Have you ever watched the show, The Apprentice?  The Celebrity Apprentice is just gearing up to begin in a month or so.  I got hooked on this show.  It’s a kind of guilty hook.  I watch it because it’s a lot about human dynamics and how people work together.  Kind of like the church!  But then it’s also kind of like watching a train wreck and sometimes I wonder if I’m not drawn to it because of all the gossip, slander, and backstabbing that happens to win the game.  Ignoring for a moment all the negative, the teams on Celebrity Apprentice that raise the most money for charity are always the ones that work together the best, tapping into each person’s skills and talents, and have individuals who are willing to serve in whatever way it takes to raise money.  When a team is clicking along with all its members firing at full strength, it’s really a beautiful sight to behold.

Another team that worked amazingly well together to accomplish a task was the team that rebuilt the wall of Jerusalem after returning from exile.  Watch how every team member kicks in whether it’s their special talent or not.

Nehemiah 3 (Selections)

Then the high priest Eliashib set to work with his fellow priests and rebuilt the Sheep Gate. They consecrated it and set up its doors; they consecrated it as far as the Tower of the Hundred and as far as the Tower of Hananel. And the men of Jericho built next to him. And next to them Zaccur son of Imri built.

The sons of Hassenaah built the Fish Gate; they laid its beams and set up its doors, its bolts, and its bars. Next to them Meremoth son of Uriah son of Hakkoz made repairs. Next to them Meshullam son of Berechiah son of Meshezabel made repairs. Next to them Zadok son of Baana made repairs.  Next to them the Tekoites made repairs; but their nobles would not put their shoulders to the work of their Lord…

Next to them Uzziel son of Harhaiah, one of the goldsmiths, made repairs. Next to him Hananiah, one of the perfumers, made repairs; and they restored Jerusalem as far as the Broad Wall…Next to him Shallum son of Hallohesh, ruler of half the district of Jerusalem, made repairs, he and his daughters…

Above the Horse Gate the priests made repairs, each one opposite his own house. After them Zadok son of Immer made repairs opposite his own house.

This is God’s story for us today.  Thank you, God!

Today we begin a new annual series called Serve Sunday.  Each year we’ll take some time to reflect on how we can use our gifts to serve on the team that we call Sycamore Creek Church doing the task that we call “igniting authentic life in Christ.”  This week we’ll begin that exploration and next week you’ll have the opportunity to make a commitment to serve in some way here at the church.  Just like you make an annual financial pledge to the church, we’ll be inviting you to make an annual service pledge.

Today I’d like begin with what is sometimes called the 80/20 rule.  I’d like to look at this story from Nehemiah and our own experience here at SCC and explore the good, the bad, and the ugly of the 80/20 rule.  So what is the 80/20 rule?  Good question.  Generally speaking, the 80/20 rule says that 20% of the people do 80% of the work.  Let’s begin here, but I want to take it even deeper today.

20% of the People Do 80% of the Work

There are good, bad, and ugly aspects of the 80/20 rule.

The Good – If 20% of the people are doing most of the work here at SCC, that allows 80% of the people to focus on reaching out to the community.  What if 20% of our church took care of internal needs and the other 80% were missionaries, reaching out to meet the spiritual and physical needs of our community?  That would be awesome!  I’d love to brag about SCC not by telling people how many attend worship, but by saying, “80% of church are missionaries to their work, neighborhoods, schools, family, and friends.”  But is that what’s happening?  Do 80% of you consider yourselves missionaries in our community?  If you consider yourself a missionary, then do you take the next step and act like one?

The Bad – Some of those 20% are perfectly content with doing what they’re doing.  They know they’re called to serve in the church in a particular area, they’ve got the skills and passion to make it happen excellently, they love what they’re doing, and could do it for the rest of their lives.  But if 20% of the people are doing 80% of the work there can be a tendency to burn out some of that 20%.  They can become tired, stuck, and cynical.  They can feel like there’s no room to explore further callings in the church and outside of it.  In some ways this is natural.  Being human we like some variety.  We don’t want to be stuck doing the same thing over and over again like an assembly line.

The Ugly – While the good of the 80/20 rule is that it frees up 80% of the church to be serving in our community, and the bad is that some of the 20% can get burnt out, the ugly of the 80/20 rule is that some of us are unwilling to spend any time doing anything, especially housecleaning stuff that has to be done whether anyone really likes doing it or not.  In the passage we read above, there was one group that was unwilling to chip in.  We read, “Next to them the Tekoites made repairs; but their nobles would not put their shoulders to the work of their Lord” (Nehemiah 3:5 NLT).  We’re not told why they were unwilling to work, but maybe they thought working on rebuilding a wall was below them.  If they were sitting around Donald Trump’s board room table, who do you think would get fired?

There are a lot of housecleaning things to be done at SCC.  A LOT!  When you set up and tear down a worship space every week, we can’t survive very long if everyone isn’t willing to do some basic menial labor.  EVERYONE!  Well, maybe not guests.  But everyone else.  No Tekoite nobles allowed here at SCC.

Here’s the good news, we’ve been compiling a list of people who serve in some way at SCC.  Our list includes 94 people.  94 people!  Wow!  That’s way over the 80/20 rule. But what percentage is it?  In December we had 148 individuals who came at least once.  So we’ve got a 94/148 rule.  63%.  That’s really pretty incredible.  But where are the other 54 people?  Are you Tekoite nobles?  What’s keeping you from chipping in some way and helping around here?

80% of What You Do Is Hidden and 20% Is Seen

The Good – Worship is all about hidden excellence.  If you go to a gothic cathedral you will most likely be told about the artisans who crafted the cathedral.  Often times, they took such pride in their work and saw it so much as an act of worship, that they carved stones on pillars that were hidden back against a wall.  No one would ever see their work.  No one except God.  A lot of what happens around here will never be seen by anyone except you and God.  We read in Nehemiah that “above the Horse Gate the priests made repairs, each one opposite his own house” (3:28 NLT).  “Opposite his own house” means that it wasn’t in the public square.  The work they were doing wasn’t out where everyone would see it.  It was likely that the people who would see it the most would be themselves.  It takes a kind of internal motivation to desire to be faithful to God to take this kind of hidden action.

