves the single mother. God loves the illegalalien. God loves the AIDS patient. God loves the hungry. God loves the smelly.God loves the least and the lost. Godloves.

Deuteronomy7:7-9 tells us that The Lord did not sethis affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than otherpeoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the Lordloved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought youout with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from thepower of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know therefore that the Lord your God is God;he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generationsof those who love him and keep his commands.

Godchose us, and God loves us. Love isn’t just what God does, but it is who Godis. Listen to Psalm 86:15 But you, OLord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in loveand faithfulness. Or, if you want to be a little more succinct, how aboutthe description in 1 John 4:8, 16: God islove.

Sohow does a God we cannot see demonstrate his love? 1 John 4:9 This is how God showed his love among us; hesent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.Jesus is the personification of God’s love. The old hymn declares “Love CameDown at Christmas” and that is the case. Jesus himself is proof of God’s love.

Let’slook at maybe the most well-known Bible verse of all: John 3:16 For Godso loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes inhim shall not perish but have eternal life.

Willyou stop for a moment and let it sink in that “the world” that God loved is you? God knows you inside and out, andhe loves you. He knows everything you ever did, and he loves you. You are hisfirst pick.

Ephesians2:4-5 But because of his great love forus, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were deadin transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved.

I’veknown people who (in bad times) continuously ask, “What did I do to deservethis?” Well, we didn’t do anything to deserve this treatment from God; on ourown, we deserve Hell. On our own, we are dead in transgressions, but God lovesus so much that he pours his mercy on us, saving us by grace, his unmeritedfavor.

Wewho have been in the church for a long time know this truth pretty well. Weknow that it’s by his grace that God saves, but then we often want to pack allkinds of extra requirements on top of that for us to continue in God’s love.But Paul writes in Romans 8:38-39 For Iam convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neitherthe present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, noranything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of Godthat is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Canmy bad behavior and sin separate me from the love of God that is in ChristJesus? We sometimes act like it can, but think of it from a parentalstandpoint: when your child misbehaves, do you just cut off your love for thatchild? No! Of course not! You would just as soon cut off your arm. It doesn’tmean that we’re always happy with our misbehaving children, but we don’t stoploving them. And even if we did, God doesn’t.

God’slove for us is never based on our behavior. God’s love for us is based on HisCharacter. And so, in the midst of our sin and rebellion, God chooses the onlyway to reach us with his love; by sending his Son. And because of Jesus, I canknow that love.

1John 3:1 How great is the love the Fatherhas lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is whatwe are!

Christmasis all about God’s love for us, how we doesn’t just call us his children, buthow through Jesus Christ he actually makesus his children. This is what Christmas means. It doesn’t mean presents andlights and parties and food. Christmas is God’s love letter to us. So many ofus, even understanding the true meaning of Christmas, “get it” in a theoreticalway, forget what it means for us. It means the Almighty God, the creator of theuniverse loves you, gives himself so you can have life.

I’mone who gets a little annoyed seeing Christmas decorations starting to go up inOctober, but think of it this way: every decoration should stand as a reminderof how precious you are to God. So every time you see brightly colored lights,candy canes, Santas, think of God’s love for you. It doesn’t matter if you werethe last one picked – God picked you. It doesn’t matter if your past is full ofmistakes, while you were a sinner, God showed his love for you by sending hisSon, Jesus, for you.

Let’sclose this evening with a reminder from 1 John 4:11 – Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.I have seen this church loving one another in some great ways during Christmas– can we do so all year long?

Because of Jesus... I am Able

2011-12-20T09:07:00.000-08:00

Igrew up in the midst of a generation who was told at every opportunity: you cangrow up to be whatever you want to be. As long as we put our minds to it and aslong as we put in the work, we whatever we aspired to be could come true. As Igot a little older, I figured out that this wasn’t always true. Even though Iwas the center on my sixth grade intramural basketball team, I’m not holding mybreath waiting for the NBA to call. The point is, there are things that arejust not reasonable for us to expect to be able to do.

Thereare things that we can do and things we can’t. Unfortunately, I have too oftenseen people giving up because of things they can’t do or often because theyhave been told continuously that they cannot do something. So often I see youngpeople or new Christians who idealistically believe they can change the world,but as they get older, the crab mentality sets in. Crab mentality refers tocrabs in a bucket – individually every one of them could escape from thebucket, but instead they grab at each other and pull the others down. Thus noneof them escape and all of them perish.

Weare told, “Don’t upset the status quo.”

Weare told, “Some things never change.”

Weare told, “You can’t really change the world.”

Iknow I’m not the first one to say something like this – people have been sayingthis for years – but doesn’t it seem like society just keeps getting worse? Maybeit’s how fast bad news travels and all the varieties of news sources where wecan get the bad news, but there are times when it seems like everything is justgetting worse and worse, and it can be easy to want to give up. Am I the onlyone who has ever felt helpless in the face of an increasingly secular society?

Werewe a culture without Jesus, this would be true. But we are not that society.Listen to the way John starts his Gospel: Inthe beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Hewas with God in the beginning.

Through him all things were made;without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that lifewas the light of men. The light shines in darkness, but the darkness has notunderstood it. (John 1:1-5)

The Word became flesh and made hisdwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, whocame from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John1:14)

Jesusis the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy: Thepeople walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the landof the shadow of death a light has dawned. (Isaiah 9:2)

Becauseof Jesus, there is light in the world. Because of Jesus, we have hope. Becauseof Jesus, we are found. Because of Jesus, we have freedom. Because of Jesus, weare able!

OneBible story I have always found fascinating happens immediately after theTransfiguration of Jesus. Jesus is up on the mountain with Peter, James, andJohn, and they see Moses and Elijah, and Jesus’ face shone like the sun and hisclothes become dazzling white. It’s an amazing scene where Jesus is againaffirmed by God. But when they come down from the mountain, they find acommotion.

Let’spick up the action in Matthew 17:14-20: When they came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus and knelt beforehim. “Lord, have mercy on my son,” he said. “He has seizures and issuffering greatly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. Ibrought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him.”

“You unbelieving andperverse generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you?How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.” Jesus rebuked thedemon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed at that moment.

Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, “Whycouldn’t we drive it out?”

He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tellyou, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to thismountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will beimpossible for you.”

Jesus found hisdisciples unable to heal a boy, and, instead of telling them, “it’s OK, youjust haven’t been adequately trained” he called them an unbelieving andperverse generation and blamed their inability on their lack of faith. In otherwords, he actually expected them to be able to bring God’s healing andwholeness to the boy.

Francis Chan wasspeaking at the Right Now Conference and he cracked me up with his take on thisscripture. He recalled being a young believer reading this scripture andbelieving he could move a mountain… and trying it at home. Maybe he didn’t haveenough faith to move a mountain, but he certainly could will that pencil acrosshis desk…

We are a culture that isgenerally skeptical of the supernatural. We want scientific proof. We wantmedical reasons. But Jesus never limits the supernatural to himself. He saysthat we can do the supernatural.

In fact, listen to hiswords in John 14: I tell you thetruth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will doeven greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will dowhatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. Youmay ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. (John 14:12-14)

Doyou have the boldness to approach God’s throne in Jesus’ name to ask for God todo these things through you? Or do you even believe it’s possible?

Pleasetake note that Jesus didn’t say we could approach God boldly and ask whateverwe want. He made it conditional: he will do whatever we ask in his name. Because of Jesus, we areable. But we must be acting in Jesus’ will to ask in his name.

Sometimeswe ask according to our own will and in our own name. This is kind of like whenyou were a kid and you went to your mom to ask her for some privilege. She’dmake “that” face and tell you to go ask your father. Now, you knew full wellthat “that” face meant she wasn’t too keen on the idea, but you really wantedto do it, so you went to your dad and said, “Mom said it’s OK if I… as long asyou said yes.” Technically that might be kind of true, but it was misleading atbest. God is not fooled.

Anotherreason we do not get what we ask for is that often our goal isn’t for God to beglorified. Our goal is often selfish; we want to avoid pain or difficulty. Injunior high, I used to make God all sorts of promises if he’d just help me towin a race. Maybe that’s why he called me into the pulpit – he was just cashingin all the promises I’d made! But I didn’t ask to win in order to bring Godglory; I wanted to win for my own glory. It was all about me.

InLuke 10:19-20, Jesus is telling thedisciples he has sent out: “Ihave given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome allthe power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. However, do notrejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are writtenin heaven.” It’s clear that God has given them supernatural powers. ButJesus’ reason is not for them to glory in the power; that pales in comparisonto the supernatural gift that He gives: that their names are written in heaven.

Andit’s because of Jesus that we are able to rejoice in this. Jesus explained inMatthew 19 that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle thanfor someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God. When the disciples heard this, they weregreatly astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?” Jesus looked at them andsaid, “With man this isimpossible, but with God all things are possible.”(Matthew 19:25-26)

With God all things are possible, including the impossible:salvation. Because of Jesus, we are able! The baby whose birth we celebrate onChristmas… he makes the impossible possible!

Because of this, we can say along with Paul:I can do everything through him who givesme strength. (Philippians 4:13) Jesus Himself is the one who gives mestrength. There are things you think you can’t do, but because of Jesus, youare able!

Whatwould it look like if we actually believed that God, through Jesus Christ,would give us this kind of power? In our modern, American churches, we live asif we are powerless. Think of it this way: I’m not all that great of abasketball player, but imagine that I told you that this year I have somethingthat is going to make me an amazing basketball player. So you challenge me to agame, but I just sit on the bleachers or I come out and I don’t have any moreskills than before. I’d lose any credibility I had; you wouldn’t believe thatthere was anything to my claim that I had some new special skill.

Unfortunatelythis is what we often do. We say wehave the Holy Spirit living within us, but we find ourselves living the sameold hum-drum lives. Or we sit around, learning about God and learning aboutJesus and learning about the Holy Spirit, but we’re sitting on the sidelines,never living in the power of the Spirit. When I was a teenager, we had a wordfor someone who said they had certain abilities but didn’t do anything: wecalled them posers.

Incontrast, here’s what the Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy: For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power,love and self-discipline. (2 Timothy 1:7) God’s Spirit makes uspowerful, loving, and self-disciplined. Because of Jesus, we are able!

Forsome of you this might come as a somewhat new revelation, that we aren’tpowerless little wimps, but that instead we are mighty and powerful. But maybeyou already knew this but you need a reminder. Things have been difficult foryou, more difficult than you ever imagined they would be. Maybe someone gaveyou the idea that the Christian life would be easy and you’ve found it harderthan you guessed it would be. In John 16:33, Jesus told his followers, “I have told you these things, so that inme you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! Ihave overcome the world.” He doesn’t sugarcoat things. His head wasn’t inthe sand. He recognizes and acknowledges that in this world his followers willhave trouble. There are preachers who teach that once you become a Christian,everything will be fine and as long as you have faith, nothing bad will everhappen to you. Things are tough – to ignore that is to ignore Jesus’ words. Buttake heart, because Jesus has overcome the world. In him, we have peace. In himwe are able!

Wehave the power of God, living in us. Listen to what Romans 8:37 says: No, in all these things we are more thanconquerors through him who loved us. We are not push-overs. We are morethan conquerors!

Jesuseven makes the bold statement that the very gates of Hell will not prevailagainst the church. His disciple, Simon Peter, has answered the question aboutwho Jesus is: “You are the Christ, theSon of the living God.”(Matthew 16:16) And Jesus affirms Peter’s identityas the Rock upon whom He would build His church.

“And I tell you that you arePeter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates ofHades will not overcome it.” (Matthew 16:18) Nomatter what Satan throws at us, the Church of Jesus Christ will prevail overit. This is why Christmas is so important, because on Jesus’ birthday, Satancowers. Jesus is born and nothing will ever be the same.

Someof you need to remind yourselves of this. You might just need to preachyourself a sermon – some of you are preachers, you just haven’t realized ityet. Take these scriptures, write down the references, look them up, copy themdown, and repeat them to yourself daily.

John14:12-14

Matthew19:26

Philippians4:13

2Timothy 1:7

Romans8:37

Matthew16:18

Rememberthat Because of Jesus, you are Able!

Because of Jesus... I am Free

2011-12-11T05:26:00.001-08:00

WhenI was in Kindergarten, our class took a field trip to the police station. Ionly remember one aspect of that trip; our class, teacher and all, went into a largecell and the officer closed that door. It was terrifying. As a pastor, I havehad occasions where I’ve visited people in jail – it seems like the process isdifferent everywhere you go. In Wapakoneta, I had to go up to a two-way mirrorand show ID and who I was coming to see. Then I would go through a metal detectorand the first door would open. I would go into a short hallway with two-waymirrors surrounding me, and the door would close behind me with an ominouslyloud clang. There is something very scary and permanent when the jail doorsclose behind you.

Itis easy to recognize that someone in jail is imprisoned. There are physicalbars, locked doors, and sometimes razor wire and guard towers. But what can beharder to recognize is the fact that imprisonment is our basic human condition.

Lastweek when I talked about being lost, I don’t want you to take it the wrong wayand think, “Well, if I’m lost, I can find my way back.” This isworks-righteousness, because the lostness we experience is more like a prison. Thewalls were built by our sinfulness –the Original Sin that we inherited as wellas the sinful acts we have committed and our sinfulness in not acting when we were supposed to. And no matter what we doinside the prison walls, we cannot escape on our own.

Ifyou look through the Bible, you’ll find the phrase “out of Egypt” over 140times. Did you ever stop to think why this concept was so important to theJews? The Jews were literally enslaved in Egypt for generations, and this was aturning point in their history. They celebrate Passover to commemorate God’sdeliverance from slavery. In fact, this is one of the chief defining moments ofGod’s people discovering God’s character.When God gives the Ten Commandments, he starts with a brief introduction. “I am the Lord your God, who brought you outof Egypt, out of the land of slavery.” (Exodus 20:2, Deuteronomy 5:6) Itwas no accident that Jesus was arrested during Passover. God did that onpurpose.

God’spurpose was clear: God is once again bringing His people out of slavery. ThoughIsrael being freed from slavery was a defining moment in Jewish history, italso became part of a repeated pattern. Here’s how it went: God’s people werein proper relationship with God and everything was good. Then somethinghappened – they got a new leader, they got overconfident in their ownabilities, they got threatened by enemies – and they turned from God. Then theywere overrun by their enemies and terrible things happened. They were soundlydefeated and forced to pay tribute to other nations. Their treasures and wealthwere carted off. They were exiled. And they cried out to the Lord, and hedelivered them. And the whole cycle started again.

Freedomwas always short-lived. Until Jesus, that is. In the hymn, Come, Thou LongExpected Jesus, we sing the lyrics: Come,thou long expected Jesus, born to set thy people free; from our fears and sinsrelease us, let us find our rest in thee. Jesus was born to set his peoplefree. Not simply freedom from physical prisons, but freedom from the bondage ofguilt and sin.

Earlyin Jesus’ ministry, he went to Nazareth, full of the Holy Spirit, and, as washis custom, he went into the synagogue and stood up to read. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handedto him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because hehas anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaimfreedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release theoppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Then he rolled up thescroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in thesynagogue were fastened on him, and he began by saying to them, “Today thisscripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:17-21)

Jesuswas anointed to proclaim freedom for the prisoners, because he himself is that freedom. Listen to what theApostle Paul wrote about Jesus in 2 Corinthians 3:17: Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, thereis freedom.

Inthis life, there are often all kinds of ways to get to the same goal. You cando this or you can do that, and if you work really hard, you can get what youwant. I have seen many well-meaning Christians working under the same premise:as long as I work really hard and do lots of church stuff, then I’ll finally befree from that guilt that has nagged me for so many years. I can just trade oneaddiction for another, hopefully a less-destructive one or even a so-calledhealthy addiction, and I’ll be fine. The truth is you’ve exchanged one prisoncell for another, and neither one is “fine.” The prison cells most of usexperience are not the penitentiary or the county lock-up; we experience othercells.

Aprison of addiction. A prison created by abuse or neglect. A prison of guilt. Aprison of inability. A prison of low self-esteem. A prison ofself-righteousness. A prison of achievement. A prison built around image. Aprison of money. A prison of tradition.

