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Million Dollar Arm: How To Be Rich

June 24, 2014 by Leave a Comment

GodOnFilm

 

 

 

 

God on Film – Million Dollar Arm: How To Be Rich
Sycamore Creek Church
June 20/21, 2014
Tom Arthur

 

 

 

 

Peace friends!

Today I want to talk about how to be rich.  Yes.  I’m serious.  I know you don’t hear about it very often in church, but I want to talk about how to make money.  Of course your primary way of making money (unless you inherit it) is to get a job.  I’ve got to admit, I’ve got a pretty good job.  Being a United Methodist Pastor, I’m guaranteed an appointment in a church.  So the last time I had to look for a job was back in graduate school.

My primary job in graduate school besides being a student was writing for scholarships.  I spent a good portion of time researching and writing scholarships.  But I also took a job one winter break at a local outdoor store.  I worked wrapping presents that I wished I would be getting!  I would always prime the tip jar with a couple of $10s and $20s.  It worked!

Another set of jobs I had while in grad school was being a guinea pig.  Literally.  When you’re at a research university there are always researchers looking for people to test in various ways.  The pay was dependent on the length and discomfort of the test.  I got very good at looking quickly for what they were paying and weighing it against the inconvenience it would be for me.  On the low end of things there were always researchers willing to pay you $5 to take a five minute test.  Quick cash now!  Then there were more advanced computer tests that would take twenty to sixty minutes.  These would pay anywhere from $10 to $30.  The place I made most of my money was doing MRI studies.  One time I was in an MRI machine playing a video game for about ninety minutes.  I made $150!  There was one research study that looked good at first but not so good upon further examination.  As I read the study it paid very well.  $300 for about three hours of time.  Sounds good.  You got to watch old Duke Basketball games during the three hours.  Still sounds good.  The study was for a new experimental catheter!  I passed.

3 Ways to Be Rich
Here at SCC we have a wide spectrum of people when it comes to making money in employment.  We have some who are unemployable.  Others are unemployed or underemployed.  Then there are those who are well employed or exceptionally-well employed.  I’d like to talk to each level of person today where they are that.  So if at some point you find yourself listening to me teach about a situation you don’t find yourself in, then pray for the person who is in that situation.

So today I’d like to talk about three ways to be rich.  Let’s dive in.

1.     Make All You Can (Honestly)
We read in the beginning of the Bible that “the LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it” (Genesis 2:15 NIV).  Notice that from the very beginning God intended work to be part of what we do in this life.  We are to work the garden around us and take care of it.  For some of us this might be a literal garden.  For others the gardens around us might be teaching children, working on cars, practicing medicine, or just about any other kind of work you can imagine.  I don’t say “any kind of work you can imagine” because I believe that God would have us work in such a way that takes care.  We are to work and make all we can in an honest way.

So when it comes to work some among us are unemployable perhaps because of a disability.  If you find yourself in this kind of a position, then the work you might do is to volunteer in as many ways as you can.  Your disability may make you unemployable but it does not keep you from being able to contribute in some way to the community around you.  Make all you can by volunteering at your church or one of your favorite local charities.

For those of us who are employable there are two ways we make all we can.  We work and we invest.  You can make all you can at a new job.  Last week I visited Teri Sand who is the Business Services Team Leader at Michigan Works.  She also happens to be a member of Redeemer Church on Holmes.  I didn’t know this before I went in to visit with her.  I was meeting with her because I wanted to understand better the job market that we find ourselves in.  I learned many things that I didn’t know.  I learned that Michigan Works is not just for the unemployed or those on welfare.  It is essentially the Human Resources Department for all of Michigan Businesses.  Teri’s job is to get to know the businesses in Michigan and to find people to fill those jobs!  She offered me three tips for finding a job in today’s culture:

First, you must have computer skills.  In the not too distant past, the way you would find a job was to send a generic resume to the companies you were interested in hiring or you’d cold-call on a business and drop off your resume.  They’d look over your resume and see if you had the skills they needed.  If you did, they’d hire you.  Today almost all applications for jobs are submitted online, and many jobs are posted through social media.  It is not uncommon to put in fifty applications online.  Here’s the trick to applying online.  You must customize your resume to each application.  This is because companies use computer programs to sift through the applications they receive.  If your resume does not include key words they are looking for, it won’t even be considered.  What you need to do is look over the job description, circle everything that is honestly true of you and include those words and phrases in your resume submission.  It’s a different world out there today and you have to have computer skills to navigate it.

Teri emphasized that while online job application is the norm, networking is also still the king.  You have to let people know you are looking for a job.  You have to think about who the people you know know.  You ask your friends and acquaintances, “Do you know someone who could use my skills?”  You need to expand your network.  Attend career conferences and chamber events.  And don’t forget to volunteer.  Volunteering expands your network in ways that you might not anticipate.

The last tip that Teri told me was to remember that finding a job is a full-time job.  If you’re looking for a forty-hour-a-week job, then plan on spending forty hours a week looking for it.

One last tip for those of you who might be beginning your work-life.  The top three job markets in Michigan are Information Technology, Healthcare, and Manufacturing (check out this video on manufacturing).

So we’ve been looking at how you make all you can by finding a new job, but what if you like your job and you just want to make more money doing the same job.  David Bach, author of Start Late Finish Rich, says, “The market doesn’t pay you what you’re worth—it pays you what it has to…and what you’re willing to accept.”  Bach suggests  going to your boss and asking what it would take to get a raise in the next six months.  When you get an answer, then go do it!

Or maybe you like your job but you’re not making enough to pay off your debt ask quickly as you’d like.  Make all you can by getting a second job.  I actually have a second job.  You may not know that, but I write for a youth devotional called Devo Zine.  My wife got me this job.  It is a humbling experience for me.  I get paid $100 a devotion.  Sarah gets paid $200!  She is a full-time writer after all.

So you make all you can by working.  But you also make all you can by investing, or making your money work for you.  When it comes to investing there are three rules: invest early, invest automatically, and invest ethically.

Let’s take a look at the power of investing early.  If you invest $3000 a year in a mutual fund that makes 10% (the historical average of the stock market) until you retire at age 65, here are three different scenarios you might follow:

  1. Age 15-19 (5 years) = $1,615,363.40
  2. Age 19-26 (8 years) = $1,552,739.35
  3. Age 27-65 (38 years) = $1,324,777.67

Did you catch that?  Begin at age 15 and invest for only five years and you make $1.6 million.  Begin at age 27 and invest for thirty-eight years and you make $1.3 million!  What does that $1 million get you?  “A $1 million nest egg will provide you with an income of roughly $80,000 a year for 20 years if you choose to keep the nest egg in an insured account paying 5% interest” (greenamerica.org).  Invest early!

Second, invest automatically.  Have your investments taken automatically out of your paycheck through electronic fund transfer, or through your company’s pension or retirement plans.  You do this by following the 70% Rule.  You live on 70%.  What happened to the other 30%?  Well, you gave 10% back to God.  You saved 10%.  And you invested 10% in retirement.

Lastly, you invest ethically.  If you’re going to make money off of other companies then you might want to know something about what those companies are doing to make money.  Are they employing children in sweat shops?  Are they polluting the environment?  You can learn more at www.greenamerica.org/socialinvesting.  Sarah and I have always invested in socially screened mutual funds.  We find Calvert, Pax, and Domini to be fruitful companies investing and managing money in ethical ways.  You may have heard that socially screened investments make less money.  This may or may not be true.  If it is true, then I go back to the question: how are they making money and do you want to make money in that way?  But it is not always true.  Domini is a socially screened index fund.  Last year it beat the S&P500.

We’ve covered a lot of ground so far about how to be rich.  Let’s briefly review where we’ve been: You make all you can in honest ways by working and investing.  Do you need to find a new job?  Do you need to ask how to make more at your current job?  Do you need to get a second job?  When it comes to investing are you investing early, automatically, and ethically?  We make all we can because God has put us on this earth to work and take care of it.  But what do we do with that money that we make?

2. Save All You Can (Spend Less, Save More)
A second way that you can be rich is to save all you can.  In other words, spend less and save more.  The wisdom of the Proverbs says:

Those who love pleasure become poor;
those who love wine and luxury will never be rich.
~Proverbs 21:17 NLT

The first way you save is to build an emergency fund.  I asked my friends on Facebook about times they found an emergency fund helpful.  I heard stories about car bills, tree roots growing into pipes, furnaces breaking down, driving cars into ditches, a well pump going out, a visit to an ER and unemployment.

One experience I know more fully is the experience of Tabitha Martin, a member of our church.  Tabitha lived with Sarah and me for three years while she was getting back on her feet.  She saved up $3000 before she was ready to move out.  The week before she moved out she was in an accident and while she was okay, her car was totaled.  Because she had an emergency fund she was able to buy a new car, make a deposit on her apartment, and still have $1000 left.  She may not have been rich by many people’s standards, but in that moment she had more resources than she had ever had to meet the challenges that life threw her way.

So how do you save all you can as the summer approaches us?  I asked my friends on Facebook for suggestions on living simply in the summer.  Here’s what they said:

  1. Turn AC down and sleep in the basement.
  2. Buy ice cream at the grocery store rather than the ice cream store.
  3. Grow a garden.
  4. Buy veggies at the farmers market and if you have a bridge card, you get Double Up Food Bucks (two dollars for every dollar you spend!).
  5. Cancel cable and get outside.
  6. Instead of seeing movies, shopping or otherwise paying for your entertainment, go to free outdoor concerts, “movie in the park” nights, feed the ducks, visit new playgrounds, play whatever kind of ball you like best, etc.
  7. Make a picnic and take it somewhere romantic instead of going out for dinner.
  8. Cancel your gym membership and run/bike/swim for your workout instead.
  9. Instead of taking a vacation, take a staycation.  You’ll spend less and be more refreshed when it’s done.

3. Give All You Can (Give the Rest Away)
So you’ve made all you can and saved all you can, what do you do with the rest?  You give as much away as you can!

We find this wisdom in the psalms:

If riches increase, do not set your heart on them.
~Psalm 62:10 NRSV

There is a pitfall if you make all you can and save all you can and build wealth.  John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement highlights this pitfall saying:

Wherever true Christianity spreads, it must cause diligence and frugality, which, in the natural course of things, must beget riches! And riches naturally beget pride, love of the world, and every temper that is destructive of Christianity…Do you gain all you can, and save all you can? Then you must, in the nature of things, grow rich. Then if you have any desire to escape the damnation of hell, give all you can; otherwise I can have no more hope of your salvation, than of that of Judas Iscariot.
~John Wesley (18th Century Founder of the Methodist Movement)

As your wealth and riches increase, don’t miss the really important things in life.  Give money back to God.  If you began with 10%, then become an extravagant giver and give 15% or 20% or perhaps God will bless you to give away as much as you live on.  Give money to your church.  Give money to charities.  Give money to the needs that you come across.  Make all you can and save all you can so that you can have the joy of giving all you can away!

Recently our church sent you home with baby bottles to fill up with loose change lying around your house.  This loose change was going to be given to the Lansing Area Pregnancy Services.  I was a little surprised by the results.  Thirty-nine bottles were brought in with $651.60!  This mission of giving was organized by the knitting group in our church.  The knitting group also made and gave 14 blankets, 17 hats & 6 hat/booties sets.  Wow!  All that just from loose change lying around the house.

Friends, the world doesn’t really care how big your bank account is.  For our world to experience the love of God, they need to see that we care.

 

 

Are becoming rich by making all you can, saving all you can, and giving all you can?

Prayer
God, all that I have is yours.  Use my time and my talents to work in this world and take care of it.  As I make money, let me save all I can by living simply.  As I live simply, let me then give all I can so that world will see your love.  Amen.

Questions for Small Groups
Each week we provide questions for small groups that meet regularly to discuss today’s message.  Sign-ups for Small Groups happen in January, May, and September.  Want more info?  Email Mark Aupperlee – m_aupperlee@hotmail.com.

  1. What’s your job search experience?  Where do you find yourself: unemployable, unemployed, underemployed, well-employed, very-well-employed?
  2. Read Genesis 2:15.  What would it mean for you for work to be a God-given command?  Read Proverbs 21:17.  Where do you find yourself indulging a bit too much?  Read Psalm 62:10.  How attached is your heart to growing wealth?
  3. What do you need to do most?  Make all you can?  Save all you can?  Give all you can?  How will you do it? How can we pray for you?
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Edge of Tomorrow: Learning from Past Mistakes

June 10, 2014 by Leave a Comment

GodOnFilm

 

 

 

 

God on Film – Edge of Tomorrow
Learning from Past Mistakes
Sycamore Creek Church
June 8/9, 2014
Tom Arthur

 

Peace friends!

When have you not learned from your past mistakes? I don’t know how many times I’ve done this but almost every time I get in the hall closet to pull out a coat, I try to pull the coat out of the closet without first removing the vacuum cleaner.  I grab the coat and pull and the vacuum cleaner topples over and crashes to the ground.  Every time!  Why do I keep doing it this way?

Then there’s the whole wireless mouse issue I’ve got.  I’m currently on my third wireless mouse because I keep forgetting to remove the little wireless thing you plug into the side of your laptop, and I end up smashing it into something and breaking it.  I’ve got two useless mice keeping me company at my desk.

Ramping up the stakes a little higher, Sarah and I have been married for seventeen years.  There are certain arguments we’ve been having for seventeen years.  These arguments are very predictable.  We even have a script.  I say A.  She says B.  I say C.  She says D.  It’s as if I think that if I trot out the same arguments I’ve been using for seventeen years that she will finally this time see the perfect wisdom that I have to share and will bow down at my feet in humble submission and acknowledge my patience for persevering with these arguments for seventeen years.  But that hasn’t happened yet.  Rather it’s.  Argue.  Fight.  Repeat.

There are some mistakes you make just once and some mistakes you make over and over again.  The wisdom of the Bible has something to say about these kinds of mistakes we repeat over and over again:

As a dog returns to its vomit,
so a fool repeats his foolishness.
~Proverbs 26:11 NLT

Today we’re continuing in our summer series, God on Film.  Each week we’re looking at a different summer blockbuster.  Each of these movies picks up a theme and explores it from Hollywood’s perspective.  We’re exploring that same theme from the Bible’s perspective.  Today we’re looking at the new Tom Cruise movie, Edge of Tomorrow. 

Edge of Tomorrow is kind of like Enders Game meets Saving Private Ryan meets Groundhog Day.  Tom Cruise’s character gets stuck repeating the same battle with aliens over and over again.  The tag line for this movie is Live – Die – Repeat.  He fights.  Dies.  And then repeats the whole thing again.  Every time he gets a little further in the battle.  The theme I want to explore today is learning from your past mistakes, and I want to look at three things the Bible teaches about learning from your past mistakes.

