Faith Expressed…Serve (Revelation 2:19)

I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first. – Revelation 2:19

Introduction
These past couple of weeks, we’ve been talking about church: How, at Cornerstone, our faith is expressed when we love, serve and give.

Do churches need purpose statements? Is it even worth the effort? Now I know that most of you have so much spare time that you sit around on your lounge chairs thinking about church. It dominates your thoughts, right? Or maybe church dominates all of two hours of your week. When you stop by the gas station tomorrow and the gas station attendant asks you, “So, what did you do this weekend?” Do you say, “Oh nothing.” or do you say, “I had a fantastic time at church!”

Hey, you know, that’s ok. What’s important about the church is not the church: it is the God of the church. We don’t come here on Sunday mornings to celebrate us! We come here to celebrate God together; to worship together; to marvel together at His goodness and how He changes our lives. It is not about us and if it ever becomes about us we will spoil it.

In the first week, Pastor Henry talked about our faith. It is our faith—our trust—in God which gives us that bedrock of security that allows us to take risks; to experiment; to live the life of freedom that comes, not from throwing off all restraint, but from finding the right master. You’ve gotta serve somebody. Put your faith in the wrong place, and you will be disappointed. Put your faith, in the wrong place and your enthusiasm can carry you for a little while, just like the sugar pill can make you think you are all better. Put your faith in God and he gives you his guarantee that, in the end, you will be with him forever. Better than FDIC insured, baby.

That’s a powerful motivator.

Then, last week, Pastor Henry talked to us about how our faith motivates us to love. Colossians 1:4-5:

…because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints—the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the word of truth, the gospel. – Colossians 1:4-5

We got the message! The good news. God will never love you more than he loves you today. God will never love you less than he loves you today. That certainty-that bedrock certainty-is what we need to love. Because out of the overflow of God’s love we can be lavishly generous with our love. That love expresses itself in so many ways: patience, kind, helpfulness, selflessness and helpfulness.

I went to the notary the other day for a travel authorization so that they would let Helen, my wife, out of the country by herself with my daughter. They checked my driver’s license and I had to sign in their presence and then put my thumbprint in their book. That thumbprint is not me, it is just the recording of the ridges on my finger. But it sure shows I was probably there. Likewise your love is the imprint of your faith on your day to day life. It isn’t your faith, but it sure shows that the heart of faith is really there.

When Adam Smith wrote the book The Wealth of Nations, he laid down the foundations of what we know as capitalism. Rather than depending on the goodness of people, capitalism laid down a system to harness greed. Essentially, if you put a bunch of greedy people in a room, they generally beat each other up enough to give a fair market economy. Except for monopolies and bailouts and small stuff like that.

Well that sort of greed can be found in the spiritual world. Spiritual greed takes the sun moon and stars out of their normal trajectories and places them in orbit around the capital I. But Jesus was one step ahead of us in our self-centered spiritual astronomy, when he said:

Instead, whoever wants to become great among you (dot. dot. dot) - Mark 10:43

Oooh! Oooh! I want somma’ that! Well, get in line because I saw this verse first!

We have corrupted faith. We read in the newspaper or People magazine about how someone’s faith got them through the tough times. No, God got them through the tough times. Faith is not about us, it is about God.

We have corrupted love. “Love your neighbor as yourself” with the accent on the “self” Love is patient: look how much I have to put up with you! Love is kind: look how I bit my tongue when you were talking. Love is not about us, it is about the beloved.

We would like to be spiritual superstars. We would like miracles to shooting from our fingertips, people in
awe of the words which drip from our lips, the spotlight of heaven tracking our every move, a shower instead of a bathtub because we always walk on water. Cele-bri-ty!

My step-mother Barbara is a hard-working volunteer down in San Benito County, where she works on everything from elder care, to raising money for the hospital and fitness and nutrition for minority children . A few years ago, she was nominated for “Volunteer of the Year” But the catch was, she had to write out an essay describing why she should win. Self-promotion is everywhere, even for volunteers.

But Jesus said:

Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant. – Mark 10:43b

If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last and the servant of all. – Mark 9:35b

Wait, Jesus, don’t you know that unless you are the lead dog, the view never changes? Wait, Jesus, I’ve got the killer testimony. Wait, Jesus, I’ve got the guitar riffs of Eddie Van Halen. Wait, Jesus, I can teach like Billie Graham. You don’t really want me to go to the back of the line, do you?

There is greatness in God’s kingdom. There is power in God’s kingdom. There is wisdom in God’s kingdom. But it comes to the servants. Higher than “king” or CEO or Ph.D, the people of God delight to be called servant (deacon) and messenger (apostle) That’s what Jesus called himself, and Pau and Peter and James and Timothy. How about you?

The first thing servants do is

Adopt God’s Agenda
There will be no progress for you spiritually if you insist on your agenda for life. In the book of Mark, chapter 10, Jesus has just told his group of followers-his disciples-that whatever they gave up for God would be repaid when Jesus came into his kingdom. We pick up the story a few verses later in verse 35:

 

Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. "Teacher," they said, "we want you to do for us whatever we ask." "What do you want me to do for you?" he asked. They replied, "Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory." - Mark 10:35-37

Jesus, we’ve got it all figured out. When you come into your kingdom, there are going to be some choice cabinet appointments available and we figured, since we’ve been with you pretty much since the beginning, you kinda’ owe us.

They had a plan, but it wasn’t God’s plan. Servants don’t set the agenda; they follow their master’s agenda-God’s agenda.

What do I desire to do most? What do you desire most in life? To get married? To be financially independent; to make a million? To retire? To make my mark on the world? You had better have a greater purpose in your life than any of those or you're going to miss the boat. They're fine, they're good -- but they're not the purpose of life.

Service is saying: I want to do what God wants more than anything else. You've got to say, "I want God's plan for my life." God has a plan for you, but it's not automatic. God made you for a purpose but you could miss that purpose. These are the best days of your life…if you will let go of your dreams and hopes and desires and grab on to all that God made you for. Are you ready to say: "God, I really want You first in my life and I want to be what You made me to be?"

We would like for God to be the cosmic vending machine: put in a couple of good Sunday’s and you get a pay raise. Put in a year of good Sunday’s, tithe and help in the nursery, you get a new car. Throw in working at the rescue mission, adopt two foster children, dig out the church sewer line and you get a happy in-laws.

That’s what James and John were trying. But they didn’t get it. We don’t set the agenda.

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

So, how do I know God’s agenda?

1. Do What You Know. There are hundreds of choices in front of you this week. Other people have their agenda for you. Your selfish self has its agenda for you. God’s agenda often consists of taking what God has already taught you and actually using it.
2. Do What God Is Doing. If you look around and see God is active that is your invitation to join him. You know God is active when peoples’ lives are being changed (John 15:8), when there is a unity of purpose (John 17:23) and when people are caring for each other (John 13:35).

Sometimes you and I have our agenda and when God or another person is slow to respond, we decide that we’ll just go ahead. Or we start to ratchet up the pressure, twist their arm, manipulate the outcome. People start looking like cars going 45 miles-an-hour on the highway. We want to switch lanes and pass them and get to our destination, but they are the ones who just saw the glorious sunset God prepared. It is not our plan; it is not our agenda; it is not our timetable; it is God’s. Servants adopt God’s agenda.

Next, servants have to:

Adopt A Learner’s Attitude
Jesus listened to the request of James and John. Now look at what happens next:

"You don't know what you are asking," Jesus said. "Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?" "We can," they answered. Jesus said to them, "You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared." - Mark 10:38-40

You don’t know what you are asking. James and John thought they knew what they were getting into. Jesus was going to establish his kingdom and they wanted to share in the glory. But they didn’t know that the ‘cup’ and the ‘baptism’ that Jesus referred to was the shame and agony of the cross.

As servants, we need to be humble about what we know. Humility is the posture of learning. Pride is the posture of ignorance. There is so much that God can teach us; there is so much that our brothers and sisters can teach us if we are willing to learn; if we are willing to set aside our ideas long enough to be enriched by theirs. Not one of us has the full wisdom of God. Not me. Not you. If that were the case, you’d be sitting here in the church of the Holy Timothy. God forbid! No, God has parceled it out among all the saints.

God’s purpose in all this was to use the church to display his wisdom in its rich variety to all the unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. – Ephesians 3:10

Some people would like to tell God how things ought to be. We are surprised when God doesn’t seem to agree with us on key points. We keep waiting for Him to come around to our point of view. We would like a set of rules because rules mean loopholes (just ask your kids). We would like to pick and choose the rules so that our faults are virtues and our pet peeves are sins. We would like it to be God said it, I believe it, that settles it, but it really is “God said it, that settles it. I’d better believe it.”

So how do I adopt a learner’s attitude?

