This Believe Series message was developed by Dave Morehouse and Brent Hudson. This post is the message delivered by Brent Hudson at River of Life Church. You can view Dave Morehouse’ version from the TJC YouTube channel here. 

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God pursues peace with us

Ephesians 2:13–14 NIV
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility,

Last week we doubled up in our Believe series looking at love and joy. We saw the connection between experiencing the full joy of Christ with a close relationship with him and active engagement in loving one another — obeying his commands. As we continue to survey the Christian virtues given by Paul in Galatians 5:22-23 we come to the complex theme of peace.

Just like Paul, we want to start looking at this from point of view of God making peace with us through Jesus Christ. This is the ultimate starting point. Understanding the value of peace to God must start with God’s seeking peace with you and me.

Ephesians 2:17 NRSV
So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near;

Clearly, the idea of peace is important to us because it is important to God. Just paying off our debts was not God’s plan. He did that in Christ, but that was not his goal. That was a means to another end. That ‘end’ is reconciliation which itself is technical and really just means making a friendship out of a broken relationship. This is at the heart of God’s pursuit of peace with us. It is why multiple times in the Bible, God is called “The God of peace”

Romans 15:33 NRSV – The God of peace be with all of you. Amen. Romans 16:20 NRSV – The God of peace will shortly crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Philippians 4:9 NRSV – Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you. 1 Thessalonians 5:23 NRSV – May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Hebrews 13:20 NRSV – Now may the God of peace, who brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant Judges 6:24 (NIV) – So Gideon built an altar to the Lord there and called it The Lord Is Peace….

And we like the idea of Peace with God.  We sing about it. We give thanks because of it. And it is good that we do — peace with God is at the heart of our experience of Salvation.

In fact, it is because of we are at peace with God that can experience inner peace.  We experience turmoil and anxiety in a variety of ways.  Life brings its stresses to us in various ways.  Being aware that greatest enemies of humanity have been defeated in Christ — namely Satan and death — gives comfort to all of us. (cf., Hebrews 2:14)

Hebrews 2:14 NIV Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil…

No wonder Paul writes that God is the God of all comfort (cf., 2Cor 1:3-4).  There is a pattern though and we would be wise to see it.  Let’s look at that verse in 2 Corinthians:

2 Corinthians 1:3–4 NIV
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.

What we experience from God, we are called to share with others. This is an important principle that we must understand.  Often our inclination — because of our highly individualistic culture — is to just focus on the inner quality of God’s comfort. We celebrate our feeling comforted and all too often just leave it at that.  But that is only the first part of what God intends.  God gives us this comfort so we can bring comfort to people around us. This same principle is at work when we look at the idea of peace that we receive from God through the Holy Spirit.  It is for our benefit – there is no doubt about that – but not for our benefit alone.

It is because we have peace with God that…

We pursue peace with others

This can sometimes make us uncomfortable because the idea of Peace with God is powerful and triumphant.  God accomplished this through Christ.  But when we start asking how this has affected our relationships — how the inner peace have moved outward into our relationships all we can think about is our conflicts.  We all can think of people very easily who we need to have conversations with.  Who we have had rough patches that have been smoothed over by the eroding forces of time more than have experienced the peace of God at work in our relationships.

Dave Morehouse mentioned a story he once read about a Christian Speaker who asked his audience to close their eyes and imagine peace. After a few seconds the audience was invited to share their mental pictures of peace. One person described a field with flowers and beautiful trees. Another person spoke of snow-capped mountains and an incredible alpine landscape. Still another described the scene of a beautiful, still lake.

After everyone described their mental picture of peace there was one thing common in them all—there were no people in them. Ramsden commented, “Isn’t it interesting, when asked to imagine peace the first thing we do is to eliminate everyone else.”

I think we can identify with this.

We think Pursuing Peace is hard because…

It doesn’t make sense

Maybe it was a bad bad experience and you feel that addressing that particular conflict is just going to unearth a lot of misery.  It just doesn’t make sense to jump into that again.

It’s not my fault

Maybe you found yourself in a conflict because of demands others have placed on you and you feel you are not to blame.  The other person is at fault, so they are the ones that need to initiate any conciliation process.

And sometimes we actually just give up on reconciliation because addressing conflict makes us feel bad and…

I don’t need the stress

At the outset we need to hold on to the words of Paul when he said that we don’t control the outcomes ultimately.  Sometimes we seek reconciliation and the other party is not willing.  Maybe they are angry. Maybe their belief system opposes the idea of reconciliation — there are a thousand reasons why people will walk away from peace-building.  Which is why Paul said

Romans 12:18 NIV
If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.

Notice how much uncertainty is in this.  Is it possible?  Is the ball in your court in terms of communication?  Paul is saying don’t be the reason for lack of peace in relationships.  Be the one who humble enough to engage a conversation.  Have we even tried? If we have, sometimes we need to accept the brokenness of the situation.  But we must never close the door on the possibility.  We must not grow cold and hardened toward making peace. We are reminded of this by Jesus himself:

Matthew 5:23–24 NIV
“Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.

Jesus is saying that it is not really about whether your conscience is clear. It is about a broken relationship.  I know I have broken relationships in my life where I have a clear conscience. I know I have not sinned. But I also know I need to keep the door open to conversations . . . and for me that is harder.  I have a desire to shut the door, lock it, reinforce it with iron girders. What Jesus is saying is that we need to be the one to bring the olive branch.  To ask if there is a need to have a conversation.  To allow forgiveness and reconciliation a chance.

Often we don’t allow for this because we forget

The Challenge of peace is forgetting…

the Gospel that saves us is the Gospel of peace

Ephesians 6:15 NIV
and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.