Now I do get to see a lot more hidden excellence than the average person around here because I’m here a lot.  I’m sure there are things that people do that I don’t see, but I see a lot.  I see people making sure that a curtain is set up just right.  I see people picking up some trash on the floor.  I see people counting the offering in a hidden room in the back.  I see people practicing their music so that they get better.  I see people staying after everyone else is gone sweeping up the floor.  I see people running all over town to find some prop so that we can be creative in our worship set.  I see people reading their Bibles and praying daily so that they are walking the talk.  I see people calling one another to offer support and encouragement in a time of crisis.  So much of what happens around here will never be seen by anyone else.

The Bad – While much of what we do will always be hidden, it is also easy to become discouraged because we feel like our contribution isn’t appreciated.  I’m afraid that I’m sometimes slow on showing appreciation.  We all are a little dense sometimes like that.  And it’s normal to need to feel appreciated.  Yes, we are appreciated by God who sees all our hidden excellence, but we’re also humans and need the human touch.  When we show one another appreciation, we are acting as the voice of God in that moment.  We are making vocal what is only experienced spiritually.

The Ugly – 80% of what we do will be hidden from most others.  This has an ugly side to it.  Like I said, we’re human, and sometimes we make assumptions based only on the 20% that is seen.  We get upset at the church because we think something isn’t happening, when in reality it is happening, it is just happening behind the scenes.  Or we get frustrated because we think people aren’t chipping in and pulling their weight, when in reality, they are doing so, they’re just doing it when no one is looking.  When it comes to me, you all know that I only work one day of the week, Sunday morning.  Right?  Well, Sunday morning is about 20% of my time, but is 80% of the time I spend with 80% of the people in our church.  Let’s not rush to assumptions based on only what we see.  Go talk to someone.  Ask some questions.  Seek out some answers.  Look for the moments of hidden excellence.

80% of Your Work Will Be Planting and 20% Will Be Fruit

If you jump back a chapter in Nehemiah you will find the story of how Nehemiah got to this point of rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem.  We read:

I also said to the king, “If it please Your Majesty, give me letters to the governors of the province west of the Euphrates River, instructing them to let me travel safely through their territories on my way to Judah.  And please send a letter to Asaph, the manager of the king’s forest, instructing him to give me timber. I will need it to make beams for the gates of the Temple fortress, for the city walls, and for a house for myself.” And the king granted these requests, because the gracious hand of God was on me.
Nehemiah 2:7-8 NLT

Notice how much work Nehemiah has to do to get to the point of what he really wants to do.  Nehemiah had to acquire all the right letters and approvals.  Then he had to move from Babylon to Jerusalem.  If you keep reading you’ll see that he also had to overcome opposition.  Not everyone liked his plan.  There’s a ton of planning that has to be done for any kind of work or ministry.  80% of your work will be planting and only 20% will be harvesting fruit.

The Good – Sometimes we can become impatient, but the 80/20 rule reminds us that it’s OK to wait.  You don’t have to have fruit right now.  In fact, don’t expect continual fruit.  Don’t expect to never fail.  It’s OK to experiment.  In fact, experimentation and failure are key parts of growing and improving toward excellence.  There is something that social scientists call the “OK plateau.”  It is a point that you come to where you’re good enough at whatever you’re doing that you don’t really need to get any better to do your daily work.  You’re OK, and you’re OK with being OK.  But if you want to excel and get off the OK plateau, then there’s something you have to be willing to do: fail.  Experimentation and planned failure are the key to getting off the OK plateau.  In other words, you won’t always excel.  You won’t always improve.  You won’t always bear fruit.  80% of what you do will be building you up to that point where you do excel.  But only 20% of the time will be seeing fruit.  Don’t get discouraged.

The Bad – The problem is that we do often get discouraged.  We give up too quickly.  The 80/20 rule shows that excellence requires patience and perseverance, something that few of us really have.  But how do you improve your patience and perseverance?  Practice.  Fail.  Practice.  Fail.  Practice.  Fail.  Practice.  Patience…

The Ugly – Here’s the ugly truth, some of us don’t show any fruit but keep doing the same things.  We’ve been living life the same way, doing the same thing over and over and over again.  No change.  No fruit.  No change.  No fruit.  SCC seeks to be the kind of church that doesn’t just keep doing the same thing even if it isn’t working.  We’re willing to stop doing some things and try doing other things.  Are you willing to do the same thing?

80% of Your Time Should Be Spent on Your Passion/Purpose/Calling and 20% on “Housecleaning”

The Good – Everyone has to do some housecleaning.  It keeps you humble.  We’ve got a schedule for cleaning the bathroom in the office.  Every one of the staff is on the schedule.  I don’t get a bye just because I’m the pastor, although I’ve tried.  Nope.  Maybe some day when you’re super rich, you can hire out all the housecleaning, but even then I’d suggest that you’d be doing yourself a disservice.  It is good for the soul for each of us to get our hands dirty cleaning the toilets from time to time.

Did you notice all the different kinds of people who helped rebuild the wall of Jerusalem?  We read, “Next to them Uzziel son of Harhaiah, one of the goldsmiths, made repairs. Next to him Hananiah, one of the perfumers, made repairs” (Nehemiah 3:8 NLT).  I love that verse.  The perfumers were helping rebuild the wall!  I imagine perfumers as hoighty toighty kind of people.  You know, the kind of people who really don’t want to get their hands dirty.  But here they are helping out rebuilding the wall just like everyone else.

The Bad – Sometimes though we can end up in a corner where we’re spending 80% of our time on housecleaning and 20% on our calling.  This is a recipe for disaster.  God has given each of us talents to use, and when we end up only using the talents 20% of the time, it’s like we’re burying them.  Don’t fall into this trap.

The Ugly – There is an ugly side to this aspect of the 80/20 rule.  20% of us spend our time in our passion, purpose, and calling while 80% stumble along blindly like robots stuck in a rut.  We are stuck in a rut just doing the same old thing that we’ve become used to doing.  We’re not willing to take risks to try new things.  We found it difficult to seek God’s calling so we gave up a long time ago.  Are you stuck not having any clue what you’re called to do?  Then seek out the counsel of others around you.  Read books.  Go to conferences.  Pray.  Read your Bible.  Don’t waste the time and talents that God has entrusted you with.

The 80/20 rule has a lot of good, bad, and ugly about it.  So let me review briefly:

20% of the people do 80% of the work.  That’s OK if the other 80% are living as missionaries in the community.

80% of what you do will be hidden while only 20% will be seen.

80% of your work will be planting and only 20% will be harvesting fruit.

80% of your time should be spent on calling/passion/purpose, but 20% will always have to be house cleaning.

