Patricia

Daily Time Grind – Time Margin

October 23, 2012 by Patricia Leave a Comment

Daily Time Grind – Time Margin
Sycamore Creek Church
October 21 & 22, 2012
Tom Arthur
Exodus 20:8-11

Peace friends!

Why did the man put a clock under his desk? He wanted to work overtime.
Why did the girl sit on her watch? She wanted to be on time.
Why did your sister shoot the alarm clock? Because she felt like killing time.

Time is killing us…

Today we’re talking about the things that grind us down daily when it comes to our time. We’re all a little or a lot overtaxed, overstressed, and overcommitted. These time commitments slowly but surely wear us down, like the tread on a tire wearing down.

I struggle with this in my own life. Every time I enter worship I see 20-30 conversations I want to have. Every day when I wake up I think about how I need to:

Spend time with God
Spend time with my wife
Spend time with my son
Spend time on myself
Spend time exercising
Spend time learning and reading
Spend time with my extended family (two sets of parents, three brothers, a sister, and two step-sisters, grandparents, nieces and nephews, etc.)
Spend time with my church staff
Spend time with my church unpaid staff (team leaders)
Spend time with various teams (Launch Team)
Spend time with my small group
Spend time with my church members (150 of them)
Spend time with my community (thousands of them)
Spend time in my neighborhood (community garden)
Spend time taking care of home business (bills, money, etc.)
Spend time sleeping well

Spend…spend…spend…spend…Where are the deposits? Where is the time margin?

The Problem
What I’ve just described is not unique to me. I don’t intend a pity party for myself. I only talk about myself because confidentiality won’t let me talk about you! But all these things are true about you too. One writer says, “Our modern view of time is to compress it and milk it for every nanosecond of productivity we can get” (Swanson, 111). He adds, “In 1967, testimony before a Senate subcommittee claimed that by 1985 people could be working just twenty-two hours a week or twenty-seven weeks a year” (Swenson, 114). The reality has been that in 1967 we worked 1716 hours/year. In 2000 we worked on average 1878 hours/year at work. That comes to four more forty-hour work weeks a year, or one extra month of work a year! It’s not just true about adults either. Students are overloaded with homework which is coming at a younger and younger age. Then there’s extracurricular activities that parents sometimes over-program their children into.

Smartphones are supposed to help us stay connected and manage our time better, but:

A study at MIT’s Sloan School of Management found that smartphone users who constantly check email on their Blackberries and smartphones are experiencing more stress. The need to check these cell phones has led to a compulsion—one that has them wanting to check their email at grocery stores, at the gym and any time their hands are free. That compulsion leads to considerably greater amounts of stress and anxiety. (manofthehouse.com)

Time is killing us. Or maybe better said, the way we spend our time is killing us.

I came across this prayer recently that I think sums the whole situation up nicely:

Holy One, there is something I wanted to tell you, but there have been errands to run, bills to pay, meetings to attend, washing to do … and I forget what it is I wanted to say to you, and forget what I am about or why. Oh God, don’t forget me please, for the sake of Jesus Christ.

Our modern deadly sin is not sloth but busyness!

Margin
All this busyness wasn’t and isn’t God’s plan for us. If we go back to the big ten—I’m not talking football here—we find that one of the ten commandments speaks to this situation quite clearly.

Exodus 20:8-11 NLT
Remember to observe the Sabbath day by [working incessantly? No, by] keeping it holy. Six days a week are set apart for your daily duties and regular work, but the seventh day is a day of rest dedicated to the LORD your God. On that day no one in your household may do any kind of [what?] work. This includes you [except you when you’re really busy? Ummm…No.], your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, your livestock, and any foreigners living among you [Notice who isn’t listed in here! Your wife! That must mean she doesn’t get a break. No way. The spirit of the commandment is that everyone stops working on the Sabbath!]. For in six days the LORD made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and everything in them; then he rested on the seventh day. That is why the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy.

Main Point
Here’s the main point of this message: We were created not just to produce, but to enjoy. Yes, despite what your Puritan work-ethic grandma told you, you were created to enjoy life and not just to work yourself til death.

A Catechism is a set of questions and answers that is intended to teach the Christian faith. One classic catechism is the Westminster Catechism. The first question and answer of the Westminster Catechism is:

Q: What is the chief purpose of humanity?
A: To love God and enjoy him always.

Yes, that’s the first question. The first and most important thing about life is this: love God and enjoy God. When? Always!

If you’re a guest here this morning you may have thought that being a Christian is about following a set of rules that are supposed to make you not really enjoy life. So let me fix that mistake. The purpose of being a Christian is really about learning to enjoy God! Enjoy God! Ahh….

Back to the Sabbath. What exactly is the Sabbath? The Sabbath is simply a day of rest where you don’t work, you don’t produce, you’re not busy! Of course, the Sabbath has been abused in all kinds of ways in the past and your puritan work-ethic grandma probably told you that you couldn’t play cards on the Sabbath, or work in the yard, or do a host of other things. Jesus did a fair amount of teaching on the Sabbath too and he loosened up the interpretation of the Sabbath quite a bit, but didn’t do away with the idea.

Mark 2:27-28 NLT
Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made to benefit people, and not people to benefit the Sabbath. And I, the Son of Man, am master even of the Sabbath!”

The Sabbath was made for you! It was intended to help you. It was intended to benefit you. Here at SCC we talk about being Curious, Creative, and Compassionate. Practicing the Sabbath is showing compassion to yourself, your family, and your faith.

Self, Family, Friends, Faith
I think underneath the idea of the Sabbath is a principle that we should think about time intentionally. Time is spent, but it shouldn’t be spent without some thought. And part of that thought should be to remember to spend some time on rest.

Some years ago I came across the idea of the big rocks. The big rocks idea is that a container can hold both sand and big rocks at the same time but only if the big rocks are put in first. If you put the sand in first, then there won’t be room for the big rocks. But if you put the big rocks in first, then the sand will filter in around the big rocks. Sand is the stuff that is urgent. It grabs your attention and won’t let go. It demands attention. Rocks are the things that are important but not necessarily urgent. That’s the thing about rest, you can go for a while without it while you attend to urgent demands, but it will eventually come back to bite you. So what are the big rocks in your life that you need to make sure you get in when it comes to the way you spend your time? I’d suggest that you need to put free-time, family-time, exercise-time, date-night, and God-time on your calendar, so that when someone asks if you’re free, you can say NO. These are all various forms of Sabbath rest. They are all Big Rocks that can easily get crowded out by the sand in your life.

Now I’ve got to admit that one of my fears in teaching this morning is that when I ask you how you spend your time and encourage you to think about what you need to say NO to, that you all will end up saying NO to serving in the church. But let me suggest that serving on some ministry team in some form or fashion is a big rock that you need to make sure is in the time-container of your life. It’s more important than a lot of things we tend to spend our time on like: watching TV, surfing the internet, and being involved in a host of other extracurricular activities for both adults and their children.

Let’s look at all these things as a whole…

Time Audit
Today I’d like you to do a time audit. I’d like you to reflect on how exactly you do spend your time and whether you’re getting those big rocks in that have to do with enjoying God, the chief purpose of all of us! Here’s a worksheet and some instructions on how to do a time audit:

Instructions:

Rank your current commitment to each category with 1 being that you never do this and 5 being that you always do this.
Select 3 to 5 areas that stand out for you and write when or how you will fulfill this time commitment.
Narrow your focus by picking 1 to 3 areas to really work on in the next couple of weeks and circle them.
Choose someone to share this with who will help hold you accountable.

Commitments	Rating (circle one)1 = Never3 = Sometimes 5 = Always	When/How
Daily Commitments
Time with God	1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5
Time with Family	1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5
Time for Self	1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5
Time with Friends	1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5
Family Prayer	1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5
7-8 Hours of Sleep	1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5
Work/Employment	1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5
Other: _________________	1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5
Weekly Commitments
Sabbath Day	1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5
Worship	1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5
Night at Home	1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5
Date Night	1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5
Other: _________________	1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5
Weekly/Bi-Weekly/Monthly Commitments
Small Group	1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5
Service Team	1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5
Other: _________________	1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5
Yearly Commitments
Vacation/Time Off	1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5
Spiritual Retreat(s)	1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5
Other: _________________	1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5

I will share this with: _____________________________________________________

You can spend your time unintentionally, or you can spend your time in an intentional way that leads to enjoyment of God and life. What does your time audit say about which way you spend time?

If you look at your time audit and realize that you’re not getting the big rocks in first, then here are a couple of tips for spending time differently:

When being asked to do something in the future, ask yourself whether you could fit it in next week. If not, say NO.
Turn off the television and internet (20-30 hours/week gained on average!).
Practice simplicity – You don’t own stuff, it owns you. The less stuff you have, the less stuff you have to spend time maintaining.
If you had only four hours…two hours…one hour today, what would you do with it?

Imagine
Time grinds our lives down, like the tread on a tire. But what if the church was a retread factory, putting margin back in our lives? If we had time margin, responding to crises wouldn’t send us overboard. We’d be free to stop at the side of the road to help someone. We would make less but be more content because we’d be living simply and spending less time maintaining our stuff. The church would be a retread factory for a stressed out, overtaxed, overcommitted world. We were created not just to work but to enjoy life and enjoy God.

Isaiah 30:15 NRSV
For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel: In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength. But you refused.

Today, will you receive or will you refuse?

Prayer
Holy One, there is something I wanted to tell you, but there have been errands to run, bills to pay, meetings to attend, washing to do … and I forget what it is I wanted to say to you, and forget what I am about or why. Oh God, don’t forget me please, for the sake of Jesus Christ.

Filed Under: Sermons Tagged With: Sabbath, time

Creative

September 18, 2012 by Patricia Leave a Comment

Church on the MOVE – Creative
Sycamore Creek Church
September 16, 2012
Guest Preacher: Mark Aupperlee
John 1:14-18 , John 3:16-18

Good morning! My name is Mark, and I’m a volunteer here at Sycamore Creek Church. I started attending at Sycamore Creek a little over six years ago, and pretty quickly I got involved with volunteering here by helping with set up in the morning. Actually, I’m still on a set up crew. Join me on the first Sunday of each month. It only takes about 45 minutes. After a while, I also got involved in a small group. Then I became a member of our church. Then I started leading a small group. Then I became a leader of all the small groups and joined the leadership of the church. Then I started giving messages on Sunday mornings! Phew. It’s been quite a journey. I would love to tell you that all those things have been easy, but it hasn’t been easy and it’s still not easy. It’s at times very hard. This summer, in the midst of a time when things were difficult, I asked myself, “Why? Why am I doing this? It’s hard!!”

In that moment of crisis I realized with incredible clarity that the reason I participate, volunteer, and lead in our church has to do with the type of Jesus-following community we’re trying to be. The type of culture we’re working to create. I’ve encountered, experienced, and grown in my relationship with God in incredible ways through Sycamore Creek Church . . . and I want to be a part of offering that to others. I want other people to be blessed through this church, through the community we’ve created, the way I have. I am firmly committed to the church that we are, and the church we can be: Curious, Creative, Compassionate. I am committed to the difficult work of continuing to be part of a creative community.

I define creativity as three things: “to imagine, experiment and make things happen.”

Living this out is difficult. Trying new things and being willing to hold loosely to the way things are is work. We tend to want the familiar, the same, the comfortable. You’ll notice comfortable isn’t one of the three words we think characterizes our church. As people, we will drift toward “the way we do things” because it’s the “way we’ve always done it,” and we’ll drift toward routine and ritual. Those things are comfortable. Trying new things, being creative isn’t. And in the midst of being creative, that experimenting part of creativity, some of our new things won’t work. Being creative is a willingness to fail. As a church, we believe we are “creative in all we do.” We imagine, we experiment, and we make things happen. This morning I’ll explore the basis for that and how we’re doing it.

When I was in high school I was not very creative, especially when it came to girls. I was an awkward high schooler with no idea what I was doing with girls. I didn’t know how to be creative. I had imagination! I did make some attempts to try different approaches, to experiment to “make things happen,” but it never worked out too well. My senior year I met and started hanging out with this wonderful girl. Her name was Jana. I really liked Jana, but I had no idea what to do about it. Well, then one night at a basketball game we got asked by a friend if we were dating. Oh boy. Here was a chance for creative thinking. I could work this to my advantage! Or not. Being the wimp I was, I asked Jana afterward, “What did you think of what our friend asked about us dating?” (That was a relationship punt!) Well, thankfully Jana had more creativity than I did and more guts. She fielded my punt and creatively gave the ball back to me. She experimented and said, “I’m interested if you’re interested.” On the outside, I was calm and cool in the face of that phrase and I responded, “I’m interested. Let’s date!” On the inside I was doing a celebratory dance! (I won’t subject you to my bad dancing . . . picture good dancing in your mind.) “I’m interested if you’re interested.” I can’t tell you how much I love that phrase!! Jana essentially said to me, “I’m interested, are you?” She made the first move and I just had to respond.

That story connects with me because it’s the beginning of an important relationship for me. It’s part of the love story in my life. My guess is that in some way it plucks at each one of you. It may make you smile. It may bring up memories for you. It may bring up longings. That’s because within each of us is a desire for love. It’s a desire that leads us into romantic relationships. It’s a desire that draws together families. It’s a desire that drives friendships. And it’s a wonderful desire. But it’s one that keeps us hunting. We never quite get enough from those relationships. Those relationships always are messy. There is always this feeling that there must be something more.

That’s because there is.

The Bible tells us that in the beginning we were created to be in a relationship with God. And in the beginning we were in that relationship. Then Adam and Eve, the first humans, made a move away from God in disobedience and distrust and the relationship was broken. It’s a decision that was made then and echoes still today as we make that choice ourselves. Throughout the first part of the Bible, the Old Testament, God reaches out to people. He cultivates a relationship with a person, Abraham, that develops into a people, Israel. And those people continually disappoint him. God works through judges, kings, and prophets, continually trying to woo people back to him. The problem is, none of it really works. There continues to be this broken relationship with God that leaves people without true life. There continues to be something missing.

Then in the New Testament God completely changes everything. Let’s read about it in John 1.

Two quick things before we talk more about this Scripture. First, a quick clarification about some of the language. John loves this “word.” Word! What or who is Word? . . . Jesus! John also loves his “light.” What or who is light? . . . Jesus!

Second, a lot of you may have read or heard this scripture before. Don’t shut down on me and presume you know what I’m going to talk about. Allow yourself to have fresh ears and a fresh mind.

The Word was first,
the Word present to God,
God present to the Word.
The Word was God,
in readiness for God from day one. Everything was created through him;
nothing—not one thing!—
came into being without him.
What came into existence was Life,
and the Life was Light to live by.
The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness;
the darkness couldn’t put it out.

There once was a man, his name John, sent by God to point out the way to the Life-Light. He came to show everyone where to look, who to believe in. John was not himself the Light; he was there to show the way to the Light.

The Word became flesh and blood,
and moved into the neighborhood.
We saw the glory with our own eyes,
the one-of-a-kind glory,
like Father, like Son,
Generous inside and out,
true from start to finish.

