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

October 13, 2015 by Leave a Comment

whatonearth

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

Peace friends!

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

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

“God is love.”
~1 John 4:8

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1.       I Feel Accepted Rather Than Ashamed

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

4.       I Worship Instead of Worry

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

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

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

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

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

5.       I Gain the Courage to Take Risks

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

* This was a sermon first preached by Rick Warren

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

October 6, 2015 by Leave a Comment

whatonearth

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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What’s A Team?

November 10, 2014 by Leave a Comment

coach

 

 

 

 

Put Me In Coach – What’s a Team?
Sycamore Creek Church
November 9/10, 2014
Tom Arthur

 

Put me in coach!

When I was growing up I played little league baseball every summer.  At the end of the summer the league would pick the best players from the various teams in our local league to play other local leagues in the first round of the Little League State Championship.  Every year I got a call to be on this team, but we never made it out of the local round.  When I was fourteen I didn’t get the call.  I apparently had an abundance of confidence because I assumed that I had just missed the call from the coach.  So I called him and told him I had missed the call and wanted to know when the first practice was.  He somewhat sheepishly informed that I had not missed the call, I just was not asked to be on the team.  I hung up the phone a little stunned that I wasn’t on the team and that my last season of Little League was over.  Or was it?  Apparently my call impressed the coach and a couple of days later he called me back and invited me to join the team.  It was an amazing team.  It felt like nothing could keep us back.  It felt like there wasn’t any competition that was too difficult to beat.  It wasn’t easy, but that year we were the first team in our local league to win the local round and advance to the regional tournament.  We felt invincible.  Until we actually began playing at that level.  We lost our first two games and were out of the tournament.  But oh, what fun to be part of a team that worked so well together!

Today we’re continuing a series we began last week called Put Me In Coach! The key thought for this whole series is this:

There are too many fans of the game and not enough players in the game.

It’s like football.  In football there are 22 people on the field in desperate need of rest and 22,000 people in the stands in desperate need of exercise.  It’s time to get out of the stands and get into the game.  This is a series about serving, volunteering, and getting in the game.  Last week we looked at three fundamentals of the game.  In the coming weeks we’re going to look at what your position is and who your coach is.  Today we’re looking at your team.  This game we play isn’t an individual sport game.  It’s a team sport.  You play the game on a team.  Today I want to look at three fundamentals of teamwork.

1.     A Team is United in Purpose & Calling
Throughout this series we’ve been studying what Paul, the first missionary of the church, had to say to the church of Ephesus.  The letter he wrote is known to us as the book of Ephesians in the Bible.  Ephesians is six chapters long, and I recommend you take some time this week to read through the book.  Very specifically we’re focusing on chapter four in this series.  Paul begins chapter four saying:

Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you [plural] to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God.
~Ephesians 4:1 NLT

Something that gets lost in translation is the plural version of “you.”  If you’ve ever studied a foreign language you know that in English there’s only one version of “you” and we use it to refer to you (singular) and y’all (plural).  But in Greek, the language that Paul was writing to the Ephesians, there are clearly different forms of “you” and the “you” in this verse is the plural version of “you” or “y’all.”  So Paul says, “I beg y’all to lead a life worth of your calling, for you have been called by God.”

We are one, but one person is a lonely person.  On the other hand, “one team” is a team of people ready to dive into a mission.  Y’all on this team are called by God to play this game.  Paul is begging you to live your individual life united with the life of your team to accomplish God’s mission in the world.

Throughout this series we’ve been watching some clips from the great classic sports movies.  There’s a great moment in Hoosiers when the coach realizes not everyone who has showed up for the practice is united together in one purpose.

 

In the same way that basketball is a “voluntary activity”, church is a “voluntary activity” too.  No one is putting a gun to your head to be here.  We want to welcome everyone and show compassion to everyone, but if you’re going to play this game on this team, you’ve got to be united in the purpose, mission, and goals of what we’re all about here at SCC.  Paul makes this abundantly clear when he says:

There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.
~Ephesians 4:4-6

Did you catch that?  One team!  One purpose!  One mission!  One calling!  Last week we explored in detail what that one purpose was.  Here are the three fundamentals of the game:

Q: What’s the Game?
A: Igniting authentic life in Christ and fanning it into an all consuming flame.

Q: How do we score?
A: When we help someone connect with Jesus and grow deeper in the character of Christ

Q: How do we win?
A: When we are all unified together ALL THE TIME serving to create environments where someone can connect and grow.