1 Key Leader – Nehemiah

There is one thing that the 80/20 rule leaves out, the importance of leadership.  This might be called the 99/1 rule.  For anything worthwhile to get done, it always requires a leader.  Rarely if ever do we see God working through a committee in the Bible.  God seems to call a leader and equip them with a vision to lead to a particular place.  Abraham led his family from Ur to Palestine.  Joseph led the entire nation of Egypt to prepare for a famine.  Moses led the Hebrew people out of slavery in Egypt.  Joshua led the people into the promised land.  Deborah led the people by acting as a judge.  Esther saved the Hebrews by talking to the king.  Nehemiah led the people to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem so that the city could thrive again.

Then I said to them [the Jews, the priests, the nobles, the officials, and the rest], “You see the trouble we are in, how Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, so that we may no longer suffer disgrace.” I told them that the hand of my God had been gracious upon me, and also the words that the king had spoken to me.
Nehemiah 2:17-18a NRSV

God calls individuals to lead his people to where God wants them to go.  Are some of you this morning called to be leaders?  Not just someone who shows up and does their own thing, but someone who is willing to work through the messiness of working with people.  Remember, the people always wanted to go back to slavery in Egypt!  Are some of you called to consider being a leader of leaders?  To be a pastor/leader?  For Sycamore Creek Church to move deeper into God’s purposes, it will take leaders.

100% (almost) Helped

But it won’t just take leaders.  It will take everyone too.  When I read the story of the rebuilding of the wall, I’m struck by how many people really did join in.  Almost 100% helped.  (There were those stubborn Tekoite nobles!)  Could Nehemiah have rebuilt the wall by himself?  No way.  Nehemiah couldn’t do it alone.  Call this the 100 rule.

Next week when we gather you’ll have the opportunity to make a commitment to serve here at SCC.  We’ll be passing out a sheet that has all the ministries listed on it.  We’ll give you some time to prayerfully reflect upon this list.  Then you’ll circle the ones that you’re interested in.  This doesn’t mean that you’ll automatically be serving or that you’re making a final commitment to that area of service.  What it will mean is that you’re committing to entering into a conversation about that area of ministry and how you might serve there.

To help you prepare for that, we’re encouraging everyone to take an online spiritual gifts inventory.  There are actually four inventories on this website: a personality inventory, a leadership style inventory, a spiritual gifts inventory, and a skills inventory.  You can find that inventory at http://www.assessme.org/2364.aspx.  The best way to engage this online inventory is to take it and then discuss it with someone else.  Our small groups have been discussing them, and if you’re not in a small group then join one!  But short of that, talk it over with someone who knows you well.

Next week let’s shoot for a new 80/20 rule: 80% of SCC will be committed to serving in some way.

Prayer

God, give each of us a deep commitment to serve in some way using our time and talents.  Help us to know where to serve in a way that you can use us most to touch the lives of others.  In Jesus’ name, amen.

Sticky Teams

Larry Osborn suggests that unity of the leadership team is the most fundamental leadership task that a pastor has to accomplish.  To this end he gives the church leader a very practical resource for how to develop a unified and thriving church leadership team.

There are many practical suggestions I found helpful in this book, but one that really “stuck” to me was the difference between lobbying and continuing education.  Osborn points out that if there is not an ongoing continuing education program for a leadership team, then any educational pieces given in the moment of decision-making will come across as lobbying and are likely to be received with skepticism.  To accomplish this kind of continuing education, he suggests that a leadership team needs to meet more often, perhaps twice a month, with one meeting being devoted entirely to continuing education.

This vision for two meetings a month has helped give my own leadership of our church’s Team Leaders meetings considerable clarity.  I inherited a team that met twice each month, but I wasn’t sure what to do with two meetings a month.  Now we are spending one of those meetings in continuing education and one of those meeting doing business.  We are already beginning to see a new future and increased morale for SCC as helpful change naturally flows from those times of learning.

If your leadership team isn’t very unified or if they are and you want to take them to the next level, reading this book together might be your first step toward regular continuing education.

Currently Reading/Listening
The Busy Family’s Guide to Spirituality by David Robinson
Parenting with Purpose by Oddbjorn Evenshaug, Dag Hallen, and Roland Martinson
At the Still Point compiled by Sarah Arthur
Fascinate by Sally Hogshead
Direct Hit: Aiming Real Leaders at the Mission Field by Paul Borden
Shaped By God’s Heart: The Passion and Practices of Missional Churches by Milfred Minatrea

All My Holy Mountain
The Binding of the Blade Book 5
By L.B. Graham
Rating: 7 of 10

I picked up the first book in this series about five or six years ago and read the first four before heading off to seminary and before the fifth book was published.  I’m finally now picking the series back up and finishing it.  I became familiar with the book because Sarah was a fellow student with L.B. Graham at Wheaton College.  He is currently the chair of the Bible department and teacher of English and ethics at Westminster Christian Academy in St. Louis.

Graham has attempted quite a task: to write a fantasy novel in the tradition of Tolkien while at the same time making it more overtly Christian (or at least theistic) than Tolkien attempted to do.  Along the way there is some collateral damage caused by the attempt to do both at the same time.

I suspect that most conservative or Evangelical Christians will find Graham’s series very palatable.  The good guys are generally pretty good and the bad guys are generally pretty bad.  There is not a lot of complexity in the distinction between the two (i.e. the good guys drink cider, not beer or mead or any other alcoholic drink, and there is little to no sex throughout the entire series unless it is implied between people who are married).  Then there’s God.  God, who goes by Allfather or Master-Maker, is a present and active agent throughout the entire series.  Allfather enters into the story through one of two prophets, Valzaan and Benjiah, often at just the last moment to defeat the enemy, Malek, and show who is really in charge in Old Testament Elijah-versus-the-prophets-of-Baal fashion.

While The Binding of the Blade series does not reach the height of The Fellowship of the Ring (what other fantasy story ever has?), it is an entertaining and engaging story nonetheless.  I found the surprise ending of the first book challenged my sense of trust in the author, but Graham won it back over the series.  I grew to love and care for the characters in the series.  What else could explain why I would put the series down to attend seminary and become a pastor and come back to it six years later?

