H.A.B.I.T.S. – Tithing
Psalm 62, Genesis 14:19-20, Matthew 6:19-21
Sycamore Creek Church
Tom Arthur
October 18, 2009

Comment on this sermon at www.sycamorecreekchurch.org/pastorblog

Note to reader: This is a manuscript and not a transcript.  While I prepare a manuscript, I don’t preach from it.  All the major points are here, but there are bound to be some small differences from the sermon as it was preached live.  Also, expect some “bonus” material that wasn’t in the live sermon.

Peace Friends!

What would it be like to win the lottery and get rich quick?  Growing up my dad used to bring home lottery tickets to let his kids pick the numbers.  When I was in 3^rd or 4^th grade I almost won $3.5 million.  I picked all the right numbers except the last one: 29, which is the day of my birthday.  Instead of $3.5 million, I got $1500.  Actually, my parents gave me $25 of it, and made me put $20 in savings.  I ended up with only $5!  I asked my dad about this recently, and he told me that if we had won that $3.5 million jackpot, our lives would have been seriously messed up.  He’s actually happy we didn’t win it!  He’s happy we didn’t strike it rich.

I heard a story similar to this on the radio show This American Life (This American Life #329 – Nice Work…: www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=329).  Ira Glass, the host of the show interviewed Ed Ugel, who used to be in the lump sum industry.  He was part of a business that helped lotto winners get out of debt by buying their future lottery payments with an immediate lump sum.  The problem lotto winners always get into is that they begin to live like millionaires.  What they don’t realize is that a million dollars over twenty years ends up being only $35,000/year after taxes.  When you’re making $35,000/year, you can’t live like a millionaire.  Ed Ugel claimed that the “financially troubled lottery winners are the rule, not the exception” and the show described winning the lottery as akin to “getting cancer.  Not just a mixed blessing but a catastrophe”!

Today’s sermon is not about giving to the church.  It is about money.  I  know that we are using the word “tithing” in the acronym of the series, but that’s only because H.A.B.I.M.S. is not a word (even though it does sound a bit like a Hebrew word).  Let’s take a moment and review where we’ve been.

H – Hang Time with God

A – Accountability

B – Bible Study and Memorization

I – Involvement with the Church

T – Tithing

S – Serving your Community (next week).

Before we dive in to today’s sermon, will you take a moment and pray for me and for those around you.

God, money is a pretty touchy subject.  May the words of my mouth in this sermon, and the meditations of all our hearts be pleasing and acceptable to you, our Rock and our Redeemer.  Amen.

So we were talking about getting rich quick by winning the lottery.  It probably won’t solve all your money problems.  But it also raises the question, who is rich?  How much do you have to make to be considered rich?  Anyone want to claim being rich?  Most of us probably don’t consider ourselves rich.  I’d like to challenge us a bit on this self conception.

John Wesley gives a very clear and easily understood definition of what it means to be rich.  He says, “Whoever has sufficient food to eat and raiment [clothing] to put on, with a place where to lay his head, and something over, is rich” (Sermon 87 – The Danger of Riches: http://new.gbgm-umc.org/umhistory/wesley/sermons/87/).  Umm…I’ve got food.  Check.  I’ve got plenty of clothing.  Check.  I’ve got a beautiful house that you all have provided for us.  Check.  I have money left over in the bank.  Check.  Ahem…I’m rich.  Anyone want to claim being rich under that definition?

There’s a great tool on the internet put out by Dr. Amy K. Glasmeier at Pennsylvania State University.  It’s a living wage calculator (www.livingwage.geog.psu.edu).  You plug in a zip code and it tells you what it costs in your area for food, child care, medical, housing, transportation, other, and taxes.  More or less the basics of life.  Here’s what it says is a yearly living wage for Lansing, MI:

One adult: $16,735

One adult & one child: $32,736

Two adults: $25,686

Two adults & one child: $41,757

Two adults & two children: $54,346.

Now it’s always tricky to nail down numbers like this, but this gives us at least a place to begin conversation.  Give or take on these numbers, they let us begin to ask some deeper questions about our money and whether we have “something left over.”

So what does the Bible teach about our money, the way we make and what we do with it?  There are hundreds and hundreds of verses on money, and I think a simple way of summing up what the Bible teaches about money is to make all you can, save all you can, and give all you can (John Wesley – Sermon 50: The Use of Money http://new.gbgm-umc.org/umhistory/wesley/sermons/50).  You may have heard this maxim before.  If so, stick with me as I unpack it.  I might have something to add that you haven’t thought about before.

First, let’s begin with make all you can.  Perhaps the most obvious part of this statement left unsaid is that you make all you can in ethical ways, in ways that don’t hurt other people.  Psalm 62 says, “Don’t try to get rich by extortion or robbery” (62:10).  Earn your living in ways that don’t conflict with how we are to love God and love our neighbor.

There is a very early church membership booklet from the 3^rd century (200s AD) called the Apostolic Tradition.  It would be the three-ring binder you received if you were going through the early church’s membership class.  One of the points of following Jesus that this membership book covers is how you earn a living.  It lists several professions that are considered incompatible with following Jesus.  We may not agree with everything on the list, or the situation may have changed for today, but we can probably agree that if you’re going to fully follow Jesus, there are some ways of earning money that aren’t consistent with his teachings.  The Apostolic Tradition lists these professions as inconsistent with following Jesus: brothel owners, prostitutes, idol makers, actors (because the Greek plays of the day promoted other religions), teachers of small children (because teachers were expected to teach children other religions), soldiers (if you were already a solider you were allowed to remain a soldier if you agreed not to kill anyone), gladiators (the obvious killing theme pops up again), charioteers, priests of idols, government law enforcement (because you might have to kill someone), magicians, and so on.  Again, we might not agree completely with the specifics of this list, but the idea behind it is that we should think about whether our money making ventures are consistent with following Jesus.

Maybe a less obvious and more subtle way this plays out in today’s world of finance has to do with how we earn money in the stock market.  When we own part of a company and we’re making money off that company, aren’t we then somewhat responsible for how that company is making its money?  What if that company is participating in illegal behavior, or profiting off of sweat shop labor in another country, or discriminating against a certain group of people, or polluting the environment?  If we own a stock in that company or if that company is in a mutual fund that we own, aren’t we then at least a little responsible for the harm that company is doing to others?

Sarah and I are trying to give up entirely on credit cards.  This doesn’t have to do with debt.  We have always paid off the balance at the end of every month.  We have only ever used credit cards as a convenience and to earn points.  But a year or two ago someone very dear to us went through a bankruptcy, and we realized that we were in bed with the predatory lending practices of these credit card companies that contributed to (though was not at total fault for) this bankruptcy just so we could get some free airfare every couple of years.  We decided that we just didn’t want to have anything to do with this industry.  So we’re pulling out.

Make all you can, but do it in ways that don’t harm others.

Second, save all you can.  This doesn’t mean to put money in the bank and save it, though that can be a good practice.  Rather, it means to live simply, to be frugal.  The most obvious way to save all you can is to not spend more than you make. According to MSN Money:

• About 43% of American families spend more than they earn each year ($1.22 for every dollar they make).
• Average households carry some $8,000 in credit card debt (An $8,000 debt at a rate of 18% interest will take more than 25 years to repay and cost more than $24,000).
• Personal bankruptcies have doubled in the past decade.