Two tools we use here at SCC to play the game in this way are www.assessme.org/2364.aspx.  If you’ve already taken assessme.org or if you do it during the month of November, you’ll be entered into a drawing to win two MSU basketball tickets.  So get online this week if you haven’t done so already and join the team.

We also use a tool that we call the Serve Interest Inventory.  It has a list of all the areas in our church where you can serve.  You circle the ones you’re interested in and someone who leads in that area will be in touch with you.  You’re not saying you’ll do it, you’re just expressing interest.  Download one here.  So make sure you fill one of those out this week and get on the team.

The first fundamental of teamwork is that a team is united in purpose and calling.

2.     A Team Knows the Competition

A team is also crystal clear about the competition.  Let’s make sure we are clear too.  The competition isn’t the church down the street.  We are one church with Trinity.  We are one church with Pennway Church of God.  We are one church with Riverview.  We are one church with Mt. Hope UMC.  We are one church with Mt. Hope “church of the flags.”  We are one church with Journey Life.  We are one church with Pilgrim Rest Baptist.  Yes, sometimes our family members embarrass us, but other churches are not the competition.

Rather, the competition is all the other things that compete for complete devotion to Jesus.  Paul says:

Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth.
~Ephesians 4:14 NLT

Several years ago I was at a friend’s house and picked up a catalogue sitting next to his couch.  It was full of audio books and seminars that had a kind of New Age self-help approach.  There was some good stuff in the catalogue.  Some of it was by people I had studied under.  But what really got me was the title of the catalogue.  It was called “Sounds True.”  Sounds True?!  Paul says we need to be careful with things that sound like the truth.  Or as Stephen Colbert calls it, “truthiness.”  So what is the competition?  What sounds true but isn’t?

I think it’s important to point out that sometimes we are our own worst competition.  When the team isn’t unified with a single purpose and mission and goal, then the team itself is the competition.  Consider this scene from the classic hockey movie, Miracle:

 

 

These guys are their own worst nightmare.  The first challenge the coach has is to get them unified as a team.  It is important to note at this point that I’m not talking about the absence of conflict.  Patrick Lencioni wrote a book about teamwork called the Five Dysfunctions of a Team.  He lists the lack of conflict as one of those dysfunctions.  Great teams welcome conflict and passionate debate of ideas.  It’s important to have this kind of conflict because if you don’t passionately debate the ideas, then you don’t come out committed to the decision once it’s made.  Being united is not the absence of conflict.  But it is conflict in the purpose of the mission, not in the purpose of your own ego.  So the first competition any teams faces is itself.

The second competition the church faces is personal decisions about priorities that distract from God.  All of us, those here and those not yet here, live a life of disordered loves.  We love the wrong things in the wrong proportion.  Anything that gets in the way of connecting with God or growing deeper in the character of Christ is the competition.  This could be your job or the pursuit of money.  It could be how often you travel and the mobility in our current society.  Sleep or the lack of sleep could be the competition.  Your own family can get in the way of connecting with God and growing in Christ.  Entertainment can be the competition.  Sports can get in the way.  Both sports that you play and the sports that you watch.  Education can be the competition.  When I first went to Duke I studied so hard that I neglected all kinds of important things in my spiritual life.  None of these things are necessarily competition, it is only when we have too much of a good thing or love them disproportionately that they become the competition.

One last competitor worth mentioning is injustice and oppression.  Sometimes we aren’t able to make decisions about our lives.  Sometimes the system we’re in makes the decisions for us.  We find ourselves in a job market that requires people to work seven days a week and not have time off for worship.  Or we are stuck in bondage to a pace of life that doesn’t let us get a good night’s sleep.  It is not only the individual’s choices that are the competition but the system that contributes to those individual choices are also the competition.

So let’s be crystal clear about the competition.  The competition isn’t the church down the street.  The competition is anything that keeps someone from connecting with God or growing in Christ.  The second fundamental of teamwork is that a team is clear about the competition.

3.     A Team Makes Every Effort
Let’s go back to Paul.  He says:

Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love. Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace.
~Ephesians 4:2-3 NLT

A team makes every effort.  They make every effort to stay united.  They make every effort to be humble.  They make every effort to be gentle.  They make every effort to be patient with one another.  They make every effort to allow for one another’s faults.  They make every effort be at peace with one another.  They make every effort to work toward their purpose, mission, goal, and calling.

