Set Your Minds Above

Luke 7:11-17: Desperate Measures

2012-01-31T07:36:00.001-08:00

This sermon was preached at Folsom Community Church on 1/29/12 by Tim Lewis.

Desperate Measures

Luke 7:11-17

Introduction

[Article: Brothers’Bond Was Tight-In Life, Death, Sacramento Bee, January 28, 2012, A1]

[My first funeral in the Philippines at age 19. What a contrast with my limited experience with funerals growing up, but much closer to what we see in the Bible.]

One of the most useful ways I have found to understand thelife of Jesus is to place myself in the shoes of the people who he met, andimagine what it must have been like. I wonder, “What must it have been like?What was I before I met Jesus? What was I after I met Jesus?”

Our Situation: Desperation
Jesus’ Reaction: Compassion
Our Response: Amazement

Our Situation: Desperation (vs. 11-12)

Soon afterward, Jesus went to a town calledNain, and his disciples and a large crowd went along with him. As heapproached the town gate, a dead person was being carried out—the only son ofhis mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the town was withher. – Luke 7:11-12

In Chapter 7 of the book of Luke, Jesus is traveling fromtown to town around the portion of northern Israel called Galilee. He has justleft Capernaum, one of the bigger cities and now, a few miles from Jesus’ hometown of Nazareth, he arrived at the town of Nain. Nain was really not much morethan a dot on the map and while the Bible says there was a “town gate” the townwas so small that they wrote “Hello” and “Goodbye” on the same sign (just kidding).

The Bible says that Jesus was travelling with two groups: his“disciples” and a “large crowd”. Even this early in his ministry, he was the rabbi or teacher and he had full timestudents (or disciples). In theclosest group of disciples, sort of his inner circle, were “The Rock” Peter and“The Thunder Brothers” James and John. The next nine rounded out his posse.They called themselves “The Twelve” and included the ex-tax collector Matthew,the other type of thief Judas, the twin Thomas and a member of a violentpara-military group, Simon. Around these, there were perhaps as many as seventyothers who joined Jesus at various points in his travels, including Mary, Mary,and Mary (they didn’t have a lot of creativity in naming girls back then).

Jesus attracted a lot of attention. Everywhere he went,large groups of people tried to get a glimpse of what he was doing, because hehad a reputation for miracles (like the healing of a sick servant earlier inthis same chapter) and a reputation for smart, authoritative and even radicalteaching (like his sermon in chapter 6). He healed and he taught and more andmore people kept coming to see this miracle man. Sometimes they even forgot toeat. Sometimes they wanted to make him king. Sometimes they ripped open theroof to get a look at him. Wherever, however, they came to see Jesus.

And this loud, noisy, happy crowd arrives in Nain just intime to confront another large crowd—but this crowd is full of wailing andsadness. Carried upon the shoulders of friends, a plank of wood, a dead youngman being carried to a tomb. Young, obviously popular, loved, needed. As awidow, his mother now had no one to support her. The death of her son was thedeath of hope. It was like a curse. Bad luck. In another place in the Bible, Naomi,who also lost both husband and son, said: “The Almighty has made my life verybitter. I went away full, but the LORD has brought me back empty.” (Ruth1:20b-21a)

Sometimes life is like that.

Jesus’ Reaction: Compassion (vs. 13-15)

Whenthe Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, “Don’t cry.” Then hewent up and touched the coffin, and those carrying it stood still. He said,“Young man, I say to you, get up!” Thedead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother. – Luke 7:13-15

Verse 13 says, “when the Lord saw her” The two crowdscollide, the happy and the sad, the hopeful with the disappointed, the widowand the Messiah, the kingdom of God and the terrible kingdom of death anddespair. And suddenly Jesus and the widow are face-to-face.

Do we see those who are hurting? Or do we rush by them,afraid that they will spoil our good mood? [Veteran by the road in Beaverton]Sometimes we harden our heart; maybe we feel drained; maybe we consoleourselves with “someone else will take care of it”; maybe [fill in the blankwith your excuse] and we push down on the gas pedal so we don’t have to lookthem in the eye.

But Jesus saw her and, in that instance, he took inher situation and “his heart went out to her” Another translation says he was“moved with compassion” God is not dispassionate. He is not aloof. His heart isalso moved by the pain and suffering and trouble and conflict in our lives.God’s heart is moved, because this is not the way it is supposed to be.

God’s compassion for our broken situation always moves himto action. He saw, he was moved, he spoke and he moved. Jesus’ compassionalways moves (not just moved!) him to action that transforms. Look at what theBible says:

Andwe know that God causes everything to work together for the goodof those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. –Romans 8:28 (NLT)

My failures. My pain. My addictions. My relationships. Mymistakes. All of them will, somehow, be transformed by God into the good. Letme state this another way: If you love God and trust him, nothing can keep youfrom the good. [Illustration: The Simarilion, creation & music; Illustration: virus code] Why does God transform the terrible thingsthat happen to us into something good? For the same reason he reached out to awidow and her son—because of his great compassion—his great love--for us. Weare his children….

How does God do it? How does his compassion transform evilcircumstances into good outcomes? I don’t know. He is God and has moreresources and ingenuity and insight than I can even begin to comprehend. Buthere are four patterns that I have found in Scripture. There may be more, buthere are four.

God transforms how we respond. One of the ways that God’s compassion transforms the bad into good is by changing you. Remember when we talked about the fruit of the spirit? Love, joy, peace, patience? What if God changed you so that, when people in your life were unlovable, you were able to respond with love? Or if the situation was depressing, you could respond with joy. Or when the world is going crazy, peace. Or when frustrating, patience. So God changes the situation by changing you-making you stronger.
God works with us to transform your world. Another way that God’s compassion transforms the bad is by using you to change it. “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” (Romans 12:21)
God takes you. “David served God’s purpose in his own generation, then he died and was buried with his ancestors.;…” – Acts 13:36 (CEB)
God takes away the evil. Just like Jesus did for this widow. He stretched out his hand, and touched the bier where the dead body was being carried. The men carrying it stopped. And her son sat up and started talking. And Jesus gave the mother back her son.

Our Reaction: Amazement (vs. 16-17)

They were all filled with awe and praised God. “A great prophet hasappeared among us,” they said. “God has come to help his people.” This news about Jesus spread throughout Judeaand the surrounding country. – Luke 7:16-17

God did something only God could do. Literally they were overcome by fear, but it wasn’t the type of fear that cripples you, it was the kind of fear that comes from realizing that you are were there on holy ground when God stepped in and did a God thing. They recognized that. When God acts in a way that you didn’t, you didn’t cause and you didn’t deserve--when you see that triple-play combo-- you are on holy ground, in the presence of a living and active God.
God doubled the number of happy people. There was one happy crowd and one sad crowd before. Now there is one bigger happy crowd. When you recognize that God has been active with you, don’t try to explain it away. Don’t let it slip by. Celebrate it. Some miracles take only a moment, but other miracles are years in the making. You want to dance, you want to shout, you want to clap, you want to sing, then you are in good company with these people of Nain, who have watched their tears turned to joy.
God got the credit. It went to God. Notice that they said: We didn’t start hearing how the boy and his mother went on talk radio and appeared on Dr. Phil or Oprah. It was “A great prophet has appeared…” and “God has come…” The credit goes only to God. Many of the other miracles talked about the “faith” of the people. But Jesus didn’t even wait for this woman’s faith. He saw, he felt, he spoke and he acted. It was pure grace.
God motivated righteous gossip. Life will never be the same for anyone who was there. Pretty soon they were texting all of their friends (texting in those days was usually done with paper, or by courier) and from the little town of Nain, everyone found out about Jesus. What happens in Folsom better not stay in Folsom! God’s reputation is enhanced when God works and his people rebroadcast that. “In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16)

Conclusion

There is no better example of the transforming power ofGod’s compassion than in the life of Jesus. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son so thatwhoever believes in him should not die but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)Whatever our situation: financial meltdown, relationship fractures, failinghealth, disappointment with ourselves, God sees. And his response was to sendJesus.

Have you invited God to transform the most difficultsituations in your life?

Maybe you’re in one of those situations right now. Or maybeyou still have the hurt or shame from something that happened in the past. Godsees you. Will you trust him? The transformation process is often notcomfortable, but it is worth it. Maybe you need to pray, “God, I am hurting. Idon’t know why it is happening. But I want you to come in and take over andtransform this into something good. Just like you did for Jesus and the cross.In Jesus name, amen.”

Have you signed up to help transform the world around you?

In your neighborhood? You are in the middle, who is across the street, who is behind you, who is on the floor above? In your job, who is in the next cubicle? In you school, who is in the seat in front of you, to your left? That is the place that God has placed you to join him in transforming the evil in this world into good outcomes.

When God does something amazing, will your talk about it?

Maybe God has worked miracles in your life, but you havebeen quiet about it, or haven't even been thankful to him.

In his book The Pressure's Off,psychologist Larry Crabb uses a story from his childhood to illustrate our needto delight in God through adversity:

One Saturday afternoon, I decided Iwas a big boy and could use the bathroom without anyone's help. So I climbedthe stairs, closed and locked the door behind me, and for the next few minutesfelt very self-sufficient.

Then it was time to leave. Icouldn't unlock the door. I tried with every ounce of my three-year-oldstrength, but I couldn't do it. I panicked. I felt again like a very little boyas the thought went through my head, "I might spend the rest of my life inthis bathroom."

My parents—and likely theneighbors—heard my desperate scream.

"Are you okay?" Mothershouted through the door she couldn't open from the outside. "Did youfall? Have you hit your head?"

"I can't unlock thedoor!" I yelled. "Get me out of here!"

I wasn't aware of it right then,but Dad raced down the stairs, ran to the garage to find the ladder, hauled itoff the hooks, and leaned it against the side of the house just beneath the bedroomwindow. With adult strength, he pried it open, then climbed into my prison,walked past me, and with that same strength, turned the lock and opened thedoor.

"Thanks, Dad," I said—and ran out toplay. – Larry Crabb, The Pressure's Off (WaterBrook Press, 2002); pp. 222-223;

Sometimes we are like that with God. We are in a tight spotand God answers, we run out to play. We’ve forgotten to give credit to God,we’ve forgotten God, and God wonders “do they even like me, or are they justafter the stuff—are they just after the miracles.” We barely thank him and no one else knows what God has done. And you wonder why miracles never show up in your neighborhood. Don’t takefor granted how God has rescued you.

This church is one of God’s miracles. Watch what happensthrough FCC. And then, don’t be quiet.

You are one of God’s miracles. Watch what God does through you.And then, don’t be quiet.

"I was really lost. I'm a little less so at the moment."

2012-01-31T07:32:00.000-08:00

I read this from Bono concerning his spiritual growth, and I could relate.

Your nature is a hard thing to change; it takes time…. I have heard of people who have life-changing, miraculous turnarounds, people set free from addiction after a single prayer, relationships saved where both parties "let go, and let God." But it was not like that for me. For all that "I was lost, I am found," it is probably more accurate to say, "I was really lost. I'm a little less so at the moment." And then a little less and a little less again. That to me is the spiritual life. The slow reworking and rebooting the computer at regular intervals, reading the small print of the service manual. It has slowly rebuilt me in a better image. It has taken years, though, and it is not over yet. —Bono, lead singer of U2[1]

For me, moving forward in my inner life is so frustrating because it seems that the same issues I was dealing with as a young college student are the issues I am fighting with now. In some cases, I have come up with new and inventive ways of expressing the same basic spiritual dysfunction. But the general tone has remained the same.

But I take hope in two things:

Looking back I can see that I am improved. That perspective is important. The fight to suppress the fruit of self and release the fruit of the Spirit has been productive. I have not arrived, but there is progress. "Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me." - Phil. 3:12
There is no condemnation. As much as I fail, "...there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." (Rom. 8:1). My life can be crippled by the realization of how bad I have been, or invigorated by the awareness of how much I am forgiven.

Spiritual growth is not smooth, seamless or comfortable. But I definitely want to grow up and be like my older brother, as promised: "...he [God] also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters." (Romans 8:29)

[1] U2 (with Neil McCormick), U2 by U2 (HarperCollins, 2006), p. 7

Galatians 5:22-23: Fruit Happens

2012-01-16T19:33:00.001-08:00

This sermon was preached on 1/8/12 at Folsom Community Church by Tim Lewis

FruitHappens
Galatians 5:22-23

Introduction: New Years’ Resolution Checkup

At my house, whenever New Year’s comes around, there isalways the question of my resolutions. What do I want to do better in 2012 thanI did in 2011? Maybe lose a few pounds. Maybe get better grades. Maybe get apromotion. Maybe pay off the credit cards or put some money in savings. Maybecommunicate better with my wife or my kids.

Every year, when the kids were younger, we would tuck awayour resolutions when we put the Christmas tree away and then review them againwhen we set up for the next Christmas. Or rather, when I say we, I mean them. Iwould make resolutions, but I wouldn’t write them down. Helen is convinced thisis so that no one would know that I didn’t keep any of them.

Whatever you have decided to do for the next year, I knowthat God already has plans for your 2012. The Bible says:

Forwe are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works,which God prepared in advance for us to do. – Ephesians 2:10

God has already set up ‘good works’ appointments for you in2012. You have a “rendezvous with destiny” were God will put you in the rightplace at the right time to do the right thing. Are you ready?

Because it isn’t always easy. [Examples of difficulty doing the right thing]

Butthe fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.– Galatians 5:22-23

Wouldn’t you like to be able to respond to difficult peoplewith love? Wouldn’t you like to respond to depressing situations with joy? Totimes of conflict and stress with peace? To delays and frustration withpatience? To rudeness with kindness? To selfishness with goodness? To betrayalwith faithfulness? To laziness and anger with gentleness and self-control?

The good news is…you can. The fruit described here is the naturalresult of the Spirit of God’s work in our life. When God gives us the new lifethat he promised because of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, it starts a processof transformation—of maturing—that shows up in our attitude. The Bible calls thisimproved attitude a fruit because it is sweet result of our new life in Jesus.

During the depression the field ofYates Pool was a sheep ranch owned by a man named Yates. Mr. Yates wasn't ableto make enough on his ranching operation to pay the principal and interest onthe mortgage, so he was in danger of losing his ranch. With little money forclothes or food, his family (like many others) had to live on governmentsubsidy.

Day after day, as he grazed his sheep overthose rolling West Texas hills, he was no doubt greatly troubled about how hewould pay his bills. Then a seismographic crew from an oil company came intothe area and told him there might be oil on his land. They asked permission todrill a wildcat well, and he signed a lease contract.

At 1,115 feet they struck a huge oil reserve.The first well came in at 80,000 barrels a day. Many subsequent wells were morethan twice as large. In fact, 30 years after the discovery, a government testof one of the wells showed it still had the potential flow of 125,000 barrelsof oil a day.

And Mr. Yates owned it all. The day hepurchased the land he had received the oil and mineral rights. Yet, he'd beenliving on relief. A multimillionaire living in poverty. The problem? He didn'tknow the oil was there even though he owned it.

Many Christians live in spiritual poverty.They are entitled to the gifts of the Holy Spirit and his energizing power, butthey are not aware of their birthright. (Greg Asimakoupoulos, Naperville,Illinois; source: Bill Bright, "How to Be Filled with the Spirit"(Campus Crusade publication))

But-here’s the question-if the fruit is supposed to be anatural result, then why don’t I always feel loving and joyful? Good question.We’ll look in the Bible together to get the answers. To get those answers, weneed to back up and look at this whole issue from God’s perspective.

1. Godwants to change me.

2. Godchanges me by changing my attitudes.

3. TheBible calls these new attitudes “fruit”

4. Lifeis a test to see if the new attitudes are real.

God Wants To Change Me

First, God wants to change me. Look at what the Bible says:

Don’tcopy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform youinto a new person by changing the way you think. – Romans 12:2a (NLT)

God lovesyou the way you are. But God also loves you too much to leave you that way.

God sees agap between the person you are now and the person you could be. We don’t alwayssee the gap. We think tweak, but God is thinking overhaul. We are thinkingcaterpillar, but God is thinking butterfly. We are thinking crawling along, butGod is thinking: fly.

If youcontinue the way you are now, you are either cultivating God’s fruit, or youare cultivating sin’s fruit.

God Changes Me By Changing My Attitudes

Second, God changes me by changing my attitudes.

Don’tcopy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into anew person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to knowGod’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. – Romans 12:2 (NLT)

God changes the way you think so that you think the way Hethinks.

God has plans foryour life. God has plans for your home, for you school, for your job. He wantsto introduce a miracle into the most difficult circumstances in life, and thatmiracle is you. By changing who you are—by changing your attitudes—he isintroducing a miracle into every place that you walk. You may have as many problems in your life asanyone else, maybe more, but the way you deal with them shows that God ispresent.

The Bible Calls These New Attitudes “Fruit”

Third, the Bible calls these new attitudes fruit.

Butthe fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.– Galatians 5:22-23

Let’s look at these new attitudes:

Love,

Joy. (Luke 10:21),

Peace,

Patience

Kindness

Goodness,

Faithfulness,

Gentleness,

Self-Control,

We’re not going to go into all of them right now, but let mepoint out a few things from this list.

One fruit, many benefits. It says “the fruit of the Spirit is…” See love, joy, peace, patience…they aren’t fruit, they are a part of the fruit. They are more like the vitamins. When you get the Spirit, you get the whole package. There isn’t someone with the “fruit of joy” and someone else with the “fruit of patience”
The fruit don’t change the circumstances; rather they change how you deal with the circumstances.
Fruit should happen. It says, “Against such things there is no law.” For Jesus’ people, there is no external constraint, no law, no barrier to you having these new attitudes. Why? Because fruit is the natural outcome of growth and development (http://masteringhorticulture.blogspot.com , 2/2811) Listen: My mom was telling me about a fruit tree in their yard. When they got it, their neighbor offered them some really high-powered fertilizer, which they put around tree. And that tree took off, it grew, it put out all sorts of branches and tons of green leaves. But no fruit. The healthy, mature tree has fruit. The healthy, mature Christian has fruit.
We don’t produce fruit, we bear fruit. Jesus is the vine, we are the branches. Sometimes we try produce bear our own fruit, and it looks like the good thing, but really its disappointing. If you go to the grocery store in mid-winter and pick up a tomato, you will often find they are gorgeous but tasteless. See, they are picked will green--still immature--and then treated with ethylene gas to make them redden. But they have never had the time on the vine to generate the sugars that make them truly tasty. They have the appearance of beautifulfruit, but they aren’t sweet-they are sour. The sweetest fruit are harvested from the plant, at the right time. Here’s my point: these new attitudes are no generated by you, they are acted upon by you. They are a gift from God-- a natural out-working of the spiritual DNA that God gives you.

Life Is A Test To See If The New Attitudes Are Real
Fourth, Life is a Test to See if the New Attitudes are Real,or just a fad. You see, you can make all of the New Year’s resolutions that youwant; you can talk about how 2012 will be the year of the “new you” with “newattitudes” and a “new outlook on life.” but the real test is how you act thenext time someone offers you a donut, or a drink, or a stab in the back.Sometimes we can simulate the fruit of the Spirit for a while (Filipino: ningas kugon)but the consistent lifestyle is only a product of a continued, life sustainingrelationship with Jesus.

Remember the story of Peter, the friend of Jesus? During thefinal night of Jesus’ life and Jesus must take the final journey, to the cross,by himself. And Jesus says, in John 13:36, “Where I am going you cannot follownow, but you will follow later.” And Peter asked, “Lord, why can’t I follow younow. I will lay down my life for you.” You know, in that moment, I believePeter really believed what he said. But then real life continued, Jesus wasarrested, and while waiting and watching to see what would happen to Jesus,Peter denied he even knew Jesus. The fruit of the Spirit was faithfulness, butwhen real life continued, the fruit Peter showed was betrayal.

If we have Jesus; if we have the Spirit of God working inus-why do we see another type of fruit growing inside us? Because there isanother type of fruit being produced! And that fruit is not from God, butrather it is a product of our flesh, our sin nature, and it is in directcompetition for the real estate of our heart. Paul says, just a few versesbefore this:

Forthe sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit whatis contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other,so that you do not do what you want. …

The acts of the sinful nature are obvious:sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage,selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. – Galatians 5:17,19-21a

Wow. What a list! Sounds like Jersey Shores or a frat party.But really it shows our natural tendency, our sin tendency. Think of it likethis: what would you do if there were no consequences? Jesus knew this andthat’s why he said anger is like murder, and lust is like adultery. If youdidn’t like someone, just wipe them out video game style. If you liked someoneyou could just take them, Playboy- or Playgirl style. The way we would act without any "law" or consequences is really the type of people we are. And it isnt' pretty.

There is a battle for territory in my heart-between the new lifeand the old life.

The poet Carl Sandburg once said, “Thereis an eagle in me that wants to soar, and there is a hippopotamus in me thatwants to wallow in the mud.” (cited by Richard Hansen in “A Good Mystery,Preaching Today Audio, issue 253)

The new spiritual DNA that God provides through Jesus isthere, trying to transform you from the inside out. But the old, cancerous DNA, is still there,producing its fruit in competition. Which will your heart choose?

Conclusion: So Why Don’t I See The Fruit?

Butthe fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.– Galatians 5:22-23a

I remember about a month ago when I started thinking aboutthis topic, I began to ask myself: why am I not seeing these attitudes in mylife? Why is there no joy? Why no patience? I think the Bible gives four possible answers:

Maybe we don’t have these new attitudes because we aren’t connected to Jesus. Look what he said:

Ifyou remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you cando nothing. – John 15:5b

Maybe we are suppressing the good fruit. Like spiritual Roundup. The fruit of the Spirit-the good things are there, within our reach, but because of our habits or because of our stubbornness, we prefer the selfish fruit of the flesh. You sometimes when you get angry, there is a point when you know you could let go of that anger but oooh it feels delicious to hold on to it. At that point, we have a choice of which fruit to suppress. We can suppress the fruit of our self, which is self-righteousness and anger and bitterness, or we can supress the fruit of the Spirit, which is love and peace. Which fruit will you pick? Sometimes we are like Christian atheists (see what Pauls says in Titus):

They claim to know God, but bytheir actions they deny him. – Titus 1:16

Maybe we are in a season of pruning. Jesus said that when we are capable of fruit, for whatever reason, we fail to bear,

…he prunes the branchesthat do bear fruit so they will produce even more. – John 15:2b

This is a season of pruning. He is giving us a chance to do what we were spiritual created to do: bear fruit and bear more fruit. Maybe he affects our health, or maybe he affects our circumstances--temporarily painful but ultimately profitable.

Or maybe we are producing seedless fruit. My wife, Helen, the horticulturist, wrte: “The fruit is a seed carrier. We all enjoy the seedless fruit that we buy from the grocery stores because they are so easy to eat. But let me tell you – Seedless fruits are abnormal fruits. Seedless fruits are not performing what they are supposed to do in the natural sense of life. Their services end where the fruits are eaten or when they rot. God intended for the fruit to carry the possibility of a new life. Our life as Christians should bear the fruit that carries the seed of the knowledge of Christ. In the eyes of God, the seeded fruit is more valuable than its seedless counterpart.” (http://masteringhorticulture.blogspot.com, ibid)

Without Jesus, our best attempts to change our life and ourattitudes will fail, because we don’t have the new life that comes from Jesus.Without Jesus, no amount of cultivation of our natural selves will produce goodattitudes. That’s why Jesus died, so that he could give us the new life. Maybewe need to pray the prayer: “Jesus, I don’t do the right things because I havenever really been connected to you. I know you paid the price on the cross, sothat I can really change my attitudes. As much as I know how, I am going to letyou be in charge of my life.”

Everyfruit is a seed bearer.

Colossians 3:22-25: Why Work?

2011-12-20T09:40:00.000-08:00

Why Bother Working? Colossians 3:22-25

Introduction

If I asked you which company had the most offices in the United States, what would you say? Walgreens has 6,300. McDonalds has about 13,000. Starbucks has about 12,000. But KOG Enterprises has over 320,000 branches in the United States alone, with thousands being opened each year using a proven franchise model. Started by a Father and Son team in Asia, KOG falls squarely in the service sector, focusing on lifestyle modification and community development. Privately held, the finances for the latest calendar year are not available, but anecdotal evidence suggests KOG runs on low margins, high associate satisfaction and excellent long-term benefits. KOG’s mission statement is clear and unequivocal: world domination. What is KOG’s strategy? With intensive training, the local offices send associates to intern in other local businesses, in positions ranging from janitors, secretaries, nurses, students, engineers and CEOs, to infiltrate and eventually get them to sell out to KOG. Their CEO summarized their mission statement as follows: “Go and make associates world-wide, integrate them into the KOG family and train them like I trained you.”

One day, every knee will bow and every tongue agree that Jesus is the hand-picked boss of the Kingdom Of God, to the glory of his Father. Amen.

We don’t normally think of the kingdom of God like this, like a business. In our minds, they are two separate categories. We say, “There is my spiritual life stuff, the private stuff, like family and church and Bible studies and quiet times. Then there is my real life stuff, like work and business and commute.” We put them in different groups. But God doesn’t. He wants to take over your business, your office and your campus. But hostile takeovers aren’t his style.