1. Shut Up and Listen To God. He has something to teach you. Can you give him 15 minutes of your undivided attention tomorrow? Open up the Bible, pray to him, think about what he was teaching you through yesterday.
2. Shut Up and Listen To God’s Saints. We…no I am so quick to talk and give my opinion. You are talking and I’m already composing my reply. But every moment my mouth is open is a chance for me to insert my foot. Every moment my mouth is open, I am not paying attention to the voice of God speaking through you.
3. Hang Around Some Saints. I have found that some of the most valuable lessons I have learned from God has not been during the Bible study discussion, but over the dinner table or at the basketball game. It takes time. Watching and sharing and learning how God and their life mix teaches me. There are tears. There is laughter. There is encouragement.

You need to adopt God’s agenda. You need to adopt a learner’s attitude. And then you need to:

Adopt A Build-Up Strategy
Let’s follow the story a little further.

When the ten heard about this, they became indignant with James and John. Jesus called them together and said, "You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. – Mark 10:35-43a

You bet the ten other disciples were a little ticked off. Jesus just finished with one of his most challenging sermons; they are trying to figure it out; James and John try to sneak in a little face time with Jesus, and grab the top two spots in the kingdom! How about you? Ever get upset at people who are always trying to find an angle? Kissing up to the boss, taking extra credit when it’s not theirs, sneaking into your lane at the last moment, cutting in line; shallow apologies for their rude behavior?

Jesus calls a timeout—tells them to huddle up—right there on the road to Jerusalem, and tells them, in effect, “Do you really like the way that the Romans; these foreign pagan invaders run the country and abuse their power? Then why are you trying to imitate them? Are Herod and Caesar and his cronies really the model for leadership?” Is it your goal, when you grow up, to be just like the boss you complain about?

Jesus knew that we would be tempted to take their standards, so he says: “Not so with you!”

The world’s strategy is that is a top-down, push-down strategy. It is a pyramid scheme. Look at what Jesus says:

"You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them.

You have the low-level officials and they report to somebody. And they report to someone else and so on, up to the top. You have to admit, the view from the top of the pyramid looks pretty good.[1] But to get there, you climb over other people and push them down. Like a game of King of the Mountain, you find that maintaining your spot at the top is precarious because someone can trip you up and it’s a long way down. When you finally do reach the top, you find that God is already established there and he doesn’t share glory with anyone.

Jesus says, “Not so with you!” The kingdom of God, the church is different. Our strategy, the strategy of the servant, is the bottom-up, build-up strategy. Rather than fighting our way to the top, we lift up someone else to the top. We make them look good, we support what they are doing, we bind up their wounds; we put ourselves at their service. And they do the same for us. By serving each other, we all succeed. We all become “great”, not by serving ourselves, but by serving each other to greatness.

Now some of you are saying: This sounds a lot like “You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.” No! The way of the gospel; the way of the servant is: “I’ll scratch your back. Period.” We are all servants of the same Master. We, the people of God, cannot afford to emulate the model of leadership and authority derived from the latest business self-help fad. A recent article in Christianity Today called it “The Leadership Cult”[2]
In the book of John, Jesus took the bowl and the towel and washed his disciples’ feet like a slave would.

Then he told them:

"You call me 'Teacher' and 'Lord,' and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. – John 13:13-14

We have different jobs; God has gifted us differently; but servants don’t have dignity. We can’t use our position or job description or title as an excuse. Jesus had and has every title and honor God could bestow, but he became a servant; to lift us up. We do the same.

First, servants adopt God’s agenda. Second, servants adopt a learner’s attitude. Third, servants follow a build-up strategy and, finally, servants…

Adopt Second Place To Be First

Not so with you! Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. - Mark 10:43-45

Henry Pearce of Australia was competing in the single scull rowing event at the 1928 Olympics. He was leading when a duck and her string of ducklings came into view up ahead. They were on a collision course and Pearce reckoned that his scull would cut the string in two and sink a few ducklings in the process, so he pulled in his oars. When the ducks passed, Pearce again bent his back to the task. There’s a happy ending to the story. Pearce won.

Usually, acts of sportsmanship result in defeat. Remember Leo Durocher’s pronouncement, “Nice guys finish last”?

It happened a couple of years ago in the marathon tandem kayak racing event at the world championships in Copenhagen. Danish paddlers were leading when their rudder was damaged in a portage. British paddlers, who were in second place, stopped to help the Danes fix it. The Danes went on to defeat the British by one second in an event that lasted nearly three hours.

But there’s a happy ending to this story too. According to The Wall Street Journal, the British kayakers won what many people regard as the highest honor in sports. They became the winner of the Pierre de Coubertin International Fair Play Trophy. The trophy is named for the founder of the modern Olympic Games, and it has been awarded annually for the past 28 years to people in sports who have demonstrated nobility of spirit.

It is big news in Europe, but it has not been given much recognition in the United States.

In the past, the trophy has gone to a Hungarian tennis player who pleaded with officials to give his opponent more time to recover from a cramp, and to a high school basketball coach who forfeited the Georgia (US) state championship after he found out that one of his players was scholastically ineligible. The first trophy went to an Italian bobsledder named Eugenio Monti for a gesture that exhibited a touch of class. In the two-man bobsled event at the 1964 Innsbruck Olympics, Monti was the leader after his final run. The only one given a chance to beat him was Tony Nash of Great Britain. As Nash and his teammate got ready for their final run, they discovered that a critical bolt on their sled had snapped at the last moment. Monti was informed of the problem and immediately took the corresponding bolt from his own sled and sent it up to Nash. Nash fixed his sled, came hurtling down the course to set a record and won the gold medal. [3]

Servants don’t need first place. They need to give away first place. Even Jesus did it. He came to serve.

Philippians 2:6 (NLT) says: “Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave…”

Conclusion
Leadership seminars are all the rage these days. Even Disney has gotten into the act with the Disney Institute — Their web site says it "Highlighting the vision and ideals of Walt Disney, Disney Institute is a recognized leader in experiential training, leadership development. …" I’m sorry, but I’m not going to Mickey, I’m going to Jesus

Maybe you’ve never gone to Jesus. You’ve tried life yourself and you failed. Jesus said he came to serve and pay the ransom for you, to buy you back and give you a life of significance; a life of service.

Maybe you are tired and the thought of service seems overwhelming, because you barely make it through as it is. God can provide the resources. Paul said, “That’s why I work and struggle so hard, depending on Christ’s mighty power that works within me.” (Colossians 1:29, NLT)

I don't know how to say it any clearer, but I come here week after week and I know so many of you. Many of you have enormous spiritual potential, you just don't see it. I can see it. God can see it. You have enormous spiritual potential. God has gifted you and talented you and given you health and freedom, a sharp mind and an education and talents and abilities. He doesn't mean for you to just use them on yourself. One day you will stand before God and He will say, "What did you do with what I gave you?"

Are you willing to be used by God? To say "God, anytime, anywhere, any place, use me. Whatever it means. If it means putting my agenda, my goals, my dreams, my plans, my financial package all on a line -- go ahead. I cannot stand another day without being in Your will completely."

But it starts with a desire. It's as if I were to hold your head under water until you were gasping for breath and with the last ounce of energy you sprung up against me to force yourself up so you could breathe. That's the kind of desire you've got to have.

I can't go on another day without saying, Jesus Christ, own me completely and make me what You made me to be in the first place. I'm willing to give up whatever it takes to give up to be the person I was designed to be in the first place.

Does that scare you? The secret of overcoming the fear of the unknown is by focusing on what you do know. What do we know? We know God loves you, God says you matter to Him, God has your best interest at heart, He cares about you and He knows what will make you happy more than you do. That I know for sure. So I don't have any problems trusting a God I know is like that.

 

Who Are You Really? (Part 1, Matthew 1:1-17)

One of the standard ways to fill additional hours of TV footage surrounding the 3 hours of the Super Bowl consists of human interest segments. By delving into the back story of the players' lives, you care more about them as people and not just as numbers on a jersey. There are several standard plots: local boy makes good, struggling through the death of a father/mother/child, the second chance, fulfilling the promise, and so on. We know these story types (should we say stereo types?) so well that we can listen for 30 seconds and figure out how it will end. Those brief video segments help us place the person, not in terms of their few minutes of fame on the grid-iron, but in terms of their entire life.

