When an Evil Spirit Leaves a Person

Posted by Chris on July 25, 2010 under Front Page Posts, Sermons

Matthew 12:43-45
“When an evil spirit leaves a person, it goes into the desert, seeking rest but finding none. Then it says, ‘I will return to the person I came from.’ So it returns and finds its former home empty, swept, and in order. Then the spirit finds seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they all enter the person and live there. And so that person is worse off than before. That will be the experience of this evil generation.”

Luke 11:24-26
“When an evil spirit leaves a person, it goes into the desert, searching for rest. But when it finds none, it says, ‘I will return to the person I came from.’ So it returns and finds that its former home is all swept and in order. Then the spirit finds seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they all enter the person and live there. And so that person is worse off than before.”

• Here is a parable taken from the realm of spirits. The references to spirits and their activities would be understood by the hearers. Unfortunately, it is lost on scientific, modernists like us
• The point of this parable is not to give insights into the operations and habits of unclean spirits and demon possession. No more so than farming parables give us insight into agriculture nor do business parables lay out sound economic advice. The world/symbols referenced are connections to teach us about the kingdom and the work of God.

Can we understand a little about unclean spirits?

1. Like termites, mold and disease, we don’t have to understand spirits to be rid of them and the harm they can do.
2. Spirits are weak in “arid places” – Jesus was tempted in the desert.
   In a story well known to the hearers of Matthew and Luke, a particularly nasty demon was defeated in Egypt. Let’s take a look at this.

Back to the Parable:
In both parable versions, this text is found: “He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters.” (Matthew 12:30; Luke 11:23)

In Matthew, the context is the rejection of Jesus by those who claim to be righteous. They witness the obvious power of God’s spirit to cast out evil and disease and they attribute it to the power of Satan. Jesus is surprised at how illogical this conclusion is. (“I don’t care what the Bible says …”)
Jesus charges the hearers (this generation) with being empty houses. They have cast out the evil and put everything into order, but the house is empty. The demon they cast out will return and bring others. It would be better if they remained demon possessed because at least they would have an excuse.

• “This generation” may know how to resist evil, but they do not know how to embrace good.
• They are an empty house! And they are going to end up worse than they started

In Luke, the context is similar. There is an additional story about robbing the house of a strong man. You have to get someone bigger to rob the strong man and take his possessions.

“He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters.”
We need power on the inside – the good spirit – in addition to cleanliness and order on the outside.

What does it mean?

• It isn’t enough to simply “cast out evil” or to oppose sin.
• We can do this, but it is no good if we refuse to be filled with the good spirit (The Holy Spirit). [Ephesians 5:18]
• We need the help of the “stronger man.”

Once I Was

Posted by Chris on under Sermons

We have received a letter that we all need to hear. It’s a very personal message. So I want to ask you to give your attention to what it says. The messenger is here with the letter … I would like him to read it to us. By the way, the letter is from one of God’s messengers, one of his apostles – an evangelist called Paul from Tarsus. Now let’s give our attention to the messenger as he shares what Paul has written to us …

Dramatic reading of Galatians 1:13-2:21 by Shane Bocksnick.

Can you imagine what it would have been like to be in that Galatian assembly when these words were spoken for the first time? After all, that’s how God’s word got started – living words spoken to people in an active assembly. Sometimes, in our experience that favors reading, we forget the impact that these words have had.

It is of course just a part of the whole text of Paul’s letter to the Galatians. Did you notice how personal the message was? That’s not an accident. Paul intends for this to be personal and if he could have been there in person one more time he would have told his story just like he did in the letter.

Because it was written, the message retains its impact when we hear it like we just did. This message to the Galatians is a message for all of God’s people then and now. We need to pay close attention to what Paul is saying in his personal story and why he wants it heard. Why? Because in his own story he communicates the power of the gospel for all of us. Additionally, we should be concerned that we are making the same mistake as the Galatians when we trade the grace of the gospel for the expectations of others …

Once I Was …

When Paul encountered the revelation of Christ – the good news of Jesus – it made a serious change in his life.

“The man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.”

Once Paul was … [persecutor, destroyer, enemy]
Now Paul is … [proclaimer, living example, apostle to Gentiles]
Once I was … Now I am

• God called Paul by his grace [God’s grace makes a serious change]
• God revealed his Son in Paul (in the one who persecuted Christ!)
• When others recognize this, God is praised [living example] – “They praised God because of me”
• [Trans.] — Who praises God because of you?