John pointed him out and called, “This is the One! The One I told you was coming after me but in fact was ahead of me. He has always been ahead of me, has always had the first word.”

We all live off his generous bounty,
gift after gift after gift.
We got the basics from Moses,
and then this exuberant giving and receiving,
This endless knowing and understanding—
all this came through Jesus, the Messiah.
No one has ever seen God,
not so much as a glimpse.
This one-of-a-kind God-Expression,
who exists at the very heart of the Father,
has made him plain as day.
John 1:18, 14-18 (The Message)

There are two things we learn about creativity from this story. First, that creativity is rooted in the past, the familiar. John starts his book the same way Genesis starts, “In the beginning.” He uses the roots of the past, imagery that the people of his day would have been very familiar with. They’ve heard about God as creator. They know the story of God’s relationship with people. John weaves in these familiar elements of creator and the relationship with God and goes on to talk about Moses and the law. John draws on the familiar, the known, to bring out a radical new truth.

We live in an often rootless culture, in that everything is about right now. We don’t always appreciate the past and the roots it can provide. If you wanted to tell someone what it means to be an American, what would you do? You can start with what’s currently happening, but at some point you’d need to build upon our past. You’d at least go back to tell about how we got our independence. You’d tell about how we were formed as a nation and about the threats our nation has faced, the wars we’ve fought, the disagreements and injustices we’ve endured, and then you’d build to the present and the future. In order to talk about the new truth of what it means to be an American, you need to acknowledge our roots, our past. John taps into this to start his book. He uses the familiar, the roots of who the people are and the past they know, to introduce a radical new truth.

The second thing from John 1 is that we are introduced to a radical new truth. What’s that radical new truth? That God became one of us!! As verse 14 says, he moved into the neighborhood!! Wow! This is like no other God, ever. This should blow our minds! This is CREATIVE!! The God who is CREATOR, who created creativity, became one of us. He brought His love to us. He didn’t just wait for us to come to Him, but He made the first move on our behalf. Look at other world religions and there is no other God like this. This is the only God who became a person and sacrificed and humbled Himself on our behalf.

From our perspective, this seems unimaginable, doesn’t it? To become a baby! A tiny, needy baby! To live as one of us! To DIE for us! To offer us unconditional love and grace! Sending Jesus to the world is sometimes called the New Testament gamble because it is so creative, so different than any other religion or God, and it seems crazy. At times this whole concept is so crazy, so mind-blowing that we gloss over it and put it into a neat little box. It’s so hard to get our heads wrapped around the mystery of it, that we don’t fully appreciate it.

This mystery, this incredible thing of God becoming one of us, why did He do that? What was the reason?

This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person’s failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him.
John 3:16-18 (The Message)

God is essentially saying to each of us: “I’m interested, are you?” He makes the first move on our behalf to make the relationship right, so that we might have whole and lasting life. We’re living in brokenness and God offers us a way out.

So, there are two things or ideas we get from these passages:

The new always is rooted in the past.
The God of creativity loves us in unimaginable ways.

All too often, this message of God’s love for us doesn’t reach us. We might get it up here, we might know the words, we might even be able to talk about it, but we don’t KNOW it to be true.

I’ve given you words and some thoughts that engage your mind. We’ve heard this too many times though. That second point is often words on a screen, a speaker talking, or words on a page. We may be able to repeat them and know them, but we don’t really experience those words to be part of our reality. I have a video that I hope will help us experience what unimaginable love is. In this video there is a dad who loves his son in unimaginable ways.

Here’s an introduction to what you’re about to watch:

“A son asked his father, ‘Dad, will you take part in a marathon with me?’ The father, despite having a heart condition, said ‘Yes’. They went on to complete the marathon together. Father and son went on to join other marathons, the father always saying ‘Yes’ to his son’s request of going through the race together.

One day, the son asked his father, ‘Dad, let’s join the Ironman together.’ To which, his father said ‘Yes’ too.

For those who don’t know, the IRONMAN is the toughest triathlon ever. It takes place in Hawaii. The race encompasses three endurance events of a 2.4 mile ocean swim, followed by a 112 mile bike ride, and ending with a 26.2 mile marathon along the coast of the Big Island. Father and son went on to complete the race together.”

The son in that video was born with cerebral palsy. When his dad runs and swims and bikes with him, the son feels normal. What a gift from that father! It should remind you of the gift you’ve been given. The gift of Jesus Christ that allows you to be whole again and to have a restored relationship with God. Through Jesus Christ God says to us, “I’m interested, are you?”

At SCC we know that love of God and God’s love is the foundation for who we are as a church: Curious, creative, and compassionate. We know God’s love and we seek to share it with the world. We use this word creative because it not only reflects who we are and who we are trying to be, but it also reflects the God whose love we trust in ourselves and share with others.

I’ve been building toward this main point: At Sycamore Creek Church we are creative in all we do because God was creative first. Ultimately, God’s creativity, His creation, is about us being in a right relationship with Him. Creativity reflects our creator. But honestly, being creative as a church doesn’t matter at all, it’s not even worth doing, if it doesn’t point us as a church and others outside the church toward God. We can’t separate creativity from the creator.

How are we doing that at SCC? How are we sharing creatively God’s love?

It’s a two-part process that involves loving God and loving others through staying true to our roots, our past as a church, while undertaking that creative process of imagining, experimenting, and making it happen.

At Sycamore Creek Church we have a mission: To ignite authentic life in Christ. We not only ignite life in Christ though, we also fan and grow the flame of life in Christ. We do that through a three-part process: Connecting, Growing, and Serving. We associate connecting at SCC with our worship services. They are how most people get connected with our church and with God. We associate growing and serving with small groups.

Looking at those two areas, worship services and small groups, you can see how we are creative in sharing God’s love. Those two areas are rooted in who we are as a church, they have stayed true to that mission of igniting authentic life in Christ, but they also have changed. We have taken some risks and tried some new things with worship services and small groups. We will continue to do that. If you want to come back here in 50 years and have everything about the way this church operates the same, you are in the wrong church! God is unchanging, but our world, God’s creation, changes. We will creatively change too so that we might be more effective in sharing God’s love with others.

First, small groups. We have not that long ago made an effort to link our small groups with mission. We imagined a community where we are outwardly focused, where we are not just sending money out to meet needs, but we are going out ourselves and involved with the community. This is rooted in our church having a culture of mission and going out to reach new people with God’s love. Now we are experimenting with how that might work. Our small groups have committed to a periodic mission that they do throughout the year during their small group time. We think that when we do this, we creatively share the message from God, “I’m interested, are you?” Our small groups still provide accountability, encouragement, prayer, and knowledge. But we’re imagining that we could pair them with another value and passion in our church and we’ve been working to implement that.

Second, worship services. One way we’re being creative in our worship services is through location. We have a huge goal in creatively sharing God’s love with others and that is to offer worship services at 7 different places on 7 different days of the week. That’s huge! That’s way out there. We have the imagination for that, but for now, we’ve been experimenting by focusing on adding one new location, Monday nights at Grumpy’s Diner. We’re making it happen one venue at a time. This change, this risk, this new thing is both an extension of our roots as a church plant, but it also mirrors our God who creatively came from heaven and went into our neighborhood. We are taking our worship service outside this building and bringing it to a neighborhood. It’s both a part of who we are as a church, and it’s also a new direction. We’ve imagined it, and now we’re experimenting to make it happen. Through the satellites we are creatively sharing God’s love with the Lansing area!

At SCC we are a church that looks around us and we see that something is missing. We recognize that need, that thirst for God’s love. We see it in each other and in the people around us, and we seek to creatively share God’s love. Jesus, the personification of love said to come to Him and never be thirsty. We are committed to being creative because God was creative in His love of us. We practice creativity by staying true to who we are as a church and as followers of Christ, rooted in the past, but with the flexibility and the courage to imagine and to try new things so that more people might encounter and experience and ultimately worship God. Through our actions, we bring the message of God and His love to people: “I’m interested, are you?”

I guess the final question is: “I’m interested, are you?

Questions for Small Groups

Each week we provide discussion questions for small groups that meet regularly to discuss the message for the week. Want to find a small group to join? Email Mark Aupperlee – m_aupperlee@hotmail.com.

1. Describe a time when trying something new worked or didn’t work.
2. Have you ever creatively shared God’s love with someone? How did it go? If you haven’t, why not?
3. Read John 3:16-18. What do those verses tell you about God’s love?
4. How can the small group pray for you to creatively share God’s love?

Filed Under: Sermons Tagged With: act, Creative, experiment, imagine, love, Missions, relationship, Worship

Curious

September 11, 2012 by Patricia Leave a Comment

Church on the MOVE – Curious
Sycamore Creek Church
September 9, 2012
Tom Arthur
Mark 9:17-27

Peace, Friends!

In March, 2009 NASA held a contest to name the rover that was going to Mars. On May 27, 2009 the winning name was announced: Curiosity. This name was originally submitted by Clara Ma, a sixth-grader fromKansas. In her essay suggesting the name she said, “Curiosity is the passion that drives us through our everyday lives. We have become explorers and scientists with our need to ask questions and to wonder.”

On November 26, 2011 the Mars Science Laboratory launched fromCape Canaveralon an Atlas V rocket. Eight months later on August 5, 2012 Curiosity Rover landed on Mars. Here is what curiosity looks like:

Today we begin a new series called Church on the MOVE. Sycamore Creek Church isn’t a static church. We’re on the move. We’re going to Mars and back! And this series will explore the culture of that move in three words: curious, creative, and compassionate. These three words are the jet propulsion that moves us forward, reaching out to new people and growing. Today we begin with the first word: curious.

Curious: Eager to know or learn something

When you look up the word “curious” in a dictionary you will find variations on two meanings. The first meaning for “curious” is “eager to know or learn something.” The NASA scientists were eager to know or learn something about Mars. The initial proposals for Curiosity came in April 2004, eight years before Curiosity landed on Mars. That’s a pretty intense eagerness to learn that sustained them over that time period. And while there were certainly some answers over time, the journey of Curiosity was marked more by questions than answers.

When we think about faith, many of us tend to fall into a kind of rut: we think we must have it all figured out before we make a decision to launch on the journey of following Jesus. But that’s rarely if ever how it works. Rather the journey is launched because of curiosity about God.

When I was in college I went through a faith crisis, I wanted certainty about my faith, but what I found was uncertainty. I let my faith go, and what I found was that when I no longer believed, I was no more certain. What I had when I believed was uncertainty with hope and meaning. What I had when I didn’t believe was uncertainty with hopelessness and meaninglessness. So I made a conscious decision to believe even though I wasn’t certain.

Lately I’ve been talking to someone about coming to church. This person thinks they have to get their life together and have everything figured out before they start the journey. But if we wait for our curiosity to be satisfied, we’ll never go anywhere. It’s the curiosity that propels us forward. We’ll never get every question answered. As one friend of mine recently posted on her Facebook status: “I had lots of questions I just couldn’t answer today so I found the answers in a cup of Death by Chocolate smothered in chocolate sauce!”

Here’s the good news: we don’t have to have it all figured out to follow Jesus. One of my favorite stories in the Old Testament tells about a man who found himself in a similar situation.

Mark 9:17-27 NRSV
Someone from the crowd answered [Jesus], “Teacher, I brought you my son; he has a spirit that makes him unable to speak; and whenever it seizes him, it dashes him down; and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid; and I asked your disciples to cast it out, but they could not do so.” He answered them, “You faithless generation, how much longer must I be among you? How much longer must I put up with you? Bring him to me.” And they brought the boy to him. When the spirit saw him, immediately it convulsed the boy, and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth. Jesus asked the father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood. It has often cast him into the fire and into the water, to destroy him; but if you are able to do anything, have pity on us and help us.” Jesus said to him, “If you are able!– All things can be done for the one who believes.” Immediately the father of the child cried out, “I believe; help my unbelief!” When Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “You spirit that keeps this boy from speaking and hearing, I command you, come out of him, and never enter him again!” After crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out, and the boy was like a corpse, so that most of them said, “He is dead.” But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he was able to stand.

Here’s the main point of this sermon: Following Jesus is a mixture of belief and unbelief.

Or as the father said, “I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24). And here’s the greatest part of this story to me: Jesus doesn’t cast him out. He receives this man’s honesty and curiosity and he heals his son! Thank you, God!

We get stuck thinking that to belong we must first become the right kind of person and to become that kind of person we must first believe the right things. But today I want to tell you that you belong first because you are curious about Jesus, and in that belonging you become the kind of person that Jesus calls us to become, and perhaps at the end of the day after belonging and becoming you begin to believe that Jesus is really who he says he is.

SycamoreCreekChurchis a mix of all kinds of curious people. Do you know that on any given Sunday morning we’ve got people here who are atheists, agnostics, spiritual (but not religious), religious, and on and on and on. I lead a small group that meets every first and third Thursday at a local pub called an Agnostic Pub Group. We read books and ask questions and explore God together. Usually I’m the only Christian in the group.

We are often afraid of this kind of uncertainty, asking questions, and even doubting. But recent research done by the Fuller Youth Institute suggests that:

Suppression of doubt can sabotage a young person’s faith. Contrary to what many of us might believe, students who feel the most free to express doubt and discuss their personal problems actually exhibit more internal and external faith indicators in high school and college. Doubt in and of itself isn’t toxic. It’s unexpressed doubt that becomes toxic.

Following Jesus means trusting, but not necessarily being in total agreement of belief. When Jesus called his disciples to follow him, they didn’t have it all figured out. The Bible tells all kinds of stories about the disciples really getting it all wrong. They were curious enough to follow Jesus, whether they got all their questions answered or not.

Psalm 25:4 says “Show me Your ways, O LORD; Teach me Your paths.” Curiosity leads us to being eager to learn and know Jesus’ ways, and the faith and trust to follow is sometimes scary. When I was learning to ski, I had to trust the instructor that the best way to get safely down the hill with these supper slippery boards strapped to the ends of my feet was to actually lean down the mountain rather than lean back up the mountain. Lean down the mountain? Isn’t that just going to make me go faster? Well, no. Leaning down the mountain when you ski lets the edges of your skis bite into the snow and slow down. Leaning backwards keeps them up above the snow and speeds you up. To learn the best path down the mountain, I had to trust the instructor over my fear of leaning down the mountain. It makes total sense to me now, but in the beginning it was a mystery.

Maybe that’s why we call communion and baptism a sacrament. “Sacrament” is Latin for “mystery.” The sacraments of communion and baptism aren’t dependent upon us fully understanding what’s going on. If participation was dependent upon us fully understanding it all, then none of us could partake. We’d all have to simply sit in our seats, me included. The conditions we put on participating in communion are a curiosity and desire to live at peace with God and with others. Children are welcome to the communion table because they are often the most curious! A couple of months ago I took Micah with me to a Saturday night worship service at another church. They were serving communion so the two of us went up and received communion. I told Micah that this was the body and blood of Jesus as we ate the bread dipped in the cup. After we got back to our seats, Micah looked up at me and signed “more.” Did he get what he was asking for? Probably not, but perhaps deep in his spirit, in his curiosity was a desire to have more of Jesus. A sacrament is a mystery, and Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3).