The biggest problem I had with the series is what happens when an author overtly mixes the fantasy genre with theistic and Christian beliefs: the reader comes back into our world disenchanted.  Many times throughout the entire series and especially in this last book, God shows up to wipe out the enemy in grand fashion.  This is a step beyond Elijah-versus-the-prophets-of-Baal where God takes out an altar, not the prophets themselves.  Allfather regularly flexes his muscle in the story and miraculously the enemy is defeated or simply annihilated.  But few of us experience God working this overtly in our present world, and the reader is left asking the question: Why?  Does God not care?  Or perhaps even worse, the reader is left to conclude that God only exists in the world of fantasy where such miracles require the suspension of one’s sense of disbelief.

It must be said that Graham is ultimately attempting especially in this last book to create an eschatological vision (vision of the end times) through the fantasy genre and that this vision calls for God to act in uniquely overt ways (as Christians in general believe that God will act in the end times).  But most readers will not make this distinction, and many may be left wondering why God doesn’t act in our world the way that God acts in the world of Kirthanin.

One thing I really appreciated about this last book was how attractive Graham made good look.  One big critique of the Fellowship of the Rings movies was that Peter Jackson made Mordor more compelling than Lothlórien or Rivendell.  It is usually easier to make evil more gripping than good, but this is not the case in All My Holy Mountain.  In fact, there is a scene where Graham through the narrator’s voice reflects on this very thing.  It is such a powerful meditation on the difference between good and evil that I will end this review with it.

[Spoiler alert!  Do not read this if you think you would enjoy the series.]

Perhaps because he had grown up the son of a murdered father, Benjiah rarely found himself surprised by evil.  People sometimes treated one another badly, even horribly.  Even in the palace of Amaan Sul, he had seen that.  Of course, since riding from Amaan Sul the previous Autumn, he had seen up close the evil that Malek brought, and though it was at times overwhelming, it was not, in any deeper sense, surprising.  The lust for power and gain or whatever else a man might desire, and disregard for whoever might stand in his way, was all part of the story.  Rulalin’s action [killing Benjiah’s father] had taught Benjiah that lesson before he was born.  Evil was utterly predictable.

What had happened these last few days and weeks, now that was something else indeed. Rulalin rejecting Malek and laying down his life to save Benjiah—that was surprising.  The Vulsutyrim [giants] repenting of their allegiance to Malek and offering their aid—that was surprising.  Even gazing beneath the mask of a wild and warlike people [before unknown but now human allies] and finding the face of beauty [Benjiah’s romance] staring back—that too was surprising.

Goodness and beauty were hallmarks of Allfather, and perhaps His people bore inherently the creativity of their originator.  Evil certainly bore the monotonous predictability of its originator.

Amen.

Currently Reading/Listening
The Busy Family’s Guide to Spirituality by David Robinson
Parenting with Purpose by Oddbjorn Evenshaug, Dag Hallen, and Roland Martinson
At the Still Point compiled by Sarah Arthur
Sticky Teams by Larry Osborn
Fascinate by Sally Hogshead
Shaped By God’s Heart: The Passion and Practices of Missional Churches by Milfred Minatrea

Generous Sowing
Reveille United Methodist Church
January 22, 2012
Tom Arthur
Matthew 13:1-9

(This sermon was preached at Reveille United Methodist Church in Richmond, VA for their calling Sunday.  I was an intern at Reveille during the summer of 2006.)

Peace, friends!

It is good to be back among you.  I have many many good memories of Reveille from the summer I spent as an intern here in 2006.  I will share with you later in the sermon some of the ways that summer had an impact on me, but for now, let’s dive into the Scripture text for today.

Matthew 13:1-9 NRSV

That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea.  Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach. And he told them many things in parables, saying: “Listen! A sower went out to sow.  And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up.  Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil.  But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away.  Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them.  Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.  Let anyone with ears listen!”

Today I have been asked to come and speak to you about calling.  Calling in general, but also calling in a very specific way, calling to be a pastor.  In this parable we read about a farmer who sows seeds.  On one level the famer is Jesus, the seeds are the Gospel, and the soil is each of our hearts (how teachable are our hearts today?), but on another level, the farmer is each of us, and the seeds are the Good News of Jesus that we sow in the hearts, minds, and lives of those around us.  How do we sow in the same way or manner of the farmer?

I’d like to suggest that the primary characteristic of the way or manner that the famer sows is generously, gratuitously, even wastefully. Notice how much of the seed falls on soil that has little chance of bearing fruit to begin with.  And yet the famer seems unfazed by his wasteful sowing.  He sows anyway and lets the seeds fall where they may.  If we sow as the farmer in this story sows, then we too will sow seeds of faith in the lives of those around us in ways that are generous, gratuitous, even, dare I say it, wasteful.  I’d like to explore today how we sow seeds in this way by giving generously of our time, talents, treasure, and testimony.

Time and Talent

Look around you.  Notice how many people and the wide variety of skills it takes to make a Sunday morning worship happen for a community this large.  At first glance it may not seem like many.  You’ve got the obvious ones: all the pastors up front.  Yes, some are called by their time and talent to be preachers and pastors.  Then there’s the music leaders, the choir, band, musical accompanist, and so on.  Look a little closer and you’ll notice the ushers, the media techs.  Leave the worship area and you’ll begin to see Sunday school teachers, nursery workers, and all the assistants who help them nurture our children.  Go even deeper and you’ll see a team of people called Stephen Ministers, who gather regularly to support people in times of crisis and need.  Deeper still and you’ll find a missions team focusing us outward.  Further in and you’ll begin to notice all the people who make sure the finances are taken care of, the staff is hired and supported, and the building and grounds are properly cared for.  And who have I missed?  Probably too many to even try to be exhaustive.  Each of these roles is a calling.  Each of these roles requires time and talent.  Yes, there are those who stand up front, the preachers and pastors, and they are very important, but when we talk about calling, even on a day when we will focus on the calling to be a pastor, let us not forget that all of us have talents and all of us have time we are called to use to sow seeds of faith in those around us.

OK, maybe still I have not convinced you that you have some talent or time that you are called to share with your church in its mission of sowing seeds of faith.  Let me give you one last example that I know every single one of you can do.  As you read the story of the farmer, did you wonder how the farmer or someone else might plow and prepare the soil to receive the seeds?  I do.  One way that you all can plow the soil for the seeds of a sermon on any given Sunday is through the gift of hospitality.  How welcome do you make the people feel who are your first, second, or third-time guests?  They will experience Reveille as a welcome and inviting place not based on whether they are greeted at the door or by an usher, but they will feel greeted warmly by how the people they sit next to treat them.  Have you met the people sitting next to you today?  Did you get their name?  Did you write it down so you don’t forget it after worship is over?

