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From Overscheduled to Organized*

October 31, 2016 by Leave a Comment

Simplify – From Overscheduled to Organized*
Sycamore Creek and Potterville UMC
October 2016
Tom Arthur

Peace friends!

Or should I say:

Overwhelmed, overscheduled, and exhausted friends!

We’re currently in a series called Simplify.  We’re figuring out how to unclutter our souls so we can focus on what’s really important.  Many of us wrestle with being overwhelmed, overscheduled, and exhausted.  We’re seeking an antidote to this.  Last week we moved from exhausted to energized.  How’s it going filling up your buckets?  Next week we’re moving from drifting to focused.  In two weeks from overwhelmed to in control.  We’ll wrap it up on the last week moving from isolated to connected.  And today we’ll go from overscheduled to organized.  We’re going to get that all accomplished in 30 short minutes.  Right?  Not quite.  I’m going to do my best to point us in the right direction.  The rest will be up to each of us and God’s Spirit.

So here’s the problem I want to wrestle with today.  For most of us, our calendars are overscheduled and overflowing with reactions.  How do most of us put our schedules together?

We grab a piece of paper and write down where we have to be and when so we keep our jobs and to keep CPS away from our kids.  We begin with our have-to’s to stay out of trouble.  And we do this month after month after month, year after year after year.  Or we fritter away our time on social media, watching TV, binge watching Netflix, or YouTube.  We waste all kinds of time on the internet.  See if you find yourself in Aziz Ansari’s comic bit:

 

Does it count as wasting time on YouTube to find that clip for my sermon?!  It’s funny because it hits close to home.  I’m a bit embarrassed to say that I bring my phone with me to the throne room of the house and it’s so quiet in there, that before I know it I’ve watched 30 minutes of YouTube videos long after the porcelain bus has pulled up for a stop.  OK.  Enough potty talk…

What would your schedule look like if God were in charge of your schedule, your time?  Paul, the first missionary of the church and the author of many of the books of the Bible wrote about how we use our time.  He said:

So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise. Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days.  Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do.
~Ephesians 5:16-17 NLT

Too many of us act thoughtlessly when it comes to our time and we miss all kinds of opportunities because our schedules are full of reactions.

I’ve got to admit, I’ve got a personal obsession with people’s schedules.  How did Jesus spend his time?  How do effective people or pastors spend their time?  I attended an eighteen-month New Church Academy where we had different church planting pastors present to us each month.  At some point the class would all groan a little as I raised my hand.  They began to anticipate the question I would ask: How many hours do you work?  How do you spend your time?  A couple of years ago I asked my District Superintendent if he’d show me what his calendar looks like.  I was curious how my boss spent his time.  Many years ago now I was at a conference with a friend of mine, Scott Chrostek.  Scott is a very successful pastor in Kansas City.  I wondered how his average day went.  He began to tell me and then realized that he could show me. He took out his Blackberry (yes, that dates this conversation, doesn’t it?).  As he walked me through his week I realized I had my calendar in my phone too.  As we looked at our calendars some differences began to surface.  I spent all my time with my leaders.  He spent all his time in the community.  When I came back from that conference I began spending more time working out of the office in the community.  It was the seeds of doing Church in places like a diner or a pub.  And it all began by comparing our calendars.

Many people who did interesting things lived very unusual schedules.  Winston Churchill worked in bed until 11:00 or Noon each day.  Da Vinci worked took two hour naps whenever he was tired (some of you starting your two-hour nap right now).  Those may not be the best sleep hygiene habits, but the point is that they crafted a calendar that worked for them and their priorities.

Is your current schedule working for you?  The thoughtful arrangement of your weekly and daily calendar is one of the most holy things you can do.  Drafting a new calendar is tantamount to writing a whole new script for the next chapter of your life.  Your calendar will determine who will you become as a Christian, spouse, parent, friend.  Here’s the whole point of this message:

The Point
A holy schedule is far less about what I have to get done and more about who I want to become.

When I was at Wheaton college I began volunteering at a boys and girls club on the South Side of Chicago.  I also took a class called African American Experience where I encountered for the first time systematic racism.  It was after one of those classes that I had this deep sense that God was calling me to racial and economic reconciliation.  When I graduated I moved to Petoskey, a not very diverse community.  But I spent five or so years volunteering at the local homeless shelter about once a week.  Then I served on the board of Habitat for Humanity.  When I went off to seminary Sarah and I decided to attend a historically black United Methodist Church.  We also ended up moving into East Durham, and mostly black neighborhood.  I made several friends at Duke who I had regular conversations about race.  I ended up running for class president because my black friend, Nancy, asked me to run with her.  These friends helped open my eyes to the black experience at Duke, something I was mostly blind to.  When I moved to Lansing to become the pastor at Sycamore Creek I attended a black church the week before I began.  That was 2009.  Up until last year I did next to NADA until Ferguson woke me up from my stupor.  I realized that if I want to be the kind of person who works toward racial and economic reconciliation, I’ve got to put some things on my calendar that build friendships across racial and economic boundaries. So I’m currently holding a series of race talks with community leaders in Lansing.  I met the other day with Pastor Melvin Jones from Union Missionary Baptist Church who pops up in almost every article in the Lansing State Journal about race relations in Lansing.  This past week I attended Action Network at Christo Rey church continuing to seek where God might be leading me and our church in being part of the solution to racial tensions in our community rather than part of the problem.  You see how the call to something or the value means nothing if you don’t get it on your calendar?

What kind of person do you want to become in the next season of your life?  If you want to be an airplane pilot, you’d better get some flying lessons on your calendar.  If you’re in a dead-end job and you don’t want to live in that cul-de-sac, then you’d better get some night classes at Lansing Community College on your calendar.  If you want to be a writer, you’d better find some time to put your butt in a chair and write something.  John Grisham is a dedicated Christian best known for his legal thriller novels.  He began as an attorney, but he hated his job.  He wanted to be an author, so he started showing up at work sixty minutes early and wrote one page a day.  He put writing on his calendar.

If you’ve got questions about Christianity then you’d better get a small group on your calendar.  “But it’s twelve weeks!  That’s such a BIG commitment!”  So is the rest of your life!  Pretty regularly I hear people tell me, “This week’s sermon was so good, but I almost didn’t come.”    What?  You don’t have worship on your calendar every week?  Are you flipping coins each week deciding whether to come or not? Get it on your calendar every week.  We catch a glimpse at Jesus’ calendar when Luke tells us this little tidbit:

When Jesus came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, as was his custom.
~Luke 4:16 NRSV

The important phrase for us right now is “as was his custom.”  In other words, it was on his calendar.  He did it once a week on the Sabbath.  There are at least a couple of things I think every Christian should have on their calendar:

  1. Daily time with God
  2. Weekly worship
  3. Weekly Sabbath
  4. Small group
  5. Regular serving in the church and community

Are these on your calendar?

Let me give you some tips.  First, if you have a hard time finding time to spend with God each day check out www.prayasyougo.org.  It’s a daily podcast that you listen to for about twelve to thirteen minutes, perfect for a commute to work.  Each podcast has music, prayer, scripture, and reflection.  Turn your driving in the car, your running around town, or your literal running on the trail into time with God.  Of course, we’re trying to make number two as simple as possible with basically seven services in four different locations on three different days of the week.  Number three is up to you.  Just put it on your calendar.  Take a day off.  The earth will continue revolving around the sun without you answering all your emails.  Joining a small group is pretty easy too at Sycamore Creek.  We’ve got forty-eight of them.  FORTY-EIGHT!  Number five can be a little more tricky, but a good place to begin is assessme.sycamorecreekchurch.org.

Of course these five things are the only thing that should be on your calendar.  What will it take to become who you want to become?  Who God is calling you to become?  Time slots on a calendar change you.  If you’re out of shape, put “gym” on your calendar three to five days a week.  If you’re living with financial anxiety put “Financial Peace University” on your calendar each week for the next three months.

Some of you are thinking, “You’re making it sound too magical.  ANYTHING YOU PUT ON YOUR CALENDAR WILL HAPPEN?”  Not really.  But I see so many people who have goals without plans.  They want to grow closer to God, but have no plan for it.  They want to find a better job, but have no plan for it.  They want to start a business, but have no plan for it.  They want to become a better dad, but have no plan for it.  A plan begins by putting time on your calendar.

Some of us don’t put things on our calendar because we know we can’t do it 100% of the time.  So because we can’t be perfect at it, we fail to do anything about it.  When I moved to Durham, NC to go to seminary I happened to have a really good friend from undergraduate who lived in Durham too.  I knew that if I got done with my four years at seminary and didn’t spend much time with Bill, I’d always regret it.  So I put a weekly coffee with Bill on my calendar.  I’d guess that we probably only made it happen 50% of the time.  But over four years, that added up to  104 coffees!  You know what, I don’t care that we weren’t perfect.  I’m just so thankful for those 104+ hours I had with my good friend Bill.

Some of you want to build a stronger marriage, but you have no plan for it.  Something I’ve noticed that’s pretty basic when you think about it is that strong couples spend intentional time together regularly! It’s who they want to become.  Some couples don’t put any date time on their calendar because they don’t think they can do it every week.  But if you put a weekly date night on your calendar and only make it happen 50% of the time, when you celebrate your 50th wedding anniversary you will have had 1300 dates with your spouse!  1300!  I’m reminded of the advice my dad gave me after being married three times: You either grow together or you grow apart.  Put “grow together” on your calendar.  The calendar isn’t just for your work schedule.  It’s for everything you hold dear in life.

Jesus says:

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
~Matthew 6:33 ESV

Seek first.  Put it on your calendar first.  Put God time seeking God’s kingdom first.  Daily time.  Church time.  Family time.  Community time.  Everything else will line up in your calendar if you put God first.

I’ve had a front-row seat at more than the average number of funerals.  When I listen to families talk about their loved one they tend to fall into one of three camps:

  1. Not much positive to say about their life but since it’s their funeral we’ll come up with something.
  2. They really spent their life in a positive way and we’ve got too much to tell you about it.
  3. They really messed up the first half of their life, but then by God’s grace they turned it around and I’m so thankful they got the second half right.

How did #2 & 3 not be a #1?  It all came down to time slots on a calendar.  How did they spend their time?  Seeking God and God’s will for their life and relationships or did they use their time in some other way?  Not making the most of every opportunity God put before them?

So here’s your homework this week: Redraft your schedule to seek God first with your calendar.

Put the God stuff in first.  Don’t create a calendar that is filled up by asking, “What do I have to get done?”  Create a calendar by asking, “Who do I want to become?”  You’re not going to become someone different than you are right now if you don’t put commitments on a calendar.

God, help me seek you in my calendar.  Help me spend my time to become the person you are calling me to become.  Give me insight into what needs to go on my calendar and give me courage, perseverance, and endurance to do it.  In the name of Jesus and by your Spirit.  Amen.

Next Steps

  1. Draft a God-first calendar
  2. org
  3. Join a small group
  4. Spiritual Retreat with Pastor Tom (Nov 10)

*This sermon is based on a sermon first preached by Bill Hybels

Filed Under: Sermons Tagged With: , , ,

Bring

September 26, 2016 by Leave a Comment

Stuff My Church Does – Bring *
Sycamore Creek & Potterville UMC
September 2016
Tom Arthur

Peace friends!

What’s your experience coming to church?  Are you like me?  I grew up doing church.  My mom brought me every week.  But when I got to be a teenager someone invited me to youth group.  It was maybe the first time I had gone to church without my mom.  This whole faith thing started to get real.  I came the first time because someone invited me.  I came back the second time because there were cute girls at youth group!  (Admit it: how many of you guys stayed in church because of a cute girl?)  Well, I’m exaggerating a little bit, but not by much.  I not only found cute girls at church, but I also stayed because I found something deeper in the people around me.  These other teenagers who were all in for Jesus seemed to have found something I was looking for.  Found people find people.

Today we’re continuing in the series Stuff My Church Does.  We’ve been looking at the why behind the stuff we do.  We began with discipleship, looked at music the second week and prayer the third week.  Today we’re looking at why we bring people to church.

Here’s the whole point of today.  If you get nothing else out of this message take this away:

The Point: People bring people to Jesus.

The person we are today has more to do with the “who’s” than the “what’s” of our life.  This is true about the church too.  We connect and stay because of someone.  We are involved because of someone.  The church can have all kinds of great ministries, events, etc. but none of them bring people to Jesus.  People bring people to Jesus.  The Church is the only organization whose purpose is for those who aren’t here yet.

How did you end up coming to Sycamore Creek (or any church or organization you’re a part of)?

The current American church is having an identity crisis.  Lifeway Research, an arm of the Baptist church, found that only 2% of people who regularly attend church will invite someone outside the church in a year (98% don’t invite someone to church)!  So that’s the Baptists.  How bout we Methodists?  I recently read that a United Methodist invites someone once every 38 years (Get Their Name)!  Consider those statistics in light of other research that shows that 7 of 10 unchurched people have never once been invited to get involved in church in their entire life and 51% of people would be likely to come if someone invited them.  Maybe we should say, “’Bring’ is the stuff the church doesn’t do!”  We’ve hidden our light under a bowl.

Today I’d like to re-inspire us to bring people to church by looking at one of Jesus’ early friends, Andrew.  Andrew is always bringing someone to Jesus.  He brings Simon.  He brings a boy with fish.  He brings curious Greeks during Passover.  How and why was Andrew always bringing someone to Jesus?  I think there are two reasons Andrew was such a bringer.

  1. Andrew Maintained a Sense of Awe and Wonder

Andrew is the disciple always elbowing the other disciples whispering, “It’s Jesus!  Check this out!”  Let’s look at one story where this happens.  John is one of Jesus’ three closest friends and he tells the story of Jesus miraculously feeding thousands of people.

After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias.[a] A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples.
~John 6:1-3 NRSV

Notice that Jesus is focusing here not so much on the crowd as he is on his inner circle of disciples.  And yet the needs of the crowd are going to have an impact on and become a teaching point for the disciples.

Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near. When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?” He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. Philip answered him, “Six months’ wages[b] would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.”
~John 6:4-7 NRSV

John tells us that a crowd of pilgrims are there for the Passover.  This means that they’ve traveled far away from home for the Passover.  The Passover is the time when the Jews celebrated their deliverance from slavery in Egypt.  And now that they’ve traveled this far they’re all hungry.  Most of the disciples are very pragmatic about the situation.  But Andrew has a slightly different response.  He brings someone to Jesus.

One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?”  Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” Now there was a great deal of grass in the place; so they[c] sat down, about five thousand in all.
~John 6:8-10 NRSV

When John reports that there are “five thousand in all” he doesn’t really mean that the way we would today.  What he means is that there were five thousand men.  That means there were more than twice that amount when you include women and children.  And Andrew is suggesting that a boy with five loaves and two fish might somehow be part of the solution even if it all seems impossible!  I’m guessing the disciples were thinking Andrew must be some kind of idiot!  But what kind of idiot?  The kind of idiot who has a big vision of Jesus.  It’s Andrew’s awe and wonder and passion that keeps driving him.

Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted. When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, “Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.  So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets.
~John 6:11-13 NRSV

Jesus recognizes the opportunity to teach the disciples about who he is through this boy that Andrew has brought him.  He does the miraculous and feeds them all with a lot left over!  It all begins with Andrew bringing the boy to Jesus.  And Andrew brings the boy to Jesus because he’s passionate about Jesus.

We talk about what we’re passionate about.  Our heart and mouth are closely related.  Jesus teaches that “it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks.” (Luke 6:45).  Whatever has a hold of your heart comes out of your mouth.  If you’re passionate about Green and White then you talk about the Spartans.  If you’re passionate about Blue and Gold then you talk about the Wolverines.  But if you want to mix the two together then you talk about Blue and White!  Go Blue Devils!

One of the things I’ve been really passionate about over the last couple of years is balance bikes.  A balance bike is a bike that kids learn to balance on.  It doesn’t have pedals.  So they learn at their own pace slowly learning to glide more and more.  Both of my boys have used one to learn without having the painful experience of all that falling down stuff.  I started a community balance bike group, and I’m always telling people with little kids about balance bikes.  I’m passionate about it so I talk about it.  Could it be that our reluctance about bringing people to Jesus is because something else has laid hold of our hearts and our passion and has captivated us?

For many of us there is a lot of time and distance between when we first met Jesus and today.  Familiarity breeds contempt (the more familiar you are the less passionate you are about it).  Somewhere along the way we’ve forgotten how good the news is.  We lost our first love.  We lost our awe and wonder about Jesus.  What was Andrew’s secret for maintaining awe and wonder?  I think it may have been in the way that Jesus initially called Andrew to follow him.

As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” And immediately they left their nets and followed him.
~Mark 1:16-18 NRSV

Have you ever wondered why the disciples were so quick to follow Jesus?  Was Jesus some kind of a Jedi?  “At first it seems a little fishy.”  (Ugh…I know.)  Why were they so easily persuaded?  Well, first of all, this was likely not their first encounter with Jesus (read John 1).  But more so, in first century Israel culture everyone wanted to be a Rabbi, not a rock star, sports star or reality TV celebrity.  Every six-year-old boy started off on the path to become a rabbi.  There were three stages of training (for more on this check out this article by Ray Vander Laan).  At some point if you didn’t have the right stuff, you’d be sent home to learn your family trade.  If you had what it takes, you might ask to follow a rabbi.  But some extraordinary rabbis would choose their own students.  “Come follow me.”

Andrew is fishing, which means he’s taking up the family trade.  He wasn’t good enough during the three stages of training to be a rabbi.  He didn’t have what it takes.  So he’s gone back to the family business of fishing.  And along comes this rabbi, an extraordinary one at that, and he picks Andrew!  Andrew lived in close proximity to the grace offered by Jesus.  Jesus picked Andrew when others wouldn’t.  Jesus picks us when no one else would.

Most of us are stuck in an old Janet Jackson song: What have you done for me lately?  But maybe we should be grateful for what Jesus has already done for us.  If God didn’t ever do another good thing for you, what he has already done for us in Christ is infinitely more than we deserve.  If we’re going to maintain a sense of awe and wonder we’ll have to be in the habit of continually reminding ourselves what Jesus has done for us.

How did Jesus rescue you?  Many of us don’t have a big rescue story.  Andrew didn’t really either.  He was rescued from the family business of fishing.  But Jesus brought reality to the deepest longing and desires of Andrew’s heart, not because he had a really messed up life.  Perhaps Andrew felt disappointed about doing what his family had done for centuries, and Jesus introduces Andrew to a purpose and cause bigger than himself.

Here’s a good question to cultivate some awe and wonder: What mess would I be living in if Jesus hadn’t rescued me?  Or who would I be if Jesus hadn’t called me?  What kind of spouse?  Father?  Mother?  Friend?  Worker?  Son?  Daughter?  Jesus not only rescues us, but he brings reality to the deepest longing in our hearts.  This is good news!  We can’t help but share it with others.  We need to be in the habit of reminding ourselves just how GOOD this GOOD news is.  This is the secret to how Andrew maintained a sense of awe and wonder.

  1. Andrew Chose Compassion over Convenience

Andrew’s awe and wonder also showed itself in his profound awareness of other people’s needs.  After initially encountering Jesus, Andrew wants to go immediately to find Simon.  He wants to share this compassion with others around him.  In the story we read above the disciples want convenience, but Andrew wanted to try something new.  Our compassion creates encounters for others with Jesus.

A couple of months ago we did a very popular series called The Art of Neighboring.  We handed out fridge magnets and challenged you to get to know the names of your eight closest neighbors.  We asked, “What if Jesus meant for us to love our actual neighbors.”  How’s that going?  Knowing your neighbors’ names is one simple step of showing compassion.  We hosted a neighborhood BBQ at our house and had about twenty neighbors over.  We got to know their names and even more about them. We had a lot going on this summer: launching a Church in a Pub, exploring adopting Potterville UMC, vacations, and more.  But we made time to show our neighbors a little compassion even though it wasn’t necessarily very convenient.  What is your home?  Is it a fortress away from the world or is it a hospital for the world?  Is it where you keep all your appliances of convenience or is it where you show your neighbors compassion?

Choosing compassion over convenience means showing compassion to the person you work with who drives you nuts, the family member everyone has given up on, or the strangers you work out next to at the gym.

Andrew didn’t wait for someone else to do something, He went and brought people to Jesus.

Imagine if he hadn’t brought Simon or the boy with five loaves and two fish to Jesus?  What if the person who brought you to Jesus hadn’t done so?

As we live into owning a building it will be tempting for us to forget that the Church is not a building.  It’s a community of people.  When people ask, “Why won’t the church do this or that?” I think, “Good question: you are the church.  Why don’t you do that?!”  We’ve got a cool-slowly-being-remodeled building and a cool sign out front, but buildings and signs don’t bring people to Jesus.  People showing compassion bring people to Jesus.

This fall God is beginning something new at Sycamore Creek.  We’re doing a church-wide campaign called Simplify.  We’re trying to show some compassion to the overworked, overscheduled, and exhausted people in our culture.  Here’s a basic question: How will they get here?  How will they know about this good news?  The answer is: You’re the invitation.  Will you commit to Invest & Invite three people to Sycamore Creek this fall?  It’s stuff my church does: bring people to meet Jesus.

Next Steps

  1. Journal about what God is doing for you
  2. Daily pray for five minutes about this fall (Church in a Pub, Potterville, Simplify)
  3. Sign up for a small group through GroupLINK
  4. Invest & Invite three people

* This sermon is based on a sermon first preached by Nick Cuningham

Filed Under: Sermons Tagged With: , ,

Scripture

August 30, 2016 by Leave a Comment

The Essentials: Scripture
Sycamore Creek Church
August 21, 2016
Tom Arthur

Peace friends!

How ’bout them Tigers?  Well, OK.  Maybe they’re not doing as well as you might hope, but here’s a question for you: when it comes to the Tigers or any baseball game, what is essential?  What do you absolutely have to have to play baseball?  You need a ball, a bat, players, and a field.  If you’ve got those four essentials you’ve got baseball.  There are a lot of great things about baseball that aren’t essential.  Dugouts.  Uniforms.  Lights.  Scoreboard.  None of these things are essential.

When it comes to our beliefs, there are likewise some things that are essential and other things that, while important, may not be so essential.  We’re in a series called The Essentials and we’re exploring five essentials of Christian belief: Christ, Faith, Grace, Scripture, and Glory.

Once a year we do a “belief series.”  We take four or five weeks to look at our beliefs or theology or doctrine.  Why do beliefs matter?  Beliefs matter because what you believe contributes significantly to how you live.  If you believe in an angry God, you’ll live like God is out to get you.  If you believe in an uninvolved and disinterested God, you’ll live like God doesn’t care what you do.  If you believe in a loving God, you’ll live like you’re on God’s mission in this world.

This series was conceived by a conference that I went to here in Lansing back in 2013.  It was called “Sola13” (check it out at www.sola13.com).  It was put on by some of the more conservative and reformed churches in the Lansing area.  Many big speakers came to Lansing to talk about the Christian faith over several days.  People from all over the nation came here to hear them.  I wasn’t able to go to every day of the series, but I did catch some of it.  It got me thinking that I’d like to explore the same issues but from a slightly different perspective.  Maybe a more “moderate” perspective.

The series was called “Sola” because it was built on five “Solas” from the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century.  “Sola” is Latin for “only.”  Here are the five Solas:

  1. (Sola) Christ Alone
  2. (Sola) Faith Alone
  3. (Sola) Grace Alone
  4. (Sola) Scripture Alone
  5. (Sola) God’s Glory Alone

Each of these Solas are a protest against certain beliefs or misunderstandings about the Catholic Church.  Christ alone, not priests or sacraments (you don’t need priests or sacraments as a mediator to God).  Grace alone, not merit (you don’t deserve and aren’t entitled to anything, especially from God).  Faith alone, not works (you didn’t earn anything, especially your salvation).  Scripture alone, not tradition (the Bible is enough without all the “traditions” of the Catholic Church).  And lastly, God’s glory alone, not glory to the church or saints (you don’t worship saints, the church, etc.).

In this series I want to propose a “middle way.”  I’d like to suggest that we understand “Sola” or “alone” as “Solus” or “primary.”  Thus the five Solas become five primary beliefs or essentials.

  1. Primacy of Christ
  2. Primacy of Grace
  3. Primacy of Faith
  4. Primacy of Scripture
  5. Primacy of Glory

Scripture
Today we’re going to look at Sola Scripture or the Primacy of Scripture.  Of all the “solas” Scripture alone is the one I wrestle with the most.  What does it mean?  Only scripture and not science?  Only scripture and no other books?  Only scripture by whose interpretation?  Only scripture and check your brain at the door?  Only scripture in what translation?

Growing up I was taught that scripture was inerrant.  What I understood that to mean was that the Bible is never wrong.  Well, as I’ve grown up and studied I’ve realized that those who believe in inerrancy have a more nuanced view than my childhood and teenage brain could fully understand.  One theologian defines it this way:

The view that when all the facts become known, they will demonstrate that the Bible in its original autographs and correctly interpreted is entirely true and never false in all it affirms, whether that relates to doctrine or ethics or to the social, physical, or life sciences.
~Paul D Feinberg (Professor of Biblical and Systematic Theology, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School)

The verse that is usually used to defend this view is from Paul’s letter to his protégé, Timothy:

All scripture [is] inspired by God and [is] useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.
~2 Timothy 3:16 NRSV

I put the word “is” in brackets because when I began to study Greek, the original language Paul was writing in, I learned that the word “is” is implied.  It’s not really there.  So you can always ask, where should the “is” go?  There is another place to put the “is” in this verse.  One translation gives us a different way of understanding what Paul is saying:

Every scripture inspired of God [is] also profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness.
~2 Timothy 3:16 ASV

Put the “is” in a slightly different place and the meaning changes, doesn’t it?  So what do we believe about scripture?  Perhaps the most succinct place is found in our Articles of Religion:

The Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation; so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any [person] that it should be believed as an article of faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation.
~Article V of The Articles of Religion of the Methodist Church (Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church)

Notice it’s Article V.  Four other things come before it: God, Jesus, Jesus’ resurrection, and the Holy Spirit.  In contrast, The Baptist Faith and Message puts their belief about scripture in the number one spot.  What should come first?  Belief in God or belief in the Bible?  Well, they’re very closely tied, but if I had to pick one, I’d go with belief in God first.

My View on Scripture has been in flux over the past ten years or so.  If I were to rank the Solas I’d put Sola Scripture in the 5th place.  That doesn’t mean I don’t deeply value scripture.  I read it every morning.  I read it multiple times a day.  I’ve spent countless hours studying scripture. I trust it.  And yet over the years I’ve found the whole thing pretty complicated.  Amidst the complications, there are five things I’ve found that are helpful to know about the Bible.  So in honor of its fifth-place rank, here are five things to know about the Bible:

1) Know the Weight
All scripture is inspired but not all scripture is equal.  There was a time in my life where I would have stopped listening to someone who told me this.  But then I read the Bible myself and I came across Jesus having this argument with the religious leaders of his day:

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. It is these you ought to have practiced without neglecting the others.
~Jesus (Matthew 23:23 NRSV)

Here’s the question: how do you determine “weight”?  What is Jesus’ answer?  Jesus says the weightiest things fall under the categories of justice, mercy and faith.  So while he doesn’t neglect or throw out other things, he gives preference to these three essentials in the Bible.  Does your own reading of the Bible and living of life focus primarily on justice, mercy, and faith?  If you read the Bible like Jesus does, it will.

2) Know your Geometry
Yes, geometry.  Or sorta.  While studying John Wesley, the co-founder of the Methodist movement, I came across the “Wesleyan Quadrilateral.”  A quadrilateral is a four-sided object.  The four sides of the Wesleyan Quadrilateral are scripture, tradition, reason, and experience.

There’s an online series of videos called Chuck Knows Church.  I think Chuck can probably explain the Wesleyan Quadrilateral in a more engaging and entertaining way that I can.  So watch it:

If we go back to the baseball metaphor, I like to think of the primacy of scripture as the playing field.  Tradition is the coaches and their theories of how to play the game on the field.  Reason is the umpires and the rules of the game.  And experience is like the stats of individual players and even teams.  Coaches come and go.  Umpires come and go.  Stats come and go.  But the game is always played on the field.  The game always begins and ends on the field.  It’s not played in the stands or outside the stadium.  Christian belief and practice always begins and ends on the playing field of scripture.

3) Know Literature
I know. I’m stretching your brain right now. We were in geometry class just a moment ago and now we’re talking literature?  Hang with me.  Different kinds of books come with different kinds of expectations.  Same thing is true about most of life.  If you go to a baseball game expecting football, you’ll be sorely disappointed.  If you go to the new Harry Potter movie expecting a documentary, you’ll be really confused.  If you go to Jackie’s Diner expecting a BBQ place, you’ll miss all the great diner food they serve there.  If you come to any particular book of the Bible with the wrong set of expectations, you’re going to get really confused.

The Bible is not one book.  It is sixty-six books written by dozens of authors over thousands of years.  It’s more like a library of books.  Each of those books is a different genre or kind of literature.  Each genre comes with its own set of expectations.  Do you come to the Old Testament expecting a science book, or history or something else?  I like to think of a book like Genesis as “family history.”  It’s the stories that a family tells that define who the family is.  For example, one of the stories my family always tells is about the time my grandma put a piece of pie in front of my grandpa.  She went to scoop out some ice cream and when she turned back to his plate, the pie was gone!  Now did it happen exactly like that?  Probably not.  But did he eat it fast?  Yes.  That’s the whole point.  And it tells you something about my family and its history.  Genesis is like that: family history.  Leviticus, on the other hand, is ancient government law code.  Very different than family history.  The book of Psalms is like reading someone’s prayer journal. The book of Proverbs is wisdom.  Wisdom is different than promise.  Wisdom is what happens most of the time.