Debt is a dead weight around our necks and our souls.  We live in a culture that constantly tells us we’ll be happy with one more thing.  The truth is, when you get that one more thing, there will always be just one more thing you “need.”  Alexis de Tocqueville, a Frenchman who visited America between 1831-1832 and wrote a painfully accurate description of what he saw said,

“It must be acknowledged that equality, which brings great benefits into the world, nevertheless suggests to [people]… some very dangerous propensities. It tends to isolate them from each other, to concentrate every [one’s] attention upon [oneself]; and it lays open the soul to an inordinate love of material gratification.”

In Romans, Paul tells us to “owe no one anything, except to love one another” (13:8).  One group that is trying to do that is the Junky Car Club (www.junkycarclub.com).  Have you heard about them?  Their motto is “living with less so we can give more.”  They encourage people to stick with their old car and not buy a new one.  This is one way that we could live simply, but you could create a Junky fill-in-the-blank Club around just about anything (clothes, house, food, etc.).

So what do you do with the money you save?  That brings us to our last point:  Give all you can.  Certainly this is where giving to your church comes in, but it means more too.  Let’s begin with giving to your church the tithe.  “Tithe” literally means one tenth.  Throughout scripture, especially in the Old Testament, God asks people who would follow God to give the first tenth of their earnings to the temple to support the temple and through the temple to support the poor in the community.

We find this first not as a command, but as a spontaneous response of Abram (later renamed Abraham) to the priest Melchizedek.  In Genesis Abram meets Melchizedek after going on a rescue mission to save his nephew, Lot.  After restoring Lot and his goods to freedom, Genesis tells us that:

¹⁹ Melchizedek blessed Abram with this blessing: “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth. ²⁰ And blessed be God Most High, who has helped you conquer your enemies.” Then Abram gave Melchizedek a tenth of all the goods he had recovered. (Genesis 14:19-20, NLT)

Abram gives one tenth of the spoils to Melchizedek, the priest of God.  It’s not commanded him at this point.  It is done out of thanksgiving to what God has done in Abram’s rescue mission.

When I was growing up my mom taught me about tithing by giving me a weekly allowance of ten dimes.  She also had a set of envelopes for each of us.  One of those envelopes was labeled savings.  One was labeled tithe.  I don’t remember what the others were labeled.  Each week when we I got my ten dimes, one of those dimes went in the tithing envelope, and that’s what I put in the offering that Sunday.

Tithing is the ground floor of giving.  But there is more, much more.  Jesus teaches in Matthew:

¹⁹ “Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where they can be eaten by moths and get rusty, and where thieves break in and steal.  ²⁰ Store your treasures in heaven, where they will never become moth-eaten or rusty and where they will be safe from thieves.  ²¹ Wherever your treasure is, there your heart and thoughts will also be (Matthew 6:19-21, NLT).

Psalm 62 says, “If riches increase, do not set your heart on them” (62:10, NRSV). 

The best way not to store up treasures or not set your heart upon increasing riches is to give those treasures away.  I’m not talking here about giving to the church.  I’m talking about giving to the needs that are around you both in your community and the world.  Certainly there are times, like this month with Compassion Closet, when your church gives you an opportunity to give to the needs of the community through the church, but there are all kinds of opportunities beyond that.

Most of us if we were living simply could give much more than 10% away.  Rick Warren is something of a lighting rod individual these days.  As his political involvement has gone up, some people hate him and some people love him.  Love him or hate him, something that deeply impresses me about Rick Warren is the way he has handled his personal finances after becoming rich from selling millions and millions of books.  He and his wife have decided to reverse tithe.  They live on 10% of their income and give 90% away.  He even paid back his church for all the salary they’ve ever paid him!  It’s hard to argue with a lifestyle like that.

While Sarah and I haven’t sold millions of books, we have decided to follow a similar method of handling our personal finances.  We have set a ceiling of how much we will live on.  It is much higher than the living wage I spoke about earlier, but it is a first step for us of saving all we can and giving all we can.  Personal finances tend to be something of a taboo in our culture, and I’d like to break some of that taboo down today by sharing with you what we make and how we spend our money.  I’m trying not to do this to make a show of myself and Sarah, but rather to begin an open and authentic conversation about what it means to follow Jesus with our money.  So here goes:

You know what I make because you vote on it:  I make $40,000/year in salary and the benefits include a house to live in, utilities paid, health insurance, and a pension.  It all adds up to about $77,000.  Sarah writes books and her income fluctuates up and down.  Some years she’s floating in money and other years she’s not making anything.  Sarah and I have covenanted with a group of friends from seminary to live at about $36,000/year salary plus benefits.  That’s our ceiling.  That means that we’ll have the joy of giving away everything that Sarah makes.  We came up with that number because it’s the base salary that each United Methodist Church is required to pay its pastor.  (This, by the way, is not an invitation to be cheap to us in the future.  That would be robbing us of the joy of giving money away!)  The friends from seminary that we have covenanted with to live like this plan to get together yearly to share our tax return forms with one another to hold one another accountable to living under this ceiling and to discern together all the questions that will arise by trying to live like this.

So that’s the income side of things.  Let’s look now at the expense side of things.  Here’s how we’ve spent our money so far this year:

Charity: 4705

Petoskey House Mortgage: 4312

Groceries: 3900

Auto: 2368

Rent while at Seminary: 2062

Property Tax: 1602

Health Insurance: 1360

Petoskey Utilities: 1292

Vacation: 1288

Computer: 1282

Insurance: 1253

Loan Money: 1242

Cash: 1080

Household: 972

Clothing: 866

Dining: 730

Dates: 701

Sarah’s Business: 596

Medical: 584

Education: 331

Taxes: 321

Utilities: 263

Books: 243

Tax Prep: 225

Reimbursement: 164

Entertainment: 141

Business Inventory: 124

Gifts: 119

Newspaper: 76

Bank Fee: 60

What you don’t see there is the debt we currently have.  We have about $5000 in debt right now that we hope to have paid off by the end of next year.  We were able to graduate from seminary debt free but not make it to a first pay check debt free.

I share this with you not to puff up Sarah and me.  I share it for two reasons: first, it is an act of accountability for me to tell you what our plans are to live under a ceiling and give the rest away.  Second, because the taboo around personal finances isn’t consistent with following Jesus.  You need to have someone else in your life besides your family, with whom you’re sharing information about what you make and how you spend it.  This person can then hold you accountable to making all you can in honest and ethical ways, saving all you can by living simply, and then giving all you can beginning with a tithe and then even more.

Will you pray with me?

God, you give us an abundance beyond what we can even imagine.  Help us to live into ways of using our money that are consistent with following your son, Jesus.  May this be true in our lives through Jesus and by the power of the Holy Spirit.

H.A.B.I.T.S. – Serving
Leviticus 19:1-10, 18
Sycamore Creek Church
Tom Arthur
October 25, 2009

Comment on this sermon at www.sycamorecreekchurch.org/pastorblog

Note to reader: This is a manuscript and not a transcript.  While I prepare a manuscript, I don’t preach from it.  All the major points are here, but there are bound to be some small differences from the sermon as it was preached live.  Also, expect some “bonus” material that wasn’t in the live sermon.

Peace friends!