Let me share with you a simple universal rule of hospitality.  It works in the church, at your office, at school, or in any social setting you find yourself in.  It’s called the 5-10-Link rule.  Five minutes before and after worship begins, focus not on the people you know but look for the people you don’t know.  You don’t have to look around the whole room.  Just pay attention to the people you don’t know who come within ten feet of you.  Greet them warmly, and in the midst of conversation, link them to someone else that you do know.  If you can link them to someone who has a similar interest that they have, that’s great, but if not, just introduce them to someone else so they now know not just you, but someone else too.  This is something that all of you can do, but if even ten percent of you practiced the 5-10-link rule consistently every Sunday, Reveille would soon become known as the most friendly place to be on Sunday morning.

What talents do you have to sow seeds generously?  What time is God calling you to give?  And might God be calling you to use your time and talents as a pastor or preacher?  More on that shortly…

Treasure

This isn’t a sermon about money.  Oh wait!  It is a sermon about money.  Because you can’t talk about sowing generously without talking about what’s in your pocket.  The Old Testament standard for giving generously is 10%, the first 10%.  The first 10% before taxes, before you give to yourself, before you give to your family.  10%.  Now just in case you think that standard is too high, let’s talk about the New Testament standard.  The New Testament standard is everything.  John Wesley summed it up well when he said, “Make all you can, save all you can, and give the rest away!”  I like to summarize all this by saying, live simply and give generously.  In doing so you will begin to sow seeds of the Good News of Jesus in the lives of those around you.

Let’s talk about specifics.  I took some time to look up the median income of the areas surrounding Reveille: Goochland, Hanover, Henrico, Richmond, and Chesterfield.  They median income ranges from $36,928 to over $100,000.  So let’s say $50,000 is the median income of the individual who attends Reveille.  Is that high or low?  You tell me.  So let’s use the Old Testament standard of 10%, which is $5000, and multiply it by the average attendance of 500.  That equals $2.5 million.  That’s over twice your current giving.  Imagine how generously you could as a community sow seeds of faith in the lives of others if you lived into the minimum standard of giving as described in the Old Testament.  Imagine the number of people you could reach with the Good News of Jesus Christ.  Imagine the transformed lives.

Now while I was here as an intern,  I came to learn a bit about your finances, and I gave thanks to God when I realized that people in ages past have sown generously for the future of Reveille by building up a rather hefty endowment.  We’re talking several millions here.  I also noticed a temptation in the culture of Reveille—to rely upon that endowment rather than to build a culture of generous giving now.  Friends, to give in to that temptation, and not all of you do, is to give in to the temptation of thinking that some are called to give generously while others are not.  That is false.  Generously sow seeds of faith by giving generously.

Testimony

Sharing your testimony is one very powerful way of sowing seeds of faith in the lives of those around you.  How generously do you share your testimony?  I’m talking about simply telling stories about what God is up to in your life.  I’m not talking about some complicated evangelistic strategy of memorizing Bible verses or four key points or a tract of some sort.  I’m talking about telling someone what God is doing in your life.  What is your God story?

This takes on several different forms.  One form of sharing your testimony is sharing what you like about Reveille.  What keeps you coming back?  How do you encounter God when you come here?  How has your life been transformed?  And then invite them to join you some Sunday here at worship.  Offer to pick them up so they don’t have to show up here alone.  Be invitational when you share your testimony.  And remember that if you have the same success that the farmer had in our story today, you will make four invites and only get one person who accepts.  Sow invitations generously.

Called To Be A Pastor

I’d like to share with you my own testimony, my own story of how the church has made an impact on my life, and especially the role that you played in my own calling to be a pastor.

I graduated from Wheaton College and got married in May, 1997.  I moved to Petoskey, Michigan, a place with more cold and snow than most people in Virginia want to experience.  I began working as the part-time Christian Education Director at Petoskey United Methodist Church.  I had never even been in a United Methodist Church before I began working at one.  Over time my responsibilities increased, and eventually I began preaching when the pastor was on vacation.  Slowly but surely people in the church began to ask me whether I was planning on going to seminary and becoming a pastor.  My answer was always, “No.  I’m not called to be a pastor.”  Over time their encouragement grew.  One day in a prayer meeting, one of the older ladies in the church said to me, “God told me in prayer today that you’re called to be a pastor.”  I said, “Thanks”, but internally I thought, “No way, Jose!”  Then I participated in a Disciple Bible Study, and there is a final week where you spend a day in spiritual retreat discerning together one another’s call.  My Disciple Bible Study group thought I was called to be a pastor.  “Yeah, thanks.  But no thanks.”

Then September 11^th hit.  My pastor was on vacation in the mountains of Colorado.  When all the flights were grounded, He couldn’t get back, and I was it!  I didn’t want to be it that week, but God gave me the grace to care for the flock and over that week they slowly became “my” flock.  My ministry moved from my head to my heart.  Eventually I had several experiences that confirmed that I was called to be a pastor.  I told my pastor he was about to lose a staff person, and he replied, “I haven’t lost a staff person.  I’ve gained a colleague.”

Off to seminary it was at Duke University, and then my first internship: Reveille United Methodist Church.  When I showed up here, I was scared of this church.  It was big and formal and that way high pulpit followed me in my dreams.  My calling was still a little too much in my head.  I knew I was called, but I still didn’t see or understand at a deep level that I was a pastor.  So I did my best to fake it.  I hoped no one noticed.  And yet, it was that summer here at Reveille that I became a pastor.  Do you know why I became a pastor that summer?  Because y’all treated me like one.  I grew to become what you thought I already was.

Friends, do you realize what I am saying?  The church has significant power to recognize and call pastors.  Look around you.  To your left, and to your right.  Who here among you is called to be a pastor?  Have you told them what you see in them?  Have you encouraged them to follow that call?  Have you prayed for them?  Have you given them the opportunity to try on being a pastor in the moments that really count?  You have the power of the Holy Spirit within your community to shape and form future pastors for this church, The United Methodist Church, and the church world-wide.  You can sow seeds generously by seeking, noticing, and encouraging those among you who are called.