1. Get Up Again
Edge of Tomorrow works a bit like a video game.  When you die, you hit the reset button and play it again.  Every time you die in the video game, you learn a little bit from your mistake and you make it a little further the next time around.

When I was in college one of my roommates had a Nintendo (yes, the original one).  For Christmas he was given Mike Tyson’s Punchout.  It became a contest in our house for who could get to Mike Tyson first and beat him.  I was determined to get those bragging rights so I spent countless hours playing that video game.  Eventually I won.  I TKO’d Mike Tyson before anyone else in my house.  How did I do it?  Simple.  When I got TKO’d myself, I’d get back up again and try again.

The godly may trip seven times, but they will get up again
But one disaster is enough to overthrow the wicked.
~Proverbs 24:16 NLT

Sarah and I were on a date one night up in Boyne City at Lester’s BBQ.  As we sat having some great BBQ ribs, I looked out the window and saw several young men across the street. One of them was on a skate board trying to pull off a complicated move.  The other had a video camera and was trying to get the perfect video.  For the entire time that Sarah and I sat there and ate dinner, these two were doing this one move over and over again.  I don’t know whether they ever got what they were shooting for because when we left the restaurant, they were still trying to nail it.  I was thoroughly impressed with their perseverance.  He would fall down and get back up.  Fall down.  Get back up.  Fall down.  Get back up.

So how do you learn from your past mistakes?  You get up and try again.  You fall down.  You get up.   You fall down.  You get up.  Fall down.  Get up.

2. Surround Yourself with Others
Did you catch in the opening trailer how Emily Blunt’s character, Rita Vrataski, tells Tom Cruise’s character, Major William Cage to “come find me when you wake up.”  She helps train him so that he can get a little further each time in the battle.

 

I’m reminded that we don’t learn from our past mistakes unless we have people who surround us to help us get a little further before we fall than we did last time.  The author of Hebrew says:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.
~Hebrews 12:1 NLT

You don’t do this whole faith thing alone.  You don’t have to throw off the weight of past mistakes alone.  That’s what a church is for.  It’s a community of friends that helps us get back up again and learn form our past mistakes.

This past week I had someone send me a text saying, “I’m really struggling with some bad news in my life right now and feeling like looking at porn and masturbating to numb myself from the pain.  I’m letting you know because the first line of defense is to tell someone.”  In the past he would have just fallen into the temptation.  This time he was able to resist and get a little further.

Recently I spoke with someone else who is in a recovery program for addictions.  They have a sponsor with this program.  They were feeling particularly tempted one night and picked up the phone to call their sponsor.  The temptation went away.  They got a little further.

Some time ago I talked to another person struggling with money decisions.  They wanted to spend their money in an unhealthy way.  They chose instead to meet with someone in the church, set a budget and stick with it.  They got a little further.

One of the key ways we meet new friends that will help us learn from our past mistakes is in small groups.  This summer we have 22 summer groups that you can sign up for.  You can signup for one or more of these groups online here.

Don’t do life alone.  Surround yourself with others so you can learn from your past mistakes.

3. Look Forward with God
The last way you learn from your past mistakes is you quit looking back and instead you look forward with God.  Paul, the first missionary of the church and author of many of the books of the Bible said,

I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.
~Philippians 3:12-14 NLT

Forget the past.  Look forward.  Press on.  I’ve recently come across a concept called C.A.N.E.P.  It means Constant And Never Ending Perfection.  The basic idea is that you don’t have to get 100% better next week.  But can you learn from your past mistakes, look forward, and press on so that you get 1% better by next week?  If you get 1% better each week, by the end of the year you’ll be over 50% better.  By the end of a life time you’ll have grown significantly.

There is a temptation in this idea itself.  We can never attain a certain kind of perfection.  Paul says that he has not already reach perfection.  We will never have perfect knowledge, perfect health, freedom from mistakes, freedom from temptation or reach a state of perfection from which we can never fall.  And yet Paul does say, “I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me.”  So there is at the least a kind of perfection that we strive for.  Christians disagree on whether we can fully attain it or not, but this is the kind of perfection we are striving for: perfect love.  Perfect love is a love for God that so fills the heart that when you know what God desires of you, you are fully committed, willing, and submitted to doing it.  We become possessed by this kind of love because Jesus possessed us with this kind of love.

Speaking of being possessed by the love of God in Jesus, today is the two year anniversary of my ordination to become a pastor and this week is my eleven year anniversary of my call to become a pastor.  Eleven years ago while sitting in a workshop on spiritual intelligence, God called me to be his pastor.  I was full of all kinds of fear by this call.  I wrote this in my journal:

6-11-03: Wednesday
“We exaggerate all our suffering by our cowardice.  They are great, it is true, but they are magnified by fear.  The way to lessen them is to abandon ourselves courageously into the hands of God.”
~François Fénelon, 17th Century French Archbishop

Lord, my fears about future sufferings are great.  Help me to abandon myself totally into your hands and trust in your goodness and faithfulness to forming me into who you want me to be.  Lord, yesterday I experienced your call as clear as I have ever experienced.  I went to listen to John Savage speak at Bay View.  He was speaking on spiritual intelligence.  This particular day seemed to focus on listening to god and hearing god’s voice.  He told us to take one of the parts of our life and ask god a question about it.  Then to write from our gut the answer we heard.  And in this way to have a conversation with God.  He encouraged us not to let our mind get too wrapped up in the process.  My part was “profession.” My dialogue was as follows:

Lord, what are you calling me to?
To be a pastor.

Why?
Because I want you.

How much?
All of you.

Lord, the conviction I felt in my gut after this dialogue was similar to other convictions I have felt throughout my life that when I followed them I found that your hand was truly in them and my life was better off after having followed them and that all the fears I had expected would manifest themselves in destruction of self were completely without base.  And so I am led to believe that you did call me yesterday as clear as you have ever called me before.  It was not a voice but a conviction in my gut. 

What have been the parts of my calling thus far:
[I wrote down twenty-four different reasons/experiences/confirmations]

Lord, here are the fears I have about this call:
[I wrote down eleven fears including…]

  • I fear ending up in a very traditional church where I struggle every Sunday in that setting
  • I fear being the pastor and being bored with worship as I often am now.
  • I fear not having the financial resources to make all this happen.

Lord, these are my fears amidst the sense of call you have put on me.  Help me to abandon myself to you in all of them.  Use me today according to your will and your plan.  In Jesus’ name, may it be so.

Friends, I don’t know where you keep falling down.  What I do know is that when the love of Jesus possesses you fully and completely, you get back up, you surround yourselves with others, you look forward, and you get ready for the greatest adventure you’ll ever have in your life.  Have you been possessed by the love of Jesus?  You don’t have to do anything to prepare yourself.  You simply pray, “Lord Jesus, I am yours and you are mine.  Take my life.  Forgive me for the ways I have made the same mistakes over and over again.  Let me get back up again.  Give me good healthy friends to surround myself.  And let me look forward to your future adventure for my life.  Amen.”

If you prayed that prayer, I’d suggest you look a little further into what it means to follow Jesus.  You can find some help here.  Or pick up a Bible at the info table and begin reading it.  Get in a small group.  Talk to God daily.  You’re in for an adventure!

Bring a friend and first time guests get free movie tickets to Celebration Cinema.  Next week we continue this series with the movie: How to Train Your Dragon 2.

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God on Film: Maleficent – Real Evil

June 2, 2014 by Leave a Comment

GodOnFilm

 

 

 

 

 

God on Film: Maleficent – Real Evil
Sycamore Creek Church
June 1 & 2, 2014
Tom Arthur

 

Peace friends!

Today we’re beginning a new series called God on Film.  During the summer we’ll be looking at some of the summer’s biggest blockbusters and exploring the themes those movies raise from a biblical perspective.  Today we’re kicking the series off with a nice light topic, evil.

There are three kinds of evil that we find in the world.  The first kind is supernatural evil.  This is the kind of evil that a movie like Maleficent brings to mind.  Supernatural evil from a biblical perspective would include demons and the chief demon, Satan.  Then there’s what is often called natural evil.  This would include things like natural disasters.  Consider Hurricane Katrina or the tornado that recently hurt nine people in North Dakota.  The third kind of evil, and perhaps most disturbing, is moral evil.  This kind of evil would include war like the Ukraine civil war going on right now or the girls kidnapped in Nigeria or the shooting by Elliot Roger at  University of California, Santa Barbara that killed six or even more close to home the shooting at Frandor a couple of weeks ago.  It’s not hard to look around the world and see all kinds of evil.

A book that has been helpful to me preparing this sermon is N.T. Wright’s Evil and the Justice of God.  If you want to explore this issue further, pick up Wright’s book and read it for yourself.

The Predictable Argument
When it comes to these three kinds of evil—supernatural, natural, and moral—there is a very predictable argument that springs up for the Christian.  It goes something like this:

If God is all powerful and all loving, why did God create a world that allowed evil?  We all have heard this argument and most of us probably know the predictable response to it.  Perhaps one of the most succient and clearly articulated responses to this argument comes from C.S. Lewis:

God created things which had free will. That means creatures which can go wrong or right. Some people think they can imagine a creature which was free but had no possibility of going wrong, but I can’t. If a thing is free to be good it’s also free to be bad. And free will is what has made evil possible. Why, then, did God give them free will? Because free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having. A world of automata -of creatures that worked like machines- would hardly be worth creating. The happiness which God designs for His higher creatures is the happiness of being freely, voluntarily united to Him and to each other in an ecstasy of love and delight compared with which the most rapturous love between a man and a woman on this earth is mere milk and water. And for that they’ve got to be free.

Of course God knew what would happen if they used their freedom the wrong way: apparently, He thought it worth the risk. (…) If God thinks this state of war in the universe a price worth paying for free will -that is, for making a real world in which creatures can do real good or harm and something of real importance can happen, instead of a toy world which only moves when He pulls the strings- then we may take it it is worth paying.
~C.S. Lewis, The Case for Christianity

The Unpredictable Argument
So that’s the predictable argument and while there is more to be said about it, that’s not really where I want to spend our time today.  I want to wrestle with the unpredictable argument.  The unpredictable argument goes something like this: What is God doing about evil?

The answer to this question is not so predictable, but there are two things that God is doing about evil:

  1. God judges evil;
  2. God promises to overcome evil.

Let’s go back to the very beginning of the story and see where evil enters in.  Right at the beginning of the Bible in the book of Genesis, which means beginning, evil enters the story.  God creates Adam and Eve and a garden with one rule to follow: don’t eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  A snake shows up and tempts Adam and Eve to eat the fruit.  They do, and their eyes are immediately opened to what good and evil are because they have just participated with evil.  Of course we want to know the answer to all kinds of question chief of which is, why was there a snake, how did he get there, and what is he doing talking?  But the Bible doesn’t seem very interested in these questions.  The Bible assumes that evil exists and doesn’t try to explain why.  Rather the Bible tells us what God does about this evil.  He judges it.  Here’s how God judges the evil that has been done in his creation.

The Curse: Genesis 3:14-20 NLT
Then the Lord God said to the serpent,
“Because you have done this, you are cursed
more than all animals, domestic and wild.
You will crawl on your belly,
groveling in the dust as long as you live.
And I will cause hostility between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring.
He will strike your head,
and you will strike his heel.”
Then he said to the woman,
“I will sharpen the pain of your pregnancy,
and in pain you will give birth.
And you will desire to control your husband,
but he will rule over you.”
And to the man he said,
“Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree
whose fruit I commanded you not to eat,
the ground is cursed because of you.
All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it.
It will grow thorns and thistles for you,
though you will eat of its grains.
By the sweat of your brow
will you have food to eat
until you return to the ground
from which you were made.
For you were made from dust,
and to dust you will return.”

God judges the evil that has happened.  He holds it up to the standard of good and finds it lacking.  So he pronounces a judgment, a curse, upon the evil.  This continues throughout the entire Bible all the way to the end of the Bible in the book of Revelation.  We see in Revelation the story coming full circle.  Jesus returns to judge the evil that has taken over the world.

The Second-Coming of Jesus: Revelation 19:11-16 NLT
Then I saw heaven opened, and a white horse was standing there. Its rider was named Faithful and True, for he judges fairly and wages a righteous war. His eyes were like flames of fire, and on his head were many crowns. A name was written on him that no one understood except himself. He wore a robe dipped in blood, and his title was the Word of God. The armies of heaven, dressed in the finest of pure white linen, followed him on white horses. From his mouth came a sharp sword to strike down the nations. He will rule them with an iron rod. He will release the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty, like juice flowing from a winepress. On his robe at his thigh was written this title: King of all kings and Lord of all lords.

Jesus comes in a “robe dipped in blood.”  This is a reference to his death by crucifixion.

One of the key claims of the Christian story is that Jesus’ death and resurrection is the ultimate victory over evil.  I don’t want to go into this a great deal right now because in August we’re going to do a whole four weeks on the question: why did Jesus die?  Rather, what we see in this story is that Jesus is the King of all kings and Lord of all lords, and thus, he rightfully pronounces judgment on evil.  The story continues…

The Final Judgment: Revelation 20:11-15 NLT
And I saw a great white throne and the one sitting on it. The earth and sky fled from his presence, but they found no place to hide. I saw the dead, both great and small, standing before God’s throne. And the books were opened, including the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to what they had done, as recorded in the books. The sea gave up its dead, and death and the grave gave up their dead. And all were judged according to their deeds. Then death and the grave were thrown into the lake of fire. This lake of fire is the second death. And anyone whose name was not found recorded in the Book of Life was thrown into the lake of fire.

Jesus sits on this throne and judges all who come before him.  “All were judged according to their deeds.”  Even death itself is judged and is thrown into the lake of fire.  No more death.  Death is dead.  So if death is dead, what’s left?  What’s left is God’s promise to overcome evil and restore and renew creation.

The New Creation: Revelation 21:1-2, 22-27
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband…I saw no temple in the city, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. And the city has no need of sun or moon, for the glory of God illuminates the city, and the Lamb is its light. The nations will walk in its light, and the kings of the world will enter the city in all their glory. Its gates will never be closed at the end of day because there is no night there. And all the nations will bring their glory and honor into the city.  Nothing evil will be allowed to enter, nor anyone who practices shameful idolatry and dishonesty—but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

Notice that “nothing evil will be allowed to enter.”  Evil is done.  No longer.  Kaput.  Sayonara.  Hasta la vista, baby.

So what is God doing about evil?  God judges evil and God promises to overcome evil.  But that’s not the end of the story.  Because it’s not enough for God to overcome evil at some future point.  God is in the business of overcoming evil right now.  That’s where you and I come in.  We participate in God’s judgment of evil and restoration of creation.  So now the answer to the question about what God is doing about evil becomes another question: what are you doing about evil?  God has given us three things that each one of us and we as a community are to do about evil.  We are to pray, seek holiness, and establish justice.  Let’s look at each one.

