Monday, July 25, 2016

John 21: Don't Waste Your Life

Don’t Waste Your Life

John 21:17-22

Introduction

When we visited the Sacramento Zoo last month, we were introduced to two interesting characters: Herkimer and Anasazi, father and son desert tortoises. Herkimer was actually born around 1927, although they’re not quite sure, and donated to the zoo when it first opened. Most of his time is spent in the giraffe pen. Anasazi turned 25 this year and regularly entertains guests by sprinting across the landscape, followed by his minder. What got me to thinking was: Herkimer was at least 64(!) when Anasazi was born. Maybe we wonder: What was he thinking? Or, with more respect: That’s a bold move for a senior citizen.

That got me to thinking: are there areas in my life that I have placed off limits to God because I’m too old? Like Sarah did when she heard God promise another chapter in her life and she laughed. But God did add another chapter and she gave birth to Isaac whose name means: “He laughs.” You might laugh at the thought that your most productive years in the kingdom lie ahead of you, but God laughs last.

We don’t think of it like that. We say things like:

I’m too tired (or burnt out) to start at the beginning again.
I’ve put in my time.
I will, after I finish school, or once kids get into school, or once they graduate and out of the house, or one on a secure financial footing, or once…
If I could just fit it in between my doctors’ appointments.
I’m not really qualified, or I’ve done things by which I’ve disqualified myself.

Here’s my point: Don’t Waste the Rest of Your Life and Don’t Limit What God Can Use The Rest Of Your Life For.

Paul puts it this way:

Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things. – Philippians 3:13-15a

This is not a young man’s goal. This is a mature man or woman’s goal.

We were always watching the U.S. Olympic trials as those athletes strained toward the goal. What interested me was the longer distance runners. They paced themselves for the first laps of the race, trying to stay with the pack, setting up for a winnng time. But during the last lap of the race something remarkable happens: as tired as they are, as many laps as they have run, they speed up! They push harder! They lean forward (like Lightning McQueen in Cars, with the tongue hanging out) to reach that finish line.

The rest of your life is the best of your life. The time to accelerate is when the finish line is getting closer. When the applause of the great cloud of witnesses swells to fortississimo. Where the author and finisher of our faith waits to shout, “Well done.”

John Piper, in his insightful book Don’t Waste Your Life, finds tragedy in the story of a couple who “took early retirement from their jobs in the Northeast five years ago when he was 59 and she was 51. Now they live in Punta Gorda, Florida, where they cruise on their 30 foot trawler, play softball and collect shells.” Is that what we want to end our life with? “Here, Lord, see my beautiful shell collection.”?[1]

These shells—they are life wasters. Many good people miss God’s purpose and waste their life. One of the saddest verses in the Bible shows up in Luke:

“But the Pharisees and the experts in the law rejected God’s purpose for themselves…” – Luke 7:30a

Earnest, well-meaning, moral, well-educated, civic minded, Bible-based citizens not only missed God’s purpose for their lives, but rejected it. It wasn’t that they didn’t know, but that they didn’t want to know. We make conscious choices that waste our lives, or we slip into wastage. These life wasters are habits that convince us that God’s purpose is better left undiscovered and untraveled. The first life waster is regret.

Waste Life Regretting

If there was ever a man with regrets, it was Simon Peter. Runner up in the category for best traitor, just behind Judas Iscariot. Claimed he would die for Jesus, but sold him out for a bit of anonymity around a campfire. Called “Satan!” by Jesus. Found a sword, used it badly and then was reprimanded by Jesus. Watched Jesus die, but then, no, he doesn’t stay dead, he comes back and his life is a physical reminder of Peter’s every doubt and failure. Then he tells Peter to go back to the beginning, to Galilee. Back where he met Jesus as a fisherman. Back where Jesus first called him, “Peter” Back where Jesus challenged him, “Come, follow me.”

So John records how Peter and some of the other disciples hike back to Galilee and apparently Jesus is a bit late so Peter decides (John 21:3) he’s going fishing. The others join him. Then Jesus appears and calls to them, just like in the beginning. Then Peter leaves his nets to see Jesus, just like in the beginning. Then Jesus says, “Come, follow me.” Just like in the beginning.

You can never go back. You can’t make those decisions over again. You can’t retrace your steps and take the road less traveled or the word better not spoken or leave the invitation untaken. But no matter what, Jesus invitation still awaits, “Come and follow me.”