Today we conclude our series on H.A.B.I.T.S. with serving the community.  Let’s take a moment to remember where we’ve traveled thus far.  We began by exploring how Jesus practices so that if want to be like Jesus, we can practice like Jesus.  Jesus “hung out” with God.  He meditated, prayed, and taught confession to God.  Then we explored the role of accountability or giving a true account of yourself to others.  The third week, Sarah taught about memorizing passages and verses in your Bible and studying your Bible.  After that Mark, explored what it means to be involved with the church: being involved in people’s lives.  Last week we heard about tithing and the role that plays in the larger issue of how we make and spend our money.  I taught that we are to make all we can in ways that don’t hurt others, we are to save all we can by living simply, and then we are to give all we can above and beyond even the tithe or 10% of our income.  And today we conclude by looking at serving our community.

Before we get to serving, I’d like to remind you of two things I said when we began this series.  First, these habits aren’t a quick fix.  They are a process.  The change in your life won’t come overnight.  There is no money-back-guarantee to fixing all your problems.  To say so would be falling into the consumer culture’s fixation with immediate gratification.  Change and transformation do sometimes happen instantaneously, but the general rule is that God changes us not in an instant but over time by forming within us habits of more perfectly loving God and our neighbor.

Second, it’s not so much the habits that change us, although they do make some impact in and of themselves.  Rather, the habits we’ve been talking about are habits that put one in the presence of God.  When we spend time in God’s presence, God’s character begins to rub off on us and we become more like God.  When you put God’s character in the flesh, it looks like Jesus.  So when we spend time with God, we begin to look more and more like Jesus.  God does all the heavy lifting here.  It’s not our self-discipline to practice these habits that changes us; it’s our self-discipline that puts us in the presence of God so that God can change us.  To think that we are the ones who are doing the changing, is to fall into the trap of mixing up the means with the end.  That’s what we call “religion” around here.  The end is God.  The means are the practices and habits that put us in God’s presence.

So on to serving.  Let’s read God’s story for us today found in Leviticus 19:1-10 and verse 18:

¹ The LORD also said to Moses,

² “Say this to the entire community of Israel:

You (y’all) must be holy because I, the LORD your (y’all’s) God, am holy.

³ Each of you (y’all) must show respect for your mother and father,

and you (y’all) must always observe my Sabbath days of rest,

for I, the LORD, am your (y’all’s) God.

⁴ Do not put your (y’all’s) trust in idols or make gods of metal for yourselves.

I, the LORD, am your (y’all’s) God.

⁵ “When you (y’all) sacrifice a peace offering to the LORD, offer it properly so it will be accepted on your (y’all’s) behalf. ⁶ You (y’all) must eat it on the same day you (y’all) offer it or on the next day at the latest. Any leftovers that remain until the third day must be burned. ⁷ If any of the offering is eaten on the third day, it will be contaminated, and I will not accept it. ⁸ If you eat it on the third day, you will answer for the sin of profaning what is holy to the LORD and must be cut off from the community.

⁹ “When you (y’all) harvest your (y’all’s) crops, do not harvest the grain along the edges of your fields, and do not pick up what the harvesters drop. ¹⁰ It is the same with your grape crop — do not strip every last bunch of grapes from the vines, and do not pick up the grapes that fall to the ground. Leave them for the poor and the foreigners who live among you, for I, the LORD, am your (y’all’s) God…

¹⁸ “Never seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone,

but love your neighbor as yourself.

I am the LORD.

This is God’s story for us today!

We’re going to be doing some Bible study today.  So we’d better begin with a prayer.

God, what do you have to teach us today?  May your Holy Spirit bring light to our eyes, hearing to our ears, understanding to our minds and love in our hearts so that we might come away from this time of preaching having truly encountered you, and transformed a little more into the likeness of your son, Jesus Christ.  In the name of Jesus Christ and by the power of your Holy Spirit, may it be true.  Amen.

Today I’d actually like to talk about holiness.  “Ummm…,” you think, “I thought we were talking about service.”  Hang in there.  Let’s begin with holiness.

What does it mean to be holy?  Usually when we hear the word “holy” we tend to think of it in negative terms: no cussin, no drinkin, no smokin, no dancin, and absolutely no fornicatin (although if you’re married you can have sex as long as you don’t enjoy it too much).  That’s our popular idea of what the word “holy” means, but what does it mean here in Leviticus?  Holiness is a central theme of the book of Leviticus.  It might even be said that the major theme of the book is to define what it means to be holy.  In fact, in Leviticus “holiness is…to be understood, not as one attribute among other attributes, but as the innermost reality to which all others are related” (Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, “Holiness” by J. Muilenburg).  If it’s that central to this major book of the Bible, we should probably have an idea of what holiness is all about.  So let’s take a look and see.

First, holiness has to do with forming a holy community.  In verse two Moses is told to say these things “to the entire community.”  Not just a part of the community but the entire community.  It has to do with everyone.  Not just the priests.  Not just the leaders.  Not just the old or the young.  Holiness is for everyone.

Holiness aims toward building holy communities, not just holy individuals.  The whole point of this chapter can be found in verse two when God says, “You must be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy.”  I’ve explained before how “you” in the Bible is often plural, but English doesn’t have a plural “you.”  The closest we have is perhaps the colloquial southern expression “y’all.”  So when we read this verse, read it with “y’all” in place of “you” and you’ll get the gist better: “Y’all must be holy because I, the LORD y’all’s God, am holy.”

In the English, it sounds like God is speaking to an individual, but in the Hebrew it’s clear that God is speaking to a community of people.  God is calling a community of people to be holy.  Why?  Because God is holy.  This community is to reflect the character and virtue of the God who has called this community of people out from being no people, out from slavery in Egypt, out of the wilderness, out of sin, and set apart to be friends with God and to become like God.  Y’all be holy because I, your God, am holy.

So then God goes on to explain how exactly this is to happen.  The people of God, Israel, are given specific instructions about what this looks like on the ground.  We’re not going to look at the entire chapter today, though I’d encourage you to read through it on your own.  I’d like to focus on verses five through ten.

Beginning with verse five we’ve got an instruction to be holy by making a “peace offering.”  What exactly is a “peace offering”?  It is one among many kinds of offerings prescribed in Leviticus including the guilt offering, sin offering, burnt offering, and grain offering.  Each kind of offering has a unique purpose, place, and time.  The peace offering’s purpose is “a covenant meal which served to affirm the relationship between the worshipper, God, and the community of believers” (Eerdman’s Bible Dictionary, “Peace Offering” by Hemchand Gossai).  Notice that this kind of offering reinforces the communal aspect of holiness.  In verse six God says, “You (y’all) must eat it.”  It’s eaten together.  It’s like a big festival.  It’s like dessert at the Arthurs.  The food is important but the fellowship is the point.

Thus, the peace offering has to do with building holy community, holy friendships.  Israel is commanded to sit around and share food with one another.  This is what their “offering” is for.  To build relationships.  Isn’t that really what our offering is about that we give each Sunday morning: to build loving friendships in this family that we call Sycamore Creek Church?  An offering has to do with building friendship, not just with God but with one another.