The Importance of The Change (Conversion)

1. Paul is troubled that spies have infiltrated God’s people. Their objective is to require the Gentiles who have encountered the grace of the gospel to conform to Jewish expectations. In a more subtle way, these “Christians” are doing what Paul was doing – destroying the gospel.
2. It’s a matter of giving up the freedom of gospel for slavery to rule-keeping and traditions.
3. Paul will even go so far as to oppose Peter without hesitation – not because it is Peter vs Paul, but because the gospel is at stake.
4. There is no power of conversion when the expectation of others and legalistic rule-keeping are added to the gospel. “Once we were” – but now we must be.
   1. There’s no powerful change in identity.
   2. There’s no hope of becoming anything more.
   3. There’s no cause for others to praise God because of us
   4. There’s only a checklist and external expectations – an anxious concern over what others think.

The power of the gospel is too often frustrated among us because of our obsession with what others think. For too long we have asked the youngest and newest believers/converts to conform to expectations that some of us aren’t even sure about.

Are we afraid of the freedom that comes from the gospel? The freedom that comes from God’s grace?

That’s the power that changes lives and without it …

• Faith becomes a matter of appearances and gaining the approval of others
• Sin is allowed to fester because we do not dare name it. We are dishonest with self and others
• No one really has a testimony about how God changed our lives. We just have certificates of perfect attendance and reputations of causing no problems.

²⁰“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. ²¹I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”

Good News in the Midst of Bad News

Posted by Chris on July 18, 2010 under Sermons

How can we proclaim the good news when it seems like we are so often surrounded by the misery and ruin of life?

Lamentations

• It’s unlikely we’ve heard many sermons from this book.
• We are not even sure about the name. Is this a type of floor covering?
• Like those late night infomercials for hungry children, we turn away because we are looking for something much lighter and happier to cure our 3 am depression.
• This book is not familiar to us because it isn’t a happy book of devotionals
• It isn’t a book of positive affirmations or seven steps to super success
• The lamentations are the voice of one who stands in the midst of ruin
• The City of David, God’s city – Jerusalem, is fallen and ruined. The citizens are suffering
• The once great city is like a grieving widow who has lost her future
• Her treasures are gone
• Her children are starving, the children die of thirst – described quite graphically

Why is it like this? It isn’t supposed to be like this – is it?

• The answer surprises us (maybe another reason we avoid this text): The LORD did it!
• He allowed her enemies to invade
• He rejected his sanctuary
• He has removed her leaders
• He has shamed Jerusalem before other nations
• Is God supposed to be like this?

Why did God do this? Does he really do it or is it just circumstances?

• There are times when bad things happen to good people and it isn’t fair to attribute that to the LORD
• We may rightly ask why but we cannot always hold God responsible
• But in the case of Jerusalem here, God was acting out of justice (Lamentations 4) – Not a petty anger or retribution, but divine justice
• 4:13 – The prophets and priests shed the blood of innocents. Jerusalem sinned.
• God acted in justice because of the innocents

God’s Justice is not a principle that tames God and makes him “play fair.”

• This is a serious thing: We cannot dress up in our Sunday finery and talk about fair is fair
• It isn’t an academic or theological dilemma that we discuss without some relationship to the problem
• It isn’t about how God treats others – It is about God making us walk righteously
• We speak of our expectations of God – what about his expectations of us?

The LORD has torn down the stronghold of Jerusalem and humiliated her kings and priests because of his justice (his righteousness and holiness)

• A God without justice is not a good God. Such a God ignores the cries of the innocent and the oppressed. He does not demand righteousness for those who are wronged
• Such a God is not fair and trustworthy

But what about the one who stands in the midst of the ruins caused by God’s wrath? Is God’s justice and wrath the last word? (See 3:19-36)

• The song: The Steadfast Love of the Lord
• God is just but also merciful and loving – He does not have to switch of mercy to be just
• We tend to run in one extreme or another. God is balanced
• His compassion does not end. And so we are not consumed [See 3:32-33 – Not willingly]
• Every morning is a new opportunity to experience God’s faithfulness
  • Even if we’ve sinned
  • Even if we are suffering
  • Even if we are among ruin

If the voice of Lamentations can say this about God’s love in the midst of ruin, how much more can we say it in the shadow of the cross?

• The cross is a statement of God’s justice
• It shouts loudly and plainly against the injustices in this world – for the cross is the ultimate injustice.
• God puts our unrighteousness on display – that we in our arrogance and self-righteousness would create a system that would crucify the innocent one for the sake of our own interests.
• The cross rouses us from our illusions that everything is okay. It stands in the way of our attempts to whitewash the ruin that sin makes of our lives and our world
• The cross is the ultimate antidote to the poison of “spin control” and euphemisms.
• Are we opposed to a cross because it doesn’t fit our idea of a nicely groomed Sunday morning?

