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Spiritual Gifts – Believe #17

Last week we talked about how we are called in our Christian faith to do “Life Together”. This week as we talk about Spiritual Gifts we need to see an important connection to the community of faith. One way the biblical community is described in the bible is that we are the body of Christ.

In Romans 12:4-6 we are given the implications of being part of the body – read it on the screen or on the teaching outline. :

KEY VERSE: Romans 12:4-6
“For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us.”

In this image there is link made between parts of the body and spiritual gifts. One implication that I find striking is that it is obvious that when I think about a body it is made up of so many parts and they all need to working in a proper and healthy way together in order for the body the to flourish.

I remember years pulling up carpet and in the process damaging nerves near my spinal column. The pain was relentless. I had to go on a strong painkiller – oxycontin ever so briefly…and all I can say is that when that member/part of my body was damaged it affected my whole body.

Paul is reminding us that if we are the body of Christ – we all need to be functioning in a healthy in order for Christ to work through us. That is why the Key Question is important for us to consider:

KEY QUESTION
What gifts and skills has God given me to serve others?

In your journey to act like a follower of Jesus – you need to come to grips with this biblical reality that says that each one of us is spiritually gifted. It is crucial that you in your journey through this life come to a place of self awareness where you can say in our Key Idea:

KEY IDEA
I know my spiritual gifts and use them to fulfill God’s purposes.

When we talk about what on earth am I here for – this understanding of our spiritual gifts is part of that journey into a full meaningful faith where we begin to see how we are called to live before God and with others.

But let’s back up the train for a moment so that we can grasp a fundamental truth about being a Christian. When we make the courageous decision to to step across the line of faith and embrace God’s offer of salvation through the grace and mercy of Christ, we are changed. The Holy Spirit takes up residence in each of our lives.

The Believing Community is Spirit-filled

This is a mystical and marvelous experience. And since we all experience this for those who have faith in Christ – it means that the church, the body of Christ, the fellowship of believers is Spirit filled.

Jesus spoke of the Holy Spirit…John 14:26

John 14:26 (NIV)
But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.

Let’s be clear about the presence of the Holy Spirit. It means the presence of God in our lives. Without God at work in our lives then we may have our plans, our own energy but from God’s perspective it is rather missing the point.

Even in the Old Testament we are reminded about the needed presence of God’s Spirit. Through the OT prophet Zechariah we hear these words – It is not by force nor by strength, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. (Zechariah 4:6)

I think of the birth of the church in Acts. The means of this occurrence was through the Holy Spirit. Jesus told the early disciples very specifically about waiting for the Holy Spirit.

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

When we are describing any church in spiritual terms we have to see that it moves us way beyond organizational structures. We are saying that you and you and you and you have the presence of the Holy Spirit in your life. The very presence of God. That means all those who are christians in this gathering of worship are not ordinary by any means. The believing community is Spirit filled.

The Spirit Gives Gifts

Now the implication of Spirit filled people is that we are given spiritual gifts. The bible makes it plain: The Spirit gives Gifts!

1 Corinthians 12:11 (NLT)
It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have.

There are two critical implications about spiritual gifts for the church. I need to give credit to the late Ray Stedman who was pastor of Peninsula Bible Church for the articulation of these implications about our spiritual gifts.

First…

We cannot consider ourselves insignificant.

Many people in many churches have thought to themselves, I love to coming to church, but I can’t contribute, because I don’t have any abilities. Others are so much more talented or knowledgeable than I am.”

Paul addresses this feeling of insignificance in these next verses of I Corinthians 12 when he says, “If the foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,’ that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the ear should say, ‘Because I’m not an eye, I do not belong to the body,’ that would not make it any less a part of the body.”

In other words, if the foot should say, “I can’t do all the things a hand does. It’s so flexible, and it’s used all the time. I really don’t belong in this body,” it is nevertheless an indispensable part of the body.

In the same way, if you are a believer and you think you are insignificant just because you can’t preach or lead worship, you are deceiving yourself. Whether you feel qualified or not, you’re still a part of the body. But you have shut your eyes to truth. You need to open them to see the role God has called you to play. There are no insignificant members of the body.

Here is something interesting – there’s a part of your body that is absolutely essential to all of us. It is our big toe. The big toe senses when your body begins to lean or shift or get out of balance, and it immediately strengthens so that we all can stand up. Without your big toe, we would all be in trouble.

There are people in the church who are just as essential to its work as the big toe. Take people with the gift of helps, for example. We think they are nice to have around. Food needs to be served. Chairs need to be set up. They see a need and meet it. We’re glad they help out, but do we really appreciate how crucial their service is to the work of the church? Without those folks, we’d soon be unable to preach or teach. We’d stumble over one another and nothing would get done.

The reason so many people consider themselves insignificant is that we often have the wrong idea of what the work of the church is. It is so much more than our weekend services. People who lead services might lead the rest of the church to think That’s the work of the church, and I can’t do any of those things. Therefore, I have no part to play in the church.

The work of the church is to heal the brokenhearted, to deliver the captives, to open the eyes of the blind, and to preach the good news to the poor and despairing. The work of the church is to encourage and strengthen and deliver. Seek justice, show mercy – meet the needs of others with love. And alot of that work doesn’t take place inside the church building; it goes on out in the world. What happens inside the church building is that we get organized and trained and inspired. We come here to be equipped and encouraged and educated to fulfill the work of the church out there.

There are many jobs to be done in the work of the church. Some are to be done on when the church is gathered and other times when the church is dispersed. That’s the work of the church; the church is Christ at work in the world. Doing this work requires everyone using their spiritual gifts so that they can do the work God wants them to do.

Second…

We cannot consider ourselves independent.

Paul says, “The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you;’ nor, again, the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you.'” It’s amazing how many people believe they don’t need the rest of the body. They are confident in their own abilities and their own ministries. This attitude of independence hurst the body of Christ.

Think about golfers versus hockey players. I once spoke at a conference for professional golfers. Golfers are, by nature, independent. A golf tournament is a struggle of independent egos against one another. It’s very different from a hockey game, in which each member plays his own role, working together with the rest of the team to accomplish a goal. I’m afraid many congregations are more like golfers; everybody goes out on his or her own and pays little attention to what others are doing.

Paul points out that this attitude leaves the church in a terrible state. What if the eye said, “I don’t need the rest of the body; I’ll just roll around seeing things and let the rest of the body go”? If that happened, the rest of the body would stumble into everything and the eye would lose its ability to see. We all need one another, no matter how impressive we think we are. For as Paul reminds us that in our physical body the parts that seem to be weaker are actually indispensable.

The power of our spiritual gifts is when they are working together. Quote Ray Stedman – When you begin to see the church as God sees it, you’ll see that God works the whole body together in one beautifully articulated and coordinated thing. The human body is the most beautifully balanced and delicately tuned instrument the world has ever seen. In the same way, there’s nothing more beautiful or effective, nothing more exquisitely balanced, than the church of Jesus Christ. God has crafted it with care. Therefore we ought to show great care for one another. Paul says, “If one member suffers, all suffer with it.” It’s also true that “If one be honored, all are honored with him.”

We need each other’s gifts to accomplish God’s purposes – We are not independent…

Are you using them?

Are you using the gifts God has given you. Have you unwrapped your gifts?

1 Peter 4:10 (NIV)
Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.

The list includes administration, healing, teaching, mercy, discernment, helps, wisdom knowledge, leadership, evangelism, hospitality and faith

Maybe right now your answer is in the negative because of the following reasons:

Don’t know –
Discouraged – don’t grow weary in well doing! Forgive, let go of the past, press on, keep in step with the Spirit, continue to love even when it hurts.
Distracted – keep your eye on the big picture – God has given us spiritual gifts for a season to glorify God and to serve others. We come to see that using our gifts for God gives us a purpose bigger than ourselves.

Matthew 25: 23 (NIV)
“His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things.Come and share your master’s happiness!’

[This post was based on the manuscript written by Pastor David Morehouse]

Biblical Community – Believe #16

Life Together in Christ

In our journey through Believe we are halfway through on what we are called to do in our faith. The first 5 of our doing was focused on deepening our relationship with God.