When we think about the gospel, we often think about believing in Jesus so our sins will be forgiven.  We think of receiving the promise of eternal life.  We think about Jesus, the cross and the resurrection, heaven and so forth.   I have talked about the idea of Shalom before — the Hebrew word for peace and the idea of well-being associated with it.  This Shalom is when people live in harmony and relationships thrive. People pay a fair price for work and workers get paid a fair price for working.  It is integrally connected to societal justice and also mercy and covenant love.  This is the framework that Jesus talks about peace and following him, the disciples and the NT writers.  when we read ‘peace’ we need to think Shalom.  It is a simple word infused with great depth of meaning.

Our gospel is a gospel of peace. Paul calls it that when writing about the armour of God in Eph 6:15.  It is more than me being at peace with God, it is the Peace of God, the Shalom of God blanketing my entire life.  My spiritual life, my relational life, my financial life, my thought life, my entire being and everything that my life touches is under the dominion of God’s Shalom at work in me through the gospel.

We cannot simply turn a blind eye to unresolved conflict or having angry relationships with other, particularly brothers and sisters in Christ.  We believe a gospel of peace.  It is a Gospel that bring peace with God and a gospel that touches our entire lives.

Getting back to the idea of the Fruit of the Spirit, which this section of our Believe series is ultimately rooted, we see that this Shalom of God is something that the Holy Spirit works in us and extends outward into the world.  We see that…

the Spirit within us is the Spirit of peace

Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.

I suppose would think about “unity of the Spirit” as being purely functional. Just do the task at hand. But it seems that Paul means more than that because it is rooted in the bond of peace.  The ‘bond’ is not some spiritual word about “bonding” or anything like that.  In Greek it can also be translated as “fetter” or “chains”. Here the use is probably epexegetical, meaning “the bond which is peace”.

Peace is that agent that keeps us in unity.  We can’t just do whatever we want.  And when we feel anxious about that, we can go to our theme verse in Philippians 4:6-7 and understand that the context here is Paul telling his ministry partner to help two women in the church — Euodia and Syntyche —  to get along.  To actually become “one mindset”.  That’s a difficult undertaking and one that can cause significant distress and anxiety.

What Paul does there is genius really. He connects the building of peace between these two women with the peace that passes all understanding given by God, which will help that worker in his or her anxiety about working with these two — no doubt outspoken — women in the church.  Peace is not an option.  It is what God is working in us through his Spirit.  It is at the heart of his message to us, the gospel.  It is at the core who God is.  He is the God of Peace.  He gives us peace with himself.  He gives us internal peace that passes understanding.  But he does this so that we can pursue Shalom — peace — in all our relationships — if it is possible and as much as it depends on you.

When Jesus sent out the 72, he told them to stay in the homes of “people of peace”.  People of Peace.

Are you a person of peace? Better yet,  Who are you becoming?

Are you becoming a person of peace?

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The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. (Romans 8:6 NIV)

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Dave Morehouse delivered this message at TJC on October. These are his preaching notes. You can also experience this message in video format on the TJC YouTube channel here.

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How do you define joy? Is it not a quality that often is easier to feel and watch then to put into words?

Here is a clip that I think describes a genuine moment of joy.

(Video Clip) ELLEN SHOW REUNION of wife and soldier husband.

Joy is a quality of our interior life. Let me attempt to use words to get a handle on this…

It is about contentment…not about grasping for more and being thankful for all of God’s good gifts

Living with purpose and living a full life

Deeper still joy is about desire – a stabbing pang where what we long for is something deeper and greater than we could ever imagine…

Joy is a byproduct of the things that matter most – reunion of friends, a helping hand, an act of generosity, rescue in the midst of despair.

Joy also has that element of hope – like you are lost in woods and then you come upon a signpost that leads you out to the road and on to your destination…joy is experienced in knowing that you are finding the way out.

Like this quote by C.S.Lewis – who can feel ugly when their hearts feel joy.

Slide: Surprised by Joy

In the gospel of John Jesus surprises us with the promise of joy.

11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

Jesus makes a connection that when we have Him we have His joy. Jesus says in fact that our joy is complete. So often our earthly joys leave us with a longing for more. A great meal, a beautiful sunrise, a new purchase, a nice movie, a fun trip…all wonderful but they fade and we yearn for more. Jesus says in me your joy is full and complete.

How do we get ahold of Jesus’ joy? In the 10 verses prior to his joy promise Jesus is telling us says his joy is a byproduct that from a connection to Him. Joy is found where Jesus is!

Let’s read this in Gospel of John 15:1-10

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes[a] so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.

C.S.Lewis makes the observation – We often try to live the Christian faith and the demands of faith like an honest man paying taxes. He pays them alright, but he does hope that there will be enough left over for him to live on and spend and do what he believes will bring him joy as though the way faith is really not where enduring happiness lies. That is the real challenge to the Christian life – we must stop taking the natural self as the starting point and ending point for our joy and life.

Jesus calls us to be deeply embedded into Him. He speaks to our souls ““Give me All. I don’t want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want you. I have not come to torment your natural self, to make it angry with moralistic demands – no I have come to kill the it. Not tweak off a branch here and there but to bring down the whole tree. Hand over the whole natural self and I will give you a new self. In fact, I will give you Myself: my own will shall become yours.”

Joy is found where Jesus is! Here is where we will find joy.

Unfortunately for many we don’t want this type of Christianity. The words of Jesus in John 15 we rationalize are for those who want a sort of deluxe model of christianity.

But Jesus’ call that we remain in Him is the basic entry point of faith. This is the call to be a disciple of Jesus- in other words – a student of Jesus. It is when we unite in faith with Christ in an attitude of study , obedience and imitation of Him that we began to discover the fulfillment of the highest human possibilities and to live life on the highest plane. And we find joy.

