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

October 13, 2015 by Leave a Comment

whatonearth

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

Peace friends!

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

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

“God is love.”
~1 John 4:8

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1.       I Feel Accepted Rather Than Ashamed

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

4.       I Worship Instead of Worry

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

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

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

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

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

5.       I Gain the Courage to Take Risks

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

* This was a sermon first preached by Rick Warren

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

October 6, 2015 by Leave a Comment

whatonearth

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The Wise Way to Live

October 1, 2015 by Leave a Comment

whatonearth

 

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

Peace friends!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1.       Listen to God’s Word Every Day

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2.       Enlist Friends Who Challenge Me

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

3.       Ask Questions & Accept Correction

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

4.       Remember & Reinforce What I Learn

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

5.       Now DO it!

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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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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Walking with Bilbo – The Purpose of Adventure

January 14, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Walking with Bilbo

 

 

 

 

Walking with Bilbo – The Purpose of Adventure
Sycamore Creek Church
January 13 & 14, 2013
Tom Arthur
Luke 5:1-11

Peace, Friends!

Today we continue in a series based on The Hobbit.  We’ll be walking with Bilbo, the main character in The Hobbit, as he transforms from an unassuming three foot six inch hobbit to the unexpected hero of the story.  Along the way Bilbo will find his clear purpose because of the adventure he goes on.

Many of us struggle with purpose.  Part of the reason we struggle with purpose is because we don’t often see ourselves clearly.  I struggle with this myself.  I often tell myself and others, “I’m not a very good counselor.”  I probably say this because when I was a psychology major in undergrad, I intended to be a therapist.  But then I did an internship and didn’t like clinical work at all.  So I redirected my studies toward research rather than therapy.  But then the other day I told someone that I wasn’t a very good counselor as they were sitting in my office seeking some help working through a problem.  After two different hour-plus-long meetings, this person said to me, “You say you’re not very good at this, but you’re actually really quite good.”  Hm…Maybe I don’t see myself as clearly as I think I do.

We all struggle with seeing ourselves clearly.  We say things like:

I’m the humblest person I know.
I used to think I was indecisive, but now I’m not so sure.
I can be spontaneous if I have enough time to prepare for it.

All jokes aside, here’s some examples of how we don’t see ourselves very clearly:

  • We think we’re poor, but in reality, we’re exceedingly rich.  According to globalrichlist.com, if you make $40,000/year like I do, you’re one of the top 3.17% richest people in the world.  If you add in benefits (health insurance, housing allowance, pension, etc.), then you’re in the top .82%!   If you make $20,000/year, then you’re still in the top 11.16%.
  • Single folks think they’re unattractive or will never find a life partner, but I look at them and think, “Wow, some day they’re going to really be a blessing to someone!”
  • I was reading some research the other day that showed that women tend to rate themselves further from an “ideal” than men do.  They think men want someone who is skinnier than they are, but the average woman in America is very close to what the average man finds attractive.
  • We all tend to think we’re basically “good people” but we ignore the little things that add up, including our inappropriate motives.  For example: we focus on the things in others that annoy us and downplay the things in ourselves that annoy others!
  • David Myers, in his introductory psychology textbook reports: “Most people see themselves as better than average. This is true for nearly any subjective and socially desirable dimension. In national surveys, most business executives say they are more ethical than their average counterpart. In several studies, 90% of business managers and more than 90% of college professors rated their performance as superior to that of their average peer. In Australia, 86% of people rate their job performance as above average, and only 1% as below average” (1998, p. 440, emphasis mine).

I recently met Whitney Banks, the adoption recruiter for Wendy’s Wonderful Kids.  She works with teenagers who need to be adopted.  She told me that almost all of the teenagers she works with think they won’t be adopted because their many problems and their age make them unadoptable.  So I asked her how many of the current teenagers she’s working with will she find a home for.  She said she will likely find a family for almost every single one of them!

In The Hobbit, when Gandalf tells the dwarves he’s chosen Bilbo, an unimpressive hobbit, to be the “burglar” for their adventure, the dwarves are pretty skeptical of Bilbo and Gandalf’s judgment, but Gandalf says, “There is a lot more in him than you guess, and a deal more than he has any idea of himself.”

If you haven’t sent the movie or read the book, this trailer will give you a glimpse of who Bilbo is, and the struggle he has to see himself clearly:

The Point
Here’s the point I want you get out of this message: Adventure with Jesus pulls out the clear purpose of our lives.