They were:

Worship
Prayer
Bible Study
Single Mindedness
Total Surrender

Now we shift from God on how we are to deepen our relationships with others. Let us never forget that the wonderful news of the gospel is that God is creating a new community of people who came from darkness into light to be in relationship for all of eternity because of the work of Christ.

This new community is the church – the household of faith – the body of Christ – the family of God – which we are all called to be part of…

This week let us consider the call to do life together in Christ. In our day of individualism where we prefer the solitary life with a few hand picked family and friends – we are challenged to see how we are called to enter into a household of faith.

A symptom of the struggle to do life together in Christ are the statistics that tell us that church attendance is on a decline. Over 50% – 70% of people who are identify with a church community are not in attendance on any given weekend.

Perhaps the observation by Heather King strikes close to home for many of us. She says this about the reality of biblical community: We worship with people we did not hand pick. This shatters our egos. We experience a humbling effect of discovering that we are thrown in with extremely unpromising people!—people who are broken, misguided, wishy-washy, out for themselves. People who are … us. And when we come to church we discover this is the best place – the only place – to hear about the two greatest scandals of God’s grace – 1.) that he loves us – AND – 2.) that he loves everyone else. (Adapted from Heather King – The Better Church)

Let me share one more observation by Carmen Renee Berry – author of The Unauthorized Guide to Choosing a Church (Brazos, 2003) – She writes, “Where human frailty once served as a reason for me to withdraw from the church, with its unruly and divergent congregants, this is now what compels me back to spiritual community. I had overlooked one essential factor—that I am as finite and flawed as everyone else.”

We see the the quality of life in the early church from the description in our key memory verse birth of church in the key memory verse of the week.

“All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” Acts 2:44-47

That leads us to the key question we need to wrestle with – If I am called to do Life together in Christ with those who believe – How do I…

KEY QUESTION
How do I develop healthy relationships with others?

I want us to consider that as we grasp the marks, the qualities of biblical community – we will start to connect with the church the way God intended. When we get a hold of these qualities – the KEY IDEA of this week – I fellowship with Christians to accomplish God’s purposes in my life, in the lives of others and in the world. – begins to make sense.

So what are the marks of doing life together in Christ?

Work Together

The Israelites returned from 70 years of captivity and were rebuilding their lives under God. Nehemiah was called by God to give leadership in the rebuilding of the wall around the city of Jerusalem.

Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in: Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace.” 18 I also told them about the gracious hand of my God on me and what the king had said to me.

They replied, “Let us start rebuilding.” So they began this good work.

One mark of Biblical community – engages all its members to use their gifts resources and and time together to accomplish a task important to the plan of God.

Life in Christ means we work together –

Alpha,
Calling pour nextgen pastor,
refreshing our buildings
Multisite
Embracing our community
Serving in a ministry

Stick Together

One of the marked differences between the church and the rest of society is the call to live for others. We are urged to “look out for one another”

Romans 12:10 Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.

Romans 15:7 Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.

Romans 15:14 I myself am convinced, my brothers and sisters, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with knowledge and competent to instruct one another.

Galatians 5:13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh[a]; rather, serve one another humbly in love.

Galatians 6:2 Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.

Ephesians 5:21 Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

I Thessalonians 5:11 Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.

The call of one another is a radical love – we will be inconvenienced, interrupted and intruded.

We can’t make it just about us. It is a call to break free from self centeredness.

Pastor Ray Ortlund writes, “The kind of God we really believe in is revealed in how we treat one another. The lovely gospel of Jesus positions us to treat one another like royalty, and every non-gospel positions us to treat one another like dirt. But we will follow through horizontally on whatever we believe vertically.”

Ray then goes on to identify the “One Another’s” he could not find in the N.T.:

Sanctify one another, humble one another, scrutinize one another, pressure one another, embarrass one another, corner one another, interrupt one another, defeat one another, sacrifice one another, shame one another, judge one another, run one another’s lives, confess one another’s sins, intensify one another’s sufferings, point out one another’s failings …

C.S.Lewis:

It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which,if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree helping each other to one or the other of these destinations.

It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all of our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations – these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit – immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.” ― C. S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

Share (& EAT) Together

Hebrews 13:1-2 Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters.2 Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.

Hebrews 13: 15-16 Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. 16 And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.

We see the importance of hospitality – inviting others in – sharing our homes and our lives – mysterious about eating together – it breaks down barriers – it is an act of worship before God!

Risk Together

Paul the apostle and great christian missionary had friends who were with him in ministry. Two of these were Priscilla and Aquila

1 Corinthians 16:19 The churches in the province of Asia send you greetings. Aquila and Priscilla[a] greet you warmly in the Lord, and so does the church that meets at their house.

Romans 16:3-4 Greet Priscilla[c] and Aquila, my co-workers in Christ Jesus. They risked their lives for me. Not only I but all the churches of the Gentiles are grateful to them.

“I believe He wants us to love others so much that we go to extremes to help them.” Francis Chan, Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God

I can’t help but think we may risk our lives for our family but will we risk them for our brothers and sisters in Christ…

Risk means we become vulnerable and sacrificial. We forget about rights and move into

Go Deep Together

1 John 1:7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

1 John 2 Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. 10 Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble.

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

We must have a profound sense of the gospel – what God has really accomplished in our lives – radical salvation – from darkness to light – that is the profound basis of our relationship…this context we treat each with a profound sense of depth

Spiritual formation is so often couched in more individualistic terms, that it’s easy to forget the important role the church community plays in our growth as individuals. In her bookTraveling Mercies, Anne Lamott shares a story she once heard from her minister that illustrates well the necessary presence of others in our journey of faith:

When [my minister] was about seven, her best friend got lost one day. The little girl ran up and down the streets of the big town where they lived, but she couldn’t find a single landmark. She was very frightened. Finally a policeman stopped to help her. He put her in the passenger seat of his car, and they drove around until she finally saw her church. She pointed it out to the policeman, and then she told him firmly, “You could let me out now. This is my church, and I can always find my way home from here.”

Lamott further writes:

And that is why I have stayed so close to [my church]—because no matter how bad I am feeling, how lost or lonely or frightened, when I see the faces of the people at my church, and hear their tawny voices, I can always find my way home.

Our linked is the profound relationship we have together in Christ – we are forgiven – we have moved out of darkness into light because of the work of Christ – who we are in Christ means we are a new creation – but all of us are new creations – profound implications

Love cannot exist in isolation: away from others, love bloats into pride. Grace cannot be received privately: cut off from others, it is perverted into greed. Hope cannot develop in solitude: separated from the community, it goes to seed in the form of fantasies. No gift, no virtue can develop and remain healthy apart from the community of faith. “Outside the church there is no salvation” is not ecclesiastical arrogance but spiritual common sense, confirmed in everyday experience. (Eugene Peterson, Reversed Thunder (HarperOne, 1991) p. 43).

God places a high value on the community of believers – the church – How important is it to you – how is it making a difference in your life?

This week what one idea of life together will take a step toward?

Work – share in task that is important to the plan of God
Stick – look out for others
Share – practice hospitality
Risk – make yourself vulnerable
Go Deeper – embrace the forgiveness of Christ and come into the family of God.

Francis Chan in his book Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God makes this observation: “We need to stop giving people excuses not to believe in God. You’ve probably heard the expression ‘I believe in God, just not organized religion’. I don’t think people would say that if the church truly lived like we are called to live.”

[This post is based on the manuscript written by Pastor Dave Morehouse]

Bible Study – Believe #13

We are currently in a message series called Believe. Next week we will look at Worship — but I wanted to point out that these three actions: Worship, Prayer, & Bible Study, really are at the centre of our relationship with God.

Last week we looked at a day in the life of Jesus to see about prayer. I want to do something very similar today, but not as the entire message — just a brief survey of how the bible intersected with Jesus — how we see that Jesus knew the bible and that he understood it.

