…..the greatest of these is love.
(Lesson is based on the chapter “When We Surrender to the Holy Spirit” from book by Jim Cymbala “Spirit Rising”)
If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. 3 If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.
4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
8 Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever!
This scripture goes on to say that other gifts will also become useless but that:
13 ….Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:1-13.
The kind of love described in this scripture and in many other in the New Testament is not reserved for a few select believers or special men and women involved in ministry. It's what Paul calls a life that “will always honor and please the Lord" (Colossians 1:10), and it's God's purpose for every one of us. Now that his love has provided our salvation, how unworthy of Him are lives lived in selfishness, bickering, and prejudice. And after all of His mercy, how can we not love other people? Even when they disappoint us? Is that our experience with Jesus? Has he jumped down our throats when we failed? Has he put us on some losers' list because of our inconsis¬tencies and broken promises? No, his love endures and has proved greater than all our faults.
A life of love is also the only way to "please the Lord" (Colossians 1:10). Since God is an emotional being, he experiences joy and sadness just as we do. Our daily words and deeds can cause him displeasure or move him to rejoice over us with singing. What an amazing thought! Today you and I can please the God of the uni¬verse. Although he is beyond our comprehension, omnipotent, omni¬present, and omniscient, His heart can still be touched by our loving actions, even in commonplace activities. What else but love could please a God of love?
Love is always the bottom line. That's why the Bible declares: "For when we place our faith in Christ Jesus, there is no benefit in being circumcised or being uncircumcised. What is important is faith expressing itself in love." (Galatians. 5:6). Even though the sign of God's covenant with Abra¬ham was the circumcision of all baby boys, a new day has dawned and a better covenant has been established. Circumcision, race, talent, money, fame, education, or anything else we highly treasure becomes irrelevant in comparison with love. Each of us individually and every Christian church has been ordained by God to reveal this love as the indisputable sign that we belong to Christ.
The following is directly from Jim Cymbal’s book:
A loving person, or better yet, a church full of loving people, has tremendous power to influence people for God. A few years ago, an older couple from a southern state visited our church. We had a mutual friend, and the couple came to my office after the service so we could be introduced. They both seemed a little emotional as we chatted, and soon I learned why.
"Pastor," the man said, "I want to tell you something before we leave. We go to a very conservative church, and the service we were just in was very different for us. But it was more than the loud sing¬ing, hands lifted, and the obvious emotion of your congregation. We understand that, and we were blessed by it all. But you see" ¬he paused, his voice cracking - "we've never worshiped with black people and Latinos before, never once in our lives." (Hayward’s Note: If you have ever read any of his other books or know anything about The Brooklyn Tabernacle Church, you know it probably has the most diverse congregation in the country.)Then he contin¬ued. "What's more, when you directed folks to greet one another, all kinds of men I've never met hugged me as if was their brother." Tears now filled his eyes. "I felt more love this morning from strangers than I've ever experienced in my home church for the past thirty years."
What a blessing! He never mentioned my sermon or how the choir sang. What touched his heart and opened his eyes was God's love flowing beyond all the fences that had been carefully (and reli¬giously) erected over the decades of his life. The love he experienced that day wasn't something that could be taught to a congregation. "Now about your love for one another we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other" (1 Thess. 4:9). God is the instructor and dean of students in the school of love. For us he makes the lesson amazingly clear: "God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them" (1 John 4:16). There it is for all of us to ponder. Or as I like to say “to cogitate”!
Doctrinal discussions (not fights) have their place. But it's not our “denomination” that proves we live in God. It's only love. It often seems that the so¬ called culture wars that take place in the name of God and morality can often radiate more bitterness than love. That defeats the purpose of Jesus' message. "Love does no wrong to others, so love fulfills the requirements of God’s law." (Romans 13:10). Of course, we're not the first to need an attitude correction. When Paul wrote to the Corin¬thians about whether they could eat food that was sacrificed to idols, he started his answer by addressing the tone of the conversation. "Yes, we know that “we all have knowledge” about this issue. But while knowledge makes us feel important, it is love that strengthens the church. (1 Corinthians 8:1).
Nothing is accomplished when we fuss with others in an unloving way. The outside world looks in and says, "If that's the way Christians are, I don't want any part of it!" If we want Christianity to be attractive to unbelievers, we need to represent ourselves in a loving way. Jesus was a friend to sinners. It is love that drew people to him. They liked to hang out with him. How many unbelievers could say the same about us. "Whoever lives in love" - that's the final exam for each of us. May God help us to remember it always.
Perhaps the hardest question we need to address is, how did those believers in Colosse develop that strong love for all the saints? How did Paul get to the place of unselfishly caring for people like a nursing mother, willing to make any sacrifice, if necessary, for their spiritual welfare? Paul gives us the answer when he explains that another min¬ister told him "about the love for others that the Holy Spirit has given you.” (Colossians 1:8) It wasn't an earth-based love that the saints in the city of Colosse were experiencing; it was the Holy Spirit's love replacing their human limitations and earthly tenden¬cies. It was supernatural love because it belonged to God - God, the Holy Spirit.
This is an important lesson for us. Most of us know that Christ is the perfect model of love. We know the message in 1 Corinthians 13 about the preeminence of love, and we know that God is love. But then we foolishly try harder, to love more, in our own strength. We make well-meaning deliberate attempts to overcome selfish hab¬its and our natural distaste for cranky, obnoxious people. But when we react unkindly and sense failure, we just go back to the drawing board, convinced that if we only try harder, or read more Scriptures, we'll somehow get better at loving others.
But Paul spoke of "love in the Spirit," which is something totally separate from human ability. Remember his teaching to the Gala¬tians: "The fruit of the Spirit is love" (Galatians. 5:22). Love is a fruit grow¬ing within us from a supernatural source. It's not our love, yet it is,
In conclusion: Thank God for His Unconditional Love.
Final note from Hayward: I highly recommend this book and any other by Jim Cymbala. Some others are: Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire; Fresh Faith and Fresh Power.
Sunday, August 19, 2012
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
It’s All About FAITH!
It’s All About FAITH!
24 So when the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went across to Capernaum to look for him. 25 They found him on the other side of the lake and asked, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”
26 Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, you want to be with me because I fed you, not because you understood the miraculous signs. 27 But don’t be so concerned about perishable things like food. Spend your energy seeking the eternal life that the Son of Man can give you. For God the Father has given me the seal of his approval.”
28 They replied, “We want to perform God’s works, too. What should we do?”
29 Jesus told them, “This is the only work God wants from you: Believe in the one he has sent.”
30 They answered, “Show us a miraculous sign if you want us to believe in you. What can you do? 31 After all, our ancestors ate manna while they journeyed through the wilderness! The Scriptures say, ‘Moses gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”
32 Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, Moses didn’t give you bread from heaven. My Father did. And now he offers you the true bread from heaven. 33 The true bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” John 6:24-33
There is an old story that goes like this: Far away in a lonely desert stands a water pump in the sand. You are a solitary traveler, and your canteen is empty and you come upon that pump. Tied to it is a hand written sign put there by someone earlier. The sign reads "I have buried a bottle of water to prime the pump. Don’t drink any of it."
"Pour in half of it to wet the leather seal. Wait, and then pour in the rest. Then pump. The well has never gone dry, but the pump must be primed to bring the water up. Have faith, believe. When you are through drawing water, fill the bottle and bury it in the sand for the next traveler.
Having come upon this pump in the desert with this sign and being out of water, what would we do Will we dig the water bottle from the sand and drink from it? Or will we believe and believing dare to pour that water, trust to put water into pump every drop of it down into the old trusty pump? Because we trust, we take a risk, both for ourselves and for the next person who will pass that way.
What will we do?
That story poses an interesting question for all of us. Do we believe and trust in that written message by the water pump, or do we only worry about our own thirst and drink from the water bottle knowing that the water will give us enough strength to go on? What would we do?
Now in the same way think about the words in the Bible. They are our words of salvation in the desert of life. They are our source of life, life for eternity. Do we believe in them, or will we try your own way?
Think about Jesus in the same way as the note in the desert and the words of the Bible, He is our salvation in the desert of life, our source of life, life for eternity. Do we believe what Jesus says is true for our life, or do we go our own way?
Our lesson this morning concerns faith. Someone in the crowd asked Jesus, “We want to perform God’s works, too. What should we do?” Jesus answered them, "Believe in the one he has sent.”
Faith can be defined as an obedient attitude to the will of God. And Jesus says faith is the work a follower of his should be about, having an obedient attitude in the will of God. Trusting and believing that the promises God has made for us through Jesus Christ are true.
Sometimes you and I get our work all mixed up. We think our work is salvation and so we try our hardest to save ourselves instead of trusting in God and being obedient to his will. It is as if we drank that bottle of water beside the pump instead of using it to prime the pump. We would be trusting in our own selves, our own resources for living, instead of trusting and believing in God and his promises.
Jesus tells us in this passage that salvation is a gift that is Bread of Life.
In verse 27 Jesus says: "But don’t be so concerned about perishable things like food. Spend your energy seeking the eternal life that the Son of Man can give you. For God the Father has given me the seal of his approval.”
Notice especially these words, which the Son of man can give to you, give, as the dictionary defines that word, it says " To make a present of a gift, To place in the hands of so as Jesus is the Son of Man will give us food, or salvation.
It is a gift, a present, something that is handed over to us with no strings attached. Something that God through his Son wants us to have, salvation. Notice Jesus doesn’t say anything about us working for this gift, or earning this gift, or achieving this gift for ourselves, but Jesus says he will give it to us, it is ours, a free gift.
Salvation is a free gift from God. Sometimes we want to try to earn that gift of salvation. But, when can you and I do enough for God to say to us that we are ready for salvation?? When would we be ready for God to say come?
We can safely say that none of us would ever be ready enough for God. None of us would be pure enough for God through our own efforts. But through Christ, God makes us ready for him.
Listen again to the words of Jesus: "the Son of Man can give you”. God makes us ready for him. God is doing the work, God is doing the action, God is giving us salvation through the body and blood of Christ. It is God’s gift to the children that he loves.
Our work as Jesus says is to believe in him who he has sent . Our work is to have faith in Jesus Christ who will give us salvation.
We don’t need to worry about our salvation, we don’t need to try and obtain it for ourselves. Our work is to believe that this promise of salvation is true for us. It is God who is steering the ship of life, it is God who is in control of our salvation, it is God who will welcome us home to him when our time on this earth is ended. Jesus wants us to believe that our salvation is secure in the hands of God.
It is like a ship which was returning from an overseas voyage entering the St. Lawrence River. A heavy fog enveloped the ship on all side, completely concealing the shores and all objects from the view of the passengers. Much to their amazement, the ship continued at full speed. They became frightened and considered such speed as extremely reckless on the part of the captain.
Finally, one of the passengers expressed concerns to the mate, demanding that the ship be slowed down. The mate listened, then replied with a smile: ’’Oh, don’t be afraid, the passengers need not be uneasy in the least. The fog extends up only a short way above the water and the captain is at the masthead, and is up above the fog and it is he who is directing the vessel."