What questions do you have about God and following Jesus? When you are curious about God and follow Jesus you become a little (and then a lot!) curious… What do I mean by that?

Curious: Strange; unusual

“Curious” has a second meaning: strange or unusual. When you’re curious about God and you begin following Jesus you become a little (and sometimes a lot!) strange and unusual. Unfortunately the church inAmericahas become too normal, dull, ordinary, and conventional. According to George Barna, a researcher on trends in the American religious landscape, “Casual Christians represent 66% of the adult population of theU.S.” Casual Christians are marked by “moderation in all things” vs. “extreme devotion to…God regardless of the worldly consequences.” Let me give you an example: when it comes to divorce, those who identify as “born again” have “divorce [figures] statistically identical to that of non-born again adults: 32% versus 33%, respectively.” Christians should be different, but in many ways we’re not. Our curiosity or eagerness to learn and know should lead us to being curious or strange and unusual.

Here’s a surprise second main point of this message: Following Jesus is a countercultural movement that makes us odd. St.Peter says, “You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people” (1 Peter 2:9 KJV). I like that old King James language: “a peculiar people.” When we follow Jesus we should be peculiar, countercultural, curious. We should look and live differently than the rest of our neighbors, co-workers, family, and friends.

Who are the people you most admire? They are most likely unique, peculiar, curious…They live their lives against the grain of culture. They are countercultural. Let me tell you about some of the people I want to be like when I grow up.

Jo Snedden is a woman of prayer. Her life of prayer led her to finishing her basement so that her aging mother could live with her family. After her mother died, her grandchildren were having a rough time so she and her husband took them in and raised them. She would tell me that while being a grandparent she didn’t have the energy of her parenting years, she had a kind of wisdom that she didn’t have as a younger mom, especially when it came to nurturing faith in her grandchildren. When I grow up I want to be peculiar, countercultural, and curious like Jo Snedden.

Hank Kuehl was a seventy-year-old retired shop teacher who volunteered with the youth of a church I worked at. He would run full tilt playing capture the flag with the teenagers. My wife was always afraid that he was going to stroke out or have a heart attack on a retreat! Hank also was a Habitat for Humanity volunteer extraordinaire. Some people have construction skills and some people have teaching skills, but Hank had both. When one student, Walker, was going through confirmation, and was told he would be assigned a mentor, he asked if he could pick his mentor. Guess who he wanted to have mentor him. Hank! When I am seventy I want to be the kind of peculiar, countercultural and curious kind of old geezer that fourteen-year-old boys ask for me to be their mentor even when they weren’t told they could ask!

Dennis Myers is my mortgage broker in Petoskey who helped us buy our house (and refinance it several times) and his wife is Cindy. Dennis has made a good living selling mortgages inNorthern Michigan. He lives on Walloon Lake in one of the biggest and nicest houses I’ve ever been in. There are a lot of rooms in the Myers house. Dennis and Cindy both felt that God had given them a lot and they wanted to give back to others. So over the course of several years they filled that house with adopted children. They had one of their own and adopted 3 kids, one with special needs. When I grow up I want to be peculiar, countercultural, and curious like Dennis and Cindy Myers.

Then there’s Charlie Robinson. Charlie had a couple of kids of his own but felt compelled to be a foster parent for teenage boys. Charlie had a rough background himself, getting into trouble as a teenager. As he began to open his home to foster kids, he felt led to invite more. Soon he was running out of room, so he built a “wing” on to his house. He got a license to turn his home into an “institution” and every Sunday morning you could find him sitting in a pew with his wife, two kids, and about five teenage boys. When I grow up I want to be the kind of person who brings hurting teenage boys to church with me so that we take up a whole row. I want to be peculiar, countercultural, and curious like Charlie Robinson.

Let me tell you about Rachel and Juliet Serra. Rachel and Juliet were teenagers in my youth group. When Rachel graduated from college, she wanted to spend a year with Mission Year, a missions organization that hosts college graduates to live in urban areas to minister to the needs of those in the neighborhood. The only problem was that Rachel couldn’t afford to make it all happen. So her younger sister, Juliet, decided to move in with her and work to help pay the bills. When I “grow up” I want to be the kind of person who uses my time and money to support the missions work of my “family” members. I want to be peculiar, curious, and countercultural like Rachel and Juliet Serra.

Lastly, when I grow up I want to be like David and Rebecca Arthur. Even though we share a last name, we aren’t part of the same biological family. Sarah and I met David and Rebecca because we were attending a historically black church while in seminary and David and Rebecca were the only other white people in the church. They invited the church to their house one day, and we learned that they owned a very large house in the ghetto where they were building a Christian community that offered hospitality to women and children in transition. David stayed home, raised the kids, and ran the house. Rebecca worked ¾ time as a physical therapist. They did this all on a ¾ time income! They were able to be so generous because they lived simply. When I grow up I want to live simply enough that I’m able to share what I have with others. I want to be peculiar, countercultural, and curious like David and Rebecca.

Friend, this kind of strange, odd, countercultural, peculiar and curious living is already happening here atSycamoreCreekChurch. We’re hospitable and we welcome anyone. Come as you are. We seek to live lives of spiritual discipline by seeking God daily in prayer & Bible reading. We live a curious lifestyle by seeking to live pure and holy lives. We’re peculiar with our money. We live simply and give generously. We’re curiously authentic. We give a true account of ourselves. We seek to be countercultural with our time. We take time to rest and enjoy by practicing Sabbath and not just being concerned with producing, producing, producing. And most of all we are a peculiar, countercultural, and curious community of love. We love God with everything we’ve got, and we love our neighbors as ourselves. Jesus said, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35).

SycamoreCreekChurchis a curious people:

We’re curious to learn more about God;
We’re countercultural when we follow Jesus.

So do you want to move with us? Do you want to get into the current of the creek and go deep in God’s curious grace? Here’s how you begin: Connect with God and others in worship. Grow in the character of Christ in a small group. Serve the church, community and world with your time, talent, treasure, and testimony. Sycamore Creek Church is curious. Will you be curious with us?

Questions for Small Groups

Each week we provide discussion questions for small groups that meet regularly to discuss the message for the week. Want to find a small group to join? Email Mark Aupperlee – m_aupperlee@hotmail.com.

What is one (or two) question(s) you have about God?
Read Mark 9:17-29. When was a time you were filled with both belief and unbelief?
How can we pray for your trust to follow Jesus?
Who do you need to invite to join our small group that needs a place to be curious?

Filed Under: Sermons Tagged With: belief, countercultural, curious, Jesus, unbelief

Old Testament, Part II

September 4, 2012 by Patricia Leave a Comment

Bible 101 – Old Testament, Part II
Sycamore Creek Church
September 2, 2012
Tom Arthur

Peace Friends!

Today we wrap up a series that was originally supposed to be one week on the Old Testament and one week on the New Testament. But once I began working on trying to give you an overview of the Old Testament, I found that I couldn’t do it in one week. In fact, two weeks is still pushing it. So I’m putting the New Testament off for another day. And what was a Bible 101 series has become an Old Testament 101 series.

I have struggled with the Old Testament. In fact, as I was getting ready to go to seminary I was on the verge of another faith crisis around several questions I had about the Old Testament. I know it’s a little weird to hear someone talk about going to seminary to be a pastor and being on the verge of a faith crisis because of the Old Testament, but I’m just telling you how it was. I thought that my Old Testament class was going to be a serious challenge to my faith, but what I found instead was that my Old Testament professor, Ellen Davis, saved my faith. She didn’t save me (that’s Jesus’ job), but she did renew my faith and trust in the Bible, particularly the Old Testament.

I’m not the only person to struggle with the Old Testament. I hear questions all the time about how to understand the Old Testament. It seems so, well, old. Any anything that is old just smacks of old underwear, old moldy cheese, old fashion, and old technology. Who would want to spend any time with old stuff that is outdated? I’d sum up people’s concerns about the Old Testament in this way:

The Old Testament is hard to understand, scientifically inaccurate, and presents an immoral angry and vengeful God. Given all this, why would I care to spend any time at all in the Old Testament?

These are important questions, and let me speak to the guest for a moment. If you’ve joined us today and have these kinds of questions about the Bible, you’re not alone. We’ve got them too. Hey, I’m the pastor at Sycamore Creek Church, and I’ve still got questions like this. Your questions are welcome. We’re a curious church. We’re curious about God and the Bible. You don’t have to check your questions at the door when you come here. You are welcome, questions and all.

So last week I began to unpack these questions with another question: what does Jesus think of the Old Testament? And because Christians think Jesus is God’s son, we can rephrase the question this way: What does God think of the Old Testament? We get a glimpse of an answer to that question when Jesus is arguing with some of the religious leaders of his day. He says:

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cumin, 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.
Matthew 23:23 NRSV

In this argument about tithing, giving ten percent of what you make back to God, Jesus points out that the religious leaders of the day are following the letter of the law so closely that they’re missing some weightier parts. Jesus thinks there are parts of the Old Testament (although he would have simply called it “the scriptures” because there was not yet a compiled New Testament) that carry more weight than others.

I use dumbbells in the morning to exercise. Some are light and some are heavy. They’re all dumbbells but because of their different weights they’re used for different things. Light weights are used in high repetition to build endurance. Heavy weights are used in low repetitions to build strength. They are all useful for training to get stronger, but they are not all used in the same way because some are weightier than others.

So here’s the main point of these two weeks on the Old Testament:

Main Point: All scripture is inspired, but not all scripture is equal.

If that makes you a little nervous to say that, then we can say it exactly the way Jesus would have said it: all scripture is inspired (God breathed), but not all scripture is equally weighty.

The big question then is how do you know which parts are more or less weighty? I think one key to understanding the weightiness of a section is to read slowly, carefully and humbly paying special attention to genre. Genre? Yes. Genre.

You may not know the word but you know genre. Let me explain it this way. Here’s your Bible quiz for the morning. What does “Bible” literally mean? Bible means library. The Bible is a library of sixty-six books and thirty-nine of them are in the Old Testament. A library is like a bookstore, it is arranged with different topics in different sections. Those different sections are the different genres: fiction, cookbooks, biography, gardening, memoir, etc.

When I recently went on vacation I picked up two kinds of books from the library: historical fiction and some cookbooks. You read these kinds of books very differently. I read the fiction for long stretches of time in my bed before I go to sleep. I read the cookbook in short spurts in the kitchen paying very close attention to details. The difference between one teaspoon and one tablespoon can be disastrous. You would think I was weird if I took the cookbook to bed and read it for hours at a time before I went to sleep. There are different kinds of books for different kinds of situations that are read very differently.

Another kind of reading I do is magazine reading. Where do you read magazines? I prefer to read magazines while sitting on the throne in the throne room of my house, if you know what I mean. So you even read some kinds of books or reading material on the toilet. What do you read on the toilet?

So there are three big sections of the Old Testament:

1. Story of Israel (Pentateuch/Torah & History)
2. Wisdom (Emotions & Wisdom)
3. Prophets (Major & Minor)

Last week we looked at the first big section: the Story of Israel. We saw that this section is made up of books that tell the stories that define who the family of Israelis and is not (Israelliterally means “those who wrestle with God”). Today we’ll look at the other two big sections of the Old Testament: wisdom and prophets.

Wisdom
Within the wisdom books I’d suggest that there are two big sections: wisdom “proper” and emotion books. That may not be quite right, but that’s what I’m going with today. The wisdom “proper” books include Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes. The emotion books include Psalms, Song of Songs, and Lamentations.

Before we get much further let’s talk about a definition of wisdom. Wisdom is what is true for most people most of the time. Wisdom is practical common sense knowledge. Wisdom is not a promise. Take for example this very popular proverb about parenting:

Train children in the right way, and when old, they will not stray.
Proverbs 22:6

Many parents get very confused and end up feeling very guilty because they take this as a promise from God. It’s as if God is saying to each parent: if you do the right things, you can rest assured that your child will grow up and do the right things.

Now of course, that is what Sarah and I are planning. We are being perfect parents so that Micah will be a perfect child and later a perfect adult. We read the Bible religiously and do all that it says in regard to parenting. We add to biblical knowledge all the contemporary parenting books. We will make no mistakes. So far in about two years of Micah’s life, we’re doing pretty good. We’re raising him in the right way, and we expect it to pay dividends. When he is an adult, we look forward to kicking back, enjoying his lucrative career and having him take care of us in our old age. All the while we expect that he will be a model Christian completely and totally holy without sin always doing exactly what God would want. Proverbs 22:6 is a promise to this end. Right? NO!

It’s not a promise because it’s wisdom literature. It tells you what happens most of the time for most people. But to think that it’s a formula for 100% success in raising children completely and totally neglects the reality of free will. God has given us the wonderful and terrible freedom of choosing or rejecting God’s love. Children are given this freedom just like the rest of us. Hey wait. We were all once children!

OK, the point of that was to say that if you’re not paying attention to the genre of wisdom, you’re going to miss something really important about how to read the proverbs. You’ll be sitting in bed with your cookbook reading it for hours. All scripture is inspired but not all scripture is equal.

Emotions
Then there’s the emotional wisdom books of the Bible: Psalms, Song of Songs, and Lamentations. Often in these books we learn more about the emotions of the person writing the book than we do about God who it is written to or about. Consider some of the psalms that we often have a difficult time with: the cursing psalms.

One of the worst cursing psalms is Psalm 137. It is written during the time of exile in Babylon. Remember from last week the big historical timeline ofIsrael? They began in Egypt as slaves and were delivered by God through Moses. They entered the promised land and were ruled first by judges and then by kings. There was civil war that split Israel in half. The Assyrian empire sacked the northern kingdom of Israel and then the Babylonian empire sacked the southern kingdom of Israel, calledJudah. It was in this sacking that the temple was destroyed. In both instances the attacking empire took the wealthy and elite away from their homeland and into exile.

Imagine with me for a moment the devastation of having your city sacked and then being carted off into exile in a foreign land. Imagine this happening today to us. Psalm 137 is written by a worship leader so let’s imagine this happening to our worship leader, Jeremy. Jeremy’s pregnant wife has been killed in the siege. The foreigners have also killed his son. Then they’ve carted him off to their homeland away from everything that is familiar to him. When they get there they rub salt in the open wounds by asking him to sing one of those praise songs that he used to sing at SycamoreCreekChurch. He says, Sure. I’ll sing you a praise song. You’ve killed my wife, my unborn child, and my two-year-old:

Happy shall they be who take your little ones and dash them against the rock!
Psalm 137:9

Now in that context, are you learning more about God or more about Jeremy? When you are reading the books of emotion, be careful to make that distinction. All scripture is inspired but not all scripture is equal.

Prophets (Major & Minor)
Last week we looked at the books that tell the story of Israel and today we’ve looked at the wisdom books. There’s only one more section: the prophets. Within the prophets there are major prophets and minor prophets. What’s the difference between a major and minor prophet? It’s not the key he sings in. (That was a joke.) It’s simply the length of the book he wrote. The major prophets were more wordy than the minor prophets.

The Major Prophets are: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel & Daniel (Apocalypse).