Our response to the cross should be Lamentations 3:39-40

1. Sin: The cross calls us to repent – that is, to change
2. Sin is actually growth: The moment we can name it, the healing begins
3. The worst things are not the last things in Christ
   1. The worst things will end one day, but the steadfast love of the LORD never ceases

True happiness comes to us when we look to the cross and in that story (death, burial, resurrection) we encounter the justice, love, and mercy of God.

• That we could experience healing even as we feel the pain of sin is good news
• That God’s love and mercy wins out is good news (it is good and it is news)

Sons of God

Posted by Chris on June 20, 2010 under Sermons

1. Honor the dads – Children distribute keychains with a cross.

2. What do you get a man for Father’s day? Culturally, we treat it differently from Mother’s Day. Mother’s are honored and revered. There is a certain respect to it … almost as if we are apologizing for all the trouble we give mom during the rest of the year. Dad’s are more like the person in the class that we have to invent a prize for. After Best Dressed, Most Likely to Succeed, Top Student, and even Cutest Smile have all been awarded, there’s that one person that we invent a prize for: Coolest Pencil Case, Best Milk through the Nose trick, Neatest Handwriting, Most Interesting.
   1. Father’s Day is 100 years old and we haven’t improved past the necktie.
   2. Maybe it has become a joke because we aren’t really sure how men and fathers fit into our culture these days …
3. What are men good for? Some have suggested that if cloning is perfected, then genetically men would be obsolete. If you are a man, that’s not encouraging news. It makes you feel like a telegram in a world of text messaging. But surely a man is good for more than his genetic contribution to humanity. Some people don’t think so and some men don’t think so either by their actions …

   1. Story about English class …
4. What are men good for? For the last few decades there have been initiatives trying to heal a brokenness, aimlessness and confusion among men

   1. The Wilderness Men’s Movement – Burned out suburban men go into the words and paint their faces and chests with war-paint. They sing and dance in leather loincloths and tell tall tales around a fire. They flee the world of women. It’s all deeply spiritual. We’ve had that for a lot longer in Arkansas – we just call it deer camp.
   2. But seriously, there are some initiatives that have recognized that men and Father’s play an important role in raising children. The impact of a father or father-figure in the life of both men and women is critical to shaping a child’s identity and spirituality. This is one more reason that I applaud Heart to Heart – they are putting together a mentoring class for Fathers. (Abortion and child-rearing are not just women’s issues).

   

5. What are men good for? Are they good for church? I want to say yes, but I will confess that sometimes we feminize church and Christianity. Articles have been written about the reasons why men stay away from church. Quote: “It seems like Jesus is the Bearded Lady.” Jesus seems effeminate – he’s called sweet and beautiful. Men find it hard to relate to that. That’s just not who I am or ever can be – I know better.
   1. When Jesus is nothing more than a good boy – a sacrificial lamb to take the punishment for us, then we lose sight of his mission.
   2. Jesus called men and women to follow him. [For the purpose of today’s sermon, we will focus on how he called men. There’s another sermon worth preaching sometime that affirms how Jesus called women].
   3. Jesus called men into a risky adventure. He called men to give their lives for a worthy cause. To fight for something good. To win a prize through pledging loyalty.
6. This is what is missing in our culture and our church. We have shied away from the reality that men are looking for a battle to fight, a problem to solve, and something to create.
   
   1. I think most men would do more of that if they had a mark to aim at, a goal to strive, a vision and a prize.
   2. One of the reasons this fountain of filth is still billowing in the gulf is because we are not calling out heroes – we are only interested in naming villains
   3. Have you noticed that we rarely declare anyone a hero anymore? Why did men fight dragons in stories of old – to be heroes!
7. Malachi 2:10, 13-17 – I want you to hear this as a Father talking to his sons. The Father is God and his sons are the men of Israel. In this dialogue I think we not only find a way to name the problem, but we also see the first glimpse of the mark and the goal for men and fathers …

8. The men had broken faith:
   1. With one another – They have one father, they are one family
   2. With their wives (women) – God protects those who are oppressed and abused. He is especially concerned for them. He is willing to have men join him in this mission. But when they do not, when they become oppressors themselves (intentionally or unintentionally) God begins to draw his sword.
   3. With the next generation (their children) – God has entrusted children to their parents. To men and women both. Men have a role is passing on faith to the children just as women do. And I say men, because it isn’t just fathers in a community (elephant herd).
9. Most men I know would gladly stand up and accept this charge. Men have pledged themselves to lesser things. You don’t need to be scolded, you don’t need stats and facts, you know that you are called to something great and that you are called to keep faith with one another, with your wives and with women, and with children.
   1. But how?
   2. Your mark, your goal, your King is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The best description of a man is a Son of God.
   3. He is the message that will turn the hearts of the children back to the Fathers and the hearts of the Fathers back to the children.
   4. What is a man good for?