What Are You Doing About Evil?  Praying.
Prayer is fundamentally about aligning our will with God’s will for creation. The other day I was in Noodles and Co in East Lansing, and I thought prayer was making a comeback.  There were lots of young college students in the restaurant.  I was one of the older people there. I looked over at a table and saw a young woman sitting with her head bowed and I thought, “That’s cool.  She’s praying.”  Then I noticed her fingers twitch under the table and I realized, “She’s not praying. She’s texting with her phone under the table!”

One of Jesus’ disciples named John wrote about prayer.  He said:

And this is the boldness we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
1 John 5:14 NRSV

Did you catch that?  This is an “if…then” statement.  If we ask how?  According to his will.  Then we know that God hears us.  Prayer is a process of aligning what we’re
asking for with what God wants for us.  Søren Kierkegaard, a 19th Century Christian Philosopher, said, “The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.”

So how do you do this?  I think you do it by listening in prayer.  Prayer is essentially communication.  And most of our prayer, I think, is us talking expecting God to listen.  While this isn’t bad, don’t forget that communication goes both ways.  You ask and you listen.  Or maybe you listen first then you ask.  Prayer can be understood as an acronym, P.R.A.Y.  Praise, repent, ask, and yield.  The key word for our conversation today is “yield.”  You ask and listen and then you yield to God’s will.

What Are You Doing About Evil?  Seeking Holiness.
The second thing each of us can do about evil is to seek holiness.  Holiness is another word for righteousness or right relationships.  Holiness is having a right relationship with God, others, ourselves, and all of creation.  When we seek holiness we seek to align our actions with God’s love for creation.

Holiness is kind of like growing up.  Holiness is a kind of maturing.  It’s like moving from being a grown up toddler to be a grown up adult.  What if we adults all still acted like toddlers?  It might look like this:

 

There would be no peace anywhere!  The ultimate effect of a holy alignment between our will and God’s will is peace.  The prophet Isaiah said:

The effect of righteousness will be peace.
~Isaiah 32:17 NRSV

Perhaps the most important way you can align your will with God’s will is to read scripture daily, or at least as often as you can.  A couple of months ago we did a series called Committed to Christ.  One of the sermons in that series was making a commitment to read your Bible.  Many of you made commitments to read your Bible daily.  How are you doing?  Read your Bible to learn what holiness is all about, to align your will with God’s love for all of creation.

What Are You Doing About Evil?  Establishing Justice.
Let’s review where we’re at so far.  We’ve been exploring what God is doing about evil.  God judges evil and God promises to overcome evil.  One of the ways God is overcoming evil right now is through each one of us and what we’re doing about evil.  We judge evil and overcome evil through prayer and holiness.  We also judge and overcome evil by establishing justice.  Justice is aligning our systems with God’s image in all of creation.

Sometimes justice happens on an individual level.  I recently read about some eBay justice.  A guy posted and sold two sports tickets for $600 to a woman.  He kept waiting for the payment but it never came.  The night before the game he got this email from the woman who won the bid: “I overbid and my husband won’t let me buy these. Sorry and enjoy the game! :)… It’s eBay, not a car dealership. I can back out if I want.”  With time running out he tried to sell to the other lower bidders but had no luck.  He decided to take justice into his own hands.  He set up another eBay account and a Google voice phone number.  He emailed the original winner with a fake name telling her that he saw she won the tickets and offered her $1000 for the tickets.  After some assurances were made, she emailed the guy back and offered to buy them for her original bid of $600.  The met at  midnight to exchange the tickets.  Then he emailed her back under his pseudonym saying, “It’s eBay, not a car dealership. I can back out if I want.”  LOL!

The Psalms are the prayer book of the Bible and Psalm 94 says:

Judgment will again be founded on justice, and those with virtuous hearts will pursue it.
~Psalm 94:15 NLT

Justice isn’t just about individuals.  It’s also about entire systems.  This past year I was given season passes to Peppermint Creek Theater Company (PCTC) right next door to North Elementary.  Sarah and I were thrilled to have a theater so close to our house in South Lansing.  The passion statement of PCTC is: to produce contemporary theatre that addresses vital issues in our society, raises awareness, and encourages dialogue while entertaining. In other words, they want to engage issues of justice in our culture in a way that is engaging and entertaining.

The last play of the season was called Clybourne Park and was about racism and white-flight in Chicago.  The first act was set in the 1940s in a white neighborhood.  The family is moving out to the suburbs and has sold their house to a black family.  The local neighborhood association sends a representative over to try to stop the sale.  The sale goes through.  The second act is in the same house, but this time the neighborhood is a black neighborhood.  The family that wants to buy the house is a rich white family.  The neighborhood has created guidelines for remodeling these homes so that the current residents are pushed out by rising housing prices and rising taxes.  This phenomenon is called gentrification.  The issues are complex and there are no easy answers, but I was grateful for PCTC putting on the play and creating the opportunity for reflection and dialogue around this issue of racism and justice.  I was reminded of a distinction that I learned in college between prejudice and racism.  Prejudice is an attitude of superiority or bias.  Prejudice is individual.  Racism, on the other hand, has to do with systems that unjustly privilege one group over another.  You can be unwittingly and without prejudice participating in racist structures in society.  This distinction helped me humbly examine my own actions and how they play into privilege without getting defensive about whether I was prejudiced or not.  Clybourne Park brought up all these questions in my mind again.  It was an opportunity to ask: am I living justly or am I buying into unjust systems that perpetuate racism?  So if you want to live justly, one step you could take is to go see some plays at Peppermint Creek Theater next season and allow the play to challenge and examine you.  I don’t always agree with everything the theater does, but I do appreciate the opportunity for self reflection.

So what is God doing about evil?  God is judging evil and overcoming it.  How is God judging and overcoming evil?  God will have an ultimate day of judgment and renewal of creation but in the mean time, God is working through you and me.  So what are you, what are we doing about evil?

 

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Getting Past Your Past Money Mistakes

May 23, 2014 by Leave a Comment

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Getting Past Your Past Money Mistakes
Sycamore Creek Church
May 18/19, 2014
Tom Arthur 

Peace friends!

Pull out a dollar bill from your wallet.  What has this dollar bill bought?

  1. Food?
  2. Housing?
  3. A vacation?
  4. Gambled?
  5. Sex?
  6. Drugs?
  7. Was it stolen?
  8. Was it killed for?

Money can buy all those things.  It’s an interesting thing to note that it can do good or it can do bad.  That makes me wonder: what exactly is money?  Money is a tool that simplifies the exchange of goods.  It is a widely recognized IOU.  Money is neither good nor bad, although I will admit that at times it feels like it can have a significantly negative power, or lust, associated with it.  But generally speaking, money can be used in good or bad ways.  Many of us have made a lot of mistakes when it comes to money.  Today I’d like to look at three mistakes we make with money and how to correct them as we begin to use money the way that God wants us to use it.

Materialism
The real problem with money is when we tend to pursue it or what I can buy and neglect the more important things in life.  This is called materialism.  Google defines materialism as “a tendency to consider material possessions and physical comfort as more important than spiritual values.”  Too often we are slaves to material possessions and physical comfort.  This can go both ways.  If you find yourself saying, “There’s no money so I can’t do ____________”, then you’re still serving money, not God.

This problem of materialism might suggest that the answer would be to get rid of everything you have and live in voluntary poverty or asceticism.  Is this the answer?  The Bible tends to take a kind of middle route when it comes to money.  Hear the wisdom of the proverbs:

Give me neither poverty nor riches!
    Give me just enough to satisfy my needs.
For if I grow rich, I may deny you and say, “Who is the Lord?”
    And if I am too poor, I may steal and thus insult God’s holy name.
~Proverbs 30:8-9 NLT

The wise thing is to make enough but not too much.  Even if you make just enough to squeak by, say $25,000/year, do you realize how much that ads up to over a lifetime? If you make $25,000 from 25-65 then you will have made and probably spent $1,000,000.  Most of us will in our lifetimes manage a fortune.

To prepare today’s message I’ve found Randy Alcorn’s book, Money, Possessions and Eternity very helpful.  He says:

The key to a right use of money and possessions is a right perspective—an eternal perspective…The everyday choices I make regarding money and possessions are of eternal consequences… The key question is not, “Should a Christian own this or that?” but, “Does God want me to own this or that in light of the drain on my resources it will create?”  Will owning this thing keep me from doing other things God wants me to do?

Let’s take another look at what the Bible teaches about money.  In the book of Ecclesiastes, probably best referred to with its Hebrew name, Koheleth, which means “teacher”, we find this passage about money.  (I’ve included Randy Alcorn’s comments in parentheses after each verse.)

Ecclesiastes 5:10-15 NLT
Those who love money will never have enough.
(The more you have, the more you want.)
How meaningless to think that wealth brings true happiness!
(The more you have, the less you’re satisfied.)
The more you have, the more people come to help you spend it.
(The more you have, the more people come after it, including the tax man!)
So what good is wealth—except perhaps to watch it slip through your fingers!
(The more you have, the more you realize it doesn’t meet your real needs.)
People who work hard sleep well, whether they eat little or much. But the rich seldom get a good night’s sleep.
(The more you have, the more you have to worry about.)
There is another serious problem I have seen under the sun. Hoarding riches harms the saver.
(The more you have, the more you can hurt yourself by holding on to it.)
Money is put into risky investments that turn sour, and everything is lost. In the end, there is nothing left to pass on to one’s children.
(The more you have, the more you have to lose.)
We all come to the end of our lives as naked and empty-handed as on the day we were born. We can’t take our riches with us.
(The more you have, the more you’ll leave behind.)

Thinking about the eternal consequences of the way that we use money is the opposite of materialism and it’s the first step toward getting past your past money mistakes.

Giving
The second mistake we have made in our past when it comes to money is to neglect giving a portion of our money back to God.  We tend to think that our money is, well, ours.  But it’s not.  Everything belongs to God.

The prophet Malachi speaks to the Israelites saying:

Will anyone rob God? Yet you are robbing me! But you say, “How are we robbing you?” In your tithes and offerings!
~Malachi 3:8 NRSV

Wow!  Rob God!?  I certainly don’t want to be guilty of robbing God.  I suspect none of us want that.  But this is what Malachi says is happening when you don’t give back to God a tithe of 10% and an offering which is above the tithe.  Please don’t shoot the messenger.

We can get some basic sense of how we tend to approach giving money away by our taxes.  “The IRS calculates that the average filer spends ten times more paying off interest on debts than he gives to charitable causes” (Randy Alcorn, MPE, 305).  Yikes!  Ten times more on debt than charity!

Today we’re introducing two new ways that make giving back to God by supporting the mission of SycamoreCreekChurch even easier.  Now you can give online:  http://www.sycamorecreekchurch.org/p/index.php/ministries/107-give-online.  It’s really simple.  You can give a one-time or recurring gift using your debit card, or you can set up electronic fund transfer and have your giving electronically transferred from your bank account.  If you’re already using EFT, you can even get online and see your past giving and change it at any time.

A second way we’re trying to make giving easier is through a new offering envelope.  This offering envelope has several features.  First, you can give just as you always have.  Put a check or cash in the envelope and drop it in the offering bucket.  Second, you can take the envelope home and mail it to the church.  Third, you can now give with a debit card right on the offering envelope.  Lastly, you can sign up for EFT right on the offering envelope.  It’s all right there in one place.

Correct your past money mistake of ignoring giving back to God by choosing to tithe from this point forward.  Don’t rob God any longer.

Debt
The most obvious money mistake that most of us have made in our past is through spending habits that accumulate debt.  The Bible doesn’t categorically prohibit borrowing money.  For example, Jesus teaches:

Give to those who ask, and don’t turn away from those who want to borrow.
~Matthew 5:42 NLT

But the Bible does voice serious reservations about debt.  Consider these verses:

Just as the rich rule the poor,
    so the borrower is servant to the lender.
~Proverbs 22:7 NLT

Owe nothing to anyone—except for your obligation to love one another.
~Romans 13:8 NLT

Debt makes three basic assumptions that may not turn out to be true.  Debt assumes that:

  1. You’ll retain your current income (but you might get a pay cut or lose your job),
  2. You’ll remain in good health (but you might become disabled in some way),
  3. Other better or more missional opportunities won’t arise (but you might spend your money today and tomorrow find that you are unable to give to a great mission opportunity at church).

Not all debt is created equal.  Let’s take a look at several different kinds of debt.  There’s secured and unsecured debt.  This means that the debt is secured with something tangible that you’re buying.  Then there’s debt that you take on to buy an asset or a liability.  An asset is something that tends to grow in value and a liability is something that decreases in value.  Here is a chart with examples of each of four kinds of debt.

  Secured Unsecured
Asset Mortgage (Low-Med %) Education (Low %)
Liability Car (Med %) Credit Card (High %)

 

  1. Secured Asset: A Mortgage

The least risky kind of debt tends to be a secured asset.  A mortgage is secured because generally you can sell the house and pay off the loan, and it is an asset because it tends to increase in value.  But given what has happened in the last decade when it comes to housing values and how many people are now underwater with their mortgage, it’s  important to remember that debt, even a secured asset, is always a risk.  Perhaps we need to remember that buying a house is not a right.  Sometimes it is better to rent.  You get what you pay for, housing, and you don’t have to worry about upkeep and things breaking down.  It is worth asking, “Would renting free up your time and attention to focus on mission and calling?”

  1. Secured Liability: A Car

An auto loan is secured because you can sell the car and pay off the loan.  But while it is secured it is also a liability.  The moment you drive it off the lot, it decreases in value.

  1. Unsecured Asset: An Education

Student loans are unsecured because you can’t sell the education to pay off the loan, but a college degree does tend to increase your value in the marketplace and thus it can be understood as an asset.  But many of us don’t need quite as much education as we’ve gone into debt for.  It might be smart to go to a community college first, and then another school second later.  When I was in undergrad I, or more truthfully, my parents paid for $400/credit hour ($1600/course) at a private Christian liberal arts college, WheatonCollege.  One summer I came home and took a course at the local community college, Indiana University Purdue University of Indianapolis or IUPUI.  That course cost my parents $90/credit hour ($360/course).

  1. Unsecured Liability: Credit Card

Now that you’re getting a better sense of how debt works, let’s look at the worst kind of debt: an unsecured liability.  Credit Card debt is generally the worst kind of debt because the kind of stuff you put on a credit card can’t be sold off to pay off the loan.  Once you’ve bought the $5 latte and drank it and peed it out into the toilet, you can’t sell the latte to pay off the credit card!  You have nothing that secures the debt and the latte decreases significantly in value the moment it goes in your mouth.  In fact, you have to pay your sewer bill to have the utility company get rid of the waste!  You may say to me, “But Tom, we pay off our credit card every month.”  This may be true but studies have shown that we tend to spend 26% more on our credit card than when we pay for the same things with cash.  So be very careful how you use a credit card. Most of us probably need to do some plastic surgery: we need to cut the credit card up.