When we come to the first chapter of Matthew, the author quickly introduces our biographical subject (Jesus):

A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham:  - Matthew 1:1

Hidden in these few words are the clues that give an early reader of this book a quick sketch about who Jesus is and why should we care. Those clues are the four names Matthew uses:

1. Jesus. Matthew explains later in the chapter than Jesus was given this name (the Greek form of the name Joshua) because "because he will save his people from their sins" (verse 21).  Literally, his name means "Yahweh is rescue." The name Jesus/Joshua was probably a common name. One of Pauls' companions was named "Jesus" (Col. 4:11). But Matthew emphasizes the angel's words to focus on the rescue of the people from their sins, rather than the rescue from the sinners. Jesus was, in a sense, a second Joshua, leading the people from the 'desert' of sin, into the new hope of the kingdom 'promised land'.
2. Christ. Jesus was the Christ (Greek) or the Messiah (Hebrew). Having a last name or family name was not always common. People were often identified as a child of their parents (Jesus, son of Joseph), or someone from a particular town (Jesus of Nazareth or Jesus the Nazarene) or by their general relationship with some long-ago forefather (Bildad the Shuhite) or by their profession (Cooper/Chandler/Smith). within a tribe Meaning "the anointed one" it indicated someone set apart for a special role by God, either a priest (Exo. 40:3) or a king (2 Sam 5:3). To Matthew's readers, the Messiah was the God-promised deliverer, restorer of purity and destroyer of Israel's enemies.
3. David. Jesus is identified as being the "son of David". Matthew stakes a claim that Jesus is the claimant to the promised God made to King David. That promise, made about 1,000 years prior, stated that David would have a descendant on the throne of Israel forever.
4. Abraham. Jesus is also identified as being the "son of Abraham". Here, Matthew appeals to the memory of a different agreement (or covenant) that God had made with the great Bible patriarch Abraham, where he said that through him all the nations of the world would be blessed.

In a single verse, Matthew tells his readers they should expect the fulfillment of God's promises in a single person. He would rule, he would deliver and he would bless.

Next time, we will look at the exceptional nature of Jesus' genealogy.

Why Do I Have A Job?

Recently, on Facebook, I said:

"My job has the technical difficulty and significance of crossword puzzle solving."

That quote was the result of a lot of thinking I've been doing about my job, which is challenging and satisfying but ultimately insignificant. I reflect sometimes on whether anyone would notice my absence (since I work at home) or whether, if I switched jobs, how long it would take before I was just someone they blamed for the stuff that doesn't work.

Part of this is related to specialization. As jobs become more and more focused on smaller and smaller areas of expertise, each of those areas, taken alone, is less important in the grand scheme of things. It amazes me that every field of learning is incredibly deep and interesting. There is so much to absorb just about everywhere you turn. Even in my own field (PC embedded software), there are recognized experts and books and conferences and white papers and best practices. And I've been doing it for more than 20 years.

Sometimes when I start thinking too highly of myself, with my detailed technical expertise and the acclaim of my peers and track record of innovation, my conscience kicks in and I am reminded of this verse:

Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. - Romans 12:3

So, how should I think of myself? How should I think about my work? Are all of the godly jobs reserved for pastors and missionaries or am I an expert in a sophisticated but ultimately second-class job? Certainly we who are in the church sometimes give that impression.

Here are a few things that God has taught me as I've been musing on this subject:

1. We Were Made to Work. Work is part of how God made us in the beginning (Genesis 1:26, 2:15, 2:19).  It is rewarding. Proverbs 12:14 says, "...the work of his hands rewards him.".  Because it is rewarding (like food!), it can also be a distraction from God. The Old Testament describes idols and our jobs with the same phrase: "the work of men's hands" (cf. Deut. 33:11, 2 Chronicles 32:19). Paul had some pretty harsh words for those who would not work. (2 Thess. 3:10)
2. My Job is Serving God. My job is spiritual. Serving at my job is serving God. "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men..." (Col. 3:23)
3. Work Well Done Wins Respect. My job reflects not only on me and my family, but on God himself.  My job is a place where what I believe comes out in both pleasant and unpleasant work conditions. "Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody." (1 Thess. 4:11-12)
4. My Job Is A Conduit For Blessing. My job often provides beyond my needs so that my family can be a channel for God's blessings to flow. Holding on to those blessings for myself makes those blessings rot, but passing them on makes them multiply. "...but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need" (Ephesians 4:28b, referring to reformed thieves!)

 My job is a holy calling. It is the tangible expression of God's strength through me to change the world, whereever he allows me to work.

 

Tim

The Sowing/Reaping Discrepancy

Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. - 2 Corinthians 8:9

This week our pastor brought up this passage, talking about the uncertain relationship between sowing and reaping. In the movie Faith Like Potatoes a farmer makes a decision based on his trust in God to plant potatoes in a time of drought. He could not see the result of his sowing until harvest day. The weather is not under the farmer's control. Disease and rot could strike and wilt the healthiest of crops.  But no potatoes planted means no potatoes harvested.

Sowing is uncertain. Time and money and food, are invested into the dirt with no guaranteed return. But if sowing is anxious, it is the waiting for harvest that grinds us down with worry. Second-guessing. Weather watching. Crop checking.

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

I have seen this myself as a computer programmer. We have developed a number of innovative new concepts in the field of PC firmware and applied for patents on these ideas. The initial work to bring the ideas about was hard work. The paperwork associated with patent filing is tedious. Then, finally, the patent is filed. Then the waiting begins. Months of silence from the U.S. Patent Office go by. Then years. Many of my patent filings have been over four years from the time they were filed until I finally was awarded my patent and received my award. And the advantages for my company for exclusive access to those innovations may be years after that. In some cases, my patents were rejected, where they were not innovative enough or where they too closely resembled a previous invention.

But the successful farmer relies on the fact that the harvest is much greater than the planting. The seed of generosity may fall on infertile ground. But it may also fall on rich, fertile soil. Oak trees use this method as a sort of search strategy to find a good growing place for a new oak. Drop a lot of acorns. Many fail. But some--a few--maybe even one--finds the perfect place for a baby oak.  Jesus said that the single seed that falls on the good dirt bears 30, 60 or even 100 times.

Generosity is like that. It may result in nothing. It may result in a huge blessing. That's not in our hands, but it is in God's. As Paul said in relation to ministry:

So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. - 1 Corinthians 3:7

So sow generously. Wait patiently. Rejoice at the harvest.

Tim

"The God Fund"

The first time I can remember it in our marriage was when, after selling our house and moving to El Dorado Hills, and setting up our new place on Crestline Circle, we had extra money in our bank account. Helen and I decided to set aside that money for God to use as he saw fit. As God brought needs to our attention, Helen and I would huddle and, if we both felt led, we would use it to meet that need. One time it was for a keyboard at the church, another time for one time money to help missionaries move to the field, another time to help a family where the dad had lost his job.

As years have passed, whenever extra dollars appeared unexpectedly, we considered whether it should go in the God fund. Maybe a bonus, or sometimes it was stock, or even a patent award. In some cases, it was an answer to a family need. Sometimes we decided ahead of time to put the money in the Fund, saying whatever comes from this goes there. We rarely have had a glimpse at that time of what was required; we had no specific cause or need in mind, but God obviously did. So we waited and watched and then acted.

I enjoy it because we get to be the stewards of blessings. We are part of the distribution department in God's economy of blessing. In some years, the God fund has overflowed. This year was a lean year. No worries. Just give as God gives, for God's reasons, in God's timing.

Try it. Dedicate the next unexpected blessing to the God fund. Then use that for the next prayed-for need that God brings into your life.

In Christ,

Tim

Ephesians 4:12-13: Nobody Moves Me But God.

...so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. - Ephesians 4:12-13

Why do leaders encourage service as the focus of all encouragment, cajoling, teaching, training, mentoring and resource allocation? Because of the results it produces in the church: The church is "built up." Mutual service produces a result healthier and more fruitful than any self-help or self-actualization program can achieve. Why? Because the Bible recognizes that fundamentally, each of us is inadequate. Inadequte to live healthy, fulfilling, generous lives. We need each other.

One of the areas where we really need each other is stability. Often, the perspective we need is not found in our own experience, but in the experience of those around us in the church. When we are built up, we are stable. Paul puts it like this:

Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. - Ephesians 4:14

We would like to remain innocent, like children. We would like to remain unaware and trusting, like infants. We even idealize such simplicity and naivete. But young ones are easily confused. There are lots of people willing to tell you how to live your life. There are lots of plausible leaders and self-proclaimed gurus dispensing clever and convincing methods and world views and plans for us. One Dr. Seuss book introduces the Sneeches, who are broadly divided into those with a star on their belly and those without. A clever man introduces a machine which, to the horror of those born with stars, imprints stars on the bellies of all Sneeches. Then, he introduces a machine to remove the star to main the visible divide between the two classes. On one memorable page, the Sneeches are shown cycling in a figure 8 out of the machine that installs stars and then back into the one that removes them, while the clever man clutches a healthy wad of money.

But Paul points out that strong, serving church help us avoid the follies and confusion. These church-goer advantages come because of the maturing process inherent in serving each other and building each other up.