In the same kind of way, Jesus is asking us to believe and trust in God as the captain of our ship directing us above all the foggy situations of life that we cannot understand. God is directing our ship of life because as captain God loves us and wants us to have a life that is abundant with all of his blessings.
Faith receives the gifts that God offers us. Faith believes in the promises of God, faith accepts God’s work of salvation as a gift.
It is like this pen I am holding in my hand. Let us pretend this is God’s gift of salvation. God places it in our hearts. We can do several things with it. We can let it sit there, and ignore God’s gift for us, we can close our heart around it a little bit, or we can grab a hold of it for our salvation. Or we can reject God’s gift for us.
But notice the pen doesn’t fall. That is because God never takes his gift away. We may reject it, we may ignore it, we may only slightly embrace it, but God’s gift remains true for us.
God’s gift remains in our hearts, because God is a loving God and God wants all people to be saved. As it says in John. 3:16, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." God wants us to accept this gift of salvation, God wants us to be his children, God has worked hard at convincing us of his good intentions for us. He showed us those good intentions in the form of his Son. He let the world kill his Son so that he could show us his great love, by raising him up on the third day. God is a God of love and He wants us to trust in that love, to believe in that love, to live with that love while we walk our journey on this earth.
Jesus says, "Believe in the one he has sent.” Believe in Jesus and believe in God the Father who sent him.
Far away in a lonely desert stands a water pump in the sand. You are a solitary traveler, and your canteen is empty and you come upon that pump. Tied to it is a hand written sign put there by some pilgrim. The sign reads "I have buried a bottle of water to prime the pump. don’t drink any of it."
"Pour in half of it to wet the leather seal. Wait, and then pour in the rest. Then pump. The well has never gone dry, but the pump must be primed to bring the water up. Have faith, believe. When you are through drawing water, fill the bottle and bury it in the sand for the next traveler."
We are a traveler upon the planet earth. We come across a book, a book with 66 other books in it, as we read it we see that it can give us the assurance, the strength and the conviction to live life to the fullest. But it asks us to surrender ourselves to someone else, to trust in the gifts this person is willing to give to us. What will we do?? Surrender, or rely on ourselves?
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is a gift of God...” Ephesians 2:8(NKJV)
Monday, August 6, 2012
Count Our Blessings
Count Our Blessings
Below is a “mini-message” that I sent out earlier but worth reading again and some haven’t seen it. It really got me to thinking about “blessings” and I felt led to do this lesson.
Weed Hunts from Max Lucado
God’s love sprouts around us like lilacs, but we go on weed hunts! How many flowers do we miss in the process? If you look long enough, you’ll find something to bellyache about. So quit looking!
Lift your eyes off the weeds. Collect your blessings. Catalog His kindnesses. Assemble your reasons for gratitude. “Always be joyful” is what Paul tells us in 1st Thessalonians 5:16-18 . “Pray continually and give thanks, whatever happens. This is what God wants for you in Christ Jesus.”
Gratitude is always an option. Make it your default emotion and you’ll find yourself giving thanks for the problems of life. Who knows what you might record in your journal:
Mondays. Oh boy–my favorite! Final exams. I can hardly wait! “Impossible,” you say? How do you know?
How do you know until you give the day a chance? Thank God!
There is a legend about two angels. Two angels who were sent to earth to gather up the prayers of humans. One was to fill his basket with the petitions and requests of mankind. The other was to gather their prayers of thanksgiving. Sometime later they went back to the Father’s house. One had a basket heaped high and running over with the innumerable petitions and pleas of men. The other returned with a sad and heavy heart, because his basket was almost empty.
The thanks of men were rarely heard on earth, even though the angel had searched diligently. Do you think maybe this little story describes our society perfectly? This is a stark reminder to us not to forget our many blessings, to be grateful for what we do have and not to forget the thanksgiving side of our prayers.
It is amazing how people turn to God when they are in trouble, but when things are going well, God is conveniently forgotten. Instead of our continued negativity, ungratefulness and continued whining and complaining - if we truly examine our heart and circumstances, we will find that we have so much to be thankful for, so many blessings that they’re actually impossible to count.
We are all blessed to the extent that we should continually be counting our blessings, continually giving thanks – looking at the bright side of things, instead of continually finding fault with our circumstances and with our brothers and sisters. So it is the aim this morning for us to consider the need to count our blessings every day.
Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. Proverbs 3:5
We are called to acknowledge the Lord in all our ways, in everything we do… not only when we’re in trouble. In all our ways, in everything we do… and if we really did that, we would find that we really have no reason to complain.
Instead, when we acknowledge the part that the Lord plays in our life, we will get on our knees and praise Him for His tender mercies, for the many, many blessings we have in our life. And we will find that shortly after that, our Peace and joy will be restored.
We need to be continually reminded to count our blessings, because it is so easy to fall back on self-pity and to count our woes.
Let all that I am praise the LORD; with my whole heart, I will praise his holy name. Let all that I am praise the LORD; may I never forget the good things he does for me. Psalm 103:1-2
And how easy it is for us to remember the woes and forget the benefits. To forget the blessings. Let’s look at how many we do forget.
Perhaps the greatest blessing of all is found in verse 3 of Psalm 103: “He forgives all my sins…”
What greater blessing is there than the forgiveness of our sins…? Without that blessing, that very great blessing, the forgiveness of our sins through the blood of Jesus, there would really be no point to life… for without it, we would all be doomed to eternal judgement.
Let all that I am praise the LORD; may I never forget the good things he does for me
When we are a thankful person, when we do count our blessings by praising the Lord, when we actually realize how blessed we really are, we will have a change of heart, a change of attitude… and our joy will be restored because of it.
And when we have joy and thankfulness in our heart, it’s almost impossible to harbor any bitterness. If we walk around with an attitude of Thanksgiving, of gratefulness, it’s very difficult to become angry or upset. It’s a mindset of thankfulness that gives us that great peace.
There is just something that takes place when thankfulness is a part of our lives. It’s called Grace. The grace that we have been given through our blessings allows us to be gracious to others.
The small things in life… there is just so much that we take for granted.
A pat on the back. A kind word. A loving word. A word of encouragement. A full moon. A hot bath. An empty parking space. A crackling fire. A great meal. A glorious sunset. Hot soup. A good night’s sleep. Eyes that can see! Ears that hear. Fingers that can touch…. Now we can go on all morning…
But we are told: Don’t forget. Stop worrying about missing the world’s grand rewards of fame, wealth and success. Rather focus on and enjoy its tiny delights. Because there are plenty for all of us.
The problem is, it takes grace, it takes love and compassion, it takes time to stop and notice. So often we get wrapped up in the troubles of our lives, that our complaining eventually becomes habit, a miserable part of our ungrateful existence.
It takes time, it takes an act of Grace to stop for a minute, to consider our priorities, to put things into perspective. The speed at which most of us live our lives is quite ridiculous… the hectic pace of life today quickly becomes an uncaring habit.
So this morning let us, to take the time, to stop, and smell the roses. Appreciate the good things.
Look around, consider our circumstances, the people and family around us… and if we can see them with eyes that see, that alone is one of life’s great blessings… the miracle of sight! Can you imagine being blind? Without ever being able to savor the beauty around us? What an amazing blessing… the little things that we take for granted.
So let us stop, pause and appreciate the things around us… the people in our life, the wondrous Creation… change our attitude… look on the bright side… count our blessings…. stop and smell the roses…!
Here’s an attitude for us. Matthew Henry, the famous Bible scholar, was once mugged and robbed of his wallet. He wrote these words in his diary.
"Let me be thankful first, because I have never been robbed before.
Second, because although they took my wallet, they did not take my life.
Third, because although they took my money, it was not much.
And fourth, because it was I who was robbed, and not I who was the robber. There but for the grace of God, go I."
An attitude of thankfulness, of seeing the brighter side of life, despite our circumstance, which automatically brings joy.
When we are thankful our vision improves. Not our sight! But our vision. Not our eyes, but our outlook, our attitude. To be thankful will help us have an optimistic and hopeful outlook on life, something that is noticeably lacking amongst many of us.
We will begin to see the donut and not the hole,
We'll see the glass half full and not half empty.
We'll see the potential and the opportunity and not the problem.
The problem with many of us is that we don’t have the grace to see the glass half full. When we look at the glass, we see it half empty, but we also see that it’s dirty, it’s the wrong size, the wrong color and really not the one we wanted…
Optimist comes from Latin word "optimus" which means "best".
Pessimist from Latin word "pessimus" which means "worst". It’s our duty in the love of Christ to look for the best, not the worst.
Look for things to be thankful for and we will find plenty, and our joy will be full.
But to be thankful, to have an attitude of thanksgiving, we actually need to recognize what our blessings are. Sometimes we walk around in a state of oblivion, too wrapped up in our own self-centeredness to even recognize how truly blessed we really are… We Americans take so many things for granted.
So many things we take for granted. We need to Count our blessings. But we need to start by asking God to open our eyes to actually see our possessions in Christ. Begin by recognizing all that we have in Christ. This will change our entire perspective and enable us to praise and thank God for what we have.
Praise the LORD! How good to sing praises to our God! How delightful and how fitting! Psalm 147:1
Below is a “mini-message” that I sent out earlier but worth reading again and some haven’t seen it. It really got me to thinking about “blessings” and I felt led to do this lesson.
Weed Hunts from Max Lucado
God’s love sprouts around us like lilacs, but we go on weed hunts! How many flowers do we miss in the process? If you look long enough, you’ll find something to bellyache about. So quit looking!
Lift your eyes off the weeds. Collect your blessings. Catalog His kindnesses. Assemble your reasons for gratitude. “Always be joyful” is what Paul tells us in 1st Thessalonians 5:16-18 . “Pray continually and give thanks, whatever happens. This is what God wants for you in Christ Jesus.”
Gratitude is always an option. Make it your default emotion and you’ll find yourself giving thanks for the problems of life. Who knows what you might record in your journal:
Mondays. Oh boy–my favorite! Final exams. I can hardly wait! “Impossible,” you say? How do you know?
How do you know until you give the day a chance? Thank God!
There is a legend about two angels. Two angels who were sent to earth to gather up the prayers of humans. One was to fill his basket with the petitions and requests of mankind. The other was to gather their prayers of thanksgiving. Sometime later they went back to the Father’s house. One had a basket heaped high and running over with the innumerable petitions and pleas of men. The other returned with a sad and heavy heart, because his basket was almost empty.
The thanks of men were rarely heard on earth, even though the angel had searched diligently. Do you think maybe this little story describes our society perfectly? This is a stark reminder to us not to forget our many blessings, to be grateful for what we do have and not to forget the thanksgiving side of our prayers.
It is amazing how people turn to God when they are in trouble, but when things are going well, God is conveniently forgotten. Instead of our continued negativity, ungratefulness and continued whining and complaining - if we truly examine our heart and circumstances, we will find that we have so much to be thankful for, so many blessings that they’re actually impossible to count.