So here are three spiritual questions that Randy Alcorn suggests you consider before you take on any debt:

  1. Is not having enough resources to pay cash for what I want God’s way of telling me it isn’t his will for me to buy it?
  2. Is it possible that this thing may have been God’s will but I don’t have the resources to buy it because of past unwise decisions?
  3. If a lack of wisdom has put me in a position where I can’t afford to buy something, wouldn’t I do better to learn God’s lesson by forgoing it until—by his provision and my diligence—I save enough money?”

Small Groups
The other day I came across this news article in Psychology Today that shed a lot of light on why we spend money the way we do:

Feeling down?  Buy yourself a new pair of shoes.  Or get a new gadget.  That should boost your mood—right? 

Not necessarily.  According to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research, seeing possessions as a ticket to happiness and success increases feelings of isolation.  But the reverse is even stronger: Loneliness fuels materialism, creating a sometimes vicious cycle.  While fixation on ‘stuff’—especially around the holiday season—is usually blamed on an overly consumerist culture, the study suggests that it’s often a symptom (and a cause) of individual alienation, not cultural shallowness.

“Lonely people have a tendency to become more materialistic over time,” say study author Rik Pieteres, a professor of marketing at Tilburg University.  Some, he notes, may use shopping as a coping mechanism that is driven by the fear of rejection: “A friend might say no, but an iPad never does.”
“The Insatiable Shopper” by Agat Blaszczak-Boxe, Psychology Today

During the month of May you have the opportunity to help get past your past money mistakes by correcting the loneliness that is driving you to spend money in ungodly ways.  May is our GroupLINK month and you can sign up for one of twenty-one summer groups.  Groups are a great way to make friends that will help with the modern disease of loneliness and will have the added benefit of keeping your loneliness from causing you to make more money mistakes in the future.  Not only that, but groups provide you a place where you can build friendships that will help you discern the answers to the tough questions listed above.  Those friendships can help you begin to make wise money choices.  You can learn more and signup online here.

You may have gotten into a pit of debt in the past, but with God’s help you can begin to make wise money choices heading into the future:

  1. Reject materialism,
  2. Give back to God,
  3. Avoid debt.

Prayer
God, give us new eyes to see how our money choices have eternal consequences.  Give us courage to trust that if we give back to you 10% or more of what we make that we will have enough.  And give us the perseverance to avoid debt in a culture that is addicted to buying what it wants right now.  In the name of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

 

 

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Getting Past Your Past – Apologizing to Those You’ve Hurt

May 23, 2014 by Leave a Comment

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Getting Past Your Past – Apologizing to Those You’ve Hurt
Sycamore Creek Church
May 11/12, 2014
Tom Arthur
Matthew 5:23-24 

Sorry Friends! 

Today we’re continuing this series about getting past your past with some thoughts on apologizing.  How do we get past our past hurt by initiating reconciliation?  Today is mother’s day and probably most of us need to think about way we need to apologize to our moms!  “Mom, I’m sorry I took 36 hours to come into the world and in the end you had to have a c-section to get me out.”  “Mom, I’m sorry that when I was an infant I cried and cried and woke you up and when you finally got up and nursed me, I gobbled it down so quick that I threw it all back up again and immediately fell asleep in your arms.”  “Mom, I’m sorry that you gave up your career, wearing anything other than yoga pants and sweat shirts every day, and basically lost all sense of being an adult for the first five years of my life.”

When you apologize you never know what will happen.  I came across this “prank” video the other day that has a unique twist on an apology.  Here it is:

 


My own experience in a similar situation wasn’t quite as fortunate for me.  One summer as I began my first job as the youth director at the Bay View Association, I backed into someone’s car.  At first I wasn’t sure that I had hit the car.  I thought about just driving away.  Then my conscious got me, so I put the car in park and examined the situation.  I had hit them and put a small dent in their bumper.  I looked up and around.  I’m not sure if I was looking around to see if anyone had seen me so I could drive away undetected, or if I was looking around to see if the owner was near to talk to.  No one apparently saw me, and the owner was nowhere around.  So I left a note.  Eventually I got a call and found out that I had hit a brand new car!  I apologized and thankfully my insurance took care of the dent.

If I asked the question today: “How many of you have been hurt, betrayed, wounded by someone?”  I’m pretty sure that everyone’s hands would go up quick!  If I asked the question: “How many of you have hurt others doing the same thing?” I’m pretty sure that each of us would have to think about it before we were willing to put our hands up. We’re all quick to claim the victim but slow to claim the offense.

When I was in Jr. High I was going out with this girl named Michelle for about two weeks, and then I wasn’t really interested in going out with her.  The honorable and honest thing to do would have been to simply tell her and break up.  But I chose a more subtle route.  I just quit returning her phone calls.  I know.  What a schmuck!  About a week or so into this silent treatment I got a letter from her friend that basically used every curse word known to man to describe what a jerk I was.  I kept that letter all the way until I got married.  I’m not sure where it is right now, but you know, she was right.  I was a jerk.  So Michelle, wherever you are if you ever listen to this message, “I’m sorry.  I was a jerk of the worst kind.  Please forgive me for contributing to all those issues of insecurity you had to deal with as you continued dating and now deal with as an adult.”

Worship and Apology
Today I’d like to look at some basic biblical principles and practical tips for apologizing.  There’s an interesting teaching of Jesus’ about apologizing.  Jesus says:

So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you,leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift.
~Jesus (Matthew 5:23-24 NRSV)

This is to my knowledge the only place in the Bible where God tells us to do something else before worshiping God even to the point that we should interrupt our worship of God to do this before we finish worship.  Why is that?  What’s so important about apologizing and reconciling?

Perhaps an experience I had the other day can help clarify.  For several months now our house has been a daycare on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  We’ve been sharing a babysitter with another family in our church who has a little girl named Eva.  The other day Micah and Eva were picking up the living room because I asked them to do so.  I asked Micah to pick up some blankets and put them in the ottoman.  In his eagerness to please me he grabbed the blankets, held them like a football, and sprinted for the ottoman.  There was only one defender in his way: Eva.  He easily barreled her over and she crashed to the floor crying.  Now did I appreciate Micah’s desire to please me?  Yes!  Did I want him to do it in that way?  No!  I wanted to say to Micah, “Micah, I’m so glad you want to please me, but you can’t bowl people over in the process.”  In Jesus’ teaching we just read it’s as if God is saying, “Don’t come in and do your little religious worship thing when you’re not working hard to reconcile your relationships.”  There is something that takes priority to worshiping God!  Reconciliation.

A little before this passage Jesus says:

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
~Jesus (Matthew 5:9 NRSV)

Notice that Jesus says peacemaker not peacekeeper.  A peacekeeper avoids conflict to keep the peace, and doesn’t acknowledge the problem.  A peacemaker embraces confrontation to make peace.  Do you know that the most successful marriages aren’t those without conflict?  The most successful marriages are those who have learned how to do conflict peacefully and lovingly.  The greatest enemy to peace making is pride.  The greatest friend to peacemaking is humility.  A relationship with tension probably means that there are two proud people.  They each say, “If you didn’t then I wouldn’t and I’m certainly not going to apologize first.”  But in almost any conflict there are always two people at fault.  Paul, the first missionary of the church and the author of many books in the Bible, tells us:

If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.
~Paul (Romans 12:18 NRSV)

If you are only at fault 1%, claim it.  (On a side note, don’t actually bring percentages into the conversation!)   I’ve heard a lot of relationship problems over my five years as the pastor at Sycamore Creek Church and the funny thing is that I always talk to the innocent person!  Humility means owning a part of the problem.  Humility lowers oneself and elevates the relationship.  Humility says, “I love this person more than I love being right.”

Back when Facebook was just getting going I had a friend post something about me on Facebook that I had done wrong to them.  There it was, out there for all the world to see.  The worst thing about it was that he was partly right about what I had done.  I had made a mistake.  But my mistake was pretty small compared to the mistake of posting it on Facebook for all the world to see!  What I wanted to do was call my “friend” and give him a piece of my mind: “How could you!  You’re a jerk!  I can’t believe what you did!  Let me quote some Bible verses at you and let you know just how crappy of a person you are!”  But God’s Spirit humbled me and instead I called my friend and apologized for what I had done.  Guess what happened?  He apologized for putting it on Facebook and deleted the post.  Do you think that would have happened if I came in with all guns firing?  No way!  Apology leads to apology.

Apologize with Integrity
So let’s turn our attention to how to actually apologize and make it a good apology.  There is a right way and wrong way to apologize.  Here’s the wrong way: “I’m sorry if I did anything to hurt you” which isn’t really an apology at all.  Or “I’m sorry you got your feelings hurt” which is really just saying, “I’m sorry you’re such a weak miserable person that you were hurt by what I said.”  There are five parts to a good apology.

First, admit to specific actions and attitudes.  If you want to say to me, “But I didn’t do anything” then apologize for not doing anything.  There is such a thing as a sin of omission.  A sin of omission is not doing something when you should have done something.  For example: I’m sorry I didn’t protect you or I’m sorry I didn’t prioritize our relationship or I’m sorry I didn’t emotionally engage with you.

Second, don’t make excuses.  Don’t blame your wife for porn addiction.  Don’t blame your husband for your spending habits.  There is a time and place to explore why you did what you did, but the apology comes long before all of that.

Third, accept the consequences.  If you lied to someone, it’s going to be a long slow process to regain trust.  If you drive drunk, then your parents will take away the car for a very long time.  If you have had an affair, then your spouse might not want you to travel out of town, even if your job depends on travel.  Get a new job.

Fourth, change your behavior.  One of the worst things people do in an apology is to simply say, “I’m sorry” but do nothing to change their behavior.  Don’t apologize and then do it again.  Here at SCC we talk about the Role Renegotiation Model.  When you have a small broken expectation in a relationship it’s called a pinch.  When you have a big broken expectation in a relationship it’s called a crunch.  When someone pinches or crunches you the best thing to do is go back and tell them you were pinched or crunched and then renegotiate the expectations.  The worst thing they can do is to just apologize without any renegotiation of expectations.  For some offenses, you may need extra outside help to do this kind of renegotiation.  You may need a counselor or you may need a small group of people to hold you accountable.  That’s one reason why small groups can be so powerful.  Where do you find the kind of people you can ask to hold you accountable if you’re not meeting regularly with a group of people that are seeking these kinds of friendships?  One small group we’ve got coming up this summer to help people who are really struggling with getting past their past is a group called Healing the Heart.  This would be a great place to find like-minded friends to help you along the way toward changed behavior.

The last part of a good apology may seem obvious but it’s easier said than done: Ask for forgiveness.  Don’t just say I’m sorry, “I was wrong.  Will you please forgive me?”  Ask the person to forgive you.

I’d like to give you a great example of someone who gave a great apology to someone we often don’t think about apologizing to, our children.  This past week I was listening to an interview with Dave Stone, a pastor and author of the book, Raising Your Kids to Love the Lord. He tells of a moment when he embarrassed his ten-year-old son, Sam (ironic that my son’s name is Sam too!).  Here’s what happened:

One night I was down talking to about ten of the guys, and Sam was down there with me before we started.  I said something about a girl that he liked, and I made a joke about him.  Everybody laughed.  And ughh, it was funny.  And I saw Sam who was usually very effervescent with a great sense of humor; I saw his face turning red.  I saw him gradually slide out of the room in the course of the next few seconds.  We started the Bible study about five minutes later, and I started teaching my lesson.  I stopped and said, “You know.  I need to take care of something.  I need to go apologize to somebody.  Give me a few minutes, and I’ll be right back down.”  So I stopped the Bible study and went upstairs.  I went to the second floor where my son’s door was shut.  As I said he was about ten years old at the time.  I knocked on the door.  No response.  I opened up the door.  He had his head buried under the pillow.  I walked over to him and said, “Dude, I am so sorry. I got carried away, and I wanted to laugh, and I’m sorry I got it at your expense.”  He pulled his head out from under the pillow.  You could tell his face was red.  He had been crying.  He still was crying.  He said, “You made them all laugh at me.”  I said, “Yeah, I’m so sorry.  I won’t do that again.  Will you forgive me.”  He threw his arms around me, and said “I forgive you.”

Later in the interview, Dave Stone mentioned why it is so important for parents to apologize to their kids.  He said we are modeling for our children the humility of confessing and apologizing to God. Who do you need to apologize to today?  Maybe you even need to walk out of the worship service right now and go make it right with someone.  Perhaps the best prayer today to close this message is the one that Jesus taught:

Our Father, which art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy Name.
Thy Kingdom come.
Thy will be done in earth,
As it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive them that trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
The power, and the glory,
For ever and ever.
Amen.

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Getting Past Your Past – Forgiving Those Who Hurt You *

April 30, 2014 by Leave a Comment

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Getting Past Your Past – Forgiving Those Who Hurt You*
Sycamore Creek Church
April 27/28, 2014
Tom Arthur

Peace friends!

We’re into week two of this series Getting Past Your Past, and I’ve heard how God is working in many people’s lives already.  I am really excited about how God is going to continue to work in each of our lives to help us get past our past and move into God’s future for us.

Last week we talked about breaking the labels that bind.  Next week we’re talking about getting unstuck from your past.  My personal therapist is our guest speaker next week.  No, he won’t be sharing about me.  But he will be sharing how he sees people get stuck in their past over and over again.  The following week we’re looking at apologizing.  How do you really deliver an effective apology when you’ve been the one who has hurt someone else?  Then we’ll look at getting past your past money mistakes.  And we’ll wrap up the whole thing with forgiving the one who is hardest to forgive: ourselves.

Today we’re exploring a particularly difficult theme: getting past your past by forgiving those who have hurt you.  Have you been hurt by someone?  Most of us have. Sometimes it’s just a misunderstanding, but it still drives a wedge between us.  Other times it’s outright betrayal.  That person meant to hurt us and they did.  Right now it is likely that at the front of your heart is a wound, and it’s still fresh and still hurting.  We bury it and act like all is OK.  Then something steps on that mine and it explodes into our consciousness again.  We have a rush of negative emotion all over again.