Ican understand when someone who doesn’t know Jesus is living as a slave to allof these things, but because of Jesus, we are free! But the sad thing is that there are many people who have beenin church for years who are imprisoned by all these things and more. The prisondoor is wide open, but many will not walk out that door. You are too used tothe prison routine and the prison food and you’ve grown accustomed to prisonlife. You have forgotten that life in Christ is freedom!

Infact, you don’t even believe you are imprisoned. There are things that get inthe way of our relationship with God through Jesus Christ. If we are unwillingto give them up for the sake of Christ, those things become idols in our lives.I’m not talking about terrible things like drugs and alcohol at this point; I’mtalking about good things like our hard earned money, our homes, our families, evenour traditions. Once it becomes an idol in our lives, we have a choice: we cancast it down (often figuratively!) or we can allow it to imprison us.

Let’sbring this closer to home. To me, Christmas Eve isn’t Christmas Eve if a fewthings don’t happen. First of all, we haveto read the Christmas story from Luke 2, and we have to sing Silent Night while lighting candles. I firmly believethat these are good, solid ways to celebrate Christ’s birth, but what wouldhappen if the Holy Spirit spoke to us and said, “I want you to do somethingelse for Christmas Eve.”? What would happen if God wanted us to do somethingcompletely different? If we didn’t listen, we would be guilty of making ourChristmas Eve services into idols.

So,in everything we do, we need to constantly ask, “Is this glorifying God, or isit an idol?” Do our church services just make me comfortable, or does it point me to Christ? There are goodthings in our lives, things that were created for our good that have becomeenslaving idols. In Galatia, Jewish tradition was such a prison, especiallycircumcision. The Jewish Christians were requiring circumcision, saying, “Youcan’t follow God if you aren’t circumcised,” and Paul opposes it strongly. Heasks the leaders: But now that you knowGod – or rather are known by God –how is it that you are turning back to theseweak and miserable principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all overagain? (Galatians 4:9)

Thereare things that have always been sinful and as we grow in Christ, we despisethose sins more and more and realize that we were worse than we once thought wewere. For example, maybe before you were a Christian, you used to watch allkinds of movies and listen to all kinds of music, but the more you surrender tothe Holy Spirit, the more some of these things bother you. I’ve never reallybeen much of a movie-watcher, but I listen to a lot of music, and I’m sure Iused the old “I’m not listening to the lyrics” line, but the truth is, the moreI surrender to the Spirit, the more the godless lyrics of popular music botherme. And it’s not just the cussing and swearing; it’s the total immoral disdainfor God that underlies most of it. And that can be an imprisoning idol. Butwhat I am talking about this morning is things that were meant for good, but wehave been ensnared by them.

Let’slook at an example from the Old Testament. In Numbers 21, Moses is leading theIsraelites in the wilderness. They are going along, and the people begin to getimpatient and they complained against God and against Moses. So God sentvenomous snakes among them, and many people died. The people came to Moses and said, “We sinned when we spoke against theLord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us.” SoMoses prayed for the people. (Numbers 21:7) It sounds like they haverepented, turned from their sin and turned back to God. The Lord said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyonewho is bitten can look at it and live.” So Moses made a bronze snake and put itup on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronzesnake, he lived. (Numbers 21:8-9)

Didyou get the picture of what happened? The Israelites sinned against God, andGod punished them, but when they repented and turned back to God, He showedgrace to the Israelites and gave them a way to escape death. But years later,when Israel is a well-established (but divided) kingdom, Hezekiah has becomeking of Judah, and the first thing he does is reform some of their customs.Listen to how 2 Kings 18 describes what he does. He removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down theAsherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up tothat time, the Israelites had been burning incense to it. (2 Kings 18:4)

SomethingGod had given Moses and the Israelites had been corrupted; instead of somethingto help them look to God, the bronze snake had become the object of worship.Too often this happens in our churches. The place or building becomes theobject of worship. The worship style becomes the object of worship. Theelements of worship become the object of worship. The clothes that the preacherwears, the instruments used in worship, the means of baptism, the means ofCommunion, the order of worship… none of these were meant to be bad, but theyare too often idolized, and when they become idols, we are ensnared.

Goddid not create us for enslavement, but without Jesus, we are slaves. Listen toJesus’ own words: “I tell you the truth,anyone who sins is a slave to sin.” (John 8:34). We all serve someone, andin our sins, we are slaves to sin. But that’s not the final word, because, asJesus goes on to say, “So if the Son setsyou free, you are free indeed.” (John 8:36)

Becauseof Jesus, we have true freedom.

Sohow do we live out this freedom? Galatians 5:1 tells us that It is for freedom that Christ has set usfree. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yokeof slavery. God calls us to recognizethat Jesus set us free – it wasn’t anything we did, but it was all by God’sgrace. So stand firm in your freedom; do not let anything in your life become ayoke of slavery. Daily offer it all to God.

Thisis why Jesus called the rich young man to sell all he had and give the money tothe poor in Luke 18; his money had become a yoke of slavery.

Infact, the Bible calls us even to offer ourselves. Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer yourbodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritualact of worship.Do notconform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by therenewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’swill is – his good, pleasing, and perfect will. (Romans 12:1-2)

Jesusnever said it would be easy; we’ve often lived in prison so long that it is adifficult transition to life of freedom. But God calls us to be transformed bythe renewing of our minds. This renewal only happens by immersing ourselves inGod’s Word and by listening intently to the voice of the Holy Spirit.

Andbecause of Jesus, we can have that freedom. Romans 8:1-4 tells us: Therefore there is now no condemnation forthose who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of theSpirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.For what the law was powerless to do in thatit was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sinoffering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man,in order that the righteous requirements ofthe law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinfulnature but according to the Spirit.

Liveby the Spirit. Live in freedom. God didn’t send Jesus to earth to be born in ahumble manger just to make us comfortable in our prisons. He came to earth toset us free.

Because of Jesus... I am Found

2011-12-04T05:11:00.001-08:00

WhenI was growing up, one of the highlights of my summer was church camp. I lovedbeing in that Christian environment for a week, memorizing scripture, doingsilly skits, making new friends, swimming in the pool, and all the games andchallenges they had for us. One year we had a giant game of hide and seek whereall the campers went and hid and the staff got the job of “seeking.”

Ourcamp had a nice wooded area in the back, not a deep forest by any stretch ofthe imagination, but generally wooded, and I found this awesome hiding place inthe bushes beneath a large tree. Any serious hide and seek player knows thatabsolute stillness is a must if you don’t want to get caught, so after Islithered down under the bushes, I made myself comfortable and didn’t move. Nowremember that it was dark out, and deep into a week of church camp – lots ofactivities and less than optimal amounts of sleep… so down in the bushes, Ifell asleep. When I woke up, at first I didn’t know where I was, and when Irealized that I was in the bushes under a tree, I didn’t know how long I hadbeen there. I certainly didn’t want to stick my head up and look around,because I didn’t want to get caught. When I finally did look out, there wasnobody around, but I could hear some noise, so I followed the noise to thechapel, where everyone had gathered after the game. Maybe I’d won the game withthat great hiding place, but it didn’t feel like winning. It felt like beinglost and not being found.

Beinglost is awful. And worse than that, it is our human condition. And much worsethan my situation in the woods, our human condition is such that we are unableto just stand up and walk to where everyone is.

Weare lost, hopelessly lost. God spoke through the prophet Jeremiah, saying, “My people have been lost sheep; theirshepherds have led them astray and caused them to roam on the mountains. Theywandered over mountain and hill and forgot their own resting place. Whoeverfound them devoured them; their enemies said, ‘We are not guilty, for theysinned against the Lord, their true pasture, the Lord, the hope of theirfathers.’ (Jeremiah 50:6-7)

Ifind God’s word choice fascinating here. God is describing his own people aslost sheep. It can be easy to get into an “us and them” mindset, that we arethe found and “they” are lost, but remember that God is describing his ownpeople as lost, led astray by their own shepherds. This is just an aside here,not really part of this sermon, but please take care and make sure that thepeople you are listening to and people who you are leading you are speakingwords of biblical truth, because any of us can be led astray. This goes for mywords, as well; check the scriptures to make sure anything you are hearingmatches with the Bible. If it doesn’t, the Bible isn’t the one going astray.

Ifanyone has ever gotten lost in the woods, you’ll know that every tree starts tolook the same. And when you’re lost, we tend to roam. We think we know the wayout, but we just manage to get ourselves more lost. I remember when my highschool friend went to Chicago – the one thing he wanted to see was WrigleyField, home of the Cubs. When he returned, I asked him if he’d made it to Wrigley.He hadn’t. He thought that he would be able to see it from the highway, thatthe stadium would be big enough to dwarf everything around it.

Fora small-town teenager, it was almost inconceivable that he wouldn’t be able tosee the stadium while driving through the city. As Christians, we sometimestake for granted that the lost should be able to see God at work and shouldknow to call out to him. After all, Romans 1 tells us that For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – hiseternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood fromwhat has been made, so that men are without excuse. (Romans 1:20)

Butthose who have been led astray have forgotten their resting place.

And,again, that is the human condition. Every one of us, no matter who we are,started out lost. In Psalm 51:5, King David acknowledges: Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceivedme. Every one of us shares this state. From the time when Adam and Eveintroduced sin into the world, we were each born sinful. This is why nobody hasto teach a child to be selfish. It comes naturally.

Andnot only are we sinful from birth, but we continue to sin. Romans 3:23 remindsus that All have sinned and fall short ofthe glory of God. I don’t think I have to explain this much. Anyone want todispute this? Even those we would see as the most righteous would definethemselves as being sinners. Even the Apostle Paul refers to himself as the“worst of sinners” in 1 Timothy 15-16.

WhenJeremiah was describing what happened to God’s lost sheep, he said whoeverfound them devoured them. This is what happens to the lost. Because sin cameinto the world, so did death. Romans 6:23 reminds us that The wages of sin is death. Death is what happens to lost people,but not only physical death, but spiritual death as well. We were dead in oursins as Ephesians 2:1 reminds us. (As foryou, you were dead in your transgressions and sins). Furthermore, tocontinue in lostness is to risk eternal death as well. Revelation 20:14-15describes the lake of fire, the second death. The lake of fire is the second death. If anyone’s name was not foundwritten in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. This isbad news.

Butthere is good news. In Ezekiel 34:1, God declares: “I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind upthe injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong I willdestroy. I will shepherd the flock with justice.”

Inone way, this thought makes me laugh. Can you imagine playing hide-and-seekwith God? He stops counting and immediately says, “I see you; you’re hidingbehind the sound booth.” In Genesis 3, after Adam and Eve sinned and nowthey’re ashamed and hiding from God, and Godcalled to the man, “Where are you?” It’s not as if God couldn’t find them;they hadn’t fooled him. God wasn’t startled when Adam came out from the bushes.But God claims he will search for the lost. Meaning he will find us.

Thisis God’s character. In Matthew 18:12-14, Jesus tells a parable. “If a man owns a hundred sheep and one ofthem wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go tolook for the one that wandered off?And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about that onesheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. In the same way yourFather in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost.”

SoGod goes out searching for us. But remember, our sin that separates us fromGod. It creates a barrier through that God cannot ignore. So no matter how muchseeking happens, we are lost.

Exceptfor one thing. Jesus. When God finds us, he leads us to Jesus. Jesus, who iscalled Emmanuel, meaning “God with us.” If God is with us, we are found. In thestory of Zacchaeus the tax collector, the final word is from Jesus: “For the Son of Man came to seek and to savewhat was lost.” (Luke 19:10)

Thisis who Jesus is and what Jesus does. Because of Jesus, I am Found. Without him,there is no hope whatsoever. And without him, we are hopelessly lost.

Christmasis not just about a baby in a manger. Yes, we celebrate Jesus’ birthday, but wecelebrate his birthday in a way that we don’t celebrate any other birthdays,because his birth means that we are found. If you read the Christmas storyclosely, you will find that it’s a story of being found. At first glance, itseems like people are finding Jesus, but that’s not exactly what happens. Theshepherds certainly seem to find Jesus, don’t they? But in reality, it’s Jesuswho finds them. They didn’t go searching for Him; an angel went searching forthem! And the Magi came from the east, searching for Jesus, didn’t they? Butindeed, it was Jesus, whose star sought out the Magi. So in these scriptures,it is the shepherds and the Magi who are found.

Lastweek I read to you Jeremiah 29:11:“For Iknow the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you andnot to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Butlisten to the rest of this passage: Thenyou will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will listen to you. Youwill seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.I will be found by you,” declares the Lord,“and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nationsand places where I have banished you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring youback to the place from which I carried you into exile.” Jeremiah 29:12-14

Godcalls us to seek Him, but the truth is, it is He who is seeking us.

Butdid you ever think of it this way: just being found is not the end goal of theworld. Can you imagine a hide-and-seek game where you go around finding peoplewho then stay in their hiding places? No, the goal is to allow God to bring usto Himself. This is how the camper hunt game I described at the beginning ofthis message was supposed to work (you know, the one where I stayed hidden):when a staff member found a camper, that camper would go with the staffer andtogether they would look for the next camper. Before long, there would be alarge group of kids all gathered around each staff member, and they walkedaround, you’d have kids finding other kids.

Thisis how the Christian life works as well. Found people find people. This is notjust a slogan; it’s actually the way God ordained it to happen. God told Abram,“all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” (Genesis 12:3b) and this isexactly what happened. Through the line of Abraham, Jesus was born, a blessingto the whole world. The Bible tells us that “Everyonewho calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”How, then, can they call on the one theyhave not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have notheard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how canthey preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feetof those who bring good news!” Romans 10:13-15.

Friends,we are those with beautiful feet. Turn to the person next to you and tell them,“You have beautiful feet!” – they are beautiful because you bring good news.The Good News is that Jesus is beckoning to those who are lost to step out ofthose hiding places. He is sufficient for each of us.

Because of Jesus... I Am Hopeful

2011-11-27T07:47:00.001-08:00

Haveyou ever had to wait and wait and wait? Can you remember when you were a littlechild, when it seemed like Christmas morning would never get here? The wait was endless. Or maybe you’ve had to waitfor something more recently, like waiting for the doctor to come out to thewaiting room to tell you that the surgery was successful… or waiting for asoldier to come home… or waiting for the call that says you’ve got the job.

Thenthere are other kinds of waits. Is there anyone who doesn’t check to see which checkout lane is shortest? And thatdoesn’t mean just by numbers – you have to look at how stuffed the cartsare. Same thing with lines at tollboothsor even stop signs. And some of us will drive 40 miles out of our way to avoida 10 minute traffic jam.

Wedon’t like to wait.

Whyis it that we don’t like to wait? Part of it is that we just aren’t patient bynature, but another part is that we are often fearful about the results. It’slike why men don’t go to the doctor. We’ll be complaining about somethingthat’s bothering us, but when someone asks, “What did your doctor say?” we’llanswer, “I haven’t been to the doctor” and if pressed on why, the answer isoften, “What if there’s something reallywrong?!” We don’t like getting bad news. And so often we’re not hopeful aboutwhat we’re waiting for. The doctor might give us the news we were dreading. Wemight not get the job. Christmas might nevercome. We wait, but we don’t hope.

Mygeneration is a generation that detests generalizations, but, in general, wedon’t have a lot of hope. We’re the first generation who stands to earn lessthan our parents. We fully expect Social Security to have run dry by the timewe get there. As famous non-Generation-Xer, Tennessee Ernie Ford said, “Youload sixteen tons and whadda ya get? Another day older and deeper in debt.”

EvenSolomon wrote, I denied myself nothing myeyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all mywork, and this was the reward for all my labor. Yet when I surveyed all that myhands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, achasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun. (Ecclesiastes2:10-11). In fact, he repeats the word “meaningless” times in only 8 chapters.