That’s why Jesus talks so much about owners and bosses and managers and workers. In fact, the word “Lord” in the Bible didn’t usually refer to God. In fact, it usually meant something closer “boss” or “master” or, in some cases, “owner”. In the world of the Bible, it was as much a business term as it was a spiritual term.

And, as the kingdom of God (KOG) continued to grow, in different towns and cities, the relationship between a person’s spiritual life—the way they behaved at church--and the way that they behaved at work had to be dealt with. For example, look at this passage from Colossians 3:

Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to win their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord. Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for his wrong, and there is no favoritism. – Colossians 3:22-25

Before we go any further, we need to talk about that first word: slave. Was Paul a supporter of slavery? No. In fact, Paul’s ideas were the very ideas that broke down the basis for slavery, saying that “In Christ, there is neither slave nor free” (Gal. 3:28). In the book of Philemon (1:1, 7, 16), he calls both the slave owner and the slave “brothers” saying that both owe the same debt to God. And, generally, people who are working today are not slaves. We may feel like wage slaves, but in Paul’s day slaves were equivalent to property. In the Roman Empire, 20% to 30% of the population was slaves. And they could be bought, sold, killed, just like furniture or chickens. Farmers, miners, household workers, tutors, gladiators, professors, accountants—they filled nearly every possible job sector niche. And it is important to understand that in this passage, as in others in the Bible, Paul is not writing to them concerning their attitude about slavery, but concerning their attitude about work. In many cases, their conditions were worse than ours and therefore, any guidance given to them about their work would be the minimum that God would expect from us, whose conditions are comparatively much better.

In fact, many of the complaints about bosses were similar to what we would say today:

Their boss would treat them badly.
Their bosses didn’t recognize their hard work.
Their bosses were stingy toward them, even when they were making big bucks.

And what was the reaction of the workers?

Complaining.
Kissing-up
Stealing.
Slacking off.

So, what do you do when your life is beginning to look like source material for Dilbert?

Here are four things to remember:

God Is Your Boss.
God’s Business Is Life Changing
God Does Performance Reviews
Your Job Is As Important As Every Other Job

God Is Your Boss

How many of you have seen The Office?

At the fictional company of Dunder-Mifflin, the office is dysfunctional, the employees are demotivated, inter-office squabbling, jockeying for position and titles, awkward moments. Why? The reason, is Michael, the boss. He's awful. He's incompetent. He's indecisive. He makes promises he can't keep. He hides in his office when things are going poorly. He calls women, "sir," he demeans his employees, and he buys himself a mug that says "World's Best Boss." It's hard to watch the show without wanting to strangle him, or to run out of the room screaming! The Office is the way it is because of the boss.[1]

In fact there is a whole movie, Horrible Bosses, talking about how people want to kill their managers.

But God has a different perspective:

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men – vs. 23a

God is the one who hires you and fires you and transfers you to another position. Not your boss.

No matter what you do, where you do it, who you do it with or for, ultimately, you work for God. When you understand that, then the things you do everyday become acts of worship. Worship from Monday through Saturday has a name, and it isn’t music or sermons or prayer: it is work. Paul uses the language of worship: with all your heart, with reverence for the Lord, to describe our work.

Your job is one way that God infiltrates the world, transforming it by his presence in his people

Don’t be surprised if God says that your job is to make someone like Michael from the Office--the complete idiot or godless person--look good. The Bible is full of examples of amazingly talented people, strong believers in God, under the authority of someone who couldn’t care about God.

Daniel served the king of Babylon who liked to have people worship a statue of himself. Joseph served the Pharoah of Egypt. One of Jesus’ supporters was the wife of Herod’s house manager. Esther was wife of the most powerful man in the world, but couldn’t even visit him at work. But, in each case, God uses us in 2^nd place.

…whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant – Matthew 20:26

And that includes servant to some pretty undeserving people. As far as career advancement goes, this is not the usual path we see in most businesses today. But God clearly says that if you want to climb his KOG corporate ladder, you have to work at making other people look good, by serving them.

This past week, we had an all-hands meeting at which there were a number of performance awards: Above the Call, Innovation, Teamwork, etc. But the highest level of recognition was the CEO’s award. At the end of time we hope to hear the CEO of the universe say, "Well done, good and faithful servant." What get’s our CEO (God’s) attention is a servant attitude?

God’s Business Is Life Changing

(for you and for your boss)

Who you are is more important than what you do. Why? Because dead fish will eventually stink, no matter the perfume. If who you are stinks, eventually your life will stink. But if you are a beautiful person inside, it will eventually show on the outside.

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

Every child knows it is better not to judge a Christmas present by the wrapper. That’s what we like to do, because we assume that it promises what we want.

So God’s plan is centered on changing who we are inside, because God knows that the eventual result will be a changed whole person. This is not just for people out “there” it is also for us right here:

Pastor Kent Crockett tells a story:

When I first enrolled in seminary, I made an appointment to talk to the dean of men to see if I could get a room in the dormitory. When I walked into his office, the first thing he asked was, "Are you applying for the janitor's job?" "No," I said. "I'm here to see if any rooms are available in the dorm."

"I'm sorry, the dormitory is full. We’ll put you on the waiting list. But if you know anyone who wants a job as janitor, please send him to see me."

I told him that I wasn't interested and thanked him for his time. When I left his office and walked outside, I prayed, Lord, please provide a room for me. God stopped me on the sidewalk and spoke to my heart, "Go take the job."

Take the job? I prayed for a room, not a job. But I knew in my heart I needed to obey. Immediately I did an about-face, walked into the dean's office, and said, "I'll take that janitor’s job." He hired me on the spot.

At first, I had to battle my pride. I thought about how over-qualified I was—I had a college degree and was working on my Master's. I was given a seminary janitor's shirt and a little pushcart stocked with soap, gloves, toilet paper, toilet bowl cleaner, and a brush. Every day I pushed that cart down the hallway, cleaned toilets, scrubbed showers, and emptied trashcans.

It wasn’t long before I discovered that cleaning those bathrooms in the men's dorm was part of my spiritual education. I learned to do those jobs that no one else wanted. As I cleaned those toilets every day, I made a surprising discovery. God spoke to my heart more clearly than I had ever heard Him before. I meditated on Scriptures as I worked, and God gave me insights into his Word. I then realized that cleaning toilets was part of my training for ministry. If I wasn't willing to serve God as a custodian, how could He trust me with other responsibilities?

I spent my entire three years in seminary cleaning toilets and attending classes. I'm convinced that half of what I learned in seminary was in the classrooms and the other half was in the bathrooms. I also learned to respect and thank janitors for the work they perform. God used that job to teach me that in whatever tasks He calls me to do in life, I am actually serving Him. (Kent Crockett, Making Today Count for Eternity, Sisters, OR: Multnomah Publishers, 2001, pp. 144-145)

So the first person God changes you in your job is you.

And then, through you, God changes your co-workers and your boss. Look at what the Bible says:

but to show that they [slaves] can be fully trusted, so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive. – Titus 2:10b

The way you work sets up the word of God to succeed in your office. Your life plows the office harvest so that when God speaks, their heart is ready.

God Does Performance Reviews

(for you and your boss!)

Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for his wrong, and there is no favoritism. – vs. 25

…since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. – vs. 23

If you are serving God, you aren't worried about office politics. You aren’t kissing up to your earthly boss, you’re not worried about what other people are saying, you are just doing your job because you want the job to succeed for God's glory.

Recently I met a man, Cid, who works on a cruise ship. In that closed environment, the relationships between the different parts of the crew are very important because of the closed environment. And he told me that there are two things that break up unity faster than anything else: putting down your co-workers and kissing up to the boss.

Your Job Is As Important As Every Other Job

It is the Lord Christ you are serving. – Colossians 3:24

What do you call someone who serves? A servant. According to this verse, what do you call someone who flips burgers? What do you call the CEO of a company? What do you call a mom at home? What do you call a work-at home engineer? A servant.

Where ever you are, whatever your job, whoever your boss and no matter how much is your salary, you are a servant. And, if you are a servant of Christ Jesus while you are doing that, you are doing what God wants just as much as a pastor or a missionary. And if God doesn’t want you there, he’ll fire you and move you to do something else. If he keeps you where you are, it means he has ministry for you to do there. Ministry that your pastor cannot do. Ministry that a missionary cannot do. Ministry that only you can do.

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle… – Romans 1:1

Notice Paul is a servant, just like you and me and then he is called to be an apostle. I am Tim, a servant, and I am called to be a computer programmer, to create beautiful code, like God creates beautiful things, to make him famous in my office, and bring people closer to him. In Exodus, there are two men listed where it says the Spirit of God gave them the talents that they used first, for their job and then, for the building of the tabernacle.

This is an area where I am still growing. But I know what I should be growing towards.

Conclusion

Maybe you have treated your job like a necessary evil. But it isn’t: it is the place of necessary ministry. Jesus, when asked he why he was with all of the unbelievers, he told them: “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.” (Matthew 9:12) God has placed you, his servant, right in the middle of the place where he wants to expand the kingdom of God.

Here are 4 things you can do to bring God into your work place.

Pray. Not just prayers of salvation. Think about your brother, or your sister, or your nieces and nephews. How would you pray for them? How would you pray for their job? Their family? Because everyone there is a potential brother and sister to you, through Christ. I remember distinctly when I was working in San Jose that one of my co-workers, Jan, found out she had breast cancer and she was told to round up a group of supporters during her time of need, especially since she was older and lived alone: she asked me to pray for her.
Involve. Find a way to be involved. If you care about someone, you are involved in their life, and they are part of theirs. Two of my co-workers, one from Japan and one from Taiwan, needed to work with me, but we don’t have an office here, so they worked with me in my house. It so happened that one of them was here when it was Helen’s birthday and I surprised her with a limousine ride. He came along to dinner with us in the limo. Last time I was at another office, my friend invited me to hear his daughter’s piano recital. I was delighted that he would invite me so close to his family. Sometimes we are so busy that we think: do I have time or energy to do that? Let me challenge you: there is room for at least 1 more.
Invite. A natural extension of being involved is to invite them to visit your home, and your church. We hope that FCC is a place where, when a visitor comes in, they feel welcome by the people and challenged by God to take the next step. Maybe its for a special event, like our Christmas service next week. When people asked you “what did you do this weekend?” do you reply with “Oh, nothing!” Really? Is that what church is to you: nothing.
Share. The Bible says to be always ready to give the reason for the hope that is within you. Friends, your schools, your groups of friends, your offices, are full of people who need that hope; who are drowning without that hope of rescue. Jesus died to rescue them, we can share that hope.

[1] Bryan Wilkerson, The Job, Sermon

John 13:36 - 14:6: Going Home

2011-12-12T21:27:00.000-08:00

[This sermon was first preached at the memorial service for Les Henry on 10 December 2011]
Going Home

John 13:36 – 14:6

Introduction

Psalm 139 ends with a plea by the writer, “Search me, God and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts.” Anxious thoughts. When confronting the graduating class of Stanford University in 2005, Steve Jobs zeroed in on the discomfort we feel about the subject of death:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.[1]

Death brings about inevitable change over which no person has control. That lack of control brings anxious thoughts. We wonder if we should have lived life better. We second-guess our many choices in life. We wonder if there is anything after death and, if so, what it looks like. I mean, after I die, am I going to wake up in IKEA? I read an article recently in the Wall Street Journal where some people are just a bit too comfortable in the “home-like” environments inside the super store. One woman was sitting in an expensive recliner, watching a movie on her phone while child jumped on the bed and another man curled up under the covers. On Wednesdays, free coffee day, up to 500 senior citizens gather together to look for friendship and even romance.[2]

Good friends, comfortable place, someone else cleaning the toilets and free coffee. But really, IKEA knows something: we instinctively long for home: a place where we belong, a place of beauty, a place where we are accepted, a place of rest from our weary life. That longing for home is something that was built into us by God. But no IKEA can fulfill what only God can give.
That restlessness is a sign that you are spiritually alive; a sort of holy discontent; a yearning for something or someplace or someone that cannot be satisfied in the here and now. Even very spriritual people feel this. The Bible, after listing some of the greatest examples of faith ever, says:

All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. – Hebrews 11:13

We were designed for heaven. So how do we get there?

The Death of Good Intentions (13:36-38)

Well, that is the subject of one of the most spectacular failures recorded in the whole Bible. Peter, one of Jesus’ closest friends, took a spiritual nose dive at one of the most critical points in Jesus’ life. Why? Why did that happen? Because he thought that his good intentions were enough to get him a spot in heaven, next to Jesus.

During the final week of Jesus’ life, Jesus began dishing out hints that Jerusalem wasn’t going to be the party that they imagined it would be—that Jesus’ enemies were already orchestrating the events that would lead to his death. We pick up the story at the end of the book of John, chapter 13, where it says:

Simon Peter asked him, “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus replied, “Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later.” Peter asked, “Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.” Then Jesus answered, “Will you really lay down your life for me? I tell you the truth, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times! - John 13:36-38

Peter was determined to stay close to Jesus, no matter what. Peter was determined to go where Jesus went, no matter what. But Jesus promised failure. This was the death of good intentions. Peter wanted to be close to God. Peter wanted to go with Jesus. And I believe he really meant it, at that moment, that he was willing to die for Jesus. But when push came to shove, he didn’t. When questioned by a few servants, he didn’t admit he even knew Jesus or even that he came from the same part of the country. No matter how good his intentions, his will power was not enough.

When it comes to being close to God, or going to heaven, our will power is not enough. Real life contradicts our good intentions. The very things we say we believe—even the standards that we set up for ourselves about how we will live our lives, not even taking into account what God thinks—we can’t do it consistently. Just like Peter.

That means we will fail. That’s why, in the very next verse, in the face of the failure of Peter, Jesus brings these words of comfort, “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” Why? Because the plan of God can encompass even our failures.

The Architect of Your Future (14:1-4)

Les knows the answer to a question. What is past death? What is on the other side? We don’t know. Perhaps there is nothing. Perhaps our consciousness just fades away into the darkness. Just like Jesus’ original audience, we view with skepticism anyone who claims advanced knowledge of the post-mortem. But one claimed to have personal knowledge of the place beyond death.

Jesus has the audacity to claim that he knows the answer and, even more than that, he architected the solution. He said:

Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. – John 14:1-3

There is a heaven. Heaven is home. Jesus draws upon the language of a first century marriage where a young man, after becoming engaged to his beloved, would set off back home where he would build the home for the future couple. But these homes were not stand-alone little bungalows. Rather it was common practice that the groom would extend the house of his father to accomodate the future married couple. And when that was complete and everything was ready, he would return to claim his bride and take her home to be with him.

That is what Jesus promises. In spite of our failures. In spite even of our betrayals. Jesus can overcome even our failures and our lies and bring us past death into eternal life.

The Way (14:5-6)

I fly a lot, often red-eye flights; often several hours. Generally I try to sleep on those flights as much as I can. Now, I have a friend who is a pilot for major airline. I travel a lot and often asked him where he was flying. One time, he asked my wife, “Why does he keep asking where I am flying? Does he want a tour of the cockpit or something?” When my wife told me this, I said, “No, I just like to know who is flying the plane.” If I’m going to sleep, I want to know that when I wake up, I’ll be in the right place. And since I can’t actually control where I’m going, I’d like to know that the pilot is someone I can trust.

Continuing his conversation with Peter and his other friends, Jesus said:

“You know the way to the place where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. – John 14:4-6

Not only does Jesus set himself up as the architect of his followers’ future, he also describes himself as the pathway, the road to get there. In other places, he describes himself as the gate, or the narrow road. But here he is the way or the path. And he clearly states that he is the only path.

You might call me narrow minded. But look carefully at whether these are my words or Jesus' own.

Because some of us mistake the way to heaven as some sort of method; a ritual; a 12 step program for the eschatologically-challenged. We want it to be a method or a program so that we can control our own destiny. But that avoids the clear point that Jesus is making to his friends. The pathway is not a plan or a procedure, but it is a person. You don’t go to heaven by passing the test, but by trusting the right person.

Let me give you another example:

The other night I was at the dinner table with some work friends. Come to find out they are all golfers. So they started swapping stories, talking about caddies and courses and clubs. I am not a golfer. The best I can say, when they ask, is that my brother is a golfer and that I can fall asleep watching golf on television.

But, no matter how many friends I have who are golfers, no matter how much I watch it on television, until I get out there on the course and play the game, I am not a golfer. The title golfer comes from personal experience. The same is true of Jesus Christ. No matter how many friends I have who follow Jesus, no matter how much I watch them, unless I meet Jesus for myself and have the personal experience, I cannot consider myself a Christ-ian. And that personal relationship with the person is the path past death into eternal life.

Conclusion

In that same speech at Stanford, Steve Jobs, said:

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked.

For those of you who know Jesus: What if we lived like we will live forever? What if the things we do now could have eternal significance? Are there things you are wasting your time with, because they are so temporary? Are you the kind of person you want to live forever with? Les was known as a merciful man. Eddy told me that God taught her so much about love by watching the way that Les was caring and merciful to others. One time, they were at the doctor's office and there was a woman there with a terrible cough. Eddye told me she is a germophobe. But this woman had no way to get home so, as was his character, Les offered her a ride home and Eddye endured the germ-laden woman all the way to her home. But in watching Les, she learned about the love of Jesus, who was willing to reach out to the sick, the hurting and the dying and love them.

Or, maybe you have never taken Jesus seriously. Ok. Let me tell you: take death seriously. And if you take death seriously, you need to consider whether there is something past death, some sort of life. Maybe there is nothing after death. But will you bet your eternity on that? Maybe Jesus died for nothing, went on a futile trip to the cross for your sins. But will you take the risk? What if you’re wrong? Or maybe he went through death, paid for what you did wrong, so that he could bring you through death to the other side. That is the audacious claim of Jesus. I believe he is listening now, if you want to tell him. Tell him you have a tough time believing. Tell him you’ve done stuff that would get you kicked out of heaven. Tell him that you want to live forever. Ask him to show himself to you in such a powerful, undeniable way, that your life will be changed. Ask him to carry you past death into eternal life. That is the courageous prayer; that is the kind of prayer that God answers.

A story is told of a professor, professor Carlisle who was extremely absent-minded, always forgetting the details of life. So when the time came for his family to move to a new house, his long-suffering wife began to prepare him early. “Now honey, in three weeks, we’re going to move. And when we move, you won’t take bus A, you’ll take bus B.” Then again the next week: “Honey, in two weeks, we’re going to our new house. And when you get done from work, you won’t get on bus A, you’ll get on bus B.” Finally the big day arrived, “Honey, today is the day. Don’t get on bus A. Get on bus B.” But, of course, being unreliable in these matters, professor Carlisle finished work and promptly caught bus A. Upon reaching his old neighborhood, though, he realized his mistake, got on bus A going the other way, and caught bus B. After he got off the bus, he realized to his dismay that he didn’t know which place was his. Wandering up and down the streets, it was getting dark when he saw a little girl. “Little girl, do you know the way to the Carlisle house.” The little girl grabbed his hand and said, “Come on, daddy, I’ll take you home.”

Death is not the end. It is a change of residence. But we will never make it home by ourselves, we need someone to save us from our own lostness and guide us. Jesus is that someone.

[1] Steve Jobs, Commencement Address, Stanford University, 2005 as cited on http://www.christianpost.com/news/remarkable-thoughts-on-death-from-steve-jobs-57468 (retrieved 4 December 2011)

[2] In China, IKEA Is a Swede Place for Senior Romance, Relaxation: Free Coffee, Empty Beds Set Intimate Tone; Retailer Struggles to Police the Unruly, Laurie Burkitt, Wall Street Journal A-1,December 1, 2001, retrieved December 3, 2001, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203503204577037991554068290.html

[3] Steve Jobs, Ibid.

The Larger, More Disturbing, More Urgent Jesus

2011-12-06T22:20:00.000-08:00

Currently, I am reading "Simply Jesus" by N.T. Wright. I have always been challenged by his writing, both as a scholar and as a pastor. In the introduction to his book, he challenges followers of Jesus like this:

"It is we, the churches, who have been the real reductionists. We have reduced the kingdom of God to private piety, the victory of the cross to comfort for the conscience, and Easter itself to a happy, escapist ending after a sad, dark, tale." (Simply Jesus, p. 5)

Why do we have such small expectations of God in our world and in our life? N.T. continues claims that we have the same issue as those 1st century listeners:

You see, the reason Jesus wasn't the sort of king people wanted in his own day is...that he was the true king, but they had become used to the ordinary, second-rate sort. (p. 5)

It challenges me to think: Which part of "broken" do I think God isn't interested in transforming? Not my life (only), but the lives around me. In fact, the whole world longs for freedom from the effects of sin and decay:

creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. - Romans 8:21

So I wonder what sort of second-rate thinking and expectations I have for the God of the infinite imagination. This week I am wondering how that applies to my thinking about the churches I am actively a part of.

Mark 2: Thankful Heart, Abundant Life

2011-11-29T16:03:00.000-08:00

[This sermon was first preached at Folsom Community Church on 27 November, 2011]

Thankful Heart, Abundant Life
Mark 4:2-8

Introduction

In Budapest, a man goes to the rabbi and complains, "Life is unbearable. There are nine of us living in one room. What can I do?" The rabbi answers, "Take your goat into the room with you." The man in incredulous, but the rabbi insists. "Do as I say and come back in a week." A week later the man comes back looking more distraught than before. "We cannot stand it," he tells the rabbi. "The goat is filthy." The rabbi then tells him, "Go home and let the goat out. And come back in a week." A radiant man returns to the rabbi a week later, exclaiming, "Life is beautiful. We enjoy every minute of it now that there's no goat -- only the nine of us." [1]

Who are we thankful to at thanksgiving? Thanks-giving requires an object. Thankful requires someone to be thankful to. Some people try to celebrate this holiday by essentially thanking themselves or else thanking some non-specific grandfather-like power.

Thanksgiving is not a natural habit of ours. Complaining, yes. Worry, yes. But giving thanks? Benjamin Disraeli, former prime minister of England, said:

I feel a very unusual sensation - if it is not indigestion, I think it must be gratitude. - Benjamin Disraeli

Who are we giving thanks to? Thanks – giving. Thanks to God for the blessings over the past year. Thanks must have an object. Here's what the Bible says:

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of heavenly lights… James 1:17a

What really produces a full life? Jesus said:

I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. - John 10:10 (ESV)

Not just a stingy life. Not just a starving life. Not just a getting-by life. An abundant life.

But what is the abundant life? The abundant life is not the stuff. The abundant life is not the great experiences. The abundant life is the love, the joy, the peace with which we deal with the stuff and the experiences.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. - Galatians 5:22-23

The abundant life is God’s character and power in us every day.

And the key to an abundant life is your heart attitude toward God.

Jesus tells a story that lists 4 heart attitudes toward God.

We Refuse to Listen To God.
We Restrict God’s Access in Our Life
We Reduce God’s Influence in Our Life, or …
We Receive God In Our Life.

Jesus told a little story about the abundant life:

“Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up.

Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root.

Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain.

Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times.” – Mark 4:2-8

There are four keys to understanding what Jesus says in this story. You can find these a few versions down in the same chapter, because Jesus conveniently tells you what his whole story is about.

The seed is God’s word—what he says to us.
The soil is our heart. The condition of the soil reflects how we respond to God’s word.
Our heart attitude toward God’s word reflects our heart attitude toward God.
Our heart attitude towards God determines how abundant our life will be.

The story describes four completely different responses to what God has to say—but only one of those responses to what God has to say leads to the abundant life. Let’s look at each response.

We Refuse to Listen to God.

“Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up.” – Mark 4:3-4

“As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them.” – Mark 4:15b

There are a lot of reasons we might refuse to listen to God. Maybe…

We don’t listen because we don’t even believe in God.
We don’t listen because we don’t believe that God speaks, in the Bible or in voices or via tea leaves or any other way.
We don’t listen because we know people who claim to listen to God and they are real jerks.
We don’t listen because, based on what we know about God, we don’t really like Him (or Her or It).

So even if God were speaking to you, the attitude of your heart would prevent you from ever hearing him. Jesus called that “ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding.” (Mark 4:12a) So those seeds are just spilt, like grains of rice to feed the chickens. So, even if God was speaking, if you refuse to listen, then God’s word is just bird food.

The Bible has a word for refusing to listen to what God says: Sin. Sin, in the Bible, is not tied to chocolate. It is tied to a heart attitude that will not listen to God’s word. But if we will not listen to what God has to say, then we can never have the abundant life that he promised.

You have to be honest about it. God is speaking. God is a communicator. Jesus is the “Word” made into flesh. God is speaking. Be honest, we are not listening. If we want the abundant life, though, we have to allow at least a little crack so that the seed (God’s word) can make it down to our heart and start to make a difference.

If we don’t listen to what God says, we can never have the abundant life.

We Restrict God’s Access in Our Life

“Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root.” – Mark 4:5-6

“Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.” – Mark 4:16-17

In this story, the seed is not just God’s word, it is life. Show avocado seed. Each seed carries within it life, and around the seed there is just enough sustenance to get that seed rooted and established. The soil, our heart, is really dead until the seed gets there. But when it gets there, the natural processes take over, the first sprout and first leaves reach up toward the sun and the first roots begin to quest downward into the soil. It is a time of rapid growth. But then the sun gets hot, like it does here in the Sacramento area. Or the wind begins to blow. And, as quickly as it grew, it now fades because its roots are limited by a layer of rock just underneath the surface.