We may not want to invest a lot in God because, frankly, we’ve made quite a hash of being good already. Our bad choices have hurt us, they have damaged the ones we loved, they have disappointed God and permanently closed off paths and avenues that might have led to our happiness. Not through mistakes—no, nor stupidity, but through bald-faced selfishness and cowardice. But somehow, the invitation of Jesus remains, even after that, knowing the truth about us, “Come, follow me.”

Paul reflected on this to his friend Timothy when he said,

Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. – 1 Timothy 1:13-14

The question is not: What if I did things differently? The question is: What if I do things differently. So don’t waste the rest of your life on regret, spend it lavishly for God’s purposes.

Waste Life Avoiding or Tolerating People

The second life waster is avoiding and tolerating people. We shield ourselves from people. We don’t answer the phone from people, return e-mails from people, approach people, get involved with certain people. People who look like X, act like X, smell like X, say things like X, act like that, ask awkward questions like X. We avoid them or tolerate them. Some of those people are in our family. Or, in our church. Or in our neighborhood.

Jesus encountered uncomfortable people and his response was invariably to turn toward the mess. Not avoid. Not mitigate. Not tolerate. But love. Lepers. Untouchables. Demonized. Outcast. Cast out. Diseased. Unfriended. Awkward.

When Peter came off of the boat in John, chapter 21, there was Jesus, on the shore. Three times he asks Peter: Do you love me? Three times Peter responds: You know I do, Lord. Three times, Jesus replies: Feed my sheep. Mine. Not yours. I choose. You don’t choose—you care for them. You love them. But I choose them.

When you hear this, you think: “I’m not the pastor, not the leader, not the deacon.” But there’s nothing in “feeding the sheep” that isn’t found in the commands to love one another, carry one another’s burdens, etc. that are for all of us.

When you hear this, you’re probably like me, thinking: “I’m not Jesus. I can’t handle that.” That’s ok. You’re not Jesus. They can’t handle you either. But Jesus didn’t ask that. I’ve got some suggestions:

Do for the one what you wish you could do for the many. You can’t help everybody. We are not God. But we can start doing for one what we wish we could do for the many. Your job is not to fill their cup. Your job is to empty your cup. [2]
Stop expecting our friend flock should be full of county fair prize winners. Sheep are messy and lead messy lives. The cemetery is the only place full of no-fuss neighbors.
When our thoughts say “How could they…” or “If they only...” it is a signal we need to turn toward (not away from) the mess. Paul wrote to Titus: “slander no one, be peaceable and considerate, and always be gentle toward everyone [because] At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures.” (Titus 2:2-3)

When we avoid or tolerate, we waste our lives because our purpose is to be life-giving outpost of the kingdom of God where he has placed us, with the people he has placed near us. If you love him, feed his sheep.

Waste Life Envying

The third way that we waste our lives is by envying.

There’s a sort of funny coda to the end of Peter’s story, where Jesus commands him: “Follow me.” Apparently Jesus actually started walking away and wanted Peter to follow. So Peter does and then he turns and looks over his shoulder and there is John. So he asks Jesus, “Lord, what about him?” (John 21:21)

That question--“What about him?”--really translates to “Am I getting the raw deal?” or “Could I be getting something better?” During this post-resurrection period, Peter and John and the other disciples haven’t understood how the whole kingdom of God thing is going to work. In fact, just before Jesus ascends back into heaven, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6) They are still working within the model that Jesus is going to usher in the next phase in God’s program (“the age to come”, true) and that everything is going to be set right.

It is within this context that Jesus says to Peter: there’s going to come a day where you are going to be weak, so weak you can’t dress yourself, and powerless, led to a place you don’t want to go, and die to glorify God. Peter says: wait, wait, I don’t understand. If the kingdom of God wins, and I get this role, was it because of something I said, or did. Wait, what about John, does he get a better deal because he didn’t do the whole give-up-on-Jesus-bit, because he was assigned to take care of Mary at the cross?

Jesus has strong words for Peter: “What is that to you? What happens if I give him the better deal of living until kingdom comes [and you don’t]? Follow me!” Your fate is good. You’re forgiven. You’re in. It’s all good. This is not a limited grace universe.

We can spend a lot of time comparing our lives to those of other people. Jesus asks you: what is that to you? Come, follow me.