“Meaningless! Meaningless!”says the Teacher.“Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless!” (1:2) He goeson to list pleasure; work, labor and achievement; wisdom; life and death;leadership; dreaming and many words; and money and possessions. They are allmeaningless, a chasing after the wind. The saddest thing I can think of is ameaningless life. I know people who wonder why they are still alive; theirlives seemed to have lost their meaning, and they have thus lost hope.

Welive in a world largely without hope or with misplaced hope. In North Africaand the Middle East, this past year has seen dictatorships toppled… for what? Ourculture is full of Occupy this-or-that protests for wealth redistribution. Ourpresident campaigned on “hope” and “change” and struck a nerve. But is thathope real hope? In Ephesians 2:12, the Apostle Paul writes Remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded fromcitizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, withouthope and without God in the world. (Ephesians 2:12)

Paulwas onto something – separate from Christ, we are without hope. Psalm 33 says No king is saved by the size of his army; nowarrior escapes by his great strength. A horse is a vain hope for deliverance;despite all its great strength it cannot save. (Psalm 33:16-17) Where haveyou placed your hope? When I was in Russia, it was my roommate’s birthday, andhe celebrated in good Russian style, by getting falling-down drunk. When he hadpassed out, another Russian friend told me, not to pick on him, because he wasjust doing what Russians did. They drank, as Michael explained to me, becausethey have no hope. I’ve found out that this isn’t a Russian thing; it’s a humanthing. Apart from Christ, we have no hope. I honestly can’t blame people whodon’t have Jesus for their coping mechanisms. What else do they have?

Inthe Old Testament we read about some dark times, but even when the prophetswere prophesying doom and gloom, destruction and exile, they still brought amessage of hope, a message of a Messiah coming in the line of David, one whowould save his people. But there came a time when even the prophets weresilent. Between the Old and New Testaments, the voices of hope were silent.

Itis in this situation the angel Gabriel shows up to Mary, announcing that “The Lord is with you.” (Luke 1:28b) He announces the impending birthof Jesus, revealing that “He will begreat and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give himthe throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacobforever; his kingdom will never end.” (Luke 1:32) A word of hope in ahopeless world.

Thisis why Christmas is such an important celebration – not because of the load ofgifts that will inevitably become next month’s clutter and next year’s Goodwilltrip. Not because of the gluttonous Christmas parties. Not because of Santa orreindeer. Not even for the beautiful Nativity scene. But because the baby bornis the hope of the world.

Jesus Himself is the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy: “Here is my servant whom I have chosen, the one I love, in whom Idelight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will proclaim justice to thenations. He will not quarrel or cry out; no one will hear his voice in thestreets. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will hewill not snuff out, till he leads justice to victory. In his name the nationswill put their hope.” (Matthew 12:17-21). In his name the nations will puttheir hope.

Thehymn “My Hope is Built” says it well: Myhope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. On Christthe solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. Without Jesus,there is no hope. No other foundation is solid. But because of Jesus, I amhopeful.

Probablythe most famous verse in the book of Jeremiah is Jeremiah 29:11: “For I know the plans I have for you,”declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give youa hope and a future.” Jesus isthat hope!

Jesusgives us the hope of living meaningful lives. When we pray that God’s will bedone on earth as it is in heaven, we recognize that without Jesus, it isimpossible, but with Christ, all things are possible. He has given useverything we need for life and godliness. (2 Peter 1:3) This is why Paul canwrite to Titus that God’s grace, which has appeared to all, teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness andall worldly passions and to live sell-controlled, upright and godly lives inthis present age, while we wait for the blessed hope – the glorious appearingof our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem usfrom all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own,eager to do what is good. (Titus 2:12-14)

Inthe midst of this life, we wait. Advent is all about waiting, especially thewait for Christmas. We await Jesus’ birth, but that’s kind of a strange wait –to wait for something that already happened, especially in the midst of asociety that can’t stand to wait. Think about it; how early did the storesstart playing Christmas music this year? Even the rush to Christmas consumerismhas started earlier; it used to be the day after Thanksgiving, then storesstarted opening earlier and earlier on Black Friday, and this year more andmore stores were open on Thanksgiving, but the online deals started evenearlier. So many retailers noticed that people were going online to find outwhat the deals were, so in order to lure their business in, they would offerdeals online… right now. So nobody would have to wait and then have thepossibility of shopping somewhere else.

Butas Paul wrote to Titus, we wait for Jesus’ return. We wait for him to fulfillhis promises in us. We haven’t yet “arrived” and God is still doing a work in us.Even so we wait with hope. We waiteagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in thishope we were saved. Romans 8:23b-24a Though we are not naturally wired tobe patient, Paul writes in Romans 8:25 Butif we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. Part ofthe joy of Jesus Christ is that not only is he the One for whom we wait, He isalso the One who gives us the strength to wait. While Jesus never promised thatthis life would be easy, he did promise to be with us. Hebrews 10:23 tells us: Let us hold unswervingly to the hope weprofess, for he who promised is faithful. Aren’t you glad our God isfaithful? We have all had people fail us; we have all waited and then notgotten positive results or answers, but God is always faithful and He alwaysfulfills his promises.

Indeed,as we know from Isaiah 40:30-31: Evenyouths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hopein the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles;they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

Waitingis tiring, and it can be easy to get discouraged. The Bible tells us to put ourhope in the Lord, that He will be our strength. Some of you have never put yourfull trust in the Lord. You are putting your hope in all kinds of other things.That is called idolatry, and God detests it. Even as we begin our Adventcelebration, I invite you to spend some time turning your burdens over toJesus, putting your hope in him alone. And He will be the answer you need.

Still Offended

2011-11-20T05:40:00.001-08:00

(Note: The thoughts contained in this message and last week's come from The Bait of Satan by John Bevere)

Lastweek we established that most of us have every reason to be offended. We havesuffered every sort of wrong, no matter who we are or what we’ve done (or notdone) to deserve this treatment. The worst pain comes when the offense was doneby someone close to us, and often, when we’ve been wronged, we begin to buildup around ourselves walls for self-preservation. Unfortunately these wallsdon’t end up protecting us; they end up isolating us and keeping us fromgrowing and maturing. Often God uses those difficult circumstances to shape usinto the person He is calling us to become, and when we simply run away fromthem, we not only miss out on the blessings God has for us, but we are actuallysinning against God. This is exactly what Satan wants us to do; pick up thebait he has set out for us and end up trapped in a stronghold. Most of us haveexperienced those times when our very foundation is shaken; sometimes Godhimself does the shaking. God shakes for five reasons: To bring somethingcloser to its foundation; to remove what is dead; to harvest what is ripe; toawaken; to unify or mix together so it can no longer be separated.

Thisshaking will remove all self-confidence and independence. What remains will beGod’s sure foundation. There are many people who have come to the altar, said thesinner’s prayer, attended church, studied their Bible, but if they don’t know whoJesus really is, when disappointment occurs, they are offended with God andwill have nothing to do with him. “God never did anything for me!” They fallaway, offended, because they have no foundation.

Oursure foundation must be Jesus Christ. Thisis what the Sovereign Lord says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, aprecious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who trusts will never bedismayed.”(Isaiah 28:16) Jesus Christ is our foundation, and as long asthat is true, we can build. If our foundation is anything else, it willcrumble. The trials and tests we face don’t make us. They locate us. Theydetermine the true condition of our hearts and the trustworthiness of ourfoundation.

WithJesus Christ as our foundation, we can move from taking Satan’s bait of offenseand instead live our Christ’s redemptive mission in our world. Jesus offers usthe way: through the radical steps of forgiveness and reconciliation.

Jesusreally meant what he said: “If you do notforgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.” (Mark11:26) Do we really want God to forgive us in the manner we have forgiven?Before we jump to forgive others, first ask God’s forgiveness for withholdingforgiveness! Peter asked Jesus how many times they should forgive someone whosinned against him – up to seven times? (Just as an aside, he was beinggenerous). Jesus answered, “I tell you,not seven times, but seventy-seven times.” He goes on to relate a storyabout two servants.

Thefirst servant owed his master ten thousand talents, meaning millions ofdollars. Because he couldn’t pay his master back, the master ordered that he,his wife and children, and everything they had, be sold to repay the debt. “The servant fell on his knees before him.‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ Theservant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.”(Matthew18:26-27)

“But when that servant went out, hefound one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii (afew dollars). He grabbed him and began tochoke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded. (Matthew 18:28)

Thoughthe second servant begged, because he could not pay back the debt, the firstservant had him thrown in prison. The other servants saw what happened and theyreported back to the master. “Then themaster called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled allthat debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy onyour fellow servant just as I had on you?’ In anger his master turned him overto the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.” (Matthew18:32-34)

Jesusends with a zinger: “This is how myheavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother fromyour heart.”

Isthere any doubt that God calls us to forgive? We know we are supposed toforgive, but did you ever think that the unforgiveness that you hold is sinful?We all have people in our lives who are somewhat easy to forgive, but God callsus to love our enemies. Why? Because this is God’s character, as God demonstrates his own love for us inthis: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)

Andthe debts others owe to us are in no way comparable to the debt we owe to God. Godhas forgiven our million dollar debts… how have we responded to the debts thatothers owe to us?

Didyou notice how the parable ends? The unforgiving servant is turned over to betortured. Honestly, living in unforgiveness is torture itself. People are oftenunable to receive healing when they won’t release others and forgive them. Manymental issues are tied to bitter unforgiveness. John Bevere asserts thatdoctors have even linked unforgiveness and bitterness to diseases such asarthritis and cancer. Furthermore, the servant has to pay off the originaldebt. God the Father will do the same for any believer who does not forgive abrother’s offense. Why would God require this of us? Because when we withholdforgiveness, we are in fact standing in judgment over them. We are playing God.We are saying that Jesus died for mysins, but he’s not sufficient for yours.

Youcan’t have it both ways!

Ifyou are feeling put on the spot here, please know that this is a message ofmercy and warning, not harsh judgment. I’m not trying to cause guilt and shameif you haven’t forgiven someone. I know how hard it is. I have been betrayed,and I know it’s hard.

Satanwants us to sit in judgment over others, withholding forgiveness from them. Hereminds us of the pain they caused us. He reminds us of the wrongs they’ve doneagain and again. When someone has been hurt by someone else, human justice says“They will stand trial for what they’ve done and pay if found guilty.” God is the Judge, and He will pronouncerighteous judgment, repaying everyone according to His righteousness.

Sohow do we escape the trap of revenge and unforgiveness? First of all, know thatit takes effort. Think about it this way: every exercise regimen tells you tocheck with your doctor before you start. If you have been exercising regularly,you probably won’t get injured. But if your muscles are out of shape, you’reprone to injury. If you aren’t used to reconciliation, it’s going to hurt whenyou start.

Askthe Holy Spirit to change your heart. You have to start with a willing heart.If your heart isn’t willing to forgive, your responsibility is to allow theHoly Spirit to transform you.

Thenext step to healing is to recognize and admit that you are hurt. I told youlast week about a colleague who betrayed me. I was sure that I was over it,because I had forgiven him, but the truth was, I was still hurt. I allowed mypride to get in the way: I am a pastor. Of course I forgave him. I’m over it! ButI wasn’t over it, because I was not where God wanted me to be. God was actuallycalling me to love this person. Jesus says “Loveyour enemy and pray for those who persecute you.” (Matthew 5:44)

Whenyou have forgiven, God calls you to take it a step deeper, to pray for theperson who has hurt you. I didn’t say “if” you have forgiven. If you are aChristian, you must forgive. But that’s not the last step. It’s only thefirst step.

InPsalm 35, we see King David dealing with people who are fighting with him. Inverses 11-12, ruthless witnesses are accusing him falsely. They repay me evil for good and leave my soul forlorn. But look howDavid responds: Yet when they were ill, Iput on sackcloth and humbled myself with fasting. When my prayers returned tome unanswered, I went about mourning as though for my friend or brother. Ibowed my head in grief as though weeping for my mother. (Psalm 35:13-14)

Thisis an amazing scene. David’s enemies are bent on attacking him, yet when theyare sick, he is mourning over their illnesses. This is what I learned that myresponse needed to be regarding my former colleague. So I began praying forhim. I’ll admit that my early prayers weren’t all that godly. “Lord, give himwhat he deserves” wasn’t exactly sackcloth or mourning for my friend orbrother. But as I continued to pray, my heart began to change, and I started toactually pray for him. I was finally led to send him a short e-mail, and thoughyou can’t really read the emotion of e-mail, I know he was pleased but shockedto have received what I sent him.

Itis hard to get to the place where you actually want to love someone who hurt you, but hard places always come inour journey with the Lord. They are part of His process of perfecting us, and runningfrom them will only hinder our growth. I’ve seen a lot of people in thiscommunity who have been hurt and have refused to forgive, let alone love the person who wronged them. Thisonly leads to bitterness and pain. But as we overcome different obstacles, webecome stronger and more compassionate, and we also learn obedience to Godthrough the things we suffer. Remember that it isn’t easy. It’s kind of likerowing against the current; I grew up doing a lot of canoeing, and when wefirst started out, we would paddle upstream and then turn around and returnwith the current. It is hard to paddle against the current; if you want to getupstream, you have to continuously paddle if you want to progress against theflow of the river. Likewise with loving the unlovely; you will have tocontinually work at it.

Inthe middle of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus starts out one section by saying, “You have heard that it was said to thepeople long ago, ‘Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject tojudgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will besubject to judgment.” (Matthew 5:21-22) Jesus is serious about how we dealwith our anger. He says it can lead to judgment and eventually to Hell.

Theother side of this is that if we have caused someone to be angry with us, weare leaving them in danger of hell.Let me pause for a moment and say that it doesn’t matter at this point whetheryou were in the right or wrong. Which is more important, to prove to the worldthat you were right, or to restore a stumbling brother or sister? Maybe theperson we have offended believes we were injust in our treatment when really wedid nothing wrong. Maybe the person has accurate information but has drawn aninaccurate conclusion. You see, we often judge ourselves by our intentions andeveryone else by their actions. Or maybe we didsin against the person.

Nomatter what caused it, this offended person’s understanding is darkened. Forwhatever reason he feels this way, we must be willing to humble ourselves andapologize. Reconcile even if the offense is not your fault!

Ineed to interject here that there are times when a physical reconciliation isnot a good idea. When the person is abusive, don’t put yourself back into thatsituation. Also, if it was a former love interest and you’ve both moved on, itmight not be a good idea to put yourself back into a situation that might causetemptation. And sometimes the person we offended has died or is somewhere thatwe can’t get in touch with them. I would suggest in this case to write a letterapologizing, even if you can’t send it. And you can still pray for the personwho you can’t get in touch with.

Butwhen you are in touch with someonewho is offended, don’t go to them with an attitude of frustration, and don’t goin defending yourself. This won’t promote peace and often only fuels moreoffense. It’s going to take a lot of humility to keep your mouth shut and let themsay what they need to say. Even if you don’t agree, let them know that yourespect what they have said. Ask the Holy Spirit to search your attitude andintentions; maybe there is something in there that God needs to work on.Nevertheless, an apology is in order, and not one of those fake, cheapapologies that doesn’t mean anything, the “I’m sorry you were offended” ones.Even if you didn’t meant to hurt them, it’s appropriate to tell them, “I nevermeant to hurt you, but I obviously did, and I am sorry.” Sometimes they are accurate, and it takeshumility to admit, “You are right. I ask your forgiveness.” Godly wisdom iswilling to yield.

Whathappens when you are the one who has been offended? Matthew 18 gives us theroute to take; first go to your brother and show him his fault and if he hearsyou, you have gained your brother. If he won’t listen, take one or two otherswith you. If that won’t work, tell it to the church, and if he won’t evenlisten to the church, treat him as a pagan or tax collector. Remember that thisisn’t for condemnation but for reconciliation.

God’sgoodness leads us to repent. His love doesn’t leave us condemned to hell. Heproved his love by sending Jesus to die for us, to reconcile us to Him.Remember, don’t go to a brother who has offended you until you have decided toforgive him from your heart, no matter how he responds to you. If we keep thelove of God as our motivation, we will not fail. Love never fails.