There’s a great scene in The Blind Side where the coach responds to an injustice by the other team and the refs and in response gets an every-effort-response from his player:

 

 

What a great image of making “every effort” to STAY UNITED!  It results in scoring.  Let me emphasize again that this does not mean the absence of conflict.  Rather it means that we are humble in forgiveness.  If you’re wrong only 1% and your team member is wrong 99% then you confess your 1% (and don’t bring up percentages!).  It means that we give allowance for each others weakness, faults, and failures.  While we strive for excellence, perfection is not required.  We expect failure.  We cover one another’s backs when failure happens or when one of us is backed into a corner of our weakness.

We make every effort to be united by “being gentle” in correction with one another.  Let me give you some tips about how to be gentle in correction.  First, don’t do serious correction with one another on Sunday morning unless it is invited.  Set up some other time to talk to one another.  Second, make sure you know the difference between the “preaching voice” and the “pastoral voice.”  The voice and tone and approach I use in preaching is not the voice and tone and approach I seek to use when offering correction.  Third, a helpful tactic to gently correct is to lay out the facts and ask for input on what should be done about them from the person you’re correcting.  One time I had to fire a volunteer who was visiting a shut-in elderly woman.  The family of the shut-in didn’t want her visited anymore.  Instead of just coming out and “firing” her, I told her what the family had told me.  I then asked her what she thought should happen.  She said that she shouldn’t visit that shut-in anymore.  Right answer!  It was gentle and didn’t require me to be the bad cop.  Another time I caught a teenager under my care with alcohol.  Instead of calling his parents, I asked him what he thought needed to happen.  The teenager said that his parents should be told.  Right answer!  Then another time I had to talk to someone who was about to give a speech about a contentious issue.  I simply laid out the facts and asked what he thought should happen.  He expressed concern that the issue be brought up lightly.  Right answer!  We make every effort to remain united in purpose when we are gentle in correction.

Lastly, we make every effort to stay united in purpose and calling by “being patient” with the growth of others.  People don’t change overnight.  Look for the just noticeable improvements and celebrate them.  Extend your timeline for how long you think someone should change.  We all want justice with others and mercy for ourselves.  Extend mercy to others by being patient with the time it takes them to change.

Let’s review.  The fundamentals of teamwork are:

1. A team is united in purpose and calling.
2.  A team knows the competition.
3. A team makes every effort to stay united in purpose and calling by being humble, gentle, and patient with one another.

So here’s my question for you today.  Are you ready to be on the team?  If so, I invite you pray this prayer:

Prayer
Put me in God!  I don’t want to be watching the game at home.  I don’t want to be tailgating.  I don’t want to be in the stands.  I don’t want to be on the sidelines.  I don’t want to be on the bench.  I want to be in the game.  I want to be on the team.  Put me in coach!

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Remember Who You Are

September 17, 2013 by Leave a Comment

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Timothy – Letters to a Young Man: Remember Who You Are
Sycamore Creek Church
September 15/16, 2013
Tom Arthur
1 Timothy 4:14 & 2 Timothy 1:5-7

Peace friends!

Do you ever forget who you are?  You get so caught up in the problems surrounding you that pretty soon you feel like the problems are your whole identity?  Sometimes all the small problems in my life begin to add up and overwhelm my sense of who I am and who I’m called to become.  Sometimes my body distracts me with pain or anxiety.  Sometimes conflict with those around me crowds out who I am.  Or stress on time crowds out time with God where I remember who I am.  Sometimes I forget who I am, and then I realize that I’ve been playing to all my weaknesses rather than my strengths.  Other times sin bogs me down, and when I’m no longer living at the center of God’s will, I forget who I am.

When people talk to me about who they are and what they’re called to I often hear some pretty regular themes pop up.  Someone gets bogged down in a job that sucks the soul out of their life.  Or they begin to set their hearts on the accumulation of money, security & stability, respectability, and fame and pretty soon forget who they are.  Or others dig themselves so deep in a hole with bad choices and it is going to take so long to get out of that deep hole that they begin to forget who they are, even if they’re taking positive steps to get out of the hole.  I see people who are stressed on more than one front.  They’re fighting battles at home and at work at the same time.  Or home and school.  It’s exhausting, and pretty soon they forget who they are.  Sin gets in the way too.  Someone once told me, “I know it’s a sin and I’m going to do it anyway.”  The lure of the sin was blinding them to who they are.