The Minor Prophets are: Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi.

A prophet is generally someone who speaks for God who reminds the family of God when it is living into God’s story and when it is not living into God’s story. There are several ways that the prophets go about doing this. One way is through apocalyptic literature. Apocalypse simply means “revelation.”

Large portions of Ezekiel and Daniel are apocalyptic. Here’s a taste:

In the middle of it was something like four living creatures. This was their appearance: they were of human form. Each had four faces, and each of them had four wings…As for the appearance of their faces: the four had the face of a human being, the face of a lion on the right side, the face of an ox on the left side, and the face of an eagle.
Ezekiel 1:5-12 NRSV

I think one of the most helpful ways to understand apocalypse is as an ancient political cartoon. If you saw a political cartoon today that had a donkey and an elephant in it you’d know immediately that we’re talking about the democrats and republicans. If the cartoon has the colors red, white, and blue in it, then you know we’re talking about the USA. In the same way, apocalyptic literature uses symbols that everyone in its day understood but today we’ve lost the meaning because we aren’t in that culture. So it takes some extra work to unpack the symbolism of apocalypse.

Another way that prophets speak for God is through “sign acts” or what I like to call “performance art.” In the performance art of the prophets we get a taste of what God’s emotions are like. Hosea was called by God to marry an unfaithful wife to symbolize Israel’s unfaithfulness to God. Whew! Here’s another somewhat startling performance art act by the prophet Isaiah:

At that time the LORD had spoken to Isaiah son of Amoz, saying, “Go, and loose the sackcloth from your loins and take your sandals off your feet,” and he had done so, walking naked and barefoot. Then the LORD said, “Just as my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot for three years as a sign and a portent against Egypt and Ethiopia…”
Isaiah 20:2-3 NRSV

Isaiah walked around butt-naked for three years to make a point about God! Teenagers, tell your parents next week when you come to church that you’d like to go naked and barefoot to make a point about God. See what happens.

I like to think of the prophets as ancient hippies. In fact, this November we’re going to be doing a series called Ancient Hippies looking at four of the prophets: Micah, Amos, Hosea, and Jonah. Within the words and performance of these ancient hippies we see within God a deep passion and love for you that sometimes looks like the passion of a middle school girl for Justin Bieber. It makes God do some crazy stuff. Maybe that’s why we at Sycamore Creek Church talk about igniting authentic life in Christ. But we not only ignite it, we fan it into an all consuming passion for God.

A third way that the prophets remind God’s family who they are and are not is through proclamations of justice. My wife and I named our son Micah because of a famous verse in the book by the prophet Micah about justice:

He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
Micah 6:8 NRSV

It is our hope that he would grow up to be one who does justice, loves kindness, and walks humbly with God. That’s why we named him Micah. And now we are back full circle to what Jesus thinks of the Old Testament and what is weighty and what is not so weighty. Let’s read that argument again that Jesus was having with the religious leaders:

What are the weightier matters of the law? Justice. Mercy. Faith. If you want to know what to pay special attention to in the Old Testament look for the moments of justice, mercy, and faith. All scripture is inspired but not all scripture is equal.

Practical Suggestions
So here are some really practical suggestions for how to do that:

Read together – Read with other people and don’t forget the people who have come before you. Read what other Christians have thought historically. Also, don’t forget to read with people who are different than you. Sometimes you’ll be blind to something obvious that someone from another culture or ethnicity will notice.
Pray a psalm a day – The psalms are emotion filled prayers. Pray one each morning. There are 150 of them. So it will take you roughly five months to work your way through them. Over time you will find that the psalms provide you words to pray when you don’t have your own words.
Read a proverb a day – The proverbs are full of practical wisdom for living today. Read one proverb a day. I have an app on my phone that displays one proverb each day.
Read with a good Bible dictionary – If I had to pick one book besides the Bible to help me read the Bible it would be a good Bible dictionary. My favorite is Eerdman’s Bible Dictionary. When you’re reading a book of the Bible, look that book up and read the brief entry about the context and themes of that book. When you come across the name of a place or person, look that up in the dictionary and learn more about that person or place. It will help you know whether that part of the Bible is weighty or not.
Read with a good atlas – My favorite is Baker’s Atlas of Christian History. In the Bible you’re reading about a foreign land. It is helpful to see a map and know where you’re reading about. Is it happening in the dessert, on a mountain, or on the coastlands? These will give you clues to deeper meanings.
Read with a good handbook – Lastly, pick up a Bible handbook. My favorite is How to Read the Bible Book by Book. You’ll find a chapter on each book of the Bible with helpful guides for what to look for as you’re reading it. Another helpful guidebook is Philip Yancey’s The Bible Jesus Read. Yancey unpacks much of what I’ve said in his characteristically deep and meaningful way.

Here’s the problem we’ve been wrestling with today:

The Old Testament is hard to understand, scientifically inaccurate, and presents an immoral angry and vengeful God. Given all this, why would I care to spend any time at all in the Old Testament?

Here’s one answer to that problem:

Where did Martin Luther King Jr. get his inspiration for his I Have a Dream speech? The Old Testament:

Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.
Isaiah 40:4-5 KJV

All scripture is inspired but not all scripture is equal.

Prayer
God, sometimes the Old Testament seems very difficult to read. Help us pay attention to which parts are weightier than others. Help us read slowly, carefully, and humbly while paying special attention to the kind of genre we’re reading. Help us meet you in the pages of the Old Testament so that our lives are transformed into ones that seek justice, mercy, and faith. Then use us to transform the world. Amen.

What do you like or not like about reading the Old Testament?
What is your favorite or least favorite story from the Old Testament and why?
Read Matthew 23:23. What do you make of Jesus’ statement that some parts of the Law/Old Testament are “weightier” than others?
What resources (books, apps, websites, etc.) have you found helpful for reading the Old Testament or Bible?
How can we pray for you in your discipline of reading the Bible?

Filed Under: Sermons Tagged With: Bible, Faith, Old Testament, scripture

The Old Testament, Part I

August 28, 2012 by Patricia Leave a Comment

Bible 101 – The Old Testament Part I
Sycamore Creek Church
August 26, 2012
Tom Arthur
Matthew 23:23

Peace, Friends!

Anything called “old” must not be very good. Right? Well today we begin a Bible 101 series on the “Old” Testament. The Bible is split into two big sections: Old and New. The Old Testament happens before Jesus. The New Testament happens after Jesus.

I’ve got to admit: I’ve struggled with the Old Testament. When I went to seminary I had several unanswered questions about faith and the Bible. I even anticipated having a big faith crisis when I began to really dig down and study the Bible, especially the Old Testament. I had grown up being taught that the Bible was “inerrant.” That means that it was “without error.” I was told that if the was ever an error in any part of the Bible, then all the rest of the Bible was suspect. And it seemed to me that if you were going to find an error in the Bible, it was going to be in the Old Testament. Of course, “error” always ends up equaling someone’s very literal interpretation of some passage here or there. But the struggle with this idea and with the Old Testament almost cost me my faith.

But then I had a surprise: I expected my Old Testament class in seminary to seriously challenge and test my faith. Rather what I found was that Ellen Davis, my Old Testament professor, saved my faith. She didn’t save me (Jesus did that), but she did save my faith. Or maybe not exactly my faith but my faith and trust in the Bible.

Today I’d like to take on an almost impossible task. I’d like to give you an overview of the Old Testament, thousands of pages, in thirty minutes. Actually, I originally intended this series to be two weeks, one week on the Old Testament and one on the New Testament. But after wrestling with this task of teaching the Old Testament probably as much as I’ve wrestled with the actual Old Testament itself, I’ve decided to make it two weeks on the Old Testament and save the New Testament for some other time.

I have a fear about this message: that it will be a little too “professorial.” I’ll do my best to not get too “teachy” but bear with me and I think you’ll gain a deeper appreciation of the Old Testament when we’re done and some helpful guidance for how to make use of it in your life.

I’m not the only one who has struggled with the Old Testament. I asked my friends on Facebook about their own struggles with the Old Testament. Here’s some of what I heard:

I have a difficult time relating it directly to my life.
It’s SO negative and punitive. It depresses me to read it.
The fact that god is needy, insecure, vindictive and overly punitive.
Not understanding all the customs and circumstances of the age.
It’s longer than the New Testament.
Sometimes the repetition from one book to the next makes me less enthusiastic to continue reading. And sometimes I feel like I don’t want to read the OT because of all the repetition. Then there’s the repetition.

Here’s the problem: The Old Testament is hard to understand, scientifically inaccurate, and presents an immoral, angry and vengeful God. Given all this, why would I care to spend any time at all in the Old Testament?

If you’re a guest here today, I want you to know that these kinds of questions really are live here atSycamoreCreekChurch. We’re a curious community. We’ve got questions about God, the Bible, and especially the Old Testament. We want to invite you to be curious about God with us. Your questions are welcome right alongside our own questions.

Jesus’ View of the Old Testament

So what to do with the Old Testament? Let’s begin our exploration today with Jesus’ view of the Old Testament. What does Jesus think of the Old Testament? Since Christians believe that Jesus was not only fully human but also fully divine, we could rephrase the question this way: What does God think of the Old Testament?

I’d like to focus on one verse today to help us answer that question:

So Jesus is arguing with the religious leaders of the day and calls them out for being hypocrites. They follow to the letter the laws about tithing. They take this so seriously that they tithe their herbs and spices! Anybody here tithe? Anybody here tithe their herbs and spices?

So Jesus lays into them. What does he say, “You neglect the weightier matters of the law.” Implied in this critique of the religious leaders of the day is a view of the Old Testament: some things in it are weightier than other things. In other words, they’re not all equal. It’s like the rubber bands and dumbbells I use for exercising in the morning. They all help me exercise but some are weightier than others.

So you may wonder: “Is this just Jesus’ view in the New Testament? But what does the Old Testament think of itself?” Well, there’s actually quite a conversation within the Old Testament about what exactly is really important in the Old Testament. Consider Psalm 51 as it reflects on all the various commandments and details about offering sacrifices at the temple to God, a major part of some of the books in the Old Testament. Psalm 51 says:

For you [God] have no delight in sacrifice; if I were to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased. The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
Psalm 51:16-17 NRSV

So one part of the Old Testament tells us that God doesn’t take delight in sacrifices while another part tells us all the details of how to offer sacrifices. What’s up with that?

Here’s the main point of today’s message, the one point take-away: All scripture is inspired, but not all scripture is equal. Or you might say, “All scripture is inspired, but not all scripture is of equal weight.” But how do we know which parts of scripture are more weighty than others? One key to that is to read slowly, carefully, and humbly paying extra attention to genre.

Genre?

What is “genre”? You already know it. What’s your favorite mystery novel? How about romance? Fantasy? Biography? Memoir? Graphic Novel? Self-help? Politics? Cookbook? They’re all books, but they’re not all the same kind of books. If you pick up a cookbook and you’re expecting to read a romance novel, you’ll be seriously confused and disappointed. You don’t even read those books the same way. You read a romance sitting in bed over long stretches of time before you go to bed. You read a cookbook little bits at a time in your kitchen.

Here’s your Bible quiz for the day: What does “Bible” mean? “Bible” literally means library. The Bible is a library of sixty six books. I’ve got this really cool version of the Bible that shows that really well. It’s a boxed set where each book of the Bible is individually bound. There are thirty nine books of the Bible that are written by dozens of authors over thousands of years. Just like you read a cookbook differently than you read a romance novel, you can’t bring the same expectations to each book of the Bible, or even different parts within the same book. All scripture is inspired, but not all scripture is equal.

There are three big parts to the Old Testament:

The Story ofIsrael
Wisdom Literature (sometimes called “The Writings”)
The Prophets.

Let’s look at each part one at a time.

1. Story of Israel

The first big part of the Old Testament is the Story of Israel. These are the family stories you tell and retell that define who your family is and is not. For example, my family likes to tell the story of my Grandpa White who was being served pie by my grandma. She served up a piece of pie and before she could turn back and dish out some ice cream, he had eaten the entire piece of pie! That tells you something about my family. It tells you something about my family especially when you compare it to a more recent story that Sarah’s family likes to tell about me and them. The first time that Sarah’s family served me s’mores, her mom put all the ingredients out on the table: marshmallows, graham crackers, and chocolate. After her dad had roasted one marshmallow for each of us, Sarah’s mom began putting everything away. I protested: you can’t call them s’mores if you only get one! These are stories that we tell and retell over and over. What stories does your family tell and retell about themselves? How does the telling and retelling of those stories define who your family is?

The first big part of the Old Testament is the Story of Israel. Within the Story of Israel are two more big parts: the first part is the Pentateuch often called the Torah and the second part is the History. Pentateuch means “five books” and Torah means “teaching.” The five books of the Torah are Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy. Genesis has two big parts: the pre-history and the story of the matriarchs and patriarchs. The pre-history sometimes reads like it was taken out of the Lord of the Rings. For example:

The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went in to the daughters of humans, who bore children to them. These were the heroes that were of old, warriors of renown.
Genesis 6:4 NRSV

Did everything written in the pre-history happen exactly as it is written? Some of it I think should be read metaphorically like the story of creation in six days. Other parts of it, I don’t know. I wasn’t there. But nonetheless, these stories define who the family ofIsraelis, and consequently who we are.

Exodus is the story of the, well, Exodus. Numbers is the story of the number of people who traveled through the wilderness fromEgyptto the Promised Land. Numbers is one of those books we love to hate because it just has one list of people after another. We don’t know how to pronounce their names and we really don’t care. But here’s a trick, just read the names with authority. Nobody else knows how to pronounce them either. Let’s practice:

From Reuben, Elizur son of Shedeur. From Simeon, Shelumiel son of Zurishaddai. From Judah, Nahshon son of Amminadab. From Issachar, Nethanel son of Zuar. From Zebulun, Eliab son of Helon. From the sons of Joseph: from Ephraim, Elishama son of Ammihud; from Manasseh, Gamaliel son of Pedahzur. From Benjamin, Abidan son of Gideoni. From Dan, Ahiezer son of Ammishaddai. From Asher, Pagiel son of Ochran. From Gad, Eliasaph son of Deuel. From Naphtali, Ahira son of Enan.
Numbers 1:5-15 NRSV

I used to not get these lists of names. But then I went to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the Mall inWashingtonDC. I was overwhelmed with emotion. I cried as I read through the list of one name after another on this amazing memorial. I cried at a list of names! Do I want to stand at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial every day and read all those names every day? Probably not. But I did gain an appreciation for the power of writing down and reading names. Or take the one-year anniversary of 9-11. Do you remember what they did at ground zero? They read each of the three thousand names who died. It took a very long time. But it was powerful to listen to and remember all those names of people. That’s what the book of Numbers is about.

Another book we love to hate is Leviticus. Countless jokes are made about Leviticus. It is a book of law, many of which seem completely irrelevant to us. But not all laws are made equally. There are ceremonial laws, ethical laws, and civil laws. Buried within this book are amazing gems. Do you know what the second greatest commandment is according to Jesus? Do you know where Jesus got that from? The book of Leviticus:

You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Leviticus 19:18 NRSV

“Deuteronomy” literally means “second law.” Once again we’re in the law. Irrelevant? Do you know what the greatest commandment is according to Jesus? Do you know where Jesus got that commandment from? Deuteronomy.