While we struggle to see ourselves clearly, when we go on the adventure that Jesus is calling us on, the clear purpose of our lives becomes evident.  Let’s take a look at one example of how this worked with one of Jesus’ followers, Simon, later called Peter.

Luke 5:1-11 NRSV
1 Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God,  2 he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets.  3 He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. 

Here we find a casual encounter between Jesus and Simon: Jesus simply gets into Simon’s boat because he needed to get away from the shore where people were crowding in on him.  Many of us are at this stage of the adventure: we’ve had a casual encounter with Jesus.  But this casual encounter leads to…

4 When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.”  5 Simon answered, “Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.”

Here the casual encounter turns to an invitation to trust.  The invitation to trust includes doing something counterintuitive and unexpected.  For Simon, who was a professional fisherman, it was the invitation to put out again to fish after a long night of catching nothing. Simon is the expert fisherman here.  Jesus is a carpenter.  What does he know about fishing?  Surprisingly, Simon accepts the invitation.  The acceptance of this invitation to do something counterintuitive and unexpected leads to…

6 When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break.  7 So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink.

The acceptance of Jesus’ invitation to do something counterintuitive and unexpected leads to an unexpected adventure.  Simon and his companions caught so many fish that the nets began to break.  They had been fishing all night and hadn’t had anything significant happen.  But when Simon accepts Jesus’ invitation to something counterintuitive and unexpected, unexpected adventure ensues.  This unexpected adventure leads to…

8 But when Simon Peter saw it, [ON KNEES] he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!”  9 For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken;  10 and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon.

This unexpected adventure that Simon finds himself on leads to a deeper trust through surrender.  He falls down at Jesus’ feet.  He recognizes that he’s standing in the presence of the Lord, and he surrenders to him symbolically by kneeling before him.  This act of surrender leads to…

Then Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.”

This act of trust in and surrender to Jesus leads to an unexpected twist in the purpose of Simon’s life.  He will no longer catch fish, but instead he will catch people.  This unexpected twist in the purpose of Simon’s life leads to…

11 When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.

This unexpected twist in the purpose of Simon’s life leads to a complete and total surrender to that purpose.  Simon leaves everything and follows Jesus.  There is nothing more important to Simon than this new clarity in the purpose of his life.

Again, here’s the main point I want you to get out of this message: 

Adventure with Jesus pulls out the clear purpose of our lives.

Simon’s life is transformed because Jesus saw something in him that he did not see in himself.  Later Jesus renames Simon to make obvious what Jesus sees in him:

And I tell you, you are Peter,and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.  (Matthew 16:18 NRSV)

So if adventure with Jesus pulls out the clear adventure in our lives, there are two things I want you to do this morning:

1. Go on an Adventure Following Jesus

I want you to join the adventure of throwing it all in with following Jesus, and risking your reputation, way of doing things, money, time, everything, so that you will find Jesus’ purpose for your life, a purpose Jesus knows you’re ready for, but you’re not yet so sure about.

J.R.R. Tolkien, the author of The Hobbit, was a philologist, someone who studies language, academic at Oxford University.  Philologists aren’t supposed to write children’s fantasy stories.  Yet he jumped into the adventure of writing The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings and risked looking silly in front of his colleagues.  In the end he found the purpose of participating in the creative act of God as what he called a “sub-creator.”  He found that he had an impulse (or a purpose) to create, because he was made in the image of a creator.  And hundreds of thousands if not millions of people have loved his stories ever since.

Linda Kidrick, a new attendee at SCC, accepted the adventure of celebrating Christmas differently this past year.  She attended our Christmas Eve service and tried to focus on the reason for Christmas.  Here’s what her experience was like:

Join the adventure of investing in the lives of our children (Kids Creek) and youth (StuREV), and take the risk of giving up some of your time and find the purpose of changing the life of a child or youth.

Join the adventure of being a steward of the money God has given you by taking the risk of living simply and giving generously and find the purpose of money in your life is really to bless other people.

Join the adventure of inviting your friends, family, co-workers, neighbors to church and risk feeling silly or embarrassed and find the purpose of being one step in someone having a life-changing encounter with God.

Join the adventure of a local mission (Maplewood, Open Door, Holt Senior Care), and take the risk of getting to know a group of people you didn’t know before (and were maybe even a little afraid of) and finding the purpose of sharing God’s compassion with others.