Sometimes we don’t enter into the abundant life, because our roots are too shallow. You see, we wanted just a little bit of God. We want God in our life, but we have decided we want to restrict God’s access; we give him the stuff that’s easy to give, but not really give him control. We want the abundant life that God offers, but we aren’t willing to give God the access to our life that is necessary to make it happen. Maybe it is a relationship. Maybe it is our job. We say, “God I really want you; change my life, rock my world, but don’t change the real me, I’d like to control that part.”

Listen to this:

I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please, not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep, but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze in the sunshine. . . . I want ecstasy, not transformation; I want the warmth of the womb, not a new birth. I want about a pound of the Eternal in a paper sack. I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please. – Walter Rees, $3 Worth of God (Valley Forge, Penn: Judson Press, 1971)

With the “$3 worth of God”, when the tough times come (and notice that, in Jesus’ story, they will come), the seed has never really become established. The new life has never become viable, because it has not tapped into the life source directly. At some point, it must tap directly into God’s love and power—but, if the soil is rocky, it never can do that. If you want the abundant life, you must give God access to all of your life. Here’s what the Bible says:

“And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have the power to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.” – Ephesians 4:17b-18

If we don’t give God full access, we can never have the abundant life.

We Reduce God’s Influence in Our Life
So, one response we can have to God, is we can refuse to listen to him. Another response is that we can restrict God’s access to our life. The third response is we can reduce God’s influence in our life. Look at what Jesus said:

“Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain.” – Mark 4:7

Jesus explains this a little bit:

“Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful.” – Mark 4:18-19

God’s word needs enough space in your life to produce the big crop—the 30 times crop, the 60 times crop or the 100 times crop. God not only needs access to all of our life, he also needs you to not give access to other things that crowd out the abundant life. These other things, they are weeds! A weed is just a plant out of place. Sometimes, weeds look really beautiful when they are small, but soon they are taking up the space in your heart that should be reserved for God’s word.—taking up too much of our attention.

Recently I saw this article in the newspaper about Rishab Chatty in Folsom, CA, who was honored with a $1,000 savings bond for raising the largest cabbage, with a 30lb head. As you can see from the picture, it takes a lot of room. That cabbage is almost as large as he is! It takes a lot of room. Just like the work God wants to do in us. We need to make room.[2]

Jesus says there are three things—three weeds--that, if we let them in, can reduce God’s influence in our life:

Worry. Rick Warren calls worry, “Stewing without doing.” Did you know worry is a form of meditation? It is meditation on what could go wrong. More and more of our mind is focused on a problem, and we stop thinking about God. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength.”
Wealth. We try to use money to get the abundant life without being changed people. One time I bought two dozen roses and brought them home to Helen. And she said, “What did you do?” I was just being loving, but she thought maybe I was trying to buy love. We think if we had enough money, we would be joyful. Or if our savings account were large enough, we would have peace. But the abundant life is not purchased, it is given by God.
Wishes (or Desires). “If only…” If only I could do this-I would be fulfilled. If only I could have that car, or experience, or concert ticket or iPhone, life would be so much better. If only he would like me. When we put our abundant life under the control of something or somebody else other than God, we fall into the “if only trap.” Because it is really squeezing out the changes that God wants to make in you, convincing you that your good life is somewhere out there.

Every time we allow something to be planted in our garden; every time we allow something else to take root in our hearts’ desire, there is less room for the changes that God wants to make—his influence becomes less and less. Take out the bolo! Take out the machete, the weedwhacker. If I were to ask you, what is taking up all of your time or your checkbook, those would be the things that threaten to compete with God in your life.

If we don’t give room for God to work, we cannot have the abundant life.

We Receive God in Our Life
So far we have looked at three negative responses to God. We refuse to listen to God. We restrict God’s access in our lives. We reduce God’s influence in our lives. But in this 4th response, Jesus tells us what we should do. Jesus says that the best response is when we receive God in our life. We need to welcome God into our lives.

“Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times.” – Mark 4:8

“Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown.” – Mark 4:20

Conclusion
Let me ask you a question: what is the condition of your heart?

Maybe your heart is hard, asphalt-big do-not-enter signs posted-not giving God any chance to speak? Maybe now is the time to give Jesus the chance to speak. It is time to let him in.

Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me. – Revelation 3:20

Maybe your heart is like the shallow soil over rock. Just a little bit of God.
Maybe your heart is so full of weeds and distractions that God doesn’t have room to work.
Or maybe your heart is plowed and ready to grow. If you are ready to receive God’s word and act on it, he causes the growth.

You need to receive God-to welcome God. Jesus spent his life on the cross so that God would welcome you. Welcome you now and welcome you forever. Do you know why? Because when you receive God, he receives you as his children. Here is what the Bible says:

Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. – John 1:12-13 (NIV)

If we don’t receive God in our life, we cannot have the abundant life.

If you need to do that, you can pray a simple prayer to God: “Dear God. I have been refusing you. I have been restricting you-reducing your influence. But now, as best I know how, I want to receive you into my life. I know that Jesus paid for all of my sin and stubbornness up until now, so that I can be welcomed by you. I want the abundant life, and, with your help, I will follow your plan—your words-to get there.”

If you prayed that prayer, would you tell me or Pastor Tito today? We would like to pray with you about it and help you take the next steps in learning how to live the abundant life.

Jesus says we can have the abundant life, full of the grace and mercy of God, full of the 30 times love, the 60 times joy and 100 times peace that only God can provide. That is worth thanks-giving.

[1] George Mike, How to be Decadent (Andre Deutsch: London) as cited on http://www.sermonillustrations.com/a-z/t/thanksgiving.htm, retrieved on 11/25/2011.

[2] Seeds: Serious cabbage and good causes raising some green, Debbie Arrington, Sacramento Bee (26 November 2011), Home and Garden, pg. 3.

Joshua 4: Miracles: God’s Power To Move Us

2011-11-01T09:23:00.000-07:00

[This sermon was preached on 30 October 2011 at Folsom Community Church]

Miracles:God’s Power To Move Us

Joshua 4

Introduction: What Does It Mean? (vs. 20-21)

[Helen's Valentine’s Day Prayer and Unexpected Answer] This ring is a reminder ofthe way that God brought Helen and I together. If we sat down and asked each ofthe couples in this room how God brought them together, I think we would have alot of stories. Stories of how God could bring together two completelydifferent people, from completely different backgrounds, countries and culturesin marriage. And many times, over the past 20 years, my mind has wandered backto those events, reminding me: Yes, this was God’s plan and this is God’s plan.

But you know, the ring is not thething. As pretty as it is, as much as it is worth (especially with the price ofgold today), I don’t say that this ring holds my affections—I don’t say thisring has my heart. No, instead it is a reminder of my relationship with Helenand how God was miraculously involved.

USMC War Memorial, Photo by Catie Drew, Public Domain

I’ve seen a lot of statues in my time.Big ones, little ones. When I look at the statues of great men, if I spend allmy time wondering about how it was made, what materials they used, who theartist was, but I miss the story that the statue is supposed to tell, then I’mmissing the point.

Graves at Arlington on Memorial Day, Photo by Remember, Public Domain

I’ve seen a lot of grave markersin my time. Do you spend your time oohing and ahhing over the mausoleums? Or doyou remember the life story of the one who it commemorates?

When we come to Joshua, chapter4, the monument on the bank of the Jordan River was a pile of 12 rocks piledup. Not very impressive. But let me tellyou, the story is amazing, because it is the story of ordinary people, anmiracle and the God behind the miracle.

I’m going to spoil it for you bystarting at the end of the story and then we’ll work back and fill in thedetails as we go along. If you have your Bibles, please turn to Joshua, chapter4, starting in verse 19:

On the tenth day of the first monththe people went up from the Jordan and camped at Gilgal on the eastern borderof Jericho. And Joshua set up at Gilgal the twelve stones they had taken out ofthe Jordan.

He said to the Israelites, “In thefuture when your descendants ask their fathers, ‘What do these stones mean?’tell them, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’ For the LORD your God dried up the Jordanbefore you until you had crossed over.

The LORD yourGod did to the Jordan just what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried it upbefore us until we had crossed over. He did this so that all the peoples of theearth might know that the hand of the LORD is powerful and so that you mightalways fear the LORD your God.” – Joshua 4:19-24

Let me recap the big story.Some of you may know the story of how the nation of Israel was in Egypt for 400years, oppressed by the Pharaohs. God sent Moses down to Egypt, hammers on thepeople and Pharaoh of Egypt until they let the Israelites go and then, afterthe Egyptian army chases them to the edge of the Red Sea, opens up a paththrough the middle of the sea so they can escape safely to the other side. Onthe other side is the desert.

They grab the 10 commandmentsfrom Mt. Sinai and then march through the desert until they arrive at theJordan River. Now God has told them that, on the other side of the JordanRiver, is the land he has promised long ago to Abraham, their ancestor and thatit is a land so rich and fertile, they call it the land of “milk and honey”. Sofar, so good right?

So the Israeli nation sends outtwelve spies to take a look at this Promised Land. They bring back a goodnews-bad news story. The good news is the land is incredibly rich, tons ofgrapes and olives. The bad news is: the Amorites already found it and movedinto the neighborhood. And they are big (I mean really big, Goliath sized),mean, nasty people.

What do the people of Israel dowhen they hear the bad news? They do what we do. They forget the good news.They forget the promise of God. They whine and compliant and throw a tantrum.So God says, “Fine, you don’t want my promised land. Then don’t have it.” Andsends them back into the desert and says that everyone over 20 years old willnot see the “promised” land except for two people: Joshua and Caleb.

Fast forward 40 years. Moses justdied after giving the longest sermon in the Bible (the book of Deuteronomy) andthe people are ready to try again. There parents have all died in the desert. Sothey line up at the river, which is at flood stage, overflowing its banks. Thepriests walk to the edge of the river and step into the water. Except, as theirfeet come down, God does a miracle. He not only stops the water but dries upthe ground underneath. The priests stand all day in the middle of what used tobe a river while the people cross. Joshua tells 12 men, one from each of the 12tribes of Israel, to grab a rock from the middle of the river. Then, aftereveryone is across, the priests come out, the river returns its normal floodyself and they pile up the 12 rocks at the place they camp that night.

What Are Miracles For?

Now, let me stop right there andask you a question: What are miracles for? [repeat] Does God do them for theentertainment value? What did they do before television and iPods? Oh, backthen, son, they had miracles. Is that it? So that the Bible wouldn’t be boring?

To show off? Is that whatmiracles are for? Hey look at what I can do, a two headed albino alligator.50,000 galaxies. Who does God show off to? That would be pretty pathetic if Godwas showing off, because there’s no one else whom God admires to show off to.There’s no audience capable of truly appreciating what God can do. I mean, lookat his intended audience, the Israelites. Big river, flood stage, dry ground.And how did they applaud God? Great job, God, wanna rock?

God does miracles because hewants to motivate us. And God wants monuments because we tend to forget themiracles. Look at verse 21:

He said to theIsraelites, “In the future when your descendants ask their fathers,‘What do these stones mean?’….’ - Joshua 4:21

When God does a miracle, it isnot a secret. If God does something amazing in your life, don’t keep it toyourself. Don’t let the story die with you. Instead, find opportunities tocelebrate the miracles and tell the story. Those rocks next to the Jordan Riverwere designed to be provocative. Those rocks were designed to generatequestions. There was no way that you could stroll down the Gilgal promenade andmiss these rocks.

If God has radically changed yourlife, if God has moved in a way that only God can, it should generate somecomment—some questions-- from our friends, our families, our associates.Because if it doesn’t, it means that either it wasn’t a radical changeor else you are really good at hiding it.

Sometimes you’ve got to pull theFerrari out of the garage. You know, God has done amazing miracles around yourlife. He has changed you and is changing you. But you only bring the Ferrariout on Sundays and then you only show it to your Ferrari club friends. Then youtuck it back into the garage and the rest of the week you drive your lemon towork and school.

Jesus said:

You are the lightof the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lampand put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on a stand, and it gives light toeveryone in the house. – Matthew 5:14-15

God’s miracles are meant to beshared. They are meant to be remembered. They are meant to move us andmotivate us, in four specific ways mentioned in the next few verses.

Miracles Are God’s Power In OurLives (vs. 22-23a)

First, miracles are God’s power in our lives. Look at verses22 and the first part of verse 23:

“Tell them, ‘Israel cross the Jordanon dry ground.’ For the Lord your God dried up the Jordan before you until youhad crossed over.” – Joshua 4:22-23a

A miracle is God’s powerfor God’s plan with God’s people. God does things for his reasonsand he involves us. So you don’t try the impossible because you like doingimpossible things. In fact, Satan tempted Jesus “to try the impossible”,telling him to jump off the top of the temple and he would be rescued. AndJesus said, “No!” But, on the other hand, when God has a plan and you areinvolved in the plan, many times you will see miracles happen because God willuse his power to make it happen.

Miracles require God-sized power.Miracles require God-accurate timing. Miracles require God-focus attentionto details.

Let’s look at God-sized power. Ifyou go back one chapter, to chapter 3, verses 15-16 it says:

Now the Jordanis at flood stage all during harvest. Yet as soon as the priests carriedthe priests … reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge, thewater from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a greatdistance away ... [and] was completely cut off. – Joshua 3:15, 16a

I have seen the Sacramento Riveroverflowing into the Yolo Causeway over here on Highway 50. I have seen theCagayan River, the longest river in the Philippines, at flood stage. If youhave seen something like this, you know the tremendous amount of waterinvolved. Now God just took his hand and stopped up the flow of the river, no leaks,and piled up the water, higher and higher. It took 5 years to build the HooverDam on the Colorado River, but it took God 5 seconds.

Then, notice the God-accurate timing.It says that when the feet of the priest touched the water’s edge, the waterstarted piling up in Adam—18 miles away—at the same instance.

Finally, notice the God-focuseddetails. There were as many as 2 million people who had to cross. Withflood-stage rivers, it’s not just the water but the mud. But it says, in verse17 it says that by the time the priests got to the middle of the now-emptyriver:

The priests …stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan while all Israel passed byuntil the whole nation had completed the crossing on dry ground. – Joshua 3:17

When God does a miracle, it issomething so incredible, so audacious, so big that the only rationalexplanation is God. He doesn’t want anyone else getting credit. He doesn’t wantanyone coming up with a scientific explanation for what happened. He doesn’twant us to wonder whether we imagine it. Instead he wants to confirm his powerfor us in an unmistakable way. And he gets to choose the miracle, not you.

A miracle is God’s power forGod’s purpose with God’s people. A miracle, it is God’s motivationfor you to move. A miracle is telling you God’s direction to move. A miracle istelling you who to move with.

First, miracles are God’s powerin our lives.

Miracles Are God’s Power in OurLifetime (vs. 23b)

Second, we move because God is active now. Look at what itsays in the second part of verse 23:

The Lord your God did to the Jordanjust what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us untilwe had cross over. – Joshua 4:23b

What is he talking about? Well, if you remember, this isn’tthe first time that Israel has cross over a big body of water on dry ground.Back when Moses led them out of Egypt, they came to the edge of the Red Sea,with Pharaoh’s army charging behind them, and God opened up a passage and thepeople escaped. Now, Joshua is leading them out of the desert, they come to theedge of the Jordan, and now God opens up a passage and the people enter thepromised land. Why a second time? WasGod running out of ideas, like a bad miracle sequel?

No. It was important that the people know that God was withthem, in the same way, with the same power, with the same commitment, as he hadbeen when they left Egypt. None of them had been adults and many were not evenborn back in the big plague-and-miracle days. So they didn’t know personallythe power of God.

We all need to personally experiencethe power of God. It isn’t enough that our parents saw the power of God. Itisn’t enough that our friends had their lives turned upside-down by God givingthem a new life. We need to experience that power first hand.

This was especially true of Joshua. You see Moses, hispredecessor had been leading Israel for nearly 40 years. But just before theygot to the Jordan River, Moses dies. People wondered, “Does he have what ittakes to be the leader?” “Does he have what it takes for the job?” Peoplewondered. Joshua wondered. Back in Joshua 1, God has to tell him several times,“Be strong and courageous.” “Be strong and courageous.” Why did God have to saythat? Because Joshua was shaking in his boots. But by crossing in the same wayas Moses it gave everyone confidence that God was with Joshua just like he waswith Moses. In fact, that’s what it says in chapter 4, verse 14:

“That day the Lord exalted Joshua inthe sight of all Israel; and they revered him all the days of his life, just asthey had revered Moses.” – Joshua 4:14

Does God still do amazing, out-of-the-box, off-the-hook sortof stuff? Or is that only in the Bible? Do people get healed, lives getchanged, additions overcome, cities repent and rivers open up? Or is that likeCinderella-a fairy tale?

The prophet Habakkuk asked the same question:

LORD, I have heard of your fame; Istand in awe of your deeds, O LORD. Renew them in our day, in our time makethem known; - Habakkuk 3:2

I am convinced that God is still in the business of workingmiracles in this generation. The miracles of God are not just the miracles ofthe Bible—they are the miracles also of this time and this place. Folsom is not forgotten. Sacramento didnot slip his mind. Natomas is not an afterthought. God has not finisheddemonstrating his power right here.

But, when he moves, will you move? First, miracles are God’spower in our lives. Second, Miracles are God’s power in our lifetime, in ourgeneration.

Miracles Are God’s Power forHis Plans (vs. 24a)

Third, miracles are God’s power for His plans (not ours!).God has big plans and wants us to join him. Every wonder what’s on God’s dayplanner—on his calendar? “7:02am, cause the sun to rise. 11:00am, go to thedentist” No, God’s calendar is full of a much bigger plan.

Back in verse 24, we find out that the pile of rocks next tothe Jordan was God’s announcement that He has big plans.

He did this so that all the peoplesof the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful… - Joshua 4:24

Did you know that a miracle is not just for you? God is notjust giving you a private showing; he is starting a world tour. Through thepower he is displaying, his target audience is the world. The gospel is themessage. The miracles are the marketing plan. The world is his target audience.

Crossing the Jordan River with amiracle was not just about keeping your feet dry. It was not just about takingthe Promised Land. Those rocks were a reminder to the people of God: You are apart ofhte process, but you are not the end of the process.

Sometimes people of God getcomfortable, they get satisfied, even smug. They found the answer, now we canrest. They get so concerned about God’s people inside the holy huddle that theyignore the future team members. But the goal of the gospel is not a group hug.The goal of the gpsel is global domination.

Miracles are not about you. Theyare about God. Do you remember the beginning of the Lord’s Prayer? Do youremember what you were asking?

Your kingdom come. Your will bedone, on earth, as it is in heaven. – Matthew 6:10

When we pray the Lord ’s Prayer, we are really praying thatGod will take over Folsom, California, starting with me. God’s kingdom expands, not by geographical orpolitical or economic or ethnic boundaries, but in the hearts of men and womenwhose hearts are fully devoted to him.

[Folsom Lake College, 9K students, Folsom, 60K people, SacramentoArea, 2.5M[1], California,30M people, the World: 7B]

What would it look like if God did a miracle right here?Marriages restored, the desperate given hope, the poor being fed, relationshipsrestored, addictions cast off, lives transformed. Starting a church in Folsomis not starting a Rotary club. Starting a church in Folsom is starting arevolution. You are not residents, you are revolutionaries.

Does God dream small? No God dreamsbig. He loves the people here enough to spend the life of his son, Jesus. He loves the people here enough to send us.He will back up his dream with miracles that you and I cannot even imagine.These miracles are the signs that point towards the day when every knee willbow, every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. We can’t sit still. We can’t leave the worldin the way it is. We have to move because God has big plans.

First, miracles are God’s power in our lives. Second,miracles are God’s power in our lifetime. Third, miracles are God’s power forHis plans.

Miracles Are God’s Power toChange Our Heart (vs. 24b)

And finally, when God performs a miracle, one of the reasonshe does that miracle is to change our hearts to that we focus on God, notourselves.

Look at the second part of verse 24:

He did this ... so that you mightalways fear the Lord your God. – Joshua 4:24b

Sometimes we see that phrase, “fear the Lord” in the Bible,we can get confused. Why should I be afraid of God? Think about it in terms ofyour family. Did you ever do something, and you knew that if your father everfound out about it, you would be in big trouble. That is a part of the “fear ofthe Lord.” How about this, did you ever work really hard on something, becauseyou knew that your parents would approve? That is a part of the “fear of theLord” Did you ever do something that was a little bit risky, it requiredcourage, but you knew that your parents would like that. That is part of the“fear of the Lord.”

There is only one opinion that matters. There are lots ofpeople willing to tell you their opinion. Every piece of junk mail; every ad onTV; every billboard-they all try to get my attention so that they can tell metheir opinion. My boss, my kids, myin-laws, my friends, they all have an opinion for me. Buy this. Do this.Achieve this. Live like this. They all have something to tell me. Twentysome-odd years after I left home, my Mom lives three-hundred miles away, but Ican still hear her voice in my head. But whose voice overrides all the othervoices: God's.

When God pulls out the miracles and lets us see it, he has wantsto change our opinion about Him. Is He the VIP in our life, or do we try tomaintain ourselves as the most-important person In our world, we think we arethe center of the universe. So one ofthe reasons God does miracles is to take our focus off of us and put thespotlight on God.

What God is doing is the most important activity. What Godthinks about something is the most important opinion. What God cares aboutshould break our hearts. That’s what it means to fear the Lord. That’s what itmeans to “Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, mind andstrength.”

If God is going to change the world, he must first move youby changing your focus.

First, miracles are God’s power in our lives. Second,miracles are God’s power in our lifetime. Third, miracles are God’s power forHis plans. Fourth, miracles are God’s power to change your heart.

Conclusion

Bertelsen Park, El Dorado Hill, Photo by Helen Lewis

Is that what life isabout?

Go back to the River Jordan. It was just a pile of rocks.There was nothing special about the rocks themselves. If we saw one of thoserocks today, we would not notice anything extraordinary about them. Their shapeis normal. Their chemical composition is normal. Their flaws and coloration isnormal. But their significance, their importance is amazing, because of whatGod did with them. They were ordinary, now they are extraordinary, not becauseof the “rock-ness” but because of God’s favor. They were just river rubble, butnow they are the symbol of a miracle.

We are like those rocks. We are ordinary people. We are look like ordinary people, we smelllike ordinary people, we are flawed like ordinary people. But our significanceis amazing because of what God did with us. He takes ordinary people and shapesus and forms us until, one day, we will be completely transformed into theperson he has always wanted us to be.

And I am certain that God, whobegan the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finallyfinished on the day when Christ Jesus returns. – Philippians 1:6 (NLT)

We have substituted cheap dreams for the dreams of God. Whatdo I want at the end of my life? A baseball field named after me. Are mypassions so trivial that I am content with green grass and a baseball diamond?

My dream is that when people look back at my life, they willnot see the pile of rocks, but will see the power and glory of God shiningthrough because of his miracles. My dream is that each life I come into contactwith will be transformed by the power of God. My dream is that Folsom CommunityChurch is the start of a life-giving, life-changing movement of churches in theSacramento area. My dream is that my heart breaks for what breaks his heart andthat my heart celebrates when his heart rejoices.

But I can’t do that. My habits, my attitudes, my heart is tooself-centered. I am too worried about my reputation and what people think aboutme. I am too comfortable with the way things are right now. I need a miracle. AmI the only one who needs a miracle?

Maybe you’re here this morning, and you aren’t too sureabout this whole God thing, or miracles. Maybe it sounds crazy to you. I agree,it certainly sounds a little bit weird. But what if it was true? What if God isreal and still in the business of changing peoples’ lives? Work with me here.If God was real and good and powerful, what would it take for you to trust him?Maybe you need to offer up a prayer like this:

God, I am not sure whether you arereal or not. And I’m not sure that if you are real, whether I would really likeyou. But I want to find out the truth, and if find out that you are real andgood, I will follow you as best as I can. I will know if you are real and goodif xxxx.

That’s a dangerous prayer. Don’t prayit if you aren’t serious, because it’s a dangerous thing to play with God.

Maybe God has spoken to you. You are convinced he is real.But you don’t know what to do next. Here’s a miracle: God sent Jesus, condemnedhim for what you did wrong, bought your life with his, and wants to re-launchyour life. The Bible calls this being “made new” It is a miracle, like themiracle of creating the world. It is a miracle like Jesus coming back to life.

I also pray that you willunderstand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believehim. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead … -Ephesians 1:19-20a

It is a miracle that is offered toeach one, if we are willing to follow Jesus with all of our heart. We canignore God, we can dismiss God, we can claim we don’t need God, OR we can say,“God I don’t deserve it, but I need your miracle to change me. Thank you for sending Jesus to pay for all ofmy faults and flaws, so I can have this new life. Today I want to follow you,as much as I know how. Amen.”

Many of you already know what I’m talking about. God hasalready re-launched your life spiritually. But you wish, just wish to see Godmove in a miraculous way during our life. My brothers and sisters, how I longto see God move like that. Like he did in the Bible. Like he did in the book ofActs. God doesn’t owe me or you a miracle. But I know the best place to findone: with the people of God, in his church. What does God do with rocks?

And you are living stones that Godis building into his spiritual temple. - 1 Peter 2:5

He builds them into a holy place, a monument to his glory.

We are the miracle that God is using to change our world.