When it comes to the New Testament, are we reading journalistic reporting, apologetic debates, or something else?  I think it’s helpful to think of the gospels, the books that tell the story of Jesus’ life, as painted portraits.  Not photographic portraits, but painted portraits.  Like a good painter, every gospel author has taken some artistic liberties with painting a portrait of Jesus.  They all get the basics the same, but they each paint a slightly different picture.  The “epistles” are like reading someone else’s mail.  They were written by one person to another person in a particular context.  Our context may be similar or it may be different.  The book of Revelation is the one that people always want me to talk about.  We did a whole series on it some time ago, but I think the book of Revelation is probably best understood as political cartoons.  If you look at a contemporary political cartoon and you see an elephant and a donkey, you know that they’re talking about the Democratic and Republican parties.  When you see the colors of red, white, and blue you know they’re talking about the USA.  Revelation has all kinds of similar symbols that ancient people understood but we no longer understand.  Look at a political cartoon from a hundred years ago and you have no idea what all the symbols mean.  Multiple that by 2000 years and you’ve got the book of Revelation.

When you come to a particular book in the Bible you have to adjust your expectations depending on what kind of literature you’re reading.

4) Know the BIG Picture
Details matter less than the BIG picture.  That’s the fourth thing to know about the Bible.  The early Christian leaders called this the “analogy of faith.”  Read the hard, difficult, or unclear scripture in light of the clear scripture.  All interpretations must fit with the big picture/narrative of the Bible and Christian belief.  Paul, the first missionary of the church and author of many of the “epistle” letters in the Bible, wrote to the church at Corinth saying:

For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures.
~Paul (1 Corinthians 15:3-4 NRSV)

Paul is giving us the big picture, the analogy of faith.  A couple of hundred years later St. Augustine, a church leader said something similar:

Whoever, then, thinks that he understands the Holy Scriptures, or any part of them, but puts such an interpretation upon them as does not tend to build up this twofold love of God and our neighbor, does not yet understand them as he ought.
~St. Augustine (4th & 5th Century Church Leader)

Fit the details within the BIG picture.  If you’re not sure about something, look at it from the perspective of the BIG picture.  God created.  We rebelled.  God loved us.  God loved us in many ways including a unique relationship with the ancient Hebrew people.  God show us his love most fully in Jesus.  Jesus taught us and showed us what love looks like.  Jesus was executed but love won when he was raised from the dead.  Jesus created a community of people to follow his way of love.  That’s the BIG picture.  Interpret everything else in the Bible in light of that BIG picture.

5) Know who to Trust
All of us come to reading the Bible with a basic disposition: trust or suspicion.  If you always only read the Bible with suspicion, you’re going to miss something that you can only get when you approach the Bible with trust.  The Bible is like a trusted mentor.  It’s not that you always agree with your mentor.  But you do trust a mentor.  And when a mentor asks you to do something you’re not sure about, you’re willing to give it a try because you trust your mentor.  I think about when I learned to ski.  The ski instructor said that our instinct when we’re learning to ski is to lean back on the skis.  But when you do this you lose control really quickly.  You have to go against your instinct and lean forward, down the hill, to have the most control.  When I finally began to really trust my ski instructor, I began to really figure out how to make those beautiful S-curves on the slopes.  When you approach the Bible with trust, you try things you wouldn’t like or that don’t always make sense and you find that there’s a way you’re blessed in doing so. Psalm 1 says it this way:

Happy are those
who do not follow the advice of the wicked,
or take the path that sinners tread,
or sit in the seat of scoffers;
but their delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law they meditate day and night.
~Psalm 1:1-2 NRSV

When you have a trusted mentor you stay away from things that the mentor says aren’t good for you.  You trust their warning.  I had a friend who came over one night to try my sushi that I had just learned to make in a sushi-making class.  He had never had sushi or wasabi.  Wasabi is the spicy green paste usually served with sushi.  He tried a little and really liked it.  He thought, “A little is good, so a lot must be great.”  He took a spoonful of wasabi and put it on top of a sushi.  As all of us told him this was not a good idea, he ignored us and popped it in his mouth.  Within seconds he jumped up from the table, ran to the bathroom, and proceeded to throw up his entire dinner.  He didn’t trust us when we told him that a spoonful of wasabi wasn’t going to be good for him.  When you trust what the Bible tells you, you find that you don’t have to eat the wasabi to know that a spoonful isn’t going to be good.  The mentor is trustworthy.  The mentor is trustworthy because God speaks through scripture.  Does God still speak today through scripture?  Absolutely.  Will you give it try?  Dedicate ten or fifteen minutes each day to reading the Bible or reading a devotional book about the Bible.  You’ll find there a trustworthy mentor.

Here’s a prayer that I use from time to time to help my spirit open up to what God is going to say to me through Scripture:

Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

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Some Things Are Just Essential – Christ

August 3, 2016 by Leave a Comment

essentials

 

 

 

 

 

Some Things Are Just Essential
Sycamore Creek Church
July 31 & August 2
Tom Arthur

 

 

Peace friends!

When you pack to go on a trip, what are the essentials?  When you buy a new car, what are the essentials?  When you go to the grocery store, what are the essentials you need to bring home?  Some things are just essential whatever you happen to be doing.  The same thing is true when it comes to our faith.  Some beliefs are just essential.  Over the next five weeks we’re going to be looking at five essentials of belief.

This five-week series is what we like to call a belief-series.  We do several kinds of series around here at Sycamore Creek.  We do Buzz series.  These are series designed to create a buzz for Big Day outreach events.  Then we do HABITS series about spiritual practices.  Once a year we do a vision series looking at the mission and vision of Sycamore Creek.  Twice a year we do a Bible series.  One series on an Old Testament book and one series on a New Testament book.  Then we’ve got the holiday series of Lent/Easter and Christmas.  And once a year we do a belief series looking at doctrine, theology, and beliefs.

Why do a belief series once a year?  Why do beliefs matter?  Beliefs matter because they have much to do with how you live.  If you believe in an angry God, then you’ll live like God is out to get you.  If you believe in an uninvolved and disinterested God, then you’ll live like God doesn’t care what you do.  But if you believe in a loving God, then you’ll live like you’re on God’s mission in this world.

A good sermon speaks to your heart (emotions), hands and feet (action), tummy (humor), and head (intellect).  Unless you think your brain, your mind, or your intellect is entirely unimportant, then our beliefs matter.  So once a year we seek to speak to the head, your mind and intellect.  That’s what we’ll be focusing on primarily over the next five weeks.  We hope to hit the heart, hands and tummy along the way too!

Sola?
Back in 2013 a big conference came to Lansing.  It’s probably not one that registered on many of your radars, but it was called Sola 13.  It was hosted by the more reformed & “conservative” churches in the area.  Some big name theologians and church leaders were in the area.  It was too good to pass up.  A couple of us went, but as I sat through some of it (I wasn’t able to attend all of it), I kept thinking, I agree with much of what is being taught, but I’d say it in a slightly different way or put a slightly different emphasis on it.  This series is an opportunity to chart a more moderate (or middle way) course for the essentials of belief.

The word “sola” is Latin for “alone” or “solely.”  There were five “solas” that were being discussed at this conference:

  1. (Sola) Christ Alone
  2. (Sola) Faith Alone
  3. (Sola) Grace Alone
  4. (Sola) Scripture Alone
  5. (Sola) God’s Glory Alone

These five solas come from the 16th Protestant Reformation.  The Protestant Reformation was a “protest” movement against the Roman Catholic Church.  It was a theological and political, even nationalistic, struggle.  The debates often ended in life or death decisions.  These solas really mattered to the founding fathers of the Protestant Reformation.

Most of you have probably heard of Martin Luther.  He was the German monk who first broke from the Roman Catholic Church to found the Lutherans.  In 1517 he nailed his 95 Theses to the Wittenberg church door.  Luther was protesting most famously the Pope and the selling of indulgences (financial payments made to the church to raise money for remodeling St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome and get your relatives out of purgatory).

But Luther wasn’t the only Protestant reformer.  Huldrych Zwingli and John Calvin founded reformation movements that resulted in the Reformed and Presbyterian churches in Switzerland (Zurich and Geneva).  There was also the Radical Reformation which resulted in the Baptists, Mennonites, and other churches all across Europe.  They were non-conformists (now you know why it’s so hard to talk to some Baptists…it’s in the DNA of their founding!) and non-state sponsored churches.

Then there was the Church of England or Anglican Church and its off-shoots—the Episcopalian Church in America and the Methodist churches (and later the Pentecostal churches).  The Church of England officially broke from the Roman Catholic Church in 1534 when King Henry VIII wanted a divorce from his wife, Catherine of Aragon, because she wasn’t giving him a son, an heir to the throne.  The Pope wouldn’t grant a divorce so King Henry VIII simply broke from the church and began his own.  He became the head of the Church of England which eventually charted a middle way between Protestantism and Catholicism.  Methodists are the descendants of that “middle way.”  So let’s get back to the Solas…

Sola Polemics (Protestant vs. Catholic)
Each of the five Solas was an argument between the Protestants and the Roman Catholic Church.  The five Solas and their arguments were:

  1. Christ Alone – You don’t need priests (and their role presiding over sacraments) as mediators.
  2. Grace Alone – You don’t deserve and aren’t entitled to anything, especially salvation.
  3. Faith Alone – You didn’t earn your salvation by good works.
  4. Scripture Alone – The Bible is enough without regard to the church’s tradition.
  5. Glory Alone – You don’t worship saints, the church, or anything except God.

These five Solas were life or death matters for most of the Protestant Reformers so they put them in strong “argumentative” language.  These arguments from the sixteenth century are still alive today.  Protestants are still protesting the beliefs of the Roman Catholic Church.  In this series I want to chart a middle way.

Middle Way: Sola or Solus
Because the Church of England attempted a middle way between the Protestant Reformation and the Roman Catholic Church and the Methodist movement is a descendent of the Church of England (John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement was a priest in the Church of England during the 1700s), I’d like to suggest that these five Solas are best understood as five essentials or five primary beliefs.  They aren’t “Sola” or “only’s” but they are “Solus” or “Primaries”:

  1. Primacy of Christ
  2. Primacy of Grace
  3. Primacy of Faith
  4. Primacy of Scripture
  5. Primacy of Glory

Today I want to look at the Primacy of Christ or the Essential beliefs we hold in Jesus Christ.  I’d like to turn to the book of the Bible that tells the story of the beginning of the Church.  Peter has healed a man in the name of Jesus and has been brought before the religious court of his day to explain why he’s healing in the name of Jesus, who that same religious court had crucified only days before.

Acts 4:8-12 NLT
Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers and elders of our people, are we being questioned today because we’ve done a good deed for a crippled man? Do you want to know how he was healed? Let me clearly state to all of you and to all the people of Israel that he was healed by the powerful name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, the man you crucified but whom God raised from the dead. For Jesus is the one referred to in the Scriptures, where it says,

‘The stone that you builders rejected
has now become the cornerstone.’ (Psalm 118:22)

There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.”

Jesus Alone is Essential and Primary
Let’s begin with a description of “Solus Christ” or the “Primacy of Christ.”

By virtue of who Jesus is (fully God and fully human) and what Jesus did (life, death, and resurrection), Jesus is the only all-sufficient (Anselm: Cur Deus Homo) atonement for sin (theosis/healing, christus victor/freedom, substitution/forgiveness).  Therefore, salvation (the entire work of God’s grace: prevenient, convicting, justifying, sanctifying, and glorifying) is available only through Jesus Christ.

That’s a lot to chew on but that definition answers five questions:

  1. Who is Jesus?
  2. What did Jesus do?
  3. How does Jesus fix the problem?
  4. What are the results of Jesus’ solution?
  5. How do we receive this solution?

Let’s look at each of these five questions and their answers in turn.

  1. Who is Jesus?

Christians believe that Jesus is eternally fully God and fully human.  Over time there was disagreement about this belief in Jesus.  The Gnostics taught Docetism, that Jesus only seemed to be human (Jesus was NOT eternally fully God and fully HUMAN).  Theodotius taught a belief that became known as adoptionism: Jesus was a mere man adopted as God’s Son (Jesus was NOT eternally fully GOD and fully human).  Apollinaris taught that Jesus had a human body and divine mind (Jesus was NOT eternally FULLY God and FULLY human).  Arius taught that Jesus was a created being (Jesus was NOT ETERNALLY fully God and fully human).  And Nestorius taught that Jesus has one “new” nature (Jesus was NOT eternally fully God AND fully human).  Jesus is essential and primary because he was eternally fully God and fully human.

  1. What did Jesus do?

There was a problem that Jesus fixed.  The problem was sin, or straying from the path.  We are all guilty of straying from the path (we do it unintentionally and intentionally).  We are also broken from straying from the path (we were made to live on the path, not in the rough).  Lastly, we are in bondage off the path (Off the path we’re in enemy occupied territory and held hostage).  Jesus atoned for these problems.  Atonement means being made “at-one-ment” or in harmony with God.  Because of sin, we were out of harmony with God but Jesus fixed that.  He fixed it with his life (his teaching, his exemplary model of perfectly living that teaching, and the community he called together to learn and live his teaching).  Jesus fixed it by his death.  Jesus was innocent of any crime and yet he willingly gave himself up for execution for each one of us.  Jesus fixed the problem of sin with his resurrection.  He was raised by the power of God and defeated and destroyed death.  His resurrection proves that he was eternally fully God and fully human.  Jesus’ resurrection is the first-fruit pointing to each of our resurrections when we are in Christ.

  1. How does Jesus fix the problem?

Why was Jesus essential or primary to fix the problem?  Or why Christ alone? Why not another human?  Why not an angel?  Why not nothing (i.e. God just saves without atonement)?  Anselm of Canterbury wrestled with this question in the 11th century and came up with this answer: Only God could fix the problem and only humanity needed it to be fixed, so a God-human was necessary and fitting or appropriate to fix the problem.  Only God could deliver us from sin and only humanity needed to be delivered from sin.  Only God could forgive sin and only humanity had to be forgiven of sin.  Only God could absorb the disease of sin and only humanity had the disease of sin.  Thus, a God-human was the solution.  Jesus alone was the essential and primary solution to fixing the problem.

  1. What are the results of Jesus’ solution?

The results of Jesus’ solution is our salvation.  Salvation is the entire work of God’s grace in our lives.  God’s grace works “preveniently” before we even recognize it.  God first loved us and we then respond to that love.  God’s grace works to convict us of our disease, bondage, and guilt.   God’s grace works to justify us or make us right with God.  God’s grace works to sanctify us or mature us, complete us, and make us whole.  God’s grace purifies us and perfects us in love.  God’s grace glorifies us in the perfection and glory of heaven.  Jesus alone is essential to unlocking God’s saving grace in our lives.

  1. How do we receive this atonement?

So how do we receive this solution, this atonement for our sin?  We receive it through Christ’s work alone.  There are three basic ways Christians have described who receives the benefits of God’s grace through Christ.  One idea is called “exclusivism” (sometimes “particularism”).  Exclusivists believe that only through conscious assent of the need for Christ and the reception of Christ as Lord and Savior is one saved.  Exclusivists are very pessimistic about non-Christians receiving salvation.

On the other end of the spectrum is pluralism or universalism.  Pluralists believe that all are saved.  There are many paths up the mountain.  Jesus is not the only way to salvation.  He is not even necessarily the primary or essential way.  He is just one way.  Pluralists are extremely optimistic about the salvation of everyone.