Let me bring you up to speed on where I am at now.  I am currently pastor of Sycamore Creek Church, a United Methodist Worshiping Community.  We are an eleven-year-old church that was planted by a grandma.  She retired in 2009, and I was appointed to be the second pastor they have ever had.  We currently rent office space and meet in a school.  We are saving for a building of our own.  At thirty-six I am about the average age of our church.  I visit the hospital more for births than illnesses.  I have only done two funerals in two and a half years for members of our church.  We specialize in reaching people who have no church background or who were once in a church but have become alienated by church.  I’ve learned that if you want to bear more fruit, if you want to sow more generously, then the best and most effective way to do so on a large scale, is to plant new gardens.  Reveille, are you called to plant a new garden?  A new church?  A new campus?  A new venue?  A new satellite?  Sow seeds generously by giving life to a new church community!

Call

Friends, how is God calling you today to generously sow seeds of faith in the lives around you?  How can you give of your time and talent?  How are you called to give of your treasure generously?  How are you called to share your testimony with those around you?  And who among you are you called to encourage and support in their call to be a pastor?  Be like the farmer.  Sow seeds of faith generously in the lives of those around you.

What is my calling?  How can I serve effectively?  One key to answering these questions is understanding your spiritual gifts.  To prepare for our first annual two-week Serve Sunday series, The Disciple, we’re encouraging you to take an online spiritual gift inventory at www.assessme.org/2364.aspx.  Plan for 15-20 minutes to take it thoughtfully.  While you do not need to be a part of a small group to take the inventory, each small group in our church will be discussing each member’s results.  On Sunday, February 5th, you will have an opportunity to then make a commitment/pledge to serve in the church for the next year.  Taking the online inventory will help you make a more informed commitment.  Why serve?  Why commit?  Because that’s what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.

January 29, 2012 – The 80/20 Rule
February 5, 2012 – Serve Sunday

I'm not a doctor, but I play one on TV.

I’m heading to Nicaragua in a couple of weeks on a medical mission trip.  Hello!  Medical mission trip?  Me?  I’m no doctor.  Not even a nurse.  George Clooney has a leg up on me.  At least he plays a doctor on TV.  Lately I’ve been practicing holding down my thirteen-month-old son as my wife puts the thermometer in his…umm…, but I’m hoping this skill won’t be necessary in Nicaragua.  I have little to no helpful training in running a medical clinic.  Or so that’s what it seems right now.  But I suspect that I will find my place on the team and my role in God’s work in Nicaragua as days unfold.  In fact, I’m sure that there will be a very definite role I will play.  I just don’t yet know what it is.

Many of us feel exactly the same way when it comes to finding our place of service at SCC.   We think, “What helpful skills do I have to help my church?  I’m no pastor.  I don’t know my Bible very well.  I’m not a techie.  I’m no good with kids and teenagers scare me.  I’ve got physical limitations that keep me from being physically active.  In fact, I really just want to show up on Sunday morning and be recharged for my week.”  OK.  You’re right.  God doesn’t have a role for you to play at SCC.  And I should just throw in the towel before I even get down to Nicaragua.  End of letter.

NO!  You may have all these limitations, but there is still definitely a place for you to serve at SCC.  There are unique talents that God has given to you, and dare I say “expects” you to use in God’s Kingdom.  God’s Kingdom is definitely bigger than just the church, and maybe you’re using those gifts out in the community (Thank you, God!), but let me encourage you to use at least some of them to help us accomplish our mission at SCC: to ignite authentic life in Christ by connecting (to God and others), growing (in the character of Christ), and serving (the church, community, and world).

Maybe you don’t know what your talents are, or maybe you need a refresher.  For two weeks beginning on January 29^th, we’re going to begin an annual Serve Sunday series where we will encourage you to make a commitment to serve in some way in the church.  To prepare for that Serve Sunday, we’re encouraging you (and your small group) to take an online spiritual gifts inventory – http://www.assessme.org/2364.aspx (actually there are four inventories – spiritual gifts, leadership style, personality, and skills – and it will take you about 15 or 20 minutes to take it thoughtfully).  It’s FREE and it will help you discern where God is calling you to serve.  Then come on Sunday, February 5^th with a plan to make a commitment to serve at SCC in some way.

So take the survey.  Begin discerning your place in serving at SCC.  We’ll walk this journey together.  I look forward to getting back from Nicaragua and telling you what piece of God’s puzzle I played.

Peace,
Tom

The Downfall of Kings – Passion
Sycamore Creek Church
January 15, 2012
Tom Arthur
2 Samuel 11 & 12 (Selections)

I have a covenant with my pants. I will never leave them nor forsake them. So when they get too tight, it’s time to lose weight. I’m currently trying to lose about twelve pounds. I’m not overweight; I was just getting to the top of my healthy weight range. And because most of the men in my family are overweight and struggling with various forms of diabetes, I pay a lot of attention to my own weight. My body often wants to eat all kinds of junk food, but I don’t always give my body what it wants. The body’s senses are a beautiful gift, but if continually fed, they will also undo us.

Today we continue in a series called The Downfall of Kings. We’re looking at the ancient kings of Israel and moments when they fell. It’s my hope that we can learn something from these kings so that we won’t repeat their mistakes. Last week we looked at Israel’s first king, King Saul, and his struggle with power. Today we look at Saul’s successor, King David, and his struggle with passion. Let’s dive right into the story.

2 Samuel 11:1-2 NLT
The following spring, the time of year when kings go to war, David sent Joab and the Israelite army to destroy the Ammonites. In the process they laid siege to the city of Rabbah. But David stayed behind in Jerusalem. Late one afternoon David got out of bed after taking a nap and went for a stroll on the roof of the palace. As he looked out over the city, he noticed a woman of unusual beauty taking a bath.

How We Spend Our Time
Here we see that David wasn’t doing what he probably should have been doing, leading his army. Rather, he was lounging on his couch. It is not clear whether his seeing Bathsheba was intentional or unintentional, but it doesn’t matter. If he had been doing something besides lounging around, his mind might have been preoccupied with worthwhile action, thoughts, and ideas and might have been able to resist an unintentional and unexpected temptation.

When do we do the same thing today? When are we lounging on our couches when we should be out joining the mission of our community? Do you realize that today most of us live at a standard of living way beyond what any king of old ever lived. Air conditioning alone is a luxury beyond comparison. And what do we do with that luxury? We watch TV and we surf the internet. How much time do you spend lounging on your couch or in your LazyBoy watching TV or surfing the internet at your desk? I’m not suggesting that TV or the internet are all bad. But most of us probably could do with a little less of each. What we feed our minds by what we choose to watch sets us up either to live for God or to fall like David.