As long as deep down inside we make personal happiness centered on money, pleasure and success that ultimate standard of joy – we will truly feel that to hand over our whole life to Christ -to be fully connected to Him – to be an impossible thing.

But the real impossible thing is to think that we can live out the the way of Christ while still going our way and think we will find lasting joy. That will only lead to frustration and anger. Shortly we will either give up the call of Jesus and simply content ourselves with temporary pleasures

Jesus says when we remain in Him we will produce fruit that involves love, peace, self control, kindness, humility and joy! The fruit of our lives will grow when when we have the desire and make the decision to be like Jesus. The fruit Jesus wants us to display is the fruit of Him in our lives. This desire and decision comes by faith that only God can give.

Out of that desire and decision one enrolls in Christ’s training – becoming a student of Jesus. Then we will begin to learn to follow Jesus’ commands to

• to love our enemies,
• walk the second mile,
• forgive 70 x 7
• blessing those who curse us,
• showing hospitality to strangers.

Christ life starts to spread throughout our system, slowly and surely, with grace, with practice, with faith. And we are surprised by joy!

C.S.Lewis paraphrase – This believe journey is about no more compromise about the call to be in Chrsit to be found where Jesus is – to  live where Jesus is  like Christ. Imagine we are eggs that need to be hatched so that we can become birds that soar. That journey is hard. But harder still. in fact impossible is somehow thinking one can remain an egg and have wings. Let us give up the idea that we are called to simply remain an ordinary egg or the silly notion we can remain eggs and have wings. If we do not hatch we go bad…that is not Jesus’ intent when He says you must remain in me.

JOY LOST

But Joy gets lost at times. I saw a headline on the news yesterday: JOY TURNS TO ANGUISH!

Joy is lost with distractions. There are so many things in life that if we make them our central focus they distract us from Jesus.

Spiritually speaking joy is one of those traits of that have an inside and outside quality to it. It is hard to comprehend how someone can be full of joy on the inside and be consistently mean and miserable on the outside. “If you have no joy there is a leak in your Christianity somewhere.” – Billy Sunday

Joy is a like a spiritual gauge of souls.  A lack of joy in our lives is an indicator that all is not well.

I think of 3 Joy Distractors  

1. Discouragements – Difficulties – nothing is never easy, People disagree, quit and leave, Roadblocks – always unexpected circumstances. Weariness – We sometimes get caught up in the work of doing well and we find ourselves tired and overwhelmed

2. Disasters – Death, Crisis, Stress, Troubles, Grief.
3. Disobedience – In challenging life circumstances we are tempted to ignore God’s wisdom and to follow our own ways. We may think that these solutions will make the pain stop and bring the joy and contentment we’re looking for. But the promise in Psalm 119: 1-3

 

• Joyful are people of integrity, who follow the instructions of the Lord.

• Joyful are those who obey his laws and search for him with all their hearts.

• They do not compromise with evil,  and they walk only in his paths.

 

JOY FOUND

So how is joy found How is Joy Renewed? The answer of faith – Joy is found where Jesus is!

In Jesus we find an abiding peace.

In Jesus we have a life penetrated by love.

In Jesus we have a faith that sees everything in light of God working everything together for the good.

In Jesus we have a hope that stands firm in the most discouraging of circumstances.

In Jesus we discover power to do what is right and withstand the forces of evil.

In Jesus we have no condemnation, we are justified, reconciled with God.

In Jesus we have the promise of experiencing life in all its fulness as we learn to live His life and way.

In Jesus we have the way to eternal life, a resurrection hope and a home in heaven. And as C.S.Lewis observed, “Joy is the serious business of heaven.”

Finally we find  in Jesus we have his promise of his abiding presence.

And we celebrate with joy – in fact we sing and dance with gladness of heart  – Jesus is with us and we are with Him!

I think of the old gospel song  His Eye is On the Sparrow.

Why should I feel discouraged, why should the shadows come,

Why should my heart be lonely, and long for heav’n and home,

When Jesus is my portion? My constant Friend is He:

His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me;

His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.

 

• Refrain:

• I sing because I’m happy, I sing because I’m free,

• For His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.

 

 

Video – Lynda Randle

Key Quotes:

“The enjoyment of [God] is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied…. Fathers and mothers, husbands, wives, or children, or the company of earthly friends are but shadows, but enjoyment of God is the substance. These are but scattered beams, but God is the sun. These are but streams, but God is the fountain. These are but drops, but God is the ocean.”

—Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758)

What are the sources of your joy? Are they simply the good earthly joys: a new car, a Brooks Brothers suit, a great date, great sex, a raise, or a loss of four inches from your waistline? Or is your joy deeper and wider? Reflection on your election to the Christian community? The joy of saying slowly, “Abba, Father”? The afternoon you stole away for two hours with only the gospel as your companion? A small victory over selfishness? Adapted from Brendan Manning – The Importance of Being Foolish

JOY IS FOUND WHERE JESUS IS

Jesus said a thistle cannot produce figs. If I am a field of grass no matter how short and trim I cut it – I will never produce wheat. If I am to produce wheat the change must go deeper than the surface. I must be ploughed up and resown.

When we talk about the purpose of the church is – we exist to lead people into letting the life of Christ take root in our lives.

When we hear this call of the gospel to love, have joy and peace, kindness and so on, we vaguely grasp that  this is the call for a disciple – a student of Jesus. But we treat discipleship like those desiring the deluxe model of christianity. For example – I like walking and the occasional short run but there is no way I am joining the Running Club for the full marathon!