Then there is the middle way called “Inclusivism.”  I am an inclusivist.  I believe that through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection God is at work in every person bringing every knee to bow and tongue to confess that Jesus Christ alone is Lord whether they are cognizant of it or not.  Inclusivists are optimistic about God’s grace at work in non-Christians.  Inclusivists believe that Jesus is the way that all will eventually come to know God, some just don’t realize yet that it’s Jesus.  Jesus is essential.

So What?
Why do all these beliefs matter?  As I said at the beginning, what you believe has much to do with how you live.  Do you believe that Jesus is essential?  Have you received the gift of Jesus alone?   When you understand that your situation is broken, that you are stuck in your sin, and that God left the comforts of heaven, that Jesus emptied himself of his right to heaven, and took on the weaknesses of flesh so that the weaknesses of flesh could take on the strength of his divinity, then you live differently.  You ask for forgiveness for the ways you are complicit in your own sin.  The only fitting response to God’s love becoming human in Jesus Christ is to love God back through Jesus Christ and to worship God through Jesus Christ.  When you realize how much Jesus gave up so that you might be saved, you give your life back to Jesus as a “living sacrifice” to follow Jesus and spread the good news of Jesus to the entire world.  You don’t live under the impression that God is an angry God out to get you, or a disinterested God not concerned with the problems of your life, but you live in God’s love joining the mission of God to the entire world.  Jesus isn’t just one of many things important to your life.  Jesus is primary.  Jesus is essential.  Jesus alone.

Prayer
God, forgive me for the ways I have sinned. Forgive me for the ways I have strayed from the path.  Forgive me for the unintentional and intentional ways I have broken my relationship with you and those around me.  Through Jesus Christ, forgive me, heal me, free me.  Perfect your love in me.  And let me share your mercy, your grace, and your love with all those around me.  Make Jesus and his mission essential to my life.  In Jesus’ name alone, amen!

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From Neighbors to Family

July 6, 2016 by Leave a Comment

Neighboring

 

 

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From Neighbors to Family
Sycamore Creek Church &
Mt Hope United Methodist Church
Valhalla Park June 26, 2016
Tom Arthur

Peace family!

Today we’re baptizing many people.  What exactly is baptism?  In our baptism we move from being neighbors to being family.  Baptism is more than just a public profession of faith.  Baptism is entrance into the family of God.

Peter, one of Jesus’ closest friends, was preaching to Jerusalem shortly after Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension.  He apparently preached a pretty good sermon because this is how it ended:

Peter replied, “Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This promise is to you, to your children, and to those far away—all who have been called by the Lord our God.” Then Peter continued preaching for a long time, strongly urging all his listeners, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation!”

Those who believed what Peter said were baptized and added to the church that day—about 3,000 in all.
~Acts 2:38-41 NLT

Those who were baptized that day were “added to the church.”  They became part of the church.  The Church is the community of friends who are together following Jesus.  The church is the family of God.  Let’s unpack how the waters of baptism join us to the church, the family of God.

  1. Water = Family/Community

What do these cities have in common: Lansing, Grand Ledge, Portland, Ionia, Saranac, Lowell, Grand Rapids, Grandville, and Grand Haven?  They all are found on the banks of the Grand River.  Water is community.  Communities of people always gather along the banks of a water source.  Whether it’s families at the beach, villages around a well, or towns along a river, water is community.  And the waters of baptism are where the community that is the family of God gather.  When you are baptized you enter into the family of God.

  1. Water = Birth into a family

Water also plays a significant part in birth.  Think about the waters of the womb or “water breaking.”  I asked my mom friends on Facebook when their water broke.  Some had it break in the hospital.  Others had their doctor or midwife break their water.  Some in the bathroom.  Some in bed.  One was at an MSU basketball game on senior night at halftime!

At some point all of us, whether we’re moms or dads or not, were born in water.  In the waters of our mother’s womb.  The waters of the womb provide nutrients necessary for babies to grow.  They include stem-cells which develop into different parts of the body.  The waters in our mother’s womb allowed movement and development of skin, muscles, and bones.  The waters increase in volume as the baby grows.  They keep the baby at the right temperature.  The waters of the womb provide protection and cushion for the baby.  In the same way that we were all born in the waters of our mother’s womb, each of us is born into God’s family through the waters of baptism.   You might call baptism the “womb of God.”

In baptism we begin to receive what we need to grow in love.  In baptism we begin to find our part in the body of Christ.  In baptism we begin to develop into all that God has called and created us to become.  In baptism God’s grace begins to grow to meet us where we are.  In baptism we are protected.  As Ryan Chorpenning said when he was baptized, “I’ve been a licensed life guard since age 16.  I’ve always guarded other people. I now need someone to guard me.”

Baptism is the “womb of God.”  In baptism we are born into the family of God.

  1. Water = Cleansing & Forgiveness

Family is a nice idea, isn’t it?  Well, yes and no.  Families are kinda messed up, aren’t they?  Everyone wants a family, just not the one they’ve got.  My family is kinda messed up.  I’m part of the problem.  All of us are.  I have a brother who my family hadn’t seen in many many years.  Maybe fifteen years.  He had gotten into drugs and alcohol and generally had a hard time making life work.  He left the family.  A couple of months ago I began to feel really convicted that we weren’t trying to find him.  So I began to look.  Through a unique series of events, we found him and reconnected with him.  When I met with him last, he grabbed my hand and looked me in the eye and said, “Tom, I’m sorry for not being a very good brother.  Forgive me.”  Of course I did.  Then I looked him in the face and said, “Dan, I took too long to seek you out.  Please forgive me.”  It was a beautiful moment of forgiveness in the midst of the mess of family.

Forgiveness is the glue that holds families together.  Forgiveness has two parts: confession and forgiveness.  My oldest son broke a serving spoon while using it as a drumstick with his drums.  He brought it to my wife and said he was sorry.  He kept saying he was sorry.  Then eventually he added, “I forgive you.”  #micahsayings.   He intuitively understood that confession and forgiveness go hand in hand.  We confess.  Then we forgive.  Kids are so instructive in the basics of family life.  I have another younger son, Sam.  He and Micah had this exchange one day.

Sam: Micah knocked down my chocho train.
Micah: I was angry.
Me: It’s not a good idea to knock things down when you’re angry.
Micah: I’m sorry Sam.  Will you forgive me?
Sam: Yes…You knocked down my chocho train!
#samsayings

Sam had the mechanics down of what to say, but not quite the spirit of the whole thing.  Confession and forgiveness go hand in hand.  There are two kinds of forgiveness that we all need: forgiveness between people and forgiveness between God and people.  Both include confession and forgiveness.  When we confess to God, God forgives us.  No matter how messed up we are or how messed up our actions are.  Sister Helen Prejean, spiritual advisor to Elmo “Pat” Sonnier who was convicted of rape and murder of two teenagers, said, “Everyone is worth more than the worst thing we’ve done.”  One of the people I baptized in the past was struggling with his past and some of the things he did while in the military.  He said at his baptism, “After 41 years of trying to figure out why God would forgive me when I can’t forgive myself, I’ve decided that it doesn’t matter what I think.  It only matters what God thinks.”

We all know what it’s like to wash our hands and bodies in water.  I go to the gym and come back all smelly.  I jump in the shower and stand under the water.  I come out clean and new.  My kids play in the dirt (why can’t they just play in the sand).  They get dirt everywhere.  Fingers.  Toes.  Hands.  Face.  We go inside and wash it all away with water.  Water cleanses us.  The waters of baptism cleanse us too.  In baptism we bring all our messiness and all our dirt and God washes it away.  We confess to the ways we haven’t lived up to our own standards let alone God’s.  And then God receives that confession and forgives us.  He forgives us because of what his son, Jesus, has done for us.  In Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection we are freed from our bondage, healed of our brokenness, and forgiven of our guilt.  We are washed clean.  Baptism is washing.  Baptism is forgiveness.  Baptism is the forgiveness of family.  God’s family.

Friends, today those who are being baptized are no longer just our neighbors.  They are our family.  They join the family of God.

To the parents and candidates
Tom: Do you seek to avoid evil and do good?
Parents/Candidates: I do.

Tom: Do you confess Jesus as Savior and Lord in community with the church?
Parents/Candidates: I do.

Tom: Will you stay in love with God?
Parents/Candidates: By God’s grace, I will

Tom: Do you believe in God?
Parents/Candidates:
I believe in God, the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and earth.

Tom: Do you believe in Jesus Christ?
I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord.
He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary.
He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.
He descended to the dead.
On the third day He rose again.
He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again to judge the living and the dead.

Tom: Do you believe in the Holy Spirit?
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy Catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and life everlasting. Amen.

To parents
Tom: Will you along with the church nurture these children by teaching and example guiding them to accept God’s grace for themselves when they are able?
Parents: I will.

To the church
Tom: Do you as the body of Christ, the church, reaffirm your own desire to avoid evil and commit to Christ by doing good?  If so, say “We do.”
Church: We do.

Tom: Will you nurture one another, these children, teenagers, and adults in the Christian faith and life, and surround them with a community of love and forgiveness?  If so, say “We will.”
Church: We will.

Confirmation (for those reaffirming their faith) & Anointing with Oil
When they come up out of the water…
Tom: NAME, the Lord defend you with his heavenly grace and by his Spirit confirm you in the faith and fellowship of all true disciples of Jesus Christ.
or
The Lord bless you, and keep you;
The Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you.
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
and give you peace. Numbers 6: 24-26

Congregational Remembrance
Tom: Friends, remember your baptism and be thankful.

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Problems with Work

May 11, 2016 by Leave a Comment

W*RK – It’s Not Just Anther Four-Letter Word
Problems with Work: Fruitless, Selfless, Pointless, Idols
May 8, 2016
Tom Arthur

Peace friends!

Any moms in the house? Any moms ever experience problems with making the work of being a mom mix with the work you get paid for? When it comes to moms, I think this is what moms want to do:

momswant

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is what your kids want you to do:

kidswant
 

 

 

 

 

This is what your husband wants you to do:
husbandswant

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is what you really do:
momsdo

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Mother’s Day!

Today we’re continuing a series called W*RK: It’s Not Just Another Four-Letter Word. Somehow it seems appropriate to explore this topic on Mother’s Day. But the timing was actually more of a coincidence. And yet there are a lot of tedious things that moms do in their work, just like the tedious things we all have to do in our work. I asked my friends on Facebook what was the most tedious part of your job? I got LOTS of answers. Here’s a sampling:

  1. Answering repetitive questions from customers
  2. Grading
  3. Fighting with computers!
  4. Meetings. Meetings. Meetings. Meetings.
  5. Voicemail
  6. Picking up poop
  7.  Dealing with either difficult, self-centered people or insincere, backbiting people.
  8. Getting an email from someone standing right next to you
  9. Proofing/editing long, wordy facility contracts
  10. Doing internal/external audits of files!
  11. Putting up with racial jokes

One person turned my question on its head saying:

“It used to be cleaning toilets, but when I noticed my attitude and how cleaning toilets seemed to never end! I asked the Heavenly Father to remind me of when I didn’t have those toilets to clean, and how I couldn’t pay for rent, and let me be forever grateful for those toilets! 2 years later I actually smile when I’m cleaning the toilets.”

This person’s great attitude aside, some work is just plain tedious, hard and grueling! I spoke with someone in our church who may just have the most grueling job of all. Sean Ely works on a road repair crew. From April to November he pretty much works seven days a week. The last couple of shifts have been thirty-six-hour shifts! Thankfully the imbalance in the summer is met with time off not working from December to March. He’s worked this job for eight years, but he’s looking for another job. I asked Sean how he gets through it. He said that he prays each day before work. He prays for protection for himself and his crew. He pointed out that highway repair is one of the top ten dangerous jobs. People speed through construction zones while texting, drinking, or driving recklessly. While the job is grueling at times, Sean abstains from using illicit substances on the job like some of his co-workers. He does his best to be a positive encouragement to those around him trying to not get sucked into their negativity. He told me he wasn’t always like this. In his 20s he did a lot of drugs and drank a lot. But now he leads others and serves God by doing excellent work. He pays attention to detail and has a 100% safety track record. No crashes and no damaged equipment in eight years! Other foremen want him on their crews and seek him out. Of course, while Sean is out working thirty-six hours shifts, his wife Jessica, is at home with the kids. Sean said that it’s Jessica’s support at home that really keeps him going. Some of his crew members have gone through divorce because of the grueling nature of the job and schedule. But Jessica is fully supportive. And in the winter he gets lots of time with the kids.

Sean’s experience shows that some work is hard. Really hard. The question on my mind is this: Why is some work just plain hard? Let’s look back at the beginning of the Bible and see what happens to work pretty quickly after God creates. God puts humans in a garden and tells them they can eat anything in it but the fruit from one tree. Well, you know how this story ends whether you’ve read it or not. They eat the forbidden fruit. And all hell breaks loose. The consequences of disobedience become apparent in what Christians call “the curse.” It’s not so much a curse by God as it is a curse of natural consequences of knowing disobedience. God explains it to Adam and Eve:

To the woman God said,

“I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing;
in pain you shall bring forth children.
Your desire shall be for your husband,
and he shall rule over you.”

And to Adam he said,

“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife
and have eaten of the tree
of which I commanded you,
‘You shall not eat of it,’
cursed is the ground because of you;
in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
and you shall eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your face
you shall eat bread,
till you return to the ground,
for out of it you were taken;
for you are dust,
and to dust you shall return.”
~Genesis 3:16-19 ESV

Throughout this series we’re using a book to guide us through the ups and downs of work: Every Good Endeavor by Timothy Keller. Keller says of “the curse” that

“Sin leads to the disintegration of every area of life: spiritual, physical, social, cultural, psychological, temporal, eternal.”
~Timothy Keller

Today I want to look at four problems with work:

  1. Fruitless work

Sometimes it seems like work just doesn’t produce any tangible fruit. Did you catch this line in the story from Genesis above:

thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
and you shall eat the plants of the field.
~Genesis 3:18 ESV

“Thorns and thistles.” That’s not fruit. It’s painful and hurtful. What are we to think of the “thorns and thistles” in our work? If we’re honest with ourselves some of the “thorns and thistles” in our work has to do with our own unrealistic expectations. The “Greatest Generation”, those who lived through WWII were happy with any job that put food on the table. But given the relative abundance of current times, younger generations, myself included expect to change the world with our work. We’re not content just to put food on the table. We want to make an impact. Leave our mark. While I’m not sure these expectations are all bad, sometimes these expectations can be unrealistic. The world just doesn’t work like that. Our work is never as fruitful as we would like. We can get caught in one of two extremes: Idealism or Cynicism. And yet if we go back to the same “thorns and thistles” passage we read:

thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
and you shall eat the plants of the field.
~Genesis 3:18 ESV

Work on this earth will be thorns and food. I love my job. I love being a pastor. I wouldn’t want to be anything else. Except on those days when I don’t want to be a pastor, and I’d rather be anything else. Yet if we follow Jesus we look for the day when the thorns disappear as God creates a new heaven and a new earth. It’s not Christmas time right now, but the Christmas song, Joy to the World, reminds us of this:

No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as, the curse is found.