You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.
Deuteronomy 6:5 NRSV

That’s the Pentateuch or Torah. That’s the first part of the Story of Israel. The second part of the Story of Israel is the history. Here’s how the history of Israel works:

There are several books that describe what life was like before there were kings that ruledIsrael: Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel

There is much in these books that is disturbing. But when we read books of history, we need to remember that often times what we’re reading is simply reporting what happened without a lot of commentary on whether it was wrong or right. But one big piece of commentary we get from the book of Judges is this:

In those days there was no king in Israel; all the people did what was right in their own eyes.
Judges 17:6 NRSV

One of the big stories that rubs people the wrong way is Lot offering his daughters to be gang raped by a mob. When you read this story, you must keep in mind that there is nothing in the story that says that God toldLotto do this. What you read is simply a report of what happened.

But that doesn’t totally get us off the hook in these difficult moments. We read in Samuel:

Thus says the LORD of hosts, “I will punish the Amalekites for what they did in opposing the Israelites when they came up out of Egypt. Now go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have; do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.”
1 Samuel 15:2-3 NRSV

YIKES! If you’ve got questions about stuff like this, well, you’re in good company. I’ve got questions too. When I come to sections like this it is helpful to remember that there are other parts of the Old Testament that tell a very different story. Consider this passage from Micah:

They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
Micah 4:3 NRSV

The Old Testament can be very bloody, but it also almost always points to, even longs for, a day when war will be a thing of the past. All scripture is inspired, but not all scripture is equal.

Moving on in the books of history there are several books that describe what life was like after kings took power in Israel: 1 & 2 Kings, 1 & 2 Chronicles. Here’s where much of the repetition comes from. The books of Kings was written by one group of people. The books of Chronicles tells the exact same story by another group of people. Some parts of these books are identical.

So during the king part of the Story of Israel there is a civil war and Israel is split into two kingdoms: the Northern Kingdom, Israel, and the Southern Kingdom, Judah. This civil war weakened Israel and Judah and soon the empires of Assyria and Babylon came and sacked these two kingdoms and took the people of Israel off to Exile. One book that tells what it was like to live in Exile is Esther.

Soon another even bigger Empire,Persia, takes down Assyria andBabylonand allowsIsraelto return to their land. Two books tell this story – Ezra & Nehemiah.

So we’ve covered the first big part of the Old Testament: the Story of Israel. There are two big parts left to go, but you’re going to have to come back next week to learn about those.

All scripture is inspired, but not all scripture is equal. When we really take this point into account we will read slowly, carefully, and humbly with special attention to genre of what we’re reading. I think that this kind of reading takes a lot of work. It doesn’t come easily. Next week we’re going to look at some practical strategies for how to do this kind of work.

When we read the Old Testament in this way it transforms our life and the lives of those around us. Lately I’ve been on a community learning tour. I’ve been visiting various places in our community and this past week I met our county sheriff, Sherriff Wrigglesworth. One of his deputies, Steve Martin (not the comedian) gave me a tour of the jail. Steve retires in about two weeks. He’s a seasoned policeman. As Steve walked me around showing me all the ins and outs (it was serious maze!), he told me about how he treats the prisoners: with respect. He said that he doesn’t yell at them or curse at them. If he has to speak words of discipline to an inmate, he takes him aside away from his buddies so as not to shame him in front of others. He told me how some of the younger deputies don’t treat the prisoners in this way and how they often end up having to resolve issues physically. After Steve told me this, I said to him, “I don’t know your faith history, but I’d say you’re treating the prisoners with a basic biblical dignity.” He went on to tell me that he was a Christian and that while many of these inmates have done some pretty heinous stuff, they are worthy of being treated with respect as humans because they each bear the image of God. Where do you think he got that idea from? The Old Testament.

Filed Under: Sermons Tagged With: Bible, Faith, Old Testament, scripture

Those Manipulative People

August 7, 2012 by Patricia Leave a Comment

Those Manipulative People*
Sycamore Creek Church
August 5, 2012
Tom Arthur
Matthew 16:21-23

Peace Friends!

How many of you know someone who would try to control and manipulate you? Raise your hand. Now raise both hands. Just seeing if I’ve still got control over you.

So today we continue in a series called Those People. You know. Those people. The critical neighbor. The hypocritical boss. The needy family member. Well, today we’re looking at those manipulative people in your lives. Who manipulates you?

A guy dies and goes to heaven. When he gets there he sees that there are two lines going up to the pearly gates. The first line has hundreds and thousands of men standing in it. It is labeled, THOSE CONTROLLED BY THEIR WIVES. The second line has only one man standing in it. It is labeled, THOSE NOT CONTROLLED BY THEIR WIVES. The guy goes up to the one man standing in this line and asks, how did you do it? How did you do what all these hundreds of thousands of men couldn’t do? He replied, “I don’t know. My wife just told me to stand over here and smile.”

Any men here today controlled by your wives? Don’t raise your hand! You’re in good company. One of the greatest manipulation stories of all time is found in the Bible. It’s the story of Samson and Delilah. You know the basic storyline: Delilah is a Bond-girl-worthy spy trying to figure out how Samson gets his power so she can betray him to the Philistines. She tries several times, but he manages to feed her false information. Then she goes back again.

Judges 16:15-16
Then [Delilah] said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart is not with me? You have mocked me three times now and have not told me what makes your strength so great.” Finally, after she had nagged him with her words day after day, and pestered him, he was tired to death.

Yikes! So Samson tells her that his strength is in his hair. So Delilah leaks the info to the Philistines, they come in and cut his hair, and take him hostage.

But manipulation doesn’t just happen between men and women. Men manipulate each other too. Another great story of manipulation in the Bible is the story of Jacob manipulating Esau out of his birthright (Gen. 25:29-34). Esau comes in starving after a long day of hunting. He demands food from Jacob. Jacob holds him hostage: give me your birthright, and I’ll give you some food. Esau gives in! Later on Jacob manipulates his brother and father to steal Esau’s blessing (Genesis 27).

When we are manipulated by others, we end up surrendering the direction of our life to them.

Earlier this week I sat down with Nancy McMall, a counselor who attends our church from time to time. She helped me unpack manipulation. For Nancy, a good working definition of manipulation is getting someone to do what you want without telling them. This often happens around needs (things required for survival) and wants (an enhancement of survival). We use certain power plays, especially in our marriage relationships to manipulate those around us. A power play is the leveraging of a tool to get what we want. There are five tools most often used in power plays in family relationships:

$
Sex
Family
Time
Peace

We use these five tools to get what we want out of those around us.

Nancysees manipulation as a fundamental orientation toward fear rather than love. We’re afraid that if we’re up front about what we need or want, that we won’t get it or that the world will be stacked against us receiving that want or need. So we keep silent and leverage our power play tools to get it. We operate out of fear. Love is fundamentally different. An orientation of love assumes that those around us want to hear and know what we need and want and are willing to negotiate how to live into those needs and wants in relation to their own needs and wants.

I found the conversation withNancyhelpful in further understanding what exactly manipulation is. Having a better understanding of what manipulation is and what we do to manipulate others, here are three prayers for breaking the power of manipulation.

God, help me to recognize when someone is trying to manipulate me.

Sometimes we’ve been in dysfunction for so long that we don’t even recognize manipulation. It has just become par for the course. When you live in a culture long enough, you begin to become blind to the eccentric features of the culture. It’s like driving your old car. You’ve got to push the steering wheel just the right way to get the key to turn. The lights on the dashboard work intermittently but you don’t notice. The passenger side back window doesn’t go down but who really needs it to anyway? Then you lend your car to a friend and they don’t even know how it works. Manipulations in relationships can become the same way. Everyone else notices it except you.

Jesus runs into a situation in his life where one of his followers, Peter, tries to manipulate him. Jesus opens up to them and is vulnerable. He tells them what is about to happen to him, what God’s plan for him is. Peter won’t have any of it. He has other plans.

Matthew 16:21-22 NRSV
From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.”

Notice that Peter took Jesus aside. Manipulators lose their power in groups. It’s harder to manipulate a whole bunch of people than it is to manipulate just one. Then he “rebukes” Jesus! He REBUKES JESUS! Whew. That’s kinda crazy, but Peter wanted his plan for Jesus’ life. His intentions were good, but he was motivated by fear, not love.

How do you recognize manipulation? I’d suggest you feel guilty and find it hard to say no. Your desire to please is born out of guilt or fear rather than love. You compromise your values to please others. You feel pressured into having sex. You’re pressured to participate in some form of entertainment (go to a movie or club) that you really don’t want to go to. You end up not being who God has called you to be or you end up doing what you know God doesn’t want you to do. God help me to recognize when someone is trying to manipulate me.

So what do you do when you recognize you’re being manipulated? Here’s a second prayer for today:

2. God, empower me to put healthy boundaries in place.

When we keep reading the story Jesus takes Peter to the mat:

Matthew 16:23
Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”

Next time your mom or grandma tries to manipulate you, try calling them “Satan” and telling them to get behind you! Ok, that’s a joke. What Jesus says to Peter isn’t a command for us to say to others. It’s rather a recognition that what Peter wants isn’t what God wants. So Jesus puts a pretty significant boundary up between what Peter wants and what God wants.

Boundaries are tricky things. They can themselves be a form of manipulation, especially if they are unspoken and arbitrary. A healthy boundary begins with open communication about expectations and clear consequences for the breaking of those expectations. Ideally the expectations and boundary is clearly discussed and agreed upon by all involved. Although sometimes when it comes down to it, you have to set consequences whether the other person involved agrees or not. Let me give you two examples.

I was reading a book about parenting lately that Jana Aupperlee recommended to me: 1 2 3 Magic. It’s about raising children between the ages of 2-12. The author tells the story of seeing a mom come into a grocery store with her son. The son sees some candy he wants and asks for it. She says no, and he begins to cry. He cries and cries throughout the entire grocery store. The author is quite impressed with this parent’s ability to set a clear boundary and stick to it even though it’s producing a public display that she’d probably rather not have. But as the mom is checking out at the register and the kid is still crying, she reaches down, picks up the candy, pays for it, and gives it to her son. What did she just do? She just reinforced crying all the way through the store. The kid has learned how to manipulate his mom. She needs to put a clearly communicated boundary before her child: when I say no to candy, it means no even if you cry all the way through the store.

Or consider the question of manipulation by a mother or father-in-law. It is best to openly communicate and negotiate what you want out of the relationship, but in the end, when a child gets married they leave their parents and cleave to their spouse (Genesis 2:24) and the new family created in that leaving and cleaving sets their own expectations whether the in-laws agree with them or not. Hear me out in-laws. I’m not saying not to communicate about what you want or what your expectations are, but in the end, the decision belongs to your adult married child’s family.

If you let someone manipulate you, you are ultimately committing the sin of idolatry. You are letting someone else be in the place that only God should be. You are letting someone else direct your life rather than God.

This doesn’t always have to be about good and bad or right and wrong. Sometimes expectations are simply value neutral even though they are not shared. At SCC we like to talk about the Role Renegotiation Model. Basically, every relationship starts out by gathering information and making a commitment. This commitment goes along smoothly and productively until an expectation is broken. A small broken expectation is called a pinch. A big one is called a crunch. A pinch might be that you’d like your roommate to clean the dishes immediately after using them, but they prefer to let them pile up over time and do them in one big push. There is no command of God that one way is better than the other (I’m afraid your grandma was wrong, “cleanliness is next to Godliness” is not in the Bible). A crunch on the other hand might be an accumulation of pinches or your roommate lying to you about paying half the rent at the end of the week and using the money instead to buy a new pair of shoes. In each instance, the best course of action is to go back to the beginning and gather new information by renegotiating expectations. Ideally a relationship would have this kind of conversation on a regular basis whether there was an obvious pinch or crunch to be discussed. In the midst of the renegotiation of expectations you can decided to recommit to one another or decide that it’s time to move on and find a new roommate (of course the commitment of marriage is more permanent than that of a roommate). In this way you’re setting healthy well communicated boundaries.

God, empower me to put healthy boundaries in place. That’s the second prayer. Here’s the third:

3. God, help me see my own need to control & surrender everything to you.

I’ve got some bad news for you this morning. When it comes to manipulation, we’re all those people. We all try to control others around us. We all try to get what we want without saying it. We all use power plays to get our needs and wants met. By our acts of manipulation, we say to those around us, God loves you, and I have a wonderful plan for your life.

There are two reasons we manipulate others. First, we fear surrendering control to others. Everyone wants to be in control of their lives. But control is an illusion. The only one really in control is God. Second, I think I make a better god than God. Whoa! Now we’re back to idolatry, but in this case, the idol we’re setting up is ourselves! Do you know what the difference between God and you is? God doesn’t think he’s you.

Friends, today surrender your family, relationships, children, schedule, and future to God. Let God be God. Submit to God’s plan and control rather than your own. Submission is the freedom to not always have to get your own way. It’s hard to imagine, but this truly is a freedom.

Surrendering those around you to God doesn’t mean you don’t lead. Leading is different than controlling. Leading is example. Leading is communicating. Leading is love not fear. If you’re shouting orders at your kids from your lazy boy, you’re not leading, you’re controlling. Leading starts with trusting in God. The prophet Isaiah puts it perfectly:

Isaiah 26:3-4 NLT
You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you! Trust in the Lord always, for the Lord God is the eternal Rock.

I’d like pray for those who are being manipulated, and for those who are manipulating. Will you pray with me?

Loving God, we live out of fear too often rather than love. We seek to play god in other people’s lives, or we let others play god in our lives. Forgive us. Help us to surrender our lives to you rather than others. Help us to follow your will of love rather than the world’s culture of fear. Let us follow in the way of Jesus who loved even in the face of death. In the name of Jesus and in the power of your Holy Spirit, amen.

Questions for Small Groups

When have you experienced someone manipulating you?
Where do you currently struggle to put healthy boundaries in place?
Where are you tempted to manipulate others?
How can your small group pray for you when it comes to manipulation?

*This sermon is an adaptation of a sermon originally by Craig Groeschel.

Filed Under: Sermons Tagged With: control, fear, love, manipulation, relationships, surrender

Those Critical People

July 30, 2012 by Patricia Leave a Comment

Those Critical People*
Sycamore Creek Church
July 29, 2012
Tom Arthur

Peace friends!

Know any critical people? Are they sitting beside you? Don’t answer that last question! Today we’re beginning a new series called “Those People.” You know. Those people. The ones that you would rather do without. The ones that drive you crazy. The neighbor. The co-worker. The boss. The student. The family member. Yeah. Those people.

Over the next four weeks we’ll look at those manipulative people, those needy people, those hypocritical people, and today, those critical people.

