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I Want to Believe Amidst the Storms

March 28, 2016 by Leave a Comment

I Want to Believe Amidst the Storms
Sycamore Creek Church
January 24/25, 2016
Tom Arthur

Peace friends!

In 2016 Sarah and I will celebrate nineteen years of marriage. It’s been a great nineteen years, but the first couple of years were really fully of storms. I never thought we wouldn’t make it, but we argued a lot. Sarah and I are two leaders and no followers. We are two oldest children. One of us grew up in an intact family and the other in a divorced family. Sarah is an extrovert, and I’m an introvert. Sarah thinks out loud, and I think to myself. The first year of marriage I was constantly finding myself having to tune Sarah out to do any reading. This has unfortunate consequences. One day she was doing the dishes and she exclaimed out loud, “I cut my finger. I think I need to go to the ER.” I don’t think I even heard her. She said stuff like this all the time. But then she said it again, LOUDER. I probably responded, “It’ll be OK.” I was used to her crying wolf. But then she got in my face and said “I NEED TO GO TO THE ER.” Turns out she had cut her finger all the way down to the knuckle and had to get several stitches. At one point the surgeon looked at me and said, “You better sit down. It looks like you’re about to pass out.” Yep…That was the first year of our marriage. Add to this the storm of working together at the same church. You know how you’re usually polite to your fellow staff at your job, even if you don’t like them or what they’re doing. Well, when you work with your spouse, most of that politeness goes out the door in favor of the familiar blunt shorthand you use with one another in your home. One time we were in staff meeting, and Sarah and I were disagreeing with one another when the pastor said, “I think we’re in a marital moment here. We’ll let you two figure it out and we’ll all come back in a moment.”

Well, not everything was bad those first couple of years. When we moved into our first apartment, we found that the cable company forgot to turn off the cable from the previous renter. So we got free cable for a year. Every night we’d sit down in front of my little fifteen-inch TV and watch old episodes of The X-Files. I don’t know why we began watching the X-Files. We just did. But soon we were caught up in the whole thing. The X-Files is a show about storms. Science vs. the paranormal. Skepticism vs. faith. Good vs. evil. Two lone FBI agents vs. the grand governmental conspiracy. Truth vs. deception. Trust vs. distrust. Belief vs. unbelief. And the chemistry of FBI special agents, Mulder and Scully who it took until season seven for them to finally kiss!

We became huge fans of the X-Files. It was our nightly ritual amidst the storms of learning to be married. My dad, who collects Barbie dolls—yes, you heard me right…my dad collects Barbie dolls—saw his opportunity to get his son on board with Barbie doll collecting. He bought me the collectors’ Mulder and Scully Barbie dolls, which I love, but alas, I did not dive headlong into my dad’s Barbie doll hobby.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the X-Files, let me give you the brief plot rundown. The X-Files is about two FBI Special Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully who are assigned to the X-Files, unsolved paranormal cases. Scully is the doctor, scientist, and skeptic who is initially assigned to debunk Mulder the unorthodox brilliant believer. On Fox’s office wall is the iconic UFO poster with the words, “I want to believe.” The X-Files was compelling on one level because gender roles were reversed. The female lead was the skeptic and the male was the believer. The X-Files was for a long time the longest running Sci-Fi television show in U.S. History. It ran for nine seasons and two-hundred and two episodes (compare that to the original Star Trek which only ran three seasons). Add to those nine seasons two summer movies. And this weekend, the original actors are all back for an X-Files six episode miniseries! Thus, this three-week X-Files themed series. The X-Files left TV Legacy in the following shows: Lost, Fringe, Bones, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and more.

So in a nod to the X-Files exploration of the paranormal, the mysterious, and belief vs. skepticism, we’re going to spend the next three weeks looking at a paranormal story in the Bible that is full of mystery and skepticism. One mysterious paranormal story. Three different witnesses. Three weeks.

There are four books in the Bible that tell the story of Jesus. Three of those books all tell the story of Jesus walking on water. So here’s how these three weeks will unfold:

Matthew: I want to believe amidst the storms of life.
Mark: I want to believe amidst the questions I have.
John: I want to believe but I’m afraid.

Three witness tell the same story, but their details are different. We’ll dive into those differences, but why are there differences to begin with? Is it a conspiracy? Or is there some other explanation? There’s a scene in the X-Files episode, Bad Blood, where Scully first tells the story. The sheriff who shows up to help solve the X-File, played by Luke Wilson, is a handsome heartthrob. But when Mulder tells the story, he’s a buck-toothed red neck. Who’s right? Which of the details is correct? Amidst these kinds of questions, it’s easy to miss the big picture. Both agree that a local sheriff showed up to help them solve the X-File. The details are a little different but the big story is in agreement.

The Gospels work in a similar fashion to the way that Scully tells the story with some details while Mulder tells it with other details. The Gospels aren’t “journalistic history.” They’re artistic biography

They’re like painted portraits (not like photographs). The details between each Gospel are a little different, but the big storyline is still the same. Jesus was a Jew born amidst unusual circumstances, he grew up and got a lot of attention with his teachings and lifestyle. The authorities of the day were threatened by him and had him executed and his followers scattered. But three days later the tomb was empty and his followers were claiming that he had been resurrected.

One of those followers was a fisherman named Matthew. Matthew tells the story of Jesus walking on water, and it’s probably the version you know best. Let’s dive in and read the story.

Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds.
~Matthew 14:22 NRSV

Jesus makes his disciples go out on the water and into the eventual storm. The Greek word for “made” is Anagkazō which is a really strong word. Jesus compelled, drove, entreated them to get into the boat and go. There’s no gentle prodding. Their life depends on getting in the boat and going.

Early Christians read this story and immediately understood the boat as a symbol of the church. It’s a place of refuge amidst the water for a community of friends. It keeps them afloat amidst a world of wind and waves.

And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone,
~Matthew 14:23 NRSV

Jesus is “alone” and the disciples are “alone” without Jesus for the first time. But while they are not with Jesus, they are not really alone. They are together, in the boat, the community of faith.

but by this time the boat, battered by the waves, was far from the land, for the wind was against them.
~Matthew 14:24 NRSV

While the disciples are in the boat together without Jesus, they end up in a storm. A big storm. A life-threatening storm. Jesus compelled them to get into the boat and go, and he’s not with them, and now there’s this really big storm threatening to sink the whole endeavor.

We all wrestle with storms. I think there are at least three kinds of storms: individual storms, community storms, and mission storms. Individual storms might be a health crisis. I get the diagnosis I most feared. Or a financial storm. I lost my job and don’t have money for rent. Some of us might be in a family crisis, stuck in a dead and lifeless marriage. Or maybe you’re facing a parenting storm. My kids constantly do [fill in the blank], and I don’t know what to do. Or maybe you find yourself in a faith storm. You don’t know what you believe anymore. All of these things can add up to an identity storm: Who am I? These are the individual and personal storms we all face from time to time and maybe you’re facing one even today. The wind of life is against you and you are far from land and battered by the waves.

A second kind of storm we can face when we’re part of a church is an internal church storm. These are not pretty storms.   There’s the storm of mission drift when a church becomes internally focused rather than externally focused. There’s the lukewarm faith storm. Our own fervor for reaching new people for Jesus cools to lukewarm at best. Then there’s all too often storms of church scandal, immoral or unethical behavior. There’s the storm that ensues when a church lacks any kind of discipline. Anything and everything goes. Or maybe there’s the church financial storm due to a lack of faithful stewardship. A church can experience a storm when there’s leadership transition or disunity and even schism. And churches face storms when they don’t agree on the basics of belief (unity in essentials, liberty in non-essentials, and love in all things). These kinds of storms tend to pull a church further and further away from its purpose for existence.

The third kind of storm a church can face are mission storms.   Mission storms are the challenges and obstacles of the rescue mission of Jesus into enemy occupied territory. Stanley Hauerwas, an ethics professor of mine at Duke who was at one time named by Time Magazine as the “Best Theologian” says of this story:

“The church is an ark of the kingdom, but often the church finds herself far from shore and threatened by strong winds and waves. Those in the boat often fail to understand that they are meant to be far from the shore and that to be threatened by a storm is not unusual. If the church is faithful she will always be far from the shore. Some, moreover, will be commanded to leave even the safety of the boat to walk on water.”

There’s a fallacy we all wrestle with. We are tempted to hope and think that following Jesus means smooth sailing. But the opposite is actually true: following Jesus means going into the storm! Following Jesus means getting out of your comfort zone into the storms of those around you. Following Jesus means that the harvest is great but the workers are few. One of my mentors says that if you have enough money and enough people, your mission and vision are too small! Then there’s the storms of trying to discern what is the best strategy, method, systems, and partnerships to accomplish your mission. And unfortunately a church is made up of humans who don’t always get the right strategy, the right method or systems or partnerships. Another mission storm is the stress rest storm. We grow best when we’re stressed for a period of time and then rest for a period of time. And lastly, there’s the spiritual resistance storm. The evil side of creation doesn’t want the church to accomplish its mission. Here’s the basic point, if a church is living into its mission, it is going to face storms because of that mission!

Here’s the basic problem that we all share: we face storms of many kinds. What storms are you facing right now? Into these storms comes Jesus…

And early in the morning he came walking toward them on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out in fear.
~Matthew 14:25-26 NRSV

Jesus shows up in the midst of the storm that his followers find themselves in, but they think he’s a ghost! I asked my Facebook friends if they’ve ever seen a ghost and twenty-two of them said they had! I’ve never seen a ghost, but the closest I’ve come was working one summer at a church in Richmond, Virginia that was built on a plantation. The offices were the old historic plantation house. The front steps up to that house were treacherously steep. The story was told of the young girl who intended to elope one night.   Her fiancé pulled up in a carriage and she rushed out the front door to get away before her parents could stop her. Sounds like a Jane Austen novel so far. But then in her haste she trips down the stairs and breaks her neck falling down those treacherously steep steps. She was said to still haunt the house today. I never saw her or heard her, but one night I was in that big house all by myself and I kinda spooked myself out thinking about it all!

So who is this Jesus? Who walks on water? To the modern mind Jesus walking on water is a miracle of defying gravity or a symbol of “doing the impossible.” But to the ancient mind, Jesus walking on water was an example of divinity conquering chaos. Only the gods could conquer chaos and walk on water. The ancient mind would read this story and see a claim to divinity. Jesus confirms that claim in what he says next:

But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.”
~Matthew 14:27 NRSV

Jesus confirms his identity saying, “It is I.” But he actually says even more than you probably notice at this point. The Greek is literally translated, “I am.” Jesus sees their fear and apprehension that he is a ghost, and he says, “I am.” I am what?   A ghost? No. Jesus is actually referencing the great name of God in the book of Exodus:

But Moses said to God, “If I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?”  God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” He said further, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘I am has sent me to you.’”
~Exodus 3:13-14 NRSV

“I am” is literally the name of God. Jesus claims in this moment to be “I Am.” But Peter isn’t buying it.

Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.”
~Matthew 14:28 NRSV

Peter says, “If…” Peter seems to be doubting. Actually, he might be doing more. Peter’s doubt is reminiscent of Satan’s tempting of Jesus. When Satan tempts Jesus he says, “If you are the Son of God, then command these stones to become bread. If you are the Son of God then throw yourself down from the temple heights so the angels can save you.” Satan not only tempts Jesus but he tests Jesus. At Jesus’ crucifixion the crowds do the same thing: “If you are the Son of God…come down from the cross.” In each instance the accusers command Jesus do something and tempt and test him. Is that what Peter’s doing? Well, not quite.

He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water, and came toward Jesus.
~Matthew 14:29 NRSV

Why does Jesus command him? Why give into Peter’s “if” test? Why not say, “Get behind me Satan!” Unlike Satan, Peter asks to be commanded by Jesus, to submit to Jesus’ command! Command me to do your will. Command me to follow you. Command me to accomplish that which I can only do with you! Peter actually doesn’t command Jesus but he asks Jesus to command him. He says in essence, “If you are I AM then command me to obey you.” And Jesus responds saying, “Come.” In doing so, Peter does what he cannot do alone. Peter begins to overcome the forces of chaos just like Jesus!

Here’s the whole point of this message: Ask Jesus to command you, and when you obey you will overcome any storm you face. When you are doing what Jesus wants you to do, when you are obeying Jesus’ command, there’s no storm that can ever swamp you. Let me flesh this out a little bit more.

I have a tendency to command Jesus to help me succeed. I find myself saying, “Jesus, I’ve done a bunch of work on this. Please…please…please! Help it succeed.” This has the whole command thing backwards. Instead of asking Jesus what he would have me do, I tell Jesus what I want him to do for me. Help me be successful.

One area where our family has allowed Jesus to command us is in the practice of hospitality. Sarah and I have practiced hospitality in our home for most of our married life. For most of these nineteen years, we’ve had someone not in our immediately family living with us. A couple of years ago we were wrestling with whether we could continue this practice with me being a pastor. One day after we were done talking about it, we sat down for lunch. We picked up the prayer cube on our table and here’s the prayer we prayed that day: “Lord Jesus Christ, help us to share everything we have with those who are in hunger and need. Amen.” Well, Jesus, can you be any more explicit about what you’re commanding us to do?! So we invited someone to share our home with us. When Jesus commands you and you obey, there are no storms that can swamp you. And yet the storm may still rage.

 But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!”
~Matthew 14:30 NRSV

Stanley Hauerwas points out that “Peter does not begin to sink and then become frightened, but he becomes frightened and so he begins to sink.” Overcoming the forces of chaos is chaotic and scary! Facing the mission storms in life can be frightful, even if Jesus was the one commanding you into the eye of the storm. But Peter isn’t alone.

Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”
~Matthew 14:31 NRSV

I feel the sting of Jesus’ rebuke of Peter: You of little faith.” I feel that sting until I notice that it doesn’t keep Jesus from acting immediately. I see this in Jesus all the time. He calls it like he sees it, but it doesn’t keep him from immediately coming to help us. Jesus is full of truth and grace. Thank you God!

When they got into the boat, the wind ceased. And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”
~Matthew 14:32-33 NRSV

Not everyone is in the boat. Not everyone worships Jesus. Not everyone asks Jesus to command them. But for those who are in the boat who Jesus does command, what’s left but to confess that Jesus is “I Am”, the Son of God? And Jesus followers do what is only appropriate to do with God: they worship Jesus. And if Jesus is the Son of God, then we are his brothers and sisters, adopted into the family of God, together in the boat of the church battered by the storms of life asking Jesus to command us and looking to Jesus to hold us when we begin to fear and sink amidst the storms of life.

So there’s four actions I want you to do in the midst of the storms you find yourself in.

  1. Get in a boat.
    Do you have a church family? Do you worship regularly? Every week? Are you in a small group? Get in a boat. Don’t do the storms of life alone. January is our Group LINK month for our spring semester. You can sign up for one of forty-three small groups this next semester. There’s a boat for everyone. Boats for men, for women, for couples, for co-ed. Boats that go out in the morning, afternoon, or evening. Boats that meet during the week and boats that meet on the weekend. Don’t wait for a storm to get in a boat. Find a boat before the storm hits.
  1. Ask Jesus to command you, and then obey.
    Where are you neglecting to invite Jesus to command you to come? Jesus, command me to come but not in my finances. Jesus command me to come but not in my commitment to stay married. Jesus command me to come but not in my commitment to save sex for marriage. Jesus command me to come but not in my time commitments or in loving the people around me I don’t like. Where is Jesus commanding you to come and you’re not obeying? Get in a small group. Worship regularly. Serve and volunteer. Join as a partner in the mission of Sycamore Creek.
  1. Worship through the storm.
    Where are you becoming frightened by the wind and the waves around you? You can worry about the storm or you can get in the boat with other followers of Jesus and worship through the storm. One storm brewing in our family is my dad’s recent diagnosis of Lewy Body Disease. LBD is a disease very closely related to Parkinson’s. It leads to a slow steady degeneration and eventually death. In this instance we felt like Jesus’ command to us was to offer hospitality to my dad and step-mom. So after much thought and prayer, we offered to my dad and step-mom the option of moving in with us. They haven’t taken us up on the offer so far, but they appreciated that this was an option for the future. If they do take us upon this offer, will it cause our household storms? Absolutely. But they’re storms we’ve been practicing for for nineteen years. We won’t be facing those storms alone. We’ve got a boat full of followers of Jesus who will worship Jesus right along with us through the calm and the storm.
  1. Build another boat.
    What does it look like when we ask Jesus to command us together? We build another boat! This fall our church will launch a third venue that meets in another place on another day of the week. We’ll be building a boat for another group of people. That will require building a launch team. It will require apprenticing people. It will require a group of “critical mass missionaries.” We’ll have to secure a venue, find a venue coordinator, fundraise for it and then invite, invite, invite. Alongside of this we’re developing a teaching team. I’m not preaching three days a week fifty-two weeks a year. Sounds like some storms are ahead for us.