Jesusproclaims: Blessed are the peacemakers,for they shall be called sons of God. (Matthew 5:9) – remember that hedoesn’t say “peacekeepers” there - peacekeepers will avoid confrontation at allcosts to maintain peace, even at the risk of compromising truth, but the peacehe maintains is not true peace. It is touchy and superficial peace that willnot last. Peacemakers, on the other hand, will go in love and confront,bringing truth so that the resulting reconciliation will endure.

Thisis how God behaves with humankind. He is not willing that any should perish,but he will not compromise truth for a relationship. He seeks reconciliationwith true commitment, not on superficial terms.

Areyou ready to take action?

First:Ask the Holy Spirit to walk with you through your past, bringing before you andpeople against whom you have held something. Stay quiet before Him as he showsyou who they are. Don’t hunt for something that is not there; he will clearlybring them up to where you will not doubt it. Then, as you release the peoplefrom blame, picture them individually and forgive individually and personally.Cancel the debt they owe.

Praythis prayer: Father, in the Name of Jesus,I acknowledge that I have sinned against You by not forgiving those who haveoffended me. I repent of this and ask Your forgiveness. I also acknowledge my inability to forgivethem apart from You. Therefore, from my heart I choose to forgive [insertname]. I bring under the blood of Jesusall that they have done wrong to me. They no longer owe me anything. I remittheir sins against me. Heavenly Father, as my Lord Jesus asked You to forgivethose who had sinned against Him, I pray that Your forgiveness will come tothose who have sinned against me. I ask that You will bless them and lead theminto a closer relationship with You. I pray in Jesus’ Name. Amen.

Writethe names of the people you have released in a journal and record the date.

Youmay have to exercise to stay free from offense. Make a commitment to pray forthem as you would pray for yourself. If thoughts continue to bombard your mind,cast them down with the Word of God and declare your decision to forgive. When you know your heart is strong andsettled, go to them for the purpose of reconciliation for their benefit.

I'm Offended

2011-11-13T07:46:00.001-08:00

(Note: The thoughts contained in this message and next week's come from The Bait of Satan by John Bevere)

Igrew up watching a lot of action movies. The general plot of every action moviein the mid to late 1980s was the same: bad guys do bad things. The good guy isusually reluctant but eventually is brought into the action, usually aftersomething bad has happened to him, his friends, or his family. He is thus“forced” to come in and get revenge.

Thereis something that just seems “right” about this kind of story. When we arewronged, we need justice. This is intentional; it is because God wired us thisway. God made us in his own image, and our God is a God who requires justice;it is part of his Holy character. So when we desire justice, we are, at somelevel, reflecting God’s character.

Unfortunately,going all Chuck Norris on someone is not what God had in mind. But the draw ofthese action movies is clear; most of us have been wronged at some point oranother, and we have often been left wanting revenge. In Ecclesiastes 7:15, theteacher writes: In this meaningless lifeof mine I have seen both of these: a righteous man perishing in righteousness,and a wicked man living long in his wickedness. Have any of you seen this?

Wehave all experienced wrongs. We have all been offended. And Satan often usesthose offenses as bait to trap us. In his book The Bait of Satan, JohnBevere writes about this usually hidden trap, what he calls “one of the mostdeceptive and insidious kinds of bait” that Satan uses. Because we are wired torequire justice, when we don’t see justice in our lives, we tend to pick up thebait, consume it, and allow it to gain root in our hearts, and we becomeoffended. I don’t know anyone who has never been offended. That’s just part oflife. But if we remain in the state of offense, we produce negative fruit likehurt, anger, outrage, jealousy, resentment, strife, bitterness, hatred, andenvy. The unfortunate thing is many people don’t realize where this comes fromor its terrible effects.

InLuke 17:1, Jesus tells his disciples, “Thingsthat cause people to sin are bound to come.” The King James Version rendersthe phrase “things that cause people to sin” as “offenses.” He says “It isimpossible that no offenses will come.” In my short time in ministry, I haveseen that played out over and over again. Whether it’s people in ministryleaving the ministry because of how they have been hurt or church membersexperiencing pain, that seems to be one constant in the church. The worst partis that it is usually fellow Christians who have inflicted the pain. How muchmore painful is it when the one who hurt you is not some random stranger oreven a non-Christian, from whom we expect to receive persecution, but from afellow brother or sister… In Psalm 55:12-14, King David laments, “For it is not an enemy who reproaches me;then I could bear it. Nor is it one who hates me who has exalted himselfagainst me; then I could hide from him. But it was you, a man my equal, mycompanion and my acquaintance. We took sweet counsel together, and walked tothe house of God in the throng.”

Truly,the worst offenses are from those who have been closest to you. “You find thegreatest hatred among people who were once close.” I sometimes watch truemystery shows on TV, like 48 Hours Mysteries, and it always seems like theguilty party is the spouse or significant other. Everyone knows the old adage“sticks and stones can break my bones, but words will never hurt me,” but thetruth is, if those words come from someone close to you, they hurt worse thanany stick or stone. Only those you care about can hurt you, and the more youexpect from someone, the greater the potential for hurt.

AlthoughJesus made it clear that it is impossible to avoid offenses, we are frequentlysurprised, even shocked, when it happens to us. It can seem like we’re the onlyone who has been hurt by a fellow believer. That often causes isolation or bitterness,and our response determines our future.

TheGreek word (that we translate “offend” in Luke 17) is skandalon. Its literal meaning is the part of the trap that baitwas attached to. So when Jesus says that offenses will come, he is talkingabout laying a trap in someone’s way. Who is laying this trap? This is one ofSatan’s most deceptive and tricky snares. In 2 Timothy 2:24-26, Paul writesthat A servant of the Lord must notquarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correctingthose who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so thatthey may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape thesnare (entrapment) of the devil, having been taken captive to do his will.

Satan’sgoal is to take us captive to do his will. When we succumb to the offenses thatSatan throws in our way, he does exactly that. You might be thinking, “But Ihave every right to be offended!” You probably do. I have no doubt that youhave been wronged. Or you might be thinking, “Well, I’m not offended, and I’moffended that you’re claiming that I am!” It can be hard to see where thosebars of captivity are – most of us have blind spots that are hard to navigateourselves.

JohnBevere says that there are two categories into which all offended people fall:those who have been treated unjustly and those who believe they have been treated unjustly. Those in the secondcategory have often drawn their conclusions from inaccurate information ortheir information is accurate but their conclusion is distorted.

Ina former ministry, I was betrayed by a colleague. It was extremely painful, andit took me a long time to even want to forgive him. After I’d forgiven him, ifyou would mention his name, I would still seethe inside. Then I wondered, “DidI really forgive him?” But I felt like I was justified in holding a grudge againsthim. I now knew what his character was, and I was the obvious victim. I wasmistreated. Therefore I felt justified in telling others all about this guy.Honestly most of it was gossip. But I felt completely justified; after all, Iwas the injured party!

Anddon’t we have the right to be offended? Let’s take a look back in the OldTestament, at Joseph. In Genesis 37, Joseph gloated to his brothers about howmuch his father preferred him to them, and he told them about his dreams inwhich they were bowing down to him. So they despised him. Because of this, theysold him into slavery. Joseph had every “right” to be offended, didn’t he? Nomatter what his attitude had been, his brothers had no right to do to him whatthey did. Many of us have experienced wrongs as well. How many of us say thingslike

· It’s my parents’ fault I am so messedup.

· If it weren’t for that teacher inschool, I would have followed my dreams and wouldn’t have ended up stuck whereI am now.

· If it weren’t for my ex, my kids and I wouldn’thave all this financial trouble.

· If it weren’t for all the gossip in thechurch, I would still be in ministry…

Ifyou are offended, remember this: there is nobody who can snatch you away fromGod’s will. No man, woman, child, or even the devil has the power to take Godaway from you. Only God holds your destiny. In Genesis 37:20, it is clear whatJoseph’s brothers’ intentions were. “Let’s kill him, throw his body in a well,and say that a wild animal ate him” isn’t exactly unclear. But when Joseph isfinally reunited with his brothers, listen to how he responds: “It was not you who sent me, but God.” (Genesis45:8) Joseph had every opportunity to get revenge on his brothers for theirtreatment of him. Many people would have sat in that prison, the whole timegrowing more and more bitter, waiting, just waiting for revenge. One of myfavorite comedians of all time is Bill Cosby. One routine I loved was his skit“Revenge” in which his friend Junior Barnes hit him with a slush ball. Heplotted revenge, making the perfect snowball and sticking it in the freezer.When Junior Barnes was least suspecting, Bill went to the freezer to get thesnowball… only to find that his mother had thrown it away.

Revengeisn’t sweet. It is bitter. It only sows more seeds of bitterness. Listen to thewords from Proverbs 18:19: A brotheroffended is harder to win than a strong city, and contentions are like the barsof a castle. When we’ve been offended, a natural response is to constructwalls around our hearts to prevent future wounds. We open ourselves only tothose who we believe are “on our side” only to find that they are oftenoffended as well. Instead of protecting ourselves, we lock ourselves in prisons.Then our focus turns inward, guarding our rights and personal relationshipscarefully, our energy consumed with making sure no future injuries occur. Thedifference between “others focused” and “inward focused” is like the differencebetween the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. The Sea of Galilee is living, becauseit has water running into it and out of it. It receives and gives. The Dead Seais dead because it only receives. It doesn’t have anywhere for water to run outof it. And when we are inward focused, out of our fear, we do not give, and we becomestagnant, and those protective walls become strongholds.

Weoften hold on to our offense as a means of self-preservation. We’re justprotecting ourselves from being hurt again. Building walls does not actuallyprotect us, however, because it simply keeps us from seeing our own flaws.There is always someone outside the walls who can be blamed; it couldn’t be me. Then we never have to face our rolein the situation, our immaturity, or our own sins, because all we see is ouroffender’s fault.

Didyou ever think that God might have allowed you to experience this to developgodly character? God doesn’t grow the Fruit of the Spirit in a vacuum; Hebuilds the Fruit in willing soil. God’s plan often causes us to face hurts andattitudes we don’t want to face. Since we don’t want to face them, we run awayfrom the very thing that will bring strength and healing to our lives. Refusingto deal with an offense will not free us from the problem; it will only give ustemporary relief. The root of the problem remains untouched.

Sowe lock ourselves into strongholds and offense grows. In Matthew 24:10, Jesusshows how offense progresses: “Many willbe offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another.” It startswith offense, which grows to betrayal, and finally blooms with hatred.

Ifyou are offended and unwilling to forgive, you are sinning. If you refuse torepent of this sin, you are not walking in the truth. You are deceived andliving like a hypocrite. The problem is that if we don’t risk being hurt, wecannot give unconditional love, because unconditional love gives others theright to hurt us.

Whenyou sow the love of God, you will reap the love of God, though not always fromthe field you sowed in or as quickly as you’d like. This means if the person who you give love todoesn’t return love, you are freed up to love that person even more. “If moreChristians recognized this, they wouldn’t give up and become offended. Usuallythis is not the type of love we walk in. We walk in a selfish love that iseasily disappointed when our expectations are not met.” (John Bevere, p. 15 )

Iremember shortly after I got here, someone told me, “This place isn’t asperfect as you think it is!” I didn’t think it was perfect, and I’m glad; otherwise there wouldn’t be any room forme, and we wouldn’t need Jesus’ grace. But in this imperfect organizationcalled the church, it’s good to remember that churches are not cafeterias. Manywant to pick and choose what they want – to stay as long as there are noproblems. In 1 Corinthians 12:18, Paul write: “But in fact God has arranged the parts of the body, every one of them,just as he wanted them to be.”

Ratherthan face the difficulties and maintain hope, some people run to where thereappear to be no conflict. When we don’t face our conflicts head-on, we usuallyleave offended. Some people look for a perfect pastor – keep looking. Jesus isthe only perfect pastor (and he saved his harshest words for church people!)

Psalm92:13 tells us that Those who are plantedin the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. If youkeep transplanting a plant every three weeks, it will die. If someone keepsjumping from ministry to ministry, blaming the leadership or the other peoplearound them, they are blind to their own character flaws and do not realizethat God wanted to refine and mature them through the pressure they were under.

Thereare many of us who have been hurt, and we are just waiting for an apology andadmission that the other party was wrong. Waiting for an apology leads us tobondage to human justice. Let’s look for a moment at how Jesus offersforgiveness. Jesus didn’t wait for us to say “I was wrong. Forgive me.” – heforgave us from the cross.

Thisis the beginning of our healing as well. Jesus likens the condition of ourhearts to soil; ground will only produce what is planted in it. If we plantseeds of debt, unforgiveness, and offense, then instead of the love of God, theroot of bitterness will spring up. If a root is nurtured – watered, protected,fed, and given attention – it will increase in depth and strength. When I wasin elementary and middle school, I took piano lessons. My family couldn’tafford the lessons, so we worked out a deal; my brother and I did yard work forMrs. Moore. I thought that was going to be simple, but Mrs. Moore had a perfectyard. How did she keep it perfect? By having me and my brother pull up everyweed by its root. If you don’t deal with a root quickly, it’s hard to pull up. Likewisewith bitterness; the longer you ignore it, the stronger it will become and theharder your heart will become. In Hebrews 12:14-15, we read: Pursue peace with all people, and holiness,without which no one will see the Lord: looking carefully lest anyone fallshort of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up causetrouble, and by this many become defiled.

Thisis why Paul tells the church in Ephesus: Donot let the sun go down on your anger (Ephesians 4:26b)

Howdo we get rid of the root of bitterness? Next week we will look more closely atforgiveness and reconciliation, but before we can get there, we have to realizethat the only way to get out the root of bitterness is to examine our heartsand open ourselves up to the correction of the Lord, for only His Word candiscern the thoughts and intentions of our hearts.

Rememberthat we have the Holy Spirit within us. We don’t just have a little bit of God;we have all of Him in the Person ofthe Holy Spirit. But we need to get real with Him. We have to allow the HolySpirit to transform us, but He won’t do that without our permission. Start byasking Him to reveal to you yourpart. What can you own? Where haveyour own character flaws been revealed by your reaction to someone else?

Ifyou are anything like me, you might not wantto let go of your hurts. After all, nobody has stepped up to apologize. Ifthat’s where you are, I suggest changing the tone of your prayer. Pray that youwill want to want to heal, to let go of hurts, to tear down the strongholds ofbitterness and offense.

Nextweek we will continue on forgiveness and reconciliation.

Make Sure

2011-10-30T10:00:00.000-07:00

2Peter 1:5-11

Last week we looked at 2 Peter 1:3-4, in which wewere reminded that God is sufficient to supply all of our needs, that his divine power has given us everything weneed for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by hisown glory and goodness. God makes it clear that he gives us everything weneed. As we yield ourselves to his spirit, we find ourselves participating inGod’s nature, having our sinful nature replaced by God’s sinless nature.

Andso in that context, Peter writes: Forthis very reason, (by which he refers to our participation in God’s nature) make every effort to add to your faithgoodness; and to goodness, knowledge, and to knowledge, self-control, and toself-control; perseverance, and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness,brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess thesequalities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective andunproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 1:5-8)

It’soften helpful to look at the end goal: Peter states it in the negative, but toturn it around to the positive, the end goal of all of this is that we will beeffective and productive in our knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. What he’scautioning against is the same thing the Lord said to Isaiah: The Lord says: “These people come near tome with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far fromme. Their worship of me is made only of rules taught by men.” (Isaiah29:13)

Thisis the definition of hypocrisy, unproductive and ineffective Christianity. Thistype of person goes to church, sings all the songs, says all the right things,but they don’t have a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Istruggled with how to say this, and as I do, know that I am by nature apeople-pleaser and I don’t like having to give tough words that might hurt, butI would rather please God by speaking His Word than say something else thatmight make people like me but not draw any closer to God. When it comes tothose who talk a good game but whose hearts are far from God, this is what Godsays: I know your deeds, that you areneither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because youare lukewarm – neither hot nor cold – I am about to spit you out of my mouth. (Revelation3:15-16) In other words, that kind of hypocrisy makes God sick. It makes himwant to puke.