How come their families stayed together? How come they didn’t get sick? How come there were no shootings in their neighborhood?

Paul looks at it from a different angle

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us eternal glory that outweighs them all. – 2 Corinthians 4:7,8-12

Mount Testaccio, outside Rome, is an artificial hill 115 feet high and covering more than 5 acres, that is composed exclusively of the shards of an estimated 53 million amphora—Roman jars of clay. In Most jars were stamped with where they came from, the official opinion about their contents, how they measured up, but they all ended up on the junk heap. [3]

Why? Because the value is not in the pot! The value is in what the pot carries, in this case: olive oil from all over the Roman world.

That’s what Paul says: our lives are like pots—jars of clay--something which is used for a purpose. We were called, fashioned, created to carry the very Spirit of the living God. We can go around comparing pot design, pot capacity, pot point-of-origin, pot inspector approval stickers, who bought the pots—all perfectly good archaeological questions and the focus of billions of dollars of annual pot cosmetic sales—but it misses the point: the value of the pot is the value of what it carries. And if there are a few nicks and cracks here and there, that’s just the place where the Spirit of God can leak out or shine through.

Perhaps the jar is tossed away, but it can be reformed. Do you know the primary use of amphorae? They were ground down into powder to be used in one of the greatest Roman inventions: concrete. Even as we are wasting away, God is reforming us, fashioning us into the very blocks of his temple, building upon (as Paul says) the foundation of apostles and prophets upon the chief cornerstone, Jesus.

There is a story that says: you are wasting away. That this is a young man or woman's world. That past 20 your body starts to go downhill, at 25 your brain starts to lose more neurons than it gains. But that isn’t the complete story: because simultaneously, and often in parallel with wasting away, we are renewed.

Conclusion

There is a real danger, the further we get along in life, to assume that the best years are behind us. Illness and pain and missed opportunities dominate our thinking. Our culture reinforces this with the deification of youth, our infatuation with prodigies.

Here are ten ways you are getting better at doing what God has called you to do:

There are spiritual insights that you have now that you didn’t have when you were younger.
There are paths you took when you were younger that you wouldn’t want anyone to take after you.
There are accumulated resources (time, treasure, talents) that you can share with someone else.
There is influence that God has given you that you can use on someone else’s behalf, among friends, institutions, agencies and, through prayer, with God.
There are delays and roadblocks you have waited out that taught you pace and patience in God’s time.
There are reservoirs of love, kindness and generosity that others have poured into you so you can embrace hard-to-love people.
There are accumulated reserves of joy that let you donate some to those around you who are down.
There are experiences, painful, deep and profound, that you carry with you that allow to come alongside those who struggle with sympathy and without judgement.
There are more stories, funny and sad, that make you the fascinating individual you are today, not a generic infant.
There are more friends and family. As I thought about this, it became clear how blessed we are to stand on the foundation provided by the faithfulness and consistency of generations gone before.

But these will never do you any good, unless you take Paul’s advice.

When I had a spare weekend in Taiwan a few years ago, I wandered up to the northwest corner of Taipei County to Tamsui. As I wandered along the river, I noticed a life-sized, polished brass statue on the river pier of a man kneeling in prayer next to a boat in which lay an open Bible. That man was George Leslie Mackay. In 1872, George Mackay was the first foreign missionary commissioned by the Canadian Presbyterian Church. Starting as an itinerant dentist, he went on to plant churches, start what is today the Mackay Memorial Hospital and the first institutions for higher learning: Aleuthia University. He was tireless, fluent, endlessly fascinated by local culture while at the same time drying his clothes at night with the bonfire of idolatrous paper offerings gathered from his evangelistic efforts. At the time of his death, there were 2,400 baptized communicants and over 60 local churches led by local preachers. [4]

His influence is so profoundly felt in Taiwan that in 2008 the Taiwanese government commissioned an opera based on his life, titled Mackay: The Black Bearded Bible Man.

In the museum tracing his life, I read these words of his, “It is better to burn up than rust out.”

Paul comments to Timothy (2 Timothy 4:6ff) that he is being poured out like a drink offering, he has fought the good fight and run the good race. You might think he’s all done, ready to wait patiently for the end. But in the following verses, he goes on to tell Timothy (effectively): “bring my cloak, I’m cold.” And “don’t forget my Bible scrolls, I need to read up.” And “Oh, get Mark and bring him along, he’s useful for the ministry.” He wanted his life to be used up to the very end.