      1. A man is good for his brother man’s sake – young and old alike.
      2. A man is good for his sister’s sake – for the women he is called to care for
      3. A man is good for his children’s sake – his children by blood and by the blood of Christ
      4. A man is good for God’s sake! Let that man be a Son of God!

A Farmer Went Out to Sow His Seed …

Posted by Chris on June 13, 2010 under Sermons

Pattern

1. A large crowd gathers
2. Jesus teaches in parables
3. Tells the parable of sower and seed
4. He who has ears to hear …
5. Disciples ask about parable
6. Isaiah is quoted
7. Seed and soils explained

Analogy

PARABLE

Is the seed bearing fruit?

• See John 12:37-50
• Especially verse 47
• Hearing and doing the word
• See and truly see it!
• Hear and truly understand!

The First Work of Evangelism

Posted by Chris on under Sermons

Read Matthew 9:35-38.

The Work of Christ

• Teaching, Preaching, Healing
  • Jesus is preaching the good news of the kingdom in word and deed. The healing is a result of the kingdom of God breaking in to our world. Sickness and affliction no longer have the last word.
  • Take a look at the events that are listed before this summary: a paralyzed man is healed – not only that but his sins are forgiven, a dead girl is raised, a sick woman is healed – she had been sick for a very long time, a blind men given site, a demoniac is healed – a demon that had stolen his power to speak is removed.
  • A tax collector is restored to the kingdom, he is given hope.
  • Jesus preaches that a new age has dawned
• Christ’s disciples continue his work – In chapter 10, this new age is ushered forth by Christ’s disciples. They will do what he does in his name and by his authority
• Find where Christ is at work and join him there – It concerns me that we ended the new age of the new wineskins somewhere around the time of the scientific enlightenment. We just decided that God’s power was limited.
  • I think that there is ample biblical instruction, such as the story of Simon the Sorcerer, to suggest that the power of God is not a power that we command or control. We cannot put a claim on God
  • But neither should we be so glib or confident that God’s power is not still as active as He chooses for it to be. After all, what is the Holy Spirit? How dare anyone claim to control God, but how dare we limit God!
  • What shall we say about our own experiences? Many of you have been healed of sins, the demons of addiction, even sicknesses and afflictions. Sometimes that healing is the power to cope, sometimes it is more. If we cannot speak that these are the work of Christ, then what gospel do we have?
  • We need to give God the glory. We go where Christ sends. We join in his work, not the other way around.

The Heart of Christ

• Sheep Without a Shepherd – We need to be able to proclaim the good news, for just like Christ saw, there are still sheep without a shepherd. What does that phrase really mean?
  • It means that they are people without a defender. They are people without a leader. They have no king and they are abused
• Harassed and Helpless – And they are harassed and helpless. One of these words has its origin in being skinned.
  • They are passive. Who is doing the harassing? Who is making them helpless?
  • Go back and look. When the paralyzed man’s sins are forgiven, the so-called religious leaders are the ones who call Jesus down for breaking the Sabbath rules and going beyond their limits (not God’s limits).
  • When Christ calls tax collectors and sinners (the sick) who questions him?
  • When the woman who is bleeding comes to Jesus, she had been made helpless by ineffective healers, but here bleeding would have made her an outcast by the religious leaders.
  • When the Jesus comes to raise the dead girl, he has to put the crowd outside because they had more faith in funeral rites than the son of God
  • Woe to us when we seal off the Kingdom of Heaven to those who are seeking God
  • I am tired of religious leaders and religious people being portrayed as those who are hypocrites, but God help us if we haven’t fueled the fire by our lack of compassion …
• Christ feels Compassion
  • Did you notice Christ’s reaction … He sees them with compassion. Not pity. Not despair. Not contempt or condescension. He sees the lost sheep of Israel who with a king could be all that God wants them to be.
  • How do we look at others? With our own view or with gods eyes?

The Request of Christ

• Harvest and Workers – I confess that I sometimes skip compassion and move right into weariness and frustration. That’s because I am not paying attention to who has the power.
  • Jesus is not above naming the frustration. He will himself, being human like us, name the overwhelming odds and the immensity of the mission.
  • And rather than encourage us to be arrogant and do our best or take it one step at a time, he tells us to drop to our knees and PRAY.
• To Disciples: “ASK!” – Ask means pray. Remember who the Lord of the Harvest is
• The first work of evangelism is prayer – Where we really get it wrong is by not spending enough time in prayer. Our feelings of urgency and our busy-ness. Our reliance on human knowledge and institutional power have encouraged us to downplay prayer.
  • Charles Spurgeon shows visitors his boiler-room
  • Prayer needs to be our first work, an important and intentional work
  • Why don’t we ASK? God provides. Let’s ask about the things Jesus wants us to ask for. Let’s ask about the things Jesus cares about.
  • Not simply private prayers, but the work of the community, the aim of our worship.