 

Lord, if it is you, command me to come!

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The Discouraged and Disbelieving *

March 28, 2016 by Leave a Comment

The Gospel of the Nobodies: The Discouraged and Disbelieving *
Sycamore Creek Church
March 20/21, 2016
Tom Arthur

Peace friends!

What’s your faith story? I grew up in a Christian home and was very active in church all the way through graduation from high school. When I went off to college I began to ask a lot of questions about the faith I had growing up. Those questions and my doubts and uncertainties grew to a climactic moment my sophomore year in college. I was sitting in an orchestra concert. The band was playing a chaotic piece that was a tribute to D-Day. There were trumpets placed all around the auditorium and they were making random noises. The music was intended to create the feeling of landing on the beaches of Normandy and having snipers shooting at you. The music began to symbolize for me my inner state. I felt the snipers of discouragement and disbelief shooting at me from every angle. The arrangement of that piece of music slowly but surely morphed into the classic hymn, It Is Well. The chorus from that hymn goes: It is well, with my soul. The hymn was intended to make you feel secure amidst the chaos of the beginning of the piece, but because I was uncertain about this whole faith thing and it was not well with my soul, the hymn only amplified the chaos I felt inside. I fell apart right in the middle of that big auditorium crying and sobbing into my hands so that no one would see me. Over the next several months I left the faith. I didn’t believe any of it any more. And yet, I somehow kept following Jesus. And here I am today, still following Jesus helping others follow Jesus amidst their own doubts and uncertainties.

Here’s the problem that many of us face: We think that following Jesus is for those who have it all together. But the point of this message is this: following Jesus is for the discouraged and disbelieving.

Today we continue a series called The Gospel of the Nobodies. The point of this series is that God relentlessly pursues those whom society (or even the church) considers “nobodies”: The night shift workers, the disabled and sick, the demon possessed, the prostitutes and prodigals, the homeless, and today we’re looking at how God relentlessly pursues the discouraged and disbelieving.

We’re going to do something weird today. This whole series has been a little weird. Easter is next week, but we’re going to look at some stories that take place after the resurrection. We’re going to jump to the resurrection so that when we celebrate it, we’ll realize it isn’t just for the ones who’ve got it all together.

Throughout this series we’ve been looking at the Gospel of Luke. Gospel means “Good News” and Luke tells the story of the good news of Jesus with special attention to the people that society considers “nobodies.” Let’s look at the last chapter of Luke’s Gospel:

While they were talking…Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost.  He said to them, “Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate in their presence.
~Luke 24:36-40 NRSV

In the last few verses of the last chapter of Luke, the followers of Jesus find an empty tomb, but joy and excitement weren’t the first emotions. Their first emotions were discouragement and disbelief. Let’s unpack this experience that they must have been having by looking at the bigger context of the crucifixion and resurrection.

The crucifixion and resurrection took place in Jerusalem over the Passover celebration. Passover is the celebration of the Israelites’ deliverance from slavery in Egypt. Pharaoh’s heart got harder and harder as Moses kept coming back to him demanding that the people be freed from slavery. It took death to finally soften Pharaoh’s heart. The Israelites were told to take the blood of a lamb and put it over their doorposts so that the angel of the Lord would pass over their house and not kill the first-born child. Passover is the annual retelling and remembering of that moment of deliverance when God freed the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. We learn from that story that God will be faithful no matter what.

During the celebration of Passover Jerusalem swelled from a population of about 100,000 to over a million. This was all in one square mile of land. Jerusalem is completely overrun with people at Passover. This means that at the crucifixion of Jesus, hundreds of thousands likely saw him hung on the cross. So when reports began spreading that he had resurrected there were likely a variety of responses. Thousands on the hillside of Golgotha saw him dead. Imagine the dismissive disbelief of thousands at the news of his resurrection. Then there were the devout followers of Jesus who likely would have been shocked and discouraged. The outcasts who had been welcomed, the paralyzed who was healed, the Centurion soldier’s servant who was healed, the demon possessed who had been set free, the tax collectors who had been shown love, the prostitutes who had been respected as more than just a sex object. These followers would have likely been thinking, “The only one who had ever treated me as human being was nailed to the cross, and now his body’s not in the tomb?!”

Then there is the response from the inner circle, the disciples, both the men and women who traveled with him everywhere. The women were the first to attend to Jesus’ dead body and they were the first to find the tomb empty:

While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. The women were terrified…
~Luke 24:4-5 NRSV

They’re perplexed and terrified at the empty tomb. So they go back and tell the men what they’ve found:

But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them.
~Luke 24:11 NRSV

The men don’t believe them. I mean, how reliable really is a woman? Or so their culture said. All of them are disbelieving, except Peter. Kind of. Peter runs off to see what was going on at the tomb. After he finds it empty, what was Peter thinking as he walked back from the empty tomb? What have I lost over the last three and a half years? Can I get my fishing business back? What about the others? The women who experienced fear are having their hearts beginning to open up to hope. What about James and John? They’re probably wondering, “Can we show our faces in Galilee without being the laughing stock of the town?” The empty tomb is not met with joy, but outright disbelief and discouragement. Nothing was working out the way they had envisioned it would, the way they’re supposed to. That’s a recipe for discouragement.

We all experience discouragement from time to time. Some of us more often than others. Things don’t go the way they’re supposed to go. We are disappointed that God didn’t make them go differently. You invest in a company over decades and you get a pink slip instead of a pension. You go to the doctor and before she says anything, her face tells you, “The cancer has returned.” You get the late night phone call that tells you “I’m sorry, your loved one is gone.”

I experienced a bit of discouragement recently. Not quite to the level of the above scenarios but discouragement nonetheless. The night before we were to fly to Florida to visit family I got sick. Really sick. I had a 101 degree temperature. I was shivering uncontrollably. My teeth were chattering like one of those teeth-chattering toys. I had cramps in my abdomen. It felt like someone was jabbing me up under my ribs. We had to make a decision, and expecting that I was the first wave of a round of all-family illness we canceled our flight to Florida and dug into the discouragement of February in Michigan. That’s not how things are supposed to go. Discouragement.

Part of what Luke wants us to see in the discouragement and disbelief of the first Easter is for us to see ourselves in the disciples. Where are you experiencing discouragement right now?

Right about this point Luke shifts the focus of the story out of the inner circle and looks wider. We find that discouragement and disbelief don’t stop God from displaying the power of the resurrection. Besides the women, the first people Jesus appears to after his resurrection are two people with no other mention in the Bible. Two “nobodies” in the church.

Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him…
~Luke 24:13-16 NRSV

Jesus appears to Cleopas and one other unnamed person who are walking on the road to Emmaus. They don’t recognize him. Perhaps this was because they didn’t know him well enough to recognize him. Jesus explains the scriptures to them, and while eating, they realize it is Jesus. (This is why we have an “open table” at communion. Many who don’t recognize Jesus may meet him while sharing a meal with him.) Notice that Jesus doesn’t appear first to the “inner circle”, the remaining eleven disciples. Jesus doesn’t appear to Pilate and the religious leaders saying, “Ha. Ha. Joke’s on you. I get knocked down, but I get up again.” Jesus showed up to the low-profile followers who aren’t mentioned anywhere else in the Bible. It’s as if Jesus is saying, “I don’t care how much you’re known or not. I have come to bring you hope.”

Why would Jesus show up to the low-profile followers?   Because God relentlessly pursues those whom society and even the church considers as “nobodies.” Jesus had a bigger vision. It’s not just the high profile few to bring the message of Jesus’ good news. It’s not just the twelve high-profile who brought the gospel to the world. Everyday ordinary people brought the gospel to the world. People who were never even given a name.

After this encounter with the “outer circle” Jesus appears to the inner circle. Jesus appears next to his doubting and disbelieving apostles. They thought they were seeing a ghost! They were terrified.

Then Jesus opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.
~Luke 24:45-48 NRSV

Because Jesus showed up first to the “outer circle” I think that “you are my witnesses” means all of you. Not just the “up front” people at Sycamore Creek. But the “outer circle” of Sycamore Creek. Those who may not have a “title” or even a “role” at the church, but you’re just walking on the road following Jesus. You are Jesus’ witnesses. You are those who are to proclaim the good news of Jesus to the “nobodies” of our society. Jesus is shared most expansively through ordinary everyday disciples.

Let’s consider how this works for a moment. Jeremy invited Jim Firos to Sycamore Creek. But Jim has invited countless people including Linda and John. John then invited his daughter Heather and RJ and their kids. Jim also invited Jessica and Shawn. And Jessica and Shawn invited his parents Jerry and Mary, their friend Maria and her daughter, and their neighbors Jessica and Alehandra. Alehandara invited his dad Jim. Everyday followers of Jesus being witnesses and proclaiming the good news of Jesus.

Or consider this. Jenna and Blake invited Jenna’s sister, Pam. Now Pam is full of all kinds of doubts and uncertainties about this whole faith and church thing. But she became a partner several years ago and plays and sings in the band. She invited Justin, who was baptized and is now on staff at our church. Pam also invited her friend Liz who invited her friend Brian.   But let’s not stop there. Because Pam, remember she’s someone with lots of questions about faith, also invited her friend Katie who was baptized this past summer and has joined the band. Katie then invited her wife Nikki. Katie also invited her parents Nancy and Dwayne and her sister Aubryn who played with Jeremy at Teen Fuel Café last Sunday night.

Next week is Easter. Who are your friends who are discouraged and disbelieving? Who needs to hear the good news of Jesus? What three friends can you invest in and invite to Easter? It’s not just the pastor’s job to invite people. It’s not just the “inner circle” who invites people. It’s every unknown and unnamed follower of Jesus. Who is God calling you to invite?

Prayer
God, give me faith when I don’t have faith. Give me the power of your resurrection at work in my life even when I am discouraged and disbelieving. Help me follow you. And open the door for me to invite those around me who are wrestling with discouragement and disbelief. Soften their hearts so that they might join me in seeking you as we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. Amen.

*This sermon is based on a sermon first preached by Glen Shoup

 

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The Demon Possessed

March 9, 2016 by Leave a Comment

nobodies

 

 

 

 

 

The Gospel of Nobodies – The Demon Possessed*
Sycamore Creek Church
February 28/29, 2016
Tom Arthur

Peace friends! Today we continue a series looking at the people that Jesus paid attention to in the book of Luke. Luke’s Gospel paints a picture of Jesus’ concern for the nobodies, those pushed to the edge of society. Luke opens his story talking to his literary patron saying:

I too decided, after investigating everything carefully from the very first, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the truth concerning the things about which you have been instructed.
~Luke 1:3-4 NRSV

Luke’s literary patron, Theophilus, was addressed as the “Most Excellent.” This suggests that Theophilus was “somebody” in his day. He probably had some money, means, and influence. Luke wrote the story of Jesus’ life so that the “nobodies” of Theophilus’ day knew they were “somebodies” and that the “somebodies” needed to use their resources to care for the “nobodies” so that the “nobodies” knew that they were “somebody” to God. Because in Jesus Christ there is neither nobody nor somebody. Today we’re looking at the “nobodies” who were demon possessed.

Demon possession is a little odd for us moderns. But in biblical times it was the catchall diagnosis for anything that was unknown. It reminds me a little of my diagnosis earlier in life of Irritable Bowel Syndrome. After lots of tests the doctors told me, “It’s not ulcers, not stomach cancer, and not Crohn’s. It’s IBS.” “What’s IBS?” I asked. “We don’t really know. It’s just not one of the really bad ones.”

In Jesus’ day, “demons” were mischievous, irritating, or unexplained illnesses. Jesus didn’t say, “Your brain has a cerebral cortex and there are neurons and serotonin and dopamine…” But when we read about the cases of demon possession today most of us think it sounds a lot like mental illnesses: depression, anxiety, multiple personality disorder, or schizophrenia. In Jesus’ day priests or doctors would be called upon to cast out these demons. The book of Tobit (a book written a little before the time of Jesus) describes a process for casting out a demon: take a dead stinky fish and pull out the heart and burn it.   The horrible smell will drive out the demons. If you knew the name of the demon had the power of the demon and could cast it out.

Today most of us want to know, are demons real or are they a “personification” of our darker psyche? Are these real spiritual entities or maladies or mental illnesses? Yes. All of the above. The demonic can be a real person or entity, but what might look like a demon can also be the “dark side of our psyche.” Today we explore a story of Jesus encountering a demon possessed man. Let’s see what Jesus does.

One day he got into a boat with his disciples, and he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side of the lake.”
~Luke 8:22 NRSV

As Jesus and his followers are crossing the lake, a storm comes up. Jesus is asleep. He’s exhausted from everything he’s been doing. How else could you sleep through a storm? The disciples wake him up, and Jesus calms the storm. This all happens on the Sea of Galilee. The Sea of Galilee is a fresh water sea that is about sixty-four square miles. Compare that to Lake Lansing which is about three-quarters of a square mile. The Jews tended to live on the west side of the lake while the Gentiles (non-Jews) live on the east side of the lake. Jesus travels by boat for four hours across the lake in a storm. He crosses over the dividing line between Jews and Gentiles. The disciples had to be wondering, “Why are we going to the wrong side of the lake? What’s over here that’s so important?” Luke wants you to understand what matters to Jesus, because Jesus came to teach us what matters to God. Luke wants you to know what God thinks is important to you. Jesus is going to travel four hours by storm to the other side of the Sea because the Gentiles matter to God.

As he stepped out on land, a man of the city who had demons met him. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he did not live in a house but in the tombs.
~Luke 8:27 NRSV

Jesus navigates the boat to a cemetery. Not only does Jesus go to the unclean Gentiles but he goes to an unclean graveyard. And there’s a man sleeping in tombs! What does he look like? Does he have a beard? He’s naked. He’s got leftover chains wrapped around his wrists. He’s probably dirty and stinky beyond belief. What do his eyes look like? I imagine the scene in The Shining when Jack Nicholson chops through the door and says, “HERE’S JOHNNY!” This man is stark raving mad.   He is worse than a nobody. He was not only a gentile, but he was an outcast among the Gentiles. He was the nobody of the nobodies. There is no one else in the area. Jesus travels four hours by boat across ethnic lines in a storm while he is exhausted just for this one man!

When he saw Jesus, he fell down before him and shouted at the top of his voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me”—
~Luke 8:28 NRSV

The demons know something that others don’t. The demons know who Jesus is. Demons have to bow and name Jesus. Remember this. It’s essential. Darkness and evil aren’t equal to light and good. This is no yin and yang, equal forces in an eternal standoff. This isn’t Duke vs. Indiana in the New Era Pin Stripe Bowl with a final score of 44-41. This is the Cotton Bowl: 38 to 0.

Jesus then asked him, “What is your name?” He said, “Legion”; for many demons had entered him.
~Luke 8:30 NRSV

Most of the time demons would not give up their name. But this demon has to give up his name to Jesus. His name is “legion” which means “many.” A Legion is also the elite infantry units of the Roman Empire. Luke is probably writing this in 80AD, fourteen years after four Roman Legions, about 5600 soldiers, invaded the Holy Land, destroyed the temple at Jerusalem, and killed millions of Jews. Naming the demon “Legion” is a commentary on the Roman Empire. It would be the modern equivalent of the demon’s name being “Isis.” By the end of the Bible, the book of Revelation, Rome is a demon. But right now Legion is many demons.

They begged him not to order them to go back into the abyss. Now there on the hillside a large herd of swine was feeding; and the demons begged Jesus to let them enter these. So he gave them permission.
~Luke 8:31-32 NRSV

It’s helpful to understand a little ancient cosmology right now. The ancient world understood that the Earth was a flat plane that floated above water, the abyss. Above the earth was a great dome that held back waters and the great lakes and rivers of the earth were portals in the abyss. The abyss was the deepest pit, a prison for the demons. The deepest part of the abyss was fire, and volcanoes were another doorway into the abyss. What we learn here is that hell or the abyss is so horrible that even the demons don’t want to go there! They beg Jesus to send them elsewhere. Jesus gives them permission.