Our first encounter with the Jesus story is all about the fulfillment of scripture. They way the bible is quoted and used in those early chapters of Matthew and Luke assumes that the author is familiar with both the content and authority of the Bible. Jesus’ encounter with the devil in the temptation narrative is actually a story about misuse of the bible (devil) and proper use of the bible (Jesus). There is a lot more going on in that story — all Jesus’ quotes come from Deuteronomy in the wandering narrative — where Israel — God’s son — lacked faith in God and his promise. Jesus was the obedient and faithful son as he faced his temptation in the desert.

Jesus’ first sermon he takes a scroll and finds his place and reads from Isaiah. There is a sense of familiarity that we see as Jesus reads the scroll. Look at our key bible Text today:

For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Hebrews 4:12, NIV

The more we read about Jesus words and interaction with others the more it becomes obvious that this is exactly how Jesus thought about the bible. We need to learn from him. We need to …

Study the Bible! Experience the change!

Let look at how we can take seriously that the bible is God’s word to us, that it is alive and active and helps us discern the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

First, we need to…

Read it!

If you’ve been coming here for a while, you know this is not an original idea . . . it has been said many, many times before. We need to read God’s word — and I would include listening to God’s word for those who find reading a bit painful or if you have health reasons that make reading difficult. When I say “read it” what I’m really saying is that you need to take what is in the Bible and get it into your head and into your heart. That is the goal. If you are reading it and thinking about baking muffins or balancing your budget you are not achieving the goal even though you are technically reading it.

Just like prayer, Just like worship, Bible study is about God relating to us. It’s not about us. It is not about having more knowledge, it is not about knowing the geography of the Holy Land, it is not about understanding the ancient culture and languages used at that time — all of this helps — but the main point — the most important point — is God speaking into us his wisdom and his ways.

If that is going to happen we need to use a version of the bible that we can understand. It needs to be at our reading level and that’s a very personal decision. The only thing I would say is that it should be a translation and not an all-out paraphrase. In a sense all translation is paraphrase but a version like the NLT or the new NIV are great for studying. For general reading, I have always enjoyed the Good News Bible — but again it’s personal. Find something you will actually enjoy reading.

A few years ago, I bought the TNIV on CDs so I could listen in the car. It has multiple readers and I have enjoyed it very much. When I was in college, I bought a dramatized NIV new testament on cassette tapes — yes for those who thought CD’s were old — I had a cassette tape player. But it was a very powerful reading the NT with multiple voiced parts in the Gospels and Acts — it was excellent. I would listen when I was mowing the lawn or doing household chores. It was amazing.

I still remember the day when I was mowing the lawn trying to think of a passage to preach on for Father’s day and I heard 1Thess 2:11-12.

1 Thessalonians 2:11–12 (NRSV)
11 As you know, we dealt with each one of you like a father with his children, 12 urging and encouraging you and pleading that you lead a life worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.

I was a new dad, I was a new pastor and the weight of having something to say every single week was weighing me down — and then I heard this. It was more than a Father’s day message it was a message to me about my real goals of pastoring. I was letting the burden of a weekly message take my focus when what should have taken my focus was doing all I could to urge and encourage the church to lead a life worthy of God because it is his kingdom and his glory that ultimately mattered. Standing here week after week with something to say is still hard — but it is a lot easier now because God’s word to me that day. And I heard it mowing the lawn because I got a bible on tape. Now you can listen online for free. Bibles are available online for free. Access is easier now. But we still need to take the time and let God speak to us.

Maybe you read the bible but needs some help applying it to your life. Devotional materials can help us take that extra step. The Bible app is free and has lots of devotional materials for us. There are other apps out there as well. Olive Tree has a bible app and lots of free books and materials that can help us apply God’s word to our lives.

Reading the bible is the beginning, reading with devotional helps even better, but if we are going to follow Jesus on this — and really take seriously the message of Hebrews 4:12 — we need to The second thing I would want to …

Go deeper!

We need to go deeper in God’s word. We need to do more than just read it and hear nice stories about other people applying it, we need to actually study God’s word.

Jesus was a carpenter and he knew the Bible. In fact, before we say “that was Jesus, he was the son of God” we need to realize that every Jewish child — from the time they are babies until adolescence are trained in the Bible by their parents and by their community of faith. What we see as extraordinary was actually quite normal for Jewish people. Even today, Jewish children go to Hebrew school after regular school to learn the language of their bible — the same Bible Jesus had in his day and what we now call the Old Testament.

I used to do carpentry. My dad is a carpenter, my grandfather was a carpenter. . .it was a default choice for me. I used to help my dad, work on the jobsite and see how things were done. When I was a kid, I would clean the yard, sweep the floors, stack lumber, organize stuff, all the while watching the others do their work. Later when I worked as an apprentice with my uncle — my dad’s brother — he gave me some great advice. Spend a little more to buy quality tools. If you buy the cheaper stuff, you’ll end up replacing it over and over. I worked with a guy who heard the same advice but he always went for the cheap stuff. Cheap block planes, cheap utility knives, cheap squares — I say all those things in the plural because just like my uncle predicated, he replaced those items repeatedly. But before they broke — they produced bad results. He had to do more work fixing the problems his low-quality tools created. Softer steel used on his block plane would get nicks on it and eventually score the surface of the wood. My Stanley plane never did that. Hard steel, blade stayed sharp, always did what I wanted it to.

The same is true for the tools we use to understand the bible. If we use low-quality tools, we will have a low-quality understanding. A poor understanding will lead us to apply the bible to our lives in ways that God never intended. You can see how that can be a problem. The thing is, when it comes to bible study, high quality tools does not mean expensive or even new — it just means high calibre. The works of John Wesley or Jonathan Edwards are still full of treasures all these years later — even though they are old and even free online. There are great commentaries that are free online. For the person who likes the feel of a paper book — there are lots of bargains on high quality tools.

We also should listen to good teachers of the Bible. They have done their work and they are sharing their harvest of knowledge and wisdom with the church. Tim Keller has free podcast messages. The apologist Ravi Zacharias has free content online. The philosopher and scholar William Lane Craig puts his Sunday school class online — which is more like a university class really — but some people are ready for that level of engagement about biblical ideas. BiblicalTraining.ORG has lots of materials available at the higher end and the internet is teeming with far more content than we could ever listen to in a single lifetime. Pick a good teacher and start listening.

Most importantly, studying God’s word helps us to hear the author. The human author of the text — with their language and culture built into the communication as it is in all communication. But when we see through that, we hear the divine author. We hear the message from God.

Let me give a simple example. The phrase ‘evil eye” in English means a hateful look. If someone gives you the evil eye, it means they are angry with you for some reason. It is our default understanding and we don’t even think about it. But with Jesus, evil eye means nothing like that at all. It means to lack generosity. Jesus uses it in the parable of the laborers to describe the attitude of the all-day workers getting the same pay as the last minute workers — they were stingy whereas the owner was generous. Jesus uses it in a list of sins that eat away our souls in Mk 7:22 and he uses it again in Matt 6:22 just before talking about not being able to serve both God and money. The evil eye is different for Semitic cultures than western culture. Going deeper shows us this.

When we choose to go deeper, we make a decision for life change. The more deeply we understand the Word of God, the more opportunity we create in our lives for God to shape us and steer us. We create more handles for God to grab hold of.

The danger in all of Christian life is ourselves and our subjective thinking. Everything can become “all about me.” Our default is to go into ourselves — to rationalize our behaviour or thinking. The answer to this is going deeper in his word. Doing hard work of study so God’s word is part of your thinking.

First we study the Bible then we let the Bible study us.

At some point need to become teachable people. We need to allow the work of God’s word to happen in us. Let’s look at that key text one more time:

For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Hebrews 4:12, NIV

The danger in all of Christian life is ourselves and our subjective thinking. Everything can become all about us. Maybe you are hurting emotionally. Maybe you have suffered abuse. Maybe you are just learning something about yourself that is ugly and hard to accept. Our default is to go into ourselves and to rationalize our behaviour but we have a choice for a new experience.

The Social Critic, Neil Postman once said that popular culture tells us what we want to hear but God tells us what we need to hear and they are not always the same thing.

Without going deeper in God’s word, by studying it and listening to good teachers, we just go on our own intuition which will lead us to the same experiences of disappointment, creating an itch for something more, something better. God wants something better for us but we will never get there on our own. We need to go deeper with God and part of that is going deeper into his word.