Move to the prayer for the harvest …

The Parable of Talents

Posted by Chris on June 6, 2010 under Sermons

[Read Matthew 25:14-30.]

Adventure, Risk and Creativity

This past week, Jordan Romero became the youngest person to climb Mount Everest. The 13-year-old eighth grader called his mom on a satellite phone from over 29,000 feet high. There’s a lot of praise for this young man’s achievement. But it seems to be the curse of our age that his accomplishment and adventure has to be criticized. There is controversy surrounding Jordan’s climb. Those who say it’s too risky. Some claim a 13-year-old lacks the physical and emotional maturity. Scientists and physicians say that an adolescent may be more prone to altitude sickness. Others say that it is irresponsible to take youngsters out of a safe environment to the deadly extremes of high altitude.

So why did Romero make the climb? In his own words, written in his journal just before climbing the summit … “I am happy to be doing something big, if I wasn’t sitting here at base camp, I could be sitting in the classroom learning about dangling participles.”

All of us want to be part of something big. Maybe that’s why so many of us are unfulfilled in our jobs because they offer no adventure. There’s no risk. It’s just a job. In fact, risk is discouraged. We want safety and security. Doing nothing more than earning a paycheck – playing it safe – leads to a loss of spirit.

Knowing that, it seems odd to me that we try to make the work of the kingdom and the nature of the church more like business and politics of the world. We fill the church with committees and programs and pay more heed to policy than the living word of a living God. When did we suppose that models of business (that are failing all around us) fit the kingdom of heaven?
When did we accept the notion that church is all about safety and security. There has been a loss in the vibrancy of the church because we’ve made our mission one in which we have a product to sell. We offer risk-free security and fire insurance. A safety net for eternity. But can we invite people into something big? Can we invite others into the adventure of God? Do we go there ourselves?

John Eldridge diagnoses the problem well in his book, Wild at Heart: He says that Christian men are bored and Christian women are tired. At a men’s retreat, a middle aged man told him that he had worked so hard to be the kind of “nice guy” the church wanted him to be. As a result he became dutiful but separated from his heart. He had learned to be careful and play it safe. Women have been pressured to be good servants. Very responsible, but without any adventure to be swept up into.

We hide our talents for good reason. We are afraid that the church is going to wear us out.

Can you blame this one-talent fellow for not taking a risk? I dare say we would applaud him for being prudent and cautious. He is a belt and suspenders kind of guy. And he may have thought long and hard about putting the talent on loan with the moneylenders. He may have gotten plenty of advice from those who have done so.

• “Be careful, the moneylenders might steal your money.”
• “Sure, interest is all right at this point, but wait for about a year as I hear the rate is expected to climb. Now is not the time.”
• “Why don’t we study that a little? Now did the master really want you to put the money to work or did he want you to keep it safe? Surely he can take whatever he wants whenever he wants. Surely he tasked you to be a guardian.”
• “It really isn’t your money to play around with. It’s the master’s money.”

I don’t see why this last servant is so reviled. He is prudent, safe and cautious. He is adverse to risk and can hardly be criticized. Well, he’s never done enough to earn criticism. Isn’t he the sort of safe and pleasant fellow we seek out?

But by the standards of the master, the servant is lazy. He is paralyzed by his negative view of the master, by his worry and his fear of failure. As a result he fails in the trust that the master gave him.

Jesus criticized the Pharisees and the teachers of the law for locking up the kingdom of heaven. They kept people out of it. They wouldn’t even enter into it themselves. They had turned God’s ways into a museum. Look, but do not touch. I am afraid that we’ve made the church into a locked-up museum. One that you cannot go into. Our job is to curate it and keep it pristine. But the problem with that view is that if we are not really part of the church just as the Pharisees were never really part of the kingdom.

Christ invites us into a grand adventure. It isn’t safe. It is risky. It is costly. It is not without pain, but it is full of promise. There is treasure and there is reward, but don’t think for a moment that it is risk-free.

You have talents. God has gifted you in some way. It may be a heart full of love. It may be a mind full of wisdom. It may be a strong back or a tender touch. Woe to us when we catalog and discount talents. The amount or value of the talent is not the issue at all – we have said that, but we’ve never practiced it. We have made the up-front gifts the most important. We have made the gifts of mind and head knowledge more important than anything else. Let’s just stop that today.