What about your reading habits? When was the last time you read a book? I suspect that most of us when we do read, read magazines. And what kind of magazines are we reading? I admit, that I am tempted to read pretty low-grade magazines, or at least focus on the more banal stuff in the good magazines that I do read. A year ago I tried a subscription to Entertainment Weekly. I thought it might be a good way for me to stay on top of current pop culture. The only problem was that I regularly found myself turning first to the section of the magazine where they grade the fashion choices of various celebrities. Reese Witherspoon – A. Melissa Joan Hart – D+. I don’t even know who Melissa Joan Hart is, but know that she can’t choose a fashionable dress to wear. Is this really what I want to be spending my time doing? Or is this setting me up in some way to have my own personal downfall with passion?

2 Samuel 11:2-4 NLT
He sent someone to find out who she was, and he was told, “She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” Then David [took] sent for her; and when she came to the palace, he slept with her. (She had just completed the purification rites after having her menstrual period.) Then she returned home.

Giving in to Your Passions
David sees Bathsheba and wants her. So far there isn’t much he’s done wrong. What happens next is where it spirals downward. His body wants what he isn’t supposed to have, and he gives it to his body anyway. Here we see the anatomy of an affair (no pun intended).

Sometimes I tend to think that affairs happen in an instant. But they don’t. Affairs are built upon subtle but cumulative actions. Here’s what David did to build his affair:

He looked Bathsheba up on Facebook.
He was told her relationship status was “married” to one of his “close friends.”
He “messaged” her and used his power and privilege to bring her to his palace.
He waited while she came to the palace.
He “slept” with her.
She went home.

This is all David’s work. It is slow and deliberate. There is plenty of time throughout the whole thing for David to change his mind, to decide not to give his body what it wants. We’re going to come back to the steps of this affair more at the end of the message, but for now let’s notice that Bathsheba is the victim here. Many commentators in the past have accused Bathsheba of some plot to tempt David. I’m not buying it. She is trapped by the power of the king. The only time she is the subject of the sentence is the last one: she went home. Otherwise David is the one acting throughout the entire passage.

Restraining the Passions
While David attempts to take from Bathsheba’s body to fulfill his passions, her body cannot be fully controlled, and bites back. She conceives. She sends word to David. David figures that there is a simple solution to his problem. Bring home her husband, Uriah. Surely a sex-starved warrior from the battlefield will sleep with his “hot” wife when give the opportunity. But things don’t go as David expects. Uriah sleeps outside and does not sleep with his wife. David calls him and asks why.

2 Samuel 11:11 NLT
Uriah replied, “The Ark and the armies of Israel and Judah are living in tents, and Joab and his officers are camping in the open fields. How could I go home to wine and dine and sleep with my wife? I swear that I will never be guilty of acting like that.”

In contrast to David, Uriah is principled and restrains his own passions for higher ideals. Uriah fasts from giving his body what he wants. He recognizes that sometimes you must give up something good (there is nothing wrong with sex in marriage) for something better (focus and community commitment to a mission).

What a contrast Uriah is with our behavior today! We eat whatever we want when we want it. We consume entertainment without considering its effect on us. We indulge our sexual appetites as much as possible.

Jesus’ Passion
Uriah is a kind of Christ-figure. In this moment, he is like Jesus in many ways. When Jesus was tempted by Satan to indulge his own bodily appetites, he resisted.

Luke 4:1-4 NLT
Then Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan River. He was led by the Spirit to go out into the wilderness, where the Devil tempted him for forty days. He ate nothing all that time and was very hungry. Then the Devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, change this stone into a loaf of bread.” But Jesus told him, “No! The Scriptures say, ‘People need more than bread for their life.’”

Jesus is on a spiritual retreat rather than lounging around. Because of this spiritual retreat, he is “full of the Holy Spirit.” In some ways a spiritual retreat in the wilderness is a kind of lounging, but it is a different kind of lounging. It is a purposeful resting, Sabbath keeping. When was the last time you took a spiritual retreat?

Not only was Jesus on a spiritual retreat in the wilderness, but he was also fasting. He was giving up something good (food) for something better (spiritual strength). When was the last time you fasted intentionally for spiritual reasons. I’m not talking about fasting to make weight for your wrestling tournament or fasting in the morning before having a procedure done at the hospital. I’m talking about giving up food or some luxury for a set period of time so that you could focus more fully on communion with God.

Jesus also is focused on the well being of others rather than just his own well being. While Satan thinks he can tempt Jesus with the passion of his stomach, Jesus has his own end in mind, the salvation of the world.

Let’s get back to David…

2 Samuel 11:14-17 NLT
So the next morning David wrote a letter to Joab and gave it to Uriah to deliver. The letter instructed Joab, “Station Uriah on the front lines where the battle is fiercest. Then pull back so that he will be killed.” So Joab assigned Uriah to a spot close to the city wall where he knew the enemy’s strongest men were fighting. And Uriah was killed along with several other Israelite soldiers.

When David realizes that his plan to pass his own child off as the child of Uriah won’t work, he makes another plan – kill Uriah. David is in deep here. I know that all sin is simply sin in God’s eyes, but there is something quantitatively different about murder as compared to adultery: someone dies. David tramples others to “feed” his body’s passions.

I think it is very tempting at this point to excuse yourself from the story. Most of us have never killed anyone or even come close. But let’s not neglect the times when our actions trample on the well being of others. We ignore the people who serve us at the grocery store, gas station, coffee house, restaurant, drive through and the like. We eat food without paying attention to way it was grown/raised and the impact that has had on others, especially low-wage immigrants and migrant workers.

This past week I was talking to Jeremy about this point in the sermon. He told me a story about his Freshman year at MSU. He was not yet fully sold out to following Jesus, but he had never been to a strip joint. His friends decided that he needed to go, so they took him to Omars. When he walked in, he immediately recognized one of the strippers as a “friend” of his from high school in Traverse City. He went up to her and called her by her first name. She immediately told him not to do that. She didn’t want people to know her first name, and the culture of strip joint is that you don’t go by your real name. The stripper has a stage name that helps keep the fantasy going. What it does is depersonalize the whole experience and objectify the women who are paid to fulfill the passions of the men in the room. But Jeremy wasn’t able to make that leap. Once he realized that it was a friend of his who was the stripper, he could no longer enjoy it. He couldn’t depersonalize and objectify her to feed his body’s passion for lust. His “friend” ruined the whole night for him. This is what theologians call “prevenient grace.” It’s God’s grace at work in Jeremy before he even recognizes that it is God at work. Thank you, God!