So right after the instruction to give a peace offering is an instruction about how to harvest one’s crop.  Notice how the two go together.  Strategically placed throughout chapter nineteen are many occurrences of the phrase: “I, the LORD, am your (y’all’s) God.”  In the part we’re looking at today, it comes at the end of verse three, four, and ten.  This phrase is, I think, shorthand for remembering the point of this chapter: “Y’all be holy, because, I, your God, am holy.”

This phrase also acts as a way of putting things together that go together.  In verse three respecting your parents and observing the Sabbath go together.  Now, you ask me, why do these go together?  Perhaps it is because observing the Sabbath isn’t just a day off for ourselves, but a day to build friendship with our family (more on that in a couple of weeks).  Verse four has only one idea: don’t worship idols.  But then verses five through ten are put together: instructions about offerings and harvesting.  What do these two have to do with each other?  Why are they paired together?

Here’s why I think they’re paired together.  The offering has to do with friendship with God and one another, and how we handle our food in the “harvest” or in going to the grocery store today, has to do with how we nurture friendships with those around us, especially the poor.

Traditionally what is happening in verses nine and ten is called “gleaning.”  Israel is commanded not to harvest every bit of every field.  They are commanded to leave some for the poor.  We’re talking about one’s “back yard” here.  It might be like saying, when you harvest those tomatoes from your backyard garden, leave some for the poor in your neighborhood to come and harvest too.  “Not in my back yard,” you say.  But God says, “Yes, in your back yard.”  Invite the poor to your back yard.  What is the inevitable result of this?  Certainly it would mean getting to know the poor in your community.  Somebody can’t be in your back yard harvesting from your garden and you not know it or know who they are.

I think something that is going on here is that God is telling the Israelites to be friends with the poor around them.  Don’t just serve them, but invite them into your back yard and get to know them.  And in doing so, you’ll be making an offering to God!

There is a couple in our church who has been serving the poor in just such a way.  Deo and Darlene Wells organize the ministry: Great Food for All (www.greatfoodforall.com).  GFFA “gleans” what is left over from the restaurant distribution system and makes that food available to everyone in the community, poor and wealthy alike, at incredibly reasonable prices.  You order a box of food from them and you get about $70 of food for $30.  It is for everyone, and especially for those who are struggling financially.  A part of the purchase of every box goes towards buying more boxes that can be given away for free to those especially in need.  So the more boxes we buy, the more people we can serve for free.  Sarah and I bought two boxes for the first time recently and found it to be a very good experience.  In doing this ministry, Deo and Darlene and Great Food for All are living out in a modern way the principles behind Leviticus 19: saving some of the harvest for the poor.  Also, in doing so, Deo and Darlene are building relationships and friendships with a wide range of people in our community.  This is an offering to the Lord.  This is what it means to be holy.  Y’all be holy because God, our LORD, is holy.

There are several different people groups mentioned in Leviticus 19 besides just the hungry.  There are the poor, aliens/foreigners, employees, deaf, blind, slaves (thankfully we don’t have slaves anymore!), children, elderly, and even customers.  In each instance, God instructs Israel to build friendships with each by loving them.

This is summed up in verse eighteen: “love your neighbor as yourself.”  Sound familiar?  Jesus quoted this verse and said it was the second greatest commandment after loving God with everything you’ve got.  Jesus didn’t make that up.  He was a big fan of Leviticus.

Two closing thoughts: why focus here on friendship?  When I talk about serving the community, I want to emphasize building friendship with those around you because it’s something that only you can give.  The poor can give friendship back to you too.  Real genuine friendship.  The kind of friendship that means you know when someone is struggling so you know how to serve them.  This certainly happens with the poor, but it also happens with your neighbor.  Holiness, thus means serving your neighbor and the poor by loving them and being their friend.

Second, I’d like to share with you a piece of advice that my guidance counselor at Wheaton gave to me when I was a freshman.  He said, “Seek the call, not the need.”  I have found that needs are constantly swirling around me.  I can never meet them all, and I will go crazy trying to do so.  What this professor gave to me was the permission to say No so that I could say Yes with everything I had.  How this played out for me was that in my first year at Wheaton, my first year after graduating, and my first year at Duke were years when I was seeking God’s call rather than jumping at every need that presented itself.  What happened was that at Wheaton, I got significantly involved in a boys and girls club in the projects of Chicago during my sophomore year and continued through my senior year.  I ended up spending Wednesday nights tutoring, Saturday mornings at the park, and Sunday morning in Sunday school with these boys and girls.  Seeking the call rather than the need helped me focus my energy and time on building friendships with these boys and girls in significant ways.  After graduating and moving to Petoskey I focused my time in the local homeless shelter and then a bit later at Habitat for Humanity.  In both places I was able to build significant friendships with the poor.  At Duke I spent my first year trying to remember how to be a student again and then ended up moving into the Isaiah House, a Christian Hospitality House for women and children in transition, for the last two and a half years where I built stronger friendships with the poor than I had ever had before.  In each instance I sought God’s call, not just to fill whatever need first presented itself.  I think this was true to the spirit of Leviticus 19 which calls us to be holy by serving those around us through building a holy community of holy friendships.

What does it mean to be holy?   It means to be a community that befriends the weak and powerless among you, to be a community that befriends and serves your neighbor in love.

May it be true in our lives through the power of God whom we know as Father, Son and Holy Spirit!

Spiritual Practices – Forming HABITS*
Sycamore Creek Church
Tom Arthur
September 13, 2009
1 Corinthians 9:24-27

Peace friends!  We’re beginning a new series today on HABITS.  Usually when we think of a habit we’re talking about a bad habit.  What bad habits do you have?  One website[1] lists the top ten:

1. Gossip
2. Spitting in public
3. Cursing
4. Lecturing
5. Not washing hands
6. Slouching
7. Cracking knuckles
8. Biting your nails
9. Talking with mouth full
10. Procrastination.

But not all habits are bad.  Some are good as illustrated in Stephen Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.  These seven habits are:

1. Be Proactive
2. Begin with the End in Mind
3. Put First Things First
4. Think Win/Win
5. Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood
6. Synergize
7. Sharpen the Saw

Habits simply shape our lives.  They are patterns of behavior you get into and they move you in one direction or another.  The big question is, which direction are your habits moving you?  When my wife walks in the door after having been gone for the day, I have a habit of getting up and giving her a hug and kiss.  This habit is moving me toward a deeper and more loving marriage.  I am often tempted to remain in my chair and say, “Hey,” which would be a habit that would lead me away from a deeper and more loving marriage.

Over the next seven weeks we’re going to be talking about the good habits, the kind of habits that move you toward a deeper and more loving relationship with God and those around you.  These kinds of habits are only acquired through practice.  Well, actually good and bad habits  come through practice.  But usually bad habits come through easy practices while good habits require a kind of determination, effort, and some good ole fashioned elbow grease.

Let’s see what the Apostle Paul has to say about these kinds of habits:

24 Remember that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize. You also must run in such a way that you will win. 25 All athletes practice strict self-control. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize. 26 So I run straight to the goal with purpose in every step. I am not like a boxer who misses his punches.   27 I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified (1 Corinthians 9:24-27, NLT).

Here Paul compares these kinds of habits to the practices that an athlete does to prepare for a prize.  What is the prize that Paul is talking about here?  What prize are we training and practicing for?  Where are we heading?