1. Our Lives Stablize. Children are easily captivated by new ideas. Children have a sense of wonder there; a sense of discovery at each new thing.  As adults we sometimes regret how mundane our perception of the world has become. Part of growing up in Christ is knowing when to hoist the sails, so to speak, to catch a fresh wind, and when to refrain. Someone recently remarked about a friend of mine that they were often surprised a few days after talking with him, when they would hear him say something, because in the intervening time he had talked with another. Mature people choose who or what will move them.
2. Our Lives Gain Direction. Much of marketing today is focused on making us dissatisfied with who we are and how we do things--convinving us that it is old, boring, sub-standard or routine. Those messages are all around us and can leave us in a state of seeking, but never finding; looking, but never landing. We are "blown here and there", never finding a direction. It is a trap, a self-perpetuating system which prevents progress by emphasizing the difficulty of any determined course of action. In the face of the trauma of change, we settle into a life of maintenance and self-comfort building.
3. We Escape Cynicism. One of the primary ways in which the world causes us to oscillate back and forth without direction is that of cynicism. Born both out of anger and pride, cynicism pokes sticky fun at any who would choose any direction at all. The more determined the direction, the more pointed the remarks. Cynicism is one of the trademarks of the "cunning and crafty": the use of ridicule to tear down opposing positions. And once one position has been reduced to rubble, cynics turn their bombardment onto the next. Someone once said, "Poke a cynic and find a burnt idealist." Been there, tried that and I'm not letting anyone get there either.

It is easy to lose perspective. It is easy for us to lie to ourselves. We need  people close enough to tell us the truth. We need people who we trust enough that their example is one we are willing to try out. We need people committed to a common purpose and direction. That is the church.

"His intent was that, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known..." - Ephesians 3:10

 Don't let anyone move you except God. And what God tells you, he should be telling others. So double check with the godly whom you trust to make sure you have heard clearly. Once you have heard the truth, and confirmed it with the godly wise, camp on that, because that is the rock.

The Scandalous Jesus (Part 3)

The Scandal of the Cross
December 30, 2007

Introduction
Want an embarrassing moment? Consider this answer to the question “Why are one-fifth of Americans unable to locate the United States on the map?” by Miss South Carolina in the Miss Teen USA Competition:

"I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because some people out there in our nation don't have maps and I believe that our education like such as in South Africa and Iraq and everywhere like such as and I believe that they should our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S. or should help South Africa and should help Iraq and the Asian countries so we will be able to build up our future for us." [1]

Want to say that in front of a live studio audience?

In his now-famous book, The Purpose-Driven Life, Rick Warren starts with this startling statement: It’s not about you. His premise is that, in order to find a meaningful life, the starting point of your journey cannot be with you. It must begin with God.

Let me add Tim’s Corollary: It’s not your opinion that counts. At the end of the day, it is not what you believe that is the point. God said it. You believe it. That settles it? No, no, no. God said it. That settles it. You believe it.

One more (Tim’s 2nd Corollary): It’s not their opinion that counts. God’s opinion is the important thing. And, when it comes to Jesus, all sorts of people try to put their expectations on Jesus.

When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?" They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets." "But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?" Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. – Matthew 16:13-17

Notice whose opinion was important: God’s. The disciple had heard lots of things. If you try and start with yourself and then figure out who Jesus is and why he is important, you will go off in all directions. Why? Because Jesus ends up being a bigger version of you. Sort of like the Gusteau in Ratatouille. Limited by preconceived ideas.

But when you start with what God says, you find out that Jesus is more interesting, more fantastic, more loving and more disturbing than anyone we could invent. That’s why, for the past few weeks, we’ve been looking at the scandal of Jesus.

Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. –1 Corinthians 1:22-24

Last week we looked at how he blew past people’s preconceived notions and messed with their plans when he came at Christmas. A few weeks before that, we looked at how he shattered our notions of what “greatness” was, challenging us to get our hands dirty and take second place.

But if there was one area where Jesus got in-your-face, the one thing with which people struggled with the most, the one put-up-or-shut-up issue, it was the cross. Go back and look at those verses again: “…but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.”

Whenever Paul started talking about the gospel; the good news about Jesus, his ability to transform lives and his planned return to planet Earth, that was all well-and-good. But when you said Jesus died hanging on a cross, the Jews said, “Whoa!” Jesus came back to life, the Greeks said, “You’ve got to be kidding.”

To Paul’s contemporaries, the cross was not a pretty trinket on a necklace or an architectural detail on a building; it was the electric chair, the hangman’s noose, the lethal injection, the bullet and the blindfold. The God of glory hung out for public humiliation? Unthinkable!

The History Of Glory
To understand why this was so difficult to swallow, you need to go back to the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, if there was one key defining characteristic of God, it was his glory. The word, glory, shekinah, was related to the brilliance or brightness of a light source. God, in his glory, was so bright that you could not look at him. In many places, this brightness was related to his holiness, his purity and his separation from mankind.

On Mt. Sinai, after God had delivered the Israelites from Egypt, across the Red Sea:

When Moses went up on the mountain, the cloud covered it, and the glory of the LORD settled on Mount Sinai…To the Israelites the glory of the LORD looked like a consuming fire on top of the mountain. – Exodus 24:16-17

When the Ark of the Covenant was brought to the newly built temple, it says:

And the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled his temple. – 1 Kings 8:11

The glory itself was nothing, it was an expression of who God was, in the same way that the light pouring from the sun is not the sun itself, but is generated by the sun.

And this glory was not just the physical radiance of God’s presence; it was also used to talk about God’s reputation. You gave credit to God for all of the things he did:

Not to us, O LORD, not to us but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness. – Psalm 115:1

And the angels in heaven sang this song:

And they [the angels] were calling to one another: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory." –Isaiah 6:3

Over 250 times in the Old Testament, the word ‘glory’ is used. His great reputation; because of the great things he had done; because of who He is and how great He is. Glory was something which belonged to God alone. Sometimes he would grant some to his followers, but if you tried to grab it yourself, watch out. Just like we talked about a few weeks ago.

King Nebuchadnezzar was king of Babylon, a huge kingdom centered on modern day Iraq. One of the great rulers in the Old Testament, but he forgot this fundamental rule.

…As the king was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon, he said, "Is not this the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence, by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty?" The words were still on his lips when a voice came from heaven, “This is what is decreed for you, King Nebuchadnezzar: Your royal authority has been taken from you. You will be driven away from people and will live with the wild animals; you will eat grass like cattle… until you acknowledge that the Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and gives them to anyone he wishes.” – Daniel 4:29-32

Oops. Nebuchadnezzar the original cow-boy. God has built-in to each one of us a God-sized gap. A gap meant to be filled by him alone. But, in our selfishness, we are apt to substitute other things in God’s place. We substitute ourselves. We substitute our things. We substitute nature. But only God should get the glory.

And this was keen in the minds of the people in Jesus’ time. Glory belonged to God. Why the setbacks in the times of the prophets; the setbacks with the Babylonians, Assyrians, the Greeks and the Romans? Jesus’ contemporaries had figured it out. They hadn’t been pure enough; their devotion wasn’t strong enough. If only they made themselves ready, God would restore them, push out all of the foreigners and establish his kingdom on earth under the ruler of a king, the anointed one, the Messiah, the Christ. Every bar mitzvah and every Passover, the thoughts of the Jews turned to when God would send the man who would defend his glory and his reputation…

The History Of Shame
Then came Jesus Christ. Christ wasn’t his last name, it was his title; the Greek translation of the Jewish term Messiah; anointed one; chosen of God. And in a surprise move by God, he wasn’t just a great man, he was God.

The Bible says ,

The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being…- Hebrews 1:3

So when you see Jesus, you’ve seen God and not only God, but his glory!

The scandal of the cross was not the pain. I have heard lots of sermons which talk about how painful Jesus’ death was and how he endured it all for me. And there is no question that hanging on the cross, slowly dying of asphyxiation, unable to breath while you ripped your hands and feet to shreds was an extremely unpleasant way to die; a true tribute to the twisted creativity of mankind.

But the scandal wasn’t the pain. It was the shame, it was the humiliation.

And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross! – Philippians 2:8

That phrase “even death on a cross” literally is actually “even a cross death.” Even a death as shameful as that.

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. – Hebrews 12:2

You see, it was not the pain which lay between Jesus and the right hand of the father, it was shame; it was humiliation; it was the anti-glory. Every step along the way from Gethsemane to the cross was a step of humiliation; a step where the son of God laid aside his glory and took on our shame so that he could achieve what he wanted most: the redemption of us all.

The first hit to Jesus’ reputation was with his arrest. He rides into Jerusalem and people are lined up, praising God for the arrival of the Messiah. But 24 hours later, after his arrest, the public opinion polls for Jesus tank when whispers of his conviction by the Supreme Court of the Jews get around. He claimed to be God! He claimed to want to tear down the temple. Like wildfire, word spread and His public approval rating is so low, that many join his enemies outside Pilate’s courtyard and call for his crucifixion. His closest friends abandon him: Judas snitches on him (Mark 14:44), Mark runs away from the Garden of Gethsemane (Mark 14:51,52), Peter denies him (Mark 14:71).