Jesus is saying to us When  Jesus speaks to us by the Spirit of God and through His Word, the bible, to our souls, we hear this. “Give me All. I don’t want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want you. I have not come to torment your natural self, to make it angry with moralistic demands – no I have come to kill the it. Not tweak off a branch here and there but to bring down the whole tree. Hand over the whole natural self and I will give you a new self. In fact, I will give you Myself: my own will shall become yours.”

When Jesus said, Go make disciples...He is directing the church that its simple and profound mission is to help people to

That is where this journey of faith takes us. Not to a place where our natural self feels contented and satisfied. Rather we are becoming like Christ. “Little Christs!” to put it boldly and plainly is how we must answer the question, “who are you/we becoming?”

That is why this Believe journey matters. Throughout the fall we are looking at how we become people of love, joy, peace, self control, kindness, hope, humility. And so on.

The fruit of God’s Spirit at work in us will occur – not because we keep trying harder –

Slide: Surprised by Joy

Jesus drew this connection that when we are in Him we have His joy. We have joy that is complete and full.

For may joy is found in experiences,

11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

there is a kind of happiness and wonder that makes you serious. It is too good to waste on jokes. -Lewis

 

We have the same role to play as the community of Christ. Coke is not poison and I can drink it in moderation, the same as I refuse to feel guilty about watching television here and there. But the point is that I can only find comedy on the television. I cannot find joy. And the more I substitute jokes for joy and cynicism for hope, the sicker I will become.

And so I need somebody to call me back to life. I need my brothers and sisters to remind me to drink water. I need them to invite me back to Jesus who says:

If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Casey Hobbs

and our walk with God.

Joy is not necessarily the absence of suffering, it is the presence of God Sam Storms

Psalm 16:11 and Psalm 30:5

 

KEY QUESTION
How do I share my faith with those who don’t know God?

KEY IDEA
I share my faith with others to fulfill God’s purposes.

KEY VERSE

Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should. (Ephesians 6:19-20)

This weekend we conclude section two of our believe series.  This week 20 and ever since week 15 we have been looking at places in our lives that need to come under the Lordship of Jesus Christ – that we need to surrender to God. There are things that our culture says to move in one direction and God says move in a different direction. Those are the most difficult places to live as a follower of Jesus.  Whether it is giving time or money or simply living together as a community that honours God with our actions toward one another — all of it brings joy and all of it requires some sacrifice. It is not easy to move against the flow. Yet as one author has written:

“It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.” (Jiddu Krishnamurti)

I think Jesus would agree with that view.  We all want to fit in but Jesus wants us to stand out — and to stand out for the right reasons.  

I just finished teaching an early church history course at Crandall University and one prominent aspect of the early church is that  Christians were known throughout history as being open to sharing their faith. There were seasons of persecution when saying you were a follower of Jesus meant suspicion and possible death. Of course, that is still the case in some places today — but for most of us our path is much less prone to danger.  It is ironic that even without the threat of death  openly sharing one’s faith is still considered one of the more difficult tasks by those who follow Christ in our Canadian context.  

I understand the cultural pressure and difficulty to share about our faith.  Our culture resists such things but we can be sure of one thing — everyone who has been saved by Jesus Christ– everyone who has put their faith in him and made a decision to follow him has been called to share their faith.  We are all…

Called to Share our Faith

We have stories in the gospels of Jesus sending people out to proclaim the good news of the Kingdom. If you wanted to be a disciple of Jesus — you got sent out. After Jesus rose from the dead, he gave his disciples instructions to go and make disciples.  Just before Jesus returned to his heavenly father his words to all his followers were simple:

…you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)

We could paraphrase Jesus words as:

“you will talk about me and live according to my teachings at home, with your neighbours — neighbours who are like you and neighbours who are not like you, and all over the world.”

This is something that is inescapable for those who follow Jesus. We are called to share our faith. We must be open about it, not hiding it or shy about it.  If someone says why do you forgive that person — you can say “it’s what Jesus teaches me to do”.  Sometimes people will say “you’re nuts” and other times it will lead to more conversation.  Sometimes the people who call you nuts are just emoting and will come back to you later –sometimes much later — and you can have a conversation.

The key to our call to share is actually loving people enough to tell them. If sharing our faith becomes a duty to dispatch — we do not have the heart of God. When Paul wrote the Corinthians he said “Christ’s love compels us” (2Cor 5:14) and the end of that passage he writes:

We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. (2 Cor 5:20, NIV)

When the prodigal son came home, in Jesus story, the Father disgraced himself by running to greet him and then in joy embraced his son and immediately threw a great party to celebrate his homecoming.  That is the father’s heart for every lost child that comes home. But so often we are the elder brother.  We never had enough love in us to searching for the lost son. The shepherd searched for the lost sheep.  The woman searched for the lost coin — but in this third story about lostness — no one searched.  That was the elder brother’s role, but he did not take it.  He did all kinds of things his father appreciated but he never got his heart.  He never appreciated why his father would watch the road every day for the lost son.

Often we are that elder brother – we follow Jesus as a duty instead of a profound sense of the Father’s heart.  Please hear me, sometimes life is hard and we put ourselves on auto-pilot, I get that I really do.  All I’m saying is let’s not accept it as the best scenario for our lives. The best scenario is loving like God loves. Everything becomes more natural when it is just we are overflowing God’s love. Eugene Peterson has a warning for us all:

“There is nothing more common than for people who want to talk about God to lose interest in the people they are talking to.”
(Eugene H. Peterson, Tell It Slant: A Conversation on the Language of Jesus in His Stories and Prayers)

The call to share our faith is clear. The danger will always be doing it for the wrong reasons. Internalizing this call to share our faith must be rooted in prayer because in order to share our faith with love requires that our hearts be changed or as John Wesley said of his own heart that it was “strangely warmed”.  