The Anatomy of an Affair
David gave his body what it wanted, an adulterous tryst with Bathsheba. I mentioned earlier that there were several progressive and slow steps into this affair. I’d like to look at a modern day example of this kind of slow progression.

In the movie, He’s Just Not That Into You, we see the slow progression of an affair unfold between two people, Ben (played by Bradley Cooper), a married man, and Anna (played by Scarlett Johansson), a single woman. They bump into each other at the grocery store and begin flirting, but as she’s getting ready to give him her number, Ben confesses that he’s married. She is an aspiring singer and he works in an office that can help her, so he decides that it’s OK to exchange cards so that he can offer her advice on her singing career. Eventually he calls her to offer advice on her career, and when she comes to his office, he can’t find the “advice” he wanted to give her. He goes to a yoga class that she’s leading, and they go swimming afterward. She says she just wants to be friends but then jumps in naked. It’s all downhill from there…

Throughout this movie, Ben as a married man crosses a lot of boundaries. I asked on Facebook what people thought were appropriate boundaries for married people with friends of the opposite sex. I’ve never had so many comments on a sermon question on Facebook before! And what you all didn’t get to see if you were following the conversation was how many private messages I got from people who have been burned in the past by spouses or boy/girlfriends who walked all over boundaries. Here are some of the boundaries that people suggested:

• Always behave with them as if their spouse was sitting next to them.
• If you wouldn’t feel comfortable telling your partner about it, then it is probably a bad idea.
• Anything my grandmother would raise an eyebrow at is probably not OK.
• If you are married and on Facebook, have more friends of the same sex than the opposite sex.
• If you are being nicer than you need to be, you are flirting.
• Keep no private email addresses or Facebook accounts.
• No opposite sex friends that your spouse does not know about.
• We agree to have full access to each others Facebook accounts and cell phones.
• Talking negatively about your spouse to the other person or problems you may be having in your marriage.
• If we want to hang out with a good friend of the opposite sex, we invite each other and the friend’s spouse/significant other.

Modern life has made this more complicated, hasn’t it? Did you hear how many times Facebook was mentioned in this list? And these are only a selection of the comments left to my question.

I originally asked this question on Facebook because I was intending to write a set of guidelines for this message, but I just couldn’t do it. I couldn’t make a list that I thought was appropriate for everyone. So what I’ve decided to do is make a list of what my boundaries are. As a pastor, I have to pay extra special attention to this issue because the appearance of an affair can be just as damaging to our community as an actual affair. And yet, as I wrote this list, I also realized that these are all things I would do whether I was a pastor or not. They are also boundaries that for the most part, I expect the leaders of our church to be living into as well. So if you are a leader, pay close attention! But if you are not a leader, then I offer these to you for your own consideration.

First, a couple of preliminary thoughts. These boundaries are not always completely solid. They are tendencies. They are things I do most of the time. There are exceptions to all of them, but it would take too long and be too cumbersome to write out all the exceptions. And yet, they are very firm boundaries. I pay special attention to these boundaries when Sarah is out of town and/or when I am with someone close to my age or younger. I also pay close attention when I begin to notice patterns rather than exceptions. Am I spending a lot of time with one person over and over again? I also follow these boundaries when Sarah and I offer hospitality in our home by inviting someone to live with us. Enough with preliminaries. Here’s the boundaries:

• I don’t meet one-on-one in private spaces (I always meet in public spaces), and I try not to ride one-on-one in a car with someone of the opposite sex (but this is not always possible).
• When I have met one-on-one with someone of the opposite sex even in a public space, I tell Sarah about it (so she’s not surprised should someone mention to her that they saw me and so-and-so at such-and-such), and if she isn’t happy about it, I DON’T DO IT AGAIN!
• I tend not to do dinner or after-dinner events (even in public places) one-on-one with someone of the opposite sex.
• I don’t drink alcohol one-on-one with someone of the opposite sex.
• I do have male accountability partners that I share openly (give a true account of myself) about crushes I might be experiencing (those didn’t go away when I got married), and I seek their wisdom about appropriate boundaries with this person.
• I don’t share sides of myself or emotions that I’m not sharing with Sarah.
• I don’t discuss my sex life one-on-one with someone of the opposite sex.
• I do have open conversations with others about these boundaries.

Now that’s a lot of “don’ts” but all those don’ts are really built around the “I do” that I said at my wedding. I don’t do some things so that I do do other things. Saying “no” to some things is all about saying “yes” to other things.

Repentance
David’s downfall isn’t the end of the story. In fact, it’s what happens next that makes him such an amazing king. He has an issue with the passions of his body, but he also is passionate for the LORD. God sends a prophet, Nathan, to confront David about his affair and murder. David has the power to execute Nathan, but he doesn’t. Here’s what he does do:

2 Samuel 12:13-17 NLT
Then David confessed to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.” Nathan replied, “Yes, but the LORD has forgiven you, and you won’t die for this sin. But you have given the enemies of the LORD great opportunity to despise and blaspheme him, so your child will die.” After Nathan returned to his home, the LORD made Bathsheba’s baby deathly ill. David begged God to spare the child. He went without food and lay all night on the bare ground.

Notice how David is no longer lounging on his “bed/couch” – he’s laying on the ground. He is no longer giving his body what it wants – he’s fasting. He is no longer trampling other people – he’s focused on the well being of others rather than his own body’s desires.

David has turned his life around, repented, and is now following in the ways of the LORD, the same ways that Jesus was following in when he was tempted in the dessert. And God forgave him. There were still consequences. Bathsheba’s baby still died. God rarely takes away the consequences of our sin, but God is in the business of reconciling with us and reconciling us with others.

Maybe you’ve had an affair in the past. Maybe right now you’re on the slow path to an affair. Maybe you’re in the middle of one. Confess it and repent. Stop giving in to your body’s passions. Join the mission of God in the community of this church. There is forgiveness. There is new life. Thank you, God!

Next Steps Discussion
1. When do you not give your body what it wants?
2. What do you think are good boundaries in marriage for opposite-sex friends?

Fotoshop by Adobé from Jesse Rosten on Vimeo.

And the making of (to unmask the unmasking…)

BTS Fotoshop from Jesse Rosten on Vimeo.