Here’s the truth about criticism: all of us will be criticized. Some of the big names in the Bible were criticized. Moses was criticized by his brother and sister for marrying a foreign woman (Numbers). If you read between the lines, you’ll see that St. Paul was probably criticized for not being a good speaker. He certainly wasn’t succinct. One time he preached until midnight and a guy named Eutychus fell asleep in a window and fell down three stories and died (Acts 20). Paul went down with others to investigate and found out he wasn’t dead. So what did they do? Paul kept on preaching until sunrise! Then there’s Jesus. Among other things, he was criticized for eating with the wrong kind of people and working on the Sabbath.

I’ve experienced some criticism myself in life. A husband and wife in a previous church didn’t ever think I did anything right, including my hair. At the time I was wearing it shoulder length and Sarah was wearing her hair really short. This woman said to me in a nasty sharp voice, “Don’t you know that the husband is supposed to have shorter hair than his wife?” It was a slam on both of us! I wonder what she would think about my hairdo for CRASH, our men’s retreat each summer? One summer I wore a Mohawk. The next summer I shaved it all off. Who knows what I’ll do this summer!

I’m not alone when it comes to criticism. I asked my friends on Facebook about when they are unjustly criticized. I got a huge response! One teenage friend is a nanny and is often seen in public with young children. She will get nasty critical looks from people who think she’s too young to be a mom. She’s not, but even if she was are the judgmental critical looks necessary? Then there were a whole host of young parents who feel like their every parenting move is criticized by people around them, especially if they go against the grain of what’s “normal.” One teacher friend of mine feels like teachers are often criticized, especially in today’s climate, by people who don’t know a lot about what really happens in a classroom. Another friend who is a relatively new Christian feels like her non-Christian friends criticize her for her new interest in the spiritual life. Then another friend talked about the critic she looks at every day in the mirror. Yikes! There’s a lot of criticism to go around.

Now let’s be sure to make a distinction here about criticism. There’s unjust criticism and there’s just criticism. Proverbs, the book of wise sayings, has this to say about criticism: If you listen to constructive criticism, you will be at home among the wise (15:31 NLT).

I used to work at a really nice Italian restaurant in Petoskey. The owner described himself as “not fun, but fair.” It was a true description. One day he spent about fifteen minutes showing me exactly how he wanted me to mix the pizza cheese. We had this big super huge grinder and he had a particular ratio of muenster to mozzarella he wanted grinded together in a particular way. It really did make great pizza cheese. I don’t remember the details but after he left, I decided there was a better way to do it, and I did. He walked by shortly thereafter and saw that I had abandoned the way that he had spent fifteen minutes showing me. He reamed me out. My ego was hurt, but slowly I realized, he took the time to show me and he is paying me so I should do it exactly as he wants. It was a just criticism even though it took me a while to realize it.

Do you know that if you ask for criticism you’ll be more likely willing and open to hear it? I do a lot of asking for criticism these days. We put twenty sermon and worship feedback forms in random bulletins. I’ve connected with a sermon coach lately. I also have a leadership coach. We do a 360 evaluation of me every year. I found out last year that one of my weakest traits was building extensive friendships in the community. I’m basically an introvert. But I learned from that criticism and over the last year I’ve gone to several social events and community events that you’ve invited me to (By the way…invite me to your kids’ games, recitals, and so on. It always helps me to “go on the arm” of someone.) I’ll also give you another tip about me and criticism. If you can at all wait, don’t criticize me on Sunday morning, my mind and energy are elsewhere. It’s the worst time. Save it for another day of the week. I’ll be more open to hearing what you have to say.

So let’s turn to unjust criticism. I’d like to offer you three prayers this morning to help you with unjust criticism. Here’s the first one:

God, help me to know when to respond to criticism

Knowing when to respond is key. And we’re talking here about responding, not reacting. Don’t go putting some counter criticism up on Facebook or Tweeting about your anger. Don’t do what I saw some dad do on YouTube. His daughter had made some critical comments about him on Facebook. She apparently had a history of doing so. He had warned her not to do this again. She did. So he took her laptop out in the back forty and shot it about twenty times. He video taped the whole thing and posted that video tape online so all her friends could see it. He apparently didn’t learn the basic ethical premise: two wrongs don’t make a right. He also didn’t learn that responding is different that reacting.

Sometimes responding with a simple explanation can diffuse unjust criticism. Gideon, one of the heroes of the Bible, runs into a situation like this. We read in Judges:

Now the Ephraimites asked Gideon, “Why have you treated us like this? Why didn’t you call us when you went to fight Midian?” And they criticized him sharply…But he answered them…At this, their resentment against him subsided (Judges 8:1&3 NIV).

One time I was counseling a couple. They would come in and see me together. Then throughout the week I would occasionally get calls from one of them asking what to do. I would offer some thoughts and hang up. Shortly after this I would get called from the other one who was now angry at what I had said. They would repeat my words back to me in a slightly different fashion with a very different meaning than I had intended. This happened both ways! It usually took only a brief explanation that I didn’t mean for my words to be taken the way that they had to solve the issue. I also learned that I had to speak to both of them at the same time or my words would inevitably be misrepresented! In these instances a simple response diffused the criticism. But this isn’t always the case, is it? Here’s a second prayer:

2. God, help me to know when to dismiss invalid criticism

Remember that there are two different kinds of criticism: just and unjust; legit and illegit. You don’t want to dismiss just and legit criticism. So discerning between the two is vital. If twelve of fifteen people tell you the same thing: it’s probably constructive criticism you should listen to. If you find yourself facing the same criticism at home and work, then it’s probably 2 Legit to Quit. But if you only hear it from one or two people who are hypercritical of you, then you’re going to just have to learn to dismiss it with God’s help.

Dismissing criticism is rarely easy. We focus on the one bad thing people said and ignore the twenty good things. But Jesus gives us some direction on how to dismiss unjust criticism: Jesus did not retaliate when he was insulted. When he suffered, he did not threaten to get even. He left his case in the hands of God, who always judges fairly (1 Peter 2:23 NLT).

When I search my own heart after finding it hard to dismiss criticism, when I ask myself, Why do I take it so personally?, I find an ugly answer: I elevate the opinions of people above those of God. You can’t please everyone, but you can please God. Be freed today from the prison of criticism. Becoming obsessed with what people think is the quickest way to forget what God thinks!

If you want to make a difference in this world, you will be criticized. Each of us is on a mission from God. Don’t let criticism pull you off that mission. I’d rather be doing something world-changing that people are picking apart than doing nothing significant.

God, help me to dismiss unjust criticism and stay on your mission. Here’s a third prayer for dealing with unjust criticism:

3. God, help me overcome my own critical nature.

We’re all one of “those people.” We read in Proverbs, Rash words are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise brings healing (Proverbs 12:18 NRSV). Anyone ever have some rash words?

In my own life I’ve found myself wrestling with overcoming significant judgmentalism and a kind of super ugly self-righteousness. If you’re a guest here this morning, I’d like to apologize to you. As a representative of the church, I’m one of the many of us who are recovering judgmental critics. I’m one of the many in the church who are recovering self-righteous jerks. Unfortunately, this community of spiritual friends who are seeking to follow Jesus and learn to love God and our neighbor more perfectly has too often become judgmental, self-righteous, and just plain critical of everyone else. Please forgive us. By God’s grace and mercy and your love, we’re learning to do life together differently.

One way this plays out for me is that when I visit another church I don’t end up worshiping, I end up being a worship critic. I give them a grade on everything. The music was a C. The hospitality a D. The message was a B-. The building a C+. The pastor’s shoes an F. God, save me from my own criticism!

Then there’s your own church. When pastors get together there can sometimes end up being a kind of pity party. You think you’ve got it bad, let me tell you about Sally and Joe! I was at a conference one time when the speaker asked us to introduce ourselves and describe our churches as if they were a child going to school. What would we say to the teacher? It deflated all the criticism. What if we all described our workplace in that kind of a way?

Johnny Workplace is a little nervous today. His dad hasn’t been around much and his mom is really overprotective. She wants him to succeed but sometimes she gets in the way. Then there’s the food allergy he’s got. It’s kinda unique to him. Not many people have it, but you just can’t feed him anything. I love this kid, and I hope you’ll take really good care of him.

When I am critical, it shows the weakness, sin, insecurity, and pride in my own heart. I’m right and everybody else is wrong. I’m the superior human being, and I’d like to tell you how to be more like me. Criticism never changes the world. Criticism won’t fix your marriage. Criticism won’t raise your children. Criticism won’t make your workplace more productive and it certainly won’t make it more fun to work at.

If you have an overly critical nature, we’re going to take it to God and ask for forgiveness and healing. I’d like to pray for you, and invite you to pray along with me silently.

God, you love me unconditionally. I haven’t done anything to earn it. You loved me so much that you sent your son, Jesus, to show me that love, a love that went so far as to die for me. Help me to embrace that kind of love you have for me and to share it with others. Help me to stop being critical of others and instead to be a highway for your love to travel into the lives of those around me. And when criticism is turned against me, help me to remember that you love me, and in the end, what you think about me is all that really counts. Amen.

Questions for Small Groups

When was a time you received just criticism?
When was a time you responded to unjust criticism and the criticism subsided?
When was a time you had a difficult time dismissing unjust criticism?
Where do you find yourself currently being overcritical of those around you?
How can we pray for each other in the midst of just or unjust criticism?

*This sermon is an adaptation of a sermon originally by Craig Groeschel.

Filed Under: Sermons Tagged With: criticism, discernment, grace, judgmentalism, mercy

Spiritual Friends (Belong)

July 16, 2012 by Patricia Leave a Comment

Update Your Status – Spiritual Friends (Belong)
Valley Church – July 8
Sycamore Creek Church – July 15
Cornerstone Church – July 22
Tom Arthur
Matthew 12:46-50

Peace, Friends!

What silly things we do to belong! Grandparents trying to figure out this new technology. It makes us all laugh. What is the craziest or silliest thing you’ve ever done to try to fit in and belong? Or maybe the most embarrassing now that you look back on it.

I want to warn you. What I’m about to show you may cause problems for those who are sensitive. So look away if you are sensitive. Here is a picture of me in 9^th grade trying to fit in and belong:

[Picture with mullet]

Let me walk you through this horrendous fashion decision and point out the finer details that may go unnoticed to the casual observer:

Notice the spiked part (plenty of mousse to hold that up);
Then there’s the Vanilla Ice stripes on the side of the head (how many know what I’m talking about?);
Penultimate is the mullet in the back…
But ultimate is that that mullet is permed!

Yes you heard me right. I had a permed mullet in 9^th grade. I don’t know why I thought this would help me fit in and belong, but I did. Now all it does is make for a good sermon illustration of impulses gone wild.

Seriously though. We do a lot of crazy stuff to try to belong. My own experience with relationships has always been a little difficult. I think that because my parents divorced when I was in elementary school, relationships have always been this kind of unstable thing. I’m always wondering, when will this person leave? When will I lose this friend? What will I say that will drive that person away? Commitment, and I’m not talking about the romantic kind here (though that certainly is part of it), is always kind of iffy. Turns out I’m not the only one.

I asked my “friends” on Facebook what keeps you from making a commitment to be in a deep/meaningful/transparent/authentic/vulnerable friendship? Here’s some of the answers I got:

Fear that they won’t give back the same and fear that they’ll use my weaknesses or honesty against me.
forgiveness and fear…plus a lot of them have been really harmful to me and I am not sure it’s in me to forgive them
Trust. Trust has to be absolute. I have only experienced this a couple times. Of those times only one person has actually honored it…How can a person commit to another person when the trust that your efforts of friendship won’t be thrown aside for selfishness?

Speaking of “friends” on Facebook, how many of you have less than ten friends on Facebook? How bout 10-100? 100-500? 500-1000? Over 1000?

OK, let’s look at this question another way. How many deep/meaningful/transparent/authentic/vulnerable friendships do you really have? Anyone over 1000? 500-1000? 100-500? 10-100? Under 10? I’d guess most of us would fall in that bottom category. I won’t ask how many have zero. That would really suck.

So here’s the problem that we face: We all long for deep/real/vulnerable/friends and authentic community. It’s part of our purpose in life. But we fear making a commitment that will cause us to get hurt.

Adele, our modern relationship theologian puts it well in her song “Turning Tables.”

Close enough to start a war,
All that I have is on the floor,
God only knows what we’re fighting for,
All that I say, you always say more
I can’t keep up with your turning tables
Under your thumb, I can’t breathe,
So I won’t let you close enough to hurt me
No, I won’t ask you, you to just desert me
I can’t give you what you think you gave me
It’s time to say goodbye to turning tables, to turning tables.

Friends, we’re a mess. Thankfully Jesus speaks to this whole friendship and commitment thing. Let’s read a story about Jesus and his commitment to his friends:

Matthew 12:46-50
⁴⁶ While he was still speaking to the crowds, his mother and his brothers [called his cell phone…] were standing outside, wanting to speak to him. ⁴⁷ Someone told him, “Look, your mother and your brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you.” ⁴⁸ But to the one who had told him this, Jesus replied, [Send them right in! No…] “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” ⁴⁹ And pointing to his [what?…biological family? No, his…] disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! ⁵⁰ For whoever does [what?] the will of my Father in heaven is [who?] my brother and sister and mother.”

Jesus makes a seriously radical challenge to our idea of family/belonging. He claims that his mother and brothers aren’t what we would call his “family members” but someone else. Family is not based on biological blood; but on the blood of Jesus! Not DNA but discipleship! You’re not “accidentally” born into this community (there are no “surprise babies”), you are chosen and you respond. How do you respond? What’s the defining point? Those who do “the will of my Father in heaven.” So what does doing God’s will look like?

Let’s jump to the story of Jesus as his disciple, John tells it. Here we find Jesus describing what it means to be his disciple:

John 13:34-35
³⁴ I give you a new commandment, that you [be fruitful and multiply? No!] love one another. Just as I have [what?] loved you, you also should love one another. ³⁵ By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

So Jesus is defining what it means to follow him. He is defining what it means to be a disciple, to be part of his family, the church. The community of the church is marked by a commitment to love one another as Jesus loved us. How did Jesus love us? He died for us. His blood covers our blood and we belong. Only in a full-throttle commitment to belonging to one another like Jesus’ commitment to us will we experience real, true, deep, authentic, transparent, vulnerable spiritual friendship and life-changing and transforming community.

The very thing we are afraid of, commitment, is the very thing that deep/meaningful/transparent/authentic/vulnerable friendships requires to thrive! In fact, that’s the whole point of this sermon. It’s the ONE point of this sermon: Authentic community and friendship is dependent upon a commitment to belong. Commitment really matters. You can’t have true friendships without commitment to belong.

Research has recently been done on what effect commitment has on living together before you’re married. The researchers, psychologists at major research universities who aren’t necessarily Christian, found that the lack of a life-time commitment before moving in together leads to a higher probability of negative experiences in marriage. But a life-time commitment before moving in together leads to a higher probability of positive experience in marriage. So which one do you want? Higher probability of negative experiences or higher probability of positive experiences?

While you’re not moving into the same room together, commitment to friends and community in the church works in a similar way. If you’re always wishy washy on your commitment to your church family (“Meh…I could always go find some other church if I don’t like this one”), your lack of commitment is likely to lead to a lack of real spiritual friends in that community. But if you go in to a church family with a high level of commitment, you’re likely to have positive experiences with building spiritual friendships.