I think there are two ways we can think about this prize.  The first is that the prize is heaven, eternal life with God.  This is usually what we think about when we think of the prize of Christianity.  But if we stop there, then we’ve made the prize of Christianity only fire insurance.  When does eternity begin?  Eternal life begins right now.  The prize actually begins now in this life!  It’s not just something we wait for after death.  In that sense then, the prize is holiness, or victory over sin in our lives right here on earth.  When Paul talks about the prize he is training for, I believe he is speaking about heaven and holiness.

God has the power through the Holy Spirit to make us holy right here in our life times.  You have power over sin when you join the work that God is already doing in and through Jesus by trusting that Jesus’ death and resurrection saved you and made you a new creation.  Paul puts it this way elsewhere, “What this means is that those who become Christians become new persons. They are not the same anymore, for the old life is gone. A new life has begun!” (2 Corinthians 5:17, NLT).  And again, “No, despite all these things [which look like they might separate us from Christ’s love], overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us” (Romans 8:37, NLT).

So the prize is heaven and holiness.  But what is holiness?  Let’s flesh that out a bit more.  Holiness is, at its best, perfect love.  It is when we love God with everything we’ve got, and we love our neighbor as we love ourselves.  Perfect love looks like how Jesus loves.  It is in the words of a popular phrase, “what Jesus would do.”

This whole WWJD kick that comes and goes from time to time is at once both simple and true, but also somewhat misleading.  Let me illustrate.  I’d like to invite Brian Eddy to come up.  Among other things such as being a school principal, husband, and StuRev leader, Brian is also a wrestling coach.  Brian and I are going to wrestle.  We all saw Brian wrestle earlier in the worship service with one of our StuRev students.  So now that Brian has demonstrated perfect wrestling, all I need to do in order to wrestle Brian perfectly is ask myself, “What would Brian do?”  OK.  Here we go…

[Brian and Tom wrestle.  Brian takes Tom to the mat.]

Something went wrong here. Maybe I didn’t exactly get all the details of what Brian did.  Brian, can you explain to me some of the techniques of what you did when you just took me down town?

[Brian explains the technique of posture, hands, and going for the legs.]

OK.  Now that I know the technique that Brian uses, I can certainly wrestle perfectly just as Brian wrestles.  What would Brian do?  Let’s wrestle again.

[Brian and Tom wrestle.  Brian easily takes Tom to the mat again.]

Something has gone wrong here.  I want to do what Brian does and I even know his technique but something is still missing because Brian manhandles me every time.  The thing that I’m missing with Brian is the practice that Brian has put into wrestling so that his muscles and body have certain habits.  Brian, how long have you been wrestling and how much time have you spent practicing over your lifetime?

[Brian describes how long he’s been wrestling (since age eleven) and how much time he has spent practicing (thousands and thousands of hours so that he has a kind of muscle memory and doesn’t even have to think about all this anymore).]

Ah.  So here’s the kicker.  In order for me to wrestle like Brian wrestles, to do what Brian would do, it’s not enough for me to want to be like Brian or even to know Brian’s technique; I have to practice like Brian in order to have Brian’s habits.  The same thing happens with Jesus.  If you want to be able to do what Jesus would do, you can’t just think that when you come to a situation you can ask yourself what Jesus would do and then think you’ll be able to do it.  That’s as absurd as thinking that this morning I would pin Brian in a wrestling match simply by wanting to be like him and knowing his technique.  No.  I have to practice like Jesus to get Jesus’ habits into my life.

So how does this happen?  Have you ever spent time with someone and had their habits, good or bad, rub off on you?  Sarah and I have been married now for twelve years.  They’ve been the best twelve years of my life.  When we first got married, I wasn’t much of a chick flick kind of guy.  After twelve years of marriage, I hate to admit it, but I kinda like chick flicks now.  In fact, I’ve gone so far as to even enjoy Jane Austen movies.  I actually looked forward to the new version of Pride and Prejudice that came out in 2005 (and that isn’t just because Keira Knightley was playing Elizabeth Bennet!).  This is even a little embarrassing for me to admit, but when Bride and Prejudice, the Bollywood version (that is India’s version of Hollywood), came out several years ago, I watched it once with Sarah and then I watched it again by myself!  Sarah’s likes and dislikes have rubbed off on me over time.  It goes the other way too.  Recently I’ve introduced Sarah to the Rocky films.  She was skeptical at first, but she admitted this weekend that she has been surprised at liking them.

When we spend time with God, God’s habits rub off on us.  When you put God’s habits in the flesh, it looks like Jesus.

I’m going to fly high here for a second.  Christians understand God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit; one God in three persons.  We refer to this as the Trinity.  How is something one and three at the same time?  Think of fire.  Fire is always light, heat, and flame.  Take away one and you no longer have fire.  Or think about speech.  Speech always requires a speaker, words, and breath.  Take away one and you no longer have speech.  So within this one God is a loving community of three persons.  When we spend time with God, the Holy Spirit, God’s presence with us, invites us into this loving community.  When we spend time with God, we join in this community of love that exists within the very nature of who God is.  That character of love rubs off on us and we too become more loving.

So how do we spend time with God?  We’re going to be looking at how Jesus and others spent time with God over the next several weeks, how they trained to win the prize, what habits and practices they had.  Specifically we’re going to look at six HABITS:

H – Hang time with God

A – Accountability with others

B – Bible study and memorization

I – Involvement with the church

T – Tithing our money

S – Serving our community.

Before we conclude today I have a couple of thoughts that might be helpful to keep in mind as we move through this series.  First, practices or HABITS can be life-giving but they can also kill the spirit.  When I tried out for my high school baseball team against ninety other people (I went to a high school with 3000 people!), I made the team my sophomore year as a practice player.  That meant that I practiced with the team, but I never played.  I sat on the bench each game in uniform.  I was guaranteed a starting position my junior year on the J.V. team, but by the time my junior year rolled around, I had lost the love of baseball.  It was all practice and no fun.  As you begin to spend time practicing being in God’s presence, don’t confuse the practice with loving God.  That confusion can kill your spirit.

Second, while we’re going to be talking about six habits that God usually uses to form us into the kind of loving people that Jesus was, God can use just about anything.  Our choice of six has more to do with our own attempt to be clever with an acronym.  We don’t want to neglect any of these habits, but we also don’t want to put limits on God.

So how do you begin?  Today is Group-Link.  It’s an opportunity for you to find a small group to join.  A small group is a great place to begin forming habits and practices.  At the beginning of each of these small groups, there will be some time for each member to share a habit that they’d like to work on in the coming months.  Then each week, the beginning time of the small group will be given to sharing how that habit is going.  You begin this journey of practicing habits by doing it.  Set time aside each day: regular unhurried time with God.  John Wesley said it this way: “O BEGIN! Fix some part of every day for private exercise…whether you like it or no, read and pray daily.  It is for your life; there is no other way; else you will be a trifler all your days.”

May it be true in our lives not just through our own power to practice habits, but through the power of God whom we know as Father, Son and Holy Spirit!

HABITS – Hang Time with God
Sycamore Creek Church
Tom Arthur
September 20, 2009

Peace, friends!

Today we continue into the second week of a series on HABITS.  Fyodor Dostoyevsky is quoted to have said about habits that “the second half of a man’s [or woman’s] life is made up of nothing but the habits he [or she] has acquired during the first half.”  What habits do you have right now?  Where is your life heading?  What kind of person are your habits forming you to become?