The demons have a little trick up their sleeve. They think they can out-negotiate Jesus. They think, “We’ll go into the pigs until Jesus leaves, and then we can go back into the man.” Demons like to talk to you. They’re great salesmen. Jesus out negotiates them, but most of the time you can’t. To the alcoholic they say, “One little drink won’t hurt.” To the depressed they say, “Sure there’s hope in the Bible, but not for you.” To the married they say, “You’re away on a business trip and nobody will know what you do with someone else. It will feel good.” Demons promise that something good will happen, but what really happens is death. Death of sobriety. Death of hope. Death of a marriage. But Jesus outsmarts them.

Now there on the hillside a large herd of swine was feeding; and the demons begged Jesus to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. Then the demons came out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned.
~Luke 8:32-33 NRSV

Jesus isn’t outsmarted by the demons, they go into the swine and then into the sea and into the abyss. Before they could escape the swine they were cast into the abyss.

Some (maybe more) have had experiences with demonic spiritual entities. Most of our experiences are more mundane than that. The demon is the voice that tries to neutralize your impact for God. The demon tries to suck the life out of you, and rob you of joy. The demon enslaves you. The demon fills you with fear and anxiety. The demon tries to convince you to self-destructive behaviors (cutting, eating, taking your life). The demon says there’s no hope and life will always be this bleak. The demon is addiction. The demon tells you to hold on to hate, bitterness, and resentment forever. Those who listen to the demons find pain for a very long time.

Jesus is showing us that his power is more powerful than the demons. The demons are always terrified by Jesus. In your baptism you belong to Jesus. The water of baptism is a kind of protection. Like a moat around a castle, your baptism is a hedge of protection. Not that the water is somehow magical, but what the water symbolizes: you died with Jesus under the water and you raised with Jesus when you came out of the water. When you are baptized we anoint you with oil. That is a symbol of the anointing of the Holy Spirit, God’s presence with you. You belong to God.

I asked my friends on Facebook to share with me experience of being delivered from the demonic. Here’s two stories:

In the past I worried about everything. It was paralyzing at times and only served to get in the way of my relationship with God. Satan would whisper things in my ear that I would then worry about, usually about my kids. [I heard] a sermon a few years ago…about pursuing Christ. Because of this I began to actively pursue Christ and before too long I realized that I [had] became deaf to the things Satan would whisper in my ear. God’s voice became too loud for Satan to get through. Now, if I find my mind heading in the direction of worry I remember that God is the One I seek and am reminded that I choose whose voice I listen to…Therefore, I choose Christ every time.

Last June in a small group meeting, [my small group leader] said something to me in response to a prayer request. He said that I should learn to be at peace with what I can and cannot do. While that may be wise advice, it hit me at a deeper level. I immediately felt a sense of peace that I didn’t have before. I have been able to think about those words periodically to calm myself down. But, more importantly, I have experienced a significant difference in certain destructive thought patterns. I still wrestle with anxiety and depression, but for the past six months I have been able to recognize and reject those destructive thought patterns that can accompany anxiety and depression rather than entertaining those thoughts.

You might be an exorcist for someone this week. You might exorcise someone from fear, anxiety, depression, or worry by what you say and how you act. So here are some next steps for those who feel like they are struggling with the demonic or need deliverance. Is it a demon or is it something else? I don’t know. So here’s what you do:

  1. Visit a doctor or therapist. Talk to someone who knows how the body and mind work.
  2. Look up and read stories from the Bible about Jesus encountering demons. Notice that Jesus always prevails. Jesus is stronger than anything demonic.
  3. Pick your comforting scriptures and mediate on them. The psalms are a great place to begin.
  4. Perhaps use the prayer of St. Patrick.

St. Patrick was a British teenager captured by Irish pirates at age sixteen. He was enslaved for six years before escaping and getting back to his family in Britain. As a young adult he converted to Christianity and went back to Ireland as a missionary. This prayer is attributed to him, someone who knew the need for deliverance. I have adapted it slightly for us today.

Prayer of St. Patrick
I arise today
Through a mighty strength,
the invocation of the Trinity,
Through a belief in the Threeness,
Through confession of the Oneness
Of the Creator of creation.

I arise today
Through the strength
of Christ’s birth and His baptism,
Through the strength
of His crucifixion and His burial,
Through the strength
of His descent in the depths.
Through the strength
of His resurrection and His ascension,

I arise today Through the strength
of the love of cherubim,
In obedience of angels,
In service of archangels,
In the hope of resurrection
to meet with reward,
In the prayers of patriarchs and matriarchs,
In preaching of the apostles,
In faith of confessors,
In innocence of virgins,
In deeds of the righteous.

I arise today
Through the strength of heaven;
Light of the sun,
Splendor of fire,
Speed of lightning,
Swiftness of the wind,
Depth of the sea,
Stability of the earth,
Firmness of the rock.

I arise today
Through God’s strength to pilot me;
God’s might to uphold me,
God’s wisdom to guide me,
God’s eye to look before me,
God’s ear to hear me,
God’s word to speak for me,
God’s hand to guard me,
God’s way to lie before me,
God’s shield to protect me,
God’s hosts to save me
From snares of the devil,
From temptations of vices,
From everyone who desires me ill,
Afar and near,
Alone or in a multitude.

I summon today all these powers
between me and evil,
Against every cruel merciless power
that opposes my body and soul,
Against incantations of false prophets,
Against unjust laws of empires,
Against false beliefs,
Against craft of idolatry,
Against spells and incantations,
Against every knowledge
that corrupts man’s body and soul.

Christ shield me today
Against poison,
against burning,
Against drowning,
against wounding,
So that God’s purposes for me
May be made true.

Christ with me,
Christ before me,
Christ behind me,
Christ in me,
Christ beneath me,
Christ above me,
Christ on my right,
Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down,
Christ when I sit down
Christ in the heart of everyone
who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone
who speaks of me,
Christ in the eye that sees me,
Christ in the ear that hears me.

I arise today Through a mighty strength,
the invocation of the Trinity,
Through a belief in the Threeness,
Through a confession of the Oneness
Of the Creator of creation.
Amen.

Jesus is infinitely more powerful than any power that would come against you.

So how does the story end?

Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them; for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned.
~Luke 8:37 NRSV

Did he get some clothes, and a haircut? I don’t know. But the town comes and sees the man sitting at Jesus’ feet. This guy who was stark raving mad. What do you imagine they would they say? “Wow! This is awesome! Thank you. Come teach us!” No. They were concerned about the pigs. They ask Jesus to leave. They can’t afford him. These are some of the saddest lines in all of the Bible. The son of God is asked to leave. The demon possessed man asks, “Can I leave with you?” Here’s what Jesus says:

“Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” So he went away, proclaiming throughout the city how much Jesus had done for him.
~Luke 8:39 NRSV

The first missionary to the Gentiles was a man who was stark naked, stark raving man. You’re not a nobody, you’re a somebody. Notice that Jesus tells him to tell them how much God has done, and he in turn tells them how much Jesus has done. We see God in Jesus. Jesus travel hours in a storm, to the Gentiles, to a man everyone had cast away. If Jesus will do it for him, he’ll do it for you.

Prayer
I arise today with mighty power,
Christ with me,
Christ before me,
Christ behind me,
Christ in me,
Christ beneath me,
Christ above me,
Christ on my right,
Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down,
Christ when I sit down.
Amen.

Christ Be Beside Me Song

 

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

 

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What On Earth Am I Here For? – Called To Be Loved *

October 13, 2015 by Leave a Comment

whatonearth

What On Earth Am I Here For?  – Called To Be Loved *
Sycamore Creek Church
October 11/12, 2015
Tom Arthur

Peace friends!

Today we continue in this series What On Earth Am I Here For?  We’re asking the question: why do I exist?  What purpose or meaning does my life have?  What is my calling?  Over the next five weeks we’re going to look at five dimensions of your calling.

To understand your life’s purpose & calling you must begin with God’s nature.  Because God created you, it all starts with God.  John, one of Jesus’ closest followers summed up God saying simply:

“God is love.”
~1 John 4:8

God is love.  Plain and simple.  It is God’s nature, God’s essence.  Everything was created as an object of God’s love!  The only reason there is love in the universe is because God is love.  And humans are made in the image of God.  Ants and snails don’t love.  They don’t love because they aren’t made in the image of God.  But humans love because we reflect who God is: love.

The first purpose of my life is to BE LOVED BY GOD!  Not to serve God or obey God or trust God or something for God, but to be loved by God.  Your first calling is to let God love you.  Let this sink in.  Your first duty is NOT to do anything.  Not learn.  Not listen. Not pray.  Not give.  Just be loved by God.  Exhale…My first calling in this life, the first reason I exist is to enjoy a relationship with God.  It’s not about a role or a responsibility or a rule or a regulation or a ritual!  It’s about God.

But what kind of relationship is this?  Does God want you to be his worker? No! Citizen?  No!  Slave?  No!  Servant?  No!  Soldier?  No!  We catch a glimpse of the relationship God wants from John:

“What an incredible quality of love the Father has shown to us, that we should be named and called and counted the children of God! And so we are!”
~1 John 3:1 (Amplified Bible)

Children of God.  This is your number one calling life.  To be a son or daughter of God.

Why would God do this? God does this to express God’s love!  God’s love is extravagant, lavish, and beyond comprehension.  God loves you on bad days and good days.  God will never love you any more or less than right now!  God’s love is expansive:

“I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love really is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it.”
~Ephesians 3:17-19 (NLT)

How wide?  Wide enough to be everywhere!  There’s no place you can be where God isn’t!  You may feel alone,   but you never will be alone!  How long?   Long enough to last forever!  Human love wears out. We fall in and out of love all the time, but God will never stop loving you.  How deep?   Deep enough to handle anything! No matter what pain or hurt or problem.  Even if you feel like you’re in the “pit of hell.”  When you think you’ve hit bottom, God’s love is deeper.  God’s love is deeper and so God is able to lift you up!  How high?  High enough to overlook my mistakes!  God offers to forgive you & help you start over!  God wanted you here so God could say to you, I LOVE YOU!

How would your life change if you felt completely and unconditionally loved by God every moment?  Life would change, wouldn’t it?  I want to look at five changes that happen in my life when I am aware of God’s love for me.

1.       I Feel Accepted Rather Than Ashamed

Most people avoid God because they feel ashamed, guilty, or judged.  But when we know God’s deep love for us we find that we are accepted by God.  Paul, the first missionary of the church, makes this point when he says:

“By faith we have been made acceptable to God. And now, because of our Lord Jesus Christ, we live at peace with God.”
~Romans 5:1 (CEV)

Knowing you are accepted sets you free from approval addiction.  You don’t always need to be worried about being accepted by others.  This is an area of my own life that I need to sink deeper into God’s love, because being a pastor is sometimes like trying to get approval from two opposite extremes.   When I wrote my ordination papers to become a pastor, one mentor of mine liked one part of my paper but another mentor didn’t.  When I recently asked for feedback on the sermon series from this past year and what we should do in the coming year in an online survey, I got responses all over the map: more Bible.  Less Bible.  More “how to” sermons.  Fewer “how to” sermons.  Let’s tackle the controversial stuff.  Let’s stay away from the controversial stuff.  So someone is not going to be happy this next year!  So what am I, what are we, left with?  We’re left with being accepted by our creator.  If you know you’re unconditionally loved by God, then criticism doesn’t bother you if the Creator of you says you’re OK!

“If God says his chosen ones are acceptable to him, can anyone bring charges against them? Or can anyone condemn them? No indeed!”
~Romans 8:33-34

Here’s a fact: You don’t need other’s approval to be happy!  You only need God’s approval.  And you’ve already got it.  The first way I’m changed by God’s love is that I feel accepted rather than ashamed.

2.       I’m Bold in Bringing My Needs to God

If you’ve got kids, you know this phenomena: kids are super bold at asking for what they want.  My kids are bold (sometimes too bold!) at asking for what they want!  Why are they like this?  Because I am their daddy and they are confident that I love them.

“All who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God! So, you should not be like cowering, fearful slaves. You should behave instead like God’s very own children, adopted into his family—calling him ‘Father, dear Father.’  … And since we are his children, we will share his treasures—for everything God gives to his Son, Christ, is ours, too.”
~Romans 8:14-15,17 (NLT)    

Have you ever been to Mackinac Island?  How bout the Grand Hotel?  If you’ve tried to just walk around the Grand Hotel you know that if you’re not staying there you have to pay $10 a person just to walk around.  That’s actually quite a bargain considering that the cheapest room at the Grand Hotel is about $300 a night.  They go up to $1000 and more a night.  But I’ve had the chance to stay at the Grand Hotel three different times for FREE!  My wife was a speaker at a women’s conference three different years and I got to go and stay with her for free.  It was spectacular.  I boldly walked all around that place like I owned it.  At one point I bumped into the owner: Dan Musser III.  Guess what Dan Musser III’s son’s name is?  You got it: Dan Musser IV.  Guess what Dan Musser IV gets to do in the winter when the Grand Hotel closes down?  He gets to run all over that hotel and go anywhere he wants.  Like he owns it.  Actually, because he’s the son of the owner, he probably will own it someday.  He’s bold because his dad owns it.  Our dad may not own the Grand Hotel, but our heavenly daddy owns the universe.  So when we know we’re loved by God, we are bold in asking for what we need.  We do this in prayer:

“Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”
~Hebrews 4:16 NIV

BE BOLD!  Jesus says you can ask God for anything in his name.  It doesn’t mean God will give it to you, but go ahead and be bold in asking.  The second way my life is changed when I understand God’s love for me is I’m bold in bringing my need to God because I know I am a child of God.

3.       I Have Peace in Pain I Don’t Understand

In times of unexplainable hurt, grief, even disaster and calamity I can have what the Bible calls “the peace that passes understanding”:

“The peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
~Philippians 4:7 (NKJV)

What is the “peace that passes understanding”?  It’s when you’re at peace even though there is no reason you should be at peace.  Rick Warren experienced a traumatic event as five-year-old.  While riding in the car one day with his two-year-old sister in the back seat, his dad swerved to miss a car.  The back door of their car flew open and his sister flew out the door and skidded across the pavement.  His dad skidded to a stop and grabbed his sister.  His job was to hold his sister while his dad sped to the hospital.  Once there and his sister was whisked away to be taken care of, his dad left to call his mom.  Rick was alone and was terrified.  But then he heard a voice say inside his head, “It’s OK.  Your dad has got this.”  All of us a sudden he was flooded with peace.  It didn’t make any sense.  It was the peace that passes understanding.  Thankfully Rick’s sister survived and recovered from that accident.

Now we all know that our human fathers can’t do everything, but our heavenly father can!  God has unlimited power and unlimited love.  God has got this one.  That doesn’t mean that God’s love exempts you from pain and dumb decisions.  But we do have this promise:

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
~Romans 8:28 (NIV)

The third way I am changed when I know God’s love for me is that I have a peace in pain I don’t understand.

4.       I Worship Instead of Worry

Worship is expressing my love to God.  In the midst of calling to be loved by God, I respond back to God’s love with my own love.  Our love and worship of God is always a response.  We love God because God takes the initiative:

“We love because God first loved us,
~1 John 4:19 (NIV)

Your problem isn’t that you don’t love God enough. It’s that you’ve forgotten how much God loves you!  Worry is actually a kind of “practical atheism.”  Worry is thinking that God doesn’t exist to care for you.  Jesus teaches us about worry:

“So don’t worry about having enough food or drink or clothing. He will give you all you need from day to day IF you live for him and make the Kingdom of God your primary concern. So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.’
~Matthew 6:33-34 NLT

The fourth way my life is changed when I know God’s love is that I worship instead of worry.

5.       I Gain the Courage to Take Risks

When someone believes in you, you can accomplish great things!  Have you ever watched Britain’s Got Talent?  There was this nine-year-old boy name Malaki on the show who got stage fright and couldn’t finish his song.  He had an amazing voice but he broke down crying in the middle of the song.  His mom ran out to him and comforted him and then he was able to continue. It’s a moving picture of a mom’s love for her child:

 

Malaki’s mom’s unconditional love gave him courage to continue on and take the risk to try and then start over again.  The same thing is true of our heavenly mother.  When we know we’re loved by God, we have courage to take risks we wouldn’t if that love was uncertain.