In the first century, crucifixion was a morbid form of free public entertainment. Should we go to the show today? No. How about down to the river? No. What do you want to do? Well, I heard there’s a really good crucifixion going on outside the city at Golgotha. Oh yeah, I heard there’s thief, a tax dodger and a wanna-be Messiah. Sure, let’s go; that sounds good. In this, it was similar to a hanging in the Old West or the stocks in colonial New England.

A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him. – Luke 23:27

Crucifixion was a public spectacle.

The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him….The soldiers also came up and mocked him… One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him. – Luke 23:35, 36, 39

Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself. Aren’t you the king? Get us down. Painful words for the savior from heaven. Since the act of dying was so long, people would come and go, eat their lunch, come back to see if he was dead yet, for hours and hours.

When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom. – John 19:23

Crucifixion was designed to be degrading and humiliating and shameful, naked (no loincloth) and bloody for the world to see. There you could hang for hours as you slowly scraped yourself up and down the rough wood, running out of air. A few of Jesus’ friends lingered around the cross, but at least Peter, Mark and Judas had run away or denied him.

Such a common death for the son of God. There was nothing new or special or extraordinary about Jesus’ death. Poor people got it all the time. The rich could afford a dignified death. But not Jesus. Crucifixion was so common that there was a crucifixion area set aside for it outside of both Jerusalem and Rome. It was so common that the Romans once crucified 6,000 at once on one of the roads.

Nothing special here, no need for the lens of history to linger here. Just another small-town Messiah; big head, but not really cut out to be the Christ. Messed with the wrong people; sensitive times you know, don’t want to stir up the Romans when, you know, you’re not the Real Guy; not the Real Messiah. Next…

Why? Why would God sacrifice his own glory? Why would God put his reputation on the line? Why did he make himself look so bad at the cross?

The History Of Risk
Ever had someone save you from embarrassment? Covered for you or inserted an explanatory word at the right moment or nudged you or kicked you in the shins. My wife Helen has saved me from foot-in-mouth disease more than once.

Once, when I was preaching at a church in Mountain View, they had a narrow transparent pulpit, kind of like this one. And as I spoke, about Heaven, I think, I noticed my wife waving franticly at me. I understood she was trying to tell me something important. I continued to preach on auto-pilot while trying to do this game of Charades with her. Finally, there was one thing I understood, opening her hands, showing me she wanted me to have the congregation read the Bible. So we read the Bible. Exasperated, she stood up, quietly made her way to the back of the room and signed for me to zip up. Now I understood. But here I was in front of this see-through pulpit. There was nothing to do but take the embarrassment in front of everyone. Later she told me that was why she wanted people to read the Bible, so they’d be looking down.

We all have stories like this. We’re not perfect, but thank God we have people who love and care for us enough to save us from ourselves. Sometimes there is little or no risk, just a little thoughtfulness involved. But sometimes, it is more than embarrassing; rescuing you means exposing themselves to shame. Like the time they picked you up from the police station; or the time they paid the bill; or the time that they deliberately ignored the comments about you.

I looked on the web and found dozens of forums where you could post your ‘most embarrassing moment’ There was one comment which stuck with me: If these were really the most embarrassing, you wouldn’t be posting it on the Internet, now would you?

We all have those secrets, don’t we? If we told the people in this room; if we told our family; if we told our closest friend, how horrible we would feel…how much explaining we would have to do…how our eyes would not meet …how shameful. We hold those secrets inside.

Friends, that is the scandal of the cross. That Jesus would leave the glory of heaven and take the path of shame; that in the cross, he would take the blame, not for his own past, but for ours. He knows our shameful secrets and, for each of them, he took the full measure of the rejection of God. The day was as dark as night. And Jesus cried out: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

The Bible says:

As it is written: “See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.” – Romans 9:33

Jesus is the stumbling block. He is the scandal. But no one who trusts in God has to worry about shame? Why? Is it because we never get into embarrassing or shameful situations? No, it is because, in the end, God’s opinion is the opinion that counts. Not ours. When we come to God, when we trust in him, Jesus says, “It’s ok. They’re with me.” Our reputation is nothing, because we have tied our reputation to his.

Three questions this morning:

• 1. Whose opinion are you listening to?

There are plenty of people willing to tell you what you should do, how you should live, and how to set your priorities. Magazines. TV. Radio. Junk mail. Some of us carry a whole jury box around in our heads. Parents. Teachers. Coaches. Neighbors. Every decision submitted for their approval. Every course of action criticized. They might even be dead, but their opinions live on with you.

At the end of the day, though, its not their opinion that counts. It’s Gods.

• 2. Whose reputation are you promoting and protecting?

“One can’t, at once, promote two reputations. Promote God’s and forget yours. Or promote yours and forget God’s. We must choose.”[2] Joseph gave away his reputation when he followed God’s plan and took pregnant Mary as his wife.

You’re a photographer for an ad agency. Your boss wants to assign you to your biggest photo shoot ever. The account? An adult magazine. He knows of your faith. Say yes and polish your reputation. Say yes and use your God-given gift to tarnish Christ’s reputation. What do you choose?

The sales contract is this close to being closed. But something comes up, the customer trusts you because of your faith. One little half-truth could seal the deal and your bonus, but would slander the kingdom of God. What do you say?

The college philosophy teacher daily harangues against Christ. He derides spirituality and denigrates the need for forgiveness. One day he dares any Christian in the class to speak up. Would you?[3]

• 3. What are you willing to risk?

Jesus put God’s reputation on the line. And you were where he put it. Jesus spilt his own blood, made himself foolishness and a stumbling block, for you and for me. Was it a good bargain for God? His reputation for your life. He has left his reputation, his glory, in the most unlikely of places, in the church, in this room. With you. With me. Because he had this strange; this weird; this foolish notion that in bringing many sons and daughters to God the Father, would bring the greater glory; that before the throne, the voices of the redeemed of God would one day drown out the angels of heaven in singing, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord God Almighty. Who was and is and is to come.”

Was it a good bet? I don’t know. You tell me. God didn’t leave Jesus in El Dorado Hills, he left us. He left us. What are you willing to risk? Will 2008 be just another year of going through the motions, a mamby-pamby, look-good, feel-good Christianity?

Maybe 2008 is the year you step out of your comfort zone (your crib) and transform the two-week vacation this year into a mission’s trip and let God plug you into the amazing things he’s doing around the world.

Maybe 2008 is the year you go deeper with God and you realize you can’t do it alone. Life is tough and if we try to manage it alone, without those critical relationships that give us perspective and pray with us and lift us up when we struggle, we crash and burn. We’ve got a men’s and women’s group on Wednesday. Or, if you’ve mastered the DVD player, you can do a trial run for 5 weeks at your house with this plug-n-play curriculum. It just takes 6-8 willing people and one couple willing to open their house.

Maybe 2008 is the year you get serious about God. Maybe you’ve enjoyed the role of a Christmas Christian, singing the carols, attending the services. In January you traditionally jettison your faith and get back to your real life. But this December something hits you. The immensity of it all hits you. God put his own reputation on the line, spilling his blood to pay your way back to God. Radical thoughts begin to surface. Your family and friends think you are crazy. Your changing world is changing theirs. They want the Christmas Christian back. You can protect your reputation or protect his.

I don’t know what it is for you. But its going to be risky. Its going to stretch you and even break you, but the world will not be the same because you will be different, God’s kingdom will be expanded and lives will be changed forever. Why? Because your life will be overflowing with the same love and power that Jesus had when he took on the cross for you.


[1] List: Year’s Most Memorable Quotes, Associated Press, Copyright © 2007 Associated Press as cited in USA Today, 19 December 2007
[2] Cure for the Common Life, Max Lucado, Copyright © 2005 by Max Lucado, p. 84
[3] Ibid, p. 86

Ephesians 4:11-13: Venture Ministries

In a previous post, I talked about the idea of ministry incubators, an environment in which church leaders nurture and resource new ministry ideas developed by church members. I first began to think about this after listening to Harvey Carey, Dave Gibbons and Gary Hamel at the Willow Creek Association's Global Leadership Summit. Then it was hammered home where, for the weekly Men's Bible Study that next week we were asked to read Ephesians 4 every day. That's where I came across a familiar old gem:

It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. - Ephesians 4:11-13.

First, God planned this. It says "It was he [God] who gave..." He set this in motion by the way that he gifted his people: not the same gift (no one person could do it all) but for the same purpose.

Second, the role of the leader (and the church) is to launch servants. "he who gave...to prepare God's people for works of service."You can't twist anyones arm into spiritual maturity. But willing servants, whose hearts have been worked on by God, should be set up for success. Ministry is not about budgets or buildings or multi-media or training binders. It is about willing hearts and lives at the disposal of the Master.