[1]“Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Area Estimated”, July 1, 2009, U.S.Censur Bureau, http://www.census.gov/popest/metro/tables/2009/CBSA-EST2009-01.csv,Retrieved October 26, 2011

Psalm 73: God In Uncertain Times

2011-09-28T08:44:00.000-07:00

This sermon was preached at Folsom Community Church on 25 September 2011. Some of the illustrations are not fully spelled out, since I expanded them as I spoke.

Where Is God In Uncertain Times?

Psalm 73

Introduction

During my visit down to Irvine, dropping off my daughter Shannon at her college, I hurt my shoulder. I couldn’t swing it around, I had trouble lifting it above my header, and I had trouble reaching back to get my wallet. Now this is a real problem when you have a child going to college, because the role of a college parent is to remove wallet, invert, shake out contents and repeat as often as necessary. And here I was, on the day of my daughter moving in and I could not reach my wallet.

[wallet illustration. each person is asked to take out their wallet and give it to the person in one row ahead of them or back. I learned this from a John Ortberg book.]

Feeling a little nervous? Now we’re going to have an offering…

Feeling a little curious? What have you got in your wallet? [curious about another person/status]

[give wallets back]

Your wallet is important. Each of the little cards inside prove who you are, who you know and what you can do. [examples]

But these are uncertain times. It is the age of giving and receiving layoffs. My company laid off several people last week. My neighbor closed her two Massage Envy franchises, her house is for sale and she is moving back in with her mother. Teachers are receiving pink slips and only some get new jobs. House values are sinking, cars are breaking down, family is at the doctor’s office, bills keep piling up on the kitchen table. What do we do? We ask ourselves, “Is there something wrong with me?” [pause]

And it is good to ask these kinds of questions. When life seems to be going against us, we should check our hearts and our lives to see what kind of adjustments we need to make. Is God trying to teach me something? Has God been speaking to me, trying to get my attention, first with a whisper, but as I continue to ignore his voice, he keeps turning up the volume until now, with what is happening in my life, maybe, I will finally listen to him.

1. In Uncertain Times, Practice Contentment

In uncertain times, we need to practice contentment. But, envy will poison contentment. When our life is hard, our credit card bills are large, our paychecks are small, it is overwhelming. But when we look around at other people, they don’t seem to be suffering. They have enough paycheck at the end of th month. What is their secret?

In Psalm 73, the author starts looking around.

Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. But as for me, my feet had almost slipped; I had nearly lost my foothold. For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. – Psalm 73:1-3

The author of the psalm has a theory. It’s a very simple theory. It’s a theory I’ve heard from a lot of people. It goes like this:

God is good.
God wants us to be “pure”, good people.
God is generous.
God will reward the pure people—the good people—and, punish the bad people.

If we examined each of those statements, they seem self-evidently true. God is good. God wants us to be good people. God is generous. God will judge and reward. But when we look around the world today and we look at who has all the bennys; who has all the cheddar; who has all the dinero; who has the cars; the houses; the good looks or the money for good looks—it really doesn’t seem like the good people are at the front of the line. In fact, the opposite is true. Who gets the promotion at work? The smart, hard-working, helpful guy *or* the kiss-up, back-biting, political guy? Who gets elected in politics? The self-less and humble and truthful? Or the self-promoting lying and proud? TV stars? Rock stars? Seriously. What is the ratio between rip-off artist CEOs and honest business owners? Even lottery tickets. Please Lord, can’t I just buy one lottery ticket? If I win, I won’t waste it, Lord, like those other losers. I promise, I’ll tithe.

So, what do we conclude? Is the Bible unrealistic? Or, is there another answer? [pause]

We’ll come back to this question later. But first I want to look at one of the great enemies of happiness in the Christian life: envy. Verse 2 says “But as for me, my feet had almost slipped; I had nearly lost my foothold, for I envied the arrogant…” When I start to look around and compare, I lose my happiness. Because all of a sudden, my kids, my wife, my job, my house, my car, my position—they aren’t good enough. Suddenly, I won’t be happy unless I have this thing. I won’t be happy until I have this experience. I won’t be happy until I have this respect, or position. God has given you everything you need to live the life he wants you to have, right now. If you really need something more, you ask and God will give it.

The author says, "my feet had almost slipped." How many times have we compared, and rather than turning away from envy, we plunged in? How many times have we stood at the edge of that decision, and fallen over, because our minds were preoccupied with what they possess or have accomplished, and we have not. When you start to compare, you are on dangerous, slippery ground.

The Bible says: “But godliness with contentment is great gain.” – 1 Timothy 6:6. Did you catch that? You are rich when you are content with what you do have, accompanied by the right attitude. Stop comparing! Stop looking at what you don’t have and look at what God has already given you. Practice contentment.

2. In Uncertain Times, Choose God’s Plan A
In uncertain times, choose God’s plan A for your life.

In the next verses, we see the world’s picture of a “good life”. But, it is a lie. It is a lie because the world’s picture of success says it is possible to have a “good life” without becoming a “good person”

Look at the list in the next part of Psalm 73, from verses 4-12.

Verse	False Definitions of Success
Verse 4: They have no struggles; their bodies are healthy and strong.	They just glide through life, never having to struggle, always healthy.
Verse 5: They are free from the burdens common to man; they are not plagued by human ills.	They never suffer all of the same problems as I do.
Verse 6-7: Therefore pride is their necklace; they clothe themselves with violence. From their callous hearts comes iniquity; the evil conceits of their minds know no limits.	They can do whatever they want, and never have to worry about the consequences.
Verse 8-9: They scoff, and speak with malice; in their arrogance they threaten oppression. Their mouths lay claim to heaven, and their tongues take possession of the earth.	They can say whatever they want and get away with it.
Verse 10: Therefore their people turn to them and drink up waters in abundance.	They have all sorts of friends who always want to be around them.
Verse 11: They say, “How can God know? Does the Most High have knowledge?”	They don’t have to worry about the rules; they don’t have to worry about what God thinks.
Verse 12: This is what the wicked are like—always carefree, they increase in wealth.	They never worry about anything and always have extra money.

These versions paint a picture of what wonderful life “they” have. But does anyone actually have a life like that? No! I have a friend who works for the FBI. He has worked on numerous investigations, dealing with extremely wealthy people who try to have the “good life” without being “good people” And his conclusion, after seeing their lives, is that they are extremely unhappy. We envy the movie stars, the sports stars, the CEOs when they their lives are such a train wreck? [Will Smith]

The devil uses this lie over and over. And we fall for it, because when life is painful, we will do almost anything to stop the pain. When life is tough, and we see others who seem to have no problems, we envy them and will do almost anything to have what they have.

Early in Jesus’ ministry, the devil took Jesus to the top of a high mountain, showed him everything in the world and said: Jesus, this could all be yours—all of it. No pain, no cross, everybody loves you, all the world is yours—the only little thing you need to do is just worship me. The same lie: you can have the “good life” Jesus without having to being a good person. But Jesus said, “No!”

So, in uncertain times, choose God’s Plan A, avoid the devil’s Plan B. There is no “good life” without being a “good person”

3. In Uncertain Times, Don’t Try To Manipulate God
In uncertain times, don’t try to manipulate God. Listen to what it says in verses 13-16.

Surely in vain have I kept my heart pure; in vain have I washed my hands in innocence. All day long I have been plagued; I have been punished every morning. If I had said, “I will speak thus,” I would have betrayed your children. When I tried to understand all this, it was oppressive to me. – Psalm 73:13-16.

Do you hear the whine in his voice? What is he saying? God, I’ve been a good boy. I went to church; I didn’t kill anybody; I gave money; I kept my promises. And look at my life! God, I’ve been so good that you owe me a good life. My good actions have put God in my debt! We try to control God.

Does God owe me anything? Does he owe you anything? No. Anything good that we have in our lives is because God decided to give it, not because we deserve it. That’s grace. God’s grace is his smile upon your life, not because you pleased him, but because he chose to love you.

And God will do whatever it takes to make you into a good person. Whatever. It. Takes. He already sent Jesus to save you. He sends the Holy Spirit to change you. Your character is more important to him than your comfort. A good person can have a good life in any situation.

There is another point here: Do we only want God to get the stuff? Is God the giant vending machine in the sky? Put in your prayer, or your tithe, or your good deed, push the button and out comes a blessing? Or do we want God for who he is. Imagine if our kids said to us: Daddy, look what a good girl I’ve been, now give me a candy bar. Mommy, I love you, now can I have a new car? Love God, not the stuff that he gives us. In uncertain times, don’t try to manipulate God.

4. In Uncertain Times, Stay Close To God

In fact, in uncertain times, stay close to God. Verse 17 marks a turning point in the psalm.

till I entered the sanctuary of God; then I understood their final destiny. – Psalm 73:17

‘Till I entered the sanctuary of God’ Trying to figure out why sometimes the bad people get the good stuff and the good people get the bad stuff made him crazy. Till he entered the sanctuary of God. What was in the ‘sanctuary of God’? God was. Many times when we are in doubt or we are confused or we don’t understand, the answer is to come close to God, to go to church, to be with God’s people and listen to God’s word. Not because he always explains the answer, but so that we can at least trust the one who has the answer: God. That’s why the Bible says

Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart. – Psalm 37:4

If you delight yourself in the Lord, what do you want most? You want God! Then it says God will give you the desire of your heart. That’s God. The good life is the God life.

If God is your delight—if God is your “good life”—it is permanent. But if you try to get the “good life” by a shortcut, listen to what the Bible says in Psalm 73:18-20:

Surely you place them on slippery ground; you cast them down to ruin. How suddenly are they destroyed, completely swept away by terrors! As a dream when one awakes, so when you arise, O Lord, you will despise them as fantasies. – Psalm 73:18-20

Let me show what happens to the “good life” without being a good person. [bubbles illustration. blow bubbles and notice how beautiful and large they are. Then track the progress of a few long-lasting bubbles, express dismay that they pop. Then try again. The fate of the bubbles is like the fate of the proud, 100%]

Here are five benefits of staying close to God in uncertain times:

God comforts in the pain, struggles and heartache. Verse 21 says “When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered, I was senseless and ignorant… Yet I am always with you, you hold me by my right hand.” – vs. 21-23
God gives you guidance through uncertain times. The first part of verse 24 says “You guided me with your counsel…”
God guarantees your future past uncertain times. The rest of verse 24 says, “…and afterward you will take me into glory.”
God gives you strength to get through uncertain times. Verse 26 says, “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”
God protects you from uncertain times. Verse 28 says, “But as for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Sovereign Lord my refuge.”

Conclusion

The story is told of a man who was walking across the road when he was hit by a car. The impact knocked him on his head which caused him to be in a coma for a couple of days before he finally regained consciousness. When he opened his eyes, his loving wife was there beside his bed holding his hand.

He said, "You know, Judy, you’ve always been right by my side. When I was a struggling college student, I failed again and again. But you were always there with me, encouraging me to go on trying."

He said, "And when I got out of school and went for all of my interviews and failed to get any of the jobs, you stayed right there with me, cutting out more classifieds for me to check on..."

“Then I started work at this little firm and finally got the chance to handle a big contract. But I blew it because of one little mistake, and yet you were there beside me all the way. Then I finally got another job after being laid off for sometime. But I never seemed to be promoted and my hard work was never recognized. And so, I remained in the same position from the day I joined the company until now... And, through it all, you were right there by my side."

Her eyes are starting to fill with tears as she listens. He says, "And now I’ve been in this accident and when I woke up, you’re the first person I see. There’s something I’ll really like to say to you...."

He said, "Judy, I think you’re just plain bad luck!" – ChurchLeaders.com, Jonathan Goats, retrieved 09/24/11

When life is bad and you can’t find a way out and all of your mistakes seem to come back and hurt you, we can look at God in one of two ways: either we can thank God for being there with us through all of it, or we can blame him, like that husband with Judy.

Some of us have read in the Bible where it says: “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” But we don’t always remember why God had to say that:

Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” – Hebrews 13:5

How can I be content? Here are three things you can practice right now:

Gratitude. Stop right now and write down 9 things that you are thankful for; 9 blessings in your life. Names of people, recent events, unexpected good things, small or big. 30 seconds to write down 9 things. Are you blessed? Now, say it with me: God, you blessed me. God, you blessed me.
Give. Find some way to give what you have: time, money, resources, encouragement to someone else each day this week. When you give, you are showing that you are not poor; because you have enough to give away. You already listed 9 blessings you received from God. Turn around and give blessings away. If you hold blessings tightly, they become rotten. But when you give your blessings away, you make more room for God to bless you again.
Gather. Gather together with God’s people. The Psalmist said ‘Till I entered the sanctuary of God.’ Sometimes we lost track of what is really important in life. But God’s people can help you remember. Sitting around the table, sharing a meal, sharing your problems and listening for God speaking through other brothers and sisters, and through the Bible helps give us perspective.

The Bible says: “And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:19). What do you really need? Or have we confused ‘wants’ with ‘needs’. Food? Water? Clothing? Shelter? Sure. Car? Job? 401k? Flat screen television? Sounds like my Christmas list when I was a child. God says: If you need those things in order to do what I want you to do, you will surely have them. But what do you really need?

Did you know, you can survive up to 8 weeks without food. You can survive about 11 days without sleep. You can survive up to 3-5 days without water. You can survive 4 minutes without oxygen. But for all of us, the day is coming when no amount of food or sleep or water or oxygen can save us. Then we discover that the one thing we need is: Jesus. Death comes for us all, now or five minutes from now, or five years or fifty years, but it comes. And when it comes, you cannot survive death without Jesus. Jesus is the one thing you really need. Death came after Jesus by the cross, the grave swallowed him up, but on the third day, it could not keep him, it had indigestion and he came back to life.

Maybe you have come today and you realize that you have trying to have the “good life” without being a “good person”. The Bible says there is no good person—none righteous, not even one—unless you surrender to God and let God make you a new person inside. Maybe you know that you need God more than anything else. The Bible says, “He who has the son, has life; he who does not have the son of God does not have life.” – 1 John 5:12

If that is you, you can pray to God and tell him: “God, I cannot be a good person. But I know Jesus died and came back to life so that he can change me into that good person. I want to do things your way from now on and live your lifestyle so that when death comes for me, you will give me life forever. Amen” If you prayed that prayer now, or you pray it later by yourself, make sure you tell somebody.

Be content. Envy is poison. Don’t control God, but stay close to God.

2 Timothy 2:1-7: Legacy Impact

2011-08-22T08:31:00.000-07:00

This sermon was first preached in Medellin Colombia and then again (in a modified form) at Folsom Community Church on 8/21/11.

Legacy Impact

Introduction: When You Leave, What Will They Say? (vs. 2-3)

In a famous scene in the Mark Twain novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, everyone thinks that Tom is dead, including his family, his teacher and even the girl that he likes from school. But Tom is not dead and at his own funeral, has a chance to secretly listen to what people said. The girl is sorry she was so cold towards Tom. The citizens of the town wonder how they overlooked such a good boy. The pastor gives a beautiful sermon. Everyone cries for Tom. Then, to everyone’s surprise, Tom appears in the church and what can everyone do but love him, now that they’ve said all those nice things about him.

Many of us would like to know what Tom discovered: what do people really think about me? What really is the permanent result of my life? Will I be forgotten? Will I just be one more grave marker in the cemetery? [Arlington] This is what the Bible says:

For, “All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall,” – 1 Peter 4:24

Life is short. This thought was clearly in the thoughts of the Apostle Paul as he was writing his 2^nd letter to Timothy, as he was sitting in the prison because of his role in starting new churches and telling people about Jesus Christ.

for which I am suffering even to the point of being chained like a criminal. – 2 Timothy 2:9

Many of his friends have abandoned him.

for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me… – 2 Timothy 4:10

Others have publicly ridiculed his teaching and his career. When he went to his trial, there was no one in the trial to support him. Listen to what he said:

At my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them. – 2 Timothy 4:16

He is not sure he will ever be released. His physical health is fading.

For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near. – 2 Timothy 4:6

So with all of this, Paul might be thinking “Was it worth it? Did I really need to do all this? Couldn’t I have just sat in my chair, with my drink in my hand and watched soccer with my friends? Why did I have to do all of this God stuff? Why did I work so hard for so many years?”

Is that what Paul was thinking? No! He is thinking about the job that God had given him. He tells his close friend Timothy-a friend so close he calls him his “son”-to speak the same important message:

You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others. - 2 Timothy 2:1-2

They say that “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” That is, if they copy you, it is really because what you said and did was important. Paul tells Timothy, “I lived my life in front of many witnesses. I gave my message in front of many witnesses. Now, you, my friend, live your life, give your message.” The impact of your life will be measured by changes in their life. Not by how many Starbuck’s mugs you have in your collection, nor trophies on your shelf, nor best sales awards, cruises taken or diplomas earned, but by the changes in lives. God has placed you.

Who are the witnesses of your life?

What message are you giving?

Your Impact Comes From Your Focus On God (vs. 4)

Paul was very aware that the way that we live our lives can either improve or destroy the message. So, in the following verses, he uses three word pictures; three illustrations to show how God’s message is hidden or blocked by the way in which we live our lives and the choices that we make. The first picture comes from verses 3-4:

Join with me in suffering, like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. ⁴ No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs, but rather tries to please his commanding officer. – 2 Timothy 2:3-4

Notice that Paul says: “good soldier” We all know that there can be many types of ‘bad’ soldiers, for many reasons. But the “good soldier” described by the Apostle Paul is focused on one thing: Jesus Christ. He is not distracted by other duties. He is not worried about the opinions of other people. He watches his commanding officer closely, and when the order comes, he says “Yes, sir!” and carries it out with all of his strength.

Now imagine a different kind of soldier—a bad soldier. He is set to guard something. But then a pretty girls walks by. But then he starts talking with his friends. Then he starts texting on his phone. He starts thinking about what the doctor said. And while he is doing these—none of which is really bad—the situation is the same as if there was no guard. He has lost his focus.

Sometimes we get caught in the ritual of daily life. The ritual of eat/work/sleep. The ritual of fútbol. Even the ritual of church. We forget that these are not the goal of our life. These are not the goal. They are the journey. If having a beautiful family and a good job and an exciting game and a fun church are the goal, then they become so large in our life that they block out God.

God has given us a message. The gospel of Jesus. We are his messengers. We are his ambassadors. We are his soldiers, charged to carry the message. We carry the message to our families. To our place of work. To our schools. Even to our vacations. [France]

There is a story involving Yogi Berra, the well-known catcher for the baseball team, the New York Yankees, and Hank Aaron, who at that time was the chief power hitter for the Milwaukee Braves. The teams were playing in the World Series, and as usual Yogi was keeping up his ceaseless chatter, intended to pep up his teammates on the one hand, and distract the Milwaukee batters on the other. As Aaron came to the plate, Yogi tried to distract him by saying, "Henry, you're holding the bat wrong. You're supposed to hold it so you can read the trademark." Aaron didn't say anything, but when the next pitch came he hit a home run into the left-field bleachers. After rounding the bases and tagging up at home plate, Aaron looked at Yogi Berra and said, "I didn't come up here to read."[1]

Keep your focus on Jesus. Keep your focus on the message he gave to you. Don’t get distracted.

Your Impact Comes When You Keep The Rules (vs. 5)

The second picture comes from verse 5:

Similarly, anyone who competes as an athlete does not receive the victor’s crown except by competing according to the rules. – 2 Timothy 2:5

It is the picture of an athlete.

Have you ever thought about it: Why do we have referees and umpires? Sometimes it seems they just exist to create controversy. But the real reason is that we are tempted to win by skipping the rules. We like those rules that tell us when we win, but those which tell us when we are ‘out of bounds’ those we don’t like. Our lifestyle is oriented around the mantra that ‘as long as no one catches me’ it is ok. We are tempted to take the easy road instead of the right/straight road. We want the prize, but we don’t want the pain.

[Illustration from the life of Tyler Hamilton, who, after found violating the Olympic doping regulations had to give back his 2004 Olympics gold medal]

God created us with a purpose. “I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:14
God will not ask you to do anything that requires going outside the rules. “When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone;” – James 1:13
God always provides an alternative solution. “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.” – 1 Corinthians 10:13

[Illustration concerning Arnold Schwarzenegger, successful body-builder, movie star, politician, husband who lost it all when he decided to pursue happiness outside the bounds of marriage.]

Your Impact Is Strengthened By Your Hope (vs. 6)

The first picture was the soldier. The second picture was the athlete. The third picture is found in verse 6:

The hardworking farmer should be the first to receive a share of the crops. – 2 Timothy 2:6

It is the picture of a farmer. There is a lot of faith involved in being a farmer. There is the hard work and the investment up front, with little or no immediate reward and then waiting through the uncertainty of weather and soil and disease. A few years ago, we went to visit my wife’s professor near Toronto, Canada, who now farms thousands of acres of potatoes under contract from Lay’s chip company. Potatoes are the most frustrating of crops, because the part you can see is the part you don’t really care about: the leaves and stems. The part you really care about is down under the soil, hopefully soaking in the nutrients, but they could be rotting away and you wouldn’t know whether your efforts are wasted.

That’s what Paul is saying here: sometimes the godly life, the life of a hard-working follower of Jesus, is an uncertain one; whether the time and energy that you put into peoples’ lives, is worth it. Some people are just such losers, such leeches, such a waste of time, such money pits, such black holes for emotional energy. Whenever I start thinking that, God prompts me and says: That person is just like you on a different day. That person is just like you except for grace. Why do you think your name is “Lewis” (big L on forehead for ‘loser’)? No person has more need of God’s grace than you. No person has less need of God’s grace than you.

You see the farmer knows that the result his hard work is ultimately not in his hands, it is in God’s. And here, Paul is reassuring Timothy: no exertion for God is wasted; no tear is forgotten; no encouraging word mis-spent; no blood spilled pointless because it is God who guarantees the harvest. And, we who work the fields, will share in the joy. Here is what Paul wrote about this:

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers. – Galatians 6:9-10

Conclusion

Reflect on what I am saying, for the Lord will give you insight into all this. – 2 Timothy 2:7

Paul says, “Think!” Why does God want me alive? Why am I still breathing air? Why am I still using up food?

Paul is feeling his age in this letter. He is not confident about the outcome of his trial. And in reflecting on his life, here is what he concluded:

I have fought the good fight [soldier], I have finished the race [athlete], I have kept the faith [farmer]. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing. – 2 Timothy 4:7-8

God has made you a leader. A leader in your family; a leader in your office; a leader in your school; a leader in your church or community. You are leading. But where? Did you expand heaven’s reach into the world where you live? Or is it more like a 1-legged duck, swimming in circles.

Maybe you’ve come to this Sunday with the conclusion that you have nothing left to give, because of what you have done; because of your age or your health or whatever. Paul could have said that. He could have coasted into eternity. But he knew that you fulfill God’s purpose and then you die. If you’re still breathing, God has more for you to do. That’s why Paul told Timothy:

Get Mark and bring him with you, because he is helpful to me in my ministry. I sent Tychicus to Ephesus. When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, and my scrolls, especially the parchments. – 2 Timothy 4:11-13

Mark Twain, the author of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, did get to hear what people thought about him. Twice during his lifetime, there was an incorrect report of his death and he read his own death notice (obituary) in the newspaper. [2] Not satisfied with the results, he even wrote a humorous article asked for the privilege of editing his own obituary.

I will correct them - not the Facts, but the Verdicts - striking out such clauses as could have a deleterious influence on the Other Side, and replacing them with clauses of a more judicious character.

Then he was able to read the many letters of sympathy, and the articles written about his legacy; his impact. But you know, that wasn’t enough. He wanted to insure he would be remembered. He wanted to live forever through his books. So he piled up manuscripts and, in his will, he required that his autobiography not be published until 100 years after his death, so that people would still remember what one of the most brilliant authors and speakers in American history would be remembered.

Jesus Christ wrote no books. But there were 4 separate records of his words. His lasting impact was in the lives of his followers.

Maybe you’ve realized this morning that, if you disappeared, there would be no impact other than 6 foot deep crater your body will occupy when you die. Maybe you realized that the influence that you have, you have been using to lead people in the wrong direction or in no direction at all. Jesus died so that we can move from the aimless life; the insignificant life; the forgotten life; into eternal life; As it says in the Bible, “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.” (Heb. 12:2a) Have you ever said to Jesus: “Jesus, I am wrong. I am lost. Thank you for dying on the cross; your life for mine; your strength for my weakness; your righteousness for my sin. I want to follow your direction for my life.”

What is your impact? Where are you leading?

[1] Nehemiah, Learning To Lead, J.M. Boice, Revell, 1990, p. 38 as retrieved from www.sermonillustrations.com on 6/15/2011

[2] "Amended Obituaries" first published in Harper's Weekly, November 15, 1902, cited on http://www.twainquotes.com/Obituaries.html, accessed on 8/21/11.

Ephesians 2:8-10: Make The Most Of My Rescued Life

2011-08-08T06:16:00.000-07:00

The Wall Street Journal reported how the town of Rikuzentakata, Japan is recovering from the devastating tsunami by pushing through with their annual "fighting star" festival. Each year, for over 900 years, on the 7th of August, floats sponsorted by each of the town's four hamlets would come together and joust. Each float carries decorations made of bamboo branches and notes bearing the wishes of the townspeople.

But this year was different. The tsunami wiped out three of the four floats. The traditional route for the floats is lined with rubble. There are more wishes. One banner read, "We will not be defeated." Another note read, "I want Rukuzentakata to return to the way it was; a town overflowing with smiles."