Our goal is to see things from God’s point of view –

“It is a dangerous thing to live your life without a spiritual “plumb line,” or standard, by which you determine right from wrong. God’s Word is that plumb line…God established absolute moral and spiritual laws that we are free to ignore, but we do so at our own peril. These laws are timeless. Culture does not supersede them. Circumstances do not abrogate them. God’s laws are eternal, and they will save you from death if you follow them.” ― Henry T. Blackaby, “Experiencing God Day By Day

Our goal is spiritual transformation

The ultimate goal of knowing God’s word is becoming more like Jesus. Jesus said to the leading Bible scholars of his day:

39 You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me to have life. (John 5:39–40, NIV)

This is the great warning Jesus gives to us. For those who love to do Bible Study — it’s meant to lead you to follow Jesus.

If there is one thing we know from watching Jesus at work with his disciples — not just the 12 but Mary, Martha, Lazarus, Zacchaeus and the rest, following Jesus means changed lives.

We look to the Bible but not to get ideas from what people did for God. We look to see what God did in peoples’ lives.” ― Henry T. Blackaby, Hearing God’s Voice

Studying the bible has as its goal to know God better, to hear his voice more clearly, to love him more, and to follow his one and only Son who was sent into this world for us.

We want to study the Bible not so we can just know it but to allow it into our hearts and souls — or as Paul describes it…

18 And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:18, NIV)

God’s word is alive and active

Study the Bible! Experience the change!

Prayer – Believe #12

If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened; but God has surely listened and has heard my prayer. Praise be to God, who has not rejected my prayer or withheld his love from me! (Psalm 66:18-20, NIV)

Prayer is connecting with God. It is very personal experience and yet at the same time an outward expression of us walking by faith and not by sight. As we seek to learn to walk in faith with God we come to the spiritual practice of prayer.

Prayer is a central expression of faith. John Calvin spoke of this when he said, The principal work of the Spirit is faith … the principal exercise of faith is prayer.

Introduction: Prayer: A day in the life of Jesus

I don’t know about you, but when I look at my bookshelf, I have a lot of material relating to prayer. Books by theologians like J.I.Packer by Spiritual Directors like Richard Foster and pastoral and even faddish books ranging from Prayer Evangelism, intercessory Prayer to actual collections of prayer written down by great men and women of faith in the past. Prayer is such a central and intimate part of our relationship with God, it seems that no matter how much we read or study there is always more to learn and practice relating to prayer. There’s no way I can say everything about prayer, or even everything that is important about prayer in the time frame of a message. But I can say this, prayer is part of what it means to follow Jesus — because prayer was important to him.

“All prayer is language—language in conversation, conversation between God and us. The most frequent distortion of prayer takes place when we fail to listen to God’s Word to us. We do all the talking, demanding that God do all the listening.” – Eugene Peterson

A conversation with God

Today, I want us to look at a day in the life of Jesus with our focus being the place of prayer. How did Jesus approach Prayer? How can we take his example and apply that to our own situations.

Let’s look at a day in the life of Jesus

Mark 1:35 Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and …he prayed.

At the start of the day, Jesus prayed

We don’t know exactly what Jesus prayed. Did he pray in Aramaic, did he pray in Greek. Did he use Psalms as his guide, did he pray extemporaneously. There are so many question we want to answer — but practically speaking we know this — he got up early to pray. I can deduce a couple of things from this. First, Prayer was a priority for him. It was important enough to get up early for – very early.

Praying at the start of the day – orients our minds and hearts to hope, peace and love.

It also keeps the tension between praying and doing in a healthy balance. We pray before the day begins where we are called to act and to do.

The other week, Lise went to Thunder Bay to help our daughter Christi move into a new apartment. Her plane left Moncton at 5am — that meant getting to the airport at 4am which meant getting up at 3:30am. In my honest opinion — that is just a terrible time to get up — but we did. We got up because our alarms went off and our alarms were set — lots of alarms were set — phone alarms; clock alarms; I even set my fitbit alarm — because it was important that we get to the airport.

When something is important we do all kinds of uncomfortable things, don’t we. When I learned I was lactose intolerant, I gave up milk and along with it all those other things like ice-cream — oh, how I miss ice-cream with Lise’s homemade chocolate sauce — made with cream no less. All gone. Why? Because it was important to me to change that habit so I could be more healthy.

Lots of people here have made changes regarding fitness. We have several here who have run their first 5k and 10k others who have taken up intense workout routines to become more fit and healthier. Those kinds of changes don’t just happen. They require us to prioritize our values — to accept that doing A means not doing B.

Jesus did that with Prayer. He chose to get up early to pray rather than catch that extra hour sleep. He accepted all things things that went with that. Going to bed at a time so he could get up without the convenience of an alarm clock — or any clock. He got up when it was dark and he went to pray.

We need to prioritize prayer in our lives. It must become something that happens regularly before the busyness and chaos of the day begins. If we don’t prioritize it — it won’t happen. Our prayer life will consist of a few sentences to God as we drink our coffee and drive to work. We can do better than that, but only when we see prayer as important — like Jesus did. At the start of the day — Jesus prayed.

Mark 6:45-46 …he dismissed the crowd… he went up on a mountainside to pray.

In the midst of heavy demands, Jesus prayed

I think it is safe to say that life in Jesus’ time was simpler than life in our day. The mechanical clock, artificial light — we live in a 24/7 world and we don’t know how to shut things off and we don’t know why we would do such a thing. Yet despite the simpler times that Jesus lived — his life was filled with activity and interruptions. His life was taken up by the needs of others — he loved people and he did what he could to help and heal those who approached him. We have a number of stories in the Bible about the kinds of things Jesus did — but sometimes we our information is like Luke 4:40:

At sunset, the people brought to Jesus all who had various kinds of sickness, and laying his hands on each one, he healed them.

We know the kinds of crowds that followed Jesus. One time he was called upon to feed 5000 men, women, and children. That’s a big lunch crowd! In Luke we read of a crowd that came with their sick friends and relatives — people who were desperate and he laid his hands on each one of them. He did this day in and day out. Most of us don’t have that kind of crowd problem. Some do, but not most.

Ironically, after spending all day with needy people — helping them, counselling them, healing them. . . . In the midst of heavy demands, Jesus prayed.

John 17:9 (NIV) – I pray for them…

When seeing spiritual needs of others, Jesus prayed

As Jesus was coming to cross we come across his prayer for believers. He prayed for their protection, for their transformation, for their love, for their faith and joy in the midst of this world.

Jesus saw the spiritual needs of others – he prayed for them.

When I pray for other people’s spiritual protection, peace, faith hope and love. When I pray for their journey of faith – it changes everything-

Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his book Life Together wrote:

A Christian fellowship lives and exists by the intercession of its members for one another, or it collapses. I can no longer condemn or hate a brother for whom I pray, no matter how much trouble he causes me. His face, that hitherto may have been strange and intolerable to me, is transformed in intercession into the countenance of a brother for whom Christ died, the face of a forgiven sinner. This is a happy discovery for the Christian who begins to pray for others. (Bonhoeffer, Life Together, (HarperSanFrancisco, 1954), p. 86 )

Mark 14:36 “…Yet not what I will, but what you will.”

When God’s will is hard, Jesus prayed

Here we come to garden of Gethsemane – Jesus purpose to give his life a ransom for many was at hand. Jesus said “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men.”

In that garden, the reality of living out God’s will was meeting Jesus head on. As he contemplated the suffering, anguish, the betrayal, taking on the sins of the world – Jesus felt the intense struggle of obedience – But He said – “…Yet not what I will, but what you will.”

Where is doing God’s will hard for you. Must become a servant of all – Take up your cross and follow me – pray for your enemies –

The following is a prayer written by Serbian bishop Nikolai Velimirovic, who spoke out against Nazism in the early 1940s. Because of his protests, he was arrested and taken to the Dachau concentration camp.

Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them. Enemies have driven me into your embrace more than friends have. Friends have bound me to Earth; enemies have loosed me from Earth and have demolished all my aspirations in the world.