One problem with work is that until Jesus returns, work will always be a mix of thorns and fruit.

  1. Pointless work

A second problem we all experience with work is pointless work. We’re not alone. The writer of Ecclesiastes, a wisdom book in the Bible, says:

So I came to hate life because everything done here under the sun is so troubling. Everything is meaningless—like chasing the wind.
~Ecclesiastes 2:17 NLT

Do you ever feel like your work is pointless and meaningless? Sometimes this is part of a bigger problem. The Agnostic Pub Group that I co-lead with my atheist friend is currently reading a book of essays by C.S. Lewis, best known for his book The Chronicles of Narnia. One of those essays is a transcript of a Q&A Lewis did with a group of industrial workers. Here’s how he began to Q&A:

“My own idea is that modern industry is a radically hopeless system. You can improve wages, hours, conditions, etc. but all that doesn’t cure the deepest trouble: i.e., that numbers of people are kept all their lives doing dull repetition work which gives no full play to their faculties. How that is to be overcome, I do not know.”
~C.S. Lewis (God in the Dock, Answers to Question on Christianity)

Many of us are stuck screwing sprockets, crunching numbers, answering endless calls, sorting paper, or fielding complaints. It all feels meaningless and pointless. I’ve found the solution to this problem. It’s really quite simple. Here’s what I do to get rid of all my meaningless pointless work: I give it to my staff! OK, so that fixes it for me, but not them.

Given the pointlessness of our work, maybe we should just make as much money as possible so we can buy as many pleasures as possible for the time we’re not working? This too is meaningless! The writer of Ecclesiastes who was very wealthy says:

Anything I wanted, I would take. I denied myself no pleasure. I even found great pleasure in hard work, a reward for all my labors. But as I looked at everything I had worked so hard to accomplish, it was all so meaningless—like chasing the wind. There was nothing really worthwhile anywhere.
~Ecclesiastes 2:10-11 NLT

One of the problems here is that we have may have chosen a job based on money rather than one based on your abilities. You just might be more content if you took a job that paid more but did work that was more in line with your passions. Or maybe you take the money you make and you use it to some other ends. Throughout this series we’re looking at eight ways we serve God at work. Here’s the list of all eight:

8 Ways to Serve God at Work:

  1. Do skillful, excellent work.
  2. Further social justice in the world.
  3. Create beauty.
  4. Work from a Christian motivation to glorify God, seeking to engage and influence culture to that end.
  5. Work with a grateful, joyful, gospel-changed heart through all the ups and downs.
  6. Do whatever gives you the greatest joy and passion.
  7. Be personally honest and evangelize your colleagues.
  8. Make as much money as you can, so that you can be as generous as you can.

Focusing in on number eight right now, maybe you work hard at what seems like pointless work, but you’re making a lot of money doing this pointless work. And so the question becomes, what do you do with that money? Maybe the point of making the money isn’t to spend it on your pleasures, but to be generous with God’s work in the world. You give to the church. You give to charities.   You give to the people around you who are in need. You combat pointless work with generosity.

We’ve looked at fruitless and pointless work. A third problem with work is selfish work.

  1. Selfish work

A couple of months ago we took a whole series to look at the book of Esther in the Bible. Esther is a story of a young Jewish woman in Persia named Esther. The king of Persia holds a beauty pageant to find the next queen. Esther, a Jew, wins! Shortly thereafter the Jews are under threat of genocide.
Esther has to choose: try to hide her Jewishness and keep the privileges of her job, or risk her privileges for the sake of her people. Mordecai, her uncle, tells her:

Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this?
~Esther 4:14 NLT

You “were made.” In other words, you were put here, brought here, not by what you did but by grace. It was a gift. You didn’t earn your beauty. You didn’t earn your position. It was given to you. What will you do? Will you turn it toward your own selfish pursuits or will you use your privilege to help others? Esther ultimately identified with the Jews and said “if I perish I perish.” She used her work to the good of others rather than her own good. Esther is a foreshadow of Jesus who Jesus identified with us after leaving the palace of heaven and perished, died, so that we might have new life. What will you use your work for? Yourself or others? Dorothy Sayers, an author and friend of C.S. Lewis, said:

“The only true way of serving the community is to be truly in sympathy with the community, to be oneself part of the community and then to serve the work…It is the work that serves the community; the business of the worker is to serve the work.”
~Dorothy Sayers

None of us have perfectly pure motives. None of us work entirely for other-centered reasons. We all need the mercy and grace of Jesus Christ to heal and free us from our selfishness. Timothy Keller says:

“Unless you use your clout, your credentials, and your money in service to the people outside the palace, the palace is a prison; it has already given you your name.”
~Tim Keller (119)

We’ve looked at three problems with work: pointless, fruitless, and selfish work. There’s one more problem.

  1. Idolatrous work

Shortly after the telling of the story of creation in the book of Genesis in the Bible, we come to the story of the Tower of Babel. Here’s what the people of the earth say:

“Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.”
~Genesis 11:4

We see in their motivation to build this tower two idols: the idol of self and the idol of the group. They idolize themselves when they say, “let us make a name for ourselves.”  The idol of self is called “Individualism.” When we worship the self we ignore the needs of others. The subprime bubble is a good example of that. Selling junk subprime mortgages made a lot of money for some individuals while putting many more people underwater in their houses. Work becomes pointless and meaningless when we use it as a way to make a name for ourselves.

The second idol is the idol of the group. The people of the earth idolize the group when they say, “Lest we be dispersed over the face of the earth.”  This is called “collectivism.” We idolize the group when we ignore individual needs. The Industrial revolution and the modern assembly line are good examples. Individuals become replaceable cogs in a wheel.

When we work for the idol of self or the idol of the group our work becomes our identity, rather than Christ being our identity. The way we keep work from becoming an idol is we do honest work while turning to Jesus.

I mentioned earlier that throughout this series we’re looking at eight ways we serve God at work. This is where the rubber meets the road. We looked at the last one earlier, let’s look at number seven now:

8 Ways to Serve God at Work:

  1. Be personally honest and evangelize your colleagues.
  2. Make as much money as you can, so that you can be as generous as you can.

Let’s be honest. “Evangelizing your colleagues” doesn’t sound very appealing. In fact, it’s probably that kind of Christian that most of us are trying not to be. Some of our workplaces are very unfriendly to faith discussions. I was talking with a social worker in our church who told me that it’s considered unethical to talk to clients about her faith. Another person in our church works in the art world. The arts haven’t always had the best of relationships with the church. His fellow colleagues are suspicious of his involvement with church and his faith. So how do we navigate these challenges? Here are a couple of ideas. Like Sean, we do excellent work. We focus on being the best road repair worker we can be. You live out your faith in a way that makes others wonder what motivates you. When they ask, the door begins to open. If you’re in a workplace where it’s considered unethical to bring up faith with your clients, then you bring it up with your co-workers. How do you bring it up? You participate actively in church. When you’re asked what you did this weekend, instead of dodging the fact that you went to church, you mention it. You pray and you wait for your colleagues to ask you about your church and your faith. You learn to ask them good questions like, “Do you have a church family? What’s your experience of church been? Have you ever had an experience with God?” You go from there. One partner in our church takes our invite cards to our big days and hangs them up in his cubicle. He finds that his colleagues ask him about them. He doesn’t even have to bring it up. As you take small steps, you find that it gets easier. Slowly but surely you are able to talk about your faith with your colleagues in a natural, non-obnoxious way. And you let God do the heavy lifting. Your colleagues’ salvation isn’t in your job description. Jesus already took that tedious grueling job. Your job is simply to be a means of God’s grace in the life of those who you encounter. In this way you serve God when you are personally honest and evangelize your colleagues.

There are a lot of problems with work. Work is sometimes fruitless, pointless, selfish, and idolatrous. We serve God at work when we use our work to make as much money as we can so we can be as generous as we can. We serve God at work when we are personally honest and evangelize our colleagues.

Prayer
God, amidst all the problems we face in work, help us be honest. Help us share our faith with those around us. Help us not be tempted to earn money to spend it on our own passions, but help us to be generous with all that you have given us. Thank you for you grace in your son Jesus Christ, who did the hard grueling work of death on a cross, so that our work here on earth might be redeemed and made new. In Jesus’ name and the power of your Spirit, amen.

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God’s Plan for Work

April 26, 2016 by Leave a Comment

W*RK: It’s Not just a four-letter word – God’s Plan
Sycamore Creek Church
April 24/25, 2016
Tom Arthur

Friends, let’s work! 

The other day I was sitting on the couch cuddling my two-year-old. Here’s the conversation we had:

Me: I have to go to work.
Sam: Why?
Me: Do you like having a house to live in?
Sam: Yes.
Me: Do you like having food to eat?
Sam: Yes.
Me: Do you like daddy participating in God’s work & mission in the world?
Sam: No.
#samsayings

Today we’re beginning a new series called W*RK: It’s not just a four-letter word. We’re going to be exploring all the ins and outs of work. What did God plan for work? What problems do we face in work? Are we supposed to work all the time? Is there any Good News for work? What about work and the church?

What did you want to be when you grow up?

When I was little I wanted to play baseball for the Cincinnati Reds. That didn’t happen! But over the years I’ve had several jobs. As a kid growing up I had a paper route. I started a hamster breeding business. I did well with the breeding part but not with the business part. I started a lawn mowing business. Did better at both of those. My first job as a teenager was to help open a new Fazoli’s store. Then I worked at Target in the electronic department. In college I worked at the Gap (the worst job ever…I spent all my money on clothes). Then I worked at Subway. I was also a dark-room assistant for a photographer. One summer I worked for my step-dad’s ticket business. And then toward the end of my college life I got to be a youth pastor for one summer. After I graduated from college I took a part-time job at a church (that eventually led to a full-time job) and a part time job as a line-cook at a fancy resort-town Italian restaurant. Then in seminary I was a research assistant (I got paid to read books and articles!). Of course after seminary I became a pastor, but I also do a little writing and coaching/consulting on the side. Somehow I missed the Cincinnati Reds.

What has been your favorite and least favorite job?

Our culture tells us that “THE Good LIFE” is leisure, entertainment, and no work. And yet when we get home from work, we watch TV shows about work: The Office, 30 Rock, Madmen, Parks and Rec, Suits, Scrubs, The Good Wife, The Newsroom, Shark Tank (“I’m out”), and of course The Apprentice (“You’re fired”).

We have a complicated relationship with work. We hate it. We love it. We need it. Those who are hospitalized or bedridden or in nursing homes or have illnesses often feel “useless” and without “something to do.” Rob, a young man in our church who recently had a heart attack, and is off work told me the other day he feels adrift. He can’t wait to get back to work. Katie, another young woman in our church who can’t work regularly because of illness told me on Facebook, “It feels like I’m not a real person. I feel invalid and weak, useless even. It makes me question what kind of role I’m supposed to play if my body won’t let me live the way other people are able to live. I want to be more than my illnesses.”

What’s the deal with work? Why do we value it? Have you heard of the “Ikea Effect.” Researchers at Harvard, Yale, and Duke have all shown that we value something more when we’ve put work into it. Wikipedia defines the IKEA effect as “a cognitive bias in which consumers place a disproportionately high value on products they partially created.” The same basic thing happened in the 1950s and 1960s with instant cake mixes. Pillsbury and others invented the “just add water” cake mix. But sales slumped even though it was easier than ever to make a cake. Sales didn’t go up again until they started advertising all the unique and creative ways you could layer or build a cake with a variety of icing types. People didn’t just want to get out of work. They wanted to make something creative (Bon Appetit).

Today we are going to look at God’s plan for work and what that means for our work today. Guiding us along the way will be a helpful book by Tim Keller titled Every Good Endeavor. I suggest you pick it up and take a look. Today I want to explore three ways that God works.

  1. God Worked – Creation

In the beginning God worked.

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work (melakah – work, workmanship, occupation, business) that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work (melakah) that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work (melakah) that he had done in creation.
~Genesis 2:1-3 ESV 

Work is not a necessary evil for God. This is in contrast to other ancient creation stories. In the Babylonian creation story, Ennuma Elish, the god Marduk overcomes the goddess Tiamat, and creation is from the remains of Tiamat. Tim Keller points out that in Genesis:

“Creation…is not the aftermath of a battle [between cosmic gods as in other ancient creation stories] but the plan of a craftsman. God made the world not as a warrior digs a trench but as an artist makes a masterpiece.”
~Tim Keller (20)

We can learn from the biblical story of creation that work is not beneath the dignity of God. “God worked for the sheer joy of it” (Keller). Seven times in the first chapter of Genesis we read, “And God saw that it was (very) good.” In the beginning God worked and work has an exalted beginning.God Worked and God works.

  1. God Works – Providence

God continues to work today. “God works not only to create but also to care for his creation” (Keller). We continue reading in the creation story in Genesis:

A mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground—then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food.
~Genesis 2:6-9 ESV

God continues to work. God waters. God breathes life. God plants. God provides food. In the prayer book of the Bible, the book of Psalms we read:

The eyes of all look to you,
and you give them their food in due season.
You open your hand;
you satisfy the desire of every living thing.
~Psalm 145:15-16 ESV

Theologians refer to this as God’s “providence.” God’s providence is God’s divine guidance or care. “Providence” comes from the word “provide.” We only exist now because God continues to provide for existence. I’m not talking about “deism.” Deism says that God created the world like a clock and wound the clock and now lets it run on its own. No. God provides when God comforts, encourages, heals, and acts in natural and supernaturally miraculous ways. Some of this can be seen in the way that God has created the universe from the very beginning to support life. Scientists call this the “Anthropic Principle.” Anthropic is from the Greek word “anthropos” or “man/human.” In the universe we see fifteen different physical constants of nature such as the speed of light, the force of gravity, etc. All fifteen of these are fine-tuned to support life. If one of the fifteen were a hair different, our universe wouldn’t support life, wouldn’t have produced life. For example, the age of universe is such that it’s old enough to develop heavy metals necessary for life but young enough that all the stars haven’t all burned out. One scientist says, “There’s something about the world that makes it friendly for life – it almost looks as if the universe knew we were coming.” Alister McGrath—Professor in Science and Religion at the University of Oxford with three doctorates from Oxford in Molecular Biology, Theology, Intellectual History—explains the Anthropic Principle. The point of all this is that God didn’t just work in the beginning. God continues to work now.

God worked, God works, and God works through us. 

  1. God Works Through Us – Dominion

In the beginning there was work.

The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work (avad – work, serve, till) it and keep (shamar – to keep, guard, protect) it.
~Genesis 2:15 ESV

Tim Keller says:

Work is so foundational to our makeup, in fact, that it is one of the few things we can take in significant doses without harm. Indeed, the Bible does not say we should work one day and rest six, or that work and rest should be balanced evenly—but directs us to the opposite ration. Leisure and pleasure are great goods, but we can take only so much of them.
~Tim Keller

We need work. Work blesses us.