We are all blessed to the extent that we should continually be counting our blessings, continually giving thanks – looking at the bright side of things, instead of continually finding fault with our circumstances and with our brothers and sisters. So it is the aim this morning for us to consider the need to count our blessings every day.
Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. Proverbs 3:5
We are called to acknowledge the Lord in all our ways, in everything we do… not only when we’re in trouble. In all our ways, in everything we do… and if we really did that, we would find that we really have no reason to complain.
Instead, when we acknowledge the part that the Lord plays in our life, we will get on our knees and praise Him for His tender mercies, for the many, many blessings we have in our life. And we will find that shortly after that, our Peace and joy will be restored.
We need to be continually reminded to count our blessings, because it is so easy to fall back on self-pity and to count our woes.
Let all that I am praise the LORD; with my whole heart, I will praise his holy name. Let all that I am praise the LORD; may I never forget the good things he does for me. Psalm 103:1-2
And how easy it is for us to remember the woes and forget the benefits. To forget the blessings. Let’s look at how many we do forget.
Perhaps the greatest blessing of all is found in verse 3 of Psalm 103: “He forgives all my sins…”
What greater blessing is there than the forgiveness of our sins…? Without that blessing, that very great blessing, the forgiveness of our sins through the blood of Jesus, there would really be no point to life… for without it, we would all be doomed to eternal judgement.
Let all that I am praise the LORD; may I never forget the good things he does for me
When we are a thankful person, when we do count our blessings by praising the Lord, when we actually realize how blessed we really are, we will have a change of heart, a change of attitude… and our joy will be restored because of it.
And when we have joy and thankfulness in our heart, it’s almost impossible to harbor any bitterness. If we walk around with an attitude of Thanksgiving, of gratefulness, it’s very difficult to become angry or upset. It’s a mindset of thankfulness that gives us that great peace.
There is just something that takes place when thankfulness is a part of our lives. It’s called Grace. The grace that we have been given through our blessings allows us to be gracious to others.
The small things in life… there is just so much that we take for granted.
A pat on the back. A kind word. A loving word. A word of encouragement. A full moon. A hot bath. An empty parking space. A crackling fire. A great meal. A glorious sunset. Hot soup. A good night’s sleep. Eyes that can see! Ears that hear. Fingers that can touch…. Now we can go on all morning…
But we are told: Don’t forget. Stop worrying about missing the world’s grand rewards of fame, wealth and success. Rather focus on and enjoy its tiny delights. Because there are plenty for all of us.
The problem is, it takes grace, it takes love and compassion, it takes time to stop and notice. So often we get wrapped up in the troubles of our lives, that our complaining eventually becomes habit, a miserable part of our ungrateful existence.
It takes time, it takes an act of Grace to stop for a minute, to consider our priorities, to put things into perspective. The speed at which most of us live our lives is quite ridiculous… the hectic pace of life today quickly becomes an uncaring habit.
So this morning let us, to take the time, to stop, and smell the roses. Appreciate the good things.
Look around, consider our circumstances, the people and family around us… and if we can see them with eyes that see, that alone is one of life’s great blessings… the miracle of sight! Can you imagine being blind? Without ever being able to savor the beauty around us? What an amazing blessing… the little things that we take for granted.
So let us stop, pause and appreciate the things around us… the people in our life, the wondrous Creation… change our attitude… look on the bright side… count our blessings…. stop and smell the roses…!
Here’s an attitude for us. Matthew Henry, the famous Bible scholar, was once mugged and robbed of his wallet. He wrote these words in his diary.
"Let me be thankful first, because I have never been robbed before.
Second, because although they took my wallet, they did not take my life.
Third, because although they took my money, it was not much.
And fourth, because it was I who was robbed, and not I who was the robber. There but for the grace of God, go I."
An attitude of thankfulness, of seeing the brighter side of life, despite our circumstance, which automatically brings joy.
When we are thankful our vision improves. Not our sight! But our vision. Not our eyes, but our outlook, our attitude. To be thankful will help us have an optimistic and hopeful outlook on life, something that is noticeably lacking amongst many of us.
We will begin to see the donut and not the hole,
We'll see the glass half full and not half empty.
We'll see the potential and the opportunity and not the problem.
The problem with many of us is that we don’t have the grace to see the glass half full. When we look at the glass, we see it half empty, but we also see that it’s dirty, it’s the wrong size, the wrong color and really not the one we wanted…
Optimist comes from Latin word "optimus" which means "best".
Pessimist from Latin word "pessimus" which means "worst". It’s our duty in the love of Christ to look for the best, not the worst.
Look for things to be thankful for and we will find plenty, and our joy will be full.
But to be thankful, to have an attitude of thanksgiving, we actually need to recognize what our blessings are. Sometimes we walk around in a state of oblivion, too wrapped up in our own self-centeredness to even recognize how truly blessed we really are… We Americans take so many things for granted.
So many things we take for granted. We need to Count our blessings. But we need to start by asking God to open our eyes to actually see our possessions in Christ. Begin by recognizing all that we have in Christ. This will change our entire perspective and enable us to praise and thank God for what we have.
Praise the LORD! How good to sing praises to our God! How delightful and how fitting! Psalm 147:1
Friday, August 3, 2012
Permission to Pursue What You Love
My note: Struggled with getting lesson I felt good about for today. Finally settled on this lesson. Thought it would probably relate more to youth on what "vocation" they should pursue. But, figured parents could use it to help advise their children. Our youth director was out of town and one of the WhoSoEvers, Raye, was going to lead the youth in SS. To my surprise, they showed up for our class. Seems youth director had locked the door to their room and nobody could find a spare key. Coincidence - I think not! Amazing when we just get out of HIS way, what will happen!
Permission to Pursue What You Love
There are two books out that that talk about an often neglected biblical principle. It is often called the principle of "vocation" or work. The first book is Work Matters by Pastor Tom Nelson (Christ Community Church, Leewood, Kansas). The second was The Cure for the Common Life by best-selling author and pastor, Max Lucado.
While both books are different -- Nelson fully fleshes out the “theology” of work while Lucado illustrates the uniqueness of every human being created in God's image -- they both arrive at an important conclusion: God has uniquely gifted, wired, called, and shaped every human being for a specific purpose on this earth, to glorify Him.
This may seem like something we always hear in church or a tired Christian cliché. But we often do not always comprehend two powerful ideas that come out of our uniqueness: work was ordained by God and is a form of worship and that God implants in us certain unique skills, passions, and gifts that make our lives unique.
We will expand on this concept today because it is very important for us to understand our purpose. Embracing God's unique design involves pushing back against a cultural lie about ourselves and a church lie about ourselves.
The Cultural Lie
On the one hand, you have the cultural expression that "you can be whatever you want to be, whatever you set your heart to do." This has been echoed in movies, books, motivational speeches and sometimes even from the pulpit. But we all know that this isn't really true. Supposed we really wanted to play on the pro golf circuit. Maybe play as well as Tiger Woods. We could play 18 holes everyday for years but would never make it. So we can't actually be whatever we want to be, can we?
The Church Lie
But the opposite of this cultural lie is a church lie. It's a pushback against the dreams that tell us to follow our hearts. It's the equal and opposite idea that because our hearts are so wicked, we can't trust them and therefore what we like to do, what we're good at doing, what we have a passion to do -- this can't possibly be what God wants us to be. This lie might go something like this: You can't be anything you want to be. In some ways, this may be more dangerous than the first lie in the sense that lots of Christian kids grow up forced into a mold set by parents or pastors or others. Every young boy must aspire to be a pastor or in "full-time" Christian service, otherwise he's not serving God. Every girl must aspire to be a pastor's wife or in some kind of acceptable full-time ministry or she is not serving the Lord. The guilt goes like this: How can you pursue a career in law or business or entertainment when across the world people are dying and going to hell?
And so you have a lot of people who feel they are supposed to ignore their gifts, their skills, their passions and they plunge into full-time ministry when they really have no aptitude for it. And as a result, not only do they suffer, but God's people suffer. You've taken a skilled person out of the environment where they might have had the most impact (law, business, medical field, carpenter, plumber, etc) and you've placed them, like a square peg in a round hole, in ministry where the people are suffering under the leadership of someone who wasn't supposed to be there in the first place.
The Biblical Third Way
So is there an alternative to the world's false "You can be what you want to be" fantasies and the church's "Don't dream, don't trust your passions and skills" consignment to certain acceptable callings? There is and it's to dive more fully into biblical principles of work. Here's a few important points we need to consider when it comes to calling:
Every kind of work is honorable to God. This is where Tom Nelson's book, Work Matters really shines. It shines because it pushes back against pastors and missionaries and so-called full-time ministry staff elevating their callings above that of lay people. The truth is that if we believe work in it’s self is good and worthy and honorable to God as a form of worship, then we should consider the skilled plumber or the top salesman or the doctor as worthy a ministry of the gospel as a pastor or missionary. The work lay people do from Monday to Friday is important, not simply so they can be a witness in the workplace or they can make more money so they can tithe, but because the work itself is important to God.
This concept is backed up by Paul in Colossians 3:23 where he writes “Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people.” And again in Ephesians 6:7 where he tells the church at Ephesus to “Work with enthusiasm, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people”.
God has uniquely wired every single person with specific skills and gifts. Max Lucado beautifully brings out the important message of Psalm 139, where David describes the intricate design behind every human soul. You are who you are because God made you this way. The things you are gifted at, passionate about, the things others see in you as strengths -- these are given to purposely by God. Why? For a purpose. To occupy a space in His plan for His glory. You wanting to be live someone else's life is actually against God. Someone forcing you into their mold is against God. The life God wants you to live is the life of Christ lived through you in a unique expression.
A True Believer Can Trust Their Hearts. Let's look at the teachings of the Scriptures concerning our hearts. Ephesians 2:10 says “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.”
But something happened, right? We chose sin and sin has corrupted our hearts, thus Jeremiah 17:9 which describes the human heart as “the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked.” But in Ezekiel 36:26 God says, “And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart.”
And one of the most important scriptures that most of us have heard many times: “that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” 2 Corinthians 5:17
So, if we are followers of Christ being transformed by His grace, we can listen to our hearts. What happens in salvation is this: God restores us (His masterpieces) from the corruption of sin. He implants in us a new heart, makes us a new person (born again). And as we die to ourselves, He reveals to us His original purpose for us. As you walk with the Lord, your calling will become clearer and clearer. But it's not because you are ignoring your gifts, your passions, your skills, but rather you are seeing them more clearly because the Holy Spirit is guiding us.
So, this means you can't be anything you "want to be" but you are free to be who you are supposed to be. What you die to in following Christ is not your skills and passions and gifts, but to the sin-soaked desires that were a distraction from God's original design of your life. You begin to enter, as Max Lucado calls it, your "sweet spot" where your gifts, your opportunities, and your impact all meet.