Last week we explored a basic idea: if you want to be like Jesus and have the same kind of habits Jesus has, then you have to practice like Jesus practiced.  Let’s look just a little further into this idea of Jesus’ habits.  Here are three different verses about Jesus.  Do you notice anything similar between them?

He left that place and went to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan. And crowds again gathered around him; and, as was his custom, he again taught them (Mark 10:1, NRSV)

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

He came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives; and the disciples followed him (Luke 22:39, NRSV).

“As was his custom.”  Jesus had habits!  He tended to do certain things over and over again.  He taught, as was his custom.  He went to the synagogue on the Sabbath, as was his custom.  He prayed on the Mount of Olives, as was his custom.  “As was his custom.”  It’s a very small phrase, but in between the lines of the story of Jesus’ life as told by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John you will find, if you pay close attention, Jesus’ habits, the customs and practices he had of spending time with God.  If I could sum Jesus’ habits up briefly, I’d say that Jesus spent regular unhurried time with God.  He hung out with God.

I’d like to take a closer look at some of those in-between-the-lines moments and explore just exactly how Jesus spent time with God.  What did he do?  I mean, it’s not like God is visibly sitting in a coffee shop somewhere holding office hours.  So how exactly did Jesus spend time with God?  How did he hang out with God?  Let’s explore three habits or practices that Jesus practiced.

Solitude and Prayer

First, Jesus spent time in solitude and prayer.  He got away from the crowds and spent time by himself talking to God.  For example, before choosing his twelve disciples, Luke tells us that Jesus spent the night in prayer.  Luke says, “One day soon afterward Jesus went to a mountain to pray, and he prayed to God all night” (6:12).  Jesus went to a mountain.  He got away from the hustle and bustle of the city and spent the night in the wilderness.  When was the last time you got away from it all and spent some time by yourself in a park, on a trail, on a lake or mountain or beach?  By yourself?  Just you and God?

Luke goes on to tell us that Jesus didn’t just spend this night by himself, but he prayed to God all night.  He didn’t spend the evening day dreaming.  He spent it talking to God.  Solitude and prayer often go hand in hand.

It’s not only Luke who describes this practice of Jesus.  Mark does too.  After spending time healing people, Jesus goes off to be by himself in prayer.  Mark says, “The next morning Jesus awoke long before daybreak and went out alone into the wilderness to pray. Later Simon and the others went out to find him. They said, ‘Everyone is asking for you’” (1:35-37).  This time we find Jesus getting up early in the morning and going into the wilderness to be by himself.  He had spent the previous day healing people which apparently made him pretty tired.  So he gets away from it all for a while.  I love how Simon (Peter) goes out to find Jesus.  He is incredulous.  “Come on Jesus.  What are you doing out here?  Everyone is looking for you.  Can’t you whip out some more of that healing stuff?  That was awesome.”  I hope some day when everyone is looking for me, I’m found praying rather than spending time doing something like surfing the internet or watching TV.  Jesus has certain customs, practices, or habits.  In both Mark and Luke we see Jesus spending time in solitude and prayer.

So what is prayer?  Here are some practical suggestions.  Prayer is simply talking to God.  When you’re happy, tell God about it: “Make a joyful noise to the Lord all the earth” (Psalm 100).  When you’re sad, tell God about it: “I am weary with moaning; every night I flood my bed with tears; I drench my couch with my weeping” (Psalm 6).  When you’re angry, tell God about your anger, even if it’s toward God: “Look & answer me, O Lord my God” (Psalm 13).  And when you’re confused, tell God that you’re confused: “How long O Lord, will you forget me forever?” (Psalm 13).  Simply be authentic with God.  If you’re not, who are you kidding?  God already knows.  Being authentic with God isn’t about God, it’s about you.  Be open with God because God already knows, and God still loves you.

Many have trouble with a wandering mind during prayer.  Consider writing or typing your prayers.  Write God a letter (or email) each day.  This might help you focus.

What about times?  When do you talk to God?  Well, all day. But also set some time aside each day.  If you’re like me, I talk to Sarah at times that are both planned and unplanned.  Do the same with God.  Consider praying three times a day: morning, noon and evening.  Maybe that goes with breakfast, lunch, and dinner or bedtime.  Psalm 55 says, “Evening and morning and at noon I utter my complaint and moan, and he will hear my voice” (v17).  There’s that authenticity again.  Complaining and moaning to God.  And the psalmist says he does it three times a day (which is also a way of saying all the time!).

Jesus had the habit of spending time with God in the practice of prayer and solitude.  Find some time to do the same.

Prayer and Confession

Second, Jesus taught his followers to confess their sins to God in prayer.  The clearest place where Jesus teaches his followers this habit and practice is in what is called The Lord’s Prayer.  Luke tells the story this way:

¹ Once when Jesus had been out praying, one of his disciples came to him as he finished and said, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” ² He said, “This is how you should pray: “Father, may your name be honored. May your Kingdom come soon.  ³ Give us our food day by day.  ⁴ And forgive us our sins —  just as we forgive those who have sinned against us. And don’t let us yield to temptation” (Luke 11:1-4, NLT).

Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who have sinned against us.  Jesus tells his followers that they are to ask for forgiveness from God.  While confession also has a component of confessing to others, we’re going to look at that more next week.  Right now we’ll focus on confession to God.

Confession is simply telling the truth to God about what you have done or not done.  Confession is also taking the time to let God show you where you have not lived up to the kind of love God desires of you.  Confession is making right your relationship with God and others.

Whenever Sarah and I sit down to eat, we talk.  Conversation usually comes very easily.  We find things to tell one another about our day or things we’ve been reading or thinking about.    Occasionally though, when we sit down to eat, things are not right between us and conversation does not come easily.  The air between us is tense because of something one of us has done or said to the other.  It is in these moments that we must first confess before the conversation flows freely again.  The same thing is true with God in prayer.  When you spend time in solitude with God to talk about your day, your hopes and dreams, your hurts and pains, it’s also appropriate to talk about your failures; to clear the air between you and God.  This is confession.

Here’s the really good news about confession: “If we confess our sins to him, [God] is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from every wrong” (1 John 1:9, NLT)!  When you seek to clear the air between you and God, God forgives you.  Wow!  Thank God.

Jesus taught his followers to confess their sins to God while talking to God in prayer.  Do you take time to make things right between you and God?

Meditation/Psalms

First, Jesus spent time in prayer and solitude. Second, he taught his followers to spend time in prayer and confession.  Jesus’ third habit of spending time with God, of hanging out with God, is meditation.  Now this is a practice of Jesus’ that is definitely an in-between-the-lines kind of practice.  Let me show you what I mean.

Luke and Matthew both have Jesus saying something as he hangs on the cross.  Matthew tells the story this way: “At about three o’clock, Jesus called out with a loud voice, ‘Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?’ which means, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ (28:46).  Luke tells the story this way, “Then Jesus shouted, ‘Father, I entrust my spirit into your hands!’  And with those words he breathed his last” (23:46, NLT).  Do you know that Jesus is quoting something here as he hangs on the cross?  What is Jesus quoting?  He’s quoting the Psalms.  In Matthew he’s quoting Psalm 22:1.  In Luke he’s quoting Psalm 31:6.