The issue is, have you buried your talent? The call today is not for you to get involved in a program or stay busy. It is not even to “attend church” as if sitting in this building makes you holy. We do not attend church – we are church. We do not even attend worship – we worship … always. Sometimes by kneeling, sometimes by singing, and sometimes by serving. The call today is for you to put your talent – the one God gave you – into circulation. Put it to work so that God will get some sort of return for His investment. And your faithfulness (not simply the rate of earning) will allow you to share in your Master’s happiness.

“So far from teaching any prudential wisdom or utilitarian morality, this parable sounds the call to a more heroic adventure than any which the Christian church on earth has ever led the main body of its members to attempt. It is the very condemnation of a merely cautious defensive policy which finds its chief aim in survival and security.” – Oliver Quick [Chaplain to the Archbishop of Canterbury, 1916]

Heart, Soul, Strength, and Mind Together

Posted by Chris on May 30, 2010 under Sermons

Revisit Deuteronomy 6 … [read vs. 1-9]

Strength/Mind is typical of the 19th and 20th century. It is the emphasis of the Modern Age, the Age of Reason and Enlightenment. Slogans: Better living through chemistry. The Age of Reason. Scientific Progress. Church: We are a people of the book. Bible names for Bible things. Common Sense. The Ancient Order of Things. Reasonable Faith. Study to show thyself approved. Bible Facts. Memorizing Scripture.

But what did we do with the Holy Spirit? Not much. What did we do with the mysteries of God? We de-mystified some of them. What did we do with imaginative texts like Revelation? We ignored it or said don’t take it literally. What did we do with miracles? We left them in the first century.

Heart/Soul is typical of the 21st century. It is the emphasis of the younger generations. Experience is equal to fact – or maybe even more important than objective fact in some cases. This is the postmodern age. Reason is good, but it has failed us. We live in a world of pure imagination.

But feelings are flexible. They change. Faith without work is dead and useless.

Imbalance:Heart-Soul w/o Mind-Strength: Non-reflective. Sloppy Agape. There’s no compass, no center. No memory of what God has done. No future. Focus is on the moment. Experience without the connection to something larger, without the mentoring and testing of community is narcissistic.

Mind-Strength w/o Heart-Soul: Rules without compassion. Sacrifice without Mercy. Action without Joy. Mechanical, legalistic. Outward. Believe the right thing, do the right thing, but feelings and heart are not surrendered to God. It is too rigid. Being rigid without mercy and humility becomes self-righteous and judgmental.

Do Justice, Love Mercy, Walk Humbly with God

• Can you imagine what would happen if we combined all of these?
• Can you imagine what it would be like for us to be fearless in exploring the infinite combinations of putting all of this into practice –
  • in our worship,
  • in our fellowship,
  • in our service?

I believe the enemy wants us to be imbalanced. To focus only on our strengths. That makes us self-reliant and we never have to rely on others. And we hardly depend on God.

Is our slogan, “I’ll just do it myself.”
How about, “To Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine.”

When we are imbalanced, we become divided because we treat one another with suspicion rather that respect …

• Our family of faith is one.
• But we are not all the same when it comes to gifts and experience.

Some of us are more comfortable in one quadrant, but the community has to give place to them all. When the community or group preferences one side or one quadrant, then people are excluded.

Of course the community has to be creative in connecting h/s and s/m.

• See Acts 15.
• Experience and scripture connected and the result was that God’s church increased and got stronger and healthier.
• New solutions to problems were possible.

As an individual we want you to use your gifts (head, heart, hands). We pledge that there’s a place for you in our congregation.

• If you lift your hands in worship during prayer because you really know how to worship God with all your heart – then do it.
• If you can dig into the word in worship, class, or fellowship because you know how to reflect on the word with all of your mind – then do it.
• If you clap during a song or say Amen because you know how to worship God with all your soul – then do it.
• If you greet your brothers and sisters and are eager to help serve a tray or hold a door open because you know how to love God with all your strength – then do it.

Of course the application of this involves much more than just our Sunday morning assembly. It is much larger that because it involves all aspects of our lives and our life together.

Like the disciples in Acts 15, we will seek inspired wisdom and the guidance of the spirit to connect all of us for God’s purposes.

But doesn’t this mean we could seem different. Yes. But we can all worship God.
But doesn’t this mean we might not understand one another. Yes. But we can all submit to God.
But doesn’t this mean we might have some disagreements? Yes. But we will persevere through love and respect.
What we cannot do is just give up …

Does our whole self belong to God?