You have no idea how many times God has wanted to wrap his arms around you and comfort you.  To say to you, “I love you.”  For some of you God has been waiting your entire life for this breakthrough moment.  Right now.  This is the beginning of the rest of your life!  You’ve been afraid to surrender your life to God, you’ve been running from God, because you had no idea how much he loves you!  John tells us:

“There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment.”
~1 John 4:18 (NIV)

Stop being afraid.  Take the risk of letting God’s love find you.  Take the risk of becoming a child of God.  So how do I become a son of God, a daughter of God?  Again, John tells us:

“To all who believed him and accepted him, Jesus gave the right to become children of God. (NLT)
~John 1:12 (NLT)

Believe and accept God’s love in and through Jesus and you will be a child of God.  This is your moment.  Let’s talk to God:

Prayer
Dear God, I am amazed at how much you love me. Thank you that your love for me is wide enough to be everywhere I go.  Thank you that your love for me is long enough to last forever. Thank you that your love for me is deep enough to handle all my problems and high enough to overlook my sins because of Jesus.  I want to receive that love.  I believe.  Help my unbelief.  Amen.

This promise is why we’re doing this series about calling.  All four other callings flow out of this one: Being loved by God!  That love is in our memory verse last week:

I am your creator.  You were in my care even before you were born.
~Isaiah 44:2 (CEV)

And when we know that love, we respond with this week’s memory verse:

“Give yourselves completely to God since you have been given new life.”
~Romans 6:13 (NLT)

If you’ve believed and accepted God’s love for you in a new way, would you drop me an email (tomarthur@sycamorecreekchurch.org) so I can pray for you and we can encourage one another.  May you know God’s deep deep love for you.  Amen.

 

* This was a sermon first preached by Rick Warren

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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What On Earth Am I Here For? – The Call Is For You *

October 6, 2015 by Leave a Comment

whatonearth

What On Earth Am I Here For? – The Call Is For You *
Sycamore Creek Church
October 4/5, 2015
Tom Arthur

Peace friends!  Why does an acorn exist?  What is its purpose?  To become a mighty oak tree.  That’s the purpose of an acorn.  What is the purpose of your life?  Why do you exist?  Why are you here on this earth?  Does your life matter?  Today we begin a new series called What On Earth Am I Here For?  For six weeks we’ll be looking at the question: Why am I alive and what am I supposed to do with my life?

One of most loved promises in the Bible is found in Paul’s letter to the Romans.  Paul was the first missionary of the church and he wrote several letters that are now books in our Bible.  Paul says:

“We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him…
~Romans 8:28 GNT

Whether you’re a Christian or not, you’ve probably heard this basic idea.  But we leave out the second half of the verse:

“We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him and who have been called according to his purpose.”
~Romans 8:28 GNT

Calling and purpose go together.  What do you think of when you hear the word “called”?  I think of interruptions! I hate getting calls.  I am allergic to my phone.  Why?  Because I’m busy or I’m relaxing and people only call with bad news when I’m tired.  The word “called” in the Bible means something else than “interruptions.” Half of the Bible was written in Greek and the Greek word for call is Kaleo.  Kaleo is used over one hundred times in the Bible to describe God’s purpose, assignment and reason for your life.  “Calling” is used ten times more than “purpose”!  In Latin the word “calling” is “vocation.”   Your vocation is what you have been called to.  We have weakened this whole idea by calling it a “career.”  Your life is so much more than just a career.  It can be a calling, a vocation.

As we look to the Bible today for direction on what we’re called to, we’ll find that the Bible is the story of people answering God’s call.  Noah was called to build an ark.  Abraham was called to move and start a new nation.  Moses was called to lead God’s people out of slavery.  Samuel was called to anoint the king of Israel.  David was called to be the king of Israel.  Isaiah was called to remind the people and king of God’s will.  Jeremiah was called to deliver bad news (a future exile to Babylon) and comfort (after the exile).  Paul was called to share Jesus with non-Jews (Gentiles).

For the next six weeks we’re going to look at five specific dimensions of God’s call (and purpose) for your life.  We’ll explore how to fulfill your calling and why you are here!  Why you exist!  Or as Paul writes the Ephesians:

“My prayer is that light will flood your hearts and that you will understand the hope that was given to you when God called you. Then you will discover the glorious blessings that will be yours together with all of God’s people!
~Ephesians 1:18-19 CEV

Today is an introduction to calling.  It’s an overview of what it means that we’re called.  Today I want to give you six clues to your calling.  So let’s begin searching for those clues.

1.       MY CALLING IS A GIFT FROM GOD!
It’s important to understand that I don’t earn my calling.  I don’t deserve it.  I don’t work for it.  My calling is graciously given to me by God. It’s a present to be received and opened and enjoyed.  Paul writes the Galatians saying:

“God, by his grace through Christ, has called you to become his people.”
~Galatians 1:6 NCV

What is grace?  Grace is undeserved kindness.  You don’t deserve it but you’re given it because of grace.  Your calling is part of your salvation!  Paul mentors Timothy saying:

“He has saved us and called us to a holy life – not because of anything we’ve done but because of his own purpose and grace.”
~2 Timothy 1:9 NIV

The first clue to your calling is that it is a gift from God.  And did you notice that along with calling comes purpose.  That leads us to the second clue to calling:

2.       I’M CALLED FOR GOD’S PURPOSE! (Not My Own)
God didn’t make you for you!  He made you for God’s very own self!  It’s for God’s plan and purpose, not your plan.  Let’s go back to where we started with Paul writing the Romans saying:

“We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him who have been called according to his purpose.”
~Romans 8:28 GNT

Call and God’s purpose go hand in hand.  But it’s God’s purpose you’re called to, not your own purpose.  Paul says it this way elsewhere:

“For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
~Ephesians 2:10 NIV

What does it mean that we are God’s “workmanship”?  It means God is an artist and we are the poem, sculpture, painting, and masterpiece.  God doesn’t make junk!  You’re a masterpiece of God’s workmanship!  God began forming us before anyone else knew us.  Speaking for God, the prophet Isaiah reminds us:

“I am your Creator. You were in my care even before you were born!”
~Isaiah 44:2 CEV

What does this teach us?  Isaiah teaches me that I’m not an accident!  God is your creator.  God is my creator.  We sometimes talk about “accident babies” but from God’s perspective, there is no accident baby.  If you think your life is an accident, you’ll live like it. I’d rather know that I’m deeply loved!  God says, “You were in my care” even while you were growing inside your mom.  When you were in the womb God was fearfully and wonderfully making you,  knitting you together.  God cared for your life before you were born!  This is the memory verse for this week.  Take some time to learn it by heart this week:

“I am your Creator. You were in my care even before you were born!”
~Isaiah 44:2 CEV

The second clue to my calling is knowing that I’m called to God’s purpose (not my own).

3.       MY SINS & MISTAKES DON’T CHANGE MY CALL!
It doesn’t matter how much you’ve messed up your life so far.   Your intentional and unintentional sins (missing God’s mark) don’t change God’s call for you.  We’ve been learning a lot from Paul today, and if you don’t know much about Paul, you might be surprised to learn that before Paul was a follower of Jesus, he was a kind of religious terrorist and murderer.  He sought out Christians and had them executed with the authority of the state and religious establishment of his day.   Paul talks about this in his letter to Timothy saying:

“By calling me into his service, Jesus has judged me trustworthy, even though I used to be a blasphemer and a persecutor and contemptuous. Mercy, however, was shown me, because while I lacked faith, I acted in ignorance.”
~1 Timothy 1:12-13 NJB

In other words, Paul is saying, “I did a lot of dumb stuff.  Really dumb stuff.”  I bet most of us can relate.  But let me assure you that God doesn’t waste what happens. Not even sin!  God uses it all.  God can work God’s purposes in our lives no matter what happens.  Part of my calling comes out of my pain!  Consider for a moment Chuck Colson.  Colson was a special counsel to President Richard Nixon.   He was one of Nixon’s “Hatchet Man” during the Watergate scandal that ultimately led Nixon to losing the presidency.  Colson spent seven months in prison for obstruction of justice.  But it was during this trial that Colson turned from being Nixon’s “Hatchet Man” to a follower of Jesus.  When he got out of prison he began Prison Fellowship, a ministry to prisoners and their families.  Today Prison Fellowship is in 112 Countries!  God can use even the mistakes and sins in your life to fulfill God’s purposes and calling in your life.

The third clue to your calling is that my sins & mistakes don’t change my call.

4.       MY CALLING IS CONNECTED TO OTHERS
Do you know that you can’t fulfill your calling by yourself?  Calling & community go together.  Paul tells the Romans:

“None of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone!”
~Romans 14:7 NIV

None of your body parts work if they are disconnected.  I’ve been learning lately how connected body parts are as I’ve been working with a physical trainer who has me doing circuits that focus on different muscles of the body.  One night we work on my back muscles.  Then my arms.  Then my legs.  Then my core.  They all work together to make my body healthier and stronger.

So how do you get your calling connected to community?  You get it connected through a faith community, through a church.  Paul calls the church the “body of Christ” because it’s different callings all connected in one body:

“We are all one Body, we have the same Spirit, and we have all been called to the same glorious future hope.”
~Ephesians 4:4 NLT

We’re one body connected by one spirit all fitting into God’s glorious calling and purpose.  Or as the author of Hebrews says:

“Brothers and sisters, you are holy partners in a heavenly calling.”
~Hebrews 3:1 GW

We’re better together. We’re better as partners.  We’re better as a part of something bigger than ourselves.  I think this is the real value of small groups in a church.   You get even more connected to the body.   You learn and study and figure out and discern what your calling is and how it fits with the larger body.

The fourth clue to my calling is that my calling is connected to others.

5.       GOD EMPOWERS WHAT HE CALLS ME TO DO!
What God calls me to do, God equips and enables me to do!  Do you know that God doesn’t call the qualified?  God qualifies those God calls.  When I commit to my calling, God commits the strength & power!  Moses is considered in the Bible to be the greatest of all prophets.  But he sure didn’t feel great when God called him to lead the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt.  Here’s what he said:

But Moses pleaded with the Lord, “O Lord, I’m not very good with words. I never have been, and I’m not now, even though you have spoken to me. I get tongue-tied, and my words get tangled… Lord, please! Send anyone else.”
~Exodus 4:10 & 13 NLT

Ha!  A prophet who gets tongue tied.  Sometimes when I’m preaching I feel tongue tied; I usually call it a “brain fart.”  I can’t remember even the simplest of words.  But here’s how God reassured Moses:

Then the Lord asked Moses, “Who makes a person’s mouth? Who decides whether people speak or do not speak, hear or do not hear, see or do not see? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go! I will be with you as you speak, and I will instruct you in what to say.”
~Exodus 4:11-12 NLT

In other words, God would give Moses exactly what Moses needed to live into God’s call and accomplish God’s purposes.  Over the next six weeks we’ll L.E.A.R.N. how to live our calling!  We’ll:

Listen to God’s Word every day!
Enlist friends who challenge me!
Ask questions and accept correction!
Remember & Reinforce what I learn
Now DO it!

We’ll be doing this by using the book What On Earth Am I Here For? as a guide.  This is basically The Purpose Driven Life version 2.0.  We did this as a church fifteen years ago, and many of you found it very helpful.   Those of you who are familiar with these ideas may be asking yourself, “What am I going to get out of this a second time around?”  Maybe your calling the second time around is to share it with someone else.  The author of Hebrews reminds us:

“You have been believers so long now that you ought to be teaching others.”
~Hebrews 5:12 NLT

If you did 40 Days of Purpose, then go ahead and stay in a group but ALSO share it with a new friend!  You’ll grow far more than by just sitting in your group.  You will experience new power you’ve never had when you share it with others.  Here’s what I’ll be praying for you:

“That is why we always pray for you, asking our God to help you live the kind of life he CALLED you to live. We pray that with his power God will help you do the good things you want, and perform the works that come from your faith.”
~Paul (2 Thessalonians 1:11 NCV)

You can count on God to give you the strength you need to do what God has called you to:

“The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it”
~Paul (1 Thessalonians 5:24 NIV)

The fifth clue to God’s calling is that God empowers what God calls me to do.  There’s one other thing you need to know as we begin…

6.  THERE’S A PRIZE FOR LIVING OUT MY CALLING
When you live into God’s calling, God promises a reward that will last forever.  Paul talks about this prize saying:

“I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
~Philippians 3:14 NIV

What is the prize?  The prize is eternal life with God.  Eternal life is hope for a good and meaningful existence after death.  It’s life and love with the one who created you for eternity!  I was reminded of how valuable this is when I was backpacking with my four-year-old son recently.  After spending an adventurous two days backpacking into Nordhouse Dunes and camping on a ridge overlooking Lake Michigan, I asked Micah as we were hiking back to the car what his favorite part of the backpacking was.  I figured he’d say something like playing on the beach, or sleeping in the tent, or cooking on a little stove, or playing the harmonica.  What he said wasn’t any of those things, and what he said melted my heart.  He said, “My favorite part was spending time with you, daddy.”  Of course.  That’s what we want.  We want time with our daddy.  We want time with our mommy.  And how much more with our heavenly parent.

So when does eternity begin?  I think eternity begins NOW!  This prize of eternity isn’t pie in the sky when you die.  It’s a transformed life NOW.  Paul writes:

“Live the kind of life that pleases God, who calls you to share in his own Kingdom and glory.”
~1 Thessalonians 2:12 GNB

Live the kind of life right NOW.  You’re co-starring with Jesus for eternity.  What’s the best part of that?  Time with God.  Lots of time with God.

My prayer for you over the next six weeks is this:

“I ask God …to make you intelligent and discerning in knowing him personally.., so that you can see exactly what it is he is calling you to do, and grasp the immensity of this glorious way of life he has for Christians.”
~Ephesians 1:17-18 (Message)

Here’s the fact about your calling: God is calling you.  Will you answer his call?  Here’s some specific next steps for today:

  1. Take the Series Challenge.  Be in worship every week you’re in Lansing and when you’re not in Lansing, then download the sermon and read or listen to it.
  2. Find a group in GroupLINK to spend six weeks with some friends studying a book to L.E.A.R.N. about your calling.
  3. Invite a friend to participate with you in this whole endeavor.
  4. Memorize this week’s scripture:

“I am your Creator. You were in my care even before you were born!”
~Isaiah 44:2 CEV

Prayer
God, I realize my call is a gift from you.  I want to receive it and open it and enjoy it.  Help me remember that this calling is not for my own purposes, but it’s for your purposes through me.  God, when I make mistakes or sin and miss your mark for my life, call me back to your purposes.  Even use those mistakes to fulfill your call even more fully in my life.  Bring people around me who will help me fulfill my calling through connection in a small group and a faith community.  Give me your power to accomplish my call, and let me run this life with my eyes on the eternal prize of your love for me and for all creation.  May this be true of me in Jesus’ name.

* This sermon is based on a sermon first preached by Rick Warren.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The Wise Way to Live

October 1, 2015 by Leave a Comment

whatonearth

 

The Wise Way To Live
Getting Ready For What On Earth Am I Here For?*
Sycamore Creek Church
September 27, 2015
Tom Arthur

Peace friends!

Today I’m doing something I’ve never done before.  I’m teaching on how to get ready for the series that begins next week: What on Earth Am I Here For?   You could call it a prequel to the next series.  How can you get the most out of the next series?  That’s what I want to explore today.  Because next week we begin our annual fall church-wide campaign.  We’ll be exploring the question: what is your calling?  We’ll ask why you exist and what place you have in this world.  Plan to discover your life’s calling in the next six weeks.  Because beginning next week we’ve got a six-week sermon that has six features for six different learning styles.  You have the opportunity to:

1. Join one of many small groups (there are groups of men, women, parents, couples, anyone, teenagers, young adults, and on and on and on);
2. Discuss 6 life lessons to discover your calling;
3. Memorize 6 Bible verses to guide you – rest of life;
4. Hear 6 weekend messages that set up each group;
5. Read or listen to a daily chapter of book;
6. Practice some activities with your group.

This series is for the entire family, including your kids and your teens.  Talk about this stuff with your family around the dinner table.  Have your kids invite their friends.  Speaking of kids inviting friends, one of the parents in our church emailed me a picture of the three Invest Invite Cards that her third grade daughter filled out to invite her friends.  Yes, she filled out three cards.  That’s nine people she is planning on investing in and inviting to our Open House Party next week.  I’ve talked with several people about their Investing and Inviting and many are having some amazing (even miraculous success).  One person wrote down a name on their card a couple of weeks ago and that person showed up in the second service!  One new person to our church who has never been very invitational decided to write down some co-workers names and then pray.  He was a little nervous about the whole thing.  But one day he found himself naturally saying to his co-worker that he was missing his great church while he was working on Sunday.  His co-worker then asked, “What makes your church great?”  Turns out this co-worker is considering looking for a church!  That was easy.  Pray and God answers.  How is your investing and inviting going?  God likes to answer these kinds of prayers, because God wants every person to be part of a community of faith.  You may be able to be a child of God without a church, but without a church family you’re an orphan of the king.