The Bible says: “For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, died,” (Acts 13:36, NRSV)
That’s what I want for my life. That’s what I want for yours. Not wasting our life in regret, in avoiding people, in envying someone else’s job. But delighting in God’s unique purpose for our lives.

Let us pray.

[2] Commonly heard from Andy Stanley, cf: Deep and Wide, Andy Stanley, Zondervan, 2012
[2] Trash Talk, Archaeology Magazine, Volume 62, Number 2 (March/April 2009). Available now from http://archive.archaeology.org/0903/abstracts/monte_testaccio.html and Mount Testaccio, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monte_Testaccio, retrieved July 25, 2016
[3] Taken from the International Bulletin of Missionary Research, Volume 34, No. 4 (October 2010), pp. 221-228 as reproduced on http://www.internationalbulletin.org/issues/2010-04/2010-04-221-rohrer.html, retrieved on July 9, 2016

Sunday, July 3, 2016

Luke 18:18-30: High Definition

[This sermon was first preached at Cornerstone Christian Church on May 29, 2016]

High Definition

Luke 18:18-30

Introduction: A Life for the Ages (vs. 18-19)

What do The Ark of the Covenant, R2D2, a jewel encrusted falcon statue, the One Ring and a brief case all have in common? They are all examples of a macguffin.

A macguffin is a plot device in the form of some goal, desired object, or other motivator that the protagonist pursues, often with little or no narrative explanation. The specific nature of a MacGuffin is typically unimportant to the overall plot.[1]

Sometimes the Bible tosses around terms that seem like macguffins: holiness, or kingdom of God or heaven. The good guys want to find it. The bad guys don’t want us to find it. But what is it? All three of his biographers capture Jesus’ encounter with a man who brought an important question about one of those terms: eternal life. Matthew records it. Mark records it. Luke tells it like this (chapter 18, starting in verse 18):

A certain ruler asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone.”

What do we know about this man? Well:

He was a ruler. He might even have been one of the 70 members of the Jewish ruling council, the Sanhedrin.

He was rich. Down just a bit, in verse 23, he is described as wealthy. Lots of property.

He was young. By our best guess, he was between 21-28 years old. (see Matthew 19:22)

He was a good man. He wasn’t sleeping with anyone’s wife, wasn’t lying about people, wasn’t knocking people off, he was on good terms with his father and mother and he “loved his neighbor as himself.” (see Matthew 19:19)

He was polite. The phrase “good teacher” is sort of over-the-top politeness. Like if you went up to your high school teacher and addressed them as Lord Hummel or Lord Pitts or Lady Ryan. Of course, if I was a teacher and you did that to me, I’d be immediately suspicious … and so was Jesus.

He was loved by Jesus. Mark’s version of this meeting says “Jesus looked at him and loved him.”

He was spiritually engaged. We’ll talk about this more in a bit, but clearly he wants to know what his part is in God’s bigger plan.

In short, all of the mothers considered him a very eligible match. Somehow, at this young age he had managed his money well, gained a great degree of influence, garnered the good opinion of the latest rabbi/prophet in Galilee, kept his life from going off the rails and had a spiritual component. The first century ideal. What more could you want?

Look at his question for Jesus: What must I do to inherit eternal life? Now let me stop you right there. He is not asking “How do I get to heaven?” What he’s really ask is: how do I get to take part in the big thing that God is about to do next?

Israel is occupied territory. Rome is brutally in control, extracting every bit of wealth it can from the lucrative north-south trade route between Byzantium (Istanbul) and Egypt, the bread basket of the empire. Every Jewish child knew that Israel was in trouble because of disobedience to God, but that one day, God would restore his people from their spiritual exile, return to Jerusalem, and inaugurate a new age (as opposed the current age, which he would abolish) and a new kingdom (as opposed to either the corrupt Herod-filled puppet kings or the Romans, take your pick)

Why do I give you this history lesson? Because the burning question of Jesus’ day was: when God does this--and they were sure that God was up to something, he’d been quiet for far too long—who would be a part of this new age—this new kingdom? Who would inherit? I mean, it was clear that the pagan Romans weren’t going to be in it, right? But what about the collaborators or tax collectors or liberals or men who stared to long at women or women who let you see their ankles? Yes, they might be Jewish but … they would stink up the kingdom.