Today we’re continuing in a series called Timothy – Letters to a Young Man.  It’s a Bible series where we’re exploring the two letters we have that Paul, the first missionary of the church, wrote to Timothy, a young church leader.  If you read between the lines there’s an impressive list of things that Timothy was struggling with and all of them threatened to make Timothy forget who he was.  Timothy was facing:

  1. Competing truth claims & “false teachers”
  2. People jumping ship
  3. Questions about how to organize the church
  4. Fanatics
  5. Theological and Biblical nitpickers (“Stupid and senseless controversies”)
  6. Hypocrites (“Holding to the outward form of godliness but denying its power”)
  7. Challenges to his young age
  8. Needy widows (Some who were freeloaders!)
  9. Questions about money and getting paid
  10. Physical ailments (Drink wine!)
  11. Social upheaval (converted slaves and slave holders)
  12. Expectation of persecution.

It’s enough to make one quit.  Timothy isn’t sure he’s up to the task.  He’s kind of like Steve Rogers before he become Captain America.

Dr. Abraham Erskine reminds Rogers of who he is.  What we’ll find as we read through the letters that Paul wrote to Timothy is that Paul is a spiritual friend and mentor who reminds Timothy who he is.  That’s the whole point of the message today: Spiritual friends remind us who we are.

Remember Your Calling
In the face of all these obstacles that Timothy is facing, Paul regularly reminds Timothy of who he is and his calling in life.  Here are two key places where Paul does that: 

1 Timothy 4:14 – Do not neglect the gift that is in you [talents], which was given to you through prophecy with the laying on of hands [confirmation] by the council of elders. 

2 Timothy 1:5-7 – I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice [history] and now, I am sure, lives in you [passion].  For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God [talents] that is within you through the laying on of my hands [confirmation]; for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.

Notice that Paul points to several things that point to who Timothy is: his talents or the God-given gifts that are in him, the confirmation of the church through the laying on of hands (twice Paul reminds him of this!), his history or circumstances, and his passion or you might say the fire in his belly.

Who Are You or What’s Your Calling?
What’s your calling?  Who you are is wrapped up a lot in the sense you have about your calling, your vocation.  “Vocation” is Latin for “to call.”  If you want some clues to what you’re called to do find a spiritual friend who will help you sort through your history, passion, talent, and confirmation.  What if it’s not clear after that?  It rarely is crystal clear, and in some ways I think our calling is a moving target.  But sometimes I get people talking to me who are looking for big stupendous things to be called to when our calling may be much more simple than that: to be a loving member of our family, church, community, and world.  Here’s one calling that all of you have.  If you ever wonder what God wants of you, here’s the answer: to be holy, to be set apart to love more perfectly.  If you seek holiness, a more perfect love, then you can say with Paul: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. From now on there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness…” (2 Timothy 4:7-8).

Who Reminds You Who You Are?
I have several people in my life who are spiritual friends who remind me who I am both past and present.  In there are two key groups of people who reminded me who I am.  First was a thirty-four week Bible study group called Disciple Bible Study.  Week thirty-three is a day-long retreat.  During that retreat you spend time going around sharing with one another what you see in each other in terms of your gifts and calling.  I did not yet have a sense that I was called to be a pastor, but all twelve people in that group told me that day that they thought I was.  Whoa!  Here is the confirmation of the church, the “laying on of hands.”

Eventually I went to seminary, and I was appointed to an internship at a church in Richmond, VA called Reveille.  While I was in seminary studying to be a pastor, I had never really had a whole community treat me like a pastor until that summer.  As far as they were concerned, I wasn’t just a student studying to be a pastor, I was their pastor!  That summer I became a pastor because the church treated me like one.  They reminded me who I am.

Most of you know Barb Flory, the founding pastor of this church.  I remember our first meeting together.  I cried.  That’s not really what you’re supposed to do when you’re exploring being a leader of a community.  Leaders don’t cry.  But Barb saw something in me that told her that I was the right person for this church.  She regularly reminds me of that.  It always seems to come when I’m feeling overwhelmed with the responsibilities of leading the church.

Then there’s my friend, Jon Van Dop, another pastor.  Jon and I meet regularly to discuss what we’re celebrating and what obstacles we’re facing as a pastor.  As I think back on these meetings, it’s somewhat humorous.  First he goes and dumps on me.  I tell him how awesome he is and what a good job he’s doing.  Then I dump on him, and he tells me how awesome I am and what a good job I’m doing.  We remind each other of who we are and what God has called us to.

Who is reminding you of who you are?  What spiritual friends do you have in your life who are being a Paul to you?

Who Do You Remind Who They Are?
So if each of us needs a Paul in our lives, we also each need a Timothy in our lives, someone we’re reminding regularly who they are.  For all of this is first our family.  Every night when Micah goes to bed, I tell him, “You are a gift from God to me and your mom.”  I remind him who he is.  I hope that when he’s sixteen I’m still reminding him that he is a gift from God, even if it doesn’t feel like it.