So let’s dive into what I want to talk about today.  Let’s talk about choosing the wise way of life by getting ready for this upcoming series.  If God offered to give you ONE thing, what would you ask for?  Some might ask for something awesome, like an awesome unicorn, and that would be pretty awesome, but after a while the awesome unicorn becomes not so awesome anymore.  There is a moment in the Bible when God offers someone anything he can think of.  This person is King Solomon and Solomon chooses wisdom.  Above all else he wants wisdom to lead and govern his people.  Why would Solomon ask for wisdom rather than anything else?  The book in the Bible dedicated to the pursuit of wisdom is called Proverbs.  Here’s why wisdom is so valuable:

“Wisdom is more precious than rubies.  Nothing else you could ever want is as valuable.”
~Proverbs. 8:11 NCV

The highest quality ruby is ten times more valuable than a top diamond.  One gram of gold goes for $30-50, but one gram of a precious ruby is worth about $50,000!  As another proverb says:

“Getting wisdom is the most important thing you can do.”
~Proverbs 4:7 TEV

In today’s message I want to cover two things:

  1. Why wisdom should be the #1 goal of your life.
  2. How to get wisdom for your life.

#1 Goal = Wisdom
I told you that the book of Proverbs is the wisdom book of the Bible.  It collects the wisdom of Solomon along with many other ancient wisdom sources.  This is wisdom that has been tried and tested over and over and over for thousands and thousands of years.  Now let me clear about what wisdom is and what it is not.  Wisdom is how things generally work most of the time.  Wisdom is not a promise.  But wisdom is a safe bet with your life.  It’s not just a safe bet, it’s the well-worn experience of thousands of years of people living life. Over & over God stresses why you need wisdom:

“If you become wise, you’ll be the one to benefit. But if you scorn wisdom, you’ll be the one to suffer.”
~Proverbs. 9:12 NLT

Did you catch that wisdom brings benefits.  What kind of benefits.  I could go on and on about this but here are some of the benefits you’ll get from learning to base your life on wisdom:

“Wisdom is good for the soul. Get wisdom and you’ll have a bright future.”
~Proverbs 24:14 TEV

“Those who get wisdom do themselves a favor, and those who love learning will succeed.”
~Proverbs 19:8 NCV

“Treasure wisdom, and it will make you great; hold on to it, and it will bring you honor.”
~Proverbs 4:8 NCV

“Wisdom will multiply your days and add years to your life.”
~Proverbs 9:11 NLT

“Wise people have great power.”
~Proverbs 24:5 NCV

“Wise people will gain an honorable reputation.”
~Proverbs 3:35 TEV

Wise people’s lives get better and better.”
~Proverbs 15:24 NCV

“Wisdom offers you long life, as well as wealth and honor. It can make your life pleasant and lead you safely through it. Those who become wise are happy; wisdom will give them life.”
~Proverbs 3:16-18 TEV

“Nothing will stand in your way if you walk wisely, and you will not stumble when you run.”
~Proverbs 4:12 TEV

Wisdom = Good for the Soul ~ Bright Future ~ Favor ~ Success ~ Greatness ~ Honor ~ More Time ~ Power ~ Reputation ~ Improvement ~ Long Life ~ Wealth ~ Honor ~ Pleasant Life ~ Safety ~ Happiness ~ Overcoming ~ Perseverance.

Do you see how important wisdom is to your life?  Do you understand why you should want wisdom more than anything else?  Do you realize why learning wisdom is worth the next six weeks?  Like everything else, living wisely is a choice.  Living foolishly comes naturally, living wisely must be learned.

“Learn to be wise, and develop good judgment.”
~Proverbs 4:5 NLT

So how do you learn to be wise?  I want to give you five keys to wisdom.

1.       Listen to God’s Word Every Day

“Start with God. The first step in learning is bowing down to God.”
~Proverbs 1:7 (Message)

If you want wisdom you have to start with the one who created wisdom: God.  Wisdom doesn’t come from any other source.  The purity of the wisdom depends entirely on how close it is to the source.

“It is the Lord who gives wisdom; from him come knowledge and understanding”
~Proverbs 2:6 TEV

Get wisdom from God.  Not from TV.  Not from the internet.  Not from Youtube or Facebook, not that any of those things are bad, but you don’t believe everything you hear on the internet.  Wisdom comes first from God.

“A wise person is hungry for truth, while the fool feeds on trash.”
~Proverbs 15:14 NLT

You know the old saying: junk in junk out.  If you eat junk food, guess what you’ll do to your body.  You’ll junk it.  If you eat healthy food, guess what you’ll get from your body?  Health.  What will you put into your mind, body, soul, spirit in the next six weeks?

During the next forty-ish days or six weeks, develop the habit of a daily time with God.  This doesn’t have to be hours of time set aside.  If you’ve never done this, then set aside five or ten minutes.  To begin read or listen to What on Earth Am I Here For?  If you pick up the book you’ll see that there are QR codes at the beginning of each chapter.   You can scan those codes with your cell phone (download a QR code scanner from the App Store) and you’ll get a unique video for each chapter of the book from the author, Rick Warren.

I bet many of you are saying or thinking to yourself, “I don’t have time for a daily time with God.”  Let me ask you a question: Do you have time for TV, Facebook, or Youtube?  I bet you have time for the things you prioritize.  One small way you can find some time is to listen to each chapter each day while you’re driving to work or on the bus.  Knock out two birds with one stone.

I began finding daily time with God when I was a teenager.  Someone, I don’t remember who but it was probably my mom, gave me a Student Bible.  It had a Bible reading plan in it and notes that spoke to specific issues I was dealing with as a teenager.  Teens, don’t think you’re off the hook for this.  Begin now finding daily time with God.

If you want wisdom, the first key is to listen to God’s word every day.

2.       Enlist Friends Who Challenge Me

We always grow in community.  You can’t grow healthy by yourself!   We need each other.  The quality of your life will be determined by those you choose to keep closest to you:

“Bad company corrupts good character.”
~1 Corinthians 15:33

If you hang out with pygmy goats, you’re likely to become a pygmy goat.  You need friends who pull you up, not friends who pull you down.

“Spend time with the wise and you will become wise, but the friends of fools will suffer.”
~Proverbs 13:20

Once a week, for next 6 weeks I want you to meet with a few friends.  Not forever!  Just a few friends for a few weeks.  I bet some of you are thinking again, “I’m too busy for a weekly small group.”  Let me ask you a question: would you have more time if you made fewer mistakes?  Would you like to make fewer mistakes?

“Fools think they need no advice, but the wise listen to others.”
~Proverbs 12:15 NLT

You may make fewer mistakes in life and end up having more time if you take some time to seek wisdom with a group of friends.  Are you getting any spiritual input from friends?  That’s why you need a group.  Have you signed up for a small group yet?

The second key to wisdom is enlisting friends who challenge you.

3.       Ask Questions & Accept Correction

“People’s thoughts can be like a deep well,
but someone with understanding can find the wisdom there.
~Proverbs 20:5

Sycamore Creek Church is a church that seeks to be Curious, Creative, and Compassionate.  When we say we’re a curious church, we’re not meaning that we’re odd (well, maybe those who follow Jesus are a little odd in a good wise kind of way), but we mean that your questions are welcome.  If you want wisdom learn to ask good smart questions from people who have wisdom.  If you want to know about cats, ask an “ailurophile” (pronounced “aye-lur-a-file”).  An ailurophile is a “lover of cats”.  But if you want to know about wisdom in life, you ask a philosopher, which means “lover of wisdom.”  King Solomon was a philosopher.  He loved wisdom.

One of my coaches provided me one time with a great set of questions he has collected over the years.  I’d be happy to share those questions with you if you email me (tomarthur@sycamorecreekchurch.org).  Good questions open up our minds to new possibilities in life:

“Intelligent people are always open to new ideas. In fact, they look for them.”
~Proverbs 18:15 NLT

One key to asking good questions is listening!  I rarely learn new things while I am talking.  I remain open to new things when I ask good questions and listen for good answers.  Larry King says that “if the host of an interview show is doing half the talking something has gone terribly wrong.”  This is true of groups: The leader should talk the LEAST!  The leaders of our small groups are learners too.  They’re not all expert “philosophers.”  They’re regular people just like you and me.  We are all ignorant in our own ways.  You can learn from anyone if you take the time to ask good questions and listen for the wisdom in their answers.

Here’s one more reason to ask good questions and keep learning:

“If you stop learning, you will forget what you already know.”
~Proverbs 19:27 CEV

Wisdom isn’t static.  It’s like a muscle.  You use it or you lose it.  The third key to gaining wisdom is to ask questions and accept correction.

4.       Remember & Reinforce What I Learn

“Listen, and I’ll teach you what the wise have said. Study their teachings, and you will be glad if you remember them and can quote them.”
~Proverbs 22:17-18 TEV

Wisdom doesn’t go in one ear and out the other.  For it to be true wisdom it has to stick.  You’ve got to have a system for remembering and reinforcing what you learn.  One key system for remembering and reinforcing is to memorize.

Why memorize anything in the age of information (and smart phones)!  Memorization is fast becoming an ancient practice.  But research has shown that we gain a lot by memorizing.  Memorizing improves your brain in at least eight ways:

  1. Keeps you remembering
  2. Brain exercise = better mental health
  3. Increases “neural plasticity” = remember more
  4. Improves brain processing speed
  5. Frees up brain power
  6. Improves concentration
  7. Increases creativity
  8. Delays cognitive decline in elderly

http://www.bestcollegesonline.com/blog/2012/07/23/in-praise-of-memorization-10-proven-brain-benefits/

Memorization means that you’ve always got access to that information and wisdom.  I got on a train one time going to Chicago for the day with my three-year-old and left my phone in my car.  I didn’t even have my wife’s phone number memorized to call her and tell her what was up.  I had to call the church office and ask my secretary for my wife’s phone number!  When you haven’t memorized something that you are relying on your cell phone to remember for you, when your cell phone is no longer accessible, then your knowledge and wisdom is no longer accessible.  But your memory is always accessible.

Memorization gets wisdom into our hearts.  You’ve heard the phrase, “Learn it BY HEART.”  Memorization gets it into our hearts in a way that no other method can (http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/why-we-should-memorize).

“Don’t lose sight of my words. Let them penetrate deep within your heart, for they bring life and radiant health to anyone who discovers their meaning”
~Proverbs 4:21-22 NLT

You want to seek God with all your heart, then get wisdom into your heart by taking time to memorize what you learn.  Each week in this series we’ll have a memorization verse.  You can pick up a book marker with all the verses on it.  Memorize each verse each week and get it into your heart.

The fourth key to wisdom is remembering and reinforcing what you’ve learned.

5.       Now DO it!

We’ve come to the final key of wisdom: DO IT!  Don’t just talk about it!  DO it.  Jesus’ brother, James wrote about wisdom this way:

“Don’t deceive yourselves by just listening to the Word; instead, put it into practice. If you listen to the word, but don’t put it into practice you are like people who look in a mirror and see themselves …but once they walk away, they forget what they look like. But if you look closely into the perfect law that sets people free, and keep on paying attention to it and you don’t forget it, but you put it into practice—you will be blessed by God in what you do!”
~James 1:22-25 TEV

You can grow old without ever growing up!  If you know it in your head but don’t do anything about it, then you don’t really know it.  Wisdom is the right application of knowledge.  Wisdom is a choice to do something about what you know.  Wisdom is a choice.  Growth is a choice to do something about what you know.  Growth is a choice.  Wisdom and growth are both a choice to do something.  Are you going to DO anything about what we just talked about?  If not, you just wasted your time.  You came here and you listened to me and you will stay the same.  You’ll get older without growing up.  I’m not saying I’ve got it all together, but even if you disagree with what I’ve said, and you do nothing about it, then you’re no better off than when you first showed up!

God doesn’t bless good intentions. God blesses wise choices.  God says, “It’s your move.  It’s your choice.”  Will you do the wise thing?  Sign up for a small group. Find daily time with God.  Learn to ask good questions.  Remember and reinforce what you learn by memorizing the weekly Bible passages.  Go do it.  Go get your FREE book right now.

Prayer
God, we confess that too often we’ve chosen the easy and foolish way of not making any change.  Give us the strength to choose the wise way today.  Let your wisdom find a place in our hearts so that we not only hear it but we act on it.  May this be so in Jesus’ name.  Amen.

 

*This message was adapted from a sermon originally preached by Rick Warren

Filed Under: Sermons Tagged With: , , ,

Invite Your Friends

September 15, 2015 by Leave a Comment

esther

 

Esther: Let’s Party – Bring Your Friends
Sycamore Creek Church
September 13/14, 2015
Tom Arthur

 

 

Let’s party friends!

When you invite Ferris Bueller to the party, you know it’s going to be good!  Today we continue in our three-week series on the book of Esther called Let’s Party.  I’m challenging you to read the book of Esther over these three weeks.  How’s that going?  So why is a series on the book of Esther called Let’s Party?  Good question.  Let’s review the key verse in the book of Esther:

He told them to celebrate these days with feasting and gladness and by giving gifts of food to each other and presents to the poor. This would commemorate a time when the Jews gained relief from their enemies, when their sorrow was turned into gladness and their mourning into joy.
~Esther 9:22 NLT

Esther exists as a book in the Bible to explain why the Jews celebrate Purim.  And Purim is like the Jewish version of Mardi Gras.  In fact, Esther is the magna carta of partying, the declaration of partying, and the bill of rights of partying.  It is as the Beastie Boys say, why “You gotta fight…for your right…to party!”

So if we’re talking about a party, then a problem immediately arises.  Who do you invite to the party?  Who do you not invite to the party?  What reactions will you get?  Who will react to who?  Who will react to you?  What reactions did you not anticipate?

I remember feeling this problem acutely as we were planning the guest list for our wedding.  I’ve got a blended family and I was imagining my family not blending so well.  Add to this stress the fact that I worked at a church, Sarah worked at a church, and Sarah’s dad worked at two churches.  Just in case your math ain’t so good, that’s four churches we were involved with.  Who do you invite?  Who do you not invite?  Yikes!  We ended up making open invitations to all four churches and as a result we had four-hundred people attend our wedding.  Four hundred people!  It was all enough to make me envious of people who elope and grab a witness off the street.  Well, thankfully, my family blended well, and the other four hundred people ended up being a blessing to us.  The wedding was a blast.  Thank you God!

So here’s the whole point of today’s message: Who you invite determines the quality of the party.

Likewise, the quality of your life depends on who you invite to your life party.  What friends do you invite to the party of your life?  What friends do you not invite?  What friends do you disinvite?

Let’s face it, there are people you can’t just disinvite, a spouse for example.  And it’s actually not good to only hang out with “good” people.  Jesus came to seek and save the lost, but are you getting lost yourself?  Are you seeking the lost or are you getting lost?  This question is a matter of influence.  We’re called to influence those around us.  Are you influencing those around you or are you being influenced?

Speaking of inviting people to the party, I want to invite you to take the Cell Phone Challenge.  I challenge you to it.  Here’s the deal: Bring your cell phone to our S Penn Venue on Wednesday, September 30th between 7-8:30PM and we’re going to call everyone on our rolls to make sure they know about and are invited to the Open House Party the following Sunday, October 4th where we’re celebrating our Grand Opening of the newly remodeled Connection Café.  Are you ready to take the challenge?

Here’s one more invitation challenge.  Between now and October 4th, pick three people that you will invest & invite.  When we say “invest & invite” we mean that you will take some time between now and October 4th to invest in these three people.  Have a cup of a coffee with them.  Get together for a meal.  Go on a walk.  Drop them a message on Facebook to see how they’re doing.  Call them and check in.  Then pray that God would open the door for you to invite them to our Open House Party.  Let God do the heavy lifting.  It’s as simple as that.  When you see God open the door, invite them to the party.

So I’ve put before you two challenges:

  1. The Cell Phone Challenge
  2. The Invest & Invite Challenge

Will you step up to the challenge?!