Back when Micah was born I got an unexpected Facebook message from someone I had not thought about for many many years: my dad’s second wife.  I didn’t even know she was on Facebook, but she saw a picture of Micah and sent me a brief compliment on how beautiful he was.  Now, this was a woman that my dad had an affair with and that affair ended my parents’ marriage.  My dad married this woman and it lasted for a year or so and then they got divorced.  It all happened when I was in elementary school, and while I have wrestled with and forgiven my dad for his mistakes, I had never even thought of his second wife and her culpability in the situation until I got this Facebook message.  Here’s the irony of the timing.  I was in the middle of writing another message about forgiveness!  As I was trying to tell other people how to forgive, this little Facebook message brought all this negative emotion up in me.  It was like I was being tested by God.  Would I just be speaking about forgiveness or would I forgive?

Some of you have walked into a divine appointment today.  You thought you were just coming to worship, but God is going to work in you today and begin to break you free from your past hurts.

Whenever I preach on this topic of forgiveness I almost always get some pushback.  It goes something like this: “You don’t know what so and so did to me.”  They gossiped about me.  They lied about me.  I was taken advantage of.  They betrayed my innocence.  My spouse cheated on me.  My parent abandoned me.  Sometimes it’s harder to forgive someone who hurt someone you loved rather than just forgive someone who hurt you.  So you’re right, I don’t know what so and so did to you.  Although many of you have told me stories over the five years that I’ve been your pastor.  And while I don’t know what it has been like to be you, I do know that I have been hurt too.  I have had to forgive too and sometimes it seemed impossible.

God, may what is impossible with humans be possible with you today.

I want to look at two big things today: why should you forgive and how do you forgive.  First, why? Why should I forgive someone who hurt me?

Unforgiveness Hurts Me
You should forgive others who have hurt you because all you’re doing with unforgiveness is continuing to hurt yourself.  The author of the book of Hebrews in the Bible says this:

See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble, and through it many become defiled.
Hebrews 12:15 NRSV

Unforgiveness is a bitter root that we live with.  We try to learn to function with a grudge, but the grudge always pulls us down.  But we’re told elsewhere in the Bible that “love keeps no record of wrongs” (1 Corinthians 13:5).  Unforgiveness is like grabbing broken glass and squeezing it.  Are you familiar with the game Angry Birds?  It’s this crazy game where some pigs steal the eggs from the birds and the rest of the game is all about angry birds trying to destroy the pigs again, and again, and again, and again.  It never stops.  It’s worse that the Hatfields and McCoys.  Anne Lamott says, “In fact, not forgiving is like drinking rat poison and then waiting for the rat to die” (Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith).  Forgive because unforgiveness only hurts you.

I Will Need Forgiveness Again
Forgive those who have hurt you because some day you will need to be forgiven again too.  Jesus says:

For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
Matthew 6:14-15 NRSV

We all have fallen short of God’s standard for our lives.  All of us have done unloving things.  All of us have missed the mark of God’s will for our lives sometime intentionally and sometimes unintentionally.  All of us have participated in injustice in some way or another.  All of us are broken wounded people who have hurt and wounded other people.  We all need forgiveness.

And yet, I tend to embrace God showing me mercy in my own life and in my own brokenness and woundedness, but we are each slow to embrace others being forgiven.  We tend to come up with a rather nuanced description of our own motives and mitigating factors, and we tend to be pretty black and white when it comes to others.  I deserve to be given a mulligan.  He deserves to be held accountable to every detail of his mistake.  I deserve to be forgiven.  She deserves to rot in hell.

Each of us has been forgiven, and each of us will need to be forgiven again.  Our standard of forgiveness, Jesus tells us, will be used to measure our own sinfulness.  Forgive others, because you will need to be forgiven again.

How?
So I’ve convinced you.  You say to yourself, “I should forgive that good for nothing flea bag of a husband/boss/co-worker/teacher/classmate of mine, but I don’t know how.  I just can’t make the forgiveness thing happen.  How do I do it?”  Good question.  Let’s look at the mechanics of forgiveness and how it works, or at least two aspects of forgiveness.

Pray
Begin forgiving by praying for those who hurt you.  But what do you pray?  Maybe you could pray the Psalms.  There is a whole genre of psalms called the cursing psalms.  Many people want to skip over those psalms and get on to the happy psalms, but I think God put those cursing psalms in there for a reason.  Here’s a little sample of them:

Let death take my enemies by surprise; let them go down alive to the grave.
~Psalm 55:15 

O God, break the teeth in their mouths.
~Psalm 58:6 

May they be blotted out of the book of life and not be listed with the righteous.
~Psalm 69:28

May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow.
~Psalm 109:9

Ouch!  Is that really in the Bible?  Yes it is.  Here’s one thing to notice about each one of these prayers.  All of them put the ultimate outcome in God’s hands.  If you want the person who hurt you to die, just be honest with God about it.  Then let God deliver the verdict.  Often times when people pray these psalms, they find that they are able to let go a little bit and move on.

Maybe a further step of prayer would be what St. Augustine, a 4th and 5th century church leader, says we should pray: “They should pray, not that their enemies may die, but that they may reform; then the enemies will be dead, since being reformed they will be enemies no longer.”  Wow, that’s a rather bold thing to pray, that our enemies would reform their ways, turn from their past injustice, confess it, make restitution, and become our friends.  Wow!

Or maybe we could pray as Jesus prayed when he was hanging on the cross: “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.”  That’s how Jesus taught us to pray when he said:

You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
Matthew 5:43-44 NRSV

But you say to me, “I don’t feel like it.  It’s not a sincere prayer.”  Sometimes right actions have to come first to trigger right feelings.  Actions and feelings are connected.  If you do what is right, you will slowly but surely begin to love what is right.  So start with a simple prayer: Bless him/her.  Maybe you can’t say this sincerely, but you pray it anyway.  Then you pray with a little more sincerity, “Bless him/her.”  And then a little more sincerity and a little more until you really mean it.  Your prayers for the person who hurt you may not change that person, but they will begin to change you and that bitter root of unforgiveness will begin to be uprooted, and slowly but surely you’ll stop drinking that rat poison you’re drinking trying to kill the rat.

Forgive as You’ve Been Forgiven
Lastly, forgive the same way that you’ve been forgiven.  Jesus forgave you completely and constantly.  Do the same with others.  Paul, the first missionary of the church and the author of many books of the Bible said it this way:

Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.
Colossians 3:13 NRSV

One time Peter asked Jesus, how many times should we forgive?  Three strikes and you’re out, right?  Peter thought he would improve on the three times and you’re out rule and suggest to Jesus that we should forgive seven times.  Compared to the three strikes and you’re out rule, seven times is pretty generous.  But Jesus’ forgiveness is gratuitous.  Jesus responded, “Forgive seven times seventy times!”

Now hear me out.  If you are in an abusive situation, if your husband is beating on you, get out of the house and forgive from a distance.  Tell someone at church.  Tell me.  We’ll find you a safe space to go.  There are some men in our church who are barely saved, and they will do anything their pastor tells them to do.  Just kidding.  Sorta.  This is the power of being in a community.  This is the power of having a faith community that stands with you.  This is why the church matters.  Because sometimes it is very hard to discern alone what you should do.  Together we can discern God’s will forward when it comes to tricky forgiveness situations.

The Point
Just in case you’ve missed the point of this whole message here it is: The forgiven forgive others.

After receiving that random Facebook message from my dad’s second wife, and experiencing all the rush of negative emotions it triggered within me, I decided that I need to forgive her.  So I wrote her a letter.  I told her how her actions and decisions had hurt me and my family.  I told her that I had made mistakes too and had needed forgiveness.  I told her that I had been forgiven by Jesus for my own contributions to the brokenness of this world.  I expressed a hope that she would know Jesus’ forgiveness too.  And I forgave her.  If it were just up to me and if the situation had only involved me, I probably would have sent the letter to her.  But after talking to my dad, he felt it was best not to send it to her, so I honored his wishes.  But you know what, the letter still worked.  Forgiveness had come, and the bitterness was gone.  When you forgive others you can say, “On the day I forgave _____, God set a prisoner free, and that prisoner was me.”

God, help us to forgive others as we have been forgiven by you.  In the Spirit of Jesus, amen.

 

* This series and this sermon are based on and inspired by a sermon series originally by Craig Groeschel

 

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Getting Past Your Past – Breaking the Labels that Bind*

April 24, 2014 by Leave a Comment

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Getting Past Your Past – Breaking the Labels that Bind*
Sycamore Creek Church
Tom Arthur
Easter 2014

Friends, Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!

Today we celebrate Easter and the power of God to take that which is dead and raise it to new life.  The first fruit of that we see in Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. He was dead in his past and God raised him to new life!

Today we also begin a new series called Getting Past Your Past.  I’m really excited about how God’s resurrection power is going to use this series to work in each one of our lives.  Let me give you a preview of what’s coming up.

Next week we’re going to hit on the question of how to forgive those who have hurt us.  Then in week three we’re going to be discussing getting unstuck from your past.  On week four we’ll look at overcoming past money mistakes.  Week five is a unique message.  How do you own up to your own past mistakes and apologize to those you’ve hurt?  It’s part of getting past your past.  Then we’ll wrap up the series with the topic of forgiving yourself.  It’s my hope and prayer that in six weeks you will be able to look back and see God’s grace having worked in your life to free you from the grave of your past and resurrect you into God’s future.  Today we begin the series looking at breaking the labels that bind.

Each one of us has experienced someone in our past calling us or characterizing us in some way that we still carry with us.  We internalize this label and it becomes who we are.  This even happens in the way we tell stories or history.  Fill in the blank:

Attila the __________
Conan the __________
Billy the __________
Buffy the __________
Whinnie the __________
A Little Bit Off
We all have a label that holds us in our past.  I have several labels that I carry around with me.  Tom the “ungenerous.”  Tom the “holy roller.”  Tom the “over-achiever.”  But the one that really sticks with me is Tom “just a little bit off.”  This label comes from a very specific moment in my teenage years with my group of friends that I so desperately wanted to fit in with.  This group of friends started noticing that I didn’t always pick up on the cultural references they would make and the insider jokes that came from them.  The label, “just a little bit off”, came one day when they were referencing a favorite band of theirs saying, “We’re rockin with Dokken.”  Now back in the day, I didn’t know who the band “Dokken” was, and I thought they were saying, “Rockin and dokkin.”  So that’s what I said.  They thought this was hilarious and kept me in the dark about my mistake.  So for about two or three years they would say, “Rockin and dokkin” and laugh.  I thought they found me funny for some reason so I began to say “Rockin and dokkin” quite often.  They’d laugh and then say, “Tom you’re just a little bit off.”  Pretty soon they found all kinds of ways I was a little bit off.  Ironically enough, one of Dokken’s most famous songs is “Breaking the Chains.”  I didn’t break the chains.  But I am today!

Probably one of the reasons I never caught their cultural references was because I lived in a more urban environment, and they all lived in a suburban culture.  I was too busy listening to Vanilla Ice and watching his MTV videos trying to learn how to dance to have any interest in 80s and 90s hair rockers, all apologies to Bon Jovi, Aerosmith, and the rest.  But what did they have on Vanilla Ice and MC Hammer, my first live concert?  Ok, so maybe I am still a little bit off.  But today God is resurrecting me from the grave of my past music choices.

The Point
So what is the negative label that usually follows your name?  Here’s a truth I want you to know today.  It’s the whole point of this message:

God’s power is always bigger than your past.  God’s truth is bigger than any current truth in your life.

Even if you own a label that in many ways is true about you, it doesn’t mean it must continue to be true tomorrow.  God can take what is and make it no longer true.  God can and will give you a new God-centered view of yourself.  Paul, the first missionary of the church and the author of many books in the Bible says it this way:

Anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person.  The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
2 Corinthians 5:17 NLT

As we celebrate Jesus’ resurrection today, we see that the grave can lead to the resurrection.  God can resurrect you from your past!  That which held you hostage will hold you no more.  I’d like to look at three ways that God does this.

New Name
First, God will give you a new name.  The prophet Isaiah speaks to Israel after they’ve been conquered by the Babylonian empire and taken into exile saying:

You will be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will bestow.
Isaiah 62:3 NLT

God is in the business of giving new names.  It happens all over the Bible.  Abram and Sari wanted children, and it just wasn’t happening.  But God worked in their life and they became pregnant and God gave them both new names: Abraham and Sarah.  They became the father and mother of many nations.  Jacob means swindler or huckster or usurper.  He was always doing shady stuff with his older twin brother Esau.  God worked in his life and gave him a new name, Israel, which means “one who wrestles with God” or “God will prevail.”  Of course, if you wrestle with God, God will prevail!  Then there’s poor little Gideon.  He was pretty much afraid to stand up to his enemies.  But an angel of God showed up and called him a “Mighty man of valor” and “warrior.”  (By the way, this is always happening to me, angels showing up and calling me a “mighty man of valor.”  Always.)

So what name do you need changed?  I’ve got to say that the name “pastor” has always been a struggle for me. I’ve never really felt like a pastor.  I’m not the warm fuzzy cuddly guy you come talk to who will listen intently, nod, give you lots of encouragement, and send you on your way feeling like you can take on the world.  In an online assessment we use at our church “pastoral” is my bottom leadership trait.  But when September 11 happened I was working at a church and my pastor was on vacation out of town hunting in Colorado.  All the flights were grounded, and I was left to take care of the largest Protestant church in Petoskey.  After that weekend, the church began calling me “pastor.”  I bristled at the name, but eventually experienced a call to be a pastor.  Then I did my first internship at Reveille United Methodist Church in Richmond, VA.  When I got there they all just called me “pastor.”  That summer I became a pastor in my heart because the church looked at me as a pastor, but I still didn’t like the name, “pastor.”  Then I graduated and was appointed by the bishop to Sycamore Creek Church.  I told you all that you didn’t have to call me “pastor Tom” but some of you kept calling me it, but I never referred to myself in that way.  In the last year, you may have noticed that I’ve actually begun occasionally signing my letters “pastor Tom.”  I’m growing into the new name with you.

You will grow into your new name too.  God is going to give you a name and you will grow into that name.  You will be called “forgiven.”  You will be called “overcomer.”  You will be called “spiritual mom.”  You will be called “spiritual leader” to our kids in Kids Creek, our youth in StuREV, or to adults in a small group.  God will give you a new name.

New Purpose
Second, God will give you a new purpose.  Your new name comes with a new purpose.  One of Jesus’ followers was named Simon.  Simon was unpredictable, undependable, and wishy-washy.  He was a fisherman.  Jesus walked by his boat one day and said, “Follow me and you will fish for people.”  Simon, you may look like you’re a lowly fisherman, but you’re going to follow me and become a world-changer.  You’re going to speak eloquently to thousands and thousands of people and through you, they will come to know me. A little later Jesus gave Simon a new name:

Now I say to you that you are Peter (which means ‘rock’), and upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it.
~Jesus (Matthew 16:17 NLT)

If you know the story you’ll know that Peter was not always a rock from that point forward.  He messed up again and again.  Peter denied Jesus three times.  After the resurrection, Jesus forgave and restored him.  But Peter was the preacher on Pentecost, the birthday of the church, and three thousand people came to follow Jesus on that day alone!  Tradition tells us that Peter was so rock solid in his commitment to follow Jesus that he was sentenced to death by crucifixion, and he did not feel worthy to be crucified like Jesus.  So he was crucified upside down.  The negative label that Peter was known for was turned on its head.  He was no longer wish-washy.  Now he was a rock of faith.