So just in case you didn’t get it the first time, here’s the main point of this message: authentic community is dependent on a commitment to belong. Ephesians 2:19 in the Living Bible paraphrase says: “You are members of God’s very own family…and you [what?] belong [where?] in God’s household with [who?] every other Christian.”

So here’s what I want you to do. I want you to take a step of commitment today. Depending on where you’re at, you don’t necessarily have to jump in full body, but that wouldn’t be a bad idea. I’m trying to give you some “graded” steps here:

If you’re a guest this morning and you’re here for the first time, make a commitment to attending regularly. At the very least, give this church “three strikes.” Today might just be a bad day. So if it’s your first or second time here, come back next week.

If you’re already a regular attender, make a commitment to belong to a small group. You know that real/deep/authentic/vulnerable spiritual friendship can’t really happen on Sunday morning. There’s way too many people here. No matter how authentic your community is, it’s just impractical for a worship service to carry the weight of all the spiritual friendships in a community. That’s got to take place somewhere else. And that somewhere else is in small groups. At our church, we’ve got small groups that happen formally and informally. A lot of people organize their own small groups. Two friends who get together for coffee every week. A neighborhood group of friends who study the Bible together. Then there’s the formal groups that our church organizes. We think that small groups are essential to spiritual growth so we’re always trying to get people to join a small group. That’s where the real meat of spiritual friendship and belonging takes place.

If you’re already in a small group, then I want you to consider taking a step of commitment to membership here in this church. It’s something of a fad today to be “spiritual but not religious.” By that, I think people like to understand themselves in spiritual ways, but not get involved with “organized religion.” The church and membership in the church then gets equated with “organized religion.” I’d like to suggest another way of thinking about membership to a church: membership is a commitment to spiritual friendship. It is a commitment to life-changing and transforming community. And do you remember what it takes for true spiritual friendship? Authentic community is dependent on commitment to belonging. Is a church “organized”? Well, yes. Have you ever tried to get a group of friends together? It takes phone calls and calendaring and a venue. Then there’s usually some money involved to meet where ever you’re meeting. Friendship takes organization. So does the spiritual friendship that is the church. So if you haven’t made a commitment to belong to that spiritual friendship, take steps to do so today.

So if you’re already a member of this church, you’re not off the hook yet. Your job is to create an environment where spiritual friendships and belonging can thrive. That’s called hospitality. Who here is on the hospitality team? Raise your hand. If you’re hand isn’t in the air, you’ve got it all wrong. At my church, when I ask who’s on the hospitality team? Everyone raises their hand. Because the environment for deep/meaningful/honest/authentic/vulnerable/transparent spiritual friendship to thrive is dependent less on the person greeting people as they come in the building and more on the person that the guest sits next to when they come into the worship area.

Some people collect antiques or baseball cards, I collect good and bad hospitality experiences at churches and elsewhere. I visited a church one time where a lady told me that she had been reserving the seats we were sitting in. She came up afterwards and apologized. I visited another church that everyone except the pastor ignored me and as my wife and we were walking out the back door, the sound guy came down out of the sound booth and greeted us. He then introduced us to some other people and we stuck around for some time longer. I visited a church recently where I was the most “normal” looking person in the worship space. I had no tattoos, no body piercings, no dreadlocks, no Mohawks, no vintage clothing. I went by myself with my 19-month-old son. No one talked to us, not even the pastor (who I knew!). Then right before worship began, the guitarist came down out of the front and introduced himself to us, pointed out his wife, and his infant son in his grandmother’s arms.

Recently my wife and I went to a swing dance at a club we’d never been to. The woman at the door (about half our age) greeted us and talked to us a quite a bit. She asked us a lot of questions and found out that we were there celebrating our fifteenth wedding anniversary. She told us about the swing dance club and was very friendly. When we got in to the dance floor, it was clear to us that most everyone knew one another. We felt a little awkward. We didn’t know anyone and the obstacles to getting to know people seemed huge. So we sat down and watched as people began to dance. A single woman about our age came in and sat down next to us. As she was putting her dance shoes on she introduced herself to us and told us her name was Kaitlin. She got our names, asked us lots of questions, and told us about herself and her own dancing. Then she got up to dance. We danced a couple of songs but realized that it was more of a singles scene and the young crowd switched partners every song. We were starting to stick out dancing only with one another. So I talked to Sarah about “fitting in” and asked if it was OK for me to ask someone else to dance. She said that was fine. Who do you think I went to ask to dance? Kaitlin. Who do you think was the second person I asked to dance? The woman who greeted us at the door. The next? A complete stranger. Of course, Sarah got asked to dance every single dance too. Friends, don’t let the local swing dance community out-hospitalitize the church!

I’d like to show you what this kind of spiritual friendship and belonging looks like when it’s done well. A couple of months ago I got a call from a friend of mine who is a pastor inKansas City. A woman who is a member of his church had a non-Christian brother in the hospital inLansing, and he asked if I would go visit this man who had a brain tumor and was not expected to live very long. I went and visited several times. We talked about all kinds of things: family, friends, and God. After he left and went back home, I kept up with him. A week or so after his discharge, I got a call from his sister who lived in Kansas City. She left me this voicemail:

“You have been visiting with my brother up in the hospital and I just wanted to say thank you so much. And yesterday my brother said something to me that was really really powerful and wanted to pass that on to you because it is a testament to your visits and the prayers from Sycamore Creek Church. Yesterday he said to me, “Hey that Tom Arthur stopped by the day that I was leaving and I wanted you to know that I think he’s going to be my spiritual friend.” And for him to say that is powerful, because he is not a person to say things like that. Whatever you did and whatever you’ve done—you did it prayerfully—that’s the impact of what you do there. So thank you for all of you, but especially to you, for reaching out to someone who really needs that connection right now. So you’re now a part of my brother’s family. Whether you realize it or not, he sees you as a spiritual friend. Thank you. Bye.”

“Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” And pointing to his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”

Filed Under: Sermons

Jail Break

July 2, 2012 by Patricia Leave a Comment

Amazing Stories – Jail Break
Sycamore Creek Church
July 1, 2012
Tom Arthur
Acts 12:1-19

Peace Friends!

Ever felt like you’re down 1 point in overtime with 2.1 seconds left on the clock? Impossible obstacles, right? Maybe one of the best moments in sports happened in the 1992 NCAA East Regional game. With 2.1 seconds remaining in overtime, Duke trailed 103-102. Grant Hill threw a pass on a wing and a prayer the length of the court to Christian Laettner, who dribbled once, turned, and hit a jumper as time expired to win 104-103 over Kansas. Here’s the video so you can relive the glory:

Do you know what happened with the rest of that NCAA tournament? Duke went on to win the tournament against…ahem…Michigan, 71-51, and to win back to back NCAA championships.

OK, that’s a fairly humorous way to introduce a topic that we all struggle with: When do we find ourselves up against impossible obstacles? And what do we do when we find ourselves against impossible obstacles? When we’re stuck in a prison or those we love are in spiritual, emotional, or physical bondage?

Often times we feel like we’re up against an impossible obstacle of sin in our lives. Something that is deeply ingrained. Sin is anything intentional or unintentional that is not what God would desire for us. We try and we try and we try and we just can’t get rid of it. We’re always at 2.1 seconds left in overtime, but we always seem to miss the shot.

One kind of particularly impossible sin is addiction. We become addicted to drugs. Addicted to alcohol. Addicted to porn. Addicted to gambling. You’re addicted when you’re always looking for the next fix.

Some of us are up against the impossible obstacle of selfishness. Or maybe I should say we’re all in that boat. We think the world revolves around me.

Another impossible obstacle is bitterness. We’ve been hurt, sometimes not just lightly but had grave injustice done to us, and we can’t seem to get out of the prison of our bitterness. There’s no way we can even begin to imagine forgiving the person who did such evil to us.

Many of us are up against the obstacle of self deception. Everyone around us knows that we’ve got a problem, but we’re clueless. We aren’t humble enough to recognize that something is wrong even if you can’t see it yourself. We are unable to truly see ourselves as we are.

As a church we’re up against some pretty big obstacles when it comes to our culture. We live in a culture (especially the next generation) that is increasingly put off by Christians and sees us as hypocritical, uncaring, antihomosexual, sheltered, political, and judgmental; in a word, unChristian. David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons wrote a book titled unchristian based on research they did with those who self described as not Christian. What they found was this:

What are Christians known for? Outsiders think our moralizing, our condemnations, and our attempts to draw boundaries around everything. Even if these standards are accurate and biblical, they seem to be all we have to offer. And our lives are a poor advertisement for the standards. We have set the gameboard to register lifestyle points; then we are surprised to be trapped by our mistakes. The truth is we have invited the hypocrite image.

How in the world do we overcome these obstacles to reach out to new people in our community?

Thankfully, God is in the business of overcoming obstacles, of breaking the bonds that bind us, and of breaking his people out of jail. Today I’d like to look at a story of a jail break. It’s like an old country western movie right there in the Bible. It’s at the beginning of the life of the church, and it is an amazing story. What we’ll see in this story is that God uses the prayers of the church to overcome impossible obstacles. Let’s walk through it a little at a time and see what we can learn.

Acts 12:1-19 NLT
About that time King Herod Agrippa began to persecute some believers in the church. He had the apostle James (John’s brother) killed with a sword.

Herod is being very systematic here. James, John, and Peter are the three inner-core leaders of the church. Herod is systematically taking out the inner leadership of this fledgling Jesus movement.

When Herod saw how much this pleased the Jewish leaders, he arrested Peter during the Passover celebration and imprisoned him, placing him under the guard of four squads of four soldiers each.

Whoa! Four squads of four soldiers. That’s sixteen soldiers for one dude. A guy who so far hasn’t caused any bloodshed. Herod is serious about squelching the church. No games here. No chances. The odds of Peter making it out of this situation are dwindling to almost nothing.

Herod’s intention was to bring Peter out for public trial after the Passover. But while Peter was in prison, the church prayed very earnestly for him.

Insert here the Hail Mary, literally. The church is praying. The Greek word that is translated “earnestly” literally means “in an extended way.” The church was taking this prayer thing seriously. They were setting up seriously long prayer meetings to pray for Peter. The life of the church depended upon it. But as if to symbolize the situation, this verse about prayer is “chained” between two verses about impossible obstacles. Sixteen soldiers and then…

The night before Peter was to be placed on trial, he was asleep, chained between two soldiers, with others standing guard at the prison gate.

The deck is stacked. The dice are loaded. Peter is chained between two soldiers. The Greek literally says that he is bound with two chains. Then there are more soldiers outside. It’s no longer looking like 2.1 seconds left. It’s looking like the clock has already hit 00:00:00. But then…

Suddenly, there was a bright light in the cell, and an angel of the Lord stood before Peter. The angel tapped him on the side to awaken him and said, “Quick! Get up!” And the chains fell off his wrists. Then the angel told him, “Get dressed and put on your sandals.” And he did. “Now put on your coat and follow me,” the angel ordered. So Peter left the cell, following the angel. But all the time he thought it was a vision. He didn’t realize it was really happening.

Here is the great spiritual leader of this new church, the “rock” upon whom Jesus would build his church, and he’s thinking it’s all just a vision. Not really happening. So much for the great faith of Peter. Thankfully the jail break wasn’t dependent upon his faith! But then whose?

They passed the first and second guard posts and came to the iron gate to the street, and this opened to them all by itself. So they passed through and started walking down the street, and then the angel suddenly left him. Peter finally realized what had happened. “It’s really true!” he said to himself. “The Lord has sent his angel and saved me from Herod and from what the Jews were hoping to do to me!” After a little thought, he went to the home of Mary, the mother of John Mark, where many were gathered for prayer.

So if this jail wasn’t based on Peter’s faith then whose faith was is based upon? Ah…the church. Right? Here they were gathering for prayer. Praying at great length. Earnestly. Fervently. Surely Peter is going to find a group of people who through prayer are expecting their prayers to be answered. So…

He knocked at the door in the gate, and a servant girl named Rhoda came to open it. When she recognized Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed that, instead of opening the door, she ran back inside and told everyone, “Peter is standing at the door!” “You’re out of your mind,” they said. When she insisted, they decided, “It must be his angel.”

Umm? The church doesn’t seem to be expecting their prayers to be answered at all. They tell Rhoda that she’s crazy. It’s the same thing that the Apostle Paul is told when he’s preaching to the unbelieving King Agrippa, “Paul, you’ve lost your marbles. You’re out of your mind!” Breaking free from prison doesn’t seem to be based on the great faith of the church either! This whole group is filled with a bunch of spiritual losers. They’re praying on the outside but on the inside not expecting their prayers to be answered.

Here’s the whole point of this message, you’re one take away if you take away nothing else: When the church prays, God breaks people free. God works through the prayers of the church to break people free from the prisons they are in. This isn’t because of the great faith of those praying, but because of God’s faithfulness to hear those prayers and answer them.

The story continues…

Meanwhile, Peter continued knocking. When they finally went out and opened the door, they were amazed. He motioned for them to quiet down and told them what had happened and how the Lord had led him out of jail. “Tell James and the other brothers what happened,” he said. And then he went to another place. At dawn, there was a great commotion among the soldiers about what had happened to Peter. Herod Agrippa ordered a thorough search for him. When he couldn’t be found, Herod interrogated the guards and sentenced them to death.

Yikes! Do you think they were motivated before to make sure Peter didn’t escape? It’s as if we’re being reminded that, yes, there were huge obstacles. And yes, God did overcome them. But let’s get back to that main point:

When the church prays, God breaks people free. Free from addiction (drug, alcohol, porn). Free from selfishness, judgmentalism, bitterness, hypocrisy. Free from sin. Free to love (God and others)!

Invitation to Pray
Today I want to ask you to pray very earnestly—in an extended way, eagerly, fervently, earnestly—for the mission of our church amidst big obstacles. I’d like to tell you the story of where SCC has been and where it is going. And I want to remind you that your prayers are essential for God using SCC to break people free.

In November, 2000 a rebel grandma had a vision for a new community that reached out to the unchurched, a different kind ofUnitedMethodistChurch. Thus, SCC was born as a church plant fromHoltUnitedMethodistChurch. Inherent in this vision was a desire to give birth to more churches in the way that Holt UMC gave birth to SCC.

In July, 2009 Barb retired and I was appointed. (By the way, today is my three-year anniversary of being at SCC!) I began that summer and fall doing a listening tour. I set up 40 days of prayer with the pastor. Sarah and I had over 150 people over for desserts at the parsonage. In November we had a congregation-wide consultation day with John Savage, a church consultant. Out of that time of listening I was listening for where God was leading SCC.