So we’re talking about who you invite to the party, the SCC party, but also the party of your life, and we’re also studying the book of Esther.  So I want to identify two kinds of “friends” to disinvite to the party of your life and two kinds of friends to invite as we see all four kinds of friends in the book of Esther.  Let’s dive in.

Two Kinds of “Friends” to DISINIVITE
Over-reactors – The King’s Men

The King in the story of Esther is throwing a drinking party.  He wants the queen, Vashti, to show up naked only wearing her crown so that “the nobles and all the other men [could] gaze on her beauty” (1:11).  In other words, he wants to turn his wife, the queen, into a stripper for his party.  Vashti refuses snubbing the king publicly.

Have you ever been challenged or humiliated publically?  Are you prone to over react?  The King and his friends are.  The King consults his drinking buddies about what to do and here’s what happens:

The king immediately consulted with his wise advisers, who knew all the Persian laws and customs, for he always asked their advice…Memucan answered the king and his nobles, “Queen Vashti has wronged not only the king but also every noble and citizen throughout your empire. Women everywhere will begin to despise their husbands when they learn that Queen Vashti has refused to appear before the king. Before this day is out, the wives of all the king’s nobles throughout Persia and Media will hear what the queen did and will start treating their husbands the same way. There will be no end to their contempt and anger.”
~Esther 1:13, 16-18 NLT

Notice all the ways the king’s drinking buddies explode the situation and over-catastrophize it.  They say by the end of today (immediately) this bad thing is going to happen to everyone everywhere and will have no end.  Come on!  Is it really that bad?  No way!  They’re all over reacting.

Over-reactors tend to amp up the emotions.  Especially the bad ones.  If it’s bad it’s really bad.  If it will take some time, it will be forever.  If it happens to one person it will happen to everyone.   They make the mistake of over-generalizing the situation.  “You always…You never…”  Do you have friends who over react to the negative things in your life?  Are you an over-reactor?  Maybe it’s time to disinvite the over-reactors from the party.

Two Kinds of “Friends” to DISINIVITE
Power-reactors – Haman’s Wife: Zeresh

Power-reactors look for their opportunity to gain power.  They jump on the band wagon when things are going well, and tell you what you want to hear so they can get a free ride.  But when things turn sour, they’re outa here.  Haman’s wife is like that.  Haman is the King’s right-hand man who gains power and uses it to attempt a genocide of the Jews after Esther’s uncle, Mordecai refuses to bow to him.

So Haman’s wife, Zeresh, and all his friends suggested, “Set up a sharpened pole that stands seventy-five feet tall, and in the morning ask the king to impale Mordecai on it. When this is done, you can go on your merry way to the banquet with the king.” This pleased Haman, and he ordered the pole set up.
~Esther 5:14 NLT

Zeresh and Haman’s friends see Haman’s stock going up, so they are bold to tell him how to keep getting more power so they can join the gravy train. But when a twist in the plot sends Haman’s stock spiraling downward they quickly change who they back:

When Haman told his wife, Zeresh, and all his friends what had happened, his wise advisers and his wife said, “Since Mordecai—this man who has humiliated you—is of Jewish birth, you will never succeed in your plans against him. It will be fatal to continue opposing him.”
~Esther 6:13 NLT

From cheering him on to tearing him down, that’s what a power-reactor does.  Are you a power-reactor?  Do you have power-reactor “friends” around you?  Maybe it’s time to disinvite some power-reactors from your party.

So how do you protect against the over-reactors and power-reactors?  You invite two other kinds of friends around you: truth-reactors and spiritual-reactors.  Let’s look at both.

Two Kinds of Friends to INVITE
Truth Reactors – The Eunuch & Mordecai

Esther, the new queen after Vashti, gets to be queen by knowing who she can trust.  She is entered into a beauty pageant and wins the crown.  She wins in part because she pays attention to what she is told by the people who know how the system works.

When it was Esther’s turn to go to the king, she accepted the advice of Hegai, the eunuch in charge of the harem. She asked for nothing except what he suggested, and she was admired by everyone who saw her.
~Esther 2:15 NLT

Hegai gives Esther “wordly” advice about how the world works.  This isn’t bad stuff to know.  He’s a kind of mentor to her.  He knows the levers of the king’s court and he tells Esther which levers to pull.  He gives her practical wisdom about life.  Do you have some friends around you who are mentoring you on the basics of life: finances, career choices, household management, parenting, studying, and the like?  We all need these kind of truth-reactors around us.

Recently we learned that the Capital City River Run marathon was going to be going right by our S Penn Venue just down the street where the River Trail crosses Mt Hope on Sunday, September 20th.  We’ll be right at mile 22 out of 26 miles.  I’ve never run a marathon so I don’t know what your state of mind is at mile 22, but those who have run a marathon say that things are pretty bleak.  You’re wondering why you ever decided to do this in the first place.  So we’ve decided to be some truth-reactor friends for those who are running this marathon.  After worship that day, a team of us will walk down the street to cheer on those who are hitting mile twenty-two of their grueling ordeal…I mean fun run.  We’ll give them our  best cheering to compel them on.  I’m told by those who have run marathons that this kind of cheering is exactly what’s needed.  It’s practical wisdom shared with us from truth-reactors.  And we’re going to put it to good use next week.  Will you stick around and join us to cheer on the runners?

So Hegai was someone who gave Esther worldly wisdom but she also has people in her life who give her Godly wisdom and truth, specifically her uncle, Mordecai.  When Mordecai learns that Haman has plotted a genocide, he realizes that the Jews’ best chance just might be Esther, the queen who no one knows is Jewish.  Here’s what happens:

Mordecai sent this reply to Esther: “Don’t think for a moment that because you’re in the palace you will escape when all other Jews are killed. If you keep quiet at a time like this, deliverance and relief for the Jews will arise from some other place, but you and your relatives will die. Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this?”
~Esther 4:13-14 NLT

Mordecai tells Esther what she needs to hear.  Do you have a friend or two or three who are willing to tell you the hard truth?  Do you have some friends who are willing to look for God’s truth in your life?  Are you the kind of person who does that for others?  Let me give you a little tip.  Our culture right now is so averse to offending anyone that when our friends around us see what’s happening in our life better than we see it ourselves, they’re afraid to tell us for fear of offending us.  So what we need to do with our friends is give them permission to tell us.  Ask for the truth.  Ask for it!  This does two things: it gives your friends permission to say what needs to be said, and it puts you in the frame of mind to receive it well.  Are you a truth-reactor?  Do you have truth-reactors around you?

Two Kinds of Friends to INVITE
Spiritual Reactors – The Jews & Maids

The second kind of friend we all need to invite to our life party is the spiritual-reactor.  Someone who comes alongside of you in a time of trouble and is God’s means of grace in your life.  Esther has two groups of friends like this.  After hearing Mordecai’s truth-telling, she responds in this way:

Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai: “Go and gather together all the Jews of Susa and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will do the same. And then, though it is against the law, I will go in to see the king. If I must die, I must die.” So Mordecai went away and did everything as Esther had ordered him.
~Esther 4:15-17

There are two groups of friends around Esther: all the Jews of Susa and her maids.  You can think of these groups of friends as her spiritual community or faith community, and her small group.  Both come alongside her in a time of trouble and practice spiritual practices together like prayer and fasting.  A spiritual-reactor’s first reaction is to turn to God in prayer.  One time when I was swinging on a porch swing the chain snapped as I swung out over the edge to the porch.  As I felt myself flying through the air I was only aware of one thing, my friend Marie who was loudly praying for me.  I don’t know how she thought to pray so quickly, but she did.  She was a spiritual-reactor.  What happened next is all a blur to me but what I pieced together from those who saw the incident was that I tucked and rotated in mid-air and missed a porch post to one side and a tree-stump to the other side and gracefully rolled out into the gravel driveway before hopping up on my feet with no injuries.  Whoa!  Thank you Marie for praying me through that gymnastic stunt.  Thank you God for giving me a spiritual-reactor friend in that moment!

Are you a spiritual-reactor?  Do you have spiritual-reactors around you?  Just in case I haven’t given you enough challenges today here’s another one: find a small group of spiritual-reactors this month in GroupLINK.  This fall we’re doing a church-wide campaign called What On Earth Am I Here For?  All the small groups are studying this same book.  We’ll have coordinated teaching each Sunday morning along with your small group material.  Your spiritual faith community and your small group will be aligned to be spiritual reactors in your life.  Wow!  On top of all this, you’ll get a FREE book if you sign up for a small group.  Yes, a FREE book.  Do you have spiritual-reactor friends in your life?  If not, find some in a small group.

One of the truth-reactors and spiritual-reactors from afar in my life is John Wesley, the 18th century founder of Methodism.  I’ve been reading one of his sermons each morning before my kids wake up.  I read this one last week and I’d like to share it with you to close:

I have often thought, in my waking hours, “Now, when I fall asleep, and see such and such things, I will remember it was but a dream.” Yet I could not, while the dream lasted; and probably none else can. But it is otherwise with the dream of life; which we do remember to be such, even while it lasts. And if we do forget it, (as we are indeed apt to do) a friend may remind us of it. It is much to be wished that such a friend were always near; one that would frequently sound in our ear, “Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead!” Soon you will awake into real life. You will stand, a naked spirit, in the world of spirits, before the face of the great God! See that you now hold fast that “eternal life, which he hath given you in his Son!”
~John Wesley? – Human Life a Dream (Sermon 121):

See more.

 Prayer
God, help us invite the right people to the party so that the quality of our life is godly and that we faithfully follow Jesus.  Help us keep away the over-reactors and power-reactors, and show us who the truth-reactors and spiritual-reactors are that we need to invite.  Guide us as we invest and invite friends to the party that SCC is throwing.  And open doors for us to invite them to join us.  Give us these kind of friends so that our sorrow might be turned into partying.  In the name of Jesus, amen.

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MAXimum Loyalty

August 31, 2015 by Leave a Comment

GodOnFilm

 

God on Film
Max – MAXimum Loyalty
Sycamore Creek Church
August 30/31, 2015
Tom Arthur

 

 

Peace friends! 

Omar Eduardo Rivera was a blind computer technician working on the 71st floor of the World Trade Center when the planes hit on September 11, 2001.  When the elevators went out, he was dependent on his service dog, Dorado, to get him safely down seventy flights of stairs.  As the noise and heat increased, it became apparent to Omar that it was not going to be an easy or quick task to navigate the packed stairs.  He was uncertain he would make it out alive.  So he unclipped Dorado, nudged him, and told him to go.  Dorado was swept away by the flow of people, but only a few minutes later, Omar felt Dorado’s wet nose at his hand and he refused to leave his side.  An hour later, Dorado led Omar safely out of the tower only moments before it collapsed.

Today we wrap up a series called God on Film.  Each week we’ve been looking at a different summer blockbuster and exploring the themes that each movie evokes and what the Bible has to say about that particular theme.  Today we’re looking at the movie Max.  Max is about a war dog who suffers PTSD after his handler is killed in an ambush and how he becomes loyal to his handler’s younger brother.  Today I want to talk about MAXimum loyalty.  Now I’ve got to warn you.  I’ve never cried so much reading sappy loyal dog stories.  I cry every time I watch this trailer.  It’s the “feel good movie of the summer.”  So be prepared to shed some tears.  And if you’re like me and you need to do some “man crying” then we’ll let you pretend to be itching your eyes and we won’t rat you out.  We’re loyal like that.

I want to explore two kinds of loyalty today and what the Bible says about them: MAXimum loyalty to friends and MAXimum loyalty to God.  Let’s dive in.

1.       MAXimum Loyalty to Friends
Jesus taught about friendship.  Friendship and happiness or joy are very closely tied together in Jesus’ teaching.  He says:

I’ve told you these things for a purpose: that my joy might be your joy, and your joy wholly mature.  This is my command: Love one another the way I loved you. This is the very best way to love. Put your life on the line for your friends.
~John 15:11-13 (The Message)

Joy and friendship are intertwined.  I was recently listening to a Freakonomics podcast interview with Dan Gilbert, a Harvard Professor of Psychology.  He wrote a book about happiness and gave this nutshell suggestion of how to be happy: “Care about and interact with other human beings.”

So if you want to be happy, then invest in friendships.  Let’s look at what MAXimum loyal friends look like.

Trustworthy
MAXimum loyal friends are trustworthy.  So much so that you can bet your life on them because Jesus says, “Put your life on the line for your friends” like the soundtrack song to the movie, I Bet My Life.  Have you ever had a friend or a dog put their life on the line for you?  Gage was a Christchurch, New Zealand Police Dog who worked with Senior Constable Bruce Lamb.  Lamb and Gage were called to a routine drug search when things went terribly wrong.  Lamb was shot in the face with a shot gun and lay on the floor.  When Lamb looked up from the ground he saw the barrel of the gun in his face ready to finish him off.  At the last second Gage jumped in front of him and took the blast that would have killed Lamb.  This gave other officers the chance to disarm the man while Lamb crawled out of the house.  Gage died that day but Lamb lived.  Gage was awarded a gold medal posthumously.  Like Gage, a loyal friend puts his or her life on the line.

A loyal friend is trustworthy because that friend isn’t seeking their own agenda from you.  They’re seeking God’s will for you.  You can trust them because you know they want the best for you.  They want the best for you so much that they not only tell you when you’re doing well, they tell you the hard truth when they see you falling out of God’s best plan for your life.  Or as a friend of mine likes to say, “A false friend stabs you in the back but a true friend stabs you in the front.”  A MAXimum loyal friend is trustworthy.

Tenacious
A MAXimum loyal friend is not only trustworthy but also tenacious.  The wisdom book of the Bible, Proverbs, says:

There are “friends” who destroy each other, but a real friend sticks closer than a brother.
~Proverbs 18:24 NLT 

Hachiko was a tenacious dog in Tokyo.  In 1924 Professor Ueno took him as a pet.  Each day after work Hachiko would meet Ueno at the train station.  One year after Hachiko became Ueno’s pet, Ueno had a massive stroke and died.  For the next nine years until he died himself, Hachiko continued to come to the train station at 6PM to greet his master.  Riders on the train began to notice and over time Hachiko became a national hero in Japan because of his tenacious loyalty to his master, even after his death.

A MAXimum loyal friend is tenacious by being stable.  They aren’t fickle.  They’re there for the good and the bad.  The ups and downs.  In a world dominated by mobility, I might even go so far as to say that the MAXimum loyal friend is unwilling to move away, even if a higher paying job presents itself in another faraway state.  MAXimum loyal friends are tenacious in the friendship.  They stick closer than family.

Troupes
I know.  I’m stretching it here (I spent a lot of time in a thesaurus to come up with a T word for group), but MAXimum friends come in troupes, or groups.  The wisdom book of the Bible, Ecclesiastes, says:

Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed.  If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble. Likewise, two people lying close together can keep each other warm. But how can one be warm alone? A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.
~Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 NLT

Two is good.  But three is even better.  I’d suggest that a whole community is best.  A MAXimum loyal friend recognizes the need for a community of friends.  C.S. Lewis says that three friends are always better because the third friend pulls out of your second friend things you could never pull out of them.  I don’t think there’s any better community of friends than the church.  Now I need to recognize and name the experience that the church has not always been and is not always a compelling community of friends.  Instead of being friends that stick closer than families, sometimes we are “friends” who destroy one another or those around us.  I’m moved deeply by one community of Christian friends who acknowledges this and confessed it in a unique way:

 

 

Yes, I confess stupid stuff like the Inquisition, the crusades, the constant battle against science, being known more for what we stand against than what we stand for.  Yet there is still something fundamentally compelling to me about the community of friends called the church and it looks something like this.  I don’t know any other place where people come together on a voluntary basis who would not naturally choose to associate with one another.  The word “church” in Greek is ecclesia.  It literally means “those called out.”  The church is the community of friends “called out” to create a laboratory of love.  It’s at church that I learn how to love people I wouldn’t naturally choose to spend time with.  I become a better person by the very nature of practicing love with people who aren’t always easy to love, which includes myself.  MAXimum loyal friends come in troupes or groups.

So far we’ve been talking MAXimum loyal friends.  They are trustworthy, tenacious, and they come in troupes.  That’s the first kind of MAXimum loyalty I wanted to talk about today.  The second kind is MAXimum loyalty to God.