Of course, don’t just stick with your family.  Who outside your family are you reminding who they are?  When I lived in Petoskey I gathered together a group of high school guys for a weekly small group.  We began by reading the book, How To Find the Love of Your Life by Neill Clark Warren.  This was before Warren had founded e-harmony.  Then we moved on to the book of Romans in the Bible.  This wasn’t a huge group.  Three or four, sometimes five, guys.  Their assignment each week was to read a chapter and bring something to the group that they found interesting.  We were planning to end the year with a backpacking trip where we finished out the book of Romans.

Most of the guys in this group were seniors and were graduating at the end of the year.  One morning I woke up and went out to get the paper.  I read the paper and was surprised to read a headline: “Petoskey senior trip canceled after stampede.”  Whoa!  Apparently the seniors went on a wild rampage the last day of school running around the halls tipping over trash cans and pushing a teacher over.  Their annual trip to Cedar Point was canceled by the school board.  As I read the article, I saw the names of three of the guys in my small group as the three “ring leaders.”  The most interesting thing about it was that all three of the guys listed were quoted as taking responsibility and apologizing for what had happened.  It may sound strange, but I was particularly proud of those three guys.  I was proud to say that they were in a small group with me.  We all forget who we are and do stupid stuff, but I believe that it was at least in part because of that small group that they had not forgotten long.  They were the only ones named as having publicly apologized.  The next small group meeting was quite a time of discussion.  I didn’t cancel the backpacking trip to finish out the book of Romans.

One of the guys in that group was Charlie Matz.  I asked Charlie to make a video introducing himself and telling you a bit about what effect that backpacking trip and studying the book of Romans had on him.  Meet Charlie:

 

 

Charlie began a video production company called The Veracity Project.  Veracity means “truth.” They have made dozens of videos that seek to remind others who they are and have sold over 30,000 downloads and reached millions all over the world.  One of those videos stars his co-founded Bub.  It’s called “Big But.”

 

Big But – The Veracity Project from Do Something Church on Vimeo.

So who do you remind them of who they are?  Who is your Timothy?

Where To Find Your Spiritual Friend
So you’re convinced you need a spiritual friend to remind you of your big buts, and you need to be a spiritual friend to someone to remind them who they are.  But where do you find that spiritual friend?  We can’t make spiritual friendship just happen at SCC, but we can create environments where spiritual friendships can be made.  The place where that happens most is in small groups.  Throughout the month of September we’re publishing a list of all the small groups that are happening during the fall semester.  Small groups aren’t a magic wand to spiritual friendships, but they are the best thing we’ve got.  Because you’re not going to build these kind of spiritual friendships in a worship service.  It’s just too big of an environment.   You need something smaller.  Insert: small groups.  There’s a lot of buts about why you can’t get into a small group.  One of them has been: But when does it end?  You mean I’m supposed to sign up to meet with a bunch of people I don’t know for the rest of my life?  Well, no.  We’re switching this fall to a semester based small group system.  You sign up for a semester.  That’s it.  If you like the small group, great.  If you don’t like, well, it’s only three months.  At the end of the semester, the sign-ups begin again.

Spiritual Friends Change the World
What would it look like if we all had a spiritual friend who was reminding us who were and if we were regularly being that kind of spiritual friend to someone else?  I think we’d change the world.  Consider this fact for one moment: Jesus reminded twelve disciples of who they were – now there’s over two billion!  Who is your Paul?  Who is your Timothy?  Who is your spiritual friend that is reminding you who you are?  Who is your spiritual friend who you are reminding them of who they are?

God, help us find the spiritual friends we need.  Amen.

Timothy Reading Plan

Throughout this series I’m recommending that you read a chapter of 1 & 2 Timothy each day.  Someone who is doing this found this suggestion organizing your reading.  I thought it might be helpful so I pass it on to you.  It is from the great Bible App, You Version (download it and check it out):

First Reading: Enter
As you read this passage of scripture for the first time, you are simply “entering in” or familiarizing yourself with what God is saying here.  Notice the circumstances, people, places, etc.

Second Reading:  Impress
As you read the same passage of scripture for the second time, notice what word, phrase, sentence or verse makes an “impression” on you.

Third Reading:  Pray
As you read this passage of scripture for the third time, begin by spending a few moments in prayer thanking and praising God for his Holy Word.  As you read, be prayerfully interacting with God about the text.

Fourth Reading:  Live
In this final reading of the passage, ask God to show you how He wants you to live based on this scripture.  Is there something He would have you start doing, stop doing or continue doing?

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