Now let’s go back to his question: What must I do to inherit eternal life—a part in God’s huge plan that we’ve been waiting for desperately? I think I’ve got what it takes but I want to make sure. Do I pass the sniff test?

Hang with me here: Why does he need to ask the question if he’s so eminently well-qualified for the kingdom of God? Jesus had just said something in this chapter that had rocked this young man’s world. Something that all three biographers of Jesus insist on recording just before this incident (vs. 15):

People were also bringing babies to Jesus for him to place his hands on them. When the disciples saw this, they rebuked them. But Jesus called the children to him and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” – Luke 18:15-17

Are babies rich? (no, very dependent) Are babies influential? (only by crying) Are babies good? (no, they are selfish) Are babies polite? (babies, theaters, don’t do it) Are babies young? (ok, we’ll give them that) Now Jesus says that they are the models for the people who will inherit the coming age, who will populate the kingdom of God. Mind blown. World view turned upside down and shaken like a rag doll.

This man who thinks of himself as the perfect candidate suddenly is not so sure. So he asks: “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

Jesus says: do you want to know? If you’re going to call me ‘good’ (something that really only applies to God) then you’d better be ready to accept what I’m going to tell you. Don’t go to Jesus like he’s Dr. Phil, or Judge Judy; go to Jesus like he’s God. My friends, are you ready for what God is going to tell you?

Is What God Wants What I’m Hoping For? (vs. 20-23)

Here’s what Jesus asked:

“You know the commandments: ‘You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.’”

“All these I have kept since I was a boy,” he said.

At this point, this guy is feeling good. He didn’t hurt anybody. He was the embodiment of America’s prevailing business ethic, as seen in Google’s motto “do no harm”. What he really wants Jesus to say is, “You have answered wisely. You’re in. That little child stuff was for those people. In fact, I’d like you to invite you into my inner circle. In fact, I could really use your connections to help spread the good word.”

But that’s not what Jesus said:

When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

There’s a lot here in Jesus’ words, so we’ll take a little time to unpack it. Jesus’ words test who you are, not so that God will know, but so that you will know. Here’s what this man found out:

When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was very wealthy.

Was what he claimed he wanted what he really wanted? No. I’m not sure he knew. He thought he loved God; he thought he wanted the kingdom that Jesus talked; but he didn’t. He wanted status; he wanted priority access; he wanted the perks; he wanted control.

How about you? Is what God wants what you are hoping for?

Those commandments that Jesus listed—they are taken from the second half of the Ten Commandments—that Moses recorded in the 2^nd book of the Bible, Exodus. This guy, he had that second half down. But the first half…that’s where things fall apart. In chapter 20 of Exodus, Moses records Commandment #1:

I am the Lord your God…you shall have no other gods before me. (Exodus 20:3)

“No other gods”… What does that mean? Well, Commandment #2, we have the answer:

You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them.” (Exodus 20:4-5)

When we hear “idol” we think of American Idol with thousands of screaming fans, or maybe we think of some Raiders of the Lost Ark statue with bowing, chanting devotees. But really, anything in life (money, sex, power)—anything—can act as an idol, a God-alternative-a counterfeit god.

Pastor Tim Keller describes it this way:

“A counterfeit god is anything so central and essential to your life that, should you lose it, your life would feel hardly worth living. An idol has such a controlling position in your heart that you can spend most of your passion and energy, your emotional and financial resources, on it without a second thought. It can be:

· Family and children, or

· Career and making money, or

· Achievement and critical acclaim, or

· ‘saving face’ and social standing.

· A romantic relationship,

· Peer approval,

· Competence and skill,

· Secure and comfortable circumstances,

· Your beauty or your brains,

· A great political or social cause,

· Your morality and virtue, or even

· Success in the Christian ministry.

When your meaning in life is to fix someone else’s life, we may call it ‘co-dependency’ but it is really idolatry, have that, then I’ll feel my life has meaning, then I’ll know I have value, then I’ll feel significant and secure.” There are many ways to describe that kind of relationship to something, but perhaps the best one is worship.”[2]

Jesus tested him: Give up ruler and be follower. Give up influential and be childlike. Give up rich and become one of the poor. Give up earth and gain heaven. This is how God finds out who our god really is: he tests us. What are we really hoping for? What God wants? Or something else?