• Then give him all in worship?
• Then give him all in service?
• Then give him all in fellowship?
• Do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly as you love the Lord your God with all of your heart soul strength and mind.

I want you to think about your baptism. Was there any part of you that wasn’t buried with Christ? (I don’t mean was a toe or elbow sticking out of the water). I mean did you give your whole self to Christ?

Perhaps you’ve learned that the word “baptize” means immerse. Well that’s true enough, but baptism means so much more than that. When we are baptized, we are buried with Christ because we die to self. We offer our entire body, our entire self to Him. There’s no part of self, not heart soul strength or mind, that we can hold onto for ourselves – and if we do hold on to any of it we will lose it.

Vineyard Workers

Posted by Chris on May 23, 2010 under Sermons

Parables – part 8

Matthew 20:1-16

Context:

• Matthew 19, the encounter with the Rich Young Man
• Jesus instructs the young man to sell his possession and follow Him. The key to this phrase is “Follow Me.”
• The young man refuses which prompts the disciples to question what reward they will receive for leaving everything to follow Christ.
• The hanging question that requires the parable concerns the fairness/justice of God and the rewards of the kingdom of heaven

The Parable in Movements:

1. Movement 1 – The master of the vineyard hires workers
   1. The vineyard is a symbol of Israel and the kingdom of God
   2. The man agrees to pay the first set of workers a denarius – the average day’s wage for a worker in Palestine
   3. The hiring continues through the successive watches of the day – third hour, sixth hour, ninth hour. There are 12 hours to the day.
   4. The movement builds up to the eleventh hour. This is the last opportunity to hire anyone for that day’s work.
2. Movement 2 – Paying the workers
   1. Now the master of the vineyard pays his workers.
   2. He begins with those who were hired last.
   3. Everyone is paid the same: a denarius
   4. The unfairness is noticed by the first set of workers. They have a legitimate case. They have done the bulk of the work. They have worked through the worst part of the day. They are certainly deserving of a bonus.
   5. However, if they had been paid first and sent out, they would not necessarily have any insight into the pay given to the final set of workers
3. Movement 3 – The Master responds to the charges
   1. His response has two parts:
      1. He is fair with the original set of owners because he paid them what he said he would pay. If he had cheated them by paying less than a denarius, then they would have a case. However, he paid exactly what they agreed to. This is fair.
      2. The workers’ expectations are changed when they assume something based on the generosity shown to the eleventh hour workers. The Master notes that his arrangement with the eleventh hour workers is really none of their business. They cannot be concerned about what he chooses to do with his own money.
      3. This allows the Master to close with a question to the grumbling workers: “Are you envious because I am generous?”
      4. The parable ends with the saying: “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

Application:

The Phrase “So the last will be first, and the first will be last” appears in Matthew 19 and Matthew 20. It is also found in Mark 10 (again associated with the story of the Rich Young Man) and in Luke 13 in which is references a reversal in the end-time.

Those who are first in this world seem to be those who are privileged by status or wealth. It could also refer to the primacy of Israel in God’s plans. Those who are last are the least – they are the humble and the wanting.

In the kingdom of God, there is a reversal (due to God’s mercy) that undoes the privileges that we concern ourselves with in this age. This is similar to the idea in Luke’s parable (Luke 16) of the Rich Man and Lazarus. Their situation was reversed in the age to come.

The Vision of Deuteronomy 6

Posted by Chris on under Sermons

Deuteronomy 6

All of us want our own children to be prepared to live as disciples for Christ. The church takes young people there by paying attention to words in Deuteronomy that Jesus regarded as the greatest commandment:

I have thought about my own children …

When it comes to loving God with all their mind, I want them to be able to ask the right questions even more than I want them to be able to give the right answers, because I know that they will still be growing in Christian maturity all of their lives. I want them to challenge the world around them in Christ’s name and not just be challenged by the world around them. I want them to already have a faith in Christ that isn’t simply a repetition of what they have been told to believe.

When it comes to loving God with all their heart, I want them to have passion for worshipping God, in all the ways that such worship takes shape for them. I want them to have compassion for those whom God loves. I want them to love their neighbors as themselves. I want them to know the stories of people who have made good choices, bad choices, and have a testimony about those choices.

When it comes to loving God with all their soul, I want them to have an awareness of how much God loves them and what that love means. I want them to regard the world around them as more than a material world. I want them to have a sense of how they can spend their life for Christ in any profession, in any culture, in any circumstance. I hope that along the way, they will have the benefit of spending time with mature Christian who will show them that redemption, forgiveness, salvation, worship, hope, and prayer are not just something to understand, but something that we live.