2.       MAXimum Loyalty to God
While we’ve been talking about friends, I’m guess you haven’t been thinking of God in that category.  But Jesus’ teaching we began with puts God in that very category: 

You are my friends when you do the things I command you. I’m no longer calling you servants because servants don’t understand what their master is thinking and planning. No, I’ve named you friends because I’ve let you in on everything I’ve heard from the Father.
“You didn’t choose me, remember; I chose you, and put you in the world to bear fruit, fruit that won’t spoil. As fruit bearers, whatever you ask the Father in relation to me, he gives you.
“But remember the root command: Love one another.
~Jesus (John 15:14-17, The Message)

We are God’s friends!  So what does MAXimum loyalty to God look like?  Perhaps we get the best picture of that in the most sacred verse of the Hebrew scriptures:

Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone.  And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength.
~Deuteronomy 6:4-5 NLT

MAXimum loyalty to God means putting God first, God alone!  You do this by responding to God with everything you’ve got: your heart, your soul, and your strength, or in the original language, your levav, nephesh, and mehod.  So what exactly does it mean to love God with your levav, nephesh, and mehod?  Let’s explore that a little more.

I had a Hebrew professor who liked to say that the word “heart” wasn’t really big enough for translating “levav.”  She thought a better translation for “levav” was “imagination.”  Love the Lord your God with all your imagination!  Now that really captures my imagination.  How do you imagine the world around you?  How do you see it?  How do you envision yourself and those around you in this world?  Do you see it from merely human and mortal eyes or do you imagine the world the way God imagines it?   You see, humans imagine the world based on what they see, but God looks deeper.  God imagines the world through the lenses of God’s purposes in our lives.  When you love God with all your levav,  you’re loving God by giving your entire vision for life to God.

What about loving God with all your nephesh?  Nephesh usually gets translated as “soul” but it is a word that is probably best contrasted with the word inanimate.  The nephesh is what animates your life.  A rock has no nephesh because it is an inanimate object.  But you have a nephesh because you are a living and breathing creature.  What does it take for you to have life?  Imagine it all the way from the cellular level.  Go back to your biology class and imagine your nephesh as encompassing all that makes you alive.  Your mitochondria, your cellular wall, your endoplasmic reticulum (yes I had to look that up).  Let’s go up a level: your bones, muscles, veins, arteries, heart, lungs, nervous system, brain, eyes, ears, nose, mouth.  It’s all your nephesh.  It’s your soul.  It’s through all of you.  It’s what makes you alive.  Love God with it all!

What about your mehod?  Your strength?  Mehod is an abundant force.  It’s not weak or timid or shy.  Mehod is active and assertive.  You don’t passively love God.  You love God with your mehod.  Your strength.   You don’t wait around for it.  You intentionally look for ways to love God.  You love God with all your mehod.  All your strength.

MAXimum loyalty to God is loving God with all your levav, all your nephesh, and all your mehod.  All your heart, all your soul, and all your strength.

But what happens when you fail?  What happens when you don’t show MAXimum loyalty to God?  Here’s the really good news! Paul, the first missionary of the church and the author of many of the book of the Bible teaches:

If we are unfaithful, he remains (abides) faithful, for he cannot deny who he is.
~2 Timothy 2:13 NLT

When you’re aren’t loyal, God is the MAXimum loyal friend to you.  God is tenacious and trustworthy and God gives you a troupe/group of friends to show you that.  God is the Duardo, the Gage, the Hachiko.  God knows what it means to love with heart, soul & strength because he’s the one who created the heart, created the soul, and created strength.  God knows what it means to be friends because he was the friend who bet his life on us in Jesus.  Remember what Jesus said?

This is the very best way to love. Put your life on the line for your friends.
~Jesus (John 15:13, The Message) 

Friends, Jesus put his life on the line for you so that we might be friends with God.  Even when we aren’t loyal, God remains loyal to us.  Jesus has bet his life on you.  Have you bet your life on Jesus?

 

 

Prayer
Jesus, I bet my life on you.  Thank you for being such a loyal friend that you laid your life down for me.  Like Gage, you gave your life so that I might live.  Like Durado you led me to freedom.  Like Hachiko you stuck by me even when I was dead in my sins.  Forgive me for the times I don’t show you maximum loyalty.  Give me your grace today so that I might love you with all I’ve got, my levav heart, my nephesh soul, and my mehod strength.  I give myself to you in the name of Jesus, and in the power of your Spirit at work in my life.  Amen.

 

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Fantastic Four – Find Your Forte

August 11, 2015 by Leave a Comment

GodOnFilm

 

God on Film:  Fantastic Four – Find Your Forte
Sycamore Creek Church
August 9/10, 2015
Tom Arthur

 

 

Peace friends!

Today we’re continuing in this series, God on Film.  Each week we’re looking at a summer blockbuster and exploring something that movie evokes and what the Bible has to say about it.  Today we’re looking at the movie, Fantastic Four.

So how many are there in the Fantastic Four?  Yep.  Four.  Each one of the four have “unique physical capabilities.”  The Thing has indestructible strength.  Mister Fantastic has the unique physical capability of rubber stretch.  The Human Torch has fire, and the Invisible Woman can turn, well, invisible as well as having the ability to project force fields.

If you got to choose one of those super powers, which one would you pick?  How would you decide?  How did each of the Fantastic Four decide?  They didn’t.  In the original storyline they are hit by cosmic rays in outer space.  In this remake something happens during inter-dimensional travel.  They don’t get to choose what special ability they have.  It just happens to them.

You don’t decide either what special unique capabilities you have.  You just have them.  What are your unique capabilities?  What about your unique spiritual capabilities?  Today I’d like to take a look at the unique spiritual capabilities that each of us are given called spiritual gifts.  Let’s begin with a definition:

Spiritual gifts are God-given natural or supernatural talents every Christian has that God uses to accomplish God’s purposes in and through the church.

That’s a thick definition so let’s unpack it.

God-given = These gifts are by God’s grace freely given.  The Greek word behind the word “gift” is charism which you make recognize in the word “charismatic.” “Charism” means “gift.”  Spiritual gifts are natural or supernatural talents.  Sometimes they are very natural in appearance like knowledge or teaching.  Other times they have a supernatural twist like healing.  Either way they’re what we’re able to do, and what we’re good at doing.  Every Christian has one or more spiritual gifts.  Every person plays a part.  But a part in what?  A part in God’s purposes.  Spiritual gifts are for accomplishing God’s rescue mission to the world.  And God’s rescue mission happens primarily in and through the Church.  Spiritual gifts are for equipping one another and reaching out into the world.  So let’s hear that definition again:

Spiritual gifts are God-given natural or supernatural talents every Christian has that God uses to accomplish God’s purposes in and through the church.

Paul, the first missionary of the church and the author of many of the books of the Bible, says:

Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed.
~1 Corinthians 12:1 NRSV

Paul wants us to know about spiritual gifts so we’re not uninformed or ignorant of our own and God’s purposes for spiritual gifts.  One book that has been helpful to me over the last couple of months is a book by Peter Wagner called Discover Your Spiritual Gifts.  Wagner writes:

“You need to know about your spiritual gifts if

  1. You are a Christian believer
  2. You believe that Jesus is your Lord and you want to love Him, please Him and follow Him in the best way possible; and
  3. You want your church to be a healthy, attractive growing group of people showing forth God’s love in your community.”

I think I want all three of those things.  I suspect that you do too.  So let’s go back to Paul and see what he teaches about Spiritual gifts.  Paul writes about spiritual gifts in several different places but today we’re going to focus on his letter to the Christians who are in Rome.  Here’s what he says:

And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him…
~Paul (Romans 12:1 NLT)

Have you ever considered that what you do with your bodies is worship.  Worship isn’t just coming together on Sunday to sing and pray and hear teaching about the Bible.  It’s also about how you use your body every day of the week.  How your body interacts with other bodies around you is an act of worship.

Because of the privilege and authority God has given me, I give each of you this warning: Don’t think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us.
~Paul (Romans 12:3 NLT)

Paul encourages us to have an honest humble appraisal of ourselves.  You’re good at some things and other things you’re not so good at.  Do you know what they are?  Humility is having an accurate and true self-understanding.  Paul is about to help us have that honest and true and humble self-understanding.

Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other.
~Paul (Romans 12:4-5 NLT)

Each of your body parts has a special function.  In the same way, each of you has a special function in the church and the world.  Each of you has a special function in God’s rescue mission to the world.  And just like a human body, the individual body parts belong to each other.

In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well.
~Paul (Romans 12:6 NLT)

These gifts and playing this role in the body is a God-given gift.  It’s not something you earn.  You just have it.  Some things you do well, but not all things.  That’s where the honesty and humility come in.  What do you do well, and what do you not do so well?

So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you.  If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well.  If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly.
~Paul (Romans 12:6-8 NLT)

Some of us have the gift of prophesy.  Prophesy isn’t so much about telling the future, although it may be about that.  The prophet in the Bible speaks from God’s perspective about when God’s people are in or out of the will of God.  The rest of the gifts Paul mentions are more natural and obvious gifts: serving, teaching, encouraging, giving, leading, showing kindness.  These all are spiritual gifts that God gives each one of us to accomplish God’s purposes in and through the church.

God’s General & Specific Call
Many people often come to me and want to know what God has called them to do in this world.  Here’s the answer.  God has a general call on each person’s life.  That general call is basically the same for everyone: use your spiritual gifts.  God gave you special talents, and God calls you to use those gifts.  That’s God’s general call.

Then there’s God specific call.  God’s specific call has to do with the specific ministry or area or location that you use those gifts.  Some of you are called to use your gifts working with children.  Others are called to the specific area of youth.  Others are called to use their gifts in worship ministry.  Others are called to use their gifts specifically with preaching or outreach or missions.  In any case, God does not call someone to a ministry that God does not equip that person for doing.  While the specific call may change (where you use your gifts in ministry), the general call does not (that you use your gifts).

Martin Luther, the 16th century Protestant reformer, taught “the priesthood of all believers.”  It’s not that there’s a special profession called “pastor” or “priest” that does all the ministry.  Rather, all who follow Jesus, all who are part of the body of Christ are pastors and priests.  Each one of you has a role to play, not just some “professional Christian” we call the pastor.

How Many Spiritual Gifts are There?
Paul gives us three different lists of spiritual gifts in three different books of the Bible.  Those lists are all different.  I don’t think Paul was trying to be exhaustive when he wrote those lists.  Then there are other places in the Bible where special gifts are listed.  So I don’t think there is any one set list or number of gifts.  One online tool we use at Sycamore Creek Church lists twenty-four gifts.  Peter Wagner’s book lists twenty-eight.  I don’t know what the exact number is, and I’m somewhat skeptical of any attempt to nail down an exact number.  But this morning I want to talk about three of those gifts.

Singleness
The gift of singleness is the gift “to remain single and enjoy it and not suffer undue sexual temptation” (Wagner).  Paul teaches it this way:

But I wish everyone were single, just as I am. Yet each person has a special gift from God, of one kind or another.
~1 Corinthians 7:7 NLT

It may seem odd to start our conversation with the gift of singleness.  But I am beginning here because the largest group of people in the neighborhood right around our church is a group called “singles and starters.”  Now let’s get very clear about the gift of singleness because sometimes we tell single people something like: “You must have the gift of singleness because you’re single.”  That’s not true.  Being single doesn’t mean you have the gift of singleness.  It may just mean you haven’t yet met your spouse and life-partner.  If you want to get married, you probably don’t have this gift.  If you want to have sex, you probably don’t have this gift.  If you are quite alright being single, then you may have this gift.

The gift of singleness does not stand alone.  Yes, I said that.  Singleness does not stand alone.  We’re not talking about spinsters.  Singleness is a gift that allows a deeper and fuller use of your other gifts that God uses to accomplish God’s purposes in and through the church.  If you are single you have more time and more energy to focus less on your own family and more on the community around you.  Let’s look at one person who had the gift of singleness: Georges Lemaître.

Who was Georges Lemaître?  Georges Lemaître was a brilliant catholic priest in the 20th century.  In 1920 he got his first PhD.  Yes, I said “first.”  It was titled “Approximation of functions of several real variables.”  I have no idea what that means other than that Georges Lemaître was very smart.  He got his PhD in 1920 and then was ordained a priest in 1923.  In 1927 he went head to head with Einstein when he proposed the Expansion Theory of the Universe.  Einstein said, “Your calculations are correct, but your physics is atrocious.”  Georges Lemaître became the founder of the Big Bang Theory.  Yes, a Christian priest came up with the Big Bang Theory.  Turns out that while Einstein is more famous, Lemaître was right.  Then in 1931 Lemaître got his second PhD which was titled, “The gravitational field in a fluid sphere of uniform invariant density according to the theory of relativity.”  I don’t understand that any more than I understood the first!

OK, let’s unpack all this just for a moment.  A married man with kids barely has time to finish one PhD let alone two.  A married man with kids doesn’t go head to head with Einstein and win.  A married man with kids doesn’t become a Catholic priest.  Lemaître’s singleness allowed him to focus his time and energy (no pun intended) on advancing humanity’s understanding of the universe’s origins.  His singleness was a gift that allowed him to use his other gifts on a deeper and fuller level.  He enriched others with his gift of singleness.  That’s the gift of singleness.  Singleness allows you to use your other gifts in deeper and fuller ways for the benefit of God’s purposes in and through the church.

Hospitality
Wagner defines hospitality as the ability “to provide an open house and warm welcome for those in need of lodging.”  Peter, one of Jesus’ closest friends taught:

Cheerfully share your home with those who need a meal or a place to stay.
~1 Peter 4:9 NLT

The person with the gift of hospitality is able to make people feel truly at home whether in their own home or elsewhere.  They also are able to share their home for extended periods of time.  This means be able to share the “mess” without apologizing.  You don’t have to be a Martha Stewart.

Sarah and I have the gift of hospitality.  For most of our married life we have had people living with us.  We’re not alone.  A couple of months ago we invited over for dinner everyone in our church that we know who is sharing their house with someone.  It was good to sit around the table and share stories together.  There are many in our church who have the gift of hospitality.

Of course, one of the ways we are using the gift of hospitality in our church together is through the remodeling of our Connection Café.  Here we hope to make people feel at home and to have a place to build friendships.  Many in our church share their gift of hospitality through our Connection Café.  There will be many more opportunities in the future if we are to open up our Connection Café to the community throughout the week.

One last area of hospitality that takes place together is our shared task of cleaning the building.  While the gift of hospitality as it is played out in our homes may be about sharing the “mess” of our homes with folks, the gift of hospitality as it is played out together in this building is through keeping the building clean.  A clean building removes obstacles from a guest encountering God when they join us for an event in our building.

Pastor
The last gift I want to explore today in details is the gift of pastor.  The gift of pastor “assumes a long-term personal responsibility for the spiritual welfare of a group of believers.”  Again, Peter describes it this way:

Care for the flock that God has entrusted to you. Watch over it willingly, not grudgingly
~1 Peter 5:2 NLT

God’s sense of humor is such that I, your pastor, do not have the gift of pastor.  What?  Yes, I don’t have the gift of pastor.  My top gifts tend to be leadership, administration, teaching, and giving.  Peter Wagner says, “Very few senior ministers of large, growing churches do have the biblical gift of pastor.”  This may seem confusing to you until you understand that there is a difference between the role of pastor that we tend to hire for a leader in our church and the spiritual gift of pastor.  I am hired as your pastor to lead this church, and many of you have the gift of pastor to help care for one another.  “As soon as we understand that the gift of pastor is not necessarily what your senior minister has or needs, a vast and exciting possibility is opened for laypeople to begin to exercise the gift of pastor” (Peter Wagner).  Rick Warren, the pastor of Saddleback Church, says, “For the church to grow, the pastor must give up the ministry and the people must give up the leadership.”  As our church grows more and more of you will begin to exercise your gift of pastor.  I will begin to live more and more into my gift of leadership.

Two examples of where this is already taking place is with Tom Fox and Mary Ziegler.  Tom is a retired United Methodist pastor who is a partner in our church.  He is also a part-time chaplain at Sparrow.  He has been working to develop a hospital visitation team.  This means that when you’re in the hospital, I may not be the person visiting you.  Tom and one of his team members may be that person.  Mary Ziegler is a recently retired partner in our church who has been developing a caring and listening ministry with many of you.  Mary and her team will soon begin offering prayer partners after worship each week.  These are people who will be available to pray with you each week.  Mary, Tom, and their teams are exercising their gift of pastor, and this pastor who does not have the gift of pastor is grateful for them.