What have the tests in my life told me about what I’m really hoping for?

Is What God Offers What I Really Want? (vs. 24-26)

When Jesus saw this guy’s reaction (vs. 24), Luke records that:

Jesus looked at him and said, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”

Why is Jesus so hard on rich people? Some people have mitigate the strength of Jesus’ language by looking for other explanations about gates or ropes. Let’s be clear: Jesus doesn’t mean that it’s difficult for rich people, he means it is impossible. The disciples are so startled that they blurt out:

Those who heard this asked, “Who then can be saved?”

And Jesus replies:

Jesus replied, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”

If you’re like me, counterfeit gods are hard to detect because they are good things—gifts from God. But they have taken a place in our hearts reserved for God. Some of you are still back there at the beginning, wondering if I’m asking you to empty your bank account. Let me ask you: are you willing? Willing to let God empty your bank account, bankrupt your portfolio, spend your capital recklessly, for God’s plans? Are you willing to let God diminish your reputation, kill your personal PR campaign, exhaust all of your influence for God’s plans? How about your retirement plans, your summer plans, this evening’s plans, is the other 24/6 interruptible for God’s plans? Because God wants to know, are you his or are you yours?

God is offering freedom. Freedom from the good things that we promoted to the best thing, only to have it enslave us. God is offering renewal. Renewal of emotions, thoughts, energy…all of who we are. Is what God offers what I really want?

Poker Vs. Blackjack

Some people play their life like poker. You want to win, you have to go through the other players. Basically, you play the hand you’re dealt and you can improve your situation a bit. There’s good strategy, like not drawing to an inside straight. But the real skilled poker players know how to bluff; how to control their emotions; how to optimize their hidden weaknesses or strengths. Other than dispensing the cards, the dealer—God--has nothing to do with it.

Other people play their life like blackjack. You want to win, you have to go through the dealer. The other players have nothing to do with it. Fortunately, the dealer has to play by the rules, and if you know the rules you can work the odds. How good or bad the other players doesn’t affect your winnings, unless you get to involved with them.

What is the problem with these strategies? They try to control the cards. They are risk mitigation strategies. They are percentage plays. But it’s a lie. It’s a lie that keeps us stuck in a gambling addiction—an addiction that the rich (those with discretionary income) are more susceptible to, because we think we can get back to the table and win more or win back what they’ve list. It’s a lie that teaches us to ignore the dealer—God. (52 card pick up)

Some people try to get what they want by going around God. Ignoring him. Dismissing him. Minimizing him.

Some people try to get what they want through God. Find the rules, use them to use God to achieve happiness, a safe family, good health or security. But…

God can be an obstacle to what you want.

God can be the means to what I want.

God can be what I want.

Seek your happiness in the Lord and he will give you your heart’s desire. - Psalm 37:4 (NLT)

Is What God Provides What I’m Longing For? (vs. 28-30)

Now Peter has been following Jesus’ conversation carefully, and he raises the salient point: If following God doesn’t get me the good stuff, what’s the point? Is What God Provides What I’m Longing For?

Peter said to him, “We have left all we had to follow you!”

“Truly I tell you,” Jesus said to them, “no one who has left home or wife or brothers or sisters or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in this age, and in the age to come eternal life.”

America is in the process of destroying families. The nuclear family has gone nuclear. Broken apart, we still long for home, we still long for family, we still long to belong. But, as a nation, we have decided we would rather be orphans.

Jesus was ready. He has created a new family, not based on genealogy or ethnicity or skin color or culture or lineage or ancestry, but based on ties with Jesus himself—ties forged in his own blood, given to purchase us back from the counterfeit gods into whose slavery we have sold ourselves.

For even if there are so-called gods, , whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”), yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live. – 1 Corinthians 8:5-6

Church is broken. We are broken. But the plans he has for you are tied to his family. You can’t opt out because there are no healthy Christian orphans. He reached out to us, like a good older brother, to gather us in. kuya Jesus, gege Jesoo, oppa Jesu, hermano mayor Jesus, ba->deb hay Jesu. His family is his blessing. Treat his family, the church, as his blessing.