Wecan go to every church service available and be unproductive. We can go toBible studies every week, every day even, and be ineffective. Think about this:how would your life be different if you didn’t believe in God? The problem isthat there are plenty of church people whose lives aren’t any different thannon-Christians except that once a week the church people go to church. Ourculture is littered with people for whom their “religious preference” is justthat – a preference. It’s just a matter of taste. I like Coke, but if there’sno Coke, I’ll take a Pepsi. I like Christianity, but if I can’t have it, I’lltake moralistic therapeutic deism. You know, the belief that there’s a god outthere somewhere who wants me to be a good boy and if I am then I’ll feelbetter.

Sowhat does God want from us? Whatwould God consider effective and productive Christianity? God’s purpose for Hispeople has never changed, because God has never broken His covenant. God’s planhas always been to bless His peopleso that they will be a blessing to the nations. There are two things that Godwants us to do: First of all, God wants us to enjoy His presence. This was thejoy of the Garden of Eden – that Adam and Eve could enjoy perfect face-to-facefellowship with God. This is what we were created for. But we weren’t just madeto enjoy God; we were also made to share His glory. That’s the whole “blessedto be a blessing” aspect of our existence. God could have chosen any means tospread his glory, and He chose us! That is our purpose. The meaning of life isto enjoy God’s grace and extend His glory.

That’sexactly what effective and productive Christianity looks like – when everyaspect of your life points to Jesus. Sohow does this happen?

Thisis where it gets tricky. It happens by being filled by the Holy Spirit. Rememberthat God has given us everything we need for life and godliness. We are alreadyequipped to live out our purpose. We have everything we need; we have the HolySpirit!

SoGod calls us to make every effort to addto your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge, and to knowledge,self-control, and to self-control; perseverance, and to perseverance,godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness,love.

Thoughat first glance, it seems like Peter is suggesting a sort of ladder climbingfrom faith to love, commentaries are clear that this is not the case. It justdoesn’t happen that way. But it does seem to be significant that Peter startsat the point of faith. Without faith, we should not expect anything deeper,because none of this is just something that happens and none of it just happenson its own. We do not begin with goodness, because we, at root, are not good. Paul reminds us in Romans3:10-12 that There is no one righteous,not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All haveturned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who doesgood, not even one.

Soif you think you can start out with “goodness” on your resume, think again.Goodness is a Fruit of the Spirit, meaning it only comes by the Holy Spirit.This is part of going on with God – submitting yourself more and more to God,giving God more and more of yourself. We aren’t good; God is, so to addgoodness to faith is to add God. It is part of the process of God transformingus into the likeness of Christ.

Togoodness, add knowledge. The Enlightenment taught us that knowledge was our endgoal, but knowledge itself can be deceitful and ineffective. I had a DistrictSuperintendent who said something along the lines of, “If you do a Bible studyor a book study and you come out and haven’t been transformed, don’t look foranother one to do; do the same one again, because obviously it hasn’t sunk in.”Knowledge by itself does not save us. It puffs up. But the kind of knowledgePeter is talking about adds effectiveness. This is the third time Peter has mentioned“knowledge” in four verses, so it must be important. The knowledge that Peteris talking about is the knowledge that brings grace and peace. It is aknowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. This is the knowledge of the One who has called us by his own glory andgoodness, the knowledge through which God gives us everything we need for lifeand godliness.

Toknowledge, add self-control. I might be alone in this, but I think the term“self-control” is misleading. It suggests that we control ourselves – (you’reprobably thinking “duh” on that one – this guy went to seminary to figure thatout?) but the truth is, God doesn’t call us to control ourselves. God calls usto be controlled and led by the Holy Spirit. Our knowledge that leads toself-control is not simply book smarts. It’s an intimate knowing God. This is what drives our desire to beself-controlled, not just a desire to notdo bad stuff. Knowing God like this will lead us to be obedient. Self-controlmeans that we are not led by our passions and our temptations; our culturesays, “I was born this way so I don’t have any choice but to behave this way.” Livingby the flesh, sure, that might be true, but we live by the Spirit, so we don’thave to live that way!

Toself-control, add perseverance. Hang in there. I was going to say that nobodyever said that life would be easy, but I realize that there are some snake-oilsalesmen out there who are constantly saying exactly that. There are people whoare tricked into the church with messages of health and wealth, and when theyget down to reading the Bible for themselves, they find Jesus talking about thefact that persecution is inevitable for the Christian. That’s nothing but theold bait and switch. Truth is, living the Christian life is hard. Jesus saidit’s hard. Listen to what he said in Matthew 7:13-14:“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is theroad that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small isthe gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. Ifyou look through the Bible, you’ll find encouragement to persevere. James 1:12tells us: Blessed is the one whoperseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receivethe crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him. Thoughyou may go through tough times – no, you willgo through tough times – the Lord promises you a crown of life. We are ageneration who wants rewards now, and we’ve mortgaged our lives to pay for toys,image and youth.

Toperseverance, add godliness. This godliness Peter is talking about is when webegin to worship God in everything we do, not just by acting worshipful,whatever that might look like, but having a transformed heart that isconstantly in worship. There are times when I know that I’m supposed to dosomething, and I do it, but my heart is not in it. There are times when I’vedone something just because I know it’s somehow right for a pastor to do it.This is not godliness. This is honoring God with my lips but in thoseinstances, my heart is far from him. My prayer is for a completely transformedheart.

Togodliness, add brotherly kindness. This is not simply being nice to each other.First of all, this specifically refers to how we treat other believers. Theliteral meaning of the Greek word is “love of the brotherhood.” The brotherhoodis the Church. This isn’t just a matter of how you act to other church people –and I’ve seen both sides; I’ve seen Christians demonstrating all kinds of lovefor one another and I’ve seen unthinkable backbiting, gossip, all kinds of sin– but this is a matter of how your heart is inclined toward other Christians.

To brotherly kindness, add love. Christian love, agape, tops any list of Christian virtues. Paul wrote famously thatfaith, hope, and love are the last three remaining virtues, but the greatest ofthese is love. You can’t fake love.

AndPeter is clear; all of these virtues are expected of every Christian. You can’tpick and choose. And if you do not have all of these, Peter says you arenearsighted and blind, having forgotten that you have been cleansed from yourpast sins.

SoPeter gets to the “therefore”: Thereforemy brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. Forif you do all these things, you will never fall, and you will receive a richwelcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Becauseof what God has done for us, we have the responsibility to make our calling andelection sure. Both these concepts, calling and election, deserve entiresermons, but suffice it to say that God is constantly calling his people tohim, to live according to his purpose for us – to enjoy his grace and to sharehis glory. Election is our place as a part of God’s people. To summarize anoften confusing and divisive point, God is the one who elects. God chooses hischosen people. The question often comes up as to what part human will has inthis, and it’s usually a smokescreen. We can argue the philosophy for hoursuntil we are all blue in the face, whether or not we have free will, if freewill is an illusion, if everything has been pre-determined, but honestly ifthose debates don’t lead both sides to love God more, then they’re a waste ofbreath.

Peteris not getting suckered into this debate. In fact, what he is saying is makeyour calling and election sure. In other words, if you think God has calledyou, if you think you are in the elect, then you’d better look like it, insideand out. Be constantly submitted to God in everything. Here’s the thing: if yourheart is constantly submitted to God, then you are one of His Elect. If you’re not, you might not be. Though oursalvation is through Christ alone, not by any of our works, the evidence of oursalvation shows through our holiness, inward and outward. If you have anydoubts whatsoever, allow the Holy Spirit to transform you. Don’t wait fortomorrow.

Everything We Need

2011-10-23T07:00:00.000-07:00

2Peter 1:3-4

His divine power has given useverything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him whocalled us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his verygreat and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in thedivine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

Thispast week we experienced some amazing things in this church. Last year some ofus gathered on New Year’s Eve to pray for the church, and one of the scriptureswe focused on was from Isaiah 42:10: Singto the Lord a new song, his praise from the ends of the earth. God hasanointed us to sing to him a new song. This has nothing to do with worship warsbetween contemporary and traditional worship; it’s about God doing a new thing.While our God never changes, God is always doing new things. In Genesis 12, Goddid something he’d never done before when he called Abraham and told him hewould bless him to be a blessing to the nations. In 1 Kings, God allows KingSolomon to build a Temple, so now God’s presence is no longer in a tent, but ina temple. In the prophets, we see God using the people’s enemies to teach themto follow him. Then God sends his Son to die for his people, and after threedays rise again. God is always doing new things. In Acts 2, we see God doinganother new thing, sending the Holy Spirit to live within his people.

InJohn 14:12, Jesus tells his followers: Itell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing.He will do even greater things than these [new things!], because I am going to the Father.

Jesusis promising us that we will do even greater things than hedid because he is going to the Father and sending us the Holy Spirit. Hisdivine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through ourknowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.

PastorScott relayed to us several questions that God asks. The first question was: Isanything too hard for God? The answer is that nothing is impossible for God.Nothing. OK, follow me here. God has given us Himself, in the Person of theHoly Spirit, who lives within us. If the Holy Spirit lives in us, what is toohard for us? Nothing!

BecauseGod, in his divine power, has given us everything we need. Everything. Ingiving us the Holy Spirit, God has given us everything we need for life andgodliness. That means you don’t need a seminary course. You don’t need to be ina special class. You don’t need to go out and live in the wilderness like a hermit.God has given us everything we need for life and godliness, and that everythinghas a name and that name is the Holy Spirit.

Yousee, we were not made to live dull, boring, hum-drum lives. The church was nevermeant to be a nursing home for dying Christians; God purposed us to be theliving Body of Christ! I was in a group of pastors the other day, and we weretalking about fear. It is a sad thing when the church begins to live and makedecisions out of fear instead of by the Holy Spirit. Just think back tofamiliar Bible stories and think what would have happened if Bible heroes hadacted out of fear.

Noahwould have stopped building the ark when his neighbors started in on him.Abraham would never have left his land to head to a land God promised him.David would never have defeated Goliath, and Israel would have been defeated bythe Philistines. Nehemiah would never have rebuilt the wall of Jerusalem.Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego would have just gone ahead and bowed to thestatue of King Nebuchadnezzar. Peter, Andrew, James, and John would never haveleft their fishing boats to follow Jesus. None of the disciples would havepreached. Paul would have just shut his mouth.

Andwhen it comes to other heroes of the faith, what would have happened if JohnWesley had lived by fear when it came to preaching? If you know anything aboutWesley, his conversion came after his ordination. In other words, he was apastor before he was a Christian. It doesn’t seem like he wanted to split fromthe Church of England; he wanted to reform the church, but his fiery sermonsgot him expelled from many churches where he preached. Living by fear, Wesleywould have apologized and cut back his Holy Spirit-inspired preaching. Butthat’s not what Wesley did. John Wesley, not allowed to preach in churchbuildings, went to where the people were. Listen to this excerpt from Wesley’sJournal: "Saturday, 31 March, 1731.In the evening I reached Bristol, and met Mr. Whitefield there. I could scarcereconcile myself at first to this strange way of preaching in the fields, ofwhich he set me an example on Sunday; having been all my life (till verylately) so tenacious of every point relating to decency and order, that Ishould have thought the saving of souls almost a sin, if it had not been done ina church."

Thishero of “street preaching” had been so tied to tradition (decency and order)that he would have thought saving souls almost sinful if it wasn’t done in achurch building. I don’t think that John Wesley would recognize most UnitedMethodist churches. Or worse, he would recognize us as little different fromthe Church of England which he set out to reform. Many of us have slipped intoan existence that is based primarily on self-preservation.We live in fear. What would happen if God had a fantastic purpose for us? Whatif God actually believed that His people would do even greater things thanJesus did while he was on earth? What if God actually thought we could?

PastorScott taught us a lot about the Holy Spirit and about the baptism of the HolySpirit, that it’s not us somehow receiving more of God, because we received allof the Spirit when we accepted Jesus’ gift to us, but it’s about God receivingmore of us. And when God has a hold of all of us, every bit of every oneof us, then God can (and will!) do amazing things through us.

Whatmight we look like if we stopped being afraid? I see people who are afraid ofwhat God might call them to do. This is a big problem for churches. What wouldhappen if God calls us to reach out to thosepeople? What would happen if God calls us to structure everything about thelife of our church to glorify Him instead of to glorify ourselves? If you don’tthink we’re structured to glorify ourselves, then let me suggest completelychanging worship style and see how people respond. A church nearby got a $2000grant from the district this year to feed children… but they spent $65000 oftheir own money to buy a new organ. If you don’t see how that’s a problem,that’s a problem! They can come up with $65000 for themselves, but they have toask the district for $2000? What would happen if God called us to give moneyaway? The last two years I asked this church to give sacrificially for aChristmas offering and we didn’t. Yes, we gave an offering, but it wasn’t asacrifice. It didn’t cost us anything. When one family gives one third of theChristmas offering, that really reflects badly on the rest of the church. Itmeans that Christmas is really about you giving out Christmas presents, notcelebrating Jesus’ birth. What are you scared of? Not having enough money?Maybe you’re afraid to trust Jesus for everything. Maybe you are putting yourtrust in money. Heck, even our money says “In God we trust” on it.

PastorScott said he doesn’t do counseling anymore because he’s found that people justdon’t do what he tells them to. I’ve had much less experience than he has, butI’ve already experienced the same thing. People come to me wanting an easy fix,and honestly if you want to fix anything that has become enough of a problem thatyou’re willing to ask someone for help, then it’s going to be hard to fix it.

Don’tyou realize that you don’t have to do it on your own? God has given useverything we need. He gave us himself, and he is sufficient for us.

Godcalled us by his own glory and goodness – everything about him – his character,and because of his character, he has made promises to us. What has God promisedus? God promises us himself. Some of you have just started to experience Godfor the first time ever, even though you’ve been going to church for years.

Onething I often hear is Christians who are working really hard to overcome theirsins all on their own. Maybe you’ve got a sin problem and you are going toevery length to make sure to avoid it. That’s good, but it’s not the best.Maybe you have friends and community who are asking you the tough questions andkeeping you accountable. Yes, that’s good, but it’s not the best. When I wentoff to college, I jumped into the party scene, but during my junior year, Irecommitted my life to Christ. Living in the fraternity house left me open totemptation, so I completely avoided the parties; on party nights, I wouldswitch shifts and go to work. It kept me away from the party and from thetemptation to jump back into that lifestyle. Which was good for a season.

Butit’s not the best, because what living like that says is “God isn’t enough forme.” Don’t get me wrong; I’m not saying that you need to take stupid risks andput yourself into areas of temptation. What I am saying is that you need is forGod to be sufficient. Scripture tells us that God gives us his promises so that through them you may participate inthe divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evildesires.

Sometimeswe hear phrases like “escape the corruption in the world” and think that itmeans we need to keep ourselves apart from everything in the world. We can’tallow ourselves to be around non-Christians or in places where non-Christiansgather. We only drink milk from Christian cows.

Friends,escaping the corruption in the world doesn’t mean hiding. It doesn’t mean wallingyourself off from the world. It doesn’t mean pretending that the world doesn’texist. We were never meant to be a holy huddle, ignoring the world around us. Let’slook at what scripture says.

Itsays that receiving God’s promises, we may participate in the divine nature. Wenow have a part in God’s nature! If that’s confusing to you, it just means thatwe now do what God does because God has replaced our will with His and ourpower with His. So instead of hiding from the world in fear of having the worldcorrupt you, we live our lives doing what God does. And what does God do? Godgoes into the place where He is needed most. God didn’t shun the world, butinstead sent Jesus Christ into the world. And Jesus went out and socialized andate with the “sinners and tax collectors.” Obviously Jesus never walled himselfoff from society.

Iwant to also recognize here that Peter declares that the corruption in theworld is caused by our evil desires. Jesus was able to be among the worsttemptations because he did not share our evil desires. Why not? Because he wastotally 100% submitted to God the Father’s desire, not his own. Remember whenhe was in the Garden, before his arrest? He prayed “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, butyours be done.” (Luke 22:42) He was completely submitted to God’s will.Therefore he remained uncorrupted.