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
~Genesis 1:28 ESV

We are to work in creation by subduing it. What does it mean to subdue creation? Tim Keller says:

The word ‘subdue’ indicates that, though all God had made was good, it was still to a great degree undeveloped. God left creation with untapped potential for cultivation that people were to unlock through their labor.
~Tim Keller

I’m reminded of the mural that Tara George painted down the street with our church at Mt Hope STEAM school. STEAM is an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math. We unlock the potentials of creation and continue to work when we engage the STEAMs of this world.   God calls each of us in different ways to do this creative work. In fact, the word “vocation” comes from the Latin word that means “calling.” Our work is a calling. It’s not just a four-letter word. When you belong to Jesus you participate in Jesus’ mission in the world. You do science for Jesus. You do technology for Jesus.   You do engineering for Jesus. You to the arts for Jesus. You do math for Jesus. Jesus teaches us to pray saying, God, “your kingdom come, here on earth as it is in heaven.”

Because we follow Jesus there are at least 8 ways we serve God at work. We’re going to look at two of them each week of this series.

8 Ways to Serve God at Work:

  1. Do skillful, excellent work.
  2. Further social justice in the world.
  3. Be personally honest and evangelize your colleagues.
  4. Create beauty.
  5. Work from a Christian motivation to glorify God, seeking to engage and influence culture to that end.
  6. Work with a grateful, joyful, gospel-changed heart through all the ups and downs.
  7. Do whatever gives you the greatest joy and passion.
  8. Make as much money as you can, so that you can be as generous as you can.

1. Do Skillful Excellent Work
We serve God and bring God glory when we do excellent work. Excellence is doing the best you can with what you’ve got. You do skillful excellent work in whatever job you have when you don’t cut corners. You do skillful excellent work when you continue to improve your craft and learn more about how to do it better. This is not to say that you work all the time and have no rest. In fact, researchers have shown that we are most productive when we get a brief period of rest every hour (52 minutes of work and 17 minutes of break away from computers, Fast Company). We do skillful excellent work when we know that our gifts and talents contribute in a way that compliments others’ gifts and talents. Take something as simple as a toaster. How many people does it take to build a toaster? How many skills? Thomas Thwaite attempted to find out. He bought a simple toaster and took it apart. He found that it had four-hundred parts. Four-hundred! He wanted to replicate this toaster himself. He reduced the parts to five: steel, mica, plastic, copper, nickel. Then he attempted to build a toaster by himself. What he ended up with was nothing like what you or I would call a functional toaster. Check it out here. There’s a lot to learn from Thwaite’s attempt, but one thing that is clear to me is that for us to do skillful and excellent work, we need the skills of everyone around us chipping in too. We serve God at work when we do skillful excellent work.

 

2. Further Social Justice in the World
We also serve God at work when we create work or advocate for work or business that makes a useful, helpful, and non-harmful (to people or the environment) product and provides a living wage for those who do the work. According to the online living wage calculator created by researchers at MIT, a living wage in Lansing which would cover the basic costs of housing, food, childcare, medical care, and transportation would be the following depending on the size and makeup of your family:

1 Adult – $9.86/hr
2 Adults 2 Kids – $14.13/hr
1 Adult 2 Kids – $25.58/hr

If you’re wondering why you are always in crisis mode financially, part of the reason might be the choices you’re making, but part of the reason might be that we as a culture tend not to pay people a living wage.

Creating a living wage isn’t the only way to further social justice in the workplace. Serving God at work means making sure that our businesses don’t discriminate. For example, women make $0.78 in general for every $1 that men make in the same job with the same qualifications. We serve God when we work to further social justice in the world.

God worked. God works. And God works through us when we do skillful excellent work and further social justice in the world.

How can you do skillful excellent work at your job? How can you work for social justice in your job?

Prayer
God, we thank you for the excellent skillful work you did in creation. We thank you that you continue to work and sustain us and provide for us. We thank you that you continue to work through us. Help us to serve you in our vocations by doing skillful excellent work and working to further social justice, so that as Jesus prays, “Your kingdom come here on earth as it is in heaven.” Amen.

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Making Sense of the Devil *

April 12, 2016 by Leave a Comment

The Line Between Good & Evil
Making Sense of the Devil *
Sycamore Creek Church
November 22/23, 2015
Tom Arthur

Peace friends!

Today we continue in a three-week series on The Line between Good and Evil. Last week we looked at what evil is and how we overcome it. Next week we’re looking at evil’s ultimate defeat. And today we’re looking at making sense of the devil.

In 1942 C.S. Lewis, the British author of The Chronicles of Narnia, wrote a fictional set of letters from a senior demon named Screwtape mentoring a lesser demon named Wormwood. In the introduction he wrote:

There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors…Readers are advised to remember that the devil is a liar. Not everything that Screwtape says should be assumed to be true even from his own angle…

Screwtape answers this question of the Devil himself in one of those letters:

MY DEAR WORMWOOD,

I wonder you should ask me whether it is essential to keep the patient in ignorance of your own existence. That question, at least for the present phase of the struggle, has been answered for us by the High Command. Our policy, for the moment, is to conceal ourselves. Of course this has not always been so. We are really faced with a cruel dilemma. When the humans disbelieve in our existence we lose all the pleasing results of direct terrorism and we make no magicians. On the other hand, when they believe in us, we cannot make them materialists and skeptics. At least, not yet. I have great hopes that we shall learn in due time how to emotionalise and mythologise their science to such an extent that what is, in effect, belief in us, (though not under that name) will creep in while the human mind remains closed to belief in the Enemy. The “Life Force”, the worship of sex, and some aspects of Psychoanalysis, may here prove useful. If once we can produce our perfect work—the Materialist Magician, the man, not using, but veritably worshipping, what he vaguely calls “Forces” while denying the existence of “spirits”—then the end of the war will be in sight. But in the meantime we must obey our orders. I do not think you will have much difficulty in keeping the patient in the dark. The fact that “devils” are predominantly comic figures in the modern imagination will help you. If any faint suspicion of your existence begins to arise in his mind, suggest to him a picture of something in red tights, and persuade him that since he cannot believe in that (it is an old textbook method of confusing them) he therefore cannot believe in you…

Your affectionate uncle,
SCREWTAPE

The devil in red tights. That’s how most of us imagine the devil. A comic figure. More to be laughed at than feared. Paul, the first missionary of the church had a different view of the devil. He wrote a letter to the Ephesians, which we’ll unpack throughout this message today, where he cautioned them saying:

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

Therefore take up the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.

Stand therefore, and fasten the belt of truth around your waist, and put on the breastplate of righteousness. As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace.

With all of these, take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
~Paul (Ephesians 6:10-17 NRSV)

The devil goes by many names: Belzubul, Belial, Satan, Lucifer, The Adversary, The Accuser, The Prince of the Power of the Air, The Tempter, The Liar, or That Old Serpent among others. Today I want to answer four questions about the devil:

  1. Is the devil real?
  2. Is the devil a personification of our inner struggles?
  3. How does the devil affect our lives?
  4. How do we overcome the devil?
  1. Is The Devil Real?

I know there’s an irony in a Blue Devil pastor asking the question of whether the devil is real. Of course the Blue Devils are real, but that’s not the kind of devil I’m talking about. Over the last week I’ve read every passage in the Bible about the devil. Let’s do a bit of a survey of the Bible starting with the Old Testament. In the Old Testament we get the name “Satan” for the devil. “Satan” comes from the Hebrew word “Ha Satan.” “Ha Satan” literally means the opposer or the accuser. “Ha Satan” can be used for anyone. In fact God or God’s angel is referred to as “Ha Satan” when opposing a false prophet. Otherwise, there are three passages in the Old Testament where “Ha Satan” is working to accuse God’s people.

In 1 Chronicles King David takes a census. This is interpreted as prideful and an unjust way of levying taxes. We’re told that “Ha Satan” puts him up to it. In Zechariah chapter three the prophet Zechariah has a heavenly vision and “Ha Satan” is making accusations of the high priest and God rebukes him. In Job, an example of ancient epic poetry wrestling with the problem of suffering among good people, “Ha Satan” is accusing Job before God. Ha Satan says Job’s only righteous because God protects him. So God allows Ha Satan to go ahead and test him. In Genesis we read about a snake who tempts Adam and Eve. Later Christians have read into this story that the snake is Satan, but the story itself doesn’t make this claim. The snake is just a snake, or a snake that happens to talk. As we continue our exploration of the devil in the Bible we read in Isaiah 14 about “Lucifer” which literally means “Morning Star.” Lucifer is an angel thrown down from heaven, but the original context of this passage is not about the devil but about the king of Babylon and Tyre. The king is called “Lucifer.” Then again in Ezekiel 28 we read about a figure who many have interpreted as Satan, but the passage was originally about the King of Tyre.

It’s interesting to note that most Jews don’t talk much about Satan. The Old Testament just doesn’t give a lot of evidence for the devil. But when the Jews went into exile in Persia they began to understand from Persian views of evil that the devil was a fallen angel and the source of evil. Thus, as we head into the New Testament there is a significant shift in description of the Devil.

In the New Testament, the devil is called “diablos.” “Diablos” literally means slanderer, accuser, opposition, deceitful, or lying. The New Testament picks up on the Old Testament’s view of Satan but adds to it the aspect of the devil leading us astray, leading us off the path that God would have us walk. When I was in Yosemite I climbed up the back side of Half Dome one morning. There was a narrow path with a kind of iron cable guide on each side. You really didn’t want to get outside of that path or you might fall to your death. As we looked at last week, sin literally means to stray from the path. To repent means to turn back to the path. If you got out of the cable guides, you really wanted to repent and get back onto the path. Satan, in the New Testament, is the one who pulls you away from the path or puts obstacles in the path that lead to death.

In Matthew chapter four Jesus goes into the desert to fast for forty days, and he is tempted by the devil to leave the path. He’s tempted with pleasure, protection, and power, but he resists the temptations of the devil. Jesus then travels around the countryside encountering people who are demon possessed and setting them free or healing them. In Luke chapter ten, Jesus sends the disciples out to preach and heal, and when they come back, Jesus says he saw Satan fall like lighting from the sky.

In the various letters of the New Testament (The Epistles), Satan’s role includes devouring and hunting. Peter, one of Jesus’ closest friends said:

Discipline yourselves, keep alert. Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour.
~1 Peter 5:8

If you’re not careful, you’ll miss out on the life you were meant to have and end up perpetuating evil.

In the last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation, the devil takes on the form of a dragon, a beast, or an old serpent. He wages war against the people of God and works through various empires of the day, especially the Roman Empire.

So that’s it. That’s the entirety of what the Bible teaches about the devil in summary. Let’s move on to the question: is the devil a personification?

  1. Is the Devil Just A Personification of Our Own Struggles?

This question is the modern question. Is the devil really an individual “identity” or “person” or whatever word you want to use, or is the devil just a personification of evil that resides within all of us? I put this question to my friends on Facebook. I got about a 50/50 split on their answers. It’s important to note that most of my friends who answered this question are Christians. Many of them are pastors. Many of them are fully committed to following Jesus. But they disagreed on the answer to this question. In other words, faithful Christians disagree on whether the devil is a real person or a personification of evil.

Why is this? Why do Christians disagree? Because it’s possible to interpret almost all the references in the Bible in the metaphorical sense. For example, when Jesus is tempted, he could be being tempted by his own thoughts not a devil in red tights. He had been fasting for forty days after all! And when Jesus encounters demon possession, it’s very easy to read unexplained medical diagnoses into most of those stories. If the doctors couldn’t explain it, it was a demon. Today we would explain these “demon possessions” as a fever, epilepsy, or mental illness.   When the demons talk to Jesus, it’s understandable to see mental illness as the cause of these “demonic possessions.”   And when Jesus says he saw Satan “Fall like lighting,” Jesus is already using metaphorical language.

There is one hard example in the New Testament that is hard to read metaphorically. In Mark we read about Jesus casting a demon(s) named Legion from a man in the tombs and sending it into a herd of pigs. Here’s the story:

Then Jesus asked [the unclean spirit], “What is your name?” He replied, “My name is Legion; for we are many.”  He begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country.

Now there on the hillside a great herd of swine was feeding; and the unclean spirits begged him, “Send us into the swine; let us enter them.”

So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the swine; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea, and were drowned in the sea.
~Mark 5:9-13 NRSV

It’s a bit hard to explain this story as personification. Jesus takes something that was in a man and casts it into something else. But, some scholars point out that the Roman occupation force is called Legion and Legion is cast into pigs. Pigs are considered unclean by Jews. So could this story be read as political commentary? Perhaps.

Here’s my point: It’s possible to be a deeply committed Christian and have different views on this question of personification. The rationalist in me likes the personification idea. I don’t need the devil’s help, I’ve got enough in me to tempt me. The idea of “Satan” tends to absolve me of responsibility. But I have three hesitations, personally, with the idea of the devil as personification. First, there’s a lot of scripture about the devil. Yes, it can be read as metaphorical, but it’s a steep hill to climb to build that case for every single instance. Second, people I know have had significant experiences with the devil or the demonic. These personal individual experiences are hard to ignore. Third, I think the answer to this question comes down to whether you believe that there is a supernatural world or whether you think that the only world is the material one. We all know that there is brokenness, sin, and evil in the material world. If there is a supernatural world, why would there not also be brokenness, sin, and evil in that world too? Is what we see all there is, or is there more? I tend to think there is more than what we see (but that depends on which side of the bed I wake up on each day).

Whether the devil is real or a personification, we experience temptation the same and answers to resisting the devil are the same. So let’s look at the next question:

  1. How Does the Devil Affect Our Lives?

Some Christians see the devil in almost anything. Growing up in the church I was in, bad stuff was usually the result of the devil, but sometimes God was said to be the cause of bad stuff happening. No parking spot? The devil did it. Computer wouldn’t work? The devil’s in the machine. Power went out? The devil doesn’t want us to worship, or maybe we’re not worshiping right, or maybe a branch fell on the power line. Alarm clock didn’t go off? The devil doesn’t want me to preach a powerful sermon, or God was trying to keep me from preaching a bad sermon, or I just forgot to set the alarm.

“The devil made me do it” is a common phrase we hear. But the devil can’t make you do anything. He’s not that powerful. The devil only has the power of suggestion, but he is a very good salesman. The devil uses certain well-worn wiles:

Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
~Ephesians 6:11 NRSV

What’s a “wile”? A wile is a trick. The devil uses certain tricks to sell us on certain things. There are three well-worn wiles of the devil.

Three Wiles

  1. Old Tapes

The devil likes to play images of all the old things that hurt you. Your father didn’t say he loved you for years and years. Your mom said hurtful things that left a scar. But devil likes to take these old tapes and make them sound worse than they were. Even if they were really really bad, the devil makes them really really really bad. Or the devil likes to remind you of that bad thing you did. Make you feel guilty and shameful all over again. He tells you that the world would be better if you weren’t here. This is all the opposite of the Gospel. That’s why it’s so important to know the Gospel, the Good News of Jesus. The devil says you’re worthless but the Bible says you’re worth as much as God’s Son. The devil says it’s hopeless, but the Bible says there’s always hope. The devil says you’ll never be forgiven but the Bible says you’re never so far from God that God can’t forgive you. One wile of the devil is to play old tapes.