That doesn’t happen from a sermon. That doesn’t happen by reading a book. That happens when God touches our lives and puts his love in us. The passage from Acts, that I read earlier was actually only half of the verse.  The first part goes like this:

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you…(Acts 1:8a, NRSV)

Our call to share our faith is rooted in our experience of faith and God at work in us helping us to love as he loves. As we travel down that path

We see our calling to share our faith starts …

With our lives

Most of us want to be authentic people. We want to be real. Not only do we want authenticity in ourselves, we appreciate it when we see it …anywhere.  

Howard Schultz of Starbucks fame wrote a book telling the story Starbucks. He make an insightful comment about authenticity:

“In this ever-changing society, the most powerful and enduring brands are built from the heart. They are real and sustainable. Their foundations are stronger because they are built with the strength of the human spirit, not an ad campaign. The companies that are lasting are those that are authentic.”

Sharing our faith starts practically by being authentic. It means doing acts of kindness for our neighbours — it means being a good neighbour in a time when people rarely know their neighbours.  It means going out 30 minutes earlier with your snow blower to help that crazy guy two doors down or stopping in to the elderly person on your street to see how they are doing. It means being a little weird in your kindness. But because it is rooted in your love for your neighbours it will pass the sniff test — they will be suspicious, but they will sense your sincerity as well.  Because you are not looking for anything in return — you’re just doing what Jesus did.  You’re following the way of the Apostles — the better way – as Paul called it– the way of love.  First we love, then we do loving thinags.  Paul writes:

“The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” (Galatians 5:6, NIV)

Then there comes that time when people wonder about us and want to hear something.  As much as doing and not talking may be difficult for some extroverts, this next piece is the hard news for introverts. . .eventually you need to say something about the Gospel.  

We are called to Share our faith with our lives and also

With our words

I came across a book just recently and its title made me chuckle a bit when I read it :

Spiritual Conversations: Creating and Sustaining Them Without Being a Jerk

With a title like that, I had to read a few reviews and then a sample of the book on amazon.  It looks like it is actually a great book.  I think I’ll put it on my every lengthening list of books to read.  But what a great title.  How to have a spiritual conversation without being a jerk.  I think I love the title so much because I have heard so many evangelistic conversations where I felt the person was a jerk — and I already believe in Jesus!

I actually believe that if we get that love part right we have a built-in resistance to the jerk-factor. The people who most often come across as pushy, unkind, confrontational and even angry are people who are talking about Jesus for some other reason than authentic love for neighbour.  It’s not Christ’s love that compels them. . .it’s something else.  

When I have conversations about faith, I like to remember two things.

1. The amount of relational capital I have with this person.  This is a very important first question.  People who you have deep relationship with can have conversations that allow you to risk saying something hard. They know your heart and so you can get down to difficult things and they still know you care about them. When you have no invested in a person and have little relationship capital, you communicate in different ways. I often use questions or personal stories that include faith. The second thing I remember is…

• Not to over estimate my place in God’s Kingdom.  When I studied at Crandall University — it was Atlantic Baptist College then, there was a professor there named Jim Beverley.  Some of you may know Jim. I had several classes with him and in one of them we called some big names in theology at that time. One of them was Normal Geisler.  I credit this idea to Dr. Geisler. Dr. Beverley said what if I have to convert this person because I’m the only one who can — he said: “I would say you have overestimated your value in the Kingdom of God”.  I will never forget that class or that phrase.  God has many people working for him.  He has many conversations going on. I have had year-long conversations with people only to find out with surprise that they had been conversing with other Christians that I knew along the way — but I was not aware they even knew that person.  God is doing things in people’s lives that we are not aware of. It reminds us once again to pray for the people we do life with – that they would have ears that hear and eyes that see what God is doing all around them and for them.

It is a freeing thing to know that a person’s salvation does not rest solely on your shoulders.  I’m not letting myself or anyone else “off the hook” about sharing Christ — we are called to share Christ with our lives and our words. And we must pray for boldness like Paul did.  All I am saying is that we serve a great and merciful God. He is worth talking about.  What he has done in Christ is worth talking about.  Even when we feel awkward about it. Even when we would rather run away like Jonah or try to ignore the problem like Esther — in the end we all have a responsibility for a piece of what God is doing the in lives of those around us.  Not the whole thing — just a piece.  Our piece is important and only we can make that contribution.  God’s mighty hand will not be stopped because of someone’s lack of love for him or neighbour — but his reputation will not be enhanced — that’s for sure.

We are called to share our faith with our lives and with our words…

To Everyone

As I mentioned already from Acts 1, the words Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria and to all the world really mean at home, to our neighbours who are like us and who are different from us and out to the whole wide world.

What is interesting for me these days is how we are okay with sharing Christ at home — here in Moncton.  We are okay sharing our faith in Riverview — neighbours who are like us. But our neighbours who are different — who maybe speak a different language and adhere to a different form of Christianity or religion — we have work to do.  Our Samaria, our neighbour who is different than us could easily be Dieppe.  A different culture. A different language, different faith expressions — close to us but also different.  We must work to share faith with our neighbour — both like us and unlike us.  Likewise we must consider the larger world — to do projects which show the love of God in life and support our workers like Bruno and Kathleen who can put voice and passion to this gospel that we are called to share.  

As we look ahead, we are about to begin Alpha. This will be a season where we can invite people we know and have shared life with to begin a conversation about faith. The faith they have seen in you.  The love they have seen in you.  

Your church is working hard to create opportunities to take what you are doing in your own families and with friends and to help you start new conversations about faith — to continue ongoing faith conversations.  We want to love like Jesus and it is the love of Christ that compels us to explore together this faith that was once and for all delivered to God’s people (Jude 3) because we understand that we are

Called to share our faith
          with our lives,
                    with our words,
                              to everyone.