Manytimes when we struggle again and again and again with the same sinful desiresand behaviors the problem is not primarily a behavior problem. It’s a heartproblem. That’s why it’s not enough to just avoid sinful behavior. We have tolet God get at the root of the problem, to transform us!

Thisdoesn’t mean being ignorant or putting ourselves in compromising or temptingsituations. If you’re a recovering alcoholic, you can minister to alcoholics,but the best venue isn’t a bar. Men, leave the ministry to strippers to thewomen. But the answer to the problems of life isn’t hiding. It’s allowing Godto have more of you… all of you.

Out in the Weeds

2011-10-09T07:21:00.000-07:00

Matthew13:24-30, 36-43

Mykids love this time of year – it seems that everywhere we drive, we aresurrounded by fields, and most of them are being harvested right about now. Theboys love seeing combines working the fields. Anyone who works on a farm willtell you that many aspects of farming are solid metaphors for life. Jesusrecognized that as well, and saw that he could explain aspects of the Kingdomof Heaven through farming metaphor. Because Matthew wrote his Gospel primarilyfor a Jewish audience, he uses the language “Kingdom of Heaven” largely becauseJews would avoid using God’s name. This is, in fact, where we get the name“Jehovah” for God – Jews were so careful when they wrote God’s Name, Yahweh,that they would write the consonants for Yahweh, but they would write thevowels for Adonai, meaning Lord. Sowhen we see him referring to the Kingdom of Heaven, we are not talking simplyabout Heaven. We are talking about the same thing that Jesus talks about whenhe teaches us to pray: Thy kingdom comeon earth as it is in heaven.

Thechurch is called to live out God’s kingdom on earth. So Jesus described thekingdom like a farmer sowing good seed. Of all the people in the world, Godchose Abraham and blessed him to be a blessing. God sowed good seed – hischosen people. He chose people to be his children, his beloved sons anddaughters.

Butunder the cover of night’s secrecy, something happened. The Bible is consistentin its depiction of day and night. Daytime is positive, night time is negative.In Revelation 21:25, Heaven is depicted as never needing to shut its gates, for there will be no night there. Nighttime is the time of trickery, deceit, and crime. Whenever you hear a news storyand the time is 2:30 am, you know that it’s not going to be a positive story.Nothing good happens at that time of night!

Jesushas already proclaimed “While I am in theworld, I am the light of the world.” (John 9:5), and the Apostle Paul makesa beautiful contrast between day and night. In 1 Thessalonians 5:5-8 he says: You are all sons of the light and sons ofthe day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. So then, let us notbe like others, who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled. Forthose who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night.But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith andlove as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.

Wedo not belong to the night or to the darkness. God has sown us as “good seeds”to live in Jesus Christ’s light. This means being alert and self-controlled.Not distracted by all kinds of other things, not sleeping or dozing off, butalways ready for action.

InRomans 13:11-12 we read: And do this,understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from yourslumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. Thenight is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds ofdarkness and put on the armor of light.

Itis during the night, while everyone was sleeping, that the devil came in,sowing weeds.

WhenI was on my mission trip in Russia, one day trip we took was to a collectivefarm, where our job was to weed a dill field. We found out that the dill wassensitive to herbicides, so the field had to be weeded by hand. I rememberfinding a thistle growing in my row – it was about three feet tall. I pulled itup and presented it as a “flower” to one of the women in our program. It waseasy to tell the weeds from the dill. But the word that the NIV translation hasrendered “weeds” is much worse than weeds. This ζιζανια is better translated“degenerate wheat.” This was a bad hybrid wheat; it originally came fromhealthy wheat but became bad. It looked like good wheat, but tasted bitter andeven caused dizziness. It is, in essence, poison. Unfortunately it isimpossible to identify from the plant which is good wheat and which is ζιζανια,so it cannot be pulled up in advance. Furthermore, the roots grow together, andby pulling up the bad, you’re bound to pull up the good as well. And so youhave to wait until harvest and sort the good from the bad at that time.

Sooften we think of judgment day as an “us and them” proposition. After all,we’re the ones in church. We’re the ones who have heard the Gospel. But Jesusexplains that among the children of God, the devil has sown weeds, and there isonly one way to tell the weeds from the wheat. Jesus says that we will be knownby our fruit. In Matthew 7:15, he warns people to “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing,but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. Notice that he didn’t say they comein shepherd’s clothing? That’s because they aren’t necessarily the pastors orleaders who are leading people astray. They are people within the congregation,and they are dangerous. Jesus goes on to say, “By their fruit you will recognize them.” (Matthew 7:20).

Godisn’t fooled by church attendance or service or whatever else we do in place ofliving for Him. And he calls his people to be alert and aware as well. We willbe known by our fruit. What kind of fruit are you bearing?

TheBible tells us what Fruit God is looking for – the “wheat” in this parable willbe known by our love, joy, peace,patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.(Galatians 5:22-23) This earth is a human training ground. We recognize that weare all imperfect, but that as Christians, we are going on to perfection. Thisis what sanctification is all about; at one moment we were cleansed, made holy,sanctified, set apart by the Holy Spirit for God’s purpose. But sanctificationis also a life-long pursuit of holiness, and we need to work toward it.

Anyonewho has ever competed in a sport knows that a lot of hard work goes into thecompetition. Many people look at a marathon and say, “I could never run 26.2miles” but the truth is no marathon runner runs just 26.2. I put in some 600miles in specific marathon training in the 16 weeks prior to the marathon. Paulsays that he doesn’t run aimlessly, but rather, “I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached toothers, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.” (1 Corinthians9:27)

Everythingthat God allows in our lives, He can use to shape us into his likeness. TheBible often uses the imagery of refining gold; you can’t refine gold withoutintense heat. What would happen if you looked at the “weeds” in your life asopportunities for growth? It’s kind of like when you ask God for patience; wesay, “God, give me patience, and give it to me now!” But God doesn’t just give us patience; God gives us theopportunity to practice patience.

Godleaves the weeds in amongst the wheat partially because they give usopportunities to put into practice those characteristics that God has calledforth in us. Living out the Fruit of the Spirit is like anything that isworthwhile – if we don’t practice it, we won’t be able to do it when the goinggets tough. In marathon running, I’ve often heard one particular phrase: trustyour training. What that means is: you’ve already put in 600 miles on the road,you’ve done the fast runs and the long runs, now believe that they will work. Ihave made the mistake of going out too fast¸ which is a symptom of not trustingmy training.

Honestly,when you get into a stressful situation, you will do what you have trained todo. This is why our Armed Forces training is brutal. It’s why boot camp is sotough. We don’t want soft soldiers who have been coddled to show up in combatsituations. You want them to be ready. Since God calls us to practice the Fruitof the Spirit, ask Him for opportunities to practice.

Andwhile we’re at it, let’s get over the notion that we’ve arrived or that we’resupposed to have all of these fruits perfect right now. Practice is when welearn skills and work hard to perfect the skills we’ve learned. We try and tryand fail again and again, but keep working and asking God to shape us, and aswe do so, we will begin to see success. It can be tiresome to continuallyremind yourself that God might be using this person or situation to shape youinto His likeness, but God calls us to persevere! When I was coaching JVsoccer, we were working on a particular skill and one of the kids asked me theeternal question: when will we ever use this? That very week, he found himselfin the exact situation we had been practicing, and he ended up scoring a goal.After he scored, he looked at me and I shrugged at him and mouthed, “well?” andhe said, “It was just like practice!”

Whatwould we look like if we intentionally practiced the Fruit of the Spirit withone another? Remember that we are the Body of Christ, and we’re in a safe placeto practice. We are all in this together. We will be known by our fruit, and the weeds in question looked justlike the wheat… that is, until the fruit came out. What fruit will we be knownfor? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness,and self-control? Or something else? Apathy, bitterness, selfishness,impatience, back-biting, brutality, gossip, being out of control? We will beknown by our fruit.

Thereis another reason that the farmer leaves the weeds in with the wheat, and thishas nothing to do with farming. In fact, it’s completely foreign to agriculturefor two reasons: because wheat and weeds are never just wheat and weeds, and because with God all things are possible.(Matthew 19:26) When Jesus said this,He was telling his followers how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God, andthey questioned how anyone could be saved. This is appropriate when dealingwith weeds and wheat – because it is impossible for a weed to change into aplant, but with God all things are possible. God can transform even thenastiest weed into a fruitful plant.

Soas we continue to pray for those who aren’t even in the field, and even as wecontinue to practice the Fruit of the Spirit, I ask you to pray for thetransformation of the weeds. Because as much as justice demands punishment andpayment, I recognize that on my own, without Jesus, I, too, would belong withthe weeds, being harvested and burned. And by the gift of Jesus Christ, heweeds among us, even the worst, can be transformed and have a fresh start with theHoly Spirit.

Lost 2: A Lost Son

2011-10-02T07:41:00.000-07:00

Luke15:11-32

Inlast week’s message, the religious leaders of Jesus’ time were grumblingbecause Jesus “Welcomes sinners and eatswith them” (Luke 15:2). To them, Jesus told three lost and found stories:the lost sheep, in which a wealthy land owner lost one of his one hundred sheepand dutifully sought it out, bringing it home to great celebration; the lostcoin, in which a poor woman lost one of her ten coins and turned her homeupside-down to find it, at which point she celebrated with her friends andneighbors. Today, the stakes are elevated even higher. It is not merely a sheepthat is lost, nor a coin. Now it is a son.

Jesusputs a face on “the lost.” There was a man with two sons, and things go allwrong. The scene that Jesus presents is as horrible as it gets for a parent. Aninheritance is meant to be something given to the children after their parents’death, but by demanding it now, the younger son is in essence telling hisfather, “I wish you were dead.” The younger son shames his father, takes hismoney, and skips town.

Youheard the story, and it’s a familiar one; flush with his new-found wealth, theson leaves the country, where he gets the double-whammy. Not only does he wasteall his money, but a famine hits, and he finds himself hiring himself out to apig farmer.

Hefinally comes to his senses and returns home, hoping to be hired on as one ofhis father’s servants. But when hereturns, his father runs to him and embraces him and throws a party. This isthe back story. In fact, this is the story of what had already happened. God’splan was for all people to enjoyclose relationship with Him. He created us allto be His beloved sons and daughters, to be in community with Him.

Butunfortunately that’s not what happens.

Theyounger son’s rebellion is obvious. He demands his inheritance and leaves. Thisis the human condition. So much ofour sin is selfishness – I’ve even heard theologians who describe sin as all stemming from selfishness. In ourselfish condition, we take everything that our Father has given us and claim itas our own for our use. We decide that we can make all our own rules, and in sodoing, we brazenly defy our heavenly Father. We set ourselves up as littlegods, asserting that we are capable of ruling ourselves. This, friends, is sin.When someone tells you that their sin is not hurting anyone, even theirattempts at justification serve to spit in God’s face. Jesus shows us God’scharacter in his story; God is the Father, out by the gate, watching the horizon,seeing a cloud of dust and hoping it is his son, returning home. But it is oursin that keeps us in a foreign land, feeding pigs, starving. It is our sin thatprovides that distance. It is our sin that keeps us from enjoying what ourFather has for us and keeps our Father from enjoying us as well.

Ilove the moment when the son comes to his senses. The picture of the fatherhere is beautiful, and, at the same time, startling. A father in Jesus’ timewasn’t usually seen as a “Daddy.” Fathers were the authority in their home.They were the last word. What they said – went. We live in a culture wherefamilies generally have a lot of say in what they do. This wasn’t the case inthe Ancient Near East. It was the father who had ultimate authority. When hisson shamed him and left the country with his money, to his father, he wouldhave been dead. When someone asked him about his sons, he would have responded,“I have only one son.”

Notso this father. He is characterized by care and compassion. He does what isunheard of; not only is he waiting endlessly for the son who shamed him, but heruns, hiking his robe up, so undignified and unfitting a move for a man of hisstation, and he embraces his son, the one for whose return he had been waitingall these days, weeks, and months.

Someof you can relate to the younger son. You’ve felt alienated, alone, unloved,even unlovable. When you look back to everything you’ve ever done, you can’tsee how God could accept you. You’re looking for love and acceptance andconnection. To you, Jesus says, “You have a Father who is waiting for yourreturn because He loves you. No matter what you did, no matter how you treatedHim, He loves you. Come back to Him.” And when you do, God throws a party.

Butothers among us aren’t the younger brother. We’ve been serving God faithfullyfor years. In fact, those “younger brothers” really tend to tick us off. How dare they treat our Father like that? How dare“that son of yours” do all that and then expect to just waltz back in and havea party? After all, where’s my party?Where’s my recognition? As aChristian, it can be easy to slip into the older brother role. We have beenserving God faithfully for years, and we never got a party…

Listento the words of the older brother: But heanswered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and neverdisobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I couldcelebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered yourproperty with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him.’(Luke 15:29-30)

Wealways think of the younger son as having left the love and care of his father,but if you look more closely, the older son has left, too. Did you notice thathe is so distant from his father that he doesn’t even notice when his brotherreturns? He doesn’t notice the party that is going on. He was never looking forhis brother and he has lost touch with his father. When the younger son came tohis senses, he wondered how many of his father’s hired men had extra food whilehe was starving. His plan was to go back home, admit that he’d sinned againsthis father, and ask him to hire him as a servant.

Meanwhile,the older brother had willingly put himself into a position where he sawhimself as “slaving” for his father. While the younger brother was gone,wishing he was back home, even living as a servant at home, the older brother’scomplaint is that is exactly what healready is. All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed yourorders, but I never got anything.

Thefather responds to his son: ‘My son,’ thefather said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.’

Rememberthe scenario; the younger son demanded his inheritance, so the father dividedup his estate. It doesn’t say that only the younger son got his share; hedivided the inheritance between the two and gave them each their share. Wealways focus on the younger brother, who got his share and squandered it, butremember that everything else legally belonged to the older brother. Everythingthe father has belongs to the older son.

Theolder son is not enjoying any of it. He is working dutifully, yet he is notenjoying anything that his father has for him. I believe that there are manyChristians who have been living a dutiful life, slaving away, day in and dayout, doing everything you can to keep yourself pure and spotless before God,which is a good thing, but you’re missing out on something huge. You’re missingout on the joy that God has for you. You’re missing out on the fact that everything God has is yours for you toenjoy. In John 8, Jesus tells the religious leaders: Now a slave has no permanent place in thefamily, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will befree indeed. John 8:35-36.

There aresome among us who question whether they are saved. You’re living your life infear, wondering if you belong or not, wondering if you’ll make it to heaven.Listen to me: if you have accepted Jesus’ gift of forgiveness, if you haveaccepted what Jesus did for you on the cross, then God has made you one of Hischildren. Other religions are based on a slavery model – they have to worktheir way to acceptance. Even Jesus affirms that a slave has no permanent placein the family. But a son or daughter is permanently in the family.

So I askyou, what are you counting on for your salvation? Are you counting on yourworks? If so, you’re behaving as a slave. You’re not living life like one ofGod’s beloved children. And if you’re living like that, you’ve got to keep itup forever. You can’t let up, and if you do, you’re toast. But if the Son setsyou free, you are free indeed.

The saddestmoment of Jesus’ story is seeing the older brother, who should be living enjoying his father’s presence, grumbling, toilingendlessly… He is miserable. I see that a lot from Christians. You work reallyhard, but you’ve got no joy whatsoever. You have no peace. You’re notexhibiting the Fruit of the Spirit. And you’re not living out the fullness ofbeing a child of God. You have chosen to be a slave instead.

If you aresomeone who isn’t experiencing the joy of being a child of God, I want you to pausea moment. Slow down. Spend some serious time with your Father. Allow Him tolove you. Receive the gifts He has for you. Enjoy him. This is the privilege ofGod’s children – to enjoy His presence. To be with Him all the time. And whenyou spend time in His presence, you begin to look like him. You begin to have a broken heart for thingsthat break His heart. You begin to find meaning and significance in Him insteadof the things of this world. You beginto have joy unspeakable even in difficult situations. And you celebrate when abrother or sister who was lost comes home.