  1. Old Lies

A second wile of the devil is tell you that what is not good for you is good for you. They’re old lies that the devil likes to tell. I did a little research into Anton LaVey, the author of the Satanic Bible and the founder of the Church of Satan. Interestingly, I learned that LaVey and the Church of Satan don’t actually believe in a literal Satan. What they don’t believe in is the ethics of the Bible. There are nine satanic principles and they’re just the opposite of biblical ethics. For example, don’t abstain, indulge. Don’t show kindness to everyone. Show kindness only to those who are worthy. Don’t forgive, show vengeance. These are lies. At times they sound like truth, but that’s all they are, “truthy.” They are wiles and tricks of the devil. Follow them and they will lead to death and destruction.

I’ve been working with a physical trainer now for about two months. I began working with him in part because I was having a hard time sleeping. But when you work out really hard at night and have enough time to cool down before you go to bed, you sleep really well. Really well. I’ve experienced this truth over and over again. But every single night that I’m scheduled to go to work out with him, I am tempted by an old lie, “You’re tired. It would be better to just rest and then go to sleep.” Yeah, the truth of that lie is that I won’t sleep well. It’s a wile of the devil. It’s a lie. The devil uses old lies to trick us off the path of life.

  1. Old Slippery Slope

The third wile the devil uses is the old slippery slope of temptation. The devil tries to sell us on the idea that we can get just a little bit off the path and we’ll be ok. But what we don’t realize is that it’s a slippery slope of temptation. An addiction to pornography begins with a curiosity about nudity. God made nudity, right? Yes, but…then you’re not getting the intimacy you want and need from your spouse so you go back to porn. Just once a week turns to several times a week turns to sneaking around behind your spouse’s back. It all begins with legal forms of porn, but porn has a desensitizing nature. Like drugs, you always need the bigger hit.   Your legal forms of porn turn to illegal forms of porn. Eventually you slip up and you’re arrested. You lose your spouse, your career, and your dreams. What was supposed to give you life (sexual intimacy within the confines of a life-long commitment of marriage) ends up on the slippery slope of temptation and destroys your life.

Or consider all the athletic scandals we’ve seen over the years. I bet Barry Bonds thought, “One shot won’t hurt.” Lance Armstrong probably said to himself, “I overcame cancer. Come on. I deserve to win a race or two after beating cancer.” Tiger Woods probably thought, “No one will ever find out.” Interestingly when I was thinking through all this, I had to go way back to find a woman on this course. Tonya Harding probably thought, “I just won’t say anything. If I don’t say anything, then I’m innocent.”

The devil uses at least three wiles, three tricks: Old tapes, old lies, old slippery slopes.

  1. How Do We Overcome the Devil?

So how do we overcome the devil? I want to suggest three defenses to overcoming the devil.

Rebuke
First, overcome the devil by rebuking the devil In the name of Jesus. Name him. “Satan, get away from me in the name of Jesus.” Or as Jesus said, “Satan, get behind me.” There’s something powerful about putting a name to the evil in our lives. It’s like taking a cold shower. It wakes your defenses up.

Remember
Second, overcome the devil by remembering that the devil is not as powerful as you think. The devil is not omniscient, omnipotent, or omnipresent. It is possible to resist him. Paul tells us to put on the armor of God:

Therefore take up the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.
~Ephesians 6:13 NRSV

He goes on to tell us to put on truth, faith, salvation, righteousness, prayer, and scripture. These things help us remember who we are and what we’re all about. They help us remember that the devil is not all powerful.

Reach Out
Third, reach out and get help. I recently read with horror about a United Methodist Pastor who a year ago killed his wife, attacked his daughter, and tried to take his own life. He was arrested and tried. All of his friends, church members, and fellow pastors were shocked. This was not the person they knew. It slowly came to light that he had been in a car accident and had a head injury. He had not really been himself since that car accident. He was eventually acquitted of the crime for not being sane, but was committed to a mental institution. I can’t help but think, “If only he had reached out.”   But the devil uses mental illness to cloud our sense of help. The devil pushes us into isolation. Reach out for help. Reach out to overcome suicidal thoughts. Reach out to overcome alcoholism or drug addiction. Reach out to get rid of porn in your life. The devil will try to tell you not to ask for help. The devil tells you that you are too far gone. But Jesus breaks the prisoner free if you ask for help. Jesus’ brother tells us to:

Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
~James 4:7 NRSV

Peter encourages us to:

Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you.
~1 Peter 5:6-7 NRSV

Rebuke. Remember. Reach out. Resist the devil in these ways. Martin Luther, the great 16th century Protestant reformer wrote a well known hymn called A Mighty Fortress. It’s a powerful reminder that you don’t have to give in to the devil.

And though this world, with devils filled,
should threaten to undo us,
we will not fear, for God hath willed
his truth to triumph through us.
The Prince of Darkness grim,
we tremble not for him;
his rage we can endure,
for lo, his doom is sure;
one little word shall fell him.

Prayer
Some of you have been listening to those old tapes, the lies of the devil. Hear the word of the Lord. You are loved. You are worthy. You are never too far gone. God help me to hear the truth rather than the lies. Help me to hear your voice. Help me to trust your love.

Some are at the beginning of a slippery slope. A little won’t hurt anyone. God help me to stand firm against any “little” bit of evil.

Some are stuck. Some are enslaved to something that is taking your life away. Help me, Lord. Help me. Give me your strength. Bring me back to your path. Give me courage to ask others for help.

By the power of Jesus Christ, may the Evil One be gone from your life today. Amen.

 

*This sermon is based on a sermon first preached by Adam Hamilton

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Why Do We Give? *

April 12, 2016 by Leave a Comment

The Christian Wallet: Why Do We Give? *
Sycamore Creek Church
January 17/18, 2016
Tom Arthur

Peace friends!  And happy New Year.

What are the life skills you’re training in your children or grandchildren? There are certain spiritual practices we’re training our own children in. We do Bible reading and prayer each night before bed. We serve together as a family. We came to the S Penn Venue together in December to clean the building. We’re training our children to worship weekly, even when we go on vacation. We went with Sarah’s parents to their church when we were away after Christmas. We are training our children in confession and forgiveness. When one does wrong to someone, we ask him to ask the one he wronged to forgive him. When I do something wrong to one of my boys, I confess the wrong and ask for forgiveness. We also are beginning to train our oldest boy about money. He has three jars on the kitchen counter: Give, Save, and Spend. He gets three quarters each week and one quarter goes in each jar. He brings the money in the give jar into the church to put in the offering. We are training our children to give their money away. But why? That’s the question I want to deal with today. Why do we give? I want to give you three reasons why you’d give your money back to God through the church.

  1. To keep close to the heart of God
    When you give your money to the church you keep your heart, the deep place in yourself, close to God. Jesus teaches:

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
~Matthew 6:21 NRSV

Make sure you notice the direction here. Your heart follows your money. Not the other way around. The decisions you make about how you spend your money shape the form of your heart.

Last year Sarah and I sold our house in Petoskey. We had owned that house for about fifteen years. We put a lot of time and money into that house. When we sold it I was curious how much money we had dumped into the house. So I figured an average amount for our mortgage payment, taxes, utilities, and repairs and added it all up. The total amount we spent on that house came to about $170,000 over fifteen years! $170,000! $170,000 is enough to anchor your heart anywhere. And while we had the house, our hearts were in Petoskey. But when we sold the house it freed up our hearts to really reside and root in Lansing.

Forbes provides a list of the top five things you’ll spend your money on over your lifetime. These five things will require about half of all the money you make:

  1. House (30%)
  2. Car/Travel (10%)
  3. Kids ($225,000),
  4. College (10%)
  5. Retirement (10-15% = Salary x 25)

Based on this list, our hearts will be in our homes, our cars, our kids, our education, and our retirement. That pretty well sums up what most of us spend our lives pursuing. But what really struck me about this list was that God didn’t even make a showing. Is God in your top five?

You give generously to the church to keep your heart close to God!

Paul, the first missionary of the church said:

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
~Galatians 5:22:23 NRSV

Many of you know that verse not with “generosity” in it but “goodness.” The Greek work implies goodness through being generous to those around you. When God’s Spirit is at work in you, generosity becomes a mark of your character. You do good generously, including with your money.

So is God not interested in my house, car, kids, education, and retirement? Not exactly. God’s vision for the world is a world of “Shalom.” Shalom is Hebrew for “peace”, but shalom is much more than the absence of war. Shalom is peace, well-being, and prosperity all around for everyone. Shalom includes justice to those who are without justice. There is no peace without justice. There is no shalom without justice.

Shalom pops up in one of the most famous blessings in the Old Testament, the Aaronic Blessing. Aaron was Moses brother and the first priest of the tabernacle. This blessing of his is recorded in the book of Numbers:

The Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you;
the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace [shalom].
~Numbers 6:24-26 NRSV

God is definitely interested in shalom, well-being, peace, prosperity for all of God’s creation, but God’s primary mission is not to make you safe, comfortable, and entertained. God’s primary mission in Jesus is elsewhere…

  1. To meet the needs of the poor and poor in spirit
    Our world is broken and doesn’t have shalom, so Jesus came into the world to seek out especially those who are lacking peace. Jesus describes his own mission saying:

The Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost.
~Luke 19:10 NLT

Your heart is with God when you invest in Jesus’ mission to seek and save those who are lost!

You give generously to the church to seek and save the lost!

Who are the lost? The lost are not always just the poor. In fact, when you read this verse in its context you find that it’s actually talking about the rich. The rich are lost!

Jesus entered Jericho and made his way through the town. There was a man there named Zacchaeus. He was the chief tax collector in the region, and he had become very rich. He tried to get a look at Jesus, but he was too short to see over the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree beside the road, for Jesus was going to pass that way.

When Jesus came by, he looked up at Zacchaeus and called him by name. “Zacchaeus!” he said. “Quick, come down! I must be a guest in your home today.”

Zacchaeus quickly climbed down and took Jesus to his house in great excitement and joy. But the people were displeased. “He has gone to be the guest of a notorious sinner,” they grumbled.

Meanwhile, Zacchaeus stood before the Lord and said, “I will give half my wealth to the poor, Lord, and if I have cheated people on their taxes, I will give them back four times as much!”

Jesus responded, “Salvation has come to this home today, for this man has shown himself to be a true son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost.”
~Luke 19:1-10

So what’s going on here? First, Zacchaeus is “very rich.” He was very rich because he was good at extorting money out of the poor in the form of taxes. He was so good at it that he was notorious, and the people couldn’t believe that Jesus would spend any time with such a notorious enemy of the poor. But Jesus had a different mission. His mission was to seek out people who were lost, whether rich or poor. And Zacchaeus was lost in his riches. But when he encounters Jesus his life is transformed and he begins to put his money in Jesus’ mission. He reconciles his past wrongs and gives away half of his wealth to the poor. Jesus’ purpose is not so much to get us into “heaven” but to get “heaven” into us.

Heaven in us is God’s mission in Jesus in our hearts. We give generously to get God’s mission in our hearts.

The lost are the spiritual and economically lost. Matthew records Jesus saying:

Blessed are the “poor in spirit.”
~Matthew 5:3 NRSV

Luke records Jesus saying:

Blessed are the “poor.”
~Luke 6:20 NRSV

Sycamore Creek Church has a vision for seven satellites in seven venues on seven days of the week. It’s our 7-7-7 Vision. Jackpot! We’re planning on launching a new venue in 2016. A “satellite” campus is a mission to seek out the lost. We’re not content to wait for the lost to come to us. In fact, the lost can’t find us. If you’re lost, you can’t find your way. That’s what it means to be lost. If you’re going to find the lost you have to send out a search party. We’re going to go out and seek the lost with each new venue we launch. Blessed are the poor in spirit.

You give generously to the church because the church is the primary community that is all about Jesus’ mission!

Blessed are the poor.

You give generously to sustain a community that meets the needs economic needs of the poor in its community

John the Baptist, Jesus’ cousin, preached and prepared the way for Jesus. He taught:

Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God…

The crowds asked, “What should we do?”

John replied, “If you have two shirts, give one to the poor. If you have food, share it with those who are hungry.”
~Luke 3:8, 10-11

This theme of providing for the poor runs throughout all of scripture. We read in Leviticus:

When you harvest the crops of your land, do not harvest the grain along the edges of your fields, and do not pick up what the harvesters drop. Leave it for the poor and the foreigners living among you. I am the Lord your God.
~Leviticus 23:22 NLT

God was setting up a system by which the poor would be provided for. No one would be left out of shalom. God was showing compassion. The Hebrew word for “compassion” is very closely related to the Hebrew word for “womb” such that God’s compassion could be considered God’s “womb love.” God has love for all of us in the way that a mother has love for her children. And more…

Can a woman forget her nursing child,
or show no compassion for the child of her womb?
Even these may forget,
yet I will not forget you.
~Isaiah 49:15 NRSV

What does a mother want for her child? I asked my mother friends on Facebook what they wanted for their children. I think the answers sum up what shalom looks like:

  1. Reliable home
  2. Healthy food
  3. Decent clothing
  4. Thriving education
  5. Safe place to grow up
  6. Good friends
  7. Love for God

How can a follower of Jesus provide reliable houses, healthy food, decent clothing, a thriving education, a safe place to grow up, good friends, and love for God to all those who are poor and poor in spirit? The answer is that a follower of Jesus can’t provide these things…alone. But we can do it together.

  1. To focus and multiply your impact

We give generously to the church to focus and multiply our impact!

We do things together that we can’t do alone. Jesus takes what we have and multiplies it. There’s this moment in Jesus’ ministry when he’s been teaching a huge crowd out in the countryside, and the disciples begin to wonder how all these people are going to be fed.

That evening the disciples came to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away so they can go to the villages and buy food for themselves.”

But Jesus said, “That isn’t necessary—you feed them.”

“But we have only five loaves of bread and two fish!” they answered.

“Bring them here,” he said.
~Matthew 14:15-18 NLT

Jesus takes those five loaves and two fish and multiplies them to feed thousands of people. Jesus takes what we have and makes it more.   Jesus multiplies our impact. We saw this happen at Christmas this year. I put the challenge before you, as I do every Christmas, to give away as much as you spend on yourselves. I thought I was stretching you to set a goal of $12,000. Our previous record was $11,225 in 2013. You responded to Jesus’ birthday at Christmas by giving $16,075.43! Over $16,000! Wow. Do any of you have a spare $16,000 laying around to meet local and world needs? Some of you may, but most of you don’t.   But together, $50 here, $100 there, we’ll give away over $16,000!

You give generously to SCC because we’re a community that

  1. For fifteen years has been helping provide physical “shalom” in Nicaragua by sending medical teams twice a year to provide medical clinics;
  2. Fixed up a house in the Baker Donora Neighborhood adding shalom to our neighborhood;
  3. Helps pay for rent, utilities, food, gas, etc.;
  4. Regularly gives thousands and thousands of items to Compassion Closet personal needs bank;
  5. Paints the local school to help provide a beautiful place to learn for our children in Lansing;
  6. Provides mental health for our community through a Christian counselor working out of our building and funds for those who don’t have insurance or can’t afford her;
  7. Provides a place to build spiritual friendships in a newly remodeled Connection Café;
  8. Partners with each family to nurture love for God in our children through Sycamore Creek Kids and Teen Fuel.

When you give generously to the church, you’re focusing and multiplying your giving!