 

A preacher paid a visit to a farmer and asked, “If you had 200 dollars, would you give 100 dollars to the Lord?
“Sure would,” said the farmer.
“If you had two cows, would you give one cow to the Lord?”
“Yeah, I would.”
“If you had two pigs, would you give one of them to the Lord?”
The farmer replied, “That’s not fair. You know I have two pigs.”
(Kent Hughes, Preaching Today Message #205)

This week we are looking at Giving our Resources. There are times when this is easy and money flows from our hands and we are filled with joy that we could help.  But there are other times when it is hard but it is all part of a life that is marked by Faith in Jesus.  

And so our Key Question for today is this: How do I best use my resources to serve God and others?

Of course this presupposes that we want to use our resources to fulfill God’s purposes.  My hope is that if you are following Jesus, that is exactly what you want.  Even if it is hard at times…you want to embrace this spiritual call to giving.

Which leads us to the our Key idea: I give my resources to fulfill God’s resources  

That said, I know there may be others who are just tipping their toe in the water of the Christianity thing and since we are very protective of our resources in our Canadian context — this can be a threatening idea.

Brent Hudson our teaching pastor shares how this was, interestingly, a threatening idea to the early non-Jewish church as well.  Here is how Brent explains it!

The Jewish church had a rich culture of generosity.  You gave to the temple, you gave to the priests, you gave to the poor — sharing resources was part and parcel of what it meant to believe in a Creator God who was personal and cared about your life.  

“The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; for he founded it on the seas and established it on the waters.” (Psalm 24:1–2)  

How could a person sing that Psalm in the synagogue without a deep sense of all that one had belonged to God.  The Jewish Christians got this — but here’s the thing.  In the first century there was a food shortage in Palestine and so the very Christians who were notably generous were in that moment the ones in need.  

But more than that, the one’s who could help them were people like us — people who were raised to save and invest and work hard but not to give generously.  The non-Jewish Christians — often called Gentiles in the Bible — were brought up in a culture where when it came to resources and money:  what’s yours was yours.  Now Paul was in this place of having to ask the church to help those who were suffering — and did not have the mindset of God’s ownership of all things.  They did not have the mindset of being responsible for each other.  Simply put, they did not have the mindset of generosity.

In 2 Corinthians 8-9 we get a letter from Paul about the great offering that was being collected among the Gentile Churches to help the Jewish church in great need. These two chapters should be read over and over again by non-Jewish Christians.  

We may be 2000 years into the whole Christianity thing, but we are still Gentile Church — in so many many ways we are not unlike the Corinthians of the 1st century.  We know the path God wants us to be on — but everything in our culture makes it hard.  The Christian mindset of generosity simply does not make any sense to anyone who has not been radically saved by Jesus Christ.  And even among the saved — there are struggles.

Let’s look at our main Bible verse today as we develop a mindset that says “I give my resources to fulfill God’s purposes.”

Key Verse:

“But since you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in the love we have kindled in you—see that you also excel in this grace of giving.” (2 Corinthians 8:7)  

Excel in the Grace of Giving

Brent takes us down a path where he helps us dig into the connection between grace and giving.

The word ‘grace’ in the New Testament refers to a very diverse set of ideas.

• As protestants, we often learn that grace is “undeserved favour” — and it is.  But it is also more than that.  The gifts of the Holy Spirit – those “spiritual gifts” that we looked at a few weeks ago, are literally “grace-gifts” because the Greek word for these is based on the word for grace. In Greek, the word grace is χαρις (charis (ch like Bach not cheese) and grace-gifts is χαρισμα (charisma) – which is “something manifested from grace”.  Sometimes things get lost in translation — like the connection between spiritual gifts and grace — something the readers of the Greek text would have taken for granted.  
• There are other words built on grace, like εὐχαριστέω which means to give thanks.  The word ‘grace’ can also be used to mean ‘do something generous’.  The New Revised Standard version of the Bible translates ‘grace of giving’ 2Cor 8:7 as “generous undertaking”.  Every time the word grace is used, there are hues of generosity in its meanings.  The grace/generosity connection is not something we make in English — but for the first readers of the Paul’s letters, the connection was in the word itself.

Connecting the dots between grace and generosity can be one of the most powerful things that can happen to us as we think about how we as people who have received grace from God must live in our life together.  Being generous is not confined to financial things — but it certainly must include it.  This was the connection Paul was making to the non giving Gentiles and making to us as we interact with his words about giving.

The Giving Path

Our key verse simply is telling us to excel – to stand out – to become proficient at – to become really good at the grace of giving.

Becoming really good at something implies movement…for example as one works at science, at soccer, or at making speeches one can excel as one moves along a path of proficiency.

So let me suggest we all here in this moment need to consider how we can excel in the grace of giving. Let me further suggest that we need to move through three areas on the path of giving.

We decided we would have some fun by calling each area on the giving a name based on a well known song.

“Let it Go”: The Logic of Grace

For those who are beginning on the path of giving we are calling this group

Let it Go! We are telling those who are at the beginning of this path of giving to consider the logic of grace

For those struggling to get started on this journey of generosity — you need to understand the logic of grace.  

God has given to you salvation by his grace — it is a generous gift. He wants us to be like him.  Jesus tells this story to those who were following him:

“…be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. … Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:44-48)

That’s obviously a high standard but you don’t abandon a great idea just because it is hard and you may not get 100%.  It is a vision to look to and guide our lives. Who cares if you are more generous than the person next you when the objective is to be children of our Father in heaven.  To be marked by His generous ways.  