Third, God's means for unity and maturity is service. Service is not driven by the needs of the servant, but by the needs of the served. In mutual service, we are all "built up" and we all grow up ('mature'). In service, we understand Jesus more fully, because then our lifestyle echoes his.


Fourth, each church member is a minister. Some of us have grown up with that slogan handed to us from the pulpit, but do our churches really take this to heart? Each one has the Spirit of God. Each one has the gifting of the Holy Spirit. Most of them have more contact with the lost and broken of the world.

That's why I like the term ministry incubators. In the high-tech field where I work, incubators are organizations that provide infrastructure, encouragement, mentoring and training for new ventures. The idea is to get them off of the ground. After a certain point, these ventures are evaluated and a decision is made as to whether (a) to kill the idea, (b) wait a little longer or (c) invest enough other resources to help move it to the next level.

In the church, it is important to (as Experiencing God says) to watch where God is working and join Him there. That means that each of these new ventures and their leaders needs to have the humility to be willing to say: "Maybe the time for this ministry is concluded" or "Maybe I didn't understand correctly where God was leading" or "Maybe this ministry is good, but there is something more urgent right now."  Each ministry venture should be taken on as an experiment rather than a set-in-stone course of action. Ministry leaders sometimes have trouble with this tentative nature of a ministry because they have received a word from God, through their personal prayer time or an experience or from reading the Scriptures. So they find it hard to give up at an evaluation check point. But if this is God's will to move beyond a personal conviction or personal ministry, then God will have already orchestrated the same message to others.

What about leaders? Leaders are responsible to keep themselves in tune with God so that they faithfully recognized what God is doing. Gary Hamel talks about leaders who have passed their "sell by" date: they are firmly attached to the successful idea that they rode in on and not ready to recognize the next one because so much of their identity is wrapped up on their championing of the previous one. Humility is the key. Recognize that you are probably not the best source of good ministry ideas in your church, but rather the shepherd of God's good ministry ideas. Recognize that God will use any of his children--in fact, even children--to demonstrate clearly the source of ministry.

Leaders also have to make the decision as to how "core" they want to make a ministry. Do we encourage something (a ministry, etc.) as part of a person's individual mission or something the church wants to try. If the church tries this, do we try it on a larger scale? Do we incorporate it as one of the ministries under our ministry umbrella? Do we allocate cubicle space, copy paper, mentoring time, education or dollars? Does the church promote it substantially to its members or the community? Or is it one that fundamentally alters the church's course--a sort of God-designed left turn.

I am still learning and many of these ideas are still a work in progress as I try to wrestle with the implications of an enabling, incubator model for church leadership. I hold these ideas loosely and look forward to your feedback.



Second, this God's intention for the leaders of the church was to provide the environment where His people move out for serve.

The Scandalous Jesus (Part 2)

Portions © 1997 by Rick Warren from “When God Messes Up Your Plans”

Introduction
A few weeks ago we looked at the scandalous life of Jesus. He was hard to ignore. He was always saying something or doing something which forced people to take a second look at their lives. Many times they heard what Jesus said and just kept on living their own old, plain, ordinary, insipid and disappointing lives. Often, he made them angry and defensive. But sometimes, once in a while, they’d really hear what he was saying and it would revolutionize their life.

Paul put it this way:

Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. –1 Corinthians 1:22-24

Underline that phrase but to those whom God has called. When God has calls and you respond, you change. And that change gives you a different perspective on what is happening. God hasn’t changed. He hasn’t suddenly become wiser or more powerful. We have just become more perceptive. Without that relationship with God, all the spiritual truth in the world could be staring you in the face and you would choose to ignore it. Move over, Al Gore, if you want an Inconvenient Truth, it is this: we have seen the light and prefer darkness; God has shown himself by Jesus’ birth but we would rather gouge out our own eyes rather than admit that it is true.

Kind of like today. No one would like to admit that Christmas is about Christ. Its now a winter something, a season’s something, a holiday (oops, that’s holy-day, right) something. It’s about family, and giving, and food, right? No, its about Christ. Don’t get me wrong, I have the greatest Christmas memories at my grandma’s, watching in anticipation as people opened my haphazardly wrapped presents, eating pie until I could hold no more. As our culture shies away from Christ, they have nothing left to celebrate except the results of celebrating Christ. People came together as families, gave gifts, celebrated together because Christ gave meaning to the day. Want to know why Christmas feels more and more hollow? Because we have settled for the smell of apple pie instead the apple pie itself. Wonderful smell, but it just makes you hungry for the real thing. Or maybe its more like bathroom air freshener.

The scandal of Jesus is that the manger is once-in-history, A.D./B.C., never-again-repeated, God’s-beachhead in reclaiming humanity. You can choose him or abuse him, but the one thing you can’t do is ignore him. God has a strange way of messing up people’s plans.

When Jesus Christ was born that first Christmas, nobody expected it. It was totally unplanned. Nobody had made any plans for it at all. In fact, it messed up everybody’s plans.

You can make many plans, but the Lord’s purpose will prevail. - Proverbs 19:21 (NLT)

It messed up the shepherd’s plan because they were planning on another quiet night with the sheep. It messed up the religious leaders’ plans because they were expecting a political leader Messiah who would come and set them free from Roman captivity and Jesus came along and said stuff like, “Turn the other cheek,” and “Go the second mile,” and “Love your enemies”. They were saying, “Wait a minute, Jesus. That’s not what we wanted.” It messed up the innkeeper’s plan. He ran out of space.

It sure messed up King Herod’s plans.

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem an asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.” When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. - Matthew 2:1-2.

This King Herod had been made king over most of Israel because he had, at the last minute, sided with Caesar Augustus in the wars of succession that followed the death of Julius Caesar. He was called Herod the Great because he was one of the greatest builders of the ancient world. He rebuilt the Jewish temple so that it dwarfed the one built by Solomon. And then, there was his masterpiece: Herodium, where he won his greatest military victory and where he was buried. Walls five stories tall, a swimming pool big enough you could float boats in it, a 38 acre lower palace with gardens, it was both a fortress and a vacation spot. And…at 3 miles from Bethlehem, it dominated the skyline.

But King Herod had a problem: he wasn’t Jewish, and that never really sat well with the population. Assassination and paranoia were a regular part of his diet. He fell madly in love with a Jewish princess Miriam and married her, gaining some legitimacy. But that led to another problem: his kids were more “Jewish” than he was and he grew suspicious that they were plotting a palace coup. So he killed them, and their mother, and anyone else who looked at him cross-wise.

So when some Iraqi wise men show up talking about stars, signs and kings of the Jews, he is just a little perturbed. Herod was confronted with the truth, and rather than finding and following Jesus, he was true to form, killing all the boys under 2 years old. Just like Moses. Except that Joseph and Mary had to run away to Egypt to get away…kind of ironic. God sure messed up Herod’s plan. He died shortly after Jesus was born and was buried 3 miles from the true King of Israel.

But most of all, it messed up Mary and Joseph’s plans. Mary and Joseph were just a young couple, barely teenagers and all they wanted to do was get married and have little Mary’s and Joseph’s. In their wedding preparation, during their engagement period all of a sudden God comes along and says, “I’m changing the plan a little bit.”

The angel said to Mary and Joseph, “Mary, three things are going to happen. One, you’re going to get pregnant before your wedding day. Two, it’s not going to be Joseph who’s the father. It’s going to be a virgin birth. It’s going to be a miracle like has never happened. And three, by the way, the baby is going to be God.” That messed up their plans just a little bit. They weren’t at all expecting that to happen.

…His mother Mary was pledge to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. –Matthew 1:18b

Has God ever messed up your plans? I could give you an awful lot of examples in my life, a laundry list of when God messed up my plans. My wife, Helen, planned to be a CPA; an accountant; she wanted to sit in a bank and be cool (literally and figuratively). But God messed up her plans and she became a horticulturist instead. Good thing for me.

Some of you have had your plans messed up this last year. Most of us did in various ways. Several years ago, there was a story about a woman in New York who took her son to visit Santa Claus and set on his lap in the mall. When she got there she discovered that Santa Claus was her ex-husband who was not paying child support. I don’t think he was planning this. Three hours later she came back with a court injunction and slapped it on him and he wasn’t going, “Ho, Ho, Ho!” He hadn’t planned that.

A lot of things we plan just don’t happen.

• The launching of the Barry Bonds line of Red Bull health and fitness shakes
• The new Paris Hilton reality show The Simple Life Sentence (she got out too early)
• We never saw the Cornerstone credit-card tithing program or the Cache Creek donation for the new Cornerstone sanctuary
• We never saw the Lakers sign Danny DeVito. 