Keep in mind that Jesus didn’t exactly have a pocket Bible on hand with a handy concordance that lists helpful Psalms while hanging on a cross.  No.  He would have had these psalms memorized.  It means that he would have spent significant time hanging out with God by meditating on the psalms.  When it’s game time and Jesus is in the worst situation he’s faced, the practice of meditation would have formed certain habits in him that just naturally come out.  Those habits come out as “muscle memory” on the cross.  He prays lines of the psalms because that’s what he spent time hanging out with God meditating upon.

The first Psalm offers a wonderful piece of wisdom about meditation.  It says:

¹ Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of scoffers;

² but their delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law they meditate day and night.

³ They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither. In all that they do, they prosper.

Those who meditate on the law of the LORD day and night are blessed or happy or fortunate.  They prosper like a tree planted by a stream.  They bear fruit in their life that is godly.  Their strength does not wither.  This may not always look like how we expect it, but God sustains those who meditate on God’s words.

So what is meditation exactly?  We often have this idea of meditation that comes more from popularizations of eastern religions.  In that sense, meditation is the emptying of the mind, but that is not what Christian mediation is about.  Christian meditation is rotating God’s word and God’s creation around in your mind and looking at it from every possible angle.  Chewing on it.  Savoring it like a gobstopper.

Let’s practice meditation for a moment on something simple.  Take a simple picture of a leaf.  What do you see in this picture?  What do you wonder about?  What questions do you have about it?  What do you notice?  Take a moment and notice things about this picture and ask questions about it.

Here’s some things I notice or wonder about it:

• What kind of leaf is it?
• How many points does it have?
• What color red is this?
• How many veins does it have?
• Is it all one color or are there variations?
• What are the small splotches on it?  Some are dark and some are gray.  Is it mold or something else?
• What does it look like on the other side?
• Why is there only one leaf in this picture?
• Why is it on a bed of rocks?
• How many rocks are around it?
• What color are the rocks?
• Are they all the same kind of rocks?
• What are the little brown things in the bottom right corner?
• Where was this picture taken?
• What is just outside the frame of the picture?
• Who took the picture?
• Did they place the leaf here or did they find it like this?
• Are there other similar leaves around it?

This little exercise in meditation could go on and on and on.  God’s words and God’s creation are big enough and deep enough for us to meditate on for the rest of our lives.  We will always see something new when we go back and spend the time.  Every time we go back we will also have new experiences that we bring with us that help us see new and different things.

Jesus spent time meditating on God’s words.  Find some time to do so yourself.

Practices

We’re going to give you time right now to choose one of these practices of spending time with God and to go and practice it.  You’ll find three stations around the building.  One is to practice prayer by writing a letter to God.  A second is to practice confession by taking time to reflect on where you need to clear the air between you and God.  A third is to practice meditation by spending time outside in God’s creation.  You’ll find a handout at each station that describes all three practices with some suggestions, psalms, and prayers.  We’re going to give you ten minutes to hang out with God.  When you hear the band begin to play, come back in and we’ll bring our worship to a close by spending time with God in communion.

May we practice these HABITS not just by our own power and strength but by the power of God working in us whom we know as Father, Son and Holy Spirit!

H.A.B.I.T.S. – Accountability
James 5:13-20
Sycamore Creek Church
Tom Arthur
September 27, 2009

Note to reader: This is a manuscript and not a transcript.  While I prepare a manuscript, I don’t preach from it.  All the major points are here, but there are bound to be some small differences from the sermon as it was preached live.  Also, expect some “bonus” material that wasn’t in the live sermon.

Peace friends!  We’re into the third week of a message series on H.A.B.I.T.S.  Let’s take a quick moment and review.  The first week we introduced the idea of HABITS.  If you want to be like Jesus, you have to practice like Jesus to acquire his habits.  Last week we explored some of the practices and habits that Jesus had to “H”ang out with God.  They included prayer, solitude, meditation, and confession to God.  Today we continue on looking at “A”ccountability as one of the HABITS that puts us in God’s presence so God can change us.

Let’s begin by looking at a passage from the end of the book of James. 

James 5:13-20 (NLT)

¹³ Are any among you suffering? They should keep on praying about it. And those who have reason to be thankful should continually sing praises to the Lord. ¹⁴ Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. ¹⁵ And their prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make them well. And anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven. ¹⁶ Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and wonderful results. ¹⁷ Elijah was as human as we are, and yet when he prayed earnestly that no rain would fall, none fell for the next three and a half years! ¹⁸ Then he prayed for rain, and down it poured. The grass turned green, and the crops began to grow again.  ¹⁹ My dear brothers and sisters, if anyone among you wanders away from the truth and is brought back again, ²⁰ you can be sure that the one who brings that person back will save that sinner from death and bring about the forgiveness of many sins.

This is God’s story for us today!

When we look closely at James we find that there are two kinds of accountability.  The first is holding someone else responsible (in the case of Christians, responsible to God’s standards of love).  We see this in verses 19-20:  “¹⁹ My dear brothers and sisters, if anyone among you wanders away from the truth and is brought back again, ²⁰ you can be sure that the one who brings that person back will save that sinner from death and bring about the forgiveness of many sins” (NLT).

But there is a second kind of accountability and that has to do with confession or freely giving an account of oneself.  We see that kind of accountability in verse sixteen:

“¹⁶ Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.”  Let’s take a look at each kind of accountability.

First, holding someone else responsible.  This kind of accountability is something we’re pretty familiar with.  It pops up all the time in our culture.  For example the mission of the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) is to “protect investors, maintain fair, orderly, and efficient markets, and facilitate capital formation” (www.sec.gov).  In an effort to do so, they “hold companies accountable for laws that prohibit insider trading, accounting fraud, and providing false or misleading information about securities and the companies that issue them” (www.sec.gov).  In the wake of our financial meltdown and the SEC’s failure to hold companies accountable for such practices, many are now asking whether the SEC needs to be held accountable to their own mission.  This is a kind of accountability that we are familiar with.

This kind of accountability of holding someone else responsible has come up before.  When you were reading through Galatians you may remember reading Paul tell the church in Galatia, “My friends, if anyone is detected in a transgression, you who have received the Spirit should restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness. Take care that you yourselves are not tempted” (6:1, NRSV).

It’s worth pointing out two “tips” that Paul gives in this passage.  First, he says that when we hold someone else accountable, we should do so “in a spirit of gentleness.”  This isn’t a grab-someone-by-the-scruff kind of experience.  It’s a gentle and loving wooing one back to the truth.  Second, Paul tells the Galatians to make sure they don’t fall into temptation themselves.  This could mean one of two things.  Don’t fall into the same temptation.  If you’re an alcoholic and you’re going to the bar to try to gently and lovingly save another alcoholic, make sure you don’t fall off the wagon yourself.  Or it could mean to be careful that you don’t fall into the temptation to treat the one you’re holding accountable in a rough and unloving way.  I tend to think Paul is talking about the latter.  That is certainly the greater temptation in most cases.

So we’ve looked at accountability as holding someone else responsible or accountable, but accountability is also about giving a true account of oneself.  We see this in James as well: “Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and wonderful results” (5:16, NLT).