God can take the associated label with your name and turn it upside down.  You’re a “tightwad” and God will give you a new purpose to make you generous.  You’re “unfaithful” and God will make you know for your faithfulness.  And on and on and on.  What’s the opposite of your negative label?  That will be God’s new purpose in your life!

Out of our greatest weakness God can grow our greatest strength and purpose.

New Future
Third,God will give you a new future.  The prophet Jeremiah spoke for God to the Israelites as they were in exile in Babylon saying:

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you…
Jeremiah 29:11 NLT

Notice that the word is “plans” not “plan.”  There’s not one right plan for you.  There are many good plans for your future.  So you’re “always the bridesmaid and never the bride.”  God’s plans for you may be that you become comfortable in your singleness or that one of many good godly men will come along and you’ll get married.  Or maybe you think your kids will never grow up to be anything, but God will use them in mighty ways.  Or I’ll always have this addiction, and instead you will lead people out of addiction.  Or I’ll never get out of debt, but rather you will get it together and be able to be generous with others and teach others how to do so too.  Or I’ll always be fat, and God will turn you into a P90X superman who trains and inspires others to get in shape too.  Or I’ll always be childless, and in God’s power you’ll have children or adopt or have spiritual children.  God will give you a new future.

Maybe one of the most inspiring stories in the Bible of a new future is the story of Rahab “the prostitute.”   She’s always got the label, “the prostitute.”  The label was true.  She was a prostitute, and there were two kinds of prostitutes in that day.  There was the respectable temple prostitute and the unrespectable prostitute that gets picked up on Cops.  She was the Cops prostitute, but when Israel was conquering the promised land, she helped them out and God honored her choice.  (If you’d like to see how the recent Bible series told the story check it out here.)    She hid the Israelites spies and got to know God.  God brought her a God-fearing man named Salmon and they had children.  The Rahab “the prostitute” became the Great…Great…Great…Great…Great grandmother of…Jesus, the son of God, the savior of the world.  God gave her a new future!  The same God who raised a dead Jesus from the grave, can raise your dead future and give you a new living future.

Friends, here’s the problem.  You can’t break the labels in your own power.  You’re stuck.  Each one of us is broken and wounded in some way or another.  Each of us is a “little bit off” or a lot off.  Each one of us has missed the mark of God’s will for us.  Each one of us is in a pit too deep for us to climb out on our own.  We can’t free ourselves from the labels.  You need the power of God that raised Jesus from the dead to break those labels, give you a new name, a new purpose, and a new future.

Many of you were brought here by God for this very moment.  You think that you came here just to appease your mom or your grandma who are always wanting you to go to church, and well, it’s Easter.  So you finally gave in to their nagging.  But God has another plan for you today.  The plan is that you would know the saving power and grace and mercy and compassion and kindness and love of God that raised Jesus from the dead.  God’s plan for you today is that you ask God to forgive you of your past mistakes and free you to follow Jesus into a new name, a new purpose, and a new future. Here’s how you do it.  Tell the truth about yourself to God.  Stop pretending to be someone you’re not.  God knows it anyway and God already loves you in spite of whatever you think you need to hide.  Telling the truth about yourself is less about telling God something God doesn’t know, and more about getting out of a state of denial in yourself.  Then ask Jesus, God’s son, to forgive you and lead you as a new person.  Paul says

If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
~Paul (Romans 10:9 NRSV)

Will you do that today?  If so, I invite you to pray with me.

Good and gracious God, you showed us your power in the resurrection of your son, Jesus Christ; may that same power raise me from the grave of my past and give me a new name, a new purpose, and a new future.

I’d like to challenge you today to come back and stick it out through this series.  Be here every week.  Let this commitment be the first commitment of your new life in Jesus.  If you’d like to talk more, drop me an email (tomarthur@sycamorecreekchurch.org).  May God give you a new name, a new purpose, and a new future!

 

*This series and sermon are based on a sermon series first preached by Craig Groeschel.

Filed Under: Sermons Tagged With: , , , ,

Committed to Christ – Serve

April 14, 2014 by Leave a Comment

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Committed to Christ – Serve
Sycamore Creek Church
April 13/14, 2014
Tom Arthur
John 13:3-15

Peace friends!

How’s your serve?  I don’t mean your tennis serve.  I mean your commitment to serve God in the church, community, and world?

Today we wrap up a series called Committed to Christ.  For the last six weeks we’ve been preparing for Easter by looking at our commitments to follow Jesus.  Today we look at our commitment to serve.

Back in February we took an anonymous survey asking you about your various commitments.  We asked you about your commitment to serve and here’s what we found:

Do you serve the Lord with your time and talents?

2 – No, I’ve never given any time to serve God.
14 – Yes, I do give my time, but only when directly asked to.
22 – Yes, I take the initiative, searching for opportunities
14 – Yes, about one hour a week
9 – Yes, about three to five hours a week.
12 – Yes, I give time to serve God every single day.
2 – Yes, I give a tithe (10%) of my time to serve the Lord.

Today it’s my hope that each one of us would take a further step in faithfully serving God and others in our church, community, and world.  One very practical opportunity you’re going to have to serve is this Thursday.  This Thursday is traditionally called “Maundy Thursday.”  Maundy Thursday is the day before Easter when the church remembers the mandate, thus “Maundy”, that Jesus gave his disciples to love those around them in service.  He not only told them this but he showed them what this looked like by washing their feet, a dirty nasty job in a day and age when there were no socks or pavement and everyone walked around in sandals, here’s the story as Jesus’ follower, John told it:

John 13:3-6 & 12-15 NRSV
Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself.  Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him…

After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. 

Today it doesn’t make a lot of sense to wash people’s feet.  So to celebrate Jesus’ washing his disciples feet we’re going to gather at the local Quality Dairy Laundromat to hand out free quarters and laundry detergent to wash people’s clothes.  It’s a simple but powerful witness to Jesus’ command to love one another through service.

Over the past couple of weeks we’ve looked at serving with our treasure, testimony and temple.  Because next week is Easter, it’s worth just taking a moment and asking this question: how is investing and inviting three people to Easter going?  That’s part of what it means to serve  through your testimony.  You share with others how you have encountered God in the resurrection and worship at SCC and how that encounter has changed you and sent you in mission to the world.

Serving with your Time
What about serving with your time?  We talk about tithing our treasure or money to God or giving 10% back to God.  What would it mean to tithe your time?  Have you ever considered that?  That would be a big commitment, right?  2.4 hours/day in service to God in our church, community, and world!  Or maybe you just want to count waking hours.  If you get seven to eight hours of a sleep a tithe on your waking hours would be about 1.5 hours/day.

Below is a list of all the ways you can serve the church, community and world at SCC.  When it comes to giving of your time, I’d like to suggest you take an experimental approach.  Try something out for three months.  You don’t have to commit your entire life to it.  Just give it a try and see how it goes.  Reevaluate and then readjust your time commitments.

Serving with your Talents
What are you good at?  What talents has God given you?  One way to explore that is through an online assessment tool we use called Assessme.org.  Assessme.org gives you four inventories to help you find how God has uniquely gifted you in your personality, leadership style, spiritual gifts, and skills.  Take about twenty minutes and learn something about yourself here:
www.assessme.org/2364.aspx.

Here are my results.  When it comes to my leadership style I’m highest in administration, strategic, and pioneering leadership.  I’m weakest in team, encouraging, and pastoral leadership.  In other words, I tend to be pretty task oriented rather than relational oriented.

 

TArthurLeadership

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are the results of my epersonality test.  I’m a planner.  My personality leans toward being independent rather than social, I am an abstract thinker rather than concrete, I lean toward my head or intellect more than my heart, and I’m a systematic thinker rather than an adaptive thinker.  This makes me a good “planner.”

TArthurPersonality

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When it comes to my grace gifts, I’m gifted in stewardship which is not just about money but also about people.  I like teaching.  I also am a giver and a leader.  I’m gifted with the talents of administration and making disciples or followers of Jesus.

 

TArthurGifts

 

 

 

 

 

 

What are your talents when it comes to your personality, leadership style, and grace gifts?

A Service Autobiography
I’d like to put some flesh on these graphs by sharing with you my own service autobiography.  How did I end up right here right now?  How did I end up serving Jesus by serving the church as a pastor?  How did I end up with the unique set of talents and passions that I have as a pastor?  Here’s my story, or at least part of it.

Growing up in what is sometimes called the “holiness tradition.”  In the holiness tradition there’s a particular emphasis on avoiding sin.  “Sin” in the holiness tradition means personal purity.  So we were encouraged not to curse, smoke, drink, use drugs, have sex outside of marriage, listen to secular music, date non-Christian girls, or do anything “unedifying.”  Christian maturity in the tradition I grew up in was primarily about avoiding personal sins of impurity.

One thing that was highly emphasized in the holiness tradition was reading your Bible.  Reading your Bible can be a dangerous activity.  As I began reading my Bible more and more I began to see that God wasn’t only interested in personal sins of purity.  God was also interested in social sins.  Or you could say that God was not just interested in personal holiness but also in social holiness.  Let me give you and example of this kind of thinking in the Bible. It comes from the prophet Isaiah:

Isaiah 58:1-9 NLT
1 “Shout with the voice of a trumpet blast.
    Shout aloud! Don’t be timid.
Tell my people Israel of their sins!
2     Yet they act so pious!
They come to the Temple every day
    and seem delighted to learn all about me.
They act like a righteous nation
    that would never abandon the laws of its God.
They ask me to take action on their behalf,
    pretending they want to be near me.
3 ‘We have fasted before you!’ they say.
    ‘Why aren’t you impressed?
We have been very hard on ourselves,
    and you don’t even notice it!’
“I will tell you why!” I respond.
    “It’s because you are fasting to please yourselves.
Even while you fast,
    you keep oppressing your workers.
4 What good is fasting
    when you keep on fighting and quarreling?
This kind of fasting
    will never get you anywhere with me.
5 You humble yourselves
    by going through the motions of penance,
bowing your heads
    like reeds bending in the wind.
You dress in burlap
    and cover yourselves with ashes.
Is this what you call fasting?
    Do you really think this will please the Lord?
6 “No, this is the kind of fasting I want:
Free those who are wrongly imprisoned;
    lighten the burden of those who work for you.
Let the oppressed go free,
    and remove the chains that bind people.
7 Share your food with the hungry,
    and give shelter to the homeless.
Give clothes to those who need them,
    and do not hide from relatives who need your help.
8 “Then your salvation will come like the dawn,
    and your wounds will quickly heal.
Your godliness will lead you forward,
    and the glory of the Lord will protect you from behind.
9 Then when you call, the Lord will answer.
    ‘Yes, I am here,’ he will quickly reply.

This isn’t one isolated place in scripture where God is interested in questions of justice and how we treat the poor.  It’s all over the Bible!  God is interested in our service to him in personal holiness but personal holiness doesn’t mean much to God if we’re not also interested in serving our neighbor in social holiness.  So what is social holiness?  Social holiness is serving God by serving both the spiritual and physical needs of others with our time, talent, treasure, testimony, and “temple” in the church, community and world.

Who do we serve?  We serve God, but we do so by serving our church, community, and world.  What do we serve?  We serve spiritual and physical needs.  How do we serve?  We serve with our time, talent, treasure, testimony and “temple” (our bodies).  Let me give you some examples from my own life.  Watch for some common themes.

In early elementary school I began a hamster breeding business.  It turns out that I was pretty good at breeding hamsters but not necessarily selling them.  Later on I found a better way to make money. I started a lawn mowing business.  I created little business cards and went around to my neighbors and passed them out.  I got three good clients and mowed their yards throughout middle and high school.

While in high school my creativity began to bloom.  I started a Christian radio show on my high school’s radio station, WBDG.  I also won the state competition in radio documentary-making with a documentary I led my team in making on the topic of gangs in Indianapolis.  So began my interest in creative use of media production and communication.  While in high school I also took several classes in photography.  I began to learn how to create images that would communicate to our culture.

Meanwhile my leadership skills began to bloom as I led a before-school prayer meeting.  I would pick up three to five fellow students who would gather at our church to pray for revival in our school.

I graduated 29th out of almost 1000 students in my class.  I enjoyed learning and that expressed itself in the college I chose.  I went to Wheaton College, a small Christian liberal arts school outside of Chicago because it had a strong emphasis on faith and academics.  I began as a Christian education major but switched to psychology.  During a summer internship, I realized that I wasn’t interested in being a counselor and was more interested in the research field of Community Psychology, the arm of psychology that focused on intervention and prevention.  While at Wheaton I also took all the photography classes that Wheaton offered and picked up a photography minor.

During my sophomore year I began to volunteer in the Dearborn Boys club in the projects on the south side of Chicago.  By my junior year I was leading the group of students from Wheaton who went down weekly to build relationships through sports and games with boys in the projects.  The projects on the south side of Chicago are massive.  I learned that if the projects were made their own city, they would be the second largest city in Illinois next to Chicago.  This exposure to poverty was ultimately where I experienced a call to racial and economic reconciliation.  This meant for me helping build friendships across racial and economic barriers.  Rich and poor and black and white becoming friends.

When I graduated from Wheaton I moved to Petoskey, MI and began working at Petoskey United Methodist Church.  While in Petoskey I somehow ended up leading the local ministerial association even though I wasn’t an official minister.  I also ended up founding the Northern Michigan C.S. Lewis Festival.  In its first year, the C.S. Lewis Festival consisted of 19 events put on by 14 groups over the month of November and was attended by 2500 people.  All of this was in a town of 7000.  Even though I am no longer involved, the C.S. Lewis Festival is now in its 11th year and still going strong.

While in Petoskey I volunteered at the local homeless shelter called The Nehemiah House.  While there I met a man named Alex.  Sarah and I had just bought a three bedroom house, and we were only living in one room of it.  We felt like God was calling us to share our house with Alex, so we did.  He still rents from us and lives in our house in Petoskey.

My work at Petoskey United Methodist Church eventually led to a call to become a pastor.  This was a fear-filled calling.  I was afraid that I would be appointed by our bishop to a traditional boring church.  That obviously hasn’t played out yet!  I chose to go to Duke Divinity School because Duke placed a strong emphasis on both personal faith and academics.  At Duke I started the Duke Socratic Club, a debating society that met weekly to debate what we were learning in classes.  We also held public debates between professors at Duke and other professors in the area.  Our first event, a debate between Richard Hayes and Bart Ehrman, got picked up by the state news and over 500 people attended!