The message that caught my attention, though, was the one that said: "I will strive to make the most of my rescued life."[1]

What will I do with my rescued life? I've been rescued by God. Rescued-a synonym for saved. Rescued from a wasted, self-focused, death-bound life. I was saved for a purpose--not on accident, but with gracious intent.

You did not save yourselves; it was a gift from God. It was not the result of your own efforts, so you cannot brag about it. God has made us what we are. In Christ Jesus, God made us to do good works, which God planned in advance for us to live our lives doing. - Ephesians 2:8b-10 (NCV)

God has granted me today for a reason. I don't know what it is yet. But there is a reason. How about you?

Pray: "God, you have rescued me for today. Help me make the most of it. Show me and strengthen me for that purpose today. Amen" What will God do? Here are some further places in the Bible that talk about it: Rom. 11:13, 2 Cor. 2:12, Gal. 6:10, Col. 4:5.

[1] The Wall Street Journal, 8/8/11, pg. 7

11 Resolutions

2011-08-05T17:45:00.000-07:00

I am currently making my way through "The Pleasures of God" by John Piper (2000, Multnomah Books, pps. 95-96) and he cites a lecture by Clyde Kilby where he delivered up 11 resolutions that caused me to pause and think. I list them here, as recorded by Piper:

I shall sometimes look back at the freshness of vision I had in childhood and try, at least for a little while, to be, in the words of Lewis Carroll, the 'child of the pure unclouded brow, and dreaming eyes of wonder.'
At least once every day I shall look steadily up at the sky and remember that I, a consciousness with a conscience, am on a planet traveling in space with wonderfully mysterious things above and about me.
Instead of the accustomed idea of a mindless and endless evolutionary change to which we can neither add nor subtract, I shall suppose the universe guided by an intelligence which, as Aristotle said of Greek drama, requires a beginning, a middle, and an end. I think this will save me from the cynicism expressed by Bertrand Russell before his death, when he said, 'There is darkness without, and when I die there will be darkness within. There is no splendour, no vastness anywhere, only triviality for a moment, and then nothing.'
I shall not fall into the falsehood that this day, or any day, is merely another ambiguous and plodding twenty-four hours, but rather a unique event, filled, if I so wish, with worthy potentialities. I shall not be fool enough to suppose that trouble and pain are wholly evil parentheses in my existence, but, just as likely, ladders to be climbed toward moral and spiritual manhood.
I shall not turn my life into a thin straight line, which prefers abstractions to reality. I shall know what I am doing when I abstract, which of course, I shall often have to do.
I shall not demean my own uniqueness by envy of others. I shall stop boring into myself to discover what psychological or social categories I belong to. Mostly i shall simply forget about myself and do my work.
I shall open my eyes and ears. Once every day I shall simply stare at a tree, a flower, a cloud or a person. I shall not then be concerned at all to ask what they are, but simply be glad that they are. I shall joyfully allow them the mystery of what Lewis calls their 'divine, magical, terrifying, and ecstatic' existence.
I shall follow Darwin's advice and turn frequently to imaginative things such as good literature and good music, preferably, as Lewis suggests, an old book and timeless music.
I shall not allow the devilish onrush of this century to usurp all my energies but will instead, as Charles Williams suggested, 'fulfill the moment as the moment.' I shall try to live well just now because the only time that exists is now.
If for nothing more than the sake of a change of view, I shall assume my ancestry to be from the heavens rather than from the caves.
Even if I turn out to be wrong, I shall bet my life on the assumption that this world is not idiotic, neither run by an absentee landlord, but that today, this very day, some stroke is being added to the cosmic canvas that in due course I shall understand with joy as a stroke made by the Architect who calls himself Alpha and Omega.

What would you resolve on today? Or do you (as I do) find that nothing is resolved upon and life is therefore somewhat random.

"For I resolved to know while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified." - 1 Corinthians 2:2

Psalm 119:60 - How Long Before Want-To Becomes Will-Do.

2011-07-25T08:54:00.000-07:00

“I will hasten and not delay to obey your commands.” - Psalm 119:60

I've noticed a curious trend in my driving. There is a delay between the time when I recognize the new speed limit (as showing by the road signs) and the time that my foot eases off of the pedal. There is a curious reluctance, which I can only attribute to my stubborn desire to drive faster-without limits.

Sometimes it is that way for me with God. My mind lingers. My mouth continues. My eyes pursue. My heart remains cold. I know where God's path is; my intent is to follow; yet there is lag time in my soul. Paul describes this in Romans 7:

For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. - Romans 7:22-23

My prayer today: God trim the lag time between knowing what you want and doing what you want. God heal the attitude that clings, even for the briefest moment, to the wrong.

Daniel 1: World Changers

2011-05-23T09:47:00.000-07:00

(this was preached at Cornerstone on 5/22)

In one of the songs behind the video is “The Words I Would Say”

Be strong in the Lord and never give up hope. You’re gonna do great things, I already know. God’s got his hand on you, so don’t live life in fear. Forgive and forget, but don’t forget why you’re here. Take your time and pray. These are the words I would say.

It says, “don’t live life in fear” but obviously he was never a parent about to send off someone to college or to live on their own. You’ve watched someone grow and mature over 17 or 18 years and they are so infinitely precious and you’ve worked and prayed that you would be ready for this moment, but now they are at the age when they can choose to ignore you and, what’s worse, is that they do. Just to be clear, I am *not* talking about my own daughter Shannon, because I was given explicit instructions to not use her in a sermon illustration…oh, wait.

So, as a semi-distraught father of a soon-to-graduate unnamed individual going out into the big-bad world, and given the job of speaking from God’s word a challenge, the Spirit directed me to the book of Daniel which describes a young man and his friends who are sent to get their education, in Babylon. Now that’s a college road trip. And why do they have to call it a bachelor’s degree, anyway? Anyway, back to Daniel.

The story picks up in Daniel, chapter 1.

1. The Situation Is Bad, But God Is Good

In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord delivered Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, along with some of the articles from the temple of God. These he carried off to the temple of his god in Babylonia and put in the treasure house of his god. – Daniel 1:1-2

In these few verses, God gives us a bleak and ugly picture of the physical and spiritual condition of the nation of Israel.

1. First, there is the king Jehoiakim. Who is Jehoiakim? Well, his dad was Josiah, the last of the godly kings of the southern part of Israel, called Judah. During this time, Israel occupied an important trade route between the Babylonians and Chaldeans to the east and north and the nation of Egypt to the south.

So Jehoiakim had a godly heritage from his father, but things went downhill fast. First, his brother, Jehoahaz gets captured by the Egyptians and will later die in exile. Then, in a game of international abusive relationships, Jehoiakim ping-pongs back and forth between friendship with the Babylonians and the Egyptians. Eventually, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, gets tired and attacks and Jehoiakim is killed, his body tossed over the wall by his own people. So much for the king of Israel, God’s chosen man.

2. Second, there is the temple. During this whole process, all of the valuable items that had been made for the temple, the gold and silver, the special plates and bowls and instruments used in the worship ceremonies of the temple are all given away to the Babylonians and they put them all in the temple of their god. So, in the eyes of many people, God is defeated and his worship services stop.

3. Third, there is the city of Jerusalem. Zion. The original city on a hill. The place where God put his name. The army comes in, sacks the city and thousands and thousands of residents are lined up, chained together and marched off into exile.

If I was keeping score at this point, I would say Babylon, 1. Israel, 0. Babylon’s gods, 1. Yahweh, 0. God’s king killed or exiled. His temple defiled. His worship stopped. His city stripped and occupied by a foreign power.

Sometimes that’s the way it looks to us. World 1, Us, 0. Secularism, 1, God, 0. Life, 1, Lewis Family 0. Many times, it is my own choices that bring me to this place of failure. For years, the Israelites had been playing around with worshiping the gods of the countries around them. Is it any surprise that one day, they would fall to one of those countries? We who take the name Christian dabble in the worship of popularity, and money, and sex and success and security and comfort. We secretly long for these things. Is it any wonder that one day, we find ourselves conquered? Is it any wonder that Christ-ians can drag down the name of Christ because of our divided loyalties?

But, when the situation is bad, God is still good.

“…if we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself.” – 2 Timothy 2:13

And more often than not, I am not the victim. I am the willing participant in my own downfall. My choices, my decisions, my attitudes, my words

2. You Are Going Where God Will Meet You

Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, chief of his court officials, to bring into the king’s service some of the Israelites from the royal family and the nobility – Daniel 1:3

After the sack of Jerusalem, the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar tells his chief of staff to gather up members of the leading families for a free, all-expenses-paid trip to Babylon…in chains. They would never return to Jerusalem; never see the temple of God again; never see their families again; dragged from their home to the home of people who had raped and looted and pillaged Jerusalem. The Bible records one of their songs of sadness and bitterness in Psalm 137:

By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. There on the poplars we hung our harps, for there our captors asked us for songs, our tormentors demanded songs of joy; they said, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”

How can we sing the songs of the LORD while in a foreign land? If I forget you, Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill. May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not consider Jerusalem my highest joy.

Remember, LORD, what the Edomites did on the day Jerusalem fell. “Tear it down,” they cried, “tear it down to its foundations!” Daughter Babylon, doomed to destruction, happy is the one who repays you according to what you have done to us. Happy is the one who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks. – Psalm 137

They are hurt. They are devastated. They are angry. And they face a disappointing future. And worst of all, it is their own fault.

Sometimes we end up in places we never thought we would see. The man divorced finds himself sitting alone on a couch; the dorm room; the homeless shelter; the smaller apartment; the hospital room or hospice care; the strange bed; the wheelchair; the foster home; the unemployment office; the AA meeting.

We create our plans for the future. We forecast the future. We pay thousands of dollars per year in college tuition in order to manipulate the future of our children. Some make lavish weddings in vain tribute to future marital success. But then life happens. And we don’t end up where we thought we would.

We don’t know where we are going. But we know that God is there. And we know that God has the ability to take advantage of any situation, starting right now. Listen to these words that God gave to these exiles as they left their home, through the prophet Jeremiah:

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. – Jeremiah 29:11-13

3. You Are Ambassadors To A Broken World

…young men without any physical defect, handsome, showing aptitude for every kind of learning, well informed, quick to understand, and qualified to serve in the king’s palace. He was to teach them the language and literature of the Babylonians. The king assigned them a daily amount of food and wine from the king’s table. They were to be trained for three years, and after that they were to enter the king’s service. Among those who were chosen were some from Judah: Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. The chief official gave them new names: to Daniel, the name Belteshazzar; to Hananiah, Shadrach; to Mishael, Meshach; and to Azariah, Abednego. – Daniel 1:3-7

This plan of the Babylonians was not without design. You take the best and brightest from the city of Jerusalem and you take them away from home and their family. You give them the good life. You teach them the best of literature, languages, mathematics, and science for a few years. You give them a new mission as an official in the largest of the Middle Eastern empires. You help them forge a new identity by giving them a new name. Soon, by blood they were Israelites, but culturally they would become Babylonian.

Sounds like college. Separated from your family. The best and the brightest of El Dorado Hills. Give them free room and board. Teach them the best of literature and science and mathematics. Prepare them for positions of importance in the world. Craft a new identity. Soon, by blood they might be the same, but culturally, what have they become?

The world has a plan for your life, whether it’s at school, work or home. The world has a path of success, and each step along that path is positively reinforced for good behavior and negatively reinforced for straying. The world is filled with fun, likeable, intelligent people.

But the world got ambushed by Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. Babylon thought it was going to press these four followers of Yahweh into the jello mold that stamped out good little Babylonians. But because of their trust in the power of God and their unwavering devotion, they would break the mold.

But they didn’t do it by avoiding the culture. In fact, they couldn’t avoid the culture. They were dunked in it. No culture is good or bad per se, but all cultures are twisted by persistent sin patterns. No culture is right or wrong per se, but God is working redemptively in each culture. We all have a culture; a collective pattern of habits and expectations that we share. We are all placed in a culture. My wife Helen grew up in Filipino culture. I grew up here in American culture. In the Philippines, the husband’s family pays for the wedding. In America, the wife’s family pays for the wedding. That’s why we got married here. No, not really… But regardless of which culture, the culture of marriage is broken and scarred by sin and needs to be transformed. I’ve been married into Filipino culture for 20 years, and was a member of a Filipino congregation for 4 more, and I am still surprised by what I don’t know. I’ve been in American culture my entire life. Both are flawed and need redemption, but at different places.

Look at Daniel and his friends: they learned the “language” of Babylon. Then, 3 years later, when they speak to the king, Nebuchadnezzar, they are able to converse with him in his own language, Babylonian. They were ambassadors. They were go-betweens. They would be the translators of heaven. And time and time again in the book of Daniel, he and his friends are called in to interpret for God, making his words and even his handwriting (Daniel 5).

This was God’s invasion plan. Young men and young women, sold out for Jesus, conversant in the culture, transforming the world with the gospel from the inside out. That is the invasion plan.

And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. – Matthew 16:18 (ESV)

Sometimes we read this verse as if the church has to hunker down and fight off the attacks of hell. But read it again. It is the church who is storming the gates of hell, not hiding in some holy bunker. And God is doing it by placing us into the schools, the businesses, the government, communities and countries where He wants to make a difference. Jesus wasn’t some rabbi guru hiding on the mountain, waiting for people to somehow find him; he was a tradesman and a rabbi, right in the midst of the people.

We are the ambassadors. We are the invasion force.

4. You Will Be Tested By The World

But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way. Now God had caused the official to show favor and compassion to Daniel, but the official told Daniel, “I am afraid of my lord the king, who has assigned your food and drink. Why should he see you looking worse than the other young men your age? The king would then have my head because of you.” – Daniel 1:8-10

Babylon was not exactly a believer-friendly environment. For the rest of the Bible, all the way through Revelation, the term “Babylon” would be used to describe a depraved society, opposed to the ways of God. But strangely enough, this was where God had brought these four young men. Jesus said:

My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. – John 17:15

The reason for protection was that the world tests your commitment. It tests your commitment to follow God’s purpose. It tests your commitment to God’s way. It presents numerous questions about the right way to deal with tricky situations. And, frankly, God’s reputation wasn’t looking so good. Remember what we learned at the beginning of the chapter. God’s king deposed. God’s temple defiled. God’s city sacked and looted. God’s people deported. Next to the cross, this was the real low point in divine history. So, if Daniel was looking to chuck God and choose something else, this would be the time.

And it’s not like this was some big issue. What’s up with those strange dietary laws in the Old Testament anyway? And was that veggie and water diet really necessary? I mean, what’s a little pork, a little blood sausage? And who is watching anyway?

But what did Daniel do? He resolved. Before he got into the tough situation, he resolved not to cross certain boundaries. And in this case, he could not be sure about whether the strict requirements of God’s law regarding food were being followed. No matter how people felt about God at the moment, in his current environment, he resolved to follow the same commands he knew at home.

This was the real test to see whether his faith belonged to him.

1. Here comes the court official; a sympathetic friend, one who has been with Daniel since his arrival. He says, “I’d love to help you, but…” He is sympathetic, but he is a slave. A slave to fear. No matter where you travel, you will find people like this guy, who are nice people, generally good people, but when it comes down to it, they are slaves to fear. Fear of someone’s opinion; fear of discomfort. Sympathetic but a Slave. Nice But No Guts.

2. Then what happened to all of the other young men and women who were brought from Jerusalem? Why were there only four? Why only Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah? Maybe for those others, every Sabbath they went to synagogue, because their parents got them out of bed on time, and made sure they didn’t stay up too late the night before. But here in Babylon, whoa, no alarm clocks or alarming parents, you know I think I’ll just sleep in. The faith was just parent forced… Read the Bible? I’ll catch up on that later. Pray? Sure, before my final exam.

Daniel’s faith was his own. No matter that his parents were gone, and the people around him thought it was weird and his boss didn’t care, and his acquaintances thought it was a chance for the good life. And, based on that faith, he resolved.

Now is the time to make your decision. Before someone closes the bedroom door. Before they hand you the pill. Before you open that e-mail or link. Before you repeat the hurtful words. Before you slip it into your pocket. Resolve now. Because while it may seem like a small thing, it is really just the first test. We haven’t gotten to the big test, where Daniel can decide to keep up the habit of praying to God, or he can go to the lion’s den. We haven’t gotten to the big test, where Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego can either follow the thousands bowing down to the king’s statue, or they can go to the fiery furnace. No one fails the big tests without slipping up on a series of small tests first. Tossing out the pizza is just the first step.

Resolve now. Here’s what Paul said about focus:

Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs—he wants to please his commanding officer. Similarly, if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not receive the victor’s crown unless he competes according to the rules. – 2 Timothy 2:3-5

5. When You Obey, You Learn

Daniel then said to the guard whom the chief official had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, “Please test your servants for ten days: Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then compare our appearance with that of the young men who eat the royal food, and treat your servants in accordance with what you see.” So he agreed to this and tested them for ten days. At the end of the ten days they looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food. So the guard took away their choice food and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables instead. To these four young men God gave knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning. And Daniel could understand visions and dreams of all kinds. – Daniel 1:11-17

Let me tell what this is not: it is not a recommendation that all Christians should run out and become vegetarians. Nor is it a condemnation of Persian food. But does show that God rewards obedience.

Many times when you are put in a new situation, when you first start thinking about God, when you move to a new place, a new school or a new job, God will allow a test to come. Sometimes it will be a new thing, or it might be a repeat of an earlier issue you have dealt with. It might be minor, it might be major but it will definitely be customized. Because God cares less about whether you win, or whether you are comfortable than he is to show out what kind of person you are. Tests do that, in school and in life.

5.1 Resolve To Be With Others

Even though Daniel resolved alone, he didn’t stay alone. Verse 8 says “Daniel resolved…” but verse 11 indicates that the four of them had resolved and were taking the test together (“Please test your servants…”). In this new and difficult environment, these four banded together. Commitments shared are far more likely to succeed, because there is accountability. After the ten days of the test “they” looked healthier and better nourished.

When my family moved here to El Dorado Hills 11 years ago, we were aware that this was not our home town. We were in a new place, but our first instinct was to find a church and on our first Sunday, we were here. Why? Because God’s people are here and I…we need you to make it through life in this place. Some of you are planning to move away this year. Some of you are not planning to move away this year but God will move you anyway. Let me challenge you that you need to find a church, first Sunday, and then not just as an observer, but as one willing to serve.

5.2 First You Obey, Then You Learn

Don’t miss this. Daniel obeyed. He turned the test around. And it was to these young people (the ones who obeyed) that God gave knowledge and understanding. They were smart already. They were educated already. But God doubled the measure of their blessing after they obeyed. Trusting God in obedience was not, as so many presume, an act of shutting down their brains; of narrow thinking. Trusting God in obedience actually made them ready to learn from God. There is no such thing as spiritual truth. There is just truth.

In my 20 years as a computer programmer and a dozen patents filed, it has been clear that I am not the inventor of new ideas, rather I am the discoverer of ideas. How many times I have struggled with my job, trying to solve a difficult problem, when I will stop and pray (usually after my wife Helen says, “Why don’t you pray about it?” Wise woman) I stop and pray and after a short or long time, the kernel of an idea germinated in my brain? I am convinced that he gives me a glimpse, however imperfect, into the genius of God.

Here’s the point: before you go for that degree or masters or AP class, go for obedience. The best learners are those who have first obeyed God.

…because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. – James 1:5

6. When You Serve, You Change The World

At the end of the time set by the king to bring them into his service, the chief official presented them to Nebuchadnezzar. The king talked with them, and he found none equal to Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah; so they entered the king’s service. In every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king questioned them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his whole kingdom. And Daniel remained there until the first year of King Cyrus. – Daniel 1:18-21

If you want to change the world, you must learn how to serve. Daniel and his friends are brought in before the king, after their 3 year intern program, to see whether they were fit for the job. This is their final exam; it’s an oral exam with the most powerful man in the kingdom. The test will be in Babylonian, will cover a huge range of topics and you are competing with the most brilliant thinkers and politicians in the entire kingdom.

The final test is not whether you choose this major or that major; the final test is not whether you go to this school or that school; the final test is not even what grade someone will give you or what job you will end up with or what city you live in. The final test is what God you will serve. If you serve the God who came as a servant, Jesus, with all your heart, mind, soul and strength, then you will pass the testing of your faith. But if you settle for the lesser gods of comfort, success, being liked, or thrill, you will ultimately be disappointed.

God used many men and women who were extremely talented and intelligent and good looking. But what he really needed was someone who was willing to serve someone else, even when that person wasn’t so godly. Joseph served Pharoah, Mordecai advised Xerxes, Nehemiah checked Artaxerxes’ cup for poison, Daniel administered for Nebuchadnezzar and his successors, one of the Mary’s served Herod and, of course, Jesus came to earth, “taking on the form of a servant.” Put yourself in 2^nd place and make someone else look good. God will take care of your reputation where it counts.

Maybe this morning, you have realized that you never had that faith of your own; you have relied on your parents or your friends to prod you along to do the right thing. If so, today is the day to graduate to a faith that is all your own. They can’t get you to heaven, they can only point you in the right direction: to Jesus. Jesus changed the world by laying down his life to make up for my foolish, selfish choices and yours. Now Jesus says, “Come, follow me” If you realize you’ve never accepted his invitation, just stop now and tell him.

Here is what God told the people of Jerusalem who were taken away to Babylon:

This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” – Jeremiah 29:4-7

Maybe this morning or this week, you came here complaining to God about where he put you. But God told his people, settle in, grow, and multiply. Sometimes we are so busy complaining about how terrible, ungodly and hell-bent the city, or state, or nation that we live in that we just write the whole thing off. Well, frankly, I don’t know where we rank on the Babylon scale, but I do know that God said to them: “Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you…because if it prospers, you too will prosper” God didn’t put you here so that you could wish to be somewhere else!

Maybe you are one of those about to start a new chapter in your life. Time to start praying, because it will be a test. It will be a test of your faith, not anyone else’s. Time to find that trustworthy band of believers, a church who will help you when you resolve ahead of time not to stray from God’s purpose and plan for you. Time to serve, because it is the servants who change the world. Will you resolve now?

Epilogue

Daniel lived to see the end of the story. Verse 21 says, “And Daniel remained there until the first year of King Cyrus.” We know from the book of Ezra that this was the year that King Cyrus ordered the exiles to return and rebuild the temple of God. Remember their sad, bitter song before? Now listen to their new song, from Psalm 126.

When the LORD restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dreamed. Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. Then it was said among the nations, “The LORD has done great things for them.” The LORD has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy. Restore our fortunes, LORD, like streams in the Negev. Those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy. Those who go out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with them. – Psalm 126

Daniel got to see it. His service extended long enough to see God purify and restore his people.

1 John 3:16: "What Love Is" (Part 2!)

2011-04-25T10:08:00.000-07:00

I ended up converting my devotional thoughts into the sermon for the sunrise Easter service at Cornerstone. These are my sermon notes, so some of the stories are not listed out fully.

What Love Is

1 John 3:16

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. – 1 John 3:16

Introduction

It was a morning like this one. In the pre-dawn twilight Mary goes down to the grave, carrying the spices and perfumes that would be used to anoint the body of Jesus. They were the same spices that she had carried just a few weeks before for her brother, Lazarus, after he died. They were the same perfumes that she had poured over the feet of Jesus and wiped with her hair, when he forgave her and sent her away in peace.

Now she comes out of the city, to the tomb-a cave in the hillside. The body was wrapped hurriedly before the Friday sunset that marked the start of the Sabbath day. Two of Jesus’ prominent followers laid the body, torn by the piercings and beatings and spears, onto a shelf in that cave. There, per Jewish burial customs, it would remain for a year until the family returned to claim the bones and place them into a special box, called an ossuary. Jesus’ enemies posted Roman guards and sealed the tomb to make sure no one could break in and steal the body.

So , as the sun rises, Mary comes. Not alone. There is another Mary, James and Joseph’s mom. There is Joanna, the wife of Herod’s household manager. And Salome. Fearful. Disappointed. Hopeless. Taking comfort together, they are hoping the guards will make an exception and roll away the stone and allow this one last act of devotion.

But when they got there, there were no guards. There was no stone. There is no body. There is no Jesus. In a comical scene, Mary doesn’t recognize him. Even though he has spent time at her brother’s house. Even though she watched him suffer on the cross. Even though she washed his feet…It is not until Jesus speaks and she hears the sound of his voice, that she knows that it is Jesus and not a gardener or grave robber.

It sort of begs the question: would we recognize Jesus if he were here this morning? We don’t even have the advantages that Mary had: We have never seen him. We have never heard his voice. We have some clues; we have written records of his patterns of behavior, we would have to use careful observation to see whether our “suspect” matched up with the rap sheet we had on him.

How Do We Know What Love Is?

This is how we know what love is… - 1 John 3:16a

Love is not our native language. Selfishness is. Sin is. Every conversation, every action seeks to reorient the world (relationships, spiritual lives, thoughts) so that it revolves around us.

The good news is: the Bible has no illusions about what we are really like. The people who put down the words in the Bible didn’t try to hide the fact that we all, whether followers of Jesus or not, get it wrong.

The good news is: when God begins his work in us, he begins the renewal process-the regeneration process-so that we can reject the impulses of sin. The first fruit of the spirit is love.