The point is: things don’t always go the way we plan them. I’m not saying that everything that happens, God plans. That’s not true. God is not the author of evil. If someone gets raped, God didn’t plan that. When someone gets abused, when someone gets cancer… the Bible says God is not the author of evil. That’s why we’re to pray for His will to be done. God’s will is not always done.

The fact is: a lot of my plans get messed up because I mess them up. My own stupidity messes up my own plans a lot of the times. We’re all very well acquainted that other people can mess up your plans. But sometimes God, through influence or direct intervention, changes circumstances because He’s got another idea in mind. And that’s obviously what happened at Christmas time about 2000 years ago.

What do you do when God messes up your plans? When God messes up your plans, what do you do? Three things.

1. Remember that God is trying to get your attention. When your plans get messed up, God is saying, “Hello!” He’s just trying to get your attention.
2. He has a different plan. When He messes up yours, He’s always got a better one, a different one.
3. He wants you to trust Him.

I think that’s what God wants to say to us this Christmas.

FIRST. GOD IS TRYING TO GET OUR ATTENTION when He messes up our plans. In Mary and Joseph’s case the plan was so fantastic, so unbelievable, so once-in-history kind of event that God had to use an angel to convince them that it was going to happen.

Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. – Matthew 1:19

Notice, it says Joseph was a righteous man. He was going to do the right thing and divorce her quietly. But God sent an angel to this righteous man, who said, “This is what’s going to happen. I need you to step in as the father of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. I’m God. I’m coming to earth in human form and we’re going to split history into A.D. and B.C.”

And what about Mary?

“How will this be," Mary asked the angel, "since I am a virgin?” – Luke 1:34

She knew how this sort of thing was supposed to work. Don’t you think she’d need a little encouragement if she found herself unexpectedly pregnant? You could imagine her thinking, “How’d this happen? You’d have thought I’d have remembered.” That could really mess with your mind. She needed an angel to help work out what was going on; to know that she had found favor with God, to keep her head up in the face of what would happen next.

The truth is, though, that most of us don’t need an angel to tell us what we need to do. That’s because God already gave us the Bible written down to guide us, the Spirit to help pay attention to what’s significant and other followers of Jesus to help us keep perspective. That’s 99% of the guidance needed. Sure, for the other 1% he can throw in an angel or a vision. Sometimes I’m looking for an angel when the Bible is in front of me, because I want something different than what I know he wants me to do.

No, the problem isn’t that God hasn’t spoken; it’s that we aren’t listening. Most of us have ADD, Attention Deficit Disorder. We put Him on call waiting, on hold. The phone’s busy. We’re so busy listening to the radio or watching TV or listening to other people or listening to ourselves for that matter, we don’t have time to listen to God. So God has to rearrange our plans to say, “Wake up! Let me get your attention.” God speaks to us in our pleasures, but He shouts to us in our problems and our pain.

For this people's heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them. – Matthew 13:15

Why does God want you to give your attention to Him? Because we get ourselves into a pile of trouble when we don’t follow what God tells us to do.

There is a way that seems right to a man, but it ends in death. - Proverbs 16:25

A lot of things in life look like the right thing to do but when you get to the end, it’s a dead end, a disaster.

Have you ever done anything in life, made a decision that you thought, “This is a guaranteed, sure-fire success!” and when it actually came to pass it was an unmitigated failure? Sure. We’ve all had plans that just didn’t go the way we intended them to go. Why? Because you don’t know the future and neither do I. Because we don’t know the future, we don’t know how things are going to turn out in spite of our plans.

That’s why God says, “I want you to listen to Me.” Because God does know the future. God can see around the corner. He can see the problems, the detours, the roadblocks coming up. If you just listen to Him, you avoid an awfully lot of pain in life.

In the Bible, there are many things where God says, “If you do these things, you’ll be successful, you’ll be satisfied, you’ll find meaning. Life will be easier. If you do these other things, it’s going to cause misery, guilt, resentment, broken relationships. It’s going to cause anger and worry and all kind of things.”

When He tells us what to do and what not to do it’s not because He’s some ogre or some cosmic cop in the sky, some bully just trying to make up rules. He does it because He loves us.

It’s like a mom who tells a little child, “Don’t touch the hot stove.” She’s not doing that because she’s a tyrant. She’s doing that out of love. Just like God. You can learn things the hard way or the easy way. There’s a way that seems right but it’s a dead end.

Sometimes He has to mess up our circumstances to get our attention. But He does more than that. When God messes up your plans, He’s also saying “I’VE GOT A BETTER PLAN.”

The Bible says very clearly that every person was made for a purpose. You were made for a purpose. God designed you uniquely. He has a reason for you being on earth. Part of your whole life is to figure out what your purpose is and do it.

`I know what I am planning for you,’ says the Lord. `I have good plans for you, not plans to hurt you. I will give you hope and a good future.’ –Jeremiah 29:11

A lot of people think, “If I really gave my life to God. If I start following Christ, He’s going to make my life miserable. No fun, no parties, total boredom. I’ve got to go become some kind of Amish person or something.” Yet God says, “No, you don’t understand. I made you. I love you. I designed you for a purpose on this earth.”

Let me tell you something about God’s plan for your life. Three things.

• God’s plan for your life is always bigger than your plan because He’s got a bigger perspective. Mary and Joseph just wanted to get married and settle down and be a nice happy couple. God said, “I want to bless the whole world through you.” If you don’t get anything else I say, get this: God made you for a purpose. You have no idea how much God wants to work through you; how much He could do through you if you were totally committed to His plan for your life, rather than your little plan for your life – your dreams, your ambitions, your goal. Look at Mary and Joseph: 

When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him… - Matthew 1:24

I am the Lord's servant," Mary answered. "May it be to me as you have said.” – Luke 1:38

You would not believe what God could accomplish through you. Because His plans are always bigger.

• God’s plan for your life is harder than your plan. That’s why so many people cut out on Him. Human beings and human nature, it’s our way to take the easy way out, to slide through life, to take the course of least resistance. God says, “I’m not saying it’s going to be easy. In fact, it’s going to be harder My way.”

Why? Because God is more interested in your character than He is in your comfort. He wants you to grow up. He wants you to be mature. He wants you to be a person of character and integrity and to take responsibility. He is, in no way, going to take all the problems out of your life. It’s a harder way but it produces character. Take all of the problems removed out of your life, you’d be a spoiled brat. Fat, not muscle. If you got your way at everything, you’d be worthless. Nobody could live with you. So God, says, Yes, it’s harder.

When Mary and Joseph said, “Ok, God, we’re going to cooperate with Your plan. Use us.” Do you think that was easy?” No. It wasn’t easy for Mary to say, “Ok, I will be an unwed mother.” Can you imagine the gossip that went on in those days? And who’s going to believe her story? “It’s God!” Would you believe that?

Then at the end of Mary’s pregnancy, two or three days before she’s to deliver when most women just want to lay down, she had to get on a donkey and ride for several days from Nazareth to Bethlehem. No limo. No 5-star hotel. No mother or grandmother or all her relatives. No comforts of home around her. Instead by herself, in another city, in a stable that smelled like goats!

I’m sure Mary wondered if she could handle having Jesus as a son. “I could handle being a celebrity Mom. Really, it wouldn’t go to my head.” But God’s plan was harder, because he needed a baby. He’d tried angels; he’d tried prophets. He needed Jesus.

• God’s plan is harder, it’s bigger. It’s also more rewarding. The Bible says

No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him. – 1 Corinthians 2:9

When you cooperate with God’s plans and God’s purpose for your life, you have two benefits: significance and satisfaction – the two things that everybody tends to be looking for. Nothing can replace those. Not sex, not status, not success. But it’s significance and satisfaction. Because, once you discover God’s plan for your life and you start fulfilling it then you go, “Oh! This is it! This is what I was made for. I’ve found my niche, my purpose! I’m not here just to take up space and breathe air, waste resources.” You find that significance and satisfaction.

 
What am I supposed to do with my life while I’m here on earth? The 60, 70, 80, 90 years if I get that many years to live? What am I supposed to do?

God says, “I want you to do three things?

1. I want you to get to know Me not know about Me. You know about Jesus Christ. You know about God. He says, “I want you to have a relationship with Me. Not a religion but a relationship.”
2. I want you to know and discover and fulfill the purpose that I put you on earth for. You were put here for a unique purpose.
3. I want you to develop your talents and skills and I want you to build your character, because that’s the only thing you’re taking with you into eternity. 

This last year, we lost a lot of well know people: Dan Fogelberg. Tammy Faye Bakker. Evil Knievel. Luciano Pavarotti. Bill Walsh. Jerry Falwell. Boris Yeltsin. Kurt Vonnegut. Liz Clairborne. Some people die young and some people die old. But everybody dies eventually.