Just as a hunted animal finds safer shelter than an un-hunted animal does, so have I, persecuted by enemies, found the safest sanctuary, having ensconced myself beneath your tabernacle, where neither friends nor enemies can slay my soul.

Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless and do not curse them.

In all of this the main point — if you remember nothing else remember this. Jesus prayed, we should too

Prayer is the way Jesus walked His Father – Prayer was a conversation for Jesus – it is a place where we call out to God – where we are silent before God – where reflect on the presence of God – it is where we seek the face of God

Seeking God’s Face – Praying with Bible through the Year

Set prayers are prayers provided for us to keep our praying in company with our ancestors, prayers of others so that we stay in touch with the authentic world of prayer revealed in our Scriptures. They are prayers that we can use to distinguish prayer from prayer impostors, fantasy, and magic. They are prayers that do not depend on our own initiative, prayers that don’t wax and wane according to the phases of our moods.

These are just a few things that we can do to take a next step in our prayer lives. But it all begins by seeing prayer as important — Just as Jesus did.

Worship – Believe #11

Before Advent and our journey to Christmas, we asked the question: What do I believe? We took a look at 10 things which that Christians believe. Now we are going to take another 10 week journey answering the question “What should I do?” Now that we have these 10 beliefs — how do we put them into practice?

Just as we started with God when answering the first question, we are going to start with God answering the second as well. Today we are going to look at Worship and what does it mean to become a true worshipper of God.

True Worshippers

Well, if our 10 week question is “what should I do” our key question for worship is simply this:

KEY QUESTION
How do I honor God in the way he deserves?

It’s a great question because it puts God at the center of it. Worship is about God with us. That is an important statement and you since I’m only going to make three of these today, it would be good if we took some time to remember that idea: worship is about God with us. Let me break that down a bit.

First, worship is about God. The very words used in both Hebrew and Greek speak to bowing before someone with your face to the ground. The idea was making oneself low in the presence of someone great. While this could apply originally to a servant before a master or a subject before a king — it became a technical term to describe our disposition before God. We make ourselves low to demonstrate his greatness. While originally this was a literal action, it because a metaphor sense for our worship of God. I only say this because it is important for us to see that build right into the vocabulary of worship is the idea that God is at the center — not us. Even in Psalm 95 we have the words: “Come let us worship and bow down”. The two ideas are inseparable. That’s why our big idea today is: “True Worship Bows Down”. If we are to worship God, we need to acknowledge that he is God and we are his people. He calls the shots. Our job is to bow down — to do what he says, to follow his instructions. If he says be kind, we work up a sweat being kind. We take God’s word and ways seriously because true worship bows down.

I think this may come as a surprise for a non-christian witnessing our discussions about worship. Often the only thing missing from our conversation is that it centers on making God great among us. That it is primarily about demonstrating clearly how much we think of God. How great we believe He is. It is so easy in our consumer society to just buy into the idea that it is about me and my preferences and what I want to consume — but when it becomes that it is not longer worship — at least not in a biblical sense.

When Dave and started on our outline we wanted to say as our point “it’s all about God” but then we realized that was only half true. When we look at worship in the OT, it happens in specific places. Whether it is Abraham or Jacob building an altar and worshipping because of something God did in a particular location or whether it was in the Temple, where God’s special presence existed in the holy of holies — the heart of the reasoning for worship was that God was in that place. The Hebrew people believed that God is everywhere, but they also believed that God showed up in power at times and places. The altars and memorials were a way of declaring: God showed up here — His special presence or Shekinah as it was called in Hebrew manifested in this place. It was all about God, but also it was about God with us. The intersection of the Shekinah and human life.

For Christians this is especially important because the Bible tells us in Matthew’s Christmas story that Jesus will be called Emmanuel, which is translated: “God with us” (Mt 1:23). In other words, we see Jesus as the perfect representation of God in human form.

Hebrews 1:3 (NIV)
The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being…

Over our Christmas series we looked at how the Word became flesh and came to live among us. Eugene Peterson said: He moved into our neighbourhood. This is the amazing truth of Christmas — God is with us. We can see what God would do by looking at what Jesus did — Jesus, the one who is the exact representation of God’s being. The one who said: “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.” (Jn 14.9).

Jesus had a conversation one time with a Samaritan woman at a well. For us this seems pretty “ho-hum” but for the 1st Century it would be like Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton getting together post-election for some brunch & conversation. That just is not going to happen — they don’t like each other – to put it mildly. Samaritans and Jews were just as likely to get together for polite conversation — they were bitter religious opponents. They did not like each other. They would use each other as an insult in their own community. Jesus – God incarnate – crossed that human division and redefined worship and in doing so redefined what a true worshipper is. The words were simple but they changed everything:

John 4:23 (NIV)
Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.

All through John’s gospel we see that Jesus is the truth and way, that the words of Jesus are truth and life, that Jesus himself is the giver of grace and truth. He tells Nicodemus that to enter God’s kingdom a person must be born again from the Spirit. We must become a spiritual people quite literally — the Spirit of God must live in us. Something the Bible tells us only happens when we put our faith in Jesus Christ. So according to the Bible, true worshippers are those who believe in Jesus and accept his word and example as truth. It is no longer about worshipping on a mountain like the Samaritans or worshipping in a Temple like the Jews. Worship is all about God with us.

Now, true worship starts as we personally believe in Jesus and accept his word and his ways — but it doesn’t end there. Christianity is all about community. We may be required to believe and commit to Jesus in a deeply personal way, but if we are to experience the fullness of Christian worship, we must do that together. This isn’t an introvert/extrovert argument — this is just the way it is. Worship is all together.

Worship celebrates who God is and all he has done for us. While our key statement today reinforces this individually:

KEY IDEA
I worship God for who he is and what he has done for me.

We worship God together. I remember when I was a child how we would have what we called our “Sunday best” that we would wear to Church. Our best shirt, pants, & shoes. We would get dressed up as best as we could to go to church. It wasn’t until I became an adult that I realized that wearing our best clothes to church was actually in the bible. In Colossians 3 Paul says:

Colossians 3:12 (NIV)
Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.

Now, I must admit that my understanding of “best clothes” and God’s understanding of “best clothes” were a tad different and I realized that perhaps complaining all the way to church because my shoes were too stiff or my shirt didn’t feel right may have revealed that I really didn’t get it as a kid — but the fact is, most of us don’t get as adults either. If we are to be true worshippers — a spiritual people who follow the word and ways of Jesus — sometimes we don’t clothe ourselves with our Sunday best.

Instead of clothing ourselves with compassion we clothe ourselves with criticism.
Instead of clothing ourselves with humility we clothe ourselves with hostility.
Instead of clothing ourselves with patience we clothe ourselves with pettiness
Paul tells us we must clothe ourselves in these things because worship happens together and there is never an authentic “together” when we do not love each other in an authentic Christian way.

We say we want to become a church that loves like Jesus. Very practically it means that we must commit to certain behaviours. Each one of us must decide:

To be compassionate not cruel.
To be kind not critical.
To be humble not harsh
To be gentle not grating
To be patient not prickly
To bear with each other not be a bear with each other
To forgive each other just as Jesus has forgiven us
To let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts

Paul’s words in Colossians are just a summary of what we see in Jesus. There is nothing surprising here for the true worshipper — one who is born of the Spirit and follows the word and ways of Jesus. What is interesting in Colossians 3 is that all of this relational stuff — how we interact with each other — moves seamlessly into talk about worshipping together — about challenging and encouraging each other with Psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, and gratitude in our hearts as we give thanks to God through Jesus. True worship is all together and it flows out of Christ-Inspired interactions with each other and because it is rooted in following Jesus in our how we treat other people, we take this worship mindset everywhere we go. It is all encompassing.

Paul says in Romans 12 that our entire lives are to be a living sacrifice. Let’s just listen to what he says:

Romans 12:1 (NIV)
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.

Surrendering ourselves completely to God as an act of worship is a 24/7 experience.

As Paul would say in another letter to the early church. So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. (1 Cor 10:31) If God is the center – If God has accepted me because of his grace in Jesus – than all of my life needs to express my heart desire to show that I love Him. Every day becomes a place to practise the presence of Jesus. Every day becomes a sanctuary of praise where I can express my trust and obedience to God and my reliance on His grace.