But even if we can love, we don’t know how to love. Just as we need to teach our children that whacking them on the side of the head is not “loving”--we all need to learn, because the habits of selfishness are so deeply ingrained in our character. So, the writer John helps us out in 1^st John 3:16, where he writes: “This is how we know what love is…”

Love Is…My Life > Jesus’ Life

…Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. – 1 John 3:16b

So, how do we know? By imitation.

When a baby duckling hatches out from its egg, it imprints on the first thing it sees. It usually sees its mama duck, walk likes she walks, quacks like she quacks, swims where she swims. The duckling learns its pattern of life from the mama duck, a pattern it will use the rest of its life.

We are like that, except that something has gone horribly wrong. Instead of imprinting on God our Father, we have imprinted on almost anything else imaginable. That is sin. Our pattern of life is set by that imprint.

But, incredibly, God gives us a chance—I believe he gives us each a chance during our lives—to reverse the pattern—the imprint—and get it right this time. We don’t get to throw off all patterns and live without. That isn’t the way we are made. But we can choose again whether to imprint on God or elsewhere. The Bible calls this “the new birth” or “being born again”

You see, we don’t know what love is by default, but we can learn to walk like Jesus walked, speak as Jesus spoke, live like he lived. And we know this, not as an impassive, external observer who watches what love is like with some sort of emotional, spiritual microscope. No, we know this because we are the beneficiary of Jesus’ love which considered our life is more important than his own.

And that is the pattern. That is the imprint. That is the seed. That is trying to grow and fruit in your life and mine.

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” – John 10:11.

Now, we could stop there and dwell on how wonderful it is that we are loved by God.

But John doesn’t leave it at that. In his meddling sort of way, John expects the response to Jesus’ love is not just to bask in the warmth of the heavenly glow, but lead to us acting like Jesus acted. There is an implication; there is a result; there is a response that says: if we are loved so greatly, we should respond in three specific ways:

Love Is…Their Life > My Life

…And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. – 1 John 3:16c

First, if we want to know what love is and we want to imitate Jesus, we need to have the same regard for others that Jesus had for us. If Jesus acted so that our lives more valuable than his, he also asks that we consider others’ lives more valuable than ours. So, are we lovers or are we leeches? Are we blood suckers or blood donors?

But let’s get practical here. There are a lot of needy people in the world. There are a lot of needy people just in my family, and among my friends and acquaintances. I only have one life to lay down. I just don’t have the time or the energy to “lay down my life” for everybody. I’m not God.

So what are we supposed to do? Let me make two comments here:

1. Sometimes we aren’t asking this question with honest motives. Sometimes we are asking because we would like to reserve some right to “have fun” or “do our own thing” or “avoid pain”. We would like to keep our God devotion to some level where we do enough so we don’t feel too guilty, but not enough where it would make us do something uncomfortable. When selfishness gets ahold of our spirituality, faith stops being the spark that lights our fuse and becomes the cement that reaffirms our mediocrity. Don’t lie to yourself.

2. Sometimes we are exhausted loving the people God has given near us. We were talking about this in our small group and, as I looked around the table after we’d prayed, I realized what an amazing way God was using them, both in their families and at work and I realized how maxed out we all are. I would be doing a disservice if I made people feel guilty who are already maxed out. My goal is not to lay down my life for the world. That’s Jesus’ job. But my experience is that those of us who have pushed ourselves to the utmost of what we can give, find that God expands our ability to love to one more. So we should always look for that one more, who we can encircle with the love of God.

John says that if really see how much God loves us, there is a sort of no-holds-barred attitude to giving ourselves for others:

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! – 1 John 3:1a

But still I hold back. How do I look? How do people think about me?

· Is it really about whether you look good or not? For the God of the universe, Jesus looked pretty bad up on that cross, so that you could be presented unbroken and unstained at the end of your life. Can you help the broken be whole, even if it makes you look bad?

· Is it really about whether you win or not? Whether you get the credit or not? Recently, whenever I’ve had a disagreement with my wife, Helen, I’ve had to stop and tell myself: this is not about me being right, or justified, or looking like I’ve got it together.

Love Is…Their Life > My Stuff

If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? – 1 John 3:17

Second, when we know what love is about, we realize not only that their life is more important than our life, but their life is more important than our stuff.

John Piper, in his book “Don’t Waste Your Life” comments on the “story from the February 1998 edition of Reader’s Digest, which tells about a couple who took early retirement from their jobs in the Northeast five years ago when he was 59 and she was 51. Now they live in Punta Gorda, Florida, where they cruise on their 30 foot trawler, play softball and collect shells. At first, [Piper] thought it might be a joke. A spoof on their American dream. But it wasn’t. Tragically this was the dream: Come to the end of your life-your one and only precious, God-given life-and let the last great work of your life, before you give an account to your Creator, be this: playing softball and collecting shells. Picture them before Christ and the great day of judgment: “Look, Lord. See my shells.” That is a tragedy.”[1]

John asks ‘How can the love of God be in that person?’ Let me give you an illustration. In computers, the most basic building blocks, transistors, are built up into logic gates. These gates transform one or more inputs on one side into an output on the other side. For example, an AND gate says: IF this input is TRUE AND this input is TRUE, THEN the output will be TRUE. But if either input is FALSE, the output will be FALSE. On the other hand, an OR gate says: IF either this input TRUE OR that input is TRUE, then the output will be TRUE. Only if both are FALSE is the output FALSE. The relationship between the inputs and the outputs is called a TRUTH table.

Now, let’s look again at John’s TRUTH table. What are the inputs? He says: IF ‘anyone has material possessions’ AND (there’s the AND gate) ‘sees a brother or sister in need’. What is the output? ‘No pity’

Imagine for a moment, someone gave you a random computer chip from a bucket and said: you figure out what kind of chip this is. So you, being the good computer scientist who knows your truth tables, begin to test by trying different sorts of inputs and watching the outputs you get. By comparing those results against the TRUTH tables, you can determine what sort of chip you don’t have until you find an exact match.

John’s conclusion: If you have the stuff, and you see the need and the output is not pity, then the TRUTH table says: must not be a person who has experienced the love of God. Because someone with their inner workings revolutionized by the inventor of souls give some other output.

When John talks about us like this, he reminds me of another sort of computer chip. This sort of chip takes any number of valid inputs and produces no output. We call it a NOP or “No Operation” A placeholder. The Bible says that, if you have the blessings, the means and you see the need, but there is no pity, your soul is, in effect, a big fat NOP. A paperweight. A dead-end.

You know, the best estate sales are also the saddest. Beautiful stuff, useful now only to the highest bidder. Reexamine your walk-in closet, your storage unit, your freezers, pantries, boats, your parked cars, front and back yards, your IRA, bank account and your time card. Compare that to the needs of your brothers and sisters, and beyond. Because their life is more important than your stuff.

Love Is…Action > Words, Truth > Rhetoric

Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth. – 1 John 3:18

Third, when we know what love is about, it moves our motor, not just our mouth.

Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth. – 1 John 3:18

Someone once said that there are two types of people: those who believe that words mean something and those who don’t. Preachers and politicians unfortunately fall in the former category together. It’s not that John doesn’t believe in the power of words. After all we’re reading his book and he even called Jesus ‘the Word’ (‘In the beginning was the Word’ (John 1:1). But John knows how easy it is to substitute words for real compassion. Just make the right sounds, the right speech, to make it sound like you really care.

Husbands, you know exactly what I’m talking about (or at least you’ve heard about this), that if you make the right agreeable sounds and nod at the right point, you can sort of float through the conversation with your wife. But at some point, there is the dreaded pause or the key word that signals that you are expected to respond with more than agreeable words or platitudes or “yes, dear” Now you race through your short-term memory to piece together what your wife was saying to figure out what you’re going to do.

This verse is exactly that point is God’s conversation with you. “Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.”

1. Your Family. Families seem like dysfunctional need bundles sometimes. God is redeeming your family through you. How will you act?

2. Your Community. So many are lonely, powerless and hurting. God is redeeming this community through you. How will you act? (Block Party, Help-A-Neighbor)

3. Your School and Office. Widgets and sales quotas and grades. What profits it someone if he gains all the good grades or promotion and forfeits their soul? So many are forfeiting their soul. God save us from the American dream. God is redeeming your school and your office through you. How will you act?

4. Your World. God is redeeming your world through you. How will you act?

Conclusion

So where is the gospel in all of this? John said, “Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.” Sometimes Christians get (rightly so) accused of hit-and-run evangelism, show up long enough to hand out a tract or give a prepared speech, but not long enough-not to love. Isn’t sharing the gospel loving? Yes, but it is not all of loving. Remember, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.” I know it’s not all of loving because I know how those I love and how I treat them. I lay down my life for their every need. Four times in the gospel, it says that Jesus had compassion on the people. In three of them, the result was food or healing. In one, it was teaching. It is never one or the other, it is both.

The Bible says that when we come to Christ, the Spirit of God is like a seed planted in our hearts. And when that seed matures in our lives, it produces fruit: “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Gal. 5:22-23)

The fruit is the seed bearer. The fruit is the nurture and nutrition to help that seed sprout. When we lay down our lives; when we shed our stuff for another; those acts of love go with the word of God to provide the fertile environment where God’s truth takes root.

Thirteen years ago or so, a little girl and her mother came and stayed with us for what turned out to be a month in our little house in Fremont, because of family and marriage struggles. A few years ago, during my family’s travels, we went to see her again. She was getting ready to start college, so we brought her a Bible. We keep in touch, but college was getting ahold of her. Then recently we started seeing signs that something was changing. Then she wrote this note to my wife: “Auntie Helen, I want to thank you for the kind notes. I was recently in a Christian bookstore and I wanted to buy a Bible, but didn’t have enough money because I also wanted to buy Crazy Love and I Kissed Dating Goodbye. So I went home and I found the Bible you gave me before, still in its box.” Truth and action together.

When we visited my wife’s family, we left a Bible with one of her aunts. Not much interest. This year, we had a chance to help her family in a small way. Helen was talking to her on the phone later and she said, “I never thought about God, but now I find I am praying all the time. When can you come again and convert me?” Did we help her family so that she would listen? No, we did it because we love our family. But that love packaged with truth, is the fertile ground in which the Spirit of God can work. Truth and action together.

What a difference a sunrise made for Mary. Darkness to light. Despair to hope. Death to life. Easter morning is the promise that the life that exhaust, Jesus replenishes. He told Mary, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die.”(John 11:25)

[1] Don’t Waste Your Life, John Piper, p. 46

1 John 3:16: "This Is What Love Is"

2011-04-06T21:11:00.000-07:00

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. - 1 John 3:16

A while back, it was annual review time at my company. In addition to being reviewed by peers and boss, each employee is reponsible to review themselves. This is always a tricky business, especially if your opinion of yourself varies greatly from that of other people. So I tend to evaluate myself very rigorously against the standards listed and fill in a few of my more glaring defects. But then my boss had to come back and write lots of explanatory text. Why? I didn't help him enough by writing about my many accomplishments.

Our culture expects us to be self-promoting. We are encouraged to act as our own PR agencies, constantly looking for a way to look good or, at least, not look bad. Promote what is good, hide what is bad.

But the Bible says that this attitude is antithetical to love. Love is self-diminishment on behalf of another. Paradoxically, in God's economy, the very giving away of our selves is the means to our own spiritual replenishment.

John the Baptist was confronted by the fact that he was losing market share in the rabbi market, especially in the critical demographics, to his cousin Jesus. But he told his followers, "He must increase; I must decrease." It required strength to descend into weakness. John did it for Jesus.

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich. - 2 Corinthians 8:9

Jesus followed the same path. Forsaking all that heaven offered, he emptied himself, took up our shame. He decreased so that we might increase.

Now the Bible calls on us to follow the same example of love. Our natural tendency is to orient the universe so that it revolves around us. But love orients itself around the other so that the question is not "how much I lose" but "how much will my brother/sister gain."

How can you start the process today? Choose to lose something today.

Ephesians 1:7: "In Him"

2011-04-04T09:29:00.000-07:00

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace. - Ephesians 1:7

In a passing aside in his book "Justification", N.T. Wright mentions that the phrase "in him" is the key to understanding the chapter 1 of Ephesians, where it is mentioned several times as the position of those who are saved. While Jesus uses similar language in John 15, there it is used to refer to fruitfulness and answered prayer, rather than salvation itself. Since that time, I have tried to pay more attention to this little two-word phrase, seemingly so insignificant in English.

I have to admit, I don't have a full grasp on this key idea and, surveying various theological materials, it seems to be a matter of some debate. But, I have learned a few things:

My restored relationship with God is tied to this position. In Ephesians, it says that my purchase from the slavery to sin (redemption) and the wiping of the record of my sins (forgiveness) are tied directly to my position "in him."
God's goodness flows to me because of my position. "In him...in accordance with the riches of God's grace." That is, I am only favored because I am in Christ.

In my mind, I picture this position as a sort of shelter or (to use an Old Testament phrase) "the shadow of his wings." Life flows through our connection with Jesus. In fact, Jesus himself said: "Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them." (John 6:56) This graphic imagery shows the close ties that the phrase "in him" implies. We are so closely identified with Christ that "in him" we partake in the benefits of his blood. Not just covering our sin, but transforming within.

Once we are "in Him" we must "remain in Him." Jesus (in John 15) paints the ridiculous picture of a branch that might somehow strive to be separate from the vine. A sort of self-pruning! In contrast with this are those who "remain in" or "abide in" Jesus. If Jesus is the source of our life, then strengthening that relationship widens the conduit through which his goodness can be manifested in our goodness ('fruit') If we don't value that relationship, the connection shrivels, the conduit shrinks and the branch needs to be pruned.

Rejoice that you are God's dependent. Thank him for his life-giving, soul-changing influence in your life. Guard against envious thoughts that perceive fulfillment in a way other than closeness with God.

Psalm 139:23-24: "Search Me"

2011-03-06T22:01:00.000-08:00

Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. - Psalm 139:23-24

I learned these words as the words to a song while I lived in the Philippines and have always been challenged by the request that the author gives to God. It is a form of accountability that I am uncomfortable with because I don't like having to justify myself to anyone. But the author invites God in. How will I invite God in?

Search - God, feel free to look around in my life. Open any door, dump out any drawer, rummage through any closet. Transparency is a voluntary, but crucial aspect of any relationship.
Know - Get a full working understanding of what makes me tick. No secrets as to what influences my decisions.
Test - Are my claims about myself real? Or is it a facade? Is my profession of faith and devotion real, or an attempt to manage the impressions of those around me; to make me appear 'spiritual'. Don't let me settle for the veneer.
Know (2nd time) - Drive along with me for a day in my thought life; see what dominates my thinking and what is important in my life. I am often controlled by my fears; please understand that I am weak; I need a big God.
See - Have I left something standing between myself and God?
Lead - My path and my agenda are not important. Show me your path and your agenda.

Isaiah 6: Believing The Lies You Told

2011-02-08T10:18:00.000-08:00

Isaiah 6 contains a powerful call to God's service as Isaiah views the throne of God and the angel's purify him for service. But he is given one of the most depressing ministries of all time:

He [God] said, “Go and tell this people: “‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’ Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”

Then I said, “For how long, Lord?”

And he answered: “Until the cities lie ruined and without inhabitant, until the houses are left deserted and the fields ruined and ravaged, until the LORD has sent everyone far away and the land is utterly forsaken.” - Isaiah 6

Tell a preacher you must speak, but there will be no hearts and lives changed, and I think you would see a mass exodus from the public ministry! Why would there be no seeing? Why no hearing? The clues lie embedded in God's previous message to Isaiah in chapter 5:

Woe to those who draw sin along with cords of deceit, and wickedness as with cart ropes...Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. - Isaiah 5:18,20

The twisting of the truth to serve self-indulgent convenience was repulsive to the God of justice. So, in chapter 6, Isaiah is given a message that says: you will no longer recognize the truth. You have told lies to long that you can no longer discern the truth, even when it is the truth that would save you. (cf. Romans 1)

In my life, I realize I have an infinite capacity to deceive myself. God may be trying to tell me something--through the Bible, through my wife, through circumstances--but I first choose not to understand and then I cannot understand. Pray God grant me eyes to see (Eph. 1:18) "I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened."

The good news is that God has declared his favor towards me, through Jesus. In spite of my own willful ignorance, God will bring me through pain and even judgment to plenty, just as he promised his people through Isaiah:
Todd Agnews captures the scene of Isaiah 6 in his song:

And though a tenth remains in the land, it will again be laid waste. But as the terebinth and oak leave stumps when they are cut down, so the holy seed will be the stump in the land.”

Grow: The Race To Maturity

2011-01-30T22:24:00.000-08:00

But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen - 2 Peter 3:18

Different plants have different strategies for growth. Some are lean and tall; racing towards the sun. Others dig deep for water. Others spread broad leaves to catch each bit of sun that reaches them. Still others spread their roots wide. But all of them attempt to harness the resources of God to grow. That growth has a goal: maturity, the point at which a plant can begin to fruit and seed.

Peter reminds us to grow in both grace and knowledge. Paul describes this as a part of the development of every believer.

All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God’s grace in all its truth - Colossians 1:6

In both cases there is this idea that growth is spurred on by access to two things: the grace of God and the truth of God. You can speed up the acquisition of information, but the speed of spiritual development is not in your hands. In many cases, it requires that truth and grace be experienced through different seasons of life. Just as some plants are ready to fruit in mere days (like grasses), others may require several years. As Paul wisely noted elsewhere, it is God who causes the growth. Much of that is built into the spiritual DNA which differs for each one of us.

The Truth Of God
We must admit that there is and always will be a gap between our understanding and God's. We are always the learner; He is always the teacher. Growing in this area means learning, through experience, what we have already been taught. Peter is a good example of this. At one point in Jesus' ministry, he began to tell his students that he was going to get in trouble with the authorities and die. Peter didn't like this and "...took him aside and began to rebuke him. 'Never, Lord!' he said. 'This shall never happen to you!'" (Matt. 16:22)

Peter had the knowledge in his heart that Jesus was rabbi and that he was the disciple. But he also felt he knew what was going on, well enough to rebuke Jesus based his understanding of what was going on. In turn, Jesus uses the strongest language he will ever use on any disciple except Judas, saying, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns" (vs. 23) Notice the gap both motive ("Satan") and the will of God ("concerns of God').

We want to take in copious quantities of the Word of God, from the Bible. Then we want the Spirit to take the Word of God through us, from life. Doing one without the other leaves us either shallow (from lack of the experience) or foolish (from lack of the Word). Truth guides growth, and love fuels it.

The Grace of God

We must come to grips with how much God loves us and has give us that we don't deserve. We don't have any claim on God's affections other than His own promises (because he cannot lie). If we are sure of this, then a great many mountains can be climbed and difficult tasks ventured, because his opinion is secure. A healthy believer sinks his or her roots into the love of God to fuel growth.

And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. - Ephesians 3:17b-19

Paul wants his "rooted" believers to take the next step: to discover the full extent of God's love and then experience that personally. Truth guides the growth, but love fuels it.

Growth Together

It is important to note that this growth is not designed to happen alone. Trees grow in groves. Grasses grow in fields and meadows. While each plant bears within it the full plan of God for the next generation, it does not mean that it was designed to do this alone, only that it can if absolutely necessary. We are better together with other believers. There is a nurturing environment created when those sharing the same spiritual DNA come together. That is why Paul says "together with all the Lord's holy people". It is a joint pilgrimage. A joint growth path.

Experience the truth by learning and teaching. You can learn from God. You can learn from others. But having to explain the truth yourself (to 'witness') from your own learning and experiences will cement it.

Experience grace by serving and being served. Peter had that there is a grace in both receiving service from others (John 13:8) and giving that service to others (John 13:15). Experience growth. Foster thriving relationships with others in the church.

Jeremiah 17:9: Can You Trust Your Feelings?

2011-01-17T16:04:00.000-08:00

This past Sunday I went to church here in Taipei at the Tagalog Fellowship of the Taipei International Church. There, Pastor Paul Ko asked us "Can you trust your feelings?" He pointed to this verse in the Bible:

The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? - Jeremiah 17:9

I am proficient at self-deception. My judgement is not just ill-informed, but deliberately misdirected. The sad part is that I do this to myself, for lots of different reasons. Sometimes I want to believe that the way I am now is adequate. Sometimes I want to believe where I am headed is the way I should go. Sometimes I want to be comfortable and avoid choices that would conflict with that comfort. In all cases, my heart is not a reliable guide for direction. As Pastor Paul says, truth is the only basis for choice, not feelings. Feelings are not right or wrong, he says, but our choices can be.

2 Samuel 11. The story of David and Bathsheba is a famous one. It starts with David convincing himself that he doesn't need to be out with the army (vs. 1), then follows with lust after the wife of one of his best soldiers who is doing his job with the army (vs. 2-3), then taking that wife and using the army to kill her husband (vs. 15). But it is clear by the end of the story, when the prophet Nathan confronts him (12:13), that David had, up to that point, come to some measure of self-deception which allowed him to avoid the extent of his guilt or his role in the matter. How many times must God use drastic means to introduce us to our own failings?

Acts 24:24-25. In this case, Felix listens to Paul's defense against the charges brought by those Jews angry with his ministry. During his defense, Paul describes the gospel, including the judgment to come and it says that Felix was afraid. Rather than responding to the truth, he sends Paul away, promising to listen again to Paul when there is a convenient time. Well, it turns out there is never a convenient time and, after two years, Felix is replaced with another official. Felix's fear (perhaps of judgment) leads him to deliberately avoid hearing the truth. How many times have we avoided people so that we could avoid the unpleasant truth?

But then, in Acts 2, we see a different response to feelings. Here the crowds have just witnessed a miracle of God (the tongues of fire and the speaking in many languages) and Peter speaks. It says that they were "cut to the heart". What was the crowds response? Did they leave? Did they attack Peter? No, it says they wanted to know what to do? When Peter told them, they did it and the thousands came into the church. Their feelings prompted them to act, but truth gave them their direction.

Feelings prompt you to act. Truth gives you direction. Anger. Bitterness. Disappointment. Attraction. Excitement. Amazement. All feelings. All can be deceptive. Choices must be made on something more reliable. The Bible provides a consistent vision of God's truth to use when making choices. What will you choose.

(from notes on a sermon by Pastor Paul Ko, 16 January 2011)

The Four Churches (Internal vs. External Focus)

2011-01-11T13:54:00.000-08:00

In the book "The Externally Focused Church" (Group, 2004), authors Rick Rusaw and Eric Swanson show a diagram similar to this one to evaluate whether your church is internally focused or externally focused. They list some interesting qualities about how we normally go about church and the underlying assumptions we are making.

Internally Focus (Lower Left) - These churches are good at preaching and teahing, worship and serving the needs of those inside the church. These churches are "come to" churches.

Serving Churches (Upper Left) - These churches are really good at demonstrating love for their communities. These churches have been at the forefront of bringing change to their communities, but are weak in proclaiming the gospel.

Evangelistic Churches (Lower Right) - In these churches it's all about going after the lost. But they do little or nothing to serve or be a blessing to their community apart from evangelism.

Externally Focused Churches (Upper Right) - These churches are effective in proclaiming good news and showing good news to their communities, both "show" and "tell".

Take a look at your own church. Which category does it fit in now? Which category do you think it belongs in? How can you both "show" and "tell" the gospel where God has placed you?
Externally Focused Churches

Psalm 128: Could It Be That Much Better?

2010-12-22T09:44:00.000-08:00

Reading the story of the return by the Israeli captives in Psalm 126 provides insight into the emotional undercurrent of God's story for those of us who suffer and struggle and persevere:

When the LORD restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dreamed. Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. - Psalm 126:1-2

There is a sense of unreality when there is a reprieve from the oppresiveness of the day-to-day. Laughter bubbles up from deep within; dancing erupts; singing comes unbidden from the deep wells of our soul.

Some of this relief comes from knowing that our trust in God was well-placed. Choices we made are reconsidered at length, every day a reminder of where we went off the path. All supports have been removed. We are forced to either trust God or else capitulate to helplessness and despair. And this decision happens in the spotlight:

Then it was said among the nations, “The LORD has done great things for them.” The LORD has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy. - Psalm 126:2b-3

The final consolation for those returning from a period of sorrow was it was worth it all.

Those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy. Those who go out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with them. - Psalm 126:5-6

Each farmer must take out the paltry offering of seed and place it within the ground and trust that there will be a harvest. For those who follow Jesus, each tear is a seed sown against the promise of a future harvest of joy. There is hope based on the promise of God. Do I trust?

For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. - 2 Corinthians 4:17

Grow: Striving For Maturity

2010-12-09T10:32:00.000-08:00

In the previous few posts, I've been talking about the process of being rooted in the faith. The rooting process starts when a person encounters the word of God and ends when the person's is depending on God. The parable of the sower shows that this process may begin several times before the word of God finally does take root. But when it does, watch out!

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. - Ephesians 3:16-19

After being rooted, a new plant itself has all the tools it needs to draw nourishment from the sun and soil, in order to grow. Leaves develop and multiply. Roots spread and seek. Stems become sturdy and branch. Some quickly, others at a more measured pace, but all stretching up to the sun and down to the soil.

Likewise, as believers, when we begin to draw upon the resources of God, we begin to recognize the vastness of God, his love, and its power to change us at a fundamental level. This power ignites growth, as the ramifications of new life in Christ begin to work their way out.