I learned this from my wife Helen's family. After Helen and I were married, I made the decision to go visit her mother--my mother-in-law--by myself in the her home town of Abulug, on the north coast of the largest of the Philippine islands. I had met her mother before, but I had never been there. What I found was the entire neighborhood--barangay--was related to Helen or had gone to school with Helen. Cousins, aunts, uncles, grandmas and grandpas galore! So there I was--I didn't know them and they didn't know me. But because I was related to Helen, I wasn't an outsider! I was in! They welcomed me. They introduced me to everybody. They took me on wild rides delivering rice to some really remote areas where white guys were so rare that they mistook me for the local Catholic priest because that was the only white guy they knew.

There was one time where I was trying to take a shower. If you don't know, you draw water from the well or get it from the tap into a bucket and then you dip a cup into the water and pour it over yourself, cleaning yourself with the water. And Helen's family had a pretty nice setup out behind the house, a little place with leafy walls to give a little privacy. Except that the walls only came up to here (mid-thigh) on me. So I spent the whole time taking showers squatting down and trying to figure out how to get clothes on without standing up. We made it work.

But the thing is, when I came back to visit the second time, Helen's family--my family--had built an indoor bathroom just for me. Not only were they welcoming to me, but because I was on the inside, they were thinking about me and my...unusual requirements.

When I came back the fourth time, this time with Helen, her uncle came up to me one day outside her sister's house and asked me, "So you're a businessman?" "Yes." "You travel a lot?" "Yes." "So when you're traveling you must meet a lot of ladies." "Sure." "Ever take advantage of their...hospitality?" Because of my relationship with Helen, I'm on the inside and so her uncle feels no qualms about checking on me. He had a bit of a checkered past himself, but he cared for Helen and he cared for me enough to be nosy.

Here's the point: you may be here with a broken family, painful memories, a history of hurt given and received. It's messy. But because of Jesus, it is not what we have lost, it is what we have gained. I grew up knowing a brother, a half-sister, four stepbrothers and two stepsisters. Home was complicated. But in this room, in his church, I have dozens and dozens of brothers and sisters. And in this town, I have hundreds and hundreds. Tied together by the common blood-bond we have in Jesus.

Conclusion: A Life for the Ages

Probably the most famous macguffin of all time is the Holy Grail. Indiana Jones, King Arthur, Monty Python all on epic quests through mountains, swamps, narrow gorges and ballistic cows to find the secret location of the cup which reportedly held Jesus’ blood as he died on the cross.

But it is a lie. The power of a life for the ages isn’t found in a missing magical mug. It is found in the Jesus whose blood filled that cup to bring us back to God. Eternal life isn’t a macguffin-a plot device or carrot that God holds out in front of us to manipulate us into being good. It doesn’t start tomorrow or when we die. It is the new life-life for the coming age-that starts the moment you put Jesus in the right place and call him, not good teacher, but the good God. John wrote:

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. – 1 John 5:13

Otherwise we aim too low. C. S. Lewis said:

“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”[3]

Take for a moment the following assumptions: 1) our hearts are idol factories and 2) we are particularly blind to our idols. What do we do? Here are four questions that help me gain a high definition look at these idols:

What do I habitually think about to get joy and comfort in my private thoughts and dreams?
What do I easily spend my money on?
What habitually irritates me?
What frustrations lead me to explosive anger or deep despair?[4]

If you’re struggling with these, ask your close friend, or your husband or wife. Spend time with a group of friends in your church for a year or two. They can help you.

Then, what do you do if you suspect something? Talk to God. Tell him your answers to these questions, honestly. And tell him that you want him back in 1^st place.

In your bulletin, we’ve provided a little prayer card for this week. Don’t toss it or lose it in your purse. Hang it on the fridge. When you get up in the morning, and you see it, take a moment and pray it (not because these words are magical, but because you need talking before coffee). It says:

PRAYER CARD

Father, thank you for all of the good things you have given me. I want to hope for what you want. I want to take what you offer. I want to long for what you provide. Please don’t let anything take my attention away from you. When I am feeling irritated this week, when I am speaking down about someone, when I am worried, help me to see if the root cause is a counterfeit god buried in my heart. If so, remove it ruthlessly no matter what because I want nothing between us. Thank you for being my father. Thank you for your family that you have placed around me. Thank you for Jesus. Amen.

[1] Macguffin, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacGuffin, retrieved on July 3, 2016

[3] C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory, and Other Addresses

Set Your Minds Above