It is especially important for Christian young people as they survey their lives. High-school seniors and college freshman. They need to ask: What am I good at? What do I enjoy doing? Where do you think you can have the most impact in the world? What do others say you are good at?
They as well as all of us need to realize is that "Whatever is good and perfect comes down to us from God our Father" (James 1:17). God equipped us with gifts of skill, not for us to show off our skills but to reflect His glory.
Gifted plumbers shouldn't preach. Gifted preachers shouldn't plumb.
No, you can't be what you want to be. But you are freed by Jesus to be what He designed you to be. And it's a whole easier to figure out what that is when we reject both cultural and church myths.
Permission to Pursue What You Love
There are two books out that that talk about an often neglected biblical principle. It is often called the principle of "vocation" or work. The first book is Work Matters by Pastor Tom Nelson (Christ Community Church, Leewood, Kansas). The second was The Cure for the Common Life by best-selling author and pastor, Max Lucado.
While both books are different -- Nelson fully fleshes out the “theology” of work while Lucado illustrates the uniqueness of every human being created in God's image -- they both arrive at an important conclusion: God has uniquely gifted, wired, called, and shaped every human being for a specific purpose on this earth, to glorify Him.
This may seem like something we always hear in church or a tired Christian cliché. But we often do not always comprehend two powerful ideas that come out of our uniqueness: work was ordained by God and is a form of worship and that God implants in us certain unique skills, passions, and gifts that make our lives unique.
We will expand on this concept today because it is very important for us to understand our purpose. Embracing God's unique design involves pushing back against a cultural lie about ourselves and a church lie about ourselves.
The Cultural Lie
On the one hand, you have the cultural expression that "you can be whatever you want to be, whatever you set your heart to do." This has been echoed in movies, books, motivational speeches and sometimes even from the pulpit. But we all know that this isn't really true. Supposed we really wanted to play on the pro golf circuit. Maybe play as well as Tiger Woods. We could play 18 holes everyday for years but would never make it. So we can't actually be whatever we want to be, can we?
The Church Lie
But the opposite of this cultural lie is a church lie. It's a pushback against the dreams that tell us to follow our hearts. It's the equal and opposite idea that because our hearts are so wicked, we can't trust them and therefore what we like to do, what we're good at doing, what we have a passion to do -- this can't possibly be what God wants us to be. This lie might go something like this: You can't be anything you want to be. In some ways, this may be more dangerous than the first lie in the sense that lots of Christian kids grow up forced into a mold set by parents or pastors or others. Every young boy must aspire to be a pastor or in "full-time" Christian service, otherwise he's not serving God. Every girl must aspire to be a pastor's wife or in some kind of acceptable full-time ministry or she is not serving the Lord. The guilt goes like this: How can you pursue a career in law or business or entertainment when across the world people are dying and going to hell?
And so you have a lot of people who feel they are supposed to ignore their gifts, their skills, their passions and they plunge into full-time ministry when they really have no aptitude for it. And as a result, not only do they suffer, but God's people suffer. You've taken a skilled person out of the environment where they might have had the most impact (law, business, medical field, carpenter, plumber, etc) and you've placed them, like a square peg in a round hole, in ministry where the people are suffering under the leadership of someone who wasn't supposed to be there in the first place.
The Biblical Third Way
So is there an alternative to the world's false "You can be what you want to be" fantasies and the church's "Don't dream, don't trust your passions and skills" consignment to certain acceptable callings? There is and it's to dive more fully into biblical principles of work. Here's a few important points we need to consider when it comes to calling:
Every kind of work is honorable to God. This is where Tom Nelson's book, Work Matters really shines. It shines because it pushes back against pastors and missionaries and so-called full-time ministry staff elevating their callings above that of lay people. The truth is that if we believe work in it’s self is good and worthy and honorable to God as a form of worship, then we should consider the skilled plumber or the top salesman or the doctor as worthy a ministry of the gospel as a pastor or missionary. The work lay people do from Monday to Friday is important, not simply so they can be a witness in the workplace or they can make more money so they can tithe, but because the work itself is important to God.
This concept is backed up by Paul in Colossians 3:23 where he writes “Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people.” And again in Ephesians 6:7 where he tells the church at Ephesus to “Work with enthusiasm, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people”.
God has uniquely wired every single person with specific skills and gifts. Max Lucado beautifully brings out the important message of Psalm 139, where David describes the intricate design behind every human soul. You are who you are because God made you this way. The things you are gifted at, passionate about, the things others see in you as strengths -- these are given to purposely by God. Why? For a purpose. To occupy a space in His plan for His glory. You wanting to be live someone else's life is actually against God. Someone forcing you into their mold is against God. The life God wants you to live is the life of Christ lived through you in a unique expression.
A True Believer Can Trust Their Hearts. Let's look at the teachings of the Scriptures concerning our hearts. Ephesians 2:10 says “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.”
But something happened, right? We chose sin and sin has corrupted our hearts, thus Jeremiah 17:9 which describes the human heart as “the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked.” But in Ezekiel 36:26 God says, “And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart.”
And one of the most important scriptures that most of us have heard many times: “that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” 2 Corinthians 5:17
So, if we are followers of Christ being transformed by His grace, we can listen to our hearts. What happens in salvation is this: God restores us (His masterpieces) from the corruption of sin. He implants in us a new heart, makes us a new person (born again). And as we die to ourselves, He reveals to us His original purpose for us. As you walk with the Lord, your calling will become clearer and clearer. But it's not because you are ignoring your gifts, your passions, your skills, but rather you are seeing them more clearly because the Holy Spirit is guiding us.
So, this means you can't be anything you "want to be" but you are free to be who you are supposed to be. What you die to in following Christ is not your skills and passions and gifts, but to the sin-soaked desires that were a distraction from God's original design of your life. You begin to enter, as Max Lucado calls it, your "sweet spot" where your gifts, your opportunities, and your impact all meet.
It is especially important for Christian young people as they survey their lives. High-school seniors and college freshman. They need to ask: What am I good at? What do I enjoy doing? Where do you think you can have the most impact in the world? What do others say you are good at?
They as well as all of us need to realize is that "Whatever is good and perfect comes down to us from God our Father" (James 1:17). God equipped us with gifts of skill, not for us to show off our skills but to reflect His glory.
Gifted plumbers shouldn't preach. Gifted preachers shouldn't plumb.
No, you can't be what you want to be. But you are freed by Jesus to be what He designed you to be. And it's a whole easier to figure out what that is when we reject both cultural and church myths.
Monday, July 16, 2012
HE KNOWS OUR NAME
HE KNOWS OUR NAME
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_BXOiqo808
10 Then they went home.
11 Mary was standing outside the tomb crying, and as she wept, she stooped and looked in. 12 She saw two white-robed angels, one sitting at the head and the other at the foot of the place where the body of Jesus had been lying. 13 “Dear woman, why are you crying?” the angels asked her.
“Because they have taken away my Lord,” she replied, “and I don’t know where they have put him.”
14 She turned to leave and saw someone standing there. It was Jesus, but she didn’t recognize him. 15 “Dear woman, why are you crying?” Jesus asked her. “Who are you looking for?”
She thought he was the gardener. “Sir,” she said, “if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and get him.”
16 “Mary!” Jesus said. She turned to him and cried out, “Rabboni!” (which is Hebrew for “Teacher”). John 20:10-16a
In the society we live in today, you can sometimes feel like you are just a number, can’t you? You might like to think your mailperson knows your name, but he/she is more interested in the street address number and zip code than your name. If you doubt this, leave the person’s name off a letter and mail it. They will get it! On your drivers’ license, the number is more important than your name The IRS and government keep track of you, primarily by your social security number.
I am not criticizing these entities that identify people by number. As a computer person I know this is more efficient and timely. Here at CHBC, anyone who gives money is assigned an “envelope number”. (But if you don’t know your #, don’t worry we have a list with your name and #.) This makes record keeping a lot simpler. But there are times when we want to be called by name, aren't there? Certainly, church is a place where we like to be known by name. Even in a large congregation, people like to “think” the pastor knows them. He might not know everything about a person, but at least he should know their name, they think. Our names are important and we want to be called by the correct name. A friend’s daughter just recently got married. They had a big reception planned with a disk jockey. The DJ was supposed to announce the couple. He called the bride Kristina instead of her name Kristi. Not a good thing!
We can excuse such mistakes as human error, we might think. But even so, you would like for your daughter to be called by her correct name a her wedding! Names mean something, don't they?
At graduation from high school or college, the speaker can call your name. That is one thing. But when someone you really know, someone you really respect, someone you really need calls out your name - well, that is just different. The speaker at the graduation who is just trying to pronounce your name correctly might not even know you, but the person who calls out your name in the middle of a busy place, a friend whom you have shared much time with - you know their voice. Even if you were blind, you would recognize their voice, and their presence is a comfort. The way they call your name; that familiar sound. If is a child, that can mean the difference between panic and security. In the middle of a packed mall- many people of all different sizes pass by them - it is a strange feeling - feeling lost, and just when they are about to yell for help, they hear a familiar voice, their mother's voice. And suddenly they know that thing is going to be alright. To be called by name, not just by anyone, but someone who knows you as well as you know yourself.
Isn't this the feeling Mary probably had? The text relates that the disciples “went home”, and Mary was left at the grave of Jesus weeping. As she knelt, peering into the tomb, she noticed two angels, one at the foot and the other at the head of where Jesus had laid. They asked her, “why are you crying?”” “Because they have taken away my Lord,” she replied, “and I don’t know where they have put him.”
After she said this she turned and Jesus was standing there, but Mary did not recognize him.
Here Mary is, faithful to her Master, trying to be comforted by being near where Jesus ' body lay, and she was convinced that someone had broken into the tomb, and stolen his body. Resurrection was probably not even in her scope of reality yet. Resurrection was magical thinking. She had been the only one who was so distraught and that she remained at the site of the tomb. It is important to place ourselves in the shoes of the disciples and Mary for a moment.
It is my belief that the followers of Jesus did not even understand Jesus' teaching about his resurrection. They hardly understood the necessity of his death. And we read the manuscript twenty plus centuries later, and in hindsight, think it would have all fallen into place for us. Not so easy. Think about the Jewish thinking of what a messiah was going to be. It was enough that the followers had remained with Jesus, who was not exactly what the traditional Jew would have thought remotely close to a messiah. And the thought of a messiah dying? That was hardly believable. But not just dying; being convicted and executed in the most demeaning way known to that culture, crucifixion. “Surely if Jesus was the Messiah, he would not let this happen!”
We would probably have thought very similarly. We have a hard time understanding delayed gratification. We want immediate justice. Jesus doesn't offer immediate answers all the time. When we become Christian all the wrongs we have experienced are not suddenly made right. The rough places made smooth. Jesus was a different kind of messiah than anyone could have imagined. The followers of Jesus were having a difficult time processing what his death was all about, and now the tomb was empty; broken into by thieves or the Roman government or Jewish authorities.