Lost and Found

2011-09-25T11:46:00.000-07:00

Luke15:1-10

It was “senior skip day” during my senior year ofhigh school, and I was in Physics class, talking to my friend David. If youlooked around the classroom, you would have seen six students present; two weresleeping, and the other four were engaged in various conversations. In front ofthe classroom, our teacher lectured. He had material he wanted to get through,and whether or not the few students who had not chosen to skip school wanted tolisten was none of his worry. We simply weren’t listening.

Today’s scripture follows immediately after Jesus’words: “He who has ears to hear, let himhear.” (Luke 14:35b). The issue is that there are some who just are notlistening to Jesus. The tax collectors and sinners are all gathering around tohear Jesus, but the Pharisees and the teachers of the law are complaining.

In Jesus’ time a tax collector wasn’t just a despised IRS agent. Not only dida tax collector take your hard-earned money, but he did it for Rome. Romerequired its conquered territories to pay them, and the way they got theirmoney was by tax collectors, who would bid for the job and then get to keepeverything they collected above that amount. So not only were they takingmoney, they were doing it for the despised Romans… and then some. They are adisgrace to their people, traitors even.

The problem was that Luke presents the taxcollectors entirely positively. They continuallyhear Jesus’ words and act upon them. Tax collectors like Zaccheus, the weelittle man, have become famous for how they responded to Jesus. Tax collectorshave ears, and they are hearing Jesus.

It’s obvious that Jesus has something that they want– that they need. They are flocking to Jesus, which just makes the religiousleaders grumble. They have been doing everything they can to keep Judaism pure,and here Jesus comes, “welcoming sinners and eating with them.”

One of our problems is that we don’t recognizeourselves in this scene. For example, many of us were raised to dress nicelyfor church, out of respect for God. This is a good thing. We who are Christiansshould want to give our very best toGod, when it comes to the way we act, the way we use our money, the way wetalk, the way we behave, our work ethic, and, sure, even the way we dress. Butwe should also ask ourselves the question: why am I doing what I’m doing? Twoanswers should emerge: to please God and to share Him.

If it’s for any other reason, especially if thatreason is to show off (including to show people how holy you are) then it’sgetting in the way of your relationship with God and it has become an idol foryou. If you are more concerned with the way someone is dressed than withworshiping God, I suggest you are here for all the wrong reasons. Yes, if youare a Christian, please dress modestly, please don’t dress to distract, becausewe’re here for God, not for a fashion show, and church is not primarily aboutme or you. It’s about God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

The Pharisees knew and understood God’s law. Theyknew it was sinful to allow themselves to become polluted by the sinful world.They knew that to associate too closely with sinners was to risk becoming defiledthemselves. This is true. However, they missed out on half of the covenant Godmade with His people; they were always blessed to be a blessing to the nations. How are the nations supposed to knowGod if they have no contact with God’s people?

So the religious leaders are muttering about Jesuswelcoming and eating with sinners. This plays itself out in churches across ournation every week, usually something like this: The youth ministry has a new,huge, exciting outreach where dozens of new kids come to the church. They don’tlook like church kids. None of them is wearing a jacket and tie, and some ofthem are (gasp) wearing hats in the church building. They’re dressed inwhatever young people are wearing today, which isn’t what we wore when we were young – we always looked perfectlyrespectable. Our styles never lookedso horrible or disrespectful.

I’ve got news for you: ours were just as bad. I justhope people take lots of pictures so today’s young people can be as proud oftheir teenage style choices as I am of mine.

I was in a church building early on a Sunday morninga while back, and one of the church women was incensed. She was fired up mad.One of the teenagers there for a retreat was smoking outside the church. She wanted to pull the plug on thechurch’s participation and hosting of this retreat. How dare they! What she didn’t know was this young man’s story, which Ihad found out parts of the previous evening when I stopped to talk to him. At16 years old, he was a recovering heroin addict. Yes, he still smoked, but Godwas transforming him.

You see, Jesus’ mission isn’t just to keep churchpeople happy. Jesus himself said, “I didnot come to call righteous people, but sinners to repentance.” (Luke 5:32)

So Jesus turns everything on its head yet again. Taxcollectors and sinners had been defined by notbeing among the righteous, as being objects of God’s wrath, as actually even deserving Hell, but now Jesus ispresenting them as those to whom the Good News is aimed. They are the ones whoare actually willing to repent, to turn from their sin and follow Jesus.

Contemporary America is one of the toughest missionfields in the world, because it is full of people who have “heard” the GoodNews but who haven’t appropriated it for themselves. It is full of people whohave been inoculated from the Gospel by self-righteous, Pharisaical believerswho have treated the outsiders, the marginalized, and even the poor entirelyunlike Jesus treated them. Jesus ate with them, treating them as if they werehis very family.

And so Jesus tells the religious elite a story. “Suppose one of you has one hundred sheepand loses one of them.”

Jesus puts them in the story, casting them aswealthy landowners. A normal family would have had between 5-15 sheep, sohaving 100 would mean they had considerable wealth. Having wealth certainlymeant having God’s blessing. Now Jesus is talking their language! Notice thatJesus casts them as “owning” those 100 sheep. He is not saying that they arethe under-shepherds, the dirty, stinky ones who take care of the sheep. Theseguys actually own the sheep.

Doesn’t he leave the ninety-ninein the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? (Luke 15:4b) When the Phariseesand experts in the law hear this, they automatically would think of Ezekiel’sprophecy: “Woe to the shepherds of Israel who only take care of themselves! Shouldnot the shepherds take care of the flock?” … “You have not brought back thestrays or searched for the lost…” (Ezekiel 34:2 and 4)

ThroughEzekiel, God offered a stinging rebuke to the religious leaders of Israel.Jesus is shaming the religious leaders, demonstrating that He is the one who isacting as the shepherd, the one who is bringing back the strays and searchingfor the lost. The Pharisees are shamed because they don’t care about the lost.

AndJesus goes another step, showing the true character of the One who goes outseeking the lost: “And when he finds it,he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls hisfriends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lostsheep.’” (Luke 15:5-6)

ThePharisees aren’t celebrating the rescue of the lost. They are too upset aboutthe character of the people Jesus is eating with. They’re upset that what they have is being diluted or pollutedby people who don’t look the part. So Jesus finishes with the last zinger: I tell you that in the same way there willbe more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-ninerighteous persons who do not need to repent.(Luke 15:7)

Jesusimmediately tells another story, this time about a woman who loses a coin. Thesituation has escalated; before, the subject of Jesus’ story was a wealthylandowner. Now we find a poor woman, living in a windowless home (otherwise shewould have had no need for a lamp). These coins would represent this woman’smeager life savings, certainly not much at all from the standpoint of thewealthy, but a whole lot for someone who has little.

And again,for Jesus there is no question –Doesn’tshe light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it?(Luke 15:8b) Of course she does! Without question, she goes to every length tofind what was lost, and when she does find it, it’s party time!(And when she finds it, shecalls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I havefound my lost coin.’- Luke 15:9)

And Jesus again offers the punch line: In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in thepresence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”(Luke 15:10) This story is notabout a woman searching for a coin and then throwing a party when she finds it;it’s about God seeking the hearts of his wayward children. I always thought itwas cool that the angels were throwing a party over each lost soul who returns toGod, but that’s not what Jesus says. He says that there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels. Meaningsomeone in their presence is rejoicing. And that Someone is God Himself!

This is God’s character: one who continually seeksthe lost and wildly celebrates over the recovery of the one person who had beenlost. Jesus is justifying his mission, a mission to the marginalized, to theweak, to the poor, to the outsider

We have seen this mission in several of Jesus’stories; when he told the parable of the banquet, the instruction was to invitethose who couldn’t pay you back. When he told the parable of the rich man andLazarus, the rich man ended up in Hell for not showing hospitality to the poor beggar.Let me put it this way: outreach, service, and evangelism are not optional forthe Christian.

God’s attitude toward sinners is grace and love. Asmost of us remember from John 3:16, ForGod so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoeverbelieves in him should not perish but have eternal life. God seeks thelost, and when the lost are recovered, God celebrates. When one person repents,God throws a party!

How do we reflect God’s attitude? How do we respondto the lost? I recently watched a video from Penn Jillette, half of theduo Penn and Teller, in which Penn, who is an extremely outspoken atheist, toldof a fan who gave him a Bible.

“If you believe that there’s a Heaven and Hell andpeople could be going to Hell or not getting eternal life or whatever, and youthink that it’s not really worth telling them this because it would make itsocially awkward, how much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize? Howmuch do you have to hate somebody to believe that everlasting life is possibleand not tell them about it? I mean, if Ibelieved beyond a shadow of a doubt that a truck was coming at you, and youdidn’t believe it, and the truck was bearing down on you, there’s a certainpoint where I tackle you. And this is more important than that.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owZc3Xq8obk

He has a valid point: how much do we have to hatethe world to not share the Good Newsof Jesus Christ with a world that is on its way to Hell?

In Jesus’ two parables, he invites his audience toimagine they are in the story. Imagine you are the owner of 100 sheep and youlose one. Suppose a woman loses one of her ten coins. But at the end of eachstory, he goes back and changes the background. He has really cast God in the central role of each story. God is the owner of the sheep, the onewho goes out in search of the one lost sheep. God is the poor woman who turns her house upside-down to find herone lost coin. And God celebratesover the one lost soul who repents. God rejoices.

Let’s think about it this way: our purpose on earthis to share God’s grace, to please God, and to bring Him glory. By sharing theGood News with others, we do all three of these.

So I ask you: what are you doing to share the GoodNews with others? Whose salvation is on your prayer list? The time is too shortfor us to play church. The time is too short for us to sit around and talkabout it. The day is gone when we can just expect people to show up justbecause we have a church building and open doors. Churches are closing theirdoors all across our country, largely because we have neglected ourresponsibility to share the Good News of Jesus Christ. I am so glad that ourchurch has begun to realize the necessity of focusing on programming forchildren and families – not necessarily just for church kids, either.

Do we want to be a church that wins people for JesusChrist, or do we want to be a social club that exists for ourselves until weeventually die out? That is a serious question, and I don’t just want aknee-jerk response. Jesus began these parables by challenging, “Whoever hasears, let them hear.” I imagine there are going to be people who don’t hearwhat God is telling you through this message. You’re thinking about all kindsof other things right now, and you don’t have in mind the things of God. Youthink evangelism is someone else’s job – it’s the church’s job. People around us are on their way to Hell, and wehave the means to do something about it.

God has ordained the local church to be the primarytool for doing His will in this world. That is our call. It’s not up to someoneelse; it is our job. When we as achurch begin to bicker about territory or furniture or worship style or spaceusage, then we have lost our purpose. In fact, all of the bickering that goeson within local churches grieves God.

The book of Revelation begins with several lettersto the churches in Asia Minor. The letter to the church in Ephesus complementedthem on many things, but in Revelation 2:4 we read this: Nevertheless I have this against you: that you have left your firstlove.

I love this church, and I don’t mean the building. Ilove the people here. We have a great group of people. Whenever there is aproblem or a need, people from this church will step up to serve. Some of yougive generously of your money to make sure that we can continue to do ministry.Some of you are always on the forefront of doing ministry; you see a need andyou step out in faith to do it. Yet for many, you have lost your first love. Peoplein our community are heading for Hell, while we hold the keys to the gates ofHeaven in our pockets.

And we will be held accountable for what we do withthose keys.

What can we do to better mirror God’s character?

We all have an assignment, and it all starts withprayer. Who here knows someone who doesn’t know Jesus? I have made thisassignment before, but it’s time to do it again. If you know someone who needsJesus, write their name on a post-it and bring it to the stage. Then write iton a second post-it and keep that somewhere that you will continue to see itand pray over that person. Prayer is our first line of offense against Satan. Prayfor this person as if their life depended on it – because there is more atstake than their life.

Part two of your assignment is to spend time withGod. You have to do that if you want to really know Him, not simply know of Him. Spend time listening. Spend timein the Word, asking the Holy Spirit to speak to you. Spend time praising Him.If you can’t find something to praise, ask Him to show you something to praise. Put yourself in a position to learn from andwith others. If you need some help on this, there are multiple opportunitiesfor spiritual growth, especially for the women of our congregation. Men, someof you need to step up and re-start our men’s group.

Part three of your assignment is to be intentional.Ask God to put you in situations where you can share the Good News. Then talkabout what God is doing in your life. Offer to pray with your friend. Invitethem to your community group. Serve intentionally in one of our outreachministries, like the food pantry or Faith Weavers, or, if you don’t see usdoing the ministry that you’d like to take part in, let’s talk about startingit.

And finally, join in the celebration as lost people,people who God loves dearly, come to know His saving grace.

What's Important?

2011-09-11T07:35:00.000-07:00

Luke16:19-31

“Whathappens after you die?” has been a popular topic of discussion for quite awhile, recently it has hit the forefront with a popular book from a MinorChristian celebrity, a book that denies the existence of Hell. The point of thebook is that a loving God wouldn’t send people to Hell. It would be great ifthat was true, because Hell is a terrible place of punishment and separationfrom God, and nobody wants to go there or for their friends to end up there,and a modern interpretation of who God is might suggest that a God who loves usso much wouldn’t want anyone to end up there, and if he doesn’t want anyonethere, and since he is God, after all, he could make it so that nobody ends upin Hell.

Theproblem with this view, however, is that it doesn’t hold up under biblicalscrutiny. Jesus Himself talks about Hell, and when he does, he is clear in itsexistence.

Thecontext for today’s parable is that Jesus was teaching his disciples and thePharisees were listening in and got mad at what he was teaching. Notsurprising, since he was teaching on money (see Luke 16:13b). If you want toget church people riled up, al you’ve got to do is talk about money. So thePharisees, who loved money (Luke’s words, not mine), got mad and sneered atJesus, so he turns to them. He said tothem, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but Godknows your hearts. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God’ssight.” (Luke 16:15)

SoJesus continued to teach, and now he aims a story at the Pharisees, who lovedmoney. He begins his story with a rich man. Now this isn’t just any rich man;this guy is ridiculously rich. The wealthy of Jesus’ time dressed in finelinen; the white garment is enough to establish him as belonging to the wealthyclass, but the purple was over the top. It was a long and expensive procedureto dye fabric, and purple was chiefly worn by nobles and the extremely wealthy.So the “rich man” is described as wearing what only the richest of the richwould wear.

Contrastthat opulence with Lazarus, who is covered in sores. Because of his sores, hewould have been considered unclean – and even cursed by God.

Therich man lived daily in luxury. Where it says he lived in luxury every day,this is descriptive of the feasts he had daily. Many of you are familiar withthe parable of the prodigal son – when he returned home, his father killed thefatted calf to celebrate the return of his wayward son. This kind of meal couldfeed up to a hundred guests. The rich man Jesus is talking about… he ate likethat every day.

Lazarus,on the other hand, longed to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Inresearching this passage, I found out that in an over-the-top feast like thisrich man threw daily, they would use loaves of bread essentially like napkins,and when they were done with them, they would throw them on the floor. And likethe prodigal son, who longed to eat the pods he fed to the pigs, Lazarus wenthungry. Instead, he is licked by dogs. Dogs in the Bible are not man’s bestfriend. They are always contemptible creatures.

Therich man lived in luxury; his house was in a gated compound, while Lazarus washomeless. He didn’t even choose to sit at the rich man’s gate; scripture sayshe was laid there. So not only does he have no home, but he doesn’t even havethe means to choose where he begs.

Jesuscontinues the contrast between the two men in their deaths. When the rich mandies, he is buried. To be denied burial in Jewish culture was tantamount tobearing the curse of God, while Romans thought that to leave a corpse unburiedwould have bad repercussions on the afterlife. Jesus does not give any detailsabout Lazarus’ burial, and I don’t think it’s by accident.

Speakingof what Jesus didn’t say about Lazarus, I want to bring to your attention whatJesus didn’t say about the rich man. Jesus never accuses the rich man of gettinghis money by theft, extortion, or any other dishonest means. Jesus neveraccuses the rich man of using his money for anything dishonest. In fact,everything would suggest that it would be the rich man, not Lazarus, who endsup in paradise.