This kind of accountability is most clearly called confession.  Confession is telling the truth about yourself and your situation.  This is the kind of accountability that our culture isn’t always familiar with.  St. Augustine said, “The confession of evil works is the first beginning of good works.”

Many of us are familiar with the great Christian song, Amazing Grace.  But do you know where that song came from?  In the movie, Amazing Grace, John Newton, the author of that song, gives a true account of his life and his situation to William Wilberforce.  It is not a pretty sight, but Newton is determined that he should give a true account of himself.

This kind of accountability is often very hard, especially for Christians.  We want to look like we’ve got it all together.  In his book, Celebration of Discipline, (a book you all should read if you want to learn about habits and practices) Richard Foster says:

Confession is a difficult Discipline for us because we all too often view the believing community as a fellowship of saints before we see it as a fellowship of sinners.  We feel that everyone else has advanced so far into holiness that we are isolated and alone in our sin.  We cannot bear to reveal our failures and shortcomings to others.  We imagine that we are the only ones who have not stepped onto the high road to heaven.  Therefore, we hide ourselves from one another and live in veiled lies and hypocrisy (Foster, 145).

SCC is seeking to not fall into this trap.  We’re seeking to create a place where people can come as they are with all their hopes and dreams, fears and even failures, without judgment, and also grow into all that God has created them to be.  How are we doing?

I think it is helpful to explore three steps of confession.  The first step is an examination of one’s conscience.  Perhaps three questions would help with an examination of conscience:

1. Have you avoided all evil?
2. Have you done all the good you were able?
3. Have you spent time falling in love with God?

This is the first step of confession: examination of conscience.  The second step is sorrow.  Real confession always includes a godly sorrow over what you have done.  This need not be super emotional, but you should feel some regret over your actions.  The third step is simply a determination to avoid this and other sins in the future.  These are the three steps of confession.

Having looked at accountability as giving an account of oneself, a quick word is in order for how to receive such a confession.  James gives us some guidance early in his book.  He says, “For there will be no mercy for you if you have not been merciful to others. But if you have been merciful, then God’s mercy toward you will win out over his judgment against you” (James 2:13, NLT).  When you receive a confession, be merciful to the person confessing.  God has been merciful to you.  Remember that when you pray the Lord’s prayer you pray, “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who have sinned against us.”

John takes this even one step further.  He tells the story of Jesus teaching his followers after his resurrection.  Jesus tells them, “If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven. If you refuse to forgive them, they are unforgiven” (John 20:23, NLT).  What does Jesus mean here?  Can he really mean exactly what he says?!  Do we have the power to forgive people of their sins?!  I think that in some very real sense, when we receive a confession, we hold in our response the future of how that person experiences God’s forgiveness.  We are a representative of God in that moment.  When someone confesses to you, tell them, “You are forgiven.”  Be merciful to them.

We’ve seen an example of this play out all over the news lately.  We all probably heard about how Kanye West jumped up on stage at the Video Music Awards and stole the limelight from Taylor Swift as she was receiving her first VMA.  Later Kanye apologized (with what I think was true sorrow) on the Jay Leno show.  This was impressive.  Kanye was definitely not all put together for this apology, but he made it publicly.  Later he called Taylor and apologized to her personally.  The best part about this was Taylor’s response.  She accepted the apology and forgave him.  She recognized that Kanye was telling the truth about himself with sorrow and a real determination not to do so again.  She even suggested she would be open to further friendship with him.  Wow!

Friends, accountability, especially giving a true account of oneself in confession changes your life.  I’d like to give you a personal testimony to how this kind of accountability changed my life.

I’ll never forget a particular night at youth group.  I attended a very big church growing up and the youth worship each Sunday night averaged about one hundred students.  As worship began to wind down, Tim, one of the older youth leaders got up to a microphone and told us he had a confession to make.  He was a missionary kid (MK for short), so he had my and everyone else’s attention.  Tim went on to tell us how he struggled with pornography.  I was floored.  He was telling this in front of one hundred people!  I couldn’t believe what was going on.

In that moment of this friend of mine giving a true account of himself, something happened in me.  The Holy Spirit spoke into my life and began in me a work of transformation.  Later that week I met with Tim and confessed to him that I struggled with the very same sin.  I had been looking at pornography almost daily for four or five years by that point.  I knew that this kind of lust was wrong.  I didn’t fully understand it all at the time, but now I understand how the sin of pornography objectifies people, especially women, and creates unhealthy and unrealistic relationship expectations for consumers of pornography.  This was the first time I had ever spoken this truth about myself to someone else.  Confession leads to confession.

I’d like to tell you that in that moment I was completely set free from the sin of pornography.  But that wouldn’t be true.  This first moment of confession was just a beginning.  It was the beginning of God changing and transforming me into the kind of person I was created to be.

I remember the day that I walked into my youth pastor’s office and confessed this sin to him.  I told him that I was no longer fit to be a youth leader myself.  He wisely treated me with gentleness and mercy and refused to accept my “resignation” (probably because he knew that almost every young man struggles secretly with this and here was one guy who was actually trying to be honest about it).

On a youth retreat later in high school I was introduced to the idea of an accountability group.  It was at that retreat that I began meeting fairly regularly with other guys to hold one another accountable and to give a true account of our lives to one another.  I shared with these guys my struggle.  I have been in an accountability group ever since.

Later on in life when I met Sarah, while we were dating, I confessed this sin to her.  I was determined to be completely honest and open with her.  I didn’t want there to be a hidden “Tom” that she didn’t known about.  Amazingly, she wasn’t repulsed by me.  She showed me gentleness and mercy.  (And of course it was at this same time that I told her I wasn’t sure I believed any of this Christian stuff either!  What a means of God’s grace she has been in my life!).

Throughout college I met with a group of guys who shared openly and honestly with one another about our sins.  But we also began to hold one accountable to something else: spending time with God.  It was in this Christian community of accountability that I began to stop focusing on not sinning and instead begin to focus on doing good and spending time with God.  When I shifted my focus of accountability toward that, God really began to change me.  It was in the crucible of Christian community and accountability that the sin of pornography really lost most of its ground in my life.  The sin remained but it did not reign.

After I graduated from college and got married to Sarah, I had mostly experienced victory over this sin in my life, but I occasionally gave in again to the temptation.  I continued in an accountability group, and slowly but surely this sin lost almost all power over me.

I have not looked at pornography now for over ten years.  This does not mean that I am not tempted to look at pornography.  I am still sorely tempted from time to time.  I have learned how to resist in better ways.  I have practiced the habits of accountability.  I know when the cycles of temptation occur, and I tell someone about it.  I ask them to ask me how things are going.  I find that the simple act of telling someone, of giving a true account of my temptation, is enough now to disarm the temptation all together.  I also have software from www.xxxchurch.com that sends a report bi-weekly to a friend that lists any objectionable websites I might have visited.  Lastly, I give a true account of my situation by putting my computer in the living room where it is there for everyone, including Sarah, to see what I am doing.

Friends, this is not a sermon about pornography (we’ll cover that more fully in some future sermon).  It is a sermon about the role that accountability, especially giving a true account of oneself to another person or group, can play in God transforming you.  I have experienced that kind of transformation in my own life.  I believe you can experience it too when you practice the habit of accountability.

May this be true in our lives not just by our own power but by the power of God working in us, the God whom we know as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.