We receive grace from God when he forgives us our sins in Jesus Christ. We receive grace from God when he helps us in our struggles.  We receive grace from God when we live in Canada not a war-torn reality like Syria.  It is a gift. It is a generous flow from God. We are to connect the dots between God showing us generosity and us living a life of generosity — to model our character after God character and change our ways to match his ways.  This is the logic of grace — you have freely received, now freely give.

We’ve only just begun: The Cost of Grace

The second group are those who get the logic of grace and who have started on the giving path.  This is a great thing really. It is powerful when we understand the ways of God and begin on the path of following Jesus.  

Sadly, many people who get on the path don’t travel very far before the realization happens that this could get costly.  

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

I think that is the reason that people don’t give very much in our Canadian context.  StatsCan has a webpage devoted to the charitable trends of Canadians. When I read it, it is a sad reality.  Did you know that in New Brunswick, 585,700 people filed taxes in 2015.  Of those filed, 113,040 made charitable donations for a total of $148,680,000. The median gift — if you took every donor and lined them up from lowest to highest, at the very middle — the median is a $310 dollar donation.  There is a reason why CRA doesn’t give you credit for the first $250 of giving — because most people don’t give that much.  The median gift in Quebec is $130 and for the nation is $300.  

When it comes to giving money — all Christians should be outliers in our culture. We should be so far off the cultural map that CRA is writing us letters asking for receipts to prove it — and they will send that letter.

Grace was costly is so is giving!

1. Mark Dillon, Giving and Getting in the Kingdom (Moody Publishers, 2012 pg. 29; submitted by Kevin Miller, Wheaton, Illinois –

I once heard Warren Buffet say in an interview (I paraphrase here) about his $26 billion gift to the Gates Foundation: “My gift has not changed my lifestyle one bit. I still go to the movies I want to go to and eat at the restaurants I want to dine at. But what about the person who gives a gift that requires they can’t go to the movies or eat out. They are the true givers—the true heroes [of generosity].”

Now, this may offend someone, so let me apologize in advance, that is not my intent.  But if you have been forgiven a debt that was so large there was no way you could pay it and defaulting on that debt would actually endanger your very life — wouldn’t you want to express your gratitude with something a bit grander than a $250 gift of appreciation be a bit embarrassing? Would that really express gratitude for a life-saving act of generosity?  I think that’s the kind of gift you give if you think you’ll never have have to see that person again but feel obligated to give something.  News flash, you’re going to see that person again and actually have to explain why your new TV cost more than your annual giving.

“I can see clearly now”: The Fullness Grace

The fulness is when we see all the aspects of grace coming together in our lives…When we have this clear vision of what grace is — its central role in our lives.  Grace as the foundation for forgiveness.  Grace as the foundation for judging others.  Grace as the foundation for understanding spirituality, Grace as the foundation for our financial giving.  It can all be summed up in a word —  “generosity”.

⁷ Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. ⁸ And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. ⁹ As it is written:
“They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor;
their righteousness endures forever.”
¹⁰ Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. ¹¹ You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.
¹² This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. ¹³ Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, others will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. ¹⁴ And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. ¹⁵ Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift! (2 Corinthians 9:7-15, NIV)

• Cuba Offering – $525.00
• Crandall Power Outage – $645.00
• Christmas Eve – $9475.00
• Christmas Offering – $2151.00
• Irene MacLeod Bequest – $50,000

It is all about living our lives with a full understanding of how the giving path is connected to God’s character, my salvation, my experience of the Holy Spirit and what God has given to me to manage during my lifetime.  

Giving is one area of life that is easily measurable. The 10% rule is something that we can evaluate every year at tax time.  Some people quibble about gross income or net, I think that is a diversion.  Our city could be impacted greatly by our church if every family gave 10% of their net income — and you can measure that.  In that sense, it is simple and objective.

So many things about following Jesus can be complicated because it involves our hearts and our emotions — but this area — giving — it’s straightforward — we can measure it — in fact CRA requires us to every . single . year. It may be hard to do because of our own hearts — but it is easy to measure if we are getting it right.

BTW

As we move along the giving path there are three main steps:

Decide to do it
Do it
Do it cheerfully

There are lots of stories in the bible about people on different parts of the giving path that person.  The story of the rich fool in Luke’s gospel who was rich with respect to money but poor with respect to God. The story of the unforgiving servant who was give huge debt forgiveness but did not extend that to a fellow servant who owed him money.  In both cases the people are considered fools who simply do not understand what is important in the grand scheme of things.  

At the other end we have numerous examples of generous giving.  We have the woman who washed Jesus feet with her tears and hair and then poured perfume on his feet. Jesus said she had show great love because she had experienced great love. We have the story of Zacchaeus who gave generously and Jesus praised him for his behaviour.

It is between these two bookends that most of us find ourselves on this path of generosity.

 

Message Bumper (Asaf Avidan – One Day)

Tick-Tock

Did you hear the lyrics in that video we just played? It comes from the song entitled, “Reckoning Song”. We played this commercial as our message bumper because the lyrics speak of time.

“One day baby, we’ll be old
Oh baby, we’ll be old
And think of all the stories that we could have told.”

Tick Tock goes the clock and so does our time.

Today we come to the action step of living out my faith by Offering My Time.

KEY QUESTION
How do I best use my time to serve God and others?

KEY IDEA
I offer my time to fulfill God’s purposes.

KEY VERSE
Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Colossians 3:17

I want us to look at another important statement of about time found in Ephesians 5:15-17

15 Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.

As we contemplate these verses what can we say about time, about us and about faith?

Tick Tock – Time is Passing

There is a sense of urgency in these words of exhortation by Paul. In the Message paraphrase – So watch your step. Use your head. Make the most of every chance you get. These are desperate times! 17 Don’t live carelessly, unthinkingly. Make sure you understand what the Master wants.