When Sarah and I moved to Durham we had to choose a church to attend.  We decided to attend a church that I would likely never be appointed to, so we chose to attend the historically black United Methodist Church in East Durham, Asbury Temple.  At Asbury Temple we met David and Rebecca Arthur, who have the same last name as our family but are of no relation.  David and Rebecca had begun the Isaiah House, a “New Monastic” house in the ghetto of East Durham.  We decided to move into the Isaiah house and join their mission.  Living at the Isaiah house was like living in the local homeless shelter with your small group.  Besides becoming a parent after thirteen years of child-free marriage, there has been nothing more disruptive, challenging, and ultimately powerfully meaningful than living at the Isaiah House.

Before we left Durham, we began a new group called The Order of St. James (OSJ).  OSJ is made up of fellow pastors and their families who want to take the principles of New Monasticism and put them into practice as pastors.  We have three practices that we hold one another accountable to: Simplicity, Hospitality, and Evangelism.

During my last year at Duke Divinity School, I somehow ended up the co-president of the Student Council.  My co-president was a black woman named Nancy who taught me how the world looked from a black woman’s perspective.

Toward the end of my time at Duke, I received a call out of the blue one day from a woman named Barb Flory.  She told me that she had planted a church in Lansing, MI and was retiring.  She had heard about me and wanted to know if I was interested in being appointed by the bishop as the second pastor of Sycamore Creek Church.  I was intrigued by the idea and met with her and the leadership team and the bishop appointed me to be the pastor of SCC.  About a year later, she called me again and wanted to know if I was interested in joining the team of people in West Michigan who plant churches for the United Methodist Church.  I was intrigued and eventually joined the team.  Now I’m the leader of that team and involved in church planting all around the state.

I’m not sharing this story with you to make myself look good.  I’d share your story if I knew it as well as I know my own.  I’m sharing it to show you the common threads of gifts, talents, personality, leadership style and passions that runs through it all.  What common threads did you hear?

Do you see some common threads running through my story?  I see a mixture of these common threads:

  1. Entrepreneurial spirit and impulse
  2. Creativity
  3. Leadership
  4. Passion for justice and the down and out (racial and economic reconciliation)
  5. Double interest in academia (learning and teaching) and practical living (doing)
  6. Calling by God to live out all those things as a pastor of a local church

What are the talents and gifts that run through your life?  How can you use those unique mixture of gifts and talents to serve God by serving your church, community, and world?  Where is God calling you to serve?

Are you ready to grow in your hands-on service to the Lord? Check all that apply.

ð      No, I am not ready at this time.
ð      No, I am not ready yet, but I will be searching for ways that I can serve the Lord.
ð      Yes, I am ready to begin giving one hour each week.
ð      Yes, I am ready to begin giving two hours each week.
ð      Yes, I am ready to begin giving ______ hours each week.
ð      Yes, I am interested in exploring serving in the areas circled on the Serve Sheet.
ð      Yes, I will take the online inventory at www.assessme.org/2364.aspx.
ð      Yes, I am ready to serve weekly/monthly/quarterly in a missions opportunity in the community.
ð      Yes, I am ready to go on a Nicaragua medical mission trip this year.
ð      Yes, I am sensing a call to ordained service.
ð      Service will be a priority in my life, growing to include the following:
I will look for ways to give my time and strength to serve the Lord. I will serve with joy and gladness. When I feel the Lord inviting me to greater levels of sacrifice and service, I will answer, “Yes, Lord, send me.”

 

Serve the Church, Community & World Interest

 

Name:________________________________________________ Contact:____________________________

I am particularly passionate about: _____________________________________________________________

I have these talents/Spiritual Gifts: _____________________________________________________________

Circle the ministries in which you might have an interest in serving or are committed to serving again this year.  Someone from new areas of interest will contact you for further discussion.

Serve the Church: Worship

Band
Worship Leading
Media Team
(lights, sound, presentation)
Communion Servers
Set-up Team
Tear-down Team
Crew Chiefs
Worship Dream Team
Artists
(paint, sculpt, atmosphere, etc.)
Video Production
Preaching
Pastoral Leadership/Ordination
Church in a Diner Team
Next New Venue Launch Team

Serve the Church: Kids Creek*
Set-up Team
Tear-down Team
Registration
Assistant Teachers
Teachers
Worship Leader
Media
Nursery Staff
Nursery Assistant
Special Event Nursery Care
Kids Creek Team
Special Events Help
Summer Kids Creek Teacher 

Serve the Church: StuREV*
Teachers
Event Planners
(retreats, missions, etc.)
Event Chaperones
StuREV Team
Summer Team

Serve the Church: Administration
Finance & Facilities Team
Personnel
(SPR–Staff/Pastor Relations)
Advertising
Bulletin Prep
Office Cleaning
Offering Counters
Office General Help
(mailings, etc.)
Landscape/Gardening
Space Team
(looking for new space)
Capital Campaign
Website Team

Serve the Church: Small Groups
Small Group Leader
Teachers for short-term classes
Small Group Host
Small Group Mission Cor
Prayer Team
Care/Support/Listening Team
Hospital Visits

Serve the Church: Hospitality
Sunday morning leader(s)
Set-up
Tear-down
Special Meals
(Baptism, Vision Mtg, etc.)
Food Prep
Greeters
Ushers
Info Table

Serve the Church in a Diner
Parking Lot Host
Host at the Door
Set-up
Tear-down
Presentation/Media
Offering Usher
Planning Team
Mission Team

Serve the Community:
Small Group Missions
Open Door Ministry
(Day Room for Poor/Homeless)
Holt Senior Care
Maplewood
(Women & Children’s Center)
Compassion Closet
(Personal Needs Bank)
Habitat for Humanity
Driving People to Church
Transition Food Ministry
(Provide meals for families)
Transition Food Ministry Leader 

Serve the World: Nicaragua
($500+ scholarship available!)
Spring Medical Mission Trip
Fall Medical Mission Trip
Weekly/Monthly $ Pledge

Other Serve Ideas
__________________________

__________________________

 

Skills and Stuff
(Listed in Next Directory)
__________________________

__________________________

__________________________

__________________________

__________________________

__________________________

 

*Serving with children or youth requires a screening process which includes being active at SCC at least for six-months, a background check, and possibly references.

Filed Under: Sermons Tagged With: , ,

Committed to Christ – Financial

March 31, 2014 by Leave a Comment

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Committed to Christ – Financial
Sycamore Creek Church
March 30/31, 2014
Tom Arthur

Peace friends!

We’re three weeks away from Easter.  Are you excited?  Did you hear that we’ll be 1 church celebrating Easter on 2 days in 3 locations and 4 services?  1 – 2 – 3 – 4!  We’re striving to reach a goal of touching more people with the power of the resurrection than we ever have before.  We’ve prayerfully set a goal of 350 people in worship this Easter.

This past week I was asked why we’re trying to reach 350 people in Easter.  Here’s my answer: Because our mission is to ignite authentic life in Christ.  Because hearts that are made up of fertile soil multiply (see last week’s message).  Because Jesus gave us the great commission (see Matthew 28:19-20).  Because people are hurting and need Jesus’ healing.  Because people are far from God and need Jesus.  Because following Jesus means not keeping it to yourself.  That’s why we’re seeking to reach 350 people this Easter.  It’s our mission!

Next week we’re going to go even deeper into the question of Why as we explore a commitment to witness.  This week as we continue this series, Committed to Christ, we’re looking at our commitments to give financially.

There are a lot of different people in the room when it comes to giving:

  1. Those who are not ready to give.
  2. Those who would like to give but are so deep in debt that they can’t see a way to give.
  3. Those who give occasionally from what’s in their wallet or purse.
  4. Those who give regularly when they’re in worship.
  5. Those who give regularly whether they’re in worship or not.
  6. Those who give the full tithe.
  7. Those who give extravagantly.

In February we took an anonymous survey about your giving.  We had seventy surveys turned in.  Here are the results.  Five people answered that they do not give financially.

Forty-one answered about the amount that they give weekly to the General Fund and the average amount of the forty-one people was $56/week.  Twelve people answered that they give to the Building Fund and the average was $39/week.  Seven people answered that they give to missions and the average was $17/week.  Twenty people answered the question about what percentage of their income they gave and the average was 11%.  That’s really intriguing, isn’t it?  We’ll talk more about that in a moment.

Today I want to explore four commitments to giving, and I want to encourage you to take a further step of commitment in your giving.

  1. Give

 It may seem too obvious to say, but the first commitment of giving is to…well, give.  Paul, the first missionary of the church and the author of the most books in the Bible said this about giving in a letter to a church he founded at Corinth:

You must each decide in your heart how much to give. And don’t give reluctantly or in response to pressure. “For God loves a person who gives cheerfully.”
2 Corinthians 9:7 NLT

Each person must decide how much to give.  It’s part of following Jesus.  Someone else can’t do it for you.  You must decide yourself to take the initial step and give.  Some of you do not give financially to the church, and God may be calling you today to take an initial step of commitment today to simply give.

Why don’t people give to the church?  The Barna Group is a religious research group and several years ago they put out a study titled “Why People Do Not Give More” (Source). While the study was about giving more, I think it is also applicable to why people don’t give in the first place.  There were four reasons.  Two were the responsibility of the church.  One was a shared responsibility between the church and the individual.  The fourth reason was the responsibility of each individual.  Let’s look at these four reasons.

  1. “The church has failed to provide a compelling vision for how the money will make a difference in the world…They withhold money from the church because they do not see a sufficient return on their investment.”

This is the responsibility of the church leadership, especially the pastor.  So since it’s our, even my, responsibility, let me tell you what difference your giving makes.  It makes a difference in missions to our community and world.  Your giving makes all these things possible.  On a regular basis we have 5-10 people/month who serve dinner and make friends at Maplewood women and children’s center.  5-10 people/quarter serve coffee and make friends at Open Door Ministries downtown.  Last year 3887 personal items were collected for Compassion Closet.  5-10 people/quarter socialize and make friends at Holt Senior Care.  20-30 people help out with the North Elementary community garden twice a year.  3-5 people volunteer at Recycle Rama two times a year.  We tithed 10%  of our capital campaign funds to foreign and local missions which has amounted to $33,000 over three years or $11,000/year.  Since the birth of our church we have given to missions a total of $153,478.52 or $11,806/year.  Wow!  Because you give we are making a huge dent in the needs of our community and world and sharing God’s compassion with many many people.

So what about our church?  What difference does your giving make in our own church.  Once a month I host Pizza with the Pastor for new people in our church.  Last week we had five people on Sunday and six people on Monday.  That’s just one month.  I’m currently teaching Christianity 101, a baptism preparation small group, and we have four people attending on Sundays and five on Mondays.  Last year at Baptism @ The Beach we baptized six people, three adults and three kids as well as had four adults reaffirm their faith.  Authentic life in Christ is being ignited in new people and they are connecting with God and others, growing the character of Christ, and serving the church, community, and world.  Your giving makes this possible.

What about the people we’re reaching weekly in worship?  Last year at this time we had an average weekend attendance of 194 which included thirty-four kids and eight youth.  This year (if you throw out the one really bad weekend we had the first week of January when the snowpocalypse shut everything down in Lansing) we have an average weekend attendance of 199 which includes thirty-seven kids and twelve youth.  That’s an increase of 2%.  Four times this year our Monday night Church in a Diner has been our biggest service.  In 2013 we saw a 22% growth in average weekend attendance because of our Monday night Church in a Diner.  This creative worship service has had a bigger impact than just in Lansing.  Jeremy, Gretchen, and I recently led a worship with 150 leaders in Saginaw about Church in a Diner.  Our model for ministry is influencing dozens of other churches.  Our big vision is to have seven satellites in seven venues on seven days of the week.  7 – 7 – 7.  This Easter we’re seeking to be one church on two days in three locations and four services.  1 – 2 – 3 – 4.  We are doing more and reaching more people than we’ve ever done or reached on a shoestring budget.  Your giving makes all this happen!

I find our reach compelling.  I find our ministry compelling.  I hope it is compelling to you too.  I hope you see that what you give has a huge return in people touched and lives changed!

2.  “[Some] people … do not realize the church needs their money to be effective. Their church has done an      inadequate job of asking for money, so people remain oblivious to the church’s expectations and potential.

Just as a baseline let me share with you that the critical items (payroll and rent and utilities) in our budget to reach the people we reach and do the ministry that we do  requires that we receive $4400/week in the offering.  The survey that I shared with you earlier represents $2200/week.  Our critical items in the budget to keep doing what we’re doing requires two times the amount represented in that survey.

One thing worth noting about our giving and our growth.  We are reaching many new people, and it takes time for new people to raise their commitments to giving.  That’s because it takes time to build trust and for new people to see what those who have been around for a long time already know, giving to Sycamore Creek Church is a worthwhile and trustworthy investment.

3.  “[Others] are ignorant of what the Bible teaches about our responsibility to apply God’s resources in ways that affect lives.”

This reason for not giving is a joint responsibility.  It’s both the leadership’s responsibility to teach what the Bible says about giving, and it’s each person’s responsibility to study the Bible on their own and in small groups.  It’s my hope that today we’ll increase your knowledge about what the Bible teaches on money and giving.

4.  “The final category contains those who are just selfish. They figure they worked hard for their money and it’s theirs to use as they please. Their priorities revolve around their personal needs and desires.”

 The first three reasons about not giving had some responsibility of the church leadership.  This reason must be owned by each one of us.  If we’re to grow in our discipleship we must realize that our money is not our own and act in a way that is consistent with that truth.  But more on that in a moment.  So the first commitment to giving is simply to give.

 2.     Give cheerfully

 The second commitment to give is to give cheerfully.  Back to Paul:

You must each decide in your heart how much to give. And don’t give reluctantly or in response to pressure. “For God loves a person who gives cheerfully.”
2 Corinthians 9:7 NLT

I’ve got to admit that I have a hard time with this.  I know I’m the pastor, and I’m supposed to be happy to give money away, but sometimes I have to check my own attitude.  This past Christmas season we were walking into Kroger when Micah saw and heard the Salvation Army bell ringer.  Apparently Micah had seen my wife, Sarah, give to the Salvation Army at some other trip to the grocery, and he asked me if we were going to give.  I had not planned on giving anything, but I thought, “I’m the pastor.  I’m his dad.  I’m supposed to help him learn to give.  So I guess I’ll give a little just to make the point.”  So we went over to the bell ringer and I gave Micah a quarter to put in the bucket.  As we were standing there and I was fumbling to get the quarter out and give it to Micah, someone else came by and handed Micah a $5 bill to put in the bucket.  Oh, come on!  Seriously?  I’m reluctantly and half-heartedly giving my son a quarter to teach him something about giving and someone else comes by and hands him a $5 bill to put in the bucket?  OK, God.  I give up.  So I gave Micah some hard cash and let him cheerfully give with a big smile.  At least one of us was giving cheerfully that day.