I like this little story by Barbara Adam –

For 37 years I’ve taught piano, rewarding my students not only for mastery but effort. Points are earned for memory work, amount of practice, written work, and improvements, as well as actual performance.
After finishing his lesson one day, I asked my first grade student, Tyler, if he’d performed for anyone that week. He thought for a long time, finally saying with all seriousness, “God was listening!”

God is always our audience!
So let us finish the phrase that helps us grasp what true worship is all about –
True Worship Bows Down, before God, in the Spirit and truth of Jesus; which we do all together and is all encompassing.

Act Like an Ant

General Introduction

Proverbs 4:5 “Get wisdom; develop good judgment.
Wisdom is not automatic or hereditary – it is something we learn, practice and grow into…
The 9 is about living out 9 key practices that let us live wisely and well.

As I mention each week, framework for this series is from Henry Cloud’s book, 9 Things You Simply Must Do to Succeed in Love and Life.

We have so far looked at the first 4 wise ways of living

Dig it Up – Go inside and invest in our dreams, gifts and talents
Pull the Tooth – Deal with the negative and hurtful actions and attitudes
Play the Movie – Make decisions based on their effects.
Do Something – Move from passivity to proactivity. Improve the situation whether you whether or not it’s your responsibility.

Our fifth wise way of living is this:

Act like an Ant

I am sure if ants were reflective like we humans they might question what does my moving this one little grain do… but it was precisely that each act moved his grain of sand did a colony build the incredible structure…because they moved one grain of sand at a time, one step at a time.

In your outline…our key verse says –

“Take a lesson from the ants, you lazybones. Learn from their ways and become wise!” (Proverbs 6:6, NLT)

Scripture speaks of how we can learn from ants. Especially when we are stuck in inactivity…where we do not want to face the pain of tackling tasks that seem daunting, overwhelming and just plain painful to accomplish the task.

Good goals and great hopes often feel overwhelming

When we think about the goals/dreams that God has placed on our hearts…a ministry, a new initiative, a great business idea, deeper faith, greater discipline, a healthier lifestyle both emotionally and physically, a happier marriage, a principled dating life…most of the things that matter to us most require great effort over time.

When we think about the big important goals we can simply become overwhelmed by the enormity of the task in front of us…and we get paralyzed, inactive, even thinking about it gives pain, taking the path of least pain…rationalizing to ourselves with the siren phrase – “someday I will get to it”

Illustration: I saw a video describing the regrets of aging people in the last days of their life. The biggest regret was not taking the risk of the dreams they had in their hearts – for dreams to become reality, we have to turn them into goals and that often makes us feel overwhelmed.

But the lesson from the ant speaks to us if we are willing watch and observe…

Achieve your Goals by taking small Steps over Time

Ants show us that it is more important to judge your success not by the size of your goal but by the valuing little steps over time. You and I judge our success whether or not we are doing the small things. Wise people know that

100 dollars isn’t a retirement savings, but it is a step
That one pound lost is the not the healthiest you, it is a step
One course is not the degree but it is a step
One conversation is not a friendship but it is a step
15 minutes of cleaning is not a tidy home but it is a step
One verse memorized may not change your mind, but it is step
One act of forgiveness may not get rid of all relational pain but it is a step
One step of faith does not create a healthy spiritual life, but it is a step.

It was Henry Ford said:

“Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs.” –

As we consider living out our faith in God – taking little steps over time is an essential idea for growth in the Christian life

It is tempting to want all the attributes, qualities and blessings of the Christian faith – all of it right now!

But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22, 23a)

THERE ARE NO SHORTCUTS TO MATURITY. It takes years for us from children to adults and it takes a full season for fruit to mature and ripen. There was a time when the food industry only wanted to speed things up but the results were disastrous. Now restaurants advertise “no hormone” meat. Organic vegetables. These markets continue to grow. Countries have created legislation to curb the chemical shortcuts. If you want a quality product, it is going to take some time.

This same idea is true for spiritual things. It takes time to develop Christian character. It is not a big decision we make and voila — we have impeccable character. Character is what we see in a person who, like an ant, has broken a large goal into many small actions of integrity over their lives.

When the Old Testament Habakkuk became depressed because he didn’t think God was acting quickly enough, God had this to say:

“This vision is for a future time. It describes the end, and it will be fulfilled. If it seems slow in coming, wait patiently, for it will surely take place. It will not be delayed.” (Habakkuk 2:3, NLT)

Eugene Peterson, in The Message, translates 2Cor 3:18 like this:

“Our lives gradually [become] brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him”
(2 Corinthians 3:18b MSG).

Little by little is God’s plan for growing us as his people. Is it impossible for the one who spoke into the void and created matter and life to speak into us and change us in an instant? Of course not. But this is God’s plan. And if God’s plan for the most important project in the universe is gradual and over time – step by step — why would we think that the quick fix or the shortcut or the magic bullet solution would be the way to go in other areas of our lives?

Doesn’t it make sense that the pattern God has established for his goals in us would also be a good pattern for us reaching our goals?

Paul reminded the Philippians that “he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion.” (Philippians 1:6)

While we worry about how fast we grow, God is concerned about how the quality of our growth — that it is deeply established in us.

My brother used to work in the lumber industry and he said that the US wants our Canadian lumber because the growing season slows every winter for us and so the wood is becomes stronger. The rings in a Canadian tree which indicate the long winter sleep in the growth cycle creates stronger fibres. Slower growth equals stronger product.

Our struggle tends to be that we want it all right now

This attitude resides deep in our thinking in many areas of life. Jesus was offered a shortcut during his lifetime. “Bow down and worship me and I will give you all the kingdoms of the earth” Satan said to him. Don’t take the way of the cross, don’t suffer, don’t deal with rejection — this is the easy way” he was saying. There is always a shortcut, a quick fix, an easier path — but it will never create solid, strong character for which Jesus can say “well done good and faithful servant.”

But our desire to want it all and now causes us to think that not having it all, right now, is well, nothing. All or nothing. And many of us get stuck in “nothing” because there is not quick, easy path to “All”.

Henry Cloud says the wise person does not think about whether or not they have reached the end goal, instead they think about faithfully doing the small actions today that lead to that end goal. They believe in cause and effect to such an extent that they know that doing the small things each day make the end goal inevitable.

This is what I mean when I say: Act like an ant. The ant is not worried about the other ants. The ant is not worried that their load is quite small compared to the overall task.

When I worked with my uncle doing carpentry work we had goals each day which fed our weekly goals which fed the end goal of completing a house. For my uncle Jim, as long as we were on top of things daily the weekly goals would be met and the monthly goals and timetable stayed on track. Of course there were problems, there were times the daily goals did not get met, adjustments had to be made — sometimes we had to work longer or do smaller jobs while waiting for a subcontractor to finish their tasks – but we lost sight of our daily accomplishments. From a hole in the ground, to footings, to basement, to joist and floors and walls and trusses and roofs and insulation, windows, doors, gyprock, trim and cabinets to a completed house. Each steps leads to the next. If you never pour your footings, there will not be a basement wall or a floor joist, walls roof, or cabinets. Each piece feeds into the next.

In our lives we spend a lot of time dreaming about the completed house when we should be asking ourselves how we are doing with footing. We get discouraged we have no cabinets when we have not even built our foundation.

Remember when you first learned to drive? How you would need to focus on when to press on the brake and when turn on the blinker. You would sit at a stop sign and recite the rules of right of way. You would carefully steer the car and oversteer the car. Your brain was almost exploding with activity because you had to think about everything. 10 years later, 20 years later. You don’t think, I have to turn on my blinker now, or consciously think how hard I need to press on the brake pedal. You probably do not even think after sitting down: “now I must put on my seatbelt”. No, you sit down, hook yourself in, turn on your vehicle put it in gear and off you go. You don’t think about it, you just do it. But you can never get to the place where you just do something, where you just think a certain way, where you have a certain level of fitness, or know things in a field of study — it all starts by having to think about everything. Having to methodically go through the steps. You have to act like an ant.