Growth has a goal. For a plant, the goal is maturity: the condition where that plant will produce fruit; each fruit with seeds; and each seed representing new life. It's sun-given energy is not for hanging around the garden, but for producing the next generation. For a believer, the goal is the 'fullness of God' or, as it says in other places in the Bible, the 'image of the Messiah'. The fullness leads to fruitfulness (Gal. 5:22-23), with the fruit acting as seed bearers, and each seed the word of God for new life.

My spiritual life is sometimes like the life of a confused plant: lots of resources, but no direction; no goal. Just hanging around, just existing. Need a little reorientation; a little refocusing on the real goal: changing lives.

He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. - John 15:2

Root: Sprout Mortality (Mark 4)

2010-12-04T23:50:00.000-08:00

The farmer sows the word. Some people are like... - Mark 4:14

Jesus told a story of a farmer who went out to sow seeds. Each of the seeds were identical-a nutrient-packed bundle of vitality-but the results were quite different. Four seeds-three deaths. One seed never even makes it off the starting block--the birds come and carry it away. Two more seeds start well, breaking dormancy quickly and sending a sprouts sky-ward and roots earth-ward. But the tough conditions prevent the sprout from ever reaching viability--the initial supply of sustenance from the seed gone, they wither and die. Only the fourth seed germinates, matures and thrives.

Jesus parallels this with the response of people to God's message. God reveals himself ("sows"). The seed is his message ("the word"). Each person treats the message differently.

And, in most case, the seed dies. Sprout mortality is high. The human heart is not a supportive environment. Each seed is full of the life-giving spiritual DNA of the savior, who lavishes it on the unwelcoming soil.

So what are the causes of sprout mortality?

If the seed lands upon the path, where the hard soil and exposed conditions insure a quick death, it never sprouts. Jesus said: "As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them" (vs. 15) The heart never hears; the word is not welcomed; it is discounted and ridiculed and unconsidered and forgotten.
If the seed lands in the rocky places, there is a thin veneer of soil. The seed sprouts as the word of God takes root. During this period, it is dependent on the nutrients that are in the seed itself. The sprout is tender and unable to bear up under environmental stress, especially lack of water. The roots must deepen. But, if the soil is rocky, they cannot and the heat of the sun kills the sprout. This is the period of testing. The testing shows whether the plant is viable-truly a new life. In the journey of faith, rooting is a change from self-dependence to God-dependence, so that in the scorching, we draw upon the sustenance of God.
If the seed lands in the fertile but uncultivated places, there is rich soil and plenty of weeds to share it with. This is the period of priorities. The uncultivated heart does not clear enough space--enough priority--for the word of God to flourish. Many weeds are good plant in the wrong place. Others are just nasty, spiny bullies. Without clearing them, they will suck up nutrients, moisture and sunlight You must clear the real estate of your heart for the word of God to flourish. Other priorities will suck up your time, attention and ambitions.

Sprout mortality is far too common. People start the journey of faith each time God confronts them with a word about himself. But it is aborted when the word is discounted, scorched or crowded out of their life. So their journey must start again.

But if the people can make it past this phase--if they are rooted and established--then they can draw upon the vastness of the love of God and grow. Paul talks about it this way:

And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ - Ephesians 3:17b-18

In the fertile and cultivated places, there are nutrients, there is moisture and there is sunlight. The result is growth. The result is fruit (Gal. 5:22-23). The result is a new harvest of seed:

Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown. - Mark 4:20

Root. Grow. Fruit. Seed. It all starts with drawing upon the grace of God.

Root: Established In God's Family

2010-12-02T09:30:00.000-08:00

Oak Seedling
^"Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root." - Mark 4:5-6

Each seed that germinates has a certain measure of growth potential built into the seed and the fruit that contains the seed. There is enough nutrition there for a sprout to seek the sun and for the roots to seek the soil. By the time those initial resources have run out, the new sprout must be viable on its own, or else it will wither and die.

Jesus applied the same principle to the word of God-the "seed" planted by God:

"But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away." - Mark 4:17

Each seed has within it the full potential for germination and life. Many seeds never reach that potential because, in horticulture as in life, the environment is harsh towards young sprouts. Likewise many people have heard the word of God, felt the power of God, and started to sprout spiritually, based on the life-giving resources of the seed itself, yet they never root and never become viable.

I call this the real world test and have seen it repeatedly in the lives of those introduced to God, who then respond enthusiastically to the Word, often with supernatural encouragement. Then comes the first test. It might be the return of a habit, or a relationship, or a circumstance. But it is the world attempting to assert its dominance again in a person's life. The test always involves a choice: to trust the Word or to return to the previous pattern. Trusting God's word deepens the roots. The other choice leaves them stunted.

How do we engineer the environment to foster healthy rooting? Cultivation. Paul talked about it, saying:

"I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow." - 1 Cor. 3:6

There was a care in the planting. There was a care in the nurturing. There was a dependence on God.

Much of this process lies in the heart, where each person receives the word. But the church also has a responsibility of cultivation, in at least three ways:

Planting. People in this rooting phase need to have established relationships with other followers of Jesus. During the rooting phase, they must come to publicly identify with the church, through the ordinances of communion and baptism.
Nurturing. The rooting phase is all about drawing sustenance from the words of God. Encouraging good habits early of hearing, reading, memorizing, meditating and apply the word of God guarantee a viable believer who can thrive.
Dependence. God gives the growth. It is his seed that is planted. It is his spiritual DNA that is being born in our life. Healthy believers use prayer to reinforce our habit of dependence on God.

AWANA, Week 4: (Acts 3:1-10)

2010-11-30T09:51:00.001-08:00

)(these are scripts, written by Tim and Brahms for an AWANA Council Time series on the early church)

Moe is a horse puppet.
Joe and Jim are twin iguana puppets.

AWANA, WEEK 4: Acts 3:1-10

MOE: So, Tim, What do you have for me?

TIM: Nothing.

MOE: Really? No, c’mon, you have to have something to eat, I’m hungry.

TIM: Look, no food. Cell phone, keys, wallet, USB key.

MOE: Hmm…ok, no food. But, the cell phone does look promising. When are you going to get me a cell phone?

TIM: Cell phone? You don’t even make enough money to pay for your cookies and hay and you are talking about cell phones.

MOE: Sure, and then there’s the BMW and the PS3 and this mailbox is starting to look a little old and…

TIM: Whoa! Hold on there. What do you think? Am I made out of money?

MOE: You seem pretty rich to me.

TIM: Well, I don’t have a lot, but what I do have, I will give it to you

MOE: Whoo hoo! Nutter Butter, my favorite.

JOE: Hi, TIM, Hi, MOE. Hey, what’s all the noise about.

JIM: Yeah, did you just win a prize or something on the radio.

MOE: Oh, nothing.

TIM: MOE, I just gave you a package of cookies. 5 minutes ago you didn’t even have anything. Now you are hiding them from your friends.

MOE: Umm…

TIM: Why were you hiding them?

JOE/JIM: Yeah, why are you hiding them from your buddies?

MOE: Well, there are only a few cookies in here. And if JOE and JIM saw them, well, they like cookies too, and then there wouldn’t be very many for me.

TIM: You know, MOE, this isn’t a limited cookie universe.

BRAHMS: Yeah, its just like God’s blessings to us. This isn’t a limited blessing universe. When you take what you have and share it, then there’s more room for God to bless you.

TIM: Just like in the first church. The Bible says that Peter and John were headed up to the temple to go and pray. As they went, there was a man there who had never been able to walk ever since he was a baby.

BRAHMS: Oh, I remember this one. He couldn’t walk and his friends put him down near the temple so that he could ask for money, because he was really poor.

TIM: People often tried to help the poor by throwing them coins, silver or gold. So this man was asking them for money. But Peter and John didn’t have any money. But they still had one thing.

MOE: What did they have?

TIM: Peter said to the man: “Look at us!”

BRAHMS: Then the Bible says, Acts chapter 3, verse6 , “ Silver and gold I do not have but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk. Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong”

JOE/JIM: Wow! That guy must have been really happy.

TIM: He was. He started jumping up and down. He started shouting. He started praising God. People were wondering what was going on.

BRAHMS: You know, MOE, we don’t always have cookies. And we don’t always have money. But one thing we can always give away is the hope we have because of Jesus.

MOE: What do you mean?

BRAHMS: We all want to go to heaven. We would like our friends and family to go to heaven. But they can’t get there by themselves, because God only lets perfect people into heaven.

TIM: And it’s impossible, because none of us is perfect. But we tell them about Jesus. The Bible says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.” God wants to give that gift, and when you tell your friends about him, you are helping to give that gift.

MOE: So do I still have to share my cookies?

TIM: Any blessing should be shared.

MOE: Ok. Here you go.

JOE/JIM: Yeah.

TIM: Now here’s how people tell people about Jesus, around the world.

AWANA, Week 3 (Acts 2:14-47)

2010-11-30T09:50:00.000-08:00

(these are the scripts written by Tim and Brahms for AWANA, in a continuing series on the early church)

Moe is a horse puppet.
Joe and Jim are twin iguana puppets.

AWANA, WEEK 3: Acts 2:14-47

MOE: I still remember what Natalie said a few weeks ago, about church. She said: “Church is not a building; church is people who hang out with God.” That was really cool.

JOE: MOE, how did the church get started?

JIM: Yeah, MOE, why did people first decide they want get together and talk about God?

MOE: Well, I’m not sure. But you remember last week how there was the sound of a violent wind, the tongues of fire and lots of different languages?

JOE: Yeah. Must have been pretty crazy.

JIM: Yeah.

MOE: There were a lot of people there, thousands of people. They heard the wind; they saw the tongues of fire; they heard the languages. They wanted to know: What is going on? What does this mean? Are these people drunk? Maybe they had too much beer or wine!

JOE: So the church is a bunch of people who get together and act strange?

JIM: Strange way to start a religion.

MOE: It wasn’t like that. But it did get their attention.

TIM: Then a guy got up. His name was Peter. He was one of Jesus’ friends, but not the brave one. One time, when some people asked if he was Jesus’ friend, he pretended he didn’t know or like him, so he wouldn’t get in trouble.

MOE: Sounds like a loser. No friend of mine.

TIM: Because when Jesus came back to life, he told Peter what he did didn’t matter any more. He forgave Peter.

JOE: So that’s how the church started?

JIM: How?

JOE: Peter gives a big speech, blah, blah, blah, everybody’s happy and they throw a big party, and that’s the church?

JIM: Party church!

BRAHMS: Actually, Peter said "Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. “ (Acts 2:22-24)

TIM: When the people saw Peter standing there; when the people saw the tongues of flame and heard the wind, they realized that these were the same types of miracles that Jesus had done. When Peter was talking, they figured out they were the ones who did something wrong. The Bible says, “For all [everyone] has sinned.”

MOE: What did they do? They must have been really sad.

TIM: Read what the Bible said:

MOE: “When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?"

JOE/JIM: What did they do?

MOE: Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.

TIM: If you do something wrong, who gets punished? Does your brother get punished? Does your dog get punished? No, you get punished. But God, when you hurt him by the things you do wrong and you know they are wrong, said, I will send Jesus to take your punishment.

BRAHMS: Those people must have been really happy.

TIM: There were more than 3000. And those 3000 were the start of the church.

BRAHMS: Peter, hurt Jesus by pretending not to know him. Jesus forgave him. These people helped the men who nailed Jesus on the cross. Jesus forgave them. And you and me: we have all done things wrong. Jesus can forgive us.

TIM: So that we can live forever with God. And, so that we can be a part of his church, hanging out with people who love God.

BRAHMS: The people who were there would eventually go home, taking the good news of Jesus with them. Let’s learn a little bit more about people who are going around the world today, taking the good news of Jesus with them.

Psalm 97:7-9: Right Once In A While

2010-10-27T22:07:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it is just nice to feel like you've got it right. As a follower of God, you can take a beating from folks who think you are either foolish for believing in God or foolish for believing in the wrong God. Blaise Pascal famously reasoned that it was worse to not believe at all than to believe in God and be wrong. But the author of Psalm 97 takes a different approach:

All who worship images are put to shame, those who boast in idols—worship him, all you gods! Zion hears and rejoices and the villages of Judah are glad because of your judgments, O LORD. For you, O LORD, are the Most High over all the earth; you are exalted far above all gods. - Psalm 97:7-9

It says: God himself is in charge of his own reputation and, when he reveals himself, those who have long held the unpopular view of his existence and vitality will be proven right. They will rejoice, even as the villages of Judah rejoiced in this psalm. Its nice to be right once in a while. Its also nice not to have to say "I told you so" but let the knowledge come irrefutably from another direction.

Psalm 82: The Right of Revenge

2010-10-19T23:47:00.000-07:00

This past week I finished reading The Count of Monte Cristo (by Alexander Dumas), a 1000-page behemoth of a novel. I had previously only been aware of the plot and themes of the novel in outline form and through the excellent (though substantially different) 2002 movie version. The driving force of this famous book is revenge: the need for the main character, Edmond Dantes, to see the good rewarded and the wicked punished. Envisioning himself as the divine agent of retribution, he steps in where God has otherwise not seen fit to act. In the end, Dantes finds revenge has changed him:

"Tell the angel who will watch over your future destiny, Morrel, to pray sometimes for a man, who like Satan thought himself for an instant equal to God, but who now acknowledges with Christian humility that God alone possesses supreme power and infinite wisdom." - The Count of Monte Cristo, ch. 117.

The frustration that forms the heart of this novel is a frustration that all of us feel to some extent. Why do the good go unrewarded while the wicked go unpunished? Or, if justice is done, why the long delay? The Psalms wrestle with this theme at length, even calling God's character into question:

"How long will you defend the unjust and show partiality to the wicked? Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. Rescue the weak and needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked." - Psalm 82:2-4

When this anger wells up inside us, this very anger that ties us, among all creatures, to the very nature of God. It is the emotional response to an innate awareness that life is not fair, but it should be. C.S. Lewis said it this way:

Everyone has heard people quarreling. Sometimes it sounds funny and sometimes it sounds merely unpleasant; but however it sounds, I believe we can learn something very important from listening to the kinds of things they say. They say things like this: "How’d you like it if anyone did the same to you?"--‘That’s my seat, I was there first"--"Leave him alone, he isn’t doing you any harm"--"Why should you shove in first?"--"Give me a bit of your orange, I gave you a bit of mine"--"Come on, you promised." People say things like that every day, educated people as well as uneducated, and children as well as grown-ups.

Now what interests me about all these remarks is that the man who makes them is not merely saying that the other man’s behavior does not happen to please him. He is appealing to some kind of standard of behavior which he expects the other man to know about. And the other man very seldom replies: "To hell with your standard." Nearly always he tries to make out that what he has been doing does not really go against the standard, or that if it does there is some special excuse... - Mere Christianity, chapter 1.

We know what is fair. We manipulate its definition to suit our advantage, but we know it. We are angered when we feel unfairness (or injustice) or see it done. But what do we do about it?

One of the key attributes of God is his justice. Justice is a reckoning which gives to each according to what they are due. God is fair. God is wise. God is strong. He has the moral character to distinguish between the finest gradations without any other reference than his own character. He has the knowledge and discernment to ferret out the hidden and secret things to inform such decisions. He has the power to reward or punish suitably.

But, what strains the faith of so many, is why so long before judgement?

How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me? - Psalm 13:2

It is a question that is never fully answered in the Bible. The gap of injustice, between deed and judgement, tempts us to take vengeance into our own hands, whether on the petty getting-even scale or on the walk-into-the-mall-with-a-gun scale.

Others, when they discover that their actions don't lead to the immediate blue-bolt from heaven, embark on a path that assumes leniency or apathy from God.
They pour out arrogant words; all the evildoers are full of boasting. They crush your people, O LORD; they oppress your inheritance. They slay the widow and the alien; they murder the fatherless. They say, "The LORD does not see; the God of Jacob pays no heed
The Bible speaks to this with three big ideas:
God takes up justice on our behalf. "Oh God who avenges, shine forth." (Psalm 91:1). See also: Romans 12:19; 13:4.
God ensures fairness. "...he comes to judge the earth, he will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his truth." (Psalm 96:13b)
God gives us strength to persevere until the reward. "You stood your ground n the face of suffering...So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised." - Hebrews 10:32b, 35-36
The very inability to find perfect justice done here directs our gaze to the judgement seat of God where our deep thirst for justice will be quenched. Edmond Dantes, reflecting on his own imperfect quest for justice, said:
"Live, then, and be happy, beloved children of my heart, and never forget that until the day when God shall deign to reveal the future to man, all human wisdom is summed up in these two words,--Wait and hope'. - The Count of Monte Cristo, chapter 117.

." - Psalm 94:4-6

Psalm 91: The 24/7 God

2010-10-10T15:23:00.000-07:00

Today is Monday. Or I think it is. It is Monday morning, a quiet, pre-work Taipei time . But back at home, with my family, it is Sunday afternoon, a post-church, pre-AWANA time. Right now, we are a family in two worlds, with two different destinations.

Yesterday (their yesterday), Shannon got in some driving practice before her big driving test this next Wednesday (theirs, not mine). Normally, Tim would ride shotgun. But Helen went this time, because I was asleep (on a 747). Normally, I would have been the one worrying about turn signals and looking over shoulders and brake lights. In the 24/7 world, there is always time for worry.

My boss caught up with me yesterday, but then wasn't sure whether it was my "Sunday" and if I was working. I try to keep a strict no-work period, but with the 16-hour time shift when you travel, its always a bit of a tricky. In the 24/7 world, there is never seems to be enough time for God.

Sometimes, sleep is not my friend. In the 24/7 world, there is the non-stop possibility of things going wrong. If awake, I could deal with it. If awake, I could solve it. If awake, I could intervene. But I'm not. So at some point, sleep becomes an exercise in trusting God.

You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday. - Psalm 91:5-6

In Psalm 95, it is clear that the author had bigger problems that I do. If he is worried about "A thousand may fall at [his] side/ten thousand at [his] right hand." (Ps. 91:7) then the stakes are just little bit higher for him than what I have to struggle with.

But the element of trust is the same, in my 24/7 world.

"I will say of the LORD, "He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust." - Psalm 91:2

Trust is a conscious decision to place your safety (in whatever form) into the hands of another. Many times, my frantic attempts to manage things and my inability to let go of them, leaves no room for God to work and certainly no room for trust.

In the Old Testament, this decision of trust is often described as taking shelter under another's (ie. God's) wings (cf. Ruth 2:12).

He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. - Psalm 91:4

So as my day begins, and my family's day is winding down, I am handing off control to the 24/7 God.

God, I set today in your hands. I place everyone who is valuable to me in your hands. I set myself in your hands. Please care. Amen.

AWANA: Week 2 (Acts 2:1-12)

2010-10-04T09:28:00.000-07:00

This is the script that Brahms and I used for the 2nd week of AWANA.

(electric fan, lighters, Bibles in different languages handed out to LITs)
JOE is behind the electric fan. MOE has nose in the Bible. BRAHMS has one lighter, TIM has other lighter.

MOE: Ok, ok, here it is. This is what the Bible says: “Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.” Let’s try it out.

BRAHMS: Moe, what are you and Joe doing?

MOE: We’re getting ready for the big special effects scene.

BRAHMS: Special effects scene? What, are you making a big movie?

JOE: No, this is part of Council Time for Sparkies.

BRAHMS: I didn’t know that Council Time had a big special effects budget.

MOE: Well, in the Bible, in Acts chapter 2, it says there was a big wind sound. (ignoring Brahms) Ready Joe?

JOE: Ready.

MOE: Ok, fan on.

JOE: Fan on!

JOE: Nope.

MOE: Nope. Not loud enough.

TIM: Well…maybe could ask the Sparkies for some help.

MOE: That’s a great idea! Sparkies, do you think you could help us out.

MOE: Great! So, when I count to 3, Joe, you turn on the fan. And you, Sparkies, you start making a loud wind noise. Ready? 1 – 2 – 3

MOE: That’s great.

JOE: What’s the next part.

MOE: (reading) dah dah dah, dah dah, ah ok, here it is, in Acts 2, verse 3: “They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.”

TIM: MOE, just before you go any further, no flame throwers are allowed in church, ok.

MOE: No problem, see, I got this lighter, see (holds up the lighter)

TIM: Ok.

MOE: Now just stick out your tongue…

TIM: Wait a second, what do you think you’re going to do?

MOE: Well, the Bible says tongues of fire. So if you stick out your tongue, I’ll use the lighter and we’ll…

BRAHMS: Sounds painful.

MOE: It gets better, BRAHMS, because you will notice that the Bible said “tongues” That’s more than one. So you can stick out your tongue, too!

TIM: MOE, this is a bad idea. If I remember what the Bible said, it didn’t say anything about people sticking out their tongue and they certainly didn’t burn their tongue.

MOE: Well, if it didn’t burn them, then what did it do?

BRAHMS: It didn’t burn them, it did something even more amazing. Let’s try this again from the top. Get your fan and lighter ready and let’s read it again.

TIM: I got it. “When the day of Pentecost [that’s almost fifty days since Jesus came back to life, and ten days since he left and went back to heaven], they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit enabled them.”

BRAHMS: So all Jesus’ friends started using other languages; saying thank you to God and talking about Jesus. What was strange was that these were languages they have never spoken before.

TIM: You all speak English. Do any of you speak another language? (wait for response)

MOE: Wow! I wonder how that sounded. All those people talking about God at the same time, but in different languages. Must have been really confusing!

JOE: We should try it out.

MOE: How?

JOE: Well, we have some Bibles here, in different languages. Let’s take a verse we all know and have some of the leaders read them together. John 3:16.

MOE: Ok, from the top now. When we get to the part where it talks about different languages, you start reading.

TIM: When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit enabled them.

JOE: Wow! That really was confusing. If I heard that, I wouldn’t know it was about God at all. I would think that everyone had gone crazy. Does it say in the Bible what everybody thought?

MOE: "Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs-we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!" Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, "What does this mean?"

JOE: So it means they all heard God in their own language.

MOE: Now just imagine-if I had that today-how many YouTube videos would make sense.

TIM: I don’t know if that would help some of those videos. But here is what God did. There were a lot of people from a lot of different places. Then there were all of Jesus’ friends. Lots of people from different places. Jesus’ friends. But they couldn’t really talk to each other, because they didn’t talk the same way. So God sent the Holy Spirit so that they could understand each other. That way, when they would go back home, they could take the good news of Jesus with them.

BRAHMS: Just like you. Not everyone comes to church. Not every kid comes to AWANA. But they all need to hear about Jesus, who took away all of their sins, by paying for them with his death, so we can go to heaven.

TIM: We don’t think we can tell them. But God can also do something special so that when you tell them, they will hear it. Some of them will be amazed. Some will be confused.

BRAHMS: You do your part to tell them. God can take care of the rest. Just like he did with the wind, the fire and the languages.

Titus 1:5-10: The Resume of a Leader

2010-10-04T08:58:00.000-07:00

The reason I left you in Crete was that you might straighten out what was left unfinished and appoint elders in every town, as I directed you. An elder must be blameless, the husband of but one wife, a man whose children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient.

Since an overseer is entrusted with God's work, he must be blameless—not overbearing, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain. Rather he must be hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined.

He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it. For there are many rebellious people, mere talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision group. - Titus 1:5-10

Introduction – Staving Off Chaos

The reason I left you in Crete was that you might straighten out what was left unfinished and appoint elders in every town, as I directed you. – Titus 1:5

It seems the news is full of leaders; talented, gifted, movers and shakers who can really take an organization from here to there. But now they are in short supply. Not because they can’t motivate us; not because they don’t understand the dynamics of groups; not because they don’t have the stamina; but because they self-destruct along the way, taking the very people they want to lead into the pit with them. We saw this recently in Mark Hurd, brought as CEO of Hewlett Packard after the integrity crisis; called a “white knight” for his strong ethical values; who then reportedly falsified expense reports to cover up payments to a contractor with whom he had a relationship. What should have been a strong quarter was overshadowed by the news of his personal failure and threw the company into uncertainty and doubt.

Here is Paul’s problem at the start of Titus.

Churches are sprouting up all over. Over every hill and behind every tree there seems to be a new church. Lots of those churches are small, and enthusiastic, and full of new followers of Jesus. Because they are small, and enthusiastic, and new followers, they are prone to mistakes; they are prone to enthusiastically following some minor doctrine or heresy right off a cliff; they are prone to listen with great gullibility to the plausible words of outside voices.

At once, this is both the success of the gospel, and brink of failure for the gospel. Paul knows this: so much excitement, so much danger, and he can’t be there. How frustrating! When Helen and I were parents for the first time, with Shannon, there is a period when babies are basically harmless. You wrap them up, you carry them around, they gurgle, cry, laugh, poop and eat. You can put them down somewhere and they stay put. But there comes a point where you just can’t leave them alone. I remember sitting in the kitchen and we had this long hallway and I’d hear ba-ba-ba hee-hee-hee echoing and I knew that I had about 30 seconds to get to her before she’d be somewhere where she could do some damage. Then we learned the power of doors. That stopped her for a little while. Then it was those handle things you put over door knobs.

That’s kind of how Paul felt, except that he had dozens of toddler churches, all running around going ba-ba-ba hee-hee-hee, all growing healthy, like crazy, but all in imminent danger of getting hurt. Just about the time he finished changing the last set of diapers the first one had done it again.