Sowhy would this rich man end up in Hell? I think he gives us a pretty good ideawith his after-death conduct. Remember what God told Samuel when He was sendingSamuel to anoint a king over Israel? “TheLORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at outward appearance,but the Lord looks at the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7b. There is nothing of therich man’s appearance that would suggest he should end up in torment, but hisactions speak louder than words. Even in Hell, this rich man is unwilling to giveup his status. His circumstanceshaven’t humbled him whatsoever. In a former church, I had the opportunity tovisit a young man in jail. He had been arrested for a crime he had mostcertainly committed, and he had lost his work-release job for failing a drugtest. Yet he continued to protest that he was innocent. It was all someoneelse’s fault. If he hadn’t been drinking… the drug test was faulty; he wasn’tdoing drugs – he was just in the car with the drug users; he didn’t haveanywhere else to eat his lunch, that’s why he was with them. The rich man isacting like this young man. He’s in torment, and he’s making his demands.

Heis demanding the rights of God’s chosen people, calling Abraham “FatherAbraham,” In Luke 3, John the Baptist comes, calling the crowds to “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For Itell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. Theaxe is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not producegood fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.” (Luke 3:8-9) Thefruit that we bear is important because fruit only comes from fruit trees, andevery fruit tree necessarily bears fruit. Otherwise it’s no longer a fruit treebut firewood. You can tell what kind of tree it is by the fruit it bears. AndJesus says that his family (meaning the family of God!) is open to all who hear and obey God’s Word.

Whymight the rich man not be included?Did you notice that he calls Abraham “Father” but he still wants Abraham to do his will? When Jesus teaches us to pray,it’s “Thy will be done” – not our will.

Furthermorethe rich man’s demand is that Abraham send Lazarus, whom he never served inlife, to serve him in death, to make him feel better. He is denied for tworeasons. First, because Jesus reversed the assumed order of things. Listen toJesus’ words from Luke 6:20-26.

“Blessedare you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you whohunger now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for youwill laugh. Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insultyou and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man. Rejoice in thatday and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is howtheir fathers treated the prophets. But woe to you who are rich, for you havealready received your comfort. Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will gohungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep. Woe to you whenall men speak well of you, for that is how their fathers treated the falseprophets.” (Luke 6:20-26)

Simplyby virtue of being born where we were born, we have more resources and wealththan most of the world. There are people who live on $1 a day, who never knowwhen they are going to have a meal. Why were we born here? Why were they born“there”? Jesus is saying that those who have suffered here on this earth willreceive comfort, wealth, satisfaction, and joy in the life to come. Heaven willbe unbelievably wonderful, incomparably good.

ButJesus makes it clear – the rich have already received their reward.

Therich man is also the victim of his own choices. He has chosen to live a lavishlife of luxury without regard for the plight of Lazarus or anyone else. And thetruth is, our lives mean something. The choices we make today have eternalconsequences.

“But Abraham replied, ‘Son,remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarusreceived bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. Andbesides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so thatthose who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over fromthere to us.’ (Luke 16:25-26)

Sothe rich man has his first bout of conscience, begging Abraham to send Lazarusto his father’s house. (Luke 16;27-28) He still thinks of Lazarus as lower thanhimself. Even his place of torment has not humbled him. C.S. Lewis suggeststhat the doors of Hell are locked… from the inside. That those who would turnand accept God’s free gift of grace could do so, but because of their selfishpride, they do not, even when the result is pain. I don’t know if I can acceptLewis’ view, but I am absolutely certain that Hell is real.

Itcould be hard to understand how someone could sit in Hell and fail toacknowledge God, but I’ve seen plenty of people on earth, in trying situations,railing at God. After September 11^th, there were plenty of people inchurches… and plenty of others shaking their fists, angry at God for “allowingthis to happen.”

ButJesus’ parable really doesn’t have to do with getting out of Hell. What it doeshave to do follows in the final dialog between the rich man and Abraham. Therich man’s family, who were presumably just as Jewish as he was, needed warned.It was obvious to the rich man that they were not headed for Heaven. If theycontinued on their current path, they would end up joining him in Hell. Won’t somebody tell them?

“Abraham replied, ‘They have Mosesand the Prophets; let them listen to them.’

“‘No, Father Abraham,’ he said,‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ (Luke16:29-30)

Theyhave no excuse. They have the Law and the Prophets, but they have not listenedand obeyed, and thus, they are not included in God’s family. And with a finaldenunciation he prophesies (Luke 16:31) “‘Ifthey do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced evenif someone rises from the dead.’”

Howtrue is this? Our culture is full of people who will accept Jesus as a goodteacher but who reject what he taught. We can empirically prove to someone thatJesus existed and even rose from the dead, but they refuse to take Him at HisWord.

Friends,these words Jesus spoke were not spoken to unbelievers. They were not spoken topagans or heathens. They were spoken to the Holiness movement of Jesus’ time. Someonehas been complaining about sermons that have made them feel uncomfortable - talkabout making people squirm! Here Jesus is, suggesting that the Pharisees wereon their way to Hell, not because they were on the margins of society, butbecause they loved the wrong things. Jesussaid to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, butGod knows your hearts. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God’ssight.” (Luke 16:15)

I’vebeen struggling with this passage all week long. I’ll be honest when I tell youthat this has been one of the most difficult passages to preach. One thing Ialways try to do in every message is to answer the “so what” question – whatdoes this mean to me, and what do I do about what I’ve heard? Honestly this isa struggle.

Jesus’point in this parable is that he turns the values of our culture upside down,but when I look around, I often see a church culture that values the same oldthings. We value comfort. If that wasn’t true, I wouldn’t still be hearingabout the old pew padding. We value the familiar. If that wasn’t true, therewould never be any complaints when someone changes the order of worship or theplacement of furniture. We value money. If that wasn’t true, we would have togo looking for ways to spend it all. I would never have to mention the word“tithe” because people would come back saying, “God only required a tenth?That’s it?” The sad thing is thereare a lot of people in churches who are not Christians. There are a lot ofchurch people who have put their trust in something other than Jesus Christ,who place their worth in the things of this world. Jesus Himself says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Fatherwho is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we notprophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and perform manymiracles?” Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, youevildoers.’” (Matthew 7: 21-23)

Hesays this to reinforce the truth that we will be known by our fruit. This weekis a good time to stop and evaluate your fruit. You can do this various ways;I’d like to suggest a few. If you’re notvery adventurous, simply ask yourself, “Who has come to love Jesus more becauseof what I’ve said or done?” or “Are people closer to Jesus because of thethings I say and do?” If you’re a little more adventurous or extroverted, asksomeone who you trust enough to give you a true answer the same questions. And nomatter what, ask the Holy Spirit. For truly the Holy Spirit is the One whogrows the fruit.

Ifyou get an answer that isn’t satisfactory, your responsibility is to find outwhat it is that is holding you back and to ruthlessly eliminate it from yourlife. Jesus said if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out; if your handcauses you to sin, cut it off. Don’t sit around and wait for someone else to doit for you. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you what is in the way of yougiving your all to Him.

The lesson of the rich man and Lazarus is two-fold. Forthe poor, the suffering, there is a reward, there is comfort. For the rich,those of us who have the word of theOne who has come back from the dead, there is a mandate. Don’t wait untiltomorrow; what we do right now counts. It means everything, and eternity hangsin the balance.

Ask, Seek, Knock

2011-09-04T07:42:00.000-07:00

Luke 11:5-13

Idon’t specifically remember being taught to pray; it is something that my momtaught me when I was too little to remember. I do remember thinking that mycousin Chad was really spiritual because he used really grown-up language like“beseech” in his prayers. Even in modern times, there is confusion on how topray, so Jesus’ disciples ask him to teach them to pray. The most well-knownaspect of this teaching is the Lord’s Prayer. We pray this prayer all the time,but then we stop. When we look at the Lord’s Prayer in Luke’s gospel, there isno break between the words of the prayer and the discussion that follows. Infact, the language suggests continuity rather than a break. “Then Jesus said tothem” connects the former to the latter.

So we have the Lord’s Prayer followedby the parable of the friend in need and the question to fathers, all strungtogether in one teaching.

Then Jesus said to them,“Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him atmidnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; a friend of mine on ajourney has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’ And suppose the one inside answers,‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed.I can’t get up and give you anything.’ I tell you, even though he will not getup and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shamelessaudacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.

“So I say to you: Ask and it willbe given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened toyou. For everyone who asks receives;the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

“Whichof you fathers, if your son asks for afish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him ascorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to yourchildren, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit tothose who ask him!”

Afterhe gives what we know as the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus continues to teach on prayer.In studying this passage, I always understood the first part to be what Jesus teaches us to pray and thesecond part the how. What should wepray? Our Father… How should we pray? Like the friend who needs bread, withpersistence and shameless audacity. If we demand enough, then God will finallygive in and give it to us.

Theproblem with this is how this view affects our view of God. If we believe thatGod will only answer us if we continue to bother him with prayer, it leads tosome dangerous conclusions. The first conclusion is that God is somehow distantfrom us and that he doesn’t really want to answer our prayers, but if we botherhim long enough, he’ll finally relent just to get us off his back. The otherconclusion is that if we don’t get an answer, it’s that we’re not praying hardenough. Again, the only problem with these views is that they aren’t biblical.So if that’s not the interpretation to this story, what is?

WhatJesus is doing with this first parable is introducing a familiar scene to hisaudience. They would know what the cultural norm is and would have anexpectation of how the parties involved are supposed to react. His framing ofthe story: “Suppose you have a friend…” is the same as if he started out with“can you imagine…”

Jesusasks, “Can you imagine turning away your friend in need?” This might put thescene into perspective: imagine your best friend lives next door to you, and inthe middle of the night your phone rings – it’s your friend who explains thatthere has been an emergency and they want you to let their little one sleep atyour house. Now, imagine the little one has slept over at your house before, infact, let’s make the little one your grandchild. You even have a room set upfor her. Now Jesus’ scenario mightmake the same kind of sense to us as it would have to his first centuryaudience.

Toprovide hospitality was of paramount importance, and a friend is needing to doso. Your excuses have nothing to do with the situation; you have the means togive to your friend (notice that the excuses the homeowner gave were: 1) thedoor is locked; 2) we’re already in bed. He never says anything about nothaving bread. So Jesus offers the punch line in v. 8, admitting that the sceneis preposterous. Of course the householder will get up and help his friend.

There is a reason Jesus makes up thispreposterous scenario: he is shaping prayer not so much in a “how to” but in a“to whom.” The key to prayer is not the words we use or our posture for prayer.The key to prayer is the identity of the Father to whom we pray.

Themain idea of Jesus’ teaching on prayer is, again, not how we are supposed topray. The main idea is who is this God we’re praying to, and how does he relateto us? So Jesus gives another hypothetical. “Which of you fathers, if your son asksfor a fish, will give him a snakeinstead? Or if he asks for an egg,will give him a scorpion? (Luke11:11-12)

I don’tthink we need much translation from 1^st Century Palestine to today;the very idea that Jesus suggests is ridiculous. Of course a father won’t givehis son a snake or a scorpion when he asks for something to eat. The expectedreaction is one of self-righteousness: of course I wouldn’t give my child something dangerous!

But Jesusputs us all in our place with his next comment: If youthen, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, howmuch more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who askhim!” (Luke 11:13) What doeshe mean, we who are evil? Who does he think he is, calling the dads of theearth evil? If you get down to it, that’s a pretty good description of us.Without the Holy Spirit, we are unable to do anything good whatsoever. We areinherently selfish, and there is nothing we can do about it on our own.

One complaint I hear from anti-Christians is thatmost people are basically good. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. Welive in a world, as John Stott put it, where a promise is not enough; we need a contract. Doors are not enough; weneed to lock and bolt them. Law and order are not enough; we need police toenforce them. This is all due to man’s sin. (John Stott, BasicChristianity). This isn’t just “someone else’s sin” because, as 1 John 1:8tells us “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves.”

Letme quote again from John Stott: “Our sense of failure depends on how high ourstandards are. It is quite easy to consider oneself good at high jumping if thebar is never raised more than waist-high.”

Inthe book The Practice of the Presence of God, Brother Lawrence, a laybrother in a Carmelite monastery in the 1600s, expressed that as far as the miseries and sins he heard ofdaily in the world, he was so far from wondering at them, that, on thecontrary, he was surprised there were not more, considering the malice sinnerswere capable of. In other words, it’s not surprising that people are as badas we are. What’s surprising is that we’re not worse, considering what we arecapable of. Indeed, each and every one of us is capable of atrocities. AndJesus specifically points at parents.

NowI can understand that there are bad parents. Last Sunday I read an article inthe front section of the Columbus Dispatch about one such parent:

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/national_world/2011/08/28/judge-dismisses-bad-mothering-lawsuit-in-illinois.html

CHICAGO — Raised in a$1.5 million home in Barrington Hills, Ill., by their attorney father, twogrown children have spent the past two years pursuing a unique lawsuit againsttheir mom. They accuse her of bad mothering and say she damaged them when shefailed to buy toys for one and sent another a birthday card he didn’t like.The alleged offensesinclude telling her then 7-year-old son to buckle his seat belt or she wouldcontact police, “haggling” over the amount to spend on party dresses andcalling her daughter at midnight to ask that she return home from celebratinghomecoming.Last week, an Illinoisappeals court dismissed the case, finding that none of the mother’s conduct was“extreme or outrageous.” To rule in favor of her children, the court found,“could potentially open the floodgates to subject family childrearing to …excessive judicial scrutiny and interference.”In 2009, the children,represented by three attorneys including their father, Steven A. Miner, suedtheir mother, Kimberly Garrity. Steven II, now 23, and his sister Kathryn, now20, sought more than $50,000 for “emotional distress.”Among the exhibits filedin the case is a birthday card Garrity sent her son, who in his lawsuit soughtdamages because the card was “inappropriate” and failed to include cash or acheck.

Prettytough upbringing, eh?

Jesusrecognizes that there are times when we do good things, such as providing goodgifts to our children, even if we fail to include cash or checks in birthdaycards. Human parents wouldn’t think of withholding food from their children,instead giving them poisonous animals. And if humans, who are at root evil, can give good gifts to our children,how much more will our Heavenly Father, who is at root good, give the best gift?

Parents,who are sinful, can only give goodgifts, but God, who is GOD, demonstrates his superiority over human as He givesthe Holy Spirit to those who ask. This is the best gift; there is nothing elsethat even comes close. The gift of God Himself, living within us!

Finallywe get to the most famous portion of this text, a portion I chose to take outof order. There’s a reason I skipped verses 9-10 until last. Listen to Jesus’words: “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek andyou will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; theone who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. (Luke 11:9-10)

Because of who God is in his verycharacter, a loving Father who gives His children the best gift, and because ofHis love for us and the promises He gives, he invites us to bring our requeststo Him. God will give us what we need. Remember the context of this command; Godisn’t a genie in a bottle, and we often have a lot of discerning to do in orderto differentiate between wants and needs. We have generally seen our basicneeds falling into one of four areas: food, clothing, medical care, andshelter, In a recent newspaper article, I read that American Baby Boomers areredefining basic needs. In a survey by MainStay Investments of 1,049 consumersaged 45-65, these were deemed as basic needs: an Internet connection: 84%;shopping for birthdays and special occasions: 66%; pet care: 51%; yearly familyvacation 50%; weekend getaways: 46%; professional hair color/cut: 43%;children/grandchildren’s education: 42%; dining out: 38%; domestic travel: 35%;ordering takeout: 34%; movies: 30%.

http://findarticles.com/p/news-articles/buffalo-news/mi_8030/is_20100816/baby-boomers-redefine/ai_n54809241/

Thetruth is, we get confused about our wants and our needs, primarily because wefail to recognize that our chief need is for God Himself. As God supplies ourneeds (and even some of our wants), He doesn’t do it indiscriminately! Thepurpose is always to draw us to Him. As we turn our attention to Communion,I’ll invite you to ask God, who gives the best gifts to His children, to giveHimself to you.