Embrace the small,simple and good steps

My vision for the church is that we love as Jesus loves. But that is an end goal. We won’t get there by focusing on that. That is our focal point off in the distance. Our focus must be on the small things every day that we incorporate into our lives so that as we gather as a community of faith that is our pulse, that is our logic, that is our ultimate boundary statement.

Are we there yet. I would say we are on our way but we have more to do. We started serving meals at St. George’s so we could help care for people in our city. Others have sacrificed hours of their time helping people with various needs. Others have done work for reduced rates or free to help people in need. All of these things are not the goal but they are steps that lead us to that goal. Do we need fresh steps — yes, always. What was right five years ago may not fit us now — we need to constantly be evaluating what will get us to the goal. But our goal is fixed. Jesus did that for us when he told his disciples that the most important thing to accomplish in life was to love our neighbour as God loves them. Our quest and our goal is to attain full maturity in love. But that translates into daily, weekly, even monthly tasks that lead us to that goal. Perhaps we will not reach it fully — but we can be better than where we are today — of this we can be sure. Paul wrote the Galatians:

“So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up.” (Galatians 6:9, NRSV)

When you look up the Greek word used for ‘weary’ in the passage, you will read this:

to lose one’s motivation in continuing a desirable pattern of conduct or activity, lose enthusiasm, be discouraged (BAGD, s.v., ἐγκακέω / p. 272.)

Discouragement was a problem in churches in the 1st century as much as it is in our century. Discouragement is a human problem. Sometimes it comes from not having good mental connections between where we are and and where we want to be.

The daily tasks of faithfulness are the ant’s load. Sometimes they are heavy, sometimes they are light — but they are always just a piece of what our overall project is. The small pieces turn into a masterful product over time. Paul gave Timothy of list of things he needed to do and then said to him:

“Put these things into practice, devote yourself to them, so that all may see your progress.” (1 Timothy 4:15, NRSV)

One verse later he gives Timothy his ultimate goal:

“…continue in these things, for in doing this you will save both yourself and your hearers.” (1 Timothy 4:16, NRSV)

His goal was to save himself and his hearers. But a goal like that can quickly become devastating because how can you know if you accomplished it? How do you know you arrived? Paul says do the little things faithfully with consistency and you will move forward to your goal.

What do you need to look at in your life.

What do we need to build into our marriages — those small consistent steps over time that lead to deeper love and communication.
What about our professional development?
What about education?
…Relationships
…Friendships
…Hobbies

The path to a life that is whole will include many parts but the most important will always be our relationship with God. Like Paul and Timothy, we must have a goal of overwhelming greatness that is then broken down into small measurable actions that we incorporate into our daily lives — we must not grow discouraged by the overwhelming greatness of the ultimate goal. Instead, we must find joy and contentment in faithfully engaging the small pieces over time. This is how we flourish in our body and in our soul — we act like an ant.

Called to Peace

Introduction

We are now in week 3 of our dare2move series and this weekend we are looking at how we are are called to Peace. Often we preach on topics that are sensitive issues of life, managing money, sexual purity, healthy relationships and while the topic of ‘peace’ does not seem like one of those issues — after all who doesn’t like the idea of peace — yet it turns out it is a very difficult idea because despite our ideals, our words and even our good intentions, we are not very good at it and quite often are unwilling to submit ourselves to what peace requires.

The Hebrew concept of peace is not just the absence of conflict, it refers to completeness – a totality of well-being – toward God, toward each other, and toward creation. That’s a tall order. What is interesting is that shalom and being a person of shalom, a person of peace — is not first and foremost something that is done, it is an expression of something deeper at work in a person, just like violence though seen as actions — is actually just an eruption of what lies beneath.

There can be no doubt that Jesus calls us to be people of peace. We are to live as people of peace. Over and over again the Bible speaks to this but we tweak the texts and rationalize the results. It is our nature as fallen human beings. We have come to the place where we are enamoured by the …

The Wisdom of Violence

“Lamech said to his wives, “Adah and Zillah, listen to me; wives of Lamech, hear my words. I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for injuring me. If Cain is avenged seven times, then Lamech seventy-seven times.”” (Genesis 4:23–24, NIV)

When Adam and Eve sinned, it took only a generation to go from disobedience to murder. Cain murders his brother and what is his greatest concern? That others will kill him. God marks him as a warning against others to not kill Cain (Gen 4:1-16). After Cain, we have a genealogy where Lamech rationalizes the murder of a young boy and says if Cain is avenged 7 times, he will be avenged 77 times. He sees God’s mercy to Cain as justification for his murder and the multiplication of violence continues and God’s evaluation is clear:

“Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways.” (Genesis 6:11–12, NIV)

The bible understands violence as an expression of corruption – an expression of the Fall. It is a corruption of creation. A corruption of what God intended for human beings. The problem is that violence makes sense to us at a very deep place. There is why cycles of violence continue for generations at an increasing intensity over time. Round and round it goes, you kill my brother, I will kill your family, to I will kill your extended family and on and on and on. The aggression continues, the hatred grows and the actual violence that we see is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what is wrong. Deep within us, there is a place where violence makes sense.

Now, some people will say “I would never harm another person. I am against physical violence” and that’s good, congratulations. But shalom is more than the absence of violence — that’s why Jesus said that when we call someone an ‘idiot’, we identify ourselves as children of hell, not children of God’s kingdom (cf., Matt 5:21-26). This puts us in a tough spot, because it is so easy and natural to judge and be angry and become bitter. Peace, or ‘shalom’, is an expression of a life in tune with God and engaged in love. The wisdom of violence runs deep within the human heart and makes sense at a visceral level. And this is the challenge, but the way of the cross — the way of love as God defines it — does not really make sense.

The cross shows us …

The Foolishness of Love

As Paul wrote about God’s way…

“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God… For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.” (1 Corinthians 1:18, 25, NIV)

The Cross is the supreme expression of God’s love, it is an expression of both his strength and wisdom, yet Paul is correct it seems like weakness and foolishness unless it is viewed with the eyes of faith.

From a human perspective, nothing about the cross makes sense. Peter responded during the arrest of Jesus in the way many would respond. He grabbed a sword and began solving the problem in the most human way. . .violence. No matter how valiant or courageous we may think of Peter’s actions swinging his sword and aiming for the head, the ultimate judge is Jesus himself calls out to Peter — “no more of this”. You can hear the urgency in Jesus’ command. The disdain in the word ‘this’ is almost palpable. The reason for this is clear enough if we pay attention to what Jesus says about what love looks like in God’s kingdom. It is a love that forgives enemies. It is a love that prays for those who cause us harm.

When Paul writes the Ephesians, he call upon them to imitate God as dearly beloved children (Eph 5.1) and self-sacrificing love is the essence of what we are to imitate, Jesus gives us some sense of what that would look like:

““You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may 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. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:43–48, NIV)

This kind of love of enemies finds its expression in shalom – peace. When we love others to the point where we will forgive, when love to the degree that we pray for those who do us harm — the result is a definitive lack of violence. Even one’s words, instead of being harsh and uncaring are marked by patience, kindness, goodness, & self-control.

Of course, some will be quick to speak of when they believe violence is justified, but honestly as I look to the news feeds and read the headlines, it sounds a lot like a pastor preaching his or her heart out on the dangers of praying too much. Seriously. . .is that the problem that we might be praying too much? I honestly do not think so. Shalom is the end-goal of God’s plan for his creation and Jesus invites us to join him in the foolishness of love. A love that would go to cross to save an enemy — because that’s what each and every one of us is until that time we believe in Jesus Christ. Paul says:

“For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son.” (Romans 5:10, NLT)

The brotherly-love, that followers of Jesus are to imitate – is an enemy forgiving, reconciling love – not the love Cain had for his brother Abel.

The bible says that we are to embrace a life of love and that we can measure all Christian virtues in our lives by the extent to which we are willing to submit our hearts to the rule of peace – the rule of Shalom.