So what has to happen? The churches need to grow up. Paul is gone. Titus is babysitting. But that can’t last forever. At some point you leave them on their own. Then what happens? It could be chaos.

Paul says, “The reason I left you in Crete was that you might straighten out what was left unfinished…”

And how are you going to straighten out the chaos of a zillion little toddler churches, Paul? That word straighten out is the word a doctor could have used when setting a broken bone. Straighten out ...

“and appoint elders in every town, as I directed you.”

The solution is leaders.

Paul isn’t looking for the left-overs to lead the church. He is looking for the best of the best. Mark Hurd, ex-CEO of HP might make the cut at Oracle, but he wouldn’t make the cut at church. Why? He doesn’t have the family resume. Look at verse 6. Steve Jobs, might make the cut at Apple and Pixar, but he wouldn’t make the cut at church. Why? He doesn’t have the work resume.

When Paul says “I left you in Crete to appoint elders in every town” --that word elder has two common meanings at the time that this letter was written. The first, and most common meaning, in the Greek was (this is going to knock your socks off, drum roll please) “old man” (like we would use the term seniors) It was a term of respect, referring to their wisdom. The second meaning was that of community leaders. The elders, acting as the heads and representatives for their extended families, would get together at the city gates each day so that they could drink tea and make smart-alec remarks at all of the people coming and going. But it also served as an informal city government, where disputes were heard and judged, where problems were discussed and where decisions were made.

So when Paul says “I left you in Crete to appoint elders” it wasn’t with the idea of “creating” elders, but rather, selecting from among the wise, experienced leaders who already existed. They weren’t newbies. He was telling Titus: start with those who are already recognized leaders, who are already respected, whose opinion is already listened to, whose voice already helps people move from the way it is now to the way it needs to be, and choose the best of the best from among them.

I remember at family camp, there was an exercise to take a bunch of raw materials

So what is a leader? Let me give you my definition: A leader influences people to move from where they are to where they need to be. Leaders (1) recognize that we need to move, they (2) realize that it is unacceptable to remain where we are, they (3) envision what a better future would look like, they (4) plot a course on how to get us there and (5) they push, pull, encourage and whine until we get there.

Not all of us have the same sphere of influence, but we all have influence. Don’t believe me? Can a fast food cashier turn my drive-through dining experience into purgatory on wheels? Now that’s influence! Whether you are the CEO of a corporation or the CEO of your home, you have influence. Whether you are a director or a district supervisor or a donut maker. You have influence. Mom. Nursery worker. Receptionist. Mechanic. Burger flipper. Team Lead..

God has placed each of you in a place of influence. Each word--each action--is an influence. Leaders know this and use this deliberately. Christian leaders know this and use it in a God direction.

In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. – Matthew 5:16

So Paul puts a test out for Titus: how do you know which of these experienced, recognized, respected leaders, should be influencing your church?

More than that, though, Paul says: this is the growth path for everyone in the Christian community. When you sit down at a job for a 1:1 with your boss and you look across the desk and your boss says: “Tim, you are having a significant impact on your co-workers and our customers. We want you to have a long and productive future with us. Let’s chart out a growth plan for you.” And then your boss lays out steps or key milestones that you and he will work on together.

Well here are God’s steps to take experienced, recognized leaders to the next level:

Level 1: Family. Lead your family.

Level 2: Work. Lead your job.

Level 3: Church. Lead your church.

Each level represents a sphere of influence; a sphere of leadership and followership. It is also the training ground for the way God will use you next.

Level 1 Leadership: Family

What’s on your family résumé? Paul said:

An elder [the head of a family; the leader in the community] must be blameless, the husband of but one wife, a man whose children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient. – Titus 1:6

God is the one who created families. He set the parameters and the boundaries and the purpose for families. Slowly, I have begun to realize that families are training grounds, not just for children, but for the parents. There I am known. There I am loved. There I am provoked. There I am challenged. There I am forgiven.

Society and our own selfishness have served to pull our families apart. The haven of safety has become the war zone. Many of us are first-hand witnesses to this painful devastation.

Your family is your resume as a leader. Your family is your greatest testimony. The way you lead there says a lot about how you will lead elsewhere.

Do you keep your promises? Can people trust you? Watch how you treat the most important promise of your life: your promise to your wife. Are your eyes wandering? How about your heart? Have you ever said, ‘If only I’d known you before…’
Do you teach well? Watch how your children believe.
Do you lead well? Do those who are closest to you follow?

There is no proceeding to the next level of leadership until you pass this level. Too many people try to launch to real leadership in work, the community or church before this is solid. The results can be disastrous, because your family is your best, built-in support group.

Let me ask you: would you turn down a promotion? Why or why not? Would you turn down a ministry at church? Why or why not? Is growing your healthy family important enough to say ‘No’ to these other great opportunities so that you are solid leader where it counts the most? It is no shame to stop in your path and concentrate on family.

The Bible says:

If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God's church? – 1 Timothy 3:5

Level 2 Leadership: Lead Your Job.

Since an overseer is entrusted with God's work, he must be blameless—not overbearing, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain. Rather he must be hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined. – Titus 1:7-8

A few Saturdays ago, my family and I walked into The Waffle Barn to breakfast with the senior ladies in Cornerstone. There weren’t enough seats at the table for us all. First, the restaurant staff moved a table over to join theirs. Then we moved it back. Then more people arrived, so the staff moved three tables in a T-shape on the other side of the room and then cleaned up the tables we left behind.

In the past month, my family entertained numerous plumbers, carpenters and handy-men at my house to repair two different upstairs bathtub leaks.

This past Tuesday and Wednesday, I flew to Portland to meet with two new hired engineers who will be working with me closely for a new project.

All of us are leaders, because we direct other people, whether in a job setting or not. Paul says that the overseer—the word is used for a foreman on a job—has been entrusted with work—God’s work. In each of the settings where we work, God checks how we lead, more than what we lead. The next level of leadership is less about competence and more about character. How to care about the people? How to overcome with irrepressible good attitude? How be calm in the middle of a storm? How to handle delays, missed opportunities and best timing?

If I am looking for a leader, I want to know how they handle control and supervision in another setting. More responsibility is a larger stage—a larger arena—for our character flaws, like pride, to show clearly.

Robert Joss, dean of the Stanford Graduate School of Business said: “Too many people today think leading is exclusively about their own performance. Even some of those who become CEOs, usually highly intelligent people who worked hard to get where they are, turn into self-aggrandizing individuals once they hit the executive suite.”

Look at good leaders.

We aren’t building our kingdom. Not overbearing. No kingdom building. No control freaks. No power thrill-seekers.
We aren’t quick-tempered; anger is not manipulation or intimidation technique.
We aren’t given to drunkenness. Stress management by deliberately induced loss of self-control. No accountability.
We aren’t using physical force or the threat of it to get your way.
We aren’t using our position to redirect profit to our pockets.
We share our home with others. (“hospitable”)
We value the good. (“loves what is good”) Is doing the right thing sort of like a diet, where you do it, but look longingly over your shoulder at the ice cream and carbs you are giving up? Or are you a connoisseur of the good, one who savors doing the right thing at the right time for the right reason?
We master our desires (“self-control”); can you do what is important? Can I sideline what I want for what is really important?
We don’t bend our standards based on external pressures. (“upright”)
We don’t compromise our special mission (“holy”). Holy literally means set apart for service: to God.
We train so our efforts are effective (“disciplined”).

Level 2 Leadership says: Leadership is not about you. Leaders begin to stink then the job becomes about you.

Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric said:

“The day you become a leader, it becomes about them. Your job is to walk around with a can of water in one hand and a fertilizer in the other hand. Think of your team as seeds and try to build a garden. Its about building these people.”

You are not good enough to do the job that God has for you. You are not strong enough, smart enough; you don’t have the endurance or the experience. God does. And he lends it to you in the form of the people God puts around you. Are they your team, or your foot stool?

How does your work resume look?

Level 3 Leadership: Church

He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it. – Titus 1:9

Some simple reminders come from Robert Fulgham's popular poem, “All I really need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.” Let me read a portion to you.

Most of what I really need to know about how to live, and what to do, and how to be, I learned in Kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sandbox at nursery school.

These are the things I learned. Share everything. Play fair. Don't hit people. Put things back where you found them. Clean up your own mess. Don't take things that aren't yours. Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody. Wash your hands before you eat. Flush. Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you. Live a balanced life. Learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work some every day. Take a nap every afternoon. When you go out in the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together. Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: the roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that. Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die. So do we. And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned - the biggest word of all - LOOK.

Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation. Ecology and politics and equality and sane living.

We learned these simple things in kindergarten yet we have trouble doing them. Sometimes the toughest things in life are not the quadratic equation, or tax shelters, or even the 14th remote lost behind the couch: sometimes the toughest things in life are doing what we already know to do. Sometimes being a leader is doing the things that you know need to get done but nobody else has the guts or the stick-to-itiveness to actually do it.

Pastor Henry talked about what a deacon-a servant of the church-looks like. It isn’t glamorous, but the path of leadership is the path of taking up the towel to serve. In the book of Acts, there was a church fight brewing along racial and ethnic lines over how the food was being distributed. So men of faith waded into the middle of this to serve tables. These brilliant, faith-filled men, like Stephen, whose sermon to the most hostile audience imaginable earned a place in the Bible; Like Philip who could smell a pre-Christian a mile away. These are the men who came in. Now here is the rest of the story. Acts, chapter 6, verse 7.

So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.

It did not spread because of dynamic teaching, although that was there. It did not spread because of earnest prayer, though that was there also. It was there because the deacons healed a rift in the church by filling it with their own service.

For Paul, Level 1 Leadership was the family; Level 2 Leadership was the work place; Level 3 Leadership, simultaneously the most challenging, frustrating and rewarding, is found in the church

In particular, in the church, leaders must say what they believe like they really believe it. Wouldn’t it be sad, if in the church, the most exciting message, the very words of God, were made boring and insipid? Wouldn’t it be sad, if all the great communicators and speakers of our age were false prophets, cynics and comedians?

God is looking for people who will lay down their own agendas and take up his; lay down their own message and take up his; in the church, because the local church, frail and stumbling as it is, is the hope of the world. Paul said,

…Just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her. - Ephesians 5:25

Paul said,

His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms. – Ephesians 3:10

You are the Weed and Feed of the church. Weed out the bad teaching, Feed the faithful. Bind up the wounds of the broken hearted. Speak peace to troubled lives. Replace error with truth.

Conclusion – Growing Garden in the Weeds

For there are many rebellious people, mere talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision group. – Titus 1:10

Why was Paul worried so worried about good leaders? Why did he send back Titus to straighten these things out? Because there are many weeds. Given space in my garden; any untended patch, will inevitably attract a weed. God says: the best way to fight weeds is not with Round-Up! You fight by planting healthy, good plants! When we first moved to El Dorado Hills, we were having our landscaping done in the back yard and Randy Gove came over, was helping us design it, and asked whether we wanted to put down weed barrier cloth. And I said: “My wife will plant it so full of healthy plants, there won’t be any room for the weeds to grow.” Now, ten years later, it is true.

How many times, tragically, have we seen a leader hang on too long? Trying to maintain control, he grasps firmly the steering wheel of his life, while relationships fall apart, health deteriorates and vision fails, but he still has that steering wheel!

Is that you? There can only be one leader. You can forge your own path; until it dwindles down to a dirt path and it is only you and your steering wheel. Jesus forged a path back to God, paying every cost for the rebellious, but he can’t take you there if you won’t give up control. You will never take the next step in leadership unless you first learn to follow yourself, from one who says, “Take my yoke upon you and I will give you rest.”

My family life growing up was far from ideal. I have a brother, a half-sister, a step-sister, three step brothers. Many of you are living witnesses to the pain of a generation of broken families. I will not lament. But God help me, I will replace a broken generation with a generation of peace, in my family. Will you join me?

Never have our communities, our state and nation cried out more for leaders of vision and integrity than today. I will not lament. But I will lift a new generation of men and women whose sight extends beyond the votes of the next election, to the one who weights the hearts of kings, presidents and governors in the scales of justice. Will you join me?

When the dominant ethic of the cubicle is “What can I get away with?” I will not lament. But I will join a generation of leaders whose CEO is not in the corner office, but on the throne of heaven; whose work ethic does not conform but transforms; led by our rabbi who came not to be served, but to serve. Will you join me?

When the churches struggle and church leaders fall and the faithful are weary, I will not lament. Instead I will join those called together to spend all heart, mind, soul and strength for the kingdom of he who withheld nothing so that we should not perish, but have eternal life.

Leadership is the influence you have to move people from where they are to where they need to be. Will you use the place God has given you to move people in a God direction?

AWANA: Week 1 (Acts 1:1-10)

2010-09-26T14:11:00.000-07:00

Thought I'd post up the scripts that Brahms and I are using for AWANA. Here's week 1. MOE is a horse puppet and JOE and JIM are twin iguana puppets.

Acts 1:1-10

(basket, pulley, carabineer)

JOE is in the basket hanging from the ceiling, JIM is holding the rope. MOE is watching.

MOE: What are you doing, JIM?

JIM: I just can’t figure out how he did it.

MOE: (ignoring JIM, hallooing): JOE, you’re really high up. Aren’t you afraid of heights?

JOE: (nervous), Yes

JIM: I just can’t figure out how he did it.

JOE: (faintly) Help.

MOE: JIM, maybe you want to bring him down now?

JIM: (more emphatically) But, I just can’t figure out how he did it! I’ve got to keep trying until I figure out how he did it.

MOE: What are you talking about? Who did it? What are we talking about?

JIM: Well, it says in the Bible that after Jesus died, he came back to life

MOE: Yes, well, what does that have to do with the basket?

JOE: Yes. Basket. Why?

JIM: It says he was with his disciples for 40 days, and they talked with him and ate with him.

MOE: Yes, well, what does that have to do with the basket?

JOE: Yes. Basket. Why?

JIM: Well, it says in the book Acts, chapter 1, verse 9: “After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.” So somehow, Jesus left them by going up into heaven. I wondered how Jesus did it. So I rigged up this pulley, and hooked it up.

MOE: And I suppose this pillow is the pretend…

JIM: Clouds! You got it.

TIM: I think you’re kind of missing the point, though.

JOE: Yeah, yeah, you’re missing the point! I’m way up here.

JIM: No, no. You see, the disciples could have pulled on this string, and it pulls up Jesus in the basket. And then, if he was high enough, the clouds block them from seeing him.

TIM: But you are having some problems with your theory?

JIM: Two problems: #1: What did they hook the pulley on to? Did Jesus have an airplane?

TIM: That is a problem. What is the second problem?

JIM: What happened when the disciples let go of the rope. Like this (let’s go, JOE falls, TIM catches)

MOE: Whoa! JIM, you almost hurt JOE. Are you ok?

JOE: (moaning) Yeah, I am ok.

TIM: I think JOE needs to rest and I think JIM needs to put that all away.

TIM: You know, sparkies, it says in the Bible, that right after Jesus went into heaven, all of Jesus’ friends, including the disciples, were standing there, looking into the sky. It was pretty incredible. Where did he go? Is he going to come back? Some of them were probably trying to figure out just how he did it, just like JIM.

BRAHMS: Just then, two men—two angels—appeared from heaven and said to them “why do you stand here looking in the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go back into heaven” (Acts 1:11b)

TIM: They were so busy trying to figure out “how” Jesus did that, that they were already forgetting the directions he gave them. Have you ever had that happen to you? You are looking at something really cool, maybe a toy or a present or a TV show, and you forget what your Mom or Dad told you to do?

BRAHMS: Jesus had spent over one month with his friends, teaching them about something new: the church. The church is the people who trust in Jesus to help them and who do what he wants, right now. How many of you go to church? … Good. Church helps us to (1) grow up the way God wants us to grow up, (2) help other people the way God wants us to help other people, and (3) tell other people about God the way that Jesus did.

TIM: Jesus told his friends two things, just before he left: (1) He told them to wait. They didn’t want to wait. They didn’t want Jesus to leave. They wanted everything to happen now. But when you grow up, you have to learn how to wait. Jesus said (Acts 1:4b), “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about.”

BRAHMS: We’ll learn more about that next week.

TIM: But the people were in a hurry. “So when they met together, they asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6) They wanted to know. Is it now? Are you going to be a king now?

BRAHMS: But Jesus told them they had to wait. And they weren’t going to know how long. Sometimes when someone tells us to wait, we think they really mean “No.” Dad, can I drive the car? Wait til your older. And maybe you think he means “Never”

Jesus knew that some things had to happen first, before he would become the king over the whole world. First, everyone in the whole world was going to have to hear about Jesus.

TIM: Now Jesus was God, but he could only talk a few people at a time. There was no TV, there were no cell phones.

BRAHMS: But God had a different idea. What would happen if he told his friends, and then his friends told their friends and then their friends told their friends about Jesus. That would be a lot faster way for people to learn about Jesus. That’s why he said: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses (people who tell people) in Jersualem, in Judea (that’s like in the next state), and Samaria (that’s like the next country, like Mexico or Canada), and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)

TIM: Jesus doesn’t want to be your secret. Tell your friends. Bring them to AWANA. Bring them to church. If you keep Jesus a secret; if you don’t tell them that Jesus cares for them and paid for everything so that they can know about God the way you do; maybe they’ll never find out. Don’t be like Jesus’ friends, staring up at the sky, when you already know what he wants you to do.

Psalm 84: Pilgrimage Has A Destination

2010-09-24T09:21:00.000-07:00

In his novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Philip K. Dick probed the universal human tendency towards pilgrimages. In the novel, the religion Mercerism connects people together emotionally as they share the journey up an unspecified hill while pelted by rocks from unknown adversaries.

In exploring this aspect of many religions, Dick focuses on the sense of shared experience. Each of the participants in Mercerism does so through an Empathy Box, which links them together with fellow pilgrims and with the pseudo-messiah, Mercer. In the novel, his followers share together in a way that cannot do in real life; a sort of unspoken, mutual struggle against an apathetic or even hostile world. This sense o fthe journey together permeates the travelogues of pilgrims since the time of The Canterbury Tales.

Likewise, Dick attemts to evoke the sense that the pilgrimage itself is a test or a purification process. The journey is like life in miniature. The perseverance in the face of hostility strips away pretension, revealing who we are, stabbing pride and focusing us on what is important. Here, the author draws on existentialists, such as Albert Camus, whose short story The Myth of Sisyphus reflects a similar attempt to create meaning in a ridiculous universe.

But what is notably missing in this stripped-away version of the spiritual journey is a destination. Pilgrimages, by definition, are journeys to the holy. The pilgrimage journey is preparation to meet with God; to receive what He has and we do not. But in the novel, a series of revelations show that the vision shared by adherents of Mercerism was, in fact, crafted on a sound stage in a movie studio. There is no hill; there is no end; there is no arrival; there is no God. Just pixels of their imagination. In the end, this leaves the hero of the story locked in the metaphysical downstairs, wiser and yet, ultimately, pitiful. You are left asking the question (as Solomon did):

Then I thought in my heart, "The fate of the fool will overtake me also. What then do I gain by being wise?" I said in my heart, "This too is meaningless." - Ecclessiastes 2:15

The book of Psalms contains numerous pilgrim songs. sung by the travelers as they climbed towards Moutn Zion, approaching the city of Jerusalem, and the temple where God dwelt. Compared with the downward spiral of despair of the novel, these songs are filled with hope.
How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD Almighty! My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. Psalm 84:1-2
The journey is not an aimless one, but one filled with purpose--a chosen path.

Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage. - Psalms 84:5

The trip is wearying; stretches of difficulty as they traveled from one oasis of refreshment to the next, sustained by God himself.

As they pass through the Valley of Baca, they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools. They go from strength to strength... - Psalm 84:6-7a

These pilgrims had a destination. It was both a physical destination (see vs. 3) but more importantly, it was the a meeting place: the arrival into the presence of God.

..till each appears before God in Zion. - Psalm 84:7b

What has God brought you through on your pilgrimage? Are you in the rough period of the journey or a period of refreshment? Do you long for the destination (God himself) or have you settled for the rest area?

Psalm 74: Spritual Doldrums

2010-09-10T22:41:00.000-07:00

In reading Patrick O'Brien's The Thirteen-Gun Salute, the 19th century sailing ship Diane has just skirted the doldrums, an ocean region known for "light, shifting, and sometimes completely absent winds—[which] are notorious for trapping sailing ships for days (or even weeks) without enough wind to power their sails." When applied metaphorically to people, it refers to someone who is stagnant, or in a slump.

Sometimes our spiritual lives can be like this: stagnant, in a slump; partly because we cannot seem to get a glimpse of where God is or what he is doing.

We are given no miraculous signs; no prophets are left, and none of us knows how long this will be. - Psalm 74:9

There is no sign of God ('miraculous signs'), no word from God ('prophets) and no clue as to how long this period will last. Any one of these would be enough to propel us, spiritually. If God would do something that only he could do, we would be excited. If God would speak as only he can speak, we would be inspired. If we could only know when God would move, we would be patient.

Why doesn't God act? How can a good God resist acting? The author asks the same thing we do.

Why do you hold back your hand, your right hand? Take it from the folds of your garment and destroy them! - Psalm 74:11

But there is no explaining, much to our frustration. We want to call God into the witness stand of the court and ask him a few questions; force him to give an account of himself. But he will not be cross-examined.

I would like to see the big-time, God-sized, over-the-top miracle in my time. I wish to know God's voice the way the prophets knew it, even just once. Just to delight in it; to replay it; to relish it. How glorious it would be.

Habakkuk gives voice to my own longing:

LORD, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, O LORD. Renew them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy. - Habakkuk 3:2

I am tired of uncertainty. I am weary of the valley. But on the other side of the doldrums is the spirit of God, and when I am there, I will breathe deeply and rejoice.

Psalm 66:10-12: The Refining Season

2010-09-07T09:52:00.000-07:00

For you, O God, tested us; you refined us like silver. You brought us into prison and laid burdens on our backs. You let men ride over our heads; we went through fire and water, but you brought us to a place of abundance. - Psam 66:10-12

Wimp that I am, sections of the Bible like these make me cringe. I must not be the only one, because I notice that worship song writers tend to skip over these, too. I guess I prefer to be happy and assume that all of the refining that God needs to do will be some sort of dermal micro-abrasion. But the changes that need to occur in me require heart transformation, by bringing my true character to the surface where it can be purified. God uses through four things to do this:

Difficult work ("laid burdens on our backs")
Personal shame ("brought us into prison")
Submission to people we don't like or respect ("men ride over our heads")
Physical hardship ("through fire and water")

Why does God do this? Because he is bringing us through to "a place of abundance."; a place of blessing.

Most of us would be happy in the land of mediocrity rather than deal with these things. But our soul longs for more. God desires more. The way to the place of abundance is only through the path of transformation. On that path, we must leave behind what we cling to so that our hands are open to receive what is so much better.

After I have passed through this difficult season, how will I be better able to receive from God? What is he asking me to let go of?

Honesty and the Psalms

2010-08-26T10:28:00.000-07:00

D.A. Carson, in his book The God Who Is There comments about how believers grow to appreciate the Psalms over the years because it resonates with their life experience. In my own reading of the Psalms over the past few months, I have developed a theory as to their enduring popularity: Honesty.

They are honest about Who We Are. The Psalms let us peek into the heart, where there is joy, anger, regret, sorry and amazement. The word 'I' is used prominently, demonstrating how intensely personal the relationship is between a person and God.
They are honest about Life. Life isn't fair. We are messed up people, living among messed up people, trying to change a messed up world. No candy-coating.
They are honest about God. Does he seem uncaring? The Psalms talk about it. Does he defend those who take shelter with Him? The Psalms talk about it. Is He angry about things? Does He laugh? Does He care? The Psalms talk about these, too.

The honesty of the Psalms is like the genuineness of many of the testimonies I have heard over the past weeks in our men's weekly meetings. These testimonies are a unique reflection of God's work in one person's life. The sharing, in turns stumbling and startling, showed me how to look at myself, my life and my God.

We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. - 1 John 1:3

Psalm 59: The Banner of the Morning

2010-08-20T09:28:00.000-07:00

I was thinking about the Star Spangled Banner this morning, that famous first question: "Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light...?" Sun rising; first rays penetrating the gloom; searching eyes. At the end of the night, who rules?

David, the author of this song, had reached the limits of his strength, in the day. Now the night approached, when he was tired and weak:

They return at evening, snarling like dogs, and prowl about the city. They wander about for food and howl if not satisfied. - Psalm 59:14-15

He also looks ahead to find out whose banner will fly with the sun's rising.

O my Strength, I watch for you; - Psalm 59:9a

While he sleeps and when his strength fades, he must trust. No amount of diligence, self-control and preparation can provide the guarantee that he will see the dawn. He (and we) must trust another. Looking forward, he predicts the night will end.

But I will sing of your strength, in the morning I will sing of your love; for you are my fortress, my refuge in times of trouble. - Psalm 59:16

There is an end to the night. The morning will dawn. God's banner will still fly. Consider your circumstances as the night, and trust God to take you through to the morning.

Francis Scott Key's famous song went on to become the national anthem of the United States. Most Americans know the first verse, but there are actually three more. Here is the fourth:

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand

Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

We will sing in the morning. SDG.