Each of the small groups in our church makes a commitment to serve in some local mission.  The elderly in nursing homes are often a forgotten people in our culture who don’t get much attention or much companionship.  The Agnostic Pub Group meets on the fifth Thursdays at Holt Senior Care home on Willoughby and simply plays games with residents.  It’s a little out of some and a lot out of others’ comfort zones.  At our last visit, we had about eight senior citizens joining us for cards.  One of those was a widower who rarely ever comes out of his room.  That night he and all of us laughed, talked, joked, smiled, and had loads of fun.  What an adventure to follow Jesus into the forgotten places of our culture!

2. Seek a Spiritual Guide or Spiritual Friends

Coming back to the problem we have seeing ourselves clearly, it is so important to have a spiritual guide or some spiritual friends who help us see ourselves better than we can alone.

In The Hobbit, Gandalf the wizard sees something in Bilbo that he does not see himself.  He has a kind of confidence in Bilbo that Bilbo doesn’t have in himself.  Bilbo reads about the dangers of the adventure with the dwarves and faints, but Gandalf never questions for a moment whether Bilbo will join the adventure:

Who is the Gandalf in your life inviting you out the door on to the road of adventure? Who are you seeking out intentionally to mentor/guide you?  This can’t always be me, the pastor.  I simply can’t provide ongoing personal guidance to a hundred and fifty people.  So who do you sit down regularly with over coffee to talk about life, someone who isn’t always a “Yes Man” in your life?  Who asks you the hard questions? Who is willing to be honest with you but is also encouraging?

If you’re a guest here today, I want you to know that you can’t find this kind of community in a big group setting like this.  It’s virtually impossible.  You’ve got to get into a small group of some sort.  It’s not the only way to receive this kind of guidance or to have spiritual friends, but it’s the best way we know as a church to try to provide an environment where these kinds of things can thrive.  So join the adventure of a small group, and take the risk of opening up and giving a true account of who you are and finding the purpose of authentic community.

Last Tuesday four dads gathered at McDonald’s with their kids to have fun and talk about being dads.  We shared one thing we were thankful for being dads in 2012 and one thing we learned about being dads in 2012.  It was a great conversation with fellow dads who see things about being a dad that I miss.

A couple of Sundays ago, I was talking with the small group at Pizza with the Pastor about how I felt like I didn’t have enough passion in life.  I was surprised to find that two people said they were at this church & were even following Jesus because of my passion!  Wow.  I didn’t see that coming.

One day I was having a particularly bad day.  Mark Aupperlee, a volunteer here at our church and a friend of mine, knew about how bad my day was going.  He called me and left a message on my voicemail simply saying, “I’m here with you on this adventure.  I’ve got your back.  I love you.”

Who are those kinds of people who provide spiritual guidance in your life, who see things in you that you don’t see in yourself?

Sycamore Creek Church
Imagine being part of a community that was on the kind of adventure that brought out these and other new purposes in your life and the lives of those around you, purposes you couldn’t see before but Jesus can see right now.  If only you’ll trust him enough to let him get in the boat of your life and lead you on the adventure of your life!

Imagine being part of a community where there were people along the entire spectrum of the adventure.  People who were new to the path.  People who had been traveling for a long time.  And imagine them sharing their wisdom with one another in shared guidance and mentoring.  That’s the kind of community we’re trying to create at SCC!

At the beginning of Bilbo’s adventure, Gandalf says of him, “There is a lot more in him than you guess, and a deal more than he has any idea of himself.”  And as Bilbo is getting ready to go in to meet Smaug the dragon, Tolkien as the narrator tells us, “Already he was a very different hobbit from the one that had run out without a pocket-handkerchief from Bag-End long ago.”

Prayer
God, help us to accept the invitation to adventure that Jesus puts before us, and to find the clear purpose of our lives.  Amen.

For further discussion on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/tomarthur01/posts/10100244064669254?comment_id=4206226&ref=notif&notif_t=feed_comment

 

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Mission Drop

June 25, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Amazing Stories - Wrestle Mania

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

Peace Friends!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Death: Acts 2:38 NLT
Peter replied, “Each of you must turn from your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

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

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

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

Cleansing: Acts 2:38 NLT
Peter replied, “Each of you must turn from your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

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

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

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

Life – New life through Union with Christ: Acts 2:38 NLT
Peter replied, “Each of you must turn from your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

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

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

Life – Holy Spirit: Acts 2:38 NLT
Peter replied, “Each of you must turn from your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Will you join the mission of God?

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