Discouraged, beaten up, defeated spiritually – we’ve all been there haven’t we? Is it possible that Jesus has walked right past you, and you have not recognized him? We are not that different from Mary, who thought Jesus was the gardener. Has anyone ever come into your life and then departed, and perhaps they touched your life in a way you never thought possible, and it is only later that you realize that they were used by Jesus? Maybe Jesus doesn't literally walk past us, but his spirit does. Many times through the lives of other Christians.
And we are like the two followers on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35). We are walking with the risen Lord, yet we fail to recognize him. We cannot look past our circumstances. We cannot get past our grief, our anger, our fear. These negative feelings blind us from seeing the risen Jesus. Mary thought it was a gardener, and the man asked her why she was weeping. “Who are you looking for?”
Thinking he was the gardener, she asked him to tell her where he had taken Jesus' body so that she could care for it. And then the familiar voice says, “Mary.”
And she knew immediately who she was in the presence of. Her feelings probably went from distress and fear to comfort and peace. “How could it be?” Jesus alive. But he was alive, and all he had to do was call Mary by name. And what a difference that made in her life. How many times before his death had she heard the comforting voice of Jesus say, “Mary.” How many times had this voice brought belief to her unbelief and a sense of forgiveness to her guilt? This voice through which she had learned so much in just the brief time they had together.
In the Christian way of thinking, we believe in a 'personal' God. Don't we? A God that was so interested in us that he became human. He inhabited a human body, and became very personal with his followers. Jesus cares for us. We even get the idea that Jesus knows us as a person, on a personal level. You believe that, don't you? Scripture affirms that. In the Gospel of Luke 15:3-7, Jesus uses the analogy of a sheep and a shepherd.
3 So Jesus told them this story: 4 “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders. 6 When he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’ 7 In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away!
One commentary on this passage reads: “Because each sheep was of high value, the shepherd knew that it was worthwhile to search diligently for the lost one. God's love for each individual is so great that he seeks each me out.” That is an analogy of a personal God. Christianity is unique in that sense, as a religion. Jesus goes on to say in John’s Gospel that he is the good shepherd and that the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. A commentary on this passage reads: “A hired hand tends the sheep for money, while the shepherd does it for love. The shepherd owns the sheep and is committed to them. Jesus is not merely doing a job; he is committed to love us and even lay down his life for us.”
3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep recognize his voice and come to him. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. John 10:3
In verse 14 of Chapter 10 in John's Gospel, Jesus affirms, “I am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep, and they know me.” This is no distant Jesus or God - this refers to a personal being who has the capacity to know us individually and love us. Jesus knows us by our name and not by some random number assigned to us.
The Shepherd knows his sheep. He knows each one by name. The Shepherd knows us. He knows our name. And he will never forget it. God says “See, I have written your name on the palms of my hands”. (Isa. 49:16).
Quite a thought, isn't it? Our name on God's hand. Our name on God's lips. Maybe you've seen your name in some special places. On an award or diploma or name plate on your desk or maybe even on a walnut door. Or maybe you've heard your name from some important people—a coach, a celebrity, a teacher. But to think that your name is on God's hand and on God's lips . . . my, could it be?
Or perhaps you've never seen your name honored. And you can't remember when you heard it spoken with kindness. If so, it may be more difficult for you to believe that God knows your name.
But he does. Written on his hand. Spoken by his mouth. Whispered by his lips. Our name. And not only the name we now have, but the name he has in store for us. A “new name” he will give us… (Revelation 2:17)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_BXOiqo808
10 Then they went home.
11 Mary was standing outside the tomb crying, and as she wept, she stooped and looked in. 12 She saw two white-robed angels, one sitting at the head and the other at the foot of the place where the body of Jesus had been lying. 13 “Dear woman, why are you crying?” the angels asked her.
“Because they have taken away my Lord,” she replied, “and I don’t know where they have put him.”
14 She turned to leave and saw someone standing there. It was Jesus, but she didn’t recognize him. 15 “Dear woman, why are you crying?” Jesus asked her. “Who are you looking for?”
She thought he was the gardener. “Sir,” she said, “if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and get him.”
16 “Mary!” Jesus said. She turned to him and cried out, “Rabboni!” (which is Hebrew for “Teacher”). John 20:10-16a
In the society we live in today, you can sometimes feel like you are just a number, can’t you? You might like to think your mailperson knows your name, but he/she is more interested in the street address number and zip code than your name. If you doubt this, leave the person’s name off a letter and mail it. They will get it! On your drivers’ license, the number is more important than your name The IRS and government keep track of you, primarily by your social security number.
I am not criticizing these entities that identify people by number. As a computer person I know this is more efficient and timely. Here at CHBC, anyone who gives money is assigned an “envelope number”. (But if you don’t know your #, don’t worry we have a list with your name and #.) This makes record keeping a lot simpler. But there are times when we want to be called by name, aren't there? Certainly, church is a place where we like to be known by name. Even in a large congregation, people like to “think” the pastor knows them. He might not know everything about a person, but at least he should know their name, they think. Our names are important and we want to be called by the correct name. A friend’s daughter just recently got married. They had a big reception planned with a disk jockey. The DJ was supposed to announce the couple. He called the bride Kristina instead of her name Kristi. Not a good thing!
We can excuse such mistakes as human error, we might think. But even so, you would like for your daughter to be called by her correct name a her wedding! Names mean something, don't they?
At graduation from high school or college, the speaker can call your name. That is one thing. But when someone you really know, someone you really respect, someone you really need calls out your name - well, that is just different. The speaker at the graduation who is just trying to pronounce your name correctly might not even know you, but the person who calls out your name in the middle of a busy place, a friend whom you have shared much time with - you know their voice. Even if you were blind, you would recognize their voice, and their presence is a comfort. The way they call your name; that familiar sound. If is a child, that can mean the difference between panic and security. In the middle of a packed mall- many people of all different sizes pass by them - it is a strange feeling - feeling lost, and just when they are about to yell for help, they hear a familiar voice, their mother's voice. And suddenly they know that thing is going to be alright. To be called by name, not just by anyone, but someone who knows you as well as you know yourself.
Isn't this the feeling Mary probably had? The text relates that the disciples “went home”, and Mary was left at the grave of Jesus weeping. As she knelt, peering into the tomb, she noticed two angels, one at the foot and the other at the head of where Jesus had laid. They asked her, “why are you crying?”” “Because they have taken away my Lord,” she replied, “and I don’t know where they have put him.”
After she said this she turned and Jesus was standing there, but Mary did not recognize him.
Here Mary is, faithful to her Master, trying to be comforted by being near where Jesus ' body lay, and she was convinced that someone had broken into the tomb, and stolen his body. Resurrection was probably not even in her scope of reality yet. Resurrection was magical thinking. She had been the only one who was so distraught and that she remained at the site of the tomb. It is important to place ourselves in the shoes of the disciples and Mary for a moment.
It is my belief that the followers of Jesus did not even understand Jesus' teaching about his resurrection. They hardly understood the necessity of his death. And we read the manuscript twenty plus centuries later, and in hindsight, think it would have all fallen into place for us. Not so easy. Think about the Jewish thinking of what a messiah was going to be. It was enough that the followers had remained with Jesus, who was not exactly what the traditional Jew would have thought remotely close to a messiah. And the thought of a messiah dying? That was hardly believable. But not just dying; being convicted and executed in the most demeaning way known to that culture, crucifixion. “Surely if Jesus was the Messiah, he would not let this happen!”
We would probably have thought very similarly. We have a hard time understanding delayed gratification. We want immediate justice. Jesus doesn't offer immediate answers all the time. When we become Christian all the wrongs we have experienced are not suddenly made right. The rough places made smooth. Jesus was a different kind of messiah than anyone could have imagined. The followers of Jesus were having a difficult time processing what his death was all about, and now the tomb was empty; broken into by thieves or the Roman government or Jewish authorities.
Discouraged, beaten up, defeated spiritually – we’ve all been there haven’t we? Is it possible that Jesus has walked right past you, and you have not recognized him? We are not that different from Mary, who thought Jesus was the gardener. Has anyone ever come into your life and then departed, and perhaps they touched your life in a way you never thought possible, and it is only later that you realize that they were used by Jesus? Maybe Jesus doesn't literally walk past us, but his spirit does. Many times through the lives of other Christians.
And we are like the two followers on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35). We are walking with the risen Lord, yet we fail to recognize him. We cannot look past our circumstances. We cannot get past our grief, our anger, our fear. These negative feelings blind us from seeing the risen Jesus. Mary thought it was a gardener, and the man asked her why she was weeping. “Who are you looking for?”
Thinking he was the gardener, she asked him to tell her where he had taken Jesus' body so that she could care for it. And then the familiar voice says, “Mary.”
And she knew immediately who she was in the presence of. Her feelings probably went from distress and fear to comfort and peace. “How could it be?” Jesus alive. But he was alive, and all he had to do was call Mary by name. And what a difference that made in her life. How many times before his death had she heard the comforting voice of Jesus say, “Mary.” How many times had this voice brought belief to her unbelief and a sense of forgiveness to her guilt? This voice through which she had learned so much in just the brief time they had together.
In the Christian way of thinking, we believe in a 'personal' God. Don't we? A God that was so interested in us that he became human. He inhabited a human body, and became very personal with his followers. Jesus cares for us. We even get the idea that Jesus knows us as a person, on a personal level. You believe that, don't you? Scripture affirms that. In the Gospel of Luke 15:3-7, Jesus uses the analogy of a sheep and a shepherd.
3 So Jesus told them this story: 4 “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders. 6 When he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’ 7 In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away!
One commentary on this passage reads: “Because each sheep was of high value, the shepherd knew that it was worthwhile to search diligently for the lost one. God's love for each individual is so great that he seeks each me out.” That is an analogy of a personal God. Christianity is unique in that sense, as a religion. Jesus goes on to say in John’s Gospel that he is the good shepherd and that the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. A commentary on this passage reads: “A hired hand tends the sheep for money, while the shepherd does it for love. The shepherd owns the sheep and is committed to them. Jesus is not merely doing a job; he is committed to love us and even lay down his life for us.”
3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep recognize his voice and come to him. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. John 10:3
In verse 14 of Chapter 10 in John's Gospel, Jesus affirms, “I am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep, and they know me.” This is no distant Jesus or God - this refers to a personal being who has the capacity to know us individually and love us. Jesus knows us by our name and not by some random number assigned to us.
The Shepherd knows his sheep. He knows each one by name. The Shepherd knows us. He knows our name. And he will never forget it. God says “See, I have written your name on the palms of my hands”. (Isa. 49:16).
Quite a thought, isn't it? Our name on God's hand. Our name on God's lips. Maybe you've seen your name in some special places. On an award or diploma or name plate on your desk or maybe even on a walnut door. Or maybe you've heard your name from some important people—a coach, a celebrity, a teacher. But to think that your name is on God's hand and on God's lips . . . my, could it be?