When it comes to loving God with all their strength, I want them to know that God loved us enough to come in the flesh and not just shout at us from heaven. I want them to know that God would have us use the strength and health we have to serve him and serve others. I want them to learn about God and learn from Christ by going places, doing great things in his name, and being in the presence of others who can model morality, service, and spirituality.

All the literature and credible studies continue to affirm that parents make the greatest spiritual impact on their children. However, parents are not the only ones that make an impact. Like most parents, I would welcome the assistance and support of a community of faith that encourages my children to be well-formed disciples of Jesus. I would welcome the benefit and the blessing of a church family that does not in any way hinder or quench the spirit of my children. I would welcome the support of a church family that helps me to raise my children. I would welcome the love of a church family that receives my children as members in Christ.

If I want this for my children, then I imagine that others also want something like this.

I want what God thinks best and I see that ever since the time of Moses there has been a concern for parents and the people of God to impress faith on our children …

The Vision of Deuteronomy 6

1. What is your vision for “our” children? When our church family takes the time to bless an infant and the parents and grandparents of that child – did you know that we are casting a vision? Did you know that we are setting a standard? When we salute 7th graders who’ve reached a transitional moment in life – when we celebrate with all of our children who promote to the next grade – did you know that we are casting a vision? When we bless our very grown up, yet so very young seniors – did you know that we’re casting a vision?

   We should be very aware of the vision we are casting, not just with our children, but with all children. This godly vision of loving God with all of one’s heart, soul, strength and mind does not come automatically. Without all generations nurturing that vision, we will default to the vision that our culture supplies …

   Culture’s vision seems fine – sort of benign – yet …

   • It is focused on happiness and well-being … but that sense of happiness and well-being are often described in self-centered and individual terms. Can anyone truly be happy in a culture focused only on self-expression?
   • It is focused on success … but there is very little grace. Very little thought of redemption. No vision for how God redeems mistakes and heals wounds. And certainly no suggestion that we may have to suffer for doing what’s right.
   • It is limited to parent and child – there’s very little thought for the community, other than to choose the type of community that we want. And there’s no place for the generations before and after – except for them to always be serving us.

   The culture’s vision for our children seems fine, but it is thin. It is artificial. Many Christian parents buy into this cheap imitation and then frustrate themselves trying to baptize it in God’s spirit.

   Beware: The cultural lie that we’ve accepted is that we can live through our children. (Vicarious Living) Wrong! God must live through our children. That shouldn’t be a problem if our hope and trust for eternity is in Christ and not our kids.The children are not our future.

   Let’s “hear” Israel. Let’s hear church – so that we can see God’s vision.

2. Does this apply to you? No generation, no matter how old, can ever say, “We’ve raised our children – our duties are over.”
   The excuses of the elderly – (Deuteronomy has a vision of 3 generations)
   • We don’t understand these kids. They don’t like us. They are not like us. Of course they aren’t. How many of you are like your grandparents?
     • Styles and culture change. I don’t see many of us here in sandals and robes.
   • I doubt that this is as true as you think.
   • Even if your fears are true, the youth need you. They need your memories and experience. Their parents need you too, especially the overly-anxious one.
   • What we should really be afraid of is our children losing their faith …

   Listen up Israel – Listen up church: “you and your children and grandchildren must fear the Lord your God as long as you live.”

3. Will we live out this charge? Deuteronomy 6 doesn’t give the church another program. The solution isn’t curriculum or education ministry. What it proposes is a way of life.

   “You must commit yourselves wholeheartedly … when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. Tie them to your hands — wear them on your forehead — Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

The ceremonies – Baby Blessing, 7th Graders, Seniors: Behind all of these are day to day commitments. Things that cannot be seen: The investment of hours and years – the lessons taught by example, the example of parents, grandparents, friends, uncles and aunts and Mr. and Mrs. “someone.”
It represents in ceremonial fashion a way of life …

Is this worth it? You bet. This isn’t extra time – this is the real work. This isn’t special worship – it is THE worship.

I’ve noticed that we’ve been dismissing or disregarding the baptism in our children, citing that it isn’t true bona-fide evangelism. I disagree, especially when more than half of our own children are in danger of losing their faith. When some parents feel the pain of an adult child who has never made a commitment to Christ, how dare we say it doesn’t count when a teen puts on Christ in baptism.

Let’s not dismiss it when we baptize our own children.

• It may be harder in fact for our own children to develop faith.
• We should be extremely thankful – and when we are tempted to believe that this is “a free throw” we should remember that there are some who have fallen away.
• The vision of God in Deuteronomy is that faith is passed on from one generation to the next – and even the grandparents are involved!