So what’s your plan to give generously in 2016? I want to suggest four steps for beginning to put your heart where God’s heart is:

  1. Give for the first time
    Some of you are ready to give for the first time today. That’s the first step. In 2015 we had 58 first-time givers and a total of 168 givers. Are you ready to give for the first time?
  1. Give regularly
    Some of you are ready to take the step to give regularly. You were a first-time giver in 2015 and maybe you gave sporadically, but in 2016 you’re ready to make a plan to give regularly each time you get paid. Sarah and I give 10% out of each paycheck. Our giving happens twice a month because I get paid twice a month. Some of you are ready to make that step and give regularly. In 2015, we received $252,596.17 total amount of giving from people who gave for the first time, sporadically, and regularly.
  1. Give automatically
    Some of you are ready to take the step of giving automatically. We live in a different world these days. I’ve lived in Lansing for six years and I just had to reorder checks for the first time. We pay all our bills electronically. In fact, most bills get paid automatically with little to no action on my part. Why would my giving to the church be any different? Most people who give automatically do so through EFT (Electronic Fund Transfer). In fact, in 2015 more was given to SCC through EFT than through the weekly offering. We received $120,926.47 in EFT. Some of you are ready to give automatically so you give faithfully whether you’re in town or on vacation, whether you remember to bring your check book or you forget.
  1. Give proportionally (Tithe Challenge)
    Some of you in 2106 are ready to give proportionally. The Bible talks about percentages of our income, specifically 10%. 10% or a tithe is the biblical minimum for giving back to God. God lets you keep 90%! That’s a pretty sweet deal. Giving proportionally means when you make more you give more. When you make less you give less. Maybe you’re buried in debt and your focus for 2016 needs to remain on paying off that debt. You can’t give 10%. That’s fine. What’s your plan to get to 10% or more? Do you give 1%? Then in 2016 step up to 2%. Or maybe you’re at 10% already, but God has blessed you with more than you need. Maybe for you giving proportionally means extravagant giving of 15% or 20%. There are people in our church who give those kind of percentages, and they’re not always the ones who are making the most. Whatever your income, some of you are ready to step up to proportional giving in 2016. I want to propose a challenge for you. Let’s call it the tithe challenge. If you’ve never tithed and you’re worried about whether you can swing it or not, make the commitment to tithe for the first time for the next three months. See what God does and how God provides. If it doesn’t work at the end of those three months, we’ll give your money back.

Why take one of these four steps? Because when you give generously to the church, you keep your heart close to God. Because when you give generously to the church you join Jesus’ mission of meeting the needs of the spiritually and financially poor. Because when you give generously to the church, you focus and multiply your impact through Jesus’ mission.

May those reasons be true in the life of Sycamore Creek Church. Dear friends, may…

The Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you;
the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace [shalom].
~Numbers 6:24-26 NRSV

* This sermon is based on a sermon first preached by Mike Slaughter

 

 

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I Believe In God but I Don’t Know God *

March 28, 2016 by Leave a Comment

The Christian Atheist – I believe in God but I don’t know him.*
Sycamore Creek Church
Easter: March 24-28, 2016
Tom Arthur

Christ is Risen! Thank you God!

Have you ever said one thing but believed another thing? One day when I was driving Sam, my two-year-old home we had the following conversation:

Sam: I WANT MY BINKY!
Me: You don’t need your binky.
Sam: I NEED MY BINKY!
Me: I’m sorry.
Sam: You’re not sorry, daddy.

Boom! Sam called me out. He was totally right. I was saying I was sorry, but I wasn’t really sorry. #sorrynotsorry.

The same basic thing happens with God. Seven in 10 people say they believe in God. Six in 10 believe Jesus rose from the dead. And yet when we look at how people live today, they’re not living a life that reflects the teachings of Jesus. They’re not living or acting like God exists. They are a “Christian Atheist.”   A Christian Atheist is someone who believes in God, maybe even believes in the resurrection of Jesus, but lives as if God doesn’t exist. This is NOT a shot at atheists. Atheists say they don’t believe in God. They’re entirely consistent when they live as though God didn’t exist. This is a challenge to those who think or call themselves Christian but their life doesn’t line up with their beliefs. It’s like what Paul, the first missionary of the church, said in a letter he wrote to one of his friends, Titus:

They profess to know God, but they deny him by their actions.
~Paul (Titus 1:16 NRSV)

Here’s where we’re going with this series:

Week 1: Those who believe in God but do not know God.
Week 2: Those who believe in God but do not fear God.
Week 3: Those who believe in God but do not want to go overboard.
Week 4: Those who believe in God but do not trust God fully.

There was a time when I believed in Sarah but did not know her. I first met Sarah, my now wife of nineteen years, after she came back from Kenya where she had spent the semester studying. Toward the end of the semester she had extensions braided into her hair. I didn’t know enough about female hair products to know they were extensions. I just saw this wild looking twenty-one-year-old and was caught. Here’s a confession. This is the thought that went through my head in that moment. I’m not proud of it, but here it is. I thought to myself: “I bet she’s a good girl to date, but probably not marry.” YIKES! There’s so much wrong with that. But I was obviously wrong. This May I’ll be nineteen years wrong. I didn’t really know her then. But after nineteen years I can order off a menu for her. I can pick books out she’ll want to read, which is saying a lot given that my wife is the author of eleven books. I can, get this…it’s a super power I have…I can buy clothes she’ll like better than she can buy clothes she’ll like. She actually prefers clothing shopping with me than by herself! I know her quirks too. Like the fact that she can’t stand mud. Muddy boys. Muddy shoes. Muddy clothes. YUK! I’m pretty sure I’m on mud duty for the rest of our parenting lives with our two boys. And yet, after nineteen years of marriage I’m still getting to know Sarah better.

Who is the person that you know best? What do you know about him/her?

Here’s the amazing news for today: God, the creator of the universe, the one who raised Jesus from the dead, wants us to know him. God created us relationally. God wants you to know God. So what I want to do today is look at three different levels of knowing God.

Level One: Believe in God, but don’t know God.
Do you know that even the demons believe in God? When you read through the Bible you find over and over again that they recognize exactly who Jesus is and they say it out loud. Obviously, it’s not a personal loving relationship with God that the demons have. But you can believe in God without really knowing God.

You might call this kind of Christian a Cultural Christian. The Cultural Christian says, “My dad was a catholic, and my mom was a Baptist so we go to church on Christmas and Easter. I’m not a Muslim…or a Hindu…or a Buddhist…so I’d say I’m a Christian. I kinda believe in God…sorta…mostly.”

John, one of Jesus’ closest friends, wrote this:

Now by this we may be sure that we know him, if we obey his commandments.  Whoever says, “I have come to know him,” but does not obey his commandments, is a liar, and in such a person the truth does not exist; “I believe” but no fruit, transformation, remorse over sin…
~1 John 2:3-4 NRSV

Our good works don’t win God’s love. Our good works are a response from knowing God. I do loving things for Sarah and my family because I know them and love them. We can know a lot about the Bible, but miss heaven by 18 inches. Jesus is really direct about this. It’s not a fear tactic. It’s just a truth-telling:

Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.
~Jesus (Matthew 7:21 NRSV)

Didn’t we go to church?
I took that class when I was 12. I think it was called a constipation class.I gave some money to the local food bank.
I said some prayers.

But Jesus wonders whether you really knew him if you did all these religious things alone. Sure they’re good and helpful. They’re maybe even essential. But sometimes we can substitute them for a real relationship and not really end up knowing God. The first level of knowing God is believing in God but not knowing God.

Level Two: I believe in God and know God, but don’t know God well.
Do you I remember who Leigh Nash is? She’s the lead singer of Six Pence None the Richer. They are a one-, maybe two-hit wonder. Their big songs were “Kiss Me” and a cover of The La’s “There She Goes.” I actually know Leigh Nash. I met her when her band came to Wheaton College where I attended. This was before I met Sarah. Even though she wasn’t yet well known, I was star struck. I was studying photography at the time and I was there at her concert taking pictures. After the concert she asked if she could have copies of the pictures I took. This started up a conversation and I mentioned that I was taking guitar lessons. She handed me a guitar and showed me the cords to “Kiss Me” and she sang it to me right there as I chunked my way through the song. My hands were so sweaty I could barely hold the guitar. But Leigh Nash sang “Kiss Me” to ME! TO ME! I know Leigh Nash!

Well, actually none of that happened. Except in my mind. What really happened was that I was there taking pictures, but I was too nervous to talk to her, but her bass player gave me some cash to send him some pictures I had taken. So you might be able to say, I know Leigh Nash, but I don’t know her well.

Many of us know God, but not well. You had an experience that one time with God. You called on God. You were maybe even adopted into God’s family but…you haven’t grown with God since then. You have been informed about Jesus but not yet transformed by Jesus. Faith is like a dimmer switch. It’s not black and white like it’s on or off. Faith and knowledge of God can be dim or bright. Too many of us have the dimmer switch of our faith on the lowest setting and we’re content to leave it there. We’re missing out on the bright light of knowing God well. You may very well be in the family of God, and your sins are forgiven, but you don’t know God well.

Paul said it this way when he wrote a letter to the church at Galatia:

Before you Gentiles [non-Jews] knew God, you were slaves to so-called gods that do not even exist. So now that you know God (or should I say, now that God knows you), why do you want to go back again and become slaves once more to the weak and useless spiritual principles of this world?
~Paul (Galatians 4:8-9 NLT)

What Paul sees happening at the church in Galatia is that followers of Jesus are following old paths. They have been tempted to turn back to lifestyles that are incompatible with following Jesus. Many of us made a commitment to follow Jesus at some point, but we’ve reverted back to following old paths from our days before following Jesus. It’s almost like we dated, got engaged and married, but never went out on a date again. You’re married but you’re acting like you acted when you were single. You know God, but you don’t know God well.

Level Three: I believe in God and know God intimately and serve God wholeheartedly.
Those of you who are at this third level of knowing God may not say you’re there, but you know it. You are led by the Spirit of God. You walk by faith, not by sight. You are gently convicted of sin and turn from it. You see God’s hand all through the day. You are directed by God to care for those around you. You sense God interrupting you to say something to someone. You know God’s comfort. When you are weak, God makes you strong. God’s Word is hidden in your heart. Worship is a natural overflow from your daily life. You do what you do because it’s who you are. At the end of the day, you measure the day by how you served and glorified God. You are not perfect or better, you’ve just been walking with God for a long time and you know God well. David, the ancient king of Israel who was known in part for his poems about God, wrote this psalm as a man who loves, longs for and needs God. Listen to the intimate language of a man who knows God well:

O God, you are my God;
I earnestly search for you.
My soul thirsts for you;
my whole body longs for you
in this parched and weary land
where there is no water.
I have seen you in your sanctuary
and gazed upon your power and glory.
Your unfailing love is better than life itself;
how I praise you!
I will praise you as long as I live,
lifting up my hands to you in prayer.
~Psalm 63:1-4 NLT

David didn’t necessarily have it all together. In fact, if you read about his life in the Bible you’ll see that he was pretty messed up at times. And when you’re pretty messed up as the king, you can mess up a lot of other people’s lives too. But amidst the mess, David knew God intimately and longed to serve him wholeheartedly. This is so much different than, “Yeah, I guess I believe in God and all that resurrection stuff.”

How well do you know God?
If you’re wondering how well you know God, what you call God gives you a clue to how well you know God. David says it this way:

Those who know your name trust in you.
~Psalm 9:10 NLT

What you call me shows how well you know me. If I pick up the phone and someone on the other line says, “Hello, Church Sycamore…”, I know this is someone who not only doesn’t know me, but doesn’t even know our church. If you call me “Reverend Arthur” you know I’m “clergy” but you really don’t know much about what kind of clergy I am. (Jeremy, our worship leader likes to get under my skin and call me “Reverend Arthur” from time to time, and I say back to him, “Layman Kratky.”) If you call me “Pastor Tom” you know a little more about me. You probably know I’m the pastor of Sycamore Creek. You likely know that I’m married to Sarah and that I have two kids. You’ve probably heard me tell stories about myself when I teach messages each week. If you call me “Tom” you know me better. If you call me “Tam” then you’ve probably been friends with me for 26 years or longer and we’ve probably sat in the back of a police car together or been in a car chase after egging an ex-girlfriend’s house. (FYI…Don’t try to call me Tam now…). If you call me “Daddy” you know me on a very different level. You know what it’s like to snuggle and tickle and get ready for bed times and pray together each night. There are only two people who call me “Daddy.” And there is only one person allowed to call me “Snug,” and she knows me better than anyone else knows me (and occasionally a private email addressed to “snug” gets “reply all’d” to too many people). What name you know me by tells a lot about how well you know me. The same is true for God’s name.

What name do you call God? Do you call God “The Big Guy Up in the Sky”? Or maybe “The Man Upstairs.” Or perhaps you call Jesus “6lb 8oz Baby Jesus.” These names you call God say something about how well you know God. Or do you call God Father, Savior, Friend, the one who is there for you as no one else is? Or do you call God Healer, Provider, or Comforter? Maybe you call God Lord or King. The more you get to know God, the more you get to know all the deeper characteristics of God. This is what I’d call “finding your hallelujah.” When you “find your hallelujah”, as Andy Grammar sings, you realize that “hallelujah” isn’t just a word you say when you’re happy. You realize that “hallelu” is Hebrew for “praise” and “jah” is short for God’s most holy name, “Yahweh.” Hallelujah literally means: “Praise Yahweh.” You’ve found your praise of God because you know God’s name. Jesus knew God so well that he called God “Abba” or “Daddy.”

Are you a Christian Atheist? Do you believe in God but don’t know God? When you get to know God better, your heart begins to break for the things that break the heart of God.   You begin to care for things you didn’t care about. You care for the poor. You pray for people you didn’t notice before. When you sin, you don’t beat yourself up. You confess it to God and make it right in as much as you are able. You hear God’s voice. Church isn’t some place you go (a building), it’s who you are (a faith community). You don’t have a job, you have a ministry (whatever your “career” is). You know God intimately and you serve God wholeheartedly.

God wants to reveal himself to you. God spoke through the prophet Jeremiah saying:

If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me.
~Jeremiah 29:13 NLT

You are one prayer away from getting to know God better! God delights to show you more of God’s vey own self. God’s greatest desire is that you would know God and love God and know that God loves you. Paul puts this into a prayer:

I remember you in my prayers and ask the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, to give you the Spirit, who will make you wise and reveal God to you, so that you will know him.
~Paul (Ephesians 1:17 GNT)

Maybe today you’re realizing you believe, but you don’t know God. Or you don’t know God well. Or you haven’t yet come to the place of knowing God intimately and serving God wholeheartedly. Maybe you’re realizing for the first time and being really honest with yourself for the first time saying, “I’m a Christian Atheist. I believe in God but I don’t know God.” Then you’re in the right place. God wants to know you better and better and wants you to know God better and better. You’re one prayer away from that:

God, the father of Jesus, give me your Spirit. Make me wise. I confess to you my brokenness, my woundedness, and my sin. I don’t just want information about Jesus. I want transformation by Jesus. Let me know you better and better. In Jesus’ name.

*This sermon is based on a sermon first preached by Craig Groeschel

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