Do we give only when we feel like it?  Is that what Paul is saying?  Are we only to give when we can give cheerfully?  No.  We’re to always give and to seek to have a cheerful heart when we do.  The second commitment to giving is to give cheerfully.

3.     Give Generously

The third commitment to give is to give generously.

Meanwhile, Jesus was in Bethany at the home of Simon, a man who had previously had leprosy. While he was eating, a woman came in with a beautiful alabaster jar of expensive perfume made from essence of nard. She broke open the jar and poured the perfume over his head.  Some of those at the table were indignant. “Why waste such expensive perfume?” they asked.
Mark 14:3-4 NLT

The woman in this story gave “expensive perfume” that the people who were with Jesus thought was wasteful.  They had better business plans for how to use that asset.  But Jesus was impressed with her generosity.

The Bible has a basic standard of giving set at 10%.  It is the baseline commitment to giving.  This 10% is called a tithe which literally means 10%.  The basic idea here is that God gives you 100% of what you have and asks you to give back 10%.  10% may seem like a lot to most of you, but it all depends on how you frame it.  Consider this video:

 

That puts it all in a different perspective, right? God gives you 100% and lets you keep 90%.  10% seems like a pretty good deal, doesn’t it?  But remember, 10% is the baseline.  It’s the minimum biblical standard.  I think most of the Bible actually encourages us to give even more by living simply and giving generously, even radically.  That means more than 10%.  Back to our survey results.

Twenty people answered the question about what percentage of their income they gave and the average was 11%.  That’s because of those twenty, seven people who took the survey give over 10%.  The highest percentage was 15%.  And these seven extravagant givers weren’t all at the top of the salary scale.  I was humbled to read the amounts they were giving that made up 10-15%.  We have several who are “widows” giving “mites” (see Mark 12:41-44).  Most of us think we need to be making a lot of money before we can tithe.  But that’s not really how it works.  It is unlikely that you will be faithful with much if you have not been faithful with little.  By many accounts, John D. Rockefeller is the richest man who ever walked the face of the earth.  He was also a devout Christian.  He liked to say, “I never would have been able to tithe the first million dollars I ever made if I had not tithed my first salary, which was $1.50 per week.”

The third commitment to give is to give generously.

4.     Give regularly

The fourth commitment to give is to give regularly.  Let’s look at some more instruction that Paul gave to the church at Corinth:

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.
1 Corinthians 6:2 NLT

Paul’s basic idea here is that at the beginning of the week when you get paid, set aside your tithe for God.  Every week.  Whether you’re able to make it to worship or not.  Whether you’re in town or not.  Whether you’re on vacation or not.  You pay your mortgage payment whether you’re on vacation or not.  Why do you skip giving to God?  The IRS understands human nature.  At first they allowed you to save up your tax and pay it at the end of the year, but in 1943 they got smart.  They realized that no one had the self-discipline to save their money and give it all at the end of the year.  So they began withholding your taxes from your paycheck.  While you don’t have to give to the IRS cheerfully, you do have to give regularly.  Is the IRS greater than God?

So here’s what I’d suggest you do.  Give when you get paid, whenever that is.  The best way to do this is to automate the whole process.  I have automated almost everything in my financial life.  I pay very little attention to it.  I pay my mortgage and most other bills with my online bill pay.  Many of you pay your bills with electronic fund transfer.  I recently read a book titled The Automatic Millionaire.  The basic thesis of the book was this: if you want to grow your wealth, have money automatically deducted from your paycheck and put into a retirement investment.  That’s all there was to the book.  Automate it.  If it works with becoming a millionaire, then it will also work with your giving to God.  Sarah and I have automated our giving through our online bill pay so that immediately after I get paid, a check is sent to the church.  Many of you give through electronic fund transfer (EFT).  This winter has been pretty tough at times on attendance.  It would have been even harder on the church if we didn’t have people faithfully giving through EFT.  Give regularly and the easiest way to give regularly is to automate it.

John Wesley, a mentor of mine from afar through his writings, said this about money: “Money never stays with me.  It would burn me if it did.  I throw it out of my hands as soon as possible, lest it should find its way into my heart.”  He knew that where your money is, there your heart will be also.  Give regularly so that your heart is regularly with God.

You’ve heard me talk about giving today, but I’d like you to hear from Susan Kelley and her husband, Jason.  Susan works with the money behind the scenes at SCC.  She does our books, sends out financial statements, and is the office manager.  She not only organizes our money, but she and Jason also give, give cheerfully, give generously, and give regularly.  Here is Susan and Jason:

 

 

Commitment

I don’t know what level your commitment has been, but I know what level my commitment has been.  Today we are all invited to take one step in a new commitment.

Are you ready to grow one or more steps in your giving?

No, I am (we are) not ready to commit at this time.
Yes, I am (we are) ready to give for the first time.
Yes, I am (we are) ready to give regularly.
Yes, I am (we are) ready to give regularly from the “first fruits.”
Yes, I am (we are) ready to take the four-month tithe (10%) challenge.
Yes, I am (we are) ready to commit to tithing (10%) from this point on.
Yes, I am (we are) ready to be extravagant givers (over 10%).
Yes, I am (we are) ready to give automatically through Electronic Fund Transfer
Giving will be a priority in my (our) life, growing to include the following:

Giving will be the greatest joy in life. If I miss a week, I (we) will give twice as much the next week to keep faith with this commitment. I (we) will move closer to tithing (giving 10%) each year. The check to the church will be the first one I (we) write each month.

$ ____________ every week/month/quarter/year for an annual total of $ ____________ to the General Fund.

$ ____________ every week/month/quarter/year for an annual total of $ ____________ to Dr. Mir in Nicaragua.

$ ____________ every week/month/quarter/year for an annual total of $ ____________ to the Capital Campaign.

Name: __________________________________________ Date___________________

 

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Committed to Christ – Worship Attendance

March 25, 2014 by Leave a Comment

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Committed to Christ – Worship Attendance
Sycamore Creek Church
March 23/24, 2014
Tom Arthur
Matthew 13:3-9 

Peace friends!  Today we continue in our series asking the question: How committed are you?  How committed are you when it comes to your worship attendance?  We took an anonymous survey in February asking that question.  Here are the results:

Do you worship with the church?

1 – I attend worship about three to six times a year.
4 – I attend worship about once a month.
3 – I attend worship about twice a month.
13 – I attend worship about three times a month.
27 – I attend worship about four times a month.
24 – I almost never miss church, even when out of town.

We’re thankful for everyone who answered this survey honestly.  Today I’d like to explore this commitment through a story that Jesus told about a farmer.  Here’s the story:

Matthew 13:3-9 NLT
“Listen! A farmer went out to plant some seeds. As he scattered them across his field, some seeds fell on a footpath, and the birds came and ate them. Other seeds fell on shallow soil with underlying rock. The seeds sprouted quickly because the soil was shallow. But the plants soon wilted under the hot sun, and since they didn’t have deep roots, they died. Other seeds fell among thorns that grew up and choked out the tender plants. Still other seeds fell on fertile soil, and they produced a crop that was thirty, sixty, and even a hundred times as much as had been planted! Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand.”

In this story called a parable, we learn about different kinds of soil.  Of course the best soil is fertile soil, and fertile soil is soil that has been cultivated.  Those who have worked with soil know that cultivation takes time and energy and effort and regular attention.  I helped create a community garden in my neighborhood a couple of years ago and learned a lot about soil.  We made raised beds and created our own soil out of peat moss, vermiculite, and five different kinds of compost.  We had a lot of work to keep the weeds out and the nutrients and moisture in.  We were seeking to create soil that was “friable.”  That doesn’t mean you can fry it in the frying pan, but rather that it is easy to work with.  Our soil was almost like potting soil.  You could just dig your hands into it and transplant plants from one section of the garden to another.  It was good fertile soil and it took lots of time and energy to cultivate that soil.

The Point
The question this parable asks us today is: How fertile is the soil of your heart?  The point of today’s message is this: Worship is where the soil of your heart is made fertile.  In this story we encounter four different kinds of soil.  I’d like to look at each kind of soil as it relates to our worship attendance.

Footpath
The first kind of soil we encounter is a footpath.  This kind of soil is hard packed and nothing can grow on it.  The footpath is the state of our heart when we never attend worship.  The seeds of God’s grace have a very hard time finding any crack to get down into and grow.  The birds in the story equal every distraction in our culture that pulls your attention away from God.  Movies, media, celebrities, TV, radio, gossip, money, job, friends and every other thing pulls our hearts away from God.  The solution to the footpath is a rototiller.  Something massive has to happen to shake things up so that God can get the attention of this person.   These usually fall under one of three categories: trouble, transition, or tension.  I’m not suggesting that God makes the three things happen, but when they do happen our attention often turns toward God.  We notice our own limits and our humanity and we reach out to God.  The footpath of our heart takes a step toward being more fertile soil.

Shallow Soil
The second kind of soil we encounter in Jesus’ story is shallow soil.  Shallow soil is the state of our heart when we attend worship only a couple of times.  The hot sun equals the suffering in our lives that pulls us away from God.  There are no deep roots so when suffering comes—we lose our job or our marriage struggles or a child gets in trouble or we don’t have enough money to pay all our bills—the suffering pulls us away from God because our faith does not have deep roots.  I was speaking with someone recently who many years ago lost her husband to illness in the matter of a couple of weeks.  I asked her where God was at in the midst of this suffering.  She said she always felt God was present.  I asked her why this suffering didn’t pull her away from God.  She said it was because she continued to attend worship and was very active in her church.  I don’t know every person who regularly attends worship will never feel God’s absence in the face of suffering, but I think we are less likely to be pulled away from God by suffering when we are regularly attending worship.  The solution to shallow soil is more worship.  We need a dump truck of God on our hearts.  The soil of our hearts deepens and God’s grace finds soil that is able to plant deep roots.

Thorns
The third kind of soil we encounter in Jesus’ story is thorny soil.  Now we’re in a thorny situation!  Thorny soil is like the person who attends worship only occasionally when it’s convenient.  The thorns of this life choke out the tender shoots of God’s grace beginning to grow in our lives.  I know from experience that sometimes the plants that come up in the spring never get to the point where they bear any kind of fruit.  They never reach their full potential.  The solution to this kind of soil is that we need to pay more attention to the quality of the soil.  I’ve learned that a yard that has a lot of dandelions in it is probably calcium deficient.  Last year I put 300 pounds of calcium pellets on my yard to improve the quality for the grass and decrease the chance that dandelions would thrive.  I’m paying attention the quality of the soil of my yard.  Paying attention to the quality of the soil of your heart is what worship is all about.  We encounter God and respond with everything we’ve got.  We encounter God’s glory and respond with a heart full of praise.  We encounter God’s holiness and we respond with a heart that confesses.  We encounter God’s mercy and we respond with a heart that is thankful.  We encounter God’s love and we respond with a heart that is ready to join in God’s mission to this world.  Regular worship improves the quality of the soil of our heart so that the seeds of God’s grace can find a place to grow in our lives.

Fertile Soil
The last kind of soil we encounter in Jesus’ story is fertile soil.  Fertile soil in our hearts is created by regular and consistent worship attendance.  The results are that the seeds of God’s grace find a place to grow and produce a crop.  We are converted and our lives bear fruit.  We are sold out for God and become world changers!  We join fully in the adventure of God’s mission to save this world.  We seek to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem.  This can only happen most fully when we regularly put ourselves in the presence of God and God changes us.  I grew up in the church attending worship in one church almost all of the time.  When I was in college I took the first two years to attend different churches every week.  It was a good experience, and I was exposed to a broad range of God’s work in the world, but it was a shallow experience.  It wasn’t until I settled in one church and made a commitment to worship regularly with that one church that God really began to work some deep change in my life.   Cultivation of our hearts happens in large part by putting ourselves in the place where God has said he will show up.  You can’t produce spiritual passion all on your own.  You can’t just white knuckle your way into self-transformation.  All you can do is what you can do, and what you can do is get yourself to worship.  Then you wait for God to do what God does: transformation.

Multiplication
The end result of a heart that is full of fertile soil is multiplication.  Jesus said that the final kind of soil produced a crop that was thirty, sixty, and even a hundred times as much as had been planted.  Seeds produce plants.  Plants produce fruit.  Fruit produces seeds.  Seeds.  Plants.  Fruit.  Seeds.  Plants.  Fruit.  Multiplication!

This Easter our church is seeking to plant more seeds in more hearts than we have ever planted before.  We’re seeking to touch more people than we have ever touched.   Last year we had 297 people who attended worship in our two venues on Easter weekend.  This year we’re seeking to touch 350 people.  We’re doing that by being 1 church celebration Easter on 2 days in 3 locations with 4 services.  1 – 2 – 3 – 4.  To reach that many people we’re multiplying the options for people to worship, and we’re casting thousands of seeds into our community by way of post cards, invite cards, and flyers.  Will you commit this Easter to mailing three post cards and handing out three invite cards to friends, family, neighbors, and co-workers?  Will you hang up two or three flyers in areas where you hang out in our community?  I’m looking for 25 people who are willing to take 100 post cards and deliver them to your neighbors.  Stick them in the newspaper section of the mailboxes in your neighborhood or slide them in between the door and the seal of each house.  Will all of the seeds find fertile soil?  No.  Will 350 seeds find fertile soil?  That’s what we’re praying for.  Regular worship attendance cultivates the soil of your heart so that the seeds of God’s grace produce plants that produce fruit that multiplies God’s grace.

You’ve heard me talk about worship.  I’d like you to hear from someone whose commitment to attend worship rarely wavers.  He’s often in the background of worship, literally, but God is powerfully at work in and through him.  Meet Thomas Oates.

 

I don’t know what level your commitment has been, but I know what level my commitment has been.  Today we are all invited to take one step in a new commitment.

_ Today, I am not ready to make a commitment.
_ I will attend worship three to six times a year.
_ I will attend worship once a month.
_ I will attend worship twice a month.
_ I will attend worship three times a month.
_ I will attend worship four times a month.
_ As my health permits, I will never miss worship.
_ Worship will be a priority in my life, growing to include the following:

I will be passionate about worship as a true priority of my life. Bad weather, sports, or holidays will not keep me from attending worship. I will prepare the day before, so that I can arrive at worship without last-minute rushing. I will warmly greet those who sit around me. I will surround my friends and family with worship. Through worship I will seek to find strength, power, and direction to face the week.

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