Only a fool would go all the way through life unprepared for what we know is eventually going to happen. That’s what Christmas is about, its an introduction to God, arranged by Jesus, because that’s one of the purposes of life, for you to get to know God.

Can you imagine standing before God one day after you die and God says, “I’m going to ask you two questions: (1) What did you do with My Son, Jesus Christ? Did you ever get to know Him? And then (2), “Did you get to know the purpose that I put you on earth for?”

Can you imagine saying to God, “God, I know this sounds kind of funny, but I was too busy. I knew about Jesus, I knew about You. But, sorry, I just didn’t have the time. I know You had a purpose and plan for my life, but I had my plans and I really thought that my plans were better than Your plans so I did it my way.”

God’s going to say, “What were you thinking? Do you think I put you on earth just to do your own thing? To never get to know Me? To never take the time to stop and figure out why I put you on earth and to fulfill the purpose and to get ready for eternity? Wrong answer!”

It’s going to be more than an embarrassment. It has eternal implications. That’s why Christmas is so important. That’s why the third thing God says, When I mess up your plans, I’m not only saying, Listen, I’ve got a better idea.

I’m saying, I WANT YOU TO LEARN TO TRUST ME.

Can you imagine the faith hat it took for Joseph to do what he had to do? If your fiancé came to you one day and said, “Honey, I’m pregnant. And, by the way, it’s God’s fault.” Would you believe that story? Joseph was going to call off the engagement but the Bible says:

But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.” Matthew 1:20

He was going to call off the engagement until God sent an angel to him and said, “She’s right! It’s ok.” Can you imagine the faith that Mary had to have when she realized that, of all the women in the entire world, God chose to use her as the instrument by which He would come into the world?

God’s plan was so different from their plan for their own life that all they could do was trust. But that was ok. Because the Bible says there’s only one way to please God. It’s not by religion. It’s not by ritual. It’s not by ceremony. It’s not by a bunch of regulations.

“Without faith it is impossible to please God.” – Hebrews 11:6

It is by faith. God wants you to learn to trust Him.

Every time God messes up your plans, it’s a test. Am I going to trust God or am I going to trust me? Do I think I know better or do I think God knows better? Do I think I know what’s going to make me happy or do I really think God knows what’s best and what’s going to make me happy? It’s a test.

This Christmas, you may be feeling a little discouraged. A lot of people are – 2007 was a tough year for a lot of people. Or maybe you came in here feeling a little lonely. A lot of people feel lonely at Christmas time. You may be feeling stressed out by the whole situation and all the responsibilities of getting all the gifts and stuff like that. (You know, waiting until the last day to purchase gifts has its advantages. There’s only men in the mall then. Kind of a manly thing!)

For some of you this is the first Christmas since the divorce. For some of you this is the first Christmas since the death of that loved one. And I’m sorry. I hurt with you. And for some of you, this is the first Christmas since you’ve had that disability that you’re going to live with the rest of your life. If the truth were known you’re a little nervous about 2008 because you’re uncertain. You don’t know which way it’s going to go. You don’t know if you’re going to have a job or not or your relationship is going to last or your marriage is going to fall apart or if the kids are going to make it. You have all kinds of concerns and you don’t know and you’re worried.

The fact is, you don’t know. You have no idea. You can call as many psychic hotlines as you want and you still won’t figure out the future. Because its God’s secret. You don’t know what 2008 is going to hold.

But you can know three things:

1. God, in 2008, is still going to have a personal plan for your life. You may have missed it for the first 20, 30, 40, 50 years of your life but it has not changed. And you can get on it today, starting tonight, and make the rest of your life the best of your life.
2. You can know that God is never going to leave you, that He will be with you every step of the way in 2008.
3. You can know that ultimately the only legitimate, rational way to live is to figure out who God is, get to know Him, discover His purpose and start living that purpose. If you’re not living the purpose that God made you for, what in the world are you doing with your life? In fact, you’re not living. You are just existing. You get up, got to work, come home, watch some television and go to bed and repeat the cycle seven days a week. That’s not living. That’s existing. 

What do I do, when life doesn’t make sense? Don’t focus on yourself. Focus on God.

God says: You will seek Me and you will find Me when you seek Me with all your heart. – Jeremiah 29:13

In some ways, the wise men really were the wise men. They didn’t know exactly what was going on. They weren’t believers. They weren’t Christians. They just saw something really, really unusual and decide to check it out. “We’re just discovers of truth.” Some of you are like that. You haven’t yet given your life to Christ. But you’re on the road. You’re seeking the truth. There’s nothing wrong with that. Congratulations. We all start out as seekers.

But at some point you have to become a believer, you have to step across the line or you miss the whole point of life.

You say, “I just want to be happy.” Happiness is good. That’s a good thing. But that’s not the purpose of life. “I just want to be loved.” Love is a good thing and God wants you to be loved. But love is not the purpose of life. “I just want security, freedom, to get rid of these memories of my past that are bugging me. I want to be financially secure. I’m looking for peace of mind.”

Those are just the smell of the apple pie. They are the sign of something deeper: a relationship to God. You were made with the God-sized emptiness in your heart. Only God can fill it. If you try to put anything else in there – popularity, possessions, whatever – it’s like putting a square peg in a round hole. It doesn’t fit and you know it. And it’s frustrating.

I don’t care what your background is. You may be Catholic. You may be Buddhist. You may be Baptist. You may be Mormon. You may be Jewish. I don’t care what your background is. I’m not talking about religion. I’m talking about having a trusting relationship with Jesus Christ, where you’re not trying to earn your way to heaven. You just accept His grace.

We all came here for different reasons. Some of you came because it’s the Sunday around Christmas. You go to church once or twice a year. Some of you came because you were invited by a friend or a loved one, a relative, someone who cared about you. Some of you came because maybe you saw an ad in the paper or our sign on the corner. Some of you came because you got caught in the traffic and had to come in! You were actually on the way to Wal-Mart for that last minute gift! But you’re here.

I don’t care why you think you’re here; you’re not here by accident. God wanted to get your attention, even if just for a few minutes. So he could say this:

“I made you for a purpose and I love you and you matter to Me. And even though you’ve been going off on your plan, I want you to get on My plan. I have seen every single moment of your life, from your first heartbeat until now. I’ve seen the good, the bad and the ugly in your life and I still love you, because I am God.”

“I will never love you more than I do now and I will never love you any less because My love for you is not based on your performance. It’s based on the fact that I made you. If you’ll get with My plan for your life, you’ll be so much more satisfied and significant than if you just go off and continue to go with your little plans.”

All of us are in one of three spiritual positions in our spiritual journey.

Many of you here tonight already know Jesus Christ. You’ve given your heart to Him. You’ve developed that relationship to God we’ve talked about. And you are actively trying to fulfill the purpose that God made you for. To you I say, “Celebrate Christmas! Remember what a good deal you got the day you gave your life to Christ. Three things happened: He took care of your past, your present and you future.

1. Every sin you’ve ever committed, everything you’ve ever done wrong was completely forgiven and forgotten by God the day you said yes to Christ.
2. You began to get the power which you now live on daily to handle the hassles and the struggles and the problems you face on a regular basis. He gives you that daily power.
3. And not only that, He secured your future in heaven – God’s retirement program.” That’s a deal you can’t refuse and that’s the reason we have to rejoice this Christmas as followers and believers. 

But there’s another group of you here. You’re the seekers. You haven’t yet stepped across the line. You say, “I’m interested. I’m thinking about it. I’m checking in out.” Good for you. Congratulations. When will be a better time to take the next step?

Then there is a third group. You’re believers but you’ve kind of lost your spark. You’ve lost the warmth. You remember being close to God in the past but for one reason or another, you got distracted. You get involved in something else. Or something happened that knocked you off course. God would say to you tonight, “Come on home. It’s Christmas.” He’s not going to scold you. He’s going to welcome you home with open arms because He loves you and says, “Don’t waste another day being separate from Me.”

We’re going to close this service with a Christmas prayer. I invite you to pray it. You don’t have to close your eyes. You don’t even have to say it aloud.

Dear God, thank You for being patient with me. I’ve always known You were there but I’ve never really gotten to know You very well. I thank You for bringing me here tonight. I’ve known something was missing in my life, I just didn’t know it was you.

Thank You for seeking me even when I ignored you. Today I realize that you’ve been trying to get my attention. I admit that I’ve been focusing on my plan for life, not yours.

I realize that you made me for a purpose. So tonight, I want to take the first step by getting to know Jesus Christ, who you sent at Christmas. Today, Jesus, as much as I know how I want to open up my life to you. Replace my guilt with your forgiveness. Replace my confusion with Your peace. Please, replace my uncertainty about the future and death with your gift of eternal life.

This next year, I want to pay attention to You, God. I want to discover and fulfill the purpose that you made me for. I want to cooperate with your plan for my life. I want to learn to trust you more. In your name I pray, Jesus. Amen.