All of this leads NT Scholar and Ethicist, Richard Hays to remark:

One reason that the world finds the New Testament’s message of peacemaking and love of enemies incredible is that the church is so massively faithless. On the question of violence, the church is deeply compromised and committed to nationalism, violence, and idolatry. (By comparison, our problems with sexual sin are trivial.) (Richard Hays, The Moral Vision of the New Testament, p. 343.)

Church has often been concerned about worldliness — yet somehow the core teaching of Jesus on enemy-love and peace have escaped appropriate notice over history and even into the modern era.

The Rule of Peace

“And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.” (Colossians 3:14–15, NIV)

Paul first writes in Colossians 3 that followers of Jesus are to clothe themselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. We are to bear with each other and forgive one another just as Christ forgave us. And that this point he moves into vv 14-15 that we are to put on love because it holds all the other virtues together — it becomes fuel for all those other things. And if the fuel for these virtues is love, the peace — shalom — measure of our love. Do our actions correspond with God’s peace? This is the constant question. Did my words express love or anger or bitterness — are they marked by the shalom of Christ?

As we read more and more in the NT about the Shalom of Christ – the peace of Christ, we understand better why some Christians have disavowed all violence against others. In fact, they have committed to suffering and dying rather than following in the violence around them. They are following the example of Jesus — who chose the cross rather than the path of retribution and violence. We learn from Matt 26:53 that Jesus could have called down 12 legions of angels to destroy his enemies and set him free. 12×6000 angels. A single angel went through Egypt in a night and killed all the firstborn children of the Egyptians. . . what would be left if 72000 angels came down to avenge the abuse of Jesus. Some will undoubtedly want to spiritualize everything and say Jesus was on a mission and the cross was his salvation plan — of course, of course, but it is also an example to us because Paul refers to the cross as self-sacrificing love that husbands are to have for their wives. Jesus himself said that followers were to pick their cross and following him. Imitate him. The love of Christ leaves no room for revenge. It leaves no room for sin. It is filled to the brim with shalom — the perfection of relationship by grace and power of God.

WE can never be these kinds of people on our own. We cannot love enemy on our own — perhaps if they cease and desist and ask for forgiveness, a person might find a place to have mercy — but when Jesus say love and pray for those who are actively doing harm. . . Jesus says “those who are persecuting you”. It is a present participle . . .it stands out referring to a present on-going action. I can’t love like that on my own. And neither can you. We all need to be saved precisely because the example of Jesus, the example he wants us to follow and imitate is a life-long project.

When Paul says take every thought captive to Christ, when he says “Let the peace of Christ rule your heart” it is a demand that both reveals how far we fall short but also marks a goal that we must be moving toward in our lives. It ultimately is an act of obedience and an act of submitting our will to the will of God. And nothing in this life, absolutely nothing, is more difficult than bring the wild beast that is our will under submission to Christ — but wrestle it we must or we are not truly engaging the upward call of Jesus Christ to let the peace of Christ rule our hearts. The Greek word there is very clear. . .it means ‘control’. The peace of Christ is to be the controlling factor in our hearts. Is peace central to the message of the NT — yes. It is central to salvation and God’s entire plan for his people. He is the reconciling God, he brings peace to those who are enemies. He brings love where there is hate. He brings forgiveness where there is bitterness. This is what Jesus–the “Prince of peace” brings into our lives.

And over all the virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. AMEN

You can watch a video of this message here: Called to Peace

Salt & Light (Mother’s Day 2016)

BLESSINGS on the hand of women!
       Angels guard its strength and grace.
     In the palace, cottage, hovel,
         Oh, no matter where the place;
     Would that never storms assailed it,
         Rainbows ever gently curled,
     For the hand that rocks the cradle
         Is the hand that rules the world.
William Ross Wallace, (pub. 1865)

One hundred years before I was born, William Ross Wallace published a poem about the far reaching influence of Mothers. We may find his poem a bit rigid or lacking artistic flare — we may even find the words dated and expressing a patriarchal view from a previous age — nevertheless, there is a truth to fact that no single group of people have done so much sacrificially for others as mothers.

Ironically, the christian Church has a mission that seeks to balance that with godly men who serve their families and share the responsibility of parenting with time and with tenderness — being a present reality in their children’s lives. Thankfully, in this room, that is what I see time and time again. Moms and Dads working together. Of course, generally though, there is still much to be done in the church in this regard..

At this stage in my life, I don’t presume to know much that would be helpful to tell mothers beyond what a good friend and mentor told me and my wife years ago — “Above all, maintain constant love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins.” (1 Peter 4:8, NRSV).

I guess telling people to have constant love for another is always good advice but for parents who love their children more than life itself, it is freeing to understand that as long as that is present in their child’s life, whatever imperfections exist things will work out. With love, we can overcome the systems we were born into and can truly grow in family relationships in a positive direction.

Today, I will not be handing out advice to moms or to dads. In fact, I want to speak to something that affects us all — and is at the heart of what Wallace was saying. I want to speak a little about having a Vision for Influencing our world.

Jesus told his disciples very clearly that they were to be an influence in the world for good. Let’s listen to Jesus.

“You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot. “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:13–16, NRSV)

If you have gone to church for any length of time, you will have heard lots of factoids about salt — I have in the past — unfortunately — inflicted that upon my listeners but I’m not going to do that today. All you need to know about salt in the ancient world is this: It was valuable. Roman soldiers received special wages to pay for salt and from that we have our word “salary”. Today salt is a couple of dollars for box, but in the ancient world you needed a special allowance in your wages to cover the expense. Salt was important and valuable.

When Jesus speaks of salt and light in the world, he is ultimately speaking about influence in the world. An influence that will demonstrate the love, grace, compassion and justice of God. The goal is not that we get a pat on the back or even that we successfully change the world to usher in an age of peace — the goal is this:

to bring glory to God through concrete actions in the world
that are rooted in the supernatural worldview that Jesus himself believed, taught and lived.

So often Christians try not to get involved in the world. Anabaptists have a special place in the history of giving up on this larger influence. Regardless of the theology that props up such ideas, Jesus words are quite clear that if we segregate ourselves from the world or simply do not join in public discourse at all — we have simply put a basket over our lamp so no light can escape.

This week, Russell Moore, a Southern Baptist scholar and cultural critic wrote these words in a NY Times op-ed

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech did not envision that more than 50 years later “Go back to Africa” would be screamed at black protesters or that a major presidential candidate would tweet racially charged comments. Some American Christians may be tempted to ignore these issues, hoping they are just a wave of “political incorrectness” that will ebb in due time. That sort of moral silence shortchanges both our gospel and our future. 1

While Moore is speaking to his white evangelical constituency, his words are important regardless of context. When we care only about those who look like us, act like us, and think like us — we are not living out the gospel as Jesus intended us to live it. In fact, Moore ends his piece with these words:

The man on the throne in heaven is a dark-skinned, Aramaic-speaking “foreigner” who is probably not all that impressed by chants of “Make America great again.” 2

His goal in his context is to convince Evangelical Christians to speak out against Trump. To choose Jesus over a political partisanship and to actually be an influence in the world. He is right to do so in his context.

The fact is that we all must look our contexts and ask ourselves the same question. What must we do to be salt and light in this world. What will future generations look back and see as the glaring moral deficiency in the church in this generation. We may not be able to address that completely or even see it clearly now — but we can do ask the question and seek wisdom from God. We can have hearts that are willing to go to the uncomfortable places where we can be salt and light in the situations that we do see. We can speak up instead of being silent. We can voice another opinion — one marked by something different than the rabidity that exists in our current culture. We can do what we can to show the world that God exists, that his love and grace still impacts lives, and that there is hope and acceptance in Him.

The big question is as it always has been:

Will I do it? Will you and I live as salt and light in this world? And then, how will we influence the world in the ways of Jesus?

But on this mother’s day, with the focus on family and children and of course, motherhood. Perhaps the greater question for we parents is simply this:

How will our example inspire and encourage
children of the next generations
to become Salt and Light in the world?

Will they see something in us that is worthy of imitation. May they see in us something positive — something valuable — that we chose to follow Jesus as salt and light in the world. That we were people with a vision to influence the world.

1 http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/06/opinion/a-white-church-no-more.html?_r=0

2 Ibid.