The next spring in March, 2010 I attended a Church Planters Tune-up conference over a weekend. While sitting in that conference, I had a moment of vision for the future of SCC that included 5 Points

Values: Strengthen the execution of our current core values
Missions: Love and serve the poor and poor in spirit in our church and community
Growth: Rework membership & double the navigating members
Ownership: Buy/build a building
Plant: Plant a church

Whenever I have a moment like this I’m always somewhat skeptical of whether this is my own vision or whether it’s God’s vision. So I brought this vision back to the leadership of the church and cast it before them. Together in prayer we sensed that this was where God was leading us. So in April, 2010 we held a vision meeting and presented this vision to you. Overall, there was a positive reception to this vision and that confirmed again beyond even the leadership of the church that this was God’s vision for SCC.

While the first four points above were pretty clear, the last point, Plant, was still pretty fuzzy. But God began to work on making that more clear. In October, 2010, I attended the Leadership Institute at Church of the Resurrection (the largest UMC church in theUnited States) inKansas Cityto explore their urban church plant: Rez Downtown. I began to glimpse what a church plant looks like in a different way and this vision began to work in the background of my imagination while we worked toward accomplishing the first four vision points.

Fast forward a year to September, 2011. I began inviting some friends of mine who were students at MSU to attend SCC. One of those friends sent me a message on Facebook asking if we had a service on another day than Sunday. She was particularly interested in some kind of weekday service. I filed that request in the back of my imagination.

In November, 2011 I attended a Church Panting 101 weekend and met John Ball, the associate pastor at Brighton UMC who is planting a church called Sanctus in a pub/café inBrighton. The pub/café allowed them to meet there for free because it was a win-win situation for everyone. I was really impressed with this model for planting a church because it didn’t require a huge investment of money and because it put the church out in the community. It was what some writers call “missional” (go to) rather than “attractional” (come see).

So later that month I began talking to the owner of the Biggby that I regularly worked in. He was very open to the idea and we began talking about what a church meeting might look like in one of his stores.

In December, 2011 anyone who wanted to attend was invited to a field trip to Sanctus. About ten of us went, leaders of SCC and others. Some of what we saw we liked and there were others things we could do without. But the basic idea of meeting in a café/pub continued to grab our imaginations.

In January, 2012 the Team Leaders met and sought the LORD on this vision. What we got was an even bigger vision than we had thus dreamed: 7 Satellites in 7 venues on 7 days of the week! Whoa God! Slow down. We can’t keep up with you. But that was the vision we got. We think that’s where God is leading us because more and more Sundays are taken by travel, sports, and work. We also as a church have aged a decade in a decade. If we don’t reach out to new young people, we will continue to grow more and more lopsided over the years.

In February, 2012 we held another vision meeting to share with the church this vision of 7 satellites in 7 venues on 7 days of the week. It was a breathtaking vision. It was hard to see how we could come close to accomplishing it. The obstacles seemed insurmountable. But they began coming down one by one.

In March, 2012 I somehow ended up on a conference call with 10 other churches doing similar worship venues like this around the nation (pubs, parks, old churches, nursing homes, etc.). I was amazed to find that God was doing this same thing all around the nation.

Later that month we began to build a launch team that was made up of new Christians, non-Christians, SCC fringe, those new to SCC, and SCC regulars. We were amazed at how many people caught hold of this vision.

In April, 2012 we held our first Launch Team meeting to begin preparing for the launch of our first venue in Biggby. Later that month we found out that the franchise wouldn’t allow us to do live music. So we were stuck. And yet, in May, 2012 we received a grant from the West Michigan Conference for $22,510. The conference thought what we were doing was worth investing in. But we didn’t have a really viable venue anymore.

Then came an experience I will never forget. After about four or five hours of driving around on a Saturday with one of my team members looking for possible venues, we came across Grumpy’s Diner, where several reCRASH events for our men have taken place, at about 8PM. It was closed. We looked at the hours posted on the door and saw that they closed at 7PM. That seemed great. All I had to do was go in and meet the owner and talk him into staying open two more hours after they closed and giving us that space for free. Impossible obstacle. But that’s what I did. I sat down for the first time with Bill, the owner of Grumpy’s, and he immediately caught the vision. Stay open later? No problem. Free? All I want to do is cover my expenses. Why the good will? Because, as I came to find out, Bill is a Christian. He not only buys into the idea as a businessman, but he buys into the idea of Christians on a common mission to reach out to new people. Thus, the venue was set. Monday nights at Grumpy’s Diner. Thank you, God! 2.1 seconds left, the pass, dribble, turn, shoot…

So here’s how this launch is going to work. We’re going to hold three preview services each on the last Monday of the month in July, August, and September. On October 8^th we’ll launch weekly services. Ten percent of our motivation is convenience for people who already attend SCC. Ninety percent of our motivation is reaching out to new people.

Here’s what I’m asking you to do. Pray. Pray fervently. Pray constantly. Pray extendedly. Pray. In fact, we’re going to be organizing some prayer meetings around each preview and the launch. Most will take place at my house on Sunday evenings. Here’s the schedule:

Sunday, July 29 @ 7PM (for the July 30 – Preview)
Sunday, August 26 @ 7PM (for the August 27 – Preview)
Sunday, September 23 @ 7PM (for the September 24 – Preview)
Saturday, October 6 – 24 Hour Prayer Vigil (for the October 8 – Launch)
Sunday, October 7 @ 7PM (for the October 8 – Launch)

We’ll also need about 20-30 people to help create a critical mass of people for these previews. You’ll hear more about all this as we get closer to those dates.

In the meantime, I’d like to invite you to pray for our church and for this venue. The ushers are going to pass out a prayer card titled, “Life-Giving Prayers for Your Church.” Would you put this card somewhere where you regularly sit and let it remind you to pray for our church and for this new satellite? (If you weren’t in worship, you can contact the office to pick one up.)

We can put all the planning that we want into this satellite, but it will be through prayer that God will break people free. Imagine the teenager without a dad finds community in the diner in his neighborhood. Imagine the lonely individual sitting in his local diner longing for community. He sees a sign that says a church meets in this same diner on Monday nights. He comes and finds a curious, creative, and compassionate community that he hasn’t experienced before. Imagine a married couple whose marriage is on the rocks. They’ve decided to try a date night. They go to their local diner. While having another argument over the same thing they always argue about, they see that a church is meeting in that diner on Monday nights. A church in a diner? That’s just not what they expected. They come and experience healing in their marriage. Imagine the addict who is nursing a Monday morning hangover over a cup of coffee in his favorite diner. He swears he won’t touch the stuff again. But he’s made that promise before. He’s even made that promise before God. He got all religious at one point in his life. But he’s since fallen off the wagon too many times to count. But then he sees that church is meeting in this diner that very night. A church in a diner? That’s so unexpected that he thinks he just might show up…

Church, will you pray for these people? Will you pray for the launch team? Will you pray for me? Will you pray that God will break people free?

Filed Under: Sermons Tagged With: freedom, prayer

Mission Drop

June 25, 2012 by Patricia Leave a Comment

Amazing Stories – Mission Drop
Sycamore Creek Church
Mark 1:1-11 & Acts 2:38-41
Tom Arthur
June 24, 2012

Peace Friends!

What’s your life mission? Are you on a mission? Or are you just plodding along each day reacting to whatever comes your way? Being on a mission adds a deep sense of purpose to your life. Many of us wander around aimlessly because we haven’t signed up for a mission.

I remember the first deep sense of mission I received in life. I was in a class in college called “African American Experience.” We were watching a Dateline undercover investigation of racism in Chicago. Not the deep south. North. Chicago. Midwest. Big city. Two guys, one black and one white, went around town with hidden cameras and interacted with the same people and situations. They both went to a used car salesman. The white guy was given a “rock bottom” price $1500 cheaper than the black guy. They both went to a department store. The white guy was given great service. The black guy was followed around the store by a sales associate who didn’t talk to him. They both went to rent the same apartment. The landlord was courteous to the black guy who went first, but when the white guy asked about the neighborhood, the landlord said, “It’s OK, but it’s going downhill. I showed it to ‘one of them’ earlier today.” I came out of that class furious, with a righteous anger I had never experienced before. In that moment God signed me up for a mission: to make right the injustice I had just seen. Later on I gave that mission a name: racial and economic reconciliation.

What’s your mission? Today we’re in the middle of a series called Amazing Stories. We’re looking at some of the lesser known but still amazing stories in the Bible. There are a lot of different stories in the Bible about being on a mission. Today I want to look at a story of the beginning of Jesus’ mission. And it’s a mission that we all can join. It’s the amazing story of baptism. Let’s read it.

Mark 1:1-11 NLT
Here begins the Good News about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God.
In the book of the prophet Isaiah, God said,

“Look, I am sending my messenger before you,
and he will prepare your way.
He is a voice shouting in the wilderness:
‘Prepare a pathway for the Lord’s coming!
Make a straight road for him!'”

This messenger was John the Baptist. He lived in the wilderness and was preaching that people should be baptized to show that they had turned from their sins and turned to God to be forgiven. People from Jerusalem and from all over Judea traveled out into the wilderness to see and hear John. And when they confessed their sins, he baptized them in the Jordan River. His clothes were woven from camel hair, and he wore a leather belt; his food was locusts and wild honey. He announced: “Someone is coming soon who is far greater than I am — so much greater that I am not even worthy to be his slave. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit!”

One day Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee, and he was baptized by John in the Jordan River. And when Jesus came up out of the water, he saw the heavens split open and the Holy Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven saying, “You are my beloved Son, and I am fully pleased with you.”

Here we see Jesus joining the mission of God. Have you ever seen one of those spy movies where one spy drops a case or bag or box or envelope in one spot for another spy to pick up and run with the mission? That’s kind of what’s happening here. John the Baptist is making a mission drop with Jesus. Jesus is picking up the package (or going under the water) and running with the mission.

Now this story by itself doesn’t tell us much about the amazing character of this mission. For that we have to look elsewhere. One great place is in a sermon that Peter, one of Jesus’ fellow “spies”, preaches after Jesus has ascended (it’s the same sermon that Gaelen McIntee preached on a couple of weeks ago on graduation Sunday). Let’s take a look at parts of that sermon and we’ll see that the character of the mission of God is closely related to the character of water itself. Maybe that’s why baptism is done with water.

Death: Acts 2:38 NLT
Peter replied, “Each of you must turn from 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.”

Water is a dangerous thing. Water can mean death. This past week I took my 19-month-old son to the tot swim at the Holt Jr. High. He had never seen or been in a pool before. He was naturally anxious and nervous as we stepped down into the pool. For about the first thirty minutes he had a choke hold on me and wouldn’t even consider letting go. He had a healthy respect for the dangerous situation he was in. Should he let go, I think he instinctually knew that things would not turn out well (of course, as his daddy, I would do all I could to never let that happen). Water is death.

When we sign up for the mission of God by being baptized, something in us has to die. We have to turn from our sins. This is called repentance. You have to give up every other mission you’re on to join this one. It’s no good to think you can be on two missions. You can’t. If you’re going to join God’s mission, all other missions in your life must be put to death in the waters of baptism. This doesn’t mean that you no longer care about other things. It means that you now see all things you care for through the lens of the mission of God.

The mission of God is characterized first by dying to self, repenting, and turning toward God.

Cleansing: Acts 2:38 NLT
Peter replied, “Each of you must turn from 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.”

One of the important uses of water is to clean dirty things. This past week I had drywallers working in my basement. I was amazed at the speed with which they worked. They put up seven rooms of drywall and a hallway in a day and a half. One time I went down to see how things were going, and one of the guys was putting screws in a piece of dry wall on the ceiling while a fine dust was showering down on top of him. Later that day when they left, he said to me, “I’ll give you an ‘air’ hand shake because my hands are so dirty and dusty.” I looked at his hands and was glad he didn’t want to shake my hand. He was dustier than I had seen anyone in a long time. I’m sure when he got home he immediately jumped in the shower to wash away all that dust, and when he got out of the shower, I’m sure he felt like a new man. Water cleanses.

When you sign up for the mission of God by being baptized, you die to the sin in your life and you are cleansed from it. The mission of God is characterized by forgiveness, God’s forgiveness of our sins, and our forgiveness of others’ sins against us. Just as water cleans the hands after a long day of working, so too does baptism clean our souls and make us pure before God.

The mission of God is characterized by the forgiveness of sins.

Life – New life through Union with Christ: Acts 2:38 NLT
Peter replied, “Each of you must turn from 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.”

Water is life. Have you ever run out of water and been unable to get water for an extended period of time? There’s an amazing survival story about a guy named Aron Ralston that’s told in a movie titled 127 Hours. Aron was hiking by himself in slot canyons out west when a boulder fell on him and pinned his hand to the side of the canyon. He was pinned there for 127 hours before freeing himself by cutting his own forearm off. Public Service Announcement: The biggest mistake he made in this whole ordeal was that he was hiking by himself and he hadn’t told anyone where he was going. So how was he going to survive? Almost miraculously there was no bleeding, so Ralston really had to confront one major obstacle: how could he stay alive until someone found him. What’s your number one problem in this situation? Besides staying warm, it’s water. You can live for days or weeks without food. But you can only go a fraction of that time without water.

Water is life, and the waters of baptism give you new life in Jesus. If we die in the waters of baptism, then we die with Jesus. But when we come up out of the water, we also join in the resurrection of Jesus. Our dead dry bodies are given new spiritual life. We are in a very real sense, reborn.

Life – Holy Spirit: Acts 2:38 NLT
Peter replied, “Each of you must turn from 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.”

There’s another sense in which we are given new life in the waters of baptism. We are given the gift of the Holy Spirit. What exactly is the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit is God’s presence working in you (transformation) and through you (ministry to others). God’s love being made real in your life. God’s friendship helping you to learn new habits and continue to turn from all those old ones. Because even though we’re cleansed and forgiven of our sins in the waters of baptism, those old habits continue to intrude on the mission of God. They’re like old enemy spies that keep showing up at inopportune times. Except the difference is that God’s presence, God’s love, God’s friends, God’s Holy Spirit walks with you in a new and powerful way helping you to overcome those old habits and sins. As one preacher has said, “Sin remains but it does not reign” (John Wesley).

The mission of God is characterized by new life in the waters of baptism.

Community – Acts 2:41 NLT
Those who believed what Peter said were baptized and added to the church — about three thousand in all.

What do all these things have in common: soda, tea, coffee, beer, wine, juice? There’s probably a lot of things that they have in common but here are two that are pertinent to our discussion this morning: they’re mostly water, and they’re best shared with friends. Water is something that community gathers around. We gather around it when we choose where to live. We gather around it at the table, in a restaurant, at the café, in a coffee shop, and around the communion table in worship.

Water is community, and in the waters of baptism you join the community called the church. Baptism is the door to the church. Now the church gets a lot of negative press in the world these days, some of it earned, but at its most fundamental level, the church is the community of friends seeking to follow Jesus. It’s a community on a mission, and that mission is best done with spiritual friends.

The mission of God is characterized by the community you join in the waters of baptism.

So there’s only one question left for you today:

Will you join the mission of God?

Filed Under: Sermons Tagged With: Baptism, community, forgiveness, mission, purpose, repentance

Daily Time Grind – Time Margin

Creative

Curious

Old Testament, Part II

The Old Testament, Part I

Those Manipulative People

Those Critical People

Spiritual Friends (Belong)

Jail Break

Mission Drop

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