Or perhaps you've never seen your name honored. And you can't remember when you heard it spoken with kindness. If so, it may be more difficult for you to believe that God knows your name.
But he does. Written on his hand. Spoken by his mouth. Whispered by his lips. Our name. And not only the name we now have, but the name he has in store for us. A “new name” he will give us… (Revelation 2:17)
Monday, July 9, 2012
There Is Joy
There Is Joy based from Jim Cymbala’s book Spirit Rising
In the late eighties, Bobby McFerrin wrote and performed a little song called "Don't Worry, Be Happy." Click to listen:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHFDa9efCQU
Only played part of song in SS, so don’t feel like you have to! One member said “Thanks a lot Hayard, now I will have this tune in my head all week”.
The song hit number one on the charts, and people enjoyed singing along with the happy little tune. Of course, the message offered a great psychological boost too. Don't worry. Just be happy. Let go of your anxi¬eties and enjoy life. It made sense. Being happy is probably something we'd all like to do more. But that leads to a simple question: how?
Happiness versus Joy
Happiness ebbs and flows based on our changing circumstances. A new baby or grandchild is born, and we're all smiles. We win a free vacation, and we're ecstatic! The boss gives a big raise just when we need the extra money, and we're elated. But the euphoria is only tem¬porary. Inevitably something changes and takes our happiness with it. The baby gets sick; our vacation gets rained on; our job is elimi¬nated by a corporate merger. The positive feeling is fleeting. At best we're left feeling empty, and at worst, even angry.
So how do we get our happiness back when the situation changes?
We can't wish happiness back. We can't chase it. Trying harder to regain it only produces frustration. If circumstances alone make us happy, then our situation has to change for us to be happy again. Yet that's precisely the reason we're unhappy. We don't, and never will, have control over the things that make for "don't worry, be happy."
Happiness is circumstantial and elusive, but joy is not circum¬stantial. We can have joy even when we're not happy. Some may hear Christians talking about joy and think that joy is just a religious word for happiness. But joy differs from happiness. If the situation is right, anyone can experience happiness. Even people who don't know God or who curse God can be happy. But they don't have joy, for that bless¬ing in life has a totally different source.
According to Scripture, the Holy Spirit produces joy. "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control" (Gal. 5:22 - 23). Isn't it interesting that joy is mentioned immediately after love? Obviously God doesn't want us to live depressed, cranky, and bitter lives. He knows that happiness is fleeting, so through the Spirit, he gives us supernatural joy that transcends our circumstances. Joy is a beautiful gift that accompanies salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. It is a gift imparted by the Holy Spirit to our innermost being.
Inexpressible and Glorious Joy
If joy is a gift, we should expect to see more of it in the church, yet we're often surprised when we do. However, when we recognize that true joy doesn't come from our circumstances but rather from God, we begin to see joy as a blessing for everyday life. And that joy from the Spirit will make us distinctive to the culture around us.
HIV POSITIVE AND FULL OF JOY
A certain woman in our church is known for her sunny disposition and the joy in her heart; she's a real saint of God. One day more than fifteen years ago, she came to my office and said she needed to talk.
"I just found out that I have HIV," she said. "I contracted it from my husband. He's a drug addict."
I sat forward in my chair and lowered my head, thinking of the devastation in that sentence. "I'm here for two reasons, Pastor. The first is that I wanted to tell you personally so you wouldn't hear it from someone else. The sec¬ond is because I need counsel on whether I should tell my children, and if so, when would be the best time? I don't want them to be hurt if I don't tell them, but I don't want them to worry either."
As she told me this, she was amazingly composed. There was a sweetness about her spirit that caught me totally off guard. A part of me wanted to ask, "What planet do you come from?" But instead we talked, and then I prayed for her. When we finished, she asked sincerely, "Can I pray for you?"
That sweet lady started out by telling me she was HIV positive and then finished by praying for me! She hadn't read some book on positive thinking and then decided to give it a try. She hadn't psyched herself up to send good vibes into the universe so they would come back to her. This was a woman experiencing joy despite some very painful and undeserved circumstances.
.
JOY MAKES US DISTINCTIVE
The kind of joy this woman had was normal for the New Testament church, and it should be normal for us too. Should we be depressed that Jesus died for our sins and rose from the grave and that all of our sins are forgiven? Should we lament the knowledge that one day we're going to be with the Lord forever? Should the fact that our name is written in the Book of Life make us sad? No. Those things should give us great joy.
Peter wrote: "You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy. The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls.” (1 Peter 1:8-9) Does a " glorious, inexpressible joy " describe your life, this class or our church? It should. The epistle to Rome is Paul's great theological document regarding justification by faith and other weighty doctrinal matters. Yet toward the end of his letter, the apostle declares that the kingdom of God isn't essentially about denominational positions. The kingdom isn't about who is right about whether the tribulation (distress or suffering resulting from oppression or persecution) times come before the rapture or after the rapture. Paul said that the “kingdom of God” is a matter of "…living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." (Rom. 14:17). That is how important joy is; it makes us distinctive as followers of Jesus Christ.
I'm not talking about emotions. What the apostle Paul described was a life of joy that comes from the Spirit. He wrote to the Thessalonian believers, "…you received the message with joy from the Holy Spirit in spite of the severe suffering it brought you. In this way, you imitated both us and the Lord." (1 Thess. 1:6).
If we saw a church filled with prejudice and anger, we would say, "That can't be a Christian church." Why? Because God is love, and the fruit of the Spirit is love. If there is no love, if there is a nasty atmosphere, then it can't be of God and of the Spirit.
Why shouldn't we draw the same conclusion when we see a joy¬less church? We often rationalize about why our lives aren't joy-filled, but we don't find depressed, cranky believers in the New Testament.
In the little church I grew up in, there was a middle-aged woman who was always dressed in black. She wore a black dress, a black hat, and black shoes. She always sat alone with a tight, pursed look on her face, and she never talked to anyone. I never even saw her smile. She would enter into the meetings and pray and listen to the Word and then leave. As a young child, I was afraid to even get near her. She looked like she had been baptized in lemon juice!
One day I got up the courage to ask another adult about her. "What's with that lady?" I asked.
The man gave me an understanding nod as If he knew from expe¬rience something that I didn't. "Oh, her. You can tell she walks very close to God." My little mind struggled with the thought. Walking close to God means you never smile? It means you have no friends? You never rejoice in Jesus? Why would anyone want to get close to God if that's what it did to you? Yet that is the picture some people have of God's plan for the Christian life - dark, somber, and joyless.
When we walk in the Spirit, when the Spirit controls us, he pro¬duces joy in our lives just as he produces love. Luke even said " ….Jesus was filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit" (Luke 10:21). All joy comes from the Holy Spirit. We can't manufacture it, call it up, try harder to get it, or make it happen on our own.
We "rejoice in the Lord" (Phil. 3:1) by remembering and claiming all the benefits he has provided now, and in the hereafter. We all have an unfortunate tendency to dwell exclusively on the problems and pain confronting us, but in Christ, we have a thousand blessings no one can take from us. Jesus told his Apostles that after He was gone there will be sorrow but then "you will rejoice, and no one can rob you of that joy." (John 16:22). Later Paul reinforced Jesus' command by saying, "Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice!" (Phil. 4:4). Therefore, we need to resist the "joy thieves" that want to rob us of his precious gift.
In order to keep our joy, we must habitually "rejoice in the Lord," even when we feel nothing or are hurting. It is possible to feel sor¬row yet rejoice. To rejoice is to celebrate and glorify Christ no matter what. This cannot happen without relying on the Spirit. Only through Him can we have joy no matter what!
Joy and rejoicing might seem inconsequential to the heady, intel¬lectual types among us. But let's remember how vitally important joy is to our spiritual growth. Paul said: "Knowing this, I am convinced that I will remain alive so I can continue to help all of you grow and experience the joy of your faith" (Phil. 1:25). Paul linked our prog¬ress and growth in the faith with the joy that increases as we mature in Christ. Faith grows best in the soil of a heart that rejoices in Jesus despite what's going on around it. That's how David could write some of his most uplifting, joyous psalms while King Saul and the army of Israel were in hot pursuit to destroy him. The prophet Nehemiah said, "Don’t be dejected and sad, for the joy of the LORD is your strength!” (Neh. 8:10). We require that joy for survival. We will never stand victoriously against Satan's daily assaults if our souls are filled with anger and resentment.
The early believers lived precarious lives, never knowing what their allegiance to Jesus might cost them. They faced ten times more difficulties than we do, yet they experienced a hundred times more joy! Let's pray as they did, that God might fill us with joy through the Spirit - not just a momentary pick- me- up from time to time, but a deep and continuous river of joy.
In the late eighties, Bobby McFerrin wrote and performed a little song called "Don't Worry, Be Happy." Click to listen:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHFDa9efCQU
Only played part of song in SS, so don’t feel like you have to! One member said “Thanks a lot Hayard, now I will have this tune in my head all week”.
The song hit number one on the charts, and people enjoyed singing along with the happy little tune. Of course, the message offered a great psychological boost too. Don't worry. Just be happy. Let go of your anxi¬eties and enjoy life. It made sense. Being happy is probably something we'd all like to do more. But that leads to a simple question: how?
Happiness versus Joy
Happiness ebbs and flows based on our changing circumstances. A new baby or grandchild is born, and we're all smiles. We win a free vacation, and we're ecstatic! The boss gives a big raise just when we need the extra money, and we're elated. But the euphoria is only tem¬porary. Inevitably something changes and takes our happiness with it. The baby gets sick; our vacation gets rained on; our job is elimi¬nated by a corporate merger. The positive feeling is fleeting. At best we're left feeling empty, and at worst, even angry.
So how do we get our happiness back when the situation changes?
We can't wish happiness back. We can't chase it. Trying harder to regain it only produces frustration. If circumstances alone make us happy, then our situation has to change for us to be happy again. Yet that's precisely the reason we're unhappy. We don't, and never will, have control over the things that make for "don't worry, be happy."
Happiness is circumstantial and elusive, but joy is not circum¬stantial. We can have joy even when we're not happy. Some may hear Christians talking about joy and think that joy is just a religious word for happiness. But joy differs from happiness. If the situation is right, anyone can experience happiness. Even people who don't know God or who curse God can be happy. But they don't have joy, for that bless¬ing in life has a totally different source.
According to Scripture, the Holy Spirit produces joy. "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control" (Gal. 5:22 - 23). Isn't it interesting that joy is mentioned immediately after love? Obviously God doesn't want us to live depressed, cranky, and bitter lives. He knows that happiness is fleeting, so through the Spirit, he gives us supernatural joy that transcends our circumstances. Joy is a beautiful gift that accompanies salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. It is a gift imparted by the Holy Spirit to our innermost being.
Inexpressible and Glorious Joy
If joy is a gift, we should expect to see more of it in the church, yet we're often surprised when we do. However, when we recognize that true joy doesn't come from our circumstances but rather from God, we begin to see joy as a blessing for everyday life. And that joy from the Spirit will make us distinctive to the culture around us.