When as a child, I laughed and wept,
Time crept;
When as a youth, I dreamed and talked,
Time walked;
When I became a full-grown man,
Time ran;
When older still I daily grew,
Time flew;
Soon I shall find in traveling on,
Time gone.

I sense Paul in light of scripture has a sense of the brevity of life. Scripture repeatedly presents powerful pictures that speak of our brief “season of opportunity” on earth using metaphors such as a breathe, a swift ship, an eagle’s dive, a shadow, a hand breath (thumb to little finger), smoke, vapor, grass, flowers of the field, a weaver’s shuttle!

Casting Crowns has the lyrics that mirror what scripture tells us constantly…

I am a flower quickly fading
Here today and gone tomorrow
A wave tossed in the ocean
A vapor in the wind

TICK -TOCK  – Time is Passing

TICK-TOCK – We are Careless

Paul’s warning about being careful with our time is because of the temptation and the danger of being careless. We often can act unwisely with our time. A teacher and author Chuck Swindoll – suggests five proven ways to be careless with our time.

First, worry a lot. Start worrying early in the morning and intensify your anxiety as the day passes.

Second, make hard-and-fast predictions.

Third, fix your attention on getting rich.

Fourth, compare yourself with others.

Fifth, lengthen your list of enemies. If there’s one thing above all others that will keep your wheels spinning, it’s perfecting your skill at the Blame Game.

Henry Blackaby observes that when we are careless…If you are spiritually prepared when a crisis comes, you will not have to try to develop instantly the quality of relationship with Christ that can sustain you. If you suddenly have an opportunity to share your faith with an unbeliever, you will be equipped to do so. If you enter a time of worship spiritually prepared, you will not miss an encounter with God. If you are spiritually filled when you meet a person in sorrow, you will have much to offer. If you have established safeguards in your life in advance, you will not give in to temptation. Christians lose many opportunities to experience God’s activity because they have not devoted enough time to their relationship with God.

Ortberg writes that we must all ruthlessly eliminate hurry from our lives.

Why?

Hurry is the great enemy of spiritual life in our day. Hurry can destroy our souls. Hurry can keep us from living well. As Ortberg observes for many of us the great danger is not that we will renounce our faith. It is that we will become so distracted and rushed and preoccupied that we will settle for a mediocre version of it. We will skim our lives instead of actually living them.

Another reason Ortberg gives to eliminate hurry is that love and hurry are fundamentally incompatible. Love always takes time and time is one thing hurried people don’t have. The dilemma we all face with our hurry is that we often end up not being able to love those most important to us. We come home with sunset fatigue that leads to unkind words, underlying tension and escapist behaviors like tuning into the TV or computer and tuning out your spouse, children or friends.

TICK TOCK  We are Careless.

Tick Tock – Faith is Now

Paul speaks about discerning the Lord’s will – about making the most of every opportunity. The idea of opportunity is to know the season that you are in and do what you can with it.

Henry Blackaby (known for his excellent study Experiencing God) says

Timing our obedience is crucial. Invitations from God come with a limited opportunity to respond. Some opportunities to serve Him, if not accepted immediately, will be lost. Occasions to minister to others may pass us by. When God invites us to intercede for someone, it may be critical that we stop what we are doing and immediately adjust our lives to what God is doing. Missing opportunities to serve the Lord can be tragic. When an invitation comes from God, the time to respond is now.

Let me quote Blackaby: God has tried, at times, to get our attention by revealing where He is at work. We see it, but we do not immediately identify it as God’s work. We say to ourselves, Well, I don’t know if God wants me to get involved here or not. I had better pray about it. By the time we leave that situation and pray, the opportunity to join God may pass us by. A tender and sensitive heart will be ready to respond to God at the slightest prompting. God makes your heart tender and sensitive in the love relationship you are called to seek to have with Him.

As we consider what it means to seize the opportunities let us recognize that often many can be termed – Inconvenient Opportunities

A history professor once visited a fine ancestral home in Virginia. He followed the aged owner, the last of a distinguished colonial family, as she proudly showed him through her home. An ancient rifle above the fireplace intrigued him, so he asked if he might take it down and examine it. She replied, “Oh, I’m very sorry. I just can’t allow it. You see, it just wouldn’t be safe. The rifle is loaded and primed, ready to fire. My great-grandfather kept it there in constant readiness against the moment he might strike a blow for the freedom of the colonies.” The professor said: “Oh, then he died before the American Revolution came?” “No,” came the reply. “Actually he did not. He lived to a ripe old age and died in 1802, but he never had any confidence in George Washington as a general or as a Commander in Chief. You see, he knew him as a boy and didn’t believe he could ever lead an army to victory.”

He missed out a history making moment.

Making the most of our time comes down to this – taking advantage of every opportunity to manifest the reality of one’s faith.

So how do we do that?

• Every day is time to depend on God in prayer and listen to his word.

  Everyday is a time to show compassion to a stranger.. those in need.

  Everyday is a time to share my hope in Christ.

  Everyday is a time to grace and practice humility.

  Everyday is time to practice gratitude

  Everyday is time to seek first God’s kingdom…

  Everyday is time to use my spiritual gifts

  Every day is time for loving service, holy adoration, and diligent study.

  Every day is  time to know the mind of Christ and by the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives live out His love and truth.

Psychologist, William Marston, surveyed 3,000 people. “What have you to live for?” Ninety-four percent said they were just enduring today and living for tomorrow.

Robin Mark:

When it’s all been said and done
There is just one thing that matters
Did I do my best to live for truth?
Did I live my life for You?

When it’s all been said and done
All my treasures will mean nothing
Only what I’ve done for love’s Reward
Will stand the test of time