Discover Your Spiritual Gifts
There’s only one last question to ask: How do you discover your spiritual gifts?  I want to give you four tips for discovering your spiritual gifts.  First, use TOOLS.  We offer an online inventory that you can take.  Visit www.assessme.org/2364.aspx and you’ll find four inventories: a spiritual gifts inventory, a personality inventory, a leadership inventory, and a skills inventory.  If you paid for this yourself, it would cost you $15, but if you do it through us, it’s FREE!  Once you’ve taken all four you’ll be given a customized report with suggestions for how to use your gifts.  You’ll also be added to a searchable database that the leadership of our church can use to help you find the right place to use your spiritual gifts.  This is a helpful tool, but let’s remember, it’s just a tool.  It isn’t perfect.  That’s why you need these other three tips.

Second, TRY different ministries.  Don’t feel like you have to get stuck in one area of volunteering.  Try one out for a couple of months and then try another.  You don’t have to stick with just one.  We offer a Serve Interest Inventory and many “first-serve opportunities” when big events happen at SCC.  These are ways you can try different ministries on for size.

Third, TALK to people who know you.  Take your assessme.org results and talk to a trusted Christian friend.  What seems right?  What seems off?  What is missing or confusing?  Talk to more than one person.  Test what you know about yourself with what others know about you.

Lastly, TAKE it to God.  Spend time in prayer asking God to show you what your gifts are and to help you find the right place to use those gifts.  God is the giver of the gifts.  God has a vested interest in you knowing what those gifts are and using them.

When You Know and Use Your Spiritual Gifts
Three things happens when you know your spiritual gifts.  First, you grow.  You have a healthy self-esteem.  Your picture of yourself is accurate and humble.  You begin to take initiative rather than waiting to be asked.  Your thankfulness for God’s work in and through you grows.  And your confidence grows as God’s ever growing specific calling grows in responsibility and scope.

Second, when you know and use your spiritual gifts, the church grows.  Other Christians’ gifts are supported by your gift.  There is health in the full body.  All the systems are working together to accomplish God’s purposes.  Non-Christians are attracted by the health they see and experience in our church.

Third, God is glorified.  When you know and use your spiritual gifts, you offer your bodies as an act of worship.  And now we’re back to where we began.

“This is truly the way to worship God.”
~Paul (Romans 12:1 NLT)

God help us to know and use our gifts so that we each grow, our church grows, and you are glorified.  Amen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Masterminds – Money Masters or Financial Fools

August 3, 2015 by Leave a Comment

GodOnFilm

God on Film: Masterminds – Money Masters or Financial Fools
Sycamore Creek Church
August 2/3, 2015
Tom Arthur

 

Peace Friends!

Today we continue the series God on Film where we’re looking at a different summer blockbuster each week and exploring the themes or ideas that the movie evokes.  Today’s movie, Masterminds, is about a $17 Million bank robbery by a group that isn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer.  It’s a movie that makes me ask the question, “Am I a money master or a financial fool?”  Ironically enough, this movie was originally slated to come out in August back when we were planning this series, but its opening has been moved to October because of millions of dollars of debt restructuring by its parent company!  When I saw the trailer and learned that Masterminds was about money my mind immediately went to the teachings of Jesus on money:

No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
~Matthew 6:24 NLT

Matthew was one of Jesus’ closest followers and he recorded this teaching of Jesus.  But Luke, a doctor who hung out with Jesus’ friends also recorded this teaching by Jesus:

No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
~Luke 16:13 NLT

Notice anything about those two teachings?  They’re exactly the same!  Two different places in the Bible.  Same exact teaching down to the letter.  Maybe the Bible wants to make sure that we really get the point.  So here’s the question that it raises for each of us: Will you “master” your money or will your money “master” you?  Today I want to look at three things that financial fools do that allow money to master them and I want to look at three things that money masters do to let God master their money.

Financial Fools Give into PRESSURE
Financial Fools let others make their decisions about money from them.  The book of Proverbs says:

Dear friend, if bad companions tempt you,
don’t go along with them.
~Proverbs 1:10 (The Message)

What is the stupidest thing you’ve ever spent your money on?  Maybe you bought way too many gifts for Christmas when you didn’t really have the money because that’s what you’re “supposed to do.”  Or maybe you go out to eat because your friends are all going out to eat even though you don’t have rent money this month.  Or maybe you just have to have the latest and greatest gadget because everyone’s got the latest S10 iThing Magenta.   I asked my friends on Facebook what was the stupidest thing they’d ever done with money.  I got lots and lots of responses.  I’m talking a TON of responses.  There is no shortage of stories about how people spend their money in stupid ways.  One of my friends who is a bartender said she goes out with friends after work and buys everyone drinks with her tip money.  Then she goes home empty handed!  Another friend a little too embarrassed to claim the spent money publically said in private message (but gave me permission to share), “The stupidest thing I ever did with money was pay $1000 to keep a new boyfriend from going to jail. He promised to pay me back (yeah right) and that it was part of his old life. Young girls are suckers for boys they think they can ‘change.’” Financial fools let PRESSURE make their financial decisions.  Don’t let others decide where you spend your money.

Financial Fools PUT IT OFF for some other day
James, the brother of Jesus, says, “How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow?” (4:14 NLT).  We make all kinds of “plans” for tomorrow, and sometimes we plan to make a plan tomorrow.  Financial fools say, “I’ll figure out money when I get out of college.”  Or “I’ll figure out money when I get a job.”  Financial fools wait until they get married to learn how to use their money.  Yeah, that’s really easily done.  Two people trying to figure out one of the hardest things to figure out while also figuring out how to live together?  Maybe that’s why finances are one of the biggest reasons for divorces.  Financial fools wait until marriage to figure out money.  Or they wait until they have kids.  Or they wait until they have a better paying job.  Financial fools wait until tomorrow to do what should be done today.

Financial Fools POINTLESSLY Spend
Pointless spending means spending more than you make.  It means not having a plan in place for how you spend.  It’s impulse spending.  John, one of Jesus’ closest followers says:

For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world.
~1 John 2:16 (NLT)

We spend our money pointlessly on physical pleasures, creature comforts, anything that catches our eye, or things that make us feel pride in what we own.  One of my friends on Facebook says that she spends pointlessly by shopping when stressed.  I see pointless spending when people tell me they’re using student loans to pay a car loan.  Debt to pay debt.  Yikes!  Pointless spending is using credit cards to buy things that depreciate in value, things like food, gadgets, clothes, and on and on.  Financial fools go into debt for things that you’ll not only be paying on for a long time but you can’t sell them to pay off the debt because they won’t sell for what you paid for them.  Unfortunately, too many of us are sunk in credit card debt.  I heard a great story on NPR (National Public Radio) about a year ago about the struggle with credit card debt.

What I really liked about it was that it described well the real financial challenges people face, the financial trouble they get into, and the way out.  Did you hear it?  This family is turning the corner from their money mastering them toward mastering their own money.  From financial fools to money masters.  Let’s learn three things that money masters do.

Money Masters AVOID Debt by Living Simply
Money masters steer clear of debt because they know a very important truth about debt:

The poor are always ruled over by the rich,
so don’t borrow and put yourself under their power.
~Proverbs 22:7 (The Message)

One key tool to steer clear of debt is the 70% rule.  The 70% rule means that you live on 70% of what you make.  So what do you do with the other 30%?  You give away 10%, save 10%, and put 10% away for retirement.  Most of us aren’t living on 70% of what we make.  We’re living on 110%!  One key way to begin to break the power that money has over you is to give some away.  Giving money away is a discipline that helps put money in perspective.  Christians have been practicing giving 10% or more away for a long time.  Let’s be honest about this.  It’s hard to give 10% away especially if you are not used to it.  But let me put the whole thing in perspective.

Last fall we made a Jack O Lantern out of a pumpkin.  After digging out all the seeds and roasting them, we sat down to enjoy the seeds.  I had eaten most of what I wanted while they were still warm.  Micah, my son, doesn’t like things warm, so when they cooled off and we sat down together, I was mostly just sitting there while Micah was eating cold roasted pumpkin seeds.  At one point I reached over for a couple of seeds and he said, “Hey, don’t eat MY pumpkin seeds.”  His pumpkin seeds?  I bought the pumpkin.  I did most of the work digging them out.  I seasoned them and roasted them.  I put them in the refrigerator to cool them down.  I served them up to him.  Whose pumpkin seeds?  We had a little talk about what it took to actually have pumpkin seeds to eat (work, money, time, etc.).  After a bit of joking, he offered me two pumpkin seeds.

I was reminded in this moment of how we treat God’s resources.  It’s all God’s, and when God asks for some of it back, we say, “Hey, that’s mine!”

I’d like to get down to brass tacks with this whole idea of living simply by the 70% rule by showing you how Sarah and I budget and spend our money.  Financial fools spend pointlessly but money masters spend their money on paper before they even get it.  They make a plan to live into the 70% rule.  Now one big financial change that happened in our life recently was that we sold our house in Petoskey.  We made a good amount of money on the sale.  So the first thing we did was give 10% of what we made to the church’s capital campaign fund.  Then we paid off our two car loans.  That left us entirely debt free!  This month I turn 40, so it took me 40 years to get to zero.  But now it’s time to spend the next 40 years really mastering our money.  So here’s how we’re doing to do it:

  • $180/paycheck for a 10% tithe to the church
  • $350/month (that we were paying a mortgage) now investing toward retirement [One significant difference between our budget and most other people is that the church provides a house for us to live in and pays the utilities.  This is a double edged sword.  While you are busy making payments on a house and building equity, we need to be saving to buy a house with cash when we retire!]
  • $160/month (that we were paying on an auto loan) now saving for a future car

Because our house in Petoskey was our vacation destination, we decided to put aside money each month toward vacations throughout the year.  So we put aside $200/month for vacations.

We also have learned that there are some areas where we tend to overspend.  So what we do is take out cash from each pay check (every two weeks) for each of these areas and put that cash in an envelope.  It’s a cash envelope budgeting system.  Here’s the areas we tend to overspend:

  • $300/paycheck for groceries ($150/week)
  • $50/paycheck for dates ($25/week)
  • $25/paycheck for “blow money” for each of us (to be spent on whatever we want)
  • $20/month for Dad Kid Night Out
  • $20/paycheck for Church in a Diner ($10/week)

I’d like to explain this last cash budget item a little bit more.  It’s very important to understand for the health of our Monday night Church in a Diner.  I budget $10 every Monday to spend at Jackie’s.  Each meal is about $6.50 so the total bill with tax is about $7.  Normally you tip somewhere between 15-20%.  But I just give the whole $10.  I consider myself a “financial missionary” on Monday nights.  Here’s why that’s important.  It costs Jackie’s about $350 every Monday night just to be open for us.  This is their break even amount.  On average we have about 50 people who attend Monday night.  If each person spent about $7, that would be $350.  That’s the break-even point for Jackie’s.  But not everyone who comes on Monday night can afford or wants to buy a whole meal.  So I give a little bit more in the tip to help cover the difference.  I’m a financial missionary on Monday nights.  Now I’ve been told by the owner of Jackie’s that for several weeks now, they haven’t broken even.  They’ve lost money on Monday nights.  So I’m asking you to consider joining me in being a financial missionary on Monday night.  Has God blessed you enough to spend or tip $10/person at your table?  Or better yet, what if you brought someone with you each Monday night and paid for them?  It all goes back to this idea of a budget.  Have you budgeted for Monday nights?  Can you budget to be a financial missionary?

It’s taken us almost forty years of life and eighteen years of marriage to get to this point, but we’re slowly taking steps into mastering our money rather than letting our money master us.

Money Masters ACCUMULATE True Treasure  
Do you know that your heart goes toward where you spend your money?  Jesus teaches:

Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.
~Matthew 6:20-21 NLT

If you want your heart to be in heaven, then put your money where you want your heart to be.  Shell Silverstein, the poet of the famous children’s book, Where the Sidewalk Ends, wrote a poem about this very thing titled “Lester.”

Lester was given a magic wish
By the goblin who lives in the banyan tree,
And with his wish he wished for two more wishes—
So now instead of just one wish, he cleverly had three.
And with each one of these
He simply wished for three more wishes,
Which gave him three old wishes, plus nine new.
And with each of these twelve
He slyly wished for three more wishes.
Which added up to forty-six—or is it fifty-two?
Well anyway, he used each wish
To wish for wishes ‘til he had
Five billion, seven million, eighteen thousand thirty-four.
And then he spread them on the ground
And skipped and sang, and then sat down
And wished for more.
And more… And more… They multiplied
While other people smiled and cried
And loved and reached and touched and felt.
Lester sat amid his wealth
Stacked mountain-high like stacks of gold.
Sat and counted—and grew old.
And then one Thursday night they found him
Dead—with his wishes piled around him.
And they counted the lot and found that not
A single one was missing.
All shiny and new—here, take a few
And think of Lester as you do.
In a world of apples and kisses and shoes
He wasted his wishes on wishing. 
What wishes are you wishing with each dollar you send?  Country songs are good at telling the same basic story.  One recent song is called “Trailer Hitch.”  Watch the video here:

 

You do begin to ACCUMULATE true treasures in one of four ways: give something, give regularly, give proportionally, and give generously.  Some of you today need to begin giving something, anything.  You haven’t ever given anything back to God and today is the day you’re going to take that first step.  Others need to give regularly.  Not just a one-time tip, but a regular predetermined amount.  Some of you are giving regularly but you’re not up to 10% and so you need to accumulate true treasures by giving proportionally.  Then some of us are really blessed financially and accumulating true treasurers means giving much more than 10%, giving extravagantly and generously.  Are you mastering your money by accumulating true treasures?

Money Masters AUTOMATE It ALL
Do you know that S.Y.S.T.E.M.S. Save You Stress, Time, Energy, and Money?  Yes.  What’s your system for automating your finances?  Paul, the first missionary of the church and the author of many of the books of the Bible teaches us saying:

On the first day of each week, you should each put aside a portion of the money you have earned. Don’t wait until I get there and then try to collect it all at once.
~Paul (1 Corinthians 16:2 NLT)

Paul thought that you should have a system for giving that takes place at the beginning of each week.  Money masters do this in all areas of their finances.  They automate their bills.  I love it.  I never have to remember whether I’ve paid it or not.  Money masters automate their savings.  I just set up two new savings accounts at our bank, one for our future car and one for vacation.  I used the online tools to automatically move money from my checking account to those two savings account each month.  Money masters automate their investments.  Money is taken automatically out of my paycheck and invested for retirement.  In each case, I don’t even see the money.  It’s just not there.  It goes to the appropriate bill, savings, or investment.  Now, if this is how I run my financial life, why would I not also automate my giving?  Well, I actually do.  We have our bank send a check to the church every paycheck.  I don’t even have to think about it.  We give whether we’re on vacation or not.  We give whether we remember to bring our checkbook or not.  We give whether we’ve got cash in our wallet or not.  We automate our giving.

Now there is one more way to automate your giving that I learned from a woman who died a couple of years ago.  We received a letter on November 12, 2013 from Neumann Law that Arlene C. Eskes had left $200 to Sycamore Creek Church in her trust.  No one in the office knows who Arlene is.  I found this obituary:

Arlene C. Eskes, 89, of Holt, died Sunday. Services 10 a.m. today at Holt United Methodist Church. Arrangements by Estes-Leadley Funeral Homes, Holt-Delhi Chapel.
Published in Lansing State Journal on Dec. 19, 2012

It made me wonder if Holt UMC knew anything about Arlene.  So I contacted their pastor at the time, Glenn Wagner.  He wrote back saying:

Arlene was a long time member here.  By the time I arrived in 2006 Arlene was living alone in her home and relied on family and close friends for transportation, grocery shopping, and fellowship.   She organized annual Christmas trips for Church members to Turkeyville for dinner and theater.  Her daughter and son-in-law are active members of the Lowell United Methodist Church. In her later years Arlene struggled with health issues that greatly limited her mobility.   I don’t know when or why she decided to leave Sycamore Creek in her will but do believe that for Arlene $200 was a substantial gift…Perhaps she wanted to do her part to support this church that was birthed from Holt UMC.  Thanks for asking.

Friends, when I die, I want my treasures so stored up in heaven, that my money automatically goes to supporting God’s mission here on earth!  To do that, we must remember:

No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
~Matthew 6:24 NLT

Will you be a Financial Fool or a Money Master?  Lord, help us not give into PRESSURE, PUT off our financial planning for another day, and spend POINTLESSLY.  Help us rather to AVOID debt by living simply, ACCUMULATE true treasure, and AUTOMATE it all.  In the name of Jesus, the master of our lives, including our money.  Amen.

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