HIV POSITIVE AND FULL OF JOY
A certain woman in our church is known for her sunny disposition and the joy in her heart; she's a real saint of God. One day more than fifteen years ago, she came to my office and said she needed to talk.
"I just found out that I have HIV," she said. "I contracted it from my husband. He's a drug addict."
I sat forward in my chair and lowered my head, thinking of the devastation in that sentence. "I'm here for two reasons, Pastor. The first is that I wanted to tell you personally so you wouldn't hear it from someone else. The sec¬ond is because I need counsel on whether I should tell my children, and if so, when would be the best time? I don't want them to be hurt if I don't tell them, but I don't want them to worry either."
As she told me this, she was amazingly composed. There was a sweetness about her spirit that caught me totally off guard. A part of me wanted to ask, "What planet do you come from?" But instead we talked, and then I prayed for her. When we finished, she asked sincerely, "Can I pray for you?"
That sweet lady started out by telling me she was HIV positive and then finished by praying for me! She hadn't read some book on positive thinking and then decided to give it a try. She hadn't psyched herself up to send good vibes into the universe so they would come back to her. This was a woman experiencing joy despite some very painful and undeserved circumstances.
.
JOY MAKES US DISTINCTIVE
The kind of joy this woman had was normal for the New Testament church, and it should be normal for us too. Should we be depressed that Jesus died for our sins and rose from the grave and that all of our sins are forgiven? Should we lament the knowledge that one day we're going to be with the Lord forever? Should the fact that our name is written in the Book of Life make us sad? No. Those things should give us great joy.
Peter wrote: "You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy. The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls.” (1 Peter 1:8-9) Does a " glorious, inexpressible joy " describe your life, this class or our church? It should. The epistle to Rome is Paul's great theological document regarding justification by faith and other weighty doctrinal matters. Yet toward the end of his letter, the apostle declares that the kingdom of God isn't essentially about denominational positions. The kingdom isn't about who is right about whether the tribulation (distress or suffering resulting from oppression or persecution) times come before the rapture or after the rapture. Paul said that the “kingdom of God” is a matter of "…living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." (Rom. 14:17). That is how important joy is; it makes us distinctive as followers of Jesus Christ.
I'm not talking about emotions. What the apostle Paul described was a life of joy that comes from the Spirit. He wrote to the Thessalonian believers, "…you received the message with joy from the Holy Spirit in spite of the severe suffering it brought you. In this way, you imitated both us and the Lord." (1 Thess. 1:6).
If we saw a church filled with prejudice and anger, we would say, "That can't be a Christian church." Why? Because God is love, and the fruit of the Spirit is love. If there is no love, if there is a nasty atmosphere, then it can't be of God and of the Spirit.
Why shouldn't we draw the same conclusion when we see a joy¬less church? We often rationalize about why our lives aren't joy-filled, but we don't find depressed, cranky believers in the New Testament.
In the little church I grew up in, there was a middle-aged woman who was always dressed in black. She wore a black dress, a black hat, and black shoes. She always sat alone with a tight, pursed look on her face, and she never talked to anyone. I never even saw her smile. She would enter into the meetings and pray and listen to the Word and then leave. As a young child, I was afraid to even get near her. She looked like she had been baptized in lemon juice!
One day I got up the courage to ask another adult about her. "What's with that lady?" I asked.
The man gave me an understanding nod as If he knew from expe¬rience something that I didn't. "Oh, her. You can tell she walks very close to God." My little mind struggled with the thought. Walking close to God means you never smile? It means you have no friends? You never rejoice in Jesus? Why would anyone want to get close to God if that's what it did to you? Yet that is the picture some people have of God's plan for the Christian life - dark, somber, and joyless.
When we walk in the Spirit, when the Spirit controls us, he pro¬duces joy in our lives just as he produces love. Luke even said " ….Jesus was filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit" (Luke 10:21). All joy comes from the Holy Spirit. We can't manufacture it, call it up, try harder to get it, or make it happen on our own.
We "rejoice in the Lord" (Phil. 3:1) by remembering and claiming all the benefits he has provided now, and in the hereafter. We all have an unfortunate tendency to dwell exclusively on the problems and pain confronting us, but in Christ, we have a thousand blessings no one can take from us. Jesus told his Apostles that after He was gone there will be sorrow but then "you will rejoice, and no one can rob you of that joy." (John 16:22). Later Paul reinforced Jesus' command by saying, "Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice!" (Phil. 4:4). Therefore, we need to resist the "joy thieves" that want to rob us of his precious gift.
In order to keep our joy, we must habitually "rejoice in the Lord," even when we feel nothing or are hurting. It is possible to feel sor¬row yet rejoice. To rejoice is to celebrate and glorify Christ no matter what. This cannot happen without relying on the Spirit. Only through Him can we have joy no matter what!
Joy and rejoicing might seem inconsequential to the heady, intel¬lectual types among us. But let's remember how vitally important joy is to our spiritual growth. Paul said: "Knowing this, I am convinced that I will remain alive so I can continue to help all of you grow and experience the joy of your faith" (Phil. 1:25). Paul linked our prog¬ress and growth in the faith with the joy that increases as we mature in Christ. Faith grows best in the soil of a heart that rejoices in Jesus despite what's going on around it. That's how David could write some of his most uplifting, joyous psalms while King Saul and the army of Israel were in hot pursuit to destroy him. The prophet Nehemiah said, "Don’t be dejected and sad, for the joy of the LORD is your strength!” (Neh. 8:10). We require that joy for survival. We will never stand victoriously against Satan's daily assaults if our souls are filled with anger and resentment.
The early believers lived precarious lives, never knowing what their allegiance to Jesus might cost them. They faced ten times more difficulties than we do, yet they experienced a hundred times more joy! Let's pray as they did, that God might fill us with joy through the Spirit - not just a momentary pick- me- up from time to time, but a deep and continuous river of joy.
Sunday, July 1, 2012
Jesus" Friend of Sinners
Jesus: Friend of Sinners
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNhz8BMTqsk
Jesus Friend of sinners we have strayed so far away
We cut down people in your name but the sword was never ours to swing
Jesus friend of sinners the truth's become so hard to see
The world is on their way to You but they're tripping over me
Always looking around but never looking up I'm so double minded
A plank eyed saint with dirty hands and a heart divided
Oh Jesus friend of sinners
Open our eyes to world at the end of our pointing fingers
Let our hearts be led by mercy
Help us reach with open hearts and open doors
Oh Jesus friend of sinners break our hearts for what breaks yours
Yeah...
Jesus friend of sinners the one who's writing in the sand
Make the righteous turn away and the stones fall from their hands
Help us to remember we are all the least of thieves
Let the memory of Your mercy bring your people to their knees
Nobody knows what we're for only against when we judge the wounded
What if we put down our signs crossed over the lines and loved like You did
Oh Jesus friend of sinners
Open our eyes to world at the end of our pointing fingers
Let our hearts be led by mercy
Help us reach with open hearts and open doors
Oh Jesus friend of sinners break our hearts for what breaks yours
You love every lost cause; you reach for the outcast
For the leper and the lame; they're the reason that You came
Lord I was that lost cause and I was the outcast
But you died for sinners just like me a grateful leper at Your feet
'Cause You are good, You are good And Your love endures forever
You are good, You are good and Your love endures forever
You are good, You are good and Your love endures forever
You are good, You are good and Your love endures forever
Oh Jesus friend of sinners
Open our eyes to world at the end of our pointing fingers
Let our hearts be led by mercy
Help us reach with open hearts and open doors
Oh Jesus friend of sinners break our hearts for what breaks Yours
And I was the lost cause and I was the outcast
Yeah...
You died for sinners just like me, a grateful leper at Your feet
The course was nearly over. The seminary professor had demonstrated an incredible knowledge of the subject, had been insightful and inspiring and deep. And as he summed up the entire course on the life of Christ, he said these words: “You know, looking back over the whole life and ministry of Jesus, the thing that sticks out most is that Jesus really did come for sinners. That was what His life and ministry was really all about. He came for sinners.” That is the portrait of Christ that we want to look at this morning – Jesus, friend of sinners. To do that, we want to look at a story of Jesus being invited out to dinner:
Jesus eats with Levi (Luke 5:27-32)
It is somewhat difficult to find someone as despised as a “tax collector” today – maybe lawyers or the IRS. A bit of background might help us better understand why tax collectors were so hated. First, they made their living by overcharging, with the full backing of the Roman government. It could easily become extortion. So people hated them because they were cheats who profited richly at the expense of others, usually quite poor people. Taxes at the time could be extremely high – up to (and you’re not going to be able to believe this…) 50% of their income – what kind of society is that?? Second, tax collectors were traitors – they had sold out to the Romans and were punishing their own fellow Jews for personal profit. This also equaled an abandonment of their Jewish faith, or at least a lot of the ceremonial aspects that called for very limited contact with Gentiles, and of the rules governing the Sabbath. So they were cheats, traitors, and backsliders. They were the bottom of the pile.
Enter Jesus. He is out walking in Capernaum one day and sees one of these despised tax collectors sitting in his tax booth (it could have been like a toll booth). He says just two words: “follow me.” And Levi gets up, leaves everything behind, and follows Jesus.
Let’s pause here to reflect on that. It seems reasonable to conclude that Levi was familiar with Jesus, that he had heard Him teach. And obviously Jesus knew him also, for He called him to come and be one of His disciples. We have a really brief description of a moment of decision for this tax collector – Jesus calls. In this story, Levi answers, he comes, he leaves everything behind to follow Jesus.
The same is true for us. Jesus calls to us, invites us to come and follow Him. Our response must be the same as Levi’s – Jesus expects us to also leave everything to follow Him. Jesus said “If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.” (Luke 9:24) He also said, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me. (Matthew 16:24)
As long as we try to hold on to our past, as long as we try to stay in control, as long as we try to follow Jesus without giving up everything, we will not succeed. We will not be able to “follow Him.” It is hard, but it is the only way. Jesus demands our all.
The story continues, and tells of a great banquet. A large crowd of “undesirables” gathers at Levi’s house for a meal, and more importantly for an opportunity to meet Jesus. This was probably Levi’s method of witnessing – he met Jesus, decided to follow Him, and then invited everyone he knew to a giant banquet so that they could also meet Jesus. And they came, and had a feast. Scripture doesn’t tell us this, but do you think maybe Jesus was the life of the party – He was probably the focal point of the whole gathering. Can’t you just see Him mingling and talking with people all over the place, sharing a laugh and a joke, making a comment or insight that people would never forget, simply touching these rich outcasts on the shoulder in a way that changed them. Maybe He spoke to them as a group; we don’t know. But we do know that the religious leaders branded Jesus with the title “friend of sinners”.
We also know that the “religious” folk did not approve. They were on the outskirts, looking in disdainfully. “Why do you eat and drink with such scum?” (Luke 5:30b) This was an affront, a serious error in judgment. Jesus was becoming a noticed religious leader, people were talking about Him, certainly He knew better than to taint His reputation by keeping questionable company. Certainly He knew that being found eating with tax collectors would become a scandal. The tabloids would have a field day with this one! Might even make the front page of The National Enquirer..
Frankly, Jesus didn’t care. I really believe that. The people around Him were quick to see people as a label and not as a person. And to equate that label with an absence of worth. Like today: “on welfare.” “street person.” “prostitute.” “druggie”, “homosexual.” “unemployed.” In Jesus’ day it was “tax collector.” “sinner.” The result is the same, a sense that these people aren’t really people, they have no dignity, no status, virtually no worth. Jesus didn’t care about the label, He recognized the person.
He became their “friend.” You know who this tax collector named Levi is? He is Matthew (“Gift from God”. For those of you who know me, I am just a little bit “partial” to the name Matthew!), the disciple, the author of our first Gospel (Jews often had more than one name). This is very clear from the parallel accounts in the other gospels. He is one of the 12, one of Jesus’ closest disciples, an apostle. Jesus took the outcast – the hated – the despised; and made him one of His disciples.
We should find hope here. We should recognize that apart from Jesus we would be rejected and despised by God. We are all a “sinner”! (“For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.” Romans 3:23) One of those who have turned away from God and deserve all the punishment that comes along with that rebellion. Yet Jesus calls us “friend.” Jesus turns us from a place of abandonment to a place of acceptance, from an outcast to a friend. That is the amazing truth of the Gospel. We find hope for our world! Also – we have hope for those around us, for those we bump into. Jesus can change things. Jesus has the power to make us new. He doesn’t care about the labels, about the status in society; He doesn’t even care if we think we are completely worthless and undeserving of His love! We are!! All of us!!! Yet Jesus befriends us anyways. Just like Levi, Jesus invites us to follow Him. Will you leave everything and follow Him?
Conclusion
Jesus is friend of sinners. And that is a good thing, for each of us is a sinner. Each of us have turned away, have rebelled against Him, and need to turn away from our sin, turn towards Jesus.
And if we are to be like Jesus, we need to befriend sinners also. We need to be aware of those who don’t know Christ, so that they can come to know of Him and can be led to decide to follow Him. That can be tough for us, tough to truly befriend “sinners”. You know what made the difference for Jesus? He truly was a friend. They weren’t “projects”, they were people Jesus loved and appreciated and needed and who served Him. They were two-way relationships. They were authentic. That is what we need to build with people around us if we are to have opportunity to witness for Christ.
How does this apply to us? Do we need to accept Jesus’ offer of friendship, of forgiveness, for the first time? If so, come – accept His gift – be made whole. Or have we, like Levi, heard His invitation yet haven’t left everything behind to follow Him? If so, let it go – lay it down – leave it behind. You will never regret it.
Maybe the picture of Jesus as friend of sinners challenges us to build friendships with people around us who don’t know Jesus wants to be their friend. If so, do it. Start to build those friendships, and watch the opportunities God gives you to share the incredible news that Jesus is friend of sinners.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNhz8BMTqsk
Jesus Friend of sinners we have strayed so far away
We cut down people in your name but the sword was never ours to swing
Jesus friend of sinners the truth's become so hard to see
The world is on their way to You but they're tripping over me
Always looking around but never looking up I'm so double minded
A plank eyed saint with dirty hands and a heart divided
Oh Jesus friend of sinners
Open our eyes to world at the end of our pointing fingers
Let our hearts be led by mercy
Help us reach with open hearts and open doors
Oh Jesus friend of sinners break our hearts for what breaks yours
Yeah...
Jesus friend of sinners the one who's writing in the sand
Make the righteous turn away and the stones fall from their hands
Help us to remember we are all the least of thieves
Let the memory of Your mercy bring your people to their knees
Nobody knows what we're for only against when we judge the wounded
What if we put down our signs crossed over the lines and loved like You did
Oh Jesus friend of sinners
Open our eyes to world at the end of our pointing fingers
Let our hearts be led by mercy
Help us reach with open hearts and open doors
Oh Jesus friend of sinners break our hearts for what breaks yours
You love every lost cause; you reach for the outcast
For the leper and the lame; they're the reason that You came
Lord I was that lost cause and I was the outcast
But you died for sinners just like me a grateful leper at Your feet
'Cause You are good, You are good And Your love endures forever
You are good, You are good and Your love endures forever
You are good, You are good and Your love endures forever
You are good, You are good and Your love endures forever
Oh Jesus friend of sinners
Open our eyes to world at the end of our pointing fingers
Let our hearts be led by mercy
Help us reach with open hearts and open doors
Oh Jesus friend of sinners break our hearts for what breaks Yours
And I was the lost cause and I was the outcast
Yeah...
You died for sinners just like me, a grateful leper at Your feet
The course was nearly over. The seminary professor had demonstrated an incredible knowledge of the subject, had been insightful and inspiring and deep. And as he summed up the entire course on the life of Christ, he said these words: “You know, looking back over the whole life and ministry of Jesus, the thing that sticks out most is that Jesus really did come for sinners. That was what His life and ministry was really all about. He came for sinners.” That is the portrait of Christ that we want to look at this morning – Jesus, friend of sinners. To do that, we want to look at a story of Jesus being invited out to dinner:
Jesus eats with Levi (Luke 5:27-32)
It is somewhat difficult to find someone as despised as a “tax collector” today – maybe lawyers or the IRS. A bit of background might help us better understand why tax collectors were so hated. First, they made their living by overcharging, with the full backing of the Roman government. It could easily become extortion. So people hated them because they were cheats who profited richly at the expense of others, usually quite poor people. Taxes at the time could be extremely high – up to (and you’re not going to be able to believe this…) 50% of their income – what kind of society is that?? Second, tax collectors were traitors – they had sold out to the Romans and were punishing their own fellow Jews for personal profit. This also equaled an abandonment of their Jewish faith, or at least a lot of the ceremonial aspects that called for very limited contact with Gentiles, and of the rules governing the Sabbath. So they were cheats, traitors, and backsliders. They were the bottom of the pile.
Enter Jesus. He is out walking in Capernaum one day and sees one of these despised tax collectors sitting in his tax booth (it could have been like a toll booth). He says just two words: “follow me.” And Levi gets up, leaves everything behind, and follows Jesus.
Let’s pause here to reflect on that. It seems reasonable to conclude that Levi was familiar with Jesus, that he had heard Him teach. And obviously Jesus knew him also, for He called him to come and be one of His disciples. We have a really brief description of a moment of decision for this tax collector – Jesus calls. In this story, Levi answers, he comes, he leaves everything behind to follow Jesus.
The same is true for us. Jesus calls to us, invites us to come and follow Him. Our response must be the same as Levi’s – Jesus expects us to also leave everything to follow Him. Jesus said “If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.” (Luke 9:24) He also said, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me. (Matthew 16:24)
As long as we try to hold on to our past, as long as we try to stay in control, as long as we try to follow Jesus without giving up everything, we will not succeed. We will not be able to “follow Him.” It is hard, but it is the only way. Jesus demands our all.
The story continues, and tells of a great banquet. A large crowd of “undesirables” gathers at Levi’s house for a meal, and more importantly for an opportunity to meet Jesus. This was probably Levi’s method of witnessing – he met Jesus, decided to follow Him, and then invited everyone he knew to a giant banquet so that they could also meet Jesus. And they came, and had a feast. Scripture doesn’t tell us this, but do you think maybe Jesus was the life of the party – He was probably the focal point of the whole gathering. Can’t you just see Him mingling and talking with people all over the place, sharing a laugh and a joke, making a comment or insight that people would never forget, simply touching these rich outcasts on the shoulder in a way that changed them. Maybe He spoke to them as a group; we don’t know. But we do know that the religious leaders branded Jesus with the title “friend of sinners”.
We also know that the “religious” folk did not approve. They were on the outskirts, looking in disdainfully. “Why do you eat and drink with such scum?” (Luke 5:30b) This was an affront, a serious error in judgment. Jesus was becoming a noticed religious leader, people were talking about Him, certainly He knew better than to taint His reputation by keeping questionable company. Certainly He knew that being found eating with tax collectors would become a scandal. The tabloids would have a field day with this one! Might even make the front page of The National Enquirer..
Frankly, Jesus didn’t care. I really believe that. The people around Him were quick to see people as a label and not as a person. And to equate that label with an absence of worth. Like today: “on welfare.” “street person.” “prostitute.” “druggie”, “homosexual.” “unemployed.” In Jesus’ day it was “tax collector.” “sinner.” The result is the same, a sense that these people aren’t really people, they have no dignity, no status, virtually no worth. Jesus didn’t care about the label, He recognized the person.
He became their “friend.” You know who this tax collector named Levi is? He is Matthew (“Gift from God”. For those of you who know me, I am just a little bit “partial” to the name Matthew!), the disciple, the author of our first Gospel (Jews often had more than one name). This is very clear from the parallel accounts in the other gospels. He is one of the 12, one of Jesus’ closest disciples, an apostle. Jesus took the outcast – the hated – the despised; and made him one of His disciples.
We should find hope here. We should recognize that apart from Jesus we would be rejected and despised by God. We are all a “sinner”! (“For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.” Romans 3:23) One of those who have turned away from God and deserve all the punishment that comes along with that rebellion. Yet Jesus calls us “friend.” Jesus turns us from a place of abandonment to a place of acceptance, from an outcast to a friend. That is the amazing truth of the Gospel. We find hope for our world! Also – we have hope for those around us, for those we bump into. Jesus can change things. Jesus has the power to make us new. He doesn’t care about the labels, about the status in society; He doesn’t even care if we think we are completely worthless and undeserving of His love! We are!! All of us!!! Yet Jesus befriends us anyways. Just like Levi, Jesus invites us to follow Him. Will you leave everything and follow Him?
Conclusion
Jesus is friend of sinners. And that is a good thing, for each of us is a sinner. Each of us have turned away, have rebelled against Him, and need to turn away from our sin, turn towards Jesus.
And if we are to be like Jesus, we need to befriend sinners also. We need to be aware of those who don’t know Christ, so that they can come to know of Him and can be led to decide to follow Him. That can be tough for us, tough to truly befriend “sinners”. You know what made the difference for Jesus? He truly was a friend. They weren’t “projects”, they were people Jesus loved and appreciated and needed and who served Him. They were two-way relationships. They were authentic. That is what we need to build with people around us if we are to have opportunity to witness for Christ.
How does this apply to us? Do we need to accept Jesus’ offer of friendship, of forgiveness, for the first time? If so, come – accept His gift – be made whole. Or have we, like Levi, heard His invitation yet haven’t left everything behind to follow Him? If so, let it go – lay it down – leave it behind. You will never regret it.
Maybe the picture of Jesus as friend of sinners challenges us to build friendships with people around us who don’t know Jesus wants to be their friend. If so, do it. Start to build those friendships, and watch the opportunities God gives you to share the incredible news that Jesus is friend of sinners.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
